What are your plans in adjusting playstyle in the new survival mode?

- For settlements in the commonwealth?

I'm seriously considering dropping some settlements. Have the settlers I have there now, relocate to other settlements etc.

Some locations are somewhat "weak" of a choice in that they are small and the location is just terriblec.

Assuming you have no settlers there, getting attacked or not doesn't matter for production IF you actually get attacked at all though.

Does anyone actually know if having settlers or not matters in a settlement becoming under attack? We always discuss how food + water should stay under defense value but what actually triggers a settlement to be a target for attack anyway?

- For combat?

If enemy damage increases drastically, PA will be used more? (That is if you are at a point where you don't need it)

Also possible that we will see some serious changes to radiation / power armor / glowing sea??

I don't know where to put my finger on it, but it's like at some point certain mobs just capped in armor/hp value way too early.

When you read up on how armor rating works in fallout, it explains how crazy high armor value is better vs high end enemies because of the still significant percentage of damage you're able to dodge. Yet in terms of making you godlike vs low tier enemies it has diminishing returns in place to keep them from completely being unable to harm you (not that i noticed that rofl, you just one shot them anyway at higher lvls).

The problem is that there are no real respawnable "boss" level mobs that offer any significant fun in the lategame stage of the game where you just want to roam/wander more after you completed the bulk of the quests.

- Looting?

Honestly I don't give a damn about the lootlist being refreshed slower. I'm not repeatedly farming the exact same spot anyway like some youtubers.

But there is one thing that bothers all of us: the way the lootlist is implemented into the game from a level approach.

There are just too many damn trash legendaries in high level zones. They need to fix. They need to overhaul the entire thing. Because if one of these days high level zones become harder to clear, the diseases, radiation etc kick in. There is gonna be a whole lot of extra hate towards the lootsystem.

High risk zones should contain high value loot. This doesn't mean we need to have a legendary missile launcher or gattling laser everytime we kill a deathclaw. But damn son, stop putting high tier gear on cockroaches & junk legendary on glowing sea tier loot list.

This is a thread that we need. Especially after all of the debate about the saves and fast travel and such.

For starters, with a mode like this, in my opinion the only way to do it right is to start a new character on this mode. The early parts of the game are the parts that are obviously the most challenging. If I switched to survival mode with one of my level 100+ characters, it wouldn't really be adding much in the way of challenge because I already have so much.

I think I'm going to greatly reduce the number of settlements I unlock and use early in the game. I'm going to try to keep it to just like 4-5 that are actually really built, and some others that will serve primarily as a crash pad of sorts, but probably won't actually have settlers. I'm going to make sure that they're located strategically in different regions of the map so I don't have to take as long of a trip to get home and get some rest. Part of the reasoning for building less is the fact that I'll actually need to collect food. Currently I mostly just use Stimpaks, Rad-X, and RadAway, and not much else as far as healing is concerned. I leave most of the meat from creatures behind. Collecting this meat is going to be far more important, which means we'll have less carry weight for junk. I'll grow crops at my built settlements, and I'll likely grow a lot more food than I do currently because it will be needed for more than just settlement happiness.

I think certain perks are going to be much more relevant too. Having a medical station in our settlements is going to be much more important. The details that we know about healing are a bit limited right now, but I think it's pretty safe to assume that things like diseases and broken limbs can be healed by a doctor. Getting Local Leader 2 and Medic 1 so you can build a Surgery Center will likely be very helpful.

One other thing I'm planning on doing is avoiding Concord and the Minutemen early in the game. Not due to disliking the Minutemen (I actually like them, even Preston), but because the Minutemen quests are really time consuming without fast travel. You've gotta talk to Preston, go to the settlement, complete an objective, go back to the settlement, and then talk to Preston again. This is a lot of time spent walking, and I'd like to avoid some of it early in the game. I'll go to Concord and rescue the Minutemen once I'm around 3/4 of the way through the main quest, or something along those lines.

As far as combat is concerned, it's kind of hard to say without knowing more of the details. They're totally revamping the both the dealt and received damage, so a lot remains to be seen there. Power armor will likely have to take on a very different strategy. Is power armor going to be damaged more quickly? Are fusion cores going tom drain more quickly? We'll find out.

Regarding your comment about legendary weapons, I'm using the survival variant of the Legendary Modifications mod. You're absolutely right that 90% of the legendary weapons in the game are junk. This gives you a way to utilize them. There are various difficulty levels of this mod (including a cheat version that just lets you craft any legendary weapon you want), but the survival version is the immersive one. You can collect legendary weapons and scrap them to collect an 'effect chip' from it. Crafting legendary weapons requires these effect chips, and a pretty significant amount of materials, compared to other craftable items. Different legendary perks require varying numbers of effect chips to craft. A bit unrelated to the new Survival mode perhaps, but I think they'll complement one another pretty well.

Regarding unpopulated settlements, I don't think settlements will get attacked if they don't have any people. I had three water purifiers at Egret Tours Marina for a solid 20-30 hours of game play with no people there (basically forgot about the place), and it was never attacked. The settlement didn't have any defense.

Thanks!

Well yeah I agree it will be most challenging on lower levels. So yes, definitely worth making a new playthrough again for just the difficulty. However for the sake of personal taste I'm still gonna play on my high level char aswell. Let's not forget that when F3 hero went into Point Lookout DLC, the damage received there went out of control. And I'm hoping atm that F4's new survival + far harbor will somewhat be a "f3+f:nv+point lookout 2.0" for the higher levels. But more balanced.

So, as long as it is properly implemented into the game, all level tiers should be affected.

So far what I've read, I can imagine it worked out just fine, here is why: Ammo with weight, base needs (food/water/sleep), diseases (yet we don't know this exactly). These are all small things that add to a bigger picture into nerfing an "overpowered ultimate character". Even if you have walked the walk before.. you still want to keep your weapon/ammo ammount humble. Same goes for carrying medicine & food. Just adding a small "strategical" layer like that might add a lot of change.

Also don't forget certain stuff in the perk tree will be "worth" more now and not just local leader. I'm thinking of the bullet/laser resistance perks, the ones for drinking water (if they nerf purifiers by increasing cost), limb damage etc. The type of perk that was already there in F3 but now it actually might be worth it for low-mid levels.

The way armor will be customized might change aswell. I mean if grenades get more lethal now (hopefully) then the mods appropriate for these might become way more important.

Speaking of armor, PA is perfectly fine if they would just increase fusion core costs. Nerfing core duration would be stupid cause you can just buy all the cores in the world already.

If they gonna add sleep mecanics I'm pretty sure you won't be able to sleep 24/7 either cause it makes no sense to sleep more than 10 hours lmao. And waiting too long could also give you a debuff because you ain't using your body. Hence you can't spambuy them from vendors who refresh their vendor lists.. hand in hand with more expensive cores.. yeah I think we got a proper way of nerfing it this way.

And yet ontop of this I am hoping that SPECIAL attributes on themselves will see more relevance than until now. Endurance for example effected more than what it does now in F4..

Remember that END gave you rad resist in that. Small things like these are cool imo b

They threw a big nerf to the compass. I'd like to see that even though they want to make it "harder" they will still give us fun "tools" attached to the SPECIAL system.

To me personally, I feel they could do a lot to basic SPECIAL points to add the "rp" element back into the game ontop of making it fun on survival.

On mods:

For now I want to stay clear from mods. I feel mods in general always worked better in TES than Fallout. But we still don't have the official CK yet and a big part in using mods for me is fixing bugs and giving cool (but not godlike equipment). And as of now we still have all our dlc/bugfixed to go so I'm gonna patiently wait it out.

btw: Did water "collect" itself into the workbench at your Marina settlement? That would be some interesting stuff right there XD

The thing about ammo weight, is that with increased damage we'll be using up a lot less ammo in the first place. This'll especially be true for the Missile Launcher and Fat Man - I'd keep about a dozen missiles, or maybe 5 Mini Nukes, and only for emergencies like a surprise Mirelurk Queen or Behemoth. Ammo weight will also give melee another edge as a supplementary combat style.

I'll still be focusing on settlements - having Power Armor repair stations all across the map with connected resources is a godsend, and the resources they provide will be a lot more useful.

I'm actually a little worried that the combat might become easier for people already playing on Survival. As of now, we take double default damage and deal half as much - I feel like they'll just double all damage compared to Normal values, which means a huge damage increase for me, who's already accustomed to how squishy their player characters are on Survival. Maybe if they tripled it, but then I think too many things would just be killed in one or two hits, and things like armor rating or tactics to weaken an enemy won't matter as much. Disarming or dismembering an enemy is really useful for long, protracted fights, but not really important for enemies that'll just die in a few hits regardless.

I will be starting a new game, and will be only using automatic weapons as much as possible, with a pistol as a secondary a melee weapon which I have not decided yet. Along with a sniper for longer engagements. My character is Dana Scully from the X-Files since they did the 6 episode return for season ten. Was really excited for that. But it will be a world that is something to test her truths behind scientific fact with an extensive medical background. This I feel will help me dramatically in this survival play-through which cannot come soon enough. Normally I "run and gun" and collect everything, but I know its possible to be conservative in this action.

Just by playing the past few months I know what to do right away and where is safe for me to go. All in all I want to enjoy the game and filling the shoes of my character. I will have multiple "way-stations" or "homes" to stock up in and retreat to. Making the awareness of the world that I live, in game, is a pressing reality to survive. Lets hope medicine will help in the long run with some commonwealth knowledge to boot.

but Dana doesn't use automatics

Right, that is true and why she still uses a pistol. But soon she will need a weapon for what lies deeper in the commonwealth. Adapt to the situations that are bound to occur or die for not being prepared for the future!

Hopefully there is a trophy/achievement(s) for playing the new Survival mode and it should and more than likely will be locked. I'll be playing from scratch for sure, really looking forward to it.

What I find interesting about settlements is that the map doesn't seem to have been designed with this mode in mind at all, so some of the locations of the usually 'main' settlements are not really practical anymore. This is going to force me to consider fairly early on where my main settlements should be. For example, I'll probably treat Sanctuary and Red Rocket as outposts rather than large-scale settlements because of their distance from the centre of the map. I doubt the Castle will really be viable until I'm a fairly high level as it's surrounded by hostile areas and also a fair distance from civilisation. Covenant on the other hand could be important for me because it's ideally located and rarely gets attacked. It should be fun and I'm looking forward to it.

I suspect I'll be using power armour more than I do now, but I think (and hope) the adrenaline system and high player damage could make one-shot sniping a reality. If this is the case I'm going to take the sneak route, because it seems as though the aim of the game will be to avoid getting hit as you simply can't afford to. For those times when firefights are unavoidable though, power armour will surely be a must.

Whether I start a new character depends on when it's released. I'm sort of stuck in limbo because I've got a level 22 character that's not too far in to the main quest, and I wouldn't want to throw away what I've done so far or my many hours of settlement building. However as has been pointed out above, the most rewarding period for modes like this is the early levels, when things can be quite tricky anyway. I thoroughly enjoyed the New Vegas's hardcoe Mode as it was quite unique and somewhat challenging until around Freeside/The Strip. Sadly I don't get nearly as much time to play as I'd like due to life, so I'm probably going to try and get through the main quest before survival mode drops and put everything else on the backburner somewhat.