My heart goes out for you Mils – I have been there and it is hard, for sure. My character is the mom from “the Americans” TV show (the one you learn to hate) and is a Russian spy sleeper agent. She could care less about militia etc and tends to be a deadly killer (stealth/pistol/ but lately rifle). I do tend to plan my missions/quests with the idea that I could lose time. For example, (spoiler) one of the railroad quests has you dangling over a monorail – died on that trying to get down to it (plus the protectron). Died twice in fact --but got it.
Which displays the real tension in survival: to sleep or not to sleep – cause NOT sleeping is a helluva bonus when it stacks. I sleep. Save save save. My rule of thumb is 15 mins and sleep – cause you can die faster than Tom gives a major game release a bad review. If I see a mattress, or sleeping bag, I’m in there – as SOON as I think I am starting to do well --I am dead. Sometimes stupidly, sometimes unfairly, but dead dead.
Fallout survival tip 1437: Get a gauss rifle.
ps --there is nothing fair about survival mode.
Bateau
4138
Yep, death lurks around every corner. This goes double for high levels. Yesterday I lost about an hour of progress when I got hugged by one of those dual sword wielding robots (I don’t think it was an Assaultron) and got oneshot - through a fully upgraded set of leather gear, fatigues with mk5 ballistic weave, med-ex, psycho and yao-gui ribs ;_;.
I’m trying to settle on my next weapon but I just can’t. Got 5/5 Rifleman so I’ve been using a silenced hunter rifle for a while now but the damage just isn’t good enough, even with stealth multipliers. I guess I could go for a Gauss, even though I don’t have a legendary version. It has ~2.5x more damage than the hunter’s rifle so it should oneshot most things from stealth I think.
I also tried out the Radium rifle and I love it - small weapon model that’s positioned pretty low, plentiful ammo, etc - the problem is that I only have a version that does 50% more damage to humans and from what I’ve read the radiation dmg sucks versus most of the things you encounter in the wasteland. Did anyone test this thing?
Hmm haven’t tried the Radium rifle --nor seen it – I’ve finally got annoyed with the Railroad quests – but putting one of those tinker tom gizmos up landed me a Legendary penetrating gauss rifle --which may be the perfect weapon fully modded.
That melee damage you state seems higher than ranged damage I am seeing. I am tempted to try a melee/power armor spec considering the fist weapons are relatively easy to get.
The gauss rifle is serious – and it has an anti-robot mod (I think that’s not a mod I downloaded --but who can tell on the version I’m playing atm).
The brotherhood guys and I died a few times in that south fortress super mutant hell (the one west of the militia castle). Had a vertibird land on top of me – durn pilots. Don’t they know I am playing survival? try to suicide INTO the mutants next time!
ps --as long as I am playing I plan on keeping this thread alive. Survival mode is the real game.
Bateau
4140
You cannot use unarmed (fist) weapons in Power Armor, at least not in the vanilla version. There are however unarmed upgrades for your PA fists but from what I’ve read the damage is ~3x lower than on the basic fist weapons (knuckles etc) you can find. Those posts were over 6 months old though so it might be worth investigating.
I ran into a couple mobs that I couldn’t oneshot from stealth with the Pickman’s Blade - Mutant Warlods I think? And I got super excited all over again because it gives me a reason to think about going for Rooted. I’ve also ditched the Gauss rifle, damage was spectacular but I can’t stand the oversized weapon models. Currently testing the Radium rifle, I’ll report back with the results.
Bateau
4141
I’m happy to report that Radium rifle works incredibly well versus pretty much everything. I did a quick google search and some people are speculating that radiation resistance doesn’t work properly at the moment so you get full benefit of its damage versus everything. At the moment I still have it in a semi auto setup though, mostly because I don’t feel like throwing 5 perks at commando but once I get to Far Harbor where I’m able to buy the Kiloton version I’ll probably put 5 points into Commando and 5 into Explosive weapons. Maximum carnage.
As for the base weapon’s effectiveness - I got caught with my pants down (= no stealth) when I was exploring far south and came face to face with a mirelurk king, legendary albino mirelurk razorclaw and a mirelurk queen. Popped Jet, Psycho and Med-X and killed all 3 monsters before Jet wore off. Clearing Quincy Ruins with this thing (got the version with 50% more dmg versus humans) was incredibly satisfying.
My character is now in the mid 20s but I still haven’t found anything that does incredible damage. I’ve modded out Kellog’s pistol, but it’s so slow that I don’t use it too much. Otherwise I keep getting legendaries that are decideldy un-legendary, like multiple legendary double barreled shotguns. The most reliably effective thing I have is probably my fully modded 10mm pistol. What it’s forcing me to do though, which is turning out to be a lot more interesting, is setting up the battlefield with mines, establishing escape routes, etc. Really satisfying when it works, and almost equally entertaining when I screw it all up and blow myself up with something that flanked me or otherwise caught me unaware.
I was talking to a co-worker who had played through when it first came out (pre-survival mode) and hearing him discuss the game vs. my experience with survival mode was so interesting. Like seeing the same movie twice, the first time directed by Bay and the next by Tarkovsky (almost, but frustratingly not quite). He was ambivalent about playing again so soon, but after about 2 minutes of describing how amazing survival was he was all set to jump back in.
Bateau
4143
Phew, Mechanist fight was intense! Luckily I had a lot of Jet with me but I did run out of bullets in the middle of the battle, lol. Have to say though, I’m not a fan of content that forces companions on you, I hope Far Harbor will be different in that regard.
I am gonna do that fight this weekend. I wanna clear my quest log --which gets annoyingly full.
I uninstalled all mods – I lost track of what did what and decided to just go vanilla. Like I said in an earlier post I normally mod skyrim/fallout stuff to make it more difficult and --well --there’s no need for THAT now. BTW skyrim could use a good Bethesda/Fallout survival mode. heh now THAT would be serious tough.
I am using my super penetrating gauss rifle and the deliverer still at level 43. Boston has been mostly cleared like old Stalingrad – but I’m considering dropping the railroad and just saying “damn you synths” and going BoS. I am not even sure why I am even helping the RR except to get that neato ballistic armor. I have no empathy for synths at all --well – except for Nick I guess.
Ill be running mechanist here soon and see how that goes --I am sure itll be a bed search lol
Bateau
4145
Glowing sea was AWESOME. I wore a hazmat suit the entire time so I felt quite squishy and the beds were few and far between. Had quite a few butt clenching moments when distant radscorpions that I shot at suddenly popped up next to me (Bethesda pls). Fortunately I had a healthy supply of drugs with me - there’s no challenge too great for a good dose of Jet!
Good lord. Glowing Sea and no power armor? I don’t even
Bateau
4147
Jet’s a pretty good substitute for PA :>. Also, I was/am pretty high level - 83.
To be completely honest, I just don’t like the interface and the sound that PA makes. And since I’m running a non-modded install there’s no way around that. Which is why I’ve invested 4 perks into Rad Resistant in preparation for Far Harbor.
Went Bos – wow some tough fights with those kids (squire quests) – I even put my hand over their eyes a few times. I am not sure I’ll stay BoS --It is clear they are dummies. But If I do those railroad quests again I am not sure I like that run either – I have no real empathy for synths. Was I suppose to have ? how? They are robots far as I can tell.
I DO like my semi-medium travel via verti and flares. That’s helped a bit. Level 54 btw Bat – I finally got the Xo-1 Power armour and it seems more fluid. Ill use that for the glowing sea (hazard suit? Really? wow)
New stuff revealed at E3
More workshops stuff: Contraptions and Vault-Tec
A whole new area - Nuka World
Nuka World will also apparently be the last DLC, and is sizable.
Bateau
4151
I haven’t decided on a faction yet either. Believe it or not, I’m actually strongly leaning towards Minutemen, they seem to be the most reasonable. However, I’ve yet to meet the Institute so I might go with them becaue both BOS and RR are just too derpy for me. As for X-01 - besides the intro sequence where you get to use the P-45 or w/e it’s called X-01 was the only Power Armor I used. I did a few quests with it but it felt really claustrophobic so I ditched it. The worst offender by far is the interface, map and compass become nearly useless once you put that thing on and I’m not a fan of those gauges either.
Btw Kristi, since you seem to be a huge fan of survival you should give the Misery mod for Stalker: Call of Pripyat a shot once you’re done with FO4. I bet you’d like it ;).
With Nuka World and more settlement improvements (which is basically what the vault thing sounds like), the Season Pass might finally be worth the original asking price.
Murph
4153
I haven’t picked up Far Harbor yet. This might be the perfect time to snag the season pass…
The perfect time to pick it up was months ago when you could get it for about $25 :)
I tried Stalker a bit, but what I prefer in Fallout 4’s combat is vats and the almost turn-based shooting game it provides. Regular, real time shooters aren’t as fun for me – though yours and others recommendations may turn me over. Thanks!
I had to relearn the “find a bed” lesson once again, when my vertibird hot landed me right on top of a suicide mutant. 45 minutes of my life gone, and a LOT of it was inventory/crafting stuff. Sigh.
Suicide tip 145: Do NOT try to land the vertibird at Hangman’s Alley. Its a death trap.
