Fallout 4

[SPCTRE]

The other day I put a headshot on someone and she flew way up into the air. How do you physics, Bethesda? How??

It's the JFK Shot module i guess

Ah, right, I forgot the part of the Zapruder film in which JFK, upon being struck in the head by a bullet, immediately launched straight up out of the car, 30 feet into the air, then crumpled in a pile on the grassy knoll.

Who doesn't remember this classic Fallout 3 mod?

 

[intrinsical]

So, I failed my festive holiday resistance check. I got Fallout 4 a couple of days ago and it has sucked up all my spare time. Being a creative type, I really love building my dozen settlements, networking them up with supply lines and knowing I have built houses for over a hundred people in Boston.

I have a question, what do you guys do about the radioactive pond right in the middle of Starlight Drive-In? Build around it? Incorporate it somehow?

 

[Brendan Moody]

The other day I put a headshot on someone and she flew way up into the air. How do you physics, Bethesda? How??

I went to Sanctuary on a mission and one of the trading cows (I don't remember what they're called) was up on the roof of a house.

I had one of the cows glitch into a house in Sanctuary and then stand in the too-narrow doorway endlessly trying to push through. Great fun to watch.

 

[Evil Twin]

I have a question, what do you guys do about the radioactive pond right in the middle of Starlight Drive-In? Build around it? Incorporate it somehow?

You can scrap the barrels and car in the pool and that will eliminate the radiation. Then I usually just plop an industrial water purifier into it.

Check out the YouTube video I posted on the previous page of the thread to see what some other creative soul did...

 

[Jax]

Recently started it on the XB1 and I keep getting a worrying issue where any manual saves I make are corrupted come trying to load them so I am using the ones the game makes automatically at the moment...

Not ideal to say the least.

Any tips?

 

[Mr Light]

I bought it today! I'll start tomorrow night.

 

[martok2112]

I bought it today! I'll start tomorrow night.

We'll see Ya' next year.

 

[Mr Light]

I played up to finding the good people in the museum in Concord. They never actually told me how to use VATS, I didn't even realize I had the ability yet.

Any recommendations for the best online walk through? I'm always overwhelmed by games like this. I never know what upgrades to get, where to go, etc, etc.

 

[Evil Twin]

This is what I use:

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Portal:Fallout_4

 

[Reverend]

I played up to finding the good people in the museum in Concord. They never actually told me how to use VATS, I didn't even realize I had the ability yet.

Any recommendations for the best online walk through? I'm always overwhelmed by games like this. I never know what upgrades to get, where to go, etc, etc.

Half the fun in finding that for yourself. I've found that trying to hunt out the best weapons, equipment etc. can really dilute the experience as can trying to min-max the stats.

In this case though, I would suggest you just take a moment to look at the perk chart as it explains what each S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stat does and clearly shows what is needed to unlock each perk.
What you spend where depends entirely on your preferred playstyle.
Personally, I've always speced my characters to be good talkers (because it makes the story more interesting) and skilled with lockpicking and hacking as early as possible as that's always useful for exploration.

For weapons I tend to go gunsligher for pistols and rifleman for sniping & shotguns. Mostly because early on, ammo is always going to be scarce so heavy weapons and automatic rifles just aren't practical until much later in the game.
In this particular game I also think the crafting abilities are pretty essential if you want the most effective gear. That means getting 'Gun Nut' & 'Armouror' and later on 'Science!' and 'Blacksmith' for the more advanced stuff.

 

[Mr Light]

I hate wasting time wandering around not knowing what to do, though. I don't want to spend 80 hours on a single game I have to be efficient.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

I hate wasting time wandering around not knowing what to do, though. I don't want to spend 80 hours on a single game I have to be efficient.

Why in the world did you get a Bethesda RPG, then? Not to be a smartass but that's exactly what their games are designed for: spending dozens of hours wandering around, exploring the world. It's generally a subpar experience if all you want is to beeline the main story quests.

But if that really is all you want, it's easy enough to follow the main quest and just do that. The Wikia site will tell you the exact quests to do and you can ignore everything else. I think you'd be missing out on most of the point of playing such a game, but to each their own.

 

[intrinsical]

There isn't one way to play this game. It really depends on what type of person you are. For myself, I am a creative type and I find myself gravitate towards building settlements. I have spent over a hundred hours building up two dozen settlements. It took a lot of trial and error, but now my settlements are pretty well designed and well defended. It got to the point where I didn't even have to raise my gun when a certain main quest triggered an attacked on one of my settlements. My settlers and turrets were able to handle all the invaders by themselves.

Some like exploring, others like being the most powerful badass. Fallout 4 supports all these preferences, so do what you enjoy.

 

[Mr Light]

That website keeps freezing my browser

I'll certainly spend a lot of time on the game, and I'll do my share of aimless wandering, but when I'm doing a story mission I want to know where I'm supposed to be going and what I need to be doing. And I want to know how I'm supposed to be leveling up so I'm not wasting points on worthless stuff.

So, in this game VATS doesn't freeze the action it only slows it down? I don't like that, I liked how I could pause the game, made it less stressful...

 

[Robert Maxwell]

That website keeps freezing my browser

I'll certainly spend a lot of time on the game, and I'll do my share of aimless wandering, but when I'm doing a story mission I want to know where I'm supposed to be going and what I need to be doing. And I want to know how I'm supposed to be leveling up so I'm not wasting points on worthless stuff.

The game is very good about telling you where to go next. You'll always have a main story quest in your quest list, as far as I know. You just have to make sure it's active and then follow the marker.

Nothing in the perk chart is "worthless" unless you just won't use it. As was mentioned above, read the perks available, decide what you want, spend your points accordingly. Do you prefer to tank, or sneak? Do you like the zaniness of high-luck combat (I do, personally) or do you prefer predictable brute force or marksmanship? Take your pick. It's all a matter of preference and there's not really a "right" way.

So, in this game VATS doesn't freeze the action it only slows it down? I don't like that, I liked how I could pause the game, made it less stressful...

I've grown to like that, honestly. If there are no good shots in view when you trigger VATS, sometimes just waiting a few seconds will give you one. And as far as I can tell, criticals always strike true as long as you have a non-zero chance to hit, so that's my tactic of choice when I have a low hit chance and want to make a quick kill.

As a result, I like to devote my perks to things that affect criticals and the critical meter. The Stranger shows up fairly frequently in my battles.

 

[Mr Light]

OK I'm 2.5 hours in I think and I'm feeling really overwhelmed and frustrated by the level of detail in the game. I have a ton of shit in my inventory and I don't understand what to do with it all. There's just too much.

I don't understand to sell all the stuff in my inventory. I can "trade" with friendly people but I'm apparently literally just giving them the item and not getting paid for it.

I don't understand how the power armor works. It constantly loses power just having it on? Which gauge tells me how much power is left? How do I get more power? It took me forever just to figure out how to store it.

I also don't understand the building forts thing. I managed to build one machine gun turret but that's it. Now they want me to build a bed, and I have materials but it won't let me build it. I don't get it.

Also, I nearly died a dozen times over fighting the mercs in that factory in ?Lexington?. I feel like I'm doing everything wrong... My weapons seem to do nothing at distance so I'm basically running up to the people and VATS shooting them in the head...

 

[Robert Maxwell]

OK I'm 2.5 hours in I think and I'm feeling really overwhelmed and frustrated by the level of detail in the game. I have a ton of shit in my inventory and I don't understand what to do with it all. There's just too much.

I don't understand to sell all the stuff in my inventory. I can "trade" with friendly people but I'm apparently literally just giving them the item and not getting paid for it.

Go to the workbench in Sanctuary Hills (or settlement of your choice), press the Transfer button, and Transfer All Junk. This will dump a lot of crap out of your inventory and into the settlement resources, where you can actually do something with it.

Otherwise, you just have a few things to worry about:

1. What weapons you want to carry/use.
2. What armor/apparel you want to wear/carry.
3. What aid items you want to carry.

Ammo doesn't weigh anything, so carry as much of that as you want. Anything you don't need to be carrying, build a container (chest, whatever) in your settlement and just shove it in there. That's what I do.

I don't understand how the power armor works. It constantly loses power just having it on? Which gauge tells me how much power is left? How do I get more power? It took me forever just to figure out how to store it.

You need to obtain fusion cores. They are found in power generators all over the game, as well as in other power armors. It's one of the meters in the lower right. It shows a percentage of 100.

I also don't understand the building forts thing. I managed to build one machine gun turret but that's it. Now they want me to build a bed, and I have materials but it won't let me build it. I don't get it.

Make sure you have the proper materials, and make sure you are trying to build it in a suitable place. You don't have to be standing at the workshop to build--you can build anywhere in your settlement with the workshop panel open. The bed template will turn green when you're placing it in a good spot.

Also, I nearly died a dozen times over fighting the mercs in that factory in ?Lexington?. I feel like I'm doing everything wrong... My weapons seem to do nothing at distance so I'm basically running up to the people and VATS shooting them in the head...

Try different weapon types. Plain old bullet weapons work pretty well on humans--rifles for distance shooting, pistols and revolvers for close combat. Bear in mind that early on, you simply won't be very accurate. Look at the accuracy stats on your weapons. That will help a lot.

As a tip, if you like laser rifles, join the Brotherhood of Steel and complete the first mission for them. You're given a pretty good laser rifle for your trouble, and it's great for clearing out rooms with fast-moving enemies (e.g. bands of feral ghouls).

You definitely need to be more cautious in the early game. You aren't a superhero (yet). Pick your battles carefully, and make use of cover. This game doesn't have a cover system, per se, but you definitely need to use cover to survive major firefights.

 

[Mr Light]

How often should I be using the power armor? Maybe I should have been using it in that warehouse and that's why I was getting my ass kicked. How long does one fusion core last?

Are you saying that I never actually sell anything, I just use it to build stuff?

 

[Jono]

Apart from the bit in Concord I've never used my Power Armour. I've found that the random armour I've picked up has been enough even without modding it. Same with the weapons. I took Codsworth with me to the plant and he was pretty useful at drawing fire and killing raiders.

Did the same thing I did with Dragon Age Inquisition. I played several hours and restarted just because I wanted to change my face. Did that three times and was about to do it a 4th time after about 6hr when I found out if you can change your face after you leave the Vault. So I'm putting up with it until I get to Diamond City.

There wasn't a difficulty setting at the start or was there and I somehow missed it? I do feel that it is a bit too easy at the moment. Like I said, I want a new face anyway so I don't really mind throwing away 10 or so hours.

 

[intrinsical]

The game only gives you the basic info and leaves you to explore the details of its mechanics. So here's what I have learned from experimenting.

If you look in your inventory, it is grouped into several big categories like Weapons, Apparel, Ammo, Misc and Junk. They each serve different purposes.

Weapons are grouped into 6 major groups and there are perks that boost each group of weapons. You should pick one group and use their related perks to boost its damage. With the boosted damage from perks, you will easily one-shot many of the creatures in Fallout.

• Non-Automatic Pistols - These dish out the least damage per shot, but uses the least Action Points in VATS and thus allow you to line up multiple shots in VATS and launch them all in quick succession as if you were a wild west gun slinger. Helpful perks include Gunslinger, Gun Fu and Concentrated Fire, as well as most of the Luck based perks that improve critical hits.
• Non-Automatic Rifles - These include single shot rifles, shotguns, combat, assault, laser and sniper rifles. These weapons are equally usable in VATS or in standard FPS point and shoot mode. The Rifleman and Sniper perks helps boost the damage of all non-automatic rifles.
• Automatics - This group covers both automatic pistols and automatic rifles. Personally I don't use these as I am always running out of ammo. Helpful perks include Commando and Scrounger (for finding more ammo)
• Heavy guns include the minigun, flamer, fatman nuke launcher and missile launchers. Their damage is boosted by the Heavy Gunner perk.
• Explosives cover both grenades and mines, and their damage is boosted by the Demolition Expert perk.
• Radiation weapons such as the Gamma Gun works by reducing maximum hitpoints rather than just deducting hitpoints. From what I understand, this group of weapons are almost useless in normal or easy game modes but are very good in difficult game settings as mobs have huge amounts if hitpoints. The nuclear physicist perk help boost their damage.
• There are also a variety of Melee and hand-to-hand weapons that are boosted by many Strength perks.

Beyond this, the Gun Nut, Science and Blacksmith perks allow you to modify all weapon characteristics, enhancing their damage, range, recoil, accuracy, etc.. Sneaking does double damage and the Sneak perk increases that to quadruple damage. So if you picked the right weapon perks, combine it with Gun Nut/Science/Blacksmith and Sneaking, that increases your damage potential to near-crazy levels.

Apparels can be confusing as they cover both day-to-day clothes and armors. You can only wear armor on top of a small number of day-to-day clothes such as your Vault Suit, Army Fatigues and various colored Suits. Most clothes don't come with any damage protection (although that changes later on). You can modify armor pieces with the Armorer perk to improve their defense as well as add effects to armor pieces.

Junk items basically serve as raw material for building stuff in your settlements. You will need to transfer these items from your inventory into the settlement's Workshop before you can use them to build stuff. The workshop is the red colored workstation found in all settlements. Settlements is another huge area of the game that deserves its own post. I'll just point out that a well built settlement will not only be self sufficient, but actually produce surplus food, water and caps. You can then sell the surplus food and water for caps. In fact, the sale of food and water is my primary source of money.

This game doesn't have a cover system.

Actually the game does have a cover system. Move towards a wall or any obstacle and you will notice your weapon dip downwards, signifying that you are now under cover. To shoot from cover, you simply have to aim with your weapon.