Difficulty "normal" too hard?

[Dragon playing Dungeons & Humans]

Don´t know whats going on, i need to reload my savegame in nearly every fight, because i got always a huge lack on ammunition and healing stuff. Also i can´t bring down my enemys. I stand right in front of a Raider, shoot him 15 times in the Head with my Revolver like it shoot with a water gun. No wonder the Raider and his friends bring me down in seconds.

So what is the problem here? What am i doing wrong? I can´t remember a Fallout game that hard.

[ChewMunchy]

What is the condition of your weapon and what is your weapon skill for small guns? maybe you have low weapon skill or need to repair your revolver.

[Dragon playing Dungeons & Humans]

The Revolver is on 1/3 or 1/2 heatlh. And low weapon skill is about 40 now. I´m level 8.

[BondageSpider]

If you're talking about the .32 pistol, it's garbage. The main problem is you need a better gun.

Hunting Rifle does more damage with the same ammunition, but is too slow for close combat.

If you can't find the Assault Rifle or Chinese Assault Rifle yet, try finding a 10mm Pistol or 10mm Submachinegun. The Sawed-off Shotgun and Combat Shotgun are also good options, but it's hard to find replacements until you're higher level, when Raiders start carrying them more often.

The Sniper Rifle and Scoped .44 Magnum are hard to find, and ammo for them is always scarce. You'll probably want to save them for actual sniping, and not use them as your main weapons.

In this game, weapon skill level and weapon condition both make a huge difference in damage, so any skill points you can spare for Small Guns and Repair skills will make things much easier.

Good luck, I hope this helps.

[JtDarth]

By that level, you should never be using a .32 revolver, let alone one in that low of condition. Enemy HP and weapons scale based on your level. For some hard math: Assuming 100 small guns skill and 100% condition:
.32 pistol has base damage of 6, with all relevant perks, it's 11. With the reload kept in mind, it's base dps is 7.5. It's all relevant perks dps is 14.

Raiders on the other hand, at level 4 have 55 health (or 60 if carrying a melee weapon). That means that at base damage, it will take 10 shots from a fully repaired .32 to kill a single raider.
Level 9 raiders (which you can encounter as low as level 7, iirc) have 85 hp, with melee variant having 90.


Both the .32 pistol and the chinese 10mm, aside from unique variants, are useless in comparison to the 10mm pistol you get inside the vault, which is still just as common in the wastes as the .32 and chinese pistol. I'd reccomend you don't use either the chinese 10mm or the .32, as they share ammo types with common weapons that hit much harder.

[Dragon playing Dungeons & Humans]

Thanks for the help, guys. But i cheated me ammo for my assault-gun. And the fun is a bit back so far.

[350z]

I'm in a mission where I'm all out of Aid and bullets and I keep dying over and over again because of it. I found some, but they were just not enough to fight off a couple of fire ants. Really though, what the ♥♥♥♥ is this game?
And it goes like this. I have no caps. What do I need to do to get caps? Missions! I can't complete a mission because I don't have the caps to buy bullets and aid.

[Halcyform]

One of the reasons I like fallout 3 is because, while you have a main quest (and side quests), it's an open world without shining exclamation points dotting the landscape.

You have to be careful where you tread. It's very easy to [accidentally] walk into a situation that you're clearly not equipped to deal with.

Stealth, sniper, trap setter and scavenger is likely the ideal approach to use when first starting out. Once you get some gear, weapons and resources then you can consider taking a more "run and gun" approach with a lesser likelyhood of being killed.

It definitely helps to have some kind of plan when moving around. If you just run around, you're asking to get murdered.

As for caps, loot everything. Use megaton as a rally point (or other place of choosing) and sell everything you know you aren't going to use.

Additionally, fallout 3 has a few open ended type quests like the water purification plant technician (in megaton). If you collect scrap metal, he'll buy them off you for 10 caps each.

[DedZedNub]

Very easy to avoid the Fire Ants -- go into a building. In that Town where they hang out, almost all the good loot is in the buildings, and there is a good amount of it.

You'll find messages and books in some of the buildings. They hint about certain things. Like about the Ants' Antennae. Take it from there and watch some fireworks.

If you have the right armor, you can even sneak up on them, take some damage and kill them with melee. Also, they can't negotiate every ruin, and height can be a slight advantage. Guns are not everything. Some things you can throw. Run low on stuff, you can always investigate another building, take out some re-stocked Bandit location, and so on -- especially if you can sneak and catch them sleeping or unawares saving ammo. Then use their gear and trade for caps, or to fix up your weaponry, and take on more enemies.

But the Fire Ants is a large quest. Very little of it actually requires using a lot of ammo. Never hurts to learn how to use all explosives either. VATs can be very useful to use, aim at specific locations to gain advantage you want. Lead the Ants into other enemies. Some places are safe from Ant entry, they won't stick around forever to wait for you to exit.

The quest provides a way to cleanse the city eventually. Up to you to find out how or not.

[ghpstage]

Originally posted by KUTLiNE:

I'm in a mission where I'm all out of Aid and bullets and I keep dying over and over again because of it. I found some, but they were just not enough to fight off a couple of fire ants. Really though, what the ♥♥♥♥ is this game?
And it goes like this. I have no caps. What do I need to do to get caps? Missions! I can't complete a mission because I don't have the caps to buy bullets and aid.

I get most of my caps and necessities from selling/trading in weapons, armour, junk and even aid items, not quests.
If you have hit a wall there is no reason that you can't retreat, then level and stock up on items elsewhere before trying again.

[350z]

I sorted it out, guess I just had a rough start. I'm enjoying it a bit more now.

[azxcvbnm321]

The best early game weapon is the Rock-It-Launcher. It has very high damage and decently high rate of fire. It also uses ordinary junk as ammo so you never have to worry about getting enough ammo. Does cost a bit to get the specs, but you should be able to buy it if you save up and sell everything you don't need right away.

I really like Fallout 3 because the ammo is especially restricted and hard to get in the early game. Makes it suspenseful to go into a new area because you're not absolutely OP from the beginning. Also it's not automatically see an enemy, kill enemy and all others. You have to decide if a fight is worth it or not, why spend 300 caps of ammo if you can only get back 200 caps of stuff to sell? Do you really have to kill that bloatfly which will make you spend 10 ammo to kill? Just sneak past it.

[JtDarth]

Originally posted by azxcvbnm321:

The best early game weapon is the Rock-It-Launcher. It has very high damage and decently high rate of fire. It also uses ordinary junk as ammo so you never have to worry about getting enough ammo. Does cost a bit to get the specs, but you should be able to buy it if you save up and sell everything you don't need right away.

I really like Fallout 3 because the ammo is especially restricted and hard to get in the early game. Makes it suspenseful to go into a new area because you're not absolutely OP from the beginning. Also it's not automatically see an enemy, kill enemy and all others. You have to decide if a fight is worth it or not, why spend 300 caps of ammo if you can only get back 200 caps of stuff to sell? Do you really have to kill that bloatfly which will make you spend 10 ammo to kill? Just sneak past it.

Or, you know, use a bludgeon. No ammo use, same result against most low end enemies.

[Halcyform]

Or, you know, use a bludgeon. No ammo use, same result against most low end enemies.

Stealth melee is the way to go whenever possible - if you can avoid being spotted. I can see some folks not having the patience for it since it requires you to sit for a moment while you study enemy pathing.

To try and cut down on ammo usage, experiment with various weapons to see which is more effective.

Additionally, there's a trick you can use to make your shots a bit more accurate: Put up VATS and select an enemy (and specific shot target). Don't actually fire within VATS, though. Drop VATS and immediately fire off a shot. As long as you don't move your crosshairs, your shot will usually be right on target.

Not only can this make it easier to hit ranged targets, but VATS suspends time so you can take a moment to assess your situation if you get ambushed.

[JtDarth]

Originally posted by Halcyform:

Or, you know, use a bludgeon. No ammo use, same result against most low end enemies.

Stealth melee is the way to go whenever possible - if you can avoid being spotted. I can see some folks not having the patience for it since it requires you to sit for a moment while you study enemy pathing.

To try and cut down on ammo usage, experiment with various weapons to see which is more effective.

Additionally, there's a trick you can use to make your shots a bit more accurate: Put up VATS and select an enemy (and specific shot target). Don't actually fire within VATS, though. Drop VATS and immediately fire off a shot. As long as you don't move your crosshairs, your shot will usually be right on target.

Not only can this make it easier to hit ranged targets, but VATS suspends time so you can take a moment to assess your situation if you get ambushed.

I wasn't even talking about stealth.

[Halcyform]

Originally posted by JtDarth:

Originally posted by Halcyform:

Stealth melee is the way to go whenever possible - if you can avoid being spotted. I can see some folks not having the patience for it since it requires you to sit for a moment while you study enemy pathing.

To try and cut down on ammo usage, experiment with various weapons to see which is more effective.

Additionally, there's a trick you can use to make your shots a bit more accurate: Put up VATS and select an enemy (and specific shot target). Don't actually fire within VATS, though. Drop VATS and immediately fire off a shot. As long as you don't move your crosshairs, your shot will usually be right on target.

Not only can this make it easier to hit ranged targets, but VATS suspends time so you can take a moment to assess your situation if you get ambushed.

I wasn't even talking about stealth.

I didn't say you were. I merely added an addendum to your statement adding credence to a melee approach when it comes to saving resources.

Stealth melee is more effective, when possible, since you get bonus damage applied. If possible, it's easier to one shot something than to take damage when you don't have to.