Vault Tec experiment ideas

[The Hanged Man]

Hmmm, here's a fun one.
Has anyone ever had an idea for a Vault experiment?

I always wanted a Vault that had a lot of robots that were designed to be as rude and unhelpful as possible.

[Thanatos]

I'd honestly never thought about that before!

I like the rude robots idea, but you gotta flesh it out more!  Can the people get what they need by sucking up to the computers?  Can they get what they need by standing up to the computers?  Inquiring minds want to know!

Okay, I have one, but I don't think vault-tec has the technology.  The vault is equipped with a supercomputer that constantly analyzes people's blood pressure, facial micro-expressions, etc, and immediately buts in and tells the truth any time anyone lies, down to the children.  Not just bad lies; ANY lies.

"What did you think of my dinner?"
"I thought it was great, honey!"
"ALGORITHMS INDICATE THAT SUBJECT ACTUALLY FOUND IT DISGUSTING"

"I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna go for the position of Overseer's Assistant!"
"You're gonna do great, babe, you deserve it!"
"ALGORITHMS INDICATE YOUR PARTNER ACTUALLY DOES NOT BELIEVE YOU DESERVE IT AND YOU WILL NOT DO GREAT"

Man, could people even have relationships if they couldn't tell each other white lies?  Or would we just be animals?

[KMD]

I remember the Vault Tech Workshop Add-on for FO4 let you do something similar to this. Did anyone mess around with that?

Well my idea for a vault would be one where little things would change each day ie: Furniture would be moved, doors would stop opening, signs would change what they said, clocks and calendars would change, maybe even the dwellers stuff would be moved while they were sleeping. The goal being to drive them to madness, unsure of what is reality or not.

[The Hanged Man]

I'd honestly never thought about that before!

I like the rude robots idea, but you gotta flesh it out more!  Can the people get what they need by sucking up to the computers?  Can they get what they need by standing up to the computers?  Inquiring minds want to know!

The robots were just assholes, some less so than others. The robots didn't exactly run the place, they were meant to assist, like any robot but be unhelpful and surly. Some of the robots with big egos could possibly be sucked up to or some respected those with backbones but most of them just had pathological demand avoidance.

I remember the Vault Tech Workshop Add-on for FO4 let you do something similar to this. Did anyone mess around with that?

This wasn't exactly the case, they gave you some equipment, like exercise machines and you could alter with the settings to more or less make the Dwellers lives miserable.

Whatever you did though, had no real impact on the game.

I mean, the base experiment in itself at this point.

I love these so far!

I also thought that it would be cool to have one where the Vault part was a monitoring station and the rest of the Vault was a recreated old world town (kind of like the VR experiment in Vault 112). It would be a mix of the Prisoner and Pleasantville, where the residents had to live in a 50s-esque town for all eternity and any form of cultural progression would be stamped out immediately. The experiment would monitor the long term effects of sever cultural stagnation.

[Hoopy Frood]

Something along the lines of the original inhabitants of Earth as detailed in Douglas Adams's The Restaurant at the End of the Universe. (I.e. Ark B of the Golgafrinchans) A vault full of hairdressers and telephone sanitation engineers and other such occupations.

[TK]

A vault with novelty board games that look really interesting but really really aren't and millions of mislabelled VHS tapes, all mislabelled and mostly early 80's Russian cooking shows. The interesting ones all lose sound and or tracking at vital plot points.  There's a Betamax labeled "GECK location and instructions" but no Betamax player, so starts a quest for a video repair shop.

[The Hanged Man]

The Vault houses a large, underground dome. In it is a perfect model 50s village, where the residents live. They've received a number of memory altering drugs to make them forget their past lives and live in a never changing, cultural wasteland.

The experiment determines what effects cultural stagnation has on a populace of any size as well as isolation in a more realistic environment. Any attempt at escape would result in all residents being apprehended and rendered unconscious, prompting them to awake, the next day in their beds.

It would be like the perfect combination of The Prisoner and Pleasantville.

[KMD]

A vault with novelty board games that look really interesting but really really aren't

heh that reminds me, I was surprised to see this today at a game store. good opportunity to share.

perhaps they could have this in the vault, and every mistake would fatally activate an implant on some random vault dweller.

[Dessert Ranger]

Vault Idea 1: What if we have a vault that is divided by two equal communities by some locked doors that would unlock at an arbitrary time (Maybe like 50 or 100 years after the Vault doors close)

Each vault has the normal jobs (Overseer, Security Chief, Doctors, Engineers etc.) But each section was controlled by a shadow council that would realistically make all the decisions for the vault. Each side would have one and may spread a fear of what's behind the locked doors. Maybe there is an endless supply of food, maybe evil individuals. Once the doors open then who knows what would happen. Would the shadow councils fight against the other shadow council? Who knows.

Vault Idea 2: You could also have a hereditary version of the Stanford Prison Experiment with the "Warden" being a computer program Magic Eight Ball that gives random advice or orders. It may eventually become worshiped as a god by the inhabitants. Anyway, upon entry to the vault, there is a random picking of who would be Guard and Prisoners. Vault 14? (Since the RL Experiment was supposed to last 14 days) The Guards and Prisoners would have children and their roles would pass down from the parents. I guess if the parents are a Prisoner and a Guard, then they ask the 8 ball. Changing of the roles may also probably occur depending on the will of the Guards since they are pretty much in control.