Level 19
S-3 Armorer 1,
P-(+)10 Rifleman 1, Locksmith 3
E-2
C-6 Lady Killer 1, Local Leader 2
I-6 Gun Nut 1, Hacker 2, Science 1
A-(+)6 Gunslinger 2, Action Boy 2
L-3
(Astoundingly Awesome 8, Barbarian 3, Covert Operations, Tesla Science, Wasteland Survival 9)

Above, you can see info pertaining to my character’s level, abilities, and perk choices/acquisitions. I’ve added this for those that are interested in how I’m advancing my character. The + indicates equipment is boosting this particular ability, and for consistency I’m using my character’s exploring/fighting equipment OUTSIDE of power armor. In general, my Charisma will be at least 3 higher when I sell items or enter delicate negotiations. In power armor, of course, my strength is 10+.

I wake well rested, prepared to make the overland trip to County Crossing. I go to speak with Preston first. I level up, then he informs me we’ve been having some raider troubles at Sanctuary Hills. Well, of course this little venture will be delayed.

I go speak to the settler the quest marker indicates, a new settler to Sanctuary who is sleeping in the shelter I just built. He talks about raiders give them a hard time and how they can’t stand up to them. Really? In my town with four capable companions (and frequently myself and whatever companion I take with me) raiders have been giving you trouble? In my town with three guard posts and four automated turrets? This is practically Minutemen HQ. This situation demonstrates the difficulties of the Radiant Quest system, where the game randomly creates “Go kill this” or “Go fetch this” quests from location X to location Y. Yes, it seemingly extends the content of the game, but the repetitive nature means it doesn’t fool anyone. Moreover it occasionally proves quite jarring with respect to the game’s fiction when problem areas pop up in places where you frequent and you haven’t heard anything about it until now. In Skyrim, such problems were often avoided by the nature of the quests and how far they took you from places you were likely to be going a lot, so it was only rarely jarring. Here it is much more so. It seems as though this problem could be alleviated by making sure no location the player has visited in a certain number of game days is in consideration when the code chooses the next radiant quest.

A storm starts up outside as Piper strikes up conversation and says I sure do find a lot of trouble. I say I guess so and she tells more of her life experiences, about all the threats of poison, execution, and imprisonment she’s faced to get a story. Here, another problem with the dialogue system comes up, which is that I don’t know if I’m going to have the option to ask about these things and then say what I want to say, or if the questions will blow past the other options. On a reload, I found that here you can choose to ask each of the questions, but that’s not always the case. In this conversation, the first opportunity to flirt with Piper also becomes available. I wonder if romance functions like Bioware games such as Dragon Age, where reactions to flirtation will be based on certain aspects of your character (gender/race in Dragon Age) or if anyone can flirt with anyone. My suspicion, given the general level of sophistication (or lack thereof)) of NPCs in Bethesda games, is the latter.

I suit up in my power armor, then fast travel to the Sunshine Tidings Co-op so I can make my way to Walden Pond, where the raiders are supposedly holed up, from there. At least this radiant quest is leading me to a new location. I’ll find out why there’s such low happiness in the Co-op while I’m there. I can’t see a reason, other than that there’s only one permanent settler thus far. I am pleasantly surprised to see three Minutemen patrolling with a dog. I didn’t even know we had started expanding our recruitment, but it’s nice to see a presence out in the wastes.

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It’s still raining as I approach Walden Pond and a couple of ruined structures near the site. The first building is empty, but a bomb goes off inside, apparently motion detection of some kind as I couldn’t see it to disarm it. The impact with my power armor is negligible. There’s a note pinned next to the door with a knife to someone named Tweez. Apparently the entrance to this raider den has been moved and I should look for a sewer pipe.

Or I could just unlock this master lock with my lock picking skills and get the drop on them, which is probably what I’ll do. It works better than I could ever have hoped. I come in right behind their leader who is busy kicking a locked safe and waste no time killing him in three shots using VATS (and a critical hit I’d been saving). Meanwhile, Piper takes out his companion. Two other raiders, Tweez and Bear, stream in nicely one at a time leaving me enough time to regenerate my action points and take them out in VATS. No shots are fired in my direction.

I pick the master safe after only one broken bobby pin and set about looting the rest of this gift shop basement, and apparently nearby tunnels. I find a Tales of a Junktown Jerky Vendor, humorously illustrated as though by a child and titled “Why I Sold My Mother” that gives me a bonus dealing with merchants. Mostly a lot of junk here. Clean living was not their forte.

I exit the pipes and look around. Walden Pond is looking nothing at all like when I saw it in real life last time I visited the Boston area. I go to the cabin and click the automated tour button. Thoreau’s cabin is remarkably well preserved, if actually a tad bit smaller than I remember. I absolutely love the robotic voice describing transcendentalism and a philosophy that people are at their best when completely self-reliant… followed by a suggestion to buy books and other gifts to commemorate your visit at the nearby gift shop and a notification of sponsorship by the makers of the Mr. Handy robotic assistant.

I fast travel back to Sanctuary and talk to the settler who thanks me and pays me for some reason, then Preston. The dialogue about how the settlers are appreciative and ready to join our cause is, again, a bit ridiculous considering that Sanctuary is already part of our cause. I trade some things with the shopkeepers I have in town and also arm a couple of them, including my old buddy Vault Tec Rep who apparently doesn’t have a real name.

I find an idle settler and assign him to the Sunshine Tidings Co-op supply line so I’ll have supplies linked between my two major settlements. I consider creating other supply lines, but honestly it’s so difficult to tell who is doing what in the settlement. There really needs to be a better interface and information feedback for settlement management.

I get back in my power armor and fast travel to the Starlight Drive-In as the sun dips below the horizon. From here, I’ll move through Lexington tomorrow and slowly make my way over land towards County Crossing. It’s after midnight, so I pick the expert safe I wasn’t able to get last time I was here, then build a bed in the concession stand and sleep.