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I went with the Institute myself, I had my doubts about them, but in the end, both they and the Minute Men had end goals that I personally liked the most.

Just finished my second playthrough so now I've done the Minuteman and the Institute endings. Going to see about a proper BoS ending now. The Institute quest line

Spoilered it just in case. No specifics though.

 BrookM wrote:
I went with the Institute myself, I had my doubts about them, but in the end, both they and the Minute Men had end goals that I personally liked the most.

I'm with you on the MM. Not sure on the Institute yet. The BoS seem like a bunch of tools in this game. Not done anything but meet the railroad yet but have a feeling that I will not get on with several of the characters

 SilverMK2 wrote:

 BrookM wrote:
I went with the Institute myself, I had my doubts about them, but in the end, both they and the Minute Men had end goals that I personally liked the most.

I'm with you on the MM. Not sure on the Institute yet. The BoS seem like a bunch of tools in this game. Not done anything but meet the railroad yet but have a feeling that I will not get on with several of the characters

So...the BOS have returned to their original status quo of Fallout 1 and 2.

 Shadow Captain Edithae wrote:

 SilverMK2 wrote:

 BrookM wrote:
I went with the Institute myself, I had my doubts about them, but in the end, both they and the Minute Men had end goals that I personally liked the most.

I'm with you on the MM. Not sure on the Institute yet. The BoS seem like a bunch of tools in this game. Not done anything but meet the railroad yet but have a feeling that I will not get on with several of the characters

So...the BOS have returned to their original status quo of Fallout 1 and 2.

Exactly, and I appreciate them returning to "bag of dicks" status

In this game the BOS are nazi's, they even dress the kids up in Hitler Youth uniforms, complete with the caps. Honestly, I do not like them one bit in this game.

As for the Institute ending..

 BrookM wrote:
In this game the BOS are nazi's, they even dress the kids up in Hitler Youth uniforms, complete with the caps. Honestly, I do not like them one bit in this game.

As for the Institute ending..

Spoiler:

PHASE 3. Oh boy, they kept prattling on about it and for a long time I was worried that it was either the complete extermination of everybody in the Commonwealth via Synth invasion or the release of a killer strain of FEV or the like. But instead.. they just want to fire up a new reactor and keep to their selves for the most part, staying true to their ideals? I'm actually really okay with that, well done Shaun, I am proud of you.

Eh, its about the same as in the first games, really.
Except they are more aggressive this time, and ended up being this game's enclave.

By the way, which mission is it where you have to make the choice between the Railroad, BoS, and the Insititute? I'm not sure if I'm there yet or not, so I've been dragging my heels on doing this particular mission as I still want a bit of freedom to roam around.


Also, for those who enjoy settlement building, I discovered two vitally important console commands last night. There is an arbitrary limit on how many objects you can build (while it is there to make sure you don't overbuild beyond your computer's capabilities, it does not actually take those abilities into account and is, by default, apparently set to assume you're running on a machine with a hamster wheel for a CPU and GPU).
Open the console, click on the workbench, and type (without the quotes) "setav 349" followed by any number between 3000000 and 10000000+, and "setav 34B" and any number from 2000 to 10000+. The range depends on how good your PC is (the defaults are 1000000 and 1600, respectively). You can pretty much set the numbers as high as you want, as it's really what you actually build that matters. The limits are there to prevent you from placing more objects than your PC can handle.

This is really useful for some locations that already have a lot of objects (like the Castle, where just placing enough beds for everybody, some generators, crops, and a couple stores reaches the limit).

I'm currently copying this design for my own Red Rocket base to house and display all the suits of power armor that I find in my travels.

I've also upgrades the Castle a bit. You can repair the walls by using the wooden floor/foundation piece, as the cement part of it is allowed to clip the terrain,

So

Just did the Institute ending. Kind of a bit meh about that whole arc. 90% of the choices were suboptimal for how I wannted to play, though I can see why they had to limit things somewhat.

Also the whole thing with the director could have been much more intense :(

Welp... and we are only in week 3 of Fallout mods and there already so many impressive re-textures

Do you only have 1 chance to romance a follower?
I want to get perks, and apparently romancing the fastest way to get them.

Not sure about Curie, but every time I walk even near Piper the option pops up. She seems to be the only one like that though.

 SilverMK2 wrote:
Just did the Institute ending. Kind of a bit meh about that whole arc. 90% of the choices were suboptimal for how I wannted to play, though I can see why they had to limit things somewhat.

That was how I felt about the BOS ending. Starting the fight with the Institute was awesome, but before and after that was basically just "go here and murder, because." To which my high CHR character stammered back an argument for why we shouldn't be doing this, only to get told, "no, you're wrong. Go do it," and then I get a location on my map. It just felt painfully linear, and much more barbaric than the BOS always felt back in the old games.

The game also felt stupid easy. I ALWAYS had at least a couple Fusion Cores, and getting around the end of my character build (mid 30s) I had even small arms that could take down Deathclaws and the like fairly easily. Seldom even fired the big guns except for hilarity.

I'm starting the game over on hard with a character with all 3s in SPECIAL except luck, which is a 10. This character is going to be a melee fighter who is terrified of using power armor, and I'm not taking any perks until I have melee damage and all of the luck perks maxed for my level.

(As an aside, where is all the morally horrible stuff I could do back in the old days? I want to rob graves, murder children, sell my body for favors, and solicit ghoul prostitutes of every gender, damnit.)

I think I broke one of my railroad quests :( You have to go to Cambridge Polymer Labs. There's a robot that's supposed to guide you through the first part, she unlocks some area where I guess there's stuff to kill. Before she closed the door and locked me in, I decided to step out and exoplore first. She closed the door and locked my dog inside, and now I can't get in. There's no way I can find to open it again. So I went back to my quicksave and tried again, and now I can't even click on her to get her to start talking. She's just floating by the controls doing nothing.

My next earliest save happens to be like 2 hours worth of playing prior and I don't wanna go back and redo all that. So I guess this is as far as I can go with my railroad quests?

Yeah, you were supposed to be trapped there. In cases like that (as well as any instance where you might be stuck on some terrain or something), the console command "tcl" disables clipping, allowing you to fly through anything. Of course, if you're not on PC, that advice doesn't help you.

 daedalus wrote:

The game also felt stupid easy. I ALWAYS had at least a couple Fusion Cores, and getting around the end of my character build (mid 30s) I had even small arms that could take down Deathclaws and the like fairly easily.

My character build is stealth and charisma. If you want fusion cores (and free power armour) that's the way to go. For those that don't know, if you pickpocket a fusion core, the target will exit the armour. You can do this even to targets you pacify in combat.

So I finally romanced Cait. Turns out you don't have to succeed to get the perk.
I wanted that buff though.

Can you have multiple romances, and when I do I get flirts? I find Cait's dialogue to be somewhat amusing.

 CthuluIsSpy wrote:

Can you have multiple romances, and when I do I get flirts? I find Cait's dialogue to be somewhat amusing.

Yes, polyamory is a thing in FO4. However, I heard that if you flirt with someone in front of someone you've already successfully romanced, there is a slight hit to your reputation with them.
But, it is fun to see who you wake up with when you have all your companions at one base.

Edit: and I've just had the game actually have an emotional hit on me.

 Tannhauser42 wrote:

 CthuluIsSpy wrote:

Can you have multiple romances, and when I do I get flirts? I find Cait's dialogue to be somewhat amusing.

Yes, polyamory is a thing in FO4. However, I heard that if you flirt with someone in front of someone you've already successfully romanced, there is a slight hit to your reputation with them.
But, it is fun to see who you wake up with when you have all your companions at one base.

Edit: and I've just had the game actually have an emotional hit on me.

Spoiler:

While helping the Minutemen, I had met a ghoul in The Slog who sent me to find some parts for the Buttercup horse toy he was working on. Later, I visited the toy company's HQ and read notes and logs mentioning he (I'm somewhat surprised I recognized the name as being the same as the ghoul's) had been fired, and that he was the designer of the horse toy. I found his office and a holotape from his daughter and figured I would see if anything would happen if I visited him again.

Yeah, his reaction to the tape and his story of what happened definitely had me feeling it. Good bit of work there, Bethesda.

Yeah, there are a few nice ones in there but they far and few between compared to previous games. To be honest, the best lore I've encountered in this game so far has been holotapes and terminal text dumps.

That's because it's world-building, Bethesda are great at that. It's just a shame that they are utterly pants at story and dialogue.

 Co'tor Shas wrote:
That's because it's world-building, Bethesda are great at that. It's just a shame that they are utterly pants at story and dialogue.

Debatable. Skyrim, for example, wasn't good world-building. Proportion issues and a lot of same-looking places.

 Sigvatr wrote:

 Co'tor Shas wrote:
That's because it's world-building, Bethesda are great at that. It's just a shame that they are utterly pants at story and dialogue.

Debatable. Skyrim, for example, wasn't good world-building. Proportion issues and a lot of same-looking places.

Yeah, I don't see how FO4 is an example of good world building.
Consider power armor frames; they already have the power source in them, and yet they are still lying around.
How could they have not been taken? The ones that are behind a locked door makes sense, but the ones just lying around? Absolutely absurd.

Who put those teddy bears in odd positions? What's with all of the mannequins? Why isn't everyone in the Commonwealth dead due to the small army of raiders and mutants running amok?
How are legendary enemies even a thing? etc etc.
The game feels too much like Borderlands to have the mantle of good world building.

I'm pretty sure even locked doors would have been kicked in a long time ago; unless people are only just moving back into the area (which kind of seems to be taking place to an extent; though there are a number of large settlements which contraindicate this).

 SilverMK2 wrote:
I'm pretty sure even locked doors would have been kicked in a long time ago; unless people are only just moving back into the area (which kind of seems to be taking place to an extent; though there are a number of large settlements which contraindicate this).

I meant fortified military doors, the ones locked by a master terminal.
I supposed sufficient amounts of explosives can break it open though.

 CthuluIsSpy wrote:

 Sigvatr wrote:

 Co'tor Shas wrote:
That's because it's world-building, Bethesda are great at that. It's just a shame that they are utterly pants at story and dialogue.

Debatable. Skyrim, for example, wasn't good world-building. Proportion issues and a lot of same-looking places.

Yeah, I don't see how FO4 is an example of good world building.
Consider power armor frames; they already have the power source in them, and yet they are still lying around.
How could they have not been taken? The ones that are behind a locked door makes sense, but the ones just lying around? Absolutely absurd.

Who put those teddy bears in odd positions? What's with all of the mannequins? Why isn't everyone in the Commonwealth dead due to the small army of raiders and mutants running amok?
How are legendary enemies even a thing? etc etc.
The game feels too much like Borderlands to have the mantle of good world building.

Oh, it's not as good as their previous titles, not even close, but it's still what they have done far better than their story and dialogue.

I went with the Institute. Not happy with the result.Actually, that is what really frustrated me the most about FO4: the main quest forces you to make extreme decisions but does not really justify them except on the grounds that the various factions are so absolutist and rigid that they cannot even imagine each other's viewpoints. And that in turn really drains my sympathy for any of them. I wouldn't mind having to make such hard and stomarch-turning choices if the story lent stronger support to this notion. As things stand, it's hard to understand why the factions cannot resolve some of their differences without resorting to ultraviolence. I guess war never changes. It's a heavy-handed way to evoke the IP tagline, however. My first playthrough really left a bad taste.

I'm 75 hours into the game and still haven't chosen a faction. I have done a lot of the Minutemen quests, but only for the settlements. I haven't yet gotten to the point of no return.

I've only just now met the Railroad and had them decode the courser chip.

 CthuluIsSpy wrote:

 Sigvatr wrote:

 Co'tor Shas wrote:
That's because it's world-building, Bethesda are great at that. It's just a shame that they are utterly pants at story and dialogue.

Debatable. Skyrim, for example, wasn't good world-building. Proportion issues and a lot of same-looking places.

Yeah, I don't see how FO4 is an example of good world building.
Consider power armor frames; they already have the power source in them, and yet they are still lying around.
How could they have not been taken? The ones that are behind a locked door makes sense, but the ones just lying around? Absolutely absurd.

Who put those teddy bears in odd positions? What's with all of the mannequins? Why isn't everyone in the Commonwealth dead due to the small army of raiders and mutants running amok?
How are legendary enemies even a thing? etc etc.
The game feels too much like Borderlands to have the mantle of good world building.

I still have this issue with it being December in Boston and not a lick of snow to be seen. Everyone seems bundled up for winter as best they can, but outside it's Nevada with trees.

Why are these morons in flimsy shacks not all dead due to exposure? Why does Bethesda, who did such good work in Point Lookout, absolutely clueless now in Fallout 4???

Global warming due to nuclear apocalypse?

People might be bundled up but it still might only be 50 degrees F outside, if you're used to a warm climate then that can feel cold.

Just a thought.