The Positive Changes in Fallout 4

[Cowabungaa]

Oh, and the robots. Holy Jesus, are they a force to be reckoned with. There's nothing like wandering through Lexington and bumping into the pissed-off, malfunctioning robot descendant of R. Lee Ermey.

Oh God the first time I encountered a Sentry Bot I was terrified. Even the humble Protecteron feels a lot more weighty.

Ghouls got the same treatment, I got damn just look at them. The first time they came crawling from under some truck I nearly pissed my pants. Honestly every enemy carries a lot more threat this time around. I really like it. It makes me feel less like an overpowered super soldier slaughtering his merry way across the Wasteland. I'm just another guy, I like being less special.

 

[Fox12]

Oh, and the robots. Holy Jesus, are they a force to be reckoned with. There's nothing like wandering through Lexington and bumping into the pissed-off, malfunctioning robot descendant of R. Lee Ermey.

Oh God the first time I encountered a Sentry Bot I was terrified. Even the humble Protecteron feels a lot more weighty.

Ghouls got the same treatment, I got damn just look at them. The first time they came crawling from under some truck I nearly pissed my pants. Honestly every enemy carries a lot more threat this time around. I really like it. It makes me feel less like an overpowered super soldier slaughtering his merry way across the Wasteland. I'm just another guy, I like being less special.

The sneak attacks bare mentioning as well. There's nothing like walking down a hallway, thinking your safe, then turning around and seeing ghouls climbing through an open window. They definitely got me good when I was in that supermarket. I think they had infinite responds, too, so it made your search of the premises a little more dire.

I also liked the radiation poisoning change as well. I don't remember radiation doing much in Fallout 3, other then messing with your stats. In 4, they took a page out of Demon Soul's playbook, and had it lower your total health unless you use medicine or see a doctor. It has some weight now.

 

[Barbas]

Ghouls got the same treatment, I got damn just look at them. The first time they came crawling from under some truck I nearly pissed my pants. Honestly every enemy carries a lot more threat this time around. I really like it. It makes me feel less like an overpowered super soldier slaughtering his merry way across the Wasteland. I'm just another guy, I like being less special.

1. Enter Super Duper Mart.
2. Find ghoul in the vegetable aisle.
3. Kill it loudly.
4. Accidentally attract seven of his friends.
5. It shouldn't be much of a challenge; they're way at the other end of the ai- THEY SHOULDN'T MOVE SO FAST.
6. OH GOD, THEY'RE COMING OUT OF THE WALLS.
7. SORRY PRESTON, FUCK YOOOOOOOUUUUU!

 

[XT6Wagon]

its interesting that locations respawn the junk with the enemies. So if you hoovered up all those sweet sweet telephones, and you go back after the enemies re-infest the place... more telephones for you to store in your dog till you get home.

 

[FalloutJack]

I will give you the leading cause: Cazadors.

Boone has Died!

I'm surprised that Boone didn't shoot 'em all a mile away, blindfolded. The man is extremely gifted.

Only person I really had trouble with was Dogmeat in three honestly and I play on the highest difficulty. The other people are pretty much bad asses. That said I wish you could set to where they weren't. When I first saw dogmeat on 4, I just wanted to blow his head off

I managed alright with Dogmeat in Fallout 3, but it was difficult sometimes. I still get angry at him glitching into the escape from the Enclave in Project Purity. You have to escort a bunch of people out of there and...what? Dogmeat? When did YOU get here? Alright, come on, I- AGH! Hallway full of Feral Ghouls!!

 

[Denamic]

I think Power Armor's better represented in FO4 than in any other Fallout game to date. It actually feels different than normal armor. In Fallout 1 through NV, it was basically just sci-fi platemail. That it costs resources to use and maintain adds a lot of 'specialness' to it as well. I'm only a bit disappointed that you can immediately pilot it perfectly as soon as you get it. You're supposed to need training to use it effectively. I think it would have been cooler if you had worse accuracy and reload speed, and perhaps be unable to sprint, when you first pilot the thing. Then you could have gotten training from Danse, or perhaps have a tiered perk that improves the longer you pilot power armors.

 

[kenu12345]

I will give you the leading cause: Cazadors.

Boone has Died!

I'm surprised that Boone didn't shoot 'em all a mile away, blindfolded. The man is extremely gifted.

Only person I really had trouble with was Dogmeat in three honestly and I play on the highest difficulty. The other people are pretty much bad asses. That said I wish you could set to where they weren't. When I first saw dogmeat on 4, I just wanted to blow his head off

I managed alright with Dogmeat in Fallout 3, but it was difficult sometimes. I still get angry at him glitching into the escape from the Enclave in Project Purity. You have to escort a bunch of people out of there and...what? Dogmeat? When did YOU get here? Alright, come on, I- AGH! Hallway full of Feral Ghouls!!

Ha, I know how that feels. Its why I wanted to blow Dogmeats head off on 4 X3

 

[Fijiman]

Oh, and the robots. Holy Jesus, are they a force to be reckoned with. There's nothing like wandering through Lexington and bumping into the pissed-off, malfunctioning robot descendant of R. Lee Ermey.

Oh God the first time I encountered a Sentry Bot I was terrified. Even the humble Protecteron feels a lot more weighty.

Ghouls got the same treatment, I got damn just look at them. The first time they came crawling from under some truck I nearly pissed my pants. Honestly every enemy carries a lot more threat this time around. I really like it. It makes me feel less like an overpowered super soldier slaughtering his merry way across the Wasteland. I'm just another guy, I like being less special.

Don't forget Assultrons and their OP face lasers of instant death. And I practically shat myself when a deathclaw climbed down into the tunnels of the Mayoral Bunker with me.

Anyway, while I do like the community crafting mechanic, I think it could have benefited from making you into a floating camera when you enter edit mode, not unlike how the Halo series handles it with Forge mode. I say this because it can be hard to see exactly what you're doing when the part you're moving is right up in your face or trying to build something off the edge of something else. It could also stand to be a little less finicky as it can be annoying trying to find the exact spot where it will let you place an item next to something else when even slightest movement in any direction can make some items spasm about.

As far as companions go I can't say much as I've only used Dogmeat, but aside from not dying every ten seconds to something stupid they don't seem to have improved that much. He's still about as stealthy as a barking bell choir and has a tendency to chase after enemies like they were squirrels; violent, gun-toting squirrels. He does make an excelent meat shield and pack mule though.

I have to agree completely with the gun and armor customization being amazing, though in a few cases I wish there where more options, such as pain jobs, as well as different ammunition types. I mean really, what the fuck is the point of being able to have a long ranged scope of a damned shotgun if you don't have slug rounds to make that an actually tactical choice instead of just looking stupid?

 

[Elfgore]

Like everyone and their mother has said, the shooting mechanics have been greatly improved. The game feels like an actual FPS now, with being able to easily shoot, melee, and throw explosives with two buttons.

The modding and armor changes are fantastic and very welcomed. Kinda let's you get your own look going for each character. The modding is just fun and pretty awesome to see all the changes you can make to weapons. Making them feel like your own.

The companions, from New Vegas it's only staying at the same quality, but from Fallout 3 it is a massive improvement. Characters like Piper, Hancock, Strong, Nick, and Codsworth are amazing and fun characters to interact with.

 

[Dragonlayer]

I wish the game had been a bit clearer about the details of settlement management though, as I only found out how to assign workers to resources and guard posts by accident as I was looking something else up. At least now I know why all my Minutemen communities were bitching so much about "starving to death".

God the lack of feedback regarding this bugs me so much. I still don't know why I'm unable to assign guards to my other guard towers. Only one person is assigned to a guard post, but no one else I ask to. My shop keepers are damn flaky too. Sometimes they just won't show up. Seems to happen with the food situation too, as I switch between like 32 and 18 food. I mean, I really like what they tried to do and I love how I built up Sanctuary Hills but damn it's clunky.

Perhaps there's a hidden priority system for the AI settlers? They won't abandon "crucial" work slots to go do other stuff, even if the player is beating them with a stick to go and do so. It doesn't help that there's a 10 second delay between you ordering someone somewhere, and them actually moving out, which meant I incorrectly assumed people were just ignoring me. This is why I rely on defensive turrets for that all-important defence value: the flesh is weak and unwilling, so replace it with the machine!

 

[Dragonlayer]

The implementation of stored critical hits in V.A.T.S is also a nice touch, though one might wonder if it was added simply to counter the ridiculous amount of Legendary enemies you face, who *always* bloody mutate as soon as their health vanishes....

This 'mutation' thing is a bit of a strange one... and your point really makes sense to me. I didn't understand it for ages, most of the creatures I was fighting that 'mutated' nothing actually happened. It was like they had just used a mega instant stimpack and then that was it. Weird... Now you have pointed out a credible reason why they do then I will just take it with a pinch of salt and get on with it.

One thing I really didn't like was when I was figting a bunch of triggermen and came across a Legendary. I was fighting them down a single corridor when he mutated. All that happened was his health restored, and for some reason he was now on fire. I don't know why he was on fire but it seemed that was his kinda power, or trait, however it was un announced and a bit of a surprise. He also dropped an incendiary weapon. It all seemed a bit rushed and slightly confusing. It would have been better if he wasn't just generic 'Legendary Triggerman' but 'Flaming Triggerman' or something (with the legendary star to show that is what he is). It would make these encounters slightly more memorable and the like.

At first, I figured I was encountering so many of the bastards because I had terrible Luck: just a mere two points into that trait and the Legendaries were everywhere. But then I saw my dad and brother, each with much higher Luck, facing down the same numbers so I'm forced to conclude they're there to just artificially inflate difficulty by bringing themselves back to life when you should have sawn them in half with a single volley.

It took me ages to figure out that the Triggermen were a separate gang, rather then hired thugs by somebody I'd pissed off - though that still doesn't explain why absolutely nobody in Diamond City would help out whenever I was ambushed outside the noodle bar.

 

[sXeth]

S

Settlements: I haven't delved as deeply into this as I probably should, and the need to constantly transfer mountains of crap between workbenches is a pain in the arse, but the prospect of building my own personalized doom-fortress has me giddy with glee.

Local Leader perk lets you assign a settler to run a caravan to another settlement, causing their workbench contents to be usable. You can build a big loop (or whatever spiderweb you like, but I don't recommend sending them all to Sanctuary, because it spams Pack Brahmin in constantly and be a pathfindng, and potentially framerate mess). Unless they've decided it was a bug to patch, you can get it even with 1 Charisma by wearing the militia hat, fashionable glasses, and 3 CHA apparel (Tuxedo is one I think) when levelling up.

I wish the game had been a bit clearer about the details of settlement management though, as I only found out how to assign workers to resources and guard posts by accident as I was looking something else up. At least now I know why all my Minutemen communities were bitching so much about "starving to death".

God the lack of feedback regarding this bugs me so much. I still don't know why I'm unable to assign guards to my other guard towers. Only one person is assigned to a guard post, but no one else I ask to. My shop keepers are damn flaky too. Sometimes they just won't show up. Seems to happen with the food situation too, as I switch between like 32 and 18 food. I mean, I really like what they tried to do and I love how I built up Sanctuary Hills but damn it's clunky.

Perhaps there's a hidden priority system for the AI settlers? They won't abandon "crucial" work slots to go do other stuff, even if the player is beating them with a stick to go and do so. It doesn't help that there's a 10 second delay between you ordering someone somewhere, and them actually moving out, which meant I incorrectly assumed people were just ignoring me. This is why I rely on defensive turrets for that all-important defence value: the flesh is weak and unwilling, so replace it with the machine!

The named guys in Sanctuary will always hammer on the workshop house doing repairs, but I think they still collect food if assigned, even though not actually visibly doing so. They don't seem to assign to Guard duty or Junk Bench properly.
Settlers seem to default to working food, but only if there's a full slot of 6 food that's not being worked, they won't assign if its 2 or 4, etc.
You might have to give guards armor, I've certainly noticed mine manning their posts more since I outfitted them, and some settlers already have it, which may explain why one work. Also you can give them guns, and they only need 1 ammo for the gun to fire forever (same with enemy NPCs I think). One guard will also patrol more then one tower if they're empty I've noticed, and because they have some sort of shifts (mine show up at my bar at times), they may not appear at the tower you originally assigned them too.
Outfitting settlers with apparel is by far the best troubleshooting tip I've had though. I know my merchants are in suits, my farmers have militia hats, my junkers have bandanas, and my guards are rocking Spike Armor and Gas Masks (sometimes army fatigues, Spike Armors a mite rare). My doctor (a ghoul that randomly showed up, ironically) hash is lab coat, and my bartenders got a fancy dress. Any other schlub is obviously new and needs assignment.
Oh, and settlers can leave (or be killed), then you need to attract a new one and assign them. I think my junk guys left on me once, and one of my guards was killed by a Mirelurk that wandered in (not part of an Attack Alert, just random spawn, probably chased the caravan in)

 

[mad825]

Obsidian completely one-upped Bethesda's system when New Vegas came out, (as is Obsidian's tradition "Yea, and Avellone said: We shall take the IP's of inferior companies, and we will craft their games better than they ever could. Thus saith the lord!" See: Neverwinter Nights 2 and KOTOR 2.) and I'm glad to say Bethesda learned from Obsidian's teachings. A karma slider is stupid and simplistic, a faction system is subtle and nuanced.

Granted, you're just picking one team out of four, nowhere near the amount of subtlety placed into New Vegas's faction system in terms of how those factions and the alliances you've made will play into your ending. But it's SOMETHING, that's like, DOUBLE the choices in Fallout 3, not counting the one where you let the purifier blow up in your face.

Because like, FONV never had a karma slider....Because it did and was used somewhat ever so slightly less than FO3. You know what? Both games integrated the Karma system into the Faction system. Hell, Bethesda had the balls to integrate Karma system as part of the Radio station.

Ugh, you can surly tell someone's allegiance by the sheer ignorance. I'm really sick of people giving FONV a blowjob, it has to be one of the worst sandbox game due to it's heavy use of Invisible walls and most of the mechanics were copied and pasted from the most popular FO3 mods. I hope that any development studio that had the technical side sorted out before hand, I sure hope so that they deliver better on the content and story side of things.

 

[pookie101]

the only cheat i use in fallout 4 is giving myself a couple hundred new vault 111 suits, purely to outfit settlers. makes them easier to spot when they are say farming, but also anyone not wearing a vault suit is new and i can track them down and assign them.

im really enjoying settlement building personally and the foundation block solves so many issues, looks good and makes a good wall without the bottom gap you get with other walls.

one thing im enjoying is how dangerous the wasteland is. think you are doing ok, round a corner and its a swarm of freaking fast ghouls, or a nutter robot or super mutants with a mininuke

 

[Cette]

Obsidian completely one-upped Bethesda's system when New Vegas came out, (as is Obsidian's tradition "Yea, and Avellone said: We shall take the IP's of inferior companies, and we will craft their games better than they ever could. Thus saith the lord!" See: Neverwinter Nights 2 and KOTOR 2.) and I'm glad to say Bethesda learned from Obsidian's teachings. A karma slider is stupid and simplistic, a faction system is subtle and nuanced.

Granted, you're just picking one team out of four, nowhere near the amount of subtlety placed into New Vegas's faction system in terms of how those factions and the alliances you've made will play into your ending. But it's SOMETHING, that's like, DOUBLE the choices in Fallout 3, not counting the one where you let the purifier blow up in your face.

Because like, FONV never had a karma slider....Because it did and was used somewhat ever so slightly less than FO3. You know what? Both games integrated the Karma system into the Faction system. Hell, Bethesda had the balls to integrate Karma system as part of the Radio station.

Ugh, you can surly tell someone's allegiance by the sheer ignorance. I'm really sick of people giving FONV a blowjob, it has to be one of the worst sandbox game due to it's heavy use of Invisible walls and most of the mechanics were copied and pasted from the most popular FO3 mods. I hope that any development studio that had the technical side sorted out before hand, I sure hope so that they deliver better on the content and story side of things.

Might I suggest that people who like New Vegas better don't do so because it's a better open world game but because it's a better Fallout game.

The improvements are in the writing, characters, and reactivity of later quests to what you've already done. You know not the things you seem to even be looking at based off what you list as improvements and downgrades. Well that and the cowboy desert vibe it has going just kind of either grabs you or doesn't.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

The way radiation works. I always hated the radiation debuffs in the last two games, but here it's much simpler. You get stuck in radiation your health goes down and caps it. Take radaway to get your health bar back but you still need food to fill it up. It's much more immediate but also means you can trek a little longer with radiation instead of immediately running back to a doctor to treat sickness.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

The way radiation works. I always hated the radiation debuffs in the last two games, but here it's much simpler. You get stuck in radiation your health goes down and caps it. Take radaway to get your health bar back but you still need food to fill it up. It's much more immediate but also means you can trek a little longer with radiation instead of immediately running back to a doctor to treat sickness.

the only problem I have with it is, I have only found radaway's and mutant hound chops (I think?) that take away radiation, and radaway's take away a whopping 300 while mutant hound chops aren't exactly a hot commodity, if they had one or two more things that took away smaller amounts of radiation (between 30 and 100ish) I'd be happier with the system.


nothing is perfect I suppose though.

 

[9tailedflame]

I've got a lot of good things to say about fallout 4!

Firstof, nobody talks about the new looting system! It's really good! It's smooth and natural and lets you flow really well between looting and fighting!

As has been said before, the crafting, especially modding, is really fun! It lets you get more mileage out of older weapons, it lets you make use of the plethora of junk in the world, it lets you improve your town and restore civilization bit by bit, it's good!

 

[Rack]

The way radiation works. I always hated the radiation debuffs in the last two games, but here it's much simpler. You get stuck in radiation your health goes down and caps it. Take radaway to get your health bar back but you still need food to fill it up. It's much more immediate but also means you can trek a little longer with radiation instead of immediately running back to a doctor to treat sickness.

the only problem I have with it is, I have only found radaway's and mutant hound chops (I think?) that take away radiation, and radaway's take away a whopping 300 while mutant hound chops aren't exactly a hot commodity, if they had one or two more things that took away smaller amounts of radiation (between 30 and 100ish) I'd be happier with the system.


nothing is perfect I suppose though.

Actually I really like that element to it, for the exact opposite reason to Soviet Heavy. Getting even a small amount of radiation is a big deal now, because you can't ignore it and there's no easy way to mitigate it. Using Radaway at small levels of radiation is a real decision, and waiting till you can see a doctor about radiation a real sacrifice.