It doesn't have to be weapons. You could justify it more plausibly by having them discover information there. The question is whether Bethesda goes with that route or not.
Such optimism.
Bethesda said:
But its sub-levels remained intact, and contained enough pre-war technology and weaponry to keep Lyons’ forces going indefinitely (once the defense robots were destroyed). But there was something else, as well… a technological marvel that, if restored, could help the Brotherhood rebuild a strength and reputation that had been declining steadily for years.
<sigh>
There are any number of plot devices which could allow the player to change the situation - the junior officers want a more isolationist, technology-focused approach consistent with Brotherhood doctrine, or alternatively you're simply a devious bastard who wants to get rid of the old guard and use the power of the Brotherhood for your own ends. The final question is whether the faction quest lines will be a railroaded, linear affair without choices as in Oblivion, or something more akin to...Fallout.
Depends on what group is proud of Lyons.If it is the locals brought into the BoS command I think they might be pretty happy with his actions.
Yeah, I guess there's potential to make something from nothing, and theoretically a developer could go that route, but Bethesda aren't just any developer:
Bethesda said:
Without reinforcements from the West Coast, Lyons has been forced to recruit locally, and the results have been less than stellar: most new conscripts are overeager, unskilled, or both, and as a result their survival rate is atrocious. So low, in fact, that that word has spread throughout the Capital Wasteland – join the Brotherhood of Steel, and you’ll be dead within the week.
If it part of the original contingent maybe he has a Col. Kurtz,Heart of Darkness situation going on.
Maybe being away from the bastion of BoS dogma and seeing the scale of the degradation and deplorable conditions changed a few minds.Think of Darfur,sure we know its bad hear the horror stories but if we actually went there do you honestly think it would have no effect on our perspective.
There's a big difference between the very fortunate citizens of the first world suddenly being thrust into an indescribably horrific conflict and "a small but hardened contingent of Brotherhood of Steel soldiers" suddenly having an epiphany about the true nature of the desolate and corrupt wasteland they've always had to defend against.
Both sides might be right.The BoS is the best custodian for info and technology.When the time is right they could be the ones to lead humanity back to its feet if they choose to.
The beauty of it is, even they (Fallout's BOS) don't have that power. They're unquestionably the most powerful non-mutant faction in Fallout, but they don't have the means to help the world start over. In fact, they dedicate themselves mainly toward weapon design and production. General Maxson says:
Our main goal is to survive. The Scribes copy old plans for weapons or design new ones, and the Knights make the guns from 'em. Most guns come from us.
Which is something truly phenomenal to get your head around. They aren't working toward any kind of beneficial ecotechnology, they're not doing anything restorative - they're arming the populace. In some ways, it's a reasonable goal. The world is now a very hostile place, so people need to be able to defend themselves. But as in our own world, it's a big moral grey area.
It's not as though Fallout's gun runners or other dealers have any particular scruples about who winds up with those guns. Just who ever can afford it - which ultimately amounts to anyone who already has power, and there are a lot of immoral groups out there with a lot more power and money than your average citizen. Of the groups that aren't outright immoral, you have a large majority who are self serving, and out to protect themselves, not the populace.
So you have to question the Brotherhood's whole
raison d'etre. Are they using their power effectively? Are they too selfish? Are they misguided? Immoral? Realists? There's a lot of nuances and subtle observations to be made of the BOS. They're an interesting faction for many more reasons than the fact that they have a couple of bad motherfuckers in power armour guarding their entry with miniguns.
So maybe
one day they could lead mankind back to the path. But would that be particularly interesting?
The DC BoS is also right.They have the ability to make a difference the question is If not now ,when?Lyons chose now.
Yep, and I don't really see the problem with having idealists in a post-apocalyptic tragedy. But if that results in the main power struggle being "idealists vs nihilists" then suddenly you've lost a great deal of what made Fallout interesting - because ultimately the two major "opposing" powers of Fallout were a bunch of self-righteous isolationists against the army of a revolutionary thinker who does have a solution to get the human race back on its feet. Both factions have a vast mixture of "good guy" traits and "bad guy" traits.
In theory, Fallout 3
could have that sort of subtlety and depth, but the way it seems to me, is that you've got a bunch of idealistic fools who have been fighting the same fucking war "unceasingly for
over twenty years" against the oppressive super-mutants.
Now if that doesn't scream "epic battle between good and evil" I don't know what does. You have one side inflicting destruction for what is at this point, no apparent reason, and another side who is opposing them because they're "the bad guys", and has enough conviction in that simple motivation to wage a twenty year war.
You may be entirely right that he is just playing King Arthur.It would be a shame.With what was written it is also possible my scenario is true.There just isn't enough info to support either one.
Well, nothing has been explicitly said, but the signs are there, and they point to Bethesda continuing the trends they've set in their previous games.
If there are any FO fans with a grasp of the lore,using a ballpark figure, how large is the BoS around the time of Lyons mission?
Well, Fallout 3 takes place in 2277. Take "over twenty" years off that for the time the Capital BOS have spent fighting the mutants, and that brings you to 2257ish for when they
arrived in Washington after a "long trek". Fallout 2 starts in 2242, so there's 15 years of unknown activity, minus how ever long the trek took.
So it's hard to say. The BOS were in sharp decline in Fallout 2 - there couldn't have been more than a few dozen of them, but when the basic aspects are already so skewed, I don't think it really warrants analysis at that sort of depth.
I mean, how does a "small contingent" [...] "without reinforcements" and an "atrocious" survival rate of new recruits not just survive and protect itself for twenty years, but actively take the conflict to an enemy that has kept the populace under "constant threat of death or capture [...] for as long as they could remember"? How can they spend twenty years "simply keeping them at bay"?
And that's without referencing previous Fallouts. Fallout 3's Brotherhood of Steel as an isolated entity sounds implausible in isolation. When you add the anecdotal eveidence of previous games that indicates a single Super Mutant can at least match a Paladin one-for-one, then forget about it.
) not been over-run by mutants? Especially when there are mutants crawling all over the area around it, and in the fucking subway and sewers?
