Advice, suggestions, best practices for a weak Player Character play through

[Pinute]

Hi all, long time Bethesda gamer here, mostly Skyrim, who's planning a longish term build for a fallout sandbox. I blew up my gaming machine a while back (clean your dust screens, people!) and while contemplating rebuilding around my 2060 Super or spending a lot of money I relearned a love for shooters. NVIDIA's 3080 streaming service is excellent, by the way. My last go round with Fallout 4 was like 3-4 years ago so just about everything available today is new to me. What I'm hoping for here is general advice about gotchas and best practices in three areas

 

First, surviving Boston. I'll be role playing maybe someone kidnapped in Vermont and who escaped her coffle near vault 111, is traveling south because her clan was decimated by raiders, or something like. I'll probably be using Survival Mode Configuration Menu along with Ultimate Survival Mode. I'd also like to throw in some bits from Advanced Needs 2, such as contagious diseases. I want to be afraid and have to sneak and hide for a lot of reasons, but as best I can gather AN2 is pretty much static right now and 2.8.4 is the latest version. I haven't seen much chatter about AN2 recently (maybe I'm looking in the wrong places) and I'm hoping for feedback from people doing something similar or suggestions on better alternatives, with AAF in mind. 

 

Next, for followers I'm thinking about using the follower pimp from Hardship and whichever female follower is easiest to get early in the game as a Devious Helper. The tentative plan is use Start Me Up to spawn in at the lowest level necessary for the above. Can I use those two together, and if so are there particular settings to avoid and what's the fastest path to them? Just to complicate things, I'm thinking of throwing Troubles of Survivor in the mix as well. 

 

Since the PC is supposed to be weak I plan on having two followers and possibly Dogmeat handle firefights as much as possible. Nether's Framework on Skyrim allows me to set targets and has a simple attack/retreat control. For Fallout I've seen Amazing Follower Tweaks and Unlimited Companions Framework. I haven't installed yet (just finished flashing the bios) so I can't say with certainty that they don't offer that kind of control, but from write ups it seems they won't. I'd be happy to be corrected. I've also seen Companion Command and Tactics, which while old does the basics but it also probably conflicts badly with AFT and UCF. 

 

And lastly, should I go Sim Settlements or Settlements 2 or something else, and in what ways can I get good settler AI for a perverse play though. Ideally a system where there's a slave/dominant dynamic. Say, few designated NPCs that wander a built to plan settlement while randomly whipping and fucking designated slaves. More is better of course.
 

Not much to ask, is it and please don't hold back on techie solutions. Telling me I have to edit scripts and/or create some custom form patches are definitely acceptable suggestions and solutions. 

   

[steelpanther24]

 Be sure to get Game Configuration Menu (https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/33759).   I have dialed back experience acquisition to 1/100th of the normal rate, also made the economy much tougher (one .308 bullet is about 30 caps).  AN2 handles the need for food water and rest.   Essentially, now the fight for Concord is extremely dangerous and I need that power armor.     Unfortunately, I haven't found anything that makes the enemies smarter, only more of a bullet sponge (which I hate).    

 

Rare stimpacks and bobby pins  does a huge number on the number of bobby pins you will have.    I have had to use the same bobby pin from Sanctuary to Concord, and now when I find four bobby pins, I am happy since I can now go back and get into those safes. 

 

Agony is another great mod that makes life hard, though.......AN makes it easy with easy to make medic kits.    I ignore those kits and hoard all the razorgrain in the world so I can make those precious pain killers that are critical when you get hurt.  

 

https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/25600