So I've never played any of the previous Fallout games but purchased this back in February once our computer was upgraded. I jumped right into X-Com2 but heard all about FO4 since my son decided to start with it. I couldn't tear myself away from X-Com2 but when I was ready I heard about the updated "Survivor" mode and was intrigued by it... so I chose to wait and play once that mode was available. Probably not the smart decision for a first playthrough but right now, at level 30, it's been one hell of a game. Was curious if anyone else here has been playing this mode?
My first attempt didn't go well at all. One of the first battles after leaving the vault gave me an infection. The description for it said "periodic damage" which I didn't think would be too bad. Turns out it was around 15-20% of my HP every 5 minutes, give or take. Fortunately you can't die in your sleep from it otherwise I'd have been dead that first day. I was downing stimpacks, water, anything like a mad man trying to stay alive. I got as far as dealing with the Concord Deathclaw before I was out of stimpacks and other health aids and then quit. Antibiotics would have stopped the infection but they're a rare find in medical kits (I hadn't found any by that point, have found very few (3-4?) in my current game at lv30), the few merchants I ran into didn't sell them, and crafting them required the Chemist perk which I was far from being able to get. I wound up quitting and starting over.
Carry weight has been the biggest pain in my experience. I've adapted to it but as someone who turned into a real hoarder in this game it's been problematic. My play sessions pretty much revolve around going out into the world, looting until I and my companion can't carry any more, return to base. A lot of my life also revolved around collecting empty bottles and going into Vault 111 to fill them up there as it's clean water. This was before I hit the tutorial quests about building your settlement and building water pumps.
Settlement building didn't really appeal much to me, in part because I knew Sanctuary was stuck in the NW corner and I ultimately wanted somewhere more centrally located to be "home". Oberland Station has become my new home. I kicked the 2 residents out (leaving one just to act as the supply line provider), tore out the gardens and basically just built up walls, corners and machine gun turrets around the railway station/tower there. Hauling my collected stuff from Sanctuary to there took about 5 trips and I'm thankful the supply lines meant I could keep "junk" wherever it is and not haul it to Oberland Station.
Having to save at beds hasn't been that big of an issue. They're not that hard to find and there's only been a few times I've died long after a save.
Long story short, it was a very tense start. I've relied heavily on being a sneaky bastard and just running away when things go bad. It wasn't until I hit level 20 and had some nice weapons and enough fusion cores to use my power armor fairly regularly that I started feeling secure.
This weekend I hit the jackpot... looting an "Instigating" hunter rifle off a legendary enemy. I stopped my progress in a fairly lengthy area just to go to the nearest bed and save so I wouldn't lose it. It's fully upgraded now, and I built up my agility enough to start putting points in the Ninja perk so I should be one-shotting big guys fairly soon
