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

If I remember correctly I didn't find the combat to be that difficult in FO4 except for those couple of unfortunate encounters where I ran into a deathclaw when I was still at a pretty low level.

My second Pfizer shot just about took me out. Seriously, my second shot wiped me and I spent the next day sleeping, going home very early from work. Everyone has a different reaction, but for me it was bad.

I'm finding the combat challenging, but it's situational. Like those AI that can see and shoot so easily through the walkways. Radscorpions popping out of the ground under my feet, or the molerat armies that do the same. I need to mix VATS in a little more and that would give me more control. But even still, I'm getting through it no worries. I'm nearly past the hobo phase and soon should be better equipped and I'll start tinkering with the crafting and modification stuff.

rwatson I don't think there's any sort of easy section, at least that I have noticed in my brief exposure. The earliest missions took me to clear out Concord, which isn't easy really, but not bad either and you'll get some good gear including a nice set of armor. I started by heading to Sanctuary after leaving the vault, having a look a round and talking to the butler, then clearing out the Red Rocket station, then in to Concord. This opens up the settlement mechanics and gets you a dog.

Concentrating on building up Sanctuary instead of exploring the wastes could ease a player in I reckon.

Thanks DB at least I have a starting point to work on.Just did a bit briefly yesterday and was in some apartment and didn't know what to do next.But exploring is part of the adventure and that's what i like.I'll figure it out in time.

Have you been through the vault and emerged after the war, or before that?

If before that, the thing to do is answer the door when the salesman comes around and talk to him.

No db just fired it up to see if my settings were god looked around the room and walked around a bit.If I can get moving today I'll start playing around a bit more.

OK mate, hope the shot effects pass quickly and you can get down to reclaiming the wastelands

You still need to do your character and all, so have fun.

You know it's funny how the thing that always trips me up with these types of games is picking a name. I spend an absurd amount of time not knowing what to do. I want to pick something I like in case it can't be changed later. But this time after five minutes of indecision I just picked...


Dave


And Codsworth pronounces it. Glad I picked something so simple, and was very surprised that the game could handle it and speak it. Pretty neat.

Dave's not here, man.

LOL my game name is always Ruski in games where I need one. I flew online in EAW as JG51_Ruski and that's been me since around 2001.I joined here in June 2001 and joined JG51 a couple months later otherwise I would have registered here with that name

Turns out the list of names is extensive

https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Codsworth/recognized_names

Ruski isn't there, but Ivan is

Russell, too.

Bond is in the list. If only I had known!

Hmm Ivan sounds good to me.

Ivan works for me

I wasn't sure which way to go when spending the SPECIAL points but I leaned toward high Perception, Intelligence and Luck. Low Strength, Charisma and Endurance. Agility in the middle. A rifleman build but well-rounded enough that I can get useful perks in all disciplines. I'll probably take Lone Wanderer which gives +50% carry capacity and I'm not going to use melee all that much so low strength is fine. I think the best way to approach this is to look over the perks trees first, identify which ones you will want to get as you play the game, and then spend your SPECIALs to open those perks up. Otherwise you'll find yourself locked out of something you may have really wanted. Then again, you can always 'train' a SPECIAL point, but at the cost of one less perk of course.

Hit level 8, and explored more of the map. Getting fast travel points opened up is useful.

I've been farting around with the settlement stuff. Sanctuary is the primer settlement, and to bring it up you have to build beds, and water pumps, some crops and defenses. Not sure what I think of this side of the game yet. It's not particularly compelling gameplay, but over time, with a network of improved settlements maybe I'll feel differently. At this point I'll just work on two or three and see where that leads. FO4 vets seem to largely recommend getting Local Leader perk to establish supply lines. This allows all of your settlements to share resources I think. This also allows trading posts and other stuff.

I think when one of my settlements repels the first attack with my defenses proving key that I will start to feel differently and some attachment to what I am building.

I only put 3 points in to Charisma during creation, then spent one You're Special book to get a fourth point, but Local Leader needs level 6. I'm torn because if I am not going to make settlements a core focus then I don't care to drop more points in to it. There's still a bobblehead out there to bring me to 5 and then I can train the sixth point if needed.

The settlements mechanic seems to be something that should appeal to me so I'll keep working on it and see where it leads.

Got a Hardened Sniper Rifle off a fallen Gunner, and that really opens things up. With that scope I can now use VATS to scout ahead and identify targets, not to mention take them out at range. A nice boost to lethality and survivability, with the added bonus of improved SA.

I mentioned I am probably going to take Lone Wanderer which means my only companion can be the pooch, in exchange for 15% less damage taken and +50 carry capacity (not +50% as I said before). Does anyone have any opinion on this? Are any of the companions that I would lock out going to be missed? Any companion-specific content or items or abilities that I might regret missing out on?

Companions are a big part of the experience, and can be useful in a fight early on, although I typically go solo in the later game.

Yes, thanks. I just read that there are companion perks. So yes, it looks like I should do some companion stuff at least until I get any I want.

https://www.ign.com/wikis/fallout-4/Companion_Perks

Are these permanent, or once gained remain after dismissal?

I believe they're permanent.

100% agree. Piper was my companion for most of the time because hey, I like eye candy.

I've been rolling with Piper for a few hours. But so far I'm not too keen on the follower thing. It might be cool for the story, commentary, quests and that sort of thing, but from a tactical perspective it's pants lol. Constantly crossing my sight lines during combat which is annoying AF. The companion bonuses are not so strong I can't live without them. I might go back to dog meat and just ignore this. I'll give Nick a go too and then decide. A loner's more my style anyway, so I'm leaning toward going the Lone Wanderer route after all.

Made it to level 15 yesterday so moving right along. I wish I had spent my SPECIAL points slightly differently. I would have put a couple fewer points in Intelligence, and more in Luck and Charisma. I thought high Intelligence would pay off with more XP, but then I saw the Idiot Savant perk and that makes up for having low INT, although the trigger sound is also annoying AF. I'd love to replace that sound with something like the objective tone from Thief 2. Luck has the best group of perks for me.

I started with 3 Charisma, dropped another point with a book and then trained a fifth point and still have passed a single speech check so far. Knowing what I know now I should have put one less point in Perception and spent it in Agility. Even so I'm still doing fine but with some time in the game I can see a better starting build than what I went with.

I like the change that makes energy weapons use the normal perks instead of having its own. I'm dropping points in all three of Rifleman, Commando and Gunslinger. This way any weapon I pick up will be covered with additional damage output and the other bonuses such as ignoring a percentage of armor. The gunplay's pretty good in FO4, at least the free-aim is better than the previous games. In a sense it feels like FO4 is a shooter with RPG elements, whereas New Vegas and FO3 felt more like RPGs with shooter elements.

I absolutely see this as well and the "FPS with RPG elements" trend continues even more so with Fallout 76.

I may get 76 eventually, I'm enjoying rediscovering the Fallout universe. So many neat little touches that appeal to me in this alternate reality.

How do you guys approach arming and outfitting your settlers? Not sure how much effort I will put in to building the settlements, but I think I would have fun focusing on getting my people armed to the teeth. How do you do your defenses? Is a couple of turrets enough? Is placement important? I have yet to see any attack on one of my settlements so I don't know what is needed to repel one.

I assume I need to go to 'trade' with the settler, give him/her the weapon and one round of suitable ammo? I have a vast trove of pipe guns as well as things like missile launchers, a fat man, a couple miniguns and so on. Just curious how others go about this.

If I were to do it over this is how I would have spent my initial SPECIAL points. Since levels have no cap, and points and perks are not limited (until you run out of perks), it isn't that big of a deal. But if I had paid more attention, and knew what I know now, this is how I would have gone at the start.

Strength (3) -- To get to the Armorer perk. Not too concerned with melee, and while additional carry capacity is worthwhile, each SPECIAL point only raises the capacity by 10, which isn't worth a point to me.

Perception (4) -- To get the Locksmith perk, which is very useful. Five points would get Demolition Expert, and that was my plan. But I hadn't realized you cannot throw grenades in VATS any longer, which sucks, and so I'd keep it at 4. This affects VATS accuracy too though. Then again, with better shooting mechanics in FO4 VATS is not so crucial any more.

Endurance (1) -- Dump stat. The perks in this tree are mostly centered around survival, damage resistance, chems and so on. Useful, but for me the least important tree and points are better spent elsewhere.

Charisma (4) -- The target is Local Leader at level 6, but not needed right away, and the first You're Special can be spent to raise it to 5. Then train, find another book or find the bobblehead to get to 6 to get Local Leader, which networks your settlements and allows higher-tier buildings. Can be ignored if you ignore the settlement side to the game. But if you don't you'll want the Local Leader perk.

Intelligence (4) -- To get to Hacker. I made the mistake of sinking 7 points in to INT, because I thought that was a good idea to get more XP. But with the Idiot Savant perk (Luck tree) this really wasn't necessary, and I don't care about the level 5, 6 and 7 perks (Scrapper, Science, Chemist). This would have given me three points back. This decision nags at me. It's the sort of thing that usually makes me start over eventually. But since points are unlimited in FO4 I'll stay the course and can correct this over time.

Agility (5) -- To get to Action Boy. VATS is less vital for me in FO4, but it's still fun to use and can be a life saver in tight situations against mobs. 3 points to get to Sneak is bare minimum. Sneak is very powerful in Fallout.

Luck (7) -- To get to Critical Banker. Aside from Bloody Mess (level 3) I like every perk in this tree and if I were to eventually max one out it will be Luck.

Finally got started playing but I seem to have a few issues from the shot.Took me awhile to get going.Couldn't figure out how to get out of the house.
Finally got to the bunker but I'm stuck trying to get into the pod to put the suit on I can't get into it..I miss the days when you got a manual with a game at least to get you started,I think I'll go and find a Wiki or a general guide.But it looks like it's worth taking my time to learn.
I see there's an unofficial patch here https://www.afkmods.com/Unofficial%20Fallout%204%20Patch%20Version%20History.html
I have the GOTY edition with all the needed DLC's is it worth installing ??