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[Yolan]

Let's Play Fallout 4 - Survival Mode + Realism Mods + Minimal Dying

~ Current Game Stats ~

Day = 53
Level = 23
Deaths = 7
(Self Performance Rating = Poor)

What's This?

This is a diary of my Fallout 4 survival game. I initially started a similar thread here. Issues with balance caused me to restart with some alterations to my mod loadout. I'm starting fresh again now, so its time for a new thread.

House Rules

1. I am going to try and die as little as possible. What I'm trying to do is have a tense play experience, where I really have to use judgement and strategy. Not letting myself die and reload all the time means that I can't brute force my way through challenging areas. The challenge is always to stop yourself from taking risks with your life that you don't need to take. When you die, 9/10 its because you got cocky. As even at higher levels a few well aimed bullets can kill me I have to be cerebral and really play the "meta game". Especially early on, I have to look for low risk XP, low risk loot, min-maxing my build and gear as hard as I can.

2. This is a survival mode game. I have to eat. I have to drink. I have to sleep. Diseases pose more of a risk. Enemies are tougher.

3. I've also modded the game to further increase realism and difficulty. Weapons do more damage. AI fight better. Stealth is less powerful. And I also get less SPECIAL points to start with (an average of 3 points per SPECIAL), and less health and carry weight per level. I also gain less experience for random things. Power armor is also more rare (Some Assembly Required mod). It also needs higher levels of skill in science perks to repair and modify.

4. Self-restriction on building. I'm using the Spring Cleaning mod, which pretty much allows me to scrap nearly any and all objects in a settlement zone. In past playthroughs though I was abusing this by single-handedly clearing out and building settlements. I've decided that this kind of negates the whole goal of difficulty/realism, as it is a pretty easy source of experience. So, I will now restrict how much scrapping and building I will allow myself to do each day, in proportion to the population of a settlement. I should have to be able to justify any serious building with the idea that I am only "ordering" others to do what is being done, rather than magically doing it all myself in seconds.

5. It's a semi-blind playthrough. I do have a little knowledge of the world, as I have played a few previous characters up to around level 20 before restarting. (Most recently I tried to play with some different mods that didn't quite work out, and I restarted at around level 24 due to the game feeling unbalanced. Here and there I may do some research online before committing to quests that are extremely dangerous. For example the compound quest, or the initial brotherhood of steel quest. They kind of "lock you in" to a lot of fighting that can be impossible for you to survive if you are not strong enough, having been built by the designers with the assumption that you can reload if you die. As that's not really an option for me I am allowing myself to do a bit of looking before I leap. I'm considering that "recon". But as I still haven't played through the game as a whole, I don't really want to spoil it for myself. So I'll stick to looking at information on places that I have actually reached. Definitely I'm not doing anything like exhaustive analysis and research.


So... onwards! Into the wasteland...

Mod Loadout (this list isn't exhaustive, but these are all the most important mods)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

While I'm using a large mod loadout, I've made sure everything fits with the goal of this kind of play-through. A few of these mods might help give me a much needed edge here and there. Specifically craftable ammo, and craftable backpacks. With craftable ammo I'm choosing a low setting for how many bullets I get at a time, so I'd chew through my lead supplies pretty fast regardless. Basically, I'm not going easy on myself, but I do want an edge here and there that is realistic.

Realism, Difficulty, Balance
Arbitration - combat and stealth overhaul. Enemies fight better, and sneaking is rebalanced.
Difficulty and Realism Overhaul

-ALL weapons increased in damage, 2X-5X yours and your enemies, such as Sentry Bot minigun, Protectron laser, Scorpion sting, etc.
-Mods for guns/energy and all damage perks nerfed, You still do more damage then the base game in the end, but the goal was not to make perks/mods such an insane boost, to help out the NPC enemies. Some mods got tweaks like RoF increase/decrease, accuracy etc.
-Nerfed damage perks from 100% to 50% so you aren't such a god vs npc enemies. (optional but I recommend it)
-More enemies got damage/accuracy perks to help them out.
-Health was somewhat normalized. Example: Weakest raider was 30hp, Strongest was 500. Now its more like 90-300. Trying to get rid of the total wimps and the bullet sponges.
-Removed AI perks nerfing enemy damage... those first raiders can hurt a new character now.
-Huge buff for things that were way too weak, such as Vertibirds, Turrets (yours and Theirs) and Robots.
-Lowered the level lists for some weapons so they show up sooner. Assault Rifle at 18ish instead of 28, Sledge Hammer was 18, I put it much lower. ETC.
-Increased value of guns somewhat - it bothered me a Mirelurk Steak was worth more then a gun
-Improved the first Auto mods. the -35% penalty was a bit too much imo.
-Buffed companions to cope with the tougher enemies - somewhat. I also gave them perks some new perks and the robots/synths/mutants got natural resist... just like every other one of those races has.
-Increased Power Armor health. Unlike other mods that do this, I went through each lining, increasing the HP of each.

Weapon Balance Overhaul. - Might be unnecessary to some point, as it overlaps with the Difficulty and Realism Overhaul mod, but I want to try and make some guns stronger to combat the bullet sponge issue I found occurring anyway with my last game with this mod. I was getting very godlike compared to low level raiders, while higher level human beings were still surprisingly strong. This mod is a bit more enthusiastic with beefing up the damage weapons deal, while also balancing them too.
Rebalancer. This tweaks a lot of basic game issues. I'm using it just to make a whole bunch of things a little bit harder. Food heals you slower, I can carry less, I get less carry weight per level, I get somewhat less experience for most things, and sneak shots don't get quite as big a multiplier. I have made cores drain a little bit slower though. This one is broken down into a lot of separate modules, and some of them overlap with the other mods like Arbitration and Difficulty and Realism. These ones I have left turned off.
So you think your special? Lets me set how many SPECIAL points I get at the start of the game. I'm going with "God Loves a Trier". Just brutal. I get 21 points. Only an average of 3 points per SPECIAL. The idea is that I'm really just some pre-war housewife with no special fighting skills, starting out super weak and vulnerable.
Some Assembly Required. - A power armor mod. It boosts up how much health they have, but makes them require higher skills to maintain. It also makes them much rarer to find. So you don't get a complete T-45 suit right off the bat. Only the chassis and chest piece. There are only a few rare suits scattered across the world.

Crafting, Building

Craftable Ammo
Wearable Backpack and Pouches
Mo Betta Scrap (balances what you get out of your scrap)
Campsite (can build tents)
Settlement Keywords
Armor and Weapons Keywords
Immersive Fast Travel (lets you build vehicles to travel between your settlements, costs fuel)
Spring Cleaning (lets you trash more of the junk and weeds around your settlements)
Armorsmith Extended
OCDecorator (lets you place items for decorative purposes without them getting knocked over)
Homemaker (expands on the vanilla settlement crafting system in a balanced way - more objects!)

Immersion, World Improvements
Beantown Interiors
True Storms
Believable Drumlin Diner
Diamond City Enhanced

General Balancing, Misc
Unofficial Fallout 4 Patch
Loot Overhaul - (less loot!)
Durable Vertibirds
Powerful Power Armor - Boosts the strength of power armor to take the realism mods into account.
Better Settlers
Don't Call me Settler
Raider Overhaul - Raider armor reimagined. Makes some raiders and raider groups a fair bit tougher due to having better armor.

[Yolan]

Day 1 - Into the wasteland. Level 2. Meeting the dog. A new home.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Here we go again! If you have followed my last thread some of this stuff might be repetitive, but as I'm playing effectively an even harder game with some extra restrictions (like starting number of SPECIAL points, and power armor access), you might hopefully notice a few things I'm doing differently. Things should start to vary more the closer I get to level 20 or so and the limit of my last proper game.


Here is a look at my starting stats. I've only had 14 points to allocate on top of the initial 1 point you have with each SPECIAL. Brutal. So, I have decent perception, I'm fairly smart, and I'm somewhat agile. Otherwise I'm physically weak, have low endurance, and an abrasive personality. Great! Can I survive in the wasteland?






I've gone with the standard face this time, if only because its the only other face I think is decent apart from the one I always use. As I'm starting a new game with quite a different starting situation difficulty wise, I wanted to make the change to the avatar to help dissociate things in my mind from my last character. New character, somewhat new game mechanics, new rules. I have to be careful not to fall into old habits which might get me killed.




Here we go. Interestingly it seems I get a 1 point charisma bonus from my wedding ring. I somehow never noticed that before. I also have 80 hit points. More importantly, that will only climb very, very slowly as I level up now. On top of that, bullets hurt even more than they already do in survival mode. I still get the feeling that I might end up becoming nearly impervious to bullets from low level raiders when I get to level 20. It seems very difficult to get around without also making it too easy to one-shot everybody. But we shall see. I have some extra backup options mode-wise that I can tweak later if it starts to feel unbalanced again. Definitely, this is it. I am not restarting again. Please god no more restarting....


My last proper play through I made it to level 15 before dying. This time? We shall see... On the one hand, I suspect the weapon modification mod makes bullets even more lethal, which perhaps counter intuitively makes a lot of the early game somewhat easier, as you can snipe things easily. On the other hand I have even less health, so I am much more vulnerable if I ever do get hit by something.




So, I'm also using a new mod for this game which replaces the default music (sorry, not a fan of this composer), with classic music from Fallout 1 and 2. Man it almost gives me goosebumps to hear some of these tracks again. Really, really nice. Especially for using instruments (a bit of Indian guitar?) to convey the sense of some kind of new, post-apocalyptic culture that is forming. Bethesda by contrast (If you followed my last game diary you know that I love complaining about these guys) treats the world as though culture pretty much went into stasis the moment the bombs fell. Really puzzling.


A bit of bug hunting gets me to level 2.


I go for endurance. I need more health and AP recovery please.


My hitpoint total climbs by a single point... I'm getting the impression that the Well Rested perk from sleeping 8 hours in a bed will be especially important for me. And endurance boosting clothing.


Meeting the dog.


Shooting some mole rats. I also do a bit of trading at Abernathy farm, and shoot a few rad stags.


Then I retire to my spot in Sanctuary. As per my new house rule I'm not allowing myself to do any large scale rennovation/building. I can shift furniture around a bit, and break down a few simple items a day. But thats it. A single person shouldn't be able to scrap a whole building in a few days, let alone a whole town. When I get some settlers later I can slowly increase how much I do. My justification will just be that they are helping me.


I've got a little bed and chest going. The only items that I built, apart from the front door. It's actually kind of cozy. Something I'm appreciating is the feeling of living in all these ruins. Sanctuary is kind of pretty in a creepy way when it is filled with so much detail. That plus the classic fallout music is helping me to actually enjoy what is the bazillionth time I've replayed these initial levels in this game.

Goodnight wasteland.

(I've survived 1 day. I'm level 2. I have died 0 times.)

[Yolan]

Day 2 - Exploring. Shooting a few things. Level 3 and 4.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Doing another pass to loot whatever else I can freely pick up in Sanctuary I finally find some bobby pins. Lock picking the easy safes gets me to level 3.


I put a point into Charisma. Probably a bad choice, but trading at 1 Charisma just makes me cry.


I do a bit of scouting and shoot a few dogs.


And set up a little drug manufacturing room in my house. I think making my own drugs is going to be important for this game. Again, notice the minimal scrapping. If I can't justify in my mind the idea that I scrapped something in a short amount of time by myself, then I either leave it alone or just shift its location.


Later in the evening a radstorm hits as I scout around Concord. I decide to risk heading in to the battle. I'm guessing that with more realistic bullet damage the initial low level raiders won't actually be too hard to take down from a distance, and Preston might do most of the work for me.


I was right. They get downed very quickly without me even helping much. This causes me to go and remove one of the realistic weapon damage mods I had, which I think seemed to be overkill on top of the weapon realism mod, and the realism and difficulty mod. I really don't know how they are interacting behind the scenes here, but its possible they were making cumulative changes, putting things out of wack. I'm watching this closely so that I can fix things before I get too far along. I put a point into strength. It's really hard looting with such a low carry weight (60!). Later this is going to force me to rationalize my weaponry though, which is actually what I like. The game should force players to make choices. Not be a god at everything, and a user of all weapons at all times.


The basic harness isn't great protection, but it does look pretty wild. I'll change to the Scavenger harness later when I get my hands on one.

Goodnight wasteland.

(I've survived 2 days. I'm level 4. I have died 0 times.)

[Yolan]

Day 3 - Visiting the doctor. Shooting molerats. Level 5.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

It seems I contracted an illness over the night. I've got an infection that periodically damages me. As my health is so low anyway, that means I lose about 1/5th of my health every minute or so. I have to keep gulping water as I run along. One thing to do. An early visit to Covenant to see the doctor. First though, I'm grabbing the .308 pipe rifle in Concord.


Born free.... as free as the wind blows...


A bit of molerat shooting at the drive-in.


I also snipe a few dogs.


And help the settler fighting more mole rats by the trash heap. Level 5!


This time I'm putting a point into agility. Eventually I'm going to want to sneak my way to Diamond City, so this is important to build up too.


I get to the doctor just as night falls.


Beds are scarce in Covenant.

Goodnight wasteland.

(I've survived 3 days. I'm level 5. I have died 0 times.)

[Yolan]

Day 4 - Back to Sanctuary. Home improvements.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Early morning in Covenant.


Here are my stats at level 5 with some boosting from clothing and the Well Rested perk. As you can see, even with all the extra endurance I still only have 86 HP. It will only take one bullet or two to end me.


On the road back home I loot the raided caravan nearby, picking up a combat rifle. I'll stash that for later modification and use. I also meet up with a caravan and sell a bit of extra junk.


I take the opportunity to see how tough the nearby Feral Ghoul is now since I shifted my mod load order earlier (and removed a mod yesterday). Feels good. Two .308 shots take him mostly down, and then I finish him with a 10mm. I'm doing plenty of damage (ghouls floor level HP is higher with the realism and difficulty mod, which I really missed when I tried the BRUTALITY mod, which let me one-shot every ghoul I met). If this is the standard, then I'm definitely going to have to watch myself around any ghoul heavy areas. I have low AP, low AP recharge, and low hit points. They could very easily swarm me.


I'm pretty sure that I can get to the Mystic Pines retirement home safely while I'm at it.


OK, sweet. This is going in my collection. After that I head to the drive-in, shooting a dog on the way with my laser musket. I've got plenty of ammo for it.


Passing through the drive-in. On a previous game I might have spent a couple of days scrapping everything in sight and building like crazy, netting a few levels of XP. I'm not allowing myself to do that anymore, so not much left to do here for now since I grabbed most of the loose loot already. On we go.


In Concord I swap to the Scavenger harness. Plus 2 endurance. That puts me up plus 4 with the Well Rested perk. I'll be wearing this for a while. I like the look of the regular harness more though, so I might have to mod a solution there. Are those some fusion cells that I left on the ground? Oops.


Back to Sanctuary. Again, this playthrough is feeling different now that I'm not allowed to go nuts scrapping. And I'll be honest, my OCD is mighty soothed without that godawful temptation.


The trader will come visit me at Sanctuary now that I've met her near the diner. Great. (Did I cover that from a couple of days earlier? I have the feeling I skipped it. Oh well!)


Then I spend the rest of the day in town. I do another pass over to loot stuff.


And I allow myself to scrap a few fixtures and fittings for screws, copper and steel. Nothing major.


I also spend a little time making my home cozier. Up with some walls for the garage.


Much better.


And I set up a magazine rack. In the past I always used to sell these. I didn't actually realize that these racks were functional. This gives me a great excuse to keep them. I already sold one to Abernathy farm. Might have to buy it back later.


Added a bed for the dog.


And did a bit of inventory organization. I now have a container for food, and another for guns and ammo. I also knocked up a shelf for booze.



Goodnight wasteland.

(I've survived 4 days. I'm level 5. I have died 0 times.)

[Yolan]

Day 5 - Fixing up the place. Decorating.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Good morning wasteland. Seeming as I've ruled out any large-scale building until I have a settler population to justify it, I've decided to spice up things a bit on the micro scale. That means some more mods to make it easy to do some more focused home improvements. This has the benefit of being A) fun. B) helping me slow down and "live" in the wasteland, rather than rushing off to try and clear areas. Which may help lead to C) not dying? I've got three cool new mods to that end. First, OCDispenser. So, with this mod you unlock this little terminal. You grab an object, like this globe, and put it in the dispenser. It then appears on the mini table. You can then use the editor mode to place it as usual (or scrap it, or grab it if you like). However, the object can now no longer be knocked about by your movement, or the movement of any companions, settlers, etc.


Here we go. The globe is fixed in place. So basically this lets you stuff your house with goodies everywhere without it getting messed up, making it feel more homely. Cool! I am a grown man playing doll house. ;-)


The next mod I grabbed was Precise Object Moving and Rotating. This one is basically a script which uses a little third party program to map your keypad keys to some basic console commands. Inside the regular settlement construction mode you enter console mode, then click on an object, and then simply use your keypad keys to shift it around as you like... ignoring collision! That means you can do some very cool stuff with construction, without using something like the old doormat and carpet trick I've seen some people doing online. Anyway, one thing I'm using this for right away is repairing the roof of my house. I've gathered some wood from nearby fences (seems legit that I could do this myself in a short amount of time), and got to work. No more rain falling through my ceiling. For the garage at least. The rest will take a bit more time.


I have also boarded up my open windows using this same mod. No more irradiated wind blowing through thanks. Or people shooting me.


I've also knocked up some walls around my garage.


And I also now have a roller door. Sweet! This is from the Homemaker - Expanded Settlements mod. This mod basically adds a bunch of balanced objects to the settlement construction menu, taken from throughout the game I think. There are some really nice, super tall scrap metal walls there too. Double the height or so of the regular junk walls. This kind of stuff makes me excited about building in the future. It really helps make things feel fresh again after so many restarts, so many times scrapping and building at Sanctuary. Awesome.


The view from inside my drug manufacturing room. The roof here still needs fixing.


I do a little bit of gun modification.


Rip up a bit more fenceline.


And do some more repairs to the roof. It's coming along nicely.


As the afternoon wears on I do make one short trip to Concord to loot a few houses. I can't carry much though. Current max is 85. Too low to even really be carrying around both my .308 AND my lazer rifle. Should probably leave one of these at home next time. With a bonus from drinking beer I'm able to haul a few things away though, including more bottles to fill with fresh water and sell to Carla. I also shoot a couple of mole rats. Which reminds me, I haven't been to the caves under Red Rocket yet! Tomorrow.


My new garage at night.


I tested out the OCDispenser by stacking some extra food on my shelves. Mmmm. Precious, precious pre-war processed food.



Goodnight wasteland.

(I've survived 5 days. I'm level 5. I have died 0 times.)

[Yolan]

Day 6 - Hitting the armor Jackpot. Getting that Healthy Glow - Level 6

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Well great. I've caught something again while sleeping. This time its a disease that makes my AP recover at half normal speed. And normal speed is already slow for me, what with my terrible SPECIAL stats. Not good. Seems like I have a random chance of this happening whenever I sleep in Survival mode. I don't know if the dirtyness of the bed has an impact here, but this bed model looks pretty clean. So.. another trip to Covenant?


Before going anywhere I put a turret on top of my garage. No stealing my stuff.


I also decide to stop by the tunnels under Red Rocket. I can't quite haul everything out so I'll have to make another trip, but I got most of it. That's fusion core #2.


After unloading everything back at the house I'm off again. I can't help but stop by the quarry. I should be safe shooting the mirelurks from on top of the generator.


I didn't have any rad-x or rad-away, but I thought, what the heck. I'm going to the doctor anyway, so I can pay to have my rads taken care of then. Only mid-way through my nice swim do I remember that as my health is so low (again, terrible SPECIAL stats!), I really don't have much left at all once irradiated. Hmmm...


The mirelurks were a little scary. At one point one kind of jumped up on top of the other, and they almost were able to reach me somehow. I'd never seen that behavior before in the past. This kind of random stuff really freaks me out when it happens. Imagine one of their claws snapping a few centimeters away from my throat. Kind of like that. Yikes.


Then, jackpot. I was passing through the drive-in, scoping the nearby rail bridge to see if there was anything loading there (its one of those places that always loads something random). And instead of a super mutant we had three dead raiders. A note indicated that it was one of those random little mini quests (friends wanted some crazy guy to stop eating some kind of food paste...) But whats more, and maybe somewhat unbalanced as a result of a mod, they had between them a full set of arms and legs for the dreadnaught armor. That's some very nice defense. Part of me felt guilty getting this so early, but what the heck. My health is so low, and bullets do so much damage, that this won't make me invulnerable to low level raiders. But it might buy me some time. It's also quite heavy (hence less sneaky too), so there is a penalty involved. This just gives me a bit of an edge.


Now I have 109 armor points. Keep in mind that armor has been buffed by the Realism and Difficulty mod in general (and I think this particular armor by the raiders enhanced mod), partially to make up for how much damage bullets do now. So that's the context. A high score, but I'm still extremely vulnerable to bullets. It also weighs some 30 pounds (kilos? whatever... generic weight points)


So there I am, feeling pretty happy, when at the worst possible timing we get rad rain. Yep, a slow steady drip of 3 rads per second, every second, for possibly minutes. I was -already- highly irradiated, so this was alarming. Covenant was still pretty far away. Maybe a minute if I ran as much as I could. And I couldn't run much (those terrible stats...)


Things got a bit tense, but I was just able to make it to the doctor.


On the way home I shot a few bugs and a radstag in the hills behind the drive-in, putting me almost to level 6.


Adding some extra pocketing to one of my dreadnought pieces did it though. Level 6!


I'm tempted to go for the Life Giver perk, but I go for another point in endurance. I need to be able to sprint for longer without running out of AP. Quick retreat is still the best defense for the time being.


With pocketing and the new level I can carry 90.


And I have 88 hit points. Yes, at level 6. Yes we are doing this.  THIS IS SPARTAAAAAA....



Goodnight wasteland.

(I've survived 6 days. I'm level 6. I have died 0 times.)

[Yolan]

Day 7 - I suck em down like Nuka Cola

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I did a bit more work on the roof, and set up a quiet wind power generator for future use. Not sure when I will set up a beacon to attract settlers, but I'll need to get started on it eventually.


I also installed the Usable Cigarettes mod. Smoking gives you a 1 point charisma buff for a minute, steadies your aim, and if you are low hp, regens some hp for you. It is also potentially addictive. Best feature though? Smoking will save your game. This is great. I don't actually mind the "save when you sleep" feature of survival mode so much, but the game is not exactly stable. Losing a bunch of progress due to crashes is not fun. So going forward I'll be sure to use this feature to back up my game periodically through the day instead of sleeping and A) losing time, B) losing my well rested perk.


After looting a bit more in Concord (I got a dirty army helmet, yay) I hit the trucking company by abernathy, as it only has 3 ghouls, and each can be taken one at a time.




The roamer took a lot of bullets.


My precious stash of smokes.

Goodnight wasteland.

(I've survived 7 days. I'm level 6. I have died 0 times.)

[SOLDIER First]

ptw

[Ant]

ptw

[Yolan]

Day 8 - Looting, robot scrapyard, a settler, a gunfight

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I went to sleep early yesterday, so today I'm up at around 4am. Off to Concord first for some looting.


One of the new lootable houses added by the Beantown mod has an attic space I never noticed before. You interact with a stepladder to climb up. Very cool. I get a fair bit of aluminum etc. from this run. And a battery. I'd like to make some .308 ammo out of all the lead I have stored, but I need at least one rank in the Gun Nut perk. So far though I've been spending pretty much every perk point on boosting my terrible stats. When I get to level 7 I might have to grab it. Lifegiver is also tempting though (which is saying something about how brutal my mod loadout is, because I've never considered bothering with that perk before!).


It's been just over a week in the wasteland and I already have a smoking habit. Love this way of saving the game with this mod though...


The sun will be up soon. So whats the plan for today? I'm still very, very weak. I can only really move around certain limited corridors that I know are fairly safe. Still, maybe I can scrounge up some XP fighting a few low level raiders and killing some more bugs. I really have to put in some work to get towards that next level, now that I can't simply level myself up more by going on a building spree. That said, its probably time I got some settlers in to Sanctuary. If I have some people living there I can justify doing more work around the place, and that in turn can give me at least some of a boost.


So back at Sanctuary with the dawn I stick up a beacon. We should start getting a few people over the next couple of days.


Then I decide to risk taking on the lone raider with her dog living just north of town.


Not too hard with my double cranked laser musket. I did have to use up my stored crit though.


Then I get the fatman gun and another fusion core from the robotics disposal ground.


And shoot a few molerats nearby.


Notice that the power armor that is usually by the ruined vertibird here is missing. That's thanks to the Some Assembly Required mod, which makes power armor much more rare.


I'm pretty overburdened, so I have to buff myself a bit with some drugs and alcohol. Then I head back along the side of the river, taking out a radstag deer along the way.


Back at camp I have my first settler. I help set up some extra vegetables out the back for him.


Now I have a settler I feel justified in building a stand alone structure for the first time (the idea is that he is helping me with this, so its cool). Just a platform for a gun turret for a bit of extra defense. I don't want to tempt fate with any raids. Proper walls are going to have to wait for the time being.


I do a bit of inventory and junk management. The fatman goes under the bed.


Magazine collection is starting to come along.


And I add a bit more pocketing to some of my clothing, using leather I looted in Concord (a baseball glove, etc).


It's getting a bit late in the afternoon, but I decide to do a scout out down stream where I know there are some lower level raiders. I bring my laser musket and my 10mm (I make a bit of ammo for it). Also I've got a .38 pipe pistol. Across the river I spot one of the raiders and engage. I get a good hit in but its tough with no scope on this thing. I'm also not able to rely on getting any half decent hit chance in vats, so I have to fight purely manually.


Down goes the first guy, but along come the others, one, two, three. They only have pipe guns and shotguns, and are shooting at me from quite a distance across the water, but even then, and despite me having a solid amount of armor on, they are able to wear me down pretty quickly. It's fairly tense.


After downing two of them I have to beat a retreat for a while to heal up. Even stimpacks work pretty slowly with the modding I have installed, so I cool it for a bit and come around the side.


A few bugs get in the way. Oh well, more xp for me.


And then it was all over. They have a few bullets on them, and I also grab their leather armor for scrapping, and a bit of food from their camp. That makes a total of five people I shot today, and a total of nine since I left the vault. It would have been a bit easier if I had any .308 ammo. I might have to go buy some from the diner tomorrow. Still, I'm actually pretty happy to confirm how hard bullets hit. I haven't been able to easily one-shot anybody, they all take a few bullets to kill, which makes fighting more of a challenge. But at the same time there isn't any bullet spongeyness so far. Solid hits do real damage, and the same for me. Even low level weapons used by low level raiders at long range are hurting me bad, and thats at level 6 with over 120 points of armor and a few drugs in my system (I used some med-x for 25% damage resistance). So, cool? Hard (and yet realistic) is good, so I'm happy.


I think I can reach level 7 tomorrow.

Goodnight wasteland.

(I've survived 8 days. I'm level 6. I have died 0 times.

[Yolan]

Day 9 - Torchlight, Sniper Rifle, Helping the BoS, Level 7, Diamond City, a Haircut, Level 8

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Morning wastelanders. You've caught me wearing my pajama harness. Maybe you can notice, but I've adjusted the darkness using the Darker Nights mod. I was using it before, but now I've set it to the second darkest level. Reason?


Because I have also installed this. The Pip-Boy Flashlight mod. Now it is dark at night, I'll actually want to be using lighting to see. Which also in turn means I'll be more visible to enemies. So it's atmospheric, but it also impacts on the stealth side of the game. Some night vision goggles of some kind are going to be super helpful later.


Home is looking cozier too. Darkness makes the colors nice and vivid. Incidentally, I'm still really enjoying the classic ambient music mod that uses the soundtracks from Fallout I and II I gotta say. I do recommend it. Especially if you have never played them.


OK pal, put your hands where I can see em. What's that? You want to live here? Well OK, but we don't have any beds.


Alright, now we do. But I'm turning off the beacon for now. I'll need to fix up the house across from mine and improve access to basic needs before we can take any more people. Besides, I have a feeling I'm going to be away for a while.


I run a power line down from the generator.


And we have our first water purifier.


Time for a smoke before I go to save my game. But wait, I've run out already! I'm going to have to break up my carton (it turns into 3 packs, and 11 cigarettes after also breaking the 4th pack and taking one of the twelve).


And off I go. Destination? The sniper rifle at the Red Rocket behind the Corvega plant. Along the way I do some more looting at Concord. I'm actually excited when I find cigarettes now. Each one of these babies is a free save whenever I want. Also I'm totally addicted. If I don't smoke for too long I'll get a penalty.


I drop by the diner and buy a few .308 rounds. Terrible prices, but nothing I can do.


Heres how much I can carry currently, with my pocketed armor. 105. Thats it.


Then its time to sneak around the side of the plant.


Soon raiders. Soon.


Somebody is fighting with some robots nearby. Nothing doing. Robots are even tougher with the Realism and Difficulty mod. Super buff. As are turrets.


I reach the Red Rocket. There is one ghoul there, but thats it. I can handle one easy enough.


I do a bit of looting.


And grab the gun. Now, I really probably shouldn't do this, but I want to push on to help the BoS, and then get to Diamond City. Theres a lot of easy xp to pick up from simply doing that and talking to people. The reward is too tempting. If everything goes well I should gain two levels before the day is out. After that I'll be coming right back out of here. The area surrounding Diamond City is absolutely too dangerous for me. But with a few extra levels I'll be in better shape. Also, I really just want a darn haircut.


I test out the rifle on a radstag first.


And a ghoul.


Then I'm off to help the BoS.


I keep well to the back behind them. With lasers doing more damage they don't have much trouble cutting the ghouls down.


But I get a few shots in.


Level 7. I finally put a point in Gun Nut. This will allow me to make my own .308 rounds now. Also of course, I can stick a scope on this darn laser musket.


Boom.


Nice xp.


I smoke nonchalantly while the soldier tries to put me in my place. Haha.


Then its over the bridge.


Yikes. Drawing some of the mutant dogs towards the turrets also drew in a suicide mutant. There goes that turret. I'm safe and home free though. Pun intended.


Night falls fast as the door opens.




First, the symbolic haircut. I'm not yet a real warrior, but I've got plenty of blood on my hands already.




More xp.




And another level!


I put a point in Life Giver. Due to my mod loadout I get very little in the way of extra life per level, exacerbated by my endurance still being quite low.


Here we go. I'm now at 110 hp. Low, but at least we aren't in the 80s still.


It's getting late. Time to get a room. Tomorrow I might do a few little things about town, then get going back north. That was an eventful day. Phew.



Goodnight wasteland.

(I've survived 9 days. I'm level 8. I have died 0 times.)

[Yolan]

Day 10 - Heading Home, Grey Gardens, Junk Yard, Ruins, Gun Improvements

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

In the morning I give Sheffield a Nuka Cola. Thats 80 xp, and I get to send him to Sanctuary to be settler number 3.


I have to be super careful around these junkyard dogs, but I can't pass up the chance to grab a few xp while helping the guards kill them.


Next the boobytrapped tower nearby. It's all a matter of habit by now. This is like the fourth time I've done this sequence of actions? But thats it. That was a bad case of restartitis. Worst I've ever had. But this is it. I'm playing this character to the damn end I swear. This mod loadout is the best I've had, and I don't think I can do better. Unfortunately only a regular double barreled shotgun loaded  in the building instead of a combat shotgun. Oh well.


On the way home I bounce between locations to get the 10xp for discovering them. CIT grounds. Cambridge Polymer Labs. Beantown Brewery. Oberland Station. Plenty of easy xp for a low level character like me, and all pretty much for no risk.


I let my guard down a bit as I'm jogging along the tracks towards my next stop, Grey Gardens. I was just able to notice the alpha wild mongrel before getting really too close. And also fortunately, I had a crit saved up. With my mods, that thing really could kill me fast if it got up to me. Yikes.


Just give me a minute dogmeat.


Past the junkyard I hit some ruins, squash some bugs, and grab an extra few bottles of Nuka Cola, including a quantum. I also pop my head into Lexington for the XP, although I stay well away from where all the ghouls are hanging out. They would rip me to shreds.


It's pretty dark by the time I get home.


Carla's looking a bit cold out here so I give her a trash can fire.


She has restocked. More lead for sale. Great!


Now I have the gun nut perk and plenty of adhesive and other loot I can make some weapon improvements. 84 damage now instead of 56 or whatever it was. Much better. Good range and great accuracy too. With this I can think about shooting the ghouls out by the train depot near the drive-in.


I also use up my lead to make a bunch of .308 bullets and a few 10mm.


There we go. 77 .308 bullets. Excellento.



Goodnight wasteland.

(I've survived 10 days. I'm level 8. I have died 0 times.)

Thoughts: Well, I made it to Diamond City and back alive. I'm also not that far away from level 9. Nice. I'll spend the next few days doing some work around Sanctuary, and then maybe do a bit of ghoul shooting, possibly also visit the settlement to the east, shooting a few dogs at the junkyard out that way. I think I can make level 10 without really going anywhere too far or taking any serious risks. Then I might want to think about slowing it down even more. Maybe getting some people living in the drive-in, spend a few days there slowly doing a little bit of work on it. Again, I'm sticking with the rule of not doing anything unrealistic when it comes to settlement crafting, but if a population at a given place gets up to five or six, then I think I can do a fair bit each day without it being too crazy.

Otherwise, I'm just enjoying the mods I'm using for this playthrough. It's very slow paced and relaxing on one hand. While on the other its extremely tense and difficult. I'm restricting myself like crazy, but I love it. Also, I'm just relieved to have got this character properly under way. Slowly but surely I'll start to get to where I was when I restarted numerous times (around level 20-24). Then its new areas, new quests, new challenges. That would be nice. In the mean time settlement work should be a lot of fun, thanks to the homekeeper mod and all the new items it unlocks, as well as the OCDispenser letting me add small details everywhere. It's actually quite relaxing.

[Yolan]

Day 11

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Morning wasteland.


I'm going to stick around Sanctuary today and do a few repairs. So I'm turning the beacon back on.


I spend a bit of time tiding up the house across the street. I'll stick a fair few people in here using bunk beds.


It isn't too long until somebody turns up. Including Sheffield this is settler number 4.


And he brought a brahmin. Cool. It can start to eat the weeds around here.


We have enough food for now, so I put up a scavenging stations and assign him too it. Find me some more loot please.


Now the house across the street is tidy I just want to do a few basic improvements. Nailing up some boards across the windows is one. With the mods I'm using its very easy now to place wood where I want, up close and against the wall.


Looks pretty good on the inside actually.






There we go. Over time I'll slowly add a bit more in the way of decoration and furniture to flesh it out, but it looks like an actual home now. Notice that I left the ruined car there. I'm sticking with the rule of not going overboard with scrapping. I have my RP justification, and balance reasoning too (limiting xp gain), but I can appreciate more the aesthetic too. Having everything look too clean is boring. That mixture of simply repairs and jerry-rigged solutions with weeds and decay looks actually pretty good.


I've got a decent field of Mutfruit out the back of my place now too.


Towards the end of the day I do a little more looting in Concord.


A bit of scrapping. Some inventory management. And that's it. Day 11 down. I'm pretty close to level 9, but I'm not quite there yet. I should hit it tomorrow.

Goodnight wasteland.

(I've survived 11 days. I'm level 8. I have died 0 times.)

[somemildmanneredidiot]

Ptw