[P]

I don't know what the headshot multiplier is, but there are reports that it was 150% of normal in Fallout 3. Also not sure how the DR affects things, but it speaks of limb damage as separate from damage, so probably it calculates two damages - body damage, affected by all DR, death when HP runs out; and limb damage, affected only by the DR on that body part and maybe not even that, and causes cripple when the HP runs out (cripple on the head is like a concussion).

I'm using a combat rifle and a silenced .50 sniper rifle almost exclusively. I have several more - an automatic shotgun, used for hordes of Ghouls, that laser rifle from the first BOS mission for synths, and that sacrificial dagger from melee. I also have a silenced 10mm which I very rarely use, because it isn't powerful enough to kill anything, and an assault rifle that I use every once in the blue moon for horde situations.

All modding perks unlocked now, except for melee which I won't get.

Artillery for defense unlocks after one of the Minutemen missions, and I think it gives 6 for defense or something. You can use it to call down vengance upon your enemies, however, that's always nice.

I have six color sliders - three for HUD, three for Pib-boy. The opacity slider is for the HUD, hides it entirely if you drag it all the way to the left.

Loading times are actually just fine on the PC, and even better with the newest Radeon driver, which includes a cahce for compiled shaders. Hm, wonder if they'd include that on the consoles as well? With the weak singlethreaded performance on them, that could be a real boost.

[The Final Dakar]

Originally Posted by P 

Good tip, except the stimpacks are actually weight zero, and many of the actual drugs are either zero or 0.1.

Noticed about the stimpacks afterwards, but every 10 drugs is a 1 pound, which can add up.

Originally Posted by P 

Another carrying trick - you can drop everything onto a body and then carry that body along in front of you. On the PC you have to hold in E - the button you usually press to just pick up a single thing - for a while and then move the pointer and see the body follow along. Even better, since most bodies disintegrate, you can grab just one small slice of one and drop all your stuff in. That way, you can move at full speed (though not fast travel).

That's clever, though I'm not sure when I'd use it. What i tend to do is do a dump at a container near the entrance of the area if there's too many valuables to leave any behind and then return immediately after a dump at my base.

Originally Posted by P 

Generic hint for resources: Pick up all aluminum you find, especially the cans, because you will need it later on. Same for anything with oil. You CAN make oil - the Cutting Fluid in Chemistry bench - but it requires lots of bones, and not things you grow. Lead is also good for armor upgrades, and rare - although in the Fallout universe, there is apparently lead in pencils. Not in lead pipes, though. You need lots of steel, but you FIND lots of steel, so no big deal.

I think its circuits or fiber optics that's starting to get rare for me.

Originally Posted by P 

I need to correct one point as well. Shooting the Fusion Core of an enemy in Power Armor is supposed to make them leave, but that doesn't work for me. Shooting the Fusion Core makes the Fusion Core pop out, and then go pop. With a big mushroom cloud. I guess you can say that it does make the enemy come out of the armor, in many small pieces, but you still can't use the armor frame. The pieces can still be picked up, though.

I haven't had any luck hitting them yet.

Originally Posted by P 

Xbone is 1080p, but at 30fps and nowhere near the quality options available on PC.
I agree that reading the terminals adds another dimension. I know you guys haven't bothered with companions or the main quest yet, but there is one companion who features heavily in the main quest called Nick Valentine (not a spoiler, he was featured in pre-game information). He is an early generation synth who works as a PI in Diamond City - essentially a cliche from an old noir movie. That BoS quest I recommended gives you access to a police station when completed, and you can use the terminals in there to read old police records, and open up a storyline that goes on in terminals at other police stations. Some of those terminals mention a certain police detective named Nick Valentine, which opens up a lot of questions. Was he a synth already 200 years ago - implying that the Institute was around back then - or did they base that synth on a real person? Why did the real Nick Valentine end up in their claws, in that case? And don't get me started on the terminals in the old University buildings.

I think I know what happened from a holotape I listened to
[spoiler]The friend mentions something about mind imprint technology. So I believe Nick was a flesh and blood human that got put into a Synth's body. When you meet him he does mention the original synths were dumb as rocks, so I'm guessing he was a prototype that was abandoned once they refined their AI.

Originally Posted by P 

The opacity slider is for the HUD, hides it entirely if you drag it all the way to the left.

Yeah, it works, but I couldn't tell until I got it down to 50%. Even then it seemed more opaque than I would have expected.

[The Final Dakar]

I got so much cool shit today I'm not sure I'll be able to keep track. I think today's tales with start off finding a Protectron and Gutsy guarding a military trailer on the road somewhere. He was Legedary. Killed him fairly easily and then the Gutsy sudden;y finished me off. The legendary was gone on the reload. Sad face. And the trailer was empty. Did some work at the zombie farm and Saugus and when I left, I heard a fire fight that turned out to be Mr. Gutsy at that spot again. The Protectron was nowhere to be found. But inside the trailer this time: X-01 Power Armor (Both arms and helmet missing). !

Among some good loot I got the past few days was Chameleon armor. This fits my play style to a T. I also worked out my shotgun woes – I removed the full auto as I could get a semi-auto that wasn't much slower (30 fire rate to 23 I think). Narrowed the spread some and boom, I got a usable shotgun that's deadly up close. I'm also assuming going semi-auto means it uses the rifle perk.

Cleared out some place with my X-01 armor and found a bare frame. So I grabbed that as well. Later on I visited a military outpost where I found another X-01 frame (both arms! but no helmet). Amazing.

I did get a unique shotgun but booo, no one wants 50% damage to animals after their first 10 levels. I did kill a Glowing One, however that gave me first plasma rifle. That was before I called it a night, but that plasma rifle had 25% more damage and 15% faster reload, so wowzers, that'll be my anti-bot gun.

I also had a Gunner mini-nuke me from point-blank range. That's BS.

Can't remember the other cool shit I got so I'll stop here for tonight.

[The Final Dakar]

Oh yeah, Chemistry is good for some XP (Did like half a level my first time using it). I discovered Psychojet (Slows time for 15 seconds, Damage+25%, DMG Resist+35, Max AP+35) for those time when the shit hits the fan and I don't completely panic.

I'm also somewhere around level 32.

[P]

Originally Posted by The Final Dakar 

I think its circuits or fiber optics that's starting to get rare for me.

Grab the Scrapper perk, second level. You get a million of them from scrapping lasers.

One hint about aluminum, btw: Corvega assembly plant. There are coolant plugs on a big assembly line, free for the taking.

[andi*pandi]

If there's a Black Friday sale on this game, I don't see it.

[Jawbone54]

Originally Posted by andi*pandi 

If there's a Black Friday sale on this game, I don't see it.

Still too new. I doubt it goes on sale until Christmas week or so, and probably only $5-10 off.

I'd love for them to prove me wrong.

[P]

There are hints here and there that Fallout 4 is doing extremely well, so I don't think we'll see sales on the console verisons for a while. Dwonloadable PC versions can always be had cheaper - Green Man Gaming is where I find deals on such things.

Not to spoil anything, but doing the second mainline BoS mission (after the Brotherhood... arrives, shall we say?) gets you a full set of T-60b armor. Finding a complete set is always tricky.

[The Final Dakar]

Found another X-01 armor frame. And then a T-60 (One of these was literally 50 feet from a building where I got my X-01 armor). Exploring has been good to me.

Got the real shish kabob and then a shish kabob drop with anti-mutant bonus. Decided to go mug some Super Mutants in power armor but the shish kabob just paled in comparison to my shotgun. Perks probably account for some of that.

This happened to me after I got my armor the other night (Epic explosion in slow mo)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sEMjYFgspg

[P]

That sentry bot is so annoying, because I keep getting sent back to that location, and when you come out of the barracks, he attacks directly.

Still only two pieces of an X-01 frame. I probably explored too much at too low a level.

[The Final Dakar]

Originally Posted by P 

That sentry bot is so annoying, because I keep getting sent back to that location, and when you come out of the barracks, he attacks directly.

Still only two pieces of an X-01 frame. I probably explored too much at too low a level.

Its crap if thats the way it works. I am curious as to if they tune enemy levels to be similar in the early going.

Forgot to mention I found the crash site a while ago. Found the survivor tonight.

Also played around with tracking radio signals for the first time.

So many legendary weapons now. Got some great armor too. I'm curious, do effects stack (i.e., left arm and right arm both reduce damage from creatures. Or does their effect only apply to the limb they cover).

I think right now I have chameleon arm, safe cracking arm, increased ap recharge leg, other leg I forget, and reduced human damage chest. Not. ****ing. Bad.

It's also interesting to revisit previously toxic places – my vault suit blocks so much radiation some don't even register anymore. Somehow this doesn't seem to apply to water though (Which BTW always feels gross somehow. Well done on that).

In the embarrassing front, have 4 days played, hit level 40, still haven't confronted Kellogg. Worst father ever. I do believe my stats say 3 main missions completed, tho.

I'm getting pretty close to persona non grata in Diamond City. Pissed off some various people there, though by my estimation, its a pretty crooked city.

This game has shown on thing that I always thought but never saw in action: Density > Size. I feel like there's more content in Boston than the entirety of GTA. That's always been Rockstar's problem. Sure you can build a city, but can you make the places matter? I'm enthralled by some of the random basements and apartment complexes you can enter, that have no tie to the main or even side quests. It's really fantastic.

[P]

It is a great game, but it has some real Bethesda bugs. Right now my companions won't follow me - they just stand there, but never move. Not sure if I have to reload an earlier save, or what. Then there are some who are constantly concussed, and then scope bug I mentioned earlier. Patch already!

Romance options are apparently not mutually exclusive. You also get a perk for each companion you romance - wonder how that works with the robots? No scratch that, I don't want to know.

Effects from legendary armor do stack - 50% reduction in falling damage on both legs does indeed make you immune from falling damage. All damage reductions on armor is for the entire body - if it is specific to the limb, it says "limb damage"

[The Final Dakar]

Thanks again for the info. Sounds awesome.

Next question: If a weapon does 20 ballistic dmg and 20 energy dmg, do they stack?

[The Final Dakar]

Thanks again for the info. Sounds awesome.

Next question: If a weapon does 20 ballistic dmg and 20 energy dmg, do they stack?

[P]

It seems that I cannot change companions, as that triggers the bug. I have played with Dogmeat, Piper and now Cait, maxing out relationship with the last two, and figured I'd switch to someone else and max out them as well. Unfortunately, that appears to be impossible. To not get stuck, I have stayed with Cait for now, but she is starting to get on my nerves. I can't even switch back to Piper, she also just stands around.

Originally Posted by The Final Dakar 

Thanks again for the info. Sounds awesome.

Next question: If a weapon does 20 ballistic dmg and 20 energy dmg, do they stack?

It seems so, because there are Legendary weapons that add a small amount of plasma or radiation damage to a weapon that mainly does physical damage, but each uses its own Damage Resistance, and since that formula is now far from linear, it means that a weapon with small values for two damage types will generally do rather poor damage.

That formula also means that one should always try to get at least a little damage resistance in each category.

[P]

And just when I got really annoyed with the game's many bugs, I manage to unkink the companion-switching thing and the next random trek nets me no less than two more bobbleheads and a weapon I hadn't seen before, as well as finally managing to steal a Power Armor frame by shooting the Fusion Core (shoot it from far away where your enemy has lots of space to run away, wait for the explosion and THEN shoot anywhere on the Armor, and he should exit).

I can recommend doing the Cabot House quest line, if you haven't already - a nice change of pace from the rest of the game.

[The Final Dakar]

Dogmeat has disappeared for me - I think I sent him to sanctuary but I don't see him. Built a bell and boy is that useless- the settlers mosey on over, one stayed on a roof and another stayed seated on a couch. If Marcy long is still alive i can't find her either.

[P]

There is a doghouse in Sanctuary, IIRC - close to the bridge, I think. He usually stays there.

[The Final Dakar]

Nope, I'm on that from last time. I also deleted the other doghouse. Spent two hours working a high rise last night, too much of it being the snap-to being wonky

[sek929]

Originally Posted by The Final Dakar 

In the embarrassing front, have 4 days played, hit level 40, still haven't confronted Kellogg. Worst father ever. I do believe my stats say 3 main missions completed, tho.

Good lord, top of the "Things I Would Not Have Expected" list would be you loving a Fallout game this much. I'm still under 30 and haven't played in a few days, but the funny thing is I killed Kellogg a while ago

Originally Posted by P 

That sentry bot is so annoying, because I keep getting sent back to that location, and when you come out of the barracks, he attacks directly.

I only received a partial T60 set in there, but hooo boy did that bot scare the shit out of me as I left. Psycho Jet + Combat Shotgun FTW.

-----------------

One thing quest-related that annoys me is how certain quest types never end. You get a new village to visit while turning in the quest to help out the last one. I liked in previous Fallout games how you could go on a little spree and cull a bit of the list, but now the list is always full.

Called in my first mortar strike from The Fort on a Mirelurk Queen, still didn't do very much damage but it was cool as hell.

Synths have sneakily become my favorite thing about this game. While under caution and hiding out of sight I hear "Oh, I see now, you're hiding because you fear death in that creepy robot voice, chilling. Valentine has been my companion for a time now as well. Still creeps out in front of me while I'm trying to snipe, just like the dog.

For no reason I built a missile defense launcher on my roof. I still have yet to care about building, too much exploring to be done. I did surround the entire town with metal walls save for the bridge entrance, and even that was kind of painful TBH. I do, however, really like the mechanic of making your own storage/workshop/disco night club/personal spot on the map, it's more the "town building" I can't give a shit about.

I still can't get over that I can fast travel straight into a workshop of my creation right where I want to be standing in a Fallout game. In Fallout 3 I'd leave an area I looted (loading) fast travel to Megaton (loading) enter house (loading) unload stuff, exit house (loading) go to a Merchant (loading) sell stuff, leave (loading) fast travel to next destination (loading).

VATS still has me in stitches sometimes with its absurdity.

Best Fallout ever?

[P]

Best first-person Fallout, at least. I never played the first two which are supposedly great (at least Fallout 2), but this game brings the best of New Vegas to a modern engine and the best sandbox yet.

I have complained about those pointless missions the Minutemen want to send me on, but I came up a good one. I was to clear out an area to build a new settlement, and as I walk up, I get noticed by raiders. OK cool, so it's raiders, I think - I can fight those. I do, until I realize that my radiation level keeps going up for no reason. Turns out that the raiders were just passing by - my main target is a group of Children of the Atom, who are shooting me with Gamma Guns (which spit out radiation). No Power Armor, and those things go through most cover, so I'm in trouble - until the BoS send in a Vertibird. I sneak back to the raiders and leave the gamma rays to the Vertibird, but suddenly that Vertibird drops from the sky. Onto a truck, causing a double nuclear mushroom cloud. Those gamma rays go through Vertibirds as well, and apparently they don't fly so well without a pilot.

Radiated and hurting, I start abusing the fact that RadAway and Rad X are light, and Stimpacks weightless, so I have 50 each of the former and about 400 of the latter. I hide and heal up, and slowly snipe the Children of the Atom until only one remains. He is a glowing Ghoul, and is locked in the lighthouse. I guess he was guiding ships along the coast, or lighting the way for Atom or whatnot. Don't care, it made a regular standard quest real interesting for once.

I wandered into Gunner Plaza because I was bored, and ended up in a massive firefight. One more Bobblehead (and one I wanted, Small Guns) and lots of weapons, but no more armor pieces. I'm of a high enough level that I should get only X-01, but I can't find any more armors standing around. Not that the game is hard in T-60f, but hey, collecting stuff.

Only 4 Bobbleheads missing now, and the only one I want is Lock-picking.

[Jawbone54]

Originally Posted by P 

I have complained about those pointless missions the Minutemen want to send me on, but I came up a good one. I was to clear out an area to build a new settlement, and as I walk up, I get noticed by raiders. OK cool, so it's raiders, I think - I can fight those. I do, until I realize that my radiation level keeps going up for no reason. Turns out that the raiders were just passing by - my main target is a group of Children of the Atom, who are shooting me with Gamma Guns (which spit out radiation). No Power Armor, and those things go through most cover, so I'm in trouble - until the BoS send in a Vertibird. I sneak back to the raiders and leave the gamma rays to the Vertibird, but suddenly that Vertibird drops from the sky. Onto a truck, causing a double nuclear mushroom cloud. Those gamma rays go through Vertibirds as well, and apparently they don't fly so well without a pilot.

Radiated and hurting, I start abusing the fact that RadAway and Rad X are light, and Stimpacks weightless, so I have 50 each of the former and about 400 of the latter. I hide and heal up, and slowly snipe the Children of the Atom until only one remains. He is a glowing Ghoul, and is locked in the lighthouse. I guess he was guiding ships along the coast, or lighting the way for Atom or whatnot. Don't care, it made a regular standard quest real interesting for once.

I wandered into Gunner Plaza because I was bored, and ended up in a massive firefight. One more Bobblehead (and one I wanted, Small Guns) and lots of weapons, but no more armor pieces. I'm of a high enough level that I should get only X-01, but I can't find any more armors standing around. Not that the game is hard in T-60f, but hey, collecting stuff.

Only 4 Bobbleheads missing now, and the only one I want is Lock-picking.

Sounds like a pretty cool twist on that mission.

That's when open-world games actually feel rewarding, and I think it's why gamers and reviewers often give Bethesda a bit of a free pass as far as bugs are concerned; they actually care about throwing some interesting twists into the equation, which is apparently what Just Cause 3 and Mad Max are missing.

[The Final Dakar]

From what I hear vertibirds have trouble keeping themselves in the sky. You certainly find enough of their corpses in the wasteland.

I still haven't gone south of Boston, though I finally headed West and found Kellogg's hideout.

I was thinking about upping the difficulty because I keep doing missions and exploring areas where I'm dealing with level 5 synths or level 15 zombies, but I had an area ask for help last night and I spawned into 5 level 30 super mutants, 3 of which had miniguns. Yes, I died.

Dogmeat is still MIA, though I found Marcy. I'm going to have to assume I sent him to a different settlement than intended. Oh, exploring my 3rd vault. Reached a place in skills where I want to focus on upping a few of stats rather than adding skills. I don't want to max out my rifleman or gunslinger until I start to feel my weapons fading.

Oh, fatty, I took your advice about saving bottlecaps to heart. I've saved 15k lifetime and only spent about 1k (mostly on ammo in the early going), so I have 14k I'm sitting on. Still not sure what I want to spend them on. Diamond City can suck a dick if they think I'm wasting 2k on a house there.

I, uh, accidentally got addicted to Buffjet. Guess I got into too many tight spots.

[The Final Dakar]

From what I hear vertibirds have trouble keeping themselves in the sky. You certainly find enough of their corpses in the wasteland.

I still haven't gone south of Boston, though I finally headed West and found Kellogg's hideout.

I was thinking about upping the difficulty because I keep doing missions and exploring areas where I'm dealing with level 5 synths or level 15 zombies, but I had an area ask for help last night and I spawned into 5 level 30 super mutants, 3 of which had miniguns. Yes, I died.

Dogmeat is still MIA, though I found Marcy. I'm going to have to assume I sent him to a different settlement than intended. Oh, exploring my 3rd vault. Reached a place in skills where I want to focus on upping a few of stats rather than adding skills. I don't want to max out my rifleman or gunslinger until I start to feel my weapons fading.

Oh, fatty, I took your advice about saving bottlecaps to heart. I've saved 15k lifetime and only spent about 1k (mostly on ammo in the early going), so I have 14k I'm sitting on. Still not sure what I want to spend them on. Diamond City can suck a dick if they think I'm wasting 2k on a house there.

I, uh, accidentally got addicted to Buffjet. Guess I got into too many tight spots.

[P]

I have no idea what I should spend my perk points on now. I have all that I want, except for some things that would need a major investment to boost stats first. I should probably just get on that start boosting my stats so I can grab Nuclear Physicist and Ninja (and maybe Ghoul), but I have to admit that I don't even bother with the XP bonus from sleep anymore.

Unlocked Nick's mission now, will probably do that tonight. Already have most of those tapes.

[The Final Dakar]

So, I’ve been wanting to mention this for over a week, but the sound design in this game is an abortion. You can be standing shoulder to shoulder with someone, but if you face 7/8ths away from them you can’t hear them. That’s ludicrous. Probably the aspect of the game I like least. So many times I’ll walk by someone who says someone to me and by the time I realize I’ve passed them and miss out on most of what they said. I can only surmise this is was made this way to facilitate being sneaked up on by enemies because it makes no god damn sense otherwise.

I killed Kellogg, finally. So there. Was just overflowing with loot there. Had to make two trips. I also upped the difficulty to hard once I got there (not sure if that made it redundant). Then I got a legendary… Protectron. Carrying anti-synth armor. So I try to pickpocket him unsuccessfully. Turns out Legendary Protectron explode upon death. GG, Bethesda. I forgot save for a while.

Exiting Fort Hagen gives a nice epic scene, too. Like, wow. ”Shit just got real.” “Course according to a list I saw it’s 50% of the way through the Main campaign. That’s ludicrous!

So I just learned that your armor is negated while in power armor. I kind of get that (though I’d rather see power armor balanced to utilize it, much like wearing the vault suit under armor). But what really sucks is it apparently negates armor effects. Ugh. That might explain why lock-picking gets randomly harder sometimes.

Also, someone pointed out, merchants only have 250 caps to barter with, even when they’re carrying 25k worth of stock. I suppose that means my hoarding stuff to sell plan will backfire soon. Question: Does the price change if you try to sell an AR to a Weapons Vendor vs. an Aid Vendor?

Was running lows on screws again (<100) so I decided to start looting weapons and scrapping them. That is damn effective. Moreso than picking up items with screws in them. I also wish you could highlight stuff like Jet and Stimpacks.

It’d be interesting to do a play through where you don’t put any points into gun nut and instead upgrade guns by removing mods from other guns. Also, scrapping weapons should remove all mods, or at least give you that option at the cost of less materiel. Also, mods should automatically go into the workshop inventory (if you’re at a home base). So sick of discovering I’m carrying 3-5 pounds of mods while trying to cull my inventory while out exploring.

Start Fort Hagen mission, one minute in: “Red Rocket is under attack.” Great, the place I care about most. Welp, good luck.

I somehow have 2 of the same Grognak comic.

[Jawbone54]

Three helpful YouTube videos from Eurogamer concerning base building in Fallout 4:

Base Building for Beginners
Advanced Base Building Techniques
Power and Programming

[Jawbone54]

Originally Posted by The Final Dakar 

So, I’ve been wanting to mention this for over a week, but the sound design in this game is an abortion. You can be standing shoulder to shoulder with someone, but if you face 7/8ths away from them you can’t hear them. That’s ludicrous. Probably the aspect of the game I like least. So many times I’ll walk by someone who says someone to me and by the time I realize I’ve passed them and miss out on most of what they said. I can only surmise this is was made this way to facilitate being sneaked up on by enemies because it makes no god damn sense otherwise.

Now that you say it, I'm reminded of how many times I've been dependent on the subtitles to make out what people are saying to me.

The more aggravating problem is when you begin interacting with a character, but some other NPC starts talking over their dialog — it becomes almost impossible to not rip off my headphones. The wrong dialogue even gets prioritized in subtitles during the process, too. I don't anticipate it ever being fixed.

[P]

Originally Posted by The Final Dakar 

So, I’ve been wanting to mention this for over a week, but the sound design in this game is an abortion. You can be standing shoulder to shoulder with someone, but if you face 7/8ths away from them you can’t hear them. That’s ludicrous. Probably the aspect of the game I like least. So many times I’ll walk by someone who says someone to me and by the time I realize I’ve passed them and miss out on most of what they said. I can only surmise this is was made this way to facilitate being sneaked up on by enemies because it makes no god damn sense otherwise.

That sounds like a bug. I haven't noticed that.

Originally Posted by The Final Dakar 

Exiting Fort Hagen gives a nice epic scene, too. Like, wow. ”Shit just got real.” “Course according to a list I saw it’s 50% of the way through the Main campaign. That’s ludicrous!

I think you misread that list. By my count, you are half way to the point where you have to choose which of the four factions you want to support. After the choice, the game works like New Vegas: you support one or the other faction, and get gradually distanced from the others. Not sure if you can take a few quests for several factions before some breakpoint like you could back in that game (I am at the last quest before the choice myself, and can't go through with it until I do some unrelated quests), but a straight run through one of the quest lines appears to be at least 8 quests more for the shortest line. It also unlocks multiple optional quests for each faction, so no, you are nowhere near half way done with the main quest, no matter how you play it. More like a quarter, maybe.

Originally Posted by The Final Dakar 

So I just learned that your armor is negated while in power armor. I kind of get that (though I’d rather see power armor balanced to utilize it, much like wearing the vault suit under armor). But what really sucks is it apparently negates armor effects. Ugh. That might explain why lock-picking gets randomly harder sometimes.

Yup. Also means that you could drop all you're wearing underneath the armor. The people you meet seem to wear at least pants, though

Originally Posted by The Final Dakar 

Also, someone pointed out, merchants only have 250 caps to barter with, even when they’re carrying 25k worth of stock. I suppose that means my hoarding stuff to sell plan will backfire soon. Question: Does the price change if you try to sell an AR to a Weapons Vendor vs. an Aid Vendor?

Nope. Price is set by your Charisma versus the Charisma of the person selling stuff, plus or minus various modifiers from perks. The amount of caps they have depends on how big the shop is - there are three sizes for each type of shop. You can permanently increase the amount of caps they have by investing if you have the last level of Caps Collector or whatever that one is called (the one that makes prices better). Personally I tend to buy ammo and stimpacks to increase the amount of caps they have.

The way Power Armor drops continues to surprise me. I'm now at level 55 or thereabouts, and just found a T-51 armor. I should be way over the limit for X-01, 20 levels or so, so there must be some locations that won't spawn anything better than a certain max limit. Still missing one arm, one leg, and the helmet.

[P]

The Institute seems a lot more reasonable now that I've got to know them. They're flawed, obviously, but so is BoS and Railroad. Interesting.

Finally gave up and started reading up on known Power Armor locations. Turns out that even at level 60+, there will be a good mixture of the armor types found. When it does spawn a T-45 or T-51, it tends to be complete, but I have a few of those already, so that doesn't help me. I'm still missing one leg from the X-01.

[P]

I can't keep spending his much time gaming, so I decided to run through the main quest with one of the factions. I'm sure I'll go back to run through with at least one of the other factions later, but not now. I'm mostly done. I have done a lot of quests, played with all companions but one, did all companion quests but one, got four companions to full approval, found all the gear and all the Boobleheads. I'm sure there are a few magazines out there, and probably a few locations in the south part of the map, but it is really starting to feel like I've done it all in a way that I never got to in neither Fallout 3 nor Skyrim.

 

I ended up playing for the Institute. They explained pretty well most of what they'd done, and though I never got a chance to push them on why they kept replacing innocent people in the Commonwealth, there are the bones of an explanation for you to find, and it makes sense in a way. It also seems that a lot of their evil was just Kellogg going outside his orders and being extra violent.

After a few simple missions against raiders and super mutants to retrieve tech, I had to go to war. That meant that I was supposed to attack all my former allies. I managed to talk my way out of killing the Minutemen, and I never much liked the Railroad, but I had to kill the Brotherhood. And that hurt. Truly war never changes.

For all the last part of the game is memorable, the ending cinematic is disappointing. It is a rerun of the Fallout 3 situation, where they just run through a very quick recap of the game, with no care taken to explain what happened to all the people you met in the game. New Vegas was so much better about this. And it doesn't even have Ron Perleman saying the line.

[The Final Dakar]

Fatty, I swear you posted more in other fallout threads. As a fan of the previous entires how does this ‘casualized’ version hold up for you?

Now at 6 days played, level 50. Doing some of the stuff with companions, but I can’t say its really worth the effort. Not to mention losing 100 lbs of cargo toting capability is annoying.

Checked last night, and thanks to the awful location of the local leader perk, Charisma is now my highest stat (It should be agility, followed by intelligence and perception).

I was thinking that a play through where you don’t any points into gun nut and instead rely on stripping found guns of mods would be quite interesting. Certainly would tilt the game’s loot factor to include a class that gets overlooked after the early beginning (with a few exceptions).

Speaking of modded guns, I decided on a few new strategies for unique weapons. Made the overseer’s guardian my next-level DMR (two bullets per). AFAIK the two bullet perk is not what it sounds like. I think you get you first shot with all the modifiers plus base damage of an extra bullet. I guess that’s balanced, and it explains why such a great sounding perk wouldn’t use extra ammo.

Speaking of ammo, I’m still playing on hard and finding that’s the biggest casualty of the difficulty change. I was slowly accruing extra ammo for my guns on normal with the first level ammo scavenger perk, but no longer. I think I’ll save the extra perk point until I need to spend real caps on ammo because I’ve run out of items to barter.

I then picked up Old Faithful as my new sniper rifle. I decided to forego my silenced .50 just because running into single enemies is rarer and the chambering action made taking down tough foes too tedious. Now with the new one I can really put some damage down, 2x plus sneak bonus on full health.

I also figured out the strategy for purchasing legendary weapons. Did a dump of vanilla mini guns, flamers, missile launchers, etc., using .38 ammo to fill the balance. That’s right, I have currently spent 0 caps on weapons. I have 19k caps, almost 10k .38 ammo which I don’t use, and 3k pre-war dollars. And a trunk still full of junk yet. Just started using irradiated food to purchase rarer ammo. Once I connect my settlements I’ll probably be able to use corn and purified water as well.

On the odder side, I had a Deathclaw invade my garage at Red Rocket. Really hoping that doesn’t mean I’m going to have his corpse there forever. I also find the RR is great because the hole beneath it is quite useful to pick up brain fungus, glow flowers, mole rat meat, and assorted junk every week or so. The former items are useful for chemistry.

Dumbest thing I didn’t realize until a few days ago: There are different levels of armor. With the game so prone to prefixes, I didn’t realize sturdy and heavy were better variations of armor and not modded armor. Doh.

I ran into a huge three-way firefight between BoS, Supermutants, and Ghouls. The end result was amazing – the ghouls had come from a nearby location I hadn’t explored, and as a result of being exterminated, the NPCs gave me a ‘cleared’ on an area I hadn’t explored. Not sure if I like that or not.

[The Final Dakar]

Originally Posted by P 

I can't keep spending his much time gaming,

filthy casual

[P]

I have more hours into Fallout 4 than I have in either Fallout 3, New Vegas, or Skyrim. I don't have the Steam version of Oblivion so I can't check how many hours I played that, and it may be similar because I remember playing it more than Skyrim, but that is the only game of the type that comes close. Even worse, all those counts are over months of play, with all or most expansions (I had GOTY versions of all but Skyrim, and I grabbed some expansions for Skyrim on a sale recently) but this is the base game, before even the first patch. I needed to draw a line somewhere.

[P]

Originally Posted by The Final Dakar 

Fatty, I swear you posted more in other fallout threads. As a fan of the previous entires how does this ‘casualized’ version hold up for you?

Now at 6 days played, level 50. Doing some of the stuff with companions, but I can’t say its really worth the effort. Not to mention losing 100 lbs of cargo toting capability is annoying.

I think all companions have at least 150 lbs carrying capacity. Sure they all need some of that for their own arms and armor, but not all. Both Nick and Piper were quite enjoyable to travel with, and Cait had some nice comments too. The others, maybe not so much.

Originally Posted by The Final Dakar 

I also figured out the strategy for purchasing legendary weapons. Did a dump of vanilla mini guns, flamers, missile launchers, etc., using .38 ammo to fill the balance. That’s right, I have currently spent 0 caps on weapons. I have 19k caps, almost 10k .38 ammo which I don’t use, and 3k pre-war dollars. And a trunk still full of junk yet. Just started using irradiated food to purchase rarer ammo. Once I connect my settlements I’ll probably be able to use corn and purified water as well.

You can make medications at the Chemistry workbench to sell as well. Money was never an issue for me.

Originally Posted by The Final Dakar 

Dumbest thing I didn’t realize until a few days ago: There are different levels of armor. With the game so prone to prefixes, I didn’t realize sturdy and heavy were better variations of armor and not modded armor. Doh.

That part is terrible, because the "sturdy" and "heavy" variant text is hidden when there is something more "interesting" on the armor. This also confuses which of the armor types is better. The order is supposedly raider - leather/metal - combat - synth, with the various modifications on top, but even though I had heavy combat armor from rather early on, I eventually found leather armor that was better in all respects. Add in the mixup regarding what armor you can wear together, and armor got way too complicated in this game.

Originally Posted by The Final Dakar 

I ran into a huge three-way firefight between BoS, Supermutants, and Ghouls. The end result was amazing – the ghouls had come from a nearby location I hadn’t explored, and as a result of being exterminated, the NPCs gave me a ‘cleared’ on an area I hadn’t explored. Not sure if I like that or not.

That is a little extreme, but in general, I like that sort of thing - where a regular mission suddenly turns into something crazy because the BoS Vertibird happens to fly over. And honestly, if you got a mission to clear out a cave of ghouls and some guys in power armor happened by and did it for you, wouldn't you take the credit for it? Sure you should have had to go through the cave to check that it was empty, but then you should always have to do that, and you don't.

As you go through the game, the little connections to Fallout 3 start to pile up. I suspect that they will do more with that in the DLC.

[sek929]

So there was this issue in F:NV in which ED-E's inventory would wipe during a mission to upgrade him, that still totally happens in a related F4 quest so, uh, be warned.

[sek929]

Originally Posted by The Final Dakar 

Fatty, I swear you posted more in other fallout threads. As a fan of the previous entires how does this ‘casualized’ version hold up for you?

I have a large amount of screencaps saved up. Just haven't found the time to tuck into a big post about it and upload the photos when there's still Fallout to be played.

The short of it is that 4 is a very good Fallout game, probably the best really. I still find the dialogue options to be lacking a bit, much like F3 compared to New Vegas. Not to say 3/4 can't be clever games at times but I feel Bethesda makes a Fallout game that takes itself a bit more seriously than Obsidian/Black Isle do. Radiation is finally done well in a FPS Fallout, not only are irradiated spots a bit hotter than before it actively steals your health bar, which is cool.

I only played 2/1 after my initial experience with 3, they're good games but my word are some of the core mechanics unbelievably annoying. The inventory is, well, it's not good...in fact at this point in gaming it can't even be classified as an "inventory" because it doesn't keep anything in order for you, it's more of a pile of stuff in a narrow sack, which is brutal. Secondly using a stimpack or opening your inventory while in combat uses your AP, which you always have nearly none of, so that's a plus.

4 is the most fun to play, It's got the most stuff to do, it's by far the prettiest, but it's all a bit overwhelming. I miss the 2 hours of lost wandering I did in the DC Metro system only occasionally seeing a ghoul or two. Everywhere you turn in this game is a firefight. It's frantic as hell, which is really fun the higher I level, but it definitely has its own unique feel as a Fallout game.

Fallout: Mad Max (Southie Thunderdome)

[Jawbone54]

Originally Posted by sek929 

The short of it is that 4 is a very good Fallout game, probably the best really. I still find the dialogue options to be lacking a bit, much like F3 compared to New Vegas. Not to say 3/4 can't be clever games at times but I feel Bethesda makes a Fallout game that takes itself a bit more seriously than Obsidian/Black Isle do. Radiation is finally done well in a FPS Fallout, not only are irradiated spots a bit hotter than before it actively steals your health bar, which is cool.

I have yet to play New Vegas, but the general vibe from Fallout players seems to be extremely positive (except for people who played on PS3). They all certainly prefer it to 3. I've got it socked back on Steam — I hope to eventually make my way back to it.

I only played 2/1 after my initial experience with 3, they're good games but my word are some of the core mechanics unbelievably annoying. The inventory is, well, it's not good...in fact at this point in gaming it can't even be classified as an "inventory" because it doesn't keep anything in order for you, it's more of a pile of stuff in a narrow sack, which is brutal. Secondly using a stimpack or opening your inventory while in combat uses your AP, which you always have nearly none of, so that's a plus.

That kind of sounds horrible...

4 is the most fun to play, It's got the most stuff to do, it's by far the prettiest, but it's all a bit overwhelming. I miss the 2 hours of lost wandering I did in the DC Metro system only occasionally seeing a ghoul or two.

The weapons not deteriorating is a huge improvement on its own.

The settlement-building might have been thrown in as a gimmick of sorts, but I've found it beyond addictive. There have been long stretches where I've treated F4 as a gritty, finicky Minecraft. I easily spent four straight hours deconstructing my old base and building a new one. Watching people on YouTube makes the itch even stronger, especially when they slip in a few mods (I'm not messing with any of that until Creation Kit's release in 2016).

Everywhere you turn in this game is a firefight. It's frantic as hell, which is really fun the higher I level, but it definitely has its own unique feel as a Fallout game.

After my first foray into a town, I realized that there are always a few baddies lurking around a corner, waiting to take me out. I love it. The tension can be incredible at times.

AFAIK, you're the only one on the forum (P?) who was heavily invested into the previous Fallout titles. I'd be interested to hear your feelings/comparisons in a month or two, after the hype has worn down.

[P]

I think New Vegas is significantly better than 3 in most respects. Its review scores are skewed a bit low by the fact that it crashed a lot before the first patch, but the story is tighter, the background makes sense, they fixed a few of the biggest flaws in the Fallout 3 mechanics, and there is more of a real choice on who to support, giving more replayability. The factions are also quite believable: The NCR is good at heart, but come to the Mojave as conquerors because they want the power from the Hover dam; Caesar's legion is a society falling back into tribalism; Mr. House speaks of independence, but really he wants to make himself dictator for life; the BoS are insular and weak, hiding and clinging to what power they have left; the other minor tribes are hostile but can be reasoned with, etc. You can support either NCR, Caesar or Mr. House, but also take power for yourself, with a choice of which minor factions you want to spare and which to eliminate.

I really should run through the entire game from the top once more. I never even found the Enclave, and there is supposedly a remnant of them somewhere.

[The Final Dakar]

Few more thoughts:

• Read that idiot savant is good no matter what your intelligence level. Also realize I should start getting drunk while crafting back at base to raise my odds.

• Got the fire endowed submachine gun. Completely outclasses everything else, even though I don’t have more than one level in auto weapons (compared to three rifles and guns). The two levels of the explosion perk probably don’t hurt, though.

• They need a VATS perk that highlights corpses, particularly since they can get thrown quite far (Last night I found a robot corpse that flew from a race track to the airport!). The second level should let you see weapons on the ground.

• I think your settlers will bank the items off Raiders, etc. that attack settlements while you’re gone. That’s actually quite valuable for screws, etc.

• Using a glitch to let me build more at the RR. Which is questionable since it takes forever to load as is, and I get huge lag when accessing full chests.

• Companions stealing weapons from your chests needs to stop. Found out Nick had taken two flame throwers out of my safe, meaning the ****er could barely hold any loot once we set out.

• I always forget to sleep before setting out for the extra XP.

• I think there’s a cap on how high your Charisma can be and still be effective. Really kitted myself out for a transaction but didn’t notice much difference before and after Grape Mentats. Guess I’ll sink a few points into the bartering perk. Because, you know, I can’t afford to actually spend those caps.

• I realized I still haven’t explored 1/3rd of Cambridge (Inside buildings). That was not intentional.

• Since I hit 50, meeting some tough enemies again. That said a Queen mire lurk that I was only denting with my Terrible Shotgun last night was still decimated in short order by the aforementioned submachine gun.

• Anybody use Bloody Mess? Is it worth it?

• Perks I probably would not pick up in retrospect: Night Person, Sandman, Toughness, Big Leagues. That latter two were a casualty of being very weak in the beginning and not knowing better.

• My current unbuffed SPECIAL stats: 4 6 5 6 7 7 5. The lack of strength on really hurts when running with a companion as Lone Wanderer is awesome (Still, thank god for Grilled Ragstag). I find a value endurance more as I rely on VATS more (Currently rocking armor that lets AP regenerate quickly). I also think I’ll be moving towards Better Criticals and Critical Banker as I approach end game.

• The aror that simulates Nerd rage is great, until you take Psychojet and don’t realize Time is slow because you are about to die. Must have survived that Mirelurk Queen last night with <25 HP.

• My favorite improvisation thus far: I got rid of my silenced .50 cal sniper because I was barely using it and it weighed a decent amount. Decided to grab an old bolt-action pipe-rifle and mod the **** out if to replicate the same effect. Put the targeting scope on it and now I have a tracking weapon plus a pocket .50 cal sniper rifle with near identical damage at 1/3rd the weight. Excellent.

[The Final Dakar]

Originally Posted by P 

I have more hours into Fallout 4 than I have in either Fallout 3, New Vegas, or Skyrim.…I needed to draw a line somewhere.

Relax, I'm busting your balls. I myself instituted a policy of having to watch at least an hour TV a night just to keep myself from burning out on it.

Originally Posted by P 

That part is terrible, because the "sturdy" and "heavy" variant text is hidden when there is something more "interesting" on the armor.

Yep, it's impossible to tell what class legendary armor is. I don't know if they should have color coded the armor classes or what but that's bad.

---

Keep trying to make alternative shotguns. Made a plasma scattergun but that thing felt more ineffective than a pistol.

My current armor set-up: nerd-rage armor, 25% AP regen, +1 STR & END (did this because it'd help my carry limits when with companions), VATS enhanced, and sprinters.

At some point I'd like to do a sentinel set-up but the truth is I don't think I'd remember to stand-up from a crouched position and the text seems super clear you have to be standing.

Got another complete X-01 frame. I think I now have to whole frames and one missing only a helmet. That's way more than even the T-60. I'm a little disappointed at how the EMP paint and another paint really don't change the look much,

[The Final Dakar]

Well, I see with P’s surrender this thread is now dead. Shame.

Words I never expected to type: That was an awesome parking garage.

I cut through Concord last night and you know what? I discovered an interior I had never noticed before. Ha.

I’ve begun venturing down south and yup, they’re tougher down there. I replaced my DMR with a Laser Rifle but it just doesn’t feel as effective (It’s marginally more powerful, but I expect against Mutants it’s energy damage should be more effective than ballistics. Doesn’t feel that way). I do think part of is it just has a lousy look even ADS’d.

I still have 2 points of skill to invest in rifles and pistols, so I’ll explore than before toning down the difficulty. I also have the first spitting SMG which really is game-breaking. I don’t know how to balance it, but even while inaccurate at longer rangers, the damage those few bullets that hit do exceed regular ballistics too well.

I have to safes lost a lot of their allure when I realized that, unlike Borderlands, I was never going to find any great loot in them (armor and weapons). I mean, to a certain degree I understand why, but it really detracts from the experience. “Another safe? Guess I’ll find a pipe pistol and more ammo. Ho-hum.”

I also realized that some of the weapons could stand to ‘double-up’ on legendary effects. I have a mutant-slaying weapon, I have a rapid-pistol, it’d be nice if I could find a drop that has both effects. Particularly since I think a rapid, mutant-slaying weapon would only maybe give Spray n Pray a run for its money. I’m fine with limiting these kind of drops to much higher legendary creatures (I.e. Legendary glowing, legendary alpha, etc.).

Another complain: Wounding or poisoned weapons seem to lose their utility as enemies level up. It’s be better if they just did a set percentage of damage instead.

The settlement a sect has a lot of problems. I imagine its background processing or memory or something, but settlement pop and defense will be inaccurate from the pip-boy only to return to previous numbers upon fast travel to the location. Using the bell to summon all settlers is also unreliable – At one location it listed 5 people (the fifth being a companion I sent previously). Ringing the bell only the local settlers came. Same at The Castle. Sent a couple of settlers to the location, but upon ringing the bell only the original 5 showed up. Time elapsing usually solves the problem, but that’s not great.

I have one quest that refuses to turn in. Not a big deal since it’s a side quest, but it worries me.

I’d look into facial reconstruction or new hairstyles, but **** paying up front before I see what I can do.

I’ve actually spent caps. Starting to recruit vendors for my main settlement. Should make selling shit after missions much easier. Also doing supply lines and diversifying my farming so I no longer have to manually gather materials for vegetable starch or cutting fluid.

Also, the cave underneath the RR is great for replenishing Glowing Fungus and Brain Fungus and some other odds and ends.

[The Final Dakar]

Still playing fatty? How many hours/what level?

I'm around 8 days, rank 64 myself

[sek929]

I had a busy weekend but I'm still grinding. Lvl 38 with around 80 hours played.

Still taking screenshots and just made a video-clip-worthy moment last night I look forward to editing.

I like my Laser Rifle because no weapon matches its range and accuracy. At the very edge of Vats I always get ~90% on body shots. The Gauss Rifle, however, has become my go-to ranged weapon for the tougher enemies. However PsychoJet + Combat Shotgun is still my go-to "shit hitting the fan" combo when a big baddie shows up.

Listened to an absolutely haunting distress signal message last night as well, near Fallon's Dept store, sent chills down my spine.

[P]

I think I was level 66 when I tapped out, Steam calls it 114 hours.

[The Final Dakar]

Just wandered previously explored wasteland instead of fast traveling. So many legendary animals, holy hell. A lot of leather armor, though.

Just realized I haven't seen a legendary assault rifle yet.

[Jawbone54]

Originally Posted by P 

I think I was level 66 when I tapped out, Steam calls it 114 hours.

What's the deal with Steam registering far fewer hours than are actually played?

It did this to me with Skyrim too.

[P]

I generally trust Steam to be correct in games that rely on its DRM. Games that are truly DRM-free, but still distributed through Steam (i.e., you can launch them without having Steam running - common for games not AAA, but also for games where the DRM has been patched out like Civ IV) frequently miscount this number, but I thought that it was correct for games like Fallout 4?

[The Final Dakar]

Originally Posted by Jawbone54 

What's the deal with Steam registering far fewer hours than are actually played?

It did this to me with Skyrim too.

It's so you can show it to your wife if she complains.

---

Was wandering the southwest and not only did I get my first Gauss gun, it's legendary. And a Incendiary combat rifle. Ah, that's better.

(Also, I found out that when a legendary creature doesn't drop a legendary, it's because you companion looted before you could. Son of a bitch).

[Jawbone54]

Originally Posted by The Final Dakar 

It's so you can show it to your wife if she complains.

Showing my wife anything on a computer screen would be grounds for her to complain.[/QUOTE]

(Also, I found out that when a legendary creature doesn't drop a legendary, it's because you companion looted before you could. Son of a bitch).

Dirty. But you can swap, right?