Survival Mode and Settlements

[guk]

Just coming back to FO4, and i haven't played the "new" Survival Mode yet.

 

How do the settlement attacks work without fast travel?

I remember you had like 5 minutes time to respond, that sounds impossible when having to walk everywhere. Even worse without being able to save at will - crashes/bugs or instant death, whatever.

[uriel1987]

If i don't use fast travel i can usually walk to a settlement under attack in time, but i have to start walking as soon as i receive the attack notification.

 

But yeah settlement building and vanilla survival don't really work imho. Without fast travel and with so low carry weight you can't really bring a lot of junk in your settlement, so it's really hard to build them and also you'll have less defences (so more attacks).

If you have a lot of underdefended settlments far from each other it becomes too much of a chore imho.

 

You could try to tweak survival with mods like i did.

I allow fast travel but only between settlements, i think of it as using a skyrim carriage. You could use a mod like immersive fast travel (http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/10157/?) or just a mod that allow fast travel and make your own rules on when and where it's ok to use it.

 

I also have the camping mod (http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/11734/?) you can put a sleeping bag everywhere and save that way. That way you can save but you do loose the adrenaline dmg bonus and you risk diseases and can't get fully rested.

I ctd sometimes and i don't really like losing hours of progress because a random nuke hitted me or go around all the time searching for beds in the wasteland.

 

I also have contraption dlc + extender mod (http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/15429/?) so i can build an object extractor + recycler connected to supply lines and help bring stuff to the settlement that i'm building.

 

With these tweaks i think survival + settlement building becomes a lot more fun. 

[Varithina]

Pity nobody has modded the eyebot pds, or at least not that I noticed, so that instead of you having to go and find the stuff, they bring it back, maybe they bring back less than you would find, that would make them pretty useful for survival or even normal game play.

 

When I first got the blueprints I though yes, I will create a eyebot farm and use it for resources, then I found out you had to go get the junk they found, after that never even bothered using the pod again and scrapped it.

[guk]

Good suggestions, thanks.

 

Maybe there is a mod which just adds all the stuff that makes Survival Mode interesting, without the stupid crap like disabling console, saving and fast travel?

Seems like the "Survival Mode Console" mod is working, but the various savegame mods don't. Using a sleeping bag still has the problem that you actually have to sleep for one hour, which is probably the dumbest thing ever from an RPG perspective. Just ask yourself, would you sleep in a swamp full of mutants and raiders? I certainly wouldn't.

[uriel1987]

Good suggestions, thanks.

 

Maybe there is a mod which just adds all the stuff that makes Survival Mode interesting, without the stupid crap like disabling console, saving and fast travel?

Seems like the "Survival Mode Console" mod is working, but the various savegame mods don't. Using a sleeping bag still has the problem that you actually have to sleep for one hour, which is probably the dumbest thing ever from an RPG perspective. Just ask yourself, would you sleep in a swamp full of mutants and raiders? I certainly wouldn't.

Yeah having to sleep on the bed to save isn't very immersive.

 

I don't know if a mod that just removes the more annoying restrictions of survival without making it OP exists.

 

Don't remember which savegame mod i tried but it worked for me, i also tried the cigarette mod (you smoke a cigarette and you save) but both didn't give you diseases and kept adrenaline bonus, so now i just use the bed but i try to not making it too ridicolous, for example i avoid using it in between gunfights, use it in empty locations and try to not use it too often, if you put a bed down every 5 minutes it starts to feel like a narcolepsy simulator.

 

I also have something that makes an exit save if i have to suddenly quit but not sure what it is. Maybe it's because i used a few times this, it allows you to switch between survival and normal mode unlimited times  http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/11663/? i use it mainly to make more then one savegame so i can revert if i want to go back in time or my save gets corrupted (never happened with fallout 4 but happened a lot with other betsheda games) and to test settlement building stuff.

With TGM cheat you can build everything without resources or perks and you don't get xp from building, but even with a console activation mod TGM cheat don't work on survival.

 

Pity nobody has modded the eyebot pds, or at least not that I noticed, so that instead of you having to go and find the stuff, they bring it back, maybe they bring back less than you would find, that would make them pretty useful for survival or even normal game play.

 

When I first got the blueprints I though yes, I will create a eyebot farm and use it for resources, then I found out you had to go get the junk they found, after that never even bothered using the pod again and scrapped it.

 

 

Yeah bethesda didn't really make dlcs that can work on making a charisma/intelligence build with no fighting or less fighting really viable.

I think for the first time in a bethesda game with all the crafting dlcs and the settlement system they could have made possible and fun a pacifist build or a "behind the frontlines general" run.

You didn't need to cut development time on the core exploration/combat mechanics, you just needed to make a few tweaks on settlements, automatron dlc and having the new contraption extender mod stuff.

[Varithina]

 

Yeah bethesda didn't really make dlcs that can work on making a charisma/intelligence build with no fighting or less fighting really viable.

I think for the first time in a bethesda game with all the crafting dlcs and the settlement system they could have made possible and fun a pacifist build or a "behind the frontlines general" run.

You didn't need to cut development time on the core exploration/combat mechanics, you just needed to make a few tweaks on settlements, automatron dlc and having the new contraption extender mod stuff.

 

 

You can do charisma/int, semi non-combat builds in most of their games, they just do not seem to work for the end bits of those games. Even then there are many areas where combat is a must and talking simply is not an option.

 

They do some nice open world game where there is not really any route you must go through, well until the end of them at which point they pretty much devolve to fps, where you have to fight you way through the the main bad guy, then you might be able to talk them down.

 

Fallout 4 is probably the oddest in the regard, as you can do talk and build to level, but being that it is a post apocalypse world, combat is pretty much a must have, but even when you help settlements with never having talked to preston you still get those settlements thanking the minutemen, first time that happened had me thinking who the hell are the minutemen, as in that play though I had got sanctuary producing water and food, using codsworth and then pretty much just wandered off finding map locations and enemies.  Then I found a settlement that wanted help, after doing what they wanted they are all talking about the minutement and joining and thanking them for the help, weird was my though on that, but there again f4 does seem more, well narrow in what it expects you to do.

 

The contraptions machinery stuff I never even bother with, just whack up a few tier 3 shops and you can pretty much buy what you want, or if its armour/weapons simply go out and kill whichever mobs drop the stuff, armor/weapons even when I am equipping my settlers never tend to be a problem, at least mid/late game early game I tend to just give then whatever I find, later on I tend to start handing out modded armor/weapons to them.

 

But yeh for a talk/semi non combat build I would imagine they are a bit more useful than I see them being.

[uriel1987]

Yes contraption dlc +extender is the only one that really helps a more pacifist crafter build, but even then your options are really limited. The only thing that i find allows you to make profits by manufacturing it's steel-vault tech lunchboxes-maybe luncbox mine if you have some of the needed ingredients, but even then the gains are ridicolously low compared to just looting stuff around and selling it.

 

I think a farming + prewar food manufacturing settlement would be a cool way to make a nice settlement and some money, but even for the more simple recipies you need not so easily gathered stuff, maybe the preserved instamash could be worth it but you still need some materials (1 cloth and x3 tato for just one item).

If you have a lot of spare cloth cool but if you have to buy shipments probably not worth it.

[Jazzman]

Bethesda's dietary concept is quite obviously that of veganism which I as an Argentine cowgirl don't find particularly funny. The meat one can get in the Commonwealth for survival is thus either fresh killed wildlife as in a hunter-gatherer society of old or prewar canned (ages beyond the pull date) as if we'd roam along the romantic Shackleton depot trail in Antarctica and not perhaps in the U.S. Well, one might start with a Brahmin ranch and much yippee ki-yay to give the veggie burger gods of the machine the finger. Problem is, next to the player char nobody needs water or food, let alone meat, everybody is living from radioactive air alone as in the biblical paradise (don't you eva touch mi apples!). Productivity is a marker for postwar happiness but actually there is no market for anything in the Commonwealth once the re-ammunition problem is solved at the suspect chemistry station in the north-western corner of the giant scrapyard.
 
May the junk food be with you, sole survivors!

[Gameplayer]

There are a lot of mods for Survival Play Throughs.

 

Survival Options

-Save the game

-Makes all Survival stuff tweakable, including damage....So installing other stuff like weapon overhauls whatever works just fine.

 

Salvage Beacons

-Place a beacon in a container, settlers will collect it for you and take it to any settlement you unlocked that you wish.

 

As far as Settlements go well you don't actually have to use them to prosper and also you don't have to develop them as much as people seem to think either.

I tend to keep Settlements at around 2 or 3 people with one of those hand water pumps and that's about it.

Actually a whole lot of Settlements don't even need buildings either, just some sleeping bags placed in pre-existing structures.

 

Though I have been looking around for a decent spot to build....Im thinking of turning vault 88 into an Arena with Wastland Workshop stuff....Running some of my own experiments that will make Vault Tec look like good guys.

[uriel1987]

Salvage beacons looks interesting, i'll try it out!

Settlement building surely is not necessary but it can make for interesting playtroughts especially late game.

Also the wasteland feels a little empty, even fallout 3 had more settlements and that was right after the war and in the most blasted place in the USA.

 

All settlements built + artillery spam and flare gun to call minutemen reinforcements, automatic weapons and explosive spam when you need to fight yourself, robots everywhere, to make others do your dirty work can be fun.

Still nothing compared to older games, i did a fallout 2 run without using a single weapon and screwed everything that moved .

 

 

Bethesda's dietary concept is quite obviously that of veganism which I as an Argentine cowgirl don't find particularly funny. The meat one can get in the Commonwealth for survival is thus either fresh killed wildlife as in a hunter-gatherer society of old or prewar canned (ages beyond the pull date) as if we'd roam along the romantic Shackleton depot trail in Antarctica and not perhaps in the U.S. Well, one might start with a Brahmin ranch and much yippee ki-yay to give the veggie burger gods of the machine the finger. Problem is, next to the player char nobody needs water or food, let alone meat, everybody is living from radioactive air alone as in the biblical paradise (don't you eva touch mi apples!). Productivity is a marker for postwar happiness but actually there is no market for anything in the Commonwealth once the re-ammunition problem is solved at the suspect chemistry station in the north-western corner of the giant scrapyard.

 

 
You could in theory make a bramhin farm using that bramhin feeding stuff and a lot of bramhin cages to attract bramhins + contraption extender autobutcher to get also the bones leather etc(and then cook the stuff or make some prewar food with a food processor) but  the cages takes really long to fill up, and not sure about how many cows you can attract with the feeding stuff.

I'll try it out and let you know, i got curious  .

 

[uriel1987]

Ok so tried it, placed a dozen bramhin cages and 5 water troughs and waited 200 hours with an instant waiting mod.

I got 1 bramhin from the water troughts and and almost all cages full. After 300 hours still only 1 bramhin from water troughts but all cages full.

Then i opened the cages and slaughtered all the poor beasts. The problem is that you can't lift bramhin corprses so no autobutcher unless you find a mod that allow to lift heavier objects. And i couldn't  scrap them despite having the scrap everything mod so you end up with a bunch of cow corpses in your settlement. 

 

Anyway 10 cages and the survival book that gives you x2 meat drops and you can get 20 bramhin steaks every week, not bad indeed and makes viable to survive on meat without hunting.

But another problem is that the cages are really big and you end up filling a lot of space with those ugly things. Still a bramhin farms is totally doable, and a smaller beasts farm even more doable. 

 

I think i'll try to set up a molerat farm. You can get prewar Pork and beans using 2 silt beans, 1 mole rat meat and 1 steel. I can plant silt beans thanks to a mod and i can autobutch the molerats.

Molerats don't look so tasty but hey ancient romans really loved hamster meat so maybe they are not so bad .

 

Maybe also cram manufacturing is possible (1 mongrel 1 bramhin 1 ragstag 1 steel) But then you get the bramhin corpse and radstag can't be scrapped/lifted problem, and also if you put the dog cage i'm not sure you get a mongrel dog every time. 

Anyway a canned meat farm could be an easy way to get radfree meals of great quality to sell or to consume in survival.

[guk]

Okay seems like you just need the console enabler mod, then you still can save anytime. Example "save temp" into console.

 

Still doesn't solve the problem with never being able to arrive in time for settlement defense - perhaps some stuff from the DLCs can increase settlement defense so much that they don't happen 24/7?

[Spyder Arachnid]

Just use something like Enabled Console and Fast Travel in Survival, and you can just fast travel around to get to your attacked settlements like before without Survival mode.

 

I personally prefer Immersive Fast Travel like Uriel mentioned, but still requires you to get to a settlement first to be able to fast travel to another. And it can be kind of glitchy sometimes by sending you to the wrong settlements.

[guk]

Yeah bethesda didn't really make dlcs that can work on making a charisma/intelligence build with no fighting or less fighting really viable.

I think for the first time in a bethesda game with all the crafting dlcs and the settlement system they could have made possible and fun a pacifist build or a "behind the frontlines general" run.

You didn't need to cut development time on the core exploration/combat mechanics, you just needed to make a few tweaks on settlements, automatron dlc and having the new contraption extender mod stuff.

Just a suggestion, this guide has like a billion different builds which sound quite viable. You probably won't get around fighting in general, since that's still the core of the game.

 

Warning, listening to his voice for more than 5 minutes made my ears bleed worse than Claptrap. You may wanna skip the introduction and roleplay parts.

 

 

Just use something like Enabled Console and Fast Travel in Survival, and you can just fast travel around to get to your attacked settlements like before without Survival mode.

 

I personally prefer Immersive Fast Travel like Uriel mentioned, but still requires you to get to a settlement first to be able to fast travel to another. And it can be kind of glitchy sometimes by sending you to the wrong settlements.

Does that work in the current patch on a new playthrough? Just from looking at patch notes and comments, i was under the impression that the last game update from november broke most of these mods.

[Spyder Arachnid]

I haven't ran into any problems with it. Worked just fine for me.

 

But now I'm using NAC (Natural and Atmospheric Commonwealth) and it already enables the console in Survival, so I don't use that mod anymore (still find it weird that a weather mod is also a survival mode console mod at the same time ).

[guk]

Okay i noticed that the settlement attacks are among the lesser problems in survival mode, compared to the permanent infections ;-)

 

Playing the "Survivalist" build from the linked guide above, it's really fun but keeping antibiotics ready seems to be the real challenge so far.

[uriel1987]

Okay i noticed that the settlement attacks are among the lesser problems in survival mode, compared to the permanent infections ;-)

 

Playing the "Survivalist" build from the linked guide above, it's really fun but keeping antibiotics ready seems to be the real challenge so far.

Not really, if you invest in settlements and use the good beds the chance of infection is low, and if you have to use the camping gear or shitty beds you can take the herbal remedy to lower the chances of getting diseases.

It's also possible to cure yourself at doctors for a low price.

[Jazzman]

Not really, if you invest in settlements and use the good beds the chance of infection is low, and if you have to use the camping gear or shitty beds you can take the herbal remedy to lower the chances of getting diseases.

It's also possible to cure yourself at doctors for a low price.

Dang! Always wondered why mi get a fuckin' infection whenever mi raider husband is laying down by mi side...

[guk]

Is there still no fix for the bug where the settlements don't register beds / defense while you're somewhere else?

 

From what i understand, this is not just a display error and causes the extremely frequent attacks as if you didn't build any defense.

[Spyder Arachnid]

It's been awhile since I've seen that bug, but from my understanding, it had something to do with TVs and Jukeboxes. Couldn't have a single TV or Jukebox in ANY settlement, regardless of which one is resetting. So basically, you can't build a TV or Jukebox and you have to scrap them all if you find any lingering around any settlement that you control. Doesn't matter which settlement it is at, it will cause the bug on any settlement regardless of where the TV or Jukebox is.

 

But like I said, it's been awhile since I've seen that bug. That seems to work for most though. Yeah it's kind of ridiculous that they still haven't fixed that bug yet.

 

 

I just hated that I lost all my happiness I was working towards whenever that bug kicked in. Cause your happiness dropped so fast when that happened. I ended up getting the Happy Maker 9000 though and now all my settlements stay at 100 happiness as long as I put that Jukebox at them.

 

(heh.... bug is caused by a Jukebox or TV, and I use a Jukebox to bypass the bug.....   )

[guk]

It's been awhile since I've seen that bug, but from my understanding, it had something to do with TVs and Jukeboxes. Couldn't have a single TV or Jukebox in ANY settlement, regardless of which one is resetting. So basically, you can't build a TV or Jukebox and you have to scrap them all if you find any lingering around any settlement that you control. Doesn't matter which settlement it is at, it will cause the bug on any settlement regardless of where the TV or Jukebox is.

Yes i think that was what Gopher said in the very early videos after release.

 

The UFO4P claims to have fixed this:

 

WorkshopScript: A thread lock in the DailyUpdate() function was not being handled correctly. This resulted in numerous instances of settler stats being listed incorrectly in the PipBoy. (Bug #20295)

 

But since i do get this in my game, and (hopefully) removed all the radios and TVs and even replaced the beds, either the UFO4P fix doesn't work or i have another mod reverting the fix. Could be anything like Better Settlers or Armorsmith Extended, too complicated for me to figure this out myself.

[guk]

And well, just an update on the topic:

 

Played to level 28, there has been exactly 1 settlement attack total. I could easily sneak/run there across half the map, even had to wait several minutes until 2 waves of ghouls would show up.

So unless the attacks get significantly more frequent later on in the main story, it's actually quite comfortable.

[Gameplayer]

www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/15004/?

 

Vertibird Fix

 

The mod corrects the Height Map World map data that is well removed due to an earlier version of Tesedit.

Place last in Load order, and your Vertibird rides will not fly through buildings.

 

This bug is so prevalent due to the popularity of older mods that many user's believe its actually a problem with the vanilla game, when in fact its self inflicted and will likely never get fixed until the mod user removes said mods, or the mod authors fix their mods....Not going to happen.