Populate Fallout 4

[StoicBlade69]

I would love to see a mod that populates Fallout 4 with random citizens. As it is, you have populated settlement.and then miles of empty road to the next town or settlement. It breaks the immersion for me that I never see random people walking around doing stuff. As a result, it makes it difficult to get into the game anymore. GTA V has people walking around and cars driving around, and the world feels more alive. Fallout 4 just feels so empty.

 

Is there anyway to create a mod that can create random non-player characters to just walk around Massachusetts, so that you can pass them on the street? That would be much more immersive.

[montky]

@stoicblade6-niner,

thanks for sharing a great discussion/concept thread!

my own mod-fu for FO4 is not great, though who knows what collaborations can happen?

 

Indeed, having different options for FO4 would be great.

anything that adds to the sandbox RPG elements would be cool!

maybe not more NPCs outright, just more options for the existing NPCs.

having freeholders and ghouls and robots and all,

with a 'history' that help or try and take out a hit on a contract,

it would add a lot to the end-game open-world part of the game.

 

some mods in the works, such as "the code",

"bounty boards"

"ambient sidequests" and

various new lands mods,

will make a lot of difference.

 

-----

//lore rant and side discussion ensues.

so, 2077 happened,

and the population went from ~10 billion,

to 30 million worldwide. (FOBible, FO1&2, FONV)

it is distributed sparsely across the geography.

 

IMHO,

200+ years later, attrition has mostly lowered that number again...

so that's why there are so few people left,

and hence, so many places look empty and well,

post apocalyptic.

 

it's one thing to have water and electricity...

It would be odd to see everything looking pre-war,

and having a huge population be in Boston Wasteland, say 600 000 or more...

 

------

It'll be great to hear what other folks think about all that -

both, lore, and different approaches to implementing more 'life' into the game.

[BlahBlahDEEBlahBlah]

I only vaguely remember it (as I only skimmed the first few lines of its description), but didn't Native Peoples of the Commonwealth (or something like that) do something along these lines?

 

It's been on my 'to check out' list for awhile...but have never gotten back to it.

[DrkSpde]

Would be neat to see people from outside my settlements visiting my vendors.

[MaesterAelix]

Honestly I'd love to see more wandering npc's as a result of a quest.

 

Free some folk from a raider camp? They now wander. Save a caravan from robots? They now are a proper caravan wandering the wastes.

 

Have a [faction of choice] quest where you help out a small potential settlement, and the road near it with a "wondering monster n nest" problem. When your done, boom, Nov population at the small bit of land and the road. BOS forward command, railroad safe house, institute field lab, or minuteman checkpoint/small bunker.

 

Brings npc's to the place because its a safer world now. Not just settlements, but the roads between them.

[AuroraMoon]

Honestly I'd love to see more wandering npc's as a result of a quest.

 

Free some folk from a raider camp? They now wander. Save a caravan from robots? They now are a proper caravan wandering the wastes.

 

Have a [faction of choice] quest where you help out a small potential settlement, and the road near it with a "wondering monster n nest" problem. When your done, boom, Nov population at the small bit of land and the road. BOS forward command, railroad safe house, institute field lab, or minuteman checkpoint/small bunker.

 

Brings npc's to the place because its a safer world now. Not just settlements, but the roads between them.

 

Honestly, this would be a good way to feel like your choices affected everyone in game.

Hell, anything you do in the main quest or side quests doesn't seem to affect anybody greatly. sided with the institute? Nothing happened. Helped out the minutemen? Nothing changed. Helped the brotherhood of steel instead? Nothing changes.

 

I guess that's one of the reasons why the endings and after-game wanderings feel so anti-climatic. The sandbox building stuff is the only reason why I play Fallout 4 to be honest.

[coolphoton1234]

I would love to see a mod that populates Fallout 4 with random citizens. As it is, you have populated settlement.and then miles of empty road to the next town or settlement. It breaks the immersion for me that I never see random people walking around doing stuff. As a result, it makes it difficult to get into the game anymore. GTA V has people walking around and cars driving around, and the world feels more alive. Fallout 4 just feels so empty.

 

Is there anyway to create a mod that can create random non-player characters to just walk around Massachusetts, so that you can pass them on the street? That would be much more immersiv

 

@stoicblade6-niner,

thanks for sharing a great discussion/concept thread!

my own mod-fu for FO4 is not great, though who knows what collaborations can happen?

 

Indeed, having different options for FO4 would be great.

anything that adds to the sandbox RPG elements would be cool!

maybe not more NPCs outright, just more options for the existing NPCs.

having freeholders and ghouls and robots and all,

with a 'history' that help or try and take out a hit on a contract,

it would add a lot to the end-game open-world part of the game.

 

some mods in the works, such as "the code",

"bounty boards"

"ambient sidequests" and

various new lands mods,

will make a lot of difference.

 

-----

//lore rant and side discussion ensues.

so, 2077 happened,

and the population went from ~10 billion,

to 30 million worldwide. (FOBible, FO1&2, FONV)

it is distributed sparsely across the geography.

 

IMHO,

200+ years later, attrition has mostly lowered that number again...

so that's why there are so few people left,

and hence, so many places look empty and well,

post apocalyptic.

 

it's one thing to have water and electricity...

It would be odd to see everything looking pre-war,

and having a huge population be in Boston Wasteland, say 600 000 or more...

 

------

It'll be great to hear what other folks think about all that -

both, lore, and different approaches to implementing more 'life' into the game.

@ the lore rant

 

The loses are one thing, but judging by several location's ghoul population, a fairly high percentage of people turned in to ghouls. The Commonwealth should have way more of them than they do. Aside from that... if I was running a place like Diamond City I would have instituted a mandatory breeding system for the sake of the species. With that draconian reduction in population humanity should have ether died or flourished. Instead it seems to have stagnated.

 

 

@ OP War of the Commonwealth adds a lot of NPC spawns and makes the CW feel more alive, but they are basically random, so you might get deathclaws between sanctuary and the RR or sentinal bots in several places in concord. both have happened to me on the lowest preset. Higher than that and you can have trouble reaching sanctuary (there are at least 3 spawn points right out side the vault).

[AGreatWeight]

Feral Outbreak adds lots of ferals to Boston City and just south of there, and helps alleviate the 'empty' feeling in the City whilst also keeping you on your toes because of just how many get added. You could also add the Vertical Spawns mod to increase enemy spawns on rooftops etc.

Both of these mods installed create some interesting encounters to break up what might otherwise feel monotonous.

Having random npc's (whether settlers, ghouls, gunners, raiders, ferals or super mutants) wandering the Commonwealth in small groups would really help make the place feel more alive (I actually though Bethesda would had implimented this as standard behaviour in the vanilla game)

Edited November 18, 2016 by AGreatWeight

[StoicBlade69]

Thanks to everybody for all of the replies and suggestions. I haven't played in a while and I'm thinking of starting a new game. I am definitely going to try out some of these suggestions.

[MissingMeshTV]

You might want to take a look at NPCs Travel. It adds a selection of various NPCs that show up all around the Commonwealth. Some you can interact and trade with, some just want to kill you. Some will even come and visit your settlements. It's pretty cool to see a random Adventurer and his dog wander into your settlement and take a seat at the bar. Also very cool to randomly run into them while you're out and about.

 

EDIT: Just remembered I had a BOS patrol wander through my Greygarden settlement this past weekend. Had never seem them do that before...just a really cool mod.