Goodbye Preston

[TheVampireDante]

 

I had 84 settlements in my last run-through and all the vanilla ones were expanded, with the Mechanist's Lair and Boston Airport's WorkShops unlocked, so, yeah, I kinda like building all over the place :smile:

 

Pretty sure you own Boston by that point and it's just one giant settlement with some unruly guests staying over.

[Moraelin]

As I was saying, more power to you. Just saying that not everyone plays the same way.

[JimmyRJump]

 

 

I had 84 settlements in my last run-through and all the vanilla ones were expanded, with the Mechanist's Lair and Boston Airport's WorkShops unlocked, so, yeah, I kinda like building all over the place :smile:

 

Pretty sure you own Boston by that point and it's just one giant settlement with some unruly guests staying over.

 

Was actually running into trouble with settlements overlapping one another, especially near Quincy with the Red Rocket station, the quarry and the town itself fighting over border ownership. Changing the quarry into the Vault 88 area also made the University Point settlement go bonkers because of the former's nearby exit...

[kevkiev]

 

Best bet .... do the museum, meet Preston in Sanctuary. Go do Tenpiness Bluff - go back to Preston and refuse to be general and never look back again and you have no quest in your pip-boy as far as I am aware :smile:

That way you can't move him from the Sanctuary.

 

 

Wait... what?! Oh dammit.

 

I didn't mind Preston for my first 2 playthroughs, but I grew to absolutely loathe him in my 3rd. I mean, words can't express my disdain. I'd take 10 Marcy Longs over 1 Preston Garvey. His "I can't go with you [to save the first settlement] because I have my hands full here" line just irked the hell out me this time. Hands full doing what exactly? Eating the food, drinking the water, and sleeping in the bed that someone else handed to you? And why exactly is a random stranger straight out of a 200-year deep freeze, and who's a bit busy trying to locate her kidnapped son no less, better suited to spend oodles of time to rebuild the Minuteman than a veteran of that organization with nothing else to do? And, given this complete abdication of responsibility to an organization the virtues of which he won't shut up about, why the hell do I have to report back to him every time I make a Minuteman move?! (I know the quests auto complete if you don't, but still... ) Not to mention that I think his voice acting sucks. I doubt Jon Gentry would have even made the cut to voice a Tales from the Commonwealth NPC, yet Bethesda gave him the nod to voice the most commonly-encountered NPC in the game.

 

Anyways, all rants aside, I'm still trying to figure out the best way to avoid him, and the Minutemen, for my next playthrough. Every which way seems to have some drawback. I thought just refusing to be General would be perfect, but I didn't know that meant you couldn't move him (or, presumably, the other 4 original settlers?) from Sanctuary. I know you can ignore him in Concord, or just avoid Concord altogether, but (from what I've read) those alternatives also have drawbacks. (Aside from it kinda sucking to have to avoid a location.) Forever open quests or, even (according to one youtube vid I saw), Preston magically appearing out of nowhere, 30 levels later and clear across the Commonwealth, to track you down. I'm totally okay with never being able to fully take the Castle (armory/ clean up all the Mirelurk remains) if that's what it takes, which is what I thought, before reading this post, was the only drawback of not becoming General.

 

The search for the most seamless way to avoid that jerk continues.... I'd rather do it without a mod but maybe that's not possible.

 

P.S. Maybe the OP is in fact the best method, but I'm a bit confused as to the advice to kill the 2 Tenpines settlers. Why not help them out, become General, and then move Preston? Or does that entail some down-the-line complication?

[TheGadget1945]

The thing Preston did - all the companions do it but maybe it's my imagination but he seemed to do it more - is to walk up to you and stick their face right into yours. I can't fathom how whoever wrote their AI thought this was a tolerable way for "people" to behave. It is completely infuriating regardless of their other qualities. I really wish there was a mod which allowed me to punch them in the face when they do it.

[kevkiev]

I would totally use a punch Preston mod! Dunno if you saw this thread but there at least might be a "tell Preston to sod off" type mod in the pipes. Don't know how to (or if you can) link a sound file, but you can check that thread for some hilarious player responses to Preston's "a settlement needs your help" quest giving.

[TheGadget1945]

I would totally use a punch Preston mod! Dunno if you saw this thread but there at least might be a "tell Preston to sod off" type mod in the pipes. Don't know how to (or if you can) link a sound file, but you can check that thread for some hilarious player responses to Preston's "a settlement needs your help" quest giving.

 

I would love that mod ! I was playing the game last night under the influence of a few glasses of wine and it occurred me that what we really need is a mod to get companions drunk. Seriously you take Cait to the Shamrock Taphouse and she comes out of it sober ? Or be able to command Cait to attack Preston !

[TheVampireDante]

I'd at least like the option of dealing with him when playing as a Nuka-world raider.

 

 

"I don't know who you are, but your timing's impeccable..."

*shoots Preston in the leg*

"Shut up. I'm just here for your stuff."

"B,but you..."

*Shoots him again*

"Anyone else want to ask something?"

[Thuggysmurf]

In defense of Preston:

 

And I'll start by confessing that in the past I've hated his character enough to make quests where you can imprison, extort, and/or execute him....

 

But, if you do the following:

 

1) Ignore him in Concord, or help him at first up until Sanctuary, then ignore him.

 

2) Go free all the settlements yourself. If you don't enjoy the tedious building process (I don't), just install Sim Settlements + Rise of the Commonwealth and set it on easy mode so they build themselves. The "All In One Settlement Solution" mod is helpful in this area as well to keep happiness up near 100%.

 

3) Install a mod like No Settlement Attacks so you don't have to deal with that "feature" of the game.

 

4) Once all the vanilla settlements are yours, put Preston in charge of one of them via Rise of the Commonwealth.

 

And enjoy... He's just a regular dude now who doesn't hound you about settlements, and have to say, I'm starting to like the guy.

 

If Bethesda had made Preston just a normal companion, and Settlements were something you discovered independently on your own, people wouldn't complain about Preston any more than they do MacCready.

[kevkiev]

 

A reasonable, but ultimately unconvincing defense of the most annoying NPC in the game :tongue:

Some good aggro-reduction points for sure but, still, I can't stand the guy. I'd rather not even have him in sight. Like, right from the beginning. Well, okay, I can tolerate him up until Sanctuary. But I'd like to move him asap after that.

 

And on that note, and especially regarding your first point, afaik the only way to be able to truly ignore him is to say no to becoming general. Otherwise you have to be constantly wary of his force greet. (I got caught unawares a couple times this playthrough.) But then, according to an earlier comment, he becomes permanently unmoveable (and, presumably, uncommandable generally - i.e. you couldn't even assign him to guard duty to reduce the force greet risk) unless and until you relent and become General.

 

Which raises a question for me. Does anyone know at what point he becomes commandable after you agree to be General? (I'm guessing after you take the Castle, but I'm not sure.) I know there's console commands I've used to make settlers like June Warwick commandable, but I'm leery about doing that for Preston since he's so embedded into the game's scripting. Actually, another question is: is it for sure that he's uncommandable (and therefor unmoveable) forever, if you refuse to be General?