» Sat Jan 30, 2016 9:15 pm I've been playing Fallout 4 for about 2 weeks now, and overall I have to say that it has been wonderful. The whole 1950's meets high tech meets nuclear armageddon gives the game a great feel.
A lot of my play so far has been around rebuilding the Commonwealth - so a lot of the Minute Men quests to rebuild settlements. That and general exploration.
What I would like to provide feedback on is issues (mostly game mechanics and UI issues) that I think could be improved to make for a better game experience.
1) Ability to move multi-piece constructs in Workshop interface
I often find that I want to build something which will meet up with some other map feature in the settlement (the roof of a building, a rock outcrop, the edge of a building or some other feature, the highways over Grey Garden, etc). To do so, I have to assemble multiple pieces together and then get the end piece to line up with something else. Currently this is a tremendous pain as one has to build to bottom pieces first, then see that the top pieces don't line up, tear the structure down, guess where to move the bottom piece to, lather, rinse, repeat (and repeat, and repeat). It would be much easier if I could assemble all the various pieces together and then move the entire structure as a unit.
2) Map annotations
There are lots of points of interest on the map that do not show up in the map interface (some small buildings, crafting stations, merchants, random places of interest, etc). There are also times that I run into something that I cannot do right now (a locked safe, etc) and I want to keep track of it to go back later. Currently I have to keep a pad of paper next to the computer and laboriously take notes - which seems entirely silly. One should be able to go into the map interface and say "Record my current location and associate a note with it" and then see POI's in the map interface (ideally, one could toggle them one and off like one can with supply routes). Fast travel to a POI is not necessarily required (though it would be nice). The primary objective is to be able to mark locations of interest so that I can find them again.
3) Arming settlers via Arms Locker
Arming the settlers in a camp is laborious. One has to click on each settler and do a bunch of trades. What would be much nicer would be a constructable "arms locker" . One builds the arms locker and places a bunch of armor, weapons and ammo into the locker. Settlers would then wander by the locker automatically and upgrade their gear by swapping it for whatever is available in the locker. One could come back later to replenish the locker, or sweep our inferior grade equipment left there when the settlers upgraded.
4) Commissioned logistics runs
I keep accumulating supply depos of gear and so forth that I then want to move to another settlement. Currently I have to slog it around myself (I equipped one of my Power Armor suits with the lightest possible build that still allowed for the strength and carry capacity perks in order to get the highest possible carrying capacity - I call it "The Mule"). As an alternative, it would be nice to be able to select a group of settlers and a collection of supplies to move and then pay a fee for them to escort a pack train to move the gear to the other settlement for me. As a mechanic, perhaps another settlement structure called a "Supply Depot" could act as the source and destination for such transfers. Its OK if it takes a while to complete as long as I don't have to role play as a mule myself. As extra excitement, one could allow for the possibility of raids against the convoy with the escorts have to fight off or lose the transported supplies.
A variation on this theme would be to commission a group of settlers to go sweep a location that you've cleared to bring back anything that can be picked up - though this one would require some thought to implement because it might defeat the need for the player to search for items of interest at a site.
5) Improved management of supply routes
Currently managing/changing the supply routes is nearly impossible. If one wants to change a route, you have to wait around until a provisioner shows up and then guess at which route that person is running. It should be possible to determine which route a provisioner is running in the workshop interface - or better yet the ability to choose a supply route directly and change it.
6) Improved management of settlers
There is currently no way of telling what task has been assigned to a given settler, which makes it difficult to assign new tasks to settlers as one can never tell if one is undoing some previous assignment. One should be able to see what task a given settler is assigned to in the workshop interface.
7) Improved inventory/workshop management
There are several improvements need in the UI for inventory control:
a) When viewing apparel, it should be possible to sort the items by body location (all left arms, all right legs, etc).
b ) Since some items cover multiple parts, it should be possible to see which body parts are covered by each item.
c) When sorting weapons, one should be able to sort them by ammo type
d) It would be nice to be able to create equipment sets - a collection of items that one can equip as a set. One should also be able to define multiple sets.
e) Some inventory items are shared between workshop and crafting locations and/or shared across supply routes - but there is no indication in the inventory management UI which items are shared in that way. An indication of which items can be shared would be extremely useful. Also, either an indication or documentation indicating what items are shared over supply routes (I think it is the same sharing as what happens within a settlement, but there is nothing that I can find to confirm that).
f) When in a Trade menu, it would be nice to also have the equip action available as one is often trading as part of changing equipment (currently one has to enter trade, exit trade and then enter inventory and go find the item that was just traded).
8) Location of Power Armor suits
I have 5 so far. The map display is very erratic about whether it shows me the icon for the armor location or not - and in general it does not seem to ever show me *all* my armor (it seems like it just shows me the last one that I got out of). I really need them map to show me the location of *every* suit of power armor that I own.
9) Location of companions
Similar to the power armor issue - I have multiple companions assigned to various settlements. It would be nice to be able to see who is where. I've also had a weird problem with Nick Valentine. I am in the middle of the reunion quest line (at the point where I have to go somewhere to have Kellog's brain scanned). I dismissed Nick and told him to go to Hangman's Ally - however he is not there and I cannot find him anywhere. I am assuming that he has gone to the brain scanning place because of the quest line, but I have no way of knowing for sure because the map doesn't tell me where people are and Nick did not go to the place I had told him to go to.
10) Settlement status in the PipBoy
I've noticed that the PipBoy status for my settlements (under "Data/Workshops") often seems to be incorrect. I've had several experiences where the PipBoy will say that some settlement has only 2 people, no water, etc only to find when i travel there that everything is fine (16 people, lots of water, etc).
11) Interior Walls and doors
Would be nice to be able to construct interior walls and doors in a structure. Currently it is difficult to impossible depending on what one is trying to build.
12) Lockable objects
While one can build doors, safes, etc - there does not seem to be any way to lock them. perhaps in the current game it doesn't matter as no one would steal things anyway, but it seems strange to build a safe and then not be able to lock it.
13) Walls with windows
Yeah, this is "window dressing" but still, I want windows in my buildings...
14) Fences should follow contour lines
When constructing fences around a settlement one gets funny behavior when the ground level changes - either the fence digs into the ground or floats magically in the air. Fence posts should set into the ground at ground level and then the fencing material should stretch between the two angling up or down as necessary to connect top-of-post to top-of-post. Also, round posts that allow fence segments to come in/out at any angle (not just the four 90 degree angles) would be nice. Ideally the interface should be: (a) Plant a fence post, (b ) stretch out a section of fencing material to some other location, © plant another fence post then lather, rinse repeat to create long sections of fencing. The stretching part could use the green/red color coding to tell one when the section has stretched too far or is clipping an obstruction.
15) Highlighting obstructions during constructing
It can be very difficult to tell what is getting in the way of building something, which makes it very difficult to figure out how to re-arrange things. If the obstructing item could be highlighted somehow, that would make arranging things easier.
16) Put companions in power armor
I've read that this is supposed to be possible, but so far I've not been able to make it happen. Supposedly one activates the companion, then mouses over the power armor - but for me this is not working (the pointer changes from the 4 arrows to a targetting reticle which only allows me to enter the armor).
17) More interesting behavior from "romantic" companions
Currently the "romance" in the game is pretty weak. It would be nice if there was more to it. It would be nice to get more of a reaction when they see the frozen corpse of my previous spouse. Giving them the second wedding ring should do something. Yeah, its just role playing stuff, but still, something more interesting would be fun.
