Do the mintuemen kill all the cowering people not fighting back like the BoS does when you raid the institute? Just finished the main quest with my BoS character and it was pretty brutal.

I'm pretty sure they all do.

Yeah the Institute dies the same why for all three opposing factions, so really shooting the cowering scientists isn't really important since you have to totally exterminate everybody in the Institute when the Reactor detonates.

I believe the Minutemen gives you credit for ordering a evacuation through 'Father's Computer', not sure about the Railroad.

Don't think the minutemen fire at the covering ones, think some was left then we left the bioscience part. Same in the main hall, was an guy alive then i went to open the doors, he then died as he was to close to an group of synths and I used an explosive minigun, was an very intense fight.

And yes you get the options to evacuate, think the evacuation is done automatically for the RR, if you don't evacuate the RR will become hostile as I understand.

Yes, they do, which I find a bit odd (and likely unintended) because Preston makes a comment when you first get there about how innocent lives needed to be saved and killing needed to be avoided at all costs. Then they just run in and Preston immediately kills a scientist who is presenting no threat.

Way to stick to your convictions there, Preston.

Yes, they do. It has nothing to do with the in-game story, it has to do with NPCs and factions which will set to automatically fire upon a faction they hostile to. It's like if you part way with X6, he wouldn't shoot the BoS under your command but will open fire if you release him and turning him into an NPC. Just chart it off as AI being stupid rather than the Minutemen or the BoS shooting innocent cower scientists.

I wouldn't necessarily just call it AI goofiness.

Attacking The Institute creates a chaotic situation. Civilians can easily get caught in the crossfire even if the MM or BOS are actually trying to avoid bloodshed. However regardless of what Preston or anyone else says, I'm sure there's plenty of people attacking that would love nothing more than to gun down those hated Institute people and Preston can't command the MM any more than the player can.Years of pent-up anger unleashed.

The Brotherhood of course is unrelenting. The scientists are walking-talking criminals against human kind.

This is correct. For some reason fleeing enemies in this game are still tagged as hostile, so companions and whatnot will still chase them down and attack them. It's roughly the same AI used for Radstags.

I figure most of the evacuated scientists happened offscreen. I don't remember any of the named Institute NPCs appearing during the attack.

Yeah I think the evacuation of the Institute is kind of just an implied thing that you can't really observe. If you issue the evacuation order Desdemona later comments about how their safehouses are overflowing with all of the synths that escaped the Institute, so obviously some of them do make it out.

Actually, the Railroad turns hostile if you don't evacuate when doing the Minutemen side, since then you're dooming the synths along with the scientists. In the Railroad ending Desdemona couldn't care less whether you evacuate or not, as they've already pulled the rebelling synths out. The scientists and their kids can burn.

I was pretty happy when Glory died. She's a terrible racist. She has a conversation where she is shown that she would kill humans as the first option, but also talking about how synth-1 and synth-2 are people, and she would never shoot them. If the RR expects me to treat synths on the same level as the humans then its members better start to treat humans on the same level as the synths. The RR doesn't care about casualty, this resulted in the Commonwealth becoming a terrible place to live all around after their ending.

Yeah, I set off the evacuation order in my BoS run. I just didn't like how the brotherhood was chasing down and rooting out all the scientists who were cowering in some nook way out of the way of everything. I can understand that that would be how they would operate to destroy any dangerous knowledge that could escape, I was just hoping the minutemen wouldn't be so bloodthirsty.

Like has already been said. It has far less to do with the Brotherhood or the Minutemen being bloodthirsty and a lot more to do with bad AI.

I don't think its entirely out of the question that those deaths are purposeful. The MM are uncontrollable and the Brotherhood see the scientists as walking crimes against humanity.

I'm sure there's plenty in both who have no qualms about gunning down Institute personnel.

I might agree with you if this sort of behavior wasn't elsewhere in the game. Someone mentioned radstags and they are a perfect example. They don't cower, but they do try to run away the moment you get close to them. That doesn't stop your companion from attacking them and chasing them down. Same flaw in the AI.

Preston is very gleefully gunning down cowered scientists to me.

Possibly and I agree you do have a point, but I'm also more or less speaking from perspective of lore. I'm sure some of the deaths can be explained by just bad AI, but I think its also pretty possible that alot of MM, Brotherhood, and RR Agents would happily shoot down Institute scientists. There's plenty of pent up rage and seething anger that factors into this. Its like a besieging army finally breaking into a fallen city after months of grueling siege. Atrocities against the civilian populace are to be expected. Its just a natural result of these sorts of things.

Of all the groups, The Brotherhood seems like they'd have the greatest chance of keeping their soldiers under control. By virtue of their discipline. But then again, I'm not sure The Brotherhood leadership would necessarily mind if some of those abominable scientists met their maker.

Preston of course, wants to avoid bloodshed. But The MM themselves do as they like. Preston can't control them like Maxson can control The Brotherhood. Since the MM aren't a disciplined military, or a military at all by their own admission.

And of course the RR just care about The Synths. Deaths of the scientists are of no consequence to them. So I think of all the groups they'd be the most happy to kill the hated Institute slave-drivers.

In my Minutemen play through not all the scientists got shot. I even walked right by one cowering in a hallway along with Preston and a couple of other Minutemen and they did not shoot her.

And yet Preston tells the Minutemen to be careful and not shoot unarmed civilians. War never changes.

This, I killed one as he was next to an group of synths shooting at us, changing from minigun to combat rifle for presisjon might easy gotten minutemen killed.


In game it might be various triggers, in combat or not also distance to target on why its different experiences.

It's stuff like this that makes me hate the RR more and more. Funny how before Fallout 4 came out, I was eager to join the RR but now I happily savor their destruction.

Same. I really thought their side would be my first playthrough but now I find them repulsive. I mean, I could even deal with their 'synths over humans' mindset if they were at least genuine about it and not so damn hypocritical - they claim they want synths to be free to choose their own lives, but do they care about the synths that are happy in the Institute? No. Do they care that Coursers are made to do what they do just like all the other synths? No. You even get missions from PAM to go and slaughter random Coursers after the Institute's destruction, when they're lost and purposeless, probably just trying to survive on the surface. Honestly, they're just a bunch of self-righteous dikes.