Fixing Fallout 4's Minutemen: Part 1
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- Опубліковано 29 сер 2024
- This is the first part in a series of videos that will focus on the Minutemen as well as other Fallout factions. The first part covers the majority of the Minutemen's questline. I detail the events and their progression, while critiquing flaws and offering alternative solutions.
#fallout #fallout4
My main critique thus far is that at this point we know that Todd Howard is just the showy salesman. The writing can be laid firmly at the feet of Pagliarulo, though I know Howard is an easier name to say.
I’ve been seeing content about Paglirulo recently. I honestly wasn’t aware of what a central role he had until recently, so you’re probably right. Gotta say I’m not a fan.
I feel in the beginning of the quest line, the Minutemen should've stayed as a militia, but after " Taking Independence " they should turn into an actual Commonwealth military. Perhaps when you get Ronnie Shaw back in the Minutemen, she could help arm and armor the Minutemen.
Another idea is using Major Lewis (the radio guy for radio Freedom)
You could request 3 things
1: Request ____ amount of minutemen to assist you (just basically not essential companions, like the NCR radio in NV)
2: Request ____ amount of minutemen to take care of the settlements if you can't or dont want to
3: Reqeust ____ amount of Minutemen to patrol from ____ to ____
Another idea is taking Quincy after destroying the institute, there is a Creation Club version of this called the "Gunners vs Minutemen" but you can only raise a flag but gunners respawn, and its not a settlement
You should've been able to lead a force of minutemen to quincy were you wipe out every last gunner, and they stay gone. Then finally it's an official settlement
That's it
I agree. A lot of that is going to be covered in the part 2. I wouldn’t have made the player general until they took the castle either. Being able to kill the settlers for the first mission and then get promoted is hilarious.
@@Sublime_Light nah actually u suck mad
@@ncob12I appreciate that homie. Part 2 is in the works.
The Railroad should have been merged into the Minutemen as a faction within the Minutemen group. One half of Minutemen are against synths and the other half want to save them. The Railroad simply does not warrant being its own distinct faction.
I agree. If you lock out their quest like they literally send you over to the minutemen.
i love the railroad but totally agree this would be a lot more interesting. it’d also feel more realistic when you’re fighting large, well armed groups like the BoS.
Having the Convega assembly plant being one of the first pre-requisite dungeons for the first settlement is utter insanity, it's one of the most tedious, overwhelming dungeons in the game, taking like 20-40 mins to clear and you'd be overloaded with junk guaranteed, you not only have to make your way through the farm but a ghoul infested city with a raider power armor armed with a fatman and when you make it to the plant, it's giant! one of the biggest non-skycraper buildings in the game, you got snipers on catwalks, turrets, multiple levels AND if you're using Power Armor yourself and you run out of juice because you haven't come across many fusion cores and you run dry, then you got to abandon it and further junk from the decreased carrying capacity.
It's just insanity for such a low level player, thank god MM overhaul mods changes that but god-damn that's such a awful design decision.
Agreed, for your first MM quest Lexington as a whole is a massive difficulty spike. It is however a ice miniaturized version of what downtown Boston becomes later on and could've been a greater early game check of a player's build if it where set up a little cleaner.
Tenpines Bluff should have pointed you to the Raider group at the Satilite Station the Abernathy Farm quest sends you instead, they're literally a stones throw away and a more immediate threat.
Hell with Abernathy farm being just around the corner from Sanctuary, they should be the first settlement you help instead. Could've had them be accosted by the raider group at Thoreau pond or something.
The raider presence on the roads through and around Lexington could have been heavier to make it more difficult to get to College Square and downtown Boston without clearing out Corvega first giving you a more immediate motivation to challenge the area with or without doing the minute men quest.
Bruh yes, I had the exact same thoughts on my first game, after fighting through that, to quote AVGN, what were they thinking?
It's not that hard at level 6 on normal difficulty. Also you don't have to get all the raiders, just the boss to finish the quest.
@@CM-ed7ni It's not that it's hard that's the main problem, it just takes a massive amount of time and resources.
@RevulsiveLooper If it was thr Thoreau cabin they could have even told a story about having the raiders besieged and somwhow getting outflanked and losing family emembers/farmhands to hint at the secret door. Rather than a very hard lock and a handholdinf note
Pretty fitting since I see the Minutemen as the only sane and morally good faction in a way, where I actually would want to live as a wastelander, same with the NCR.
The recapture of Quincy was clearly expected to be part of the quest. You can tell because when you meet the minutemen, they refer to the fall of Quincy. When you go to Quincy, you can find their stuff.
03:20 it's funny how if you say no, preston tries so hard to pressure and shame you into doing it anyway. a complete emotional argument, like a child. just one guy passing by is supposed to defeat an entire horde of raiders while the not-so-helpless villagers look in admiration from their safe room. let's forget that when you escort them to sanctuary and you meet some enemy like those two bloodbugs if you avoided them, all the settlers will pull out their guns and destroy them, so it's almost like preston just wanted to throw you at the enemy to see if it sticks. they also still have access to that power armor, so preston could use it by himself, especially since the museum is now empty, so if the player didn't bother with the fusion core, he could just go down there, fetch it and go back up to grab the power armor. you can use the power armor even without the core, so even if it's not there he could jump into the power armor, grab the minigun and spray the raiders from above.
Exactly. Unfortunately Bethesda NPC’s are permanently frozen with no agency until the player does something for them.
An awesome video and critique of the minutemen but we’ve gotta get back to helping these settlements there’s this farm with one person on it and they are getting extorted by radroaches quick get over there we gotta rebuild the minutemen
“These raiders 35 miles away stole our friend would be a good spot for a new settlement needs your help I’ll mark it on your map”
I get around the low level power armor BS they try to force on you so early by deliberately avoiding Concord until around level 20. I spend my time making the NW area safe, settling Sunshine as my HQ, establishing Starlight as a trade hub, and helping Abernathy Farms and Oberland Station. By the time I start with the MM I am a veteran who then “happens” upon a small group in Concord besieged by fierce raiders.
Edit: Glitchfinder has put out two mods which can be used independently. When used together, they vastly fix the repetition and eliminate the radiant element for Minuteman questline, as well as prevents automatic giving of quests. You have to actually ask Preston how he is doing to get another quest from him. This allows for steady expansion with strong supply lines in a natural manner. It has really made the game 100% better. And it does not break the game questlines at all.
Tf? 💀💀
@@ncob12 What is your question?
@@NOLAgenX bro why wait a whole ass 20 levels until you use power armor?
@@ncob12 I don’t ever use power armor. Ever. Only for that one silly quest that should not have been forced on unsuspecting new players. The reason I wait until level 20 to do the MM Concord quest and start their questline is to make expansion logical and realistic and to have a firmly controlled area to expand from.
Bethesda has zero strategic thinkers on their staff, as evidenced by the haphazard and all over the map quests to expand they give you.
@@ncob12 I agree with NOLAgamer55 , I do not use power armour either, for me it makes me feel as though I’m losing something from the game when wearing it and also once you get higher level fighting raiders and gunners is just a tad too easy.
Excellent video, I'm glad to see a video that doesn't criticize everything about the minutemen.
I have been working on a minutemen rewriting myself but I tend to add way too much and the game just couldn't handle it. I think however that the introduction to Preston has been done the wrong way. I would have Codsworth lead you to Abernathy as Concord is just full of raiders. same dialogue from Blake but as you arrive to station olivia, Preston would be there hidden and trying to set up an assault/ambush. You would have the choice between suggesting a frontal assault a more sneaky approach, going on your own or letting him deal with it. At the end if you have been involved he would offer you to join the minutemen he is trying to rebuild. The main quest with this faction would be about getting revenge for the Quincy massacre so after you get the castle the next step is building an army strong enough to take back Quincy. I have so much more in my notes but that is a start
That would be a great alteration of this quest. I would’ve really enjoyed your start to the game. And I agree the minutemen’s mission is silly. In the part 2 I’ll go over more of that. I think you should’ve regrouped all the old minutemen groups and retaken Quincy.
Emil Pagliarulo is the writer. i'm pretty sure todd is the treasury. there is alot needed to fix fallout4 as fun as it can be it could have been a thousand fold better.
and oblivion an skyrims lore didn't have to be retconned ssssoooo much
Honestly a really well rounded critique of the Minutemen as a faction and its quest line. My thoughts on the minutemen (as well as every faction in the game) is that they all need a total rework in order to get us invested in them. Especially the Minutemen imo. So here is what I would do:
Minutemen are an established group of various militias that are already at war with the Institute (I'd also have the Institute be a more active force with an actual stake in the Commonwealth, instead of being stupidly evil secret order of scientists), splitting the Commonwealth in two (Boston being controlled by the Institute, and the more Rural towns being controlled/protected by the Minutemen). The Minutemen once an idealist group now stretched thin by the war and their obligation to their ideals. They are also made up of people, not everyone is a paragon of goodness, many are paranoid, stupid, drunkards, ill equipped for war, or just plain old corrupt, and they are barely holding onto the land they already have.
Another thing, you aren't able to join them straight away, you are an unknown, a wanderer that goes from place to place, with little connection to any of it. You are going to have to impress them first. You will never become a general, it doesn't fit the style of the player, nor something that can be written well for that factions. The player can join and be given the role of a scout or something (basically a role that gives the player the freedom to move around the world in a way that makes sense, you know instead of being called a General but being treated as a grunt) . Of course if you piss them off too much (either acting like an evil douchebag, or simply act against them in anyway), they will end up becoming hostile towards you and possibly send out hit squads and bounty hunters after you if you are bad enough.
(what I would change for their introductory quest)
Sanctuary would already be an established town, with more newly built houses and repairs made since the war. They are a hub town for various farms close by, and are in a spot of trouble with a couple of raider clans, one a group of slavers set up at concord who would, if it weren't for the small contingent of minutemen protecting them, capture and sell them as slave to more slavery open markets, and the other a tribe on a warpath against the first, raiding caravans to help supply their campaign. Now the player has a choice, he can help out the Minutemen with dealing with both groups, either wiping them both out both groups or setting up a deal with the tribals allowing them to both wipe out the Corvega's and free the slaves, or side with the Corvega's and help enslave one or both groups. Each giving you a good rewards, side with the Minutemen they allow you to buy the old Red Rocket, discount, respect, a less annoying Preston as a companion and potentially the ability to join the minutemen, and siding with Corvega you get a cut of the profits (when they arrive), their respect (some local raiders won't attack you).
I wish you had written the faction. This was a phenomenal read. That would’ve been great, incorporating tribals and gangs. I really like your idea for the scattered minutemen. That’s something I’ve been working on in the part 2. I think if you are the general you should have gone and reunited the old militia groups lead by people like Ronnie Shaw.
It's sad how we have interesting back drop information for similar concepts like this with what would've been Boston's own NCR, the Commonwealth Provisional Government.
We're told about how the major five settlements at the time were close to setting a more unified structure for the area only for the Institute to fuck it up and kill anyone involved due to "too much in fighting".
I agree with you that for everything the Institute does to fuck with the surface world, it'd be more interesting for them to be more directly responsible for influencing various raider groups around the commonwealth because they want to keep the surface chaotic.
Better guns, tighter tactics, more potent drugs, the Institute could be supplying Raiders with the means to run wild through Kellog in order to keep settlers out of specific areas around Boston and keeping things as chaotic as they can to keep people from rebuilding.
Meanwhile in the background they can keep sending Gen 1 and 2 scavenger teams into these abandoned areas like they already are to work on their supposed energy crisis. Gen 3 synths shouldn't even be that prevalent only being used to replace key figures in the Commonwealth like they've already done with the Diamond city Mayor.
Hell with the way you're setting up the Minutemen to still be present in the outskirts of Boston, there could be one or several high ranking officers within their ranks that have been "acting strange" lately and you eventually uncover that they're a synth that's be tasked with destabilizing what's left of the Minutemen.
I was disappointed overall with all the factions they just felt lacking and I did not have any real decisions to make with any go here , do that.
I know there are mods now that change this but all the factions end ( other than the institute ofc) destroy the institute building , I find this a stupid move that the institute building and its technology, clean food and water would surely be taken over and used by one of the other factions and the scientists put to doing work that would help the commonwealth people.
Was mind boggling to me that this option wasn’t open to us.
This is especially ridiculous for the brotherhood. Bethesda forgot they were technology hoarding xenophobes. The brotherhood blowing up the institute is about as opposite from brotherhood of steel as you can get.
@@Sublime_Light lol yes that’s pretty much was my thoughts when I did the brotherhood route.
Made no sense lol
The fact that you couldn’t kill them or go against them is a sign that Bethesda wants them to be the canon ending, and Bethesda is incapable of allowing full player freedom due to their poor writing.
The pridwin being in the show might invalidate that
@@andrewrackliff8223Not really. The Brotherhood can survive the Minuteman ending under most circumstances.
IMO, you cannot leave Emil Pagliarulo out of this given that he’s the writer. I mean Todd Howard is part of it as the one who approves but really?
Second part is characters have always said that they don’t like your choices, if the choices are either not wanted by the NPC, or not what the NPC wanted. The Dialogue Options in Fallout 4 are lame and hardly as good as previous Fallout games, but scolding or not liking your choices has always been a thing in Fallout
I definitely blame writers and Todd, but Todd is the director and there is a reason he has this guy leading the team.
All his old school writers and artists are gone. Bethesda's best games were created by their dreams and thirst for lore and pushing the envelope of what is possible.
I remember one the artists and creators of Morrowind's creatures, like all of them, all of their weirdness. He said that Todd wouldn't accept his ideas, said they were too far out there and strange. He made a work around to trick Todd into accepting his proposals. For everything he created for Morrowind, he put forward several more elaborate weird ideas, so Todd could reject them all and accept his true original design.
Todd is an egotistical schmuck who didn't see true potential and depth. So the ones who loved such creating moved on to other games. He wants yes people. And he can only dream in subpar depths and colors.
All these ideas would require Bethes-Tec to have a modicum of Originality and Creativity. So never going to happen.
Thats why we got Mods though. :D
New Vegas actually Cared about Player Choice. Unlike Bethesda's Fallouts.
This is more of a programming problem, not a character problem. More than once that I wished that I can DISPATCH ARMED grunts to a settlement that needs my help. Why I said programming? The BS odds of a settlement attack victory chance to a 50/50 odds NO MATTER HOW HIGH the defense rating of that settlement is.
Even mods can't fix those BS odds. You want to ALWAYS win? You MUST be at that settlement to ensure a 100% chance or suffer an INFURIATING 50/50 odds that NEVER work in your favor eventhough you set up that settlement defenses tighter than Fort Knox.
How can mods not fix them? It seems a simple variable
"in 200 years, nonody has come to search, pillage, or occupy the entire town."
I suppose all the crafting stations and rearranged furniture and junk just got there by magic then?
One dude has a campfire down by the entrance the rest seems like nature related damage
Also, just saw you comments on the beginning of New Vegas and Fallout 4. There are more options than you realize. In new Vegas, you can leave Goodsprings without getting involved in the war between Cobb and the villagers. In Fallout 4, you can talk to the minutemen, say you will help them, and then get the gun, fusion core and power armor. You could then decide to leave without completing the rescue.
The game is more than just the dialogue
You also don’t have to go to Concord and meet the Minutemen
I'm not sure if that early "luckily no one pillaged or settled your neighborhood" is sarcastic or not, but frankly, it's a small location, there's no food left and wasn't much to begin with, it's not good for crops, there's holes everywhere, houses are falling down, it's open and hard to defend, there's little in the way of bedding, and the human population is less than 1%. It was probably looted, and not worth staying in, compared to somewhere with concrete walls or fields. Really, the Vault would have been a better location than Sanctuary Hills.
It's main value is that you used to live there... which is why the minutemen want to settle there.
The vault's reactors and purifiers atill work, it's the stupid absurdity of the overcomplicated entrance that trashes its viability.
@@DIEGhostfishthe whole first settlement mission should have been fixing up the entrance to the vault and the vault itself to become a feasible place to live. And burying your Sig of course...
The 'lets just ignore the vault and live in a tetanus trap scrap heap' makes no damn sense.
@@doggolovescheese1310 The vault door itself made no sense, soething round and visible from the air like that would absolutely take a direct hit because it could easily be a silo.
the sim settlement mod kinda fix minutemen... kinda. at least the settler can build their own house.
"fun" fact about first encounter with minutemen
if you keep saying no - questmarker updates anyway
your clip of preston berrating player for not helping? "objectives updated" and questmarker sends you to that goddamn power armor
it goes so far as you declining the entire time and questmarker goes "join minutemen in sanctuary"
it's ridiculous and completely unacceptable
I don't mind him scolding us. People have emotions. But ffs you shouldn't be forced to join ANY faction >:( so broken
I think Karma systems can be a bit wonky. The game tells you what is a good or evil action, less so for the characters. I'd rather just have reputation systems for factions and characters. Regardless of what the developers think would be an evil or good action, it's the characters within the game instead. You could go pacifist and run from say raiders or talk them down or neutralise them in a way that doesn't kill or possibly even harm them. Does this make you good or bad? This could be a way for the characters to come through. Some could think you're a scumbag for letting them live, others like you for it (And not just raiders, even those who hate the raiders could like you for showing that compassion. Those who hate it could think you're either a wimp or a do gooder, or both.) The game isn't telling you you're a bad guy, or a good guy, but the characters are and each with their own takes on it. Both your enemies and friends alike could hate you for the same thing or like you for the same thing but remain as such unless you do so much to please/piss them off and then the rep changes. Of course, many can be neutral to you. Some could be cool with killing the raiders or not killing them, they see it as a form of self defence/preservation either way. You get punished and praised based on the characters opinions rather then devil horns and halos. But, that would get rather complex.
I really like that.
Minutemen are a militia, a civilian military with lower standards. The General give the order to take the fort and Preston was following through by keeping everyone on the task at hand. "side quests" are like subordinates telling the commander what the situation is and what has to be done to complete a mission or campaign. "Throw me a friggin bone here" approach often leaders need to be informed and the commander makes a decision.
Good thought out ideas here.
One I always viewed their responses to your actions and Concord from the lens of having watched someone with military experience dispatch a bunch of drugged up idiots who don't have any discipline. That would probably lend itself to this person, you, being awesome.
"Another settlement needs you h....." So much base building I didn't do.
To fix the brotherhood I think they should become feudalist. Like they carve out a kingdom lead by maxim and the knights are all descendants of the original BOS members but they raise levies from conquered settlements and they rule of them similar to how the old European aristocracy ruled.
I would’ve preferred they were replaced with a different faction. I liked the BOS in Obsidian’s Fallout games but Bethesda uses them as power rangers who save the day each game. However I like your idea for the BOS in fallout 4. If they are going to be in it they shouldn’t have been good guys. A feudal system would’ve been a good choice. Making them more antagonistic and less friendly to the locals.
@@Sublime_Light They have the beginings of it with the food extortion, but it just feels like a less fleshed out version of thr MWBoS.
Im liking your video essay on the minutemen don't get me wrong i dont hate preston garvey but my god is his repetitive voice annoying! Thank goodness there's mods that restore & add new minuteman content including a old general held up in concord church
im just saying you want a better minuetmen faction ss2 is it
3:00 be the same people who complain about immersion, but when they do talk to your character you wanna cry and moan about a character criticizing your characters shitty choices
The criticism could work, but it needs to have less of Preston being CERTAIN you're so competent. You shouls be able to point out you only beat the raiders before with the element of surprise, and now the fight will have to be head-on, and you don't want to risk sealing yourself inside a rusty coffin.
Fallout new vegas is obsidian
Fallout 4 is Bethesda
People say this like it means something. If you’re making a sequel it should be at or above the quality of its predecessor. Even if it’s a different studio. That’s why people hate on the Star Wars sequels and compare them to the original. Do you see me telling them “but that was George Lucas” as an excuse for the new one to be shit? I don’t think so.
@@Sublime_Light obsidian is actually cares.
Bethesda not so much
George Lucas cared about Star Wars
Disney not so much
@@Sublime_Light Jar Jar Abrams is a hack
I agree
I know. I know the history of fallout switching teams and then companies pretty well. We agree
1. It is literally the weakest suit of power armor in the game.
2. It's already incredibly damaged.
3. You are given barely enough ammo to take down the death claw with that minigun.
4. That minigun does horrible DPS compared to other options.
5. There are late game variants of deathclaws that are even stronger than the one you fight at the start.
Being the usual sniper killer I am, the later Deathclaws are weak if you have the rifleman perk raised up and an upgraded rifle weapon at your side
Yes, they had to rebalance powerarmor and the minigun to make both of them pathetic.
It doesn't matter, power armor was something you spent a long time earning in game in previous titles. It felt like you finally *made it* when you got a hold of one. Making it the weaker variant doesn't help at all with the feeling of let down.
I thought this would be a mod list. But was bombarded with a bunch of complaints about a nearly 10 year old game. Kind of an ick for me, instead of complaining about the game on topic/things we already KNEW was dog shit and have already accepted. Why not make something worth watching
That’s why there is a video description. Use your eyes profligate.
Actually these are very useful videos.
I assume you just aren't a modder, because I can see ways to implement most of these suggestions.
Well, it *is* part one. Usually the first part of the 'fix it' type videos is identifying what went wrong
So go watch a video about mods then, some people want to see a critique of the game or how it could've been done better
Why whine about another's "complaining?"
Take off your shirt
Why does everyone peg their expectations to New Vegas, the two teams were not even remotely similar. Or in the same company. (They didn't even get the updated version of the gamebryo engine to work with because Bethesda are a petty bunch of dicks), Expecting Bethesda to make a good game after Obsidian made a banger in only six months with a shoestring budget (because it was their IP originally, probably) is like expecting your crackhead cousin Keith to stop trying to snort laundry detergent after the kid next door becomes a nobel prize laureate.
Um I would agree except MORROWIND
Bethesda made an extremely lore heavy choices matter game called Morrowind. Except this time the lore was handed to them on a platter. And Fallout 3 wasn't as good as NV but it was still a good game with consequences choices allowing varied characters and replayability.
So if anything it should be expected their game would be as good as F3 or better *at least*