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

[Raghar]

What Gnidrologist still didn't play FO:NV? Where is he living? In some outdated hole?

 

[Gnidrologist]

I'm going slowly through it for last two months, while simultaneously playing some other new-shit games that i hadn't chance to check in the hiatus between about 2007 till last year.

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

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.

Yeah, you're halway through vanilla NV and you had "quite a few" int checks ffs people, why do you lie all the time.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

As far as DLCs for New Vegas, I think they are mostly worthy of playing if you enjoy the main game. Dead Money is excellent in that it manages to have a good story and an interesting setting, while at the same time being much more difficult and survivalist in its nature than the main game. It almost makes you wish NV was done like that in its entirety because then it would truly feel like a game set in the post-apocalypse. So that one is a must-play.

Honest Hearts is worse, but it does offer some interesting insights into Caesar's character and his past, and isn't super-terrible or anything. Old World Blues has some interesting gameplay. The only one I really hated was Lonesome Road because i found it to be high on quasi-philosophical whining and low on everything else, but some people like it.

 

[Gnidrologist]

Yeah, you're halway through vanilla NV and you had "quite a few" int checks ffs people, why do you lie all the time.

Most INT checks were in Vegas. I haven't even made it to Legion areas and and most places in the north. Also, peaking through Fallout wiki i realize that i've skipped quite a lot areas all around that have talkable NPCs. It's my subjective assertion anyway, because i can't know how much % civilized areas i've explored till now. Just last week i first stumbled on BoS vault and there was another INT check with the computer nerd guy.
Given the scope of the game, i'd say INT checks have been quite useful to me till now.

 

[GreyViper]

Honestly the only mods you need first time are from LoversLab. Nothing comes to stuff there and it makes you play through, oh so strange.

About Lonesome Road, it so wierd because some of the equipment is more useful at low lvls and by the time you get them if you do DLC in order they feel obsolete.
As to Dead Money gold issue, easy solution is to use piece of corpse that has all the gold bars in it. Then just carry it out of the bunker and loot the piece of corpse.

 

[naossano]

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.

I think most of them have some deep flaws that are quite hard to forget, but all of them have redeeming qualities, unlike most Fo3 DLC.

 

[T. Reich]

Ok, first impressions.
Installed and ran the game vanilla, to see how it looks without mods.

Visually - looks nice (my potato is enough to run it un ultra-high, so it's all good), but OMG that uninformative HUD, huge font sizes everywhere (looks as if I'm playing in 800x600 instead of 1920x1200), and the absolutely disgusting Pip-Boy menu that is too clunkly and ugly to boot. It looks and works way worse than the FO1+2 variant. I kinda expected to see 3D models of all the junk I have in my inventory, or at least nice coloured 2D images, instead i get crappy orangey drawings that come with stats that are hard to read. I blame the consoletards for that, of course. Them and their TVs.
Hopefully, there are mods that fix Pip-Boy. At least, I've found a couple that seem to allow to customise HUD and the cool one that reduces the font size to reasonable levels, hurray!

Gameplay itself looks solid so far. I decided to explore the world a bit before installing the recommended rebalance (and other) mods. Combat-wise, the game is totally a shooter with RPG stats - without VATS it strongly reminded me of Deus Ex, with all the hectic shooting and with stats influencing your (crappy) gun skills. Tried VATS, can see why it has a potential of becoming OP as I level. But it actually makes the combat less chaotic, so it gets a thumbs-up from me.

The whole doctor char-building sequence at the start is horribly dragged-out, all for the cause of some dubious IMERSHUN. Thuimbs-down, but at least I only have to suffer through it only once. (right?)
Was allowed to loot the doc's house with impunity, without a single comment from the owner. From what I know, it isn't true for the rest of the areas, so some early wrist-slapping would've been in order.
Following the ever-useful codexian advice, I went straight north, ignoring the big glaring "warning!" signs. Surely, there's nothing dangerous there, only 1 minute's walk from the starting location.
Had fun shooting them cazadores with the pre-order weapons (mental note: drop those at the good doc's house in the actual playthrough). Managed to kill 2 young and 4 adult ones until running out of the pre-order weapons' ammunition. Got a level-up (first level-up at 200 exp for vanilla version, for real?), then immediately died due to poisoning.

Ok, first impressions = good. Gotta figure out how to correctly install the mods and then will dive in face-first into this pile of post-nuclear goo.

 

[pippin]

Saywer's mod relocates the pre order items in different locations across the Mojave.

 

[Volrath]

Going from New Vegas to PoE makes you wonder just what the fuck happened to Obsidian in those couple of years.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

Killing 6 Cazadores as a starting character is exactly why neither VATs nor starting packs should be used.

 

[T. Reich]

After finally tackling the installation of the mods, I've done the Goodsprings quests.

I like it so far. Feels like Gothic with guns, especially in terms of weapon handling at low skill levels - infuriating :D. But I definitely feel way too tanky atm, even with JSawyer's mod.
Running is so very slow, so I can see myself using the shit out of fast travel in the future.

Killing 6 Cazadores as a starting character is exactly why neither VATs nor starting packs should be used.

That was immensely fun, because it was either me killing them first, one at a time, or them ripping me a new one. The best part of that was me shooting the grenade launcher at point blank range and seeing my limbs fly off. I think it's the first game I played that also dismembers your own character, not just the enemies.

 

[pippin]

If you feel your movement speed is too low, consider that heavier armor will make you even slower. Metal armor also carries a stealth penalty iirc.

 

[AW8]

The whole doctor char-building sequence at the start is horribly dragged-out, all for the cause of some dubious IMERSHUN. Thuimbs-down, but at least I only have to suffer through it only once. (right?)

It's bad by nature of it being an unskippable series of conversations, but it's not that bad.

You can just spam through Doc Mitchell's dialogue and be done with the chargen in what, 3 minutes? And then you're free to go wherever you want.

I'd say that's a very short intro.

 

[pippin]

It's certainly shorter than FO3's. And you can loot his house, which is cool as well

 

[Onholyservicebound]

After finally tackling the installation of the mods, I've done the Goodsprings quests.

I like it so far. Feels like Gothic with guns, especially in terms of weapon handling at low skill levels - infuriating :D. But I definitely feel way too tanky atm, even with JSawyer's mod.

In the early game there are very few enemies that are either not creatures or are armed enough to do real damage to you, especially if you picked up a set of armor, which is probably what is slowing you down. Late game enemies carry serious firepower, the DLCs in particular, which are significantly more difficult than the base game.(Besides Honest Hearts, but even that has it's fair share of challenge.)

Ultimately though you'll always feel a bit too tanky, even the most powerful gun in the game can't one hit kill you at most levels if you have decent endurance. Which is why I think Jsawyer+Hardcore are so necessary, survival is less about the individual fight then it is about the economy of it. Hunger and thirst may be slow processes that will rarely affect you, but it will keep your number of healing items perpetually low, the changes to medicine items will make broken limbs much more likely as time goes on, and harder to deal with, and no sleep healing means you can't negate an entire fight's damage for free.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

After finally tackling the installation of the mods, I've done the Goodsprings quests.

I like it so far. Feels like Gothic with guns, especially in terms of weapon handling at low skill levels - infuriating :D. But I definitely feel way too tanky atm, even with JSawyer's mod.

Project Nevada combat rebalance module makes you even less tanky. Sawyer's mod nerfs the amount of hitpoints you start with and gain at level up, PN does away with hitpoint gain at leveling altogether, so it's just what you start with, depending on endurance. Also, heavier armors in the game are pretty OP for most situations. They might come in useful in some boss fights, but mostly they kill fun.

My favorite style for NV and F3 is a cowboy type duster (sheriff's duster in NV) and a cowboy hat, which add up to zero DR/DT, average endurance (5) and PN type combat rebalance which add up to 150 hitpoints throughout the game, no health/toughness/resistance perks, and no VATs. This might seem brutal, but the rebalance also lowers enemy hitpoints and the other mods I mentioned earlier make FPS shooting more accurate and reliable, and I use powerful cowboy type weapons (ranger sequioa, brush gun, repeater, etc) with custom ammo and cowboy perks. The end result is somebody is going to die fast, either the enemy or me, and player skill becomes pretty important. The game is also much more exciting that way.

 

[T. Reich]

It's certainly shorter than FO3's. And you can loot his house, which is cool as well

With JSawyer(?) mod apparently you can't, without losing karma at least. In vanilla, his stuff isn't marked as owned, but with mods (eother the unofficial patch or JSawyer, I have no other game-influencing ones) it's all marked as owned except for the broken SMG.
It didn't stop me, of course, once I figured out that karma penalty from stealing is more than compensated by good deeds.

In the early game there are very few enemies that are either not creatures or are armed enough to do real damage to you, especially if you picked up a set of armor, which is probably what is slowing you down. Late game enemies carry serious firepower, the DLCs in particular, which are significantly more difficult than the base game.(Besides Honest Hearts, but even that has it's fair share of challenge.)

Ultimately though you'll always feel a bit too tanky, even the most powerful gun in the game can't one hit kill you at most levels if you have decent endurance. Which is why I think Jsawyer+Hardcore are so necessary, survival is less about the individual fight then it is about the economy of it. Hunger and thirst may be slow processes that will rarely affect you, but it will keep your number of healing items perpetually low, the changes to medicine items will make broken limbs much more likely as time goes on, and harder to deal with, and no sleep healing means you can't negate an entire fight's damage for free.

Well, I did install JSawyer mod, so I do have a reduced amount of life (which is still kinda high for my taste, being 170 with 7 endurance at lvl1), and the same mod did hide the pre-order gear elsewhere, so I'm still running around in the starting vault suit.

 

[WhiteGuts]

New Vegas's strengths do not rely on gameplay. No amount of mods or fixes are going to make that part of the game extra enjoyable.

You should focus on exploring, factions stuff and quests.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

It's bad by nature of it being an unskippable series of conversations, but it's not that bad.

You can just spam through Doc Mitchell's dialogue and be done with the chargen in what, 3 minutes? And then you're free to go wherever you want.

I'd say that's a very short intro.

I've read posts from eople complained that it wasn't immersive enough.

There's a "Skip Intro" mod for NV, amusingly enough. It just makes it so the conversations with Victor and Doc Mitchell already happened when you start the game. In comparison, the FO3 version made you skip 30+ minutes of tutorial.

 

[Sykar]

New Vegas's strengths do not rely on gameplay. No amount of mods or fixes are going to make that part of the game extra enjoyable.

You should focus on exploring, factions stuff and quests.

They make them acceptable at least instead of outright retarded.

 

[Somberlain]

In the early game there are very few enemies that are either not creatures or are armed enough to do real damage to you, especially if you picked up a set of armor, which is probably what is slowing you down. Late game enemies carry serious firepower, the DLCs in particular, which are significantly more difficult than the base game.(Besides Honest Hearts, but even that has it's fair share of challenge.)

Honest Hearts is easiest on mid levels, but on high levels there are many Giant Cazadors and Giant Yao-Guay in Zion, White Legs can also be using top tier weapon like Brush Guns. That is a bit silly though, so I usually use this mod.

Ultimately though you'll always feel a bit too tanky, even the most powerful gun in the game can't one hit kill you at most levels if you have decent endurance. Which is why I think Jsawyer+Hardcore are so necessary, survival is less about the individual fight then it is about the economy of it. Hunger and thirst may be slow processes that will rarely affect you, but it will keep your number of healing items perpetually low, the changes to medicine items will make broken limbs much more likely as time goes on, and harder to deal with, and no sleep healing means you can't negate an entire fight's damage for free.

If one wants to have deadlier combat, I'd also recommend something like Realistic Weapons Damages. While there are other mods that make you die easier, a lot of them do it through changing HP amounts. So if you already have a mod that changes HP amounts, like Jsawyer, installing another one may yield unpredictable results.

Personally, I'd recommend Vicious Wastes if you want your game harder but don't want any massive changes or new features that make the game feel completely different. It's kind of designed as an addition to Jsawyer (so it's compatible, of course) and makes everything even slightly more harder, but it's not an overkill in any area. It also increases the global damage factor, so everyone dies a bit faster. Also, most of the numbers are configurable in MCM.

 

[laclongquan]

I like to pick the perk that increase drug time but cap level at 30.

Early game you should play Dead Money, because you cant bring shit. DM at middle game mean you prolly can have repair perk that allow remake ammo into what you want, and fixing guns, so it's slightly easier.

After Dead MOney should be Honest Hearts, around lv16. YOu definitely need that fixing guns and remake ammo stuffs. Also, bring a scoped rifle to play Big White Hunter in that valley. gahahaha.

After that, nearing the 30 cap (from 25~) is when you play Old World Blues. You will attain level cap at that time and do a surgery to change the trait into something else for lvl increase.

Lonesome Road is from there onward. Definitely high level adventure.

 

[torpid]

New Vegas's strengths do not rely on gameplay. No amount of mods or fixes are going to make that part of the game extra enjoyable.

You should focus on exploring, factions stuff and quests.

I agree. At the end of the day, it's still Bethesda's shitty engine. Does any mod actually overcome the combat's clunkiness? Removing VATs is one thing, but then you're still left with something unwieldy that just can't deliver any kind of shooty fun. The game is impressive for all the factions and questing, doubly impressive for the fact that it doesn't let up for the entire game. There's no point where they run out of quests and the game is reduced to pure combat (which is what makes it tolerable, given the nature of the combat). As for the setting, I like its basic concept (NCR holding off Legion, with neutral House in between), but there's a lot of retardo--Elvis clan I'm looking at you--sprinkled throughout, and it's too bad that they had to keep going with the overstated retro 1950s theme of FO3 and couldn't bring back the Mad Max 2 vibe.

 

[T. Reich]

While the combat is clunky as hell (and I have a feeling it will only get slightly better as I level the weapon skills), already I immensely enjoy the moments when after missing so many times I manage to critically hit a target in wherever, at which stage it is usuaaly dismembered. Simple, wholesome fun.