Greetings,

whilst I have always tried to stay away from main quest lines a fair bit so that I don't complete and then find myself left with side / radiant quests, this game, WOW. There is so much to do. Sure, I've spent a fair bit of time building as I've always loved being able to have some creativity in games there are also tons of side quests.

I knew I was getting close to 50 (of course) and had it in my mind that I should probably take the next step in the main quest line but then by the time I got a few "last things" tied up and squared away I was at 51.5. Tonight I'm actually going to force myself to take the next step.

Anybody else loving the content this much?

Cheers.

You are level 51 and haven't made it to Diamond City? Wow. The main quest is going to be a cake walk and you've lost a lot of time with some pretty cool companions.

Or is there another DC in the Commonwealth?

I was trying to avoid a spoiler, mate but yes.

Since the game scales with us, though, I didn't think it would be an issue. Obviously I take my time, exploring everything.

Cheers.

That's not unusual. OP may have been doing a lot of settlement building, modding weapons/armor in addition to world exploration and side questing as well.

When I played the quest line I had roamed extensively beforehand.

I was everyone's friend.

By the time I committed to finish the story quest I was in the 90's level wise.

The game threw some of the tougher combatants at me in the final battle sequences.

From circa level 60 and up the tough ones appear.

When wandering the wastelands at level 70 the game gang tackled me with multiple concurrent tough opponents.

I'm the same way, I've been avoiding finishing the main story line. I'm in good with all the factions so far but I am at a point where I have to pick a side with one of them.

I've done so many side quests for the BoS people that they started to recycle quests. One thing about that though ... they had me go to several places I didn't know existed.

I'm at Level 54 and got my last 10 or so level-up's just from those BoS side quests, and they don't give you many XP points.

You don't have to head anywhere in Beth games, take your time & explore/conquer/build/barter.... whatever! just have fun!

DC has nothing to do with the MQ per se. If anything, I would actually go as far as saying you cheated yourself out of some great quests for lower level, which have nothing to do with the MQ. They will be a walkover now tho. Not all content level with you, just fyi. Anyways, good luck with it

I leveled from 15-59 just doing the 2 bos radiant quests at the police station. I must have cleaned out fallons 400 times.

I'm at level 52, and I am walking my way toward Washington DC. I might be level 100 by the time I make it there.

Thanks for the great responses. Good to know I'm not the only nut.

Cheers.

That's about what level I was when I first made it to Diamond City. I spent the first 60 hours or so with Fallout 4 doing almost nothing but exploring, completing side quests, and building settlements. The main quest wasn't made any easier due to this. I had better equipment than I would have had doing it at level 15 obviously, but the enemies scale with your level.

I probably completed 90% of the side quests and miscellaneous tasks in the game before getting into the Institute. I was around 200 hours in and somewhere around level 75 when I finally made it there. Doing so many of the side quests and such in the game prior to really digging into the main quest left me free to really focus on the main quest when I got around to it. I don't regret doing it that way. I'm getting ready to start my second play through soon, and I'll likely be doing it in a similar fashion. I will probably at least go to Diamond City and Goodneighbor earlier in the game though. Picking up Piper, Nick, MacCready, and Hancock as available companions, as well as unlocking the vendors at both places will be nice to have earlier in the game. I'll probably progress through the first act of the main quest (through Reunions) a bit earlier, but I'll still hold off on the bulk of the main quest until I've completed most of the side quests and such.

While I have completed the main quest with my first character, she spent a lot of time doing quests for the MM, BoS, and RR to the point where they weren't giving her anything but radiant quests, and then she would do another step of the main quest and/or various other side quests. I also have a second character who plans on joining the opposing faction but it will be quite a while before she even gets to the point of meeting them.

Some have mentioned quests becoming a "cakewalk" if you wait too long to do them. Not sure about the OP, but in my case, I enjoy doing the quests for things like the interesting story interactions, lore, getting to know NPCs, etc. and never for the combat challenge. I'll enjoy the quest whether I'm level 10 or level 80.

Please keep this thread spoiler free.

Edit your posts to add the spoiler tags if you are writing about names and places.

Cheers.

I'm level 55 and I just met 'Daddy'

Trying to avoid spoiler here so I use another word for the subject.

Meeting my

Seriously??? DON'T tell me they brought back the [censored] TES:4 leveling system??? PLEASE

I went to DC at level 50 also... then stopped the main quest once I got to following the rail road. The main questline seemed boring to me the first few quests. Kill this. Get that. Talk to x person. Now I'm level 68 and just building forts in every settlement. Kind of getting bored of this game.

Same here mate. I'm lv.54, only did MQ until about halfway through "Reunion" phase.

On the other hand: Sanctuary, Starlight Drive-In, and Sunshine Tidings are now major towns with ≈ 24 residents, >80% happiness and all services*, and The Castle is a full-fledged military base (also >80% happy with full service).

Also 6 well-defended satellite farms at Tenpines, Graygarden, Oberland, Nordhagen, County Crossing and Greentop (ranging from 8-12 ppl, 60-80% happiness). My personal home is at Red Rocket, and I've claimed ownership of Jamacia Plains and Hangman's alley but haven't built anything in those spots.

This game is pretty much "Fallout: Minecraft Edition" to me. Quests/adventuring/story are just a distraction from all the settlement building.

When Preston named me the "General", I thought he meant "General Contractor".

* no clothing merch at Sunshine

I am the only one in this thread so far to mention that, and I stand by it.

Thing is, people think that enemies scale with their level, and that is only true in certain areas. The whole map of FO4 is divided into difficulties, so if you encounter raiders near Sanctuary, they will still be in the level 1-5 bracket. It is only the most southern parts of the game / map which have scale-able enemies, and even they are restricted, so you will outlevel them at some point, but if being a god among mere mortals is a thing for people, go ahead. If anything, one levels too fast in this game, when there is so many mechanics that will net you XP (I can get level 20-25 just from building stuff, lol)

As for quests being a cakewalk in DC due to high level, is because you will have abilities far beyond what the quests require. High lockpick or high charisma for example. You will have gathered all your "bomb-charisma" clothing and therefore not going to experience the quirks of some quests when you have to work around them. If anything, high level, will cheapen the experience, story wise and enemy wise.

I am not going to tell people how to play their game. They just have to know, that postponing some things, might not always be for the better, when it comes to the enjoyability of the game and its contents.

I wasn't suggesting the "cakewalk" part wasn't true (and though you were the one who specifically mentioned the word, yours wasn't the only post making this point) and that all the enemies definitely scale. I really have no idea if they scale or not.

My point is that the "cakewalk" makes no difference to those of us who do not do quests or play the game for the purpose of combat challenge. I have just as much fun killing molerats during a quest as killing some super mutant primus because my fun is within the quest itself...the stories, lore, interactions. Therefore, waiting until level 100 to do the main quest doesn't take away any of the enjoyment from the game. Unless of course you are one of those people who cares about it...which I personally don't, and I get the impression that those waiting and taking the game slowly also don't care much about this aspect.

As I mentioned, combat wasn't my primary concern. But some quests (especially in DC if you know where to look) calls for other abilities than just combat. Thus, if you outlevel it due to high perks / charisma, it will cheapen that experience, since there isn't the struggle in them, that you would otherwise have, if arriving within the level bracket the quests are for. I don't know how else I can explain it. You will not experience the struggle the quest was inyended to have on your character, due to high level perks and charisma. Thus, you will only experience the optimum way of getting them done.

I think I understand what you're saying and it's true that you will experience the optimum way of getting them done assuming that you have focused your perks in those areas. But then my character started out with a high charisma and added points to it almost immediately due to settlements, and so even had she streamlined through the main quest, certain challenges would have always been optimum from the very beginning, so for those particular ones, it wouldn't have mattered. I don't feel that it diminished my own enjoyment of the main quest though because 'challenge' in general isn't the reason I'm playing the game.

I agree that if challenge is important to a player, then best not to put off anything that may get too easy, or manage character development in a way that it doesn't become a factor, but there are many other reasons people enjoy quests and therefore would not enjoy them less.

When I was playing Everquest 2 before they put in a system where you could basically choose your level, I would regularly do tons of "grey" quests simply because they were fun for me even though I received absolutely no XP or appropriately leveled reward. Even once we could make our characters the appropriate level for the quest, we were still higher level and had much better equipment and spells, so the quests were still trivial, but that's not what mattered the most when it came to fun.

I didnt get to DC til I was level 40ish. Im now at leve 84 and still have not started the Glowing Sea MQ.

I didn't step foot into Diamond City until I was around level 45. I am currently level 61, but I have yet to speak to Nick Valentine to advance the main quest.

I have spent most of my time doing a bit of exploring and a lot of scavenging / trading to get the raw materials necessary to build up my settlements. I have only really spent time building up 4 settlements. Tenpines and Outpost Zimonja are basically complete, still needs decorations (not required, but nice to have). Abernathy Farm is about 80% and Starlight Drive is probably about 40% complete. I need to tweak Tenpines though because Happiness basically fluctuates between 30% and 80%. I think there is a pathing issue with the beds in the complex I've built. If I place all the beds on the 1st floor near the door, I do not have issues with happiness, but if I move the beds to the 2nd floor (which is how it want it to be), then happiness goes all over the place... perhaps a 2nd staircase to the 2nd floor will fix the problem...

As for Sanctuary... I have only placed turrets. Sanctuary is such a large area that I will have to use more resources to create a perimeter wall surrounding Sanctuary than all the resources I have used for the other 4 settlements combined. It's rather daunting, but it is must do for me. I like walled in settlements from an aesthetics point of view. I have enough turrets at Sanctuary where I did not have to bother firing a single round to protect it against two deathclaws; ~ 200 defense.

I started to build up Graygarden; I placed 8 turrets and built a house for settlers. I was going wall off Graygarden (and re-position the turrets) when I noticed the two settlers I sent there were no where to be seen. Apparently they spawn on the highway.... For now I just let them be and mostly ignore that settlement. I will get around to building the wall, re-assign the settlers elsewhere and likely tear down the house I built.