Automatron what is the point of the settlement?

[dragonslayer2k12]

What am I supposed to do after beating this DLC and getting this settlement? People can't live there, bunch of creepy robo brain workers endlessly working away for nothing there. I let the mechanist live so they sleep in the back and do nothing at all. If I scrap all the stairways I can't replace them with new ish parts from snap n build well maybe I can but I can't get the snap n build stuff to line up with the walkways and stuff that are already there.

 

I guess I could store power armor there but the place is just too dam creepy for me to bother with other than asking the mechanist where the next rogue robot is. Great way to farm parts and sometimes rust devlis stuff. The whole way this DLC played out was lame though, should have been some kind of self destruct to the place as part of the security protocol and then you have to get out of there but basically it doesn't go off until you leave. The BoS members could have commented that someone destroyed that place and you get to say you did it in dialogue with one of them later on.

 

Jezebel could have turned on you or just left wherever she was rebuilt instead of sticking around and being a jerk when talked to.

[CyrusAmell]

The location is suppose to serve as a player's secret lair for playing out their fantasy of being a super hero, in this case the Mechanist instead of Batman (or maybe the Silver Shroud). I have not myself tried to build anything there, but you could probably add enough lights to make the place look brighter. I don't know why the staircases can be destroyed however, it does not seem very productive.

 

The location serves as an indoor version of the Boston Airport, just a pad for spare companions and whatnot. Otherwise not much point to it. It would have been needed if the player had not other place to place his robot creation station due to having met the max build limit in all other settlements (in theory but never really).

 

Not much point to Jezebel, I left her manning a guard post in Red Rocket Station and just tried to forget about her. I like that we get to keep the place, whichever faction the player champions in the main game can probably use the factory to make more robots. I know the Minutemen desperately need some kind of backup, the Brotherhood occasionally uses robots and I am sure the Institute could find some use for the facilities. The Railroad wouldn't care much for such, beyond P.A.M most robots are unsuitable for espionage work - though if they have to man outposts in the Wasteland they might appreciate a few new robots and maybe use the facility itself as a Railroad base.

Edited May 15, 2016 by CyrusAmell

[dragonslayer2k12]

The whole atmosphere of the place is supposed to imply horror movie kind of feelings and then the terminal logs are full of gross stuff it reminds me of doom with all those bodies and brains and production line everywhere.

 

What happens if you show up dressed as the shroud? I never tried that yet maybe the mechanist has different dialogue for that?

 

If you read the terminal logs there was one brain from a killer that when interviewed it threatened to kill everyone in there if it ever found a way. That brain should have been stuck in some unique robot body and became the mechanist. After killing it then loot the clothes from it take all the stuff and run into a self destruct plot device.

 

I don't really have any desire to return to the location except to farm robot parts and rust devil stuff. The idea of the mechanist staying there is dumb too they should have at least just let the person go away never to be seen again and some terminal gives the radiant quests out or the mechanist could have ended up working with that railroad doctor in goodneighbor later on.

[Moraelin]

What happens is that you get dialogue options that are in-character as the Silver Shroud, and, funnily enough, the Mechanist addresses you as if you REALLY WERE the Silver Shroud. It's like a conversation between two idiots who can't distinguish reality from fantasy. I.e., slapstick funny, that's what it is. You should try it.

 

NB, it only works if you don't wear Power Armour, obviously. Otherwise nobody knows WTH you're wearing.

 

As a tangent, if you walk around dressed as the Silver Shroud, you also get to meet some idiot who plays Manta Man around the Commonwealth. Rather incredibly inefficiently, since he goes unarmed and isn't particularly strong or resilient.

 

EDIT: as for who gives you radiant quests, nah, they didn't really need the Mechanist there. If you kill the Mechanist, you can get the same quests from Ada (I suspect she must still have the radar beacon or MSAT to locate those robots.) In fact, even more conveniently, since you can get them in the field. Kill a bot, turn and talk to Ada on the spot, get the next robot. If you're grinding robot parts, it's actually a lot more convenient, not the least because it saves you two loading screens. Anyway, I imagine that if the Mechanist were to go away, I see no reason why you couldn't still get the quests from Ada.

[CyrusAmell]

The DLC was only 10 US dollars. Unlike Wasteland Workshop, Automatron showed us new features and intertwined them into a narrative. However, it was not ended as well as it could have been.

 

My biggest problem with the radiant quests that Cruz gave was how little experience was given, only around 80 total. This is pretty bad since the Brotherhood of Steel radiant quests given at the Cambridge Police Station were 200-300 exp each and could be handed in at the same time. And I saw little need to farm new robot parts since 1) it is easy enough to make more and 2) there are already Rust Devil and Rogue Robot groups around the map that give spare parts when defeated.

 

Frankly I thought it a waste of a good character to just let the former Mechanist stay cooped up in that factory, as she would have made a decent companion.

Edited May 15, 2016 by CyrusAmell

[Merovign]

If you have enough resources you can make it a provisioning hub. Custom robots make pretty good (and resilient, and fast) provisioners.

 

It is very flawed as a settlement otherwise. I just pretend it's a shipping hub.

 

I'm very annoyed that there's so little follow-up with Cruz, but that's par for the course in FO4. I would have liked a little more interaction and story after the DLC MQ ends, other than rote radiant quests. Perhaps modders...

[Moraelin]

@CyrusAmell

Farming robot parts is the only way to get them if your intelligence is too low for the perks to make them yourself. Or if you're too low level and had better use for your perk points so far than grabbing robotics and whatnot.

 

Same as with the weapon parts, really. It's quite possible to go through the game with a build that never makes a new receiver or silencer, but just moves around parts from drops.

 

Edit: THAT said, I'll agree that I would have loved to run around in my Silver Shroud shadowed outfit, with the Mechanist in tow as a companion. If it keeps the tone of the dialogue down there as the silver shroud, it should be a barrel of laughs. Maybe get Manta Man on board too, and we could have our own Unstoppables :tongue:

[dragonslayer2k12]

The idea of the place becoming a shipping hub sounds interesting but I can't grow anything there and can't place any water pumps there so how do I turn it into a shipping hub?

 

Oh and I started finding parts for energy weapons that had X after the name where can I get more of those?

 

The eye bot pod it scrounges it controls the turrets and the spotlights, but when it spawns an eye bot I have to wait for it and when I follow the eye bot it goes on forever what the hell is this pod for again?

Edited May 16, 2016 by dragonslayer2k12

[mfree80286]

There's a little spot at the room on top of a stairwell that will allow water pumps; food, you'll just have to rely on other settlements (it will auto-distribute from food stored in other trade-connected workbenches).

 

I think the idea for the location is twofold... one, if you didn't kill the mechanist, they continue living there; two, as a robot production facility for the player... just outside the boundaries there's literal piles of robot parts and other resources for assembling bots, to send to other settlements for whatever purpose.

 

I'm actually starting to turn on to the idea of replacing my provisioners with amped-up robotic counterparts and purposely sending them on risky routes (like Slog to Finch Farm which passes Saugus, and another route I can't recall that would pass Gunner's Plaza) just to keep areas cleared of mobs automatically. I followed one test bot with robobrain treads on a trade run... I could barely keep up, and it actually went out of it's way to kill things. It actually lost me about 3/4 of the way through, and I was in tgm mode and sprinting constantly.

 

I wonder, actually, if the Mechanist armor elicits any other unusual dialogue... and not necessarily from me, but from a companion. Manta man though, just a distraction unless I missed something. Ran into him as Shroud and had a little convo, then just pat dialog with no recruitement options or anything else. Followed him and kept him out of trouble for a few minutes, nada.

 

For those who suffer stat zero bugs, the Lair is another FT-capable interior cell like Home Plate or RR HQ, useful to avoid tripping the bug by using them as waypoints.

 

My only issue with the place is that it's destined to constantly be gloomy.... no matter how many lights I place, it never seems to brighten up (FWIW, string lights seem to create the most light).

[ddavies10693]

Yeah I was confused by the ending as well. The robots keeping typing away as fast as they can, but do not actually accomplish anything, anywhere in the world. At the minimum I thought they would at least create randomly generated friendly robots to patrol random places around the world (because it is a robot factory essentially), but I really cannot find anything at all that this absolutely massive robot factory accomplishes.