I am pretty sure it will be the Minuteman ending with the evacuation order given and the Railroad and BoS surviving.


There's then the potential for synths and Institute scientists in hiding and the Brotherhood still has the Prydwen and Maxson to move to the next region in the next game (probably in his 30's at that point).


Hopefully Bethesda adopts a new engine so they can speed up their development cycle and starting putting out more than 1 Fallout game per decade. Maybe not Assassin's Creed speed but a quicker project cycle would be nice.

BoS. Bethesda loves them some BoS. Maybe the Minutemen, just to add a new, lasting faction into the lore.


The Railroad (which I sided with first) and Institute options are there just to give you the choice to side one of the more "out there" factions. Just my opinion.

Minuteman, Railroad, and survivors of the institution (by choice or force) merge and form a state of commonwealth.

My guess is MM-RR. Because:

1. There are direct double agent jobs that's disobeying Institute

2. Based on my experience, finishing the game with MM, RR, BOS survived still lets PAM to give you BOS elimination. If this was really intentional, I guess this is a hint that BOS is supposed to be the antagonist here.

Wrong. There are plenty of ways to whitewash stuff and just because you can't think of one doesn't mean it's impossible. You aren't a all powerful super genius so stop acting like one.

I'd assume Minutemen without antagonizing the BoS. Not because I like it, but because it seems like the safest route for Bethesda to take. The Institute is gone, disappointing as that is, so no need to implement their amazing technological developments in future Fallouts, the Brotherhood is still around to keep being the series' mascot and Arthur Maxson is available for future use, but the BoS isn't in total control of almost the entire East Coast. The Minutemen themselves are unconsolidated enough it's possible to do anything with them, and will probably fade from the pages of Fallout history, and the Railroad loses all importance or meaning after the fall of the Institute.

Brotherhood in all probability, the Minutemen can continue to exist although they are pretty much likely to be a Boston only faction and their new EC Brotherhood can continue. The Railroad can also continue since they are by design split into semi-autonomous cells so eventually they will reform although perhaps with a more human centric theology with Gen-3 Synth production ended.

Having said all that, its not impossible that the Institute survives in some form, I cannot at the moment recall having killed any named scientists when I stormed the Institute, there were some generic scientist and the synths guarding the place......maybe I just missed them?

Is it just me, or do others feel like Beth sketched out the factions on a paper napkin and then forgot to flesh them out? The story begins with your dire need to find your lost son but due to the fact that the people of this land seem to have popped out of the void without history or family or any sense that they could have endured these past 200 years without someone telling them to pick fruit from the plants they are resting against as they starve to death it becomes clear that the right thing to do is to become their nanny. This invests the player in the Minutemen since any rejection of them is a rejection of humanity itself. So, while getting waylaid saving the world, you run into BOS. These idiots aren't bad people but unfortunately they are just too stupid to realize that while scientists may have created the bombs that destroyed the world, the nerds in lab coats never did have the power - this was wielded by insane politicians and propelled into global destruction by gung-ho nut job military forces just like them. I would have loved the opportunity to state the obvious and tell them this but, no. So, of course, I joined them. Were they really as racist as they first appeared? Perhaps they could be made to see how important the Minutemen were to them by treating the Minutemen as an allied civilian constabulary organizing the people, ensuring food and water security, giving would-be raiders an alternative lifestyle choice and allowing population growth for the prospect of future BOS recruiting. I thought for sure that once they heard that I was the leader, the General of the Minutemen, that they'd be pushing me to have a Paladin or a Scribe stationed at every Minuteman settlement behind his little BOS recruitment stand giving sweets to the kiddies, gaining on the ground intelligence while benefiting from militia support and getting huge discounts on food and water deals. Instead, BOS are one giant clown show without a shred of military tactics flying around in their bullet magnets like moving targets that beg everyone to take a shot just to see if you can hit them.

But then after Joining the railroad because you were smart enough to reason that any creature whether born or made who suffers from a desire for freedom is living and self-aware regardless of what the morons in Synth Retention believe. It was only then when I picked up the main quest again from the agony of settlement building and maintenance did I discover the biggest hole in the game. So, I meet "Father" at the institute - a title of affection much like Fuhrer. He tries to convince me that they are the good guys. He won't share his vision, his grand plan or even the breakthroughs that will change the world. He says, "trust me" but I don't get his trust not even for why they are really the good guys. Could I ask him why the hell are they making Synth children that can never grow up, never cease to be dependent... Where's the superior intellect here? Nope, I couldn't ask that. Could I ask him where was this great benefit to humankind when you swap out normal people with synth doubles and kill the originals? Nope, I couldn't ask that. I did manage to tell him that the people feared the Institute and asked why weren't they using their superior technology to help them. "Oh, we tried that" he said. "And, they rejected us." "WELL, TRY AGAIN. AND, IF THAT FAILS TRY SOMETHING ELSE! AND, IF THEY DESTROY YOUR SYNTHS, BUILD MORE AND TRY AGAIN!!! But I never got to say any of this. I didn't even get to tell the guy in Synth Retention that he shamed the lab coat he was wearing when he failed to see that the definition of life was satisfied when Synths ran away to be free. Could I ask Father why in blazes they were hunting down Synths who were blending in with humans when these were giving them their best chance of public acceptance? But the real kicker was that I couldn't investigate the Institute properly to discover if any of these answers finally emerged because the more time I spent there doing the meet and greet quests the more chance that the rest of the fallout 4 world would turn against me. Had i returned to Father after completing institutionalized there was no way of ending the game with the MInutemen, BOS and the Railroad at peace. So even though it was totally out of character and went against everything I stood for and killed any story immersion I had, I was forced to cowardly gun down some unarmed scientists in order to get banished. What a load of crock!.

DJWolf,

I agree that the factions need more depth, particularly the Minutemen. I think Bethesda wasted so much development effort on the two 'voiced' protagonists that they skimped elsewhere.

However, some of your objections relate to how you choose to role play your character, and paying attention to what is going on in the factions outside the MQ.

Only the BoS rely matter outside the commonwealth.

The Railroad is an small resistance movement with an single purpose, might survive as an sort of synt secret society / interest group later on but only something who get mentioned.

Minutemen is an local group with no external interests even if they build up a lot they will be an group of farmers with an limited standing army.

Institute is the bogyman and will go.

So question is if the BoS survives.

Uh, no. You can also get the mission to destroy the Railroad from Kells so it means literally nothing.

Really? After the ending, the only Kells giving is the Squire training.

I'm fairly certain Kells can still give the mission. Even still it's really grasping at straws that the Brotherhood is "the antagonist" because a robot gives you a quest.

I just finished the MQ as Minutemen with BoS and RR alive. Kells only gives the Squire Training radiant quests after the Institute is destroyed, and 'Tactical Thinking' is failed. The only additional fighting between RR/BoS is instigated by PAM. You can avoid her and maintain the peace.

MM ending, I have the following Radiants available --

Railroad:

Saving the Synth

Weathervane

To the Mattresses 1-6

BoS:

Coolant to Ingram

Documents to Quinlan

Blood to Neriah

Cleansing the Commonwealth

Quartermastery

Feeding the Troops

Minutemen:

Settlment Defenses

Greenskins: (Settlement)

Raider Problems: (Settlement)

Ghoul Problems: (Settlement)

The mission and its condition brings a story and that's where my guess is coming from.

- Washington D.C. alone is all the EC BoS needs to survive. Yes, their defeat is a horrendous strike to their military power, but the population of Washington will make up for lost soldiers and they still have all the fancy tech they got by destroying and raiding various Enclave outposts. What is more, I am pretty sure that Maxson left an even larger army behind to defend their "homeland"

- if it is an easter egg because you can't get it without antagonizing the BoS, than the entire MM route is an easter egg because you can't get into it without antagonizing the Institute (unlike Railroad and BoS routes). The MM are YOUR army, that is why you can only get "Destroy Faction" quests with MM only if you become the enemy of the said factions (not to mention that MM are the only faction whose achievements are unrelated to the MQ)

The thing about BoS in Commonwealth is that nobody considers them welcome and if you tell the MM that you are going to destroy the BoS, they get all happy. Heck, I was surprised how happy some NPCs are if the Institute destroys them.

Because I still like Mr. House more than them ;P (although I like most of FO factions).

Family aspect of the story is a very major of the game's storyline and the Institute ending is the only pro-family ending. While arguably an evil end from ideological perspective, the Institute ending is the only good one from "blood is ticker than water" and the game does several time get out of its way to remind you of this.

Overall, I'd say all endings are story-wise fitting.

BoS are to Beth's Fallout what Empire is to TES.

Didn't bring much luck to the Empire.

There are many ways, yes. But they come with their downsides.

In any case, additional reasons why I think some of the major stuff will be canonized:

Beth canonized several things from FO3. While one could argue that "Enclave Destroyed" stuff was required (but then again, it is like you said: they actually could have made it work). Canonizing the fact that McCready was not sold into slavery was unnecessary however. Oh, and Sarah Lyons did not die at the Purifier, again something that could have been handled more ambiguously.

But most important of all, there was something major which they did not need to do, but actually went out of their way to do it: they canonized Legion's defeat in New Vegas, in a way that hints (although does not outright confirm) that NCR ending was the one canonized (though I still hold the stance that it doesn't outright confirm it). Seeing as events of WC do not matter AT ALL to EC, this was completely unnecessary.

What I am saying is: if nothing else, I expect they will confirm if the BoS won or got defeated.

In any case, while do act arrogant I also do try my best to explain my reasoning. If you don't like something I said (or if these points somehow insulted you), then do try to give actual arguments instead of personal attacks.

Have you tried a save where Tactical Thinking was never started? It is possible that the quest can't start because you already failed it.

No. I did the quests in the order I did them so that I could complete Blind Betrayal and still be able to achieve Danse's perk. The moment you hand in Blind Betrayal, the quest Tactical Thinking is assigned to you even as Maxson is still talking.

Fairly sure it will be the Minutemen.

It is the only faction that the player actually builds back up from the ground. All of the other factions were built up and firmly established by the time the PC encounters them. The Minutemen represents a faction that the player actually participates in bringing to power. My guess is that it will return in future fallouts so that players can see what happened to it after the "General" gets it back on its feet... probably with future game references to "The General" and their rise to power by NPCs talking to the next-game PC characters.

-They can recover their numbers but not the power projection the Prydwen provided...at least not anytime soon. And is it ever mentioned how many soldiers they left at the Capital Wasteland? If not, then for all we know they might've just left a skeleton garrison behind. The BoS in Fallout 3 couldn't be considered numerous even if you counted them with the Outcasts.

-Antagonizing the Institute as the Minutemen is easy and makes sense plot-wise however, just argue with Father after Bunker Hill and you'll become enemies. With the BoS on the other hand you have to murder some BoS soldiers or shoot up everyone in the Prydwen for no reason and there's no encouragement from a quest or anyone in particular.

-Many people are also happy when you complete the MQ with the BoS, however. There are many people that don't and won't trust or welcome them but there's nothing they themselves can do about it and there are many who won't have a problem with the BoS as well.

Since player protagonists are usually shoved aside for each new iteration of Fallout to replace them with someone else, I highly doubt the next Fallout game would even focus on the PC/institute/family stuff. As others have pointed out, the destruction of the institute would also render the Railroad largely moot with no one else to "liberate" since they as a whole show no real interest in doing anything besides that. Minutemen are really just local police, and only existed as a heavy handed reference from american history since the game itself being set in Massachusetts, was ripe with. The BoS however span the wasteland and can be pretty much inserted into whatever setting the game takes place next in.

- We don't know exact numbers, but it is unlikely that they would leave a small garrison there, especially since it is hinted that Capital Wasteland is still a dangerous place. Their numbers have supposedly grown from putting Washington under their control (thanks to beating the Supermuties and Enclave, and even more so due to Project Purity) and most of the BoS members we meet in the game are actually recruits. Of course, all we have guesses, but that means that Beth can do with it whatever they want

- The "Questy" way to get it is to finish the quest Mass Fusion for the Institute/Railroad route (which makes you an enemy of the Brotherhood) and then by siding with the Minutemen against the Institute in the following Institute/Railroad quest Pinned (arguably, Pinned is the quest which leads you into the Minutemen Route)

Neither the "moral right" nor the "family" routes matter for FO5, but I thought we were talking about which one feels most right for FO4? I might have misunderstood it though...

In any case, any ending can be important if Beth wants it:

- BoS victory or defeat will likely be important for their future - a weaker BoS if they lose, a growingly dangerous power-house if they win (and possibly the equivalent to the non-canon evil BoS ending from FO1)

- Minutemen and Railroad endings may lead to formation of a new country. They could become the East Coast's equivalent to the NCR (with Minutemen being the equivalent to NCR's Rangers). And just like NCR and WC BoS, the Commonwealth and EC BoS would become rivals with Commonwealth possibly expanding to the less fortunate territories

- Institute ending may lead to an expansionist scientific power-house and a major rival to the BoS (Shaun wants isolation, but that doesn't mean other Directors would be as conservative - and it is possible that Director Survivor tries, and this time succeeds, in forming the Commonwealth Provisional Government, which was an old attempt by the Institute to unite with the Wastelanders)

All in all, I think each ending could give us an interesting future, if Beth wanted it so.

The Minutemen survive in every scenario, so I'm guessing they'll be part of the canon. Also, BOS could be canon with or without Maxson...perhaps Maxson can be overthrown. There's a lot of dialogue (Dr. Li, Deacon, Piper) that suggests people view him as dangerous, zealous, etc.

Ok if it was up to me, be thankful it is not, my Cannon ending would go something like this.

The SS, me, talks Magnolia into leaving the Commonwealth for points west, after all there is NO intelligent life left in the Commonwealth. Some short time after we have cleared the area, a malfunctioning Chinese automated defense system decides it is time to launch it's 10 remaining, high yield, nuclear missiles at Boston. All life to include the 4 factions, Ghouls, Raiders, Gunners, Mutants, mole rats, Scorps, Flies, synths ... you get the idea .. are now nothing but radioactive dust, in fact the entire area is so messed up nothing lives in the area for a good 10,000 years. That way the Fallout universe can ignore Fallout 4 totally

I could see the MM and BoS butting heads at some point, after all, aren't some of the BoS missions pretty much demanding food from farmers?

Minuteman.

It's the only endgame that leaves RR, Institute and BoS intact and ready for inclusion (without major alterations) in the next title.