Being Yordie Sands

SPOILER ALERT: I reached Level 100 last night, currently at 24 “Days” (whatever the Days counter means). I’m still only playing on the Normal Setting and even though I think I can handle the next harder setting I’m still more interested in building my settlements than in fighting even harder mutants and all manner of crazed beings out to kill me and my settlers. I’m also at peace with all three major Factions (Minutemen, Brotherhood and Railroad) and even at peace with Far Harbor’s Children of Atom and the Synths at Acadia.

Nonetheless, I really dislike the Brotherhood because they pester me about “including [my] brothers and sisters… [yada, yada]”. I also dislike their whole fascist point of view, but when you look at the Commonwealth as a dangerous place, they Brotherhood is a force for controlling the evil. I also like some of the characters like Paladin Danse, Proctor Quinlin (plus his cat) and Proctor Ingram, and to some extent I even like “Elder” Maxon. I wouldn’t mind going to war against them though, and if somehow they get that damned Liberty Prime badass thang, then it is war for sure.

I own several add-ons: Far Harbor, Vault-Tec Workshops (didn’t like the batsh*t ghoul Overseer at all), two other workshops, and I’m considering buying Automatron but don’t think I’d like Nuka-World. I own many of the Creation Club items including the Noir Penthouse and both other houses, plus I bought dogs for all of my settlements (now at 15 fully functioning).

A quick look at linked northern settlement.
I’m thinking of adding additional provisioners.

All of my settlements are now manned with at least 15 people, although I’m still building up The Slog (currently 8). My big three settlements–Sanctuary, Starlight, The Castle–have 20 people each. Half of the people at each settlement are assigned to Defense, the other half are either Farmers or work at the bars, stores or are doctors. All settlements have three stores but the big ones have two additional, and Sanctuary has a Slocum’s Joe, right there, inside the fortifications… pretty cool and I like having it there but it hasn’t seemed to add to my revenues.

Yordie’s Slocums Joe at Sanctuary Hills

All of my settlements have a dog, a brahmin, caravan rest areas, 100w Fusion power and many have Level 4 weapons for defense (I especially like the rocket launchers). I’m not using artillery yet, but maybe in the future.

Here’s a look at my workshop inside the walls of the “Green Jewel of the Commonwealth”. Notice all my bobbleheads. I have all of them now. Oh, and that weird suit of combat armor, that’s Marine combat armor from Far Harbor. I have so many suits of power armor that I have a half-dozen stashed at large settlements, and the others are stashed at my townhouse. I even have one suit at the Noir Penthouse.

Yordie’s workshop with bobblehead collection

Another thing is my list of favorite characters and companions. I really like Deacon and now that I have Cait suited up in tough looking military gear (with a cute Combat Armor Helmet), she is cute. They are my favorite companions but I still prefer to go adventuring alone most of the time. I also like Old Longfellow but really have no use for Preston or Paladin Danse. As for named characters, I really enjoy Tinker Tom, The Mariner and Magnolia. I also despise everyone’s favorite downer couple, the Longs. There are many others of course, but in general the characters and companions are a great part of this game. And lest I forget, I adore my doggie, Dogmeat, the sweet German shepherd and crazed killer companion: “Everything okay boy?” /me smiles

Anyway, I could go on and on about this game (and probably will) but at Level 100 you develop a perspective. I want to remember this. I’ll be writing some negative things about the game when I’m in a different mood, like how it is infested with anomalies. Lah-dee-dah. I’m also been looking into Fallout 76 but that will be an online game and I’m not sure I’m up for that. Maybe. Thinking about it.

I’m still playing at the ‘Regular’ skill level and have reached level 54, and only recently entered the Institute. I’m in no hurry to get to the end and just hope the game won’t push me too fast because I’m enjoying finding new ways to build settlements and add features. I currently have eleven settlements if you include Greygarden, and most recently adding Bunker Hill. All of my settlements have over 10 settlers of which half are on defense, and my biggest settlements (three now) all have 20 settlers with the same ratio of defenders.

Building settlements is very challenging because each one is on very different terrain and building features. Sanctuary Hill and The Castle are the most straight forward settlements, and places like Tenpines Bluff and Hangman’s Alley (work in progress) are both very challenging. My rule for big settlements: they must have an above ground water source. I don’t know if that rule makes sense, but it seems to be how events have unfolded. All of my settlements, except Greygarden, have a bar, a dog and a brahmin. The bars and stores payoff every day and I’m basically rich now: walking around money around 40-50,000 caps plus dozens of gold bars, pre-war currency, dozens of sets of combat armor, powerful weapons, and of course, my luxury apartment in a city unnamed. 🙂 Oh yeah… and Jack, I’m cool… you dig?

This is the center of my Starlight Drive-In settlement.
Basically, sleeping quarters below, stores and bar above.

This is the center of my County Crossing settlement.
I had some good ideas but I need to do a redesign on this one.

It’s nighttime at Oberland Station and a few of the farmers are at the bar.

Yeah, I bought the Picket Fences add-on to get some decent looking furnishings. 🙂

And those are my favorite power armor suits. Love the crome X-01 in the back. I call them ‘The Boys’. *giggles*I play this game too many hours of the day, but it beats listening to CNBC all day for the latest market swings.

Okay, I went back into Fallout 4 on “Regular” level. It was obviously harder than “Easy” level but after I got a good sniper rifle (a ‘pimped out’ 308 bolt action with scope) things started to settle down. I intended to go grab all the goodies I knew about, but I quickly learned that the difficulty slowed me down enough to make it always interesting. Also, at the regular setting there were a lot more Legendary enemies I had to overcome.

This is my little bar and restaurant where Sanctuary Hills settlers go after work to share some brew, iguana on a stick, and talk about how they whipped those raiders. heh.

Anyway, I’m currently at Level 34 and despite the fact that I rescued Nick Valentine several levels back, I don’t intend to go looking for Shawn before turn 40 or even later. Right now I have ten linked settlements: Sanctuary, Abernathy, Tenpinnes, Starlight, Greygarden, Oberland, Greenway, Taffington, County Crossing and the Castle. Sanctuary and Starlight are my major settlements (currently 16 each, but I’ll increase them soon) and the Castle is growing to a major settlement quickly.

The thing is, I really like building settlements. It reminds me of my days in Second Life when I would build Zen gardens and different versions of the Harvest Moon Café. Anyway, I finally figured out how to take screenshots in Xbox One, so the lead photo is of my bar and restaurant at Sanctuary Hills. I just love the way that settlers and shop keepers know how to behave in the setting you create. The game is an absolute fascination to me.

PS: I know my little settlement is nothing compare with the prize winners. Those guys are awesome but I still love the building.