Quick story-related questions for those who've played it:

-Is all the water still irradiated, or does the machine take time? Related question: do they ever explain why taking all the radiation out of salt water will lead to plenty of drinking water?

-Do they ever explain what the Super Mutants were looking for. Related question: do they ever explain why Talon Company is in a war with said Super Mutants?

-Assuming you let him live, does the colonel play any role?

@noname2200

To answer your questions which were not spoilers mind you, and neither are the answers. I was not aware you could even talk Autumn down. In fact I am reasonably sure you cannot. I had a significant speech bonus, and I couldn't dissuade him. Further more why would you want to he has good loot, and no there seems to be no way he could be finagled into the story beyond him being a prisoner.

One would assume it would take a good amount of time for the waters to be purified. How long do you think it would take for purity to empty the estuary a dozen times. All purity really does is supply clean drinking water. Two weeks would be terribly fast for it to clean up the wasteland.

You discovered in Vault 87 that the Super Mutants were biologically engineered. You also discover that they at least transform normal humans into Super Mutants by exposing them to to the mutagen. I was not aware that they were searching for something. They are no smarter then children, are sterile, basically immortal, and have a severe bigotry towards humans. Basically Talon Company, and the super mutants are fighting for territory.

Thanks for the response.

You can talk Autumn down: I did each time with success being guaranteed. But then I always pump points into Charisma and persuasion, so talking my way into/out of things was always easy. Lyons says she admires what you did, but worries that it might come back to bite you, so I'm dying to find out what happens next.

I knew about Vault 87 (you can't miss it, and you get your best companion afterwards), but it's repeatedly stated (by Riley, Elder Lyons, and random Brotherhood members) that they strongly suspect that the Super Mutants are looking for something in the D.C. ruins (which are quite far from Vault 87, and which by the time you come around are virtually deserted by anyone who isn't in the Brotherhood or with Talon Company, meaning they can't be looking for food or converts).

And I recall one of the characters (Three Dog? Maybe Riley?) stating that Talon Company was beefing with them for a particular reason, but that no one outside Talon's leadership knew exactly what. That might be a dead end though, since you can kill off their leader without getting even a peep as to the mercs' motivation (or source of financing).

Hmm. I'm definitely still picking this one up, since I want to see what happened afterwards, but I guess I'll have to wait for further DLC to answer these mysteries.

You can talk Autumn and his boys down, and they stay green...Autumn walks out and leaves the 2 troops in the room.  I did, but after Lyons (56%) tells me...it might come to bite me later...I rebooted and blasted that sucker, and his lackeys.  They has Telsa armor and plasma rifles, so it was well worth it.

As to the other questions, I was curious to the answers myself, but let's not forget that there might be a few more DLCs in the works to finish off the tale.  This DLC is focused on finishing off the enclave, but the addition of the new super mutant might point to their being more story to tell with regard to the super muties.  I'm basically going to scourge the waste in my level grind and delay the main thread, so I'll post anything I uncover in the process.

Talon company...I dunno...I think in the main game, the GNR report was based on the fact that if you chose Megaton's survival over setting off the nuke, you were hunted by them.  I'd like to know if you can find Burke and kill that bastard after he runs away.

Please let me know if you find anything!

As for Talon Company, they actually hunt you either way: play it nice and someone who hates goody-two shoes pays them to come after you, play it evil and someone who hates evil folks pays them to do the same. I'm fine with it: they're pretty weak, but they've got nice armor (which can be used to repair Riley's Rangers armor), but it strikes me as odd that they're throwing men into tough fights with no apparent gain.

As for Burke, killing him has zero effect: I reported him to the sheriff, then killed him to save the sheriff, but somehow Talon still knows, so...yeah.

Actually if the super mutants are smart enough to be looking for something it is actually a vault. Supposedly it is in the series cannon that vault dwellers are the best candidates for mutation since they haven't been exposed to radiation. They make stronger smarter mutants. However these particular mutants actually ostracized their smartest mutant, and I wouldn't put too much stock in what the Brotherhood has said. In the newer dialogue changes they basically profess their ignorance.

The Overlords do not actually point to anything. Super Mutants continue to get larger over time thus you end up getting Behemoths. So it is logical that there should be a intermediate size. Besides do you want to construe why there are Reaper Ghouls, and Albino Rad Scorpions. These are just upgraded versions, and probably not material for further expansions.

Talon company will attack you once you trip a karma trigger. Whether you cross Burke or not. I avoided Burke till long after I got the bounty placed on my head, and killing Burke did not remove the bounty. Just save Lucas Simms when you report Burke to him. That is the justice you will get, but it is also possible he is entirely innocent. There is a character who issues contracts without any real justification, and that is Daniel Littlehorn who is supposedly immortal. You can suspect that he is the devil himself. In a game with alien spacecraft crashes it is not entirely out of the realm of possibility.

Huh. I guess I haven't seen all the content yet, then, because I never even heard of the dude. Glad to know there's still more waiting to be found.

Bummer...In my game, It was closer to the beginning, and I told Lucas...He ran to the bar and got killed by Burke...so I've been hunting him down to get revenge, but knowing that I let him die for nothing is a downer...I'll have to kill some raiders and mercs to make up for it!

You get 10 extra levels, extra perks, and can continue playing after beating the game. These are the reasons I'll buy it eventually.

I did not interact with (or see) the Megaton water beggar at all during that quest.  The Wiki says it can happen another way which is what happened to me:

Megaton Alternatives

See point 2 & 3. You can find a note pinned to the door of your Megaton House, that leads you to the church. Alternatively you can speak to an NPC sitting next to the Brahmin at the bottom of the hill where you enter and he will give you the Holy Water Pamphlet. A NPC will also come up to you and complain about a cult stealing Megaton's water.

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Holy_Water_(quest)