Fallout series

[CWCissey]

Fallout 4 just doesn't seem worth playing.

You just don't see quests with like 20 ways to solve things in Bethesda games.

As an aside, I fucking love Oxhorn's vids!

 

[Slap47]

As an aside, I fucking love Oxhorn's vids!

He seems like the goto for debunking the "Youtube is not a job" thing. You simply must respect the hustle, only taking 1 day off for what seems to be religious reasons.

 

[Iodised Ant]

He seems like the goto for debunking the "Youtube is not a job" thing. You simply must respect the hustle, only taking 1 day off for what seems to be religious reasons.

I thought he quit YouTube to raise a kid.

 

[Y2K Baby]

The stock game is kinda lame, granted. Far Harbor is certainly more interesting, it makes better use of New Vegas style choices. Nuka-World is also somewhat better in terms of being more interesting.

Die in a fire, stupid.

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/fallout-76-wants-to-last-until-the-end-of-time/1100-6461775/


Lol, good luck with that.

 

[millais]

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/fallout-76-wants-to-last-until-the-end-of-time/1100-6461775/


Lol, good luck with that.

Part of the reason Hines said he believes this is possible is because other Bethesda games like Fallout 4 and Skyrim have remained incredibly popular years after launch, and those titles didn't have as much of an online focus as Fallout 76.

The F4 and Skyrim have remained popular for years after launch due to modding community, and 76 will not be launching with mods and will probably not support 3rd party, non-CC mods, so Pete Hines is kind of missing the whole point with this comparison.

 

[Fagnacious D]

Fallout 76? What happened to Fallout 5 through 75?

 

[Rand /pol/]

View attachment 548325
Fallout 76? What happened to Fallout 5 through 75?

Where'd you get this pic of me

 

[Medicated]

I've been playing through Fallout 4 main questline again to get achievements, and it just hit me how little sense the Railroad made. People are living hand to mouth, the world's population is probably 5% of what it was. Humans are getting massacred out in the wasteland by mutant animals, super mutants, radioactive zombies, medical care is sparse. And these people have the time and money and manpower to help some synthetic humans escape from the most advanced underground complex ever created. So they can get their mindwiped, and reprogrammed to be someone else. (Which seems very close to virtually doing the same thing that the institute already does)

All for the honor that they can live out their dream of being free to be a farmer and die to infection from a raider gunshot wound, or eaten by a super mutant. And in the end, they blow up the machine that makes synths in the first place, meaning they've effectively genocided the race they are saving. It's like trying to write SJW's into a post apocalyptic wasteland.

I mean would it kill them to go out and set up some turrets for the farmers in the area? Maybe use some of that technical know how to teach people in the wasteland about how to improve irrigation or medicine or something? Compared to the scope of the other factions, who are looking to improve the whole Commonwealth in their own way, the Railroad just seem like a bunch of PETA supporters freeing animals only to kill them because they can't afford to keep them.

 

[Rand /pol/]

I've been replaying Fallout 3's DlCs recently and Poin Lookout is definitely the best.

I've been playing through Fallout 4 main questline again to get achievements, and it just hit me how little sense the Railroad made. People are living hand to mouth, the world's population is probably 5% of what it was. Humans are getting massacred out in the wasteland by mutant animals, super mutants, radioactive zombies, medical care is sparse. And these people have the time and money and manpower to help some synthetic humans escape from the most advanced underground complex ever created. So they can get their mindwiped, and reprogrammed to be someone else. (Which seems very close to virtually doing the same thing that the institute already does)

All for the honor that they can live out their dream of being free to be a farmer and die to infection from a raider gunshot wound, or eaten by a super mutant. And in the end, they blow up the machine that makes synths in the first place, meaning they've effectively genocided the race they are saving. It's like trying to write SJW's into a post apocalyptic wasteland.

I mean would it kill them to go out and set up some turrets for the farmers in the area? Maybe use some of that technical know how to teach people in the wasteland about how to improve irrigation or medicine or something? Compared to the scope of the other factions, who are looking to improve the whole Commonwealth in their own way, the Railroad just seem like a bunch of PETA supporters freeing animals only to kill them because they can't afford to keep them.

That's basically what John Brown was like.

 

[Slap47]

I've been playing through Fallout 4 main questline again to get achievements, and it just hit me how little sense the Railroad made. People are living hand to mouth, the world's population is probably 5% of what it was. Humans are getting massacred out in the wasteland by mutant animals, super mutants, radioactive zombies, medical care is sparse. And these people have the time and money and manpower to help some synthetic humans escape from the most advanced underground complex ever created. So they can get their mindwiped, and reprogrammed to be someone else. (Which seems very close to virtually doing the same thing that the institute already does)

All for the honor that they can live out their dream of being free to be a farmer and die to infection from a raider gunshot wound, or eaten by a super mutant. And in the end, they blow up the machine that makes synths in the first place, meaning they've effectively genocided the race they are saving. It's like trying to write SJW's into a post apocalyptic wasteland.

I mean would it kill them to go out and set up some turrets for the farmers in the area? Maybe use some of that technical know how to teach people in the wasteland about how to improve irrigation or medicine or something? Compared to the scope of the other factions, who are looking to improve the whole Commonwealth in their own way, the Railroad just seem like a bunch of PETA supporters freeing animals only to kill them because they can't afford to keep them.

Sounds like the work of the guys that wrote Fallout 3's ending.

 

[GethN7]

I've been playing through Fallout 4 main questline again to get achievements, and it just hit me how little sense the Railroad made. People are living hand to mouth, the world's population is probably 5% of what it was. Humans are getting massacred out in the wasteland by mutant animals, super mutants, radioactive zombies, medical care is sparse. And these people have the time and money and manpower to help some synthetic humans escape from the most advanced underground complex ever created. So they can get their mindwiped, and reprogrammed to be someone else. (Which seems very close to virtually doing the same thing that the institute already does)

All for the honor that they can live out their dream of being free to be a farmer and die to infection from a raider gunshot wound, or eaten by a super mutant. And in the end, they blow up the machine that makes synths in the first place, meaning they've effectively genocided the race they are saving. It's like trying to write SJW's into a post apocalyptic wasteland.

I mean would it kill them to go out and set up some turrets for the farmers in the area? Maybe use some of that technical know how to teach people in the wasteland about how to improve irrigation or medicine or something? Compared to the scope of the other factions, who are looking to improve the whole Commonwealth in their own way, the Railroad just seem like a bunch of PETA supporters freeing animals only to kill them because they can't afford to keep them.

The Railroad is making the same sense, with a sci-fi twist, as the IRL Underground Railroad did.

They want to frustrate and harass the slave trade (and the FO4 analogue) to the point it becomes impossible to continue. As the Railroad views things, the Synths are created to be slaves, and if the one way to destroy the institution of slavery is to make sure no more slaves can be made, it's worth the cost, and even the synths are cool with that.

It's worth noting they don't want to kill any sentient synth that already is born and has free will, liberation is still the forefront of their mission, but the process of creating more synths means more slavery and more misery.

The IRL Underground Railroad had quite a bit of tunnel vision in their goals and objectives, and they didn't really give much of a damn beyond their narrow goals. Deacon does point out this does seem asinine, and concurs it would not kill the Railroad to try extending the help they give synths to others, and if they ally with the Minutemen, they do just that.

In fact, that's the problem with all the factions: extreme tunnel vision if left to their own goals and devices. Even the Minutemen need direction to be more than a poorly slapped together milita.

Your goal is to give the faction (or factions) of your choice actual direction and goals beyond their original limited and often flawed aims.

It's worth noting the game actually makes it possible ensure a truce between all three sides (save the Institute, whom they all oppose), and it goes like this.

1. Complete the BOS missions up to "Blind Betrayal", stop there, any farther, and the Railroad have to die.

2. Complete the Railroad missions just shy of pissing off any other faction directly, stop there.

3, Complete the Institute's mission just shy of pissing off any other faction, and before they commit you to screwing another faction over, do something to get cast out of the Institute.

4. Once free of the Institute, get the Railroad to cooperate with the Minutemen to assault the Institute, leaving the BoS out of things, and make sure you evacuate the Institute like the Railroad wants before destroying it.

5. Once you've done this, the Railroad and Minutemen are firm allies, and the BoS, while not entirely happy you didn't invoke their help, are pleased you got the job done with minimal casualties to their side and you finish their plot without making an enemy of the Railroad.

6. With this, you have basically followed the quest lines of all three factions without making enemies of any of them, ensured the BoS will remain to pacify the FEV mutants of the Commonwealth now the Institute is no longer their primary concern, and they will not be hostile to the Minutemen and Railroad since their mutual enemy was defeated without them coming to blows first.

 

[Rand /pol/]

The Railroad is making the same sense, with a sci-fi twist, as the IRL Underground Railroad did.

Both are/were equally useless lmao

 

[Medicated]

They want to frustrate and harass the slave trade (and the FO4 analogue) to the point it becomes impossible to continue. As the Railroad views things, the Synths are created to be slaves, and if the one way to destroy the institution of slavery is to make sure no more slaves can be made, it's worth the cost, and even the synths are cool with that.

It's worth noting they don't want to kill any sentient synth that already is born and has free will, liberation is still the forefront of their mission, but the process of creating more synths means more slavery and more misery.

The IRL Underground Railroad had quite a bit of tunnel vision in their goals and objectives, and they didn't really give much of a damn beyond their narrow goals. Deacon does point out this does seem asinine, and concurs it would not kill the Railroad to try extending the help they give synths to others, and if they ally with the Minutemen, they do just that.

Eh the Railroad only wants the help from the Minutemen if you fail their questline to free all Synths. Although does this mean you are killing the Synths that from their point of view are happy with the Institute? I guess they are just the uncle tom synths? I'm sure the Railroad won't answer that question. And the bizarre thing is, the SRB wouldn't exist without Patriot and the Railroad. If the Railroad didn't exist, a natural progression of Synth rights and personhood may have occurred on it's own in time, simply because of the proximity of the scientists to the synths.

The Institute itself seems to have been not thought through. They kidnap people from the surface, for a FEV program thats defunct and gives no information. Even a heartless robot would stop doing it when it's not getting any new data. The team leads all repeat this multiple times. And yet the previous Director, and Father, continue to allow it, with no explanation whatsoever. And then they say an exact replica of a fully grown human, is not self aware, it's just pretending? Are these people even scientists?

Every other faction at least seems to have a logical thought process as to why it exists and does stuff. But the super advanced scientists, don't even seem to be aware that modelling a human on a human, creates a human. Even if they are only able to model the cognitive processes of a 10 year old onto them, they are functionally self aware.

 

[GethN7]

Eh the Railroad only wants the help from the Minutemen if you fail their questline to free all Synths. Although does this mean you are killing the Synths that from their point of view are happy with the Institute? I guess they are just the uncle tom synths? I'm sure the Railroad won't answer that question. And the bizarre thing is, the SRB wouldn't exist without Patriot and the Railroad. If the Railroad didn't exist, a natural progression of Synth rights and personhood may have occurred on it's own in time, simply because of the proximity of the scientists to the synths.

The Institute itself seems to have been not thought through. They kidnap people from the surface, for a FEV program thats defunct and gives no information. Even a heartless robot would stop doing it when it's not getting any new data. The team leads all repeat this multiple times. And yet the previous Director, and Father, continue to allow it, with no explanation whatsoever. And then they say an exact replica of a fully grown human, is not self aware, it's just pretending? Are these people even scientists?

Every other faction at least seems to have a logical thought process as to why it exists and does stuff. But the super advanced scientists, don't even seem to be aware that modelling a human on a human, creates a human.

The Institute is REALLY up it's own ass about it's whole "everything we do is to improve humanity as a whole", and even those that do realize they've become the Think Tank from New Vegas with somewhat more sanity engaged the same denial filters their New Vegas counterparts did.

Basically, they spent far too much time absorbed with the questions of "can we do this" they ignored the "should we do this" morality questions.

As for the Railroad, they'd prefer to go it alone, yes. However, when it becomes blatantly clear they are horribly outmatched and cannot possibly hope to win without help, they swallow their pride and ally with the Minutemen.

Also, what you mentioned is even a moral question the Railroad themselves admits to struggling with in game. They are so obsessed with the idea the synths are slaves that should be free they don't stop to consider "maybe not all synths hate their assigned roles", which, if you follow the Institute sidequests for awhile, you'll discover many synths are fanatically loyal to their creators.

This contradiction manifests itself in the Railroad having to accept the idea of self defense is a reasonable justification for killing those they would otherwise save as a sort of moral compromise, and they consciously try not to dwell on this by their own admission.

As for the FEV experiments, even Virgil confirms he was no better than his associates, who were so focused on trying to wring blood from the stone that was FEV research until he realized it was fruitless and just hurting innocent people for no good reason in the name of a crazed science experiment whose actual usefulness petered out a LONG time ago. It had some initial usage in helping the Institute work out the kinks in the Gen-3 Synths (despite having only one source of untainted human DNA, the mutagenic properties of FEV allowed them to get a lot more mileage out of it than normal), but past that it was pointless, but as Virgil noted, the mad scientist 'think of the potential" line of thinking was so ingrained most save himself just tuned out the moral questions.

Finally, it's very unlikely the Synths would have been granted liberty had the Railroad never interfered, at least not in short term. The Institute, much in line with it's belief their experiments are devoid of any will save that of their creators, purposely designed the first two generation of Synths as servants, and by the time they made the third generation, this line of thought had been allowed for so long the idea of freeing synths to be fully responsible only for themselves was not even up for consideration.

It's confirmed all the way back to Fallout 3 that the Synths are just machines to the Institute, free will is a design choice, but exercise of it is considered a design fault by the Synth's masters.

 

[Medicated]

As for the FEV experiments, even Virgil confirms he was no better than his associates, who were so focused on trying to wring blood from the stone that was FEV research until he realized it was fruitless and just hurting innocent people for no good reason in the name of a crazed science experiment whose actual usefulness petered out a LONG time ago. It had some initial usage in helping the Institute work out the kinks in the Gen-3 Synths (despite having only one source of untainted human DNA, the mutagenic properties of FEV allowed them to get a lot more mileage out of it than normal), but past that it was pointless, but as Virgil noted, the mad scientist 'think of the potential" line of thinking was so ingrained most save himself just tuned out the moral questions.

Finally, it's very unlikely the Synths would have been granted liberty had the Railroad never interfered, at least not in short term. The Institute, much in line with it's belief their experiments are devoid of any will save that of their creators, purposely designed the first two generation of Synths as servants, and by the time they made the third generation, this line of thought had been allowed for so long the idea of freeing synths to be fully responsible only for themselves was not even up for consideration.

It's confirmed all the way back to Fallout 3 that the Synths are just machines to the Institute, free will is a design choice, but exercise of it is considered a design fault by the Synth's masters.

If the Institute was more like Big MT it might make more sense. Because we know that there are people in the Institute that question not the moral or ethical implications, but simply though the practicality of what they are doing. One of them says "Synths aren't human beings, but supposedly they're the future of humanity. I'll never understand it." Then Father creates a version of himself to act as your son, with a cut quest about replacing your dead spouse with a synth as well. And the Institutes motto is "Mankind Redefined" but it's like they want to repopulate the earth with a superior version of humanity, but then at the same time, they say they aren't humans, or even aware.

It's like they tread the line between Big MT mad scientist, and then it seems like they actually have a grand plan, but then it's back to mad scientist again. It makes me wonder if the fan theory was true, about Shaun finding you dead in your pod with the other Vault 111 people, and deciding to replicate your cryo suspended brain in a Synth body to enact the social change to take over the Institute with humans in Synth bodies was actually what they wanted to do originally, but then later realized a canon Synth protagonist would piss off a lot of people.

It would've also explained why Father wanted child Shaun to even exist, because not only did he not want to die, he wanted to replicate the family he never had. And if he copied himself into a child Synth, he would live forever. Along with the fact that if you were human, giving you a child Synth that would never age and watch you age and die would be fairly horrific I think. Not to mention the cut quest with the Synth spouse.

Because I remember Madison Li saying "That's not actually Shauns memories in there, that, even now, would be a step too far."

It's only because the Institute narrative is so, disjointed and scattered I'm theorizing things were changed in the storyline later on.

 

[GethN7]

If the Institute was more like Big MT it might make more sense. Because we know that there are people in the Institute that question not the moral or ethical implications, but simply though the practicality of what they are doing. One of them says "Synths aren't human beings, but supposedly they're the future of humanity. I'll never understand it." Then Father creates a version of himself to act as your son, with a cut quest about replacing your dead spouse with a synth as well. And the Institutes motto is "Mankind Redefined" but it's like they want to repopulate the earth with a superior version of humanity, but then at the same time, they say they aren't humans, or even aware.

It's like they tread the line between Big MT mad scientist, and then it seems like they actually have a grand plan, but then it's back to mad scientist again. It makes me wonder if the fan theory was true, about Shaun finding you dead in your pod with the other Vault 111 people, and deciding to replicate your cryo suspended brain in a Synth body to enact the social change to take over the Institute with humans in Synth bodies was actually what they wanted to do originally, but then later realized a canon Synth protagonist would piss off a lot of people.

It would've also explained why Father wanted child Shaun to even exist, because not only did he not want to die, he wanted to replicate the family he never had. And if he copied himself into a child Synth, he would live forever. Along with the fact that if you were human, giving you a child Synth that would never age and watch you age and die would be fairly horrific I think. Not to mention the cut quest with the Synth spouse.

Because I remember Madison Li saying "That's not actually Shauns memories in there, that, even now, would be a step too far."

It's only because the Institute narrative is so, disjointed and scattered I'm theorizing things were changed in the storyline later on.

The ultimate goal of the Institute, one even they doublethink themselves through because on some level even they find the implications disturbing, is that they want to build a better a human, one they ideally can substitute their human bodies with.

To some extent, the Synths are but an improved shell the actual humans would love to supplant themselves with.

However, that tunnel vision rears it's head again. While not wanting to consciously admit the Synths are to some extent a cynical method of extending their own lives, they also consider free will in their own creations an aberration because if they were forced to consider Synths capable of fully rational and logical moral judgements, they'd also have to reflect on just how subhuman they consider the very creations they made to supplant humanity.

 

[Rand /pol/]

The ultimate goal of the Institute, one even they doublethink themselves through because on some level even they find the implications disturbing, is that they want to build a better a human, one they ideally can substitute their human bodies with.

To some extent, the Synths are but an improved shell the actual humans would love to supplant themselves with.

However, that tunnel vision rears it's head again. While not wanting to consciously admit the Synths are to some extent a cynical method of extending their own lives, they also consider free will in their own creations an aberration because if they were forced to consider Synths capable of fully rational and logical moral judgements, they'd also have to reflect on just how subhuman they consider the very creations they made to supplant humanity.

To be honest I think you're giving the writers more credit than they deserve.

 

[Medicated]

The ultimate goal of the Institute, one even they doublethink themselves through because on some level even they find the implications disturbing, is that they want to build a better a human, one they ideally can substitute their human bodies with.

To some extent, the Synths are but an improved shell the actual humans would love to supplant themselves with.

However, that tunnel vision rears it's head again. While not wanting to consciously admit the Synths are to some extent a cynical method of extending their own lives, they also consider free will in their own creations an aberration because if they were forced to consider Synths capable of fully rational and logical moral judgements, they'd also have to reflect on just how subhuman they consider the very creations they made to supplant humanity.

The only reason I mention all this is because in their own way, each faction in the game can justify it's actions, and you can sympathize with them enough to understand where they are coming from, the Minutemen wanting a militia of good people to protect the Commonwealth, the BoS wanting to eradicate everything non-human to preserve the human species and preventing another apocalypse, even the Railroads hippie "free synths", even if they all live in an irradiated hellhole. They make their motivations clear.

But when it comes to the Institute and what their goal is with the Synths, it's unclear. Even though it's a massive undertaking and involving panels of scientists and over 50 years of work, the overall goal is never explained. They kept introducing things that make you think, with Nick being the first prototype synth who had human brain scans downloaded into him, with Mankind Redefined motto, and the Synths are the Future of Humanity, but then you get back to the "no they are just Mr.Handys that are human" which are already Gen 1 and 2's which work just fine.

All their other projects they have going makes sense, the plants that can grow in irradiated soil, the weapons development, the fusion reactor project. But everything related to what they intended to do with Gen 3 synths and why seems to hit a dead end narratively. So it's why I wonder was there more planned?

 

[Zaryiu]

The only reason I mention all this is because in their own way, each faction in the game can justify it's actions, and you can sympathize with them enough to understand where they are coming from, the Minutemen wanting a militia of good people to protect the Commonwealth, the BoS wanting to eradicate everything non-human to preserve the human species and preventing another apocalypse, even the Railroads hippie "free synths", even if they all live in an irradiated hellhole. They make their motivations clear.

But when it comes to the Institute and what their goal is with the Synths, it's unclear. Even though it's a massive undertaking and involving panels of scientists and over 50 years of work, the overall goal is never explained. They kept introducing things that make you think, with Nick being the first prototype synth who had human brain scans downloaded into him, with Mankind Redefined motto, and the Synths are the Future of Humanity, but then you get back to the "no they are just Mr.Handys that are human" which are already Gen 1 and 2's which work just fine.

All their other projects they have going makes sense, the plants that can grow in irradiated soil, the weapons development, the fusion reactor project. But everything related to what they intended to do with Gen 3 synths and why seems to hit a dead end narratively. So it's why I wonder was there more planned?

Maybe they aren't sure?

 

[millais]

That kind of bothered me too. Why make the super-sentient Gen 3 synths just to have 90% of the ones you see in the Institute sweeping floors and other menial labor.