Diamond city isn't that bad to get to. You can sneak to it if you approach from directly north. It is the west and east ends of the city that would be hard to get through.
Goodneighbor is the other trade hub, but it's way more dangerous to get to.
Quote (Tuna_BeIIy @ Oct 7 2017 12:15am)
Is it normal to level up the base special stats near the beginning?
I wouldn't unless you absolutely need to. You can play with mods and have all of it leveled up, but if playing normally, I would suggest planning your build such that no points are wasted. This means putting one less point in each SPECIAL category than you need at the start of the game since you can find a point in each from bobbleheads.
Only put points into SPECIAL if your planned build requires additional points or if you are end game and have nothing better to spend them on.
This post was edited by timmayX on Oct 7 2017 12:03pm