He sent me links to help character planning, videos, articles and so forth. I told him I wasn't interested in all that. I just wanted to look at the perks for myself when I got into the game and plan accordingly. He told me that the problem with my "plan" was that I would end up wasting two or three hours in game trying to figure out how to build my character when, with just a few minutes of my time right now, I could watch a video or use an app to plan beforehand and go into the game much more knowledgeable. I thought for a while about why this pre-release character building didn't interest me at all, while so many others eat that stuff up. Here's what I finally told him:

I prefer to just jump in and select whatever perks I think are cool, and whatever special stats I want to play a character with.

No planning. Just fun.

Word.

I'm giving my character straight 4's. There's enough perks I want in that group to keep me busy for a while. After I get all of them I'll start to increase my SPECIAL to get the perks I'm wanting next.

I've been abstaining from a lot of the leaked information about perks and what not too.

And I agree with you, I want to play the game fresh, and explore how I'll make my character the way I want, in game.

To be honest, I never really "plan" my character out that far ahead. In Skyrim, I usually decide if I want to be a warrior, mage or archer/thief, or a combo (like a magic warrior, magic assassin, assassin warrior, etc. etc.) and use that to decide my race and go from there.

Ignore that clown, don't see why people are so hard up to plan out before the game is even released. I'd rather just have a base character and learn as I go.

I know im starting with 1 Int and 6 Luck so I get the Idiot perk to maximize my chances of 3x xp. therefor, I get a early boost in levels and quick skill points implemented.

For some, spending time carefully planning a min/maxed build is a big part of the fun.

I can relate to doing that for a multiplayer PvP game (experimented a lot with different builds on my ESO character), but not for a single player open world sandbox experience like FO4.

Some basic idea about the kind of character you want to play is helpful though, if only so you can pick Strength X, Intelligence, X when rolling the character so you can unlock a particular perk related to that playing style.

I planned ahead, because you're forced to put down like 20 special points at the start of the game. So I have enough to make sure I'll be able to craft and modify weapons and armor, pick locks and hack computers, and build settlements. The rest, are just, do (X) bonus damage while doing (X). But I'd be miffed if I walked into a Fallout game without being able to lockpick doors, containers, and the such... Or craft and modify my weapons... "Oh, you want to put a scope on that rifle? But your perception is only 1! You'll have to wait until level 50 to do that now!"

You honestly probably won't need to plan any build. Bethesda games aren't hard, and get easier after every new one.

The only exception might be the new hardest difficulty. Maybe you'll need to optimize if you play in that. I certainly will.

If this was Fallout 3 or NV, I'd say you HAVE to plan a build, because most of your stuff is static, and you have a max level of like 30... If you wanted some Strength 9 perk, you would never be able to get it, no matter what if your Strength was set to 3 at the start. You could get a booble head, any maybe sugery in New Vegas to increase it up to 5... Then you're stuck there... But in Fallout 4, there is no level cap, and you can, eventually, reach 10 in every special stat. ...even though it would take you like, 275 levels...

Bethesda goes to great pains to make their games in such a way that you don't need to know everything about the game at character creation. I'm going in with a general idea about what sort of person my character is, for the sake of assigning my SPECIAL points. Beyond that, I'll do the sort of things I like in-game, and choose perks that compliment that.

You can just jump right in and have a care free fun experience on easy difficulty.

Us cool kids who are starting on Survival difficulty need to min/max and plan things out.

Yeah, I agree. This is how I want to approach a new game, just jump right into it. Well, sometimes I do watch something on youtube and then end up going out and buying the game but it麓s purely accidental and I never do that deliberately.

Besides, starting a new game and creating the character with no prior knowledge is just as fun as playing the game for me.

Doesn't sound fun to me to see a perk you like, but don't have the SPECIAL to get it because you had no prior knowledge of it when choosing your SPECIAL

I never plan on characters and just pick what ever I feel the character will want to use and skilled at.

Besides we are only a virgin once in Fallout 4.

For me I find it is more fun to make bad builds and learn from that. I also plan on making a lot of mistakes. I think that is an understatement. I find it more fun to make mistakes and overcoming those mistakes or shortcomings of your character. I find perfect characters/god characters to be quite boring. Each to their own as long as they are having fun playing.

I planned a good part of my build, as I'm just obsessed with having a plan for everything in general.

But I actually enjoy planning a build. I already know the attributes I'm interested in and the associated perks to those attributes. Even still though, I can only plan so far as I don't know what I will be up against in the actual game itself. So although I have a build planned, there is still that element of surprise and learning as I play. Hell, even with a build I'm probably going to spend a lot of time choosing carefully when leveling up. Just the way I am.

Probably even normal. From their past games and the leaked videos, on normal you can probably just close your eyes and pick perks and beat the game with no issue what so ever.

But that麓s part of the new game smell for me!

I don麓t want to make it perfect, if I miss out on something because I made a wrong choice I just svck it up

curious if anyone knows if we will be able to respec perks in this or not? if not it will probably be modded in easily.

I doubt it, but there is no level cap so if you play long enough you can literally get every perk you have access to given your SPECIAL choices.

I've decided that I'm not planning my character, either, partly because I don't "role play" but rather I just go with my gut and play how I want, which sounds like what you'd be doing. So don't sweat it, you'll have a great time going into the game with eyes wide open and figuring it out on the go, don't let someone else force their way of doing things on you and make you feel like you're doing wrong...it's common, but wrong.

Edit: not necessarily implying that your friend is doing exactly that, but (I'm sure you've felt that at some point with fellow gamers or outside of gaming.

False. It's a Bethesda game. Fail safe.

On Tuesday OP is going to be at the part where he distributes SPECIAL points and he is going to stare at the screen thinking "Damn should have planned this out beforehand" lol

*snicker* He said ESO 馃槀