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

[pippin]

Finished the game after 44 hours with the Yes Man arc. During the ending scene I realized how much branches I didn't even touch. I think I just reload the last pre-Hooverdam save and get some more work done. I haven't started any DLCs, haven't found 4 companions at all, still have huge empty spots on the map, and who the heck are the Kings?
Just wondering? I managed to always stay on good terms with the NCR. Is it still possible to side with them if I already finished all except the last Yes Man quest?
Had a really great time overall, best rpg I played the last few years. Its a shame that it stood on my shelf for 5 years collecting dust. Can't wait to be utterly disappointed by F4!

The Kings were the Elvis guys in Freeside. You kinda had to meet them if you went to Vegas.
There's a point of no return for both the Legion and the NCR, where they will refuse to help you even if you have a good relationship with them. Check your completed quests, you should get a message on those lines.
Do the DLCs if you want, some of them are affected by the stuff you did in the main game: Joshua Graham in Honest Hearts will know if you killed Caesar or not; Lonesome Road is particularly intensive in this aspect as well.
Just for fun explore the western part of the map. Plenty of stuff and creatures to be found. There's also small bits of lore, like the map the Khans draw in the All Roads comic book.

 

[T. Reich]

Finished the game after 44 hours with the Yes Man arc. During the ending scene I realized how much branches I didn't even touch. I think I just reload the last pre-Hooverdam save and get some more work done. I haven't started any DLCs, haven't found 4 companions at all, still have huge empty spots on the map, and who the heck are the Kings?
Just wondering? I managed to always stay on good terms with the NCR. Is it still possible to side with them if I already finished all except the last Yes Man quest?
Had a really great time overall, best rpg I played the last few years. Its a shame that it stood on my shelf for 5 years collecting dust. Can't wait to be utterly disappointed by F4!

Hahaha, for comparison - I've started my (semi-blind mostly completist) playthrough a good week or two before you, the game's internal clock shows around 80 hours of play time, which is closer to 90 hours with all the reloading and meta-gaming included. I've completely scoured the all the map-markable locations south of Vegas, and did a good few quests in Freeside and the Strip. I'm pretty sure that few to none of the quests and special things escaped my notice. I haven't done any DLC locations yet.
I fully expect the game to clock in at approx 150 hours played by the end of my walkthrough. It's totally worth it.

I'm currently taking a break from the main quest line by doing the Lonesome Road DLC. It's not very impressive gameplay-wise (combat-oriented and VERY straightforward in terms of exploration), but it's atmospheric as fuck, making this virtual corridor interesting to explore in search of story tidbits.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

Finished the game after 44 hours with the Yes Man arc.

It's almost a crime to finish NV in 44 hours. A fairly complete play-through should take around 100 hours for the game itself and around 130-140 for game + all expansions.

I'm currently taking a break from the main quest line by doing the Lonesome Road DLC. It's not very impressive gameplay-wise (combat-oriented and VERY straightforward in terms of exploration), but it's atmospheric as fuck, making this virtual corridor interesting to explore in search of story tidbits.

Lonesome Road is typical post-Torment Avellone, pretentiously artsy rather than intelligently entertaining, at least that's my 2 cents, was by far my least liked DLC for NV.

 

[WhiteGuts]

D-E-A-D
M-O-N-E-Y

 

[T. Reich]

I'm currently taking a break from the main quest line by doing the Lonesome Road DLC. It's not very impressive gameplay-wise (combat-oriented and VERY straightforward in terms of exploration), but it's atmospheric as fuck, making this virtual corridor interesting to explore in search of story tidbits.

Lonesome Road is typical post-Torment Avellone, pretentiously artsy rather than intelligently entertaining, at least that's my 2 cents, was by far my least liked DLC for NV.

I've played through it some more (2/3 through), and now it definitely feels like some sort of mid-end-2000's rail shooter.
Nonexistant exploration apart from the old-school-action'y secret hunting (ammo stashes, posters, records), extremely straightforward storyline progression (no detours or sequence breaking allowed, no branching paths at all), even scripted action scenes! (that Ashton silo elevator action sequence...), a whole of 2(!) non-hostile NPCs, one of which is antagonist and another is the most annoying, most stereotyped plucky sidekick ever.
Plus there is heavy emphasis on combat, with only strong enemies inhabiting the place, and it's extremely hard to avoid them. Accordingly, the add-on is overstocked with combat-grade armors (a bare minimum for survival here) and big guns, so you could actually stand a chance against the mobs.
The only saving grace for this merifully short add-on for me is that a) it provides some interesting background story to the region and all involved parties and b) the scenery is breathtaking.
Apart from that, it's a steaming pile of turd.

 

[Gnidrologist]

It's almost a crime to finish NV in 44 hours. A fairly complete play-through should take around 100 hours for the game itself and around 130-140 for game + all expansions.

I'm around 160 hours in and am probably experienced 2/3 of vanilla at best. I'm retarded though.

 

[Florian Gheorghe]

I finally bought it for 5 dollars this week. Man I missed this game. Having a blast with Hardcore mode and evil play.I think that this is indeed the best game Obsidian has done so far. I really hope we will have another one with Fallout 4 engine and assets.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

I really hope we will have another one with Fallout 4 engine and assets.

Given Obsidian's emphasis on C&C and allowing for an evil path, and Fallout 4's obsession with the canine companion, I can't help but feel that a potential NV-type spin-off would let you play as a post-apocalyptic Korean chef.

 

[Florian Gheorghe]

) It's a shame we won't have the dialogue up close like in FO 1,2,3, NV. The wheel and the character talk are dumb decisions.

 

[T. Reich]

) It's a shame we won't have the dialogue up close like in FO 1,2,3, NV. The wheel and the character talk are dumb decisions.

FO3 had the absolutely unredeemable retarded dialogue throughout the game. Whatever decline FO4 could have in that departament, will not be much worse than what they did in FO3.

Don't believe me? Check out this codexian let's play and read the dialogues - http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...play-a-shitty-game-fallout-3-completed.34530/.

 

[Florian Gheorghe]

Ow I know FO3 dialogue is retarded. I only talked about the 3D perspective. MY god that thread is just awesome ! )

 

[T. Reich]

Ah. Well, I don't care much about presentation as long as the actual writing is decent.

After all, FO1+2 didn't have that many talking heads, a lot of dialogue was done via a simple dialogie screen with a portion of the game screen visible.
And FO3+NV had their first-person viev (reminiscent of FO1+2 talking heads) courtesy of the first-person perspective of the game. The dialogue from 3rd person would just look too weird, given that the rest of the game is paused while you are in conversation screen.

 

[Florian Gheorghe]

You don't have a video on youtube with F3 right? I would love to see somebody making fun of that garbage but all I see is people praising F3. Even more then NV

 

[Snorkack]

 

[Florian Gheorghe]

That is gold I tell ya! Gold! )

 

[Great Deceiver]

I've been trying to play New Vegas ever since it came out; modded, unmodded, etc. Could never muscle it because the game engine is beyond terrible, I think it's the only game that I really want to like but I just can't play because of the fucking engine.

I've recently restarted it for the nth time, unmodded hardcore and have made it farther than previous tries; it's still difficult to plow through though, the quests and dialogue are pretty great and the game doesn't treat you like a retard most of the time, which counts for a lot, but I really wish this was a isometric 2d game and not a clusterfuck gamebryo monstrosity.

 

[Snorkack]

Are you specifically talking about the combat? Then we're in the same boat, pal. I needed three attempts to continue past the second city you get through regularly. But it is well worth suffering through it, and once you are travelling with 2 companions (esp. Boone), combat becomes much less of a nuissance, since they do most of the shooting for you.
Or do you mean engine in terms of graphical quality? Although it will mostly stay the same, there are a few places in the game that offer a welcome deviation of the omnipresent grey/brown and they are really worth finding and exploring.

 

[T. Reich]

Are you guys complaining that the combat is hard, or what?

I find it beyond easy, unless you allow yourself to get mobbed by more than two fast melee mobs. And it becomes even easier when you develop your weapon skills some more, get some better weapons and get at least one companion to distract them.

If you want to remove any challenge out of combat whatsoever, follow these 5 easy steps:
1. Get ED-E (in Primm, which is second city) for his long range scanning perk. It's so strong that you will never get surprised by the mobs out in the open, even if your PER is 1. This will also enable easy long-range sniping.
2. Get a high single-target damage long range weapon with good zoom. A hunting rifle (or, really, anything stronger than a varmint rifle) would do early on just fine.
3. Enter sneak mode, aim and shoot. A sneak attack critical (any hit on a mob while sneaking with [hideden] is a 100% sneak crit) does roughly 4x times the weapon's damage per hit. More, if you manage to hit a head. That's enough to 1-shot anything but the toughest mobs (early on, that's only giant radscorpions, and it's better to avoid those anyway).
4. Keep a secon aweapon at hand, the one that does a lot of damage close-up. Any SMG or shotgun will do. That weapon is only used indoors or to finish off some mobs up close.
5. Get any (and I mean, any) humanoid companion as soon you can get one. That means either Boone or Veronica. Or maybe Arcade if you manage to get a couple of stealth boys and then sneak past deathclaws and fiends between Sloan and New Vegas.

Frankly, you don't need even that. I managed to defeat anything in my way up until Novac with a starting 9mm pistol + scope I bought for it. Then I got That Gun and managed to scrape enough caps for PAciencia (GRA only). After that, there was nothing I couldn't deal with.

 

[Somberlain]

3. Enter sneak mode, aim and shoot. A sneak attack critical (any hit on a mob while sneaking with [hideden] is a 100% sneak crit) does roughly 4x times the weapon's damage per hit. More, if you manage to hit a head. That's enough to 1-shot anything but the toughest mobs (early on, that's only giant radscorpions, and it's better to avoid those anyway).

Sneak attack + Better Criticals + Anti-Materiel Rifle + Headshot = 1 shot kill of pretty much everything

Add Psycho, Yao-Guay meat and some other damage boosters for the very few enemies that would otherwise survive the hit.

 

[Snorkack]

Are you guys complaining that the combat is hard, or what?

No, the combat is just shit. The gunplay is godawful and don't even get me started on Vats. The fact that even takedowns from your companions trigger those annoying slowmos is just laughable.
Other than that, I agree with all your advices. I followed every single one and suddenly a great game has revealed itself
Only Patiencia has been a bit lackluster. I prefer a modded Hunting Rifle despite lower dps (switched to Bozar as soon as i could afford it)

 

[Somberlain]

those annoying slowmos

Does someone actually use them? Horrible effects, I turn them off whenever I can.

 

[Snorkack]

FNV crashes regularly on my machine, and for some goddamn reason, this setting always reverts to enabled after restarting

 

[Somberlain]

I feel your pain.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

The last few posts remind me of that joke about a guy going to the doctor and complaining about elbow pain. The doctor asks him what's wrong, and he goes, well doc, when I twist my hand behind my back and push it upward and try to touch my nose, it hurts like hell.

Sure the default NV combat might be easy as cake, but no one is forcing you to play it that way. Why does everyone insist on traveling around with companions for example? It's not a party game, you don't control them, mostly they just get in the way, and after you do their quest, they bring absolutely nothing to the table other than contributing to making combat too easy. Say bye to companions, man up, and travel the wasteland alone, the way you were meant to.

Select hardcode mode to get rid of the stimpak exploit, do not activate VATs to get rid of the VATs exploit, install a mod like Project Nevada to lower hitpoints, and stay away from power armor and the like. Only pussies use that stuff, man up again and use a nice thematic cowboy outfit or something that looks post-apocalyptic. Suddenly, the combat becomes intense and deadly, and fun is to be had.

 

[razvedchiki]

Get any (and I mean, any) humanoid companion as soon you can get one. That means either Boone or Veronica. Or maybe Arcade if you manage to get a couple of stealth boys and then sneak past deathclaws and fiends between Sloan and New Vegas.

there is actually a way to get pass the deathclaws without the use of stealthboys and minimal sneak

-head to the black mountain
-get to neils shack
-from there you have 2 options,either jump on the rocks on your left or continue down the road which is not advisable because you may get ambushed or stumble upon mutant patrols.
-continuing upwards you will see on your left a ncr trooper body,and an opening between the rocks that has bear traps on it.
-beware also huge boulder that will come to crash you as you ascend,avoid it by turning left.
-sucesfuly making at the top of the passage you now see on your right the top of black mountain.
-head left and you are free,there are no enemies here for a long distance and you may stumble upon the ncr safehouse.