-I rolled a noncombat character (High int&charisma, strength2, endurance 2, Skilled in speech, science, barter etc). Is this even viable?! I have yet to find a single quest that allows a solution without use of deadly force (well except making the robot the sherriff of prinn, which is really lame compared to the other one).
Charisma is useless for a non-combat char, its only noticeable effect on gameplay is the amount of damage and defense your companions (capped at 2 regardless of any stats) have. CHA is FNV's dump stat. 3 is more than enough.
There are tons of quests that can be done with high enough skill-check and/or by letting the other present chars to fight it out without your help. That is, IF you have a necessary skill at high enough level, which at start isn't always the case. High (50+ usuall) barter allows you to defuse a lot of potentially lethal situations by a bribe, a similarly high speech allows to intimidate or reason with otherwise hostile people. High sneak + lockpick + science sometimes allow you to circumvent some fights by going around stealthy way.
-low strength is infuriating since I have to quicktravel every 5 minutes to sell my junk, but I guess I was told before what I was signing up for. Hey, I AM a courier after all.
First off, it depends on if you installed any weight limit affecting mods. The vanilla weight limits of the game are fairly high, especially if you get those 2 companions soon enough.
Secondly, 2 STR is really low anyway, and will negatively influence your ability to loot stuff. You will also miss out on all the weight limit raising perks because of that.
Last, but not least - I seriously doubt that you need half of what you've been picking up. Try picking up less junk and more actually valuable items.
I'm playing with jsawyer mod and nothing else. However, I read a bit through this thread. You and I have totally different approaches for this kind of game. You seem like a minmax kind of guy, who reads lots of build guides to have an optimal char. I used to do that, too I eventually found that this way sucks the joy out of my experience, because I always have the feeling that I'm doing stuff not 100% efficient. Just jumping in, picking stats and skills that sound fun - kind of e-larping - makes me feel a lot easier since I know my char is kind of gimped anyways. Also, I abandoned the perspective of doing a mainly pacifist run. I have a sniper and a robot accompanying me now who do most of the shooting for me, since this point game has become more or less easymode anyways.
-The color pallette and textures drive me insane due to sensory deprivation. Yes I understand its a post-apocalyptic desert. But these 50 shades of brown get old really quick.
That's kinda valid, but you can always install a mod or other to remove or change the brown filter.
Well, I just hit the strip. Seeing all these neon lights felt like a reward in itself.
Also, why are indoor areas so fucking dark?
No electricity except in very civilised places, boarded-up windows everywhere... And there's also a manually-activated flashlight installed in your Pip-Boy, in case you did'nt know.
I actually didnt know. But it turns out gamma correction settings don't work when you play in windowed mode. Now with Pip-Light, the night vision perk AND playing the game in fullscreen it is bearable.
Anyways, I'm now like ~20 hours in and I see now why this game is leagues ahead of FO3. This is the second Bethesta game after TES3 where exploration feels really rewarding. Not (only) in terms of loot, but its all these little and big stories you pick up left and right, for example
Have you found Vault 11 ?
Yes, I made it through. What a memorable experience! Reminds me of a mixture of the Milgram Experiment and one of the only german films worth watching, "das Experiment".
Next thing on my list is to figure out what to do with Mr. House. Also the Cesars just pardoned my slaughter of sheer thousands of their grunts. Maybe I should hear out what they have to offer. This foxy guy who held the lottery seems like a pretty interesting character.
Two more questions tho:
-I haven't crafted a single item yet. Either I have an abundance of better Items(why craft food when I have stimpacs galore) or I couldn't use it anyways (Explosives skill of 8). So far I would have preferred the crafting system of FO3, because it wasn't bloated, it provided Items of actual use and you had to find recipes first.
But I still have hopes that the lame crafting system will become better (all the skill requirements for crafting are 75 at max - there must be something more complicated, right?) - will it be possible to craft stuff like weapons, weapon augmentations and/or special ammo at some point, maybe if you find the appropriate recipe?
-I didn't expect a biowarean level of interaction with my companions. The sniper slowly starts to open up, but at least the robot seems like a rather bland fellow. I met this girl on the highway who wanted to join me. I rejected her, but I begin to wonder if there are potential sidekicks out there in the mojave who have a really interesting story to tell.
Fallout 3
Fallout: New Vegas
