Poll of the Day > Emperor Trump averted nuclear disaster! I'm celebrating by playing Fallout 4!

(+) Yeah! (+)

Hooray!

I know it's Bethesda we're talking about, but for 2015 this game is really roughly built. I remember liking it the first time I played it, but it seems... buggier this time. After I closed the game my desktop stopped responding and I had to restart my computer. I hope that's not recurring. Maybe it just ran better on my old computer, which is really weird to think about, but Bethesda's programmers are accidentally capable of marvels like that.
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It's probably new game code added via forced updates to accommodate the Creation Club making the game buggier.

I know when I logged back into the game two years after the last time I played it (I've literally just finished playing it again to get the platinum trophy), I noticed a few things having been added, though it hasn't been particularly buggy for me.


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What gets me is how terrible the facial animations look on even major characters. Piper has some serious uncanny valley nonsense going on, like mass effect andromeda levels of yeesh
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as a TRUE gamer who understands that GAMEPLAY is more important than silly aesthetics, i can confirm that fallout 4 is bad but not because of FACIAL ANIMATIONS lol. wrong again mead, try again next time
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Mead posted...

What gets me is how terrible the facial animations look on even major characters. Piper has some serious uncanny valley nonsense going on, like mass effect andromeda levels of yeesh

Yeah I was surprised at how bad a lot of the animations and faces are. The Creation engine is really showing its age.
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Greenfox111 posted...

as a TRUE gamer who understands that GAMEPLAY is more important than silly aesthetics, i can confirm that fallout 4 is bad but not because of FACIAL ANIMATIONS lol. wrong again mead, try again next time

I won't say I necessarily even disagree with you, but man this post is pretty much dripping with ignorance and pretentious douchbaggery. I got second-hand embarrassment shivers just reading it.


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;)
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Yay memory leaks. I could have sworn those weren't there before. I'm having fun with this game, but damn is it a mess.
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Was walking through Cambridge, turned a corner, and a bunch of ghouls, raiders and supermutants were killing each other. Somehow I aggroed everything and I got sploded.
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I still haven't given Fallout 4 a shot since I've heard its a major downgrade from 3/NV. Don't know what it's priced at now but the 76 news has me itching to try it out now. Might grab it if it goes on steam sale soon.
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PuddingBoy posted...

I still haven't given Fallout 4 a shot since I've heard its a major downgrade from 3/NV. Don't know what it's priced at now but the 76 news has me itching to try it out now. Might grab it if it goes on steam sale soon.

4 has some good stuff, but it can be dull. I never finished it, but I did put a bit over 150 hours on my file. I love the new mole rats, but hate one aspect of the new power armor.
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PuddingBoy posted...

I still haven't given Fallout 4 a shot since I've heard its a major downgrade from 3/NV. Don't know what it's priced at now but the 76 news has me itching to try it out now. Might grab it if it goes on steam sale soon.

Gameplay, story, and graphics are all much better than 3.

It doesn't really match New Vegas, though. A lot of the people who were disappointed by 4 when it came out were mostly mad because they were hoping for New Vegas Part 2, when what we actually got was a pure sequel to 3.

It's also why a lot of people were hoping that Fallout 76 would be the Fallout 4 engine version of New Vegas, and why those people are bitterly disappointed that we basically got Ark: Survival Evolved reskinned to look like Fallout.


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ParanoidObsessive posted...

Gameplay, story, and graphics are all much better than 3.

It doesn't really match New Vegas, though.

Ya.
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New Vegas was a hot fucking mess on release for far too long. And I'm of the faction that can appreciate and like both 3 and NV cause they both have things they do well. Also anyone expecting 4 to be like NV when 1) it was made by a completely different company and 2) goes against what modern bethesda does (dumb everything down to reach a wider consumer base) was horribly misguided.
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PuddingBoy posted...

New Vegas was a hot fucking mess on release for far too long.

I find it hard to hold that against it, partly because most of those bugs were a combination of Bethesda's legendary shitty coding/engine combined with Obsidian being forced to work with someone else's code (meaning they were less experienced with dealing with how utterly broken it is and working around known problems), and partly because I'm intelligent enough at this point to NEVER buy any game Bethesda has anything to do with in the first few months (let alone being insane enough to buy it on release day). It's pretty much mandatory to wait until at least 3-4 major bug fix patches have been released before you should even consider playing one of their games.

But ultimately, when you judge the final product version of the game, it's pretty damned good. And relatively bug-free for the most part (at least in my experience - I've had way more game freezes or game-breaking bugs playing Fallout 3 and 4 than I did in NV).



PuddingBoy posted...

And I'm of the faction that can appreciate and like both 3 and NV cause they both have things they do well.

I tend to side with NV hard, because I honestly can't think of a single thing I think Fallout 3 did better. Like, at all.

New Vegas was a strong enough game that I've played through it six times, and each time I made a character that character had a relatively distinct personality in my head (making different choices in quests, recruiting different companions, siding with different factions, etc). Meanwhile, whenever I think about Fallout 3, I usually just think of new logic flaws or problems I have with the game, and I've never been able to play through it more than once without boredom creep and narrative dissonance.



PuddingBoy posted...

Also anyone expecting 4 to be like NV when 1) it was made by a completely different company and 2) goes against what modern bethesda does (dumb everything down to reach a wider consumer base) was horribly misguided.

The main assumption was that Bethesda would actually be intelligent enough to pay attention to what gamers actually liked about New Vegas, and then incorporate those ideas into Fallout 4. Them saying things like how they were adding factions and making it possible to romance companions really only strengthened those assumptions, because faction dynamics and stronger companion personalities were two major things people preferred about NV. So it was kind of justifiable for people to assume Bethesda was going that way.

But what those people failed to realize is that Bethesda had already had prior examples of what people liked and enjoyed in a Fallout game (ie, Fallout 1 and 2), yet failed to understand pretty much everything about what made those games special in the first place, latching onto the superfluous details of the setting and the aesthetic without really understanding the underlying themes or mood of the setting.

Part of what made New Vegas great (and why so many older gamers loved it) was partly the fact that it was pretty much the only game released in the last 20 years or so that was actually a Fallout game.


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Let's not forget that Obsidian got all of 18 months to make NV as well. It sucks for those that had to play it when it was new and super buggy, but it's still my favorite Fallout.
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NV literally only did combat better.
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Kyuubi4269 posted...

NV literally only did combat better.

And narrative.

And characterization.

And general dialogue writing.

And quest design and interaction.

And survival mechanics.

And general leveling.

And soundtrack.

And color palette.

And... well, you get the idea.


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ParanoidObsessive posted...

Kyuubi4269 posted...

NV literally only did combat better.

And narrative.

And characterization.

And general dialogue writing.

And quest design and interaction.

And survival mechanics.

And general leveling.

And soundtrack.

And color palette.

And... well, you get the idea.

The only real bonus I give to Fallout 3, is that its world was more open.
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dragon504 posted...

PuddingBoy posted...

I still haven't given Fallout 4 a shot since I've heard its a major downgrade from 3/NV. Don't know what it's priced at now but the 76 news has me itching to try it out now. Might grab it if it goes on steam sale soon.

4 has some good stuff, but it can be dull. I never finished it, but I did put a bit over 150 hours on my file. I love the new mole rats, but hate one aspect of the new power armor.

The new power armor is basically the only thing I thought they did right in the game.
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Smarkil posted...

dragon504 posted...

PuddingBoy posted...

I still haven't given Fallout 4 a shot since I've heard its a major downgrade from 3/NV. Don't know what it's priced at now but the 76 news has me itching to try it out now. Might grab it if it goes on steam sale soon.

4 has some good stuff, but it can be dull. I never finished it, but I did put a bit over 150 hours on my file. I love the new mole rats, but hate one aspect of the new power armor.

The new power armor is basically the only thing I thought they did right in the game.

I like the frame, different parts aspect, but the power core part is annoying.
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I thought Trump said avoid games like fallout and cod.
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dragon504 posted...

The only real bonus I give to Fallout 3, is that its world was more open.

I kind of consider that one of its negatives. Because its non-linear openness plays a large role in why almost nothing that happens in the entire wasteland actually matters in any meaningful way.

It's a problem a lot of open world games have, and one of the reasons why the recent obsession with open world design has hurt a lot of otherwise narrative-focused developers (*cough*Bioware*cough*).



dragon504 posted...

Smarkil posted...

dragon504 posted...
The new power armor is basically the only thing I thought they did right in the game.

I like the frame, different parts aspect, but the power core part is annoying.

The only problem I had with the cores was how they handled the mechanics of when the game automatically switches out a depleted core for a fresh one, and that mostly because I'm a bit OCD. Namely, I was annoyed that it would always immediately jump to a fully charged core rather than using the partially drained ones first, so depending on how you deal with cores/armor, and if you have a habit of removing cores from armor whenever you get out of it (to prevent NPCs from stealing it), you wind up with a ton of unstacked cores in your inventory with different charge values.

Other than that, I actually kind of like how Fallout 4 handles power armor. Though part of that might be because I almost never used power armor in 3 or NV due to the training and repair requirements, but Fallout 4's more simplified mechanics meant I was more likely to use it for major story missions (ie, if I knew in advance I was going to head knee-deep into shit, and the extra armor might be the difference between life and death).

Also, there's just something viscerally satisfying with having multiple suits of power armor standing against a wall (or a separate suit stationed in every settlement), whereas in the previous games I'd just shove it in a chest and see it as nothing more than a line of text in an inventory menu.


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So last night I wasn't really having fun with the game. Everything was killing me in like two hits and I found myself reloading like 10 times in every encounter until I got through it. I was considering stopping and playing something else, then I thought "well, maybe I'm not supposed to be in this area yet" so I headed south towards Boston, and I just wandered around downtown for a few hours, just blowing up raiders and exploring abandoned buildings, and I gained like 7 more levels, and I'm having fun again. >_>

So the moral of the story is, fuck radscorpions and their 1 billion HP.
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Oh yeah, so the magazines you can find all over the place that grant perks. I'm not really sure I like that? Because they're so easy to get a lot of the perks aren't very good. Like, recover 1 HP every minute. Okay, so it's going to take me over 3 hours to fully regen? Ehhhh. It's such a negligible bonus I'm not really sure the point of it. I think I would prefer just getting stronger perks from completing long quest chains.
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papercup posted...

So last night I wasn't really having fun with the game. Everything was killing me in like two hits and I found myself reloading like 10 times in every encounter until I got through it. I was considering stopping and playing something else, then I thought "well, maybe I'm not supposed to be in this area yet" so I headed south towards Boston, and I just wandered around downtown for a few hours, just blowing up raiders and exploring abandoned buildings, and I gained like 7 more levels, and I'm having fun again. >_>

So the moral of the story is, fuck radscorpions and their 1 billion HP.

I've been skirting non-mission locations and looting tons of junk, then carting it all back to Sanctuary, which I've been building up like crazy (and I've been resorting to using the settlement size glitch to overbuild). I've basically turned it into a massive fortress of a town, but I haven't yet bothered to recruit Garvey and the others yet.

I've mostly cleared out the Northwest area and most of central Boston - at the moment I'm skirting around the edge of the Glowing Sea just trying to tick off more map locations.

I'm level 21 and pretty capable of defending myself (though I've taken zero combat perks so far because I've been taking settlement and building-based ones, along with Strong Back), but getting jumped by the occasional Yao Guai or Deathclaw makes for hectic situations.

(Fortunately, the water purifiers I've set up in Sanctuary - along with the absolute lack of settlers there - means that I'm constantly producing Purified Water for healing, which helps)



papercup posted...

Oh yeah, so the magazines you can find all over the place that grant perks. I'm not really sure I like that? Because they're so easy to get a lot of the perks aren't very good. Like, recover 1 HP every minute. Okay, so it's going to take me over 3 hours to fully regen? Ehhhh. It's such a negligible bonus I'm not really sure the point of it. I think I would prefer just getting stronger perks from completing long quest chains.

Regen is great over time while you're exploring. Not so much in the heat of combat, but if you take time to explore between fights, you're still recovering HP that you otherwise would have had to waste a healing item to get back. When I took Live Giver (+.5% HP per second), I noticed a huge difference - and that's honestly not more much than 1-3 HP per second depending on your max HP (or more accurately, it would take about 3 1/2 minutes to recover from 1 HP to max).

Plus, it also means you're fully healed every time you fast travel.

I don't mind minor incremental bonuses to stats, especially as minor rewards for static items you can find all over the place (and can actively seek out even early game, if you use a wiki or know where they are). Too powerful and they'd be game-breaking, or at least devalue the stronger perks you're taking when you level up.

On the subject of magazines, I've built 6 magazine display racks in my house in Sanctuary, and I'm trying to see how many I can find in my travels. Later on I'm probably going to start actively trying to track down all the ones I missed via the wiki, so I can have a full set.

At some point I need to track down all the bobbleheads as well - I think I have two in my current game (in my "main" game I found like six or so normally, and then I did a wiki-fueled collect-em-all for the trophy).


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I think I'm going to level up Endurance for a bit so I can become a cannibal.
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The endurance perk that makes radiation heal you is ridiculously OP
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Mead posted...

The endurance perk that makes radiation heal you is ridiculously OP

Yes but cannibalism is more fun.
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I usually load up on Charisma and talk myself out of stuff (and you need at least rank 6 to set up fully leveled stores in settlements), along with Strength because I am a massive pack-rat and I basically REQUIRE Strong Back maxed out as a perk.


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Yeah I've been leveling Strength and Charisma for the useful perks, and getting the upgrades as soon as possible.
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Level 28, I've discovered some 220 named locations. Almost everything outside The Glowing Sea And that was really for the exp and so when I get quests I can just fast travel to where I need to go. I've cleared about 50 locations out. Also I found the X-01 Enclave Power Armor in 35 Court so I'm happy about that. I actually haven't even entered Diamond City yet. >_> Now that I've been almost everywhere, I think I'm gonna try to do some quests until I hit 30 then power through the main story, since I've never actually completed it before. <_<
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papercup posted...

Level 28, I've discovered some 220 named locations.

Almost everything outside The Glowing Sea

I'm currently 29 and have 184 locations.

And I've avoided that area as well. I'm assuming the areas you've been to that I haven't yet are in the extreme northeast corner and down towards the airport, because I haven't gone into those regions yet.



papercup posted...

And that was really for the exp and so when I get quests I can just fast travel to where I need to go. I've cleared about 50 locations out.

Stats say I've cleared 35, but I'm not sure how accurate that is, because if you take long enough, older cleared areas do tend to reset. So I don't know if that number only means areas currently cleared, or cleared overall.

I've mainly only been clearing out non-quest based locations, so I can loot them for junk (mainly steel, and raider gear I can sell for caps) so I can fund my settlement building. I'm trying to build Sanctuary, Starlight Drive-In, County Crossing, and The Castle up as major hubs that connect all of my settlements, and I'm connecting every other settlement I find to one of those via trade routes, so I have a massive economic empire.



papercup posted...

Also I found the X-01 Enclave Power Armor in 35 Court so I'm happy about that.

I usually grab that, but so far this time I haven't yet.

I do have three suits at the moment though (all currently in Sanctuary). I grabbed two from unmarked locations in the northern parts of the map (both traincars, IIRC), and the third is the one you get from the main story.



papercup posted...

I actually haven't even entered Diamond City yet. >_> Now that I've been almost everywhere, I think I'm gonna try to do some quests until I hit 30 then power through the main story, since I've never actually completed it before. <_<

I haven't been to Diamond City yet either. I finished the main story quest in Concord to get the Minutemen into Sanctuary, and after that I've avoided the main story.

I'll probably eventually finish the story (Minuteman route) once I get all my settlements set up. But that will probably be a while.


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I haven't even touched the settlement building yet this playthrough. >_> Preston has a couple places he wants me to check out, but I'd rather not be constantly fast traveling to my settlements all the time to kill a couple raiders. <_< Though the economic benefits are tempting.
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As much as I enjoy playing this game, it's janky as fuck, and I actually can't believe Bethesda gets a free pass releasing a game with this little polish and nonsensical problems. Terminals that don't display properly. Terminal commands that don't do anything. Followers that seem hardcoded to stand in your way at all times. Teleporting NPCs. Terrible AI in general. Just awful animations and stiff faces. If FO76 releases in a state like this, I hope reviewers finally say something. This game does not deserve the 9s and 10s it got, not even close.
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papercup posted...

I haven't even touched the settlement building yet this playthrough.

It's pretty much the only reason I started my current playthrough. After getting the platinum trophy using my original save file, I decided to give it another try, but focusing on settlement development.

I DID work on settlements first time around, but they were kind of crap because I started without really knowing all the tricks I discovered along the way later (and I rarely went back to re-do old settlements once I discovered new things, like just how radically using shack foundations can change design), and I didn't focus on them exclusively. And the trade networking was haphazard because I didn't know which settlements were going to become available, so everything just sort of linked to the nearest existing settlement. And I was spending most of my level up Perks on combat skills rather than stuff required for settlements.

So this time around, I'm deliberately focusing on that, and ignoring plot quests. I've already built Sanctuary, Starlight Drive-In, County Crossing, and The Castle into trading hubs, and I'm linking every other settlement into one of those in a spoke pattern.

I'm also bringing material with me from my core base of operations, so every time I activate a new settlement, the first thing I do is build a large generator and a settler beacon, lure in a settler, and then immediately turn that settler into a provisioner and send them off to the nearest hub (after armoring them up). So then I have access to all my material in other settlements to fully build that new settlement up (though I haven't really built anything up outside of my hubs so far).

Because I picked up the settlement-based perks as early as possible, I jumped directly to being able to make level 3 trading posts, and I've built one of each kind in every hub (and I've recruited all the level 4 merchants). I'm eventually going to set up stores in every other settlement as well, but that's a future project.

Other than that, I've mostly just been raiding places for material, and selling off raider gear and other crap for caps, which I then sink directly back into building.



papercup posted...

I'd rather not be constantly fast traveling to my settlements all the time to kill a couple raiders. <_< Though the economic benefits are tempting.

They really shouldn't be. You have to invest so much time, material, and caps into settlements to get even minor returns on your investment, it's not really worth it. With maxed out merchants of every type in a hub, plus a Scavenging Station, I still only make 100 or so caps whenever I check back in.

(If you really want money, just build generators in Sanctuary at the start, run them to water purifiers in the river, then collect and sell off the Purified Water you get every time you check back for about 100 caps per visit.)

But ultimately, 99% of what you spend caps on in this game just goes back into building and material anyway. If you just save your money and materials in the first place, you should have more than enough for your needs even if you never build anything.



papercup posted...

As much as I enjoy playing this game, it's janky as fuck, and I actually can't believe Bethesda gets a free pass releasing a game with this little polish and nonsensical problems.

To be fair, I haven't really dealt with too many major bugs or problems (other than some tied to level 4 merchants, and the occasional crash to desktop).

But if no one shits on Bethesda for the ridiculous nest of bugs that are the Elder Scrolls games, they're pretty clearly bulletproof.


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So I find myself not really enjoying this game, and actually being frustrated by how broken and buggy everything is, yet I can't stop playing it. It's like the sameness of everything is designed to give me rewards at such a regular calculated pace that it triggers something pavlovian in my brain to keep going because I need to complete just one more quest, or gain just one more level. It's probably not a good sign that everything about this game reminds me that I'm playing a game, but even worse than that, it's so poorly designed it's obvious what they're doing.

8/10 would play again.
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You basically just described how I used to play Destiny. I was fully aware that at no point was I enjoying it in any real way, but it was still addictive enough to keep me coming back (and investing tons of time into it) until I managed to break the cycle.

I wouldn't necessarily put Fallout 4 into the same category - I DO enjoy it, even if mostly on the same busywork/grind/being distracted while doing other things (usually listening to podcasts) level that includes time-killing games like Solitaire or the more mundane aspects of Minecraft (but then again, I am focusing most of my effort this time around on settlement construction and maintenance, so it's mainly OCD running amok). Though I wouldn't necessarily say it's a GOOD game, and I definitely wouldn't rank it highly in my list of all-time narrative games (it's better than Fallout 3, though nowhere near as good as New Vegas).



On a side-note, I've now got my stats up to 250 locations discovered, which includes everything in the Glowing Sea and Diamond City (except for Home Plate, which I haven't bought yet). I still haven't really triggered any story-based locations (like The Institute, Ticonderoga for the Railroad, or the Prydwen), since the only story quests I've done so far is leaving the Vault, meeting the Minutemen, and traveling to Diamond City (I haven't gone looking for Nick Valentine yet, though). But I have unlocked every available settlement and run supply lines between them (except for Boston Airport and Bunker Hill, which are quest-based).

I have no idea how many icons the map is supposed to have (the Internet seems utterly useless for answering that question), especially since the Fallout wiki isn't even necessarily definitive (I actually found a location/marker that isn't shown on the Pip-Boy map picture they have of various locations), and because the DLC complicates the issue (I don't have any of the DLC, so certain locations won't show up for me). But it seems like it can't be too many more than 250 or so marked locations.


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Yeah I don't have any of the DLC either, none of it interested me enough. I'm at about 260 named locations, I know of a couple places I haven't gotten around to visiting yet.

It's decide time! Which faction to follow through with? I kinda feel like eradicating all uncivilized life, so maybe the Brotherhood of Steel? >_>
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papercup posted...

Yeah I don't have any of the DLC either, none of it interested me enough. I'm at about 260 named locations, I know of a couple places I haven't gotten around to visiting yet.

Far Harbor was literally the only DLC that interested me in the slightest, and it didn't interest me enough to want to pay for it.

As for locations, I'd ask which ones you found that I haven't, but it's hard to compare without listing every location we each have. Which would be kind of insane.

You wouldn't happen to have an idea how many of yours are story-linked, though? If you've been doing a lot of faction stuff or main story unlocks, that could account for most of the difference. I know I haven't unlocked anything Railroad or Brotherhood related, nor anything main quest after you reach the Institute.



papercup posted...

It's decide time! Which faction to follow through with? I kinda feel like eradicating all uncivilized life, so maybe the Brotherhood of Steel? >_>

My first, instinctive playthrough I started to go with the Brotherhood (because they seemed to be the only ones with the raw firepower and initiative to combat the Institute), but after they helped me reach the Institute for the first time, we kind of drifted apart because they wanted me to play along and help spy on the Institute, whereas I shot Father in the face.

Doing that actually locks you out of both Brotherhood and Railroad quest lines, and eliminates pretty much the entirety of Act 3, jumping you directly to the Institute's attack on the The Castle (if you've already unlocked it) and forcing you into the Minutemen ending. Though ironically, that's probably the "best" outcome, because it prevents both the Brotherhood and the Railroad from going hostile - whereas most of the other endings require you to wipe out the competing factions.

I'll probably go Minutemen again this time around, because being General of my own newly rebuilt republic of the Commonwealth seems like a more rewarding outcome than being a soldier in someone else's army (especially since Maxson is kind of a dick) or being head of the Science Hitler Brigade. And the Railroad are just lame in general.


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I have 264 locations discovered. As for story locations, I have no idea :X
I did take some pics of my map, if that helps

Northwest
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1424598631

Northeast
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1424598732

East
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1424598872

Southeast
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1424598902

Southwest
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1424598941

West
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1424598969

And here's a few zoomed in screens of some of the more dense parts of Boston
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1424599000
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1424599026
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1424599052


Let me know if you want more screens
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Ive decided that the brotherhood actually are the good guys and not the institute like I had previously decided
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Don't really see anything on there I'm missing (other than the stuff I already mentioned), though I did notice you are missing Mahkra Fishpacking (NE of Coastal Cottage). And we're both missing the Yangtze.

I wonder if it specifically counts certain unmarked locations for that stat. Because the ones I know I'm missing (The Institute, The Prydwen, Railroad HQ, Ticonderoga, Cambridge Police Station, Mercer Safehouse) don't add up to the 14 I'm missing compared to you.


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I made the most bitchingly awesome Gauss rifle I think I could. It has like all the most valuable stuff I could make for it, it has some 350 base damage, plus all the multipliers and what not I get from magazines and perks. I 3-shot a legendary alpha deathclaw.

Also, been going with The Brotherhood of Steel. At one point Maxson was like "okay go kill the Railroad leadership and steal their robot" and without warning, it tells me the Railroad hates me. Not that I cared about them mind you, but that was really surprising that somehow they know I'm going to betray them, but also I don't get an option to warn them or anything, then the very next quest he had me betray the Institute, but I did get an option to warn them...
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papercup posted...

but that was really surprising that somehow they know I'm going to betray them, but also I don't get an option to warn them or anything

The robot he was sending you to get was a predictive model that can predict the future. So presumably they knew you were coming before you got there, and the probability was high that you were going to kill them (even if you weren't planning to), so they reacted accordingly.

Though, had you worked with the Railroad extensively before the turn, or were you only casually acquainted with them? Because I know you CAN warn the Railroad if you're working with them and the Institute wants them dead (and you can protect them from a Brotherhood attack that way as well), but they seem aware that you've been sent to take them down (Desdemona makes comments that imply she's suspicious, even though she should have no real reason to suspect).


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I basically just met them, and did a couple quests for them, and I was like "yeah no I don't care", which was more than I did for the Institute. All I did was get in there, hack their computers, convince Li to leave, and steal the Serum for Virgil.
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My first time through I did most of their early missions, until my shenanigans in the Institute effectively locked me out of all three factions' quest lines (because everyone other than the Minutemen require you to cooperate with the Institute for at least a few missions).

My current run I'm going to do at least the first few just so I can unlock Ticonderoga (because one of the magazines are hidden there, and I'm trying to collect all 121 magazines this time around - I'm currently at 76 with 45 left to collect). It will also allow me to access ballistic weave mods from Tinker Tom, though I don't really use them.

In a narrative sense, I easily consider the Railroad the worst faction, because their ideology seems to be the least important overall, and one of the hardest for "modern" people (either in the real world, or the pre-War survivor in-character) to really relate to. It's hard to justify prioritizing "robot freedom" over the more sweeping goals/ideology of the other three factions, especially when the Railroad are more than willing to kill humans to protect synths (which comes across as hypocritical).

But honestly, all of the factions in Fallout 4 kind of suck. You're basically asked to choose between Science Nazis, Technocrat Army Grunts, Hippie Idiots, or the people's militia that everyone hates because Preston became a meme.


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Welp, I did it, I made America great again with the Brotherhood. Level 53. IDK how much more I'm going to be playing this. Glad I finally got to an ending with this game, and it actually has a nice bookend to how the game starts. But soon I want to move on to something else I think. Morrowind? Skyrim? Maybe something completely different like The Witcher games? idk.
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papercup posted...

and it actually has a nice bookend to how the game starts.

It kind of sucks that the game really only has two endings, though. You basically have a somewhat generic ending for most main quest lines, and a different one for siding with the Institute. You basically just get the same ending as Brotherhood, Railroad, or Minutemen.

It's kind of annoying because the older games would flat-out give you a modular ending where it sort of sums up everything major that you've done throughout the game, with different settlements having different future outcomes described based on your actions, making it feel like everything you did had at least some effect on the world. But Fallout 4 is kind of the most railroady (no pun intended) plot of every Fallout game ever made, and that just caps with the completely basic and general ending. It doesn't matter what you've done in the game, pretty much everyone who plays gets the same ending every time (except for Institute runs).



papercup posted...

But soon I want to move on to something else I think. Morrowind? Skyrim? Maybe something completely different like The Witcher games? idk.

I'd definitely vote for The Witcher out of those choices.


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Hmm, yeah I think I'm done. Once you beat the story, there's really not much to do besides those random quests, huh? That's disappointing.

Overall I guess I did enjoy my time with it, but it's really a meh game when it comes right down to it.
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