Lore Info: The Vaults

[Ihoe]

This is some General info about Vaults which appear in Fallout games:

A Vault is a type of a subterranean installation designed by Vault-Tec. Officially, they were designed for the sole purpose of sheltering up to one thousand dwellers from a nuclear holocaust.

Commissioned by the United States government as part of Project Safehouse, Vault-Tec built 122 such Vaults over the country. However, when the storm of nuclear war came in 2077, the Vaults were sealed without many of their dwellers due to the Cry Wolf effect training drills had on the populace.

 

The first Vault was built in Los Angeles, intended to demonstrate the viability of such a facility. The demonstration Vault was built beneath the city, within its limits and unlike other Vaults, wasn't part of the experiment. Most Vaults were completed by 2063, except for Vault 13, which was the last one to be completed.

 

True purpose

 

Officially, the Vaults were nuclear shelters designed to protect the American population from nuclear holocaust. However, with a population of almost 400 million by 2077, the U.S. would need nearly 400,000 Vaults the size of Vault 13, while Vault-Tec was commissioned to build only 122 such Vaults. The real reason for the existence of these Vaults was to study pre-selected segments of the population to see how they react to the stresses of isolationism and how successfully they re-colonize Earth after the Vault opens.

 

The shadow government, the Enclave, responsible for the experiment, have considered themselves prime candidates for recolonizing the world after a nuclear holocaust and to this end commissioned the construction of their own shelters, isolated from the Vault network. The purpose of the Vault experiments was to help prepare the Enclave for either re-colonizing Earth or colonizing another planet if Earth turned out to be uninhabitable by unmutated humans.

 

The total number of vaults is a government secret and has been lost; there were the aforementioned "public" vaults, which numbered 122 and an undisclosed number of "private" vaults. Information on whether Vault-Tec was an international corporation and were there vaults made by them in other parts of the world, or were they strictly U.S. based, cannot be released due to Vault-Tec and US Government regulations

 

Over View

 

The Vaults were one of the most expensive shelters in the pre-War world, as according to the Vault Dweller's Survival Guide for Vault 13 (otherwise known as the Fallout manual), the intended budget for that particular installation was 400 billion dollars, and by the end of its construction reached 645 billion. The Vaults were located in various locations, and little information is available as to why those particular sites were chosen. For example, Vaults 13 and 15 were located in rather remote locations, far from population centers, while Vaults 12 and 101 lay near or in cities themselves.

 

Each Vault was designed to hold one thousand occupants at any given time, although hot bunking was required at maximum capacity, and equipped with all facilities and supplies needed by them to survive in isolation for the designated time. The facilities and supplies included complete construction equipment, hydro-agricultural farms, a water purification system, defensive weaponry to equip 10 men, communication systems and surface monitors, social and entertainment files (for total duration) as well as one or two G.E.C.K.s, intended to help the inhabitants repopulate the post-nuclear world after the All Clear signal is sent following the conclusion of the social experiment. Different types of power sources were utilized for the Vaults. Vault 13 relied primarily on geothermal energy, with backup power available from a General Atomics Nuclear Power generator, and could sustain one thousand inhabitants for two hundred years. Vault 8 on the other hand, relied on an unspecified type of reactor, which, while enough for Vault City to emerge, could only support a relatively small, highly advanced settlement, and in 2241 was nearing its capacity, after which further growth would be impossible.

 

All Vault Dwellers wore blue-and-yellow jumpsuits, although the design varied between different Vaults.

 

It should be noted that due to scaling, the size of Vaults in games shouldn't be taken at face value - after all, Vault 13 or any Vault in Fallout 3 in-game couldn't possibly hold 1000 people, despite their stated capacity.

 

However, in real life, many of the Vaults are flawed. The powerful blasts caused by nuclear weapons would likely cause the entrance shaft to collapse entirely. This would block the blast door, causing the inhabitants to be entombed by the above building(s) and or rocks.

 

Entrance

 

The entrance houses the Vault's only connection to the outside world - the airlock. Closed from the inside by a reinforced high-security door and from the outside by a massive, gear-shaped four yard thick blast door, it's the only means of leaving the Vault. Security codes are required to both leave and enter the Vault, and they are usually only known to a handful of people within the facility. Vault 87 had two additional entrances reachable through Lamplight Caverns.

 

Most Vaults use a single, universal model of the blast door to secure the airlock, however, some older Vaults (such as Vault 101) use a different, more crude blast door model. Vault 8, the control Vault, had also a second, much larger, blast door built, that secured the entry hallway leading to the entrance to the Vault.

 

In addition, the Entrance level also houses the Emergency Medical Lab complete with an AutoDoc. A Vault medic was required to be present at the EML 24 hours a day. The lab had the equipment to treat nearly all injuries and illnesses, ranging from simple bruises to irradiation.

 

Differences

 

# Vault 29 was outfitted with a ZAX AI, which replaced the Overseer.

# Vault 12 had its Overseer's room sealed due to unknown reasons.

# East Coast Vaults (92, 101, 106, 108, 112) use a different, older door mechanism

 

Appearances

 

Fallout:

 

* Vault 12, Vault 13, Vault 15 and the LA Vault appeared in Fallout 1

* Vault 8, Vault 13 and Vault 15 appeared in Fallout 2

* A malfunctioning Vault with unknown number and location appeared in Van Buren tech demo

* Vault 69 advertisement appeared in the Van Buren concept art.

* Vault 29 and Vault 70 were to appear in Van Buren, the cancelled Fallout 3 project by Black Isle (year 2253).

* Vault 101 appears in Fallout 3 alongside Vault 87 Vault 92 Vault 106 Vault 108 Vault 112 and the DC demo Vault (year 2277).

 

Sources

 

Most of the above comes from:

 

* Fallout Bible #0

* Vault Dweller's Survival Guide

* Vault Locations v34.129 holodisc

 

IE

[evilbeefjerky]

Good roundup, but are the Vault doors on the east coast being older models an official explanation, or fanon?

[Tagaziel]

It's the most logical explanation.

 

See, consider this.

 

Vault 13 was the last Vault to be completed (F01 manual) and it has the Fo1/Fo2 model doors. Vaults on the East Coast were therefore completed earlier. In addition, they feature significantly more clunky and ugly doors. Therefore, they are older models.

 

Unless you're somehow mentally handicapped, it's easu to understand.

 

Oh yeah, Ihoe, I'd appreciate if you posted the source for what you copy/paste:

 

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Vault

[evilbeefjerky]

I'm aware that it's a suitable explanation, however Bethesda and suitable explanations never go too well together; for all we know the doors might be a *shudder* retcon.

[WrathOfDeadguy]

I like the Fo3 doors better, actually... having the mechanism for opening and closing the door inside the Vault as opposed to outside, as in Fallout 1 and 2. If that's a retcon, then it's at least a retcon that makes sense. If it's an older design, then one must wonder what sort of idiot took over designing the later doors at Vault-Tek; the housing for the door mechanism doesn't look anywhere near as sturdy as the Vault door itself (in fact, the cover for it looks very much like an ordinary steel roll-up door). Of course, the door mechanism for the East Coast Vaults would be vulnerable to sabotage from the inside, and perhaps that's what Vault-Tek was more worried about.