Vault 99/Arkham Vault

[Graeystone]

The NCR, Caesar's Legion, Powder Gangers, Great Khans, Raiders, and all the other Clans and Factions will put a bullet into the back of the head of one another and not blink an eye over it. However there is one absolute thing they agree on without debate- "Stay the hell away from Vault 99!"

 

Vault 99 also called the Arkham Vault. People go in and no one comes out. Adventurers and the more notable Clans and Factions have sent scouting parties into Vault 99 only to have nobody return. Radio Waves cannot penetrate Arkham either way. No one knows of the fate of the people who are sent in and are presumed dead. The NCR has attempted to either disable or melt the Vault Door in order to prevent anyone from entering only to fail. The door is considered five times stronger than regular Vault Doors. They wanted to put up a small garrison to keep people away but issues with the Legion and other groups prevented it from happening. The most they did was put up warning signs. . .besides, anyone who willingly enters Arkham Vault is too stupid to live anyway.

 

Unfortunately there is always 'that one person'. The daughter of someone who can be called one of the few richest men in the Mojave Wasteland was kidnapped. The rich man sent his bodyguards to find the kidnapper and get his daughter back. The bodyguards chased the kidnapper to Vault 99 where he and the daughter entered. The bodyguards reported the bad news to the rich man. After firing(killing!) the bodyguards, the rich man despaired.

 

However all was not lost and here is where the Courier comes in. One day the Courier enters the town the rich man lives in. Hearing of the Courier's growing exploits, the rich man meets the Courier and offers a job - "Go to Vault 99 and rescue my daughter. I'll reward you with things that all wasteland people only dream about."

 

So the mission to Vault 99 aka Arkham begins.

 

Preparing for the Mission-

Character should be crazy prepared. . .on Psycho! Grab all the Ammo, Armor, Weapons, Healing Items, and Rad Away/X possible. Do as much Buying/Crafting/Looting/Pick Pocketing as you can before entering Arkham. Matter of fact this idea may not be Hardcore Friendly. Once you enter Arkham, the Vault Door shuts and you can't get out until the daughter is freed and the door lock is disengaged.

 

Rewards-

150,000 Caps(200,000 if 100 Speech is used on rich man), Three Keys that will unlock the following Safes-

1) Choose two sets of Best Condition Light/Medium/Heavy Armor.

2) Choose two Best Condition Weapon of your choice plus a bunch of ammo to go with them.

3) Twenty of the best Healing Items plus Equipment Repair Kits.(If idea is done right you'll be needing this!)

4) Gaining a bit of Reputation across the board for being The One Who Conquered Vault 99/Arkham.

 

Vault 99/Arkham Particulars-

Should be far away from Towns, Cities, and other places with a good amount of human population. Should NOT be placed some area where there some of the nastier monsters like Deathclaws roam. Getting to Arkham, while may be a trek in itself should not be a fight for one's own survival.

Vault should be no less than five levels/floors and no more than ten.

The place is a bit of a Rad Nightmare. Unless a player has certain perks for enough Rad Away/X, the Radiation may end up killing the player character.

Very low lighting. Radio does not work. Think of a Silent Hill type ambiance.

Looting is basically non-existence in this place.

'Safe Spots' should exist for the character so the player can take a break or save the game.

Beds/Floor Mats do not exist in this place.(Again emphasis on being crazy prepared. Get as many Doctor's Bags/Stims as possible!)

Enemies should be a deranged and disgusting looking as possible. Some should be 'berserker type' while others are 'smarter'. Many should be radioactive in nature. Player shouldn't have too much 'wriggle room'. Just enough to give the ability to give limited strafing/dodging when fighting. Think of being on the wrong end of a Zerg Rush.

No animal life from the outside should exist inside Arkham.(The inhabitants of Arkham do NOT go outside.)

At least one Workbench and Ammo Bench is allowed but should be hard to find. Again 'crazy prepared' is the key.

Notes should be left around Arkham that explains how this Vault turned out the way it did. . .basically its worse than Vault 17. . .on a bad day!(Check the Fallout Wiki about Vault 17).

Corpses of NCR, Legion, and members of other Factions/Tribes can be placed inside to show what happened to the previous expeditions. Missing body parts should be used.(Did I mention the inhabitants are cannibals?)

After rescuing the daughter and reactivating the Vault Door, its just a matter of taking a nearby elevator back to the Vault Entrance and leaving the Vault once and for all and getting back to the Rich Man to complete the mission.

 

Ultimately this mod idea relies on two themes - First is being 'crazy prepared' before doing a mission and the second is to drive the point home that VAULTS WERE NOT MEANT TO SAVE ANYONE! This should be seen in the Notes that are found explaining how a bunch of regular people eventually turned into a bunch of blood-crazed cannibals.

Edited April 22, 2013 by Graeystone

[Ryuukage0101]

it could be that the whole vault was a "test site"/set-up, the experiment was about to see how far people would go in extreme situations. The vault was rigged to brake down step by step.

first just smal things like water leaks and weird tempratur drops/ups, later on blackouts that lasted for days and weird sounds. then more extreme things happend; vault machines got crazy and security guns and drones started to kill the people. and in one of the sectors of the vault there was a strange gas that made people go crazy and invaded the other sectors.

[Graeystone]

Actually the Radiation Leak would be an accident pure and simple. Since everyone's minds were long gone, no one thought about doing anything about it like an emergency vent of the Vault or just leaving the place. Think of many Rad Zones in the Vault like a 'Mist'.

 

As for how the people and their descendents turned out like they did-

There was plenty of food for five years then the horrifying truth at the end of the 'good food'. Supplies like Soup Cans were filled with other liquids like water. 'Frozen Food' was 'Frozen Plastic Made To Look Like Food', and so on. There's still a good water system though but no real food to eat except for. . .

 

 

 

[Ryuukage0101]

alright but if the vault is filled with radiation/ghouls it would almost be vault 34 all over.. and well.. most people hate that vault :/

[darkus37]

This sounds interesting, but could you clarify some things?

 

A) The rich man (father) - I suppose people define rich by many standards, but what makes this man rich and worth targeting? Is he the iron-fisted owner of a casino or perhaps a ruthless brahmin baron in the NCR? Obviously, his primary goal is to get his daughter back, but why is he at the location he meets the Courier in (i.e. why is a rich man doing his own dirty work and placing himself in danger instead of hiring a small army of bloodthirsty mercenaries)?

 

B) The daughter - OK, probably just a classic damsel in distress, an innocent girl kidnapped for ransom; or alternately the cliche "she was trying to con her father and it backfired when her boyfriend double-crossed her"? Also, if you're saying this vault is incredibly dangerous and toxic, why would her kidnapper bring her there and how did she survive?

 

C) The kidnapper - why go to this vault when it's almost a certain death sentence for anyone who does so? Where they captured and brought there? How did anyone find out that they were inside the vault?

 

D) Vault 99 is basically a ghoul filled radiation pit - why would anyone try to get in there in the first place? Is there something super-secret-special inside? Is the location strategically important in some way? For example, the Sierra Madre/Big MT/Divide are all technological treasure troves that could upset the balance of power in the region - what would cause all these various groups to want to have control of what sounds like a real hellhole?

 

E) OK, let's say there's this death trap - why haven't those inside expanded beyond the entrance - why aren't there reports of cannibal raiders spreading across the wasteland? Why does the door lock you in when it appears that no one knows how to use the machinery? What is preventing the entrance from being sealed other than it being necessary for the quest-line?

 

F) Vault 17 was raided by super-mutants - how does this apply here? Either you have mutated monsters living inside, or they were all abducted and turned into Super-Mutants/centaurs. Are you referring to them mutating?

 

G) If all this stuff broke down, and there is no food which led to cannibalism; how are the people inside still alive and still a threat? Wouldn't they have eaten each other already? They can't even be descendents since radiation sterilizes organics.

 

Some suggestions:

 

A) Location: perhaps an important but remote crossroads of some sort that allows passage only through this location (i.e. a valley formed by tall cliffs or some other sort of natural/unnatural borders). This would limit the scope of the world space and why taking control would be important. Make the setting be near an old ghost town, i.e. Bizarro Goodsprings.

 

B) Look to Point Lookout as a good way to set the atmosphere – has just about everything you mention is part of the mod.

 

C) Change the nature of the enemy into an in-bred mutated tribal group (radiation not a major factor). The vault has been destroyed by years of disrepair and constant warfare, but is connected to a massive tunnel system with exits all over the place, allowing the tribal’s to attack and disappear quickly – a possible explanation as to why travelers fear to go near the place without heavy numbers and the entrance to the vault has not been sealed (wouldn’t matter if it was). Taking captives for food and breeding stock allows them to continue their terrible existence and could be the reason why the daughter ends up inside.

 

D) Despite the Dead Money style of play, having no exit is actually a good method to move the player forward – perhaps a local guide was able to take the player there but gets killed once they arrive? Leaving will be accomplished by meeting up with a just arrived NCR or Legion patrol.

 

 

Well I think that’s enough for now, and I hope to actually see this made. G'luck!

[Graeystone]

darkus37 -

A) He started out as an experienced gambler but played it smart. Instead of standing, he kept his head down and slowly and surely amassed his fortune over the years. Deciding he was 'rich enough to retire', he got out of New Vegas before he drew the attention of Mr. House or The Kings. Finding a small out of the way(but not too far out of the way), he claimed a chunk of land for himself and his family. He used his amassed fortune to build a fortress/house, paid guards, and other things to have a relatively good life in the Wasteland. Although I think it'd be better if the father is a grandfather and the daughter a grandfather.(Her parents were killed) That makes more sense to the kind of fortune I'm suggesting.

B) You pretty much answered the question further on-

While the Arkham inhabitants are pretty much feral, they still know on some level know the cost of inbreeding. . .and here is a female dropped in their laps. . .

 

C) Criminals + Greed are by nature are pretty stupid. He had a small army on his back, he saw a vault door and instead of reading the warnings left by the NCR, he rushed straight into 99 with the daughter thinking he could at least keep his pursuers out.

D) For the Gangs/Factions/Whoever Else, at first they just saw another Vault waiting to be looted. . .at first. . .it turned out to be a really bad idea on all their parts. After one too many failures they cut their loses and gave up on ever trying to figure out Arkham.

E) Its like the Intro. Movie from Fallout 2. The movie that played warned about people's eyes being too sensitive to sunlight when they leave the Vault. For Arkham the degeneration of their eyes is enough that almost eighty percent of 99's lights have been purposely broken at some point for just let burned out. There is lighting but very minimal and barrels that are burning to provide a bit of light. Also as the generation's pass, the populace eventually 'forgot' about the outside and anyone who enters is considered an intruder and fresh meat

. . .or worse.

Basically they are like certain cave dwelling animals in real life - they and their decedents live purely in caves never venturing outside.

F) That's a tricky one - if I had to choose what they are, they are still human. . .just feral, ravenous and very hungry humans and can't be reasoned with. With radiation there are mutations so its a mix but not like a 'Human Transforming Into 4Nightkin' or something. Its regular genetic damage. For the most part they know where the hot spots and stay well away from them.

G) That's the tricky part, I admit. As I thought about this idea further, I may have to retract the whole 'no outside animals exist inside'. Yet there are burrowing animals like Giant Ants, Moles, and Rad Scorpions(Caves). As you suggested later in your post, these animals could borough into 99 through weakened walls and are then captured and eaten. As for how people survived for so long after learning they were screwed over, well, there was a screw job on top of the original Vault-Tec screw job but I'm keeping that to myself. Overall the population prefer their meat on the Two Legged kind.

 

Suggestions-

A) As long as it reasonably far away from population areas and 'nasty free'(Nightkin, Death Claws.) Like I said in the pitch, getting to 99 shouldn't be a fight for one's life.

B) I'll check out again. . .I'm using Windows 7. . .and well, yeah. . . When the truth of the Vaults came out(never meant to save anyone), I never felt the point was driven home in the games. The fear, dread, and horror at was done to people never really struck a cord with me. Through exploring Arkham , trying to survive it, reading the Notes, its my hope that players will feel those of things about the Vaults.

C) Well, Tribe is too strong of a word. Their minds for the most part are too far gone. Expansion into the land itself is a good idea though. However, there are no tunnels leading to the outside.

D) I was thinking Lonesome Road myself - You go in alone and come out alone.(except for the daughter) Sure a Companion can be bought along. . .but I'd advise against it. . .especially when they do stupid things like give away your positions when you're trying to snipe/stealth/scout the area!