So, I know no one cares about my opinion, but I am going to give it anyways.

When it comes to Fallout 4's perk system... I really don't have a problem with it. Ultimately because its basically how Fallout 3/NV worked anyways.

While the 1-100 skill system seemingly grants more control over minute details of a character's stats, the problem with it in action focused games like Fo3, NV, and Fo4, is that the player being so in control over how effective guns are makes the majority of those increases relatively worthless. the .7% increase to weapon damage per point from something like the small guns skill isn't noticeable when most small guns only do like 40 damage to begin with, and even getting leveling up your skill by 20 points only gets you from 40 damage to 45 damage, which isn't that big of a deal, maybe one shot or two less to kill something.

Similarly, when it came to things like hacking/lockpicking, the only ranks of the related skill that mattered was 25/50/75/100, meaning all other were literally worthless, since there was no 35 skill locked lock, or 45 skill locked terminal.

When it came to things like medicine, going from 20 to 40 medicine skill you only gained like +12 hp from stimpacks, but when you had 400+ HP that doesn't mean a whole lot.

Going from these 1-100 skill systems, down to something like a 5 ranked perk, where every rank = 20 skill levels from a previous game, isn't really a reduction of anything IMO, because all those ranks in between didn't really mean much of anything at all, and in some cases, like in lockpicking and hacking, they literally mean nothing at all.

Now the common rebuttal to this is "why didn't they make each rank mean more instead?", and the answer to that is because the skills were already balanced across the 1-100 rank in such a way as the devs felt like getting to 100 made you more powerful, but not so powerful you broke the game(though you often did anyways). Trying to do things like just tacking on more +damage, or +accuracy, or +HP restored, to skills would only make the game even more unbalanced. You can't just add on to something without taking away from another to keep the balance, and ultimately that just ends up with what we got. They kept taking away the minor/worthless bonuses from each individual skill point, and stacking them onto each other, until they came up with a 1-5 perk range where each perk offered a satisfying amount of +whatever.

When it comes to weapon/armor crafting, I find the whole system fun, and theres a lot of options for everything except the really weird weapons like the fatman, where theres really not too much you can mod on it given how simple it is. I do wish there were a few more weapons/armors in the game, but a large problem both Fo3 and NV had was that there was really only about 5-10 weapons/armors worth using at endgame, and everything before you got to the endgame just didn't matter anymore. The modding system we got in Fo4 has kept far more weapons far more viable then in the past games, which is an improvement. But as I said, I do wish there were a few more, especially when it comes to armor. The whole normal -> sturdy -> strengthened -> heavy upgrade thing for armors, where each version adds more pieces to the armor, was a neat idea, but it doesn't really make up for the lack of non power armor in the game.

I generally found the gunplay to be miles better then in past games. Whereas Fo3 and NV were well known as being games where you basically had to use VATs because of how bad the guns were, I found myself almost never using vats in Fallout 4, and not even realizing it, simply because "it just wurks!". Its nothing like the top tier FPSs or anything, but its perfectly fine for the kind of game it is.

The world design was, IMO, some of the best Bethesda has done. Everything was so detailed, and felt so "lived in" that it really felt like a living world. One of my favorite touches was that most of the raider groups with names bosses in them had computer terminals talking about the other raider bosses, and these terminal entries change based on if you have killed that raider boss or not. Another neat thing was that if you sneak around, you can hear raiders talking about the various raider gangs, and their dialogue changes after you kill that gang. Both were neat touches showing the people of the game world reacting a bit to what you did. And the glowing sea was a wonderfully desolate place.

When it comes to the main plot, I found it far better then Fallout 3, if not a little short. I did like how all the faction's questline interacted and weaved together, with you being able to play multiple sides for some time before having to make a choice. It made the whole situation a bit more fun then New Vegas's far more rigid faction system, where 2-3 quests for the other side completely blocked you off from the others forever. And I liked how each faction was roughly equal in ideals, except maybe the Institute were a bit more evil seeming in the long run.

My biggest problem with the game comes largely from the lack of side quests. The few that are there were fun, like the Cabot House questline, the USS Constitution quest, The Silver Shroud, The big dig, etc. etc., but overall, I just didn't find al that many quests in the game. And that's really what kills me about this game. Skyrim had so many daedric quests, 4 guild questlines, the main quest, and a number of side quests, I just cant imagine why this game has so few by comparison, its really is bizarre. I understood it in Fallout 3, since they had to rebuild the engine to support guns, make VATs, and do a bunch of first time scripting for a sci-fi game instead of their standard fantasy, but all of that stuff is already done, and I just don't get why this game has so few. Whats even more bizarre is that looking at the game with Fo4edit shows there were like 6 side quests cut from the game, 4 of them were cut entirely, and another 2 still remain in the game, but totally lack objectives or anything else. I just don't get why so many were cut out.

So that's what? main quests, side quests, crafting, skill system, world design. I think that's most of it really. If I forgot anything really, I'll add it on later.

I for one, do not like how the faction quests and main quests are all dependent on each other. I much prefer the Skyrim approach.

You are right about the side quests. And I'm not sure so it will be easy to add side quests considering the SS has a voice now. Which would be a shame.

One of the best things about Skrim and FONV were the side quests/worlds created by players: IntrestingNPC's, The Bounties Series, Russell - I'm not sure any of these types of mods will be possible now. And if that holds true, this game will off my drive in a couple of months.

Skyrim is still on my drive. So is FONV. Not because of the games themselves, but because of the mods - quests, companions, and new locations still being updated and released.

Nice write up. It would be nice if there were more faction type quests, but I've found there are many different non faction side quests which not all are radiant or they don't seem to be anyway.

I'm okay with the faction quests intertwining, what I don't like is how they all basically boil down to murdering everyone else; no diplomatic options or other ways of resolving things? Nope? Okay, I'll grab my fatman.

I would have liked to have seen more minor factions.

The loss of dialogue options and Skill check-based speech options is criminal.

That's how it was in NV as well. You couldn't make peace between the NCR/House/Legion, you had to destroy/toss out the other two.

It doesn't really make sense any of them would work peacefully since all of their objectives are wholly opposing.

I don't really feel like there was a loss of total options, just that those options were more structured. In Fo3 and NV each question was its own individual topic in a list, that you got response for, then was sent back to the main list. Now, all those topic are in a coherent line of questioning one after each other. I find it far more realistic this way in the long run, no one talks like an options menu in Fo3/NV.

Though I do agree there should have been many perk based dialogue options. Like rank 3 of medicine allowing you to heal someone as part of a scripted event, or rank 5 of commando unlocking some dialogue option about how to make guns to help some people fight some raiders, or w/e.

Oh, I hear you on that, but I've gotta be honest, I felt BAD after completing the BoS line (no spoilers).

I'm not saying that "peace" is a viable option, not at all, but I would have liked to have seen a couple of different ways of approaching the problem vs. "kill everyone, then nuke the site." I can think of several viable alternatives, all of which would take the opposing factions down/chase them out of the commonwealth.

Well you CAN

But I do think you should feel bad, just a little, no matter what you do. If a game is done well, every faction should be sympathetic to some degree, thus destroying them should generate some emotion of sadness because you liked them, at least a little.

I'm pretty sure I won't feel bad when in my current run through I take out the BoS After being one of those guys, I've concluded that they're pretty heartless. That said, I will be looking for a more peaceful route to taking down the Institute (playing for the Railroad).

Now don't say that, some people do care. even if it doesn't seem like that with a new release causing hostility from everyone.

I can echo your concerns about the lack of side quests aswell as crag's concerns about how modders might not be able to add new content in the same way as before. I have all of Bethesda's games installed on my tiny SSD with a character on each of them I intend to keep forever, and honestly I worry about how much staying power the content side of Fallout 4's modding will have. One of the reasons I enjoy these games so much is that there is a near infinite source of new things for my characters to do with all of the mods around, and although the community got over the voice acting hurdle in Oblivion its a bit of a different thing when there's voice acting on the character itself.

The game does have that radiant quest system that I really like, though. Meaning that there's a infinite source of quests for my character to do, just with it being more of mission generator as we all know and not really a quest line generator.

Overall, will I still have it installed on whatever computer I have well into the far future? Yes, just like all the others. But I might be playing it a bit less 5 or 10 years from now compared to the others. It all depends on what goes down when the new GECK or whatever it ends up being comes out and we get to see some quality mods being released with the proper tools rather than the mods now that I am especially wary of.

A good read possum think you hit the nail on the head lets hope beth adds a few or a lot more side quests with updates & DLC.

I doubt we will see it with updates, but DLC for sure.

Bethesda usually tends to make up for faults in the vanilla game with DLC.

Skyrim's DLC especially.

I'd like to see just how far the radiant/repeatable quest system could be pushed. The "Go here and kill stuff" quests are a immediate and easy idea, but I'd love to see someone take a shot at having a randomly generated quest line that combines around 5 or so of the various tasks we see in Skyrim and Fallout 4 into one bigger package. Like for example for the Brotherhood I could be sent to recover a piece of tech like usual, except it's placed in a friendly settlement and I could charm my way into taking it off their hands, shoot up the place, or just pay a flat bribe. I might then be able to talk the brotherhood up into giving me more caps than usual in exchange for the item, or they might have received some new intel that the item could be slotted into something bigger at some high tech facility that the commonwealth has so much of and that I would need to hold down the fort for a little while from a tribe of raiders or a synth incursion until the brotherhood is able to get the stuff they need out of the facility or have another security team take over for a few days until everything is resolved and the BOS heads back to their base to do another operation when I am ready.

Something like that is extremely complex though, and It'd require a lot of manhours to make. But I don't think ive seen anything quite like it in a game, and i'm sure if I'm having this idea of stringing radiant quests along into one big quest then there's probably been some prototyping done of this very thing in the many years of Fallout 4's development. DLC is the right time to dust off all those old ideas though.

From what I recall, Skyrim WAS supposed to have such a system, but it got cut because it proved too complex to script and keep track of all the variable, like much of the civil war radiant quests.

Bethesda numbers all of their quests in a consistent order, and if you look at all the favors in Skyrim in the creation kit, they go up to like 250+ in numbers, but theres only like 30 left in the game, with the other 200+ presumably getting cut.

Yeah I think now I remember hearing something about how Skyrim was supposed to run entirely on stuff like that.

It'd be pretty damn cool if they ever get it to work, getting one of the reasons why people loved Daggerfall so much in the late 90s back in a bigger and better way in the modern day.

It does sound like a coding nightmare though. and I think its outside the realm of what the modding community can actually do even with the unlimited man hours and timetable that giant mod projects can get.

I think that was the best part of the story. I felt something, it is still with me actually. I had to do some terrible things to achieve what i wanted, and my faction wanted. Videogames that can give me that and let me actually play it out are among my favourites. I will say that the main story in this game is quite good, the best i've played in some time.

Agreed on the sidequests. I like the exploration aspect aswell, but i usually like doing it because i have quests that leads me there.

I agree with everything you said. I also would like to add that I feel the companions are a HUGE improvement over the ones in Fallout 3 and maybe even New Vegas. Judging from how they were portrayed and designed, I can tell that Bethesda definitely listened to the feedback of Serana from Skyrim. The characters contributing their thoughts during dialogue with other NPCs, speaking unique remarks when visiting specific locations, their colorful personalities, and their tendencies to interact with the world (sitting on chairs, eating food, speaking with random characters, ect.) made them feel very alive and more than just pack mules.

I still can't get over Piper interviewing random NPCs during the times I was in the middle of shopping.

I think that's a fair perspective. I could see my guy being all gung ho solider boy, but then he had to do some terrible things and it kinda left him cold. I can't post spoilers and I don't know if you did the entire BoS arc, but it was generally f**ked up. My guy was not a proud or camper camper at the end of all of that.

No wonder i restarted.

Yes, this was something I liked also.

New Vegas and Fallout 3 were limited by the fact the engine didn't really support third parties making comments about conversations, which is why Old World Blues had that weird opening where everyone spoke through Klein's brainbot for seemingly no reason.

The Skyrim/Fo4 engine being able to support real time conversations while the world keep moving in the background really did a lot for companions being able to feel like they are REALLY part of the adventure.