Oh, I don't know if anyone is going to respond to you so I will take a stab at it. I will probably mess it up, but I will try to the best of my understanding. Which is tiny!
Disclaimer: Though I am a Fo4 player "not a modder" and a huge fan of Sim Settlements I have always been an
outlier in using sim settlements as intended or as in the main stream use the mod so there are many things that I just don't know or know as well as others.
- First, I am planning on playing as a liberator and not a raider, so how well does this mesh with the vanilla storyline?
I would say the vanilla end game story is “unaffected” from a mechanical standpoint by Conqueror. Emotional or intellectual but I don’t know.
As far as I understand there are still the three endgame factions:
BOS, Institute and Minuteman
In my mind I hold the two “Conqueror and the Vanilla Endgame” as separate. For lack of better words Conqueror is still a sub-game / storyline within the FO4 experience. The vanilla ending is still the vanilla ending.
The mod experience is one step below the vanilla ending at the level of taking control of the settlements. You can be a Raider, Liberator or yourself, but at some point, you would still need to side with one of the endgame factions to complete it. The way the player takes control of settlements is what Conqueror enhances and creates. A new way for a user to interact with the settlements of the Commonwealth and with the Autobuild maybe ignore them for the most part. What Conqueror allows is a new deeper machinic to interact with the settlement layer of the game play and how if at all the user controls, subjugates or ignores them. The sure thing is now we have choice to have pre-built settlements and that is a huge change that each player can explore in the extent of their own imagination for themselves and desired play style.
2)
Second, since I'd be starting from scratch, I'm curious if I shouldn't just wait for the official release of the next faction's quest line to save myself from playing the same thing over again.
I would not wait. I do not know timeline or the “mind of the gath”. To me all this is still evolving, and I do not know what is next. Maybe KG and team has been able to unravel the endgame quest complexities but as far as I know that is not in the scope of what I am expecting.
The way I Imagine this is, let’s say you pick an NCR faction pack and play as a liberator. You could control the settlements but would likely still need to become the minuteman faction replacement or affiliate / support one of the base factions to do the end game. Complete speculation on my part.
Still, above is my guess. For now.
Hahahaha, don’t get mad if I don’t respond to anymore of your questions but for me they are too hard and I don’t know..
I need a nap now!