Fallout 4 Catch-All 2.0

I'll agree with that. Far Harbor is great. You should definitely bring Nick with you to Far Harbor.

What am I saying? You should always bring Nick to anywhere you go. Nick is the best.

As someone who's just started Nuka World, just a warning that it's a bit of a nightmare on Survival mode. Definitely don't go in unprepared, although that's good policy in Survival mode at any point. You won't be able to return to the Commonwealth for a spell.

Spoiler:

Failing to get through that gauntlet gave me grey hairs, and that was with the perk that lets you ignore floor traps. Managed it in the end, but it was the hardest thing I've done in the game bar none.

beanman101283 wrote:

One great thing I've noticed, is that if you have the Mysterious Stranger perk, and Nick Valentine is your companion,

Spoiler:

Nick will make various comments when the Mysterious Stranger appears. I was totally not expecting it, but it's great that that at least one other character is aware of this ridiculous thing happening.

Spoiler:

If you look around Nick's office, he has a file on the Mysterious Stranger, which references his appearances through all the games.

Ok, I'm digging Fallout 4 so far. Quick question: Is the settlement building as cumbersome as I think it's going to be? How do the mods help? I heard the Sim Settlements mod might be the best if you want to see them develop but don't really want to get involved.

Aside from dealing with the endless quests to help out other settlements from a certain NPC, it's not that onerous. You can pretty much ignore it if you want. Sim Settlements is fantastic, though, and if you want to see the communities build themselves up (why wasn't this happening by default, Bethesda!?) it's definitely the way to go.

Settlement building can be almost entirely ignored if you don't like it. I didn't mind the endless quests that much, as they'd at least point me to a respawned raider or mutant base.

Sim Settlements main purpose is to make settlements more complicated (which is a good thing to me). Unmodded there was really no reason to make neat looking or spread out settlements as the requirements were very basic and it was fairly difficult to really customize the structures you built. With Sim Settlements there are additional requirements and a greater variety of ways to customize a settlement plus you don't have to manually do the customizing, you just pick the plot you want and it will build itself accordingly.

If you want the settlement to truly build itself up (place plots and structures by itself), you have to assign one of the companion NPCs to manage it, and have a premade plan for that settlement available (the mod comes with one for all but a few of the settlements). Your follower can't accompany you and manage the settlement at the same time though. Most plans also expect that nothing's been scrapped yet, so they don't work so well with mods like Spring Cleaning or Scrap Everything that let you scrap just about everything in a settlement. Even scrapping things the unmodded game lets you scrap can make some of it look weird. IIRC, the default Sanctuary plan expects all the destroyed houses to still be there, and they're scrappable without needing mods.
If you do get Sim Settlements, I'd recommend also getting Place Anywhere, which does pretty much just what it says. Unmodded you'll run into issues where the game says you can't place something somewhere despite there being no visible reason why you can't. It also lets you clip into the ground a bit, which is useful if you don't want to have to build foundations and stairs for everything.

My only real issue with Sim Settlements is that it is resource intensive. It will cause your game to crash or freeze if you have too many active plots in a settlement. It's fine for most settlements, but it's very easy to pass its limit in Sanctuary.
A minor issue is that the plots don't handle uneven terrain well at all, though there is a SS mod that adds "blocks" of terrain that plots will snap to.

I'm PS4, so never really dug into the mod scene. But I absolutely loved the settlement building. I would have nights of doing nothing but questing and hauling tons of junk and materials around, then other nights of nothing but using all that junk to build out different settlements. I would even fast travel to my different settlements and make sure that each of them were somewhat "specializing" based on their needs. Some locations were heavily defended outposts, while some were just large sprawling farms. It definitely never really impacted the main story, and it could be ignored completely, but I must have dumped at least 40 of my 150+ hours of play time into nothing but settlements.

Is there any reason to wait and do the DLC until after you finish the main quest? I’m level 10 and am considering going to Nuka-world but don’t really know if I should.

Level 10 seems a little low for Nuka World, if I remember correctly. It's been a year or so, but I think it's recommended you be in the 20s or so to go there.

Edit: A quick google shows the recommended level is 30, and that's when it will actually show up automatically via a mysterious radio transmission. Of course, you can always try it at 10, but the initial entrance area is kinda brutal and you can't leave to return to them main area of Boston.

10 seems low for Nuka world, but it's not tied into the main quest at all, so you can do it whenever you want to.

Yea, I just ran across it naturally.

Beanman, you're making me want to get back to this. I don't think I can face a third or maybe even fourth restart, but could continue my last save, even if what was going on is hazy.

It certainly grew on me over several hours, and I enjoyed doing quests the most. Maybe focus on that and see if it helps.

I'll have to give Sim Settlements are try. It's been on my radar for a while, but conceptually I never really knew what I wanted out of it, so I haven't tried it. At over 1500 hours invested in the game, I think I'm ready to try it out.........

Be sure to get the two "expansions" for it, Industrial Revolution and Rise of the Commonwealth. The first one adds more plot types (martial, recreational, and advanced industrial), and the second adds interior plots. There's also a mega pack that combines 6 of the more popular community made add-on packs.

The job assignments work more or less the same as vanilla Fallout does, so settlers assigned to a farm plot will "claim" non-plot plants if the plot doesn't have enough on it to reach 6 food. Settlers assigned to martial plots will also "claim" guard stations/towers to reach 6 defense if their plot gives less than 6. They should abandon the non-plot items as their plot increases in level and gives more of its resource.

Does Sim Settlement and its expansions effect the gameplay portion of Fallout 4 any? Or is it purely something that just looks cool (nothing wrong with that)?

It only affects settlement building. Instead of manually putting together buildings and decorating them you plunk down a 4x4 plot and assign a settler to it. Once assigned the settler will "build" it and slowly upgrade it according to a pre-designed plan. There's residential plots that will count as beds, and 5 types of job plots: Agricultural to generate food, industrial to generate water/electricity/resources, commercial to generate caps & function as traders, martial to add to defense, and recreational to increase happiness. It's a way to make a settlement feel a bit more realistic without having to spend hours and hours placing everything yourself. Without it I tended to just build a single bunkhouse with enough beds for everyone. With it everyone has an actual house of their own, though the second "expansion" adds interior plots which let you build what are essentially apartment buildings.
You can still manually build beds and job items if you want or if you can't fit a plot in where you want it.

https://www.nukadarkrum.com/
Please enjoy the apocalypse responsibly.
IMAGE(https://slack-imgs.com/?c=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nukadarkrum.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F08%2FNukaLogo.png)

There is a new mod out called The Train, Moving Train Settlement that has 3 hour quest on where you have to get to the front of the train, basically the fallout version of Snowpiercer.

OOO

I've been playing a crapload of this lately. I think I'm up to level 64. Trying to wrap up all the achievements. Zero interest in the raider stuff, but.. .that's where I'm at now.

Once I complete that, I still have to complete the game for the Railroad, then one more time for the Brotherhood.

Dakuna wrote:

I've been playing a crapload of this lately. I think I'm up to level 64. Trying to wrap up all the achievements. Zero interest in the raider stuff, but.. .that's where I'm at now.

Once I complete that, I still have to complete the game for the Railroad, then one more time for the Brotherhood.

There is a guide that will tell you when to make branching saves and what steps to take to get all the end game achievements in the shortest amount of time on True Achievements. I made use of it when I got to that point and it was pretty painless.

I'm level 58 and maybe 50% of the way through the main questline. Tonight's adventures are a great example of why. I've spoilered it in case...of spoilers.

Spoiler:

I haven't played since March of this year. I loaded in and heard my heartbeat. My health is low. I don't know offhand where I am or what I was doing last. I heal up and look around to get my bearings.

I'm north of Diamond City but on the south side of the river. I don't see Dogmeat anywhere. I have no idea where he is. I start rambling east, then north, taking my time, engaging only when it's imperative. I stop at County Crossing and perch on my guard tower and just watch. The world is gorgeous. The camera lapses into its whirling 360º circuit and I see everything around me. I wait. The sounds of the world roll past me. I wait. The County Crossing settlers go about their business. I wait.

Eventually I move on north. I'm headed roughly toward The Slog but have no driving need to be anywhere in particular. I stop at Finch Farm, look around, then hop back on the road north. I stop in at The Slog, decide to see if any of The Forged are milling around outside Saugus Ironworks. They are. I press the butt of my long-scoped combat rifle [ETA: into my shoulder], take aim, and drop one with a headshot. Then another, as he's investigating. Then two, then three, then four. Then quiet.

I hop down and head east across the water, then north again roughly toward Dunwich Borers. But that's not where my interest is. It's in a known hunting ground for Deathclaws. I'm sneaking through the area, weapon at the ready, and don't see anything moving. I move closer. Then I found a carcass. One of my victims. Still crouching I move up right next to it to see it more clearly. For some reason I hit VATS.

And I get hit statistics. It's not a carcass. It's a Deathclaw Matriarch, sleeping.

I steal away quietly and decide to watch her from a safe distance. I wait. She sleeps. I wait. Then she erupts in flames and stands up and I think for a quick moment I've witnessed some kind of legendary event. Then I hear the pops of rifle fire and realize she was awoken by a Molotov thrown by a startled passerby. She dispatches them, then circles her hunting ground. I watch and wait to see if she lies back down. She does not. I wait a little while longer but then decide to back away and move on with my rambling.

I walk past Hub City Auto Wreckers without incident. I can bring the place to the ground if I want but I'm not into that. I just want to see the world. A bit later, just north of Longneck Lukowski's Cannery, I find that one of the provisioners servicing Kingsport Lighthouse has landed in a firefight with some Rust Devils. After a fun few minutes that situation's settled in our favor. I look over to the front of the cannery expecting to see Trader Rylee's familiar silhouette but she's not there. I walk over for a closer look. I find her body. I assume she's a casualty of the fight that just ended. I mourn momentarily but move on to the Lighthouse.

Once there I look around but I don't feel like settling in. I'm on a walkabout. So I leave and head north toward the Children of Atom at Crater House. I weigh circumnavigating their camp against taking them on. One of them calls out in my general direction. Before long they're all quiet, too.

I mill around the area north of Crater House without direction, stopping in at the Museum of Witchcraft to see how things have--or have not--changed. I walk around the small town. Then I move on. Walking the world.

The next while I wander mostly aimlessly north, west, south, east, south, west, like a drunkard. I've made my way back near Dunwich Borers and I check in on the Deathclaw Matriarch. She's asleep again. I watch over her for a moment, careful not to wake her, then I leave her alone.

I find myself on the grounds of Parsons State Insane Asylum but it's quiet. For a particular reason. I don't linger. Instead I head up the hill to a small enclave of Raiders. They're raiding days are behind them now. There's a safe on the second floor. All I can carry is the ammo. As usual.

Over the rise I see the tower near Lynn Woods. I remember it. I decide to visit its top and look out over the countryside. It's easy enough to get in but I'm careful and quiet anyway. I make my way up the spiral staircase then come out to see the open sky. I look down over the edge but don't notice anything. There's a switch crackling with electricity behind me. I've forgotten what it does, but I flip it anyway. And the siren bellows into the afternoon air. Below I hear the threats of a band of Raiders so I look out over the edge again. I hear gunfire but nothing is hitting the tower. Then I see them.

Two Deathclaws are rending human bodies and scattering them over the ground. There are roars and then screams. And then only roars. And then only pounding footfalls as the Deathclaws skulk around looking for more entertainment. One, a Legendary Deathclaw Matriarch, sees me atop the tower but I know she can't scale the staircase so I just look on as she impotently roars and stomps around the tower's base.

I sound the siren again to see what happens. More voices. More roaring. More screams. More silent stomping.

I leave the area quietly and leave the Deathclaws be. I ramble around the countryside again, skirting areas I know are likely to require violence. Some time later, so encumbered I can't run and seem barely able to walk, I return to Hangman's Alley. Dogmeat sits patiently waiting for me. I settle in for the night.

Muraii, the Deathclaw Warden

Dakuna wrote:

Muraii, the Deathclaw Warden :)

I'd take it as a retag on the forum here.

[for you radiation saturated Fallout 4 aficionados -- longish]
Sooo, I was turned off by Fallout 4 initially, but am finally diving in with the mentality of a survival shooter with RPG elements (well, planned.. post mod fiesta work). Do folks have their favs close at hand?

I'm modding around survival difficulty with some settlement enhancing + QoL mods + combat reworks; though, to put that in perspective, I spent last weekend redoing (rolling back) all the Horizon + compatibility patches.

While I appreciate Horizon in-general, I didn't personally care for the fact that the main character was still sort of bullet spongy, plus the emphasis on crafting was a bit too much for me.

To the first point, from what I could tell, this is because you are often running around at low health from previous engagements and Horizon plans around the long haul. While I dig this on paper, it was bugging me that I couldn't assess me vs enemies per each standalone shoot off (or time-proximal groupings thereof) that well. To the second, I'm not a (huge) crafting hound, though I do like those systems to a degree.

Please note: I am more than ok with being stupidwrong on the above points. Feel free to sell me on your overhauls of the Horizon overhaul mod!

At the moment, my test combat mix is a mesh of most of the Better Locational Damage ESPs (which covers a lot more than locational damage) and also parts of Immersive Fallout, with Dogmeat a True Companion (survival) version. Oh, I was also running the newer incarnation of that Pack Attack NPC Edition AI group mod -- it was extensive. For the moment I cut it till I can discern how it's impacting the other two combat mods.

I like the results 'ok', but I feel that this could use tweaking on distant sniping enemies single headshotting me from extreme distance while I'm crawling about. Granted, perhaps this evens out once I have a scoped rifle but I don't want this to turn into Vietnam Jungle-crawl Sim (I have a few plantlife overgrowth type mods in the mix). Some of this may be the fault of the mods; I hope to find one that will play nice if I put it last in the load order to remedy enemy accuracy at low levels and extreme range.

Might dive back into Fallout 4,
Recreational Villain, is Pack Attack NPC Edition AI group and Immersive Fallout compatible out of the box ? or need a patch?

^ Under assumption you are using NexusMods site. Pack Attack NPC Edition requires F4SE (the Script Extender). All things considered, the SE is relatively rock solid and well maintained given its lineage (different ~ fork) goes back to Skyrim ; a LOT of the 'better' \ robust mods out there require it. I can post quick n' lazy install steps if you've never used it before.

If you are using Horizon's, there's a patch at the link under the "mods requiring this" section. Of sep note, several of the options were modular.

Immersive Fallout, iirc, doesn't require the SE. But really, I don't know how folks live without the SE or AWKCR (Armor and Weapons Keywords Community Resource (a lot of great mods require that too).

Also, iirc, Immersive Fallout has sep ESPs for movement, player movement, 'recoil', and fall and\or fall velocity.
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Hah, I've trimmed the fat but am still working on getting everything 100% playing nice with each other -- down to 81 mods. ;-P

aside- all depends on what you are after: mods like Sim Settlements, companion enhancement or companion hud, just combat, bumps to the survival mod or camping, faction squadding? If you suppress Preston's tendancy (via mods) to constantly hand out radiant quests then the minutemen aren't so bad with things like Militarized Minutemen or We Are the Minutemen or FCOM (Fallout Commander).

As always, if you haven't modded much prior(?) always weight how old the mod is and how much it's been maintained over the years otherwise things can get janky.

Thanks, my last playthrough was with Horizon actually, I love all inclusive overhauls and Horizon was well done. But i found Horizon a little too focused on settlement building and contained too many different craft tables, I prefer a more lonely wanderer survivalist type of Fallout. I wish there was a mod that made settlements without my direct involvement. I'll kill all the bandits but you guys can deal with setting up your own houses, I am moving on.
I have switched over to Vortex with Skyrim and i'm finding it much better than the old nexus mod manager.