Fallout 4: How it should've been.

[RogueMatriarch]

Project Phoenix: Status Update

Significant changes

• Mod name has been changed from Project Resurgence to Project Phoenix. This change was made quite some time ago and most docs have been updated to reflect this but never got around to mentioning it before.
• Primary armor sets (Leather, Metal, Combat, Robot, and Marine) have had their weight and resistances adjusted.
• The Submachine Gun, 10mm Pistol, and Deliverer have had their stats and mods fully adjusted.
• The Submachine Gun has been renamed to the M1981A1 Thompson with the weight being 10.6 pounds now.
• The 10mm Pistol is now called the N99 10mm Pistol and deals 32 damage due to the actual strength of a 10mm round.
• A non-unique version of the Deliverer has been added, the Walther PPK. Both weapons are chambered for .32 ACP, with the Deliverer dealing 25 damage and the Walther PPK 18.

Features that are a WIP

 

• Ammo crafting
• Ammo subtypes
• Switchable ammo types

 

Planned changes

• On-the-fly modding: Add and/or remove scopes along with certain other mods such as suppressors without the use of a workbench.
• ​Dual-wielding: Certain one-handed weapons may be used in conjunctions with others, such a two shishababs, a combat knife and a 10mm Pistol, and so forth.
• Dual-wielding key: Activate dual-wielding with the touch of a key! If possible, the last combination will be remembered and brought out when pressed.
• Secondary weapon feature: Some weapons will have another of dealing damage, be it through the use of an underbarrel, an alternate attack mode, and so forth. With specific melee weapons, this could potentially allow you to throw them as well!
• Secondary weapon feature key: Using this key will trigger the secondary feature of a weapon, not much to it.
• Selective-fire: Certain firearms can alternate between firing single-shot, semi-automatic/burst-fire, and fully-automatic. This allows better control of recoil and ammo consumption, along with how fast your weapon will overheat with continuous fire.
• Select-fire key: Switch between firing modes on the fly without the fairly-ridiculous requirement of switching out receivers just to do so.
• High-tech helmet enhancements: Certain non-PA helmets can be equipped with night-vision, target-finding, air filters, and more! These mods will be rare and expensive but prove to be highly valuable once acquired.
• Helmet Enhancement hotkeys: Switch between Night-vision, Target-finding, Infrared, and other enhancements by using < to switch to the previous, > to the next one, and ? to turn them on/off.

[dainsgames]

 

You can, in fact, sneak in power armor. NO, REALLY. Clank clank clank clank clank past guards and turrets.

 

....may I suggest that "No sneaking in power armor" be taking up for consideration in this mod? Because it is officially totally ridiculous.

Yes, yes you may. Walking around in a giant mechanized suit would incredibly loud and draw attention attention wherever you go, making sneaking practically impossible. However, most people would know to stay away from Power Armor so that would act as a sort of counter-balance for the inability to sneak about in it. Unless they're being attacked/slaughtered, most factions will actively avoid confronting those in PA.

 

On the other side, however, some factions, such as the Rust Devils, BoS, and Super Mutants wouldn't be afraid of PA users and willing engage in combat.

 

Now see, that's an incredibly interesting perspective and would add a ton of flavor to the game. It's sort of like how TheTalkieToaster put a fear effect on PA so that enemies which couldn't fight it effectively would run away. (But unfortunately, a) you get PA right off, and b) the high-damage mods I had in combined with this effect and made EVERYONE run away. So that wasn't workable :\)

 

I would mention that there are ways to fight PA that don't involve direct confrontation, such as Molotov / grenade spam and attacking in conjunction with turrets.

 

I would also like to contribute a flavor-play change I did for consideration. The PA is just too stronk for a starting char. Nobody in their right mind would deny its value and not twist their game towards collecting fusion cores so they could stomp around in PA and blow stuff up. Playing a game you're guaranteed to win is way less interesting, at least to me, and that's what early-game PA does.

 

So when I got the first PA, I head-canoned that it was being airlifted back from control system repairs between the helmet and the frame. So the suit had no armor on it - it was just the helmet and frame. That gave it the ability to use the minigun, but added challenge (a lot, actually) to the Concord battle - you had the best weapon by far, but could still be shot up in combat and beat up by the Deathclaw. But more importantly, it meant that for early game, it wasn't really useful for combat, which gave you an additional early objective of getting the parts to make it useful.

 

I found that to be a very cool and interesting way to play the early game. My guy had to learn armor and weapon crafting because he couldn't just jump into the PA and trash the enemy. He also had to defeat raiders in PA to get parts to work his up to usable condition, which took quite a lot of doing sometimes. And of course, he could only gaze longingly at the sweet fully-functional PA he'd found in a convoy or base which was securely behind locks he had no chance of picking or hacking around.

 

So I wanted to throw that in as a possible option - to change the Concord PA to not have armor parts on it.

 

Thanks again for your dedication and care for this game! It's impressive to see :)

[JarinArenos]

 

 

So when I got the first PA, I head-canoned that it was being airlifted back from control system repairs between the helmet and the frame. So the suit had no armor on it - it was just the helmet and frame. That gave it the ability to use the minigun, but added challenge (a lot, actually) to the Concord battle - you had the best weapon by far, but could still be shot up in combat and beat up by the Deathclaw. But more importantly, it meant that for early game, it wasn't really useful for combat, which gave you an additional early objective of getting the parts to make it useful.

 

I found that to be a very cool and interesting way to play the early game. My guy had to learn armor and weapon crafting because he couldn't just jump into the PA and trash the enemy. He also had to defeat raiders in PA to get parts to work his up to usable condition, which took quite a lot of doing sometimes. And of course, he could only gaze longingly at the sweet fully-functional PA he'd found in a convoy or base which was securely behind locks he had no chance of picking or hacking around.

 

So I wanted to throw that in as a possible option - to change the Concord PA to not have armor parts on it.

 

That's actually a really great idea. It always frustrated me that raider PA was so useless since the game gives you better right at the start. I think I'm gonna play this way whether any mods do it or not.

 

Edit: Need to do something about the random frames you can easily reach at level 1, too. Alternately, kick T45 armor down to s#*&#33;-tier.

Edited June 21, 2016 by JarinArenos

[huntinggary]

I would like to see something changed at the start too, alternative beginning was mentioned early on, I thought it was weird that my single female lawyer (cue theme song) was able to just pick up these combat rifles and armors and just use them with no issues. I could see handguns, maybe a hunting shotgun or rifle, but T-45 armor and a minigun is just too much. Also, if PA training could be brought back, as a perk for joining BOS or finding a manual would be grea . The game says he was an occupation trooper in Canada, and they had to ship in PA units for riot control, then send them on to China or Anchorage. So he shouldn't know it either.

[huntinggary]

Also, assuming this is for PC, odds of coming to Xbox?

[thunderlord2200]

 

"Heavy Weapons actually do their name good, weighing well past 30+ pounds and typically requiring the use of Power Armor in order to use. "

 

Neat! I was hoping this could be done but hadn't remembered to put it in as a mod request. Nice one!

 

"Laser Weapons have no recoil. Why? Because light's mass is so minute that there's no plausible way for it to actually cause recoil."

 

I have a mod which removes recoil from lasers/Institute weapons because I agree with that concept, but I would like to share a lesson-learned from that. It makes automatic laser weapons very OP. As soon as you do the Arcjet facility, you can just put an automatic barrel on the weapon Danse gives you and you can toss all of your other medium-short range guns So it was apparent that change unbalanced the game considerably.

 

To compensate, I would suggest giving laser weapons a heightened rate of Cone of Fire bloom when you shoot quickly. I would attribute it to the turbulence of the air superheating and expanding as the weapon fires and then collapsing back into itself in between shots.

 

Good to see you are still working on this, and thank you again for all of your effort!

or it causes the weapon to over heat and could cause damage to you or worst case just brake and blow up casuing damage all around.. (lm thinking like the fusion core with the laser mini gun. (nver understood why you could never hook up any energy weapon tothe power in the power armor..

 

sry for not returning sooner. i dont know why but this site never lets me know when i been replied/ quoted.

 

thats very intersating (sp), thank you for letting me know. i new the part of pipe weapons that there more like a single use then reload since i did not think they could handler the rapid firing. but i still think the game sould of been more around them since 200 years with out being fixed or repare parts to fix modern. i would of thought that pipe weapons should of been used more or even musket style since it be hard to make the lead and shell for it when u have little resource..

 

its wrong to be Nerfed when no mater how you look at it if a pipe weapon fires a round (depending on the size. i never once thought pipe weapons could hand large cal. weapons. at most a 9m (i dono xD) i did thing they might be able to fire off a shot gun round a few times before the pipe explodes. but anyway should be able to kill someone if hit in the right area or make them bleed enough to die from it..

[thunderlord2200]

honestly DLC wise i wish we got more for what we paid for and its not crap. (i understand the only worthly dlc was far harber. but come on. most workshop dlcs had the items in game and dlc2 workshop had items from farm harber (from what i understand. i have yet played it)

 

i would of loved to seen massive improvements in DLCs vs the base game had no real quest. I dont count fetch quest or run and gun quest thats more or less the same a quest.) i mean like a quest say a settler gave you to find there daughter but i find something much more going on and all.... large real quest you know? but anyway i really wished i could of seen the Enclaves return in how u ether have to save them or distroy them again.. (i save them since thats the path i picked in F3 i made the water source pure. i wish for larger maps or increased in size of the map re already had. i dont out side the bounderys and found theirs so much more there. that they could of work on even bridges out there (had no mesh/ err collsion (u could walk threw it)

 

even for a small DLC i would of loved to have real options with power armor.. (if u seen or watched cross out and how u leartly can build ur car) i really wish we could really make or rebuild or own power armors or even just add stuff to it. (me i would have sculls on the shoulders death claw on the back with a knights blue cape.

 

or add a real Arma 3 style survival mode to the game. i wish this game felt like a wasteland survival not a run and gun sim..

 

(i say that mod because its one of the best that i have seen..)

best fallout was F2

 

(English is not something im best at sry. and its the only one i know.. =/ )

[RogueMatriarch]

 

 

You can, in fact, sneak in power armor. NO, REALLY. Clank clank clank clank clank past guards and turrets.

 

....may I suggest that "No sneaking in power armor" be taking up for consideration in this mod? Because it is officially totally ridiculous.

Yes, yes you may. Walking around in a giant mechanized suit would incredibly loud and draw attention attention wherever you go, making sneaking practically impossible. However, most people would know to stay away from Power Armor so that would act as a sort of counter-balance for the inability to sneak about in it. Unless they're being attacked/slaughtered, most factions will actively avoid confronting those in PA.

 

On the other side, however, some factions, such as the Rust Devils, BoS, and Super Mutants wouldn't be afraid of PA users and willing engage in combat.

 

Now see, that's an incredibly interesting perspective and would add a ton of flavor to the game. It's sort of like how TheTalkieToaster put a fear effect on PA so that enemies which couldn't fight it effectively would run away. (But unfortunately, a) you get PA right off, and b) the high-damage mods I had in combined with this effect and made EVERYONE run away. So that wasn't workable :\)

 

I would mention that there are ways to fight PA that don't involve direct confrontation, such as Molotov / grenade spam and attacking in conjunction with turrets.

 

I would also like to contribute a flavor-play change I did for consideration. The PA is just too stronk for a starting char. Nobody in their right mind would deny its value and not twist their game towards collecting fusion cores so they could stomp around in PA and blow stuff up. Playing a game you're guaranteed to win is way less interesting, at least to me, and that's what early-game PA does.

 

So when I got the first PA, I head-canoned that it was being airlifted back from control system repairs between the helmet and the frame. So the suit had no armor on it - it was just the helmet and frame. That gave it the ability to use the minigun, but added challenge (a lot, actually) to the Concord battle - you had the best weapon by far, but could still be shot up in combat and beat up by the Deathclaw. But more importantly, it meant that for early game, it wasn't really useful for combat, which gave you an additional early objective of getting the parts to make it useful.

 

I found that to be a very cool and interesting way to play the early game. My guy had to learn armor and weapon crafting because he couldn't just jump into the PA and trash the enemy. He also had to defeat raiders in PA to get parts to work his up to usable condition, which took quite a lot of doing sometimes. And of course, he could only gaze longingly at the sweet fully-functional PA he'd found in a convoy or base which was securely behind locks he had no chance of picking or hacking around.

 

So I wanted to throw that in as a possible option - to change the Concord PA to not have armor parts on it.

 

Thanks again for your dedication and care for this game! It's impressive to see :smile:

 

 

The fear-effect is definitely something I'll look into. NPCs that are ill-suited to fight against PA-equipped foes will either flee or retreat, potentially resorting to unconventional tactics in order to deal with them. Grenades, and molotovs, would be rather effective at dealing with Power Armor. With the overhaul it is getting, Molotovs could cause Power Armor to overheat while traditional explosives may cripple servos and whatnot; making it more difficult to use. Pulse Grenades and Mines, one of the most utterly-useless items in the game, are getting a major revamp and are going to become one of the most effective ways to deal with robots and mechanical hostiles including those in Power Armor. T-45 Power Armor replies on hydraulics for movement but more advanced suits, such as the T-51 and T-60, rely on other means that are more susceptible to pulse weaponry.

 

As for the Concord PA, I've got another solution for it. Branching off of your idea, where the PA was being airlifted back for repairs and the frame + helmet were the only operational pieces, it's completely possible that Sturges could have taken it upon himself to fortify the frame with whatever he can find in hopes of one day using it. He may have used the broken/damaged T-45 pieces as part of this makeshift plating, providing somewhat more defensive than pure makeshift plating could (this is also a planned feature for Power Armor- using existing pieces along with unconventional materials to create makeshift plating). It wouldn't be terrible effective, perhaps just a bit stronger than Makeshift Raider Power Armor, but just enough to turn the tide. As for dealing the Deathclaw, that may go quite a bit differently thanks to the changes being made to the Minigun. By default, it'll use either 5.56mm or 7.62mm rounds and fire at a much higher rate. In addition to that, it'll take somewhere between two to three times longer to overheat. This means you can deal a lot more damage but you'll have to watch your ammo count- if you're not careful, you may find yourself out of ammo before you take on the Deathclaw!

 

 

 

 

 

So when I got the first PA, I head-canoned that it was being airlifted back from control system repairs between the helmet and the frame. So the suit had no armor on it - it was just the helmet and frame. That gave it the ability to use the minigun, but added challenge (a lot, actually) to the Concord battle - you had the best weapon by far, but could still be shot up in combat and beat up by the Deathclaw. But more importantly, it meant that for early game, it wasn't really useful for combat, which gave you an additional early objective of getting the parts to make it useful.

 

I found that to be a very cool and interesting way to play the early game. My guy had to learn armor and weapon crafting because he couldn't just jump into the PA and trash the enemy. He also had to defeat raiders in PA to get parts to work his up to usable condition, which took quite a lot of doing sometimes. And of course, he could only gaze longingly at the sweet fully-functional PA he'd found in a convoy or base which was securely behind locks he had no chance of picking or hacking around.

 

So I wanted to throw that in as a possible option - to change the Concord PA to not have armor parts on it.

 

That's actually a really great idea. It always frustrated me that raider PA was so useless since the game gives you better right at the start. I think I'm gonna play this way whether any mods do it or not.

 

Edit: Need to do something about the random frames you can easily reach at level 1, too. Alternately, kick T45 armor down to s***-tier.

 

 

Raider PA, along with the new types of Makeshift Power Armor that are going to be introduced, are definitely going to get a major boost in usefulness thanks to their modularity. Manufactured PA, of each type and model, will only be able to accept certain modifications whereas Makeshift Power Armor can be heavily modded since there aren't any real restrictions as to what can be added/done.

 

As for the PA frames that you can find, those are also getting an overhaul. A vast majority will be T-45 models since they were being phased out in favor of T-51, going from the warfront to homefront in order to quell riots and disorderly conduct. T-51 will be much more rare, found in select locations such as military bases and perhaps outside of them. T-60, the pinnacle of pre-war Power Armor, will become the arguably-rarest of them all. Since they were never deployed outside the Massachusetts Commonwealth and only a small quantity was produced (honestly, vanilla FO4 makes it way too easy to get them), nearly every suit one could find has been taken by the Brotherhood of Steel and given to their highest-ranking members. X-01 Power Armor, better known as Advanced Power Armor Mark I, will only be found in Enclave locations and, yes, worn by said faction. I'll talk about them more at a later point.

 

 

I would like to see something changed at the start too, alternative beginning was mentioned early on, I thought it was weird that my single female lawyer (cue theme song) was able to just pick up these combat rifles and armors and just use them with no issues. I could see handguns, maybe a hunting shotgun or rifle, but T-45 armor and a minigun is just too much. Also, if PA training could be brought back, as a perk for joining BOS or finding a manual would be grea . The game says he was an occupation trooper in Canada, and they had to ship in PA units for riot control, then send them on to China or Anchorage. So he shouldn't know it either.

 

Alternate Start is something that's definitely going to be looked into as Fallout 4's beginning is rather limiting in terms of genuine roleplay and forces you to have a backstory you may not necessarily want. It is rather unimmersive when your character is supposedly a civilian with little-to-no firearm training yet you can wield anything as well as a trained soldier and hop in a suit of PA like you've been using one for years. As for the male Sole Survivor, it does seem rather unlikely that an occupation trooper would be taught how to operate Power Armor. Speaking of which, PA Training is something that will be brought back, with both of your suggestions ones that have already been thought of actually! Damaged manuals can be found in various military locations and can be pieced together to make full manuals, which you can then read in order to learn how to operate a specific model of Power Armor. Alternatively, you can get training from factions that use Power Armor such as the Atom Cats, Brotherhood of Steel, and, yes, even the Enclave should you manage to get into their good gracious.

 

 

Also, assuming this is for PC, odds of coming to Xbox?

 

If the mod doesn't exceed the size limit, I'd say it's pretty good. However, I don't know how well it would play due to the mod using additional keys.

 

 

 

 

"Heavy Weapons actually do their name good, weighing well past 30+ pounds and typically requiring the use of Power Armor in order to use. "

 

Neat! I was hoping this could be done but hadn't remembered to put it in as a mod request. Nice one!

 

"Laser Weapons have no recoil. Why? Because light's mass is so minute that there's no plausible way for it to actually cause recoil."

 

I have a mod which removes recoil from lasers/Institute weapons because I agree with that concept, but I would like to share a lesson-learned from that. It makes automatic laser weapons very OP. As soon as you do the Arcjet facility, you can just put an automatic barrel on the weapon Danse gives you and you can toss all of your other medium-short range guns So it was apparent that change unbalanced the game considerably.

 

To compensate, I would suggest giving laser weapons a heightened rate of Cone of Fire bloom when you shoot quickly. I would attribute it to the turbulence of the air superheating and expanding as the weapon fires and then collapsing back into itself in between shots.

 

Good to see you are still working on this, and thank you again for all of your effort!

or it causes the weapon to overheat and could cause damage to you or worst case just brake and blow up causing damage all around. (i'm thinking like the fusion core with the laser minigun. (never understood why you could never hook up any energy weapon to the power in the power armor..

 

sry for not returning sooner. i don't know why but this site never lets me know when i been replied/ quoted.

 

that's very interesting (sp), thank you for letting me know. i knew the part of pipe weapons that they're more like a single use then reload since i did not think they could handler the rapid firing. but i still think the game should've been more around them since 200 years without being fixed or repair parts to fix modern. i would have thought that pipe weapons should of been used more or even musket style since it be hard to make the lead and shell for it when u have little resource..

 

its wrong to be Nerfed when no mater how you look at it if a pipe weapon fires a round (depending on the size. i never once thought pipe weapons could hand large cal. weapons. at most a 9m (i dono xD) i did think they might be able to fire off a shot gun round a few times before the pipe explodes. but anyway should be able to kill someone if hit in the right area or make them bleed enough to die from it..

 

 

Manufactured firearms are relatively easy to keep in good, functional shape if you know how to properly strip and clean them. Granted, it wouldn't be common knowledge but with the prevalence of military locations, it wouldn't be too far-fetched for people to stumble across gun manuals and learn how to take care of their firearms. However, I won't disagree that there should have been more focus on Pipe Weapons seeing how they fit snugly in the Fallout universe. The Laser Musket is also really interesting but, like so many things in Fallout 4, it didn't reach its full potential.

 

Also, I see you're having trouble grasping the fact that bullets of the exact same caliber don't do the same amount of damage. Let me put it this way: If you took a V6 engine from one car and put it in an entirely different car, would you expect it to perform the same way? Logically, no. That's because the car is designed in a different way. Sure, both cars operate the same way but engine performance varies because the differences in designs. Same thing goes for firearms: Just because two different assault rifles use the same caliber doesn't mean they'll perform the same. This is why there's such a wide variety of guns to choose from: performance. If all guns using the same caliber performed the exact same, then we wouldn't have a need for different guns.

 

 

honestly DLC-wise i wish we got more for what we paid for and it's not crap. (i understand the only worthy dlc was far harbor. but come on. most workshop dlcs had the items in game and dlc2 workshop had items from farm harber (from what i understand. i have yet played it)

 

i would have loved to seen massive improvements in DLCs vs the base game had no real quest. I don't count fetch quest or run and gun quest that's more or less the same a quest.) i mean like a quest say a settler gave you to find their daughter but i find something much more going on and all.... large real quest you know? but anyway i really wished i could of seen the Enclaves return in how u either have to save them or destroy them again.. (i save them since that's the path i picked in F3 i made the water source pure. i wish for larger maps or increased in size of the map re already had. i dont outside the boundaries and found there's so much more there. that they could of work on even bridges out there (had no mesh/ err collision (You could walk through it)

 

even for a small DLC i would have loved to have real options with power armor.. (if u seen or watched cross out and how u can learn to build your car). I really wish we could really make or rebuild or own power armors or even just add stuff to it. (me i would have skulls on the shoulders deathclaw on the back with a knights blue cape.

 

or add a real Arma 3 style survival mode to the game. i wish this game felt like a wasteland survival not a run and gun sim..

 

(i say that mod because it's one of the best that i have seen..)

best fallout was F2

 

(English is not something i'm best at sry. and its the only one i know.. =/ )

 

I wholeheartedly agree here: the DLC for Fallout 4, aside Far Harbor, so far contains stuff that should have been in the game from the start- especially the Workshop and Automatron DLC.I can't say anything about Nuka World as it won't come out for a number of months but so far, pretty much all the DLCs could have easily been made vanilla content. If Bethesda waited another year or two to release Fallout 4, I would safely say we would have gotten a much better product.

 

Vanilla Fallout 4 did suffer from a lack of genuine quests. I feel that they relied too heavily on the randomized quest generation they originally used in Skyrim to create pointless filler quests. The main storyline is also rather lackluster due to the lack of genuine options in what your character says or does. It pandered to the wrong audience and as a result, felt completely unnecessary to many long-time fans of the series which includes myself. Aside from faction quests, I've yet to come across anything that genuinely captures my attention. The Enclave will be making a return, though how exactly is something that will be kept secret until further notice. However, you will be able to join/save the Enclave or damn them like other factions in Fallout 4 depending on how you progress with their questline.

 

Speaking of Power Armor, one of Project Phoenix's goals is to drastically expand upon it: From being able to mount weapons to increase mod slots and options, it's going to feel more like a vehicle than ever before. As for the skull-shoulders and such, that'll be something you can do by making Makeshift Power Armor pieces. Think Tribal PA from The Pitt combined with Raider PA and that's a rough idea of what to expect.

 

Survival mode is also going to get an overhaul as well, though what that entails exactly hasn't been determined quite yet. However, there will be an in-game adjustment option so you can toggle which features are active. Vanilla Survival mode is more of an annoyance than anything at the moment but should become more bearable once work on it starts.

Edited June 24, 2016 by Mavrickhunter2

[tartarsauce2]

hi, I've got an idea I keep kicking around and trying to use for myself, pipe revolvers/revolvers in general, make pipe weapons use .38's as an inferior but much cheaper variant of other guns (bolt-action, revolver)
and make all revolvers better in VATS than weapons of otherwise similar stats, while keeping that slow firing speed but reasonably high damage

lets you kind of play with revolvers as something different than sniper rifles or even shotguns while fulfilling the same firing speed while being techhnically inferior compared to either or for the respective strengths of stopping power and range, but also VATS for quick bursts of fire basically
which would enable the player to play a bit like a cowboy from the movies if they prefer (gunplay is for ambushing, VATS is for frontal confrontations)

Edited June 25, 2016 by tartarsauce2

[huntinggary]

I think a 'living commonwealth' style thing would be super neat to implement. Something kind of like the War of the Commonwealth mod, but with timed alternates to quest finishes. So if you don't go to the Concord Museum in, say a week, they're all killed by Raiders. Or not doing the mission where you kill Kellogg until forever, the Prydwen would still come in after a couple of months, and the BoS quests at the police station would time out, cause it was about getting them up there. Basically making it so that the world did its tjing regardless of your choices, and putting a squad in place of you for faction quests. So they'd still DO the quest (if possible), just without you.