Fallout 4 – Tricks and Techniques

Fallout 4 - Tricks and Techniques
Fallout 4 - Tricks and Techniques

This is a compendium of useful tricks and commands and technique for Fallout 4, basically because I am lazy and hate looking this stuff up every few years when I decide to play.

How to Create a Legendary Item from Scratch

There’s basically two ways to add mods to your gear using the console cheats. The method most guides teach is only good for one-offs, like when you really want a sniper scope on that cool gun you just found; but the preferred method shown below is for mass production (read: bat file!), like when you want every settler in your settlement carrying a Hardened Explosive SMG of Ghoul Hunting.

How to Create and Mod a weapon using only Console Commands

Use this method if you want to create the item from scratch, or just want to use console commands, such as from a bat file. In fact, two lessons in one: let’s create a simple BAT file! Go to your /Fallout4/ directory (where the main .exe is), and create a file called “My10mm.txt”. Open it in notepad, and paste in the following:

  • player.additem 00004822 ;; add a single 10mm base pistol to player using items base ref (from wiki)
  • player.cf “ObjectReference.AttachModToInventoryItem” 00004822 00148337 ;;Advanced receiver
  • player.cf “ObjectReference.AttachModToInventoryItem” 00004822 0014839b ;;LLP barrel
  • player.cf “ObjectReference.AttachModToInventoryItem” 00004822 001483b4 ;;Sharpshooter grip
  • player.cf “ObjectReference.AttachModToInventoryItem” 00004822 0014b73f ;;Quick eject mag
  • player.cf “ObjectReference.AttachModToInventoryItem” 00004822 000ea8fc ;;Glow sights
  • player.cf “ObjectReference.AttachModToInventoryItem” 00004822 001483e3 ;;Muzzle brake
  • player.cf “ObjectReference.AttachModToInventoryItem” 00004822 001f1048 ;;Kneecapper

Save, and launch the game. Open the console, and simply type:

  • bat My10mm

And like magic, the most overpowered little 10mm peashooter will appear in your inventory!

Two things on this method:

  • Note that this method uses the baseRef, not the itemref that the other method uses.
  • Make sure you unequip and drop any other 10mm pistols from your inventory… the cf command works with whatever it finds first.

A some user suggested adding code to drop all 10mms in your possession, so add these lines first if you feel the need:

  • player.unequipitem 00004822
  • player.drop 00004822 3
  • player.drop 00004822 2
  • player.drop 00004822 1

How to create and give legendary weapons to Settlers and Followers

By simply changing “player.cf” to just “cf” in the code above, you can now add a copy of the modded gun to any targeted NPC or container:

Create a textfile “/Fallout4/NPC10mm.txt” and use this code:

  • additem 00004822 ;; add a single 10mm base pistol to NPC
  • cf “ObjectReference.AttachModToInventoryItem” 00004822 00148337 ;;Advanced receiver
  • cf “ObjectReference.AttachModToInventoryItem” 00004822 0014839b ;;LLP barrel
  • cf “ObjectReference.AttachModToInventoryItem” 00004822 001483b4 ;;Sharpshooter grip
  • cf “ObjectReference.AttachModToInventoryItem” 00004822 0014b73f ;;Quick eject mag
  • cf “ObjectReference.AttachModToInventoryItem” 00004822 000ea8fc ;;Glow sights
  • cf “ObjectReference.AttachModToInventoryItem” 00004822 001483e3 ;;Muzzle brake
  • cf “ObjectReference.AttachModToInventoryItem” 00004822 001f1048 ;;Kneecapper

Now go in the game, enter the console, and click on an NPC (they usually have [PP] or [EP] after their ref ID. Enter:

  • bat NPC10mm

And boom, they have the gun!

For completeness, here is the old method for adding mods. The disadvantage here is that you have to be physically holding the weapon/armor for this to work:

OneOff / Handheld Method

For use when you want to just tweak an existing item in your inventory, by holding it in your hand. This is the method most other guides use. And frankly, it’s a lot of work and cannot be automated. But here it is anyways:

To customize an armor or weapon item, drop the object on the ground.

Target the object and hold the E key to grab the object.

With the console open, type “GetPlayerGrabbedRef” to determine the Form ID of the object.

In the console, type “[FormID].amod” followed by the Form ID of the object mod (OMOD) found below.

The item will respawn in place with the mod. Note: The Form ID of the modded item may have changed! If you want to change the mod, you should repeat Steps 1-3.

Items appear to be limited to one Legendary mod at a time. Attaching a mod will replace the current mod. If, for some reason, you need to remove a specific mod, you can use the “rmod” command.

Example: ff001e12.amod 1cc2ad

Settlements: Increase Item Number / Draw Limits

Fallout 4 was designed for Consoles, so the default draw limits on settlements are set very low to save on RAM and Performance. Even owners of modest PCs can usually quadruple the build limits with no risk, and if you have a beefy CPU and lots of RAM, you can even go beyond that.

Two values constrain you: “Draws” and “Triangles”. In laymans terms, a “Draw” is any object you drag out of the workshop and put on the screen, such as a wall, floor, a door, a bed. The more complex the object is, the more draws it takes. A cube-shaped object like a floor or wall might only take up a single draw, while a shelf with clutter pre-attached might take up dozens of draws.

“Triangles” on the other hand, refer to the complexity/detail of an individual draw item. A floor for instance is fairly simple and flat and might consist of as little as a dozen triangles; a flower vase with all its curves and stems and petals might have hundreds of these little triangles that define its shape.

By default, any given workshop is a settlement will allow you to have up to 3,000 Draws or 3,000,000 Triangles… whichever comes first. It sounds like a lot; it’s not. These things add up quickly so in reality we are talking about 100-200 items you can add before stuff is blocked.

The SAFEST way to increase your build limits is with a mod such as Cheat Terminal, which handles all the math for you. But if you really insist, it can be done manually as well:

Use the following two valaues to determine just how bad your situation is:

  • getav 348 shows you the WorkshopCurrentTriangles (out of 3 million)
  • getav 34A shows you the WorkshopCurrentDraws (out of 3 thousand)

If one or both values are getting close to max, you can increase the build limits thusly:

  • setav 349 6000000 doubles WorkshopMaxTriangles (default: 3,000,000)
  • setav 34b 6000 doubles WorkshopMaxDraws (default: 3,000)

If you increase one, be sure to increase the other by the same factor; i.e. if you triple triangles, triple draws at the same time.

Do not go OVERBOARD! You can ruin your savegame if you exceed the number of draws or triangles your CPU and graphics card can handle. Personally I would never go over 4x. If you do, you will find that the settlement causes you to crash whenever you leave and try to return to it.

Settlements: Increase Population Beyond 22

Yes, you can be lore-friendly and try to increase your Charisma to get max settlers at your town, or just type:

  • setgs iWorkshopSettlerPopulationMax 999

…and don’t worry about it.

Note that your max number of settlers is still limited by performance of your computer, so if you see a sudden huge drop in your fps, it might be time to relocate a few of them; I know my system gets a little sluggish with around 70-80 people, for instance.

Settlements: Increase Happiness

  • Every Settler needs a job.
  • Every Settler in the community requires 1 point of food, 1 point of water, and 1 point of electricity, minimum.
  • For each point of food, water and electricity, you need 1 point of Defense at least, or else you will experience significantly more Raider attacks, and these attacks will do a lot more damage.
  • Walls do not count towards Defense. Instead build towers with lots of turrets, and lots of guardposts. Use walls to force attackers towards these towers, rather than just trying to keep them out.
  • Every Settler needs a bed with a rainproof roof over it.
  • This includes Provisioners who originated from that settlement, even though they will never use their assigned bed.
  • For max happiness, each bed needs to be ASSIGNED, just like a job station does. Don’t let them use just any bed, this creates unhappiness.
  • Non-humans like Strong and Robots cannot use beds, but want them anyway, and thus inherently cause unhappiness. To reach 100% in a town, send nonhumans to another location.
  • A settler needs to be able to REACH his/her bed.
  • Double beds do not count (even if the workshop bed-count rises) and cause unhappiness because only one settler an actually use them at a time. Some mods may fix this problem, but the majority of them do not. You can simulate double beds however by placing two single beds next to each other.
  • Beds MUST be covered from the rain. Not all coverings work (even Bethesda-made ones). To see if your roof leaks, wait for it to rain and stand underneath it while NOT wearing power armor (there’s a bug). If the raindrops vanish, it’s a rainproof roof. Otherwise, unhappiness!
  • You can check individual beds in Console Mode, first you need to click on a bed in a settlement. and then type “getav 334” – The returned value lets you know if a bed is sheltered (“1.00”) or not (“0.00”).
  • Robots are always 50% happy not matter what, so a Robot will always lower community overall happiness.

Happiness

Enter the console command mode and click on the settlement workshop (actual object) before using these commands:

getav 00129157 – Show the current Happiness value.

getav 0012722C – Show the current Bonus Happiness value. Bonus happiness is required to raise settlement Happiness from the cap without it of 80, to 100. This is provided by some crafted stores (check tooltips) and some NPCs: Junkyard dogs, Cats and Gorillas. Also possible from completing some settlement quests. Instead of the workshop, you can click on a specific object to get its individual Bonus Happiness value, for instance clicking on a Gorilla and typing getav 0012722C will return 20.

getav 00127238 – Show the current Happiness Target value. Your settlement happiness will gradually assume this value. Great to check how well your settlement is doing.

Modify with these commands:

  • modav 00129157 <value>
  • modav 00127238 <value>

Note: The ‘modav’ command will add to the existing value. Alternatively, you can use the ‘setav’ command to set the exact value you want. This includes Codsworth and Curie (in her original MrHandy form), and any robots you make from Automatron. TVs in a community lower happiness whether powered or not, so scrap them.

Bugfix: Stuck in Sneak / Sprint or Cannot Sneak / Sprint

Problem: The modifier keys for Sneak or Sprint are not working and you are stuck in/out of one or both modes. Sometimes you cannot jump either.

First off, make sure the keys are actually WORKING… get out of Fallout 4, open Notepad and just make sure it’s not a stuck key on your keyboard. If they don’t work there, clean your board, jiggle all the keys etc.

If they are working outside of FO4, however, it’s probably a mod doing this. It’s not always easy to tell which one though, so I will describe whats going on, and leave you to figure out a solution.

The bug is triggered when a script causes you to momentarily lose control of your character, most typically in an onDeath() or onStun() event, and sometime also in certain NPC-prompted scripted dialog, such as when they run up to you unexpectedly.

The problem happens when the mod author forgot to allow for this kind of situation or has bypassed the normal event chain, and suddenly one or more keys on your keyboard won’t work, because he’s restoring some, but not all, of the keys to you when you are supposed to regain control of ALL of them.

I’ve seen this for sure happening in Tiny Tina’s Cookiepocalypse with the Resurrection device; if you die while sneaking or sprinting, you stay stuck in that mode forever. It’s also happened when getting shot with the vanilla Lorenzo’s Artifact Gun, which stuns, and also has happened to me when sneaking or sprinting in a settlement when a settler runs up to introduce themself. The common factor here is that it often happens when you temporarily lost keyboard control, and happen most often when this occurs while you are actively pressing the key in question when this loss of control happens.

  1. The most obvious fix of course is to reload to an earlier game that doesn’t have the bug, but sometimes this is not practical.
  2. Some users have reported that pressing select, crouch, crouch again, select again will fix the problem without any further action.
  3. Try going to Setting:Controls, and change ANY key binding to anything other than its default, and save. Then open up Controls again and T set all of them to default, and save. This usually does the trick.

Settlement Bug: Missing Provisioners

Found a way to fix supply lines for non-existant provisioners. If you have certain supply lines with the invisible/missing settler bug, here is a method I found that fixes specific supply lines. This fix requires entering 1 console command, so only PC players for now. I haven’t seen this method posted elsewhere as a means to fix supply lines, but I’m probably not the first to discover it (so apologies if someone has already posted it).

90% of the time I’m able to find my settlers and reroute them, but there is definitely a bug right now where they can go invisible. But please make a game save before trying this fix! This isn’t a supported way of fixing it, but if you’re picky enough (like me) where you want a fix now… here you go!

Fast travel to the home town side of the invisible settler’s supply line (if you’re not sure, just guess, you have a 50/50 shot since there’s only 1 town on each side). Get in the green and open workshop mode.

Open the console and enter the command: player.placeatme 20593

Close the console. A settler will spawn in front of you.

Press Q on the settler (supply line, not assign home!), and assign it to the other town. You will notice it lets you assign it because this settler currently has no home.

Now press R on the settler and make its home where you are currently at. You will notice it also lets you do this. Now this settler has the same route as the old/broken one.

Finally, assign the settler to do something else (farm, scavenge, defense) to remove it from traveling. Now check your supply lines…the broken line should be gone! If not… follow these steps again from the other town instead. I’m not sure if you need to do it from the old settler’s home town, but I think the answer is yes.

Originally posted by Arod Snaux

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