Fallout 4 Settlement Tour - Red Rocket Truck Stop

So I've set myself a challenge - build a thriving community at every available settlement within the base game and the six added with the game's DLC. I must keep my settlers as happy as possible and provide all of the amenities people would need to live comfortably (i.e. toilets, recreation, communal areas) - and many of the settlements will follow a specific theme. All of my settlers will also be armed and dressed painstakingly by hand...

For a full list of settlements and also to see which mods I've used, click here.

RED ROCKET TRUCK STOP

Aerial view of the settlement

For this settlement, I built around the existing gas station building itself whilst making use of the indoor space and the flat rooftop. To access the roof, I built this staircase, using pieces from the 'warehouse' section, structure pieces added by the Contraptions Workshop DLC. I can use it and so can the settlers who need to access the roof.

On the roof is the main power generator, a metal shack that can house 6 settlers. I manually assigned them to their beds so all of the shopkeepers live on the rooftop. This is also where I mounted all of the settlement's turrets. Being raised up so high, they have excellent range and *never* take damage from any attackers.

Being a former gas station, I decided to go with a scrapyard sort of aesthetic. I turned an abandoned school bus, trailer and two train box cars into the other settler housing, providing each one with either a sleeping bag or a mattress and either a footlocker or a duffel bag to keep their possessions in. I also used conduits to wire up the structures and lit them up inside.

In the central area, between two of the "houses," I also built a bathroom area, which includes several sinks, toilets and urinals for my settlers to use when needing to relieve themselves or wash up. To the left of the trailer home is an area for travelling merchants and their Brahmin.

In addition to the roof-mounted turrets, the settlement also has 3 guards stationed on raised guard towers and the 5 "pets" I chose for the settlers are tamed Mole Rats. As well as being pets, they also provide some defence. Nearby is an underground Mole Rat den, so I like to imagine the settlers were able to tame them. Obviously this was actually achieved via the use of a beta wave emitter.

There is a total of 4 powered water pumps, providing 40 water to the settlement. I built two main areas for the planting of crops, which are Mutfruit, Tatos, corn, carrots and via the use of the Homemaker mod, silt beans. In the top corner, there is a pen that houses 3 Brahmin. On the side of the main gas station building is a gym/recreation area with fitness equipment and around the back are all of the crafting benches.

For the shops, I built a long roofed structure with an open front. Each shop has its own stock shelves behind the shopkeeper and any other relevant items (i.e. first aid kits for the doctor.) This whole area is lit up beautifully at night and the settlers gather around the bar when they've finished working. To compliment this, I also built a seating area in front of the bar where they can hang out together.

Inside the gas station itself is another communal area and kitchen. The small office area has been changed into a room where the barber and facial surgeon work out of, along with 2 beds for the guards. My favourite area however is the large open garage - which I turned into another communal area with seating booths, vending machines, a jukebox and lots of wall decoration. This is also where the settlement's two cats hang out.

Here's some more screenshots - simply click to enlarge them.

And here's a guided video tour I made:

Unboxing: Arcade Block April 2016

It's time for my sixth monthly Arcade Block!

As I've previously explained; for a fee of $20 CANADIAN per month, Arcade Block will send you a lovely box of gaming merchandise, including a T-shirt. Shipping costs vary, depending on where you live, and larger T-shirt sizes cost a few $ extra - overall, my boxes including shipping, work out at about £24.

This one was shipped on the 25th of March and arrived on the 9th of May. Slightly longer than before, but it is coming all the way from Canada.

One thing I also noticed about this Arcade Block is that it had a different customs label; normally things shipped from another country needs to have a brief outline of what it is and how valuable it is - which in a way can potentially ruin the surprise of a mystery subscription box - but this one didn't say at all!



Let's take a closer look at the contents:

The Legend Of Zelda Mutlitool

Glow-in-the-dark Fallout 4 T-shirt

The Legend Of Zelda: Majora's Mask mousemat

Assassin's Creed blind bag mini figure

Borderlands Claptrap Funko Pop figure

Battleborn pin badges

After I filmed my unboxing video, I signed into my account to see about the mobile phone cases. Turns out there was also a box to fill in your shoe size and UNDERWEAR size! What on Earth. I hope I get some cool shoes and some sexy underpants. Though I shall NOT be modelling THOSE for my Gamer's Wardrobe segment! :)

Stay tuned for next month's Arcade Block!

Fallout 4 Beer: Thoughts of a Cynical, Teetotal Brit

If you've even remotley interested in following the news about Fallout 4 - you've no doubt seen the many special editions, limited runs of merchandise, the collector's edition strategy guides and store/site exclusive deals and bundles - personally I'm getting the PC version from Amazon, with their limited edition artbook and stuff, and the collector's edition of the survival guide.

But have you seen this?

This is Fallout beer - and as far as I know, it's exclusive to us gamers here in the UK. The beer itself is made by Carlsberg, comes in crates of 12 and you need to be over 18 in order to purchase it - 18 of course, being both our legal drinking age and the PEGI rating for Fallout 4.

But I shan't be buying it. Why? Well, there's a few reasons.

1. I don't really drink - and when I do drink, I drink peach schnapps with a mixer, or just plain fruit cider - beer is fucking awful, I would rather drink cat piss - and I could get that for free.

2. The crate retails for £30 - which is £2.50 PER BOTTLE. Beer should not be that fucking expensive. I've seen some single bottles of ciders retail for around that price - but unless we're in some skanky bar, beer shouldn't cost that much. They're also only 330ml - the same amount that's in a tin of pop - not the standard 500ml! (And again, 500ml is the same as a bottle of pop, for those who aren't metric-ally minded.)

3. Even if I was going to keep them as a collectable - how long will it be before the beer goes off? I know beer itself is fermented - but it seems more likely that the empty bottles will become collectables, rather than the full ones - and there doesn't seem to be a really limited supply - so they won't be worth much for a while anyway. Also, how am I supposed to keep them safe? Everything on my collectables shelf is at risk of being knocked off by cats - most of the things are plastic or metal, and won't break if knocked. Keeping full glass bottles safe would just be a massive pain in the arse.

4. Fallout 4 beer has NOTHING to do with Fallout. Remember the beer bottles in Fallout? They're plain brown, and most likely brewed by Wasteland survivors. There is no branded beer available in the Wasteland - so why didn't they market a product that actually IS? Nuka Cola is the obvious choice of course, but some argue that that isn't possible due to the blatant parodying of Coca-Cola - OK fine, then what about Sunset Sarsaparilla? That's a unique Fallout product. What about their brands of scotch and whiskey? They have labels. Admittedly, a bottle of scotch or whiskey would retail for far more than beer - but I still bet people would buy it.

And why does it have to be a drink? Market some Fallout snacks - fucking Sugar Bombs, Radioactive Gum Drops, Bubblegum that comes with a pirate tattoo - fuck, even some real branded food products - I'll bet Kraft would do a deal and make real Blamco Mac N Cheese, Heinz could cash in with Pork N Beans - there's so much wasted potential here. 

And let's not forget, Fallout have included a REAL WORLD product in their games before. Bawls Guarana - a real-world energy drink that comes in blue glass bottles was featured in advertising and as a pick-up item in the spin-off game Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel. I bought some bottles to try just because of that game. It seems bloody standard for games nowadays to be filled with product placement - would it be too weird to have a dusty old bottle or irradiated package of a real-world product? Probably not.