Well...so much for the harsh realities of a post-apocalyptic world where everyone is struggling to survive. Fallout 4, literally, does not allow you to actually be a badguy. At worst you could be a kind of anti-hero who ignores people, and only does quests because there's extra money or a reward at the end. The game will not allow you to kill certain NPCs due to them holding the 'essential' status because they're vital to the story.

While I get that this isn't a big deal to most people, I personally expected Fallout 4 to be a little more open in it's ability to handle various different styles of gameplay. But clearly playing in a manner other than a heroic 'goodguy' isn't really supported by Fallout 4. It's like they designed Fallout 4 for children incapable of handling more dark and serious styles of play. Which is fine, I guess. That's the game the wanted to make, and the story they wanted to tell. I'm just disappointed because I expected a little more. Nobody's fault but my own, I guess.

But as long as we're on the topic, does anyone maybe have a mod to turn off the 'essential' status of these NPCs? Or would that actually cause the game to crash?

How far in are you? You can be a badguy and a badass. You just need the game to really start. Head to Diamond City and the game just takes you along from there.

While I was looting a crypt that had been converted into a hovel, I mean it clearly had someone living there, I heard a female raider say "hey mother f'er". I turned around and unloaded a barrage of 10mm rounds at her knocking her out the door and down the hill. Afterwards I wondered who the real bad guy was. I essentially raided some chicks place and when she called me on it I wasted her. Yeah. Your a bad guy whether the game recognizes it or not.

Oh, and what's with the nonsense of traders having piles and piles of stuff to trade, but when you kill and try to take their stuff it all magically disappears? Come on Bethesda...really? This is just sloppy.

Sorry, the more I play the more I realize this isn't really an open world game. It's an RPG with very specific rules and ideas of Bethesda wants you to play, instead of creating a world and letting you play how you want. Definitely not a sandbox.

I would suggest you finish the main quest before you post something like this... The main story is mostly gray, so you get to decide what is bad and good.

I joined the railroad then slaughtered everyone once I got their their HQ. You can do mostly whatever you want. I killed the leader of the BoS and jumped from the airship in my power armor lol landed safely and mostly got away. I only did that to test my capabilities in murder though. Loaded up my save right before doing that. The railroad will stay dead though. Long live the Institute!

Not sloppy, it's how the shop system works. Shopkeepers "inventory" is not on their person but in a hidden chest in the world somewhere. Some enterprising individuals managed to find one of the shopkeepers chests in SKyrim by crouching down at a certain point and clicking around to find the chest buried under the ground. Been that way since at least FO3 and may have been so in Oblivion and Morrowind.

I snuck up behind somebody and snapped her neck for calling my dog a little [censored]. So far I've returned 5 synths to the Institute to continue their 'slavery' and I have every intention of wiping out the Railroad as well as the Brotherhood, not to mention everybody who stands in the way of my goals.

You could have a playstyle as a sadist who uses the Ripper exclusively to torture and destroy enemies, you could arrive in Diamond City and fire a Fat Man directly into the center of the market, you can create settlements without defenses so that the unknowing victims you have herded there will soon be destroyed. You can play as a bad guy.

So because something has been badly designed for a long time, it's ok? This is another immersion breaking decision that smacks of cutting corners. If you don't want players to easily get their hands on equipment by jacking traders, then don't get traders so much good stuff to trade. Or guard them better, or make them dangerous enough to warrant what they're carrying.

Sorry, this is not good, and like I said, just another sign that Fallout 4 isn't a sandbox game, but a very limited RPG with very specific rules. And also like I said, I expected better.

Seems some of these "roleplayers" have trouble roleplaying if they are given limitations ...

Why fix what isn't broken because of a minute subset of players not liking it?

Did any of those actions result in the death of an 'essential' NPC, however?

Sounds more to me like you're the one that wants the hand holding. You just wanna be able to kill a trader and take their stuff easily? At least the way it is you have to find their stash

Did you read the post where I killed the leaders of the Railroad and BoS?

Well maybe I'm jumping to conclusions. It sounds like some of you guys are saying there's trouble to get into later on in the game. But my first impressions weren't good and maybe I shouldn't have assumed the entire game was like the first few hours of the open world story(Minutemen).

Some of the other stuff, however, like the traders didn't give me a good feeling. I have to 'find the stash' when the trader is roaming around the countryside with a pack animal clealy laden with goods? I don't want it to be easy, I want it to make sense. Or at least have the illusion of making sense.

Fair enough I guess. I feel like there has to be some compromise for it to make sense. It would be really easy if you killed a trader and took the shipment of XXXXX supplies worth 2500 caps each. Does it make sense that they can sell it to you but it's not on them/around them? No. Would it be balanced to be able to become rich by killing a couple traders? No.

But yes, progressing a little through the story will start leading you into meeting new people/factions and you can surely be a bad guy if you wanted to play that way. It was actually really exciting capping the leader of the BoS and jumping from the airship in power armor haha

I am glad PA is now a "vehicle" instead of just another armor set. I also wish you could do what power armor would actually do, jump off a building and land on an enemy below squishing him into thin, red paste.

Can you not? I might have to try jumping off the Prydwen onto some BoS below at the airport haha

That's why I said if they're going to give traders all that stuff, then make it so it actually makes sense for them to have it. Maybe hire some guards, or have the traders be actually difficult to kill. Just making their loot disappear into some random 'stash' hidden somewhere with no indication of where is a cop out. What person in their right mind would just wander the wastelands with all that valuable stuff, and only carry a pistol and no armor in the first place?

Like I said, it doesn't make any sense. The same way it doesn't make sense for NPCs that just fall down and sit for awhile, invincible, until standing back up again. I don't know, I guess I just expected Fallout 4 to take the game forward in more than just graphics and a town building mini-game.

skyrim did the same thing, so not sure why you expected different, since the two games share a game engine.

That was also 4 years ago. I don't believe it's at all unreasonable to expect significant improvements in such a time frame.

actually, yes it is, An engine is an engine, there is and will always be limits, you can only change an engine so much.

That could easily be fixed by having the traders guarded by difficult to defeat enemies that would destroy you at low levels if you tried to start trouble. Therefore we have freedom but also balance.

Invincible NPCs, as you put it, don't "sit" in Fallout 4 anymore. They ragdoll, like a corpse, and get up when the fight/battle ends. The only one who haven't ragdoll is Dogmeat (he has a "sitting" animation instead). My current humanoid follower right now usually ragdolls when he gets defeated.

clearly you do not understand how hard it is to make an engine. It is not something that is easy, and as skyrim proved, can have serious issues. Fallout 4 might be buggy, but compared to skyrims launch (it being the first game using this engine) there is a MASSIVE difference.