CT Phipps
Carbon Dated and Proud
To go with the Synths and androids, Bethesda set up Fallout 4 in Fallout 3 with the whole Replicant plot in Rivet City. It was actually intriguing with the Institute representative there describing it as a kind of technological paradise surrounded by a Hellish chaotic environment similar to the Capital Wasteland. Furthermore, the Captain *WAS* an android who just happened to appear human. I don't think the Synth storyline was in any way a bad thing and could have been the basis for an interesting storyline for the Commonwealth.
It's just Fallout 4 was dramatically underwritten. It's very clearly an incomplete game in my opinion and even Nuka World, which I love to death, is missing an entire branch of storytelling to make it as good as it could be. Far Harbor is basically what Bethesda SHOULD have done with the game as it's in-miniature the kind of conflict they were trying to set up for the Commonwealth with fanatics on one side (BOS/Children of the Atom), decent but ignorant people on the other (Commonwealthers/Harbormen), and the High Tech but Ruthless Assholes in the Middle (Institute/DIMAH).
Imagine for example this kind of Commonwealth:
How CT Phipps would do Fallout 4
The Sole Survivor emerges from their cryogenic tomb to find a chaotic, murderous, and hellish Commonwealth which is distinct from the Capital Wasteland in the fact broken technology is much more common in this world. At the center of the Commonwealth, in a fortified Vault city-esque Institute is a paradise which is full of synthetic servants who cater to the whims of its populace but it enforces a brutal stranglehold on the surrounding area as it loots the surviving communities for technology as well as loot to serve it.
Aside from the Institute, there are the Commonwealthers who are a impoverished people who have to give up portions of their wealth to the Institute and obey their laws or be wiped out by robots. Even so, there's lots and lots of robots repurposed by them because of cultural osmosis. Raider gangs use mechs and there's even the option of Cybernetics. A lot of them want to destroy the Institute, though, so they can be free. A smaller, smaller faction is the Railroad which wants to have a Synth revolution even though most Commonwealthers think Synths will murder all humans because that's what robots do and renegade ones are common.
Finally, entering the equation is the Wild Card in the Brotherhood of Steel who invades the Commonwealth and starts taking over town by town. The Brotherhood of Steel is here to confiscate the Institute's technology and take over the region for their leader, High Elder Maxson. They claim, also, that they will distribute technology and resources fairly across the Commonwealth as well as "free" the people there--even if they have absolute control over other bits. Then have the SS choose a side or his own. Maybe also force a treaty by replacing Elder Maxson with a Synth.
Again, like Far Harbor.
Verisimilitude
The problem, for me, isn't the setting or ideas, it's the fact there's very little done with them and the setting is not nearly tight enough to handle the ideas. They needed serious editing and additional material to keep it working. Fallout 4 is like a bunch of independent set pieces which really don't link up to one another, like Nuka World's Kingdoms. They're all independent and it makes the story weaker as a result.
Take the Atom Cats, for example, who I love. The Atom Cats are a group like the Kings which could have been interesting but we don't have how they fit into the rest of the world. Are they Diamond City citizens? Where did they get their power armor? Where did they get their know-how?
I really thought an interesting Brotherhood of Steel mission would be Elder Maxson giving you the orders to wipe them out and take their power armor because, well, the Brotherhood of Steel would do that. You could work to save them or fight off the BOS or convince them to disband. Instead, they're kind of just there.
It gets doubly annoying because there's hints of this actually having been planned like the Raider journals all being updated depending on which groups you've wiped out. Imagine if the Raiders had been all from Nuka World and were a joinable faction.
You could also expand on the Railroad and its origins-how did it get so big? Where did it get its resources? Maybe they're a bunch of exiled Institute members and their robot families/creations. It would add a lot to their struggle.
It's just Fallout 4 was dramatically underwritten. It's very clearly an incomplete game in my opinion and even Nuka World, which I love to death, is missing an entire branch of storytelling to make it as good as it could be. Far Harbor is basically what Bethesda SHOULD have done with the game as it's in-miniature the kind of conflict they were trying to set up for the Commonwealth with fanatics on one side (BOS/Children of the Atom), decent but ignorant people on the other (Commonwealthers/Harbormen), and the High Tech but Ruthless Assholes in the Middle (Institute/DIMAH).
Imagine for example this kind of Commonwealth:
How CT Phipps would do Fallout 4
The Sole Survivor emerges from their cryogenic tomb to find a chaotic, murderous, and hellish Commonwealth which is distinct from the Capital Wasteland in the fact broken technology is much more common in this world. At the center of the Commonwealth, in a fortified Vault city-esque Institute is a paradise which is full of synthetic servants who cater to the whims of its populace but it enforces a brutal stranglehold on the surrounding area as it loots the surviving communities for technology as well as loot to serve it.
Aside from the Institute, there are the Commonwealthers who are a impoverished people who have to give up portions of their wealth to the Institute and obey their laws or be wiped out by robots. Even so, there's lots and lots of robots repurposed by them because of cultural osmosis. Raider gangs use mechs and there's even the option of Cybernetics. A lot of them want to destroy the Institute, though, so they can be free. A smaller, smaller faction is the Railroad which wants to have a Synth revolution even though most Commonwealthers think Synths will murder all humans because that's what robots do and renegade ones are common.
Finally, entering the equation is the Wild Card in the Brotherhood of Steel who invades the Commonwealth and starts taking over town by town. The Brotherhood of Steel is here to confiscate the Institute's technology and take over the region for their leader, High Elder Maxson. They claim, also, that they will distribute technology and resources fairly across the Commonwealth as well as "free" the people there--even if they have absolute control over other bits. Then have the SS choose a side or his own. Maybe also force a treaty by replacing Elder Maxson with a Synth.
Again, like Far Harbor.
Verisimilitude
The problem, for me, isn't the setting or ideas, it's the fact there's very little done with them and the setting is not nearly tight enough to handle the ideas. They needed serious editing and additional material to keep it working. Fallout 4 is like a bunch of independent set pieces which really don't link up to one another, like Nuka World's Kingdoms. They're all independent and it makes the story weaker as a result.
Take the Atom Cats, for example, who I love. The Atom Cats are a group like the Kings which could have been interesting but we don't have how they fit into the rest of the world. Are they Diamond City citizens? Where did they get their power armor? Where did they get their know-how?
I really thought an interesting Brotherhood of Steel mission would be Elder Maxson giving you the orders to wipe them out and take their power armor because, well, the Brotherhood of Steel would do that. You could work to save them or fight off the BOS or convince them to disband. Instead, they're kind of just there.
It gets doubly annoying because there's hints of this actually having been planned like the Raider journals all being updated depending on which groups you've wiped out. Imagine if the Raiders had been all from Nuka World and were a joinable faction.
You could also expand on the Railroad and its origins-how did it get so big? Where did it get its resources? Maybe they're a bunch of exiled Institute members and their robot families/creations. It would add a lot to their struggle.
