Long story short, meeting Dogmeat and the scene at Concord should have happened later in the game.

As many have pointed out, you can skip concord and still access the main storyline by going to Goodneighbor and using the memory den, which will then tell you to look for Nick. And upon discovering Kellogg's old house (if you haven't met Dogmeat yet) Nick will then introduce you to Dogmeat in a proper fashion. And you continue the quest line as normal. During the following quest with Dogmeat, it teaches you things that Dogmeat can do, more or less.

Going to Goodneighbor first makes more sense due to the fact there is a lot more "tutorial" type questions you can ask the various NPCs. Same goes for the folks at Diamond City, lots of tutorial questions there.

Alternatively, I'm pretty sure you can also choose to just go to Diamond City without the quest and you may be able to ask around as well.

((So based on your type of character you could choose to go to Diamond City if you're a 'good or neutral character" or to Goodneighbor if you're a neutral, shady/evil, or mercenary type character.))

And upon skipping the concord nonsense Codsworth could have just been you companion as a "tour guide" more or less. also he should have known that there wasn't anyone in Concord.


A few things that bugged me about Prestons crew.
1.) After discovering them in concord and getting them to Sanctuary they're completely useless and don't contribute to anything else in the game, yet are essential for some reason. (If you make Sturges non essential you discover he's a synth)

2.) they are a LONG LONG way from Quincy!!!! How the hell did they get to Concord? Why didn't they go to the Atom Cats? Or even to Diamond City/Good Neighbor?? But no they go to the exact opposite side of the map. And why would they want to be at Concord?! It's desolate!!! There were so many forts and settlements with neutral or friendly people along the way.

3.) They begin "Minutemen quests" which are just constant radiant quests... Which isn't necessarily a bad thing since they'll unlock access to Castle, which again is a long ass treck from Sanctuary. (And only Preston goes. The other 4 losers (or 3 if you gave mama too many drugs) don't even come with. There could have been different unique quests following castle, such as retaking Quincy! Or an assault/revenge on the gunners there, perhaps Sturges wanted to retake his gear/tech.

4.) speaking of Quincy... Like I said before its on the exact opposite side of the map from Sanctuary. Meaning if you slowly travel south and do most of the side quests and exploring until then, you'll most likely be in the upper 30s/40s. Everything in this area is tough. So how did those weaklings survive the treck to Sanctuary?

5.) Preston doesn't really give a crap about your Son/quest. He just cares about rebuilding the Minutemen, which is fine... If you meet him later. Instead of trying to derail you so early in the game to help his agenda instead of finding out more clues about your son. Perhaps he could have said he heard word from some settlers you guys helped about a young boy with a bald guy after doing a few more radiant quests...

All in all. If you let the Concord crew later; it would have been more practical story-wise and having a junkie fortune teller reveal clues to the main story to help you if you get stuck would be way more appreciative later in the game.



What are your thoughts about the Concord crew, Dogmeat, and how the beginning of the story is played out?

You should have been the synth, not danse.

The real you should've been Father, not Shaun.

The settlements are fun but a little too time consuming for me. I set up a settlement at Sanctuary and that's it. I use Red Rocket as my base. I think the first quest is "First Steps" for the MM. I just don't bother doing it. I also noticed if you pic the Rail Road to help with the Teleporter, you have the option of using Mercer Safehouse(which would have been a MM settlement) as the building site for the teleporter. Unless your choosing to side with the MM, just deal with them at your leisure. I've also noticed if you dont choose to set up settlements, many of these locations you run across will have people needing help with finding a person and such. After which, you will be able to use their workshop and build regardless of the MM.

I like that. Honestly, Danse could have been a Synth too, who cares if he is or isn't?

Also, when I heard the Son got kidnapped back when they were still revealing the game, I thought you'd meet up with your son (who was turned into a GHOUL) and he'd be a possible companion, that would have been neat.

Start a new game and head for goodneighboor after vault 111. You'll be in for a surprise.

The vault tec rep is neither your son or a companion.