Boston Bewilderings, The Fallout 4 "Where are you now?" thread Options

[SubRosa]

Have you been to the Drumlin Diner yet? It is on the road between Concord and Lexington. There is a merchant there, assuming you side with her against the drug dealers who are threatening her. Also not far away on the same road is a traveling merchant - Trashcan Carla - who will begin to make regular stops at Sanctury once you meet her the first time.

There is a way to craft ammo by building an Ammunition Plant, which you need the Contraptions DLC for. I never bothered with it. It seems like a big hassle with little to really show for it. It was easier just to make a mod that allows you to craft bullets from steel. Just look at how the other constructable objects work, and it is simple enough to do.

[Renee]

Not sure if Jenn's been there, I'm not seeing it on the map, however Jenn did meet a chems dealer named Slash or Shade or some such, near Med-Tec Research.

See, I'm spoiled by PC gaming here. On PC I would just jump into the GECK and make the merchant I need, give him or her plenty of rotating stock (including junk) so it doesn't feel like I'm blatantly cheating, voila. 🍷

I don't have the Contraptions DLC, at least I think I don't, not sure... I did just find this mod, however, which promises ...



1. (1) Lease one per owned settlement [ workshop crafting menu ].

Ammo put into the machine is scrapped in blocks of 10 or 20 to produce standard base game scrap components which are used to make boxes of 50 new ammo. on Xbox I'm somewhat limited; this seems the best I could find.

I'll let everyone know if this works.

This post has been edited by Renee: Jan 25 2026, 01:19 AM

[SubRosa]

Here is my Ammo Crafting Simplified mod, on my Google Drive. Anyone should be able to download it. With it you can create all forms of gun ammo with steel, and energy ammo with acid.

[Kane]

@Renee, since you mentioned not seeing a lot of Protectrons, I figured I'd mention that very few roam free. Most are in charging pods controlled by terminals. The benefit is that sometimes you can program them to defend you via the terminal and then release them.

There is actually one in Corvega, in the final room with the raider boss that you can do that with. I like releasing it and watching it take out the raiders for me.

This post has been edited by Kane: Jan 26 2026, 01:39 PM

[Renee]

We did fight one Protectron yesterday actually. It was free-roaming with some Mister Gutsies, forget where we were at the time, though
`

December 23, 2287, Midnight: Jenn X discovers Cambridge Diner, but is too afraid to go in. This is ghoul country after all. It's the Night before the night before Christmas Jenn X is in not in the holiday spirit at all though. Her life is grim, never know where the next trauma or danger will happen next, but she knows when; usually every five minutes or so. She misses the days of 210 years ago, when all she had to worry about were some bills, what to have for lunch and make for dinner. Back then her life was also sort of grim; stuck in a dead-end marriage with that lowlife Malcom. Grim, but not dangerous. She would've been in the holiday spirit at least, not constantly about to get killed!

This post has been edited by Renee: Jan 27 2026, 12:10 AM

[Lopov]

I don't think I've ever encountered former neighbors in a random encounter. But I remember encountering the guy from the Vault-Tec that visits you at home. He's also ghoulified of course.

So Jenn is pondering, whether living a boring life with her husband was better or worse than getting killed almost twice every day?

I expect to return to the Commonwealth soon enough too.

[Renee]

So Jenn is pondering, whether living a boring life with her husband was better or worse than getting killed almost twice every day?

She sure is. At times she misses the guy, other times (like after a successful delve) she wouldn't trade her old life for the new. There's a thrill to living by your wits all the time that just wasn't there in the days of paying bills & showing up to work on time. I like to think Jenn had some gun training in her old life and was an avid runner though.

December 29, 2287: Jenn X spends the night in Lexington Apahtments just in time to avoid the latest rad storm and levels up to 13. I added a point of Agility and perks in Rifleman, Sneak and Aquagirl, because Jenn was a swimmer in her old life, too. I like to think she had some killer gym membership and was pretty athletic. She also now has perks in Animal Friend, Rad Resistant, and Locksmith. Ha! All these months I've been hitting the wrong button to add perks, now that I know it's RB and not the A button, that's why there's the sudden backlog of perks to add.

EDIT: Whoa, leukemia??? we can get leukemia in this game? What's that about?

This post has been edited by Renee: Feb 1 2026, 12:36 AM

[SubRosa]

I have never heard of that. It looks like diseases are part of Survival mode, which I have never used. I don't see leukemia in there though.

[Lopov]

Is Lexington Apartments that building, populated by a pair of raiders inside?

Like SubRosa, I've never used the Hardcore mod but I remember some online discussion about leukemia and cure for it - whether the disease is mod-added or vanilla, I don't know.

_____

Fortunately for Genesis, one of the masked attackers that opened fire on him without any apparent reason was broad enough that his leather armor - though uncomfortably tight - offered a welcome alternative to roaming the wasteland half-naked. What motive could have driven the crooks to attack him the moment he came into view?

Had they assumed he was carrying something valuable? Unlikely - he had been wandering the wasteland in nothing but his underwear.

Were they simply indulging a mindless urge to kill, shooting at anyone unfortunate enough to cross their path? Possibly.

Or were they cannibals, hoping to make a meal of him once he was dead? Also possible.

Whatever the reason, it hardly mattered. Genesis quickly dismissed the questions and shifted his thoughts elsewhere. Would every human he encountered in this shattered world open fire on sight? Perhaps he'll find some answers in the ruined settlement nearby.

The settlement lingered in his memory with unsettling clarity, as though he had visited it only yesterday. Yet the device strapped to his forearm insisted that two hundred years had passed since then. He recalled accompanying his commanding officer, General Dwight, to the general’s home in that very settlement, where he briefly met Dwight’s wife, Nora, and their infant son, Shaun. Soon afterward, they proceeded to the vault, where Genesis was instructed to enter a cryo pod - assured by General Dwight that it was necessary to conduct further analysis of his enhanced capabilities.

But once sealed inside, Genesis witnessed a harrowing scene. In the pod opposite his own stood Nora, clutching her child. He watched helplessly as the pod was opened, Shaun torn from her arms, and Nora murdered before his eyes.

Now, awakened centuries later, Genesis felt a pressing duty to report Nora’s death and Shaun’s abduction to General Dwight. Yet a series of questions weighed on him:

Had his commanding officer somehow survived the two centuries that had passed? Unlikely - unless he, too, had been preserved in cryo-stasis.

Why had Nora Dwight been sealed inside the Vault as well? No answer presented itself.

Why had the infant been taken? Again, no clear answer.

Genesis knew he had never been designed to think. Yet without orders to obey or a superior to guide him, thinking had become essential.

[macole]

I like the beginning.

[Renee]

I have never heard of that. It looks like diseases are part of Survival mode, which I have never used. I don't see leukemia in there though.

Ah, at least that's vanilla then. Oddly, I don't use Survival mode. I still suck at this game in combat; pretty sure I've got it on Very Easy. I've recently added a bunch of mods though, including a Hardcore Mode addition, so I was thinking maybe that's where cancer comes from. Seems not, thankfully. Really surprised Bethesda themselves would go this far.

Is Lexington Apartments that building, populated by a pair of raiders inside?

Si. *nods* Jenn surprised the hell out of them, too. Say hello to my new 10 mil auto, raider scum!

Cool, glad to see you are writing again, Lopov. I love how you are working the events of the game's beginning into Genesis's story, while also sidestepping Genesis as being the actual father of Shaun, ignoring the forced family thing in your own way.

This post has been edited by Renee: Yesterday, 09:18 PM

[Acadian]

'Genesis knew he had never been designed to think. Yet without orders to obey or a superior to guide him, thinking had become essential.'
- - This really brings home the challenges Genesis faces - not so much physical since he is fittingly imposing, but needing to ponder human nature and the meaning of so many things.

[Renee]

Jenn returns to Covenant, speaks to Doctor Patricia about this sluggish feeling she's got; and her Pipdevice is saying she's got leukemia! Well the doc has nothing to say, no dialog options other than Barter, Cure Me, and so on. Cure Me only allows her to top off Jenn's health, cure her Rads, or cure an addiction. Nothing about diseases or cancer, so we're stuck. Not sure what the heck to do.

[Kane]

I would check the mod description because cancer is certainly not a base game feature. There aren't any diseases in the base game unless you play survival mode.