[MEGATHREAD] Fallout 4 || Contraption, Vault-Tec, Nuka World

[Nonnel]

The Minutemen+Railroad ending is the most righteous ending
You're helping the people and the synths

[Ad Bot]

[Lord Tony®]

I didn't care about that immortal Synth in Rivet City always foiling my thieving attempts like an starfish and I still don't care about synth life in Fallout 4. It's a robot.

[sir dooble]

I hate the prebuilt story of being a single mom looking for your child.

At least with NV I could make my own backstory.

To an extent.
You still start off as a loving postman. One that gets executed by like 8 guys, despite being a complete badass who eats Radscorpions for breakfast once you start playing.

Then they gave you even more backstory in Lonesome Road just to drive home the fact that you have always been a postman. And such a dedicated postman that a settlement even started up around your deliveries.

It's a far stufftier and restricting backstory than being a parent/former-lawyer/soldier.
FO3 is better because the only backstory that has anything to do with you is that you have a Dad who left.

[Lord Tony®]

A "postman" isn't set in stone like a single parent escaping a vault in search of their son!!!


Was I a good postman? Was I 2 days from retirement? Was I about to quit in 2 weeks for a better job? Was I about to go postal?

I don't know, it's up for me to find out.


This is what makes New Vegas better. You have to figure out your character on your own terms or forget about it and just start a new life in the present. The gun shot to the head basically clears out your memory leaving your backstory up to you, it's not pre determined.

[Lord Tony®]

It's a far stufftier and restricting backstory than being a parent/former-lawyer/soldier.
FO3 is better because the only backstory that has anything to do with you is that you have a Dad who left.

No it's not. When was the last time you played New Vegas?


Fallout 3 you are some kid who is out to look for your dad.

Fallout 4 you are some adult who is out to look for your child.

New Vegas you are some courier who is out to look for answers to your murder with little to go by and now you forgot who you are and are forced to start a new life.


Does it matter that your backstory is that you were a courier your entire life? As far as I know the courier has amnesia and forgets everything so his backstory doesn't even matter.

[HULKHOGANWWFWORLDCHAMPION]

Isn't Danse revealed to be a synth if you team with BoS?

spoiler alurt dood

[sir dooble]

Having a backstory thrust upon you partway through the game is worse than having a minor one at the beginning.
Sure, my character is searching for their son, but I've not much idea what I was before settling down, or what I experienced in the army. That is entirely mine to decide.

But the courier, at the beginning all I know is he worked as a postman at least once.
I can decide myself what he did before being shot. He could have been a raider, a drug peddler, an NCR soldier, a Cattle wrangler.
But nope, partway through the game I find out I was always a postman. One who regularly took the same path, so regularly that a settlement built up around my deliveries.
And not only that, the entire game has been orchestrated by a guy I spurned years ago, that I didn't get a say in! The entire game only happens because you delivered some bad post.

New Vegas gives you a massive backstory, more restrictive on your character than 3/4.
Sure, you can do what you like when you start, but the same is true of 3/4. But my backstory is so much more restrictive on roleplay in New Vegas.

[Lord Tony®]

So your spouse was murdered and your son was kidnapped and instead of going to go out to look for your son or get revenge you are busy collecting bobbleheads and having love with whoever you want. Then you randomly do a main story quest and now all of a sudden it's "MUH BABY, MUH SHAAAAUN!"


Kills the immersion 100%, makes no sense and it restricts everything.


And you say this is better than having amnesia from a gunshot.

[Lord Tony®]

I can decide myself what he did before being shot. He could have been a raider, a drug peddler, an NCR soldier, a Cattle wrangler.
But nope, partway through the game I find out I was always a postman.

See this is what you don't understand, maybe RPGs aren't for you.


You have amnesia, you don't know who you are but that doesn't matter, what matters is the choices you make in the present/future.

Then you find out you've been a courier all your life, guess what!? No one cares, not even the courier. Who seriously says "welp, I've been a courier all my life I guess I'm going to go back to being a courier." NO! They go out and take over the loving strip.


This is like saying you have a dead end job and then get cancer and as soon as you get better you go back to your same dead end job. Sure, I guess you could say NV is restrictive in that sense if you decide to go back to your old boring life.



tl;dr version

Your backstory in Fallout 4 affects your present/future

Your backstory in NV only affects your present/future if you decide you accept you are a courier and that's now all you want to be for the rest of your life.

[sir dooble]

Did you not play Lonesome Roads? The backstory is literally the entire reason why you're doing anything at all.
The story only takes place because you happen to be a postman who delivered a bad package, so Ulysses is out to get you.
Maybe RPGs aren't for you, since you don't seem to understand Roleplay.
You're criticising Fallout 3/4 because your minor backstory (being a child/parent respectively) is the basis of your main story.
Whether your character is aware of it at the beginning or not, the backstory of being a courier is the basis of the main story of New Vegas.


And you've completely misunderstood my point.
I'm not saying "Oh, turns out I was always a courier, best continue to be a courier".
I'm saying that you have even less say in why you're on the path you're on (meaning the entire game), because it was all decided in a massive backstory you didn't even get to take part in.
That kills the roleplay choices you can have with your character. Yes, I can be a nice trader, or a bloodthirsty cannibal, or a merc for hire, or the wastelands greatest chef. But at some point, I was always a hard-working courier, who accidentally destroyed a town, and I have been setup by a person who believes I wronged them.

Yes, the Fallout 3/4 characters don't leave too much room in their backstory for you to create your own story as to why you got where you were, either.
As a child in Fallout 3 in a vault, you can hardly say your village was attacked by raiders, or you came to this place as with a caravan, or were hunting an individual.
Nor in Fallout 4 do you have too much room to explain your motivations/personality (Nate has more room than Nora, since he could become bloodthirsty, or even pacifist from being a soldier, compared to Nora just being a lawyer).
But New Vegas is just as bad, in not giving you room to create your own backstory, and then going a whole mile further to explain why you specifically ended up here. Having amnesia, and that letting you being a maniac, is just a cop out. It's easy, cliché writing. And then giving you a big back story anyway is having your cake and eating it too.


Compare Fallout 3/NV/4's backstory to the likes of Oblivion or Skyrim.
All you know in Oblivion is that you ended up in prison. How or why is up to you.
All you know in Skyrim is that you ended up captured by the Imperials, possibly by mistake. How or why is up to you.
They're much better games for roleplay.

[CypherX]

the devs' privilege is showing in the video game

he's making fun of the people offended by the racism lmao

correct. the fact that some of you view games, especially fallout, with the same lense you view the world with is a little concerning. Open your mind and have a little fun now and then

Regarding maxson, I'm not defending the dude (he's written as a deliberate sociopath) but executing danse is a matter of principle and PR. If you allow one synth in because he seems to be like you, then what? You open up the flood gates for all sorts of things that will lead to the complete compromise of the BoS's morals and would pussify them again into FO3 era stufftery. What good are rules if you don't follow them? The player is supposed to think about this when they make the choice to kill him or not.

[plad101]

Cypher I wasn't offended by the racism, I enjoy the BoS, I was just stating this is going back to their original roots which would be deemed tribal by most.

[CypherX]

a bunch of tribal cunts, forget them.

I dunno, you seemed pretty offended to me

[plad101]

I dunno, you seemed pretty offended to me

I murdered the NCR and the Legion not because of racism or dissenting opinion but because I'd rather have their power, same with the synths v. BoS, they will both end up dead.

[Lord Tony®]

If you drink this your pee glows.