Fallout 4

[mandru]

Thanks for the offer on the Fast Loading Mod D_B but I don't do modding.

It's too far over my head and I tend to avoid things that can glitch up my gaming even more so than what the developers manage on their own.  So it wouldn't help me much. 

I was under the impression that the launch of the Creation Club mod pool rendered preexisting mods either code-illegal or obsolete. 

[Art Blade]

the creation club is an attempt to make money. "Players like mods and can download them for FREE?" So Bethesda convinced modders to publish for them and by that, monetise mods. The free mods still w0#k and still new free mods are being published on the nexus but some needed to be patched sometimes to keep working with game software updates. That's normal.

The easiest way to use mods is by using the so-called mod manager which can be downloaded from the nexus (see top of the page, left of your log-in name)

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

It downloads and installs mods (that you choose from the nexus) for you. You simply browse the nexus and click on the button that reads download: "NMM" (nexus mod manager) rather than "manual." You may then dis- and enable mods or delete or update them using the stand-alone program NMM.

D_B has been doing it like this for ages which is why I gave up on manual downloads and mod-sorting and instead, I'm using NMM now. It really makes it easy.

[Art Blade]

mandru, my fellow FO4 erm, console friend ( )

I found something you might not know. You may add the instigating legendary effect to your player character. It doubles your damage.. FO4 uses it during the endgame.

player.addperk 001fa246

and you can remove it like so:

player.removeperk 001fa246

[fragger]

very cool, fragger I'd almost be inclined to offer you a job as a scavenger over at my FO4 settlements

I do like to poke around

I like to have that thing you can build in your settlements that attracts trader caravans - the "Caravan Stop", or whatever it's called. I always have one of those in Sanctuary. You never know which itinerant trader might show up - I've seen traders appear there who normally never venture anywhere near that part of the world, like Lucas or Doc Weathers. In fact when I built my very first one, the first roving trader to show up was Cricket, who normally seems confined to an area between the Vault 81 entrance and Warwick Homestead (which is a pretty big area, but it's nowhere near Sanctuary). When I approached her, she said something like, "There's nothing here but farmers!" in a kind of miffed tone Oddly enough, I've only ever seen her there once. I guess she couldn't handle the relatively tranquil environment and decided to go someplace where more mischief was being made...

mandru, I've never been a mod guy either. As far as I can recall, I've never modded a game in my life, but for me, it's not so much about whether it's safe to do so or not (although there is a bit of that). It's more that I'm a bit of a stickler for playing a game the way it was intended to be played. I'm not trying to be sanctimonious or anything, it's just the way I am. But whatever floats a player's boat is fine with me - I don't mind how much modding anyone does if it makes them happy I do understand your caution though, I am a bit the same, even though as Art mentioned, D_B has been using FO4 mods for years without major issues. It's just that (as you are all too aware) a game of FO4 can entail a significant time investment in character building. I hate the thought that a several-months-long build might get clouted by a game update clashing with a mod or something and pushing me all the way back to square one

[Art Blade]

I've been using FO mods for years on end, too. The only real difference between D_B and me was a program that organises mods. That's what I have only been using for a relatively short period.

Cricket keeps showing up at Sanctuary (I've got that trader spot there, too) and virtually every trader there is except of course those really special ones like that guy who opened up a bar in the woods (it's more like a tier1 trader stand) and the likes.

Speaking of Sanctuary, I just found out that for the first time ever it hit 100% happiness. That's after everyone but Mama Murphy moved to Starlight Drive-In No food, still 100%! She might be living off my own food and chem stash there

[Art Blade]

I have to add that in Sanctuary there are 34 empty beds, still 100% happiness. So much for the "empty beds might make them sad" theory.

[Art Blade]

I did it. New Sanctuary FO4 power armour collection, this time using those displays.

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[fragger]

Very cool, Art

I like those PA display racks, I use them too, even though they use up 1 unit of power each (if you want them lit up). It's good how they snap together, so you don't have to fiddle around with the placement of every single one. It's just getting that first one in the right place... I also like how two of them side by side fit perfectly on a standard floor slab, as do the wall-mounted weapon racks, so you can make one big continuous wall of them and they'll fit perfectly in a room.

I don't know why some items like the PA racks are initially positioned with the back of them towards you when you first select them, so that if you want them against a wall you have to rotate them before placing them, which can be a bit of a finicky process. I usually get them as close as I can, plonk one down in the middle of a room using the floor texture to line it (and myself) up, then pick it up again for final placement. There should be a shortcut key or something that rotates a display item in exact 90 degree increments (or is that something else I've missed? )

[Art Blade]

thank you

And no, you have to do it manually.

That, and as to power consumption.. (by the way, we're talking about what you can see in the screenshot) here's the story for you guys and yes, you may chortle:

I created a new house in Sanctuary for the sole purpose of finally displaying my collection of power armour sets properly. I had never ever before used those racks, it was about time. I "plonked one down" in the corner and kept snapping a new one to the respectively previous one, all the way down the room until I had a perfect line along one wall comprising 16 of those racks. Excellent. Yet.. something was wrong. I realised I had placed them with their backs pointing towards the room, they were facing the walls. Just as fragger mentioned.. you need to turn them around first. Luckily, it wasn't a big problem. Rip them out of the line, turn them around, snap them back in, done. Sixteen times.

Now the opposing wall. It went well until I reached about the middle of the room when I couldn't snap the next rack to the previous one anymore because the angle of the line had led into the wall. So I had to start to rearrange that line. Of course you can't move those things with snap-ability just a bit to the side because that magnet-effect sucks them right back at where you took them from, so I started to rip rack after rack out of the old line, put them somewhere behind me and they snapped into a new temporary line. Then I rearranged the first one (oh yes, a 90° angle would have been nice, as well as the ability to snap them to the ground tile) by turning it just slightly and did the whole thing in reverse this time. Rack after rack back into the old line.

Having successfully rearranged the existing eight racks, I continued plonking down new ones so I ended up with another 16-units-line. Only this time I had turned the first one a tad too much so the line pointed halfway into the middle rather than along the wall. I had created a nasty gap, a wedge of emptiness, behind this line. So.. we rinse and repeat. Finally, done. 32 display racks.

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Right, they need to be wired. I drew a power line from the massive Vault-Tec Reactor. I was completely convinced that I had a massive power surplus, and just ONE power per rack, that's nothing, nothing to worry about. 32 power, pffft. So I connected all of my racks and indeed, they lit up nicely.

And then I started to walk the power armours from that Terracotta Army next doors over to their new home. And because I didn't want to broach a new fusion core every time I jumped into a new power armour—I already had 16 broached ones, collected over time, probably they were all broached just because I had hit "enter" rather than "transfer" (it automatically grabs a 100/100 core so a broached fusion core can only be transferred manually into the power armour)—I stashed all but one away into a box next to the entrance. Which meant, on one hand, I was now able to mindlessly "enter" a power armour but on the other hand I had to manually remove that one fusion core again. Thirty-two times.

Just by the way, I didn't expect those racks to be difficult to handle. With my first power armour still on me (the only power armour in the room at that time) I wasn't able to get that thing onto the rack. I hit the "activate" key but nothing happened. Tapping, holding.. nothing. I got out of my power armour and tried again, nothing. I actually had to read up on how those bastards worked. The best way is actually to walk into the rack, get out of the power armour, and then hit "activate." It worked, finally. Apparently I had tried to activate a rack that wasn't closest to my armour, and no, it doesn't w0#k while you're wearing it. Unlike the power armour station. Silly.

And there were more power armour sets in the old house than I had racks in the new one. Eight more power armour sets, some of them incomplete, missing a leg here and an arm there and so forth. Great. Time to build a second floor, essentially the whole thing again. And the whole thing with those racks. Obviously a room the same size as the original one doesn't look right with just a few racks. So, two rows, 16 racks each. And yes, that 90° angle and along the wall problem, once more. Once more per row, that is. Obviously a room the same size and with 32 racks doesn't look right when they're not lit. No problem. I wired them all. And I walked eight more times, armed with one fusion core, to put those power armours on display. Finally done.

And then I realised one of those racks wasn't lit anymore.

Rewired, done. Downstairs, three racks were not lit anymore. Rewiring. Checking. It kept happening. So I started to plop down conduits, rewired them, used a bigger power pylon, drew new lines straight from the reactor, anything I could come up with. In the end, I had probably 30+ new conduits on the outside and like twice as many new power lines until all of the racks were lit and stayed lit. Save game, done.

It was dark when I left the finished, well-lit exhibition rooms and turning around, I saw their old home, you know, that central house with all the shops, lights, and.. wait a minute

That house was.. dark.

Just a few lights. Large parts were not lit.

Panic started to creep up my spine. You've got to be kidding. I was visualising myself rewiring that building now.

And then it dawned on me. Power.. shortage? And I realised that I had only a Vault-Tec Reactor (150 power units) rather than a Super Reactor with 500 power units. I plonked down two of those fusion generators and EVERYTHING lit up.

Never underestimate "just one power" for just one rack. If you build 64 of them.

[mandru]

Thanks Art for the add/remove perk tip. 

Cool PA display set up Art.

The PA Suits have been left out in the weather for 200 years (some submerged in mucky water) and still many register as being in perfect condition when dropped into the workbench for their initial inspection.  So in my rush to fix things up for the settlers I'm a little less than concerned about sheltering PA.

My quick and dirty approach to settlement building is showing. 

[mandru]

One of my first efforts in laying out the design for a new settlement is finding the lowest spot in the build area.  That is where I will build a concrete enclosure to protect my generators and often water purifiers if there is no open water source available.

By placing a small power conduit stub either the upwards ones or horizontals depending on which fits closest to the ground.  Then using the wire glitch by connecting to the same type small conduits (also placed on the ground) near the target I'm trying to power I can power the settlement with as few visible wires as possible.

It also removes the temptation and option for enemies to shoot out visible power pylons. 

One small problem I'm with this new computer and the re-install of FO4 is that the wire glitch has become fussy and I often have to fiddle with various approaches (exiting build mode or engaging console code TCL on and off) to get the initial connection started so I can run a link out to my intended target conduit.

[Art Blade]

Thank you, mandru

oh man, shot-out power pylons, I remember that happening to me, long ago, and ruined generators, too.

The wire glitch is precious, it changes so much the way we can build. Strange, though, that you're having trouble with it now. Maybe it is related to "as close to the ground as possible?" Maybe try a little more space so the conduits are free?

[mandru]

The wire glitch problem is wide spread.  Either at ground level or four levels up while trying to pull a power connection in through a wall section or down through roof panel.

I have several things I can try in case the first few attempts of drawing a link off of an existing power line doesn't w0#k that I can go through until getting that audio zap that tells me that I've caught the spark and can run the line.

It's not that big of a problem as I can one way or another eventually find a w0#k around. 

[Art Blade]

good

[fragger]

lol Art, I too have had to do the rip-out-and-do-again thing with those PA racks. The first one only has to be out of line by a whisker, but then that whisker grows along the line until you have a full beard's worth of deviance at the far end. It's a bit like bricklaying Same with getting them to fit perfectly within a given stretch of wall. A couple of times it's all gone well, but the last rack wouldn't fit in a corner because the first one wasn't quite on the edge of the first slab

Maybe I'm misreading what you reported, but did you know you can wire the PA racks directly to one another? They act like connectors themselves. You don't need to run a wire from an outside connector to every single rack. In Workshop mode, just highlight the first rack in line, hit "space", then highlight the next rack in the line, hit space again, and so on. The wires automatically connect between the racks, and each rack will conduct the power. You don't need to have a connector for each one. Just one initial wire to the first rack in line, then wire them directly from one to the next Looks good too because the wires are pretty well hidden behind the racks.

And yep, you have to walk a suit into a rack, then get out of it and move your view around a bit until the rack's name appears, then hit enter (or whatever key it says). The suit will then snap into position inside the rack. I find it easiest to move my view down towards the bottom of the rack to get the "Display" prompt.

One thing, though - if a suit is in a rack against a wall and you put a Fusion Core in the suit, you'll then find yourself stuck between the suit and the wall, because the game automatically positions you behind the suit when you insert a Core. Unless you then get into the suit, you won't be able to get out. You'll have no choice but to enter the suit, walk it out of the rack, turn around and walk the suit back in again, then get out. Then do the positioning thing again to get the suit properly displayed in the rack. So if you're going to power up a PA suit in a rack against a wall, be sure you really want to get into the suit!

mandru, I've found that the wire exploit seems to w0#k most reliably if I'm positioned so that I'm facing the connector and the existing wire goes back over my head, or back between my feet. If I'm side-on to the connector or trying to do it from behind (so that the existing wire trails away from me), it won't w0#k. Having said that though, sometimes I get lucky and it does. Like you inferred, it's just a matter of finding the right spot, and there almost always seems to be one - somewhere. I've been able to latch on from the most unlikely positions at times. And sometimes, a difference of just a step or two in one direction or another is all it takes to get it to w0#k.