A tough choice

[Tilarium]

So reaching the point of no return on my first playthough (I've been playing slowly sense day 1, enjoying the game.. 33 days into the game and just now finished the Battle of Bunker Hill). I decided before the battle to not kill the Synths and so informed the railroad. I didn't tell the Brotherhood but they showed up anyway for a nice little battle all around! Going to CIT I told Shaun we lost and that's all that matters, trying to keep my cover to be a double agent Seriously, lying to my son, what a great Dad I am, huh? Anyway, got the mass fusion mission and.... now I have to go against the Brotherhood of Steel. I really really didn't want to do that, especially with their random vertibird patrols dropping in nearly everywhere (but it is fun when one of the birds gets taken out!). I don't want to go against them, especially because I was planning to bail on the Institute eventually, once it was them or the railroad.

 

So now I've shut the game off and I'm thinking about which way I should go.

 

Out of curiosity, has Bethesda said yet what is the "official" cannon playthough? In canon; is it Railroad, BoS or Institute?

 

Another curiosity, what is the BoS's deal with Synths and wanting to kill them? Seems to me they should want to preserve them as they are the ultimate in tech. (note that the only BoS missions I've done was helping out Danse).

[Lachdonin]

Another curiosity, what is the BoS's deal with Synths and wanting to kill them? Seems to me they should want to preserve them as they are the ultimate in tech. (note that the only BoS missions I've done was helping out Danse).

The Brotherhood doesn't love technology. They hate and fear it. They believe that technology is inherently dangerous, and that humanity at large can't be trusted to respect it enough to make it safe. They blame technology for The Great War, not people.

 

Out of curiosity, has Bethesda said yet what is the "official" cannon playthough? In canon; is it Railroad, BoS or Institute?

Bethesda has said nothing, and is unlikely to give any indication until, at LEAST, the DLC starts rolling out. Even then, as much as I want the Brotherhood and Maxon to feature prominently, the main factions are unlikely to be involved. more likely, we'll get a footnote in Fallout 5.

[Vagrant0]

Out of curiosity, has Bethesda said yet what is the "official" cannon playthough? In canon; is it Railroad, BoS or Institute?

Bethesda has said nothing, and is unlikely to give any indication until, at LEAST, the DLC starts rolling out. Even then, as much as I want the Brotherhood and Maxon to feature prominently, the main factions are unlikely to be involved. more likely, we'll get a footnote in Fallout 5.

 

As far as official cannon goes, it probably won't matter. As far as the East Coast is concerned, the Brotherhood is the closest thing to an official government.

 

Given how busy they've been in the Capital Wasteland, loss of an airship likely wouldn't be much of a setback, and might instead rally them in a full assault of Boston.

 

Even if you sided with the institute, there isn't much the institute could do if their carrier signal got jammed since everything is locked off underground.

 

The Railroad mostly loses its cause once the institute is destroyed. They aren't a military, they aren't a source of leadership, there isn't any way that they would continue after all is said and done.

 

As for the Minutemen, although they fight for the people, they would likely buckle under the weight of the BoS and opt for being absorbed into the ranks instead of trying to fight a war of attrition.

[Warmaker01]

 

Out of curiosity, has Bethesda said yet what is the "official" cannon playthough? In canon; is it Railroad, BoS or Institute?

Bethesda has said nothing, and is unlikely to give any indication until, at LEAST, the DLC starts rolling out. Even then, as much as I want the Brotherhood and Maxon to feature prominently, the main factions are unlikely to be involved. more likely, we'll get a footnote in Fallout 5.

 

As far as official cannon goes, it probably won't matter. As far as the East Coast is concerned, the Brotherhood is the closest thing to an official government.

 

Given how busy they've been in the Capital Wasteland, loss of an airship likely wouldn't be much of a setback, and might instead rally them in a full assault of Boston.

 

Even if you sided with the institute, there isn't much the institute could do if their carrier signal got jammed since everything is locked off underground.

 

The Railroad mostly loses its cause once the institute is destroyed. They aren't a military, they aren't a source of leadership, there isn't any way that they would continue after all is said and done.

 

As for the Minutemen, although they fight for the people, they would likely buckle under the weight of the BoS and opt for being absorbed into the ranks instead of trying to fight a war of attrition.

 

It's pretty interesting though with development in the West Coast vs East Coast.

 

The original home of the Brotherhood is in the West Coast setting of FO1. But the NCR rises and becomes the largest, most stable entity resembling a Pre-Great War "State" that we have ever seen in the franchise to date. They have a standing military, government. It has issues for sure but compared to what's out there, the NCR is "The place to be." The West Coast Brotherhood dwindled while the NCR's power rose.

 

On the flip side, on the East Coast, there is no NCR-like entity. Not in the Capital Wasteland. Not even in the Commonwealth because it's far too splintered there and the security situation is still shite. After the events of FO3, the Brotherhood, going by info based in ingame FO4 lore, became the absolute, dominant power in the region. Powerful enough that after the high losses after the events of FO3, the Brotherhood emerges amazingly strong with some rebuilding. Think about all the things the Brotherhood does in FO4 compared to anywhere before in the franchise, even FO3. A mobile airbase. Abundant patrols. Vertibirds galore. The Brotherhood also talks some crap about taking in Wastelanders into their ranks but that is how they've expanded Post-FO3. Hell, Maxson even made amends with the Outcasts and these hardened veterans were brought back into the fold.

 

Nothing else comes close to that on the East Coast.

 

The only catch is that the Brotherhood doesn't seem to be in the mood for establishing government, at least not in the Commonwealth. My guess is that the Brotherhood coming out tops will be the "canon route" because, y'know, the franchise and the BOS are closely intertwined.

 

I also predict that with the Institute's collapse, the resurgence of the Minutemen, the seeds will be sown for a newborn NCR-like entity on the East Coast. Where the East Coast Brotherhood falls in line with that would be an interesting story. Because they can draw from history with what happened with the West Coast BOS and the NCR. Unlike the West Coast BOS, the East Coast branch of the organization had gotten large and powerful. Unlike the Weast Coast BOS, the East Coast branch is very proactive and has the military power to do so.

[Tilarium]

In the end, I went and talked to Father on the CIT roof and via the choices I made I ended up removed from the Institute. I told him I let the Synths go because it was the right thing to do, he didn't like that and severed ties. In the end, it's what I wanted, getting out of the Institute without actually having to say I wanted out and also not getting on the bad side of the BoS.

[Gilibran]

Got on the bad side of BoS once that airship arrives. More fun to shoot vertibirds then crows lol snipe the pilot and see him fall oit of the vertibird :-)

 

I simply dislike BoS because they want to destroy tech or at least keep it for themselves, but in order to do that they rely solely on the same high tech without they would be nothing more then your average raider. Besides that, they do not care for anything else. All they do is not helping people but running around arrogantly and being the moral superiors.

 

It's the point you are now that Bethesda screwed up in the MQ. You should he able to have certain factions cooperate, some are mutually exclusive like Institute & railroad, railroad & BoS but institute minutemen, railroad minutemen, BoS minutemen should have been options for the player.

 

Minutemen-railroad get acceptence for synths by destroying the instute together and creaye a peacefull as possible commonwealth for both. The institue is the problem not synths.

 

Minutemen - BoS. Mimutemen just wamt a safe place they do nott care for the tech that much, BoS can help them defeat the railroad and the instute solving the synth problem. BoS destroys ghouls and supermutanta in there search for tech and make the commonwealth a better place with the firepower they have.

 

BoS institue would be an inyeresting possibility to

The instutes tech is of a different nature then the pre war tech BoS wants destroyed or contained.

 

Those would have been good optiins and make for a great MQ, off course the optiin to go solo or only take advantage of the help from one faction should still be possible. That would take away alot of the dillema's the player is forced into. The breakingpoints are to sudden and there is absolutly no clue that you have to make such a game influencing choice virtually out of nowhere.

 

In my playthrough i was convinced i could use both the minutemen and the railroad as allies right op to the end and have a combined attack on the institute. Or at least have one faction help me deal with BoS and the other woth the institute i was disappointed i was unable because of the out of character non sensible forced choices you have to make.

[Valykry]

I actually let a random number generator determine who I sided with. Ended up being the BoS.

For my next playthrough, I'm actually leaning towards siding with the institute.

[Moraelin]

It's the point you are now that Bethesda screwed up in the MQ. You should he able to have certain factions cooperate, some are mutually exclusive like Institute & railroad, railroad & BoS but institute minutemen, railroad minutemen, BoS minutemen should have been options for the player.

 

I don't understand your problem. The Minutemen are pretty much neutral to all other three factions as it is. So any of your three combinations you listed actually work just fine. You can go for any of the endings of those 3 conflicting factions, and the Minutemen will not be a problem at all. You don't get a quest to finish off the Minutemen or anything.

 

Hell, you can even go for example with the BOS and change your mind and use the Minutemen to assault the Institute. Then you go to Ingram, ask for the tape back, and you can say the Minutemen need the info too, and she's like, 'I wouldn't trust them myself, but your call' and gives you the tape to give to Sturges instead. So I'd say the option to get those two to cooperate is right there. Not just some oversight, but there's actually recorded dialogue to that end.

 

So I'm not sure exactly what do you think Beth screwed up there.

[Moraelin]

So reaching the point of no return on my first playthough (I've been playing slowly sense day 1, enjoying the game.. 33 days into the game and just now finished the Battle of Bunker Hill). I decided before the battle to not kill the Synths and so informed the railroad. I didn't tell the Brotherhood but they showed up anyway for a nice little battle all around! Going to CIT I told Shaun we lost and that's all that matters, trying to keep my cover to be a double agent Seriously, lying to my son, what a great Dad I am, huh? Anyway, got the mass fusion mission and.... now I have to go against the Brotherhood of Steel. I really really didn't want to do that, especially with their random vertibird patrols dropping in nearly everywhere (but it is fun when one of the birds gets taken out!). I don't want to go against them, especially because I was planning to bail on the Institute eventually, once it was them or the railroad.

 

Sounds like if you're at that point, you're very soon going to have to decide not just railroad vs institute, but railroad vs BOS anyway. If Maxson didn't make it clear enough, the BOS bloody hate synths and want nothing short of a genocide. They want every synth dead, not infiltrated all over the place as humans. If you've done the Blind Betrayal quest, you'll see how far they go with it. So, yes, if you haven't taken a very peculiar route, and you probably haven't, they will want the folks smuggling synths all over the east coast dead.

 

And to be fair, the feeling is mutual.

 

HOWEVER, technically you're not at the point of no return yet. If you want to, you CAN still go do quests for the BOS, until a point where you can do Mass Fusion for them instead of the Institute, if that's what you wish. Of course, at that point you become an enemy of the Institute instead. But by that point you will also have had to choose between the BOS and Railroad, so there's that bridge to burn... err... cross first.

 

Or you can still just go with the Minutemen, if you're gonna ball on the Institute anyway.

[Gilibran]

 

It's the point you are now that Bethesda screwed up in the MQ. You should he able to have certain factions cooperate, some are mutually exclusive like Institute & railroad, railroad & BoS but institute minutemen, railroad minutemen, BoS minutemen should have been options for the player.

 

I don't understand your problem. The Minutemen are pretty much neutral to all other three factions as it is. So any of your three combinations you listed actually work just fine. You can go for any of the endings of those 3 conflicting factions, and the Minutemen will not be a problem at all. You don't get a quest to finish off the Minutemen or anything.

 

Hell, you can even go for example with the BOS and change your mind and use the Minutemen to assault the Institute. Then you go to Ingram, ask for the tape back, and you can say the Minutemen need the info too, and she's like, 'I wouldn't trust them myself, but your call' and gives you the tape to give to Sturges instead. So I'd say the option to get those two to cooperate is right there. Not just some oversight, but there's actually recorded dialogue to that end.

 

So I'm not sure exactly what do you think Beth screwed up there.

That is not cooperation that is, ohh i changed my mind i want to be BoS or Changed my mind again i want to be Railroad.

 

I would have liked to see for instance, Minutemen taking down the airship while the railroad assaults the institute. Or minutemen take out the Railroad and BoS the instute. Or just destroy the institute and ignore BoS entirely without having to destroy them, though i might not like them, i completely ignored them in one playthrough and i'm still forced to destroy them. That is just ridiculous, there is absolutly no reason only 2 factions have to survive. Hell i could be institute leader and secretively support the railroad from within. All this talk about it being about making hard choices is nonsense and just a way to camouflage the bad writting.

 

I started a new game and for roleplaying sake play up to the point i first enter the institute, find out what happened to Shaun and them decide screw it all, he's beyond redemption as far as i'm concerned. If i want i can visit him but no more MQ.