SPOILERS!!! SPOILERS!!! SPOILERS!!!

I decided to take a break from the refighting of the 'Wars of Religion' surrounding the BOS and Elder Maxson and propose a new leader for The Commonwealth.

The Player, as Director of the Institute.

Yes, we all know the Institute has done some shady things. FEV Lab, releasing cannibalistic Super Mutants into the world. Using Gen 3 Synths to murder and replace humans, for spying and espionage. In short, treating the folks on the surface as little more than lab rats.

But a new day can dawn; The Player can save the day.

The Institute is the one faction where the player truly becomes the head honcho, the CEO, the Boss. Sure Preston calls you 'General', but what he means is 'Water Carrier'.

But as Director (don't you just love the sound of that title), you will bathe in the respect of your friends and the terror of your foes.

In Role Playing the Institute MQ, I realized that my Son (Old Shaun), was clearly damaged goods. I also realized that I bore at least some of the blame. For it was my generation and the one preceding it that brought nuclear destruction on the world.

Perhaps I had not done enough to protect the peace, perhaps I had just been selfish in bringing a child into a world on the verge of destruction.

So, I decided to try and make it right.

I decided to try and give Shaun back at least some of what had been stolen from him, not just by the Institute, but also by my own selfish generation.

So I made my boy's dream come true; and said good bye.

Now I am the Director of the Institute, inarguably the most powerful person in all the Commonwealth, and possibly North America, east of the Rocky Mountains.

The future of the Commonwealth is for me to decide. It is the clear implication of the Radio Address, that I decide whether we will be helpful to the people of the Commonwealth or continue to use them as test subjects.

I, of course, choose the humanitarian route and because I am the Director, that is the direction the Institute will take.

No other faction, so clearly, gives me this power.

That may be true but can you be sure that the Institute will stay the same during your successor's reign? What's going to happen when you are gone? Mama Murphy's prediction after an Institute ending:

Institute: You're wearing a lab coat. You're standing with... men of science. Visionaries. Brilliant but misunderstood. I see a land marked up, like a great experiment. Each test a new beginning. Each sacrifice an acceptable loss. You will not be loved, but you will save humanity. However you choose to define it.

It would be nice if there was some kind of game mechanic that made you feel that, as director, you actually have some power and influence over the direction of the Institute beyond the "should we focus on weapons or synths?" choice you make upon completion.


But, I agree with the OP - Institue is my faction of choice even if I have to head canon a moral justification for it.

Mama Murphy's predictions are based on a default future of a given faction. In particular, her Institute prediction continues the Institutes policy of Mankind serving science. But the player Director can, in time, make science serve Mankind.

As far as my own successor, well, all the factions have that problem.

Elder Maxson's replacement may be as inept as Elder Lyons.

The Minutemen, may once again, bicker their way to destruction.

The Railroad, Des may be replaced by someone who leads the Railroad to destruction. They kind of live on the edge anyway.

As director you can train and find people who can be as good (Virgil has a strong moral line and you could be able to get him back, here you got your successor '>.< ) , even the young Synth_Shaun might do that role, whether you'd want him to actually study within' the institute, i mean, there's many kids in it and no school, among scientists they do not have an instruction policy for their childrens?

Vault 81 has a school, diamond city has a school, institute has no freaking school.

A bit weird, really.

Synth shaun won't age. Synths never age. He'll be a 10 year old forever. Several Institute scientists randomly make comments about that.

The Institute does not have a school because the Institute is a school - it does not need a formal classroom structure. The entirety of the Institue are academics who were the children of academics and so on all the way back to the dropping of the bombs.


I would put one Institute kid up against any kid in Mr. Zwicky's class any day of the week...unless the topic was bioethics, then maybe the other kid would do better. ..

If you're going for the "All powerful" playthrough. Institute Director is the way to go. You're essentially King of The Commonwealth, and possibly one of the most powerful individuals on the East Coast after The Brotherhood is defeated.

Even without mods you can have your own army: right now I've got enough money to afford all the Synth Relay grenades I want. Endlessly spamming them means you have an army of Gen-1 Synths at your back wherever you go. They aren't the most "hardy" of fighters, of course, but that doesn't matter when you drop 30 of them and let them swarm your enemies.

Top that Minutemen "General".

Also bonus points are awarded for completing the Cabot quest and achieving immortality.

Well, considering that you are basically the Minstitute General Director... I think you've topped that by default.

I don't know. The Institute just seems like the evil faction to me. If you can reconcile the fact that they killed your wife and turned your son into an affably amoral mad scientist there are still quests that imply they're no good. Ask the Warwicks. Or Mayor J. Wellington Wimpy and his nudge and wink to slaughter the non-feral ghouls at the Slog.

I do wish there was more content, by which the Player Director could make their influence felt, in game. Perhaps giving farmers a free Gen 1 Synth to help them out. It would be nice if there was some way to reassure some companions and NPCs that things will get better now. Maybe providing the DC Clinic with advanced medical equipment.

As for Young Shaun, he's a prototype, while this may just refer to him being a 'Child Synth', there may be other surprises as well. Dealing with 'Adolescent Synth' Shaun, could be quite comical.

They are, which makes all the Nazi comparisons thrown at the Brotherhood amusing while neatly avoiding the Institute having a much darker and bloodier history.

Who are they? The people who did that are all dead. What you're talking about is revenge, not justice. The people in the Institute did nothing to you, their parents or grandparents did.

At this point, it's more about whether you can change the faction to your liking. I guess it would be up to the player's interpretation.

They were of course still experimenting on humans until recently when Virgil sabotaged the project, they are also still kidnapping, murdering humans and replacing them with Synths......since most of this happened under Father's leadership I don't think a claim of their evil being in the past holds up very well, you can of course ignore their actions and choice to join them anyway. I certainly plan to, mainly for the mass effect lift music.

Only reason the program was shut down because Virgil got fed up with working on it, infected himself and destroyed the lab before leaving

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Brian_Virgil_personal_log_0176

I guess Father couldn't get anyone to replace Virgil so decided to shut it down completely, note Virgil leaving is a recent thing.

But you should not hold personal grudge against them because those people who did it are gone. You could still find them objectionable but it can't be personal. They can still be judged by their current actions. That is what I'm saying. I don't hold grudges against the Institute because they didn't do anything to me, I can't take revenge on the people who are already dead. Depending on the character, I have someone who sided with the BoS while another sided with the Institute. Both don't hold Institute responsible for what happened because what happened to me have nothing to do with the current group of people.

Which is why, as the OP indicated, siding with them for moral reasons usually involves a plan to reform The Institute. Because as the OP points out, you become The Institute's leader by the end of the game.

Truthfully, they're less evil and more sheltered nerds, who're callous about the surface-world because they think its full of monsters and savage neanderthals. Which, to be fair, it sort of is. Raiders, hordes of mutated creatures, Gunners, and radiation storms make everything on the surface look hopeless and monstrous.

I can because I saw the suffering their actions caused as I spent time in the Commonwealth.......by the time I met them I was more than ready to burn them out of their hole and [censored] on their ashes.

I do wonder how the game would differ If we started the game in the Institute where we would met Father first and then learn of their actions as we completed early missions for them......as is I'd spent a lot of time playing before I even met the Institute and their claims for the moral high ground meant nothing at that point. My first playthrough was 258 hours I believe to totally finish everything (but the endless radiant quests) and a good 100 hours was spent before I met the Railroad, which in turn led to the Institute.

In a way they are more evil than a group like the Enclave, because they have created (or at continue to use and develop) a subservient 'race' that will literally do anything they are told without any scruples at all.......so its a mixed bag, as individuals there are some who are quite nice people and many who have had little to no part in their evil, but all have benefited from them.

So I wish there was a more rational (to me) version where Father didn't expect you to somehow cross the Commonwealth, rise to power with one of the factions, kill Kellogg and then met him, then join him and instead he actually recovered you from the pod and then you could either lose faith in the Institute, keep the faith or decide to change their focus depending on your adventures.

I'm planning an pro-Institute playthrough now and I'm struggling to come up with a reason why I'd still have an open mind about them by the time I run into them.....maybe by rushing the storyline rather than exploring to much.

An inept MM General or RR leader would at the worst lead to the collapse of their respective factions, and leave the Commonwealth in the state of fending for itself that it's always been in. An inept leader of the Brotherhood could mean hard times for the BoS at best and oppressive and thuggish treatment towards the commonfolk at worst. This last one could mean bleak days ahead for the east coast. But in the grand scheme of things, it isn't that nice of a deal.


A poor/inept/evil leader of the Institute could threaten all of mankind, almost entirely unchecked. Every successor here matters way more than they do in the other factions, because the amount of power they wield is relevant on a continent (if not world)-wide scale, rather than a regional one.

I feel the Institute will not survive long if you side with them, the escaped Synths you keep recapturing will eventually get frustrated and will most likely lash out at the defenceless scientists keeping them in captivity maby in a year or 2 as soon as you leave for a few days because you are the only real threat to the Synths left.

The only gen 3 synths that are armed are the Coursers, whose loyalty is unquestionable. Between them and the early gen synth guards, there is more than enough strength to keep everything in line while you're gone. The only time we see open rebellion is when we side with the Railroad and arm them, prepare them, and ultimately incite it ourselves.

how is their loyalty unquestionable? How do you know none of them want to leave? you can't know what each individual courser thinks.

So if the player becomes the Director, will we eventually get to see a battle between the Institute under the SS and Big MT under the Courier over who gets to save humanity?

Well for one, there are no Coursers among the synths who wish to escape in a Railroad ending, and they all oppose you to their last artificial breath. And if there were Coursers that are sympathetic to the cause of freeing synths, they would be competent enough to actually lend their services to the RR'a cause in a way that could easily fracture the Institute (they can come and go as they please. They'd have the same capacity to bring down their masters as the player character). If there was a rogue Courser, it would be a big enough deal that we would see it in the game.


And also, we are told enough about heir training to know that, besides it being rigorous, it clearly includes a degree of indoctrination. These are synths that the Institute trusts enough to let off the leash and send out to do their dirtiest work with full independence and no oversight. They wouldn't be granted this level of freedom unless the trust the SRB department has in them is absolute.


And that still doesn't dispute my point on the gen 1 and 2 synths. Who are by far the bigger threat, given their numbers. They make up the Institute's army. The Coursers are more of a specialist unit. The former is what will ultimately keep the other synths in line. The latter is just a supplement.