Fallout 4 quest mod questions

The Game Room
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Well, so now that I’m 4 quest mods in and have had a good experience with all of them, I thought I’d share my thoughts on each one-- in case, like me, some other wasteland wanderer decides they don’t want to stop playing this 10 year old game that’s kind of the red-headed stepchild of its franchise, and finds this thread. My thoughts and reviews in the order I played them:

Fourville
This is, at least among quest mods you can install without starting a new game, probably about the best quest mod out there, I’m guessing. Lots of content with a whole bunch of side quests in addition to the main quest. Seamless integration with the rest of the game environment. Great main story with an interesting, poignant reveal. An option to team up with a companion with a story of their own, who gives a nice perk if you reach max affinity with them. Really well done mod.

The only bug I noticed, which would have been a big one if I wasn’t able to get around it, was during a meeting I was invited to, suddenly everything stopped. I don’t mean the game froze, exactly-- the people holding the meeting stopped talking but were still moving and looking around. I was sitting and couldn’t get up, but I could look around and see NPCs who were also fidgeting and looking around. It was strange and I had no idea what was going on. As it turned out, a big event related to the main plot was supposed to have triggered then but didn’t happen. I was stuck in a weird limbo and had to return to a previous save. Then I finished up a couple minor side quests in case there was some sort of dependency, and fortunately when I went back to the meeting the big event happened.

Ashland Station
Fun little mod, pretty quick playthrough. Not a lot of story, mainly enemies to deal with (who are numerous and pretty powerful) and puzzles to solve. Basically you’re clearing out and fixing up an old subway station attached to a tunnel / cave system and making it safe for settlement building. Once I got to the settlement-bulding part I did a little cleaning up and more fixing, but honestly, settlement building is not something I’m really into. There’s a fun to use, powerful weapon you can get when you kill a boss. I mean, I have plenty of powerful weapons, but this one is kind of a blast (heh).

Bug-wise, it’s rock-solid. I didn’t notice a single problem.

Attack of the Lobotomites
Another fun mod but fairly quick playthrough. Creepy setting and storyline, and I like the ‘horror’ aspects of the Fallout world, so this was enjoyable. Again, puzzles to solve and enemies to deal with, but there is a bit of a story as well. Labyrinthine building and tunnel / cave system to explore. Only one or two side quests in addition to the main quest. There are several new, unique weapons, mostly melee-style, and crafting opportunities involving a new type of mineral substance. I’m not a big crafter, so I didn’t get into that aspect, and I didn’t bother with most of the weapons except for a simple knife with a ‘very fast’ setting that serves nicely for close-up work. I have to say I didn’t really like, or maybe didn’t fully understand, the resolution to the main story-- specifically (very minor spoiler alert) where the lobotomites came from and why they exist at all. But ParallelLines said upthread that this mod is a FNV callback, so maybe if I’d finished FNV I’d grok the story better (I didn’t get far in FNV-- I have to pick it up again. Maybe now that I’m running out of potential FO4 quest mods).

The only bug I noticed was at the very end-- there’s an exit to the Commonwealth that’s convenient because by then you’re deep into a tunnel system and it would be difficult to impossible to work your way back to where you first came in. But when I tried to exit, I’m outside in the CW for a fraction of a second, then the game glitched and I was right back in the lobotomite tunnels. After this happened several times, and through game reboots, I was able to get past this by opening my Pip-Boy the split-second I was outside, and it let me fast-travel from there.

The Machine and Her
Well, story-wise, this mod is fantastic. If you like story-based quests, or the storyline parts of games, this mod is for you. It seems that the builder of this mod really wanted to conceptually fix the main complaint about FO4-- that it’s not a true RPG with a solid storyline and real options for differing consequences depending on one’s choices. this one came highly recommended by ParallelLines upthread, and I can see why. I was sad when it ended and I would have liked more story. I was hoping to find out more about (and properly deal with) the new ‘Shrike’ faction that was briefly introduced, but not really followed up on much within the quest. I had read in the Nexus mod notes that you have the possibility of getting a nice perk if you reach max affinity with the companion ‘Kit’, but despite feeling like I said and did all the right things with her, I have not gotten there yet as of the end of the quest. I still have her as a companion now that the quest is over, so hopefully I can reach still reach max affinity with her later.

Unfortunately, this was the buggiest mod of all-- character voices would overlap, there were odd pauses where I wasn’t sure what was supposed to happen next, sometimes the companion character Kit said something to me that didn’t play, and the only way I knew she had said something was from my choice of responses, to which I had to guess at what was the best one for the statement I didn’t hear. The voices, when they did play, were whisper-quiet-- I had to turn my volume way up to hear it, which meant when shooting or anything loud happened it was WAY TOO LOUD. I had subtitles on, but only about 20% of Kit’s dialogue showed up as subtitles. the response trees were complex befitting the story, but kind of confusing-- several times there seemed like no ending or way out of the response tree, until I realized there was an option to back up to the beginning and say something like ‘never mind- let’s just get to it’ as if I had never wanted to hear the story dialogue in the first place. The ‘camera’ in the cut scenes is all over the place, and the Nexus mod notes do recommend to download a ‘cinematic’ mod fix that focuses on the character talking in cut scenes, which I didn’t bother downloading, but wish I had. All in all though, if you can tolerate the bugginess, this mod is well worth it.

Thanks again to all for your mod recs.

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I meant to reply to this thread two-ish days ago, but P&E blew up in the meantime and I got distracted, so sorry @solost.

Attack of the Lobotomites - this actually ties into two of the FNV DLC, the knives and a few pieces came from Dead Money, and the overall story/source, but mostly from Old World Blues. It pretty much assumes you know the existing lore, but otherwise it’s a bit short on explanation.

About the glitch, FO4 mods very frequently have glitchy behaviors in cells that connect the Vanilla world with the mod, so it doesn’t surprise me. Some mods will mention where/if they’ve modified any vanilla threads and to avoid other mods that modify the same cell, but this looks more like a piece of strange overlap.

The Machine and Her - I had the same complaint, and wondered if the creator originally intended to do an expansion or sequel. It absolutely sets up for more story, but that would probably require a level of work that is daunting even to a huge team doing it for love of the game. As for myself (checks log) I had one mod for the file:

https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/41149

(yes mods to mod/fix mods)

And it looks like there’s a more comprehensive fix (that I haven’t used)

https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/84847

If you ever go back. Glad to see you enjoyed the story, and you’re 100% right, it’s very much about the storytelling, with enough combat and rewards to keep your dopamine flowing. And I very much love me some mods where I can get NPCs to do the tedious computer hacking, especially if I’m playing on a brain-dead day.

With TMaH played, and Fourville as well, the only thing I can still think to recommend for an ongoing game is The Secret of Huntress Manor (I’m pretty sure I linked it upthread). Again for future playthroughs, on Nexus mods it’s always helpful to check the requirements dropdown (duh) under the description and then scroll through all the mods requiring said mod, because you’ll often see fixes, patches, and compatibility fixes with other mods, such as…

https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/91214

A single line should catch your eye:

PRP and QOL patches for Seddon4494’s quest mods, including Fourville, David Hunter, Hilda Hughes, and the Secret of Huntress Manor

So here’s a link to Seddon4494’s quest mods since you’ve enjoyed one and I’m still endorsing another:

https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/16808

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Specifically, “Old World Blues”, where the “Saturnite” metal of the knives was invented, along with the Lobotomites. Who were the unfortunate involuntary test subjects of the immortal mad scientists running the Big MT Research Facility. And “Dead Money”, the site of the infamous lost Sierra Madres Casino, where may of the Big MT’s inventions were tested out on the employees and guests, and where Saturnite knives where sold in the shops.

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Yes, yes, spoilervision, I know, but I was trying to tease juuuust enough to get @solost to play FNV, though it’s MORE buggy and crash prone than the most up-to-date versions of FO4.

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That’s half the adventure.

actually, it’s the main reason I haven’t re-installed FNV and tried playing it lately. FO4 actually spoiled me.

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I reinstalled and replayed FNV due to the Prime series taking us back there - I know the pain. Some of the stability/anti-crash mods help (and mods using NVSE and RAM extension), and I found it less buggy if I kept everything on the desktop closed, especially leaky browsers like chrome.

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One might say, “immoral immortals”. :smiley:

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No problem at all, I really just wanted to put my thoughts down in case anybody else happened along looking for quest mod info. I credited you without the ‘@‘ specifically because I didn’t want to bother you with feeling like you needed to respond. I can certainly imagine how distracted you must be in P&E these days!

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Just finished The Secret of Huntress Manor. Very nice quest mod, thanks for the rec! Much enjoyed. I do like the Lovecraftian elements of the game lore, and this fit right in. Clever story elements, like returning ‘home’ and seeing ‘Nora’ again. Bug-wise, it played flawlessly for me.

Unfortunately, I doubt the ‘David Hunter’ and ‘Hilda Hughes’ quests will work with my existing game, since they involve the Prydwyn and the Institute, respectively, and I already blowed them up real good.

So I downloaded ‘Vault 1080’ and just started playing it last night. Fun. creepy little vault story unfolding- though at about an hour gameplay I’ll be done soon. Also looking at ‘Children of Ug-Qualtoth’ which, surprisingly, is apparently unrelated to ‘Huntress Manor’. At least, not in the sense it’s a prequel / sequel.

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Glad you enjoyed it, it’s one of my favorites as well. And I wanted to boost Seddon4494’s since they’re responsible for several of my favorite story-mods.

But yeah, all the other stuff I could mention doesn’t work with a completed main story, and few mods otherwise match up to the quality of the ones I’ve already recommended and you’ve played. Of course, I expect with Prime’s Fallout Seasons 2 being a thing, there will be renewed interest again, so we may see stuff from enthusiastic fans again if we’re lucky!

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Not to mention, the 10 year anniversary of FO4 is right around the corner, so I heard rumors that Bethesda might add some extra content like they did a year or so ago, after the success of the first season of the Fallout show. Fingers crossed :crossed_fingers:

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From your lips to Todd’s ears.

Heh.

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I finished Vault 1080 and Children of Ug-Qualtoth: A Descent into Madness. Here are my capsule reviews, again in case anybody happens upon this thread looking for quest mod info on a 10 year old game…

Vault 1080
You explore a vault under a creepy old church, looking for a certain number of clues as to what experimental atrocities were committed in this vault, and after you find all the clues there’s a final reveal and you’re done. A few enemies to kill along the way. I hate to criticize these quest mods in any way, since they’re made by fans working hundreds of hours for free to produce new content. But this one was probably the thinnest in terms of story / lore, puzzle solving and enemies to fight. It was like one of the lesser, minor side quests in the main game. But still, it was a fun little diversion, and bug-wise, it worked perfectly.

Children of Ug-Qualtoth: A Descent into Madness
I was looking forward to this one, since I recently finished ‘The Secret to Huntress Manor’ which featured ol’ Ug-Qualtoth himself. This quest mod was not a sequel to ‘Huntress’, despite piggybacking on the Dunwich miner lore. And wow, did this mod deliver. Like Vault 1080, this starts with an old church, only there’s a ‘forgotton mine’ beneath it. And under the mine is…pure madness. If you like Lovecraftian horror, this quest mod is for you. The set design is pretty amazing. The story / lore is intricate. And the enemies, well, they were something new: black ghoul-like creatures, only at first they are frozen in various poses, When you turn your back on them and look again, they’ve moved. you never know when they’re going to spring into full action and attack. When they do attack, they’re not much different than ordinary ghouls, but the “red light / green light” thing they do makes them very creepy. There’s a ‘boss battle’ that, even as leveled up as I am, was about as challenging as anything in the main game. Take a lot of supplies, favorite weapons and ammo, and if you’re wearing power armor, make sure it’s in full repair, because once you enter this mod, you’re trapped within the madness until you finish it.

If I was to offer any criticism for this game, it’s just a little light on clues as to what to do and where to go in order to proceed in the game. Some of the endless wandering down dark corridors could maybe have been cut down a bit. I did pretty well on my own, I thought, but there were a couple spots where I had no idea where to go next (it didn’t help that the lowest area, under the mine, is super dark, even with my headlamp on). I found a YT playthrough video that helped me out in the couple spots I got stuck on, and was gratified to see that the player in the video got stuck at several spots and had no idea what to do either-- including at least one thing I had noticed to do that he didn’t and he said, “I had to delete a 1/2 hour of footage of me wandering around until I figured out I had to backtrack and do (X)”. So I guess I did pretty good. Bug-wise, the quest kept crashing for the guy in the video, but other than a few stutters it worked flawlessly for me.

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Time for another post to everybody’s favorite gaming thread, in which I discuss and review quest mods for a 10 year old sequel game that’s among the least loved of its franchise!

Here are the latest quest mods I’ve played:

Submarine Base Echo
Fun little mod-- it shows up cliffside right next to the Fourville vault, so close I was concerned there might be a conflict, but luckily there didn’t seem to be any conflict with either quest mod. Well designed, not buggy, and pretty simple to figure out what to do-- I did not need to check out any playthrough vids. Lots of loot in the form of ammo and military gear, unsurprisingly, since it’s a military installation.

Sombre Mountain
Very ambitious DLC-like quest mod, where you travel to a whole different location from the Commonwealth. It consists of a town and a multi-level mine. Lots to explore and do in this mod. Not very buggy, but it wasn’t very clear at all in several spots what to do next. Not that I’m the smartest gamer when it comes to figuring out what I’m supposed to do next, but it could have used a bit of focus group testing, I think. At least, in the form of having a couple of your gamer friends try it out and give feedback. I had to find a playthrough video to help me figure out what to do in a few places.

Journey to Ipswitch - Part 1
Well-done quest mod with lots to do and LOTS of enemies to kill. I made the (great decision? mistake?) of choosing an option to have the ‘Children of Ug-Qualtoth’ enemies appear in other places at the end of that quest mod, and they seem to only spawn alongside the normal spawning enemies, so I found myself fighting double the enemies much of the time. The Ipswitch enemies were mostly highly leveled up charred and glowing ghouls who really ramped up my rad levels quickly when they swarmed me, so between them and the Ug-Qualtoth enemies I actually died a couple times, which rarely happens to me anymore.

It features an interesting, well-voiced character named Cal who serves as your quest guide. Fun mod, didn’t seem buggy at all, but keep in mind it ends very suddenly on a cliffhanger, which was disappointing and caught me by surprise, , despite the ‘Part 1’ in the title. Since the mod is many years old it does not look like ‘Part 2’ will ever be coming.

Operation Wilkes Estate
Another very ambitiously large quest mod consisting of one large and a couple smaller underground areas, a mansion, and a mysterious neighborhood. I’m almost done with this one and have been having a lot of fun with it. It’s good at providing puzzles with adequate guide-through. The Wilkes mansion has an option, when you’re done with that part of the quest, to magically transform it to its former glory, resulting in a swingin’ post-apocalyptic bachelor pad (or, bachelorette pad). A ridiculous amount of ammo, junk and scrap to loot-- an embarrassment of riches. Seemed like every time I turned a corner… 'woah, another cache of 3 or 4 fusion cores? Nice!"

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Sounds fun. I had heard of Operation Wilkes Estate, though I hadn’t played it.

I’ve gone through a couple of “lost bases/bunker” style mods, including a very nice Enclave one, but agree, it’s mostly just an excess of loot, so I don’t bother with most. I’m always looking for story-based content, better looking content (Vanilla gear is often tragically comical or inconsistent with the existing game), and new characters/companions to make the travel different.

The comments about Sombre mountains is very common in a lot of story mods - it makes sense to the creator, because they make the content based on their own underlying assumptions - which aren’t going to be the same for everyone else. I’ve dropped a few curious ones because while I don’t want/need handholding all the time, something with random horror movie type auto-kills because you didn’t pick up that ominous rune an hour ago makes me crazy.

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That’s actually a tech demo from NVIDIA.

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Yes, I had heard that after I wrote the little review about it. The quest mod being a demo might explain why I felt like it had a ‘by the numbers’, uninspired feel to it.