Fallout 3 Ending - Your Choice

[Tahadar]

Mind if I try to recap things here?

 

Outcast Faction - grab any piece of tehnology in order to "preserve" (read "gain absolute monopol") it

 

Lyon Faction - aka BoS - grab any piece of tehnology in order to "defend people" (I failed to see ANY BoS patrol - quest related one are excluded). They fight muties for 20 yrs, they have all the data in the computers but they never been able to figure out where the muties come from. In 20 friggin yrs. That say a lot about their cognitive capacities and IQ.

 

Side note: if you are in perception range of Citadel guards and a mutt is attacking you out of their range, you wont get any help. If that happens at Fort Independence all 3 Outcasts there will help you (that ofc, after you bring 50 points of tech to Cassadin ). Same with the patrols in Wasteland. BoS is defending people? PLEASE.

 

Enclave Faction - they have their own tech, their own planes, their own army. They CAN hold key positions in Wasteland (main roads intersections). If you wonder why they look so weak, is because their gear is in very poor condition 10-15% at best. They send patrols, they basically need no external help, are self suficient.

 

Mutant Faction - no comment

Raider Faction - no comment

Slaver Faction - no comment

 

Yes, I've played F1 and F2, I hated Master and Enclave equally. Yeah, they are BAD there. There is no moral ambiguity, there are no grey choices in F1/F2. But Bethsoft made a game for adults not for kids. Yeah, is a shooter but at some points are choices. Even the impact is minimal for game world, those decisions are made for adult minds, not for kid minds. Kill Harold and respect his wish for rest or think at greater good and accelerate his growth? Help those poor 3 ghouls to live in TT and force 4 humans to die in Wasteland (at that moment you dont know Roy will kill all the residents)? Blow up Megaton and those weirdos from Church of Atom or let a potential town of ghouls to exist? Kill that green mutt in holding cell or free him?

 

 

Bottom line. Yes in game I entered myself (1-st time, that is) in that room and pushed buttons with my own hand. No I did not released the virus.

 

But IRL I would force Fawkes or Charon or the robot to do that for me, and also instruct them to relase the virus. Prolly the mutt or the ghoul would not do it, but the robot would have to obey my commands.

 

No, it never crossed my mind the ideea to push a woman into certain death for me. So Sarah would be safe no matter how annoying is ingame.

[babyeatingdingo]

i remembered how early on in the game, during that 1 quest for Moira where you research radiation sickness, she tells you that youve developed a "bit of a benign mutation" that makes your limbs regenerate when you are irradiated.

 

 

 

so based on that, i did not release the virus, because my LW was a mutant.

 

 

 

 

i made Lyons do it, but only because i thought maybe id get to continue playing afterwards, and it was poorly designed so there was no option other than me or her.

[TheWatchman]

Since I played F02, when Eden said it'll affect the super mutants I knew it had to affect FEV somehow, meaning it would kill everyone and everything in the wasteland because all living things have some strain FEV in them. Besides it's a VIRUS, even if it will only kill mutants at first, who's to say that it won't mutate and start killing everyone else? Like say AH1N1?

[Grumpfbork]

I did not realease the virus, since I had a hunch that this was something that would backfire at me. After all that time of being exposed to the FEV, even if only to small amounts, there is a good chance that almost everyone is contaminated. And I played Fallout 1/2 and could simply not trust the enclave.

 

I had not the slightest problem with sending Lyons into the irradiated chamber though. I mean, come on... those BoS guys are a pain in the neck. I felt exploited by them all the time. At first they treat you like they treat everyone who is not member of their oh so exclusive club. That is to say like garbage. They send you to pull the chestnuts out of the fire for them all the time and still they give you funny looks and stupid speeches. Just look at the scripe at the library. They are standing in the middle of a freaking library and are still not able to find any books. And when you are nice and bring them the books you found they pay you only to give you some idiotic "Do not spend the money on sweets and drugs" speech.

 

In addition to that I do not have the feeling that, in contrast to their "we are the saviours" attitude, they actually do much to protect the people in DC or in the wastelands. They only fight their private little war and give a crap about the wastelanders. So sending Lyons into the chamber was only to give her the chance to live up to the Brotherhoods hero attitude at least one single time.

[babyeatingdingo]

I did not realease the virus, since I had a hunch that this was something that would backfire at me. After all that time of being exposed to the FEV, even if only to small amounts, there is a good chance that almost everyone is contaminated. And I played Fallout 1/2 and could simply not trust the enclave.

 

I had not the slightest problem with sending Lyons into the irradiated chamber though. I mean, come on... those BoS guys are a pain in the neck. I felt exploited by them all the time. At first they treat you like they treat everyone who is not member of their oh so exclusive club. That is to say like garbage. They send you to pull the chestnuts out of the fire for them all the time and still they give you funny looks and stupid speeches. Just look at the scripe at the library. They are standing in the middle of a freaking library and are still not able to find any books. And when you are nice and bring them the books you found they pay you only to give you some idiotic "Do not spend the money on sweets and drugs" speech.

 

In addition to that I do not have the feeling that, in contrast to their "we are the saviours" attitude, they actually do much to protect the people in DC or in the wastelands. They only fight their private little war and give a crap about the wastelanders. So sending Lyons into the chamber was only to give her the chance to live up to the Brotherhoods hero attitude at least one single time.

 

 

too true. they dont save poo, they send YOU to do the saving.

 

 

 

the only person that they actually saved was maybe Three-Dog, and i killed him shortly thereafter because he was a stupid, self-important, irrelevant-ass douchebag with a silly hat.

 

 

 

SCREW YOU, THREE-DOG! you dont help poo! you stay in your studio 24/7, and you STILL do nothing but reruns, you SUCK! *hits the mangled corpse with a bat yet again*

[TheWatchman]

^Actually, it's more of Bethesda's fault Three Dog has a limited collection.

 

And Lyon's BoS isn't really that bad, the exploiting and elitist thing applies pretty much to every BoS from East Coast to Mid-West to Texas to West Coast. It's not really too surprising The DC BoS still has these habits even after 20 years. After old habits die hard. And personally, the Lost Hills BoS (The original BoS) are more obnoxious than these guys, though not even they weren't as bad as the Outcast BoS.

 

Also since super mutants a WAY more common in DC than around vault 87, they probably assumed they're coming from somewhere deep in the metros or something. Seriously, how often do meet Super mutants around the Vault 87? If I never been in Vault 87 for the GECK, I'd assume the source of the Super Mutants would be somewhere in DC as well. Also according to the storyline there aren't that many of them.

 

From what I tell you guys are all judging the factions because of script limitations. The Citadel guards, after checking with the GECK editor, are all assigned to defend themselves when a hostile faction is engaging THEM. They won't help you because nowhere in the whole game will your faction (playerfaction) is scripted to be considered friend. Even if you have Broken Steel and go there after the vanilla game's main quest.

And the reason why Outcast BoS help you because after you work for them, your faction considered friend. And let's face it they're only helping because you're been a nice little errand boy for them and you might bring them some new toys in the future.

 

It's not the Lyons BoS' fault they won't help you, it's what they're assigned to do by the Bethesda programmers.

 

And another thing, would you really want Lyons BoS patrols every time you meet them in DC? I personally think Bethesda choose not to putting DC BoS patrols because this game's already easy enough even at very hard difficulty for a good number of people without a squad of guys in PA armed laser weapons doing the killing for you.

[Grumpfbork]

Agreed, the behaviour of the NPCs has its origins in script limitations.

 

And yes, the game would be a lot easier sometimes with BoS patrols coming to your rescue everytime a shot is fired. The game is to easy anyway. I never play with companions for this reason.

 

But try to see it the other way. Playing Fallout 3 in my free time means relaxation to me (can I say is this way... my english... doh). I play Fallout for the same reasons I read books and watch movies. I want to forget the real world for some time by plunging into some fantasy world. The deeper the better. And yes, I think Bethesda did a great job with Fallout 3 in this regard - even if the game has its flaws.

 

And diving into the game requires, at least for me, not to think about the game mechanisms or scripting. I take what I find as a part of the game world. And while playing I usually will not think somethink like "Oh my... why is all this stored blood not completely rotten after all that time? Thats so unrealistic?" or "Oh my... Bethesda did a poor job when they scripted the behaviour of this BoS patrol!".

I usually just assume that the blood packs contain some kind of advanced artificial blood which will just not rot. And I take the behaviour of the NPCs not as the direct result of some script work, but just as the behaviour of the NPC.

And I have no problems with that - for me the BoS of Steel is a bunch of arrogant and selfish jerks anyway, so not helping you fits perfectly into this picture.

 

And when I plunge into the Fallout 3 world I usually start from this premise and base my own reactions on this. So for me Lyons is just a less jerky jerk amongst a bunch of giant jerks and deserves what she gets. :)

 

In addition to that I always thought that the taken-for-grantedness with which everyone expects you to walk laughing into your own terrible dead by radiation slighty irritating. And annoying of course. All that speeches about saving the world and self-sacrifice and now everyone just stares at you like "C´mon lousy coward - just walk into your death so that everyone else can go back home and have lunch! Can´t you see that I am starving?!" And even Fawkes gives you his idiotis "Your fate..." speech.

 

I COULD think Bethesda did a lousy job with this end. Or I could decide to believe that this is how this fantasy world works - and let my character draw his own conclusions from this. :)

[babyeatingdingo]

with mods, you can make it a little less ridiculous at least.

 

 

in my game for instance, weapons do realistic damage and Super Muants are considerably stronger, so BOS guys and mutants are pretty evenly matched, and mutants already usually outnumber them.

 

 

 

one thing i thought was stupid, was that one quest where you find Paladin Hoss and another BOS guy, and they want you to go into the office building to rescue their initiate. what??? you are professional soldiers with power armor, rocket launchers, and flamethrowers, and you want the EIGHTEEN YEAR OLD WITH A BAT to rescue your guy from Super Mutants???

 

 

 

but now replaying with mods, when i came to those guys, the generic BOS trooper already had his head blown off, and Hoss was hiding behind a coke machine with a pistol shooting at the Mutants. in that situation, it makes a little more since why he wouldnt just rush in there. plus, he got his head blown off too about 1 second after i stopped talking to him.

 

 

 

it makes it much better, now DC is *almost* as dangerous as the NPC's think it is.

[Grumpfbork]

Too true. I always felt that the behaviour of the BoS guys in battles is not very satisfying. And I guess this really IS something attributed to script limitations. (and some very poor decisions during the making of the quests) I would love tho see the BoS totally outnumbered by supermutants. They should keep them at bay with discipline, tactics and superior weaponry.

 

A BoS 4 man squad in battle with 10 or 15 supermutants, sprinting from cover to cover, barking commands, covering each other and totally bust muties ass would really be a heart warming sight. :)

[babyeatingdingo]

the game feels incomplete to me

 

 

 

 

but more than that, it seems shoddily made compared to earlier Bethesda games.