Tim Cain discussed the backstory in great detail and shared interesting information that may pique the interest of franchise fans.

In another video in his long-running series about the earliest games in the series, Cain finally answered one of the big questions about how it all began. It’s the story of the original Fallout (not Fallout 2) that the design team believed to be true, though nothing in the game directly referenced it. According to Cain, these were ideas that the narrative and environmental design supported but were never directly mentioned in the game.

The nuclear war was started by China. However, there was a good reason for it—as good as any reason can be for starting a global nuclear war. Cain also discussed the Vault suits, particularly the concept that they were not made of fabric but were extruded by machines inside the Vault. He concluded the video with a discussion about super bombs. Although they first appeared in Fallout 3, they were originally conceived during the design phase of the first game.

“No one should be walking around the Wasteland saying, ‘Did you know they dropped nukes eighty years ago?’ Yes! Everyone knows that! This was also true in the first game, but there’s no design document for it. Bethesda is canon. You don’t have to like it, but water is wet. China dropped the first nuke. That’s pretty obvious from the game, isn’t it? It’s not canon, but let me explain what we mean and why we thought that.”

“In the original game, we established that the United States was conducting biological weapons research. We weren’t supposed to—we’d signed a UN treaty promising not to—and I think you can find that in the game. China found out we were doing it. How? Espionage. We said, ‘Okay, sorry, we’ll stop,’ but we didn’t stop. We just moved the research to another base. That’s the secret base where you find the ZAX supercomputer.”

Cain explained that China learned about this activity and tried diplomacy and espionage, but when neither worked, it resorted to launching nuclear weapons. The U.S. retaliated, other nations followed, and soon the world was engulfed in nuclear fire. *“Technically, the Chinese started it by launching the first nuke,”* Cain said, *“but you could argue that the U.S. started it by breaking treaties, conducting illegal bioweapons research, and lying about it multiple times.”*

According to Cain, Russia had dissolved into a number of small, quarrelling states, while Europe had unified. *“Natalya is the granddaughter of a Russian diplomat. We were on good enough terms with the Russian embassy that a few diplomats made it into the same Vault you’re in,”* he explained. *“So that wasn’t a country we were in conflict with. China dropped the first bomb. It’s not canonical, but that’s the assumption we all started with.”*

Cain also elaborated on the Vault’s pre-made characters and their background. *“If you look at the three pre-made characters, you might think, ‘Is that really the best the Vault had to offer?’ No! The Vault held a lottery. They basically drew straws to decide who had to go outside. Whoever drew the short straw had to walk into the presumably radioactive wasteland to find a replacement water chip.”*

“No one chose that character to go. They weren’t the first choice, or even close. One thing we joked about was that the whole lottery might’ve been rigged. That would explain those three characters. There’s this guy who’s an idiot—why send him out? Well, that gets him out of the gene pool. Then there’s Natalya, who steals everything and probably pissed people off—she’s gone. Albert always tried to manipulate everyone with his smooth talking—he’s gone too. So maybe someone wanted to get rid of them.”

Cain pointed out clues in the game that supported this theory, including one powerful detail: when the player exits the Vault and looks down, there’s already a dead body wearing a Vault suit lying there. *“They’d already sent someone out! That explains why you’re given so little. They probably had exploration supplies—radiation suits, better weapons, whatever—but you’re not the first to leave. You learn that right away when you step outside. Whoever that guy was—I think his name was Ed—you knew him or at least knew of him. Ed went out, got hit by radiation, and died. All that’s left are his bones and a tattered Vault suit.”*

Cain went on to describe another behind-the-scenes concept: *“We had this idea that the Vault suit extruder broke down, so everyone in the Vault was naked. We wanted to have an extruder because the suit is skin-tight and perfectly fitted. But if the Vault was meant to stay sealed for centuries, there couldn’t possibly be enough suits for everyone. There would’ve been generations of people; suits would wear out; people come in all shapes and sizes, especially with kids involved.”*

“So it was impossible for there to be enough stored suits. That’s why we said, ‘Okay, there’s an extruding machine.’ You’d enter your measurements or stand in front of a scanner, and a freshly made Vault suit would be extruded just for you. That’s why they’re skin-tight. That’s why the numbers are on the back, so they didn’t have to manufacture a separate batch for every Vault. When the suit was made, it automatically added the Vault number. We always assumed that, but it was never mentioned again.”

Cain also explained the creative details behind smaller world-building elements: *“If you look inside Vaults, you never find boxes full of Vault suits—at least not in the base game. We designed the Sugar Bombs. I was a huge Calvin and Hobbes fan. I had the full set. We designed them, discussed them, but never added them. Just because I loved that comic.”*

Cain has been releasing YouTube videos for years, continuously sharing fascinating insights about the foundation of one of gaming’s most iconic franchises. He has talked about what the Vaults were really designed for and why the first game takes place in the year 2161.

Source: PCGamer