Bethesda gets Fallout

[Signe]

I just raised my difficulty level from Normal to Hard, maybe it wad Very Hard.  I don't remember.  XP is better but not rewards, I don't think.  But, of course, I'm cheating.   Just a little and not in God Mode or anything, just a wee bit of money so I can afford ammo and I still die.  LOTS.

[Hindenburg]

I'm hating the leveled enemies with a passion, just like in Oblivion.

Enemies in Fallout 3 don't level. You're doing something wrong.
At level 1, even basic Super Mutants are hard. At level 20, only super mutant behemots (provided you don't use the WALK BACKWARDS AND PEW PEW TO VICTORY tactic) and deathclaws pose a challenge.
Everything else is combat shotgun VATS headshot meat.

[Reg]

Why is Signe having so much trouble with this game? Is it 'cause she's a girl?

[Sky]

Zombies have awful reflexes.

[trias_e]

Enemies in Fallout 3 don't level. You're doing something wrong.
At level 1, even basic Super Mutants are hard. At level 20, only super mutant behemots (provided you don't use the WALK BACKWARDS AND PEW PEW TO VICTORY tactic) and deathclaws pose a challenge.
Everything else is combat shotgun VATS headshot meat.

That's really weird.  Definitely feels like things are leveling with me.  For instance, the school was harder than super-mutants had been for me up to that point.  And I've already killed a deathclaw at level 3 and it didn't seem that hard.  Maybe it was a specially placed easy deathclaw though.

The game is also suffering from some sort of half-life on my system...for instance, the first 6 hours were flawless, the next 3 I'd crash once an hour, the next 1.5 hours I crashed 3 times, and now I crash within 10 minutes of opening the game.  Something like this happened to me with Oblivion on a different system, where the longer I played the worse the game performed. 

[Bunk]

That's odd, I went back to the school at level 6 and was one shotting the stragglers with a hunting rifle. Same with that's in the basement.

On the otherhand, those mirelurkers up north are a real bitch.

[Nevermore]

Why is Signe having so much trouble with this game? Is it 'cause she's a girl?

The woman had a near fatal thumb injury!  Give her a break!

[trias_e]

That's odd, I went back to the school at level 6 and was one shotting the stragglers with a hunting rifle. Same with that's in the basement.

On the otherhand, those mirelurkers up north are a real bitch.

In that case, I'm guessing that my armor and weapons were degraded to the point where anything would have been hard.  That's the only explanation that makes sense.  

[Ingmar]

That's odd, I went back to the school at level 6 and was one shotting the stragglers with a hunting rifle. Same with that's in the basement.

On the otherhand, those mirelurkers up north are a real bitch.

In that case, I'm guessing that my armor and weapons were degraded to the point where anything would have been hard.  That's the only explanation that makes sense.  

The item condition/repair thing is kind of a pain in the ass.

[kaid]

Thankful unlike oblivion fallout three does not auto level mobs. There does seem to be a small level range though for dungeons but its pretty limited. We were having a ton of problems with the freakin fire breathing ants but we left explored elsewhere came back later and had no problem at all.

One thing I noticed is it seems to be a very good idea to max out your main weapon skill ASAP. We put in a couple levels into non combat skills and things got kinda ugly especially since that was around the time of our ant excursion freaking ammo eating freaks.

[Ingmar]

You probably don't want to max it out all the way, since you can get a bunch of free points from books and bobbleheads and stuff, but yeah I have been doing much better since I raised my small guns up to the 70s.

[kaid]

When me and my friend were playing I did not know for sure if the skills capped at 100 or not in this game in some of the older ones I believe you could go past 100 in a skill. If I had to do it again I would probably stop at 90 its worth a few wasted books to make damn sure your primary combat power works right.

One nice thing about the hybrid combat is even if you suck with certain weapons like missle launchers or flame throwers those types of weapons are still pretty usable via naked eye mk1. Or for big fun the porta nuke launcher because close DOES count with nukes.

[schild]

IMO, I did it right by maxing out lockpicking first to get into all those... useful places. Like armories.

Then I maxed out my main weapon. I maxed them both out at once actually now that I think about it, yay Here & Now perk.

[Hindenburg]

On the otherhand, those mirelurkers up north are a real bitch.

Crouch and eyeshot your way to victory.
You can wait for them to lunge before hitting VATS, but, at least on the ecksbawks, you tend to get hit.

One other thing, even with the default explosives skill, grenades are awesome and tend to hit. It's usually a good idea to carry about 5 frags. Mines are worthless, though.

[schild]

It takes 1 hit to kill a mirelurk over any size right in the eyes with a repaired combat shotgun. Same with the nukalurks.

[kaid]

Hehe ya schild our lock picking is what got us into trouble because we put a few levels worth into that and we were at an awkward level range where we were just blowing to much ammo to kill stuff and the stuff we were fighting did not drop ammo. Now our small arms is maxed and our lock picking will be maxed next level or hell if we get one lock picking book. After that not sure what I want to aim for probably repair as our repair skill is already pretty high.

Oh as a public service post if you hate fire breathing mutant ants as much as I do remember they are not to fast and will always charge you so you may want to try some weapons that lay on the ground and go boom for more fun pull two at once and do this and let the bastards take care of each other. Normally i would agree that mines are useless but they freaking slay ants VERY VERY nicely and it does not cost you ammo thats more useful.

[Signe]

Why is Signe having so much trouble with this game? Is it 'cause she's a girl?

The woman had a near fatal thumb injury!  Give her a break!

Thank you.  It's true.  Why is Reg so insensitive?  I might have to gouge out something of his with my good thumb.

You can max everything out, right?  I mean, eventually?  In any case, I go through stimpacks like candy so I really do have to cheat with money?  Is there anything good in the Armoury?  Also, just a little bit ago I wandered just inches away from Minefield to do that quest and my stupid VATs things stuck and never came back and I lost all my will to live.  Now I have a boo boo finger from poking my computer off and a cracked speaker from throwing it on the floor.  

[slog]

Don't forget to pick up Dogmeat!

He's handy.  it's a minigame keeping him alive.

[Hindenburg]

You can max everything out, right?  I mean, eventually?

NO.
There's a level cap, Level 20. Hence why Here and Now is a horrible, horrible perk.

Seriously, when you hit the cap, it's like a huge part of the game dies.
Best bet is to take the perk that buffs your SPECIAL attributes and get int to 9+ Intelligence bobblehead asap, gives 20 skill points per level.

You can max... 4 skills with ease, though.


Has anyone tried Little Lamplight with and without Child at Heart? I wanted to take that perk, but left it for later and the lvl 20 perks are just too damn good to pass. Seriously, fill up your AP bar with every VATS kill vs  hey, explored map. Truly a tough choice.

[Venkman]

Question:

[Ingmar]

You can max everything out, right?  I mean, eventually?

NO.
There's a level cap, Level 20. Hence why Here and Now is a horrible, horrible perk.

Seriously, when you hit the cap, it's like a huge part of the game dies.
Best bet is to take the perk that buffs your SPECIAL attributes and get int to 9+ Intelligence bobblehead asap, gives 20 skill points per level.

You can max... 4 skills with ease, though.


Has anyone tried Little Lamplight with and without Child at Heart? I wanted to take that perk, but left it for later and the lvl 20 perks are just too damn good to pass. Seriously, fill up your AP bar with every VATS kill vs  hey, explored map. Truly a tough choice.

If you are insane about collecting books and take the perk that raises the points per book from 1 to 2, in theory you can get +60 to every skill that way. There are 25 books for each skill (so 50 possible skill points), +10 for the bobblehead. And that doesn't count things like that perk that adds 15 to big guns per rank, bobbleheads that raise the SPECIAL stat raising the skills, etc. It should be at least theoretically possible to max everything skill-wise.

[Ingmar]

Darniaq: you just missed a door somewhere most likely. Sounds to me like you're in the right place.

[NiX]

Darniaq (Mild spoiler to explain how to get in)

[FatuousTwat]

The game is also suffering from some sort of half-life on my system...for instance, the first 6 hours were flawless, the next 3 I'd crash once an hour, the next 1.5 hours I crashed 3 times, and now I crash within 10 minutes of opening the game.  Something like this happened to me with Oblivion on a different system, where the longer I played the worse the game performed. 

Removing Securom might clear things up, but YMMV. Just as a warning, if you ever decide to play a game that uses Securom again, use a no-cd fixed .exe, or else the disk will just re-install Securom.

http://www.reclaimyourgame.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=68&Itemid=40 (I recently used this article to remove it, and it seemed to work fine for me... In fact it cleared up some bullshit that has been happening on my comp for a year or so) for instructions on how to delete Securom, and http://www.gamecopyworld.com/ for the fixed .exes.

Or the game is just buggy as hell, and it hates your computer.

[trias_e]

Probably not a bad idea to do anyways, but installing new video drivers and defragging combined to solve my problem it looks like.  Well, at least the last 2 hours of gameplay have been perfect.  If the problems come back, that will be the next thing I try.

[Sky]

Maybe after six hours you could take a break and reboot the computer 

[rattran]

So short a game if you follow the main plot. Seems to me all the value is in the exploration stuff, and ending the game when the main plot is finished just kills that.

So, explore, play, ignore the main plotline until you're done fucking about, and level 20. Just like Oblivion.

[schild]

Sigh. There's so many fucking followers and bobbleheads.

I've found all of 4 followers, and have yet to find Fawkes or Dog Meat. Yargh.

[schild]

I should bitch more often. Just found Dogmeat. Win.

[schild]

Ok, I'm just starting a new thread for spoilery stuff.

[Signe]

I'm giving this game another chance today.  It better not make me punch it again. 

[Falconeer]

My copy is late, as usual. Does this game spells WIN? Cause it sounds so after reading 25 pages. Now, on to Fallout Online to ruin it all.

[Quinton]

I'm having a ton of fun so far.  Haven't had any serious stability issues (one crash at the very end of 5+ hours playing and one time where it would fire my gun when I tried to click to confirm dialog choices -- which started an impressive gunfight in a bar...).

My focus has been small guns, stealth, lockpicking, and that has worked pretty well for me.  I really like that VATS compensates for my general crapitude at fps-style combat.

I finally have a shack to call my own and store my extra stuff, am around level six, and working on the chapter three set of survival guide quests.  My favorite survival guide quest so far was the ratmole repellent: I didn't actually look at the provided item until the moment I encountered my first ratmole. 

I need to find some better ways to make money, or I'll never be able to afford all the goodies for my lovely home.

So far Fallout 3 has most of the game mechanics/systems I enjoyed in Oblivion, with a number of the annoying bugs resolved (or reduced), and a world I find far, far more enjoyable than Oblivion's Generic Fantasy World feel.

[Venkman]

I finally got the house for the extra storage. I'm probably not going to dump money into decorating just yet. I don't really need the money with good repair skills combining the loop from raiders with the stuff I like best. But I'd rather just hoard the cash until something big comes along. I suspect if other people sell schematics, those'll be pricey.

I did some general exploration yesterday. Can anyone tell me how accurate this map is to the size and layout of present-day D.C?

How do you get Bobbleheads? I had the one for Medicine, but there's a lot of slots there and I want to make sure I'm not missin' nuthin.

[schild]

I did some general exploration yesterday. Can anyone tell me how accurate this map is to the size and layout of present-day D.C?

Har. It's not really, even the Mall isn't quite accurate. However, if you've spent a shitload of time in that area (between Fairfax, DC, and Baltimore), you'll have an easier time getting around. I got a giggle out of seeing Olney Farm and Anacostia last night. Things that have no real place in the game. Also, I'm shocked they didn't put University of Maryland or, AHEM, Bethesda in the game.