VATS vs. no-VATS

[Fifteen]

I'm just curious how other people choose to play the game. Since after my first playthrough of FO3 I stopped using VATS. My second playthrough of FO3 wasn't all that great with free-aim but the experience felt much more open world to me. Now that I'm playing through FO:NV again it seems like a much better experience.

Do any of you guys omit using VATS? Why or why not?

[Ace]

I only use vats for fast movers like cazadors

[Bansheebutt]

I too use vats pretty much exclusively for fast movers and enemies that are really close to me. Or if im just lazy

The reason for this being: the erratic ai and animations of bethesda games does not work well with full on FPS action.

[talgaby]

Depends on situation. But mainly for close-range non-melee combat. Although since I tend to use pistols only, it happens quite often if I'm not sneaking.

[Maarten]

i use it on cazadors and love to use it to shoot up explosive wearing people. boom goes the dynamite^^

[Antar]

I don't think you need vats at all to play this game, same like people above, I use it only sometimes in messy situations and on fast enemies. Main problems I have with vats:

1. There is a short (a second?) time delay when jumping in and out of vats. During this second, you are defenseless, your enemies can move and attack you while you can't do literally anything.

2. The accuracy in vats is a joke, even if you learn perks to improve it. Especially at long distances, you are SO much better off with manual aim, even with crap weapons with no sights...

I like the concept of vats, I believe it can be done much better with newer engine. Fingers crossed, Fallout 4!

[talgaby]

Originally posted by Antar:

I like the concept of vats, I believe it can be done much better with newer engine. Fingers crossed, Fallout 4!

It'll be a simple bullet time based on what we know, so if you meant that, you'll have it.

[NuPe]

i use VATS when the situation calls for it tbh...

since my current playthrough is unarmed, and in VATS you can select 2 additional attacks (which have their own uses), i do use VATS a lot, it's a very easy way to burn down a single mob faster than you could do it without

Originally posted by Antar:

I don't think you need vats at all to play this game, same like people above, I use it only sometimes in messy situations and on fast enemies. Main problems I have with vats:

1. There is a short (a second?) time delay when jumping in and out of vats. During this second, you are defenseless, your enemies can move and attack you while you can't do literally anything.

2. The accuracy in vats is a joke, even if you learn perks to improve it. Especially at long distances, you are SO much better off with manual aim, even with crap weapons with no sights...

I like the concept of vats, I believe it can be done much better with newer engine. Fingers crossed, Fallout 4!

1: false, although there is a delay when targeting a mob for some unknown reason... everything freezes as soon as you begin the VATS "zoom in" animation

2: VATS isn't meant as a be all end all, obviously free aim will have some advantages over VATS, VATS is useful for rapid hits where it would be particularly risky to try free aim the hits instead, makes it easier to pick off ideal targets

[Antar]

Originally posted by talgaby:

It'll be a simple bullet time based on what we know, so if you meant that, you'll have it.

I did not read any details yet and I probably wont until release, it's spoilers for me :-) Fallout had something like vats from the beginning, so I consider being able to cripple limbs and shoot off body parts to be a vital part of Fallout. So as long as that is included all is fine by me. If they'll bring back shooting off testicles, eyes etc then they'll get a standing ovation.

[Neutralize]

VATS is good for the third-person, point blank dead zone in aiming or if you're getting rushed/overwhelmed. It's also good if for whatever reason you really wanna target out a specific limb (gimb people, disarm them, etc.), as well as for grenades sometimes, since they have a tendency to bounce in some wacky ass ways.
Lastly, it's a bit cheesy, but you can use it to pause the action and then while holding the button, flip from target to target while zoomed back and have much better situational awareness than what you get from just some non-descript red markings on your compass. That being said, I seldom use it other than for those reasons, and manual aiming is more reliable/rewarding overall, imo. I'd rather use my AP's to sprint for cover or slow time and mow mofos down (modded game).

[Fulcrum]

I rarely used VATS when I played Fallout 3, because it is almost an FPS game and using an assistant system like VATS in FPS is pretty weird, in my opinion. However, some hostile are hard to defeat with manually shots, Glowing Ones is an good example. You can't just stop their fast movements by shooting them. Therefore, I still use VATS when I encounter specific monsters like I mentioned.

[Cypress, Master Spy of IKEA]

I used to use VATs all the time, but I almost completely stopped when I found Bullet Time mods. That pretty much removes the need for VATs.

[Vita, Mortis, Careo]

Being a mockery of turn-based combat, VATS makes me throw up a little in my mouth every time it is used. So, no, I do not use it.