Fallout: New Vegas

[FatherJack]

I haven't put much into energy weapons, partly after what you guys said, partly because I usually go small guns on first playthrough, but I haven't found much of interest with the projectile weapons.

The 10mm pistol I got at the start was great, but I've only found one other. Found a few 9mm SMGs in the prison which are okay. Haven't found any deathclaws yet, I might be too low level - it's all scorpions where the quarry workers said there were some. (The incinerator was handy against those)

I found a plasma pistol and a laser RCW which seem a little better than the basic energy guns, but my skill is too low to hit very often with them.

The starting "perks" (I think they're called traits) were all a bit pants. The Wild Wastleland one, as Roman noted, has a misleading description - it doesn't make the game any harder, just has a few objects and events scattered around which are either in-jokes, memes or movie references - it's only optional because the devs thought some might feel they wern't in-keeping with the game.

"Disguises" only seem to work one-way. They don't stop guys who hate you from attacking, but they do make members of an opposing faction attack you on sight.

Only the one crash so far, but it slows down so much sometimes you can't shoot outside of VATS.

[deject]

Screw energy weapons (though the Laser RCW is cool), This Machine is where it's fucking at. It does 60 damage per shot with 90 skill in Guns. It's the only gun I've found so far that lets me one-shot giant radscorpions with a sneak attack and regular ammo.

[Baliame]

"Disguises" only seem to work one-way. They don't stop guys who hate you from attacking, but they do make members of an opposing faction attack you on sight.

It is certainly slightly buggy but what you're saying is not necessarily true. In one of the main questlines, I was given the task to

Spoiler:

wipe out the Brotherhood of Steel

. I happened to stumble upon one of their armors earlier, so I put it on, and I found that once I went all hostile on them (pretty much cleaned out a room, I got vilified swiftly), the others, farther away, only became hostile once I got close to them.

I'm not sure about Wild Wasteland, I only found an alien landing which I assumed was part of WW. It gets you an awesome energy pistol (100 damage per shot) but only a limited amount of ammo, which you cannot find elsewhere.

As for 60 damage, nothing. Plasma Caster does 65 with an outstanding DPS of 195 (which pretty much means you can kill the Legate with one VATS to the head if you have both of the -10% AP cost perks), and it's horribly accurate. There's also the Multiplas Rifle, it's a plasma shotgun that loads out about 100 damage per shot, but it costs 6 MF cells, so it's not as useful.

[deject]

Yeah but it's not an M1 Garand. It's just sexier.

Also with regards to disguises, most normal goons should be fooled until you open fire, but leaders and guards of a faction should recognize you're not friendly, so you do have to be careful.

[Roman Totale]

Well, I've finally made it to The Strip - the mere act of which seems to have increased the rate of crashes ten-fold.

No sign of a patch?

[Baliame]

I never crashed.

Maybe because I 't it?

[deject]

Finally beat the game after 60+ hours. If it hadn't been so buggy it would be on my GOTY 2010 list (much like Alpha Protocol actually). As it is, it's just a pretty good game.

I didn't much like the resolution of the main storyline though.

[Joose]

I didn't much like the resolution of the main storyline though.

I've thought this about every fallout since the first one, so no surprise there.

I never crashed.

Maybe because I Sweep't it?

I didn't sweep, and mine doesn't crash either.

[Roman Totale]

Aah, I think the crashes may be because I haven't updated my graphics card drivers. The problem is that when I do that I can't play Baconz. Dilemma!

Favourite guns so far: Alien Blaster (used mainly on those bastard Deathclaws), This Machine (it's like CoD all over again), Gobi Sniper Rifle (I'm sure you could hit Caesar from Goodsprings if you tried) and Mysterious Magnum (*guitar music*).

[Roman Totale]

Oh yes, finished the game last week. Good times, but one minor, niggling point:

Spoiler:

I can't fucking believe they pulled that shit again, where you can't continue to explore after the last mission! Seriously, did they not get message after the last game that it's a bit of a dick move?

[Roman Totale]

Actually, make that two niggling points (oo-er):

Spoiler:

You can, for example, play through doing all Mr. House's missions for him, but right at the end you get the option to throw your lot in with the NCR and fuck House over. I think this is one of Yahtzee's regular irks - you're told that your every action determines the final outcome, but at the final outcome you can do what you want.

[fabyak]

Cheep!
http://shop.gameplay.co.uk/pc/fallout-n ... tpage.html
£14 and registers on Steam

[buzzmong]

Hmm.

I'm enjoying NV. Kinda. Barring some quest/conversation bugs (and really odd things like the normal laser pistol not having ironsights but a unique quest one having them), it's quite a fun game.

You can certainly tell it's been developed by the people behind the original two games, once the rubbish tutorial is done (really needed to be set in a cave) it just sets you free and there's lots, perhaps even too many, references to the second game.

The freedom is both good and bad. Freedom is good, but it does seem to lack a bit of pointing in the right direction at times which'll leave you wandering into to places like the area North of Sloan which is chocked full of deathclaws, meaning you can't go there unless you're leveled and kitted up.

I'm also half and half on the new ammo reloading. It's fantastic for energy weapons as you're recycling one item, but I think the bullets might be a bit too complicated considering the lack of anything but casings at traders. Campfire recipies are nice, but there could do with some more campfires in towns like Novac so you can do some stockpiling of goods.

I like Hardcore mode, it is quite good with all it's tweaks though the need for water/food/sleep is just an annoyance more than anything else.

I think it's a good game, but apart from a lack of polish in places (to be patched in I think) it's missing something I can't quite place my finger on.

Also, plasma weapons: 2 energy per shot? Wtf?! Cunts.

[Roman Totale]

Also, plasma weapons: 2 energy per shot? Wtf?! Cunts.

Yeah, but plasma is great against the aforementioned Deathclaw bastards.

[Baliame]

Not all plasma weapons. The Plasma Caster only uses 1 MFC.

[Sheriff Fatman]

To paraphrase the noobinets, please to be pointing me in direction of worthwhile mod for Failout Vague Ass? A quick hunt around shows rather too many to spend time reading about.

Like you say, too many to make an exhaustive list so I'll pop down a few that I'm using.

First off; don't use Nexus Mod Manager. Most of these mods pre-date it and it can fall over when trying to install them. Stick with Fallout Mod Manager. Not quite as easy as NMM but I'm sure you have used something similar.

Then get New Vegas Script Expander. Most mods use it. Necessary.


Mods

Darns UI or MTUI for the UI. I use Darns because I always have.

One HUD. Customisable HUD. Move stuff to where you want it, have no HUD at all and have only the elements you want appear when needed (ammo and weapon condition in combat, Action Points in VATS, rad meter when in a rad zone) or turn them all off and on with a single key press. Soup herb. Get it.

*I'll mention here that I have had issues with One HUD sometimes not working quite right - don't ask me how I fixed it because I don't know. Uninstall; clean save; try again is the best bet but I'll add the individual elements that it uses in the "Other Mods" section so you can try to find the problem yourself, or just turn them off and on again to see which bit is broken.

Unified HUD. Makes all the various HUD elements from lots of other mods play nice together. Very handy. Deactivate it before you install anything that alters the HUD and reactivate after so it prods everything into the right place.

Mod Configuration Menu. An all-in-one menu screen for loads of mods. Gives a nice screen where you can faff about with your mods and not have to remember loads of console commands. Not every mod uses it but it is quite popular.

Project Nevada. Not quite an overhaul (doesn't mess about with the plot) but polishes and adds several features found in smaller mods allowing you to tweak your New Vegas experience. Customise stealth difficulty, XP and Perk gains, rad absorption, how much food/water/sleep you need - loads of stuff. Highly recommended.

Weapons Mods Expanded. Greatly expands on the vanilla weapon mods system. Very good.

The Weapon Mod Menu. More options for weapons mods. With this you can see what mods a weapons can use and the values for those mods. It also allows for removal of previously installed mods when you find something better for it to go on.

EVE (no, not that one). Essential Visual Enhancements. Makes all kills, explosions, decapitations, blood 'n guts, etc look better.

New Vegas Enhanced Content. Similar to Project Nevada but moar mods and bug fixes (both this and Project Nevada will run fine with each other). Some bits you may not like, some you will love. Not essential, but I think it adds a lot to the game.

Nordic Firearms. Kinda ties in with the above mod. Adds several new weapons and skins to the game. Again, not essential, but more guns is always better, right?

Electro City. Lamp posts - that is all. Adds a nice atmosphere to the Wasteland.

Ojo Bueno Hi-Res Texture Pack and Poco Bueno Normal Texture pack. Also NMC Textures. Both hi and normal in this one. Up to you which you prefer.

Nevada Skies. Weather, darker nights, sand and rad storms. All customisable, all awesome. I suggest using his Night Time Brightness Adjuster as well (on the downloads page). Or, Project Reality. Same thing, different mod.

Interior Lighting Overhaul. Makes interior lighting more "moody". Also adds light switches and generators if you are a stealthy type. Oh, and placeable lights.

Pip-Boy Readius. Gets rid of the god-awful standard Pip-Boy that hangs off your arm and replaces it with a neat little PDA-type thing that only appears when you need it. Adjustable size and skinable. A blessing.


I think that should get you off to a good start. Some will require compatibility patches to work with the DLC, but those are included on the download pages, where needed. All those listed above should work together without any conflicts. However, if you do get crashes FNVEdit is a handy tool.

If you find yourself enjoying a box of wine and with some spare time, I recommend having a watch of Gopher's Tutorial Videos. He made quite a few of these mods and the vids are really idiot-proof, lazy-man brilliance.




Other Mods

New Vegas Bounties. The first in a series of two (possibly three) bounty hunter mods. This one is a fairly straightforward "just something else to do" affair. Go to contact; get bounty; kill dude; return for reward. There is a little back story (it's fully voiced) but nothing that can be called a proper mission.

New Vegas Bounties - Part 2. The second part of the above. This is much more in-depth. It has a main quest line as well as around 20 side quests. The targets are all boss-level and these bounties are some of the toughest fights I've had yet - they throw everything at you. Again, fully voiced (some quite well, as it happens) but a much more involved and interesting story than the first.

Underground Hideout New Vegas. A base! And who doesn't like playing base? This adds a large hideout where you can store all your surplus kit. Armoury, display room, kitchen, teleporter, VR training, garden, crafting tables, it's all here. Handy for hoarders like me who have been playing a while a like to hang on to stuff "just in case".

CONELRAD. Music and genuine US Defence Emergency transmissions. Useful if you get bored of Mr. Fucking New Vegas.

FOOK. An overhaul mod I haven't tried but seems popular. Try it and see.

Advanced Recon Stealth Armour. This gives a really nifty set of items aimed at the sneaky types. Some of it has been incorporated into Project Nevada, but not all. Installing this will allow you to play with the set as the designer intended however, there may be some faffing about involved due to conflicts with PN.

Advanced Recon Thermal Nightvision. Same story as above. Some of this has been used in PN but installing this gives you the full range of options as originally intended by the creator. Involves a few tweaks to avoid conflicts but nothing more than re-assigning keys so as not to have one key trying to do two things. Having this and PN running is my preferred option.

Immersive HUD. Part of the One HUD mod before they were merged. For use if One HUD breaks, or if you just prefer parts of One HUD without the whole thing.

Adjustable HUD. Part of the One HUD mod before they were merged. For use if One HUD breaks, or if you just prefer parts of One HUD without the whole thing.

Primary Needs HUD. Part of the One HUD mod before they were merged. For use if One HUD breaks, or if you just prefer parts of One HUD without the whole thing.

[spoodie]

This should be very useful for me. I've been planning to pick this up again as I've never finished it. Just bought all the DLC.

[deject]

This should be very useful for me. I've been planning to pick this up again as I've never finished it. Just bought all the DLC.

Old World Blues is the best of the lot, though Lonesome Road is really good too.

[friznit]

Ohh, have bumhugs