Top 5 Missed opportunities of the Commonwealth

[PoliteRaider]

Not just for Fallout 4 but in general when it comes to Bethesda and mercenaries, my reaction is usually.

 

http://i.imgsafe.org/d5d542c.png

[CaseyA]

Not just for Fallout 4 but in general when it comes to Bethesda and mercenaries, my reaction is usually.

 

http://i.imgsafe.org/d5d542c.png

Completely agree... why bethesda insists on creating mercenary groups that kill everyone one sight is beyond me. What if I wanted to hire them? Nope. Instant attack.

[JuJooGuppy]

Well, not that it really counts.. but there was an area (Or perhaps its a random event) where I ran into a small group of Gunners that didn't atttack on site.. instead they said no one was allowed past their location without paying a fee, yada yada. You could pay them, and they would be non-hostile, though still asses lol.

But I totally agree overall. There shouldve at least been circumstances where more interaction was a real possibility.

[PoliteRaider]

Yeah I actually really liked that event, I ran into that one too during one of my playthroughs. I've only encountered it once but I think it might be random though, one of the let's plays I was watching went to the same area and didn't encounter them. It's sad that I actually have fond memories of that scene purely because I got to talk to some characters without them being hostile.

 

I know this sounds overly critical, I do actually like the game. It's because these things were such a missed opportunity, as the original poster put it, that it frustrates me so much. After all that effort building the assets, levels and locations it seems such a pity that they didn't put in the final finishing touches that would have improved it so much.

[PoppaSmirk]

Hello, as the poster above me stated, I do actually like the game, but my frustration with it is stemming from so much, "It could have been better in so many ways" syndrome.

 

I am incredibly frustrated with how the storyline has progressed and I am not even done with my first playthrough. I was excited up until the time I hijacked a teleportation signal and wound up inside the Institute for the first time. I had expected to be able to ask a ton of questions about "WHY the Institute was so focused on building synths and using some of them to replace humans?" Why create synths at all when a simpler robot can do all the floor polishing, gardening, patrolling, building, cooking, medical care, etc?

 

I know that the load screens have a message about how the Institute once made contact with the settlers up above in the commonwealth and tried to work with them, but that relationship ended due to mutual; mistrust from both sides. Never is that "time of initial contact" given any in-game coverage through dialogues, or even archived historical records ( a missed opportunity to have Pipers newspaper have more value than just the 3 issues featured in the game). As far as my Player/Hero knows...the Institute has done nothing but kill and kidnap settlers from the Commonwealth, for no concrete reason other than to replace people and gather a few rare sources of Post-War data. But in the game, my Player/Hero doesn't even get a chance to ask ...anybody about it. I thought I would get some info by talking with the Institute Dept Heads....nope.

 

When I got inside the Institute I wanted people to answer questions, instead I found that the only info I received was that the brainiacs down there were simply engrossed with petty workplace drama, and worried about expanding their energy generation capabilities to further advancements to their infrastructure to allow for building more underground.

 

Things I truly didn't like...... not just missing-lacking but I just didn't like them: The immediate progression of the Minutemen status to the BoS to ...openly hostile. Why? the BoS flew around for months (in-game) dropping troops and killing hostiles from the Commonwealth, then one day...with no significant event happening (that I was aware of)...Preston starts bad-mouthing the BoS? I kept thinking... a reason will pop up soon; but no....after many more days of play IRL, and many weeks ingame I still have seen no reason 'why' the Minutemen should now be at odds with the BoS?

 

I am disturbed that my settlements have been infiltrated by.......{cue dramatic chord of music}...Brahmin Synths. I knew that a feed trough would attract, one brahmin inside each settlement, and that those brahmin were kept to provide...fertilizer. Then, I started noticing in a few settlements, two brahmin. Hmmm curious I thought. Then one day I responded to an attack on a settlement. I arrived...I killed all the attackers. The all clear never sounded. Hmmm.....I ran around the settlement and found a brahmin mooing outside a wall. I ran around the settlement again. Still no all clear. I pressed 'Q' when close to the brahmin outside the walls. He showed as ....a hostile? In disbelief, I reluctantly killed the brahmin, and when I checked his body, I found....a synth component. So, when I visit the Institute, why is there no mention in the Bio-Sciences division, about the work they have already done in sending out.... replicant cattle? lol, its laughable yes, but still it's another piece of lacking storyline. Why would it have been so hard to piece in the info through NPC dialogue that the brahmin synth were the stage of development BEFORE the gorilla synths, and why no ingame dialogue as to how the Institute GOT the ability to create a gorilla? Not like they are indigenous to Boston...lol.

 

I will wrap up this post, its gotten long enough, but my main point is this; so much is ...incomplete. So much is missing. The game although fun suffers so much because of sloppy or lazy storytelling on Bethesdas' part.

[k361]

I agree with Poppa, though rather than main story I used to pursue storylines that weren't even storylines and still found them more immersive than the whole "My child was kidnapped, I survived for no apparent reason, cause either Kellogg didn't want to kill me or he was told not to." I remember my attempts to dig up a way, any way to get on friendly terms with Gunners for example as that group runs pretty tight operations seen in many locations pursuing whatever agendas they have on stock (hallucigen for example). The wolrd has lot more possiblities than it actually offers, another example that was quite a discovery for me were the three missing minutemen in Lexington's mart, kinda pity the game doesn't offer an option for Preston to acknowledge their retrieval like Danse does with Lost Patrol. Then reputation should return and play major role in interactions and decisions, I mean this time it could have bigger meaning right? The game evolved from simple rpg into strategic rpg given settlements and whatnot, throughout the game I did many things that could change the Commonwealth for good (Hopefully they did.). Honestly I would be more content with "At the end I never learnt what happened to Shaun, but overtime as I looked back to what We achieved throughout the journey, guess it's about time to let go." I know that once the main story ends theres not much left, but honestly why would you choose institute ending if you weren't hoping to see how your unbiased view into matters could influence what they do real time?

 

Oh forgot about Combat Zone, remember the boxing tournament in FO2 or even better The Thorn or Legion Arena in New Vegas?...So?

Edited April 2, 2016 by k361

[Fatalmasterpiece]

All good points brought up here. I agree, I love Fallout 4 but it seems unfinished. Another year would have been worth the wait to see this game as it should have been...

 

 

Yeah, I couldn't understand why everyone instantly attacks you when you walk into the Combat Zone.

 

And why the hell do Gunners instantly attack everyone? Aren't they mercenaries and not mindless psychopaths who kill everyone?

 

At least in previous games there was karma and those people were sent out to kill you.

 

I miss that a lot too. You can be a terrible person in FO4 but no one ever comes to attack you or challenge you. There are never any decently organized raids on your settlements, just halfassed attempts... Actually, can a settlement ever completely fall? It would make the game so much more challenging to arrive at Abernathy farm to find everyone slaughtered and a note staked to the door with a warning from (insert raider faction here).

 

Where ARE the raider factions?

[ddavies10693]

My 2 cents in this conversation is that they often times missed the mark on elements and spots that should've been a lot more cinematic and epic. For example, upon waking up, and examining your wife's corpse, your character just kinda goes "oh no :(" then moves on pretty much forever. They couldn't give us a flashback or an animation where you greave or something?

 

The whole scene of you first teleporting into the institute could've been much so more epic, but instead you just stand there like a derp while no one operates the terminal you just built for the machine, and you just wake up in the dark hallways of the institute. That was the climax of the whole game up to that point, finally finding and getting inside the Institute-- the super mysterious and ominous location we've been hearing about since fallout 3 in 2008 (possibly earlier?)-- and that was it

[Boombro]

 

I am incredibly frustrated with how the storyline has progressed and I am not even done with my first playthrough. I was excited up until the time I hijacked a teleportation signal and wound up inside the Institute for the first time. I had expected to be able to ask a ton of questions about "WHY the Institute was so focused on building synths and using some of them to replace humans?" Why create synths at all when a simpler robot can do all the floor polishing, gardening, patrolling, building, cooking, medical care, etc?

But is explained in game.

 

 

expanding their energy generation capabilities to further advancements to their infrastructure to allow for building more underground.

Things I truly didn't like...... not just missing-lacking but I just didn't like them: The immediate progression of the Minutemen status to the BoS to ...openly hostile. Why? the BoS flew around for months (in-game) dropping troops and killing hostiles from the Commonwealth, then one day...with no significant event happening (that I was aware of)...Preston starts bad-mouthing the BoS? I kept thinking... a reason will pop up soon; but no....after many more days of play IRL, and many weeks ingame I still have seen no reason 'why' the Minutemen should now be at odds with the BoS?

Ideology, BOS are more of a tyrant styled, violent group. Go the police station where you meet Danse and look for a holotape.

[ddavies10693]

@boombro but isn't your character made the General of the Minutemen pretty early on? He or she should therefore have the ability to make those decisions, not Preston. But Preston hates the BoS and forces you to attack them (if you ever want to advance their plot) even though it's stated that the PC is the general. That's the that part makes no sense.

 

Preston: "The botherhood are now enemies of the minutemen!"

 

PC: "thanks guy who is much lower than me in rank who literally promoted me himself, but I disagree with you, we should be friends with the BoS"

 

However that isn't an option (from what I've seen, I've never taken the MM path). That is the part that makes no sense and is a disappointment I think. It forces these conflicts with no chance of diplomacy, unless you use an exploit to confuse the game by carefully picking quests.