Octopus Overlords

Daehawk wrote: ↑Fri Aug 20, 2021 9:00 pm I have a TON of modding to do. It will take me a week. No hurry as I dont plan to play for a bit.

Look at the wabbajack options. There may be one that will work for you. From the sounds of it, it'll make modding significantly easier.

Edit for top of page clarity.

Im ready to mod up FO4 for a replay. Or to just mod then delete. Who knows with me.

So other tan the mods off Nexus and Vortex mod manager to install them....who do I need? In the old days I needed a script extender, a load order sorter , and I think something else. Will Vortex handle everything now or do I still need other crap? Can I just click the mod to dload then go to Vortex to install and enable it? Done then?

Im asking for both Fallout 4 and Skyrim SE.

Um. Mostly, I think. You will definitely need to get the script extender, however. I want to say that you can actually get that through Steam now. Though I think I still went to their site. My latest foray was the VR versions, so there were some other hoops. But Vortex will handle the installation and sorting. It just won't work with the script extender.

I also am using SkyrimFalloutVRConfigurationTool. It's really handy. You may want to see if there is a non-VR version (I assume there is). It allows you to tweak settings without having to track down all the files. Makes tweaking sooooo much easier.

Oh. And to re-iterate, always read the documentation for each mod. Sometimes it's just "click the download with Vortex option in Nexus and then install/enable". And sometimes there are other things you need to do.

So far im just checking the requirements post so I know what other mods one mod will need.

Im going to isntall some stuff and make my character then install body mods and such. I SUCK and cant use body slide for some reason.

TheMix wrote: ↑Fri Aug 27, 2021 1:35 pm Oh. And to re-iterate, always read the documentation for each mod. Sometimes it's just "click the download with Vortex option in Nexus and then install/enable". And sometimes there are other things you need to do.

+100

When someone has problems with a mod loadout in these game, there's about a 90% chance that it is because they didn't read the mod docs before installing.

And some will have things to do after launching the game the first time with it installed. Make notes! Seriously. Have a running to do list on these things.

If you don't, you will probably crash, have conflicts, have mods that don't work, get corrupted saves, and have other problems. And it will be your own fault.

I usually set aside a couple of days to install mods just to make sure I don't rush (but remember, I install hundreds of them.

Mix - I might hit you up when I get around to installing FO4 VR.

I mainly want to get some hair mods , eyes and such installed for character creation. I dont like fooling with those type mods after creation. I leave all the rest until after that though like body mods and graphics and effects and lighting.

This girl makes a great male character.

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Fri Aug 27, 2021 2:05 pm Mix - I might hit you up when I get around to installing FO4 VR.

I can try. But it's been a few months and my memory ain't what it used to be.

Also, I don't have any of the DLCs. So that limited what mods I could install. But I can definitely get you a list of what ones I have installed.

TheMix wrote: ↑Fri Aug 27, 2021 2:34 pm

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Fri Aug 27, 2021 2:05 pm Mix - I might hit you up when I get around to installing FO4 VR.

I can try. But it's been a few months and my memory ain't what it used to be.

Also, I don't have any of the DLCs. So that limited what mods I could install. But I can definitely get you a list of what ones I have installed.

If I remember right, Fallout 4 VR never officially released the DLC (although the community found a way to mod them in using the pancake version.)

Daehawk wrote: ↑Fri Aug 27, 2021 2:16 pm I mainly want to get some hair mods , eyes and such installed for character creation. I dont like fooling with those type mods after creation. I leave all the rest until after that though like body mods and graphics and effects and lighting.

Red alert!

This is probably a bad idea, and a source of headaches. Many mods only work right with a new game. They don't play nice with existing saves. Some do, some do not. It's always best, if you're starting off from scratch, to mod fully before you play. Only add them later if you know exactly how they work (what they do within the engine.)

If you like to install a couple, look at them, install a couple more, compare and so on, download a clean save (Nexus probably has many sets of clean Fallout 4 saves), use that to test them, and then start a new game once they're in place.

You can do it the other way, and may even get away with it sometimes, but I've also seen a lot of threads where you were frustrated by ES/FO crashes.

Daehawk wrote: ↑Fri Aug 27, 2021 1:05 pm Im ready to mod up FO4 for a replay. Or to just mod then delete. Who knows with me.

So other tan the mods off Nexus and Vortex mod manager to install them....who do I need? In the old days I needed a script extender, a load order sorter , and I think something else. Will Vortex handle everything now or do I still need other crap? Can I just click the mod to dload then go to Vortex to install and enable it? Done then?

Im asking for both Fallout 4 and Skyrim SE.

Sorry for the late response. I use Vortex for both games. The script extender is loaded just fine by it.

Fardaza wrote: ↑Thu Sep 02, 2021 8:00 pm

Daehawk wrote: ↑Fri Aug 27, 2021 1:05 pm Im ready to mod up FO4 for a replay. Or to just mod then delete. Who knows with me.

So other tan the mods off Nexus and Vortex mod manager to install them....who do I need? In the old days I needed a script extender, a load order sorter , and I think something else. Will Vortex handle everything now or do I still need other crap? Can I just click the mod to dload then go to Vortex to install and enable it? Done then?

Im asking for both Fallout 4 and Skyrim SE.

Sorry for the late response. I use Vortex for both games. The script extender is loaded just fine by it.

Everything I've ever read says that Mod Organizer 2 is better than Vortex.

I used Vortex with FO4 and it seems to work. Just be prepared to manually copy files and stuff, but I don't recall needing to with FO4.

I fiddled a bit with it. Modding seemed to be smooth on the few I tested. Something about FO4 and its graphics and resolution setting and ultrawide is being testy with me. I dont remember it being a problem when I originally played it. But for 2560x1080 I have to edit the ini files for ultrawide. I seemed to get that but then the menus or UI wasn't scalled right so tried a mod to fix that and got some weirdness. It said it was all working in the Vortex setup but it looked a bit fisheye lensed to me or stretched. I couldn't fix it so deleted and reinstalled. I haven't touched it again yet. Need to see where I went wrong and plan to start with just patches and resolution for widescreen. If I can get that right then Ill remod test.

Skyrim is older but seems much simpler to both use ultra widescreen res and HD and to add mods to it than Fallout 4 is.

Mean while I just nuked the Institute and Preston's mad because I didn't tell everybody to leave first. Fuck him. I wish I could have left him in there.

dbt1949 wrote: ↑Fri Sep 03, 2021 5:32 pm Mean while I just nuked the Institute and Preston's mad because I didn't tell everybody to leave first. Fuck him. I wish I could have left him in there.

I just nuked the Institute yesterday! After some 400+ hours of play, it's the first time I ever "finished" the game. I've never seen the video ending before!

A bit of a letdown it was.

Now I wasn't sure what to do. I wasn't ready to start over, so I finished a few quests by returning to the giver. I decided to explore the southern extremes where I'd never been before. Stumbled into Quincy Ruins. I found Sturgis' terminal, General Whatshisnames' terminal, Mama Murphy's stash of chems, and a bunch of cool other stuff. After 2 or 3 of these, I finally remembered that Preston brought them all to Concord after the Quincy Massacre! Can't believe after all the hours put into this game, I'd never seen this before. Piper, my companion, said, "There's got to be a story here somewhere." (Or words to that effect.) I replied, "It's right here Babe!"

I think I'm going to keep exploring the southern reaches for awhile.

I found a build on the net that I used for this last playthrough. It's called the Infiltrator. Stupid easy to play! I'm level 34 I think, and I have 11 unused perk points!! I still easily kill most enemies. None of those unused points will really make a difference in how I play or what I should do next. It's pretty crazy.

The gist of the build is sneak, ninja, gunslinger, and action boy. The only other perks I've invested in are locksmith, hacker, gun nut, local leader, caps collector, and science. I was nearly out of ammo, so I use a fusion weapon now about half the time as I build up my 10mm ammo again. It's amazing how many one-shot kills I get because of surprise attack damage multiplier. Best build I've ever played!

If you went with the Minutemen ending you can eventually attack the Brotherhood with the Minutemen.

I did the Railroad ending and took out the Brotherhood.

My intention for my next play was going to be to go with the darker factions - Brotherhood, Institute, raiders, etc, with roleplaying decisions and theming to match. Sort of a ruthless character not so much helping these factions as using them to get what he wants.

Given that my next run is probably going to be in VR now, I may or may not stick with that plan. It is all content I've never seen, while I've seen the 'good guy' stuff multiple times, but at the same time, it's not my usual playstyle, and VR is a new experience.

I'm in the mood. I'm modding up Fallout 4 VR. I think it's time to play that 'no so nice' character I've been keeping on the back burner.

I don't much care which faction I am as long as I'm a sneaky sniper. With top melee skills and Pickman's Blade. Other blades are more powerful but not as fast.

I'e decided to start a new game. This time instead of focusing on shooting and being a sniper I'm going to go with hand to hand and melee fighting and being a Ninja.
Don't know how I'm going to deal with deathclaws and BOS in power armor.
Don't know how to handle my armor either.

Modding Fallout 4 VR was surprisingly simple. It took maybe five hours (which is short for me an a Bethesda game - I usually set a whole day aside, and continue into the next), and almost everything worked on the first attempt, which is unheard of (save that I didn't have hands, and my Pipboy was sized for a mouse - one text file tweak solved that.)

Now I'm planning my character. I usually play a similar character in these games. I think 'combat engineer' would be an apt description. Lots of crafting, a focus on single shot rifles, lots of Intelligence, low physical stats. Careful gameplay, sniping, building, science, computers. Problem solving. A 'good guy' interested in helping society. Gordon Freeman is probably a good analog here, with a pinch of Hannibal Smith.

This time I'm going the other route - former military (as is canon), sort of a hard-nosed badass, a cross between Trent Mauser (Schwarzenegger from the Expendables) and Gunnery Sergeant Hartman (from Full Metal Jacket.) He'll be played by Clancy Brown in the movie. He probably chews on a cigar in his sleep. Less intelligence, more physicality, a lot less subtlety. Still decent Charisma - but he uses it more forcefully. Full auto as soon as he can afford the ammo, explosives (maybe - I'll have to see how they're implemented in VR.) Heavy weapons later in the game. Heavy armor and/or power armor (I'll decide that as I play), weapon and armor crafting. Maybe the gun-bashing perks just for fun. He's also out to save society, but his society, his way, impatient with incompetence, forceful in his approach, acting only if it supports his vision or provides him the resources to achieve it. He doesn't exactly think that only the strong deserve to survive, but he does believe that the strong need to be making the decisions with the weak (including the 'eggheads'.) The weak have a place - but making the hard decisions isn't for them. Their place is to provide the strong-willed with the means to lead.

This will give me the framework for the playthrough with enough flexibility to take the quests I want, and the chance to try out the factions I've never played before (Brotherhood, Institute), without having to play a complete lunatic.

How is it to play in VR? I've thought about buying it but held off because I heard the controls are pretty bad.

Chraolic wrote: ↑Tue Oct 19, 2021 12:29 pm How is it to play in VR? I've thought about buying it but held off because I heard the controls are pretty bad.

I can only speak from the perspective of about half an hour of messing around, but it has issues. Some of that is just that it was developed and released fairly early in VR's history, before a lot of the current standards and expectations were established. There is no HMD-based movement, for instance, no hands (just floating guns where your hands are), and the inventory system isn't right for VR (no 'holsters', for instance.) Guns are one-handed only, with no option to grip the stock with the second hand. Swapping left/right handed modes also swaps the rest of the controls. The objects aren't directly interactive (you can't pick up objects in the world and hold them.) The interface isn't good. A lot of that can be addressed via mods (movement can be smoothed, interface altered, hands added, etc.) A few things are going to be the way they are regardless. Even modded it won't be ideal, but it isn't completely awful, either.

But at the same time, there are very few VR games that come anywhere near the scale of a Bethesda RPG (and I have a feeling that everything I say here probably applies to Skyrim VR, too.) And getting to physically walk into a Red Rocket or stand toe-to-toe with a full-scale deathclaw and look up, up, up to look it in the eye is enough to get me to put up with a few annoyances.

I will toss out a set of resources that helped with the modding:

10 Most Important Mods for Fallout VR. Includes a list of mods to avoid.

Ini Tweak Megathread

A list of pancake Fallout 4 mods that have been tested to work (or not) with VR.

My biggest problem was that I don't have the DLCs. That ruled out a LOT of the mods.

Also, I think it was Idle hands that has a "feature" that causes your hands to disappear every time you go into workshop mode. Luckily it doesn't usually take that long to save and reload.

FWIW I'm finally getting into Fallout 4. I decided to go full DGAF about anything other than getting my son back so I've thrown my lot in to date with the Brotherhood, as the apparent local bad-asses who dislike The Institute. I guess I'll see how it goes from here.

Also, what's the easiest / cheapest way to get aluminum and steel? I never like crafting in games so I've avoided it here too, only now there's a main story quest that requires me to get it to craft something, but it's too expensive for me to buy, but I don't want to wander around collecting aluminum cans and shit. Also I apparently need steel and stuff to maintain power armor.

Easiest? Cheapest? You don't want to collect cans? Who ARE you? If you aren't loaded down with a ton of junk every time you head back to base, then you aren't playing the game right.

Cheapest way is to pick up junk. Cans are ideal (note: there are 2 types) because they don't weigh much.

Easiest way is to purchase an order from one of the vendors.

Oh. And it shouldn't require much wandering around. It's just a matter of collecting stuff as you explore the different locations.

My problem has always been
1) get quest to go to point A
2) along the way, discover a location
3) decide to just "pop in" and clear out the location real quick so I don't have to come back
4) end up with too much junk weighing me down and decide to head back to the nearest base to drop it off before heading to point A
5) repeat 2 - 4 infinitely

TheMix wrote: ↑Tue Oct 19, 2021 1:31 pm Oh. And it shouldn't require much wandering around. It's just a matter of collecting stuff as you explore the different locations.

My problem has always been
1) get quest to go to point A
2) along the way, discover a location
3) decide to just "pop in" and clear out the location real quick so I don't have to come back
4) end up with too much junk weighing me down and decide to head back to the nearest base to drop it off before heading to point A
5) repeat 2 - 4 infinitely

Part of the problem is that I have strength 2, so my ability to just pick up everything I find is limited, and I don't like doubling back to base repeatedly. It helps now that I have power armor, but those fusion cores aren't cheap.

Thats why in games with weight carry limits its one of the first things I edit / mod so I can carry the world in my inv. Cuts out useless trips.

El Guapo wrote: ↑Tue Oct 19, 2021 1:39 pm

TheMix wrote: ↑Tue Oct 19, 2021 1:31 pm Oh. And it shouldn't require much wandering around. It's just a matter of collecting stuff as you explore the different locations.

My problem has always been
1) get quest to go to point A
2) along the way, discover a location
3) decide to just "pop in" and clear out the location real quick so I don't have to come back
4) end up with too much junk weighing me down and decide to head back to the nearest base to drop it off before heading to point A
5) repeat 2 - 4 infinitely

Part of the problem is that I have strength 2, so my ability to just pick up everything I find is limited, and I don't like doubling back to base repeatedly. It helps now that I have power armor, but those fusion cores aren't cheap.

Look for a convenient storage container. Then dump everything there. When you can, use your armor along with a strength boost and do a fast travel. Or just load up and do the slow walk. You can carry an infinite amount, even with strength 2. You just lose the ability to run or jump. Sometimes I try to find a container near the "entrance" to an area. Then pop back to it while exploring to dump stuff. I only really load up when ready. Ideally you can find a place that is closer. Remember that as long as you have the settlements connected, that you can dump the stuff in any of the workbenches.

Though it sounds like your best bet is going to be getting enough caps to just buy the orders. Steel should be cheap. Aluminum is likely to cost a bit.

Also, claim workshops out in the world and start scrapping anything that's already there. That will get you a ton of material.

As for Fallout 4 VR and the DLC, they never released them. You have to install the Fallout 4 versions, then move the data files from the FO4 folder the FO4VR folder and apply a community patch. Once you have both games downloaded, it takes about 20 seconds to copy over the DLC, after which you can uninstall FO4 again if you prefer.

Of course, that doesn't help if you don't have the DLC in FO4 (but the fact that all of the DLC is currently 60% off does.)

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Tue Oct 19, 2021 3:57 pm Also, claim workshops out in the world and start scrapping anything that's already there. That will get you a ton of material.

As for Fallout 4 VR and the DLC, they never released them. You have to install the Fallout 4 versions, then move the data files from the FO4 folder the FO4VR folder and apply a community patch. Once you have both games downloaded, it takes about 20 seconds to copy over the DLC, after which you can uninstall FO4 again if you prefer.

Of course, that doesn't help if you don't have the DLC in FO4 (but the fact that all of the DLC is currently 60% off does.)

I know. My issue is the latter. I don't have the DLC. And being on sale now is ... shrug. It's going to be a while before I feel like playing it again. I'm certainly not about to start over with 100 or more hours into my latest game. Which I kind of stopped playing anyway due to burn out.

But NEXT time!

TheMix wrote: ↑Tue Oct 19, 2021 2:22 pm

El Guapo wrote: ↑Tue Oct 19, 2021 1:39 pm

TheMix wrote: ↑Tue Oct 19, 2021 1:31 pm Oh. And it shouldn't require much wandering around. It's just a matter of collecting stuff as you explore the different locations.

My problem has always been
1) get quest to go to point A
2) along the way, discover a location
3) decide to just "pop in" and clear out the location real quick so I don't have to come back
4) end up with too much junk weighing me down and decide to head back to the nearest base to drop it off before heading to point A
5) repeat 2 - 4 infinitely

Part of the problem is that I have strength 2, so my ability to just pick up everything I find is limited, and I don't like doubling back to base repeatedly. It helps now that I have power armor, but those fusion cores aren't cheap.

Look for a convenient storage container. Then dump everything there. When you can, use your armor along with a strength boost and do a fast travel. Or just load up and do the slow walk. You can carry an infinite amount, even with strength 2. You just lose the ability to run or jump. Sometimes I try to find a container near the "entrance" to an area. Then pop back to it while exploring to dump stuff. I only really load up when ready. Ideally you can find a place that is closer. Remember that as long as you have the settlements connected, that you can dump the stuff in any of the workbenches.

Though it sounds like your best bet is going to be getting enough caps to just buy the orders. Steel should be cheap. Aluminum is likely to cost a bit.

Oh, I haven't built any settlements either. There's a degree to which the mechanics in Fallout 4 vs. previous Fallout games & other RPG games I like don't really fit my style all that well.

You don't have to build them out. Just take over the workshop and assign one of the people there as a go-between with one of your other settlements.

I guess that's somewhat of a lie. You'll need to do a tiny bit of building. Maybe. Or maybe just leave them unhappy.

TheMix wrote: ↑Tue Oct 19, 2021 4:22 pm You don't have to build them out. Just take over the workshop and assign one of the people there as a go-between with one of your other settlements.

I guess that's somewhat of a lie. You'll need to do a tiny bit of building. Maybe. Or maybe just leave them unhappy.

That much would require a perk (Local Leader.) You could still claim the others and scrap them bare (when you claim a workshop, you can walk around and 'scrap' any structures already in the area, which dumps all of the materials from them in the workbench.)

And, FWIW, aluminum is one of the materials that's a pain in the ass all the time. I do seem to remember getting a ton at the, er... car factory. Been a while, I don't remember the name.

I think one type of can will give you aluminum. The shiny one?

Also, medical trays give 3 aluminum each, I believe. Just make sure you aren't getting a cafeteria tray. I think those are just plastic. The cans and trays are good options because they don't weigh much.

Oh... also, always check what every vendor is selling. Some things are crazy cheap for the mats they give.