Tranquility Lane

 is a Fallout 3 quest, an Xbox 360/PC achievement and a PlayStation 3 Trophy. The quest begins immediately after the completion of Scientific Pursuits, which ends when the player sits in a Tranquility Lounger in Vault 112 and begins the simulation that comprises Tranquility Lane.

Tranquility Lane is a virtual reality simulation housed in Vault 112. The player is tasked by one of the residents, Betty, with an ever-escalating series of violent jobs in order to free their father James from the simulation. As an alternative to completing the violent tasks, the player may free their father by activating the "Fail Safe" solution, which gives good karma instead of bad.

Betty's Tasks Solution
Betty will ask you to do the following things for her entertainment:


 * 1) Make Timmy Cry:
 * 2) Timmy can be quite easily made to cry by punching him or hitting him with the Rolling Pin.
 * 3) For a more creative solution, you can convince him that his parents are divorcing each other because of him, or you can give him the Military School Pamphlet to fool him into believing his parents are sending him away.
 * 4) To really impress Betty, kill both of Timmy's parents [Or one], and Timmy will run over to their bodies and begin to cry (You can also tell him before he has a chance to see it).
 * 5) Break Up The Rockwells' Marriage:
 * 6) The easiest method is to simply tell Mrs. Rockwell that her husband is cheating on her, which she will readily believe.
 * 7) You can also place the Lacy Underwear from the Simpson household on the desk in the basement, then tell Mrs. Rockwell that her husband is either cheating or he is a cross-dresser.
 * 8) Finally, one can read Mrs. Rockwell's diary upstairs, which will indicate that she'd like to kill Mrs. Simpson.  Take the Rolling Pin from kitchen in the Rockwell house and beat Mrs. Simpson to death with it, then tell Mr. Rockwell about it.
 * 9) Kill Mrs. Henderson: Note that Betty is adamant that you cannot simply beat Mrs. Henderson to death, as that's boring; you must be creative about it.
 * 10) *The Henderson household has at least 4 simple ways to end her life:
 * 11) The chandelier above the hallway to the kitchen can be rigged to drop when someone walks under it.
 * 12) A roller skate can be moved to the stairs, resulting in Mrs. Henderson falling to her death when she tries to go upstairs.
 * 13) Her oven can be sabotaged to leak natural gas. Ask her to make you a pie; when she lights the stove the explosion will kill her instantly.
 * 14) Most elaborately, the security console in the kitchen can be accessed, allowing one to enable Security Lockdown, locking Mrs. Henderson in the house. Set robot to "Begin Security Program" Mode, and as it wanders around disable the "security parameters" data, rendering it unable to determine friend from foe.  This requires that you make sure the robot does not see you or it will attack and can quickly kill you as well. If you do manage to destroy the robot after it kills Mabel but before deactivating its security mode, you will be locked in the house, as the front (and only) door requires an unattainable house key - this glitch is potentially game-breaking if you do not have a save-point to revert to far enough prior to these events.
 * 15) *Note: If Mrs. Henderson is not in her house, she might be in the Simpson house.
 * 16) Kill Everyone: This is exceedingly simple: as Betty says, you'll find the Pint-Sized Slasher Gear in the doghouse to the right of the Abandoned House, which will automatically be equipped and cannot be removed. At this point, everyone will become hostile and attempt to flee from you (with the exceptions of Betty and Doc [The dog]); it can take some time to locate all the residents, as they'll often move from house to house to escape you. The pointers on your compass can help you find them.

After everyone is murdered, Braun thanks you for the entertainment and tells you what you wanted to know most: Doc is actually your father, and has been watching you in horror the entire time. He then opens the Exit Door, allowing you to leave the simulation.

Alternative "Fail Safe" Solution


The player can, in fact, skip all of Betty's negative karma inducing tasks by simply finding the abandoned house at the beginning of the simulation. Just go around in the row of houses until you see one titled "Abandoned House". Step inside and activate the fail safe using the tones. You can also look at all the other notes written by Braun in here. After activating the fail safe, all the residents will be killed for good. You will receive positive karma, though, because you freed them from their otherwise eternal suffering at Braun's hands. Braun, as Betty, will be kept alive and forced to reside alone, forever.
 * NOTE: a possible bug may have you do 3 of the games asked by the girl!

Flow

 * 1) If the player speaks to Old Lady Dithers, she will tell the player that she knows that Tranquility Lane is a simulation, that Betty is really "Braun", and that he uses a "Fail Safe Terminal".  She mentions that the player should go to the Abandoned House, but is quite obviously insane and mostly babbles.
 * 2) Within the abandoned house, the player will find a set of unusual objects which make unusual noises when activated. If the player enters the proper sequence, the Fail-Safe Terminal will reveal itself.  In the terminal, selecting "Chinese Invasion" will summon a number of Chinese soldiers who proceed to murder the residents of Tranquility Lane, with the exception of James the dog, Betty, and the player.  According to the notes on the Invasion program, this program disables the fail-safes on most of the pods, meaning that dying in the simulation will kill the real-world person as well.
 * 3) *If you can't remember the sequence to activate the terminal, note that each object has a specific tone, and Betty whistles the correct tonal sequence while playing in the center of the lane. Radio, Pitcher, Gnome, Pitcher, Cinder Block, Gnome, Bottle.
 * 4) **A helpful mnemonic for remembering this might be "Rads Please Ghouls, Players Can Glow Badly".
 * 5) *The background music for Tranquility Lane also incorporates the melody.
 * 6) *Another solution is to listen to the error sound that plays if an incorrect (out of sequence) note is played. It takes 5 tries to find the first tone, 5 for the second, 5 for the third and so on, so in a maximum of 35 attempts the puzzle is solved.
 * 7) *Players can also Quick Save between every correct tone to make things much easier.
 * 8) Speaking to Braun, he will lament that he is now alone and trapped forever within the simulation, something confirmed by his own notes on the Chinese Invasion Plan on the Fail-Safe Terminal: the systems in place for his own safety will not allow him to be killed, even if the Invasion program is launched. He will further point out that Doc the dog is actually James, and he will be waiting for you once you leave the simulation.
 * 9) Using the Exit Door on the playground will end the simulation.

Outside Tranquility Lane
As soon as the Tranquility Lounger pod opens, James will run up to the player and begin a conversation. He had intended to find some holodisks, memos, or even experiments from Braun related to G.E.C.K, but what he finds is a perfectly alive and insane Braun and got himself duped into Tranquility Lane as a dog. After some dialogue, he says he'll be returning to Rivet City to meet with Dr. Li and resume the project; the player can either immediately go with him or indicate that they've other tasks to attend to. This has no real influence on the plot, and James will leave for Rivet City regardless.

Important: Any companions who were with you (potentially Clover, Charon, or Jericho) will have been set to "wait here" mode, and must be told to follow or they'll remain in Vault 112 indefinitely. Dogmeat may be sent back to Vault 101. Certain NPC Follower characters may also have returned to their place of initial recruitment (such as Sergeant RL-3 who can be found waiting outside of the RobCo facility upon completion of this Quest).

This immediately concludes Tranquility Lane and begins The Waters of Life.

Karma
Depending on your character, you may not want karma to have an undesired effect on your game. Here is how to resolve Tranquility Lane based on your desired Karma:


 * For positive Karma: Do not play any of Betty's games; instead activate the fail-safe. This will grant you a positive Karma bonus and allow you to exit.
 * For negative Karma: Complete all of Betty's tasks and finish by killing everyone as the Pint-Sized Slasher. Exit when Betty reveals the door.
 * For neutral Karma: Play all of Betty's games except for the last "Kill Everyone" task. After killing Mrs. Henderson and before asked to become the Pint-Sized Slasher, go into the Abandoned House, activate the fail-safe, and exit. This will balance both negative and positive karma effects from this quest.

Following James (Dad) After Saving Him From Tranquility Lane
You have the option to follow your father all the way to Rivet City after saving him. If you choose to follow him, consider the following notes:


 * If you leave Vault 112 with James, he will start running to Rivet City on foot and is aware of your presence. He will wait for you if you choose to travel with him. He makes a great companion in the Wastes as he is armed with a laser rifle or a .32 pistol, is invincible (but not invulnerable and can be hurt to the point of unconsciousness while fighting strong enemies, so take this into account if you're thinking about letting Dad kill a Yao Guai or Deathclaw by himself), and makes sure all wildlife attacks himself rather than you.  Another added bonus is that he doesn't get hostile--besides verbally scolding you--if you accidentally (or even purposefully) shoot him, but you can damage him and eventually knock him unconscious. If you still need to explore the Wastes, and have not maxed your levels yet, it is a fun way of doing it. While on foot, "Dad" will even patiently wait in the middle of nowhere for you if you take a side-trip to explore, and he appears on your Pip-Boy as a quest destination arrow so he will never be lost to you.  As soon as you approach him again, he will begin running, allowing you to travel at your own pace.  If you talk with him while exploring, be sure to end the conversation with "I have to go, Dad" rather than "I changed my mind. I'm not going to go with you right now".  The latter response will cause "Dad" to start running non-stop and he will not wait for you or protect you.

Important: Fast travel will force him back to Rivet City quickly, so there is no need to worry about him getting stuck in the wastes.

Bugs

 * For some reason Mrs. Rockwell can skip the argument with her husband if you decide to use the sexy sleepwear. She will just run away when she's within speaking distance of her former husband. One way to avoid this is to exit the basement before she does and make sure Mr. Rockwell is not too close to the basement door.


 * When leaving the simulation you may lose your hotkey bindings, forcing you to reset them. On the Xbox 360, you will lose the hotkey bindings.


 * On the Xbox 360 version, it is possible to cause the game to hang by pressing B after either finding the rolling pin or being killed by Betty/Braun.
 * On a rare occasion, you may have to do 3 games for the girl before you can get to the failsafe.Possibly because she has to finish the song before you can go forward.
 * Rare- sometimes when the player hits Betty, the character freezes as if in speech, but is able to move the camera; Betty runs off like normal children and the player must reload the game. (found this when an attack aimed at Martha Simpson hit Betty instead)
 * If you killed Mrs. Henderson in game 3 of Betty, Mabel Henderson will nevertheless appear again alive while doing game 4 for Betty if you decide to massacre all and chase down everyone of Tranquility Lane - this has no special influence to the game, just a logical flaw (note from reader: This is not a logical flaw. Logic does not exist in a virtual reality. She reappeared because Braun made it so that, while the Fail Safe is still active on their pods, no one will actually die in real life.)

Trivia

 * This quest refers to the post-apocalyptic short-story I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream where a rogue supercomputer tortures the last remnant of humanity for its own satisfaction.
 * The Thaw, an episode of Star Trek: Voyager, has a similar premise involving an alien artificial intelligence.
 * Game Informer rated Tranquility Lane as being among the ten most memorable moments in 2008 games.
 * Attacking Braun (as Betty) in the simulation will cause him to use his god-like powers to kill you, similar to what happens in the Shivering Isles expansion pack to The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (another Bethesda Softworks game) if you attack Sheogorath, the "god" of the Shivering Isles realm
 * The musical theme of the level can be heard beforehand in a bit of foreshadowing as the lullaby musical player during the 1-Year-Old sequence during character generation.

Videos
Tranquility Lane Activate Chinese Invasion SimulationVideo:Tranquility Lane

Four part video of this quest: