My Fallout NV experience so far

[ZombieSuicide]

I would like to quote everyone on this just to say thanks but that's not really possible. I'm getting a lot of deathclaw tips which is really, really awesome. I've still got a lot of playing to do it seems!

Also just to touch on the Fallout 3/ NV differences again. I LOVED Fallout 3. It was open world and apocalyptic and open ended and everything was new. I had no previous experience with Fallout at all so I didn't see any of the plot holes which people really like to point out (which is absolutely valid by the by, just you know, ignorance is bliss in this case). Absolutely EVERYTHING was interesting and immersive and I couldn't get enough of it. New Vegas is different and better in the respect that it seems more refined and more purposeful. I love both games and I logged a crack load of hours on 3 and it looks like I'll be doing the same with NV.

Ps. I like how FMA has kind of creeped into this thread. I love everytime an Armstrong comes on screen.

 

[Paragon Fury]

Still better than everyone in Fallout 3 combined. Although that really isn't saying much considering AI still occasionally manages to commit suicide from the nearest tower trying to get past a small rock (yes, I have seen it myself) and it's hard to go even a minute without finding some new plot hole in that game.

But yes, I found them disappointing too (although I'm not surprised, dictatorships like that have never been efficient, only looked efficient).

true, but the comparison is a bit of low-hanging fruit. Comparing any of the factions in NV to to the Enclave from FO3 is like comparing Shylock to Snydley Whiplash. XD The writing is just on a different level.

To be fair to Caesar, it wasn't really the system itself that was flawed, it was his personal greed and lack of foresight. If the legion were content to only control the territories they held in the east, the system he established could probably have stood for decades. Unfortunately, because the stability of the legion is dependent upon a strong and nearby central government, attempting to expand it too wide would inevitably cause it to collapse in on itself.

That was why I couldn't, in my character's position, justify siding with the legion. As intriguing as I found the concept and the characters, there was just no logical reason to side with an army that was committing suicide-by-over expansion (same with the NCR, in that regard, though they had the boon of not being misogynist slavers) aside from the courier being a mixture of chaotic evil and stupid.

Killing House because he likely would become not so different from Caesar (House doesn't tolerate anyone opposing him, he showed that with Vault 21), and with no one to oppose him, would eventually become just plain Caesar.

I don't deny that it's possible, but I believe the odds of House becoming corrupted are fairly low. For one thing, his current living arrangements make it impossible for him to fall to the usual corrupters (huh, that's not a word? it should totally be a word) of leaders of men: greed, gluttony, and lust. He's proud, yes, but it's not as though his pride is baseless, and as he assures the courier, he has no interest in anything as banal as being worshiped like a god.

the true freedom path is tempting, but where I personally find it inferior to the House path is that it puts all the power and responsibility in the hands of people with no experience leading others, and no unified plan for the future. New Vegas is liberated, but aimless and chaotic, even in the best circumstances, and the courier, for all his talents, was never a leader. House had the correct combination of traits: experience, a long term vision for the future, and a plan in place to bring that vision to fruition.

No matter how the The Legion did in its conquests, the Legion was doomed from the beginning. If you actually listen to the people in the Legion talk, particularly the leadership; the Legion is a giant cult of personality with Caesar at its center. No matter what they preach about "strength", Caesar and his word are the center of their world. The current Caesar had the right combination of wit, brutality, wisdom and charisma to bring all these separate tribes together out of fear of him and his "power".

And no one in the current Legion has the ability to replace that. Some individuals may have trait or the other (Lanius his brutality for example) but it would take the entire combination to make it keep working.

As corrupt as the NCR may be in places; its ideals - freedom, safety, civilization - are a lot stronger bonding elements than fear and brute strength. The NCR and its the idea of the NCR are a lot more resilient than the Legion ever could be.

 

[Tuesday Night Fever]

Spoiler: Dead Money Spoiler

The central themes of Dead Money are obsession, mistrust and letting go, with the latter most being the arc words: "getting in that's not the hard part, it's letting go" At the end after you've breached the vault you see a stack of gold bars, you see the absurd number of caps that each is worth, then you realize that you will never escape with all of them, because they are far to heavy

Heh... about that.

Spoiler

Apparently I botched the lesson the game was trying to teach. I loaded up my inventory with every single weapon, all the ammunition, and every last gold bar within the vault. Now encumbered, I'd activate a Stealth Boy when the boss makes his entrance and sneak around behind him, let him trap himself inside the vault, and slowly waddle my way out with all the loot.

Sure, it took me forever to get back to my safehouse in Novac, but I managed to do so with more cash than I knew what to do with.

 

[Kayevcee]

Hmm. I've read through the entire thread, and nobody takes on Deathclaws with the AER14 or a modded laser rifle? With a scope and a beam splitter (and sufficient skill with energy weapons) I found the laser rifle to be very efficient at dispatching Deathclaws. Lots more rounds per power cell than the traditional rifles, rapid fire, very tight shot grouping (perferably on the end of said Deathclaw's nose) quick to reload, two critical chances per shot, each hit reduces DT so you and your partner can deal more damage...

I had a lot of involvement with Deathclaws early on when I forgot you weren't supposed to go up the main highway. I died a *lot*, but eventually I got good at catching them under the chin with a rocket then popping them in the face with the hunting rifle and (depressingly often) switching to a shotgun and praying as they got closer. I think it took me about a hour to get down that stretch of road, but I showed that game that no-one tells me where I can't go!

Except cazadores. Those guys get a wide berth.

-Nick

 

[busterkeatonrules]

To everybody who has cazador trouble, I hereby present the busterkeatonrules guide to cazador extermination:

1) V.A.T.S - shoot each cazador in the wings.

2) Pick them off at your leisure as they slowly and pathetically crawl towards you.

3) Point at their mangled corpses and laugh!

4) [small] Get mauled by deathclaw...[/small]

 

[balladbird]

Let's snip this...

True, but Lanius was brutal and strong enough to hold the legion together until his own death, which is why I said the legion would have a few decades before its collapse if it didn't overexpand. The only way the legion could last for the long term would be for power to be distributed in a sort of roman council, such as it were, that took advantage of all the top player's individual talents... pity they hate each other too much for that.

I didn't mean to imply that the NCR was morally comparable to the Legion, only that they were committing the same mistake: weakening themselves by expanding their borders further than their infrastructure could allow. That instability would remain even if the NCR won Hoover Dam, which is why I couldn't bring myself to side with them in the end.

 

[Paragon Fury]

Spoiler: Dead Money Spoiler

The central themes of Dead Money are obsession, mistrust and letting go, with the latter most being the arc words: "getting in that's not the hard part, it's letting go" At the end after you've breached the vault you see a stack of gold bars, you see the absurd number of caps that each is worth, then you realize that you will never escape with all of them, because they are far to heavy

Heh... about that.

Spoiler

Apparently I botched the lesson the game was trying to teach. I loaded up my inventory with every single weapon, all the ammunition, and every last gold bar within the vault. Now encumbered, I'd activate a Stealth Boy when the boss makes his entrance and sneak around behind him, let him trap himself inside the vault, and slowly waddle my way out with all the loot.

Sure, it took me forever to get back to my safehouse in Novac, but I managed to do so with more cash than I knew what to do with.

Spoiler

Thats what I did too. Almost dying of starvation, dehydration and sleep, but damn, I got back there. Never DID find a way to spend all that money, since I beat the game WAAAAY before the Gunrunner's DLC came out.

 

[Windcaler]

However I dont think that biomes were his argument. It sounds like hes talking about the same "lanes of travel" I talk about when I say the game feels smaller to me. Madwarper may correct me if Im mistaken

No, you're correct.

I don't mind sections of map with higher level mobs. I do mind when they're so tightly packed around the starter area to force you into one specific path, stifling exploration.

That is one of my major gripes about New vegas as well. The lanes of travel made the game feel much smaller to me and even at higher levels the heavy mountains with massive amounts of invisible walls hurts the ability to explore. In fallout 3 I can step outside a settlement, pick a direction, start walking, and I will always find something interesting. New vegas' lanes of travel doesnt give me that same freedom to explore

To be fair, different people like different approachs to exploration. I recall a popular mod thats name escapes me to oblivion that made character level not matter so the deeper into the wilderness you went the tougher the monsters got. So there has to be a desire for more diverse wildlife encounters. Encountering deathclaws and cazadors at level 1 and ensuring an untimely death I couldnt have prevented just isnt for me

 

[Dansen]

Deathcaws ignore the DT that armor gives you anyway so with armor on you are basically still fighting them naked.

I've been seeing some people contest that.
http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/959557-fallout-new-vegas/57664180
Even if that is correct you can still call bullshit! and mod it out.

Thing is, once you hit melee range, you are pretty much screwed anyway.
The trick is to shoot their legs to get more shooting time.

Crouch + AMR + Explosive ammo + headshot also tends to end indvidual deathclaws.
Avoid low dmg weapons even if they have higher DPS because deathclaws have high dt.
I love the holorifle for death claw hunting, its cheaper to shoot and good for single deathclaw hunting.
Still stumbling into quarry junction was one of the most scary experiences in Fallout.

Really though, I recommend you get the DLC.

Old World Blues and Dead Money are the two best DLCs in all of Fallout, for compeltly different reasons. Old World Blues is a hilariously fun sci-fi romp, it's all 50's goofiness we love the Fallout series for. Dead Money is survival horror and has one of the best examples of game play reinforcing theme I've seen.

Spoiler: Dead Money Spoiler

The central themes of Dead Money are obsession, mistrust and letting go, with the latter most being the arc words: "getting in that's not the hard part, it's letting go" At the end after you've breached the vault you see a stack of gold bars, you see the absurd number of caps that each is worth, then you realize that you will never escape with all of them, because they are far to heavy

Honest Hearts is fun, really emphasises the sci-fi western feel.

Lonesome Road was a giant let down, it was being built up so much by the other DLC, but it was just boring.

Dammit now I want to play New Vegas again, still haven't finished Project Brazil(the fan rebuild) yet.

Totally agree with your comments about lonesome road. It didn't help that they left the courier's back story so vague, if I had understood what I had done maybe I would have given a rats ass about Ulysses's vendetta. It did have some neat environments though, I really liked walking through the divide.

 

[j0frenzy]

Worst decision I ever made in Fallout New Vegas was to make a build that focused on flaming energy weapons. You want to make cazadors worse? Flaming cazadors. Flying right at you.

 

[Don Incognito]

The important thing to remember is the proper tool for the job at hand. Don't restrict yourself to one weapon.

Cazadors and nightstalkers go down like a ton of bricks to SMG (or their energy equivalent), especially with special ammo, especially with VATS. They are just too fast and too damned small to effectively snipe with heavier weaponry.

Deathclaws, the exact opposite. Keep your distance and snipe with whatever rifle you have; if it is silenced, all the better. If you are getting up close and personal, you'd better have a good shotgun and relevant perks.

 

[Creator002]

If you're a Doctor Who fan, you can try this mod: http://falloutwho.blogspot.com.au/

They've recently started revamping it and it's due to come out fairly soon. There's no specific date and the download link for the old version is dead, but it is coming.

I've actually never been on the Legion's bad side early on. I usually fudge up being with the NCR which destroys my ability to do many quests later on without being shot at. I recently deleted all my saves and updated and downloaded a bunch of mods (in anticipation for the Doctor Who mod) and will definitely be anti-Legion on the next playthrough.

 

[putowtin]

Welcome!

Regarding you issues,
1: Leave the Cadazors alone or aim for the wings... take them out and their like fat slugs!
2: Leave the Legion alone, or work for us... I mean them!

The DLC's are great but will depend on your personal play style/ likes as to which are right for you. (I'm not a fan of stealth so Dead Money was loooooong!)

Let's snip this...

True, but Lanius was brutal and strong enough to hold the legion together until his own death, which is why I said the legion would have a few decades before its collapse if it didn't overexpand. The only way the legion could last for the long term would be for power to be distributed in a sort of roman council, such as it were, that took advantage of all the top player's individual talents... pity they hate each other too much for that.

I didn't mean to imply that the NCR was morally comparable to the Legion, only that they were committing the same mistake: weakening themselves by expanding their borders further than their infrastructure could allow. That instability would remain even if the NCR won Hoover Dam, which is why I couldn't bring myself to side with them in the end.

That's why, in true rollplaying style, when I do walk away from the Mojave it's with the knowledge that I will return to the Legion as Caesar's rightful heir.

Nothing more to say except, Ave, true to Caesar!

 

[Ix Rebound]

Side note: did the scattered Deathclaws on the High Road in Lonesome Road exterminate anyone else? Says on the wiki that some sadist made them level-scaled so they out-damage the Legendary Deathclaw in Dead Wind Cavern. As in, at level 48 or so in the advanced riot gear, they killed me in two hits.

Oh yeah, most definitely.

The Survivalist Rifle and Graham's pistol from Honest Hearts did a good job of keeping most of them away, but when they got close for a lunge...well.. say goodbye to half your health and a bunch of stimpacks

Even worse was going into areas and triggering extra Deathclaw spawns, especially the abandoned trailer, where one just spawns on top of it!
Scared me more than any moment in F.E.A.R let me tell you..
Listening to that thing breathe and growl, seeing its eyes through the holes in the trailers walls..

 

[Tuesday Night Fever]

Spoiler

Actually you didn't botch the lesson. If you take the gold you end up looking like the world's biggest idiot in the eyes of the game. Another one of the game's many messages. I noticed it after I took the gold.

The game is basically laughing at the player in Dead Money.

The casino has gold. Gold is money. Money only exists because of value. Value exists because of scarcity. Replicators make things for nearly free meaning there is no scarcity. Power can become any rare thing.

Money is meaningless in a land of replicators. Where everything costs the same.

Meaning we ignored infinite free stuff just to steal money to buy finite stuff. Because of our primitive monkey brain.

Fallout is mostly about laughing at normal human nature.

Spoiler

To be fair, the replicators in the Sierra Madre won't be of much help to me when it's time to upgrade my Ratslayer to a suppressed Anti-Materiel Rifle and a mountain of .50BMG rounds, but shoving a bar of gold at the GRA vendor robot will. Woohoo metagaming; deal with one agonizingly slow walk back to town so I never have to bother vendoring junk ever again. I suppose the argument could be made that the replicators could be reprogrammed to manufacture additional things... but it's long-forgotten technology that probably no one alive (except maybe Mr. House?) would have any understanding of. Hell, the scientific scene is apparently so abysmal in the New Vegas region that no one in the NCR seems to notice anything even slightly fishy about Fantastic.

 

[Ravinoff]

Oh yeah, most definitely.

The Survivalist Rifle and Graham's pistol from Honest Hearts did a good job of keeping most of them away, but when they got close for a lunge...well.. say goodbye to half your health and a bunch of stimpacks

Even worse was going into areas and triggering extra Deathclaw spawns, especially the abandoned trailer, where one just spawns on top of it!
Scared me more than any moment in F.E.A.R let me tell you..
Listening to that thing breathe and growl, seeing its eyes through the holes in the trailers walls..

Oh god, the one on the trailer. The loot was so tempting that I couldn't resist it (hundreds of rounds of high-tier ammo), but that thing would tear me apart, I eventually popped a Stealth Boy and ran away.

 

[zombiejoe]

Glad you're enjoying the game. I've always liked New Vegas more than 3, though both are fine games.

And personally, I think that DLC wise
Old World Blues>Dead Money>Lonesome Road>Honest Hearts

Though they should be played in order of release.