Upon looking at the E3 footage of the main character picking up his first Pipboy, I couldn't help but notice the body of the Pipboy's previous owner; the skeletal remains of someone wearing a lab coat.

Seems it's not that everything goes wrong one day in the vault. No, it looks like we're going to "wake-up" and everyone's already dead and have been for some time.

The cause of everyone else's demise is uncertain, but the skeleton of the pipboy owner doesn't seem to show any sign of trauma, nor does his clothing give any hint. It doesn't appear firearms or melee weapons were involved, because of a lack of blood stains. Radiation doesn't seem to be an issue in that area, and the air seems to be clean. There seems to be plenty of power for lights, so hopefully there some working terminals that may hold information explaining just what happened. As for now, it appears as if everyone simply fell down dead.

Inside the Pipboy is a "Groundskeeper Log"...sounds like a good first step.

Imo we're gonna spend some time in the vault pre-cryo/stasis pod stuff.

Maybe I'm wrong and we just enter the vault and wake up 200 yrs later in matter of seconds


Intriguing nonethless

Looks like one of the weapons you find in the vault is a shock baton. I'm assuming it's similar to a cattle prod. That's never been in a FO game before, has it?

Shock baton was in the DLC Mothership Zeta.

Let's not forget that the purpose of each individual vault is for some kind of social experiment as opposed to the publicized notion that they were to keep people safe. It's reasonable to speculate that you were put into a cryogenic sleep chamber and the purpose of vault 111 was to see what happens when someone wakes up and everyone is dead. Pure speculation here but that could be a possibility.

That's right, it was! Huh.


Seems you also score some grenades...kinda strange to have grenades in a vault, don't you think?

There have been stranger things in Vaults; Vault-Tec was a very twisted company!

Exactly. So who knows what the story is. I'm guessing Vault-Tech is the reason that you're the sole survivor.

I don't know why, but I was under the assumption that the scientist with the PipBoy just died of starvation --- wasn't he IN the vault? Just inside the entrance? I can't see the video here at work, but if the Sole Survivor got the Pip Boy from the skeleton and ~then~ left the Vault, then perhaps the scientist got locked inside but for whatever reason could not get into a Cryo pod (leg trapped under some debris, etc)... if the Sole Survivor picked up the PipBoy ~after~ leaving the Vault.... I have no idea why the scientist's skeleton wasn't picked clean of goods, including the Pip Boy, long ago.

*scene opens with a group of Vault-Tech employees having a meeting*
"So, as you can see, the concept for Vault 183 has the potential of being 43% more sinister than previously..."
"Uh, excuse me?"
"Yes, Greg, what is it?"
"I know I'm new here, but something's been bothering me."
"Yes?"
"Well..."
"Speak your mind, Greg."
"Well...it's just that...why are we doing this?"
*confused mumbles*
"I don't understand the question."
"Why are we building all these vaults that seem to accomplish only the torment and most likely demise of the inhabitants?"
"Well, Greg, if you paid attention in orientation you would know that we're all evil."
"Oh...that explains it."
"Now, if there's no more questions, on page 14 of the manual you can clearly see where we plan to implement the rabid badgers...."
*end scene*

The military arrive at the Vault to place the subjects in the vault. The bomb falls, your "lucky" enough to get inside, your wife and child didn't. You are placed in cryosleep. The scientist was trapped in the vault. The remaining military prematurely seal the vault from the outside leaving the scientist to his fate. No one was to actually to reside in the vault. Just the test subjects in their cyrochambers.

Wow...that was actually one of the best concepts I've heard.

The "groundskeeper" log is probably from a maintenance robot acting as the groundskeeper of the cryochambers.

Well part of me wants to make something of the skeleton even being there as a skeleton exposed for 200 years would be gone. Also the lab coat would have rotted away when the body putrefied. Then I have to tell myself it's just a game and eat my 200 year old can of beans.

I think what I'm trying to say is the scientist body and Pipboy are just there for convenience. Nothing else.

Your wrong...

No I'm pretty sure a putrefied body would rot away the lab coat. Seen enough of that in RL (farm animals of course, not people).

There are skeletons exposed to the environment outside the vault, this one has not been exposed. It is very obvious the Vault was sealed from the outside. The body is found in the vertical shaft of the vault entrance, not even in the Vault. He was sealed in.

Advance 2070 materials.

What kind of farm animals do you see wearing lab coats? Must be a Monsanto facility.

So what is the decomposition rate of roadkill wearing a jacket from the Gap?

LeBurns is correct, in that a decaying body would have at the very least left the lab coat horribly stained if not rotted, there are more than sufficient microorganism that grow with or without air inside the body at all times that would cause putrefication. There is no flesh residue as seen on the skeleton, but if it did putrefy there would be staining. Which might lead speculators to believe he was hit by some form of radiation that destroyed his flesh but not his clothes and his Pipboy fell off on the floor. Gotta luv how simple game mechanics can stir up all kinds of possibilities of what "might have been", but may in the end be as LeBurns put it "convenient game mechanic" for getting a Pipboy to the player.

Yes. Modern magic.

Here is my bet on evil vault tec.

Their experiment is to hide everyone from the individual waking up from cryo sleep. Then record how they react being placed 5, 10, 20, 100, 200 years in the future.

Well that would at least explain why they came out at different times.

I also found the lab coat to be uncharacteristically clean and in good condition for 200 years. The bones...I'm not too sure.