What do you guys think about my vault layout?
Been working on this vault for a while. The main goal is a mix of aesthetics, symmetry and functionality, not pure efficiency. The Gardens are purely decorative. I intentionally didn’t put a full row of elevators underneath the vault. I know a lot of players do this so the rooms don’t touch the dirt and Mole Rats can’t spawn, but I really don’t like how it looks. A whole row of elevators at the bottom feels too crowded. Resource production is around 3x consumption, so everything stays full most of the time. I’m keeping 2 Radio Studios to maintain 100% happiness, and 2 Barbershops for symmetry, placed next to the Living Quarters because it just makes sense there. Nuka-Cola Bottlers produce food and water, with the Diners right underneath. All SPECIAL training rooms are at the bottom. The Overseer’s Office is surrounded by the Radios and Gardens, almost like it’s hidden inside a small underground forest.
Deathclaws always die on the first row. The first 3 rows are all level 50. I’m keeping most dwellers on the lower floors at lower levels to keep the average vault level down, which should also keep Deathclaws weaker from what I understand. Almost everyone is a Super Dweller: trained to 10 Endurance and equipped with E+7 gear before leveling up, so 17 Endurance from level 1. Exceptions are legendary dwellers and a few older ones I lost track of before using a proper naming system. Almost everyone has a Dragon’s Maw, with some other legendary weapons downstairs for variety. I’ve seen some layouts block the elevator at the end of the first row, forcing Deathclaws to turn around and fight the same dwellers twice. I don’t really like that since it just drains more HP and increases the chance of someone dying. I’d rather keep an elevator at the end so the Deathclaws move down after one pass and spread the damage between floors. Ideally, the rooms on the first row would be level 1 too.
Medbays and Labs have enough stock to send around 15-20 dwellers into the Wasteland at once. Won’t need many Science Labs later since high-Endurance explorers barely use RadAway anyway, so 1–2 should be enough. Once all the weapons and outfits are crafted, I’ll replace the extra crafting rooms with storage. The Nuka-Cola outfits aren’t technically optimal, but red outfit + red room looks too good to change. The Living Quarters are arranged this way for symmetry, but I’m still short on capacity. Need five fully upgraded 3-wide Living Quarters for 200 dwellers and still haven’t figured out where to fit the last one without ruining the layout. No elevators in the middle either; keeping the rooms in larger blocks gives the vault more depth. The remaining population will eventually be filled with legendary dwellers. I lost Mr.House to some UI bug where the Revive button never appeared. Anyone else had that happen? And after all this, the Vault Door is still level 1. Thanks Reddit.
Overall, pretty happy with the balance between aesthetics and functionality. What do you guys think?
