Fallout 4- Anyone Giving this a Second Play Through?

I started a replay of Fallout 4 in July, after a 2 year break and am having a blast with it! This game still chokes me up. Nuclear Armageddon, you and your family are lucky enough to get into a vault, then you see your spouse murdered and child stolen, and you wake up from a cryo sleep into a post apocalyptic world to discover 200 years have passed. This is some heavy stuff, if you project yourself into the character’s position.

There is also the happy ending option if killing off all of the factions except one bothers you as it bothered me.

Some things have changed regarding what mods are available, and now they are managed, as compared to 2015-16, but not too bad figuring that out.

I have discovered a couple of F4 mods, I’m excited about Sim Settlements and Rise of the Common Wealth. They are tied together I believe by the same authort, the latter allows you to assign a citizen to build up a settlement for you. They are impressive, and work well with some caveats, but basically that the latter can completely develop a settlement for you, or all you to add exterior and interior plots for the categories such as residential, agricultural, commercial, security with a minimum of fuss, in much more interesting configurations that you most likely would do building your own. And it’s pick and choose, you can still micromanage and develop the settlement you want, turn a settlement over to the mod for a complete build, or add individual plot modules.

https://simsettlements.com/web/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page
https://simsettlements.com/web/wiki/index.php?title=Rise_Of_The_Commonwealth

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2nd? uhm i have over 1300 hours on it. then i played fallout 76 for awhile.

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I got distracted by another game about 1/2 way through my 1st playthrough. I keep it installed & updated so am meaning to get back to it (will have to start from the beginning) but never seem to find the time to commit to it. So many other games to play, so many other grinds that need to happen…

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How did you find Fallout 76?

After a few patches it’s pretty good. It’s fallout 4 as multiplayer. Not an MMO is MO. Most people including me just played it solo and it was surprising how much like FO4 was except for occasionally running into someone esle. It was buggy as all getout at first but now it’s not bad. I have 76 on the PS4 so I never saw the major issues that the PC players had on launch.

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Does it have the depth that Fallout 4 had? I realize because it is an online game, you probably can’t set off a nuke to wipe out a faction. :wink: What about support of settlements? While I can see building your own settlements, I don’t see anything like F4 where you are setting up 20 settlements, and equipping residents with armor and weapons.

Being the only real person in the F4 solo game gives the player unprecedented options and choices to carve out the landscape as they see fit.

Here is a good article about Fallout 76: https://www.extremetech.com/gaming/280848-fallout-76-magnifies-everything-wrong-with-fallout-4

76 has npc’s but they aren’t human. All the humans that left the vault (which held 200 people but of which there are only 25 per server) are players. Your quest givers are Robots, notes found, computer terminals etc. You can build but it’s your portable camp that you can either save the template for and just move to another place; or you can just rip it down and transfer pieces of it or start over from scratch. there are some interesting camps out there. No there are no settlements to maintain or deal with. You have some factions but once again you’re dealing with Robots etc. And you will be nuking things. it’s require endgame. No official modding at this time. And yes you can kill other players or yourself with a nuke. When a nuke drops, the environment changes. you’ll need to mine pick plants etc. And of course the mutants that are out there will mutate again to bigger badder buddies.
There isn’t any goal like go find your son. There is a find your vault supervisor that left a few hours before you did. In fact everyone just about left before you as you partied to hard the night before and are still lay-abed. The ghouls are still in the game but they’re different. They’re fast and mean. Super-mutants and critters you’ll need to go the virginia folk lore to figure out.
more if you want another time. I need coffee :O)

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Thanks for the info. It might not be a replacement for me and F4. :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

To be fair it sounds like they are planning to make changes to F76 to make it more like the other Fallout games in terms of story and NPCs in the upcoming November patch.

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What do you consider to be “your” best Fallout 4 ending?
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This is also posted in Steam Fallout 4 Discussions

I find myself for the second time at the crossroads of the Fallout 4 Main Quest climax, resolving the future of the Commonwealth. This article is a GIANT SPOILER. If you’ve not played this game and think you might, and you don’t like spoilers, stop right here. :)

Caveat: This is my opinion. Agreement is not insisted upon! :)

There are 4 reputable competing factions outside the realm of raiders, roaming bands of renegade robots, and other riff raft.

  • The Minutemen, whose goal is to rebuild the Commonwealth.
  • The Railroad, whose goal is to provide a path to freedom for persecuted and enslaved synths.
  • The Brotherhood of Steel, the second most technically advanced, and powerful militaristic faction.
  • And finally The Institute, the most technically advanced faction.

Of these 4 groups, I rank them as listed above. The Minutemen is looking out for the overall good of humanity. The Railroad, could easily be an arm of the Minutemen with a specific task of sentient equal rights. The BoS, who in my opinion is too intolerant and wants to flex its muscle a bit too much.

And finally the Institute, the most advanced, is ranked as the least desirable, because those who posses the most, several hundred if not 500 years of technological advances, that could lift humanity up, that could easily transform the Commonwealth for the better, have decided the best course of action is to pull the ladder down, and hide themselves away in an underground complex, while ****ing with those who live above. This is why I regard them as the most despicable faction. No problem, if you disagree with this characterization :)

Most painful to the soul survivor is when he/she (depending on the gender you choose to play) is confronted with the admission by her long lost son, that not only does he now run Institute, but that he had the opportunity to save his parent from cyro storage in Vault 111, but instead decided to just turn her loose in the Commonwealth, to take her chances at survival. I find this completely astounding, damning, a symptom of the severely flawed Institute mindset, and the reason why the sole survivor should not side with them. At least that is my position. :D They don’t even send out feelers and make offers of joint cooperation, it’s a big **** YOU to fellow human beings.

Now this brings me to my major critique of Fallout 4. Yes, it’s just a game, and there are limits to how many choices are available, but I find it inconceivable that Bethesda would contruct this superb game, and try to funnel the player into a position of picking one faction and destroying the others. This statement is not exactly accurate, because the scenarios as laid out in the game, as a general statement, allows for 2 of the 4 factions to survive. But that is just the first part, and btw, it can be mitigated. Keep reading.

The real critique of Fallout 4 is that the only way the Institute’s technology can be saved is to join the Institute. If you choose any other faction, my understanding is the Institute will be destroyed. Please correct me if this is not accurate.

Imagine you are infiltrating the Institute with a strike group. Why the hell, not just take the place over? Why not gather up all of the technical knowledge, save those who surrender and preserve this most valuable of information and this facility? Why the rush to nuke the place? I find this to be the most frustrating aspect of the game’s structure.

And speaking of factions that deserve to exist or not, and although I’m not well versed in the outcome that sees the BoS destroyed, I may explore this outcome. My understanding is that the Minuteman can shell the Prydwn Command Ship. And there is a scenario where the BoS will attack the Railroad. I plan on exploring these scenarios and have set aside a particular save so I can do just that.

However, the first time I completed this game, and now for this second time through, I will first rely on the solution that preserves all 3 factions in a state of relative peace.

I reasoned that I have quite a few synth friends, and that wiping them out as abominations is not acceptable. The BoS is intolerant of synths, gouls (who are intelligent and peaceful, if not feral), and super mutants, but it’s not their fault! :)

My reason to chose to allow the BOS to live is that regarding the Virgil and Paladin Dance scenarios, that it seems possible to change some minds in the Brotherhood, and that as the second most powerful faction in the game with their own technology, it might not be a good thing to rush into eliminating them.

So once again I’m relying on the strategy described in this video to save 3 of the factions and pop out on the other end with three factions, maybe not the best of friends, but are not warring with each other?

https://youtu.be/hRIMM0BhUEU

And after that, I will resurrect the crucial save and experiment. I’m mostly interested if I can get through the Mass Fusion Quest (double cross the Institute), get the Blind Betrayal Quest (hunt down Paladin Dance to kill or save him. I’d save him, and I want to see if I can still choose the Railroad, Underground, Undercover Quest, but this might lead to the destruction of the Brotherhood or the Railroad, or at least devastating attacks on them. If forced to choose, I’d have to go with the Railroad because I have several synths in love with me, and the feelings are returned, lol. ;)

I want to see what kind of a response I get to this post. And having posted this, I have another solution which will be in my next post.:smiley:

I finished the Main Quest recently and again mornfully watched the mushroom cloud sprout over the C.I.T. Ruins, north of the Charles River wiping out several hundred years of technology and asked myself, WHY? (within my game persona.) :upside_down_face:

Based on a post over at Steam, someone suggested the Valkyrie Project as the best ending (options) and more investigation reveals there are four associated mods that beside not locking you into a hogtied predetermined Bethesda ending, substantially open up your path through the Commonwealth. Then I found out there were several related mods that play together nicely and have a huge impact on the game.

Important: How should you approach the content in these mods? See this link and scroll down to the section that says “Fusion City Rising, Outcasts & Remnants, Depravity, and Project Valkyrie: Which order should I play them?”

I said 4, but I listed 6 mods and there is a reason. First, if I understand it right, I don’t have to blow up the Institute, nor kill any faction off if I don’t want to. And I have the ability to take over the Brotherhood of Steel and the Institute! This is an exciting development, much better that the Best Ending you can manage by not completing certain quests in vanilla F4, which I described several posts ago.

Second, you may look at these mod names and think, why do I want to introduce a bunch of low life’s into the Commonwealth? What these mods do is add richer, in some cases adult content like slave trade and prostitution, but can you really imagine a post apocalyptic future where prostitution is not rampant and slave trade does not exist? In comparison, the vanilla game from a social dynamic is a bit boring. Do you want the PG-13 version of the P-A world?

I like it for the flavor, added depth and immersion, and my understanding is even with the Hooker Settlement version installed you have control over how much if any prostitution you allow in any settlement. What actually drew me to HotC mod is that the first one listed incluses a working subway system that takes you to Fusion City. You get to visit a place other than the Institute that is not a falling down ruin.

Now despite the sales pitch, I got 5 the above mods installed last night using Nexus Mod manager (Farther down the linked page, not Vortex, doing manual downloads and installing from files), but have barely touched this content. It all installed and since I had just completed the main quest, I jumped back to my game progress 2 months ago, where I had a bunch of settlements already established to try out the new content.

I visited Cambridge and met a little girl wandering the street (coming from Red Rocket, this is where the Depravity quest line starts).

This time I approached her, her name is Stella and she told me she was waiting for her friend who had gone down the street to a building to loot, and he had not come back, would I help find him? I had to say yes, of course! :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes: Without spoiling what transpires, I’ll say this one quest is dynamic, in tempo and the narrative it tells, as compared to the vanilla, usual sweep the building to kill off feral gouls or raiders.

And it seems that Stella has a grudge against the minutemen who she holds responsible, including Preston Gravey for getting her family killed! I can’t vouch for all of these mods yet, but this was a great start. Now there is a video of this quest which is a huge spoiler so I have declined to post the link. :hugs:

I am now the manager of the Hotel Redford, in Good Neighbor and am the acting mayor of Diamond City, I’ll report back later as I progress with Project Valkyrie. My primary goal is to take over both The Institute and The Brotherhood of Steel and see how this impacts other elements of the Vanilla Story.

I LOVED Fallout 3 and New Vegas (and also Skyrim) and played them many, many times with different builds and different “alignments”. Fallout 4 for me was frustrating. My main playthrough I got to the big choice and just couldn’t continue. There was no good choice and sure that is life sometimes but it just frustrated me too much. The game was great otherwise (some of the quests and DLC were fantastic) but having to make that big choice ruined it for me. Have tried starting some new runthroughs but never finished them. Might try the mods you recommend… or might mod up F3 or FNV and play them again. When I finish the bajillion other games in my queue of course. :wink:

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What is great Is that Depravity allows you to become mayor of Diamond City and manage the Hotel Rex in Good Neighbor. The only problem with this mod, possibly the people you get tangled up with in Concord are slave traders.
Project Valkyrie is amazing because a character in it, who you can take on as a companion, verbalizes the exact issues that exist for vanilla Fallout 4. Why would the BoS want to destroy the greatest source of technical information in the Commonwealth? And why would the Institute keep themselves hidden away instead of helping fellow human beings? You get to remedy both of these things. Now, I will admit taking over both the BoS and Institute are rather simplistic, but I welcomed the option after taking the vanilla game to it’s grim conclusion.

As I said, I installed the mods, and rolled the game back to a mid point, about 2 months play time before for myself, and jumped into this new content. The mods will even warn you about the impact of certain choices, and give you options like, do this if the Institute is already destroyed. Now, that is not ideal. You need to fall back to a point before anything happens to any faction. If you need and want guidance, I can name some quests you do not want to have completed. And if you do this be sure to read the link that gives advice on how to play these mods times wise with the main story line.

One more point, by playing Project Valkyrie some substantial events will be altered at the end of the game, like no mushroom cloud over Boston which has a big impact on the player, at least it did me, so if you have never finished the game, you can follow the quest sequence where 3 factions remain, link posted, and the Institute is destroyed, then install the mods, roll the game back and the starting quests for this mod content will appear.

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Yeah maybe I will do that over the holidays. I love the series and feel bad I never finished. Thanks!

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Spoilers Regarding Fallout 4

Is this post a spoiler? Yes and No, Yes because you become aware of the options the game gives you but no, because you don’t have free will to make the choices you most likely would, so it’s a matter of being intelligently informed. :D

Depravity, Outcasts and Renegade plus Project Valkyrie Mods Report

These mods include nudity, ie naked women when they are taking showers and the F word on occasion.

I just completed most of these three mods overall, I am very pleased with them. They are really outstanding. I have become the interim Mayor of Diamond City, I manage Hotel Rex, I have deposed Elder Maxum as the head of the Brotherhood of Steel and I’ve become Director of the Institute and released all of the synths to stay or go as they please. These are really terrific options.

Depravity gets the ball rolling when you meet a group of slavers in Concord (same town where you first met the Minute Men and Preston Garvey. Well you’d think you’d want to kill them all, but most likely you won’t if you want to do their quests which include making good changes in Good Neighbor and in Diamond City.

Project Valkyrie introduces you to Valkyrie, person who has been locked up in the Parson State Insane Asylum with experiments done on her by, you may guess, the Cabot Family. Note, she is naked when you meet her.

Regarding the BoS- It turns out that in times previous to Fallout 4, there was a power struggle in the BoS and a group split off into the BOG, but I just can’t find what the name stands for online. A character told me in the game. Anyway the quest Wag the dog involves the daughter of a former leader of the BOS, Sara who wants to get the BoS back on mission, preserving invaluable technical data and stop plotting to destroy the Institute, the single most important source of technology in the commonwealth.

She also has ideas for the Institute , helping an outcast doctor make some upper management changes in the Institute and helping them see the light, that hording all of their technological goodies, while ****ing with the people of the Commonwealth is a bad idea. You can make this happen. You also have options to kill both Desdemona and Preston Garvey, or make peace with them as a representative of the Institute.

My Opinion (Mod Spoilers)

These are incredible mods, they open up Fallout 4 to offer endings that are more satisfying. I fully endorse them. However, that said, these endings although wonderful, are also on the simplistic side. I don’t think that simply having a conversation with Elder Maxum would be enough to make him step down, although it’s a long conversation. Also I think there would be real physical conflict in such an endeavor, you would not see the entire BoS organization just roll over even if you are bringing back Sara, a former active member of the BoS back into the fold.

The same goes for the Institute. Here taking over the Institute involves killing or transporting 4 -6 top members of the Institute to prison or murdering them. You do get to talk to Father about it and he is resigned to this new change, and it seems you bypass his death bed scene, but he does die, he is just not there when you return after the overthrow. This is on the simplistic side to. I think you’d have a battle on your hands like you do in the vanilla version of the game when you take over the Institute before blowing it up.

So My reccomendation

In the unlikely even that you’ve not played this game, play the initial game through to the end and pick an ending that the game funnels you towards, where only 2 factions remain standing at the end. Note, that if you don’t pick the Institute to side with, it will be destroyed at the end of the game. And if you choose the Institute, I’d ask, what the hell is wrong with you? :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

However IMO, if you want to see a better ending with 3 factions left standing, although the Institute still becomes a crater, jump back to the first post, and with some choices as to which quests you want to complete, you can have 3 factions living in relative harmony with you being friends with all of them.

I will tell you when you are standing on a building and watch the mushroom cloud rise in Cambridge it is sobering, and had impact on you, and while you are wowed, you might just be asking yourself why the hell when we were in the institute, we just did not take the place over, why blow it up for christ’s sake ???

So to continue, my option is that first time through you take the game to the main quest climax, with the mushroom cloud, and then say to your self I’m going to go this better. Install the mods posted above, at a minimum Outcasts and Renegades, Depravity, and Project Valkyrie , then start over, or roll the game back to a mid point where you have met all 4 factions, but have taken no quests where you get a mission where one faction asks you to attack another faction, and preferably before you have made it to Good Neighbor. There is an outcome in the vanilla game where Hancock, the goul in charge of Good Neighbor will resign as mayor and offer to become your companion. If you have already done this, these mods still work, but you may have assigned Hancock to one of your settlements, he will magically appear in good neighbor for some of this mod content. It’s not to bad of a disconnect if this happens.

If you are asking yourself how do you approach this mod content, there is a link to the Project Valkyrie Mod posted above that tells you the best way to work these mods into the vanilla game. For example if a new game, don’t do the Murphy’s law quest until you are about level 20.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! :smiley:

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