So, on my third playthrough, I was tired of doing Concord, and didn't really want Power Armor. So I skipped it. I skipped the Red Rocket station too. And Sanctuary. I just headed South and started exploring.

I go through Boston, but skip Diamond City. The first real settlement I entered was Goodneighbor. Which leads me to the Memory Den .... you can USE the Memory Den if you haven't started the main quest. Color me shocked. So after a rather horrifying trip down memory lane in a lounger, Irma apologizes, and in sympathy, tells me about a friend of hers that could help me track down some answers. A private investigator in Diamond City. Nick Valentine.

So I travel to Diamond City, now with an actual defined goal, and go through the quest of saving Nick. Once back at his office, we do the interview, and head to Kellog's house. Now, remember, I'd never met Dogmeat yet. There is a full scene and extra dialogue from Nick to introduce him, as a talented dog that hangs around and occasionally helps Nick out with stuff. Dogmeat really doesn't have an owner, but he and Nick have an understanding, and Dogmeat will respond and come to Nick after the synth puts out a special high frequency "dog whistle" call. (This also explains why Dogmeat just shows up out of the blue if you had already met him but didn't bring him with you to Kellog's house.)

Can I just say that this make SO much more sense than randomly finding a super-trained dog in the Wasteland, or following the psychic drug visions of an old woman?

It REALLY makes Concord and Red Rocket look obviously tacked on - just to start the game with an exciting fire fight in Power Armor, and give you an "ahh, look at the puppy" companion immediately. The story events for the whole first act work MUCH better with more logic and flow without them, but it looks like Bethesda was terrified to just let the player wander with no direction at first.

I always wondered if I could go straight to the Fort to confront Kellog, or if I would be locked out of it somehow.

If they did let me do it, that would be some dumb luck. "You! I just saw you a few hours ago!"

No, if you go to Fort Hagen before being led there by Dogmeat, you'll still find it full of Synths, but they won't mention Kellog, and the elevator to the basemant will be boarded over and inaccessible.

Good find I suppose. Wonder if anyone else has done it this way.

Sounds like a plan for next time... good to know.

the Dogmeat/Concord "introduction" is obviously there to give action/FPS kids an intro to the game, a "wow" factor (big boss battle! power armour! doggie! sick 'em). Whereas FO3 and New Vegas you took a long time before you came to that kind of action. This is a deliberate move in Bethesda's part, and makes you wonder if their if people complaining about it becoming Fallout:COD aren't actually onto something.

(sigh)

I skipped it the second time just because I didn't want the minute men drowning me in their crappy randomly generated quests >.<

Off-topic, but you know you can say no when he asks you to help the first settlement after the Concord stuff, right? And even then, just do not agree to help build the minutemen after that, which stops them as well.

I agreed to everything the first time and was bombarded with those boring quests constantly. I didn't know at what point I could permanently reject them on my second playthrough and I didn't find any point in doing the Concord quest anyway so I decided not to take the chance.

Know you now do. /yoda.

now that sounds awesome. I'm so doing this on my next character.

I was already deciding on trying ways of keeping her factionless and this seems to be a great way to start.

I had known about the memory den and had taken the old trip down memory lane before the MQ guided me there. But I had already met Nick.

Yeah, the biggest thing to strike me was that Kellog's house was obviously the original intended way to meet Dogmeat. The scene is too well done, and makes so much sense for the character, that it must be the way the player was originally supposed to get this companion. Also - think about it. The whole trip to Fort Hagen is basically a tutorial in what Dogmeat can do. There is a scripted fight with mole rats and a bear, he searches stuff out for you, etc. And when you get to Fort Hagen - "Dogmeat is now available as a companion."

At some point Bethesda decided to just give the player Dogmeat immediately, 'Greet Dog'. :eyeroll: They even threw in the scripted fight against mole rats at Red Rocket to replicate that part of the Fort Hagen quest.

Good to know!!!
But what limits does that put on you?
Can you still build settlements and attract the weak,weary and unwashed?

Cool, thanks for sharing that! That does sound like a far better way to go about things for us story-based roleplayer types I'll definitely do that next playthrough... Just have to headcannon a reason not to go to Sanctuary, since going 'home' seems like the logical first thing. Hmm.... post-cryo disorientation maybe?

...Makes more sense than the seasoned Minuteman asking lone vault-suit wearing stranger to go take out that raider gang for him cause he's, like, too tired or whatever.

Yup. A long journey to Diamond City is how the MQ was supposed to be at first. Then someone at Beth had the worst idea ever, let's give the player EVERYTHING just right from the start, power armor, dog companion, a place to settle in and so on, oh how about killing a Deathclaw at lvl 1, that would be fun! Also, screw those psycho roleplayers out there.

Yes. If you go to settlements with quests the settlers will approach you and ask for help even if you've never met Preston. Others will keep the cleared tag and you just access the workbench to start building.

I really wish they would patch this and tone it down a bit. The quests are out of control.

There is a reasonable way to handle Preston. Do the request to help the first settlement and then refuse to lead the Minutemen. I have no desire to have Preston as a companion and don't want Sanctuary to be my main base of operations....works out perfectly.'

All they really need to do is change his default dialog so you have to ASK him if he needs any more help before he gives out another Radiant Settlement quest. The real issue is that he starts giving you the next quest if you get within 10 feet of him.

Then why do any quest at all for him?

You can start building settlements immediately without any contact with Preston or the Minutemen. Totally unneeded. If you avoid the central building in Concord, the Minutemen basically cease to be a faction.

That would be a great solution! There are times when he points you towards an undiscovered settlement also, so that would work perfectly.

Thank you very much for this info. I normally play a Fallout game at least 4 or 5 times. I like to try different character types but in this FO 4 the character building is so easy that I can do everything with a single character I want to do and honestly the setting and story just is not doing it for me in this version of Fallout. So most likely I will only play it through once more and now that I know I can bypass that awful start I will. Once again thanks, this should make my second play though much better.

Can't you go back later and save them, if you wanted? Or do the raiders kill them all at some point?

You know, I never - this is stunning news to me. This will change my whole opinion of the game. Gonna start a new character tonight - might stop off and to the BoS quests with Dense on the way though. Then go to Goodneighbor.

Can we safely stop in Sanctuary first? I would think that would be the natural first stop for our character.

Thanks again for this insight Latewhiterabbit. It is nice to see positive and constructive suggestions here.

Mind blown. So you CAN ignore mahy parts of the game and play it to your liking, and it seems that the devs even anticipated it.