Fallout 4

[Art Blade]

Meanwhile, I'm slowly but steadily working towards the end of the NW story. It has been fun so far, and I'm surprised by that There's still some story line to go, though.

tuff gal, talking rather than shooting enemies out of whatever they had in mind
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[fragger]

It's Dirty Harry Blade Nice! Love the top hat, too

Thanks for the kudo Those stairs can occasionally be a bit fiddly to get into place, i.e. getting the first half to snap to one side of the slab instead of the middle. I find I sometimes need to try standing in different spots to get them to cooperate - and of course, they have a tendency to snap into every place except the one I want. But usually they just snap straight in, with little bit of zooming help.

You can also put these railings all around (except across the steps, of course ) from the Structures/Concrete/Miscellaneous menu (last item in the list). I took them out for the first photo for the sake of clarity, then put them back in. They're good, they snap into place really easily and they prevent you from dropping down a flight if you make a mis-step.

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[Art Blade]

cool. Thanks for that tip as well

My dog and my companions love to hurl themselves off ledges or to dive face forward down any abyss they come across I have got a mod installed that removes their fall damage. So I no longer hear that *thud-whimper* when they fly off, they usually reappear a few seconds later as if beamed back up and happily throw themselves down the next ledge

[Art Blade]

Here, that's how I usually build them (was just something to do for me during my test trying to down happiness)

open stairs (with ghouls)
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[fragger]

I should point out that this arrangement of stairs will only w0#k indoors, i.e. they won't snap together in that configuration by themselves if they're free-standing. Also, they will only snap to one side of the gap like that when they're connected to a "Floor-Upper" slab above (the one with a roof on the bottom and a floor on top - the fourth option along in the Concrete/Floors menu). If you just have the plain roof slabs above (from the Concrete/Roofs menu), they will only snap to the centre of the gap, not to one side - and you won't be able to build the steps any higher. You need to use the "Floor-Upper" slabs on every floor after the ground ones or it won't w0#k.

You can make it free-stand if you do this. Each landing is a Floor-Upper slab:

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You can also use a pair of those 1/4 sized floor slabs next to each other as landings (the 6th option in the Concrete/Floors menu):

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To avoid falling off as you go up and down, those railings I showed in my last post (Structures/Concrete/Miscellaneous, last option)
will snap to either of those slab types, so you can enclose the landings and not accidentally run off the sides, like so:

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Those particular railings are versatile as they will also snap to Scaffolding platforms. I haven't tried them on Wooden items.

[Art Blade]

perfect. I think that covers about every option we need

[Art Blade]

New Car World Nuka World requires me to establish/claim three outposts. The first one was from a list I might have got by a fluke as the settlements to choose from contained at least one I was never interested in, Nordhagen Beach. I chose it because it is so remote and close to the South, an area I usually don't hang out in. Then I had to claim a supporting settlement in the near vicinity of NB which was also easy, I picked County Crossing for that purpose, which again was a settlement I was never interested in.

Now I had to pick a second settlement from a long list. I chose to go as far South as possible because I'm not interested in those, either, and just claimed Somerville Place. Anything in its vicinity doesn't interest me so it should be easy to get a nearby settlement to claim for supporting SP.

At this point I think it was a really good idea to start with Nuka World because apparently you have much more influence regarding choice if there haven't been any settlements that you claimed for the minutemen. Plus, you keep getting XP and levelling up which will be a good base for starting the vanilla game quests.

[fragger]

How about Murkwater Construction for supporting Somerville? MC is such a dump, right in the middle of a smelly-looking swamp, and it only has a tiny build area. It also seems to get attacked by a Mirelurk Queen once in a while. I'd hate to live there

[Art Blade]

I wish, but it wasn't on the list 

Unfortunately, apparently we can't pick just any settlement. The game presents a list to you and that's far from complete. I don't know why (*)

The wiki states that it is possible to target any settlements which the Sole Survivor has not yet discovered. Choosing one of these will automatically mark that specific location in the Pip-Boy. It also points out that it is not possible to let the Nuka-World raiders claim Warwick Homestead by wiping out the Warwick family, because June Warwick is flagged as essential. Furthermore, Sanctuary Hills can only be set up as a raider outpost if When Freedom Calls was already completed.

Because of the above mentioned limitations, I was unable to use Warwick Homestead despite the fact that it was on the list. The guy with the list, Shank, checked my selection and then said sorry, not possible. Apparently he checked wether or not I had already completed the related quest. Stupid, the game could have checked that before presenting me the list.

As I pointed out earlier, I avoided discovering locations prior to starting the vanilla quests which means that any and all of the settlements, except Sanctuary, were undiscovered when I started that NW quest. Yet I couldn't choose entirely freely and I don't know why (*) they limit the player's choice. The first list had perhaps 10 entries, the second list about 20 or so. Which means, both times they were far from complete.

Anyway, it's still OK, and I'll let you know what happens with those raider settlements when I'm through with the NW story. It will end with killing all raider bosses and therefore I'll lose control over raider settlements, and then, in my case, I can and will join Preston and the minutemen. I'll try to reclaim the raider settlements first.

* Edit
I think I now know why. The settlements that are not on the list seem to be unpopulated ones. The quest always wants me to either use violence or persuasion on the settlers so I can claim the settlements.

[Art Blade]

I can now confirm that settlements need someone who can be intimidated -- I just got Graygarden and The Slog to choose between, I chose the robot colony and got that reply, "Don't think there's someone for us to intimidate at that spot." That, however, is because I first have to choose which way to claim the settlement which is by talking (intimidation) and then get to choose the settlement.

I'll try again with a savegame, only to see whether or not I can claim Graygarden using the violent option.

Indeed, that would w0#k. Shank gave me the green light to "subdue" Graygarden. In this case I would have to meet with some guys of one of the three gangs (which one is my choice) and then together go in guns blazing.

Now it's clear how it works: There have to be people or ghouls for either violence or verbal intimidation, or at least something (robots) that can be attacked. It is now clear why Warwick Homestead doesn't w0#k because if intimidation fails, there's no point in violence with an essential NPC there. It is also clear now that unpopulated settlements don't w0#k, either. Albeit, why we cannot claim an uninhabited place is beyond me.

[mandru]

***Art posted as I was editing this post so I'll make note of that here***
I now see you can't select an unsettled location so that shoots that plan of mine in the foot. 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
***Pre-Art's post follows***

I was wondering about the wrecking of settlements (was it for Nuka-World?) to reestablish them as raider encampments.  Can you go into the settlements selected to be converted over and to make it an easy process reassign those settlers to simply move somewhere else?

So far for expediency rather than build populations up to my charisma levels I've kept all of my settlements both the body count and overall development builds small.

My two largest settlements are Sanctuary Hills (with the recent addition of the Vault-Tech Salesman) and Warwick Homestead both with seven settlers.  Most pre-inhabited settlements (other than Warwick) before winning them over have only had two people and Somerville Place starts as three with an Adult with two kids.  The missions I've had to clear enemies out of a potential settlement I've cleared but allowed those locations to stay empty for now.

With Somerville Place I'm not sure that you can reassign a child to move and I know you can't kill them.  A detail like that could make Somerville problematic if it comes down to forcing a location at that site.

So I don't know if my thoughts along those lines will help with the freaking mandatory 'go evil' part of the additional content. 


On another topic the Vault-Tech salesman (as mentioned above) is now happily set up with his own third tier General Store but it appears he is a broken merchant.  After at least two weeks of game time he still has no merchandise but that aside is as bright and cheerful as a lark at sunrise.

Have I assigned him the wrong type of store or is he another broken merchant like Diedre the ghoul from The Slog?

It was my thought to allow him to feel settled in and a welcome part of Sanctuary and eventually move him over to The Slog to help round out their number as a pure ghoul location but I'm not sure I really want place two broken merchants in one location. 

[Art Blade]

the Vault-Tec Rep needs a trading emporium and then he'll have one legendary item and other regular junk.

Deirdre needs a general store (she's not broken anymore after one of the last patches)

Regarding Nuka World,

sorry I slipped my post in before you could. At least it should be clear now how claiming raider settlements w0#k.

I just want to point out that so far, I haven't used violence, you don't have to use any violence. If you wish to follow the non-violent path (like I do) then you'll need to max out your charisma in order to pass those speech checks (persuasion, need to talk them out of their settlement) and perhaps to make bribing attempts w0#k.

Only this one exception, my choice to do so, I decided to use violence against Graygarden because I didn't want to give the ghouls (The Slog) to the raiders. Hey, they're robots and cannot be persuaded, either. And I wanted to see how that worked. Pretty simple, actually. Meet with a couple of gang guys and shoot everything in the settlement. The settlement comes prepared, they have "hired guns" to help them (I think they're Gunners, the mercs in the Commonwealth, who take any job as long as they're getting paid) so you kill the gunners and shooting the robots only incapacitated them, when the job was done, all robots were up and well again. Even their quest can be started as if nothing had ever happened, but I cancelled that, for later. 

[mandru]

Thanks for the quick reply Art. 

Now by trading emporium for the Vault-Tech salesman, is that a level two general store?

That's also good news about Diedra but in my last time through FO4 she's still wander around uselessly and occasionally w0#k on harvesting tarberries.  I'm hoping that my game restart will engage the update you mentioned.


I wonder what happens if you shoot whoever it is that is trying to make you go evil straight in the face with a mini-nuke on your first meeting.


I know that failing the Ft. Strong mission for the Brotherhood of Steel is the first step to achieving the all factions peaceful.  The Brotherhood become jerks once they get the big nukes and their first move is to attack the Railroad forcing you to choose a side.  The only (reoccurring after game end) missions besides possibly Scribe Haylen's tech gathering missions is the Prydwin Quartermaster requiring that we strong arm our settlements into coughing up food supplies for the Brotherhood.  That was my motivation to burn them to the ground.

As a choice between the two factions I'd pick the Railroad every time.

[Art Blade]

Welcome

trading emporium = level 3 general store.

If you check your build menu under "stores," the first option is "trader" and within trader, you can scroll to the right going through three levels of two different visual types each. It's a matter of style, do you prefer those that look like a glove puppet theater or the ones that look like a counter in a posh shop? Only the level counts, not the style.
See the descriptions change from "stand" to "shop" to "emporium." So you scroll all the way to the right and you'll see something like a counter, twice as long as the previous counters, I think that one shows best that it's an emporium you're standing in front of.

Regarding Deirdre, I haven't yet used her as a shop clerk but might try that myself. Currently too busy with everything else

What happens if you shoot anyone of the raider gangs is total war leading to total annihilation of the gangs and that ends the story of Nuka World. Essentially that is what I did during my first playthrough.

Regarding vanilla game choices and missions, I recommend you check out this post and the vid. I followed that guide and got almost all quests done before deciding which end to pick, which in my case was the minutemen ending, leaving both BoS and Railroad intact.

[Art Blade]

Oh man, I managed to get that one quest about establishing eight (actually it's more, the supplying settlements I captured..) raider outposts done. I could have stopped earlier but would never have got the achievement, so I did it. In the end, I only had two settlements on the list that I could choose from, one being Warwick Homestead which cannot be used unless the related quest is done so I only had The Slog. Poor Ghouls, had to talk them out of their nice home However, now it's time to go to the finale..

Out of three gangs, one always gets fewer shares than the rest so they start a mutiny. Knowing about what would happen, I chose carefully which one I'd have to fight against, together with the two remaining gangs.

my favourite and least favourite gang and the one in the middle as ally

I favoured the Operators because they are businessmen. They want to make money, not war. They're practically "my" gang.

The gang I dislike the most are the Disciples, they used to torture to death and now they're just less bloodthirsty and kill for fun.

So I have the Pack as my ally. They're essentially slavers, at least they're not killers for fun. Plus, the market place in NW is run by slaves so they're in control of the market. Much rather keep them on my side, with the business of the Operators, it's the least bloody bunch.

Not sure how to proceed from there but if I want to play with the minutemen, I will have to kill all gang leaders and their gang members. That will free the slaves and hopefully enable me to play a normal vanilla game. Apart from the obvious fact that I will have to get rid of the raiders who rule over the settlements I wish to claim.

Well Let's go..