So this type of game is new to me. I've just been playing CoD with my close friends for years. I heard so much hype about this Fallout 4 that I decided to give it a try. Well, as you can imagine I became completely addicted and I'm really enjoying the game. The problem that I am facing now after 170 hours in the game is that the story line is done for me and I feel like I no longer have any direction. I know there are tons of places left to explore and plenty of settlement work to do but is that all that is left to do? Is that what I do from this point on? I am honestly asking because I have no experience in a game like this. I feel like the story abruptly ended and I don't know how to move forward. If Preston asks me to do one more thing for him I am going to lose it....lol.

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks

I ran into the same, so I thought I'd try a new game. To my surprise it deleted all my old saves (over 200 hours)! I'm new to Fallout, but I've been playing Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim and in those my old character was preserved. So, be warned if you make a new game you'll lose the old one.

Have you earned all your companion perks and done their quests? There are thirteen companions. I suppose you could also get a list of all the comics and bobbleheads and go find them.

You can go back and play the previous Fallout games. The stories are all based on the Fallout world but they are not sequels in the sense that they can all stand as independent games. I enjoyed both Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas a lot more then Fallout 4 and you should be able to pick those old games up cheap.

I don't know if this applies to the OP, but it can be a mistake in these games to "follow the breadcrumbs," i.e., follow the main quest prompts and pay little or no attention to the side quests. Bethesda's main quests tend to be pretty short, leaving you hanging if you focus on them exclusively.

What I do is I run a few alternate charcters with different goals and different playstyles. A few examples: My first character was a spec-ops infiltrator pre-war, and is largely following the main quest, but also does side quests with the RP goal of establishing useful contacts and allies. My second character feels like her chances of finding Shaun are slim-to-none (she's not buying the whole "Sight" business from some drugged-up lady she just met), so she's putting her lawyerly community organizer skills to use to help build up the Minutemen. I'm playing my third as a true wastelander who raided Vault 111 (the others in the raid got themselves trapped or killed) and high-tailed it back to Bunker Hill to sell the salvage. This last character might never touch the main quest - or might be in for a big "reveal" pretty soon. Haven't decided yet.

I don't know if any of that helps. The upshot, I guess, is that with a little RP, you can go off-trail and do your own thing in your own way. I always treat my first character as a sort of tutorial character to get a feel for the world, then make characters whose stories and goals are a bit better integrated with the world itself.

I played several character but I allowed each one to basically cover different area's of the map and join different factions. It wasn't until my fourth character that I tried to do it all and find everything. Course I didn't, since there is so much, but he came the closest. Character five that I'm playing now is just messing around as a cowboy.

most MM quests are radiant. the same for the brotherhood. these quests are meant to help gain perks. you get XPs for completing them. there isn't any cap on perks.

You should go Power Armor hunting, declare war on the BOS, or explore the ENTIRE Glowing Sea!

I wish I could but the BoS doesn't exist anymore. I already destroyed them. Guess I'll be exploring

Roll up a new character and make entirely different choices.

Unlike previous games none of the quests resolves differently enough to merit a second play through. Even who you pick as the winner between rr/bos/inst barely changes anything.

Not everyone agrees with you about that. I'm on my third playthrough.

Explore.

And do you find making different choices has impacted the game? Even playing as a different gender only changes a holotape and a conversation.

I'm on my third playthrough. I love it so far. There are many areas in the game to explore that it doesn't bore me even with many playthrough. Bringing in different companions and they have different things to say are pretty fun. Did you explore every single location? There are over 300 locations for you to visit, so if you may pass a lot of buildings just to do the main quests. It would be cool if the radiant quests spread out more into these buildings. Some of them have their own little story like the cannibal factory and things like that. Going into the game with different mindset while approaching the BoS or the Institute give me a very interesting feel to the overall games.

Playthrough 5 is going well, and I'm still finding new stuff (and even new quests)...

no it doesnt delete you saves

you have both character slots and save slots, you save slots are under your old character

you will notice when you go to load your game theres a "switch character" option all you saves will be under the particular character you were using when you made the save

so when you start a new character there are none of you old saves there because they are under your old character

this is like skyrim rather than FO3 where every save was together

if youve played skyrim you should know this as its the same system??

My first character was male and sided with the Institute

My second was female, collected power armor, bobbleheads and sided with the BOS

My third was a male melee build with Railroad ending.

I created my fourth character just to get the benevolent leader achievement. High charisma female.

So now in 581 hours I have experienced all the endings, collected all the bobbleheads, finished all the achievements.

My next character will wait for a DLC and the GECK to play the cool mods.

For me, yes, because for me the game is not the ending, it's the process. So switching from a sneaky/snipy build to a melee build changes a lot. Deciding to skip the minutemen altogether is on my list for a fourth playthrough.