To Hell With The Rust Devils

[danconnors]

Talk about screwing up the game. Every other DLC you can avoid or just skip. But this one pain in the behind is completely unavoidable. Going to Fort Hagen to kill off Kellog I had to wipe out three gangs of rust devils. The damned cockroaches are literally all over the place, and sometimes seem to materialize out of thin air. I mean fun is fun, but when the jerks are literally EVERYWHERE it gets old very fast.

It seems like every time I take the walk from Taffington Boathouse to the drive inn I have to kill off yet another band of them under the overpass. Right now I'm trying to get out to the vault that has Curie in it, and so far it's a dozen rust devils and I'm not halfway there. I try ignoring the noise coming from that hardware store that invariably starts as soon as you hit level 15, but it doesn't work. Sooner or later the pita's start showing up whether you paid any attention to them or not.

The final show down with the Mechanist usually takes me twenty to thirty jets, even though I'm wearing X-01E power armor or better. The robots that are walking blow torches show up in seemingly endless numbers, and only the jet enables me to kill one before it barbecues me, power armor and all. To the developers: Could we have a little bit LESS of them?

[*.)]

Maybe disable the DLC until you want to play it? Also will remove the robot building then ofcourse.

[Chaosium]

They don't spawn as long as you don't talk to Ada the very first time. Problem solved

[The Inept European]

Very irritating.
If you toggle the quest(s) as Inactive does that change anything?

[The Inept European]

Originally posted by Chaosium:

They don't spawn as long as you don't talk to Ada the very first time. Problem solved

Ah! They are jealous that Ada is your girlfriend. 😀

[Spec_Ops_Ape]

That's the main reason I don't go near Ada till late game, currently lvl 53 and I haven't gone near that area yet.

[Out Of Bubblegum]

Agree with this. The Rust Devils and the robot gangs change the game too much. They have a 60% chance to be what spawns at all the random respawn spots. And it stays that way even after the quests are all finished. I know you don't use mods. But for others there is a mod that prevents the quest from starting until you want it to. Another one reduces the spawn chance once you do start Automatron. I would just not install Automatron until later but the unofficial patch and other mods need it to be activated. If you don't use any mods then you can just not install it until later.

PS: read the fandom wiki on that final quest. There is a way to avoid the final battles.

[danconnors]

You DON'T have to talk to Ada to have rust devil gangs start showing up. They appeared at least five levels before I talked to her this time. I figure I might as well at least get the workbench since they were already attacking me. In fact my turrets killed 7 of the robots at Taffington Boathouse before I ever talked to her.

I think the DLC also introduced concrete as a building material, but I wouldn't swear to it. I'd hate to give up concrete. Most of my good buildings use tons of it. What happens is one of the first Railroad quests--Boston after dark--takes you near the robot. If you are over level 15 you may notice a sign flash up, while you are escorting the synth 3 to Ticonderoga. It says something like "You talked to Ada." and you're screwed. More than likely, if you've ignored the fight and come any where within a half mile of the robot, you'll see the sign flash up, and the rust devils will soon be all over you.

On the plus side if you want to give your settlers good armor, cheap, all you need to do is wipe out a dozen or so gangs, and you'll have plenty of decent sets of armor that's better than ordinary metal armor. Of course you'll need upgraded power armor to carry all that armor.

[Out Of Bubblegum]

Originally posted by danconnors:

You DON'T have to talk to Ada to have rust devil gangs start showing up.

Yes. I have seen that. I was told that at level 20 they are added to the list of what can spawn at the random respawn points. No matter if you saw Ada or not.

And .. Concrete does not come from Automatron.
https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Concrete

[danconnors]

Thanks for the heads up. I know it wasn't available when the game first came out, and I had a Hell of a hard time building stuff with just wood and steel.

This particular game the first thing Dogmeat ran me into was a huge gang of rust devils who killed me even though I was wearing T51 E power armor. That was the end of Dogmeat leading me anywhere this game. Next time out of the gate I left him behind and led myself to the fortress.

[The Inept European]

Hmm. As I don't build robots or use mods at the moment I may uninstall Automatron before I hit this problem.

Does the Robot Repair Kit come from Automatron, and if it's uninstalled, how do you heal Codsworth? Stimpak? Not possible?

[Out Of Bubblegum]

I like to coat the PA in all anti-explosive coating. That helps a lot against missiles, grenades, nukes, etc. Radscorpion roast and some kind of soup help against laser attacks for a little while. They do stack. There is another roast that adds some generic DR. Every little bit helps. I hate the mutt and never use it.

[Out Of Bubblegum]

Originally posted by The Inept European:

Hmm. As I don't build robots or use mods at the moment I may uninstall Automatron before I hit this problem.

Does the Robot Repair Kit come from Automatron, and if it's uninstalled, how do you heal Codsworth? Stimpak? Not possible?

Yes, when I was looking at the wiki, the repair kit comes from Automatron. I dunno how the game works without it.

[danconnors]

You can make them at the work bench--robot repair kits. Make a couple of dozen. Then uninstall the DLC. It would be interesting if the robot repair kits then disappeared.

[The Inept European]

I would expect they would disappear and any save files that contained them would give a warning when attempting to load. The necessary objects and scripts for them to work would no longer exist.

It's not a big deal. I like them for the extra immersion but I can live without them.

[danconnors]

Too much immersion can drown you.