All the ‘junk’ in Fallout 4 has a bigger purpose

Bethesda has released a new video that has game director Todd Howard talking us through building settlements, crafting and modding in Fallout 4. Well, Howard is mostly talking about crafting because it's one of the most advanced crafting systems that Bethesda has ever offered — even if it's entirely optional.

As for the settlements and modding, Howard didn't have much to say on that. He briefly covers the two subjects in the video above, saying that settlements allow players to "rip apart the world and build what you want" without leaving the game and entering another program. Howard's mentioning of modding is pretty much what we know, the Creation Kit is headed to PC first, then Xbox One and PlayStation 4 following.

Much like Skyrim, Fallout 4's world will be littered with items for players to pick up, but players won't relive the horrors of carrying worthless items around in their inventory. "The main gist of it is, that we have all this junk around the world," said Howard before going on to explain that all of the items in the game can be used elsewhere. In fact, there's nothing in Fallout 4 that has a sole purpose of being worth two bottle caps, everything can be a compenent in something else.

"We have nothing like that. It also causes this very interesting economy in the game, where traditionally you'd pick everything up and sell it," Howard said. "And now you pick it up and you say, 'well, I can make this out of this, or I can make this out of this, or maybe I do want to sell it.'"

"Most of the people playing the game are hoarding all the crap to build with, instead of selling it."

If you become consumed by crafting, like Bethesda has warned, you will soon discover that the items you would think are the most important aren't always that important. "You realize that adhesive is an important element for building a lot of things, and then you realize, actually, that duct tape and glue tend to be more valuable than grenades."