The settlements are not reminiscent of an RTS.

That must be a bad joke on your part or something.

A sim maybe, kind of ish, but not an RTS.

Agreed

Well it does have all the requirements to be an rts, just not done well.

1) produce resources
2) build bases
3) resources are used to improve base
4) real time combat

Replay value doesn't just mean starting new characters it means it makes you come back for more again and again which fallout 4 succeeds at 100%

Every word in that article is true.

I don't understand your view there.

Either the game "forces" you or you "force" yourself. Why is it better for the game to force you to replay? Also why so limited in Imagination? FO:NV was far far worse. You were "forced" into a world that you should theoretically know plenty about, yet know nothing. You must be the courier, You must miraculously survive a head shot every play through.

Why do so many people lack sufficient imagination to ignore everything before you exit the vault? There is a very easy way to ignore it, your character has a psychotic break in the cryo chamber and couldn't care less about anything after seeing their spouse murdered and child taken...

I swear, damned if you do, damned if you don't as a developer.

Character builds in plural?

As far as I know there is only "be good at everything" -build

Not even remotely true.

The problem though is that I was playing a character that started to understand that what happened "wife killed and child stolen" was most likely just a job/contract for him, and would at least try to reason with the guy or bribe him with caps to get more details. My character, was someone who upon leaving the vault made the connection that there was more at play when he seen what the world had become. But no my character had to be a whiny emotional wreck when he should have been able to control his emotions more after being in a military man that has fight battles before the great war.

I'm starting my fourth character. Looking at the save games, I've played an average of 2.5 days (60 hours) with each of the previous three.

In Fallout 3 and New Vegas, I always played the same characters. The personalities never changed, the stories never changed. I played countless hours. I'll do it again with Fallout 4.

To be fair, the House, Yes Man and NCR final quest were all the same thing. Fighting on the NCR's side against the Legion.

I think the major sabotage to the replay value is the lack of a karma system. I am really disappointed there is no way to be evil or selfish, the worst you can do is be a bit snarky with people. Even if you have no interest in playing a low-karma character, having the option to be bad makes being good more far more meaningful. I think the game is really amazing except for the lack of moral choices that was the standard in all the other Fallout RPGs (including Fallout 3). I like that there is no level cap, but yes, not having a level cap does discourage replaying the game with a new character.

I fully understand this (I do it myself with some games), but that doesn't mean the game has any replay value. I like to replay RAGE, but I'd never say the game has good replayability

Uh, what? Make sense.

If you find value in replaying something, it has replay value.

You're basically saying, "I don't like the taste of apples, but they taste good."

Fallout 4 has OK replayability. But the thing is, it is endless, so I never feel the need to replay it.

I'm level 80 with over 140 hours and the main quest is done and I still have exploring to do, new enemies to face, and more levels to obtain.

Who cares about replay-ability when it takes an ungodly amount of time to fully experience the game the first time?

Besides, the best part of fallout 4... By the time I get bored of the first playthrough (lol which would at least be 100 hours later), there will be mods that will "artificially" enhance replay-ability on a massive scale.

Agreed but Mass Effect offers more dialogue variation and has actual choice and consquence - Where Fallout 4 gives off the illusion of C&C.

THE only choice and consquence in Fallout 4 is which faction to join and what enemies you fight later in the game.

My main problem with this game is that you can't really talk important things with people you meets.

There's a difference between "I like to repeat doing the same thing" and "this thing can wildly differ every time you repeat it".

has tons if you want all the trophies. 4 factions, 4 endings, 4 trophies. I started with siding with the BoS and am trying to avoid the other factions quest lines as much as i can. Next playthrew i will side with another faction, and so on. Then there will be dlc, and fallout is famous for extensive dlc. Then, im sure the mod quests will be plentiful as well. Ya, the main story is pretty linear, but so was new vegas, and FO3. Even skyrim, but that is a TOTALLY different game.

But bethseda doesn't know how to provide alternative routes or solutions to quests. I mean in skyrim they scrapped an entire stealthy option for a prison break.

My New Vegas playthroughs were generally all the same. But then, I don't like bad guys so I always play the hero. Every time I've tried a bad guy in the past I lose interest really quickly because I don't like him and ain't interested in his story.

Of course, in spite of hundreds of hours of play, I've never actually finished New Vegas. I was only ever able to get to the point where you had to choose between taking out Mr. House for one of the other factions or take out the Brotherhood for Mr. House. Neither was an acceptable path forward so my ending was always to refuse to do both and maintain the status quo. I also could never play a character that wasn't hostile to Caesar's Legion.

In fact, I'm not sure I can think of an RPG where I achieved vastly different outcomes. On my subsequent playthroughs my reasons for choosing this or that has seldom changed.

They usually seem to have one or two major choices and several small inconsequential choices. I've never said they're the masters of story branching, quite the opposite

This is nonsense. The word "replay," by definition, means to start again, to start a new game. Coming back for more on one character is not "replaying" the game. It is simply playing the game.

Replay value is a subjective term. If you like replaying it, it has replay value.

Make. Sense.

How you manage to ignore the constant conversations about poor Shaun and being goaded into having to look for the damned kid is beyond me. If you play ANY of the main quest line, you have no way of deviating from being an angry parent looking for your kid.