Of Deathclaws & Radscorpions: A Fallout Thread

so basically i should try to wrap up the main quest by the time the DLC hits, and then start fresh with the new rules.

it is good to have goals

czn, what have you heard about Farcry 2? I've only read really glowing reviews.

not exactly glowing: http://www.gameinformer.com/NR/exeres/B7B0B391-27F6-4E2D-A907-D31917F5C280.htm

(oh sorry, I should've. reports are very varied on it, mordy, and I'm only speaking from hearsay but what I've heard it gets boring very fast, the camps respawn so enemies respawn, the world is large and a bit tedious to move around in and drive about, v.generic multiplayer, lots of bugs; the intial impressions scared me off getting this, after being quite excited watching the development, but maybe now ppl have had chance to sit with it the reception has been a bit more positive? I dunno)

"A Sublime World View and Balance: "Where The Value of Things [You Know Well] Changes" (Five Stars)

This is a new Fallout from Bethesda Softworks, who made Oblivion.

While it's basically the same system in that you're free to go anywhere after the first introduction quest ends and you venture outside, in this work the things that weren't quite satisfactory and the things were that overdone in Oblivion have been planned and tweaked out in a detailed and minute way to match a ruined world and engender a feeling of things getting steadily worse [in that world] from start to finish.

Right after you start, there isn't anything written on your map. So because of that, it's a game where whichever direction the players heads in determines and changes the game content completely.

I, after coming out of nuclear shelter Vault101, wasn't able to discover the first city and was left to wandering the wasteland. Along the way, I luckily found a deserted domicile, and in the first floor's kitchen, weapons and recovery items rolled around lazily on the floor; I found them too. Furthermore, I noticed there was a bed on the second floor, so I decided to make that my steady residence for a while.

The next day I walked headed east and only east and amongst the boulders, I discovered an entrance that looked much like Vault101, creepingly, fearfully, I gave it a shot and to look inside was to see a nuclear shelter that had the same construction as a mercilessly eroded and ruined Vault101. Inside here, I turned over the corpses to find a "106" on their backs.

It is just that sort of situation.

Fundamentally because attack items and recovery items are highly priced rare valuables, the majority of players sling the risk of a pitch black abandoned factory and such settings as dungeons on their back and come to covet and lust for these items. The act of opening the item boxes in the office rooms of thin dark factories, fishing through desks, foraging for and seizing bullets from behind fallen bookcases appears to wrap the game up into a different feeling of exhilaration than Oblivion's treasure chests.

Really the act of recovering one's energy in itself, even in the dungeon's water drinking areas, eating the meat you can get from killing enemies, eating the candies and such that lay rolling around the heavy work areas and such is easily managed. However, unfortunately, these types of things are coated in quite a level of radiation and the next time you see the family doctor he may need to have a stern talk to you about your radiation levels and diet.

The types of food products that you can use to refill energy without ingesting radiation are limited, so for instance the "clean water" item that isn't showered in radiation, though it's just water it goes for a high price.

You see, the act of sleeping completely refills your energy, you can even recover from wounds, but in this world most beds no matter where are burnt and charred or stained with blood or have bones laying on top, in the actual meaning of the word: dirty.

I'm still only 10-20 hours in, but each time I wake up in the morning from my clean bed and put water into a cup it becomes something that makes me think a bit. It's an amazing game."

where is that review from?

japanese amazon

Vault 106 is funny!

i just spent a bunch of time watching Pumpkin, the adorable caged morerat. maybe i need a break

ok was not prepared for vault 112 change up at all.

Suggested addition to the soundtrack:

ok dudes question... without spoilerizing what the change-up is, do i want to avoid vault 112 as long as possible? is it like a point of no return thing where i wont be able to go back and do other stuff after?

You can play the main quest until you escape from the Enclave. Then do no more of it.

ok cool. didnt even know i was gonna escape from the enclave! well that's something to look forward to.

Sorry for the mini-spoiler. But I figure you'd rather know when to stop in the main quest than go too far.

Didn't even know the enclave was going to capture me!

I'm taking it megaslow though, no worries.

oh no probs, that's cool.

im in 112 now - great stuff.

how do i play this game for hours and manage to make no progress on my quests

ok so the level cap at 20 makes post capping play a little frustratingly pointless. doesn't help that i have the star paladin as a sidekick right now, w/charon waiting in the wings, probably never to be used.

think im going to just power through the main quest in order to do it all over again with a full on evil bastard character. or maybe play one of the other games i have been completely neglecting since i got this.

tesla armor + terrible shotgun/lincolns repeater/a232523535whatever pulse rifle/the modded smg's from the merc NPC from the constitution quest = no worries about anything killing me ever.

btw, how the fuck does the mezmo whatever work? every time i tried it, it just made whoever i was pointing it at pissed off.

I got the gatling laser Vengeance from the Deathclaw Sanctuary. Can kill a deathclaw with one headshot on sneak.

I think you can only mezz minor characters without proper names, like wastelanders, security guards, etc. aside from the VIPs in the Paradise Falls quest. If theyre not one of these people they just attack you.

You can play the main quest until you escape from the Enclave. Then do no more of it.

― Mordy, Tuesday, December 16, 2008 1:07 AM (3 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

do you mean when you escape to the citadel?

Yeah. Once you get to the citadel, do no more of the main quest. You can walk around and chat people up, get training in Power Armor and whatnot though. You shouldn't accidentally fall into the last part of the quest if you're paying attention to the dialogue. One of the NPC's is essentially "ARE YOU SURE YOU'RE READY AND PREPARED TO DO THIS BIG THING?" Y/N.

right. is that the last quest???

it's kinda crazy how much i THINK i've done but you guys are all talking about weapons and techniques and shit i've never even heard of yet!!

Yeah, that's the last part of the main quest. The lady that runs the elite BoS faction gives it to you.

ok so the level cap at 20 makes post capping play a little frustratingly pointless. doesn't help that i have the star paladin as a sidekick right now, w/charon waiting in the wings, probably never to be used.

think im going to just power through the main quest in order to do it all over again with a full on evil bastard character. or maybe play one of the other games i have been completely neglecting since i got this.

― VISION QUEST TO KNOCK YOU UP (John Justen), Thursday, December 18, 2008 7:36 AM (4 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

kinda feeeling the exact same way... i know there's a ton of shit left to do but w/o more levelling the carrot is off the stick as it were

Just clocked twenty myself after the Reilly's Raiders (free spoillerific tip, kids: don't start the Reilly quest without having a fission battery in your on-hand inventory; it'll save you a lot of pain).
The carrot for me now is to visit all the places on the map that the wanderer perk opened up. I'm going through by quadrant and the main hassle is fear of running out of ammo; the alien blaster has been a real consistent life saver and I don't think there's any more ammo to be found for that weapon. As soon as that starts to wear, I'll certainly head to the end. I'm expecting to be done with this game in the first week of the year and then put it in lukewarm storage in anticipation of the DLC.
Still finding surprises round every corner tho! Button Gwinnett robot! Nukalurks!

The carrot for me now is to visit all the places on the map that the wanderer perk opened up. I'm going through by quadrant and the main hassle is fear of running out of ammo; the alien blaster has been a real consistent life saver and I don't think there's any more ammo to be found for that weapon. As soon as that starts to wear, I'll certainly head to the end. I'm expecting to be done with this game in the first week of the year and then put it in lukewarm storage in anticipation of the DLC.
Still finding surprises round every corner tho! Button Gwinnett robot! Nukalurks!

― Desire: Where Sex Meets Addiction (forksclovetofu), Monday, December 22, 2008 2:10 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

ya i am kind of doing the same thing but i'm worried it's going to be a bit joyless w/o gaining xp! battles suddenly become sort of a chore. should i just restart as evil and THEN visit those places, im wondering?

never found that alien gun!! where is it?

i feel like i maybe did most of the major side-quests really early on?

what's the point of capping it at 20 anyway?/

Point of capping it at 20 is to sell DLC that includes leveling booster packs. Blizzard set the standard with that shit and I think it's gonna be de rigeur in the future.

****SPOILERS AHOY****

alien gun is North east on the map in the open plain; doesn't show up as a marker, even when you find it. you'll know you're near when you get an alien radio signal. There's a downed ufo, a dead alien and a blaster with about 120 charges. Blaster consistently one shot kills super mutant masters.

****AVERT YER EYES****

This is creepy; i'm on hold with Delta Airlines, and their hold music alternates between the GNN-style ancient christmas pop tunes or whistled/flute music a'la Enclave Radio.

It's like i've dialed into one of those abandoned yet still active terminals you find in the bowels of some bombed-out office. The phone lines inexplicably still have power, but no one has been there to answer them for two centuries.

the fact that the music is lo-fi mono enhances the effect.

"free spoillerific tip, kids: don't start the Reilly quest without having a fission battery in your on-hand inventory; it'll save you a lot of pain)."

There's one of these right on the top floor.

Yeah, I know; I found it after I spent a half hour searching the entire building when I missed that one closet.

i don't really have much to say except this game is awesome and it's taken over my life

the railroad gun is awesome and hilarious

some of the v/o is super awful

it took me a long time to figure out that shooting 'live' doesn't take AP (bought it used, no book)

speaking of no book having: what are the little triangular pips on the bottom of your compass? i thought at first it was a mine indicator but that's not right (i don't think) (ps how awesome is laying mines?)

has anyone played a melee-dominant character? might be fun...

hollow triangles are places you haven't discovered yet, filled in ones are places you have.

how close? that seems basically useless.

i'm ok with the local map function on your pip boy being basically useless as part of the character but basically it's useless

i set a waypoint from one place i'd been to another one i hadn't been seemingly close by (just to keep myself oriented) and it offered this crazy path through all these different (undiscovered) locations on the other side of the river! i dunno if this is a feature or a bug but lol

btw i totally love the object condition mechanic as a way to keep the same items fresh and interesting and increasingly powerful as the game goes on, shades of my beloved darklands from days of yore

when they show up on your radar, they're close enough to travel to fairly quickly. i used them a lot actually, i am currently wandering around busting into satellite dishes that i would never have found if i wasn't doing that. i just wander towards one and sort of follow terrain and pretty soon what do you know new place woot! often not the new place i was expecting, but whatever!

oh also if you are enjoying the chinese assault rifle (which is, in fact, fucking awesome), you have many insano killtastic suprises waiting for you.

i found the unique one!! i sorta cheated but yeah it's rad.

i have found that the railroad rifle to disable arms, then close with the ultra smg is very satisfying vs super mutants.

and mines!! mines are just wonderful, i really can't stress that enough.

i am at level 15 and have yet to go into the NW part of the map or get very far in finding my dad. partly that's amazing and partly it's like, level 20 limit? why??

oh another unashamed cheat on my part: an algorithmic terminal hack solver, total godsend