5 Easy Ways to Fix The Railroad In Fallout 4
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- Опубликовано: 29 сен 2024
- Are you among the majority of fallout 4 players who have a very slight intense hatred for the Railroad? well you're not alone. we thought it would be good fun to continue our series on improving the factions in Fallout 4 by addressing the worst faction in all of fallout.
There should have been a way to convince Desdemona that she could actually trust the Minute Men.
I agree, a Railroad-Minutemen alliance might as well be the Institute's worst nightmare
Yeah, Railroad essentially becomes the Minutemen's intelligence agency.
@@windwalker5765 vs sturges and virgil intelligence.
I play Minutemen in every playthrough since you get to build them up. Yet I still disagree. The Minutemen let too many Wastelanders in their ranks and they have their own internal problems. They don't screen enough people and Institute synths sometimes infiltrate and replace settlers. Too many problems. The only thing I can see is giving Minutemen fire support to Railroad agents that request it when compromised.
@@ayythatsmikey The Minutemen give the Railroad their support while they give them intel, that sounds like a deal we could make as General
9:37 I believe that it is explained in a line that the Railroad doesn't have enough numbers to *hold* the Institute. They can assault it, and reach the reactor to blow it up, but not hold onto the location indefinitely. Reinforcements (synths still in the surface like University Point or Coursers on missions) can return, and that's not even including the resisting Institute scientists
Maybe it's my knee-jerk reaction as a Mass Effect fan, but Cerberus's ramp-up in two years after producing 'a single frigate' is pretty well justified. It is well established in the games, time in and time out that the Normansy S-R1 was a ,arvel of stealth technology, but that the S-R2 is literally the single most technologically advanced ship in the Alliance navy. In ME3 when you start to collect war assets, just the Normandy and it's crew are worth more than any of the other single-ticket items on the list. It is a single ship that punches in the same weight class as remnant fleets, Krogan battalions and entire Divisions of Alliance Marines or Turian soldiers. So, the fact that Cerberus took so long to build a single ship makes more sense. It wasn't 'a single ship'. It was *the* ship. Also, we have only hearsay that Cerberus had to pour all it's resources into the Normandy, plus, keep in mind that this is an organization built entirely on the back of secrecy. They may well have wanted everyone to believe they were not as strong as they truly were by having Miranda and Jacob say such things, or they may have been telling the truth, but they had been building their fleets in secret for years prior, a concept which makes perfect sense when we think of the fact that Cerberus is a huge prescence even before the events of ME2, with bases in the fringes of the galaxy and the power to assasinate Alliance admirals. They may well have had all their warships and most of their ground troops availible in advance, ready for any eventuality, but because they are a group who base themdelves entirely off of being secretive, they were just hiding their true strength. There are a million ways to explain, without plotholes, in-lore how Cerberus could be as strong as it became in ME3, so, I don't think your criticisim of the way Cerberus was handled is at all warranted.
I think the railroad should've also been able to move back the old hq, switch wire I think? Idk, after you take out the institute so it feels like they at least have their own proper hq and you see them improve from your actions. Hell even the minutemen get this
I played Railroad in my first and only full playthrough so I’m more of a fan than most (and it might be because I love Deacon)
Good video. But in "using things that trigger geiger counter to hide message" part, isn't it will be useless when the Commonwealth got struck by a radioactive storms? What if time presses and the weather decided to turn "haha rads goes brrrrrt"
that is a good point.
Or, it could be "based on" how a Geiger counter functions and would display on the HUD as a separate color or make a different sound.
Id say the biggest oddity is how long the "Continue to work with Father" part lasts, it takes until "End of the Tracks" coming up for an event to trigger that wraps that up. (Also ever wonder how a pro Railroad synth in the Institute finds out the BoS found the Railroad?)
Maybe an alternative could of beem "Continue to work with Father or talk to (Synth name) to start the battle now" the earlier you do it the harder the battle is and less well armed the rebel synths are.
But you wouldnt have to do the awkward thing of delivering a speech or attend meetings if you dont want to, adding to player choice.
I also like your alternative to the Nuclear Option.
Yeah it's a bit of a letdown on how much of the Institute quest-line has to be done before the player stops "continuing to work with Father" though it does make it a bit amusing that you can decide to destroy the BoS as the Railroad and only afterwards decide whether to quickly destroy the Railroad to get the Nuclear Family ending or start the Nuclear Option (Railroad) mission. It's probably the easiest way to get both achievements without replaying the game if you don't mind the Railroad endgame but I was disappointed that I could do that.
As for how a pro Railroad synth discovers how the BoS found the Railroad the Institute is monitoring the BoS's coms, and as the Sole Survivor has become a rather known name in the Commonwealth and is a known enemy of the BoS by this time the BoS are likely monitoring the Sole Survivor (regardless of whether they were once a Knight). I think it's a shame no faction calls you out that you can be working for the Institute, Railroad, and BoS while also the defacto leader of the Minutemen, and the player can almost never use their membership as a bargaining chip with a different faction.
The only reason i ever sided with the railraod was the trophies, after that killed em all and went to nuka world to be a full blown raider
Every single faction in Fallout 4 has flaws.
None of them is fully good, none of them is fully evil.
All of them are on a grayscale basis, somewhere between Black and White.
The Minutemen are relatively white. A kind of dirty white. Considerably dirty.
The Institute is relatively dark grey and so is the BOS, albeit a tad darker.
On first glance you'd see that the Railroad is relatively white as well until you notice that it was just the printer running out of ink.
As it is in vanilla Fallout 4 the Railroad is nothing what it should have been.
For example in the Far Harbor DLC all factions besides the Minutemen (they neither are responsible for nor have control over the island, plus they are not wanted there either) are getting involved in Arcadia.
The Institute goes in reclaiming escaped synth, BOS goes in killing everyone on sight and the Railroad on encountering a nearly completely safe haven for the synth they rescue sent a representative to "see for herself". In other words nothing at all.
DiMA - the leader of Arcadia - has not a single good thing to say about the Railroad. And it is easy to see why.
When it comes to Nuka World it is a somewhat similar situation.
Mods have restored the planned assaults from the BOS, the Institute and the Minutemen.
But the Railroad despite having reasons to do so are not getting involved. Not even concealed spy missions are undertaken. Hell you can't even tell Des about the Park.
BOS, Institute and Minutemen need some improvements to really feel immersive.
Quite a few for the Institute, though.
The Railroad needs serious improvements to at least feel somewhat believable.
As it stands right now they are an underground spy organisation that can't spy for dear life and are only hiding below a church in a mausoleum.
The railroad just felt like the BOS in FNV. A small faction that’s a shell of their former self hiding in a hole
In my own opinion, I would have swapped the railroad with followers of the apocalypse
I would really love to see a quest where you can contact some kind of Railroad like faction and try to unite with them
Alright, the Cerberus thing. It's impressive they secretly built possibly the most advanced ship in the galaxy in two years undetected specifically. There is never any statement that they did not have a decent number of warships already active by this point considering they seem to have near infinite money.
These recommendations just prove why new Vegas was goated, Bethesda could easily make a fallout 4 spin off where it’s more interactive just like ~Vegas~
AND NO ONE WOULD COMPLAIN
Wait so is Mercer safe house actually a place? Mine got placed, it seems, at the bottom of the river behind Taffington Boathouse. The caretaker is usually just wandering around the road on the edge of the settlement. Idk if anything is supposed to be happening there.
I can see a reason for why Preston relies on you so heavily, because the Minutemen is all but dead by the time you two meet. The Railroad having every mission seemingly rely on you makes no sense as their organisation is all day up and running and has been playing cat & mouse with the SRB for decades so they should be massively profecient at their jobs but they feel like cosplayers pretending to be a spy network than actual spies.
As for Desdimona, it would have been really good for her character motivation if she revealed her whole reason for doing this and why she is so driven is because she fell in love with a synth and only found out after it went rogue, having to watch her lover die at the hands of the SRB and now wants revenge. Just something to make her uptight nature more understanding and really add something that should show the weight of her leadership and maybe the in with the player who can have a speech option of sharing your pain of a lover lost to the institute.
Really simple rail sign in affiliated settlements... flags.
If Deacon is to be believed ( a grain of salt) his wife was a Synth and they couldn't have kids. Im assuming he's being honest this time since there is no speech checks like the previous affinity conversations.
More accurately, deacon says they were trying for kids. they just might not have had enough time, or deacon might have been the one incapable of having children, or it could have been an issue unique to his wife, not necessarily of all synths...
to be fair, to the mattresses is not a radiant questline. it has an ending and is the same every time
The thing about Normandy SR2 is that its design makes it so expensive that building a bunch of mass production crusers is a way better value for money
to some degree that is true, but you're really only going to get 2, maybe 3 cruisers for the cost of the SR2 (rear admiral Mikhalevic was upset that for the cost of the SR1, the alliance could have afforded a heavy cruiser), and cost of materials is one thing, but having the shipyards to construct the fleet is a whole other matter. it is also worth mentioning that Cerberus cruisers are similar, but not the same class of ships used by the Alliance so they would also be fighting the normal teething issues that a first gen class of ship would face with the first few ships off the line, which would further slow production and require the first few ships to return to the shipyard for refits.
@@Theegreygaming Fair enough. Although it think that the maion reason why building of the SR2 got biged up a bit was not becouse they built a ship but becuse they built a ship based on weary experimental and weary clasified design seamingly without geting taged by any inteligece agency
Every play through I have played has had Mercer safe house be starlight drivethrough
Yesss i so agree. The Ending options are soooo disappointing.
Games made by people like Bethesda forget we should be able to make enemies of all factions and or make most/all our ally given restrictions like needing to complete quests in certain order or having high stat in something like speech cause why have it otherwise since i usualy loaded with money and dont need to haggle in games idk tho
Regarding the Railroad blowing up the Institute: The impression I got from this is that the Railroad considers synths people, but not *a* people - i.e., there's no snyth culture, community, etc. that needs to be preserved or perpetuated (and the power to do so might be abused, blah blah blah). This doesn't change the fact that this is the least interesting way of resolving the plot, but the same could be said for most of Fallout 4's plots.
I find the railroad to be a nice addition with the railway signs and secret caches, they do leave much to be desired though not unlike the entire rest of the game they are not finished and unpolished. nothing mods cant fix.
1st fix: "Go Easy on the Radiant Quests". Honestly, that's just a given to make any Bethesda game better. And I really like how you make it quick, concise, and to-the-point. We've already got 4 other factions to interact with, and having the Minutemen bloated with radiants is more than enough.
2nd fix: That...that makes sense. It's like how I complain about being able to get intel that Ulfric Stormcloak is being used by the Thalmor - the true enemy - and you can't show it to him to convince him to call a more permanent ceasefire. The whole point I'm making is this: why give us information we could feasibly act on if you're not gonna provide us a way _to_ act on it?
3rd fix: That is such a simple fix that, again, it's baffling that they didn't think of it during development.
4th fix: That actually sounds super cool! I'd love to have done that! Even if Nate wasn't a high ranking officer, he'd still know the need for operational security, and even his basic knowledge would go a long way to helping The Railroad figure out ways to keep themselves secret!
5th fix: YES! RadKing recently made a video where he mentioned something to that effect, and I 100% agree with both of you! When you and The Railroad have The Institute at your mercy, use that as leverage to enact reforms that'll both fulfill the RR's goals _and_ stop what's essentially genocide of an entire civilian population!
Once more knocking it outta the park! Part of me wants to trek over to wherever the main Fallout team is hanging out right now and make them watch these kinds of videos _specifically_ to ensure that they don't repeat their mistakes!
Great ideas. Looks like a game developer resume 😊
definitely not a dev. coding makes my brain hurt. :)
The Biggest problem is why can't you just unite all fractions and make them work together? >_> why just making ONE of them strong? I don't get it. It makes no sense... We should have been able to unite them for a common cause. Making the place stable and safe to love for everyone. Ya know.. Apes together strong.
I didn't realise the Railroad was so hated. I actually think the worst faction is the SPECIFICALLY THE FALLOUT 4 Brotherhood. They're like "oh we're like yee-olden brotherhood we hate outsiders oh hey a vault dweller let's invite him into the fold" and it's stated on the ship that they do infact recruit from local population even though you wouldn't expect that from em. anyway anyway.
railroad also is kinda bad i do admit because they're questline is not really that unique you literally just do institute for 90% of it and the quests that are railroad are super basic like the quest where you kill like 8 gen 2 synths inside that digsite and thats the whole quest. i think if it wasn't for deacon i wouldn't like the railroad nearly as much
Can someone please mod these into the game?
I would love a ending like that, that would've fixed the rail road for me rather than anything else.
Also I now want a video on the brotherhood ending, I wish we could become elder like in the cut content, then make the brotherhood more accepting of non humans and even seek peace with the institute, which would cause a Lyons like divide in the brotherhood with outcasts now wondering and isolated in the commonwealth.
NGL, I don't like any of the factions in Fallout 4. They all feel one dimensional, so I've never tried to beat the game, 500 hours in with different saves. I just... Explore, loot, kill.
Good video, gonna feed the algorithm
The thing is, while the railroad questline isn't very compelling - neither are any of the other three major factions. They're all poorly written. So that's why I can't stop myself from playing the railroad. It's going to be garbage anyway, so I might as well make the morally correct decision to save the synths from eternal slavery since they're sentient beings.
Real people out here dying, they want to save robots. F them
Okay, it would've been super interesting if it was discovered at some point that new generation synths can reproduce sexually, and age. Even wilder if they could reproduce with humans. The thing that would really blow up the world would be finding a pregnant synth. Bonus points if it was due to your actions.
Gen 3 Synths do age, and I wouldn't be too surprised if they can have children. This is because they aren't even robots, they are fancy cyborg clones. We see them get made and there are no robot parts in sight, it's all flesh aside from the chip.
To Quote Myself from another video. "The Railroad is a joke right? The most non-covert, covert group I have ever seen. They could have been great, the primary source of stealth tech from both prewar and stolen from other factions. Really Ballistic weave is the only thing that made sense seeing as a covert op you want to maintain the ability to move fast so not heavy armor to slow you down. I would picture their "Heavies" as being more like Agent 47 than a useless mini-gun toting-synth wanabe! Covertly taking down the Institute and other factions instead of all out frontal assault on other factions. I mean really, that's the Brotherhoods MO."
Ya I never wasted my time with their ending.
Railroad should had taken over the instutite's HQ
Honestly that last one is just so big. There's just nowhere near enough evidence given to justify the decision to blow up the Institute. Like if they had proven somehow that there was no other way to stop them it might make sense, but for a primary goal it would make more more sense for the Railroad to want to, to borrow a phrase, "seize the means of production". It makes sense why the Brotherhood or maybe the Minutemen would want to destroy this "dangerous technology", but I'd expect the Railroad to have more appreciation for the potential value of the technology housed inside it, to want that technology used for the betterment of synthkind and even the Commonwealth in general. It could even pose a way for synths to better integrate into Commonwealth society. If they took control of the Institute they would have a shelter from bigots on the surface and also mountains of technology they could share with the wasteland to build a relationship of trust and common benefit. Not just a freedom that still requires them to hide who they are and where they came from, but true equality that respects those things. Sure it would take a long time, maybe even more than a lifetime, but like I said they have one of the best fortresses in the world, they have time. Like can you imagine if this faction's namesake had acted like this? Just get the slaves out of the south then scorched earth everything, sure.
Step 1 side with the BOS...
1. Stop acting like Glory is the f'ing Terminator,
2. Stop Desdemona being so aloof and arrogant,
3. Stop Carrington being an asshole,
4. Stop Tinker Tom being a knobhead,
5, Stop Deacon trying to be funny, and failing badly.
Honourable mention - Erase them from the game completely.
RETAKING THE SWITCHBOARD.
thats dumb the whole point of a secret hideout is that its secret, everyone would know about the switchboard
Bababa the Mass effect thing doesnt count the Normandy was a expiremental frigatte with tech from alien species this is way harder to build than a standard human military ship my dude. Besides if i remember correctly it isnt really said how long it took to build the SR2 just that Shepard was dead for 2 years
and yes im a extreme Mass Effect Fan boy
true the normandy was expirimental, but you have to admit that dreadnoughts just due to sheer size should require a huge amount of resources and time to construct. sort of like how the U.S.S. Zumwalt was an expirimental, advanced, first of its class, destroyer that took 5 years to construct but the average construction time for a nimitz class aircraft carrier was just shy of 8 years (except for the final one that was commissioned before its construction was complete for political reasons). the second game implied that the majority of cerberus's resources were spent on the SR2 and project Lazarus, but that was all sort of ignored in ME3 and they just played it off like... "nah man, cerberus was way bigger than that". I'm not made about it, ME is still one of my favorite franchises of all time, plot holes and all.
@@Theegreygaming i wonder if there was a allianz deserters story linie originaly planed. that would myb explain how cerberus gets so many ships
@@goodmusic4673 I don't think so, if you look closely enough, there are very slight differences in the models of cerberus ships and Alliance ships, the cruisers are pretty obvious when looking at them from the under side. the dreadnoughts are almost identical to the Kilimanjaro class, but I think that would have been a huge plot point if one of the Alliances 8 dreadnoughts defected.
@@Theegreygaming Well then the only reasaonable plot point i can imagine is just very simple that the illusive man just hid the fact how big cerberus really is/were. But on another point. I just have to ask which speaker of Saren do you prefer ? the original or german xD i just think the german one sounds so bad ass but hearing the opinion of a fellow ME fan would be interesting for me
Railroad is a pretty cool concept but execution wasn’t what it should’ve been
Fallout 4 in a nutshell
I like it conceptually more as a minor faction than a major. I like the idea of an anti-institute major faction. But a major faction that seeks to free runaway androids? Where do they get the support and funds? Why would any but a small minority of people in the wasteland even care? How can they possibly compete with the Brotherhood’s military might, Institute technology, or Minutemen manpower for control? Idk. They just don’t make sense to me a major power contender.
@@harambe855They should’ve been like the BOS in FONV, a minor faction that you have to encounter/talk to for most of the factions, and you can decide from there.
@@codeinecowboy8607 yeah, that is why it receives so much hate - if it was just bad, people simply wouldn't care, but Fallout 4 has a lot of potentially cool things, which inevitably disappoint you as you progress
@@harambe855 The Railroad always strikes me as a minor faction with a major plot impact. Good writing could find the potential in that discrepancy, but, well...
My biggest annoyance with the Railroad is that they don't seem to have their own story. The vast majority of the Railroad questline is infiltrating the Institute. They're not spying on the Brotherhood of Steel or the Minutemen, which is another missed opportunity. There also isn't an option to create an alliance between them and the Minutement and/or the Brotherhood of Steel. Yes, I get it, they are diametrically opposed to the Brotherhood in terms of how they think about synths, but that would be part of the challenge.
Yeah I feel like it's weird the Railroad doesn't have the option to ally with Minutemen and/or form a truce with the Brotherhood.
I also always found the brotherhood attacking the Railroad... odd. Like it just feels forced because realistically there's minimal reason to waste resources attacking the Railroad.
Being able to make a truce with the Brotherhood to allow them to work together to stop the institute would have been far more interesting.
@@HowlingDoomYeah, the BoS attacking the Railroad always stood out to me. Like, they're not allied with the Institute, if anything they stand against them for similar reasons to the BoS. So Elder Maxon asking the SS to turn on them and eliminate them just felt so out of place that it felt like a fever dream.
Those would be great options for sure. Especially an alliance with the minutemen. I guess they just have a hard time trusting people. As for thr brotherhood of steel, the only reason I could see for having the brotherhood take out the railroad was just Maxon and his fanaticism
Because BOS didn't mobilize their ship to commonwealth yet and Minutemen was broken statue
@@BrightWulphi disagree. Maxon know they are smuggling synths out of the commonwealth. No railroad=no smuggling= easier to find and kill synths.
I feel like there should have been better ways to join the Railroad instead of the Freedom Trail. My suggestion is modifying the Covenant quest. First off, Nick Valentine contacts you and says he has a missing persons case in a place he can't go. Covenant doesn't allow synths in, so the player has to be Nick's eyes and ears. You go through the quest and rescue the woman (who you suspect is a synth). Then, Honest Dan reveals himself to be Deacon, in disguise. The mission was a test, to see how you'd respond to synths.
That would have been a neat idea! Definitely better than what we got. Their password was "railroad" ffs. No wonder their last headquarters got overrun.
If Boston didn't lag so much I wouldn't mind the Freedom Trail.
I'd leave the freedom trail, but as a procedure of showing your intentions to join them; like, you walk it, solve a some sort of puzzle at the end in the north old church - and discover nothing but an empty basement. However, this initiates their quest, with Nick Valentine receiving the case you mentioned in three game days after you walked the freedom trail
While I do agree with your verdion, I do like the freedom trail also. However, instead of making the Church the main hub, its just a meeting point for recruiters to meet you. Deacon beinf the one that waits for you there (since he has been keeping an eye on you after all). So when you get there, you are met with him, and after he tests you with some basic questions, he takes you to Desdemoa, qhere deoending on your accomplishments, she accepts you outright (killing a Courser is the top like in the game), or doesnt acceot you yet until you've proven yourself to her. And for God sake, make killing Kellog a BIG DEAL!
Fuck that's good
Nice suggestions- I like the MILA questline alteration since it just makes sense and you would get to spend more time with Glory, maybe getting more of her back story.
It would also make her death much more impactful
A negotiated settlement ending would make them FAR more interesting.
Loved the railroad's concept. I really wanted to feel all sneaky and be a James Bond character in Fallout. Turns out after the first like 3 main quests for them nothing feels like you're changing things around you. The minutemen cement this the most in having you make bases.
The Railroad should have had more psy-op stuff in it.
Funny you mention WRVR. If you bring X6-88 there, he mentions the Institute monitors the station to make sure the Railroad isn't using it for the exact purpose you proposed.
Yeah that was one of the few things I didn't agree with. The Institute are smart, but also arrogant. Every solution has to be a high tech and convoluted, the Railroad using and organising themselves via comparatively primitive methods allows them to operate under the Institute's nose.
@@RJALEXANDER777 That just sounds like an excuse, not even a good one. That holds ZERO value when you HAVE to consider that Kellog was always in the picture (before we blew his brains out). He was far more adaptable and logical. What he said and did was uncontested. No one in the institute stood in his way during a mission, so he had the authority to force the Institute how and where to look.
@@midgetman4206 Well the institute was on it's last legs before we show up, so clearly he was doing something right.
I've been working on a RR overhaul for the past two years. Your RR sign idea is good, and some people pointed out that if the weather went south that you wouldnt be able to notice them. In my idea, they're still symbols, but painted with an invisible ink that becomes florescant while wearing certain lenses. The making of these lenses is mostly just Fallout super chemistry style BS but doing it this way allowed me to give the RR a low tech style upper hand on the institute since they wouldnt have access to this concoction used for these special glasses. Kinda like how NW bottle cap glasses work i spose.
My only regret on it is the fact that, for the story bit of it, I couldnt use really anyone in the RR without messing with vanilla quests and voices. I have quest ideas to get the RR their own Vertibird meant specifically for transport with no weapons platforms, cloaking technology, night vision, and even ideas for more ranks in general. It may never see the light of day, but it's fun to think of ways to improve on the underdog of the factions. I love the RR because no one else will. :)
I liked them because they weren't evil. Also, yeah, the spy goggles were also in Point Lookout as the Cryptochromatic Spectacles, so it's an established piece of worldbuilding.
When you say “working on” do you mean making the mod or just thinking about possible overhaul ideas, because if you are making a mod I just want to pitch in they need more bases, having just the one and the quests to make safe houses is silly, and more caches, I feel that rail sign is never used
It's funny, but a throw away line about 'inspired by this old theme park' on this idea would have ended up as great foreshadowing of Nuka World.
I kinda wish they started off in their first base and then in their quest line much like the Bos did attack the safe house forcing them to locate(maybe to a settlement you have taken) and then make you go back with deacon to retrieve data and carringtons prototype. Would be a fun way to make the railroad a more interesting faction and if we got to know some of these other characters and even have them die in the institutes attack would be better for us to empathize with them
The Switchboard wasn't their first base. Most of the Railroad's backstory is obscure in the game but in canon the Railroad has been active since at least the early 2260's (over 25 years before Fallout 4). The Gen 3 synths have been known about since the Broken Mask incident in 2229 (only 2 years after Shaun was taken). It's a good idea but the problem is the story has the Railroad be on the backfoot after recently losing the Switchboard and 4 of their current 8 Safehouses (they lose 2 more over the course of the game). There are a lot of good ideas in the Railroad or what they could have done with the faction but like with the Minutemen they feel halfbaked.
the railroad really should've been a minor faction instead of a major one. it has literally zero purpose after liberating the synths. thats like making the boomers from FNV a faction you can go storm the hoover dam with: it makes zero sense
That was my thought exactly: The Railroad should have been more along the lines of the Boomers in New Vegas. A minor faction with some really cool toys & definitely worth recruiting if you are going for certain endings, but a minor one nonetheless.
Being able to create alliances between certain groups would've been good. Particularly since the Minutemen going after the brotherhood & the brotherhood wiping out the RR are both kind of out of the blue. Until that point it's almost like each exists in a vacuum.
Show us the friction growing between the brotherhood & other groups.
Railroad as a minor faction that if you’re allied with them alters your main faction questline would be nice. Railroad institute being reform the institute style, railroad minutemen trying to make the commonwealth safe for synths, railroad brotherhood needing the Herculean task of convincing Maxson of his hypocrisy as a cyborg or the brotherhood will simply eat the railroad and steal their tech
What to fill in the main faction gap? … the gunners? That would make the main factions two pairs of staunchly opposed factions, while in theory factions can ally with either of the main factions not in their pair. Gunners questline could be something like the Survivor essentially hiring them; taking the role not as a member of the faction, but as a client. If you can’t pay in caps you can pay in favors like wiping out the last of the minutemen.
@@Gamemaniac92711 do you even need to fill the "faction gap"? i dont see why 4 factions are needed, esp cuz the minutemen could be made into a much more interesting faction with a proper quest line. 3 more fleshed out factions work better, esp if there are minor factions like the railroad and maybe gunners and some of the independant towns/groups
I think the fact that you don't know of any other Heavies can be explained by cell organization. They aren't in your cell, you didn't need to know.
Nice video. You definitely earned a sub. In terms of ending, I think there is a mod called "Subversion" on Nexus, where the sole survivor could lie to father about destroying the railroad, take control of the Institute and grant all synth human rights in a board of director meeting. The player could even spare the brotherhood and replacing Maxson with a synth to guarantee peace, or do it the old way. The idea of the mod is very nice and they even remade the NV slide-show style ending.
I would like to see more railroad missions that actually do secret agents stuff. There are just so many wasted opportunity. How about a quest line where Tinker Tom further researches into Courser chips and ends up finding some ring 0/bootloader level bugs that would allow railroad agents to reprogram lesser synth and shut down Coursers during battle, and the player given a perk that would allow them to do this. Or using MILA as triangulation devices to pinpoint where the Classic Radio is from, what it is used for and provide an entire alternative quest line to get inside the Institute.
Honestly my number 1 issue with railroad is thematic dissonance.
The game markets the Railroad as this stealth secret society that at least in central boston has information network as good as the institute and how they hide in plain sight.
But you find their base in 5 minutes, and all of their quests can be described as "stealth is optional"
There should have been massive stealth bonuses for their quests, or at the very least make the combat encounters push the player to avoid open conflict by having lots of high tier enemies in them.
Problem with the railroad is that they're ultimately useless, I cant think of a single goal for them to have after wiping out the institute (or joining them) , the other factions atleast have something
Institute keeps doing Institute things
BoS continues their search for technology
Minutemen keep trying to protect settlements.
Whats the point of the railroad's existence after the institute is wiped out?
Their point is to help escaped synths. If they don't need to exist anymore, _then they've won._
They're the only Faction that actually accomplishes its goal - destroy institute, free synths.
@@auguste418 I wouldn't say they freed the synths....more just dammed them to extinction
@@bossy1496 Well it's not like they want to reproduce. They want to fit in with the wasteland, not be a subcategory of humans.
I think the best ending for the railroad is one where the minutemen general is also a railroad agent. Then they can work as like a separate Bureau in a potential new CPG dedicated to protecting the rights of synths in the commonwealth
My biggest desire is a Railroad/Minutemen alliance, since the Railroad has the same goals as the minutemen, they just focus on synths.
One thing that bugs me with the railroad is their HQ. Minute men have a castle. Brotherhood has a armored blimp, institute is an awesome sci-fi compound. Railroad has a mourge underneath a dusty church filled with ghouls. The secret FBI Base under the doughnut shop should have been their actual HQ, waaay cooler.
Also, the crypt only has two entrances. I feel like it would've made more sense to be connected to... hear me out... the actual subway tunnels (Because they're the underground railroad)... without complete control over the system, but with enough ability to navigate it that they could basically enter anywhere in the commonwealth and find their way to their base. Or the sewers, but the smell might give them away.
One thing that put me off railroad is that it is their standard procedure to erase and replace the memories and personalities of the synths that they breakout, at least some of rich need up being particularly tough raiders. So their not helping those synths because they are gone, other synths have to deal with increased suspicion and everyone else gets even more problems.
If I'm not mistaken, Dima will say that there will be no more synths now, if you tell him that the Institute is destroyed. That would mean that synths are indeed infertile. Which I always assumed from the start anyway.
Dima is also known for being an unreliable/untrustworthy narrator, so it's possible he's just wrong
No, it just means new synths can't be made. If synths are fertile, their offspring would be human or at least more human than synth
In all my years, I didn't know mercer safe house was randomized.
For me it was always taffington boathouse
Your analysis is great and the ideas presented all have merit and would've been great additions to the Railroad.
The issue is... it's Bethesda. Since Oblivion, their focus has been on pumping out trash for profit instead of actually having devs with the ability to think analytically.
I wish when you met the railroad for the first time and give all the pro-institute and anti-synth answers, then they'll try and kill you and then the faction will permanently be hostile to you. Imo it'd pair nice with a mod that adds back the "hit squads" that the NCR and Legion sent out on you in FNV, if a mod like that even exists
It feels like every time someone on the quest team suggested something more ambiguous than pure black and white or more complex than "now go blow up that place" they got shot down by Todd, because everything in the game should be understandable and fun for an 8-year-old.
Shockingly good ideas each one; rich and diverse. Just goes to show that we should get into the weeds -- there are precious things to be found in them.
If I were to fix the railroad it would be through, honestly, a complete rewrite. The railroad would still be at the switchboard, and the switchboard falling would be a very end game plot point just before you move to destroy the institute. Bethesda loves to tell but never show, all the interesting plot points and character development happens well off screen.
If they're based on the underground Railroad, why not just hang out in the subway? Lot of entrances and exits to sneak in and out of (more if you're willing to leave via the sewers).
@@RorikH RIGHT
@@RorikH The church is such a stupid base. Why are there still skeletons in it just lying around when they're sleeping there. Bethesda refuses to acknowledge the existence of brooms.
@Katherine Novella Are their skeletons in the base part or just the entrance, and either way, If I were them I'd be more concerned about the feral ghouls.
@@RorikH In the base. Like 4 feet away from their beds
I liked the rail road until I tried to work for them while playing survival mode. "Okay we want you to go to a dead drop far in the North, so you can complete a mission just outside the glowing sea." After that experience I began to see their flaws a lot more than ever before.
MILA is not a radiant quest, it ends when you place all of them. Not knowing this is too common in the fandom.
by that logic all the minutemen quests to take new settlements aren't radiants either because there's only 37 of them. they are still procedurally generated quests, set in random locations, in no particular order... that's pretty much the definition of a radiant quest.
Yeah the thing with radio transmissions.... the fact the Railroad did not use this for themself is baffling. Especially when they tell you that the classical radio station signal has harmonics that carry informations to trace coursers. Imagine if they had used that like for example RDS (Radio Data Service) for an FM Radio Station is transmitting Text infos for Song names or Station names and radio Clock time-sync signals. I mean this tech exists and it could have easily existed in the Fallout universe as well, to transmit simple digital informations to all Railroad agents.
I thought it was really interesting how you said people don't see the Railroad as a "real" faction. I agreed, but it took me a minute to figure out why.
I think I take issue with the fact that, the first time you roll up to the Railroad's headquarters, literally half the named characters roll out to greet you, including the faction leader. Desdemona, Glory, Deacon, Drummer Boy. There are like maybe two or three other named Railroad characters you meet over the course of the game, and that's about it.
The Minutemen, you meet Preston right away, but that's basically because he's the only one left. The Institute, the faction leader is literally your child, so it's understandable that he'd show up in person. The Brotherhood, your first interaction with them is with a smaller squad, and you don't even meet Maxon until after you've already dealt with Danse (probably) and seen the giant airship.
I know they wanted to give the impression that the Railroad is down on their luck at the moment, but honestly they didn't feel like an organization that could hold their own against Brotherhood and the Institute. They felt like a group of 20 people camping in a basement.
it’s callled a spy ring, you don’t ever see the whole thing even if you’re in charge of it. Those railroaders manning checkpoints were hidden before because it wasn’t safe to publicly be a Railroad member, but when it is they come crawling out of the woodwork.
Bathesda PLEASE hire more writers and better the communication inside your teams PLEASE y'all won such amazing universes, do them justice!!!!
Bethesda needs to fire Emil Pagliarulo or sideline him to dlc's where he's good at.
How to make everyone choo-choo-choose Railroad, every time:
+Minutemen and Institute are the only main routes
+To beat Institute Minutemen recruit allies
+one and only one of Railroad or (small strike force of) BoS is mandatory
+BoS are also mutually exclusive with THE ATOM CATS
I SERIOUSLY doubt the Atom Cats would be cool with the the techno-fascists.
personally I think Bethesda could have made it so the player has to join the Minutemen then Gravy tells the player that most of the Minutemen broke off and formed the Gunner faction so that would be the first half of the game then the player has to choose which faction the Minutemen should ally with either the Institute, the Brotherhood, or the Railroad but all of the options would be blocked until the player deals with the main quest that I would call "Minutemen Divided" then once the player reunites the Minutemen then that when you would hear about the Cambridge Police Station and Brotherhood units needing help as well as the follow the freedom trail and the institute
You definitely hit the nail on the head with the radiant quests; I'm sick of Drummer Boy running up to me to tell me that someone wants a word.
Implementing even some of your suggestions would go a good way to improving the storytelling and gaming experience. I downloaded a mod on my third playthrough which used diplomacy, and some aggressive negotiations for those who wouldn't get with the program...
A massive advantage they have at least is that their radiant quests don't have a %90 chance of forcing another settlement down your throat that you have to drop everything you're doing to feed and bed another set of grown adults only to have them somehow get kidnapped out from under 9 sentry guns.
TBH I think that secure comms would be really difficult due to the institute's level of technical advancement. Stenography would be cool or they could use a combination of tech and tradecraft. Near field communication is an amazing way of communicating when someone dominates the technical realm, combine that with dead drops, brush passes or another form of tradecraft and the institute would have a hard time cracking it. Then again when all the traders work for the SRB you're kind of in a shit sandwich 😂.
A person is their memories. Burning out one "person"s memories so you can replace them with hand-mzde ones is killing one person & putting another in their place. Assembling a skills & knowledge package & implant w/ mem loungers would make more sense. I disagree on them being the most moral. The extremely poorly run & awkwardly functioning minutemen would be.
And THAT is the biggest problem I have with that whole technology line. The synth is basically ceasing to exist, so that the body can. It should have been a memory add-on, so they couldn't get tripped up on their false backstory. It would still allow for the accident that resulted in the synth body available for Curie.
@@owenbrau63They should have let you choose between using that body for best girl Curie or giving it to Glory, since we are told that Synth memories persist in their chip (at least for a little while). And also give the option to convince (or steal one) Father (or if you're in charge/on good terms with the leader) to let you build a custom body for Curie (or if you're fast enough Glory). Glory could then have a lot of trauma from the experience and a quest line to help her through it, although she would still never be the same.
Honestly one of the worst parts of Mercer Safehouse is when the random location is in a place that is just flat out impractical, like Spectacle Island. I'm sorry but HOW are people supposed to get there? Most people aren't going to swim that far. Heck, the player shouldn't be able to swim that far. And by forcing the safehouse to be at Outpost Zimonja, that ties in to the operational security side suggested.
Although some people might find it boring, I would’ve loved to help negotiate a treaty. Hold up the Institute and through speech options and checks you negotiate a favorable outcome for the Railroad. Faction relations and compromise is so interesting to me. I think it also is a fascinating ending to have the Institute still exist but have them treat Synths better and no longer force them to spy on the Commonwealth.
This would be worth a RR play through. I get a mod to unlock ballistic weave just to avoid them. The running joke is just slaughtering them when you have the courser chip and doing it yourself
My biggest complain about the Railroad is the fact that it takes control of the Commonwealth in their ending.
It makes no sense at all. The Railroad is only involved in helping the synths. Key word ‘helping’, not bringing to the top of the world, not making them the overlords of all Commomwealth, just freeing them from slavery and extinction. Which is why the Railroad most likely just wont act upon anything if it doesnt involve synths. Which means that this ending just leaves a power vacuum in all spheres of life where synths arent involved. You know, if only there was a faction that they could integrate themselves into… oh wait, the Minutemen!
There's an interesting bit when you first meet the Railroad I feel could have been better utilized. When Desdemona asks if you are willing to put your life on the line for a synth, if you answer 'No' then she says it's probably best if you don't work together going forward. However, Deacon will explain that Des is a bit of a "hard-liner" and he gets that you don't want to risk your life for a synth, but offers the alternative of just wanting to hurt the institute and says some of their members operate in this capacity, which Des is okay with.
I always felt that this narrative fit the main character better since you have recently learned that the Institute is responsible for the death of your spouse and kidnapping your son. You wouldn't necessarily care about synths at this point, you just want to get Shaun back and make the Institute pay. So I took this option hoping it would make a difference, but no. Everything else proceeds as normal, which as outlined in this video, isn't great.
The only other option I've found for going against this forced narrative is when Des tells you to seek out the Patriot upon entering the Institute. You can tell her 'No' because you don't want to compromise your true goal of finding your son, but you're still forced to go along with it because this game is rife with the illusion of choice. At this point I just ended up killing Father because I don't believe he's your son anyway and forcing the mission to rescue synths to fail. Des will mention getting help from the minutemen, then stop working with you. I'm more satisfied with this ending than any of the actual endings. Now the main character is free to do w/e the F they want in this new world and leave the factions to deal with themselves.
"get help from the Minutemen"? After telling their General to fuck off? Another fine example of Bugthesda writing everyone!
So... you mean if Bethesda had actually made the spy faction a spy faction instead of a reskin of all the others? I agree completely lol
It's really not surprising how much hate The Railroad gets.
Most people simply don't get it, because they lack some kind of ability to think beyond a surface level.
I'm not joking when virtually every negative criticism about the Railroad is just coming from a place of pure stupidity or at least a deliberate refusal to engage in any kind of critical thinking.
People want excuses to hate this faction, which is their right, but calling it a bad or dumb faction is just wrong.
The moment people go to the obvious trope "Dur hur, they have the password to their hideout as their name" I immediately don't take them seriously, because it shows they literally dont examine the very first lines the Railroad members say about this. I'm not going to even say it here, because it's so obvious, and it's a waste of time trying to explain things when people already made up their minds and don't want to listen to anything that could change it or prove them wrong.
Not only is the Railroad the best faction in the game (not in terms of story, just functionally), but if you're going for the most morally just "good" ending, then it's clearly the Railroad. The only bad thing I can say is the destruction of the BoS Prydwen, but the Railroad is pretty right in that a peaceful co-existence with them is impossible, and that the BoS would turn into a worse version of the SRB after the Institute was destroyed.
And if you think the Minutemen without* destroying the BoS Prydwen is best, you are incredibly naive if you think the BoS is going to do anything less under Elder Maxson to what they did to Elder Lyons and Rivet City. Even the high ranking members of the BoS treat the Minutemen ending like a bunch of peasants doing something impossible. Like they already plan to roll over the Minutemen and basically turn them all into BoS conscripts the very instant they gain a better foothold in the Commonwealth.
I think the Railroad would've been more interesting if they *did not* have a Heavy corps at all (aside from Glory) - the whole concept of the Railroad is, after all, that they are hopelessly outmatched by superior forces, they don't have the manpower or resources for a full-scale military assault, they rely on secrecy, code words, stealth, and sabotage. At least, they're supposed to.
So having Railroad quests that essentially just come down to a slugging match between Railroad and BOS or Institute is absolutely absurd. The Railroad should've been the faction choice for stealth/charisma characters primarily, and the quests involved should reflect this, encouraging the player to sneak, backstab, lie, etc. to complete objectives - while the BOS and Minutemen would satisfy more combat-oriented players, and the Institute could've been a kind of hybrid of both subterfuge and combat.
What's the point of different factions, if there's no functional difference in how you play them?
I’ve been doing this joint minutemen/RR play through and only at the beginning of the RR quest line and I already see a major flaw with Glory’s character. She’s a synth that believes that all synth should be free’d from the institute not just the gen 3’s which could lead to interesting story/character development about the morality of using robots as basically slave labor. Then it gets completely ignored besides a short mention by Deacon and Glory forgetting her morals by shredding gen 1 and 2 synth’s in Medford with a mini gun.
I think that there was a space for the Railroad to be a secondary faction. The problem is that the Railroad have no vision for the _Commonwealth_ .
In Skyrim, there are two parallel narratives which touch, but are not contingent on each other - the Dragons (World ending stuff) and the Civil War (arguably more impactful on Skyrim as a place). The same would have been gangbusters in Fallout 4: there is the big ethical question of how to treat the synths, which is to dehumanize the gen 3 synths or not. And then there is the question of how to govern and be involved in the commonwealth the Commonwealth.
Each faction exists in these contexts:
The Institute is Isolationist/Anarchic (govern), Supremacist (relation), and Anti-personhood (synth question).
The Minutemen are Democratic/Confederated, Engaged, Neutral/lean personhood.
The Brotherhood are Authoritarian, Supremacist, and Anti-synth.
The Railroad don't have explicit policy on the first two. But, engaging with the Railroad can allow the player to inform change in other factions through internal usurpation, or by elimination of the Railroad, etc.
Calling them a faction is a struggle because the Railroad has no structural opinion about the Commonwealth.
Great point about the Railroad blowing up The Institute instead taking it over or negotiating for the synths. I always thought it was weird that they're so protective of synths, but also doom their future, although we don't really know if Gen 3 synths live a long time of just a normal human lifespan. I always wondered if the child Shaun synth would ever grow up or remain a child forever. It's also a rather sick joke by Father to program Shaun to think it's Nate or Nora's son, as it's really just a reminder of the life and family that they lost.
Negotiating for the synths wouldnt really make sense. I mean, the goal should be to stop the production of synths entirely, which would be accomplished by destroying the lab or forcing the institute to a hault.
Since synths cant reproduce, stopping their production should be the ultimate goal, because then no more new synths would be created.
Exactly, the creator treats synth production ending as a bad thing from the view of the railroad, but the railroad doesn't want synths to be like separate people that reproduce, they want to stop the inhumane practice of subjecting sentient beings to slavery then once that is stopped they want to stop production of those sentient beings.
I would have liked fallout 4 to do something slightly different from other Bethesda games, present the institute as so terribly powerful only by uniting the Railroad, BOS, Diamond City, and Minutemen could you have any chance of defeating them. The final quest would be a death star trench race against the clock where if you fail, humanity would really be redefined, forever.
You didn't mention that the railroad "saves" synths by essentially murdering them by eliminating everything which might make them an individual. Why not just shoot them in the head? This is what made me want nothing to do with them...
But on the other hand it makes the robobrains in the automatrons dlc far more relatable, seeing as they have the same great idea.
Every synth that chooses the brain wipe chooses to do so because they can't stand the knowledge that they're not bio human, so it's more akin to assisted suicide of the former self than murder. It would be interesting to have a different perspective like using therapy to habilitate synths in their bodies, or antidepressants or something.
@spok_real The railroaders themselves seem fine with that knowledge. And with the wipes, they are not saving an oppressed people. They are saving a bunch of circuit boards. The whole thing about the organic synths is whacky from every perspective tho. Why make a perfect human if you are just going to enslave them anyway?
Edit: Slaves are already a thing why reinvent the wheel?
Okay, so the game should have had actual faction alliances between two different groups instead of having to choose one to do the dirty deeds. A Minutemen/Railroad is already such a no brainer, as both have a shared interest in helping people and a disdain for current Institute policies, and since the Sole Survivor is the literal General, he/she could have easily broker this alliance as the basic bare-bones ending.
As this video said, a Railroad/Institute alliance would require some bloodshed and player consequence to get them to play along, but this way they could guarantee Synth rights by taking on the Brotherhood of Steel who would be one hell of an army to try beating even with the Institute's advanced technology, let alone whatever the Railroad could possibly muster.
A Brotherhood/Minutemen alliance would ensure the BoS to not instill total martial law under their control and would give the MM a MUCH needed boost to arms and firepower. It would mean making the Institute their main enemy in the late game, and possibly pissing off the Railroad however.
Minutemen/Institute alliance would be almost identical to the RR/INS ending, but instead of what you said in terms of Synth rights and reducing the production to sustainable levels, it would be to make the Institute work for the Commonwealth rather than themselves. While the Minutemen would necessarily get stronger combat-wise, they could work a way to get much better food, clean water, and medicines to the people of the Commonwealth as well as open up the Institute to a path of redemption in the eyes of the people.
A Brotherhood/Institute alliance would almost certainly never work, lore-wise it would be against the very nature of the Brotherhood to side with someone like the Institute normally. However, it may work if the player first sided with the Institute and force the BoS to their knees, in which the Institute offers them a technological alliance in which INS and BoS scientists work together to preserve and improve technology, at the cost of shutting down all Synth production and making all Synth marked for extermination. Easily the most difficult path to choose and the most evil but player choice should always be prioritized over sloppy "railroaded" story telling like base FO4 has.
They really needed way more actual stealth stuff. I get that they already had stealthy guys and didn't need you to be one, but that's like the brotherhood offering you a job as a conflict mediator because they already had enough power armored soldiers. These games in general do have a problem making stealth anything other than "shoot everything that moves while crouching", I think one thing that might help in the future is doing more with the in-game cameras, like FNV's Codac R9000 and the Pro-Snap Deluxe from 76. Having a mission to photograph important parts of an enemy base for recon/intel gathering purposes, and having to do so while remaining concealed and without killing anyone so that they don't realize you're onto them, would be a fun take on stealth. Would've worked well in the Institute too, getting them a better understanding of the layout, and been fun if you had to use the camera without being noticed.
Oh, also, I find it hilarious that the best Railroad ending is just skipping most of their content and doing the Minutemen ending so glory lives and maybe Ticonderoga doesn't get wiped out.
The whole encryption over the radio thing reminds me so much of a video, "turning the titan missile key" where a guy explains the launching process of a ICBM. Calling back to that using radio encryption would have been amazing
Modders gonna be like hold my Drink.
Lets just hope we get some moddets to see this and make this a mod.
Acadia in Far Harbour is what the railroad should've been
*A year ago this video came out, so why have no modders done this? it woudl be fantastic!* 👍💪
These fixes sound reasonable.
I just found the Railroad were really that tedious. And somewhat annoying.
No faction is fantastic. And the RR get the worst of it. Both from the quest front. And they're overall impact on the Commonwealth.
A rag tag group of robot sympathetic, security ignorant people. Running the commonwealth? With no intrest in helping the regular people?
I didn't see a stable path foward for Boston.
Taking the more logical, and sensible option. I kinda took glee, in doing the Bro's of Steel's work. "Ad Victorium, Paladin!"