no it wouldn't enhance the game, it would make it boring after a while, all the buildings empty, nothing left to loot, no more enemies to kill, bethesda didn't get huge by making game that have a hard ending with nothing left to do, player freedom is what they're about an todd howard has said that over and over again, you want to control everyone elses game experience and make it the same as yours, you have the option to "not go back and reloot anything", i don't want a map with no enemies and no more loot, there is nothing good about that at all, there are some locations that don't respawn, not a lot but there are some, boston library, posiedon energy, those spots don't seem to respawn, fort hagen, etc but to have every spot like that is not good, cause literaly the map would eventualy be totally empty and for people wanting to keep enjoying the game at higher levels especially that would break that experience totally.

Neither, I believe. I think settlements are not quite fully implemented yet. The game itself is huge, and really does not require settlements. I think what's there is "training" (shall we say) for a big expansion DLC. I think there is a lot more to settlements that we'll see in the future.

It could have been done better, surely, but it does function. And, as I stated, it's not critical to gameplay. Next run I do will be a maniac character. He will not be building any settlements unless he intends to "harvest" them. (I intend to get creative. )

I actually dislike re-spawning generally. I wish the game had some kind of mode that basically prevented dungeons from re-populating or drastically slowed down the rate at which they populate. This always diminishes my sense of investment in Bethesda games. I can't *really* change anything.

Doesn't it do this anyway? I mean it already has to know whether every single container/enemy/object, etc. has in fact been looted/killed/picked up and when that last happened to trigger properly.

No more ridiculous than Skyrim and the attendants that, apparently, relight candles, sconces and torches as well as restock food regularly in Drauger infested tombs that have not been visited for thousands of years.

Nah, it's a matter of scale. Right now it can use a single flag and timer for Trinity Tower and everything inside it. What some of you folks are asking for would require each of the 2-300? things inside Trinity - multiplied by every location possible.

But they have to have individual flags too. If I go in Trinity Tower and only take 25% of the objects, they don't just instantly repopulate as soon as I leave so something in my savegame is saying "yes, you picked up blow torch 32a, but not metal bucket 75f."

I'm no programmer, obviously, but this doesn't follow for me.

Pretty sure this has always done this in Beth games but the difference is that the respawn timer is much shorter in FO4 (like 1-2 in game days rather than 7-10 days). This is likely a global setting in one of the ini files that can be altered (at least on PC).

I also think that there are more containers that respawn than in earlier Beth games but usually in areas that also respawn enemies (yes, there are exceptions that might need changing).

To answer the OPs question, it doesn't bother me in the least (I can always use some extra pencils and Microscopes).

No, the "repopulate" thing refers primarily to containers. Crates, drawers, chests, lockers...all of that. Most are "organic" in the game engine, meaning they will be full of random stuff again after 3 in-game days. It doesn't apply to objects lying around on the ground. (Although, if it works like Skyrim, those objects do appear again after 30 in-game days, I believe.) Containers and NPC baddies rely on the 3-day thing.

As long as I've been on Bethesda forum(s) the respawn issue have been a topic. A game should be a little "true" and some "fiction" - not so much as we think we're Alice in Wonderland, but something in between so we have a feeling that this is something that *could* be happened in the future. If players want none respawn game, legal to post and vice versa. The quest bosses and other named ones, never respawn and their troopers do. Higher level you reach, harder the troopers will be to fight. If someone don't like respawn of containers, clutters inside the houses etc, just visit once. The map also says that you have done the thing there, I think the word on the map is "cleared" nearby the area you have visited.

When enemies have been driven from home, but they will be back. Stronger than before. Strong said "Supermuntants will soon take over" and that is a hint of respawning, they keep coming and so does other enemies. When you complete the MQ, you cannot return to certain places. No more respawn. I have seen supermuntants and raiders walks from the outskirts to the city so they may be coming from somewhere. I'm not 100% sure because I need to check it out closer (I like to test things when I'm pleased and tired of playing for a while), but I choose to believe that at least for now. Sure I wonders about burning candles and clutters respawning, but I believe the spawning npc who did that and/or someone else present, but they are hiding. The ghouls respawns because they are ghosts in flesh and bones. They want revenge of the gammarays they got from the living ones. The raiders came from outskirts into the city to find weapons and food, who wonders what is hidden beyond the map borders.

There are critters in rl who can survice gammarays even live nearby vulcanos, but humans and other animals dies fast if the enviroment too rought. I saw on TV one fisherman went into location where a nuclear plant exploded to fish. There where fish living in very high radioactive water. He had to leave pretty fast because of the rays, but the fish lives. So I believe FO games have some truth and some fiction. Works for well, since the FO games are popular

Cheers,

-Klevs

if you're not interested in going back to a dungeon you've cleared in the first place why does it matter to you ? your complaing about something that you have complete control over, you can just "not go back" to dungeon A and keep moving through the game until you've gone to every location or done the main story etc then quit.

I don't like it either.

I don't like returning to the same areas with respawned enemies and items.

Doesn't bother me at all.

I remember playing video games, where everything was exactly the same each time you played them. Bad guys always in the exact same place facing the exact same way, etc. Video games have come so far it is mind boggling just how far they have come. Stuff like re-spawning containers does not bother me. It is kind of good really, since the radiant quests keep sending us to the same places over and over. It would be terrible, if there wasn't any benefit to go back to that hospital again and again and again and again to rescue some kidnapped settler over and over if there wasn't at least more loot for me. Makes searching containers still fun, and I actually find other stuff I missed the first time through, like magazines and stuff like that.

Indeed, and you can just ignore being shot at by respawned raiders you've killed an hour ago. Some people truly appreciate FO4 for your freedom to pretend things happen differently than what the game shows, or happen off camera... And everything is optional, so why complain about anything when you're not even force to leave the vault?

Yes, but the current setup flushes all that stuff at whatever interval (3 days?) and frees up the space to remember places you've visited recently. If the game had infinite persistence, it would have to remember the state of Sat Station Olivia that my character cleared on her third day out of the Vault for the entire rest of her game career. She's running endgame missions and the game is struggling under the weight of storing whether a few molerats are "really" alive or dead and if I pickup up that one dirty ashtray or not. It's simply untenable.

Note, though, that important things ARE persistent. Power armor, fusion cores, magazines, named enemies, etc. These are important enough that the devs could take time to place them manually AND track their status for the whole game, but they can't do that for every random bloatfly or pipegun in every chest.

Ultimately, this was not a design decision. It was a technical limitation.

This is so true, but also so impossible! I don't mind respawning containers/enemies at all. It's just that the game encourages exploration, and there's no way you can completely clear out certain places in the first pass. Later on, you return to scavenge, and all of the same bad guys are back like you didn't put the fear of god into them the last time you were there. It is a bit incongruous.

I think that the Beth games could add more of a "flow" to what respawns. It would be neat, for example, if I clean out a parking garage of feral ghouls. The next time I visit, I see that some scavengers moved in, not more ghouls. You know, they were like: "Hey, awesome! Some random dude or dudette with 420 pounds of ammo and a death-wish cleaned out all the monsters! Free pickings! Let's go guys!" Then, rather than more of the same, you have some scavengers that can trade with you -- maybe offer a radiant quest to clear out big radroaches coming in from the lower levels. Come back a week after that, and you find that raiders attacked and killed all of the scavengers. 5 days later, a few super-mutants must have wandered over and are dining on scav-raider pie.

Another option that wouldn't require too much work would be to tie an "Area Pacification" mechanic to settlements:

If you build a settlement up to a certain level, then clear an area out, it will remain empty of bad guys as long as the settlement is in good shape. If the settlement gets attacked or whatever, and dips below the "Area Pacification" level, bad guys start respawning again. Couple this with the ability for the AI to take over settlements for their own factions, and boom -- rather than fighting random re-spawns, you begin to have to focus on settlement-to-settlement warfare.

Addendum:

I also like this because it means that when you take time and build up strong defenses -- if your settlement is taken, you have to fight against your own construction to get it back. See how good your defenses really are!

In this case I see no reason the whole area couldn't get tagged as "cleared" and the game just knows to spawn no more enemies or objects in that location, using say the same 3 day pause. So you have 3 days to loot whatever you might have left or kill any remaining enemies and after that they are permagone (except for named/quest objects and enemies of course). It's really the re-spawning enemies that irk me and not the loot. I wish "permagone" or "permareturn" was some sort of option the player had.

I never go back for the heck of it, but the quests send you back all the time. An example is TenPines Bluff always sends me to Corvega the first time. And Tinker Tom also always sends me to Corvega for MILA. Then quests to unlock other settlements may send you back there again.

I'm not sure if this post is serious, but how can I just ignore people who are shooting me in the head? No amount of headcanon will suffice to make those headshots not kill me.

I definitely miss the scarcity of high value equipment. Back in fallout 3 I remember counting the days till my t51 ran out of durability and no components to repair with.

I think we can all understand that the main reason for refilling containers and the such are essentially for replay value. Then again, you Won't catch me complaining about havin 173 rare fusion cores or 9831 fusion cell rounds.

So true. What am I going to do with the 133 fusion cores I have at level 40 (and I don't use my X-01 EVER! Although maybe I'll paint it hot pink and go the the glowing sea) and, honestly, there is no way I'm going to use 7K+ cells, ever, especially no that I'm on to a gauss that takes 2mm (which I'm running at 300 rounds now and I only got it legendary yesterday! BTW - why was an Albino Radscorpion carrying a gauss rifle?).

Actually Drauger are meant to do that. They are there to pray and keep the place "tidy". Food can often times be connected to adventurers or mages etc too.. Finding "septims" there maybe a tad more silly though.

I don't mind containers being respawned that much, the problem is items oitside of containers. I don't recall that in previous Bethesda games and it annoys me. It feels like I'm playing a game with static world.
Like the Mr.Handy fuels out side SuperDuperMart, they constantly respawn. :/
I've also noticed some bodies disapear super quickly, don't know what's up with that one...

I don't know how you guys are afraid of running out of stuff.. The game showers you with everything ! There is no shortage and even if there was, enemies and shops respawn.
I also do a lot of building and what I lack most of the time is steel and wood which you are better of buying shipments of them anyway.
It's jarring when you loot the set decor equipment of Hubris Comics and come back and see they are there, exactly like you've never touched them.
Even the torrets you destroy get repaired and many times without it making any sense.

BTW: Why do neither Codsworth or Curie ever need any fuel (other than flamer fuel that is)? I mean, honestly, 200+ years without a refill?

Yeah I'm not really sure what those are honestly.. They are nuclear powered right ?! So Uranium ? But why is it in a can then .. Yep I've got nothing