I don't get Fallout 3.

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

I bought Fallout 3 a while ago on Steam, and I figured it would be a decent waste of time. However, even playing on the lowest difficulty (I'm not a WRPG person, since I grew up with Pokemon rather than Oblivion) I simply couldn't figure out what to do after leaving Vault 101. Specifically, how I should go about obtaining caps and such.

I'd really love to finish this game, but I simply don't see any reason to keep trying if it's so confusing to obtain basic things like money.

P.S. I'm trying to play as a 'neutral' character.

Before you start thinking about finishing the game, it sounds like you should give some thought to starting it ;-) If you've just left the vault then you're at the point where the game actually starts. Everything before was basically tutorial plus backstory/world building plus setting the scene. You do start of with very little, but that's what it's all about. You are the Wanderer, making your way through a hostile, radioactive wasteland where ammo, money and clean water are scarce.

First thing you should do, check your pip-boy for your current objectives. It should be pointing you toward Megaton. It's a good place to sell junk and pick up your first missions. Make sure to stop by the "Craterside Supply", run by the eccentric Moira. She'll give you increasingly difficult and varied sidequests with great rewards as you go (the rewards are better if you answer her questions consistently).

The game will be challenging until around lvl 12-13, at which point you'll notice that somewhere along the way you went from weedy wanderer to bad-arse ex-vault dweller. As with all RPGs, you'll benefit more from specialising in fewer skills that you enjoy, than spreading yourself too thin. Pick small guns, melee, energy weapons or big guns as you prefer as you can't go wrong with any of them (though the latter two don't come into their own till mid-game). I personally highly recommend repair as a practical necessity, followed by science and/or lockpick.

Lastly, don't be afraid to forget the main storyline every now and then. The wasteland is meant for wandering and you would do well to pay a visit to Oasis (north), Scrapyard (northeast from 101, south of Minefield), Paradise Falls (west, but wait till you've levelled a bit) and of course the DLCs if you have them, the Pitt and Operation Anchorage being particularly good IMO, and offering unique rewards not available in the main game.

 

[Therumancer]

I bought Fallout 3 a while ago on Steam, and I figured it would be a decent waste of time. However, even playing on the lowest difficulty (I'm not a WRPG person, since I grew up with Pokemon rather than Oblivion) I simply couldn't figure out what to do after leaving Vault 101. Specifically, how I should go about obtaining caps and such.

I'd really love to finish this game, but I simply don't see any reason to keep trying if it's so confusing to obtain basic things like money.

P.S. I'm trying to play as a 'neutral' character.

Edit: Changed the title to make it more representative of what I actually feel.

Well, Fallout 3 is what you call a "Sandbox" game. It has a central storyline that might be linear (though sometimes it's not) but leaves you with the abillity to go anywhere and do anything the mechanics allow, the whole world is pretty much open from the beginning and you don't need to be sent someplace to go there.

This kind of thing can be very intimidating to casual players, who are used to being taken by the hand and lead clearly from place to place, with any deviations from the path being clearly marked as "side quests". This is one of the reasons why a lot of developers are having issues with "Sandbox" games, as they are harder to design and involve a lot more work (tons of content not related to specific storylines being one factor) and the freedom also scares casual players. Your not alone in feeling "option shock".

In Fallout 3 you start out very weak, and your only real guidance is a pointer to the first community (Megaton) however before following up on any leads you need to become substantially more powerful. There are a few quests if you have the right skills in Megaton. Disarming the bomb, a delivery mission for Lucy West to Arafu (which starts a substantial plotted side quest that requires a bit of exploration), and leads to both Three Dogs and a notation that there is much bigger community a ways accross the wasteland called "Rivet city".

Depending on your skills you might want to do side quests immediatly, rob houses in Megaton if you have decent stealth and lockpicking (and some patience with saving and reloading), or head out into the wasteland in search of loot and experience. There is a ruined town called Springvale very close to Megaton that has a schoolhouse full of raiders to kill and loot.

It takes trial, error, and exploration, however the best starting "moves" with my play style are typically to enter Megaton, do a bit of saving and reloading to beat the speech challenges with the sheriff, wear a vault jumpsuit into Craterside supplies (which will cause Moira to give you an armored vault suit... an unmarked side thing) and the part of the "Wasteland Survival guide" to head for the Super Duper Mart, head to Moriarty's bar and pass the speech challenges there, picking up the letter to deliver from Lucy West. Then I typically rob the Sheriff's house and grab the permanant +1 strength bobblehead. Then I typically head out to the Super-Duper mart, saving on the hill behind it when it first comes into view. One thing I learned is there is a random encounter spot right in front of it, and one minor "exploit" is to headdown the hill and see what events spawn, and wait until you get a decent one right off the bat as opposed to just a bit of scene dressing or some monsters. Then I head inside, loot the place while killing the raiders (who are weak), then I made a trip back to Moira to complete the quest (you can keep what you found) and get the food purifier which reduces the rads you absorb when eating. I typically also combine the raider armor (repair) to increase it's quality as much as I can and haul it all back to sell,along with any other valuable junk in the mart for more money. (repair it yourself, you don'tneed to fully fix it, don't pay anyone for this).

Typically my next move since I've now got some okay armor (having replaced the vault suit with raider armor if it got too bad), some ammo, and some healing items (and the abillity to reduce my level of Rads from eating to heal if I have to) I hit the school in Springvale, and pretty much waste everything in the joint, grabbing the stealth skill book in the basement, and hauling back the junky loot tos sell (hey it's the beginning of the game).

By this point I typically have obtained my own Mentats and a skill up, I do whatever is nessicary to raise my skill (even temporary) to disarm the bomb in Megaton so I can get the house there. I like this option better than working for Burke because I think that house is more conveinent to enter to drop stuff off than the penthouse he winds up giving you. Besides if you destroy Megaton before finishing all the sidequests you lose out, and I don't like to wait that long before having a house. The house is a place you can furnish (and the furnishings you purchuse do things) and comes with a robot that can purify water for you every few days. Ask for water 2-3 times every 48-72 hours, this is healing food that has NO rads at all, and which can also be traded to certain dehydrated beggers for positive karma if you have a mind. You also get a bed to sleep here (right off the bat) and storage lockers to dump loot in. As time goes on I wind up with enough garbage in storage to invade a third world eastern european country single handedly, you become VERY rich and powerful as the game comes on.

From this point I typically head to Arefu, and break into the house of their sheriff (the guy who meets you on the bridge) tosteal the permanant +10 to repair bobblehead, and do that quest. No spoilers, but this one involves a search that sends you to a few little areas looking for a hideout, it's not THAT hard to find, and you'll pick up some loot. What's more with patience the entire quest portion can be solved with dialogue (even with low speech and saving/reloading), just be careful of traps on the ground.

From that point, go running around and loot more stuff and raise levels, or head out to find Three Dogs or head for Rivet city (which can bypass the Three Dogs section, though nobody tells you that, you can meet the person Three Dogs refers you to before he sends you to them. One secret is that if you talk to Three Dogs, get his quest, don't do the quest immediatly, go to Rivet City, and then meet the person there, he gives you a better reward in the form of access to a hidden cache with a permanant + to guns skill book among other things when you finally do go back and do his quest. Truthfully though, even if getting to Three Dogs can be a pain on a lot of levels, it's worth it just for the super-mutant plot event since that gets you a fat man launcher and some mini-nukes early on).

I tried to avoid TOO many spoilers, but that's the benefits of my experience on how to get started. There is a LOT more to this game (even in the areas I mentioned visiting), but if you head in the directions I mentioned you should get a feel for what your doing, and come up with your own ideas on how to proceed.

There is a whole wasteland full of permanant skill up books, unique weapons, crazy easter eggs, and wierd encounters out there.

 

[Myskomunken]

1. Look around you, try to find something that looks interesting, a big building or something else.
2. Go there.
3. Get sidetracked, by finding another, more intresting building.
4. Go there instead.
5a. Ask people if they need help with something.
5b. Kill them all and take their stuff!
6. Repeat.

Should do it for a while.

 

[TimeLord]

1. Look around you, try to find something that looks interesting, a big building or something else.
2. Go there.
3. Get sidetracked, by finding another, more intresting building.
4. Go there instead.
5a. Ask people if they need help with something.
5b. Kill them all and take their stuff!
6. Repeat.

Should do it for a while.

I was going to write something else but this is completely correct and the best way to play the game!

 

[Baron von Blitztank]

Go south from the vault untill you see a teddy in a shopping trolly. Take said teddy and you'll discover something very, very awesome.

This man does not lie.

Anyway just keep exploring new locations, doing side-quests, following the story missions (but don't rush them) and levelling up. If you need money, guns and ammo then loot stuff from the things you kill, use them to repair your weapons/armour and then sell any excess weapons/loot that you don't want/need.
To help with your money troubles at around Level 14 you can get a Perk which lets you take fingers from "Evil" characters (Raiders, Talon mercs, Slavers and Pricks) corpses which sell for around 10 caps a piece or you can get a similar one for killing "Good" characters but those are a more harder to find than simply walking into a Raider nest. You can also unlock the ability to sell Pre-war books to an NPC for 100 caps each after you do some side-quests in Megaton (and pre-war books aren't hard to find if you know where to look) and following the story lets you sell nametags to an NPC for 100 caps each (a bit more difficult to get but the source is unlimited). If you keep playing with Good karma you'll also get mercenaries out to kill you (same if you're Bad karma) and eventually they'll start carrying Laser Rifles to the party which sell for heaps so stock up on those once they arrive. The same happens in the main story where heavily armed soldiers prop up all over the wastes whose armour and weapons sell for a fine sum of caps.

Hopefully that little wall of text up there will help you.

 

[Nannernade]

Since you grew up with Pokemon play it like that only your weapons are your pokemon and the mutants and stuff are the enemy pokemon.

 

[The Unworthy Gentleman]

I don't know how you're stuck, the game pretty much just holds your hand the entire way through. You walk out the vault and walk straight forward into Megaton, a town built out of junk. After that, you've pretty much got the game telling you what to do.

To make money you have to loot things from the dead and then sell them on. You'll be rich if you have more than 1500 caps at any one time in Fallout 3.

 

[Irridium]

Go to megaton. It should be to the upper-right of when you first exit the vault. There you'll get some basic quests, caps, and there's a shop. After that, go out, and go to the nearest transparent triangle thats on your compass, and keep doing that.

The game's about exploration. Thats its strength. Not so great in the story department. Less time with the story, the better you'll be. If you want story, you'll have to go to New Vegas.

 

[veloper]

1 cheat the test and pick repair and small arms, before you leave the vault

2 follow the road + signs to megaton

3 you can sell anything at Moira's, but selling repaired weapons makes credits the fastest (faster than she can restock caps and equipment even)

3 kill raiders outside, loot and repair their stuff, sell and repeat.

 

[akibawall95]

If you are new to the genre it might take some time to get used to it. Play for a bit longer and give it a chance. Explore, kill things, do quests, just try and have fun.

Fallout 3 is one of my favorite games ever and it is way better then Fallout NV.

 

[AlternatePFG]

The game's about exploration. Thats its strength. Not so great in the story department. Less time with the story, the better you'll be. If you want story, you'll have to go to New Vegas.

Yeah I agree. I'd really suggest avoiding the main quest for as long as you can.

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

I bought Fallout 3 a while ago on Steam, and I figured it would be a decent waste of time. However, even playing on the lowest difficulty (I'm not a WRPG person, since I grew up with Pokemon rather than Oblivion) I simply couldn't figure out what to do after leaving Vault 101. Specifically, how I should go about obtaining caps and such.

I'd really love to finish this game, but I simply don't see any reason to keep trying if it's so confusing to obtain basic things like money.

P.S. I'm trying to play as a 'neutral' character.

Edit: Changed the title to make it more representative of what I actually feel.

Most people I've met who've played Fallout 3 do get stumped at the beginning of the game.

Here's what I did:

-Explored the Wastes
-Killed stuff in the Wastes
-Loot the Wastes
-Sell loot to Moira in Megaton

I guess some things to remember:

1. the GNR building can only be reached by going through a tunnel, I think it's the West Farragut Station
2. Find Rivet City as soon as you can, as it opens many quests, a new marketplace, and it contains the Bobblehead of Intelligence.
3. if you plan on blowing up Megaton, complete every sidequest, steal everything, and for God's sake, take the Bobblehead of Strength from Lucas Simm's house.
4. Max out your prefered combat skill as soon as possible
5. grab everything that's weightless
6. Carry all ammo with you, even ammo you don't use, since it's weightless
7. when you level up and get perks, DON'T choose perks that ONLY raise a skill by a few points (EG, Scoundrel raises Speech and Barter by 5 points, don't get it)
8. Keep all pre-war books, Brotherhood of Steel Holotags, and scrap metal you can find. Because

• A Scribe at the library buys all pre-war books for 100 caps and 10XP each
  A Scribe in The Citadel buys all Brotherhood of Steel Holotages for 100 caps and 25XP each
  Scrap Metal can be bought by Walther in Megaton (after completing a miniquest) for caps and XP, Winthrop in the Underworld for aid items, Protector Casdin at Fort Independence for ammo, 'nades or aid items, OR if you have The Pitt DLC it can be used for the ammo press.

9. Never drink Nuka Cola Quantums, only use them for crafting Nuka Grenades or The Nuka Cola Challenge quest
10. Find your favorite weapon in the game (mine is the Hunting Rifle and the Chinese Assault Rifle) and get its unique version, which is essentially the same weapon but better in every way. Go here to find it.

That's all I care to write down, have fun.

 

[Om Nom Nom]

Since you grew up with Pokemon play it like that only your weapons are your pokemon and the mutants and stuff are the enemy pokemon.

Minigun, I choose you!! [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QM1eTAwOYc&t=63]

 

[Hyper-space]

I bought Fallout 3 a while ago on Steam, and I figured it would be a decent waste of time. However, even playing on the lowest difficulty (I'm not a WRPG person, since I grew up with Pokemon rather than Oblivion) I simply couldn't figure out what to do after leaving Vault 101. Specifically, how I should go about obtaining caps and such.

I'd really love to finish this game, but I simply don't see any reason to keep trying if it's so confusing to obtain basic things like money.

P.S. I'm trying to play as a 'neutral' character.

Edit: Changed the title to make it more representative of what I actually feel.

Follow the quest? find the nearest town and sell shit? wander around and kill bad-guys?

Dunno what else to say besides the obvious. I started by going to the ruins of an old-school and scavenging mail-boxes and cabinets for shit to sell.

 

[JPH330]

I'd try to watch a Fallout 3 tutorial video or a lets play video. Just see how others play and go from there.

This shit right here.

I'll be the first to admit that Fallout 3 is hard to get into at first, but once you get sucked in it's hard to break free. I got to level 30 and did damn near everything in the game, and that includes all the DLC (whoo-hoo GOTY edition!).

 

[DustyDrB]

I didn't enjoy Fallout 3 either. The best way I could get into it (and I still didn't like it all that much) was to just go right through the main story, ignoring everything else. I tried the "wander around and see what you find" thing on a first playthrough (I was used to it from Oblivion) but I really didn't care about the world, so I quit not very far in.

New Vegas might be the better game for you. I really liked it, as the world has more variety, the story and characters are much stronger, and it has something I'd been asking for a long time in Bethesda games (I know this was developed by Obsidian): a faction system.

 

[Lokithrsourcerer]

go to megaton (the first quest hub) and do the quests the chick in the shop there is a good starting point she'll pay you quite well for helping her in a series of missions

 

[ProfessorLayton]

Walk around. Once you get to Megaton, start asking around for quests. Honestly, I was a bit confused at first as well but after you get your first real gun like a hunting rifle or something it gets a lot easier from there. Do a couple easy quests for experience and I'm not just talking about experience points. Wander around in the wasteland a bit and check everything that looks like it holds items. Kill molerats as if they were zubats in order to grind XP to level up and try to find items as if they were TMs.

And good luck. Once you start getting into it, Fallout 3 is the type of game that you won't want to stop playing.

 

[Spectrum_Prez]

go to megaton (the first quest hub) and do the quests the chick in the shop there is a good starting point she'll pay you quite well for helping her in a series of missions

Side note: If you are a serious powergamer, do not do this. Otherwise, go ahead.

Spoiler: The reason why

The end rewards for this chain of quests (is it 6 or 9?) are stat boosts of one type or another. The best one is probably the permanent bonus to DR rating. To influence which one you get though, you have to do all of the bonus objectives for Moira's quests, and consistently give a certain type of answer when you debrief. So, for the DR rating, always use the Strength or Endurance answer when she asks you how it went. If there is no Strength or Endurance option, one or both of those SPECIAL stats is too low. However, you can just boost them with Buffout or another drug for a temporary bonus in order to get this part right.

The reason you don't want to do her quests at low-level, though, is because during the quest where she asks you to go get irradiated, getting the full 600 (or is it 800?) rads in order to fulfill the bonus objective drops your SPECIAL stats by a bunch. Strength and Endurance are commonly hit hard, and even with meds/drugs, you won't be able to get a high enough score to give her the appropriate strength/endurance answer.

So, if you are powergaming, I suggest you not take her quests until very late in the game, probably after (and remember, we're talking about powergaming here) getting the Almost Perfect perk at level 30 and picking up all the bobbleheads to get perfect 10 stats.

Ok, to be fair, all that info probably isn't relevant to someone just trying to get into the game, but still, I thought it needed to be re-stated.

EDIT: more helpful ideas:

Conserve ammo -> Use VATS, sneak to get critical hits, aim for the head. For the first ten levels, this is incredibly important. Loot every container you can. By the endgame you'll have way too much ammo, but in the beginning it's important to conserve.

Carry a mix of weapons so you never run out of the right type of ammo. The hunting rifle is the best early level game and still has a lot of use late-game (popping raider heads). Better rifles, like the Lincoln Repeater, will go through your .44 ammo (or was it .45?) like crazy, so only use those for harder targets. Use the right tool for the right job, so as not to waste.

Most importantly, take your time with this game. It isn't a game where you can plan ahead to only spend 20 minutes on it. Relax, un-tense, get absorbed in it. That's really the key with all Bethesda games though, they ask for a little more attention from you than most games, but will give you a whole lot more back.

 

[Simskiller]

Know what my problem with Fallout is? Finding someone to sell stuff to that I just won't kill and steal it all back from. Yup hardest problem I have with it right now.

Captcha: rismern resolution. Oh hey the solution to my problem! Now to just figure out what a rismern is!