FALLOUT 4

[Contentious C]

On 4/24/2018 at 3:17 PM, cwoy2j said:

Managed to do the Hole in the Wall quest without contracting mole rat disease. Had to use a bunch of Jet and the cryolater to do it. I saved every time I cleared an area which came in handy as I did get bitten twice. I just reverted back to the previous save and re-did it.

I also did this because fuck screen bullshit I can't get rid of, too.

Yes, I dove back into Fallout 4.  But only because I found a mod that allows for a peaceful resolution between the Institute and the Railroad.  To me, that seems like the potentially "kindest" ending; you become the new face of the Institute and could change the organization from within.  Because, let's face it, in every FO game that isn't 3, the BoS are a bunch of jerks, and siding with them won't change things.  Granted, nearly *everyone* in this series is a jerk, but siding with them here seems like an even more ridiculous kind of wrong, given how many synths and ghouls you befriend that they'd be happy to murder.  And also given how they actively shit on Lyons and everything that went down in the Capital Wasteland.  Fuck those guys; I'm going to have fun blowing you out of the sky in 40 or 50 levels.  After I finally get enough affinity for Danse's perk.

[cwoy2j]

It's funny b/c my current character is a BOS guy. The Railroad annoys me with their synth first stuff. The BOS at least tolerates sentient ghouls. Did they ever establish how The Institute feels about ghouls and super mutants?

[Contentious C]

Well, according to wikis, Virgil left the Institute because the Institute had brought the FEV to the area and experimented on a crapload of people.  It's reeeeally too bad the group I'd have the easiest time joining and contributing to IRL is such a bunch of unethical sleazeballs.

[tbarrie]

After almost three years of thinking critical hits could only be achieved in this game when specifically executed in VATS, I just discovered that no, randomly generated crits are in fact in the game. It's just that your base chance of getting a crit appears to be zero. Overdrive - which says it gives a +25% critical chance, but which I always assumed meant that your critical bar fills 25% faster - actually does what it says; it raises your crit chance from zero to 25%. 

[tbarrie]

Also, if anybody else is still playing this game, the Graphic T-shirt Pack is currently free in Creation Club. I bought it for a buck or so, and it's the only Creation Club item I'd whole-heartedly recommend. 

[cwoy2j]

On 11/13/2018 at 12:35 PM, tbarrie said:

Also, if anybody else is still playing this game, the Graphic T-shirt Pack is currently free in Creation Club. I bought it for a buck or so, and it's the only Creation Club item I'd whole-heartedly recommend. 

I liked the arcade cabinet stuff in the CC. I got it for free a while back.

[tbarrie]

Sure, my nerd character likes being able to build arcade cabinets at his home base, but I don't know if I'd want to pay real money for it. The only Creation Club content I spent actual points for that I unreservedly thought was worth it was the t-shirts (and it helps that it was cheap, since at the end of the day it is just a bunch of t-shirts).

[tbarrie]

I've searched, and there doesn't appear to be a mod that adds functional hat racks to the game. Why do we even HAVE mods?

[Eivion]

Just used the mannequins/armor stands

[tbarrie]

It's Cabot House that's the problem. Every time my manipulative psychopath character visits Lorenzo for more serum, she takes her hat off when she gets inside, because she's not a fucking savage. And he has a perfectly nice hat rack sitting just inside the door. But I can't use it! It just sits there, taunting me.

[cwoy2j]

Just started a new playthrough. Going to ignore Preston and his stupid crew this time around.

[BrianS81177]

18 minutes ago, cwoy2j said:

Just started a new playthrough. Going to ignore Preston and his stupid crew this time around.

But how will you know when a settlement needs your help? How will you be able to walk around Sanctuary without the constant pleasant reassurances of Marcy Long?

[Contentious C]

Honestly, skipping that crap till at least mid-game really does make it more manageable. Getting your RR safehouse set up first and giving yourself the time to crank out a couple of followers' perks without discovering more of the map than you want to makes it less of a hassle. Especially since I like to min-max a bit and hit Piper first. Though that does remind me that maybe my very favorite mod for the entire game is a simple one that gives followers the option to return to where you met them.

 

[cwoy2j]

9 hours ago, Contentious C said:

Honestly, skipping that crap till at least mid-game really does make it more manageable. Getting your RR safehouse set up first and giving yourself the time to crank out a couple of followers' perks without discovering more of the map than you want to makes it less of a hassle. Especially since I like to min-max a bit and hit Piper first. Though that does remind me that maybe my very favorite mod for the entire game is a simple one that gives followers the option to return to where you met them.

 

They do that anyway if you haven't sent them to a settlement before and don't specify a settlement for them to return to. You lose that option once you send them a settlement for the first time so I guess the mod is for that situation.

[Contentious C]

 

This could be, um, interesting as Hell.

[BrianS81177]

There's no youtube video for it unfortunately but somebody made a custom Richard Nixon follower using only lines from Futurama.

https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/60850

 

[madl]

Free PS5/Xbox Series X-S upgrade for Fallout 4 announced today.  Coming sometime in 2023.

[Kevin Wilson]

I tried to replay 4 last year and its still *fine* but then I got distracted by another game and didn't finish it. I may play it again when it gets a free upgrade. I thought at launch it got a bit of a bum deal but it had some real issues (the "city building" aspect was legitimately broken being the main one), and I didn't like how hard it nudged you down a certain path. But I liked the gameplay anyway.

[Death From Above]

I'm enjoying this game enough I want to yell about it some more without clogging up other threads, so anyway here's my current mod setup. Everything is through the in game mod section, haven't touched the Script Extender or anything that is Nexus only. I saved that for Skyrim, it was kind of a pain to get set up, and I'm spending more time with this game anyway right now. Just dumping stuff mostly in the load order Fallout 4 assigned to it.

UNOFFICIAL FALLOUT 4 PATCH - obviously

HUDFRAMEWORK, WORKSHOPFRAMEWORK - I'm not sure if I even needed this as they're mostly modding tools but I downloaded it anyway

TRUE STORMS: WASTELAND EDITION - Pretty good stuff. Comes with configuation holotape.

MODDING FOR CHARITY: TRUNK'S MALFUNTION - A quest chain involving a crazy robot

PIP BOY PAINT JOBS - There's a whole bunch of these. Does what it says on the label.

SIM SETTLEMENTS 2, chapters 1-3 - Massive expansion built around fleshing out the settlement system and also comes with like a game's worth of quests. Starfield desperately needs these people to make the outpost system not a collossal waste of time.

IMPROVED MAP WITH VISIBLE ROADS - Does what it says on the label

ENHANCED BLOOD TEXTURES BASIC - Does what it says on the label

A bunch of radio stations. Most of them work flawlessly except for the Silent Hill soundtrack one that seems to conflict with some distress call so I turned that off.

SQUIRREL - Adds squirrels. Essential.

ELI'S ARMOR COMPENDIUM - Adds an armor crafting workbench and some craftable armors

WASTELAND IMPORTS: GOODIES FROM ALL ACROSS THE WASTELEND - Adds some lore friendly items from other Fallout games, I think.

TALES FROM THE COMMONWEALTH (and a DLC patch)- Shit ton of extra content

FALLOUT 4 HD REWORKED PROJECT - Does what it says on the label

BEARDS N' STACHES - Does what it says on the label

VANILLA RESONATING LIGHTS FIX - Does what it says on the label

UNDERGROUND FIREBASE - extra game content

AUTOMOTRON: PROTRECTRONS EXPANDED - Does what it says on the label

DLC CREATURES IN THE COMMONWEALTH - Does what it says on the label. Raises difficulty.

PONYTAIL HAIRSTYLES - Does what it says on the label

WEIGHTLESS JUNK - Does what it says on the label. Absolutely essential. Listen I played Skyrim for years I play Starfield, weighted junk adds literally nothing to the game experience especially in this game where junk collection is actually key to settlement building. It's a busywork mechanic that is frustrating. This turns it off and I make no apologies. If unnoficial patch is the most essential mod, I'd call this number two.

FIREFLIES - Adds a fireflies camera effect during evening/night. You can even configure their colour. It's neat.

AMERICA RISING: A TALE OF THE ENCLAVE - A ton of new content. I'll speak from experience you probably don't want to dig in this too early without some big guns.

BARRENWOOD - A new worldspace. I haven't gone there yet.

NORDIC EUROPA RESEARCH FACILITY - A new worldspace. I haven't gone there yet.

HALLOWEEN COSTUMES  - Does what it says on the label.

HALLOWEEN DECORATIONS - Does what it says on the label.

FOG CRAWLERS OF THE COMMONWEALTH, COUPLE MORE DEATHCLAW SPAWNS, KUDEMBROTS OF THE COMMONWEALTH, DREADSHARK SPAWNS, MORE BEHEMOTHS  - Does what it says on the label. Raises difficulty and makes traversing the map more interesting IMO.

SCAVENGING HUNT: BOBBLEHEAD EDITION - Adds a console in the vault you can use to spawn a quest to track specific bobbleheads. Convienent for treasure seekers.

THE COMMONWEALTH RESPONDERS - Basically adds a new faction with their own questline.

ARMORER INCREASES ARMOR RATING AND DECREASES ARMOR WEIGHT - Does what it says on the label.

KELLOG'S CYBERNETIC IMPLANTS - Lets you build Kellog's implants if you so desire.

MAD ROCK - QUEST/SETTLEMENT - More game content. I haven't gone there yet.

GO GREEN! GO GHOUL! - Adds a weird new power generation option for settlements.

WINDMILL GIVES 10 POWER - Does what it says on the label.

CHEAT TERMINAL - I've yet to even touch the thing, but sure.

EVERYONE'S BEST FRIEND - Restores a conceptual feature from game development where you can use Dogmeat and another follower at the same time.

VISIBLE COMPANION AFFINITY - Just makes it easier to track how that's going.

BOSTON IVY RED - Adds some plant colour to the game world.

ENEMY SCALING REVAMPED - Keeps the game from becoming One Shot City once you get around level 40 and above.

 

 

 

 

[Craig H]

You’re doing the lords work. I was just thinking yesterday of asking what mods to use because I’m getting that itch.

[Contentious C]

A few I like:

- Salvage Beacons: instead of making junk weightless, I prefer using this mod for a little more immersion.  You need, I think, the first rank in Chemist & the Local Leader perks to use it, but you build a "comm station", assign a settler to it, and then when you have too much garbage, you stick a salvage beacon (made at the Chem Station) into any container along with all the crap you want to haul back to whatever settlement you choose.  It doesn't necessarily have to go back to where the comm station is, so it gets around supply line issues, if you haven't got them built up yet.

- Scrap Everything/Place Everywhere: these two are pretty much essential, in my eyes.  The one thing about the FO games that drives me *nuts* is evidently no one has ever built a BROOM in the last 200 years, and so everything still looks so stupidly junky and dirty.  I know they're going for an aesthetic, but it's more than a bit too much.  Granted, by using this on stuff you're not intended to "scrap" in, say, Sanctuary, will net you a lifetime of Fertilizer and Concrete, but so what. 

- Skip "Home Sweet Home": I pretty much think the "evil only" direction of Nuka-World is the only thing wrong with that DLC, so...I just don't do it!

- Always Idiot Savant: taking this perk at all can lead to some funkiness, so rather than trying to save-scum for it to proc, I find it's better to just use a mod that increases XP gained across the board.  There are actually about 17 different mods that try to "fix" this perk, since it's inherently bugged, and the mods still don't fix it, but if you read the description of the mod, the one I use gives flat 5x/10x/15x boosts to XP gain.  Granted, this is pretty broken, as you'll outlevel the content really quickly, but I figure that's just a better reason to crank it to Hard or Really Hard and boost Legendary encounters. 

- Legendary Modifications: This lets you take Legendary mods on and off of weapons and armor.  Annoyed you only get "Sharp" gear that you'd never wear?  No problem, now you can chuck it on your Power Armor and get the Charisma/Int boost all the time. 

- Decreased Automatron Bullshit Encounters: That's self-explanatory, the Mechanist stuff can get more than a bit spammy.

- One Minuteman Radiant Quest at a Time: I don't think I could play the game without this, since those are so goddamned irritating. 

- No Negative Affinity/No Affinity Cooldown: This comes in a lot of different flavors, and you can pick how broken or limited it is, but it basically just sets it up so it doesn't take you 20 in-game hours to, say, get Strong's perk when you'd rather travel with literally anyone else.

It's possible the Legendary mod requires Armorsmith Extended or Armor Keywords Community Resource, but those are also decent mods.

[Death From Above]

The funny thing is when I go into the Fallout 4 mod menu and add/adjust anything, when you exit and it builds the new load order my game consistently crashes. This doesn't seem to matter though. And in actual gameplay I've had all of 1 crash. Weird.

[Death From Above]

[quote]ARMORER INCREASES ARMOR RATING AND DECREASES ARMOR WEIGHT - Does what it says on the label.[/quote]

Turned this off because it's honestly massive overkill, almost a cheat for the amount of armor rating you get out of it.

[Craig H]

I did the deal, but on the PS5. It was already re-installed on it because my daughter installed it to try it out. I went in and added 4 mods to it which were the seasonal spring mod, better looking weather and textures, unofficial Fallout 4 patch, and wasteland redux. I then loaded my save from when I last played the game all the way back when it first came out. That was a mistake. I had no idea what the fuck to do, why I was doing it, but I still had Strong with me as my companion and we both still had rocket hammers so we're still doing the Hammer Bros. thing. Beyond that, no clue where I'm at story wise or what the story even is so I may have to start over.

Aside from that, the game looked beautiful. I understand that more mods are available on the Xbox version so I may just pull that from Game Pass and start over there.

One thing I instantly liked more than Starfield was just the ability to wander around and go anywhere and do anything. Also, having the ability to give actual commands to a companion is nice. The couple hours I spent playing FO4 last night really made it feel like that as much as I initially loved Starfield, a lot of that game feels very half baked. Starfield is also ridiculously easy. Even with a couple hours of playing FO4, it brought me back to how I felt the first time playing that game or FO3 or Skyrim or Morrowind and having a sense of not knowing where to go. Starfield just has this fast track to go and finish the main story, which doesn't take that long, and all of the side quests, while long, are essentially fetch quests. 

I'm hoping that with mods that people can make Starfield into a more fulfilling experience with actual consequences for your actions so NG+ actually has a point to it. And their idea for NG+ was very sound and made sense, it just falls very flat when there's nothing different you're doing and there still no consequences for any of your actions. It's just sort of weird to be able to do every major side quest in Starfield and for there to mostly be no major ramifications for any choices you make. 

 

[Death From Above]

I have to admit I find Fallout 4's combat significantly better than Starfield's. It feels far more lethal and weighty. I was honestly not expecting to love this game but at least with all the free bonus content you can pick and choose from I think it's pretty fucking awesome.