The Institute...Why It's Humanities Best Hope...And Why The Other Factions Will Die Off

[Yhvh10]

So I would like to start this by saying I don't agree with everything the institute has done or is doing. Super Mutants are a total pain in the rear end and they were doing experiments that are by all means monstrous.

The reason I am writing this is because I have seen ALOT of hate for the institute and I cannot for the life of me figure out why. My hope is to show people why the institute is a better choice for the commonwealth than say the BOS, minuteman or Railroad.

2285, University Point, Two years before the Sole Survivor gets awakened out of their slumber from the depths of Vault 111. University Point is a thriving settlement on the edge of the Commonwealth coast. A settler named Jacqueline Spencer found a holodisk containing valuable information on Professor Cambells research on Nuclear Reactor efficiency. The information reached the Institute who in turn sent Conrad Kellog with the simple objective of reclaiming the information. Kellog in turn threatened Mayor Bert Strickland with death threats if they refused to turn over the information. Several wary settlers sent word to the Minuteman who dispatched the young Preston Garvey to retrieve it. By the time the Minuteman arrived they were met with several institute synths standing guard over some ruins.

These are the stories that haunt the Commonwealth. The 'boogyman' as Piper Wright calls them is considered to be evil, oppressive, an orginazation striking from the shadows. But is it true? That is the question. The Sole Survivor can explore the charred remains of University Point so there is no doubt on that. But is it really the evil boogyman that everyone calls it? Let's find out.

First I would like to take you to the Capitol Wasteland. Approx, 2277 about ten years before the Sole Survivor get's awakened by Father. Eight years before the annhilation of University Point. To a place called Rivet City. A young nineteen year old boy/girl barges into the cities lab wearing a tattered yet armored Vault 101 jumpsuit with a hunting rifle slung over his shoulder. Intent on discovering the fate of a father who left his only child, for the rest of mankind. As he enters the lab he sees a middle-aged oriental woman rolling her eyes a much older gentleman ranting about some place called the commonwealth and a missing android. His abrupt bodyguard leaning against a wall with a frown on a face and his hand positioned against a laser pistol. The young Lone Wanderer soon talk to the old man who's name is Zimmerman. Zimmerman tells him that this android who is in reality one of the first coursers left the Institute and ran away. Zimmerman is hunting this courser with the intention of bringing him home.

There is little information onto whether or not the Lone Wanderer actaully helped Zimmerman or his rival a Victoria Watts. What we do know is that the Lone Wanderer helped the Brotherhood of Steel under an Elder Lyons destroy the enemy known as the Enclave.

Now that I have my history down I would like to discuss with you the different factions in Fallout 4.

The Brotherhood of Steel. Otherwise known as the BOS, the brotherhood under Lyons learned to curb their selfish desires and help people under threat from annhilation. I suspect that without the brotherhood there would be no Capitol Wasteland. The Super Mutant infestation would have extended everywhere, probably south to the Pitt and as far north as the Commonwealth or even Tonto. But the Brotherhood under Maxson has changed much. It is a military dictatorship that serves no ones needs but their own. Just Facts then. Proctor Teagen will sent the Sole Survivor on missions to take tribute from local settlements. In fact upon doing this you can actually lose a settlement as the location becomes under control of the brotherhood of steel. This essentially makes them heavily armored raiders. You can do the exact same thing with the Nuka World raiders. The Brotherhood believes they are protecting mankind by taking every form of technology and hoarding it for themselves. By doing so they keep nations like the NCR or the Minuteman forming or at the very least having advanced technology. If the NCR had no advanced technology they perhaps would not have been able to hold against Ceasars Legion or the Enclave and in turn Ceasars legion would occupy vegas and destroy the Mojave BOS. As you see the BOS only injured themselves in their attempt to protect people from themselves. But worse, Ceasars Legion would have conquered Shady and Sands and created a Legion that controlled perhaps the entire USA. In fact I doubt the NCR could have defeated the Enclave at Navarro without Laser Weapons. Now before you say "Say man, I played New Vegas, the NCR doesn't use Energy Weapons" remember i'm not talking about just energy weapons. I'm talking about any and all forms of advanced technology. Now you may say also "say man, the Brotherhood is open to join on the outside" no, no it's not. The Brotherhood will take people in but if you have joined the BOS and then talk with Deacon he will say "Yo Dez, the brotherhood let this guy in, they don't just let anybody in their ranks" (paraphrased by me of course). The fact is that if somebody like Proctor Teagan got into the Brotherhoods ranks the BOS would turn into an Unstoppable raider gang.Maxson himself has chosen to be an uncharicmatic and arrogent leader. He may have done some good things like killing the mutants at fort strong but that doesn't change the fact that Maxson will be a contant threat to the people of the commonwealth. Without proper technology and equipment, future nations will have a hard time becoming more than a group of banded together settlers with pipe pistols.

Ahhh yes. The Railroad. Your friendly neighborhood Funny Farm Residents. I could rant for hours about how narrowminded the Railroad is and how freeing toasters is sad but here is the fact. Deacon said during Tradecraft this "...some even believe we shouldn't stop there, maybe we should free terminals or turrets." The railroad is a good nation to collect good items with but the Railroad has no future. And if your going to destroy the two factions that can bring about peace in the commonwealth you better have a vision. The Railroad don't have a future for the commonwealth, they help such a small minority. I read about a ledger in FNV from a couple slavers. They sold young girls to Cook-Cook who turned around and burned their brother in front of them. I'm also guessing Cook-Cook♥♥♥♥♥♥♥them afterwords. Or maybe Paradise Falls, taking children out of little lamplight and selling them off. Synths don't live a horrible in the Institute. Sure they may be looked down upon and used because that's exactly what they are, items. Devices, no different than a Mr. Handy or a Protectron. The Railroad claims to be against slavery yet they won't help anyone but synths. Which are such a minority you could look in a city of 500 people and I seriously doubt you'd find more than one or two synths there. In fact if you pay attention it is inferred that the Railroad do alot of the replacements. And the Institute takes the blame for much of it.

The Minuteman. Two Words, Preston Garvey. The Minuteman are a group of settlers that stand upright and fight for freedom. A noble goal. And one I support to the bitter end. However let's be realistic, the Minuteman lack three things, 1.) Proper Military Command Structure, 2.) Adequate Technological Understandiong, 3.) Effective Combat Training. Perhaps before Quincy the Minuteman had all three of those things but even as the General I see very little Command Structure. In fact it feels like being the General is more like a honor title. Kinda like how you can buy for little money a title to make you a prince or baron of sealand. It's pointless but cool. Being called General of the Minuteman is cool but pointless. Considering you can't even tell your own people to stand down without threatening them (Pinned). Artillery is cool and if you destroy BOS you get Virtibirds which is pretty awesome but in combat I find minuteman to be weak and lacking proper firepower. The laser musket I find to be useless. Kinda like the Gauss rifle just without the punch. Inaccurate, expensive, and slow to fire. I find that raiders with pipe pistols and double barrel shotguns are more deadly than a group of five minuteman with laser muskets. No no seriously. I saw three raiders armed with pipe pistols kill five minuteman armed with laser Muskets. They need power armor and heavy weapons. Also if they used virtibirds in combat it would be awesome.

And finally, the Institute. Here is why I think the Institute is the best hope for the future. The Institute has the technological premise to not only secure the commonwealth but to protect and rebuild it. The Institute has done some bad things yes but the Institute get's blamed for so much more than they do. Such as University Point. The Institute DID NOT want everyone to take a dirtnap. That was Kellog being impatient and deciding to take it by force. Or perhaps the CPG. The Institute tried desperatley to get it together only to have all the repersenatives turn on each other. They wanted it! But because their repersenative was a synth he was the last man(synth) standing and so the Institute got blamed. Or that massacre at Diamond city. Something called the Masked killing or something I don't remember. What I do remember is that you can find a holotape in the Institute showing the director threatening to have someones♥♥♥♥♥for dinner because the synth made a mess in Diamond city. The FEV lab? If you look closer at it it was a closely guarded secret even from other scientists. Why do you think Virgil rebelled and no one else. He was the only one doing the experiements. Had the truth come out the Institute would have been in an uproar. Other facts show that the Institute has the Technological premise to rebuild the commonwealth and perhaps even beyond. They are truly mankinds best hope for the future. Sure they may have some flaws, but none worse than then BOS. The only difference is that the Institute is more open minded than the BOS. They are willing to take risks to achieve their goals and better the world but the BOS aren't.

The Fact is the Institute is the best hope for the future. Feel free to discuss about this below. I eagerly await your own thoughts.

Edit: I apologize if it's so long. I had some extra time on my hands today so I thought. Why not? Enjoy

V V V

[Daylon]

TL; DR

They're evil because they murder people in the Commonwealth for no reason what so ever.

[.Dandun]

who would you rather booty pound, piper or cait ?

[Tin Can]

You should prolly try playing the game. If you had played the game you would know that "Mankind Redifined" is the replacement of "Humanity" with synthetic people.

That's right, the Institute views humans as being damaged and beyond saving and believes that thier Synthetic human robots are a better solution for the earth and all the people on earth should just die.

Synthetic or manufactured people replacements can be CONTROLLED, they are PROPERTY, they do WHAT THEY ARE TOLD, they consume NO RESOURSCES and CAN WORK 24 HOURS A DAY 7 SEVEN DAYS A WEEK.

There, now go play the game.

[NecroMaster]

The railroad is a good faction but whether they are righ tor wrong depends on whether you see synths as people or not.
Personally the fact that they are self aware is proof that they are people to me.
But since you cant see past the sum of their parts you only see them as machines so you can only see the railroad in the wrong.

The brotherhood out of all the factions they have the best chance of restoring peace however it will be under very oppressive rule. And Maxons failure to see the enemys of his enemy as an ally will surely be his downfall at some point in the future.

The minutemen yes they are disorganised, outgunned and small but you underestimate how powerful these guys can get when they get enough friends. If anyone in real life could recruit to a cause as fast as the minutement youd have an army in no time ronnie shaw has experience so training is a possibility in the future, and as for guns they can make their own if you can.

As for the institute their tecnology does give them the best chance for restoring humanity but lets let their actions speak for them instead of their words.
They have synths which they could be using to protect the living from threats such as the super mutants, feral ghouls, mirelurks, and deathclaws. Yet instead they use them to kidnap people to put sleeper agents in settlements for no apperent reason.
They have a teleporter which can be used to transport resources yet the only thing they use it for is just walking in and out. While many risk their lives trying to transport resources across the deadly wilderness that is the commonwealth.

Clearly the institute is not out to help as much as they claimb.

[leem]

Originally posted by .Dandun:

who would you rather booty pound, piper or cait ?

That is a tough one to answer.

[< blank >]

Originally posted by leem:

Originally posted by .Dandun:

who would you rather booty pound, piper or cait ?

That is a tough one to answer.

no !!!!! down nerd down

[Daylon]

Originally posted by leem:

Originally posted by .Dandun:

who would you rather booty pound, piper or cait ?

That is a tough one to answer.

Not really. I'm going to tap Piper first, then go back to a previous save and do Cait. =P

[leem]

After more thought 1st ♥♥♥ 1st served.

[Mithrals]

Institute is withough comparison the only moral choice in the game. Their tech far outclass every other faction ever to have existed in the fallout universe. If you want to survive in fallout you need to be able to live with minimal resources, resist radiation and have the tech to rebuild. Synths and the institute in general checks all these boxes. Not only that, but they can also resotre plantlife and wildlife to its former glory as we see with the gorillas.

Choosing say the minutemen faction basicly dooms not only the commonwealth, but the whole world.

[Sparky84]

Cait Love that "dirty" feel. The accent is nice too

[NecroMaster]

Originally posted by eArtist:

Institute is withough comparison the only moral choice in the game. Their tech far outclass every other faction ever to have existed in the fallout universe. If you want to survive in fallout you need to be able to live with minimal resources, resist radiation and have the tech to rebuild. Synths and the institute in general checks all these boxes. Not only that, but they can also resotre plantlife and wildlife to its former glory as we see with the gorillas.

Choosing say the minutemen faction basicly dooms not only the commonwealth, but the whole world.

Or you can try just putting faith in humanity to figure it out one day.
If the institute can do it who says anyone else cant.
Id rather take a chance at fixing the problem myself then to let the problem be fixed by a bunch of madmen who want to play god and act like they are doing the world a service out of the kindness of their own hearts.

[casualsailor]

Do you really feel an Intellectual Oligarchy is a superior form of government? Why would knowledge of say Biology make one any better at governing other individuals than a soldier?

[leem]

If you discovered that your wife was replacd by a synth would you leave your children with the synth? Would you bang the synth?

[funkynutz]

Originally posted by leem:

If you discovered that your wife was replacd by a synth would you leave your children with the synth? Would you bang the synth?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/technology-40504438/

[Captain Australia]

I don't think the question of siding with the Institute should be about their policy and behaviour up until the Sole Survivor becomes Director and asserts control.

For me it's basically about the big-picture themes.

Institute: dominant technocracy
Brotherhood: control and limit technology, post war military/political agenda
Railroad: equality (misguided & a wee bit loopy)
Minutemen: liberty and pre-war human values

I'd argue that the Brotherhood and Institute are both good & bad.

Good: the wasteland NEEDS control
Bad: it's fascist and robs people of independance and human liberty

If I were to foretell the future of the wasteland based on the faction chosen, I'd lean toward scenarios something like:

Institute: under SS leadership, the Institute reaches a technological plateau and (also influenced by the minuteman sympathies) attempts again to use the technologies (surplus water, power) to broker agreements with the commonwealth. Diamond city is the first organised settlement to accept Institute governance, but over the next 100 years a new government is formed, although constantly plagued by a revolutionary contingent (the New Railroad) against the draconian laws and fighting for personal freedom.

Minuteman: for 30 years the Commonwealth thrives under an emerging spirit of free government and cooperation. The former constitution of the USA is ratified and a provisional government formed, which eventually becomes absorbed by the NCR. When Raider X rose the minutemen almost collapsed, but with the NCR military now in the Commonwealth, order was maintained.

Railroad: if these loopy ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ rule the world, nobody knows what happens next - for me this faction is counter to all logic and is goofy. Assuming the destruction of the Institute and curtailing of BoS, I guess they'd move on to some new loopy cause.

BoS: more concerned with their own agenda than the welfare of the people of the Commonwealth, the BoS attract growing resentment from the crippled societies, and demands for food are soon met with ambushes and firebombings. After trying to assert control in the region for a decade, they eventually leave after sustaining too many incremental losses, with recruitment always being lower than the guerilla losses inflicted, the organisation falls into a decline and a new leader asserts control, hopefully with more humanistic leanings.

I personally agree, if I had to rise to power and lead any of the organisations, it would probably be the Institute or the BoS, precisely BECAUSE of the fascism - without control and clear vision the Minutemen would most likely eventually decay and implode .. wheras leading the Institute you can (while you survive - and maybe after if you can transition your consciousness into a synth body) influence society's recovery in a positive direction .. similar with BoS, if you eventually take control you could out the Young Captain Psycho, and implement better policies turning them into something closer to the Arthurian ideal of Knights Errant protecting the world.

(That said, in New Vegas I chose to kill House and become him)