homepage Forums Land & Armor Combat Tactical Simulations - General Re: Fallout 4 (now with extra New Vegas!...and a dash of 76)

I think it's some kind of ratio between water and food compared to defense. The more food and water you have, the more defense you need to discourage attacks. Arming the settlers doesn't count for defense points, but when it it attacked they'll fight much better.

When you arm them is it enough to give a single round of ammunition for that weapon?

I had asked earlier about this, wondering how others go about it, how much effort they put in to it. Are players giving them armor too usually? How involved do you guys get in this?

I got a notification while out on patrol yesterday that Tenpines Bluff was under attack. Due to apathy being otherwise engaged I failed to respond and promptly forgot all about it. Several hours later a message popped up that our defense had been successful. There are two people living there and no defenses at all. Odd.

Power armor is too ubiquitous in FO4. It's always something that felt like a late game thing, but here suits are found all over. I think I have five of them collecting dust in Sanctuary and a few more that I just left where they were. The power cores are designed to limit the suit's use to a degree, but those are common enough too. But as mentioned I was thinking that when I finally take Local Leader and attempt to establish supply lines that I can give the designated runner some very fancy kit. Maybe a mini gun and power armor. Put it to good use I reckon. And then I imagine I'd encounter them when out on patrol, since they go everywhere in real time right?

For settlers, yes, one bullet is enough, they just generate more somehow. For companions, they'll use what you give them until they run out, and they waste ammo at an astonishing rate. There are mods that make the companions have infinite ammo when you give them a weapon though.

I'll be curious to see which faction you end up siding with DBond by the time you get to the end of the game. I sided with "The Institute" when I did my play-through.

Really? The Institute? I have yet to encounter them so my entire impression is based on what encountered NPCs have had to say. And none of it good. No spoliers please about that.

In these games and with a diverse faction mechanic I tend to side with whichever faction is most like a revolution, for freedom. The loners and the stoners. I tend to reject authority, oppression, militaristic groups. Even so I've been quite impressed with the BoS, they've got their sh!t wired tight don't they? But they are also the faction I'd normally rail against. So we'll see how it plays out.

Railroad is the one most like what I would normally align with, the underground underdogs. But I'm wary of the synth threat lol.

As the story unfolds and I learn more it will be interesting which way I go in the end. I'll let you know for sure Panzer.

No worries. All I will say is that there are two sides to every story and that in the Fallout universe, no faction is really "all good" or "all bad".

OK, thanks, now how do I find my pooch?

Thanks for the info above wormfood.

You can all stop looking, because my dog has returned to Sanctuary. No guarantee he'll be there next time I look, but at least he's found. I'm rolling with Macready at the mo, to get his perk. I might go Lone Wanderer at that point. And to answer another of my questions, it appears that the perk will still allow companions, with Lone Wanderer effects suspended while a companion is with the Vault Dweller.

I'm level 28 now and starting to feel pretty powerful as everything comes together and the build path synergizes. There is a ton of content in FO4 and I've still got the two DLC to navigate.

Now level 33 and after getting Macready's companion perk I dismissed him, went and got Dogmeat and took Lone Wanderer. I happened to have two points unspent so went straight to LW level 2 which is 30% damage reduction and +100 carry capacity. That's pretty good, and having also gone to Armorer 3 to boost the ballistic weave even higher, protection is strong, even with the fairly lightweight pieces I am wearing to make me stealthy.

It was funny, because when you reach the point the companion hits max affinity, he/she launches in to a heartfelt soliloquy of how meaningful the relationship is and how great a friend I am and the next thing out of my mouth is hit the road Jack, I'm done with you. Coldhearted, man.

I'm starting to think I should have played on Survival. Anyone play this way?

I have not because at the time I felt that the added difficulty was overkill.

The difficulty didn't matter too much to me as the lack of saving and crashes did.

Yes, that too! Nothing sucks worse than losing an hour or more of progress in a game.

You may be right. No fast travel is a big restriction, the save restrictions too. Ammo has weight, which with all I am carrying at the mo would probably bore me through to China. Hunger, thirst, sleep. Tougher enemies, and much longer re-population cycle. The player does get the Adrenaline perk to help offset the added difficulty.

Too late now, but if I were to ever play again I'd give Survival a go. Those changes actually sound good to me, but the fast travel one is a killer.

Back to companions for a moment. They are well done in this game outside of combat. Their quests, backstories, dialog, personalities and mechanics are all well done in my view. But in combat they are frustrating and annoying most of the time. I've only used five or six in this run, and they are not entirely useless. But they get in the way far too much for me. It is so annoying to be sitting at the top of a staircase or whatever scoping ahead, maybe shooting, and having the companion just park in front of you, blocking the view.

By giving them up and going Lone Wanderer (which doesn't lock companions out, so I can still use them) I feel like I will be missing some good content (like having Nick along in Far Harbor), but for me Dogmeat's combat behavior is the best, and I'm a loner at heart in games like this most of the time. Just a man and his dog reclaiming the wastes, one raider at a time.

In case you were curious, Fallout 76 implemented some of those "survival" aspects by default. All ammo has weight and especially explosive ammo like missiles and mini-nukes will weigh you down quickly if you carry too many of those. Hunger and thirst are definitely factors and you will lose all bonuses to your disease resistance and hit points if your hunger and thirst states are too far in the "red". You can fast travel but you have to pay a fee (in caps). The fee depends on the distance you are fast travelling.

Thanks Panzer, appreciate the info. Not sure I'll go that route, but more information is always good.

I read that in (FO4) survival mode that mini-nukes weigh 12. And I have like 20 of them. I don't even want to know what the 40 or so cannonballs I am carrying around would weigh lol.

At the same time these sorts of things appeal to me. I found the early game fairly challenging, and made some regrettable decisions spending my SPECIAL points. But as the perks are acquired, and I find and modify better weaponry and armor I'm feeling a bit too powerful frankly, and even bumped the difficulty up from normal to compensate. I think a Survival run will help to balance that out. I'm tempted to give it a go. I would like another shot at SPECIAL distribution. BUT! In survival, Endurance would suddenly be not a dump stat and instead of bumping Agility and Luck like I want to do, I'd probably need to boost Endurance instead.

I've been reading about Survival most of the day, and I'm going to start over and give it a go. I feel like I want the extra challenge, especially the inventory restrictions that will put such importance on what kit I carry. I'll keep my current save in case it doesn't work out the way I want it to.

So I've got some ideas on how to approach it, with character creation, weapon selection and perks. The 80 hours I've dropped already will serve as a primer. I know enough now to play more optimally, where to get certain things and what to avoid until I am prepared for it.

I don't think I'll like the lack of fast travel, that seems the biggest hit. I hope I can deal with the stronger enemies, environmental effects, hydration and illness. We'll see, but those look manageable with the proper preparation. Limited saves is workable too, as long as I change my approach and don't look to kill everything within range. Stealth, discretion and preparation should see me through.

One of my favorite shooters is the Misery mod for Stalker CoP. And while I'm not thinking this will be the same, I think with how much I liked playing that that maybe I can find some of the same in FO4 Survival mode.

Fallout 4's Survival mode is more tedious than challenging IMO.

You're better off with mods to increase the difficulty and playing permadeath, where if you die, you erase your character.

No I don't want to play dead is dead, that wouldn't last long haha.

You may be right about the tedium, and I've played survival for a bit now, enough to get to level 6. There is some stuff I like and some I don't. I've lost progress a number of times already, due to dying quite a while after the last save.

On the other hand I'm liking it enough to keep going for a bit. I should expect to find it dangerous out there at low level, and if this run follows the same sort of progress I had in normal then I will be fine before too long.

You should try the DLCs...

I really enjoyed the "Nuka World" DLC. I had a LOT more fun making all of those different Nuka Cola varieties than I thought I would.