Inexplicable death while travelling.

[biscotti]

This isn't my first playthrough of the game, I know it pretty well now but I've never experienced anything like this. I'm currently on my 2nd character, doing a pure melee build and so far it's going just fine, but that's besides the point.

Before I explain, no I have not yet been to the Glow, which is the cause for about 95% of "inexplicable" deaths.

My issue is, I'm currently at the hub and I'm travelling around on the world map to finish up some side quests and such. Thing is, I keep dying for no reason after a set amount of days (like 3 or so). You know, screen flashes white and I get the typical game over screen out of nowhere.

A day or two prior to me dying I lose 4 INT, 2 CHR and 4 PER, which should just be the negative side effect of the Mentats I took the day before and that normally shouldn't ever kill you. Other than that I have absolutely ZERO negative status effects.

Does anybody have any clue as to what I'm missing? Because otherwise this playthrough might just be over a bit more quickly than I intended it to be.

[BreakinBenny]

The problem is possibly that your character has a little bit of radiation that decreases your SPECIAL stats, but what isn't obvious is he/she dies if anyone of those drop to zero. I was kinda shocked by this the first times as well.

[biscotti]

Originally posted by BreakinBenny:

The problem is possibly that your character has a little bit of radiation that decreases your SPECIAL stats, but what isn't obvious is he/she dies if anyone of those drop to zero. I was kinda shocked by this the first times as well.

Hmm, well, I already double checked that. Taking radaway did nothing, and with that I mean I literally got the message "There is no use for this now". That leaves the mentats debuff as the only possible culprit. Correct me if I'm wrong but this means my playthrough is pretty much at an end. The only possible thing I can do to not have my CHR drop below zero is take even more mentats to counter-act the debuff of the previous ones, getting me stuck in an endless cycle of counteracting debuffs to not die.

Oh well.

[BreakinBenny]

"CHR" means Charisma, I can see that. The hard (but probably a bit smarter) thing to do would be to keep a Charisma of about 3.

Are you certain it wasn't initially at 1, as in the lowest score possible? Even if Fallout 1 doesn't have a companion limit like FO2 does, it's a good thing to be around "Fair" in the statistics. Why not just wait around 4 days for the withdrawal to fade?

[biscotti]

Originally posted by BreakinBenny:

"CHR" means Charisma, I can see that. The hard (but probably a bit smarter) thing to do would be to keep a Charisma of about 3.

Are you certain it wasn't initially at 1, as in the lowest score possible? Even if Fallout 1 doesn't have a companion limit like FO2 does, it's a good thing to be around "Fair" in the statistics. Why not just wait around 4 days for the withdrawal to fade?

That's the issue here. I tried waiting, but no matter where I am my character will die after about 3-4 days guaranteed. Also, my charisma is at 2. I minmaxed pretty hard to make pure melee a bit more bearable, especially early game.

[BreakinBenny]

Then yeah, any statistic with "Poor" or worse atcharacter creation means trouble at all times. The last effort for you would then be to use a save editor to temporarily nullify the negative "bonus to Charisma".

Also, pure hand-to-hand fighting don't get you far when you face high-tech gunnery or scorpions, let alone deathclaws.

[biscotti]

Originally posted by BreakinBenny:

Then yeah, any statistic with "Poor" or worse atcharacter creation means trouble at all times. The last effort for you would then be to use a save editor to temporarily nullify the negative "bonus to Charisma".

Also, pure hand-to-hand fighting don't get you far when you face high-tech gunnery or scorpions, let alone deathclaws.

Alright, I'll look what I can do, but I might just end up restarting and correcting my mistakes from the last playthrough after I finish replaying Fallout 2 anyway :)

I know pure HtH fighting might not be the most ideal route to take but it was sort of a challenge run to see how well I could fare by using nothing but. I'm sure it's possible, just alot more challenging.

[BreakinBenny]

I get it, kinda like trying to survive the Master's gatling laser without any power armor or any sorts of armor. I'm tipping towards "no way in hell"... All the more reason to patch a game, with some unofficial patches if they exist.