Fallout

[NemZ]

They probably should have kept the main division between guns/energy instead considering how crafting works.

[Chuckman]

Considering that minigun type weapons are externally powered I'm disappointed I can't use a minigun with the melee attachment as a murder drill.

[IronEvangelion]

Something bizarre just happened: Preston and I were travelling near Saugus Ironworks when a group of Forged started attacking a nearby doctor's caravan. Preston and I went to assist them, and during the battle a car exploded. Right after that we finished off the Forged, but Preston and the caravan guards proceeded to get into a gunfight while the doctor and I stood there watching. The guards were hostile to Preston, but not to me. I tried to pull him away from them, but they just followed us wherever we went. Finally on a river bank I just said "fuck it" and watched the spectacle instead of running. Preston "killed" one of the guards, whose AI reset upon reviving and ceased hostilities. Then the second guard came over a hill and incapacitated Preston, then left. After that, Preston's AI reset and we went on our way.

A while before that we had fast traveled to Wilson Automatoys Factory, where we ran across a BoS patrol. They were marked as hostile in VATS, but didn't attack me for some reason. Instead they took aim at an incoming vertibird of their own faction, which proceeded to crash and burn for no damn reason even though they never even shot at it and there were no enemies nearby.

I think Bethesda's engine is skipping its medication.

[Chuckman]

No, it's functioning as expected.

[Chuckman]

YES

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I'm going to need a lot of aluminum to not make this thing look like a rusty piece of shit.

Plot Question  SPOILER: Show

I have too many synth friends to side with the Brotherhood, but I want their delicious tech. How far can I advance with the Brotherhood questline before I get "locked out" of the others?

Possibly exploitative tip for settlement building  SPOILER: Show

Want to be up to your neck in caps? Build as many industrial water purifiers as you can construct/defend. After you come back from a mission, check your workshop. Whatever excess purified water your settlers don't drink will be in there and you can sell it for 10 caps a pop. I haul hundreds of them to Diamond City at a time and I'm swimming in fusion cores and ammo.

[Sachi]

@Chuckman: regarding your Brotherhood of Steel questline question:

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You can get a decent amount of BoS quests done and acquire some good items, including at least two full sets of power armor and a bunch of fusion cores. Eventually, once you're promoted to Paladin, continuing with them will have you come into conflict with another group. It'll warn you before you accept the mission. I ended up siding with the Railroad, so I don't know what BoS quests come after you attack another faction, but if it is at all similar to how it was with the Railroad, then there won't be very much to do after you do pick a side (other than random, misc quests).

As for my adventures, I caved and created a new character. My first playthrough wasn't so much a roleplay as it was just me experimenting with different things. My new character, however, is being portrayed as an ex-military smartass named Malaki; after waking up 200 years out of his time, and having been stripped of his family, he's just trying to survive in the wasteland and forget. Specializes in handguns and weaponcraft, and rolls around in power armor. Strength and Endurance are high to emphasize carry capacity and resilience to limb damage and otherwise, but he's lacking in Agility and Luck (two points on each currently, but I plan on having his luck turn around progressively). I try to only give him perks that somewhat relate to how I leveled up that time (leveled up using a handgun = upgrade my non-automatic pistol perk; leveled using the weapon craft station = upgrade my weapon mod perk, etc).

I gave myself a NO Fast Travel challenge (which has been difficult, since I can't just fast travel to a trader to drop weight, and I haven't gotten any settlements beyond Sanctuary yet*), and I'm exploring parts of the map section by section so I don't miss anything. I'm trying to only pick up one quest at a time, and focus on that, since having multiple quests build up really pulls me out of character. I also cranked up the difficulty to Survival, and OMFG SURVIVAL MODE IS FUCKING DIFFICULT. I died about a dozen times from a particular group of molerats, FUCKING MOLERATS. The rate at which healing items replenish health is painfully slow, so having a full health meter at all times is critical. Single grenades would be instantly fatal (overkill, even, since all my limbs would go too, even when hit at full health!). More legendary enemies too. I'm not kidding; I came across a legendary radroach, and it dropped a legendary item. I was dying laughing.

Today I...

SPOILER: Show

came across Paladin Danse at the Cambridge Police Station, and decided to join up with them right away (something I avoided on my last play through). For my character development, Malaki chose to join with the Brotherhood because he's got the ex-military background, and he felt that joining a group would pull him out of his self-loathing and help him move on from his past. Eventually he's going to become familiar with all the flaws of the BoS, but I haven't decided if he's going to ultimately side with them or if finding the Institute will give him a change of heart. Either way, I plan on avoiding the main questline as much as possible.

*I also was forced to abandon my power armor (which is a necessity now in survival mode ) because I ran out of fusion cores. I left it somewhere safe, and I'll be able to recover it easily once I gather more fusion cores. The whole situation feels much more immersive with the raised difficulty and without the benefit of fast travel, and I'm finding it rather enjoyable, and refreshing just as the game was beginning to bore me a bit...

[soul.assassin]

After playing FO3, I just noticed the difference between it and NV:

* NV has more and highly-customizable dakka.
* NV has more focus on karma and rep points.
* FO3 uses the entire map, DC and beyond, while NV's area is restricted to about 60% of the map; every other part of it is inaccessible.

[Chuckman]

The build limit is the most frustrating fucking thing. I'm tempted to mod my game when I swore I wouldn't until I was done with the character and the mod tools are released.

[Chainsaw Owl]

So I bought this game yesterday after making a point not to watch any trailers or reviews or anything, to better ensure that my experience would be completely fresh.

I have to say I'm pretty majorly disappointed so far. Two hours in and I've already got a full suit of power armor and have been attacked twice with mini-nukes, which are both supposed to be endgame material. Who the heck taught these guys how to pace a game?

And this is just a nitpick but I really wish they hadn't brought back the old radio songs from FO3. I've heard them all so many times it's like stabbing my brain with a fork. The new songs are good though, and really put me back in the mood.

Anyway, bad first impressions aside, there's still a lot to love so far. Gameplay feels vastly improved over FO3 and those visuals are amazing. It just feels like the game blew it's load too soon, throwing power armor and nukes and deathclaws at me right out the door. Really makes it hard to sink back into the quiet times, rummaging around an old gas station for laundry detergent.

Pacing!!!

[Chuckman]

The T-45 will make you feel like an overpowered walking tank... for a while.

[Chainsaw Owl]

Yeah, I'm hoping there's a bigger functional gap between differing models of power armor to make up for the buzzkill of getting a suit so early. In FO3 the difference between the T-45 and the T-51 was minor, even though the T-51 was much harder to get (without expansions anyway.)

I must say though, I LOVE how you can perform a melee attack with your guns now. Bayonets go ignored in most games, so I get a little giddy everytime I see them get some respect. Especially because I jammed strength. I do more damage with a bayonet poke than I do with a bullet to the face. Really, I'm just stoked on the weapon modding in general.

I expect my opinion of this game will increase steadily as I discover more cool things and forget the questionable beginning.

Also I think I seriously messed up leaving my Charisma at 1. Shops expect me to take out a bank loan for a single Radaway.

[Chuckman]

I have to admit that I don't get the way they've distributed it. I mean, I don't understand it. You get a T-45 to start with, but there's little reason to use the Raider Power Armor at all, and in fact I haven't gathered a set despite having 10+ suits in my current playthrough.

The way they're leveled and how powerful they are, in my opinion, isn't distributed enough. They overlap too much and once you get an X-01 the only reason not to use it is the expense of repairs and upgrades, which are quite costly in materials use.

Also I'm getting bored with my current playthrough and will probably start over soon, lol. I could have planned better.

I feel like the armor, power armor, and weapons in this game are really incomplete. They gave us a very partial set and are obviously planning to add more via a Gun Runners style DLC. The selection of melee weapons is woeful.

[Rosenakahara]

I already stopped playing tbh, curie is cute but even she cant make me force myself to do ANOTHER minutemen mission that preston insists is "a bit different"
I got my X-01 MK VI, as far as im concerned thats my 100%

[IronEvangelion]

What really bugs me the most about the weapons (besides the atrocity that the gauss rifle has become) is how illogical some of them are. For some reason they allow you to make a .50-caliber pipe rifle. Whoever made this decision has no comprehension of what a .50-caliber rifle round is or the pressures they're dealing with. If you tried to stick a .50-caliber round into a FO4-style pipe gun and fire it in real life, you would be seriously injured or killed by the gun exploding. And there's no dedicated model for a .50-caliber rifle either, you can only rechamber a pipe gun or hunting rifle for the cartridge. And the receiver doesn't even change to accommodate the new round! It really breaks immersion for me, because there's no way in hell you can fit a .50-caliber round in a .308 receiver or magazine.

Also, is anybody else bothered by how the enemies can now take cover and fire from cover, but the player is forced to stand there like an idiot when shooting back at them? Would it really have been that much trouble to copy-paste the animations to the player character? It really would have made the gameplay feel less archaic. I'm bothered by how FO4 lacks player animations for even the most basic of actions, and most of the ones the player character does have look like they were ripped straight out of FO3.

@ Chuckman: If you want a full set of raider PA, I found a set inside a cave in the glowing sea when I was exploring that region.

[Sachi]

Two hours in and I've already got a full suit of power armor and have been attacked twice with mini-nukes, which are both supposed to be endgame material. Who the heck taught these guys how to pace a game?

"Supposed to be endgame material"

Says who? Maybe for prior games, but I see nothing wrong with introducing these earlier in the game as long as the mechanics are adjusted for them, which has most certainly been the case with the Power Armor. I ignored power armor entirely in FO3 and NV, but I find it incredibly useful and enjoyable to have in FO4.

IMO, the pacing is incredibly improved, at least over FO3. The difficulty of enemies is distributed pretty organically throughout the map, getting tougher the further south you go. And a lot of the good weapons, like the combat shotgun and the assault rifle, aren't available to find for a significant amount of time. I'm stuck finding a bunch of pipe pistols and pipe rifles, which are almost useless.

[Monk Ed]

What really bugs me the most about the weapons (besides the atrocity that the gauss rifle has become) is how illogical some of them are. For some reason they allow you to make a .50-caliber pipe rifle. Whoever made this decision has no comprehension of what a .50-caliber rifle round is or the pressures they're dealing with. If you tried to stick a .50-caliber round into a FO4-style pipe gun and fire it in real life, you would be seriously injured or killed by the gun exploding. And there's no dedicated model for a .50-caliber rifle either, you can only rechamber a pipe gun or hunting rifle for the cartridge. And the receiver doesn't even change to accommodate the new round! It really breaks immersion for me, because there's no way in hell you can fit a .50-caliber round in a .308 receiver or magazine.

In a game where radiation causes beneficial mutations, big green hulks called Super Mutants walk around, and everyone can take multiple bullets without even slowing down and still speaks the same English as before the war even though as much time has passed since it as between America's founding and the present day, the part of the game that bothers you for its unrealism is... .50-caliber pipe rifles?

[Chainsaw Owl]

You know, I came into FO4 planning to roleplay as a psychotic hairtrigger cannibal with a crippling addiction to Jet and Vodka. But it's really hard to get into that mindframe when "grief-stricken loving husband" and "doting father" are automatically shoved into our player's established canon. The inclusion of your father in FO3 wasn't nearly as much of an intrusion.

What I'm saying is that I dislike how by attempting to have a more fleshed-out protagonist, they've damaged the potential for roleplay. I mean you're welcome to pretend Shaun and Nora don't exist 95% of the time, but it kinda pulls me out it when they're both constantly being brought up.

I've decided that the intro bit was just a hallucination and that my wife and son are just figments of my drug-addled imagination.

[Chuckman]

I overlook the absurdity of the weapons mostly because they look/are cool. I do think it's dumb that there isn't a dedicated large caliber rifle. Hell, given that we've got tank suits, we should be able to carry some kind of 20mm bolt rifle or something ridiculous that would be totally impractical for a person to actually shoot.

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Broadsider ammo is too tough to come by. You can buy it but the merchants never have enough!

I'm really tempted to make a new character named Victor who wears winterized power armor and uses the Cryolator and cryo munitions. I think making the default female character's name Nora was a deliberate reference. Again though, ammo shortage. I guess I can focus on energy weapons...

@Owl:

You have to work to roleplay. Yes, the game doesn't give you as much of a blank state to work with and it can be immersion breaking when you do a main story quest and don't have much choice in how your character responds. I find the acting both male and female for the protag to be pretty bad, especially when they get loud. The male actor is the worst, somehow he manages to shout in a deadpan.

However, the story framework gives you lots of room to play how you like. Your character being broken by his experience and turning to drugs and violence and slowly becoming a raider works within the story strokes they'e laid out.

My only complaint is that there isn't a really nasty faction to join that's also chaotic for the type of character you're describing.

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The BOS and the Institute are both too orderly even if you consider them "evil".

[Monk Ed]

What I'm saying is that I dislike how by attempting to have a more fleshed-out protagonist, they've damaged the potential for roleplay.

Yeah, my posts about my experience bring up this factor repeatedly. I suspect the next entry in the series (or even a DLC that alters the main game significantly) is going to correct for this common complaint.

[Chuckman]

I hope to God that Obsidian gets to make Fallout: New Orleans.

I am 100% confident that when they do it will have a proper silent protagonist and lots of dialogue from NPCs. I want the fifteen minute conversations with every named character back more than anything.

One thing I'd really like to see in a future installment is abandoning the player-character main quest entirely. They almost did it in Skyrim. You can legit play for hours and hours and hours and never go anywhere near the dragons, you can even make it so they never show up in game and you never learn to shout.

What I'd like them to do is make a bunch of faction/sidequests and one of those happens to branch out into this huge story that your character happens to sort of fall into. That would be way more fun, especially the first time, than walking out of the vault to be greeted by a series of living sign posts to the next plot point.

Also I have high hopes that Obsidian would give us a small number of settlements or one settlement to really really develop and tie into the story. I don't want to build a dozen farms, Bethesda. I want to build a giant compound!

If you want me to build big settlements there should be settlers with actual stories. When a settlement is attacked my first thought should be "OH NO! TIM! SURLY BLACKSMITH! MY FALLOUT WAIFU! I MUST SAVE THEM!" not "Ugh, they're going to fuck up my adhesive suppy"

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I know Preston Gravy is so bland and all but I wish the Minutement quest was the main questline and not a series of fetch quests/assasination missions to unlock settlements. It would be cool if the main quest progressed through the minutemen questline entirely and you had choices to ally with the other factions and have some options for the ending. Like multiple ending states for each one: The Minutemen destroy the Brotherhood and drive them out of the Commonwealth, the Minutemen form an uneasy truce with the Brotherhood, the Minutement are subjugated by the Brotherhood or wiped out.

I mean, you basically have two factions that fit each other very well (Minutemen and Railroad) and yet there's no quest chain or decision to bring them together in common cause. Man I'd love to give a stirring speech with my high charisma score that I needed to build all these settlements (why does being a good speech giver allow me to build a power armor dock?) and convince the Minutemen to join with the Railroad to found a new organization and another speech/intimimidation/quest line to ally with the Brotherhood and then have to fight them after taking down the Institute, or abandon the Minutement/Railroad to lead the Institute and convince Maxson that the Institute is aligned with the ideals of the original Brotherhood or replace him with a synth and assume control or something.

The story and questing took a real backseat to all the gameplay improvements. Unless they turn it over to Obsidian for an interquel like New Vegas it's going to be remembered as wasted potential. As is, it's mostly a dicking around/modding platform. I don't really mind that since I actually find doing endlessly repeatable radiant quests kind of zen.