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[slocumjoe]

~How to Significantly Worsen the Railroad in Fallout 4~

Move the Railroad's secret base to a sub-basement under the mile-wide labyrinth next to the long, Feral Ghoul-infested train station beneath the Old North Church. It now takes four loading screens to get from the overworld to the headquarters.

Glory and Desdemona are a couple! However, just one main quest after they confess their feelings to each other, the Brotherhood of Steel kill them both. Dr Carrington becomes the Railroad's new leader.

Before each of the Railroad's main storyline quests, you have to finish about five radiant quests. And if you do about a hundred radiant quests, you'll get access to a safe full of random respawning valuables!

Some of these radiant quests have you escorting a fugitive all the way across the map, while being pursued by Institute forces who spawn randomly in groups of four or five. The fugitive will quite cheerfully attempt to fend them off with a stick or a pipe pistol. If a Courser so much as touches them, they'll be teleported back to the Institute, and Desdemona (or Dr Carrington) will spank you in front of all your comrades for letting her down.

Other of these radiant quests have you establishing safehouses, with room and board for at least twenty escaped Synths, in randomly-chosen settlements. Each safehouse has to be disguised as another building, such as a launderette, a coffee shop or a fire station, which means you have to paint the walls JUST so and scatter JUST the right sorts of clutter around before you can hand in the quest.

The Railroad give the player a Synth - yes, GIVE the player a Synth, but this particular Synth, so we're told, is perfectly happy to have a human owner. She just doesn't feel right, you see, unless she has a master to serve and protect with her blade. Her lovely blue and golden armoured dress can be worn under armguards and a breastplate, but none of them really go with it.

She also dies while protecting the player from a Courser, one they could probably have defeated with ease by then.

[slocumjoe]

[slocumjoe]

danse's romance route has some potholes

so, this post woke me from my slumber, have a ramble

This has always been a weird point for me, but I never got around to really figuring out what it was exactly until just now. I think all of the romantic candidates have out-of-place flirting, at least here and there, but Danse consistently has dialogue options to flirt with him at exactly the wrong fuckin time. The odd thing about Danse is that, most of the time, the normal Good/Yes answer is more romantic or sincerely affectionate than the flirt.

So, the Flirts.

The only Flirt that works is when he talks about his fear of losing people, and Sole says, "I care too much about you to do that to you." It's the first Flirt, and he responds by saying you've given him "something to think about." I've gone on about how Danse has never truly felt cared for. Sole's voice acting also sells this Flirt by being somewhat timid, unsure of saying this, but wanting him to know.

Danse's talks go Kreig > Cutler > Haylen > Help Im A Robot. The first time you can flirt with him is in the Cutler chat, where the "I care about you" line comes up. It's not out of left field from the conversation. It's affectionate, it doesn't overstep, but it pushes the line and makes Danse consider "oh shit, there's a lil something something going on here."

The "Would you hold me?" line is much less subtle.

Danse talks about how he doubts himself after Cambridge and Sole's reference to him hugging Haylen makes it seem like they've just been waiting for him to shut up to use that line on him. It's out of place, it circles back to a topic we've moved on from, and it's so overt it sucker-punches everyone involved, including the player. It's blunt.

The other options of "I'm here whenever you need me" or "I'm glad you feel better" are less flirtatious, but they imply more direct concern and care for Danse. Both lines are about Danse, and Sole being there for him. The actual Flirt is what Danse can do for Sole. This is such a weird nitpick, I know, but it comes off not as romantic, but more like Sole is trying to hook up with him. That would work with someone like Hancock, or maybe Piper, but Danse's romance involves more subtlety and slow-burn elements. It's too forward.

So, in his final talk...

It's literally "Kitten I'll be honest, Daddy's about to kill himself" "haha no don't kill yourself you're soooo sexy"

It comes right after he's having a lot of emotions about his reason for living. This is not the time to put the responsibility of a relationship on someone. Again, this is a flaw of the 4 Affinity Talks system. If you're just going for a platonic relationship with Danse, his talks work great, but his character arc is unfinished anyway. They have to shoehorn romance in there, and it doesn't have the room to develop naturally. It's why Sole has to explicitly say "Would you hold me ;>".

The strangest part is that his neutral/Friendly dialogue options are more affectionate and relationship-building. Again, the other options in the Haylen talk comfort Danse and reassure him.

Honestly, I think the best option, for all romancable companions, is within arms reach. You know how, if you don't romance someone, they'll bring up their last talk again and give you a barn door of an opening to broach the subject of a relationship again? Just. Do that/ It's literally what I did when I romanced Danse; don't romance him as soon as possible. Let it marinate.

The second chance to romance him goes the exact same way, eyebrows to space and all. It just takes place after Danse confesses how close he feels to you and trusts you and not RIGHT AFTER BLIND BETRAYAL.

It's easy to fix the pacing just by not going for the smooch ASAP, but the flirting is awkward. It's worth noting that the line before the Haylen flirt "It's comforting to know that I can speak to you as more than just your commanding officer" has it's own Flirting tag on it. Danse flirts with Sole here, canonically.

A cheap and easy rewrite is Sole echoing the sentiment with something like, "It's comforting to know that you're more than my commanding officer." This leaves room for interpretation. What else is Danse? Sole has an idea, but leaves Danse to wonder about it. It also confirms to Danse "yes, we have a personal bond and this isn't just a work thing."

I think the core of Danse's romance is this dude realizing that he's loved and cared for, truly. Cait has a similar arc, but hers has different complications and contexts than Danse. Danse needs a slow-burn romance full of soft moments and instances of Sole reminding him of his own humanity, even long before the synth thing.

It's worth noting that the "i care too much about you" line is still kinda overshadowed by the "But I wanna be a mutant" joke. That joke makes him laugh, he jokes back without missing a beat, and it's a cute little bonding moment between him and Sole. Romance isn't just overt flirting, it's the little things that make you think the other person is special. How many people do you think can make Danse laugh? Especially about becoming a Super Mutant, right after being told about Cutler? Danse thinks Sole is funny. He thinks it's a cute little joke. He's charmed.

Then Sole sucker-punches him with an explicit ask of physical contact and emotional exploration and the moment is lost. For the Halyen talk, you could have an option where Sole asks, teasingly, if this is going on the report, and Danse laughs and contemplates what Maxson would think. Maybe he even comments about how rumors spread on the Prydwen, implying that he knows there is something between you two for people to gossip about. This would later tie in to The Reveal, where Maxson says the same thing.

[slocumjoe]

Hello, I'm making a TikTok covering an upcoming Fallout 4 based project I'm working on for improvements I would love Fallout 4 to have. I wanted to know if I could use screenshots from your companion criticism post as support for my argument in terms of improvement to their storylines. I will credit you, of course.

Thanks!

yeah ofc!! the tax is you have to send the link to the project/tik tok when its done o3o

[slocumjoe]

Got a danse post a'cookin'

[slocumjoe]

do you ever think

no

[slocumjoe]

What cats do you think the companion would be? How would they react to being turned into cats?

Ive answered this before with Danse and X6, with Danse being an abandoned Maine coon who's adapted to the streets but still wants aloving home but just can't bring himself to trust, and x6 a bitchy oriental short-hair that has nannies who never last more than a few months.

But the others...

Cait is an abyssian. Lean, athletic, that coloring, and tend to do much better when they have one or two friends. Caits a feral abyssian that has to be tricked into being taken care of.

Curie is a ragdoll and this feels so obvious I don't think I need to explain it. She js the velcro-ist rag to ever doll.

Deacon is an orange boy cat with odd enough physical traits to think he has actual breeds in there, but as it stands, he's just Orange. I see him being vaguely Cornish Rex

Gage would be a siamese. Siamese are fucking asshole rat things if you're not Their Person. IYKYK. They're independent, hate rules, and tend to have one single human being they actually like.

Mac is a Bengal. This breed has more wild animal in it than most, but still are curious and friendly with their people. He is, specifically, a stray Bengal who's gotten this "no cat parents" this down and has basically gone back to his roots.

Hancock is a sphinx, obviously, but I also see Russian Blue...and I don't know why. Either way, he's a cat that ran away from home and can't be caught by anyone. He was made for the streets

Nick is a very simple black cat. Medium length coat, a couple of greys in there, and striking yellow eyes. It'll let you pet it, but only for a bit before it vanishes again. This is not a stray, but an outdoor cat that has a home; it just has other business to attend to.

Piper is a short haired calico that's indoors and hates it. She wants to chase birds. This is a loud, talkative beasts who wants to he involved in everything you are doing and will not shut up until you involve her. This is also a cat that would and could take down an intruder.

Preston is a fluffy norwegian forest cat and I will hear no arguments. This breed has high prey drive and are much larger and stronger than other breeds. He's a barn cat that fights foxes and coyotes and doesn't give a shit.

[slocumjoe]

hi im obsessed with your writing and would like to offer a simple kiss on the forehead if ur cool with that :) you capture everyone’s essence so perfectly and every post cracks me up i hope ur having a good day :)) <3

This is v old and I'm sorry but I LOVE YOU AND I WOULD TUCK YOU INTO BED WITH A SOFT TEDDY AND A WARM GLASS OF MILK

[slocumjoe]

Hey would it be weird to say I love listening to you get up on your soapbox about the companion characters writing? I saw that Nick Valentine post pop up and was like:

This soap box is my home and I can't be evicted no matter how hard the haters try

[slocumjoe]

Pop quiz, how many of you remember my x688 fic I got 12 of 14 chapters through and then deleted

[slocumjoe]

A ramble about Preston Garvey and a self-indulgent revision of the entire Minuteman questline

TDLR: The Minutemen faction sacrifices writing and Preston’s character as a means of shoveling errands and busywork at the player.

Preston’s issues as a character are entirely Doylist, meaning the fault of outside forces. His writing, his concept, his themes, those are solid. This is not a racehorse that broke its leg and was still sent down the track, like some characters. This is a horse that was hale and hearty, but they made it run in circles around cars in the parking lot instead of putting it in the race. 

This essay is not going to be my most coherent one. Preston’s issues are so apparent, so in your face, it kinda feels like a waste of time explaining it. Just look at him and anyone with two braincells to rub together can see. But a lot of things in Fallout 4 sticks with me, even when I’m not in a Fallout 4 mood. Preston is one of those things. So neglected, so misused in the game, I couldn’t stop thinking about the bastard. 

Before we get into what Preston is, in-game…what was he meant to be?

And you know what? 

He’s close to Danse, post Blind Betrayal.

Keep reading

[slocumjoe]

I binged the Fallout show yesterday and the "oh, no dogs allowed in the vaults" thing being the last straw in Coop's relationship was just... I thought it was great. Not just because I like dogs, or because Fallout has a long tradition of the protag being a dog person, but because as a dog person, the thought that my spouse could have grown so alienated from me as to not realize what a huge fucking deal it would be for me to give up/put down my dog for her plans was just chilling. Like, just a great illustration of how wide Vault-Tec's secrets have levered that chasm.

She can't tell him why it's so vital to get into a specific vault, or even let him inow that it's more than general anxiety about the war that has her so stressed. She's so consumed with this idea of a least-hellish path forwards that she's already written off their dog and while she's sorry for their kid losing the dog, she can't even remember that her husband is exactly the kind of guy to a) dig in his heels about his dog and b) REALLY dig in his heels about his dog being written off with no one even bothering to discuss it with him.

[slocumjoe]

Anyway how we all doing? What's going on in our lives, what's the vibe? I'm reaching very high highs and very low lows so that's Just Peachy. I recently got a laptop for gaming and once I'm done seeing the new 1.6 stardew update I'll probably end up back in Fallout 4 Purgatory. Mostly just worried my laptop won't be able to handle it...she don't run too well. Either way, still here, just busy trying to get my life sorted. It's been a fucking year. Moved out of my parents and into my aunt and uncle's, got a job, trying to get a better job, trying to get my own place this autumn. Handling lots of personal development shit.

Still love my fatassed pookie

[slocumjoe]

Did Fallout casually drop a non-binary character out of the blue like that? I love them, very gender. But I did not expect that from the Brotherhood?!?!

[slocumjoe]

this is what playing blind betrayal felt like

[slocumjoe]

Was thinking about this.

If I remember right, the only other companion that has side quests that you're supposed to do with them and not another companion, but doesn't have anything to do with their personal arc, is....Danse. with the BoS sidequests. Something Something the more stuff you give a character the do, they more people like them

Always thought how weird it was how bethany esda gave piper a whole "cutscene" but valentine got the most content out of the two

Whats a cutscene to personal involvement with the plot, sidequests + a personal affinity based, and a whole ass DLC

[slocumjoe]

Always thought how weird it was how bethany esda gave piper a whole "cutscene" but valentine got the most content out of the two

Whats a cutscene to personal involvement with the plot, sidequests + a personal affinity based, and a whole ass DLC