Okay, gave up on all the complications of trying to follow the Railroad line, instead I picked a line which made Institute hostile, and MinuteMen more friendly. This caused Railroad to say "we can't handle this any more, we need help from the MinuteMen", and send me away for now. BoS is already hostile long ago, so everything is resting on MinuteMen.

Problem is, I'm stuck in Form Ranks quest. Other sources are saying that I need at least 8 settlements recruited for this to progress; I have at least 9, including Sanctuary; all 9 have all the resources that they need (i.e., all resources show Green). But every time I talk to Preston, he just gives me another one or two of the endless "help the settlement with (ghouls/green men/raiders/etc)" quests, and after 100 or so of those in a row, I'm bored to tears and don't want to bother any more.

What is this quest waiting for?? Is this yet another quest that is tied to a quest in some other faction line??

The Minutemen settlement quests are actually a series of takeover quests for certain settlements, probably you'll need to progress through all those (not just any random settlement). Not 100% certain on this though. Have you done the Castle quests for the Minutemen?

I don't like Preston and started over so I could leave him and his band of wierdos where they were.

I also did not like the endless quests he gives, just for walking past him.


I hope you find an answer. I feel for you.

I am having fun exploring without Preston on my back.

The settlers give me quests just fine.

I *partially* did the original Castle quest... I got stuck on test-firing the cannon, because of various well-documented bugs in that quest, one of which I got caught by (i.e., I can't get anyone to actually fire the cannon, even though I put the marker where it needs to be.). I wonder if *that* is what the game is waiting for? I read about five different articles with various suggestions on how to resolve it, most of which depended upon combinations of console hacks.

I'm starting to think that perhaps I should delete my current game, and set FO4 aside for about 6 or 8 or 10 months, to let another couple dozen bug fixes get fed out from Bethesda.

Ohhh... maybe that's what it wants. I didn't bother with Banished, since I know what they're going to say and I don't care...

I'll try it and see what happens...

Later note:

I completed Banished from the Institute, then rested for 24 hours, went back to talk to Preston, and nothing has changed.

I have no outstanding major quests except for 'Form Ranks'...