WrathOfDeadguy

I guess I didn't read the 2.1 patch notes thoroughly enough, because this whole mechanic took me by surprise, and not in a good way. There I was, cruising around town in Rattler, when suddenly I'm in combat- without having collided with or shot at anyone- and there are three cars full of gangoons ramming into me that weren't there a second ago. Did we not, a couple patches ago, get a rework of the police alert system to stop them from just popping into existence out of thin air whenever you tick them off? Who thought it would be a good idea to get rid of that bad mechanic, only to replace it with the exact same bad mechanic, just with gangs instead of cops? I mean, I understand the reason the attacks happen; it makes sense for the gangs to try to take revenge if V messes with them enough... but this is just silly. They spawn in right on top of you, with their guns already firing, and the game doesn't even give you enough of a warning to take some evasive action before they've smashed up whatever car you're driving. Make enough of the gangs mad, and you literally cannot drive from one map zone to the next without getting your car wrecked, wasting a bunch of ammo, and then having to get rid of the police on top of that because for some reason the game doesn't always consider it self-defense to kill the gangers who spawned into the game world just to play demolition derby with you. All CDPR had to do was have the fixer associated with that gang's turf text you a heads-up that they've put a hit out on you, give a bit of in-game lead time to prepare, and if your rep is high enough with the fixer maybe even show the hit squad's location on the minimap so you know where they're coming at you from- or hell, provide a way to pay off the gang to stop the attacks- but no, instead they spawn out of nowhere, just like the badges used to, and no matter how many of them you kill, there will always be more. This doesn't feel like an organic part of the world. If I wanted to be waylaid by random battles without warning while tooling around the overworld map, I'd go play a JRPG. I'd be perfectly happy to not have this garbage mechanic in my game, so that I can have a peaceful drive around the city just like I used to, without having to respawn my car every couple minutes after the latest round of mooks in minivans stoved in the tailgate and shot all the windows out again. I doubt I'm alone in wanting that.

For those who don't want to muddle through a cryptic puzzle in this non-puzzle game, but still want to obtain the truck through gameplay, there's a shortcut around the madness that involves (I kid you not) using a computer, turning an arcade cabinet on and back off again, and then standing on a mattress in the middle of nowhere until the game just gives the truck to you. Takes ~5 minutes, max, including travel time to the two locations. I tested this method out for myself last night, using that video as a guide. It's completely nonsensical (probably makes more sense with the rest of the puzzle as context), but it does work and it's easy enough to memorize for future playthroughs.

In the category of quality-of-life-enhancements... is it possible to surgically remove the news broadcasts from Night City's radio stations? I mean, it would be one thing if the news clips were their own thing- in between music tracks, or on their own dedicated station. Instead, they cut into the middle of songs, and it seems to always be in the middle of a song you like! And it's never news about in-game events, either; it's the same canned repeat stories, over and over. There you are, banging your head in time with "Never Fade Away," when *dooo dee dee doo daa dee dee dooooo!!!!!* Auuugh! Not again! Infuriating. The request is simple: get rid of them. Turn off the news. Move it to its own dedicated news channel, or just plain eliminate it from the rotation, permanently, so that the music stations can do what they do uninterrupted, and V can cruise around the city to her jam. That's it!

So, you've played through the game as Nomad V- and a Nomad's most important possession is their wheels- but there you are, ready to head out into the unknown with your new family... and your ride is nowhere in sight! How could this be?! TL;DR- The request is simply this: a mod which places that one vehicle in the camp, near the tent with the Basilisk, at the end of the game, somehow. That's it. Just the one. If possible, swap one of the vehicles driving out of camp with it as well, but that's not absolutely necessary if it's too much trouble. Player-selectable in-game if possible, but swappable files are fine too (really, just one file for the Rattler is also cool; it's the only set of wheels V really needs out there in the desert anyway). --------- But, you say, maybe V left her favorite ride with the rest of the 'Caldos, wherever they're holed up. Maybe the clan already picked up every car, truck, van, bike, and... whatever the heck kind of cheap go-cart the MaiMai is... V acquired throughout her adventures in and around Night City- but that's kind of a cop-out, though, ain't it? V might've caught a lift to the Basilisk staging camp with Panam, sure... but there's no way she'd have handed the keys to her favorite ride to anyone but her most trusted chooms, and they're all there with the tank! If you're anything like me, there's one particular ride you got way too attached to, ripping around the streets of Night City, kicking up dust out in the Badlands- it was your constant companion everywhere you went! It's the car (or whatever) you really wish you could've gone for a drive in with your Output, but the game didn't let you, because of course it didn't (but that's another request for another time). It was the first thing you tried to summon when you needed to be somewhere, and if the game screwed up and drove it over a landmine, or clipped it through a random Militech truck, launched it into orbit, turned it into a submarine, or sped away down the wrong street on its way to V, you fumed and cursed and flames shot out your ears until the game let you spawn it clean again. For me, it was that plucky beater that takes a lickin' and keeps on tickin', V's very own Nomad hotrod, the off-roading hatchback held together by duct tape, zipties, and prayers, the one and only "Rattler." After V got her hands back on that car, she'd never go anywhere without it by choice. Certainly not off to a whole new life with a whole new family. She'd have left the Basilisk in Night City before letting go of her bullet-ridden baby again! But maybe for you it was that reliable old Hella EC-D V spent her early days in Night City cruising around in doing mercwork with Jackie. Maybe it was Jackie's Arch. Maybe your classy cabbie buddy, Delamain. Maybe it was Johnny's iconic Porsche 911. Maybe Claire's Beast was the monster truck of your dreams. Maybe it was the V-Tech that CDPR put so much advertising work into hyping up, then hid away behind an unmarked junk quest to troll us. Maybe it was even the MaiMai (you lunatic). One way or another, though, no matter which set of wheels your V put the most mileage on- you just know that V would never delta from that town without it. That ride- whichever it may be (but it's definitely the Rattler, right?)- really should be there at the end as you ride off into the sunset. Forgetting that ride would be like leaving Judy behind, and who'd be gonk enough to do that?

Siding with the Minutemen gives you the most latitude in who to kill or spare. You can have the minutemen take down the BoS if you want. All it requires is that you be hostile towards the BoS; then you can talk to Preston about dealing with them. Same thing with the Institute- once hostile, the Minutemen will help you kill them if you ask them to. The Minutemen will, on the other hand, coexist peacefully with anyone you're not hostile towards. I don't believe there's any way to have the Minutemen destroy the Railroad (though I could be wrong about that; I honestly haven't tried it)- but there'd be no reason for them to. The Minutemen exist to protect the Commonwealth from threats to you and your allies in the Commonwealth, and if you ally with the Institute or BoS they will have you destroy the Railroad anyway, so there's no need for the Minutemen to step in. You can finish the main quest and 'beat' the game with three factions intact by destroying the Institute with the Minutemen and leaving the BoS alone (since you won't be required to kill them if you never make them hostile).

If I had to hazard a guess, it's because all of the characters who were actually interested in helping people are either dead or otherwise conspicuously missing (Elder Lyons and Sarah both died, who knows what happened to Cross, Rothschild, etc). They basically just replaced the whole faction with all new characters except for Maxson, who was just a kid in Fallout 3 and apparently took a left turn onto Crazy Street between the games. Maxson is a dictator and a fanatic, and he's built up a cult of personality around himself such that his people almost to a one will do anything he tells them to without question. I get a strong impression that any remaining Brotherhood members who disagreed with his hard-line agenda were made to disappear. End result... they're basically the Enclave, except they call their leader "Elder" instead of "President" and are slightly less murderstabby towards ordinary wastelanders (but only if they're human).

In order to get to that point, you also have to help the Brotherhood destroy the Railroad (since that quest occurs before the Brotherhood side of Mass Fusion). If you'd rather not do that, you can manually trigger the Minuteman endgame questline at any time by killing somebody at the Institute (thereby making them hostile and opening up the necessary conversation with Preston). Once the Institute is hostile, you should be presented with the same option to retrieve a copy of the data for Sturges regardless of who has it at that point- it should be as simple as passing a persuasion check on whoever you first gave the holotape to.

Also, be careful about doing the Brotherhood and Railroad quests, because some of the quests that turn them hostile to each other come up rather abruptly and don't have an obvious "are you sure you want to do this?" flag or a "warn the targeted faction" option like the Institute quests give you. If you even have a conversation with the person giving that stage of the questline, it switches your allegiances and fails all of your quests for the other faction immediately (even if you haven't fired a shot against them yet). If you want the Brotherhood and the Railroad to remain friendly with each other, you cannot complete the Railroad's "Underground Undercover" quest (since one of your Institute jobs will conflict with the Brotherhood's interests- "Mass Fusion" will turn them hostile the moment you step into the Relay to go to the quest location), and you have to stop taking Brotherhood quests after completing "Blind Betrayal" (note: you will have to avoid the Prydwen's captain if you finish that quest, because he will initiate the conversation for the next quest, "Tactical Thinking," which is a direct assault on the Railroad with no option to decline). It is safer just to not complete "Blind Betrayal" as you will still be able to access the Prydwen without worrying about running into the wrong NPC. Your best bet if you want to fully experience all of the faction questlines is to create a save immediately after completing "Institutionalized" because that is where the branches first diverge. In order to initiate the Minuteman endgame, you need to take matters into your own hands and start killing Institute NPCs while inside the Institute (killing their surface forces won't do the trick). Until then, the required conversation with Preston won't be available.

The two I'd consider most critical to improving my gameplay experience would be a keychain mod, and a droppable quest items mod. Third place would go to having all holotapes and notes sorted back to the Data tab as in past games rather than the inventory. After that, a UI overhaul restoring as much as possible of the Fallout 3 / New Vegas Pipboy interface. And in no particular order: - All clothing modifiable, because how does it make sense that I can up-armor the slinky cocktail dresses but not a three-piece suit or an ordinary set of clothes? - Power armor using partially drained fusion cores before switching to filled ones. - .223/5.56 pistol. You know which one I mean. - Settlement attacks disabled when defense value exceeds resources present at settlement. - Enemies no longer have infinite grenades and have a cooldown between throws to prevent 'nade spam. - Fusion core scarcity and value increased, and value proportional to charge level. - Option to scrap all junk items within Pipboy inventory management. - Ability to easily transfer crafting resources from one settlement to another ('hire a caravan' would be a great immersive implementation). - Dialogue resets if interrupted (by an enemy attack or because the NPC started talking to you as you passed by them and out of 'conversation range') rather than skipping to the next line. - Multiple companions. - Better companion interface. - General mouse-friendliness tweaks. - Current inventory weight displayed with decimal. - Power armor pieces remain equipped to frame when broken, but provide no protection. - Revamped armors from the other games (Merc sets from Fo3/NV, classic Fallout styled leather armor, etc) - More speakable names for Codsworth. - Add 'point of no return' warning to all quests that will turn major factions hostile (presently this warning seems to be given only for the Brotherhood during the Institute questline). - Launcher for artillery smoke grenades (let's face it, arty is more helpful the farther away you can target it from). - Level requirements for skill-gate perks (lockpick, weapon damage, crafting) softened or removed. - Ability to repair, patch, or fully restore the Sanctuary Hills houses. - Assignable defensive tactics for settlers. - Ability to delegate settlement defense to squads of Minutemen from nearby positions. - More radio stations with more early rock. - People in large settlements become hostile if you Relay into the middle of town. ...and the list goes on.

Any muzzle mod can be removed without a replacement component. Otherwise, building the standard component is the only way to swap out mods... but doing that is cheaper than building the more advanced mod if you've found one on an existing piece of equipment (and can give you access to mods that you don't have the perks to create yourself).

The Minutemen are, I believe, the only faction that no other faction will ask you to help them wipe out. The Institute will want you to destroy the Railroad and the Brotherhood, the Railroad will have you destroy the Brotherhood and the Institute, and the Brotherhood will have you destroy the Railroad and the Institute... but nobody will ask you to betray the Minutemen. The Minutemen, on the other hand, can help you destroy the Institute and the Brotherhood... although you have to betray them in one way or another before you get those quests. If you betray the Institute or Brotherhood while working for them, or otherwise become hostile to them, you can talk to Preston and he'll tell you how you can use the Minutemen to defeat either or both of those factions (you have to do a bit of settlement building before they become strong enough to go to war). So... the Minutemen and Railroad will coexist with each other without any possible conflict (the Minutemen will never offer a quest to destroy the Railroad even if you are hostile to the Railroad), and the Minutemen can coexist with any other faction as long as you are not yourself hostile to that faction. If you side with the Institute, Railroad, or Brotherhood, sooner or later you'll be required to get your murder on for every other major faction except the Minutemen. I think this may be because the Minutemen aren't a factor in the game unless you take an active role in rebuilding them (since you are the leader of the Minutemen, their allegiances are yours, whereas the other three factions have their own established agendas before you even meet them)- it is entirely possible to finish the game without doing a single one of their quests after you fight off the raiders attacking Preston's group, resulting in a Commonwealth where the faction has a membership of one (Preston) and can't possibly be a threat to anybody. *edit*- In order to 'finish' the game and get the end cutscene, you have to either finish the Institute's questline or destroy the Institute, so although you can play the diplomat by siding with the Minutemen, you will eventually have to betray the Institute if you want to get the achievement for beating the game as that faction. You can, however, destroy the Institute without becoming hostile to either the Railroad or the Brotherhood, making the Minutemen ending potentially the 'cleanest' victory condition (having only destroyed one faction rather than two, as in every other faction's endings). So, to answer your question, yes, you can beat the game while preserving three of the four factions, but you can't do it unless you sacrifice the Institute.

Which weapons or armor pieces I pick up is more of a weight/value/desirability judgment based on level and scarcity. Some items that are worth picking up earlier on (mostly low-tier weapons and armor bits) suffer from a total loss of value once you start running into higher-tier loot drops and once you start needing more crafting resources. At about level 20 I no longer picked up pipe weapons or leather armors to sell because they just weren't worth it anymore. By level 30 I'd completely stopped picking up any weapons or armor unless something had a mod on it that I wanted to transfer to another item, or if I got a legendary drop- instead, I just took the ammo and drugs off dead baddies and filled the rest of my inventory up with crafting resources. I kept doing that until about level 40, after which I stopped picking up crafting loot as well (I had my favorite weapons and armor fully modded, and all the settlements I actually cared about were well established) and only picked up ammo, drugs, and special named items (because even legendary drops weren't anything special by then).

A mod (for Oblivion) that became a feature in Fallout 3, carried over to New Vegas and Skyrim, that Bethesda somehow completely forgot to put in Fallout 4: A keychain. Seriously, I have so many keys and logs and other crap cluttering up my inventory it's not even funny. Between these and the holotapes, which should also be in their own submenu of the radio tab (as they were in Fo3 and NV) and not in the inventory tab at all, and the stacks and stacks of "use it once, keep it forever" quest items that are stuck in my inventory almost 80 hours into the game, I can't find a bloody thing in there! Which brings me to the second mod I'd like to see come back: Droppable quest items.

It has been bothering me to no end that every time my armor runs out of juice, the game immediately loads up a 100% full power core to replace it. This has resulted in an ever-growing number of cores in the 70%, 80%, or 90% range cluttering up my inventory because they don't stack with the full ones and won't get used until... well, never, because the game would rather make me run through all of the full ones first and they're not exactly rare. I could sell them off, but I would much rather have the game prioritize these partially-depleted cores over the full ones and just not have them cluttering up my inventory. Alternately, I'd like to see cores just not get automatically replaced at all, so that I'd have to get out of my armor and slot a new one in by hand- making power consumption a feature that adds tactical depth to the game rather than just being another throwaway resource that I hoard so I'll never run out.

The one that I miss, more than any other, is the .223 pistol. I was completely psyched when it showed up again in New Vegas- never went anywhere without it. If there was just one Fallout game where using Deckard's famous gun form Blade Runner would be entirely appropriate, it would be this one, but... sadly...