Religion

[Fear2288]

I gotta wonder: why did they even include the Pastor NPC and the small chapel near the entrance of Diamond City?

You can have a bit of a conversation with him when you first arrive and are asking people for help with finding Shaun, but I believe that’s kinda it.

Unless he and the chapel play some kind of role in the Railroad faction questline or some side quest I’ve just never found, that’s all there is to it.

Makes me wonder if the original intention was to utilize him more or if BSG was playing around with the idea of making religious affiliation a part of the game - like they did with Starfield - and then abandoned the thought.

Same could be said for the Children of Atom.

Before Far Harbor, they’re just a commune at the crater in the Glowing Sea that you visit on your way to Virgil, and beyond that, CoA enemies will sometimes spawn for random encounters though it seems rather rare. FH made them a large part of the main story and even allowed you to join them as a kind of faction, but didn’t really flesh them out in the same way as the MM, BoS, RR, or Institute - plus, they didn’t retroactively give you a way to join them in the Commonwealth.

Anyone think the game would’ve been better or that the world would’ve felt more “real” or “alive” if religion had had a larger presence in FO4? If NPCs practiced and were followers of certain religions (both old world and post-apocalyptic ones)? If your character had the option to join a religion which then acted as a minor faction of sorts that perhaps gave you small bonuses to certain skills, some quests (narrative or radiant), and other benefits?

To me, it would make sense that a post-apocalyptic world would likely have two kinds of people: those who had abandoned all belief in a “higher power” and live entirely atheistic and secular lives, and those who were staunchly devoted to a faith (like the CoA) whether it be a traditional old world one or some kind of new one.

The absence of religion in FO4 beyond the pastor and his chapel, the CoA, and the ruined churches does seem unusual.

And just to be clear, I myself am not a religious person - I’m not saying that FO4 needed more Jesus and that it needed NPCs constantly going on about God, Buddha, or Allah…but I do think that a more noticeable presence of it and the option for the player to engage with it would’ve made the game world feel a little more “real” and interesting.

Thoughts?

[DouglasGrave]

Originally posted by Fear2288:

Before Far Harbor, they’re just a commune at the crater in the Glowing Sea that you visit on your way to Virgil, and beyond that, CoA enemies will sometimes spawn for random encounters though it seems rather rare. FH made them a large part of the main story and even allowed you to join them as a kind of faction, but didn’t really flesh them out in the same way as the MM, BoS, RR, or Institute - plus, they didn’t retroactively give you a way to join them in the Commonwealth.

With the addition of the Nucleus in the Far Harbour DLC, I would say that the Children of Atom are more fleshed out than the Minutemen overall.

The Children have a greater number of named NPCs, a more complex history, a more distinctive style that includes more of their own weapons and armour, and while their total number of quests is technically lower, it's not padded out with generic radiant quests.

[Xenon The Noble]

FO4 is sold to an International market, and lots of places they hate Christians so there's only two places where graves are marked with crosses: Abernathy Farm and that church graveyard in south Boston. I suspect that the decision to remove crosses was done for marketing reasons and they missed these two occurrences.
They can't make an option to cover every religion so they make religion ambiguous.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3065808199
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3141726384
Interesting that they have a Pentecostal Church in the eastern part of the Glowing Sea. Most churches aren't named. The forgotten Church in the far west of the Glowing Sea is said to be Catholic by a mod. Catholic churches that I know of are built differently, however. Maybe it's Novus Ordo. Never been in one of those and not sure what they look like

Edit: Wait... that 2nd picture is from Nuka World and the Western Theme park. So... 3 places.

[Skarmo]

The Cildren Of Atom also have a small settlement near the Kingsport Lighthouse and there is a very short wedding scene of a very short side quest in which the pastor is involved (I'm not going to spoil this).

[-={LG}=-]

I think the Holy Trinity Orthodox Cathedral is like a five minute walk from Fenway. Maybe they're representing that in the game.

[Fear2288]

@Douglas

I’m speaking more to the CoA’s status as a joinable faction and the tangible effects of that, rather than their lore. Yes, the CoA have more going for them lore-wise than the MM, but in terms of what you can do as a member of the faction, there’s more to the MM than the CoA.

You can’t join the CoA without starting the questline for FH, to my knowledge there is no series of quests and such for the CoA that are independent of the FH storyline, you can’t take and create settlements in the name of the CoA, etc.

@Xenon

Christianity remains the world’s single largest religion consisting of 31% of the world’s population and is the most prominent religion in North America, South America, Europe, and Australia.

I doubt that it wasn’t featured more noticeably to help international sales - that doesn’t make sense. If the international market was THAT fickle about cultural differences, the game wouldn’t have sold well outside of the US anyways due to it being set in America, in the birthplace of the American Revolution, with a faction that embodies the spirit of those Revolutionary heroes, and American exceptionalism and jingoism being major themes of the pre-war world.

I think it’s safe to say that far more people in the world hate America than Christianity; however, that didn’t stop the game from selling outside of the US.

@Pookie

Religion/faith has a way of spinning such things to make its adherents MORE dedicated to its teachings and instilling STRONGER faith in them.

Look at the Dark Ages in Europe.

A period of widespread disunity, war, plague, famine, death, destruction, and poverty.

Christianity thrived and grew exponentially in that time period and added legions of devout followers to its ranks - cementing itself as not only THE religion of Europe, but also intertwining it with institutions of power, where it remained for the next 500 - 600 years.

Like I said, I could imagine there would be two types of people - those who looked at the events of 2077 and the horrors of the wasteland and were convinced that there was no God and that having faith was pointless, and those who are devout followers of a faith of some kind whether it be a religion born out of the post apocalyptic world (like the CoA) or an old world religion like Christianity which could’ve used the events of 2077 as an example of what happens when society abandons faith, embraces sin, favors science and secularism, and tries to play God.

[DouglasGrave]

Originally posted by Fear2288:

@Douglas

I’m speaking more to the CoA’s status as a joinable faction and the tangible effects of that, rather than their lore. Yes, the CoA have more going for them lore-wise than the MM, but in terms of what you can do as a member of the faction, there’s more to the MM than the CoA.

You can’t join the CoA without starting the questline for FH, to my knowledge there is no series of quests and such for the CoA that are independent of the FH storyline, you can’t take and create settlements in the name of the CoA, etc.

I get you there. They're perhaps my favourite faction in Fallout 4, but you can't play through the main storyline and use Child of Atom options, which is disappointing, though understandable with the primary conflict revolving around synths (and the Children not caring about them).

The settlements are a general issue, since for the most part they just all belong to the Minutemen (unless you've got Nuka World and have given them to raiders). There isn't any real way to make them Brotherhood outpost, Institute research stations, or even Railroad safehouses (beyond designating one position), and build faction-related things there. It would have been nice if with this whole settlement system they'd allowed you to use them to decide who really controls the Commonwealth.