How can the Somerville Place settlement exist?

[drizzan]

This settlement is almost as disconnecting from the game world as the "Kid in a fridge" quest. 2 kids and 1 adult live on the edge to the Glowing Sea totally surrounded by monsters in all directions.

Did Bethesda just go crazy on this one or do they have some major secret that I am missing how they have been able to survive out here?

[showler]

They made a deal with Kremvh.

[drizzan]

There really is some story about how they are able to live out there? Where did you find this info?

[showler]

Nah. The real reason is that enemies are restricted to small areas and their aggro distances are small so they can't perceive the farm in order to attack it.

[drizzan]

Yeah that I understand from a gameplay point of view, just wondering how they actually survived there if this was supposed to be a functional world.

[DaddyJokee]

Ye, its kinda insane, but then, you have riders living next door from Super Mutants, and Parker Quinn just staning on a corner next to a rider hideout and a super mutant den. The game is kinda crazy in these terms. Especially the further south you go.

[AlexMBrennan]

if this was supposed to be a functional world.

That's your problem right there - it's not supposed to be a functional world but a world where you are never more than 50m away from raiders, super mutants or assorted nuclear abominations to shoot.

At the end of the day, they have to give you a decent number of things to shoot at, and increasing the number of friendly NPCs to believable levels (e.g. 1 farming settlers for every raider/super mutant/gunner found in the game) would probably push the struggling engine past its breaking point.

[drizzan]

Guess it just is Bethesda then that thought it was a cool place to have a settlement with kids with no explanation how they actually survive there.

It's just a bit sad when you stumble upon places like this, since they are so unbelievable you feel less immersed in the game world.

[TVMAN]

That sort of describes most of the settlements in the game, to be frank. Take a few steps in any direction from any settlement and you'll generally end up in a firefight of some kind. Hell, the undefended entrance to Vault 88 is smack in the middle of a raider settlement. Why they're not constantly attempting to breach the vault door is never explained or even brought up, it's simply glossed over.

The Commonwealth is a war zone overrun with raiders, super mutants, feral ghouls, and all sorts of other monsters. On top of all that, you also have factions like the Institute and the Gunners outright annihilating entire settlements (Quincy and University Point) and slaughtering the people who live there. Given how deadly it is to simply walk between towns, The Commonwealth surely should have run out of humans at some point.

Realistically speaking, the only settlements that could actually survive are fortified towns like Covenant, Goodneighbor, and Diamond City. All of the minor farms and settlements would have been destroyed long ago.

[CrackeR]

A person(s) in a survival situation will latch onto the first shelter they locate uninhabited. So it makes very good sense that they are living there. As far as it just being a woman with 2 kids, well, maybe the father died defending them in a previous battle.
Or maybe she has a secret lover over in vault 95 who murdered the old man so they could frolic in the woods away from the kids!!!?

[drizzan]

Raiders are actually trying to break into Vault 88 if you go there so I can sorta live with that one, and those vault doors wont budge easily.

But you are totally right about alot of other smaller settlements where there are like 2-3 people living and picking tatos next to a Super Mutant hotspot. The Slog and Finch farm for example are both very close to Saugus Ironworks which has a huge raider gang living there, it is very unrealistic that they should not have attacked those settlements and enslaved/killed them.

I think the main problem is that they made enemies far too common compared to the other Fallout games (FO3, FNV). In those games you could actually walk for 5-10 minutes without getting into a fight all the time.

[drizzan]

Originally posted by CrackeR:

A person(s) in a survival situation will latch onto the first shelter they locate uninhabited. So it makes very good sense that they are living there. As far as it just being a woman with 2 kids, well, maybe the father died defending them in a previous battle.
Or maybe she has a secret lover over in vault 95 who murdered the old man so they could frolic in the woods away from the kids!!!? :2016popsicle:

It is an adult man (father?) living with 2 kids not a woman. Not that it really matters what gender the adult is when they are living in the middle of a swamp with hostiles in all directions. But I have solved their problems in my game now. I sent my Nuka-World Disciple raiders to take care of them while they send me their produce, so now they are safe!

Having armed raider guards at those settlements actually makes them a tad realistic again.

[TVMAN]

Originally posted by drizzan:

Raiders are actually trying to break into Vault 88 if you go there so I can sorta live with that one, and those vault doors wont budge easily.

That's only once, though. After that scripted event, the raiders living in the quarry happily ignore the existence of Vault 88. The 'attacks' that occur in vault 88 afterwards are usually random enemies and they just spawn in. It's totally immersion-breaking and one of the things I really disliked about the game.

I think the main problem is that they made enemies far too common compared to the other Fallout games (FO3, FNV). In those games you could actually walk for 5-10 minutes without getting into a fight all the time.

Well, that and they made most of the human enemies into thoughtlessly hostile murder machines. I mean, bullets are a limited resource. If a raider can get away with robbing someone via intimidation, they would. If they can make some additional caps by capturing someone and selling them into slavery instead of killing them, they would.

Even Fallout 3 had a raider settlement you could interact with. If you approached Paradise Falls, they at least gave you a chance to buy slaves or engage in some sort of commerce before opening fire. Combat Zone, Saugus Ironworks, Gunners Plaza, etc could have all been the same, but instead they're all raider-themed shooting galleries with little substance.

[showler]

It always annoyed me in FO3 that the Outcasts and the Raiders down the road could "see" each other from their front doors, but ignored each other entirely.

[DaddyJokee]

Well tbh, I can live with the game-iness of it all. The map would have to be incredibly large and would take ages to cross, if you wanted realistic distances betewen things. What really bothers me is the locations Bethesda chose for settlements. Like...Coastal Cottage. There is a perfectly good reinforced concrete factory just over yonder which would make a defensible nearly indestructible settlement...so we chose to live in a shack that has a massive hole in the middle of it.

Or. Jamaica Plain. Hey! there is a great looking church here we could live in! But lets make our home across the street in a bombed out ruin of a house.

[drizzan]

Originally posted by TVMAN:

Originally posted by drizzan:

Raiders are actually trying to break into Vault 88 if you go there so I can sorta live with that one, and those vault doors wont budge easily.

That's only once, though. After that scripted event, the raiders living in the quarry happily ignore the existence of Vault 88. The 'attacks' that occur in vault 88 afterwards are usually random enemies and they just spawn in. It's totally immersion-breaking and one of the things I really disliked about the game.

I think the main problem is that they made enemies far too common compared to the other Fallout games (FO3, FNV). In those games you could actually walk for 5-10 minutes without getting into a fight all the time.

Well, that and they made most of the human enemies into thoughtlessly hostile murder machines. I mean, bullets are a limited resource. If a raider can get away with robbing someone via intimidation, they would. If they can make some additional caps by capturing someone and selling them into slavery instead of killing them, they would.

Even Fallout 3 had a raider settlement you could interact with. If you approached Paradise Falls, they at least gave you a chance to buy slaves or engage in some sort of commerce before opening fire. Combat Zone, Saugus Ironworks, Gunners Plaza, etc could have all been the same, but instead they're all raider-themed shooting galleries with little substance.

Very true they did miss alot of potential with the Raiders, the Combat Zone content was cut I think, you can restore most of it with a mod, you were supposed to be able to bet on fighters and fight yourself there. Instead they just made it another generic fight where everyone aggroes you instantly. The horserace track is another wasted opportunity where everyone just tries to kill you. It would be awesome to be able to talk to some raider gangs before they all try to kill you, to maybe get some truce and of course you can then have the option to just slaughter them if you want to.

They then made the Nuka-World DLC so you could finally be a raider if you wanted to but it feels kinda disconnected from the main game because everything else is the same except for the settlement gameplay. And what you do in settlements litterally has no impact upon anyone in the game, you could have 20 people with 1000 defense in each settlement they will still get kidnapped in those generic radiant minutemen quests.