Fallout 4 - it's official! Coming Nov 10, '15

[GusSmed]

Lasers good, plasmas not good.

They're lousy sniper weapons because of the slow projectile speed, and up close and personal they have a tendency to hit cover because the projectiles are big. But Werepossum is claiming he's seeing magic dodging with lasers, which don't have either problem.

 

[Rakewell]

For some reason, I have had zero luck with energy weapons. At more than twenty paces, enemies literally dodged out of the way of laser and plasma beams.

While I'm not seeing enemy dodging per se, I do find the recoil of the weapon slightly neurotic.

I recommend trying this mod - It helped me quite a bit:

http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/9417/?

 

[DaveSimmons]

They're lousy sniper weapons because of the slow projectile speed, and up close and personal they have a tendency to hit cover because the projectiles are big. But Werepossum is claiming he's seeing magic dodging with lasers, which don't have either problem.

Yeah, I've never seen that on PC with lasers. The gatling is a spraygun and you can just miss with any gun but I haven't seen any Keanu raiders bending time to dodge mah lazors.

 

[werepossum]

While I'm not seeing enemy dodging per se, I do find the recoil of the weapon slightly neurotic.

I recommend trying this mod - It helped me quite a bit:

http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/9417/?

Makes sense, but what briefly drew me to energy weapons was the light weight. If I'm going to mod, probably just use one that makes assault rifles not weigh almost thirty pounds.

 

[shortylickens]

http://imgur.com/gallery/n8I94

 

[DefDC]

Here's my initial review of the new Survivor mode.

It's rough! To me, that's good thing. A few weeks after starting my first game on release day, I moved it to the old Survivor mode, as the game was very easy on the default setting. I got about 2/3 of the way though the story, constantly being distracted by crafting towns, shops, and growing my economy, after already being strong as a superhero. The old Survivor was not much tougher at this point.

I image it was much more challenging early in the game, so I was kind of pumped to hear about the new Survivor mode. I loved it in New Vegas. I (sometimes) miss the old days of when games were challenging.

The new Survivor mode brings it. I started a new character. After a couple of rough starts, I decided to avoid Concord after being slapped down a few times. At this point, I probably have about 10 hours in, and FINALLY got through Concord after 10 attempts. I *IS* about smart strategy now. Being Rambo will get you killed. I had to plot and plan, and it paid off. And they have now added the strategy I was looking for!

This might be a spoiler, but I think it's been said in the all the previews. You WILL need a lot of antibiotics. Bit by a mole rat or hit by a bloatfly? You'll need them. Chemist as soon as possible. Seriously. Base your build towards this. I will, if I start another new character.

For example, I was running around, after finishing Concord, I had previously contracted an infection and let it ride for a long time. I didn't have an ABs, so I kept on. I probably had it for a few in-game days. It got worse and worse, until it was taking 1/3 of my HP every few minutes. My build was screwed to where I couldn't craft any for at least 2 more levels. If the infection got any worse, I would be out of stimpacks and food and I would die. And I mean, permadeath, as I was semi-remote in my last save, and wouldn't be able to go on. I was lucky enough to be able to buy some from the only vendor who might have some. It's rare to have them for sale, at least so far. After all these hours put in, I was truly facing death. My day (life!) was saved.

It was incredibly suspenseful. The actual relief I felt was amazing!

If you're looking for a challenge, and it's not for everyone, it's good time!

 

[Oyeve]

http://imgur.com/gallery/n8I94

Awesome!

 

[DefDC]

http://imgur.com/gallery/n8I94

Hint for evenryone: Excellent artwork regarding Fallout. Definitely worth checking out if you're a fan! SFW

 

[werepossum]

Yeah, I've never seen that on PC with lasers. The gatling is a spraygun and you can just miss with any gun but I haven't seen any Keanu raiders bending time to dodge mah lazors.

I got the chance to play some this weekend and used a laser, with my companion (Piper) using a plasma rifle. Haven't noticed it at all. Also, before with laser or plasma, enemies would react to being hit, but their health bars wouldn't go down. Not noticing that now.

Maybe it was all a dream . . . Or a glitch . . . Or a dream about a glitch . . .

Here's my initial review of the new Survivor mode.

It's rough! To me, that's good thing. A few weeks after starting my first game on release day, I moved it to the old Survivor mode, as the game was very easy on the default setting. I got about 2/3 of the way though the story, constantly being distracted by crafting towns, shops, and growing my economy, after already being strong as a superhero. The old Survivor was not much tougher at this point.

I image it was much more challenging early in the game, so I was kind of pumped to hear about the new Survivor mode. I loved it in New Vegas. I (sometimes) miss the old days of when games were challenging.

The new Survivor mode brings it. I started a new character. After a couple of rough starts, I decided to avoid Concord after being slapped down a few times. At this point, I probably have about 10 hours in, and FINALLY got through Concord after 10 attempts. I *IS* about smart strategy now. Being Rambo will get you killed. I had to plot and plan, and it paid off. And they have now added the strategy I was looking for!

This might be a spoiler, but I think it's been said in the all the previews. You WILL need a lot of antibiotics. Bit by a mole rat or hit by a bloatfly? You'll need them. Chemist as soon as possible. Seriously. Base your build towards this. I will, if I start another new character.

For example, I was running around, after finishing Concord, I had previously contracted an infection and let it ride for a long time. I didn't have an ABs, so I kept on. I probably had it for a few in-game days. It got worse and worse, until it was taking 1/3 of my HP every few minutes. My build was screwed to where I couldn't craft any for at least 2 more levels. If the infection got any worse, I would be out of stimpacks and food and I would die. And I mean, permadeath, as I was semi-remote in my last save, and wouldn't be able to go on. I was lucky enough to be able to buy some from the only vendor who might have some. It's rare to have them for sale, at least so far. After all these hours put in, I was truly facing death. My day (life!) was saved.

It was incredibly suspenseful. The actual relief I felt was amazing!

If you're looking for a challenge, and it's not for everyone, it's good time!

That sounds pretty awesome, but I still haven't taken Chemist in my early forties. (Second time around after not liking the Railroad ending.) Is it possible/practical to switch to the new Survivor mode in mid-game, or only for new games? I've been on Survivor mode the whole time without noticing any special behavior or getting any new prompts this weekend.

Just met Curie (missed her on the first play-through) and now have that, um, special disease.

 

[GusSmed]

The new Survival Mode is still in beta. If you haven't deliberately opted in, you're not going to see any changes.

Just met Curie (missed her on the first play-through) and now have that, um, special disease.

Heh, bonus points for the wink-wink nudge-nudge implication.

I've been playing through to explore the Automatron content, and I've avoided recruiting Curie a second time so far. Partly because I'm reluctant to ditch ADA before I finish the Mechanist quest line, partly because I want to have a decent chance of making it through that stuff without contracting Mole Rat AIDS. Which means, among other things, that you need to do that quest line without a companion, because apparently if they catch it you catch it, and companions aren't all that careful.

 

[werepossum]

The new Survival Mode is still in beta. If you haven't deliberately opted in, you're not going to see any changes.


Heh, bonus points for the wink-wink nudge-nudge implication.

I've been playing through to explore the Automatron content, and I've avoided recruiting Curie a second time so far. Partly because I'm reluctant to ditch ADA before I finish the Mechanist quest line, partly because I want to have a decent chance of making it through that stuff without contracting Mole Rat AIDS. Which means, among other things, that you need to do that quest line without a companion, because apparently if they catch it you catch it, and companions aren't all that careful.

Crap, you mean Piper is also infected?

Well, now I just feel bad. May have to go back and replay that vault.

 

[GusSmed]

Welp, Wasteland Workshop dropped today, and since I have the season pass I've got it.

I'm underwhelmed. It appears to add new objects for settlement building, but almost nothing I care about. It's rather less settlement stuff than I've already got from mods.

Unfortunately, some of the content is blocked by mods as well. In particular, it appears that Homemaker blocks things like the new concrete walls / floors because it adds concrete walls. Something's blocking the neon signs, but I'm not sure what.

The new concrete walls are probably better than Homemaker's, which aren't sized correctly, and sometimes don't snap to each other. On the other hand, Homemaker adds a ton of other stuff that's pretty good.

The creature-trapping stuff doesn't look interesting to me, since it appears the only point to it is to allow you to summon trapped monsters on demand. I gather the intent is to allow you to stage fights between monsters and/or set up a shooting gallery, but I don't want to do that.

There are precious few things that are functional. There are plots of dirt, which is really helpful for growing food in settlements that are mostly paved over, and big high-capacity fusion generators. I've always felt the mods adding high-power generators were a cheat, since the relatively low power production of the standard generators is how it's intended to work, but since these are official it's hard to regard them as cheats. The really powerful 100 point generator's pretty difficult to craft anyway since it requires Science 4.

The stuff for adding labels, both conventional and neon, would be moderately nice if I didn't already have most of the signage I want from mods. And if it weren't being blocked somehow, presumably by those mods that add a bunch of signs. The new signs do one thing that seems obvious but somehow hasn't been covered before - signs with A-Z and 0-9 so you can spell out whatever you want.

I'm not going to tear out my mods just for it, but the next time I start over, which I probably will for Far Harbor, I'll probably try ripping everything out and then adding stuff gradually to see where the conflicts are.

 

[Imp]

Another DLC? I haven't even finished the first one...

 

[DefDC]

I believe I heard you can go in and out of Survivor mode whenever you want.

I got the chance to play some this weekend and used a laser, with my companion (Piper) using a plasma rifle. Haven't noticed it at all. Also, before with laser or plasma, enemies would react to being hit, but their health bars wouldn't go down. Not noticing that now.

Maybe it was all a dream . . . Or a glitch . . . Or a dream about a glitch . . .


That sounds pretty awesome, but I still haven't taken Chemist in my early forties. (Second time around after not liking the Railroad ending.) Is it possible/practical to switch to the new Survivor mode in mid-game, or only for new games? I've been on Survivor mode the whole time without noticing any special behavior or getting any new prompts this weekend.

Just met Curie (missed her on the first play-through) and now have that, um, special disease.

 

[Markbnj]

Ok, now this I don't get. I'm doing the Institute quest line and they are currently friendly to me. So why are synths attacking my settlements? I go to defend and all the attackers are green to me, but they still keep attacking the settlers whom I am supposed to defend. I blasted all the synths and they stayed green to me right up to the end.

 

[Imp]

I finally got through the robot DLC. It was a lot longer than I thought it'd be, pretty comprehensive update. Would have preferred for the new robots to fall apart like automatrons and those tank-bots -- I wasn't able to shoot arms or legs off.

Because I got the season pass, I also go the new settlement stuff. Most interesting were the concrete parts that didn't clip to the ground. This should have been in the original release, I'd have never bothered with most of the other trash if these things were included. Also, there's a new generator that puts out 100 power. I don't centralize my power sources but I'd consider it with this thing.

Seriously, there needs to be an update that makes settlement attacks more frequent, intensive, and with better spawn points. I built all my settlements up to the limit of the buildable area. Looks like that was a mistake given how enemies are spawned. Would have been better to make Robin Hood type tree houses.

 

[Markbnj]

Seriously, there needs to be an update that makes settlement attacks more frequent

Wat? They were so frequent in the middle of the game they drove me nuts.

 

[GusSmed]

My understanding is that settlements with a lot of defense, say 2x (water + food) instead of the minimum 1x (water + food), are less likely to be attacked. This may be internet fiddle-faddle, or it could be a reason why Imp feels his settlements don't see enough attacks.

It's true that the spawning system for attacks is terrible. The only time that proper walled defenses work the way they should is if you just happen to be at the settlement when hostiles show up. In that case, they're forced to spawn well away from you, like any random encounter, and not inside your settlements. That's my experience anyway.

 

[shortylickens]

Theres plenty of mods to change how settlement defense works, including frequency and/or conditions of being attacked.

 

[Markbnj]

It's true that the spawning system for attacks is terrible. The only time that proper walled defenses work the way they should is if you just happen to be at the settlement when hostiles show up.

That's been my experience too. It happened at Nordhagen just the other night. I happened to be there and the attack spawned outside the walls. Any time that I fast travel to a settlement to help the attackers have already spawned inside.

 

[Rakewell]

Lol

 

[Markbnj]

Lol

Heh, that joke can be made about every Bethesda RPG ever. The joys of procedural content generation.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Heh. Especially for safes that haven't been touched since the war, so the owner had no reason to hand-craft a pipe pistol or store bottle caps in it.

 

[heymrdj]

Lol

Me and the wife just lol'd so hard at this.

 

[Imp]

Wat? They were so frequent in the middle of the game they drove me nuts.

Now my settlements are topped out, I have essentially infinite resources, so I want to see them tested. I only had like two settlements early on and rarely got attacked -- I'm a hoarder and risk averse so didn't sprawl out until I had enough stuff to fortify everything.

I finished the robot thing and started messing with the concrete walls. Dang, how did they not include these in the initial release? I can actually properly wall in settlements and concrete shipments are available in large quantities so I don't have to worry about running out.

Snapping for concrete walls is a pain though.