Funny moments in fo4

[PZ]

 

[KingRat]

You guys are probably to young to remember, but I do>
http://www.westernclippings.com/remember/sgtpreston_doyouremember.shtml

[PZ]

We're probably an older group of chaps than you think, KingRat - I remember Sgt. Preston  :-X

[fragger]

I wasn't around when it was actually made but I ws born very soon after. I do remember seeing re-runs when my age was in single-digits in the early sixties, along with shows like Broken Arrow, Ripcord and Hawaiian Eye :-D

[mandru]

My parents didn't buy a TV until late in 1959 so I never got to see the first run of a lot of the action shows of that era.  However our local channels would stuff rerun episodes of the old classics into what would have been the frequent dead air spots where the national network feeds would experience technical difficulties or cut out all together so I did get to see a lot of them.

I never really related to Sgt. Preston as I've always had a natural aversion to any place that could snap so cold your ears would break off in your hand when you tried to warm them if you went outside without head wear.  But Sea Hunt, Sky King and The Real McCoys were big favorites.  :)

[mandru]

This kind of cracked me up but first instructions on finding it.

If you've done a few missions you've encountered Gunner's Plaza which can be found by following the one railroad line running North from the bottom of the map and to the East of the rail line it's the first significant structure bristling with highly aggressive Gunners you'll encounter.  On the East side of Gunner's Plaza there is a road that at first runs South and then meanders to the South East which will bring you to the Suffolk County Charter House (the pink slime school) where from the South West corner of that property if you look off to the South West there are four small concrete structures (squat pylons)  that are being protected by a heavy sentry bot.

One of the pylons has a door that contains a variable surprise that I've only encountered during game night time (it's not there when I've checked in daylight).  Other than a possible chuckle the only reward for running this down will be anything valuable you can strip off the defeated sentry bot.  ;)

 Peek or don't, it's your call

At night the door opens to reveal that the entry is blocked by a cinder block wall with one of the typical grinning red demon skull Halloween decorations and a message scrawled in by what appears to be blood reading either "Looking Good" or "You Look Great Today".

The first time I tried to go back and show this in game gag to Mrs. mandru it was of course during in game daylight hours so a message failed to appear
making me look like a bit of a dope.  :o      

[Dweller_Benthos]

I'm pretty sure I've seen that during the day, I'll have to go back and look. Murkwater (best name for that dank place, yuck) is right nearby too, and you can sleep there to get the right time of day. That is, after you defeat the mirelurk queen who made the place her home. The only reason I built anything there is to have artillery to cover the southern end of the map, and yes, Gunner's Plaza, so I can bomb them whenever I go by. The dude on the roof with the fatman is a real jerk :-0

[Art Blade]

 >:D

[mandru]

I'm playing in my typical post-game rampage mode in a story line setting where I sided with the Railroad when the news arrived that the Brotherhood of Steel was going to attack the freewill Synths.  I'd betrayed the BoS by blowing up the airship Prydwen (I gave General Maxson's battle jacket to Mama Murphy to increase her armor rating  :-D ) making that faction the designated enemies of the entire Commonwealth.  I'm accepting a lot of Railroad missions to eliminate BoS scouting parties and their BoS Vertibird attacks.  The BoS will attack my settlements every bit as quickly as they do super mutants, ghouls and synths.

But then that shouldn't be too surprising considering that the prevailing sentiment among most members of the BOS is "If you're not Brotherhood You're nothing."

In these Railroad missions to save the freewill seeking synths who managed to escape from the Institute before the "Nuclear Option" was enacted there's a lot of repetition back to the same few locations but I've determined to spice things up through exploring different ways to assault each of the areas while experimenting with and gaining at least fair proficiency the wide assortment of weapons available.

All that to say I still get a good chuckle every time I'm sent to rescue a synth and deliver their care package (including instructions on how to flee the Commonwealth safely) at the D.B. Technical High School.  ^-^

[Art Blade]

 

[PZ]

 

There appears to be endless opportunity to experiment in FO4.  That's one of the best aspects of the game.

[fragger]

 

[mandru]

My latest funny experience had more to do with my own actions instead of the game's behavior.

Yesterday had been very busy day including a lot more walking and lifting than I've been accustomed to some time.  Along with going out for a few errands and making several stops for shopping and dropping off a few watches for new batteries and service.  Back home I then had to wrestle a box that was really too big to have have fit into the backseat (to start with) out of the car, lug into that house. 

Once inside I then assembled my new office chair.  Any assembly job is always a challenge for me as I've mentioned elsewhere that I'm maldextrous or in simple terms equally bad with both hands.  I replaced the (admittedly) cheap desk chair that's been giving me some punishing back pain from using it for years.  It was basically a stool after the poorly designed back broke off and I'd developed the habit of hunching forward to rest my forearms on the desk when at the computer.

This new chair is now admittedly the most comfortable piece of furniture on our apartment.  It has a wide variety of adjustments to custom fit its user but one of the most appreciated is the higher lift of the chair height to accommodate the length of my leg knee to floor.  Also having the range of motion for the seat tilt function selectively locked to or separate from the movement of the back tilt adjustments means that I can adjust firm thigh support with out experiencing having my feet lifted off the floor when reclining.  Maybe it's too comfortable.

I logged into FO4 for what I figured would be an hour worth Settlement management.  As I was walking from my settlement at Kingsport Lighthouse to the one at Coastal Cottage I nodded off with my finger heavily on the forward movement button (PC key "W") and when I became aware again I found that I'd wandered out into the surf and was steadily making my way towards Africa.  ::)

I guess I was lucky that I'd long ago enabled the breath underwater perk but it was enough to make me wrap up early and get to bed.  I fast traveled back to Kingsport and will pick it up again later at a point before that where I wandered off.

[PZ]

 

Similar has happened to me more than once  :-()

[Dweller_Benthos]

I have also done that, nodded off while walking in a game, only to awaken and find my character has spent the last few minutes bashing his head against the wall I walked into, or wandered off into the wilderness. Luckily I've never had a character die because of it.

[Art Blade]

By the time I found out that I had done that, it'd usually have been about six hours after I started to do it. Means usually: get up, get a coffee, and finally go to bed. For, say, half an hour.

Actually, it's like this: I'm sitting in front of the PC and think to myself, "I think.. I'm a bit.. dozy." CHRchrchrchrchrZzzzZZzzzzz
The next thing is I realise something is wrong. Strange sounds from the PC speakers pull me back into reality but my left eye and my right eye are not yet working together -- however, they are starting to. And then the world around me starts to shape and becomes recognisable again. Then one eye starts to shut itself again and I don't do anything about it. CHRchrchrchrchrZzzzZZzzzzz. "Mmmmh?" is all you can think when you open one eye and instantly close it again when you realise it's actually daylight blinding you. Time to get off the chair and into bed.

[PZ]

  :-X

Nice to know I'm not the only one - some people might call that kind of gaming an addiction  :-()

[Art Blade]

whatever they call it, I can't get enough of it.

[fragger]

  I can relate to these stories.

I'd been making a document in Word when I woke up with my head on the keyboard after typing about 80 pages of "hjk" with my forehead. When I went into the bathroom I saw myself in the mirror and I had part of a keyboard embossed on my upper face :-() I looked like a Star Trek character.

I've also woken up during Civ (which has auto-scroll) to find myself endlessly circumnavigating the map as a result of me slumber-pushing the mouse pointer to the edge of the screen. I've also awakened to the sound of a "clomp-clomp-clomp" in Half-Life 2 to find Gordon Freeman apparently trying to run his way through a corridor wall.

I've yet to fall asleep standing up, but it's probably just a matter of time...

Btw, congrats on your new sit, mandru :-X A good chair makes a world of difference.

[mandru]

 :)

[PZ]

 

I'm afraid we are all in the same boat when it comes to computers!

[mandru]

More weirdness in the form of settlement troubles.  ::)

I came across a Steam forum post that stated don't bother trying to reach 100% leadership status with any settlements that have named NPCs so I've accepted that Sanctuary Hills and Warwick homestead are throwaways along with Starlight Drive-in which has always been problematic forever hoovering between 98 and 99% even with dozens of hours fine tuning and tweaking all of the amenities that have put other settlements over the top.  These three locations have become the dumping grounds for former companions and named wanderers that you can pick up in your travels.

The real weirdness kicks in with Croup Manor and Green Top.

In Green Top while the four NPCs assigned to farming for the 24 food resources to meet maximum settlement size are real troopers and stay busy as worker bees each and every settler assigned to one of the shops are gadabouts who rarely are to be found at their assigned positions.  It's more likely that I will find them wandering outside the settlement perimeters drawing attention of the super mutants across the way at Breakheart Banks or off to the west tangling with the stingwings that spawn there.  One time when I checked in with them several of them were getting the snot kicked out of them by the Deathclaw in nearby Old Gullet Sinkhole.  :D


The settlers at Croup Manor (which sits up well on a bluff overlooking the waterfront) on the other hand have their own distinct quirks.  When I first started developing the settlement I went through the existing building and laid down all new flooring covering up all of the holes and installed 24 beds, planted 24 mutfruits and then cheated using the No Clip console hack to bury two of the biggest water purifiers underground to reach the lower water level in anticipation of turning on the recruitment beacon.

The first problem that I encountered with the Croup Settlers is that there were times I would find that half of them would wander off the edge of the steep bluff drop down into the water and gather up in a cluster on a small spit of sand at its base all staring off across the bay at Kingsport Lighthouse
which happens to be a settlement that all but put itself together and tagged the 100% mark in jig time and has stayed there ever since.

What?  The grass is greener over there?

The bluff is too steep to climb back up so they get stuck there.  Because they are outside the build zone I can't give them orders to return them to w@&k.  The only to retrieve them is by ringing the community gathering bell.  Yesterday I got fed up with it and tossed up a junk wall along the entire face of the bluff so I've yet to see if it that provided any deterrent for this behavior

Trying to trouble shoot the quirk above (and the one I'll get to) I worked my way down my settlement happiness list.

A habit I adopted early on is when settlers (for all settlements) trickle in called by the recruitment beacon I screen them to weed out synths.  New arrivals all wear dirty or wastelander clothing, carry a pipe weapon of some sort, and .38 rounds so newbies are easy to spot.  When I find a new settler I get a face to face Save point and they are killed on the spot to see if they are carrying a synth component which is always hidden if they are alive.  This of course freaks out everyone else so after checking them I reload the Save point and anyone Clear gets re-outfitted with the best weapons and armor I can give them and assigned to a task and bed.

Synths when detected get a sack hood to make them stand out and are assigned to w@&k at a shop that is intentionally out in the open and can be sniped from a safe distance to remove them.  If the settlers can't detect you they don't get bent out of shape even if they are standing next to your target when the hit occurs.  Then I come in and strip the intruder and dump the body outside the build zone.

So I know there are no synths in the settlement but almost immediately I noticed that the settlers even though individually were assigned to beds they refused to wrap things up at the end of the day and go to sleep.  ???

Ok, so what?  The manor is haunted and new sleeping arrangements need to be made?  Maybe because there are holes in the walls and the sleep area can't be secured with a closing door?

Knowing that I would need a building to house the required shops for an expanding population I created a large structure stilted up on both ends with stepladders nestled between the manor and the statue plinth out front.  That level was set up with half new beds and half shops that would be assigned as additional settlers arrived but no dice.  Everyone still refused to sleep in their now newly assigned beds.  :'(

Hmm, maybe they don't like beds on the same floor as the shops so I stripped out the ceiling of that structure then added another level above the first and moved all the beds up yet another floor. At that point I had 48 beds in the settlement as I'd not bothered to recycle the first set in the manor.

Still, like three year olds jacked on Fanta red creme soda they would not go to bed.  :D

So in frustration I slapped down yet another 24 beds (72 total at this point) in the open air on bare ground under the footprint of where I'd intended for them to sleep in the building above and accepted that when it came to sleep my efforts would be met with failure.

Having a full compliment of 22 settlers (with 4 of them farming for 26 food to meet that requirement) I took off from Coup Manor for quite a while to check on my other settlements and to just enjoy thrashing and harassing the bad guys in the game to blow off some steam.

After several game time days I returned to Croup Manor well after midnight (their time) to check on them.

Well... They had taken a step in the right direction as each of them had gone to their assigned beds only instead of sleeping they were all standing on their beds fully wide awake (I've see a glitch with a sleeper standing up on a bed but this was completely different from that.  Their eyes were wide open and would make the typical comment as I walked past them.

Time to throw my hands in the air and give up on that bunch of boneheads. 

[PZ]

  :-X

Nice read, mandru!

[Art Blade]

yep :-X :-D

[Dweller_Benthos]

I did the bare minimum with settlements once I realized how wonky they were. I also don't agree with that 100% happiness can't be achieved with named NPCs. The only place I have gotten that is at Longfellow's cabin and he's the only one there. He tends his own crops, has a generator for some lights, a couple machine gun turrets for defense, one bed in his cabin and two dogs and two cats. Happy as a clam, 100% in a few game days.