Questions on Intensive Training Perk

[ReadyToPlay]

How useful is the Intensive Training Perk, which lets you raise your S.P.E.C.I.A.L stats? Since you only get a perk at every other level, unlike in Fallout 3 where you do at every level, you only get half the perks in NV as in FO3. When I played FO3, I could afford to pick the IT perk frequently. But in NV, I'm not so sure. Say you finish NV at Level 30, you will only have picked 15 perks. Will it be wise to spend 10 of them on IT (max usage of IT is 10)?? I'm not so sure. NV clearly wants you to weigh your decisions. To those who have finished or may have replayed NV, is there a verdict on how frequent you should pick the IT perk?

The S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats are such an iconic thing in the Fallout series that I hate to think that players would avoid improving it. Makes me think that future Fallout games may do away S.P.E.C.I.A.L. If players don't need it, no need to keep it in the game. Bethesda already got rid of the attribute system in the Elder Scrolls games, and could do the same to S.P.E.C.I.A.L.

[Old Iron Johnson]

You should really try to get a SPECIAL setup that'll let you get all the perks you want without intense training. Extra points generally aren't worth it relative to more perks.

[Yung Matt]

Let's say for arguements sake you built your character like this: 6 STR 6 PER 7 END 1 CHA 8 INT 7 AGI 5 LU (I didn't come up with that build, Mauno suggests it in a guide). That gives you enough strength to wield most weapons, a good compass range and access to all useful perks affected by Perception, and yes enough Endurance to raise the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats as you see fit. Not only that, but your intelligence is high enough to net you lots of skill points and your agility level of 7 lets you pick all relevant perks except Tunnel Runner. Finally your luck with a certain piece of clothing you can get at Mick & Ralphs allows you to even win at gambling pretty frequently.

Now, where does Intense Training fit into that picture? In practice it does not because there's really no reason to pick it with all the other benefits you could at any time be getting from other, better perks...

But you'll probably ignore this advice and pick IT anyway, nothing actually wrong with that of course.

Now I'll try to answer your question, I think taking the perk two times would probably not hurt very much, but you'd need to balance that with the understanding that there are alternatives to Intense Training, such as Small Frame. That at least integrates nicely into the character creation process itself. Food for thought... :)

[psychotron666]

I'd say they're more useful than those "X and Y skill get +5 added to them". So if you take into account the retarded people that take those perks, than a few 'wasted' perks on intesive training isnt that bad.

Personally i dont find intesive training a waste if you take it, say 3 or 4 times? With all the DLC the max level is 50, so you got 25 perks to pick from, which is A LOT for a single character.

I remember my friend when he first got new vegas (long before the DLC), he spent his first 20 levels getting intensive training. Now THAT is a waste (especially when the max was level 30 at the time).

[Yung Matt]

Originally posted by psychotron666:

I'd say they're more useful than those "X and Y skill get +5 added to them". So if you take into account the retarded people that take those perks, than a few 'wasted' perks on intesive training isnt that bad.

Personally i dont find intesive training a waste if you take it, say 3 or 4 times? With all the DLC the max level is 50, so you got 25 perks to pick from, which is A LOT for a single character.

I remember my friend when he first got new vegas (long before the DLC), he spent his first 20 levels getting intensive training. Now THAT is a waste (especially when the max was level 30 at the time).

Well except those +5 skill point perks don't exist in Fallout: New Vegas, and the relevant traits which are Skilled and Good Natured, are broad spectrum enough in their remit that it's not actually a waste. Usually I would much rather take one or even both of those than Small Frame, even though it's downside is a reasonably harmless one..

But yes, it's inifinitely better to choose it the amount of times you mentioned, and learn from that experience than just rigidly pick it every chance you get. The latter truly is a recipe for some measure of disaster!

[ReadyToPlay]

Originally posted by psychotron666:

With all the DLC the max level is 50,

Does NV have enough quests and gameplay to last you to Level 50?

[CRACKHEAD MORRISSEY]

Originally posted by ReadyToPlay:

Originally posted by psychotron666:

With all the DLC the max level is 50,

Does NV have enough quests and gameplay to last you to Level 50?

Oh, yeah. DLC included, there's more than enough.

[Yung Matt]

Originally posted by ReadyToPlay:

Originally posted by psychotron666:

With all the DLC the max level is 50,

Does NV have enough quests and gameplay to last you to Level 50?

Even if there weren't hordes of raiders and other such random event-based enemies there'd still be quite enough xp to reach 50. If anything, the level cap could stand to lose to be just a bit lower with less xp gained. Around 34-40 is fine in my books, but 45 would be a good compromise since character progression tends to kind of plateu beyond that point for many people.

[talgaby]

Originally posted by ReadyToPlay:

Does NV have enough quests and gameplay to last you to Level 50?

With no combat XP (literally, everything gave 0 XP) and 90% overall XP reduction I reached level 16 or so. If you don't nerf XP gain, and do as many quests as possible, even with a pacifist run you'll hit 50 way before the end. Add in kill XP and you probably have enough to get to level 80-90 on an average run, if you can uncap it somehow.

Originally posted by Matt:

Let's say for arguements sake you built your character like this: 6 STR 6 PER 7 END 1 CHA 8 INT 7 AGI 5 LU

Is this really a recommended build from a guide? This is horrible. It's onyl viable if you want to do long-range combat with a gatling gun.

[Discreet_Pigeon]

I would say it is only useful to use IT only 3 times if you really are lacking on a stat such as strength or something if you are getting a perk every 2 levels or mod the game to "fix" it so you get perk every level. The thing is also most stats can be almost maxed out if you build them correctly such as with appearal and buying implants, old world blues boosts stats such as perception and endurance I think, and lonesome road allows you to invest one special point in anything after finishing dlc so if you are playing the game without mods I would only recommend not using IT unless you are truly lacking in something or you are trying to create a certain build.

[ReadyToPlay]

I dug up my saved games for FO3, loaded it, and found out I only used the IT perk 5 times there through 25 levels, and I already got 10s in some of the SPECIAL stats via other means. So it does seem that the IT perk is not to be, nor needed to be, overused.

[Yung Matt]

Originally posted by talgaby:

Originally posted by ReadyToPlay:

Does NV have enough quests and gameplay to last you to Level 50?

With no combat XP (literally, everything gave 0 XP) and 90% overall XP reduction I reached level 16 or so. If you don't nerf XP gain, and do as many quests as possible, even with a pacifist run you'll hit 50 way before the end. Add in kill XP and you probably have enough to get to level 80-90 on an average run, if you can uncap it somehow.

Originally posted by Matt:

Let's say for arguements sake you built your character like this: 6 STR 6 PER 7 END 1 CHA 8 INT 7 AGI 5 LU

Is this really a recommended build from a guide? This is horrible. It's onyl viable if you want to do long-range combat with a gatling gun.

It's not actually that bad at all once you understand the strength is simply used to meet the perk requirements of weapons some of which do exist early on, but regardless of that my purpose in using that as an example is showing how it is possible, with some thought to create a build that meets the perk requirements for almost every perk in the game and the numbers that would be relevant for things agility or perception. Because despite people asking for advice on things like Intense Training, it's very rare indeed that someone actually points to means to bypass quite a few S.P.E.C.I.A.L 'blocks' that actually quite a few folks run into. Of course I would like to have more points in things like Charisma if I could, but the fact is at level 9 my barter and speech skills are in the 60s and 70s respectively, and don't forget I could be 2 points higher charisma later in the game if I really needed. Instead of seeing how functional the reasoning behind those numbers is (for the record 6 strength, what i suspect you see as the problem, actually is a requirement for a lot of weapons, various of which be very potent) you apparently saw 'awful gatling laser canidate build'. I'm not bothered I just find that silly, especially when my basis is hopefully objective here... Anyway I well understand people have different ways of viewing the game ^_^

Also here's the guide I was referring to earlier: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=130687323