[Jawbone54]

Originally Posted by sek929 

I haven't done a massive amount of building/decorating, but I do have a wind turbine on my own house powering lights and a few TVs, the rest of the town can go screw for now.

I sent Dogmeat home, he was in my way 99% of the time.

Curious: how do you designate one home as your own?

[sek929]

Originally Posted by Jawbone54 

Curious: how do you designate one home as your own?

I mean, I guess the townspeople could sleep in my bed, it's just the house I built with all the assorted workshop malarky and storage in it.

Edit: I just remembered one of my favorite things in the workshop, the spawn point "welcome" mat. When I jump to Sanctuary I'm right in front of the chest and tool station.

[The Final Dakar]

Killing that prick robot worked. Using new found knowledge I then grabbed his corpse and threw it on the dumpster. Pics coming in a few days.

Also that lone wanderer perk is god-tier for hauling loot.

[The Final Dakar]

Killing that prick robot worked. Using new found knowledge I then grabbed his corpse and threw it on the dumpster. Pics coming in a few days.

Also that lone wanderer perk is god-tier for hauling loot.

[P]

I have a generator for the radio beacon and the water filter, but of course I could have put up a few wind turbines on the roofs for things like lights (and a laser turret, just because). Anyone know if that helps happiness? Running low on aluminum after all my armor upgrades, though.

Building fences on the sloping ground is annoying. That seems like an essential thing to do to improve defense, but it doesn't improve your rating any. I just put turrets on the roofs for now.

[Jawbone54]

It won't let me embed this gif, but check out the max tower height...

http://i.imgur.com/nzZKQ92.gifv

And a view from the top:

http://i.imgur.com/3ICzMpX.webm

[Jawbone54]

Originally Posted by sek929 

You'll want to spend your caps on as little as possible, higher end weapons/armor/houses are going to cost a small fortune.

Hearing that, I'm glad I haven't spent a cent so far. I'm sure I'll cave in at some point, but I haven't yet found a vendor with anything substantial.

The key is ammo variety, and having a good combo of hard hitting weapons from distance and something with low AP use and a big clip for up close.

Ammo has been a problem for me, period. Last night I had to switch guns three times during a mission because I ran out of ammo with each.

Originally Posted by P 

Am in Diamond city now, and it still runs fine. Don't see where you have to go to make it slow down.

Mine finally started slowing down a bit last night, but I still haven't reached Diamond City. I noticed a few hiccups on the walkways above the Corvega Assembly Plant, but it still only bottomed out at 47 FPS. I might knock my resolution back to 1080p rather than adjust the settings.

Originally Posted by The Final Dakar 

The high intelligence has come in handy for the Scrapper perk, because everything you needs screws for a while. Then it was leather, and now its Adhesive. Endurance is probably hurting me for AP in VATS, but I’m getting by on sheer stealth most of the time.

Screws... It's always screws.

Originally Posted by sek929 

Edit: I just remembered one of my favorite things in the workshop, the spawn point "welcome" mat. When I jump to Sanctuary I'm right in front of the chest and tool station.

It's a god-send. Shaves off seconds every time.

Originally Posted by P 

Building fences on the sloping ground is annoying. That seems like an essential thing to do to improve defense, but it doesn't improve your rating any. I just put turrets on the roofs for now.

The fences are killing me. My guess is that a mod will come out to make them look right many months from now, but I'll have moved on. However, I do return to Skyrim from time to time, so maybe...

Lastly, there's a location that I'm trying to find that I had spoiled for me on Reddit. I'll post a picture as soon as I find it.

[EDIT]Don't worry, I'll make sure to add the spoiler tag.

[Jawbone54]

Pretty useful resource for FO4 players: www.fallout4map.com

Thought I'd share.

[P]

It turns out that you can put Welding Goggles on Dogmeat. Since they boost Perception, he appears to notice enemies and loot more often. Dog armor helps his survivability, obviously, but I'm not sure what those collars and bandanas etc do.

Has anyone found the Charisma bobblehead? Don't tell me where, just if it is reasonably easy to find early on.

[Jawbone54]

Originally Posted by P 

Dog armor helps his survivability, obviously, but I'm not sure what those collars and bandanas etc do.

Makes him look cute.

[The Final Dakar]

You can use HTML tags when renaming weapons.

[P]

Anyone got any interesting companions yet? I have three possible human companions now, one that I think I'll stick with - and it's pretty obvious that another person I've met will become a potential companion later.

[Jawbone54]

I don't think I trust anyone other than the dog. Also, can't I rename him?

[P]

Texts From Superheroes : Photo

[The Final Dakar]

I'm somewhere around 30 hours and still haven't gotten close to diamond city. Now following a string of habitations t.and heading east.

Had to pick up another level for pistol damage, and a level of scavenger for ammo since I now have a few automatics. Took down my second death claw and sniped a over leveled super mutant to death, thank god for my silencers.

I also let some inhabitants in to my red rocket garage so they can grow me the ingredients for the adhesive. That and copper are my big problems right now.

According to my stats I've still Have not completed more than one main mission. Pip boy app is great for browsing at work, assuming you remember to sync it before you log off.

[P]

I have found that the combat rifle, with hair trigger but without automatic, is a perfect balance between power and being conservative about ammo.

Recently picked up a .50 suppressed sniper rifle and added a night vision scope. I'm going to have some fun with this thing.

I don't like my lack of armor upgrades though. The third tier of the armor upgrade perk doesn't get me anything more for combat armor or metal armor, and I haven't found anything that's really better - different, perhaps, but not better. Is it Power Armor only from this point?

I happen to have two "acrobat" combat armor legs (legendary drops), both of which reduce falling damage by 50%. Guess what happens if you wear two? Yup.

The logic of when you can put armor on top of clothing still escapes me. Tried to have Cait for a companion for a while. She wears a corset plus some leather pants or something, and you can safely add armor on top of that. Switched to Piper, who wears a red leather trench coat, and suddenly anything I put on her makes here remove her trench coat. It was a bit funny at first when she started running around in her underwear and some pieces of armor (ever seen Black Snake Moan?), but it got old pretty soon, so I tried some other clothing combos. Turns out that each piece of clothing has its own rules for what armor is accepted - e.g. the dresses only accept armor on the arms, not on the legs or torso. I guess that's why most enemies have longjohns on. For now she's back in the trench coat, dying all over the place.

[The Final Dakar]

So when your settlements successfully repel an attack while you're away, a bunch of stuff can be damaged and it won't tell you. That's pretty awful design/gameplay.

[P]

In the Pipboy, under Workshops, it tells you with a symbol if something needs your attention in one settlement. If whatever got damaged (it's usually water pumps IME) really hurts the settlement, it should show up there.

[The Final Dakar]

Originally Posted by P 

In the Pipboy, under Workshops, it tells you with a symbol if something needs your attention in one settlement. If whatever got damaged (it's usually water pumps IME) really hurts the settlement, it should show up there.

I shouldn't have to check. It should tell me.

[The Final Dakar]

...and honestly it's still tedious bad game design. No one likes babysitting so they had the option for settlements to self-defend, but that replaces babysitting with maintenance. That's not fun either. If I scavenge enough resources to make the settlement self-sufficient, reward me by making it actually self-sufficient.

As it is I burning through even more rare resources repairing damaged turrets.

[The Final Dakar]

In more positive news, I still haven’t completed any new missions. Its also important not to fast travel everywhere, lest you miss locations. Discovered two locations between walden pond and the starlight drive-in last night, finally giving me access to a legit trader.

I also managed to scavenge a pistol with a night-vision scope on it. Haven’t go to try it yet, but I immediately removed it form the pistol and put it on one of my custom guns. Love that feature so much…

fallout4map.com is quite useful for finding items. Right now I’m using to see if I missed items at locations I found. If I did I try to find them on my own. If that fails I’ll then use the directions. Feels fair enough.

Not so down on my SPECIAL role right now. I think my high perception is giving me a high edge whilst sneaking around (Seeing your stealth start to slip, or getting the [Caution] warning is quite useful). It apparently is key for VATS too. I put a point into Intelligence last night as well, too. I think I hit 16 right before I logged last night, but I didn’t spend the point.

Found an area where I triggered a siren that called some real tough-guy raiders– and an Alpha Deathclaw. Sniped at the Deathclaw as he tore them apart, then a reg death claw joined him. They then peaced out as soon as it was over. I ran into them leaving and hightailed it to cover. I managed to kill the regular death claw but the fighting AI is a bit… fake. He seemed to know when my sights were on him, strafing, but he didn’t retreat. Meanwhile, his Alpha friend would retreat and leave every time I was in cover as if he would only fight me on unfair terms. I don’t think they’re sentient so this is all BS.

In my near future, in no particular order: Armorer, Rifleman 2, Awareness, Science, Night Person, Mister Sandman

What perks are you guys focusing on (include lvl pls)?

[P]

I have three each in Locksmith and Hacker, I want to get in everywhere. I also have the ones that let you mod, i.e. Gun Nut and Armorer - skipped Blacksmith so far - as well as Science and 1 level in Scrapper. Recently raised Charisma to 6 to get Local Leader, and I have three levels in th excellent Rifleman. I'm at lvl25 or so.

[The Final Dakar]

I've resorted to writing down locations on a notepad until I raise the hacker and lick pick ranks. My damage output feels too low to sacrifice bonuses for those perks.

[Jawbone54]

In b4 you edit out "lick pick."

Dakar on 'NN via iOS FTW.

[sek929]

Originally Posted by P 

I have three each in Locksmith and Hacker, I want to get in everywhere. I also have the ones that let you mod, i.e. Gun Nut and Armorer - skipped Blacksmith so far - as well as Science and 1 level in Scrapper.

Pretty much this, plus 3 tiers of the non-auto Rifle perk and two levels of Ninja to increase my sneak attack bonus. I'm halfway through lvl 19.

I finally rounded out my weapons with a found Combat Rifle with large clip, long barrel and powerful receiver. The perfect gun for middling enemies.

I also have a .50 Sniper Rifle (special one from a quest far east), Sniper Laser Rifle (also special, just found on legendary raider), auto-combat shotgun (which is silly powerful), Auto Assault Rifle and Dart Gun. The Sniper does ~110 dmg, the Laser Rifle ~70 (bigger clip and better fire rate than sniper), the Auto Shotty does over 130, the Combat Rifle does ~70 (40 round clip and low AP cost make this thing a monster) and the Assault Rifle is powerful but 5.56 is at a premium.

In the past few nights I have encountered (and bested) the following:

Raging Deathclaw (two mini nukes and a dozen missiles later)
Legendary Glowing MIrelurk(s) (about 4 in one area)
Legendary Super Mutant Master
Behemoth
...and a horde of synths ambushed me while I was looting inside a building (netted an Institute Laser Rifle but it is not as good as the Laser Sniper I already had)

I went through the basic quests to set up Sanctuary but past that I've done nothing to increase population or defenses, really don't see myself getting into it until much later.

I got to the scrounger perk late, always struggling to find screws, after several Raider camps last night I now have over 100 screws, hooray!

[P]

Originally Posted by sek929 

Pretty much this, plus 3 tiers of the non-auto Rifle perk and two levels of Ninja to increase my sneak attack bonus. I'm halfway through lvl 19.

I finally rounded out my weapons with a found Combat Rifle with large clip, long barrel and powerful receiver. The perfect gun for middling enemies.

I also have a .50 Sniper Rifle (special one from a quest far east), Sniper Laser Rifle (also special, just found on legendary raider), auto-combat shotgun (which is silly powerful), Auto Assault Rifle and Dart Gun. The Sniper does ~110 dmg, the Laser Rifle ~70 (bigger clip and better fire rate than sniper), the Auto Shotty does over 130, the Combat Rifle does ~70 (40 round clip and low AP cost make this thing a monster) and the Assault Rifle is powerful but 5.56 is at a premium.

We have very similar setups. I have silenced my sniper rifle, and the laser is a special one from a mission. I also have an insanely powerful sacrificial dagger as my melee weapon. Combat rifle is my favorite, though - just found one with a lower AP cost in VATS, which isn't going to hurt.

I am always just at the carry limit, however. My companion - I stuck with Piper, she seems to appreciate what I do for these poor people of the wasteland - gets stuck with carrying everything.

Found my first T-51 Power armor, and already had the perks to upgrade it to T-51e and some goodies. I also found an almost complete set of better Combat armor for when I don't use the Power armor. Playing in the Power armor is so much more fun, though, so I think I might go for Intelligence 9 and the Nuclear Physicist Perk to stay in armor all the time.

[P]

Half way on the Bobbleheads now, but it seems I keep missing magazines, from what I can tell.

Having Piper around really helps with the XP gain. I'm at level 32 now.

For some reason I get sent back to "dungeons" that I've already completed for missions for the Minutemen. I've been to the Corvega assembly plant at least three times, and I don't know how many times I've been to that listing post close to Sanctuary. Gets dull after a while.

[The Final Dakar]

So I have to highly recommend Dunwich Borers if you haven't already. First off, great 'dungeon' – it has multiple stages and the second ghoul infested stage was pretty good – and led me to an awesome legendary weapon: Kremvh’s Tooth. Great damage and causes targets to bleed and poisons them.

If you're needing some higher level junk, the Medford Hospital is just buried in useful stuff to scavenge. Microscopes, etc.

---

Here's a story about Sneak **** failure. I decided to finally bee-line for Diamond City because I was leveling up soon and I wanted to invest in Science – but I needed a point of intelligence yet, and I new there was a Bobblehead at the Boston Library to save me the effort.

From Diamond City I hit the Library and manage to find the back door first. What luck! Step in and immediately set off a trip wire. Thankfully, while it aroused some suspicion, it didn't send anyone running. I peak around the corner, spot a turret and a protectron and scope the turret. Take a breath, peak around to go for the protectron and all of a sudden a I'm set upon by 3-5 Super Mutants, including some legendary. In a panic I whip out Kremvh’s Tooth and slice and dice the ****er, using a handful of stim-packs. He goes down with some effort and his buddies fall to pieces (literally) shortly after. Oh yeah, the protectron joined in on the fun.

It was pretty easy after that. Got my Bobblehead, got my level and on to the upgrades. Hopefully tomorrow I'll grab the pics of my PS4 and post some of my favorite weapons to use (Right now a silenced 10mm is my reliable standby).

---

On my way to Diamond City I ran into the Paladin guy. That entire situation was such a turn off I bolted as fast as I could. No interest in working that storyline.

I also seem to have ****ed/slipped/thwarted a storyline involving Covenant. I discovered the town tonight and was absolutely turned on as soon as they saw me. Even after I 'took over' the settlement it count taking any items there as stealing. Its really odd. Luckily, I guess, I saw the some of the questline on a matimio stream.

I didn't check if their deaths counted as murders, but apparently mercs do count. Whoops.

Forgot some other stuff I was gonna say, I'm sure I'll post again soon.

Just hit level 21. Finally in armor where molerats can't even hurt me.

[P]

I have done Dunwhich borders and the associated dungeon with the mini-nukes and Krevmh's Tooth - that was the crazy melee weapon I mentioned earlier. Now I'm being sent there again, which is less fun.

For some reason the entire game has a green tint now. Thinking about it last night, I think it is Scrapper 2. That thing highlights items in the world if they have some resource you want, and I think that my sunglasses have something. Have to figure out how you untag a resource now.

EDIT: Nope. Turns out that this is a known bug, where if you trigger either night vision or recon scope, sometimes the effect stays. Trick to remove it is to go to the console and type "rimod 00094636" for the Recon scope or "rimod 002041b6" for the night vision scope. Thank god, it was driving me crazy.

[The Final Dakar]

Explored Arcjet, but its obvious I haven't completed it. Makes for some nice suspense in how it might crop up later.

Apparently, I hadn't upgraded my first sniper rifle since I put a suppressor on it, either because of lack of materials or because I got side-tracked with new weapons. Topped it off and it's breathed new life into a gun I was quite sick of. Have a more modern version waiting in the wings for when I get a suppressor and gun nut 3 (lvl 25).

Also, I put the targeting sight on my 10mm. OMG why didn't anyone tell me out about this. Permanent spotting. And it isn't hurting me much in short-notice situations. Remember that Alpha Deathclaw I ran into awhile back? I decided it was time ti pay him a visit and now he was legendary. That's ok, though, because he (I think) dropped a 10mm with 50% damage to super mutants. Currently contemplating if there's any reason not to deconstruct my current 10mm and put all its mods on this new pistol.

I discovered my first vault. I knew these were in the game, but it was still kind of amazing when I found it in the middle of a bog-standard place.

Up to lvl 21 now. Spending a gross amount of time renovating the Red Rocket (Wood has become hard to come by, so much so I actually marked it so it comes up when scavenging). The inhabitants of Tenpines bluff seem to have died, which is a shame since they were named, but I never saw the heads up. Every time I visit Abernathy Farm they get attacked, mostly by mutants.

That about covers it for now. Can't find my memory card to dl the screenshots.

[P]

The Arcjet building is in the first BoS mission. I would actually recommend doing that, because it drops some nice hints about The Institute, and also introduces a side mission related to all the old police stations.

You need insane amounts of defense for the settlements to stop showing that symbol that defense is too low. I've given up on that, and just drop by when I get a popup that one of them is under attack.

Found a "violent" Combat Rifle, which adds +25% damage to everything in return for higher recoil. I also have the Energy Weapons bobblehead, which makes those weapons more powerful, and I have boosted Strength to the level needed for Strong Back when I realized that the final perk in that chain lets you travel when encumbered, like in New Vegas (I also don't have anything else to spend my perks on until I can get the last perk for Science, Gun Nut and Armorer).

[The Final Dakar]

I think I’ll take your advice on doing that first mission then. I was planning on heading down to Diamond City to finally advance the story-line after 50 hours. (Sidenote: Least compelling story foundation. I’d rather have just been a lost survivor).

Your settlement defense has to equal food + water, which wouldn’t be that hard except half the early settlements you get are ****ing farms. It’s odd, Abernathy gets assaulted constantly when I’m there, but other than a bloat fly corpse I don’t think Sanctuary has been attacked once. The RR has had maybe two attacks. I think the strategy here is to over-stock on defense so you don’t need to visits as often – the starlight had adequate defenses until the turret got broken.

Speaking of settlements, my place (The RR) is probably too ambitious. Creeping on 60% capacity just laying down floors. Also, unlocking settlement decorations is LAAAAAAAME. Seriously, I have to jump through hoops for cosmetic items? I also find needing Local Leader (Rank 2!) just to build an oven is absurd. I guess that means if you trash workstations early on you’d completely **** yourself. I can understand needing the skill for stores, but an oven? C’mon, son.

So, some obvious tips from a newbie:
I found I managed my weight a lot better once I paid close attention to the Aid tab. Get rid off Rad infected food, and then get rid of all drugs you don’t use, and cut the ones you do use to like 10-20. Reduce stimpacks to 15 as well, as you’ll be getting a lot in the field while on missions. I probably saved myself 10-20 pounds that way.

Having merchant prices tied to Charisma is a fun mechanic until you realize you have to change clothes to go to the store lest you get ripped off. I resorted to making a junk box to throw stuff in to condense trips and save the amount I need to change clothes. Planning on painting an armor suit for a charisma bonus, giving me the double-whammy of extra weight capacity and enhanced prices.

As fars a bugs go, the game certainly hasn’t been the weird disaster I tend to hear of. Did get molotoved by a dude in a closed elevator and had to reload a save because I went to use a terminal and the character got looped trying to sit down. Dog meat disappearing isn’t great, but honestly the Goodfeels one was the worst. Was running into a lot invisible cover yesterday for some reason (I.e., peak just over a roof or railing but the shot gets deflected like the wall is still there).

Performance feels worse lately. Definitely notice hitching when areas load and just quick saving.

Question: How long does the game remember if you throw stuff in a container in the wild? Also, how long til bodies disappear or decompose? Do synths count as robots for the purposes of bonuses or are they their own class? Had more, can’t remember them.

Also, this thread has a distinct lack of fatty stories. I feel like we had lots of those in the past.

[P]

Originally Posted by The Final Dakar 

I think I’ll take your advice on doing that first mission then. I was planning on heading down to Diamond City to finally advance the story-line after 50 hours. (Sidenote: Least compelling story foundation. I’d rather have just been a lost survivor).

Agree. Not to spoil anything, but in general terms, you'll figure out pretty soon that the Institute are the Big Bad this time, and that there are three possible allies against them: Minutemen, BoS, the Railroad. I guess you do missions for them to get them on your side, although I haven't got that far in myself yet. Was going to do some BoS missions tonight, but... shiny!

Originally Posted by The Final Dakar 

Your settlement defense has to equal food + water, which wouldn’t be that hard except half the early settlements you get are ****ing farms. It’s odd, Abernathy gets assaulted constantly when I’m there, but other than a bloat fly corpse I don’t think Sanctuary has been attacked once. The RR has had maybe two attacks. I think the strategy here is to over-stock on defense so you don’t need to visits as often – the starlight had adequate defenses until the turret got broken.

I know the logic, I just gave up it because I didn't want to bother with a hundred turrets at each farm. There is apparently also a rule that the further south and east you get, the worse the climate is, and things get assaulted more often. Abernathy also suffers from not being easily fortified, although I guess I could build a tower or something.

Originally Posted by The Final Dakar 

So, some obvious tips from a newbie:
I found I managed my weight a lot better once I paid close attention to the Aid tab. Get rid off Rad infected food, and then get rid of all drugs you don’t use, and cut the ones you do use to like 10-20. Reduce stimpacks to 15 as well, as you’ll be getting a lot in the field while on missions. I probably saved myself 10-20 pounds that way.

Good tip, except the stimpacks are actually weight zero, and many of the actual drugs are either zero or 0.1. It is good advice for all that Mirelurk Meat etc that you pick up, though. It is also useful to cook things when you pass a cooking fire, as that gets you more energy for less weight. Also scrap useless weapons and armor at workbenches you pass.

Originally Posted by The Final Dakar 

Having merchant prices tied to Charisma is a fun mechanic until you realize you have to change clothes to go to the store lest you get ripped off. I resorted to making a junk box to throw stuff in to condense trips and save the amount I need to change clothes. Planning on painting an armor suit for a charisma bonus, giving me the double-whammy of extra weight capacity and enhanced prices.

You can also put your companion in a suit for even more carry capacity. I painted one suit red for Piper, looks a bit like her trenchcoat. Two suits like that are almost unstoppable - until you run in to some crazy with lots of grenades, also, hers breaks a lot, although that is at leats partially because I didn't have aluminum for a full upgrade of those limbs.

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).

Originally Posted by The Final Dakar 

As fars a bugs go, the game certainly hasn’t been the weird disaster I tend to hear of. Did get molotoved by a dude in a closed elevator and had to reload a save because I went to use a terminal and the character got looped trying to sit down. Dog meat disappearing isn’t great, but honestly the Goodfeels one was the worst. Was running into a lot invisible cover yesterday for some reason (I.e., peak just over a roof or railing but the shot gets deflected like the wall is still there).

I had a terrible bug early on, when moving through a flooded quarry in the rain and kept getting clipping errors, and the graphical bug with the recon sight above, but nothing really bad.

Originally Posted by The Final Dakar 

Question: How long does the game remember if you throw stuff in a container in the wild? Also, how long til bodies disappear or decompose?

The general area regnerates in about 2-3 days in all other Bethesda games, probably the same here.

Originally Posted by The Final Dakar 

Do synths count as robots for the purposes of bonuses or are they their own class? Had more, can’t remember them.

Noone knows, it seems.

Originally Posted by The Final Dakar 

Also, this thread has a distinct lack of fatty stories. I feel like we had lots of those in the past.

Hear hear.

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 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.

[Jawbone54]

This is why I love mods: Fallout 4 mod makes in-game map a lot more readable | VG247



This is also why I hate mods. I've got 30 hours in this game, and I'm not starting over to use the mod-friendly launcher at this point. I'll just have to use it on my second play-through (in 2017).

[Jawbone54]

Originally Posted by The Final Dakar 

Your settlement defense has to equal food + water, which wouldn’t be that hard except half the early settlements you get are ****ing farms. It’s odd, Abernathy gets assaulted constantly when I’m there, but other than a bloat fly corpse I don’t think Sanctuary has been attacked once.

Yeah, Sanctuary hasn't been attacked once in my game, but I still only have 4 settlers, and I've got about three turrets and one artillery set up there.

Speaking of artillery, how many do you guys have placed throughout your settlements?

Speaking of settlements, my place (The RR) is probably too ambitious. Creeping on 60% capacity just laying down floors. Also, unlocking settlement decorations is LAAAAAAAME. Seriously, I have to jump through hoops for cosmetic items? I also find needing Local Leader (Rank 2!) just to build an oven is absurd. I guess that means if you trash workstations early on you’d completely **** yourself. I can understand needing the skill for stores, but an oven? C’mon, son.

I guess they're giving us something to look forward to, but yeah, the pay-off is disappointing. I also hate that I can't make the place look nicer. I know we're in a post-post-apocalyptic world, but we should be able to create a wall without holes in it.

My current place in Sanctuary is a two-story, 3x6 (walls) structure with all the tool stations and an office area on the bottom floor, and a barracks of sorts on top, with turret stations set up in the open-air corners. I might need to post a pic for that to make sense.

I found I managed my weight a lot better once I paid close attention to the Aid tab. Get rid off Rad infected food, and then get rid of all drugs you don’t use, and cut the ones you do use to like 10-20. Reduce stimpacks to 15 as well, as you’ll be getting a lot in the field while on missions. I probably saved myself 10-20 pounds that way.

Yeah, I dumped a ton of radiated food last night, and didn't realize how much of a difference it would make.

Having merchant prices tied to Charisma is a fun mechanic until you realize you have to change clothes to go to the store lest you get ripped off. I resorted to making a junk box to throw stuff in to condense trips and save the amount I need to change clothes. Planning on painting an armor suit for a charisma bonus, giving me the double-whammy of extra weight capacity and enhanced prices.

It would be nice if they had hot keys set up that let you change entire attire/armor sets on the fly.

Originally Posted by P 

Agree. Not to spoil anything, but in general terms, you'll figure out pretty soon that the Institute are the Big Bad this time, and that there are three possible allies against them: Minutemen, BoS, the Railroad. I guess you do missions for them to get them on your side, although I haven't got that far in myself yet. Was going to do some BoS missions tonight, but... shiny!

Taking time to read the stories in terminals has greatly added to my enjoyment of the game. In previous Fallouts (and Skyrim's notes/books), I've generally skimmed over everything.

Possible spoilers (but I think you guys have almost certainly cleared it already):

 

Last night I cleared the elementary school Vault 75 and made sure to read every single holotape on every terminal. It made the entire experience much more intense, and I began wondering what exactly I would encounter around each corner. Ultimately, there were no genetically-altered mutant students to be found, but it seemed like I could feel them in the place.

It was one of the most immersive experiences I've had gaming. Incredible.

Good tip, except the stimpacks are actually weight zero, and many of the actual drugs are either zero or 0.1. It is good advice for all that Mirelurk Meat etc that you pick up, though. It is also useful to cook things when you pass a cooking fire, as that gets you more energy for less weight. Also scrap useless weapons and armor at workbenches you pass.

Good notes.

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).

Okay, that never occurred to me. I'm definitely going to use this.

Lastly, I believe I tracked down what hit my FPS so hard: widening my FoV. I settled on 90, but I adjusted the following:
- 1080p
- Textures/etc. turned to High instead of Ultra
- No godrays
- No antialiasing
- No ambience occlusion

Since my adjustments, I've noticed my framerate rarely drops below 55, even in the busiest areas of town. It sucks that I'm not able to stay at 1440p, but it could be worse. I could be playing on Xbone. What is it? 720p?

I think I'm becoming a PC snob.

[Jawbone54]

Some guy completed a water settlement. Pretty freaking awesome, if you ask me...

[EDIT]I posted a few images, but removed them as they're too large. Anyone know how to resize the things for 'NN?

[P]

Xbone is 1080p, but at 30fps and nowhere near the quality options available on PC.

That reminds, I should take a look at widening the FOV. Haven't bothered yet.

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.

[The Final Dakar]

After all my bitching I accidentally ran into two Picket fences magazines last night. I also learned that the Pool Table isn’t a decoration, but a table. Oy vey…

Did Arcjet with Danse, and wow, the interior changes significantly from when I was there earlier. I’m kind of impressed at that detail. I also was so stuffed from loot that I went 100 over my limit to 400/300. Surprised my legs didn’t break when I had to jump down from a platform.

Currently rocking this great piece of armor that increases the sweet spot on locks. Many novice locks I can open just by using the default 10 o’ clock position. I’ll be sad when I replace it one day.

Having a lot of trouble using the Lasers. I just don’t find them accurate. I think the ‘muzzle flash’ may be throwing off my aim or something. That or they have tremendous recoil. Also, I could have sworn Danse had a blue firing weapon, but he gave me his rifle and its just red like the others. Another legendary I’ll probably strip down another gun to modify.

Suffering from not having a 2x or 4x scope in this game. I wanted to use a combat rifle like a DMR (BF4) but the default scope make it weak at distance, where it would excel. Throwing a short scope on gives me a scope delay, sway, and a bit too much zoom. Frustrated.

I swear, every time I take a Radaway, I run into ghouls or bloat flies or some other radioactive source that puts the orange back in my health bar almost immediately.

Got to Diamond City last night. When I saw the size of their gardens I wanted to choke someone. I’ll be condensing my settlements and removing excess food production sooner or later, I think. Though I suppose I’ll need local leader to connect one farm to the RR.

DC bar missio story spoilers:

 

Boy did I eft this one up. Got cornered by a guy into helping him confront the bar owner about sleeping with his wife. Couldn’t put it off so I went with him. Once we’re there, the owner asks me what I’m doing. I try to play to cool like I’m just having a drink, but I’ll jump in if things get ugly. Instead the dude thinks I betrayed him goes psycho and the owner kills him. Ugh, sorry man. Then the bar owner stars talkin’ to me about how he’s connected and he want to rip off a client of his and a business contact, at which point the game thankfully gave me the option to murder him. Loote chis place and left very unhappy.

Also, what’s with this game seemingly making 90% of the NPCs really unlikeable?

I’m amused at how a lot of NPCs seem to use the computers as their personal diaries. I realize its for flavor, but amusing. Cleared out the Beantown Brewery last night and was amused with its connection to another location I cleared out earlier.

Speaking of the Brewery, I really like how this game seem to give locations that have a type of junk they specialize in. If you need glass, visit the Brewery. Hi-tech stuff? Hospital. And I think it goes on with Military bases, Clothing stores, etc. It’s a great detail.

I’ll probably wait til I get home to respond to your post, P.

[P]

Originally Posted by Jawbone54 

Some guy completed a water settlement. Pretty freaking awesome, if you ask me...

How do you do that? You can't build the base workbench by yourself, right? Or did he use the base at the sewage treatment plant as a base?

Originally Posted by Jawbone54 

[EDIT]I posted a few images, but removed them as they're too large. Anyone know how to resize the things for 'NN?

I actually prefer to have them linked, especially in a thread that goes on for a while about related topics. Don't want to scroll past the images 20 times.

[P]

Originally Posted by The Final Dakar 

Having a lot of trouble using the Lasers. I just don’t find them accurate. I think the ‘muzzle flash’ may be throwing off my aim or something. That or they have tremendous recoil. Also, I could have sworn Danse had a blue firing weapon, but he gave me his rifle and its just red like the others. Another legendary I’ll probably strip down another gun to modify.

Blue is what the Synths shoot, "Institute Rifle" etc - though I suppose Danse could have taken one of their weapons.

Originally Posted by The Final Dakar 

Suffering from not having a 2x or 4x scope in this game. I wanted to use a combat rifle like a DMR (BF4) but the default scope make it weak at distance, where it would excel. Throwing a short scope on gives me a scope delay, sway, and a bit too much zoom. Frustrated.

I find that Glow Sights help all weapons. I routinely snipe with a Combat Rifle with Glow and Reflex sights.

I think you mistyped that spoiler tag. OK for me, I have done that mission, and preferred to go along with the plot.

[Jawbone54]

Originally Posted by P 

How do you do that? You can't build the base workbench by yourself, right? Or did he use the base at the sewage treatment plant as a base?

I'm assuming he may have used the console command that allows you to build a workbench almost anywhere (but must be named locations, if I remember correctly).

I actually prefer to have them linked, especially in a thread that goes on for a while about related topics. Don't want to scroll past the images 20 times.

Noted.

[sek929]

Originally Posted by The Final Dakar 

As fars a bugs go, the game certainly hasn’t been the weird disaster I tend to hear of. Did get molotoved by a dude in a closed elevator and had to reload a save because I went to use a terminal and the character got looped trying to sit down. Dog meat disappearing isn’t great, but honestly the Goodfeels one was the worst. Was running into a lot invisible cover yesterday for some reason (I.e., peak just over a roof or railing but the shot gets deflected like the wall is still there).

So far I have yet to experience any major bugs/glitches, every 10 minutes or so I'll get a framerate drop that lasts a half second and that's about it. I do wish that when you have the weapon switcher up, sometimes by accident, that bringing up the PIp Boy or hitting the VATs button would just exit out and continue with the function you wanted, to many times I'm spamming VATs only to realize my switcher was still up.

Loading is pretty damn good, outdoor areas and the first load-in take a while but interior spaces are vastly improved over older Fallout games, especially NV, which had loads times spiral out of goddamn control during a long session.

Originally Posted by The Final Dakar 

Also, this thread has a distinct lack of fatty stories. I feel like we had lots of those in the past.

Really I just figured we're all pretty much going to experience the same stuff, and if it's something that you guys haven't got to I'm afraid I'd spoil it. I've been taking screenshots along my journey, I'll post them with some anecdotes soon.

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.

This has become a fairly big plus for me about this game, finally all that junk lying around has a purpose that isn't simply ammo for the Junk Jet. Now I see an aluminum can and think "aww yeah"

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.

Yeah this confused me too, I've tried several times and haven't even gotten the core to fall out and explode yet, even though its own health bar is at zero, weird.

Originally Posted by Jawbone54 

Speaking of artillery, how many do you guys have placed throughout your settlements?

One, right next to "my" house. Did I mention I'm barely paying attention to the settlements?

Originally Posted by Jawbone54 

Taking time to read the stories in terminals has greatly added to my enjoyment of the game. In previous Fallouts (and Skyrim's notes/books), I've generally skimmed over everything.

You'd need a lifetime to read all the Skyrim books, and not many of them are all that interesting. I LOVE reading terminals and holotapes in Fallout, like I said to Dakar the main story is usually a distraction, the real interesting stuff comes in bits and peices around the world.

Originally Posted by Jawbone54 

Possible spoilers (but I think you guys have almost certainly cleared it already):

Got as far as Vault 75 and stopped reading! I have not found this place yet, but Vaults are always the most interesting and twisted places to explore in the Wasteland, I'll have to find this place.

Originally Posted by The Final Dakar 

Did Arcjet with Danse, and wow, the interior changes significantly from when I was there earlier. I’m kind of impressed at that detail. I also was so stuffed from loot that I went 100 over my limit to 400/300. Surprised my legs didn’t break when I had to jump down from a platform.

Netted so many Fusion Cells during that mission I haven't worried about that ammo since.

Originally Posted by The Final Dakar 

Having a lot of trouble using the Lasers. I just don’t find them accurate. I think the ‘muzzle flash’ may be throwing off my aim or something. That or they have tremendous recoil. Also, I could have sworn Danse had a blue firing weapon, but he gave me his rifle and its just red like the others. Another legendary I’ll probably strip down another gun to modify.

I'm pretty sure that's the same Laser Rifle I'm using heavily-modded (recharge crit fast and extra crit dmg?). That gun can become a beast, it's my go-to for initial attacks to fill my crit meter. Institute weapons fire blue, maybe he picked one up or you were just confused in the firefight.

[The Final Dakar]

OH yeah, question I keep forgetting to ask: How do crit bonuses apply? Only to VATS? To head shots as well? Random hits?

[P]

Crit is only VATS. You have to trigger it manually, as well - you charge up a crit meter, and then you can trigger it at will once full.

Discovered a nasty bug. Updated some drivers, and suddenly the sound was out of sync - the sound of the gun came after I had exited sniper mode. After lots of fiddling, figured out that sound quality in Windows had to be set to 16-bit, 44.1 kHz, and nothing else.

I'm assuming he may have used the console command that allows you to build a workbench almost anywhere (but must be named locations, if I remember correctly).

Ah, OK. I should do that outside a few of the dungeons I keep getting sent back to, to place a few turrets there to make life a little bit more exciting for the Super Mutants and what not.

Found my first X-01 Power Armor, but unfortunately only the chest and one arm. Only have one chest of the T-60 as well, and less than two full T-51, but several T-45 and enough Raide Power armor to start an exhibit. too bad those can't be painted.

[The Final Dakar]

Thought so. Makes me far less excited about crit bonuses.

Is there a headshot multiplier? What is it?

[The Final Dakar]

Oh god, I figured out the itch this was scratching! This is the closest I've gotten to Hitman style gameplay since the PS2!

[sek929]

So after reading Jawbone's Vault 25 comment I decided to try and find it the old-fashioned way last night, started out East of Fenway and just wandered around searching for an Elementary school.

First off, the areas that surround Fenway and South Boston are crazy-town. Constant enemies and hidden alleys filled with surprises. I had just secured a Fort for the MInutemen at the East so I started there and headed inland. Immediately I'm ambushed by a group of Synths, just run-of-the-mill guys so I dispatch them easily. Off in the distance a BoS Vertibird was circling a building firing at some more Synths inside, so I keep pressing forward. Run smack dab into a Raider camp, easily 10+ guys, couple Legendaries. I start fighting them off only to realize I'm completely surrounded by them so I retreat by attacking the weakest part, a house with two Raiders in it. Luckily I've got this cool piece of armor, which slows time once your health gets low, otherwise I was toast. So I kill the two Raiders and am still taking fire, wtf, Oh...hey group of Super Mutants, welcome to the party, I retreat yet again...almost resigning myself to death since I've got Raiders behind me and Mutants in front. Just then the BoS Vertibird appears in sky, starts circling, and decimates the Raider camp and ground troops show up to deal with the Mutants.

So that was cool, onward!

Next up I decide to take care of one of the "Village Help" quests, they point me further South to clear out some Ghouls. Off in the distance I see a Satellite Array , as I close in a "Distress Signal" is found, so I start following that and it's leading me right to the Array, I slink around a bit, kill a couple bugs and then BAM, hit in the head with a missile...oh...hey giant group of Super Mutants held up inside the Array with all the high ground, nice to see you. Three Legendary Mutants up top, one is destroying me with an Institute weapon. I go to work methodically making my way around them behind cover and popping out for headshots and refilling my Crit with this. Once they're all dead I claim my prizes. First off I find an Institute Rifle with unlimited ammo capacity, so no realoding, unfortunately it does far less dmg than my Laser Rifle. Second score was this, which nearly doubles the dmg of my previous Combat Rifle, this thing is more powerful than my .50 cal Sniper for godsakes, devastating weapon.

Okay quite the outing so far, let's keep it rolling, onward towards my objective. I come upon a racetrack (Suffolk Downs I assume) and discover a gaggle of robots are racing eachother around the track with an Eye-bot leading the way with trumpet sounds. I sit there for a moment and chuckle at the absurdity then, once again, I find that I have stumbled into a rather large raider camp. Another drawn out battle, some bots take collateral damage and I end up destroying them all as well for their sweet spare parts.

I would continue to play for a while but nothing matched that series of events, like I said, the area South of Fenway is a crazy place.

[sek929]

Originally Posted by Jawbone54 

This is why I love mods: Fallout 4 mod makes in-game map a lot more readable | VG247

I changed my PIp-Boy color to white, not only is everything easier to read the flashlight feature actually illuminates things instead of painting them a random color.

[P]

Yes, I love that part. All tight alleys, lots of crazy little spots. The Minutemen only send me to places I've already been, but the BoS are better - those missions send you all over the place. I came upon a maze that someone had built in an old parking garage, with mines, ghouls, and finally choice between weapons or healing (open one door and a trap destroys the contents of the other). Somewhere there, I found a combat rifle that adds 18 points of plasma damage (I think it's 10 base, I guess the rest is various bonuses) on top of the regular damage.

I also have a plasma pistol with a fantastic upgrade: Flamethrower receiver. It still weighs like a pistol, but now it works like flamethrower. I love this thing. It eats ammo, but still - I'm not going to carry a flamethrower everywhere, but this I can lug around for just the right moment.

[The Final Dakar]

Sorry, P. Did another late night session (This game suffers from “…just one more thing” syndrome) so I didn’t get to respond only AirBook before calling it a night.

The load times in this are atrocious. Particularly galling is you can’t fast travel from inside buildings (fair) but Im wasting so much time loading into an area to then just fast travel back to my base. When you reach entrances a second prompt(let’s say triangle) should come up, allowing you to fast travel instead of dump back into the locale. Grey it out obviously, when you need the person to return to the locale for cutscene purposes.

I’m not sure how I feel about raiders retaking cleared areas. On one hand its good for loot. On the other, you’re killing my progress, man.

Had my first follower join last night. Off to the Red Rocket with you. May it one day be full of named people.

I was thinking about the crank laser musket. It could probably be one hell of a first-strike weapon maxed out. Seven cranks at 50 dmg each = 350 dmg, plus sneak = 750 dmg, without perks. Even more if there’s a headshot multiplier.

Loving my new sniper rifle. 100+ damage + silencer = insta-death. While I love that you can blow people’s heads off in the game, it’s littleness rewarding when it feels like even during unexpected encounters I’m somehow managing to decapitate over 50% of my foes.

So, here’ what gave me the Hitman Vibe. Had to clear-out Fraternal Post 115 for a settlement.

 

Looked for a back door. Found it. Picked the lock. Got in, looked around, found the head-guy, picked the lock to the door behind him, one-shot kill from my silenced pistol. Mission done.

I then proceeded to purposely set-off an alarm so I could get some more xp and got more than I bargained for. But still, fun!

Got a mission just walking past a guard in Diamond City. Kinda nice. I also need something from the mayor’s office but he’s unwilling to give it to me.If I understand the game mechanics correctly, I should be able to break-in and steal it if I try doing it in the middle of the night. If this works, I’ll be very impressed with the game.

Another mechanic I kind of was impressed with: Long barrel on my assault rifle prevented me from shooting inside a window while was hugging a wall.

Pretty much down to 3 weapons now. Got rid of laser rifle as it was useless, will probably ditch the laser pistol until I know I’m facing robots and synths. Running sniper, Combat rifle, and pistol. No automatics. I might try the shotgun again, but I’m having trouble crafting one that’s good hip-firing up close in a panic but also ADSing indoors. I’d like to hear what you guys are using and if you have any tips. (I also removed the tracking scope from the pistol as it was hurting my aim too much CQC. Moved in to the combat rifle for the time being. I may just throw it on a third gun for only designating targets).

I also picked up an assault rifle fairly early on, but modding it a high level affair, so I haven’t tried it yet.

Fatty: I was crawling around Boston last night. Very impressed they made it that almost every block there’s something of note to visit. Its definitely one of GTAs weaknesses, a giant city filled with buildings of no note.

I too changed my pip-boy color to white.I can’t figure out what HUD Opacity does, though. Doesn’t seem to affect the main HUD AFAIK.

I have not seen or have access to artillery for defense.I imagine it gives a giant number, though.

Guys, headshot multiplier?