Uh, no again:

Apart for one joinable faction being involved in the MQ, in all other Bethesda games none of the other joinable factions had any real effect on the outcome of the MQ.

There never has been any way to resolve the MQ peacefully in Bethesda's previous games. You could only join one side, the supposed good side, in the MQ.

And neither did all their previous games allow you to join all factions.

F:NV (which weren't Beth's quests) did not have you become leader of all the factions even if it did have a peaceful resolution to the MQ.

So, no. Just no.

(OT: You do realise that TES games have had many more factions then the ones you listed. Yes?)

The four sides in FO4 (Railroad, BoS, Minutemen, and Institute) offer somewhat different paths in resolving the MQ. The whole reason for the MQ is the conflict in the Commonwealth due to the conflicting interests between those sides. (And somewhere in between there, rescuing a son.) There is no pre-determined antagonist here that needs to be destroyed. That choice is left up to the player. You, the player, decide who is the antagonist.

Again, I see this as an improvement to previous Bethesda titles. Where you never got to choose who was the antagonist. Want to take the side of House Dagoth, the Enclave or any of the others? Impossible.

Also, you use words such as regime, power, control, or be swept aside, etc, and expect people not to fight that? It would seem to me that you don't want a peaceful solution. You want to become the antagonist yourself.

So, unless you have a means to destroy the Institute instantly, isn't it completely within the Railroad's interests to make peace?

But what would the Institute have to gain and why would the Railroad accept? Again, ignoring the obvious. For all they know it could be a trap and they're at more risk if they trust you. These people are paranoid and bloodthirsty, hell one of their high ranking members is literally a conspiracy theorist, the first time you meet them everyone but Deacon is incredibly paranoid and distrustful of you.

Suddenly offering peace as the director with promises of policies changing? Yea that coming out of nowhere sounds like nothing but a trap and makes you into a double agent leading them into a trap. That's what a paranoid person, and yes as someone who suffered with paranoia I know this feeling all to well, would think.

I'm not speaking theories or hypothetical, as a person who literally suffered for years with paranoia and trust issues, qualities that fit a lot of people in the Railroad, I know exactly what they're going through and why they wouldn't trust you.

Well, if he wants, the Institute actually allows for a villainous monologue to happen. To help make it feel more like home.

What trap? The Railroad doesn't have to do anything. All I ask is for them to stop attacking. And if their spies can confirm that I'm no longer enslaving synths, there's not even any reason for them to continue attacks.

Yes until a synth patrol attacks them when they have their guard down or when they feel safe enough to come out of their hole. Again, these people wouldn't trust you at all in fact the first absolute thing to enter their mind would be "SHOOT THEM THEY'RE A TRAITOR LEADING US TO A TRAP" and again they still have over 80 years of reasons why the Institute needs to pay.

They can stay in a paranoid hole as long as they like. I just need a lever to convince Shaun not to order me to wipe them out.

And Shaun would go "Why?" and then you'll possibly expose yourself as a risk or show you'll ruin everything he worked for. Now you have a egomaniac who is to proud of his own work with an army of synths putting you on his "do not trust" list. Shaun would see nothing to gain from it, hell he'll probably just send in a synth patrol and once again wipe out their HQ for the what, fourth time?

Again, the institute has nothing to gain from letting the Railroad live and the Railroad is to paranoid and bloodthirsty to believe anything the Institute says. The only alliance I can see working is one between the RR and BoS but even that's grasping at straws.

Then what would be needed, if this is true, is to somehow falsify the intelligence about the Railroad's destruction... the Railroad itself might not need to get involved if Shaun thinks that they've been destroyed, and continues believing such until he dies.

Wow you're really trying your hardest here, aren't you? It wouldn't work and once it's found out you betrayed the Institute the people would be really pissed off. All you'll be doing is sending the Railroad further into hiding and they won't come out for you. That's what would happen, you're too much of a security risk and again the most likely situation is they would go hostile the moment they hear you come up with the idea because for all they know it's a trap because again, heavily paranoid people.

If they hide again, fine. Even if they become hostile again, they're not an existential threat to the Institute without my help. All I'll need to do is wind down our synth enslavement program and the Railroad will have nothing to attack.

yes they have totally no reason to fight just sweep all those 80 years of losing their friends, family, all the blood the institute spilled, the numerous headquarters that were destroyed, all the leaders the Institute killed, etc etc under the rug. Yup all that was just pointless death and misery because now this person we barely know suddenly says the Institute will change, something we can't verify because if we check anything from patriot it could be a trap, synths can be a trap and we have no way to tell what's going on in the Institute.

Makes complete and total sense. /sarcasm

The Institute sees Synths as property.

The Railroad sees Synths as people.

The Brotherhood sees Synths as abominations.


The Bunker Hill mission is basically there to drive home the difference between the 3 groups. Reclaim the synths as lost property, free them as people or kill them.


These viewpoints are all mutually exclusive to one another and why you can't have a peaceful outcome. Any peaceful scenario requires one of those groups to change their viewpoint which is engrained in their ideology. At best, you would end up splintering the faction and at worst the organization would simply oust you as their leader.

You seem to miss the nature of that post. I was commenting on the ridiculous nature of becoming a leader in the guilds in Elder Scrolls compared to becoming a leader in the Minutemen and Institute. The factions in Fallout 4 are the same as guilds in Elder Scrolls. However, that is where the comparison ends. There is no final boss that always needs to be defeated. There is no faction that you need to join. In fact, you can probably kill off every single faction if you want provided that you wipe out the Minutemen at the start of the game or leave them to their fate. The named Minutemen seems to be essential if you join them and whatever faction you completed the game with. Tried with a game that finished the Railroad ending and was able to kill all the Railroad Agents, but all the name Railroad members were essential. So get to the Institute with the help of the Railroad or Brotherhood, then wipe everyone out. Or I can join all factions in Fallout 4 and reach a peaceful state where nothing happens until I decide to complete a certain mission. Of course, the game would never end, but for lots of gamers, they don't care if the game ends.

Regime, power, control, and swept aside are all terms used in politics. If the Sole Survivor is leader of all four factions which is completely ridiculous, then they would be the governing leader of the Commonwealth even if they don't want to be. Regime can either mean government or a non-democratically elected government. So the United States government is a regime, but currently it is more common to use that term for governments like Syria and North Korea. Considering the situation of the Commonwealth, it would take a few years before democracy can be implemented. So Regime is just as valid as using government in this situation. So using these types of terms won't cause people to be antagonistic if their lives are better off by preventing Raider, Super Mutant. and Feral Ghoul attacks, establishing clean water, establishing order, and providing electricity.

Being able to have more control in changing the fate of the Commonwealth is the one thing that I wished Bethesda brought into Fallout 4 that New Vegas did very well with. So if I wanted to destroy every faction and see the horrible result of that action, then I could. If I wanted to take the more difficult route and find a peaceful solution and see the result of that action, then I could. The more freedom that a game gives to the player provided that it is set within the limitations of the setting, the better. Although, saving the alien and helping him enslave the human race would be an interesting ending. Just a sad end to a person that traveled hundreds of lightyears to only get killed by some savage that just wanted a cool gun.

It should still be quite possible for the Institute to change its policy in the matter. Of the factions, it's the least ideological and the most pragmatic, and also the only one the PC leads.

The Institute has no problem with killing people to further their goals and you are going to try to convince them that the machines they created explicitly to serve them need to be given the same privileges enjoyed by human Institute members?


That ends with the Director dying of mysterious causes and everyone having a good laugh about it. You are put in charge of the Institute based on the assumption that you share the Institute's ideals. It's not a blank check to do whatever you want.

I have a high Charisma and the ability to save scum persuasion checks, so logically speaking, I should be fine. If that fails for some reason, I have the failsafe of "Director access to all synth command codes."

The reason those skill checks don't exist in game is because they are auto-failed.


I am sure you can load the mod at some point to bypass making tough decisions and a unicorn races down to convince all the factions to just forget everything and get along because that's what you want.

But it is not every member of the Institute that kill people to further their goals. Most of them are just scientists that are involved with some innocent research and have no clue about what goes on at the surface.

The Director has more power than you think. If being a Director doesn't give a blank check to do whatever they want, then how did the Sole Survivor become Director? This amounts to the same as a ruler getting their pet dog to be Minister of Finance. Everyone is against the decision of having a dog in a government position, but can't do a thing about it since the ruler has absolute authority. Then you have Madison Li being forced to work on the child Synth by the Director even though she had severe reservations against it.

Yeah, that was the old director. He got his pet dog installed as the director. That doesn't mean they won't assassinate you if you decide to upset the apple cart. They respected Father. They will respect you if you make decisions which benefit the Institute. This change is disastrous to the Institute and the logical choice would be just to assassinate the Director.

While the Director doesn't have a blank check, he does have a heck of a bank account. There are also quests in game that help in solidifying the Player's position such that he has very firm control over the organization.

Now sure, you can't just turn around and tell your subordinate that hence forth we will cease all research and begin a farming collective on the surface. But as long as you act in good faith, you are about as close to being Supreme Ruler of the Commonwealth as any Player can be.

As for a peaceful ending, I don't see the BOS and Institute shaking hands, simply because they are the main antagonists. But the possibility to warn the Railroad to find a new hiding spot might not be out of the realm of possibility.

Nah, that's cheating. However, I don't see why it's such a hard sell to say "our free-willed synth models are more trouble than they're worth, judging from all the escapes." This would be beneficial, I believe, for the Institute; if nothing else, they could stop spending resources on SRB.

Good argument for just incinerating all the Gen3's and going back to Gen2's.


The Institute's main goal is to create a workforce that can safely survive on the surface and serve the Institite so that Institute people don't have to risk their lives (or get their hands dirty or break a sweat).

Why even bother with Gen2s. Just go back to Gen1s and there is no risk of rebellion. Think the main reason why Gen3s exist is due to there being a higher than normal number of robot fetishists. There is at least one known scientist with a Synth wife and the Institute is descended from people that studied at the CIT. It has been the dream of many nerds to build their own girlfriend.

Well the chances are very good that we will see the EC BOS again (in future games) so more than likely that the Brotherhood winning will be canon, or at the very least the Institute defeat will be canon.......an Institute winning canon is probably the least likely as the bad guys winning has never been canon so far.