Fallout: Tactics - Any tips from the pros?

[Marten Broadcloak]

Is there any reason to use snipers instead of fastshot? They don't seem to do more damage just very occasionally seem to make more criticals with aimed shots. Is their only use to incapacitate enemies? Or do they get way better with energy weapons?
How does Better Criticals work? It doesn't seem to have any effect it seems even with sniping.
When I mutate Mandy, should I give her Fast Shot or Kamikaze, i.e. sniper role? Seeing how snipers seem so useless I guess fast shot.

btw pleasantly surprised that mutants just fall to Jackhammer bursts with regular ammo. Just walking up to them with psycho and boom. I might restart game with a roflstomp gunner.

Snipers are very efficient. Keep in mind that Fallout Tactics is a game that scales surprisingly far in the mid and end game. You will soon get your hands on devastating weapons and perks, useful for dealing critical damage to enemies so tanky that they are otherwise oblivious to normal damage.

 

[Thor Kaufman]

What would those perks be? Do I need heaps of more criticals and finesse (Finesse seems shit though) or something?
nvm found something http://ft-multi.cba.pl/?page_id=32
http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Critical_Hit
Apparently it just adds more likelihood of crippling injuries. Apparently they don't seem to go through DT/DR(?), either. Weapon damage seems the deciding factor.
So that means fast shot snipers do more damage though obv not as much as roflstomp gunners and aimed shot snipers help incapacitate enemies (which is probably not as useful since even blinded mutants still shoot and get their bug damage with full auto).

So best strat would be aimed shot snipers for incapacitating and then go in with gunner squad? Or mixed crew of fast shot snipers (maybe energy sniper with backup energy big gun or pistol to be used as semi-gunner) and aimed shot snipers and like 2 gunners or something.

 

[Baron Dupek]

Burst is broken in FT, sniping with burst guns is not funny business.
And yes burst is essential, didn't played the tutorial? They are required for traps, luring enemies and making them new holes across their bodies is a must.
Fast Shot snipers? lolno I think fist fighting muties with drugs is better idea

 

[Serus]

A different question - is the "bonus" mission any good ? Worth installing/playing ?

 

[FeelTheRads]

As good as any other, I guess? If you play the game you might as well play that too.
And what was it, you just had to edit an ini file or something to "install" it?

 

[Cyberarmy]

A different question - is the "bonus" mission any good ? Worth installing/playing ?

You get to rescue MCA, nuff said.

 

[valcik]

Nice 12.7mm sniper rifle has been added to Springfield by Redux mod.

 

[Serus]

As good as any other, I guess? If you play the game might as well play that too.
And what was it, you just had to edit ini file or something to "install" it?

Nah - not for me anyway. It is added in GoG "edition" as a bonus, i never owned F:T in box version so i don't know how it was distributed originally or if it was just a stupid gimmick or a playable mission. Good to hear it is the latter.

 

[Thor Kaufman]

A different question - is the "bonus" mission any good ? Worth installing/playing ?

just have to edit bos.cfg (gets made after game is started afaik), search for mission and set flag=true

It gives very nice xp and you can steal lots of afterburner gums and other drugs from the degenerate citizens.

Burst is broken in FT, sniping with burst guns is not funny business.
And yes burst is essential, didn't played the tutorial? They are required for traps, luring enemies and making them new holes across their bodies is a must.
Fast Shot snipers? lolno I think fist fighting muties with drugs is better idea

sure, unarmed is powerful but then again it just takes one burst with jackhammer to take them down. Unarmed scales awesomely though, can even take down behemoths with it.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

As good as any other, I guess? If you play the game might as well play that too.
And what was it, you just had to edit ini file or something to "install" it?

Nah - not for me anyway. It is added in GoG "edition" as a bonus, i never owned F:T in box version so i don't know how it was distributed originally or if it was just a stupid gimmick or a playable mission. Good to hear it is the latter.

It was originally distributed as a 27 Kb .exe file that probably modified a parameter in a game file to unlock the Springfield mission... meaning that it was already in the game files when the game was released.

Disc-locked-content = Screwing over gamers since 2001 (or possibly earlier).

 

[Thor Kaufman]

ffs men
folder "core"
file gets made after a game was started, just change the parameter from "false" to "true". Latest moment to do that is after first mission in Bunker Beta.
GOG version 1.27

 

[felipepepe]

BTW, I still need a short review of this game for the CRPG Book, if anyone's interested in writing it...

 

[Thor Kaufman]

The Diablo of Fallouts
though tbf that was Fallout 1. Shooting rats in a cave? wtf kind of crap game is that?

 

[flushfire]

Dusted this off after playing 1 & 2 due to reading that amusing F3 vs F2 thread. Planning to make a Big Guns main, just a couple questions:

1. Since big guns means no aimed shots, would 6 Per be enough?
2. At what level range is the M249 going to be available?

 

[Marten Broadcloak]

Dusted this off after playing 1 & 2 due to reading that amusing F3 vs F2 thread. Planning to make a Big Guns main, just a couple questions:

1. Since big guns means no aimed shots, would 6 Per be enough?
2. At what level range is the M249 going to be available?

1. Sounds fair, but more PE would be good. You're in for a lot of missed shots.
2. Around mid-game. There's a pretty huge leap happening in the game, because the transition from small guns to big guns isn't smooth at all. Basically you stomp opponents wielding small guns, and then the next mission is against enemies with M249 and rocket launchers. A famously difficult mission. But before this one, you don't really have access to big guns, so you'll have to do several missions with small guns anyway. Not a problem if only your main is focused on big guns from the start.

 

[flushfire]

Alright, thanks. Is that the mutants in trenches mission? I've always played sniper there, that's actually one of my worries, bec with just 6 per and no sharpshooter perk, might make that approach impossible. But I guess I could use someone else for that. Reason I'm asking for the level range is I was thinking of getting lifegiver for level 9 and 12 perks, then delay tagging big guns for level 15.

Was thinking of something like:
S 6 for M249
P 6 better crits, bonus rof, no sharpshooter tho
E 4 lifegiver
C 5 could lower to 4, but wouldn't that negatively affect rank?
I 6 bonus rof
A 7 bonus rof
L 6 better crits

 

[Micormic]

Dusted this off after playing 1 & 2 due to reading that amusing F3 vs F2 thread. Planning to make a Big Guns main, just a couple questions:

1. Since big guns means no aimed shots, would 6 Per be enough?
2. At what level range is the M249 going to be available?

1. yes, most of the time you can snipe mutants and bait them into coming closer so your big gun squad members can mow them down
2. st louis which is the 9th mission or so if you do the bonus mission. So around level 7-9?

 

[flushfire]

That's a bit earlier than I thought. Guess I'll have to rethink getting lifegiver. Or maybe I should just tag Big guns on creation. Thanks for the info.

 

[Piotrovitz]

Fuck, this makes me want to install FO:T again, but I'm in the middle of first Underrail playthrough.

Sniping mutants I remembered as tedious and taking forever - best option was taking some crew with fast shot trait (taken by Mutate perk), lots of AGL, and big guns and stealth pumped up. This goes for all 4-5 missions with muties.
Sneaking up and shooting 1-2 bursts close range is the way to go.

The first mission with mutants (St. Louis?) is one of the easiest ones actually, since you have APC and with guy with high repair, you're just steamrolling through the map and mowing down everyone from close distance.

 

[Marten Broadcloak]

Yes, St. Louis is the first mutants mission, the first one with big guns. Never used this APC strategy, I'm not sure it's that viable and it doesn't sound really enjoyable.

The mission is hard but don't worry flushfire, it starts with only one or two muties. You can kill them fairly easily if you have at least one sniper and loot one M249.

Edit : I'm not a fan of lifegiver. If your strategy requires you to have 170 hp instead of 120, it's not a very good strategy anyway. At least that's how I view it.

 

[Piotrovitz]

APC strategy is perfectly viable and is first one that comes to mind actually. What else you would use dudes with high repair skill and those repair kits for. It's the first mission you get armoured vehicle, make use of it for fuck's sake.

As said, sniping mutants takes forever, so the only other reasonable way to go is to get 2-3 guys with stealth and big guns to sneak up up and burst from close distance. If you find using APC cheesy, you can go this route, though it just artificially prolongs the mission.

 

[Cael]

Dusted this off after playing 1 & 2 due to reading that amusing F3 vs F2 thread. Planning to make a Big Guns main, just a couple questions:

1. Since big guns means no aimed shots, would 6 Per be enough?
2. At what level range is the M249 going to be available?

What you can do is sneak up on the idiots at Macomb and take their rocket launchers with ammo intact. Both of them can be snuck up on from the rear if you circle around them. You should end up with 3 rounds of ammo. Then, at St Louis, find a mutant entrenchment with a M249 and let him have it in the face with the rocket launcher. Pick up the M249 and profit from there on in.

The game isn't hard. I am doing a playthrough where I am using minimal 7.62mm rounds. That means no hunting rifles or AK47 in the early game. I am currently relying on punching, MP5 and shotguns to get through the game (just completed Quincy). It helps to have a person dedicated to Stealing in the squad. There are quite a number of goodies to be pickpocketed that will help you immensely, including Jackhammers and Miniguns.

In the sniper vs fast shot debate, sniper is pretty much king in this game. The knockout ability of snipers is ludicrous. With a weapon rating of 150+, you can aim for the eyes at 95% almost out to the maximum range of the weapon. Knock them out and then close in and punch them to death or use more damaging but shorter ranged weapons to do the same. With the sniper rifle, shotguns, a high small guns and sneak rating, good perception and the right tactics, you can basically take out St Louis, including that big fort of theirs, without the supermutants being able to fire a shot.

 

[Piotrovitz]

In the sniper vs fast shot debate, sniper is pretty much king in this game. The knockout ability of snipers is ludicrous. With a weapon rating of 150+, you can aim for the eyes at 95% almost out to the maximum range of the weapon. Knock them out and then close in and punch them to death or use more damaging but shorter ranged weapons to do the same.

We're talking about mutants missions, or whole game in general?

I'm no expert on FO:T, but this doesn't seem to be workable for packs of supermutants like you have in St. Louis.
Like said before, the easiest route for me was to sneak up with someone with high big guns, and burst them in the face from close distance.

Knocking out the ones wandering alone and then rushing in for shotgun bursts works for some single ones, but the same tactic for group of 2-3 seems like a deathwish, that can be pulled out only by a pro. Which you seem to be, considering you're doing gimped run.

 

[Cael]

In the sniper vs fast shot debate, sniper is pretty much king in this game. The knockout ability of snipers is ludicrous. With a weapon rating of 150+, you can aim for the eyes at 95% almost out to the maximum range of the weapon. Knock them out and then close in and punch them to death or use more damaging but shorter ranged weapons to do the same.

We're talking about mutants missions, or whole game in general?

I'm no expert on FO:T, but this doesn't seem to be workable for packs of supermutants like you have in St. Louis.
Like said before, the easiest route for me was to sneak up with someone with high big guns, and burst them in the face from close distance.

Knocking out the ones wandering alone and then rushing in for shotgun bursts works for some single ones, but the same tactic for group of 2-3 seems like a deathwish, that can be pulled out only by a pro. Which you seem to be, considering you're doing gimped run.

Whole game. Anything will get KO'd by eye shots. Even deathclaws and robots. Keep aiming for the eyes. You'll knock them out.

I hunt supermutant random encounters using only 9mm guns, using 9mm ball rounds, on single shot mode in Hard Core mode or whatever that "you can only save in base" mode is called (so multiple encounters before being able to save again). Knocking them out with called shots to the eyes is the only way you will survive a mess of M249 and M2 wielding supermutants in that situation. That and funneling them using rocks and other obstructive terrain. Once they are out, pummel them to death with extreme haymakers as the increased crit chance means you get to bypass their innate and worn armour more often.

St Louis using the sniper rifle is easy as you outrange even M2s, so you can happily plink away at them from safety and if they charge you, lead them into a shotgun ambush. Sneaking up to an entire group of supermutants facing the other way (like in one of the entrenchments) and hosing them down with shotguns also work. The only thing I have to worry about is darkness falling as that cuts down my range horribly and that is bad with M2s running around.

 

[Marten Broadcloak]

APC strategy is perfectly viable and is first one that comes to mind actually. What else you would use dudes with high repair skill and those repair kits for. It's the first mission you get armoured vehicle, make use of it for fuck's sake.

I probably never had a single guy with high repair skill, which explains why I never used this strategy.