Fallout 4

[Art Blade]

indeed. Well, I hope that you achieve your goals in a timely fashion without creating too much of a chore for yourself.

[fragger]

It's never a chore, it's a fun planning exercise

I found the pot-plants, indeed they are from an issue of Picket Fences, which I found inside the Combat Zone, of all places. Why some bloodthirsty Raider would bring a home-decorating magazine to a brutal cage-fight arena I don't know... He doesn't have to worry about his mates finding out though, they're all dead

[fragger]

The "Nerve Centre" is almost complete now, except for the required power. I purposely only have enough to run the lights.
Maybe I should call it "The Nexus" There are two gaps in the railings at the corners of the lower observation deck
because originally I was going to have laser turrets there, but I changed my mind and have since completed the railings.

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First and second floors: Manufacturing and storage below (with machines for Armor, Ammo and Energy Weapons),
Power Armor depot and workshops above (no chemistry workbench this time, I never use it).

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Third Floor: Library, I guess. Magazines collected go in here,
and outfit mannequins will be later added, between the racks (w0#k in progress).

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Fourth floor, the penthouse suite
Still needs a bit of populating, but I don't want it too cluttered either.

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The far-right corner of the place in the pic below is empty - that's reserved for my
Overseer's Desk and Population Management Terminal. Stairs continue to lead up onto an observation roof.

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This space is reserved for two Fusion generators.
At the moment, there's just one lonely little genny in there, running the lights.

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Note the switch next to the door, I can switch the lights on and off from there (the cabling will be made less obvious once I get the fusion gennys in - I have that nutted out already). There is another switch inside the building on a separate circuit that will operate the manufacturing machines, so I don't have to listen to them chugging away all the time (they keep running even when you're not actually making anything otherwise). I want to have it so that the lights and the machines can be switched on/off independently. I just have to figure out how to wire it up like that, so that power to the machines doesn't also make the lights come on. I think I have a way around it, I just need to test it out.

[Art Blade]

man, that looks impressive. Really well done, fragger

Wiring: One power line from the generator(s) to a conduit. From there two power lines that each connect to a "main" switch. That's where you branch out to construction and domestic stuff.

What I don't get is how you created those round corners at the top. I know the concrete quarter-circle wall slab but I never had a matching concrete roof or floor tile. How did you solve it?

[mandru]

Nice pics guys.  I always enjoy seeing the builds you guys assemble as opposed to the functional but quick and dirty toss ups I slap together. 

On the subject of fast traveling to a hot spot (settlement under attack or otherwise) I don't believe that unless I've taken care to strategically set up the settlement arrival mat I haven't popped up right in the middle of the attacking force. 


The new happiness items that become available with the full game are providing some amusement.  Witnessing Far Harbor's Old Longfellow in his original clothing being a usage hog on the pommel horse all while warning me repeatedly that we were running low on whiskey gave me quite a chuckle.


I've come to peaceful terms with the Mechanist and now have all the attending benefits included in that arrangement.  However in trying various things I'm bumping into some serious limitations that I'll need time to ponder to see if there is any real benefit beyond all robot mods are now unlocked and the Roguebot missions.  I'll need to expend further skull sweat hashing out the available properties of that site to open it up to its best usable functionality.

One of the upgrades on the bot builds is a bot providing enhancement of Stealth for nearby allies.  This intrigues me as I am playing under the character build of a walking PA equipped battle tank with the perked up ability to sneak up on and (with my new unlocked DLC content high level blade) one-hit a maxed level Queen Fog Crawler using the 10X ninja sneak bonus stacked with every other sneak perk.

What troubles me in adding that to Ada?

She's the bloody poster child of blatant clanking obviousness who shouts back full volume responses confirming any directions I've given her while I'm in sneak mode. 

[Art Blade]

 

[mandru]

Even though I've not invested in the perks for the Lone Wanderer I'm happiest when I'm traveling alone.  Even Dogmeat is a nuisance and trips me (and often every trap we encounter) up more times than I feel he's worth.  The companion perks are nice but this play through I'm having trouble justifying the advantages of those perks against the inconveniences of dragging them along.

I've never liked Escort Missions when they pop up in almost every PC game I've ever played.  I've yet to encounter a companion that actually enhances my game play.  I always feel like it's an escort mission every time I have a companion and on top of that for every decision I make I have to be mindful of whether I have to stick my pinky out or not while sipping my tea. 

Jollying Ada into the Mechanist's Lair was a constant tedious routine of parking her in a safe spot, moving on ahead to establish a new safe spot and then running back to retrieve Ada so I could park her while I clear out the next safe parking spot. 

I kind of felt like it turned a twenty minute "raid and sweep" into a two and a half hour ordeal.


The Robot Repair Kit is basically what we (the locals of the area where I grew up) would have called a cattle prod.  It's unfortunate that there's not a way to use it on Settlers who refuse to get on and stick to the jobs I've assigned them. 

[Art Blade]

This time around I too left Dogmeat behind and indeed, those companions are usually getting on my nerves more than they actually help me. What I find extremely annoying is that some of them (as well as other characters) call you a leader but they still keep telling you what to do. It should be the other way round. Well.. it's how it goes. The only companion that I really had fun with was, of all things, that Nuka World raider Porter Gage. If only he wasn't related to the raiders..

[fragger]

You're right Art, there is no matching roof section for the curved piece of concrete wall. However, you can get around it by using the quarter-sized steel floor sections in the Concrete/Floors menu (the fifth and sixth items along. Even though they're steel, they're in the Concrete menu). So it looks like this:

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The colours won't match, but this is the only way you can do it.

There's a trick though. Because the curved wall slab is only one-quarter the size of a roof slab, you have to add half-sections of wall to them (Item 5 in Concrete/Walls) otherwise the adjoining roof sections will overlap and thus won't snap on. Then you can snap full sized sections of wall slab to those, like this:

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What you do next depends on whether you plan on using plain roof slabs (Items 1 or 2 in "Roofs"), or the "Floor-Upper" slabs (Item 4 in "Floors") which have a ceiling on the bottom and a floor on top, for multi-floor buildings. If you use either, you must place the curved quarter section first, like this:

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This section will snap to the top of the curved wall. If you try to place one of the square quarters first, it will either: refuse to snap in the case of a plain roof, or; it will snap to the upper half of a "Floor-Upper"slab . In the latter case, you'll end up with a gap between the quarters and the tops of the walls, like so:

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But if you place the curved quarter first, the square quarters will snap to that and not the Floor-Upper slab, and there will be no gap, as in the first picture.

Looking from above: If you use plain roof slabs, the top will be flush:

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If you use "Floor-Upper" slabs for the roof, the quarters will be sunken (because they're only half the thickness of a Floor-Upper):

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If you want the quarters flush with the top of a Floor-Upper, you need to place the square quarters first, then the curved one. The top will then be flush, but you will end up with that gap underneath as seen in pic 4.

Depends which way you want it.

[Art Blade]

I didn't try what you did when I first created gaps, I thought it wouldn't fit. Very nice and thanks for the pics

[mandru]

It has surprised me that both Rust Devil swarmbots and the Mechanist's roguebots (from those radiant clean up missions) both fight with Institute synths. 

[fragger]

Oh, and thanks for the nice comments, guys

I mostly agree with your views on companions, they can be more of a hindrance than a help. Three have been times when I've known there are bad guys behind a closed door whom I don't want to alert yet while I'm sneaking around snaffling up junk, so I'd leave the door closed until I'm ready to take them on - only to have my companion go barging ahead to fling the door open themselves and start a ruckus right behind me while I'm poking around with my back turned They also have a talent for blocking stairways and falling off things.

Occasionally I've struck a glitch where a companion will fall off a high rooftop or elevated freeway, and from that point on, they will always be sitting on their backsides like they do when they're "wounded". If I move far enough away, they'll "teleport" to catch up to me, only to be still sitting on their bums. I can't stimpak them upright and they won't get back on their feet until I fast-travel somewhere, then they come good. Otherwise, they just "bum-jump" from one place to another in my wake.

But companions have their advantages too, like drawing some of the fire from a turret or an enemy and allowing me an unmolested shot, and there have been times when their additional gun has saved my bacon. And they come in especially handy for me on my scrounging runs for carrying excess junk items and looted weapons for bartering. A good haul of picked-up weapons loaded into a companion can bring in a couple of hundred extra caps come trading time.

I find them to be a bit of a double-edged sword.

[mandru]

When I'm lining up a tricky long distance sniper shot that's key to being able to stealth my way through an area and Ada (right as I'm dropping the hammer) steps in front of me looking right into the other end of the scope as if to say "I'm ready for my close up Mr. DeMille"...

Yeah, I'd like to hit her with a double edged sword. 

[Art Blade]

 

Oh man, those companion-related shenanigans. For some reason, Ada has a way of getting right in your face all the time, particularly when you want to aim at something. Ada, for heaven's sake, move it! I'm trying to aim at the Deathclaw right behind you. Right behind you! Why are you staring at me, blocking my view, and manage to completely ignore the threat that is literally breathing right down your neck? They are so blind at times, it's crazy. Not only the companions, luckily some enemies are completely unaware of your presence despite the fact that you're only a few strides away from them, looking right at them. Pot shot time

I had those "close-ups" in my scope way too often. Before acquiring the perk that prevents them from taking damage caused by your actions, they can actually cause a chain of unnecessary and annoying events in a single go: I remember Preston running into my line of sight and at the time right into my line of fire just to soak up the entire burst of bullets that were supposed to take out an enemy (come to think of it, that almost only happens when I'm not using VATS) so I saw him going down, accompanied by his "oof" and "I'm badly hurt" -- one more stimpack out the window. The enemy, meanwhile, started shooting at us, at the time alarming all of their friends who of course started to fire at us, too. So Preston sat down again with an "ahh" and in need of yet another stimpack. Which meant, I had to clean up the entire mess on my own. Great support there, Preston I mean, nonetheless, it made me laugh the moment I took out Preston and hearing him going, "oof!" And yes, indeed, sometimes they come in handy when it comes to drawing attention. I remember Preston sitting in the open and every few seconds the fire ball of a nuke explosion swallowed him. He had been drawing fire from some rocket launcher-wielding supermutants. Took some time to spot them, being blinded in the dark by those explosions. Those were some of Preston's brightest moments, I reckon

Or good grief, how they always move to where you're looking at. Particularly when looking into a tight room like a toilet cubicle, they just have to squeeze in there, too, so it's too crammed to move and then they're blocking the only exit I have learned with time that you can use that game mechanic to trick them. When I intend to go into a small room, I aim/look somewhere close to but away from that room and sure enough, they come galloping from behind and overshoot in the direction I have been looking, so I quickly turn and go into MY room Hehehe, that made me grin more than once.

Then there is the dog and his specialty: Woof, Dogmeat "found something." There are several variants to that. OK, he might spot something like a safe or an ammo crate or a chem cooler which is nice, if I don't have anything else on my mind and if I can see the dog when he's on it. Which is exactly summing up three points that can go wrong or on my nerves.

First, he starts a hell of a ruckus only to find a bowler hat that he swallows right before my very eyes so I have to pump that thing out of him and toss it away. I can do without that kind of items but when he's barking, no one knows what he found, exactly, so a lot of the stuff he finds is worthless to me. It's worth taking a look into dog what he's accumulated over time. A pipe pistol, a dirty blue suit, a stimpack, some welding goggles, a shotgun.. Geez, dog, you're a barking hoover.

Second, he tends to find stuff and bark when I'm really not in the mood for it or I am busy with something else, that damn mutt keeps barking and going up and down the attention-seeking playlist until I give in and try to check out what the heck he's found this time around. And then I find him staring at a wall, completely mesmerised by it, playfully shifting his weight from the left to the right and back, all excited about what, exactly? Great, dog, that's.. a wall. Where is that thing you found? Probably behind that wall. So I have to run around and try to find a way behind the wall and then to figure out what he had spotted. Excellent, good job, dog.

So that leads to third, "where the hell is the dog?" He tends to dash off in the dark or around the corner or even starts barking out of my sight, and I have to spend some time trying to find him. I keep hearing him barking but I don't know where he went to. By the time I spot him, he had decided that I was taking too long and bloody forgot what he wanted to show me. Actually, that happens quite frequently. Once I was at the start of a long speech someone was giving me when the dog found something and kept barking over the speech all the bloody time. By the time the speech was finished, the dog was finished barking, too. He had given up and was now looking at me as if saying, "what."

And yes, stealth. You know those situations when you're some place that's really dark, like a dark lobby or a shop, or just some kind of spooky room, only a candle light some distance away, a lot of aggressive yet inactive enemies like feral ghouls lurking in the dark.. so I am crouched, carefully looting stuff behind cover, not making any noise, not making my presence known to anyone nearby.. I like that kind of atmosphere and the little thrill, the mood it puts me in, I'm wound up and ready to jump at the slightest occurrence and WHAM BANG DING DONG, dog comes flying in, slamming into a pile of junk and kicking over all the loose stuff sending it flying everywhere across the room. Of course, all that ruckus not without first noisily rattling all of those tin can chain alarm traps that were hanging in his way in, adding to the noise of the flying junk. While I try to recover from that near-death experience, I hear a multiple RAAAARGH! and notice all the ghouls that had come to and are now leaping at us to pay their respect. Oh yes, I love it.

[mandru]

Preston's brightest moment.