Only references I've seen to the Enclave is their Fallout 2 power armor, a rare mention from the Brotherhood of Steel, and a pre-war Boston Bugle article about the President and his staff fleeing to the Poseidon Oil Rig "Control Station Enclave" off the coast of California.

Personally, I'm glad they're not in the game. Their presence in Fallout 3 was already beating a dead horse, and New Vegas gave them such a great send off... bringing them back again would only cheapen that.

Nah I don't think so. It boils down to the descendants of politicians and corporatocracy vs the descendants of scientists and college professors. Sure there's overlap, but both sides want different things.

Well, I imagine the whole reason the Institute exists was because of a contingency plan put in place by the U.S. Government following their plans to escalate things to nuclear war. Same with the vaults. There was probably a directive for the scientists to reunite with the Enclave following their return.

Unfortunately for them, and fortunately for everyone else, they started on opposite sides of the country and had their plans ruined by the Chosen One/Brotherhood of Steel.

Meh... I rather there be pockets of different surviving factions with their own conflicting agendas. I wouldn't like it if the Institute ended up being the Enclave's lost little brother.

See, I kind of like how the darker side of the Institute actually correlates with all things Enclave (surface world is a lost cause, any experiment or operation that advances our goals is justified, etc.).

The Institute is more like Dead Money in Fallout crossed with the Big Empty.

The scientists there saw the End of the World coming so they decided to build their own hidey hole underneath their university to live out the apocalypse in style.

And it worked.

No need for them to be related to the Enclave, which is already tied to everything Vault related.

The Institute and the Enclave working together? Good joke, one of them want to wipe all traces of the pre-war America, the other is self proclaimed visage of the U.S; yeah, their cooperation would work soo well (sarcasm).

Honestly? The Enclave would sooner try to take over the institute, rather than team up with it.

The Institute wanting to wipe out traces of Pre-War America is such a BIZARRE damn goal.

I wouldn't be surprised if some Enclave remnants or their tech were the focus of a DLC.

Right now I'm debating if I want to make a Fallout 4 mod for the Enclave Radio like I did in New Vegas. I've got ideas, but not sure if they'd really fit in the world of Fallout 4...aka not sure if anyone would want to listen to the Pro-Government ramblings of a guy who is pretty clearly living in his own delusions at this point.

I haven't met them yet so I may be talking out my rear, but strikes me it's a social experiment writ large. Eradicate all knowledge and traces of Pre-War America and then sit back and observe how civilization rebuilds itself without a "history". Sort of taking things back to the 17th Century and letting the colonies hash out their identities.

To be fair, "The Brotherhood of Steel" isn't one organization anymore and hasn't been since Fallout: Tactics. There are three known main bodies of the BoS; the original on the West Coast, the one based out of Chicago and the one based out of the Citadel on the East Coast. The latter 2, having left on missions away from the leadership of the original BoS have reinterpreted the purpose of the BoS and I find this to be a very realistic thing for humans to do. No organization is a fully unified block, there will always be dissenters. Sometimes they shard off. And sometimes they make bad decisions, like Owen Lyons very nearly dooming his chapter of the BoS to a slow death in DC, at least until they started to get more tech and all of that from their war with the Enclave, which Arthur Maxson seem to be putting to good use.

Yeah, about that... You know that Arthur Maxon was appointed as Elder by Lost Hills? The contact has been reestablished by the end of BoS-NCR war.

Source? I would like to see anything on the BoS, really, in case there are things I have missed. My point still stands though, on the overall. People shard off, like Owen Lyons did. And people may end up ruining something because of good intentions, like Owen Lyons nearly did. And Arthur Maxson is clearly not a Lyons, being more interested in saving huamnity from itself than Super Mutants.

My best guess is that their using him to create a powerful army to destroy the NCR in a surprise attack from the east

Read some terminals on Prydwen.

see

I found a terminal in the Boston Bugle that mentions the Enclave in a news story dated 2077, stating the president has gone missing and is believed to be on an oil rig off of San Francisco with a secret group called The Enclave, that's the only time i've encountered them so far in 83 hours of gameplay.

Chicago DLC with the Enclave comin' out y'all!!!!

Chicago seems better for Fallout 5.

If we were given the option to rebuild the enclave The survivors came to you you play as the guy you are sergeant of the United states army or use to be they call for you Even if you play the women they give you same option I mean there are worse things than the enclave that the master army

Funny You mentioned rebuilding the Enclave... Did anyone here listened to Your own recruitment radio? It's basically Enclave Radio XD

Champion find mate, exactly what I've been waiting for for years now.

Glad i could be of help , if you don't mind me asking, why have you been waiting years ?, i'm not an expert in all the lore of the original games, so i don't know all the ins and outs of the history.

It just, finally, confirms the actual purpose of the "Enclave" before the war which is something that has been unknown since Fallout 2. I had already assumed what was in the article was the case but it's still nice to have it actually be canon now.

Isn't this really just Bethesda copying the Fallout bible's take on the matter?