Vault 112



Vault 112 is one of the vault series of fallout shelters developed by Vault-Tec. It's located in the southwest part of the Capital Wasteland, underneath Smith Casey's garage, west of Evergreen Mills and south of the Charnel House.

Background
Vault 112 was one of the last to be constructed. The construction started in November 2068, and finished in June 2074. It was intended for only 85 occupants, suspended in a virtual reality world for the indefinite duration of the vault's experiment. The vault was built to house and tend to the needs of its overseer, Dr. Stanislaus Braun, creator of the Garden of Eden Creation Kit. Within it, Braun installed a virtual reality simulator and cryogenics system, initially containing several simulated utopias, the last of which being the Tranquility Lane simulation. The system should have permitted a select few to live a 'perfect life' virtually, if not practically, forever.

What Vault 112's occupants didn't know was that once they entered the virtual reality pods, Braun would exercise complete control over the simulation; they had no means of leaving on their own. They became his playthings, completely at his mercy. Dr. Braun, after becoming bored of various simulated worlds, would proceed to virtually "kill" each one of them. Each time after killing them he would wipe their memory and resurrect them within the program.

Location
The entrance to Vault 112 is inside Smith Casey's garage, it has some mole rats and radroaches but nothing that can't be dealt with. After proceeding past the counter into the workshop there is a large hatch in the ground just to the left which can be opened by activating a switch on the wall beside it. Below is a short passage which leads up to the Vault 112 door. More mole rats are found down here.

Layout
Vault 112 houses an entrance area similar to all other vaults, which serves as the airlock and the only connection to the outside world. A single passage in the entryway leads down to the main hall. In it are twelve Tranquility loungers arranged around a big pillar, each connected to a terminal which monitors the respective conditions of the "subjects" inside the loungers. There is also another Tranquility lounger, found in the Overseer's office, located south of the main hall. The only medical unit of the vault is accessed east of the main hall (where the loungers are).

Since it can't be maintained by the human inhabitants as they're all in the Tranquility loungers, Vault 112 is instead maintained by a group of special caretaker robobrains. The robobrains are non-hostile (even if you attack them), and also lack combat inhibitors. When the player enters the vault, he or she is told that their arrival is "202.3 years behind schedule". Due to the indefinite duration of the Vault 112 experiment, the vault, quite sensibly, uses geothermal power exclusively. This is provided by a Sure Power geothermal unit and backed up by an X-Tra Sure Power geothermal unit. The geothermal turbine level cannot be accessed. A think machine 3600r mainframe is housed in the main hall. As well as performing the functions of a normal vault computer system, it functions as the simulation control computer, running the main simulation program and synchronizing all the different Tranquility loungers. It appears linked to several smaller computers, one handling each lounger's graphics processing and its occupant's medical status.

Because of it being maintained by robobrains, and being better hidden than many others, 112 is the only intact vault other than 101 in the Capital Wasteland. The outcome of this particular experiment is ambiguous. If Braun intended the simulator merely to satisfy his sadistic urges when he designed it, then it fulfilled its purpose completely. If, on the other hand, he sincerely intended to create a virtual haven for the residents to live eternally, the fact that his godlike position subsequently drove him insane and made the other residents' existence an eternal hell would mean that the experiment was a failure. By the latter standard, it is arguably one of the ghastliest, abject failures of all the vaults.

Appearances
Vault 112 appears only in Fallout 3.

Bugs

 * Before entering the Vault it is recommended to instruct your followers to wait inside Smith Casey's Garage and save the game, because it's possible that one (or more) of the followers (e.g. Charon) may disappear after leaving Vault 112 or the Tranquility Lane simulation. If the companions enter the Vault with the Lone Wanderer, they may need to be re-hired at their re-hire location but will always return to where they go when you fire them, for example Charon will go back to Underworld where you hired him, RL-3 will go to Canterbury Commons instead of the RobCo facility. It may take a long time for them to reappear. Going to The Pitt will make Charon automatically appear at the Ninth Circle.
 * When walking through Vault 112, screens may become monochrome purple. Upon loading a saved game in this state, the purple coloring will remain.