Who to gank: Brotherhood or Institute?

[TheOriginalEvilD]

Well if we speak within the confines of what HAS happened in the games, then yeah they seem pretty limited. But, you have to make some very safe assumptions to see where the potential is. They have manufacturing ability, on a very large scale, and at a very very high level of technology. A synth is an incredible machine, and in and of itself IS a weapon. The fact that their guns are weaker than what's already out there I think is a giant oversight on Beth's part, and probably only so that you don't get your ass handed to you early on in the game the first time you encounter a synth. The BOS are out there scavenging what the Institute could easily just replicate at the very least, let alone improve upon. It's a simple matter of shifting their direction from synth production to weapons production, or even both at the same time. Logically, if they can make a synth, then they can easily correct the power difference in their energy weapons.

 

I think the rest is just typical video game oversights, like the RobCo OS thing...that's just one less thing to worry about programming into the game and few people will notice such a small thing right? As far as that goes, they either have a far more advanced OS somewhere that we never see, or the RobCo OS is far more advanced than we ever see, because one or the other made them capable of creating AI so advanced that it can function as a human and doesn't know it's a robot. I don't think that's possible on the simple DOS-like OS that we see on terminals.

 

 

At any rate, Beth accomplished something with all this....this debate we're having says a lot about how well they created a dilemma for the player to deal with. For all the plot holes and lack of writing this game has, this part sure is good. I'm hoping they extend on it more in DLC's, and I really wanna see more Zeta DLC. I've been thinking about doing another New Vegas play through just so I can play Zeta again.

[Moraelin]

Well, I assume it might actually be intentional. If the Institute were super-advanced, super-friendly and super-equipped to fix all ills, well, then it would be a no-brainer to join your son, no matter what the others have to offer. I'm taking a guess that it was intentional that you also have enough reasons to not join them.

[Raycheetah]

Meanwhile, one reason the Minutemen may be better than some folks (myself, included) realize:

 

 

Holy carp! =@[.]@=

[Moraelin]

It gets even better if you can spare the materials to build artillery coverage all over the map. Chuck one of those smoke grenades in a house full of mutants, and let some righteous fire pour down from the sky on top of them.

[WTFAreAllNamesTaken]

If the RR had done something novel, like wipe the synths and make them peace keepers. They would have been a power for good. As it is, they are a danger. That would have been a great twist, the RR helping the MM by creating synth MM to help the every day people of the commonwealth. Alas, they are just in it for the synths being "Free". but they wipe their memories? So a synth is no long who/what they were, they are what ever they have been reprogrammed as! Trade one form of slavery for another.

 

At no time do you find any evidence that the institute has kidnapped anyone other then your son. (Going back to the Biolab/FEV, I did find tests that suggested they had used the FEV on subjects. Nothing on where the subjects came from, but I guess we are to assume they were kidnapped) For a long time they have not needed DNA for their programs so why the idea of a kidnapping? The Institute did not create FEV, but one of them worked/is working to create a cure. Yes, you were attacked by synths, BEFORE you dealt with Kellogg and found the institute. After that I did not run into any synths topside. Well, other then the ones I was expecting to see.

 

So of the two groups, RR or Institute, either one could have kidnapped someone, used a chair to create a mental matrix/brain pattern, what ever and surgically altered a synth to replace a human.

 

The BoS are a tyrannical organization in the making. As others have said, they were weak, could not pull it off without your help in the past.

At no time have I seen any shred of concern for the everyday Joe. Sure, they attack mutants, ghouls & raiders, but is that to help or just get them out of the way so they can operate freely?

The Idea that their quartermaster wants you to go "acquire food from settlements", "If they are not for us, they are against us." Tells me they don't care about the settlers one bit.

 

Of all 4 factions, the MM are the people's choice. They want a peaceful commonwealth and are even willing to let synths in so far as I have seen.

 

Since I played a female character, I kept going back to my son. In the end I wiped out the RR and BoS. I really wanted to side with the BoS, but when I was told to go acquire food any why I had to. That was it for me. I look at it this way. I have the ability now to direct the Institute and use the synths to bolster the MM ranks. (The game may not allow that yet, but...)

 

One thing I know, the "haves" (BoS/Institute) will not share with the "have nots" (settlers/commonwealth/MM) unless forced to do so. Since becoming the leader of the BoS was not something I thought would happen. Siding with the MM and Institute became the "best" option.

 

Next time, I play as Dad "Dirty rotten Institute killed my wife, stole my son" Yeah Father Prove it! Muhahahaha

 

PS the name was after trying 7 or 8 others LOL

[gabrieldragonking]

the nazi or the terminator.....!

[SirTwist]

The thing that gets me is that this game, since it was written to get more console gamers into it, has I feel like 90% of the choice is gone. There's no karma system, there isn't a right or wrong choice, overall. The BoS, in my opinion, is under bad leadership, and needs to share it's tech with the world. The Institute, for all it's technology, needs to brought to heel in the affairs of people, and like the BoS, needs to learn how to share. The Railroad, while good intentions, should be able to rework the synths from attacking everyone into a decent police force, if nothing else. And they should also share their technology. Don't get me started on the useless, whinging, whiney, good for nothing Minutemen. If they were as good as they said they might be, then they should have zero problems in liberating settlements, clearing/keeping clear places around the map, and generally be what the potential there is. However, since Bethesda has seen fit to dumb down the game so consoles can also play it, I'm pretty much going to stick with the minutemen (even though I hate the constant travel to the other side of the map, then travel to the other side, then back, as well as the whinging.) Personally, I want to gank Maxson, Garvey, and Father all in one shot.

 

I wonder, if I kill Garvey, will I still get the quests to go here, talk to these people, then go and solve their problems?

[Raycheetah]

At no time do you find any evidence that the institute has kidnapped anyone other then your son.

Every Gen 3 synth outside of the Institute which is not a fugitive is a copy of a real individual who wasn't likely to have agreed to being replaced. I can think of three off the top of my head, including at least one very prominent individual in Commonwealth society who is definitely aware that he is, in fact, a synth, and in active cahoots with the Institute.

 

I do agree that the notion of mind-wiping fugitives is stupid, as all it accomplishes is the liberation of the wetware. Why escape, if only to consign your identity, your mind, your very self to oblivion?

 

I chalk it up to very lazy writing. It would have been interesting to see fugitive synths who also feared the RR and its misguided policy. =^[.]^=

[Aintiarna]

 

I wonder, if I kill Garvey, will I still get the quests to go here, talk to these people, then go and solve their problems?

 

You can't. He's an immortal god-monster. In a fit of gamer-rage I stormed concord, killed the raiders and dropped a few mini-nukes into the room with all the whiners in it. They acted like I'd spat on the floor or something and just told me off then went on moaning about all the horrible raiders.

 

Not sure what would happen if you used the console. I get the impression that the Minutemen are the ultimate fallback plan for making sure you can always finish the main questline. You can alienate/destroy all the other factions, but not the minutemen it seems.

[Aintiarna]

 

 

I do agree that the notion of mind-wiping fugitives is stupid, as all it accomplishes is the liberation of the wetware. Why escape, if only to consign your identity, your mind, your very self to oblivion?

 

I chalk it up to very lazy writing. It would have been interesting to see fugitive synths who also feared the RR and its misguided policy. =^[.]^=

 

 

When I first encountered the notion in game I did a double-take. I've since decided like you that it's just lazy writing. A mind-wipe is effectively choosing non-existence which makes no sense at all. I also wonder if we'll get a cult of escaped synth supremacists in a DLC or something. So far they've all been disappointingly passive or deferential.