I've seen their boardroom. They make the decisions long before they bring it to your attention. I wouldn't be surprised if they replaced you with an obedient synth the moment their puppety gets too uppity.

That's because at that point, you weren't The Director. Shaun still was, and Shaun had already made the decision to press the fight against the Brotherhood. He was just giving you a trial run to see if you'd be up to snuff.

Keep in mind The Director controls the command codes to all Synths, and they're programmed to obey the Director. The Institute military is in the palm of his hand. Not exactly a weak position.

Acting Director, with all the authority therein, on top of being heir apparent. You can tell them straight up that their plan is something you don't want them to do, and they'll still do it. That little insubordination in Bioscience? I'd be surprised if they were the only ones wary of the sudden newcomer, a Surface Dweller at that, strutting about.

Its more anolagous to a sitting President allowing the newly elected, but not yet sworn in President, to sit in for a Cabinent meeting. Sure he can talk and ask questions, and even make policy suggestions, but he can't actually DO anything until he's officially sworn is as President and the old President steps down.

Same situation. Shaun was Director then, not the player. The Acting Director had already made the decision to fight the Brotherhood. The decision was made, but he left the strategy of implementation to you, the incoming-but-not-yet-official Director.

Coincidentally, the Bioscience incident makes for a perfect example of what happens when the Director is disobeyed. Since immediately afterwards SRB locks Higgs and Loken down, improves security to ensure you can't be locked out, and Coursers are dispatched to increase patrols in the halls.

Basically The Institute gets put under martial law. As Director, you're basically a dictator. With complete command of the army (The Synths), who are programmed to obey you. X6-88 would have to kill the Directorate if you ordered him to as Director.

On that incident, as the acting director, you could order them to be killed or banish them from the institute, and everyone would just listen. They are basically letting you decide the fate of veterans who disobey you even when they're only doing it out of concern for the institute. Destroying the other factions is something you can't change simply because it's vital to the existence of the faction. If China suddenly attacks the U.S. now and they won't listen to reasons, the president can't just sit around and do nothing. I see the board as Congress while you are the president. As the president, you can decide most of the course, but the Congress can veto your decision with enough support. Otherwise, you are the most important person in the Institute. The lack of choice at the end is more about Bethesda's lack of freedom rather than your lack of power. You could decide the direction of synth production, but you could likely do more but Bethesda didn't write any of it. They're not too keen on afterending contents. Just like with all the other factions, becoming Sentinel doesn't really matter much even if it should.

Exiling/executing personnel lower on the totem pole after they attempted to starve out everyone else. That they can get behind, no matter who you are, though they'll still spend the remainder of their brief lives openly questioning your decision. Considering that they were lower-ranked members, they'd probably be an acceptable loss in paying immediate lip service to the Kellog Mk II reporting directly to Father.

I do think the game would have been improved, even a little, by the option of being able to present a Peace Treaty to Elder Maxson and have it turned down.

What do you guys think?

Plus let's be honest, you're a Bethesda PC, you wouldn't need control over all synths to get rid of the division heads.

Maxson would probably wipe his butt with it and present it to you. He's just that much of a jerk. I do like the illusion of choices, and I wish Bethesda would have gone with it, but Bethesda is not always keen on details. There are many details missing from the game that make it odd when I play through it.

I plan on going Railroad, mainly because I like their methods out of the factions I've encountered and I get a cool codename. "Whisper".

Except for nothing gets solved at the end. There's a reason why it's the least popular ending. Their purpose is a contradiction and solving it would go against what they stand for.

Their purpose is to free the Synths and destroy the Brotherhood.

Which they do.

I didn't choose them because it was too happy an ending.

Except the synth will go extinct without the Institute, those with the false memory ended up knowing there are synths when they can't age or reproduce, destroying the Brotherhood who control order by killing supermutants and raiders, their tech is now free to be picked up by raiders or anyone, destroying the institutes and all of its technology instead of taking it to improve the Commonwealth. With no protector and no future research, remind me again how is the RR supposes to be a happy ending? That world state ends up being the worst out of all the endings. If you really want to go that route, Minutemen will be infinitely better since the BoS is still around to help protecting people, the RR is still around existing with no purpose like before, and there are many Minutemen joining in to help protecting the world.

Well, the answer is:

1. The Railroad confiscates all surviving BOS technology - they get Vertibirds after that.

2. The Institute's tech wasn't doing any good for the topworlders but an evacuated institute means all their knowledge will now dissipate among the Commonwealth.

3. Synths are immortal so they're not going anywhere any time soon--see Marcus and the Super Mutants. Reproduction is less of an issue.

4. Sturges is a Synth so maybe the Synths can build their own reproduction facility given, you know, the FOREVER they have to do it.

5. No more Super Mutants, kidnapping, massacres, or tyranny from the Institute or genocide of pre-War knowledge Ghouls who can and do work for the greater Commonwealth good.

Really, in simple terms, the Bos and Institute were the two biggest threats TO the Commonwealth. Now there's just Gunners, Super Mutants, and Raiders left. All three of which the SS can personally take a huge chunk from.

The numbers of gen-3 synths are mostly in the hundreds range, their goal is to save that many over destroying many human's life in both the institute and the BoS? lol

There's nothing to suggest Sturges can build more, and nothing suggests they have the tech, the resource, or the knowledge to do so.

All the Railroad did was to destroy one BoS chapter, as the Institute stated, eventually more BoS will arrive and will lead to a war on the land. The Institute hides underground and can send a message demonstrating their power. Railroad is a small group using guerilla tactic, basically, all the Railroad did was pissing off the BoS and lead to a potential war.

The Institute will be destroyed if you side with any faction other than the Institute, so I don't see how it's relevant using Super Mutant as a reason for siding with the RR.

Lastly, whatever you think the Railroad can do, the Minutemen can do it better and then some, including forming more Minutemen (You see more of them all over the Commonwealth) and working together with the Brotherhood to protect the world against mutants and raiders.

1. The BOS are going to kill many more in terms of ghouls as well as annex the Commonwealth. Also, how many Raiders have we killed in self-defense? The Railroad protects their friends and family--same as would the Sole Survivor.

2. I'm using Sturges as an example of the advanced knowledge of the Synths available and that they can reconstruct tech. Honestly, I imagine Curie will be the one to discover how to get Synths to be able to have children first.

3. The loss of the Prydwen, Airport, and Cambridge means that the Eastern BoS have suffered losses which will take at least a decade or so to recover from. They also don't know who is responsible so have no one to take revenge on--versus, say the Minutemen or Institute endings.

4. The Super Mutant don't have access to FEV in the Commonwealth. The Institute created all the Super Mutants and a cure for FEV won't be affected by the Institute since Virgil's research is being done in the Glowing Sea.

5. No reason you can't do both. The Minutemen also won't get into a fight with the BOS this way as, for all the BOS know, mechanical failure ended the Prydwen or the Institute.

1. Their goal is not to protect the Commonwealth, they themselves said they have no idea what they would do once the Institute is destroyed. Show me any proof the BoS is any more or less discriminated toward ghouls than the rest of Commonwealth. Show me an event in Fallout 4 where they kill a harmless ghoul. They were shown patrolling different towns with ghouls in it, but you never see them kill any ghoul. Their discrimination has never gone before killing them.

2. Based on what logic? Curie has no reason to research into synth and its ability to reproduce, and we don't even know if it's possible. If it can reproduce, it's likely to be a human, not a synth because the part that make the offspring is likely from organic.

3. You are destroying the airship, can you be certain that no BoS member survive? Can you be certain no one witness it? Can you be certain no one will take about it? Can you be certain there wasn't a spy? They will definitely know who is responsible for destroying it.

4. The institute will be destroyed no matter what, so I don't see how it's relevant whose side you sided with.

3#, the entire point of the sabotage in the Railroad ending versus Minutemen is it's done in disguise ideally and you escape without witnesses.

If there were witnesses, they wouldn't have let the bombs go off.

And bluntly, I think a massive nuclear detonation like went off in the Airport makes that very unlikely without Institute teleporter technology.

Never been a huge fan of the brotherhood, and this chapter led by Maxson (actually because of Maxson) is the worst in my experience. But at least they aren't afraid to fight for technology and try and make the commonwealth a better place, unlike the Institute who would rather hide in their bunker with all their flash new toys.

Synths are not human, it doesn't matter if they have emotions and feelings they are machines, nothing more, just like Codsworth, Curie and all those sentry bots and assaultrons who try and kill you as soon as they see you

As I stated, you can't be sure if there's any camera first of all, so someone could have recover the data or if it's transmitted to some place else, you can't be sure if every single BoS is dead. Can you be certain that when the BoS investigate, none of the RR member could be captured be tortured and extract data? They could even go into their head using something like the Memory den to look up information. Destroying the BoS would only make for a short period of peace if you're lucky, if not, more raiders and supermutants would dominate the place without the BoS, RR is too small and their goal is not the protect the Commonwealth, the Minutemen wouldn't have the reputation of destroying the Institute, so not as much members would join. No one is capable of protecting the Commonwealth in RR path.

Plus, can you show me any proof the BoS is any more or less discriminated toward ghouls than the rest of Commonwealth? Show me an event in Fallout 4 where they kill a harmless ghoul. They were shown patrolling different towns with ghouls in it, but you never see them kill any ghoul. Their discrimination has never gone to killing them. Why would they need to be destroyed? Destroying them would also be a temporary solution as they would just send in more eventually and could lead to a war with the railroad if anyone happens to survive or if any recovered data was retrieved.

Well, barring them being accidentally seen by a camera which isn't destroyed, there's no reason for the BoS to ever return. While with the Minutemen or the Institute doing it gives them a VERY BIG reason to return.

As for the killing of ghouls, they talk killing all ghouls in the Commonwealth in random dialogue.

And they were killing them indiscriminately in Fallout 3. I doubt they've really improved their racial tolerance.

Just saying.

Why? Because the BoS won't forget a defeat, the Institute has already foreseen it, that's why they feel the need to show that they're a dominant power to the BoS, so they wouldn't think about revenge. With the Minutemen, they have no reason to return because you don't destroy them. You're talking about the best ending, meaning that the Minutemen ending will have BoS still existing. As I stated, in RR ending, none of the groups have the power to defend all of Commonwealth against mutants, raiders, and ghouls, and when the BoS returns, they would have their hand full. Also, you stole a Vertibird to get up to the ship, there were shooting and gun noises everywhere, there's a chance you have already been seen by bystander, even if you kill everyone in the police station, you also need to get down, with a big explosion while you're getting down, there's also a chance of you being seen. Moreover, not only camera, a member being captured is also a high possibility, a synth's data can be extracted, and a human's memory can also be examined like with Kellogg. Nothing would remain hidden, especially when you're killing Maxson, one of the descendants of BoS's founder.

Can you show me a dialogue they have spoken that they killed ghouls for no reasons? I've walked back and forth many times and I don't remember them talking about killing harmless human ghouls, and was it a doctrine thing or is it a random killing as ghouls are killed by humans time and time before? If it's individual killing and not motivated by the doctrine of the BoS, then it's not really a BoS thing rather than the individual thing. Elder Maxson has never talked about killing normal ghouls, and it was never his goal, even after the Institute has been destroyed. With the Institute gone, nothing stopping them from hunting down ghouls, especially city ghouls which should be easy picking than looking for feral ghouls hiding somewhere in the wilderness, but he never ordered that. From what I've seen, ghouls are just disliked just like with the rest of Commonwealth. They don't make it their active duty to destroy all ghouls as you have seen with synths. There are many areas controlled by the BoS, and you can see ghouls still exist. With BoS ending, they appear everywhere, even in areas with ghouls in it.

I don't know everything yet, but given that (1) every other faction stupidly insists on destroying a unique piece of technology that could be of great help for everyone, rather than taking it for themselves, and (2) that if I support the Institute, by implication I'll be able to adjust Institute policy after the ending, I think I'll have no problem siding with the Insitute.

Damn bout blew coffee out my nose. Thanks.

But it is a statement I'm starting to agree with more and more. I just started the RR a couple nights ago, and the further I go in, the more I realize these guys are just nuts. It actually started with one of the initial conversations with Deacon. How the RR itself couldn't decide if Gen 1 and Gen 2 should be accepted, and then the discussion goes further into "what about Mr. Handy's? What about Turrets?" It because clear early on that when 'man' decides for himself that he'll determine what is and isn't life, the line gets moved around a lot. Which says a lot actually since if you are actually talking about life and what is and what isn't, the last thing you want is a grey movable line. Eventually I have to side with the creators. If the creators say it isn't life, then it isn't life. How on earth can I actually argue with the creators? They created something that mimics life, and did a good job of it. That doesn't mean it's alive ... it just means they did a good job of mimicking life. Why should I let myself fall for it if I know the creator's intent? I'm not that big of a fool.

So as soon as I get my ability to use Ballistic Weave ... I'm out of here and away from these nutcases.

So I sided with the RR against the BoS and then with the Institute against the RR.

Only once during all that were the minutemen involved and I ended that dispute peacefully for both parties involved. After the MQ ended and I got the black and white end scene stuff I went and looked for Preston. he gave me a few more settlements needing help quests. And then he spoke briefly on the loss of the BoS. Seemed to lack all knowledge of the Railroad. But stated war was coming with the Institute? I told him to enjoy the victory over the BoS and that we needed to concentrate on peace.

He gave me no "attack the institute" quests.

So I like my ending. minutemen and institute survive. And with the director of the institute also the general of the minutemen... I see peace and prosperity across the commonwealth as we work together against the mutants and raiders.