While the Baldur's Gate game runs at a measly 640x480 screen size, it has a lot of dithering which can easily be washed out / muddied up by a low bitrate. So when encoding with x264, I recommend a decent CRF value (I'm currently using CRF 24). The major problems that you'll see are where a fireplace is present in a dithered / shadowed area (such as inside the Candlekeep Inn).
On the upside, a large portion of the screen rarely changes due to the large buttons along the left / right / bottom edges. So that simplifies the encoder's job.
The bitrate for the final file usually ends up in the 550-660 kilobits/sec range. Which is about 167:1 to 200:1 over the original FRAPS footage. At the upper end, that's around 4.8 megabytes per minute of footage (the lower end is 4.1 megabytes/minute). That includes a 130Kbps AC3 audio track, so the video portion is compressing down nicely.
Update: Later encodes are more in the range of 800-950Kbps due to lots of panning in outdoors areas. Which is more in the range of 5.5 to 6.7 megabytes per minute of footage. Or about 400MB per hour at the upper-end.
On my aging quad-core Phenom 2.5GHz machine, I'm seeing encoding speeds of 30-45 frames/sec which is a bit better then real time. However, the major impediment to maxing out all 4 cores seems to be disk accesses. So the CPUs are only working about 75-85% during the video encoding portion of the task. That's with a 750GB 7200RPM SATA drive. It would go faster if I was using a 10k RPM drive or a RAID-0 or RAID-10 array.
Baldur's Gate: Start of chapter one, your first party
Herein lie a few spoilers.
Before leaving Candlekeep
Before leaving, you're going to want the following items (including what you have equipped):
- (3) slings, one for yourself, one spare, and one for a future party member - (5) stacks of sling ammo (bullets) - (3) short bows, one for Imoen, one spare, and one for a future party member - (5) stacks of arrows - (1) studded leather for Imoen
The slings and bullets along with the short bow are not that expensive and will stand you in good stead once you meet up with the mage (Xzar) & thief (Montaron) on the path near Candlekeep. That will let you equip all 4 members of the party at that point with ranged weapons before heading to Friendly Arm Inn (FAI).
The other two party members that you'll meet soon are found inside of FAI where you can buy equipment from the inn keeper. So there's no need to carry equipment for them all the way from Candlekeep.
Basic combat tips
Hopefully, you took my advice and went into the game options and set things up to auto-pause when enemies are sighted (along with a few other events). This pause will allow you to quickly issue orders for all of your party members, or to reposition into a skirmish line.
First off, don't charge the enemy, make them come to you. Keep your fighters (tanks) in front, with the weaker ranged party members in the back. Draw the enemy into a kill area that is safe where the fight won't spill over into uncleared areas.
You should go into each party member's profile page and choose "Customize Character" and then "Script". This is where you can change how the party responds if you happen to leave the AI turned on. Now, I tend to be a micromanager, but if you pick the proper scripts, you can probably do less micromanaging of the party members.
Your opening attack should always be ranged, either via weapons or spells (including dispels). Four or six party members all plinking away with ranged weapons can do a lot of damage to an incoming ogre before it gets close enough to engage with melee. Have your fighters switch to heavier hitting melee weapons once the target gets within range.
Use line of sight to draw ranged enemies closer. Send a sacrificial lamb forward to get their attention, then run back around a corner to draw them in.
The number keys (1-6) can be used to select your party members. In addition, keys 7-9, 0 and the minus can be used to select portions of the party. The select all is, by default, the equals sign. To make things easier, I recommend that the character's ranged weapon always be placed in the first weapon slot. That way you can select the character and then hit F3 to have them attack with their ranged weapon.
Save your spells for dire situations. Have your mage use a sling on low-level critters and save their spells for either large groups or the tougher enemies.
Enemy spell casters should be your primary target in most cases. Such as the assassin who jumps you when you try to enter the inn in FAI. It's important to hit them with ranged attacks before they can get spells off, hopefully interrupting their casts. (After failing the FAI fight a few times, I went back when 3 characters equipped with ranged weapons. The fight suddenly got a lot easier.)
Montaron and Xzar
This thief and mage pair are found soon after you join up with Imoen. Unfortunately, if you're going to form a "good" alignment party, they're going to eventually leave you. But for the initial journey to FAI and dealing with the assassin that lies in wait, they'll do for the moment. After that, I suggest not shedding any tears if they pass away by accident or on purpose (unless you're going for an evil party).
Xzar can use a sling and bullets, while Montaron can use a short bow and arrows as their ranged weapon. Montaron is not a very good fighter (very low hit points) and is more of a ranged / thief type. Xzar has a miniscule amount of hit points unless he uses his drain spell, so keep him well back from the action.
Use them, and then abandon them once you find better choices.
Party balance
The ideal party consists of the following roles:
- someone to take a beating, preferably two such people - someone to heal, preferably two healers - a thief to detect/disarm traps and open locks - evil parties will want a pickpocket thief - a high charisma person to be leader - an archer or two for ranged support - at least one mage for lore purposes and to use scrolls
Some characters can serve multiple roles, even if they don't multi-class or dual-class. For instance, at the start, Imoen has a high charisma, so she's a good person to send off to talk to the inn keeper to sell goods. Later on, Imoen makes a good dual-spec mage / thief.
If we look at the five characters that you'll run across within the first hour or two of play:
That means that your character can really be any of the main archetypes without encountering any issues at the very start. You could multi-class as a fighter/cleric or play a bard or play a pure class like mage or cleric. Since you'll also run into other characters once you move south from FAI, you can fill in any holes before you encounter any serious opposition.
There's a lot of useful information out there for getting started with Baldur's Gate, but not much directed specifically at starting a cleric and getting past the start of Chapter One. Nonetheless, you'll want to at least read the manual (available in PDF form on the 4-in-1 boxset) and make a list of the default key strokes (look for the "Keymap.ini" file to see what the current configuration is). Looking for "Baldur's Gate Character Creation Guide (by Tazar)" and the massive "Baldur's Gate: FAQ/Walkthrough by DSimpson" are also recommended.
To start off, Baldur's Gate is hard - really hard at first. The AD&D 2nd edition ruleset is very strict and Baldur's Gate follows it rather closely. Combine that with a character who starts at level 1 and there are going to be a lot of fights where running away is the best choice. The UI is old and dated, and as such the feedback about what actions are about to be performed can be subtle to nonexistent. You will want to save after every major battle, save before resting, and save before entering a new area. While you can use the Quick-Save feature to accomplish this, you should also create multiple permanent saves just in case the quick-save was in a bad location or you need to back-step farther.
On the flip side, the voice acting is good, the characters and storyline are well written, and it will take you a few weeks or longer to progress through the storyline. A few dozen hours if you do only the main quest chain up to thrice that if you do a lot of side quests and exploration. Give it at least 2 hours and don't leave Candlekeep until you've got a basic grasp on group combat, how to position your characters, and have the options for pausing set to sane non-default values.
Specifically, you'll want to go into game options and the "Auto Pause" options. Turn on the options for "Enemy Sighted", "Character's Target Destroyed", "Weapon Unusable", and possibly "End of Round". This will slow things down enough that you get frequent pauses during the action and can take corrective action and issue new orders.
Rolling up a cleric
A lot of the guides recommend a human fighter so that you can dual-class later on into a cleric or other secondary specialization. Since I'm not interested in playing a human or a fighter or in multi-classing, I'm rolling up a pure dwarven cleric instead. This will give me a high constitution, a good bit of wisdom, and the charisma of a love-sick ox. Since some of the other NPCs will have a good CHA score (such as the first NPC that joins your party), this is really only a problem during the prologue inside of Candlekeep.
That being said, there are ranges within which you'll want your ability scores (attributes) to fall. Refer to the end of the manual (pages 134-137) to see the table of attributes and how they impact some side issues.
STR (Strength) - If you bash your opponents over the head with heavy weapons, this stat is important. Fighters value this above all else, and it's somewhat important for cleric. It also governs the amount of weight that you can carry. No matter what, try to stay above 8 points to avoid some negative modifiers and preferably above 16 for a melee focused character.
DEX (Dexterity) - Only of modest importance for a cleric, you can shave points here if you need. You'll want something in the 7+ range for a cleric, but you don't have to go much past 10 points here.
CON (Constitution) - As a dwarf, I consider this to be a key stat. Remember that AD&D clerics can wear plate armor and get into the thick of battle. This also controls how many hit points you gain when you level up. You'll want a minimum of 15 points, but there's not a lot of benefit past 16 points for a cleric.
INT (Intelligence) - Key stat for a mage, not so important for a cleric. Still, stay above 10 points and preferably closer to an average score of 12 points.
WIS (Wisdom) - Key stat for a cleric. Go for at least 16 points here as it governs many cleric abilities. The closer to 18 or 19 you can get the better. While there is a book of wisdom that can boost your score by 1 point later, you may wish to go with maximum WIS out of the gate.
CHA (Charisma) - Not terribly important for a cleric, but you'll want to stay above X-Y in order to avoid some negatives. You can go as low as 8 without negative adjustments in reaction by other NPCs, but 10 points might be a more comfortable middle ground for a dwarf.
For the weapon proficiencies, I recommend taking a melee weapon for one point and a ranged weapon for the other point. For clerics, this means putting a point into missile weapons (slings and bullets/stones) and a point into either spiked or blunt weapons. It's a bit of a toss-up for spiked vs blunt, but I'd recommend blunt at the start.
On the initial spell pick, make sure you choose Cure Light Wounds at the start. The other spells won't matter much. As a cleric, you won't have to go rummaging for spells in the dark corners of the kingdom because your deity will teach them to you automatically. If you want to memorize a different set of spells, open up your prayer book (P) and left-click on the left side to clear spells and then pick from the right side to choose spells. You'll then have to rest for 8 hours in order to memorize the new spell selection. One thing to keep in mind is that if you have 3 spell slots, you can memorize any combination of up to 3 spells, including simply learning Cure Light Wounds three times. After casting a spell slot, that spell is spent until the next time that you rest for 8 hours.
For the character portrait, any BMP (Windows Bitmap) file that is properly sized will work. These go in a "Portraits" folder created in the same location as the BGMain2.exe file (this folder does not exist by default). The filenames should probably match except for the last letter which should either be "S" (small) or "L" (large). The large portraits are 110x170 (24 bit) BMP files and the small portraits are 38x60 (8 bit). Large portraits are used in the character screen while the small portraits appear along the right side of the main user interface.
Equipping a cleric
At the start, you're going to have ~70gp to spend and you can easily earn / find another 50 or so before leaving Candlekeep. Your primary equipment list is approximately:
- 2 melee weapons (in case one breaks) - 1 or 2 ranged weapons (a sling for a cleric) - 3 stacks of ammo (bullets for your sling) - a medium shield - regular or studded leather - a helmet
Once you have purchased these, you should equip everything to get it out of your bags and to free up inventory slots (which are very limited). You can put 3 stacks of ammo in your quiver and you can carry both the ranged and melee weapon at the same time in the quick weapon slots. I tend to drop the 2H staff on the floor outside the inn rather then continue to carry it around.
Note: If you want to give an item to another member in the party, simply drag and drop it onto their portrait along the right side of the window. It will then appear in their main inventory bag and can be equipped / used from there.
If you're thinking ahead, I suggest also picking up (1) short sword, (1) stack of arrows, (1) stack of bolts and (1) regular or studded leather for later.
So I got the Baldur's Gate 4-in-1 boxset recently and installed it on my Windows XP box. Everything works fine (unlike some other older games), except that the sprite overlay animations (butterflies, birds flying overhead) would display as black boxes. This is due to a bug in the NVIDIA display drivers that has never been fixed. I'm using a GeForce 8800 GT 512MB pair of cards in SLI mode.
One solution to this is to use the NVIDIA DDraw Fix by JLanger (nvidia_ddraw_fix_1.0.3.zip). You place the DLL and EXE file in your Baldur's Gate directory, then patch the BGMain2.exe file. The downside of this fix is that it will prevent you from using other patching type modifications of the original game executable (such as trying to use the widescreen mod via WeiDU).
Note: Baldur's Gate 2 uses OpenGL for rendering and not DirectDraw, so it will not encounter this problem.
Tectonics does a very good job at creating semi-realistic land masses with interesting terrain and choke points. I recommend using either "Earthlike (70% water)" or "60% Water" settings to get a nice collection of continents with a few small islands spread around.
For a naval-centric setup, try "Islands", which creates a lot of smaller islands and probably close to 90% ocean.
GTA3:SA Zero's New World Army (hacking the mission timer)
If you thought Zero's "Supply Lines..." mission was hard, wait until you get a load of "New World Army" where you only have 8 minutes to tackle the objective. Personally, on the PC, I found this mission to be so frustrating that I delved into editing the main.scm file to change the timer from 8 minutes to 15 minutes.
Things that you need to know:
Changing the main.scm file (under data/scripts in the install folder) is dangerous and could corrupt your save files. Make backups of the main.scm, script.img and save game files prior to starting.
This is for GTA:SA second edition (v2.00 or special edition) for the PC.
Time is stored in milliseconds in the decompiled source code for the SCM file, so we're looking for a value of 8*60*1000 (480000). In hex, this is 0x0075300.
Byte order seems to be reversed in the compiled SCM file, so we're looking for "00 53 07 00".
This only appears in 2 places in the entire main.scm file. The key is that the identifier Z4_M11 appears near one of the two occurences.
Notice the "Z4_M11" and "Z4_M06" strings, which gives us a good idea that we've found the right hex code to edit.
We're going to change "00 53 07 00" (480,000 milliseconds or 0x0075300) to "A0 BB 0D 00" (900,000 milliseconds or 0x000DBBA0). I used UltraEdit-32 to make my changes, but you could use other hex editors.
Once changed, load up your save game and start the New Model Army mission, you'll see that the timer now starts at 15 minutes instead of 8 minutes. The other way to check is to use "Sanny Builder 3" and decompile the new main.scm file to double-check that you changed ZERO4_TIME correctly.
After you complete the "Doberman" mission from Sweet, you need to take care of some business before you go too far into Sweet's final few missions. The reason for this is that you're coming up on a major story shift where you are going to be introduced to a new area, without any equipment, and with a lot of new expenses. Big expenses.
Recommended goals after "Doberman" but before leaving Los Santos:
Get your nest egg up to around $100k to $250k. One thing you'll notice after completing "Doberman" is that drug dealers proliferate on the streets like rabbits. It will seem like the more territory that you take, the more will spawn. (Things that make you go "hmm...".) Regardless of the reasons, you're going to see 10x more drug dealers after "Doberman" and before you leave Los Santos. So hunt them down and pocket their cash at every chance.
Date Denise. Go ahead, have fun, see how far you can get while staying busy with all the other things that need doing. Learn how often to show up and take her out.
Finish tagging your turf. This is a good time to find and spray all 100 tags. I recommend downloading a map, printing it out, then mark it up as you complete tags. Otherwise you'll lose track of which ones you've done. (And some of them are infuriatingly difficult to find.) The weapon spawns inside the Johnson House as a result of completing this will help you immensely during this phase.
Take territory away from Ballas (and other gangs). The gang warfare minigame is a good way to learn how to survive heavy combat and will gain you a fair amount of cash. It will also help you raise your weapon skills. I strongly recommend locating the AK-47 spawn points (or completing the 100 tags side quest) or using a full SMG like the MP5. Use your pistol and micro SMG or sawed-off shotgun when you can, but be ready to revert to the AK-47 or MP5 when things get tight. When a wave spawns, run to a part of the block not occupied. This will string out your pursuers so that they come at you a few at a time instead of all at once.
Collect your money from in front of the Johnson House regularly. (If you finished all 100 tags, go inside and restock your weapons too.)
Don't go crazy on hoarding ammunition. You're getting close to the end of Los Santos missions and you'll be stripped of everything anyway. So use it if you have it.
Explore Los Santos. Which you'll do if you chase down all 100 tags, but take time to hit up some of the side games like the dance club, lowrider challenge or racing game at the Los Santos Forum (east Los Santos). Go shopping!
Buy up the three properties that have garages (Santa Marina Beach, El Corona, Mulholland).
Carjack one or two Cheetahs (2-door sports car, similar to a Ferrari Testarossa) that you find in Rodeo, Los Santos. Store them in the garages (no more then 1 car per garage to avoid a bug).
Carjack a few Freeway (motorcycle, similar to classic Harley-Davidsons) and store them for later. Frankly, I usually have at least 4 of these stashed in the four garages available in Los Santos, because I love tooling around on them. They're easier to find north of Los Santos out in Red County.
Lastly, don't go crazy with gang warfare. Take as much territory as you want, but don't try to take over all of Los Santos (it's pointless right now).
If you do run short of cash after the Los Santos missions, you can go back to Los Santos (or up to Montgomery in Red County) to the Inside Track (OTB) to bet on the ponies. Between buying new safe houses and having to buy SMGs solely for ammo at the Ammunation stores, I was constantly struggling for cash until I went back and hit the ponies. Eventually, during the San Fiero missions, you'll finally get some assets up and running that will pay you a daily tithe in San Fiero.
Welcome to Los Santos, CJ. You've been robbed by the cops and dropped off in enemy gang territory with no weapons and only a bicycle in the alley.
First Steps
Get yourself south/southeast to Ganton where you grew up.
Follow the quest chain, meeting Big Smoke, Ryder, Sweet and Kendl.
I recommend stopping after the "Tagging Up Turf" mission.
Or keep going until after the "Nines and AKs" mission.
If you stop chain-running the main missions after "Tagging up Turf", you'll be in a good spot and can treat Los Santos and Red County like a big sandbox. Prior to that point a lot of things are closed off (such as restaurants and barbers). You'll also be able to use the Johnson House as a save point and a place to stash vehicles.
If you keep going until after "Nines and AKs", you can use the location where you met Emmet for target practice. Although some Ballas gang members might decide to come see what the racket is about.
At this point, you cannot leave Los Santos or Red County. The bridges have roadblocks on them (as do the train tracks).
Weapons
We need weapons in order to easily earn money. (Here-in lie a few spoilers... such is life.)
To the east of the Johnson House is a smaller light blue house. Go around the back to the eastern corner. If you stand about a meter away and jump, CJ should grab the edge of the roof and hang there. Jump again, and he'll climb up onto the roof.
Go west, jump onto the Johnson House garage, then jump again to get up on the sloped roof of the Johnson House. To your south is the flat roof of a store with a rotating can of spray paint. Grab it, then make your way back to the roof of the light blue house.
To the north of the light blue house is Sweet's house. Run towards the edge of the light blue house's roof, then jump at the last minute. If you time it right, CJ will end up on Sweet's roof. Jump a second time to get over the low wall and you'll gain access to the TEC-9.
Jump down from Sweet's roof into the basketball court on the north side and go behind the houses. To the north, in the corner of the backyards is a 9mm pistol.
If you want brass knuckles, look under the overpass west of Ryder's house. If you want a shovel, look behind Ryder's house. Ryder's house is a bit west of the Johnson House.
For armor, go east from Grove Street into the flood control channel (sometimes called an aqueduct). Look under the large bridge just north of Grove Street. You'll want to take careful note of where you find armor because keeping your white armor bar full means that you'll be less likely to get wasted.
Now you'll be strapped with a few basic weapons and you won't have to resort to using your bare fists. Weapons respawn after about 6 hours of game time, but only if you're not in the area. So go inside your house and save (which advances the clock forward 6 hours), or go run around the town for a while and explore.
There are lots of other weapons scattered around Los Santos and Red County. Each weapon type has an associated skill that can only be raised through use (shooting people, vehicles, cardboard boxes, or other destructible items like lights). Higher weapon skill results in more accuracy, better range lock, and other benefits.
Random Gameplay Notes
If you die (get wasted), all of your weapons and ammo will be removed. You'll be charged $100 and discharged from the hospital. (Much later in the game you can date a nurse and retain your weapons/ammo.) It's a real pain to lose ammo that you've collected, so make sure you always have body armor on.
If you get arrested (busted), you once again lose all of your weapons and ammo. The police will attempt to cuff you if you are not wielding a gun, or they'll attempt to pull you out of vehicles and arrest you. There's a girlfriend that you can date later on in the game who will give your weapons back if you were busted during a mission.
Don't bother hoarding large quantities of ammo. Unless you always plan on reloading your game after getting busted/wasted. There are also a few points in the game where all your weapons are stripped anyway, so use it if you've got it.
On a related note, an automatic weapon will chew through 100-200 rounds of ammo very quickly. While the 9mm pistol will feel like you have plenty of ammo even with only 100 rounds. And 50 rounds for a shotgun can be considered "a lot".
Press the [Tab] key while on foot to see CJ's stats.
To restore health, hit a food joint or vending machine, or go and save the game.
Keep CJ's fat level somewhere in the 5-15% range. If it drops too low, he'll start burning muscle mass. The biggest meal at the chicken / pizza joints adds 3% to the fat bar each, so eating 3 or 4 big meals will be best if you were almost empty.
Don't shoot your weapon or carjack in front of police. Doing so will immediately give you one wanted star.
To get rid of wanted stars, you either need to run away for long enough that they lose you, drive/walk over a police bribe location, or go save the game. Each bribe location or save point will remove a single wanted star. Alternatively, if you're in a vehicle, visiting a Pay'n'Spray will result in all of your wanted stars being suspended. As long as you don't commit any new crimes while the stars are flashing, they'll eventually vanish without police pursuing you again.
If are careful and don't kill bystanders, you can often kill opposing gang members without getting wanted stars. Killing them gains you respect, a bit of money, and possibly weapons and ammo.
Cops don't care if you run red lights or hit other vehicles. Just don't hit a police car or motorcycle or you'll be instantly awarded with a one-star wanted level.
Blowing up a vehicle on purpose by shooting at it results in a one-star wanted level. Even if nobody saw you do it.
Money
At the start, you're only going to have about $300. Maybe a bit more after running some of the missions for Ryder and Sweet. Clothing, tattoos and haircuts are all in the $50-$500 range for the most part (some clothing is more expensive). Modifications to your car run from $500 up to a few thousand. Houses (a.k.a. save points) cost at least $10,000 at the low end, with one house in Red County going for $120,000.
However, at the start of the game, anything between $10k and $20k will feel very comfortable. On top of that, you'll want another $30k or $40k to purchase 3 or 4 houses in key areas, making it easier to find a save point between missions or to store vehicles for future use. Too much money will make things extremely easy and remove that element from gameplay, so be modest and not too greedy.
That sounds like a lot, but it isn't. You see, there is this rare breed of cat out there called a drug dealer. They stand on sidewalks, carry a decent amount of cash, and are generally easy to take out. Look for a pedestrian who is standing on one place with hands crossed in front of them down around their waist. One style is a black tank top, gold chain, and baggy jeans. The other tends to wear a light grey hooded sweatshirt with the hood up along with blue jeans and white tennis shoes. They typically drop up to around $2000 when killed. So go jack a car and start driving around town, keeping on the lookout for dealers.
Once you have about $10k, it's time to go gambling. For fun, go to the bar at the western end of Grove Street and play pool. The maximum wager is $1000, so you'll have enough cash to play a few games. If you lose, go hunt down some more drug dealers (or enemy gang members).
Alternatively, go bet on the horses. This is a much surer path to winning as the odds are heavily in your favor and the payout is much larger. To get to the "Inside Track" (an OTB betting parlor), you'll need to head towards Mulholland Intersection. This is on the north side of downtown Los Santos, just west of Glen Park. It's located under the stack interchange at the north end of downtown. If you find a gated parking lot under the interchange, you're in the right area. (You pass through this area during the "Sweet and Kendl" mission on your bicycle.)
The rules for horse betting are simple. Pick a horse, pick a wager amount, then start the race. If your horse comes in first place you win, otherwise you lose.
The key is in the odds. There are only five horses, each horse has an even chance of winning (no matter what the odds say). This means that betting on the 11:1 or 12:1 underdog is your best choice over the long haul. Never bet more then 1/10th or 1/20th of your money in a single race, always pick the underdog, and you'll eventually come out on top.
Unlike betting on pool where you can only win/lose $100 at a shot. The horse racing minigame can have payouts in the tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars. Which means it's real simple to bulk up that nest egg that you earned from gunning down drug dealers.
Driving Skills
At the start, there are (3) types of vehicles that you can drive. Bicycles, motorcycles and vehicles (cars, trucks, etc). Each vehicle type has an associated skill that needs to be raised in order for you to have better control over the vehicle type. It's fairly easy to max out your bicycle (cycling) and bike (motorcycle) skills, but takes a good bit longer for your driving skill.
To get started, I recommend raising your cycling and bike skills up to about 1/4 to 1/2. Grab a bike or motorcycle and head into the flood control channels and start riding around. After a while, you'll get a lot better, which will make it easier to do missions centered around those two vehicle types. In fact, for getting around Los Santos quickly, nothing beats a crotch rocket style bike. It can fit through small gaps, is highly maneuverable, accelerates quickly, and stops on a dime. I try to stash one in every house that has a garage.
At the start, you can get away with a low driving skill for vehicles. Do spend some time out on the road learning how to drive. Or drive on the railroad tracks or in the flood control channels. But you won't need to get about 5% or 10% skill in it early on, so don't kill yourself trying to raise the skill.
One side effect of raising your cycling skill is that you'll gain health and stamina while working off fat. It's not the fastest way to bulk up, but it kills two birds with one stone. If you want to get tougher, go lift weights or ride the stationary bike at the gym (west end of Grove Street).
Conclusion
That's the basics of GTA:San Andreas. You now have money, weapons and access to vehicles and can start gaining respect and taking back control of Grove Street territory. Go explore Los Santos and Red County. Work on tagging over enemy gang tags. Or find all of the weapon locations. Or go shopping at the clothing stores. Try out the various minigames. Jack a hot ride and go for a fast drive on the freeways.
One final note. Stay away from Officer Tenpenney at the donut shop in the Market District until you are finished with the other missions in Los Santos and you're ready to move on with the main storyline.
This is the introductory clip that plays when you start a new game. It explains a bit about CJ's background and has a bit of foreshadowing. (The issue with the police car shuddering is a limitation of the GTA3 game engine on the PC when the camera is moving and also tracking a moving object.)
GTA3:SA came out back in Oct 2004, so the game is already 5 years old. Which is why the characters look blocky (especially when compared to modern games). On the upside, it runs extremely well on my system and I can turn up the draw distance all the way. So, as long as you're not turned off by the gameplay elements (violence, gangs, hookers, murder, sex, drinking, drugs), it works well on not-so-new hardware.
The source for this was FRAPS at 1600x900, ~30 FPS, progressive encoding (RGB). Converted using StaxRip to 720p (1280x720) using x264 (approximately 3800Kbps) with AAC stereo audio. This was more of a test to see whether YouTube liked the mp4 file format and the encoding settings.
Just some very (VERY) rough approximations of encoding times with StaxRip. Source material is FRAPS AVI files (1600x900, ~30 FPS), output is 720p (1280x720) x264 MKV files. Encoding system is a quad-core AMD Phenom 9850 (2.5GHz) with 3GB DDR2 RAM. Source and destination disks is a 750GB SATA drive.
Generally speaking, the main part of the encode does a good job of maxing out all of the CPU cores at 80-95% and uses about 800-900MB of RAM. The earlier parts where it demuxes the streams and encodes the audio tend to be more disk intensive. Here are some sample times for the "Slow" preset.
That's too few samples to draw any big conclusions about. And it's too soon to say whether the 3.3x result is out of the ordinary or not. I'm also switching over to the "Slower" preset in StaxRip, so my encoding times are going to go up.
Offhand, I'd say you can count on 3.0x encoding times (3 minutes to encode per minute of source), give or take 10%, for the "Slow" setting.
Slower is definitely slower, 50-100% longer encoding times over "Slow". I suspect some of the variation might depend on the source material's complexity, but there's not enough data to draw any hard conclusions yet. However, out of the CRF:23 samples, the 7.0x encode was the largest bitrate (5470Kbps) compared to the 2500-3500Kbps of the other encodes.
The command line that I'm using with slower looks like:
What you see here is that a CRF of 18 results in very high quality encodes, but with larger bitrates. The one sample ended up at 9840 Kbps, which is huge for my purposes. Setting the CRF to 24 results in a file that is about 60% the size of a CRF 20 encode. Which is a sizeable savings. For archive quality encodes of game video, setting the CRF to 18-22 is probably a good choice, depending on your source footage. For cases where you care more about file size, set the CRF to around 24. Although at CRF 24, you'll start to see blockiness in dark shadowy areas.
Most official sources indicate that you should pick a CRF between 15 and 25, depending on your needs. Which puts the default x264 value of 23 at the upper end of the scale. Most folks talking about movies and TV encodes fall into the 18-20 range, with 22 used for cases where you're willing to compromise image perfection in exchange for file size. Stuff in the 15-17 range seems to be the realm of perfectionists who want zero artifacts.
Of course, for the real fun, the CRF value is not the only determining factor in video quality. Plus, the x264 developers periodically change the math which means that your optimal CRF value may shift a point or three in either direction when you update x264.
Me? I'm going to roll with CRF 23 for the moment for my archived FRAPS footage.
I'm getting ready to switch my FRAPS captures from XVid to H.264 (x264). What I'm finding is that in GTA3: San Andreas, where I capture at 1600x900, encoding to XVid results in a lost of fine detail (even at 2.8-3.0 Mbps settings). The H.264 codec seems to do a much better job at preserving the fine detail while staying at a reasonable bitrate.
StaxRip - This is a very good tool for using in conjunction with FRAPS. If you separate your raw FRAPS AVI files into separate directories prior to encoding, it becomes very easy to merge the AVIs together.
x264 settings - A page at the MeGUI wiki regarding what the different x264 settings are. Pay close attention to "profile", "preset", "tune" and "level".
The Bottom Line Everybody should be encoding HD content (1080p, 720p) to Profile High @ Level 4.1. For smooth playback, "--level 4.1" should be used to mark the file as compatible when encoding. The best MeGUI profile for x264 is the DXVA-HD-HQ profile.
And the following quote from that page about standard-def content:
Everybody should be encoding SD content (576p, 480p, or less) to Profile High @ Level 3.1 For smooth playback, "--level 3.1" should be used to mark the file as compatible when encoding. The best MeGUI profile for x264 is the DXVA-SD-HQ profile.
Note: StaxRip doesn't seem to have an equivalent profile for hi-def encoding. However, using the "Slower" preset takes care of the majority of settings. You'll just have to set the following:
Analysis (Partitions): All enabled except for P4x4" Frame Options (Misc): Set Reference Frames to 4 Rate Control (VBV): Buffer Size and Max Bitrate to "50000" Command Line (Custom Switches): Add "--level 4.1"
Which should result in a command line similar to the following:
GTA: Grand Theft Auto San Andreas - Mouse does not always work correctly
This drove me up the wall for a while tonight. I recently dug up my copy of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (Second Edition) and installed it. The problem is that in the menus, the left mouse button (LMB) could not be used to click on the menu options. In addition, when C.J. is out walking around, you cannot use the mouse to look around.
(Actually, you can't use the mouse to look around at all, even when driving a vehicle or bike. It's just that when you're on foot, with options set to "mouse + keyboard", the camera no longer automatically swings around to face the same way as C.J. is.)
The issue seems to be multifaceted:
1) It occurs most often in Windows XP on systems with multiple CPUs or multiple cores (such as the AMD X2 / X3 / X4 / Phenom or the Intel dual-core or quad-core offerings). If, after launching the game, you go into Task Manager and manually set the process affinity to force it to run on only one of the cores, the mouse generally works. If you can find a copy of WinLauncherXP, you can use this to launch GTA:SA and it will set the affinity for you. (You just have to create a new program entry and turn off all of the other CPUs except for CPU #1.)
2) USB mice seem to be more prone to the problem. I have a Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer 3.0 Optical USB mouse, hooked up to the USB port. Rumor has it that if I switched to the USB to PS/2 adapter, it might work better. But setting task affinity worked for me.
Even with the above fixes, often you'll have to hit [Esc] to go to the menu, then [Esc] again to get back into the game. At which point the mouse will often start working again. If it doesn't work the first time, try try again. Hit [Esc] twice, then wiggle the mouse to see if it worked. Rinse and repeat as needed. The most it's ever taken me is about a dozen tries to get the mouse to work, but usually it only takes a handful of attempts.
(I tried a bunch of searches tonight. Things like "mouse problem", "mouse not working", "can't look around". Took a long time to stumble onto the posts that mentioned issues with multiple CPUs.)
Mutant 1: I was thinking. And it hurt! Hurt my head! But I remembered things. From before... I think I knew a woman. Or maybe, I WAS a woman... Aggh! It hurts!
Mutant 2: Ha! You talk a lot! Sound funny when you talk, like a stupid human! Ha ha ha ha ha!
Mutant 1: Ah, I'm done talkin' to you anyway.
...
Mutant 1: What do you want?
Mutant 2: Wish I had a new weapon. Something good to smash with. Wish I could hold one of those Behemoth clubs. So big! So much crush!
Mutant 1: Umm... Well... Ahhh... Sure...
Mutant 2: Ah, I'm done talkin' to you anyway.
...
Mutant 1: I need a new gun. I want something that won't break. Something that will shoot forever. One of us had... a Fat Man! I want one of those...
Mutant 2: I don't know! What do I look like, a human? Talk, talk, talk, that's all you ever do!
Mutant 1: Bah! I'm gonna go back to doin'... what I was doin'...
MMM, with Increased Spawns (more critters!), Hunting & Looting, Tougher Traders, Zones Respawn and Natural Selection -- MMM simply makes the wastes more interesting as critters will fight other critters and not just the player. One side effect of Increased Spawns is that any feral ghoul whose head is not blown off, has a hefty chance of coming back to life within a few minutes and coming back for seconds. So either you kill all ghouls by blowing heads off, or else you do the job after they're dead, or you risk them haunting you.
Darker Interiors / Xepha's Darker Nights - lowers the brightness level just a bit indoors and outside. Darker Interiors is very subtle, while Xepha's is more dramatic. Xepha's will require that you either do your ops only during daytime, or else that you get a NVG addon or some sort of flashlight. With DI installed, there are times that you *have* to use your PipBoy light or NVGs to look for loot in underground / interior locations.
Longer Days & Longer Nights - if you're gonna make the night darker, may as well make it last longer. There are a few versions of this mod, this one simply increases the time length of day/night cycle by 2x. So that it takes 48 min to cycle through a day instead of 24 min. So if you start your op at dawn/dusk, you have about 20 minutes of day or night to get things done.
Vanishing Piles - makes ash/goo piles go away. More of a fix then a game changer. Not sure whether EVE has this functionality or not.
Choose_XP - Allows you to change the rate of XP gain from like 0% to 200%. I generally leave it at 100% until level 3 or 4, then cut back to 50%. Works with Broken Steel. (Arwen also has an XP tweaker that is actively developed. Instead of a flat XP rate change, Arwen did a lot more tweaking.) I found that 33% was too slow, but it's every easy to equip the Choose_XP doodad and change your rate.
Maintenance Shed - Very basic player owned house in Springvale. Good for characters who don't do Power of the Atom right away.
DC Interiors - High quality mod that adds locations in Mason District, Georgetown and Seward Square.
Ammo Dispenser - Adds an ammo terminal inside the Citadel where you can buy ammo. So if you have lots of caps, have gained entry to the Citadel, you can buy as much ammo as you have caps for. I just wish that the ammo cost was about 2x or 3x higher... (I might take this back out of future plays, haven't decided yet).
Nightvision Goggles (Powered) - Adds NVGs that use Energy Cells. I generally set it to use 1 cell every 10 seconds. Works hand-in-glove with Xepha's and Darker Interiors and does a good job of simulating the motion blur of NVGs. It can drop your framerate at times.
Slower Degradation - Cuts the rate of weapon degradation. I run at -50% of normal. Which is slow enough that your weapons don't break after every battle, but fast enough that you still have to worry about weapon repairs. I tried -80% and it was too easy to ignore weapon health. With MMM + Increased Spawns, -50% or, if it existed, -67% would be about right. Go with -80% if you're a rock-and-roll type that sends large volumes of fire downrange, or -50% for a more tactical play.
Reduced Karma for Stealing - Steal more stuff with less karma loss (I think 1 point loss instead of 5 points).
Karma Hard with Future Imperfect, Cannibal Increase and Church Decrease - Makes it harder to gain / lose karma. A lot harder. Instead of immediately being "Very Good" after leaving Vault 101, my character stayed in Neutral territory for a long time and had to work on it to get into Good. It does not play with the "level ranges" of karma, so is very compatible with things and works well.
Real Physics (with Car Explosions) - Tones down the amount of crazy when a NPC gets shot. I'm on the fence with leaving this one in or out as I'm not 100% convinced that it plays well with MMM (but I don't know FO3Edit well enough to tell).
BM08 Random Bobbleheads - This is probably the big kahuna in my current game. It takes all of the bobbleheads and moves them to new locations. Each bobblehead can appear in 1 of 5 new locations. So, even if you know where all the locations are, it's still a 20% chance that you'll find what you're looking for. I'm very very tempted to do the same thing for skill books... it's also something that I wish FWE / FOOK2 would add to their overhauls. If you find that knowing where those bobbleheads are is boring and you're constantly chasing them in a set order at the start of each game, then this is the solution.
3EF Helmless - Changes the Chinese Stealth Suit into a 2-pc armor set (helm and armor). So now you can wear just the lower portion, without a helmet. Also seems to fix the glitch where you can wear unlimited # of hats with the CSS.
BD66 Merged Camo Combat Armor - Places 3 versions of Combat Armor (equivalent to Reilly's Ranger armor) in Bethesda. There's a light grey camo version, a dark grey camo, and a yellow/green camo version. I use the non-replacer version of the mod. Sometimes I'll fight my way to the armor crate, other times I'll only reward myself once I've completed the Reilly's Rangers quest.
Texture/Sound replacers:
Color Hi-Detailed map and icons - Gives your pipboy a high-res detailed map of the Capitol Wastelands instead of the default monochrome map. The downside is that the CW will suddenly appear a lot smaller if you zoom in close and start tracing out roads. The upside is that it's easier to see cliffs / roads / buildings and really get a feel for where you are.
Alternate Female Face, Assaukt Rifles Retextured, Better Litter, Enhanced Night Sky, Green Green Grass of Home, Hi-Res Lunchbox, krzymar Hi-Res Moon Dark, Hi-Res Skill Boooks, Sandbag Retexture, Sparking Eyes (Default Eyes Only), WJS DLC05 Retex -- All are basic retextures of regular textures that make things look nicer without imposing huge frame rate issues. Green Green Grass adds a subtle bit of color to the wastes.
MP No Bad Karma Noise - Changes the karma loss noise to a silent audio effect. Which is very nice for evil characters who get tired of hearing that constant whine.
...
Fallout3.esm Anchorage.esm ThePitt.esm BrokenSteel.esm PointLookout.esm Zeta.esm Mart's Mutant Mod.esm GalaxyNewsRadio100[M].esp DCInteriors_Georgtown.esp DCInteriors_Mason.esp DCInteriors_SewardSq.esp MaintenanceShed.esp Ammo_Dispenser v 2.esp 3EFhelmlessstealthsuit.esp BD Merged Camo Battlearmor.esp sunglassescollection.esp NightvisionGoggles(Powered).esp RealPhysicsWithCarExplosions.esp Slower Degradation (-50%).esp KarmaFutureImperfect1010.esp KarmaCannibalIncrease1010.esp KarmaChurchDecrease1010.esp KarmaHard1010.esp reduced karma loss for Stealing.esp choose_XP.esp VanishingPiles.esp BM08RandomBobbleheadsFixed.esp Longer Days & Longer Nights.esp Xepha's Darker Nights.esp DarkerInteriorsFallOut3.esp DarkerInteriorsBrokenSteel.esp DarkerInteriorsAnchorage.esp DarkerInteriorsPointLookout.esp DarkerInteriorsZeta.esp DarkerInteriorsThePitt.esp Mart's Mutant Mod.esp Mart's Mutant Mod - Increased Spawns.esp Mart's Mutant Mod - Hunting & Looting.esp Mart's Mutant Mod - Tougher Traders.esp Mart's Mutant Mod - Zones Respawn.esp Mart's Mutant Mod - Natural Selection.esp Mart's Mutant Mod - DLC Anchorage.esp Mart's Mutant Mod - DLC Broken Steel.esp Mart's Mutant Mod - DLC The Pitt.esp Mart's Mutant Mod - DLC Point Lookout.esp
Example of Fallout 3 game-play at Bailey's Crossroads in the Operation: Anchorage DLC. The Brotherhood Outcasts are battling against Super Mutants on their way to the Outcast Outpost. You can either hang back or attempt to help the Outcasts make their way through the ruined building. This is pretty much vanilla Fallout 3 without mods, using the regular Recon Armor and the Chinese Assault Rifle along with the Shady Hat.
It's a good example of what firefights end up looking and feeling like in Fallout 3. Especially when there are NPCs helping you out with the nasties. Of course, the NPCs constantly get in your way, so you can't just rock and roll with your fully automatic weapon.
Apologies for the blurriness, apparently after I recorded this I only saved it in a 2Mbps XVid file instead of my usual 2.8Mbps XVid. Things tend to stay really crisp at 2.8Mbps XVid for 720p footage, but get blurry below 2.5Mbps (at least for this type of footage). Toss in the re-encoding that YouTube does and you end up with a bit of a muddle.
FO3: Things you should be collecting along the way
So, here's the short (haha) list of items that you'll want to be squirreling away as you wander the wastelands. This is the list of things that may not have an immediately apparent use, but that you'll want at some point in quantities. I have not included things that make custom weapons other then the Bottlecap Mines and Nuka-Grenades.
Abraxo Cleaner (plentiful) - Nuka-Grenade, collect 50-60 or one for each Nuka-Cola Quantum that you've found that you're going to convert into Nuka-Grenade(s).
Brotherhood Holotag (rare) - Unmarked quest item. Looted off the corpses of fallen Brotherhood of Steel NPCs.
Camera (uncommon) - Unmarked quest in Broken Steel.
Cherry Bomb (rare) - Bottlecap Mine, get as many as possible.
Fire Ant Nectar - Unmarked quest.
Lunchbox (uncommon) - Bottlecap Mine, get as many as possible.
Nuka-Cola - can be used to make Nuka-Cola Quantum later, collect as many as possible
Nuka-Cola Quantum (rare) - Quest or Nuka-Grenade, collect as many as possible. Save 30 for the quest if you're going to go that route.
Pre-war Book (uncommon) - Unmarked quest
Purified Water (uncommon) - Unmarked quest to gain karma.
Sensor Module (uncommon) - Bottlecap Mine or Broken Steel unmarked quest, get as many as possible
Scrap Metal (common) - Multiple unmarked quests.
Sugar Bombs - Unmarked quest.
Super Mutant Blood Sample - Unmarked quest in Broken Steel.
Teddy Bears - unmarked quest in Pitt DLC, collect as many as possible
Tin Can (not the Bent Tin Can) - Nuka-Grenade component (plentiful), collect about 30-50 or one for each set of Nuka-Grenade(s) that you plan on creating.
Turpentine - Nuka-Grenade (somewhat common), collect as many as possible.
Well, one side effect of Mart's Mutant Mod on Fallout 3 is that it aggravates an already aggravating condition... it's too easy to get to level 20. Just to give you some data points (hours played, level attained):
At this rate, in another hour or two of gameplay and I'll be level 9/10, well ahead of the roughly 30 hours it took me without MMM. Or at least, it feels rushed and well ahead of normal speed due to all the additional encounters out in the wastelands.
My first play through took about 90 hours. That's not bad for getting to level 30, but I still feel like I only did about 1/4 to 1/3 of the entire wasteland / DC area, even though I hit about 3/4s of the quests. The problem is that once I hit 30, I lose a lot of interest in the game... so I need to slow down the rate of XP gain.
Looks like choose_XP (v2.4) is the mod that I'm looking for. From the description, it looks like you get an activator item upon leaving Vault 101, at which point you can choose the rate of XP gain in various increments above/below 100%. It's supposed to be compatible with the Broken Steel expansion, which a lot of other XP modification mods aren't. If I understand how it works, it doesn't mess with the amount of XP needed to level, but instead changes the amount of XP you gain when you complete a quest or kill something (similar to the +10% XP perk).
I think I'll try 33% of normal to start...
Updates:
- 33% feels slow at the start. I suggest leaving it at 100% of normal until you get to level 3. Then back down to 50% or 33%. I've spent about 8 hours, am almost level 5, and did all of Mothership Zeta along with a few odds and ends in Megaton. Next time, I'll leave the XP modifier at 100% until level 3 or 4.
- One side effect of 33% XP is that you are going to want to do a lot more exploration. In vanilla Fallout 3, exploration feels to be a bit of a waste because you'll get some much XP just from doing quests. So you tend to be quest-focused in regular Fallout 3.
- Overall, I think I'll be happy with either 33% or 50%. I could even see slowing it down a touch in the mid-teens.
Level 2 and 3: Don't take a skill-boosting perk here. It's not worth it at all. Take either Black Widow / Lady Killer, which is excellent for females but not so good for males, Swift Learner (10% faster XP gains), or Intense Training (to boost a SPECIAL attribute).
For females, Black Widow is a good one combined with Intense Training. For males, I'd probably take two Intense Training perks (at level 2 & 3). I'd suggest boosting Luck or Agility if you're a VATS user, or maybe Strength if you went light on it at the start. Or make sure that Endurance is at 5+ so that you can take Toughness at level 6 or 7.
The "big 7" skills still matter here for a small guns / stealth character. All of these need to be at least 25 at level 2. Science, Lockpick and Repair can be left at 20 as long as you have +5 gear that you can equip when you need to.
Explosives Lockpick Medicine Repair Science Small Guns Sneak
Level 4: Take Educated. Those extra 3 skill points at each level are wonderful.
Level 5: Choose between Child at Heart, Entomologist and Comprehension for this level. If skills are your obsession, choose Comprehension. If you think you're going to roleplay a more childlike mindset, go with Child at Heart (which opens up unique dialog options when talking to children).
Level 6 and 7: Small gun types will take Gunslinger at 6. For beefier types with Endurance of 5+, Toughness is a strong choice as it gives you 10% to overall Damage Resistance. For a soldier / commando type, Toughness is very much a must-have perk. Demolition Expert is a runner-up, the 20% extra damage with explosives can come in handy (grenades, mines), but you'll need to have boosted Explosives to 50 points.
(A lot of times, Toughness and Demolition Expert end up as backfill perks later on. If you took points out of Endurance at the start, a lot of times you'll have to take Intense Training at level 7, or backfill.)
Level 8 and 9: Commando for the small gun types, Scrounger, Rad Resistance or Strong Back for others. Note that Strong Back requires both Strength and Endurance to be 5+.
(I much prefer the Scrounger perk over Fortune Finder.)
Level 10 and 11: Take Finesse for a higher critical hit chance. The other choices range from amusing to funny (Mysterious Stranger, Nerd Rage) or selectively useful (Mister Sandman). Here and Now immediately boosts you to the next level and is basically free XP.
Decided to start adding some mods into the mix for Fallout 3. I really want to try out FOOK2, but it's still in beta and there were enough comments about problems on the FOOK2 boards to make me leery. So I'm trying some others first.
Mart's Mutant Mod: This is a fairly major overhaul of the creatures and NPCs in Fallout 3. Things like varying their size / health / damage, or changing how much meat drops off of critters, or making it so that stuff respawns more often. In addition to the base changes, I'm also using Hunting & Looting, Natural Selection, Tougher Traders, Zones Respawn, and the DLC changes. The H&L mod makes it so that NPCs tend to pickup fallen weapons / items off of bodies, which makes things more interesting. Tougher Traders fixes the issue where trade caravans tend to get slaughtered by the wildlife or super mutants past level 18-20. The respawn mod makes it so that a lot of areas that wouldn't normally respawn (subway tunnels, etc) will now respawn after the regular respawn interval.
Needless to say, the wasteland is now a good bit more inhospitable. My primary goals on my first character are to get to "safe" places like Arefu, The Citadel, Big Town, and Agatha's. That allows me to fast-travel from my starting location (Megaton or Tenpenney Towers) to other areas of the map, without wading through everything between. I'm not entirely sure that I'll like the change to respawns in the Metro system, but I haven't been there yet.
Selected Containers Respawn: This mod makes it so that a large number of special containers will now respawn with new contents periodically. So it's still worth poking around in an area on the 2nd or 3rd pass (or more) through.
Maintenance Shed: I tried this before, but there's a new version out so I'm trying it again. It's a very basic "house" mod at the watertower's base that is right near Vault 101. Nothing fancy (other then the garbage can thing), and it's a good place to stash loot until you settle in at Tenpenney Towers or Megaton.
Ammo Dispenser: Adds a way to buy ammo at the Citadel. Doesn't affect the early game because you have to progress through the main quest far enough to get access to the Citadel. It goes hand-in-glove with MMM, because the constant respawn in MMM along with higher numbers of critters in MMM means that you're going to use a lot more ammo. (The alternative is to use the Ammo Press in The Pitt expansion.)
Vanishing Piles: Supposedly, this makes the goo and ash piles that result from using energy / plasma weapons vanish after you leave the cell for a while. Since I plan on using energy weapons with a future character, I've added this to the list.
Longer Days and Longer Nights: Makes day/night cycle take twice as long (real-time) as normal. Which means that when you leave at 6pm, it's probably going to be still dark when you get where you're going. Gives you more (real) time to conduct day or night operations. I haven't detected any side-effects yet. The regular day/night cycle takes 24 minutes in Fallout 3 (60x normal speed), so this gives you 48 minutes per day.
Xepha's Darker Nights: The default night in Fallout 3 is still pretty bright (like a twilight). This makes it a good bit darker, but not pitch black, which raises the immersion factor at night. Note that you'll probably want to also add a Night Vision Goggles mod to supplement this one. (The linked mod works well and is balanced, but drops my frame rate by 10-20%.)
DC Interiors: I'm still using this one and might make it a point to go there first on a new character soon.
...
MMM is definitely the biggest change so far. Especially some of the additional modules that I've loaded (Natural Selection, Hunting and Looting). I watched a firefight between some ghouls and raiders in the alien ship (Mothership Zeta) where the raiders picked up fallen weapons from the aliens and used them. Plus my companions were picking up weapons and other items to complement what they were already carrying.
Natural Selection, OTOH, makes it so that not *everything* in the wasteland wants to eat you. Some critters are just content to ignore you, others prefer to prey on critters rather then you. Mature molerats, however, still make a beeline at you like suicidal masses of moving meat. (Ah well, I guess they've already passed on their genes at that point...)
I decided against adding the "Increased Spawns" portion of MMM for the moment. That makes things significantly more difficult as the critter count is a lot higher.
Right now, I think I'll play through on my new character (Raven) who will probably also turn into a commando sort. Then I may experiment with an energy weapons build along with a heavy weapons build. Once I finish that, I'll be ready to explore other mega-mods like FWE and FOOK2.
Fallout 3 turns out to be very engrossing. While it comes from the same folks that made Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, they didn't make the mistake again of making *everything* leveled with the player. Instead, they sort of gated things, so that Super Mutant Masters and Overlords don't show up until you're of higher level. That makes the world feel a bit more natural and scary as you level up.
I went ahead and bought the (5) expansion packs and installed them. So far, I'm running a very stock game other then the "DC Interiors" project which adds indoor locations to 3 spots in DC. (Which I have yet to visit...)
Astike (who is now level 29) has turned into a commando type of gal. Adept with the sniper rifle and 1H/2H projectile weapons. But, she still turns her nose up at heavy weapons and energy weapons. For her armor, she's generally clad in Combat Armor, which is a step up from leather/recon armor, but nowhere near as heavy as Power Armor (a.k.a. walking tin can). Her opening move typically involves stealth attacks from a hidden position (Sniper Rifle, Chinese Assault Rifle, or close-quarters weapons like the Combat Shotgun or 10mm SMG). In a heavy firefight with room to move, she uses the Chinese Assault Rifle or 10mm SMG for pure volume of steel on target.
By far, her favorite missions are infiltration types where you sneak into the target without companions, commit mayhem, then escape into the night. But there had better be a good reason for the mayhem, or some furtherance of public good. She's still a goody-goody, and doesn't care if the miscreant is ghoul, human or mutant.
(My next character, OTOH, is going to be more neutral/evil and a lot more chaotic.)
Expansion thoughts...
Pitt: This is one that you'll want to start somewhere around level 8-12. Whenever you feel comfortable enough with your primary weapon skill that you can take on multiple targets. You'll also want a decent (30-50) explosives skill to survive crossing the first bridge. I saved this until the mid-20s, and the reward weapon (Perforator / Infiltrator) is a light-duty 5.56mm weapon. It doesn't pack a punch like the 5.56mm Chinese Assault Rifle does, but it comes with a silencer and scope. A weapon that definitely works well up until level 20 or so, after that it's very weak. Very linear expansion, but access to the "Ammo Press" after you complete the quest chain is worthwhile. Travel light on your way to Pitt as you'll be fully overloaded when you come back (and you'll probably make multiple trips).
Operation Anchorage: Commando / stealth mission with excellent loot at the end from the armory. I did it in the late-teens, but also would make this more of a priority for a stealth-oriented character. Travel light on your way to do this content.
Point Lookout: This is nasty and brutal at times. Make sure you arrive with plenty of anti-radiation medication along with Stimpaks. I don't know if this content is really doable prior to 20, although I might try.
Mothership Zeta: I'll admin, I have done nothing more then peek at the content, then reloaded to a prior save because I wasn't ready for it. It's another one of those "strip your gear, give it back at the end" expansions (just like Pitt/Anchorage). Folks who prefer energy weapons will want to do this expansion early (levesl 10-15 or so?).
Broken Steel: This is the mother of all expansions. It doesn't really add new areas, but raises the level cap to 30 and integrates with the primary plotline in Fallout 3. If you're a fan of the Brotherhood of Steel, then this quest chain will make you happy. There are some truly epic moments in the Death from Above quest.
...
Right now, I plan on retiring Astike once I finish up the last mission in Broken Steel and get her to level 30. At that point, I plan on rerolling in some fashion and working on the content again from a different point of view.
Here's a short snippet (5 minutes) of my first encounter with a Super Mutant... and his big brother who showed up during the fight.
Warning: This gets a bit violent and gory at the end.
So many bad tactical decisions:
- At the time, while I had a .308 sniper rifle in my inventory, ammo was scarce so I decided against using it for the opening shot.
- I had not learned yet that you could hold down the [Left-Mouse] button to fire the Chinese Assault Rifle in continuous fire mode.
- Nor did I understand the use of Stimpaks (but figured that out quickly enough). It might have been smart to pop some chems.
- Never use cars, motorcycles, or other vehicles as cover. Then tend to be highly flammable and explosive.
- When being shot at by missles, don't stand with your back to an embankment, where the missles that miss you can hit and do splash damage.
- My initial stalk and scouting of the location was flawed. I should have swept left to the high ground so that I could look into the large tractor trailer.
- Retreating while laying down frag mines might have been a good idea.
(This is also my first use of YouTube. Which was fairly easy. The video was recorded at 1600x900 in FRAPS, then downsized to a 2.8Mbps 2-pass XVid 720p with 192Mbps MP3 CBR stereo audio track. YouTube accepted that upload without a hitch and the transcoding done on the YouTube servers took 30-60 minutes. I debated adding annotations, but preferred to leave the video "as-is".)
Right now, I'm playing a red-headed female stealthy/sniper style character and enjoying it immensely. She's a bit of a goody-goody, with exceptionally high karma, who rarely takes payment for services. No stealing, no unprovoked killing, no killing of neutral/good NPCs.
However, there are a few other general concepts that I want to explore:
1) Female, taking the Child at Heart perk, possibly more of a thieving sort with a knowledge of explosives. With the attributes at STR 2, PER 7, END 2, CHA 7, INT 6, AGI 8, LUCK 8, this gal is going to be a wee slip of a lass who needs to be smart and lucky to stay alive.
2) Male or female, walking tank in power armor. Possibly using energy weapons, but definitely more of a big guns style of heavy combat. STR 8, PER 3, END 8, CHA 3, INT 5, AGI 7, LUCK 6. Fighting for the Brotherhood of Steel is pretty much a guaranteed fit. Megaton might not fare too well, or I might strive to stay somewhat neutral.
3) Evil Female, maybe male. Probably a sniper playstyle similar to what I'm playing now, but also a thief and murderer who lies, cheats and takes the low road. Megaton will not be left standing.
Currently, my character is very much a stealthy sneaky type. Sneak attack critical damage is my favorite thing. This means a very heavy focus on Small Guns, Sneak, and Repair along with perks like Gunslinger and Commando. At level 9, I have:
40 Explosives - Useful for getting out of Minetown in one piece during Moira's quest. You can do it at lower skill levels, but it's a lot easier to disarm Frag Mines when you can stroll up to them rather then having to dash. (Higher skill level in Explosives gives you more time to disarm.) I had a rather nasty time on the Roosevelt Memorial Bridge early on, as it is heavily mined with a dozen or two Frag Mines.
52 Lockpick - I've been slacking on this lately, but 50+ is good enough for the moment.
50 Medicine - There are quests that require at least 40 points in Medicine.
55 Repair - The repair skill is wonderful. Not only can you keep your weapons in high condition, but you can combine two sub-par pieces of loot (such as raider outfits) into a single higher-quality piece that weighs less and will sell for more. I've gone back to carrying around my +5 Repair outfit as the 1 lb of weight is easily recouped in the field when I combine loot down into fewer, higher quality, items.
50 Science - This was at 45 for a long time, but now I'll be able to stop carrying around my +5 Science outfit for a while. And there are some useful benefits to having a higher science skill.
60 Small Guns - That's not counting the +5 skill boost I get from my current outfit. I'll probably dump another 10-15 points into this at level 10, because it's getting rougher out there in the wastelands.
50 Sneak - I wish I had more points to spend here. I'll likely dump 5-10 points here at level 10.
Lagging Skills
Big Guns is still at a measly 15, so I toss any large weapons into my weapons locker in Megaton for use down the road. Same thing for Energy Weapons. The only way that I've been raising those skills is when I find skill books or if I boost an attribute. I'll want to get these higher somewhere down the road, but only if I run into an absolute wall with the sneaky method.
Barter is one that I wish I had bumped up sooner. I've been trickling points into this off and one, but it's still only 25. For the moment, however, it's "good enough" and I always have enough caps (money) to buy all of the useful ammo that I find at vendors and to get my one-of-a-kind weapons repaired. So far I always have about 800-1200 caps, and that number is slowly going up.
Speech is still at 14. Eventually, I'm sure I'll find books that boost this skill.
Basic Loadout
Right now, whenever I leave Megaton, I'm generally carrying 50-55 lbs of gear. With the default STR of 5, that leaves me with 145-150 lbs of carrying capacity for loot that I find while out and about.
Ammo has zero weight, as do all meds, so I always carry the maximum possible. Special loot that has zero weight like pre-war money never gets sold. I keep adding to my stash. Eventually, I'll either sell it in a pinch, or find someone who is willing to trade me something for it.
I do not leave town carrying any food that heals less then 20 points per lb of weight. Better to carry a bunch of Stimpaks, which have zero weight and heal for a heck of a lot more per use. And you can almost always find useable beds around where you can grab an hour or three of shuteye to heal back up.
My rule for loot is generally that it needs to have a value of 8+ caps per lb of weight. Early on, I'll pickup loot with lower ratios. Then, as I get close to my weight capacity, I'll either combine loot using the repair ability or drop stuff that has a low caps/weight ratio.
The only guideline I can give you for "how many X do I need" for chems/meds is that "you'll never have enough". With zero weight, I recommend never selling them, and you'll want to periodically spend some caps to stock up. If you pick your fights carefully, you'll slowly increase the number of meds/chems in your inventory. That way, when things get really crazy, you'll have a large stash to use in a fight.
Attire Loadout (17-22 lb)
Right now, I travel extremely light. I only carry the following gear as standard:
+5 Repair Outfit (1 lb): I have an outfit that I looted back in Vault 101 that is lightweight and boosts my repair skill. Very useful in the early levels for combining items looted into fewer, higher quality items to reduce carrying weight.
+1 Perception Hat (1 lb): There's a few versions of this hat around, but I gladly trade off the 3 DR from most lightweight headgear in exchange for a higher Perception attribute.
Amored Vault 101 Jumpsuit with +5 Small Guns and +5 Energy Weapons (15 lb): This is an early quest reward from Moira if she likes you. It has a decent amount of DR (Damage Reduction) and is lightweight. I have yet to find something better. The major downside is that you're at the mercy of vendors to get it repaired. Raider armor is a close runner-up (15 lbs, similar DR, but no bonus) once you get high enough not to care about the bonuses and want a different look. Eventually, I'll replace this with one of the 20 lb Combat Armor options.
Glasses (0 or 1 lb): There's a variety of eyeglass or other eyewear that I like the look of.
Power armor is 25-40 lbs (net weight), plus another 4 or 5 lbs for the helmet. For a stealthy player, heavier armor makes it a lot harder to sneak around. I'll probably roll a heavy armor character down the road, but this character is very much focused on light armor. I may even go as far as to start wearing really lightweight outfits with almost no DR in exchange for better sneak performance.
Sometimes I'll carry along other +5 skill-boosting pieces (+Science, +Medicine, +Speech) for special use.
Weapon Loadout (38 lb)
(Listed in approximate order of damage done.)
Silenced 10mm Pistol (3 lb): Great for dealing with raiders, or small critters in close quarters (such as radroaches). Not as useful outdoors due to the accuracy, but the zero-noise factor allows you to stay hidden and take multiple shots at an enemy. Has a decent critical damage bonus, so works well for VATS sneak shots to the head.
Hunting Rifle (.32 ammo, 6 lb): This is an excellent medium/long range weapon for use against weaker opponents. At long range, you can often get away with single shots in VATS, then hiding until they stop searching. It also packs a decent enough punch that it's the default weapon I carry while wandering the wastelands.
10mm SMG (5 lb): This replaces the old 10mm pistol that I used to carry. For times when I want the accuracy of a pistol, I use my Silenced 10mm Pistol. Treat this as a 1H assault rifle equivalent that uses 10mm ammo instead of 5.56mm. I generally use this once I start running low on 5.56mm. Or if I'm going up against weaker enemies like raiders at short/medium range.
Combat Shotgun (7 lb): Looks like a single barrel shotgun with a large round ammo container. This is a nasty weapon for close-up work. Wait until a raider gets close, then use VATS to pull off a head shot and watch the raider drop dead. Seems to work well against Mirelurks when they get too close for comfort.
Chinese Assault Rifle (5.56mm, 7 lb): This is a sweet weapon for tunnel clearing or other medium range work against harder opponents. When going up against the nasty stuff, I'll start with a Sniper Rifle, switch to this for medium range, then fall back on the Combat Shotgun in a pinch. Accuracy is not its strong point at long range, but it's extremely deadly at short/medium range.
Sniper Rifle (.308, 10 lb): This is a heavy beast with hard to find ammo, but with great accuracy and hits like a truck if it crits. It's a waste to use it against weaker targets or targets that have been alerted, but it's a very strong opening move against Super Mutants and the like if you can get a sneak attack. In addition, it's a wonderful scope to use when scouting out a distant location.
Basically, I try to carry one Small Gun weapon for each type of Small Gun ammo. And each of them serves a different purpose.
Weapons I Wish I Carried
Dart Gun (3 lbs): Extremely useful against melee/unarmed opponents who have to get close to hurt you. I've been looting the ammo for a while, but have yet to find one or find the schematics.
Scoped .44 Magnum (4 lbs): Not sure why I haven't started carrying this yet, although I keep collecting and buying ammo for it. I should've started carrying it once I took the Gunslinger perk at level 6. It's as accurate as my hunting rifle, does a lot of damage, and very few other weapons use the .44 ammo. I'll probably toss this in the pack on my next outing.
Railway Rifle (9 lbs): This is one of those "really cool" weapons as it shoots railroad spikes. It does lots of damage and is primarily used against enemy limbs (instant crippling effect). It's really only useful at close range due to the projectile speed. I'll probably dig up schematics for this at some point and make one and play around with it. But unless I boost my STR a few more points, there's no room for it in the pack.
Picked this up on a lark, and mostly wish I hadn't.
The story could be good, but the pacing is horrid and the main protagonist is simply over the edge for 90% of the time. The only interesting character in the whole thing is the hitman hired from Chicago. And you'll only spend about 20 or 30 pages with him towards the end of the book.
You'll spend a lot of time page-flipping, waiting for the action to start or for motivations to make sense.
I felt like it couldn't decide whether it wanted to be a heroic epic, a horror book, a mystery, or a thriller. The ending was very much a muddle, with no resolution and simplistic tying up of plotlines. Ultimately, the actions of the protagonist had no effect.
Which maybe was the point of the book. In which case it comes across as nothing more then anti-industry propoganda rather then an entertaining read.
Here's a quick rundown of the basic guns in Fallout 3 that you'll find in the first few levels. The "DPS" (damage per second) values are from the Wikia Fallout 3 Wiki weapon page and should be taken with a grain of salt. These assume 100% weapon condition, which is something you'll rarely find out in the wilds at early levels.
For sneak attacks, it may be better to use a weapon with high initial damage but slightly lower DPS.
There are almost always uniquely named versions of the basic weapons that do more damage or work better.
BB Gun (2H, Small Gun, 4 DMG, ~3 MDPS): While this doesn't do a lot of damage, it's a great weapon to use while escaping from the vault against radroaches. A sneak attack against a radroach will almost always be a one-shot kill.
10mm Pistol (1H, Small Gun, 9 DMG, ~17 MDPS): This does a heck of a lot more damage then the BB Gun and carries a 12-round clip. Ammo is fairly easy to find, but accuracy suffers at longer range. For the stealthy types, there's a silenced version that does slightly less damage but is totally silent. (Hint: Easily obtained in Megaton if you're a goody-goody type that's not squeamish about taking violent action to stop a foul plot.)
.32 Pistol (1H, Small Gun, 6 DMG, ~11 MDPS): An alternative to the 10mm pistol for smaller targets. However, since this uses the same ammo as a .32 hunting rifle, I strongly suggest that you stick with the 10mm pistol and save all .32 ammo for your rifle.
Chinese Pistol (10mm, 1H, Small Gun, 4 DMG, ~3 MDPS): These are pretty much junk weapons. There are better choices for using up precious 10mm ammo.
Hunting Rifle (.32, 2H, Small Gun, 25 DMG, ~17 MDPS): Once you find one of these, this or an assault rifle will probably be your two-handed weapon of choice up until level 8-12. It's an excellent weapon for mid-long range work with decent accuracy (0.3 spread vs 0.5 spread for the 10mm pistol). I always equip this when roaming the wastelands in case I run into trouble.
(R91) Assault Rifle (5.56mm, 2H, Small Gun, 8 DMG, ~32 MDPS): The damage number is misleading as usage in VATS always shoots (3) bullets for each queued action. This is a very devastating weapon in VATS and lets you mow through an area fairly quickly. Very useful in narrow confines or underground where most combat is at mid-range and you need sure kills.
Chinese Assault Rifle (5.56mm, 2H, Small Gun, 11 DMG, ~44 MDPS): Again, the damage number is misleading as VATS always shoots (3) bullets at a time. This is a fairly easy weapon to find early on as a natural offshoot of doing tasks for Moira in Megaton. The only downside is that you'll love it so much that finding 5.56mm ammo and enough caps to pay for repairs at vendors will become an obsession. My last repair bill for this was 499 caps after a long foray into the Marigold Metro Station complex. At higher levels, it's easy to find additional CARs that can be used to repair your primary CAR, but at low levels you'll be mostly paying vendors to repair it.
There are also a few weapons that I'm not going to give stats for:
Energy Weapons: I'm not a fan of energy weapons, so I don't use them. It's also harder to find ammo for these until later on.
Shotguns (excellent for close-in work): These are excellent close-in finishers, but horrid at medium/long range. The spread on shotguns is around 5-7 compared to 0.5 for a 10mm pistol. I'll carry one if I have it, but it will rarely see use as I prefer to keep my enemies at medium/long range.
Scoped weapons (Scoped .44 Magnum and the Sniper Rifle): Scoped weapons are very tricky to use. They don't work like scoped weapons in other FPS games where it's a dependable one-shot kill weapon. However, they are very accurate in VATS with a high critical damage multiplier. The primary use of scoped weapons in Fallout 3 is often as a poor man's binoculars. The .308 ammo for sniper rifles is also a bit sparse, so it's not a weapon that you're going to want to always use.
There are also the explosive weapons (grenades, mines) along with the really big weapons (missle / nuke launchers, chain-guns, etc). These are also special-purpose weapons that will probably not be the first thing you reach for until the later levels.
Updates:
I'd like to add the 10mm SMG (1H, Small Gun, 7 DMG, ~35 MDPS) as a very interesting weapon to replace your standard 10mm pistol. You'll probably find this around level 6-8 if you're exploring. In VATS mode, it shoots off 4 rounds at a time, but the accuracy is a lot lower then a 10mm pistol. Think of it as a one-handed assault rifle equivalent as it does about the same DPS and has similar accuracy.
One of the hard things sometimes with non-linear RPGs is deciding "what to do next". It's a big wasteland and it's not safe out there at all. But for the first few levels, odds are high that you're not going to stray too far from Vault 101. At least not until you grab a few things like gear, guns and growth.
Growth (a.k.a. leveling up)
I talked briefly last time about the suggested order of perks, but now I'm going to examine the first 8 levels of perks / skills and recommend a plan. I'll assume that you only took 5 points in INT, so you'll get 15 additional skill points each level.
Level 2 (exiting from Vault 101)
This is about the one and only time that you should take a +skill boosting perk. Alternately, it might be worth using Intense Training to bump up a sagging SPECIAL attribute. For example, putting a point into INT would give you an additional skill point each level, along with boosting all INT-related skills by a point at the start.
But for the starting player, who are probably focusing on small guns for the first few levels, Gun Nut or boosting your AGI up a point with Intense Training is a very strong choice.
Just make sure that Lockpick, Science and Explosives are all at 25, or that you have gear / chems that can get you to 25. Gear can often give you +5 in a particular skill, while chems like Mentat might only give you 1-2 skill points in that skill.
Level 3
The Black Widow perk is a good choice for female characters, while Lady Killer is more of a stylistic / roleplay choice for males. Alternately take Intense Training and boost up a stat like AGI, Luck, INT or STR.
For skills, I suggest focus on the "big 7": Explosives, Lockpick, Medicine, Repair Science, Small Guns, and Sneak. You're going to want Lockpick and Science as close to 50 points by level 6 or so, so always put 5-8 points into these two skills each level at the start. But you're also going to need Repair and Small Guns up to 40-50 by level 6 as well. Explosives and Medicine can wait for a bit once you've hit the minimum of 25 points, and you'll have to decide whether to focus on Sneak or not. So you might end up with something like the following at level 3:
It's not a perfect build, and if you have higher levels of INT you'll have an additional few points each level to invest. And it doesn't count bonuses from armor. After this point, you're almost always going to dump 5 points into Lockpick and Science each level. Which will get you up to 50 points in each by level 6 or 8.
Level 4 (Educated)
There are four interesting perks that show up at level 4: Educated, Child at Heart, Entomologist and Comprehension. However, Education is, hands-down, the strongest of the perks that don't just boost skills. Every level, you'll gain an additional 3 skill points that you can invest in your skills. That's a huge, absolutely huge, and mind boggling large bonus to how quickly you'll work up through the skills. As in, 16-20% faster skill gains.
It's the difference (if you put 5 into Lockpick and Science each level until you get to 50) between only having 5-7 points to distribute to other skills and having 8-10 points to distribute.
Take it, you've love it. It's good for you!
Level 5
Choose between Child at Heart, Entomologist and Comprehension for this level. Or go back and take one of the Level 2 perks. Comprehension is pretty powerful, however, because you'll need to read half as many books to get skill points (you get 2 per book instead of only 1). Child at Heart is an interesting perk that is more roleplay oriented (you get along better with children NPCs). Entomologist is good for dealing with mutated insects, but you'll need to have already raised your Science skill to 40 in order to use it.
By this point, your Science and Lockpick skills should be up to around 35-40.
Level 6 and 7
Toughness is a good perk, if you have your Endurance attribute at 5 or better. Fortune Finder is also tempting for those with 5+ points in Luck. Gunslinger is extremely good for those focusing on pistols or other one-handed weapons. The other perks are either skill boosters or not as useful. Sneaky types will probably end up taking Gunslinger and Fortune Finder.
By this point, your Science and Lockpick skills should be up to around 40-50.
Level 8 and 9
Commando is a huge perk as it grants better accuracy in VATS when using two-handed guns (hunting rifles, assault rifles, etc). You'll likely be running around with one of the 5.56mm or .32 caliber rifles as your primary weapon by this point, so this will make it a lot easier to get off sneak attack criticals rather then missing at long range.
Rad Resistance, Scrounger, and Strong Back are all good choices at this level. Depending on prerequisites, you may only be presented with some of these possible perks.
Science and Lockpick skills should be up to around 50-60. Your primary weapon skill should be at least 50 by now. Hopefully Repair and a few of the other big seven are closing in on 50+ as well.
...
This is the point at which things really start to diverge and you'll want to start focusing on your preferred weapon type (small guns, energy weapons, big guns) and playstyle (thief, sneak, thug, brute, soldier, demolitions, etc).
My planned path for the rest of the levels is as follows:
10: Finesse (higher critical strike chance) 11: Animal Friend (animals now ignore you) 12: Silent Running (you can now run instead of walking) 13: Sniper (higher accuracy for head shots in VATS) 14: Light Step (never set off mines or floor traps) 15: Lawbringer (bring evil to justice for karma and caps) 16: Action Boy/Girl (+25 action points in VATS) 17: Better Criticals (higher crit damage) 18: Concentrated Fire (repeated hits are more accurate) 19: Computer Whiz (never get locked out of computers) 20: Grim Reaper's Spirit (VATS doesn't use AP if you kill your target)
Welcome to the first day of the rest of your life. The social structure inside the vault has gone haywire, your father has pulled a surprise, and the leadership is not pleased. There also seems to be an insect infestation...
This is going to be your first real taste of Fallout 3. Making decisions about how to approach situations, moral choices, gear choices, weapon choices, and learning that ammo is not an infinite resource. You'll need to learn ways to heal yourself, how to make use of the compass, and you'll get more experience with the VATS system.
Amata - Wake Up!
Amata's got some bad news for us. Your father has left the vault somehow, incurring the wrath of the Overseer. Worse, they've killed Jonas and are now hunting for you. Let's just say that they're not going to invite you to sit down with the Overseer and have tea and cookies. Go ahead and listen to Amata's side of the story, ask her questions and accept any gifts that she sees fit to bestow on you.
I've only played as a neutral/good character so far, so it's possible that Amata may not give you a gift if you were mean to her at age 16. Or, depending on the conversational options you pick, Amata may choose to leave without giving you anything. If this happens, quicksave and then pick her pockets.
After Amata leaves, search the entire room for weapons, gear, goodies, or anything else you might want to use for barter later. At a minimum, you should grab the Baseball Bat (melee weapon), the BB gun and ammo, the medical supplies, and search the dresser for items from your childhood.
Tip: If you have both the BB gun and the 10mm pistol, I recommend using the BB gun on the roaches and save the harder hitting 10mm for use against bigger targets.
Tip #2: If you wear gear with "PER +1" on it, that item will boost your Perception attribute by one point; making it easier to spot enemies before they see you.
Whats all this about, anyway?
Now that we're armed and (somewhat) dangerous, it's time to go out into the corridors and find out what all the fuss is about. As soon as you poke your head outside your living quarters, you're going to have a run-in with a few roaches and Officer Kendall. He's not going to be happy when he sees you, but unless you attack him he'll quickly be distracted and usually dispatched by some radroaches.
Note: It's possible to escape the vault without killing anyone and requires a bit of sneaking or fleeing. On the other hand, you'll get lots of basically free XP and low-risk practice at combat. As you approach each new situation during your escape, keep in mind that there are multiple ways to handle most things.
Sneaking around
For the sneaky types, you'll want to walk instead of running (hold down the [Shift] key) and you're going to spend all your time crouched ([Left-Ctrl] toggles this). When sneaking, you're going to see either "[HIDDEN]", "[DETECTED]", "[CAUTION]" in red, or "[DANGER]" in red at the top of the screen. In the case of multiple NPCs who can/can't see you, the HUD (Heads Up Display) will indicate the worst of the four possible states. So if all the NPCs can't see you, but one can then you'll see either [DETECTED] or [DANGER]; depending on the disposition of the NPC that can see you.
[HIDDEN] - This is a good state to be in. Nobody can see you and nobody knows where you are. This means that you when you initiate combat (by shooting, or with VATS) you'll be granted a "sneak attack" which always do critical damage. Only the first attack in VATS queue is considered a sneak attack, so make that first shot count! Being hidden from a target also allows you to attempt to pickpocket the target.
[DETECTED] - You've been spotted by one or more friendly NPCs. Any attempts at pickpocketing NPCs that can see you will always fail (although you can peek for free).
[CAUTION] - The enemy knows you're around, but not where. After a while, they may lose interest and go about their original business (your HUD will go back to [HIDDEN]). Some enemies are overly suspicious and will search a very long time for you. You will not score sneak attack criticals against alerted and searching enemies (wait for them to stop searching). You can't pickpocket an alerted enemy, but you can pickpocket others who haven't seen you yet.
[DANGER] - This indicator will flash when you've been spotted by an enemy and will remain lit for as long as enemies know where you are. For the not so observant among us, the incoming fire, exclamations of hostile intent and rapidly approaching enemies will also serve as notice that is now "fight or flight" time.
(One odd thing about Officer Kendall is that he starts off as neutral towards you, but turns hostile after he spots and identifies you.)
The Compass
If you look closely at the HUD in the above picture, you will see the HUD compass in the lower left corner of the screen.
The area above the double horizontal line is labeled "HP" (hit points) and indicates how healthy you are as a percentage of your maximum health. For new players, I recommend patching yourself up anytime you drop below 80% or so. Just in case you run into some big ugly that takes away half your health with its first attack.
But the area below the double line is more interesting to us for now. You will see an upside down triangle hanging over top of the compass rose markings. This indicates your current heading (North / South / East / West / etc) and is easy enough to figure out if you look in different directions.
Above the markings, you will often see green or red vertical lines of varying intensity. Green marks are (usually) friendly NPCs that you have sensed with your Perception attribute, while red marks are (always) hostile NPCs. Brighter marks indicate nearer NPCs while fainter marks denote NPCs that are more distant.
Below the compass markings, you will see things like the waypoint indicator for the current quest, or small triangles that indicate locations that you have or have not visited which are nearby. These marks do not appear in the Officer Kendall screenshot.
If you look closely at the screenshot, you will see (1) red (1) green and then (2) red lines above the compass rose. The green mark is Officer Kendall who has just detected us. The red marks are radroaches which are to the left (one roach) and right (two roaches) of Officer Kendall.
Looting
Here's your first chance to loot corpses (oh joy). Don't be squeamish, because this is an important way of getting better gear for yourself or useful items!
Officer Kendall always drops Vault 101 Security Armor and Helmet. Unless you're roleplaying in a contrary style, I recommend always equipping the body armor as it lessens the amount of damage you'll take during your escape. You'll want to loot other corpses and take as much as possible for living expenses after you escape.
Here's what one of my characters looked like after putting on the security armor and helmet. Others have chosen to use other outfits, to wear a baseball cap, or not wear anything on their head at all.
Oh look, it's Butch
Remember that attitude that Butch gave you while growing up? Here's your chance to get a little payback (choices range from angelic to neutral to downright evil).
Shortly after your first combat, Butch is going to come running up to you outside of the mens/ladies restrooms. He's going to ask you to help save his mother from some radroaches. I suggest making a save point and trying out different options. Naturally, for an evil character, now is the time to give in to your evil side and take everything that they own, including their lives. On the other hand, killing him now will prevent him from appearing later on in the main quest chain, but this does not keep you from fulfilling the main quest.
(No matter what, I recommend taking all of Ellen DeLoria's booze that you find laying around in her bedroom. It'll provide you with a few more caps once you get to town after your escape.)
Officer Gomez, Andy and Stanley
Eventually, you'll come to a set of stairs leading up to the Atrium level (look at the signs above doorways). It's a good idea to create a save point prior to going up those stairs. Here you're going to run into your first friendly guard, Officer Gomez, who is going to give you the redundant advice that you need to get out of the vault before the Overseer and his goons find you. Andy (the robot) and Stanley are also hiding around here and can be fun to watch.
Nearby you will find your father's clinic as well as the classroom where you took the G.O.A.T.. Both are good places to search for loot, hidden items and your first Bobblehead doll (if you didn't take it back at age 16). Some of the loot is not so easy to find as it is mixed in with other clutter, so peek around carefully.
This is also a good time to learn how to use the light feature of your Pip-Boy 3000A. If you press and hold the [Tab] key, your Pip-Boy will light up a small area around you, making it easier to search for stuff. Pressing and holding [Tab] again will turn the light back off. Keep in mind that you are much less stealthy with the light on, so only use it when you are in a safe or cleared out location.
Tip: If you find "Scrap Metal", take it with you as there are folks out there who value it. Some other bits and pieces are used in creating items at a workshop table.
Vault 101 Atrium (Lower Level)
Upon using the door into the Atrium, you'll see the black loading screen as you enter a new level. This is an excellent time to create a save as things can get hairy up ahead.
Around the corner you are going to hear Tom and Mary Holden talking about making their escape. This is not the brightest idea as the two guards in the left-corridor are not keen on allowing it. For the evil players, you can quickly slide around the corner and use VATS to kill Tom & Mary before they rush off to their doom. But for the most part, their fate is sealed and they'll die at the hands of the two guards. (You can save them by engaging the guards first, but it has no effect on the game world or future quests.)
Either way, you're going to need to deal or sneak past those two guards. While the entrance that they're guarding in that corridor leads directly to the vault entrance area, it's impossible to open at this point. So you're going to need to go across the lower level of the Atrium to the stairs in the southeast corner. The entrance to these stairs is labeled "Upper Level".
If you decide to take on the guards, be aware that they are not pushovers and the 10mm pistol is a good weapon choice. Aim carefully as you probably only have a clip or two of 10mm ammo at this point. On the upside, they're going to drop armor and weapons that can be used/sold later. And if you're lucky, a few radroaches from the upper level stairs will come over to join in the fun.
Note: At the western end of the Atrium, you can see the round Overseer's Office window up on the second level.
Vault 101 Atrium (Upper Level)
As you head up the stairs, you're going to encounter a few radroaches and possibly even Security Chief Hannon. Where you encounter the security chief depends on how fast you move through the area and how much noise you make. I've seen him as early as the hallway at the top of the stairs (often dead) or not until I get over near the dead maintenance worker, Floyd Lewis past the Mack's apartment window.
Keep moving forward until you get past the Security Chief, the not so happy Mack couple, and poor Floyd Lewis.
VATS Combat System
Here's a good example of the VATS combat system. Pressing the [V] key takes you into VATS mode where you can queue up attacks. The arrows on the left/right of the screen would allow you to switch targets and queue up attacks on those targets as well.
Tip: If you have two enemies, one behind the other, shoot at the enemy in the rear. Your shots will often pass through the front enemy, inflicting damage, before hitting the rear enemy.
As you can see, the different body parts on Security Chief Hannon have different percentages. These are your "chance to hit" that portion of the body. The amount of damage done can be determined by looking closely at the flashing health indicator at the bottom of the screen. In this screenshot, if we were to shoot his head, we have a 94% chance to hit and it will take away about 25% of his health. So if we queue up four shots and all of them hit, there's a good chance that we can kill him.
Time is stopped in VATS mode, so take your time to play around with queuing up different shots and observing the projected effect on the enemy's health bar.
Different weapons require more or less action points for each shot. Sometimes you'll only get off 2 or 3 shots with one weapon while you could have gotten off 3 or 4 with another. Action points take a while to regenerate and you don't have to queue up a full set of shots and burn all your action points in a single VATS attack.
If you're sneaking and [HIDDEN], keep in mind that only your first VATS attack counts as a sneak attack. Additional queued shots will do regular damage with the normal chance of critical damage and may alert other enemies to your presence. However, if you can kill the enemy with the first shot, often the others won't be notice you or see you. So a sneak attack should be chosen with regards to chance of success, weapon damage, weapon noise, and the amount of damage inflicted if you hit that body part.
Plus you'll often be treated to seeing the shot in slow-mo from different points of view, or seeing the camera follow the projectile.
If you don't manage to kill your opponent before running out of action points with which to use VATS, then you'll have to resort to taking shots without VATS. Just aim and shoot, using the [Right-Mouse] button if you need better accuracy and can afford to stand still. The 10mm pistol can be fired nearly as fast as you can click the [Left-Mouse] button. Just remember that you only have 12 bullets in the clip and that it takes time to reload.
Overall, I'm fairly happy with the VATS system. Especially for sneaky types that need to rely heavily on sneak attack critical damage to soften up or one-shot kill enemies. It be used as a poor-man's scope for checking out distant enemies (including seeing what weapon they have equipped). Or you can attack enemies in multiple directions where your character shoots and then turns directly to the enemy in another direction before shooting again.
Rescuing Amata?
After you find the body of Floyd Lewis, you'll exit to the northwest through a door labeled "Admin". (This is a good point to save at.) As you get near the corner, you're going to hear Amata being interrogated by the Overseer and Officer Mack.
As usual, there are half a dozen ways to deal with this situation. Sneak past and escape, enter and kill Mack and/or the Overseer, let Amata deal with it (if you let her keep the 10mm pistol back at the start), threaten the Overseer, or surrender to the Overseer.
My first time through, I queued up head shots in VATS and killed both the Overseer and Officer Mack before they could react. Turns out that Amata was less then pleased with my decision to kill her father in front of her. Oops...
Tip: While you can skip this confrontation, there's a fair amount of ammo stored inside the interrogation area.
Jonas
Ah poor Jonas, we barely knew thee. And yet, here we are, looting your body for the sweet outfit that you're carrying. You know, just in case we ever need to hack a computer terminal. Make sure you poke around in here as you'll find some other clues and items that can be useful.
Check the surrounding rooms for more items and you may find Amata sitting at a table with more words of wisdom for you.
Overseer's Office
At last, we reach our goal. If you have the Overseer's key, then you can waltz right in. Otherwise you'll have to pick the door lock to gain entry. (There are two places to obtain the key in this section, so you'll probably already have the key.)
Make sure you check the lockers in the office for more ammo, then tackle the computer. If you found the password, then you'll log right in, otherwise you'll have to play the computer hacking mini-game. Make sure to equip any +Science gear before attempting to crack the password to make things easier.
The computer entries are good for a chuckle and provide important clues about the situation outside the vault as well as two locations that should be visited early on.
Escape
Head down the secret tunnel, kill the last radroach, and make your way to the exit chamber to activate the door lock. At this point, Amata will come down to say her goodbyes, followed by a door opening up with two angry goons behind it.
At this point, you can run out. Or hide and watch the goons take out their aggression on Amata. Or kill the goons, and any others that come running, then go into the storage area where they came from for additional loot.
If you're feeling the need, you can even circle back through the entire Atrium level to check for more items.
When you head out towards the surface exit, make sure that you create a save. You'll be prompted whether you want to change your sex, name, appearance, attributes or skills prior to leaving. By having a save at this point, it makes rerolling easier down the line (if you want to skip the Vault 101 section).
DING! Level 2
As you enter the wasteland that was once Washington D.C., take a moment to savor the view then head forward to complete the "Escape!" quest. This rewards you with enough XP to get to level 2. You'll now be prompted to assign additional skill points (usually 12-18, depending on your INT) along with picking your first perk.
My recommendations at this point are that you get Science to at least 25 (20 if you have the lab coat), Explosives to 25, Lockpick to at least 25, and drop the rest of the points into either Repair, Sneak or Small Guns. That will give you a solid base of skills so that you can open up easy locks, have the option of doing an early quest in Megaton, and you can hack easy computer terminals.
Perks
At level 2, you'll only have access to seven perks to start. Maybe less if you don't have the minimum attributes to take a particular perk.
Black Widow / Lady Killer: 10% more damage to humanoids of the opposite sex. Also opens up additional conversation options with certain NPCs of the same sex.
Daddy's Boy / Daddy's Girl: +5 to Science and Medicine skills. Taking this means that you could put five points elsewhere on the previous screen instead of into Science.
Gun Nut: +5 to Repair and Small Guns skills.
Little Leaguer: +5 to Melee and Explosives skills. Again, this frees up five points on the previous screen if you want to get Explosives to 25.
Thief: +5 to Sneak and Lockpick. Useful for the sneaky types, allows you to free up points that you would otherwise have invested in Lockpick.
Swift Learner: +10% to all XP gains.
Intense Training: Boost a single SPECIAL attribute by one point.
Of the various perks, I almost always take Gun Nut as my first perk with either Thief or Black Widow / Lady Killer as my perk at level 3. Black Widow is a lot stronger then Lady Killer because most NPCs in the wastelands are male. So if you play a male character, Lady Killer is more useful for opening up additional conversation options.
I'm not a fan of Swift Learner or Intense Training in the early levels. Although the latter is useful if you have a SPECIAL attribute that you need to shore up due to poor choices back during the Baby Steps quest. But you could have also adjusted your attributes as you exited the vault.
Keep in mind that at level 4, you will almost always take "Educated" (for 3 more skill points at each level) followed by "Comprehension" (reading books gives you 2 skill points instead of only one) at level 5. So any perks that you don't take now (such as Thief) will probably not be taken until level 6 or later.
Of course, there will be other perks vying for your attention by that point, so you'll be highly unlikely to take any additional perks that only boost skills. Most perk choices past level 3 should be chosen based on the special enhancement rather then a skill boost. There are lots of other ways to boost individual skills once you get out and start exploring (books, quests, gear, or simply assigning points when you gain a level).
(When the even numbered levels roll around, you usually become eligible for 4-8 new perks depending on prerequisites. So it's simply impossible to take all possible perks, much less backfill with perks from prior levels.)
