FO: NV (Spoilers)

[Guest Slinky]

Melee is hard to play only because of weapon repair. Take that away, and it breaks the game. Humanoid enemies became irrelevant like, ten levels ago.

 

Bad game balancing.

Hmm, I guess. But I take this over the horrible level scaling in beth games any time, anywhere. I was really glad when I noticed enemies didn't magically upgrade their equipment when the player gains levels, but of course that then means less challenge.

 

Otherwise I love it but I woudn't be sad if gaining levels would be little slower though.

[HoonDing]

Is the Shishkebab still in the game? That's all one needed in FO3.

[Starwars]

I've only seen the shish-kebab one time so far, when Legion assassains came after me fairly late in the game. One of them wielded a shish-kebab (and he shish-kebabed Rex rather quickly I might add).

 

I'm personally pretty happy with the difficulty level. I died a lot on my first playthrough and it still happened once in a while on my third one. Trouble with these kinds of games are of course also that you learn the gameworld fairly quickly. I thought the Cazadors was just another version of the bloatfly basically when I first saw one and it pwnd me so hard. Now I know how to approach them. First time when I was gonna wipe out the BoS I was with the NCR, got the BoS quest to kill the NCR ranger. I figured, what the hey, might as well see where it goes (instead of attacking the BoS outright I mean). But when I didn't kill the NCR ranger, 4 BoS guys strode into the bunker and killed me real hard. Had to reload a bunch of times to get through that.

There's also the possibility of stumbling upon powerful weapons of course. And once you know where you can find it, well... That again trivializes many things when replaying.

 

There are many things that I think could be toughened up a bit, but generally speaking I think they did quite a good job on the NV difficulty.

[LadyCrimson]

Snipers are definitely balance breaking too, imo....but since I love sniping, I don't care. There's nothing like taking down Cottonwood Cove at lvl 3 by sniping, and all those named Legion guys can do is run around the buildings like aimless chickens because they can't see me squatting at the top of the hill.

 

I did try melee once, and only once, so I do kinda know what you mean, tho. I had maybe 17melee skill, was lvl1, and I took a half-broken baseball bat to three Viper bandits or some such (not deathclaws, but hey, I was lvl1) and it seemed to break their arms in 1 swing, causing them to drop their guns and then they were dead. (edit) I can definitely see if you build w/melee in mind you'd be a powerhouse. I just don't find melee emotionally satisfying, that's all.

Edited November 19, 2010 by LadyCrimson

[HoonDing]

I mostly found myself reloading when one of my companions died, which didn't happen a lot. But some dungeons -like the one with the legendary cazador- use a scriped event that suddenly spawns several of them (including the legendary one) around you, even when you're sneaking. Had to reload a lot there to keep Cass alive.

 

Dead Wind Cavern was a pain too... as someone posted earlier Veronica has no chance there. Deathclaws have a very long reach and their attacks knock you back. Without perks like paralyzing palm you're simply toast.

Edited November 20, 2010 by virumor

[LadyCrimson]

Trouble with these kinds of games are of course also that you learn the gameworld fairly quickly. I thought the Cazadors was just another version of the bloatfly basically when I first saw one and it pwnd me so hard. Now I know how to approach them.

Largely agree, hindsight is always 20/20. I certainly wasn't trying to plink Cottonwood cove at lvl 3 on my first playthrough. heh

It's what I love about this game tho...for me even when I know how to do something, how to do a quest, there's so many different ways to approach it combat wise (even when using the same weapons tactics) that I can do it over and over and still giggle.

 

I mostly found myself reloading when one of my companions died, which didn't happen a lot. But some dungeons -like the one with the legendary cazador- use a scriped event that suddenly spawns several of them (including the legendary one) around you, even when you're sneaking. Had to reload a lot there to keep Cass alive.

Yeah, I had to reload there a few times too. Close quarters is my enemy. I finally had to use a Stealthboy to get to the top ridge (still had to fight the smaller ones on the way) and it seemed to confuse the legendary one enough that I could snipe it from there.

Edited November 20, 2010 by LadyCrimson

[Thorton_AP]

I'm kinda glad you can't melee Deathclaws. Who in their right mind would try that?

Of course you can melee Deathclaws.

It just takes few perks and a sensible weapon.

In fallout 1&2 it required a power armor but now that it is meaningless it easier than ever.

 

 

I watched a friend of mine melee a deathclaw to death in FO1 with a knife and the leather jacket.

Which one?

The respawning ones near gun runners would kill player in 2 criticals and attacked up to 3 times per turn so that would take plenty reloads for sever criticals to occur.

If you mean the quest releated one in hub then he was wounded at start IIRC.

 

 

I think it was the one in Hub. He would poke it, and had enough movement points that he just ran away and the deathclaw couldn't keep up.

[Orchomene]

Nothing like a decapitation with spiked knuckles.

[Cantousent]

Many thanks, Lady. I didn't realize that I could even get Rex as a companion. Damn it, I never even got to all those dialogue options with the King in multiple runs. I mean, how dumb is that?! Anyhow, thanks again. Now to go help out my doggy friend. :Cant's happy to help mans best friend icon:

[Tigranes]

Veronica with Paladin Toaster is explosively good, but also fragile in her original robes - need to get her something else, fast. Now that I'm taking the time to look at every nook and cranny I've found dozens of locations I missed the first time.

 

I'm finding that deathclaws are really, really scary when you're just level 10 or so. You end up running over hills and lakes and jumping across cliffs and such all over the map, looking back to see if you've lost them and then running some more. There's pretty much nothing you can do to avoid death at low levels if they get close enough to you. As it should be.

[LadyCrimson]

@cant - I know, it's crazy, isn't it? Even pre-Vegas-main-plot, where I've spent a lot more time, I still come across the occasional quest I missed or skipped (and forgot I'd skipped) before. I think I read there's over 150 known quests...even if you can't do them all in one run, that's still a heck of a lot to discover.

[Tale]

I got the achievement for getting banned from all casinos before I got banned from Vikki and Vance. *shrug*

 

Wait, maybe it's just for Strip casinos. That would explain it.

Edited November 21, 2010 by Tale

[LadyCrimson]

That Contreras quest is really buggy. Even when I pass the skill check the guy in the store never gives me the option to 'work with him' and I didn't have to hack Contreras' terminal in order to get Boyd to arrest him, among other things. But I finally figured out how to get This Machine without taking an NCR rep hit/losing him as a merchant.

 

I also discovered if you kill Contreras you get all his money, including any you spent buying all his stuff. You can abuse that quite badly if you want, if you don't care about him being a merchant rest of the game. Plus you can still turn him into Boyd, and his corpse ends up lying in the jail cell floor! haha!

Edited November 21, 2010 by LadyCrimson

[Cantousent]

I never knew all that LC. I always ended up offing him because I said I'd turn him in and he attacks me. Not the sharpest tool in the shed, eh?

[LadyCrimson]

I think you have to do the small quests for Contreras 'til he gives you the package to give to the guy in a shop in Freeside. Then you can tell Boyd you have proof, and she'll reward you without further delay/no computer hacking. Or kill him first then tell her. But if you want to keep him as a merchant you have to say 'goodbye' to the ncr in the store before he tries to arrest you, tell Contr., and then go back to store & use stealth to kill him. No rep hit.

Edited November 21, 2010 by LadyCrimson

[sorophx]

I persuaded the NCr guy in the store to keep quiet for a small share of profit, when I came back to Contreras, he thanked me and ended the quest. I never got the discount though

[LadyCrimson]

That's my point about it being buggy. For me that option was never available, even tho I had enough to pass any checks. If I clicked on the check sentence option, he'd just arrest me w/no other dialogue/opportunity to get out of it and if I didn't want to be immediately arrested I'd have to kill him in the open, taking the rep hit.

[HoonDing]

I wouldn't waste much time with any McCarran quests. Especially the monorail one, heh. Reload 20 times to make it to the monorail in time to defuse the bomb, only to see it *still* explode ten seconds after departing? Yeh sorry, Colonel, but I'm outta here.

Edited November 22, 2010 by virumor

[LadyCrimson]

Yeah, I do skip the monorail one. I like having that route into Vegas still intact.

[Cantousent]

It's a matter of waiting long enough to hear the plan. If you don't do it just right, you can't reach the monorail in time even if you reach it several seconds before it heads out and explodes.

[LadyCrimson]

Side note: with my low exp. modding, I have to do as many quests as I can in order to level up. My 'only slightly modded' main current chr. has done almost all of the non-Legion quests from the area south of New Vegas/Freeside (Red Rock, all the NCR camps, McCarran/CrimsonCaravan, Searchlight/Cottonwood etc) and killed many monsters over and over, and she's still only lvl 14. I find it satisfying tho.

 

My heavily modded, mod-testing, goof off 'what if' character just runs around blowing things up & ignores most quests in favor of wanton death & destruction.

[HoonDing]

I actually pickpocketed the activation code from Cpt Curtis right away, but had no option to confront him about it, nor could I report to Boyd or Hsu. I also tried sneaking up the stairs in the tower numerous times in order to overhear Curtis, but each time he went to [CAUTION] immediately even with 100 in Sneak. It's a pretty badly designed quest.

Edited November 22, 2010 by virumor

[Cantousent]

What I did, which requires way too much in terms of timing, is towait outside and follow him inside. Then I stood at the bottom of the stairs until he finished talking. Then I confronted anf killed him. Finally, I went to the tram and to the vent with the codes I got off his body. If you don't follow more or less the same plan, in my experience, you fail. I had the damndest time figuring out what was wrong with defusing the bomb and after *a lot* of trial and error, that's what I did and it's the only thing that seems to work consistently.

[Rosbjerg]

I had the monorail explode, but continued - it didn't seem to have a big effect on the game.. The NCR repaired in in a week or so.

[Humanoid]

Was a weird one for me - did the usual up to the point where you're supposed to stake out the tower at night. Since it was the middle of the day I headed over and figured I may as well enter the tower to check it out for later. Oddly enough the guy was in there already and the eavesdropping script ran straight away - I was at the base of the stairs, not even in sneak mode. As soon as the script finished I had the quest info update and left the tower - didn't confront the guy or anything. Went to the monorail and defused it no problem, it left and didn't explode.

 

Didn't even know it was a problematic quest until I went back and read the spoiler thread retrospectively.

Edited November 22, 2010 by Humanoid