Quit for 2 years and back and still ....

[jjb54]

Fallout 4 -

I was initially not impressed, when it was released. As I realized they put out a product that had really poor story line and character development.

Not to add, the fact they were all out of IMAGINATION, that they had to try ( failed ) in the ( Sim City ) attempt of "Settlements", for which they could not even semi-sorta-kinda get that right!

FALLOUT was never meant to be SIM CITY!

But I suffered, and yes at times it was suffering ... through it to get to the Quests, which also were slightly incomplete, if we are honest.

I got so fed up .. that I took a break ( 2 years ) from it and decided to come back and give it another try.

So I saved my BLUE PRINTS from the most excellent mod:

>> Transfer Settlements - Shareable Settlement Blueprints BY --- CDante

This mod made / makes a good part of the settlements "easier" to get through.

So current play, 2 years later, after a "few" hours and days of play, well ....

1 - I have a full proof settlement build.

... Turrets * LOTS OF THEM *

... Very High Walls. * ALL THE WAY AROUND THE SETTLEMENTS.

... Only 1 way in and out. * HEAVILY GUARDED AND I DO MEAN HEAVILY! *

... Settlers are armed with powerful hand weapons.

I think you get the picture? Only a fool would try to take these settlement s on and when one does stupid things, one gets stupid prizes. In this case Death or wish you would have died.

But I still get the annoying calls of RAIDERS - kidnapping - demanding food and so on. REALLY????

> They, Bethesda, did not know what they were doing. They did not even take into account, "What if they built a solid settlement?"

.... Then the "FOOD CRISIS" would have been IF / THEN .. turned *OFF*.

.... Then the "KIDNAPPINGS" would have been IF / THEN .. turned *OFF*.

Bethesda really did NOT have a clue what they were doing and successfully FAILED in this part.

> Then the so called "Bad Ass" Gunners. Seriously????

... The kids in FO 3 in Little Lamp Light have more balls and could take this idiots on and win!

... I mean when you shoot at a "Gunner" and they run crying, "Daddy!!" o..0

> Then you had a rehash of Fallout 3. Instead of Son looking for Dad, we have Dad/Mom looking for Son. o..0

... They really did run out of imagination and story ideas. Sad, very sad.

I mean here is an idea:

* Keep the Institute.

* Keep the Railroad.

* Keep the BoS.

* Keep the Minutemen.

But have our main Protagonist still be the "Hero" .. but NOT going after his / her son.

Have 3 Paths - Institute - Railroad - BoS or Minutemen.

Then actually have QUESTS / Adventures with them.

Basic plot ideas:

* Institute caused the failure in the vault, looking for a baby but failed. Then you go on a quest to find that "pure blood" and find out Synths are becoming self-aware. And help the Institute take over the Common Wealth!

* Railroad. You find Deacon and he actually has a Quest - Backstory to find his wife and child, first child from a human - synth relationship. Maybe a tie in with an Institute Quest. You help recruit and build escape exits for them at various boarder crossing and help set them up. You also find a bit more history that started in Fallout 3.

* BoS. You find out what happened to that young kid in FO 3 and how they 'found out' about the Institute? You also have a Quest to find out more about Danse and where he came from. Like Nicky V.

* Minutemen and how they got started and rebuild them with some Quests, like Mama Murphy and Preston Garvey might be related, but not known to them? Except maybe to Mama Murphy?? Find out help bring peace of mind, as can be, with the two that lost their son. The "handyman". Find out that maybe Mama Murphy's "the sight" is not just drug related and offers to help "see the future"?

* Strong and the "Milk of human kindness" and that being a full quest.

Then you have side quests to fully explore the history and such of: Finch - Summerville - Abernathy Farm - Graygardens - Sunshine Tidings Co-Op and The Slog and The Covenant.

There were PLENTY OF STORY LINES AND QUESTS waiting to be told and explored and Bethesda missed some GREAT opportunities to have a very HOT GAME!

But they made the Sandbox smaller - Quests incomplete and a whole lot of missed opportunities.

To further prove the point:

* I still have friends trying to play FO 76 and they are still to this day UPSET and NOT HAPPY. Some even bailed as CTD's and such still too much.

* I have some friends playing Starfield and the common line: Great graphics but no real story lines to sink your teeth into. You, apparently do get to build awesome ships.

Which makes me seriously nervous, IF I live to see it ... the follow-up to the Elder Scrolls Skyrim.

Bethesda *NEEDS* to find some new "blood" of people that have GREAT IMAGINATIONS IN STORY TELLING. Sadly like Hollywood - they are just doing "reboots" - "rehash" and well ....

** LET THE FLAME BEGIN! I can handle it, I'm not a "snowflake" or "cupcake". I've survived Cancer - Blood Clots and a whole lot more. I'm tough.

[363rdChemicalCompany]

There are mods where u cna turn off most ( or even all) radiant quests to include defend.

 

 

Once every blue moon I get lucky and get to watch some foolish mirelurks or raiders attack one of my fortified settlements just as I exit or enter and my armed to the teeth settlers ( leveled via better settlers mod) storming out lke blood thirsty savages to finish off whatever the turrets missed.

[fraquar]

Settlement metagame is a choice you the user make.

a) You can choose to avoid it entirely (which is what I do).

b) You can choose to embrace it wholeheartedly (and the annoyances that come with it).

c) You can mod the bejesus out of it to eliminate what you don't want.

 

The primary issue I had with the settlement metagame was how fast it was thrust on a new player.

I prefer Safe Houses, not settlements.

[fraquar]

You need to consider one thing though.

There is no such thing as a "solid settlement".

 

The more people you attract, the more resources you generate the bigger the target you become in a world where resources are scarce to begin with.

Sure, it might take some time but you will be raided and those doing the raiding will learn from their mistakes and come at you again and again. Because you have what they want.....

[RoNin1971]

You need to consider one thing though.

There is no such thing as a "solid settlement".

 

The more people you attract, the more resources you generate the bigger the target you become in a world where resources are scarce to begin with.

Sure, it might take some time but you will be raided and those doing the raiding will learn from their mistakes and come at you again and again. Because you have what they want.....

Its a game, not reality.

 

Just keep your defense value higher as people + water + food and you will hardly ever be raided. (& never lose)

They might come again, due to random timed triggers, but never learn.

[fraquar]

Hardly ever be raided vs getting slapped when they do raid - those are two completely different things.

This game will have enemies spawn WITHIN your perimeter, no matter how hardened you try to make that external perimeter (with guns facing out of course...).

Like I said, there is no "Bank Vault" defense you can set up in this game - which is what the OP was referencing.

Like you said, there are ways to reduce the number of incursions.

Edited October 14, 2023 by fraquar

[RoNin1971]

Well, actually my settlements are pretty much "Bank Vaults". (I did add: "& never lose" right?)

 

Trying to wall it off at the border, doesn't keep 'm out, as like you said, they also spawn inside.

...but not all. A lot DO spawn at the borders, so by walling it off, you slow them down or stop them completely, while the turrets cut them down.

 

You should put turrets from the center outwards, making sure they cover each spot with at least 2-3 turrets.

Put the turrets up high, to protect them from melee & make sure they have a good LoS.

 

Check where they spawn & turn that into a kill zone. As they will spawn there again and again.

Create choke points along their routes of attack too.

 

You might want to arm at least your guards & give 'm some armor.

 

Even on the rare occasion a settlement does get attacked, I don't need to interfere.

When I go there after they say stuff like "We showed them", instead of thanking me. (& there is no penalty for me not being there)

I do need to make repairs to my turrets every now and then, but that's it.

No dead settlers, no kidnappings, no lost resources (afaict).

[fraquar]

This is why I never bothered with the whole settlement metagame.

Who in their right mind is going to "settle" in a settlement with turrets every 10 feet, including in the very center of the settlement?

The correct terms is your are a prisoner in your own settlement - not a settler.

Ex. Are those turrets meant to keep them out, or keep me in???

I watched videos about 7 years ago of how people "defended" their settlements and lost interest. It's a meme.

Edited October 18, 2023 by fraquar

[xrayy]

i did exactly the same! fallout 4 was a frustrating experience in the beginning. i decided to skip two whole years before i tried this a game seriously.

in the meantime especially since 2020 and with the oblivion, fo3 and skyrim experience all fo4 parts run stable and i was able to configure this game exactly how i like it - including mods. this is the big strength of fo4 and sse!

the shooter experience is perfectly nice, settlements run manually configured with up to a max of 40 settlers. most are about 20 settler sized, including more than 40 settlements.

i do just a minimum to maintain them without a hassle.

with some nice mods and config this game looks really beautiful for a 2015 game. i consequently abstain from heavily automated and scripted mods due to bad experiences and unsolvable performance and stability incidents. since 2020 my game runs stable and is a lot of fun until today.

[lefttounge]

I've always loved Fallout 4, I've been loving it since it came out; especially the fact we have a talking protagonist. I know people complain and brood about that, but I don't care, many games like the Witcher, Mass Effect, and many others had a talking protagonist, even Cyberpunk 2077 has a talking protagonist, so you can't say that's a game killer for RPGs.

Yes the game has its flaws, and it's by no means Bethesda's greatest hit, but I like it better than fallout New Vegas.

I remember a time when FONV was mixed, but I loved it. I was like the only one that said it wasn't so bad. Then the Gen Z's grew up (that haven't even played fallout 3) and formed a cult around nv, now I absolutely despise nv. Honestly it's just the "cult-aspect" of the fanbase that makes me not like the game, the only thing I didn't really like about fonv, was the dark content (I'm sensitive about that stuff) and the camera angles, where my character takes up half the screen.

 

For Fallout 4, I mean I'm having a blast being barefoot and playing as Jill valentine, and have since transformed fallout 4 into this sprawling zombie apocalypse. I've gone from silent hill themed hellhole to Resident Evil themed greenhell, with a bunch of trees and overgrowth everywhere. Radio stations I can now literally listen to all my favorite 90s hits.

However fallout games always had this feeling of loneliness in game, what I mean by that is that too often you seem like you're the only person in the world in the game; barely any npcs, barely any creatures or even any deathclaws. And a vast nothingness. I don't know how I feel about that tbh XD

A part of me feels like that's amazing, and it's very serene, expressing the devastation of a fallout universe, fallout 3 had this (Fallout 3's vacant Captial wasteland almost brought me to tears when I experienced it in high school playing, truly an ahead of it's time game).

And another part of me feels like it's a massive immersion killer and makes fallout 4 often feel boring, like what's the point of being here, if nobody else is?  What is there to do? Anything useful or meaningful? Anything at all besides look for my son? Even companions don't help, because now we're both just wandering around bored. XD

 

Fallout New Vegas, didn't have that feeling whatsoever. You felt the beautiful presence of people everywhere you turned. This is nv's massive positives, it feels like a game, an RPG game. Not a walking scenery simulator. 

Another thing I found is that mod authors haven't really made any mods to make fallout 4 feel like it's a living world. Like in Skyrim, there is a massive ton of npc mods, where you can add in more things to say to npc, make anybody a follower, give them a ton of things to say, to make them feel fleshed out and breathing. One AMAZING mod is that one mod Family Planning, which allows you to have kids in the game, like Beeing female. That is AMAZING! It's a shame that your significant other is boring, and generic, and it really doesn't feel like I should care about getting that deep with fallout 4.

Here, fallout 4 doesn't have much of that. Everybody is so generic. That compared to the emptiness and I see where Bethesda was falling apart, this marks the downtrend in their quality, and I would consider Fallout 4 to be their last good game before they started not doing so good.

Edited December 7, 2023 by lefttounge