FO: NV (General Discussion)

[LadyCrimson]

Hm...hm...I freed Nelson, but I don't think I did any Golf/Forlorn quests (never went back after getting them on my map) and only about half the McCarran ones (got bugged). Don't remember now tho, it's all a blur. Oh...I did do the This Machine in a non-NCR way because that one chick was bugged out, so for a bit I was a Smiling Troublemaker, but that was the only NCR infamy I had...then I had it all supposedly erased.

[entrerix]

yeah i got idolized by ncr and i wasnt even trying. i was just attempting to do every single quest i could get my mitts on and ended up being idolized by quite a few factions. (just like fallout 2...

[TheHarlequin]

So far I only found ED-E as a companion. I haven't missed anyone yet I hope? Keep in mind I have not got to vegas yet still mulling around the southern part of the map.

[Cantousent]

My current run is my most extensive. I have reached Idolized with Goodsprings, Boomers, and the NCR. I could probably get to be Idolized by the Followers if I just donated more drugs. I'm Liked by quite a few and villified by some. I've gone totally RPG in that I don't take quests I don't think the PC would take and I even ended up giving the chop to some NCR back room drug runner, although it didn't end up costing me rep. This time I took the Explorer perk. I know I know. It's probably not the best use of a perk, but I really rather don't like VATS and I want to scour the area. My PC is probably an explorer first and foremost anyhow. When I do my non armor wearing sneak guy next run, I might try to be friends with Caesar's Legion and see how that works out for me.

 

Harle, there are quite a few joinable NPCs. If you fulfil the preconditions to have them join, then the option will become available in chat. Probably the most obvious one is in Novac. Do you want spoilers for joinable NPCs?

Edited November 12, 2010 by Cantousent

[Tale]

You're at the second (main quest) town in the game. No you haven't missed anyone.

[Thorton_AP]

ED-E is indeed the first one if you don't go madly off the beaten path.

[LadyCrimson]

I'm normally a "good" type, but I wonder what would happen if you were Vilified by every faction. Would it break the game or is there a plan for that...

[CoM_Solaufein]

Went back to my other computer and started a new game after it was updated. So far so good. I don't think it likes ATI Crossfire though, performance increased when I disabled the other card. Installed some mods. FOOK removes that stupid invisible barrier in the mountians.

[mkreku]

I actually found all seven snow globes on my first playthrough. They are in no way hidden, as the bobbleheads were in Fallout 3. It may be sacrilege to say this here, but I actually preferred the instant gratification I felt when finding another bobblehead and getting the stat boots. Snow globes are fine and all, but caps..?

[Starwars]

Well, I think you could basically transform finding a snowglobe and turning it in for caps into raising a stat. I think the reward/cost for implant is the same if I remember correctly? Or maybe not.

 

I wasn't a big fan of neither bobbleheads or snowglobes I must say. For some reason though I found myself scouring locations for the Sunset Sarsparilla caps.

[sorophx]

you need only 51 of those

[Pop]

Awesome news, everybody!

 

Now if someone would just buy all the assets and then launch them into the sun...

 

Related: Bethesda's next (non-core team) game will use id Tech 5.

[Humanoid]

I'd be concerned that it might cause the sun to crash to desktop and go supernova, or at the very least, start to splutter.

[Cantousent]

The problem with the change from bobbleheads to snowglobes is not only do the snowglobes net the character something virtually useless, they net the character something that is almost sure to be entirely useless by the time he can cash them in. It's not just caps. It's caps after the midgame crit path.

[Pop]

Better than magic toys that boost your stats... Really it seems like they exist to give you capital with which to purchase the magic implants. Something tells me Sawyer didn't intend for them to be much more than flavor.

[Serrano]

I'm normally a "good" type, but I wonder what would happen if you were Vilified by every faction. Would it break the game or is there a plan for that...

 

There is an ending that still makes perfect sense if you are universally hated so I'm guessing you can't break the game that way.

[Cantousent]

I actually don't disagree with that. I guess... okay... alright, I look at it this way, the good thing about the bobbleheads is that they provide something neat for the players to collect during the game. The problem with them is that many of them are fairly easy to find early in Fallout 3 and they provide a substantial benefit. I can't remember offhand how much they give to each skill, but 15 springs to mind. Whatever it was, it was a big bump in a skill system that maxes out at one hundred. I seem to recall that they gave a bump to SPECIAL stats also.

 

The snowglobes provide a solution by providing a collectible item that doesn't unbalance the game by yielding these big bumps in skills and stats. The downside is that they really don't give the player any practical incentive to collect them.

 

Now, I think I don't think I was very clear in my earlier post because I identified a problem. The truth is, I haven't gone out of my way to find snowglobes, but I didn't really go out of my way to collect bobbleheads either. The only thing I can say is that I do get a kick out finding snowglobes, but it isn't really a draw for me. I mean, it's kind of a cool little gimmicky thing that I enjoy for what it is. For someone like me, who enjoys the game so greatly already, it doesn't provide much of a draw. That's probably because I'm already hooked before I see my first snowglobe. ...And I've only found two anyhow.

[WDeranged]

I actually found all seven snow globes on my first playthrough. They are in no way hidden, as the bobbleheads were in Fallout 3. It may be sacrilege to say this here, but I actually preferred the instant gratification I felt when finding another bobblehead and getting the stat boots. Snow globes are fine and all, but caps..?

 

I miss the bobbleheads too, there's a few mods that put them back in though, I'm thinking I'll try this one.

[Gromnir]

the game looks and plays and Feels like fallout 3... with some minor cosmetic changes. the cosmetic changes is appreciated, but hardly represent a sea change for the franchise.

 

is strange that the game is both more varied and yet less distinct than its predecessor. fallout 3 did sometimes feel as if one were playing an oblivion game wherein buildings and "dungeons" were disturbingly familiar. nevertheless, the dc setting were cleverly replicated, taking full advantage o' the dizzying number o' well-known landmarks in the area. at the same time, the developers utilized their intimate familiarity with the locale to give DC a personality that new vegas does not have. new vegas has kewl vaults with aggressive flora and air force bases manned by the post-apocalyptic progeny o' the evil midnight bomber what bombs at midnight... but it just don't breathe like fallout 3 did.

 

having roamed the wasteland Before going to new vegas, we has uncovered much o' the game content, but am hopeful that there is larger and more complex quests as part o' the Mr. House portion o' the game.

 

...

 

am simply not "getting" fo3 the way some folks is... and the tech issues is particular disturbing in an xbox game. is fun... but not noticeably more fun than fo3 were. this ain't a vastly better rp experience than fo3. minor cosmetic changes and a more stale setting results in a very small net gain.

 

HA! Good Fun!

 

ps vats were rendered largely irrelevant for ranged weapons by making the iron sights option so darn powerful... the irony being that Obsidian's tinkering with vats further removes fo:nv from its turn-based ancestry.

Edited November 13, 2010 by Gromnir

[Cantousent]

For all our differences of opinion over the years, Gromnir, our tastes in games has always been by and large the same. I'm surprised to find that your New Vegas experiences are so different from my own.

 

Two things in particular come to mind: the nature of the Las Vegas area and the rpg aspect of the game.

 

To take the latter first, I guess it depends on what you mean by role playing. If you simply mean playing the role of your character, I think New Vegas does marginally better, but I don

[RPGmasterBoo]

the game looks and plays and Feels like fallout 3... with some minor cosmetic changes. the cosmetic changes is appreciated, but hardly represent a sea change for the franchise.

 

is strange that the game is both more varied and yet less distinct than its predecessor. fallout 3 did sometimes feel as if one were playing an oblivion game wherein buildings and "dungeons" were disturbingly familiar. nevertheless, the dc setting were cleverly replicated, taking full advantage o' the dizzying number o' well-known landmarks in the area. at the same time, the developers utilized their intimate familiarity with the locale to give DC a personality that new vegas does not have. new vegas has kewl vaults with aggressive flora and air force bases manned by the post-apocalyptic progeny o' the evil midnight bomber what bombs at midnight... but it just don't breathe like fallout 3 did.

 

having roamed the wasteland Before going to new vegas, we has uncovered much o' the game content, but am hopeful that there is larger and more complex quests as part o' the Mr. House portion o' the game.

 

...

 

am simply not "getting" fo3 the way some folks is... and the tech issues is particular disturbing in an xbox game. is fun... but not noticeably more fun than fo3 were. this ain't a vastly better rp experience than fo3. minor cosmetic changes and a more stale setting results in a very small net gain.

 

Trust me, at some point the world will click together. There was more thought put in areas, factions, etc. than is readily apparent. FO3 never breathed for me, at all.

As for the role playing that's what happens from Mr.House/Yes Man/NCR/Legion onwards.

Finally, yes, the cool **** syndrome is in full swing - and that's really impossible to dispute. There will probably never be a Fallout game where the silliness is kept to a minimum.

[Gromnir]

am not having the familiarity o' vegas as does cant, so we is left with ordinary tourists' knowledge... same goes for dc. as between fo3 dc and fo:nv's vegas, we will take dc. maybe cant loves his nevada wasteland, but am thinking that if the obsidians had told us that the game were set in texas, or northern california, or even a post-apocalyptic kentucky, we woulda' found not much more or less convincing. is hard to accept, but Obsidian's fo:nv setting were surprising generic.

 

as for he factions, perhaps we is jaded, but color us unimpressed... so far. do a handful o' fed-ex quests for the boomers and you gets idolized. kill some powder gangers and you is vilified. go to vegas and suddenly your reputation slate is set to neutral no matter how many legionaries you has slaughtered along the way. really? 'course it does appear as if there is a very complex set o' options for dealing with the various factions in new vegas, and we look forward to exploring those options. nevertheless, as somebody who explored much o' the wasteland without entering vegas itself, we ain't been particularly impressed with the options made available to us... and some resolutions and options seems kinda counter-intuitive.

 

the npcs is typically falloutesque... which means that they is quirky w/o much depth... and that is ok. the fo universe has managed to become quite popular w/o having particularly compelling characters, and fo:nv will not alter that trend. maybe the game gets far more interesting once you explore all the vegas stuff, but the ghoul cultists and strung-out supermutants just ain't changing our perspective regarding fo character development.

 

is a fun game... is just not significant better than fo3. honestly, we thinks that the changes obsidian made to kotor were more impressive and meaningful, but the ending o' that game were so bad that the positives were somewhat obscured by avellone's craptacular kotor2 conclusion. does fo3 have the traditional obsidian denouement disappointment? hope not.

 

HA! good Fun!

[Pop]

is strange that the game is both more varied and yet less distinct than its predecessor. fallout 3 did sometimes feel as if one were playing an oblivion game wherein buildings and "dungeons" were disturbingly familiar. nevertheless, the dc setting were cleverly replicated, taking full advantage o' the dizzying number o' well-known landmarks in the area. at the same time, the developers utilized their intimate familiarity with the locale to give DC a personality that new vegas does not have.

Wait a second, how does FO3 capture the personality of DC? I mean that honestly. There's nothing about FO3 that screamed "DC" to me. For the profoundly easy task of including well-known landmarks in their game, I give Bethesda a polite golf clap. Obsidian's attention to detail matches or exceeds Bethsoft's. Goodspring's layout, the ironic design of Nipton (if that ain't "clever replication" nothing is), etc. Ain't a lot of obvious, phallic monuments to tickle your geography prostate. Sorry! But, you know, MY IMMERSION and all that. Fair point to you on gameplay design, but it's pretty tiring having to read how the terrain around Lake Mead fails to capture and express the essence of jade or whatever. Just say "I find deserts to be boring", or "I wish Vegas had more buildings I feel are important enough to know about".

 

 

ps vats were rendered largely irrelevant for ranged weapons by making the iron sights option so darn powerful... the irony being that Obsidian's tinkering with vats further removes fo:nv from its turn-based ancestry.

Was a return to turn-based combat ever part of Obsidian's approach to FO:NV? I don't believe it ever was, but maybe there's a quote out there that proves me wrong (I'm sure you've got a whole mess of Sawyer quotes just lying around). Given that, I fail to see much irony. Breaking: Company fails to fulfill imaginary goals, more on this at 11.

Edited November 13, 2010 by Pop

[Pop]

PS all the caves / mines / canyons / mountains / lakes in NV are real places. What constitutes "full advantage" of landmarks?

[Labadal]

Recruited Arcade. He kills enemies faster than me.