Ah, good.

I think that Curie would wind up enjoying the Institute, assuming I can get it to help the Commonwealth and stop committing atrocities.

Binet Had* a Synth wife

Same, resolved A House Divided in a pacific way even thanks to the X6 suggestions along the way.

If you meet them while under arrest inside the institute they'll be sorry and apologize for that (Loken), promising it won't happen anymore (Higgs).

Anyway i would be all up into an indepth of Virgil's story , he deserves so, he deserve the chance to return, or to just leave the hell in which he recluded himself.

He should get back under the new sun of my rule, as only another one compromised and knowledged with what the wasteland is may take over the institute and continue the reforming process.

And he would also an awesome next director for you to appoint (other self recluded entitled guys may seem negative because it would halt any kind of reforming we'd start.)

And yeah, in the Institute ending you can actually have a start of seeing what you could do , given you'll have time, in terms of protecting the commonwealth and lifting some darkness from the institute's bad side.

After all this title is very much focused into your role of leading others, and well, i can go as far as imagining we could have minutemens working on the ground to actively help, maybe can be given to them access to a surface-teleportation-machine to be installed at the castle who would allow their patrols to really intervene in a minute.

Obviously it would work on different frequencies and rules than the original institute one, but would turn out in a good ways for both groups.

To be honest, sending synths to DC may not be the brightest idea ever, is yet too early for that imho, maybe a courser in disguise but not so many to be actually seen and feared as an occupation force.

Yeah, time's on our side anyway, with a peaceful environment maybe even the wastelanders would realise, one day far from now, that those synths aren't as bad as they thought.

Depends on if you sided with Ayo or Liam. But there's a chance you can let Eve live either way. So Binet can keep his waifu.

Personally I think a better option would be putting him to work on his cure. Turn the FEV lab in a FEV-Cure lab.

Regardless of what he ended up doing, he DID preside over the FEV program for years. He has to atone for what he's done. Heading up a project to capture and cure the super-mutants would go a long way to starting that.

Giving him a Director chair though. I'm not sure he's earned that quite yet. He's a man to have on hand to be certain, and it would definitely make Li happy again to see him. But I don't think he deserves a leadership position quite yet.

Piper writes a very hopeful piece in Publick Occurrences which gives some indication that things are changing. She expresses optimism in the future of The Institute and asserts that she "knows the guy in charge now."

So that's at least one good sign.

I wonder... what would the options for the Institute's future be like if Obsidian had made the game, and it had been like New Vegas?

Also, is it a good idea to establish formal ties with the Minutemen? I know that the Institute can make a lot of synths, and could use them to supplement the Minutemen's military forces, but it's probably a bad idea for the defenses of the Commonwealth to be nothing but robots. They'd be very useful in eradicating threats like the Gunners, though, that the defensively-minded Minutemen might not pursue outright. So perhaps some kind of deal where the Minutemen take most of the responsibility in protecting the settlements, and the Institute provides synth auxiliaries and eliminates major threats?

I really want to punch those people.

I want to be able to *chose* between grey, happy slappy, and mustache twirly evil. I don't want any of the three crammed down my throat.

They aren't ideologically opposed at the end so that's certainly an option.

That's similar to what my Director is doing. Leaving the MM to protect the outlying settlements, and using his handy-dandy Gen-1's to attack raider groups, mutants, and The Gunners.

And http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/6485 of course you can deploy the full military power of The Institute.

My opinion on the matter is that the factions should be gray, by and large, but the player should be able to be white, gray, or black.

If the factions are all grey and the game forces you to chose factions - it is forcing you to also be grey.

Yes, there is. The Brotherhood of Steel wipes the Institute off the map and the Minutemen rebuild the Commonwealth.

People know how I feel. Kells telling me to go out of my way to kill Virgil and the Railroad are nonsensical wastes of my time. I'll go even further and say that the conflict with the Railroad could've have been resolved through other means.

But in the end the BoS is the most cost effective ending. People are safe and can start looking towards building a better future.

Not really, if it lets you use your personal style to alter the methodology of your chosen faction, even if only to a degree.

Can't you get everything you might want by beating the game with the Minutemen and having both the Brotherhood and the Railroad remain intact?

Sure, but if people feel that this cheapens the lore, you can keep your lore 100% intake by taking the New Vegas route and just offering factions with radically divergent ideologies or even the possibility to say "screw all these people" and go your own way.

*Edit* On second thought, it's not just divergence of ideologies that's needed but divergence of outcomes. Factions with divergent ideologies all arriving at the same solution for the problem: murder everyone but the Minutemen, is really monotonous.

This is part of the reason why I am going for the Institute ending. The other part of the reason is collateral damage. Killing off the Railroad means that a bunch of soldiers will die and some Synths will be reprogrammed. Killing off the Brotherhood means that a bunch of soldiers will die and some Squires will die as well, but that is what happens when you put a bunch of teenagers on a flying military base. Killing off the Institute means that a bunch of civilians and children will die.

Another reason is that only the Minutemen and Institute actually care about the Commonwealth. The Railroad just cares about freeing Synths while the Brotherhood just cares about destroying the Institute and any Synth they find.

The Railroad and BOS are definitely gray.

The Institute, I'll be kind and say its dark gray.

But Preston, bless his heart, just wants 'the player' to help everyone. The MM are off white at worst. Though they went through a dark patch to get there.

During gameplay it seems the only faction that is susceptible to direct, if limited, influence by the player is the BOS.

Sure, head canon in my Institute play through says that as Director of the Institute I can clean them up, but except for a radio address, there's nothing really in game that I found that changes their interaction with the Commonwealth.

I haven't played the Railroad so I don't know if the player has the chance to make them care a little about humans or not. If someone could add some info on that it would be appreciated.

I have tried to do a Minuteman play through, because I really want to like them, but it just gets so tedious and I give up and go back to the BOS. And I don't even like Power Armor!

Well, to be fair, Bethesda games have always been pretty bad about post-ending changes and gameplay. Bits and pieces here and there is about all we're going to get. Piper's article, the speech, the checkpoints etc.

One of the reasons I prefer New Vegas's "definite end, okay here's what happens now" ending slides as opposed to continuing on afterward.

Yeah, let preston and his guys handle the Castle and settlements protection, as common wastelanders may (not) yet be ready to totally flip their thoughts about synths and institute give them time.

But if there'd be an huge mess with mutants, ghouls or raiders, MM would be able to call aid from the institute, since the Z-guy at bunker hill strongly refused 24 times to give me relay grenades he has to pay his error and will have to protect 24 settlements before he'd get reintegrated in combat courser operations.

Ugh.

That mod's great , tho, thank you, do want!

Even if those blankish uniforms-clothes makes me cringe all the times i see it and i was just looking there to find a cool darker version of it (yea yeah i'm cliched , i know).

I'll try out a few mods about it within' my next playthrough i'll do, after i am done with the BoS one.

I edited in an additional thought to my above post that I think got missed so I'll elaborate on it.

The issue isn't just the greyness of the factions themselves but the fact that *all* of the actually interesting ones (Institute, Railroad, BOS) arrive at exactly the same silly "grey" solution to the problem which is the issue this thread is talking about: murder everyone but the Minutemen.

You can make arguments that the game is offering you unique ideologies, but that becomes irrelevant when they all want me to do the same thing.

To be fair, Piper's article isn't a guarantee, as it requires a high affinity with her.

Not claiming that's difficult (pick lock *piper liked that*), but it's not guaranteed either.

More in reference to one of your previous posts, but I never felt Pipers post-ending piece was particularly hopeful? To me in read more like 'well, this is very bad, we're probably all screwed, but.. uh... maybe this vault guy will be better than the previous director?'. Does she write something different if you romanced her?

I like the checkpoints, and I'm pleasantly surprised my synths seem actually somewhat capable, I've seen them hold their own against deathclaws, but I'm really bummed that not a single character actually recognizes my voice on the radio, and also can someone tell that [censored] McDonough I'm his Director now, not Ayo's errand boy? I heard he wanted into the SRB... well, I've got a Courser with me right now, and I believe there's a chair in the Bureau that would fit him very well...

Also a bit ot, but stupid Triggermen killed my gen-1's in Diamond City, do they ever come back or are they gone forever?

Now that, I will agree with, and I would love a mod or two that gave more interesting outcomes.

Here's a link to the full text of "Fear the Future?".

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Fear_the_Future%3F

I have high respect for the Minuteman and what they are trying to accomplish. They are not really interfering with any faction in the Commonwealth. They are just trying to help the people who are honest and hard-working. Everybody deserves a shot at a little bit of happiness in this harsh world. Even if it is just a good nights rest under a roof, knowing that someone is watching over you.

And yes, I like your ending and that is what I'm going for in my current game.

Yes, I read about the CPG, but I don't understand how one misunderstanding would make the Institute just stick their head into the sand, so to speak, and just give up on every one! And yes, Father said that to me as well, that they need a leader. Maybe he finally realizes that my character has a lot of experience, based on her travels throughout the Commonwealth and she has a good head on her shoulders. But if he really followed her path, he would see that she has an open mind and a heart of gold that beats for Synth as well as humans. She tries to do good and ease the suffering of the common folk, who have nobody to turn to. There are no more laws on the surface, no more police to enforce what is right and wrong, so someone has to stand up against all these Wasteland bullies!

I don't want to wipe out anyone, really, Catherine just wants to live out her days with her new "husband". She has secured herself a bit of happiness and she pretty much just wants to help out the hard-working people, who try to do the same. It will bring me no pleasure to get rid of the Institute. I value life, even if it is synthetic (Danse <3) and I guess that's where Father and I differ. He creates life, synthetic life, yet he never sees it as such. Sure, he's proud of the Institute's accomplishment, but for everyone down there, a Synth is just a piece of property.

I would also like to know, why did they give Synth the ability to feel pain? Nick is always asking that! Is this some cruel joke?

Father doesn't know all... the people of the Commonwealth are very resilient and have a quiet strength in them. Even if the Institute waits for decades in their "bunker", the people would still be on the surface. And I guess that is why I don't understand his sentiment about the people on the surface. How can he so easily dismiss them? They deserve more respect than the scientist that live in their pretty environment below the earth. Untouched by the day to day harshness of the wastes.

And yes, fine, I agree that the game can't show you the full amount of people that live in a given area.

Yes, ending slides based on MQ outcome and the manner in which the Player made moral decisions, in those quests that allow them, would have been nice.

Or perhaps a quest at the end of the MQ that allows for establishing the factions direction.

For the Institute, you hold a staff meeting, and after a few speech checks get everyone on board with your agenda.

For the BOS, Maxson will tell you that he is leaving by Vertibird, and that you are in command of all BOS forces in the Commonwealth. Do a few speech checks to get him to agree to what ever enlightened or tyrannical rule you plan and he flies off leaving you 'temporarily' with the Prydwen.

The other factions could have some post MQ setups as well.

Well we have to remember its Piper. She was never a fan of The Institute at all, so her saying anything good about them is significant.

But I'd say the overall tone is cautious optimism. She states that yes, The Institute has done some pretty terrible things. But now maybe it has the potential to be a part of The Commonwealth. She's trying to reassure people's fears of the boogeyman, because she now has some reason to believe things can change. But obviously, those changes have yet to come to full fruition.

Honestly none of her end-game articles are extremely uplifting, and they all contain a shred of doubt.

They do respawn. I'm not exactly sure how long it takes though. But they were all destroyed at one point in my game and then showed back up sometime later.

Wait, what? The only synths that would have infiltrated the Commonwealth with nefarious intent would have been at the Institute's behest. Piper, what the hell are you doing?

I guess it's a matter of interpretation how you read it... To me it had an overall defeated vibe, like she felt everything she tried fighting against ultimately won and all that was left was to try to keep going and hope this wasn't the end, since nothing else could be done anyway. Like she was trying to give her readers something positive to think about, that she didn't really believe in herself. But that might have been because my radio speech wasn't particularly Commonwealth-friendly... Like I said, interpretation.