Hi,

Very nice game, better than other FOs. Big map and alot to explore. Creation of own weapons and armor works. Different kinds of companions, it was very hard to make them all maxed out friendship. Build your own settlements. I have now played 552 hours.

About quests

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Quests for every taste, however - lack of independent (stand alone) quests since the map is huge and some places should be part of a quest or two. 1) Some radiant quests cannot be done since quest target(s) already done by another "faction". The devs may look into Institute quests and see if there are another solutions. You can of course skip them, but the quests will be in your journal as not completed.

About "bugs"

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I did not notice any major bugs, but the "sound" from NPC after they used armor craft stations should be fixed. Companions that have such "sound" can be fixed, but other NPC cannot be fixed so easy. Armor craft stations are located all over the map and more and more NPC have that "noice" now - while playing the game. Fasttravel from/to settlements may messed up Bipboy so it shows wrong states - should be fixed. There are some very minor things like missing door because the texture is hidden behind the house texture. All quests so far could be done without any problems except 1) - console command for that one.

Settlements

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Nice none violent feature Bethesda added where you shall gather folks and build settlements. I have now reach max capasity of 3 settlements. I want to be able to build more in these since some settlements may keep 30 settlers. Meaning, increase building area and be able to gather more settlers. To reach 100 in happyness not easy. I tried to follow hints etc, but no luck. By doing some radiant quests should count to increase happyness when you have enough of everything else. I spend about 70 levels just to do radiant quests and no 100 happyness.

I hope Bethesda fix the NPC sound bug, increase settlements capasity (buildings and settlers). By doing radiant quests should help to increase settlements "happyness". Mine "goal" with the game; All s.p.e.c.i.a.l. perks done.

Ps! I know, there are console commands (cc) to change the game, but I will not used cc more than absolute needed.

Cheers,

-Klevs

Well, all settlements have enough physical space to accommodate 30 settlers. In some like Hangman's Alley you would have to build multi-story buildings but there would be space for 30 beds. The Boston Airport settlement would be kind of iffy because you wouldn't have enough food and water (the ground at that settlement is almost 100% concrete and won't support anywhere near enough crops or pumps).

The 30 settlers in a settlement would be a problem. The maximum number of settlers in a settlement you can have is 10 plus your charisma.

You can raise your charisma with perk points to 10 (assuming you didn't start out at 10) which would give you 20 settlers. The Charisma Bobblehead will give you 11 Charisma, netting 21 settlers.

Charisma enhancing clothing/armor is also counted so with something like a Militia Hat (+1 Charisma) you would have 12 charisma and, giving a maximum of 22 settlers.

The temporary effects of consumables are counted but you would need to stockpile enough beer (or whatever) to keep you drunk/stoned indefinitely. The problem with these kinds of temporary effects (and to a lesser extent, clothing/armor) is that you are locked into them. As an example: Max Charisma + Bobblehead + Militia Hat will allow you to recruit 22 settlers in each settlement. If you take the hat off, any settlement that is at maximum will become overcrowded which negatively affects happiness.

Now, it is possible to get somewhere around 40 settlers in a settlement, so I am guessing your 30 settler number you used pertains to Level 4 merchants (Smiling Larry, specifically). For the Level 4 merchants that have population requirements (not all of them do), that requirement is not for the population of a single settlement, but the total population of a settlement and any settlements that are connected to it via a supply lines. That is to say, you can recruit Smiling Larry if you have Sanctuary with a population of 10 connected to Abernathy Farm with a population of 5 connected to Starlight Drive-in with a population of 15.

Does this 500+ hour mark count for multiple characters? Because I am level 104 and am at the 200 hours mark (every sidequest, bobblehead, 75/120 magazines, all settlements but one that was used for Teagan's mission, even a couple maxed, platinum trophy, all companion perks but Curie's). I started doing a better work at settlements (I am building a hangar for my power armors), maybe I 'll sort the settlers and stuff, but I don't think I 'll invest more than 50 more hours, I need like a dozen more levels for some perks I like.

I do find it a quite stable experience without major glitches (I had a couple crushes in the game, could be some overheaitng issue though).

There is a lot of quests when you come to think about them, it's just so big a game and with the radiant quests you actually forget them! I was like, meh, not many quests, but then I recounted them and was astonished at how many they actually where!

The Institute's radiant quests were a mess, one of the reasons I got on with blowing them up.

The 100 happiness should be done with a maxed up settlement (in terms of buildngs) with four settlers (some say even three) three assigned to clinics tier 3 and one to food. That's how I did it. And, yes, you can have more than 30 settlers, I had Zimonja Outpost as my 100 hapiness settlement and when I fired up the signal for settlers it went up to 35 at some point!

The description of what sets the maximum settlement size says that you get 10 settlers, plus 1 one for each Charisma point. I max'd my Charisma stat and was working to make sure each settlement had 23 beds to prevent that lack... Surprise! The Starlight Drive settlement, which I made into the hub for all supply lines, suddenly showed up with 29 settlers! So, there are some settlements that can and will have more settlers than the stats indicate.

I doubt settlement will get a size increase unless they do it as a PC only improvement, which I doubt they'll do. Though I as still hoping for a HD Texture DLC for the PC like they did with Skyrim.

It's 10 plus charisma, yes. Now start stacking. The CHR bobblehead, clothing, armor, chems, booze, and the perks like partyboy and whatever else that affect those effects can get you well into the thirties or perhaps further for population size.

The pip-boy display for settlement populations is wildly and consistently inaccurate. You have to go there and check manually to get an accurate count if you leave your recruitment beacons on all the time.

Settlers above your natural Charisma limit don't leave as buff expire. The game apparently only checks when deciding if the radio will call new settlers automatically and if you try to send a Companion.

Gcubed's theory on overcrowding affecting happiness is interesting. First time I've seen that.


I've got over 600 hours invested in my playthrough, level 107. Much of my time has been spent on settlements. I've struggled to get happiness past 90 and have never gotten 100. That said, I've not tried the tricks that some folks recommend. I find it hard to believe Bethesda made the game mechanic only work if you spam clinics. I have tried Robot Home Defense to add some happiness tools that don't feel spammy, and it has helped but not much.



Overall I love this game, more than any other game I've ever played. ??It's not perfect but certainly less bugs than previous versions on launch and MUCH better than Total War which is one of my other favorite series. CTD's have been rare. Like an average of 1 per 100 hours play, and that is with some mods.


I found the writing to be brilliant. Very much a mix of things, humor and horror, silly and serious. And some really tough morality decisions if you look beneath the surface. The dialogue feels limiting at first but if you look at your options in physical actions rather than just in what you can say, well there is a lot more choice than many people realize. I am reminded of a larp organizer I know who had a game with pirates in it, where he said most of the people wanted to be pirates but then would not actually do any pirating. Folks seem upset that they can not "be evil" in dialogue, but of course they can be quite "evil" in their actions if they really wanted to be "evil". ?The voiced protagonist does seem to discourage me from doing another playthrough. I am more interested in seeing where the character goes from here now that he has finished the main story. I am still finding new things I missed earlier as I wander around and try to Institutionalize the Commonwealth.


?A couple of annoying bugs for me have be that I seem unable to assign some of my companions to tasks in the settlements and despite being allied, the settlers keep fighting with the Institute synths. Surely these are bugs and not intentional game mechanics?

Almost 500 hours in and fed up with changing clothes, eating graqe mentats etc every time I wanted to recruit a new settler, so I bumped charisma up to 25 through the console which should give me 35 settlers, but it seems no more are coming of their own accord past 30. I've had to send settlers there manually and it works that way.


Also met a woman vendor at a meat plant and sent her to a settlement but she never arrived...can the vendors be killed if they're named?

600 hours? 500 hours?

as of right now, there has only been 1368 hours since release!

I thought I was a fan!!

The advantage of being semi-retired.


I had that problem with Rylee as well, but she eventually showed up. It literally took a couple of in game weeks for her to walk from where I found her to walk to the lighthouse. She seems a bit bugged right now, I've got her running a trader stall and she will sell me stuff but her dialogue is as if she doesn't already live at the settlement. Different from the other level 4 traders I have. ?

Other than I finally got a certain costume/armor upgraded, radient quests tend to be a few locales too often and neglect the rest (too regional in fact). Minutemen are notorious for this, and found myself with BOS as well lately with a 100+ level PC. For one character *middle finger Sanctuary Hills and Blake Abernathy and the other PC *middle finger* Abraham Finch and County Crossing as, for some reason, they are stuck on those settlements and none other, except the defend part of things.