Fallout 4

Recon scope. A long range one wouldn't be that much help, no, but something to mark and track targets in the middle of a firefight? Pretty damn useful. I'm only rolling with a double barrel, so I don't have the full scope option. Just reflex sight with a circle.

You know, I don't understand the Appeal to Worse Problems that the Railroad's IRL critics have. Most of the Railroad you meet are Synths. Of course they'd want to help synths first and foremost. For a lot of the RR, that's literally their brothers and sisters they're rescuing! And even if it wasn't, it's something they passionately believe in. To help any wastelander ultimately helps all of them.

I do question that all those synths would accept Brainwashing for the Greater Good, though, especially since the whole process still leaves certain psychological fingerprints that a five-question test can detect with some small rate of success.

Given the range at which a shotgun is most useful though, and the recon scope itself is also somewhat redundant. you turn around, see enemy, shoot. The only thing I'd spend the resources putting a scope on is a sniper.

Although I did make the mistake of sticking both my rifles with ultra-long-range scopes. Makes them nearly completely useless if the enemy moves in close. Thank god I have a bottomless double-barrel shotgun and Righteous Authority, fully modded, to make up the difference.

edited 4th Apr '17 6:42:23 AM by blkwhtrbbt

My problem with the Railroad is that they have a sort of With Us or Against Us mentality that's a little off-putting, especially as Desdemona has more than a touch of the revolutionary autocrat about her. You know the type: "We'll let the people have democracy when we feel they're good and ready for it."

I mean, I certainly believe in the morality of their cause, which is why I chose to side with them. I just don't fool myself about whether they would necessarily be good at governing in the "post-revolution" stage.

edited 4th Apr '17 7:41:25 AM by Fighteer

Oh definitely. Nobody is "ruling" the Commonwealth except for the Minutemen in my playthrough.

I've started to have a population problem. It's a good problem to have. I'm considering having all the excess settlers move into Vault 88. I really wish the option to restore Vault 111 was there...

Eh, the Minutemen have no aspirations to rule, but nor do they really stand for anything aside from "frontier democracy". Their gathering of refugees into settlements is a crucial part of the process of retaking the Commonwealth, but sooner or later they will have to evolve from a rough patchwork of isolated settlements in the wasteland to an actual government, with all the trappings thereof. If they don't, some major power like the Brotherhood will move in and tear them to bits. (Probably some other chapter, though, since I kind of killed all the ones here.)

Also, at some point, the surface is going to have to be cleaned up, and that's the kind of massive effort that will take the resources of a major power. The Institute could have done it, but, well, they're a smoking crater and their shiny technology is gone.

edited 4th Apr '17 7:47:47 AM by Fighteer

I don't like the idea of a ruling body that comes from some sort of existing organization, especially an external one. That becomes a class-issue.

The Minutemen is the only organization that the settlers willingly flock to. It's the only one that will produce things like courts, and town halls, and such. The others don't care to govern, so much as farm the commonwealth's people.

The point is that a loose, frontier democracy cannot manage the rebuilding of a major civilization. Sooner or later it has to organize into an actual nation or get absorbed into one. The NCR may or may not make it all the way to the East Coast, and Caesar's Legion is too unstable to sustain its growth, but someone's going to do it eventually.

The Brotherhood wants to install a military protectorate, which is why I killed them all. (Technically, I killed them all because they wanted me to take out the Railroad, but the principle remains.) The Institute explicitly does not care about the surface people, since they view them as fundamentally contaminated and not worthy of being a part of their vision.

If the Institute survives (i.e., you choose that path), the Minutemen are totally doomed, because they'll be overwhelmed and either assimilated or destroyed. If the Brotherhood survives, the Commonwealth becomes a serfdom. The Railroad, at least, doesn't give much of a damn either way for the Minutemen settlements, as long as they don't get too racist against synths. One imagines Desdemona has aspirations for rulership, but it's going to be one hell of a struggle for her to achieve it, lacking any sort of established resource or technological base.

edited 4th Apr '17 9:38:31 AM by Fighteer

The Minutemen provides a military force and trade routes. They also seem to have quite a bit of authority, given that settlers are more than happy to move to settlements nearly half a country away because their general assigned them there. I do think that the Commonwealth would benefit most in the long term being absorbed into the NCR, but would they be willing to do that? I see most of the settlers as being pretty independent minded people. They might not have the same perspective on things that we do. Also, one of the reasons for a united U.S. when we still had a frontier was the threat of further European colonization.

I... don't think that would be an issue in the post-apocalypse.

I'm talking long term. No tribal/frontier society survives against external pressure without turning into an actual nation. That pressure would come, eventually. And they couldn't live in the rubble of collapsed buildings forever — you need a massive investment in technology and infrastructure to clean up the landscape and make it suitable for mass habitation.

edited 4th Apr '17 9:43:49 AM by Fighteer

The odd part is they've had more than two hundred years to do so. I think what we see in Fallout 4 is the result of that consolidation.

And I think you're right. Some of the more advanced settlements have become essentially city-states. Diamond City troops pretty much stay within Boston downtown. Goodneighbor's reach doesn't go beyond Goodneighbor.

Only the Minutemen, the Brotherhood, the Railroad, and the Institute don't seem to have borders to their operations. Except for the arbitrary ones defined by the game's borders.

edited 4th Apr '17 9:46:34 AM by blkwhtrbbt

Yeah, the two hundred years thing is a bit dodgy. It seems as if the Fallout 'verse is determined to remain in its own kind of Medieval Stasis in order to sustain the use of After the End tropes, when it doesn't make that much sense.

Frankly, if we are looking for a technological power to dominate the nation and get it started on a path to rebuilding, the Brotherhood (or at least its East Coast chapters) is certainly a strong bet, except that they're basically a cult at this point and have lost any sort of moral standing.

The Institute could have become that, but, well...

I suppose the Enclave is toast after its multiple catastrophic defeats?

edited 4th Apr '17 9:51:59 AM by Fighteer

Does a nation need to have a "dominating power" to rebuild though? I mean, half of my settlements look better than Goodneighbor. I'm trying to get them to look even better than Diamond City. I've avoided sending settlers to one of them because I plan to have that one be a manufacturing plant. With robotic workers.

I've turned that outdoor movie theater place into a scavenging grounds. Literally 16 settlers, all scavenging, except for the two that are farming. And the one manning the cannon. Which I've placed on top of the giant billboard.

I might just have to hit up Jack Cabot and see how his "half-way ghoul" schtick works. I mean, he gets to live as long as a ghoul, but keep his face? How cool is that?

Well, there are two considerations there. One, you're using gameplay to justify story, which is rarely valid. You as the Player Character are essentially a god of your little sandbox, but there's nothing canonical about anything you do other than what the story offers.

Two, if you consider your actions to be canonical, you are acting as a dictator with absolute authority and no democratic constraints whatsoever. You are completely free to murder any settler who doesn't do what you want, but that can't happen because they're all little robots who live to serve your whims. You're Caesar, but without the medical death sentence. You are a cult leader, a despot, a godlike judge of life and death, and you can reload from save should someone ever actually kill you.

That's not realistic in any sense.

edited 4th Apr '17 10:06:08 AM by Fighteer

Well there's this little place called North Korea... :p

Taking some of the gameplay as canon doesn't mean taking all of it. Just because I can take my assigning jobs to the settlers to be canon doesn't mean I have to take every death as a canon occurrence.

But anyhow, my opinion is that the Minutemen will gradually gain more and more responsibilities, until they are a de facto legal system. Much like they did the last time they came to prominence, but this time, there's going to be a small army of laser robots waiting for any more sea monsters that come and try to take the Castle.

I just paid more for the art book than I did the damned game.

I think I might need help guys

Actually no, I didn't buy the artbook because of my obsessive fan-ness. Or rather, not only because.

I can't draw robot innards.

I saw an ad for the artbook. With concept art of the stripped-down Assaultrons and Mister Handys and more than thirty different types of cars and I knew I had to have it.

Artbooks are fucking awesome. I got one for Rogue One and the Fallout Artbook is on my list!

Also, I'm thinking of doing a Questmod once I figure out the GECK for Fallout 4.

GECK absolutely bamboozles me. I can't figure out where anything is ever. I remember trying to change Raider drop rates for items, and what default things they have equipped and coming up completely confused....

Same with Bandit items.

edited 6th Apr '17 5:35:12 AM by blkwhtrbbt

Depending on how you character build, you could totally pull off a mobile Mr. House act. Go for Automatron for the buildable robots to send everywhere, and go for the Endurance perks to be ghoul-like. Go for intelligence for obvious reasons.

If you play as a GOOD leader, there's no reason you couldn't canonically pull off rebuilding the Commonwealth yourself. I mean, you lived in Pre-war America and came to the present day sane and as yourself (unless you roll with the idea you're a synth.) If you manage to merge the Railroad and Minutemen, you have yourself a very good handle on local affairs. You'll even do a lot of good for a lot of people if you go sidequest hunting and use the charisma tree to talk people down as much as possible. I could totally see a high level lone survivor pulling off the nation building thing, if the cards are played right.

I dunno how I feel about a nation built around a person.

Like, that lends itself to an autocratic, hereditary crown. I'd rather the Minutemen as a whole grow into a republic of sorts. Sure, the Sole Survivor can lead that growth, but I don't think they should one-man it.

I HAVE been sending out more and more robots as couriers and provisioners, funnily enough. I like not having to worry about ammo. Going around giving each provisioner a powerful weapon, armor, and ammo (even just one piece each) gets expensive after a while. Much cheaper to sent shooty bots.

I also don't know how I've accumulated 50+ Fusion Cores. I didn't even think there were that many fusion cores in the Commonwealth.

edited 6th Apr '17 2:25:04 PM by blkwhtrbbt

With enough bots you could one-man rebuilding a nation. Until somebody hacks them. No, you really need a crack team of people doing the work. Maybe they're loyal to you, but honestly, the main reason your crew in FO 4 seems to be loyal to you is that you help them see themselves as better than they did before they met you. It's not a case of slavish loyalty in-canon. It's a matter of you being good for them and bolstering their views of their own morals and who they are. So, yeah, other than brute forcing your way with murderbots, you pretty much ARE helping things grow rather than commanding the world yourself.

My team I guess: Cait: bodyguard. Strong: Either he reforms and becomes a bodyguard (fat chance) or he's the first one getting a legal death penalty and being put in the ground by a trial. Preston: General after I move onto first President. Piper: First Lady/Press Secretary. Codsworth: Sounding board for ideas and generally just moral support/assistant/second bodyguard. Dogmeat: Mascot/third bodyguard.

I haven't actually recruited anyone else (did NOT recruit Strong to start with and never will. I hate the idiotic view of Supermutants and long for the likes of Fawkes and Marcus.)

Yeah but a smart supermutant companion would be overkill. Too much of a Game-Breaker.

I've also replaced two of Codsworth's eyes with a scatter-laser and an auto-laser. I allowed him to retain his Mr. Handy tentacles. Although I did take his tentacle that didn't have a hand and added a vice grip to it. Codsworth is become death.

I also added a mod that lets me keep my companions nearby and recruit them by just touching the R key. I think it broke Deacon's quest though. Zoops. Good thing I have setstage!

edited 6th Apr '17 2:58:16 PM by blkwhtrbbt

I have a mutlicompanion mod. I keep my crew with me at all times. Except Preston. Because I haven't actually been doing the Minuteman thing much at all yet.

Plus side: I have a small army. Actually, given the scaled down population thing that happens in Bethesda games, I have a huge army.

Let's see. I've got Piper, Deacon, Nick, McCready, Preston, Ada, Codsworth, Dogmeat.

It only takes a couple of seconds to take down a deathclaw alpha, especially since I have Codsworth a laser shotgun and a laser machinegun.

Ada's Cryolator and hand laser pack a punch too.

Ada's completely unrecognizable. I gave her a Mr Handy Torso so that I could give her the Mister Handy eye to improve her range. I also initially gave her a Mister Handy Thruster to let her move faster but then I decided that Assaultron legs would be better for carry weight while still retaining some speed.

That turned out to be pointless, since I found out that companion Protectrons can actually sprint as fast as you. At full Agility, no less.

Okay, Fallout 4. Whatever you say.

The downside to all this, of course, is that I rarely if ever get XP anymore. XD

Hoo boy I bought that Black Ops chest and leg armor that one woman at Bunker Hills sells. I also have a Sprinter's left leg. I can run like the fucking wind. I can probably outrun Dogmeat.

Anyhow, I'm pretty sure that's a Dwemer statue head.

You can see it from that one bank that's in Downtown Boston.

Goddamit, sir, we do NOT all fit in this elevator. Sir.

Seriously, Blue, I think I'm with Butlertron.

Piper checks her reflection. In a concrete wall

I think Piper joined a cult.

Seriously, I don't think the game designers meant for Piper to be a Cloud Cuckoo Lander but there you have it.

You remember that Ascended Glitch from Skyrim with the giants and the low level players?

I think they kept it for Fallout 4.

edited 15th Apr '17 9:49:19 AM by blkwhtrbbt