Fallout 4

About this mod

An immersive alternate Railroad and Institute ending that allows the reformation of the Institute and peace between the Commonwealth factions. Free the synths, end the kidnappings, stop the immoral experiments, pacify the Brotherhood of Steel with less violence. 4 new companions are available: Z1-14, Glory, Super Mutant Virgil, Synth Elder Maxson.

Requirements
Permissions and credits
Translations
  • Spanish
  • Russian
  • Portuguese
Mirrors
Changelogs
Donations
Subversion
The Institute-Railroad Alliance Alternate Ending
Patch 4.0B



An immersive alternate Railroad and Institute ending that allows the reformation of the Institute and peace between the Commonwealth factions. Free the synths, end the kidnappings, stop the immoral experiments, pacify the Brotherhood of Steel with less violence. 4 new companions are available: Z1-14, Glory, Super Mutant Virgil, Synth Elder Maxson.

Requirements:

There are no special requirements beyond vanilla Fallout 4.

This mod is out for PC and Xbox One. There is no PS4 version, never will be.

Details and Features:

Let's face it, the Railroad ending is a mess and a huge disappointment. The Institute ending is also disappointing because you have no say in how things are run. So we are changing it up a bit.

Though it's possible to still do a typical boring vanilla run with this mod installed, this mod gives you extra options on how you want to end the vanilla campaign and this includes the ability to:

* ignore Father's orders and spare the Railroad, warning them instead and bypassing the "End of the Line" quest
* bypass the "Airship Down" quest by speaking to Father again and convincing him to deal with the Brotherhood of Steel by replacing Elder Maxson with a synth double loyal to the Institute instead of destroying the Prydwen, this is only possible if you have previously joined the Brotherhood and met Elder Maxson during the Prydwen introductory quest
* if Danse is Elder of the Brotherhood ("Danse Dilemma" mod) you can ask Father to reset him and control the Brotherhood instead of destroying it
* if Sarah Lyons is Elder of the Brotherhood ("Project Valkyrie" mod) you can convince Father to not blow up the Prydwen
* use Synth Maxson to reinstate yourself into the Brotherhood of Steel faction following your betrayal at Mass Fusion and even promote yourself to the rank of Sentinel
* convince Desdemona that taking over the Institute as Director and freeing the synths that way is better than destroying the Institute, this is possible even if you didn't join the Railroad before going to the Institute
* regain some level of trust with the Railroad by warning them of the Institute's plan to eliminate them if you didn't join the Railroad before visiting the Institute
* have a sit down with the Directorate and reform the Institute, end the kidnappings, grant synths equal rights, this involves finding synth sympathizers among the scientists, having armed backup, persuasion of scientists but also intimidation, blackmail and, if there is no other choice left, murder, make sure you come prepared, it is also possible to choose to purge the entire Directorate and their lackeys in a Red Wedding-like event, and unilaterally decide to free the synths
* occupy the Institute by teleporting large numbers of Minutemen inside, this option is unlocked only after you're the Director and if the Minutemen are strong enough
* work out an armistice agreement with the West Coast Brotherhood, if you chose to destroy the Prydwen instead of replacing Maxson with a synth
* convince Virgil to return to the Institute once it has been reformed
* persuade Virgil to remain a super mutant (if he hasn't taken the serum yet) and then take him as a companion in the Commonwealth (he cannot be a companion in human form though)
* get Z1-14 and Glory as companions if you reform the Institute, this is possible even if you never joined the Railroad and for Glory to survive you must deal with the Brotherhood of Steel before they attack the Railroad HQ
* get Synth Maxson as a companion if you convince him to reinstate you
* inform Piper and Nick of the Institute's reformation (if Piper is spoken too, Nat will later be found distributing the pro-Institute article "Fear the Future?")

To be clear, you won't notice the difference between vanilla and this mod until the "End of the Line" quest, this is when the new choices become visible.

The mod is heavily oriented towards the roleplaying and political aspect of things and less towards combat. There are no new maps or dungeons but there are 4 possible companions. Success in the mod's quests will depend heavily on your charisma and the choices you make. All the new dialog is voiced in English mainly using recycled vanilla dialog (I can get pretty creative with that). Some audio is AI-generated/deepfaked but only for a few minor characters, not for the protagonist. The new character Sentinel Jacqui Hill and the ending cinematic narrator are voiced by new voice actors.

Be warned that actions do have consequences. For example, if Synth Maxson brings you back into the Brotherhood, you will once again be friendly with them, but many in the Brotherhood will remember your betrayal at Mass Fusion, including Paladin Danse who will no longer be a potential companion. Brotherhood morale will also be low having suffered many losses and their doctor may be unable to treat you or provide supplies due to a large number of injured soldiers. As Synth Maxson is preparing to abandon the Commonwealth campaign against the Institute, Brotherhood quests will also become unavailable. Killing too many Institute scientists also fails all their related quests, including repeatable quests. All scientists (including the stubborn members of the SRB if you're using the Minutemen to occupy the Institute) can ultimately be spared one way or another but it isn't always as straightforward as a speech check. Attacking the Railroad will also remove Z1-14 entirely from the game, making him unavailable as a companion and leaving you with a very angry letter. You won't be able to replace Maxson with a synth if you've never met him or if you already killed Maxson outside the replacement quest. "Airship Down" can only be bypassed at the very beginning of the quest before you talk to Madison Li or Evan Watson.

Please note that the new companions have their fixed positions and cannot be settled, they don't have an affinity system, but can be taken alongside other companions.

The mod contains new ending cinematics created in the style of New Vegas slides that play once you have reformed the Institute and taken care of the Brotherhood. The cinematics will play upon your return to the Institute.

You can also obtain a happier ending to Father's story by downloading my other alternate ending mod Father Companion:



Contact:

[email protected]

To support my work, subscribe to my BitChute channel (older videos). Also, subscribe to my new YouTube channel which includes the newer videos. Let's reach a wider audience. It's all free.

FAQ (including some non-questions because why not)

Q: Do I need to start a new game?
A: No, but there are points of no return. For example, if the game has already ended and the Institute is destroyed, there will not be any content left to do and activating the mod will serve no purpose. There will not be any miraculous resurrections or restorations. If the Railroad is destroyed, you can still reform the Institute and take Virgil back, but it won't involve Z1-14 or Liam Binet.

Q: What happens if I deactivate the mod?
A: Never do this with any mod, it will corrupt your save. If you want to deactivate the mod the simplest solution is to simply ignore all the new choices offered or start a new game / reload a previous save without the mod active.

Q: Is this mod compatible with [insert favorite mod here]?
A: The short answer is that I don't know, the long answer is that... I really don't know, I don't have the time to play every single mod out there and some things you're going to have to figure out for yourself or ask other players. The only thing I can say is that no vanilla forms in the .esp file are changed (with the exception of PAM's terminal form, this does not change the Railroad HQ interior or the Railroad quest IDs) so it's probably compatible with most mods unless some very drastic changes are made to the faction quests directly.

As far as Project Valkyrie goes, which is a Nexus favorite and deserves a special mention, the mods can co-exist together without crashing your game or creating any serious lore inconsistency, but you obviously won't be able to do both endings as some required NPCs die which can break quests. If you wanna do the Subversion ending, you may have to tell Carter that you like the Institute the way it is, skipping over those quests entirely.

If Sarah Lyons becomes Elder, starting with patch 4.0, you can convince Father to not destroy the Prydwen. Or you can tell Sarah Lyons you like the Brotherhood the way it is and just replace Maxson with a synth instead.

The mod is obviously compatible with Father Companion since I made that and I wouldn't wanna ruin my own work. I also see no reason why it wouldn't work with Nora Companion or some of the other spouse companion mods. The mod is compatible with Talk Like Arnie. There is some support for the Danse Dilemma mod, if Danse becomes Elder, you can ask the SRB to send a courser to reset Danse and achieve peace with the Brotherhood instead of being forced to destroy them.

With Start Me Up or Galac-Tac Retribution active under the right conditions, all references to Shaun being your child are removed as well.

I do not recommend using this mod with any other mod that claims to keep all four factions alive.

Versions 1.0 and 1.1 (A or B) are not compatible with the Unofficial Fallout 4 Patch because of the way this mod alters vanilla scripts. Please update right away.


If you find a proven conflict that's worth my time to fix, maybe I'll fix it, if properly documented.

Q: Why should I download this? Project Valkyrie already did an Institute reformation mod and alternate ending to the game.
A: While this mod isn't as large as Project Valkyrie, the intent is to give more options to the vanilla Institute and Railroad endings, not replace them entirely or drastically overhaul the Institute (not that drastic overhauls are bad). So if you want an experience closer to vanilla but without the dumb vanilla plot (i.e. blow up the Institute vs. embrace all the evils that the Institute does hook, line and sinker) this might be for you. Or maybe you're bored and you should try both. While I love Project Valkyrie myself, I refuse to accept the idiotic notion that just because concept A was done by a modder once, then no other modder should ever do something similar ever again. Project Valkyrie also isn't available for console. This one is.

Q: How do the Minutemen fit in this ending?
A: The major change is that if you're the Director and the General and the Minutemen have been restored to their former glory, you can use them to occupy the Institute and force the Directorate to make reforms without bloodshed.

Q: Why is the mod so big?
A: Cinematics are huge. Even without them, there's a lot of dialog.

Q: Can I reform the Institute if I'm enemies with them?
A: No.

Q: I've finished the game, saved the synths, but haven't met the West Coast Brotherhood. Why?
A: If Elder Maxson is replaced with a synth, the rest of the Brotherhood will have no reason to pay a visit to the Commonwealth. This also applies if Sarah Lyons or Danse becomes Elder through mods.

Q: Can I reform the Institute if I'm enemies with the Railroad?
A: Yes. You don't actually need the Railroad to reform the Institute, but it helps. You'll have Liam Binet (Patriot's) guidance and Z1-14 as armed backup for the Directorate sit down. Later you can also take Z1-14 as a companion if you remain on friendly or neutral terms with the Railroad.

Q: I've passed all speech checks, why can't I convince this particular scientist to support my cause?
A: It doesn't rely purely on speech checks. I'll keep that a secret for now but feel free to ask other players.

Q: How does Paladin Danse fit into this mod?
A: As in vanilla, he stops being your companion if you become hostile with the Brotherhood of Steel. If you replace Maxson and become Sentinel, he can become your companion again, albeit under very different rules. He will still hate you but affinity will no longer matter. He can be taken alongside other companions as he is no longer using the old companion system. If he was exposed as a synth before Maxson was replaced, Synth Maxson will reinstate him. If he becomes Elder (Danse Dilemma mod outcome) you can have Father and SRB reset him to avoid having to destroy the Prydwen. A reset Danse may become your companion if you convince the SRB to allow it. Paladin Danse also rejoins you if Sarah Lyons reinstates you into the Brotherhood.

Q: I'm a quest modder and I want to expand the questline. Do I have your permission?
A: Sure. Contact me and I will tell you exactly how to make your plugin able to detect if the Institute has been reformed using this mod (i.e. without your plugin being dependent on this mod). You can then make your quests from there, but I will likely not be involved further.

Q: You've updated the mod several times but why do we have to download the same large video files every time?
A: Mainly because there is a subset of downloaders who don't pay attention at all to what they're doing, they would only download the main file, ignore the video files, and then wonder why their mod crashes at the end. They will then go on YouTube and spread lies in the comment section about a "bug" that doesn't exist (luckily Nexus Mods doesn't allow that kind of slander easily). I have no desire to deal with that crap. If you want an update, you have to download the entire thing again.

Q: I'm stuck!
A: Look, this isn't a Monkey Island puzzle. If you're "stuck" maybe try talking to the major quest givers, paying attention to objectives, and not blindly agreeing with everything Father or Desdemona says. Remember, this doesn't replace the vanilla endings, it just gives you alternatives that you can accept or reject entirely.

Credits:

As AI becomes increasingly problematic, it is necessary to clarify a few things for legal and moral reasons. Unless otherwise stated, please bear in mind that the player character as well as the NPCs are not voiced by real people. This is an evident work of fiction expanding upon another work of fiction (a video game) and does not impersonate people or make it appear as if real people said things they never said. Such claims are evidently without merit to any reasonable person. The player dialog is voiced by recycling or manually editing/re-arranging voice files found in the vanilla game using Audacity. Deepfake audio from xVASynth as well as vanilla file recycling is used for NPCs. Bethesda Softworks grants the community very broad permission to mod their games as they see fit, including audio files.

Toro Montana - Author
m150 - Super Mutant Clothes (for Virgil companion)
Mary Warren - [email protected] - Voice Actress of Sentinel Jacqui Hill
Randy Virden - Ending Cinematic Narrator
Music:
Metallic Monks
Eon - Ambient Sci Fi Music - (royalty free)
Yohann Busani - WESTWORLD Orchestral Cover

Special Thanks:
Bethesda Softworks
Creator's Network on Discord

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.