This fits my own theory well, main quest starts with you searching for your family.

it make no sense if they dies before the vault, they might die during the escape but don't see that so likely. Leaving that they was removed earlier.

For some reason I don't think the ghoul dressed as a redcoat is going to get along with the Minutemen.

He's a ghoul, so he was probably around prewar, and knows his history being an American.

Or he's a British immigrant, in which case oh my god we might get a cockney ghoul, dressed as a redcoat. I have no love for people who drink tea but that alone sets the stage for one of the most interesting conversations in a game to date.

As for the PC and his son, who would have any interest in pure DNA? The enclave is gone, so unless MIT got FEV somehow, who's gonna bust it out? Androids seems more their thing, and I don't see a connection with that and DNA.

The brotherhood could have it I guess? But why would they be interested in testing it after making it their mission to protect people from mutants? I think the pure DNA theory is fun, but it doesn't really lead anywhere. No one really has a use for it save the institute, and they look to have their hands full with androids seemingly running around and shooting people on sight.

With regards to the child's DNA, as I mentioned in this thread, I think it's the Institute who are after it. I think that they want to use it to wipe out the remaining human population in the wastelands.

So we are sure shaun is the name?

Any chance we get legt behind because we are damaged or dont have value

If the main quest is find our spouse and sonthen that really limits roleplaying. Theres no find a new spouse or you prefer the company of the same six

Theres got to be more than i must find my family and get the bad guys (would have been great if the brought back
Liam neeson to voice the hero

2 things i see that make me think its different

1) first thing we ask our robot seevant is maybe other survivors. Theres no question of i need to find my kid. Skyrim usually gets to the point right away "i need to find a moth priest or an elder scroll.
2) it looks like you can fix the garage right away and turn it into a base. Lots of effort into creating bases/homes when it would be find the kid

Why would they want to do that? They aren't pure like enclave and have been exclusively exposed to propaganda about how amazing the government is and how they are the last bastion of pure humanity.

Wanting to wipe out humanity would literally be the same exact plot that the master tried, the enclave tried to do in 2 and 3.

I think Bethesda can come up with something slightly more creative than the same story for a fourth time. I know it's fun to hate on Bethesda writing, but you've got to give them more credit than another faction wants to kill everyone.

I don't think you get the option of rescuing your spouse. Only Shaun.

Hay, wasn't the main character is Fallout 3 called Shaun?

I'm hoping that the vault is taken over by Androids over the course of 200 years and you have to battle out of that as the tutorial while trying to remember who you are.

I didn't say they wanted to kill them, I said that I think they want to wipe them out. More specifically to remove the human threat.

How does one wipe out the human race without killing it?

And again, this goes back to being the same premise as the master wanting to get rid of all other forms of life by making it a mutant, or the enclave wanting to release a virus to kill anything impure in 2, or poison all water in 3.

Maybe they want to kill everyone with androids? That hasn't got much to do with DNA though.

Don't want to say too much just yet, but let's just say that with the right technology, you wouldn't necessarily have to eliminate your enemy to stop them from being a threat. Will expand more on this when I post the full revised theory up a little later

The beggining of the game seems pretty clear.

Im wondering what the story of vault 17 is (that vault from the pics they showed us of concept art) it seems that the protagonist first was ment to come out of this vault.

But they changed it for some reason.

Just to clarify, when I suggested above that the Institute wanted to "wipe out the remaining human population in the wasteland", this was not a suggestion that they are planning to kill everyone. It was an indication of how easily they would be able to use technology to manipulate others, as well as the lengths they would be prepared to take in order to protect their interests.

I then said, "with the right technology, you wouldn't necessarily have to eliminate your enemy to stop them from being a threat". The enemy I refer to in this case is not the collective population of the Commonwealth, but is in fact one person.

Finally, I believe that what the Institute are really planning will not only have a huge impact on those living inside of the Commonwealth, but also on everyone living outside of it. I believe that they are looking to start a war.

Thread title is quite misleading. We know very little of what actually transpires. We know that our pc went in, and woke up 200 years, give or take, later and he or she was the sole survivor. That's it...... anything else is just assumptions... not to be a downer, but I'd change the title to "What I think really happened in Vault 111".

I have been putting together a detailed theory of what I believe happens in the main quest of Fallout 4, based on all of the information we know so far. I have looked at what would make sense in the context of what we have been shown, and so my theory is in large part evidence based and not just a random idea. This thread was originally intended to focus on the beginnings of what I believe will happen, in other words the events pertaining to vault 111. But I now feel it would make more sense just to put forward the theory in it's entirety, albeit in a more 'bullet-point' fashion that will be easier to follow. I am currently putting together all of the relevant information, which I will post up as a separate thread as soon as I'm finished.

As for the title of this thread, I see your point, and I'm sorry if it seems a little misleading. I will make sure that the title for the next one is a bit clearer

Random question but since you've studied the trailer/demo in such detail do you think the female protag has a military/veteran background too?

Possibly to a lesser degree, but it would seem that the male protagonist may have held quite a senior rank due to the fact that he was supposed to be giving a speech. If this is the case, then his spouse would no doubt have been deeply immersed in the lifestyle of being part of a 'military family', and would certainly be privy to at least some knowledge that could prove useful if she becomes the protagonist. At the very least, I'm guessing that she has learned how to use a weapon, as well as knowing how to look after herself enough to ensure her survival throughout the main game. She would most certainly not be the stereotypical 'naive' civilian.

There's a lot of truth to this. Todd Howard kind of just threw that out there during the presentation and it was random but probably a clue to the main story.

It's worth noting that women did serve in combat roles as seen in Operation Anchorage. They're most likely a military family in every sense (i.e. they could have met in the military).

I do believe that Todd was letting us know that the baby will be a very specific individual, and that he will play a big part in the game. Not only that, but when he said "we even generate a baby based on the couple you make", I don't think he was just talking about our ability to determine the appearance of our protagonist's son. I think this was also a direct reference to DNA, which could well have an important bearing on the storyline.

In terms of the military background, I have previously suggested in another thread that they may have met in the military. I would even go as far as suggesting that this is most likely the navy and not the army as previously thought. The reason for this is due to all of the pictures in the player house that are themed around water, and also the proximity to Charlestown Navy Yard, which just happens to be the current home of the USS Constitution.

I'm getting the vibe that we're looking at the Fallout 3 story in retrospect. I really like the running theory that the protagonist's son is possibly an antagonist (this is of course assuming that the son/mother were released from cryostasis earlier), and our journey's throughout the Boston wasteland will clue us in as to what happened.

I would be fine meeting my grown child later on but not having to look for him.

Beong a father irl it just feels like thats all you would do and as fast as possible. Makes doing the other stuff feel awkward as I wouldn't think a mother/father would go off exploring the world instead of looking for their child.

I think that's entirely up to you to determine whether it's really urgent to chase after your kid. For all we know there's no official confirmation that the wife/son survive the vault, and/or whether the player is misled to believe that they are dead when in fact they are not. So, we could exit the vault not really knowing what in the world happened to begin with.

The end of the world was around the corner in Skyrim and my DB would run around picking flowers, mining ore, drinking in taverns, and doing everything under the sun but the main quest.

I think that this will be implemented in a very clever way. I had previously suggested that our son was perhaps the American Revolutionary seen in the concept art, that I had assumed to be some kind of 'ghoul pirate'. The reason for this was due to the underlying naval theme (and a pirate would have made a fitting anti-hero), and also because I believed at the time that our spouse and child had been locked out of the vault.

But based on a number of clues in the footage and also the trailer, I now firmly believe that the entire family did in fact make it into the vault. So the ghoul theory goes out the window. What I have come up with after a little further 'investigation' would not only place our son as the story's main antagonist, but also as possibly one of the best and most interesting villains in the series.

Unless of course you we're exploring the world to try and find your child. But I honestly don't think this is what we will be spending most of our time doing, I actually think the storyline goes far deeper than this.

Thinking they are dead is what im hoping is the case or something similar.

I used a not the DB mod in Skyrim after my first play through. That paires with LAL was always fun.

What if this is kind of like the Fallout 3 story went and eloped with the sub-narrative of FNV + the main narrative of Lonesome road? We'd sort of start the game wondering where the family is and through various means we'd find clues as to what happened to them. We'd meet people that had crossed paths with the PC's son and we could hear all the different things he has done, good or bad. So much potential, I only hope we're not accidentally figuring out the plot and spoiling it before we even know it.