Cleansing the Land - Neutral Ending? (Warning: Far Harbor Spoilers)

[RattleAndGrind]

I was able to find a peaceful solution. I convinced Tektus to leave and did not rat out Dima. He was very apologetic about Avery, but the circumstances of her death were not really described. It could have been an accident or self defense or something other. But Dima still felt guilty. Personally I think he murdered her in cold blood because he did ask me to murder Tektus and hide the body. In order for the truce to stand the player has to live with that. I had the codes for both the nuke and the generators, and didn't need to use either. The new Synth Tektus 'had a vision' where Atom instructed him to forgive Far Harbor. And a peace was worked out between all 3 factions. I doubt it will stand forever, but this was one of the very few times in FO4 that I was able to accomplish something using speech instead of bullets.

I reached the same destination and was able to get to a peaceful resolution. With one exception. Tektus had ordered two people to "prove" their loyalty to the CoA by killing the other person. A mind capable of doing such a thing wasn't a mind I wanted on the same planet. I shot Tektus without a moments hesitation, was grateful for the opportunity and didn't miss a single nights sleep.

Edited June 25, 2016 by RattleAndGrind

[AnvilOfWar]

The only thing that bothered me about the "peaceful" ending in Far harbor, was the fact that we the player needed Dima at all. There was plenty of side quests for BOTH the Children of Atom and the people of Far Harbor, why couldn't we use all that built up good will to convince them of a cease fire ourselves? The player after all could have completed both the Captain's Dance, and is a Prophet of Atom, why must we broker peace with yet another scheme? There should have been a harder ending in that Dima himself is judged for his past crimes, but the Synths, the People of Far Harbor, and the Children of Atom come to an agreement to stop the violence themselves.

[Wunderbot]

That's the only part I didn't like either. The Far Harbour story and choices were great, but DiMa really is just as much a murderous, lying asshat as Tektus and Allen. But for some reason he has to be alive if you want to have peace.

 

The entire story I thought that eventually you'd discover the fate of the former leader of the Children, Martin or whatever his name was. Unless I missed something, you never find out though. The whole "he just mysteriously vanished one day" stuff is usually an excuse to have you discover the truth in the end. Here it's just the truth, he just vanished for no particular reason. I thought the story would lead to finding Martin again and confronting Tektus by Martin's side.

[ajacksonian]

I thought it was interesting that telling Tektus that the time for Division had arrived turned out to be something that is considered not just good but sacred to the Children of Atom. Mind you, after starting the process you got 30 seconds to get out of the Nucleus and run like all get-out from it. But you do see the Children of Atom sprinting to get into the Nucleus! You get to be the bringer of Division! Now Allen Lee and Avery do see it as mass murder, while the synths just see it as the strange fate that worshiping Atom gets you. The logic (such as it is) of the Cult of Atom not only condones this action, but elevates it. You can also tell those at the Crater of Atom about the Far Harbor group (although not their fate) and they are friendly to you, just as the one at the nuke site is when you go there to plant the BoS beacon. YOU are the Bringer of Division and most holy, after all...

 

I loved the choices of Far Harbor, but refused to act like the Institute as one of my main criticisms of it is replacing people with synth duplicates to achieve their ends. Poor Art, always having to deal with Synth Art...really, see that a few times in a single play-through and you begin to wonder just what is so important about Art, anyway. DiMA's killing Avery with her effects still on her and then wiping/body swapping a synth, basically killing the person that synth was even when the synth was willing, that is a bit much for me. Raiders and Gunners who are on a 'kill or be killed' mentality, well, their choice as I'm more than willing to talk amicably with anyone who isn't trying to gun me down.

 

So is granting Division to the Children of Atom a hostile act? Not to them, no: it is a holy act. Thus it is not neutral, per se, but actually positive to the Children of Atom who got to the Nucleus in time to experience it. Are you or are you not the Messenger of the Mother of the Fog for Atom? The townspeople of Far Harbor are mixed on the result, yes, but neither love you nor vilify you for it. The synths just shake their collective heads about it and how misguided the Children of Atom were. Positive, neutral and neutral. Acadia can keep the power flowing and the condensers working, Far Harbor gets a few new settlements, Vault 118 gets its murder mystery solved, and there are a few good pre-war story-lines to follow up.

 

My problem is structural: the synth colony is something the RR, BoS and Institute should STILL remain interested in even after you finish off the main quest lines. They don't. That makes no sense for any of those factions.

 

And you would think that all of those synths, especially a Courser and DiMA (who can store memories off to secondary media) would have some other information on the Institute and possibly an independent way to get in that doesn't involve the main story factions. That lack of a DIY Institute breach and final closure should be something available in Fallout. DIY endings, that twist and dodge politics to reach a satisfactory conclusion is something that I was expecting from FO4 and Far Harbor offered the opportunity to patch that hole.

 

And I do enjoy settlement building in a zen-Sims sort of way, so I'm not knocking FO4 on that score and it points to a future where you get to the post-post-Apocalypse. Say, who made these magical red workshop benches pre-war? It looks like something that isn't as neat as what General Atomics puts out, and not as classy as RobCo, so that leaves House Tools (a division of RobCo by FO:NV lore, but semi-autonomous inside the main company) as a possibility, and there is always Vault Tec due to Vault 88 (although they may only be licensing the technology at that point). Since they are seen ONLY in the Commonwealth and Far Harbor, that makes it a regional test market in the months before the bombs dropped. Or, as they have magical properties of matter manipulation, did the Zetans have a hand in it? I mean if the Institute had such technology, we wouldn't have it the way we see it in FO4, so they are disqualified by that. Who needs construction equipment when you have something that can help create an underground structure that makes the Institute look like pikers? I'm doing my best to fill up that huge volume, and the Institute had to economize on space and energy, which you wouldn't have with that red workshop and extensions for Vault 88. Why, with a bit of work, building an extension TO the Institute wouldn't be out of the question. Better living underground and all that. An entirely new path to a DIY playthrough!

 

Get a few Yangtze beacons and the total DIY storyline basis is sitting on the table. Independent way in through means recorded on secondary media in Far Harbor. Building TO the Institute and staging a take-over (peaceful or hostile, although the allure of a good Vault is hard to resist). Or finally deciding the Institute is a lost cause, shutting it off (or even having shut off its reactor and then cut it off from Vault 88 to turn the lights out) and/or using the Yangtze beacons to get through the surface and then into the interior space, putting a less crater prone ending to things. Maybe even finding ghoul Institute scientists afterwards. Or that the radiation killed the disease killing Shaun and left him a ghoul. Ah, possibilities...putting voice acting to something like that would have delayed FO4 another couple of years. That would be a story for another day.

[TheGadget1945]

I followed the "peace" ending in my second playthrough but after that I got a bit bored so I went to the Nucleus, bought some stuff from Sister Mai, into the sub and slipped the Launch Key in then ran for it. Bang! and I got a couple of nice Marine Armour suits from the guards outside plus a telling off from that sanctimonious old robot in Acadia.

[mkborgelt13]

I had DiMA turn himself in to the harborpeople and he was executed, as I didn't support the idea of replacing somebody (Tektus) with yet another synth. So far it seems like this was the only real peaceful solution however, since now that DiMA is gone and I have completed every other "main" quest, Cleansing the Land is still open. I've tried telling both Far Harbor and Tektus about the kill switch and launch key, but even that didn't end it. If necessary, I'd side with the harbor, but I don't really want to kill all the Children either. Has anyone found a way to keep all three factions alive, not go along with DiMA's murderplots and still finish this quest?

 

Whoa, that's an interesting outcome. How did they execute him??

 

I did this:

Agree to replace Tektus. Lured him into the abandoned part, shot him in the head with suppresed pistol, then sealed his carcass into the concrete wall. DiMA replaced him with a dupilcate and the Children were none the wiser.

 

In this way, all 3 factions lived, and the Children happily followed their new (and peaceful) leader.

 

Edit: Is it possible to find the previous High Confessor? I think I read this somewhere. If that happened, I'll bet he could displace Tektus and resolve the conflict without killing (I remember he had a lot of support with the Children).

Edited August 5, 2016 by mkborgelt13

[Wunderbot]

 

 

Whoa, that's an interesting outcome. How did they execute him??

 

I did this:

Agree to replace Tektus. Lured him into the abandoned part, shot him in the head with suppresed pistol, then sealed his carcass into the concrete wall. DiMA replaced him with a dupilcate and the Children were none the wiser.

 

In this way, all 3 factions lived, and the Children happily followed their new (and peaceful) leader.

 

Edit: Is it possible to find the previous High Confessor? I think I read this somewhere. If that happened, I'll bet he could displace Tektus and resolve the conflict without killing (I remember he had a lot of support with the Children).

 

 

The townspeople gather around as DiMA walks into town. He confesses, but doesn't mention that Avery's the person he killed, to protect synth Avery. Ironically enough, Avery is the one who says that Far Harbor only knows one punishment for murder, and tells the barkeeper to execute him, who then shoots DiMA in the head. Avery doesn't seem aware that she's the synth.

 

I've explored pretty much everything on the island and there's no sign of the previous High Confessor. I was hoping you could have him return to replace Tektus, but doesn't seem like it. He's just poof gone.

[TheVampireDante]

 

Avery doesn't seem aware that she's the synth.

 

She doesn't unless you show her the proof and convince her it's real.

[shadowslasher410]

I just couldn't get myself to agree with DiMA. They fled the Institute, yet here he is acting exactly like them. Murdering and replacing people to suit his agenda. Avery was very much innocent, so unlike my character he did kill innocent people. And when confronted with it, he seems to feel all torn up about it but mere moments later he asks you to just do the whole thing over again with somebody else. This just proved to me that despite locking away his memories, he didn't learn anything. So I couldn't trust somebody who had all these plans in motion to wipe out entire other factions when they no longer aligned with him. Who knows what else he was going to do, because clearly he hadn't changed since killing Avery.

 

Then there's also his obsession with trying to make humans believe they're in fact synths, which just seems really shady. You'd think that if he cared so much for fellow synths that he'd be happy they're able to lead human lives and believing they are human. Instead he tries to make people question their entire existance for no other reason than to make them join his community.

I agree with you but... I dunno, on my first playthrough, I did the execution ending, thinking that I could jump in and save DiMA the same way I could Acadia. I mean, playing as the female SS, I was a LAWYER for goodness sake, yet there was no option to try and convince the people of Far Harbor that capital punishment isn't necessarily the answer?

 

One day, I plan on making a mod that will let me convince the people of Far Harbor not to kill DiMA, in exchange for using institute technology to write a program that would prevent DiMA from pulling this BS again (or ordering someone else to do it). And some other kind of penalty that I haven't thought of/decided on yet (post war jail?).

 

I mean, the dude's misguided, there's no doubt about that. But consider the fact that he likely developed his moral code without the input of any sort of balancing force: there was no one to tell him this is right, this is wrong (ignoring the subjectivity of morality for now) because he spent the first how many years of his life alone, the second in the company of synths who, lets be honest, are pretty much in the same situation he is, and then with humans. But by that time, his morals are pretty much established.

[TheGadget1945]

In my current playthrough I have persuaded DIMA to be tried in Far Harbor and be executed. Now I got told off by Avery but in real life I would have played the holotape back of the real "her" talking to DIMA and pointed out that I could have exposed her. I am still in two minds as to whether to tell the BOS about Acadia.