Fallout 76: Sandy Lombardia Character

Posted on September 11, 2019 by

My new Fallout 76 character’s name is Sandy Lombardia. Sandy is also the protagonist in my sci-fi novel that was released for distribution today. It will be awhile before the book appears at the big online bookstores, but is currently available on my publisher’s site, Lulu Bookstore.

Sandy has been climbing back through the levels and last night she reached Level 38. I like this character much better because I’ve engineered my SPECIAL levels and associated Perk cards much more effectively.

Also last night, Sandy downed her first Scorch Beast (below). She can’t take all the credit though because there was a Chameleon Death Claw fighting the beast when I joined the fight. By the way, I have my own Chameleon armor now and was able to join the battle from afar before the Beast realized I was engaged. I move in on it as it weakened, but these monsters are tough to take down with lower level weapons. The same is true of those Billygoat Gruff creatures (aka Sheepsquatsh), very hard to take down. By the way, I really like the Light Machinegun, but it burns ammo like crazy; so, if you use it you better know how to make a lot of ammo.

Sandy Lombardia downs first Scorch Beast

That’s Sandy holding an awesome 308 Light Machinegun.

Yordie Sands author & photographer

This pic gives a better perspective of the size of a Scorch Beast.

I really like this game and have purchased a headset to at least open the door to joining a team, and maybe someday entering Survival Mode. I’m still learning the intricacies of this game though, so it may take a long time.

I’m increasingly aware of critical bugs in the game, but feel that some of the complaints I had read about or seen in videos were simply dissatisfaction with the gameplay, which I happen to like…mostly. Some bugs are of the childish prank variety; meaning, they are either examples of poor programming practices or just intended to irritate the player.

One bug that is particularly troubling to me is the Soldier ID quest. What happened is, I made it through the U.S. Army training and was given my soldier papers, but when I tried to get my ID the quest disappeared. I’ve tried several of the suggested remedies, but there seems to be a major screwup with this quest. For one thing, when I attempted the quest I was under Level 30. Since then, the door into the quest requires Level 30+. I’ve submitted a support ticket but didn’t receive any reply. Just saying.

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Fallout 76: Level 66 and Back

Posted on August 27, 2019 by

I got to Level 66 about two weeks ago and found that I was troubled by early quests where I felt I was swept into dangerous situations before I was ready. Plus, I realized that I had a poor understanding of the Perk cards and how to use them to build my character’s SPECIAL attributes. So, I dropped off my Yordie Sands character on the shelf and created Sandy Lombardia (she’s also the heroine of my upcoming novel–announce coming soon). My Xbox ID is still Yordie Sands though.

I got off to a roaring start with Sandy and reached level 12 the first weekend. I’m level 25 ATM and I’ve learned a lot by following main quest lines more carefully. I’ve also backed off and focused on easier Events and lesser quests when I advanced too quickly. Those easier quests offer opportunities to get a lot of loot and build up you currency, “caps”. Tonight I used my stockpile of caps to build Sandy’s first store and it is very similar to Yordie’s big store highlighted in earlier posts.

My main focus has been on collecting and using Perk cards that support the type of play I’m comfortable with. And this is the advice I have for new players: Learn how the Perk cards work. If you play Fallout 4, like I do, you have a big advantage, but it is different enough to lead you into frittering away opportunities.

Another tip for newbies: Know the kind of weapons you want to build around. For example, if you like pistols and automatic rifles, try to stick with one type of ammo, like Fusion Cells, 45s, 38s, and so forth. I don’t particularly care for pistols, but love the 308 sniper rifle and screaming 308 machine gun! Unfortunately, the only 308 machine gun I have found is Level 30, so it will be a little longer. For now, I have a Level 25 – 50 cal machine gun as my beastie killer. There is a huge variety in weaponry that it can be overwhelming at first, even if you have experience with weapons.

Here’s a pics from me as Sandy Lombardia exploring Appalachia. I’m wearing a special Vault-Tec jumpsuit for now, but I also like the nurses dress and my sniper outfit.

Cats in Fallout 4

I came across this robot Veterinarian leading a pack of kitties. LUV

I love that there are kitties in Fallout 76, but they aren’t friendly. They don’t attack or anything,but you can’t heard them home to your C.A.M.P. Darn!

I really like Fallout 76 and continue to make occasional friends. I am starting to envision the day when I might join a team. I still doubt that I’ll try Survival Mode and I’m certain I’ll never play in the battle royals, currently Nuclear Winter. The games buggyness has improved a lot since I’ve started playing. And yes, I play way too often but that will change as soon as I launch begin writing the second book of my series. Stay tuned.

 

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Fallout 76: Level 60 and I’m Crazy!

Posted on August 5, 2019 by

Okay, I’ve been playing Fallout 76 WAY TOO MUCH, especially this past weekend when I’m sure I was identified as an addicted player. Fiddleedee. I enjoy the game a great deal and I’m making friends but haven’t joined a group or a team yet. I need to get a headset/mic so I can talk to people because text really sucks with Xbox. I’m seriously thinking about it though, but I’m also seriously writing Book II of my sci-fi series.

Anyway, I’ve made a lot of progress climbing the Levels since the last post. I had a back to back double leveling up days, primarily spurred on by the silly “Graham’s Meat Week”. The thing about the Meat week is there’s a chance to kill a lot of Legendary creatures in a very short window and this adds up when you’re climbing the levels. I did the whole thing, even searched Appalachia for carrots to make a non-meat specialty for Graham.

The achievement I’m most happy about is my solo takedown of a Scorch Beast. While I was out looking for carrots, one of those nasty fiends came after me. In the past I used my invisibility to help keep me out of its grasp, but this time I pulled out my power armor, snapped a 250 round magazine into my 50 caliber machine gun (with armor piercing and other good things) and went after that beast. It took about 500 rounds to bring the beast down and then I was attacked by an irradiated bear. I’m wearing Level 45 Excavator armor, even though I have Level 50 T-60 armor; there’s a reason but it would have been wiser for me to be wearing the T-60.

Yordie Sands & Scorch Beast

That’s me right after I killed the Scorch Beast and bear.

Yordie in Fallout 76

This pic will give you a better sense of the beast’s size.

Anyway, I also moved my CAMP/store back to where I was originally, on the safe side of the Savage Divide. It’s a short story, but suffice it to say I just wasn’t ready for that neighborhood. I’m glad to be back in safer terrain, but after my recent successes I might move back in another 10 or so levels. Below is my new store.

Yordie Sands Fallout 76 CAMP

That’s the new store in the identical spot of the old store.

If you are wondering, I’m really too old to be playing this kind of game; I suppose. And I’m concerned that the gaming is taking me away from my writing project. Geez, if I wrote every day for the next two years I might get all three books out in 2021, and that’s the goal. Book I is done and at the publisher, scheduled to be ready for the holidays. More on this later; I’ve got to get back to the game! HAHAHA.

 

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Fallout 76: My New C.A.M.P. Store

Posted on July 22, 2019 by

That’s it, the new store. It took me several hours to build it, but it’s in business again. It’s a beautiful location and I owe it to Oxhorn who had an entire video devoted to finding a place for his C.A.M.P. by the water. I’ve watched a lot of his videos lately and he’s a real joy with his cigar, scotch and suspenders set to maximum stun. Haha.

That’s me admiring my work.

Fallout 76 lets you place your camp wherever you can find space. A lot of people congregate closer to the massive market place called Whitesprings Resort. Unfortunately, almost every time I play the game, someone launches a nuclear missile into it and it wipes out the surrounding area. Anyway, this camp/vendor feature makes FO76 a very interesting game. It’s not like the beauty of creating Japanese and Zen gardens in Second Life, but when you find a great site it’s really lovely.

This is a photo of the area where my camp is located.
It’s quite lovely considering that this is a post-apocalyptic world.

I think I’ll have an ice cold Nuka Cola!

 

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Fallout 76 WOW! Over My Head!

Posted on July 21, 2019 by

Okay, I was playing it safe in my usual way. Building resources, exploring, figuring things out and all. Then today… HOLY MOLY! I began to narrow down on an important quest that I’m pretty sure everyone eventually comes to, but I pressed my luck because I have a lot of stealthy tech and figured I could slip in… and well. Yeah, stealth can get you in close but you may not make it out alive. Heh.

I made it to a bunker which I won’t disclose and was fighting off some pretty high level Scorched when two Scorch Beasts attacked. And that was before it got really bad!! FORTUNATELY, a team of very high level dudes (way over Level 100) rushed in to help me and that caused me to fight with renewed vigor, but those dudes had badass power armor and I had left mine back in my camp. So I was way under armored and even my best gun was no match for what was coming at me. There were giant Mierlurks, Deathclaws and I believe I saw the Scorch Beast Queen. Like I said, at level 46, I was way in over my head. But WOW, it was so exciting.

When I got killed, one of the big dudes hit me with a Stimpak and that kept me going for a few more minutes, but the second time I got killed I didn’t ask for help. Unfortunately, when you die, you RESPAWN and–oh, did I mention that during the battle someone dropped a nuclear missile right next to the bunker?–I respawned right at ground zero of the nuke strike. Heh. Long story short, I got out after burning through a dozen of my own Stimpacks and clearing out all my ammo for my best gun. Heh. I did make it to my camp, got my Power Armor and headed back with a Plasma Gatling and I gave a better account of myself and killed my first Scorch Beast. So a grand time was had by all, but I had to checkout later because I was so amped up. Still am!

Back at camp I took a last look at my old camp. It’s come quite a way since I started but I want a more central location, and I plan to make it a cooler and more fun place to visit. This Vendor thing is really a winner for Fallout 76. So here’s a big WAY TO GO!

That’s me checking out my store.
It’s time to move though, so more to come.

CRITICISMS: I totally understand the criticisms this game has received. Even now, after some very good patches, the servers still drop a couple times every four hours, and it can take a long time to get back in. And the lack of NPCs is only partially compensated for with live players.

BRAVOS: The lack of NPCs is compensated a lot by other players who are, for the most part great people. I play on “Pacifist Mode” and can’t be easily attacked by bad actors, but bad actors have their tricks. Nonetheless, today, when the big boys came to save me it was great. I wish I knew who they were but there wasn’t time for taking names, if you get my meaning.

I’m all in on Fallout 76! 13 Star Flag and all.

 

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Fallout 76 Level 30

Posted on July 5, 2019 by

Yessie, I’ve been playing Fallout 76 for a couple months now. I steered clear of the game after all the reports of its many bugs and sloppy design last year. And I’m glad I did because I can truthfully say that I am delighted with the new game. Nonetheless, it was a challenging transition for me, into the world of multi-player games.

That’s me in my sniper outfit.

Yesterday I reached Level 30 and I have a lot of things going for me now, like a good sniper rifle, half-way decent armor, a cute outfit, 5,000+ caps and a store. Yes, I opened my own Level 30 store. It has three vendor machines that I’ve maxed out with all categories of items. I learned that the player owned stores is new feature from Bethesda, and I think it’s a home run.

That me standing in front of the store with my sniper’s rifle.
I just killed a pack of radrats and there’s a bunch of feral ghouls nearby. Heh.

I’ve never enjoyed player-vs-player games like World of Warcraft, but FO76 is a different slant on it. They have introduce a battle royal add-on to the game, but I’ve chosen to avoid all the PvP for now. Maybe once I get good at the game I’ll take a chance though.

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Fallout 4: Level 100

Posted on September 18, 2018 by

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).

Yordie Sands Fallout 4

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 Sands Fallout 4

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 Sands Fallout 4

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.

 

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