Steal other factions items?

[stebbinsd]

There comes a point in the main questline where you have to choose to make enemies with factions. At the end, only one faction can be left standing.

 

Me personally, I usually choose either the Minutemen or the Railroad, since their hearts tend to be in the right place, whereas the BOS and Institute seem to have deluded themselves into thinking their the good guys.

 

However, the Institute and BOS give me access to the best and most lucrative items! In Survival Mode, the BOS' vertibirds are a godsend due to the inability to fast travel, and the Institute's relay system is equally valuable on lower difficulties because I can fast travel without time passing in-game. That doesn't sound like much, but it enables me to kill raiders while getting the extra XP from a berry mentats, relay back to the settlement to report my success, and then relay back to Preston to turn in the quest, and still have the berry mentats active so I can get the increased XP from completing the quest. It also enables me to keep the improved trading prices from a grape mentats because I'm relaying back and forth between my settlement and Diamond City market.

 

But the travel conveniences aren't the only thing. The BOS power armor would be increadibly useful for equipping my settlers for better defense, and the Institute's knowledge of how to create coursers could REALLY be put to good use by other factions, provided we program these coursers to be entirely loyal to our respective faction and to make no secret that they are synths.

 

That latter one is important. After all, when you think about it, the majority of commonwealth citizens only really hated synths, not because they were synthetic, but because of the deception involved. For example, Mr. Handies and Assaultrons are accepted members of society, and Myrna from Diamond City Surplus sums up society's acceptance of them in a single sentence regarding her business partner Percy: "At least I can tell he's a robot." Meanwhile, when you enter the Diamond City stands for the first time, you overhear a rich man talking to a Mr. Handy waiter, where he says "See, that's what I love about you. You know who you are; you're not trying to be anything but helpful." Only the Brotherhood of Steel despised synths on concept alone.

 

But if I make enemies out of these factions, all those goodies are gone forever!

 

So what if, after conquering a faction, my soldiers would seize the weapons, armor, and travel technology and use it for themselves. I can use flare guns to signal for assistance from nearby minutemen ... AND I can use vertibird flares to signal for a minutemen vertibird! Once I infiltrate the institute the first time, Sturges mentions that they won't fall for that trick again, which is why we have to enter the second time through the sewer system. But if the Minutemen and/or the Railroad control the Institute's relay system, there's no reason we can't continue to use the relay system even after the Institute is destroyed! Sure, the relay system probably got blown up along with the rest of the Institute, but that can be easily circumvented by putting a magazine called "Relay Schematics" somewhere in the Institute during that quest that allows the player to build relays in settlement mode.

 

We could also gain control of the Prydwyn, which can be used as a new Base of Operations for whichever faction I side with. A magazine could be placed inside Mass Fusion that would give us the ability to add BOS paints to our power armor, just like the Hod Rod magazines do.

 

Anyone else second?

[genolune]

If you side with the Brotherhood, you don't have to go to war with the Minutemen and there is a mod to spare the Railroad, so settlements (particularly on survival mode for beds, water and food) + artillery + vertibirds + power armor + deliverer + ballistic weave = massive profit!

 

I like the idea though. Even if it sounds like essentially what the Brotherhood does (seizing technology for themselves). As for the ending, if you destroy the Institute you also destroy the power supply to the teleporter so maybe a better way to conquer and utilize the resources of the other factions? No reason why you can't protect the Commonwealth literally at a minute's notice (via teleportation).

[stebbinsd]

As for the ending, if you destroy the Institute you also destroy the power supply to the teleporter

You're able to create your own teleporter when you infiltrate the Institute for the first time. So there is certainly evidence in-game to suggest that, while the relay may require a lot more power than nearly anything else you might build, it certainly is not out of reach. Each relay would require a total of 27 power, which is a lot more than the second most power-consuming item in the vanilla game (the industrial water purifier, which uses a comparatively puny 5 power). But unlike turrets and water purifiers, you'll only ever need one per settlement. So it's entirely within reach.

 

And maybe those little teleporters are merely working alongside the main one. Fair enough. All we would need is the ability to relay back and forth between the base of operations which would contain a single, parent relay that uses about 500 power. It would still be within reach.

 

Also ...

 

 

Even if it sounds like essentially what the Brotherhood does (seizing technology for themselves).

Not quite. The BOS uses the technology they acquire, sure. But their agenda goes beyond simply plundering others with a military attitude as opposed to a raider attitude. Their goal is to rid the rest of the world of advanced technology because they believe they're the only ones who can be trusted not to pull a Vault-Tec on the world and use the technology to destroy the world solely for the purpose of more scientific research.

 

You'd know that if you played any previous Fallout games. Their mission is much clearer in previous games. But here's a video which helps explain it:

 

Edited December 26, 2016 by stebbinsd