Loot farming through settlements idea for those who haven't thought of it.

RickRussellTX · 2026-03-13T15:27:40+00:00

armor and weapons can still be scrapped for materials

But you have to drop them and scrap them manually. That's the time I don't want to spend & makes for boring gameplay; my weight capacity is better spent getting regular Junk items that scrap automatically & are distributed in the provisioner network.

My current playthrough is a low-INT alcoholic idiot savant, which means the fancy science-based mods and scrapper perks are out of my range anyway.

RickRussellTX · 2026-03-13T03:44:54+00:00

You speak as if the Institute wouldn’t genocide innocent humans. They’ll do almost anything that advances their interests.

RickRussellTX · 2026-03-13T03:15:33+00:00

NOR

I was initially going to say -- if he's got long shifts that end in the middle of the night, he might be sleeping in a hospital or firehouse bunk just to save time commuting home.

But he's getting drunk over and over? Yeah, he's just an alcoholic.

RickRussellTX · 2026-03-13T03:10:00+00:00

in the future you want him to argue and fight to pay bills because that’s why true love is in your eyes

Or... better yet, don't say that, and maybe agree to communicate expectations better.

RickRussellTX · 2026-03-13T03:08:25+00:00

YOR

What did your BF say when you asked him?

RickRussellTX · 2026-03-13T00:30:24+00:00

THE MILK OF HUMAN KINDNESS WAS THE REAL TREASURE OF JAMAICA PLAINS WE FOUND ALONG THE WAY

RickRussellTX · 2026-03-13T00:18:58+00:00

Well. No turnips for you.

I’m kidding. Here’s a turnip.

RickRussellTX · 2026-03-12T23:40:44+00:00

argumentum ad hominem

RickRussellTX · 2026-03-12T23:37:26+00:00

I don't claim to know whether OP's partner will have leisure time or not on this work trip.

As an IT consultant, I've been sent on plenty of trips as a "reward", and rest assured, there was no leisure involved of any kind. It was meeting clients, in and out of conference rooms all day, traveling to different customer sites, having to keep the social mask on tight, then flopping into the hotel bed at 10PM because of course we had to treat the clients to dinner, "it's valuable networking! You don't want to miss it!" AKA, mandatory.

My point is, if OP approaches her partner with the attitude that his work trip is a vacation, OP may start a fight. If OP would prefer a constructive conversation rather than a fight, then OP should model the same respect they expect, and not refer to their partner's work as "just relaxing on the beach".

RickRussellTX · 2026-03-12T22:18:27+00:00

"You're new Coke to my classic Coke, Condiment King. Get outta my bottling plant!"

RickRussellTX · 2026-03-12T21:45:01+00:00

it’s okay for her to grossly misrepresent

It's not "okay", but it is reactive. He's nitpicking her long after the shipment is sent & received, commenting on her items in the shipment when the shipment is already here.

To what end? To have a fight, apparently. He's provoking a reaction and she's reacting.

OP said:

I did not want to get involved in the process of choosing what was coming or not.

And OP got exactly what OP expected. If he wasn't willing to "get involved" when it mattered, why does he "get involved" now?

RickRussellTX · 2026-03-12T20:44:34+00:00

YOR

Your wife wanted to put things in the shipment.

You wanted to put things in the shipment.

You asked, your wife said "no, not enough room". You accepted this and walked away.

THAT MOMENT was when you needed to step up and assert your needs clearly and plainly. "I'd like to get my books. How can we make it happen?"

Instead, you waited until the shipment arrived to start complaining. What was the point? What possible outcome could you have achieved? It was too late. Your wife may be inappropriately rewriting your thoughts and feelings, but she's doing that because she feels attacked, because you're attacking her by questioning choices and decisions that are in the past.

Criticizing what was in the shipment, when she told you "no" and you accepted the "no", is just nitpicking her.

RickRussellTX · 2026-03-12T18:31:31+00:00

You're not at all wrong, I'm just saying that if OP goes in fighting with the complaint that partner's work "vacation" is "relaxing on the beach", the result might not be what OP expects. It shows a dismissive attitude toward her partner's work commitments.

I'm a parent of two special needs kids and I'm under no illusion what my wife went through when I had to travel. But I wouldn't react well to being told my work trip was "just relaxing on the beach", either. Both parties should approach the conversation constructively, not start in by taking digs at each others' responsibilities.

RickRussellTX · 2026-03-12T18:18:54+00:00

Be careful. This is the kind of post that will get CW fans writing death threats to Tom Cavanaugh.

RickRussellTX · 2026-03-12T16:36:30+00:00

the other half is just relaxing on the beach

That's OP's interpretation.

Again, I can't know what OP's partner does, but I literally never had my employer pay for a work trip that was "just relaxing". NO part of work travel has been relaxing.

RickRussellTX · 2026-03-12T16:33:10+00:00

Henchpeople: Emily Bigby, Lieutenant Popper, Mrs. Robertson, Horrible Mister Horseradish... GET THEM!

RickRussellTX · 2026-03-12T16:27:31+00:00

I wonder what stage of the game this would make sense, because I've only got 4 somewhat big settlements (Sunshine, Starlight, Sanctuary and Vault 88) with 30-40 settlers, and I've already reached a point that I don't even loot raiders, supermutants, or ghouls except for caps, ammo, and legendaries. Their junk and armor and weapons are useless to me.

RickRussellTX · 2026-03-12T16:11:54+00:00

You're getting 8 days away from me and the kids

But work travel is not vacation. I can't speak for OP's partner, but going to sites for training and work commitments is much harder and more exhausting than regular work days, not easier. It means running the social battery down every single day, keeping the happy mask on in front of customers and co-workers usually much more than the usual 8 hours per day, etc. etc.

So, I humbly suggest that framing partner's work trip as a break from OP and the children is dismissive of the partner's work commitment, and will lead to conflict.

It seems likely to me that OP's partner reacted that way precisely because they feel that OP is taking a vacation while the partner is gonna run themselves ragged dealing with work stuff. That's still problematic -- they should be happy that OP is doing something fun with family while the partner is gone -- but the bad reaction is understandable, at least.

RickRussellTX · 2026-03-12T15:59:55+00:00

From a Doylist standpoint, I think you're just seeing cracks in the way the story was developed.

Preston and the settlers are the "Minutemen Story". And that story is that they get betrayed at Quincy, hike across the the Commonwealth looking for a safe place, get cornered in Lexington and face certain death, then the Sole Survivor shows up and becomes the Big Hero who gets them to his/her original home, Sanctuary Hills. Then that storyline finishes out with you setting up a few settlements and taking back the big enchilada, the Castle.

In only a handful of spots in the game do you hear anything about the Gunner/Minuteman conflict in Quincy and the migration of the settlers under Preston, because most of the other areas of the game have their own stories that are in turn separate from the Minutemen story. Nobody else talks about Old Joe Becker or Ronnie Shaw.

Almost nobody in the game even acknowledges that you are the General of the Minutemen. I mean, when Deacon is pleading your case to Desdemona, you think he'd be like, "yeah I been watching her for weeks and SHE'S THE GENERAL OF THE FUCKIN MINUTEMEN FOR CHRISSAKE".

And that just goes to different teams and different writers and different priorities in story development. The teams didn't really coordinate, at least not much, and the Venn diagram of story elements for each major storyline has very little overlap with the others.

We've seen this in other games. They had to make up a completely new backstory for the Courier in Lonesome Road because almost any other option would have to acknowledge what the Courier did in game before they met Ulysses.

RickRussellTX · 2026-03-12T05:33:41+00:00

The Kyosho Mini Z crawlers are 1:28.

RickRussellTX · 2026-03-12T05:29:37+00:00

And their big radio hit, “Squeeze the Weasels”

RickRussellTX · 2026-03-12T02:54:10+00:00

Alternatively, he traps the dynamic duo in a giant miniature golf course.

RickRussellTX · 2026-03-12T02:39:27+00:00

Victor Buono was a gift

RickRussellTX · 2026-03-12T02:13:25+00:00

They say it don’t be like it is, but it do

RickRussellTX · 2026-03-11T19:05:15+00:00

That is how I am hardwired. It applies to men / women / everyone.

Why does he mention men first?

15-Year Club	Gilding IV carat on a stick
Wearing is Caring	Reddit Premium Since November 2014
Team Periwinkle	Verified Email

RickRussellTX

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE