Things That Serve No Point

JO'Geran said:
Why deprive yourself of dozens of potential dialogue options, to make it mildly more convenient for Console users?
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As a console gamer, I find the dialogue box more convienent than the four button style. The sarcastic options are nice, but they keep varrying between "light hearted jokes" to "shut your face grandma" which I hate.

I wish they did more with East City Downs. It's a robot racetrack for godsakes, it'd be great to enter Codsworth in. The weird thing about Bethesda is that they come up with locations that could be cool and add some replayability to their games, and they just make them kill fests instead.
 
Maybe the 4 dialogue options constraint did save them a notable amount of money in light of a voiced PC. That way, while writing the dialogue, they wouldn't have risked writing more than what they were willing to budget to recording the VAs.

Considering they still would have made a lot, if not more, had they not limited the number and types of dialogue options, it might show how focused they were and are on turning a quick profit, without looking enough into long term benefits.
 
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Practicat said:
Maybe the 4 dialogue options constraint did save them a notable amount of money in light of a voiced PC. That way, while writing the dialogue, they wouldn't have risked writing more than what they were willing to budget to recording the VAs.

Considering they still would have made a lot, if not more, had they not limited the number and types of dialogue options, it might show how focused they were and are on turning a quick profit, without looking enough into long term benefits.
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But muh over 900 Codsworth names.
 
MacCready:

One of the most hated things by players in Fallout 3 was Littlelamplight that made no sense how they would get kids and survive in caves that lead to the Super Mutants main base and so on... But Bethesda must have thought it was awesome and so for no damn good reason placed MacCready in Fallout 4 just because.
 
And a romance no less. Yeah I bet the ladies are clamoring for him. :roll: Oh and something I just noticed, MacCready's story in Fallout 4 mirrors that of the Sole Surivor. Dead wife, son in need. Wow, great writing Emil. Forcing us to relate to one of the most hated characters you made for Fallout 3. Just, why? :violent:
 
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Big No said:
As a console gamer, I find the dialogue box more convienent than the four button style. The sarcastic options are nice, but they keep varrying between "light hearted jokes" to "shut your face grandma" which I hate.
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Speaking of sarcasm, can I just say how much Bethesda doesn't get Massachusetts sarcasm? I've grown up and still live in Mass. and the sarcasm here is more subtle, a bit ass-hole-ish, but it's still meant to be taken as a joke. It's not fuckin "Egor, throw the switch" like Bethesda thinks it is; it's more like if someone was showing off their junker car, and you said "Wow, must've cost you a fortune". It's sad, I never got a single vibe that Fallout 4 was actually supposed to be taking place in Boston. There isn't much of an actual city in the game, it's just two tall buildings surrounded by some brick buildings, and then it's pretty much forest from there-on-out.
 
The limited dialogue made a lot of NPCs redundant. Whilst before you could inquire into the lives of the more interesting folk the Wasteland has to offer, now you're just meant to accept their quirks and move on.

But that just follows the general theme of the game, doesn't it? "Don't question it, there is no 'why'".

Raiders being made more human was a huge waste of resources, considering I'm never given the option to spare them. So what Todd, I'm supposed to feel bad about this raider who just buried his friend but I have to shoot him anyway?

A lot of gun mods are useless, or at least could have been balanced better. Was it really necessary to add three different variations of "does more damage" to the laser rifle? Couldn't you have gotten more creative with the mods?

Ridable Vertibirds is definitely up there, given the fact that Fast Travel exists; it may be a moot point now that Survival Mode is being introduced, but they didn't plan for it.

Enemy variants with no discernible difference to their combat, like albino Deathclaws. Although they do remind me of Goris, so that's a plus.

Gunners, in general, seem like a pointless faction; much like Talon mercenaries, there's no explanation for their existence or why they shoot you and anyone else on sight; who employs them, who their leaders are, nothing. They're essentially a raider faction in a game that refuses to give them any semblance of a society, yet keeps contradicting itself with things like Easy City Downs and the Combat Zone.

Super mutants also were a pointless addition, though I suppose Bethesda has to keep that brand recognition going. They add nothing to the game and are just raiders but bigger and greener.

A lot of settlement locations were arbitrarily picked without any rhyme or reason; I can see the need for variety and the challenge in certain locations, but fucking Sunshine Tidings Co-op? Really?

Strong, despite being one of my favourite companions simply because Bethesda wants me to hate mutants, has no impact on the game whatsoever. He's stubbornly hypocritical (likely due to poor playtesting) and difficult to get a high affinity with in a game where everyone else loves you after staring at your ass lockpicking a few times. When you do finally get to the highest possible peak in your relationship, he simply renounces his previous people in favour of you, something which he did already anyway by agreeing to follow you and which means exactly zilch to you because you have no idea how big of a decision that was. Are super mutants particularly loyal? Did Strong just renounce his entire cultural identity to follow you? Who gives a shit, they're big and green and stupid and make excellent target practice.

I can't think of anything else off the top of my head, but I'm sure there's more.
 
Bethesda's attempts to appeal to the fans of the classics are completely pointless. They redesign Radscorpions and Super Mutants to better resemble their F1 and F2 appearances and they try to have the Brotherhood act more in line with their western counterparts. And in typical Bethesda fashion, they completely miss the point with their juvenile writing and pointless retcons. T-60 being a prime example.
 
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justsettheradio said:
Bethesda's attempts to appeal to the fans of the classics are completely pointless. They redesign Radscorpions and Super Mutants to better resemble their F1 and F2 appearances and they try to have the Brotherhood act more in line with their western counterparts. And in typical Bethesda fashion, they completely miss the point with their juvenile writing and pointless retcons. T-60 being a prime example.
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Sadly there's this attempted pandering to the older fans, and while it's a step in the right direction (did I say pandering was good? I mean going back to the classics) they also have to mix that with their major demographic of fans which doesn't end well and mix correctly. Oh and the fact they never understood the originals.
 
MercenarySnake said:
Settlement building, I couldn't tell you why it's there other than "it's just there to say it's there". You build a little town out of big piles of junk.
You have a bunch of nameless NPCs called "settler" with as much personality as cardboard cutouts, this was supposed to be the replacement for interesting NPCs. I think it's just an excuse to avoid creating interesting NPCs which they are obviously too incompetent to create.
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I think I could have made this work, well at least building your own settlement.

First of all, I would kick out the whole minecraft stuff. You don't actually build the buildings, furniture or machines yourself. At best you can plan where buildings are placed.

There would only be one settlement, and you would have to do some quests before you are elected mayor and can run it.

You would have to start recruiting people like carpenters, electricians, skilled people like then, thus lots of speech/charisma checks.
Alternatively you can buy or free slaves with those skills and send them to your new settlement.
You would also have to convince people with supportive skills such as defenders, teachers and doctors to go there as otherwise your settlement might not last long.

You would have to make arrangements with traders and caravan houses to start sending materials there. Depending on who you deal with and how much money is involved buildings would either be made of scrap or wood, or would be adobe buildings or buildings made from bricks. (the more you invest, the better)

The better your settlement does the more people would come to it. Likewise depending on how rich your settlement is elements such as facilities and defenses would improve.
Big strong walls and automated turrets around your settlement, a power plant and water purification. (these installations would be there but need to be fixed up by skilled people), workshops where advanced equipment and tools are made, and so on.
Perhaps some high tier equipment and weapons would only be available through making a successful settlement.

And your settlement would have an impact on the end game, either becoming a member of an emerging nation of perhaps the very capital.
 
It's tricky not to understand this question as "What sucks". There are a lot of things that are horrible, but if we're trying to be specific about "what has no use or purpose"...

I would say most of the dialogue. It must have taken a hell of a lot of effort, for something completely illusory.

I'm also tempted to say factions, but that could just be because of the choices I made. I just found it ridiculous that if I don't side with one of them, you barely hear anything about them. I never talked to Paladin Gizmo at the police station, so I had no interaction with the BoS until the very end. On my second attempted playthrough (because yes, mistress, I like pain, whip me), I ignored Pesto Gravy so you never hear about the minutemen.

They're completely useless outside of their interactions with you. Whereas in NV, there would still be NCR outposts even if you didn't join them, you would still bump into Legionaries enjoying an atrocious daytrip somewhere...

Hell, even in Skyrim it felt like the two large factions at war existed for some purpose other than to welcome you in their ranks.

Oh, and probably half the weapons and armors are completely pointless. Once you've made your choice of looking good/okay or having good resistance, most of the available equipment has no value. And if you go the ballistic weave (top kek) way, that gets even worse.
 
Vertibirds, all they do is crash all the time in order to make the world feel more alive. Maybe with survival they will actually matter, but in the base game they suck.

Surprised nobody mentioned synths of gen 1 and 2. The institute could create a group of specialized synths of gen 3 in order to establish outposts, gather resources and seem innocent. Instead we fight the synths of the previous generation all the time, because the player needs something to shoot.

That is all for now.
 
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