My Time in the Wasteland

This post has Fallout 4 spoilers.  Go finish the game before you read on.

My grandparents owned a wrecking yard.  Their "savings account" was six T-birds parked under a shed roof, with tattered convertible tops, and a flock of geese crapping on the seats.  When I squeezed between their fenders I saw the cool potential.  It instilled the idea that you could find and fix up things that might be unavailable any other way.  That, sure, money could get you a nice car, but knowledge and perseverance might get you a rare one.  So the beginning of Fallout 4 had me pretty ecstatic.  You're given an old set of T-45 battle armor early in the questline and you realize that 1) you can work on each of the parts to upgrade them 2) paint them in different ways 3) mix and match different model parts if you find them and 4) find those parts on chassis scattered around the wasteland.

I was thrilled.  I put all my skill points I gained leveling into perks that allowed me to repair and use my armor.  I scoured the wasteland for parts and learned to follow the rail lines and freeways looking for military checkpoints.  I searched exhaustively for the magazines that unlocked new paint jobs.  I gathered junk with a purpose.  I went everywhere in my armor and got pretty unstoppable.

And it made some sense.  How could one person make a difference in a place like the Commonwealth.  Well, what if that person was a veteran that knows how to repair power armor and dogged enough to search for parts to put together a suit that tops anything even the local mercenaries have.

Unfortunately, any non-procedurally generated world will have an end to exploration, and now that I have been everywhere on the map 3 times, have found the best armor available, and all the paint jobs available, I have no reason to explore anymore. 

But what about using my finely-tuned suit of destruction to help society get back on its feet?  I'll write a bit more soon about the new settlement system in the game and some of the ways it was a disappointmant.

In the mean time, I hope you and yours are having a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!