If you seriously think bumping up the enemy HP and DR is a fun way to increase "difficulty", then yeah, we probably don't have much to talk about, lol. As Latewhiterabbit correctly points out, enemies should go down after being hit a "realistic" amount of times, not after 100 head shots, which was sometimes the case in FO3. That's not my idea of difficult or fun, it's just plain annoying and dumb. Some mods, both in Skyrim, FO3 and FONV changed the enemy AI so they were way smarter about using cover and using unit tactics along with explosives etc. Now THAT changed the difficulty in a fun way.

I used FWE (Fallout Wanderers Edition) in FO3, which significantly lowered the amount of ammo you found. Taking perks to make and scavenge more ammo almost became a necessity and I found myself putting a couple of rounds in Raiders only to finish them off with a melee weapon to save ammo. That really gave me the feeling of being a wasteland scavenger. Some ammo was way scarcer than other too. 5mm was fairly common, but you eat through it real quick too, so it was really well balanced. And if you didn't have any barter skill (which I didn't on purpose) it got really expensive to feed your automatic rifles. I have no doubt some similar mods will be out to balance FO4 in the same way.

I believe ability to craft ammo depends on armor type, resistanse of threshold. F$ will get resist in percents back. So prepare for a lot of damage spounges all over again. One of the main reasons i didn't really play Fallout 3 was this BS with armor\damage. Had to install TTW to enjoy.

I don't know if ammunition crafting will be in the game, but it should be imho- at least on the most difficult settings. At the same time, specialized ammunition should be much harder to come by at any location except the largest communities. How hard should it be to get specialized types? Not unlike obtaining 5.56mm armor piercing ammunition in FONV. It's not as though such factories are going to be dotting the landscape punching rounds out assembly line fashion. The prerequisite of mass production is mass accumulation of the appropriate resources, and a shattered transportation network will largely preclude that.

The percentage-based Armor system really didn't have anything to do with damage sponginess - the enemies everyone complains about (Super Mutant Overlords, Feral Ghoul Reavers, Albino Radscorpions) actually had no DR whatsoever, just an ungodly amount of HP. And there were tons of flaws with New Vegas's DT system - the best light armors in New Vegas had good enough DT to cover most anything the game would throw at you, making the slower, heavier armors much less valuable - especially after perks.

I love ammo crafting, but i never felt it really fit with the fallout vibe.

Fallout has never been a game where ammo is scarce.

Everyone is shooting at you, it doesn't make sense for some dirt poor raider to have guns and ammo yet it be so scarce you must scavenge every single round.

HP ammo did the trick with albinos (in TTW) and such, as long as you are prepared. No surprise there are complains in F3. As for armor, vanilla NV wasn't flawless in terms of balance, that's all. And i still keep seeing Enclave troops from F3 in nightmares, where only good way to play through this was luck build and x5 weapon.

So you're okay if a boss is killed with 2-3 headshots and uses cover? That's challenging to you? If it takes 100 headshots to kill what you're trying to kill then obviously you aren't high enough level, don't have a good enough weapon, or you're not supposed to kill it yet.

Of course I agree that Better A.I. makes a game better. but that's just common sense. you cant replace that with character difficulty. The fact of the matter is, Difficulty is always tied with health and damage. There's no way around it. F4 will have both good A.I. and health and damage will be directly related to character difficulty so there's nothing to argue or get angry about.

I actually think that is fine for a boss. A boss should be difficult to get to, have lots of henchmen, mooks, or a difficult building, environment to get to them. If I am able to sneak up to them, reverse pickpocket a grenade into their pocket, they should die as easily as anyone else.

I don't expect it to come back, but I'd definitely like to see it. I didn't craft much ammunition, but I loved using ammo *types*.

HA! Whether you fell for reverse psychology or you genuinely agree.

We've found common ground then! Because that's an average Fallout boss. Considering that you have the appropriate level and weapons for the task.

Nothing further to add. Dead on the money.

The DT (damage threshold) system and armor crafting were Obsidian additions in New Vegas. I wouldn't hold my breath that Bethesda has included those kinds of changes in FO4....

I wouldn't be upset if they included them, but I kind of doubt they included those systems in FO4.

Not to get off subject...but I am just to clarify a point.

The modern AR 15/M4 base design was developed in 1957. The AK 47 was developed in 1947. The M1911A1 pistol, still in service today, was developed over a hundred years ago by Browning and it has hardly changed at all. The design of the Colt Single Action Army carried by cowboys hasn't changed in any real significance except materially, and is still in use by many sportsment...it was developed by Colt in the 1860's. The M2 .50 cal machine gun originates from a 1919 design. The Browning Hi-power hasn't changed significantly in design since 1931. The current M1A, which is the direct descendent of the M-14 is approaching 70 years in design. I could go on....I won't.

What you see as unrealistic and outdated doesn't hold water. These particular weapons had revolutionary designs that technology has only managed to improve with the slightest of refinements, and there is simply no reason to believe that we won't be using any of these weapons 50 years from now, especially with the minor improvements 50 years will bring to their slight betterment.

I venture to say, even if we come up with a "better" concept and implementation plan for firearms such as caseless ammunition etc., and we manage to make it militarily useable and feasible for widespread dissemination and high volume production, I still wouldn't want to be standing in the way of a man or woman with a loaded version of any of the aforementioned weapons who knew how to use it...outdated or not! Small arms weapons that are 150 years old by design are just as deadly as any new designs (many of which will not stand the test of time like the few I mentioned have).

And back on topic...I still want to be able to reload my ammunition in Fallout 4! Even if you or anyone else thinks its a waste of time. What's the big deal? Just don't use the system if you think it unnecessary. I assure you that will be a consideration I will be making for village building.

I never understood this system.

I hope it is explained better if it is similar.

I never used it in vegas.

Nail on the head! DT made ammo types worthwhile, in that you had to overwhelm a target's DT to begin doing any real damage. AP would rip through and reduce a targets DT, and HP's ripped soft targets (non-DT'd) to shreds. If streamlining is the new cool, then I must assume we are heading back to just Damage Reduction.

which why i like rout they going with power armour this time around it might not be useless unlike FONV were ranger combat armour is hvyiest armour you ever needed to wear as you pointed out light armour gave hella run for its money.

as for ammo i bet see about many types ammo as in FO3 with all dlc's installed if liked new vegas style mods will prob be only option there

In terms of damage spongey bosses, I actually really liked the way the Bioshock and Half-Life games did it. There were bosses and mini-bosses in those games that soaked up a ton of bullets, but they were nowhere near as durable or common as the spongiest enemies in Fallout 3. And they always had a weakness you could exploit.

That said, I would rather they go easy on how significant boss battles are in the game. They finally started getting good with boss fights in Skyrim's DLC, so I won't mind if we get a few of them, but I still like it when a video game narrative doesn't necessarily end with a final combat encounter. Like, Daggerfall didn't have a final boss - it had a final dungeon. And that dungeon was one of my favorite experiences in a game, ever. Now, I don't expect the final part of Fallout 4's main quest to teleport me to the Mantellan Crux, but I know a great boss battle won't really blow me away like that.

1911 is barely considers in service, its been largely replaced by the M9 for almost two decades, even the current AR is being talks about being replaced. Plus old Fallout games strongly hinted that the classic 10mm pistol of the franchise became the replacement for the 1911, you dont need to reinvent the wheel, you just need to make a better wheel, RL armies think so, so why not the one in the Fallout Universe? Luckily Beth seams to have realized this and are clearly using more original gun designs this time around, while still respecting 1950s roots.

I'd like to see ammo crafting, would be a shame if the idea wasn't utilized for fallout.

Of course you will not have. This is a mechanical from NV, the employees of BGS probably not even played this game.

Though I agree the armor balance needed tweaking in FONV, I liked how DT was used instead of massive HP pools ( in some case ) thus making harder enemies more challenging because early game you let little to no means to counter it, but mid to late you had the means. Though I would love to see the ammo system in FO4 and if its not I'll be sure to look into available mods to get it back. As for how FO4 will handle boss or boss type enemies ( or even late game enemies) I hope they take advantage of their new armor system being sectional meaning bosses will have normal or slightly raised HP(representative of their higher level) and will die just as quickly as the PC after you blast off the armor protecting them.

I would imagine that we are getting something similar. Ammo crafting alongside all the other crafting was something very popular in New Vegas, and it looks like Fallout 4 putting a lot of time into the crafting.

Do you truly believe that they would have never played New Vegas?

Mods baby mods....

Do we know all of the tiers of the weapon crafting perks? It's unlikely but gamesas could have wrapped the ammunition crafting into the tiers of the perks they match. I doubt it's true but there's a slim chance they slipped something like this into the 5 tiers of gun nut perk. Unless it's all just weapons and mods they unlock.

Barely in service = in service...110 YEARS after John Moses Browning finished the initial design! And it will be for some time according the Marines and US Special Operations Command. You didn't mention any of the other weapons. BTW; oh, and I'm an old veteran and have been hearing arm chair commandos saying since the 70's that the AR platform will be being replaced "soon." Sure it will. Here we are in 2015 and the M4 is still here in world militaries and police forces....nice try Magpul. Same goes for the AK variants for old eastern bloc-ers. Old wheels seem to be plentiful in real world armies...and why not, they still roll and have proven themselves over and again. Real Life armies (and police forces) know what it takes to field a reliable and durable design, with a long service life, that can be mass produced and easily maintained.

I'm not sure what you mean about BGS luckily realizing something or other but...

The Assault Rifle in FO3 (R91), according to the FO wiki "was in service in the early 21st Century." The assault rifle is modeled off the real world H&K G3 Designed in 1958...yet there it is in the Capital Wasteland...in abundance.

The Chinese Assault Rifle (Type 93), even though chambered in the 5.56mm NATO- (which was supposedly a purposeful design decision by the Chinese because of plentiful ammo), is modeled off the AK and its many variants. As we have discussed the AK was design in 1947. Yet, there it is in the Capital Wasteland...in abundance.

The 32 cal pistol is modeled off S&W 2nd Model produced between 1876 and 1911.

The Chinese Pistol is modeled off the Mauser, the old "Broomhandle"...that was designed in 1896!

The Scoped 44 magnum is modeled off the real world S & W Model 29. The Model 29 was introduced in 1955.

The Hunting Rifle is modeled off the Winchester Model 70; introduced in 1936.

The combat shotgun hilariously is actually modeled after a the old Soviet PPSh-41 submachine gun designed around 1935!

All lever actions, and even the BB Gun, are early 20th century designs.

The gun on the cover of Guns and Bullets Magazine is a Ruger GP-100. That actually was a later design...1985...but even that was a rip off (sorry, updated design) of the Security Six from the 1960's.

There is a reason that most FO3/NV weaponry uses models that were designed and manufactured in the 1950's and earlier (and anything else is an exception to that rule which include only three weapons that I can think of off the top of my head - 10mm pistol, SMG and sniper rifle)...that was the time of the great timeline split.

Most of these weapons, even in the FO timeline, were still in service to some extent throughout the 21st Century. There is minimal evidence of anything reinvented (or new wheels made as you say) in the 21st century, but there is more than enough evidence of a plethora of 20th century weapon designs in the FO universe and an abundant supply still in existence after 200 years. That says something of the availability of said weapons pre=war. Bethesda is not near as original in their weapon designs as you have lead yourself to believe, unless modding garbage is the new standard for cutting edge 21st Century weapon design. Very little has been updated to reflect something looking like 21st century weapon designs...outside of energy weapons. There's a sea of 19th/20th century weaponry and three or so "newer" designs. Contrary to your observation, they seem to have made very little progress in ballistic weapon design in the 21st century FO universe.

So, not to beat this horse to death, I still don't understand where you are coming from when you say BGS "are clearly using more original gun designs this time around, while still respecting 1950s roots." What we have seen for ballistic weaponry thus far is the sniper rifle, SMG, a double barrel shotgun, and the 10mm Pistol. Is that 10mm Pistol the gravitational center of your argument?...because it really is a mish mash design of multiple 20th century weapons. Everything else looks like garage-made rubbish pipe guns that will miraculously shoot great because of the weapon modification system; hardly 21st century designing going on there.

By the way the sniper rifle (hunting rifle) in FO4 is modeled after the Remington 700...introduced in 1962 and the SMG shown in-game appears to be a German MP40 which saw service during WWII. Just saying. That respect for the 50's roots seems to be all there is for in-game weapons...outside of the rubbish weapons they're going to force upon us which magically will turn into precision instruments because we can collect a little junk and navigate a menu.

Anyway, on topic, I still want that reloading bench, with at least AP and HP ammo types. But according to you stuff like that is just for nerds.......As if the vast multitudes who play this franchise are anything else!