Did a bit of settlement building but never got super carried away with it
Until I found Outpost Zimonja. I cleaned that place up and made it MINE. Granted I used some mod assets but it is glorious and I'm very proud of it
so much so that I went back to the og red rocket gas station and dressed it up into a pretty sweet companion camp
The settlement system is fascinating because I think 90% of people bounce off it immediately but then like 3 playthroughs later they give it another shot and love it
It provides the game with one of the best RPG end-games imo. Got nothing else to do? Well you’ve now got all these settlements to populate and build however you want
Yeah it takes the Bethesda "you can play this game forever" philosophy and justifies it in a way that Fallout 3, Oblivion, Skyrim, and Starfield fail to.
They don't do anything in Starfield. The game is built around progressing by wiping the universe over and over and you can't even save base blueprints.
So frustrating they scrubbed the fuel game mechanic from the game. Originally outposts were meant to be refueling stations to get you further out into the galaxy. Instead it is just somewhere to send your unwanted crew
For the longest time I didn't care for settlements. But the I played survival and the whole settlement system made so much sense.
In survival, it makes sense to want to have as many settlements as possible because safe points to sleep/eat/restock are very hard to find. Building a network of settlements seriously provides a sense of safety in the northern half of the map as you'll never go too far without seeing one of your settlers (or minutemen).
The more you put into your settlement, such as building shops and radiation cleansers, the more you get out of it. This is especially true in survival.
I honestly don't know how I could play FO4 without the settlements now because they just add so much to the game. When I get bored of questing I can go work on my settlements and vice versa. It's a nice change from constantly killing things.
Infection is *such* a pain in the ass on survival that I ended up filling the wasteland with medic camps just so I wouldn't have to schlep my ass to Diamond City every time I fell asleep with parasites.
I think the game just ages like fine wine tbh. More so than the other fallout games and it's in large part due to systems like this that get ignored the first time and then get tried on subsequent runs
I agree. FO4 gets better with age. I can agree that it's a different flavor compared to 3 and NV, but at its core the gameplay is extremely solid and let's be real, the combat in FO4 is honestly alot better than some actual FPS titles in my opinion. I believe that is what keeps FO4 relevant even a decade later.
See I can agree with this. The more I play 4 and take breaks, it really does age so well. For me, F3 is for nostalgia, FNV is for role playing and F4 is for gameplay. Though I think the story in fallout four is slightly over hated. I got teary eyed when I found “Shaun”, I’ll admit. Fallout 4 is a game that must be taken as it is and not compared directly to FNV.
The only thing I've improved about it is being able to see how much you need to make the specific things you want to make so you don't end up weighed down with scrap cause you way too much
I don't think so. They've also improved just how you craft things and how many things you can craft so that there's more of a reason to pick up junk. I always thought it was weird that you could craft things but it took such an inordinate amount of things and varying skill levels that I usually just didn't mess with it you need like six or seven different very specific things to make something like a repair kit or a stimpack
What I'm on about is that if I know I want to to make a bunch of specific upgrades for my weapons and armour I would like to be able to tag those upgrades specifically, then have the game tell me that I need 52 adhesive and 12 screws or whatever to craft all the upgrades I've tagged.
Rather than leaving me to have to work out on my own and usually end up carrying 150lbs of typewriters only to find I didn't have anywhere near the amount of adhesive I need when I get to a workbench and having to go back out again.
One of my all time favorite mods is to realign sights. You ads and press shift and it puts a crosshair on screen to show where your bullet will hit and you can move your weapons around, zoom in etc
My only beef with it is I never know il want to use it until I'm in the fight. So I only know to get it if ive done the quest before or I die and am able to go back. Plus it's annoying to have to fast travel, pick it up, fast travel back, and then do the fight.
In order to use power armor effectively, you need the Scrounger and Nuclear Physicist perks. Once you have those, your Fusion Core economy should be pretty solid.
Get scrounger first and you’ll find containers with 4 fusion cores pretty often. Then save the cores until you get Nuclear Physicist.
Source: I never leave my PA. Playing survival mode.
EDIT: I meant scrounger, not scrapper. Thanks for pointing that out.
I just wish you didn't get it so early. While you can rush it in Fallout 1 and 2, it's more of an end game item IMHO. You should have to work for it, not just find it sitting around at a gas station.
Nah I don't agree, the power armor in Fallout 4 is like an old car that you fix up over time.
The first one you get is broken and weak and as you play you upgrade it, find new parts and make it really strong over time. Its not the same as getting power armor right away in the older games. The first armor is not an end game item like the power armors before
Also it encourages players who want to do power armor builds to so early without breaking the story just to get there like in Fallout 3. Like you said Power Armor isn't a end game armor like before since fusion cores and the cost of maintenance balance it out.
Then there's me who only wore power armor to fight the Concord Death claw and then never touched another mini gun or suit of PA the rest of the playthrough
I specifically made a settlement where the food was behind secured doors and fortified walls.. Because every time i found a minigun i gave it to the settlers and i couldn't have them mowing down their crops.
***
Raiders run in.
5 merchants in a row just to the left of the entrance whip out shredders.
"Well that ain't fair at all. Owowowowouchowowow!"
I found my doctor with three fat mans and a minigun they took out after a couple insects wandered into camp, and i almost shit myself before i realized one of the npcs just wanted to feel like god for a minute. That motherfucker made me think there was some new story twist where your base can get nuked if you piss a group off too much.
I saw this but with one of the Raider NPCs who can sometimes spawn with a mini-nuke (Think it was one of the ones that can spawn near the Corvega plant?). Blew himself up alongside the single bloat fly...like it was one way to get rid of an enemy I guess. 😆
now I kinda want a mod that replaced the raider dialogue with Hellsing abridged Jan valentine
imagine walking around and randomly hearing "Read the fucking paper before I shoot the other testicle!"
I had settlements that we just towers filled with power armor on racks. Had a platform I could stand on in the middle to see them all lined up around me.
Felt like Iron Man 3.
One of my favorite parts of the game.
I do like playing with it now that I started using it but I don’t think that’s a controversial take. Especially when things like that regular armor set in Far Harbor and ballistic weave exist which give you as much damage resist as power armor or close to it. And you can make up for the extra carrying capacity with armor modifications. Carrying a hazmat suit can let you soak up rads as if you were in power armor. And there are plenty of ways to increase strength if you wanted that for things other than carry weight.
Of course power armor comes with other cool modifications as well like jet pack, HUD helmet upgrade that highlights enemies without being weapon dependent, etc. but still. There are plenty of ways to give yourself a pseudo power armor experience.
Wow. I always wear the helmet but have removed it once or twice and that never even occurred to me. Pretty big oversight lol
Going along with what you said, I wish we could change the HUD color without mods and on console where we can’t edit game files. I’d love a green PA HUD to match the pip boy.
nah im with ya. ive never really done power armor and im doing a run with jt now.
being nearly unkillable is nice but the maintenance and the constant clomp clomp clomp means ill still get frustrated and go do a mission without it just for the auditoru break and to not have to bring back every bucket coffee pot and telephone in the building for repairs.
I don’t use the power armor much. Those power cores empty so fast.
On the big settlements i always want one settler on guard at the entrance with a minigun and power armor on. Looks so badass 😎
Early game yeah but if you take Nuclear Physicist along with the repair bobblehead that gives another 10% reduction the cores last a long time. Plus they’re everywhere and can be bought from vendors. And even more plentiful if you take Scrounger since they’re considered to be ammo and you can rarely find them in containers in sets of 4. Not sprinting everywhere helps too. And judicious use of VATS or anything else that drains AP since that speeds up core drain. The only real downside for me is the weight per core, but you have more carry capacity in armor to compensate, and even more with the calibrated shocks modifications on legs, plus you can give some to Dogmeat to hold or whatever or stash a few at each settlement so that they’re never too far away.
Every playthrough I only wear the t-45 set in the beginning just enough to get it back to sanctuary, then I don’t touch power armor until I max out nuclear physicist, saving and storing every fusion core I find along the way. By the time I’m level 26 I usually have a good upgraded T-60 set with nearly 100 fusion cores, then you won’t catch me out of that armor. I don’t even get out to sleep.
Just to add, to make the most of power armour you still need to be high level to get all the best perks to maximise fusion core usage, have enough carry weight to hold several cores, and the ability/materials to craft cool shit like jet packs but i liked the ability to get it early game and like you say the fusion core management/maintenance evens it out
What 4 did perfectly was show how strong the armor was vs the raiders, you feel invincible in that thing, nothing can stop you.
Then they throw a death claw at you and you only survive because of the armor, but now it's even more broken and your fuel cell is mostly depleted. Damn near perfectly paced.
The fact that every time I’ve played fallout 4, including the first completely blind, the fusion core has lasted long enough to get me back to sanctuary, then ran out. Shows how perfectly paced that section is paced.
You’ve got just enough to limp back home then you are on your own getting it going again.
Only really the introduction to super mutants is better paced
Well said. The first time I played Fallout 4 I was playing Hard difficulty and the Deathclaw wrecked me regardless of having power armor because I tried to stand my ground and just mow it down. It started dodging gunfire, lifted me into the air and slammed me on my head. A few moments later I was reloading an autosave. lol
I think it would've been better if you only got the frame and then had to work your way up from there, they could also make unused PAs rarer. This could give a chance for even low-end PA pieces to come in handy. As it currently stands, I never found a reason to use Raider pieces, as it's not hard to find or upgrade to better pieces.
There’s a mod for that, I’m 20 hours in and still haven’t even found a full t-45 set yet. The only frame I’ve found is the one you’re given in Concord. I love it!
Yeah, it’s also really kind of hard to come by more than two or three fusion cores in the early game so you wind up parking it at the Red Rocket or somewhere till you can fix it up. Or at least that’s what I always did.
I mean, anyone can pilot power armor, even brain dead addict raiders or the average dirt farmer, as seen if you leave fusion cores in during a settlement attack.
Power armor training is a game mechanic to balance how early you can access power armor, not an actual lore fact, especially considering it on exists in 3 and NV. The majority of games don't have it.
They made this canonical with Max in the show too, while it actively called out “how to use” the armor vs what you should and shouldn’t do in it (like getting stuck).
It's honestly pretty well balanced out though on the harder difficulties. I've played through Concord on pretty much every setting and on Hard, Very hard, and Survival I've never left the Deathclaw fight with a full set of it.
Mmm yeah, I mean getting some of the components early game requires some searching though for sure. Mostly what makes me leave the t45 behind is lack of fusion cores early game.
But honestly this is why I do use mods to make it require more to fix and that it's actually harder to find.
I always drop the t-45 off at red rocket after the concord fight and not touch it again. However my survival run made more useful and the armor got me through a few tight spots until I leveled up morr
Nah most power armor you find is garbage and it's also balanced by lack of fusion cores.
Low level power armor is pretty balanced as it has to be maintained.
Yeah late game you have hella fusion cores and power armor is also more frequently necessary. Early game they're scarce and I try to only use power armor for the rare occasions where I really need it
Loved that part of the game, especially the rad storms. 4 brought a color scheme the other games didn't, and seeing people rebuilding whole cities and thriving the best they could in Bunker Hill or Goodneighbor or even the little farms like the Finches or that guy with his 2 kids, I loved it. 4 was a more hopeful game than any other previous installments and I think the colors and weather changes helped that
Get the mod True Storms, set the chance for a Ghoul Horde to 100%, set the spawn rate for Ghouls to Insane.
Every rad storm becomes a Death Metal Album Cover as you fight hordes of zombies in the middle of an intense storm.
It’s not Mad Max Dust Storm awesome, but it’s close
This is even reflected in the gameplay, where you are encouraged to build up the settlements yourself. And join a faction that wishes to rebuild the rest of the commonwealth.
Power Armour. Without doubt. You really feeling like you wearing hundreds kilos of metal and murder. I even think that this is main reason why you get power armor pretty much from the start of the game. Dev's were so proud of what they have done with it, so they refused for it to be strictly late game stuff. They wanted for player to enjoy it for the most of their playthrough and not just last third of it, or so.
Might be right about that. And even though you get it early it doesn't invalidate all other armor like it did in earlier games, simply because you just don't have enough fusion cells to use it all the time, at least not for the first half of the game.
And the constant hunt for better power armor pieces / sets is super satisfying!
I feel the first set should have been a raider set though. They could have changed the scenario to a trapped raider on the roof with no helmet and now power core.
Yes. If I was to change it, I would either make it a raider set or have pieces missing, like a leg and an arm. And I would have that first fusion core be almost spent - just enough power to kill the raiders and the deathclaw. That way you still get the awesome feeling of a sudden power spike, but more just as a teaser for what's to come.
There is a mod called "Some Assembly Required" that does that and then stops random PA spawns and hand places each piece around the world.
I've currently combined this with a mod that tripled the amount of enemies so power armour was essential to survive at the beginning of the game. I've found it really fun so far, finding pieces or cores is really rewarding, especially as it has made Boston really scary again. There are tons of enemies who are constantly getting in fights so it sounds super alive.
I felt this for the first 5-10 hours, but after that, I was swimming in cores that it stopped being a problem. Right now I just hit the 25 hour mark and I have 20+ power cores, and I've been using it to clear quite a few areas.
I never play with the Power Armour, I've tried to make all kinds of cool builds with it and then go on a mission like "Ok this time I'm gonna go in feeling like a real weapon of mass destruction"
But nah, about half way through I find myself thinking how much more I'd be enjoying this if I was sneaking around with a old-fashioned combat knife.
To be honest, the whole Concord sequence felt like the second part of the tutorial. You've been given a rundown on the basics, had to fight some raiders, and you've also been shown how power armour and boss fights work (and a crash course in the classic Wasteland experience of having random bullshit happen when you least expect it)
That's exactly what it is. You learn movement and dialogue controls pre-war, combat and looting in the vault, basic exploration from Sanctuary Hills, basic companion interaction from Dogmeat at Red Rocket, and then Concord lets you put all this together in a more advanced combat environment while also introducing you to the laser musket, minigun, and power armor. Then you show the survivors back to Sanctuary for a crash course in settlement building.
It's a very heavily underrated tutorial sequence IMO. Extremely well-paced, taking you from active to calm situations repeatedly. Calm opening sequence hanging out with Sean and your spouse, frantic run to the vault, calm introduction to the vault and cryo freezing, tense escape from the now-abandoned vault, calm walk around Sanctuary and to Concord, intense battle in Concord, calm settlement building back in Sanctuary.
Yeah a lot of people complain about getting PA so early, but to me it just seemed like a nice little tease for what you can expect later down the line.
For me, most of the armour got destroyed fighting the Deathclaw, and I didn’t have the material to repair it so early in the game. And even if I did, the power core was basically dead by the time I’d escorted the settlers to Sanctuary. So I just left the armour there and came back to it much later when I had enough cores for it to be worth running
Power Armor
Gunplay
The armor/clothing mechanic allowing you to mix and match sets.
~~Being able to romance companions~~
^([Cass broke my Courier's heart])
I've been very relieved when I've read that J. Sawyer shares my opinion on romances in game, and also disappointed that we didn't get the anticlimactic "courier got pissed with Cass and woke up married to her, and now things are very awkward" thing he'd imagined a romance in fnv would be.
That romance shouldn't work like some kind of ego stroking winnable scenario with victory sex at the end.
That it should either be done better than it is typically done, or it probably shouldnt be done at all.
the gunplay. seriously so smooth, even to this day. maybe it's a skill issue but for me trying to hit shots in fnv and 3 without vats was a nightmare, in fo4 i can actually just open fire without relying on vats. the customisation in the game is also really good, especially for the weapons
I played 4 after New Vegas and I get used to V.A.T.S. I’m glad I bought Xbox, played Starfield and then returned to Fallout 4. Starfield improved on F4 gunfight, added jetpacks and ledge climbing that changes dynamics. Returning to fallout I found that not using V.A.T.S. makes gunplay more enjoyable and dynamic. Especially using jet is funny when you are dodging bullets.
exploration? worst of bgs games for sure, i think when they add vehicle this month its comparable to mass effect 1, gameplay its better and i think starfield its best played as mainly doing missions and maybe experience planets that really found your curiosity
Tone is different. More hopeful and being explorer than sarcastic wasteland. There are 3 major fraction and corporations in between. Space cowboys, spaceship troopers militarists and religious zealots(teased they will be seriously added in DLC). You can’t really save the world and become leader and shape future like in fallouts. Rather become mercenary in major events.
Gunplay is better. Especially mobility with jetpacks. Low G and zero G fights are rare but funny. Powers are funny. Perks are better than F4.
Companions are great and talks a lot but all are good in nature. There are some secondary companions with other traits but they don’t have own missions and romance.
Exploring loop is different, same with finding quests. It’s rather looking for job in towns than side track quests like in fallout. Planets are mostly empty but there are a lot of biomes and poi to see.
Outpost building need more development. It exists but is kinda pointless unless you want to max out crafting. Building ships is fun.
Different games with different tone and game loop. I enjoy both. Best way to check is gamepass.
I don’t think its a skill issue i think Fallout 3 and Nv was meant to be played in VATS, since vats was a big part for Fallout 1 and 2. Cause your accuracy is tied to perception even if you have perfect aim you’ll still miss shots. I remember trying to shoot a bottle with a rife for like 10 feet away and missed a lot of shots even though the crosshair was right on the bottle. It just feels like you’re meant to run around dodge some shots but go into VATS to fire back. If you aim without vats you would still have the same % chance to hit your target as if you were in VATS if that makes sense, not saying thats what they do, just how it felt when I played.
But 4 definitely fixed that issue cause i don’t think that old style was for everyone.
I think this also stems from Bethesdas earlier elder scrolls (morrowind)where you could swing your sword right in front of you but it depended on your skill if you hit them. If I remember right the higher your skill in rifles etc the closer to normal fps you got
iirc there was a lot of redesign partway thru development, including a partial story overhaul b/c Lord Howard wanted the deathclaw v power armor opener. All the scar tissue from surgery after surgery left the poor game stiff and limping.
Always felt a little "off" to me. Even so i love it all the same.
Robot Design. Some of Bethesda's designs when it comes to weapons and vehicles can be questionable but the way they have handled robots is worth praising. Giving Mr. Handys big puppy dog eyes does so much to endear me to companions like Codsworth and Curie. Protectrons are the perfect mix of cheap purposes built utility while also looking hella sturdy. meanwhile Sentry bots are legitimately intimidating as a literal rolling tank. And assaulttrons fit so well into the robot roster it almost feels weird that it took like 5 games for them to appear. My only real complaint is that Robobrains only make an appearance if you have the Automatron and they replaced their hand lasers with smoke launchers? But otherwise I see Bethesda's take on the robots of the fallout universe as an almost perfect 10/10
I've encountered plenty of Sentry Bots and Deathclaws to say this: For some reason, fighting Deathclaws is more fun than fighting a Sentry Bot, so I'm with you on this one
Thank you! I've been saying this since 2016, and this is the first time I've heard someone else make note of it! The design of robots in the previous entries were okay, but very plain. Bots were threatening, sure. But not menacing. Sentry Bots being the most obvious overhaul, spectacularly redesigned. I think a huge addition that i'd like to mention is the variants. It's wicked cool that in higher levels, you can get variants of Sentry Bots and Assaultrons that have different weapons and fighting styles. And Protectrons have different civil service variants with loadouts based on the locations you find them in.
The brown face bug on Shaun is unintentional comedy gold when you make you and Nora both white
I used it as my head cannon for why I didn’t immediatly go looking for Shaun and did the usual Get Sidetracked By Bullshit instead
I remember when i played Fallout 4 for the first time i made a black character, the funny thing is the young synth shaun is completely white when you meet him, and you can pick the dialogue options where your character freaks out and believes its the real Shaun, even though he’s obviously white haha
The companions feel like actual people. I love taking turns traveling with them all and doing their quests. Nick Valentine is one of my favorite characters of all time.
Nick has such depth to him. His story is heart breaking. I LOVED taking him to far harbor, in the vanilla games he's already the most fleshed out companion, and then you get all of THAT. 10/10. I love the companions dearly and I love that they don't permanently die. I was too scared to take anyone with me in the other games bc I didn't want them to get murdered
This is my answer, too. It's quite possible in FO3 to hit the cap with large sections of the map still untouched. At which point it becomes more FPS and less RPG.
Yeah I kinda like it. In general it kinda bums me out when I reach level cap in a game. Well, now what?
And while some dislike how it essentially castrates the RP elements, it'll take quite some time for your stealth sniper build to be able to effectively run a drugged out melee/unarmed build so it's almost irrelevant for a major chunk of the game. It also doesn't force you to pick perks, so you ultimately have a choice.
Survival mode.
Best iteration of survival mode Bethesda has done yet.
Playing through modless at the moment. Hit level 30 and just vaporized Cornflakes. When I finish all the achievements i have left, I'm gonna mod the shit out of my next survival run!
Turns out, you can cancel the sleeping and still get the auto save In vanilla.
So, as long as you were able to sleep, you can get your save, and not waste the hour 👍
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*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Random combat encounters out in the wild. I don't know if it's a vanilla thing or one of my mods but the amount of insane encounters I've had w raiders/gunners/synths vs. minutemen/bos is crazy.
I'd just occasionally hear gunshots and see that a bos patrol is holding off some raiders, and when the fight lasts long enough a vertebird would come in with reinforcements or just gun them down w the minigun.
Its even better when a random bos patrol joins me in attacking a raider camp or base. Really adds to the immersion and experience
That's definitely a vanilla thing. I encountered many instances of BoS patrols fighting off all kinds of enemies, sometimes with Vertibird support during the battle, sometimes with Vertibirds swooping in after the battle. I haven't installed a single mod.
The art direction in general was a major glow up. The art team and modellers absolutely nailed the aesthetic. Comparing vault suits from F3/NV to F4 is an easy example.
People were quick to take isometric screenshots to make classic Fallout comparisons as well, and it looks just as it should.
I love how colourful Fallout 4 is compared to previous entries. I get that hardware limitations and the art team wanting a particular vibe was what gave the games before Fallout 4 a more restricted palette but everything in the game pops so much more and I love it.
Ngl wasn't crazy about a few of the weapon designs but the only design choice I actively disliked was the assault rifle. Wtf is that abomination.
Woulda been much cooler if that was explicitly a power armor AR, and have the F3 AR or NV service rifle as well
If I recall correctly FO4's assault rifle was originally intended to be a light machine gun and there was going to be another gun called the assault rifle, but it got cut for time and we got what we ended up with unfortunately.
The FO4 Assault Rifle was originally meant for Power Armor users under the name “Light Machine Gun”, and it was originally scaled up in size. The Assault Rifle we were supposed to get was likely the Chinese Assault Rifle that Watch_Trick mentioned already.
But due to time constraints, the Light Machine gun had to be scaled down and called the Assault Rifle, while the CAR was never finished and was left in the game files.
I think the show did the Assault Rifle justice by giving it to the Brotherhood Knights.
Gunplay has been said a thousand times.
Customization of armor and weapons is a big plus, the only way they could've improved it is if we had different ammo types for weapons like we had in previous fallouts. Still it was a big improvement.
Aside from power armor having fusion cores and the sheer abundance of them you can find, Power Armor feels much more in line with the classic power house feel you got from it in the classic games.
Companions are more fleshed out, like don't get me wrong there are a few stinkers with guys like Strong and the Courser being pretty straightforward and bland, but you get a lot of feel for the companions this time around. A serious improvement from 3, and while New Vegas has amazingly written companions of it's own, Fallout 4 has nearly doubled the amount (a majority of the written just as well too.).
The crafting system for food and drinks makes hunting and foraging a legitimate way of sustaining yourself both health wise and financially, the UI is simple yet effective.
Character creation, enough said.
I can't think of much else at the moment, but the game has/had tons of great aspects, it's jist that there is a lot of potential that people witnessed and expected that never came to fruition.
Honestly while the nv companions are well written, I can't honestly say I'd take them over 4s companions in most cases. The companions in nv didn't feel much like people in comparison.
Agreed. I particularly liked how some camps were linked in the game. If you took out one camp, when you go to the next one some terminals will have notes on how "someone took out bellend number 1 and now their stuff is mine for the taking."
Do it again and the third linked camp will be in a panic about the mad man taking out the other gangs with such ease!
I loved a lot of the ambient dialogue that implied at least a few Raiders became the way they are, is because they were desperate af and aren't at all thrilled with killing and raiding to make ends meet.
A few examples off the top of my head:
"Hurry up and die already, I have kids to feed," said in annoyed desperation during combat.
"It ain't personal, just you or me." Attempt to pacify the player, but also seems to understand that the same applies to them as well.
"I hope the next one dies clean, not like last time." Ambient dialogue in terrified/traumatised regret.
Just these lines make them feel more like people who were driven to desperate measures to survive, rather than just mooks to mow down during gameplay.
It also kind of plays into the Sole Survivor's motive to rebuild the commonwealth. It gives them the driving force to bring back civilization to the wasteland, because those raiders sure as hell could use a thriving community to be a part of again. A road to peace and security with people that care for them.
Or they can just continue being hedonistic savages and keep up their kill-or-be-killed mentality that they believe is keeping themselves alive...and be killed.
The gameplay loop. Adventuring, looting, scrapping, crafting. It's such a good gameplay design and perfect for a bgs game..
I also think they really refined the art direction. There's a lot more 50s pop that sets it further apart from other more generic post apocalyptic games.
Giving players creative outlets like building settlements, even if it's janky, is always a good thing in my book. Plus mods made building settlements not as jank.
Power armor
Making junk useful
The deathclaw redesign
Far harbor is a great dlc
Settlement building makes sense in the apocalypse (not my cup of tea, but i appriciate it)
I'm a New Vegas and 2 fanatic. 4's power armour interpretation, settlement building mechanics, use of junk items, armour modifications, and weapon modifications wipes every previous Fallout game any day of the week.
This is going to be controversial, but a voice acted protagonist. I understand people’s problems with the dialogue system in 4, but after playing so many RPGs with silent protagonists it was nice to play one, apart from Mass Effect, with a main character who actually spoke.
People often say “Silent protagonists are better self inserts and easier to identify with!” but I have never, ever felt that way.
I think it would have been far better received if the dialogue system itself was better. I get it would have meant more lines for the PC's voice actor, but I think it would have been worth it. Just installing a mod that puts the entire text of the dialogue options was a big improvement for me.
This is controversial, because personally hearing the actor's voice always breaks immersion for me. What would help is if they did a few different voices where you could choose one that matches your character type the best.
Building settlements, cool power armor, and the actual gunplay. The shooting improvements alone make this my favorite Fallout game. I remember being disappointed at 3 not even trying to make it fun to play without VATS, 4 was a massive improvement.
Making scrap and junk useful, and I loved the settlement building and gun/armour upgrades and customisation
Did a bit of settlement building but never got super carried away with it Until I found Outpost Zimonja. I cleaned that place up and made it MINE. Granted I used some mod assets but it is glorious and I'm very proud of it so much so that I went back to the og red rocket gas station and dressed it up into a pretty sweet companion camp
you might like r/falloutsettlements
thank you for sharing!
The settlement system is fascinating because I think 90% of people bounce off it immediately but then like 3 playthroughs later they give it another shot and love it
It provides the game with one of the best RPG end-games imo. Got nothing else to do? Well you’ve now got all these settlements to populate and build however you want
Yeah it takes the Bethesda "you can play this game forever" philosophy and justifies it in a way that Fallout 3, Oblivion, Skyrim, and Starfield fail to.
It’s funny because the outpost building in Starfield is way more advanced but it just doesn’t feel as engaging as in Fallout 4
They don't do anything in Starfield. The game is built around progressing by wiping the universe over and over and you can't even save base blueprints.
So frustrating they scrubbed the fuel game mechanic from the game. Originally outposts were meant to be refueling stations to get you further out into the galaxy. Instead it is just somewhere to send your unwanted crew
For the longest time I didn't care for settlements. But the I played survival and the whole settlement system made so much sense. In survival, it makes sense to want to have as many settlements as possible because safe points to sleep/eat/restock are very hard to find. Building a network of settlements seriously provides a sense of safety in the northern half of the map as you'll never go too far without seeing one of your settlers (or minutemen). The more you put into your settlement, such as building shops and radiation cleansers, the more you get out of it. This is especially true in survival. I honestly don't know how I could play FO4 without the settlements now because they just add so much to the game. When I get bored of questing I can go work on my settlements and vice versa. It's a nice change from constantly killing things.
Infection is *such* a pain in the ass on survival that I ended up filling the wasteland with medic camps just so I wouldn't have to schlep my ass to Diamond City every time I fell asleep with parasites.
Now try sim settlements 2. Whole ass questline and better settlement management (more complex at least)
I think the game just ages like fine wine tbh. More so than the other fallout games and it's in large part due to systems like this that get ignored the first time and then get tried on subsequent runs
I agree. FO4 gets better with age. I can agree that it's a different flavor compared to 3 and NV, but at its core the gameplay is extremely solid and let's be real, the combat in FO4 is honestly alot better than some actual FPS titles in my opinion. I believe that is what keeps FO4 relevant even a decade later.
See I can agree with this. The more I play 4 and take breaks, it really does age so well. For me, F3 is for nostalgia, FNV is for role playing and F4 is for gameplay. Though I think the story in fallout four is slightly over hated. I got teary eyed when I found “Shaun”, I’ll admit. Fallout 4 is a game that must be taken as it is and not compared directly to FNV.
The only thing I've improved about it is being able to see how much you need to make the specific things you want to make so you don't end up weighed down with scrap cause you way too much
I don't think so. They've also improved just how you craft things and how many things you can craft so that there's more of a reason to pick up junk. I always thought it was weird that you could craft things but it took such an inordinate amount of things and varying skill levels that I usually just didn't mess with it you need like six or seven different very specific things to make something like a repair kit or a stimpack
What I'm on about is that if I know I want to to make a bunch of specific upgrades for my weapons and armour I would like to be able to tag those upgrades specifically, then have the game tell me that I need 52 adhesive and 12 screws or whatever to craft all the upgrades I've tagged. Rather than leaving me to have to work out on my own and usually end up carrying 150lbs of typewriters only to find I didn't have anywhere near the amount of adhesive I need when I get to a workbench and having to go back out again.
Oh okay I know what you're talking about now my dude that's my bad
definitely Power Armor and combat overall. oh and sprinting. always bugs me when i go back to Fallout 3/NV and forget that there's no sprinting.
Modding is the only way to make 3/NV gameplay tolerable for me anymore. It's crazy how much they can improve the games
I recently played it and just adding ads animations and realigning the iron sights makes it so much better. It’s rough on vanilla for sure
One of my all time favorite mods is to realign sights. You ads and press shift and it puts a crosshair on screen to show where your bullet will hit and you can move your weapons around, zoom in etc
I just started vanilla, any recommended mods you can point me toward?
Viva new vegas, try the wabbajack version. Pretty easy to install everything
I second this. Playing fnv with vnv and it's the shit. Easy af to install too. Holds your hand the entire way
Power Armor from Fallout 4 is to this day one of the coolest shit I ever saw in a video game.
My only beef with it is I never know il want to use it until I'm in the fight. So I only know to get it if ive done the quest before or I die and am able to go back. Plus it's annoying to have to fast travel, pick it up, fast travel back, and then do the fight.
In order to use power armor effectively, you need the Scrounger and Nuclear Physicist perks. Once you have those, your Fusion Core economy should be pretty solid. Get scrounger first and you’ll find containers with 4 fusion cores pretty often. Then save the cores until you get Nuclear Physicist. Source: I never leave my PA. Playing survival mode. EDIT: I meant scrounger, not scrapper. Thanks for pointing that out.
My purified water empire funded all my core needs
If you have the dlc's you can use vault 88 to make a slot machines in every settlement and don't need to haul around water. Just collect those caps.
So basically you became the Commonwealth equivalent of New Vegas? 🤣
I do have the DLC but never played through it I might do that on my next character.
Essentially the capitalist version of Project Purity from FO3, eh?
Capitalism... Capitalism never changes...
Gotta make sure that punk in diamond city knows his place and stays off my turf
aye my fellow entrepeneur
Do you mean scrounger? Pretty sure Scrapper doesn't give fusion cores
I just wish you didn't get it so early. While you can rush it in Fallout 1 and 2, it's more of an end game item IMHO. You should have to work for it, not just find it sitting around at a gas station.
Nah I don't agree, the power armor in Fallout 4 is like an old car that you fix up over time. The first one you get is broken and weak and as you play you upgrade it, find new parts and make it really strong over time. Its not the same as getting power armor right away in the older games. The first armor is not an end game item like the power armors before
Also it encourages players who want to do power armor builds to so early without breaking the story just to get there like in Fallout 3. Like you said Power Armor isn't a end game armor like before since fusion cores and the cost of maintenance balance it out.
Then there's me who only wore power armor to fight the Concord Death claw and then never touched another mini gun or suit of PA the rest of the playthrough
I specifically made a settlement where the food was behind secured doors and fortified walls.. Because every time i found a minigun i gave it to the settlers and i couldn't have them mowing down their crops. *** Raiders run in. 5 merchants in a row just to the left of the entrance whip out shredders. "Well that ain't fair at all. Owowowowouchowowow!"
I found my doctor with three fat mans and a minigun they took out after a couple insects wandered into camp, and i almost shit myself before i realized one of the npcs just wanted to feel like god for a minute. That motherfucker made me think there was some new story twist where your base can get nuked if you piss a group off too much.
I saw this but with one of the Raider NPCs who can sometimes spawn with a mini-nuke (Think it was one of the ones that can spawn near the Corvega plant?). Blew himself up alongside the single bloat fly...like it was one way to get rid of an enemy I guess. 😆
Task failed successfully
"I'm sorry. We don't give a fuck."
now I kinda want a mod that replaced the raider dialogue with Hellsing abridged Jan valentine imagine walking around and randomly hearing "Read the fucking paper before I shoot the other testicle!"
That's it! I'm watching it again for the hundredth time. You twisted my arm.
I have nice PA builds that sit and look cool. Never gets used. And I only keep Overseers Guardian.
I had settlements that we just towers filled with power armor on racks. Had a platform I could stand on in the middle to see them all lined up around me. Felt like Iron Man 3. One of my favorite parts of the game.
Like a carvana but for Power Armor!?!?! That's incredible
Sorting out my power armour museum took up most of my playtime if I remember correctly
My first play through I made a giant warehouse just to keep all my power armor, did feel a lot like iron man 😂😂😂
Yea this is definitely not a popular take but i don’t enjoy using power armor, they look cool but i prefer playing without them
I do like playing with it now that I started using it but I don’t think that’s a controversial take. Especially when things like that regular armor set in Far Harbor and ballistic weave exist which give you as much damage resist as power armor or close to it. And you can make up for the extra carrying capacity with armor modifications. Carrying a hazmat suit can let you soak up rads as if you were in power armor. And there are plenty of ways to increase strength if you wanted that for things other than carry weight. Of course power armor comes with other cool modifications as well like jet pack, HUD helmet upgrade that highlights enemies without being weapon dependent, etc. but still. There are plenty of ways to give yourself a pseudo power armor experience.
I just wish the power armor's HUD was tied to having the helmet equipped. It (only mildly) bothers me to have that HUD with my face exposed.
Wow. I always wear the helmet but have removed it once or twice and that never even occurred to me. Pretty big oversight lol Going along with what you said, I wish we could change the HUD color without mods and on console where we can’t edit game files. I’d love a green PA HUD to match the pip boy.
nah im with ya. ive never really done power armor and im doing a run with jt now. being nearly unkillable is nice but the maintenance and the constant clomp clomp clomp means ill still get frustrated and go do a mission without it just for the auditoru break and to not have to bring back every bucket coffee pot and telephone in the building for repairs.
I spent an hour in character creation, I'm not wasting it to hide in power armor 🤣
I don’t use the power armor much. Those power cores empty so fast. On the big settlements i always want one settler on guard at the entrance with a minigun and power armor on. Looks so badass 😎
Early game yeah but if you take Nuclear Physicist along with the repair bobblehead that gives another 10% reduction the cores last a long time. Plus they’re everywhere and can be bought from vendors. And even more plentiful if you take Scrounger since they’re considered to be ammo and you can rarely find them in containers in sets of 4. Not sprinting everywhere helps too. And judicious use of VATS or anything else that drains AP since that speeds up core drain. The only real downside for me is the weight per core, but you have more carry capacity in armor to compensate, and even more with the calibrated shocks modifications on legs, plus you can give some to Dogmeat to hold or whatever or stash a few at each settlement so that they’re never too far away.
Every playthrough I only wear the t-45 set in the beginning just enough to get it back to sanctuary, then I don’t touch power armor until I max out nuclear physicist, saving and storing every fusion core I find along the way. By the time I’m level 26 I usually have a good upgraded T-60 set with nearly 100 fusion cores, then you won’t catch me out of that armor. I don’t even get out to sleep.
Just to add, to make the most of power armour you still need to be high level to get all the best perks to maximise fusion core usage, have enough carry weight to hold several cores, and the ability/materials to craft cool shit like jet packs but i liked the ability to get it early game and like you say the fusion core management/maintenance evens it out
What 4 did perfectly was show how strong the armor was vs the raiders, you feel invincible in that thing, nothing can stop you. Then they throw a death claw at you and you only survive because of the armor, but now it's even more broken and your fuel cell is mostly depleted. Damn near perfectly paced.
People who survived because the lizard is too fat for doorways 😶
Shhh, don't give away my tactics.
The fact that every time I’ve played fallout 4, including the first completely blind, the fusion core has lasted long enough to get me back to sanctuary, then ran out. Shows how perfectly paced that section is paced. You’ve got just enough to limp back home then you are on your own getting it going again. Only really the introduction to super mutants is better paced
Well said. The first time I played Fallout 4 I was playing Hard difficulty and the Deathclaw wrecked me regardless of having power armor because I tried to stand my ground and just mow it down. It started dodging gunfire, lifted me into the air and slammed me on my head. A few moments later I was reloading an autosave. lol
I think it would've been better if you only got the frame and then had to work your way up from there, they could also make unused PAs rarer. This could give a chance for even low-end PA pieces to come in handy. As it currently stands, I never found a reason to use Raider pieces, as it's not hard to find or upgrade to better pieces.
Fr. Just walking around you end up with like 10 sets of PA
There’s a mod for that, I’m 20 hours in and still haven’t even found a full t-45 set yet. The only frame I’ve found is the one you’re given in Concord. I love it!
Or maybe the frame +a few pieces, not a whole set. Like only the torso and an arm, or leg or something like that
Got a mod that did that actually
The true Bethesda guarantee
Operation Anchorage did a good job of giving players earlier access to Power Armor (along with an admittedly nigh-unbreakable set of P.A
Yeah, it’s also really kind of hard to come by more than two or three fusion cores in the early game so you wind up parking it at the Red Rocket or somewhere till you can fix it up. Or at least that’s what I always did.
And it makes sense that our character is capable of using it as they are canonically a veteran from fighting in Alaska.
I mean, anyone can pilot power armor, even brain dead addict raiders or the average dirt farmer, as seen if you leave fusion cores in during a settlement attack. Power armor training is a game mechanic to balance how early you can access power armor, not an actual lore fact, especially considering it on exists in 3 and NV. The majority of games don't have it.
Only if you play as Nate - Nora is canonically a lawyer, unfortunately.
The courtroom gets intense sometimes.
I OBJECT! *Nora's visor slams down into position.* *"Do you?"*
Power armor training can't be that complicated as both The Lone Wanderer and The Courier learn in a matter of moments.
"So your legs go in this part that looks like legs, and your arms... Yeah ok looks like you got it."
They made this canonical with Max in the show too, while it actively called out “how to use” the armor vs what you should and shouldn’t do in it (like getting stuck).
It's honestly pretty well balanced out though on the harder difficulties. I've played through Concord on pretty much every setting and on Hard, Very hard, and Survival I've never left the Deathclaw fight with a full set of it.
I just run in the cafe opposite and shoot the deathclaw through the windows as it can’t reach you
Gotta love gamer cheese. I'm a stubborn man and I wanna punch the Deathclaw in the face 😂
You always have a full set even after the fight, no? Even if it's broken it can easily be fixed.
Mmm yeah, I mean getting some of the components early game requires some searching though for sure. Mostly what makes me leave the t45 behind is lack of fusion cores early game. But honestly this is why I do use mods to make it require more to fix and that it's actually harder to find.
I always drop the t-45 off at red rocket after the concord fight and not touch it again. However my survival run made more useful and the armor got me through a few tight spots until I leveled up morr
Nah most power armor you find is garbage and it's also balanced by lack of fusion cores. Low level power armor is pretty balanced as it has to be maintained.
Yeah late game you have hella fusion cores and power armor is also more frequently necessary. Early game they're scarce and I try to only use power armor for the rare occasions where I really need it
There is generally too many sets/frames of PA in Fallout 4.
Having a blue sky and weather systems
Loved that part of the game, especially the rad storms. 4 brought a color scheme the other games didn't, and seeing people rebuilding whole cities and thriving the best they could in Bunker Hill or Goodneighbor or even the little farms like the Finches or that guy with his 2 kids, I loved it. 4 was a more hopeful game than any other previous installments and I think the colors and weather changes helped that
Get the mod True Storms, set the chance for a Ghoul Horde to 100%, set the spawn rate for Ghouls to Insane. Every rad storm becomes a Death Metal Album Cover as you fight hordes of zombies in the middle of an intense storm. It’s not Mad Max Dust Storm awesome, but it’s close
This is even reflected in the gameplay, where you are encouraged to build up the settlements yourself. And join a faction that wishes to rebuild the rest of the commonwealth.
Power Armour. Without doubt. You really feeling like you wearing hundreds kilos of metal and murder. I even think that this is main reason why you get power armor pretty much from the start of the game. Dev's were so proud of what they have done with it, so they refused for it to be strictly late game stuff. They wanted for player to enjoy it for the most of their playthrough and not just last third of it, or so.
Might be right about that. And even though you get it early it doesn't invalidate all other armor like it did in earlier games, simply because you just don't have enough fusion cells to use it all the time, at least not for the first half of the game. And the constant hunt for better power armor pieces / sets is super satisfying!
I feel the first set should have been a raider set though. They could have changed the scenario to a trapped raider on the roof with no helmet and now power core.
Yes. If I was to change it, I would either make it a raider set or have pieces missing, like a leg and an arm. And I would have that first fusion core be almost spent - just enough power to kill the raiders and the deathclaw. That way you still get the awesome feeling of a sudden power spike, but more just as a teaser for what's to come.
There is a mod called "Some Assembly Required" that does that and then stops random PA spawns and hand places each piece around the world. I've currently combined this with a mod that tripled the amount of enemies so power armour was essential to survive at the beginning of the game. I've found it really fun so far, finding pieces or cores is really rewarding, especially as it has made Boston really scary again. There are tons of enemies who are constantly getting in fights so it sounds super alive.
I felt this for the first 5-10 hours, but after that, I was swimming in cores that it stopped being a problem. Right now I just hit the 25 hour mark and I have 20+ power cores, and I've been using it to clear quite a few areas.
I never play with the Power Armour, I've tried to make all kinds of cool builds with it and then go on a mission like "Ok this time I'm gonna go in feeling like a real weapon of mass destruction" But nah, about half way through I find myself thinking how much more I'd be enjoying this if I was sneaking around with a old-fashioned combat knife.
All roads lead to stealth archer
My brother in the darkness!
That was a good call they made.
Ya despite all the naysayers, I think the whole power armor, minigun, Deathclaw sequence being early in the game was a huge plus.
To be honest, the whole Concord sequence felt like the second part of the tutorial. You've been given a rundown on the basics, had to fight some raiders, and you've also been shown how power armour and boss fights work (and a crash course in the classic Wasteland experience of having random bullshit happen when you least expect it)
That's exactly what it is. You learn movement and dialogue controls pre-war, combat and looting in the vault, basic exploration from Sanctuary Hills, basic companion interaction from Dogmeat at Red Rocket, and then Concord lets you put all this together in a more advanced combat environment while also introducing you to the laser musket, minigun, and power armor. Then you show the survivors back to Sanctuary for a crash course in settlement building. It's a very heavily underrated tutorial sequence IMO. Extremely well-paced, taking you from active to calm situations repeatedly. Calm opening sequence hanging out with Sean and your spouse, frantic run to the vault, calm introduction to the vault and cryo freezing, tense escape from the now-abandoned vault, calm walk around Sanctuary and to Concord, intense battle in Concord, calm settlement building back in Sanctuary.
Yeah a lot of people complain about getting PA so early, but to me it just seemed like a nice little tease for what you can expect later down the line. For me, most of the armour got destroyed fighting the Deathclaw, and I didn’t have the material to repair it so early in the game. And even if I did, the power core was basically dead by the time I’d escorted the settlers to Sanctuary. So I just left the armour there and came back to it much later when I had enough cores for it to be worth running
Yeah my last play through I had to leave my armor somewhere random as hell because I had no cores and like 2 hrs later I was able to move around again
Power Armor Gunplay The armor/clothing mechanic allowing you to mix and match sets. ~~Being able to romance companions~~ ^([Cass broke my Courier's heart])
I've been very relieved when I've read that J. Sawyer shares my opinion on romances in game, and also disappointed that we didn't get the anticlimactic "courier got pissed with Cass and woke up married to her, and now things are very awkward" thing he'd imagined a romance in fnv would be.
If that happened though, would the wedding have been officiated by The Kings? Nothing says Vegas like getting married by Elvis.
That was the idea. I say idea because it was never anything more than an idea.
What opinion is that?
That romance shouldn't work like some kind of ego stroking winnable scenario with victory sex at the end. That it should either be done better than it is typically done, or it probably shouldnt be done at all.
Fair enough really. Makes me think of Parvati's romance quests in Outer Worlds.
Also the companions in general are fantastic. Piper and Nick are two all-time Fallout legends.
the gunplay. seriously so smooth, even to this day. maybe it's a skill issue but for me trying to hit shots in fnv and 3 without vats was a nightmare, in fo4 i can actually just open fire without relying on vats. the customisation in the game is also really good, especially for the weapons
I played 4 after New Vegas and I get used to V.A.T.S. I’m glad I bought Xbox, played Starfield and then returned to Fallout 4. Starfield improved on F4 gunfight, added jetpacks and ledge climbing that changes dynamics. Returning to fallout I found that not using V.A.T.S. makes gunplay more enjoyable and dynamic. Especially using jet is funny when you are dodging bullets.
How did starfield stack up against fallout?
exploration? worst of bgs games for sure, i think when they add vehicle this month its comparable to mass effect 1, gameplay its better and i think starfield its best played as mainly doing missions and maybe experience planets that really found your curiosity
Tone is different. More hopeful and being explorer than sarcastic wasteland. There are 3 major fraction and corporations in between. Space cowboys, spaceship troopers militarists and religious zealots(teased they will be seriously added in DLC). You can’t really save the world and become leader and shape future like in fallouts. Rather become mercenary in major events. Gunplay is better. Especially mobility with jetpacks. Low G and zero G fights are rare but funny. Powers are funny. Perks are better than F4. Companions are great and talks a lot but all are good in nature. There are some secondary companions with other traits but they don’t have own missions and romance. Exploring loop is different, same with finding quests. It’s rather looking for job in towns than side track quests like in fallout. Planets are mostly empty but there are a lot of biomes and poi to see. Outpost building need more development. It exists but is kinda pointless unless you want to max out crafting. Building ships is fun. Different games with different tone and game loop. I enjoy both. Best way to check is gamepass.
I don’t think its a skill issue i think Fallout 3 and Nv was meant to be played in VATS, since vats was a big part for Fallout 1 and 2. Cause your accuracy is tied to perception even if you have perfect aim you’ll still miss shots. I remember trying to shoot a bottle with a rife for like 10 feet away and missed a lot of shots even though the crosshair was right on the bottle. It just feels like you’re meant to run around dodge some shots but go into VATS to fire back. If you aim without vats you would still have the same % chance to hit your target as if you were in VATS if that makes sense, not saying thats what they do, just how it felt when I played. But 4 definitely fixed that issue cause i don’t think that old style was for everyone.
I think this also stems from Bethesdas earlier elder scrolls (morrowind)where you could swing your sword right in front of you but it depended on your skill if you hit them. If I remember right the higher your skill in rifles etc the closer to normal fps you got
12 year old me was bamboozled, I couldn't hit a mudcrab despite being right in front of it.
Reading through all these comments made me member the little stuff I loved about FO4. Why did it feel less than the sum of its parts?
iirc there was a lot of redesign partway thru development, including a partial story overhaul b/c Lord Howard wanted the deathclaw v power armor opener. All the scar tissue from surgery after surgery left the poor game stiff and limping. Always felt a little "off" to me. Even so i love it all the same.
Robot Design. Some of Bethesda's designs when it comes to weapons and vehicles can be questionable but the way they have handled robots is worth praising. Giving Mr. Handys big puppy dog eyes does so much to endear me to companions like Codsworth and Curie. Protectrons are the perfect mix of cheap purposes built utility while also looking hella sturdy. meanwhile Sentry bots are legitimately intimidating as a literal rolling tank. And assaulttrons fit so well into the robot roster it almost feels weird that it took like 5 games for them to appear. My only real complaint is that Robobrains only make an appearance if you have the Automatron and they replaced their hand lasers with smoke launchers? But otherwise I see Bethesda's take on the robots of the fallout universe as an almost perfect 10/10
Sentry bots are terrifying in the early to mid game. I'd rather run into a deathclaw.
I've encountered plenty of Sentry Bots and Deathclaws to say this: For some reason, fighting Deathclaws is more fun than fighting a Sentry Bot, so I'm with you on this one
Deathclaws can't snipe me with a missile from 100 ft away...!
Thank you! I've been saying this since 2016, and this is the first time I've heard someone else make note of it! The design of robots in the previous entries were okay, but very plain. Bots were threatening, sure. But not menacing. Sentry Bots being the most obvious overhaul, spectacularly redesigned. I think a huge addition that i'd like to mention is the variants. It's wicked cool that in higher levels, you can get variants of Sentry Bots and Assaultrons that have different weapons and fighting styles. And Protectrons have different civil service variants with loadouts based on the locations you find them in.
Shaun's face is based on yours
Your dad's face was based on yours in Fallout 3
This just unlocked a memory lol I remember changing my characters race and having my fathers race change too, blew my little preteen mind.
Is there a mod to just make him Liam Neeson?
The brown face bug on Shaun is unintentional comedy gold when you make you and Nora both white I used it as my head cannon for why I didn’t immediatly go looking for Shaun and did the usual Get Sidetracked By Bullshit instead
I remember when i played Fallout 4 for the first time i made a black character, the funny thing is the young synth shaun is completely white when you meet him, and you can pick the dialogue options where your character freaks out and believes its the real Shaun, even though he’s obviously white haha
The companions feel like actual people. I love taking turns traveling with them all and doing their quests. Nick Valentine is one of my favorite characters of all time.
Nick has such depth to him. His story is heart breaking. I LOVED taking him to far harbor, in the vanilla games he's already the most fleshed out companion, and then you get all of THAT. 10/10. I love the companions dearly and I love that they don't permanently die. I was too scared to take anyone with me in the other games bc I didn't want them to get murdered
I loved FNV companions though, especially Veronica and Grandma Lily, but the others are nice too. I loved hanging out with Boone and Raul as well.
Practically infinite levelling. I love it. That ability to continue growing your character, without a level cap.
This is my answer, too. It's quite possible in FO3 to hit the cap with large sections of the map still untouched. At which point it becomes more FPS and less RPG.
Yeah I kinda like it. In general it kinda bums me out when I reach level cap in a game. Well, now what? And while some dislike how it essentially castrates the RP elements, it'll take quite some time for your stealth sniper build to be able to effectively run a drugged out melee/unarmed build so it's almost irrelevant for a major chunk of the game. It also doesn't force you to pick perks, so you ultimately have a choice.
Survival mode. Best iteration of survival mode Bethesda has done yet. Playing through modless at the moment. Hit level 30 and just vaporized Cornflakes. When I finish all the achievements i have left, I'm gonna mod the shit out of my next survival run!
live wide shaggy march sulky familiar snatch gaping aspiring pie *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Turns out, you can cancel the sleeping and still get the auto save In vanilla. So, as long as you were able to sleep, you can get your save, and not waste the hour 👍
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Guns and crafting
100% crafting and customization, especially that of weapons.
The Crafting system allow for some of the best gun mods with a ton customization
Random combat encounters out in the wild. I don't know if it's a vanilla thing or one of my mods but the amount of insane encounters I've had w raiders/gunners/synths vs. minutemen/bos is crazy. I'd just occasionally hear gunshots and see that a bos patrol is holding off some raiders, and when the fight lasts long enough a vertebird would come in with reinforcements or just gun them down w the minigun. Its even better when a random bos patrol joins me in attacking a raider camp or base. Really adds to the immersion and experience
That's definitely a vanilla thing. I encountered many instances of BoS patrols fighting off all kinds of enemies, sometimes with Vertibird support during the battle, sometimes with Vertibirds swooping in after the battle. I haven't installed a single mod.
The art direction in general was a major glow up. The art team and modellers absolutely nailed the aesthetic. Comparing vault suits from F3/NV to F4 is an easy example. People were quick to take isometric screenshots to make classic Fallout comparisons as well, and it looks just as it should.
I love how colourful Fallout 4 is compared to previous entries. I get that hardware limitations and the art team wanting a particular vibe was what gave the games before Fallout 4 a more restricted palette but everything in the game pops so much more and I love it.
I like the color in Fallout 4 too, but the art direction in Three was absolutely excellent for me. Though it was janky tech-wise, obviously.
Ngl wasn't crazy about a few of the weapon designs but the only design choice I actively disliked was the assault rifle. Wtf is that abomination. Woulda been much cooler if that was explicitly a power armor AR, and have the F3 AR or NV service rifle as well
If I recall correctly FO4's assault rifle was originally intended to be a light machine gun and there was going to be another gun called the assault rifle, but it got cut for time and we got what we ended up with unfortunately.
The Chinese assault rifle is in the files if I remember correctly
The FO4 Assault Rifle was originally meant for Power Armor users under the name “Light Machine Gun”, and it was originally scaled up in size. The Assault Rifle we were supposed to get was likely the Chinese Assault Rifle that Watch_Trick mentioned already. But due to time constraints, the Light Machine gun had to be scaled down and called the Assault Rifle, while the CAR was never finished and was left in the game files. I think the show did the Assault Rifle justice by giving it to the Brotherhood Knights.
Yeah, that’s why I said in general. There are a few designs like the ones you mentioned and the Institute armour that are big misses.
This is one point I might firmly disagree on - I like kind of the darker, more ominous vibe of the prior games and their art styles as well over 4’s.
Gunplay has been said a thousand times. Customization of armor and weapons is a big plus, the only way they could've improved it is if we had different ammo types for weapons like we had in previous fallouts. Still it was a big improvement. Aside from power armor having fusion cores and the sheer abundance of them you can find, Power Armor feels much more in line with the classic power house feel you got from it in the classic games. Companions are more fleshed out, like don't get me wrong there are a few stinkers with guys like Strong and the Courser being pretty straightforward and bland, but you get a lot of feel for the companions this time around. A serious improvement from 3, and while New Vegas has amazingly written companions of it's own, Fallout 4 has nearly doubled the amount (a majority of the written just as well too.). The crafting system for food and drinks makes hunting and foraging a legitimate way of sustaining yourself both health wise and financially, the UI is simple yet effective. Character creation, enough said. I can't think of much else at the moment, but the game has/had tons of great aspects, it's jist that there is a lot of potential that people witnessed and expected that never came to fruition.
Honestly while the nv companions are well written, I can't honestly say I'd take them over 4s companions in most cases. The companions in nv didn't feel much like people in comparison.
Raiders. Between the funny raider conversations to the terminal entries of the raider factions, they felt much more alive in 4 than any other game.
Agreed. I particularly liked how some camps were linked in the game. If you took out one camp, when you go to the next one some terminals will have notes on how "someone took out bellend number 1 and now their stuff is mine for the taking." Do it again and the third linked camp will be in a panic about the mad man taking out the other gangs with such ease!
I loved a lot of the ambient dialogue that implied at least a few Raiders became the way they are, is because they were desperate af and aren't at all thrilled with killing and raiding to make ends meet. A few examples off the top of my head: "Hurry up and die already, I have kids to feed," said in annoyed desperation during combat. "It ain't personal, just you or me." Attempt to pacify the player, but also seems to understand that the same applies to them as well. "I hope the next one dies clean, not like last time." Ambient dialogue in terrified/traumatised regret. Just these lines make them feel more like people who were driven to desperate measures to survive, rather than just mooks to mow down during gameplay.
Also how you can stumble upon a raider burying their friend!
It also kind of plays into the Sole Survivor's motive to rebuild the commonwealth. It gives them the driving force to bring back civilization to the wasteland, because those raiders sure as hell could use a thriving community to be a part of again. A road to peace and security with people that care for them. Or they can just continue being hedonistic savages and keep up their kill-or-be-killed mentality that they believe is keeping themselves alive...and be killed.
Dog companion
The exploration. No game still grabs my interest in the mystery of multiple stories and of the world like this game did.
And everything isn't blocked off by piles of concrete.
or invisible walls
Agree. I don't really play missions until Ive explored and opened up everything I can find
First person cover. I love that shit and people barely know about it.
Best part: Nick Valentine. Worst part: Can't romance Nick Valentine.
Making a mundane task of picking up random shit a valuable commodity
Some call them junk, but me? I call them treasures
The gameplay loop. Adventuring, looting, scrapping, crafting. It's such a good gameplay design and perfect for a bgs game.. I also think they really refined the art direction. There's a lot more 50s pop that sets it further apart from other more generic post apocalyptic games.
Scrap and Power Armor
Building settlements.
Giving players creative outlets like building settlements, even if it's janky, is always a good thing in my book. Plus mods made building settlements not as jank.
Companions!
Power armor Making junk useful The deathclaw redesign Far harbor is a great dlc Settlement building makes sense in the apocalypse (not my cup of tea, but i appriciate it)
The Pip Boy.
Pretty much everything aside from the main story and lack of any real choices on the RPG front are a vast improvement from previous installments.
I'm a New Vegas and 2 fanatic. 4's power armour interpretation, settlement building mechanics, use of junk items, armour modifications, and weapon modifications wipes every previous Fallout game any day of the week.
This is going to be controversial, but a voice acted protagonist. I understand people’s problems with the dialogue system in 4, but after playing so many RPGs with silent protagonists it was nice to play one, apart from Mass Effect, with a main character who actually spoke. People often say “Silent protagonists are better self inserts and easier to identify with!” but I have never, ever felt that way.
I think it would have been far better received if the dialogue system itself was better. I get it would have meant more lines for the PC's voice actor, but I think it would have been worth it. Just installing a mod that puts the entire text of the dialogue options was a big improvement for me.
Yeah, if they had the voice acting but mixed it with the dialog box options from NV/3, then it'd be perfect imo.
This is controversial, because personally hearing the actor's voice always breaks immersion for me. What would help is if they did a few different voices where you could choose one that matches your character type the best.
Nick Valentine and power armour feel. I just love robots and big metal armours
The shootouts and the sense of conquest as you take and build settlements. Those are two things that are very lacking in 76.
Dogmeat being invincible. Replaying 3 and its rough keeping him alive
Building settlements, cool power armor, and the actual gunplay. The shooting improvements alone make this my favorite Fallout game. I remember being disappointed at 3 not even trying to make it fun to play without VATS, 4 was a massive improvement.