As far as I can tell the Railroad is completely worthless as a faction. They only care about "helping" Synths, their approach is questionable and they ultimately doom the Synths to extinction by destroying the Institute.
Let me break this down:
-they don't have very good or consistent evidence that the Synths they are "freeing" are self-aware (almost all the Synths I talked to before they had their memories changed showed very little indication that they were).
-they effectively kill the Synths by giving them entirely new memories and personalities. While their reasoning is understandable, not having the time to teach every Synth how to act human, it is negating the point of "freeing" the Synths since they are no longer the individual who "wanted to be free"
-they have you destroy the Institute. Not only does this mean killing entire families but also resigns the Synths to eventual extinction as no more can be produced. This completely negates the reason for the Railroad's existence
-they have you kill off the Brotherhood of Steel to protect, maybe, a hundred Synths
-on top of all this they don't do anything to aid the rest of the Commonwealth

So in the end siding with the Railroad:
-has you commit genocide against three groups, including the ones they were formed to "help"
-leave the Commonwealth without a faction to keep the Raiders, super mutants or Gunners in check (the Institute did even if it was for self serving reasons)

Not really a good option is it?

Or am I missing something here?

Yeah. the RR is all kinds of messed up.

You only join the two faced scumbags of the RR if you are an idealistic fool who thinks feels should come before reals and don't care if the wasteland descends into anarchy so long as glorified terminators get freedom.

I promptly stormed the RR HQ as soon as I got the quest.The Institute was basically a hive mind in my game, at least thats the idea that I had in my head that I dont think was really implemented in the story arch itself. So I added it in to make things little bit more interesting during my 1st play through.

Allow me to be the Railroad's advocate for a moment. I have not done a Railroad playthrough but I think I get their thinking.

Synths desire freedom and that is good enough for them.

Undergoing the memory wipe and replacement is what the Synths want, generally speaking. Harkness in Fallout 3 willingly underwent the process. The memories of one's own enslavement are a small price to pay for a life time free from that enslavement.

Those 'families' are slavers. As for preventing the creation of future Synths? Synths who do not exist are not important. The Railroad does not exist to preserve the species. The Railroad exists to free those who already live, allowing them to live the rest of their lives as freely as any other sapient being in the wasteland. If the Institute is destroyed, they will never be hunted again.

The Brotherhood under Maxson would commit genocide of an entire sentient species. Someone needs to stand up for them.

Since Fallout 3, the perspective of the Railroad has always been that there are plenty of other people out there helping the humans and the mutants. No one is helping the Synths, so that is what the Railroad exclusively focuses on.

I do not agree with all of it - but the game is all about the factions having both good and bad in them. This is just another way to look at them.

The point of siding with the Railroad is to betray humanity by placing the operation of constructed abominations above the lives of your brothers and sisters.

Keep in mind that the Synths in the Commonwealth likely aren't the only Synths in existence. Runaways could easily reach places outside of the Commonwealth, proven fact from Fallout 3. You're not just protecting the freedoms of a population of "a hundred or so Synths". There could be plenty more out there.

one perfect reason is a quest reward that allows my character tuxedo to have a heavely damage resistance

bond , james bond

Ok, but I am not talking about what the Railroad thinks of itself or how it views its actions. I know there are different ways to look at things, we could come up with any number of ways of doing so. I am talking about why would you join them after judging their goals and actions from a third party perspective.

Also two of the counterpoints you gave directly contradict each other: "The Railroad does not exist to preserve the species." and "The Brotherhood under Maxson would commit genocide of an entire sentient species. Someone needs to stand up for them." Unless the Railroad continues to protect the Synths they "freed" for the rest of time then the point is moot as the end result is the same.

I was including the ones outside of the Commonwealth, there hasn't been Gen 3 Synths for that long (as they didn't come about until after Shaun was kidnapped). Given that and the fact that the Railroad would have taken time to form, as they didn't learn of the Gen 3 Synths until even later, then it is safe to conclude that the number of Synths they have "freed" would not be very high.

you do free "a lot of synths" they do not specify the number, when I played it I used the evacuation order so all the people and synths who did not want to fight left I assume and the railroad seems to just give escaped synths a care package when I save them that help them get a new life so I think they stopped doing the memory wipe thing with the BoS and Institute destroyed, and yes the BoS deserved it, they were acting like Nazis and I could not change them, the institute was regrettable but you cannot have a machine spitting out synths while you are having trouble protecting the ones who you freed as it is and the minute men will protect the common wealth with all the settlements I made. A lot more than the Institute who thinks "the future is under ground and the surface is only a lost cause" and the brotherhood who thinks this is only 1 of many city's under its control and are willing to sacrifice everyone for their mission of killing all synths, mutants, and super mutants.

What are the actual values you can achieve with the ballistic weaves for different garments?

If people consider synth to have self awareness of who they are, then once they're shutting synths down, erasing the self-awareness, they're effectively kill that synth, it's nothing more than a machine, after that, it's basically a new person, and some of them could go rogue with the new information being installed.

With the institute gone, the synth is basically go into extinction. Even with a new personality, they would eventually find out they're a synth when they find out they can't age and can't reproduce.

The RR destroy the Brotherhood which created order and the Institute which have many advanced knowledge and research that could restore the world back to before.

The RR has no long term plan to help the world, only the synth, which is short sighted, the synth will eventually be gone, the world is thrown into chaos without groups like BoS to control raiders and mutants.

Going with the Minutemen is exactly the same as the RR except you are their leader and you created a new group of protectors for the people to fill in the void of the BoS

RR is a useless faction. Nothing about the Commonwealth changes with or without them.

I agree wholeheartedly.

What are the actual values you can achieve with the ballistic weaves for different garments?

I was a big supporter of the Railroad, and I still am in some respects. I think they have the right ideal, but in keeping with the rest of the factions, they take it a little too far. And everyone else really detailed all the pitfalls with the Railroad here so I won't keep hammering those. I just think synths like Nick, Curie, and the like should be left alone. I really wish there was a way to harmonize the Brotherhood and the Railroad; sort of a middle path. After the quest where you find out Danse is a synth, we should have had the option to persuade Maxson to let him stay and then ally with the Railroad to destroy the Institute. The synths that wanted freedom are memory wiped and transported outside the Commonwealth. The Brotherhood gets the Institute tech and both groups just leave each other alone.

I think the Railroad should of been a Synth faction that was not the institute.

Really there should have been a way to get the Institute and Railroad to at least try to work together. The Institute could have allowed the Synths expressing a desire to leave to go to the Railroad and use those as case studies in the possible emergence of self-aware Synths, rather than have to commit so much resources on Synth retention. Without the Institute trying to hunt down the Synths the Railroad could actually help the Synths they are "freeing" rather than helping them commit suicide and replacing them with slapped together memories.

I feel like if Danse was put in charge (cut content), there could have been an alliance, depending on how far up the BoS stick is up his ass. I hope they allow us to put Danse in charge in a DLC or something.

If the BoS would just be content with destroying synths I wouldn't have an issue with them. But they ALSO want to destroy all non-human life... and that includes non-feral ghouls. That is the only reason i won't support them.

The only really good option is to support the MM. The Institute is another option if you can stand the arrogance of the scientists and your son. You can change the Institute into something more peaceful. But the big problem, is the Institute is responsible for a lot of death. And many in the Commonwealth, that is unforgivable.

Mark V ballistic weave offers 110 damage resistance and 110 energy resistance.

In a post apocalypse world, a few deaths are not really a big issues. People kill each other all the time for the smallest reasons. The point is whether those deaths have a purpose. BoS kill people indiscriminately if they don't fit into their definition of a human or if they defy them while Institute kills for science. Basically, sacrifice a few to benefit many. If the end result is the world is safe, both BoS and the Institute could be seen as the good guys. History is written by the victors.

That is one thing that pisses me off about this game. To get certain abilities or buffs you are forced to join a faction. Besides cheating, is there any other way to get ballistic weave other than joining and completing quests for the RR?

More then a few. Try hundreds, maybe even thousands. They wiped out University Point and other towns. Not to mention their work on the FEV. And the Institute doesn't just kill for "science", they kill for resources too. Just like every raider in the wastelands.

And really, is being murdered for science any better than being murdered for chems?

The Institute (or my son) has their plan. Be damn how many have to die to achieve it. The one question I'd like to ask my son, "Tell me boy, just how many of us do you have to kill to save us?"

Ballistic armor, that's the point.

I stopped paying attention after this line.

Given it's patently ludicrous.

Also, Synths have been made for sixty+ years and compromise a substantial portion of the Commonwealth's population.

Like any other minority such as Ghouls.