OK, so I'm nearing the end of the game now and one thing is really bothering me about the story... Who is actually in charge of the Minutemen? I'm supposed to be their general and yet I have Preston giving me all the orders and I'm just obeying what he says like some kind of hired muscle - even if his orders include mass murder for no good reason, which I wholely disagree with.

I know that you need to have a quest-giver to advance the story, but it would've been nice if I could've somehow felt in charge like I'm supposed to be. There are times where I'd like to say "No! Bad Preston! Bad!".

I am not at all comfortable with the extreme measures that all the sides come up with to resolve their conflicts at the end-game but at least I expect it from the BOS and Institute, who have warped world views. The Minutemen should know better. Aren't they supposed to be all about peace?

Who is in charge in a situation with a boss and his secretary?

Preston is relaying messages and requests for aid.

If we're going to say someone is in charge by that logic, it's the radio guy.

"Mass murder for no good reason"

That makes no sense. The boss is clearly in charge because he/she has the authority to say no to anything the secretary suggests, whereas the secretary must do as they're told by the boss. What makes them the boss is that the final decision always rests with them. However, its Preston calling all the shots and making the final decisions in this game and you have no choice but to go along with it if you want to advance the story. Preston is the one in charge - not you.

The radio guy has nothing to do with this. I'm talking about the main questline here, not the random side quests.

http://i.imgur.com/aomRaIc.jpg

Well turns out Preston's solution was not as bad as I thought (still pretty extreme though). Lame ending to the game though - good job all the settlement building and side quests were fun because the main storyline svcked as usual.

You are in charge. If you become the enemy of the Institute or BoS, you ask Preston to give you a quest to get rid of them.

Preston and the Radio guy just relay messages to you.

If you're just doing the main quest and want the MM's help Preston will literally tell you, "We don't have time for that," if you haven't done enough of his unending quests. What a thing to say to a parent seeking their kidnapped child. They call you "General" yet you're not. You really are just a hired gun.

Okay, you sit by the radio and tell Preston where to go - like an actual General would do. Fun game right?

Seriously, this is like the second time to-day I've seen someone complaining that Preston has the temerity to provide you with information that you clearly aren't doing anything to gather yourself.

That sounds like exactly what i am looking for in a Fallout game!

The dilemma of fun gameplay vs a meaningful role. It is true that us being in charge of the Minutemen doesn't mean a whole lot most of the time but we do get to control every detail of the settlements including assigning the Minutemen to whatever ourselves and the biggest choice of them all in regards to who to side with is also ours and they follow so in the end that is good enough for me. Not that I actually would do a Minutemen game ending outside of a throw-away save.

I like the Minute Men in theory, but in practice they are one hell of a [censored] tedious faction. I wish there was more delegation and brokering of alliances. How sweet would it be to walk up to Maxson crew deep and tell him the Commonwealth is your real estate and if he wants to operate in it he has to pay dues and play by your rules.

I Have not been called Mass murderer by Preston, however when I was at the Director's Console, I did issue an emergency evacuation order.

I believe this makes the difference for Preston.

Ugh.

You're supposed to be the General of the Minutemen. The leader. But you aren't. It's Preston who is leading you.

No, the alternative isn't that we'd be sitting next to a radio and telling Preston what to do. It's that Preston tells us what's going on and we can decide whether to 1.) handle it ourselves, as we're doing now, 2.) bring along Minutemen as our own personal army to help us, or 3.) send the Minutemen army and risk failing the quest because we aren't there to make sure they win.

I don't understand why Bethesda didn't do that. Fallout 4 is supposed to be an RPG. RPGs are supposed to present you with multiple options that help progress your character in a manner that's consistent with the role you want to play.

Telling us we're the leader of the Minutemen and still having Preston lead us is stupid. It's incredibly shallow and fitting of an FPS with sparse RPG elements, not a true RPG.

1) You don't need to sit by a radio to tell Preston how you would prefer to deal with the Institute - you could tell him to his face when he's ordering you to go in and blow the whole place up, risking innocent lives.

2) Preston does provide you with info - thats his job as underling. But he also tells you exactly how you're going to deal with the Institute. He doesn't ask, he doesn't suggest, he tells you in no uncertain terms that thats whats going to happen whether you like it or not and you have no opportunity to say "No Preston! You bloody psycho!". That means Preston is in charge, not you.

This is the second time today someone has completely missed the point I'm trying to make

Why does nobody talk about the Minutemen trying to recruit an Institue scientists violently and who essentially tell you to [censored] off because they don't have to listen to you even if you are the general since this isn't a military organization so they don't have to do anything they say.

That pushed me away from the MM.

Death to the Minutemen!

You're not immortal as the PC and you're essentially amassing an army of followers who don't all listen to you anyway. Once you die, the Minutemen could easily turn into an East Coast Caesar's Legion.

Just think about it. You're essentially taking over settlements as you find and "liberate" them. Then you tell the settlers what to do, sometimes breaking up families just to establish supply lines.

You're basically already Caesar's Legion. Just without the Crucifixions and scantily clad suits of armor.

I haven't done this quest.

but in my game the minutemen answer to every beck and call the Brotherhood makes, so I'm totally okay with forcing scientists to do what the Brotherhood requires.

I wish there was a option to upgrade the Minuteman's equipment that doesn't include going thought the manual trade window

Well it really shouldn't be a surprise that you aren't this all-powerful dictator of the Minutemen.

They're an ad-hoc volunteer militia force. Not an organized military. You're less a "General" than you are a "guy who we all generally agree is sort of in charge of this motly crew of loosely organized citizen soldiers: all of whom would much rather get back to picking their crops."

Its not like they have a defined chain-of-command or organized rank structure. They can, and do, disregard your orders if they don't agree with them.

The defined chain-of-command is:

Preston > the player > anyone who is willing to listen. You're certainly correct that it's a militia force (though I wouldn't say it's completely voluntary), but the person who is in charge is Preston.

He tells you want to do and how to do it. It might be his job to inform us of what needs to be done, but it isn't his job to never accept "No" as an answer. He isn't the leader. We are. When he tells us a settlement needs help, we should be able to respond, "Alright, Preston. Grab 2-3 settlers and help that settlement out."

But we can't.

Its completely voluntary. Unless there's instances of settler conscription that I missed.

Well you can "order" Preston to accompany you to help out a settlement (by making him a follow) which would suggest that he's not *really* in charge either.

Truth is, no-one is in the Minutemen: not really anyway. They're no "orders" to give because nobody has to obey you. And indeed, they often don't. Case in point: I ordered them to stand down outside Wallace's house and they basically told me to [censored]-off with that. I had to persuade them to obey my order.

You're basically in an honorary role in a first-among-equals situation. Not a General in a disciplined military.

As realistic as that would be it wouldn't really make for gameplay, and that's what Bethesda is about more than common sense. So Preston says to you "a settlement needs our help" and your like "Okay, send some guys over there."

Then what, you are given - or not - some XP based on a random number generator?

The only answer is to put them all to summary execution to inspire morale and loyalty in your true troops.

http://i.imgur.com/7UfjCYv.gif

There's more than one person per settlement you find, and although you complete a quest for a single person, everyone in that settlement becomes a pawn for you to control with no ability to question your motives or reject your commands.

It's an RPG. Bethesda can offer us multiple choices.

Preston: "Hey, there's a settlement out there that needs our help!"

1. Alright, I'll go check it out.
2. Alright, I'll bring along a few settlers to help me check it out.
3. Alright, Preston. Take 2-3 settlers and check it out for me (depending on their gear and levels, the settlement in question could suffer damage or end up losing a non-named settler. Or a named settler could have been kidnapped in the confusion. Or the quest could fail and the settlement will be on a cooldown of a few days or weeks before we're able to help them again to gain their allegience)
4. No. They can fend for themselves or perish.
5. Well, there's another allied settlement nearby. Have them go over and help out for us. Nevermind. We only get 4 options.

Fallout 4 was in the planning stages at least 7 years ago. They had plenty of time to give us that functionality. But they didn't.