Monday, October 19, 2009
FO3: Super mutant conversations
Random conversation overheard in Fallout 3.
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'...
posted by Wuphon's at 11:56 PM (0 comments)
Saturday, October 17, 2009
FO3: Load order, current thoughts on mods
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
Total active plugins: 45
Total plugins: 48
posted by Wuphon's at 2:47 AM (0 comments)
Sunday, October 11, 2009
FO3: Bailey's Crossroads Initial Firefight
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.
posted by Wuphon's at 2:06 AM (0 comments)
Friday, October 09, 2009
FO3: Random bobblehead locations (BM08)
This is a cheat-sheet for the BM08 Random Bobbleheads mod for Fallout 3. The BM08 mod moves the location of all of the 20 bobbleheads in the game to new locations. Each bobblehead can appear in 1 of 5 locations. I'm going to try and be somewhat vague in the possible locations.
The author's quote from the README file provides general guideance:
No, I stuck with tradition and placed every Bobblehead in a building, avoided wide open spaces, subway areas, huge piles of rubble, and inaccessible areas as much as possible. Most are in a room of some sort, many are on tables, on shelves, while only a few are on the ground, or in caves. Some may be in the same building as an original but never the same place and never the same Bobblehead type.
S.P.E.C.I.A.L. Bobbleheads
Strength: Chevy Chase, Megaton, Rivet City, Tenpenney Tower, Vault 101
Perception: AntAgonist's Lair, Corvega Factory, Hamilton's Hideaway, Marigold Station, Republic of Dave, Shalebridge
Endurance: Dunwich, Georgetown, Mall, Power Site, SatCom Array
Charisma: Alexandria, Dupont Circle, Georgetown, Grandma Sparkle's, Mall
Intelligence: Arlington, Museum of History, Museum of Technology, Vernon Square
Agility: Dupont Circle, Greener Pastures Disposal Site, Minefield, National Archives, Oasis
Luck: Paradise Falls, Red Racer Factory, Robco Factory, Seneca, WKML
Skill Bobbleheads
Barter: Georgetown, Jocko's Pop Stop, Lamplight Caverns, Nuka Cola Plant, Vernon Square
Big Guns: Bethesda, Citadel, Fort Independence, Mall, Yao Guai Tunnels
Energy Weapons: East of Farragut, Power Site, Lucky's, Pennsylvania Ave, Seward Square
Explosives: Signal Station, Springvale, Vault 87, Vault 106, Warrington
Lockpick: Chaste Acres Dairy Farm, Chryslus Building, Farragut, Germantown, Megaton
Medicine: Big Town, Fort Bannister, L'Enfant, Tenpenny Tower, Underworld
Melee Weapons: Andale, DCTA Tunnel, Falls Church - Mason District Metro, Takoma Park, Vault 92
Repair: Canterbury Commons, East of Fairfax, Hubris Comics, Megaton, Temple of the Union
Science: Fort Constantine, Mechanist's Forge, Raven Rock, Rivet City, Vault 112
Small Guns: Agatha's House, Capitol Building, Falls Church, Paradise Falls, Wheaton Armory
Sneak: Anchorage War Memorial, Arefu, Cliffside Cavern, Evergreen Mills, Sniper Shack (?Abandoned Shack?)
Speech: Meresti, Dukov's Place, Rivet City, Roosevelt Academy, Vault 92
Unarmed: Arlington Cemetery, Flooded Metro, Power Site, Old Olney, Taft Tunnel
Notes:
- Keep in mind that these are not guaranteed locations. Each bobblehead has 5 possible locations (randomized when you start a new game).
- All of the ones that I've found so far have been inside / underground, unless noted.
- A lot of these locations were mined from the ESP using FO3Edit. I did not check the randomization script to also see whether the bobbleheads were actually activated.
- Locations named as towns (such as Canterbury Commons include locations within shooting distance of the town area).
- Signal Station refers to the locations that can be discovered by tracking in on the Ham Radio morse code signals.
Some of these locations are easier to be vague about then others. Such as saying that I found the Charisma one in Dupont Circle. There are numerous locations in Dupont Circle where you can look, so it's a good hint. For the ones that appear in MDPL Power Stations or VAPL Sites, I've decided not to be specific about which one they're found at because there are only about a dozen sites (noted as "Power Site").Labels: Fallout3
posted by Wuphon's at 10:34 AM (0 comments)
Sunday, October 04, 2009
FO3: Current load order
My current Fallout 3 load order. Whee...
Fallout3.esm
Anchorage.esm
ThePitt.esm
BrokenSteel.esm
PointLookout.esm
Zeta.esm
Selected Containers Respawn.esm
Mart's Mutant Mod.esm
GalaxyNewsRadio100[M].esp
DCInteriors_Georgtown.esp
DCInteriors_Mason.esp
DCInteriors_SewardSq.esp
MaintenanceShed.esp
Selected Containers Respawn.esp
Longer Days & Longer Nights.esp
Xepha's Darker Nights.esp
VanishingPiles.esp
Ammo_Dispenser v 2.esp
choose_XP.esp
3EFhelmlessstealthsuit.esp
BD Merged Camo Battlearmor.esp
NightvisionGoggles(Powered).esp
Slower Degradation (-80%).esp
BM08RandomBobbleheadsFixed.esp
Armored Robes.esp
KarmaFutureImperfect1010.esp
KarmaCannibalIncrease1010.esp
KarmaChurchDecrease1010.esp
KarmaHard1010.esp
reduced karma loss for Stealing.esp
Mart's Mutant Mod.esp
Mart's Mutant Mod - Natural Selection.esp
Mart's Mutant Mod - Hunting & Looting.esp
Mart's Mutant Mod - Increased Spawns.esp
Mart's Mutant Mod - Tougher Traders.esp
Mart's Mutant Mod - Zones Respawn.esp
Mart's Mutant Mod - DLC Anchorage.esp
Mart's Mutant Mod - DLC The Pitt.esp
Mart's Mutant Mod - DLC Broken Steel.esp
Mart's Mutant Mod - DLC Point Lookout.esp
Total active plugins: 40
Total plugins: 44
...
Slower Item Degradation: One of the big annoyances with MMM + Increased Spawns is that you almost have to carry around 3+ copies of your primary weapon, because you'll be breaking it every 15 minutes. With the -80% (5x slower) ESP chosen, you'll worry a lot less about your weapon condition or armor condition. I just wish there was a -67% choice. The -50% didn't feel like enough, and the -80% almost feels too easy. But I may change my mind after another week or two.
BM08 Random Bobbleheads: Moves the bobbleheads around randomly. They get placed in 20 out of 100 new locations across the wastelands. (Each bobblehead can appear in 1 of 5 locations.) Hopefully, this will make it more worthwhile to explore everywhere...
No Bad Karma Noise: This is a quality of life mod for when you decide to start stealing and killing. Turns off the noise associated with karma loss.
Reduced karma loss for stealing: Now you only lose 1 point per theft instead of 5 points.
Karma Revamp Mod: I looked at a few and settled on this one. It doesn't play with the levels for Very Good / Good / Neutral / Evil / Very Evil - as changing those values tends to break GNR announcements and other things. I settled on "Karma Hard" (makes it harder to earn good karma) along with a few other optional ESPs.
Regulating Karma Talon Style: I'm going to install this one soon. It makes it so that Regulators and Talon Company only chases you when you have Very Good or Very Evil karma (not just Good or Evil).
...
Started a new game tonight. Going to go with more of a stealth character, but much more chaotic neutral. She'll kill you if she thinks it will benefit her... Leaving XP at 100% for the first 5 or so levels, then I'll knock it back to 50%.
FOOK2 is almost released, and FOOK2 v1.1 is already under development... so I'll probably try that next.Labels: Fallout3
posted by Wuphon's at 11:43 PM (0 comments)
Saturday, October 03, 2009
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).
Blood Pack - Unmarked quest item (only worth about 15 caps).
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.
posted by Wuphon's at 10:56 AM (0 comments)
Saturday, September 26, 2009
FO3: Pacing, leveling, and really fast XP gains
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):
Vanilla Fallout 3
8 hrs, Lvl 5
20 hrs, Lvl 7
30 hrs, Lvl 10
40 hrs, Lvl 13
60 hrs, Lvl 20
80 hrs, Lvl 26
91 hrs, Lvl 30
Mart's Mutant Mod
7 hrs, Lvl 7
9 hrs, Lvl 8
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.
posted by Wuphon's at 8:44 AM (0 comments)
Friday, September 25, 2009
FO3: Rexamining initial perks and skill choices
I've changed some of my thinking on skills and perks for the first 8-10 levels. See Getting started (Baby Steps) for a discussion of SPECIAL attributes and Age 16 and the infamous GOAT for a discussion of Perks.
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.
posted by Wuphon's at 9:19 AM (0 comments)
Thursday, September 24, 2009
FO3: Adding some mods
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.
posted by Wuphon's at 7:30 PM (0 comments)
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
FO3: Astike, expansions, ramblings
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.
Although she's a heck of a lot of fun...
posted by Wuphon's at 12:57 PM (0 comments)
Thursday, September 17, 2009
FO3: Super Mutant Encounter
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".)
posted by Wuphon's at 7:02 AM (0 comments)
Saturday, September 05, 2009
FO3: Planned Characters
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.
posted by Wuphon's at 10:07 AM (0 comments)
Saturday, August 29, 2009
FO3: Favorite weapons and skills so far (level 9)
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.
posted by Wuphon's at 10:30 PM (0 comments)
Sunday, August 16, 2009
FO3: Early weapon choices
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.
posted by Wuphon's at 5:24 PM (0 comments)
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
FO3: Perks and skills for the first few levels
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:
25 Explosives (+10 Level 2)
30 Lockpick (+15 GOATS)
25 Medicine (+10 Bobblehead)
35 Repair (+15 GOATS, +5 Gun Nut)
20 Science (+5 Level 2)
30 Small Guns (+15 GOATS, +5 Gun Nut)
30 Sneak (+15 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)
posted by Wuphon's at 4:05 PM (0 comments)
Friday, August 07, 2009
FO3: Age 19 and the escape attempt
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.)
posted by Wuphon's at 8:03 AM (0 comments)
Tuesday, August 04, 2009
FO3: Age 16 and the infamous GOAT
Welcome to sweet 16. This is the point in the introduction where you find out what job you're going to have when you grow up. You're also going to have a little, but optional, confrontation with the Tunnel Snakes boys on the way to the exam room. As usual, there are good / neutral / evil ways to resolve that confrontation.
(The confrontation with the Tunnel Snakes can be handled in about half a dozen different ways, including unarmed combat. One method is evil, another one or two are neutral, and the rest are basically "good". Make a save point if you want to try out all the different methods, or mix it each time you roll a new character.)
Once you enter the classroom and take your seat, the teacher will start talking about the G.O.A.T., or you can try to sweet talk the teacher into letting you skip it by telling him how you want it to turn out.
Personally, I recommend taking the long way the first few times and going through the test. There are no wrong answers, and you can always fudge the results. If you answer somewhat honestly the first time, you may find that it points you towards a playstyle that you hadn't considered. The goal of the GOAT is to (a) introduce you to the skills system and (b) allow you to boost three skills by 15 points at the start.
As you'll see after taking the G.O.A.T., there are (13) skills in Fallout 3. They are done on a scale of 1-100 (even if you go past 100 points, you'll only get 100 points worth of effect out of a particular skill) and the starting values for each skill are based on your SPECIAL attributes. I've included the associated attribute in parenthesis after each skill. Boosting SPECIAL attributes later on in the game will grant additional points (automatically) in the associated skills.
Right now, you'll only be able to assign 15 additional points to three different skills. But later on, as you level up, you'll get around 13-17 points (depending on your intelligence, perks, and other goodies) each level to increase skills as you please. The points granted at each level can be spread or clumped as desired, with no limitations.
Barter (CHR) - How expensive will items be at a vendor, and how much will a vendor give you for items. But you can also get better prices if the vendor likes you and eventually you'll have more money then you can shake a stick at (in the upper teens levels). I don't recommend making this one of your three starting picks.
Big Guns (END) - This is your skill with oversized weapons (flame throwers, missle launchers, rapid-fire energy or projectile weapons). Since you won't find these until later on, also not a good starting pick.
Energy Weapons (PER) - Skill with energy-based weapons (lasers, plasma, etc). Some folks like EWs (energy weapons), while others don't. For a starting player, skip this skill and put your picks elsewhere as you won't find EWs prior to level 2 or 3.
Explosives (PER) - Skill with mines and grenades (do more damage). Mark this as a potential pick. There's a quest early on where you'll need 25 points in Explosives in order to complete it. But you could also put points into this skill when you get to Level 2, or use gear/chem to boost you a few more points to get high enough to complete the quest. Also, keep in mind that you're unlikely to find mines and grenades before you get to level 2 or 3.
Lockpick (PER) - Allows you to attempt locks. All locks are rated in increments of 25, so the ideal situation is to have exactly 25, 50, 75 or 100 points in Lockpick. On the other hand, you'll only get a dozen or so points each time you level up. Early on, this is a good skill to have at 25 or higher as it will let you loot containers that you otherwise couldn't. You might even want to get this to 50 pretty quickly so that you don't miss out on opportunities.
Medicine (INT) - Recover more health when you use a Stimpak. For players with high levels of endurance, this can be a real money-saver. There are a handful of quests that require a minimum skill level (30-70 points) and the related perks require a skill of 60 at level 14-16.
Melee Weapons (STR) - Weapons like knives, swords, pipes, or other blunt objects make use of this skill. It also controls how much damage can be blocked if you use the block key at the proper time. Still, unless you are really planning on going the melee combat route, I don't recommend this as a first pick.
Repair (INT) - Allows you to fix damaged equipment and lets you repair equipment to a higher condition level. Lower condition (quality) weapons do less damage and are more likely to prove unreliable in the heat of battle. If you're looking to save money in the early levels, this is a strong pick.
Science (INT) - Similar to the Lockpick skill, except that this allows you to break into computer terminals (difficulty levels of 15 / 25 / 50 / 75 / 100). It also makes the hacking mini-game easier if you have a high skill level. You don't have to take this skill as an initial pick as you can leave the vault without having it. But you'll want to get it up above 25 fairly quickly at the start.
Small Guns (AGI) - Skill with small firearms such as pistols, SMGs, shotguns, assault rifles and regular rifles. You'll also find it easier to use scoped weapons and your small projectile firearms will do more damage. Unless you are planning on using melee, energy weapons or unarmed combat methods, I strongly recommend that you take this as one of your three initial picks.
Sneak (AGI) - How easily you can sneak around and avoid detection. Also gives you additional damage if you attack while still undetected (sneak attacks). For the stealthy types, this is a strong initial pick.
Speech (CHR) - Your skill in meeting speech challenges during conversations with NPCs. Higher levels of this skill give you increased chance at succeeding at the conversational gambit. This may result in additional rewards or dialog or karma. Note that you can always exit from a conversation, quicksave, then try the speech challenge (repeatedly reloading if you fail) to get past a situation where your skill and charisma are low. So I would mostly take this as an initial pick out of roleplay reasons rather then gameplay reasons.
Unarmed (END) - Unarmed combat. Rather complicated method of fighting, so I don't recommend taking this as one of your initial three picks until you are more experienced with playing Fallout 3.
Again, you can change things before you leave the vault.
My personal recommendations for a new player are any of the following:
Explosives
Lockpick
Medicine
Repair
Science
Small Guns
Sneak
I'm partial to Repair, Sneak and Small Guns to start; with boosting Explosives / Lockpick at level 2 and Science at level 3 to get them all to 25+ points. From what I've seen so far in the beginning of Fallout 3, there are a few spots where having a certain skill level is pretty important:
- 25 in Science to hack the outer computer in Super-Duper Mart, but only 15 to hack the inner computer.
- 25 in Explosives to work on an early quest.
- 50 in Lockpick to pick a locked door in the Super-Duper Mart (but there are two other ways to get past this door)
Of course, there are other ways to gain an additional 2-10 points in certain skills, so you'll want to pickup and keep anything that boosts skills with hard level checks (Lockpick, Explosives, Science).
posted by Wuphon's at 11:47 AM (0 comments)
Sunday, August 02, 2009
FO3: Age 10
Welcome to age 10, and it's your birthday in the vault! Oh joy. You're going to be introduced to a few different elements here and game play will become a bit more open and less linear.
I recommend creating a save point at the start of this section so that you can go back and try out different actions and approaches (and maybe even a little bit of combat).
The first few elements that you're going to learn about here are interacting with people, having conversations and receiving items. Interacting with people can either be involuntary where the camera will swing around and lock on the other person, or voluntary where you have to press the [E] key in order to initiate a conversation. Some conversations are linear where you have to make a choice about your response, others are more free form and you can jump from topic to topic.
Keep in mind that your choice in responses do matter to a small degree. Some choices are considered "good", others are "neutral", and some will tag you as "evil". So consider carefully or you may find yourself hated by all within a few short months.
There are a few fun parts of the Birthday Party event, so make sure to talk to everyone and explore conversation options. Sometimes you'll have to play it again from a save point in order to explore a different conversational path (unlikely in this early part of the game). Eventually, the Overseer will come to you and give you your Pip-Boy 3000A. This device, worn on your left arm, is key to checking your health, interacting with your inventory, keeping track of quests or clues, finding your way with the map feature, or listening to various audio channels. It also serves as a geiger counter and a limited lamp.
This screen shows the user's condition (yours) and allows you to apply Stimpaks to crippled limbs. It also displays your level, hit points, action points and the amount of experience points.
Displays information about radiation ("rads") and how close you are to a lethal dose.
Informational statistics.
Once you get your Pip-Boy, spend a few minutes going through all of the screens. The more comfortable you are with interacting with it, the more useful you will find it out in the outside world.
Make sure that you keep all of the gifts given to you as some of them will be useful later on. You'll want to examine / use Amata's present right away as this teaches you an important game concept.
Eventually, during the party, you're going to have a run-in with a hoodlum and then your father is going to ask you to go elsewhere to see Jonas. At which point, you'll want to wrap up your interactions at the party and head out.
Minor spoiler: If you spend too long in the common room you won't get down the hallway in time to eavesdrop on the Overseer and his guard talking about the party.
Jonas - This is apparently your father's right-hand man. The two of them are going to teach you how to shoot. This is a good time to make use of the following keys:
[R] - This will reload your weapon. If you hold it down, you'll put your weapon away (which makes people more comfortable when talking to you). If your weapon is put away, pressing this key will get it back out. Pro tip: Never holster a weapon with an empty or partial clip, always reload before putting it away.
[V] - Enter VATS mode which allows you to select targets and queue up shots at various portions of their anatomy. [Left-Click] will select a body part and add it to the queue while [Right-Click] will remove that body part from the queue. You can also cancel out by emptying the queue or clicking on "Return" at the right of the screen. Once everything is queued up or you have no more action points, pressing [E] will execute the queued shots.
This is also a good time to practice dropping things on the ground and then picking them back up. Or you may wish to wait until the next section where there will be a lot more things to interact with and more time to experiment. To drop an item, go into your Inventory screen on the Pip-Boy, then [Right-Click] the item. It will fall to the ground at your feet (hopefully not vanishing) at which point you can either move it with the [Z] key or pick it back up with the [E] key.
Ah, another bright light! So much for age 10...
posted by Wuphon's at 3:17 PM (0 comments)
Thursday, July 30, 2009
FO3: Getting started (Baby Steps)
Getting started in Fallout 3 isn't too difficult, the first portion of the story is done in a similar fashion as Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion where you start out extremely limited, then slowly gain the ability to perform additional tasks or customize your character.
Birth (a.k.a. Baby Steps
The start of your story where you get to pick your sex, name, and then future appearance. You can change your sex in the Gene Projection tool if you don't like what you first picked.
Play with it, muck around with the different looks. It's all a matter of personal taste. Two minor spoilers are (a) you will be able to change all this at the end of the first section and (b) it is possible to change your hairstyle later on.
Oh look, it's your daddy. Key things to pickup on here are the use of WASD keys for movement, using the [Left-Shift] key to run/walk, [Space] to jump, [E] to interact with something and [Z] to pickup or drop an item. You can explore here to your heart's content as nothing will happen until you interact with the SPECIAL book.
Personally, I find this book highly amusing and done well. The artwork and tone of the book fit in well with the theme of Fallout 3. It explains what the SPECIAL attributes are in a humorous fashion.
To start, all of your stats will be at five, and you'll have (5) points that you can assign to attributes. Note that you can also decrease attributes below level five in order to put those points elsewhere. The primary thing to know at this stage (minor spoiler) is that you should not increase any single attribute past level nine. If this is your first character, I don't recommend pushing any attribute below two or three either. Nor should you push attributes past seven or eight if you're unsure of what play style you're going to use (especially strength, luck and perception).
Strength - The main thing this will affect is your carrying capacity for loot (each point of strength allows you to carry 10 more pounds of gear/items). This limit scales from 160 lbs at a strength of one to 200 lbs at five and 250 lbs at strength ten. It also affects your melee damage, but Fallout 3 is more of a gun-oriented RPG. While you can fight with melee weapons, it requires a fair amount of skill and is harder then taking pot shots at long range. I don't recommend taking this below three as it makes it harder to carry loot/gear. There are also (3) perks that require a strength of four or five in order to take them.
Perception - Perception is all about spotting enemies before they spot you. If you're a run-and-gun type, you may not want to put points here, but for the more cautious and methodical players, bumping this up to 7 or 8 at the start can pay off. For a new player, I recommend 8 points, for a more experienced player I'd suggest only 6 or 7 and then use quests / bobble-heads / items to push up to the limit of 10 points.
Endurance - Controls how many hit points you have. Sneaky players might wish to take a few points out of this, while more daring players might put a few points in. Either way, I don't suggest going lower then 3 or higher then 7 at the start. Three points gets you 160 health to start, five points is 200 health and seven points is 240 health. The perks based on endurance require five to seven points. You may also wish to take roleplay factors into account here. A small wisp of a gal might only put 3 points in Endurance while a big brawny fellow would be a more natural seven. New players should probably not take this lower then four at the start.
Charisma - If you want folks to like you, add a point or two. If you don't care and will mostly depend on "might makes right" then take a point or three out. And you could always carry around pretty clothes for the times when you want an extra point or two of Charisma to get your way.
Intelligence - This is a key attribute as it determines how many skill points you get every time you level up. With an intelligence of three, you'll gain 13 points each level. At five, you'll get 15 and at eight you'll get 18 points. So it's not game-breaking if you don't max this out early. For a new player, this is a pretty good place to invest one to three points.
Agility - If you like the VATS combat system, make sure you invest points here as it will give you more action points. Which means you can, for example, queue up four shots in VATS instead of just three. Points in this will also boost your Small Guns / Sneak skills at the start. If you don't like VATS, feel free to take 1 or 2 points out, if you're planning on relying on VATS for the majority of combat, try to put 2 or 3 points in this at the start.
Luck - Increases the chance of scoring a critical hit in VATS as well as the likelihood of finding ammo/caps in containers. It also has a minor effect on your skills. A good place to shave a point or two if you're not going to use VATS. On the other hand, for VATS users you'll want to leave it alone or even point another point or two into it.
Once you've finished picking your attributes (which can be changed later before leaving the vault), your daddy will come back into the room and give you some more background story.
posted by Wuphon's at 2:19 PM (0 comments)
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