Fallout 4 -SideQuest: Human Error (minor spoilers)

[freaper]

For the people who have finished the minor quest "Human Error" in Covenant, do you know if it's possible to fail the SAFE test? It would be a cool little twist if that is actually possible.

Otherwise, loved the quest; it makes you weigh up a few moral opposites, and is as a whole very representative of any Distopian setting.

Have you guys solved it, and if so, what did you think of it? In the end, I sided with Covenant, though it did leave me with a bit of a bitter taste in my mouth, even after finding out I was at least justified in the sacrifice.

I'm loving just going around exploring, not giving a lick about the main quest; I'll get there once I've seen what the Wasteland has to offer.

 

[Diablo2000]

I sided with Dan. Then the entire Covenant was hostile towards me.

The moral of the story is this, unless you want me to murder you, take all your things and get people to move in to your house, don't attack me. Because that's what happened.

I simply loved the GOAT call back. The only thing missing was some form of "What town is the best? Without question the most beatiful town of all. The one that shelter from the evils of the commonwealth." and all anwsers were some form of "Covenant".

 

[Zhukov]

I sided with Dan. Or rather, I sided against the people torturing folk.

Massacred everyone in the secret base. Then went back to Covenant to see if anything else would happen. Turned out they were hostile. Gunned the gatekeeper guy down before he could get up from his chair then murdered the rest in their sleep.

 

[StormShaun]

I'm with the current majority, I sided with Dan.
Or in other words, I wouldn't have any of the shit they were giving.

Not only did my character hate what they were doing, they seemed so high and mighty about it. So in the end, I kill the main guard and doctor, but no, I didn't run, I stayed and completely eradicated all life in that base. Then I returned to Covenant, knowing in the back of my head that they would turn... well, they were first hand witnesses to my signature shotgun massacre.

It was a fun quest. Got a neat little town out of it.

 

[Souplex]

I simply loved the GOAT call back. The only thing missing was some form of "What town is the best? Without question the most beautiful town of all. The one that shelter from the evils of the commonwealth." and all answers were some form of "Covenant".

That would serve no purpose for their testing, and be off-putting. They're supposed to try and be as presentable as possible.
Before I progressed further into the quest, I was afraid to drink the lemonade, convinced that it was the source of everyone's Stepfordism.
I sided with Dan because while I hadn't joined the railroad yet, Freedom is the right of all sentient beings.

 

[Diablo2000]

I simply loved the GOAT call back. The only thing missing was some form of "What town is the best? Without question the most beautiful town of all. The one that shelter from the evils of the commonwealth." and all answers were some form of "Covenant".

That would serve no purpose for their testing, and be off-putting. They're supposed to try and be as presentable as possible.
Before I progressed further into the quest, I was afraid to drink the lemonade, convinced that it was the source of everyone's Stepfordism.
I sided with Dan because while I hadn't joined the railroad yet, Freedom is the right of all sentient beings.

I was uterlly convinced that they were all cannibals at first myself to be honest. I would still be wary of the lemonade though... Did you see any lemons in the wasteland? Did you?

 

[Tuesday Night Fever]

I was uterlly convinced that they were all cannibals at first myself to be honest. I would still be wary of the lemonade though... Did you see any lemons in the wasteland? Did you?

I went into the Covenant blind, knowing nothing about the place, and immediately got a serious Andale vibe from the place. I waited until it was dark then poked around expecting to find some literal skeletons in people's closets.

Anyway, I sided with Honest Dan. I didn't like Covenant's whole 'ends justify the means' mentality, especially when their test doesn't seem to be that reliable. Hell, I got the impression from the holotapes and computer terminals that they were basing their findings mostly on coincidence, and they themselves even admitted that if the Institute ever found out about their test all of their research (IE: torture, including countless humans) would immediately be made pointless.

I would have preferred to end the encounter peacefully. They're the ones who didn't allow that to be an option.

 

[EternallyBored]

Oh, that town I ended up nuking after they attacked me, in my defense, I doubt they suffered much considering they all were either vaporized by mininukes or plasma. Really, anyone stupid enough to attack the guy in advanced power armor carrying a portable nuke launcher, plasma rifle, and a gauss gun deserves whatever they get, I did get the satisfaction of killing at least three at once with my ejected fusion core, there's something satisfying about running towards an enemy position knowing you just nuked everything standing behind you without even turning around.

But yes, the quest was interesting, I loaded a save to go back and see some of the variations, still stuck with the one that netted me a cool town and a bunch of dead nutjobs, that's how I run the minutemen, the commonwealth just doesn't see my vision for it yet, how am I going to compete with the NCR if little piss ant towns are trying to defy my authority.

 

[Red Mammoth]

Fail it? I passed it without even trying. Literally.

I found Covenant while randomly wandering and I walked right up to an already open gate, greeted a fella sitting at the front door and was congratulated for passing a test I hadn't taken. Which I thought was so damn polite of him that I returned the favour by braking into the only locked house in a town full of creepily happy people, (one of which thought the best way to run a store was to repeatedly say hello to me without selling anything), and found a password for an apparently Bad Terminal with the enticing word "Compound" on it. With my interest piqued, I set my sights on finding the "Fisherman" mentioned, and within 5 minutes I'd Master Lock-picked my way through the entirety of said "Compound", with all the equally nice and confused guards greeting me and telling my I probably shouldn't of been there. I also found a lady in a cage, which I helpfully unlocked for her, but she seemed content to stay in there with the crazy lazy who kept telling me that she wouldn't beg for her life. So I shrugged and set off for another adventure.

Wait, you mean that was part of a quest?

 

[freaper]

Fail it? I passed it without even trying. Literally.

I found Covenant while randomly wandering and I walked right up to an already open gate, greeted a fella sitting at the front door and was congratulated for passing a test I hadn't taken. Which I thought was so damn polite of him that I returned the favour by braking into the only locked house in a town full of creepily happy people, (one of which thought the best way to run a store was to repeatedly say hello to me without selling anything), and found a password for an apparently Bad Terminal with the enticing word "Compound" on it. With my interest piqued, I set my sights on finding the "Fisherman" mentioned, and within 5 minutes I'd Master Lock-picked my way through the entirety of said "Compound", with all the equally nice and confused guards greeting me and telling my I probably shouldn't of been there. I also found a lady in a cage, which I helpfully unlocked for her, but she seemed content to stay in there with the crazy lazy who kept telling me that she wouldn't beg for her life. So I shrugged and set off for another adventure.

Wait, you mean that was part of a quest?

Haha, yea, but you know Bethesda games, right?

OT: Maybe I should have added a poll, but I find it interesting that so far no one sided with the Covenant. I'm not far enough into the campaign yet to have seen the "real" face of the Institute, but to me the Covenant's mission, albeit brutal in its method, might actually do more good for the Commonwealth in the long run. Plus, I would've felt worse killing 20-ish people instead of just 1 (ludo-narrative dissonance called, they're asking you to stop killing raiders).

 

[sXeth]

I think I glitched mine?

I went with Dan, the crazy science lady at the end said her piece, and told me I'd just have to kill her.

Then stood there doing nothing while I went over and freed the girl. Only snarling some one line anger at me if clicked on. Dan paid me and went his merry way. Covenant didn't change at all afterward.

Should I go back and shoot her in the face anyways to fix it?

 

[Guitarmasterx7]

Am I the only person who didn't side with Dan? I got to the tunnel and speechcrafted my way out of fighting through it. They brought me to the scientist lady and Dan started threatening me just for letting her talk, so I told him to eat shit and shot him. To be fair, I wasn't very far in the story so at this point I thought synths were all terminator robots. Also for what it's worth if you do turn on Dan

Spoiler

They kill the girl from the caravan and if you inspect her corpse you'll find that she actually IS a synth

Also I'm not sure if you can fail the SAFE test, but one of my answers made the guy do a double take on what I said.

 

[Souplex]

Am I the only person who didn't side with Dan? I got to the tunnel and speechcrafted my way out of fighting through it. They brought me to the scientist lady and Dan started threatening me just for letting her talk, so I told him to eat shit and shot him. To be fair, I wasn't very far in the story so at this point I thought synths were all terminator robots. Also for what it's worth if you do turn on Dan

Spoiler

They kill the girl from the caravan and if you inspect her corpse you'll find that she actually IS a synth

Also I'm not sure if you can fail the SAFE test, but one of my answers made the guy do a double take on what I said.

Yes, but she was one trying to escape the institute. If you do any railroad quests, you learn that the caravan boss is a big wheel in the railroad, and uses his caravan network to move synths trying to escape the institute.

 

[IceForce]

To be fair, I wasn't very far in the story so at this point I thought synths were all terminator robots.

You played Fallout 3? "Gen 3" synths (the ones who are indistinguishable from humans) were introduced in FO3, in the form of the quest "The Replicated Man". (The Institute and The Railroad are both introduced in that quest too.)

 

[Guitarmasterx7]

To be fair, I wasn't very far in the story so at this point I thought synths were all terminator robots.

You played Fallout 3? "Gen 3" synths (the ones who are indistinguishable from humans) were introduced in FO3, in the form of the quest "The Replicated Man". (The Institute and The Railroad are both introduced in that quest too.)

Did you play it recently? Because if not your recollection of 2008 is impressive. Reading that back it seems snarky but I'm saying that sincerely. After clicking on the link and refreshing my memory though I definitely sided with the scientist to get the perk so I probably didn't get that much context.

 

[IceForce]

Did you play it recently? Because if not your recollection of 2008 is impressive.

Nah, not recently. Although I will fully admit that I tend to have a better memory of things than most, (perhaps I'm a synth myself).

In any case, I actually think it's kinda cool that Bethesda took a side quest from a previous game, and turned it into a main plot point in this game.

 

[Cowabungaa]

Am I the only person who didn't side with Dan? I got to the tunnel and speechcrafted my way out of fighting through it. They brought me to the scientist lady and Dan started threatening me just for letting her talk, so I told him to eat shit and shot him. To be fair, I wasn't very far in the story so at this point I thought synths were all terminator robots. Also for what it's worth if you do turn on Dan

Spoiler

They kill the girl from the caravan and if you inspect her corpse you'll find that she actually IS a synth

Also I'm not sure if you can fail the SAFE test, but one of my answers made the guy do a double take on what I said.

Yes, but she was one trying to escape the institute. If you do any railroad quests, you learn that the caravan boss is a big wheel in the railroad, and uses his caravan network to move synths trying to escape the institute.

I only just entered Diamond City and stumbled upon a holotape that was about that. That sort of made me go "Oopsy" about siding with the science lady instead of Dan. Roleplaying is a real pain in the ass in this Fallout, I gotta say. I don't think I ever had such an inconsistent character (except for the Star Wars: Edge of the Empire campaign I'm in).

 

[BarryMcCociner]

I simply loved the GOAT call back.

So did I, but I'd have loved it a whole lot more if the application of the GOAT to detect Synth's was explored more expansively. Like, perhaps you see someone taking the SAFE infront of you as you're walking up to Covenant... then find their body in the Covenant safe-house later.

Unless it war more explored in the audio tapes, I only found two, anyone else get more?

 

[BarryMcCociner]

Also, big props to Bethesda for making the quest reward a WALLED SETTLEMENT by default, one that ALREADY has turrets! That made my job SO MUCH EASIER.

 

[Kaymish]

I sided with covenant their success rate seems to be pretty good and they are pursuing a scientific method of rooting out the synths rather than rampant paranoia and random murders
in the end even if a few innocents get caught in the web the net good is greater than not having this test
i was in diamond city where a man pulled a gun on his brother because he thought he was a synth and got gunned down by the guards is he a synth? without the test im not willing to cap his arse to find out, now how many other times does that happen and how many innocents get caught up there? a damn sight more than the SAFE test miss diagnoses I'd wager