Fallout VII - Vault-Tec calling

[Balmas]

The other DLC's were basically just adding new things to build. Far Harbor actually had a lot of content in addition to the new junk added to the workshop. Nuka World kind of has it's own story, but it seem to mostly cater to the "I want an evil option" crowd. If you run it late game, you've pretty much unlocked all the settlements under your banner..and now you've got to go bully them into...doing pretty much what they are doing already...under your banner....

Except that after you conquer the settlements, some of them will be raider settlements, which means that the people living there are even more whiny than normal settlers, won't want to farm, and require you to enslave nearby settlements--which you can't build up after you conquer. So the only way to get enough food for your raider settlements is to already have befriended a settlement and built it up before you conquer them.

Although, I have a question. Has anyone here played with the War Never Changes overhaul mod? I'm considering using it for my Fallout 4 Let's Play, but I'm concerned about how it interacts with the rest of my mods.

[factotum]

Wait, it is? How do I get it to install the DLCs? The Add-ons tab of the title screen has them all greyed out.

I may have been mistaken, re-reading the free weekend announcement--sorry for misleading!

[Avilan the Grey]

Just doing the Kellogg quest.
Never noticed in my earlier playthru: Synths grabbing weapons Like other npcs. Just fought a Synth in Fort Hagen coming at me with a combat shotgun.

Patch or mod?

[Triaxx]

Vanilla behavior, but since they're like Ghouls, and can lose arms, you're less likely to see them pick up guns.

[Spore]

All DLCs for 30 Euros is good, right? Or should I wait more?

[Avilan the Grey]

All DLCs for 30 Euros is good, right? Or should I wait more?

It's good. I'd say go for it.

[Beleriphon]

I collect Tuxedos.

Every time I assign a settler to a bar, he/she wears a tux. I like to open bars with a touch of class.

Ballistic Weave Tuxedos on settlers is pretty funny. Equip them with pistols and you have a bunch of James Bond settlers if they get attacked.

[Togath]

So... how do you get power to the inside of a manually constructed building? Do I have to put generators inside of it? Leave a wall open?

[Triaxx]

Wooden walls often have the pieces that lean outwards, and are meant to be covered by ends, I just use the small fence pieces at the bottom then run power through the hole above it. If you're only trying to get lights to run, Power Conduits have an area where they radiate power, and will run lights if the light is within reach. It's surprisingly far.

If you're trying to run something, then you can occasionally run the line, then place the wall. While the wall will interfere with placing the line, the line usually doesn't interfere with placing the wall. It just means you'll have to remove the wall again if you accidentally disconnect the line.

[factotum]

Got to level 23 with the melee build, and while the build itself is quite fun, I've run into the problem that all the plots and sidequests are too fresh in my memory and I'm getting bored--so I've uninstalled the game again. Might fire it back up in a couple of years when the memory is distant enough that I can enjoy it again.

[Balmas]

So... how do you get power to the inside of a manually constructed building? Do I have to put generators inside of it? Leave a wall open?

I cheat. I run power to a power conduit on the outside of the building, place a second power conduit right next to it, connect the two, and then bring the second power conduit inside the building.

Incidentally, I'm looking for a mod that I'm not sure exists. In the Vault-Tec DLC, the power is routed inside the wall already; if you place a vault-tec conduit on any wall, you get power radiating out from that area and an attachment point where you can hook up things like jukeboxes, purifiers, etcetera. My question is, if the power is in the wall already, why do we need the conduits? I'd like a mod that removes the need for a vault-tec conduit nearby to get lighting. Just hang a light on a vault-tec wall connected to a generator, and you should have power.

Anyone know a mod like that?

[Togath]

Speaking of housing type stuff... do jukeboxes actually do anything?
I mean, I like them even just for visuals, but so far they don't seem to produce music.

[Triaxx]

Place a conduit/Power pole nearby since it can't be directly wired, and make sure your Radio volume is turned up in your settings.

[Mutazoia]

So... how do you get power to the inside of a manually constructed building? Do I have to put generators inside of it? Leave a wall open?

One of the DLC's has a wall pass-through for doing just that....under the "Power" section, subsection "conduits". Part of it sticks through the wall, allowing you to connect a wire, which then connects power to the inside of the building.

I cheat. I run power to a power conduit on the outside of the building, place a second power conduit right next to it, connect the two, and then bring the second power conduit inside the building.

Incidentally, I'm looking for a mod that I'm not sure exists. In the Vault-Tec DLC, the power is routed inside the wall already; if you place a vault-tec conduit on any wall, you get power radiating out from that area and an attachment point where you can hook up things like jukeboxes, purifiers, etcetera. My question is, if the power is in the wall already, why do we need the conduits? I'd like a mod that removes the need for a vault-tec conduit nearby to get lighting. Just hang a light on a vault-tec wall connected to a generator, and you should have power.

Anyone know a mod like that?

If you just want to power lights, the regular power connector things (the name escapes me at the moment) radiate power themselves. Just place some every few feet on the outside (say, on the roof where you can't really see them) and all your lights with turn on when in range.

[Avilan the Grey]

Fatman to the face. Poor Ahab.

Spoiler

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Edit: what does people normally do with Jezebel?
I usually just outfit the hell out of her and make her a settlement guard or a provisioner.

Also, I have a feeling (not only because of RPG reasons) that when I have collected the perks from the followers I like I will go back to Codsworth optimized for load carrying.

[Triaxx]

I make her into a huge white colored watch dog for my settlement. Sentrybot torso, back launchers, dual miniguns, Robo-brain treads, or Sentry Legs. Anything that wanders too close ends up having a VERY bad day.

[Avilan the Grey]

I make her into a huge white colored watch dog for my settlement. Sentrybot torso, back launchers, dual miniguns, Robo-brain treads, or Sentry Legs. Anything that wanders too close ends up having a VERY bad day.

My thought exactly. Put her to work at one of the ****-poor 2 person farms.

Edit: I think I have solved my "why am I doing this instead of finding my son" thing. After Automatron I will do the main quest until I get the request to go to the Glowing Sea. That will lead to a natural spot, so to speak, where my character knows she has to pause and gather resources.

[Spore]

Grabbed the Fallout 4 DLCs. Now what? I don't want to jump in there with my overpowered Power Armor User and leader of the Institute. I was thinking maybe a Stealth/Charisma build but with enemies as dumb as rocks and almost no change in story from Charisma options this is also unappealing.

Maybe embrace the Nuka World thingie and go for some sort of Raider Melee Rifle Hybrid build? Like improved Shotguns, makeshift armor, Tire Irons with Blades taped to them?

[Avilan the Grey]

Grabbed the Fallout 4 DLCs. Now what? I don't want to jump in there with my overpowered Power Armor User and leader of the Institute. I was thinking maybe a Stealth/Charisma build but with enemies as dumb as rocks and almost no change in story from Charisma options this is also unappealing.

Maybe embrace the Nuka World thingie and go for some sort of Raider Melee Rifle Hybrid build? Like improved Shotguns, makeshift armor, Tire Irons with Blades taped to them?

Charisma is... not super-useful. I decided to start over after reinstalling Windows two weeks ago and I went with something different-ish, focusing on crafting and only one weapon skill (rifles). So far I am still dominating.
I have also houseruled a few things, like a strong preference for energy weapons.

[Triaxx]

Charisma more than 6 is useless. More than 1 if you're not doing settlement stuff.

Frankly, I'd go ahead and do Automatron with your high level character, since it's more interesting versus high level enemies.

You're not going to miss anything by not doing Far Harbor and Nuka-world at low level, but the settlement stuff if you're interested is more interesting for lower level characters.

[factotum]

You're not going to miss anything by not doing Far Harbor and Nuka-world at low level

Just to note: you won't even get the message calling you to Nuka-World until you hit level 30. While it's entirely possible to go there at any level, so long as you know where the train station is (Jon from ManyATrueNerd is in the middle of a series where he got on the train at level 1!), it's going to be a bit of a struggle for you if you do go there at low level.

As for Far Harbor, that doesn't start until after you've rescued Nick Valentine, so there's a limit as to how low a level you can be before doing it.

[Togath]

Why is charisma useless? Doesn't it allow you to take different options in conversations?(a task that also increases xp gain)

[Balmas]

Fallout 2 episode 7 is up! We have fun in the wilderness before deciding that it might be a good idea to raise our Outdoorsman skill.[/url]

Why is charisma useless? Doesn't it allow you to take different options in conversations?(a task that also increases xp gain)

Well, it mostly comes down to Speech options not really changing the outcome of things practically at all, Charisma-based checks being RNG-dependent,and higher-level Charisma perks being only situationally useful. Let's address those one at a time.

The Speech options in Fallout 4 are not very important. I can only remember three speech checks in the base game where having a high Charisma was important to the outcome you got. During the Silver Shroud questline, you need to talk somebody into shooting you instead of Kent Connolly, or else he's practically guaranteed to die. When you're blowing up the Institute on behalf of the Railroad, you need to give the order for the synths to evacuate, which means you need to get the order code from your dying son. Finally, you need to be able to rescue Paladin Danse. There are some extra times in Far Harbor, but otherwise your Charisma checks are only useful for bilking people out of a few more caps in exchange for doing their quests, or for getting an additional line of exposition from an NPC. The consequences of making or missing a speech check are of practically no consequence.

That's good, because speech checks are based on random chance. After seeing the improvements that New Vegas made on the speech system--binary checks, multiple skills influencing speech options--Bethesda decided that they'd rather go back to Fallout 3's method of random checks. Charisma plays a part in whether you pass or fail a skill check, but it feels much more RNG than Charisma, if that makes sense. You can fail a yellow speech with 10 Charisma and pass a red check with 1 Charisma. Furthermore, if you really want to pass a speech check, you can just quicksave-savescum your way through, since, again, RNG. While there are mods to make it so that 10 Charisma means guaranteed success on any speech check, in vanilla you'd need something like 26 Charisma in order to reliably pass red speech checks.

So, speech checks aren't important, and RNG means that you don't need to have high Charisma to pass speech checks. That means that the only use left for Charisma is the perks. As far as I can see it, Charisma has a number of break points: 3 CHA gets you Lone Wanderer, for bonus carry capacity and damage done. Animal Friend and Attack Dog are kinda worthless. The next break point is Charisma 6, for Local Leader, which lets you establish supply lines and make crafting stations, both of which are almost essential for settlement building. After that, though, the perks aren't very good. Both Wasteland Whisperer and Intimidation rely on a combination of facing enemies at a lower level than your own and making the RNG check necessary to intimidate them. And Inspirational and Party Girl are flavorful, but of dubious usefulness. You'll almost always be better served by using those four levels' worth of perk on something else, like raising your endurance or improving your combat skills.

That's just my view on the matter, though.

[NeoVid]

Edit: what does people normally do with Jezebel?
I usually just outfit the hell out of her and make her a settlement guard or a provisioner.

Since she's the real villain of Automatron's storyline, I make her into the provisioner who has to go between the Commonwealth and Far Harbor. This way, I don't feel bad if the glitch that destroys robots in Far Harbor happens to my provisioner.

[Avilan the Grey]

I have already decide to make a tank out of her and have her guard the settlement east of Sanctuary, twin pine or whatever it's called.
I have decided to only deal with the settlements I care about and just fill the others with turrets and bots this playthru.

Regarding save scumming: I always do that, I press f5 every time I remember, basically.
I tend to roll with speech checks though except for the Danse one though.

[Rothis Sil]

As someone who only ever played Fallout IV, what does everyone think of the opinion that the entire Elder Scrolls series has generally been better, and held to a higher standard than the Fallout series which has been largely experimental in comparison.

[Avilan the Grey]

Definitely disagree. it's hard to make a direct comparison though since they're never released at the same time.

[factotum]

As someone who only ever played Fallout IV, what does everyone think of the opinion that the entire Elder Scrolls series has generally been better, and held to a higher standard than the Fallout series which has been largely experimental in comparison.

I would certainly disagree, because by definition you're including Fallout and Fallout 2 when you say "the Fallout series"--and the latter is still in my list of the best RPGs ever made, along with Planescape: Torment. If you just mean "Bethesda published Fallouts" then you maybe have more of a point, but then you're not comparing like with like--Bethesda didn't even start doing Fallout until they bought the rights from Interplay in 2007, and I would certainly argue that the best Elder Scrolls games pre-date that, so you're more looking at the general decline in quality of Bethsoft RPGs in the last decade than anything relating to Fallout or Elder Scrolls.

[RagingKrikkit]

So, I'm ramping up to give New Vegas another spin. Would anybody mind if I left an in-character journal lying around this thread while I play?

[Balmas]

I'd love to read that!