Fallout 4

We Are the Minutemen is a great mod. There's always a squad of Minutemen patrolling my settlements whenever I pop by, and I see them out there fighting the good fight very often.

And whenever I go to the Castle, there's always at least two patrols heading out to spread the good word.

edited 13th Jun '18 11:17:13 PM by Cganale

Yeah I like it. Makes them feel more a part of the world, rather than just a random encounter.

Now, just need to work out a decent factory setup, then which settlements i want to bother investing in / connecting. Also, whether I can just leave them to it if I want to do my own thing. I think you have to build plots for it to automate, but some of the notes indicate that settlements, if you set the system up, will self grow and improve over time.

I already manually overbuilt all mine. :( I wish I had gotten this mod sooner

Next time I play this I'm just going Nuka World from the get go. Console command my toon until he or she is the minimum required level and bugger off out of the Commonwealth.

As I was determined to do Nuka World before doing any progress in MSQ or (especially) the Minutemen, it was hard finding other means to get myself to level 30 so I could go.

Nuka World is ridiculous. Everyone there is a damage tank.

But they also give you that hilariously-OP AK-47, so it sort of balances out.

With not enough ammo. And all the enemies carry them too. The only good one is the one with the legendary effect that causes each progressive hit to do more damage.

That, specifically, was the hilariously-OP AK I was referring to.

I was very happy to use it against mirelurk queens. VERY happy.

Just play with the mod that lets you rechamber your Kalashnikov in 5.56mm and your ammo woes are gone forever.

I mean, personally I cheated and CC'd myself 10k rounds.

The nice thing about my solution is that it works even if you're a console peasant like me.

Rick Sanchez character build, motherf'cker!!

Wubba lubba dub dub! Heading straight for the Institute!

NV vs. FO4◊

While probably a strawman (I never finished FO 4) I have never heard of the Institute's, like, ideology or the incentive for siding with them. It might exist, I just don't hear it discussed much.

Edited by Nikkolas on Jul 19th 2018 at 3:28:16 AM

It's a giant strawman because the Legion brings with it all the old sins of the Roman Empire and is unsustainable anyway. The Institute in the end is a somewhat more tolerable choice than the Legion were in NV, because there are a faction of scientists that want to improve the treatment of synths, the Institute actually have advancing technology, unlike every single other faction which only scavenge old tech, meaning they have the means to vastly improve life in the Commonwealth. In fact, they originally were going to do that, but early interactions with the surface survivors had the problem of mutual distrust on both sides, and the Institute was eventually betrayed by the surface-dwellers, which led them to isolate themselves.

If you take over the Institute, it's reasonable to think that you could guide them back onto the right path, halt all FEV research, stop the kidnappings and production of more synths, and work together with the surface-dwellers to raise the quality of life in the Commonwealth and eventually elsewhere.

As for DLC, I haven't actually gotten far enough with my character to get to DLC content, because I'm so busy playing around with Sim Settlements. Just reading synopses, though, I can tell I'm going to hate Nuka World. I really don't like playing evil or asshole characters, and it seems that unless you do that in Nuka World, it really doesn't offer much in the way of content.

Depends on how you look at the Institute.

On the surface, they're basically the minds from Big MT played horribly, horribly straight in how little they care for the world above, and how everything exists solely for them to experiment and improve upon.

But if you were to consider it from their perspective, it does begin to make a bit of sense; they've been cooped up underground for far too long, and it's caused them to lose touch with the reality of the situation, or how most of their actions are honestly making things worse instead of improving life above. Heck, there's even a schism within in regards to the ultimate purpose for the synths; are they merely to be servants and tools, as Father intends, or are they to eventually replace organic life on the surface due to how the radiation doesn't seem to be fading away?

No you get all the same content if you merrily murder your way through the various Raider tribes. You get all their loot and armor, anyway.

Just make sure to get Gage's companion perk before you slaughter the Nuka World gangs. Also as a sidenote I actually kind of felt bad betraying the gangs solely because of Gage. I wish there was a way to convince him to not be a raider.

Edited by evilface on Jul 20th 2018 at 12:43:14 PM

It is, yes, a bit of a strawman, but I think it's broadly true that the Legion as an ideology is a bit better developed, and that Caesar is a more interesting talker. You can argue that Caesar is hypocritical in aspects, or trying to justify himself, that he's ultimately self-centred and his goals misguided, or that, as Arcade argues, he foolishly 'abdicates responsibility to a myth of historical inevitability' — but these mostly work to give the faction some depth, I think, and you can understand where they're all coming from, even if partly some of them are coming from 'my tribe was exterminated and now I don't have anything else', and even if the game presents them as flawed and doesn't really take the player's side if they go for the faction.

The Institute makes a degree of sense, but they have one argument: 'One day, we'll come and guide the surface to glory, and that'll justify everything else.' And that's fine, but... that's all they really have to justify themselves. There is some development to them, but when you talk to Father it's a lot less interesting than Caesar. They prance around chanting 'the greater good', but none of them even consider the surface at all. And when you argue with them, they never have an actual argument for why they're really the best, or why synths aren't intelligent. It's just eye-rolling and 'they're machines'. That's not an argument! That might be the beginning of one. The Brotherhood have arguments: sometimes emotive ones based on the beauty of a mother's womb, or how every part of their identity is constructed, but arguments nonetheless.

And yes, you become the leader of the Institute, which means 'Hey, maybe you can do <whatever>'. But that's cheap, it's not really explored in the game, and it's never made clear how much power the director has.

There are valid reasons why one might side with the Institute, but there's a lot less meat there to discuss.

Edited by Lavaeolus on Jul 19th 2018 at 1:03:31 PM

Thank you for the input everyone.

I don't really care about spoilers and I think I already heard the big one about Father anyway so I'm watching a video on YT of all the options upon meeting him.

Firstly, I do wonder at the constant comparisons (I posted that one pic but I've seen others) of the Legion to the Institute. From what I know, the FO 4 Brotherhood is far more comparable to Caesar's Legion.

Father isa very different animal from Caesar. Like, is there supposed to be music for when you meet Father? Music was always a really important factor for me. Caesar's speech is greatly assisted by the awesome Legion theme music.

But yeah, just the overall tone of the scene is obviously way, way different. Father reminds me slightly more of Mr. House in how he tries to phrase things in the cold logic of a scientist. He sounds....tired more than anything.

Edited by Nikkolas on Jul 19th 2018 at 5:32:13 AM

Well, he is dying of an uncurable disease... so you're not entirely off mark there Nikkolas.

Interesting. Thanks for the info. So he really is kinda like Caesar insofar as they are old, dying men.

Of course, one thing I couldn't help but think while watching the vid was how Caesar was a lot more forceful in his talk than Father; ya know, his aggressive attitude and stuff. Just figured it was because they clearly have different personalities but I guess there's more to it.

Edited by Nikkolas on Jul 19th 2018 at 11:11:28 AM

Started playing New Vegas, again. Man, did I miss actually having skills. I think one of my most prominent memories of New Vegas was during my first play-through. As soon as I saw Victor rolling around, I was like "Yoooo, what's that?!"

I think the main thing they're similar in is how a lot of the narrative tends to position them as the antagonist to everyone else. The Brotherhood and Railroad are hostile to each other, but their endgames are always 'deal with the Institute'. On every ending but the Institute's, the game ends literally on their destruction via a giant explosion. Choosing the Minutemen path, the player-led / failsafe path, notably lets you spare every faction but, of course, the Institute. Additionally, you have to side with the Brotherhood, Railroad or Minutemen to get to the Institute in the first place; before then they're presented as wholly sinister shadowy puppet masters — turning around and being able to side with them is decidedly a bit of a narrative twist.

Similarly, the Legion are kind of the odd path out. I think most, yourself included, would agree they're the darkest of the factions in terms of iconography and imagery — introduced for most people in a destroyed town surrounded by crucifixes, dressed in black, with Vulpes and his cold, cold voice, etc. And a NCR, Wild Card or House playthrough offer largely the same options: you'll probably deal with the Omertas in the same way, you'll probably cure the White Gloves of cannibalism, you'll get Silus to talk rather than escape and you'll expose the Monorail spy, etc.^note You can help the Omertas bomb the Strip as the Legion wants, and convert the White Gloves to cannibalism, on the Wild Card path, but they're also obviously counterproductive options only really allowed for the humour of it / as a grant to player agency; only the Legion path offers a justification for these actions. So they're similar in being the odd path, and the faction the game seems most willing to put in antagonistic positions.

Edited by Lavaeolus on Jul 20th 2018 at 10:47:29 AM