*WHY* is Austin Engil so annoying?

[BlazeStryker]

Not too long ago I had to actually explain to someone just how bad the original version of Hole In The Wall was and why. It has since occurred to me that newer players simply may not realize how much of a pain Austin was and still is for some... and that it's not on purpose. So I thought I'd "De-Joffrey" the situation. I'll organize this using the topic tags.

 

Part 1: Game Engine

Yes, the game engine itself has a fair amount to do with the annoyance factor for Austin, a level so bad that the maker of the Homemade Vault81 Cure mod made a point of telling us it won't work on him. To start with, unless you have fixed the Child Resize issue when you first hit 81 he is frequently the size of a fully grown adult/teen which makes Dr. Penske's sorrow over such a young boy being gravely ill... weird. Then there's the Tour. If you take it, not only do you face the pacing hassle of keeping near an NPC but your Pip-Boy is inaccessible, among other problems having to do with...

 

Part 2: Quests

The above Tour is an annoying quest beyond the pacing hassle. The Pip-boy being inaccessible may actually be scripted instead of an engine bug so I'll mention it here as well, and it's a certainty that the inability to so much as talk to anyone else during the Tour is a poorly planned feature of the quest. (If you do, you promptly fail it). On top of that is the whole business of Hole In The Wall which was absolutely planned out to be a morality play to either stick you with 10% off the top of your HP permanently or cause the death of 81's little angel and earn the enmity of the entire Vault. (Originally, you, your companion, Dogmeat or even the damn Protectron getting bit resulted in YOU getting the Molerat disease. And Austin's last name translates to Angel.) Talk about an annoying quest!

 

Part 3: Teamwork Dissonance

This factor has shown up in a few things over the course of development for Fallout 4. Here the dissonance is minor, unlike the ArcJet Core assaulting synths lacking Synth Components unlike most every other Synth in the game, but it adds to the hassle about Austin. Simply put, if you ask him why Austin would care about your being an outsider, he outright said he's never met one before. The fourth person he introduces in the Tour is Horation the Hairstylist, an immigrant to Vault 81 from Quincy! (I actually don't count Dr. Forsythe's research on genetic variance as being off-tone as his interest in your genetic sample is based in vanilla on your being pre-War. You and anyone else that had come out of 111 would stand as the point from which 81's residents and the populace of the Commonwealth would have diverged.) As a result, the dialogue scripting makes it look like Austin lied to your face.

 

Part 4: Vault 81

The unmodded structure of the Vault itself makes for a jarring experience, being too empty and devoid of features for that many people for 210+ years. That and there are just too many seats in the Schoolroom for a Vault that was operating under population control. That feeling of things not making sense often ends up folded onto poor Austin.

 

Part 5: Conclusion

There are many factors (listed above) that add up to a level of loathing for Austin not unlike Joffrey "Baratheon" before he truly revealed his cringy psychosis. I'm just as annoyed as you guys... but none of it is purposeful. Just saying.

[aurreth]

Originally there were plans to have 81 play a bigger part, but all that got cut. The Overseer conversations end abruptly because they were supposed to lead to more quests/storyline. The Delucas are only triggerable under a specific set of circumstances and by following conversations that don't fit with you being the "good guy". Looks like they cut out the middle part of that one, since the transition from start to finish to recruit Tina is jarring and illogical.

 

There is a fast travel point north (I think) of the vault entrance that takes you directly to the vault atrium, bypassing the gear door room and elevator. It's hidden and disabled, and there is nothing in the game that makes it useable. Basically you were supposed to be able to travel in and out of the vault easily without multiple load screens. There's no solid reason for that unless you were supposed to visit multiple times.

 

Everything hints that 81 was supposed to be a central hub, but all of that got dropped or cut.

 

As for Austin, well, most of the children you meet in Fallout games are annoying. It's like it's a tradition at this point. But pretty much all of Fallout 4 is about being forced to care about children without giving you an actual reason to. You have to save your son, Austin, synth Sean, fridge kid... with the only motivation being apparently "think of the children".

[HeyYou]

The kids in Skyrim were a bunch of little brats. (so far as I know, the first beth game that actually included children. there weren't any in morrowind, or oblivion. I think Ma'iq the Liar even comments on that. :) ) The 'orphans' added by Hearthfires were better.... In Fallout, there just aren't that many kids... I don't see any with the gunners, nor do I see any with raiders. Settlers that come to your beacon are universally adults. (unless you have a mod that changes that....) I think the only time I have seen 'child settlers', were when they already lived at the settlement......

 

Beth doesn't do well with children. :)

[Moksha8088]

I think the best kids in Skyrim are Olette from Interesting NPCs and Jesse from Outlaws and Revolutionaries mods. They at least have a backstory and dialogue. Olette has probably the most heart wrenching scene of the entire game. Jesse has multiple quests.