Fallout 4

[Art Blade]

Back to my old playthrough and first character, I noticed something weird regarding water and power in Sanctuary.

In the build mode it said 35 people (OK) and 6 water (not OK) and power 155 (OK) but the water wasn't red. It should have either been red as it was definitely not enough for 35 peeps or it should have shown 46 which was the original amount of water.

I went to the large water purifier that was supposed to produce 40 water. It had its own power generator that produced 5 power units (the remaining 150 came from a Vault-Tec reactor) and they were wired and had juice and didn't need repairs. Why it didn't produce water was beyond me. I scrapped the water purifier and I kept 6 water (from two hand pumps) but all of a sudden, 155 power were shown in red. WHAT?! I tried again, scrapping the line, same result, scrapping the power generator, same result. Somehow these two objects, the water purifier and the generator were key for whatever weird glitch I came across, but I was unable to fix it.

I don't like having a settlement were something obviously is wrong, even if it's a glitch. I went back to an older savegame that had the correct values, and the moment I scrapped anything around that "water group," the same *bleep* happened again. What the flipping heck!

[fragger]

Have you tried hooking the water purifier up to the main power source (the Vault-Tec one) then scrapping the smaller generator?

Maybe the game doesn't like so much power being carried by two separate power sources, even if one is only a minor contributor. It shouldn't though, as I have some similar setups without any hassles, and even if it did, I would have thought that the problem would have shown up previously.

Or maybe try not doing anything, but instead leave the settlement, then come back. What does your Pip Boy say about it?

[Art Blade]

The moment I touch either the generator or the water purifier, the game sets the power to red, no matter what I do. The pip-boy shows the same as the build menu, an exclamation mark for power and no exclamation mark for 6 water. I also tried to fast- and slow travel to and from Sanctuary, to no avail.

I think I'm going to play a whole new playthrough akin to the first one (Minutemen ending, all factions alive but the Institute) following the guide. Only this time, I'll leave Nuka-World alone until past the end game. Then I'll achieve only the minimum requirement of three raider settlements and one supporting settlement so I don't have so much hassle as with eight plus one. There may be one or two random problems: vanilla game radiant quests sometimes send you to DLC-world locations. I had been sent to Far Harbour prior to discovering it, same goes for Nuka-World except I had discovered it. If that happens, I'll try to cheat my way in (toggle all map locations to discovered and allowing fast-travelling to them) as I did with my last playthrough and Far Harbor.

This will allow me to avoid mistakes I made during my first playthrough.

[Art Blade]

fragger, have you found the UFO yet? (I assume the other guys know that already)

UFO
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And by the way, I'm currently testing a mod that is supposed to keep Porter Gage as a companion even during/after "open season" which, if it works, allows me to play Nuka World at any time and then destroy them at Preston's command so I could follow the Minutemen with Porter Gage in my tow.

[mandru]

Art on the issue with the water purifier can you first store the wire connecting the small generator and then pick it up and walk off a ways before scrapping it?

An unconnected unit that needs power may cause the build mode to display that there is a lack of power in spite of an actual abundance available.

Maybe make a save and scrap all the offending components and then rebuild everything except the small generator. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Last night I had the mission to secure and set up defenses for a Railroad safe house (Mercer this time around located at Kingsport Lighthouse) from the Railroad agent Caretaker.  The first thing I did was drop one of the 100 unit generators which I planned to connect up to a few large pylons spaced out to cover the area for my defense line.  I was going to use heavy laser turrets.  I placed my turrets saving a key electrical connection from the generator to a single large pylon for last.  I intended to fire up all the wired turrets (at that point of my build) with that final single connection.

That was when I noticed that even though I had 100 units of power available the power total for the settlement was in red because there were power hungry turrets placed that were as yet unconnected.


Those rats the BoS strike yet again. 

In preparation for the initial meeting with Old man Stockton I needed to clear out the Tourist drop point but as I arrived a BoS patrol unit was fighting the raiders I was supposed to mop up.  They did not kill the raiders they merely knocked them down in a fashion similar to when one of my companions are injured and need a stimpack to get right back into a fight.

Then the BoS trio (considering it a job well done) blithely strolled off and right directly into the nest of swarmbots that are the opening event for the Quest Mechanical Menace which I had been cautiously avoiding as I had accidentally tripped over that mission starter once before and needed a reload to a previous save to keep from being drawn into that portion of the game before I was ready to speak to the surviving robot (possibly Ada?).

Now I have a never before seen infestation of swarmbots (and there was one huge lunker with them  ) appearing in random locations up to and including the parking terrace directly West of The Castle. 

I really should have held off on killing Kellogg! 


Also the back story for University Point.  An agent showed up and identified himself as representing the Institute.  He stated that the town needed to turn over a girl who had found something the Institute required.  Jacqueline Spencer who had while scavenging had found a hard drive containing information regarding a professor's research on reactor efficiency.  Basically it was an ultimatum that turn over the girl or the town would be wiped out and he would take her anyway.

There was some question in the mind of the mayor as to whether this person's claim was the truth or not and he managed to record part of the confrontation with the agent.  It's clear from the voice that it was Kellogg's voice on the tape to be found in the mayor's terminal.

[Art Blade]

I came across that tape, too, but didn't make the connection. Interesting conclusion, mandru

Yes, that bot would be Ada.

With all DLC installed, you'll find some "cross-overs" in the wastelands, like finding guns from Far Harbor or Robots from Automatron and so on.

I tried everything regarding that purifier. Nothing helped. And I really didn't feel like tearing apart Sanctuary because obviously it's a glitch. Let me rephrase that. When I first noticed something was off, I went on a search and then I found that water purifier. Later I found street lamps that were lit but looking at one of them, the build mode showed it was lacking power. How can a lamp w0#k, which it obviously did, without power? That was when I gave up on that bugged game.

Now, the test (using an early Damascene savegame) regarding the mod for Porter Gage has failed. It would seem that the mod author had success with it under specific circumstances and even then he admitted that Porter turned hostiles sometimes. I'll scratch it. The only way I can actually keep Porter is indeed starting Nuka Workd after the endgame and by that, piss off Preston. I'm not sure that I like that, just for one companion. So I will indeed start a new career. This time around I'll ditch all those build mods. The stuff to build settlements with is actually good enough and the few times I used items from the mods were not worth lugging a huge mod installation around with me. And it's definitely one source less regarding possible glitches

[fragger]

One of those build mods may just be responsible for your power woes Art, you never know. It might have just taken a while to manifest itself.

No, I haven't found the crashed UFO yet. I didn't even know about it, although I did know about the alien weapon that exists in the game. Don't tell me where it is, I'll see if I can come across it. I'm not progressing through the story any further just yet because I want to get X6-88 and Danse maxed out in affinity first to get their perks, so I'm currently travelling with X and basically just wandering around the map exploring and looking for trouble. I've been poking around areas which I haven't fully checked out before, so I might come across the UFO. I've still finding stuff I've never found before, even after almost two months of playing. I found not one but two new junk vendors out in the countryside and came across one of those little impromptu side missions at Drumlin Diner, where a drug dealer and his floozy where threatening the woman in the diner because her son owed them money. I peacefully resolved that one, now the mother is a new vendor I can visit.

I only just recently met the Atom Cats. Those power-armoured beatniks are cool, daddy-o I found and listened to their "poem night" tapes. Funny stuff If not for the war they'd be doing their poetry readings in a coffee house while a dude with a beret, a goatee and a striped T-shirt accompanied them on bongos as the squares looked on in bewilderment.

I also ventured into the Glowing Sea and found a bunch of new locations there too. I always take my lead-lined power armour for rad protection in that godforsaken place... Works well, I take barely any rad damage in that suit despite the constant rad storm crackling all around and the puddles of radioactive slag.

On another note, I like the way that your progress in the story causes updates to Travis' news reports on DC Radio, nice touch You still hear the old ones as well, but new things you've done unlock new news stories for Travis to report. For instance, after doing Covenant, I now hear Travis talking about it on the radio. Since I had to wipe out all the people there because of my decision to free the synth (plus I wanted it as a settlement), Travis now reports a story about how everybody in Covenant seems to have disappeared. Makes me wonder what he would have said about Covenant, if anything, had I made a different choice.

[Art Blade]

yeah, it's cool that DC Radio features real news flashes. Also how Travis changed his tone on the radio once you helped him become a "real man."

Depending on how peacefully you solved the situation at Drumlin Diner, the drug dealer should be hanging out in front of it and be available to you as a chems vendor so you get two vendors right next to each other.

I took the screenie of the UFO so you'd see it without being able to tell where it is, I know you like to find stuff on your own which is why I haven't spoiled anything for you (I sincerely hope I didn't) Regarding that UFO, if you're lucky, you'll even see it in the skies and can hear the detonation when it crashes. In my first playthrough I saw the smoke trail in the sky and heard the bang. The second time around, I only found the wreck which was when I took that screenie.

The map is massive and there are plenty of locations. Remember when I told you (guys) that even after over a thousand hours, I still found new stuff?

Maybe the mods were responsible for the power/water glitch which is why I decided not to use any of them this time around. Only the "scrap everything" mod which I really like, I can scrap debris and trash and this time I even scrapped the markers for NPCs in Sanctuary where the workbench is, the markers that are responsible for those nerve-wrecking activities of random NPCs around that house where they start to hammer the living daylights out of walls without repairing anything. This time there will be silence around the house

Which means, I've indeed started a new career as "Art" and I'm going to enjoy it slowly. I did, however, install a mod that first removed ALL comic books and stuff like that, those collectibles that give you boosts and perks, as well as all bobble heads, and it stashed them right next to the entrance of Vault 111 in that guard house in two boxes and on a shelf. The trick was to first remove the original items and then store them so if you pick them up, they actually count as if you had been to the right location. Very cool and made for just that very purpose that I installed it for: for a new start after having played through, so you won't have to bother searching the entire maps. I even got the achievements for finding all magazines (there were actually only a handful that I hadn't found) and so forth when I tested it with my other character.

I moved (backed up) all my savegames again so the game made me start a new career, and I did the same with all those screenshots in the steam folder (over 11,000 screenies worth some 4.6 GB) so I can take screenies without piling them up on top of all the others.

New Start (as "Art")
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[mandru]

Art I was wondering about freeing up drive space by deleting save points.

Is it enough to delete the old saves in the game as I'm playing or do I need to go into some specific file on my hard drive and make the deletions from there?

[Art Blade]

it's exactly the same, whatever you prefer

[Art Blade]

Hehe, it's fun to play with a "serious" character again, not one like Damascene Blade who essentially was a sarcastic raider.

By the way, I accidentally found out that you can kill the Deathclaw from the roof of the museum without actually using the PA nor the minigun if you don't want to. I found out because I was playing around and wasted time there which a newbie wouldn't dare to do -- at least my first time I was both eager and frightened and rushed to the PA and down the streets to face whatever it was, the Deathclaw. The second time I was just trying to get it over with, so again I rushed it. This time, slowly, taking in the sight, and noticed a raider on the roof opposite of the museum so I killed him, without PA nor minigun, and then I saw another raider down in the street, shot him a couple of times and Preston finished him off from the balcony below and close to me. And then the Deathclaw popped up. So it's a timed event of sorts. Funny.

on the way to Sanctuary
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[mandru]

Thanks for the info on clearing out Saves Art. 

I found out that the female voice actress Anne Hargraves at the radio station WRVR which is across the waterway from the Coast Guard Pier (just North of Egret Tours Marina) could be lured away to be a shop keeper in one of your settlements.  The dialog with her that brought that discovery about was when she mentioned that she was a seamstress before becoming an actress which then gave me the option to invite her to come to w0#k for me as a clothing shopkeeper.

[Art Blade]

nice, I never knew that

[fragger]

Thanks Art, I appreciate your discretion Cool new avi, by the way

Nice bit of reasoning there, mandru

It's occurred to me that playing altruistically pays off in this game. My advice to anybody who is thinking of getting into this is to make "decent" decisions first time around. There are some moral choices that need to be made, and most conversations with characters present you with multiple-choice responses which usually include "polite" answers and "rude" answers, in varying degrees (never more than 4 choices at a time). Doing the right thing by people will often induce them to bestow rewards and/or unique goodies upon you, so play nice, at least the first time around. Once you've done a playthrough, then you can try being a dick for the hell of it, like Art did. There will be funny responses, but at the cost of missing out on some neat gifts and advantages.

One example that springs to mind was the old guy in Diamond City who offered me some money if I were to find him some green paint for his wall. When I returned with the paint, one of the response choices was something like, "Ask for more money". I didn't - instead, I chose "I was happy to help", or words to that effect, and humoured him. The old fellow ended up giving me more money than he originally offered, just for being decent.

It also helps sometimes to question people. Sometimes a response will obviously be intended to end the conversation, while another will be intended to get more info out of the person. Always go for the "more info" type response as it can yield not just useful info but occasionally an extra goody or advantage of some sort.

I found a couple of new places today. One was the Yangtze. I met an excited kid on a dock going on about the "sea monster" he'd seen, so I cautiously swam out towards a derelict garbage scow expecting a big nasty critter of some sort to come after me. Then I saw the sea monster's "head" and correctly guessed at the true nature of it. That was a cool little mish. I'd been carrying a Damping Coil around with me since I found it ages ago, with no idea what its purpose could be. So when Zao told me where I could find one to help him out, I already had it on me, thus avoiding an additional trip. It pays to explore! I have a few other bits and pieces like that in my "Misc" inventory. No doubt they will come into use at some point, in some mission I haven't done yet.

I also found the Boston Mayoral Bunker, and ventured in. Finding and listening to the holotapes from the Mayor, his wife and a guard revealed what had taken place inside. Funny - I didn't encounter any enemies of any sort on my way in until I found the Mayor's wife's holotape and played it. When I came out of the machine room where I'd found the tape, there were Synths everywhere, but they didn't attack. Maybe because I'd been to the Institute and they knew who I was, or maybe because I had X6-88 with me, or both. Instead they said stuff like, "All clear, Ma'am" and went about their business.

I did find the cave off the basement with the Deathclaw lurking in it. I just knew there would be something like that in there. I don't fear them anymore though, not with Dr. Gauss on my side

I found a poster with the first of Covenant's "SAFE" questions on it.
It's hard to make out, but it says "What is your response?" in red at the bottom.

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Here's Boston's ex-Mayor. It seems that rather than face the wrath of his constituents for lavishing their tax dollars on his family
and stuffing his own comfortable bomb shelter with a ton of goodies while leaving everyone else to deal with the bombs,
he decided to get drunk and end it all by taking an electric bath.

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[Art Blade]

Cheers mate It's my current FO4 character.

Nice pics There are so many details in this game, aren't there.

You recommended to make "decent" decisions because they mattered.

I'm going to comment on that not to spoil anything but to reveal that it isn't exactly as you thought it was which isn't even your fault, it's a little smoke and mirrors from Bethesda: unfortunately, they usually create an illusion of choice.

Some people argue that Bethesda likely didn't have enough time to develop a proper RPG in which speech choices actually mattered. Simply put, it almost never matters which choices you make, the result will almost always be the same. I'm not going to spoil it for you when those choices actually do matter. Also, this doesn't count towards affinity with companions as they're passive observers during conversations with other people and respond differently to the same situations. However, you mentioned the guy painting the Green Wall.

As Damascene, I asked for more money than his initial 100 caps, going through yellow, 125, orange, 150, and red, 200 caps speech checks and mocked the guy, too. So I gave him his green colour (an item I knew I'd need for him, I had it with me) and when he checked my paint, he said, "Mmmmm. That's a good shade of green. The wall sure seems happy with it." Of course, playing the bad girl, I replied, "'the wall seems happy with it?' Oh god," and he said, "Yeah, yeah, make with the jokes, but you still helped. Here's your payment and a little bonus for getting the right shade of green. Don't do anything with it I wouldn't do."

The last part of his reply was exactly the one you got when being nice. Only I got more money and had a bad feeling about it In other words, it is an illusion of choice. In the end, it doesn't matter whom you encounter, your choices lead to different conversations, shorter or longer, unfriendly or friendly, but the result was already determined the moment you arrived. You simply don't have a real choice. I am a little disappointed by that. I had hoped to get a lot more "bad" results from playing badly, as Damascene.

One example (that I know you already went through) when it actually matters is the Drumlin Diner situation. There you can have various outcomes, ranging from peace to total annihilation. You do the right thing and have two vendors or do the wrong thing and have several dead bodies.

Nevertheless, I totally agree with you, I too recommend the friendly way for the first time through as indeed it is more satisfying and the dialogues are nicer and it does feel better to "do the right thing" rather than being a complete dick.

The Yangtze, that one cracked me up when I put in the components the wrong way (for shits and giggles) despite the warning to pay attention The responses of people are so funny at times, especially if you don't "do the right thing"