Which Fallout 4 Faction is Best for the Commonwealth?

The Minutemen are the only faction with the Commonwealths best interests in mind. They just need strong consistent leaders. That being said, there IS another settlement that needs our help. Here, I'll mark it on your map!

For what it's worth, teleportation is probably a lot more impressive than the synth creation.

Another settlement needs your help, ill mark it on your map

In my headcanon after the Institute was destroyed. The railroad basically integrated itself into the Minutemen because Deacon convinced Desdemona that there was nothing left for them to accomplish. Which helped the Commonwealth gain better opinion on synths, Gave the Minutemen access to Ballistic Weave, people who are great at undertaking stealth operations, and code language would be introduced to the Minutemen. And even the Atom Cats would certainly see the Minutemen as good allies because of the Gunners who try to steal their tech. And since the Sole Survivor is liked by the leader, relations would be fairly simple to mutually benefit each other. They gain better protection from Gunners, the people they help now help them, and they help train members on how to repair things. Honestly that just feels like the only way that goes down.

Not only did Shawn say he released his dad,but every time he runs into a synth, they actively try to kill him. That always made me wonder if Shawn wasn't lying about releasing him and that his release was just an accident.

BoS soldiers: "Sir, we cant keep throwing bodies at problems entire teams couldnt handle." Maxon: "You're right soldier, throw some power armor on one of them first!"

The thing about Father is that he thinks of the Sole Survivor as his parent on an intellectual level mainly. He becomes nostalgic and looks back on his life and wonders what could have been if he'd stayed with his birth parents when he finally finds out about his origins. As he's preparing to wrap up his affairs due to his terminal cancer diagnosis, he comes to two conclusions: Kellogg has to die, and the most just and satisfying way to do that is to send his (idealized, unremembered) surviving parent after Kellogg like a guided missile. The success of that revenge plan seems to trigger a tidal change in Father's attitude: now he begins to see his parent as a way to continue his legacy, a kind of immortality. He starts to groom his parent to take over his role as Director. But Father is wrapped up in the notion of the perfect, wonderful parental figure that existed in the what if world of his fantasies. He's a bit like Preston Garvey, in that he tends to want to put the Sole Survivor on a pedestal.

I want to circle back on the Gunner rank system for a moment. Having served in the US military for over 20 years, that is actually common in the US military. Where a Captain (especially in a headquarters unit of a Battalion or higher organization) will have Majors and Colonels serving "under them". But that is largely administrative, they are placed "under" them for organizational purposes. But when it comes to actual chain of command, they answer only to the higher ranking commander. My last unit before I retired was a Medical Brigade. Our "Commanding Officer" was a Captain, but under her were several Colonels, Lieutenant Colonels, and Majors. They answered to the Captain only for administrative purposes, their actual "boss" was the Colonel who was the Brigade Commander. To give an example, a Gunner Commander who is a Major General sends a force to Boston. Along with the Commander of the actual forces they will also send specialists in Logistics, Administration, Intelligence, Communications, and Operations. And those specialists may well outrank the actual "Ground Forces Commander", but have no actual command role in the organization but serve the Captain as advisors for the higher unit commander. For some of the higher ranking officers seen in game, they might be the equivalent of an "Inspector General" or other specialists sent in. Who are literally outsiders and do not fall into the chain of command of the local assigned unit at all. The equivalent of a Special Forces or Navy SEAL unit. They might be in the area of a Company or Battalion, but they do not answer to that commander but to a chain of command separate and often higher than the local commander. The Navy has somewhat similar traditions, with higher ranking officers on a ship like another Captain commonly addressed at one time as "Commodore". They are still a Captain by rank, but as they are not the captain of that ship that title is traditionally not used. And the common term for them is "Supercargo".

To me I feel like the canon ending is the minutemen’s, where you keep the railroad and brotherhood alive. And in the siege of the institute you let harmless scientists escape. And it’s purely so future games can have cameos from characters in this one. It’ll be cool in fallout 5 to run into like a rogue institute scientist in hiding or something

The fact that Bethesda scrapped the quest to allow Paladin Dance to challenge Maxin is probably one of the biggest missed opportunities for potential story development, under different leadership the BoS could have actually been a good choice for the Commonwealth. However as it stands the Minutemen are the only ones who have the actual future of the whole commonwealth in mind.

man the new Vegas epilogue is what made it so good imo, it told you straight all the consequences of your actions, and really made you feel for some people.

Ron Pearlman… I’m just now finding this channel but I absolutely love. As someone new to the whole settlement building community but a lifelong fan of Fallout 4, I love to see the dedication you have to exploring such a beautiful piece of art. If anything, know that as a fellow connoisseur I appreciate it!

Feels more like that without the player the Minutemen would have died at the museum and the brotherhood of steel at the police station without showing up later. The institute would eventually succeed in starting the reactor and then do who know what. The Railroad would have continued railroading atleast for some time. The overboss would have continued overbossing. The Island factions continue to be in a stalemate. And the Mechanist, one you missed, would have taken over the Commonwealth without knowing. Also, of the nuka-world raider factions, the one that has useful skills to sustain itself is the pack, animal handling, sure the pack might be using it to run a death arena while wearing clown outfits, but that is still a circus, or a rodeo.

Another one for the gunners is one most never notice. If you use a gunner cage and capture a gunner, the faction will actually raid you in attempt to rescue its men.

In the grand scheme of things, the institute's tech design and manufacturing capability leaves them as probably the most valuable collection of people in the commonwealth or even potentially across the entire series in terms of building back civilization. There isnt unfortunately an ending where you or someone else gets to reform the institute to be a force for good even though there is plenty of capacity for that within the story, but if there was it would be a complete non-brainer to allign with them. Their unique ability to produce advanced electronics of all forms along teleportation and gene modification capabilities as well as just an understanding of life in a clean orderly world could very easily catapult the minutemen or some other commonwealth civilian organization's capability to fix the world around them to the stratosphere

Liking the video simply because he gave warning that there would be spoilers. Knowing that ultimately theres 4 different endings/factions is useful aswell.

I think what the writers were going for as the "good" ending was an alliance between the Minutemen and Railroad, because you can play both in tandem without any conflict of interest. The Minutemen prepare the commonwealth while the Railroad focus on the major threats, and when the Railroad's mission is complete they can dissolve and retire into the new Minutemen government. There will always be a need for people who can move covertly and provide intelligence. That being said, the Railroad's vision, like you pointed out, was incredibly shortsighted. In the Sole Survivor they get a solution to their problems on a silver platter. The Sole Survivor, aligned with the Railroad as Director could work to restructure the Institute into an actually benevolent organization, could work to eradicate the mindset that synths are only machines to be enslaved. But unfortunately Bethesda dropped the ball on that, either out of oversight or intention to make the Institute irredeemable.

2:48 I can’t imagine the Atom Cats becoming contract mercenaries for either the Railroad or Minutemen. They’re smooth-talkin’ grease-monkeys who hold poetry nights. If anything, they’re more likely to serve as suppliers for the other factions, be it for new suits, repairs, or modifications.

Ron Pearlman That was the best video I have seen in a long time! The information you had gave me a new look on each faction! Makes me want to go play again

Very articulate breakdown and well thought out. Helped me decide on the Minutemen