Decided I would make this thread since I haven't been very active, though the reason for this absence is mostly due to school returning.

The title really explains it all. If you want to know something or discuss part of the lore then I would be happy to. We can also talk about conflicts in the lore like how the X-01 likes to spawn everywhere in Fallout 4.

Since I only really know F3, NV, and F4 lore I would like to center discussions around these games. Though I don't really mind if you want to talk about earlier games like F1/2, etc.... 

Just a notice that Fallout: Tactics and Van Buren are officially not considered lore and therefore cannot be used to support a statement unless backed up by something that is considered lore. Though to clarify we can still talk about the games lore if you want to. 

For example The Midwestern BOS is from Fallout Tactics and therfore is not considered lore. But in recent games BOS members have claimed off BOS back West. This could mean The Mojave/ California chapter or the Mid Western Chapter of the BOS. 

Anyways if you wanted to share something or ask about something then comment away otherwise I will be grinding R6S with the time I have.

Fallout New Vegas was a game more about its gameplay than its storyline but it had some really good lore. What I really wanna know is what ever happened to Robert House's half-brother? When you go to H&H Tool Factory, you can obviously see he was mentally ill, VERY anti-communist, believed Robert was gonna try to take over the company, and he wouldn't be wrong either, especially after swindling him of his family inheritence, there's evidence to suggest that before the bombs were imminent like months or something, he locked himself in his office with all his belongings, and when the bombs did drop, he looted his whole office and building as there is not one safe not looted and his office is empty. He then mined the crap out of his office for some unsuspecting poor sod like ourselves. What's your theory on where he is? I think since it was really early when the bombs dropped and he disappeared, he might still roam the wastes but as a ghoul, and I believe he's still alive.

MrEggs0925 wrote:

like how the X-01 likes to spawn everywhere in Fallout 4.

That's hilarious. I once left an empty power armor frame in Prydwen only to find it a few levels later with X-01 power armor pieces that I hadn't even purchased. A little bit immersion breaking to say the least but hey if there's a mysterious stranger that teleports from Nevada to Washington to Boston in Fallout why can't there be any kind souls that gift me power armor pieces?

On that note, who is the mysterious stranger anyway? I've seen speculation on it but I've never come across an answer that is backed up by believable facts. Is he more than one person or is he one Holy entity that stalks Couriers and Wanderers? Is it even a he?

Corvo wrote:

On that note, who is the mysterious stranger anyway? I've seen speculation on it but I've never come across an answer that is backed up by believable facts. Is he more than one person or is he one Holy entity that stalks Couriers and Wanderers? Is it even a he?

I think he might be just one of those things you encounter in Fallout that isn't really anything in particular, at least lorewise. Like in Fallout 1 you can encounter the Doctor from Doctor Who, or if you beat the second game characters from the first are thrown into a single room complete with fourth wall breaking dialogue.

Just for fun, in other words.

@TheRatDragon I remember going to H&H tools and man was it ever a big mistake. Needless to say I think I died more then once just on the first floor.

But to answer your question, personally I think like you said he still roams the wastes as a ghoul. Knowing Fallout they wouldn't just kill off such a character or an opportunity to make one. My best bet is that he still roams the wastes hunting commies. I would think that he could of migrated into the NCR given his knowledge in running a business, that's to say if he survived this long or hasn't gone completely insane.


@Corvo Yeah, I always install a mod to limit the number of X-01 sets to a minimum as it is just to lore breaking for me. 

But regarding the Mysterious Stranger. From a realism standpoint he just doesn't make any sense. There is no way he would just know how to come to Boston when the Sole Survivor is locked away underground.

But something I've always felt was connected was the Lonesome Drifter. When you ask about his father he calls him Mysterious and also a stranger. Just looking at that it is safe to assume the Mysterious Stranger was most likely his father. Furthermore The Lonesome Drifter was born in Montana in 2253 hinting to the Mysterious Stranger for a time living a normal life. 

Considering he travels from The Captial Wasteland (2277) to the Mojave (2281) and then back across to Boston (2287) makes me think something crazy is going on with him. Looking at things like Dunwhich and their involvement with supernatural powers makes me think he has access to something of that nature. Another example of "magic" is Lorenzo's helmet allowing him magic or magic like abilities. Though this is purely speculation in Fallout 4 you can find nirnroot in the Prydwen lab hinting to Fallout and TES being in the same universe possibly explaining the Mysterious Stranger and his strange abilities though I doubt this is the answer. 

Really after looking at it and stepping back Bethesda probably doesn't have an explanation for him and probably never will have a clear one. He is probably just a little Easter Egg that over time has just become a recognizable part of the series. 

Sadly we didn't get any closer to finding the truth and really just made more questions for ourselves, Really in the end like I said before I don't think the answer will ever be clearly presented but hey you never know.

sadly we fans know more lore then the people making the games

^

This is true fax. Bethesda has retconned time and time again, they've even contradicted themselves in Fallout 4's Nuka-World.

Says X-01 is created AFTER the Great War by remnants of the US Government (obviously the Enclave) in a loading screen, then releases a DLC with a intact, mint conditioned suit that is apparently pre-war. Truth of the matter is they were too lazy to model a brand new armor or even give us the option to paint any suit we want in Nuka-Cola flavors, so they settled for poor writing instead.

@Chinpoko117 @Jacob May This is actually so true and not just for the X-01. 

Obsidian which had members from the original Fallout development team used their knowledge of Fallout lore to make a masterpiece of a game. Sure it had its flaws but it was a huge step in the right direction for Fallout at the time. Actual aiming, attachments, better companions, good story, etc......

Then we look at Fallout 4. We see the return of the X-01 which by the way made no appearance in Fallout 3. Not just one but a large number of X-01 suits make their way to the Commonwealth. How did this happen? Why did this happen? How did a suit of X-01 end up in some random swamp? Its not like we need to look in depth and study every piece of available lore to know that's not right. Just like you said it even says so in one of the loading screens. 

Kind of ranting but the Institute is for the most part nothing special. Half the stuff being worked currently at the Institute was and possibly still is being worked on at Big Mt. Lets not forget Big Mt. actually has proper security, not plastic cheep skeletons. 

Continuing my rant the Bio-science at the Institute is meh at best, Cool, synthetic gorillas! At Big Mt they made a toaster talk and act just like a human. Not to mention Curie made a universal cure by herself in a 200 year old lab. No fancy lab with 30 different people for every small thing.

Really I could go on but I think you get the point. The game while actually very fun has a broken lore that for the most part cannot be fixed. 

Just as a bonus thought I would include this. 

Virgil "one of the top Bio-Science boys" hides in the Glowing sea. But synths are immune to radiation. 

"What about Kellogg's Frosted Flakes?" 
The Player literally can walk through the glowing sea with a hazmat suit and some Rad-X. 

Don't see how someone so smart would overlook something so big.

when you say diccussing the lore do you the deep things about the lore? or the fact that bethesda did to the lore what bane did to batman.

@"MrEggs0925"

As much as I like the X-01 it really makes zero sense being in the East Coast. I always thought the X-02 and eventually the Hellfire series were made because the Enclave lost their means to make the older but superior X-01. But nope, turns out there were suits in Boston all this time.

I mean I get some of those appearances are just for gameplay reasons and all that, but they still could of, at the very least, placed them in the world better. And Paladin Danse... he gets kicked out of the Brotherhood and sheds his T-60 and magically gets a bare finished X-01. Like, where did he get that from lol.

Speaking of power armor, I don't get how the X-01 and T-51b have rusty variants in the game seeing how they were suppose to be made of advanced composite materials, not metal. The fusion cores were kinda dumb imo too, I mean for the T-45d it would make sense but newer armors by lore have their own built-in fusion batteries said to last for over a century.

Power armor already lets you run around as a literal tank and bullet sponge, and by the time you get access to T-51 and beyond you already have plenty of fusion cores, so the excuse that power armor needs to be recharged for balance reasons is already thrown out the window.

The Institute coulda been so much more, I was actually excited the moment I heard of them in 3... then we meet Shaun and it's like, "Son! Why you so evil?" and he pretty much tells you, "you wouldn't understand lol."

Yet, in New Vegas, you can have up to a twenty-minute conversation with Caesar about the Legion and why they are the way they are. Scary thing is I actually found myself agreeing with the man on some points.

Fallout 4 and 3 are fun sandbox games, don't get me wrong, but as far as story goes I'll stick to the classics and New Vegas. Writing is just not Bethesda's forte.

Speaking of the Mysterious Stranger, there are possible reports that the man with the guitar near the 188 Trading Outpost may be his son afterall. He has a eerily similar gun with the same sound as a guitar as his father's, he talks of Dad leaving about when he was barely small enough to talk, and that he is from Montana. So, maybe the Mysterious Stranger is either some concoction made by Vault Tec, as the Stranger seems to only appear to us if we have the perk, the only way for perks to show up is through the Pip Boy, and he might just be an illusion made to save post-war survivors if they are lucky enough. But he could also be a real person, destined to walk the ashes of Post War USA forever until he dies. But yeah, just think about that for a second, the Mysterious stranger does NOT age, he has minimal facial hair changes, with the exception of Fallout 4 where he has that bushy Stalin stache, it's funny really, and then he wears the SAME outfit with no scratch, barely any wear over the course of 200+ years, ya know? Just think of my two theories for a moment and you might be able to connect the pieces. Or maybe Interplay wanted us to theorize and NEVER find out about this guy's true identity and Bethesda is just continuing the torch, ya know?

@Chinpoko117 Just looking at the Institute as a whole and I am so disappointed. The Institute could had been so much more. Just imagine it, unlockable cybernetics, advanced weaponry, Powerful armors, and so much more. Instead we get what we have today. 

I covered this in another response but most of the stuff being done at the Institute is nothing new. Its impressive that they managed to build all that out of scrap and know how but they have nothing on Big Mountain. Big MT had already mastered teleportation and mastered AI programming. The Securitron which is stuck on one wheel can deal more damage then anything the Institute has.

Really what I'm trying to get to is that the Institute is nothing new. The majority of what the Institute is just beginning to experiment on has already been produced at only one facility. That being a private one.

Moving on in terms of story and writing. We get good moments in Fallout 4 like the Danse scene at Listening Post Bravo. You get a couple of good moments when you talk to father. Personally I like the "I dreamed of you as an adult for so long. Here you are...... and I'm so disappointed." But other then a few notable events you get crap dialogue. Like you said the most mysterious and intriguing faction "The Institute" really tells you nothing. Even your son treats you as a tool, asking you to literally go here and kill a bunch of people with no second thoughts. He sends you to literally alone to fight the Brotherhood of Steels main base untill you are able to call for backup. Those being a bunch of cheep synths. 

Really if Bethesda actually tried they could probably get some good writing. I understand that they have so much to do but when they market the ability to romance a companion you expect it to be at least somewhat realistic. From what I've seen Obsidian when they had the team made a really good Fallout game. In fact it was one that in its own way revolutionized the series incorporating big things like actual ADS, weapon mods and interactive companion stories. Not to mention an actual ending slideshow. Here's hoping the next Fallout game learns from its predecessors mistakes. 

@erebamagi_10 As the original post says the thread was made to discuss Fallout lore. You can talk about any Fallout game and can talk about Non-lore and lore- friendly content. If you want to share something or ask something about Fallout lore post a comment and we can all help each other learn some more about a game many of us enjoy.

 If you want to talk about lore conflicts in Falllout then go right ahead. All I ask is that you dont copy what others have all ready said like posting the exact same info just reworded. 

@TheRatDragon Yes this is pretty much the Mysterious Stranger summed up. As I said in my response to Corvo I believe that The Mysterious Stranger was originally a sort of Easter egg but over time became a recognizable part of Fallout and just stayed for good.

MrEggs0925 wrote:

unlockable cybernetics

Father stopped production of cybernetics after he became Director because he considers cyborgs less human. Possibly why there isn't a cyborg perk in Fallout 4 too. The only cyborg NPC in the whole game, that we know of, is Kellogg and he received them as a reward for working with the Institute.

MrEggs0925 wrote:

advanced weaponry, Powerful armors,

The Institute don't often get a chance to test their weapons and armor being that they are never directly seen or in combat with the surface dwellers of the Commonwealth before the SS shows up, and even then they mostly use Gen 1 and 2 synths to hunt the SS. Covert synths wear casual clothing and faction armor to blend in so there is no use wasting resources on armor and weapons when your clones are never going to use them.

Fallout: New Vegas and Fallout 4 suffered from poor faction balancing and representation in the sense that factions like Caesar's Legion and the Minutemen are pushovers in game and even the Minutemen never fully recover from being pushovers, they still use laser muskets even if the Sole Survivor turns them into a dominant force again. Caesar's Legion just use machetes and melee weapons so a lot of them are just cannon fodder. The only modern Fallout game that had balanced factions and had the best representation of the main factions was Fallout 3, being that the Enclave were a force just as powerful as the BoS, they wore power armor, used powerful weapons and were difficult to kill in many situations.

On that note, the Institute in the lore are definitely more scientifically advanced than what is seen in game, just as the NCR and Legion were more powerful than what is seen in New Vegas. I'd go as far to say as they probably were approaching mastery of synths (bearing in mind, it's still a hot topic whether synths ingame are actually sentient or not, so I wouldn't label them AI before there is solid evidence proving it. Being that the synths are based off replicants, they're supposed to make us question our humanity), and also were technological equivalents to Big MT, more so after the endgame being led by the Sole Survivor.

erebamagi_10 wrote:

when you say diccussing the lore do you the deep things about the lore? or the fact that bethesda did to the lore what bane did to batman.

Agree, I was blamed by others for that on my topic, so don't do it again.


Someone knows what is the canon ending for NV ? And what happened after Kimball in NCR ?

Garska wrote:

erebamagi_10 wrote:

when you say diccussing the lore do you the deep things about the lore? or the fact that bethesda did to the lore what bane did to batman.

Agree, I was blamed by others for that on my topic, so don't do it again.

Going off topic and arguing about semantics to get some cheap digs at Bethesda?

Corvo wrote:

Fallout: New Vegas and Fallout 4 suffered from poor faction balancing and representation in the sense that factions like Caesar's Legion and the Minutemen are pushovers in game and even the Minutemen never fully recover from being pushovers, they still use laser muskets even if the Sole Survivor turns them into a dominant force again. Caesar's Legion just use machetes and melee weapons so a lot of them are just cannon fodder. The only modern Fallout game that had balanced factions and had the best representation of the main factions was Fallout 3, being that the Enclave were a force just as powerful as the BoS, they wore power armor, used powerful weapons and were difficult to kill in many situations.

I'm sorry, but the game that forces you to side with the BoS no matter what you do has the most balanced factions? Lol. Maybe more balanced gameplay wise.... the game doesn't even have a reputation system, or even factions to choose from for that matter. Literally you have to side with Lyons no matter what, even you if corrupt the water purifier for President Eden.

Fallout 3's factions are so black and white. Enclave is evulz just to be evil, and the BoS are just a bunch of white knights. I'm glad Elder Maxson is in charge, Elder Lyons was a joke, even his own daughter saw that. That old man is the reason the East Coast faction split in half.

Also to say the Legion is just melee weapons is also false. They use guns and even power fists and have shown interest in energy weapons from the Van Graff family. They would of gotten them too if Gloria Van Graff hadn't suspected betrayal and called the deal off.

Now don't get me wrong, I think Fallout 3 is a great game -- I like it better than 4 -- seeing how it reinvigorated a dying series and brought it back to life and is still fun as hell to explore, but there are things within the game that could of been done a heck of a lot better.

@Chinpoko117

I said that they were best balanced in terms of gameplay, not choice. In that regard NV and 4 have the upper hand because you can choose separate storyline, but what I meant, and what you would understand if you took more time to comprehend my post, is that the Enclave were a force just as powerful as the BoS in Fallout 3, thus they are harder to defeat than say a few legionaries or synths. The Enclave and BoS were pretty much identical if not for their ideologies and lore, being that they both use power armor, powerful weapons and were both weak at the time (BoS East chapter were weakened by the Outcasts that left them, Enclave were weak after their defeat in Fallout 2) and thus provide a better representation and more balanced factions gameplay wise.

Now compare that to say the NCR vs the Legion in game. Obviously in lore the Legion have superior numbers, but that is not represented in game very well, and therefore are not represented as well and not as true to the lore. Had the Legion be a little bit larger and more dominant among the Mojave, they would have been a fair match to the NCR in gameplay, but currently the NCR in game would dominate the Legion quite easily, and that's why it's hard to believe that a Legion victory at Hoover Dam is possible. Going by the lore it's almost definite, but in terms of gameplay, it isn't that much.

A perfect example of this would be the Minutemen in Fallout 4. If going by the lore, the Minutemen would have most likely been a powerful force among The Commonwealth by Fallout 4's endgame, and they wouldn't need a errand boy General to run tasks for them. They would also use better weapons instead of laser muskets, better armor, and not have their large settlements under attack by five ghouls, thus why they are not represented very well and hence a flaw in Fallout 4's representation of the factions at endgame. Bethesda could've had NPCs that could cover for you, do jobs for you, be your high ranking members but instead they turn you into an errand boy who believes he runs a militia when in reality they are just using him so they can sit around and drink whiskey.

Now compare that to Fallout 3. The East Chapter BoS doesn't need you as much as the NCR needs the Courier, or the Minutemen/Institute needs the SS. In fact, even if you turn down sacrificing yourself for Project Purity, Sentinel Lyons does it instead. The BoS could've easily secured the GECK without you, and powered up project purity without you. The NCR needs the Courier to win Hoover Dam and be their errand boy, the Institute need the SS to destroy all the other factions and so do the Minutemen need the SS to destroy the Institute.

Now like I said, Lyon's BoS and Enclave are much more representative of the lore and realistic in how they are in game. Now I'm not going to deny that their ideologies are black and white, but they are a much more balanced force in gameplay and thus stick to the balanced forces told in the lore.

Chinpoko117 wrote:

Also to say the Legion is just melee weapons is also false. They use guns and even power fists and have shown interest in energy weapons from the Van Graff family. They would of gotten them too if Gloria Van Graff hadn't suspected betrayal and called the deal off.

They're not common in the Legion though. Every NCR trooper uses a firearm, and so it makes it believable for them to win the war based on that fact alone. The Legion mostly use melee weapons and it so rare for them to use one even in the battle for Hoover Dam. The Legion's troops mostly rely on objects and walls and cover to protect them from gunfire realistically. In game though, the Legion's troops just walk into gunfire like mindless zombies.

Corvo wrote:

@Chinpoko117

I said that they were best balanced in terms of gameplay, not choice. In that regard NV and 4 have the upper hand because you can choose separate storyline, but what I meant, and what you would understand if you took more time to comprehend my post, is that the Enclave were a force just as powerful as the BoS in Fallout 3, thus they are harder to defeat than say a few legionaries or synths. The Enclave and BoS were pretty much identical if not for their ideologies and lore, being that they both use power armor, powerful weapons and were both weak at the time (BoS East chapter were weakened by the Outcasts that left them, Enclave were weak after their defeat in Fallout 2) and thus provide a better representation and more balanced factions gameplay wise.

Now compare that to say the NCR vs the Legion in game. Obviously in lore the Legion have superior numbers, but that is not represented in game very well, and therefore are not represented as well and not as true to the lore. Had the Legion be a little bit larger and more dominant among the Mojave, they would have been a fair match to the NCR in gameplay, but currently the NCR in game would dominate the Legion quite easily, and that's why it's hard to believe that a Legion victory at Hoover Dam is possible. Going by the lore it's almost definite, but in terms of gameplay, it isn't that much.

Yes, a representation. From a certain point of view and on paper it might seem that way if one were to go off their arsenal and the like, but really I found the Enclave in Fallout 3 to be pushovers, perhaps moreso than the Legion in New Vegas. When I encountered them, there was always back up taking on the various forms of Fawkes and his Gatling Laser, freeing Enclave Deathclaws and watching it tear them apart to BoS power armored squads and then there's Liberty Prime which made Project Purity easy from a gameplay perspective. I hardly used my weapon at all during that quest.

In New Vegas, I would often get ambushed by entire patrols of Legion boys in the middle of the desert, often alone because I don't always have a companion with me. A few would charge at me with machetes and went down easily enough, but there was always those in the back with brush guns and trail carbines - both of which do a fair amount of damage - and would more often than not kill me given the lack of cover in the vast openness of sand.

The Legion could of been better in-game, it should of been better, but Obsidian just didn't have the time. Some say it is because Bethesda didn't want New Vegas to interfere with Skyrim's 2011 release and had it be released in 2010 instead. Plausible but unlikely, but could be true from a business outlook. Sounds more like a Zenimax move.

Quote :

A perfect example of this would be the Minutemen in Fallout 4. If going by the lore, the Minutemen would have most likely been a powerful force among The Commonwealth by Fallout 4's endgame, and they wouldn't need a errand boy General to run tasks for them. They would also use better weapons instead of laser muskets, better armor, and not have their large settlements under attack by five ghouls, thus why they are not represented very well and hence a flaw in Fallout 4's representation of the factions at endgame. Bethesda could've had NPCs that could cover for you, do jobs for you, be your high ranking members but instead they turn you into an errand boy who believes he runs a militia when in reality they are just using him so they can sit around and drink whiskey.

Now compare that to Fallout 3. The East Chapter BoS doesn't need you as much as the NCR needs the Courier, or the Minutemen/Institute needs the SS. In fact, even if you turn down sacrificing yourself for Project Purity, Sentinel Lyons does it instead. The BoS could've easily secured the GECK without you, and powered up project purity without you. The NCR needs the Courier to win Hoover Dam and be their errand boy, the Institute need the SS to destroy all the other factions and so do the Minutemen need the SS to destroy the Institute.

Now like I said, Lyon's BoS and Enclave are much more representative of the lore and realistic in how they are in game. Now I'm not going to deny that their ideologies are black and white, but they are a much more balanced force in gameplay and thus stick to the balanced forces told in the lore.

Exactly why I don't like the Minutemen in Fallout 4. Actually despite not liking the East Coast chapter in Fallout 3, I actually kinda liked them in 4, even more than the Mojave chapter and the one in California. They stay mostly true to the codex while eliminating the exact problem that doomed the Enclave and will doom the West Coast, that being their stance on outsiders.

Take the Mojave chapter, its war with the NCR killed half of its members. With their policy regarding that no outsiders can be recruited, it'll take them generations to recover. Meanwhile all the East Coast has to do to restore lost numbers is pick through a bunch of able-bodied wastelanders so long as they're human and not mutated.

As for being an errand boy, really that's almost in every Fallout game. In Fallout 1 Vault 13 needs you to fetch a water purifier, and then the Brotherhood of Steel needs you to stop the Master. In Fallout 2 your tribe needs you to fetch a GECK, and eventually stop the Enclave. Even Fallout 3 has the Lone Wanderer as an errand boy, both the Brotherhood and the Enclave need you for Project Purity since you know the code. And in New Vegas all the factions, especially Yes Man, need you to win Hoover Dam. Likewise in Fallout 4 regarding its factions and the Institute.

Quote :

They're not common in the Legion though. Every NCR trooper uses a firearm, and so it makes it believable for them to win the war based on that fact alone. The Legion mostly use melee weapons and it so rare for them to use one even in the battle for Hoover Dam. The Legion's troops mostly rely on objects and walls and cover to protect them from gunfire realistically. In game though, the Legion's troops just walk into gunfire like mindless zombies

Guns are common enough, I get shot at by them just as often as I would a spear thrown or melee weapons being charged. Could be because my game is modded and changes the leveled lists, but nonetheless I see them fairly often in Legion squads. The first tribe Caesar conquered he trained to use firearms and how to make improvised explosives. It's a mixed bunch in lore, some tribes used guns like the White Legs and their 12.7mm SMGs or the Blackfoots and whichever model of guns they used. Some tribes such as the HangDogs were even using animals as weapons, likely explaining the fair amount of Legion Mongrels.

@Corvo Yeah looking at the Institute you can see that they are trying to make humankind better, not robotic. But still it was a missed opportunity to make the Institute really stand out and be that advanced technological faction. 

Moving on to armors. With resources being so scarce you would think that the Institute would want to properly equip their synths with actual protective gear. Why make more when you can properly maintain the ones you have. Its like come on your telling me a faction that can produce a functioning nuclear reactor cant produce ballistic protective gear? Its like what do they do when their are riots? Or if an experiment gets loose. 

But yes don't get me wrong the Institute is highly advanced. Its just the little things that the game has overlooked that makes them look incompetent. Just looking at the Enclave and comparing them to the Institute. Its like a squad of Enclave soldiers could hold off waves of synths. Looking at Raven Rock and it looks hundreds of times more advanced then The Institute. But in reality according to the lore they are suppose to be extremely advanced, possibly more so then the Enclave. I'm guessing once the Nuclear reactor was created experimentation could expand. 

I still believe that Big Mt is hundreds of times more advanced then The Institute, primarily due to it being a Pre-War facility. They had splicing and AI that 200 years later still functions perfectly. The programming that the Institute had done is at times sloppy with little fail safes to guard against personal thoughts and self righteousness other then of course a full reset. A perfect example of this is looking a synth Shaun. The Institute guessed how he would react and it turned out to be incorrect.