Save is always my friend

Agreed. Plus considering they throw multiple legendary level foes at you on the standard difficulty at even low levels, I'm not sure I'd consider anything over easy as a "wussy level." I'm a fairly good FPS player and have watched my character's head get blasted off enough times as it is thank you

I tell ya' though, I am really, really missing Three-Dog. That Jet addict (or what ever he's on) DJ, in Diamond City bugs the heck out of me.

Speaking of legendary foes, did I get my butt handed to me last night. I stumbled on a group of Gunners, three of which were legendary. I held my own for about 20 seconds until the rather tight grouping of missiles scatters my limbs across the eastern seaboard. Gah! Those crazies are tough and really well armed!

I was sent to Dunwich Borers very early in the game this time, and half of the Raiders were Legendary -- one with power armour on, too. It took me two hours. And the Massachusetts State House had a Legendary Raider with power armour as well, and I ended up having to use a missile launcher with mini-nukes to get past her. Now that's fun, indoors.

I seem to be getting my derriere handed to me a lot more this time. Or perhaps it's just that my other character was level 79 or so when I abandoned her, and I've forgotten how weak a level 19 character really is -- especially as I loaded up on Char this time, not Endurance.

But I FINALLY found a decent .50 sniper rifle. That's the tuning point.

One thing I'm finding this game is that I have far, far less of the stuff I need for crafting. Not sure why, except I am following quests and not roaming like I did last time. I have three settlements all ready to go with beds and food and water, and even a store, but no tower, or no defence system in place.

When I first started playing I wasn't keeping any junk, pretty much selling everything for ammo. Now I'm picking everything up and putting stashes at easy to get to locations so I can fill up my workshop after the fireworks end. I don't have much time to play when I get home from work so I'm using that time to scavenge for junk and continue to build up the settlement. This weekend I'll run some quests and the go back to building "Junk Towers"

My fortified settlement at the Red Rocket is an exercise in ordinance and building excess. Taking your advice Hagatha I've got Laser Cannons and Missile launchers all over the place. It's also somewhat of a death trap though with all the open wiring hanging about. Poor Dogmeat keeps getting trapped in glitched areas, but the good thing is that he's showing me places I need to shore-up before the I call for settlers or I'll have a bunch of stuck folks doing the treadmill/pause/treadmill thing.

I found out about the game exploit that allows you to go past the build limit on the settlement and have been using it like crazy. If your computer can handle loading big saves then it's a great exploit to use. You just take every gun you have collected and drop it on the ground in the settlement workshop area, then go into workshop mode and store each one. Every time you store one, the game thinks you're eliminating a piece from the settlement and decreases that Size bar you see in the workshop HUD display. You can do it as many times as you want, just go back to the workshop, get your guns, rinse and repeat. The only caveat is the more items you add to your settlement, the bigger your save and the longer the load time. If your PC isn't up to snuff it's possible to crash your game when you fast travel back to the settlement or try to load a previous save there. So far I haven't had a problem, fingers crossed and I've lost count on the number of floor panels I've placed down and walls I've put up.

Interesting cheat on the settlement size. I might try that at one of the smaller locations.

One thing I learned late in the game last time -- build up. I realized that Hangman's Alley could have quite a generous settler allotment if I attached a large structure to the existing buildings, so I built Fawlty Towers, which basically covered the entire area, leaving lots of space for food growing and stores below, at ground level. And Tenpines Bluff can have lots of beds in a three-storey condo with stores and a restaurant on top and still have room for the farm.

I've also put a few of those little pre-made metal Air Streams on top of the Red Rocket station, giving me six beds and room for a bar. Took me ages to get the stairs just right, but I finally managed it at the back of the station. Then I had to fence the whole thing because while my settlers used the stairs to get up, the idiots insisted on jumping down, injuring themselves in the process. Maybe having the bar up there was a mistake...

Oh, by the way, Trail, if the DJ is bothering you,

EDIT: I've also found a couple of crafting magazines I missed in my last game. Now I can make potted plants and cheesy statues.

I'll remember that quest. I like the music he plays, it's just the weirded out chatter between songs that gets on my nerves.

Cheesy statues eh? Have you seen the concept art with the main protagonist and Dogmeat on a vertibird in combat? Everything is a blur of destruction. They must be going through a suburban area because amidst the chaos you can just make out a couple pink flamingo lawn ornaments that have been blasted into the air.

Just started developing Sanctuary. I'm a fairly free spirit when it comes to these games so I didn't realize that the settlement is really a tutorial on settlement building. Should have realized that Bethesda would have something built into the storyline. Weird thing is that even though I was considered a initiate in the Brotherhood, I'm now part of the Minuteman by just accepting a quest. For some reason I thought you had to select a specific faction, unless that's something bigger coming up later in the quests...

I had to build a special platform to get that first Minuteman you meet off the workshop roof. I'm starting to enclose that area as the main settlement building and he fell through a gap in an addition I had above the roof and couldn't figure out how to get down. It was kind of funny how he patiently waited for me as I started building the platform and leveling the stairs. As soon as they were at his level he hopped down and used the stairs like they had been there all the time.

You can join all of the factions and don't have to make a decision until late in the game -- and you will be told when that is, basically. I ran into a bug in my last game that prevented me from .

I like the crafting. I find it very peaceful, sort of a game within a game. I just wish there was a way you could clean up the sites a bit better. Some of them are pretty nasty, even after all of the old vehicles and other trash are removed. You know, like an in-game bulldozer to level out some of the piles of yuck, and knock down the remaining ruined buildings so you can start fresh. The only really pretty sites are Somerville Place and Sanctuary Island, and I guess maybe Nordhagen Beach and the Marina are okay, too, but all of those still have grotty old buildings and/or shacks.

I've started building stores and bars right away to generate income. I didn't realize you could generate money that way last time, and ended up finding thousands of caps in each workshop half way through the game.

The crafting is fun. I spent about half the night building up New Sanctuary . I know what you mean about sprucing up the areas better, I really want to fix up that bridge and get rid of the busted up houses completely. Mama Murphy freaked me out, she somehow made it to the very top of the New Sanctuary fortress and was right at the edge looking down. I was just about to go up there to build a real set of stairs and there she was in the workshop. I think there's something about those slippers of hers.

Sweet!

Speaking of Mama Murphy (stop me if I've mentioned this before:-)) does she remind any of you Steven King readers of a character from one of his books?

Mama ended up dead from an overdose in my last game so I avoid her now. It's her funeral, but the rest of the settlers moaned and complained endlessly when she died, the ingrates. It annoyed me so much . I'd already upgraded their armour and weapons and gave them over 100 in defense, so I figured it was time they tried to make it on their own.

There ya go, Hagatha, sink or swim time

Sanctuary always seems to do fine anyway, unlike some of the other settlements, which seem to be grumpy no matter what. Build them brightly lit houses, restaurants, and shops, give them a walled town, beef up their defenses with Laser cannons, and they still gripe for some reason. Yet other communities are happy from day 1 and stay that way with far less attention.

Argh, been too tired from work to play more than an hour or two. One good thing, I found an awesome gun, "Spray and Pray" it's an .45 auto combat rifle with the feature of making the bullets explode on contact. It chews up ammo like crazy, but man does it cut a swath through the enemies. It says that it only causes 13 damage per shot, but that can't be right because I've blown a lot of raiders to the Republic of CA on one short burst. Usually dismembers them.

And where did you find this? On a body? Or in a container somewhere?

I tend to stick with the tried and true .50 sniper rifle, with backup from a combat rifle, but I could see myself enjoying that gun you found. I've also been known to use a minigun in this game, but I actually tend to leave that to my companions, who seem to enjoy having a variety of weapons to play with.

In my last game I found a full set of armour that increased Strength and Endurance, which was a blessing for carrying stuff. I've only been able to find one piece so far in this game.

Purchased from the Jet fiend merchant Cricket near Jamaica Plain. Wow, you weren't kidding about how much of a dump that place is. If I can figure out where the workbench is I'm just going to gut the place for scrap and parts and leave it to the ghouls. I'll double check the location later and let you know. I was so tired yesterday while playing my eyes were closing about half way through the quest so I might be a little off on my directions. It's the weekend now and I've got a bottle of Sobe Power Punch that will wind me up for a good few hours of game play.

I also picked up Cait as a companion. She's cute Got to do something about that substance habit of hers though...

Correction damage count "Spray and Pray" does: It's 31 points per hit, plus an additional 15 explosive area damage per bullet.

Trail, hope the Sobe let you get in some fun gaming

Okay, I've run into Cricket many times. I don't usually buy armour and weapons, but I could make an exception. Except I have no money in this game. None.

I developed Jamaica Plain to the max last time and for a long time it was my happiest settlement. Then I missed a couple of rescue missions and everyone got grumpy. I think I'll just scrap it this time, too. I passed it recently so I don't have to look too hard. And I'm leaving Mirelurk to the Mirelurks this time. Someone should pull the plug on that place.

Surprisingly I do really like Hangman's Alley, though. This time around I was better prepared as to what can fit in that tiny space, and now I have a thriving community of 18 stuffed in there.

OK, it's official, I am addicted to Fallout 4 like a Raider on jet :-)
I picked up a nasty flu bug so was home yesterday nursing my fever, but that didn't stop me from playing a marathon session from 9am until almost 11pm only broken up by naps, meals and bio-breaks.lol!

Definite signs of addiction there, TM.

I hope you feel better soon (even though that will interfere with your Fallout 4 time).

haha Trail. I'm at 499 hours and counting, much of it spent obsessing over settlement construction and exploring and not so much of it on the actual game.

Truth to tell, although this is a rather silly game in terms of intellectual involvement, it is a rollicking good time if you really, really like shooting at things with very large guns.

Hope you're feeling better, Trail

Very true. The crafting element is the thing that got me hooked. I remember in Neverwinter Nights 2 the same thing happened. I was playing mainly to collect new materials to see what crazy stuff I could craft.

The interface coding for the armor and weapons crafting need overhauls though. There is very little that is intuitive and the finicky nature of the crafting menu selections can be really frustrating sometimes. Don't even get me started on the "snap geometry" rules they have on the walls and floors. It's a good thing that you can scrap stuff, because I mess up so often. They also need a really big ruler in the game so I can keep my fences straight!

I'm so tempted to start a new game, now that I know the rules better. Oh, and the guide book, for it's size is only moderately helpful. It didn't even mention how to set up trade routes.

I am pretty impressed by some of the dialogue and characters though, much better than FO3. Cait's dialogue definitely surprised, me. The voice actor they got for her is quite good and it's nice that they gave her character some depth. I'm even getting used to the Diamond City DJ. I stopped in his place to see if I could pick up his quest and all he did was look at me nervously and say, "Don't smash my stuff, OK?" Must have been the power armor. LOL!