How far can you go with factions?

[Mr B.]

So I'd done much of the minutemen before even going into the storyline and visiting diamond city.

As a result, I've the castle and many settlements. That's a pissoff in itself, I do everything for them (even make beds and assign them to grow food!!) and yet an attack comes 'drop everything or people will die and things damaged' event happens.

Sorry, rant over. Anyways, how far can I go with each faction's missions before I get kicked out by others? I know minutemen are much seperate. However, BOS and institute are very much against each other.

Railroad are too, though they seem more circumspect so I might be able to get more done.

***spoilers below***

On another note, who has the sensible moral high ground here? BOS are good, but seem a bit 'do what we say whatever'. Railroad are very moral, but pretty stupid since synths could so easily use them to keep on infiltrating.

And the institute? Worst of the lot. My wife (his mum) was simply collateral damage, and me he just let lose, and eventually pitted against a rock hard killer (he wasn't that bad, but it's not the point). Just to see what would happen. Oh, and not to mention wiping out a settlement just to see how some seeds do. That father, what an utter ♥♥♥♥.

I want to take each faction for all the goodies I can before I get cut off (i.e. institute stops letting me in).

[BizarreMan]

With the Institute and Brotherhood before you take the step that will make permanent enemies of the other it gives you a warning. Between the Brotherhood and Railroad though there is no warning.

[The_Vernster]

For the Insitute and BOS when Mass Fusion(Institute)/Spoils of War(BOS) comes up thats the cutoff point where you have to pick between the Institute or BOS. The game even tells you picking one will make the other side permanently hostile.

The Railroad is kinda dependant on this too, if you pick the BOS side the Railroad questline ends with the Institute, and you might have to kill the Railroad if you continue to work with the BOS.

The Insitute makes the BOS hostile but the Railroad quesline is still open as you act as their undercover agent providing you joined them beforehand otherwise you might get cuttoff from the Railroad as a whole if you continue to work with the Institute. Later on you can double cross the Railroad when Father orders you to kill them or you can continue to side with the Railroad and then kill the Institute at the end.

[Archmage MC]

To be honest the factions are really horrible if they aren't the Minutemen, and its sad that they're so poorly written that someone with a silver tongue could easily broker peace between Railroad/Instutute/Commonwealth. Assassinate the BoS chain of command whch Railroad can easily do and you have a very peaceful wasteland where you can rebuild everything in about 100 years. TBH BoS is probably the worst of the factions if yo consider that you become the institute head at the end of that chain meaning you can easily turn those people into the good guys as they don't really care one way or the other, Railroad are good but misguided, Minutemen are good, and only the BoS is unredeemibly evil due to Maxon.

As for how far you can go to get all rewards and broker peace... Although I think I'm off on the order here.

Do Minutemen up to the castle but don't complete it.
Do Brotherhood quests in Cainbridge, stop at Shadow of Steel
Do Railroad up until Jackpot for Ballistic Weave or keep going as long as you want.
Enter Instutute with Minutemen
Do Instuttionalized and somehow get the Undercover mish from Railroad. Your done with Railroad.
Do Shadow of Steel and those quests til you can get Danse's quest thing but don't complete that.
Do instutue up until you finish Battle for Bunker Hill. (Do NOT kill anything, make sure you sneak.)
When you get the next quest about the reactor, turn in Paladin Danse's thing, then tell them about the reactor which lets you skip the quest where you kill the Railroad,
Now you have a choice of what kind of commonwealth you want when you finish.
1.If you wanna keep X86 without mods you finish via the railroad.
2.If you want a peaceful Commonwealth (although with more vertibird spawns) get kickd out of the instutute, get into the instutute with Minutemen, and make sure you issue the evacuation order before blowing the reactor.
3.If you want Liberty Prime at Boston airport, finish Brotherhood line. Make sure you issue the evacuation order. Brotherhood will go on a blood crusade and kill EVERYONE though in the commonwealth if you do this one.

Also remember to NEVER talk to PAM when you finish The Nuclear Option as she'll start a war between the Brotherhood and the Railroad.

Do note this gets you all the goodies, but the Commonwealth will be fairly active with faction skirmishes. There is an even more peaceful way of winning the game, but you can't do Paladin Danse's mish/get paladin rank, nor can you get X86.

[watchdog79]

BoS are definitely not good. They are genocidal fascists.

[arnzod]

Originally posted by Mr B.:

So I'd done much of the minutemen before even going into the storyline and visiting diamond city.

As a result, I've the castle and many settlements. That's a pissoff in itself, I do everything for them (even make beds and assign them to grow food!!) and yet an attack comes 'drop everything or people will die and things damaged' event happens.

Sorry, rant over. Anyways, how far can I go with each faction's missions before I get kicked out by others? I know minutemen are much seperate. However, BOS and institute are very much against each other.

Railroad are too, though they seem more circumspect so I might be able to get more done.

***spoilers below***

On another note, who has the sensible moral high ground here? BOS are good, but seem a bit 'do what we say whatever'. Railroad are very moral, but pretty stupid since synths could so easily use them to keep on infiltrating.

And the institute? Worst of the lot. My wife (his mum) was simply collateral damage, and me he just let lose, and eventually pitted against a rock hard killer (he wasn't that bad, but it's not the point). Just to see what would happen. Oh, and not to mention wiping out a settlement just to see how some seeds do. That father, what an utter ♥♥♥♥.

I want to take each faction for all the goodies I can before I get cut off (i.e. institute stops letting me in).

On my current playthrough I have colonized every single settlement, that is not locked behind a faction-specific quest. I have met the BOS and the RR, but I purposely avoided the MM because they are lazy losers who deserve death.

I have not rescued Valentine, so my interaction with the BOS is confined to doing fetch quests for the scribe and kill quests for the guy that doesn't like me. With the RR, I do any quest they ask until PAM wants to speak to me, then I confine myself to Tom and the Doctor - I have run out of quests on both of them. (Yes, Tom eventually runs out of MILA locations, believe it or not.) I don't do anything for PAM because her first request is to "give" her one of my settlements for a new safehouse, and she wants the one that was the most expensive to build and is already fully populated by robots I built myself, and I'm not about to let some sweaty, sewer stained, cave-dwellers move into my settlement and start making demands for things like "beds".

Short version is that as long as you don't advance the main storyline, you can do as many quests as a faction asks of you without affecting the others. Don't be afraid to go to Diamond City, or anywhere else, just don't rescue Nick and the story won't advance.

[Doombringer]

I prefer not finishing the game and having all 4 factions helping me :)
Yay bonus merchants and 1 minute fast travels!

Note to guy above me: you don't give pam a settlement, she just gives you a bonus fast travel marker and a guy there who gives radiant quests...

[AbsynthMinded]

Doesn't matter, all choices lead to dissapointment at end game. None of the endings are rally happy ones.

Minutemen - War with BoS. They don't take a loss like that lying down, round 2 would be coming

BoS - Everyone suffers under totallitarian rule, technology is squelched for common advancement of living conditions. BoS will probably nuke the entire commonwealth in a few weeks.

Institute - War with BoS (see above). Continue to cause havock and distrust in the lives of surface dwellers of the Commonwealth.

The writing for FO4 leaves a vast number of things to be desired.

[arnzod]

Originally posted by Doombringer:

I prefer not finishing the game and having all 4 factions helping me :)
Yay bonus merchants and 1 minute fast travels!

Note to guy above me: you don't give pam a settlement, she just gives you a bonus fast travel marker and a guy there who gives radiant quests...

Hmm, I would like that ballistic weave recipe.

[Mr B.]

Thanks folks. Seems pretty dissapointing though, no way to help the commonwealth by the looks of it.

The minutemen look to be those just wanting to survive without being asses. But against the brotherhood of steel when they can't even build their own damn beds....

Most members of the brotherhood don't seem that bad. Ferals and super mutants are bad by nature. But this tech fixation....

Sigh. I've tried being evil characters, I just can't do it....

[The_Vernster]

Originally posted by Mr B.:

Thanks folks. Seems pretty dissapointing though, no way to help the commonwealth by the looks of it.

The minutemen look to be those just wanting to survive without being asses. But against the brotherhood of steel when they can't even build their own damn beds....

Sigh. I've tried being evil characters, I just can't do it....

You can do the ending with the Minutemen and only destroy the Institute.

In fact the Minutemen is the only faction that has the option to maintain peace with the other factions except the Institute.

[Mr B.]

Originally posted by The_Vernster:

Originally posted by Mr B.:

Thanks folks. Seems pretty dissapointing though, no way to help the commonwealth by the looks of it.

The minutemen look to be those just wanting to survive without being asses. But against the brotherhood of steel when they can't even build their own damn beds....

Sigh. I've tried being evil characters, I just can't do it....

You can do the ending with the Minutemen and only destroy the Institute.

In fact the Minutemen is the only faction that has the option to maintain peace with the other factions except the Institute.

Ohh, choice made. Thanks!

Wait, I have to get all settlements then. Aw ♥♥♥♥.

Also, I've got heavy combat armour on (love the look, and don't need to repair after each fight), except I cannot find a heavy one for my left shoulder *anywhere*.

Any ideas?

[The_Vernster]

Originally posted by Mr B.:

Originally posted by The_Vernster:

You can do the ending with the Minutemen and only destroy the Institute.

In fact the Minutemen is the only faction that has the option to maintain peace with the other factions except the Institute.

Ohh, choice made. Thanks!

Wait, I have to get all settlements then. Aw ♥♥♥♥.

Also, I've got heavy combat armour on (love the look, and don't need to repair after each fight), except I cannot find a heavy one for my left shoulder *anywhere*.

Any ideas?

Vault 81. Overseer's Armguards.

Also about the Minutemen being the only faction to make peace with the factions, you still have to be pretty careful not to piss off one faction to the point of hostility.

[Bored Peon]

Originally posted by AbsynthMinded:

Doesn't matter, all choices lead to dissapointment at end game. None of the endings are rally happy ones.

Minutemen - War with BoS. They don't take a loss like that lying down, round 2 would be coming

BoS - Everyone suffers under totallitarian rule, technology is squelched for common advancement of living conditions. BoS will probably nuke the entire commonwealth in a few weeks.

Institute - War with BoS (see above). Continue to cause havock and distrust in the lives of surface dwellers of the Commonwealth.

The writing for FO4 leaves a vast number of things to be desired.

How do you even know what the writing is? The endings you just wrote about make no sense.

Minuteman ending only removes the Institute. The Minutemen never go to war with the BOS or visa versa unless the player causes it by doing Mass Fusion for Institute/Railroad which then it is not a pure Minuteman ending.

BOS only came to fight the Institute and they mop up the super mutants and ferals in the process and aftermath. The BOS would not nuke the Commonwealth.

Once the Institute is blown up that is the end for them, they no longer have the power plants to make more synths.

[watchdog79]

Originally posted by Mr B.:

Ohh, choice made. Thanks!

Wait, I have to get all settlements then. Aw ♥♥♥♥.

Also, I've got heavy combat armour on (love the look, and don't need to repair after each fight), except I cannot find a heavy one for my left shoulder *anywhere*.

Any ideas?

There are mods on Nexus that add standard/sturdy/heavy crafting slot.