I always put Danse at the Slog so he can enjoy the company. Hancock, too.

May I remind you that the Colonial War for America's Independence was fought by a militia army? If enough people join for the right cause, great things can be achieved.

As for the Brotherhood, I have always respected them in every FO game I've played. I feel that most of the members I meet have true integrity. FO 4 BoS has even announced that they want to help the people, which is the first time, since Lyons, that their faction has that intent. Now, I guess we can speculate about ulterior motives, but I do believe them to be sincere. I guess the Institute just poses too great of a risk (in their minds) and to not get involved into the affairs of the Commonwealth would be foolish for such a large organization.

Of course, it definitely depends on how each side plays out and how much support they have. Historically the MM have always been a force for good and the BoS are a newcomer, and mostly an unknown entity. If they play it right after destroying the Institute, and really help the people then they will get that support. If they start to just take all the food and good tech they might make enemies.

Yes, the Minutemen WERE a force for good, before they fell to infighting, abandoned the people and dissolved. The current Minutemen are having to work to rebuild their reputation and regain the trust of the people. If they're up against a Brotherhood that has defeated the Institute, ferals and super mutants, they don't stand a chance without a major Brotherhood screw-up.

And the Woman Out of Time is the best damned lawyer left in this world. She'll represent the [censored] out of the Commonwealth!

The colonials won because they used guerilla warfare and the Brits were used to formal war where you marched your army to the field face to face did your fanfare and then fought.

Um, no. The Continental Army, that did the lion's share of the fighting, was a professional army that was training ed by Europeans and fought by European rules.


Even the colonial generals of the Continental Army knew how unreliable militias were.

That is where we would have to disagree. I would hold them responsible as they would allow and even be ok if you used force. I like the brotherhood in general but the leadership of this group is stooping close to raider status.

I have now tried all the factions. Even becoming Director of the Institute. But I keep coming back to the Brotherhood of Steel. They are hands down my favorite faction.

Ad Victoriam!

They're protecting caravans to get cheaper deals when trading. that's not raider status.

I must have missed the staff meeting where all the BOS leadership endorsed extorting supplies from the locals. As far as I know only Proctor Teagan is ok with this, and the SS still has the choice to purchase the supplies. The SS is the one who is truly deciding what the BOS policy will be. Its a chance for the Player to RP what the nature of the BOS will be in the Commonwealth.

Also, the BOS attitude towards non-feral ghouls seems to be just talk. Unless I missed the 'Cleansing of Good Neighbor' quest where we round up the non-feral and mass execute them.

Even Lyons BOS would take pot shots at non-feral, with the added courtesy of missing.

What is the best way to succeed at that first quest Maxson sends you on? I think it is a radiant arc . . . It seems you MUST board a vertibird and fly to a location and kill stuff. I dislike this kind of crap. I'd just go there on foot and kill everything, or if the game let me, strap in with my rifle and use that instead of the silly minigun.

SPOILERS!!

First quest Maxson sends you on, you only have to kill the Super Mutant Behemoth with the mini gun. Then the vertibird will land and you're on foot for the rest of it.

"Only" the Behemoth!?

I did it two or three times. The vertibird pilot apparently forgot how to hover and the bird itself seems about as durable as tin foil. Not to mention, I have zero perks in heavy weapons.

First time, went down in flames. Second time, killed the behemoth, started to land . . . went down in flames. Third time, something along the same lines happened.

At which point I thought: hmmm, should I be wearing power armor maybe, so that when this [censored] pilot kamikazes his bird into the Muties I just bounce instead of going splat?

I absolutely DESPISE this kind of game element: put me on a rail car with a machine gun I cannot get out of and FORCE me to kill a boss while the game auto-pilots me around in circles. Absolutely horrific game design.

I can understand them wanting to "show off" their neato vertibirds and miniguns (as lame a I find them to be) but FORCING me to ride in them and shoot them in order to complete a quest!? Unforgivable breach of open-world game design.

A mod to make Maxson give you a choice will be my first priority when GECK is released: Do you want to land outside the Mutie camp and go in on foot?

Poor Behemoth. Just trying to get along when this guy in armor shows up with his mini-gun and starts wailing on him. Poor Behemoth.

That's why I shoot vertibirds and BoS out of the sky and on sight. Their both surprisingly susceptible to my tricked out missile launcher. Don't even need to use my mini-nukes.

Indeed, which is why I said "close" to raider status.

I'm not a big fan of the BoS, or ANY of the factions really. But I want to see as much of the game content (including all the factions quests) as possible before GECK comes out so I can focus on modding and know what it is I am modding.

The BoS are pretty cool aesthetically. Power Armor is objectively bad ass (though the fact that they don't seem to bother upgrading their helmets and it is so easy for me to one-shot them seems . . . silly), the random BoS patrols and attacks are cool overall, the vertibirds are cool (even though they are papier mache), even mini-guns are cool it is just that they are weak as hell.

So I'm not "opposed" to checking out as much of the BoS quests as I can before I'm forced to make a choice (at which point I will go do RR or Inst quests until the same point, and then "finish" the game with Minutemen, and hopefully destroy all three of the other factions). But scripted railroad-track engagements really get my dander up.

Bethesda is just lucky this is the first one I've encountered in hundreds of hours of play, so I guess I can forgive them this one time . . .

I don't like forced gameplay style either, but that part didn't seem too bad..? The only problem I had was the game itself crashing on me once. Other than that the Behemoth went down easy, I had more problems with the ordinary mutant zerg rush on the ground. No perks in heavy weapons either, and I was wearing Kellogg's armor.

Eh, that is the ONLY time they require you to do anything like that. It can be over very quickly, too. It took me only one try and I also didn't have any perks in Heavy Guns. That was even before I installed a MOD to buff vertibirds. While the fragility of the vertibirds is a problem, the real problem is the minigun. The biggest problem with the minigun isn't it's lack of damage, but rather that in continuous fire it's spread increases to ridiculous levels, making it impossible to hit anything. I could understand that horrible spread if you were carrying it, but you're not. Mounting it to the vertibird should make it a much more stable and accurate weapon. Because of this, though, you have to figure out how to use it. The minigun needs to be fired in short bursts. The bursts need to be short enough to keep the spread under control, but frequent enough that the minigun does have time to wind down. If you do that, and if your aim is decent, it really doesn't take very long to kill the behemoth.

Yeah, right, poor behemoth. I'm sorry, but there is only one thing about super mutants or behemoths that makes me feel the least bit of pity for them and that is that they were created by a madman. Beyond that they deserve every bullet I or anyone else puts into them.

Ah, good advice Mith, thanks. I was just running it constantly based on the fact it has that rev up period. Will try firing it in shorter bursts next time.

I love 'em. It's like going to a family reunion for me. Their conversations are just perfect.

FEV made 'em what they are today. After my experiences with Stroud, I have a vast amount of respect and understanding for them.

I can even understand the ferals to a point.

It's the people that I haven't a clue about. They're the confusing and dangerous ones.

Just keep in mind that while it takes time to rev up, it also takes time to rev down. If you fire again while the barrels are still spinning, the time it takes to rev up again will be significantly shorter, maybe even negligible.

Hmmm, I've got about 8000 rounds of 5mm cached from nearly the entire time I've been playing. Maybe I should get some practice using the minigun before I go to the Prydwen!

I'm sure they'd love to have you at their next party. They might even talk about you for days or even weeks afterwards. Well, provided you aren't too tough or stringy.


The only thing the FEV did was turn them into large green monsters, nothing more. I might consider their anger and hatred justified if they directed it towards those that deserve it, the Institute and it's scientists. They don't, though. They direct it at all humans. They direct it at humans that have no other desire than to raise their crops and survive. But no, the super mutants raid and kill them. Now add to that the fact that humans seem to be their favorite thing to eat. The number of super mutants that try to get along with humans or even leave them alone, are minimal at best. So no, they deserve what they get.


And ferals are easy to understand. They're mindless. The only thing left in their heads is the desire to kill and eat anything they come across that isn't a ghoul. There's a ghoul that spent 200 years trying to teach his feral family members to be more than that, but utterly failed. So yeah, putting them down is not only justified, but an act of mercy.