Why You Should Never Play Hardcore

[LukeTheSp00k]

So far my first playthrough of thie game has been nothing but heartbreak and lonliness for my character.

My first companion was Boone, but he died 5 minutes after I recruited him when, after speaking to the NCR questgiver outside Nelson, Legion Assassins came up behind me and, him being closer to them than me as a result, got killed very quickly.

Then I found Veronica up the highway and she stuck with me for a bit while I did quests out of MacCarran, but when I went to kill Cook-Cook her AI obviously doesn't have the finesse to deal with a flamethrower and she got roasted.

I next found Raul, but there was basically no way a guy with a revolver and some clothes was going to stand up to Brotherhood soldiers with Gauss Rifles so he was left dead in the entrace lobby along with a huge pileup of dead Paladins. And it's not like I was an idiot and went in there thinking he should try to take on Brotherhood troops, I had no intention of killing them when I set out to find them.

Then I fixed ED-E and found Cass, and they followed me through a bunch of questing as I worked my way back to Las Vegas. Because I'd had the chance to actually talk to Cass she was the only companion I ever got to know.

Then the Boomers blew her and ED-E apart with their ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ howitzers and I proceeded to go on a genocidal revenge streak by hunting down and killing every single Boomer at Nellis Air Base.

I thought Hardcore would be a cool experience. It's just tragic.

Don't do it.

[ZeFF]

maybe, Hardcore is for speedrun ....... :D

[poo]

stop being a lil' b!tch

[talgaby]

*sigh* People are too used to immortal companions it seems.
Yes, in hardcore, companions also add a permanent escort mission to the game; this is one thing the player has to decide whether it is worth it or not. The plus side is experiencing their stories and having another person who shoots for you and not at you. The downside is that you need to manage and protect them.
By the way, when their AI works, Boone and Veronica can wreck a lot of high-threat enemies by themselves. Veronica is notorious of punching small packs of deathclaws to death without much trouble.

[Vex Hilarius]

Besides companions dying I enjoy hardcore mode. It doesn't make the game harder imo but you can't just pick up useful items and hoard them anymore, you actually have to use them.

[Dustin81]

Veronica also is pretty good with energy weapons, though you normally wouldn't know that since her default weapons are neither.

[Vassago Rain]

Oh no, it's recommended to make a quicksave before every major battle.

Whatever shall we do?

[Zaphod]

I find Hardcore to be more satisfying in every way, i believe it is how they intended us to play the game. Sorry 'bout your companions. I'll agree with that, sometimes thier AI gets the better of them, I was/am just very careful about where i let them follow me.

[max.wolf]

You can always reload to save them. And tell them to wait outside the dangerous spots... like the... *ominous music* ...deathclaw promontory!!!

[numsei]

i think this guy never heard of quickload, wrote all this wall of text, but in the end all he had to do was.... press F9

[LukeTheSp00k]

Originally posted by Vassago Rain:

Oh no, it's recommended to make a quicksave before every major battle.

Whatever shall we do?

I don't save scum.

[Bansheebutt]

Then there's nothing to really say about this because every situation you mentioned could have been easily avoided, especially the Boomers.

[LukeTheSp00k]

Originally posted by Bansheebot:

Then there's nothing to really say about this because every situation you mentioned could have been easily avoided, especially the Boomers.

It's a bit dumb to have to leave companions behind before going into areas that are actually dangerous, that's counter to what companions are supposed to be for. But since the AI is nowhere near as good as the player, there's no way a killable NPC can survive in a situation where they are outnumbered by high level enemies. The player CAN do that, that's why those fights exist, but the AI can't, and that's why in Normal mode the companions can't die.

[Bansheebutt]

You lost Boone, vocal Legion-hater, to the Legion because you pissed off the Legion and they sent their best men after you. You just recruited Boone so I'm guessing he was wearing a T-Shirt when he was shot to death by High-powered weaponry.

You apparently left Veronica in her very flammable default rags prior to assaulting a guy with a flamethrower. A fight which you have to instigate since he's a bit out of the way and normally keeps to himself. Veronica is ordinarlly one of the most deadly companions in close-quarters so I don't know how else she could have possibly lost to a Flamethrower, a fairly weak weapon.

I actually can't recall any way to be immediately hostile to the BoS upon first meeting them as you had. I'm guessing you were wearing NCR armour. That one isn't as immediately obvious assuming you haven't been asking questions, but you could probably infer that you shouldn't wear faction armour around factions that you don't know the relationship between.

In what Action Movie does The Hero with their Plot Armour tell their entourage to *follow* them into the incredibly dangerous area? In this case, an active Bombing Range? The Wait function exists for a reason.

[LukeTheSp00k]

Originally posted by Bansheebot:

You lost Boone, vocal Legion-hater, to the Legion because you pissed off the Legion and they sent their best men after you. You just recruited Boone so I'm guessing he was wearing a T-Shirt when he was shot to death by High-powered weaponry.

You apparently left Veronica in her very flammable default rags prior to assaulting a guy with a flamethrower. A fight which you have to instigate since he's a bit out of the way and normally keeps to himself.

I actually can't recall any way to be immediately hostile to the BoS upon first meeting them as you had. I'm guessing you were wearing NCR armour. That one isn't as immediately obvious assuming you haven't been asking questions, but you could probably infer that you shouldn't wear faction armour around factions that you don't know the relationship between.

In what Action Movie does The Hero with their Plot Armour tell their entourage to *follow* them into the incredibly dangerous area? In this case, an active Bombing Range? The Wait function exists for a reason.

If I hadn't put armour on Veronica she wouldn't have lasted any of the other fights we were in either. A melee char needs armour. Unfortunately, since she always runs ahead of me, in the Cook-Cook situation she got focussed fired. We got rid of the guards around Cook-Cook but they'd shot the ♥♥♥♥ out of her. The AI doesn't treat enemies any differently when its damaged so she just charged at Cook-Cook after that. A few seconds of flame and that was the rest of her health gone.

If Veronica is with you I think the BoS is more accepting. If you go without her, they basically tell you to surrender or die and there's no option to simply leave, so I chose the later but didn't die because I had a rocket launcher. I was swimming in equipment and ammo after looting their bunker but, again, Raul's AI can't dodge Gauss Rifle shots like I can.

I'll admit the Boomer thing was very much my own fault, but it was a noob's mistake. When the guy said there was a train tunnel to the south I could go through instead, I thought it might net me a bonus mini dungeon or something if I went that way, but I thought he meant the train tracks next to the road, not the train tracks all the way around the far side of the mountain. The tracks next to the road are just part of the kill zone. I jumped like a jackrabbit to get out of the artillery fire and I managed to get away after realizing my mistake, but the AI is obviously not that nimble.

[soyforce]

Originally posted by numsei:

i think this guy never heard of quickload, wrote all this wall of text, but in the end all he had to do was.... press F9

pretty much. given how frequently this game crashes most people end up quicksaving every 3-5 minutes without realizing it.

also, you should give your companions good armor and weapons. boone with high DT armor and an explosive round AMR will be more than a match for most normal enemies. doing the companion quests for some can also increase how much damage they can survive. mostly though, avoid bad situations like fighting deathclaws or cazadors while you're with companions.