Where I Hang My Hat V: Warwick Homestead · 8:11pm Jun 30th, 2016
larger version; art by Almar
Once again, I bring you another of my settlement creations. This time, I'm showing off the work that I've done on the Warwick Homestead. This settlement is noteworthy in already being a fairly beautiful place complete with a large farm and multiple buildings, and thus I felt it called for a very different approach. With the Warwick Homestead, less is more.
But first, a bit of news. And to help break up the wall of text, I'm going to be inserting a number of songs. This week, I learned that the Aviators, a band that has done some of my favorite fan MLP songs, has also done a series of songs for Fallout (the latest inspired by Pickman)! 
How did I miss this before? One of these songs has been out since last year. 
In the world of Fallout, Bethesda has released an update for "MODS", providing new features and flexibility for posting and using mods. Unfortunately, Bethesda also just announced ythat mods will not be coming to the PS4 anytime soon. According to GamenGuide, the delay results from Bethesda struggling to handle the software limitations of Sony.
from BethesdaGameStudios:
We regret to say that the PS4 Mods Beta for Fallout 4 has been delayed. We will update everyone when we can.
Speaking of Fallout 4, Fraser Brown and Matt Purslow at PCGamesN have offered a pair of intriguing essays on the game. In the first essay, Fraser Brown points out some of the problems that frustrate a lot of players, particularly long-time Fallout fans who are expecting every Fallout game to adhere to a particular mold:
by Fraser Brown:
Last year, I played a lot of Fallout 4. During my first forays into the Commonwealth, I loved it – the improved combat, sleuthing with Nick Valentine, all those lovely sets of power armour – but the more I played, the more hollow the game felt. As an open-world action game, it’s pretty damn good, but as an RPG, as a story-based game, even as a Fallout game, it has some serious problems.
[del]
The base game is a smorgasbord of contradictions. It spins a personal yarn about family and the hunt for a lost child, but encourages you to do everything but search for your estranged brat. It offers up a huge world that you can explore with your customised parent, whose dialogue you select, yet there’s almost no room to be anything other than a hero. It gives you four very different factions to join, most of whom are opposed to each other, but you can join them all and nobody seems to care.
Matt Purslow, in an essay published today, offered up an alternate perspective:
Bethesda know exactly what Fallout 4 is. The problem is, for many people, that Bethesda haven’t made an RPG. But that’s no mistake.
Instead, Todd Howard and his team have created an open-world game that’s half-immersive sim, half-Minecraft. I believe that’s a very intentional move. The game isn’t described as an RPG on its Steam page (it’s a ‘next generation open-world’), and taking a different, more adult spin on Minecraft makes all the sense in the world, both for getting people interested, making DLC, and keeping gamers playing.
Fallout 4 has a distinct unifying theme that makes it suitable for being a construction sandbox, and that’s rebuilding. Practically every major thread of the world comes down to it: you’re a parent looking to rebuild their family, who can join a man looking to rebuild a sense of community, in a world desperate to rebuild itself. Every faction in the game aims to dig its way out of the shitstorm the nuclear apocalypse caused. This means one of Fallout 4’s core mechanics - scavenging and crafting - links solidly to its major theme. Few open-world games do that.
What do you think? Personally, I am fine with Fallout expanding into different kinds of games, unified by the setting and core concepts. I think it did well to transition from isometric to FPS open world. I enjoyed Fallout: Shelter. I don't think Fallout needs to remain "pure" by keeping it to any particular game type. I think Fallout is capable of being a lot more than that. I can sympathize with people who wanted and expected a certain thing. ("This isn't what I expected a'tall.") But while I can understand disappointment, I find I don't have much sympathy for the hard-liners complaining that any of the last several games "aren't Fallout." I think we should accept a broader and more inclusive conception of what Fallout is.
In the same vein as previous "Where I Hang My Hat" blogs, I am now going to show off my rework of the Warwick Homestead. Because the nature of the changes are so minimalistic, this time not only will the images below link to the full-size screenshots, but I have provided links to a handful of "before" images, showing what those areas of the Warwick Homestead originally looked like for comparison. As always, my settlements are not in the same league as some of the utterly amazing works out there, but I am quite pleased with my own work. I hope you like what I have to share.
The Warwick Homestead gallery starts below the break. Two final announcements before that. First, the Fo:E-base roleplaying game Fallout is Dragons, which started in January of 2014 and has been putting up YouTube videos of their game, just wrapped up their final session last week. Second, Strategic Jordan has just started Chapter 21. Enjoy!
Let me know what you think. And again, please share pictures of the settlements you are most proud of, or any screenshots from your game that you would love to share!
Rather like what you done wit that place.
Preesonally i can see that theme. REbuilding. But sadly i think it kinda overshadowed the experience. Something i notice, along with a few others i knew, is that the world feels smaller here, dspite its size. There are less characters that have stories, and most of them exist for quests rather than information. It was streamlined in the wrong way.
honestly miss the rpg elements of the game. rebuilding i s intersting but i miss the more meticulous details and awesome perks you can get over time.
I remember my first visit to Warwick. After gaining control, I went around scrapping everything in preparation for building. When I got to the back end of it, I spotted some toys and started scrapping them. I had gotten the toys and some of the letter blocks when I noticed the bundle of flowers, at which point it finally registered that the letter blocks had spelled out "bye". I just wrecked someone's memorial, and I suddenly felt like the worst person ever.
And I couldn't even put it back, because I had been scrapping it.
Fallout 4 grew on me. I thought it was kind of a mess after New Vegas and 3, but it surprised me. As someone who leans towards lawful good heavily, I'm not usually someone who'd be bothered by the fact that you can't be a 'villain' in this game. For a while, I could sympathize with people not being able to be the raider they wanted to be, but I think this works in its own way. While no, you can't be the psychotic, rampaging psycho anarchist, you are a villain. No matter which faction you pick, you're going to be a villain.
There are four factions, and you're going to be enemies with at least one of them by the end of the game. Every side has its own, albeit flawed justifications, and as the player character, you are the one who administers final judgement. It'll make you a hero in the eyes of some, and a villain in others'.
Looking back at Fallout 4 as a whole, the only thing I really, really wish they did differently was the dialogue wheel and level system. I miss skill checks and being able to talk around a situation even if you had no charisma. Maybe you just knew stuff about explosives or science to be able to talk someone into doing something.
Anyway, Fallout 4 gets my Vault Boy seal of approval. (Sorry for the wall of text!)
P.S. Warwick's looking quite handsome as a nice little hovel. That's something I'm actually skilled at making in game. Also, if you haven't, you should totally check out Spectacle Island.
Nice
I think I rather like Fallout 4 as much as New vegas and Fallout 3. I may have only played the third one briefly, but it seems like Fallout 4 is still adhering to they key element to it's story premise. "War. War never changes."
P.S. I think you did a pretty good job cleaning Warwick up.
4058802 Well, Nuka World's promising to allow people to become Raiders, so that complaint will be put to rest soon enough.
Anyways, yep. The moral ambiguity and lack of any noticeable karma system is what made Fallout 4 my second favorite game of the franchise. Especially because YOU have to justify your actions, not rely on the universe calling you a good or bad person. I think someone's first playthrough, assuming they were making genuine choices instead of adhering to a build, says a lot about a person's morality and beliefs, which I find fascinating.
If you think about it, the raiders must view the Minutemen the same way settlers see raiders: The grim reapers of the Commonwealth, despite the fact that the Minutemen is the most obvious moral-good faction.
As someone who wasn't interested in the workshop gameplay and still managed to be disappointed by it, FO4 feels like half the game was cut out for another game to be jammed in. The world does not react to what you build; every settlement is just its own little bubble. I think it's great that so many people enjoy it but there are also many people like me who simply don't.
I could go on about that and other complaints, but it's not the real problem and it's not anything most of us haven't read already. The reason for all the resentment is that despite all that Bethesda has accomplished, people look at the direction the series gone from Fallout 3 to Fallout 4, and they look at how the Elder Scrolls series has changed, and they see these game series moving more and more towards mass market appeal at the expense of what they loved about previous games. Without going into a bunch of detail, if I could go back I wouldn't have bought Fallout 4, despite playing it for many hours. It's not that it wasn't what I expected, it's that huge parts of the game just aren't enjoyable to me, and the comparison to games past just makes it feel worse. I can't go back and play it anymore. I think something like that, basically, is where most of the kerfuffle comes from.
4059055
Which is why I felt it was the easy way out to choose the Minutemen xD
My first play I went with the Institute.
4059124 I went with the Railroad. Freeing an enslaved people, stealthy assassinations, and merging it with the Minutemen? Sign me the hell up.
Also, Deacon. Jesus fucking Christ, I love Deacon.
4059139
To be honest, I actually found the Railroad to be the least sympathetic group at first. Like, my first impression of them was just terrible until I did their quests xD
4059055 i usually am the bloody avenger in fallout. but I found fallout 4 to not be on par with the others. its just too black and white in the game. I wish that the game was different than it was. though the graphics are beautiful the story and gameplay are lacking somewhat. but I always liked the karma system and for a great example of the grey area of morality look at fallout three. but Bethesda is starting to shape the game away from its core audience and hoping pretty pictures placate the people. I mean yay graphics but where's the meat? where are the decisions and choices that brought me to the franchise in the first place? its like what happened with mass effect three with the combat mode. they are hoping to attract the shooter crowd.
4059169 Really? I hated the BOS. Still do actually, just slightly less than my pre-BOS playthrough.
As far as the Railroad? I dunno, I was pretty cool with them. I already supported synth-liberty, especially after reaching max affinity with Nick Valentine, so I liked them immediately. The guns in my face, not so much, but Deacon made it okay. Side note, Deacon is pretty much a more in-shape me, so that's why I love his sense of humor so much.
I'll admit, Desdemona did kind of piss me off with her "Us or Them" ultimatum she tried to pull, but I got over it once they merged after the ending. So yeah, Railroad's my favorite faction. As far as the Institute? If they were less morally numb, I'd be okay with them. Fuck, it's not even like they know their actions are wrong, they just act like sociopaths throwing their toys around a playroom, not caring about the consequences.
4059170
I think you have it backwards. The lack of the karma system in Fallout 4 meant that you had to rationalize your decisions on your own. In Fallout 3 you had "The obvious right/wrong decision" option and in Fallout 4, you had to figure out for yourself what you thought was right. Do you act on the ideals of the Minutemen, Brotherhood, Railroad, or Institute? Each faction has their own virtues and vices. I found the morality of Fallout 4 to be far more grey than Fallout 3.
4059308 well I was more talking the slavers and the whole genocide thing. oh and the kidnapping of an infant! point being neither of us have it backward we just view it differently. also if you had bad enough karma in fallout three hit squads would be sent to kill you. or conversely if you had good karma hit squads would attempt to kill you. I used the system to try and keep to neutral. which is hard for me. I tend to go to either extreme. neutral Is really hard. both are good games but both are different. comparing the two like I did is stupid and like comparing a pineapple to a pear. not going to work well. so you're right and i'm not wrong. may you have a favourable wind in your sails.
Said it before, saying it again, and will continue to say it whenever the subject is brought up: skyrim with guns.
Now, this does not mean its a bad game! And perhaps my expectations were a little too high... but then I had high expectations for three and new vegas and they managed to be all that and and megaton extra, taking the franchise in directions I never expected it to go. 4... Okay, you completely revamped the Doom series, so I know you can do it. Hell, Rage, for all its flaws, was a pretty good game, just a little light on content.
I reserve my scorn for things that deserve...I'M LOOKING AT YOU TACTICS, AND THAT SHITTY GOD FORSAKEN ABORTION THAT WAS BROTHERHOOD OF STEEL, GAH, MY EYES STILL BURN FROM THE HORROR... so I'm not like purists or silly billies who hate this for not following the formula to a t. I have issues because they took out a whole plethora of stuff, replaced it with five flavors of meh, and rearranged things so it appeared they made something. It could have been great! And that's what's disappointing: Fallout is a franchise that deserves time and care. They didn't put forth their best effort, and it shows. That's what I dislike
Its not going to be classic...
I've got to add that I love that company of horses 2 poster because I've played the real coh2 myself.
As per usual your settlements look wonderful. I've actually stopped playing Fallout as I nearly burnt myself out playing it for several weeks straight when Far Harbor came out.
Actually, this racing game I just beat with my cousin almost got me to go back to the wasteland after how much of a headache it gave me (the racing game).
I still plan on expanding upon my creation in Sanctuary at some point, but until then I think I'll stick to enjoying a few other games I haven't gotten the chance to play.
Maybe you could do a blog on several games you recommend? 
hi hi
I approve of the subtle things. It's amazing what a little bit of maintenance, a little bit of love and care can do to make something feel new again. And the stuff anyone fills the space with is, in a way, a reflection of themselves. Makes a place look lived in, or not.
I think it is more common these days for people to not have a repairing things mentality. If something breaks, it's time to throw it out and grab something new, and so many things are complex enough anymore that it is hard to service them from home. But I think perhaps it is still a good mindset to have, not just because it helps reduce waste which is good enough on its own, but it helps foster an eye for finding solutions which can carry over into other areas, like relationships and community. (Which is not to say that getting rid of something broken is never a good thing, there's times for that too, but still it is often helpful to give it an honest go first.)
One moment in time that always sticks out to me was when a friend of mine moved out of his apartment. He had this TV that occasionally would flake out, and he would give it a solid smack, or three, before it would start working again. When he moved out, he left it behind for his roommate thinking it was a piece of junk. His roommate opened it up, applied an inch long strip of electrical tape to a circuit board, and it worked just like new after that.
So yeah, it's the little things sometimes that matter. Adding a bit of light, sweeping up the dust and rubble (broom maker was a full time profession at one point.), and getting rid of water and mold. The smell of recently cooked food doesn't hurt either.
((Fallout Tactics and Brotherhood of Steel are the games that got me interested in Fallout in the first place. BoS remains the only Fallout game I've played with coop multiplayer.))
4058796 Amazing how a game can hit you in the feels that way, isn't it? I saw the memorial, couldn't bring myself to disturb it. A non settlement that hit me pretty hard was the shelter with the graves in the back. When I read that they had to bury their children, I just lost it. Had to leave, haven't been back there since.
Aviators is great, but you missed one, Kkat.
"Wolves" is also Fallout-inspired.
Okay, that first picture though.
Company of Horses 2? THAT is a game I absolutely want.