I still play Skyrim and I still cringe every time some dope head says "So, what...you fetch the mead?" about my involvement with the Companions after I become Harbinger. That is probably one of the biggest oversights in that game and it's so disappointing that none of my actions really had any impact on my immediate environment. So, I get to take a few crumbs off the table without them calling the guards on me, but I'm still treated like a new player.

I really hope Beth has incorporated some mechanics that lets NPCs recognize your achievements, good or bad, sorta similar to the old karma system, but with a more obvious impact on your fellow wastelanders. Getting a discount at the stores is fine, but you don't really need that or even notice it. A little respect among the general public is really more valuable to me as an indicator of my actions.

What do you guys think Beth has done in regards to this in FO4?

I agree that has been an annoyance since I first played Oblivion. Hopefully they have done something about that but I won't hold my breath.

even if they just made it like fallout 3 where some random would bring you stuff I'd be fine with that ,you're right that did get old around the 300 hour mark on skyrim.

Sometimes, the gamer ego needs to be stroked by being reminded how awesome/evil they are.

Well, not so much the ego, I guess, as annoyance with the attitude and ignorance of the general public. If someone knows you're a Companion, e.g., they would probably also know if you're the Harbinger, and unless they're looking for a fight, why would they talk to you like you're a nobody?

I've always felt that this is sort of an unavoidable limitation that could be easily worked around with a different approach to the plot. I understand there's kind of no avoiding the epic story in Skyrim, but the Fallout universe gives such a great opportunity to avoid the whole "my actions have no consequences" by simply limiting the scope of the story. Don't go making the protagonist the Chosen One Who Saves the Wasteland; there's no possible way to accurately portray the consequences of actions that grand in the game world. Just make him another survivor, scraping by an existence, and make the main quest more personal, more micro instead of macro. Instead of having an epic struggle against The Institute, what if the protagonists main quest was just about locating his kid? Sure, have the BoS fight the Institute in the background, and sure, you could even have the protagonist participate in some way. But don't give him the option to completely shape the narrative of the entire wasteland. You can't do the consequences justice, and getting access to making those grand decisions always feels incredibly forced anyway (seriously, why the hell is Mr. House trusting some random courier with the chip he's been desperately seeking for hundreds of years? Or Caesar? You just met the guy! But no totally, because "you just got that look about you" he'll totally trust you with the fate of his invasion. The only interaction that makes sense in that entire game is when the Brotherhood sticks a bomb on you. /endrant).

TL:DR- Tell a more personal, less "grand scifi epic" sort of story in the main quest to avoid the whole "your actions have no consequences" feeling.

A valid concern, double so within the guild itself. One can only hope they've taken reputation and status into account as we rustle the jimmies of the status quo of Boston.
Secretly I wouldn't mind a dialogue option late-game that's essentially "Do you know who I am? I'm kind of a big deal."

This is a really good point and totally how I prefer to play RPGs. You can save the world too, but without anyone knowing about it cause you aren't part of a major faction. You can also just fly under the radar while the world is going nuts around you, just doing your thing. It's really only if you do something that everyone should know about it becomes a weird situation.

Fallout 3 had Three Dog who recognized and commented on your deeds (good and bad). New Vegas had Mr. New Vegas keeping track of what you did. My guess is they will do something similar in Fallout 4.

"Fallout 3 had Three Dog who recognized and commented on your deeds (good and bad). New Vegas had Mr. New Vegas keeping track of what you did. My guess is they will do something similar in Fallout 4."

"even if they just made it like fallout 3 where some random would bring you stuff I'd be fine with that"

These are all just examples of how pathetic it looks when they try and show consequences to your epic actions. You PURIFIED WATER- that's Jesus the Prophet level actions. In a game that accurately displayed your consequences, towns would be built, vegetation would start to grow, and there wouldn't be a person in the wasteland who wouldn't know your name. Hell, you'd probably be treated like some sort of prophet- even have your own cult.

The problem is all of this change for just the late game simply isn't feasible, which is why it's so much better to have a more personal story. GTA 5 is an excellent example; you're just another shmoe looking to get a piece of the big city. and sure, by the end you do, but you're still just a drop in the bucket; your actions didn't change Los Santos forever. You didn't save them from an alien invasion or the plague. And thus the game can move on, and you can feel the weight of your consequences in your interactions with the people who know and care about them. But that's the beauty of it; most people in the city don't care, nor should they; you're just another thug in the cesspool that is Los Santos. Make a personal story like that for Fallout, and I guarantee you have a better time.

Plants wouldnt grow if there weren't seeds, and definitely not overnight.
I swear people came out of Broken Steel like it was gonna terraform the place.

Basically this.

I saw similar reactions to the death of Titus Mede in Skyrim, people complaining that the Empire didn't collapse the next day because of it. It's like, you do know that the Emperor, much like the President, isn't really THAT important to the operation of the nation?

All the generals still have their orders, and will keep following them until new orders are given by whoever becomes Emperor next, and all the people running the farms, the trade routes, the stores, and everything else will just go about thier day like normal. Nothing happens becuase nothing would logically happen besdes "Man, Titus Mede is dead, that svcks!" or "Man, Titus Mede is dead, that's great!"

When you think about it Fallout 3 gave us a very realistic outcome to basically pushing the ON button to the giant Britta Filter (that we had no involvement in its design or construction other than as an errand monkey)
By outcome I of course mean Project Purity in operation, water caravans and checkpoints. You did it. You brought clean water to the wasteland.
Unless you chose the stupid ending and did what Eden told you to.

Titus Mede didn't really run the Empire anyway. After Martin died the The Elder Council took full control and made the Emperor a puppet. This is also heavily hinted at in the Dark Brotherhood questline in Skyrim. But hey people don't want to listen to or read the info they get, they rather bash the game.

Beth doesn't have a really good track record for having the players actions in-game, actually have any consequences....... Let's hope they can change that with FO:4.

If you can't do it right, don't do it all. I rather they tell a good story without having to be all about choice and consequence, which no Bethesda game is about.

Fallout, ostensibly, IS about choices, and consequences. At least, it was before beth bought the IP.

Oh I would argue they do, they just are not something that happens after the credits finish. Players want instantaneous results of their actions and the world morphed overnight.
This is why New Vegas ends. A new power base takes control. They would have to make an entirely new game to properly reflect the change in power structure in the Mojave.
Skyrim dropped the ball with the Civil War. That I can agree with. Oblivion and Morriwind held it better with an air of unsettled peace, like people looking around going "Is it over? Can I get on with my life?"

Actually, after Martin's death, the Elder Counsil took over and ruled The Empire for 10 years until Ponatate Ocato, formally the head councilmen, was assassinated by a Thalmor agent.

The Empire fell into a 7 year long period of turmoil called the Stormcrown Interregnum, which only ended when Titus Mede, the first one, gathered a force and took the throne for himself, forcing the Elder Councill to accept his rule over that of Thules the Gibbering, a nibenese witch-warrior had had been crowned emperor by the Elder Counsil, but was hated by most people.

Some 151 years later, in the year 4E168, his descendant, who took the name Titus Mede II as his "emperor name", was crowed, and then in 4E171 the Great war happened.

Nothing suggests the Elder Councill made the Medes puppet emperors at any point. In fact, the Medes were rather forceful in making the Elder Council bow to them, which is likely why several of them conspired to have Titus Mede II killed in Skyrim.

But the overall point does still stand. Killing the Emperor would logically result in nothing really happening.

Well Uriel Septim VII was assassinated and he was a most definitely a significant emperor, and the Empire didn't automatically plunge into chaos or whatever as people would like to believe. Basically the same reaction as with Titus Mede.

"Nothing happens because nothing would logically happen besides "Man, Titus Mede is dead, that svcks!" or "Man, Titus Mede is dead, that's great!"

It's been ages since I've played Skyrim (and I honestly can't remember if I finished the main quest, god was it boring) so I can't really speak to that, but while you could argue about vegetation regrowing, there is no doubt that the consequences of getting the purifier online and destroying the Enclave would be staggering (especially given that Broken Steel takes place... weeks? months? after the main game). There would be huge consequences, yet we don't see any.

But that's just one issue with telling an epic; another negative angle of going for the huge macro story is that it almost never makes sense given your character's background. In Fallout 3 they do a semi-ok job of justifying your position in the main quest, given that you're the son of the guy who makes the purifier. However, 'the Courier" was perhaps the stupidest possible backstory for the protagonist considering the size of the role he takes on in the main quest. Why the [censored] do all these factions trust this guy and give him such huge responsibilities? He's NOBODY! He's just another wastelander with brain damage who doesn't even know the value of what he was carrying. But no, "You've got something special in ya kid, I just feel it. Want to tell me how to run my military campaign?"

I can almost guarantee Fallout 4 is going to suffer the same pitfalls; you're some pre-war ice-cube fresh out of the vault; why the hell would the BoS hand you tactical command of their entire Boston operation five minutes after you show up?

This is why I prefer cataclysmic storylines (Morrowind, Oblivion, Fallout 1) to political ones. Much more wiggle room to be a nobody who becomes a somebody, and the aftermaths are so much easier to implement. Politics are messy, complicated, and way to complex to properly situate in a video game in end-game results.

Stop the Doomsday device/Madman trying to do the thing, you can stand on the pile of your enemies bodies and understand the results. If the game is gonna continue after the main quest, I prefer that. Being able to leave the final zone after doing the thing, and getting back to business, with the occasional NPC utterance of "Well, that got crazy fast" and I can go "I KNOW RIGHT!...Nuka Cola?"

A. Broken Steel starts two weeks after Fallout 3 ends.
B. Two weeks is not enough time for anything major to happen.
C. The defeat of the Enclave wouldn't do much, as they weren't doing much before their defeat besides operating some lone checkpoints, and digging in around the purifier. And the checkpoints would contiue to act as they were until the got new orders, and the dudes around the prufier were beaten so...... yeah.

It would have logically taken the BoS several days to build all the stuff they have around the prufier, another few days to contact Rivet City and work out all the transportation agreements, several more days to not only get the word out that they needed people and Brahmin to come to Rivet city to start hauling the water to towns, but it would have taken also SEVERAL MORE days for enough people to actually get to The Purfier and Rivet City before they could actually start sending out shipments.

This is on top of the BoS having to spend time organizing and planing assaults against various Enclave outposts and installations, which they were doing the whole two weeks you were out cold.

Basically, the would have really only had like 4-5 days of actually sending out the water. The rest of the other two weeks would have just been them getting all this [censored] worked out.

Well the main character was in the military and we don't know what rank. The main character might well have experience in that sort of thing because of it.

Not that I'm happy about having a set background, but that would be going off topic.

I agree, He-Who-Remains. Oblivion handled it competently enough; you save the world, and people don't need to particularly care beyond the "whew, glad the world didn't end," because saving the world doesn't really change the state of it much.