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Quite a few thing to comment on, bare with me...

Dark Apostle 666 wrote:Ballistic weave is great, isn't it?

Being that I had left it so late to get to the railroad and already had level 4 armourer, it was quite a jump to get Mk5 ballistic weave. With the armourer mod I have also, I could keep my armour pieces and use them with whatever clothing I liked... Spent quite a while trying on various outfits and deciding which fitted best with the character I have created.
I ended up with this:

While she could have had a hat of some kind, I wanted her pony tail to fly free and so stuck with the visor (which still has ballistic weave).
Even though there is some clipping with the armour and clothing, it's not too bad and actually works quite well with the metal parts; they look stitched on.

My Sanctuary finally got attacked by the Gunners, and I realized how appallingly porous my defenses were.

Sanctuary hadn't been attacked once for me until the update hit and now it gets attacked about every 3rd visit back there (to drop off loot and junk).
So long as the attackers don't spawn within my fencing (or glitch though it) they don't get inside my settlement and most don't make it more than a few steps from the spawn point.
The best test for a settlement's defences is an attack from radscorpions due to their teleporting ability (digging though ground takes time unlike what these things do). I've had one attack from these and they didn't last long.

This is only the case for Sanctuary hills though, all my other settlements require me to lift a finger and kill things in an attack. Although this is getting less each time (as I add a turret or two after each attack).
The slog is probably the next best defended due to having had quite a few large-scale attacks. The first attack there had 8 supermutants with missile launchers and assault rifles and they killed two of the named settlers, and another died in the next attack (these are the only settlers I've had die).

CthuluIsSpy wrote:Has the performance issues been fixed yet? I'm not touching it until those technical issues have been sorted out.

What performance issues are these? And what platform are you using?
There's still plenty of bugs (this is a Bethesda game after all), but I've not had any performance problems on the pc.

Conrad Turner wrote:... my armour museum in Sanctuary.

That's pretty much what I use power armour for also.
I have one of each set that I'm displaying with the best mark possible and has to be in perfect condition (100/100 for example)
I have a full T-45 in Flames (mostly mark "a" though).
A full set of T-51 in Shark (or whatever it's called), mostly at "c".
The T-60 is unpainted and is missing legs.
The X-01 is in hot pink and is mostly mark III (I think).
And a set of Raider armour mark II, missing a head and chest (I need to kill one without a head-shot at some point).
And in the corner I have 20-30 bare chassis standing in two rows chest-to-back.

And lastly I have my "usable" set of power armour that I was using for recovering junk (not needed now I can fast travel while over-encumbered) and had the best pieces of armour that were not used for the display pieces. It has Tessa's fist, the Piezoelectric chest, and mods to make it carry as much as possible. Painted in army green and has a red headlight.

I have also started customising my settlers in Sanctuary. ...

I already had all the settlers in Sanctuary hills with road leathers, random metal/leather armour pieces, welding goggles, and mining helmets. All other settlers (mostly the ones that refuse to be moved somewhere better) have either cage or spike armour; I probably could kit them all out like the Sanctuary lot, but I like to think that it's a perk for them to have "nicer" kit if they join me in the new capital ("city") town. It's just easer to give each one, one set of armour and tell them to wear it, rather than messing about with individual bits of armour.

I mentioned last time about changing how I stored my armour and weapons. This is what that looks like:

On the right there you have the two chest of drawers (Metal and Combat armours) with yellow boxes on top (Leather and Raider armour), a suitcase for specific armours (DC armour etc.) next to a footlocker (Synth armour) and a footlocker on top for armours that I can't wear (dog and supermutant).

Beyond that there is a steamer chest (the pieces for my settlers; mining helmets, road leathers etc.) with a yellow box (clothing with a resistive attribute; armour, rad resistance etc) and two suitcases (clothing without any resistances and headwear).

On the left you have the weapon storage in the footlockers (the toolbox has laser/plasma/rad weapons in) and the safe for my specific weapons that I want to keep separate.

Yesterday (while dropping off junk) during an attack I noticed a settler going into one of the weapon footlockers and so, after the attack, I went around the settlers to see if they had all been helping themselves to my weapon collection and some of them had been very greedy...
Even though they all had a pipe weapon of some kind they had all (mostly) helped themselves to not just one other pipe weapon (as they all had .38 rounds), not just a handful of pipe weapons... no, some of them had hundreds of pipe weapons: I think when they grab a weapon they take ALL of that weapon.
Marcy "what makes you think we're friends" Long had 238 auto pipe pistols, and was using an entirely different pipe gun...

So, today I've been around Sanctuary hills and the Slog (due to it's aforementioned attack situation) and given them all either a high damage combat rifle or laser rifle. Lets see if they still help themselves to more weapons that they don't need...

Lotet wrote:... my own sanctuary is actually pretty under developed unfortunately, I got kinda discouraged by the thought of having to go above the recommended build limit after only 2 buildings as I'm worried 5 new houses plus furnishing for existing houses might be too much, or not, I don't know.

My Sanctuary hills is over 4 times the original "limit" and I'm...
a) Nowhere near finished building
b) Not noticed any issues due to having more settlement than I should.

Though it should be said that I am on pc, and so raise the limit with console commands. How far you could push a PS or XBone I don't know as they are probably the reason there is a limit. But I'm hardly on the hottest of the hot gaming pc scene, so there is hope. I'm sure there are people out there on the internet that have tested how far you can push the consoles, a google should tell you all you need to know.

This is what my Sanctuary hills looks like from the vault (although you can't see my hanger, the car restoration garage, or the flashing lightbox sign from this angle):

Conrad Turner wrote:...The Castle, on the other hand is almost at maximum capacity - I can't see any more room on the bar - and all I have done is put in some crops, fixed the walls as best I can...

Yeah, I passed the limit for the castle after only fixing the walls, creating a narrow back walkway/entrance (single file bridge theory), some stairways to access the top from inside, and some crops and beds for the settlers. I've done nothing interesting there yet, and I had to raise the limit, and I did scrap anything and everything.

I think the settlement limits are all set the same, but the quantity of building that is already there eats into that to start with, and that included stuff you can't scrap; Sanctuary hills has a few buildings, the castle has a lot of concrete rubble and large walls full of rooms and corridors...

Yeah, I used to have multiple small gates into Sanctuary hills but the only people using them were the attackers, so now the only way in (if they don't glitch though a fence or are radscorpions) is by the main bridge.

Attackers will spawn at the same three points around Sanctuary hills:
1. By the small bridge to Vault 111,
2. Behind the house with the cellar and the one you can scrap next to it.
3. Somewhere near the main bridge, possibly off the the right as you look out over the bridge.

Set up many turrets near these points and they will kill the attackers as soon as they spawn (or at least start attacking them immediately).

Worse than that though, I filled in the gaps in the fence of Warwick homestead, keeping most of the original fence there, sure that any attack would then be focussed through the only gate... and a group of 10 Gunners spawned within the fence... they were a pita to kill off, they ran all over the place.

Meets a man in Diamond City who the doctor's have told to avoid alcohol and can't even face going near a bar to get a Nuka cola.

Gives man Nuka cola and offers him a job.

Sets him to work in the bar at my settlement.

You can.
Just after giving him the Nuka I continued the conversation and offered him the chance to work for me (don't remember what the option was, I believe it was the top "?" option), he was happy to do so and I then got the send-to-a-settlement box open.

 Dark Apostle 666 wrote:
The nuka-drinking ex-alcoholic is called Sheffield, IIRC. ...

That he is.

... but I'd rather have him defending me than rely on that waste-of-space Jun Long or his delightful wife. It offends me greatly that they're both un-moveabe and un-killable. My trigger finger itches when I hear either of them talk... and I suspect I'm not alone in that.

I've had them both farming from the moment we got there. All the recent settlers get more interesting jobs... not that I'm playing favourites.

Speaking of settlers and jobs, what jobs do all of you give them to do.
Do you:
Have a massive farm producing far more food than they all need?
Have loads of guard towers?
Have multiples of things like shops or scavenging stations?
Or something else?

By the way, has anyone else been to Lynn Woods yet?

Oh yeah, that's a fun one to climb the tower and watch the show.

Ah, Kneecapper, shall I count the ways I love thee?

Probably the most useful of legendary effects.

Conrad Turner wrote:Oh, and the first thing I did on reaching sanctuary was drop down an industrial water unit and power it. I've had 40 water flowing in from then on. [I really should check my workshop, that water ought to be quite a lot of caps worth by now.

I found at one stage that my dirty water and purified water were disappearing from my workshop and not building up, and I read online that there is a cap on the amount of water you can store in the workshop.
Since then I've been storing both waters in a chem cooler, and they have been building up quickly.
I want to use the dirty water for cooking even though I can't understand why you would "choose" to use dirty water to cook with if purified water is available. Bethesda logic.

feeder wrote:Anybody else find the "maze" in the parking garage near one of the hospitals? I got a very strong "Saw" vibe from that place.

That is one the best areas I have explored. Although I spoilt it for myself by entering halfway up (one of the barred doors had been opened by a nearby suicidal supermutant's party trick) and already having the sneak perks that meant I couldn't have set off any of the traps even if I "wanted" to. It would be a very fun (stressful) challenge to make it though that on the first go without those perks.

I've started to advance the main quest now (at about level 70) as I was only getting radiant quests from all the factions.
Story/faction talk:

Lotet wrote:...the other was a brahmin, complete with synth component and institute laser pistol.

Damn them synth brahmin, what'll they have next, synth gorillas?

Nice start Conrad.
Yeah, sometimes the legendary effects just don't match up with the item. I've stopped worrying about it and ignore them (that is, store them at my settlement).
Sometimes though, you get a match-up that goes the other way in the scale of silliness:
What did I find the other day... oh yes, a minigun that does 50Rad damage... per shot... extra.
While Rad' damage is useless against some/most foes, just think about what that'll do to those that aren't...

Anyway, storyline has progressed, I've visited the Institute:

Yeah CT, I was going to have a modelling desk set up in my house with all the models laid out, a wonder glue, scalpel, etc. But every time I returned home all the models had fallen through the table (and if I didn't check on them every time, though the floor).

It would be nice to be able to "pin" items in place and not have to worry about it. Like you could do in Gary's mod.

Also, while I'm here. Update 1.4(?) has hit.
Don't get over excited about the additional items for the settlement; some new spiky poles, 3 raider tent pieces (that can only be place on the ground and don't clip though floors/roofs so just hover above any structures), some meat-totems, no meat bags, 2 piles of small cages (that don't do anything).

However, it's not all meh.
Some new doors, and more importantly some (most, maybe) of the original houses in Sanctuary can now have the doors installed in their proper places.

Also, the additional menu sections and items I have from mods are now tagged with a "+" in the menu: This says to me that Bethesda are happy to keep these things compatible and so not game-breaking.
Maybe, these things have been ok-ed to be used for the console users...

On the flip side, the recent update to that and my graphics driver means I can no longer fast travel from Sanctuary hills. I just crash to desktop.
Can fast travel all about the wasteland, just not from there...

 Dr H wrote:
... no meat bags...

Tell a lie, I've just found them under decoration/misc' and not in structures/misc' with the other things.

Also there are many more signs and paintings. They are worth a look.

My character now has everyone believing that she is fully working for them:
Institute; Helped the courser capture the rogue synth.
BoS; Helped build and activate their secret weapon.
Railroad; Been doing everything they've asked me to.
Minutemen; Have helped all the settlements I've found, although I can't see anywhere that I'll need to betray them in the near future.

I'm aiming to get all the synths out of the institute and then set the BoS and Institute fighting. Possibly picking off the winner.

I could well be at the crossroads. Time to pick (or declare, as the decision has already been made) a side.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Dr H wrote:
...On the flip side, the recent update to that and my graphics driver means I can no longer fast travel from Sanctuary hills. I just crash to desktop.
Can fast travel all about the wasteland, just not from there...

...and you know what's better than fast travelling?
Taking a Vertibird and minigunning every car on the way.

Conrad Turner wrote:... the Silver Shroud questline. Gutted I didn't save Ken but I daren't have used Spray'n'Pray for fear of killing him anyway, and the other weapons I had on me didn't have enough grunt to take out the guy threatening him quick enough...

I would have liked to have had the chance to save Kent but I had already visited that building and all the robots were activated and got in a fight with the raiders. He died in the crossfire before I even got to the lift, never mind the conversation.

Shadow Captain Edithae wrote:... Anyone else have similar problems?

I'm updating NMM now and seeing if that fixes it.

Edit: looks like it did. Now I have to faff about re-enabling several dozen mods.

I think it's the start of the month everyone update their software issues.
I can now fast travel from Sanctuary hills after Steam updated itself; having broken after the windows, game and graphics driver updates.

Just completed the Battle of Bunker hill, and the best bit about that wasn't the mass 3-way fight,
nor that nobody in that fight considered me an enemy,
nor was it calmly sneaking about killing Institute synths and BoS soldiers,
nor was it even the vast quantities of loot I collected from all the bodies,
while it was amusing to see that the railroad heavies were trying to kill the immortal members of bunker hill, it wasn't that...

No, it was the opportunity to kill Trashcan Carla.
Aside from the fact that she's been spying on my settlements, it was mainly in retaliation for letting her Brahmin into my houses to sit on my tables.
Deserved everything she got, and what she got was a 2mm EM slug through her head.

 Shadow Captain Edithae wrote:
Was planning on spending the evening playing Fallout 4,

Yeah, it's always the way. Set aside time to do something and the gods decide that no, you're not going to be doing that.

No, it was the opportunity to kill Trashcan Carla.
Aside from the fact that she's been spying on my settlements, it was mainly in retaliation for letting her Brahmin into my houses to sit on my tables.
Deserved everything she got, and what she got was a 2mm EM slug through her head.

That treacherous b****! I'm definitely going to see her in a different light from now on...

Have a read of any and all terminals you can find in the Institute and you'll see many people differently.

One of those messages has me making plans for another of my minor settlements and one person in particular...

And while I was discussing FO4 with a friend I ended up typing up my current character stats, so I may as well copy them here:
My level 73 character has (with armour boosts etc.):
S=8 Perks: Armourer(4), Strong back(4)
P=7 Perks: Awareness, Lockpick(3, I have so many lockpicks and break them so infrequently that it's not worth the last level)
E=11 Perks: Lifegiver(3), Aquagirl(2), Adamantium skeleton(3), Solar powered(3)
C=8 Perks: Cap collector(1), Black widow(1), Lone wanderer(3), Local leader(2)
I=8 Perks: Gun nut(4), Hacker(3, like lockpick the last is not worth it), Scrapper(2), Science(4), Robotics expert(3)
A=8 Perks: Sneak(5), Mr Sandman(3), Ninja(3)
L=6 No perks at all.

So focussing on crafting, being alone, killing from the shadows, and staying alive.
But no damage or VATS perks. These will be what I focus on with the next character.

If I can stay hidden, I can kill pretty much anything easily.
However, it gets very difficult if I end up in a big fight, as all the damage bonuses are for sneak attacks and I have no perks for base weapon damage.
This is intentional for this playthrough.

Perk thoughts:
I quite like both the Lifegiver and Solar powered top levels, My health regenerates pretty quick between fights (so I'm only healing myself mid-fight if it goes wrong), and my Rads are removed during the day so I'm usually at full health (I used to save up my Rads until about 300 to make a RadAway worth it, so sometimes I would be entering a fight with significantly less health).

Robotic expert is nice, but probably only take up to the 2nd level, as once you've hacked a robot (and not shut it down), it'll follow you about the area as a "free" follower. Giving them orders from the 3rd level doesn't really achieve much more.

I probably won't bother with Awareness again (I've got the general gist for what is resistant to what and I tend to attack anything no matter what level it is).

I like the 4th level of Strong back, but not particularly the 3rd level (and that would be a no-go for a VATS playthough).

The 2nd level of Aquagirl is not great as you always stand up when exiting water; if I enter in sneak I would prefer to exit in sneak (same for terminals).

Lockpick and hacker I don't really see the point of now that I've opened everything in this playthrough. There's always a way around a door if you are supposed to get around it (for a quest), locked boxes only contain more of what every other box contains, nothing unique, and once you've read a terminal there's no need to read it again.

Sneak, sandman and ninja are all excellent together.

I look forward to trying out the VATS perks next time.

Snap n build has a greenhouse. Don't know about home maker.

Try putting a roof/upper floor on, that may help snap the other wall on.

Or are you saying that they don't meet in the corner even though they are "snapped"?

Shadow Captain Edithae wrote:I'm saying I'm trying to get two walls to snap together at a right angle on the corner of the Snap n Build foundation, but they just refuse to.

Hmm, sometimes they can be a bit tetchy. I found that they are happier if you snap them on from the outside, and also if there is a roof on.
However, other mods may also play a part...

A Town Called Malus wrote:So I was just strolling along to kill some Ghouls on behalf of some of my settlers in Sanctuary and I happened to pass by Thicket Excavations for the first time since I completed the "Pull The Plug" quest.

It's changed a bit since I was last there, so I figured I'd have a look round but the new locals didn't like that very much.

Now the new locals don't like anything any more

Good for you. Raiders farming Mirelurks just shouldn't be allowed.
I found last time I visited them that if you shoot out the door bars on the caged areas the Mirelurks will attack the raiders.

Overlord Thraka wrote:I'm being forced to take a break from the game. My computer really needs a tuneup. It's bad to the point that the Institute nets me a solid 18 FPS

Yeah, the institute seems to be the most graphics-heavy area in the whole game. I get occasional stuttering in there and nowhere else.

And so, I have finished the main quest:
Destroying the BoS became quite messy after I used the mounted minigun to attack the door guard on the airship. Everyone from the airport started jumping up to the landing area (even though they should have been getting into vertibirds and flying up to he airship and docking before dismounting and attacking getting shot out of the sky. So I was stuck there killing a steady stream of people. Then I entered the ship and worked my way back and fourth killing everyone... then blew up the ship.

Destroying the Institute was a bit more controlled as I worked my way section by section killing any hostile synths.
I made a point of not shooting anyone that was unarmed... but that was kind of contradicted by...


I'm sure all that effort was worth it to save the few surviving synths... At least everyone that has something to say is happy to see an end to the Institute.

Of all the people that I killed in those two quests I'm only sorry that I had to kill Scribe Haylen. She was nothing but nice, excited to be doing a job she loved, and didn't want to spill any blood, human or synth.
Still, at least she didn't suffer, as I blew her head off with an explosive round.

Now I'm back in Sanctuary hills to finish building and decorating...

Shadow Captain Edithae wrote:You're such a humanitarian.

I aim to save lives... by killing in the quickest way possible... er...

Dark Apostle 666 wrote:Yeah, poor Haylen, I wish there's been some way to tempt her to defect, she seemed a bit soft-hearted to be BoS, and given her reactions to Blind Betrayal, I feel like there could have been a seed of doubt there that a high Cha player might exploit.
Still, compared to burning alive in hydrogen, a headshot is pretty merciful... It's probably one of the cleanest, "best", (or least horrible) deaths available in the wasteland, now I think about it...

Yeah, of all the people I would have liked a way to warn her or spare her.

I didn't aim to kill her, I knew it would happen as soon as they said we'd take the Vertibird from Cambridge station. There was a big fight inside, I happened to be using my automatic, armour piercing, explosive, combat rifle, and while looting searching the dead I found her poor headless body.

Gitkikka wrote:Speaking of Blind Betrayal, I just finished it - don't feel good about it at all.

Made myself feel better by erasing The Railroad.

Did you spare him or kill him?

I think I may have found the limit for settlements on my computer; as soon as I added just one more item the whole game locked up with no warning, and I had to end task to get rid of it. Sanctuary hills at about 8x the original limit.
Will have to test if this is my limit or it just didn't like me putting a men's sign next to a sink, and if there is a way around it (like storing weapons in the workshop).
I'm typing this while Steam sync's... back to it.

You mean just like Obsidian did for New Vegas...

Anyway, that didn't go well; I had another lock up after bringing my settlement back to near where it was when it locked up last time, and it was fine for a bit and then locked up outside of workshop mode.

The inability for fast travelling from Sanctuary hills has also reappeared, so I thought I'd try another update...

Nvidia had one available and installed that to find that my computer crashed as it finished (Video_TDR_Failure) and required a system restore to bring me back to the previous driver.
Be wary of the 364.47 driver.
I've informed Nvidia.

Anyway, a couple of things I've found in settlement making:
Fences. Having problems placing a fence in a certain position due to a hedge or you want a subtle angle change? Build the next section of fence separately and then hold select on the middle piece of that section (not one of the end pieces), you can then move that whole section into place and the end pieces will clip into any problematic pieces of scenery and they won't snap on to existing fences.

And, spiked poles; there are a couple of these that either have few or no (in one case) added spikes, barbed wire, skull or anything. These are very long and are ideal for use as support poles for overhanging structures. They will clip in to your buildings slightly allowing them to look like they are part of the structure.

You can see the result of both of these in this video.
A walkabout of my Sanctuary hills settlement as it stands:
You will see the police station (complete with jail cell), meeting hall (with bell tower), shopping centre, bar/restaurant/chem-den, tree-house and the car restoration garage amongst other things...


Even though it's only 12 minutes and low quality (even lower after the upload, which surprised me) this took hours to upload, so this is the best look you are going to get for the time being.

Thanks I'Lord Bane.

Sounds good Dark Apostle.

Shadow Captain Edithae wrote:

grumpy_newenglander wrote:
Painfully dumb question...but does having one of the inustrial water purifiers at my Sanctuary settlement automatically put purified water in my workbench? I have a bunch in there but have no idea where they came from, unless I just really don't pay attention to the stuff I pick up. Which is very possible.

The water requirements of your settlers and crops are subtracted first, but any excess water is deposited. Try building several more purifiers and you'll quickly notice a stockpile building up.

Also of note, there is a cap on how much water your workshop will hold. If you want to stockpile water take it out of the workshop frequently and store it somewhere else.

grumpy_newenglander wrote:
...More importantly, will excess food and purified water still deposit in my bench with supply lines active?

Each settlement will deposit in it's own workbench, but will share with all connected settlements from what I can tell.
But if you want all your "spare" resources in one place, you will need to periodically visit each settlement and clear out the workbench and cart it back to where you want it. This shouldn't be necessary for building etc, if you have them connected; but I do this just so I have everything in one place for... reasons...

 Dark Apostle 666 wrote:
...who builds a settlement in a festering swamp...

They said I was mad to build a castle in a swamp, but I built it anyway... it sank into the swamp...
So I built another one... that sank into the swamp...
So I built another one... that burnt down, fell over, then sank into the swamp...
But the fourth one stayed up, and that's what you're getting; the strongest castle in these lands...

Any settlement that doesn't need to have settlers in (the ones that you can't move), I've stripped of everything.

And those that have settlers that won't move (however bad an idea it is to set up camp in their particular area ) have everything stripped and then the bare necessities built for their (meagre) protection; A wire fence to surround them, one gate, and a few turrets (that get added each time they are attacked), together with enough food, water, beds that they need.

However, now that I've reached the limit for my computer in Sanctuary hills, I'm now considering where else to build things. Top of the list so far is Graygarden and Finch farm; just because they have overpasses that can be built on...

Speaking of mods, I've just added a few more:
First though, I have removed Settlement Supplies Expanded; It's largely unsupported/incompatible with other mods, has a reputation for corrupting saves (although I've not had a problem), and has apparently been abandoned by it's maker.

So I'm "left" with the following:
Vivid fallout landscapes - makes the ground nicer and uses less graphics resources.

Improved maps with visible roads - does what it says on the tin.

Ponytail hairstyles - because I wanted a longer ponytail.

Armoursmith extended - make unique clothing (although I've not explored this yet...)

Snap 'n' build - nice buildings for settlements that snap together.

Craftable glass stuff - for windows.

Rags of the old world - many flags, but I only got it for the Union Flag and St George's cross.

Craftable ramps and rails - for ramps.

and to these I've now added:
Settlement keywords - means all compatible mods are sorted nicely in the menu. One of the main reasons that SSEx is out.

Homemaker - Compared to SSEx this is more stable, more compatible, has all the same items... and more.

OCDecorator - This was the push for this wave of modding; it lets you place all the little items that you can pick up and pins them in place like everything else in your settlement. No more finding things knocked over by Dogmeat or other settlers walking past.

Atom bomb pinups - because... pinups.

1x1 craftable foundation pieces - like the usual concrete foundation, but 1/4 the size.

Craftable pillars and support braces - to support overhangs.

Craftable tall walls and spacers - to fill the gaps left when not using a floor between walls.

Window, floor and roof boards - odd scraps of wood and metal to cover over holes and to add scatter to the settlement.

Craftable floor patches - more scraps of wood and metal.

OSHA unapproved safety signage - more signs and safety posters.

Now I just need to free up some space in Sanctuary hills to be able to add all this clutter...

In the mean time though, I think I'm going to be building up *edit* Finch farm. I had some spare people over in the slog (which is where I have a beacon to draw in settlers in a controlled way, and Sanctuary has 26 people so the beacon there doesn't serve a purpose any more) and needed to send them somewhere. I wanted to build up on the overpass so everything came together that I needed more beds at the farm for the extra people and had no room for more beds in the little hut that was already there.

So their sleeping arrangement has become part of a structure that reaches up to the overpass... and because that became quite a large build I decided that that was a sign I should be building there. Plans are afoot...

But I am currently wandering the wasteland looking for places I have not seen before, and using this as an opportunity to up my affinity with all the followers that I've been sending off to the castle (to get them out of the way).

So far, I've maxed out MacCready, Curie and Nick Valentine, and I'm travelling with Cait (who I've just cured). Maybe I've just been lucky with those as the affinity has not been as hard (or take as long) to increase as I had imagined.

I even got the first stage of conversation with Codsworth and I've not travelled with him once. He does still live in Sanctuary where I do all my modding of weapons and armour though.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
AND, my new favourite console command is "modpos" together with "modangle".

Great for getting things into just the right place when all other tricks can only get it so close.

Have you tried launching it through NexusMM, rather than steam? I know it takes you to the FO4 launcher anyway, but sometimes this can help with odd bugs like this (it did for FO3/NV).

The one bug that's really annoying me at the moment is the settlement resource bug (where anything and everything will drop to 0 once you go somewhere else). Bethesda REALLY need to fix this rather than releasing DLCs of things we already have from the mod community.

Verviedi wrote:So my install is completely fethed. I wiped all of my saves and did a clean reinstall, but now the Fallout 4 in my Documents/My Games is not present, so I cannot reinstall all of my mods.

How
Have you installed it somewhere else by mistake?
Take a step back, a deep breath, and try again. It'll be worth it in the end.

BrookM wrote:Well, with the new DLC coming next week, are there any good, nice flat places to build stuff?

And no, before it is suggested, I do not run mods, nor will I.

I would like to point out that, contrary to the problems that mods seem to be causing some people, I've had no problems from the 20+ mods I have installed. Mods do not always mean instability.

However, it's your game and your computer, do with it whatever you want and don't let anyone else tell you otherwise.

What I would like to ask though is, what plans do you have that require a flat area to build on? I'm intrigued.
As mentioned, Starlight drive-in is probably the largest flat area. While it does have a pool of water for a water source, there's very little (or no) space for farming.
Boston airport has the same problem with farming, but is much smaller and is tied to the BoS.

If you don't mind using foundations to even out the ground a little and/or building around some existing structures, there are more options for large spaces:
The Castle: Fairly large flat area inside and on top of the walls, but you could also build over the majority of the open space to create a raised flat area of quite a size.

Murkwater construction site: if you foundation over the whole area, there's not much in the way.
Same can be said for Nordhagen Beach.

The slog: if you build over the swimming pool (raised platform, not fill it in) you can have quite a large flat area.

Sunshine tidings Co-Op: The central area is fairly flat, but you'll need to build around the barn.

With a bit more effort (and foundations) you could make use of:
Abernathy farm - large open area in front of the farm.
Egret Tours Marina - build over the water and between the existing buildings.
Spectacle Island - some areas are flatter than others, you don't need to build anywhere near the existing structures, and there is soooo much space in the build area.

And as an alternative to building "wide", you could build "up":
Abernathy farm, Kingsport Lighthouse, Finch Farm and Greygarden all have pretty high build limits (in height). Also Finch farm and Greygarden have the raised road areas that are also flat (except for the central barrier that can get in the way).

All depends on what you are planning.

As for me, I've been building up Finch farm. I've made another walk around video, but it'll take some time to upload so I have some pictures to tide you over:
Walls:


Inside the walls:


The view down to the farm:


And the Presidential suite:


There is much more to be seen, but I'll save that for the video.

Nostromodamus wrote:Pro tip for anyone who hasn't realised yet, by going into build mode you can remove the toxic barrels in the water supply and make the radiation go away.

Indeed, and you get steel and acid if I remember right. Same can be said for the barrels at Spectacle island.

In fact, spectacle island is worth visiting just to scrap everything, there is a ton of resources available there; I got over 5000 wood there alone or something silly.

Having scrapped everything at every settlement, I've not needed to buy or cheat my way to resources for building my settlements.

Good luck Verviedi

Shadow Captain Edithae wrote:

 Conrad Turner wrote:
Spring cleaning is about the only mod I would install. To me it's not realistic to have a settlement of over 20 and still have all this leaf litter everywhere.

I wouldn't use it to demolish the remaining houses in Sanctuary Hills though, that is where my settlers sleep, and the foundations for my defence towers.

I use it to remove the ruined houses and their foundations. I built a power armour armoury over the site of the ruined house left of the bridge in Sanctuary (opposite the sign).

I quite like the challenge of building around what is there originally. But I would like an official way of getting rid of the leaves etc.

Dr H, thats amazing! It looks so natural. How did you build stairs up to the bridge?

Thanks. The stairs originally were just the ones with the floor attached, snapped together (originally to check that I could build up to the road). I then build the building, floor by floor (from the ground, up), incorporating stairs however I could.

The last set of stairs were just snapped on from the building up. It actually clipped slightly thought the road as the building is not square with the road. I then used "modangle z --" (-- being a number) in console to rotate that stair piece until it was clear of the road. Then snapped on the floor and steps to take me on to the road.
The supports for that last part are from mods and I used "modpos - --" (x/y and number) to move them into place and make it all look solid.
The raider poles will actually clip slightly into some parts and I used them for supports all the way up the building. The last but one pole is plain and is ideal for this, but I sometimes use the last one with the extra spikes for a change.

The walls are great, how'd you get the pieces to all fit together and stack?

Pretty much nothing in the walls is snapped to anything else.
There are several stages.
The original idea came from YouTube:


Good news for console users, the above video is done on a PStation.

Bad news for console users, what I did made heavy use of mods and console commands (does anyone else find it ironic that PC users have "console commands", and console users don't?)

As the video, I added the upper wall pieces first using a ladder (one that clips into the ground) to set them at a height that is shorter than being clipped on top of another wall; you want the upper and lower parts of the wall to overlap. They were also spaced out by about half a wall section apart.
I also added some tall junk fence pieces from a mod, they are generally the tallest parts of the finished wall.

Then I filled the gaps of that part of the wall with half wall pieces (the end pieces for the wooden balcony parts, and some mod pieces), partly with the rug glitch and partly with the "modpos" console command.

*incidentally, you can get a mod that will use the modpos command from you tapping the numpad. However, it needs another program to run in the background and I find it easy enough to just type in the console myself.*

The lower wall was then added, mainly using the rug glitch (with fine tuning from "modpos"), using mainly junk fence parts. But I also threw in some metal walls (I tried to stick to wooden walls at the top and metal at the bottom due to perceived "light" / "heavy" realism). I think I did the metal walls first as sometimes they would clip into the upper wall without issue and the junk fences filled the gaps.
One I'm quite pleased by is the "inside corner" metal wall piece, that when used as an "outside corner" looks pretty nice and solid as it had the blue support beams on the outside of the corner.

Once all those were in place I then added some patches (from a mod) to break up the boundaries of the wall pieces, inside and out, fill gaps, and make it look like a "solid" wall. These mainly snapped to the wall, but occasionally needed a tweak from "modpos" (hence my comment a while ago about it being my new favourite console command). "modangle" and "modpos" were used to position the pieces about the concrete road support, they don't just clip in to it.

A few signs, raider poles, and then turret and guard posts, and the wall was done.

And will this auto-append? No it won't.

Here's the walk-about of my Finch farm settlement:

 Shadow Captain Edithae wrote:
Which mods did you use that add new settlement items?

I have... *deep breath*...

Snap 'n' build - nice buildings for settlements with snap points. Some overlap with "homemaker" below, can be solved during installation of either this or Homemaker.

Craftable glass stuff - for windows.

Rags of the old world - many flags, but not used in Finch.

Craftable ramps and rails - for ramps.

Homemaker - Many many items. This is the bulk of the new items.

OCDecorator - Lets you place all the little items that you can pick up and pins them in place like everything else in your settlement. No more finding things knocked over by Dogmeat or other settlers walking past.
You can see the OCDispenser in my video, this is built in the workshop and any item that you place in it (like a container) creates a copy of that item that "works" in the workshop mode. But many items are available under "decoration - clutter" in the workshop anyway.

Atom bomb pinups - because... pinups.

1x1 craftable foundation pieces - like the usual concrete foundation, but 1/4 the size.

Craftable pillars and support braces - to support overhangs.

Craftable tall walls and spacers - to fill the gaps left when not using a floor between walls.

Window, floor and roof boards - odd scraps of wood and metal to cover over holes and to add scatter to the settlement.

Craftable floor patches - more scraps of wood and metal.

OSHA unapproved safety signage - more signs and safety posters.

If you are going to have lots of additions to settlement building, it's a good idea to have "Settlement keywords", all compatible mods are sorted nicely in the menu.

Nice job on the building, SCE.

And so, My first character has now been everywhere, done everything, found all the bobbleheads and magazines (although I had to "placeatme" one that had disappeared at Lynn Woods due to explosions), raised all the companions to their highest affinity (except Danse as I didn't decide to do this until after killing the BoS).

Special talk:


With that, this character is now just a settlement builder. I may drop in and build a new settlement from time to time, but I think it's time to start a new character...

But first:
Back to Sanctuary hills.
I wanted to bring my main settlement up to the standards of Finch farm, with all the mods working together and my new console command superpowers.
However, as it was, all the buildings alone had my computer pushed close enough to it's limit that I didn't want to just add more items. So I took this moment to streamline and improve Sanctuary hills.

This was done mostly by replacing many elements with less to do the same job. I then added more to areas that were unfinished (and therefore not shown in the earlier video), and finished it all off with the little details of floor/roof and wall boards and OCDecorator items.

All together, my version of Sanctuary hills is about 9 times the original build limit.
Enjoy the walk around and keep an eye out for all the small details...



Lots of mods involved; see the earlier list I posted, plus two more ("immersive vendors" and "where did I put that"), and gratuitous use of console commands (even to get the perfect weather at the perfect time of day for the video).

Speaking of console commands, I found another useful one; "lock 0" will lock any selected door (and probably container) with a novice lock. Want to keep your settlers out of your house? Lock the door.
note: if the door was previously locked with something other than novice then "lock 0" will revert to that level, if you want novice, then use "lock 1".

I think there's also an "unlock" command, but what's a little lockpicking practice...

Speaking of mods, I've also added a few more ready for the next playthrough:
immersive vendors - as mentioned above, replaces the empty vendor stands with ones filled with relevant items. There's also 3 types of the top level shop; one of which has no sign on top so that it can fit in buildings.

Where did I put that - again, you can see it in the above video. Gives you a number of signs to label boxes etc. Like what you get in the DLC, but different (stuck on with duct tape)... and free.

Targeting HUD enhanced - Changes the power armour targeting HUD upgrade to only be active when you have a gun out, AND enemies are in red (as usual), but friends are in green (so you don't shoot at the wrong person), AND dead bodies are in blue (so you can find them after a fight).

Don't call me settler - gives any new settler that appears in your settlements a name from Codsworth's name list. and a few other potentially useful things.

I may have a look at a few more before starting the next game, but that's me for now.

Shadow Captain Edithae wrote:Aye, Settlement Keywords needed patching. Still don't have the far harbor barns though, guess I'll have to wait till its patched again.

Anyway, I installed Homemaker and I'm having a lot of fun with the shipping crates and wrecked busses and cars. My settlement walls look much more interesting with those mixed in to the junk fences. I can even even built!d walkways across them.

Yeah, that problem is a mod issue. There are SK patches to fix it (although probably not for far harbor).
However, I've also read that the keyword limit has been raised significantly in the 1.5 update. This seems to make SK unnecessary, Although a new version is apparently being worked on with the creation kit.

After spending 3 days getting the game working again once 1.5 hit, I removed SK along with a few mods and I've not missed it, and actually I prefer having some settlement mods in their own tabs as I can find things easier.

Co'tor Shas wrote:...The dialogue is set up in a 4-button mode with short, usually one word descriptions of what you are going to say. This can include stuff like "Sarcastic", which is a meaningless word, that has no indication of what the answer will be (sarcastic yes, sarcastic dismissal, just a sarcastic quip, ect). Instead of you choosing your reaction, it's the voice actor.

Just to poke my nose in on this conversation. The main problem I have with the dialogue style of FO4 is that the options don't really make any difference to the outcome. Whatever you say you always end up with the same information being presented to you, just with slightly different words.

Take the very first conversation you have with Vault-Tek guy:

Yes that is the most extreme case, and is fixed for a reason at that point in the game (at the very beginning and just so you can move on to assigning your character).
But very few other conversations, all the way up to the most important story points, basically feel the same.
Whatever you say, however rude or nice you are, you can only upset your follower not the person (or faction) you are conversing with.

This has led to my second playthrough being a yes-man. Pretty much every conversation I just say "yes" as it makes no difference.

It never felt that way in any previous games.

And another thing: I don't think Bethesda knows what sarcasm really is. They should just replace "sarcastic" with "rude". It'd be more accurate.

Conrad Turner wrote:There may be a certain logic in going with a 'half-skyrim, half-F4' sort of system. Something like "You can only spend perks in things you have actively been using, or in increasing your base attributes." to stop people blundering in with heavy weapons, but magically increasing their stealth.

I like that idea.
So instead of what you use increases in power, it just unlocks the perks.

I also liked the 'constellation' idea of the perk trees in Skyrim. F4 only gives you a single line and that seems to reduce the choice..

Yeah, there are certain perks that I'd prefer to pick one level without the previous level. Strong back being the first to come to mind: I'd like to be able to fast travel when over encumbered, but not burn action points just to move (especially in a VATS playthrough).

I don't know if anyone here is still interested, but I've built up the slog recently and uploaded a walkaround:
Sad note; you will see a gravestone and a giddyup buttercup by Arlen's shack, and no Arlen inside. He died in the very first attack on the slog before I had had a chance to build anything (or find the holotape and parts for him). RIP Mr Glass.

This is built with mods but no dlc.



I'm interested to see what the console users make of mods once they are released, especially those that have no experience with pc modding.

 Melissia wrote:
Is there a... way you can get more smoke grenades? >.>

Any particular flavour of smoke grenade?
There are merchants that will sell limited numbers of a relevant type of smoke grenade, they will be the ones in the main base of operations for the specific faction (not to give away any spoilers as I believe you've only recently started).

Melissia, that can either be the BoS or the Minutemen.

If it's the Minutemen:


If it's the BoS: