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

[Gnidrologist]

Companions are only there for inventory and additional story elements so allowing them to die makes no sense. Unless you play some iron man challenge run or smth.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

Yeah, as Onholyservicebound said, Sawyer most likely put it that way because of PR/legal/political reasons, he can't just come out and say, hey this game we released was released too early and its balance is shit, or, hey we need to dumb everything down for console/casual players, so instead he says its his personal preferences. But the changes he makes in that mod (and similar changes in Project Nevada) are key to enjoyable gameplay. If you don't use them, you'll end up in the same place the rest of us were when we found ourselves trading 20 headshots with super mutants while reading the newspaper on the side.

 

[Onholyservicebound]

Companions are only there for inventory and additional story elements so allowing them to die makes no sense. Unless you play some iron man challenge run or smth.

They're there for whatever you want them to be there for, if you happen to have high charisma you'll probably be using them in combat quite a bit.
And being just there for extra inventory, perks, dialogue etc isn't really a good argument for them being immortal. Free immortal extra inventory space that also kills shit for no risk if you happen to need it? Nah.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

I'd call it E-LARP mode.

>LARP
>actual mechanics from the game

 

[Onholyservicebound]

E-LARP is just a codeword for anti-RPG.

 

[Gnidrologist]

They're there for whatever you want them to be there for, if you happen to have high charisma you'll probably be using them in combat quite a bit.
And being just there for extra inventory, perks, dialogue etc isn't really a good argument for them being immortal. Free immortal extra inventory space that also kills shit for no risk if you happen to need it? Nah.

Yeah well, that's why i think that this game plays much better solo with unlimited inventory mod.

 

[T. Reich]

Ok, I checked the FNV stat+skill system and did some preliminary min-maxing for my char, and Sawyer's rebalance mod now actually makes much more sense (being able to max all skills by lvl40-ish? For real?). Also, the non-CH dependent follower limit, what's up with that? CH in FNV, dump stat is thy name.

So, I'll install the JSawyer mod but will skip on hardcore mode, since JSawyer mod already "hardcorifies" the game enough for my taste. I want to play a Fallout game, not a hobo simulator.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Ok, I checked the FNV stat+skill system and did some preliminary min-maxing for my char, and Sawyer's rebalance mod now actually makes much more sense (being able to max all skills by lvl40-ish? For real?). Also, the non-CH dependent follower limit, what's up with that? CH in FNV, dump stat is thy name.

So, I'll install the JSawyer mod but will skip on hardcore mode, since JSawyer mod already "hardcorifies" the game enough for my taste. I want to play a Fallout game, not a hobo simulator.

Bro just take hardcore, makes Dead Money that much more awesome and it's already the best part of New Vegas.

 

[Onholyservicebound]

CH buffs companions by up to 50% DT and Damage at 10, two companions with 10 CHA are unstoppable, otherwise there's a few checks, but yeah, not Fallout 2 useful, but not sheer uselessness like Fo1 and Oblivion.
Generally dump stat unless going full diplomat build.

 

[T. Reich]

I've decided to go full FPS-tard build, and my starting stats will be 4/5/7/3/9/6/6, so that after implants I'd be able to take all the sniper-y crit+AP related perks, and I'll tag speech to compensate for lack of CH in the social departement.
The follower bonuses from CH are pretty good, but I'll still get +20% from 4 post-implant CH, and since I'm capped at 2 followers, I don't expect the difference to be that drastic, given that I plan to deal a lot of damage myself.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

I plan to deal a lot of damage myself.

Don't bring Boone with you then.

 

[naossano]

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.
.

You can bring your followers into cities/roads and tell them to wait as you explore dungeons. So you enjoy their company without suffering their AI.

 

[Leitz]

I've decided to go full FPS-tard build, and my starting stats will be 4/5/7/3/9/6/6, so that after implants I'd be able to take all the sniper-y crit+AP related perks, and I'll tag speech to compensate for lack of CH in the social departement.
The follower bonuses from CH are pretty good, but I'll still get +20% from 4 post-implant CH, and since I'm capped at 2 followers, I don't expect the difference to be that drastic, given that I plan to deal a lot of damage myself.

God almighty, stop treating this game like science. The numbers mean shit in this game. Play it like Might & Magic 3 or some other holiday RPG simulator and you're all set. It's great fun though.

 

[Somberlain]

CH buffs companions by up to 50% DT and Damage at 10, two companions with 10 CHA are unstoppable

Boone is pretty unstoppable headshot machine even if you have 1 CH. At least if you give him some decent armor. Also, even when it comes to dialogue, CH is pretty useless. There are very few CH checks in the game, and they are not important anyway.

 

[T. Reich]

I've decided to go full FPS-tard build, and my starting stats will be 4/5/7/3/9/6/6, so that after implants I'd be able to take all the sniper-y crit+AP related perks, and I'll tag speech to compensate for lack of CH in the social departement.
The follower bonuses from CH are pretty good, but I'll still get +20% from 4 post-implant CH, and since I'm capped at 2 followers, I don't expect the difference to be that drastic, given that I plan to deal a lot of damage myself.

God almighty, stop treating this game like science. The numbers mean shit in this game. Play it like Might & Magic 3 or some other holiday RPG simulator and you're all set. It's great fun though.

Science is fun! I'm one of those horrible people who have more fun messing with systems than with the game itself. I'm already done messing with the numbers, so I'm eager to play the actual game.

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

"Messing with the systems" makes very little sense in case of NV, basically every stat can be treated as a dump stat. For example IN, a typically most important stat in the series, in NV: the difference between complete retard and a genius is 11 sp versus 15sp, with 11 being more than enough to git gud at everything worth gitting gut at + barely any stat skill checks. The stats only matter as perk requirements, though these aren't particularly important either - you can make "stronger" or "weaker" characters, but the game will be incredibly easy anyway.

About enjoying NV:
1. Play vanilla only, it's more than long enough and vast majority of dlc content is offensively bad.
2. Hardcore mode is "funny": it's basically a mix of few absolutely obvious necessities that should be in the game regardless of difficulty level (ammo weight, healing over time etc.) and a few things that increase the already high tedium of the game (dragging food items and clicking on them from time to time mostly). You still have to turn it on to have any sort of challenge on very hard difficulty level (otherwise you're immortal to anything that cannot one-shot you), but don't expect anything that's actually "hardcore".
3. Like every other modern game in TES series, it's a hiking and trash collecting game at heart and huge parts of the world and game mechanics are designed around it: a crafting system that might seem useful at first sight (it's completely pointless), lots of useless locations with useless trash for you to carry that's only there to drag the game out etc. - don't fall for it, you'll only get bored and irritated.

 

[laclongquan]

demonstrating that not every Codex advice is worthy of notice

DLCs of FNV are fucking good. I completed EVERY DLC at least twice before complete the vanilla main quest. They are good, period.

Trash collecting is a harsh way to judge gamers. We all know we are hobo at heart and will pick up any thing that not nailed down. FNV crafting allow us quick disposal of some of those loots. You sneer at packrats, you dont have fun playing game~

 

[Leitz]

About enjoying NV:
[random advice how to enjoy a sandbox game, based entirely on taste]

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

I admire your dedication, but I'd rather play goddamn Solitaire than slog through crap like those various hp bloats from dlc or "funny" Old War Blues dialogue etc. Not to mention the fact that they love to shower you with ridiculous "magical" crap that further drains all the fun and challenge from this game and god knows vanilla content does that well enough already.

And trash collecting in games can be (a bit) fun when there's any point to it besides trash collecting itself. Which is definitively not the case in NV.

 

[laclongquan]

I dont have fun with FNV

There, I shorten it for you.

 

[Onholyservicebound]

CH buffs companions by up to 50% DT and Damage at 10, two companions with 10 CHA are unstoppable

Boone is pretty unstoppable headshot machine even if you have 1 CH. At least if you give him some decent armor. Also, even when it comes to dialogue, CH is pretty useless. There are very few CH checks in the game, and they are not important anyway.

I never bother with Boone, he's an NCR crybaby and isn't really any better at combat than any of the other companions outside of some high perception. I take Raul and his regular maintenance, way above Boone's useless perk for me.
I do agree that CH is overkill, and a dump stat, but I mean, if we're being honest you can kill everything with 1 luck, it's a bit more firepower either way. It's nice for a diplomat build, I didn't feel gimped putting it up in mine, It's the best use of CHa besides FO2 in any case.

/Charisma apologist

 

[T. Reich]

Oh, two more things:
1. How good is sneaking? As far as I understood, it covers stealing as well, and you also auto-crit when attacking from sneak. Is that correct?
2. Are the guns split into two categories? Full-auto, with negligible crit and lower accuracy, and semi-auto, with usually higher crit multi and accuracy at the cost of attack speed? Is it next to pointless to go crit if you stick with full auto guns, or does it work in some other way?

 

[Somberlain]

Oh, two more things:
1. How good is sneaking? As far as I understood, it covers stealing as well, and you also auto-crit when attacking from sneak. Is that correct?

Sneak attack criticals (especially with silenced weapons) are OP, but they should be performed from a distance. The actual sneaking around feels really broken and unpredictable in a wrong way because often the NPCs spot you through walls and sees you even when you are behind them and silent etc. I think that's the fault of the shitty Fallout 3 engine, because I haven't even seen any mods that adequately fix this.

 

[Israfael]

Why crafting is pointless? Without AP custom cartridges it'd be 100x harder to kill deathclaws in the warren, among other things.

 

[Gnidrologist]

For example IN, a typically most important stat in the series, in NV: the difference between complete retard and a genius is 11 sp versus 15sp, with 11 being more than enough to git gud at everything worth gitting gut at + barely any stat skill checks.

There are quite a few INT checks and i'm probably only half way through vanilla. CHA though, yes. A perfect dump stat. Put spent useless 4 points at the char creation.