[Spoilers] Making the right faction choice

[Guest Mogie56]

Becoming a leader of any faction has never meant anything in any of the Beth. titles, one way or another your still taking orders from subordinates be it the Dark Brotherhood, thieves guild companions BOS, taking Houses place in New Vegas etc. and there isn't really any way for that to be implemented in the games or AFAIK it's never been done. Taking orders is about as interactive as it's bound to get considering the cost of what it would actually take to make it happen. of course without the ability to be given orders after taking over the game would be much shorter then it is. you never have your own choices to make in any game, you pick choices that are already in place giving it the illusion of having choice. Not that any of that is a bad thing, many things are just not cost effective.

[oldbloke55]

 

after much reflection I think I have chosen a faction.  actually no, let me rephrase that,  I can't see any of the other factions succeeding apart from The Brotherhood.

I've played for six plus days now. with each new game, I followed one factions quests (when they became available) and chose the answers I thought best suited their morals.

 

the Minutemen's morals and goals seemed closest to my own initially. I liked developing settlements, eliminating threats and the whole building a new world thing. 

we dealt with the Institute and I thought it was going well until Preston told me that the BrotherHood of Steel was a threat to the commonwealth and that we had to eliminate them.

that didn't seem right to me. they had never been an obstacle to our plans or been hostile to us, but I gave the order anyway, to continue in character.

the guilt I experienced watching the Prydwen go down in flames, was intense.

so many innocent people.

 

the whole point of the Minutemen to me was, law and order restored. no more war . no more murder. It seems I was mistaken.  

 

the final straw for me was their relaxed attitude to synths and ghouls. helping the Warwick homestead and the Slog made my skin crawl.

 

 

on a different subject.  has anyone else wished they could give the settlers and traders, that you find dead on your journeys, a decent burial?  leaving them fro the dogs and insects seems wrong to me.

 

This is strange. I completed the main quest with the Minutemen and I was never asked to attack the Brotherhood. After destroying the Institute (with great satisfaction), I was friendly with BoS and the Railroad; doing radiant missions for them. I think you must have done something that made the BoS hostile to you, so the quest With our Powers Combined was triggered.

 

I going to play through a Minuteman game again carefully.  then I'm going to try a Railroad one.

 

[kusariku]

The institute assessment is correct. In the end you do "rule" the institute however have limited actual power. (real policy making etc)  They send you on some minor quest and such you really don't have direction and in the end they still view you as an outsider. However they do respect you more than any outsider being the mother/father of their "father". I have played that option already and took the high road with some options later in the institute quest. It is interesting.. I will leave it at that.

 

The BOS I haven't done a play through yet.. However keep in mind the main reason they are there is in response to the world destruction. They want to secure/remove all advanced tech from the world for its safety. Yes.. dick move however if the institute wasn't active. Those that were slaughtered by their policies and synthetics would still be alive. Also keep in mind that the paranoia that is currently being displayed due to this tech and think about how many actual humans might have their lives taken away. The military structure aids to keep things in line and their selective recruitment helps maintain this. AS a response Virgil, synthetics and all other FEV and resulting tech effects are viewed as a result of the world technology being in the wrong hands. They naturally believe by extension that they should be removed.

 

The Railroad. They favor protecting synthetics over humans (for the most part) risking their life to protect something created. These are fully automatic self determine creations with a will and self determination. Take Star Trek Data for instance. They have all the qualifications for freedom. the institute was fine while they created synthetics like Valentine (minus the special AI created from a human uploaded into him). They are simple tools, doubtful they could do much besides follow a basic protocols they have been programmed for. It is easy to dismiss their fear and self determination just thinking of them as property.

 

Minutemen. I don't hear to many following their quest line however think about this. They are the "grass roots" group that wants to protect and establish a safe environment for all citizens of the Boston area. I've sent my super-mutant companion to one of the towns with no issues. The Synthetic, X-88 i believe as well as Valentine are all accepted. AS much as a pain in the ass their quest seem to be they seem to be the most accepting group in the Options provided. You are a General and in this instance I believe have more actual power than most of the other options available (game play wise as they will accept your guidance more readily provided you are able to establish them safe areas etc)

 

In reality until we have the DLCs and see what is added to the game.. I would say play through each of the options and see for yourself. During my play through the thoughts I had (roleplaying) my character lead me to the Institute quest line. The next one will likely lead me through the BOS line and perhaps the third one will be the Railroad one.

 

I think that going forward that The Institute will be chosen as the canon choice, it best fits what seems to be the meta-narrative of Fallout.  Rebuilding civilization after the whole world went to shit.  So far we have seen the emergence of post-apocalyptic "states" across America; NCR, Legion, BoS, Enclave, and others alluded to. 

 

The Institute I feel best fits the canon in this manner, its another state that will play a part in the inevitable show down the either destroys civilization all over again or bring these states together.... like the united States.

 

In Fallout 4, BoS are definitely the antagonist group, more in line with Fallout 1/2 iterations.  They came to take control.  The Railroad doesn't offer any governance, its even actively seeking to undermine one of the few groups trying to do anything positive, thus its a return to the chaos of the wastes for the commonwealth.  The Minutemen organization is a contender, but they are more like a police force than a government, they are also not excluded should you choose one of the others.

 

The Institute on the other hand, they are trying to improve the livelihood of commonwealth, even if their methods are suspect.  Synths are there to direct and correct the efforts to rebuild wasteland civilization.  Sure they can't claim to be very ethical, tricking people and coercing them into following a plan.  But they are the one that really offers a chance at a better future.

 

Eventually I think the series will lead up to a fight between a NCR-led coalition and a BoS coalition with the Enclave acting as a third party antagonist (and maybe an opportunity to reconcile the two groups).

[Moopheus]

I chose the Minutemen. If you advance all faction quests not beyond certain points you can destroy the institute and all other factions still are alive and happy, you can do their radiance quests and get the follower perks of the faction followers (except X6-88 of course). This video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUFEeYdQnVc describes it quite well - however you can advance questlines further than they say (there are also some comments about this).

 

Only downside is that the BOS survives and you have to cope with the vertibirds crashing everywhere for all eternity.

[AsariX]

I chose the Minutemen. If you advance all faction quests not beyond certain points you can destroy the institute and all other factions still are alive and happy, you can do their radiance quests and get the follower perks of the faction followers (except X6-88 of course). This video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUFEeYdQnVc describes it quite well - however you can advance questlines further than they say (there are also some comments about this).

 

Only downside is that the BOS survives and you have to cope with the vertibirds crashing everywhere for all eternity.

 

Upside is that you can now start on the first part of their questline, so you can take the Vertibird approach for quickltravel

[XunAmarox]

In my opinion the only non-stupid choice from a practical standpoint is the Institute. Both the Railroad and the BoS destroy their facility completely. The Railroad could have used it as a new base of operations and made use of the relay. The BoS could have at the very least taken the generator, if not the other technology as well. The way the game was designed is super stupid. The BoS makes you kill the Railroad too, just to be a bunch of jerks. The BoS choice left a really bad taste in my mouth.

 

 

They make you kill the scientist that helps you... They even make you kill Danse. Danse!

 

 

Not to mention how they have you bully your own settlements out of food at gunpoint... the BoS is just a bunch of bullies in power armor with a superiority complex that wants to horde it all for themselves.

 

Of course, the Institute makes you kill the Railroad and the BoS. It makes sense why you'd want to though, given what your position will be. The Railroad is a constant thorn in their side and the BoS wants to destroy them.

 

The Minutemen can take out the Institute too and they don't make you kill anyone else. If you didn't want to side with the Institute I'd say that they're the only good choice.

[medic975]

Ended up going with the RR on my play through which seemed the least objectionable to a good alignment play through. However was highly dissatisfied with the outcome. Why on earth did I have to destroy the Institute's facility? Why was my son unwilling to listen to reason or was I not given a chance to sway his opinion.

 

I was going with the institute until I got the whole I'm giving you a direct order to go and murder all your allies line. Which frankly was bullshit. Didn't bother with the BoS as they immediately came off as giant pricks. And who the hell wants to kill Valentine?

 

Was also a little annoyed that I didn't get a cut scene of the Super Blimp  crashing and burning.

[AsariX]

The institute ending makes little sense to me. They're not interested in making the commonwealth a better place. They even said themselves, that their intent is to only dig deeper and get further away from the surface. Way to kill a post-apocalyptic setting..

And a "son" who executes potentially lethal experiments on one of his parents? He ordered the player character to get thawed, and then to be left to his/her own devices. While he could just as easily could have ordered his parent to get transported to The Institute. So yes, I happily blew the head of that monster he became.

 

BoS? Well, if you're interested in building a totalitarian regime, then go for it. They're certainly not my cup of tea, and I find it hard to imagine someone who predates them and lived in freedom would join them so easily. Not to mention, that BoS would eventually want the person dead, because he or she would always end up giving someone a bad idea with the stories of the past.

 

The only logical choices to me are the Railroad and the Minutemen. The Minutemen are better organized to set civilization back on the rails, while the Railroad are more panic-players, constantly reacting instead of acting, and don't seem to have any clear plans on how to get civilization back on its feet. They're mostly busy hiding the synths, dealing with the now, but don't look to the future.