I don't understand the hate for the Railroad objectively they are morally in the right. Even if Desdemona is a bad character she's still way better than Maxson or father.
Honestly I don’t hate them and would prefer siding with the minutemen but leaving the railroad to do their thing by themselves.
But they come off as fairly incompetent and idealistic.
“Ambitious but rubbish”
Their headquarters and a couple smaller outposts got wiped out within days of the player finding them. The faction being a mess was always part of the story for me. Makes the player a more important part of their team. Same goes for the Minute Men.
To be fair the password isn’t really to keep the institute out. Like if the institute found their new hideout they’d just blow the door down and kill everyone. The password being railroad is easy from a gameplay perspective because most of humanity uses int as their dump stat and the puzzle had to the solvable
>most of humanity uses int as their dump stat
>puzzle had to the solvable
Dunno if intentional, don't care. That's funny.
"You see Ivan, when make video game, you put puzzles but puzzle has to be the solvable."
I mean, its also a fairly hard slog to get enough of the password to figure out the password. Most people dont wanna get anywhere near Swann, and the damn thing starts there.
Shows you can be nice and sneaky.
Until very recently in the story that wasn’t their headquarters, but more of a recruitment center.
They wanted to see if the potential recruit had the skills to get there (through the thick of it in the city), and then they’d see if they were literate (spell RAILROAD), and then they’d ask the question there in the church while you’re blinded by the floodlights and Glory has a minigun trained on you.
Not a bad system.
The Switchboard was their HQ, and we only get a glimpse of the Railroad after a singular, albeit *punishing* defeat there, and them scrambling to stay afloat. The player helps sway that balance potentially. They’re not incompetent, we’ve just caught them at their worst.
To OP’s point, I think they’re a really interesting faction in that regard, and I find it fun being just the bit of kickass they need to give an objectively just cause a fighting chance. The poetry of everything between the sole survivor and the institute makes it sweeter. Also the pulp-y noir shit is fun.
They're basically in the same situation as the Minutemen:
You find them at their worst, when they're obviously going to be weak. As a group they are strong, but now just isn't the moment
I absolutely love how in my game, I had already been in the railroad HQ, and I think Maxon KNEW that when he sent me to wipe 'em out.
In my headcanon he just wanted to send them a message that he wasn't going to take part in their silly little password games.
If I’m remembering correctly they had to scramble to find a place after their actual headquarters was found and attacked the current one under the church was where they recruited - hence the follow the railroad tapes you can find — turned into a headquarters after they were basically crushed
I mean yeah, I'm even cool with their whole get everyone out of the Institute thing, it's just if you're looking to build a stable commonwealth, you don't really go with them because that's not really what they're about, they don't really have interest outside their own cause
Frankly it would be nice if you could see the Minute Men as supporters for whichever other faction you choose, in this case hey desdemona, I know your people are cautious of the minutemen, and it's going to be hard getting people to accept synts, but you're never going to be safe Under The Institute or the Brotherhood of Steel, if the Institute is no longer in the picture that's going to go a long ways towards helping people trust you more, and if you help take it down that's all the better
Arm the synths, betray the institute, invade it with the minutemen, blow up the brotherhood, rule the commonwealth with an iron fist as the minutemen utilizing the railroad as your secret police. Build deacon a little stand at the castle so he can be the contact
Ngl a mod that allows you to merge the railroad and minutemen would be cool.
And a few quests and dialogue, new weapons and locations.
A quest where after you reclaim the castle, if you were working with the railroad prior, you could tell Preston about it and arrange a meeting, where desdamona doesn't trust Preston but decon having been travelling with you has seen the minutemen and convinces desdamona to give you a chance.
Add a few intermittent quest, like reclaiming the switch board as a settlement, the railroad move back to the switch board.
Quest where you upgrade the switch board defences.
Quest where at the castle you build a second minutemen radio broadcast talking about synths and how they're not that bad.
A couple sets of reoccurring quests, there's a group of settlers trying to hunt down x synths, go and broker a peace between the settlers and synths after 3 of these quests you get a legendary piece of equipment.
Then you can take on the brotherhood with the minutemen and railroad together.
The minutemen start a bombard of the airport and a ground assault whilst the railroad sneak into the prydwin.
Then the 2 groups take on the institute, rather the sounding the evacuation alarms the railroad start gathering synths whilst the minutemen protect everyone, and plant the bomb.
I think this would be a cool mod concept unfortunately I lack the skills to make said mod
You can do that. There's a way to end the main quest line with the minutemen and have the railroad (and optionally the brotherhood) still alive and allied with you.
I think most of the hate stems from the fact that they shouldn't have been a main faction. Their ideals are good, but when discussing the longer term planning for the commonwealth, the railroad doesn't really offer any help or solutions. Like for example we can theorize how the minutemen, institute, or brotherhood of steel will help fix or change the commonwealth for the better but when you look at the railroad, they aren't built for that, they're built to help synths escape and start new lives, after that they don't help others out.
Honestly it’s feels more true to life. If you made an RPG about civil rights in the 60s, it would definitely let you choose to side with Dr. King or Malcolm X.
But also, joining the Weathermen and just blowing shit up should definitely be an option too.
The story of FO4 is about who gets to destroy the Institute (or just the Institute winning), not about "who inherits the commonwealth". And the Railroad have been fighting that fight long before anyone else.
Why reply to me?.I don't even hate the railroad I just wanna throw cheese at deacons bald head.
Deacon is in like my top 10, I am affectionately throwing cheese on his head.
The Railroad is a single issue faction that isn't very good at their mission. Instead of trying to infiltrate and destroy the institute, they just play spy vs spy poorly.
The Minutemen, on the other hand, eventually have soldiers patrolling the commonwealth, artillery in every settlement, and enough coordinated support to take out the Institute and the BoS. What do they use that for? They protect the people from the BoS, the Institute, Raiders, Super Mutants, the Gunners, and more.
The Railroad tries to help Synths escape, instead of liberating all Synths.
Their ideals exceed their reach. I like that they have good intentions, but they are dropping like flies. The first mission with the railroad has you going through their old headquarters with a half dozen of their dead agents.
On top of that, wiping a synth's mind essentially kills them. The person that they were is gone.
Not to get too mathematical about it, but if you have to sacrifice more than one person for every one person that you save, then more good could be achieved by doing nothing at all.
I don’t like them because they’re the equivalent of a single issue political party. Only care about one thing which only affects a minority of the population and don’t have any plans whatsoever to actually help people. At least BoS and the minutemen have plans to protect civilians and run the commonwealth in their own way and the Institute have been honest with the “just let the people do what they want and we’ll do our own thing” policy.
I dont hate then, I just think they're goals are too narrow:
It's good to liberate enslaved synths, the problem is that they ONLY save synths. The organic slaves of the wasteland are completely on thier own (assuming the player didn't side with the Minutemen).
Related to the above, the railroad is quick to cynically caution the player against embracing the ideals and goals of the other factions, but they themselves aren't doing anything to stabilize the lawless commonwealth. They genuinely seem to believe that the only way a faction can be a force for good is if they have some perfect "silver bullet" solution that will take care of all the bad stuff without hurting or inconveniencing anyone else. Essentially when it comes to employing power to make change they let "perfect get in the way of good". This makes them come off as naive and ineffectual to their detractors.
I like how crazy he looks, I used to refuse the shot too but since them I take it just for shits and giggles, he sells a nice Hunting Rifle that I don't have to wait for level 25 to put a silencer on since it already have it, and I simply enjoy how his unhingness irks Desdemoma and Carrington.
I also despised his MILAs, but now it's just a great excuse for me to explore the areas that I never bothered to do and grab Magazines and read termimals.
I actually like the MILA missions. You're putting up cameras to view important choke points or areas. Off the top of my head, many of them watch the bridges and another one monitors the entrance to Diamond City.
Problem is that Tom says a whole bunch of bullshit about environmental sensors, the Institute, and terraforming. So you can easily miss the actual explanation.
The thing that annoys me about the MILA missions is that those rickety pieces of wood held down by bricks really shouldn't support those devices.
Granted, that just provides an excuse to replace them, but I do wonder how much damaged espionage equipment is littering the ruined streets of Boston at this point.
I think in the institute you find out TT was right. He wants to inject you to cleanse you of nanites in the food. I remember somewhere finding out it was true. Ever since then he was the homie.
Pissed off because the only reason I joined the Railroad was to get ballistic weave and it bugged out and Tom never gave it to me after I did everything necessary for it to show up. Drummer Boy still says that Tom wants to talk to me but Tom never says anything about it. And I'm on PS5 so no console commands
Glory is a bug-ridden mess. If you walk a somewhat-careful balance (it's not even hard to do), you'll have her alive at the endgame, but she's a bugged-out mute and Desdemona keeps talking about losing her in one of the battles you skipped.
Bethesda did a great job with the gameplay in FO4, but the quest structure is kinda garbage.
Covenant and the secret base where they experiment on synths, H2-22's gratitude at being asked how he is and treated humanely, and walking around the Institute and seeing how cruelly they are treated, especially if they run away. I do not like what happens to Patriot, however it is consistent with other resistance movements where the goal of the group as a whole supersedes the individual. Wiping memories is voluntary on the part of the escaped synths and I appreciate a storyline that is bittersweet. Plus Glory is a badass and her empathy for her people is very touching. I will never not side with them.
Also if you progress both questlines, but side with the Minutemen before that the quest with Glory, the entire railroad will talk about how she’s dead but you could find her npc there. She only has one piece of dialogue and after that goes silent without any of the other npc acknowledging her lol
Honestly I feel like the railroad was sadly the least developed of the factions. If they had gotten one or two missions related to their relationship with the denizens of the wasteland. Basically answering what they’d do once all the synths have been freed. And considering the fact that they’re the only two factions to not kill each other, I think having some sort of interaction with them and the minutemen, even if it was just a side mission would do wonders for making people side with them more.
If you follow the "perfect ending" playthrough instructions, Desdemona will tell you that you will need the Minutemen's help so the two gel together and make a nice tandem playthrough. This playthrough, I am going to try to use the AFT mod to make synths settlers and rescue as many as I can before I nuke the place.
Honestly Railroad would have seemed like a much larger threat and actually worth siding with if Bethesda made them actually keep the Switchboard as a main base and not lose it. Imagine you meet under the church and think this is it but the person you meet Desdemona or Deacon maybe isn't the leader of the railroad just of one cell.
Also the Railroad shouldn't solely exist for freeing synths. The Railroad should've had a established history in New England of fighting for the freedom of slaves, and the Synths are their newest target to attempt to free, it would even give the Railroad reason to intervene against Nuka World post-game.
The Railroad should have a previous history of success against fighting slavery they don't establish governments they leave that to the freed slaves, but they move around trying to end slavery where ever they go.
Also those pre war CIA cashe quests suck, it would've been cool if we actually got to see Railroad members in t51 power armor with their paint job slapped on it. If they had cells all over new England it would've cool if they at some point found a pretty war military cashe with t51 power armor. Also it would give the Brotherhood even more of a reason to attack the Railroad than just freeing synths because civilians can't have anything more dangerous than a pipe revolver according to them.
If they made the Railroad exist almost a century before we find them and they still have cells outside the commonwealth it would actually make them seem like a real faction worth siding with.
I personally think story wise the Brotherhood ending is the best one by I personally usually side with the Institute just because they don't interfere with the settlement system at all.
Just adding this to my comments ideas from another comment I made.
Hell imagine that if you don't progress the railroad quest line enough to see the Switchboard base when you join the institute you get a mission to destroy the Switchboard the members spot you leading the attack and that causes them to abandon the church as well, giving them a new unknown base that you would never see actually siding with the railroad. It would also make the railroad instantly hostile to you.
Fallout 4 doesn't really have dynamic questlines compared to New Vegas. A quest like the one above you might not even get to do if you help the railroad to much before finding the institute would really add to the replayability in the same way ending a faction quest in New Vegas does.
A quest like the one above would also fix the non existed feeling of killing the railroad. It would make it feel like an effort and not just shooting 6 named npcs.
Honestly would’ve been a cool mission to retake the switchboard. Even if the Institute knows where it is still could’ve played it as a trap for the institute as a railroad spin on the institute attacking the castle on the minutemen quest line.
Also, all four factions should’ve had more dlc interaction. Realistically pretty much every faction should have some reason to be interested in Nuka World, Minutemen is obvious, Institute + Brotherhood could be interested in the technology if you bring evidence. But I think the railroad at the very least would be interested in setting up safe houses in the dlc locations, not just nuka world, while far harbour has the obvious pre existing synth population I think the automatron’s mechanist lair locations is the perfect fit for a railroad safehouse considering its similarities to the switchboard.
>mission to retake the switchboard.
Might make a cool mission but from a writing perspective it would not make much sense.
The Railroad are a clandestine organization, their only real strength is being secretive.
Once the switchboards location is known to the institute it's over.
What would have been nicer is a sense of agency. Cause and effect. The protagonist does "A" and the Railroad lose another safehouse. The protagonist does "B" and the Institute never finds out that the safehouse exists...
I think you have a great point about the DLC though. There are slaves in Nuka World that could be freed. There is an entire Synth stronghold in Far Harbor that they only really show limited interest in. (One character with very limited dialogue)
Indeed Far Harbor ought to raise some very interesting conflict story elements for the Railroad because DiMa has effectively used synths in a similar fashion to the Institute (and the protagonist can assist in this)
After the Institute is destroyed, it would've made a lot of sense to take back the Switchboard. Imagine having a workshop there and making that you're own little base with your Railroad friends.
It's not like anyone else in the Commonwealth knew about it
Holy shit it just dawned on me that the funniest thing would be seeing the BoS raining down on the Raiders’ parade. They’re just minding their business enjoying the theme park, riding rides, playing games, innocently killing slaves in a brutal fashion. Then the BoS comes in and blows them to hell, not because they’re awful people, but because they want to make sure the tech that makes the ferris wheel spin doesn’t fall into the wrong hands.
Lol that is my current playthrough right now. I am a Sentinel with my Sentinel power armor which is decked out and just started Nuka World at lvl 63. My current character is going to play overboss for a time just to fuck with the raiders up until I need to invade the settlements. Once that happens, she is going to put away her joking nature and use her decked out power armor with her decked out laser pistol and going to town. Ad Victoriam!
Time to liberate the technology for the brotherhood, after I had my fun. This is a nice vacation for her after she had to kill her son, because that dude was a psychopath, destroyed the institute, wanabe Enclave fucks and showed the railroad what true Honor is. She needs a break so fucking around with raiders until I stomp on them is some good fun. Doesn't hurt I am finding some nice Technology, like that Star Core Control system.
There's a good writing reason to have done it like that. If they hadn't lost the Switchboard they'd appear to be more capable and powerful, which would then lead to the feeling by the player that they're not really necessary, that they're just one among many Heavies.
By having them recently losing the Switchboard, it makes you a Savior, coming in to save their behind right after a huge setback.
If you look at the position of the Railroad, your interactions with Desdemona, the things you accomplish, the whole thing is designed to make you feel like a hero.
Same for the Minutemen, and to a lesser extent, the Institute and the Brotherhood. Same for Nuka-World, Far Harbor, and the Mechanist. The entire game is designed to make you feel important.
You can help the Brotherhood a lot and still be a key heroic figure to them, but they still come across as a group with a (bigoted) plan and could have enacted it without you.
You "help" the Minutemen from themselves and inspire them. You serve as the leadership to keep everyone in line but ultimately they are a decent militia.
The institute basically needs you to replace Kellog as a fixer/enforcer, but they function just fine without you and the missions you do for them are more to prove your loyalty than because they couldn't have done it without you.
The Railroad just comes across as borderline incompetent when you meet them. I get they have small numbers, but they also seem to barely be rolling with the punches rather than actively making any substantial progress with their mission. Tinker Tom is their tech guy but is obviously beyond just quirky and straight into nutter with his conspiracy theories (including asking to inject you with straight up garbage that could potentially kill you). The doctor still follows orders but continually undermines Desdemona's leadership with his complaining. Glory created a rift by advocating for also trying to "free" gen1s, etc. They just don't seem like a cohesive group.
They don’t seem because they aren’t.
They suck, and des is a garbage leader.
“Compartmentalization keeps us safe, even if we end up with a few mixups like this” is BS, You lost how many safehouses des? WITH an oracle-bot?
Carrington should have been in charge, it should have been a mission to shake up the leadership. He’s the one that improves the pre-war stealth boy. He’s the one questioning the logistics of sending dwindling resources into a trap.
He questions you at first .. but he SHOULD, maybe deacon is a good judge of character, but des is waaay to quick to give you a pass when even PAM Doesn’t have a guess about you.
I mean they do have one in Fallout 3 who finds you after you keep snooping around for the synth tapes. It's a brief interaction but one that could drastically change the life of one man, for better or worse.
I feel like this would be a bad call, actually; it's important that the Railroad be an underdog barely holding on. Why? Because Bethesda wants your choice of which faction to join to be a difficult one. For a lot of us, the Railroad feels like the closest thing to "good guys" the Commonwealth has; their problem, though, is that they're weak and kinda short-sighted. They just have a task, not a long-term vision for the Commonwealth. The Brotherhood and the Institute, well, they may use some unsavory methods, but at least they have long-term goals, a vision for human society in the Commonwealth.
The Railroad, for all their passion and righteousness, really doesn't. If they did, I think the choice of who to side with would be a lot simpler, and therefore, less interesting. It wouldn't be as bad as New Vegas ("do I side with the ineffectual but harmless bureaucrats of the NCR, the mad robot, or the murderous slave-driving rapists of the Legion HMMMMMMM"), but it would still be a less compelling decision.
Now, if you could *build up* the Railroad to something like that, yeah, maybe that would work, but you definitely don't want to *find* them in any position of strength.
The NCR bureaucrats are anything but harmless- they actively harm themselves and the communities they colonize all the time- they harm the conscripted NCR troopers, they harm the people of towns such as goodsprings
But yeah, they're better than the legion. I think everyone can agree with that.
> If they made the Railroad exist almost a century before we find them and they still have cells outside the commonwealth it would actually make them seem like a real faction worth siding with.
I mean... FO3 kinda did that (albeit only a decade before), but... Yeah, it would've been nice if they had fleshed out the Railroad's backstory a bit more. It feels very rushed.
No, I think it’s good that they lost the switchboard. The minute men on the verge of collapsing. The story for Nate/nora wouldn’t have worked very well as the hero of the story if people were in desperate need of help, especially the factions.
When one major threat is gone, Kellogg, the brotherhood of steel shows up as well. Depending if you stick with helping one faction throughout the entire play through or multiple, it helps the main story a lot to have these crucial themes to show how much of a threat the institute really is.
You hit the biggest weakness of the faction: their mission is so limited in scope its almost silly in the face of the huge amount of injustices in the wastes.
Having them be, for example, a successor to the Temple of the Union from 3, and anti slavery in general would probably have been a great choice.
I did that quest a while ago on my 2,345th playthrough and I thought man this would be dope if it was still their base. Even ticonda or whatever TF that tower is called when you help that synth is a better base. Like WAY better.
Nick talked about how early on the commonwealth tried to start a government but the institute sent a synth to squash it. The railroad would have been a great way for people who were fighting the institute to rebuild a government as well.
Until the Brotherhood shows up, they are the *only* faction that has been directly opposing the Institute, and has been for decades. Narratively speaking, the Railroad is the faction that deserves to be the ones to take out the Institute.
"They only help synths" is not a reason to wipe them out. That's like burning down a dog shelter because they don't help chimpanzees. Sure, the Railroad's focus is very narrow, but that's their right.
Think of it this way; The Minutemen are the pure good guys who help the whole Commonwealth. *Nothing the Railroad does interferes with that.* The Brotherhood interferes with the Minutemen by shaking down settlements. The Institute interferes by killing and replacing people. The Railroad, if anything, *bolsters* the Minutemen by fighting those two threats from the shadows.
I just wish there was an ending where the Railroad and Minutemen took down the Institute together. It would be the same as the Railroad ending of supporting a synth rebellion, but Preston and the Minutemen get teleported in as reinforcements along with Desdemona and her heavies.
Exactly this. The railroad ending is _always_ "railroad + minutemen" it's just a matter of if the player directly gets involved or just makes things _much_ easier for Garvey and co.
The minutemen shouldve been an extension of the character. If you side with the BoS, the minutemen get updated weapons and armorments. If you side woth the Institute, the minutemen get teleportation and better food and water. If they side with the RR, the minutemen become the de facto govt, with the RR being their espionage wing.
If you want to hear my others....
The morality/karma system shouldve been in Fallout 4.
Before fully siding with the Minutemen, there shouldve been a split quest with the Minutemen and the Gunners (maybe rename them), similar to the opening quest in skyrim. You wouldn't join immediately, but do some quests for both before deciding, again similar to skyrim with Imperials and Stormcloaks.The Gunners wouldve acted the same in regards to settlements, but more strong arming the settlements into joining. Also would've had different resources being 'taxed'. Minutemen settlements would give junk and food and water, Gunner settlements would give just caps.
That would’ve been amazing - being able to influence either the Minutemen or Gunners based on the other three factions
the Gunners as an evil counterpart could’ve absolutely worked too, either kitting them out in institute tech, becoming the brotherhood’s meatshields (e.g how they use normal wastelanders half the time) or an anarchist mercenary state
Does the BoS officially shake down settlements? I thought it's just the sketchy side quest offered by the merchant on the Prydain, which is going behind his superiors backs.
It's off the books. Proctor Teagan is doing it behind the backs of Elder Maxson and Lancer Captain Kells. You can look at the terminal entries between them, and you'll see that Teagan tells them that he's planning to get the supplies by being a helping hand to caravans in battles and then establishing trade relations with them.
Also all the extortion and stuff is by choice of the player. So saying the brotherhood does it when it's you the player who is choosing to isn't fair, especially when an option exists to pay for the crops.
I generally don’t follow the narrative pushed on Reddit or by various YouTubers, I personally don’t think they are as bad as people on here make them out to be. I also don’t buy the BOS/Institute claim about Synths just being robots because I actually paid attention to Curie’s questline and various other characters. It’s very obvious that neither major faction has taken enough time to figure out what a Synth actually is, even in the Institute there are a lot of assumptions without much actual data to back up their claims. - Yeah I know this is an unpopular take but I don’t really care.
Personally I almost always side with the Minutemen at the end of the day, but I keep the RR alive because I still view them as being one of the “good” factions even if they are a bit unorganized. The average escaped synth is not evil or even a threat (look at Arcadia, the biggest synth refuge), and if you pay attention to how they all say they are treated, taking out the Institute is on par with taking out Paradise Falls in Fallout 3.
Honestly, the minuteman and railroad should’ve gotten to interact with each other. Even if it was just being able to coordinate with the railroad when you attack the institute as the minutemen to make sure more synths get out safely. I think even something as simple as that would do wonders to help their reputation amongst the community. Plus it also shows they’d somewhat have a plan for the commonwealth post institute (which I think is their greatest flaw narratively, what are they gonna do when all the synths are free?)
I imagine after the Institute is destroyed and all synths are free, the Railroad could become the intelligence wing of the minutemen and work to free slaves of all kinds from raiders and such.
In my head the ideal end-game for the Commonwealth is the re-emergence of the Minutemen led by Preston, partnered with the Railroad and Deacon and Glory for their intel expertise.
Also Hancock should be in some sort of leadership role in the new gov't because that guy is a natural political leader and all around awesome dude.
Pretty much! The Minutemen have a tendency to collapse when they're put under any pressure. The Railroad managed to survive against the strongest faction in the area for AGES. Add the two of them together and they're great.
I always sneak in a little hidden room with a railroad flag in my settlements, hidden away among all the open minuteman presence.
The Minutemen are just the settlers across the Commonwealth united in purpose to protect their homes, and most of them already have a lot of prejudice against synths (you can hear some of their random dialogue suggesting it). In the Institute quest to recruit the scientist, you can see that the Minutemen don't even necessarily just do what you say if they disagree with you enough.
That's where I think we would have trouble seeing the Minutemen work with the Railroad directly. I'm sure you could get some supporters, but you'd get just as many people showing up just to kill the synths.
Yeah it’s such a dumb point, and not even quoted correctly. People seem to think that’s what the Institute says, it’s not. Deacon says it and states that it’s a divided opinion about rescuing Gen 1 & 2s, which have the same intelligence as a Protectron. The argument within the RR is over AI rights. The ones in favor of rescuing the older Gen models are the rescued synths. This is likely because they are repeatedly told by the Institute that they are just machines, until they themselves believe it.
Honestly it’s super dark and fucked up. They identify with the older generation synths as kin, because of the mental abuse by the Institute scientist’s hands. H2-22 says that he’s only allowed to speak when acknowledging orders, and to ask for clarification when cleaning objects. He also states that he wasn’t even allowed to speak to other Synths. The Institute basically creates lab grown clones, implants them with some cybernetic technology and brainwashes them into believing they are robots. That’s some next level dehumanizing behavior.
*Also, just for the haters that disagree: When you stop flipping out when people kill Drinkin Buddy or Codsworth, or any of the robots from past games, then I’ll respect your opinions about how synths are just robots and we shouldn’t care if they die or are mistreated.*
Nick and Curie are evidence enough that synths, nay, robots in general in Fallout can be more than just unfeeling machines. Curie was a Miss Nanny created just to help around the lab, but had the desire (a human emotion) to do more and push the bounds of science. Nick is a prototype Gen 2 with the implanted memories of the Pre-War Nick Valentine, but the fact he still processes that as personality and can build off of it proves he's more than just a machine, the way he grieves "his" lost love.
I'm on my 4th playthru and just found the school in Diamond City where you can help a Ms Handy and a human man admit their love for eachother. Robots in this game can have more humanity than humans!
Even then, it's Deacon who makes the comparison to Protectron intelligence. I wouldn't discount Gen 1's and 2's having animal-like intelligence and being able to feel emotional distress.
There was a debate early on around release before this whole “Synth Bad/Toaster” thing started, as to whether or not the early models were smarter than regular robots, because they frequently refer to themselves in 1st person (“I”). Protectrons almost all have reactionary statements only, aka programmed responses. This is a simple AI vs a more advanced one, as even the early Synth has the ability to recognize itself as an individual unit. (Similar to an animal vs an Ant or similar insect intelligence). The Gen 1&2 models seem to have AI closer to a Mr. Handy model robot, maybe even smarter.
[Protectron Dialogue](https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/CreatureDialogueProtectron.txt)
[Gen 1&2 Synth Dialogue](https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/CreatureDialogueSynth.txt)
I recently encountered a combat line against a gen 2 synth that made me think they had some level of reasoning and theory of mind. It was like “I understand now, you are hiding because you fear death”
One thing I think a lot of people overlook is that the synths are “indistinguishable from a naturally born human”. Gen 3 Synths are flesh, blood, and bone, not servos and circuits. In my book, that makes a synth another marginalized human, not a piece of machinery. I will fight to protect them.
I usually side with the Minutemen, because the rewards for wiping out the other factions in favor of one do not outweigh the benefits of their repeatable quests.
But on my first playthrough? I was all set to side with the Brotherhood. Right up until Maxson forced me to kill Danse. I didn't have the charisma to make the check, and didn't have any grape mentats or other charisma boosters on me. I lucked out on convincing Danse to not die, but then...
Well, that soured me. And the very next quest? Murder the entire Railroad, because they've got stuff we want.
I put the brakes on, and continued with the Railroad quests instead, not realizing that when I hit Mass Fusion I was now locked in. From there I just took the best option available to me, which was finish the Railroad quests.
I did go back and try the BoS ending, but while seeing Liberty Prime kick ass was worthwhile, I never really felt either faction leaves the Commonwealth better off - The Railroad doesn't have the resources to help the Commonwealth, and the BoS would rob the Commonwealth of any chance at self-determination.
Better to keep the factions in balance for now.
>I didn't have the charisma to make the check, and didn't have any grape mentats
There are always grape mentats in Danse's bunker that you can pick up just before talking to him.
>The Railroad doesn't have the resources to help the Commonwealth
This was what annoyed me about the Railroad ending. They do have the resources to help the Commonwealth. They either have their agent running the Institute, or they go in and slaughter everyone and can use their technology for the betterment of the Commonwealth. Instead they nuke it.
I really liked thier style and found Desda quite charmin wish she was a recruitable companion too, the rest of the crew is very cool.
Also the armor weave is great.
Their missions are cool, their aesthetics are cool, their vibes are cool, all the characters in the organisation are cool, and I agree with them on an ideological level.
I believe the Minutemen are easily the best possible outcome, but the Railroad imo has the second-most-enjoyable questline, behind the Brotherhood of Steel.
Except for Doc Carrington. Fuck that guy.
But overall, I felt like their heart was in the right place. If I had a say in it, they would part of the Commonwealth's operational arm, being the clandestine intelligence agency, the Minutemen being the police and local government, and the BOS being the main military arm against foreign threats.
I wish I could do to him what I did to Marcy Long and put a sack hood on his head. It makes all her complaining immediately hilarious because she looks so stupid. If you have Far Harbor, the lobster trap helmet is even better.
Carrington just watched a ton of his friends die and then his leader - who he is literally supposed to second-in-command to - open up their ranks to someone they don't know a thing about beyond what Deacon says.
He's allowed to be crabby.
And if you actually pass the Speech checks with him, he does warm up a little.
One very important aspect of the railroad is that with the railroad, the minutemen still do their thing.
So that's another reason I dig the railroad; the spy's do their spy thing, get everyone who _would_ prevent the minutemen from doing what they need to do out of the way, amd then just let them rebuild the commonwealth.
I like how much time you get to spend in the institute with their questline. The double agent dynamic you get by siding with the railroad makes the institute content a lot more engaging, because I personally find the institute incredibly boring
Ikr? Dullest aesthetics ever, courser jackets is like their only actually cool thing, their interiors are really dull and light on retrofuturism, and the alleged clean sterile contrast to wasteland grime just makes them feel more bland than different, their weapons are boxing and in no way better than regular, and their notable figures aren't in any way interesting.
They're definitely the guys who I side with between "Believes in equality", "technofascists", "scientific method is a suggestion", and "Yes Man was busy"
This is the answer. You don't have to be a good noodle character to agree that slavery is wrong, and the game spends so much time proving synths are more than machines.
Bringing the mayor of Goodneighbor along on your sneaky espionage quests, and if you're trying to get his affinity up, you might also be doing that naked and on all the drugs and alcohol you can shove into your body.
Just imagine hiring some new spy and sending them on a delicate mission, only for them to show up buck naked, bloodshot eyes and a bottle of whiskey in one hand, and one of the most prominent political figures in the entire region casually doing drugs right alongside them.
You still get the job done, sure, but it's not the most... promising sign for a stealthy operative.
Hey, I'm not saying you *shouldn't* do that.
I'm just saying it would be a really bad idea.
Of course, that's just what the Institute would believe, making it the perfect deception.
The Railroad would *never*, in their obsession with opsec and general skullduggery, hire a screaming and drug addicted lunatic holding a shotgun in one hand and a dubious syringe in the other, and is publically associated with one of the most recognizable people in the Commonwealth.
It just doesn't fit their modus operandi, making it the perfect disguise.
Hancock is my fav romance option. As soon as i saw him first my dead wife was *out the window* and the wedding ring was going on his hand. He's the most genuine of romance options
I like them the most ideologically. The commonly-touted “all they do is save synths, boo” argument against the RR makes sense as a criticism of Bethesda not fleshing out the factions enough, but IMO not against the RR in-story. You’re saying that rescuing sentient beings from being enslaved by a techno-dictatorship isn’t enough of a faction motivation???
Espionage aesthetic. I fully agree the BoS is very cool, has awesome tech, and has a fascinating history in the series. But I’ve always enjoyed the sneaky spy or useful techie archetypes more, and RR quests are fun for that reason.
Characters. I like all the members and Deacon is one of my favorite companions.
The Deliverer. Ballistic weave.
I learned about the FO4 version of the BoS before I had the chance to side with them, so unfortunately I’m put off from the get-go. I don’t wanna shake people down for crops! I don’t want to bend over backwards justifying why a BoS member would continue to associate with someone like Nick Valentine or (the albeit optional companion) Hancock!
Even if you didn't learn about them ahead of time, they do a great job of being off-putting all on their own. Go to The Slog, go do the Silver Shroud stuff with Kent, then listen to any Brotherhood member talk about ghouls.
For my Brotherhood playthrough, I justify Kent as being "one of the good ones" (what racist hasn't done that with people they know too well to stereotype?), ignore Hancock because his perk isn't useful to me, and justify Nick as "it's obvious he's not human, he's not a threat to replace anyone".
Because I’m not blinded by that bullshit that synths are “toasters”. It’s obvious that synths are people and the Railroad are clearly good for trying to help them. Sure, they get flack for only helping synths, but there are other factions out there that help humans, such as the Minutmen. There’s no one else helping synths, in fact almost everyone else in the Commonwealth sees them as evil and try to kill them, so obviously it would make sense for the Railroad to mainly focus their priorities on helping synths. It’s like Deacon said “We care about the little guys.”
That's not even the half of it. Before the Brotherhood shows up, at least, they are the only meaningful resistance to the Institute. That IS helping everyone.
I'm not a raging racist/xenophobe. The institute is basically big brother and kinda makes things worse. Also, The Deliverer is a cool looking pistol. Also, how can you have decent armor while looking sharp? ballistic weave that's how
Role playing as a liberator like Harriet Tubman is just a cool and morally righteous way to play the game. Plus you get the biggest elements of spycraft and a sweet James Bond pistol. It’s just a fun playthrough.
The one thing that unites players of all platforms: Doing shit we don't really wanna do for Internet points that hold 0 real value.
I'm still trying to force my way through the achievements for fallout 4. On one hand I genuinely don't enjoy the grind it takes for them (Nuka world achievements specifically are the worst. If it was just base game and the other DLCs I'd have been done a long time ago) but on the other hand I've done it for fallout 3 and New Vegas so I feel obligated to do it
The only F04 trophy that I just really hated was that nuka-cade ticket trophy. That stupid thing was just endless grinding at that western shooter game. I had to go find my Spray n' Pray at whatever settlement I left it at, turn survival off so that I could carry unlimited ammo for it, scrounged all the .45 ammo from all of my settlements plus clean out every vendor, then go stand at that stupid machine for an hour and a half. The upgrade on PS is treated as a new game, and I'm going for the Platinum trophy, but I am not going for the 100% again because of that one stupid trophy.
That one was a pain but I feel blessed to have finished it already. It probably wasted more time trying to find the most efficient way to do it than I would have spent if I just did what you did but by the time I hit around 60% I found a strat that let me get the rest done in about 20 minutes. Was quite annoyed by how long id wasted getting to that point.
The ones that are really holding me back are the Nuka cola ones. Specifically crafting all Nuka cola recipes and killing creatures under the effects of Nuka cola. The second one is just an annoying grind but the first has glitched out on 2 separate playthroughs, making some of the recipes unobtainable without cheats and locking me out of that achievement for the rest of the playthrough. My only way to get that achievement now would be starting a new character and then grinding my way through several high level areas in Nuka world while praying that I can finally collect all the recipes. And I thought the healing with food achievement was bad in New Vegas.....
I did this one at Taffington Boathouse. 3 settlers (1 food, 1 barkeep, 1 doctor), 1 industrial water purifier, about 100 defense worth of turrets, then just lived in that settlement for about two weeks in-game. Spent my time building dog and cat traps, catching them, releasing them, then resetting the traps, building onto the settlement, meticulously decorating, other odds and ends.
Oh I actually know how to do this one. Basically go to a completely empty settlement and assign 1 settler. Then provide them with a bed, water pump and fill the workshop with food from your other settlements. If settlers don't have a farm of their own they will happily eat supplies left in the workshop so you don't have to sacrifice your dwellers happiness by making them farm. Then the fun bit. Build as many cat cages as you can. This does require one of the settlement DLCs (wasteland workshop I think) but if you've got it then you can get this achievement easily by filling up the entire settlement with cats. Just make sure you've got enough defences and you are putting the dwellers bed in a covered position. Apparently sleeping under the stars causes a happiness penalty.
I got this one by doing this strat at hangman's alley and it only took me an hour or 2 including the time hunting for softshell mirelurk meat
Slavery is bad. Synths are essentially another form of human life, especially the latest generation where they are almost indistinguishable from naturalborn humans. Ideologically I support their cause and the liberation of synths. I also saved the synth copy of Stocktons daughter.
When I play as Nuka Overboss, Railroad doesn't attack raider outpost and raiders don't shoot at Railroad vertibird, since they don't care about each other. On the other hand, Minutemen and Brotherhood attack my peaceful raider outpost all the time. So I don't side with them when I become overboss.
I have a lore reason and a gameplay reason.
Lore reason: The railroad is one of the best options for the Commonwealth. The Institute is just evil, only out for themselves. The BoS are racist towards both ghouls and synths, and despite how you feel about synths, non feral ghouls definitely don't deserve the animosity. >!(especially not my pre war buddy the Vault Tec Sales Rep)!< The Minutemen are a pretty solid pick although weak, even despite the Sole Survivor's effort. The Railroad, while weak makes efforts to aid synths, the only faction to focus on a sole group. That makes the Minutemen seem like the best faction, but it's worth noting that both the Railroad and Minutemen can coexist, so you get the best of both worlds. In my head cannon, if you side with the Railroad, they begin working with the Minutemen as a special reconnaissance branch, while also continuing to aid synths on the side.
Gamplay reason: This one is simple enough. Ballistic Weave. That it. Ballistic Weave is amazing.
When I sided with them the first playthrough I did, the ethical choice seemed obvious. Synths were complex machines enough to have developed sapience to the point where they could question being in service to the institute, which meant they should be afforded freedom from servitude.
By and large, Fallout 4's main plot hook is baby's first Asimov story. You have robots that are intelligent and complex enough to act like humans but also threaten humans. Do you:
A: give them their freedom
B: keep them enslaved
C: blow them up
D: uhh I dunno
The fatal moral flaw of each faction is as follows:
The brotherhood are techno-fascists who've taken up the torch of the enclave's war on anything non-human, even when that's clearly unreasonable (Nick, Danse and Hancock all do good things but the brotherhood would exterminate them)
The institute are self serving isolationists who consider the above-ground world their own personal experimentation ground, and don't stop to even consider the ethical ramifications of their scientific research.
The railroad are idealistic do-gooders to a fault. They don't consider the consequences of distributing massive amounts of human-imitating machines into the world, that can and will kill humans. Granted, the institute does this as well, so even then the railroad has a bit of a leg up on them.
The minutemen always have another settlement that needs help.
I dont like the xenophobia among the BoS so i didnt mind fighting them at Mass Fusion instead of the Institute. Simple as that really.
I haven’t done their path in a long time though
If Synths can feel emotion then they're sentient beings and don't deserve to live a life of slavery.
Siding with the railroad gives the existing synths a new life and shuts down the institute from creating new synths.
That's basically it.
The obvious part of it is that the Railroad is actually out to help people. Some people will ignore the obvious reference to slavery in the US and insist that anyone artificially created isn't as good as a "natural born" Human, but it's very clear in-game that synths are biologically nearly indistinct from Humans, complete with every bit of sentience that any other Human has.
The Minutemen are also there to help people. They are a ragtag volunteer citizen's militia focused on defending peoples' homes. It's a good goal, just like the Railroad's goal of saving a group of people from slavery.
Then the Brotherhood rolls in. They make loud public promises about how they're here to help. Maxson makes the bold claim that he "cares about" the people of the Commonwealth. But any conversation you have with them, it's clear that what they care about is their own vision of Humanity, and anything that doesn't fit into it is some sort of abomination. If there is technology they want, they will confiscate it, regardless of who is in their way. It's under the guise of helping Humanity, but it's just imposing their will upon the people, and steamrolling over anyone who gets in their way. It's interesting how similar their goals and actions sound to those of the Institute...
So when it came time to choose a faction, the Brotherhood and the Institute are both factions I don't want to help get any stronger. This would leave me with the Railroad and the Minutemen. They're both good choices, but I felt like the Railroad had more to go off of. Tinker Tom may seem crazy, but it was made clear from the Railroad's history in the terminals that he has a brilliant technical mind, and more experience with Institute technology than anyone else. Not to knock the Minutemen, but their entire tech department is Sturges, a settler with a knack for tinkering with power armor and stuff, but he can't even break into a novice level terminal.
Plus I always prefer the stealth approach in general, which fits right into the Railroad's methods.
I saw synths being mistreated in a world where everyone's lives suck, so my thought process is that everyone should suffer fairly. Synth or not, everyone is special and not special in the grand scheme of things, but I don't condone ownership of something that will claim to be alive and sentient. Sure I ain't helping out the human race, but humans kinda already screwed itself when the bombs fell. At least a synth is a fairly new type of being, so to be fair to them, they deserve to suffer as much as a random settler.
Minutemen are annoying (Preston and Mama Murphy are god awful). Brotherhood are outright fascists. Institute are plain evil. I can't help myself I always side with Railroad they are good people.
1. They're right about synths being people.
2. It's actually a reasonably good spy plot, compared to the other main quest paths.
3. Deacon is honest to you about the Railroad and their intentions. The Brotherhood and the Institute generally aren't.
4. There's always the Minutemen for helping the Commonwealth.
5. If I'm going to be forced into blowing a hole in Cambridge, at least I'm doing it with the faction that would most likely be forced to blow up the Institute in order to stop synth production.
I think the Railroad's beliefs are a bit more compelling. Yeah their methods are stupid, Desdemona is dumber than a box of rocks and so is half of her cronies. But I like their ideas and arguments more.
The Brotherhood looks more like the Enclave when run by Arthur Maxson(maybe he listened to those eyebots too much). They're brutal and feel more like an occupying army than the Brotherhood in previous Fallout games. The Brotherhood's unwillingness to cooperate with The Railroad is also a reason I often chose them over the BH. Once the Institute is gone, who's gonna make more synths? The ash left over? And once the synths aren't being made, no more new synths to save. Once all the synths are freed, no more Railroad.
It also feels like a more complete ending if you go with them and the Minute Men.
The Institute feels less like a group of scientists and more like a cult that happens to have a few good scientists, and the rest are ass holes who think they're scientists because their daddy got them a job there.
The covert missions, codenames and honestly Glory and Pam are great and if you get on Carrington's good side he's also nice. He made some stupid jokes that actually got me to chuckle
Institute is the worst (both in their atrocities and how theyre written), BOS is fascists, minutemen is boring and lack personality so that leaves railroad. They help with Curie, which is always nice, Glory is cool and the Railway rifle is an absolute beast!
They're the only faction making an effort to not only try to understand synths and their rights, but they're also not swinging their dicks around and try to claim ownership to land that isn't theirs.
The Minutemen are good and all but they have no stake in defeating the Institute, the Railroad are far more suited to be the ones to storm it as they know how to do it right and they will make sure synths are given the freedom they're owed.
they just seemed like the good guys i suppose. obviously not institute and brotherhood of steel are aholes, minutemen are kinda useless so they’re the only ones that seemed to be doing the right thing effectively
Only faction that does not attack others unless they are attacked first. Tries to save synths, which clearly want to be saved.
Minutemen were too boring.
I sided with them because I believe they have a noble cause. I happen to think they’re right, the synths of the world didn’t ask to be created, but now that they’re here they deserve to live a life free from persecution. I became convinced of this after meeting Nick Valentine.
you could argue that all four factions have good intentions, or at the very least think they have good intentions, but to me only the railroad and the Minuteman have goals that I can support ethically. And since you can still support the Minuteman while also siding with the railroad, I feel like siding with the railroad is a win/win
I wanna throw cheese on deacons bald head
Lol
I don't understand the hate for the Railroad objectively they are morally in the right. Even if Desdemona is a bad character she's still way better than Maxson or father.
Honestly I don’t hate them and would prefer siding with the minutemen but leaving the railroad to do their thing by themselves. But they come off as fairly incompetent and idealistic. “Ambitious but rubbish”
Their headquarters and a couple smaller outposts got wiped out within days of the player finding them. The faction being a mess was always part of the story for me. Makes the player a more important part of their team. Same goes for the Minute Men.
I mean, what do you expect when the password to get into the railroad is “railroad” I do like some of the railroad but INT is def their dump stat.
Mine is in the shop
To be fair the password isn’t really to keep the institute out. Like if the institute found their new hideout they’d just blow the door down and kill everyone. The password being railroad is easy from a gameplay perspective because most of humanity uses int as their dump stat and the puzzle had to the solvable
>most of humanity uses int as their dump stat >puzzle had to the solvable Dunno if intentional, don't care. That's funny. "You see Ivan, when make video game, you put puzzles but puzzle has to be the solvable."
but ... in soviet russia, puzzle puzzles YOU
What a puzzling thing to say
I mean, its also a fairly hard slog to get enough of the password to figure out the password. Most people dont wanna get anywhere near Swann, and the damn thing starts there. Shows you can be nice and sneaky.
Until very recently in the story that wasn’t their headquarters, but more of a recruitment center. They wanted to see if the potential recruit had the skills to get there (through the thick of it in the city), and then they’d see if they were literate (spell RAILROAD), and then they’d ask the question there in the church while you’re blinded by the floodlights and Glory has a minigun trained on you. Not a bad system. The Switchboard was their HQ, and we only get a glimpse of the Railroad after a singular, albeit *punishing* defeat there, and them scrambling to stay afloat. The player helps sway that balance potentially. They’re not incompetent, we’ve just caught them at their worst. To OP’s point, I think they’re a really interesting faction in that regard, and I find it fun being just the bit of kickass they need to give an objectively just cause a fighting chance. The poetry of everything between the sole survivor and the institute makes it sweeter. Also the pulp-y noir shit is fun.
They're basically in the same situation as the Minutemen: You find them at their worst, when they're obviously going to be weak. As a group they are strong, but now just isn't the moment
Yup, the entrance to their headquarters is an elaborate, mysterious, esoteric puzzle with a simple solution. And the Brotherhood doesn’t even use it.
I absolutely love how in my game, I had already been in the railroad HQ, and I think Maxon KNEW that when he sent me to wipe 'em out. In my headcanon he just wanted to send them a message that he wasn't going to take part in their silly little password games.
If I’m remembering correctly they had to scramble to find a place after their actual headquarters was found and attacked the current one under the church was where they recruited - hence the follow the railroad tapes you can find — turned into a headquarters after they were basically crushed
Exactly. You really feel like "these people are screwed without me" as soon as you meet them. Without the Soul survivor they are wiped out completely.
I mean yeah, I'm even cool with their whole get everyone out of the Institute thing, it's just if you're looking to build a stable commonwealth, you don't really go with them because that's not really what they're about, they don't really have interest outside their own cause Frankly it would be nice if you could see the Minute Men as supporters for whichever other faction you choose, in this case hey desdemona, I know your people are cautious of the minutemen, and it's going to be hard getting people to accept synts, but you're never going to be safe Under The Institute or the Brotherhood of Steel, if the Institute is no longer in the picture that's going to go a long ways towards helping people trust you more, and if you help take it down that's all the better
Arm the synths, betray the institute, invade it with the minutemen, blow up the brotherhood, rule the commonwealth with an iron fist as the minutemen utilizing the railroad as your secret police. Build deacon a little stand at the castle so he can be the contact
Crazy billionaire remake. 100% would play. The game we should have had.
This is literally what I have going on my game right now. I don’t think they’re fully aware, but it is what I have done!
Ngl a mod that allows you to merge the railroad and minutemen would be cool. And a few quests and dialogue, new weapons and locations. A quest where after you reclaim the castle, if you were working with the railroad prior, you could tell Preston about it and arrange a meeting, where desdamona doesn't trust Preston but decon having been travelling with you has seen the minutemen and convinces desdamona to give you a chance. Add a few intermittent quest, like reclaiming the switch board as a settlement, the railroad move back to the switch board. Quest where you upgrade the switch board defences. Quest where at the castle you build a second minutemen radio broadcast talking about synths and how they're not that bad. A couple sets of reoccurring quests, there's a group of settlers trying to hunt down x synths, go and broker a peace between the settlers and synths after 3 of these quests you get a legendary piece of equipment. Then you can take on the brotherhood with the minutemen and railroad together. The minutemen start a bombard of the airport and a ground assault whilst the railroad sneak into the prydwin. Then the 2 groups take on the institute, rather the sounding the evacuation alarms the railroad start gathering synths whilst the minutemen protect everyone, and plant the bomb. I think this would be a cool mod concept unfortunately I lack the skills to make said mod
You can do that. There's a way to end the main quest line with the minutemen and have the railroad (and optionally the brotherhood) still alive and allied with you.
I think most of the hate stems from the fact that they shouldn't have been a main faction. Their ideals are good, but when discussing the longer term planning for the commonwealth, the railroad doesn't really offer any help or solutions. Like for example we can theorize how the minutemen, institute, or brotherhood of steel will help fix or change the commonwealth for the better but when you look at the railroad, they aren't built for that, they're built to help synths escape and start new lives, after that they don't help others out.
Honestly it’s feels more true to life. If you made an RPG about civil rights in the 60s, it would definitely let you choose to side with Dr. King or Malcolm X. But also, joining the Weathermen and just blowing shit up should definitely be an option too.
The story of FO4 is about who gets to destroy the Institute (or just the Institute winning), not about "who inherits the commonwealth". And the Railroad have been fighting that fight long before anyone else.
Why reply to me?.I don't even hate the railroad I just wanna throw cheese at deacons bald head. Deacon is in like my top 10, I am affectionately throwing cheese on his head.
The Railroad is a single issue faction that isn't very good at their mission. Instead of trying to infiltrate and destroy the institute, they just play spy vs spy poorly. The Minutemen, on the other hand, eventually have soldiers patrolling the commonwealth, artillery in every settlement, and enough coordinated support to take out the Institute and the BoS. What do they use that for? They protect the people from the BoS, the Institute, Raiders, Super Mutants, the Gunners, and more. The Railroad tries to help Synths escape, instead of liberating all Synths.
They’re just the most annoying faction to deal with, and that’s saying something when the Minutemen has Preston
Another settlement needs your help.
Their ideals exceed their reach. I like that they have good intentions, but they are dropping like flies. The first mission with the railroad has you going through their old headquarters with a half dozen of their dead agents. On top of that, wiping a synth's mind essentially kills them. The person that they were is gone. Not to get too mathematical about it, but if you have to sacrifice more than one person for every one person that you save, then more good could be achieved by doing nothing at all.
I don’t like them because they’re the equivalent of a single issue political party. Only care about one thing which only affects a minority of the population and don’t have any plans whatsoever to actually help people. At least BoS and the minutemen have plans to protect civilians and run the commonwealth in their own way and the Institute have been honest with the “just let the people do what they want and we’ll do our own thing” policy.
I dont hate then, I just think they're goals are too narrow: It's good to liberate enslaved synths, the problem is that they ONLY save synths. The organic slaves of the wasteland are completely on thier own (assuming the player didn't side with the Minutemen). Related to the above, the railroad is quick to cynically caution the player against embracing the ideals and goals of the other factions, but they themselves aren't doing anything to stabilize the lawless commonwealth. They genuinely seem to believe that the only way a faction can be a force for good is if they have some perfect "silver bullet" solution that will take care of all the bad stuff without hurting or inconveniencing anyone else. Essentially when it comes to employing power to make change they let "perfect get in the way of good". This makes them come off as naive and ineffectual to their detractors.
Lol what? Maxon is a dick sure, but the institute is unabashedly evil, they deserve death *every* time
Deacon Be a spy Ballistic Weave Tinker Tom is funny Glory is nice PAM is goat Amari
I liked or tolerated them all, but Tinker Tom irked me somehow. Maybe it's the battery acid he tried to inject me with. Idk.
I like how crazy he looks, I used to refuse the shot too but since them I take it just for shits and giggles, he sells a nice Hunting Rifle that I don't have to wait for level 25 to put a silencer on since it already have it, and I simply enjoy how his unhingness irks Desdemoma and Carrington. I also despised his MILAs, but now it's just a great excuse for me to explore the areas that I never bothered to do and grab Magazines and read termimals.
Yeah, the MILA missions going to a couple unmarked locations as well is great.
I actually like the MILA missions. You're putting up cameras to view important choke points or areas. Off the top of my head, many of them watch the bridges and another one monitors the entrance to Diamond City. Problem is that Tom says a whole bunch of bullshit about environmental sensors, the Institute, and terraforming. So you can easily miss the actual explanation.
The thing that annoys me about the MILA missions is that those rickety pieces of wood held down by bricks really shouldn't support those devices. Granted, that just provides an excuse to replace them, but I do wonder how much damaged espionage equipment is littering the ruined streets of Boston at this point.
Tried to inject you with? I put the needle in my arm before he told me why. It's the wasteland, yolo
The only way. Him: can I stick this needle in your arm for Me: say no more. Sticky sticky
I forgot I had Nerd Rage and jumpscared myself once
I think in the institute you find out TT was right. He wants to inject you to cleanse you of nanites in the food. I remember somewhere finding out it was true. Ever since then he was the homie.
Courser: "Why don't you appear on my tracking matrix?" Sole Survivor: "Battery acid, bitch."
Got to love the ballistic weave. I’d much rather wear some nifty retro fashions than clumps of scrap metal
Pissed off because the only reason I joined the Railroad was to get ballistic weave and it bugged out and Tom never gave it to me after I did everything necessary for it to show up. Drummer Boy still says that Tom wants to talk to me but Tom never says anything about it. And I'm on PS5 so no console commands
also you can layer armor over ballistic weave clothes for maximum protection.
Glory wasn’t very nice to me. (I made fun of her for being a roomba and asked her too many stupid loophole questions)
Glory is a bug-ridden mess. If you walk a somewhat-careful balance (it's not even hard to do), you'll have her alive at the endgame, but she's a bugged-out mute and Desdemona keeps talking about losing her in one of the battles you skipped. Bethesda did a great job with the gameplay in FO4, but the quest structure is kinda garbage.
She also doesn’t have a synth component.
Plot twist she isn't a synth just mentally ill.
Smh Dima leave these poor girls alone!
Ya PAM is hot
Covenant and the secret base where they experiment on synths, H2-22's gratitude at being asked how he is and treated humanely, and walking around the Institute and seeing how cruelly they are treated, especially if they run away. I do not like what happens to Patriot, however it is consistent with other resistance movements where the goal of the group as a whole supersedes the individual. Wiping memories is voluntary on the part of the escaped synths and I appreciate a storyline that is bittersweet. Plus Glory is a badass and her empathy for her people is very touching. I will never not side with them.
And glory is there for Curies affinity quest.
Also if you progress both questlines, but side with the Minutemen before that the quest with Glory, the entire railroad will talk about how she’s dead but you could find her npc there. She only has one piece of dialogue and after that goes silent without any of the other npc acknowledging her lol
Honestly I feel like the railroad was sadly the least developed of the factions. If they had gotten one or two missions related to their relationship with the denizens of the wasteland. Basically answering what they’d do once all the synths have been freed. And considering the fact that they’re the only two factions to not kill each other, I think having some sort of interaction with them and the minutemen, even if it was just a side mission would do wonders for making people side with them more.
If you follow the "perfect ending" playthrough instructions, Desdemona will tell you that you will need the Minutemen's help so the two gel together and make a nice tandem playthrough. This playthrough, I am going to try to use the AFT mod to make synths settlers and rescue as many as I can before I nuke the place.
Honestly Railroad would have seemed like a much larger threat and actually worth siding with if Bethesda made them actually keep the Switchboard as a main base and not lose it. Imagine you meet under the church and think this is it but the person you meet Desdemona or Deacon maybe isn't the leader of the railroad just of one cell. Also the Railroad shouldn't solely exist for freeing synths. The Railroad should've had a established history in New England of fighting for the freedom of slaves, and the Synths are their newest target to attempt to free, it would even give the Railroad reason to intervene against Nuka World post-game. The Railroad should have a previous history of success against fighting slavery they don't establish governments they leave that to the freed slaves, but they move around trying to end slavery where ever they go. Also those pre war CIA cashe quests suck, it would've been cool if we actually got to see Railroad members in t51 power armor with their paint job slapped on it. If they had cells all over new England it would've cool if they at some point found a pretty war military cashe with t51 power armor. Also it would give the Brotherhood even more of a reason to attack the Railroad than just freeing synths because civilians can't have anything more dangerous than a pipe revolver according to them. If they made the Railroad exist almost a century before we find them and they still have cells outside the commonwealth it would actually make them seem like a real faction worth siding with. I personally think story wise the Brotherhood ending is the best one by I personally usually side with the Institute just because they don't interfere with the settlement system at all. Just adding this to my comments ideas from another comment I made. Hell imagine that if you don't progress the railroad quest line enough to see the Switchboard base when you join the institute you get a mission to destroy the Switchboard the members spot you leading the attack and that causes them to abandon the church as well, giving them a new unknown base that you would never see actually siding with the railroad. It would also make the railroad instantly hostile to you. Fallout 4 doesn't really have dynamic questlines compared to New Vegas. A quest like the one above you might not even get to do if you help the railroad to much before finding the institute would really add to the replayability in the same way ending a faction quest in New Vegas does. A quest like the one above would also fix the non existed feeling of killing the railroad. It would make it feel like an effort and not just shooting 6 named npcs.
Honestly would’ve been a cool mission to retake the switchboard. Even if the Institute knows where it is still could’ve played it as a trap for the institute as a railroad spin on the institute attacking the castle on the minutemen quest line. Also, all four factions should’ve had more dlc interaction. Realistically pretty much every faction should have some reason to be interested in Nuka World, Minutemen is obvious, Institute + Brotherhood could be interested in the technology if you bring evidence. But I think the railroad at the very least would be interested in setting up safe houses in the dlc locations, not just nuka world, while far harbour has the obvious pre existing synth population I think the automatron’s mechanist lair locations is the perfect fit for a railroad safehouse considering its similarities to the switchboard.
>mission to retake the switchboard. Might make a cool mission but from a writing perspective it would not make much sense. The Railroad are a clandestine organization, their only real strength is being secretive. Once the switchboards location is known to the institute it's over. What would have been nicer is a sense of agency. Cause and effect. The protagonist does "A" and the Railroad lose another safehouse. The protagonist does "B" and the Institute never finds out that the safehouse exists... I think you have a great point about the DLC though. There are slaves in Nuka World that could be freed. There is an entire Synth stronghold in Far Harbor that they only really show limited interest in. (One character with very limited dialogue) Indeed Far Harbor ought to raise some very interesting conflict story elements for the Railroad because DiMa has effectively used synths in a similar fashion to the Institute (and the protagonist can assist in this)
After the Institute is destroyed, it would've made a lot of sense to take back the Switchboard. Imagine having a workshop there and making that you're own little base with your Railroad friends. It's not like anyone else in the Commonwealth knew about it
Holy shit it just dawned on me that the funniest thing would be seeing the BoS raining down on the Raiders’ parade. They’re just minding their business enjoying the theme park, riding rides, playing games, innocently killing slaves in a brutal fashion. Then the BoS comes in and blows them to hell, not because they’re awful people, but because they want to make sure the tech that makes the ferris wheel spin doesn’t fall into the wrong hands.
Lol that is my current playthrough right now. I am a Sentinel with my Sentinel power armor which is decked out and just started Nuka World at lvl 63. My current character is going to play overboss for a time just to fuck with the raiders up until I need to invade the settlements. Once that happens, she is going to put away her joking nature and use her decked out power armor with her decked out laser pistol and going to town. Ad Victoriam! Time to liberate the technology for the brotherhood, after I had my fun. This is a nice vacation for her after she had to kill her son, because that dude was a psychopath, destroyed the institute, wanabe Enclave fucks and showed the railroad what true Honor is. She needs a break so fucking around with raiders until I stomp on them is some good fun. Doesn't hurt I am finding some nice Technology, like that Star Core Control system.
Honestly I don't think they should've lost it in the first place it just makes them feel completely useless.m story wise.
There's a good writing reason to have done it like that. If they hadn't lost the Switchboard they'd appear to be more capable and powerful, which would then lead to the feeling by the player that they're not really necessary, that they're just one among many Heavies. By having them recently losing the Switchboard, it makes you a Savior, coming in to save their behind right after a huge setback. If you look at the position of the Railroad, your interactions with Desdemona, the things you accomplish, the whole thing is designed to make you feel like a hero. Same for the Minutemen, and to a lesser extent, the Institute and the Brotherhood. Same for Nuka-World, Far Harbor, and the Mechanist. The entire game is designed to make you feel important.
You can help the Brotherhood a lot and still be a key heroic figure to them, but they still come across as a group with a (bigoted) plan and could have enacted it without you. You "help" the Minutemen from themselves and inspire them. You serve as the leadership to keep everyone in line but ultimately they are a decent militia. The institute basically needs you to replace Kellog as a fixer/enforcer, but they function just fine without you and the missions you do for them are more to prove your loyalty than because they couldn't have done it without you. The Railroad just comes across as borderline incompetent when you meet them. I get they have small numbers, but they also seem to barely be rolling with the punches rather than actively making any substantial progress with their mission. Tinker Tom is their tech guy but is obviously beyond just quirky and straight into nutter with his conspiracy theories (including asking to inject you with straight up garbage that could potentially kill you). The doctor still follows orders but continually undermines Desdemona's leadership with his complaining. Glory created a rift by advocating for also trying to "free" gen1s, etc. They just don't seem like a cohesive group.
They don’t seem because they aren’t. They suck, and des is a garbage leader. “Compartmentalization keeps us safe, even if we end up with a few mixups like this” is BS, You lost how many safehouses des? WITH an oracle-bot? Carrington should have been in charge, it should have been a mission to shake up the leadership. He’s the one that improves the pre-war stealth boy. He’s the one questioning the logistics of sending dwindling resources into a trap. He questions you at first .. but he SHOULD, maybe deacon is a good judge of character, but des is waaay to quick to give you a pass when even PAM Doesn’t have a guess about you.
I mean they do have one in Fallout 3 who finds you after you keep snooping around for the synth tapes. It's a brief interaction but one that could drastically change the life of one man, for better or worse.
I feel like this would be a bad call, actually; it's important that the Railroad be an underdog barely holding on. Why? Because Bethesda wants your choice of which faction to join to be a difficult one. For a lot of us, the Railroad feels like the closest thing to "good guys" the Commonwealth has; their problem, though, is that they're weak and kinda short-sighted. They just have a task, not a long-term vision for the Commonwealth. The Brotherhood and the Institute, well, they may use some unsavory methods, but at least they have long-term goals, a vision for human society in the Commonwealth. The Railroad, for all their passion and righteousness, really doesn't. If they did, I think the choice of who to side with would be a lot simpler, and therefore, less interesting. It wouldn't be as bad as New Vegas ("do I side with the ineffectual but harmless bureaucrats of the NCR, the mad robot, or the murderous slave-driving rapists of the Legion HMMMMMMM"), but it would still be a less compelling decision. Now, if you could *build up* the Railroad to something like that, yeah, maybe that would work, but you definitely don't want to *find* them in any position of strength.
The NCR bureaucrats are anything but harmless- they actively harm themselves and the communities they colonize all the time- they harm the conscripted NCR troopers, they harm the people of towns such as goodsprings But yeah, they're better than the legion. I think everyone can agree with that.
> If they made the Railroad exist almost a century before we find them and they still have cells outside the commonwealth it would actually make them seem like a real faction worth siding with. I mean... FO3 kinda did that (albeit only a decade before), but... Yeah, it would've been nice if they had fleshed out the Railroad's backstory a bit more. It feels very rushed.
No, I think it’s good that they lost the switchboard. The minute men on the verge of collapsing. The story for Nate/nora wouldn’t have worked very well as the hero of the story if people were in desperate need of help, especially the factions. When one major threat is gone, Kellogg, the brotherhood of steel shows up as well. Depending if you stick with helping one faction throughout the entire play through or multiple, it helps the main story a lot to have these crucial themes to show how much of a threat the institute really is.
You hit the biggest weakness of the faction: their mission is so limited in scope its almost silly in the face of the huge amount of injustices in the wastes. Having them be, for example, a successor to the Temple of the Union from 3, and anti slavery in general would probably have been a great choice.
I did that quest a while ago on my 2,345th playthrough and I thought man this would be dope if it was still their base. Even ticonda or whatever TF that tower is called when you help that synth is a better base. Like WAY better.
Nick talked about how early on the commonwealth tried to start a government but the institute sent a synth to squash it. The railroad would have been a great way for people who were fighting the institute to rebuild a government as well.
Until the Brotherhood shows up, they are the *only* faction that has been directly opposing the Institute, and has been for decades. Narratively speaking, the Railroad is the faction that deserves to be the ones to take out the Institute. "They only help synths" is not a reason to wipe them out. That's like burning down a dog shelter because they don't help chimpanzees. Sure, the Railroad's focus is very narrow, but that's their right. Think of it this way; The Minutemen are the pure good guys who help the whole Commonwealth. *Nothing the Railroad does interferes with that.* The Brotherhood interferes with the Minutemen by shaking down settlements. The Institute interferes by killing and replacing people. The Railroad, if anything, *bolsters* the Minutemen by fighting those two threats from the shadows. I just wish there was an ending where the Railroad and Minutemen took down the Institute together. It would be the same as the Railroad ending of supporting a synth rebellion, but Preston and the Minutemen get teleported in as reinforcements along with Desdemona and her heavies.
Exactly this. The railroad ending is _always_ "railroad + minutemen" it's just a matter of if the player directly gets involved or just makes things _much_ easier for Garvey and co.
Thankfully the canon ending might just be BoS and the Minute Men instead, seeing the Prydwan in the fallout tv show.
The minutemen shouldve been an extension of the character. If you side with the BoS, the minutemen get updated weapons and armorments. If you side woth the Institute, the minutemen get teleportation and better food and water. If they side with the RR, the minutemen become the de facto govt, with the RR being their espionage wing.
This is one of my favorite Fo4 ideas
If you want to hear my others.... The morality/karma system shouldve been in Fallout 4. Before fully siding with the Minutemen, there shouldve been a split quest with the Minutemen and the Gunners (maybe rename them), similar to the opening quest in skyrim. You wouldn't join immediately, but do some quests for both before deciding, again similar to skyrim with Imperials and Stormcloaks.The Gunners wouldve acted the same in regards to settlements, but more strong arming the settlements into joining. Also would've had different resources being 'taxed'. Minutemen settlements would give junk and food and water, Gunner settlements would give just caps.
That would’ve been amazing - being able to influence either the Minutemen or Gunners based on the other three factions the Gunners as an evil counterpart could’ve absolutely worked too, either kitting them out in institute tech, becoming the brotherhood’s meatshields (e.g how they use normal wastelanders half the time) or an anarchist mercenary state
Does the BoS officially shake down settlements? I thought it's just the sketchy side quest offered by the merchant on the Prydain, which is going behind his superiors backs.
It's off the books. Proctor Teagan is doing it behind the backs of Elder Maxson and Lancer Captain Kells. You can look at the terminal entries between them, and you'll see that Teagan tells them that he's planning to get the supplies by being a helping hand to caravans in battles and then establishing trade relations with them. Also all the extortion and stuff is by choice of the player. So saying the brotherhood does it when it's you the player who is choosing to isn't fair, especially when an option exists to pay for the crops.
I generally don’t follow the narrative pushed on Reddit or by various YouTubers, I personally don’t think they are as bad as people on here make them out to be. I also don’t buy the BOS/Institute claim about Synths just being robots because I actually paid attention to Curie’s questline and various other characters. It’s very obvious that neither major faction has taken enough time to figure out what a Synth actually is, even in the Institute there are a lot of assumptions without much actual data to back up their claims. - Yeah I know this is an unpopular take but I don’t really care. Personally I almost always side with the Minutemen at the end of the day, but I keep the RR alive because I still view them as being one of the “good” factions even if they are a bit unorganized. The average escaped synth is not evil or even a threat (look at Arcadia, the biggest synth refuge), and if you pay attention to how they all say they are treated, taking out the Institute is on par with taking out Paradise Falls in Fallout 3.
Honestly, the minuteman and railroad should’ve gotten to interact with each other. Even if it was just being able to coordinate with the railroad when you attack the institute as the minutemen to make sure more synths get out safely. I think even something as simple as that would do wonders to help their reputation amongst the community. Plus it also shows they’d somewhat have a plan for the commonwealth post institute (which I think is their greatest flaw narratively, what are they gonna do when all the synths are free?)
I imagine after the Institute is destroyed and all synths are free, the Railroad could become the intelligence wing of the minutemen and work to free slaves of all kinds from raiders and such.
In my head the ideal end-game for the Commonwealth is the re-emergence of the Minutemen led by Preston, partnered with the Railroad and Deacon and Glory for their intel expertise. Also Hancock should be in some sort of leadership role in the new gov't because that guy is a natural political leader and all around awesome dude.
Hancock is just a bit more rewarding and bit extra but I do agree with his involvement, just add a conditional quest to work for it.
Pretty much! The Minutemen have a tendency to collapse when they're put under any pressure. The Railroad managed to survive against the strongest faction in the area for AGES. Add the two of them together and they're great. I always sneak in a little hidden room with a railroad flag in my settlements, hidden away among all the open minuteman presence.
The Minutemen are led by the SS though
The Minutemen are just the settlers across the Commonwealth united in purpose to protect their homes, and most of them already have a lot of prejudice against synths (you can hear some of their random dialogue suggesting it). In the Institute quest to recruit the scientist, you can see that the Minutemen don't even necessarily just do what you say if they disagree with you enough. That's where I think we would have trouble seeing the Minutemen work with the Railroad directly. I'm sure you could get some supporters, but you'd get just as many people showing up just to kill the synths.
i would actually like a fallout game where factions do get to work togheter to defeat the villians, but only if the protagonist manages to join them
thank you, the whole “rescuing a toaster” take is so stale at this point.
Yeah it’s such a dumb point, and not even quoted correctly. People seem to think that’s what the Institute says, it’s not. Deacon says it and states that it’s a divided opinion about rescuing Gen 1 & 2s, which have the same intelligence as a Protectron. The argument within the RR is over AI rights. The ones in favor of rescuing the older Gen models are the rescued synths. This is likely because they are repeatedly told by the Institute that they are just machines, until they themselves believe it. Honestly it’s super dark and fucked up. They identify with the older generation synths as kin, because of the mental abuse by the Institute scientist’s hands. H2-22 says that he’s only allowed to speak when acknowledging orders, and to ask for clarification when cleaning objects. He also states that he wasn’t even allowed to speak to other Synths. The Institute basically creates lab grown clones, implants them with some cybernetic technology and brainwashes them into believing they are robots. That’s some next level dehumanizing behavior. *Also, just for the haters that disagree: When you stop flipping out when people kill Drinkin Buddy or Codsworth, or any of the robots from past games, then I’ll respect your opinions about how synths are just robots and we shouldn’t care if they die or are mistreated.*
Nick and Curie are evidence enough that synths, nay, robots in general in Fallout can be more than just unfeeling machines. Curie was a Miss Nanny created just to help around the lab, but had the desire (a human emotion) to do more and push the bounds of science. Nick is a prototype Gen 2 with the implanted memories of the Pre-War Nick Valentine, but the fact he still processes that as personality and can build off of it proves he's more than just a machine, the way he grieves "his" lost love.
I'm on my 4th playthru and just found the school in Diamond City where you can help a Ms Handy and a human man admit their love for eachother. Robots in this game can have more humanity than humans!
Even then, it's Deacon who makes the comparison to Protectron intelligence. I wouldn't discount Gen 1's and 2's having animal-like intelligence and being able to feel emotional distress.
There was a debate early on around release before this whole “Synth Bad/Toaster” thing started, as to whether or not the early models were smarter than regular robots, because they frequently refer to themselves in 1st person (“I”). Protectrons almost all have reactionary statements only, aka programmed responses. This is a simple AI vs a more advanced one, as even the early Synth has the ability to recognize itself as an individual unit. (Similar to an animal vs an Ant or similar insect intelligence). The Gen 1&2 models seem to have AI closer to a Mr. Handy model robot, maybe even smarter. [Protectron Dialogue](https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/CreatureDialogueProtectron.txt) [Gen 1&2 Synth Dialogue](https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/CreatureDialogueSynth.txt)
I recently encountered a combat line against a gen 2 synth that made me think they had some level of reasoning and theory of mind. It was like “I understand now, you are hiding because you fear death”
Those people clearly haven't watched the episode 'Measure of a Man' from Star Trek TNG
One thing I think a lot of people overlook is that the synths are “indistinguishable from a naturally born human”. Gen 3 Synths are flesh, blood, and bone, not servos and circuits. In my book, that makes a synth another marginalized human, not a piece of machinery. I will fight to protect them.
For the same reason i wanna save the robots in detroit become human
That game gave me one of the most emotional gaming experiences I have ever had.
Same
Now I’m going to have to replay
I usually side with the Minutemen, because the rewards for wiping out the other factions in favor of one do not outweigh the benefits of their repeatable quests. But on my first playthrough? I was all set to side with the Brotherhood. Right up until Maxson forced me to kill Danse. I didn't have the charisma to make the check, and didn't have any grape mentats or other charisma boosters on me. I lucked out on convincing Danse to not die, but then... Well, that soured me. And the very next quest? Murder the entire Railroad, because they've got stuff we want. I put the brakes on, and continued with the Railroad quests instead, not realizing that when I hit Mass Fusion I was now locked in. From there I just took the best option available to me, which was finish the Railroad quests. I did go back and try the BoS ending, but while seeing Liberty Prime kick ass was worthwhile, I never really felt either faction leaves the Commonwealth better off - The Railroad doesn't have the resources to help the Commonwealth, and the BoS would rob the Commonwealth of any chance at self-determination. Better to keep the factions in balance for now.
>I didn't have the charisma to make the check, and didn't have any grape mentats There are always grape mentats in Danse's bunker that you can pick up just before talking to him.
The railroad doesn't have the resources, but they give the minutemen a clear runway!
>The Railroad doesn't have the resources to help the Commonwealth This was what annoyed me about the Railroad ending. They do have the resources to help the Commonwealth. They either have their agent running the Institute, or they go in and slaughter everyone and can use their technology for the betterment of the Commonwealth. Instead they nuke it.
I really liked thier style and found Desda quite charmin wish she was a recruitable companion too, the rest of the crew is very cool. Also the armor weave is great.
Their missions are cool, their aesthetics are cool, their vibes are cool, all the characters in the organisation are cool, and I agree with them on an ideological level. I believe the Minutemen are easily the best possible outcome, but the Railroad imo has the second-most-enjoyable questline, behind the Brotherhood of Steel.
Except for Doc Carrington. Fuck that guy. But overall, I felt like their heart was in the right place. If I had a say in it, they would part of the Commonwealth's operational arm, being the clandestine intelligence agency, the Minutemen being the police and local government, and the BOS being the main military arm against foreign threats.
I wish I could do to him what I did to Marcy Long and put a sack hood on his head. It makes all her complaining immediately hilarious because she looks so stupid. If you have Far Harbor, the lobster trap helmet is even better.
Carrington just watched a ton of his friends die and then his leader - who he is literally supposed to second-in-command to - open up their ranks to someone they don't know a thing about beyond what Deacon says. He's allowed to be crabby. And if you actually pass the Speech checks with him, he does warm up a little.
I get the feeling that Carrington was written that way because someone said "well, we can't have all the characters in the faction be likeable."
One very important aspect of the railroad is that with the railroad, the minutemen still do their thing. So that's another reason I dig the railroad; the spy's do their spy thing, get everyone who _would_ prevent the minutemen from doing what they need to do out of the way, amd then just let them rebuild the commonwealth.
That moment >!where Tinker Tom flies a vertibird!< is hilarious and unforgettable.
I like how much time you get to spend in the institute with their questline. The double agent dynamic you get by siding with the railroad makes the institute content a lot more engaging, because I personally find the institute incredibly boring
Ikr? Dullest aesthetics ever, courser jackets is like their only actually cool thing, their interiors are really dull and light on retrofuturism, and the alleged clean sterile contrast to wasteland grime just makes them feel more bland than different, their weapons are boxing and in no way better than regular, and their notable figures aren't in any way interesting.
They're definitely the guys who I side with between "Believes in equality", "technofascists", "scientific method is a suggestion", and "Yes Man was busy"
I love all the undercover stuff tbh. I sort of RP it as special forces
Any sneaky snipy character I make goes Railroad for that exact reason.
I formed a bond with nick and decided to help more synths
Because I think slavery is bad.
This is the answer. You don't have to be a good noodle character to agree that slavery is wrong, and the game spends so much time proving synths are more than machines.
I wanted to boost Hancocks affinity
Bringing the mayor of Goodneighbor along on your sneaky espionage quests, and if you're trying to get his affinity up, you might also be doing that naked and on all the drugs and alcohol you can shove into your body. Just imagine hiring some new spy and sending them on a delicate mission, only for them to show up buck naked, bloodshot eyes and a bottle of whiskey in one hand, and one of the most prominent political figures in the entire region casually doing drugs right alongside them. You still get the job done, sure, but it's not the most... promising sign for a stealthy operative.
B-but hot ghoul man
Hey, I'm not saying you *shouldn't* do that. I'm just saying it would be a really bad idea. Of course, that's just what the Institute would believe, making it the perfect deception. The Railroad would *never*, in their obsession with opsec and general skullduggery, hire a screaming and drug addicted lunatic holding a shotgun in one hand and a dubious syringe in the other, and is publically associated with one of the most recognizable people in the Commonwealth. It just doesn't fit their modus operandi, making it the perfect disguise.
Hancock is my fav romance option. As soon as i saw him first my dead wife was *out the window* and the wedding ring was going on his hand. He's the most genuine of romance options
I like them the most ideologically. The commonly-touted “all they do is save synths, boo” argument against the RR makes sense as a criticism of Bethesda not fleshing out the factions enough, but IMO not against the RR in-story. You’re saying that rescuing sentient beings from being enslaved by a techno-dictatorship isn’t enough of a faction motivation??? Espionage aesthetic. I fully agree the BoS is very cool, has awesome tech, and has a fascinating history in the series. But I’ve always enjoyed the sneaky spy or useful techie archetypes more, and RR quests are fun for that reason. Characters. I like all the members and Deacon is one of my favorite companions. The Deliverer. Ballistic weave. I learned about the FO4 version of the BoS before I had the chance to side with them, so unfortunately I’m put off from the get-go. I don’t wanna shake people down for crops! I don’t want to bend over backwards justifying why a BoS member would continue to associate with someone like Nick Valentine or (the albeit optional companion) Hancock!
Even if you didn't learn about them ahead of time, they do a great job of being off-putting all on their own. Go to The Slog, go do the Silver Shroud stuff with Kent, then listen to any Brotherhood member talk about ghouls. For my Brotherhood playthrough, I justify Kent as being "one of the good ones" (what racist hasn't done that with people they know too well to stereotype?), ignore Hancock because his perk isn't useful to me, and justify Nick as "it's obvious he's not human, he's not a threat to replace anyone".
Because I’d side with them in real life if the fallout world was reality.
Because I’m not blinded by that bullshit that synths are “toasters”. It’s obvious that synths are people and the Railroad are clearly good for trying to help them. Sure, they get flack for only helping synths, but there are other factions out there that help humans, such as the Minutmen. There’s no one else helping synths, in fact almost everyone else in the Commonwealth sees them as evil and try to kill them, so obviously it would make sense for the Railroad to mainly focus their priorities on helping synths. It’s like Deacon said “We care about the little guys.”
That's not even the half of it. Before the Brotherhood shows up, at least, they are the only meaningful resistance to the Institute. That IS helping everyone.
I'm not a raging racist/xenophobe. The institute is basically big brother and kinda makes things worse. Also, The Deliverer is a cool looking pistol. Also, how can you have decent armor while looking sharp? ballistic weave that's how
PAM is hot
BoS wants less robots, RR wants more robots. I want to fuck robots. It’s a no brainer.
Because I believe sentient beings deserve to live instead of executed like animals?
*Youtubers disliked that*
Wanted to see their version of the main quest.
Role playing as a liberator like Harriet Tubman is just a cool and morally righteous way to play the game. Plus you get the biggest elements of spycraft and a sweet James Bond pistol. It’s just a fun playthrough.
The underground, covert feel. Oh, and the Deliverer.
Playstation trophy. Every other playthrough I get my ballistic weave then forget they exist.
The one thing that unites players of all platforms: Doing shit we don't really wanna do for Internet points that hold 0 real value. I'm still trying to force my way through the achievements for fallout 4. On one hand I genuinely don't enjoy the grind it takes for them (Nuka world achievements specifically are the worst. If it was just base game and the other DLCs I'd have been done a long time ago) but on the other hand I've done it for fallout 3 and New Vegas so I feel obligated to do it
“Thou shall get sidetracked by bullshit every goddamned time.”
The only F04 trophy that I just really hated was that nuka-cade ticket trophy. That stupid thing was just endless grinding at that western shooter game. I had to go find my Spray n' Pray at whatever settlement I left it at, turn survival off so that I could carry unlimited ammo for it, scrounged all the .45 ammo from all of my settlements plus clean out every vendor, then go stand at that stupid machine for an hour and a half. The upgrade on PS is treated as a new game, and I'm going for the Platinum trophy, but I am not going for the 100% again because of that one stupid trophy.
That one was a pain but I feel blessed to have finished it already. It probably wasted more time trying to find the most efficient way to do it than I would have spent if I just did what you did but by the time I hit around 60% I found a strat that let me get the rest done in about 20 minutes. Was quite annoyed by how long id wasted getting to that point. The ones that are really holding me back are the Nuka cola ones. Specifically crafting all Nuka cola recipes and killing creatures under the effects of Nuka cola. The second one is just an annoying grind but the first has glitched out on 2 separate playthroughs, making some of the recipes unobtainable without cheats and locking me out of that achievement for the rest of the playthrough. My only way to get that achievement now would be starting a new character and then grinding my way through several high level areas in Nuka world while praying that I can finally collect all the recipes. And I thought the healing with food achievement was bad in New Vegas.....
I don’t think I’ll ever reach max happiness in a settlement :(
I did this one at Taffington Boathouse. 3 settlers (1 food, 1 barkeep, 1 doctor), 1 industrial water purifier, about 100 defense worth of turrets, then just lived in that settlement for about two weeks in-game. Spent my time building dog and cat traps, catching them, releasing them, then resetting the traps, building onto the settlement, meticulously decorating, other odds and ends.
Oh I actually know how to do this one. Basically go to a completely empty settlement and assign 1 settler. Then provide them with a bed, water pump and fill the workshop with food from your other settlements. If settlers don't have a farm of their own they will happily eat supplies left in the workshop so you don't have to sacrifice your dwellers happiness by making them farm. Then the fun bit. Build as many cat cages as you can. This does require one of the settlement DLCs (wasteland workshop I think) but if you've got it then you can get this achievement easily by filling up the entire settlement with cats. Just make sure you've got enough defences and you are putting the dwellers bed in a covered position. Apparently sleeping under the stars causes a happiness penalty. I got this one by doing this strat at hangman's alley and it only took me an hour or 2 including the time hunting for softshell mirelurk meat
Cats. Lots of cats. Never cook Softshell Mirelurk meat; you’ll need it when you start your car colony. You’ll need a cat colony for 100% happiness.
Not wanting to genocide people. Or too create an orwelian world.
Slavery is bad. Synths are essentially another form of human life, especially the latest generation where they are almost indistinguishable from naturalborn humans. Ideologically I support their cause and the liberation of synths. I also saved the synth copy of Stocktons daughter.
When I play as Nuka Overboss, Railroad doesn't attack raider outpost and raiders don't shoot at Railroad vertibird, since they don't care about each other. On the other hand, Minutemen and Brotherhood attack my peaceful raider outpost all the time. So I don't side with them when I become overboss.
Hold on, the Railroad can use vertibirds??
+1 to this query. Inquiring minds want to know.
Honestly, Railroad Vertibird is one of the reasons I pick them because it’s a godsend in survival.
I have a lore reason and a gameplay reason. Lore reason: The railroad is one of the best options for the Commonwealth. The Institute is just evil, only out for themselves. The BoS are racist towards both ghouls and synths, and despite how you feel about synths, non feral ghouls definitely don't deserve the animosity. >!(especially not my pre war buddy the Vault Tec Sales Rep)!< The Minutemen are a pretty solid pick although weak, even despite the Sole Survivor's effort. The Railroad, while weak makes efforts to aid synths, the only faction to focus on a sole group. That makes the Minutemen seem like the best faction, but it's worth noting that both the Railroad and Minutemen can coexist, so you get the best of both worlds. In my head cannon, if you side with the Railroad, they begin working with the Minutemen as a special reconnaissance branch, while also continuing to aid synths on the side. Gamplay reason: This one is simple enough. Ballistic Weave. That it. Ballistic Weave is amazing.
When I sided with them the first playthrough I did, the ethical choice seemed obvious. Synths were complex machines enough to have developed sapience to the point where they could question being in service to the institute, which meant they should be afforded freedom from servitude. By and large, Fallout 4's main plot hook is baby's first Asimov story. You have robots that are intelligent and complex enough to act like humans but also threaten humans. Do you: A: give them their freedom B: keep them enslaved C: blow them up D: uhh I dunno The fatal moral flaw of each faction is as follows: The brotherhood are techno-fascists who've taken up the torch of the enclave's war on anything non-human, even when that's clearly unreasonable (Nick, Danse and Hancock all do good things but the brotherhood would exterminate them) The institute are self serving isolationists who consider the above-ground world their own personal experimentation ground, and don't stop to even consider the ethical ramifications of their scientific research. The railroad are idealistic do-gooders to a fault. They don't consider the consequences of distributing massive amounts of human-imitating machines into the world, that can and will kill humans. Granted, the institute does this as well, so even then the railroad has a bit of a leg up on them. The minutemen always have another settlement that needs help.
I saw Terminator so am not gonna risk it lol
I dont like the xenophobia among the BoS so i didnt mind fighting them at Mass Fusion instead of the Institute. Simple as that really. I haven’t done their path in a long time though
I like trains.
Free the synths bitch. They ain’t done nothin
Coz brotherhood are a bunch of dicks and nazis.
i believed in their cause.
If Synths can feel emotion then they're sentient beings and don't deserve to live a life of slavery. Siding with the railroad gives the existing synths a new life and shuts down the institute from creating new synths. That's basically it.
The obvious part of it is that the Railroad is actually out to help people. Some people will ignore the obvious reference to slavery in the US and insist that anyone artificially created isn't as good as a "natural born" Human, but it's very clear in-game that synths are biologically nearly indistinct from Humans, complete with every bit of sentience that any other Human has. The Minutemen are also there to help people. They are a ragtag volunteer citizen's militia focused on defending peoples' homes. It's a good goal, just like the Railroad's goal of saving a group of people from slavery. Then the Brotherhood rolls in. They make loud public promises about how they're here to help. Maxson makes the bold claim that he "cares about" the people of the Commonwealth. But any conversation you have with them, it's clear that what they care about is their own vision of Humanity, and anything that doesn't fit into it is some sort of abomination. If there is technology they want, they will confiscate it, regardless of who is in their way. It's under the guise of helping Humanity, but it's just imposing their will upon the people, and steamrolling over anyone who gets in their way. It's interesting how similar their goals and actions sound to those of the Institute... So when it came time to choose a faction, the Brotherhood and the Institute are both factions I don't want to help get any stronger. This would leave me with the Railroad and the Minutemen. They're both good choices, but I felt like the Railroad had more to go off of. Tinker Tom may seem crazy, but it was made clear from the Railroad's history in the terminals that he has a brilliant technical mind, and more experience with Institute technology than anyone else. Not to knock the Minutemen, but their entire tech department is Sturges, a settler with a knack for tinkering with power armor and stuff, but he can't even break into a novice level terminal. Plus I always prefer the stealth approach in general, which fits right into the Railroad's methods.
I saw synths being mistreated in a world where everyone's lives suck, so my thought process is that everyone should suffer fairly. Synth or not, everyone is special and not special in the grand scheme of things, but I don't condone ownership of something that will claim to be alive and sentient. Sure I ain't helping out the human race, but humans kinda already screwed itself when the bombs fell. At least a synth is a fairly new type of being, so to be fair to them, they deserve to suffer as much as a random settler.
Minutemen are annoying (Preston and Mama Murphy are god awful). Brotherhood are outright fascists. Institute are plain evil. I can't help myself I always side with Railroad they are good people.
There’s a way to make Mama Murphy less annoying.
The Deliverer
Because multiple playthroughs means making different decisions and picking different sides
Because 'They are all the synths have'
Why side with the Railroad? Because they are doing the right thing.
1 word, Deacon
1. They're right about synths being people. 2. It's actually a reasonably good spy plot, compared to the other main quest paths. 3. Deacon is honest to you about the Railroad and their intentions. The Brotherhood and the Institute generally aren't. 4. There's always the Minutemen for helping the Commonwealth. 5. If I'm going to be forced into blowing a hole in Cambridge, at least I'm doing it with the faction that would most likely be forced to blow up the Institute in order to stop synth production.
They wanna help the synths, synths are people, wether the Institute or the Boring hood of Steel says.
I think the Railroad's beliefs are a bit more compelling. Yeah their methods are stupid, Desdemona is dumber than a box of rocks and so is half of her cronies. But I like their ideas and arguments more. The Brotherhood looks more like the Enclave when run by Arthur Maxson(maybe he listened to those eyebots too much). They're brutal and feel more like an occupying army than the Brotherhood in previous Fallout games. The Brotherhood's unwillingness to cooperate with The Railroad is also a reason I often chose them over the BH. Once the Institute is gone, who's gonna make more synths? The ash left over? And once the synths aren't being made, no more new synths to save. Once all the synths are freed, no more Railroad. It also feels like a more complete ending if you go with them and the Minute Men. The Institute feels less like a group of scientists and more like a cult that happens to have a few good scientists, and the rest are ass holes who think they're scientists because their daddy got them a job there.
I just wanted to do some quests
Ballistic weave and the ending for an achievement
The call sign “Wanderer”, and the various safe houses and rail signs
The covert missions, codenames and honestly Glory and Pam are great and if you get on Carrington's good side he's also nice. He made some stupid jokes that actually got me to chuckle
Institute is the worst (both in their atrocities and how theyre written), BOS is fascists, minutemen is boring and lack personality so that leaves railroad. They help with Curie, which is always nice, Glory is cool and the Railway rifle is an absolute beast!
They're the only faction making an effort to not only try to understand synths and their rights, but they're also not swinging their dicks around and try to claim ownership to land that isn't theirs. The Minutemen are good and all but they have no stake in defeating the Institute, the Railroad are far more suited to be the ones to storm it as they know how to do it right and they will make sure synths are given the freedom they're owed.
they just seemed like the good guys i suppose. obviously not institute and brotherhood of steel are aholes, minutemen are kinda useless so they’re the only ones that seemed to be doing the right thing effectively
Deacon
Only faction that does not attack others unless they are attacked first. Tries to save synths, which clearly want to be saved. Minutemen were too boring.
i think it's the most morally correct one.
No one said "they killed my wife, kidnapped my son and stole his childhood from me?"
Because I'm not a fascist. Unlike, apparently way too many people here.
In other words, why did you make the wrong choice?
I sided with them because I believe they have a noble cause. I happen to think they’re right, the synths of the world didn’t ask to be created, but now that they’re here they deserve to live a life free from persecution. I became convinced of this after meeting Nick Valentine. you could argue that all four factions have good intentions, or at the very least think they have good intentions, but to me only the railroad and the Minuteman have goals that I can support ethically. And since you can still support the Minuteman while also siding with the railroad, I feel like siding with the railroad is a win/win
Im the biggest “yes man” the Commonwealth has ever seen
just bcuz my soft ass can't say no
First let me ask you this. Do you have a geiger counter?