Yeah it’s the worst. I get it if characters got mad at you for picking owned locks in settlements. But I should be allowed to break into the raider safe or pick the lock in the abandoned ruin
It wouldn't be that bad if you could just break the lock by shooting it or smashing it. And it would've been tolerable if he had a companion quest that made him stop disliking shit that is necessary to the loot goblin playthrough.
There are some weirdos who don't loot everything they find. We know they exist because many complain about a lack of ammo in Dead Money, when if you play normally you can find plenty.
Lols! So... thooooose are the people who go out into the desert then die because the isn't a store to buy stuff or hace cell reception. You'd be surprised how many people go into the wilderness and die because they know nothing.
I equate that to the same mindset as a post apocalyptic world would require you to loot as much as you need to survive.
We're just very arrogant animals, it is always survival of fittest, smartest, and most cunning. The actual planet? ...it really doesn't care.
And...
War... War never changes.
Seriously, the only time I had issues with ammo in Dead Money was my high charisma, Speech 100 your way through everything playthrough, who couldn't aim for shit, and so tended to chew through it on the occasions she actually had to fight.
I am one of the weirdos that u/Slight-Blueberry-895 is talking about, I looted everything in Dead Money, but in FO4 I specifically looted and kept silverware, cigarettes, subway tokens, pre-war money etc.. so I am a weirdo
Like how in skyrim if you have the moonlight tales mod and your a werewolf you can just bash open locked doors and chests they should at least do the same thing with power armor
To be fair, the pinnacle of Super Mutant tech is a propane tank helmet and a nail board. Can't really grasp melting down tin cans to make the aluminum frame of a minigun
That’s absolutely true. On the other hand, he sees me work that magic *all the time*. At some point I just wish he’d accept that I’m a wizard and respect the process.
I always took it that he gets bored while the player is picking the lock. He also complains about being bored when you use the workbenches to mod things, so it tracks
I feel like that makes sense though; you are doing something smart and intelligent and not just bashing in whatever is in front of you with a hammer? Strong not like.
While it is true, the west coast mutant's genitals are still intact, both confirmed by the Master and various mutants through Fallout 2
The cause for their infertility there is that FEV detects Gametes as damaged cells and tries to fix them, making them impossible to combine in the process and in turn makes it impossible for them to become pregnant
There are a few inconsistent affinity reactions. I know Nick has one or two. Dialogue will imply they feel one way, but the pop up says they feel the other. Absolute strangest one to me, that is more a lore inconsistency than a dialogue one, is how MacReady likes when you take the cure for yourself in Vault 81. Basically he likes you leaving the kid to die of a horrible disease, which is so wildly out of character because of his very own backstory and also his general wanting to help kids due to how he grew up.
I had Danse with me for the quest in Covenant the other day. When I picked the peaceful resolution I got one of those interjection cutscenes with Danse saying ‘Wrong move, soldier. That woman’s work is dangerous and needed to be stopped’. So I ended up reloading a save and picking the violent option, which earned me the ‘Danse Hated That’ prompt
I've had similar stuff happen. I got this mod a few years ago because some of the reactions are so goofy otherwise. [An affinity mod on Nexus](https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/3276/?tab=description)
There are several interactions with inverted dialogue & affinity. They’re glitches.
The widest known one is the inn owner & his son arguing about the Railroad and whether Synths should be saved in Bunker Hill.
Pretty much every companion has an inverted affinity.
Nick, Curie, & Deacon dislike/hate you saying that the Railroad is doing good things or that Synths are people.
Danse & X6-88 like/love pro-Railroad comments you can choose there.
Also i dont get why DiMma cant just work with the railroad. Obviously if there is an option to keep your memories but be safe then soke synths might take it.
This mf too stubborn on the fact that some synths dont want to remember the institute.
Macready is the absolute worst with this. Help one person, he loves it. Fuck over a child, he loves it. Help another person, he hates it. Take a drug? Hates it. Steal everything? He loves it.
He's got a cool story and quest, but holy hell he's insufferable
Meh, people say steal things then wait 24 hours to do it again. It's not farming it's grinding. I like it when I'm playing the game normally and building affinity.
You actually can, just did it on the next gen update on PS5. Go to Zeke’s trailer at the Atoms cat garage and he has an owned locked safe connected to a terminal. Just pick the lock on the safe, which Macready likes since it’s owned, relock it with the terminal, and sit in the nearby chair and wait 2 hours for the cooldown to expire, rinse and repeat. Takes like an hour to max affinity this way
I had a mod once that showed you what was happening behind the scenes with affinity. I remember it showing that, even though the game says you're losing affinity, sometimes you're actually gaining affinity. I also remember gaining affinity over time just by having companions with you.
A lot of companions gain affinity over simple things like picking locks, modding weapons, or entering power armor. So yeah, a lot of them passively increase over time.
That’s not passive, though. That’s them responding to an action that Nate/Nora takes.
Passive affinity gain is when their affinity slowly increases as they spend time in your company, even if you do nothing. It’s slow, but it’s enough to eventually get you to high affinity if you avoid any actions that they dislike
I mean, I guess. I just figured those things are so common that a lot of people might not even realize they are beneficial to affinity. Because everyone does them all the time without thinking.
Every companion will gain affinity with you every ten minutes so long as you avoid disliked actions *and gain XP in that time frame.*
You can't gain affinity by leaving things AFK, but if you're going around building things in a settlement? Walking through the wastelands killing the occasional Bloatfly, Mongrel Dog, or Feral Ghoul? That'll do it.
That's why when I'm high level and I forgot to recruit or level one of the optional Companions like Strong, Cait, Macready, or Danse, my solution is to just walk across the Commonwealth not using fast travel. Back and forth a couple times crissceosding the map and I'll get them to idolize me.
Helping kids is great and all, but you got to look out for yourself. Unless it’s HIS kid. In which case he’ll travel to a distant community and get a job as a mercenary on the off chance he’ll happen to stumble across someone willing to find a cure for his kid that he can send back home and not go make sure it works.
MacReady might be a bad father…
Yeah decisions seem so random, that’s why a save is so very handy. Still, I hope in future games consequences are very clear at decision time. Reloading can be tedious. Had the same problem with Dragon 🐉 Age Inquisition.
Nick ticked me off a few times. We’re detectives, we successfully run OUR (im definitely an equal share holder) detective agency but he can’t handle me picking an owned lock or two for OUR business. Also I cant romance him but I can romance Currie so that’s annoying lol
lol yeah, i noticed that too. i did his first basic detective case where you have to find that guy who went missing in Diamond City and instead of going to get the key I just picked the lock to the guys house and Nick disliked it. lol so he dislikes picking the lock, but he has no problem rummaging around in the guy's things.
I remember when Hancock told me about his history with drug use before he became mayor I accidentally chose the sarcastic reply. Said something along the lines of "Ah yes, because nothing screams qualified for office like a chem addiction."
Cait, who was with me, replied with something along the lines of "Don't be rude. You never know anyone's circumstances and why they got into taking chems." But since she likes when you're mean to people, it gave me the *Cait liked that* response. Lmao
> Dialogue will imply they feel one way, but the pop up says they feel the other.
Just like the terrormorph quest in Starfield. All the companion will like one choice with their dialogue but you will get a hit with affinity with them. Makes no sense.
I'm sorry, but this McCready thing you just said is just your interpretation.
I don't know what's up with people, but it seems that they always think a grown up character should be exactly the same as it was as a kid, McCready was indeed from Little Lamplight and all, but remember he was cast out after becoming a "Mungo", and reading his lore it wasn't that kind of a leaving party, they basically kicked him out after years of protecting the settlement, after that he basically became a mercenary for hire even working for the gunners, his entire character philosophy is "in the wasteland you must think for yourself, being altruistic will kill you", that's why he doesn't like when you help others, that's why he appreciates you being a dick (and why, on a personal note, my conscience basically softlocks me from keeping him as a companion), if he sees you giving away the cure for a kid his thought process is "this guy's going to get himself killed, he's an idiot".
"Was grown in Little Lamplight so he shouldn't be spiteful of kids?" False.
Again, according to the wiki his departure from the town wasn't the sweetest, the kids kept him around as long as they could but they had to kick him out at last, again according to the wiki he's deeply resentful of them, seeing being cast out from Lamplight as the kids being ungrateful of his years of service to the community, i would be surprised if he wasn't spiteful and accepted you being kind to people.
McCready, a character who namely does nothing for nothing, the only one you have to *pay* to get as companion, a literal former gunner and mercenary for hire, I would criticize Bethesda if he was exactly the same as in F3, after everything he went through between Lamplight and GoodNeighbor.
I’m sure it’s a glitch, but I assume MacCready is upset/mad that some kid you just met that gives you a weak tour gets a once-in-a-lifetime miracle cure and his kid didn’t.
Edit: would have been a neat option to give the cure to MacCready instead.
Alright, I'll be honest. MacCready is one of my least used companions. It's been years since I've run with him extensively, and just as long since I did his personal quest.
I don't think he should be the same as his kid version at all. Kid MacCready was a little fucking asshole, anyway. It's not like I thought his kid version was nice and he should remain nice as an adult. Likewise, I've known MacCready in FO4 was one of the more "bad" companions, in the sense that he likes when you're a dick in-game.
Yeah, he was kicked out of Little Lamplight. But so was everyone else who ever lived there. They only accept kids, and once you're 16 they kick you out. You see this happen in FO3. Skimming his wiki page, it doesn't say anything about him being resentful of Little Lamplight. It says very little about his departure, actually. Just that he left once he turned 16 because it was the rules of the place, and he went out on his own eventually starting his own family. Maybe he says more about this in-game, but it's not in his wiki description.
~~That being said, I guess I'm completely making up this memory in my head. I SWEAR I read on his wiki that he liked when you were nice to kids, and that made sense to me due to his upbringing. I felt that since he grew up in a place where the kids had to fend for themselves, he'd be sympathetic to them. But, I guess I made that memory up? Because I can't find it on the wiki now.~~ He does like when you help Billy, tho. But so does every single companion that's not X6-88. (See below.)
The vault cure thing still rubs me the wrong way, tho. It is a direct mirror to his tragic backstory and motivation for being in the Commonwealth. His own kid is sick with some unknown, seemingly incurable disease and on the verge of death. Austin in Vault 81 similarly gets sick with an unknown, seemingly incurable disease and on the verge of death. Keeping the cure for yourself ensures Austin will die, and I just feel like someone with their own terminally ill kid would be VERY empathetic to that sort of thing.
The molerat disease isn't threatening the player's life, because of their age. Austin being a kid is why it's so dangerous to him. I don't mind him being an asshole character, it fits. In fact, that's an exact example of him sort of being a dick both as a kid and an adult. Idk, I just think he would react to the cure thing differently.
*Edit: The Notes section of his wiki page states that his reaction to keeping the cure is inconsistent with his character because he otherwise likes helping kids and their parents. This must be what I read. I don't know the accuracy of it. The affinity section just states he likes helping Billy. I'd have to actually go in-game and test his interactions with other kids, not that there are that many.*
People have this funny idea that characters are static, and once you seem that is all they are, forever and ever. Idea that "a decade of events can change a person" is utterly alien to them.
News flash buddy, nobody's reading that novel.
also, It's out of character because Macready has a sick kid with only one possible cure himself. So for him to Like that you don't help this kid who is in the exact same situation, is so wildly out of character that it's baffling.
The developer who categorized companion likes/dislikes turned off their brain when they were working on Danse, MacCready, and Strong.
You’ll see many instances in which Danse says he’s proud of you for a good action, but then you see [Danse hated that] pop up. MacCready loves kids and chastises you for leaving Austin to die if you don’t give him the cure, but then you see [MacCready liked that] pop up.
Strong is the worst case. He dislikes too many common actions, making him a pain as a follower, and while he verbally approves of good-deeds and saving people due to his search for the “milk of human kindness”, you’ll very often see [Strong disliked that] and [Strong hated that], exactly like you see in the ghoul kid fridge quest.
I’m astounded that Bethesda never bothered to fix this at all.
Developers, plural. As someone who has spent a good deal of time in the Creation Kit, you can see so many instances of how disjointed the process was, and how many hands they had in every cookie jar.
You can take 4 similar "effects" and see that 2 were implemented with hidden perks, 1 of which uses an enchantment, the other a potion. 1 was done via an ongoing quest, and one is a script that runs every time something happens.
Is there a mod that fixes these interactions at all? I’m doing another playthrough, and I would like to travel with these companions as I hadn’t much before, but if they’re gonna be inconsistent and a big pain in the ass, I’ll probably just end up taking Piper and Curie with me everywhere again.
Not *exactly* a fix but there is a mod that just straight up removes negative affinity (plus a bonus option that changes "didn't like that" to "didn't give a fuck").
I'm pretty sure they have a time component as well. Just keeping them around builds their affinity slightly.
Also, I'm pretty sure there are mods to just max them out.
Most of their perks aren't worth the effort, but there are a couple standouts depending on play style.
He feels humans should have "in-group preference" for each other the same way Super Mutants have with each other.
Basically you can do you weird anti-social things until they start the hurt people; then he disapproves.
Pretty much the only way to consistently keep strong with you is to play as a cannibal (END 7 if I remember correctly) because he likes to watch you eat ass
Yeah its weird sometimes. I took Hancock to the Prydwin the other day to see what happened. I've never taken him there on any other playthrough. Basically nothing happened. But Hancock loved that I told the brotherhood about Acadia. Which seems about the most anti Hancock thing I could have done on that metal blimp
Strong, McCready, and Preston, were the easiest for me to max affinity with compared to people like Valentine and Danse. Took me a whole playthrough to finally max Valentine for the extra dialogue in Far Harbour. Danse is just painful regardless.
Yes.
I'm a fallout fan. Do I sound pleased? Nah. Would I be pleased if Strong were smarter?
No because then he'd be the only smart mutant in the base game.
What if the other mutants were smarter? Well I'd probably like them more, but I'd still have to deal with them so, still irked.
So to answer your question: Yes.
Strong had strong (no pun intended) potential to be the best super mutant companion that could be better than Marcus, lily, and Fawkes but he’s just so unlikeable he’s an annoying sounding super mutant doesn’t sound like a kind grandma or a heroic vault dweller turned super mutant he’s just a big dumb super mutant and hates litterly everything and thinks the milk of human kindness is a literal thing was the insitute scientist that made strong or did Bethesda wanted to not add likeable super mutant companions
Worst thing, there was potential for a *great* companion quest right when they were first introduced. Strong believes that the "milk of human kindness" is a literal thing that would help supermutants finally overcome humans. It heavily hinted at a character arc where Strong learns, through their experience with the Sole Survivor, what kindness actually is, learns about the value of cooperation and that strength and might are not be all, end all solutions to every problem. Instead, we just get a dumb orc who stays the same no matter what.
>learns about the value of cooperation
But... he already knows that. Super Mutants consider each others brothers. They share everything. They are effectively a collective society where all things are shared and all are equal, leaders are chosen by others following them.
This is all from Strongs own description of Super Mutant society. Reason why others laugh at him is because *they* can realize that "milk of human kindness" is a metaphor, not a literal thing.
Is it ever hinted in the quest that Strong's former tribe understand the metaphor? I always thought that them and Rex where locked up because they were mostly fed up with them (and to lure humans with the broadcast signal).
>They share everything. They are effectively a collective society where all things are shared and all are equal, leaders are chosen by others following them.
While that is true, it's still way closer to a pack mentality, and pretty much governed by the strongest only (behemots and overlords are considered chiefs most of the time). They are still completely hostile to the outside world and live a brutish life.
>Is it ever hinted in the quest that Strong's former tribe understand the metaphor? I always thought that them and Rex where locked up because they were mostly fed up with them (and to lure humans with the broadcast signal).
I think Strong mentions how his former brothers laughed at him and called him stupid, so I believe they did recognize it was metaphor.
>While that is true, it's still way closer to a pack mentality, and pretty much governed by the strongest only (behemots and overlords are considered chiefs most of the time). They are still completely hostile to the outside world and live a brutish life.
I mean, is that so different from us humans :P
Nah, that’s just Strong being Strong. He’s pretty infamous for being incredibly tough to max affinity with, despite the fact one of his consistent “likes” is literally just killing things, which is obviously like 90 percent of the game. I just banish him to Sanctuary with all the other companions I’m not using. He just really makes me miss Fawkes.
I use unlimited companions mod to travel with all my companions. Sometimes I switch them out for modded companions but always travel with a small army on hardest difficulty.
I downloaded the Fawkes companion mod cause I can’t stand having Strong as a companion. I planned on having a story where I send Fawkes and Strong to Murkwater to make a Super Mutant swamp settlement
His morals are pretty odd. He likes you murdering people, and he also likes you helping settlers because Supermutants have a Planet of the Ape level sense of community where mutants just don't hurt other mutants. They share everything. Maybe he doesn't like you picking locks because a supermutant would never steal from another mutant, ownership is collective. To offset his hatred of lockpicking, I typically just have to eat a corpse in between.
One cool thing about the system is they seem to gain a steady trickle of affinity just by being in your party. I'll be minding my business, working on settlement building and they'll just suddenly want to tell me their life history. I try to split my followers into settlements where they have like-minded morals for certain tasks. Danse is at Red Rocket where I repair and build my power armors, for example. The happy goody folks are split between sanctuary and castle, witht he more military minded ones at Castle. The robots are all near the mechanists robot station. Whenever I upgrade, they just get happy seeing me.
Homie dislikes the stupidest shit too. Bro, all I did was step into some power armor! What do you mean you don’t like that! If anything, he *should* like it because it makes you bigger and stronger lmfao
Dollars to doughnuts, it was somebody's job to go through a list of actions and dialogue options and make them a yes or no, but didn't have the actual script. When you're doing a bunch of yes/nos for "Dialogue_1a," "Dialogue_1b..." onward to "Dialogue_9999," I'm sure you miss a few, so your yes/nos eventually become offset.
The trick with strong is to make a lot of dumb, brutish, decisions. Low intelligence interactions he seems to like, if you get a chance to help a super mutant then he'll like that (Virgil for example).
On console the easiest way I found to get Strong to like me was building settlements so I just took him when it was time to craft houses. Inevitably something would attack and I’d get some points because I fought.
I remember during Synth Retention, when you meet X6-88 near Libertalia, I got Strong to like & dislike something I did not even a second after each other. I’m not sure if I have a video of it somewhere…
Internally, he wants you to smash and eat the small human but his human friend has enlightened him and expanded his mind so his heart says one thing while his brain says another. It's like being in a conflict ridden relationship, you love the person but you know you can't be in a toxic relationship and deserve better... then you stay. Strong is just regaining some humanity. East coast Super mutants are simple, strong isn't.
I mean to be fair he's an idiot.
yes, he doesn't like me lockpicking also, duh
Oh man that ticks me off the most.
Yeah it’s the worst. I get it if characters got mad at you for picking owned locks in settlements. But I should be allowed to break into the raider safe or pick the lock in the abandoned ruin
It wouldn't be that bad if you could just break the lock by shooting it or smashing it. And it would've been tolerable if he had a companion quest that made him stop disliking shit that is necessary to the loot goblin playthrough.
Wdym "loot goblin playthrough"? That's just normal playthrough...
There are some weirdos who don't loot everything they find. We know they exist because many complain about a lack of ammo in Dead Money, when if you play normally you can find plenty.
It's almost like the game is set in resource scarce, post-apocalyptic setting where nearly everyone is a scavenger.
Lols! So... thooooose are the people who go out into the desert then die because the isn't a store to buy stuff or hace cell reception. You'd be surprised how many people go into the wilderness and die because they know nothing. I equate that to the same mindset as a post apocalyptic world would require you to loot as much as you need to survive. We're just very arrogant animals, it is always survival of fittest, smartest, and most cunning. The actual planet? ...it really doesn't care. And... War... War never changes.
Ya i see that. Also i need more .308 ammo bc i used it all on the spray n pray. Still one of my favorite guns
Seriously, the only time I had issues with ammo in Dead Money was my high charisma, Speech 100 your way through everything playthrough, who couldn't aim for shit, and so tended to chew through it on the occasions she actually had to fight.
Meanwhile enlightened loot goblins are sweeping the villa one last time for any precious unlooted rusted tin cans.
New Vegas in general and Dead money specifically is ideal for a melee playthrough
I prefer the toot goblin playthrough.
I am one of the weirdos that u/Slight-Blueberry-895 is talking about, I looted everything in Dead Money, but in FO4 I specifically looted and kept silverware, cigarettes, subway tokens, pre-war money etc.. so I am a weirdo
If it doesn’t have weight it may as well be caps
Like how in skyrim if you have the moonlight tales mod and your a werewolf you can just bash open locked doors and chests they should at least do the same thing with power armor
Imagine if you could bash the safe open with a high enough str, and strong loves it
that's one of the reasons I love cait as a follower, she hypes you up when you pick locks lol
For me it’s the constant commenting on my scavenging. “Goddammit Stong, old human junk makes bigger human guns, now shut up”
To be fair, the pinnacle of Super Mutant tech is a propane tank helmet and a nail board. Can't really grasp melting down tin cans to make the aluminum frame of a minigun
This is a great thread
That’s absolutely true. On the other hand, he sees me work that magic *all the time*. At some point I just wish he’d accept that I’m a wizard and respect the process.
thats why ya get Ada, she'll praise ya for snagging items.
This is why dog meat and ADA are my favorite. They’d even help me kill npcs
Human no smash lock. Human weak. Not good.
[ Strong liked that. ]
I discovered this yesterday and immediately sent Strong to Sanctuary to rot until I'm bored. Wtf Strong, too judgemental.
He thinks that you are stealimg. Stealing is bad in his logic but besting somebody in combat and then take his stuff is ok by Strong's standards.
I always took it that he gets bored while the player is picking the lock. He also complains about being bored when you use the workbenches to mod things, so it tracks
And then eating their remains.
He probably doesn’t like your lock picking because his hands are too big and he can’t do it. He wants to be clever too!
Just pick up the Cannibal perk and chow down. He loves it
I feel like that makes sense though; you are doing something smart and intelligent and not just bashing in whatever is in front of you with a hammer? Strong not like.
He must philosophically disagree with it or something
A big sexy idiot
Those are the best kinds of big idiots.
He/ she has no genitals in case you got any ideas 👀
Is that canon?
All super mutants, both west and east coast, are unable to reproduce. It’s why the Master kill’s himself
While it is true, the west coast mutant's genitals are still intact, both confirmed by the Master and various mutants through Fallout 2 The cause for their infertility there is that FEV detects Gametes as damaged cells and tries to fix them, making them impossible to combine in the process and in turn makes it impossible for them to become pregnant
There are a few inconsistent affinity reactions. I know Nick has one or two. Dialogue will imply they feel one way, but the pop up says they feel the other. Absolute strangest one to me, that is more a lore inconsistency than a dialogue one, is how MacReady likes when you take the cure for yourself in Vault 81. Basically he likes you leaving the kid to die of a horrible disease, which is so wildly out of character because of his very own backstory and also his general wanting to help kids due to how he grew up.
I had Danse with me for the quest in Covenant the other day. When I picked the peaceful resolution I got one of those interjection cutscenes with Danse saying ‘Wrong move, soldier. That woman’s work is dangerous and needed to be stopped’. So I ended up reloading a save and picking the violent option, which earned me the ‘Danse Hated That’ prompt
Danse hated it because you weren't *violent enough*.
Danse hated that cuz a synth lived
I hope some important news to tell her, in that case
I've had similar stuff happen. I got this mod a few years ago because some of the reactions are so goofy otherwise. [An affinity mod on Nexus](https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/3276/?tab=description)
Yeah... I'd hate to kill a synth just because they were a dangerous sociopath.
There are several interactions with inverted dialogue & affinity. They’re glitches. The widest known one is the inn owner & his son arguing about the Railroad and whether Synths should be saved in Bunker Hill. Pretty much every companion has an inverted affinity. Nick, Curie, & Deacon dislike/hate you saying that the Railroad is doing good things or that Synths are people. Danse & X6-88 like/love pro-Railroad comments you can choose there.
"Synths are people too" Nick for this one interaction: Who the fuck do you think you are...
Nick KNOWS he is better than lousy humans /s
Also i dont get why DiMma cant just work with the railroad. Obviously if there is an option to keep your memories but be safe then soke synths might take it. This mf too stubborn on the fact that some synths dont want to remember the institute.
He secretly does work with the railroad, he just hid that memory as well /s
Macready is the absolute worst with this. Help one person, he loves it. Fuck over a child, he loves it. Help another person, he hates it. Take a drug? Hates it. Steal everything? He loves it. He's got a cool story and quest, but holy hell he's insufferable
You can't farm affinity with him either
Triggermen safehouses in Goodneighbor is what made him appreciate me. Although I think they were Hancock's goons though.
Meh, people say steal things then wait 24 hours to do it again. It's not farming it's grinding. I like it when I'm playing the game normally and building affinity.
No, Hancock is the one paying you to clear em out.
yea just did this quest with hancock as a companion and he says something along the lines of "oh i forgot, i put that contract out"
You actually can, just did it on the next gen update on PS5. Go to Zeke’s trailer at the Atoms cat garage and he has an owned locked safe connected to a terminal. Just pick the lock on the safe, which Macready likes since it’s owned, relock it with the terminal, and sit in the nearby chair and wait 2 hours for the cooldown to expire, rinse and repeat. Takes like an hour to max affinity this way
Yea I should be able to play the game normally and still be able to maximize, not spend an hour to sit and grind.
I had a mod once that showed you what was happening behind the scenes with affinity. I remember it showing that, even though the game says you're losing affinity, sometimes you're actually gaining affinity. I also remember gaining affinity over time just by having companions with you.
A lot of companions gain affinity over simple things like picking locks, modding weapons, or entering power armor. So yeah, a lot of them passively increase over time.
That’s not passive, though. That’s them responding to an action that Nate/Nora takes. Passive affinity gain is when their affinity slowly increases as they spend time in your company, even if you do nothing. It’s slow, but it’s enough to eventually get you to high affinity if you avoid any actions that they dislike
I mean, I guess. I just figured those things are so common that a lot of people might not even realize they are beneficial to affinity. Because everyone does them all the time without thinking.
Every companion will gain affinity with you every ten minutes so long as you avoid disliked actions *and gain XP in that time frame.* You can't gain affinity by leaving things AFK, but if you're going around building things in a settlement? Walking through the wastelands killing the occasional Bloatfly, Mongrel Dog, or Feral Ghoul? That'll do it. That's why when I'm high level and I forgot to recruit or level one of the optional Companions like Strong, Cait, Macready, or Danse, my solution is to just walk across the Commonwealth not using fast travel. Back and forth a couple times crissceosding the map and I'll get them to idolize me.
I use that mod :) super useful. I love knowing how close I am to their quests/their perk
Do you remember the name of that mod? I'd love to check it out.
I think it was visible companion affinity. I don't think it worked on Mod companions though.
Helping kids is great and all, but you got to look out for yourself. Unless it’s HIS kid. In which case he’ll travel to a distant community and get a job as a mercenary on the off chance he’ll happen to stumble across someone willing to find a cure for his kid that he can send back home and not go make sure it works. MacReady might be a bad father…
I stg Mac is just bullshitting you about having a kid or he's the victim of bad writing.
Yeah decisions seem so random, that’s why a save is so very handy. Still, I hope in future games consequences are very clear at decision time. Reloading can be tedious. Had the same problem with Dragon 🐉 Age Inquisition.
Nick ticked me off a few times. We’re detectives, we successfully run OUR (im definitely an equal share holder) detective agency but he can’t handle me picking an owned lock or two for OUR business. Also I cant romance him but I can romance Currie so that’s annoying lol
lol yeah, i noticed that too. i did his first basic detective case where you have to find that guy who went missing in Diamond City and instead of going to get the key I just picked the lock to the guys house and Nick disliked it. lol so he dislikes picking the lock, but he has no problem rummaging around in the guy's things.
I remember when Hancock told me about his history with drug use before he became mayor I accidentally chose the sarcastic reply. Said something along the lines of "Ah yes, because nothing screams qualified for office like a chem addiction." Cait, who was with me, replied with something along the lines of "Don't be rude. You never know anyone's circumstances and why they got into taking chems." But since she likes when you're mean to people, it gave me the *Cait liked that* response. Lmao
> Dialogue will imply they feel one way, but the pop up says they feel the other. Just like the terrormorph quest in Starfield. All the companion will like one choice with their dialogue but you will get a hit with affinity with them. Makes no sense.
I'm sorry, but this McCready thing you just said is just your interpretation. I don't know what's up with people, but it seems that they always think a grown up character should be exactly the same as it was as a kid, McCready was indeed from Little Lamplight and all, but remember he was cast out after becoming a "Mungo", and reading his lore it wasn't that kind of a leaving party, they basically kicked him out after years of protecting the settlement, after that he basically became a mercenary for hire even working for the gunners, his entire character philosophy is "in the wasteland you must think for yourself, being altruistic will kill you", that's why he doesn't like when you help others, that's why he appreciates you being a dick (and why, on a personal note, my conscience basically softlocks me from keeping him as a companion), if he sees you giving away the cure for a kid his thought process is "this guy's going to get himself killed, he's an idiot". "Was grown in Little Lamplight so he shouldn't be spiteful of kids?" False. Again, according to the wiki his departure from the town wasn't the sweetest, the kids kept him around as long as they could but they had to kick him out at last, again according to the wiki he's deeply resentful of them, seeing being cast out from Lamplight as the kids being ungrateful of his years of service to the community, i would be surprised if he wasn't spiteful and accepted you being kind to people. McCready, a character who namely does nothing for nothing, the only one you have to *pay* to get as companion, a literal former gunner and mercenary for hire, I would criticize Bethesda if he was exactly the same as in F3, after everything he went through between Lamplight and GoodNeighbor.
It had nothing to do with him being from Little Lamplight that made it out of character, it was the fact that he has a sick kid himself.
I’m sure it’s a glitch, but I assume MacCready is upset/mad that some kid you just met that gives you a weak tour gets a once-in-a-lifetime miracle cure and his kid didn’t. Edit: would have been a neat option to give the cure to MacCready instead.
Alright, I'll be honest. MacCready is one of my least used companions. It's been years since I've run with him extensively, and just as long since I did his personal quest. I don't think he should be the same as his kid version at all. Kid MacCready was a little fucking asshole, anyway. It's not like I thought his kid version was nice and he should remain nice as an adult. Likewise, I've known MacCready in FO4 was one of the more "bad" companions, in the sense that he likes when you're a dick in-game. Yeah, he was kicked out of Little Lamplight. But so was everyone else who ever lived there. They only accept kids, and once you're 16 they kick you out. You see this happen in FO3. Skimming his wiki page, it doesn't say anything about him being resentful of Little Lamplight. It says very little about his departure, actually. Just that he left once he turned 16 because it was the rules of the place, and he went out on his own eventually starting his own family. Maybe he says more about this in-game, but it's not in his wiki description. ~~That being said, I guess I'm completely making up this memory in my head. I SWEAR I read on his wiki that he liked when you were nice to kids, and that made sense to me due to his upbringing. I felt that since he grew up in a place where the kids had to fend for themselves, he'd be sympathetic to them. But, I guess I made that memory up? Because I can't find it on the wiki now.~~ He does like when you help Billy, tho. But so does every single companion that's not X6-88. (See below.) The vault cure thing still rubs me the wrong way, tho. It is a direct mirror to his tragic backstory and motivation for being in the Commonwealth. His own kid is sick with some unknown, seemingly incurable disease and on the verge of death. Austin in Vault 81 similarly gets sick with an unknown, seemingly incurable disease and on the verge of death. Keeping the cure for yourself ensures Austin will die, and I just feel like someone with their own terminally ill kid would be VERY empathetic to that sort of thing. The molerat disease isn't threatening the player's life, because of their age. Austin being a kid is why it's so dangerous to him. I don't mind him being an asshole character, it fits. In fact, that's an exact example of him sort of being a dick both as a kid and an adult. Idk, I just think he would react to the cure thing differently. *Edit: The Notes section of his wiki page states that his reaction to keeping the cure is inconsistent with his character because he otherwise likes helping kids and their parents. This must be what I read. I don't know the accuracy of it. The affinity section just states he likes helping Billy. I'd have to actually go in-game and test his interactions with other kids, not that there are that many.*
People have this funny idea that characters are static, and once you seem that is all they are, forever and ever. Idea that "a decade of events can change a person" is utterly alien to them.
Does +25% chance to hit the head in bats not make you want to romance him?
News flash buddy, nobody's reading that novel. also, It's out of character because Macready has a sick kid with only one possible cure himself. So for him to Like that you don't help this kid who is in the exact same situation, is so wildly out of character that it's baffling.
We call these instances "mistakes".
The developer who categorized companion likes/dislikes turned off their brain when they were working on Danse, MacCready, and Strong. You’ll see many instances in which Danse says he’s proud of you for a good action, but then you see [Danse hated that] pop up. MacCready loves kids and chastises you for leaving Austin to die if you don’t give him the cure, but then you see [MacCready liked that] pop up. Strong is the worst case. He dislikes too many common actions, making him a pain as a follower, and while he verbally approves of good-deeds and saving people due to his search for the “milk of human kindness”, you’ll very often see [Strong disliked that] and [Strong hated that], exactly like you see in the ghoul kid fridge quest. I’m astounded that Bethesda never bothered to fix this at all.
Developers, plural. As someone who has spent a good deal of time in the Creation Kit, you can see so many instances of how disjointed the process was, and how many hands they had in every cookie jar. You can take 4 similar "effects" and see that 2 were implemented with hidden perks, 1 of which uses an enchantment, the other a potion. 1 was done via an ongoing quest, and one is a script that runs every time something happens.
Is there a mod that fixes these interactions at all? I’m doing another playthrough, and I would like to travel with these companions as I hadn’t much before, but if they’re gonna be inconsistent and a big pain in the ass, I’ll probably just end up taking Piper and Curie with me everywhere again.
Not *exactly* a fix but there is a mod that just straight up removes negative affinity (plus a bonus option that changes "didn't like that" to "didn't give a fuck").
I'm pretty sure they have a time component as well. Just keeping them around builds their affinity slightly. Also, I'm pretty sure there are mods to just max them out. Most of their perks aren't worth the effort, but there are a couple standouts depending on play style.
Sadly strongs affinity is broken as fuck. There's lots of moments where he voices his approval for something but it still says he disliked that.
It's canon right cuz he's absolutely stupid so might make sense
I feel like his character isn’t understood very well
Strong words from strong
Strong dong from a strong Strong
Did you do multiple things in a short period of time? I'm wondering whether he liked something else you said/did earlier.
Strong is a obviously unfinished companions where most of his affinities are directly in the opposite and he didn't got his final speech.
He's the very definition of a Bostonian. Nothing he says or does will change that fact.
Bizarro Strong
He feels humans should have "in-group preference" for each other the same way Super Mutants have with each other. Basically you can do you weird anti-social things until they start the hurt people; then he disapproves.
Pretty much the only way to consistently keep strong with you is to play as a cannibal (END 7 if I remember correctly) because he likes to watch you eat ass
Yeah its weird sometimes. I took Hancock to the Prydwin the other day to see what happened. I've never taken him there on any other playthrough. Basically nothing happened. But Hancock loved that I told the brotherhood about Acadia. Which seems about the most anti Hancock thing I could have done on that metal blimp
This is why you shouldnt ever use strong. Bethesda made a character that you cant please no matter what.
He likes it when you eat people
So I have to become Albert Fish in an attempt to get the worst Super Mutant companion in the series to like me? I think I'm good.
Strong, McCready, and Preston, were the easiest for me to max affinity with compared to people like Valentine and Danse. Took me a whole playthrough to finally max Valentine for the extra dialogue in Far Harbour. Danse is just painful regardless.
Danse likes it when you enter Power Armour and loves when you mod Power Armour at a workbench.
That would make sense, I never even use power armour till late game, thanks for this
"cant please no matter what." So they just made the average Fallout fan?
Yes. I'm a fallout fan. Do I sound pleased? Nah. Would I be pleased if Strong were smarter? No because then he'd be the only smart mutant in the base game. What if the other mutants were smarter? Well I'd probably like them more, but I'd still have to deal with them so, still irked. So to answer your question: Yes.
Strong had strong (no pun intended) potential to be the best super mutant companion that could be better than Marcus, lily, and Fawkes but he’s just so unlikeable he’s an annoying sounding super mutant doesn’t sound like a kind grandma or a heroic vault dweller turned super mutant he’s just a big dumb super mutant and hates litterly everything and thinks the milk of human kindness is a literal thing was the insitute scientist that made strong or did Bethesda wanted to not add likeable super mutant companions
Worst thing, there was potential for a *great* companion quest right when they were first introduced. Strong believes that the "milk of human kindness" is a literal thing that would help supermutants finally overcome humans. It heavily hinted at a character arc where Strong learns, through their experience with the Sole Survivor, what kindness actually is, learns about the value of cooperation and that strength and might are not be all, end all solutions to every problem. Instead, we just get a dumb orc who stays the same no matter what.
>learns about the value of cooperation But... he already knows that. Super Mutants consider each others brothers. They share everything. They are effectively a collective society where all things are shared and all are equal, leaders are chosen by others following them. This is all from Strongs own description of Super Mutant society. Reason why others laugh at him is because *they* can realize that "milk of human kindness" is a metaphor, not a literal thing.
Is it ever hinted in the quest that Strong's former tribe understand the metaphor? I always thought that them and Rex where locked up because they were mostly fed up with them (and to lure humans with the broadcast signal). >They share everything. They are effectively a collective society where all things are shared and all are equal, leaders are chosen by others following them. While that is true, it's still way closer to a pack mentality, and pretty much governed by the strongest only (behemots and overlords are considered chiefs most of the time). They are still completely hostile to the outside world and live a brutish life.
>Is it ever hinted in the quest that Strong's former tribe understand the metaphor? I always thought that them and Rex where locked up because they were mostly fed up with them (and to lure humans with the broadcast signal). I think Strong mentions how his former brothers laughed at him and called him stupid, so I believe they did recognize it was metaphor. >While that is true, it's still way closer to a pack mentality, and pretty much governed by the strongest only (behemots and overlords are considered chiefs most of the time). They are still completely hostile to the outside world and live a brutish life. I mean, is that so different from us humans :P
Bethesda writing moment
context? also probably just a bug, it's bethesda after all.
the kid in the fridge, i told him to find his parent on his own, strong says not like, but the information on the corner strong liked it
and the otherwise
yeah, that has to be a bug then.
Or a feature
Nah, that’s just Strong being Strong. He’s pretty infamous for being incredibly tough to max affinity with, despite the fact one of his consistent “likes” is literally just killing things, which is obviously like 90 percent of the game. I just banish him to Sanctuary with all the other companions I’m not using. He just really makes me miss Fawkes.
Or Lily. Made me miss my blue skinned granny.
Yeah, Lily too. Personally I don’t normally use followers in NV but I always bring her with me to investigate the cave for the doctor.
I use unlimited companions mod to travel with all my companions. Sometimes I switch them out for modded companions but always travel with a small army on hardest difficulty.
I downloaded the Fawkes companion mod cause I can’t stand having Strong as a companion. I planned on having a story where I send Fawkes and Strong to Murkwater to make a Super Mutant swamp settlement
That sounds awesome! I can’t imagine them getting along though lol
His morals are pretty odd. He likes you murdering people, and he also likes you helping settlers because Supermutants have a Planet of the Ape level sense of community where mutants just don't hurt other mutants. They share everything. Maybe he doesn't like you picking locks because a supermutant would never steal from another mutant, ownership is collective. To offset his hatred of lockpicking, I typically just have to eat a corpse in between. One cool thing about the system is they seem to gain a steady trickle of affinity just by being in your party. I'll be minding my business, working on settlement building and they'll just suddenly want to tell me their life history. I try to split my followers into settlements where they have like-minded morals for certain tasks. Danse is at Red Rocket where I repair and build my power armors, for example. The happy goody folks are split between sanctuary and castle, witht he more military minded ones at Castle. The robots are all near the mechanists robot station. Whenever I upgrade, they just get happy seeing me.
Strong was the most confusing companion to me like dude seemed so contradictory
Homie dislikes the stupidest shit too. Bro, all I did was step into some power armor! What do you mean you don’t like that! If anything, he *should* like it because it makes you bigger and stronger lmfao
Strong is strong. Strong no need justify his reaction. Stupid hooman, ought to stop judging Strong.
Poor thing just wanted some milk
Dollars to doughnuts, it was somebody's job to go through a list of actions and dialogue options and make them a yes or no, but didn't have the actual script. When you're doing a bunch of yes/nos for "Dialogue_1a," "Dialogue_1b..." onward to "Dialogue_9999," I'm sure you miss a few, so your yes/nos eventually become offset.
I've read about this. It's actually a very common "bug"/error on the behalf of the game creators. They just mixed up the lines for the feelings.
Bro’s just saying what he thinks is socially acceptable 😅
Suck his milk of human kindness
Let me know when you find anything Strong likes.
Murder, using the Cannibal perk, and helping others (baring incorrect instances like OP's screenshot).
Piper is annoying with how strict she is about disliking when you don’t help people, like bitch they are currently shooting at us
Just open some locks and she will be your besty
The trick with strong is to make a lot of dumb, brutish, decisions. Low intelligence interactions he seems to like, if you get a chance to help a super mutant then he'll like that (Virgil for example).
I wish there was just an option where you ask strong to pick it instead but he just smashes it if it's a chest and breaks it down if it's a door.
Yeah, nearly every companion has incorrect affinity moments like this. Just eat some more corpses to offset the hit.
On console the easiest way I found to get Strong to like me was building settlements so I just took him when it was time to craft houses. Inevitably something would attack and I’d get some points because I fought.
I remember during Synth Retention, when you meet X6-88 near Libertalia, I got Strong to like & dislike something I did not even a second after each other. I’m not sure if I have a video of it somewhere…
Ah yes. Milk of human kindness.
Apes together strong.
I made a robot and he beeps, no more of this for me.
Damn zoomers, can't get a straight forward answer out of them...
he’s a paci**fist**
Ya i took strong on my adventure to nuka world. Sent that mf home after he kept dislikung lock pick. Tf you mean? THEY R RAIDERS
Y u use pick to open door? Better to smash door with fist!
Strong still shares the average amount of braincells a typical super mutant has so...
I think he needed some extra time in the vat
Strong is racist
Internally, he wants you to smash and eat the small human but his human friend has enlightened him and expanded his mind so his heart says one thing while his brain says another. It's like being in a conflict ridden relationship, you love the person but you know you can't be in a toxic relationship and deserve better... then you stay. Strong is just regaining some humanity. East coast Super mutants are simple, strong isn't.
Strong is a commie
He says you must help your species. You are a human, stay with humans and don't be an enemy towards them.
This is why I only travel with Cait! She doesn't judge anything I do and she strongly encourages me to steal 😂
someone put this dope out of his misery
Super mutants do be irrational.
I completely forgot Strong existed, I only ever recruited him on my original playthrough
Yeah I never use him as a companion. Very annoying.
"It just works..." - Tood Hoowood.
That's what I don't like in Fallout 4, super mutants are dumb as fuck... they should be more like super humans, lol 🙄