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

[Somberlain]

No. Can't reach the last ranger station in the NW yet. Cazadors laugh at my BoS armor and keep tearing me a new one. (A flying monster being the biggest infuriating nuissance in the game seems to be a bethesta thing)

Do you have Old World Blues? That DLC seems to be what Cazador-haters need.

 

[AW8]

I personally feel that the requirements for triggering the companions' quests are extremely unintuitive and really unnecessary, all for the sake of "story". You wouldn't even know half of them existed unless you read a guide or brought each companion along with you into every bloody location and talked to every fucking one, just in case.

This, a hundred times this. I don't know why Obsidian keeps doing it. I'm all for hiding stuff, but companion quests that alter their stats and have ending panels that you'll never see? Just why.

In the QnA at the end he says that you can do a pacifist run, but I don't no how hard it would be.

Manny Vargas: "Well, I know where these guys are, but I need help."

Courier: "You need help - you need a doctor! BLAM!"

 

[naossano]

Lily is involved in a Jacobstown quest, so you don't have to go far, and her own quest consist in a SINGLE event that can happen anywhere and how you react to it.
Almost everything you need to know about her is already said during the initial dialog. I found her concept quite awesome and full of promises, but it never go beyond the introduction.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

That quest chain about betrayal among NCR Rangers that includes Return to Sender and traveling to those Ranger Bases as well as Camp Golf is pretty cool in terms of the storyline and the way it makes you explore the NV map, but there is also one other sort of hidden benefit to it which you might not know: It might be the only way for an NCR/good-aligned character to obtain one of the coolest weapons in the entire game: the beautiful Ranger Sequioa revolver:

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Ranger_Sequoia

Spoiler

If you talk Chief Hanlon at Camp Gold into committing suicide, you can steal the revolver off the floor near his body, just do it quickly before other Rangers come running into the room.

The only other way to obtain this gun that I know of is off the dead bodies of high level NCR parties, which will only appear if you are with the Legion and/or have really bad reputation. The gun is awesome, not only is it great for the Wild West vibe, but with all cowboy-type perks and custom ammo, it does around 100 damage per shot.

 

[T. Reich]

Ranger Sequia is pretty cool, but the vanilla Hunting Revolver does the job just as fine, and it comes with a scope.

 

[Multiple Sarcasm]

Can't compare. "Ranger Sequoia" sounds at least 1594% more badass. Possibly, all 1595%.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

Ranger Sequia is pretty cool, but the vanilla Hunting Revolver does the job just as fine, and it comes with a scope.

Sequoia has slightly better stats (more damage, much more accurate, slightly faster, more crit chance), but most importantly, it just looks a thousand times better. The whole revolver + scope look is kinda retarded ever since Fallout 3, and doesn't fit into the Wild West theme. On top of that, Sequoia has easily one of the most beautiful textures in the game, with all kinds of detail like text decals and NCR bear images, whereas the hunting revolver looks like an old metal tube. As the guy said, the "badass" level is just completely different.

 

[I'm Big Into Anal]

personally i really enjoyed the three fiend bounties you get from the dude by the gate at mccarran base

cook-cook, delphi and some mad bitch with about 7 dogs

good stuff for relatively low level characters [lvl 4-7]

 

[Clockwork Knight]

The scoped revolver gives you that sweet midrange offensive capability, though. Plus, cowboys are cool and snipers are cool, so a cowboy sniper must be double cool.

edit: by the way, if a good character that doesn't mind some cheese qants the Sequoia from Hanlon, there's always reverse pickpocketing.

 

[Gnidrologist]

Ranger Sequia is pretty cool, but the vanilla Hunting Revolver does the job just as fine, and it comes with a scope.

Sequoia has slightly better stats (more damage, much more accurate, slightly faster, more crit chance), but most importantly, it just looks a thousand times better. The whole revolver + scope look is kinda retarded ever since Fallout 3, and doesn't fit into the Wild West theme. On top of that, Sequoia has easily one of the most beautiful textures in the game, with all kinds of detail like text decals and NCR bear images, whereas the hunting revolver looks like an old metal tube. As the guy said, the "badass" level is just completely different.

Haven't had RS, but Lucky is p. badass still in my late (level wise) game. I think it has best critical multiplier for revolvers in the game and it's beautiful.

 

[WhiteGuts]

Dat Gun is gud

 

[ERYFKRAD]

It is, yes. Also easily available.

 

[Gnidrologist]

I sold it early in the game. What a fool.

 

[WhiteGuts]

The Gun Runners have everything, men.

 

[the_shadow]

I've always been surprised that people consider Charisma to be a dump stat. Each point increases companion damage and damage resistance by 5%, and it increases speech. The only other primary stat which increases damage output is luck, and not by 5% per point. I *guess* you could argue that perception increases damage output in a roundabout way (since an increase in accuracy = an increase in damage output per second), but you're able to get 95% accuracy just by pumping your primary weapon skill.

A high strength is completely unnecessary if you don't want to melee. At the beginning of the game I was hoarding everything, but over time you come to realize that 99% of the stuff you're squirreling away is cack. All the crafting is completely unnecessary, although I guess some people are into that sort of thing. There *are* exceptions in the DLCs, or if you choose the handloading perk, but that's another story.

All you really need is a decent gun or two (preferably small guns or energy, since explosives are shit unless you have DLC), power fist + thermal lance (if melee/unarmed character), a bunch of ammo, a suit of armour, some stimpacks, C4 explosives, skill magazines, and chems (optional). I wouldn't bother with carrying food/water, even on hardcore mode, since its plentiful wherever you go.

 

[T. Reich]

That Gun is pretty cool for a pistol, but there is also Lucky, which has comparable stats and is also available as early as Primm, if you cen get Lockpick skill to 65(+10 from mag) by then.
It was really a lucky find for me.

For a sniper gunner, there is also another gem available in Novac, from the same guy as that Gun. It's so good, there is no actually better replacement among guns, considering overall package. Worth every cap. One-shots (via stealth crit) any non-special, non-boss enemy in the game, over extreme distances.
I still carry around a simple sniper rifle though, in case I need to be both silent and more accurate over long range.

 

[WhiteGuts]

I'm gay for the modded anti-mat rifle.

 

[T. Reich]

It's certainly the best when you need to dish out the maximum possible sneak crit damage per shot in the game, but it's so damn unwieldy otherwise.
I'll be switching to the unique gauss rifle eventually, for the purposes of sneaky max strike assassination.

 

[Somberlain]

Ranger Sequia is pretty cool, but the vanilla Hunting Revolver does the job just as fine, and it comes with a scope.

Ranger Sequoia has better stats across the board. Hunting revolver has the scope, of course, but that's just a negative thing if you use revolvers for close range combat. I do, and I use rifles for long range combat.

The only other way to obtain this gun that I know of is off the dead bodies of high level NCR parties, which will only appear if you are with the Legion and/or have really bad reputation. The gun is awesome, not only is it great for the Wild West vibe, but with all cowboy-type perks and custom ammo, it does around 100 damage per shot.

Veteran Rangers will start appearing in Ranger Stations and Camp Golf at high levels and/or when you've progressed far enough with the story, you can then murder one or steal the revolver with the basic "steal all ammo from an NPC, leave area, come back and the NPC will have unequipped his weapon and you can steal it" trick. It's a reload fest, though, but there you go.

Haven't had RS, but Lucky is p. badass still in my late (level wise) game. I think it has best critical multiplier for revolvers in the game and it's beautiful.

Lucky is indeed great even at higher levels, thanks to its high crit multiplier, but its reload speed is really slow, which really hurts Lucky's usefulness.

I've always been surprised that people consider Charisma to be a dump stat. Each point increases companion damage and damage resistance by 5%, and it increases speech. The only other primary stat which increases damage output is luck, and not by 5% per point. I *guess* you could argue that perception increases damage output in a roundabout way (since an increase in accuracy = an increase in damage output per second), but you're able to get 95% accuracy just by pumping your primary weapon skill.

Companions do perfectly fine even with 1 CH, that's why it's a dump stat. Boone will score headshots like no tomorrow anyway, so he doesn't need higher damage. Companions aren't that squishy either, so they don't really need the DR bonus for high CH.

You're right about the STR, though. You don't really need that high carry weight when you know what's actually useful and what's not, but I'd still take STR over CH any day.

It affects speech, yeah, but that isn't too relevant. Just put extra points in the skill on level ups. I play with 1 CH character almost every time and I pretty much always have enough speech for all the speech checks. If you use a mod that really punishes you for low SPECIAL stats, it might be a different story.

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

Also PER increasing accuracy is a lie in the description. It doesn't. Like I said, all stats are dump stats mostly, the biggest influence they have is perk requirements.

 

[Somberlain]

Like I said, all stats are dump stats mostly, the biggest influence they have is perk requirements.

SPECIALs certainly don't have as big effect as they should, so everyone should install this very small but very effective mod, unless they already use a bigger overhaul that includes such changes.

 

[AW8]

I've always been surprised that people consider Charisma to be a dump stat. Each point increases companion damage and damage resistance by 5%, and it increases speech. The only other primary stat which increases damage output is luck, and not by 5% per point. I *guess* you could argue that perception increases damage output in a roundabout way (since an increase in accuracy = an increase in damage output per second), but you're able to get 95% accuracy just by pumping your primary weapon skill.

A high strength is completely unnecessary if you don't want to melee. At the beginning of the game I was hoarding everything, but over time you come to realize that 99% of the stuff you're squirreling away is cack. All the crafting is completely unnecessary, although I guess some people are into that sort of thing. There *are* exceptions in the DLCs, or if you choose the handloading perk, but that's another story.

All you really need is a decent gun or two (preferably small guns or energy, since explosives are shit unless you have DLC), power fist + thermal lance (if melee/unarmed character), a bunch of ammo, a suit of armour, some stimpacks, C4 explosives, skill magazines, and chems (optional). I wouldn't bother with carrying food/water, even on hardcore mode, since its plentiful wherever you go.

Perception doesn't actually affect accuracy at all, it only determines when stuff appears on the compass (locations, NPC's/creatures). And having ED-E in the party makes that part completely redundant. Aside from the attribute checks in dialogue and the perks that require it, it's the dump stat of the game.

Strength is useful for almost every character, as most of the best weapons require a high Strength in order to aim precisely.

Agility is only useful if you're using weapons with small magazines, and even then Strength is more important - why would you need to reload the weapon quickly if you can't aim the thing in the first place?

Strength and Endurance are useful for almost every character. Intelligence is good if you want to master several skills, Luck if you're using weapons with high critical multipliers. Charisma is useful if you use companions, Agility is useful if you use weapons with small magazines. Perception is simply garbage. The only redeeming factor is the warm feeling of calling people on their lies in dialogue attribute checks.

SPECIALs certainly don't have as big effect as they should, so everyone should install this very small but very effective mod, unless they already use a bigger overhaul that includes such changes.

That looks very rad! I've been wanting a mod that makes allocating points in SPECIAL less trivial and more meaningful.

Don't know if it works with Jsawyer though, as both touch the HP per level and carry weight.

 

[Snorkack]

so far I am happy with only the sawyer mod. Just one thing bothers me more with every second - the radio stations with their selection of about 4 or 5 songs. I dont expect gta level of variety of songs and stations. But is there any mod that adds more theme-fitting songs?

Also I actually miss 3 dog...

 

[Somberlain]

But is there any mod that adds more theme-fitting songs?
.

This is a fairly popular mod. I haven't tested it myself though, since I don't usually listen to the radio.

Also I actually miss 3 dog...

 

[T. Reich]

I've always been surprised that people consider Charisma to be a dump stat. Each point increases companion damage and damage resistance by 5%, and it increases speech. The only other primary stat which increases damage output is luck, and not by 5% per point. I *guess* you could argue that perception increases damage output in a roundabout way (since an increase in accuracy = an increase in damage output per second), but you're able to get 95% accuracy just by pumping your primary weapon skill.

A high strength is completely unnecessary if you don't want to melee. At the beginning of the game I was hoarding everything, but over time you come to realize that 99% of the stuff you're squirreling away is cack. All the crafting is completely unnecessary, although I guess some people are into that sort of thing. There *are* exceptions in the DLCs, or if you choose the handloading perk, but that's another story.

All you really need is a decent gun or two (preferably small guns or energy, since explosives are shit unless you have DLC), power fist + thermal lance (if melee/unarmed character), a bunch of ammo, a suit of armour, some stimpacks, C4 explosives, skill magazines, and chems (optional). I wouldn't bother with carrying food/water, even on hardcore mode, since its plentiful wherever you go.

Perception doesn't actually affect accuracy at all, it only determines when stuff appears on the compass (locations, NPC's/creatures). And having ED-E in the party makes that part completely redundant. Aside from the attribute checks in dialogue and the perks that require it, it's the dump stat of the game.

Strength is useful for almost every character, as most of the best weapons require a high Strength in order to aim precisely.

Agility is only useful if you're using weapons with small magazines, and even then Strength is more important - why would you need to reload the weapon quickly if you can't aim the thing in the first place?

Strength and Endurance are useful for almost every character. Intelligence is good if you want to master several skills, Luck if you're using weapons with high critical multipliers. Charisma is useful if you use companions, Agility is useful if you use weapons with small magazines. Perception is simply garbage. The only redeeming factor is the warm feeling of calling people on their lies in dialogue attribute checks.

SPECIALs certainly don't have as big effect as they should, so everyone should install this very small but very effective mod, unless they already use a bigger overhaul that includes such changes.

That looks very rad! I've been wanting a mod that makes allocating points in SPECIAL less trivial and more meaningful.

Don't know if it works with Jsawyer though, as both touch the HP per level and carry weight.

PER of 6 is required for a lot of very powerful crit-related perks, so are AGI 6 and LCK 6. If you want to be a decent sniper, you want those three stats at 6 or sometimes higher. You totally want to max out AGI eventually if you rely on VATS. AGI is very important for VATS.
END of 7 is required to install all 7 stat-increasing implants available in the game, which is recommended. But you could go with 6 here and skip CHA implant.
STR of 4-5 is generally enough for all, and later on there are bonuses to STR as it is, plus the power armor.
INT is totally important to be able to raise skills quickly and a lot.
CHA is good for boosting companions, true, but why rely on companions' AI when you can kill stuf more reliably yourself? Plus, the difference between, say, 4 CHA and 10 CHA is not that big.