So, here I am, going into The Nuclear Option with the Minutemen. Preston specifically says, "Let's avoid civilian casualties when we can." Great!


Get into the Institute, and... the Minutemen, including Preston, mercilessly gun down cowering scientists.


*sigh*


Curse you, faction membership limitations! I would love a mod to fix this.

Yeah I never liked the gunning down of unarmed scientist either. I beat the game with BoS and RR so far and the Institute in both cases became a slaughterhouse.

Heh "let's avoid casualties" [2 seconds later] "don't forget to shoot the women and children too"

I sided with the Institute, and apparently ~had~ to murder all my dear friends in the Railroad.... because.... um... because they might one day attack the Institue? Which they could ~not~ realistically do without my help. And then the Railroad wants me to blow up the Prydwyn (including the children on board) and all the friends I made there... because... why? Because the Brotherhood attacked them, and the Brotherhood apparently now attacks synth ~sympathizers~ for some reason (after miraculously finding them in the first place).

I was embedded with all the factions anyway so why oh WHY could I not just get them all to calm the ^$^@!# down and realize that they only have a few differences that could be worked through.

Warning, ranting ahead!

All the factions seem to have the same gap in logic, no-one even considers diplomacy and the only way to do anything is with nukes and murder. I've been following both Institute and Railroad quests and neither really makes much sense to me. Institute wants me to kill Desdemona even though they're hardly a threat in the big picture. They just want to give synths some human rights and the Institute themselves know that there's a "glitch in the programming" causing them to run off. So why not let the glitchy ones go and get human rights, discontinue the gen3 production and try to fix the issue before producing more of them?? Railroad gets what they want and working together with them the Institute would have better above-ground intel and operatives without pissing off the entire Commonwealth with synth replacements. You'd think that's a possibility when you're the bloody director! Only actual decision about anything you ever get to make is the punishment of the guy who locks himself in Bioscience!

And the Railroad wants to free a few synths by breaking into the Institute. Okay well since I don't have decision making power as the director, I might as well let some of them sneak out or even arrange a little rebellion inside so long as civilians aren't harmed. At least they didn't shoot every scientist on sight. But why the fudge do we have to blow the whole place up?? We got what we wanted, the synths are free and the scientists saw that it wasn't just one or two random malfunctioning synths so they probably would think about it a bit before continuing production. There's all this fresh water and food and showers and TOILET PAPER!!! but noo let's just blow it up. It's just so stupid, I can't bring myself to finish Nuclear Solution because I'd need a lobotomy before I could consider blowing the place up a good idea.

All the previous Bethesda games I thought the writing wasn't as bad as people whined but these endings are just so terrible it beats even the new Star Wars movie in a contest for the worst script ever

The whole idea of peole like Sturges and Preston wanting to resort to a "Nuclear Option" is just wrong to me.

THIS, a thousand times, THIS!


I've been ranting about this failed logic since the BoS forced me to murder the RR on my first time through the MQ. I didn't even need a high INT to realize that if you destroy The Institute the Railroad's ENTIRE reason for existing becomes moot. No more synth's, no more need for the Railroad!


Bethesda just flat out pisses me off sometimes with their writing. They get so damn close to something really awesome, then totally fumble just before the goal line. How hard world it have been to add a few lines of dialog where you can talk to the faction leaders or even host a meeting between them to hash it all out like they did in Skyrim?


With the voiced PC adding in any modded resolution that changes your choices or options will seem out of place.

Even after the Institute destruction the Railroad would continue to assist surviving synth that the BoS in trying to destroy.The confict would persist.But I do agree that not being able to come up with an alternative to total-annhilation did upset me a lot.

I'm one of the few people who hated FO:NV's ending. The "Pick a faction, any faction, because none of it matters" is piss-poor writing at its greatest. I get it: by giving us options, we feel we're in control. However, each and every one of them had me taking out another faction, and for what? Egotistical ideology.

Apparently, Bethesda has read far too many forum comments where people praised this style of story telling and copied it verbatim.

It's lazy, and no, I'm not going to apologize for my candid opinion.

No matter what faction I side with, everyone in the Commonwealth loses.

So much for that Charisma 10.

And that would be how many, a couple dozen maybe? Certainly not hundreds or more. Once those handful are relocated/smuggled out of the Commonwealth what then?

After that BoS uses confiscated Institute tech to play Helgen Reborn because they got nothing else to do.I can imagine the desperate look on Ingram face learning about Joto's lost dog.

Not really . I bet there are enough lines in there for the PC for just about anything. The NPCs may be another matter.

This is the part that really gets me. The BOS I can totally see resorting to the "the nuclear option." However, I can't see it coming from the named members of the Minutemen that we meet throughout the game. I can see it a bit more with the Railroad, but definitely not the Minutemen. I feel like the Minutemen ending should have been a little different. Different how, I don't really know, but it should have somehow involved at least a (possibly failed) attempt at a diplomatic solution.

I wouldn't have minded if Maxson had guaranteed the Railroad safe passage out of the Commonwealth under the condition that they never return. Less of a headache in the long run. Better than dealing with an insurgency.

In general game lacks diplomatic options, i have hoped to be able to do some diplomaciy betwen major factions(or at least influence them somehow, can be via assasinations, or whatever but its not possibile - there was an option for change of leadrship in BOS somewhere along the games creation proces but it got cut out, people have found leftover dialouge etc from that option in game files)

Hopefully they do add some more options in patches/dlcs though thats not very likely.

Taking out Desdemona as warning to Carrington would have been nice. Stay out of the BOS'/Institute's way or you're next sort of deal.

I am sorry I had to kind of chuckle over some of the comments, not that I don't agree only that I do N O T care what happens to any of them. There is just something about this story that totally turns me off. I don't much like any NPC or faction in this game and if I had it my way I would turn the Institutes bomb into a super one and blow the entire Commonwealth to Hell! It is pretty sad that the only quest I found any interest in was siding with a crazy robot on the U.S.S Constitution.

By the way Merry Christmas everyone!

all the scenarios are warped because which ever faction you choose they want the others dead. you know what is worse? lets say you go with the institute and you kill off the bos and railroad and now they treat you like an errand boy and not the director, go get me tissue samples, go get me reports form mayor of diamond city and so on if you choose the bos yes you are promoted to sentinel then you are told to go to the police station where you first met up with the bos and the two that were pricks before plead for forgiveness then they are back to treating you like dirt. "and don't come back till you complete what I told ya" and so on so what is the point of choosing any faction? maybe they will kill each other off and you can be in charge after all lol

other then that I have done all three factions I have over 400 hours game time and having fun every day I play

Merry Christmas

Doug

Since when did we expect diplomatic solutions in open-world shooters? Now, if this game was an open-world rpg, then...maybe.

Also,how Sturges got his hands on a Fusion Pulse Charge is beyond be.

I agree about the logical gap, but I never understood why, speaking pragmatically, they chose to make synths in the first place. IF they wanted to use the Commonwealth as some giant experimental playground and made synths to be their agents in the field in the wasteland, then they are no better than vault tec and deserve about as much mercy imo. If they did it just to see if they could do it, that is completely idiotic and unethical, or I should say, I never read a terminal or talked to a scientist who indicated they had reservations about trying to make human robots. There wasn't even a benevolent explanation, like making robots to scout that could blend in or something to that effect. They are basically human kidnapping/killing machines and no one apparently cares.

The more time I have to think about it, the more contrived the story endings seem to me. They all seem forced to produce the same type of ending regardless of what you chose, like the developers realized that if the endings were too different, then it might make one more appealing than the other, but then they all end up being the same "hey we have to kill everyone else because they can't exist". It made sense for the BoS because that is their MO, but for the Institute... how many times did Father say he deplored violence before proceeding to kill everything that got in his way? Kid was a dyed in the wool psychopath I know. The Railroad's actions actually make the least sense concerning the BoS. I understand why they destroyed the Institute (that was their goal to begin with) but with the BoS, they are openly retaliating against a group that has a larger presence outside the Commonwealth. As an underground movement, they should have relocated, not made an open conflict with a military-esque organization that has the fire and man power to completely destroy you. I get it, they are an existential threat, but the whole plan was crazy. It worked, but what happens when the rest of the Brotherhood makes their way out west (or east I don't know where they are located at) and starts stomping a--?

I agree though. With more time to think, it isn't that the endings are bittersweet so much as they seem contrived and outright stupid in some cases.

While there is the clear example of Art vs Art, is there any other concrete example of the Institute killing and replacing people with synths? Was the Mayor of Diamond City once a human who was replaced? Any others? I just don't recall any terminal / holotape or dialog segment where an Institute source mentions this "replacement" plan before. Could well be that I missed something ---- lot of terminals and notes and dialog in game ---- but I wonder how much of it is just scared people blaming the Institute.

I suppose I can sort of see their (twisted) rationale in the Institute killing and replacing a human so that they could get "eyes" in a location (like if the Mayor of Diamond City was killed and replaced)... but I can't see any point in replacing an average Joe (or Art) with a synth. Ironically, I ~can~ almost see the Railroad "replacing" a human with a Synth, whose memories were wiped to make him believe he ~was~ that human. Granted, the Railroad probably would not outright kill a human to replace him with a Synth, but I can see them using a dead man's identity to give a Synth a new (human) one. The Railroad does mention that they use facial reconstruction surgery to help their escaped Synths escape.

Not to paint the Institute as the good guys, necessarily, but I just wonder if it's ever ~proven~ that they did the things they are said to have done (re: replacement, anyway).

Here's something to chew on. What's the Arc Words of Fallout?


"War. War never changes."


What happened in the series just before the bombs drop? Every nation wants to kill each other, rather than talk things out.


What happens in Fallout 4? All but one faction wants to kill the rest by default, rather than talk things out. And that last one will not engage in diplomacy if forced to fight the others.


"War. War never changes." Indeed.

Yeah but applying the catchphrase just for the sake of it is kind of annoying.

I've read (never experienced) that in your settlements it is possible for a random settler to turn on your population and upon killing him you find out he is a synth. Now, since it never happened to me, I don't know if this actually happens AND the conditions under which it happens are important. For instance, if you are hostile to the Institute when it happens that makes a small amount of sense (trying to get close to you to kill you) but if you are not hostile to the Institute then it makes no sense (again assuming it actually happens as an in-game event). I agree that I've never seen evidence that they are trying to actively replace people, but the whole Art random encounter I think serves to establish that it DOES happen, and when stopping to ask the simply question why- there aren't many good answers. I think a lot of people in the Institute have been so far removed from reality for so long they have developed a god complex and regard everyone on the surface as sub-human; which actually explains why they would go so far as to make synths in the first place. Their hubris knows no bounds.