Far Harbor: Using the BOS to fight Acadia

[Deleted4363562User]

After taking out Acadia with the BOS, it would seem I can no longer call Captain Avery out for being a synth. This seems very odd. Did I miss something?

[CyrusAmell]

Possibly. Revealing Avery as a synth triggers a battle between the Harbormen and Acadia. So without Acadia, the quest based on this cannot start (I think).

 

If you just want to be all BOS, then stir up the Harbormen against Acadia as Brotherhood proxies (you monster).

Edited May 24, 2016 by CyrusAmell

[Deleted4363562User]

Possibly. Revealing Avery as a synth triggers a battle between the Harbormen and Acadia. So without Acadia, the quest based on this cannot start (I think).

 

If you just want to be all BOS, then stir up the Harbormen against Acadia as Brotherhood proxies (you monster).

lol

 

Yeah. It's just weird that the Lancer Knight asks you "did we get them all?" and you're thinking....well no. Not really. There's this synth pretending to be Captain Avery down in Far Harbor.

[CyrusAmell]

The only faction it seems worth reporting back to is the Railroad, because all they do is send one person as a friendly liaison with Acadia. With the Brotherhood and the Institute, it's more about driving home the point how horrible these people you are working for can be.

 

With the Institute I at least wanted the option to order a stay on any recapture attempts so as to study Acadia's developments. But I suppose that as a new Director with few allies and little clout to throw around it really would have been unlikely that such an order could be given without causing a fuss.

 

The loss of Acadia is indirectly a blow to efforts by the Harbormen to resettle the Island. DiMA and his people developed the Fog Condensers and I think they are the only ones with the ability to make more.

 

That said, I am pleased that Bethesda intertwined our choices in the main game with the DLC (rather than leaving no connection). I hope to see more of this in the future.

Edited May 24, 2016 by CyrusAmell

[Deleted4363562User]

Oh make no mistake, my friend. I am most pleased with this DLC. IMO, it's one of the best they've made to date. :thumbsup:

[Deleted4363562User]

On another note, it's weird that I find myself siding with the BOS mostly now on an intellectual level; initially, I always thought the Rail Road was the most morally sound faction. However, the more I learn about real-life AI developments and risks, the more I see how, given the circumstances of the Fallout universe coupled with the malicious use of synths by the Institute, the more I believe that the BOS is justified in being so overtly militant.

 

You simply cannot trust synths or the Institute, given the nefarious operations they've repeatedly engaged in. There may be some actual decent synths and Institute personnel, but the actions of others within their ranks instill a lot of doubt. Doubt in a world such as that of Fallout is a potential death sentence. If you want a good read, type "wait but why?" into google. There's a great anecdotal story about how an AI that specializes in hand-written notes could destroy the world in a few hours.

 

Sure the BOS has done some shady things that I don't like, but at least you know that they are humanists, albeit selfish, militaristic and intolerant.

[CyrusAmell]

Not really. The threat from AI intelligence comes from advanced computers coldly coordinating data at a rate a beyond that of humans. These synths are mostly just like humans, neither stronger nor smarter for the most part. So the threat they pose is very small. Add to this the fact that they cannot reproduce and they become just another group of people once the Institute is destroyed.

 

Even with the Institute, I am not afraid of some Skynet Catastrophe taking place. Mama Murphy's drug addled visions prophesied that a player siding with the Institute will not be love (example: Piper and Nick) but that we will save humanity, however we choose to define it (so it's not just the Institute's version of "humanity," namely themselves).

[Deleted4363562User]

Your point is partially taken, but I still totally disagree. The synths have, on more than one occasion, been programmed for a nefarious task without being aware of it; not unlike that of Boomer in Battlestar Galactica. :smile: It really doesn't matter if their personality is "good" or "bad" or even if they have good intentions. The bottom line is that they have been programmed ahead of time, and there's no way to determine whether or not their intentions are benign. Sure they cannot reproduce, but once you take a look at what the synths have done in Acadia, there's really no reason to think that they wouldn't seek to replicate and further augment themselves. And again, if you are familiar with the anecdotal "AI that writes hand-written notes" their hidden prime directives could quickly spiral out of control.

 

EDIT: Sorry I didn't address this before, but even if the synths are only an AGI and an equivalent to human intellect, their bodies are not totally made of biological material; they have synthetic parts. If a human brain was somehow made up of a digital or fiber optic medium, it would be far more efficient and superior to that of a normal human brain because it could transfer and manipulate data much faster. This partially explains why Dima started off as something primitive and became something more advanced in a relatively short period of time. In short, the run away AI scenario is still a very real threat.

[CyrusAmell]

When push comes to shove ya, they will resort to tactics deemed needed to survive (just like humans). With DiMA I suspect the guy hit a wall technologically, hence why he needs to dump his memory like its frigging Harry Potter or some such. So further developments are unlikely to confound and amaze, let alone threaten.

 

As for synths being superior just because some parts are mechanical, I disagree. The institute made them so perfectly human that they can actually get infected (slated upgrade notice in Robotics Terminals). Coursers even use Stimpaks. Synths really are just people, and there are few if any advantages over humans. They can certainly be wired for greater capabilities, but not on their own - only the Institute has the tech and know-how.

 

So with the synths the AI threat scenario is less of a threat. That threat was made manifest in "President Eden" back in Fallout 3, who wanted to kill everyone with the FEV. This threat was also introduced into Fallout Flavor Texts with Vault Zero in Brotherhood Tactics. So while such a threat is a part of Fallout's irradiated landscape, it is not one I would associate with the Synths who were made too human to be a greater threat to humans than normal humans. Only with the Institute and DiMA's machinations is this threat potentially greater.

[jcdenton2012]

Yeah... about that President Eden thing... that's slightly inaccurate. Did you observe how that purified FEV water actually killed people? You actually died from constant unregulated exposure to the FEV water thus giving the impression that the water itself was actually cleansing mutation as advertised... but without moderated treatment the FEV water sort of just killed all the cells in the human body rather than slowly scrub them clean of mutated cells and that's why you died after 3 shots of the stuff. When you take that into consideration... Eden was indeed cleansing the human gene-pool of mutation, but without the infrastructure to maintain moderated use... well... he just kinda killed everyone without explaining to them that it was supposed to be consumed in small doses rather than in large gulps.