Vault

A Vault is a type of a subterranean installation designed by Vault-Tec. Officially, they were designed for the sole purpose of sheltering up to one thousand dwellers from a nuclear holocaust. But they were actually used as an experiment for the government. It has impenetrable walls protecting it from the disasters of the post-apocalyptic world.

History
Commissioned by the United States government as part of Project Safehouse, Vault-Tec built 122 such Vaults over the country. However, when the storm of nuclear war came in 2077, the Vaults were sealed without many of their dwellers due to the Cry Wolf effect training drills had on the populace.

The first Vault was built in Los Angeles, intended to demonstrate the viability of such a facility. The demonstration Vault was built beneath the city, within its limits and unlike other Vaults, wasn't part of the experiment. Most Vaults were completed by 2063, except for Vault 13, which was the last one to be completed.

Overview
The Vaults were one of the most expensive shelters in the pre-War world, as according to the Vault Dweller's Survival Guide for Vault 13 (otherwise known as the Fallout manual), the intended budget for that particular installation was 400 billion dollars, and by the end of its construction reached 645 billion (although it should be mentioned that this is likely a price inflated to modern day prices; there are advertisements for vehicles in Fallout 3 loading screen slides with prices saying "'Only' $1,000,000," leading to the assumption that the 645 billion dollar price tag would not be comparable to modern day prices). The Vaults were located in various locations, and little information is available as to why those particular sites were chosen. For example, Vaults 13 and 15 were located in rather remote locations, far from population centers, while Vaults 3, 12, 21 and 101 lay near or in cities themselves.

Each Vault was designed to hold one thousand occupants at any given time, although hot bunking was required at maximum capacity, and equipped with all facilities and supplies needed by them to survive in isolation for the designated time. According to the Vault 101 PA System, the life support system could work for over 900 years without failure. The facilities and supplies included complete construction equipment, hydro-agricultural farms, a water purification system, defensive weaponry to equip 10 men, communication systems and surface monitors, social, and entertainment files (for total duration). Waste management was conducted by burning trash on scheduled "burning days". Larger incinerator receptacles were used for the destruction of human corpses. In addition, some Vaults received one or two G.E.C.K.s, intended to help the inhabitants repopulate the post-nuclear world after the All Clear signal is sent following the conclusion of the social experiment.

Different types of power sources were utilized for the Vaults. Vault 13 relied primarily on geothermal energy, with backup power available from a General Atomics Nuclear Power generator, and could sustain one thousand inhabitants for two hundred years. Vault 8 on the other hand, relied on an unspecified type of reactor, which, while enough for Vault City to emerge, could only support a relatively small, highly advanced settlement, and in 2241 was nearing its capacity, after which further growth would be impossible.

All vault dwellers wore blue-and-yellow jumpsuits, although the design varied between different Vaults. The typical vault dweller living in a properly maintained Vault could expect to live an average of 92.3 years.

It should be noted that due to scaling, the size of Vaults in games shouldn't be taken at face value - none of the Vaults which can be entered in the series have enough space or facilities to actually house 1000 people (or rather 500, as hot bunking system is in effect at maximum capacity). However, many doors within in-game vaults are inaccessible, which allows for the possibility that the vault is far larger than the areas the player can access.

Realistically speaking, many of the Vaults are flawed. The powerful shock waves caused by nuclear weapons would likely cause the entrance shaft (which has no internal support) to collapse entirely. This would block the blast door, causing the inhabitants to be entombed by the above building(s) and or rocks. This may have happened to Vault 87, which suffered a direct nuclear blast outside its door that still produced high levels of radiation 200 years after the fact. These shock waves are mostly caused by ground-burst detonations, however, and Vault-Tec may have assumed that they only had to plan for air-bursts (usually favored for maximum dispersal and minimum blockage of the blast by terrain). It is also possible that the designers believed that the Vaults would not be primary targets in a war, and so only constructed them to protect against radiation and distant nuclear explosions. Also, some of the Vaults, such as Vault 112, have a reinforced steel entrance shaft and would probably be able to withstand even a nearby surface detonation. However, the entrance to the building above Vault 112 was nearly buried by rubble.

Needless to say, most Vaults in the experiment failed and had results completely different than those advertised, such as the creation of Super Mutants. Even those who exited succesful Vaults seem to suffer from xenophobia and agoraphobia, or fears of strangers and open places; notable examples would be Michael Angelo, who doesn't dare leave the Strip even for inspiration, the Boomers who shoot artillery at anything that comes close to them, and the Vault 101 citizens, who still don't exit the Vault even after the Lone Wanderer opens its door (if he chooses to do so.) Notable exceptions would be the Vault Dweller, the Lone Wanderer and Butch DeLoria.

Entrance
The entrance houses the Vault's only connection to the outside world - the airlock. (With the exception of Vault 19 and Vault 87) Closed from the inside by a reinforced high-security door and from the outside by a massive, gear-shaped four-foot thick vault door (which Three Dog claimed "weighs, like, thirteen tons"), it's the only means of entering or leaving the Vault, although secondary entrances or exits may have existed in some Vaults. Vault 87 had two additional entrances reachable through Lamplight Caverns. Security codes are required to both leave and enter the Vault, and they are usually only known to a handful of people within the facility. Most vaults have a console located on both sides of the entrance, which opens the Vault door via a lever. Passwords were entered into the console likely through the speaker or via some sort of wired connection from a Pip-Boy.

The automated narrator of the the Vault-Tec vault demonstration in Washington DC's Museum of Technology states that the doors had a projected 2% failure rate in case of a direct hit by a nuclear missile. So far, the only known vault to have been hit directly (or very nearly) by a nuclear weapon is Vault 87. According to the terminal of Vault 87's overseer, the blast caused the vault's main door to completely and utterly fail, apparently damaging it "beyond repair." Though this could be considered merely unfortunate, it is more likely an indicator that Vault-Tec's failure rates were completely fabricated.

Most Vaults use a Seal-N-Safe Vault Door Model No. 343 to secure the airlock, however, some older Vaults (such as Vault 101) use a different, more crude blast door model. Vault 8, the control Vault, had also a second, much larger, blast door built, that secured the entry hallway leading to the entrance to the Vault.

In addition, the Entrance level also houses the Emergency Medical Lab complete with an AutoDoc. A Vault medic was required to be present at the EML 24 hours a day. The lab had the equipment to treat nearly all injuries and illnesses, ranging from simple bruises to irradiation.

Living Quarters
Standard pre-War design of the living quarters was that of a single room with a sanitary annex. Vault 13 had one hundred living quarters, and at maximum capacity, ten people would be assigned to a single living quarter, in a hot bunking system. A standard level had 20,000 square feet of usable area.

The lights used in the Vaults used SimuSun technology, making it feel just like the outdoors, with only a fraction of a sunburn risk. The lights in Vault 101 were kept on all the time to prevent a radroach infestation.

New Entertainertrons were used to play holotapes, and used as a slide projector in the classroom of Vault 101.

Command Center
Heart of the Vault, the command center was where the Overseer's seat was located. The operations center, apart from the seat of power, included the computer lab, where the water purification system was located, and an armory, where the Vault's arms were stockpiled. A security guard was posted in the command center at all times, to ensure that the armaments are properly secured, and handed out only to people possessing the proper clearance from the Overseer.

Apart from that, the level also contained the computer core (with the Vault's AI monitoring the shelter 24/7), housing data processing units, a library playing an important role in educating vault dwellers and information, a meeting room for the dwellers and the primary store room, where the most important supplies would be stored.

The Overseer is also able to see anyone inside the Vault with the Eye-on-you cameras.

Equipped with dual 5mm miniguns in some Vaults, the Overseer's command post can be considered the last line of defense in case the Vault security is breached.

In Secret Vault, there are several command posts for the various locations. The command posts mainly contain buttons to control things like locking of doors and laser protection.

Differences

 * Vault 29 (Van Buren) was outfitted with a ZAX AI, which replaced the Overseer.
 * Vault 12 had its Overseer's room sealed due to the fact that the main door of the vault was doomed never to close.
 * East Coast Vaults (87, 92, 101, 106, 108, 112) use a different, older door mechanism (as evidenced by extensive rusting and meager safety precautions). The East Coast Vault opening mechanisms are contained entirely within the Vault itself, pulling the door inwards and simply rolling it to one side. The doors seen on West Coast Vaults, however, pull the seal outwards and use an external clamp to slide it aside (apart from the vault in Las Vegas which uses the same as the east coast vaults).
 * East Coast Vaults lack storage rooms in the Overseer's office; they are instead located near the Atrium.
 * The Vault-Tec Secret Vault had an entirely different layout than other vaults.

True purpose
Officially, the Vaults were nuclear shelters designed to protect the American population from nuclear holocaust. However, with a population of almost 400 million by 2077, the U.S. would need nearly 400,000 Vaults the size of Vault 13, while Vault-Tec was commissioned to build only 122 such Vaults. The government, and Vault-Tec, never really believed an actual nuclear war would occur; the real reason for the existence of these Vaults was to run experiments on pre-selected segments of the population to see how they react to the stresses of isolation and how successfully they recolonize Earth after the Vault opens.

The shadow government, the Enclave, responsible for the experiment (officially known as the "Societal Preservation Program"), have considered themselves prime candidates for recolonizing the world after a nuclear holocaust and to this end commissioned the construction of their own shelters, isolated from the Vault network. The purpose of the Vault experiments was to help prepare the Enclave for either re-colonizing Earth or colonizing another planet if Earth turned out to be uninhabitable by non-irradiated humans.

The total number of vaults is a government secret and has been lost; there were the aforementioned "public" vaults, which numbered 122 and an undisclosed number of "private" vaults. Information on whether Vault-Tec was an international corporation and were there vaults made by them in other parts of the world, or were they strictly U.S. based, cannot be released due to Vault-Tec and US Government regulations

Of the 122 Vaults, only 17 were control, meaning that only 17 were made to public expectations, all others were designed to include a social experiment, sometimes with a select few of the inhabitants observing the occupants.

The few Vaults that survived intact for more than 80 years came to serve another, unanticipated purpose: they were an excellent source of pure human stock, uncontaminated by the mutated airborne strain of FEV and prime candidates for conversion into super mutants.

Results
In terms of providing safety and security for their inhabitants, most of the Vaults were complete failures. However, as noted in the Penny Arcade Comic, the Vaults were never really intended to save anyone. There was simply not enough time, money or resources to build enough shelters to house more than a fraction of the population. While the "control vaults" did function as advertised and open on schedule, most were actually intended to explore and observe how societies adapt (or, more often, fail to adapt) to various challenges and restrictions. These social experiments were performed on live and mostly unaware subjects, monitored by Vault-Tec researchers in separate facilities, and undertaken at the behest of what would become the Enclave as part of a massive feasibility study of how to best re-colonize a barren Earth or, if necessary, other planets.

Most of the Vaults seen in the games were non-viable 200 or even a mere 80 years after the War. While Vault 13 might have lasted until its scheduled opening date of 2277, the unplanned failure of the Water Chip forced the Overseer's hand and set subsequent events in motion. If Vault 101 was truly intended to stay closed "forever", its failure was inevitable; the only question was how long, and what form the change or disaster would take. Many other Vaults were abandoned because of unlivable conditions, or saw the residents driven violently insane by the procedures inflicted on them. Some of these continue to pose a hazard to the unwary who wander in from outside, looking for loot or a place of safety.

Despite all of this, the experiment may be considered a success in terms of the data collected... data that was much more important to the Vault-Tec and Enclave scientists than a few hundred thousand lives, most of whom would have died anyway if not for the Vaults.

Appearances

 * Vault 12, Vault 13, Vault 15 and the LA Vault appeared in Fallout
 * Vault 8, Vault 13 and Vault 15 appeared in Fallout 2
 * Some Vaults were mentioned by President Richardson - some of them had not enough food synthesizers, others had only men in them, yet others were designed to open after only 6 months.
 * A malfunctioning Vault with unknown number and location appeared in the Van Buren tech demo
 * A Vault 69 advertisement appeared in the Van Buren concept art.
 * Vault 29 and Vault 70 were to appear in Van Buren, the canceled Fallout 3 project by Black Isle (year 2253).
 * Vault 101 appears in Fallout 3 alongside Vault 87, Vault 92, Vault 106, Vault 108, Vault 112, and the DC demo Vault (year 2277). Vault 76 is mentioned in a Pentagon terminal, but it doesn't exist in the game. A Vault 77 jumpsuit can also be found in Paradise Falls, but the Vault does not exist in the game.
 * Vault 3, Vault 11, Vault 19, Vault 21, Vault 22, and Vault 34 appear in Fallout: New Vegas.
 * Vault 0 appeared in Fallout Tactics, is designed to "monitor and control" other Vaults, maintain the geniuses of the pre-War United States in cryogenic stasis and improve Wasteland conditions with a robot army.
 * Secret Vault appeared in Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel, it was designed to protect high-members of Vault-Tec and used to research the latest technologies and the Forced Evolutionary Virus.
 * The other Vaults present in this article were mentioned in Chris Avellone's Fallout Bible or Penny Arcade's comic strips.

Behind the scenes
The vault experiment was an idea created by Tim Cain during the initial stages of Fallout 2 development.

The developers intended for the player to first encounter information about the Vault Experiment as they read the Vault 8 records in Fallout 2. They could discover a classified file (opened with a successful Science skill roll) explaining the purpose of Vault 8 was to be a "control Vault," designed to hold 1000 people and open at a designated time. This file was intended to foreshadow the discovery of the true and sinister purpose of the Vaults.

The player was also intended to apply his Science skill to the central computer in Vault 13 to obtain a history of Vault 13, the Overseer's involvement in the Vault Dweller's expulsion, and even worse, the true purposes of the Vaults. The Overseer was conscious of the true purpose of the Vaults as social experiments on a grand scale, and consequently drove out the Vault Dweller because of fear he would ruin the experiment... or uncover it.