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soon, i will start my first ever Fallout4 playthrough. I modded Skyrim to death, so fairly advanced modder. I checked the Nexus Page and this forum and it seems like some users have problems with quests, HQ things were mentioned the most, it seems. Big mods like this will naturally produce more user errors, so i have to ask some expirenced users here.
How stable is the current version? And if a bug ocurrs, can it be skipped easily via MCM? Or should i wait 2-3 weeks till next update and check again?
Another thing:
Whats the most logical way to play the Main Story and SS2 Chapter 1 and 2? Pls try to not spoiler me much :D
This next patch will have a ton of bug fixes (should come out on friday so I guess tomorrow), after that we're not going to see any patches for a while as the team finishes chapter 3. I'd suggest to start with the newest version. But the current one should be stable (mod has been around for a while after all). Best way to play is probably to follow the main story and get into any side stuff you come across (that includes building your settlements up and doing whatever you want with them). If you play on survival, pick the "normal" difficulty for the mod at first, "hardcore" will be picked by default but that should be for more experienced users who also happen to like pain.
I'd suggest to not build up Red Rocket much, it's right next to Concord that gets a lot of attention with ch2 added stuff.
HQ gets a lot of flack, most of it (not all) from lack of explanation or understanding. There's a ton of stuff on the wiki if you want help with it but it's pretty late in the story. Also most problems with it are solved with tgm. Holotape/MCM has a few cheats/skips/fixes in case you run into some bug as well.
It's always worth keeping in mind that especially online, the VAST majority of feedback given publicly is negative.
I've not encountered any complete questline-breaking bugs myself in a long time, but I keep my mod loadout of other things to stuff I know doesn't cause any issues. The Holotape's built in "quest skip cheat" does appear to work as well as could be expected, although I've not tested every possible permutation of when to run it.
Most of the remaining issues that I'm aware of are either minor niggles, extreme edge-cases, or outright compatibility problems with other mods. (I've only got two still open reports to my name on the internal bug tracker, and one of those is only an issue with one of the Extended outfits having an odd visual-only glitch when worn by the female player character and only in 3rd person)
Yes HQ is a real pain to get the hang of at first, and it lacks most of the "ease of use" functionality the rest of the mod's mechanics have. But even then there's still ways to 'cheat' through it.
As far as integrating the base game's main quest, you can do as much or as little of that as you want and the mod won't mind either way (except for being effectively required to do the Concord Deathclaw fight early on; but you don't HAVE to go back in and recruit Preston And Pals to Sanctuary after that) - although especially the early quests are designed with 'gaps' of "leave this with me for a few days" between them, where it's assumed you'll go off and do other quests and/or continue building your villages. I'd completely recommend being at least an official member of one of the base game's factions though, there's a point during "Chapter 2" where that becomes relevant but still technically optional.
Something else to keep in mind is that a 'hidden' design philosophy of SS2 is that it's actually quite influenced by the "old school" of game design - where it was assumed the player would experiment themselves and figure it all out, rather than being dragged by the nose through a linear tube like the "modern" style. I think we've tidied up most of the worst examples of that which would completely stop a playthrough at this point, but if you want to do more than just plow through the storyline you'll have to do a fair bit of self-teaching.
Don't hesitate to ask if you have any issues! The forums here are generally pretty chill and helpful - and between the search functionality and the constantly updated Wiki it's not too tough to find it if someone else already had the same issue.
soon, i will start my first ever Fallout4 playthrough. I modded Skyrim to death, so fairly advanced modder. I checked the Nexus Page and this forum and it seems like some users have problems with quests, HQ things were mentioned the most, it seems. Big mods like this will naturally produce more user errors, so i have to ask some expirenced users here.
How stable is the current version? And if a bug ocurrs, can it be skipped easily via MCM? Or should i wait 2-3 weeks till next update and check again?
Another thing:
Whats the most logical way to play the Main Story and SS2 Chapter 1 and 2? Pls try to not spoiler me much :D
So, there's a surprising amount to cover in there, and from my perspective just because someone answers the question doesn't mean you get a consensus, just like when one person complains about something. That said, I pretty much agree with the others who have responded so far. Reading through these forums can give you a very skewed perspective of how the thing really performs.
I have largely only played SS2 with few non-SS2 and SS2-related mods, but I've also gone through with several dozen other mods, including known problematic mods (like Depravity), and I've rarely encountered problems that weren't small, polishy things. Over time there have been some, but by now things are very stable unless you are really adding tons of other mods which makes it impossible to know what is doing what.
As far as the main story, I think things are designed so that you can, in a broad sense, do whatever you want with the main story. I suppose there is an argument that it makes the most sense to progress whatever version of the main story you want kind of in tandem with SS2 story, but other than that I don't think it matters. That is, if you just blitz through and "win" the main story and then start doing SS2, that would be a little weird storywise.
SS2 is stable, but vanilla limitations can cause some crashes. Be aware that overbuilding settlements, particularly if they are near other settlements, can cause crashes. For this reason and many others, save often (I also recommend milestone saves via console command - save "name your save something to identify the milestone"). This will also reduce headaches if you need to roll back your game a bit due to other possible issues.
There has been a bit of discussion lately about "tribal knowledge" and SS2. The community here has discovered and shared plenty of workarounds to the issues that can still pop up in SS2. For example, sometimes after working with "the Stranger" at the beginning of the story, instead of going home like he is supposed to, he will hang around your chosen starting SS2 settlement as long as you do. It is important that when it is time to talk with him again, you go to his home, and don't try to continue the quest while in your settlement (he has never failed to get there for me, so not an issue, as long as you don't talk to him until you are both there). You may never see this behavior, but if you do, it is good to know how to handle it. It isn't officially documented anywhere, we just all share these things when they pop up. The mod author and his team are working to polish up all of these items, and not just depend on "tribal knowledge", so these issues won't be outstanding forever, but please do take the time to check back here if you run into any odd issues in the mod.
Note that many, if not most, of the issues people mention here or elsewhere seem to be the result of not setting up SS2 and the prerequisites correctly, or are mod conflicts (often that you would not expect). For example, currently I am having an issue with Dogmeat being counted as homeless and unemployed, and I am almost certain it is a conflict, but haven't been able to figure out with which other mod(s). If you haven't already, please review the known mod conflicts before playing.
Quest skipping is available via a tool in the mod (not in MCM), or via console commands, but I don't recommend using either except as a last resort. I can confirm that (barring mod conflicts) I have gotten through everything currently available without quest skipping, which can cause issues itself (though you might have a quest show as unfinished for the time being).
As for how to mix the vanilla story with SS2, they intentionally leave that up to you, though the lead writer has given a rough guideline on this page. If you want to avoid reading the page out of concern for spoilers:
SS2 C1: Laying Foundations
FO4: Out of Time, When Freedom Calls
SS2 C1: Plotting the Future, If I Had a Hammer, Casting a Line, Scavver's Delight, Well Well Well!, Hub of the Problem
FO4: Jewel of the Commonwealth
SS2 C1: The Coolest Cat
FO4: Unlikely Valentine, Getting a Clue
SS2 C1: Vim and Vigor, Where There's Smoke
FO4: Reunions, Dangerous Minds
SS2 C1: Memory Lane, Who can? ASAM!, Picking Up the Pieces, The Disappearance of Jake Evans
SS2 C2: Runners and Gunners
FO4: The Glowing Sea, Hunter/Hunted, The Molecular Level, Institutionalized
SS2 C2: Rest of Chapter 2...
