I want to see the dev meeting, when someone had the brillant idea : "hey, we've had Caesar's Legion, Vipers, the Master's Unity, Ulysses and the Enclave, now. I propose that we introduce a new kind of antagonist. One that is defined by its laziness, haughtiness, isolation, incompetence and improductivity. What do you think ?" because I want this guy as a motivational speaker. Guy has to be super charismatic if he/she can convince to greenlight such ideas.
The Institute is both the worst and best written faction in Fallout 4 because they have all the contradictions, laziness, and human foibles as well as outright incompetence of a real life organization. I mean, 90% of their Synth runaway problem is due to the programmer for them telling they're slaves and that they should hate scrubbing toilets.
Yeah, him. Metzger was underbidding too, but the amount still seemed "plausible", considering how much he paid each slaver for a raid and still made a profit. Underbidding is a thing, but the whole idea is to make it sound reasonsable. Even if the sole survivor doesn't know a thing about slavery (neither does the player at this point, considering that the devs don't bother to tell us if slavery is legal or not in the commonwealth. Guess the Loverslab will "fix" that for everyone, as a revenge for ZAZ's assets being stolen in the last DLC. It's gonna be dirty.), he still must know that an immortal slave with no need for food or water probably costs a little more than 5 bottles of water. If he doesn't, he's an idiot, and playing a dumbass is only fun when all the dialogs are rewritten in consequence
I would have made it a 1,000 caps. If they had, though, it would have resulted in a lot of players taking him up on the offer.
Yes but not really. Fallout 1's Hub has private firms with shareholders, competitors, employees, a bank which backs currency on a local resource, an organized agricultural system and clear, defined trade roads. And that was a century before Fallout 3/4. None of that seems to be the case in the commonwealth.
Realistically (aka, as Fallout is supposed to be), scavenging could work as a local economy for a little town next to an old factory (like Novac), but not for a whole country. People would stop scavenging in less than a decade after the apocalypse, because we know how to rebuild civilization. In fact, it's what humanity is the best at.
I'm not sure those things don't actually exist in Diamond City but this is where it gets to be problematic as the places we visit are extrapolations rather than actual literal representations of cities. There's obviously organized trade routes in the Commonwealth as you can actually establish them yourself and there's businesses enough to have legitimate companies which have investments and stock. Diamond City has a "rich" section, real-estate prices, a chapel, public education, and more. A bank would just be natural but we can't fit the entire actual city into the game.
Yes, because there was a developped civilization with established trade roads to raid, and a lot of war trophies being carried on the mediterranean sea. Which isn't the case in Fallout 4. If the commonwealth was recently plagued by a virus, or made business with Ronto or Pittsburgh, then I would be alright with raiders on the road. But as it turns out, these guys don't raid for money, they raid for survival. But why are they still "surviving" two hundred years after the bombs fell, that's a mystery.
Raider culture as established in Nuka World shows that Raiders very much do have a basic desire for money as well as other needs being met. Food is precious in the post-apocalypse world but caps themselves are a major source of need. The Capital Wasteland Raiders actually appeared to be killing to survive if all those corpses hung around and "Iganua on a Stick" was actually Strange Meat as in Fallout 1. Here, it seems these individuals are bandits in the Jesse James and Old West sense.
If this is resentment towards the Institute, then, they know about the Institute. Which would make no sense, considering that the commonwealth would just have to interrogate a specimen for gathering all the required intel. We could blame the isolation and everything, but the thing is : if you wait too long, Virgil will turn "feral", stupid and attack you on sight. So, it's not a social element that pushes them to hostility, it's the FEV.
But why ? The FEV doesn't turn people feral for no reason. And at this point, we realize that the devs simply didn't think of a good reason for the antagonists' hostility, despite having seven years of pre production.
As the Master pointed out, the superior results for dipping in FEV come from doing so with unradiated Wastelanders like those who come from Vaults. The experimental subjects of the Institutes are all wastelanders who grew up in the Glowing Sea storm subjected Commonwealth. In other words, they're abyssal candidates for Super mutantdom and it's no surprise they're all as dumb as Harry. Of course, Virgil is no Richard Grey either and the fact he came up with a retrovirus which reverses FEV mutation but didn't figure out you need pure DNA to make Super Mutants who aren't as dumb as Strong never occurred to him.
Which would mean that the Commonwealth has been under a Casus Belli for a whole century, and yet, didn't do a thing to act against their enemy. Which, also, makes no sense.
If a whole country is held hostage like this, everyone around would hear about it at some point. Ronto, Pittsburgh, the Brotherhood of steel before they would even dedicate their entire forces for protecting a DJ. In other words, it makes no sense, because there are three powerful factions which would have intervened long ago.
Counterpoint, what you have is, in scientific terms, a theory. You have the suspicion the Institute is underground and under the Commonwealth Institute of Technology. This despite the fact that Vaults are known as existing objects as well as plenty of underground military bases (the Railroad actually had a fully-functioning one which seems like a horrific shame to waste).
The Triggermen even had one and they're just a gang. Even if you believe they're directly located underneath the Commonwealth Institute of Technology, it appears to be literally hundreds of feet of digging. It would require a massive construction project and digging equipment as well as unlimited amounts of caps for an unproven untested theory.
Even so, the Institute is, despite their treatment in the game as being a bunch of overly educated idiots, supposed to be good at their job. While people know Synths exist, almost no actually knows how many Synths or how many disappearances actually occur. Indeed, the Institute employers counter-propaganda to actually keep the public at ease. See the Mayor of Diamond City being a Synth, the exile of ghouls (who possess Pre-War knowledge like, say, the Commonwealth Institute of technology), and so on.
Also, a large portion of the Commonwealth is on the payroll of the Institute as well. Trashcan Carla and all the Caravneers at Bunker Hill EXCEPT Old Man Stockton means the Institute may very well control the Commonwealth Wasteland economy. Henry the bartender is also an Institute spy. If you can't beat em, join em, I suppose.
About that, don't you think it's a bit strange that the minutemen take over Sanctuary, but you cannot tell them about Vault 111 just a minute away ? Safest place for them, considering that if they stay here, at some point, they'll get irradiated.
Vault 111 is, unfortunately, pretty much as useful a Vault as Vault City's in that it's best used as a storage area. It's a tomb of a bunch of extremely specific frozen corpses with no remaining supplies or equipment for growing food, water, and other vital Vault material. I do think its annoying we never seem to see any GECKS, though as you'd think that Vault would have 2 of them onhand and they could really fix some of the Commonwealth (albeit, the radiation storms might screw it up).
If the whole country is held hostage, and has been for a whole century, it's way beyond suspension of disbelief that nobody tried to dig their way to the underground. If ISIS was on American land, called itself "the caliphate of New York sewers" and buried themselves "Somewhere!", how long would it takes for us to dig through New York tunnels to take them out ? A week, a month ?
The Institute is effectively the Enclave for the Commonwealth in that it exists as a palpable presence but it exists and works behind the scenes in the shadows. Theoretically. In the game, the Institute acts ridiculously overtly with a pair of exterminated large-scale settlements and lots of kidnappings for no apparent reason. Still, the populace has other issues like the Super Mutants (which they don't realize is tied to the Institute), Gunners, Raiders, and more.
I would say your attitude is probably why the Railroad has so many members, though. I can't imagine there's as many Railroad members as there are purely for the rights of Synths.
It's a good thing that the Institute has hundreds of gen2 synths capable of spawning everywhere, then. There's nothing to eat on them, unlike the gen3 which are basically humans, but "made" instead of "born".
I'd be interested if you think there's a better place for him to hide.
And does frequent business with the only single settlement inside, and they give his location away if you ask them. All you'd need to do is spy on them for a few days to see Virgil spawning and leading you to his hideout. Worst hiding spot ever.
Eh, real life fugitives, even highly educated ones, make stupid stupid mistakes all the time. These kind of overly complicated plans usually don't work.
Because there's no resource to back them on, and nobody to back them. Should the commonwealth start to make business with outside factions, caps would prevent any kind of trade, because there would be no exchange value. Unlike in the west, where it's backed by water merchants, a federal bank, and on the price of water, which is a rare and valuable commodity.
Pardon me but the idea that currency needs to be backed by a substance of value is something which has been kind of refuted a long time ago. Currencies exist for the purposes of allowing exchange of goods and value without actually needing to return to the barter system. You're also wrong about the "no one to back them" because caps are backed by every single merchant which chooses to accept them.
The Stockton Trading Company and other parties involved could very much be central enough to the economy that it is backed. Albeit, you got me as to who backs the currency of caps in the Capital Wasteland. Then again, I suppose you'd only need it to be the currency of Rivet City.
Caps can exist based on credit ascribed to bartering for goods.
When we had a valid reason to do so, and always in environments adapted to our needs. There's a reason why we never established a civilization in the south pole, despite all its resources.
The horses migrated up to the North American West by themselves is the point. They weren't sold to the Native Americans but became wild herds on their own which were subsequently broken. Deathclaws, as predators, presumably chase game and expand from the territory of others of their kind. They could easily have gotten to the Capital Wasteland on their own just by virtue of nothing being there to stop them as long as there was food the entire way.
Which puts two huge problems on the table:
1 - if the Californian brotherhood was able to contact the east, they would have been able to contact the midwest brotherhood. And if they did, nothing that happened in Bethesda's titles could have happened.
Elder Lyons did an investigation of the Midwestern Brotherhood of Steel and didn't find anything of them while remaining in radio contact with the Western Brotherhood of Steel until they went silent. Until proven otherwise, they're either dead or simply want nothing to do with their brothers.
2 - If they survived and are still able to operate, then it means that they defeated the NCR. Which is simply impossible, considering their situation. The only way that would be possible is a canon Legion victory over the NCR forces. I don't think that Bethesda thought about the implications of a surviving Californian chapter.
It could also mean the Brotherhood of Steel surrendered or came to truce. The problem with Fallout, as much as I love the games, is they tend to confuse victory and genocide. Are we really going to assume the Brotherhood is going to fight to the last squire?
It's a good thing that the chain that binds exists, then, and that the brotherhood isn't a supreme monarchy. High elders have been challenged countless times by their paladins, and they require the approval of the council of elders to do anything. Bypassing these elements would mean that Maxson is not a fundamentalist.
The Brotherhood of Steel has some flexibility in its doctrines. Not much but some. In the case of Elder Lyons, it took an extremely large amount of crappy leadership and Codex-breaking behavior to get the Outcasts to rebel and even then the Elders at Lost Hills didn't remove him from power. In the case of Maxson, the fact he has brought them closer to the center if not pure conservatism is probably enough to allow the Outcasts to accept him as elder.
So, her development arc is "I'm a terrible and irresponsable being and it's okay" to "I admit that I'm a terrible and irresponsable being, but I won't change a thing, let's keep going." Hell, Dante has a circle in hell just for her kind of people. No, really.
Piper's treatment of her sister is complete shit. I wanted to invite her to live with us at Casa De Red Rocket but it never came up. Then again, I treated Piper with respect and pleasantness so I didn't see your scene, whatever it's from.
The "don't go blind while looking at it" is a stupid, yet standard trope in fiction, I can go past that. The thing is, if a normal bomb could create something like the glowing sea, then the Mojave Desert, Tahiti and Japan would be hellish wastelands as we speak. They aren't, because regular atomic bombs are not "that" dirty.
Neutron bombs were created precisely to be that dirty, though, before people realized what a terribad idea they were.
Given the Glowing Sea contains a United States nuclear silo command, it's entirely possible the bomb hit another one of them or several and that's why the place is Dante's Inferno. The Captain of the sub also states that he had one gigantic enormous ICBM which he fired and a lot of tactical ones.
You probably added a few zeroes by accident ^^ that's 1,000 miles :
There's an old saying that 100 years is a long time in America and in England, 100 miles is a long way. But yes, I fucked up my numbers and in fact Massachusetts is 50 miles wide and 190 miles long, which seems a more appropriate number to walk from Sanctuary Hills to The Glowing Sea.
Then, why did they wait a century before attacking them ? They have gauss rifles, and they could easily gain the support of everyone with a little effort. The Institute would never stand a chance.
The Railroad is about half made of Synths and bluntly, they don't want a lynch mob to blow up the Institute. Desdemona becomes hostile along with the Railroad if you destroy it without evacuating it.
Remember Zimmer from Fallout 3 ? Not exactly the definition of a secret agent. He boasts about the Institute, Synth infiltrators and human replicants under the nose of the whole city, including BoS operatives and security forces.
The Institute is a strange beast as they're supposed to be a super-competent Illuminati but behave like a bunch of idiots when it's not a Courser in control.
Except when they don't. Who would be stupid enough to make the rendez vous point at their current HQ ?
AMAZINGLY, Bethesda actually addressed this and you were clearing out that former hotel as a new safehouse for the Railroad and other locations for them so they could have new places to move. It's just it took a lot longer than expected and they get massacred before they can move.
Well, unless you save them.
There's a great example of a title doing it right : the 2013's Tomb Raider reboot. You do kill hundreds of people, but listen to Lara at the beginning. As you shoot your way, she -begs- them to leave her alone, because if not, she'd be forced to defend herself. And afterwards, she openly tries to convince herself that "she had no choice". It takes 2 thirds of the game before she finally decides to turn around and openly attack them while screaming "That's right! Run, you bastards! I'm coming for you all!". It took an awful lot of traumatic events before she turns berzerk. That's way, way more coherent than the way it's treated in Fallout 4, in which loosing a family instantly turns a peaceful lawyer into Sarah Connor.
Neither of the Sole Survivors behave in a manner which befits the death of their world, the death of their spouse, and the kidnapping of their child. Frankly, instead of a Sarcastic Option, they should have had "Traumatized Horrified Mumbling."
Which would prevent him from rallying the outcasts. They are fundamentalists. They don't care about bloodline. They care about tradition.
The situation for the Outcasts wasn't exactly working out very well for them. They failed to gain the Operation: Anchorage cache, they were being hunted by the Regulators, Elder Lyons successfully confiscated the Enclave's treasure trove, and they were pouring over junk in their base. The Outcasts rejoining probably happened as soon as Lost Hills appointed Maxson Elder.
Which settlements ? None is protected by the gunners. If they were, the Minutemen would have zero reason to reform, considering that the commonwealth would be a safe place.
I meant protection in the Raider sense.
Even during Fallout 4's timeline. People still get sick, everywhere. Curie would be a messiah. Entire factions would clash to get her.
I reviewed that story and Curie says the panacea requires ingredients which are now extinct. Hence why only one dose of Mole Rat cure.
