There’s an exploitto get around the cap. No idea if they ever patched it out, though.
edit: I think mods are still officially disabled - there’s ways around that too. They’ll almost certainly enable them around the time the official modding kit gets released.
edit2: there’s also console commands for the settlement cap:
getav 348 - Gets the current number of triangles used by player.
getav 34A - Gets the current number of draw calls used by player.
setav 349 <value> - Set the maximum triangle budget for the settlement.
setav 34B <value> - Set the maximum draw budget for the settlement.
Saw on a reddit AMA thread that someguy2000 has already started planning some additional content for Fallout 4. He mentioned that one will be a film noir, in another you will lead a unit of militia, and another will be Lovecraft-themed. He seemed to have a real dislike for Preston Garvey and also said something about an add-on for evil characters called “Bring Me the Head of Preston Garvey,” though that was probably just a joke. The GECK was supposed to be released this month, but good mods take time. Once some decent fan-generated stuff starts hitting the Nexus, I’ll return to The Commonwealth. Right now, the thought of rummaging for junk and fighting my 9 billionth ghoul just doesn’t send me.
Even though I didn’t intend to get back into the game until all the DLC came out and the GECK has been out for a bit, I am dicking around with it now, because it’s definitely a thing with which I can dick around for a few hours and pick back up. I like seeing what I can do with the first few hours of a slightly different build. Like, starting with a high-chriz build right from the beginning, I was surprised to find out that I can basically mug people.
I have started to think of my female character as a Soviet plant, by way of explaining why I was apparently a lawyer no matter what my actual inherent talents were. There is a show about such a thing now, and there was a real-life couple on the news a few years ago. It’s almost weird that this hasn’t been part of the game yet, since part of my own experience of Cold War era paranoia was things like the movie Telefon, in which there were sleeper agents all over America who had been reprogrammed not to even know they were plants. She’d been planted in America, settled into a legit-looking married life and funneled information by various means to her handlers. When she wakes up post-apocalypse, everything has turned to shit, but she’s basically free to pursue her own goals. From build-to-build I’d vary her attitude to the dead husband and the child. Or, she could be an unaware sleeper who remembers who she is after waking from Cryo.
I do find that this kind of imagineering does affect gameplay, because I make decisions based on what I think the character wants. In the end, by its nature, the game converges on the same things, typically combat in the style I most enjoy playing and the non-combat skills that are pretty much unavoidable, like lockpicking and hacking. But it is interesting to see the first few hours again from a different set of priorities.
Say, could somebody clue the Brotherhood of Steel, settlers, and various other folks into the existence of Stimpaks? These little wonders can heal broken limbs, concussions, any amount of non-lethal damage, etc. And they’re in every other box in the Wasteland.
So why do I keep finding bodies who (sometimes with Stimpaks actually on them) have time to record elaborate “woe is me, I’m dying” holotapes, but don’t actually heal themselves?
Don’t tell the raiders/Gunners, though. Also probably best not to tell them that making your lair/camp in the middle of an auto wrecking yard is a bad idea in a world where cars are basically chain-reaction atomic bombs…
I recall in NeverWinter Nights, there was a tendency to find healing potions on corpses. I used to joke that they couldn’t get the child safety cap off.
For those of you who got Fallout 4 off of Steam, a patch dropped yesterday that allows “survivor” difficulty mode, although it’s still considered “beta” (if I read the patch notes on Steam correctly).
I started a new character in survival, we’ll see how it goes.
I looked at the info on the Survival mode. I’d really like a line item veto on some of this shit:
How many times have I gotten suddenly blown to pieces by a missile-launching asshole I never even saw? Suppose it took me fifteen minutes to get to that spot? Screw that.
How many times have I gotten suddenly blown to pieces by a missile-launching asshole I never even saw, because I wasn’t paying attention to my radar? Well, now my radar doesn’t help. Whoopie.
On points of interest, though, I like the idea that detecting them will be slightly less magic.
Bethesda’s most realistic schlepping simulator yet! We dare you to keep wanting to play the game.
I can dig it. Don’t just make enemies bigger bullet sponges. Make both sides more murderous.
Okay. I can see me caring about where that needle is pointing.
This is the stuff, right here. The stuff many of us were excited about in New Vegas’ Hardcore mode.
They actually wimped out on this one. They could have made you collect medic kits or find a doctor, like in New Vegas. I never liked having Stimpacks heal broken bones. Of course, this is meant to go with the new mandate that beds be the most precious resource in the wasteland, because apparently they’re stuffed with Pheonix Down.
Frankly, I’ve been more than happy to bite the bullet on the absurd mechanics of companions, just so’s I don’t have to micromanage them.
When it comes out of beta, I’ll try it. Though I’ll probably wait for mods to come out that give me my line-item veto.
Well, I played a little (a couple hours) of the Beta Survival Mode.
I, too, would like a way to select which of the features I would like to activate for survival mode.
In my game, my character got hungry, thirsty, and tired fairly quickly. I was forced to stave off hunger by eating the pre-war canned/boxed goodies littered around (Sugar Bombs, Little Laddie’s Snack Cakes, etc.), even after cooking all those mole rat and rad roach chunks.
I wonder if we are supposed to turn off run mode, and actually walk. Maybe I got so hungry because I ran (but not sprint) everywhere.
By level 4, I had contracted an unnamed illness, a “weakness” that gave a debuff of 20% more susceptible to damage. The survival mode in-game help cyclopedia states that you can get sick eating and drinking tainted supplies, and I got sick even after picking the “Iron Stomach” trait, the Endurance trait that reduces rad damage from eating old food and water. Anyway, these illnesses can only be cured by antibiotics. Which neither Trash Can Carla nor Trudy (at the Diner) sells. There is a recipe in the Chem crafting station, needing rank 1 of Mad Chemist(?) to craft. Since I was two Intellect points short of investing in Chemistry talents, I began walking to Diamond City, hoping to find a doctor there. My illness got worse, and began to “spead”, causing an outright 25% damage slap to my health, about once minute. I was forced to use Purified water and stimpacks to try to regen health between these “damage ticks”. Died just past the Cambridge Police station, out of food, water, luck, and patience.
Sigh.
Bethesda: I would like to turn off the illness mechanic, please.
I must say, though, that 50% less murderous than that might have my interest. If I had the ability to save at will.
For a long time, I have been a big fan of being able to steal in games. But in Fallout 3, you’re never desperate enough to really have use for the money, the goods. You can steal extra ammo from people you will soon make enemies, a feature I always liked in the old Fallout games. That reminds me, I have an idea for an assault on the Brotherhood.
Anyway, if you’re desperately hungry all the time, and dying of diseases, stealing is going to be a lot more tempting.
I downloaded the patch and a couple interesting looking mods yesterday. I created a new character, too. After about a half hour of actual play, I had to shut things down due to motion sickness. What I would like to be able to turn off is the emmeffing head bobbing in 1st person view. I had minor bouts with motion sickness during my first playthrough, but yesterday I actually threw up from it.
So, that’s a new thing with the patch? Is it survival mode, or a new thing? Because I thought they had worked out a long time ago that the POV bounce was unpleasant. Or maybe it’s just become too subtle for me to object.
I had trouble with it when the game first came out. They haven’t changed it with the patch. It is a pretty widespread problem. After I got done hurling, I spent an hour reading various blogs and fora to see if there is a way to shut it off. There is not. Many places recommend widening the FOV, but that doesn’t reliably solve the problem. Why there isn’t a setting to just shut it off is a puzzlement.
OK, so I modified a couple-three files to make the default view wider. It is now 90 degrees. This has eliminated the motion sickness issue. Yay.
Then, yesterday, the game downloaded a small patch from Steam that, when applied, deactivated all my mods. You now have to activate mods from in in-game menu. That is neither here nor there. What matters is that you also have to be a member of Bethesda.net and signed in to use any of your mods. Other than fishing for email addresses, I do not see the point of this extra step.
Looks like an update to the mod manager handles this. But now it appears that the G.E.C.K. is out, in beta form at least. I should really kick screwing with Fallout for a while until some of these mods start poring out. Also, maybe all the rest of the DLC.
I have to be logged into Steam to play the game (at least, the first time) and then Bethesda to use mods? And while using mods, I can’t score any achievements?
Screw. That. Noise.
Bethesda’s going to back down on their Stasi tendencies or I ain’t buying this game.
