why doesn't the institute...

[TheVampireDante]

I'm more wondering why no one ever explains to you about what happens with the kidnappings.

Suppose that would depend on why someone was taken.

 

Spoilers:

 

 

 

- Roger Warwick: The Bioscience division had an experiment that required access to long term surface farming. Warwick's location was perfect due to the fertile soil conditions. So replace Roger and use the location to run the trials. Roger was likely killed.

 

- Mayor McDonough: Obvious one here, surveillance over the largest and most trafficked settlement in the area. What better way to keep an eye on the surface than to have someone in a place to see/hear/dictate it all. Again, the original was probably killed.

 

- Certain traders/travelers: Same as the Mayor really, information gathering - but on more of a roaming/recon basis. They take in information from people they meet, travel or trade with and relay it back. Again, the original people are likely disposed of.

 

 

 

Then you have a different case with:

 

 

 

- T.S. Wallace - this one is different due to the institute actually requiring the person themselves, not their position/status on the surface. They want his help with their plan to activate their reactor, since his knowledge and ability would greatly advance their progress.

 

 

 

You get to see those few direct situations during your play through. As to why they don't explain it - well, I would expect with replacement cases, the originals are killed. Not exactly someone you want to outright state to someone you've just been told is your new boss and happens to be one of the most dangerous people you've likely ever met.

 

There's likely others like that last one that have been conducted over time, Kellogg for his skills, despite his role mainly leaving him on the surface (likely preferable for both parties).

 

 

And why you don't get to be an actual director, but just do fetch quests for other people as if you're just an employee.

 

Typical Bethesda endgame playing. You get a little acknowledgement and some nifty gear, home or companion. That's about it. Most of the divisions seem to self sufficient in their structure anyway, so I doubt there's much to do unless someone causes a problem.

 

 

Also wonder why they didn't kill the Railroad yet, because it takes like 5 minutes to find them. They even have a massive sign at the front door that indicates it's their base and the password is Railroad.

 

- because then you wouldn't be able to do it (if you are playing that way).

 

The general idea is that the railroad was seen as a minor annoyance and generally not worth the time. Especially since they already took a massive hit prior to you joining (losing Switchboard and other safehouses, plus agent deaths). It's only very recently that they apparently started "upping their game" and being more direct.

Plus the initial lack of knowing where they had moved to since the attack, since they likely lost track of the factions leadership after the attack. Was probably a point they had thought the Railroad was gone, since the group would take some time in hiding to regroup and assess their position.

 

The losses made the surviving Railroad members more determined to get their "job" done faster. Riskier plans, larger amounts of synths being moved at any given time. then there's what happens if you join since you become a major factor in assaults on patrol Synths, confrontations at key locations and interrupting institute plans directly. Once the institute realize the Railroad is still a problem worth looking into, there's a fair chance you've already turned them into a greater problem by joining the group.

[HeyYou]

 

I'm more wondering why no one ever explains to you about what happens with the kidnappings.

Suppose that would depend on why someone was taken.

 

Spoilers:

 

 

 

- Roger Warwick: The Bioscience division had an experiment that required access to long term surface farming. Warwick's location was perfect due to the fertile soil conditions. So replace Roger and use the location to run the trials. Roger was likely killed.

 

- Mayor McDonough: Obvious one here, surveillance over the largest and most trafficked settlement in the area. What better way to keep an eye on the surface than to have someone in a place to see/hear/dictate it all. Again, the original was probably killed.

 

- Certain traders/travelers: Same as the Mayor really, information gathering - but on more of a roaming/recon basis. They take in information from people they meet, travel or trade with and relay it back. Again, the original people are likely disposed of.

 

 

 

Then you have a different case with:

 

 

 

- T.S. Wallace - this one is different due to the institute actually requiring the person themselves, not their position/status on the surface. They want his help with their plan to activate their reactor, since his knowledge and ability would greatly advance their progress.

 

 

 

You get to see those few direct situations during your play through. As to why they don't explain it - well, I would expect with replacement cases, the originals are killed. Not exactly someone you want to outright state to someone you've just been told is your new boss and happens to be one of the most dangerous people you've likely ever met.

 

There's likely others like that last one that have been conducted over time, Kellogg for his skills, despite his role mainly leaving him on the surface (likely preferable for both parties).

 

 

And why you don't get to be an actual director, but just do fetch quests for other people as if you're just an employee.

 

Typical Bethesda endgame playing. You get a little acknowledgement and some nifty gear, home or companion. That's about it. Most of the divisions seem to self sufficient in their structure anyway, so I doubt there's much to do unless someone causes a problem.

 

 

Also wonder why they didn't kill the Railroad yet, because it takes like 5 minutes to find them. They even have a massive sign at the front door that indicates it's their base and the password is Railroad.

 

- because then you wouldn't be able to do it (if you are playing that way).

 

The general idea is that the railroad was seen as a minor annoyance and generally not worth the time. Especially since they already took a massive hit prior to you joining (losing Switchboard and other safehouses, plus agent deaths). It's only very recently that they apparently started "upping their game" and being more direct.

Plus the initial lack of knowing where they had moved to since the attack, since they likely lost track of the factions leadership after the attack. Was probably a point they had thought the Railroad was gone, since the group would take some time in hiding to regroup and assess their position.

 

The losses made the surviving Railroad members more determined to get their "job" done faster. Riskier plans, larger amounts of synths being moved at any given time. then there's what happens if you join since you become a major factor in assaults on patrol Synths, confrontations at key locations and interrupting institute plans directly. Once the institute realize the Railroad is still a problem worth looking into, there's a fair chance you've already turned them into a greater problem by joining the group.

 

Yep. The soul survivor is a catalyst for all sorts of mayhem in the commonwealth. Any faction he joins becomes a major threat to other factions. The Minute Men may be relatively safe, so long as you stick to settlement building, and wiping out bad guys on the surface, but, start interfering with the Institute, or BoS, and then a friggin war breaks out. (I am REAL curious where the BoS comes up with all those vertibirds, seems I can't walk two blocks without seeing one blown out of the sky......)

 

Would the commonwealth be a calmer place without the sole survivor sticking his nose into everyones business? I mean, after all, you ARE the catalyst that brings in the BoS. (right after you kill kellogg..... )

[AeonsLegend]

With regards to the Railroad. Doesn't make much sense. They say minor annoyance as you are. But they did assault their previous base en masse and still control it. If they were a minor annoyance, why assault their base and put that many resources in keeping it? Synths could have easily found the old north church base with info in the game.

 

With regards to the institute. I was more talking about the fac that they don't explain or take responsibility for what happened to abducted people. Did they abduct them before replacing them? Did they kill them? What the F happened? There's litterally no information in the institute on anything that's happening on the surface. I was hoping to question Father on a number of things, but those options were never granted and no one in the institute answers any important questions either. They're just there doing "the right" thing. Yea, so how bout those super mutants? Or how about Art? I mean he's not even dead yet. What happened to Roger Warwick? Answer me this eh? Not even Virgil is answering any questions. All you got is some vague transcript from a computer.

[TheVampireDante]

 

But they did assault their previous base en masse and still control it. If they were a minor annoyance, why assault their base and put that many resources in keeping it? Synths could have easily found the old north church base with info in the game.

 

The Railroad was apparently a much larger operation, with more resources, people and organization while working from the Switchboard. Having taken most of that and disrupting the entire command chain while taking out the main base, the Institute may have downgraded them to "minor annoyance".

Probably hoping that after such a massive defeat the surviving (and demoralized) members would pack up and quit, which would dissolve the Railroad without further intervention.

 

Leaving a few Synths there to make sure to pick of any stragglers or prevent attempts to retake the location isn't really a big issue for the Institute - If they were that concerned they'd likely have left a lot more and perhaps a courser or two.

Even with the few that were present, Desdemona and Carrington seem surprised that you and Deacon managed to make the trip by yourselves. If I recall Desdemona wanted to send Glory and a fair amount of backup for her to try that job.

 

Another example of the player being present tipping the balance.

 

 

With regards to the institute. I was more talking about the fac that they don't explain or take responsibility for what happened to abducted people. Did they abduct them before replacing them? Did they kill them? What the F happened?

I'd just put the lack of info/context on a lot of that on Bethesda's writing. Why I take it that most of the abducted are just killed to make way for their replacements. It's the only way I see them handling those situations since I doubt they'd bring them into the insitute's complex itself, or waste time and effort on erasing people's memories changing their looks like the railroad does with their runaway synths.

 

As for how. That's a tricky one since they'd either need prior contact of some sort to evaluate and study their target. Then they'd have to scan their memories into the synth and make it look like them.

If the abductions and replacements happen in a short time, then all they'd need is an opportunity to snatch their target. Preparing their synth in advance would be preferable I would think, but that doesn't seem to be the case all the time.

 

As you said, Art's situation is a strange one. In his case it appears to be that the replacement is the one that kills the original, but that entire encounter doesn't seem well planned at all. It makes for a much riskier approach since the chances of discovery are greater.

To be honest it looks like Art is either a target of another experiment that isn't explained - or it's just a random thing thrown in by the devs for the player to get involved in while wandering around (I see this as highly likely).

 

 

Yea, so how bout those super mutants?

 

Anything that alters genetic code is going to gain the institutes attention. Finding out how the FEV virus mutates materials and if those changes can be reversed would be of great interest.

 

From what Virgil was doing with his research, perhaps there was plans to create a mass produced "cure" to the Super mutant problem. Either eliminate the mutations entirely, or perhaps find a way to control the changes/effects. They'd likely end up with mutants like Marcus or Neil, with higher intelligence and temperment than most super mutants. Could be useful for working with hazardous materials that synths might not manage to handle for example. Or perhaps developing a variant of their radiation absorbing abilities to counteract the surface radiation (somewhat like that scribe on the Prydwen is attempting when she asks for help getting tissue samples for her project with anti-rad meds).

[AeonsLegend]

Strange from what I gathered from the research is that they created the supermutants, not tried to cure them. Although that was what Virgil was working on on the side. It doesn't really match with the Institute's views that they wanted to cure super mutants as they don't care about the world up there. No, I'm pretty sure they're responsible for creating the super mutants in the commonwealth. The logs say as much. It's the reason Virgil left.

 

Something else that really bugged me is the handling of Liam Binet during the quest Plugging a Leak. Everyone is seemingly ok with just kicking Liam out (or even killing, because no one is telling me wtf happens with him). Even his father Alan doesn't really change his tune after his son is gone. I was itching for going along with Liam and getting rid of Ayo, who's a dick, but I didn't like the dialogue options.

Edited January 13, 2020 by AeonsLegend

[TheVampireDante]

Strange from what I gathered from the research is that they created the supermutants, not tried to cure them. Although that was what Virgil was working on on the side. It doesn't really match with the Institute's views that they wanted to cure super mutants as they don't care about the world up there. No, I'm pretty sure they're responsible for creating the super mutants in the commonwealth. The logs say as much. It's the reason Virgil left.

That's what led to me thinking they were trying to work out how the FEV mutation works. So they could potentially recreate any "desirable" effects without the problematic ones. Expose test subjects (explanation for what happened to some of the abducted surface dwellers). observe and test their changes - if anything useful is found document it and continue research from that point.

 

Why they'd release live mutants instead of just incinerating them or used for further research is odd. Doing so doesn't make any sense other than "let's see what happens" - which is stupid since all they'd need to do is observe other areas with mutant infestations.

 

 

Something else that really bugged me is the handling of Liam Binet during the quest Plugging a Leak. Everyone is seemingly ok with just kicking Liam out (or even killing, because no one is telling me wtf happens with him). Even his father Alan doesn't really change his tune after his son is gone. I was itching for going along with Liam and getting rid of Ayo, who's a dick, but I didn't like the dialogue options.

 

Never actually went that route in that mission, I've always gotten rid of Ayo if I bother with it.

Liam would probably be sent to the surface, or at least that's what people would be told (I suspect Ayo would have other plans for him).

 

Again the lack of reactions is either bad writing, or just the lack of it. Probably didn't bother recording proper, long lasting reactions to Liam's "removal" - or they were cut for some reason. Besides, I doubt any of the other scientists would raise an objection in that situation in case they joined Liam.

They'd at least get on Justin's bad side, and he's enough of a pain to other departments as is.

[TheSpaceShuttleChallenger]

... already have a working fusion reactor?
Presumably lack of material resources. They are limited primarily to recycling things already found within the Institute's facilities.

... use conventional robots like protectrons and assaultrons?

Why would they? Protectrons and assaultrons are just remnants from an old and outdated society. They're great to have if there happens to be one lying around, but there's no sense trying to reverse engineer one if you already have Synths.

... have cars or vertibirds?
Not a lot of uses for a helicopter underground.

... talk to the enclave?

Until the development of the coursers (who remain few and far between) the institute had very limited self-defense capability, and relied entirely on secrecy to ensure that whatever violence went on above ground did not reach them. They probably are too confined within their own sphere to even be able to detect the Enclave, but if they did, they would almost certainly see it as an unnecessary risk to approach them.

... claim a chunk of the surface commonwealth and put up a wall around it?

Again. Secrecy. They don't need a surface settlement to survive, and building one would only advertise their existence to potential threats.

... do something for humanity like cure the mutants or wipe out feral ghouls?
1) They don't care. The surface is dead to them and frankly, it's probably in their best interest to remain detached. They barely have the resources to sustain their own advancement, let alone try to fix a planet that's so thoroughly destroyed.