I suspect the Brotherhood and Institute are at odds, which is ultimately what sets us against them.

Or, no matter how much the Brotherhood (specifically Lyons branch, which I think is safe to assume is "the new normal" for the Brotherhood) has changed its philosophy, the chance to acquire a survivor from before the Great War is too great a prize not to try and grab.

Third possibility, the "Brotherhood" in Fallout 4 is actually the Outcasts.

They have at least one by the end of Broken Steel, even if they have a few more from the war with the Enclave they wouldn't just fly to Boston right after 3. It could be them but it would have to be at least a few years after 3.

after defeating the enclave i would thank they would want to know why they lost all comnuaction to bos. considering they allied themselfs with rivet city they would be secure enough to send a decent force to boston without losing any ground.

There would be no reason to go to Boston if they were trying to get communications with the Brotherhood in the West back up. The Rivet City alliance wouldn't be enough to keep everything safe. After Broken Steel, the East Coast Brotherhood is just starting the expand its influence in the Capital Wasteland, and it's going to take time to fortify the water caravans and make the region safe, which because of the still large presence of Super Mutants, Slavers, and Raiders it isn't. There is also the issue of the Outcasts. The Brotherhood will probably clear up these issues eventually, but at the end of Broken Steel they aren't even close. Like I said if the game is at least a few years after 3, it could be possible but not if it's actually 2277.

i dont thank it would take as long as you thank. bos holds the purfied water. it seemed to me that all the settlments where trying to help with securing trade routs( sorry if its spelled wrong) also the outcast and prides group where not really fighting each other as far as i saw. the outcast just didnt agree with lyons ideas i dont thank it would take much to make some kind of arrangment with them. the biggest problem would be the super mutants which would take maybe a few months to just about take them out with the water clean. i just dont see lyons struggling with any of this

The Outcasts are in the middle of a civil war with Lyons. If Outcasts see Lyons' Brotherhood in game they will shoot at each other. If you have Star Paladin Cross as a companion she will start killing the Outcasts she sees. Trade routes were being set up, but there are Raiders and Bandits are attacking said trade routes. Lyons is not a very good leader to begin with. He waged a 20 year long war with the Super Mutants that resulted in nothing but death . He won't be able to fix all of the issues in a matter of weeks now that there is pure water. Granted they now know about Vault 87, so they will eventually be able to wipeout the Mutants, but they still have to deal with a civil war, raiders and bandits, and other issues such as Talon Company. In the end, they would still have no reason to go to the Commonwealth in 2277.

Lyons wont be able to do jack about the super mutants, because he has no means of reaching Vault 87 from above, and hes not enough of a dike to march an army through a bunch of kids who don't want him there. Nor does he really need to as the super mutant problem is basically already solved anyways. All the FEV chambers in Vault 87 are out of FEV, and with Broken Steel installed, super mutants gain new dialog about how they are noticing less and less of their kind because the "bucket heads" have been killing them. Lyons doesn't have to do anything besides keep killing them for another couple years before they are gone for good. They are on the verge of being wiped out, and were basically a non-threat to everyone except Big Town by the time the game begins anyways.

As for Talon Company, I suspect Bethesda will make the Broken Steel added BoS assault on Fort Bannister, the Talon Company's base, a success in canon, meaning they are out of the picture as well.

They will probably make the Fort Bannister assault canon, but as you say it will take another couple of years to wipe out all of the mutants, although this brings up the question of the mutants in 4, as they seem to exhibit similar traits to the mutants in 3, such as behemoths. Are they going to be mutants that have spread from DC or is Bethesda going to make more locations have FEV?

Back to DC, the raider assaults and water bandits are still an issue, and so are the Outcasts. Don't get me wrong, the DC Brotherhood will wind up fixing many issues in the Capital Wasteland, but I'm sure the Slavers, Raiders, Outcasts, and the remaining mutants will be more than enough to keep their hands full for the rest of 2277, and probably a little farther than that. There is still no real reason for them to just go to the Commonwealth right around the end of Fallout 3/Broken Steel

the outcast are not much of a threat they cant even agree on who is in charge same with the slavers and raiders and super mutants. all of them are to unoraginzed to do anyreal damage and are more likely to kill themselfs.

I agree, I was just saying the Talon Co and Super Mutants aren't REALLY a problem anymore by the time Broken Steel ends.

As for the super mutants in Fallout 4, I suspect they are going to take a page from Tactics, which they seem to already be doing with the airships, and have the Fo4 super mutants be D.C. super mutants who fled north to escape the BoS's extermination campaign, much like how remnants of the Master's army fled to the Midwest after The Master died, and everyone started killing them en-mass

its not that long of a shoot to say that alest some of lyons people welll make an apperiance

yeah my 2 cents lyon's will be tied up for 2 too 8 years i say fighting rest mutants raiders etc etc i don't think the outcasts would stick around to fight a superior foe i would think they may show up in boston looking for more tech.

I would say that the only other faction with Power Armor still maintaining a presence that is in the middle of a civil war with you is probably a threat. The slavers have quite a large presence in the Capital Wasteland, and it would appear that although some might be doing their own thing, Paradise Falls is very much the Slaver Capital in the region. The raiders are unorganized but are attacking the water caravans, which I would say is still doing some damage to the Brotherhood's operation. They are going to have to put a stop to these problems if they want to make the Capital Wasteland a safer place. They will be occupied for quite a while, and it will certainly not be them if the game is a mere few weeks after Fallout 3, or even in the same year. They also would need a decent reason to be going to Boston, which they don't have in 2277. If it's 2277 it's a quite a long shot. 10 years later, maybe not.

Yeah Talon Company is most likely no longer a threat, and the mutants will be dwindling, you are right about that. They do seem to be taking the Tactics route a bit with this game. I wonder if we will be seeing more intelligent mutants this time around. I doubt it besides maybe a few of them, as they seemed much more hostile than the Mariposa mutants.

Ya know, when was it stated they were such shut ins? I know they were adverse to recruiting, but they didn't seem like shut ins on par with people's statements.

In both Fallout 1 and Fallout 2 they never appeared this way to me at all. They were mostly against outsiders joining, but they left their bunker and even traded with other settlements. As far as the Lost Hills BoS goes, they were probably my favorite encounter.

On topic: With BoS numbers dwindling in West Coast from both NCR-BoS war and lack of recruiting.. I think the only logical group of BoS with those numbers would be MwBoS. I thought Lyons group was pretty adverse to recruiting people, while MwBoS was pro-recruiting and taking the best warriors they could.

There is a shot of what appears to be the PC fighting super mutants alongside a super mutant, so there will likely be one or two smart ones like Fawkes and Leo were in Fallout 3.

While the Lyons BoS did recruit outsiders, they did appear to show a very low opinion of their combat abilities.

Though I suspect their limited number of PA suits and laser weaponry was also a factor in them not recruiting much. No sense in taking on people you can't equip.

I think the MWBOS is the most plausible chapter to head to Boston. The main target in tactics are robots from vault 0. That vault was intended to house all of the equipment to rebuild infrastructure and industry. It is plausible that schematics for vertibirds and the means to produce them were stored within the vault also. They may have heard of the Institute and its synthetics and don't want to allow a repeat of the Calculator.

Also; they had zeppelins, they were inclusive (after rigorous training and initiation) of "tribals" , and in the concept art there is a Brotherhood member that looks to have the MWBOS style of cloak

To be fair to the Lyons BoS, their low opinion of Wastelanders in terms of combat prowess wasn't unjustified. They lacked the training to match the BoS soldiers in terms of skill, and were apparently so eager to prove themselves that they'd end up getting themselves killed pretty damn quickly.

It wasn't them looking down on outsiders for being outsiders (like the Outcasts do). It was just that the outsiders weren't good soldiers, and would get themselves killed before they could actually become good soldiers.

Once they met an outsider that could hold their own in a fight (e.g.: YOU), they tended to have a good opinion of your abilities.

Edit: Personally, I'm hoping to see the MWBoS, if only to shed more light on Tactics' canonicity.

That's actually a good point, but hadn't Lost Hills only given PA suits to the upper tier members? I seem to remember jumping through hoops to acquire a suit, while other members wore combat armor.

I was quite surprised they wouldn't recruit more members all things considered. They were spread thin and losing a lot of men to the super mutants in D.C., which is why I mentioned their aversion. If they recruited more people they could have used runners to deliver information from troops to command rather than dealing with their current issues.

I dunno, although I can see your point, I don't think limited number of suits is the reason for such small numbers of recruits.

With the enclave defeat they shouldn't have any shortage of weapons. Raiders well always be a problem that's like asking for a stop to crime all the can do is make sure all caravans are secure and attack there small bases when they find them. In truth there ain't much more they can do. In alliance with the outcast and guarded caravans. Should be pretty easy its not like the outcast are searing for his patrols. So an alliance should be pretty easy. It should take maybe a few weeks it shouldn't take a year. The outcast are out number and out gunned with prides alliances with the sttlments

I don't disagree, was just making the general point that Lyons BoS looks down on wastelanders in general.

I always assumed the reason why Lyons had the T-45 series PA, instead of the T-51 series used out west, was because they weren't upper tier members. Similarly, I always assumed the 8 or so BoS initiates in the Citadel courtyard were wasteland recruits, which is why they were in recon armor instead of PA.

As REL_Dovahkiin pointed out, the wastelanders haven't exactly proven themselves capable. Recruiting a lot of them isn't really helpful because they just die in 2 seconds anyways. I think they would find it better to try to train a smaller group of some of the better wastelanders then a large group of crappy ones.

As for being limited in supplies, dont forget, the Outcasts took a MASSIVE chunk of Lyons PA and weaponry when they left.

Didn't someone in the citadel say they found the current t-45ds in the pentagon because their old suits were too bady damaged from trip through the pitt?

Theres even a small quote from the wiki about it

"T-45d suits were discovered by the http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Brotherhood_of_Steel_%28Capital_Wasteland%29 in the ruins of the http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Pentagon and were extensively used by Brotherhood Knights and Paladins, along with modifications and makeshift repairs. Other variations can be found in terms of coloring and other decorations."

It says that, but has no source, and I cannot find on there or on the Fallout gamepdia wiki.

Its likely something they made up, like a lot of other information on that site.

The Outcasts will not go back to the Lyons Brotherhood. They want Lyons executed. They would sooner leave the Capital Wasteland than make an alliance with them. There is much more they can do. The super mutants are on the decline, but they will still need to clear them out of the DC ruins. The slaver issue isn't resolved and they need to stop the raider attacks on caravans. Wiping out the raiders isn't like asking to stop all crime at all. There will still be crime, theft, assault, murder, but raiders are literally insane murderers who kill and loot everything that isn't them or would benefit them. There will still be criminals, but once they start wiping out the raiders, things will become much safer. The NCR and Legion have both driven most of the raiders out of their homelands, the Brotherhood could accomplish this in a much, much smaller space. It will not be a matter of weeks at all, it would be months at least. The only alliance the Brotherhood has is with Rivet City, and that alliance isn't looked upon happily by certain members of that community. No matter what, there is still no reason for them to get up and fly to Boston in 2277. Their numbers are not big enough that they could do all that, and still maintain a presence almost 450 miles away.

west coast BoS refugees could be moving east to try and meet up with 'lost' chapters basically because they are out of options and are looking for a place to rebuild. id say the most likely BoS group to be in Boston is MWBoS ( the others been accounted for in 2277-2280) but any could pop up once you get past that (the game could span 10 or 20 years) with west coast refugees, CWBoS chasing technology or Outcasts trying to carve out territory for its on going war with the CWBoS all been possible

The BoS also captured blueprints on how to make them from Navarro and the NCR would probably have either reverse engineered captured ones, took extra blueprints from Navarro or took the blueprints when they took over the Brotherhood of Steel's territory. I really wouldn't be surprised if the NCR was trying to develop more vertibirds.