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People who roleplay the main story, when do you fit SS2 in?

OscarN1N7

OscarN1N7

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Just something I'm curious about. It'll be interesting to see whether most people think alike or if everyone has their own approaches.

So, for those who play through the main story on a new game, and roleplay as the avenging parent, where do you fit SS2's quest into the story? I suppose this might go for other mods as well if you want to mention them. Do you go to Concord first, then Diamond City and Fort Hagen, not pausing to do any settlement stuff until you've had your revenge? Or is the Commonwealth far too dangerous, and you have to build up your settlements first before you'll go anywhere near Diamond City? What feels right to you?

On that note, I really appreciate some of the dialogue that ties into the main story, like Jake asking you why you're interested in settlements, and you being able to reply that it's to find your son. There's also some unique dialogue if you do Hub of the Problem before going to Diamond City.

Personally, I go straight through the main quest right out of the vault, all the way up to finding out I have to go to the Glowing Sea. The idea is I need resources (and leveling up) to upgrade whatever power armor I can get so that it can survive the trip (I've modded the Glowing Sea to be really dangerous so it's a gameplay thing as much as head canon). Makes for a good break in the main quest to start SS2. Then there's another break when I have to build the molecular relay (which I've modded to require way more resources than vanilla, so it can actually take a while to build and gives me another reason to build up settlements).

After Institutionalized, the main quest doesn't interest me as much and the game goes over to being more about SS2. The chapter 2 content, including the Nightingales and CPD, has really fleshed out the post-Institutionalized game for me, and it's interesting to see the threat shift from the Institute to the Gunners. Really feels like a satisfying narrative development when you're RP-ing the story. I really hope chapter 3 resolves Quincy, which would be a really satisfying end. Either way, kudos all round to the writing team for making SS2 feel part of the main game, however you approach it.

Anyway, just curious how the roleplayers and narrative immersionists among you fit SS2 into the game.
 
I roleplay a character who lost hope right after leaving the vault and sets up a radio beacon as a call for help.

So I start SS2 immediately, continue up to "Scavver's Delight", and then start one or two Minutemen quests to get some settlements. I don't go to Diamond City until after "Hub of the Problem", learn about Nick and pick up the info at The Ron's, do the main quest up until "The Glowing Sea", and then fetch the Vit-o-Matic (and Curie, because I love doing the Nightingale quests with her). At that point, I also go with the power armor thing. My character is somewhat sensitive to radiation and had a bad first experience with power armor, so it takes a lot of time to make the best suit and work up the courage to use it.

I then continue with the Minutemen, join BoS, work on my settlements, and continue with SS2 all the way to the last few quests of chapter 2. Then the main quest alongside SS2 up until "Institutionalized", complete chapter 2 and then destroy the Institute. Figured it'd be a good morale boost to deal with them before chapter 3.

It took a few playthroughs but I'm happy with this timeline.
 
@General Ilene - Thanks for the interesting reply!

I don't go to Diamond City until after "Hub of the Problem"
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So, for you, is it that Mama Murphy's vision about DC is just a long shot from a chemmed out weirdo or that DC's just too far to safely get to? What's your character's reason for not going straight to DC after the Museum of Freedom?
My character is somewhat sensitive to radiation and had a bad first experience with power armor
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The thing I love about Bethesda games is the stories that evolve naturally from gameplay. In my last playthrough, I decided to go straight to the Glowing Sea in the beat up tin can from the roof of the museum, far earlier than normal, just to see how far I could go. Got as far as Cutler Bend before all the pieces were broken, I had pretty much run out of ammo and had basically no radiation protection left. Forced to turn back, join the BoS, make sure the T-60 was properly upgraded and try again much later.
 
OscarN1N7 said:
So, for you, is it that Mama Murphy's vision about DC is just a long shot from a chemmed out weirdo or that DC's just too far to safely get to? What's your character's reason for not going straight to DC after the Museum of Freedom?
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Too far to safely get to. She's in a dark place at that point and tries to focus on helping her new friends, prioritizing the home base before heading out. This is also why I wait with the Minutemen quests until after SS2 has me build up a settlement and dealt with two more raider groups.
OscarN1N7 said:
The thing I love about Bethesda games is the stories that evolve naturally from gameplay. In my last playthrough, I decided to go straight to the Glowing Sea in the beat up tin can from the roof of the museum, far earlier than normal, just to see how far I could go. Got as far as Cutler Bend before all the pieces were broken, I had pretty much run out of ammo and had basically no radiation protection left. Forced to turn back, join the BoS, make sure the T-60 was properly upgraded and try again much later.
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Yeah, it's a lot of fun when things like that happen. Sometimes when I need a break from SS2, I let my companions choose a vanilla side quest based on their affinity system and the choices my character would make. And if I want to do a quest they don't like, I work out a reason to pick up one that does.
 
I always go to DC first.A good weapon always helps and knowing where to avoid conflicts makes it far easier to reach,then pick up Piper before returning to Concord to save the irritating Preston and his irritating comrades!Then I gradually immerse myself in SS2 while completing various main quests in between.
 
I usually drop the items you get with the magazine so I can build the beacon when I really get them, I feel it is more organic that way. So when I meet Jake I've already gathered some materials, weapons, exp, etc and the main quest on course.
 
I was gonna make a new thread asking about it, fortunately, I saw this post. Story-pacing/narrative immersion is important for me too.

Actually, I'm thinking if it is better role-wise to start after finishing the main quest as we don't know the story of Chapters 3-5 yet and it will be too long to wait for all the chapters to be available. I haven't considered the plot hole or if there will be mod conflicts tho.

At the moment I'm playing like: "I wanna find my son, I wanna find an answer or closure to move on" but deep down my SS doesn't believe her son is alive. Although she never says it and seems like she actively pursues him, she states that in her personal diary she writes (*with a mod + many people with recent spouse's death do that to handle their grief). She still actively pursues him but whenever Preston or Jake calls she prioritizes helping the settlements, as a coping mechanism & avoidance behavior, and justifies herself: it's better to save people that clearly in front of my eyes need help.

It's also a central theme of my playthrough too: Choosing your own son vs the good people of Commonwealth,
as your own son turns out to be the main antagonist.
Spoiler: she chooses the latter.
 
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teslatest said:
Actually, I'm thinking if it is better role-wise to start after finishing the main quest as we don't know the story of Chapters 3-5 yet
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I believe Chapter 3 will be the last. I think in a recent stream, Kinggath said the main factions would have a larger role in Chapter 3, so it'll be interesting to see what intersections, if any, there are with the main quest.

She still actively pursues him but whenever Preston or Jake calls she prioritizes helping the settlements, as a coping mechanism & avoidance behavior, and justifies herself: it's better to save people that clearly in front of my eyes need help.
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That's really interesting. My character makes the same choice as you of saving the people of the Commonwealth over her son but has a slightly different path. She totally believes her son is alive, and finding him is the priority. Initially, she doesn't care about the settlers - she just wants to use their resources to help her find him. Over time she empathises with the settlers as she gets to know them. Then she realises who her son is, and becomes overwhelmed with guilt that she's somehow responsible for the horrors inflicted on the Commonwealth. Rebuilding the 'wealth with Jake is her way of making up for what her son has done.
 
OscarN1N7 said:
I believe Chapter 3 will be the last.
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Correct me if I'm wrong, but as I remember there was a pop-up "You have finished chapter 1 out of 5" when we finished Chapter 1.
OscarN1N7 said:
main factions would have a larger role in Chapter 3
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Yes, that's really interesting, hope it goes immersively well.

OscarN1N7 said:
She totally believes her son is alive, and finding him is the priority. Initially, she doesn't care about the settlers - she just wants to use their resources to help her find him. Over time she empathises with the settlers as she gets to know them. Then she realises who her son is, and becomes overwhelmed with guilt that she's somehow responsible for the horrors inflicted on the Commonwealth. Rebuilding the 'wealth with Jake is her way of making up for what her son has done.
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That's a great hero's journey. Actually, I like your given motivation better. But I realized my own playthrough, I prefer to do settlement things rather than doing the main quest lol, also because of the limited game mechanics.

I'm just guessing, do you plan to romance Jake?
Myself can't decide yet between him and MacCready, as they both have similiar backstories that would be my main reason why they feel connected and going for a romance. I'm thinking if I choose MacCready, it can be a pararell of my SS's "motivation" and decision. He ended up not prioritizing his son too in a way. After his final mission, he just send the cure for his son through someone else & stays with SS. If he truly cares his sick son, he will give him personally,etc. I assume he just using his son as a "noble" reason to going for an adventure or seek the thrills. Just like my SS.

I'm also curious if that's your given motivation, when and how you will do the Nuka-World DLC?
 
teslatest said:
Correct me if I'm wrong, but as I remember there was a pop-up "You have finished chapter 1 out of 5" when we finished Chapter 1.
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I believe that just meant you were about to get 5 "dialog boxes". I have never heard a mention of a "Chapter 5", and kinggath has made it pretty clear that even finishing Chapter 3 is pushing things, unless say Sirick wanted to go full Snyder Cut on us.
The mere fact that kinggath was willing to talk (vaguely) about a major plot point that a hypothetical Chapter 4 would have had makes me think that is pretty much not happening.
 
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I play with my day one save so I was long done with the main quest when I started the main quest, in my mind (And probably in my gameplay hours too) its being 3 years since my sole found Shaun. It's kind of sad that I'm not getting the more tailored dialogue but I love my first sole too much to start a new save.

If your interested this is how his story goes.

He could never get over the fact that his current son is a synth and his real son grew up to be a monster.

In his original ending, before I played SS2, was that him and Hancock fixed up a boat and took it down the coast, uprooting tyrants as they went but not staying around long enough to stabilise the regions they freed, repeating their mistakes from the commonwealth as both of them are incredibly irresponsible.

They continue abusing drugs and not having the healthiest relationship due to their dependency on each other until they die. Sole never sees Shaun again after he leaves and feels no remorse over it.
_________
With SS2 I rewinded a little bit, Sole and Hancock were fixing up the boat to leave but Sole mets Jake before it's done and seeimg everything an asam can do he decides to stay at least until the region stablises. Through Jake he finds meaning in helping the commonwealth again.

He breaks up with Hancock after realising how co-dependant their relationship had become, that he was developing feelings for Jake, and Hancock's laid back attitude was hindering his work to help the commonwealth.

With Hancock out of picture he has being working hard with Jake but being with Jake means being a father figure to Laura, something he feels incredibly guilty over as he can't even be a father to his own son.

I'm planning to write a fanfiction going into more detail of his story but it's a slow process.
 
@KezzDaddy - Thanks for sharing! Yeah, I can't imagine a relationship with someone like Hancock ever being a good idea. I like how SS2 provided an option for your character to turn a corner on that. Funnily enough, the thing about taking a boat down the coast made me think about Fallout: Miami. IIRC, the player character is the sole survivor, so you might get to play out heading south and getting into adventures (maybe even with Jake if he becomes a companion in Chapter 3).

@yaugie - Just out of interest, what did KG divulge about that plot point?

@teslatest - Yeah, I'll have a go at romancing Jake. It makes sense for my character and I also want to see all the content in the next chapter.
As for Nuka-World, the Bleachers has a quest towards the end that sends you to look for something in the park, which is why she heads out there (she's still a merc and still needs to get paid). Then I use Minutemen Takeover to call the minutemen to liberate the park in Open Season. Takes a while for them arrive, so I do The Grand Tour in the meantime, which includes that Bleachers quest. When the minutemen arrive, it's honestly one of the most satisfying battles I've ever had in the game. I'd really recommend Minutemen Takeover for that reason (there's also a newer version here). I like exploring Nuka-World but I've never done the settlement raiding and I don't think I ever will. Just not my thing. It's also why I never tried Conqueror, although I'm sure it's very good. I hear there'll be Conqueror mechanics in Chapter 3 (though I don't actually know what they are) but for the good guys this time.
 
OscarN1N7 said:
Just out of interest, what did KG divulge about that plot point?
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It was during a livestream a few ago. Something about "our crew" acquiring a fully functional GECK a la Fallout 1/2 and literally having our own land (worldspace) to call home rather than how FO3 used one as literally just a water purifier, that's all I can remember, except for him saying it was a "pipe dream" at best.

And yeah, the NukaWorld "raiding mechanics" were VERY simple, whereas Conqueror (before it was dropped and SS2 launched) had you managing a whole secondary economy system to equip and train persistent troops who could 'level up' independant of the player. We're talking the difference between vanilla settlements and SS2 mechanics here.

How Conqueror's mechanics integrate with SS2's "virtual storage" system is something I'm very much looking forward to seeing myself, not to mention other "pipedream" mechanics kinggath has mentioned if they manage to get those working (things like each faction having their own trade network and being able to take settlements from each other independent of the player would be the dream).
 
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My Sole Survivor is that sort of selfless, Captain America-esque soldier who's always looking out for the little guy.

So his character conflict coming across any sort of quests is always "the needs of the many v the needs of the few" ie. His own needs. If he comes across a local dispute where someone could get killed or enslaved because they might be something called a "Synth", he's going to help diffuse the situation.

As a result, characters like Preston "Settlement" Garvey and Jake are great complements to that. He sees his country reduced to a wasteland and wants to help rebuild. If that means that he cannot get to his son immediately, then so be it.

I also have a sort of insanely difficult Commonwealth, full of deadly critters, merciless Raider gangs, and deadly radiation, so almost immediately once leaving the Vault, my SS knows he'll need a lot of help. Which is where the Minutemen and Jake come in. It helps to better pace why I can't just rush through the main quest.
 
@JimJam - Thanks for sharing! Yeah I love how difficulty mods in particular can help shape or pace out the story.

@yaugie - That certainly would have been ambitious. I guess Starfield's release date has rather thrown a spanner in the works. I remember in a recent livestream KG said we'll get a better chapter 3 if Starfield gets delayed. Fingers crossed I guess?
 
OscarN1N7 said:
That certainly would have been ambitious. I guess Starfield's release date has rather thrown a spanner in the works. I remember in a recent livestream KG said we'll get a better chapter 3 if Starfield gets delayed. Fingers crossed I guess?
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I dunno. I'm pretty confident I could make reasonably accurate guesses as to how the "story arc" for Chapter 3 will go, and I don't think that'll really fit in unless they go absolutely bananas. There's also the consideration that world data like that takes up masses of file space (a significant portion of the data in terms of filesize for Chapter 2 is the "cloned interiors" of the two Vaults and GNN), and, well... Xbox.
 
I play as a raider so I build the settlement with jake as a way to supply my raider camps or take over the settlement for my empire. Jake goes along with it as I am I scary and Aden well we both have our secrets.
 
I think what makes Jake so good, is that he becomes the real first friend that develops into family, after sole just recently lost their own in addition to losing their world. And also gives Sole real motivation to play the role of a minutemen when Preston failed to. Sole is now thrown into a world full of monsters and raiders. And here is this well kempt and spoken man coming along that sort of reminds Sole that humanity can still prevail even in this world. It's fun roleplaying as a Sole who starts out angry and depressed over losing everything, but gradually works with Jake firstly to further their own means but starts to change the more and more developed things become as Sole sees it as a way to get a piece back of the life and civilization that they lost instead of just furthering their own goal. In the process sole gains an even bigger family and no longer has to chase nor dwell on the memory of the family lost. It is the perfect ending for Sole.
 
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