Fallout 4 Teaser Site Heats Up With Nuclear Winter

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
45,698
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Fallout 4 Teaser Site Heats Up With Nuclear Winter


Things are now happening very quickly at TheSurvivor2299.com teaser site.

The countdown to nuclear winter at thesurvivor2299.com hit zero yesterday and while we didn't get the much-hoped-for confirmation from Bethesda that this is in fact an Official Fallout Thing, the tale it's indirectly telling grew a whole lot more interesting. The "Nuclear winter is coming" message was replaced by "Nuclear winter has come," preceded by an encoded, two-line message that the great minds of Reddit [http://www.reddit.com/r/Fallout/comments/1rv24f/the_survivor_2299_hype_and_speculation_megathread/] had unraveled in no time.

The first five words in the message are actually the decoding instructions, which when followed translates into "The Institute is sealed. They won't help us. I'm heading to Black Row. -TBNLS 5120-." As another Redditor pointed out, Fallout 3 NPC Dr. Zimmer mentions "the sealed environment of the Institute" to the player at one point, although what Black Row is and what TNBLS 5120 references remain a mystery.

The morse code messages have also changed at least three times since the evening of December 1. Around 4 pm EST (and these times and translations are recorded by others, so may not be pinpoint-precise), a call for help went out saying, "Calling all stations, this is Overseer 119 emergency enemy unknown, SOS. Vault 119 Quabbin 7667, repeat, SOS, Vault 119 Quabbin 7667 enemy unknown." About an hour later it changed to the more urgent, "Calling all stations, this is Vault Overseer 119, anybody near Quabbin? SOS Vault door breach, repeat, SOS Vault door breach, enemy unknown, level 1, 2, and 3 gone, survivors on secure location level 4."

A little before midnight the situation grew even more dire, as the message changed again to, "Calling all stations, this is Vault 119 SOS level 4 under attack, Overseer is dead, repeat, SOS level 4 under attack, Overseer is dead. We won't make it." Finally, later this morning came a report of the aftermath, delivered by an unknown party, which continues to repeat at the time of writing - although two interpretations of the code suggest two very different possible events.

"Calling Black Row OTST ground is safe, too late level 4 breached, no survivors, 899 corpses, we are leaving Vault 199" seems to be the favored translation, implying that whoever sent the report arrived too late to save the inhabitants of the vault. But some say it's actually "Calling Black Row OTST ground is safe to land, level 4 breached, no survivors, 899 corpses, we are leaving Vault 119," which suggest that they're actually responsible for the attack.

It's gripping stuff either way, and while a lot of people are very cynical about countdowns to announcements, I think they're a lot of fun, especially when they're as well done as this. I'll be disappointed as hell if it turns out to be a hoax, but equally impressed by the amount of work put into it just to mess with Fallout fans. We'll find out which it is in about nine days.

Source: TheSurvivor2299.com [http://thesurvivor2299.com/]


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Saviordd1

New member
Jan 2, 2011
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Oh sweet jesus I hope this is legit.

If the count down ends and there's a troll face on the site I think I might actually cry a little bit.

EDIT: Fun fact, if you google Vault 119 you get a website asking for your email to "Secure your spot" not sure if that's a scam or not.
 

War Penguin

Serious Whimsy
Jun 13, 2009
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Y'know, I was one of those people who kind of wanted this to be a hoax, mainly because I thought the amount of effort put into it was just hilarious. But as time goes on, I'm developing a change of heart. Please... PLEASE don't be a hoax! D:
 

aaronexus

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Dec 11, 2012
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I've heard that Vault 119 website is a scam so please tread lightly. Also, several people, including myself, actually checked the 2299 site yesterday around the stated time and the whole thing was down for a while. While I certainly would like a new Fallout, that has made quite a few of us more skeptical about the whole thing. Still crossing fingers though.
 

Dr.Awkward

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Mar 27, 2013
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899 corpses... Hmm, that number is a bit conspicuous. Why do I have a feeling you're the last member of Vault 119?

(PS: Before you go all "Dammit, I didn't want to be a Vault Dweller again, Beth!", may you consider that perhaps some people just have a hard time trying to make up a backstory or purpose for their character from scratch, and more importantly that it's rather resource-intensive to make multiple interactive beginnings for backstory choices? If you've got the imagination, just ignore what's happened and write your story from there.)
 

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
45,698
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Saviordd1 said:
EDIT: Fun fact, if you google Vault 119 you get a website asking for your email to "Secure your spot" not sure if that's a scam or not.
According to numerous fans more hardcore than I, the Vault 119 site has actually been around for awhile now and is confirmed unofficial. I signed up for it anyway! (With a throwaway address, naturally.)
 

Mojo

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Jun 2, 2011
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Saviordd1 said:
EDIT: Fun fact, if you google Vault 119 you get a website asking for your email to "Secure your spot" not sure if that's a scam or not.
Yeah, looks pretty scammy if you ask me. I singed up with a 10 minute mail address and I didn't get any confirmation or anything. The site told me "Your information will be held in the strictest confidence." But somehow I doubt that. Would have been too good to be true I guess :p
 

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
45,698
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aaronexus said:
Also, several people, including myself, actually checked the 2299 site yesterday around the stated time and the whole thing was down for a while. While I certainly would like a new Fallout, that has made quite a few of us more skeptical about the whole thing. Still crossing fingers though.
Quite possible that the system was struggling with the load as the "nuclear winter" thing approached zero, but I like to think that it's all part of the game - whoever attacked Vault 119 knocked it offline for awhile, and then brought it back to report in. I don't usually go for that meta-nonsense, but in this case I like it.
 

Psychobabble

. . . . . . . .
Aug 3, 2013
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It would kind of funny if this turned out to be a fan made expansion like Falskaar for Skyrim.
 

Legion

Were it so easy
Oct 2, 2008
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If it is a hoax then kudos for the effort put in.

Although like many people, I am very much hoping we will get a Fallout 4 announcement soon. It's one of my favourite series and I have played the others to death, so I'd love a next current gen game to be out soon.
 

PrimePowerOn

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Nov 30, 2009
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Does anyone find it weird that the last message in Morse is interpreted two different ways? I thought Morse didn't really include much vagueness. Is it some sort of weird match up where the dots and dashes, if you are separating the letters, possibly make up two different words? Is someone around here a Redditor or Morse person that can explain it?

Thanks!
 

Roccondil

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Mar 17, 2011
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Another interesting thing is the apparent radio broadcast signals that are going out on actual radio broadcasts. Apparently they are still taking them as not officially part of the ARG, but they are compelling.
 

Yozozo

In a galaxy far, far away...
Mar 28, 2009
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PrimePowerOn said:
Does anyone find it weird that the last message in Morse is interpreted two different ways? I thought Morse didn't really include much vagueness. Is it some sort of weird match up where the dots and dashes, if you are separating the letters, possibly make up two different words? Is someone around here a Redditor or Morse person that can explain it?

Thanks!
There are some instances where it is not so clear cut as to when one letter begins and another one ends. Not a *ton*, but there are a few.

"safe too late" is
... .- ..-. . / - --- --- / .-.. .- - .

and "safe to land" is

... .- ..-. . / - --- / .-.. .- -. -..

So, to the untrained eye they may look very very similar, but it's a case of some people not quite hearing the second set of dashes in "too." Personally I'm in the "there are two sets of three" camp, and I think most are.

That said, you can listen to the original here http://thesurvivor2299.com/radio/TI-529c94d1b9e57.mp3. Heck, pull it up in audacity and dissect it visually. I would but work :/

That is, if you are into this kind of ARG nonsense :D
 

Ticklefist

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Jul 19, 2010
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Nobody? Okay.

"Living in the Mojave wasteland almost makes you hope for a nuclear winter."
 

008Zulu_v1legacy

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Sep 6, 2009
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Somewhat chilling. The part about breaching the Vault got my attention as in "How? Those things were built to survive a nuclear strike!" But then I remembered that they all have a control console near the door for ease of access.
 

vxicepickxv

Slayer of Bothan Spies
Sep 28, 2008
3,126
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The Vault 119 site was created on Black Friday by a company called Who Is Guard registered out of Panama. Make of that what you will.

http://whois.net/whois/vault119.com

Something's a bit odd there.
 

Voulan

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Jul 18, 2011
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Dr.Awkward said:
899 corpses... Hmm, that number is a bit conspicuous. Why do I have a feeling you're the last member of Vault 119?
That was my thought too. By god I hope this is real.

Although after people were speculating that it may take place in the Commonwealth, I was hoping to play as an android... perks would actually make sense then. Although you could always be in an experimental vault designed to integrate androids with real people, and somewhere along the line it was forgotten.
 

Aardvaarkman

I am the one who eats ants!
Jul 14, 2011
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Andy Chalk said:
... an encoded, two-line message that the great minds of Reddit [http://www.reddit.com/r/Fallout/comments/1rv24f/the_survivor_2299_hype_and_speculation_megathread/] had unraveled in no time.
Those words... those words do not mean what you think they mean.
 

MarsProbe

Circuitboard Seahorse
Dec 13, 2008
2,372
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Ok, I am slightly confused here This article says the countdown has completed and the message changed to "Nuclear Winter has come", however I am seeing none of this. There are still 8 days to go on the website according to what I'm looking at. Did I miss a beat here or something? Colour me perplexed, either way.
 

Coach Morrison

New member
Jun 8, 2009
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MarsProbe said:
Ok, I am slightly confused here This article says the countdown has completed and the message changed to "Nuclear Winter has come", however I am seeing none of this. There are still 8 days to go on the website according to what I'm looking at. Did I miss a beat here or something? Colour me perplexed, either way.
There were 2 countdowns, one for the nuclear winter, which was shorter and has now ended, and one that ends around when spike has their game show.