There really is no need to kill at all if you don‘t want to, it will make a change not to kill sometimes. Fallout 4 has made it a bit easier to avoid doing so, by apart from the obvious of Sneaking past the enemies to get to the kill-target, there are at least two other options to use in getting the kill-target.

Still Sneaking though, kind of obviously, but there is also a weapon that is known to greatly assist in that, but it requires the ‘ammo’ to be made by the player. There also happens to be another weapon known, that will completely avoid killing in any encounter, it specifically does not kill, you will have to find this weapon though, an obscure weapon, and on first thoughts I thought “what‘s the use of that“, until I realised.

The Player now has easy option, well a more easy option, if played well and with a reasonable sneaking skill, to reduce the kill count to almost zero, by just killing the quest kill-target, but with the option of the other weapon, possibly even that kill could be avoided.

From now on, I intend to do more of that kind of play, it will take far more skill but will be better role-play and actually quite exciting. I view sneaking as being very much role-play, and very much the player doing the role-play.

I did have fun though wiping out locations, and all the loot I got from the dead, but I can still get that loot with pick-pocket if need be, and the occasional killing spree, for fun, smile. I now realise that two locations where I slaughtered everybody, I could have made just the one kill.

Yeah, I really fancy the other variation of play, it’s getting a bit too easy to sneak-snipe kill. Well done Bethesda for giving more options of play, the more I play and find out things about the game, the more I think the game is actually a masterpiece of game-play.

Edit: The second "obscure" weapon is said to 'Stun', for a period of time I guess.

Opinions.

reminds me of far cry objectives.

Their is a YouTuber who beat the game with 0 kills, he had to use glitches, and reload saves every time he failed an intimidation or if he did not get idiot savont while compleating a mission and lead NPCs to his companions so they would kill the NPC for him. Not really viable without making 3000 filing cabinets in build mode for XP.

Most missions are "go here and kill this"

good luck with that

This can be used for repeat radiant quests and you know boss location. Some can even be sniped

You can avoid combat and that can be fun to do for some time - if it does require some skills, it is fun, but I do hope for mods that will allow some real interactions with enemies.

I have a few ideas myself, but the scripting part is still quite hard for me. So I will wait for mods - like any mods, that will allow me a different approach.

I'm intrigued by your discussion of these mysterious weapons . . .

But I don't mind killing everything I encounter. Sure, raiders you can negotiate with would be cool in a DLC, but I'd probably still eventually kill them

Edited above, it's a 'weapon' that's claimed to 'Stun'. Haven't tried it yet, only came accross it yesterday. I guess it stuns for a period of time.... in which time you will be gone, should do the trick.

Ah right! Gotcha!

It had crossed my mind to try to do a playthrough like that. I did try it out a bit and quickly got distracted by my 485 base damage freezing gauss rifle and went right back to blowing heads up like pudding filled pinatas. It didn't seem to make much sense to just "take it along" and use it occasaionally; rather a play through where it is you PRIMARY weapon and deadly one's are just reserved for 'last-ditch' would seem to make more sense.

Have made a lot of caps selling the "ammo" though

If I wanted to play that way, I'd go play Hitman or Splinter Cell...

I like killing everything...I've even started putting down kidnap victims..

Couldn't have said it better. You da man.

As a change of play it's not a bad idea I think.

Take another look at what looks like jast a piece of wood.... up popped the words Stun. Unusual so I picked it up.

I did sneaking in Skyrim..... all the way through, made a change. But like most I will be going back again to slaughtering again.

Yeah? Go complete the Brotherhood storyline by sneaking and get back to me.

Stealthy Verti-bird assaults?

I'm all the way up in sneak and I still can't sneak past multiple enemies. It seems random when I get spotted. I could be standing still in front of three people and be fine but I can walk 100 yards away from someone's view and now I'm at caution? I've managed to sneaks past a couple of mobs but some places like vaults and small hallways just no way to get by them.

So much this, also I wish someone would just say what durn weapons the OP is talking about. A Weapon is not really a spoiler imo. Unless you can only get it at the very end of the game.

*Edit* Are you talking about the Syringer?

I love the people who wish Fallout was Negotiating With Enemies Simulator.

"War never changes." *complains about having to resolve many of the game's conflicts with violence*

I had one location, an crater filled with feral who I creared but not had not discovered.

Had to explore. Gaused the glowing one from an high place.

Mind you that this can be a bit dangerous if you assume cleared = safe fast travel location.

Yes it's the Syringer.

The other weapon appears to be a unique one, it had a star * next to it nad is called Crippling Board. Like I said "a lump of wood" but if it does what it says it should be helpful.

I found it in a big mining hole, amongst other loot to be picked up. Surprised no one else seems to have found it.

Here's a pic of it.

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j68/sitruc2006/crippling%20board_zpshy6zzwie.jpg

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j68/sitruc2006/377160_2016-01-08_00003_zps7qnfpfkt.jpg

I'll give it a try.

When it comes to modding I'm not really a quests guy but I'm very curious to see if the CK will allow to alter the quests so that you can actually add a non-violent way to complete them. Working my way through the dialogue system using the community tools is too much of an headache.

Finding the quest target, there is the inclination to blow him/her away, and the few others surrounding the target. It would have been possible though to try negotiation, looking back. I do know that the car factory could have been done with incision, if I could figure out which green map-marker square belonged to the target, but I think it only becomes clear when you are in fairly close proximity, or when there is a number (distance from) the target. The other '100's' of car workers could have survived!

Clearing a location, I've always wondered if that possibly could have closed-off an alternative quest or action. Surgically removing the target, would have allowed subsequent possibilities of the factory. The target could have been got rid of with actually a very few kills, either way.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_von_Clausewitz, one of the most influential post-Renaissance theorists of military theory and politics is noted for re-stating an idea that goes back at least as far as Sun Tzu, though it seems to have been somewhat overlooked during the Middle Ages at least in the West. The ultimate goal of "war" is not (necessarily) to kill them all, although that has been de facto goal plenty of times. In most civilizations histories (Western, Middle Eastern, Far Eastern, African . . . even Australo-Pacific and New World) the most common goal in war is to, as von Clausewitz said, impose your will on the enemy. That often requires killing a good few of them, but the goal is to get them to do what you want, which can sometimes be achieved with negotiation instead of war; thus his aphorism that:

So I don't see how a game design that features some additional options for negotiating "with enemies" is in anyway absurd or superfluous. It is not like the Sole Survivor is "at war" or somehow inherently an enemy of anyone in the Commonwealth other than beasts and ferals. Hell, with the "Wasteland Whisperer" perk you can (presumably) make freaking DeathClaws your friend!

True, but Bethesda's mantra these days is 'streamlining', cutting out difficult stuff like that which takes creativity, thought, time and, uh- skill... and going with 'oooh, shiney!' And just kill everything. Easier. More ingame RPG and quest options like that are always good, but they do not seem to be interested in that avenue. There is a lot more revenue to be had by pandering to the Minecraft and CoD audiences.

Nonsense. Why you insist on repeating that worn out old "dumbing it down" trope every chance you get I cannot fathom. There is nothing about FO4 that could be described as "streamlining" compared to FO1 or FO2. NOTHING. There is plenty of difficult stuff, there is plenty of opportunity for creativity, thought, time and skill.

There is also a lot of "oooh shiney" and killing everything in sight. There are some contexts in which one can achieve an alternate "non-violent" ending, the first one occurring just past Concord. I have no idea if there are more or fewer such "alternate paths" in the game overall when compared to say FONV, FO3, FO2, or FO1, but then neither do you and I warrant no one has yet done the necessary anolysis to say how many there are in any of them. It is an appeal to emotion, and sour-graqes emotion at that.

Well spoken. I think the people saying it is dumbed down are just saying it is to look cool and for attention.