This is a critique of the latter half of Fallout 4's Minutemen faction. In this video I point out flaws in the faction and offer alternative solutions for quests. #fallout #fallout4
The issue of child synths is a really good example of the writers not even being consistent with their own lore in the same game, or being really bad at explaining the exceptions. Most sources make it clear that the synths are humans, genetically and in internal layout, so much so that they cannot be told from a human with any amount of medical technology except by the institute (or if you blow their brains out and look for the little component in there). If they are human in every organic way except for that brain component, that strongly suggests that they would age normally unless specifically made not to. So fake Shaun (or maybe better Shaun since he isn't nearly as offensive as the original one is) should grow up unless he was specifically made to not do that. Which would be a horrible thing to do and thus totally in keeping with original Shaun's abominable habits. And I agree that blowing up the institute is the stupidest thing in the whole game. A fortified, self-sufficient undergrounds goldmine of manufacturing and technology and the quest forces you to just blow it up because...stupid writing.
In the end the synths possibly lack genetics. Like the Institute can build a human body perfectly but it has no way of changing afterwards because it doesn’t have genetic triggers. Maybe that’s what they talk about when saying it’s not possible to detect them, except by the Institute. You’d need a pretty advanced lab to check genetics.
to me it seems like synths HAVE to age otherwise they'd be ridiculously easy to detect or realize that they're synths after escaping the institute and getting their mind wipe
Synth Shaun would have stunted growth due to his mechanical skeleton, or in grimdark Fallout nature, suffer a slow death during puberty as his flesh out grows his synth skeleton.
One small comment, among the miriad I'd like to make: Sturges is a synth. But you never know it, and it's never adressed. We know only because with cheats and commands someone killed him and discovered it, as he is always unkillable. One of the original settlers and the "resident hacker/tinkerer" of the Minutemen is a synth and nothing comes of it. He's also a great fan and friend of the Atom Cats but that faction, which lives at the doorstep of Quincy and regularly fights the gunners, can't be contacted and recruited by the Minutemen as a power armor wearing special unit and/or trainers that could 1) teach Nora how to use power armor (as she, differently from Nate, never served in the military) and 2) teach the Minutemen soldiers how to use it, as the Brotherhood is too jealous to share that secret. Damn Bethesda and her half-baked games.
15:18 nice depiction of the changes you want, reminds me of the centurion armour in fnv as a patchwork armour, bits of Brotherhood power armour, bits of gunner combat armour, bits of minuteman colonial duster, and intimidating use of sunglasses, a bandana, and tricorn hat, it's all there made by Bethesda, they just never bothered beyond the general outfit.
It was suggested in other videos I've watched that the Minutemen could have gotten Heavy Troops via stealing the technology from the Gunners, or wherever the Raiders seem to mass produce their power armor from. It might not have been as good as Brotherhood armor, but it would have been fun to build them up like that, and given them more unique quests. However I would have loved if allying with the Brotherhood was a legitimate option, but in order to do so you absolutely need to wipe out the railroad and Synths, therefore locking you out from the Railroad (assuming they were improved as well), and then vice versa. In an ideal world the Brotherhood's presence could have been severely cut down, similar to New Vegas, so while they may be around, and you can join and pursue them, they are more of a crazy alternative to the mainline Minutemen quest to face the Institute, where you can just completely forgo the Minutemen side of things and pursue a Brotherhood of Steel solo questline. Would change how you face down the Institute and the kind of assault you can launch. Siding with the Brotherhood would allow you the full frontal, destructive assault, and the ability to form a long-term alliance with the Brotherhood, giving you large-scale trade with the Capital Wasteland, and thus, access to possibly higher tech gear for the Minutemen. Sure, you could get Power Armor otherwise, but imagine upgrades for laser muskets, salvage from the Institute, so on, and so forth. Not to mention, a strong fellow nation to call your friends. You wouldn't get as much as if you just destroyed them and took it, but you guarantee you don't make an enemy. Or, you use the Brotherhood, then backstab them when they try to take the technology! Boom, now you're enemies, and unlike with other options, the Brotherhood may have wasted tons of resources allying with you. And of course, depending on your relations with the Brotherhood, they could even be harder to beat. Then allying with the Railroad giving you the ability to even maintain the Institute's technology for yourself, and even add Gen 1 and 2 Synth troops to the Minutemen. Possibly, if one has a good relation inside the Railroad, even incorporating them into the Commonwealth governance as the Spymasters of the Commonwealth, like their version of the CIA. However, in doing so you would not be able to get help from the Brotherhood, and regardless of your relationship with them, they declare you their enemy, and issue an ultimatum to surrender Synth technology and all Synths, or be destroyed. This of course, gives you both legitimate reason to destroy the Brotherhood, and in destroying them, you can acquire technology from them. This could be done prior to the final battle, thus giving you piecemeal Brotherhood gear to equip the Brotherhood with. And just like the Brotherhood, if you wanna tell the Minutemen to piss off, you can do so, solely ally with the Railroad, and then in doing so don't have the forces of the Minutemen helping you out, and so the questline becomes a spy mission, infiltrating the Institute and taking it over from the inside before essentially instituting Railroad control. Hell, you could even do this while still involving the Minutemen, but having the focus be on the Railroad and their assistance, just making them a secondary focus, and then when you take control of the Institute, you get a whole new questline where you get to play out an attempted coup and even a civil war within it, which you can fight, and show mercy or destroy those rising against you. This way you still get the invasion of the Institute, but now from a whole new angle. -Then, in an idea I first heard from Radking, the Institute becomes an established community like Diamond City or Goodneighbor, and depending on your choices either the Synths take full control, with the ability to reproduce like any other sentient. Alternatively in either path you could declare that since you're in charge (or because you're the one who stormed the Institute) the Institute simply becomes another settlement under your control, but then you could still choose to institute a Synth leader, like you can do at other settlements. Then you take the chance to incorporate them in a new CPG. Boom, the whole idea of the Minutemen is realized, either through violence or espionage (or Nepotism). And if you became head of the Institute through Espionage, or you find the plans they had, or something, you can still institute their plan for Synths. You could limit this to Gen 1 and 2 Synths, maintaining your alliance with the Railroad (though perhaps with some tension, maybe with an option for solely Gen 1 Synths, but with lesser benefits), or you could spite them, using Gen 3 Synths for exactly this purpose, and now boom, this leads to the next option as well. You could go it solo from the start, never involving the other factions and in doing so, you just take out the Institute, and turn the location to your own ends, giving you more freedom as to what you want to do with the Synths. With this option, and without the Railroad or Brotherhood to object you could just take the technology all for the Minutemen, just like before except the Railroad never had to get involved. You gain this tech, and the resources, but in exchange you make an enemy of both other factions, requiring you to take up what might have been the Institute's later quests, but instead led by the Minutemen, thus turning them more Authoritarian in this path, quashing all other factions. Which of course leads to the idea that, if you're the General, you could just declare that the Minutemen will back the Institute and you don't fight them at all. Insane, you may say, but you're the goddamn General. And if you think the Institute is the best choice for the Commonwealth, you agree, and merge the Organizations and their goals. This would function a lot like the previous idea, but instead now you're part of the Institute, and not just destroying it and picking up where they left off. Then, just like before, you get to decide to implement the Institute plan to replace human labor with Synths. There are so many ways this could have gone, all while maintaining each faction, interweaving and repelling one another, with rewards for each faction you bring into the fold and consequences for the future. And instead of just "Oh well X faction has the best tech" or "X faction has the coolest quests", you can actually roleplay. It doesn't always come down to the easiest, or what gets the best tech, you can _roleplay_ how you go, and what route you think is best for the Commonwealth. I know which option I think is the best, but that doesn't mean you don't have to!
29:16 funny you say this, cause even his coworkers thought he was sick for this... you know when institute scientists think youve crossed the line, youve done something evil
It’s pretty irredeemable. Creating a child incapable of growing up to fulfill some sick fantasy of reliving your childhood. We only get Shaun after the Father dies- he might’ve copied some of his mind over but that’s just a personal theory. Kid Shaun is just an ethical nightmare.
This is why the mm have the most mods on Nexus 😂. So much stuff to fix!! Are you gonna do a part 3 showing how useless they are in the dlcs?? Especially how much potential they could have had in FH.
Honestly I hadn’t put much thought into minutemen in the DLC. they definitely should’ve taken action against the raiders in the nuka world dlc. I don’t know. I might make a video on it in the future, but I’ve got a few projects in the works currently.
Never had the minutemen show up when i used the flare gun, even in late game. Always got the "no one responded" notification. Didn't even get them to walk over if you are looking at a group of them in free roam. Just ended up as a gun i used against the Deathclaws, since fire seems to be effective against them.
@@Sublime_Lightdid you go over the quest about the institute getting a farmer and you have to talk down the minute men. You are the general after all...
It’s also a shame the Minute man literally never have anything you have in your settlements which in theory is where the MM come from? I have huge Mutfruit farms and have my settlers collecting gold do they minute man who wander about suddenly have better inventory and appearance….. nope they look like all I have them was a one room shack to live in and a bunch of rust they made their terrible pipe guns from.
I know right. The minutemen aesthetic is so disappointing. Preston has style but he’s the only one. I miss faction specific gear. I really wanted a minuteman specific gear set, kinda like my drawing. Just something unique. Better than rusty one man shack minutemen.
An asymmetric warfare questline where you raid the brotherhood for weapons and then defend your settlements from thier counter attacks would have been fantastic, and it would be even better if on the other side there's a quest that mirrors this one and it does the opposite. Maybe you could have a character as a foil to the player fill the role for their respective factions, whom you build a rivalry with them that's only settled in the final act. Even if they lessen player agency and choice compared to FNV, they could still have, you know, actual good plot to make up for it. That's pretty much what CP2077 did. That probably still doesn't belong in a fallout game but if Bethesda is gonna run it differently they could at least change it to a role-playing methodology that's not a looter shooter. As Emil said, why waste time when the players are gonna ignore the plot? If he truly believed that (In my opinion, it's just his cope for wasting his time in development) he shouldn't have even bothered to give us the shit he did with this game's plot.
I am currently trying to make a mod to where that big ship that u fix then crash into a building, into a functional flying one for the minutemen and u can spawn it flying around the commonwealth transporting troops and all that it sounds cool af in my head
I know, i wish we could have been able to hijack the institute, but i guess they want the nuclear option to be the only option. Cause it's not like players want a choice or anything. I think it's stupid that you are forced to nuke the institute, minutemen, railroad, or brotherhood... I think it's stupid for all 3 factions, and yeah, the Radiation will eventually spread from ground zero, Diamond City will be come inhospitable within a few years. And Regarding Gen 3 Synths, They are technically real Humans, except for the synth component, that part is rather scary, a component attached to someone's brain that can change their memories and personality at any time they want. But that is the other thing too... Why are you forced to go down a rail? Every choice you try to make, forces linear options on you.
Ii agree; though I’m not onboard with synths being humans. An AI brain able to function as a human’s doesn’t make it a human. That makes it at most another species: the sterile species of Synthetic people. They are fundamentally not human. Yeah blowing up the institute is just the worst decision. It’s like the last decision you should ever want to make to solve the problem. I agree diamond city will be unlivable following that explosion. Not to mention all the surrounding settlements.
22:00 I agree bro. I use my castle as a huge farm and tourist attraction but I’ve painstakingly stored 10 suits of PA mostly T-60 from the BOS but also T-51 and T-45 for the aesthetic and role play of being able to not be solely dependent on one model and make. In other settlements I go or a very tribal inspired build for my settlers Does that change the minuteman at all….. OFC not that would take creativity and effort. It’s a huge bummer
37:53 a small note, but you can actually receive radiants from Radio Freedom, I don't recall whether or not you have to report ones from the radio off to Preson.
There needs to be a stage where the recruits you have are vetted and trained. They should reflect their level of training as they go forwards. There is a mod that ups their armour and weaponry as you level. It would be good if you could drill recruits, run training exercises, go on missions that involve a force of Minutemen outside of the main quest line. The castle mission was great, but then there is nothing that follows it. It would have been better if you were appointed as an Interim/Acting General rather than a full blown General and one of the missions was to acquire a permanent general, from a list of candidates (some of whom would be the wrong choice and would have interesting outcomes, e.g. raider, gunner, synth, BoS agent)
Imagine instead of helping different factions, do all their interesting storylines, bring them all together for the big fight with them using whatever they’re good at (Boomers with the bomber, Enclave Remnants with their Vertibird and veterans) all for a big epic clash between factions, instead of all this you get a generic attack by one of the factions you support and nobody else, where the outcome is predetermined 3 v 1 depending on your choice. Goddamn Emil and Todd, they’re hacks.
I believe I said this in your part one, but as I’m sure a lot of people did, who played for the first time went down the MM route, Had such hope and enthusiasm for where this faction could go, boy was it ever disappointing…lol Kept doing the radiant quests handing them in and thinking this is it we are going progress now, we are going to start building up the MM …sigh I would have loved the option for my char to join the gunners or the raiders, why were these not an option?
That’s exactly how it goes. It’s such a let down. I also would’ve enjoyed joining raiders. We needed an anti Preston Garvey. “Hey scum bag there’s a new settlement to raid I’ll mark it on your map” Or given us the option to complete the main quest with the raider faction from the dlc. A horde of screaming disciples hacking synths to pieces would’ve been nice.
i actually have plan to take back quincy for the minutemen the gunners got acces to quincy because they had the high ground from the highway on the northeast preston knows about this so why not use it a group of minutemen drive some gunners out from the southwest BOOM the gunners driven out of quincy are incinerated by artillery strikes While the gunners are focused on an attack via the southwest the other minutemen take the highway on the northeast and the minutemen that drew some of the gunners out go back to attack quincy The already thinned out gunners are now being attacked from the high ground on the northeast and from the ground at the southwest the gunners may have the numbers but "its over anakin i have the high ground" the gunners are either killed or have fleed, minutemen take over and you gain acces to the workshop in quincy (i didnt wanna just blast em with artillery cuz we still wanna use quincy as a settlement)
If you have enough caps for OR affinity with mcready you could have him train up your light infantry, also if you’ve progressed far enough in the bos for danse to have been out as a synth (and you manage to save him) you could ask him to train up a power armour unit wielding the power armour the player character as collect from the wastes. If we’ve completed the automaton dlc maybe we could have some of the robots we built come with us.
In case you didn’t kill father you would’ve learned that you HAVE to kill someone in the institute for no reason in order to complete the game with the minute men. You cannot complete the minute men ending without murdering someone in the institute. The minutemen shouldn’t even be a main faction as they have nothing to do with the game, only settlement building.
its pretty funny to think that most people probably become the general of the minutemen because its pretty hard to avoid.. then they proceed to never talk to Preston again
Yeah I think most people become it accidentally without realizing it’s the start of a faction. It’s like in his regular dialogue when you get back to sanctuary. Day 1 of knowing you he makes you their “leader” in title only. Like what if we saved them in concord to go sell them in slavery? I saved quite a few people in Fallout 2 just to sell them; but Fallout 4 could never make their world as realistically brutal as the original games.
I equip my settlers with a variety of decent weapons and armor. They have at least some practice fighting off settlement attacks. Set up some decent defenses and you should be good.
Regarding your comments on kid Shawn. If real Shawn is considered Father among synths, and colloquially to the institute, then that makes you the player the grandfather. Killing synths is akin to killing your own genetic material.
A glitch I had my first playthrough of fallout permanently stoped me from being able to beat the game or even play it was when I got teleported to the top of mass fusion to destroy the institute it would spawn me like 10 feet away from where I was supposed to be causing me to fall off the building and die. No matter how many times I reloaded the game it happened so I was stuck being trapped in the institute or dieing by falling off a building.
Artillery wouldn't have done what the focused laser would've done. Comparison to WW2 Iwo Jima, US bombed the Japanese island for a week, and it didn't put a dent in their defenses. 15:18 Power armor pieces need the frame, so it isn't possible in the base game. The minutemen outfit can have a complete set of combat armor on top, which a lot of minutemen wear. I would've liked to see the institute be the pacifist ending. Where the player to uses affinity to convince the other factions that the institute is destroyed or not a threat, and the institute continues its mission from the shadows. Gunner story DLC would be cool. Minutemen wouldn't place Shaw a mayor, it goes against the settlements working together, Preston's original vision for the commonwealth. Installing a leader is corruption.
Fallout mutants and raiders know the importance of taking over claimed land. I mean come on, even the mirelurks hold onto the fort after its taken over, even laying eggs on the walls no where near water.
I've owned this game since day one. Played it many times, I refuse to finish the game because you become the head of the main faction that could end all reasons for the other 3 facts to hate each other. The institute could end everything by getting rid of the synths. And have the most capacity for good
Idk, when I invade the institute the MM always show up with good weapons and even a heavy weapon or two. Then again, I’ve usually spent most of the playthrough equipping each town with some of the better weapons I’ve acquired. I even work toward a semblance of uniformity by making purchases at shops. Thank goodness for skilled modders like Glitchfinder. Several of their mods fix the radiant quest BS without breaking the game script, and firmly make you the General, in-charge of all expansion and preparations. I’ve even got another one that makes only MM respond to the beacon at The Castle. That’s the one place you would have an armed and uniformed force permanently. You can roleplay that they get called up like NG to do 30 day stints there, and then go back to their settlements. I LOATHE being forced by Bethesda to take young Sean synth. I agree, there are many failings that I wish Bethesda would have done better. I love your idea of convincing more veterans to join you, and to lead a return to Quincy! I’m glad though we have the ability to fix some of the failings without Bethesda.
That mod sounds dope. I wish that had been the game. I’ve always made sure to give my settlers uniforms or clothing that fits their occupation. And yeah the minutemen are so railroaded it’s crazy. They had every opportunity to be the best faction in that game but they didn’t take it. If we could’ve united groups and picked and chosen who we wanted to govern the wasteland with us it could’ve been pretty cool. At least take back Quincy or something.
This is an overall pretty alright criticism imo. I will however note that there is an argument to be made about gen 3 synths being people. They’re pretty much entirely organic humans, except for the synth component. The part about synth Shaun needing maintenance and not growing up because “he’s just a robot” isn’t entirely accurate. There is a genuine argument about gen 3 synths being people, and bethesda definitely tried to have this in the game, with the railroad being the main example, and if it was executed correctly, could have been a very compelling story. Unfortunately, this is bethesda
I can see what you’re saying. However I don’t hold the view that synths are humans. They are fundamentally not human. Even if an ai could function at the same level as a human in an identical way- it’s not a human. At best it is another species of artificial being that we could live and communicate with. It’s the same to humans as an sapient alien race, but that’s not human. How exactly is Shaun needing maintenance and not growing up because he’s “just a robot” not accurate? Can synths grow and mature or not? He’s a permanent child as far as I’ve seen. If there’s lore or explanation I’m lacking let me know. As far as I can tell he is a sapient robot under the impression we are it’s biological father- an impossibility for a synth- and he is incapable of growing.
@@Sublime_Light I can see where you're coming from. I am definitely of the belief that AI cannot function at the same level as a human (for a very very long time at least, and definitely not using current AI models). However, Gen 3 synths are, from my understanding, pretty much just lab-grown biological humans, with an implant in their brain that allows them to be programmed and controlled. I looked further into it, and you are right about synth shaun not being able to age, which I agree is pretty creepy. I also have no idea what they did to him that would stop the aging process, but you'd think the institute would be eager to use a literal cure for aging in more ways than keep somebody a literal child forever. I can see an argument for the synth component needing maintenance/software updates, but if it doesn't just kill the synth when it fails, I don't see why they couldn't just live like any human.
In the lore gen 3 synths are just humans, yes synth Shawn will grow up if you save him.... also in the lore: robots are sentient even old robots like Codsworth have "feeling". Leaving child Shawn behind is just child murder... as far as the in-game universe sees it :/
8:49 Most of my playthroughs of fallout 4 end the same. I help restore and grow the minutemen but I attack the institute with the brotherhood because why would I attack them using a militia of farmers with pipe guns when I can use an army of heavily armoured soldiers with energy weapons.
@@danielserrano444 Yeah, it can be, for sure. I do both. I play each game at least till level 60 alternating between exploring and expanding, depending how my mood is.
The issue of child synths is a really good example of the writers not even being consistent with their own lore in the same game, or being really bad at explaining the exceptions. Most sources make it clear that the synths are humans, genetically and in internal layout, so much so that they cannot be told from a human with any amount of medical technology except by the institute (or if you blow their brains out and look for the little component in there). If they are human in every organic way except for that brain component, that strongly suggests that they would age normally unless specifically made not to. So fake Shaun (or maybe better Shaun since he isn't nearly as offensive as the original one is) should grow up unless he was specifically made to not do that. Which would be a horrible thing to do and thus totally in keeping with original Shaun's abominable habits.
And I agree that blowing up the institute is the stupidest thing in the whole game. A fortified, self-sufficient undergrounds goldmine of manufacturing and technology and the quest forces you to just blow it up because...stupid writing.
In the end the synths possibly lack genetics. Like the Institute can build a human body perfectly but it has no way of changing afterwards because it doesn’t have genetic triggers. Maybe that’s what they talk about when saying it’s not possible to detect them, except by the Institute. You’d need a pretty advanced lab to check genetics.
to me it seems like synths HAVE to age otherwise they'd be ridiculously easy to detect or realize that they're synths after escaping the institute and getting their mind wipe
Synth Shaun would have stunted growth due to his mechanical skeleton, or in grimdark Fallout nature, suffer a slow death during puberty as his flesh out grows his synth skeleton.
One small comment, among the miriad I'd like to make: Sturges is a synth. But you never know it, and it's never adressed. We know only because with cheats and commands someone killed him and discovered it, as he is always unkillable. One of the original settlers and the "resident hacker/tinkerer" of the Minutemen is a synth and nothing comes of it. He's also a great fan and friend of the Atom Cats but that faction, which lives at the doorstep of Quincy and regularly fights the gunners, can't be contacted and recruited by the Minutemen as a power armor wearing special unit and/or trainers that could 1) teach Nora how to use power armor (as she, differently from Nate, never served in the military) and 2) teach the Minutemen soldiers how to use it, as the Brotherhood is too jealous to share that secret.
Damn Bethesda and her half-baked games.
They may be the minutemen but you are hourman.
It’s called playback speed 1.5X
15:18 nice depiction of the changes you want, reminds me of the centurion armour in fnv as a patchwork armour, bits of Brotherhood power armour, bits of gunner combat armour, bits of minuteman colonial duster, and intimidating use of sunglasses, a bandana, and tricorn hat, it's all there made by Bethesda, they just never bothered beyond the general outfit.
It was suggested in other videos I've watched that the Minutemen could have gotten Heavy Troops via stealing the technology from the Gunners, or wherever the Raiders seem to mass produce their power armor from. It might not have been as good as Brotherhood armor, but it would have been fun to build them up like that, and given them more unique quests. However I would have loved if allying with the Brotherhood was a legitimate option, but in order to do so you absolutely need to wipe out the railroad and Synths, therefore locking you out from the Railroad (assuming they were improved as well), and then vice versa.
In an ideal world the Brotherhood's presence could have been severely cut down, similar to New Vegas, so while they may be around, and you can join and pursue them, they are more of a crazy alternative to the mainline Minutemen quest to face the Institute, where you can just completely forgo the Minutemen side of things and pursue a Brotherhood of Steel solo questline. Would change how you face down the Institute and the kind of assault you can launch. Siding with the Brotherhood would allow you the full frontal, destructive assault, and the ability to form a long-term alliance with the Brotherhood, giving you large-scale trade with the Capital Wasteland, and thus, access to possibly higher tech gear for the Minutemen. Sure, you could get Power Armor otherwise, but imagine upgrades for laser muskets, salvage from the Institute, so on, and so forth. Not to mention, a strong fellow nation to call your friends. You wouldn't get as much as if you just destroyed them and took it, but you guarantee you don't make an enemy. Or, you use the Brotherhood, then backstab them when they try to take the technology! Boom, now you're enemies, and unlike with other options, the Brotherhood may have wasted tons of resources allying with you. And of course, depending on your relations with the Brotherhood, they could even be harder to beat.
Then allying with the Railroad giving you the ability to even maintain the Institute's technology for yourself, and even add Gen 1 and 2 Synth troops to the Minutemen. Possibly, if one has a good relation inside the Railroad, even incorporating them into the Commonwealth governance as the Spymasters of the Commonwealth, like their version of the CIA. However, in doing so you would not be able to get help from the Brotherhood, and regardless of your relationship with them, they declare you their enemy, and issue an ultimatum to surrender Synth technology and all Synths, or be destroyed. This of course, gives you both legitimate reason to destroy the Brotherhood, and in destroying them, you can acquire technology from them. This could be done prior to the final battle, thus giving you piecemeal Brotherhood gear to equip the Brotherhood with. And just like the Brotherhood, if you wanna tell the Minutemen to piss off, you can do so, solely ally with the Railroad, and then in doing so don't have the forces of the Minutemen helping you out, and so the questline becomes a spy mission, infiltrating the Institute and taking it over from the inside before essentially instituting Railroad control. Hell, you could even do this while still involving the Minutemen, but having the focus be on the Railroad and their assistance, just making them a secondary focus, and then when you take control of the Institute, you get a whole new questline where you get to play out an attempted coup and even a civil war within it, which you can fight, and show mercy or destroy those rising against you. This way you still get the invasion of the Institute, but now from a whole new angle.
-Then, in an idea I first heard from Radking, the Institute becomes an established community like Diamond City or Goodneighbor, and depending on your choices either the Synths take full control, with the ability to reproduce like any other sentient. Alternatively in either path you could declare that since you're in charge (or because you're the one who stormed the Institute) the Institute simply becomes another settlement under your control, but then you could still choose to institute a Synth leader, like you can do at other settlements. Then you take the chance to incorporate them in a new CPG. Boom, the whole idea of the Minutemen is realized, either through violence or espionage (or Nepotism). And if you became head of the Institute through Espionage, or you find the plans they had, or something, you can still institute their plan for Synths. You could limit this to Gen 1 and 2 Synths, maintaining your alliance with the Railroad (though perhaps with some tension, maybe with an option for solely Gen 1 Synths, but with lesser benefits), or you could spite them, using Gen 3 Synths for exactly this purpose, and now boom, this leads to the next option as well.
You could go it solo from the start, never involving the other factions and in doing so, you just take out the Institute, and turn the location to your own ends, giving you more freedom as to what you want to do with the Synths. With this option, and without the Railroad or Brotherhood to object you could just take the technology all for the Minutemen, just like before except the Railroad never had to get involved. You gain this tech, and the resources, but in exchange you make an enemy of both other factions, requiring you to take up what might have been the Institute's later quests, but instead led by the Minutemen, thus turning them more Authoritarian in this path, quashing all other factions.
Which of course leads to the idea that, if you're the General, you could just declare that the Minutemen will back the Institute and you don't fight them at all. Insane, you may say, but you're the goddamn General. And if you think the Institute is the best choice for the Commonwealth, you agree, and merge the Organizations and their goals. This would function a lot like the previous idea, but instead now you're part of the Institute, and not just destroying it and picking up where they left off. Then, just like before, you get to decide to implement the Institute plan to replace human labor with Synths.
There are so many ways this could have gone, all while maintaining each faction, interweaving and repelling one another, with rewards for each faction you bring into the fold and consequences for the future. And instead of just "Oh well X faction has the best tech" or "X faction has the coolest quests", you can actually roleplay. It doesn't always come down to the easiest, or what gets the best tech, you can _roleplay_ how you go, and what route you think is best for the Commonwealth. I know which option I think is the best, but that doesn't mean you don't have to!
29:16 funny you say this, cause even his coworkers thought he was sick for this... you know when institute scientists think youve crossed the line, youve done something evil
It’s pretty irredeemable. Creating a child incapable of growing up to fulfill some sick fantasy of reliving your childhood. We only get Shaun after the Father dies- he might’ve copied some of his mind over but that’s just a personal theory. Kid Shaun is just an ethical nightmare.
This is why the mm have the most mods on Nexus 😂. So much stuff to fix!! Are you gonna do a part 3 showing how useless they are in the dlcs?? Especially how much potential they could have had in FH.
Honestly I hadn’t put much thought into minutemen in the DLC. they definitely should’ve taken action against the raiders in the nuka world dlc. I don’t know. I might make a video on it in the future, but I’ve got a few projects in the works currently.
Never had the minutemen show up when i used the flare gun, even in late game. Always got the "no one responded" notification. Didn't even get them to walk over if you are looking at a group of them in free roam. Just ended up as a gun i used against the Deathclaws, since fire seems to be effective against them.
I can't finish the video, there's another settlement that needs my help
When you come back I’ve got another settlement for you.
@@Sublime_Light not going to lie, I was side tracked, went to hang out with the Atom Cats garage
@@wesss9353 the most valid reason
@@Sublime_Lightdid you go over the quest about the institute getting a farmer and you have to talk down the minute men.
You are the general after all...
@@wesss9353no I wasn’t aware of that quest. I’ll have to check that out. Was that in the institute quest line, or a random encounter event?
👍
This faction has so much wasted potential. Just a damn shame
It’s also a shame the Minute man literally never have anything you have in your settlements which in theory is where the MM come from? I have huge Mutfruit farms and have my settlers collecting gold do they minute man who wander about suddenly have better inventory and appearance….. nope they look like all I have them was a one room shack to live in and a bunch of rust they made their terrible pipe guns from.
I know right. The minutemen aesthetic is so disappointing. Preston has style but he’s the only one. I miss faction specific gear. I really wanted a minuteman specific gear set, kinda like my drawing. Just something unique. Better than rusty one man shack minutemen.
" to prepare for war we are doing the same radiant settlement qeusts "
Bethesda took war never changes too seriously 😂😂
An asymmetric warfare questline where you raid the brotherhood for weapons and then defend your settlements from thier counter attacks would have been fantastic, and it would be even better if on the other side there's a quest that mirrors this one and it does the opposite. Maybe you could have a character as a foil to the player fill the role for their respective factions, whom you build a rivalry with them that's only settled in the final act.
Even if they lessen player agency and choice compared to FNV, they could still have, you know, actual good plot to make up for it. That's pretty much what CP2077 did. That probably still doesn't belong in a fallout game but if Bethesda is gonna run it differently they could at least change it to a role-playing methodology that's not a looter shooter. As Emil said, why waste time when the players are gonna ignore the plot? If he truly believed that (In my opinion, it's just his cope for wasting his time in development) he shouldn't have even bothered to give us the shit he did with this game's plot.
I am currently trying to make a mod to where that big ship that u fix then crash into a building, into a functional flying one for the minutemen and u can spawn it flying around the commonwealth transporting troops and all that it sounds cool af in my head
That does sound cool af. I need to see this if you get it working that would be insane.
I know, i wish we could have been able to hijack the institute, but i guess they want the nuclear option to be the only option. Cause it's not like players want a choice or anything.
I think it's stupid that you are forced to nuke the institute, minutemen, railroad, or brotherhood... I think it's stupid for all 3 factions, and yeah, the Radiation will eventually spread from ground zero, Diamond City will be come inhospitable within a few years.
And Regarding Gen 3 Synths, They are technically real Humans, except for the synth component, that part is rather scary, a component attached to someone's brain that can change their memories and personality at any time they want. But that is the other thing too... Why are you forced to go down a rail? Every choice you try to make, forces linear options on you.
Ii agree; though I’m not onboard with synths being humans. An AI brain able to function as a human’s doesn’t make it a human. That makes it at most another species: the sterile species of Synthetic people. They are fundamentally not human.
Yeah blowing up the institute is just the worst decision. It’s like the last decision you should ever want to make to solve the problem. I agree diamond city will be unlivable following that explosion. Not to mention all the surrounding settlements.
22:00
I agree bro. I use my castle as a huge farm and tourist attraction but I’ve painstakingly stored 10 suits of PA mostly T-60 from the BOS but also T-51 and T-45 for the aesthetic and role play of being able to not be solely dependent on one model and make. In other settlements I go or a very tribal inspired build for my settlers Does that change the minuteman at all….. OFC not that would take creativity and effort. It’s a huge bummer
37:53 a small note, but you can actually receive radiants from Radio Freedom, I don't recall whether or not you have to report ones from the radio off to Preson.
There needs to be a stage where the recruits you have are vetted and trained. They should reflect their level of training as they go forwards. There is a mod that ups their armour and weaponry as you level. It would be good if you could drill recruits, run training exercises, go on missions that involve a force of Minutemen outside of the main quest line. The castle mission was great, but then there is nothing that follows it.
It would have been better if you were appointed as an Interim/Acting General rather than a full blown General and one of the missions was to acquire a permanent general, from a list of candidates (some of whom would be the wrong choice and would have interesting outcomes, e.g. raider, gunner, synth, BoS agent)
I think It would of been amazing if you did all 3 before attacking the instertute
we need you writing fallout 5
Synths are beautiful brother. Just like you and me.
The We are the minutemen mod adds power armor to the minutemen npcs, but its based on player level rather than eliminating factions
Imagine instead of helping different factions, do all their interesting storylines, bring them all together for the big fight with them using whatever they’re good at (Boomers with the bomber, Enclave Remnants with their Vertibird and veterans) all for a big epic clash between factions, instead of all this you get a generic attack by one of the factions you support and nobody else, where the outcome is predetermined 3 v 1 depending on your choice.
Goddamn Emil and Todd, they’re hacks.
I believe I said this in your part one, but as I’m sure a lot of people did, who played for the first time went down the MM route,
Had such hope and enthusiasm for where this faction could go, boy was it ever disappointing…lol
Kept doing the radiant quests handing them in and thinking this is it we are going progress now, we are going to start building up the MM …sigh
I would have loved the option for my char to join the gunners or the raiders, why were these not an option?
That’s exactly how it goes. It’s such a let down. I also would’ve enjoyed joining raiders. We needed an anti Preston Garvey. “Hey scum bag there’s a new settlement to raid I’ll mark it on your map”
Or given us the option to complete the main quest with the raider faction from the dlc. A horde of screaming disciples hacking synths to pieces would’ve been nice.
And with all 3 groups, it would’ve been on hell of an army.
i actually have plan to take back quincy for the minutemen
the gunners got acces to quincy because they had the high ground from the highway on the northeast preston knows about this so why not use it
a group of minutemen drive some gunners out from the southwest BOOM the gunners driven out of quincy are incinerated by artillery strikes
While the gunners are focused on an attack via the southwest the other minutemen take the highway on the northeast and the minutemen that drew some of the gunners out go back to attack quincy
The already thinned out gunners are now being attacked from the high ground on the northeast and from the ground at the southwest
the gunners may have the numbers but "its over anakin i have the high ground" the gunners are either killed or have fleed, minutemen take over and you gain acces to the workshop in quincy
(i didnt wanna just blast em with artillery cuz we still wanna use quincy as a settlement)
If you have enough caps for OR affinity with mcready you could have him train up your light infantry, also if you’ve progressed far enough in the bos for danse to have been out as a synth (and you manage to save him) you could ask him to train up a power armour unit wielding the power armour the player character as collect from the wastes.
If we’ve completed the automaton dlc maybe we could have some of the robots we built come with us.
Three ideas I wish I had thought of when I wrote the video. Those are great.
@@Sublime_Light thanx
In case you didn’t kill father you would’ve learned that you HAVE to kill someone in the institute for no reason in order to complete the game with the minute men. You cannot complete the minute men ending without murdering someone in the institute. The minutemen shouldn’t even be a main faction as they have nothing to do with the game, only settlement building.
That sketch you made of the power armoured minute man looks rather cool. An idea like that would have made the minutemen much more interesting.
its pretty funny to think that most people probably become the general of the minutemen because its pretty hard to avoid.. then they proceed to never talk to Preston again
Yeah I think most people become it accidentally without realizing it’s the start of a faction. It’s like in his regular dialogue when you get back to sanctuary. Day 1 of knowing you he makes you their “leader” in title only. Like what if we saved them in concord to go sell them in slavery? I saved quite a few people in Fallout 2 just to sell them; but Fallout 4 could never make their world as realistically brutal as the original games.
Seems like Sims Settlement mod does most of this lol
I equip my settlers with a variety of decent weapons and armor. They have at least some practice fighting off settlement attacks. Set up some decent defenses and you should be good.
Regarding your comments on kid Shawn. If real Shawn is considered Father among synths, and colloquially to the institute, then that makes you the player the grandfather. Killing synths is akin to killing your own genetic material.
A glitch I had my first playthrough of fallout permanently stoped me from being able to beat the game or even play it was when I got teleported to the top of mass fusion to destroy the institute it would spawn me like 10 feet away from where I was supposed to be causing me to fall off the building and die. No matter how many times I reloaded the game it happened so I was stuck being trapped in the institute or dieing by falling off a building.
Artillery wouldn't have done what the focused laser would've done. Comparison to WW2 Iwo Jima, US bombed the Japanese island for a week, and it didn't put a dent in their defenses.
15:18 Power armor pieces need the frame, so it isn't possible in the base game. The minutemen outfit can have a complete set of combat armor on top, which a lot of minutemen wear.
I would've liked to see the institute be the pacifist ending. Where the player to uses affinity to convince the other factions that the institute is destroyed or not a threat, and the institute continues its mission from the shadows.
Gunner story DLC would be cool.
Minutemen wouldn't place Shaw a mayor, it goes against the settlements working together, Preston's original vision for the commonwealth. Installing a leader is corruption.
Fallout mutants and raiders know the importance of taking over claimed land. I mean come on, even the mirelurks hold onto the fort after its taken over, even laying eggs on the walls no where near water.
I've owned this game since day one. Played it many times, I refuse to finish the game because you become the head of the main faction that could end all reasons for the other 3 facts to hate each other. The institute could end everything by getting rid of the synths. And have the most capacity for good
Idk, when I invade the institute the MM always show up with good weapons and even a heavy weapon or two. Then again, I’ve usually spent most of the playthrough equipping each town with some of the better weapons I’ve acquired. I even work toward a semblance of uniformity by making purchases at shops.
Thank goodness for skilled modders like Glitchfinder. Several of their mods fix the radiant quest BS without breaking the game script, and firmly make you the General, in-charge of all expansion and preparations.
I’ve even got another one that makes only MM respond to the beacon at The Castle. That’s the one place you would have an armed and uniformed force permanently. You can roleplay that they get called up like NG to do 30 day stints there, and then go back to their settlements.
I LOATHE being forced by Bethesda to take young Sean synth. I agree, there are many failings that I wish Bethesda would have done better. I love your idea of convincing more veterans to join you, and to lead a return to Quincy! I’m glad though we have the ability to fix some of the failings without Bethesda.
That mod sounds dope. I wish that had been the game. I’ve always made sure to give my settlers uniforms or clothing that fits their occupation.
And yeah the minutemen are so railroaded it’s crazy. They had every opportunity to be the best faction in that game but they didn’t take it. If we could’ve united groups and picked and chosen who we wanted to govern the wasteland with us it could’ve been pretty cool. At least take back Quincy or something.
This is an overall pretty alright criticism imo. I will however note that there is an argument to be made about gen 3 synths being people. They’re pretty much entirely organic humans, except for the synth component. The part about synth Shaun needing maintenance and not growing up because “he’s just a robot” isn’t entirely accurate. There is a genuine argument about gen 3 synths being people, and bethesda definitely tried to have this in the game, with the railroad being the main example, and if it was executed correctly, could have been a very compelling story. Unfortunately, this is bethesda
I can see what you’re saying. However I don’t hold the view that synths are humans. They are fundamentally not human. Even if an ai could function at the same level as a human in an identical way- it’s not a human. At best it is another species of artificial being that we could live and communicate with. It’s the same to humans as an sapient alien race, but that’s not human.
How exactly is Shaun needing maintenance and not growing up because he’s “just a robot” not accurate? Can synths grow and mature or not? He’s a permanent child as far as I’ve seen. If there’s lore or explanation I’m lacking let me know. As far as I can tell he is a sapient robot under the impression we are it’s biological father- an impossibility for a synth- and he is incapable of growing.
@@Sublime_Light I can see where you're coming from. I am definitely of the belief that AI cannot function at the same level as a human (for a very very long time at least, and definitely not using current AI models). However, Gen 3 synths are, from my understanding, pretty much just lab-grown biological humans, with an implant in their brain that allows them to be programmed and controlled.
I looked further into it, and you are right about synth shaun not being able to age, which I agree is pretty creepy. I also have no idea what they did to him that would stop the aging process, but you'd think the institute would be eager to use a literal cure for aging in more ways than keep somebody a literal child forever. I can see an argument for the synth component needing maintenance/software updates, but if it doesn't just kill the synth when it fails, I don't see why they couldn't just live like any human.
In the lore gen 3 synths are just humans, yes synth Shawn will grow up if you save him.... also in the lore: robots are sentient even old robots like Codsworth have "feeling". Leaving child Shawn behind is just child murder... as far as the in-game universe sees it :/
8:49 Most of my playthroughs of fallout 4 end the same. I help restore and grow the minutemen but I attack the institute with the brotherhood because why would I attack them using a militia of farmers with pipe guns when I can use an army of heavily armoured soldiers with energy weapons.
Why have you not armed them with some of the thousands of better weapons you’ve likely found and sold?
@@NOLAgenX it's too tedious and honestly I don't have the patience haha, I'd rather spend that time exploring the commonwealth
@@danielserrano444 Yeah, it can be, for sure. I do both. I play each game at least till level 60 alternating between exploring and expanding, depending how my mood is.
@@NOLAgenXyou’ve gotta give fallout 4 credit. No matter how much it screws up it’s still fun to play.
@@Sublime_Light Oh yes, I heartily agree!