Fallout 4

[fragger]

 

You triggered a fond memory there, Art. I posted about it here.

[Art Blade]

 

Before I read that, the reason why I posted those pics and made a connection with Aussie BBQ was a story you once told me, so in a way these pics triggered a fond memory for me as well. The particular hint to Aussie BBQ however was the competition between neighbours you told me about, a ridiculous boasting competition the "winner" of which was the one with the biggest grill which might almost take up the whole back yard.

I wanted to say that before I read yours, so alright, I'm on it now

[BinnZ]

 

[Art Blade]

Alright, I'm through with the Institute. Wasn't really nice. I was able to keep Nuka World going through the end and met Preston, followed him to Sanctuary and there he wanted me to kill all NW raiders to prove I was trustworthy. I couldn't kill him so that was it, unless I wanted to kill the raiders.

Now I'm going back to a savegame to play the BoS ending. Scratched that. I just remembered that I did a brief stint with my first character and already did that, then reverted to my normal playthrough.

Alright, so it's the Railroad's turn now 

[PZ]

Sounds like you're making great progress - how many times have you played through?

[Art Blade]

two times, and if you included that stint with the BoS, then three times.

However, playing through is relative. This was just regarding "end games" with different factions. Otherwise, you don't stop playing, even after the main faction quest lines ended. I might add that my main character playthrough had the Minuteman ending, using a savegame in between, I finished the Brotherhood of Steel quest line and reverted to the original Minuteman ending which is now open world and side quests.

The second character, which I'm playing now, had a truncated playthrough (I played one DLC, Nuka World) and then followed strictly one line, the Institute ending was the result. It was much shorter than the main character's game (which has been so far around 1,200 hours) and only took perhaps 200 hours and probably even more than half of that was dedicated to playing the Nuka World DLC.

Total time is 1,427 hours now. So now I'm following an even shorter 4th playthrough with the Railroad as I am using a savegame from my second character starting at perhaps 75% of the Railroad line. It came in handy as it was a prerequisite for the Institute endgame. Now I'm simply not diverting towards the Institute but instead, I'm following the Railroad where I had left off.

[PZ]

You sure do get the most out of all your games 

[Art Blade]

hehe, well, only if they're worth it. And I try hard to avoid games that aren't. 

[fragger]

 

I'm still on number one, close to 500 hours now. Mind you, I spent a lot of time experimenting with building and stuff. I've been concentrating on maxing out companion affinities, done everyone except Danse (who I'm with now) and the synth whom I haven't yet met as I haven't infiltrated the Institute.

Speaking of that, I'm in a bit of a quandary. I have the Courser chip, but haven't had it decoded yet. I did earlier, but then went back to an earlier save to a point before that because every time I approached a faction leader the chip question came up in the dialogue choices and I was still working on affinites, and that dialogue branch was kind of getting in the way. I want to complete the BoS portion of the story before infiltrating the Institute, which I've started - I've been on the Prydwen and did the Fort Strong mish. If it's possible to tell me without giving away too much, should I hold off on the chip decode until I've done BoS as far as possible, or does it not matter? I'm pretty sure at this point I'll be pursuing a Minuteman ending but I don't want to screw things up by doing the decode and building the teleporter too early.

I did a manual save right before I interacted with Danse to initiate the trip to the Prydwen, and made a note of which save that is, so I can go back if I've knotted things up.

Bit of trivia: Don't know if you guys are aware, but "Prydwen" was the name of the ship King Arthur sailed upon on a voyage to the Celtic "Otherworld", according to Welsh mythology, though some scholars maintain that Prydwen was Arthur's shield, not a ship, but they appear to be in a minority. An account of this appears in The Book of Taliesin, a 14th century collection of Welsh mythological poems and literature (the "Prydwen" account contained therein dates from circa 900 AD). Prydwen roughly translates as "fair face", or handsome, in Welsh. In the Taliesin account, Arthur voyaged in this vessel (the flagship of a small fleet) to Caer Sidi, the "Faerie Fortress", where apparently strife ensued since not all the vessels in the fleet returned.

Given the mission of the Prydwen and the BoS in the FO4 saga, under the command of Maxson with his crusade, it's quite an apt name.

[Dweller_Benthos]

Ah, yes, the runaway pregnant teenager in the ranger cabin, probably the saddest pre-war tale. Another one right up there with it is the young woman trapped in the jewelry vault in the department store. Knowing she never got out of there is chilling. Then there's the "better" pre-war stories like the scientists who worked on the special weapon you find in University Point. They knew what happened when the war started but finished their w0#k and took one of the prototypes with them, and left the other one there which is the one you pick up 200 years later. I like to think they did OK in the post war landscape and survived to live out their lives as best as possible. You never hear from them again, so you never really know.

[Art Blade]

fragger, it's hard to say which missions you already played. Decoding the chip leads to a point of no return, so you're close to that.

And hmm.. here. The probably best way to keep everyone but the institute alive while playing the Minuteman ending. Please compare the missions to what you've got already and what doesn't sound familiar.

Before entering the Institute for the first time, finish
- Show No Mercy (Brotherhood of Steel)
- Tradecraft (Railroad)
- Old Guns (Minutemen)

but don't complete
- Tactical Thinking (Brotherhood of Steel)
- Underground Undercover (Railroad)
- Mass Fusion (Institute)

instead, finish The Nuclear Option (Minutemen) and while on that mission, issue the Evac Protocol at the director's terminal so the Railroad won't turn hostile.

How far to play without finishing missions, best check the vid. It doesn't spoil much except what you need to know.

guide vid with more details

I hope it helps you

[fragger]

Thanks Art, that's really helpful

I've just completed Show No Mercy, and I've already completed Tradecraft and Old Guns, but have gone no further in any of those quest lines, so I should be on track.

Just to be clear: To progress further in any of the factions' main quest lines at this point, I must infiltrate the Institute. But I should NOT complete any of those missions you mentioned in your post (and were mentioned in the video) if I want to keep my options open for siding with any particular faction. And if I want to go for the Minutemen ending while keeping both other factions intact, I should complete The Nuclear Option and issue that Evac Protocal when I get to it. Correct?

The bloke in the video recommended building the teleporter with Minutemen help, although he says it doesn't really matter which faction builds it. I think I'd stick with the Minutemen anyway, seems the most logical course for working towards a Minutemen ending.

I'll consult that video again when the time comes, that's a very helpful guide without giving away too much. I only watched up until he began talking about getting banished from the Institute. I'll consult again when I'm nearing that point.

On another tack, I've noticed that after doing the Fort Strong mission with Danse, for the first time since the beginning of the game I am without a companion, since Danse and I parted company after Fort Strong and the game didn't compel me to choose a new companion. No doubt if I pick one it will reinstate the companion mechanic, but it's kind of liberating to travel about without somebody else in tow (I don't yet have the Lone Wanderer perk). I'm coming up on a new perk soon, so I might actually grab the Lone Wanderer one to compensate not having a companion to lug my extra weapons/stuff around. I haven't maxed out Danse's affinity yet - I'll re-enlist him as a companion in due course. There's a bunch of settlement stuff I want to take care of first.

I went off to do a side mission with that BoS scribe from the airport, to the USAF tracking station near Tenpines. I was ostensibly supposed to keep her from harm, but after completing the mish inside the station, I went outside and up the steps to the control room next to the dish, looking for goodies. The scribe followed me up, then she promptly fell off the catwalk and died Not knowing how that would affect the outcome of the mish, I reloaded from a save which I'd done just after we'd emerged from the underground area and avoided going up to the dish. So she made it back to the Prydwen with me that time, but it didn't seem to matter. I probably could have just left her body for the Mole Rats... I knew I had to protect her from attack, but not from her own damned clumsiness

[mandru]

For sheer pathos the impact of giving Arlen Glass (a ghoul at The Slog) the inventor of the Giddyup Buttercup and co-founder of Atomatoys the prewar holotape that opens with his deceased wife's voice saying something like "OK honey it's turned on" and then his seven year old daughter Marlene daughter sends her father a message that starts out with the accusation that he works too much.

Spoiler

No really this is a serious spoiler and you may want to avoid the following if you've not heard marlene's holotape!

**Highlight to read**

Clearly Arlen had listened to the holotape and left it in his computer terminal a day or so before being exiled from the company.  He went back to the company the next day to try to talk to his friend and co-founder but security caught his twice trying to upstairs to his former friend's office and the bombs hit before he could get back home.

The message and impact it had on Arlen tore my guts out.

There's two Atomatoy locations.  Marlene's tape can be found at the Business and Development office not at the Factory.

[Art Blade]

Ah, mandru slipped in a post..
That's what I thought, mandru, a really sad story there and hard to stomach.

fragger, that last part of your post was crazy And I too found it relaxing without companions, especially after a marathon of maxing out all of their affinities and so on. I have to say that so far, Gage is the one who is least problematic, which is why I really love having him around. Pity that he's a raider, but you wouldn't really notice. He's always happy with what you do (doesn't complain if you're nice, doesn't complain if you're a complete dick, his comments are all amusing or uplifting in a way, and he really likes lock-picking which I do a lot.)

OK, yes, you got it right regarding the vid/guide. Originally my previous post was like "once again, check the vid guide I already mentioned a couple of times," but I thought no, can't leave it like that, you'd likely dodge it again, so I rewrote the post and fixed a tasty bait for you. Finally it worked. However, I do understand you and why it didn't w0#k before. Simply put, it wasn't the right time for it. Now it obviously is.

When I followed that guide, I frequently checked it, over and over again, not so much the vid but the list I just posted. When I had acquired all of those missions, it wasn't so easy to find out what it meant, exactly, not to complete this or that mission, and it seemed a bit cryptic when I kept reading "the director's terminal" -- simply put, that terminal belongs to "Father" and you will have to use it as part of that mission, so you only have to use the terminal for one additional option that will be on that terminal, which is the for the Railroad so important Evac Protocol. Basically, you can't miss it. Same goes for some missions on that list you're going to ask yourself when the flipping heck you will get them -- also simple: some will only unlock if you play certain missions for each faction and the list is just a help so you don't "overshoot." You'll see that it all works out once you've advanced enough.

Right. I myself am currently enjoying the Railroad quest line which is quite extensive

[mandru]

I had heard that completing the Fort Strong mission and putting big nukes in the hands of the BoS was detrimental towards the peaceful ending.  That said I did not attempt the peaceful ending as I had it in for the BoS after their unwarranted attack on the Railroad. 

For myself the BoS became even bigger jerks to the commoner populace of the Common Wealth after Ft. Strong.  In my previous game that was where they tried to storm the Railroad's hideout and I had to fight them off or the good synths would have been wiped out then and there.