FO: NV (Spoilers)

[Cantousent]

Oh, that bites. I didn't know that. Thanks for the tip on raiders. Keeping that in mind, I'll just return to raider camps to make food.

[HoonDing]

I cheesed hardcore mode by fast-travelling to Goodsprings Source every time I was dehydrated.

 

Food & sleep strangely enough never were a problem... and I don't think I've slept more than 10 hours the entire game. Must be the tobacco chew.

[mkreku]

I finished the game on normal difficulty and hardcore mode on last night (I think it was). I must say that hardcore mode started out fun when I actually had to drink out of toilets and sleep in dangerous places to even survive. After a while, when most of the map had been explored and all remaining quests consisted of "go to point X, get/kill/do Y and end the quest in Z" types, it became more of an annoyance than anything, especially since I fast-travelled everywhere. I had 300+ Stimpaks, I had an abundant supply of purified water, I never had to cook any food because there's still food everywhere you look and I only slept perhaps once every five in-game days. What began as a feeling of trying to survive in a harsh wasteland only lasted for like five levels and ended up feeling like annoying flags that popped up with regular intervals to make you click on something in your inventory.

 

I wish they had been able to balance the game in hardcore mode to keep it in hardcore mode the entire way. More radiation, less stimpaks, less edible food in containers, LESS EXPERIENCE POINTS, less "free" water (almost no water sources in the late game gave any radiation), less healing items overall (I drink a soda and get 50 hitpoints back?!), less money. I loved that feeling of barely surviving in the beginning of the game, just too bad they couldn't make it last.

 

Fantastic game though. Easily the best game I've played all year. Best game since Risen, in fact.

 

I also restarted a new character, going for melee combat this time. I barely reached Novac last night, and it's already been a weird experience. I only have 20 gun skill, but I am headshotting enemies from 100 meters with my varmint rifle (with scope + silencer + bigger magazine mods). I have 90 melee, but my combat knife breaks down so fast I never bother to use it. I mean, one shot with a varmint rifle with no damage to myself or run towards my enemy for ten seconds while he's shooting me in the face with a repeater rifle and then stab him with my knife twelve times before he goes down? Which method would you choose?

 

I also thought I'd skip out on lockpick this time (had 100 last character), but man.. EVERYTHING is locked and almost nothing has keys or any other means of breaking in! I feel handicapped by having 15 lockpick. We'll see if this character is worth playing through. At least I chose the Wild Wasteland perk this time, and I've already had two instances of weird things happen.

[RPGmasterBoo]

I also restarted a new character, going for melee combat this time. I barely reached Novac last night, and it's already been a weird experience. I only have 20 gun skill, but I am headshotting enemies from 100 meters with my varmint rifle (with scope + silencer + bigger magazine mods). I have 90 melee, but my combat knife breaks down so fast I never bother to use it. I mean, one shot with a varmint rifle with no damage to myself or run towards my enemy for ten seconds while he's shooting me in the face with a repeater rifle and then stab him with my knife twelve times before he goes down? Which method would you choose?

 

I also thought I'd skip out on lockpick this time (had 100 last character), but man.. EVERYTHING is locked and almost nothing has keys or any other means of breaking in! I feel handicapped by having 15 lockpick. We'll see if this character is worth playing through. At least I chose the Wild Wasteland perk this time, and I've already had two instances of weird things happen.

 

Lockpick and Speech are mandatory (and Repair). I've also started a melee character and its cakewalk so far - but fixing melee weapons isn't easy and my prime weapon - Chances Knife is falling apart.

 

The fact of the matter is this: there are very few good melee weapons. On the other hand there are a pile of unstoppable insta kill unarmed weapons.

[mkreku]

It's amazing how many things I've found that I've forgotten about though! I mean, just in Primm I've found hidden stuff that requires 75 lockpick to open, but I know I never returned to actually open them when I had the skill.. and I will probably forget them this time around too :D

 

I also found a quest I failed the last time I tried it. And this character isn't suited well for it either (it's a hidden quest), which is why I am beginning to think I may have to restart again.

[sorophx]

okay, I'm convinced, I started a new game on Hardcore/Very Hard, but now I'm gonna delete that char and replay on Very Hard instead, I'm gonna really gimp my char for combat, gonna leave Guns/Energy weapons at lvl 1 numbers for the whole game, make END very low, we'll see how it goes

[WDeranged]

I started a new game using Arwen's Realism Tweaks mod a couple of days ago, I'm liking the higher difficulty so far, the list of changes is huge and there's an in game menu for reducing global xp gains.

 

Arwen's NV Realism Tweaks

[LadyCrimson]

okay, I'm convinced, I started a new game on Hardcore/Very Hard, but now I'm gonna delete that char and replay on Very Hard instead, I'm gonna really gimp my char for combat, gonna leave Guns/Energy weapons at lvl 1 numbers for the whole game, make END very low, we'll see how it goes

Convinced of what, that the combat is easy?

I've kept in on VH since I first put it there. At least I have a chance of dying occasionally if someone manages to melee me (I always go 4 or less END...) or gang up on me. The hardest part in the game for me is level 1 to 2, when you have nothing. Then convicts & viper gangs start dropping 10mm's, cowboy repeaters and leather armor and the challenge is over. Thus I go get Boone and have silly fun instead. Like Cant, I don't mind if it's easy as long as there's tons of other things I love, which there are.

 

I noticed for the first time last night that if you loot Jeannie May's corpse, when you close the loot window Boone mumbles down at you from his dinosaur perch the "I'd really like my beret back please" line. I only looted her the first time I did it (I've killed her dozens of times now, lol) and didn't have headphones on that time....he says it so quietly from the distance that if you have music on etc you canl miss it. Made me laugh. I also really love on the first journey to Novac, how those armed merchants & NRC tend to meet up on the road & fight Legion together. Then I follow them in safety the rest of the way, looting as I go. Just love the things in game like that, watching/seeing groups fight each other...

 

I still haven't finished the game. My lvl 23 chr. is close to it, but then I get distracted by wanting to test or goof off...

(edit:too many smilies look funny...)

Edited November 8, 2010 by LadyCrimson

[sorophx]

okay, I'm convinced

Convinced of what, that the combat is easy?

I'm afraid h/c mode will become more of a nuisance further down the road, so I'm gonna make the game hardcore on my own. combat is going to be easy no matter what I do

 

sadly, I can't figure out how the GECK works and I don't want to use mods made by others. I decided not to use companions, not to explore too much until I get to Mr.House and Caesar. set END to 3, forget about weapon skills and spend skillpoints on medicine and explosives instead. never use VATS of course.

[HoonDing]

Normal difficulty seems fine for me. Unarmoured enemies are pansies, most animals are easy save giant radscorpions, cazadores & deathclaws as it should be. Veteran rangers & praetorian guards are very tough, especially in groups.

 

There's no reason to give these enemies more HP & damage output.

 

Then again, there's the Archimedes gun when **** really starts hitting the fan.

Edited November 8, 2010 by virumor

[LadyCrimson]

Ah! Yes, I agree about nuisance...I call it tedious. I do get why some like it, and I wouldn't mind some more 'hardcore' attributes but eating/drinking aren't the ones for me....especially when those things are so easy to come by anyway. And I almost never need stimpacks so it doesn't matter much whether they heal instant or over time.

 

 

What things are you interested in changing? I could try to find which settings they are.

For instance Gameplay > Settings > the line fAVDActionPointsMult changes how many AP you get per point of Agility. Btw, I find the editor tends to seem like it's frozen when it loads a mod file, but give it a minute and it finishes loading.

 

Like I said before, I don't know much about the AI/actor/area scripting for making complex mods (that others would want) but most of the game global settings are easy 'fixes'. Gameplay > Settings are where all the main gobblygook lines for specific parameters, in list form. You just have to know which ones you're looking for. You can filter the massive list via keywords like XP or 'weight'. Change a setting, hit Save, and that's it. When you want to change it again, make sure you load your named esp file as the 'active file'.

 

If you want to mess with NPC's/items you look through the Object window list, (ie Actors/NPC/Caucasian/Male-->CraigBoone), see what weapons/scripts they use. I can then find Craig's weapon (WeapBooneSniperRifle) under Items/Weapon/Weapons/2handrifle and change its attack damage if I want. I haven't, but I could. heh. Or if I r-click on his name & Edit I can alter what inventory he'll carry. I can also change his SuperSniper 'class' SPECIAL/skill stats to make him stronger/weaker but that would also change any other NPC that uses that 'class'...I don't know if anyone else but Manny Vargas uses it, but cause I'm not sure, I don't mess with.

 

The cell view is where you open certain areas (like Boone's room in Novac) and can then see the list of objects/scripts in there and mess with them or drop copied/new objects into it. It's a lot of r-clicking and double-clicking...

[mkreku]

I played through the end game wearing my trusty spaceman suit. I had no trouble with the praetorians or that big baddie (forgot the name). I just kept leaping off a cliff if he got too close and kept shooting him in the face with the Gobi sniper rifle. In fact, the only creatures I thought were a challenge after level 15 (or so) were the cazadores. They moved so fast it was difficult to get in that first sneak shot, so I started using the All American on full auto instead. They die very quickly from that, even when in large groups.

 

Strangely enough, I was out sneaking with my new level 3 melee fighter last night, trying to reach Chance's grave when I met a horde of cazadores. In panic I started flailing my combat knife in front of me.. and they dropped like flies (pun not intended)! Apparently melee is very powerful against cazadores.

 

I wish they had split up the gun skill a bit more. I mean, it's not exactly the same technique to fire an Uzi at full auto as it is to hit a target at 300 m. using a scoped rifle.. It kind of feels like cheating to max out the gun skill and get access to everything from muskets to revolvers to Uzi's to Anti Material rifles. It's just too easy.

[sorophx]

right now I can't even get the GECK to work, it crashes every time. I'm just gonna pretend it doesn't exist

[LadyCrimson]

Normal difficulty seems fine for me. Unarmoured enemies are pansies, most animals are easy save giant radscorpions, cazadores & deathclaws as it should be. Veteran rangers & praetorian guards are very tough, especially in groups.

 

There's no reason to give these enemies more HP & damage output.

 

Then again, there's the Archimedes gun when **** really starts hitting the fan.

I think the ease of the game mostly (as always) depends on one's playstyle. For some reason, I'm not sure why (even w/out Boone/companions) once I got used to the way things work, this game is really easy for me....but there's plenty of games where everyone talks about how easy it was for them and I can barely kill the lowest monster in under 5 minutes. heh

[LadyCrimson]

right now I can't even get the GECK to work, it crashes every time. I'm just gonna pretend it doesn't exist

lol, that always works. So does self-gimping. I just don't want to have to use Varmit Rifle through the whole game or something. hehe

[Cantousent]

Something weird happened this game. In the previous two games, remote camp Delta was sacked by the legion by the time I got to Novac. This time, however, the camp is still safe and I've already been to all sorts of places. I went after the Legion and rescued some prisoners and knocked off a ton of Legion folk this time, so maybe that saves the camp?

[WorstUsernameEver]

I wish they had split up the gun skill a bit more. I mean, it's not exactly the same technique to fire an Uzi at full auto as it is to hit a target at 300 m. using a scoped rifle.. It kind of feels like cheating to max out the gun skill and get access to everything from muskets to revolvers to Uzi's to Anti Material rifles. It's just too easy.

 

Nah, splitting skills too much generates pretty huge balance problems and is rarely worth it. I think Josh did a good job with how he rearranged combat skills, though the balance kinda sucks and probably need at least a couple of months more to be perfected. In other words, the design tenets he followed are almost all good, but the execution is sometimes poor (energy weapons and high DPS top-tier guns are almost useless).

[Tale]

I wish they had split up the gun skill a bit more. I mean, it's not exactly the same technique to fire an Uzi at full auto as it is to hit a target at 300 m. using a scoped rifle.. It kind of feels like cheating to max out the gun skill and get access to everything from muskets to revolvers to Uzi's to Anti Material rifles. It's just too easy.

The game is practically designed so that players must split their equipment loadout between high dam and high DPS. What you're suggesting means the player would have to take two weapon skills by default. That seems slightly absurd, don't you think?

[Raithe]

hm, I tended to split mine into 1: Pistol, 3: Shotgun, 4:Melee Weapon, 5:Laser Pistol, 6: Rifle type, 7:Laser/Plasma rifle, 8: Heavy Weapon

 

 

I'll admit, Pew-Pew with the Meltdown Perk was kind of crazy... especially in enclosed spaces..

[Tale]

I could never fathom carrying that much around. Crikey, how much weight do you have?

[Raithe]

I was constantly running close to the carrying capacity. pick up a couple of things and then I was over the limit.. so was fairly constantly having to shuffle off and sell it or stash it.. and plenty of offloading onto companions.

 

Generally tried to make sure I had weapons that used the same ammo type as well.. rather then have hordes of different ammo.

[Gfted1]

I was constantly running close to the carrying capacity. pick up a couple of things and then I was over the limit.. so was fairly constantly having to shuffle off and sell it or stash it.. and plenty of offloading onto companions.

 

Generally tried to make sure I had weapons that used the same ammo type as well.. rather then have hordes of different ammo.

 

Im constantly on the ragged edge of encumbrance too and like you constantly have to shuffle stuff. Im a repair maniac too, just last night repairing my 10mm with another 10mm when mine was only 4% worn, just to get back under encumbrance. Thank god for ED-E or I would be one slow moving courier.

[Lexx]

I wish they had split up the gun skill a bit more. I mean, it's not exactly the same technique to fire an Uzi at full auto as it is to hit a target at 300 m. using a scoped rifle.. It kind of feels like cheating to max out the gun skill and get access to everything from muskets to revolvers to Uzi's to Anti Material rifles. It's just too easy.

 

Nah, splitting skills too much generates pretty huge balance problems and is rarely worth it. I think Josh did a good job with how he rearranged combat skills, though the balance kinda sucks and probably need at least a couple of months more to be perfected. In other words, the design tenets he followed are almost all good, but the execution is sometimes poor (energy weapons and high DPS top-tier guns are almost useless).

 

I didn't used energy weapons, but what about overcharged mfcs and co.? Shouldn't they compensate some damage?

[Tale]

Energy Weapons are fine, especially once you get to the high end. Plasma Defender is incredible, Guass is highest DAM weapon in the game that's not a unique. With the unique guns that are higher also being energy weapons.

 

Lasers just have trouble with armor. That's all. Plasma rifle isn't too thrilling, either, I'll admit. I found myself excelling with the Tri-Beam Laser Rifle in spite of all that, for a while.

Edited November 8, 2010 by Tale

[WorstUsernameEver]

I didn't used energy weapons, but what about overcharged mfcs and co.? Shouldn't they compensate some damage?

 

I didn't use energy weapons that much, so I didn't really have the chance to get a good feel of them, but my impression is here that, as expensive to feed as they are, using overcharged mfcs is an option that's quite more problematic than simply (for guns) taking out a high DAM weapon (and that's not even tackling AP ammo). Still, I think that some of the ideas behind EW mechanics are quite interesting, and I probably should have waited playing with them more before commenting.