5 easy ways to fix The Main Story In Fallout 4

I wish the Gunners was a joinable Faction, more DLCs similar to Far Harbor

I would have liked the ability to meet sean's family. You know have a grand kid. Have some choices that affect the grand kid's decision. Maybe make it so he can allah I was with another faction. You know the guy lived sixty years he definitely got down once.

i was always sad that my spouse in game was the opposite sex as me. Like let me be a lil bit more gay bethesda, c'mon. Having a spouse i don't care about made me avoid the main quest so much because hearing my character say "my husband is deaaaaad" made me not really care an ounce

I don't know why the Minutemen + Railroad or BoS endings couldn't be done easily enough. The Minutemen's goals do not conflict directly with either of these factions.

Your suggestion in this video, is a sound one and with even little effort, Bethesda could of made this game into an awesome one to remember. Everything you have said makes sense.

TBH, i love the mods i have in my fallout 4 game, they have made my game look good, and play well. But tbh i would rather play without mods, because if the game company wants to improve the game, like Bethesda did with Skyrim, normally there wouldn't be a problem with that. But once you have any mods on yr game, there is a high chance that those mods will be broken and so will be yr game saves too. So because of this, i have to play my Skyrim off line, no more mods for me, unless i allow the game to update.


But i play fallout 4 for the adventure now, and i have my own story which i wrote and this story is in which i play my game. I keep away from all quests that gives you the settlement as your award for completing their quest.

For example, there is a quest in which a submarine Captain asks you to get him something to help him return home to china, but doing this quest in the Saugus ironworks you will come across i guy who tries to join this gang, if you talk to him you get the quest to take him home to his settlement an hey presto, you have a settlement to sort out. I just by pass him and ignore him altogether, its the same if you take the sword from the raider leader, that sword is a quest item and you will be stuck with it. Until you return it to the same settlement. F**king hate things like this that bethesda does.

Sorry for rambling on about something not in particular to what you are talking about in this video, just wanted to point this out.

But yeah, if Bethesda had just spent a bit more of making this game memorable instead of boring the tears out of you, then i doubt we would be talking about bethesda at all like this. This is why i will never buy another game from this company again unless they change their ways.
I think i have watched about a dozen videos about players complaining about Bethesda latest Pile of Dog manure, Starfield. The video's i have watched have been a good laugh on the stupid things that goes on in the game, but the game shouldn't be like that should it?.
R.I.P Bethesda.

TBH in my opinion, Fallout 4 is by far the worst of the fallout games, FONV, FO2, FO3, FO1 and then FO4 in that order.
They all had great stories except FO4 which is total Drab, Its nothing more than a giant "Shoot-em-up, Build a settlement"
type game with a very poor story. Even the factions are poorly made. And as for settlers who are nothing more than wandering zombies, i won't get started on that one, otherwise i will be here all day.

With the Minutemen and Preston Garvey "another settlement that needs yr help", which i think could of been the best faction of them all, (IF only Bethesda had put some effort into the game, instead of leaving most of the important things out for the Modders to fix,) but instead, yr Char becomes "The General, Farmer, Builder, Messenger, one man Lone army, Repair man etc etc, and probably more that i may have forgotten. It just becomes a long Boring quest and effort to make these settlements and i just lost interest in doing anymore settlements and joining the Minutemen total.
If there was a best faction in this game, i would say it was the Brotherhood of Steel but even their questline is boring tbh.

I still play Fallout 4 today but i have never bothered with the main questline or any of the factions or building settlements, since late 2107/18 when i finished the game for the 3rd time. I have completed this game with all factions except the Institute, which i regard a very evil faction. So since i last completed this game many years ago, i Play just for the exploration now, keeping well away from the main quest line all together. In fact i have a Random start mod, so i don't play as any of the main Char's, (Nora or Nate).

My ratings for each game is as follows. FONV, 68/100, FO2 66/100, FO3 57/100, FO1 53/100, and FO4 42/100. This is based on Story, Graphics, game play, Characters, and weapons and armors, which added up gives out the final score out of 100.

But this is typical of Bethesda game design of late. The last great game they made was Fallout 3 in my opinion. Skyrim was okay but not great, Fallout 4 was pretty lame and boring, Never bothered with FO'76 glad i didn't after what that was like when it came out and the same with Starfield either. Bethesda have gone down hill rapidly over the last 12 years putting no effort into their games, because they are relying on Modders to fix their games for them, and the writing in their games are very very poor too which makes their games boring as hell. No other wonder Baldur's Gate 3 danced all over Starfield, i am honestly NOT surprised.

Sorry for the long rant.

I read a story a while ago back in 2017 i think....... About a better story would of been to go through a long main story, first to find a kill the person (Kellogg) who killed yr spouse then you find yr son a good while later into the story looked after an old man and his wife on a small farm way back west alive an well. Can't remember how he got there now, but by the time you get there and find him, yr son is around 7 years old.

There was more to the story than what i am saying, But i remember that it was an awesome story much better than the crap that bethesda wrote. I can't remember how the main part of the story went, but in the end you kill kellogg and find yr son alive an well. This was all helped by Mama murphy who helped you find him.

The way this guy who described the story, it just sounded 100% better than what bethesda wrote by a mile. Yes the institute is still there but they are no more than scum to either bury or join or whatever. And they are not part of the main story, just another faction in the game.

Why do you hate the letter "t"?

That Kellog suggestion is spot on. Honestly can't believe they never followed that up. I also remember the first time I heard Nick do the creepy voice and it was terrifying. So much missed opportunity there!

Mama Murphy should die during the museum fight. You should find codsworth powered down. You can fix him but he loses his memory. Preston gravy should NOT give you settlement quests constantly until the end game

Listening to your story about your prologue was more touching than the actual prologue

I actually disagree on the Kellogg part, I think the weird teaser should've been left out entirely. After his memories, one thing comes across, Kellogg is not a happy man. He's not happy with what he's become. I think to some level, he wants you to kill him. I'm not saying he went easy on you, but he wanted someone strong and brave enough to kill him for a just reason, end his unnaturally long life. They could've maybe made it a bit clearer, but I think it's good how it is...the only good thing in the story really.

In regards to using the prologue to specifically show off the workshop mechanic. I also like the idea of one of the missions at the start but after the prologue being rebuilding your house in Sanctuary. Could be part of first finding Codsworth (his complaining about maintaining a home after the war), would show off the mechanics, would get you invested in the settlement mechanic right off the hop because of the emotional investment of losing your family home and putting it back together.

Also with the Sole Survivor burying their spouse and giving a few words about it, for me the speech that Naiwal does in his video is now in my headcanon. Matches so perfectly to it.

Big problem with this is you haven’t made a roleplaying game

I dknt acknowledge the pre war shit much and always ckme up with my own head cannon per character

Dude just said fallout 4 is the best fallout game ever made? Dislike just cause it's unbelievably wrong

After listening to your alternate timeline story it made me think. What if your partner did die. They push you to find Sean. They are your motivation, your drive. You then also explore the possibility that they died and were replaced or if its really them, then if they were. Do you stay with them, if they believe they're your partner because that's their memories, do you tell them, do you leave them. Do you kill them, if you do, what if they didn't have a synthetic component. Really drive that sentient toaster dialogue the whole game dances around

for an apathetic person who makes new characters constantly and doesnt play for the main quest but to just kill everything in sight id quit right there if i had to play stay at home daddy, getting out of the vault already takes long enough

This is pure gold. Especially the prologue stuff.

I honestly thought this was going to be a bitch-fest when I started thr video, but thank God you've actually provided really good solutions that I wish a mod could do!

Great video! I disagree with some points like the beginning idea (too long and I got a mod specifically to skip the beginning) but I really like the idea of the grave for your wife and Nora. I always roleplayed and made a grave at my settlement to honor her.

You think extending the prologue 12 in game hours of doing mindless tutorials and talking about THEIR experiences (not yours) will form an emotional connection to your spouse and child? Overhearing someone else’s conversation isn’t how that’s done.

You are just extending the cart ride into Helgen (worst part of a new Skyrim play through) and calling it an improvement.

I consider myself a patient person however in your version I could see myself saying “can I just play the damn game?!?!”

Also tutorials need to be done just before doing that thing. This way you can experiment with the mechanics and learn the ins and outs. Not struggle to remember what you slightly touched on hours prior. Knowledge in short term memory is stronger and once applied is the bases for long term memory.

I do like your idea of paying your respects to Nate/Nora. The quest could even be a segue into getting another clue to where Shaun is.

Your ending goes full circle though. Burying the spouse you didn’t care about. Seriously, imagine at the end of a hundred hour play through the grand finale is all your allies meet to pay their respects to someone that literally no one (you included) cares about?

You made the worst beginning to any game and somehow top it with an even worse ending.

That tutorial kinda reminds me of Fo3. Kinda long, but gets you attached. Idk

This video (and incidentally the top comment) helped me reach the conclusion that subscribing to your would likely be a good decision.

You had me at "get rid of Mama Murphy".

Finding the Institute and/or blowing it up and maybe rescuing vhild shaun- specially if he was aged up in the pre vault 111 part of the game- would have worked so much better as mid game or late mid game material.

like, now, instead of some meh endings, you get to deal with the aftermath of everything.
people reacting to your new synth child and stuff

Would have been so cool if you could build a grave for your spouse and carry the body out

The prologue thing would be so good they should totally have spent more VA acting on that

Honestly the most frustrating thing about the writing in 4 for me is just how much I can see the skeleton of a really good story there. And honestly on my first playthrough I really liked the story, it largely just gets hurt on replays, but even outside of that theres just a lot of great concepts to play around with that they almost just completely ignore after setting up.

As much as that tutorial/prologue sounds much better in establishing the story, it just sounds too long. The biggest issue with FO3 was the intro took forever, whereas New Vegas is praised for it's quick intro.

The problem is that you can't change FO4's intro to be both a good introduction to the story and a quick jump into the game without rewriting the entire thing as so much depends on the parent-son relationship with Shaun.

If you wanted it to be more "Fallout" and allow for more rolepley while keeping the pre-war start, something like Dragon Age Origins could be neat. Different backgrounds that affect starting stats (ie. ur SS was a veteran or a mechanic or a lawyer and a small intro could play for each one and how they got into vault 111). The Origins could be more blank slate for you to fill in the gaps. The story could still involve Synths and the BoS fighting over the Commonwealth, the twist could be that the SS is actually a synth themself and your origins are just the fake memories implanted into them.

IMO something more blank slate like that would be more interesting than "go find your son and avenge your dead spouse". Just stifles replayability and roleplaying so much with such a rigid character for a Fallout game.

ok this needs to be spammed so mod authors notice and take charge of fixing our games

I just thinj that the "General" title had responsibility within the game outside of go to settlement deal with issue woo hoo another settlement

The whole point of a Bethesda game is that the main quest is expected to be optional. In the main quest, you don’t know how long ago your son was kidnapped, or if he is even still alive. Also, you can make up your own backstory. The player should decide what kind of protagonist you want to be, instead of letting the devs do it for you.

God I wish Bethesda went this route when making the game, I definitely agree having an in game day before D Day happened would have made the intro more enjoyable.

I could actually see a rewrite of the BoS Proctors being done to allow for a peaceful ending, either going for pure reason with Quinlan, a kind of logistics thing with Teagan, and maybe moral with Ingram or the medical one who I forget the name of. Just making them a little bit less overzealous in the Kill All Synths department would make it work fine, or failing everything else, follow through with the original idea of personally taking over the Brotherhood to make a peaceful ending possible

I disagree wholeheartedly with the last fix. I want consequences for my choices in games. If that means joining one faction locks me out of another one? Good! That's a good thing! It promotes replayability! This notion that we need to be able to do absolutely everything with one single character is absurd and completely ruins what made these games great in their glory days.

The Vault Tec rep sort of indicates that Nora was military as do the USS Constitution crew.
The Vault Tec rep says thanks to your family's military service, and the Constitution's crew immediately activates you for military service.
I've always thought that at least the Vault Tec rep is proof that Nora had to be prior to the start of the game. (After all, Nate tells Nora the Vault Tec rep was looking for her specifically.)

Honestly for me I think it would have been best if we did away with Shawn entirely and they took the spouse. Or they still took Shawn but didn't kill the other person. Now the reason why I say other person rather than spouse is because in this scenario nate or Nora adopted shawn and the other person is left entirely vague (but clearly not related to or in a relationship with) the one the player chose. What this does is give you your first human companion and can give you a tutorial of the settlement system "oh god.. it's destroyed.. i.. I know we need to find Shawn but.. if we can't get food water and shelter we'll die trying.. over there a work bench."

Doing this as well you can choose if you like that one and get into a relationship with them or pursue one of the other people. And like dog meat this companion doesn't really have any negative affinity. Because they already knew you at your best and your worst but like when you're at your best.

there is supposed to be a way that the Brotherhood and Minutemen can end the game together, but a bug prevents it.

After being disappointed by the story, I launched a new game where I role played that I secretly know that Nora was cheating and Shawn isn't mine, so I didn't care about them and was just surviving and adapting to the new world

Head cannon for me: The sole survivor is a "Father" clone. Father was always curious if he had what it took to survive alone in the wasteland. When his clone proves his worth, he decides that he can run the institute forever and names you his successor.

Railroad + Minuteman makes the most sense - but don't forget alliances are made all of the time for mercenary reasons.

BOS + Institute. The BOS wants the Institute tech. The institute wants the BOS reach outside of Boston. They both want to clear out the undesirables. They could team up as both are considered evil options. Maxson "helps" the institute with their synth problem which also solves the BOS having to worry about runaway synths showing up outside of Boston.

For prologue tutorial, for mate at least, they could have done a combat tutorial with a flashback of his time in the army

I have to disagree with the age thing being obvious about Shawn. You assume that Kellog ages normally but in fact he's 120 or more years old if he's able to kidnapp baby Shawn at probably the age of 40 and Shawn live to be 80. I think its only obvious after you know kellog is a cyborg and see how old Shawn is, not before. So seeing kellog look 50 when you kill him, then Shawn's age is always a surprise no matter how you paint it.

When I first played and discovered old Shawn I was so annoyed with the game. Why did no one in diamond city mention the kid and Kellogg where living there like FORTY YEARS AGO?! Like that is some vital info you left out my friends.

"it's hard to beat fallout 4" east coast fans are a loud minority.

>from a gameplay perspective, Fallout 4 is the best
buddy on what fucking planet?

That last point is I think what would have really helped the story for me, cause realistically, all of the factions have things to contribute to the good of the commonwealth and the future of humanity, but all factions have weaknesses, or need their hubris/prejudices kept in check by other parties. It might have taken a bit more time in the writer's room, and more time in development, but I think the choice to have any number of combination of faction endings, and even an 'everyone works together' ending would have at least been a start to Fallout 4 beating the shallow writing allegations.

Minutemen + railroad I think is the easiest combination that could be solved by a negotiation and clearing up of certain ideas that Des has (It would be interesting if the leaders agreed to a meeting, which included Sturges cause he's sort of a big part of the MM storyline, and some railroad agent recognizes him from an operation, and this could lead to some clarification that the MM are for the people, including Synths [plus plus, it might add more character to Sturges, cause I love him, but he has two personality traits])

MM + Brotherhood could realistically be done with the same tactics, just shifted a bit more. I believe it was in the fixing the brotherhood video talking about how a cooperative food exchange could be conducted, so maybe something like that. Offering military aid in exchange for resources and such. Have some armed to the teeth paladin help that settlement clear out the feral ghouls at some satellite array, that is also a nice place to pick up some technology to preserve for the brotherhood.

MM + Institute is probably the hardest of the MM combinations, but having some similar resource exchange could work. Institute provides technology, and MM would provide the bright minds like in that one institute questline. I think more would have to be done about the Institute's motivations, and providing for the commonwealth (like I also believe you talked about in that video) but it could work.

Now everything else is much more complicated.

Institute + brotherhood could be united on the grounds of preserving/creating technology for the good of mankind, but a lot of work would have to be done replacing the leadership of both factions first. Perhaps this could be spearheaded by Madison Li, who does not seem happy with either faction's leadership. She could approach you with an idea on how to make the two factions work together, but it would require a few quests to swap out leadership with people more agreeable to reason and working together.

Institute + Railroad is also very very tricky, but I think this could also be spearheaded by an existing quest character, Liam Binet, who sees synths as people, and wants to work with the railroad, but also still has loyalty to the institute. It would likely not be Liam who approaches the player, but the player that has to take initiative to get Liam to help them find a solution for the two factions.

Railroad + Brotherhood will likely be the most quest heavy storyline of the two, but I think it would be possible with the cut ending of Paladin Danse's questline, because it honestly makes the most sense for the two factions to work together. Paladin Danse has just learned he is what he has hated most of his life, so he goes on some journeys of self discovery, requesting help from the player along the way. At some point, he is motivated to make contact with the Railroad (which might also be easier if the player has them and the MM working together first). He has some trouble agreeing with the faction at first, given how he was trained, but after helping them, he sees how human these synths he is helping are, and just how human he is, and this gets him very onboard. But maybe, one day Haylen shows up in sanctuary (or wherever Danse is) for a visit (a quest marker prompting the player to go there), and this just brings out the loyalty Danse still has for the brotherhood and their mission (minus the bigotry). Haylen talks about how it has changes since Danse left, and that Maxon has not changed, and that she and a few others that looked up to Danse (and maybe a few others that have also found out they/their friends in the brotherhood are synths) are trying to think of somehow doing something about this. This kickstarts a questline to mutiny against Maxon, which ends with the other rebels electing Danse as the new Elder for this chapter, hoping he will be the one to make real change. Danse is reluctant at first, thinking himself inadequate, but Haylen steps up, and tells him how good of a leader he was to her, and Danse accepts with a little more confidence. At this point, he is a railroad agent as well, which makes the two factions much more receptive to negotiations and working together.

Idk, I'm a writer and like solving narrative puzzles like these. Just a few ideas :)

As much as I like your ideas for writing, I don’t like Bethesda games doing too much more cutscenes/exposition pieces because I like filling in these details in my own play-throughs. If it’s helpful to gameplay maybe, but I almost like having as little table setting as possible. Might be a reason I’m more of a Skyrim guy than a FO4 guy, although I did really like FO4. I agree that the major issues I have stand with the endgame because I felt like there was a lack in options for how to resolve things the way I thought would be available.

Your thoughts on how to improve the tutorials and Sole Survivor's family connections are exactly the things I've been thinking of since the game launched. Fantastic suggestions.

Also, I do really like that the bulk of the video is just..."Fix the game by having better writing and quest design." Which really is the issue with FO4, it is undoubtedly the worst written of all of BGS's games and have some of the worst MSQ design.