u/Reptilicious

Okay, so I just recently did the Tenpenny Tower quest. After I kicked out the bigots and got Tenpenny's okay for the Ghouls to move in, I killed Tenpenny on his balcony and fast travelled away so nobody knew it was me. Then I experimented with a bunch of different ways to kill Gustavo for the Armament key, and because he is also a jerk. Everything I tried ended up turning the whole tower hostile to me. Finally I tried using the Mesmetron while Stealth Boyed. That worked, he turned hostile and his own security force took him out for me. Sidenote, so far this has been working for me to have people killed while not receiving blame for it.

Now, I knew that Roy was going to kill all the smooth skins but it is the "good" path to help them move in. That and I love this mask. I'm max level so fighting the Feral Ghouls, and everything else really, is just a waste of time, ammo, and weapon and clothing conditions. So, I meant to go back to the tower and mez Roy so that the security kills him but it took me too long to actually do that and he already killed everyone. That all brings me to the point of this post.

I reloaded a previous save to run a few experiments. I went up to the suites to find Roy and mezzed him but the lone security guard just kept running away from him while I was being torn apart by his Chinese Assault Rifle. I reloaded and tried a few times, the one time the security guard actually fought back, his Assault Rifle couldnt stand up to Roy's Chinese version and he got slaughtered in a few seconds. So I tried using a Magnum to destroy the Chinese Assault Rifle. That worked, kind of. Once Roy was forced into fisticuffs, he chased me straight to the (STILL) fleeing security guard who then turned around and killed him for me. Great. I left the tower and came back. I checked in with Bet... Is it Bettie or Betsie? Anyway, checked in with her, all good. I waited 24 hours, still chillin. I went to Megaton and waited for 7 days then went back to her, still good. Except at this point all the smooth skins were dead again and Marcus, Matthew?... The other one was hostile towards me.

I'm thinking he maybe turned hostile because I shot the gun out of Roy's hands? I never checked on him until after the week was over, so I'm not sure. Does anyone know of a way to get the mask and still save everyone who isn't a bigot? Could I freely kill them after I get the mask but before they go to the tower? Like, drop mines or something to kill them on their way out? Are they considered a faction at that point?

One more note, in my main file I saw Roy in the main lobby when I first went back to the tower but in my experiment file he was already upstairs by the time I got there. This could be because I got lost in the sewers. I also walked back instead of fast travelling like I originally did. I think catching him in the lobby is the best way to do this. Mez him so he aggros, Security will kill him while the 2 shops stay open. The question then becomes, do all 3 of them need to die or is the slaughter of the smooth skins an unavoidable scripted event?

So, Alan from The Family just merced the entirety of Arefu then blamed me.

This is my first play through, I suffer from FOMO pretty badly so I usually follow walkthroughs when playing games. For reference, I've been doing so much extra stuff that I'm a handful of exp away from lvl 20 with no dlc because I'm streaming the game. So, being almost max level affects the enemies to some degree, I think.

Anyway, I get to Arefu and do the Blood Ties quest. I manage to convince The Family to protect Arefu in exchange for blood packs. Afterwards I quick travel home to Megaton to do some inventory management and grab all of the blood packs I've been saving. I have something like 53. I quick travel back to The Family and donate the blood packs, I learn that Vance will pay me 15 caps per blood pack. I think "Let's fucking go."

After this I go back to Arefu to go and steal the Pugilism Illustrated out of Alan's house. I pass him on the way in, no big deal. I grab the book and go back outside. Once I'm outside I see a red mark on my compass, I scan the area and there's a Deathclaw. "Great! Another hand for my collection." I then see a body on the ground nearby. "No, Alan! It's my fault you live here now!" I sneak over to investigate. It isn't Alan but is actually Crow, the travelling merchant. "Well, shit." So, I save just in case the Deathclaw takes me out and I avenge Crow. Unfortunately, the Deathclaw killed some of the Brahnim that Alan was raising while we were fighting. This distracted it long enough for me to get a clean kill though. I climb back up into Arefu to see if the Deathclaw killed anyone else while I was inside Alan's house. I'm overjoyed to see Alan is still alive, although his health is a little low. I speak to him.

"So, you're Evan King's killer, huh? You don't look so tough." What? I look around and I see the entire Arefu populace, sans Ian West, lying face down in the dirt. I go to check on Ian, he's chilling at home. Okay, weird. I quick travel to The Family to see how Vance feels and he won't do business with me anymore. Greeted me warmly but when I talk to him he has the same dialogue lines that Alan did, saying I killed Arefu for sport. I reload and don't fight the Deathclaw, I just run back to Arefu to see what happened. I get up there and I see Alan killing the townsfolk. Full on fire fight. I reload a few times to try some things, including killing Alan, but ultimately I'm too slow. I can't get back in time and even if I kill Alan the whole town is still aggressive towards me. So, I reload again and just watch in horror as Alan slaughters these innocent people then listen to him spout nonsense about how I killed them for sport.

I googled the bug and found out that Arefu is twitchy and any harm that comes to the town is then blamed on me. I still don't know what made the town aggressive in the first place but I recognize that they became aggressive and Alan fought them as my ally. My best guess as to why is when the Deathclaw killed Crow, he was too close to the village so the village blamed me (due to the bug) and attacked Alan. Worst bit, I can't sell blood packs to Vance anymore. This is what I get for not utilizing multuple saves.