The Positive Changes in Fallout 4

[Gethsemani_v1legacy]

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.

To be fair you could slap Power Armor on yourself or any of your companions in Fallout and Fallout 2 without any problem. The whole point of the perk was that you could end up in situations in Fallout 3 where a BoS paladin or knight died fairly early on (such as outside GNR) and you were then able to loot their power armor. Had you been able to equip the late game super armor at level 5 it would have have been a disk one nuke and would have totally broken any form of power curve and made armor looting useless (since Fallout 3 also used a level-based loot chart). So they locked Power Armor behind a perk that was given at an appropriate point late in the story.

Now that the Power Armor has other gameplay restraints (lack of fusion cores early on and the high price of repairs) and is obviously meant to be a staple of the gameplay it makes sense to remove the silly perk restriction. I personally feel that Fallout 4 restricts the Power Armor use in a much more elegant way, while also making it far more of an option among others and less of a "BESTEST ARMOR"-deal.

 

[Nimcha]

I'm more of a snipey stealthy character right now but sometimes a big suit of armor and a big gun is what's called for when clearing out a factory. I really like having that option when my regular sniper behaviour isn't sufficient.

 

[sXeth]

Please tell me how you recruited ghouls into your settlements, I want to add some diversity to my populations. I've been going out of my way to only recruit unique settlements with named npcs. The only to interesting ones I have found have been the Tarberry bog populated exclusively by ghouls and Gray-Garden, run by a bunch of modified Mr. Handys.

They just pop up up randomly as "Settler"s. I'd say about 1 in 8 or so? I had to do some juggling between settlements to get my squad of 6 for guards. The only named ghoul I've been able to find other then the ones in the Slog (the Tarberry bog) is the (minor)

Spoiler

Vault-tec Rep in the Hotel in Goodneighbour.

 

[FrozenLaughs]

Can somebody please explain how the trade routes work? I have a settler from Sanctuary walking back and forth to the Red Rocket Truck Stop (my actual home base) but none of my crafting stuff or anything in my workshop is available in Sanctuary? What is he doing?

 

[Fieldy409_v1legacy]

Can somebody please explain how the trade routes work? I have a settler from Sanctuary walking back and forth to the Red Rocket Truck Stop (my actual home base) but none of my crafting stuff or anything in my workshop is available in Sanctuary? What is he doing?

I dont think you can see it in your workshop inventory(when you click transfer) but you can when building and crafting.

 

[WolfThomas]

Can somebody please explain how the trade routes work? I have a settler from Sanctuary walking back and forth to the Red Rocket Truck Stop (my actual home base) but none of my crafting stuff or anything in my workshop is available in Sanctuary? What is he doing?

When you go to build something it deducts it from the linked settlements. You can't see it or access stuff stored in there. However another significant advantage is food and water in excess are shared. So a settlement linked won't have a warning sign near those resources. This means you can have a few big fortified hubs making food and water and turn those shitty little ones into linking settlements with only 2 people who are provisioners.

 

[FrozenLaughs]

Can somebody please explain how the trade routes work? I have a settler from Sanctuary walking back and forth to the Red Rocket Truck Stop (my actual home base) but none of my crafting stuff or anything in my workshop is available in Sanctuary? What is he doing?

When you go to build something it deducts it from the linked settlements. You can't see it or access stuff stored in there. However another significant advantage is food and water in excess are shared. So a settlement linked won't have a warning sign near those resources. This means you can have a few big fortified hubs making food and water and turn those shitty little ones into linking settlements with only 2 people who are provisioners.

Ahhhh, damn. I was hoping it turned the workshop into an uber-safe accessible from any linked settlement

Ok so I don't need to have one assigned to run back like I was worried (one for Sanctuary ->RR and another for RR -> Sanctuary) but can I just daisy chain them by sending a RR settler to settlement #3, then a #3 settler to #4,giving them access to everything in between, i.e. pooling resources? Or do I need to spider web them out, with like 8 settlers from Sanctuary to 8 other settlements, linking only those 8 to just Sanctuary's inventory?

 

[WolfThomas]

Ahhhh, damn. I was hoping it turned the workshop into an uber-safe accessible from any linked settlement

Ok so I don't need to have one assigned to run back like I was worried (one for Sanctuary ->RR and another for RR -> Sanctuary) but can I just daisy chain them by sending a RR settler to settlement #3, then a #3 settler to #4,giving them access to everything in between, i.e. pooling resources? Or do I need to spider web them out, with like 8 settlers from Sanctuary to 8 other settlements, linking only those 8 to just Sanctuary's inventory?

Unfortunately that is not the case.

You only need one per settlement and you can daisy can them. A+B and B+C means A+C as well. So I just have a giant snake. If a settlement is linked and there is surplus food or water (more than the number of settlers there) that is counted towards other settlements.

Currently I have water purifiers at Sancturary and the Castle, so everywhere is supplied. Then Finch Farm, Greygarden and Sanctuary provide food. So all the small ones like Tenpines, Oberland station, I use to link. If you remove water pumps and crops there they need no defenses (I tend to leave a single turret and water pump for roleplay reasons).

 

[IceForce]

Greygarden

Ooh, on that note... Interesting thing about Greygarden: The build area extends to allll the way up on the top of the highway overpass. There's also (by default) a sofa up there, so if you've dismissed a follower to Greygarden and the follower has disappeared, they're probably sitting wayyy up on top of the overpass on that sofa, admiring the view. (Because followers usually seek out items of furniture in the area to interact with.)

 

[WolfThomas]

Greygarden

Ooh, on that note... Interesting thing about Greygarden: The build area extends to allll the way up on the top of the highway overpass. There's also (by default) a sofa up there, so if you've dismissed a follower to Greygarden and the follower has disappeared, they're probably sitting wayyy up on top of the overpass on that sofa, admiring the view. (Because followers usually seek out items of furniture in the area to interact with.)

Thanks for the tip. I saw that online. I haven't been able to build something to get up there that doesn't look silly, that's my rate-limiting factor. I'm thinking a concrete tower to access.

 

[breadsammich]

Ghouls: You would not believe how much I gushed at the ghouls of this game. They actually move like zombies. It looks natural and organic! They are animated fantastically, and I love it to death. The rest of the enemies in the game still move very rigidly and stiff, but the ghouls move much better, and I think that in of itself deserves some praise. Bethesda has never been good at this sort of thing, so when I saw the ghouls actually work like this, well...

I didn't play much of the previous Fallout games, so I can't attest to how much better they are, but I will say this: having a feral charge me in a blind rage and then fall over after hitting me because his body isn't coordinated enough to keep up with its own momentum is an outstanding little detail.

As for things I think are greatly improved, what I really noticed was the facial expressions. They've captured some of the subtle nuances of what a person does when they talk--like seeing my character purse his lips when he was trying to remember and describe the details of someone he had seen before. They're still kind of janky sometimes with the lips falling out of sync with the speech, but the faces just seem so much more expressive than the lip-flapping meat-mannequins of most Bethesda games. It's nice that my angry face looks angry and not just constipated.

 

[Korolev]

Positive changes in FO4? Well....

1) Companions have interesting things to say about many locations - it makes them actually feel a little alive and not a walking storage container. But I am disappointed that not all companions have their own side-quest.

2) While the character models of FO4 are stiff-as-a-board and unpleasant to look at, the environments are often beautiful and crafted with care.

3) It's got a ton of robots in it - I've always been a fan of the Fallout Robots.

4) Radiation actually posing a real hazard - I know that FO4 is hardly a "difficult" game, but the increased presence and danger of radiation is a nice touch.

 

[Silver Patriot]

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.

I know it's basically a handwave but that's most likely why the backstory for your character is that he/she served in Anchorage.