Going to play Fallout: New Vegas for the first time, requesting sage 'dex advice.

[laclongquan]

I second the idea of playing with Sawyer mod or any mod that replicate its abilties. IF NOT, you will get bored once you are familiar with the game. With it, you will have a steep learning curve, but the overall gaming experience is much better.

Slower leveling mod is not recommend for 1st run. After you are familiar with the game (levelup to cap once), you can try it. Recommend 3 times slower. IT will make your game time at lower level much longer and you can appreciate the various weapons better.
(example, you level up too fast to appreciate the power of grenades).

In game advice is to get a companion as fast as you can for additional inventory space, which is that cunt at T-Rex.

Second advice is to use the 4 crates in the alley between General Store and the Salon as your central storage. Those 4 crates wont get refreshed over time, and it near the teleport zone. Weapon, Armor, Misc, and Quest, respectively. There's the workbenches nearby.

Stay near the road as it's safer than off the road.

 

[Renegen]

My only recommendation is to hoard every item you find.

 

[pippin]

The Police Station between Primm and Mojave Outpost is a nice shelter too. You have beds and water there.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

Don't listen to people that say don't use mods on your first playthrough, as with any game either made by Bethesda or based on Bethesda's game engine, mods are essential. In New Vegas's case, it actually has good writing and exploration by default, as well as C&C, decent character development and graphics. So the one thing you MUST mod is the combat (and bugs), which will turn the game from a flawed gem ruined by shitty combat into a good all around RPG. But this only applies if you are OK with playing it as an FPS-RPG hybrid, much like Deus Ex or System Shock 2.

1) Yes, Hardcore mode is a must. It's not really that hard or hardcore but it does some very nice things, for example turns stimpaks into a balanced tool instead of an OP cheating mode in vanilla, and gives ammo weight, as well as giving the world some survivalist elements (which are easy enough that they are never a bother).

2) There is a huge unofficial patch you must install, as it fixes something like 2000+ bugs. Yeah, good idea to use that.

3) Graphics is up to you. Check out the mods they have on nexus for that, see if you like them or not, but either way it's not a huge deal.

4) Combat Mods (a must):
you need these to fix the completely broken vanilla combat by basically turning New Vegas into more of a shooter because the VATs thing just doesn't work well, it just makes everything too easy and cinematic instead of gameplay-oriented
- a mod to lower hitpoints for everyone: you can use the combat rebalance module of Project Nevada for this, or Sawyer's Mod (NV's lead designer), they both lower hitpoints, Project Nevada lowers them the most, making you and enemies very fragile and dialing up the tension, Sawyer's Mod is a bit more RPGish, with more hitpoints gained but still a lot less than in vanilla
- no auto aim mod on nexus: disables auto aim in the game, which is apparent when you shoot from a long distance away, less important for close range shooting I think
- no NPC dodging mod (http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/37141/?): this removes enemy behavior where they dodge your bullets at close range which was probably created to force the player to rely on VATs at close ranges
- use medium difficulty setting in the game: all these settings do is increase/decrease weapon damage for you and enemies, so harder difficulty settings simply mean you do half damage and enemies do twice the damage, and just makes combat slower and more annoying rather than more difficult. On medium difficulty you and enemies do standard weapon damage.

Now you have a passable FPS combat system, enjoy.

 

[laclongquan]

What the hell? Combat is not that much a bother. If you try to play FNV as a FPS I feel sorry for you~

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Don't bother with mods. Codexfags luuuuuuuuurv their mods and love to tell you how a game is "unplayable" without mods but the fact is NV is good enough as it is. Apart from being ridiculously easy even on Hard and Hardcore mode.

Why not use a mod that changes the ridiculously easy part, then? Yeah, it's not vital but if the option is there....

get that cunt at the t-rex straight away

He kills enemies before you even see them. Not recommended unless you are playing someone wih no combat skills at all or just hate the combat as a whole.

Spoiler

 

[Kamoho]

Get the classic fonts mod and the classic interface mod.

 

[Hugh Vagoth]

I don't understand why NV's combat is so controversial, FO1+2 didn't have very good combat either.

 

[Gnidrologist]

1) Yes, Hardcore mode is a must. It's not really that hard or hardcore but it does some very nice things, for example turns stimpaks into a balanced tool instead of an OP cheating mode in vanilla, and gives ammo weight, as well as giving the world some survivalist elements (which are easy enough that they are never a bother).

Except for steampack thing, anything else is pointless. If its still easy and gives no bother, then why bother? If it ads bothersome tediousness, then why bother?
Unless one enjoys constant interrupts of questing and exploration to fast travel to nearby bedroom/vendor, it's a waste of time. Did you lack this shit in originals? Yeah, didn't think so.
I'm sure that steampack thing can be modded separately. No need to turn into ninja cartographer or larp Survivalist.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Making preparations is obviously not a tedious bother for those who want that mechanic, what kind of question is that? Might as well ask why bother with melee when it's easier to shoot people. Besides it gives some use to the food and drinks that are already in the game but would otherwise have banal effects such as Restore 5 HP (out of 100). It's not LARPing if the game mechanics recognize what you are doing, anyway.

 

[pippin]

JSaywer mod makes stimpaks more rare and valuable, since the ones you can brew are "homemade" which carry the Perception penalty of Healing Powder. This is a cool factor for a Hardcore playthrough.

 

[Gnidrologist]

Ok, if that what's you like, please. Just stating my opinion to the OP. Some people probably ate dozens loafs of bread, stews and prepared meat on the frying pan to get healthy in Gothic games too and game recognized the mechanic. I just don't find it fun, let alone essential to enjoy games of this type. There are so many more interesting things to do.

 

[T. Reich]

Thanks all for the advice.

I've decided to do the game on normal (if hard only adds HP bloat, I'll skip that, since it's pretty pointless) + HC mode.
I'll leave JSawyer's mod for later playthroughs, since while its changes are interesting, they change the vanilla balance (however bad it may or not be) too much. Project Nevada also looks potentially interesting, but I'll totally skip it on my first playthrough.
I'm going to install the unofficial patch (Yukichigai's, right?) since it only seems to fix errors rather than add new stuff.
Is the "New Vegas Anti Crash" mod actually useful?
Also, I was recommended the "No Dialog Tags" mod, it looks nice from a couple of screenshots I've seen, so I'll probably use that.
And it seems I'll skip the graphics mods, sicne I haven't found any that grabbed my attention.

 

[Starwars]

That should be good for a first playthrough.

 

[Hugh Vagoth]

MTUI is recommended, it scales down the UI font and makes it better suited for PC.

http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/34902/?

 

[gestalt11]

Seriously don't get the sniper guy. Its a shame because I like his character but he just fucks things up so hard its boring. Supposedly they patched his UI to be less of a Bam! Headshot instakill but he still sees things before you even know they are there and just flat out kills them.

I actually like to play the game without a follower myself. If I do this I use an inventory mod as these games are just not made to work in a way that is non-mind numbing if you can't have a follower carry an ass-ton of crap.

I have used Project Nevada I thought it was pretty good. I used the Vision implants in combination with a Darker Nights graphics mod, that is kind of interesting.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

Thanks all for the advice.

I've decided to do the game on normal (if hard only adds HP bloat, I'll skip that, since it's pretty pointless) + HC mode.
I'll leave JSawyer's mod for later playthroughs, since while its changes are interesting, they change the vanilla balance (however bad it may or not be) too much. Project Nevada also looks potentially interesting, but I'll totally skip it on my first playthrough.
I'm going to install the unofficial patch (Yukichigai's, right?) since it only seems to fix errors rather than add new stuff.
Is the "New Vegas Anti Crash" mod actually useful?
Also, I was recommended the "No Dialog Tags" mod, it looks nice from a couple of screenshots I've seen, so I'll probably use that.
And it seems I'll skip the graphics mods, sicne I haven't found any that grabbed my attention.

Here is the problem with your approach: you may or may not know that JSawyer whose mod we are talking about was the lead designer of Fallout New Vegas. So what does it tell you that the lead designer of the game releases a rebalancing mod for it?

The balance in NV is completely fucked up in vanilla, and everybody who played it knows that, including its own lead designer. He just couldn't work on the game more because of time and financial constraints, otherwise his mod would've been a part of the vanilla game. This is why I told you to use either that mod or Project Nevada combat rebalance module. They are slightly different, but both handle the same problem aspects of the game, such as hitpoint bloat.

Playing it without those things is just setting yourself up for bad combat and gameplay, which seems strange to me.

 

[pippin]

JSawyer makes it hard when you're low level. After that you shouldn't have any problem. The mod also adds some spawns in the southern route which makes it a little bit more challenging, especially near Wolfhorn Ranch.

 

[Metro]

Dunno why people keep saying hardcore is the 'only way to play.' The only noticeable change it makes is stimpacks over time (which I admit is a good change). Food, water, sleep? These are not hard to deal with in the slightest. Ammo weight? Only annoying if you're a massive packrat or go with a missile launcher.

 

[T. Reich]

MTUI is recommended, it scales down the UI font and makes it better suited for PC.

http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/34902/?

Yeah, thanks, I've been checking out the available visual/interface mods, and it's on my list already.

Thanks all for the advice.

I've decided to do the game on normal (if hard only adds HP bloat, I'll skip that, since it's pretty pointless) + HC mode.
I'll leave JSawyer's mod for later playthroughs, since while its changes are interesting, they change the vanilla balance (however bad it may or not be) too much. Project Nevada also looks potentially interesting, but I'll totally skip it on my first playthrough.
I'm going to install the unofficial patch (Yukichigai's, right?) since it only seems to fix errors rather than add new stuff.
Is the "New Vegas Anti Crash" mod actually useful?
Also, I was recommended the "No Dialog Tags" mod, it looks nice from a couple of screenshots I've seen, so I'll probably use that.
And it seems I'll skip the graphics mods, sicne I haven't found any that grabbed my attention.

Here is the problem with your approach: you may or may not know that JSawyer whose mod we are talking about was the lead designer of Fallout New Vegas. So what does it tell you that the lead designer of the game releases a rebalancing mod for it?

The balance in NV is completely fucked up in vanilla, and everybody who played it knows that, including its own lead designer. He just couldn't work on the game more because of time and financial constraints, otherwise his mod would've been a part of the vanilla game. This is why I told you to use either that mod or Project Nevada combat rebalance module. They are slightly different, but both handle the same problem aspects of the game, such as hitpoint bloat.

Playing it without those things is just setting yourself up for bad combat and gameplay, which seems strange to me.

I know who Josh Sawyer is. I also read his commens on his mod, and he explicitly stated that it was designed for his personal playthroughs, so his sense of balance is obviously skewed. Just because lead designer feels that the game is too easy for his personal taste, doesn't mean everyone else must share his sentiment.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Dunno why people keep saying hardcore is the 'only way to play.'

Probably because of the name, sounds cool. It also twisted many panties since it implies people who don't select it aren't hardcore, so they must be casuals (to a tr00 g4m3r, it's worse than calling your mother a slut).

I'd call it "Extras" or something. It's a bunch of interesting features, not a difficulty overhaul.

 

[Metro]

I'd call it E-LARP mode.

 

[Onholyservicebound]

I know who Josh Sawyer is. I also read his commens on his mod, and he explicitly stated that it was designed for his personal playthroughs, so his sense of balance is obviously skewed. Just because lead designer feels that the game is too easy for his personal taste, doesn't mean everyone else must share his sentiment.

That's just PR speak, jsawyer.esp is what the game would be like if it didn't have the expectations of 5 million console/Bethesda fans to live up to.
The best part for me is how it makes the progression feel more like the older games, you don't turn into Bethesda man before reaching Vegas, and finally becoming a power armored juggernaut has a lot more impact.
Really, you're not missing anything by playing it Vanilla, unless you happened to really really like Fallout 3.

I really recommend going sawyer.esp, especially since you're sticking with normal, (I get that, HP bloat is retarded) it adds difficulty in ways that aren't stupid, mostly in scarcity and deadliness of combat. Otherwise you'll be an immovable tank of HP bloat drowning in stimpaks. The rebalancing isn't really an issue at all, very little is changed in a way that you feel like you're missing out on something cool, if anything it turns some previously useless things into things you might actually be interested in playing with. The GRA weapon merging alone is an undeniably essential fix.

Good choice on hardcore though. Not being able to sleep yourself to full hp, stimpaks healing over time, and doctor's bags being necessary to heal are seriously game enhancing factors that people leave out when talking about how unnecessary they think it is.
Companion death is another big one, having to actively avoid companions in order to squeeze some challenge out is meta game crap that really shouldn't be on your mind when you play, having mortal companions makes it come with a bit more risk, especially if you aren't a heavy save scummer.

 

[Metro]

I mentioned the stimpacks and doctor's bags several times OnPhaggyservicePhagged. Companion death? Who uses companions at all? Total crutch.

 

[Onholyservicebound]

I don't read your posts.