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Survival mode

I just started playing again and went straight into survival mode. I think a few mods make it really worthwhile

- better locational damage + GCM to make it so the game is brutally difficult, but not "oh dear, I didn't see that dog and now I'm dead after one chomp" or "one idiot with a pipe pistol = insta-kill" difficult.
- Companion Carry Weight Transfer: To avoid spending all day hading stuff off to dogmeat or a companion (adding the Everyone's best friend mod helps a lot too, though god damn to people get in the way)
- Survival configuration menu: I only use this to have an autosave hotkey. CTDs will send you back to your last save just like dying does, so for modding I think you need something like this. Survival Terminal Enabler is useful for similar reasons
- Journey: allows fast travel between settlements which are connected by supply lines. I spent WAY too long walking between settlements checking in on upgrades and such...to the point that I basically wasn't doing anything else! It will also let you pay any provisioners you run into to take your stuff or to fast travel you.
- IDEK's Logistic Station and Salvage Beacons: They integrate really well to make it so that you don't have to carry around massive piles of junk, or worry about where you leave stuff.

I really like the difficulty of Survival (damage, slow healing, extra concerns about food/water/sleep/illness), but the tedium can be a bit extreme. I find mods like Journey really maintain the good parts while removing some of the frustration.
 
For me the best alternative to the tedium of survival is Hard mode + Powerful weapons injected into the LL + Pack Attack + Gas masks of the commonwealth.
It makes the game brutally hard through combat but rewards skill. It also makes radiation a real threat that never gets easier as your character progresses, whereas survival bottoms out once you have an abundance of food and water. Also a lot of the difficulties of survival can be negated with perks.
 
Well I've completed all achievements with base game and most of the dlc on survival, just need to complete far harbor for the last of the achievements.

There is a very extensive list of mods I would normally use, but again this is an achievement run on Xbox.

I do have to admit, the biggest problem in vanilla survival is the irritation with saves. That being said, it has actually been quite fun thinking about how I will approach a situation instead of just running in guns blazing. I have been using mines and grenades a lot more than I ever have and can honestly say that besides having dogmeat in Concord, this is my first playthrough not using companions at all.

I have come to understand the level of difficulty the devs intended, and they didn't do too bad.
 
Yeah; having such a cost for death really does change how you play the game. Although what I wound up doing was just napping as often as possible, which is kind of dumb, but on the other hand when I have to walk to a quest location and do the quest and die several times on the way there and several times during the quest, the walking there gets really old. I think I spent over an hour trying to rescue Valentine even while sleeping as often as I could.

I really should look at PlayerUndead death recovery, death matters, or follower revive system to make there be a more interesting cost to dying than simply waking up and starting again like it's groundhog day.

Gas masks of the commonwealth seems awesome, I really enjoyed Metro 2033. I also loved the Frostfall mod in Skyrim. I do think that 200 years after the bombs fall, despite the name of the game, fallout would no longer be a concern. Radioactive dust would be a rare thing, as most radioactive dust should have ceased being dangerous after a (relatively) short time. the radiation dose rate is reduced by a factor of ten for every seven-fold increase in the number of hours since the explosion. Not that that should stop anyone from enjoying a great environmental hazard!! That's still very fun. I just don't love the gas mas aesthetic, and unlike Metro, most people in the commonwealth live their whole lives outside, which would make it feel a bit un-immersive for me.
 
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You can set it up that the masks only have to be worn during rad/rain/dust storms which does more for immersive than the vanilla behaviour of not paying any attention to rad storms whatsoever.
While they have no animation for taking it on and off all npc's in game will swap them on or off on the fly depending on the weather.
 
You can set it up that the masks only have to be worn during rad/rain/dust storms which does more for immersive than the vanilla behaviour of not paying any attention to rad storms whatsoever.
While they have no animation for taking it on and off all npc's in game will swap them on or off on the fly depending on the weather.

Oh, that's interesting to know. For some reason, I was under the impression you had to wear the masks all the time... or maybe I am concerned with that winter mod... wipe the glass... I thought they wore the masks all the time... and I thought... nah.

I will have to check into adding that.

As far as saves, you can get ultimate survival - a F4SE mod - and just pick which options to use... I only use it for the quicksave function and the TGM function. I use TGM for only building settlements in terms of raw buildings, salvage beacons to haul shhhhhtufff…. back for OCD. Decoration etc.

I run survival, Immersive Gameplay, some extra food stuff like beverage station, better cooking, southern cooking, canning, tators & tomaters… gives extra food types, IG allows growing of wild crops, harvest and eating... so a bit more like living off the land. IG comes with it's own for of AI, probably not as good as Pack Attack, but when you look, the MA removed debuffs on opponents weapons - like shotgun from a IG raider can headshot you way further than a shotgun should be ever in real life... but, a 9mm doesn't do more damage as you level up. Armor doesn't upgrade by adding a screw to lower level armor... it sets haul as constant. when you come out of the vault, you don't get more magic health as you level - you are as healthy as you ever will be. But same with the opponents... overall, it is well balanced, but brutal - a settlement attack can be 20 to 50 raiders, shoot you from distance, missles, fatman's and strong PA... but everything is balanced out. One shot to the head does mean you are dead. This also makes you more strategic.

I also use WATM, Supermutant Redux, Raider Overhaul... which are god mode due to their health setting (relative to player, and much higher than PA)…. putting IG after these overhauls rebalances them down a bit, not god like unmodified, but much closer to PA health - which is still a problem!

Anyway... enjoy it.
John
 
GMotC and Nuclear winter are by the same author. Which is why you are getting them mixed up. By default it's setup that they have to be worn all the time but it has decent settings in the holo for customisation.
Does IG not give shit loads of meat from animals iirc? That would mess with survival.
 
That's a really good point; everyone ignoring rad storms is un-immersive. Making it only necessary during rad/dust storms makes it much more appealing! Thanks, It's gonna go on my "to investigate when I don't feel a desperate need to actually play" list :P

Frankly I spend so much time thinking about games while at work, then I go home and do the reproductive labor to get back to work again the next day (cooking, cleaning, laundry), and then I go to bed so I can get up for work again. I feel like I never have enough time to play or experiment as I'd like to. Which is why I'm so much happier now that I've found that Journey mod. Makes settlement play much easier, quicker, and less of a hassle, and then when you venture out into the scary world, that part is much scarier and more difficult.

I think workshop+ takes care of my TGM needs! I haven't tried IG because I'm wary of anything that overhauls too much. Ive done better locational damage to make headshots deadly without a helmet, but have turned a lot of the other stuff off. I'll have to think about that one too!
 
If. You kill a brahmin, you get like 500. Instead of just 1 near for 1 steak True. But you cant carry all that in one trip, which would also be true. Making shipments is a bit cheaty for selling... but can tell you I have made the mistake of taking 500 meat and suddenly a combat stalker set shows up. Bad idea.....

I think a mirlurk queen gives about 2000 ... but again, you cant load that all up either. Would be immersive if there was a spoiling factor.

Plus he changes the spawn rate so that 2000 isnt going to be there very long.

IG also takes food away. So a bloatfly gives you nothing... etc. Dogs give like 10....

With the mod Tuckered, Insult to injury, etc, there are a lot of other survival hits I take.
 
That's a really good point; everyone ignoring rad storms is un-immersive. Making it only necessary during rad/dust storms makes it much more appealing! Thanks, It's gonna go on my "to investigate when I don't feel a desperate need to actually play" list :P

Frankly I spend so much time thinking about games while at work, then I go home and do the reproductive labor to get back to work again the next day (cooking, cleaning, laundry), and then I go to bed so I can get up for work again. I feel like I never have enough time to play or experiment as I'd like to. Which is why I'm so much happier now that I've found that Journey mod. Makes settlement play much easier, quicker, and less of a hassle, and then when you venture out into the scary world, that part is much scarier and more difficult.

I think workshop+ takes care of my TGM needs! I haven't tried IG because I'm wary of anything that overhauls too much. Ive done better locational damage to make headshots deadly without a helmet, but have turned a lot of the other stuff off. I'll have to think about that one too!

I have tried BLD but he also alters containers etc which I didnt care for. But I use Damn Apocalypse as well so I already ahave a container loot mod... medical supplies near clinics, food by food areas, etc. It is more contextual loot for me.
 
Yeah, I agree. I don't think plentiful food in the world is necessarily a problem; you already have that if you have farms! The important thing for survival is that occasionally you will forget to restock on food, and wind up scrounging/hunting; and if you do come across a radstag, I think it's fine that the meat from one animal should keep you fed for several days! Though you might have to eat it raw and get diseases and radiation if you cant find a way to cook it. What fun!

That contextual loot sounds neat. BLD doesn't have to touch containers; I have all that stuff turned off.

Is Tuckered Out good? I use a controller so it's probably not for me, but I'd be concerned it would slow down overland movement even more.

Insult to Injury seems interesting; I do think that by default FO4 stimpacks are quite strong, and I miss FNV limb damage. Although I feel like I would have the same probelm I do in the base system of simply needing to take antibiotics almost every day (and therefore buying a whole lot of antibiotics). Maybe I could use GCM or whatever to reduce the infection chance...like...it's not *that* hard to avoid getting infections when you know how they work.
 
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