Finding it hard - and hating a little.

[Tiny Trees]

New to the Fallout series, and not liking enough.

It was OK-ish until I reached a point. One of the quests was to investigate a signal. I found a crashed satellite, and had to return to it at midnight. I was telported through to where some robots operated on me, (which gave me upgrades). [Seriously what the heck was that hour of dialogue with them.]

Now though all the enemies are too tough. It's like the game jumped up a few levels without me. I'm way down on stim packs. I'm distressed with dying so much. I still have the Virmont rifle, but even twenty shots into a target won't drop it. The only gun that did anything was the grenade launcher, and the limited ammo soon expended. Even the Sturdy Caravan Shotgun is like firing blanks, (ammo gone).

I can only guess I am doing something wrong. Vats doesn't drop enemies, it just slo-mo's a single shot - useless. I actually didn't intend using VATS; my style is play it as a FPS, which I read is more OK in NV, than Fallout3.

It's slow, too difficult, and fairly ugly. I'm playing in normal difficulty with 'hardcore mode' on. Should I turn that off. Only I read that didn't affect shooting, only affects how things like food affects you.

Should I give in and turn hardcore off in the settings?
Thanks to anyone who can help me along, coz I got upset now.

[Mauno]

Originally posted by Tiny Trees:

I can only guess I am doing something wrong.

This would be the case, aye.

You just started the Old World Blues DLC, which is meant for characters well above level 20. There was a massive pop-up when you interacted with the satellite that recommended going there at level 25+ or whatever.

Next time you get a pop-up like that, read it instead of just clicking through it. The recommendations are there for a reason.

Load a save prior to starting the DLC, there's almost no way a newbie can survive through that without going insane. Make sure you talk to everyone you come across in the Mojave, and you'll be strong enough to beat the crap out of the robo-scorpions and lobotomites on a second visit in no time.

HC mode adds primary needs (thirst, hunger, sleep deprivation), ammo weight and a few changes to the health system. No changes to the combat itself.

Originally posted by Tiny Trees:

my style is play it as a FPS, which I read is more OK in NV, than Fallout3.

It's actually exactly the other way around.

New Vegas is an RPG, played in a first-person view (or third, if you're crazy).

Fallout 3 is a weird RPG & FPS mash-up, and ends up failing miserably at both.

Originally posted by Tiny Trees:

It's slow, too difficult, and fairly ugly. I'm playing in normal difficulty with 'hardcore mode' on.

It's slow because combat is mostly determined by your character's skills and weapons, both of which are far below what's required for OWB.

It's difficult because high level enemies are well-armoured and your weapons deal almost no damage at all.

It's fairly ugly because it's based on a 2008 game based on a 2006 engine. If you have a modern PC, you can make it quite pretty by downloading a few graphical mods from the Nexus.

[Boss]

What's your level? I'm guessing that you're below level 20? The area you're in now is from The Old World Blues, the third DLC for FNV. All the DLC's were made for level 20+ characters. I would recommend Old World Blues for a level 25+ character.

In OWB it helps a lot if you have a high melee weapons or energy weapons skill. High sneak also helps. Have you raised/maxed any of those skills?

If your melee weapons skill is pretty high, then use the Proton Axe (you can often find them on lobotomites, a rather common enemy in OWB). If energy weapons if your primary weapon skill, use the LAER (http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/LAER) or the K9000 Cyberdog Gun (http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/K9000_cyberdog_gun).

Apart from that, you can use sneak to get by enemies that are too tough for you. You can map stimpaks to a hotkey. That gives you sort of a panic button. If you turn off hardcore mode, the stimpaks will instantly heal you, instead of slowly heal you over time.

It sounds like Guns is your primary weapon skill. Do you already have the shotgun perk Shotgun Surgeon (http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Shotgun_Surgeon)? This perk allows you to ignore 10 points of an enemy's Damage Threshold. DT is basically their resistance to damage and it sounds like your weapons don't do enough damage to overcome the enemy's DT. This means that you can fire a lot of shots without doing any serious damage. The shotgun surgeon perk might help with that, or try using those melee/energy weapons I've recommended (but that also requires a lot of points in one of those skills).

Good luck!

[Mauno]

Originally posted by Bas:

http://fallout.gamepedia.com/LAER http://fallout.gamepedia.com/K9000 http://fallout.gamepedia.com/Shotgun_Surgeon

Fixed those for you

[Tiny Trees]

Thanks, Mauno and Bas.

I see where I have gone wrong then. I am level 6.

Like Mauno suggests, I should have read the pop-up for what I see is a DLC mission. I did read much of it though. I think I lost patience and slipped a bit, because I'm half-fed up with it.

I had no idea this was a side mission, because it was added to my mission list from the beggining. There were about five quest in a list to do. I tried one but could not get over a mountain, into the canyon I was supposed to reach beyond. I just chose another quest, from the list, because I got fed up walking along the mountain ridge trying to get over it. (Plus I was struggling to find quests to do, so I took this one.)

Anyway it's worse still because I had no save game from before going through the portal. I will have to start the whole game again. I think I will take a good long break from it first.

Thanks for writing back so quick with the right answer. It's lucky that you folks knew the game and the DLC components well.

Bas - thanks for the stimpaks hotkey hint. No hotkeys has been one of the worst aspects of it so far. You can't do anything without that ludicrous slow pip-boy. I read everywhere it was like Oblivion with guns. Only it isn't, based on that fact most of all weapons are not hotkeyed, (unless I have missed that too).

Maunu - I guessed I must have got something wrong because, otherwise no-one else would like the game. Well that's what I hoped anyway.

[Boss]

If you want Oblivion with guns, you should play Fallout 3 lol.

Using the pipboy is annoying, yeah. That's why I use the hotkeys 1-7 (2 is for switching ammo types) for weapons and 8 for stimpaks. I rarely need to open my pipboy now.

At the start of the game, all the DLC's are added as quests to your quest list. You should ignore them and focus on the main quest. When you're level 20-25+, you can give some of the DLC's a try.

I also have to say that Old World Blues is a lot more dialogue-heavy than the vanilla game or the other DLC's. Hence the opening dialogue with the robots that takes around 10-15 minutes.

You might prefer a DLC like Dead Money. DM focuses more on survival horror and shooting. It still has a great story though.

Anyway, you can also play this game as a FPS if you want and the dialogues aren't always so long as in OWB.

[Mauno]

For future reference, the high level quests you should avoid for a while are:
- Sierra Madre Grand Opening
- Midnight Science Fiction Feature!
- The Reunion
(- Happy Trails Expedition)

Avoid the first three until you're at least level 20. The fourth one is easily doable from level 1, but reaching it can be a bit tricky so early.

And as Bas said, 'Oblivion with guns' = Fallout 3.

Originally posted by Tiny Trees:

I think I will take a good long break from it first.

Don't.

This game is one of the finest RPGs released in the past ten years. Having to replay the first few hours can be a bit boring, but it's absolutely worth it.

[Tiny Trees]

Well I enjoyed Oblivion. It looked nice, had lots to do that I felt I wanted to do, and played/interfaced easily.

Bas, since you say you can hotkey stuff, I am going to take time to look at how to do that. It needs it very much. I liked the idea of F3, because wandering about with a dog appealed to me. I think I kind of got lead by the opinion that NV was more modern though I guess. Thus I bought NV.

Mauno, thanks for your list. I copied it to a document, and will use it.

Overall though I think it moves slower than Oblivion. Though that might be just that I need to setup hotkeys, and because I don't know the game series. I guess I need a horse too :-) I think it will be better though second time round, since I have half an idea of what I to do.

[Yeah Mauno, I might jump back on straight away.]

[Boss]

Just open your pipboy, find an item you want to add to a hotkey, then hold one of the hotkeys (like 3) and left click on the item.
As I said, the hotkey 2 is reserved for ammo switching but you can assign 1/3/4/5/6/7/8 yourself.

Oblivion and Fallout 3 were both made by Bethesda, while Obsidian made FNV. Bethesda has a completely different view when it comes to world-building. They like to make the world as interesting as possible, but they do this by placing interesting locations everywhere that are easy to spot for the player. These locations don't always have to make sense or fit with the lore.

Fallout 3 is a lot like Oblivion with guns. There's a heavy focus on exploration. So yes, you can explore a post-apocalyptic wasteland, with a dog as a companion. A lot of people really like those games.

Personally, I prefer well-written dialogues, a good storyline, making lots of meaningful choices with serious consequences, etc. FNV is, in my opinion, a better RPG. But some people think the exploration in NV is a bit boring compared to FO3.

Just play what you like :).

[Dosbilliam, Boring but Practical]

Originally posted by Mauno:

Originally posted by Bas:

http://fallout.gamepedia.com/LAER http://fallout.gamepedia.com/K9000 http://fallout.gamepedia.com/Shotgun_Surgeon

:spycon: Fixed those for you :spycon:

Just going to point out that the first links and your links barely have any information difference. I checked the Nuka-Cola article on both sites and the only thing The Vault had over Nukapedia was the Nuka-Cola canned variety. :P

[Mauno]

Originally posted by Dosbilliam (Big Friendly Egun):

Just going to point out that the first links and your links barely have any information difference. I checked the Nuka-Cola article on both sites and the only thing The Vault had over Nukapedia was the Nuka-Cola canned variety. :P

Most pages are identical because after the Vault migrated, Nukapedia kept all the old articles. The reason I 'fixed' his post is that the Vault is the original Fallout wiki, and Nukapedia is hosted by Wikia.

Also, the Vault is the only place (other than his own site) where Sawyer's mod is 'legally' available. --> A Fallout developer's seal of approval!

[Tiny Trees]

Bas - thanks for full info of the hotkey tips. I'm also going to have a close read of the game manual. It's only short, and I read lots already, so I'll get set up for a better attempt. First time really was achingly slow, and then I hit the advanced level DLC deadend.

I am lucky that I bought NV for about £3.75 in the latest summer sale. I had a tough choice between NV and F3, and sat looking at the sale page for ages. Plus there's a shop in town that has F3 GOTY at a bargain price. My plan was to do NV and see what I thought.

I am in no rush for F3 as I have Morrowind half-played. I took a break until I got another graphics card, because I installed it with the Overhaul Pack 3. Lots to do then.

Being completely honest I partially liked NV, but I kept coming across problems. I mean I was losing strength and couldn't work out why. It was because of not enough food, which I finally worked out in stats. I couldn't find suitable food to buy. (Plus food and drink would consumption would be whiped out by walking 100m sometimes, with small food items. That doesn't feel real.)

I was doing two kills and only able to collect half the loot because of carrying capacity. Anyway I found ways round this by selling every single item I could. (Whereas when you start you think, I'd better hold on to everything - just in case. Haha.)

Anyway thanks much folks.

[Tiny Trees]

@ Korbio, I don't know what you mean. You can see either that you reply has already been given twice, or you refer to something else. Do you mean where I said I was only able to carry half the loot from two kills. No no, that was in the town called Primm, old rollercoaster town. (In fact after entering Old World Blues they upped my strength.) Anyway never mind.

@ Bas, yes I found the hot-keying at the bottom of page nine of the manual. It's encouraging now, that you said you hardly ever use the pip-boy anymore. (It was too much, having to access it all the time.) I'd read page nine, but just not that paragraph, I think it's coz I was bursting to get off to play.

P.S. Yeah yeah, I was going with guns.

[Dosbilliam, Boring but Practical]

Originally posted by Mauno:

Also, the Vault is the only place (other than his own site) where Sawyer's mod is 'legally' available. --> A Fallout developer's seal of approval!

If that's the case, time to memorize a new set of URLs. =/

Also, pro-tip, don't START with Hardcore. Play through once to get the mechanics and weights down, along with the worth of most of the weapons, then save Hardcore for playthrough 2.

[Tiny Trees]

Mmm, I just read in the manual, hardcore was for pro players of Fallout. Plus it says when you start 'hardcore not recommended'. I dunno which way I will play. I'm going to finish reading first then I might set up for a new game tonight. It's definitely a good feeling shooting gheko's, hee hee.

[Tiny Trees]

@ Mauno,
I started up again. I have your list of missions to avoid until later, so I won't make the same mistake again. Plus I decided to give it another go coz you thought I should...

Anyway, it going lots easier, and I've followed Bas's hotkeys, and it makes life simpler. Straight off that's made NV more fun.

Plus I found one other thing that's important. I searched online for how to holster weapons, (as before I didn't know I could). I discovered in the game that it allows players to run faster with weapons away. That's good news, because before I found this, I did think why is the character running so slowly. It didn't feel close enough to real life. Going anywhere was a trial, (without fast travel).

@ Maunu again, maybe too I shouldn't grumble too much about the looks. Often it does look OK. It's not too bad; I think it's just that all vehicles are rusty junk buckets. Anyway with AA on the pictures look clear in outdoor scenes.

[Btw, I'd played fifteen hours before having to re-start. :)]

My humble thanks to you two,
Tiny Trees.


P.S. I have learnt to save, not just quick save.