Merchants in Fallout 4. Investment in your own business

In this small article I will try to explain in an accessible form how, using the simplest manipulations in the Creation Kit, anyone can make their own merchant. The article is intended for beginners, so our merchant will use only vanilla dialogues, there will be no need to write new ones.
Of course, we will need the Creation Kit to work. Let's assume that you already have it installed, and you know which buttons you need to press to load Fallout4.esm - the main game file. Let's do this simple procedure, and while the editor is thinking, let's decide what we want to get as a result.
Let's make a female retired shooter who sells weapons (of course, you can choose any other option, but I like this character). Let's say our lady's name is Corporal Kendra Forester, her rank is retired corporal.
Let's think of a place where our Madame Forester will sell her deadly toys. If you wish, you can build a store or even a house for your merchant (if you know how), but I will use one of the nooks and crannies of Hydropolis, a city on the water from my Dixieland mod, as a "sales outlet". As you can see, there is a garden chair here, which means that our saleswoman will not have to spend her entire working day standing on her feet. You can put a mattress nearby so that the merchant has a place to sleep, but I probably won’t do this, because there is not enough space.

Let's move on to character creation. You can do it from scratch, or you can use one of the vanilla NPCs as a basis, which we will do to save time and effort. Let our “base” be Ellie Fillmore, here she is (category Actor):

First of all, let's change the ID, for which we will write something like a1VendorWeapon in the corresponding line instead of AllieFilmore. We will immediately give our character a new name, but the SK does not adequately perceive the Cyrillic alphabet, so it is better to do it in the Latin alphabet. You can “Russify” the name using Fo4edit or ESP/ESM Translator programs. In the Short Name window, if you want, you can write a short name, or you can do without it, but do not forget to delete the old one, if any:

Click OK and when asked by the program whether we want to create a new object, we will answer “Yes”. Now you can already save our mod, to do this, click on the button with a floppy disk in the upper left corner.
Let's start setting up our future merchant. Let’s open it and, first of all, in the Traits tab, in the Voice type window, select a new voice (not all voices support special “trading” lines). Here you can experiment, but I’ll say right away that the FemaleRough or FemaleBoston options work, they’ve been tested. After this, you can check the checkboxes Essential (if you need to make the character immortal) or Protected (in this case, the character faces death only at the hands of the player). If you check the Respawn checkbox, the character will be updated at a certain frequency.

Let's go to the Templates tab. Here we can select a character or LeveledCharacter (level actor) and the specific parameters that our merchant will inherit from him. In our case, this has already been done, Ellie Fillmore, who became the basis for Kendra Forester, uses stats borrowed from LeveledCharacter LCharGunner, but you can change them, to do this, just uncheck the Use Stats checkbox.
Go to the Faction tab and delete everything that is there:

Now we need to do two things. First, let's go to the editor menu, find the DialogueMerchantsFaction faction in the Faction category and add it to our merchant (this is necessary for dialogues):

Next, right-click on the Faction category, select New from the drop-down menu and create a new faction (let's call it a1VendorWeaponFaction). Let's go to the Vendor tab in this faction and check the checkbox of the same name. In the Vendor Buy/Sell List window, we can select a “specialization” for the merchant, but if we don’t want to put him in a narrow framework, it’s better to check the Buy/sell everything not in list? checkbox instead.

Let's add the newly created faction to our merchant and move on to her other settings. We delete everything from the Keywords and AI Packages tabs, and after that we create a new AI package (right-click in the AI Package List window, New option), tied to the garden chair that I mentioned above. I chose the Sandbox type with a radius of 256 to make the character look more natural, but other options are possible, such as the Sit pack.

It's time to change our lady's clothes, she shouldn't be walking around in Ellie Fillmore's college robe. Open the Inventory tab, click on the Default Outfit window and select, for example, Outfit_Gunner (I remind you that Madame Forester is a retired shooter). You, of course, can use other options or even create some new Default Outfit. It might make sense to replace other inventory items, but I won’t describe this process in detail, you’ll figure it out for yourself. As for her appearance, you can either work some magic on her in the UK, or use the Face Ripper program and make Ellie Fillmore’s ugly “daughter” Miss Universe.
The character is almost ready, you can place him in the game world. Let's simply drag our merchant with the mouse from the objects window into the rendering window and place it somewhere next to her garden chair.

Let's start creating a Merchant Container. If anyone doesn’t know, this is a special box that contains everything that our merchant offers for sale. It can be made from scratch, or you can use one of your existing containers as a base. The second method is much simpler, and we will use it. According to the original plan, our merchant specializes in weapons and ammunition, which means it would be logical if the basis for her Merchant Container would be the stash of one of the “gunsmiths”, for example, Arturo or CLEO. The CLEO container has the ID VendorGoodneighborKillorBeKilled, the Arturo container has the ID VendorDCCommonwealthWeaponry, so we will use it as a base. Open this box and rename it, for example, to a1VendorWeaponContainer. We agree to the creation of a new facility.

Next, you can work on the assortment, add or remove something, perhaps add more caps. When we are done with this, we drag the completed container into the game world and place it next to our merchant.
Now we will have to go back to setting up its faction, assigning a Merchant Container and specifying a place for trading. We open our faction on the Vendor tab and click on the Merchant Container window and aim the appeared crosshair at the box where Kendra Forester stores her wealth. We double-click with the left button, then, when the job is done, we hide the container in some place inaccessible to the player (this does not always need to be done, it all depends on the container). Click on the Location (Edit) window, and then there are two options. The simplest one is to select Near Editor Location and set an arbitrary radius in the corresponding window, for example, 1000. You can also select the Near reference option, click on the Select reference button, point the appeared sight at our garden chair and also double-click the left button. In the Start Hour and End Hour windows, you can select the time at which our merchant will serve customers; by default, work is set there without breaks and weekends.

The simplest merchant is ready, you can test it in the game. Of course, this is just the first step, it is much more interesting to create a unique character with unique dialogues and his own story, but the main thing is to start, right?

Fallout4: Guide to special level 4 merchants for the settlement.

As you know, the settlement has the opportunity to build clinics, shops, bars, etc. At the same time, you can appoint not only your ordinary settlers as employees of these establishments, but also special traders who are “professionals”.

The advantage is that with their help the level of the establishment increases to level 4. In order to invite them to your settlement to live and work, you will need to fulfill a number of conditions.

Special traders and where to find them:

Anne Hargraves
Representative of Vault-Tec
Holt Combis
Trader Riley
Scriptor
Jolly Larry
Doc Anderson
Ron Staples
Where to find Merry Lary and Scriptor

Also, the goods that these special merchants sell are an order of magnitude better than the goods sold by ordinary settlers, in addition, quite often you can find rare things. It is clear that to invite them, your settlement must be large, the main character must have the appropriate skills, and the buildings must be level 3.

Level 4 merchants

In total, there are 8 special merchants in the Wasteland, some of which are located in one place, and the rest can be met completely by chance. But everything is much simpler. Despite the fact that their appearance is random, these merchants can be “targeted”. Let us consider in detail what needs to be done to attract each of the merchants.

Anne Hargraves

It is located at the WRVR Radio Station, after appearing you need to immediately go into the house. To invite Ann to your settlement, you must have a level 3 clothing store, just start a conversation with her and offer her a job. The number of settlers does not matter.

Representative of Vault-Tec

It is located on the top floor of the Rexford Hotel, which is located in Good Neighbor. To invite him, when meeting, you need to remember each other, discuss cryochambers and sympathize with his fate. After that, during the dialogue you can invite him. You must also have a trading shop for general goods of level 3.

Holt Combis

Located in the warehouse of Vault 81. Prerequisites: shop level 3; Your character’s charisma level is 20; pumped up skill “Black Widow”; make friends with Vault 81; talk to Alexis, Holt's wife, and find out that he is not helping his wife at all in the store.

Trader Riley

You can find it at the Bolshoi Lukowski cannery. Enter the building where you will see Riley and Theodore arguing. You need to listen to them, and then go outside and talk with Riley. Ask about her costume from Vault 81, about her problems, after which you will have the opportunity to invite. You must also have a level 3 trading shop.

Scriptor

His appearance in the world is completely random. The easiest place to visit is near the Cambridge Polymer Laboratory. To be invited, it is enough to chat with him when meeting him, as well as have a shop with level 3 armor and 10 settlers.

Jolly Larry

His appearance in the world is completely random. The easiest place to visit is near the Cambridge Polymer Laboratory. To invite him to your settlement, you just need to chat, have a level 3 weapons shop and 30 settlers (subject to established trade routes).

Doc Anderson

His appearance in the world is completely random. The easiest place to visit is near the Mass Fusion warehouse parking lot (there is a camp near the fenced parking lot) or a small camp between the Freedom Museum and Thicket Quarry. To get to this camp, turn right from the quarry and head towards Concord, it is located in the parking lot in front of the city. To be invited to a settlement, you need to communicate with him, as well as have a level 3 hospital and 20 settlers.

Ron Staples

How to find Jolly Larry and Scriptor

You can use 2 ways: either comb the Wasteland in the hope of meeting these merchants, or purposefully build up. Both options will require a lot of patience, but the second method can attract merchants much faster.

To do this, make a save in any place, for example, Sanctuary. Then boot up and use fast travel to find yourself in the Laboratory, in the courtyard. After which you need to follow the green line (as shown in the picture), going around 2 buildings.

The event is triggered at the location of the cross, precisely because of the corner. So, if you take the lower road, you will not trigger the event.

If there are no merchants at the point, then load the save again and do it all over again. Larry and Scriptor appear at this location, then walk along the road a little, turn around and head back to the point.

You can play the Doctor and Ron in a similar way. You also save, move to the required location, go around 2 points, and if there are no merchants there, do it all over again.

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3. How alcohol and drugs affect a character in Fallout 4.

4. Bobbleheads in Fallout 4: location and their characteristics.

5. Construction, development and defense of a settlement in Fallout 4.

But also with residents, trade routes and trade as such. So let's get started!

Set your priorities

When building and developing a base, you shouldn’t grab at everything. At the very beginning, your settlement will need to have beds, food and water - this will be enough to attract the first settlers. Then you can do defense and security as well as trade. Speaking of protection, it should be at a high level and you should improve it periodically. The severity of attacks from raiders and mutants will depend on how strong your base is and how long it can hold out under siege, so there should always be plenty of food and water.

The smartest tactic is to fully upgrade one settlement to unlock opportunities to build powerful defenses and highly productive buildings in other areas, such as large shopping arcades that will generate much more income than a single trading post. Once you've unlocked everything, it makes sense to start building a second settlement and establishing trade routes between them so they can share resources with each other. You can completely “boost” the second settlement, and then proceed to the third.

How and where can you build a settlement in Fallout 4 and where can you get resources?

Settlement in Fallout 4 can only be built in places where there is a workshop. It is with its help that you can build any building, but the full complex of buildings is only in one place - at the Red Rocket truck stop. In other places you will have to, although this is completely optional, build machines to modify weapons, armor and other things, and this can take up space.

As for obtaining resources, you can collect them in the wasteland, as well as around the settlement. Read our guide and you'll learn how to quickly and easily turn collected materials and junk into useful items, and remember that all the storage facilities in the workshops are interconnected, so when you put away junk in the Red Rocket, you can move to another place and use it for construction.

The construction of a settlement is very simple - just start interacting with the workshop, and there you can select the building to be built.

How to build a farm or plantation in Fallout 4?

It's quite simple - you need to have seeds of wheat, watermelon, razor grass or others. It takes one seed per plantation, so collect seeds wherever you can.

You can easily take seeds from other settlements or buy them, and then use your own.

How to give a settler a job in Fallout 4

You will have to manually ask each settler to Fallout 4 type of work, if you don’t do this, they themselves will never think of starting to work.

To do this, you need to go to the “Workshop” menu, select a settler and immediately after that give him a task, for example, harvesting or protection, by pointing the mouse to the desired area. Once you select a settler, you should be able to assign it.

After this, do not forget to give the command “get to work”, then it can be stopped without removing it from work.

How to protect a settlement in Fallout 4?

At first, you don't need to spend a lot of resources on defense if you stay alert, because when the settlement is attacked by enemies, you will receive a message (in the upper left corner of the screen). You can quickly move to the desired location and destroy enemies manually.

The level of protection is calculated based on the amount of water and food produced - remember this when establishing and developing a settlement.

However, in the later stages of the game, the constant running between settlements can become very boring, so it’s worth investing in guard posts, towers, traps, turrets, and putting more people on guard. If you joined the Minutemen and are their general, you can supply mortars and artillery.

IN Fallout 4 even has the ability to arm settlers, so by giving them good weapons and ammunition, you will make each settler a defender. We would not recommend arming them with grenades, mines and other explosives, since they may well blow up not only themselves, but also their friends, and the entire settlement at the same time.

How to attract new settlers?

The basis for the emergence of new settlers is an excess of food and water. It was already mentioned above, but we will repeat it again, it is not enough to build two or three farms to produce food, you will have to put workers on each plantation who will produce this food. Keep in mind that each plantation produces 0.5 units of food, and the consumption of one person is 1 unit, so you will have to occupy a significant part of the settlement with farms if you want to get a large population.

With water, everything is simpler - one person consumes 1 unit of water produced, so you just need to maintain a positive balance, having 3-4 units of water in reserve, so that the newly appeared settlers do not create a shortage.

However, settlers will not start coming to you unless you build them houses and beds. The situation here is the same as with water - 1 settler needs 1 bed, not outdoors, but indoors. It will be nice to have extra beds so new people can join while you go on an adventure.

To attract settlers to your base, you also need to build a recruitment beacon. It will run automatically and you don't need to control it, but turn it off as soon as you decide there are enough people in the settlement.

Of course, all this requires electricity and we would recommend that you build as many generators as possible at once, so as not to clutter up the space and have as much energy as possible. In order for all your buildings to work, they will have to be connected using connecting cables, power lines and electrical boxes.

How to unlock artillery and mortars in Fallout 4, and teach settlers to use them?

Indeed, in Fallout 4 has the ability to use artillery pieces, which are suitable not only for protecting the population in settlements, but also for striking any point in the Commonwealth (you can call it if you find yourself in a difficult situation). Artillery can be placed in populated areas. However, this opportunity can be completely missed if you don't make the right moves in your playthrough.

First, you need to be a general with the Minutemen. This will happen quite early, after you have completed several missions for the black character Preston, whom you meet in Concord. You could ruin your relationship with him if you feed Mama Murphy substances, so be aware of that. Continue doing missions for Preston until he asks you to take back The Castle in the Taking Independence mission.

To successfully complete it, it is better to use power armor, since on your way you will meet all types of enemies - mutants, raiders, synthetics, gunners, mirelurks, molerats, vuradalks and others, and at the end you will have a battle with the boss. After winning, you will need to connect a radio tower with two generators that produce 5 units of energy, and the mission will be completed.

After that, after another 2-3 hours, when you complete a couple of missions for the Minutemen, you will be given the task “Old Guns”. You will need to return to the Castle, take the task from Preston and help a character named Ronnie with a couple of things, tell her that you will help without any conditions. In this case, she will lead you to the armory located in the Castle. Use the in-game Workshop menu to remove construction rubble and unblock the road. You'll have to go through several mines with enemies and a powerful guard bot at the end, so be prepared.

If everything is successful, you will capture the arsenal and have the opportunity to take the diagrams for the artillery gun and signal smoke grenades. Return to the settlement and construct your first weapon. What are grenades for? They signal your location and by throwing just one, you will receive artillery support.

The guns, although large, still have a limited range, so you will have to build them in several populated areas. You can increase your supply of grenades using a weapons workbench.

How to increase the happiness level of the population of a settlement in Fallout 4?

It’s quite simple - decorate the settlement with buildings from the “decorative” section, put a TV or at least a radio in every house, build a variety of retail outlets - let one shop sell things, another sell medicine, the third will be a restaurant.

In addition, spend more time with people - it doesn’t matter whether you are the mayor of this section of the Wasteland, a general of the Minutemen or a member of the Brotherhood of Steel - you can always tell an interesting story or two that the residents will be happy to listen to.

How to start making money from a settlement?

To do this, you will need the “Local Leader” skill, with which you can build several trading points in your settlement. They bring a small passive income, but the more people in your settlement, the more income you will receive from trading.

How to create trade routes between settlements in Fallout 4?

This will require a combination of the following factors - the presence of two or more settlements (you cannot trade with other territories), 6 points invested in “Charisma” and the “Local Leader” perk of the first level. In addition, there must be one free person in the settlement who will engage in trade. You cannot send a character who is already busy, as they will quit their job.

Open the menu in the “Workshop”, select a free person and, if you have two or more settlements, the “send” function will appear. By clicking on the corresponding button, you can select from the list that opens where to send the person. This operation can be carried out for several free settlers, sending them to one or other settlements. The same can be done with other settlements, no matter whether routes come to them from other places or not.

With the help of trade routes you can develop the potential of each base Fallout 4 to the maximum, as well as balance excesses and shortages of food or water.

Where to find copper for a settlement?

The development of a settlement is directly related to whether you have copper, as it is used in electricity generators, radio stations, and defense systems. Copper is a very scarce resource in Fallout 4 and it's not that easy to find.

To begin with, we would recommend clearing the entire territory of the settlement of rubbish - it is quite possible that you will find enough copper there to produce at least a couple of generators. Also collect trash in the Wasteland, such as light bulbs, fans, magnets, pots, vacuum tubes, phones, including broken and unbroken, since regardless of condition, they contain copper.

Copper can also be purchased in Diamond City, from Arturo, and also from the female seller from Drumlin Dinner, however, copper will be quite expensive, and the cooldown is 48 hours in real time.

Where can I buy materials to build a settlement in Fallout 4?

Collecting trash in the world Fallout 4 is a difficult and tedious process, and it is not unlimited and will end someday. So if you have a few extra cola caps, you can buy the necessary materials to build a settlement from the following sellers:

Connie Abernathy - She can be found at Abernathy Farm, due southwest of the Red Rocket. It sells concrete, fabrics, fertilizers, leather and wood. If you complete the quest for her to return the medallion, she will give you some discount.
Karla Trashkan appears in those settlements whose population is equal to or greater than 10 people. She can be found there if you use fast travel or if you go to bed for 12 hours. She sells asbestos, military electronic circuits, crystals, oil, and bolts, but her prices are noticeably higher than other sellers.
Robot Percy from Diamond City is useful to those who are looking for glue, ceramics, fertilizers, plastics, springs and steel. However, he only appears there at night. His fertilizer is more expensive than Connie Abernathy's.
Arturo is also in Diamond City, but during the day. It sells aluminum, copper, gears and bolts. Aluminum can be useful for upgrading power armor, so don't neglect the purchase when you have it.
Moe Cronin is another Diamond City vendor you'll find throughout the day. He sells balsa wood and timber. Since you can get a large amount of wood for free from trees around the settlement, it is irrational to use his services.
Dr. Sun sells antiseptic, glass and rubber in Diamond City throughout the day.
There are two stores in the Goodneighbor area. In the first, the girl Daisy sells glue, electronic circuits, glass and silver. Cleo sells fiber optics, copper, lead and petroleum.
The shops of Bunker Hill will delight you with crystals, fiberglass, gold, lead and silver, acid and glass.

Learn how to properly develop your own business in Fallout 4. Read about the secrets of successfully investing in your personal store and developing a built settlement.

Fallout 4: Invest in a Store

Released late last year by Bethesda, Fallout 4 has a variety of gameplay options. Those who are not attracted to constant running around with incessant shooting can engage in peaceful construction. Any player can invest in a store in Fallout 4 and then develop their own retail network.

Investment opportunities depend on the level of leveling of your own character. The process is long, but exciting, because the profit received can be used to increase a wide variety of abilities.

Investment abilities

Let's look at the skills with which you can acquire good net worth. The “Cap Collector” ability is designed for this, assessing the player’s capabilities according to the so-called ranks or steps. Once you reach the highest rank in Fallout 4, you can invest in a store without much difficulty.

The first stage increases the cost of goods from the seller by 10%, the 2nd stage - by an additional 20%. This means that the total result of both levels will be cumulative. When used together, in case of sale, the cost of goods will increase by 32% ((1.1x1.2)x100%=32%), and when purchased, the savings will be 28% ((1-0.9x0.8)x100%= 28%). The second stage will be useful for the construction of large shopping centers in villages.

The third level of skill makes it possible to invest 500 caps in any store. This means that the reserve of caps of the businessman in whom the funds are invested will increase by 500 caps, without a time limit. In order to understand how to invest 500 caps in a store in Fallout 4, you need to use the trading menu, at the bottom of which there is a function for investment.

Investment in your own business

In Fallout 4, investing in your own store, built in a village, is possible using the “Local Leader” skill. In the case of such an investment, the cash reserve of caps will increase in all stores without exception in absolutely all player-owned settlements engaged in trading similar goods. Taking into account the fact that it is possible to build 6 types of stores, we find that with the help of an investment of only 3,000 caps it is possible to increase the well-being of all of our own merchants. At the same time, you don’t need to worry about who will have to sell the trophies.