I’m looking forward to the upcoming DLC for Fallout 4. Especially the settlement building. I saw that there are going to be more things to craft, but I feel there’s so much room for improvement to what is a fairly light aspect of the game. A recent patch did a great thing by showing you what a settler was assigned to while you’re in settlement mode, but it can be more.
First, more stuff to build. You’ve got tons of object assets, now let me put more of them in my settlements!
I want the happiness stat to be a little better explained, and a little more nuanced. Example: As far as I can tell, there’s no reason to give anyone a bed other than a sleeping bag (which uses the fewest resources). I want a boost to happiness if I give everyone a better bed with a frame (at a higher resource cost) and give everyone space between beds. Maybe a nightstand for everyone. I’ve actually already done this on my main settlement and I kind of want to be rewarded.
Actually, open happiness up. Give each settler their own personal happiness stats. They each want different things. Maybe there’s a particular kind of bed they like, and they’re happier if they have one of the rare comfy pillows. Let me assign settlers to individual beds. (Stay out of that bed, Preston. Goddamn it that is Piper’s spot! Go to the corner Preston!) Maybe every settler has a preferred set of clothes they want, depending on what job they’re in, and having those clothes makes them more efficient somehow. Admittedly, a lot of this could end up just being more fetch quests, but let’s be honest, that’s pretty much what all of Fallout’s radiant quests are anyway.
So how about more quests? Especially cases for Nick Valentine’s detective agency. I know the last big bit of DLC starts with one of his cases, but how about a whole lot more. Detective style quests could really open up more RPG encounters that this game was sadly light on.
Back to settlements, what about better building options? I want to be able to turn the clipping and snapping off so I can put a wall wherever I want. I’m tired of it insisting that for some reason this perfectly normal building corner cannot exist. I want to create crazy sculptures out of junk. I want to be able to assign settlers to a work detail where I can tag a junked car in the wasteland and have it hauled back to the settlement, either for scrap or as a foot for my recreation of Robosaurus.
Give me a working Prosnap camera in game. Let me take pictures with it, then put them on canvases to hang in my settlements. Huh? Huh? That’s a good one. Give me photography quests. Encourage me to explore and find great vistas to capture on film, or demand action shots with deathclaws mowing through raiders.
Fix the dialog. I know it’s too late to change that most of the dialogue options lead to the same answers, but at least tell me what I’m actually about to be saying. I don’t like guessing at what I’m about to say. That’s the behavior of a crazy person.
Of course, there’s really only so much Bethesda is going to want to do, so maybe I should also be addressing this to the modding community. Have at it!