The name Underground Railroad suggest that's not the case.

When a member finds out you're actively looking for an escaped android her response is just to ask you to stop. No threat or anything. Just a plead to show some humanity.

They could be more powerful in the time since 3, but I doubt they have anything even close to what the institute can muster up.

@cinder: I didn't say they don't care about human life. I said they do care about it. They are against slavery in all forms, and are obviously pretty good people.

I find it hard to believe they are going to go around shooting MIT scientist on site. Victoria from 3 doesn't even threaten you, just appeals to your humanity to let the android live his new life.

I base it off evidence found in game. These aren't soldiers or their movement wouldn't be underground. Liken it to the real Underground Railroad or people helping Jews escape nazi Germany. They weren't killing nazis to accomplish their goal, but using networks of connections. That's kind of what a railroad is...hence the name.

and you, again, base that off of nothing.

Hence the Sabotage is also an OK play, because preventing is better than curing, no? Hiring someone to, for example, sabotage an android holding facility, is more effective and efficient in saving androids from slavery.

But I do see the point though, they could be akin to the Followers of Apocalypse of the East Coast: they are both pacifists and morally good... That's viable, because the Railroad is covert, hence they are less likely be targeted by the Institute.

But then again, I saying that the Railroad have saboteurs and extremists and you saying that the Railroad is pacifist like the Followers of Apocalypse is equally... unproven.

Because again, we are not the ones deciding who the Railroads are -w-' Until Bethesda releases more info, my guess is as good as yours. -w-' Me presenting the Railroad as a major player in the story is as good as me presenting that the protagonist is an android/in a VR simulator/cryogenised...

A much stronger claim than you're assumption that the faction who admits to working underground is capable of/ wants to openly attack a faction who is so advanced that they can make robots who are indistinguishable from humans.

If you were to run around bragging about how you helped save an android, how long until the institute shows up for some questioning? They have an internal police force dedicated to tracking down this sort of thing, and they probably don't play nice, as seen when harkness remembers all the awful things he's done.

Now, now, we all know that both of the assumptions are not stronger than the other until the real game is released. -w-'

We are like throwing darts blindfolded. The only way we could find out how close we are to the bullseye is after throwing all our darts and opening our blindfolds...

And thus our endless speculations in the forum...

Speculation's just one of the ways for us impatient souls to wait for the game and guess what the game is all about.

I don't doubt they would hire some outside muscle like the player, but getting their hands dirty when there's a robotic SS running around?

Yea, that'll go well.

There's a reason such movements are underground and not power players. If Joe was known to be a guy who actively helped androids escape, he's going to be watched to find the railroad, or just killed outright by robot SS.

That's why all that stealthy sabotage or something, isn't it? We don't go and shout "Android is the greatest!" and open fire in sabotages didn't we? -w-'

There would always be cat's paws and spies and hired muscles... Even the pacifistic Followers of the Apocalypse have spies in Helios One... (That Ignacio Rivas guy)

It probably is the Institute, yes.

Blowing up the institute is probably equally evil as killing Mr. House in New Vegas. Furthering technology should be humanity's primary goal, regardless of cost. From a utilitarian perspective - killing thousands to make life better for millions is perfectly ok from a moral standpoint. Its like RL today. Poverty is not mainly due to greed, but overpopulation. The standard of living for the remaining people after the black plague IRL - increased drastically. It is not the number of life which matters, but the quality of life of those who live.

except killing House can be seen as good as he is just a dictator. Also when one percent has most of the wealth in a first world global super power yea, it becomes greed as to why poverty is a problem. Other examples of greed being the problem, pre-revolution france and pre-soviet russia where the common man owned little yet the aristocratic nobles and business men owned nearly everything to the point bread was too expensive for a common worker to buy.

Killing thousands is a short sighted solution for a problem that can have numerous other solutions that are better.

Being a dictator is not inherently evil: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benevolent_dictatorship

The wealth / population balance today is scewed - cant argue there.
As for killing people to make life better for the rest being a short-term solution; This depends heavily on a lot of other factors and can not be generalized out of context. I am aware that I commited the same logical fallacy myself.

Anyway the point I'm trying to make - to get back on topic: The institute will probably be viewed upon as "evil" based on previous information on them and their goals. However if the "evil" commited by the institute leads to a better life for the rest of the wasteland in the long run, then it would be more pragmatic to serve them and do what is needed for change and progress. But we dont know yet how any of this will be played out. I'm just hoping that the moral choices in the game wont be as shallow as F3 where the factions where depicted black and white. What I love about game of thrones is how it depicts humans as believable.

(Edit: IE: If the general concensus is "Faction A = Good, Faction B = Evil" then the writing has failed)

I don't think they will be viewed as evil unless you agree with the railroads belief that they are using slavery. On the other hand, the BoS desire to control technology could be seen as evil, and I bet they have a thing or two to say about androids as well.

The only thing they and the BoS could possibly fight about is technology, and that is pretty neutral. They clearly aren't trying to take over the wasteland because they would have done so quite some time ago considering diamond city is a stones throw away and seems independent.


If anything it seems they just want to be left alone; it looks like they have destroyed bridges leading to their side of the river, but that could also be due to the war.

That, I think, wouldn't really make since. The Stormcloaks are lead by the man of the same name and won't let you take him outta the picture so easily.

As for the Empire, if the decision is either you, or a battle-hardened general that was loyal to the Empire not in the span of a few months/days/years, but his life....

But in Fallout, you do have more room to make these independent decisions. No one has enough power to really influence the waste just yet (on the East Coast at least) on a large scale (besides Project Purity, but that is totally different from managing a nation). So yes, I could see more room for this kind of stuff. IT happened mildly in base form with Fallout 3 where you could take out both the Enclave and the BoS, making you the next potential power in D.C. Of course I don't think that ending is considered or ever will be, Canon, but still.