Pointers on creating an effective character

[El Biffo]

This game seems to punish poorly specced characters, so much so that I am tempted to start all over again. What kind of stats and skills do you all think are best suited to make the game a little less difficult in the early stages of the game?

[Rebbe]

Yea :) great game, but a bit fiddly if you want a good RP experience.
Well if you're far in just edit your save file, keep attribute changes as 1-to-1 if you feel its cheating.
Otherwise if you're restarting (been there, done that xD ) Number 1 most important stat is DEX, or rather i should say AP, rest is a bit of preferences and planning.

Short semi-unrelevant RP note:
I played the gave to about 60-70% with an "effective" character (it wasn't min/maxed, but used the stats below in spoiler), then i felt that i did not want to spoil the final parts of the game, because i really wanted to RP the game (as my self xD) so (takes good self control) i'm giving my self an attribute point every 4 levels (with non combat focus stats during creation).
Enjoying the game atleast 50% more :D



*Warning, may containt minor non story spoilers ahead*

Effective Stat Distribution

*Only Dex and Str below are really critical in order to not eff up your character*

STRENGTH:
Well depends on what you're planning to do but, 5-8 (8 is the heaviest weapons).
Final burst perk removes all gun STR requirements, but if you don't want the put the points into the perk, it comes down to planning.
There is a helmet that gives +1 str and an ingame way to get another +1.
Thus:
With burst perk (all perk points gained from level 1-5) probably 5 in order to not have to much issues early game.
Without perk, 6 STR.


ENDURANCE:
Hmm bit of a preferens here, but 5 is enough, it's important to craft armor/helmet early (like first town early) though, helps ALOT.


DEXTERITY:
Minimum 7 (6 DEX for 8AP, but with -1 from heavy armors later)
Recommended 9 DEX.
Why? again 8 DEX gives 9AP, so with 9 DEX you can wear heavy armor and still have 9AP = one 5ap main weapon shot plus one 4ap backup weapon shot.


INTELLECT:
Again down to preference. Dont go below 5 and you can get by almost all INT checks with 7.

ATTENTION
Is a bit of a lie, description makes you think it's critical for a sniper build, it's really not.
Same as INT though 5-7, Depending on what you want to do.

PERSONALITY
Entirely down to preference, unlocks some small talk with npc and most "adult" moment ;)
4-7 range.
If you want to get past most personality checks but don't want to waste points into personality,
you can save/buy cologne/perfume, gives +1 and you can use 2 stacked for +2. Just don't forget to quicksave F5 before talking to npcs.
So with +2 cologne:
5 personality for about 70-80% of all checks
6 personality for 80-90% off all checks.

LUCK
This one is interesting, i see alot of min/maxed go for 1 but it makes more of a differens than you'd think.
I ran my effective build with 3, rusty/homemade weapons was jamming ALOT and despite playing about 60-70% of the game, i never came across dog companion random encounter.
In my RP run with 6 luck i got the dog about 30min after leaving first town.
So, i'd say:
4 Luck, if you're not doing a crit build sniper.


And i think that's about it :D good luck.

[Fantoche]

Argh dude don't censor all that important info it's hard to read

[Rebbe]

Better? :D

[Fantoche]

Yeah thanks. Also, you played a lot then? Can you tell me how a "mostly" non combattant build is viable? Like a charismatic scientist who's great with a specific type of gun? I love playing that in F 1-2... in fact, finishing Fallout 2 without my character fighting was one of my crown achievements

[Gerolt]

Luck should ALWAYS be 1, only thing it affects is fishing, it does not adding jamming chance(20 hours with homemade weapons with no problem on jamming, it happens but not often), it does not affect map encounters(i encounter more caravans than bandits/cults), it does not affect crafting chance (crafted all of the stuff on wiki guide with only 30 craft skill), it does not affect any quest outcomes, it's a COMPLETE dump stat.

Agility shoulg be no lower than 8, you can not even play this game with less than 9 AP.

8 Charisma is enough for most dialog checks, you can set it to 7 if you have lots weed/perfume.

Perception has some checks, but none important nor often enough, and it does ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ to your hitchance, your skills do, so even 1 perception is very ok, you see this game lacks a fleshed out perk system that links to your Special(Better criticals in fallout requires Perception 6, Luck 6, Agility 4 for example), the skills decide most stuff, so you can make do with poor Special without penalty.

Str, 4 for melee, 5 or 6 for shooter. yes, Str dont make good melee damage, it's only used for meeting the weapon requirments.

Int is the most important stat, 10 is perferd, 9 or 8 if you are machinegunner(since machinegun players dont need stealth)

everythingelse you put them into Endurance.

[Rebbe]

@Gerlot
xD interesting then i must just have had some super crappy irl bad luck for a mayority of that game.
Also not ment to be min/max recommendations.

Btw, must ask (i'm being sincere, not sarcastic) why 10 int??

@Fantoche
You can't really non combat RP this game without cheating, either save editing or cheat engine. The key to an enjoyable RP game is self control, decide some balanced rules and stick to them! Like "i popped into the post apocalypse with similar to me stats (using the description/flavor texts under the attributes), gonna be hard to survive initially but apocalypse survival is going to toughen me up, so 1 attribute/ 4 levels (in my case) and maybe some + on some cool RP esque event (added +1 personality after summon shogg demon religious event since flavor text for personality leads towards cult leader" and so on :)

*Hmm thinking about it, might be possible, with some hardship though, if you specc both Fidel and Hexogen as burst automatic guys, and combat specc the dog and always control their actions during combat.

[Gerolt]

Well, because i find that since skill level is everything, more Int = more skills, i mean if you can get like skill 120 of rifle/auto at lvl 6, you hit everything even on Aim mode, and Stealth is hugly important skill, a high Int can really make a difference.
On the less pratical side, i always find the Int dialog checks are fun, not the most fun though, the Luck dialog checks are hilarious, almost "Ice Cream" in New Vegas level of fun, but i just cant afford to invest into luck, maybe on easy difficulty?

[Fantoche]

That's cool I don't expect a non combat run but say, is there potential for a charismatic scientist type?

[Rebbe]

Why not? Difficulty and immersion level will depend on if you want to play "clean" or don't mind self made rules. Also on game difficulty. Haven't tried easy but guessing it should be easier.

If you don't mind the trait frankly you can get up to, +6 free attributes from distinction/trait, i'm a bit of a stickler to back story so i didn't want non RP traits (and thus the attri/level rule).

Hmm for clean run check what gerolt and i wrote regarding stats, and lucky one is a +4 free stats.
Using 4 str and automatic weapons http://atom-rpg.wikia.com/wiki/Ranged
there is the ac val and ak 74u.

And as a scientist using a the serum to get +1 str to 5 for a large selection of weapons seems RPy :) also make sure to get the companions.
Just a non combat fallout style run is not going to be doable, very combative game.

[Fantoche]

Well I play a scientist in fallout because there's so much computer stuff and robots.. I take it there's none of these here but the game looks very interesting

[Gerolt]

Originally posted by Turken:

@Gerlot
xD interesting then i must just have had some super crappy irl bad luck for a mayority of that game.
Also not ment to be min/max recommendations.

Btw, must ask (i'm being sincere, not sarcastic) why 10 int??

@Fantoche
You can't really non combat RP this game without cheating, either save editing or cheat engine. The key to an enjoyable RP game is self control, decide some balanced rules and stick to them! Like "i popped into the post apocalypse with similar to me stats (using the description/flavor texts under the attributes), gonna be hard to survive initially but apocalypse survival is going to toughen me up, so 1 attribute/ 4 levels (in my case) and maybe some + on some cool RP esque event (added +1 personality after summon shogg demon religious event since flavor text for personality leads towards cult leader" and so on :)

*Hmm thinking about it, might be possible, with some hardship though, if you specc both Fidel and Hexogen as burst automatic guys, and combat specc the dog and always control their actions during combat.

Also, can you elaborate on your black barred commet "There is a helmet that gives +1 str and an ingame way to get another +1."?

I know about the Helm, but what about the other Str gain?

[Rebbe]

@Gerolt, haven't gotten to that point yet my self, but saw some post while googling about some serum that gives +1.

Oh, don't missunderstand the spoiler/black part. Summoning the demon Yol-Sogoth or Shogg, following the religious book you get from a quests was really cool, but it was just a fight / fun moment, with no real reward, so thought it would be RP esque to add +1 personality since character experienced an otherworldy moment (cool story, to tell others)

@Fantoche, yea game is a more realistic look of the 1980s. Fallout is 1960 styled but it's very techified.

[Fantoche]

Originally posted by Turken:

@Gerolt, haven't gotten to that point yet my self, but saw some post while googling about some serum that gives +1.

@Fantoche, yea game is a more realistic look of the 1980s. Fallout is 1960 styled but it's very techified.

That's cool. I'll check out some guides and grab the game. Thanks for taking time to reply dude

[Rebbe]

xD NP, really worth the money. Woke up in the middle of the night and coulnd't sleep ;)

[Gerolt]

Originally posted by Turken:

@Gerolt, haven't gotten to that point yet my self, but saw some post while googling about some serum that gives +1.

Oh, don't missunderstand the spoiler/black part. Summoning the demon Yol-Sogoth or Shogg, following the religious book you get from a quests was really cool, but it was just a fight / fun moment, with no real reward, so thought it would be RP esque to add +1 personality since character experienced an otherworldy moment (cool story, to tell others)

@Fantoche, yea game is a more realistic look of the 1980s. Fallout is 1960 styled but it's very techified.

Oh ok i already know the serum inside Roaring forest, i thought there was a quest with stat gain that i missed.