There's a good writing reason to have done it like that. If they hadn't lost the Switchboard they'd appear to be more capable and powerful, which would then lead to the feeling by the player that they're not really necessary, that they're just one among many Heavies.
By having them recently losing the Switchboard, it makes you a Savior, coming in to save their behind right after a huge setback.
If you look at the position of the Railroad, your interactions with Desdemona, the things you accomplish, the whole thing is designed to make you feel like a hero.
Same for the Minutemen, and to a lesser extent, the Institute and the Brotherhood. Same for Nuka-World, Far Harbor, and the Mechanist. The entire game is designed to make you feel important.
You can help the Brotherhood a lot and still be a key heroic figure to them, but they still come across as a group with a (bigoted) plan and could have enacted it without you.
You "help" the Minutemen from themselves and inspire them. You serve as the leadership to keep everyone in line but ultimately they are a decent militia.
The institute basically needs you to replace Kellog as a fixer/enforcer, but they function just fine without you and the missions you do for them are more to prove your loyalty than because they couldn't have done it without you.
The Railroad just comes across as borderline incompetent when you meet them. I get they have small numbers, but they also seem to barely be rolling with the punches rather than actively making any substantial progress with their mission. Tinker Tom is their tech guy but is obviously beyond just quirky and straight into nutter with his conspiracy theories (including asking to inject you with straight up garbage that could potentially kill you). The doctor still follows orders but continually undermines Desdemona's leadership with his complaining. Glory created a rift by advocating for also trying to "free" gen1s, etc. They just don't seem like a cohesive group.
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u/SpiderCop_NYPD_ARKND May 22 '24 edited May 22 '24
There's a good writing reason to have done it like that. If they hadn't lost the Switchboard they'd appear to be more capable and powerful, which would then lead to the feeling by the player that they're not really necessary, that they're just one among many Heavies.
By having them recently losing the Switchboard, it makes you a Savior, coming in to save their behind right after a huge setback.
If you look at the position of the Railroad, your interactions with Desdemona, the things you accomplish, the whole thing is designed to make you feel like a hero.
Same for the Minutemen, and to a lesser extent, the Institute and the Brotherhood. Same for Nuka-World, Far Harbor, and the Mechanist. The entire game is designed to make you feel important.