Main Quest Improvement Idea

[warwalkerjack]

I have an idea about how to improve the main quest line and I have no idea how to make it work.

My biggest annoyance about the main quest of Fallout 4 is, how it creates a sense of urgency about saving your son, but then it immediately sidelines it with Preston, helping survivors, a power armor, a minigun, a freaking deathclaw, Minuteman and a ton of radiant settlement quests and settlement building by literally the second quest of the game. Game throws too much too quickly at the player. Somehow sole survivor quickly forgets all about saving his/her son and starts to have wacky adventures, before even trying to find him, in a way that just feels unnatural. Natural flow of the game is interrupted to wow to player early game. In no other proper Fallout game you encounter power armor, minigun or deathclaws before player even levels up for the first time, let alone obtaining those things and killing a deathclaw with it. It is terrible for new players, so much so that, even Fallout 3 handled this better.

My idea is to separate the quest "Out of Time" from "When Freedom Calls" completely by altering the end of the quest.

"Out of Time" would play the same until stage 55 (Investigate Concord), but when player reaches Concord, there are no raiders there and Museum of Freedom is not accessible. Instead, player finds a few settlers in Concord and asks about his son like Codsworth suggested. These NPC's point the player to Diamond city suggesting there might be people who might help player find his son, directly connecting "Out of Time" quest to "Jewel of the Commonwealth" quest. New NPC dialogue doesn't have to be much different than what we already have. Instead of Mama Murphy saying the line "The great, green jewel of the Commonwealth. Diamond City. The biggest settlement around." a named Concord settler can say it instead.

After player completes quest "Unlikely Valentine" player can finally receive the side quest "When Freedom Calls". Just like "Reunions" quest starting Brotherhood faction quest "Shadow of Steel". This way it wouldn't interrupt the natural flow of the main quest and ultimately doing the Minuteman quests would be up to the player, instead of it being forced upon the player. Doing the "When Freedom Calls" quest after this point, some time after player has a few quests and some play time under his/her belt would be a much better experience. Finding your first power armor hours into the game instead of the original minutes would make a lot more sense and be more rewarding. In turn, minigun would no longer have to be so weak, originally it was made to be seriously weak because it is literally one of the first weapons player finds.

I am not sure what way would be best for the player to receive the quest "When Freedom Calls" after completing "Unlikely Valentine", but worse case scenario near the conclusion of the quest, when player enters Diamond city again, player can overhear a conversation between the guards about people some people being chased by raiders and going towards Museum of Freedom in Concord, which can trigger the quest. Quest log could suggest it is worth checking out. Since it will be a side quest like the Brotherhood quest, again this wouldn't ruin the natural flow of the game. Player should have an opportunity to reject getting involved with the Minuteman altogether, just like the other factions. Though sadly FO4 doesn't have the option to be independent like New Vegas, so that does complicate things a bit.

After receiving the quest "When Freedom Calls" and reaching Concord, you find bunch of dead settlers and raiders there. Rest proceeds like it would originally.

Sorry for the wall of text. Thank you for reading.

Edited March 28, 2023 by warwalkerjack

[WardenAI]

 

I have an idea about how to improve the main quest line and I have no idea how to make it work.

My biggest annoyance about the main quest of Fallout 4 is, how it creates a sense of urgency about saving your son, but then it immediately sidelines it with Preston, helping survivors, a power armor, a minigun, a freaking deathclaw, Minuteman and a ton of radiant settlement quests and settlement building by literally the second quest of the game. Game throws too much too quickly at the player. Somehow sole survivor quickly forgets all about saving his/her son and starts to have wacky adventures, before even trying to find him, in a way that just feels unnatural. Natural flow of the game is interrupted to wow to player early game. In no other proper Fallout game you encounter power armor, minigun or deathclaws before player even levels up for the first time, let alone obtaining those things and killing a deathclaw with it. It is terrible for new players, so much so that, even Fallout 3 handled this better.

My idea is to separate the quest "Out of Time" from "When Freedom Calls" completely by altering the end of the quest.

 

"Out of Time" would play the same until stage 55 (Investigate Concord), but when player reaches Concord, there are no raiders there and Museum of Freedom is not accessible. Instead, player finds a few settlers in Concord and asks about his son like Codsworth suggested. These NPC's point the player to Diamond city suggesting there might be people who might help player find his son, directly connecting "Out of Time" quest to "Jewel of the Commonwealth" quest. New NPC dialogue doesn't have to be much different than what we already have. Instead of Mama Murphy saying the line "The great, green jewel of the Commonwealth. Diamond City. The biggest settlement around." a named Concord settler can say it instead.

After player completes quest "Unlikely Valentine" player can finally receive the side quest "When Freedom Calls". Just like "Reunions" quest starting Brotherhood faction quest "Shadow of Steel". This way it wouldn't interrupt the natural flow of the main quest and ultimately doing the Minuteman quests would be up to the player, instead of it being forced upon the player. Doing the "When Freedom Calls" quest after this point, some time after player has a few quests and some play time under his/her belt would be a much better experience. Finding your first power armor hours into the game instead of the original minutes would make a lot more sense and be more rewarding. In turn, minigun would no longer have to be so weak, originally it was made to be seriously weak because it is literally one of the first weapons player finds.

I am not sure what way would be best for the player to receive the quest "When Freedom Calls" after completing "Unlikely Valentine", but worse case scenario near the conclusion of the quest, when player enters Diamond city again, player can overhear a conversation between the guards about people some people being chased by raiders and going towards Museum of Freedom in Concord, which can trigger the quest. Quest log could suggest it is worth checking out. Since it will be a side quest like the Brotherhood quest, again this wouldn't ruin the natural flow of the game. Player should have an opportunity to reject getting involved with the Minuteman altogether, just like the other factions. Though sadly FO4 doesn't have the option to be independent like New Vegas, so that does complicate things a bit.

After receiving the quest "When Freedom Calls" and reaching Concord, you find bunch of dead settlers and raiders there. Rest proceeds like it would originally.

Sorry for the wall of text. Thank you for reading.

Agree alittle with you, things derail pretty quickly but you have to take into account that the Frozen tv dinner is actually in a whole new world with alot of dangers first displayed as giant cochroaches, and going alone or even with a dog is way to dangerous to even consider doing alone,

by meeting preston and a few useless survivors (except mama murphy which apperantly can wrestle a deathclaw with her 19 strength) you actually need friends to help you guide you in the world. Problem starts when Preston who should be knowing this since you told him is sending you out alone

to help settlers... This is where it really derails from being logical to insanity, there should be something to reflect on the coping with entering this world. Maybe actually have one of the Lee follow you helping and having her telling you all that she/he knows about the commonwealth so that you get abit

of meat on your bones before going to diamond city.

Raiders are non-sensical, there should be markers that makes them not attack you on sight, like if you are wearing their gear etc, which should flag you as enemy to Preston and settlers, but at the start it would be more logical if it was Gunners and not raiders since many Gunners where once minutemen.

Carla Trashcan should be removed from the game, she is nonsense and useless, first shop introduced should be at the Diner where you help the woman and her drugaddict son from being threatened.

Another thing that should be changed is the Brotherhood Questline, there should'nt be a radio to help at police station to get the Deep Range Transmitter if you have killed Kelogg and had Brotherhood entered the commonwealth, the whole point was that the range did'nt reach them to assist.

make them start by looking for the members instead.

If you rescue Valentine the House in diamond city should be a reward instead of just simply paying 2k caps.

Railroad really need some love, there is 0 things that tells me that they are a group I need to find to help me get my boy back, absolutley 0, Deacon really need to reach to you like after killing Kellogg or something.