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[Yolan]

Day 12 - Roaming about, Level 9

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Morning wasteland. Today I'm going to run around a fair bit, gathering some more supplies and relatively safe XP by hitting a bunch of locations I haven't visited yet.


First the sewers under Concord. A bit of xp from some molerats and the Mirelurk. Plus another fusion core (#4) and a few bits and pieces.


After dropping off the loot, next I'm going to a cabin with a little bunker under it.


Shooting some bugs gets me to level 9.


I'm putting a third point in Charisma. This unlocks the Lone Wanderer perk, which is what I will unlock next. I really need the bonus carry weight. Actually, one of my mods is interfering with Dog Meat, and he can't carry anything (forcing him to pick something up wont work either). I was going to fix it, when I though, bonus realism? It's not like he has a little backpack for putting things in, so what the heck. I'll get plus 50 just from that perk, which should really help. Far Shot (my .308 rifle) weighs a ton now because of all my mods, so I really have difficulty getting any looting done. Roasted radstag meat also isn't boosting my carry weight anymore for some reason. I have to rely on booze and buffout for the strength bonuses.


Next I snipe a few ghouls, clearing the way to the cabin.




The ghoulified owner took quite a few shots, but down he went all the same. Plenty of decent loot, including some precious, precious cigarettes. I actually had to buy more from Carla in the morning, because I accidentally used my supply when making some bedding the previous day. Don't carry these things when crafting stuff!


I've got enough bits and pieces now to fashion together a rusty motorbike. This is for the realistic fast travel mod. I can now use this plus some fuel (made from oil) to fast travel to any of my other settlements. The bike doesn't come with you though, so you do need to build one in each location. Still, worth the trouble.


Then I hit Bedford station to take out the ghouls there. Now that I've modded up this rifle it's hitting pretty good. One-shotting ghouls in the chest is easy. The higher level guys do take a little bit more work. I use my shotgun a bit for this too as I'm running low on 10mm.


I'm addicted to alcohol now, on top of having a few other issues, so I visit the doctor in Covenant while I'm at it.


As night falls I arc around to Tenpines bluff, dodging a few bullets from some angry mercs up on the overpass. I get a quest to kill the raiders at the Corvega plant (can't handle that for a while yet!), then go clear the nearby junk yard off the dogs.


Making some progress with that xp. So long as I'm fighting things that don't shoot back, or weaker raiders at a distance, I feel pretty confident now.


Boom.


I finish up by taking out a couple of raiders on the outside of the USAF Sat station. Of course, I'm not going inside. There's a damn guy with a minigun in there.


A productive day.


Then I head along past the robot scrap yard, past the river side, and I'm back home at Sanctuary. I got a bunch done for sure. Going forward xp is going to become a little bit harder to get without going further afield and taking some more risks though. Really could do with some metal chest armor, but so far none of the traders or raiders have been spawning any. I guess because of my level. ;-(



Goodnight wasteland.

(I've survived 12 days. I'm level 9. I have died 0 times.)

[Yolan]

Day 13 - Dreadnought breastplate, Raider attack, Level 10, Concord Museum, Level 11

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Good morning wasteland.


I thought I'd start the day by exploring along the north western edge of the map a bit more.


I go past the vault and make my way south.


And I find a trader living near by. I had heard there was one out here, but never met him. Not that he had much to sell.


A bit further south by the northern end of the lake made by the dam linking to Sunshine tidings coop, I find some raiders fighting some settlers. I come to the rescue.


The two survivors agree to come live at Sanctuary. Somebody had also arrived this morning, so that makes seven.


Better still, one of the raiders had a dreadnought chest piece. That makes a full set. I now have 138 defense against ballistic. Not bad.



I'd like to keep exploring south, but a super mutant up on the ridge gets a sniff of me. I back away slowly and head home. Sanctuary needs some new beds and what not.


When I get back a raid hits. This is the first pretty big raid I had ever seen in this game. I think about 8 or 9 raiders spread about. My turrets and settlers took care of a bunch, but I got around three myself. Yikes, defenses also need some work here.


Far Shot is pretty good at taking care of lower level guys now though. It was all over in a minute or there abouts.


Sanctuary needs more water, but for that it also needs some more power. I'm knocking up a shack to store generators in when I hit level 10.


Time for the lone wanderer perk. Really want that extra carry weight, although the damage reduction is also great.


It's getting dark, but I'm feeling emboldened by my new perk and armor. My .308 is handling nicely too. Time to push on and hit the museum at last.


Inside the fighting was pretty clear sailing until the last two. The one with the shotgun saw me through the wall and come early (he usually has a bit of dialogue), and somehow got the jump on me before I could swivel around. I took a shotgun blast to the chest, then another as I returned fire. I was down to half health after I took him down. Ouch.


Excuse me while I have a smoke (I'm almost always at a penalty of -1 to my endurance because of this, but damnit frequent saving in this is too good to pass up. Plus the charisma boost and steadier aim can be helpful.)


The bobblehead is tempting but I pass it up. I'll be back once my perception is at 10 so I can boost it to 11.


The power armor is chest only, plus the frame of course. This is due to the some assembly required mod. Later I can get some raider power armor from the USS Riptide raider, but the T-45 wont be easy to get at all.


The fighting outside went fine. Most of the raiders had good armor on, but with the boosted weapon damage from the weapon balance mod everything felt nicely balanced. Preston did good damage with his laser rifle, and the minigun didn't feel too weak.


A bottlecap mine and a car explosion finished off the deathclaw.


Time to go people.


Yes I'll help with the minute men. I might have got lucky here. Tenpines gave me the Corvega plant quest, so maybe Preston will send me somewhere that only needs an easier job done.


It's past midnight, but I chat with the mechanic and tell him everything he needs is done. More xp.


Making a few beds and knocking up a few crude defenses gets me to level 11.


I put a point in strength to get a bit more carry weight. That brings it to three, meaning the armorer perk is now accessible.

Goodnight wasteland.

(I've survived 13 days. I'm level 11. I have died 0 times.)

[Yolan]

Days 14-16 - Building a gate, southward bound

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Good morning wasteland.


Sanctuary needs more food, so I have to hand over some of my hard earned caps for some vegetables at Abernathy farm. Hard to help it.


Now that I have a population of 12 in town I feel like I'm more justified in getting some larger construction projects going. First, a wall. Still, I'm not smashing it all in a few days. We'll stretch this one out over several weeks. These couple of days I've focused on a front gate. It was a little bit fiddly, but I got it working.


Here's how it looks on the inside. I like these nice high walls. Those come with the Homemaker mod.


After a few days spent building I get the travelling itch. Lets visit Oberland and see which bunch of raiders they want me to fight. Along the way I can take out a few more low level targets. Like this guy and his friend near Walden pond.


And a couple of stunted yaoguai. This one gets pretty darn close, and I have to use some jet and knock him out with a submachine gun I'd picked up earlier.


Another over the hill started out damaged for some reason. But I still get the full 30xp of course. ;-)


I drop past Arcjet systems.


And grab another fusion core from the shed on the hill behind it.


The people at Oberland want me to kill the raiders at the apparel store. Well, easier than Corvega I guess, but certainly too dangerous for me. Seeming as I'm close though, and low on bullets, I may as well stop by Diamond City, do some shopping, and stay the night.


Coming up on the outskirts of Boston I find a few raiders duking it out with some scavengers. I let them go at it for a while, then clean up some of the survivors. Easy loot.


Or so I thought, but one of the survivors is pretty darn tough. I run out of .308 bullets, and he lands a few heavy hits on me, taking down my health quite a bit. I gulp a bit more jet and get out of there. I did manage to loot a few bodies before hand though, so it wasn't a total waste.


In the city I start the confidence man quest, agreeing to help in a bar fight. Then I hit the hay.

Goodnight wasteland.

(I've survived 16 days. I'm level 11. I have died 0 times.)

Thoughts: I'm still finding the balance on this collection of mods to feel really good. Better than any previous play through. It's also harder in the sense of grittier? But the game isn't randomly throwing legendaries at me in an unfair manner either. So far I also haven't run into any humans that are real bullet sponges, but higher level raiders, reasonably, are decked in the same dreadnought armor that I am. This means that the easier chest shots don't do as much damage, and head shots aren't as easy to get of course. Meanwhile I'm also getting tougher, but not so tough yet that I can withstand more than a few well placed bullets. I need to be super patient and get a few more levels, more hit points, invest in toughness etc. before I can think of doing some indoor combat like at the apparel store. Also, wooo. I still haven't died a single time. Let's keep this streak going.

[Yolan]

Day 17 - The USS Riptide, getting shot, Level 12

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Morning wasteland.


It's still dark when I head out of Diamond City. As I pass over the USS Riptide I hear an explosion. Hmmm.. I seem to remember something like this happening before. Turning back I do a bit of scoping, and I have the feeling now is the time to take these guys on.


I've got some good cover, and they aren't able to really hit me at all.


On the boat I find the top raider in the power armor was taken out by the earlier explosion. Maybe he set off a trap? I'm not sure. Anyway, he isn't wearing a full suit, but I can grab the helmet.


Heading up past the diner I can't help but climb up the back of the nearby billboard. This will spawn three raiders, but I'm feeling bold.


Run run run! Jet jet jet! One of them has a rifle and rips me down to half of my health in seconds. It was a bit tense, but I circle round the diner and lose them. Then I come back carefully once healed, and use a crit to take one down. The one with the rifle I use another jet for as he gets close. Lucky I'm not addicted to this stuff yet. I need to be more careful. Damage really has been balanced with my mod loadout. Even lower level raiders can possibly kill me in next to no time if they are shooting .308s at me.


Back at Sanctuary I slap the raider power armor head on the frame. Looks kind of cool actually.


Adding some extra defenses around the places gets me to level 12. Great.


I'm putting a point in armorer. I can't really repair my dreadnought armor, but I can start to think about working on metal chest plates in the near future for a stronger/lighter option. Combat armor should start appearing soon too I think.


I do a bit of inventory management and make some bullets. Then as it gets dark I head back down to Lexington for some ghoul shooting and light looting.


The pack of ghouls in the underground car park are a bit dangerous if you don't know what you are doing. First I light the oil patch nearby, which gets me a few. Then I use a molotov as four rush me at once. The dog then gets in and helps me out while I pick off the remaining few. All done.


There's another raider in power armor up on a building in town. He has a missile launcher too. I'm tempted to come back with my Fat Man mini-nuke launcher and take him totally out, then collect the armor parts for myself. But first I'd need some actual mini-nukes. There is one in the satellite installation bunker, but I don't want to go down there really. Too risky. I can't remember where else I grabbed one once. I'll have to wait and see.


I grab some Mr Handy Fuel from the outside of the Super Duper mart, then head to the diner for more trading before going home.


A radstorm hits as I get home. Nice to be safe and sound anyway.



Goodnight wasteland.

(I've survived 17 days. I'm level 12. I have died 0 times.)

[Yolan]

Day 18 - Part One - Fixing buildings, Killed!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Morning wasteland. Today I finally screwed up and died for the first time. Darn... Let's take a look at what happened.


First though, a new mod. The Repairable Sanctuary mod. What this does is it actually allows you to repair the buildings in sanctuary that aren't totally trashed. You do need to spend some resources to do it. What you get isn't a pre-war shiny looking house though, but something that still looks a bit trashy. But the holes in the roof and walls are repaired. Nice. I get a bunch of houses up on the hill repaired. The ones down below leading up to my gate I am leaving there in their trashed form, as it makes a nice contrast. Here inside the (future walls) we have carved out a little bit of civilization, but outside everything is still pretty terrible.


I have four buildings repaired, with the ruined one next to my house scrapped. My house itself though I am leaving as is. I already manually repaired the roof with shack ceiling placements, and the walls with tin, so it looks good as is.


Inside the floors do look a little bit too nice, but I can do something about that later if I am OCD enough.


Of course the windows have no glass, so I am still going to be boarding most of them up, leaving some small gaps here and there for air and sunlight.


Now that the gate is done I can start on the wall. I can't do much though, because these things cost a lot of metal, and I don't want to scrap all the ruins nearby. I'll have to set up some supply wagons later to other settlements and bring in steel that way. Plenty of steel at the drive-in. But of course I'll need a bunch more Charisma to get the leadership perk that lets me do this, so it will still be a few weeks away in in-game time.


Finally, I move the location of the garden. I'm going to make the walls around this place a bit tight, to decrease the need for building materials, but also just for security, as I'm not exactly sure where the raider spawning points are. I think one might be inside my walls anyway, but at least I can restrict it as much as is reasonable. While doing this though I lose a bunch of corn. The corn planters I "stored" instead of manually moving, and when doing so they disappeared, along with the corn.... Well darn. Now I have a slight food shortage. Not cool.


Now the part where I die. It was a bit "unbalanced" I guess you could argue, but at the same time totally my fault, and in hindsight very predictable. Long story short, I got greedy. It started out with me wanting to just go and pop a few raiders I had left nearby, because they were somewhat tough (one had a rifle). I felt strong enough to finally take them on, so I did.


I copped a little bit of damage, and used some jet as a precaution when finishing off the last guy once I had already used my critical.


Well, I thought, I'd come this far, I might as well take care of the molerats that are just nearby too. Once they were dead, I found myself very close to the quarry.


Hmmm.... Maybe I could snipe a few guys, just test the waters? Get some xp, but be very cautious at the same time? With enough distance I should be safe.


A few melee guys do come round to try and get me. But I down them before they get very close. These scavvers get me 50 xp. Wow. Even yaoguai only give me 30. I'm hooked.


I keep moving about, popping away. One. Two. Three. Four down. Nice xp. I'm totally doing it.


At this rate I can make it to level 13 today.


It's all too easy to push your luck too far.


In the end it was a wardog. It took out Dogmeat, and I switched to pistol. I didn't even bother going into vats! If I had, or had bothered to use jet, I probably would have had no problem. I thought I could down it in real time though, which was my mistake. It killed me in an instant. As in, it was two meters away from me, maybe three, then the next second I was dead. Before it even seemed to bite me. So that seems "unbalanced" to me. My health is low, sure, but it was just a dog. I was a well armored individual, pumping 10mm bullets into it. If it had even just bit me down to half health, giving me a second to react, I could have done something. But nope. Instant death. But at the end of the day, I was like a gambler who couldn't help but keep pulling on the lever. Only inversed. Each pull had a slight chance of killing me, but would give me a reward. I just couldn't stop! And it inevitably caught up with me.

Not to worry. This is not an Iron Man game. I will keep playing. But I'm recording this death. I'll have to re-play the second half of the day later, maybe taking out the first group of raiders again, and the mole rats, but leaving the quarry for now. Plus, when I'm next in Diamond City, I'll get myself a scar added to my face, to symbolize this "wound". That's what I get as punishment. Too many wounds and I'll look like some kind of scarified mess.

(I've survived 17.5 days (day 18 needs a partial re-do). I'm level 12. I have died 1 time.)

[Yolan]

Days 18-21 - A Cunning Plan, Level 13, Minigun Vs Minigun, Atom Bomb Baby, Foiled, Super Duper, Level 14

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

So, last update I had just died, leaving half of day 18 left to do, with some backtracking. First I headed back and took out the camp of raiders nearby, plus the molerats. I got myself addicted to jet though in the process, so I decided to go see the doctor at Covenant. Along the way I visited the graveyard. Poking around spawned a raider, which I downed.


Seeming as I was in the area I thought I may as well go and secure the boathouse. I have to sniper a few bloodbugs, but it wasn't anything too tough for me, with some caution.


It's nice to unlock the location and get more xp, but even better I finally get a combat shotgun. I actually hadn't been able to get one until this point! Nice.


I'm now not too far from level 13. Hmmm. What should I spend my next perk on? If I spend it on science I can fix my armor a bit, partially fulfill the requirements for repairing my power armor, and later do some work on my laser musket. Hmmm. I think I have a cunning plan on how to move forward for the next few levels.


Back at Sanctuary I do a little work, gathering some metals here and there, and getting some more walls put up.


There's still a bit to do (each section is 30 steel!), but it's coming along. I grab extra metal from Red Rocket, as I don't ever plan on building there.


I also upgrade the shotgun and give it a name.


Hipster also gets a little bit of an upgrade, with an improved grip and a muzzle.


Working through to nighttime, I finally get that level. The first step in my cunning plan is complete.


I unlock the science perk.


I'm able to fix the helmet up to maximum health, but the T-45 I still can't fix just yet. The Some Assembly Required mod requires that I have at least two points in armorer before I can work on T-45. So, it's still a bucket of bolts. And I don't even have any arms or legs! And yet, I've got my ballistic armor boosted to 380, and my carry weight is also at 180. Where am I going to next with this power armor and my minigun?


Yes. It is time. Time to hit a bunker filled with raiders and mince them up.


I take a bit of care. Planting some mines to guard my back as I try and take them one at a time, retreating a bit when necessary, throwing a frag grenade at one point too. With a bit of care they never really get to shoot me much. Until I finally get to the guy carrying a minigun. I've got my crit saved for him, and I minigun him in the back.


It looks like I got him, but actually he survives this! He turns and miniguns me right back! My power armor saves me from instant death, but I'm out of AP. I have to manually shoot back, but the spin up time takes a second. I shoot while retreating back behind the door frame, and just wipe him out as my health comes down to nearly half. But it's done.


My reward? Another fusion core.


Some more 5mm bullets. A lot more.


A locket. For the quest that unlocks Abernathy farm.


And this. A mini nuke. This is actually what I've come for, and it's for the next stage in my cunning plan.


Next stop (after offloading some stuff), is Lexington.


And here is my target. Another raider in some raider power armor. I'm not sure if he has an arm or leg piece. But even one arm piece would be great. I want it for my power armor set. Clearing this gun pretty much "unlocks" the town for me. He has a rocket launcher or fat man or something on him, and I sure as heck can't fight back unless I raise the ante.


I've got a crit saved, so I only need a few percent chance to hit to land it.


Hello!


Goodbye!


But the darn turret remains undamaged! I try shooting it with my .308, but turrets are much, much tougher with the Realism and Difficulty mod. At one point the car behind me explodes. A little bit close for comfort. I get half of the things health down in the end, but I run out of bullets. I'll have to find a way to get closer.


Climbing the tower that it's in means fighting more ghouls. But I brought my minigun. A little bit of overkill? Maybe, but fun!


Up on the walkway I can snipe the turret with my laser musket until it blows. But no sign of the dead raider. Vaporized? Or did his body get flung somewhere nearby?


But it's already getting dark, and worse, it starts to rain heavily. Hard to find a body in these conditions. And then there are the ghouls. Plenty of ghouls still left roaming about town, attracted by all the noise.


It's a bit tense, standing in the dark, waiting while I listen to ghouls slowly work their way up the stairs towards me.


Eventually I take out enough to get some peace and quiet, and I wait it out till morning on a chair on a platform.


If the body was ever anywhere nearby, it's well and truly gone now. Foiled! So much for that cunning plan.


Oh well. At least I can get another mini nuke nearby. That ones probably getting used on a super mutant at some point.


And I can take my frustrations out on the ghouls in the super duper mart.


Kaching!


Yet another fusion core. I've got quite a collection now. Any ones that run low I take out and store to give to vault 81 later.


I grab some of the best loot, but there's plenty left to come back and grab another day.


Taking back the locket to the people at Abernathy I level up again. Seems like this plan worked out in its own way after all.


I put another point in armorer.


This means that I can finally fix up the T-45 chest piece, which was down to almost no health. What's more, I can upgrade it! It now has even more health, and gives an even better buff to my ballistic armor rating.


Finally, I use my armor smithing skills to get to work on a metal chest plate that I purchased earlier at the diner. This is a stronger and lighter alternative to the dreadnought armor I'd been lugging around for quite a while. Great. So I'm two levels up, and with a good jump in the quality of my gear. Tomorrow I'll finish the walls maybe, do a final bit of looting in the houses I'd forgot about in Concord (Beantown Interiors mod ones), and upgrade the laser musket to give it a scope, and make it capable of a 4 crank fire. That will let me really do some targeted damage.



Goodnight, wasteland.

(I've survived 21 days. I'm level 14. I have died 1 time.)

[Yolan]

Days 22-26 - Furiosa Arise! - Looting, Corvega plant exterior, quarry, BoS, level 15, vault 81, Hangmans alley, level 16, two pointless deaths.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Good morning wasteland. It's day 22.


A quick look at some stats. I've got 149 points of ballistic defense, and I can carry 150.


Now that I have the science perk I can build a fusion reactor in town. That's some scienceing.


I've gone and caught a few diseases, so I also head to Covenant to see the doctor. I take my bike to the boathouse. This does take half of the day, and 4 fuel, but none of my time IRL bloody walking.


Later in the evening I do some looting here and there. Including hitting the Super Duper mart again.


The next day I do a bit more looting, and I end up back in Lexington, and on the suspended highway. Somehow I decide it's time to start shooting at the people outside the Corvega plant.


I was hoping I could clear up four guys at once with this truck exploding, but they all moved just out of range of the blast before it went. Curses!


I come back down to the ground to make a frontal approach. But a guy came around the corner and nearly took me out. 37 HP left. Ouch.


By the time I've finished fighting and get to the top it's well and truly night again.


Day 24, and it's time to upgrade my laser weapon some more. Four cranker, long range. Nice.


I'm feeling bold, so suited up I hit the quarry.


It was a little bit tough at times, but my suit protected me well. I couldn't get all the way to the bottom though without running out of ammo, so the final tough guy crazy Mathas or whatever he is called is still there. Along with some more of those mirelurks.


I did hit level 15 though.


I put a point in toughness. Then a bit more scrounging for precious adhesive among the different nearby traders. It's tough getting enough to do all my weapon upgrades.


Day 25, and I'm hauling it to the BoS to finally do their first mission.


The synths are tougher than they are in vanilla. Much tougher. Thanks Realism and Difficulty mod. But I have my minigun, and they drop plenty of fusion cell ammo.


There's also another fusion core down here. I've got quite a few now. Eight? Ouch, sorry about the jet flames. That's a heck of a good suit.


Mission accomplished. I let the paladin take most of the fire, and stayed out of the way of the big fights. So I safely made it through without coming close to dying.


Nice bit of xp.


Next I visit vault 81. But not without dying twice. Once, because I approached a bunch of raider psychos that were talking to some people on the bridge to Beantown Brewery. I should have known that they would aggro me as soon as I got close. But for some reason I went right up to them, they aggroed me, and I took too much damage while fighting. My drugs couldn't save me. Again only a few minutes later after re-loading, as I was heading to vault 81 walking through the woods, 3 mirelurks jumped out of the ground right on me, and I went down shooting the last one, my AP all dried up.... Sooo that was embarrassing. In my defense, I was a bit sleep deprived and made some poor choices. Also, neither death was really like death #1, where it was clearly all on my shoulders. I didn't expect the raiders to be raider psychos, or to aggro me instantly without any dialogue (I'd never done that before), and I totally didn't expect any mirelurks, as I had never run into any in that area in previous playthroughs. Well this is ruining my score... But let's chalk those down. I've now died 3 times. Divided by 15 levels that's one death every 5 levels, or maybe per day in the wasteland, one death per every 8ish days. Still not too bad, considering how hard core my mod load is. Let's see if I can at least make it to level 20 without dying again.


I do the cat quest after sleeping the night out in a shack up topside. But strangely enough, and maybe because of some other factors I don't know about, the red haired kid hasn't been bitten by a mole rat yet. He's totally fine. So no follow up quest just yet.


After a bit of fuffling about I head to diamond city. Along the way I clear out hangmans alley. It's a bit risky, and I get pretty hurt once and almost die (again!), but my four crank laser can one-shot a raider psycho if I get a good hit.


This suit has been performing pretty good actually. So long as I keep a decent amount of range between me and the enemy. If they get close, then things get very dangerous very quickly.




I can even take out he remaining super mutants with this musket. Again, I got pretty hurt. And that was while keeping a fair bit of range! Some of those guys hit hard. But taking cover and healing, making a few quick shots then ducking behind cover again, I'm able to get them. Having a long range scope on this thing makes all the difference. It really packs a punch. If I was relying on my .308 there's no way I could manage it. So, level 16.


Another point in toughness. I'm needing it, seeming as I'm throwing myself into endless firefights these last few days. Seems like I've gone full-on warrior mode at some point.


I stop by the inn to help out with the fist fight.


Buuut I help out a bit too much. Vadeem wasn't happy. Well, he tried to fist fight a girl wearing power armor. He wasn't the smartest chap.


It's just you and me against the world, power armor. Hmm... speaking of which... now what happened to dogmeat?


Goodnight, wasteland.

(It's been 26 days since I left the vault. I'm level 16. I have been "heavily wounded" 3 times.)

Thoughts: I still have to get a scar added from my first death back on day 18. That was a week ago in-game already! But I never made it to diamond city during that period. I'll have it added tomorrow. As for the other deaths, I'm feeling pretty annoyed by them, so I'm not scarring myself as punishment. It's enough that I mark them down. Still, I don't want too many scars in the future either, so let's focus and take a deep breath. I've been getting a bit too aggressive, a bit too bold lately.

[Yolan]

Incidentally, I checked my stats yesterday, and I have now killed nearly 100 people in Fallout 4. I wont lie, I enjoy shooting guns in video games. Maybe more than I enjoy swinging swords in video games. Excessive, comical violence has also been part of the fallout mix since the early days and the original isometric RPGs. But at the same time, options to take non-violent routes are far less with Bethesda. And the humanness of the people you are shooting at is also never really touched on. You are encouraged to think of raiders as being little more than human shaped monsters devoid of feeling.

Here's a recent talk by somebody on this topic of how raiders are treated in Bethesda's Fallout. Some interesting thoughts there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eF-qky8jveo

Given recent events I have to admit it feels a bit weird returning to my digital fantasy world, which for, the last several sessions, has primarily revolved around me shooting people. If somebody could give me more of a Long Dark play experience, only in a Fallout setting, I think I would jump at that. By all means give me weapons, and allow me, even require me, to shoot people some times. But do we need an endless parade of faceless henchmen to act as targets?

Imagine the tension of seeing a person in the wasteland, and not being able to tell if they are "good" or "bad" simply by going into vats and seeing if their name is red, or by looking at their name or clothing. What if the game actually required you to consider your own morality, or the morality of your character, contextualizing your own actions? What would you do? It's safer to simply headshot people on sight from a distance. But take away your ability to disregard them as non-human fodder, what then? Do you yell out a greeting and step closer? Do you raise your own arms to show you mean no threat? And how would they react? And maybe they see you as a person they can take advantage of. Or maybe they are the lone supporter of a child. Or maybe both. Let's have some ambiguity and emotional tension, instead of a shooting gallery. There's actually a lot of potential here, if you step back from a pure FPS paradigm and actually think about game design.

[Yolan]

Day 27 - Adding a scar, Beantown Brewery, humble pie, another scar, way back home

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Good morning wasteland. When I left off I had just gone to sleep in Diamond City.


Now it's time to get myself a scar for when I died back at the quarry a week ago. This a kind of punishment. I did die two more times after that, but I felt a bit less responsible for those deaths, so I decided not to scar myself for them.


Vadim has been kidnapped, so it's time to go to Beantown brewery for a rescue. Along the way I take out a remaining super mutant near town and grab a bit of loot. They didn't have much, but it's all welcome.


A bit further up ahead I spot a cave I'd never seen before. I decide to poke around.


It was just a little cave with some mole rats though. Still, nice screenshot!


Travis was waiting for me outside. OK Travis. We can do this. I think...


But wait. There's a bunch of raiders on the bridge leading here. I've got the drop on them, and a lot of darn ammo, so how about we take them out?


My AP really isn't great though. And my shooting skills still aren't the best. So they get a few hits in on me as you can see. Still, I get them in the end.


Inside, some bad news. It seems that the raiders are all Raider Psychos. I hate those guys. Strong enough to take me out in a second or two at close range, power armor be damned. Only, for some reason, I'm not paying close enough attention. Again, I've been a bit sleep deprived this last week. I can take him out with my minigun, but not so fast that he isn't able to shoot me back a bit. Honestly...


I hit Tower Tom in the head with my stored up crit, which is great. Also, as I killed two of these guys in the punch up at the bar, they aren't here to join the party. There are only three more combatants left.


And they kill me. Yes, I had saved by smoking just before, so I didn't have to backtrack at all. But this is some more humble pie right here. I didn't actually expect it, which was humiliating. Because in hindsight it was plainly an obvious outcome. Raider psychos at close range? And without any med-x to give me some extra damage resistance? Without using a bottle cap mine to take them out as they came around the corner? Without even having gone back to go and get Dogmeat to distract them? What was I even thinking? This was my own fault, plain and simple...


285 xp. Great, but I'm not happy. With mines, dogmeat, and med-x, I could have responsibly done this quest with the expectation of living. Having instead relied on reloading it feels kind of like cheating. Like I didn't really earn it... This is supposed to be a minimal dying play through.


Dejectedly, I go and store my tin can power armor at the garage of the police station nearby.


There's also a few raiders to take out. But then it's time to trudge back to Diamond City.


I add a second scar. This one over my left eyebrow. I "earned" this one.... The "LOOKUP FAILED" messages are due to some mod generated problems. I get this on a bunch of things, but I can work around it.


I also add some shader around the eyes to give her more of a grim and battle weary look.


And finally I tan her skin a bit. She's been running around outside under the sun for nearly a month, and is probably a bit dirty to boot.


Oh the troubles I've seen...


Chastised, I've decided to head home and get Dogmeat, maybe do some settlement building for a few days and grab another level. Passing through Cambridge square I hear a ghoul making a ruckus inside a mini fallout shelter. I decide to take it out.


Son of a .... a reaver.


I can take it out using some jet, but not before it gets a hit in, and almost kills me instantly. These things are super dangerous. Yet again I almost die. This is like some kind of extra punishment to my ego.


Come on dog meat.


When I get back I offload the adhesive I'd collected, and add a stock to my laser musket.


There's still plenty of sunlight left in the day, so I gather together some supplies and jump on my motorbike, heading to the drive-in. I'm going to build a bike there too, for fast travel, and also collect a bunch of steel to bring back. Given that the drive-in is walking distance from Sanctuary I can justify scrapping a bunch of cars myself by claiming that I had some people come down here over several days, doing it for me.


There we go. These things are super handy. I'll need to build one at Hangman's alley some time too.


I then drive back home, pulling into the garage as it gets nice and dark.

Goodnight, wasteland.

(It's been 27 days since I left the vault. I'm level 16. I have been "heavily wounded" 4 times.)

[Yolan]

Days 27-32 - Finishing the wall, return to the quarry, level 17, vault 81, the robot massacre

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Good morning wasteland.


I'm going to do a bit more work finishing up the basics at Sanctuary. First, some street lights. I've modded the night to actually be dark, which means I really need these to be able to actually see easily.


A few new settlers also have been trickling in.


Next I finish off the wall.


I use my motorbike to head to the boat house and then walk to Covenant. I've a few illnesses for the doctor there to treat. By the time I get back it's already the end of the day. But I can see the lighting is working nicely.


I've got some unfinished business at the quarry early the next day.


The final guy at the bottom. And some mirelurks.


On my way back I take out a few raiders near town.


Level 17. I put a second point in Lone Wanderer. This means I really can carry a few things now (200 points of weight), and I have 30% damage reduction. Great.


A bit of tinkering around, adding some more water and beds, then I'm off south with my dog. I get shot up pretty badly almost right away, as I run into more raiders.


I spend a fair bit of time cleaning up ghouls and finishing up the looting in Cambridge square.


As night falls yet again I make my way towards vault 81. I do have to skirt around a few super mutants, but they don't see me. I sleep the night in a bed in a shack top side.


At the vault I discover that Austin has finally been bitten by the mole rat. OK, let's do this. Really, I should just avoid this quest. I can hardly afford to permanently lose 10 HP. But I'm a sucker for quests. Plus, I can always invest more in the life giver perk later. Chances are I'll eventually start to feel I am too godlike as I advance further due to balance issues that no mod can truly fully fix. So I'll think of this as just one more nerf to try and keep things tense.


I almost die right away to the darn robot patrolling the place. It was right outside a door when I opened it. Only thanks to some jet and psycho can I make it out. Hmm. This realism and difficulty mod has made these robots just too dangerous to fight with small arms. But I don't have any mines or grenades. I didn't think this through too well. The kind of thing that gets a guy killed. Let's retreat. Maybe I can buy a mine or two at the shop.


What the??! The robot follows me out into the regular vault! Rusty the repair robot starts fighting it, but doesn't have much of a chance. I almost die again as it shoots my head from below.


It gets a bit like the opening scene from star wars episode IV as the vault guards all run along the hallways to engage the killer robot. Save me!!


But they aren't exactly up to the challenge with their 10mm pistols.


In the end I finish the robot off myself.


But this was a terrible day for vault 81. Oops. Sorry everyone.


Back to the alternate vault, and once the turrets are down it's pretty straight forward.


I'm able to avoid contracting the disease for quite a while, but in the end I get it. I also almost was killed by the brood mother, who packs a heck of a bite.


In the end I get the vaccine for Austin, and this nice bobble head. And the xp for the quest of course.


Even better, I can now run around looting the vault. I'll be sure to gather up all the abraxo I can for turning into bullets later.



Goodnight, wasteland.

(It's been 32 days since I left the vault. I'm level 17. I have been "heavily wounded" 4 times.)

Thoughts: That was a busy five days. I came close to dying three or so times, but luck was on my side. I need to dial back the risk taking and see what I can do about getting to level 18 so I can get another point in the life-giver perk or something. I simply don't have enough hit points. Probably the next stop will be hitting the subway at Cambridge square for the BoS. Manageable risk with the dog and robots guards for help, and it should be enough xp to push me over to the next level.

[Yolan]

Days 28-37 - leaving the vault, easy rider, mini metro, level 18, gun nut, backstreet apparel, dying again, level 19

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Good morning vault. It's nice to be ensconced in concrete, waking up to the sound of humming air ducts.


First order of business is to run around looting everything that I'm allowed to. I'm taking maximum advantage, given how nasty it is for me to permanently lose 10 HP for doing the main vault quest. Gotta make up for it somehow.


I also see the doctor for some diseases I'd picked up. I wanted to do the quest to get the jet addict to seek help as well, but I guess my charisma is too low. Funnily enough though, even taking some grape mentats (plus 5 char) didn't seem to do it.


Time to get back out there. Let's try and stay alive.


With all this loot I think I should be able to make myself a motorbike at Hangman's Alley for future fast travel. I'm right. Except that I'm missing one piece of leather. Luckily, I find a bit of raider armor in a chest that when scrapped will give me a piece. OK, we now have a bike here too.


On my way back to Sanctuary I drop by the brotherhood camp to pick up some quests. I'm going to have to wipe out the ghouls around Cambridge square. Not just yet though. I need to go drop off all my remaining scrap.


I take out three raiders just outside of town. None of them are raider psychos, so they go down pretty easily. Lower level raiders really aren't able to hurt me much anymore unless they get very close. I'm OK with that. Higher level guys can still kill me in seconds if I'm not lucky. And even lower level guys with melee weapons I have to watch out for.


The outside of the Corvega plant is cleared, but I'm still not able to go inside. I'm pretty much guaranteed to be killed, so I can't justify it.


Hey boy. Good to see you again.


Nice to be back. I dump all my scrap. Quite a lot of it. And do some ammunition rationalization, and a little trading with Carla.


Hmmm.. So I now have two mini-nukes. I had discovered one in the vault 81 hidden section, which I had never noticed in my previous visits there. It's hidden a little bit cleverly. So... I wonder. Maybe I have enough that I can try and take out the super mutants guarding the outside of the water purifying plant. I've never attempted it, but with two mini-nukes it might be within the realm of possibility. Still. Not yet. Maybe in a few more levels? I need to do something about my terrible power armor and low health first.


In the morning I jump on my bike back down south. One problem with this mod? It does take too much time to fast travel. As in, more time than if I was to just actually run there manually. Which seems wrong.


The sun has already set when I get back to the brotherhood outpost. I'm suiting up for this one. Just to be safe.


There's a few tense moments. But my minigun and some robot help make it all go pretty smooth. Lot's of nice loot too.


Level 18! That's two levels since I last died.


I'm tempted to go with extra health, or toughness, but I go with a second point in gun nut. I want to upgrade my sniper rifle some more, and my combat rifle.


I collect my XP.


And spend the night in Diamond City.


Up and at em. Time to take care of the paint quest. I should be able to handle it.


First I head round the back of the building to take care of the two raiders there.


Inside I use some med-x for damage resistance, and plant a bomb I'd picked up earlier by the door where they come through to look for me. That takes out two of them. It's easy enough to then gun down the lower level raiders, but the one named Demo I'm hiding from. My dog is a hero and distracts him, so I come around to finish him off at close range. But what's this? He has disengaged from my dog just as I do so, and starts shoot me. Uh oh. I've put all my shots in vats into his chest, which is not going to take him out fast enough. Super quick, I cancel and go back into vats, reassigning to his head. It's combat rifle versus combat rifle, at three meters distance. I'm -just- able to take him out before running out of AP or HP. Phew!!!! Then I can run around grabbing some more junk and loot. And the paint of course.


Great. Almost half-way to level 19 already. I have an idea for where I can get the remaining xp.


First though, I'm going back to Sanctuary yet again to dump off my loot. I really wish I had some supply lies connecting my settlements so that I wouldn't need to do this, but I don't have the charisma to get the perks I need.


I now have the perk and material requirements needed to upgrade Far Shot into a real sniper rifle. Sweet. All that remains is to change it over to .50 cal later.


My combat rifle is also coming along nicely. Although I need gun nut rank 3 to unlock some of the remaining stuff. I'm also getting low on aluminium and oil (all that driving has used up most of my oil for fuel!).


My magazine collecting is coming along. I could probably sell it for a few dollars, but it looks too nice.


The next day I head back down again. Yet again it's dark by the time I get to my destination, backstreet apparel. I'm going to take out some of the raiders there, for the minuteman quest. It's not necessary to clear the whole building, as I recall. So, with some drugs, and my dog, I should be able to do it.


First I have to clear our the turrets by the door. I have plenty of ammo though. I just have to be careful of exploding vehicles, as usual.


Inside, I kick things off by throwing a molotov (which ignites a trap they have set up as well), and inhaling some jet. Let's do this!


There is a raider psycho, but I have a crit saved up, and my dog charges in to help. The remaining raider scum is not too much trouble. We are going OK. There's one more raider I have to take out, in the back room.


But he has a name. I use my molotov on him and step around gunning in real time. That's when I die. It's a similar mistake that I made to when I died for the first time to that dog by the quarry. I didn't go into vats, not thinking that the raider could get that close when I'm gunning him in the chest. But he does, and stabs me. One-shotted. What the... That's death #5. Well darn. I've saved just earlier though, and my mistake was pretty simple. I can handle these guys. I go right back in, being more careful to keep some distance.


This combat rifle is doing the job nicely.


The remaining raider charges me, but I am careful to step back as I unload my clip. Then its all over.


Back at hangmans alley after looting, I add a cellar using the basement mod. As usual it has a little bit too much in the way of free loot. I'm going to hold-off on collecting it all for now, as it feels a bit like cheating. Maybe later when I've progressed some more I can start to make use of those supplies. I spend the night sleeping down here.


The next day I collect the xp for the quest. I'm now the "general" of the minute men, such as they are.


And I do a little bit of tinkering and furniture building in town to get the final few xp. Level 19. OK, let's get to level 20 without dying!


I'm going to put a point into agility. More HP would be nice, but I need more action points for safer combat I think. If I invest in this SPECIAL I can also unlock the action girl perk, making my AP recover much faster. That is going to really be important.



Goodnight, wasteland.

(It's been 37 days since I left the vault. I'm level 19. I have been "heavily wounded" 5 times.)

Thoughts: That was a productive few days. Dying again sucked. I still hadn't recovered from the damage to my ego after the last death! I new that I was taking on some risk heading in to the apparel store, but I thought it was manageable. In the end I was right, and wrong. Right in that I actually could handle the combat. It was no suicide run. So I was justified in making the attempt (trying not to die rules out attempting anything involving near certain death, like the Corvega plant!) But wrong in that I died anyway, due to poor judgement in the execution towards the end. Still, that was on day 36. That's nine days since I previously died, and two levels since. Not too bad. Really I'd like to now get to level 20, then 25, then level 30 all without dying again. I'll have to give some thought as to how I can get this xp without too much risk. Anyway, I'll add yet another scar for this one when I'm next in Diamond City. Maybe a bit of a burn this time, seeming as molotovs where involved. I've got a "self performance rating" on the first page which I update, based on how much I am dying. I'm leaving it as "poor". Not terrible. But not really OK either.

[Yolan]

Days 38-39 - Running from a radscorpion, combat armor, the water purifier plant

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Good morning wasteland.


I headed to Covenant today to get some diseases healed. Really annoying getting some illness all the time when I don't have the ability to heal it myself. I wish Curie could fix me up, but it seems she cant. I squished a few bugs nearby as well.


Arching back around over the nearby hills I fight a few dogs, including an Alpha. A bit scary as I had mostly used up my AP on the lower level dogs, but my modded weapons can take it down pretty quick.


The bigger problem was that all the shooting drew the attention of a nearby Radscorpion. I didn't stop to fight of course, but ran like heck.


I just couldn't shake the thing. I tried hanging out on the roof of a mausoleum in the nearby graveyard, but it wouldn't go away. Constantly lurking underground, it would auto-update nearby and my sneaking bar would only revert back to DANGER whenever it hit CAUTION. Then I ran to the dirt farmers instead of Covenant, thinking I could lose it on the way. Big mistake. It followed me the whole time. And at Covenant it wasn't interested in the other settlers, but just in killing me.... If I had the sense I would have dropped a mine, or used my fat man, but I had held out hopes of escaping, and it just didn't happen. Then it killed me... This felt a bit dirty. Not exactly a bug, but not really very fair. I'll chalk it up as death #6, but I wont add a scar for it. Speaking of which, I still have to add a scar at Diamond City. I've forgotten to do this still.


Restarting near Covenant I decide to stick with looting some of the safer ruins around Cambridge, including the diner. Some nice oil supplies there.


Then on to Diamond City (where I forget to add my scar from the death at the apparel store), and some shopping. The gun store is now stocking combat armor. Great! I can only get four out of five pieces, but that's not bad.


I also get a metal helmet with better stats than my army helmet. Bit strange, but oh well. It also looks upgrade-able.


I've got a lot of loot on me, so I head back to Sanctuary, fighting a few raiders on the way. Then I bike it back down to Diamond City and hit the hay.


The next day (day 39) I decide to scrounge around the rationing station nearby. I know there are some nice XP enemies and a fusion core.


This brood mother gave me 60xp I think. A few of these would be equivalent to a low level quest!


Excellent. I've got five or more of these things laying around. If only my armor was better. At some point soon I might finally try the plastics place. I know there is a glowing one there though, which is kinda scary. Anyway, I also don't explore too far underground. I know there's a glowing one down here too!


Next I skirt around the side of the fens, getting a bit more loot.


And turning on a transmitter tower (I think this is the first one I've found).


Loving the look of the combat armor. Much lighter than the dreadnought armor too. Anyhow, here is my destination. The water processing plant. Only, I'm keeping the river between me and the super mutants for now.


They are very resistant to my .308 bullets. Even hitting them in the head with a 1.5 sneak bonus I need to get in six or seven shots to down one. Much too high really. In the future I'll have to upgrade to .50 cal, and also put some points into the rifle skill (only 10% per perk with my mods, but still that should help). As you can see, luckily I'm able to snipe the bomb held by the suicide mutant, taking out another in the process. Sweet.


After spending a fair bit of time taking out four mutants, I head around the river to get a bit closer. I get my sights on another one, and send in a mini-nuke. But scoping carefully I can still see two more super mutants, and a hound. And I'm pretty much out of ammo. I've got a bottle cap mine, and I have another mini nuke, but I'm not feeling comfortable. No more dying darnit! Time to head home. It's a shame that I don't get to loot the bodies of the ones I've killed, but it can't be helped. At least I thinned them out substantially and got some XP.


Back at Sanctuary I look into upgrading my new armor. Looks like I can do some great upgrades, but I'll need much more adhesive to get the top tier, and I don't want to waste my previous resources on lower tier upgrades. So for now I'll leave them alone.

Goodnight, wasteland.

(It's been 39 days since I left the vault. I'm level 19. I have been "heavily wounded" 6 times.)

[Yolan]

Days 40-41 - Sunshine Tidings Co-op, Walden Pond, level 20

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Good morning wasteland. Today I'm starting out with a trip to Sunshine Tidings Coop. Preston gave me a minute man quest to secure it, and I haven't been there yet with this character.


As soon as I cross the bridge out of Sanctuary I run into some ghouls chasing a radstag deer. Little bit of a surprise there, but some xp and meat.


As I pass by Abernathy I give them a turret. They had zero defense up until now.


I take the direct route across the dam. Nothing blocking my way.


Some mirelurks are having a fight with a radscorpion and some bloodbugs down below. Nothing to do with me.


And here I am. I go from building to building, taking out some bugs and ghouls, getting a little bit of loot.


So that's where that magazine was. I couldn't remember. Well, now I won't have any problem getting plenty of meat from corpses.


Preston wanted me to build a beacon, which I did. I turned it off right away, but not before it summoned two settlers. Oh well. Guess I'll have to put in a bit of water and food for them. Also, I've run out of cigarettes for saving. Should have brought more with me. If I walk back directly there is a good chance my game will crash (it's pretty buggy around Sanctuary/Abernathy/the Diner for some reason). Sooo, looks like I am staying the night.


There we go. Just a quick tidy up. But better than nothing.


Good morning. It's day 40. I didn't die yesterday, so let's keep this good thing going.


I come back passing via Walden Pond. There's a bunker here with a bunch of raiders in it. I decide to leave them alone for now. No point in taking unnecessary risks.


I'd picked up some extra gears, so I make a second turret at Abernathy.


When I get back to Sanctuary there's a brief fight with a few raiders trying to cross the bridge. My turrets take care of them. I make sure to loot the leather. I need plenty of it to upgrade all my armor. Preston doesn't have much XP to give me for that quest, but he does give me another quest. This time he wants me to help out the people at Abernathy. Apparently some raiders are bothering them. Seems like my turrets didn't help much!


I get the details from the folks at Abernathy. And surprise surprise they want me to hit the raiders at Walden Pond. Look's like I'm going there after all. Well, first I get some extra sleep to make sure I have the well-rested perk. This is going to be a night raid.


I take some Med-x before engaging the raiders, just to be safe. But with my dog helping to distract them, and with my upgraded weaponry, it isn't much of a problem. These guys all have names, but are actually pretty weak.


Some nice loot. Chems. Scrap. Ammo.


I pass by a Gunner outpost on my way back to Abernathy. Very tempting. There's a turret there which I could hit with a mini-nuke (turrets are very strong with my mod loadout). And I could take out a gunner at the same time. Maybe snipe the remaining wounded one. I'll have to consider it some more. Eventually I want to clear them.


After telling the Abernathy farmers the good news I notice some fire fight going down on top of a wooded hill in the distance. The laser bursts give it away. I head on over and clear up a few raiders who remain. Plenty of bodies from multiple past spawns to loot. I've now hit level 20.


I'm tempted to go with toughness, or to put another point in a base perk, but instead I choose Life Giver. My base HP is just too low. Especially with the nerf from the vault 81 quest.


I now have 138 hit points when I'm well rested.


Preston thinks its time to take back the old minuteman stronghold. Woah. I've never done this quest before. Well, let's not be too hasty. I think I want to go back and finish clearing out Beantown Brewery and Backstreet Apparel first. Maybe hit Cambridge Polymer Labs for the stronger armor. Maybe clear out the comic book store for the BoS. Get up to level 22 or 23. But soon. Soon.


With all the extra leather and adhesive I've been collecting I can upgrade my chest piece to the top level: Polymer.


I still have enough resources left to upgrade one leg piece. Great. I now have 183 ballistic defense. A bit more upgrading and I can hit 200. Once I have more in armorer I can even increase the size of the armor for further improvements, although goodness knows how much material I will need for that.



Goodnight, wasteland.

(It's been 41 days since I left the vault. I'm level 20. I have been "heavily wounded" 6 times.)

Thoughts: A productive two days in which I didn't die, I leveled up, and I upgraded my armor. Great. What's super exciting is that I am finally getting close to the point where my past characters got when I restarted so many darn times in the past. I have rescued the detective synth once with a past character as well. But that's about the only thing left that I have done previously. Otherwise I'm pretty much caught up. A difference is that I'm a few levels lower, due to my mods restricting how much XP I can get for all kinds of tasks, especially construction. Anyway, going forward I'll be seeing a lot of stuff for the first time. I need to be careful if I'm to avoid my death count spiraling upwards.

[Yolan]

Days 42-44 - Beantown Brewery (again), Backstreet Apparel (again), hitting the gunners, some new pants, nuked to death

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Good morning wasteland. Today I'm heading to Beantown brewery to finish clearing it out. I've got a couple of raiders to shoot, and lots of bottles to collect.


I hoof it over the old fashioned way, taking down a few raiders at the bridge nearby. There's a fair few submachine guns lying around from past fights that I can collect for selling later too. Great.


The raiders upstairs put up a bit of a fight. But I have my four-crank musket to hit them nice and hard.


That's a lot of bottles. I'll be pumping them full of water and then selling them on later. Not really worth while maybe, but its some low risk cash.


Time to get to Diamond City.


I decide to stop and stay the night in my bunker at Hangmans Alley though. No point paying 10 caps to stay at the bunker inn if I have my own place.


Day 43. It's actually already pretty late, as I slept 16 hours. After the first 8 hours of sleep it was still too early for the shops to be open, but if I pass time in any manner, including sleeping, I loose my well rested perk. Lame, but that's how it works. If I had realised it I could have set my sleep to 10 or 12 hours instead and saved myself some time. Oh well. So I hit the hay again until it was 1pm or so.  Anyway, it's time for some shopping


But not before I have some scarring added for an earlier death at Backstreet Apparel. That's scar number 3. A bit of a burn, given that I was in the middle of a molotov hell storm when I got stabbed.


Then I purchase the remaining piece of combat armor that I don't yet have. Great. A full set.


Now I'm heading to Backstreet Apparel again to finish up there too.


There's a few raiders left up stairs.


Pow.


Great. A fancy helmet. This gives a nice 21 points of ballistic defense, and looks better than the metal one I was wearing for a bit there.


And off I go with a full load of scrap, back to Sanctuary once more.


Day 44. I start off with a few upgrades to my combat armor. It's all looking nice and shiny now. I almost have 200 points of ballistic defense.


Today I'm bringing the Fat Man and my remaining mini nuke with me. My target is a gunner base that is nearby. I'm feeling tough enough to take them on now. The mini nuke is for the turret, which is very tough with the Difficulty and Realism mod.


KABOOM. The turret actually survives, but weakened enough that I can quickly finish it with my .308 rifle. The blast also takes out a few of the gunners who are nearby. Then I have a brief firefight with a third gunner, and it's over.


A gunner harness. Sweet god yes. I'm going to wear this instead, using a mod that gives it a bonus of plus 2 to agility. The scav harness gives plus 8 ballistic defense on top of its plus 2 bonus to endurance, which will be a shame to lose. But I'm sick of looking at it. My ballistic defense is looking pretty good now anyway, and the extra agility will help a lot with combat.


Here's me with my full set of combat armor, my new helmet, and my new pants. Lookin good. In a few more levels I can upgrade that armor to be a bigger size, covering more area too. Can't wait.


I head up deeper into the gunner base, taking out another three or four of them. I'm a pretty good shot with my rifle now. I guess my level modifies the hit to chance skill in some manner, because its surprising how well I can shoot them given that my perception hasn't gone up. Unfortunately I can't loot everything there, as the remaining two turrets force me to keep my distance. I do take out a big pack of radstag deer down below as well though, grabbing a bunch more meat.


As it get late I head east. I've been given another quest to free up an outpost. I'm going to go scope it out. It's just past the suspended highway, down the hill from the dirt farmers.


Hmmm. What's this? A raider in power armor. Sweet! I can add some more pieces to my suit. So far I only have a helmet and a torso, so some arms would be really nice to have.


Wait a second.... So that's why he's called boomer. Hmmm... should I just... nah, let me back away slowly. But wait, I'll just shoot his buddy there and then run away. Maybe come back later and.... KABOOOM. Oh, I died. Death number 7. And I hadn't even really wanted to fight the guy. Well that's silly. Gah! I've never been shot at by Fat Boys before. Are they usually that accurate?

This is where I should have left, but I see a possibility. I can climb up onto the overpass where there's plenty of cover. I guess he doesn't have infinite ammo, so if I can just survive the first blast maybe I'm in the clear.


So far so good. I don't capture this as a screen shot, but his blast goes wide, hitting a few cars instead. I have to stay clear of any secondary blasts, but then it's a turkey shoot.


One four-cranked shot to boomers head removes his helmet. Then another takes him out. I want the arms undamaged.


Sweet. Two arms. My suit should be powerful enough now to help me actually do some real stuff in it. I can finally use all those stored up fusion cores. Anyway, looks like I'll be staying the night here.

Goodnight, wasteland.

(It's been 44 days since I left the vault. I'm level 20. I have been "heavily wounded" 7 times.)

Thoughts: That was a fun three days. Dying yet again sucked, but it was actually five days since my previous death, and that was a pretty unfair one (the radscorpion). Not to mention that I kind of died this time "by accident" as well. Although I guess it's pretty gray. I had the chance to run away and didn't take it, so I am chalking it down, but I'm not really feeling the need to give myself a scar for it. My self performance rating is remaining at "poor". Going forward I'll be heading back to Sanctuary to offload some loot, then down to Hangmans alley to mount these arms on my power armor chassis. Pretty exciting. I think I'll have a chance of being able to do some more combat in and around the fens and east of Diamond City soon. Let's see if I can last longer without dying again. Ten days or so would be nice. Maybe then I could bump myself up to "average" for performance.

[Yolan]

Days 45-49 - Fighting super mutants, Level 21, Animal cruelty, the comic store, level 22, Cambridge polymer labs

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Good morning wasteland. I started out day 45 by heading back to Sanctuary and collecting some XP. I'm almost at level 21.


Down at Hangman's alley I put my new arm pieces on the power armor. Great! This is the closest I've come so far to a full set of (crappy) power armor. The Some Assembly Required mod really makes things tougher. At some point I need to head to the army base where I know there is a full set of T45. Not just yet though I guess.


I test the thing out by fighting some super mutants down below in the underpass. With my 600 ballistic defense and my 4-crank laser musket I can take them on pretty handily, so long as I keep a bit of distance and remember to drink water for some steady but slow healing.


Coming out the other end of the underpass and finishing off a few more mutants and a hound I hit level 21. Great.


I'm going to invest in Action Girl, now that I have the agility to do so.


Me and my armor. What can't we do? Taking out some super mutants sure makes a girl feel powerful, that's for sure. Unfortunately dogmeat got hurt, and I had run out of Stimpacks. Looks like I need to head back to grab him.


Day 46 and I'm back in Sanctuary to get Dogmeat. I'd like to make some bullets in my alchemy room, but for some darn reason Clara's Brahmin is in there. Move out the way!


I can kind of squeeze past (by using the chem station), but now I'm stuck on the other side! Some plan this was...


In the end I discover that I can shift it by repeatedly punching it. Nice view.


Cmon boy.


And it's back down the Diamond City area again. I've used a whole day and a bunch of fuel just getting the dog and doing a little trading/ammo making.


I offload a few things at the bunker. We get up early the next day, when it's still dark.  Time to prowl some alleys in my not-so-shiny armor.


Well darn. I knew that if you go down a certain alley nearby to check out a suitcase and a body a dog will spawn behind you. But I didn't realize that it was level scaled. I get four dogs, including a legendary. And Dogmeat doesn't make it. And yet again, I don't have any stimpacks. It's right about now that I was wishing I had set his home to be Hangmans Alley instead of Red Rocket.......
hgnnnnnn....


I fight a few raiders nearby, scoping around in the odd chance that I could find a stimpack.


But no luck. Sorry boy.


Then, just after the dog goes home due to me walking too far away, I come back a bit closer in and find a bloody stimpack after all in the nearby police station. If I had gone there first I could have healed him after all.... The humanity!


I take my frustration out on a few ghouls.


And some more raiders that are nearby.


Morning.


I stop by Diamond City for some doctoring and to replenish my ammo.


Then I fight some more super mutants nearby.


The highlight was taking out a skirmisher with a 10mm pistol. I had a fair bit of range on him, and he wouldn't come any closer (this is pretty close to the diamond city entrance and all the turrets and guards). So I could get him in a war of attrition spanning a minute or so. At the end of it I've taken down four or so mutants and some dogs, and I have a single bullet left.


I also shot a few raiders up on the nearby apartment rooftops after I replenished me ammo in town. I popped inside the building for a bit, but it was far too dangerous. There's some high level raiders in there.


Back to Sanctuary bloody again to get that bloody dog. I'm really vulnerably without him. But this time I'm setting his home to Hangmans Alley. Along the way I do a bit of trading with Carla at the diner.


At Sanctuary there's a few mutants spawning nearby to fight, some trading and ammo crafting to do, and then sleep. The next morning I take a ride back down after sending my dog ahead.


Then I'm back on the war path, fighting raiders in the ruined city east of Diamond City. Dog gets hurt yet again when I'm fighting raiders, but this time heads back to Hangman's alley. Phew. Well, let's push on alone anyway.


Clearing a few mines from a safe vantage point. This building looks like a quest location. I'll be leaving it alone for now.


Rhys of the BoS gave me a quest to clear the comic book store, which happens to be nearby. After fighting plenty of raiders it seems like it would be a nice break to shoot ghouls instead. Yup. I was right. Ghouls in here after all. This is my first time in here incidentally.


They aren't much of threat to me, but of course I have a glowing one up top. It was pretty obvious that he was there, due to the glow coming through the floor, and the quest marker. But I had a bunch of bottlecap mines on me. I set one up the top of the stairs, popped up, then ran down. It took out his legs and then it was simple enough to finish him. They actually aren't too tough. But I assume they can one-shot me up close.


I was able to collect the Silver Shrouds clothing. I'm guessing this is for a quest that I get later in Good Neighbour (which I have never been to).


Informing Rhys that I completed the quest gets me to level 22.


I put another point into Action Girl. My AP now recovers 50% faster. This should really help. Going forward I would like to invest in Life Giver and toughness some more, but my base stats also need some loving.


Seems like it's time to hit Cambridge Polymer Labs at last. I've never done this quest before, but I know there is a glowing one in there. As I've just dealt with a glowing one I'm feeling bold enough.


This is maybe the greatest object I can get here. A suit that gives me 1000 points of radiation protection. And I can wear it under my combat armor.


A bunch of ghoul shooting later, and there it is. The glowing one. I need to go in this radiated room to get the isotope I need to finish the quest. Unfortunately I've been a dum dum and let my power armor run out of juice. I didn't realise that my remaining extra fusion core was super low. Well, the glowing one could probably one-shot me through that crappy power armor anyway.


I tried to lure the darn thing out of the room, thinking I could get it to run over my mine. But it just wouldn't come out. I try and be as cautious as I can, giving it a good five minutes of mucking about. But no luck. In the end I try poking my head in the room, but he is already on me before I can drop my mine. Splat! Next try he one-shots me as I try using jet to give me the time I need to drop the mine. Bleh. Basically, I didn't know before hand that he was programmed to stay in this room, and that is what screwed me over. Forcing me to get too close. In this kind of situation I'm not counting any deaths though. In the end what worked was dropping a mine when he happened to be across the other side of the room. He then wouldn't come close to me, maybe for fear of the explosion. I could then safely shoot him at my leisure. Hmmm. Maybe I've just discovered a tactic for fighting Glowing Ones in the future. If they are still a ways away but coming towards me, try dropping a bottle cap mine at my own feet.... Or maybe not the smartest idea.


Then I can get the quest item armor. To be honest the stats on it aren't that exciting. A little worse than what I am already wearing. Hopefully I can upgrade it like a regular chest piece. If so it will do nicely.


Great. A fusion core in the office of the director scientist. A nice little bit of story in the computers for this quest too. All up it wasn't a bad little quest, and one that I probably could have handled a fair few levels earlier to be honest. It's already late, so it's time to go back to Dogmeat and my bunker in Hangman's Alley for some sleep.

Goodnight, wasteland.

(It's been 49 days since I left the vault. I'm level 22. I have been "heavily wounded" 7 times.)