He is making a Battlestar Galactica reference to "Cylons" also known as "Toasters". Cylons are Cyborgs/Androids AKA Synth. "The Institute" are known for Synth research. It is a popular belief/running gag that the protagonist is a "Skinjob". A synth, who replaced the original. This popular conspiracy theory is further exacerbate by the "Tyler Durden" effect adopted by MGS5.

Probably want to do some research on nuclear detonations and their after effects. The bomb went off far enough from that vault. Worse case scenario you would suffer minor burns. Radiation would most likely occur from fallout which would be falling in that area around half hour to one hour. Those people would have time to escape that.
YouTube is full of clips of nuclear detonations. Wikipedia is full of info as well as books. I've done my research so I would know when I'm writing my post apoc story

Probably want to do some research on nuclear detonations and their after effects. The bomb went off far enough from that vault. Worse case scenario you would suffer minor burns. Radiation would most likely occur from fallout which would be falling in that area around half hour to one hour. Those people would have time to escape that.
YouTube is full of clips of nuclear detonations. Wikipedia is full of info as well as books. I've done my research so I would know when I'm writing my post apoc story

Ahhh. Then it shifts further towards the Vault 112-like scenario.

The thing is, we have no idea what occurred between the dropping of the bombs and the awakening of the Sole Survivor. Maybe Nora and Shaun had no choice but to leave the vault before something terrible happened. The PC may be named the Sole Survivor in regard to some specific event that happened. If the family was not around during said event, then the title Sole Survivor is still very logical. Also, the title could be based on the PC's perspective of him believing that he is the only true survivor of Vault 111.

Besides, programming the game to form Shaun's appearance based on SS and Nora's features would be a complete waste if they end up dying in the beginning.

Good question, to which I do not have an answer for since most of what we discuss is just conjecture. But, Vault 101's mantra was no one enters and no one leaves. However, that turned out to be false since the Vault did send out exploration parties (who ended up founding Megaton), and the LW entered the vault with his dad when he was still a baby.

I'm in the camp of "survivor wife" because I really like the voice actress. I tried to play female characters in the past (Oblivion) but it didn't feel right, so hopefully she survives the events of vault 111 so she can join my SS on his adventures.

Yeah man. Courteney Taylor rox.

I'm gonna play a female protagonist cuz she sounds, looks and moves more enjoyably then a male protagonist would, in my eyes, especially in raider armor. She's just gonna be a post-marital lisbian is all.

I also enjoy alternative paths available to women. the subtle nuances here and there, especially since it was mentioned in an interview that there was a pulpable difference between the 2 protagonists, during voice recording. Even evident in their personalities.

Like Howard (Delaney) is more passionate, powerful and manly. He has a bit of a philladelphian twang. He sounds like a late-night DJ or documentary narrator voice. Very cool.

Nora is more emotional, strong and womanly. She has a slight lag in the volume of her voice which gives her voice a soft "pan-pipe" effect, which i find very charming in women.

On the bright side, hey free tenderloin.

Why not? Seriously hoping they stay dead from a story perspective... it won't ruin my life, I just think it's cliche.

Sole Survivor is a title. It is what people call you. It is not a proclamation from god. If it SEEMS LIKE you are the only survivor of 111 when you emerge and establish a name for yourself in the Commonwealth that is what people will call you. The potential eventual revelation that you are in fact NOT the SS will likely not disseminate across the entire Commonwealth and so people still call you SS either because they don't know you're not, don't care that you're not or simply because it's convenient. Alternatively: game contrivance.

Seriously the 'IT'S IN THE NAME' view of everyone having to be dead just rustles my jimmies. They can be dead for lots of other reasons but the fact that people call you SS should really appear somewhere really low on that list.

How far off was it then?
And what yield?


If the FO universe has bombs in the MT as opposed to KT, then the blast radius could be quite large. 20 MT is gonna destroy everything within about a 10 Mi radius and set fire to everything within approximately 20, with first degree burns occurring about 30 Mi out.


It could be that it is a lower yield and some distance off, but I'm not sure.
The rule of thumb on nuke blasts is that if you can cover the mushroom with your thumb, you should be OK. That cloud looked pretty big in the demo.

Where are you placing the detonation, and what yield do you figure it is?

Bloody mess has always been hilariously over the top. Your incinerated wife and child dying in your arms is positively disgusting. And because we don't even know those characters, it would seem very gratuitous.

Think about it. Which is more likely:

1. your SO and child survive and are forced topside decades before you do, and your goal is to trace their steps. Depending on what they were up to while you were sleeping, this could be very dramatic as those characters would grow and age quickly through learning of their actions (through video holotapes, ghoul accounts, etc.), until you find that they eventually died in the wasteland and the feeling of failure overwhelms you. Followed closely by the feeling of needing to fire a couple 12 gauge shells into the head of whoever was responsible for throwing your SO and child out of the vault, if he/she is still alive. Or you eventually find them alive, but life in the wasteland has warped them into horrible individuals.

2. your wife and child get toasted before we even get to know them. You emerge 200 years later and swear to kill every unfortunate Chinese person to inexplicably cross your path...

You heartless bastard .

How "silo-esque".

I can't help but see the darker tones even more after reading the Silo Series...

As I understand it, the only official word from Bethesda is that you emerge from Vault 111 as the sole survivor. The title, Sole Survivor, is a fan creation. I don't expect anyone in the game to know us or address us by that name.

Well, it's a better start and viewing your own birth in first person.

I do believe there will be some kind or reoccurance of the spouse. Otherwise I would have wasted a whole lot of time making her look just like Scarlett Johansson.

So what happens? I still think the easiest way would be to have all three go to sleep, and just the SS wake up alone 200 years later. Initial goal would be finding family. I'm sure those were the first questions you had for Codsworth and they were just cut from the vid we saw (otherwise it would be very odd that the questions weren't asked). I think you may find the spouse alive, but something like 50 years older and having already lived a full life (so you can move on). I think the kid (who will look like you and your spouse apparently) will be the main antagonist of the game, whom you have the option to join if you wish.

One very important factor to consider here are the electric pylons seen in the distance. If they were within the lethal blast radius, they would have been ripped out of the ground, but they weren't. This suggests that the bomb was a low enough yield for those above Vault 111 to have stood at least a moderate chance of surviving the initial blast, increasing the likelihood that all three family members made it into the vault alive.

Because radiation would be too high in the area to survive long right after the bombs drop?

Despite that, I do not think either of the potential protagonists die early on (as far as the player chosen one is aware). Of course, it could go the other way and the player things the spouse is dead when they are in fact alive. I would be quite surprised if the entire main story is not "what really happened to my family?", oriented. To be honest, I hope I'm surprised as the family story has already been done to death (in this and many other franchises).

I dunno. After listening to your mother flat-line in Fallout 3, and then watching your father commit suicide and then having to sacrifice yourself at the end.

I mean, just how much more macabre can they really get?

So, does that mean that if I choose to play with the spouse I can only play in the ''intro'' section and then die?

That's why no one ever mentions Courtenay Taylor.

I think your theory is spot on. Kill the family and then let the PC react to that. Will you become an evil sob because your family is dead and you don't give a crap about the world. Will you rise like a phoenix from the ashes to try and make the world a better place. Or become like Mad Max and live for yourself. Personal loss and how each character deals with it is by far more interesting and allows for different playthroughs compared to F3 and the lets find dad which definitely steered you to being a good character.

to be fair we don't see enough time after the detonation to see whether the conflageration/firestorm range affects the area. This is slower than the blast wave and it extends out twice as far as the blast/shock wave, which is what we do see.

Aww, poor guys...

I meant the whole start the game in 2077 and cryosleep to 200 years later. Seems like a needlessly convoluted plot just to bereave the PC of his family at the start of the game, when they could easily do it in 2277 as part of some crazy vault-tec experiment or something, which makes even less sense when you consider all the work they had to do with the 2077 assets. No, there must be a connection between the time lapse and your family.

That's at least better than FO3 (would have loved to at least hit the dad)

What's it with Bethesda and giving the protag a family anyway? (parents are ok (unless they act like the Dad in FO3 -.-), but I prefer a clean slate, like the New Vegas character who doesn't know his/her past!)

greets LAX

Yep either the screen goes black then you see the lift lowering (and something crucial happens) OR you black out and wake up a short time later already inside the vault with the loved one either present or not.

I dunno, I'll probably be a little ticked if I spend time customizing the wife and kid to find out they ended up dying and all that time was wasted. Especially if the spouse could be a companion.