Fallout 4: First Impressions and APBD Day 0 · 8:51pm Nov 10th, 2015
"Let's go."
art by Jasper77Wang
Fallout 4 is, so far, glorious!
I've made it to Sanctuary Hills. Yep. A whole evening of play and I've barely gotten anywhere. But I've had a ton of fun.
Part of the slowness is because I'm stopping to make notes for my "Let's Play" inspired written playthrough. Part of it is because I explore everything I can. Part is because I took forever creating my character (who, in the end, looks almost identical to one of the presets). And a small part is because I got about ten feet out of the first room and immediately shut down the game and made some modifications.
I could gush endlessly about the game's beginning. First, everyone who thought the game would be ugly was wrong. It's beautiful. Second, the before-the-apocalypse opening was inspired. I rather wish it was longer. Third, I'm already seeing how incredible the crafting system is going to be. And it has triggered a Must Loot Everything approach that would make Calamity proud. Fourth, I have never been so thankful that Stable-Tec wasn't like Vault-Tec.
My biggest complaint is that there isn't an in-game FOV slider. I have issues with motion sickness, and the game's field of view is truncated enough to trigger nausea. Fortunately, there is a Steam guide for altering FOV. It requires adding lines to three separate .ini files, but the minor effort is absolutely worth the major improvement. Likewise, there is a guide for unlocking your framerate.
The first installment of Angel's Pip-Boy Diary is below the break. Please let me know in the comments what you think of the style and presentation, and if this is something you want to continue to read.
Something fun you should check out!
Angel's Pip-Boy Diary
Day 0
Now that I have one of these, I’m going to use it to start a diary. By “these”, I mean a Pip-Boy. These fancy, high-tech arm-computers have a recording function and ample storage space. It would be a shame not to use them.
Not to mention that talking into something for a diary will probably make me go less crazy. Or, at least, seem less crazy. Talking to myself is a habit I formed in law school. Speaking things aloud, enumerating facts and theories, helped me keep everything straight. It was helpful in my law practice. And even after I cut back my work to play happy homemaker, I still kept the habit. Nate joked that I provided a running commentary for daily life.
Oh god. Nate...
I’m in shock. I should be curled on a floor somewhere, or near hysterics, but I’m not. Shock has numbed the emotions, allowing my more analytical side to take hold. I just hope, when the numbness passes, that I can hold myself together. I hope the numbness passes.
Where can I even start?…
Okay. I’m calling this “Day 0”, because this morning it was over two centuries ago, and my biggest concern was Nate’s speech and getting Shaun’s costume ready by Halloween. I remember thinking how tiny Shaun looked in his crib. I remember being annoyed that Rosa left her gate open again. After we lost our dog, you’d think the neighbors would take more care.
That… none of those little suburban concerns have any meaning now. According to the date on this Pip-Boy, right now is October 23, 2287. I would have had trouble believing that if I hadn’t seen the overseer’s skeleton (and a few others) – completely bare of rotting flesh. The staff of Vault 111 were not only dead, but had been for quite a long time. Stepping outside was a confirmation, not a revelation.
Dead trees, blue sky, skeletons and birds. It was actually rather peaceful.
As that Vault-Tec shill said, the world has gone to heck in a handbasket. Only stronger language is called for. That guy acted like he knew the world was about to end. Although he certainly wasn’t ready for it to end that morning. Makes me wonder how much Vault-Tec knew. I may have the chance to find out.
Vault 111 was less of a survival shelter than it was a cryogenic experiment conducted on the residents. I knew something was wrong the moment I stepped into the room filled with individual “decontamination pods”. The room had no other exits. There were no doors under the pods to drop them to another level. We had passed a couple restricted side passages on the way in. They had ominous warnings about safety gear and ammonia leaks, so I assumed they weren’t to the living quarters. Which meant the Vault appeared to have no living quarters. Or much of anything else.
Still, the bomb that took out (I think) Boston had detonated while we were still on the platform. The blast wave passed directly over us while we descended. I was worried about the exposure, particularly for Shaun. I wanted those pods to be decontamination pods. I let fear override my suspicions. Not the first time I’ve done that. Hopefully, after this, I can make it the last.
Just this morning, I was looking at Blast Radius, a board game (from Don’t Be Bored Games… cute) where the first to the safe zone survives while all other players perish. Between that an the Fat Man commercial, I was thinking just how far gone society was. How nasty we had become under the veneer of pleasantness. Part of me meant it when I told that Vault-Tec shill to sign me up for the apocalypse. I can’t believe I said that so ironically close to the event.
That veneer is gone now.
From what I read on the terminals in Vault 111, Vault-Tec had lost any sense of it well before the bombs fell. The staff was instructed to only give life-saving assistance if 80% of the residents died. That’s monstrous. And the lack of protest in treating their fellow Americans is just another enumeration of the cancer that had eaten away at the soul of our country. Worse, the overseer’s instructions were to not interrupt the cryo-experiment even if it meant the loss of the entire population. And, for dessert, his staff was expendable too.
While we were frozen, Vault 111 collapsed under a mutiny
As a lawyer, I saw the worst of humanity on a daily basis. I saw everything from remorseless criminals (several of whom I got set free) and corporate practices that were unabashedly evil (class actions were my favorite). Part of me feels that it is better everything is gone. Wiped clean, with a chance to start again. Maybe this time, we can be less horrid.
So far, it is two-to-four against in the “less horrid” category.
I realize I’m rambling.
Okay, first things first. Nate is dead. Someone broke into Vault 111, murdered him and took our son. I awoke long enough to witness it, then was put back under. One of the murdering kidnappers looked at me and said “At least we still have a back-up.” So this wasn’t just some weird raid. This was part of somebody’s plan. Plan to do what? Why would they need my son? And why wouldn’t they want Nate? He’s… he was a soldier, dammit!
The first cryo pod in our room was empty. Did they take someone else as well? One of my neighbors? Or did someone not make it into the Vault in the first place. One of the Vault terminals said that “Only Noidhagen was missing.” But the context made him sound like a member of the staff, not a resident for cryo-storage. According to the terminals in Vault 111, there were both manual and remote overrides of the system.
All the other pods were filled with corpses. A message on one of the terminals suggested that the overseer use the pods for body disposal, but I don’t think that was implemented. According to the terminals, the residents each died from “premature termination resulting in system failure”. Whoever took Shaun and killed Nate managed to kill everyone else in the process.
But, if that’s true, why didn’t the system failure kill me? No, I think it was the remote override that caused the system failure. The manual override was for Nate and Shaun. The remote override was for me. Someone let me out, and it killed everyone else. Who? And why?
Presumably, someone connected with our invaders. Another Vault 111 terminal entry informed me that after the “All Clear” signal and the staff of Vault 111 was evacuated, Vault-Tec would continue to run the experiment on the residents remotely. Based on their callous disregard for our lives, I’m guessing until we all died. Maybe the point was to see how long cryo could work. Assholes.
The invaders had to get into the Vault, and had to already know what they were looking for. The most logical conclusion is that they had access to the local Vault-Tec HQ. And that the person who released me did it from there sometime after.
I have to remember, as immediate as the memory of Nate’s murder is for me, that any amount of time may have passed since then. For all I know, the people responsible may all be long dead, and whatever group they worked for has already collapsed. That’s not the scenario that first comes to mind. I’ve defended whistleblowers. I’m guessing that whoever released me was acting solo, probably rogue. Explains the lack of a greeting party waiting for me. For all I know, the person responsible could even have been my son.
As much as I’d hate to think Shaun grew up to have such a disregard for the lives of others, I can comprehend why I would be the one person he would care about releasing. If it was someone else, I suspect that my release was motivated by whatever plan might have needed me as a back-up. Question then would be: is releasing me part of that plan, or an attempt to sabotage it?
One thing is for certain. I’m going to want to find the local Vault-Tec HQ. Hopefully, I’ll learn more there.
More immediate concerns were basic survival. Food, shelter, clothing. Also, as I quickly learned, protection and armament.
The post-apocalyptic Commonwealth is far from barren and lifeless, although apparently trees are extinct. There is plenty of harvestable plant life. Some of it is familiar, like wild corn. Some of it is very strange. Even before leaving the Vault, however, I found myself in a fight for survival against mutated life – giant roaches. Since then, I’ve also encountered wild dogs and huge, horrifying mosquitoes. As well as the corpse of a two-headed deer.
At least, that’s the fauna. I’ve met people too. I came across a woman who had pitched a tent on the hillside. (I’ll admit, I didn’t want to go home right away, so I turned and explored the path in the opposite direction. I couldn’t bear to see home yet. Even now, while it’s only a few houses away, I can’t bring myself to approach. I’ve spent over an hour looting the ruins of neighbors’ homes rather than forcing myself to look at my own. I'm dictating this diary by the light of a cooking fire within line of sight of my old home. What's left of it.)
The woman didn’t look like she was dying, but I spared her some of my RadAway anyway. Best approach is to make friends, not enemies. And it paid off, as she helped put down the dog that a group of raiders unleashed on me a few minutes later.
Raiders. Petty, violent criminal-types. (Although I have to wonder if there is any sort of law and order in this part of the post-apocalypse world.) When they first saw me, they became immediately hostile, despite my friendly approach. The first thing that went through my mind as moved into cover was that they were Commies. Part of an invasion force from China. But no, they were just local bandits.
I am (was) a soldier’s wife. I have no problem fighting to defend myself, my family or my country (such as it is). Don’t expect me to get weepy about bloodshed when defending myself or anyone else against a murderous thug. I’m thankful that Nate taught me the basics on how to shoot.
Once their dog was down, it was four of them against one of me. They had better armor and comparable weapons. My 10mm pistol didn’t have the range or sighting I wanted for that fight. (If this sort of violence is going to become a frequent thing, I really need something that will let me accurately pick off enemies at a distance.) But I made superior use of cover. I took more damage from flying splinters as they shot up the trees than I took from direct hits.
I also took more damage from the aforementioned wild dogs. Again, the settler woman came to my aid, putting down one. But most of them I had to take out while crouched amongst a rocky ledge where they couldn’t get at me. I had taken out all but one when the weather shifted, suddenly and violently.
I’ve never seen a storm like that. It was fast. And the lightning was bizarre. There were pulses of radiation that alarmed me severely. The storm drove me to find better shelter. I found it in the camp of a dead bandit, where I waited out the storm while hiding from the last wild mongrel.
Once the storm had passed, I put the last animal down with the shotgun that I had looted from one of the raiders. Between the raiders and the leather armors at the dead bandit’s camp, I am now much better protected than I was before.
I also ran into a trader just a little ways to the east. Apparently, bottlecaps are used for trade. Who would have guessed?
So, checking of the needs list:
Armor, check. But could be better. Protection, check and likewise. Food? Turns out, cooking giant roaches makes them safe to eat. Same with wild dog. Considering how damn plentiful these creatures are out here, I don’t think I’m in any danger of starving. Medical supplies will be a much bigger issue if everything I hunt is so hostile. (Not to mention rugged. The giant roaches in Santuary Hills were a lot harder to beat down than the ones in Vault 111.)
Water? Turns out boiling radioactive “dirty” water kills the radiation. Who knew? But now that I know that I can turn dirty water in to pure water, my hydration worries are all but solved. Now I just have to figure out how to get water from the lake into one of these empty bottles. I have a bottle, and I grabbed a bottlecap to seal it. This shouldn’t be a problem. Yet somehow I just can’t make it work. Must be the shock. Strange… I can do other things just fine.
Back when I was starting my law practice, I had to be my own investigator. It was a while before I could afford to hire one. Got a chance to try out my rusty lockpicking skills on an old shack. Sadly, there wasn’t much inside. Got a few more chances in the ruins of Sanctuary Hills, including Russell’s floor safe, as well as a chance to brush up on my hacking skills.
Turns out Pietro was the local drug dealer. That doesn’t surprise me. Explains his oh-so-subtle questions about representation. I’d say it surprises me how many of my neighbors were his clients, but it really isn’t.
Finally, shelter. Not yet. And according to my Pip-Boy, it is nearly midnight. I really need to sleep. Only I don’t know if there is anyplace here that would be safe. Maybe the trader will let me crash at her place? I don’t want to stay out in the open where more wildlife can get at me while I sleep. (I rather guess that is what happened to the dead bandit whose camp I took shelter in earlier.)
This has been… long. But cathartic, I think. In the future, I’ll try to keep my Pip-Boy Diary entries a little shorter and with more focus.
art by Tempy93
Ah, Bathesda looting system. My searching is what makes the lights stop working and the place considerably less wealthy as my pockets fill with loot and the floor is filled with useless silverware crap and books I've already read.
This makes me so sad . . . the very day the game came out my @#&^%! computer just died.
The artwork up at the top... simply outstanding!
Really trying to avoid knowing too much about Fo4, because I have too many things I have to take care of (which cost money) before I get that game, but with all the good I am hearing (from you and numerous others) it just confirms that I DO want the game.
Sadly, I was unable to get ahold of one of the pipbucks... dammit, I wanted one too. (is it bad that I have literally ponified my life? lol) I shall be watching for one to come up on Ebay.
That was so neat. As someone without the ability to play myself, I really enjoyed this blog post. I'd love to see more of your adventures. It made me a little nostalgic for FO:E, haha.
Argh! I can't read this yet, I'm still avoiding spoilers for my own play through.
On the video (which was great), I can comment, however. It made me wonder about dropping current canon Twilight into Fo:E and saying, "Go!"
I saw a couple bugs with subtitles. Sometimes they freeze, but people keep talking. Other than that, I had no problems at all and thought it was amazing.
LOOT.
Loving it so far.
Still kind of miffed at the whole set in stone backstory that defines WAY to much of the character compared to just the most basic set up, and a blank slate otherwise.
My main immediate problem with the game is that Bethesda still doesn't know how to keymap an interface, and uses about half the keyboard when 8 buttons would do.
And the flood of fallout 4 and FO:E crossovers begins
NOW
So far I'm loving 4. Though there are issues for me. Being left dominant I have difficult time using wasd area for my controls, rather I use the area around the arrows. The main issue with this is most of the keys in that area are reserved and cannot be rebound without using an outside program.
Looks like I'll be late to the party again. My laptop can't play Fallout 4 and I don't have enough money to buy/upgrade to a new one or make a custom computer with gaming specs. Anyway, I like what I see and I don't want to mope too much. But hey, your character looks a lot like your profile pic.
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Indeed man.... They'll be flooding the group soon enougj
now do you see why i wanted to wait till it was out to continue with ym fic? this installment was MADE for Gear Grinder XD
Shit! I can't even get the game on release day! Now I'll have to wait for several months just to experience this! Meaning I won't be reading such diaries you will be making, just so I don't get spoiled. Yeah yeah I read the original but since Fallout 4 came out I guess there is no need playing the previous generation. Fuck I so wanted to play this game! Get it's attracting vibe and maybe motivate me to make a equestrian story about it! Ugh crap!
3534257 yep
But let's all calm down and agree Kkat is best author and LP is best pony ( non-cannon that is )
3534263
Yep yep mate
But I liked calamity a bit more than pip
3534270 no grudges bro
Calamity is freaking awesome
And velvet
And spike
Its been a long couple of days for me pre-ordered fallout 4 on steam(yay!) went to play it today laptop cant run it (boo!) aleinwere cost to much so I walked about a mile or s to mejier got a xbox one and the game (then walked back because I'm a bad-ass or a fool your pic)wile that was updating put in a refund request with steam (was approved) and tryd to help a lady couple houses down get her dog that got lose (no luck) and now I'm tired
big fan of fallout 1,2,3 and new vague not enough money to buy 4 college sucks the funds out of me will git it soon.
3534276 Or you know... You could've built a pc :P
two hours away form fallout 4 arriving from us and it feels longer than the months it took for the game to be released after e3
3534287 I could have but all that was the easier of the two (maybe or blown something up probable the later) I know next to nothing on the hardware side of things want me to set your vhs player to rec at a sertin time and get it to stop blinking 12:00 or combine your sterosytem to your vhs and tv so you can have surround sound call me this new age tech is magic to me
I ran across this earlier: http://ambris-art.tumblr.com/post/132949983767/whoopscloplockbox-source-holy-shit-this
Not only how to fix the FOV but a couple of other things to make the mouse play better.
3534353 Well it's too late to think about know, and if you're happy with your product it's just fine. Although I do get you hardware can be pretty confuesing at the start. If you ever get interested in PCs feel free to PM me
got into a sewer, found a lunchbox, it had a baseball inside
found anoter one, it exploded into confetti with relative party sound
why do I have te impression this is not going to be an isolated, non-reconducible event?
Also the pip-boy app is fun while roaming the wastes. Having a minimal is handy. Keeps me slightly more on task, slightly. The oh look shiny moments are still there. "Oh shiny", "must save child", "but shiny", "child", "shiny", "child", "is that new assult rifle by the shiny?", "yes", "shiny", "fine", "yay!"
...Amazing work, Kkat.
3534356 Thank you so much. This will help tremendously.
And here's me, sitting in the thrall of poverty, with a computer to out of date to play it on, only an xbox 360, and not enough money for an upgrade in either sense because fucking student loans.
I've been having a blast messing with the neighborhood myself. I won't say any more for those who haven't gotten to this point, just have to say destruction is easier than construction, but worth it if done right
hi hi
Perks look like they're going to be easier than I thought to work into a tabletop game. The crafting system though... That's going to take some doing.
For all you fans of Rap and Fallout! Eagerly awaiting the day I can play this game....
T
Ooohoho, glad you're having fun Kkat! :D heehehe.
I have to say I enjoyed reading that little snippet you posted above, and the pictures really added some good visuals. I look forward ot reading more of those
Nice job!
3534658 That is catchy and I love it!
I'm currently quite impressed with Bethesda's optimization, if nothing else. I get a smooth framerate (I won't say 60, because I don't have any software to inform me) consistently, and it only really drops when I'm in an area with a lot of lighting effects. Considering I'm running this on a GTX 760 (below, but near the recommended GPU) and a really old i7 (first generation), I'm surprised that I have at the high preset and it runs so well.
Oh, also glad that you're enjoying it, too.
Rush and Pony on!
T4E
*Sobs because I can't run Fallout 4 on my laptop*
Y-yeah...Fallout 4 isr-really good. sniff.
The written playthrough thingy seems nice so far. Also Fat Man commercial? I'm imagining it here and its incredibly hillarious and scary at the same time.
Ah! But you see, the key word is almost, and that is the beauty of character customization, even for games that are only in first person. You get to decide what you look like, even if the only ones to see are the people you play with, or you only see your hands and feet.
3534263
Hmm, it seems you have not read Jericho. I have not read a more entertaining character in my life. Of course it does have the comedy tag. Littlepip is the best for a serious story, but Jericho; he is the king of all. Except romance, he avoids that like the plague it seems.
Ghouls...ghouls everywhere. watch out in the Lexington Super Duper Mart...they will tear you apart and the raiders outside have fatman launchers. half the raiders i've fought so far had them
Oh God Yes. lol @ initial rumors of no female protagonist. i love how choosing the sex of your character actually matters. Whoever holds the baby dies. Its Hitchcockian fate at its finest. More pathos to play as a mother too. And of course, the FemShep thing where women VAs throw shade better still holds true. So yes, my character looks like Lupita Nyong'o lol. (Face 5)
"Move over, honey."
3534658 loves me some Dan bull
3534373 I will keep that in mind thanks I do have a rig that was made for modding was my first pc I got with my own cash it was about 1k (probable got in the year 2005) give or take taxes at the end of its run it could just barley handle ctarcraft2 at lowest settings with like a 3 min load time.
3535279 Oh yes.
T
Dear Dr. James,
today I learned that your 'Project Purity' was the most stupid, superfluous thing in post-apocalyptica, ever.
Could somebody tell Bethesda that any kind of groundwater protected from direct surface contamination will be radiation free? Yes, that includes springs. Yes, you can make a radiation-filter out of most kinds of uncontaminated subsoil.
Still have to wait like a pleb to get a hold of this myself, you have no idea how hard it was to read this blog. Ah well, hopefully it'll be worth it.
Had a look at the crafting system on youtube however. Apparantly I can scrap almost everything around me for spare materials and modify my weapons and build bases with it?
...
I'm going to be playing this thing forever.
I have one hope, to find a vault that is not some twisted demented hellhole of social experiment. I hope to find a normal vault not one with mutant plants or white noise, missing entertainment tapes or insane gender imbalances, gambling or sacrifices, super mutants or mind control, virtual reality or a faulty door. I just want to find a vault designed for survival. That is my dream for fallout 4.
Fallout 4 contains a new level-up system right? could you make a chart for Little Pip? Please?
3535396 You're going to be playing until you're dead, then the game will bring you back as a ghoul and bathe you in rads to keep playing.
3535582 That would be awesome! Its too bad they removed the homosexual oriented perks, or I should say they didn't choose to adopt the ones that Obsidian put into New Vegas.
Unrelated, Thank you very much for your post, and I am looking forward to reading more of your exploits across the Commonwealth! I myself can't play the game until I get a new computer, and due to some rather serious dental work needed soon, that may be next year.