Hey everybody,

I actually wanted to know about two things:

1) is it possible to do Settlement Radiant Quests without having Preston go to Sanctuary Hills?

2) is it possible to have the main storyline progress so that it sends me to Diamond City to meet Piper, Nick and go into Kelloggs apartment etc etc?

For #1 i saw a thread in the general discussion but i just wanted to make sure. But i also wanted to ask #2 and because of that i didnt post in that other subforum i posted it here instead. For #1 i hear that you can just go to each settlement and they will give you the settlers radiant quests. The quests like defend from an attack, go kill Raiders/Mutants at a camp that has been harassing them and rescuing kidnapped settlers. Right now i'm getting those quests from Preston but i want to start a new playthrough. And i want to know if i can leave Preston and his friends at Concord and i can just go to the settlements directly for radiant quests.

For #2 though the MQ is linked to Concord i believe so in order to get that to progress will i still need to help Preston out? OR can i just help them out enough to where Mama Murphy tells me that i have to go to Diamond City which should get the MQ to update to the next step. And i would just ignore Prestons request to join the minutemen or to join him at Sanctuary. Or when Codsworth tells me to go to Concord can i just ignore that and go directly to Diamond City? or will i still need to go to Concord to get the MQ to update and move to the next phase?

I'm pretty sure that if you stumble on Diamond City you will always find Piper trying to get in, and she will recommend finding Nick. I can't say I have tested it, but it seems logical. I have however saved the group and left them to their own devices and refused Preston in my current 'Silver Shroud' playthrough, as I don't want the Minutemen helping the wasteland when that my (and the Unstoppables) job. I can't talk to him without him repeating the offer; but it seems he can be totally ignored for the entirety of the MQ as long as you go one of the other three routes.

You can also still do settlement building, and rebuild the wasteland by yourself. Not sure about the quests, but certainly the empty places, and Abernathy farm.

1: you'll get "defend your settlement" radiant quests. you won't get the "help that settlement to unlock the workshop" type quests though, and for some of the workshops, there are no other ways to unlock them (for all i know anyway). (you'll only get the latter ones once per settlement anyway btw, the _real_ nag are the defense quest, not preston's)

2: no, it's not possible to have it send you to dc, but you can just go there yourself

you can progress the main quest with bos or rr instead, no way (i knew of) without joining any of the factions though

and yes, you can just get them (preston and his bunch) out of concord and ignore them in sanctuary. iirc you can even get the building tutorial quest from sturges and still otherwise ignore them. on a side note anyhow,

You never have to go to Concord and rescue the Minutemen.

There maybe some weirdness with Codsworth if you don't, he'll probably just stand in front of the house and not do anything.

You can ignore Cordon and just go to Diamond City. If you REALLY want someone to send you to DC, then go to Goodneighbor, Memory Lounge, complete the quest and Irma will send you to Nick Valentine in DC who can help you find your son.

Additionally, if you have not met Dogsmeat, Nick Valentine will introduce you to him and reveal some more more information about the dog.

really? care to spoil? *curious*

So after i search Sanctuary with Codsworth he says to go to Concord. But i can just bypass Concord and go directly to Diamond City and the main quest will update?

yes.

You can completely skip going to Concord and complete the entire game, so it's not necessary to meet Preston. You can still do all of the settlement building, and you'll pick up the radiant quests directly from random settlers (which you can do even if you save Preston and join the Minutemen).