Fallout Vaults. Why?

[silver wolf009]

Hello Escapist, been awhile since I started a thread, but finally got around to it.

My question involves the vaults in the Fallout universe. I ask, why? The vaults were created to test humanity and find out things the Enclave thought they would need to retake the earth after it had been microwaved, but my question is why the people in the vault did that. What compelled them to follow through on the experiments?

In Fallout 3

Spoiler: Protections against spoilers, just in case

Vault 101 was meant to test prolonged isolation, and the role of the Overseer. Now, when the nuke drops and you get locked in a vault, corporate orders don't count for much anymore, but still the overseer went ahead with his plan. Even more odd is Vault 87 and 92. 87 was created to test a strain of F.E.V virus, and 92 was meant to test a method of turning ordinary people into super soldiers.

Both vaults overseers knew the dangers of what they were doing, yet for some reason went about their business, leading to both vaults failing.

Is there some sort of explanation for why they did this that I'm just missing? Or does it simply stem from a gameplay want of having vaults, so the developers invent experiments that cause the vaults to fail, and by this act gain a new level?

Also, for discussion value, which vault experiment do you think was the most important for rebuilding civilization?

 

[ChupathingyX]

You have to remember; Those vaults you mentioned were made by Bethesda, they're not exactly very good when it comes to consistency and major story-telling.

Also, for discussion value, which vault experiment do you think was the most important for rebuilding civilization?

Vault 15 was where the people who settled Shady Sands came from. Shady Sands would then become the New California Republic.

Vault 13 is where the Vault Dweller came from, and without him the West would be a very different place.

Vault 8 was also very successful at creating a community of people, mostly assholes, but still it is a very successful community.

 

[AlternatePFG]

You have to remember; Those vaults you mentioned were made by Bethesda, they're not exactly very good when it comes to consistency and major story-telling.

To be fair, the whole Vault experiment thing started with Fallout 2 and it got kind of crazy from there.

Edit: Heck it even happened with the first game, with Vault 12 in Necropolis I believe. According to the wiki Vault-Tec purposely didn't completely close the blast door, because they wanted to test the effects that the radiation would have on people.

 

[ChupathingyX]

You have to remember; Those vaults you mentioned were made by Bethesda, they're not exactly very good when it comes to consistency and major story-telling.

To be fair, the whole Vault experiment thing started with Fallout 2 and it got kind of crazy from there.

That's true, but Bethesda didn't have to continue with it.

It's funny really, the things that Bethesda tried to continue in F3 to, I assume, appease the original Fallout fans and serve as throwbacks to the originals were the ones they screwed up the most...Harold being the worst example.

Plus there's the super mutants, the Enclave, FEV, the BoS and others.

Now I better stop before I turn this into an arguement.

 

[number2301]

For the purposes of this I'm going to ignore the Fallout 3 vaults with that being virtually fan fiction and all and I'm also gonna go off on a bit of a tangent

Vault 11, how grim was that? I've just finished New Vegas and gone through there and that is easily the grimmest thing I've seen in the wasteland!

As for most important for rebuilding, the guy above basically /threaded that with 13 for the Vault Dweller, the one the residents of Shady Sands came from and the one Vault city was built around.

But I always wonder, what was Vault tech's big plan? They're clearly not around to see the results of their experiment, and I don't think the Enclave are involved as they just gunned vault dwellers down. So what, they expect the nuclear apocalypse to not be so bad?

 

[Doom-Slayer]

What compelled them to follow through on the experiments?

To be fair in some of the cases the experiments were built into the vaults design. One of the big reasons I can think of is quite simply, these people had no access to the outside world, and no idea what the outside was like.

If you're put in charge when the shit hits the fan and get thrown into a vault with your superiors saying "This is what we want you to do", then they shut the door on you, thats a pretty big burden put onto these leaders. For all they know, they are humanities last hope and their experiments in their vault could be absolutely crucial. Then there is always the possibility the leaders and controllers of the vautls are all planted by Vaultec.

 

[Knusper]

I guess the most important one would be 13, where you come from, and you improve the wasteland a fair bit. I quite liked the idea of the one in that comic where the guy was locked alone in the vault with no one and nothing but a box of puppets and goes insane, but I guess that one wasn't really helpful to society.

 

[CleverNickname]

I shouldn't be surprised by anything on the internet anymore but... vault-canonicity-snob-ism? Really?

Funniest thing I've read all day!

 

[ShindoL Shill]

the people living in the vaults were told to go there to not die. the Overseers were told to do crazy shit. there isnt really much else to do except that.

 

[Yassen]

The purpose of the vaults were disaster tests. You see, the Enclave knew that war was inevitable and decided to bomb this world and then find a new planet to settle. But due to the huge amount of time it would take to find a new one, they created the vaults to test certain situations that might occur on the space flight to the planets, the vaults were to see how people would react to them. Like Vault 11...

Spoiler

How people would react to sacrificing a person every year so everyone else could live.

Truth is, the vaults were never meant to save humanity, at least not directly. Sadly the war started before the Enclaves plans for the US to find a new planet could begin. As to why the people would continue it... well, I've been studying psychology for three years now and I'll tell you, people will believe and follow the most ridiculous ideas if everyone else is. Especially in tight-knit groups like in a vault.

Not to mention the fears they instill of a dangerous outside world. Add to the years everyone spent growing up in those things and frankly, their assimilation and/or indoctrination is probably the most realistic thing that could happen. It's depressing I know, but humans are social creatures. We do anything to be a part of the groups around us.