Fallout 4

[Kasey Chang]

Then I made the mistake of going into Nuka-World and that's where my last playthrough bogged down.

I plan on simply killing all of the raiders as that is an option in Nuka World.

I kinda planned that when I get there. I did that to Paradise Falls in Fallout 3. Depopulated the place except for the slaves, starting from door guards to the leader and the personal attendants that tried to fight me. With the railspike gun.

[Daehawk]

hehe I liked that gun...choo choo mother f$^ker

[Kasey Chang]

Okay, looks like I won't get to see USS Constitution fly. Somehow when I came upon it they were hostile, and I had to clear it deck by deck and killed EVERYONE, No quest for me. Found the scavengers nearby, but now they have no quest. *sigh*

[Kraken]

I never even saw the Constitution in my playthrough. Should've crossed the bridge into Charlestown, I guess, but I never got a quest pushing me there.

[dbt1949]

If you complete the quest you get to watch theConstitution fly away.

[dbt1949]

If you complete the quest you get to watch the Constitution fly away.

[Kraken]

I wonder if playing FO4 again would snap me out of my gaming funk. It's installed and modded and a double-click away.

Nahh, much bigger commitment than I want to make.

[Kasey Chang]

Found Vault 88 and cleared all four sectors. Built a reactor, but that's not enough to power the pump just yet. Darn it! The rare components are holding back my constructions. The turrets need "oil", and ammo need "acid" (!?) I'm not finding enough of them to build turrets and such. And If I build something and take it apart again, I lose the smaller components. *sigh* I need to start building "salvage beacons" (a mod) that let the settlers trasnport the **** back to the towns instead of having me haul them back myself.

Haven't even been to Diamond City yet. Doing all the sidequests I can. Right now I'm just before helping Garvey retake the Castle, but I think I can wait a little more.

[Kasey Chang]

I picked up a few mods, but it seems a lot of them just includes complexity for complexity's sake, instead of meaningful variety, or I forgot to install extra stuff. Now I have dozens and dozens of extra calibers and weapons most of them worthless. I also hit a couple "missing model" problems but I obviously didn't read the instructions as there's a separate "asset pack" to install.

I still haven't quite figured out SimSettlements, where I can let a settlement grow by itself, but that could be because I haven't watched the tutorial.

Got the Castle back. It actually wasn't the first time I've seen a Mierlurk Queen, which is HUGE. I've seen one before at one fo the chambers in Vault 88.

I'm installing "GlobalStash", which makes all the stash of junk and whatnot into a single stash that can be universally accessed instead of one per town. This makes the management of crap much much easier.

[Kasey Chang]

Okay, figured out SimSettlements. I can just load someone else's city plans, and it will let the settlers build by themselves. The CATCH is you need to assign a named NPC as a "city leader", and often, those are your companions unless you find different candidates. So had to download another mod or two to add some potential mayors to each settlement.

But once you got the city plan loaded (via city planning desk, extra build item) , and leader assigned, the settle really builds itself, and you can add to it if you want by adding some turrets, optimize power, and so on.

And with global stash enabled, I can transfer stuff between settlements via Pip-Boy. Now I don't run out of ****.

But I am starting to hate these "radiant quests', which are basically fake content... Randomly generated **** that doesn't make sense. Fetch this. Clear that for some other settlement. I'm ignoring all that and walking through to Diamond city. I am now level 30, and on easy, I can one-shot supermutants and more with the right weapon and plenty of ammo.

[Kasey Chang]

Okay, finished The Vault 88 quests, and the Trinity Tower sidequest. Also found Valentine and got him back to Diamond City.

Sent Ada to settlement and currently traveling with Cait. Gave her my militia hat and bought a duster so she looks like a Western girl... kinda. Better than the cage fighter leather vest look she had before.

There's a trick that really speeds up zone transitions load screens. Apparently Bethsoft tied everything to a frame-rate-locked loop, even when nothing is being displayed or nothing useful, such as the loading screen. By unlocking frame rate during the loading screen, things can happen about 8-10X faster, and I'm not kidding. This was one of the speed up tricks discussed on NexusMods. You have to load ENBLocal without any effects, but make the frame rate lock a toggle-key. Normally the game runs at 60 fps. If you unlock the frame-lock during loading screen, on my system it goes up to 500 fps, and zone load takes seconds, not a full minutes. You can leave the frame lock off, but it may heat up your video card, as there's no point is forcing the video card to deliver 120 fps if you don't actually see it.

Don't really want to travel with Strong (the supermutant), too growly. Will probably swap out for Valentine soon.

[Daehawk]

But who will get his milk for him? Should post a pic of Cait

[Kasey Chang]

But who will get his milk for him? Should post a pic of Cait

[Daehawk]

Ha! She does look like an old west gal. Mine always ended up dressed a little slooty. No idea how that happened.

[Blackhawk]

You can leave the frame lock off, but it may heat up your video card, as there's no point is forcing the video card to deliver 120 fps if you don't actually see it.

I recommend against it. One of the really stupid things Bethesda does is tie all of the physics and AI calculations to the frame rate, and then they assume it will be capped at 60. If you exceed that, all sorts of wonkiness ensues. Suddenly you're moving at the speed of sound, the physics goes nuts, the AI goes insane, events don't trigger, dogs and cats living together.

[Kasey Chang]

Yeah, that's why it's on a toggle and only off in the loading screen. Leaving it on means you sometimes end up grabbing the corpses instead looting it, and lock picking becomes virtually impossible.

OTOH, having highlighted items (glow) and autoloot means I'm autolooting a lot of the junk, and my global stash means I can just dump them from anywhere in the wasteland. No salvage beacon and whatnot. Sure it breaks lore, but it's my game.

Coming on up 65 mods installed. SimSettlements is definitely making it easy to run the settlements. It practically grows itself. While you still have to run to defend it every once in a while, it's not like an intolerable chore now to run a settlement. And the AI mayors have personality traits that affects the decisions (ratios of various plots) they make. And whoever did the settlements sure has a sense of humor. For example this was one of the shops at Sanctuary:

[Kasey Chang]

Ran into a "bug" in the extra side quest in Diamond city where I need to find some paint. There are no yellow paint cans around the place at all. I searched up and down about 10 times, every inch, front and back, up and down. Had to spawn one to finish the darn quest.

I think I see spawn points for Far Harbor and Nuka-World quests and I'm not going just yet. Going to play with Commonwealth before continuing.

EDIT: Chased down Kellogg and killed him. Walked out and the Pwryden showed up with all the Vertibirds. Yikes.

[dbt1949]

There's a hardware store not too far away that has the yellow and blue paint and a mixer.
Some woman out front asking for help but leads you to an ambush inside.

[NickAragua]

I think there's also an option not to use green paint.

[Kasey Chang]

I think there's also an option not to use green paint.

Yeah, I know I mixed some, but I went back and somehow the game only gave me options for blue paint. Whatever. At least that quest is done.

[Kasey Chang]

Just cleared out Fort Strong. Turns out the trick was NOT to exit the Vertibird. Stay inside and use the chaingun as long as supermutants are still visible. Once nobody approaches, THEN exit the place and start shooting with your regular guns. If you exit too early, you have to take on multiple supermutants and I got nailed twice before I decided to not exit the Vertibird immediately.

[Kasey Chang]

Found a second and a third piece of the beacon to chase down the Mechanist.

Hired then fired McCready, but did help him resolve his issue with the Gunners (and heard his story about growing up in Little Lamplight)

Cleared out the library of Supermutants

Found Cabot's sister as the gangster moll and got her to go home.

Did Bobbi's Big Dig and convinced her to go home too

Dealt with the Asylum and the special guy in the basement (turns out to be a lot easier than I suspected)

Spoiler:

He doesn't jump over the fence, so I basically jumped over the fence and keep doing headshots without VATS until he croaked

Decided NOT to start Far Harbor or Nuka-World just yet. Though I can see the start point for both already for a while.

I now have FIVE full sets of Power Armor, a T-45 set, a T-60 set, a raider set, a X-01 set, and a Tesla set.

Did SimSettlement treatment on almost all of the settlement I saw, hit build limit on almost all of them by now. Got plenty of resources with the pooled stash thing.

I haven't even met the Institute and the Railroad just yet.

[Kasey Chang]

Just found out that there is a dynamic performance tuner that can automatically toggle parameters to maintain framerate AND turn off V-sync when loading to accelerate the process for FO4. However, don't feel like fiddling with it. The game is unstable enough as is (crashes about once every two hours, esp. if I'm running or doing ****)

EDIT: Solved the Mechanist problem, got into the basement. Actually, there's a place I was completely stuck. got to the Robobrain production line, and I don't see any buttons or whatever to open up the next section, having killed everything before that. I ended up backtracking, and hacked the master level terminal to get into the basement after playing 3 holotapes to lift the security lockdown.

I'm level 40, and I guess I should go see the institute / railroad rather than going to Nukaworld / Far Harbor. They sound kinda depressing.

Favorite weapon so far? G3 with a scope (yes, I use mods). 100 or so damage per shot, semi-auto rifle, and 4x scope means I can engage from almost any distance, and rapid-fire if I need it. As long as I don't take too many hits I'll survive most fights. My companion can beat anyone that got too close to me.

[Kasey Chang]

Found the monster in the bay.

Spoiler:

Turns out to be a stranded Chinese sub, been there 200 years, but he needs a "damper" so he can power up his reactor and go home.

Had Hancock as companion, but I should get MacCreedy back as you can't go a lot of places with a Ghoul... Diamond city is a bit iffy, and BOS don't like Ghouls either, even if they are sentient.

And I had to download the mod "Companion Tracker" as I've forgotten where the heck all my companions went.

EDIT: Got MacCready and Dogmeat back. However, the game's now unstable that often, loading a new zone results in a CTD. ARGH.

[Kasey Chang]

Found the Railroad, finished Doc Carrington's quests, doing PAMs quests now. Have a feeling I should encounter the institute pretty soon.

And when the time comes, I'm not sure who to support yet: Institute, Railroad, Brotherhood, or Minuteman? For all the good BoS did, it's a bigoted organization. And Institute is too heartless.

Given I am level 44/45, maybe I should go to NukaWorld now... Hmmm...

[Daehawk]

I was BOS in my play through. If I ever go back I plan to be Institute...I want a hot shower and microwaved food.

[Sepiche]

The institute ending was less evil than I was expecting going in, and had one of the better stories in general, but my first play though I supported the Minutemen.

[$iljanus]

I'm trying to play this a second time but the thing stopping me is that I really didn't care about the motivations of any of the factions and wanted to be a free agent with my own agenda. Ended up going with the Railroad the first time around as the least bad choice.

[Kasey Chang]

Turns out Mama can give you visions if you feed her chems of various kinds, from jet to psycho. However, you can only do it six times. On the Seventh time she'll overdose and die. And you'll get to attend her funeral. That's only AFTER you build her special seat in Sanctuary.

You get bonus karma if you can convince her to quit before then (Charisma/Speech check). And the visions... They are supposed to give you vague clues about the quest you're on. But she only gives 12 different advice and they are not that helpful.

There are DOZENS of SimSettlements add-ons that add dozens of different shops, houses, factories, and whatnot. And the best part is you don't have to do anything to them. They operate autonomously. Shops and cities upgrade themselves over time. You may have to change a few numbers so your "object limit" is increased so the city can grow a bit more. I've hit a limit on most of my major settlements.

Remember to turn the recruitment beacon off if you don't want the city to grow beyond a certain point. Default taxes means you get free stuff continuously, and you can scrap that to make more stuff in your own workshops.

Apparently, there's a plugin called "Conquerers" that turns the settlements into a continuous "war" where factions take over settlements and will upgrade and wage war on other settlements, turning the whole thing into a sort of pseudo-first-person-strategy game.

I am adding one more mod: SimSettlements IDEK's Logisitics Desk. If I add one to EACH settlement they will automatically establish trade routes.

EDIT: I was unable to follow instructions and I forgot to download 10 other mods to finish the install of "Weaponsmith Extended". I have about 10-15 weapons that have no model when displayed. Should have known it's my goof.

Was trying various battle rifles. So far, G3 is still the best compromise in weapons. Semi-auto, suppressed, 120+ damage (so most enemies only takes 2 shots except bosses) and I have a 2.5X scope so I can engage at most ranges, and even hip shots are fairly accurate. (accuracy rating 89) Magazine size of 20 means I can engage 5-10 enemies without reloading.

Other sniper rifles and assault rifles just aren't as accurate, doesn't shoot as fast, or in combination thereof. The modded AER-9 laser rifle is close, but it only holds 9 shots. And that laser beam is impossible to hide.

However, now that I got all the mods installed, the game is becoming less and less stable. *sigh*

[Kasey Chang]

Found a workshop plug-in that lets you put weapons you collected on a wall display, among other things. And it's live, as you can actually pick weapons off the wall and start using it. Unfortunately, the structure I plunked the display boards on are slightly off and half the weapons are hidden "through" the wall, and the sizes are off that they don't fit quite right. *sigh*

Found yet ANOTHER TWO set of power armor, one complete with a frame, the other salvaged off a Gunner commander.

I want to buy that Tinker Tom special sniper rifle, 100% accuracy for the first shot, but it's 24000 caps (!)

I have hazmat suits so I can go to the Glowing Sea to find stuff. But somehow, it's not appealing to me.

Just opened up Egret Marina as a settlement.

[gbasden]

So, I was thinking about another playthrough, but Kasey's modapalooza instability fest doesn't sound like fun. Is there a a generally accepted list of good mods that play well together without crashing?

Thanks!

[Daehawk]

Heck if I know. I originally played it with a bunch of mods.

[Blackhawk]

Something like the STEP Project for Skyrim? I don't know. I looked and saw a few recommendations for this, but haven't tried it myself. FWIW, Fallout 4 is relatively unstable to begin with. It will have bugs and crashes regardless. A good conservative mod selection may actually serve to make it more stable, although crashes will always still be a thing.

[Kasey Chang]

So, I was thinking about another playthrough, but Kasey's modapalooza instability fest doesn't sound like fun. Is there a a generally accepted list of good mods that play well together without crashing?

Right now, it's having problems doing zone transitions. I have a 1/5 chance when I open a door into another zone it'll CTD without warning. Staying still and wait until everything stops THEN open door seems to help it being more stable.

The problem is sorta... when you download one mod, you can't help but to notice you need something else to make that work, then you want something else, and so on. The list is at 87 mods and still going up.

There's a STEP guide for FO4, but it's not as detailed as their FO3 and FNV guides.

https://wiki.step-project.com/User:Fenr ... ide_Part_1

[Daehawk]

I enjoy playing mod installer sim for Skyrim but everything else only gets a few mods. I cant recall my number for FO4 but Im sure it was not more than 20.

I cant find my posting on mods except one where I say I used no mods. I know that cant be as I recall at leas ta couple like piper redo and weapons.

[Tampa_Gamer]

I think I have 4-5 major restarts and attempted plays of FO4 with varied success but none of them come close to my Skyrim plays. Almost in all cases it came down to FO4's growing instability the larger the save file (longer I played) - even with following some very, very detailed S.T.E.P.-like mod instructions (e.g. CTgW, etc.). I am feeling the itch to try and replay but perhaps this time go with a minimal 'must have' mod set. So rather than trying to max, I would ask folks - if you could only install a low number of mods (10?), which would they be?

I think for starters I would want the following:
Unoffical Fallout 4 Patch
Mod Configuration Menu
Game Configuration Menu
Sim Settlements+ addons
Salvage Beacon
DEF_UI
Immersive HUD
Satellite World Map
True Storms

[Kasey Chang]

It kinda sucks that different mod makers have different ideas on what should a gun be, and the M-14 and the M-14 EBR ended up being VASTLY different weapons, the latter being way overpowered, as it allows way too many shots in VATS that I felt bad using it and went back to laser sniper rifle.

I'm leaving the settlements alone as I don't really care about them. Those defense missions? Forget it. I'm not doing Minuteman Radiant quests either.

I'm doing a couple of the Railroad radiant quests, but that's enough of the Tinker Tom MILA missions i.e. Weathervane. I've already installed 4. I should go to another PAM / DIA cache mission. I want to meet the institute.

I have the hazmat suit, so I guess I should go visit the Glowing Sea and do the quests there. Maybe that's why I haven't seen the institute yet. Level 48, almost 49.

[Kasey Chang]

Seems Bethesda just dropped ANOTHER Fallout 4 minor update, which means I have to wait for ANOTHER patch to F4SE. *sigh*

[TheMix]

Just a thought, but why don't you disable automatic updates?

[Blackhawk]

Unless they've changed things, disabling automatic updates still results in the game being updated when you launch it. You might be able to avoid that if F4SE is bypassing Steam entirely (I'm not sure if it still does, although there should be a workaround.)