Knowing what you know now, what would you do differently if you were just starting? (Maybe this can help the Christmas day noobs)

It's possible there was a topic like this before, but I looked through pages and pages and didn't see anything. So, sorry if this is a repeat topic.

Okay, here is what I would have done differently since I'm a one playthrough kind of person.

- I worried too much about the S.P.E.C.I.A.L.'s stats that I chose at the beginning. Now at level 60, I'm not even sure what to spend my points on anymore.

- Actually LOOKING at the options that were right in my face. Example - scrapping weapons by throwing them on the ground. I did this until level 50. Yeah...

- Completing the main quest a little too quickly. I didn't even really get to know the Railroad people but because of a dumb choice with a group of runaway synths, I alienated the whole group early on and they didn't want to deal with me. Somehow I still ended up with a BoS/Minutemen/Railroad unity in the end.

- Letting my in-game emotions about my son cloud my logic. Then after I made a dramatic decision, I had a twinge of "should I have done that?"

- Putting so much time, energy and supplies into my initial settlement at the Red Rocket Truck Stop. When I first started, I had read a review where someone suggested to just focus on ONE settlement, so that's what I did. Then I realized that it's really better to set up a lot of settlements or you are missing out on a really fun part of the game, even if you eventually want to herd a pack of deathclaws into a settlement to wipe out it's population of annoying and intrusive settlers.

- Should have picked up the Local Leader perk earlier on to link my settlements. It was very hard to try to gather supplies for each individual settlement and a waste of time and energy.

- I spent a silly amount of time traveling with my hoarded junk to avoid being over-encumbered when all I would have had to do is work toward maxing out my strong-back perk so I could still fast travel while weighted down.

Well there they are. Still had a great time with the game even with my cluelessness.

After about two weeks of playing with my first character, I decided to start over. I had made quite a mess with settlements and perk distribution, and generally just wasted a lot of time not knowing what I was doing.

- Definitely grab Local Leader early.

- Create a "Hub" settlement. I chose the Drive In. Send the Settlers there off as Provisioners, and also set up your shops and home base there.

- Create specific Farm settlements. For example, I grow Corn at Sanctuary, Tatos at Abernathy, and Mutfruit at the Co-Op. I have such a surplus that it feeds all of my non-food-growing settlements (linked through my hub) and the leftovers go to making Vegetable Starch.

- Farm water. Plunk down an Industrial Purifier or two at every settlement that can support it. (Except at your food farming ones, I'll explain why in a minute.) Again, the surplus will cover your settlements without water and the excess will go in your workshop to sell.

- Don't farm water and food in the same settlement. In order to really limit attacks, you'll want your total defense to be about twice the total of your food and water. That gets resource-expensive very quickly. If you only farm one or the other at each settlement, you won't need as much defense to secure it.

- Place a Brahmin Trough in every Settlement. (It's under Misc. Resources.) You'll find Fertilzer (a few units a day per Brahmin) show up in your workshop. Use it at a Chemistry Station to make Jet. You can sell this along with your excess Purified Water for a big profit. (And it will also give you experience.)

- Clear out a smaller Settlement to turn into your "Companion Retreat." Send any companions there to keep track of them. Don't attract any other settlers or set up resources (to avoid attacks. They'll get enough in surplus food and water from your other settlements if you set it up as i suggested above.) If you need the Settlement to complete a quest, set up the beacon but then immediately turn it off. It will still count.

- Give your Settlers gear that allows you to quickly identify them. I generally put my farmers in harnesses (plentiful from hunting Raiders) and leave them with their default pipe pistols and ammo. I give my guards Army/Military Fatigues, Helmets of some sort, and Combat Armor. (All plentiful if you go Gunner hunting.) I also give them a longer ranged weapon of some sort (scoped Combat Rifle for instance.) I give my provisioners assault gas masks (again, plentiful from hunting Raiders,) road leathers, and leather armor. I also give them a better weapon that is renamed for the settlements they connect to keep track of that.

Disregard this.

I am seeing good info for my current game, that is for sure!

when I do it over, definitely gotta keep track of provisioners. map looks like a dang spiderweb atm! I like naming their weapons for their route. would be easier to change their route or send to guard\farm.

This is a great idea. My settlers really seem to prefer eating Tatos first and Mutfruit last. So even though I spam Tatos everywhere they end up being relatively rare in workshop stockpiles.

I learned to assign your provisioners from the outside in, rather than radiating from a hub. They need a bed and count as a settler against your population cap at wherever you assign them from.... i.e.: a provisioner from sanctuary to red rocket counts against sanctuary's number, so you can spread out the hit against your pop. numbers by linking them that way.

The best way to start setting up a new settlement, I've found is:

1. Gain control of new settlement's workbench in whatever method that settlement has available.
2. If it comes with a settler (or multiple) immediately assign one as a provisioner to your hub (req: Local Leader 1)
3. (Optional) If there are no settlers (e.g.; Coastal Cottage), go to a settlement with max or near max settlers. Find an unassigned settler and open the workbench. Select 'Move' and choose the new settlement. Now, before the Settler finishes walking away from you, use the workbench to choose 'Supply Line' (req: Local Leader 1) and select your hub settlement. This will form a supply line from the new settlement to your hub without having to wait for that Settler to show up there.
4. Create a quick barracks building if there's not a building with a roof (key is needing a roof, otherwise they aren't happy). Make sure it's large enough to accomodate 20 sleeping bags (or other bed type if you prefer). I suggest some couches/chairs so the settlers aren't all huddled in a ball anytime night falls and you happen to need to be at the settlement. It spreads them out and allows you to move around. This is not required though.
5. Set up 24 food worth of crops. Mutfruit requires the least amount of space. I suggest alternating between Tatos, Corn, and Mutfruit between each settlement.
6. Put a Brahmin trough somewhere where the cow isn't in the way constantly if you're at the settlement.
7. Place a fast travel point inside the barracks, preferably somewhere with good cover. This allows you to fast travel to the settlement for defenses and not be shot up while on a loading screen.
8. Place a generator (I prefer medium) and attach a recruiting beacon. If you have a medium generator, you still have 4 power to play with. This can be two water purifiers (which should cover your water requirements) if there's standing water. Otherwise, place turrets.
9. If no standing water, place enough pumps for 21 water resources.
10. Place turrets until you reach defense 45 or higher (Water+Food total)
11. While you were working, your first settler should have appeared from the beacon and will be unassigned. Place your Minutemen artillery if unlocked and assign him to it. Otherwise, assign him to food production and you're done.
12. (Optional) Return later when there are more settlers, set up vendors and scavenging stations to taste.

I've found that it's not really an issue. Right now, my Drive In settlement hub has 22 (my max without acquiring more Charisma increasing gear,) 6 are assigned to each kind of shop, 1 guard, 1 guy working my cannon, and the rest connect settlements.

I'd rather have the extra Settler present at each other settlement to do whatever work that settlement does.

But to each his own. It's the same basic concept of having one hub and connecting everything through it.

Another good one:

If you're setting up a settlement that requires passing through water to get to (or is even near a bunch of water, like the Lighthouse,) send a Ghoul Settler as your provisioner.

There have been a number of reports from people saying their provisioner disappears. (Particularly at Spectacle Island, which requires crossing the water.) There is some still some debate as to just how "essential" settlers and provisioners are, but it seems that the radiation in the water eventually gets them if you spend a lot of time at the settlement and they are loaded in the cell.

So I send one of the generic Ghoul settlers and haven't had an issue yet.

I don't really know if I had done anything differently, besides working with the settlements.

I guess the real question here is: What are some of the things you wish you would have known when you started to play?

* When it says press Enter to confirm, you don't have to use the Enter Key - E will do just fine (on PC). Really helps when building your settlement and/or during crafting and scrapping items.

* Like someone else said, I would have setup supply lines way, way earlier than I did! I actually fast traveled between settlements at the beginning to remove items from the workbench to build something at the other location! LOL

* Next time, I will get in touch with the Institute much sooner! They have so many cool items that I can use as decorations in my settlement!

* Unlock Spectacle Island sooner! Love the sound of the waves. Sunsets and sunrises are spectacular on the island. Very peaceful place.

I was quite satisfied with my first build which focused on building stuff, stealth, and power armor.

The only thing I'd change is I'd start with low Perception and build that up as opposed to low agility which I started with at first. Being able to sneak closer without getting seen more effectively makes up for your lack of accuracy anyway.

Other than that: horde anything that has copper, aluminum, and adhesive from early in the game. If you start early, you should have acquired an impressive stockpile by the time you start rolling out the major settlements or grandiose weapon mods.

Make sure to complete Covenant before the end of the main mission. Otherwise, you get permanently locked out of this quest.

Make sure to do all of PAM's missions to unlock ballistic weave before progressing the BOS storyline to Tactical Thinking. Even if you don't talk to Kells, PAM gets permalocked into a security mode and you can't talk to her anymore.

^ This made the game soooo much more bearable.

-Find Cait ASAP if you hate leaving locks unopened

Settlers, unlike Followers, DON'T burn through ammunition. As long as they have ONE piece of ammo in their inventory appropriate for the type of gun they're wielding, they'll never run out of that particular ammo type.

S.P.E.C.I.A.L. Bobbleheads in Fallout 4 can raise their corresponding stat to 11. So if you're a perfectionist wanting all your stats @ 11, wait 'til you hit 10 on a given stat before picking up its corresponding Bobblehead.

I wondered how this worked. Why do you have to wait untill you have a 10 on the stat? Doesn't it just count upwards to 11 if you pick it up before?

Quote from the wiki:

Taking a S.P.E.C.I.A.L. bobblehead while your stat is at 10 allows that stat to increase to 11, as the Bobblehead counts as a stat gain.

If you were below 10 before picking it up, you can't level that stat to above 10 via normal methods.

Gaining +1 on a stat through a bobblehead is not a normal method At least that's how I see it.

Yea, I agree with the Perception thing. I'm still not 100% sure how perception even works in FO 4. In the other Fallout games, you would see red markers on the map when you had high perception, indicating enemies. Now, you don't see anything, unless you are in "caution" mode, while sneaking. Then you get those red squares on the compass, but when you go back to hidden, they disappear? How can I effectively located enemies, without marking them with my recon scope? After almost 200 hours of playtime, I still haven't figured that out! LOL

Thanks for the heads up about Covenant. I have been there, but haven't unlocked the workbench yet. I remember passing by there, after completing the quest and they were all hostile. I guess I have to kill them all to use the workbench now.

So, PAM's mission unlocks the Ballistic Weave? I remember just doing the stockpile quests and then I talked to Tinker Tom and then he told me about some new material and then Ballistic Weave was available to me. I thought I would get a specific quest to unlock the weave, but I guess it's part of PAM's cache missions?

Oh dang, I got all the Bobbleheads in this game. I guess I will wait to get the SPECIAL ones until my stats are at 10 next time! Thanks for the tip!

Once you've talked to Tom about it, it's unlocked. You can buy select pieces directly from him, or go make your own at an armor bench. The higher your Armorer skill, the higher level you'll be able to go. (With most pieces maxing out at 110/110 resistance. I believe the Courser outfit at max level gets to 140/140, highest I've seen.)

This is the only thing I regret not doing. But with 200 hours and 103 lvls I ain't starting over...

I wouldn't have maxed out Endurance for the Ghoulish perk because it's useless. I thought that once you got this perk you would be healed by radiation instead of damaged by it, but radiation still damages you, it just slowly heals you at the same time, but POINTLESS. I had to go back 2 hours to undo the perk. I guess I will get Solar Power instead. : /

Only thing I'd add in would be post-ending content that let you change how the faction you joined operated. That's pretty much it, otherwise the game is fine the way it is.

Ok no, dialogue system I'd also change as well as the hud but otherwise it's great imo.