Sooo I joined the Institute RP because of the son and accepted the Directorship hoping I could lead the Institute to peace buuuut....

They want me to destroy the Railroad...

So I either Kill Desdamonda or help her free all the Synths and kill the Institute?? Is that it? No peaceful solution?

My char would do neither...

I'd prefer not to kill the Brotherhood either but I can at least see how they could be dangerous and they do not share tech or want to really rebuild.

Then your only option is to refuse to progress the main story.

The Institute and Railroad are mirror opposites of each other. One cannot exist with the other.

The Railroad wants to destroy the Institute (this is one of reasons they formed in the first place), never even considering a peaceful solution, while the Institute is both tired of them and understands that they want to destroy them and that peace is impossible. As such, there is no peaceful solution.

There is no peaceful solution. The Institute sees synths as nothing more than tools whereas the Railroad sees synths as slaves that need liberating. In the RR storyline, you'd see the RR is quite fanatical about synth liberation.

There is no peace when two sides hate each other.

Also, yes, the RR and Institute questlines require you to destroy the Brotherhood.

I actually reached the same point.

My solution was to "infiltrate the Brotherhood of Steel" and do their quests until they did the "Destroy the Railroad Quest"

My RP was that the Sole Survivor RAN to help the Railroad but by the time he arrived, the Railroad was already destroyed.

It required killing the Railroad in-game but it was a nicely tragic twist.

Very George R.R. Martin.

That is crazy! I never felt this Pigeon Holed in any of the past gamesas/Obsidian games.

Bethesda wanted to tell a story of moral ambiguity.

So, kudos to them.

A lot of players don't want to kill ANYBODY!

Which is sad in a war about nuclear Armageddon.

Too many people want to be the Doctor - a charismatic showman who never dirties his hands but always has people around him willing to soil theirs for his sake.

I like the fact not all factions can play nice with each other. One of the things that really bugged me was getting the NCR and the Brotherhood to work together, and I like how House will broker no treaty with them. I'm shocked Obsidian didn't allow you to convince the Khans to side with the NCR, all things considered.

Though I will never not love the Enclave Remnants.

EDIT: I also hope that eventually, the Brotherhood will be expanded with a "Ending Camelot" mission where you have to eliminate the Castle and break the Minutemen to cement the Brotherhood's control over the Commonwealth.

Sure, but we always had the freedom to choose in the past between good, bad, and even often times shades of gray.

In FO1 and FO2, you really have only one choice.

In FO3 it is just plan black and white. The gray option, Colonel Autumn, was not available due to the game's theme.

NV is like FO4, but Legion and House were so unlikable that players rarely had trouble siding against them (and had a lot of trouble siding with Ceasar XP ).

Yes, but good and bad are often subjective. "One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter" as the old saying goes.

It's up to you, the player, to determine which faction is "good", and to the credit of the game unlike say if you opted to side with the Enclave or Legion, the game doesn't judge you for your choice. It is, after all, your choice. But by the same token, no faction (not even the Minutemen) end up smelling like roses.

I did one of each in NCR and Yes Man in FNV but I plan to also do Legion and House. The problem is my Char is just a Mom on the quest to find her kid. She just wouldn't do it.

Is there a middle ground through the Minutemen? I did not choose them to build the Transporter cause I was stuck from a bug at Old Guns and could not advance further.

You can get the Khans to side with NCR by murdering Papa Khan and convincing his son to work with them.

This proves to be a stupid idea as while NCR appreciates the assist, they promptly arrest and execute the drug-dealing bandits.

The "middle ground" through the Minutemen is leaving the Institute a smoldering ruin.

The game's options are: The Institute Lives or the Institute Dies.

Your character may just be a mom looking for her kid, but events are unfolding that demand choices. The question you have to ask yourself is, are they choices your character is willing to live with?

Honestly, letting the NCR do anything generally proves to be a stupid idea. Probably why I ended up universally siding with House in all successive play throughs. (Independent Vegas? Like I want the headache of dealing with the Saturday Morning Cartoons that comprise the Three Families. And the Legion...hahahahaha no.)

Great lol. So kill all my friends or a bunch of misguided and innocent scientists that have the tech to rebuild.

To be fair, you can destroy the Institute but evacuate the population as the Minutemen which leaves the people alive but no longer in a position to dominate or oppress the population.

You can do this with every side.

Also, the Evacuated Institute ending forces the Institute scientists and citizens to use their tech to help others.

Yeah, but even evacuated they cease being a force on their own...unless future DLC and games indicate the Institute reforms elsewhere (Which would be pretty cool, actually. Knock them down but they proceed to consolidate and rebuild).

Minutemen are your failsafe: if you end up in war with the Institute, you blow them up with Minutemen. If you end up at war with BoS, you can blow them up as well (only after blowing up the Institute though).

If you are mom on the quest to find (and protect) your kid, you gotta be a momma bear. And few creatures are as merciless as a mother protecting her kid.

If you want to make it easier, you can progress through BoS or RR questline. BoS questline will enable you to kinda roleplay getting to late to save the RR. If you go through RR route, you will come to the point where the RR decide to betray their Institute ally by deciding to save Synths even if it means causing countless human and synth deaths (including kids and other innocents), giving you a reason to stop them.

Funny thing is, by making the NCR lose you destroy the militaristic party which was bringing the NCR to ruin and wasting many NCR lives, not to mention you force them to stay home and thus restore order in their own lands.

So arguably beating NCR is good for NCR.

You only save some lives. Patriot's own family does not seem to have made it, and those guys are both good people and supportive of Synth freedom.

It also says a lot about the BOS and Railroad that only the Minutemen WANT YOU to do this.

To the Brotherhood, the Institute are Techno-Heretics, worthy of the Torch.

To the Railroad, the Institute are the Slavemaster, deserving of the whip they so callously used against their own creations.

To the Minutemen, the Institute are people. And the Minutemen help people.

And to the Institute, all are variables to take into account and eliminate accordingly.

If I had the choice I would have chosen the MM for this play through but I was bugged and afraid I'd break the game if I choose them while being stuck at Old Guns.

I was pretty much the opposite OP, I allied with BoS until I worked my way up to an audience with their leader. Killed Him.

I allied with the Railroad until I worked my way up to an audience with their leader. Killed them.

Allied with Institute until I worked my way up to an audience with their Director. Killed him.

Was kind of hoping Preston would have something to say about it, no joy. Killed Him.

No not really, I couldn't kill him if I wanted to. Which I do.

Now I am the dictator of Boston and have all my settlements working hard making me plenty of resources. By the next Fallout game I should be as big as the Enclave and BoS were rolled into one...

I wouldn't mind killing any faction, but some of the companions tied to factions just make it harder. X6 is boring, but Danse and Deacon make it really hard for me to side with my son. I think they did a good job with the companions in this game, could be better, but they make me care about the characters.

I think the game would have been objectively better if mature, guilt-ridden Deacon revealed his original name was Butch and he came from a Vault.