Fallout 4

[fragger]

Actually, I managed to transfer all the goodies from that prepper shed in one go. Strong was able to lug all 17 bags of cement by himself, and I took everything else, most of which was light stuff. A nice little haul

I'm currently working on a little project to get everyone in the Castle fitted with Military Fatigues and Military Caps, in keeping with the place being an old army fort. These items aren't thick on the ground, and even though I could probably use the console to get them, I like the challenge of acquiring them the hard way - by trading, finding and looting. I need 20 of them - well, 19 since Ronnie Shaw has her own already. I've already got full suits of Combat Armor for all of them for when it comes time to defend the Castle from the Institute's attack. I'm still trying to find enough Army Helmets to go around. They already have high-powered, modified Laser Rifles (except for the four people permanently on guard duty, who have Polymer Heavy Combat Armor suits with matching helmets, and high-end Plasma Rifles). So when the Institute's attack comes, my guys should be a force to be reckoned with.

I'm deliberately limiting settlements to a population of 20 people, and even then, I only allow a few to reach that number - namely Sanctuary, Sunshine, The Castle and Vault 88. I've capped a few at 12 (Starlight, Greygarden, The Slog and Longfellow's place) and the rest have no more than 6 or 8.

When I first started playing I wasn't terribly interested in developing settlements, but now I think it's my favourite aspect of the game. I've always enjoyed games where you can build and manage things, and FO4 has the added bonus of allowing me to go out and shoot stuff Not many games combine those activities in first-person.


EDIT: A while ago I posted a code that allows you to check for synths in a given settlement. Well, there might be a far easier way to tell not only if you have synths in your settlements but if so, who they are. Simply wait until after midnight in a settlement and see if all the Settlers go to bed. If any don't, they're more than likely a synth. I'm still to confirm this, but I've got a settlement in which there is one particular Settler who won't go to bed, and the synth-check code verified that the settlement contains a synth. There is no other reason why she won't sleep - the beds are in a very easily accessible structure and the other Settlers find beds there without a prob. This woman just wanders around, sits for a while, gets up again, has a smoke, sits again, wanders some more, and so on. I watched her all night (I sat in a chair and "waited" for an hour at a time) and she never slept, despite the nearest bed being only a few feet away from her at times.

[Dweller_Benthos]

Interesting about the synth settlers not sleeping. Did you assign her to a specific bed just to be sure? I've seen it where they don't seem to sleep unless you tell them specifically which bed to sleep in.

[fragger]

I'll try assigning her a bed and see if it makes a difference. It shouldn't really though, because there were four available beds just a few steps away from her and no obstructions in between, not even a doorway, and two other settlers went straight in there at bed time. But I'll try it anyway and see what happens.

[mandru]

I've made a concerted effort to kit out my settlers with the best personal protection I can.

Military uniforms when upgraded to level 5 ballistic gives 115 defense.  Army uniforms and many of the settler's clothing items can also be upgraded to ballistic level 5 but they only give 110 Def and other than the Army uniforms (other than Army) most are incompatible with full if any additional body armor.  As to the head coverings so far in my experience only newsboy caps, green rag hoods, battered fedoras and trilbys can be upgraded to level 5 ballistic give 110 defense.

Upgraded Military uniform + one of the upgraded head coverings = a settler's personal base Def of 225.
Upgraded Army uniform + one of the upgraded head coverings = a settler's personal base Def of 220.

That kind of Settler's Def base line is an excellent starting point for any body armor you want to pile onto their personal stats. 



I've had excellent luck in using the w0#k station console code to scan for synths.

It's the first thing I check when bringing in groups of three newbies from the Mechanist radiant missions. ((referring to my comment immediately above) when rescued and I've assigned them a settlement to live in I load them up with a good weapon plus an upgraded military uniform and newsboy. I've yet to lose a new settler in transit with this arrangement)



And now about Beds.  Just like lining up stools in front of shops (to get the settlers to sit facing the counter) beds have a bias that can make a difference as to whether a settler can actually go to bed and sleep.  Care needs to be applied in laying out beds and assigning them or there are a few problems that can arise.

**There's one side of the bed a settler can access and if you put that side right up against a wall you may find that a settler assigned to that bed may refuse to use it.

**Beds laid out in a X by X grid (in rows of say 3 by 4 for example) in situations where some of the beds have been place backwards (end for end wise) may create settler traffic jams where they can block each other from being able to get past each other to access their assigned location.  I've found that in those conditions it can lead to frustration and settler's refusal to use them.

**I'm also of the personal opinion that some of the settlers are simply stupid or impaired when it comes to following assignments.

I can't tell you how many times I've teleported into a settlement at 2:00 am (trying to reach a nearby quest) when all of them should have been asleep and yet they are all up and milling around as if they didn't have a stick of sense.  Which of course beyond their programming they don't.

When in doubt you can make a Save and kill a settler in question so you can search their inventory for a synth component.  That will launch a full on attack from the rest of the settlers but you can always reload that save point and if that settler was indeed a synth create an unobserved out of the way shop to attend so you can snipe them from a safe distance without upsetting the rest of the settlement.

I'm not adverse to console commands so tdetect + (click target for their ID and) kill (even if it's right in the middle of a crowd) always works for me. 

[Art Blade]

good read, guys

The only people (they are not synths) in my settlements who don't sleep are the ones assigned to watch posts.

[mandru]

I've figured out that the problem I'm having with losing the ability to sprint is directly tied to wearing a power suit and especially modifying power armor pieces at the workbench.

If I wear a PS I have maybe 4 or 5 minutes before sprint and run are locked out for me even if I take the PS off and try to move quickly.  But I discovered that modifying PS components is an instant kill of my sprint run ability.

I was deep in the Glowing Sea where I'd found a military base with a few synths present that had a PS power frame with just an X0-1 helmet equipped standing at a PS workstation.  Fortunately I'd made a save point before I tried to add the Targeting HUD to the helmet and once the mod was completed I noticed that my character puffed as if out of breath from running or being under water too long.  Before putting on the power frame I tried to sprint and both sprint and run were gone.

When I reloaded the last save the lock-out of run/sprint was still active.  It was only when I quit to desktop and and restarted that last save once again allowed run/sprint.  In summary I have to accept that usage of power suits from now on are dead to me.  At least until I can do a complete removal and fresh reinstall directly from Steam.

Even though I live pretty much constantly in a PS (Mrs. Abernathy once scolded me "Hey!  DO You Stomp around in Everyone's Farm in that suit?") I am determined to plow on through the rest of this game!

[mandru]

I've briefly stepped away from the main story line and gone into the Nuka World content to discover that I am thoroughly enjoying the hell out of the Nuka World. 

I will end up killing all the raiders in Nuka World but I'm going through the moves of unlocking the different territories that they can be assigned to.  I'd come across information that Cito would be happiest with the Pack as in willing to be friends with them and the Pack in turn think the ghoulrillas are super cool so with out thinking I unlocked Wilderness Adventure first and assigned it to them.  Though I think it's possible that may have stirred up some ill will towards me from the Operators and Disciples. 

I'm in the process of unlocking the last assignable territory Dry Gulch.  I've held off assigning the Operators and Disciples their expanded turf because I wanted to find locations that would best suit each of them the way the Pack loves Wilderness Adventure but I'm finding the other four possible areas that can be assigned to them to be a difficult fit for either of the groups.

The Operators with their love of caps might like the core of Nuka Corps source of wealth with the Bottling Factory but they don't seem to be the type to get their own hands dirty running machinery at least not their own hands.

The Disciples could possibly enjoy despoiling and redecorating Kiddie Land to their taste but I don't want them to think I'm slighting them and calling them childish. 

Any suggestions?  Or does it really not matter?

[Art Blade]

it doesn't matter. The real problem will be that one of the gangs will fall short of territories and they will turn against you. So you should decide which gang you dislike the most and subsequently simply ignore them when it comes to assigning territories. Then you can divide up the remaining territories among the two remaining gangs. I'm already looking one step ahead that will lead you outside of NW and raid settlements. Simply don't raid more than required (you'll be given instructions, just follow them) and by that keep the conquered settlements to a minimum. You observed correctly, the gangs don't like to w0#k which is why they need people to w0#k for them. Settlements can be subdued without violence (which you're likely to prefer) and need a nearby settlement (yes, again subdued) for supplies, so essentially you need one for them to hang out and another one whose settlers will "provide" (you need to convince them, possible without violence) the first one with supplies. Unfortunately you can't pick just any settlement. They always have to have people (or ghouls) living there whom to subdue, so unpopulated ones don't count, and you will be presented with a list to choose from. That list won't contain all settlements there are, it seems to be random and I don't know when it will be created so I don't know how to trick the game into generating a new list when reloading a savegame. Just live with it, and keep it to a minimum. Those settlements populated with your raiders have their own stuff to entertain your gang with, somewhat similar to how you try to keep your normal settlements happy. To keep happiness up among the raider settlements, DON'T make raiders w0#k. That's what the supply settlements are for, where the original settlers farm the land and hand over their produce to the connected raider settlement.

[mandru]

Thanks for the info Art.  For the time being I'm going to keep the raiders at an equal parity at one expanded territory each and bottled up in Nuka World.  The clock is ticking for them counting down towards when I declare Open Season on them.

Speaking of Open season I'm kind of anxious to get the power plant up and running but that can't happen until after the raiders get cleared out and that quest is completed.

[Art Blade]

there's nothing to worry about the power plant

[fragger]

mandru, I too am in NW right now I really like the place. Be sure to explore outside the theme parks, there are a few other cool little scenarios going on in the surrounding countryside, one of which (the Hubologists) cracked me up, especially towards the end of their quest line

If you do Open Season, you won't have to worry about subduing settlements for raiders to live in. They can't live in any of them if they can't live at all The only thing I don't like about Open Season is that you have to kill Gage as well (make sure you max out his Affinity before you declare Open Season!) I think he's my fave companion and killing him kind of made me feel like a stinker after I'd heard what he had to say during the entirety of his Affinity spiel.

Incidentally, there is, as far as I am aware, only one potential settlement site in all of NW - at the old Red Rocket station due east of the Bottling Plant and almost just across the road from it. However, you can't access the Workbench there until you have restored power to the park. It's a good site, reasonably flat with pre-prepared furrows and a huge build area. Defend it well though, because just a stone's throw further east of that is an old three-storey house where there always seem to be fights going on between various groups whenever I FT to the settlement. Even if you wipe out the gangs in NW proper, you may still occasionally come across small roving bands of them out and about, especially at said old house, where one of them may be engaged with "common" enemies like Super Mutants or Gunners.

Btw, thanks for the info on modifying Military/Army Fatigues +1 I never realized you could do that, in fact it never even occurred to me to try it. Now I just need to hustle up a bunch of Ballistic Weave to make it happen - as well as more Military Fatigues outfits. Time to start hitting up the traders

[Art Blade]

Yes, there's only one settlement for you in NW.

I think he's my fave companion

It's nice to know that you too liked him. I had the best time when he was my companion and I was really sad and sorry when he was gone.

[fragger]

Yeah, I love Gage's comments, and his drawl These are some of my favourite lines of his:

I hate robots. Anything that bent on logic can't be trusted.
Hey, what do you know? Another big monument to *bleep* that doesn't matter anymore.
Time to dish out a little Commonwealth Justice. Well, maybe not justice... more like... ah, screw it. It'll be fun, is the point.
Think about it - if beer is still good after 200 years, is it really something you want to be drinking?
You know, I'd actually consider taking a bullet for you. Wouldn't do it, but I'd think about it for a second.
Looks like the maid ain't been here in a while.

[Art Blade]

 

[mandru]

I've unlocked all the theme areas to plant the various factions in but I'm only going to assign one location to each group.  I've never teamed with Gage at all.  I'm pretty uninterested in running around with a manipulative raider who makes other do the dirty w0#k.

I guess I could drag him along on some of the faction hit missions before I cleanse Nuka World.