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[Telgin]

Settlement building feels almost completely pointless to me in Fallout 4, but it's something that didn't exist before except in mods (supposedly), so I can give it a pass.

Incidentally, money feels almost completely pointless to me in Fallout 4 too.  I think I've bought something from traders 3 times.  Resources are generally so plentiful that there's no point in trading.  The few times I did trade was generally to get rid of all of the psycho and mentats that I pick up in every other bathroom.

I later realized that I could have just converted all of the drugs I found at a chemistry station for experience points first, but they're still valuable to sell after that I guess.

[nenjin]

I find I still need money for ammo, without the scavenger perk.

I dunno. Like most Beth games, most of their systems aren't effective due to internal balance issues in the game. That is almost always corrected by mods.

So settlement building will work better I think when drops are toned down, money is made scarcer, survival elements are in (seriously Beth, how many fucking years will it take before you actually add some survival elements to the game? Survival mode just being harder than regular modes is a fucking joke) and so on. Ultimately though, settlements are there for people who want it. There's nothing in the game that will ever convince a solo, lone wolf player they need to invest in them. It would be stupid if the game actually required settlement building to get along for everyone, after all.

That said, I'm compelled to put walls around every settlement I encounter, whether I plan on developing it or not. And then my time invested is immediately not worth it when I watch enemies walk right through a solid wall. ><

After about 60 hours, I think this is the most polished game Bethesda has put out. Considering how many Beth games have devolved compared to previous ones, I think FO4 actually has more original systems added to it than any of the other games as well. It's also the most stable Beth game I've played to date as well.

I'm not sure where I stand on dungeons. Traditionally Beth games most abused feature, there seems to be real lack of them in FO4. What ones there are have a unique feeling to it and the tileset, but they're generally pretty small. Most of the points of interest seem mainly focused on the outside. I mean shit, I went to the ArcJet facility which looks huge from the outside and was like "Ok, Giant Robot Factory, GO!" Turns out it was two floors where half of the level was obstructed. I assume there's more to that dungeon in particular (or maybe not, it says it's cleared after killing 5 Protectotrons), but compared to FO3 or NV's dungeons, these things are tiny.

[Telgin]

I probably shouldn't lug around literally 7 or 8 weapons just so I can use every ammo type I find, but I guess that does explain why I never run out of ammo.  I really, really ought to ditch the pipe pistol I have, but 1,000+ .38 rounds is hard to ignore when there are so many feral ghouls around every corner.

Ultimately though, settlements are there for people who want it. There's nothing in the game that will ever convince a solo, lone wolf player they need to invest in them. It would be stupid if the game actually required settlement building to get along for everyone, after all.

I agree here.  Considering it's a new feature that's a substantial departure from previous games, I don't think it should be necessary in any fashion.  I just... kind of wish there were more real benefits to doing it.  So far as I can tell, the only tangible benefit is that you can farm tatos for absurd amounts of adhesive, or maybe so you can get stuff to sell to traders for junk to scrap for weapon and armor mods?  I admit that I don't know how useful scavenging stations are.  I just usually found all of the junk I needed while roaming around, so the extra junk feels redundant.

Then again, I guess the artillery could be useful if you built enough batteries in your settlements.  The other thing I could see possibly being useful is using them as staging points or pit stops for traveling, but fast travel makes that irrelevant...

I dunno.  I enjoy the settlement building to an extent since I like sim games and it reminds me of that.  I just wish it was more fleshed out.

It's also the most stable Beth game I've played to date as well.

It does feel more stable than New Vegas did at least, and even if New Vegas wasn't made directly by Bethesda I count it since it used the same engine.  I can't really comment on any others though, since I played FO3 on a console where it never crashed, and I don't play TES games.  Well, I did play Oblivion, but I can't really remember much about it.

FO4 does have an annoying tendency to crash around Diamond City and Goodneighbor for me though.  It's pretty predictable.  If I start walking around them, the game will start stuttering terribly.  If I try to keep walking while it stutters, it crashes frequently.  If I stop and let it sort out its major malfunction, then it usually recovers and the stuttering stops.

My guess is that it's something to do with the dynamic landscape loading.  So, presumably, as you're walking around it's trying to decide which parts of the map to load, and around those cities it does a poor job of it.  I'm guessing it's crashing because I'm moving into areas it hasn't loaded completely.  By letting it finish loading the area, things go back to normal.

Really though, that's the only glaring gameplay bug I've run into other than the teleportation while using VATS thing.  That was weird.

New Vegas was substantially more buggy.  Graphical glitches and crashes were not uncommon in it.

[Virtz]

Here's what I find FO4 did better than previous 3d titles:
-The shooting was way better than in FO3 and NV. Having enemies actually react to getting shot and then get a death animation before going into full ragdoll mode made it a lot more satisfying than the fucking nothing you got in 3 and NV. Certain enemies even have special reactions, such as protectrons lighting on fire, or synths and ghouls falling apart but still coming at you despite loss of limbs. The different enemy types in general feel more different than they did previously. You may say this minor stuff, but in a game where most of your non-travelling time is spent shooting shit, it really helps when it's not the most boring thing in the world.
-The AI feels less dumb than it did in FO3, I feel. I can't really back this up with objective observations, it just felt more like they were trying different things, taking cover and such, and not just going in a straight line at you (unless they were meleeists).
-No more weapon degradation.
-Weapon and armor upgrades.
-The world is way less goof-ball stupid than it was in FO3. And some of the lore felt like a giant middle-finger to FO3 as well, which I can get behind.
-The story branching is better than FO3, but not as good as NV. Same with companions.
-The level-scaling is more down-played than in FO3. I feel there's areas more or less dangerous rather than it all being a cookie-cutter world that wants me to go anywhere.
-Less bullet sponge. There's still some enemies that can take a lot of punishment, but it's nowhere near as bad as high level FO3 or even NV.
-Part-based equipment. It might not be all that interesting for us as the player, but it helps create variety among enemies when you see a ragtag bunch wearing only parts of a complete set.
-Giving a use for all the junk, whether by crafting or settlement building.
-Putting the power back in power armour.

[Krevsin]

In general, just like every Beth game since (and including) Oblivion, it suffers heavily from Bethesdaisms:

The fast travel system is garbage, money becomes a non-issue hillariously fast, buying stuff from merchants never happens because of how much equipment, ammo and healing supplies you get from looting trips quest runs (seriously Bethesda, scarcity is a good thing sometimes), enemies become progressively more bullet-spongy as you progress through the game (though they toned that down in FO4, along with enemy scaling), et cetera.

Basically it boils down to two mechanical issues (leaving aside poor writing):
- Lack of scarcity
- Fast Travel System

What makes this worse is that all Bethesda titles since (and including) Oblivion have had these exact two issues and they only seem to get more pronounced with each game. Issues that can and are easily fixed by modders on a regular basis.

Fallout 4 also brings along its own, new share of problems, most notably the dialogue system, which cannot be fixed by mods (blank slate and voiced protagonist do not mix well) but can only be mended slightly, and the fact that all quests end up with you going to a place and murderating everyone.

[SOLDIER First]

I don't have anything as articulated to add, but I really wish that raiders didn't use exclusively pipe weapons and the occasional switchblade so I can't amass 500 .38 rounds just by going around Diamond City.

[Krevsin]

I like the look of the Pipe Weapons.

I think they look nifty.

[Flying Dice]

TBH the FO4 settlements are worse than the settlement mods because they constantly bitch at you to defend them from three raiders right now and everyone hates you if you don't.

[Neonivek]

TBH the FO4 settlements are worse than the settlement mods because they constantly bitch at you to defend them from three raiders right now and everyone hates you if you don't.

And sometimes those raiders will just kill everyone... Like it didn't matter what your people were packing, they died.

[SOLDIER First]

build the turrets that don't require power everywhere

[Krevsin]

TBH the FO4 settlements are worse than the settlement mods because they constantly bitch at you to defend them from three raiders right now and everyone hates you if you don't.

Oh dear lord THOSE kinds of missions.

SOmetimes they are cool. Like when your ultrafort gets attacked by a bunch of raiders.

But most of the time it's just some backwater farming place and you really really wish you could just either send a squad of minutemen or have the defences that are in place take care of it.

[Rolan7]

The AI seems to use grenades if you're alive.  Constantly until that is no longer the case.  But yeah, they do often take cover themselves, and the grenades keep the player from being secure in cover.

I wish we got to use grenades...  In VATS, I mean.  Still pissed that that was apparently a feature on launch, and got removed for who-knows-why.

[nenjin]

Spending a lot of my time sniping from up on high, I've watched the AI flank in groups while one guy tries to keep my attention.

That said, fighting guys in a corridor is still just them dog piling in to kill you.

[TheDarkStar]

Spending a lot of my time sniping from up on high, I've watched the AI flank in groups while one guy tries to keep my attention.

That said, fighting guys in a corridor is still just them dog piling in to kill you.

Once I got a .50 sniper rifle, I could take down pretty much anything as long as I stopped by a shop every once in a while to get ammo. When I got a Gauss rifle and fully upgraded it, I used the .50 for basically everything except taking down Deathclaws and people in power armor - because I had the Legendary modifier that made it shoot faster, I could use the sniper rifle for close range.

On my current save, I'm actually taking a different route. I'm going pure stealth/melee (which has it's own problems, such as a lack of early weapons and no way to kill people without taking fire for several seconds) on Survival difficulty because guns are too powerful.

[Flying Dice]

The AI seems to use grenades if you're alive.  Constantly until that is no longer the case.  But yeah, they do often take cover themselves, and the grenades keep the player from being secure in cover.

I wish we got to use grenades...  In VATS, I mean.  Still pissed that that was apparently a feature on launch, and got removed for who-knows-why.

Hey, look on the bright side: it's not like vanilla Clear Sky AI and their infinite feet-seeking smart grenades.