New Vegas and Hardcore Mode

[halflingbarbarian]

I've played through NV vanilla once with hardcore mode enabled and looking back, it was quite a clusterfuck of annoyances that didn't add anything to the gameplay. I am not sure if it's me being picky or having whatever is the opposite of nostalgia. Now I am acquiring Honest Hearts and Dead Money and want to do a replay of NV and want to seek the Codex's opinion on whether hardcore mode is worth it for a replay?

in advance.

 

[SoupNazi]

I agree that the hardcore mode doesn't really add anything to the game other than annoyances. It makes much more sense to just mod it so that there's less items available, things like that.

 

[baronjohn]

I've never found it annoying and the extra features add a bit of difficulty to a fairly easy game so it's all good as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Gragt]

Hunger, thirst and sleep weren't really hard to manage. Crippled limbs were a tad more annoying but there again there are convenient ways to deal with it. In my opinion, the most significant change of hardcore mode is the inability to heal instantly; items like stimpacks or food will instead heal you over time with varying speed.

 

[Andyman Messiah]

To me, hardcore mode is just a way to better make use of misc healing items so water is not just a kind of stimpack. Not troubling in any way. I find it neat.

 

[SoupNazi]

In my opinion, the most significant change of hardcore mode is the inability to heal instantly; items like stimpacks or food will instead heal you over time with varying speed.

In the end result it doesn't matter because you can still stack them.

 

[HotSnack]

Not being able to overdose on stimpacks and having to heal injured limbs was a neat idea, but the eating/drinking requirements were just tedious as it just feels tacked on to a game that wasn't designed to be a "survival sim" to begin with.

If trips across the desert were more deadly and the survival skill couldn't just be completely ignored by remembering to pack a few bottles of water and brahmin steaks then it would be a different matter.

 

[Commissar Draco]

Hardcore mode makes ammo wieght so it's encuraging sniping, meele and unarmed weapons use. Which is nice but not breathtaking feature.

 

[SoupNazi]

it weighs so little it doesn't really affect anything.

 

[CrunchyHemorrhoids]

Hardcore mode changes your experience in the Dead Money add-on a bit. In the main game and Honest Hearts it's no more than a tacked-on gimmick.

 

[Multidirectional]

I don't get these complaints about hunger/thirst meters. You'll still end up using food and water to heal yourself, so what the fuck is so annoying about it? My character rarely even got hungry or thirsty. And there are items that reduce sleep deprivation, so you don't even have to sleep much. The game is pretty easy even on Very Hard + Hardcore, I don't know why anyone would even contemplate on playing without this mode.

 

[Mastermind]

Hardcore mode makes ammo wieght so it's encuraging sniping, meele and unarmed weapons use. Which is nice but not breathtaking feature.

Sniping, melee and unarmed are already ridiculously overpowered.

 

[RK47]

Here's what they need to do to fix the issue with non-challenging combat in Hardcore:

Survival, in order to increase its attractiveness, should increase chance of critical attacks, lower damage taken and play a part in healing, since it implies in-depth knowledge of creatures in the wild, therefore knowing the weak points to strike at. As it is now, Survival is a very shitty skill and not even worth investing.

Stimpacks shd only provide 'buffer HP' that is modified by Medical & Survival skill. These are literally acting as painkillers and does not remove inflicted wounds. Once the duration is over, the buffer HP is gone...and the player would probably die or have to take on another stim again to stay alive or use a doctor bag to permanently heal himself. Attempting to fast travel to a doctor while under effect of stimpack temporary health should equate to death... Hardcore? Yep. It should be. Currently it restores 5 HP per sec...allowing you to be superhuman by chugging sunset sarsaparilla and stims when falling below 50% hp.

Doctor's bag is the true healing item in the game. It restores health, heals injuries but the player cannot use it in combat. Using it is like resting in a 'healing bed' anywhere in the world. Again, affected by medical & survival skill. They should have durability like JA2 medikits and not based on single use charges only. Simply combine doctor bags together or buy medical supplies (craftable from ingredients? Science/Medical/Survival) from merchants to restore its 'durability.

And that's all I could suggest if anyone wants to mod more challenge to the game. The rest of the combat changes, perhaps Bullet Time AP to replace VATS, is a nice change.

Food changes: (Makes trying out food rewarding)
- They should be taken outside of combat...
- They heal...slowly. Perhaps 1-5 HP per 10 second.
- Overall buff to mental & physical skills (small percentage) when well fed. Some better than others.
- Consuming certain type of food should grant the Courier perks. Scorp-eater (Poison Resist), etc. Death-eater (Resistance to Melee/Unarmed Dmg), Beef-eater (HP increase), Cannibal (chance of paralyzing fear when enemy is struck by Courier in close combat.)

 

[Mastermind]

There is a mod (which I use extensively) that lets you use AP for bullet time already.

 

[Tel Velothi]

Ammo have weight and meds healing over time - NOW THAT'S HARDCORE!

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

It's not a huge thing in terms of gameplay or difficulty, but I think grabbing along food and water here and there added a whole lot of mood to the game. Similar to how I always carried rope with me in Fallout 1 (until I learned it was used on a couple of times, but it felt cool to be prepared).

 

[sirfink]

The biggest issue is the abundance of stuff. If food and water weren't everywhere or easily crafted it might make for more of a challenge, but if you're thorough you end up with massive amounts of stimpaks, food, water, ammo, etc.

Companions actually dying is something, I suppose, instead of just getting up after a fight.

 

[halflingbarbarian]

Thanks for the suggestions but in reply to some of the bile regarding game difficulty: come on the game is easy as hell even on very hard regardless of hardcore mode or not. I am asking to refresh my memory of whether hardcore mode is tacked-on gimmicky and settled on a solution through your replies. I'm going to put up hardcore mode and use a mod to increase the scarcity of resources to simulate (at least what I think is) the essence of hardcore-survival mode. Thanks!

 

[SoupNazi]

But that's the problem - the "Hardcore" option doesn't add any difficulty to an already very easy game. All it does is add annoyances.

 

[Excidium]

The only good thing about Hardcore mode is adding ammo weight (which should be default FFS).

The other changes barely make any difference. Companions dying was annoying as fuck because they're a bunch of suicidals. Even when set to passive, everytime I entered a building Cass and Rex would rush to attack every enemy in the place.

 

[Overweight Manatee]

Hardcore mode is kind of pointless from a difficulty perspective when you can run across what it supposed to be hundreds of miles of desert and only need a short sip of water at the end to sate your thirst. Stimpacks heal more than fast enough anyway (people need healing in this game? lol). It adds in a thematic way to the game, but to actually make the game harder you need mods.

 

[Mastermind]

I find NV's HC survival features tedious. I'd much prefer it if developers integrated it into the gameplay mechanics in such a way that things like drinking and eating are necessaru, but not merely chores. The M&Ms I played had a nice way of doing it: how often you could rest depended on food rations. No food rations, no resting in the middle of a dungeon. This resulted (at least in 6, in 7 the dungeons were too small to need much resting) in you regularly having to eat, and actually looking forward to it because you would get your health/magic back, rather than just be annoyed at yet another chore you have to perform.

In the design of a game I'm working on, I have hydration integrated into the potion system. You slowly become dehydrated (the speed depends on environment and your race). If survival mode is toggled on, past a certain point you start incurring penalties and eventually die. However, there is a benefit to staying dehydrated: drinking potions raises your hydration level. The more dehydrated you are, the more potions you can drink. This acts as both a way to limit your potion intake to realistic levels and giving you a reason to stay hydrated because drinking potions confers benefits on you.

 

[CorpseZeb]

“Hardcore” mode is just a normal mode of older standards of difficulty.

Ps. There is a subtle (more psychological) difference between having in your pocket 654 (or more) bullets of any type (F3) and, say, 124 bullets (NV), even it is absolutely pointless carrying that much ammo around, while game world stuffed is with friendly caravans, fast travel miracle and solid amount of nice traders chicks.

Ps2. Weight of ammo could be a problem, if only character progress doesn't run so fast. Stalker comes to mind, where in beginning of game, killing others requires sizable amount of ammo.

Ps3. Mmm... Fight/gun mechanics of Stalker plus some RPG/C&C/Quest mechanism of NV.

Ps4. ... or just new Stalker 2 (which, God have a mercy, will be not consolicondomfucked).

 

[Phage]

IMO the most annoying part about hardcore mode was permanent companion death. You don't really have much control over your companions, to the point where if you insist on playing hardcore, may as well leave them behind when fighting Deathclaws/large hordes of enemies.

 

[Metro]

The only thing that added a mild 'challenge' was the stimpacks healing over time and even then you'd have to be playing a melee/unarmed character who races into packs of Deathclaws to be in any danger. The rest was tedious/unnoticeable. Purified water is in abundance, food is in abundance, there are beds everywhere, and ammo weight isn't an issue unless you like to carry a dozen difference type of weapons with you. If you use two or three, you can carry ammo easily. Not as if there's a lot of stuff worth picking up in the game. Crafting is largely pointless/superfluous as is creating your own ammo. You can make nearly all the money you need at the casinos to buy stuff.

I tried a second playthrough and opted for normal but even then I just couldn't stand the engine and gave up after a couple of hours.