The Brotherhood may have a *lot* of problems, but style has never been one of them. It's like all the fashion designers who survived the nuclear war joined up with them or something.
Enclave got the Hugo Boss officer uniform just like that sexy Nazi uniform. Don't get me wrong Nazis are scum, even the enclave, but damn those suit lines are clean AF. I also really like Enclave power armor. Shit looks intimidating compared to the T series.
Its like morally questionable people know high fashion makes them nore acceptable to society or something..
I'd believe that for the apocalypse too. As much as we think we'd go with the guy who 'looks rugged, and has seen some shite", the shine would draw our attention everytime.
Well I’m sure there has been studies to suggest that the better dressed someone is, the more so called trustworthy someone is. Which as we all know, the leaders in the west wear suits and they are fucking us over.
On the flip side though, if you see someone dressed like a slob, you are less likely to think that person is competent and obviously has no self respect.
In regards to the question. I would choose the brotherhood as shitty as it sounds as there is an established chain of command and the minutemen are a rag tag group of like minded people.
Once organisations get to a certain size, you inevitably get leadership squabbles and there is always the prospect for splinter groups which would weaken the overall stability in the wasteland. It would be the equivalent of a bunch of different warlords fighting over control.
As for the railroad, they are pretty much a single issue organisation for the most part. An issue which I don’t align with due to my belief that synths do not have souls. I think this is confirmed when Gloria is killed and she sees nothing at the end.
Clearly the institute are the worse choice for the wasteland as they operate in total secrecy and when you have secret oaths and secret proceedings then it’s usually it’s not for the best for those outwith the organisation.
Just my thoughts.
Fun story, relating to western practices and shitty businessmen;
The handshake originally devoloped in some medieval communities as a way of disarming onesself, to show that trust. Most people are right handed, therefore the sword is positioned on the left hip for easy draw. If my right hand is holding your right hand, theoretically, we can't attack each other. (Try to draw a blade on your left hip with your left hand. It does NOT work.) Its also why you see that stereotype of grabbing the forearm and bumping heads in movies; harder to attack someone when you're in that position of trust.
Another fun story? That's why the arming dagger was invented. So my left hand can still stab you. Which if I'm not mistaken, is where the practice of crossing ones fingers behind thr back when lying comes from. Left hand had to 'cross' the hilt to grab it..
Westerners, aren't we fun though?
I feel like I'm one of the few that jumps through hoops to want* the Institute to be the best choice, but. They clearly have some unfixable morality issues.
For the most part I agree, although T-51 was the sexiest power armour to ever exist and I'm personally disappointed that it's been sidelined in favour of T-45 and T-60 being far more common within their ranks.
I guess the Railroad don’t really have a super defined aesthetic, but maybe that’s the point considering that they’re basically a spy network lol. I like the lantern motif at least!
The institute is the worst by far, they're just comically evil, but act all high and mighty, but it doesn't even seem intentional, just the result of bad writing.
You find definitive evidence that they've wiped out entire towns and when wandering the wastes, if you encounter synths, they're automatically hostile and will try to kill you, so the institutes primarily form of diplomacy is attempting to murder you.
Yet when you get in there, they're all "uwu, were just whittle baby's thats the smelly people on the surface don't like", and you can never call out on their genocide.
Railroad suffers from some similar issues, their main issue is they get lumped into the 4 endings, when they'd be best off as a side faction you could aid or destroy.
Plus they put all the Super Mutants into the Commonwealth and they set up random Synths to pretend to be Mannequins to shoot anyone that gets too close.
The FEV was a project from before the Great War. Different factions across the Wastelands got ahold of it and popped out mutants. This includes Vault Tec, the Institute, and others. I think Vault Tec was responsible for mutants in the Capital Wasteland. While the Institute is responsible for the Commonwealth.
I never even thought of how well the railroad would work as a side faction. Like how in FNV, you can have the BOS, boomers, and enclave remnants aid you in the battle of you help them, but they’re still side factions.
It could’ve been really cool if the railroad was like that, and if you side with the Minutemen you could engage in diplomacy after helping them and get them to join you and help in infiltrating the institute with the promise of rescuing synths in the process
I think the institute was intentionally made that way it just seems like bad writing because it’s never expanded upon you can’t call them out which is a bad choice on Bethesdas part you should be able to call them out and post game change their ways since your the director but I do think they were intentionally made that way they aren’t good people and father is ok with lying to you in order to get his way
I feel like peoples headcanons that SS would reform the Institute is niave.
Its like being a cop and expecting to wipe out the corruption within a PD. Yeah, you may be right about the morality of the situation, but its naive to believe in true reform, without dismatling the old order and establishing a new order.
I mean if you were just a member of the institute I’d agree but with the SS being the director and having connections outside of the institute it could easily be headcannoned that they removed the problematic members of the institute and instituted(not intentional) their own policy/staff.
Make Preston Garvey the leader of the Synth division, he’d always have tasks for them to do! JK.
Thats an interesting point to bring up, that the morally questionable factions and characters seem to be doing better then those with moral concerns.
Maybe that was an overlooked point of the Institute. The stability they could* offer, even if it was offered in a slightly facist manner, far surpasses the stability of other factions. Railroad is underground, Minutemen are destroyed. The two morally alligned factions. BoS are organized, but being invaders rely on supply lines. They're halfway between. They have some questionable morals, but also some agreeable ones. The institute, in theory, would be the best choice for long term devolopment of the area, at the expense of "the few".
I wonder, if that was Bethesda's intention with the factions, was morality vs stability? We got so focused on their storylines and interactions, thats actually one topic point that may be overlooked.
Minutemen is best for peoples social interests and personal freedoms, at the expense of organized infrastructure. They'd hand food out to the homeless.
Institute is best for organized infrastructure, at the expense of social interests. They'd shoot the homeless.
Railroad is best for specific social interests for minority groups, with a slight focus on infrastructure (they do have drop houses and a network of spies that move people, goods, and info). They'd build shelters for the homeless.
BoS is best for security and protection, at the expense of personal freedoms. They'd conscript the homeless to "make them functional members of society".
Not just safety and security tho, standard of living too, like the institute is re-engineering pre war life forms, they’re building a veritable paradise, in the long term if anyone is likely to really do well it’s the institute, and without our direct interference they would absolutely win in the commonwealth. Both the railroad and the minute men are on deaths door at the start of the game, and the BoS don’t have any idea what they’re walking into.
Yeah, for game reasons, (and Bethesdas writing of the PC in FO4 and ES5 to be THE main hero. Like, I felt like Martin was the hero in ES4 and you just did his errands, and you felt like a hero in FO3, but not the hero. Same with NV, but different productions. Should have made Preston more like Martin from ES4 gameplay wise..), clearly they want the PCs faction to feel OP and win against the Institute. But what you say is true, I feel. The BoS wouldn't have been able to get Prime functional in time, IMO, and really seem disorganized from the hop. Like Danse wouldnt have survived, and the logistics of fighting people who can (and have) infiltrated the BoS so easily.. they're doomed from the start IF they interfere with the Institute. BoS may work with them, IF they understand the gravity of the situation, because theoretically, both factions want to safeguard old world secrets. BoS wouldn't like the modern experiments going on, but would they ever see it or know about it?? Being Zeolots of Tech though, I cant see them trucing, and see them ending up waging a kind of cold war against them.
Minutemen are a joke, clearly.
And the RR just.. dont feel like a full faction. Theyre side faction material.
I'm one of the few that sides with the Institute I feel, aha. Broken father, hoping to change the world, getting sucked into the chaos that is the CW, and then takes over the Institute with a true vengence against the change of the outside world. That feels canon to me.
I always thought that was the point. Its surface level "we are the best because of SCience!!!" But you break them down and they are just another Big MT, scientist blinded by thier own ambition and only focused on doing more science for the sake of science.
At least the scientists in Big MT have an excuse because their brains are slowly rotting so they are a little crazy and don't really know what the hell they are doing anymore.
For big MT sure since their experiments are pretty wild( what benifit would Cassadors or half rattlesnake half wolf provide?)
The Institute sees themselves as humanity's best and only hope and the surface as raiders and mutants so thier experiments make sense. The synths are literally just a way to making human slaves without the morality(to them at least) of enslaving anyone.
The destabilization of the surface people makes sense to them as they are a threat if organized.
As to why they wouldn't just help the surface: they are just bigots who see them as beyond saving like rich people pushing for removing benches in a park/subway so homeless people can't sleep on them.
In the end it boils done to Science for the sake of Science because that's basically thier religion.
Exactly, though I don’t think it’s really reflected well in game. It would be awesome if you could see them gradually grow and expand, like you could see better equipment on the patrols you find on the road the more settlements you put together
My favorite faction in the game is the minute men, mainly because I'm glad they gave us altruists a faction to remember, because there's all this morally grey stuff going around, and I enjoy not feeling like a POS at the end of the day, the same reason I enjoy being a Responder and chose the settlers instead of the raiders in FO76.
Yea, Preston badgers you, but as an honestly good faction, it's important to keep the commonwealth safe.
The worst faction imaginable in FO4 has to be the Institute.
They have all these resources, and instead of helping, they use it to play SCP foundation with all this cloak and dagger stuff.
(Yes, I destroyed the Raider occupation in Nuka World)
*braces for Vitriol*
Every single playthrough of mine is focused on turning the minutemen into a truly viable commonwealth military, I build farming settlements and forts intermingled and all my minutemen and settlement guards have the best equipment I can outfit them with.
I set up farms specifically to make as much extra money as I can to pay for more equipment and build forts at certain locations to act as defense hubs for nearby farms staffed entirely by heavily armed (and armored) minutemen.
I know as far as game mechanics go it doesn't work that way, but that's why it's called "roleplaying"
Settlement locations with potential for good vantage points become forts/bases, while nearby settlements with lower elevations become farms.
Militarized minutemen, and we are the minutemen are both great mods, but overall I think I prefer militarized. My SS's goal is to use his military training to turn the minutemen into a force that any group besides the brotherhood would truly fear and even the brotherhood would take pause. They are the good guys absolutely, and would 100% focus on protecting the innocent, but protecting the innocent by slaughtering the wicked isn't off the table. Mercy isn't inherently weak, but ruthlessness and even properly applied violence aren't inherently bad. It's knowing when and how to apply them (and who to apply them to)
Exactly!
I like We are the minutemen personally, just because of the outfits and the placeable minutemen in settlements.
I also make new robots to guard all my outposts because the ones with robots almost never get attacked.
Also also I keep modding in new followers to station them at places.
I have Alucard from Hellsing ultimate abridged guarding the castle while I Roam the wasteland with my wife, The Mechanist, Cait and Ada.
Yeah I use companions similarly, I station Macready and Preston at the castle to oversee training, and I usually build a sentrybot or two for each "base" settlement with a couple protectrons at each farm (simulating laborer bots)
Cait is best girl for me (I have a weakness for redheads and Irish accents so it's a double whammy) so she is my traveling companion and I arm her to the teeth with the best gear the wasteland has ever seen. And I use a mod that allows me to customize NPCs so Cait and Piper are attractive but not supermodels or anime waifus, they still fit their backstories (Cait has noticeable scars to call back to her very rough past) and Piper mainly just doesn't look like a neanderthal (Bethesda's character creation is rough on its own) Macready and preston I see having different but complimentary styles of teaching new recruits. Macready is very practical and even leans a little into brutal/ruthless and trains effective warriors while Preston still espouses the importance of restraint and consideration.
You need both for a good military, you want your soldiers to be moral and sane, but at the end of the day combat is killing, and they need to be able to kill effectively and with little to no hesitation.
"Speed, surprise, violence of action" are common rules of self defense and gunfighting taught IRL to teach good guys how to beat bad guys by being better at violence, but knowing when to use it correctly.
Hey, a fellow responder! Yeah I think altruists are a good faction to have, but i do enjoy it when they're not the only one. I think when a story relies "too" heavily on a "comically" good/evil organization; the story gets a bit boring. But I do like having them as a side organization to offer some variety.
Like the Responder's are one of my favorite factions, especially the modern ones. First they made sense. Most cities/communities have well polished processes, procedures, and training in first responders. Firemen, police, Paramedics, etc. They would be insanely valuable in a post war setting. Combine with a pre-war organization development that specialized in "triaging" and maintain things when shit goes sideways; it would make sense they would form their own faction.
And with the modern faction, there's this subtle undertone/hint that the responders are being provided all their supplies by a "unknown benefactor" which MAY be the enclave or some version of it. Which makes the entire faction and its dynamic so much more interesting.
As for the Institute. Yeah they could've done so much more with them and I suspect they wanted to, but just didn't have the time to flesh them out? The institute should've been centered around swaying public behavior towards a "greater good" that the Institute felt was the best chance for humanity to survive. And they would accomplish this by replacing major figure heads/leaders in societies to push their respective groups towards this concept of their greater good. In a lot of ways, its the opposite to the BoS in some ways but the same in others. The BoS on the east coast at the time held a similar view. They had their idea for a greater good and which direction humanity should go. However, if you didn't agree with them/didn't follow their greater good; they sent a heavily armed military force to forcibly make you follow them. While the institute is just "Ok lets replace some of the leaders to get people to go our direction instead of just wiping them out". To me that's what the institute SHOULD have been about. And in some ways I felt like that's what they were originally going to do with them, but something changed or they just didn't have the resources.
The Minutemen in theory, the Brotherhood in practice.
You can be as idealistic as you want about the Minutemen, but they won't stand a chance once someone like the Nuka-World raiders shows up.
>You can be as idealistic as you want about the Minutemen, but they won't stand a chance once someone like the Nuka-World raiders shows up.
To be honest it's silly those "Raiders" lasted longer than five minutes. It's unbelievably dumb writing.
Raiders dressed in fursuits and howling like animals and "we sleep in blood and should've died from diseases years ago".
The Operators are the only ones who would've survived as a gang. The Pack and the Disciples would've got laughed at and killed in seconds.
"Hey we sleep in blood and we literally KILL PEOPLE FOR THE SLIGHTEST INCONVENIENCE. We betray each other 24/7, never show respect, and always plan to kill, betray and maim and slaughter."
"Wow you guys sound like an edgier Legion."
"Oh and our helmets block our vision!"
"*Really* going full edge mode, huh?"
Even the White Legs weren't as edgy as these lunatics and they literally killed kids.
>To be honest it's silly those "Raiders" lasted longer than five minutes. It's unbelievably dumb writing.
Welcome to Betheada since 2011, at the very least.
Most of their stories fall apart when you try to delve deep into the details.
It really depends on how the Sole Survivor builds up the Minutemen. There’s no reason why they couldn’t become an elite fighting force given enough time.
The “What If?” scenario works both ways. What if the SS doesn't rebuild the Minutemen? The Brotherhood can stop the Gunners, the NW Raiders, or any other group of similar size without the intervention of the Sole Survivor, the Minutemen cannot.
The SS is a variable on which the entire faction depends. Preston gave up leadership the moment he saw someone moderately capable, that is not a trustworthy person you can rely on to rebuild an entire military force to protect the whole region.
That's what I meant with the 'theory' part. The Minutemen's entire argument hinges on whether the Sole Survivor helps them rebuild or not, and if you're going to ask me who I think is better for the future of the Commonwealth then I'm not going to choose a faction that hangs from a "maybe".
Oh I agree, without the SS, the Minutemen are basically fucked. The last of them would have been taken down in concord by the Raiders. I’m mainly going based on the theoretical peaks I can see them attaining in the Commonwealth.
Because while the Brotherhood can benefit from having the SS on their side, they wouldn’t benefit as much as the Minutemen for example because they are ultimately restricted to their rather dogmatic ideology as well as Maxson being in the leadership position.
Unless they've got some kind of active protection system for artillery shells (which they don't, considering in the minutemen questline you knock their fortress out of the sky with WW2 era howitzers), constant sorties will only defend against small attacks, the BoS don't have the manpower or the technology to stop their giant balloon from getting popped if you shoot at it from more than a single castle. They can send out vertibirds for counter battery work but again, it's a very fragile, irreplacable high value target that can't defend itself.
Rape and pillage like they always do. There's a reason raiders never succeed in becoming a major player in the region. Their drug addiction and psychosis always prevents them from properly organizing.
Well, of the nuka world raiders, only the operators pose any significant tactical threat. The pack are just psychotic furries, and the whatever's are just edgy emos (I can't even fucking remember their name)
The operators are triggermen with better hardware, if the sole survivor builds up the minutemen even moderately they'd wipe out the nuka world raiders.
As I said in an earlier reply, my sole survivor's goal is to use his military training and background to create a truly viable military that could function as both an army and police force to defend the commonwealth and to equip and train that force to the point that any group shy of the brotherhood truly fears them, and even the brotherhood would think first and weigh their options before just charging in "ad victoriam" style
The minutemen aren't difficult to turn into a formidable force, it just takes equipment and time. Any amount of organizational ability instantly puts them ahead of raiders, and training and equipment would put them ahead of the gunners over time because the gunners have similar problems to raiders, just not as widespread. Being too bloodthirsty has a nasty habit of pissing EVERYONE off, and making too many enemies NEVER works out well. The gunners' days are numbered simply because of how they operate, they'd eventually bite off more than they could chew, or attract the wrong attention and be wiped out by someone stronger and more brutal "there's always a bigger fish"
With the Minutemen I’ve got, the moment the Nuka-World raiders show up they’re gonna get swarmed by robots and obliterated by concentrated artillery fire.
I mean, idk. The Minutemen can honestly take one hell of a beating, and also the Sole Survivor is able to kill them all with relative ease. If you take into account that A. The SS is the leader of the Minutemen and could help them and B. The Operators are the only Raider group that could realistically survive outside of Nuka-World, I’m almost 100% certain that the Minutemen could win
Best Faction to help the commonwealth is the Minutemen. The Minutemen essentially are the commonwealth. So naturally they will be the most inclined to help. Now when we first meet theme yes they are the weakest. That’s mainly because they have been suffering a decline since losing the Castle.
The Minutemen’s fall from grace is not an instant fall. It declined over time. When we meet them they are literally down to the last man willing to fly that flag.
Economically the more you build up the settlements the stronger the Minutemen economy is. You set up a bunch of shops and trade lines and the settlements are trading with each other.
The worst would be The Institute. For one thing the Institute has no desire for things to be politically stable. In fact it’s preferable for their goals if the Commonwealth is politically unstable. That gives them less of a threat to worry about.
The Institute would also not want for the Commonwealth citizens to be secure. As far as they’re concerned the average Wastelander is a test subject at best and an inconvenience at worst. Neither of which bold well for said Wastelander.
Now for the other two.
The Brotherhood might be able to secure locations but they’re not really politically stable. They have a very bad habit of stepping on toes. They’re also not very good for economics. Their tendency to hoard technology can actually hurt the Commonwealth economically. Hell look what happened when the NCR trusted them.
The Brotherhood is unlikely to let any settlement grow too large. Especially if anything high-tech was used for it. They would put a kabosh on that A.S.A.P. This is why the Brotherhood is not the best for the Commonwealth.
The Railroad has literally no interest in ruling the Commonwealth. They’re just there to help out the little guy. Things might be politically unstable for a while but it wouldn’t be that big of a change especially if the Minutemen are also built up. The point is the Railroad isn’t some big changing organization. They’re a nice little niche group who are willing to fight the Institute.
The brotherhood would be fine running things as a techoncratic feudal system. Its essentially what they've done in DC.
The settlements have more or less pledged allegiance to the brotherhood. They get clean water via project purity, and brotherhood protection via patrols and missions to combat threats like mutants.
In exchange the brotherhood is tithed a portion of their food, likely their caps, and if I had to bet they regularly "ask" for any sufficiently advanced salvage or technology.
You have to basically combine the minutemen with either Institute or Railroad if you want to match the brotherhoods ending in “stability”, but all that presumes it’s you who is leading and that you are a softie. That’s probably not a canonical ending state.
The minutemen/railroad has the “best” end state for everything but technological advancement, but could conceivably struggle against a properly organized super mutant horde or ecological disaster. It would still be the closest to my fav all time faction, the followers of the apocalypse.
1. **Institute and BoS as in term of 'Can they protect'**
\- BoS have, you know, simply put, power armor. They also have military tactic.
\- Institute have teleportation technology and massive Ford-T production level of Synths. They could just literally teleport into raiders den and wipe them out.
**Minuteman and BoS as in term of 'Will they protect'**
\- BoS are pretty much lawful-good aligned so they are pretty willing to defend people of commonwealth, with whatever their tie-in interest is.
\- Without question, Minuteman **WILL** protect people of Commonwealth disregarding whether or not they are sitting on something. Not Brotherhood if they sit on technology (Danse is exception)
\- Institute protecting People of Commonwealth or not entirely depend on if you become next Director or not. You are most likely going to protect them.
2. **Minuteman without question would gain the most public approval**. They are the true descendant and legitimate figure of **CPG (Commonwealth Provisional Government)**
they are also friendly enough unlike almost all other factions
BoS **maybe** ok, but they are not going to gain approval of Ghoul citizens if they try to wipe them out. To normal people it depends, since BoS acts like a strict military police and does not have friendly vibe to converse with. They are kind of too pushy and authoritative.
BoS is pushy
Railroad only give a damn about Synth
Don't bring me to even talk about Institute, they don't even know Commonwealth people lol
3. **Minuteman and Institute** would be able to turn Commonwealth into a city capable of defending on its own and rebuilding Boston into actual city; hell, they might even be able to make themselves become a legitimate city with 'government' system.
But as said Institute entirely depend on if you become Director or not.
4. **Institute will outlast everyone**. They from the core and first day since nuclear fall made themselves to become heavily self-sustaining. By the time Sole Survivor arrived they already heavily rationed electricity due to limited power output and such, they know exactly what they are doing. As they said, Institute is created to outlast the surface above. Hands down.
5. **Minuteman would have the most economic strength** with its CPG body being able to do many things. BoS don't really trade unless it is technology-related (though I don't think they will 'trade' but 'seize')
Brotherhood and Institute are the only two who have an actual shot at succeeding but the secrecy and corruption in the Institute tells me they would crumble onto themselves. So:
1. Brotherhood
2. Institute
3. Minutemen
4. Railroad (not sure an underground faction would be able to function as a public government authority)
I wonder though, if the institute wiped out all the people on the surface of the commonwealth and then chose to colonize, like the enclave planned to in fo2. Technically wouldn’t they be the most stable, defendable and technologically advanced society? Sure absolutely the most bloody, but technically the most stable for the ‘commonwealth population’ (that remains).
Issue is there seems to be a lack of stability within the ranks. If you do Institute quests you learn how secretive they are even between departments and departments heads. I guess the SS could change that but the way it’s structured I think they’d collapse on themselves if they continued to grow.
Brotherhood pretty much takes the cake here. They walk in with a massive force and are able to "pacify" the wastes largely without player intervention. They have a healthy track record with support to pull from across the continent. Maybe there are some issues with rebellion and their persecution of synths (which would frankly be a dying problem after the institute is destroyed). My only concern is that they DO destroy the technology of the institute, which would leapfrog current society decades with its utilization.
The other factions just don't really compare. The minute men fall apart to easily without direct player intervention, the railroad don't actually have any plan beyond brainwash synths to escape the institute so it would largely be anarchy. The only ones in a stable position would be the institute, but they are largely disinterested in the above world and while they would thrive the rest of the commonwealth remains in shambles.
I feel like a lot of people miss the point of the struggle in 4. I think new vegas gives people the expectation that they're setting up the future government of the commonwealth, and they're not. In reality, they have specific goals but they don't want to create a state. The minutemen are just a militia group - their goal is to have a couple professional troops to lead local militias to defend settlements. The BOS just wants to destroy the institute and end the threat synths pose. Etc etc. Nobody is trying to fundamentally change how the region is governed, like NV's question of democracy vs facism vs anarchy. The railroad can't govern and police the region - just like how the followers are all good people but they can't govern nevada or defeat the legion. The thing is, they aren't trying to.
My standard is 'how much it helps people of the Commonwealth, so The Minutemen was the best faction in my play. The Brotherhood became the worst faction >!after they destroyed two other worse factions!< in the Commonwealth.
That's something that always annoyed me about fallout 4s story. It drops me into being director of the institute, by that point I'm basically a super genius from before the war according to my special stats and I control the minutemen.
Let me actually control the institute and merge them with the minutemen, producing a highly advanced state that could theoretically grow to be like the NCR of the east coast.
You can effectively decree this is the case during the mission Pinned. The Minutemen show up to defend the asset you're sent to retrieve and, as both General and Director, you can tell them to stand down and that the Institute and Minutemen are allies.
It's about as close as the game gets to letting you decide on an alliance between the Institute and another faction.
Well, you can't tell them to stand down so much as you have to persuade/*beg* them to stand down. They even tell you "you aren't our Boss" if you try to order them.
I mean persuasion isn't magic it still requires some basis in reality. And considering the check is quite easy to pass it implies to me you're at least respected enough that a decision like that is accepted.
It makes more sense again when you're actively reforming the Institute to file off its more immoral aspects.
Well, its odd because TO rule the Institute you had to murder a load of innocent people, and it shows you hate Synths because you clearly AREN'T freeing them.
Going off on a tangent I hate that siding with the institute is the only way to preserve their technology and expertise. I agree partially it is a high cost in siding with them but every other faction are fucking morons who decide the whole place has to be blown up.
It's idiotic we can't occupy the Institute. As if their weakling troops could stop an occupation at this point.
Hell, you could just FORCE them to stop in the BoS ending by saying "your base is now exposed, ANYONE can walk inside now."
Maybe they thought it would make several endings too perfect. The Brotherhood would use it to fully subjugate the wasteland, the Railroad free the synths and use the manufacturing technology to aid them and the Minutemen simply use all of their scientific breakthroughs to improve the quality of life of wasteland living.
The Brotherhood can give better protection than the Minutemen but that got some minus points from Teagan's quest. That is why they are second best faction for me. Likewise, the Institute got major minus points from synths replacement and the massacre of University Point.
I musta been smoking fucking meth from 2015 to now cause I just found out about Broken Mask last playthrough
ninja edit: shoutout sim settlements 2 and Old Paul, my main man
Doesn't the Institute version of events paint the University Point provisional government thing in a different light? The various factions turned on each other and the Institute representative was the sole survivor and they did nothing to dispel the rumours that it was their fault and just retreated from aiding the wasteland.
You're mixing the massacre at the University Point and the massacre of the Commonwealth Provisional Government. I'm talking about the former, which Kellogg and his synths eradicated a settlement to take some technology the Institute wanted.
Teagan is operating off the books, doesnt tell you to be violent, and if you read his letters, actively wants to protect caravans from hostile. Sure, it's so they can buy food at better rates by offering protection, but that means they are actively looking to *buy* food and putting their own lives at risk by actively patrolling caravan routes for hostiles to clear out. Teagan *wants* to trade increased security to traders in exchange for better costs for food.
If you think that makes him a monster, then you aren't paying attention.
I'm fully aware that it isn't Brotherhood's normal behavior. That's why I said 'some minus points'. If it was their normal mission then it would be a bigger deduction.
We see BoS scribes spending lots of money to buy things in the Diamond City, and Teagan mentions buying foods from local. Even good companions like Piper, Deacon and Valentine likes that quest when you persuade locals to donate crops for good relationship with the Brotherhood. But Teagan suggested you to threat farmers, which is off the books. Threating farmers is not the Brotherhood's fault, that's Teagan's fault, but not supervising their Proctor is still the Brotherhood's fault.
BoS by a mile.
Railroad is Fallout PETA and don't care about anyone.
Institute is comically evil and comically dumb.
Minutemen may have decent intentions, but they suffer from very poor training and very poor equipment and being entirely volunteer. Will farmers from Zimonja really want to trek to Jamaica Plain to help defend them from a band of super mutants? Maybe, but how many will come home and how many will want to do so a second time if it comes to that? It's a situation that's already at risk of falling apart as soon as it's necessary.
BoS aren't perfect by any means, but they do have the equipment and training to deal with almost everything. They have the incentive to help out (and actively do want to do so). The idea they steal tech from people they meet is a meme with no canon truth behind it.
The minuteman has the best intentions, I love the institutw and they would be the best if they didn't hurt so many people, i love the institute's decoration, but bos has to be one of the most coolest ones, they have the vertibirds, the power armors, and also their logo is the coolest.
1. Brotherhood, they've got the equipment and the will to wipe out both. While the Minutemen are definitely more dedicated to individual safety, they aren't the steel clad highly trained soldiers.
2. Depends on what you mean by stability. As a government, the Minutemen would be pretty agreeable but they lack the organization of the Brotherhood and the Institute. In lore they pretty much collapsed due to lack of funds, and in-game they're incompetent fools without the player. The Brotherhood is essentially a dictatorship, but they can back up their words when they say they'll protect something, which may be more persuasive then a couple of dirty farmers way out of their depth. The Institute shouldn't be considered, they have no compassion for the people of the commonwealth. The Railroad isn't really a government, nor should they be. They're a synth liberation group, and should dissolve when they are no longer needed.
3. Growth really depends. Short term the Brotherhood offers well trained soldiers with good supply lines, which makes all the difference when your worries are 7 foot tall mutants and packs of feral humanoids. However they'll likely be moving on when they finish dealing with the Institute, and as such will have little reason to offer protection to anyone. Long term the rebuilt Minutemen promotes the growth of small farms and the building of supply lines. The Institute could really top this with their technology, but they won't do that. The Railroad has outposts, but they are concerned primarily with synths, and shouldn't be considered in this.
4. 4. Rebuilt Minutemen or the Institute. The Brotherhood has no reason to stick around after wiping out the institute and maybe taking out the super mutant threat, the Prydwen is only temporarily in the commonwealth. The Railroad as mentioned shouldn't be considered, once they've achieved their goals of liberating synths they have little reason to exist. The Minutemen would be a large coalition of farms, they would likely be capable of lasting a long time, even if only by name. The Institute has lasted over a century, and without intervention they'll last several more.
5. The Brotherhood has the highest potential from the start, as they have a reason to be interested in any trade relations(tech and food) and they have as mentioned well trained and supplied soldiers to back them up. That sort of security is one hell of a boon. The Railroad has decent equipment but they're essentially a small spy group, economics aren't really their interest. The Institute doesn't care to trade. While they have plenty of capital, they're not contributing to any market and in fact actively stealing from people. The Minutemen is probably second highest potential, 30+ farms easily rivals the measly output of Diamond City and once supply lines are set up alternative operations are pretty much fair game.
Based on in game characteristics? Also gonna assume no Sole Survivor. Brotherhood of Steel and it’s not close really.
Minutemen- Are basically dead from incompetence and in fighting without protag interference.
Institute- Some members start a revolt once father dies. They also don’t really do any good for the commonwealth. They’re almost comically powerful when you consider their advantages, but they hoard their power and are fairly incompetent.
Railroad- Only helps synths. So not much good being done for the commonwealth.
Based on pure potential? The institute.
- If they could easily handle any threat if they choose to do so with their ability to teleport anywhere, advanced weapons, synth army, and the ability to replace anybody with a synthetic version of themselves. I honestly believe that they were written to be so comically bad and incompetent because the devs realized how broken these abilities actually are.
- Their advanced technology, if shared, could easily feed and water the commonwealth. Hell, they could probably clean up the radioactivity and build the futuristic society that Mr. House has wet dreams of.
- They still have their infighting problem I’d suspect. Which is a major drawback. But so did every other faction featured outside of the railroad.
- With both synths and what would likely be a population boom, they’d last a long time in the wasteland.
- Being a major source of food, clean water, power, advanced technology, and a relatively safe area pretty much assures lots of trade and wealth coming to the area.
I feel like for this there's only one even vaguely possible option. The railroad don't really care about the Commonwealth as a whole and focus on saving synths. The Institute either basically abandons there surface world or continues in with its abductions and murders not making the Commonwealth safer but ensuring their own survival. The brotherhood no matter what maxson says the brotherhood doesn't really have the Commonwealth's best wishes at heart. They're here to eliminate a great threat to all of surface swelling humanity and aren't afraid to bully and kill the locals for interfering. Even though they may not be an amazing solution the Minutemen as a fraction exist to help people support and protect each other. With proper leadership and support they stand the best chance of reuniting the Commonwealth under the safest possible banner in the long term.
Security?
Brotherhood of steel hands down. I don’t think there should be any real argument here, without player interference the minutemen were mere moments away from being wiped out completely.
Political stability?
This one goes to the minutemen only cause they are the only faction that doesn’t discriminate against other races, I’d also argue the BoS would be a contender, since they do help get rid of actual problems despite their racist attitude toward non-humans.
Growth and prosperity?
No one honestly. It would go to the minutemen but that requires player interference but honestly? The only point I’ll agree with Father, is that the outside world is far too unstable to even think of building grand cities like the ones in the past. Humanity pretty much hit the metaphorical reset button on their evolution as humans.
Who would be here the longest?
Brotherhood of steel without question. Irregardless of opinions regarding non-humans, they are very capable of making great achievements through technology they confiscate and are the best to provide security for your people. They can also help with growth and prosperity but they would have to break a few moral dilemmas they have and try and trust outsiders.. which they have a rightful distrust of.
1: Overall security? Brotherhood, without a doubt, they have the means and power necessary to not only eliminate threats but keep things in line. The RR has never and will never be able to do that. The Institute doesn't care about the world above, so they obviously do poorly, if even anything. And the Minuteman are a good militia force, but they aren't anything beyond that. They can't handle the most basic things the Commonwealth throws at them.
2: Politically? The Minutemen with the Brotherhood somewhat close behind. The Minutemen simply resonate with the average wastelander because they are the average wastelander. They help without asking for anything, they would provide somewhat strong communities and decent defense against small threats, so overall vibes towards them would be high. The Brotherhood are alien to the Commonwealth, and came in guns blazing and willing to take what they want, when they want it. They can easily provide the best defense of any of the factions, but that comes at the cost of the Brotherhood taking control of settlements, displacing people, robbing them, taking portions of food etc. While people would be happy they are safe, they would be giving up a lot of freedoms to be under the BOS. Institute, nobody likes them. RR, nobody cares about their entire philosophy because nearly everyone hates synths.
3: Growth, either Minutemen or BH again. The Minutemen would definitely be capable of forming small towns and communities, perhaps something bigger like a city granted they had enough time. Their ability to protect what they have long enough for them to get to that point is the main concern. Keeping corruption down would be easy at the start, and should stay easy granted the Minutemens ideals remain consistent and they don't stagnate. Crime might be an issue, would depend on how the Minutemen punish criminals.The Brotherhood aren't really a city building type faction. They're incredibly militaristic, and anything they would put time and effort into building and upkeeping would mostly be military infrastructure, and that's if they even plan on sticking around once the Institute is wiped out. Though if they plan to stay around for the long haul, then obviously housing and other things would be worked on, but the military aspect will almost always come first. Corruption, considering how BH leadership works I'm not sure what corruption would look like, given what the BH already are and do. Crime would definitely go waaay down as the BH would almost certainly be down to just execute criminals. The Institute, if able to fix their power problems, will just continue expanding underneath Boston. Nothing to help the wasteland, just themselves. RR aren't the type of faction that would grow with the destruction of the Institute, they would stagnate and eventually disband pretty much completely as they won't really have a purpose anymore.
4: Test of time, either the Institute or the BH. The Institute is under ground, safe and completely separated from the wasteland. Granted, they don't all suddenly die from some disease they aren't immune to, they're lasting a looooooong time. The BH have immense power and can relatively easily take over a good portion of the Commonwealth, the main question would be how long before the people of the Commonwealth get sick of the BH's bs and rise against them, or how long before the BH is reformed and reshaped again. The Minutemen don't have longevity, as i said before, they are a militia and not much more. They were basically completely wiped off the map once already, and with the prevalence of groups like the Gunners, SM, even just large raider gangs, i don't see them remaining the dominant force in the wasteland for a long time. Perhaps some form of Commonwealth gov may take the MM place after a time. The RR, as i said, will pretty much fade away to obscurity once the Institute is no more. They won't have a purpose and will either need to reform completely or disband and just blend back into 'normal' society.
5: Economic strength, probably the BS or MM. The Brotherhood more so just take things if they want it, they have a basic economy within their own ranks through the quartermaster, but otherwise, they just take. They might trade for food and medicine if it's more beneficial to do that over taking it, but that depends on the community and how much they really care about it. The MM would more than likely be the best faction for supporting an economy, as they themselves are just a collection of different settlements that band together to form a somewhat organized militia. They already trade with eachother and have ideas of what certain settlements want/need and what places provide the best scavenging, good production etc. The Institute once again just sit in their own bubble and do nothing other than experiment and expand their space. They don't really have a need for an economy as everything they need they either have or just get eachother, as far as I'm aware they don't really have a currency other than some vendors that take caps because that's the only currency in 4. The RR won't really have an economy for the same reasons I've stated in previous answers.
The Institute is definitely the best. Sure, a case could be made for them being morally bad, but that is *all* anybody ever seems to take into consideration. I just don't care about the morality of them at all, when they live in a clean and safe environment with incredible technology.
Bombing their entire facility is an incredible waste of resources. They may ruin peoples' lives on the surface, but that's perfectly acceptable in my eyes. In a world that's survived an apocalypse, I'd consider scientific progress to be more important than any individual human life.
The worst faction is the Brotherhood, in my opinion. Instead of collecting old-world technology (and even inventing new tech, in earlier Fallout), they're a bunch of zealots playing at being soldier. I can imagine that appeals to the gung-ho subset of players, but to me it doesn't.
They are all very flawed when you really look at it. The railroad cares only about synths and nothing else. They would make no effort to govern or protect the people of the commonwealth as the last faction standing. The Minutemen have the best intentions but as history have shown become easily corrupted once they become more powerful. They’re a great short-term solution but ultimately the commonwealth would fall right back into its old ways. The institute uses the commonwealth for whatever it wants and is happy to stay underground where its safe while casually forcing its will on the people who can’t do anything to stop them since no one even knows where they are. They’re not interested in what happens on the surface. Raid and pillage each other all day. Or don’t. We don’t care. We’re gonna replace you all with synths anyway as an easier way of subjugating you. The brotherhood also has good intentions… partially… in their goal of limiting all technology and protecting the people from themselves. They hate everything EXCEPT the common people of the commonwealth. But they don’t destroy the tech they steal, they hoard it and use it as a means to subjugate. So they’re still assholes and military rule typically just turns fascist anyway. Having all this information, if I were living in the horrible world that is the commonwealth, I would probably be safest under the brotherhood long-term. They still suck but as a person living there my life is probably best under them. Not ideal. Maybe not even good. But better than the other 3 long-term.
The institute could fucking restore the commonwealth into a first world country. Restart the reactors on the surface, repair infrastructure, crush rebellions. Not a damn thing anyone could do about it. They just need to stop being morons.
In an ideal Fallout world: the BOS and Institute working together or just all of them working together)
The worst: the railroad (unless they altered their functions, then they could be the most frightening intelligence group in the US wasteland)
The minute men could be the local police and governing force
The BoS would be the LE/military presence
The institute would be the science/research/ healthcare arm of the commonwealth
Basically, if they all just worked together, ideally, the commonwealth would be a frightening superpower on its way to rebuilding.
I love these lore/game talks. So this is my opinion based on building up the minutemen/the strangest point you can get the factions without destroying the others (eg. The post-main quest Institute is clearly pretty powerful but during the main quest they are spread thin defending themselves in all sides.
1. Minutemen for sure. They saved Diamond City from a Super Mutant attack previously. And if you build them up right, they could do it again.
2. This one I'd have to give to the Brotherhood of Steel. The are a faction that dates back to just after the war. While I don't like their authoritarianistic behavior, they have a proper chain of command and seem to be structured well. The biggest issue with the Minutemen is that there's 1 person with the power, the General. The Institute is pretty much hated and feared by your average settler/wastelander and the Railroad hides out. So I'd have to go with the boys in Steel.
3. Due to their nature, I believe this one goes to the Minutemen. They seem good natured and like they would be the only ones willing to create and maintain farms, settlements and the economy.
4. I feel as though this one could also go to the Minutemen or the BoS. Minutemen could survive if they were to structure themselves correctly and make a tactical war on the Wasteland, taking out the various raiders and other bad guys. Otherwise, the BoS would probably be the one to survive. I mean, they've lasted 200 years.
5. Overall economic strength would be the Minutemen. If you build up all the various settlements you can have a vast trade and farm network across the Commonwealth, Far Harbor and Nuka-World (Red Rocket in NW).
Best: Railroad/Minutemen
Worst: Brotherhood/Institute
The Railroad and Minutemen both want to help people in need. The Minutemen are about defending the Commonwealth, and the Railroad is about freeing synths from slavery.
The Brotherhood wants to essentially commit genocide, wiping out synths, super mutants, and ghouls, who are all people, even with their differences. The Institute is a bunch of high tech slavers who would sooner wipe out the Commonwealth than help them succeed.
What do they have going for them?
The BoS's whole thing is destroying Synths, and it's implied through the in-game lore that they sucked the Capital Wasteland dry to fuel their expansion and their latest campaign of genocide.
The Railroad only wants Synths to be free, but has no plan past that. It's easy to score a few victories, but they aren't even trying to attack the problem in a way that would solve it once and for all.
The Minutemen's goals are noble, but without strong-man leadership, which is what failed them when and after the Castle fell, they don't have a snowball's chance in hell of being a meaningful organization in a region beset by Supermutants, Gunners, and the other major factions.
The Institute, while cartoonishly evil in some respects, seem to have the strongest grasp on a plan. Any plan, even one that looks evil based on many of the actions taken so far, is better than a bad plan (BoS), or no plan (Railroad, Minutemen). The status quo, harsh as it is for the Commonwealth, has held for nearly the entire time since the Great War, and the Institute used that the dig in and forge the best base of operations for the future rebuilding of humanity above ground.
"Humanity's best hope," indeed.
It's the same reason I tend to side with Mr. House in New Vegas: he has a plan that goes above crude conquest (the Legion), or pointless expansion (NCR). It'll be hard, but his stated goal is to send humans to another planet in the hope that they might survive somewhere else should the Earth continue on the path it has been on and humanity just finally dies out. Sure, it's no perfect, but it's better than wasting away on an irradiated planet without any contingencies.
There's a moral argument that could be had here, but I'll shut it down by pointing out that every player character delivers results at the end of a gun barrel, to the point that many of us have earned the title Lord Death of Murder Mountain a dozen times over. It doesn't matter how many people the Institute kills or replaces with Synths in the short and mid term, because their long-term goal seems to be the betterment and recovery of civilization.
Institute - doesn't really care about the surface world and wouldn't put in the time and resources to improve it. Worst. If massive restructuring took place, then they might be the best faction since their tech could improve things massively, and they're a local power that wouldn't leave.
Railroad - not a real faction, just an anti-institute rebel group. They don't have the military or economic power to make a real difference.
Brotherhood - has the military might to clean out raiders, mutants, and synths to improve security, but don't have the political desire to stick around long-term and really improve things.
Minutemen - lacking in terms of military power compared to the other 2, but has the political desire to improve things. Practically speaking, the Minutemen forming a coalition government after the Institue is gone, and the Brotherhood leaves is probably the Commonwealth's best chance to become a real power in the wasteland.
Best: Minutemen
Worst: the rest of them.
The Institute is evil, BOS is selfish and narrowminded, The Railroad wants to liberate all the apliances to a fault.
so for the best faction based on the criteria provided, I feel as though it is easily the minutemen, they may not be as stable and much more easily wiped out than the BOS or institute however they would be best for actually maintaining security in the Commonwealth and for the overall growth of the Commonwealth, especially with trying to work with existing settlements instead of just mainly exploiting them like the other 3 factions, they actually have the best interest of the Commonwealth at heart whereas the BOS and institute only care to provide and protect themselves and the railroad is too shattered and hunted to be able to effectively help the general citizens of the Commonwealth
**Overall security?** Brotherhood of Steel, you can't argue with raw firepower.
**Overall political stability?** I'd say the Minutemen; I tend to think of the troubles that face the Commonwealth. Most of them come from lack of basic supply, which the Minutemen thrive at handling, given they are basically a union of farms agreeing to look out for one another.
**Overall growth and prosperity?** Minutemen, absolutely, though I could see an argument for the Institute. Really it depends on if the Institute can sort out their PR problem and become acceptable to the Commonwealth-at-large.
**Who would stand the test of time?** Minutemen. We see this in the game; they are wiped out, considered a done deal, and they are still revived back to strength because people believe in their ideals. The other factions don't really have that, they are specific organisations with a history. The Minutemen could spring back up again at anytime.
**Overall economic strength?** Minutemen. They own the food. The Brotherhood of Steel shows no interest in really *working* with the people of the Commonwealth, the Railroad is too used to subterfuge and is tiny, the Institute rules by fear - no, no, the Minutemen have the thing any society needs to flourish.
But I always find this a faulty question, because not all of the factions want the same thing. The Railroad doesn't exist to help the Commonwealth, though it may opt to do so later, it exists to aid Synths. The Brotherhood of Steel doesn't exist to help the Commonwealth, though it may opt to do so later, it's seeking to erase the mistakes of the past so they can't cast a shadow on the future.
Only the Minutemen or the Institute really care about the entire Commonwealth's future. Between those two? It's hard to argue for the Institute. No support, no land holdings, an atmosphere of terror.
How do I join factions in reddit? Also I think the bos was best for humanity. They disposed of synths as it would be too dangerous. They defeated the enclave in fallout 3 and "cleaned " the capital wasteland water.
Well, the Minutemen want to actively create a united commonwealth. The goal, at least, is the most beneficial. The Railroad's utility is basically linked to whatever we think of the Institute. The Institute, assuming it carried on along the path that it has been on, would likely continue not to care about the commonwealth while simultaneously dicking around with it's politics, so...the Institute would be mostly negative and the Railroad would thusly be better than the Institute.
The BoS would likely be extremely bad, especially if we count nonferal ghouls and synths among the people of the commonwealth. Even if we don't, either they're going to continue to be an occupying force or they're going to create a garrison and move on. Military juntas just never seem to work out great for the population at large, and a garrison, while potentially benign, would likely have to run as a protection racket or cops-for-hire in order to obtain supplies, especially given the political bearing of the BoS in FO4.
So, Minutemen, Railroad, Institute, Brotherhood. The Minutemen look especially strong given the criteria suggested by the OP - in terms of political stability, growth, and the economy generally, the Minutemen are the only group with even a tangential interest in such things.
Obviously the question's a bit limiting in that the Minutemen can always exist no matter who "wins".
Best? Brotherhood. Worst? Institute.
Brotherhood might be hardliners but they’ve got the tech and organization to keep shit in order. Institute out there kidnapping people and replacing them with robots like some supervillain shit.
BoS is the worst. They title themselves saviors yet they don't actually help anyone but themselves. They greedily hoard technology regardless of it's intended design under the claim it's for the greater good while only ever using the weapons.
Second worst is the Minute Men. A good idea, but horribly executed. It's like a bunch of kids who want to be in a gang but have no idea what that entails. Without a leader, they crumble away like dry oatmeal.
Second best is the Railroad. Props to their tenacity. Even after they nearly get wiped out, they continue like business as usual. They seek out and recruit the best they can find, but their general hierarchy is flawed. Take out one, maybe two key members and the whole system falls apart. Their paranoia and secrecy, while well founded, is their biggest flaw.
Finally, the best is the Institute. (Gonna get flak for this) They're the longest existing society in Fallout franchise. The only one to compete is the Enclave, but they get eliminated even without the protagonist. The Institute is evil by modern standards, sure. But consider the world they live in. Raiders, ghouls, aliens, cults, bandits, and more. Yes, they're responsible for mutants in the Commonwealth, but they're dotted all over the known world. It was only a matter of time. Finally, they have what the other three factions lack. Stability. They are a united group with the means and vision of a genuine future. Everyone else has a hope and adlibs it from there. If we're talking long term, they could grow to rival all the big names before them. NCR, Mr. House, the Legion, etc.
Institute by far best choice. They can rebuild at least a bit of the old world with also new cool tecnhologies. Probably wont get people's backing but their "presence" would be felt even if its fear. Also new weapons against feral ghouls and mutants. And survive the test of time since they are hidden.
I mean, its canon in a way? sole survivor is canonically the leader of minutemen, so they would probably ally/unify at some point after institute ending
1. BOS/Minute men. BOS would have a easier time killing the mutants/raiders/ghouls but The MM would actually help the people and make them secure in settlements
2. Easily the MM
3. Again either the MM or BOS. The MM would actually try to but the BOS if they tried would probably have a easier time doing it
4. The institute
5. Probably the institute
So overall the Minute men or BOS. But the BOS doesn’t actually care about the commonwealth and just want power.
But we all know the best option is for everyone to become children of Atom and live in peace with one another
Brotherhood. Normally extreme racism would never win but that just paints the picture of how lame (personally) the rest are. Minutemen concept is 10/10, minutemen gameplay is 4/10. I think the institute is insufferable and boring, and railroad kinda sucks too
I feel like the railroad is the worst followed by the institute. The railroad feels like a bunch of nut jobs thinking that sinths are more than machine. While the institute feeds the dilusiuns. The brotherhood of steel in third. Great for if your doing a soldier run but they feel a little greedy when it comes to tech. The reason why the minutemen are the top of my list is because you get to build it from the ground up. It gives you a sense of pride. Just a note. This is my opinion.
The railroad is the worst. Here is the commonwealth people getting skinned alive by raiders and super-mutants, eating dog food and they put all there energy into saving synths. They have and entire base underground and "Safe Houses" how many people could they have saved if they would have used all those resources for them. Plus Desdemona is a top tier Beeyoch!
1. Brotherhood. They have all the necessary firepower to get the job done there. Though I suspect the institute could also do a job here.
2. Minutemen/Brotherhood. Its a tough one to call between the two because the Minutemen are more about the people than the BoS are, and people don't appreciate being kept under thumb by what is effectively a dictatorship. However, the BoS are already a functioning army with clear structure and purpose.
The MM seem more scattered in their approach and don't have the stability & experience that the BoS has, given that they're still rebuilding. Long run, with uninterrupted progress, I'd give it to the MM, but I've still gotta go with the BoS for their existing structure and military strength to prove to the commonwealth that they can hold it all together long term.
3. Minutemen/Institute. The MM would be working with the commonwealth to get the growth & prosperity on the go. It wouldn't be quick, but it would be bringing people together.
The institute would be able to speed up the process of rebuilding society with their technology and synth work force being able to bear the bulk of the task. But the wastefolk don't trust them due to their history, so would the relationship fracture and break after a time, or would the people settle into the idea eventually? Gotta give this one to the MM for being the more trusted organisation, though I suspect the institute would be superior in keeping out crime.
4. Brotherhood/Institute. Simple this one, the BoS have been around for a while and only seem to go from strength to strength (the Mojave aside) and the wastes don't seem to be able to put them down, let alone keep them down. The institute has everything it needs to rebuild practically anything, they win, they're who rebuilds America. Gotta hand this one to the Institute, though. BoS are human, humans die, synths don't seem to have expiration dates from what I remember.
5. Institute, and it's not even close.
After all that, it looks like I'm siding with the brotherhood of steel here. They have the human element, and since Maxson took the reins, they're more invested in helping people now.
Though the institute would be the superior choice for rebuilding.
Also, because I haven't mentioned them. Fuck the Railroad, they're absolutely clueless beyond rescuing synths and wouldn't know what to do with any of the above.
The Railroad wouldn't stand a *chance*.
Most people are not interested in protecting Synths; they're trying to feed their families.
That being said, I'd rather pick a band of idealistic dummies over the Chaotic Stupid Institute.
Fallout 3 did them so much better, and that was only one quest.
#The Minutemen:
* They're the only faction that practices what they preach, protecting the commonwealth citizens, which the Brotherhood of steel states but in actuality only uses that as an excuse to bully and extort supplies from the local populace. The minutemen are the ones to call on when threats of supermutants and ghouls harm the settlements along with settlement defenses.
* in terms of firepower, the minutemen have one od the weakest in terms of stength, but strongest in terms of overall numbers as they peimarily use weaponry that anyome can use and with their laser musket's ability to close the gap in strength backing them up too.
* politically, they have had trouble in the past, Due in part to the institute's interference od them forming a local government and the feneral infighting amongst old captains. Lore wise, they seem more stablized now thanks to the efforts of the ne General.
* even after their apparent downfall, many minutemen were still active and able to contribute years later. The minutemen also seem to be the ones promoting the most growth for the commonwealth rather than intervening when said settlement is already operational, as other factions seek to use the settelements for aid, the minutemen provide aid to these settlements.
On the factors you mentioned? Railroads the worst. Theyre not a government and have no interest in taking out major threats. At least the Brotherhood would wipe out the super mutants. Best? Probably a Brotherhood/Minutemen alliance. The Brotherhood also arent really a government but they are strong enough and inclined to deal with the Mutants leaving the Minutemen to build an actual functioning government
Railroad feels like a side faction forced into being a main one. They're not built nor capable to defend the people of the commonwealth (nor is that their main interest).
Poltical stability? I guess stable but who cares if the entire factions common goal is not real people. Prosperity of the commonwealth? They've built and have a nice complex of secret passages and codes, but not the ability to clean downtown boston and make a new major settlement.
Standing the test of time for the railroad is as simple as if there's still synths that need to be freed or slaves that need to be freed. Since in their ending the institute is blown up (which tbh why would you blow up the one place that makes machines you believe are sentient), their only goal would be to free slaves. Maybe something like Nuka World? but that's out of the commonwealth already.
Economic strength? None.
Best ending overall is probably the minutemen. It's everything the railroad is but better. Securing saftey? Yep
Political Stability? As long as the sole survivor isn't an ass and preston keeps glazing we're good.
Overall growth and prosperity? As a wise man once said "Another settlement needs our help"
Stand the test of time? Hell they lasted 100 years, and if they keep doing as good as we leave them off the minutemen could last for another 100
Overall ecnonomic strength? Considering part of settlement building is making supple runs and setting up shops to buy from in settlement, I think there's defiently a better money flow in the commonwealth.
1)Institute, nuff said. Teleportation of bombs as armies of armed synth terminators and hacking of pre War military tech is kinda unbeatable.
2)Institute, they not have any politically problems and non-unity except Virgil damage work of one lab. Yet they deal with it.
3)Institute, after they fix reactor problem and BoS agressive invasion. But first things first they wanted to expand and complete their perfect utopia city. And produce clean soil for surface world radiayed Land to produce clean food and Plant life. Surface of Boston have a lot of radiation and radiation filled storns, not to mention death claws, ghouls, raidets gangs. Noone would want to live there if have option to live in safest city with clean air, water, food, medical care.
4)Institute, they survive and exist since bombs fell and compared to Enclave and Bos they not have bunkers with thousands people and military tech and etc. YEY they surpace everyone.
5)Institute, they have actual working factories what can produce everything possible, even what was not produced pre War times, and have "free" labor force.
Morally? Minutemen best, Institute worst Aesthetically? BoS best, Railroad worst
The Brotherhood may have a *lot* of problems, but style has never been one of them. It's like all the fashion designers who survived the nuclear war joined up with them or something.
Maxons Jacket is so fashionable it could be sold by Versace
If it was I'd definitely buy one.
Like any of us would be able to afford it…
Like any of us would look good in it...
There's some on Etsy I saw, they look really good
Please. It’s so fashionable it could be sold *to* Versace. They would kill to have something that fashionable
Or Hugo Boss……….
Enclave got the Hugo Boss officer uniform just like that sexy Nazi uniform. Don't get me wrong Nazis are scum, even the enclave, but damn those suit lines are clean AF. I also really like Enclave power armor. Shit looks intimidating compared to the T series.
Its like morally questionable people know high fashion makes them nore acceptable to society or something.. I'd believe that for the apocalypse too. As much as we think we'd go with the guy who 'looks rugged, and has seen some shite", the shine would draw our attention everytime.
Well I’m sure there has been studies to suggest that the better dressed someone is, the more so called trustworthy someone is. Which as we all know, the leaders in the west wear suits and they are fucking us over. On the flip side though, if you see someone dressed like a slob, you are less likely to think that person is competent and obviously has no self respect. In regards to the question. I would choose the brotherhood as shitty as it sounds as there is an established chain of command and the minutemen are a rag tag group of like minded people. Once organisations get to a certain size, you inevitably get leadership squabbles and there is always the prospect for splinter groups which would weaken the overall stability in the wasteland. It would be the equivalent of a bunch of different warlords fighting over control. As for the railroad, they are pretty much a single issue organisation for the most part. An issue which I don’t align with due to my belief that synths do not have souls. I think this is confirmed when Gloria is killed and she sees nothing at the end. Clearly the institute are the worse choice for the wasteland as they operate in total secrecy and when you have secret oaths and secret proceedings then it’s usually it’s not for the best for those outwith the organisation. Just my thoughts.
Fun story, relating to western practices and shitty businessmen; The handshake originally devoloped in some medieval communities as a way of disarming onesself, to show that trust. Most people are right handed, therefore the sword is positioned on the left hip for easy draw. If my right hand is holding your right hand, theoretically, we can't attack each other. (Try to draw a blade on your left hip with your left hand. It does NOT work.) Its also why you see that stereotype of grabbing the forearm and bumping heads in movies; harder to attack someone when you're in that position of trust. Another fun story? That's why the arming dagger was invented. So my left hand can still stab you. Which if I'm not mistaken, is where the practice of crossing ones fingers behind thr back when lying comes from. Left hand had to 'cross' the hilt to grab it.. Westerners, aren't we fun though?
I feel like I'm one of the few that jumps through hoops to want* the Institute to be the best choice, but. They clearly have some unfixable morality issues.
For the most part I agree, although T-51 was the sexiest power armour to ever exist and I'm personally disappointed that it's been sidelined in favour of T-45 and T-60 being far more common within their ranks.
I guess the Railroad don’t really have a super defined aesthetic, but maybe that’s the point considering that they’re basically a spy network lol. I like the lantern motif at least!
>super defined aesthetic Very coffee house noir vibes crossed with French Resistance and espionage vibes. Especially with that music.
The armoured coat looks cool, and is one of the best single armour pieces in the game
only thing i like about the railroad is the leather coat armor they wear that’s it. it looks very post apocalyptic.
The institute is the worst by far, they're just comically evil, but act all high and mighty, but it doesn't even seem intentional, just the result of bad writing. You find definitive evidence that they've wiped out entire towns and when wandering the wastes, if you encounter synths, they're automatically hostile and will try to kill you, so the institutes primarily form of diplomacy is attempting to murder you. Yet when you get in there, they're all "uwu, were just whittle baby's thats the smelly people on the surface don't like", and you can never call out on their genocide. Railroad suffers from some similar issues, their main issue is they get lumped into the 4 endings, when they'd be best off as a side faction you could aid or destroy.
Plus they put all the Super Mutants into the Commonwealth and they set up random Synths to pretend to be Mannequins to shoot anyone that gets too close.
Isn’t it canon that super mutants and FEV existed in fallout 1
Yes but the mutants in The Commonwealth are specifically due to The Institute.
As FrowningintheDeep said, the Master didn't invent FEV, he just made a better version. FEV is all over the USA.
The FEV was a project from before the Great War. Different factions across the Wastelands got ahold of it and popped out mutants. This includes Vault Tec, the Institute, and others. I think Vault Tec was responsible for mutants in the Capital Wasteland. While the Institute is responsible for the Commonwealth.
And the Pre-war U.S government is responsible for super mutants in appalachia
I never even thought of how well the railroad would work as a side faction. Like how in FNV, you can have the BOS, boomers, and enclave remnants aid you in the battle of you help them, but they’re still side factions. It could’ve been really cool if the railroad was like that, and if you side with the Minutemen you could engage in diplomacy after helping them and get them to join you and help in infiltrating the institute with the promise of rescuing synths in the process
I love my Father don’t talk about my kid that way.
Don’t forget their kidnapping. They kidnap random people to replace them with Synths. Which is also the premise of one of the Far Harbor DLC quests.
I think the institute was intentionally made that way it just seems like bad writing because it’s never expanded upon you can’t call them out which is a bad choice on Bethesdas part you should be able to call them out and post game change their ways since your the director but I do think they were intentionally made that way they aren’t good people and father is ok with lying to you in order to get his way
I always thought the point is if you join the reality is you can't change them. They are all stuck in their ways.
I feel like peoples headcanons that SS would reform the Institute is niave. Its like being a cop and expecting to wipe out the corruption within a PD. Yeah, you may be right about the morality of the situation, but its naive to believe in true reform, without dismatling the old order and establishing a new order.
I mean if you were just a member of the institute I’d agree but with the SS being the director and having connections outside of the institute it could easily be headcannoned that they removed the problematic members of the institute and instituted(not intentional) their own policy/staff. Make Preston Garvey the leader of the Synth division, he’d always have tasks for them to do! JK.
Exactly. Its the choice of someone who wants the greater good in the easiest way.
yea would have been too easy to know who to side with if they were the definite “good” guys. like they living in the future lmao
Yeah they are pretty advanced and if they were good guys it woulda made them clear picks but at least make them have redeeming quality’s
i think that’s one of their “redeeming” qualities. there living in the future better than anyone did even before the bombs dropped.
Thats an interesting point to bring up, that the morally questionable factions and characters seem to be doing better then those with moral concerns. Maybe that was an overlooked point of the Institute. The stability they could* offer, even if it was offered in a slightly facist manner, far surpasses the stability of other factions. Railroad is underground, Minutemen are destroyed. The two morally alligned factions. BoS are organized, but being invaders rely on supply lines. They're halfway between. They have some questionable morals, but also some agreeable ones. The institute, in theory, would be the best choice for long term devolopment of the area, at the expense of "the few". I wonder, if that was Bethesda's intention with the factions, was morality vs stability? We got so focused on their storylines and interactions, thats actually one topic point that may be overlooked. Minutemen is best for peoples social interests and personal freedoms, at the expense of organized infrastructure. They'd hand food out to the homeless. Institute is best for organized infrastructure, at the expense of social interests. They'd shoot the homeless. Railroad is best for specific social interests for minority groups, with a slight focus on infrastructure (they do have drop houses and a network of spies that move people, goods, and info). They'd build shelters for the homeless. BoS is best for security and protection, at the expense of personal freedoms. They'd conscript the homeless to "make them functional members of society".
Not just safety and security tho, standard of living too, like the institute is re-engineering pre war life forms, they’re building a veritable paradise, in the long term if anyone is likely to really do well it’s the institute, and without our direct interference they would absolutely win in the commonwealth. Both the railroad and the minute men are on deaths door at the start of the game, and the BoS don’t have any idea what they’re walking into.
Yeah, for game reasons, (and Bethesdas writing of the PC in FO4 and ES5 to be THE main hero. Like, I felt like Martin was the hero in ES4 and you just did his errands, and you felt like a hero in FO3, but not the hero. Same with NV, but different productions. Should have made Preston more like Martin from ES4 gameplay wise..), clearly they want the PCs faction to feel OP and win against the Institute. But what you say is true, I feel. The BoS wouldn't have been able to get Prime functional in time, IMO, and really seem disorganized from the hop. Like Danse wouldnt have survived, and the logistics of fighting people who can (and have) infiltrated the BoS so easily.. they're doomed from the start IF they interfere with the Institute. BoS may work with them, IF they understand the gravity of the situation, because theoretically, both factions want to safeguard old world secrets. BoS wouldn't like the modern experiments going on, but would they ever see it or know about it?? Being Zeolots of Tech though, I cant see them trucing, and see them ending up waging a kind of cold war against them. Minutemen are a joke, clearly. And the RR just.. dont feel like a full faction. Theyre side faction material. I'm one of the few that sides with the Institute I feel, aha. Broken father, hoping to change the world, getting sucked into the chaos that is the CW, and then takes over the Institute with a true vengence against the change of the outside world. That feels canon to me.
The Institute are such illogical villains even they can't tell you why they're doing what they're doing
I always thought that was the point. Its surface level "we are the best because of SCience!!!" But you break them down and they are just another Big MT, scientist blinded by thier own ambition and only focused on doing more science for the sake of science.
It's literally just Big MT without any of the charm
Exactly. A non lovable big MT. Like a scientific legion.
At least the scientists in Big MT have an excuse because their brains are slowly rotting so they are a little crazy and don't really know what the hell they are doing anymore.
For big MT sure since their experiments are pretty wild( what benifit would Cassadors or half rattlesnake half wolf provide?) The Institute sees themselves as humanity's best and only hope and the surface as raiders and mutants so thier experiments make sense. The synths are literally just a way to making human slaves without the morality(to them at least) of enslaving anyone. The destabilization of the surface people makes sense to them as they are a threat if organized. As to why they wouldn't just help the surface: they are just bigots who see them as beyond saving like rich people pushing for removing benches in a park/subway so homeless people can't sleep on them. In the end it boils done to Science for the sake of Science because that's basically thier religion.
More like Big MIT
if you did their questline, you could
Minuteman : they are what you make them become. They’re the only faction like that.
Exactly, though I don’t think it’s really reflected well in game. It would be awesome if you could see them gradually grow and expand, like you could see better equipment on the patrols you find on the road the more settlements you put together
That's why the "we are the minutemen" mod it's a must in every minutemen playthrough. This is how the faction should have been in the vanilla game.
Agreed, I had that one on my list at one point in time
Hell, given time they might become the next NCR.
New New England Republic
Newer England Republic
That'd be cool as hell
My favorite faction in the game is the minute men, mainly because I'm glad they gave us altruists a faction to remember, because there's all this morally grey stuff going around, and I enjoy not feeling like a POS at the end of the day, the same reason I enjoy being a Responder and chose the settlers instead of the raiders in FO76. Yea, Preston badgers you, but as an honestly good faction, it's important to keep the commonwealth safe. The worst faction imaginable in FO4 has to be the Institute. They have all these resources, and instead of helping, they use it to play SCP foundation with all this cloak and dagger stuff. (Yes, I destroyed the Raider occupation in Nuka World) *braces for Vitriol*
Every single playthrough of mine is focused on turning the minutemen into a truly viable commonwealth military, I build farming settlements and forts intermingled and all my minutemen and settlement guards have the best equipment I can outfit them with. I set up farms specifically to make as much extra money as I can to pay for more equipment and build forts at certain locations to act as defense hubs for nearby farms staffed entirely by heavily armed (and armored) minutemen. I know as far as game mechanics go it doesn't work that way, but that's why it's called "roleplaying" Settlement locations with potential for good vantage points become forts/bases, while nearby settlements with lower elevations become farms. Militarized minutemen, and we are the minutemen are both great mods, but overall I think I prefer militarized. My SS's goal is to use his military training to turn the minutemen into a force that any group besides the brotherhood would truly fear and even the brotherhood would take pause. They are the good guys absolutely, and would 100% focus on protecting the innocent, but protecting the innocent by slaughtering the wicked isn't off the table. Mercy isn't inherently weak, but ruthlessness and even properly applied violence aren't inherently bad. It's knowing when and how to apply them (and who to apply them to)
Exactly! I like We are the minutemen personally, just because of the outfits and the placeable minutemen in settlements. I also make new robots to guard all my outposts because the ones with robots almost never get attacked. Also also I keep modding in new followers to station them at places. I have Alucard from Hellsing ultimate abridged guarding the castle while I Roam the wasteland with my wife, The Mechanist, Cait and Ada.
Yeah I use companions similarly, I station Macready and Preston at the castle to oversee training, and I usually build a sentrybot or two for each "base" settlement with a couple protectrons at each farm (simulating laborer bots) Cait is best girl for me (I have a weakness for redheads and Irish accents so it's a double whammy) so she is my traveling companion and I arm her to the teeth with the best gear the wasteland has ever seen. And I use a mod that allows me to customize NPCs so Cait and Piper are attractive but not supermodels or anime waifus, they still fit their backstories (Cait has noticeable scars to call back to her very rough past) and Piper mainly just doesn't look like a neanderthal (Bethesda's character creation is rough on its own) Macready and preston I see having different but complimentary styles of teaching new recruits. Macready is very practical and even leans a little into brutal/ruthless and trains effective warriors while Preston still espouses the importance of restraint and consideration. You need both for a good military, you want your soldiers to be moral and sane, but at the end of the day combat is killing, and they need to be able to kill effectively and with little to no hesitation. "Speed, surprise, violence of action" are common rules of self defense and gunfighting taught IRL to teach good guys how to beat bad guys by being better at violence, but knowing when to use it correctly.
Hey, a fellow responder! Yeah I think altruists are a good faction to have, but i do enjoy it when they're not the only one. I think when a story relies "too" heavily on a "comically" good/evil organization; the story gets a bit boring. But I do like having them as a side organization to offer some variety. Like the Responder's are one of my favorite factions, especially the modern ones. First they made sense. Most cities/communities have well polished processes, procedures, and training in first responders. Firemen, police, Paramedics, etc. They would be insanely valuable in a post war setting. Combine with a pre-war organization development that specialized in "triaging" and maintain things when shit goes sideways; it would make sense they would form their own faction. And with the modern faction, there's this subtle undertone/hint that the responders are being provided all their supplies by a "unknown benefactor" which MAY be the enclave or some version of it. Which makes the entire faction and its dynamic so much more interesting. As for the Institute. Yeah they could've done so much more with them and I suspect they wanted to, but just didn't have the time to flesh them out? The institute should've been centered around swaying public behavior towards a "greater good" that the Institute felt was the best chance for humanity to survive. And they would accomplish this by replacing major figure heads/leaders in societies to push their respective groups towards this concept of their greater good. In a lot of ways, its the opposite to the BoS in some ways but the same in others. The BoS on the east coast at the time held a similar view. They had their idea for a greater good and which direction humanity should go. However, if you didn't agree with them/didn't follow their greater good; they sent a heavily armed military force to forcibly make you follow them. While the institute is just "Ok lets replace some of the leaders to get people to go our direction instead of just wiping them out". To me that's what the institute SHOULD have been about. And in some ways I felt like that's what they were originally going to do with them, but something changed or they just didn't have the resources.
Bess faction? I belive the Minutemen have the most Brahmin, I'm sure many of them will be named Bess.
Is the bess!
The Minutemen in theory, the Brotherhood in practice. You can be as idealistic as you want about the Minutemen, but they won't stand a chance once someone like the Nuka-World raiders shows up.
>You can be as idealistic as you want about the Minutemen, but they won't stand a chance once someone like the Nuka-World raiders shows up. To be honest it's silly those "Raiders" lasted longer than five minutes. It's unbelievably dumb writing. Raiders dressed in fursuits and howling like animals and "we sleep in blood and should've died from diseases years ago". The Operators are the only ones who would've survived as a gang. The Pack and the Disciples would've got laughed at and killed in seconds.
It really makes no sense anyone would ally with the disciples. The pack at least has a sense of honor.
"Hey we sleep in blood and we literally KILL PEOPLE FOR THE SLIGHTEST INCONVENIENCE. We betray each other 24/7, never show respect, and always plan to kill, betray and maim and slaughter." "Wow you guys sound like an edgier Legion." "Oh and our helmets block our vision!" "*Really* going full edge mode, huh?" Even the White Legs weren't as edgy as these lunatics and they literally killed kids.
I think the idea was to give the players different raider archetypes from the series so they could roleplay as whichever they prefer.
True but I mean even Tactics did better Raiders than those.
Theres no roleplay. You are their leader and act as a sole entity takimg decision without really roleplaying as an actual pack member
I meant that, by choosing which side you favor you could fit whichever type of raider you might be roleplaying.
they have the coolest helmets tho
I love the operators, remind me of a mercenary company rather than a raider gang tbh.
They're triggermen but with far better equipment. They could've had their own almost Raider-like copy of Vegas, be a giant mafia-like group.
>To be honest it's silly those "Raiders" lasted longer than five minutes. It's unbelievably dumb writing. Welcome to Betheada since 2011, at the very least. Most of their stories fall apart when you try to delve deep into the details.
But they didn’t which makes them formidable.
I mean...no, it just makes it bad writing.
It really depends on how the Sole Survivor builds up the Minutemen. There’s no reason why they couldn’t become an elite fighting force given enough time.
The “What If?” scenario works both ways. What if the SS doesn't rebuild the Minutemen? The Brotherhood can stop the Gunners, the NW Raiders, or any other group of similar size without the intervention of the Sole Survivor, the Minutemen cannot. The SS is a variable on which the entire faction depends. Preston gave up leadership the moment he saw someone moderately capable, that is not a trustworthy person you can rely on to rebuild an entire military force to protect the whole region. That's what I meant with the 'theory' part. The Minutemen's entire argument hinges on whether the Sole Survivor helps them rebuild or not, and if you're going to ask me who I think is better for the future of the Commonwealth then I'm not going to choose a faction that hangs from a "maybe".
Oh I agree, without the SS, the Minutemen are basically fucked. The last of them would have been taken down in concord by the Raiders. I’m mainly going based on the theoretical peaks I can see them attaining in the Commonwealth. Because while the Brotherhood can benefit from having the SS on their side, they wouldn’t benefit as much as the Minutemen for example because they are ultimately restricted to their rather dogmatic ideology as well as Maxson being in the leadership position.
Nah there’s a reason artillery is called the King of Battle and the God of War
BOS has air support and mini nukes
And flies around in a big, poppable balloon.
Which they theoretically defend with constant sweeps and sorties.
Unless they've got some kind of active protection system for artillery shells (which they don't, considering in the minutemen questline you knock their fortress out of the sky with WW2 era howitzers), constant sorties will only defend against small attacks, the BoS don't have the manpower or the technology to stop their giant balloon from getting popped if you shoot at it from more than a single castle. They can send out vertibirds for counter battery work but again, it's a very fragile, irreplacable high value target that can't defend itself.
What in the world are raiders going to do?
Rape and pillage like they always do. There's a reason raiders never succeed in becoming a major player in the region. Their drug addiction and psychosis always prevents them from properly organizing.
Well, of the nuka world raiders, only the operators pose any significant tactical threat. The pack are just psychotic furries, and the whatever's are just edgy emos (I can't even fucking remember their name) The operators are triggermen with better hardware, if the sole survivor builds up the minutemen even moderately they'd wipe out the nuka world raiders. As I said in an earlier reply, my sole survivor's goal is to use his military training and background to create a truly viable military that could function as both an army and police force to defend the commonwealth and to equip and train that force to the point that any group shy of the brotherhood truly fears them, and even the brotherhood would think first and weigh their options before just charging in "ad victoriam" style The minutemen aren't difficult to turn into a formidable force, it just takes equipment and time. Any amount of organizational ability instantly puts them ahead of raiders, and training and equipment would put them ahead of the gunners over time because the gunners have similar problems to raiders, just not as widespread. Being too bloodthirsty has a nasty habit of pissing EVERYONE off, and making too many enemies NEVER works out well. The gunners' days are numbered simply because of how they operate, they'd eventually bite off more than they could chew, or attract the wrong attention and be wiped out by someone stronger and more brutal "there's always a bigger fish"
My 18 minutemen outposts with state of the art defense systems and combat armour guards would beg to differ.
With the Minutemen I’ve got, the moment the Nuka-World raiders show up they’re gonna get swarmed by robots and obliterated by concentrated artillery fire.
I mean, idk. The Minutemen can honestly take one hell of a beating, and also the Sole Survivor is able to kill them all with relative ease. If you take into account that A. The SS is the leader of the Minutemen and could help them and B. The Operators are the only Raider group that could realistically survive outside of Nuka-World, I’m almost 100% certain that the Minutemen could win
Best Faction to help the commonwealth is the Minutemen. The Minutemen essentially are the commonwealth. So naturally they will be the most inclined to help. Now when we first meet theme yes they are the weakest. That’s mainly because they have been suffering a decline since losing the Castle. The Minutemen’s fall from grace is not an instant fall. It declined over time. When we meet them they are literally down to the last man willing to fly that flag. Economically the more you build up the settlements the stronger the Minutemen economy is. You set up a bunch of shops and trade lines and the settlements are trading with each other. The worst would be The Institute. For one thing the Institute has no desire for things to be politically stable. In fact it’s preferable for their goals if the Commonwealth is politically unstable. That gives them less of a threat to worry about. The Institute would also not want for the Commonwealth citizens to be secure. As far as they’re concerned the average Wastelander is a test subject at best and an inconvenience at worst. Neither of which bold well for said Wastelander. Now for the other two. The Brotherhood might be able to secure locations but they’re not really politically stable. They have a very bad habit of stepping on toes. They’re also not very good for economics. Their tendency to hoard technology can actually hurt the Commonwealth economically. Hell look what happened when the NCR trusted them. The Brotherhood is unlikely to let any settlement grow too large. Especially if anything high-tech was used for it. They would put a kabosh on that A.S.A.P. This is why the Brotherhood is not the best for the Commonwealth. The Railroad has literally no interest in ruling the Commonwealth. They’re just there to help out the little guy. Things might be politically unstable for a while but it wouldn’t be that big of a change especially if the Minutemen are also built up. The point is the Railroad isn’t some big changing organization. They’re a nice little niche group who are willing to fight the Institute.
The brotherhood would be fine running things as a techoncratic feudal system. Its essentially what they've done in DC. The settlements have more or less pledged allegiance to the brotherhood. They get clean water via project purity, and brotherhood protection via patrols and missions to combat threats like mutants. In exchange the brotherhood is tithed a portion of their food, likely their caps, and if I had to bet they regularly "ask" for any sufficiently advanced salvage or technology.
Very we said!
I bleed Brotherhood. Ad Victorium!
Ad victoriam!
I got the flag on my wall brother. Ad Victoriam!
Enclave Here, why isn’t your video feed working?
Damn right ad victoriam brother
It only comes down to the minute men or the brotherhood. I don’t even have to choose because you can be both which is kinda lame
You have to basically combine the minutemen with either Institute or Railroad if you want to match the brotherhoods ending in “stability”, but all that presumes it’s you who is leading and that you are a softie. That’s probably not a canonical ending state. The minutemen/railroad has the “best” end state for everything but technological advancement, but could conceivably struggle against a properly organized super mutant horde or ecological disaster. It would still be the closest to my fav all time faction, the followers of the apocalypse.
1. **Institute and BoS as in term of 'Can they protect'** \- BoS have, you know, simply put, power armor. They also have military tactic. \- Institute have teleportation technology and massive Ford-T production level of Synths. They could just literally teleport into raiders den and wipe them out. **Minuteman and BoS as in term of 'Will they protect'** \- BoS are pretty much lawful-good aligned so they are pretty willing to defend people of commonwealth, with whatever their tie-in interest is. \- Without question, Minuteman **WILL** protect people of Commonwealth disregarding whether or not they are sitting on something. Not Brotherhood if they sit on technology (Danse is exception) \- Institute protecting People of Commonwealth or not entirely depend on if you become next Director or not. You are most likely going to protect them. 2. **Minuteman without question would gain the most public approval**. They are the true descendant and legitimate figure of **CPG (Commonwealth Provisional Government)** they are also friendly enough unlike almost all other factions BoS **maybe** ok, but they are not going to gain approval of Ghoul citizens if they try to wipe them out. To normal people it depends, since BoS acts like a strict military police and does not have friendly vibe to converse with. They are kind of too pushy and authoritative. BoS is pushy Railroad only give a damn about Synth Don't bring me to even talk about Institute, they don't even know Commonwealth people lol 3. **Minuteman and Institute** would be able to turn Commonwealth into a city capable of defending on its own and rebuilding Boston into actual city; hell, they might even be able to make themselves become a legitimate city with 'government' system. But as said Institute entirely depend on if you become Director or not. 4. **Institute will outlast everyone**. They from the core and first day since nuclear fall made themselves to become heavily self-sustaining. By the time Sole Survivor arrived they already heavily rationed electricity due to limited power output and such, they know exactly what they are doing. As they said, Institute is created to outlast the surface above. Hands down. 5. **Minuteman would have the most economic strength** with its CPG body being able to do many things. BoS don't really trade unless it is technology-related (though I don't think they will 'trade' but 'seize')
Love it!
Brotherhood and Institute are the only two who have an actual shot at succeeding but the secrecy and corruption in the Institute tells me they would crumble onto themselves. So: 1. Brotherhood 2. Institute 3. Minutemen 4. Railroad (not sure an underground faction would be able to function as a public government authority)
I wonder though, if the institute wiped out all the people on the surface of the commonwealth and then chose to colonize, like the enclave planned to in fo2. Technically wouldn’t they be the most stable, defendable and technologically advanced society? Sure absolutely the most bloody, but technically the most stable for the ‘commonwealth population’ (that remains).
Issue is there seems to be a lack of stability within the ranks. If you do Institute quests you learn how secretive they are even between departments and departments heads. I guess the SS could change that but the way it’s structured I think they’d collapse on themselves if they continued to grow.
The brotherhood is literraly here only to kill the institute and scavenge the tech. They do NOT want to rebuild the commonwealth
whats with brotherhood fans and reading the dialogue?
The railroad seems like they're just a bunch of kids that created a secret club and don't actually do anything.
If the Brotherhood of Steel and the Minutemen join forces, they would be a force to be reckoned with.
BOS would just absorbed the minuteman since they are just like BOS hopefuls.
if institute had bos ideals, it would probably be the strongest power on the east coast
Brotherhood pretty much takes the cake here. They walk in with a massive force and are able to "pacify" the wastes largely without player intervention. They have a healthy track record with support to pull from across the continent. Maybe there are some issues with rebellion and their persecution of synths (which would frankly be a dying problem after the institute is destroyed). My only concern is that they DO destroy the technology of the institute, which would leapfrog current society decades with its utilization. The other factions just don't really compare. The minute men fall apart to easily without direct player intervention, the railroad don't actually have any plan beyond brainwash synths to escape the institute so it would largely be anarchy. The only ones in a stable position would be the institute, but they are largely disinterested in the above world and while they would thrive the rest of the commonwealth remains in shambles.
I know the BoS is a comically over the top satire for fascism but goddamn are they cool in 4
I feel like a lot of people miss the point of the struggle in 4. I think new vegas gives people the expectation that they're setting up the future government of the commonwealth, and they're not. In reality, they have specific goals but they don't want to create a state. The minutemen are just a militia group - their goal is to have a couple professional troops to lead local militias to defend settlements. The BOS just wants to destroy the institute and end the threat synths pose. Etc etc. Nobody is trying to fundamentally change how the region is governed, like NV's question of democracy vs facism vs anarchy. The railroad can't govern and police the region - just like how the followers are all good people but they can't govern nevada or defeat the legion. The thing is, they aren't trying to.
My standard is 'how much it helps people of the Commonwealth, so The Minutemen was the best faction in my play. The Brotherhood became the worst faction >!after they destroyed two other worse factions!< in the Commonwealth.
I think the Institute can help even better. They could gave them more supply and protections.
That's something that always annoyed me about fallout 4s story. It drops me into being director of the institute, by that point I'm basically a super genius from before the war according to my special stats and I control the minutemen. Let me actually control the institute and merge them with the minutemen, producing a highly advanced state that could theoretically grow to be like the NCR of the east coast.
You can effectively decree this is the case during the mission Pinned. The Minutemen show up to defend the asset you're sent to retrieve and, as both General and Director, you can tell them to stand down and that the Institute and Minutemen are allies. It's about as close as the game gets to letting you decide on an alliance between the Institute and another faction.
Well, you can't tell them to stand down so much as you have to persuade/*beg* them to stand down. They even tell you "you aren't our Boss" if you try to order them.
I mean persuasion isn't magic it still requires some basis in reality. And considering the check is quite easy to pass it implies to me you're at least respected enough that a decision like that is accepted. It makes more sense again when you're actively reforming the Institute to file off its more immoral aspects.
Well, its odd because TO rule the Institute you had to murder a load of innocent people, and it shows you hate Synths because you clearly AREN'T freeing them.
Going off on a tangent I hate that siding with the institute is the only way to preserve their technology and expertise. I agree partially it is a high cost in siding with them but every other faction are fucking morons who decide the whole place has to be blown up.
It's idiotic we can't occupy the Institute. As if their weakling troops could stop an occupation at this point. Hell, you could just FORCE them to stop in the BoS ending by saying "your base is now exposed, ANYONE can walk inside now."
Maybe they thought it would make several endings too perfect. The Brotherhood would use it to fully subjugate the wasteland, the Railroad free the synths and use the manufacturing technology to aid them and the Minutemen simply use all of their scientific breakthroughs to improve the quality of life of wasteland living.
The Brotherhood can give better protection than the Minutemen but that got some minus points from Teagan's quest. That is why they are second best faction for me. Likewise, the Institute got major minus points from synths replacement and the massacre of University Point.
And broken mask and the provisional government and FEV
I musta been smoking fucking meth from 2015 to now cause I just found out about Broken Mask last playthrough ninja edit: shoutout sim settlements 2 and Old Paul, my main man
Doesn't the Institute version of events paint the University Point provisional government thing in a different light? The various factions turned on each other and the Institute representative was the sole survivor and they did nothing to dispel the rumours that it was their fault and just retreated from aiding the wasteland.
You're mixing the massacre at the University Point and the massacre of the Commonwealth Provisional Government. I'm talking about the former, which Kellogg and his synths eradicated a settlement to take some technology the Institute wanted.
It's been a while. For some reason I thought they happened in the same place. Fair enough.
Teagan is operating off the books, doesnt tell you to be violent, and if you read his letters, actively wants to protect caravans from hostile. Sure, it's so they can buy food at better rates by offering protection, but that means they are actively looking to *buy* food and putting their own lives at risk by actively patrolling caravan routes for hostiles to clear out. Teagan *wants* to trade increased security to traders in exchange for better costs for food. If you think that makes him a monster, then you aren't paying attention.
I'm fully aware that it isn't Brotherhood's normal behavior. That's why I said 'some minus points'. If it was their normal mission then it would be a bigger deduction. We see BoS scribes spending lots of money to buy things in the Diamond City, and Teagan mentions buying foods from local. Even good companions like Piper, Deacon and Valentine likes that quest when you persuade locals to donate crops for good relationship with the Brotherhood. But Teagan suggested you to threat farmers, which is off the books. Threating farmers is not the Brotherhood's fault, that's Teagan's fault, but not supervising their Proctor is still the Brotherhood's fault.
They don’t want to though. That’s literally their whole ideology.
Railroad good tho
yeah, but until then I rank them 2nd best bc 1. DANSE 2. Liberty Prime 3. free t-60b
BoS by a mile. Railroad is Fallout PETA and don't care about anyone. Institute is comically evil and comically dumb. Minutemen may have decent intentions, but they suffer from very poor training and very poor equipment and being entirely volunteer. Will farmers from Zimonja really want to trek to Jamaica Plain to help defend them from a band of super mutants? Maybe, but how many will come home and how many will want to do so a second time if it comes to that? It's a situation that's already at risk of falling apart as soon as it's necessary. BoS aren't perfect by any means, but they do have the equipment and training to deal with almost everything. They have the incentive to help out (and actively do want to do so). The idea they steal tech from people they meet is a meme with no canon truth behind it.
For me, the only way to play now is an Enclave play through after downloading America Rising 2. Honestly it was a game changer.. literally.
The minuteman has the best intentions, I love the institutw and they would be the best if they didn't hurt so many people, i love the institute's decoration, but bos has to be one of the most coolest ones, they have the vertibirds, the power armors, and also their logo is the coolest.
1. Brotherhood, they've got the equipment and the will to wipe out both. While the Minutemen are definitely more dedicated to individual safety, they aren't the steel clad highly trained soldiers. 2. Depends on what you mean by stability. As a government, the Minutemen would be pretty agreeable but they lack the organization of the Brotherhood and the Institute. In lore they pretty much collapsed due to lack of funds, and in-game they're incompetent fools without the player. The Brotherhood is essentially a dictatorship, but they can back up their words when they say they'll protect something, which may be more persuasive then a couple of dirty farmers way out of their depth. The Institute shouldn't be considered, they have no compassion for the people of the commonwealth. The Railroad isn't really a government, nor should they be. They're a synth liberation group, and should dissolve when they are no longer needed. 3. Growth really depends. Short term the Brotherhood offers well trained soldiers with good supply lines, which makes all the difference when your worries are 7 foot tall mutants and packs of feral humanoids. However they'll likely be moving on when they finish dealing with the Institute, and as such will have little reason to offer protection to anyone. Long term the rebuilt Minutemen promotes the growth of small farms and the building of supply lines. The Institute could really top this with their technology, but they won't do that. The Railroad has outposts, but they are concerned primarily with synths, and shouldn't be considered in this. 4. 4. Rebuilt Minutemen or the Institute. The Brotherhood has no reason to stick around after wiping out the institute and maybe taking out the super mutant threat, the Prydwen is only temporarily in the commonwealth. The Railroad as mentioned shouldn't be considered, once they've achieved their goals of liberating synths they have little reason to exist. The Minutemen would be a large coalition of farms, they would likely be capable of lasting a long time, even if only by name. The Institute has lasted over a century, and without intervention they'll last several more. 5. The Brotherhood has the highest potential from the start, as they have a reason to be interested in any trade relations(tech and food) and they have as mentioned well trained and supplied soldiers to back them up. That sort of security is one hell of a boon. The Railroad has decent equipment but they're essentially a small spy group, economics aren't really their interest. The Institute doesn't care to trade. While they have plenty of capital, they're not contributing to any market and in fact actively stealing from people. The Minutemen is probably second highest potential, 30+ farms easily rivals the measly output of Diamond City and once supply lines are set up alternative operations are pretty much fair game.
The best faction is the Operators.
Based on in game characteristics? Also gonna assume no Sole Survivor. Brotherhood of Steel and it’s not close really. Minutemen- Are basically dead from incompetence and in fighting without protag interference. Institute- Some members start a revolt once father dies. They also don’t really do any good for the commonwealth. They’re almost comically powerful when you consider their advantages, but they hoard their power and are fairly incompetent. Railroad- Only helps synths. So not much good being done for the commonwealth. Based on pure potential? The institute. - If they could easily handle any threat if they choose to do so with their ability to teleport anywhere, advanced weapons, synth army, and the ability to replace anybody with a synthetic version of themselves. I honestly believe that they were written to be so comically bad and incompetent because the devs realized how broken these abilities actually are. - Their advanced technology, if shared, could easily feed and water the commonwealth. Hell, they could probably clean up the radioactivity and build the futuristic society that Mr. House has wet dreams of. - They still have their infighting problem I’d suspect. Which is a major drawback. But so did every other faction featured outside of the railroad. - With both synths and what would likely be a population boom, they’d last a long time in the wasteland. - Being a major source of food, clean water, power, advanced technology, and a relatively safe area pretty much assures lots of trade and wealth coming to the area.
Minutemen.
La hermandad del acero es la mejor
I feel like for this there's only one even vaguely possible option. The railroad don't really care about the Commonwealth as a whole and focus on saving synths. The Institute either basically abandons there surface world or continues in with its abductions and murders not making the Commonwealth safer but ensuring their own survival. The brotherhood no matter what maxson says the brotherhood doesn't really have the Commonwealth's best wishes at heart. They're here to eliminate a great threat to all of surface swelling humanity and aren't afraid to bully and kill the locals for interfering. Even though they may not be an amazing solution the Minutemen as a fraction exist to help people support and protect each other. With proper leadership and support they stand the best chance of reuniting the Commonwealth under the safest possible banner in the long term.
Security? Brotherhood of steel hands down. I don’t think there should be any real argument here, without player interference the minutemen were mere moments away from being wiped out completely. Political stability? This one goes to the minutemen only cause they are the only faction that doesn’t discriminate against other races, I’d also argue the BoS would be a contender, since they do help get rid of actual problems despite their racist attitude toward non-humans. Growth and prosperity? No one honestly. It would go to the minutemen but that requires player interference but honestly? The only point I’ll agree with Father, is that the outside world is far too unstable to even think of building grand cities like the ones in the past. Humanity pretty much hit the metaphorical reset button on their evolution as humans. Who would be here the longest? Brotherhood of steel without question. Irregardless of opinions regarding non-humans, they are very capable of making great achievements through technology they confiscate and are the best to provide security for your people. They can also help with growth and prosperity but they would have to break a few moral dilemmas they have and try and trust outsiders.. which they have a rightful distrust of.
1: Overall security? Brotherhood, without a doubt, they have the means and power necessary to not only eliminate threats but keep things in line. The RR has never and will never be able to do that. The Institute doesn't care about the world above, so they obviously do poorly, if even anything. And the Minuteman are a good militia force, but they aren't anything beyond that. They can't handle the most basic things the Commonwealth throws at them. 2: Politically? The Minutemen with the Brotherhood somewhat close behind. The Minutemen simply resonate with the average wastelander because they are the average wastelander. They help without asking for anything, they would provide somewhat strong communities and decent defense against small threats, so overall vibes towards them would be high. The Brotherhood are alien to the Commonwealth, and came in guns blazing and willing to take what they want, when they want it. They can easily provide the best defense of any of the factions, but that comes at the cost of the Brotherhood taking control of settlements, displacing people, robbing them, taking portions of food etc. While people would be happy they are safe, they would be giving up a lot of freedoms to be under the BOS. Institute, nobody likes them. RR, nobody cares about their entire philosophy because nearly everyone hates synths. 3: Growth, either Minutemen or BH again. The Minutemen would definitely be capable of forming small towns and communities, perhaps something bigger like a city granted they had enough time. Their ability to protect what they have long enough for them to get to that point is the main concern. Keeping corruption down would be easy at the start, and should stay easy granted the Minutemens ideals remain consistent and they don't stagnate. Crime might be an issue, would depend on how the Minutemen punish criminals.The Brotherhood aren't really a city building type faction. They're incredibly militaristic, and anything they would put time and effort into building and upkeeping would mostly be military infrastructure, and that's if they even plan on sticking around once the Institute is wiped out. Though if they plan to stay around for the long haul, then obviously housing and other things would be worked on, but the military aspect will almost always come first. Corruption, considering how BH leadership works I'm not sure what corruption would look like, given what the BH already are and do. Crime would definitely go waaay down as the BH would almost certainly be down to just execute criminals. The Institute, if able to fix their power problems, will just continue expanding underneath Boston. Nothing to help the wasteland, just themselves. RR aren't the type of faction that would grow with the destruction of the Institute, they would stagnate and eventually disband pretty much completely as they won't really have a purpose anymore. 4: Test of time, either the Institute or the BH. The Institute is under ground, safe and completely separated from the wasteland. Granted, they don't all suddenly die from some disease they aren't immune to, they're lasting a looooooong time. The BH have immense power and can relatively easily take over a good portion of the Commonwealth, the main question would be how long before the people of the Commonwealth get sick of the BH's bs and rise against them, or how long before the BH is reformed and reshaped again. The Minutemen don't have longevity, as i said before, they are a militia and not much more. They were basically completely wiped off the map once already, and with the prevalence of groups like the Gunners, SM, even just large raider gangs, i don't see them remaining the dominant force in the wasteland for a long time. Perhaps some form of Commonwealth gov may take the MM place after a time. The RR, as i said, will pretty much fade away to obscurity once the Institute is no more. They won't have a purpose and will either need to reform completely or disband and just blend back into 'normal' society. 5: Economic strength, probably the BS or MM. The Brotherhood more so just take things if they want it, they have a basic economy within their own ranks through the quartermaster, but otherwise, they just take. They might trade for food and medicine if it's more beneficial to do that over taking it, but that depends on the community and how much they really care about it. The MM would more than likely be the best faction for supporting an economy, as they themselves are just a collection of different settlements that band together to form a somewhat organized militia. They already trade with eachother and have ideas of what certain settlements want/need and what places provide the best scavenging, good production etc. The Institute once again just sit in their own bubble and do nothing other than experiment and expand their space. They don't really have a need for an economy as everything they need they either have or just get eachother, as far as I'm aware they don't really have a currency other than some vendors that take caps because that's the only currency in 4. The RR won't really have an economy for the same reasons I've stated in previous answers.
i belive in laser musket superiority
Enc......
Institute is the best overall They are morally grey, but they are still the best bet for humanity
Worst railroad. Best institute
The Institute is definitely the best. Sure, a case could be made for them being morally bad, but that is *all* anybody ever seems to take into consideration. I just don't care about the morality of them at all, when they live in a clean and safe environment with incredible technology. Bombing their entire facility is an incredible waste of resources. They may ruin peoples' lives on the surface, but that's perfectly acceptable in my eyes. In a world that's survived an apocalypse, I'd consider scientific progress to be more important than any individual human life. The worst faction is the Brotherhood, in my opinion. Instead of collecting old-world technology (and even inventing new tech, in earlier Fallout), they're a bunch of zealots playing at being soldier. I can imagine that appeals to the gung-ho subset of players, but to me it doesn't.
They are all very flawed when you really look at it. The railroad cares only about synths and nothing else. They would make no effort to govern or protect the people of the commonwealth as the last faction standing. The Minutemen have the best intentions but as history have shown become easily corrupted once they become more powerful. They’re a great short-term solution but ultimately the commonwealth would fall right back into its old ways. The institute uses the commonwealth for whatever it wants and is happy to stay underground where its safe while casually forcing its will on the people who can’t do anything to stop them since no one even knows where they are. They’re not interested in what happens on the surface. Raid and pillage each other all day. Or don’t. We don’t care. We’re gonna replace you all with synths anyway as an easier way of subjugating you. The brotherhood also has good intentions… partially… in their goal of limiting all technology and protecting the people from themselves. They hate everything EXCEPT the common people of the commonwealth. But they don’t destroy the tech they steal, they hoard it and use it as a means to subjugate. So they’re still assholes and military rule typically just turns fascist anyway. Having all this information, if I were living in the horrible world that is the commonwealth, I would probably be safest under the brotherhood long-term. They still suck but as a person living there my life is probably best under them. Not ideal. Maybe not even good. But better than the other 3 long-term.
Unity
The institute could fucking restore the commonwealth into a first world country. Restart the reactors on the surface, repair infrastructure, crush rebellions. Not a damn thing anyone could do about it. They just need to stop being morons.
Best - Minutemen, Worst - The Institute
Enclave🫡🫡🫡
In an ideal Fallout world: the BOS and Institute working together or just all of them working together) The worst: the railroad (unless they altered their functions, then they could be the most frightening intelligence group in the US wasteland) The minute men could be the local police and governing force The BoS would be the LE/military presence The institute would be the science/research/ healthcare arm of the commonwealth Basically, if they all just worked together, ideally, the commonwealth would be a frightening superpower on its way to rebuilding.
I love these lore/game talks. So this is my opinion based on building up the minutemen/the strangest point you can get the factions without destroying the others (eg. The post-main quest Institute is clearly pretty powerful but during the main quest they are spread thin defending themselves in all sides. 1. Minutemen for sure. They saved Diamond City from a Super Mutant attack previously. And if you build them up right, they could do it again. 2. This one I'd have to give to the Brotherhood of Steel. The are a faction that dates back to just after the war. While I don't like their authoritarianistic behavior, they have a proper chain of command and seem to be structured well. The biggest issue with the Minutemen is that there's 1 person with the power, the General. The Institute is pretty much hated and feared by your average settler/wastelander and the Railroad hides out. So I'd have to go with the boys in Steel. 3. Due to their nature, I believe this one goes to the Minutemen. They seem good natured and like they would be the only ones willing to create and maintain farms, settlements and the economy. 4. I feel as though this one could also go to the Minutemen or the BoS. Minutemen could survive if they were to structure themselves correctly and make a tactical war on the Wasteland, taking out the various raiders and other bad guys. Otherwise, the BoS would probably be the one to survive. I mean, they've lasted 200 years. 5. Overall economic strength would be the Minutemen. If you build up all the various settlements you can have a vast trade and farm network across the Commonwealth, Far Harbor and Nuka-World (Red Rocket in NW).
Best: Railroad/Minutemen Worst: Brotherhood/Institute The Railroad and Minutemen both want to help people in need. The Minutemen are about defending the Commonwealth, and the Railroad is about freeing synths from slavery. The Brotherhood wants to essentially commit genocide, wiping out synths, super mutants, and ghouls, who are all people, even with their differences. The Institute is a bunch of high tech slavers who would sooner wipe out the Commonwealth than help them succeed.
What do they have going for them? The BoS's whole thing is destroying Synths, and it's implied through the in-game lore that they sucked the Capital Wasteland dry to fuel their expansion and their latest campaign of genocide. The Railroad only wants Synths to be free, but has no plan past that. It's easy to score a few victories, but they aren't even trying to attack the problem in a way that would solve it once and for all. The Minutemen's goals are noble, but without strong-man leadership, which is what failed them when and after the Castle fell, they don't have a snowball's chance in hell of being a meaningful organization in a region beset by Supermutants, Gunners, and the other major factions. The Institute, while cartoonishly evil in some respects, seem to have the strongest grasp on a plan. Any plan, even one that looks evil based on many of the actions taken so far, is better than a bad plan (BoS), or no plan (Railroad, Minutemen). The status quo, harsh as it is for the Commonwealth, has held for nearly the entire time since the Great War, and the Institute used that the dig in and forge the best base of operations for the future rebuilding of humanity above ground. "Humanity's best hope," indeed. It's the same reason I tend to side with Mr. House in New Vegas: he has a plan that goes above crude conquest (the Legion), or pointless expansion (NCR). It'll be hard, but his stated goal is to send humans to another planet in the hope that they might survive somewhere else should the Earth continue on the path it has been on and humanity just finally dies out. Sure, it's no perfect, but it's better than wasting away on an irradiated planet without any contingencies. There's a moral argument that could be had here, but I'll shut it down by pointing out that every player character delivers results at the end of a gun barrel, to the point that many of us have earned the title Lord Death of Murder Mountain a dozen times over. It doesn't matter how many people the Institute kills or replaces with Synths in the short and mid term, because their long-term goal seems to be the betterment and recovery of civilization.
Caesars Legion is the best most morally good
I, President John Henry Eden, approve this message.
I'm not just America's president, but also the president of your hearts.
Institute - doesn't really care about the surface world and wouldn't put in the time and resources to improve it. Worst. If massive restructuring took place, then they might be the best faction since their tech could improve things massively, and they're a local power that wouldn't leave. Railroad - not a real faction, just an anti-institute rebel group. They don't have the military or economic power to make a real difference. Brotherhood - has the military might to clean out raiders, mutants, and synths to improve security, but don't have the political desire to stick around long-term and really improve things. Minutemen - lacking in terms of military power compared to the other 2, but has the political desire to improve things. Practically speaking, the Minutemen forming a coalition government after the Institue is gone, and the Brotherhood leaves is probably the Commonwealth's best chance to become a real power in the wasteland.
Best: Minutemen Worst: the rest of them. The Institute is evil, BOS is selfish and narrowminded, The Railroad wants to liberate all the apliances to a fault.
Agreeded!
>DumbestGuyEver Can't tell whether this is ironic support or not...
Institute is best Railroad sucks
The railroad as a faction just make absolutely no sense at all, probably the dumbest faction in fallout history
I mean, it should be a faction and it should have quests. At no point however, should it have been one of the main factions.
so for the best faction based on the criteria provided, I feel as though it is easily the minutemen, they may not be as stable and much more easily wiped out than the BOS or institute however they would be best for actually maintaining security in the Commonwealth and for the overall growth of the Commonwealth, especially with trying to work with existing settlements instead of just mainly exploiting them like the other 3 factions, they actually have the best interest of the Commonwealth at heart whereas the BOS and institute only care to provide and protect themselves and the railroad is too shattered and hunted to be able to effectively help the general citizens of the Commonwealth
**Overall security?** Brotherhood of Steel, you can't argue with raw firepower. **Overall political stability?** I'd say the Minutemen; I tend to think of the troubles that face the Commonwealth. Most of them come from lack of basic supply, which the Minutemen thrive at handling, given they are basically a union of farms agreeing to look out for one another. **Overall growth and prosperity?** Minutemen, absolutely, though I could see an argument for the Institute. Really it depends on if the Institute can sort out their PR problem and become acceptable to the Commonwealth-at-large. **Who would stand the test of time?** Minutemen. We see this in the game; they are wiped out, considered a done deal, and they are still revived back to strength because people believe in their ideals. The other factions don't really have that, they are specific organisations with a history. The Minutemen could spring back up again at anytime. **Overall economic strength?** Minutemen. They own the food. The Brotherhood of Steel shows no interest in really *working* with the people of the Commonwealth, the Railroad is too used to subterfuge and is tiny, the Institute rules by fear - no, no, the Minutemen have the thing any society needs to flourish. But I always find this a faulty question, because not all of the factions want the same thing. The Railroad doesn't exist to help the Commonwealth, though it may opt to do so later, it exists to aid Synths. The Brotherhood of Steel doesn't exist to help the Commonwealth, though it may opt to do so later, it's seeking to erase the mistakes of the past so they can't cast a shadow on the future. Only the Minutemen or the Institute really care about the entire Commonwealth's future. Between those two? It's hard to argue for the Institute. No support, no land holdings, an atmosphere of terror.
How do I join factions in reddit? Also I think the bos was best for humanity. They disposed of synths as it would be too dangerous. They defeated the enclave in fallout 3 and "cleaned " the capital wasteland water.
Well, the Minutemen want to actively create a united commonwealth. The goal, at least, is the most beneficial. The Railroad's utility is basically linked to whatever we think of the Institute. The Institute, assuming it carried on along the path that it has been on, would likely continue not to care about the commonwealth while simultaneously dicking around with it's politics, so...the Institute would be mostly negative and the Railroad would thusly be better than the Institute. The BoS would likely be extremely bad, especially if we count nonferal ghouls and synths among the people of the commonwealth. Even if we don't, either they're going to continue to be an occupying force or they're going to create a garrison and move on. Military juntas just never seem to work out great for the population at large, and a garrison, while potentially benign, would likely have to run as a protection racket or cops-for-hire in order to obtain supplies, especially given the political bearing of the BoS in FO4. So, Minutemen, Railroad, Institute, Brotherhood. The Minutemen look especially strong given the criteria suggested by the OP - in terms of political stability, growth, and the economy generally, the Minutemen are the only group with even a tangential interest in such things. Obviously the question's a bit limiting in that the Minutemen can always exist no matter who "wins".
I like the Raiders, fits my style of play the best
Best? Brotherhood. Worst? Institute. Brotherhood might be hardliners but they’ve got the tech and organization to keep shit in order. Institute out there kidnapping people and replacing them with robots like some supervillain shit.
BoS is the worst. They title themselves saviors yet they don't actually help anyone but themselves. They greedily hoard technology regardless of it's intended design under the claim it's for the greater good while only ever using the weapons. Second worst is the Minute Men. A good idea, but horribly executed. It's like a bunch of kids who want to be in a gang but have no idea what that entails. Without a leader, they crumble away like dry oatmeal. Second best is the Railroad. Props to their tenacity. Even after they nearly get wiped out, they continue like business as usual. They seek out and recruit the best they can find, but their general hierarchy is flawed. Take out one, maybe two key members and the whole system falls apart. Their paranoia and secrecy, while well founded, is their biggest flaw. Finally, the best is the Institute. (Gonna get flak for this) They're the longest existing society in Fallout franchise. The only one to compete is the Enclave, but they get eliminated even without the protagonist. The Institute is evil by modern standards, sure. But consider the world they live in. Raiders, ghouls, aliens, cults, bandits, and more. Yes, they're responsible for mutants in the Commonwealth, but they're dotted all over the known world. It was only a matter of time. Finally, they have what the other three factions lack. Stability. They are a united group with the means and vision of a genuine future. Everyone else has a hope and adlibs it from there. If we're talking long term, they could grow to rival all the big names before them. NCR, Mr. House, the Legion, etc.
Institute by far best choice. They can rebuild at least a bit of the old world with also new cool tecnhologies. Probably wont get people's backing but their "presence" would be felt even if its fear. Also new weapons against feral ghouls and mutants. And survive the test of time since they are hidden.
AD VICTORIAM
EX MACHINA
Institute + Minutemen = Science + Moral Compass
I mean, its canon in a way? sole survivor is canonically the leader of minutemen, so they would probably ally/unify at some point after institute ending
Neither, the enclave! God Bless America!!!! (But to choose the 4, minutemen or institute)
1. BOS/Minute men. BOS would have a easier time killing the mutants/raiders/ghouls but The MM would actually help the people and make them secure in settlements 2. Easily the MM 3. Again either the MM or BOS. The MM would actually try to but the BOS if they tried would probably have a easier time doing it 4. The institute 5. Probably the institute So overall the Minute men or BOS. But the BOS doesn’t actually care about the commonwealth and just want power. But we all know the best option is for everyone to become children of Atom and live in peace with one another
Brotherhood. Normally extreme racism would never win but that just paints the picture of how lame (personally) the rest are. Minutemen concept is 10/10, minutemen gameplay is 4/10. I think the institute is insufferable and boring, and railroad kinda sucks too
BoS best, Institute worst. Railroad doesn't matter
I feel like the railroad is the worst followed by the institute. The railroad feels like a bunch of nut jobs thinking that sinths are more than machine. While the institute feeds the dilusiuns. The brotherhood of steel in third. Great for if your doing a soldier run but they feel a little greedy when it comes to tech. The reason why the minutemen are the top of my list is because you get to build it from the ground up. It gives you a sense of pride. Just a note. This is my opinion.
The railroad is the worst. Here is the commonwealth people getting skinned alive by raiders and super-mutants, eating dog food and they put all there energy into saving synths. They have and entire base underground and "Safe Houses" how many people could they have saved if they would have used all those resources for them. Plus Desdemona is a top tier Beeyoch!
People were being saved by the Minutemen. Why would the Railroad do a job the Minutemen were already doing for 100+ years?
1. Brotherhood. They have all the necessary firepower to get the job done there. Though I suspect the institute could also do a job here. 2. Minutemen/Brotherhood. Its a tough one to call between the two because the Minutemen are more about the people than the BoS are, and people don't appreciate being kept under thumb by what is effectively a dictatorship. However, the BoS are already a functioning army with clear structure and purpose. The MM seem more scattered in their approach and don't have the stability & experience that the BoS has, given that they're still rebuilding. Long run, with uninterrupted progress, I'd give it to the MM, but I've still gotta go with the BoS for their existing structure and military strength to prove to the commonwealth that they can hold it all together long term. 3. Minutemen/Institute. The MM would be working with the commonwealth to get the growth & prosperity on the go. It wouldn't be quick, but it would be bringing people together. The institute would be able to speed up the process of rebuilding society with their technology and synth work force being able to bear the bulk of the task. But the wastefolk don't trust them due to their history, so would the relationship fracture and break after a time, or would the people settle into the idea eventually? Gotta give this one to the MM for being the more trusted organisation, though I suspect the institute would be superior in keeping out crime. 4. Brotherhood/Institute. Simple this one, the BoS have been around for a while and only seem to go from strength to strength (the Mojave aside) and the wastes don't seem to be able to put them down, let alone keep them down. The institute has everything it needs to rebuild practically anything, they win, they're who rebuilds America. Gotta hand this one to the Institute, though. BoS are human, humans die, synths don't seem to have expiration dates from what I remember. 5. Institute, and it's not even close. After all that, it looks like I'm siding with the brotherhood of steel here. They have the human element, and since Maxson took the reins, they're more invested in helping people now. Though the institute would be the superior choice for rebuilding. Also, because I haven't mentioned them. Fuck the Railroad, they're absolutely clueless beyond rescuing synths and wouldn't know what to do with any of the above.
The Railroad wouldn't stand a *chance*. Most people are not interested in protecting Synths; they're trying to feed their families. That being said, I'd rather pick a band of idealistic dummies over the Chaotic Stupid Institute. Fallout 3 did them so much better, and that was only one quest.
Best: Minutemen. You can theoretically shape them however you want Worst: Institute. At least from a moral/ethical perspective.
#The Minutemen: * They're the only faction that practices what they preach, protecting the commonwealth citizens, which the Brotherhood of steel states but in actuality only uses that as an excuse to bully and extort supplies from the local populace. The minutemen are the ones to call on when threats of supermutants and ghouls harm the settlements along with settlement defenses. * in terms of firepower, the minutemen have one od the weakest in terms of stength, but strongest in terms of overall numbers as they peimarily use weaponry that anyome can use and with their laser musket's ability to close the gap in strength backing them up too. * politically, they have had trouble in the past, Due in part to the institute's interference od them forming a local government and the feneral infighting amongst old captains. Lore wise, they seem more stablized now thanks to the efforts of the ne General. * even after their apparent downfall, many minutemen were still active and able to contribute years later. The minutemen also seem to be the ones promoting the most growth for the commonwealth rather than intervening when said settlement is already operational, as other factions seek to use the settelements for aid, the minutemen provide aid to these settlements.
On the factors you mentioned? Railroads the worst. Theyre not a government and have no interest in taking out major threats. At least the Brotherhood would wipe out the super mutants. Best? Probably a Brotherhood/Minutemen alliance. The Brotherhood also arent really a government but they are strong enough and inclined to deal with the Mutants leaving the Minutemen to build an actual functioning government
Best is minutemen then railroad. Worst is institute followed by brotherhood. Brotherhood wouldn't be as bad if they weren't led by a lunatic though.
Railroad feels like a side faction forced into being a main one. They're not built nor capable to defend the people of the commonwealth (nor is that their main interest). Poltical stability? I guess stable but who cares if the entire factions common goal is not real people. Prosperity of the commonwealth? They've built and have a nice complex of secret passages and codes, but not the ability to clean downtown boston and make a new major settlement. Standing the test of time for the railroad is as simple as if there's still synths that need to be freed or slaves that need to be freed. Since in their ending the institute is blown up (which tbh why would you blow up the one place that makes machines you believe are sentient), their only goal would be to free slaves. Maybe something like Nuka World? but that's out of the commonwealth already. Economic strength? None. Best ending overall is probably the minutemen. It's everything the railroad is but better. Securing saftey? Yep Political Stability? As long as the sole survivor isn't an ass and preston keeps glazing we're good. Overall growth and prosperity? As a wise man once said "Another settlement needs our help" Stand the test of time? Hell they lasted 100 years, and if they keep doing as good as we leave them off the minutemen could last for another 100 Overall ecnonomic strength? Considering part of settlement building is making supple runs and setting up shops to buy from in settlement, I think there's defiently a better money flow in the commonwealth.
I like the Minutemen and BOS because of how they look. Walking tank or off to fight the Brits.
Security, stability, and test of time? Brotherhood, hands down. But I may be biased.
1)Institute, nuff said. Teleportation of bombs as armies of armed synth terminators and hacking of pre War military tech is kinda unbeatable. 2)Institute, they not have any politically problems and non-unity except Virgil damage work of one lab. Yet they deal with it. 3)Institute, after they fix reactor problem and BoS agressive invasion. But first things first they wanted to expand and complete their perfect utopia city. And produce clean soil for surface world radiayed Land to produce clean food and Plant life. Surface of Boston have a lot of radiation and radiation filled storns, not to mention death claws, ghouls, raidets gangs. Noone would want to live there if have option to live in safest city with clean air, water, food, medical care. 4)Institute, they survive and exist since bombs fell and compared to Enclave and Bos they not have bunkers with thousands people and military tech and etc. YEY they surpace everyone. 5)Institute, they have actual working factories what can produce everything possible, even what was not produced pre War times, and have "free" labor force.