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lem0n · May 25, 2017

I decided to do something with my Steam version of FO4 recently. I started in Survival mode with a nice list of realistic gun mods and a lot of visual upgrades. Better weather, better textures, things like that. I feel like this is the way the game was meant to be played. In Vanilla, you can play this game like an FPS and just quest to the end and miss a ton of game. Not here, though!

In Survival, there's no fast travel, so you have to walk everywhere and plan your trips. There's no quick-save so you need to pick your battles. Only way to save is in a bed. You can utilize way more items in Survival, empty bottles actually have use(fill them up with dirty water) and there's some unique items that only show up in this mode as well, like antibiotics or medicine for fending off different symptoms. It took me an hour to successfully clear Super Duper Mart, which is crazy but I think I was under-leveled and didn't have the correct gear to take it on. Feral ghouls were killing me in two hits. It feels like an actual apocalypse survival simulator now, and I don't think I can go back. I'm not paying much attention to quests, and more just exploring and staying alive right now, but I still think this is the way to play. If you haven't tried it yet, give it a shot. I'm actually immersed in FO4 for the first time since launch.

MisterShine · May 25, 2017

I wanted to do this myself, but my damn game kept crashing and losing progress so I said fuck it -_-

Hope it keeps going well for you, OP.

Th3BranMan92 · May 25, 2017

For as much hate as it receives, there's always joy in a modded playthrough of Fallout 4 (and any other Bethesda game). Still pretty happy that mods came to XB1, adds a ton of variety.

Bl@de · May 25, 2017

What visual mods do you use? Looks great.

Huge Succeeded · May 25, 2017

Survival mode is the best way to play any of the 3D Fallout games, as far as I'm concerned. These games take on a whole new level of immersion and intensity when you're made to live in the world, as opposed to just romping through it.

Fallout 4's world is brilliantly designed, too, but that hardly comes across when, by the game's halfway point, you're just teleporting most of the way to each of your destinations - which is why F4's survival automatically disabling fast travel is what I consider Bethesda's most forward-thinking change to Fallout 4's mechanics.

Fata1moose · May 25, 2017

Survival maps de is great. I have yet to play Nuka World and Vault Tex Workshop as I finished my last survival run a year ago. At some point I'll have to replay it. There's no fixing the shitty dialogue system or story, but the world and is well crafted.

ZombieSupaStar · May 25, 2017

If only the damn game had more stat checks / quest outcomes. I liked everything else.

FlyinJ · May 25, 2017

I hated the base game on PC, then got the PS4 version because it got Pro support and I heard the survival mode was decent.

Absolutely loved the survival mode, the only mod I installed was the fast travel between found settlements (that I use sparingly). I played it for about 30 hours, then I heard FO4's Vive version was amazing, so I forced myself to stop playing so I could play it on the Vive.

StereoVsn · May 25, 2017

I mostly play like this as well but since I don't trust Bethesda games not to crash at the wrong moment I have a mod that lets you save at any bed or bedroll and also have a mod for camping setup I think (been a while). That way I can't save just on spur of the moment but don't have to look specifically for bed vs a cot or bedroll or can just setup camp.

I do wish there was a decent vehicle mod of some sort. It would be kind of cool driving a jeep/tank/robot/whatever, maybe even with NPC gunner

.

lem0n · May 25, 2017

Bl@de said:
What visual mods do you use? Looks great.

Thank you! Here's my mod list from Nexus:

Russian Recon Pack - SVU and MP443

Enhanced Lights and FX

Mosin Nagant - Sniper Rifle

Fallout 4 Enhanced Color Correction 9x39 Project

SCAR-H

TNR Shoulder Lamp

The M9 Standalone Pistol

Fallout Texture Overhaul PipBoy (Pip-Boy) UHD 4K

Chicago Blues Radio

Boston Pirate Radio - Anarchist Raider Punk

OLD WORLD RADIO - BOSTON

Fallout Texture Overhaul Stars

Enhanced Blood Textures

Crossbows of the Commonwealth

The M2216 Standalone Assault Rifle

Vivid Weathers - Fallout 4 Edition - a Weather Mod and Climate Overhaul

More Where That Came From - Diamond City Radio Edition

Vivid Fallout - Trees

Vivid Fallout - Rocks - Textures in HD - ORIGINAL SIZE - LOWER RESOLUTION

Vivid Fallout - Roads and Bridges

Wastelander's XM2076

M1 Garand - A WWII Classic

Lowered Weapons

Vivid Fallout - Landscapes - Textures in HD - ORIGINAL SIZE - LOWER RESOLUTION

Full Dialogue Interface (NewDialog English and CN-DE-ES-FR-IT-JA-PL-PTBR-RU translations)

Unofficial Fallout 4 Patch

True Storms - Wasteland Edition (Thunder-Rain-Weather Redone)

void666 · May 25, 2017

If you ignore the story, add some mods, ramp up the difficulty, yes fallout 4 can be very enjoyable.

If you enjoy creepy atmosphere i recommend a mod called PILGRIM. It's an ENB preset and mod that changes weather effects and soundtrack.

AmayaPapaya · May 25, 2017

I tried to play survival mode but I got sick at the beginning of the game. I was stuck at 1 hp because of it and diamond city was way too far to get medicine so I just stopped playing. I was disappointed with that as everything else seemed great.
Getting sick is adding too much imo.

lem0n · May 25, 2017

void666 said:
If you ignore the story, add some mods, ramp up the difficulty, yes fallout 4 can be very enjoyable.

If you enjoy creepy atmosphere i recommend a mod called PILGRIM. It's an ENB preset and mod that changes weather effects and soundtrack.

The creepier and more eerie the atmosphere, the better. I will look that up now

AmayaPapaya said:
I tried to play survival mode but I got sick at the beginning of the game. I was stuck at 1 hp because of it and diamond city was way too far to get medicine so I just stopped playing. I was disappointed with that as everything else seemed great.
Getting sick is adding too much imo.

That's a shame

There's a doc in Covenant, and that' easily the most accessible way to get healed. Way closer than Diamond City

Diancecht · May 25, 2017

I hate the music in Fallout 4 so I can't recommend this mod enough. It adds amazing industrial ost to the game.

https://soundcloud.com/neptuneuk/t51b?in=neptuneuk/sets/showcase

http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/14449/?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vt_77QTw2o

Bl@de · May 25, 2017

AmayaPapaya said:
I tried to play survival mode but I got sick at the beginning of the game. I was stuck at 1 hp because of it and diamond city was way too far to get medicine so I just stopped playing. I was disappointed with that as everything else seemed great.
Getting sick is adding too much imo.

You can tweak all the settings of the survival mode and turn off individual features. Don't remember if it's included or if you need a mod. But I remember turning off sickness and turning on quicksaving.

Here is the mod: Survival Options

grgelolwut · May 25, 2017

Good luck in the Commonwealth! Mods make that experience all the better. Maybe I put too much time into one character but after awhile the survival mode started to lack difficult. Mods included.

If you really want to hate yourself, try Frost. It's recommended that you run this mod with the selected few that have been made compatible. Makes survival much more harsh and places you in a much earlier timeline after the bombs were dropped.

edit: grammar.

AmayaPapaya · May 25, 2017

Amputechture said:
The creepier and more eerie the atmosphere, the better. I will look that up now

That's a shame There's a doc in Covenant, and that' easily the most accessible way to get healed. Way closer than Diamond City

Oh. When I looked it up online it said to go to diamond city. I will keep that in mind if I ever start it up again. Anyone know if the ps4 mods are worth it?

Jaraghan · May 25, 2017

I love Survival, except the no fast travelling. Loathe it. So I installed a mpd called "JOURNEY" which allows me to fast travel between established settlements and they have to be caravan linked. It helps fast travel and is realistic. I'd suggest that as a mod OP.

Lord of Castamere · May 25, 2017

I just hate no fast travel. Someone should mod bicycles, horses, and motorcycles in.

Varna · May 26, 2017

Fallout 4 Survival mode is fantastic.

I only install three mods since I feel the core gameplay is so incredibly solid.

A more low-key HUD that obscures information.
Slower affection gain.
Slower leveling speed.

Only mod I desperately wish existed was a no-story mod. Just dump me in the world with little to no objectives and let me explore. Bethesda failed with the story, but they created a fantastic survival RPG.

void666 · May 26, 2017

Varna said:
Fallout 4 Survival mode is fantastic.

I only install three mods since I feel the core gameplay is so incredibly solid.

A more low-key HUD that obscures information.
Slower affection gain.
Slower leveling speed.

Only mod I desperately wish existed was a no-story mod. Just dump me in the world with little to no objectives and let me explore. Bethesda failed with the story, but they created a fantastic survival RPG.

Take a look at a mod called Start Me Up.
It's an alternate start mod but it also:

Full version: makes over 800 dialogue edits with voice and lip sync so you don't have to play as the "concerned parent" character, replacing those with voiced and lip-synced lines from the rest of the game (so it's the original voice actors).

That's how i've been playing the game. Choose a random start, try to survive. When it gets easier start all over again.

Other mods i recommend:

I find resources too plentiful even on survival. To fix this i use Fallout Loot Overhaul.

Too many power armors lying around? Try Some Assembly Required.

Varna · May 27, 2017

Holy smokes. Thank you for that suggestions. It also lead me to the silent protagonist mod.

This is gonna be great!

ZombieSupaStar · May 28, 2017

OK, so this thread inspired me to go back to the game. I had rushed the main quest at launch and shelved the game when I realized this wasn't going to be a New Vegas like RPG. However, I went back for an hour or 2 when Far Harbor launched but barely started that dlc. And then never played it since so I haven't seen most of Far Harbor, any of the other dlc, or the survival mode. So I decided to do a survival modded play-through, so far I have:

Unofficial Fallout 4 Patch
Horizon
Armorsmith Extended
Sim Settlements
DEF UI
Hud Framework
True Storms
Digital Nightmare Music
Start me up

It seems Horizon overhauls a lot of things so I'm guessing most mods wont be compatible or are redundant (kind of like FCOM, FWE, Skyre did for their respective games).

Anything else, or is this a good setup?

Fall Into The GAF · May 28, 2017

MisterShine said:
I wanted to do this myself, but my damn game kept crashing and losing progress so I said fuck it -_-

Hope it keeps going well for you, OP.

Yep. It's constant on the XB1. Even without visual mods installed.

I abandoned my Survival playthrough mid way which sucks because I was really getting into how treacherous the landscape is with difficulty mods.

Jaraghan · May 28, 2017

MisterShine said:
I wanted to do this myself, but my damn game kept crashing and losing progress so I said fuck it -_-

Hope it keeps going well for you, OP.

Just happened to me. I spent 5 hours in Sanctuary making a nice patio building and campfire area, and my game crashes. It's on me as well, as I should have saved at some point in those 5 hours. But still, fuck crashes.

Izuna · May 28, 2017

No, it's a horrible mode.

NV Survival was pretty good.

Tigress · May 28, 2017

Survival mode is what made Fallout 4 a great game to me (and not just good. and I said game, not rpg. 4 is not a good rpg but as a game overall it still was fun). Before I was disappointed in the bad RPG and while I liked some stuff and thought was improved over 3, I thought it was a worse RPG (and honestly that's pretty sad as I don't consider 3 a strong RPG either). I had a hard time deciding which I liked better (3 is not my favorite Fallout either honestly, it's on the bottom, only 1 being worse but I think 1 is a better game, I just never got into 1 as much as the other Fallouts. I mean I'm not saying I disliked any of the Fallouts, just ranking in terms of other Fallouts).

Survival mode is what made up for the lack of RP in the RPG and honestly brought in an element of rping (because it was so immersive I started actually thinking more what would my character do and trying to play more realistically as her and not cheese mechanics). It is what made 4 be in my opinion a lot more fun than 3 (I still rank it below New Vegas and 2 though). And, it is one of the few things I think Bethesda did better than Obsidian (and I think they did it way better honestly). Hardcore mode was a good idea. Survival mode fixed what hardcore didn't really do right (you really do have to worry about eating and sleeping in survival. Hardcore was so easy that I still ate and drank and slept mostly for RP purposes rather than worrying about game effects. Survival mode I stopped worrying about I eat now because that's what would realistically be done and would eat because my character had to. Same with sleeping. And I loved how I had to ration out saves not because there wasn't enough beds but because I couldn't find many antibiotics so each time sleeping/saving was a chance I'd get sick).

I never want to play another Fallout without it. And I hope they put something similar in Elder Scrolls. Especially as they seem to be weakening the RPG aspects of their game.

Izuna said:
No, it's a horrible mode.

NV Survival was pretty good.

Oh I cannot disagree more with this (as I said it's one of the few things I think Bethesda got right over Obsidian). Hardcore was a good idea but in the end it was ineffective/ignorable. The only real effect it had was drinking. Other than that I was still sleeping and eating because I rped my character doing that, not because the game made me feel my character had to do that (I would prefer it that I actually feel that I need to and not have to pretend I need to).

Survival is everything I would have loved hardcore to be honestly. Even stuff I was a bit skeptical of I found I loved (like the only saving at beds). And the best part of it was that they made the eating, drinking, and sleeping actually have an effect and effect you quickly enough you had to pay attention to it. And I liked that they made it effect you realistically in game for the character (you did have to eat about at least twice a day and sleep once a day).

I even loved the weight limits combined with shelter building. Because survival mode made shelter building much more helpful (having to place doctors across the landscape and places to store junk and buy ammo since you could only carry so much). But junk costs weight. I loved how it really made me think of what was essential to carry and what not (Hardcore did it too but with the added thing that junk actually was useful made it something more you had to consider in survival mode).

And I don't remember if stimpacks had weight in hardcore mode but I liked that they did in survival mode.

Tigress · May 28, 2017

Varna said:
Only mod I desperately wish existed was a no-story mod. Just dump me in the world with little to no objectives and let me explore. Bethesda failed with the story, but they created a fantastic survival RPG.

I kinda did that with how I played my character. I played the story for a bit but once she found her son she realized he was long lost to her and is now focusing on helping the commonwealth (Including eventually getting rid of him but she feels she needs to strengthen her army first. Hell, she started building her army to go get him when she thought it was just a few years past. I figured since she knew a few years had passed that she realized he wasn't in immediate danger and had time to build up an army first). So her goals now are entirely different than what the game has written her goals to be.

SirNinja · May 28, 2017

Izuna said:
No, it's a horrible mode.

NV Survival was pretty good.

lol no. New Vegas's Survival mode was barely even a thing. Eat, drink, and sleep at regular intervals? I did that in vanilla NV anyway.

4's survival mode is what New Vegas's should've been all along. Damage dealt/received/healed is much more realistic, and there's a genuine fear that you can easily be killed if you wander out into the wasteland. Situational awareness, stealth, and choosing your battles all come into play here. Then there's the diseases, which are easily contracted but not necessarily easily cured. There will be times when you'll have to sleep on a dirty bedroll out in the middle of nowhere because you need to save your progress badly, knowing full well you'll probably wake up with something horrible. And so on. It's an excellent mode.

Tigress · May 28, 2017

SirNinja said:
lol no. New Vegas's Survival mode was barely even a thing. Eat, drink, and sleep at regular intervals? I did that in vanilla NV anyway.

4's survival mode is what New Vegas's should've been all along. Damage dealt/received/healed is much more realistic, and there's a genuine fear that you can easily be killed if you wander out into the wasteland. Situational awareness, stealth, and choosing your battles all come into play here. Then there's the diseases, which are easily contracted but not necessarily easily cured. There will be times when you'll have to sleep on a dirty bedroll out in the middle of nowhere because you need to save your progress badly, knowing full well you'll probably wake up with something horrible. And so on. It's an excellent mode.

Heh, this as well. Survival actually made the game feel more challenging in a fun/good/survival type of way. Hardcore quickly was ignorable and barely had any effect on the game except maybe at the very beginning. I think Hardcore had the right ideas and was a good step. I just think survival was implemented a whole lot better. Hardcore really didn't change how I played the game or what I took into consideration (well other than ammo weights which both modes share). Survival really had me coming up with tactics and having to really consider things when I played that I wouldn't without it.

Retrozocker · May 28, 2017

@OP: Have you tried Horizon? Its a complete overhaul mod designed around survival mode. It sound very promising, its currently in process of a complete crafting overhaul, as soon as thats finished ill start a new playthrough myself.

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