TheSpaceShuttleChallenger

The official mod system doesn't look half bad for casual players, but I suspect that, as with most simplified in-game modding interfaces, once something breaks or you start wanting more heavily-scripted mods, you come crawling back to the third-party mod managers. That said, it's entirely possible to run official mods and unofficial mods side-by-side, as long as Nexus is able to keep things updated on their end. If I want a mod that's only available on Nexus, I'll download it through Vortex, and I want a mod that's only available on Larian's platform, I'll download it there. If it's hosted in multiple locations, I'll pick whichever I trust the most--which right now is Nexus. Ultimately it's the mod author's prerogative to publish their work wherever makes sense for them.

The Vortex update went smoothly in my case. It didn't really fix my game, but it's the biggest wrinkle ironed out, and now with a fresh install I can start combing through mods. Of course it's gonna be rough for a few weeks but I really appreciate you guys for being so quick with the update. This patch hit like a ten tonne truck.

The Institute doesn't have unlimited resources. They make that pretty clear with the incredible amount of trouble they go through to reclaim (not simply destroy) rogue 3rd gen synths and recycle every last molecule of air and water. They have been using covert operations to keep a hand on the surface because they don't have the power to do anything else. So I guess if I was the Director trying to make things right with the wastelanders, my first order of business would be to grow the Institute's resources. Probably, that means establishing an expeditionary force, maybe even looking for trade agreements with anyone who might be willing. I'm sure it wouldn't be hard to invent something that's inexpensive, easy to make, and highly desirable to surface dwellers. At the same time, I think I'd go for diplomacy with the major settlements. The cool thing about a regime change is that it offers a chance to demonstrate a high degree of sincerity in change. I could, for example, send a notice of ceasefire alongside Father's literal head on a literal platter, just to show that I'm not kidding. I would then start looking at showing good will whilst maintaining a power balance--removing mutual enemies, for example, or forking over some of that genetically modified mutfruit--while the Institute's resources grow. When I was doing a "I believe the Institute can save the world" playthrough, settlement building was a pretty significant element of what made that character good. After all, part of gaining power is gaining manpower, and what better way to gain manpower than to lure some of your rival's population over with promises of warm beds and nutritional supplements? Keep doing it long enough and eventually everybody will have a brother or aunt or best friend who lives with the Institute and then what are they going to do, nuke us?

The Institute doesn't have unlimited resources. They make that pretty clear with the incredible amount of trouble they go through to reclaim (not simply destroy) rogue 3rd gen synths and recycle every last molecule of air and water. They have been using covert operations to keep a hand on the surface because they don't have the power to do anything else. So I guess if I was the Director trying to make things right with the wastelanders, my first order of business would be to grow the Institute's resources. Probably, that means establishing an expeditionary force, maybe even looking for trade agreements with anyone who might be willing. I'm sure it wouldn't be hard to invent something that's inexpensive, easy to make, and highly desirable to surface dwellers. At the same time, I think I'd go for diplomacy with the major settlements. The cool thing about a regime change is that it offers a chance to demonstrate a high degree of sincerity in change. I could, for example, send a notice of ceasefire alongside Father's literal head on a literal platter, just to show that I'm not kidding. I would then start looking at showing good will whilst maintaining a power balance--removing mutual enemies, for example, or forking over some of that genetically modified mutfruit--while the Institute's resources grow. When I was doing a "I believe the Institute can save the world" playthrough, settlement building was a pretty significant element of what made that character good. After all, part of gaining power is gaining manpower, and what better way to gain manpower than to lure some of your rival's population over with promises of warm beds and nutritional supplements? Keep doing it long enough and eventually everybody will have a brother or aunt or best friend who lives with the Institute and then what are they going to do, nuke us?

Sounds to me like somebody's wearing the partisan blindfold. I'm sorry dude, but what "welfare and food stamps" does the Railroad get? You can make the argument that synths are toasters and the Railroad is delusional for thinking otherwise, and you can make the argument that the Railroad's commitment to synth lives over human lives makes them every bit as unethical as their competition... but they actively avoid getting help from strangers, and they are paying for their ambition with their lives, so where on earth do you get the idea that the Railroad is welfare queens? Blowing up the Institute has nothing to do with them being (allegedly) "raging liberals" and everything to do with the fact that their goal is to put a stop to the abuses perpetrated by the Institute, at any cost and using the only means available to them, because, to them, stopping the Institute is far more important than being able to clone gorillas. The brotherhood is, by the time of Fallout 4, devolved into a cult. They have a very thin mantra about protecting mankind but everything they do is geared towards power, domination, and control. They hoard technology that could be used for the greater good. They "protect" local settlements by extorting them. Anyone who doesn't conform to their ideology becomes an enemy, even when the new 'enemy' is a loyal member of their own ranks (Danse, Cutler) and even in situations where an alliance (the Railroad) would be of strategic value. I assume that they fully destroyed the Institute because they destroy anything they see as a threat, and they see just about everything as a threat, because that's how cults operate. The Institute's entire schtick is cowering underground for hundreds of years while they await the eventual extinction of surface dwellers, whilst treating their fellow humans as test subjects for their grotesque science experiments on the explicitly stated grounds that "they were doomed anyway." So if by "representing hope" you mean "they have a collective god complex and are only out for themselves" then sure. And, please, you want to tell me that the poor widdle Institute was just defending themselves? The Institute only has enemies because they murder and kidnap innocent people and torture them to death via brutal science experiments, because they spy on people, because they infiltrate and manipulate communities, because they have hostile synths roaming the commonwealth, because they wiped out entire settlements (see: University Point) just for being in the way, and because they made a point of manufacturing a slave race. If they had behaved themselves, then the Minutemen would never have bothered to fight them, and the Railroad wouldn't even exist. The Minutemen are the goody two shoes of the story line, but with the obvious caveat that they are perhaps too idealistic to do what needs to be done. Deciding to blow up the Institute is the turning point in the Minutemens' growth narrative, where they stop being boy scouts and start being soldiers. I'm sure they'd have loved if everyone got to live and benefit from the technology of the Institute, but blowing up the reactor was realistically the only way they were going to win that fight.

"Easy living this ain't." -- person in easily the most luxurious settlement in the commonwealth "AD VICTORIAM!!!" -- Danse, after the Brotherhood tries to kill him. "Can't talk right now." -- Guy I am not talking to, who I have never talked to, and who I have no intention of ever talking to.

... already have a working fusion reactor? Presumably lack of material resources. They are limited primarily to recycling things already found within the Institute's facilities. ... use conventional robots like protectrons and assaultrons? Why would they? Protectrons and assaultrons are just remnants from an old and outdated society. They're great to have if there happens to be one lying around, but there's no sense trying to reverse engineer one if you already have Synths. ... have cars or vertibirds? Not a lot of uses for a helicopter underground. ... talk to the enclave? Until the development of the coursers (who remain few and far between) the institute had very limited self-defense capability, and relied entirely on secrecy to ensure that whatever violence went on above ground did not reach them. They probably are too confined within their own sphere to even be able to detect the Enclave, but if they did, they would almost certainly see it as an unnecessary risk to approach them. ... claim a chunk of the surface commonwealth and put up a wall around it? Again. Secrecy. They don't need a surface settlement to survive, and building one would only advertise their existence to potential threats. ... do something for humanity like cure the mutants or wipe out feral ghouls? 1) They don't care. The surface is dead to them and frankly, it's probably in their best interest to remain detached. They barely have the resources to sustain their own advancement, let alone try to fix a planet that's so thoroughly destroyed.

The player character experiences literally the exact same trauma, word for word, move for move, regardless of whether you click on the dude or the chick. The only difference is that one has a law background and the other has a military background, which says next to nothing about their personality or how they would respond to the loss of their spouse and child. Honestly the fact that you assume the dude is gonna get violent and start killing everything in sight, and the chick is gonna be understanding and want to help everybody... sounds kinda sexist, dawg.

I like him, but I can definitely see why other people hate him, with his obnoxious shatneresque shouting and the blind conviction in his own delusions. There's also the fact that Danse's behaviour is completely broken after Blind Betrayal--almost like Bethesda didn't anticipate anybody actually liking Danse enough to NOT kill him, so they didn't bother coding new behaviour for that eventuality. And honestly... bigots in general in this game. I'm not sure if Bethesda read their audience wrong or if they were too lazy to update the lore, but I feel like they expect us to be a lot more okay with the mass killing of sentient beings than most people after 2015 actually are... But yaknowwhat.... I like Robocop. Yeah he was definitely dropped on his head as a kid, but you know, he's doing his best despite having a brain the size of a caper. Sometimes you just have to pat him on his head and say 'ok sweetie,' but he's so cute when he struggles to comprehend the most basic of things. But he usually just goes along with what smarter people tell him, which is great when I'm the 'smarter person' in question. Blind Betrayal got me good, though. The first time I played through that was the first time in my life that I've been so wrapped up in a game's storyline that I got like... actually upset. And I had to take a few minutes after to just walk around the commonwealth, look at the stars, think about thing. Somewhere between,"Dammit Danse I told you they weren't your family" and "Dammit Brotherhood you were supposed to be his family," but also I was genuinely pissed that Bethesda didn't give us the option to shoot Maxon in the face because nobody hurts my puppy. But I gotta tell ya, Blind Betrayal is what makes Danse actually good as a character. He's a chronic follower who'll do anything--hell, he'll believe anything--just to be part of a group... only his group is a cult. And then we watch that cult chew him up and spit him out. I think we as members of a society don't tend to appreciate just how damaging it can be for someone to get in with the wrong crowd, and dangerous isolation and insecurity can be for the human psyche. On one hand, we need to hold people individually accountable for the choices they make, but when people behave so *predictably* under certain circumstances, to the point of seeming as though they're brainwashed, it kind of makes you wonder how much agency people actually have. So that's what I like about Danse. He helps me engage my emotions when I think about human issues, so that I'm able to understand what actually goes on in peoples' heads when they make these horrible choices. And I tell ya, these fast few years I have dealt with a lot of people like him, who will say and think literally anything to toe the line with their political party, it's nuts. Post Blind-Betrayal Robocop is literally broken. Like... maybe he's so traumatized that he's receded into an imaginary reality where shouting "Ad Victoriam" for no reason still makes sense. But yeah, probably not. There is a mod that removes that dialogue and also makes him call you "hun" all the time, which is a win-win situation for me. \

I have like 400 hours building settlements in Fallout, and maybe 60 hours just playing the game regularly. I like to build stuff.

Sorry, not .esp. I meant to say the .json file. I can't load the blueprint from a screenshot file.

The base game already does allow you to sleep in nearly any bed? If it doesn't, then one of your mods might be causing it. If the beds and sleeping bags scattered liberally around the vanilla world aren't enough, you can also download Campsite or Conquest, both of which allow you to build campsites and sleep just about anywhere. https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/26145/ Wait Anywhere allows you to wait anywhere. I don't really find it necessary because there are places to sit just about everywhere, but there you have it. https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/1486/? Loot Overhaul reduces loot spam and it hand-places good loot (weapons, ammo, stimpacks, etc) in more secure/hidden locations so that you have to actually search to find it, but the handplacing is done in such a way that common sense will usually lead you in the right direction. If you use that mod, I don't think you'll have much of a problem with having too much money, since you're more likely to end up paying for your supplies. Also remember not to invest any points into your Luck spec, as that's the one that causes you to find more caps laying around. https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/21986 Melee World dramatically reduces the number of guns in the world. https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/10997/ This is the needs mod I use. It has hunger, thirst, and exhaustion. https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/29171 Adds hygiene needs as well.

Honestly at this point I've given up almost entirely on combat in Fallout 4. I abuse cheat weapons and console commands so that I can oneshot everything and get combat over as quickly as possible. I'm looking at some "deadlier combat" type mods (I am about to try Better Locational Damage, thanks for the suggestion) that will hopefully make at least a ranged stealth play-through worthwhile. Otherwise, if I want good combat, I play a pvp shooter. As Calahad says, it's more about common sense and playability than it is about achieving the utmost realism. Bullets should kill or incapacitate people--including you--because otherwise fights drag on forever, the stakes for getting shot are exceedingly low, and combat starts feeling more like a chore than a challenge. Beside that, I'd like to see less enemy spam overall. I mean. Yes it is ridiculous that 90% of the commonwealth's population is raiders. But also: Even if combat in this game was fun and engaging, I feel like Fallout games should offer a lot more than just walking ten steps, shooting raiders, walking ten steps, shooting mutants, ad infinitum. Especially when virtually every quest already follows the "go there and shoot them" format. It really does feel like they're trying to compensate for the lack of anything more substantial to do.

Sure dawg. Post up a link to the .esp.

I too am baffled that Bethesda doesn't focus more on DLC production, and in particular, DLC that adds new worlds and quests. I mean. They sell. They're what fans want. And in terms of game developement, they're relatively easy to make--they already have the engine, the ck, most of the assets, etc on hand. I can understand why Bethesda has chosen to focus on selling those pointless little workshop DLCs and whatever minimalist garbage they've been putting through Creation Club. It's astonishingly low-effort (I mean, literally, some of the CC offerings are a fifteen minute project) so that even if their sales are awful they still turn a profit. But Fallout 76? That wasn't easy to make like the workshop DLCs are. It doesn't have nearly as much of a guaranteed audience as the quest DLCs do. I mean, probably the money guys (let's be real: The money guys make the decisions for Bethesda) are banking on the online community potentially generating a lot of money for microtransactions. But they're still gambling on people a) wanting to play this game, b) being willing to play $60 to play it and c) enjoying it enough to want to throw even more money at microtransactions. That's a lot of gambling. If Fallout 76 is just a money-grab, it's a very ill-advised, inefficient money-grab from a company that has a track record of being very good at taking our money. Which is weird. Not impossible, but weird. So I'm sort of halfway willing to believe Todd Howard when he says that the developers actually wanted to have a go at making an online multiplayer set in their universe. I mean. If we look at Bethesda's strengths from a design standpoint: Worldbuilding. Their failings: Storytelling, dialogue. So: They've made a game that preserves this magnificent world they've built but instead of having Bethesda in charge of crafting NPCs and telling stories (which they're bad at) they've given us this online system where players are the NPCs and their actions are the story. Which sounds really good. In practise it's probably going to be an awful, toxic, frustrating mess. But it sounds good. And Bethesda's got a stupid amount of money to spend on stupid things if they want to. It's not how I would spend that money. I would want them to stick to their tried-and-true formula and keep giving us more of what we want (that is, worlds and quests in a open world, singleplayer RPG format.) But I think the pressure these days is for super big, successful, iconic franchises is to expand *outward* and cover a lot of different platforms and formats--especially since at this point it's apparent that people are buying Fallout and TES games as much for the IP as they are for the gameplay. Anyway, to answer OP: Pros: -- It's something different. -- It isn't impacting the release of single-player TES, Fallout, and Starfield games. Cons -- Probably trash. -- If it isn't trash, its success may impact the release of single-player TES, Fallout, and Starfield games.