WASTELAND MECHANIC readme version 1.1 - only the .esp file is changed Leave pre-war weapons and armor for those who need them. With simple tools and scavenged junk you can make your own equipment. Play as a mechanic, with suitable clothing, weapons, and armor. You'll need this mod's mechanic's workbench to craft new equipment; the workbench has no perk prerequisites, and you can build it at any workshop. Blacksmith, Armorer, and Gun Nut perks are essential. This mod is suitable for a melee build. * Available clothing: Red Rocket jumpsuit, mechanic's jumpsuit, or utility jumpsuit. All accept ballistic weave; you can also wear metal armor with the mechanic's jumpsuit and utility jumpsuit. Version 1.1 adds a "light armor" option; under "Mechanic", once you've found the Repair bobblehead you can craft a mechanic's welding goggles and mechanic's gloves. The goggles have excellent fire and energy damage resistance, and the gloves accept ballistic weave. For the sake of game balance, they block the body, arms, and legs armor slots. I have also included an advanced Red Rocket jump suit which can be worn with goggles and gloves. * Improvised armor: Turn scrap into light, sturdy, and heavy metal armor. Advanced versions offer other benefits, supporting divergent roles: restorer of the commonwealth, or shadow in the dark. * Improvised weapons: Pipe guns, lawnmower blade, claw hammer, smith's hammers. The hammers can be built from scratch, or adapted from found objects. They benefit from Blitz perks. Don't ignore the pipe guns; fully modded, they can be deadly, and this mod adds advanced versions. Customized pipe guns can be built once you've reached enough blacksmith and gun nut perks. You will need to find the Repair bobblehead to add Master Mechanic versions which should be powerful enough to use through the end of the game. LORE COMPATIBILITY: PIPE GUNS The most significant changes in this mod involve pipe guns. You will be able to craft customized pipe guns powerful enough to be reasonable later in the game. In the standard game, this does not make sense: high-technology manufactured prewar guns are surely better. But where do they come from? I have found no settlement in the Commonwealth (other than the Institute) with mass production capability. Of course, this is in the aftermath of a devastating war, so it's not surprising there were a lot of guns available. But they're still two centuries old. Rust takes its toll, and many of them will have suffered from use and abuse, with the only spare parts available coming from other weapons. Even carefully hand-tooled restored weapons will rarely be free of damage. Who would have pristine advanced weapons? The Institute: but it turns out that their weapons aren't all that great. The Brotherhood of Steel: but they aren't going to sell to the Commonwealth. Now: pipe guns. They are based on the weapons of prewar street gangs, and in the game's "present" are mostly constructed by raiders, supermutants, and untrained settlers. Surely a skilled mechanic can do better? In previous play-throughs I've assumed pipe guns were trash. I think that was a mistake. They're highly customizable, look interesting, and even in vanilla form can be useful surprisingly far into the game. In this mod, I am assuming that a highly skilled mechanic who's examined a variety of weapons can build one-off customized personal pipe guns good enough to match what remains of prewar tech. Mass production is still out of the question and you're still starting with salvaged scrap, but hand built guns don't have to be junk. REQUIREMENTS: Nukaworld. RECOMMENDED MOD: "Wasteland Mechanic" was inspired by "Start Me Up Redux - An Update for Alternate Start and Dialogue Overhaul" https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/56984 which provides many new options for starting the game. You can, as usual, play as the Sole Survivor. But you can also choose other options, including mechanic, and begin the game either in the Vault or in a variety of locations. POSSIBLE ADDITIONAL MOD: You might like GreaseMonkeyMods' "A Goodneighbor Player Home" https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/14360 Be cautious: it's an old mod and not maintained. I'd advise cleaning it with FO4EditQuickAutoClean.exe https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/2737/ It's also extravagant: lots of clutter and way too much valuable loot for a free home; but then, you can leave the loot in place as decoration, and much of the clutter can be scrapped or deleted. The advantage of this mod for a Wasteland Mechanic is that the ground floor can be cleaned up to make an excellent mechanic's workshop. CREDITS: The lawnmower blade uses assets from the Nukaworld DLC, which should be installed.