Fallout VII - Vault-Tec calling

[tonberrian]

And for all the good armor does, there are these pesky laser ceiling turrets that still seem to knife through my health even wearing fully modded X-01. They have like armor penetrate 100%, or did whenever I last played.

[Triaxx]

I suspect what they have is lack of recoil. Humanoid enemies simulate recoil, and so miss a fair bit. Turrets don't do that, so more of the rounds hit.

[The_Jackal]

And for all the good armor does, there are these pesky laser ceiling turrets that still seem to knife through my health even wearing fully modded X-01. They have like armor penetrate 100%, or did whenever I last played.

If you're in survival, enemies do quad damage, first of all, turret or otherwise. So even assuming you're just facing a basic, unmodded laser, it will do 24*4 damage, or 96 damage. Even if you have 500 armor, that's going to do ~28 damage per shot, if you have 2000 armor, it will do ~16, so you get an idea of how harsh the diminishing returns on armor is, once your armor exceeds the strength of the attack. With a reasonably high rate of fire (laser has a RoF of 50, which equates to 50 shots in 10 seconds, or 5 shots per second. So, even with 2000 armor, you'll take 80 DPS after armor. If you've got a low endurance, that will hurt you really badly in not very much time. Did you lowball your endurance? Endurance adds a TON of health, especially at high levels: Health = (80 + (5 * end) + (level - 1) ( (end / 2) + 2.5). So if you're level 20, and have 1 endurance, your health will be 145, which means that laser will carve through you in less than 2 seconds. If, on the other hand ,you'e got endurance of 4, your health at level 21, your health will be 230. In fact, once you're level 31, adding endurance is flat-out better than taking points in life-giver. Of course, there's no reason you can't eventually get all of the above.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Unless you are doing highest difficulty on survival, however, the odds that you run into something doing enough damage to make the difference in mitigation between power armor and combat armor + Ballistic Weave on garment + hat is very minimal.

You can hit 331 ballistic and energy resistance out of that combination. Which means anything doing less than roughly 80 damage is going to see only minimal difference between that and power armor.

In other words: More armor only really works more better when you have more damage per shot coming at you. If the damage is less than roughly a quarter of your armor, the difference in mitigation is going to be minimal at best. Like maybe 5-10% additional damage reduction at most.

[Mando Knight]

Here's an odd thing, though: Resistance % is probably the single most misleading statistic when it comes to impact on your health. A better metric is effective HP, which can be derived easily from damage resistance percentage.

Rounding up your armor value to 350 and assuming the worst power armor ratings (basic Raider armor and T-45a are the same ballistic rating) of 500 for full-body protection, your damage resistance only goes up by about 3% against 50 damage weapons, but the relative effect on your HP means that you (and your Stimpaks and Nuka-Frees and what have you) last 14% longer in that basic power armor. T-60b (the variant you're given for joining the Brotherhood of Steel) grants just under 8% more damage resistance, but you're at +50% HP over the non-powered armor option.

You still get major diminishing returns from each point of armor, which is why power armor gains a lot more armor points from upgrading than regular armor pieces do.

[The_Jackal]

Here's an odd thing, though: Resistance % is probably the single most misleading statistic when it comes to impact on your health. A better metric is effective HP, which can be derived easily from damage resistance percentage.

Rounding up your armor value to 350 and assuming the worst power armor ratings (basic Raider armor and T-45a are the same ballistic rating) of 500 for full-body protection, your damage resistance only goes up by about 3% against 50 damage weapons, but the relative effect on your HP means that you (and your Stimpaks and Nuka-Frees and what have you) last 14% longer in that basic power armor. T-60b (the variant you're given for joining the Brotherhood of Steel) grants just under 8% more damage resistance, but you're at +50% HP over the non-powered armor option.

You still get major diminishing returns from each point of armor, which is why power armor gains a lot more armor points from upgrading than regular armor pieces do.

Sure, but the relationship between effective health and DR% is constant throughout any game with a non-threshold-based system. 75% damage reduction is twice as good as 50% damage reduction, which is 50% more effective than 25% damage reduction. This is all because linear increases in damage reduction enjoy increasing returns. But Fallout 4's DR is affected by the size of the incoming attack. At high attack values, it's basically a threshold system, where you get linear returns from your armor, but any damage over the armor value goes more or less unmitigated. At low attack values, it's a ratio-based system, with strong diminishing returns if the armor value far exceeds the value of the incoming attack.

I actually kind of like this system, because it continues to make critical hits and explosions scary, while still keeping chip-damage somewhat relevant. It makes stacking armor continue to be hugely relevant against large attacks, while keeping it from getting totally out of hand against small attacks. In a flat system, like, say Skyrim's or World of Warcraft's, a certain armor value gives you a certain amount of damage reduction, and that factor is applied to huge attacks as well as really tiny ones.

[Mutazoia]

The difference is that's it's kind of a pain to get Somerville Place as a settlement, whereas IIRC Egret is pretty quick to unlock. Either way, you want a nearby settlement to start your expedition from, is my point. I mean, you COULD march from Sanctuary or Startlight or whatever, but you'll be hating life if you get unlucky and are messily devoured by Radscorpions. Also, it's not THAT much closer. It's closer to the Glowing Sea, I'll grant you, but not that much closer to where you need to go once you get there.

Most times, I'll just fast travel down to Natick Police Station, and hoof it from there. And since there is a suit of power armor sitting out, just south of the Red Rocket and right on the edge of the Glowing Sea, I can have a companion grab it as we run by. Plus, going that route puts you with in fast walking distance to the cabin with the X-01 suit, so I can grab that as well (although I usually leave that one until after I've made my first trip to the institute and just get the map marker on my way to chat with Virgil). This route is about the same walking time as it would be from Summerville, with out the hassle of passing by Vault 95 and agro'ing the stupid Assultrons there (and the occational DeathClaw that seems to spawn between Summerville and '95).

IMHO, the only real reason to get Summerville as a settlement, is to drop an artillery piece there, so you can have some fire support on your run through the Glowing Sea.

[Avilan the Grey]

Had an odd experience with Boston public library this morning.
Curie and I came in thru the subway station and the Protectons were owning the mutants. All the mutants in the main staircase were dead or dying.
Most of the Protectons were Watchers though, not regular ones, probably because of my level (35).
Funny thing is the mutants had not been leveled to the same degree, most were still brutes or regular ones. Even the local legendary, who is supposed to be the main boss, was just a brute.

[The_Jackal]

Had an odd experience with Boston public library this morning.
Curie and I came in thru the subway station and the Protectons were owning the mutants. All the mutants in the main staircase were dead or dying.
Most of the Protectons were Watchers though, not regular ones, probably because of my level (35).
Funny thing is the mutants had not been leveled to the same degree, most were still brutes or regular ones. Even the local legendary, who is supposed to be the main boss, was just a brute.

Had you perhaps entered the area before, or had been sitting on the mission from Daisy for a long time?

[Avilan the Grey]

Had you perhaps entered the area before, or had been sitting on the mission from Daisy for a long time?

Yeah I had been sitting on the quest since lvl16 but i never entered the building.

[The_Jackal]

Yeah I had been sitting on the quest since lvl16 but i never entered the building.

Yep, that's why.

[Avilan the Grey]

Yep, that's why.

But the bots leveled up...
Oh well, after this one I have to remember to do No Mercy so I get my verti-taxi.

[The_Jackal]

But the bots leveled up...
Oh well, after this one I have to remember to do No Mercy so I get my verti-taxi.

I agree, that is weird, but I suspect that the super-mutants that spawn to attack the Library are tied to the mission in the game logic. Certainly, I've never seen super-mutants respawn or return to BPL.

[Triaxx]

I think they are determined when you take it, while the rest are on arrival. But I've never tested.

[Avilan the Grey]

I agree, that is weird, but I suspect that the super-mutants that spawn to attack the Library are tied to the mission in the game logic. Certainly, I've never seen super-mutants respawn or return to BPL.

According to the wiki they only respawn if you clean it out before receiving her quest for it.

Edit: and yes, it seems the mutants, who are the "primary foes" there are determined by quest-taker level.

[Avilan the Grey]

I got permanent supply lines.
That robot that got the reset bug? It corrupted the two supply lines it was on so the game thinks they are still connected. They can't be removed or reassigned but at least they are connected.

It is only that robot that kept resetting so I had it self destroy. When I was trying to connect the same route with a new robot I noticed that both that route, and the old route it used to serve were still active despite no provisioners.

[Balmas]

I've tried a new style of editing for the newest Fallout 2 video. By cutting out most of the fluff of walking to and fro, looting containers, and managing inventory, I managed to cut the length of the video by nearly twenty minutes. The result is something that should hopefully give a better experience.

[Avilan the Grey]

Holy FRAKK!
After complaining I haven't found a single good legendary...
(This is completely unmodded by me, this is how I found it)

Spoiler

Show

[DigoDragon]

Holy FRAKK!
After complaining I haven't found a single good legendary...
(This is completely unmodded by me, this is how I found it)

Missile Sniper's a good job, mate.

[Triaxx]

Yeah, I hate seeing others hog the good Legendaries.

[Avilan the Grey]

It's been a good day today.

I renamed that missile launcher "Surprise Delivery". Seemed fitting. Again, it had ALL the top mods pre-installed.
I also, in the same subway, found an automatic explosive 10mm gun I have modded to heck and named "Backup".
Oh and I also had enough money to buy "Last Minute".

So I am basically set. The only thing missing is a good legendary Plasma rifle instead of my laser one.

[Triaxx]

Relentless makes a good fun auto, since Plasma is easy to keep on target. Though Instigating makes it a good sniper rifle.

[Mando Knight]

The Institute and Brotherhood both have a Legendary Plasma weapon for sale after you complete the main quest in their favor (the BoS one is even Instigating), though I'd managed to find one that's got Deadeye, which also is a pretty good mod even if it doesn't almost guarantee sniper kills like Instigating.

Also: Brotherhood backup/firefights can be great when traversing Gunner/Super Mutant held areas, but I almost lost Clint's unique laser gun due to BoS Knights engaging him on the overpass before I'd even entered the Quincy Ruins. I was lucky enough to have the gun fall on the overpass, while Clint's corpse itself was apparently flung to who knows where by vehicular explosions.

[tonberrian]

In my game I went through Quincy too late, or something, and Tessa didn't drop her unique.

[Avilan the Grey]

SO... Trying something new. As I said I am doing "Quick and dirty" settlements this time except the one or two I really care about (Sanctuary and the Castle, and I haven't started building the castle yet; there's only Minutemen there).

I found the trailer and bus "props" that the DLCs have added into structures... So I built a "wagon circle" of trailers around the water hole at the drive in, an improv fence and room for three beds per trailer. A couple of missile towers scattered around and well... we're all set, basically.

[Triaxx]

Clint takes flight rather a lot. I've seen him go flying from a basic frag, or Missile Launcher.

[Togath]

Kind of cool thing I learned today; if you carry carriable stuff in to a settlement, you can usually junk it(Like a lot of the stuff around the Vault 111 entrance, for instance).

[Avilan the Grey]

Kind of cool thing I learned today; if you carry carriable stuff in to a settlement, you can usually junk it(Like a lot of the stuff around the Vault 111 entrance, for instance).

Good to know!

Another tip that I feel stupid for not thinking about sooner: If you are overloaded and there's a workbench of the right type (and you have the perk!) you can scrap all those weapons or armor you are carrying right there. Components weights much less than the scrapable item.

[The_Jackal]

Good to know!

Another tip that I feel stupid for not thinking about sooner: If you are overloaded and there's a workbench of the right type (and you have the perk!) you can scrap all those weapons or armor you are carrying right there. Components weights much less than the scrapable item.

Yeah, I've been holding off scrapping nearly all of my material on the undertaking that I want to keep it until I have the 3rd tier of scrapper. So I spend a lot of time hauling stuff, sadly. On the other hand, I'm still doing pretty well in my game, so it's all good.

[Avilan the Grey]

Yeah, I've been holding off scrapping nearly all of my material on the undertaking that I want to keep it until I have the 3rd tier of scrapper. So I spend a lot of time hauling stuff, sadly. On the other hand, I'm still doing pretty well in my game, so it's all good.

Loot is infinite.