Fallout 4

[fragger]

I finally achieved my self-appointed goal of equipping all of my settlers, everywhere, with customised "Handmade" weapons. Since I had over 270 settlers in total to equip and since the AK-47-like Handmades can only be looted from dead guys in Nuka-World (with the exception of an exceedingly rare "Legendary" version of one popping up in the Commonwealth), AND since I was determined not to cheat the weapons up, this meant quite a lot of trips between N-W and the Commonwealth and quite a lot of strife-mongering with rogue bands of N-W bounders.

I'd already done Open Season in N-W quite some time ago, which netted me a good dollop of Handmade weapons at the time (henceforth referred to as "HM" weapons) but I still had well over 200 to acquire. Once Open Season has been completed, there are only a few places on the N-W map where members of the three gangs regularly spawn. One is around the maintenance sheds behind the Galactic Zone, one is near the two-storey house east of the Transit Center, one is just south of the Shovel Museum, one is at the three-storey house east of the Red Rocket, and one is at the big windmill near the NW extremity of the map. At all of these locations, five members of a random gang will spawn (you'll actually see them appear out of thin air as you approach) and they will immediately begin a fight with a random group of "regular" enemies, such as Gunners, Super Mutants or Scavengers, at whichever location they are near. They spawn very frequently - all you need to do is leave the area (the cell) then come back and a new lot will appear. Sometimes you might find a few on the road near the Hubologist's old stomping grounds, and some random wandering gangs can be run into here and there. Occasionally one might even pop up in Nuka-Town USA or in one of the theme parks. But the locations listed above seem to be where they most reliably, and frequently, spawn.

(The ones that appear at the big house near the Red Rocket seemed to stop spawning in my game after a while though - maybe because I built a big settlement at the RR and my turrets can actually target enemies around that house. So they wisely steer clear of the place now )

My pattern became: Approach one of the spawning places with my special "Nuka-Nuke" Fat Man at the ready, drop a Mini-Nuke on the baddies as soon as they appear (which would take them all out in one hit if my aim was on point) then harvest any HM weapons they had on them. Sometimes I'd get a few HMs, sometimes none. The Operators seem to carry the most, followed by the Pack, then the Disciples. Then I'd deal with the gang's intended targets before moving on to the next spawn place, and repeat the procedure. Once I'd done the rounds and gathered a dozen or so weapons, I'd take them all back to Sanctuary for modifying and distributing to the settlements.

I hit upon this configuration as a standard "settler weapon", which I called a "Guardian SAR" (Semi-Automatic Rifle) to avoid having a mile-long weapon description. It has a pretty respectable damage rating, and a decent range.

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Getting hold of all the guns was one thing. Getting all the materials for all the modifying was another. Once again, I was determined not to cheat, so a lot - and I mean, a LOT - of wheeling and dealing and scavenging went on to get the needed materials, particularly Adhesive, Aluminum, Oil and Screws. The Operator weapons were the easiest to modify since half their components were what I wanted already, whereas with the Pack ones I had to modify almost every component to make it into a "Guardian SAR". Each one would need about 26 Aluminum, 20 Adhesive and 24 Screws. Needless to say, I blew through a ton of those materials and frequently ran out. Then I would have to wait 48 game hours for all the vendors to get new stock and shipments in. And scavenging. Lots of scavenging (the component-tagging function on the Pip-Boy came in really handy for that).

I found a good way to get lots of Aluminum and Screws quickly though: I got the "Scrapper" perk (just Rank 1 was enough), and I'd buy up heaps of well-modded weapons from Weapons Dealers, looking out for modded-up Assault and Combat Rifles and Submachine Guns, especially "night vision" ones. Then I'd scrap them. With the Scrapper perk, these weapons will yield quite generous amounts of Aluminum and Screws when scrapped. Expensive exercise, but worth it for the component bonanzas. My Weapons Emporium in Sanctuary carries heaps of these weapons. Takes a couple of days for her to restock after I've cleaned her out. I've also got Rylee set up with her own Trading Emporium in Sanctuary and she gets an absolute boatload of junk items in, more than any other vendor.

A tactic I use to get plenty of Adhesive is to plant Corn, Tatos and Mutfruit at my larger settlements. 3 of each of these, plus 1 Purified Water, can be used at a Cooking Station to make 1 "Vegetable Starch" which, when scrapped, will yield 5 Adhesive. So I periodically travel around to my settlements to harvest all the vegetables and grab whatever has accumulated in their Workbenches, and take all the grub back to Sanctuary (the harvested vegies grow back after two days). Once I have amassed 60 of each vegie (and 20 Purified Water) I cook up 20 Vegetable Starches, which I then scrap in one go for a 100 Adhesive hit.

I would have needed even more HMs, but each of my "guard duty" settlers has a different loadout, consisting of a heavily-modified Plasma Rifle (a "Guardian PR") and a full set of Heavy Polymer Combat Armor worn over Ballistic Weave-lined fatigues. They're pretty formidable (and yeah, I had to modify all the Plasma Rifles, Heavy Armor and fatigues, which required a slightly smaller ton of materials).

It was a marathon effort. It has taken me weeks and weeks to get to this stage (and I now have over 110,000 caps and have reached Level 150 - all that combat, modding and building really pushed up my XPs). All settlement sites are now occupied and built up to where I want them, and all settlers are loaded for bear.

Now for the story, which I have barely started after about eight months of playing... I've met the factions (except the Institute, natch) and that's about it. I have Preston's mob in Sanctuary, I've gone as far as I can with the Railroad at this point and I have Danse, Rhys and Haylen at Cambridge cop-shop so I can milk their radiant quests (as well as The Mechanist's Rogue Robots). Oh, and I've sprung Nick from Vault 114, but I haven't caught up with him at DC yet because I don't want to trigger the Brotherhood's arrival. I still like to venture out to the airport from time to time and play whackamole with the ghouls out there The BoS kill that fun when they arrive in force.

[Dweller_Benthos]

Wow, that's some extensive w0#k getting all that done. And a unique way to play the game, that much experience and money before even starting most of the main quest. Do you go to Far harbor as well? I forget what resources are available there. I know for aluminum I always used to go to the fish packing plant on the coast where synths hang out and a mirelurk queen sometimes. Too bad though the story won't be any different after all that effort, you essentially have a personal army that is almost as well equipped as the brotherhood, maybe more so, except for power armor and vertibirds. But I'm sure you'll still get comments like you're some random person from the wasteland.

[fragger]

Thanks, D_B Yep, I've done Far harbor as well, resolved everything and settled the four sites there. Only small settlements though, biggest is Longfellow's place with 9 people, including him. Hope the other settlers don't get fed up with his dreadful singing and use those SARs on him.

lol, my crowd could probably kick the BoS' butts all the way back to the Capital Wasteland, but I'm sure they'll keep swaggering around the joint and looking down their noses at everyone like the big shots they think they are

[Art Blade]

that is absolutely admirable what you've done there, fragger, and you more than deserve a slap on the back for all the effort. Amazing.

+1

[mandru]

Indeed fragger, accomplishing all that without console cheats is pretty monumental.  Or maybe just mental.      +1


Here's a small observation from the Dangerous Minds quest where Dr. Amari helps you explore the cybernetic component from Kellogg's head.

In the final scene while mind-scaping in the dream lounger the scene centers on Kellogg and Shaun.  They are in the Diamond City residence with Shaun playing on the floor.  The thing I noticed was that (from the player's perspective) there's one whole wall gaping open into the unrendered neural miasma between memory nodes but during your exploration of the room if you look closely into the television the missing open wall is reflected in its screen as it would have been remembered by Kellogg.

When the scene ends the familiar TV test pattern reappears and you awaken in the dream lounger.

[fragger]

Thanks muchly, gentlemen

lol mandru, the "mental" part is doubtlessly more apt Nice observation about Kellogg's TV btw, I'll have to try and remember to check that out when the time comes.

I remember being very impressed the first time I played through that sequence where you experience Kellogg's memories, not just by the concept but by the way it was presented and how the player interacts within it. I think it's one of the coolest and most original things I've ever seen in a first-person game

I showed a picture of a "Guardian SAR" in my earlier post. Here's the guard duty settler's standard issue, a "Guardian PR" (Plasma Rifle):

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It does less impact damage than the SAR, but more than makes up for it with its added energy-damage wallop.

And here's one of my bad boys carrying a PR out at the Castle, with his "polymer" Heavy Combat Armor suit (complete with polymer CA helmet.
And sunnies, just cause it looks cool). I don't think you want to mess with this cat.

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My Castle guards are all actually Minutemen, of which (all being well) you can muster five - the three who initially go into the Castle with you and Preston, and two more who later turn up with Ronnie Shaw. I put four of them on guard duty, along with Preston (who retains his standard garb so I can spot him easily). The fifth Minuteman is the one who mans the radio. All my other Castle personnel get Ballistic-woven Military Fatigues to wear day-to-day (the Castle is a military establishment, after all) but I also have full suits of standard Heavy Combat Armor and Army Helmets stored away for all of them. I'll break out the armor and equip everyone with it right before triggering the Institute attack on the Castle later on in the story, which will help them make shorter w0#k of Father's minions when they come a-knocking.

[Art Blade]

impressive And nice pic of that guard there, I really wouldn't want to mess with him hehe

[Dweller_Benthos]

Yeah I don't think I ever put together a complete set of any armor, even for my own character, much less any one else, nice job!

Except for power armor, that is, that stuff I coveted like diamonds. Didn't let anyone wear it though, except for me and Piper when we went to the glowing sea or something.

[Art Blade]

 

[fragger]

I have several suits of armor (apart from Power Armor, that is) that are customized for different things. I have two full suits of Polymer Heavy Combat Armor (like the guard's in the screenshot), one with the "Deep Pockets" modification to boost my carrying capacity, and the other with lead lining for if I want to go into a heavily-irradiated place but don't want to be inside Power Armor. Then I have my full set of "Muffled Shadowed" Heavy Combat Armor for sneaking around, and two sets of Marine Armor from Far Harbor: an "Assault" suit (with the pieces that are found in several underwater locations around the island) to which I added the "Ultra-Light Build" mod; and a "Zealot" suit (available for purchase from Kane in the Nucleus, minus helmet, but a "Recon" helmet can be bought from Brooks on the Far Harbor dock). I also scored the "Atom's Bulwark" Marine Armor chest piece from the High Confessor after doing a quest for him.

Since I got the "Ballistic Weave" mod from Tinker Tom, I can wear any of these armours over ballistic-woven Military Fatigues for some serious protection, especially with the Marine Armor. The only better protection is Power Armor.

[Art Blade]

 

[fragger]

Here's a few random ramblings about Power Armor:

A funny thing has happened at the Roadside Pines Motel (in the SW, near Lake Cochituate). When first visited in a new game, there are a few Raiders there and a suit of "Raider" Power Armor. Ages ago in this playthrough I took the Raiders out, but not wanting the Raider PA suit, I took the pieces off the frame to sell but left the frame behind. Since then, that frame remained in place, but two new complete Raider PA suits spawned (one on top of a wrecked car). Any Raiders who subsequently respawn make no attempts to get into these PA suits since they have no Fusion Cores in them.

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Before I took the above screenie, I finally did take the original empty PA frame away to Sanctuary (it would have been near the circled suit in the picture but a bit to the right of it, and on the ground). Then I went back, snapped the screenie, then took the circled suit away, so the only one left at the motel now is the one in the foreground. Should be interesting to see if any more suits appear around the motel in future.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *

I'm pretty sure I've gotten all the freely getable Power Armor there is in the game world now. Among it all I have seven full suits of X0-1 PA, and could have four more complete X0-1 suits if I wasn't short of left legs. Since some X0-1 suits when found are partials, I don't know whether the pieces found are randomly generated or not. Funny how I ended up with enough parts to make four more X0-1's except for the left legs (and I would still have a bunch of other pieces left over).

I've got heaps of pieces of various PA models, including enough T45 ones to assemble another 7 complete suits plus leftovers, except I'm lacking helmets. I've got all the unused pieces stored away in cupboards since I like to have only full suits on display (I know I can mix and match model bits, but it rubs my slight OCD tendencies the wrong way )

The only "free" suits left for me to get will be the ones on board the Prydwyn when I finally trigger its arrival. I say "free" because "Atom Cats" armour parts can be bought from Rowdy out at the Cats' digs, as well as sundry pieces for other models. There's still a full T60 Atom Cats suit (minus helmet) standing around at the Cats' place, but it's strictly a theft job to get. Since my thieving skills are now maxed, I might see if I can nick off with it, even though I've already got a full Atom Cats suit at home.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *

The X0-1s are the best in terms of protection, but at a price - they cost a lot more in the way of materials and components to repair, including not-so-common materials like Aluminum, especially if the pieces are upgraded to Mk.VI and modded. Simply in terms of aesthetics, I actually prefer the T45. It's a much cleaner-looking suit, but it also has the advantage of being very cheap to repair. T45 pieces only requires a few units of Steel to fix, even when modded, unless the torso is modded with something like a Jetpack, in which case Aluminum and I think Circuitry will be required. By comparison, X0-1 pieces may require six or seven types of materials and/or components to repair, depending on mods. If you're not using cheats for Workshop materials, these are considerations.

The T51s are fun in terms of the many custom paint jobs available for it, which can't be applied to other models (Railroad, Abraxo, Vim!, Vim! Refresh, Sugar Bombs and Nuka-Cola). There is one custom paint job exclusive to the T45 which is the "Minutemen" finish (boosts "Charisma" by 1 when all pieces are painted). T60s of course get the Atom Cats and BoS paint jobs exclusively.

Apart from the "Quantum" paint job, there is a custom "Institute" paint job exclusive to the X0-1, which is all-white with an Institute logo on the chest, but this only becomes available upon completion of the "Nuclear Family" quest, which results in the "Institute" game ending. However:

The following console command will make the Institute paint job immediately available, without having to complete that quest:

set pa_global_material_institute to 1

[spoiler text=and here is the result]

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This paint job will boost "Intelligence" by 1 if all pieces are painted.
The white finish kind of makes up for the fact that "Winterized Coating" can't be applied to X0-1s (if a white suit is your bag).
The effects are different though, as "Winterized Coating" boosts Energy Resistance, while the "Institute" paint does not.
("Jetpack" mod has also been applied to this suit's torso).

[/spoiler]

[Art Blade]

very cool.

Since I never played the institute ending (well, I did out of curiosity but "discontinued" that playthrough) I never realised there was an exclusive paint job available. It does look really good

And yes, I understand that OCD issue I don't really suffer from OCD but I do like symmetry and esthetics which results in the same outcome: no mixed parts Power Armour Suits. Also: a neat and tidy and orderly exhibition You may remember my old screenie but for your convenience, here it is again.

OCD? Well.. not really, but close
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[Dweller_Benthos]

I recall farming the power armor at the federal ration storage or whatever it's called. Seemed there was a way to get the guy in power armor to reappear and you could get a suit frame each time. Only had raider pieces on it, but you could toss those and put on the other pieces from other suits. Beats buying a frame from the vendor in Diamond City. But eventually either that exploit was patched out or I didn't bother anymore and the guy there never respawned.

I also think the PA I got from the motel Fragger mentions is one of the two that are sitting there in Sanctuary and marked as stolen. Not sure how I managed that, but for some reason that's how they ended up.

[Art Blade]