I'm sorry I keep asking questions about the new settlement system, but I'm just very curious about this system. Do you think we should be able to go to war? I would love to go to war with factions, and factions that you have a good rep with assist you with those battles, I would love a mechanic like that, what do you think?

Yeah and capturing the wasteland !!

And become the king of the Boston wasteland !!

It would be cool if we had elections in our town.

When you need to promiss something like: more water plants or more traders or something else.

And you have to build those things if you win.

But if you lose you will lose control of the town,because you aren't a good ruler.

I think this system will be more focused on building than maintaining your settlement, aside from the occasional Raider skirmish. I could be wrong of course but I get the impression it's all still in the experimental phase. If it's a big hit in Fallout 4 it's likely we'll see it become a bigger part of the series in the future though. There are lots of fun possibilities with a system like this.

Going to war with other factions sounds cool although most established factions should really be able to win. I just hope I can equip the guards with stuff myself. That along with the weapon and armor customisation means I could have my own matching squad of guards.

Although I don't think we will see anything like that (The going to war bit). I think this will be more focused on just building a few settlements with the occasional raider attack. Can't wait to see what I can build.

I think that going to war would need to be the focus of the game, not a sub-mechanic of optional settlement building for it to be implemented in a satisfying way. Overall, I rather doubt we'll go to war, if only because it would seem repetitious after the civil war in Skyrim.

Uhm... Uhm... Uhm... I think...

Ok, large "npc" factions, representing large amounts of ressources outside the map, should be very very hard to beat completely, if not impossible. You might be able to chase them nearly out, but they'll allways be a thorn in your side.

Medium and small factions, should be possible to take over economically or "politicall"..., unless they are fundamentally philosophically opposed to you, in which case it's war, war, war until one wins nearly completely.

Factions that like you or are like you, should help you out, economically or with a contingent of factionspecific military/technical level appropriate help. Not everyone can spare powerarmors or doesn't even have access to them.

Well atleast it would be nice to have the option...

As it is, I don't know exactly how it will work, but I hope I'll be allowed to also make settlements in the name of existing factions (or that I can become a "prominent member and representation of them). In fo3 I kinda hoped I could have lead to rileys rangers to grandeur and expansion.

it shounds fun but the amount of work it would need is way to much for a opsosnal part of the game as beth said u can just completly skip it if u want so i dont see it goring into that big of detail mybe if its a very populer featsure it may be in fallout 5 with more detail if so id love to declair my self king of my setelment and rule with a iron fist

If we do I hope it is better than the civil war crap in Skyrim

@Terash Cas What do you mean?

I suppose it depends on why I would choose to go to war, and whether or not I had the forces and resources to do so.

My thinking is, you declare war when a faction has gone against your affiliation on an affront that is unforgiveable. It's not something you just do. You don't wake up and go "You know, those Institute jerks, f--- those guys."

If a faction did something that really grinded my gears, that I deemed required a blood price, well then let's get the banners and pass the ammunition around, it's time to ruin someones day.

I just can't imagine our little settlements having the resources or manpower to launch a full scale war on another faction. It would basically come down to us as the player character killing everyone as our allies watched.

Good idea. Never going to happen. I can't see Bethesda investing that much depth in this system, especially at this point when the game is almost finished. I honestly doubt there will be a faction system in this game aside from maybe some branching quests where you side with the good guys or bad guys. Then again, Fallout 3 didn't give you this option so they might not even have that.

Well there's alot of "range" for the implementation...

It could be something as simple as this.

Depending on your status with different factions, they will either be among the occassional raids (not raider faction) on your settlements or they will deploy a few guards to them.

Thats relatively simple...

For it to be real war tho, you'd have to be able to genuinely invade and take over existing settlements and then it becomes way more complex.

I think people are expecting too much out of this settlement system. I don't think it'll be much more than the simple raider/mutant attack.

Exactly. I feel like you guys are setting yourselves up for disappointment. Remember all the things we thought were going to be in Skyrim? Remember all the theories about the civil war and how that was going to play out?