Not really a faction, per se. But... Big Town. I know the Lil Lamplighters dont make much sense either. But these are kids that grew up with no parents to protect them. You'd think theyd be tough as [censored] after that. But they are big weenuses. Move somewhere else if you cant hack it, fools.
yeah, they don't make any logical sense. i absolutely hated little lamplight but i din't mention it because it is not a true faction (or is it?). what really irritates me is that there are
litteraly hundreds of other people/things they could have populated little lamplight with which would have been more interesting and actually make sense.
however, what personally infuriated me about little lamplight was that you had to get past "diplomatically" via quests or speech checks, you coulden't just fight your way through or even sneak in, and of course, "diplomacy" is not part of the character i usually RP as, so it felt "wrong" in relation to my characters peronality.
all that to say, populating little lamplight with children was a bad idea, possibly the worst idea used in F3. they could have just populated the area (little lamplight and the vault) with a tribe of ghouls who worship an exeptionally intelligent super mutant, upon entering the area the player would be told, by a member of the tribe, to submit to the will of their master, if the player accepts he/she must fulfill 2 quests before being allowed to enter the vault and seek "the master's" help (impossible if you are an ally of the BoS), the player can use speech to threaten them with BoS action which only he/she can call off (very hard speech check) that would cause them to leave the area or the player could open the door by force and fight his/her way through to the GECK.
this would also give a reason for the BoS to avoid the area althogether even though they have knowledge of it but the player could convince them to assist him/her
if they side with the BoS.
the talon company are also pretty bland, it would have been interesting to be able to to side with them, or at the very least work for them which would lead to them assisitng you in the vault and the battle with the enclave.
same goes for tenpenny tower, it was just a horrible mess, devoid of any logic or reasoning behind it apart from "evel british guy is evil and made a tower for rich people", to hell with the fact he's rich and powerfull enough to have founded a major faction which the player could have obtained the assistance of instead of that damned BoS.
infact tenpenny tower is a particualrly severe case of wasted potential, he could have been the one who funded the player's father in his projects, but with selfish goals in mind, perhaps he wants to controll all the safe water of the wasteland in order to increase his power even further? perhaps he wants to use project purity to wipe out the ghouls which he hates so much?
and what about Mr.burke? he apparently has ties to the talon company, that could have made an interesting storyline which would allow you to get the help of the talon company.
the problems i have with F3 are all based on logic and lore, nothing seems to make sense and the story is very shallow, what's the point of being able to become good, evil or neutral if you have to do good in the end (joining and assisting the BoS, mainly)? although fallout 3 was a great game the "black and white" aspect is somewhat off-putting to me, you can't be who you want to be because the story is far too rigid.
new vegas also has some problems of that kind with factions, such as the killing of powder gangers, fiends, ect... granting positive karma, which forces you to do good, even if you are a profoundly evil character who is defendig himself/ herself from the random pyromaniacs and drugged up morons attacking them, it dosen't mean you're doing good, it means you're trying to survive, so technically my karma should remain unchanged. only killing non-hostile evil characters should give positive karma, and only killing good, very good or non-hostile neutral characters, should reduce karma, killing somone or something which attacked me first should have no effect on my karma.