Vegas baby! Vegas

[MuffinMan]

There's a surgeon you can stumble across that can implant things to boost your stats. They boost them by either 1 or 2, I wasn't paying close attention to the before/after.

[apocrypha]

They're +1 and you can only have as many implants as your Endurance -1. Which makes End quite a valuable stat to boost at character creation in retrospect, compounded by the every-other-level perks, i.e. not wanting to waste them on Intensive Training.

[Ingmar]

There are actually few enough compelling perks that I've spent several on intensive training. YMMV.

[MuffinMan]

They're +1 and you can only have as many implants as your Endurance -1. Which makes End quite a valuable stat to boost at character creation in retrospect, compounded by the every-other-level perks, i.e. not wanting to waste them on Intensive Training.

Ah, I wondered what was being checked when she was testing how many more implants I could take. That makes sense now, thanks.

[rk47]

Close combat isn't really bad. Mid game weapons like Ripper and Chainsaws are a nightmare with Psycho drug on. You just hold Left mouse button and rippppppppppppp. Late game, there's a glove which shoots bullet when you punch people...think about it....

[Furiously]

Guns, Speech, Repair here, with a secondary focus on Science, Lock Pick, and Sneak.

Am I the only one who always starts with 10 int?

I recall:
10 gives you 14.5 points per level
9 gives you 14
8 gives you 13.5
7 gives you 13

the benefit from 10 isn't worth it.

[apocrypha]

From the Wiki:

Intelligence effects skill points differently than it did in Fallout 3. The number of skill points gained each level is based on the formula 10 + (0.5 * INT per level, including level 1), where INT is your Intelligence. If you get a non-whole number of skill points per level (e.g. 10.5 for INT 1) it will be saved for the next level up, so you will get 11 skill points for your first level up and 10 on your next.

So the benefit from 10 is the same as the benefit from 9. Each point in Int (from level 1) is 15 skill points, which is the same as taking the Tag! perk.

The Educated perk is worth 52 skill points if you take it at level 4, and Comprehension is worth 28 if you find every single skill book, but also makes the magazines give +20 instead of +10, which is awesome - means you only have to get Lockpick/Science to 75 and you can open any door/computer if you've got a magazine and a +5 vault outfit.

I think I started with an Int of 8, boosted it to 9 with the implant and took both Educated and Comprehension. I can't remember what my skills are at level 30 but I'm nowhere near maxed - there's a couple that are under 30 (Survival, Explosives), a few over 90 (Repair, Barter, Guns) and the rest are in the upper range between.

edit: perks wrong way round.

[Furiously]

So between 13-14 skill points for the extra point.

[Zetor]

(really minor sidequest spoiler)

[Reg]

Various merchants sell all the parts you need for that quest.

[apocrypha]

I seem to have hit a "save game too large" bug. I can play for 10-15 mins now before a lockup on the PS3, usually when I'm opening my inventory. Might have some corrupted item of some kind in there or something, I dunno, but it's very annoying.

Will try clearing out my inven next time I fire it up and see if I can recover it.

[Hawkbit]

Oh son of a bitch, that's a holdover from F3 - check Bethesda's forums about F3 w/DLC installed.  People only getting so far into the game and their saves are trashed.  I really had assumed (yeah, me!) that they've have knocked that one out.  

So glad I broke my routine of buying on PC for the PS3....    

EDIT:  From memory, I think when the save file hits 10mb it begins having issues, if it makes it to 15mbish it's toast.  There's no recovery, just start over.  My personal opinion is that it's so fundamentally broken someone/group should get off their butts and drop a class action, but w/e.  I'm guessing it's a pretty small group of people affected on the PS3.

[apocrypha]

Sorted it, it's not a save game bug, it's a location. When I try to go NW from Bitter Springs (which is where I was when the crash started happening) the game locks up every single time.

There's a vista from the top of the ridge above Bitter Springs that has several layers of rolling hills going off into the distance and something in that is killing the PS3. Ah well, will try looping round from another direction and see if I can get to that unexplored location some other way.

[CmdrSlack]

(really minor sidequest spoiler)

[Hawkbit]

Thank god... I was seriously about to have a hissy fit. 

[Zetor]

Thanks for the help guys! CmdrSlack's solution worked, sadly the guy at the other place wouldn't talk to me since my gun skill was too low. (I'm playing a sorta-pacifist on this playthrough, no weapon skills above 25  )

[rk47]

Hey amazing, the companion quest is actually enjoyable. Ones that work, that is. Veronica 

[Khaldun]

I really hate invisible walls.

[Furiously]

I hate groups of deathclaws and golden geckos.

[rattran]

I hate crashy quests. I just want to talk to Chauncey, but my game crashes every time I get near him in the quest location. Had a similar issue with a little girl Boomer and her missing Mr Cuddles, fixed by waiting until she was at school. Chauncey you HAVE to talk to in the location to progress the quest.

[veredus]

Never had that problem with Chauncey because I shot everyone in the Ultraluxe due to being pretentious dickbags. It was very convenient that land barons guards all were carrying shotguns inside the casino. Saved me from having to use the silenced 10mm on everyone.

[apocrypha]

Hey amazing, the companion quest is actually enjoyable. Ones that work, that is. Veronica 

Saving Veronica's quest for next playthrough. I quite liked Boone's quest, if only for how entertainingly miserable he is.

I really hate invisible walls.

Agreed. If you don't want me going that way then make the terrain obviously impassable, and be consistent with what steepness of incline I can climb.

I hate groups of deathclaws and golden geckos.

Winners take drugs!    I want a single button to take a dose each of Psycho, Buffout, Jet, Med-X and Rebound all at once! I hate Fixer however, it's just too small a downside to popping chems now. Having to take a trip to find a doctor or accepting the addiction debuff made taking chems something I saved for rare occasions.

[Slyfeind]

I can't not take tons of drugs all the time. It's just amazing. I sell Fixer so I can have more money for more drugs. Eventually I got tired of pussy-footing around and started drinking all the alcohol, Nuka-Cola, and Sasparilla I could find. Technically you can't get addicted to Nuka-Cola and Sasparilla, but whatever.

[Rendakor]

I had Sasparilla hotkeyed for most of the game as my post-battle HoT, while also trying to farm for the special Bottle Caps. Anyone wanna spoiler how to get that quest to start? Do I need a certain number, or to go to a certain place? Some guy had harassed me very early on telling me to watch out if I ever got a lot, but I had like 30 by the end of the game and it never seemed to go anywhere.

[Trouble]

50 is what you need, no spoilers.

[rk47]

That quest sucked ass. Heard if you carry too many of the caps it eats up more processes, slowing down your game.

[rattran]

I found 72 in one playthrough, no slowdowns. And semi-spoiler for that quest:

After trying another energy weapon playthrough, they are just inferior in every way to guns.

[Rendakor]

50? FFFFFUUUUUU-

[brellium]

Science is pure awesomeness

[rattran]

The strip is always free, you just need to have 2000 caps on you. Which is pretty damned easy by the time you get there.

[Lakov_Sanite]

I'm nominating  vault 11 for most interesting storyline.

[Ingmar]

Yeah Vault 11 gets my vote for "most fucked up vault experiment" this time around.

[LK]

The sheer amount of choice once you hit New Vegas is mind-boggling.

[Miasma]

The sheer amount of choice once you hit New Vegas is mind-boggling.

[CmdrSlack]