Fallout: New Vegas - Fall 2010

It's possible to leave the Sierra Madre vault with all of the gold. It's totally cheesy, but it's doable.

Itsatrap wrote:

It's possible to leave the Sierra Madre vault with all of the gold. It's totally cheesy, but it's doable.

Do you have to kill Father Elijah to do it? The max you can possibly take without being over-encumbered is 10 of the 37, and without killing Elijah, you only have a minute or so to get out alive.

Bonus_Eruptus wrote:
Itsatrap wrote:

It's possible to leave the Sierra Madre vault with all of the gold. It's totally cheesy, but it's doable.

Do you have to kill Father Elijah to do it? The max you can possibly take without being over-encumbered is 10 of the 37, and without killing Elijah, you only have a minute or so to get out alive.

Spoiler:

The force fields are glitchy, and if you drop a quantity, you can drop them as ONE item in-world, instead of lots of them, so you can drop the full stack near the exit door's forcefield, run there unencumbered, then grab them through the glitchy door and get out the exit. It's lame, but it's doable. I just feel like having trapped Elijah, you should have some time to get out really. :(

I think I did something along those lines and then had issues selling them because most vendors didn't have enough caps for even one of them

Rykin wrote:

I think I did something along those lines and then had issues selling them because most vendors didn't have enough caps for even one of them ;)

Yup. The only place I found that had anywhere near enough was Gunrunners. And that was only after I bought every scrap of ammo they had.

I have to say this though... while I enjoyed the companions of Dead Money, the robots in Old World Blues were way more entertaining. Not good company, obviously, as they don't go anywhere with ya, but man they were HILARIOUS. The conversation with... myself... near the end was also really amusing and kind of reminded me of Hitchhiker's Guide to Galaxy and Arthur Dent.

The AI in the Sink had more than enough (somewhere random around 24K), but you'd have to haul them back and forth after getting the teleporter.

Well worth it for the Two-Step Goodbye if you have Gun Runner's Arsenal. Bodies that explode after a knock-back critical? Yes please. They were basically the Apoca-fists from Saints Row the Third.

Demosthenes wrote:

I have to say this though... while I enjoyed the companions of Dead Money, the robots in Old World Blues were way more entertaining. Not good company, obviously, as they don't go anywhere with ya, but man they were HILARIOUS. The conversation with... myself... near the end was also really amusing and kind of reminded me of Hitchhiker's Guide to Galaxy and Arthur Dent. :D

I still think they should have gotten the voice actor who plays Stewie on Family Guy.

@Paleocon,
That's Seth MacFarlane FYI.

S0LIDARITY wrote:

@Paleocon,
That's Seth MacFarlane FYI.

lol. Now that I think of it, all of the voice acting in Old World Blues would have been much more awesome if it was replaced by Family Guy voices.

Infernarl wrote:

Did you get all the DLC?
Also interested in mod answers.

If you want a quest mod more focused on reading/character drama/puzzling rather than fighting I think you'll like my Tales from the Burning Sands mod.
You spend less time killing, and more time reading and moving things around! It's a kind of magic! It may or may not be for you!

I also feel the need to chime in with this ridiculously awesome Moose-centric image. Artist's site for the image here.

IMAGE(http://www.pucemoose.com/pics/moosebite.png)

Puce Moose wrote:

If you want a quest mod more focused on reading/character drama/puzzling rather than fighting I think you'll like my Tales from the Burning Sands mod.
You spend less time killing, and more time reading and moving things around! It's a kind of magic! It may or may not be for you!

It also has some very powerful emotional moments. It's good stuff.

Is it true that none of the DLC opens the world up to free roaming in the way Broken Steel did for FO3?

muraii wrote:

Is it true that none of the DLC opens the world up to free roaming in the way Broken Steel did for FO3?

Correct. No extended edition ending. When you finish the war, you finish the game.

Jerks.

You could probably mod it if you felt that passionate about it. Head over to the nexus and take a look.

I mentioned this in the "confessions" thread but I specifically never finished this game because I didn't want it to ever end. I got to a point in the game that seemed like it was at (or very close to) the "point of no return," and I just quit.

There's something about having the option for that finality, but instead just walking away, that I find really compelling. I'm not sure FO3 was actually well served by having an endless mode after Broken Steel.

Demosthenes wrote:
muraii wrote:

Is it true that none of the DLC opens the world up to free roaming in the way Broken Steel did for FO3?

Correct. No extended edition ending. When you finish the war, you finish the game. :(

But hey, at least you aren't pointlessly killed.

gore wrote:

I mentioned this in the "confessions" thread but I specifically never finished this game because I didn't want it to ever end. I got to a point in the game that seemed like it was at (or very close to) the "point of no return," and I just quit.

There's something about having the option for that finality, but instead just walking away, that I find really compelling. I'm not sure FO3 was actually well served by having an endless mode after Broken Steel.

So... you didn't like that New Vegas had that "end" point. But... you didn't think 3 having the ending lead to unlimited wandering worked either? I'm confused.

Either way, I think the larger issue with New Vegas was that winning the battle would have resulted in a pretty big shift in terms of what would happen to the world. If you won it for the Legion (which I think might make you a jerk, just saying ;)), 90% of the map should be changing from NCR to Legion control.

Bethesda can barely handle that I want my Dibella statues in my house in Skyrim to stay upright. Such a large change to the landscape of the Mojave was probably scrapped to avoid a LOT of work.

Demosthenes wrote:

Either way, I think the larger issue with New Vegas was that winning the battle would have resulted in a pretty big shift in terms of what would happen to the world. If you won it for the Legion (which I think might make you a jerk, just saying ;)), 90% of the map should be changing from NCR to Legion control.

I think Obsidian said they wanted to handle the ending like that, so you see what happens afterwards, but like many things they were cut short. At least they do give you a nice notice of the point of no return.

Quintin_Stone wrote:
Demosthenes wrote:
muraii wrote:

Is it true that none of the DLC opens the world up to free roaming in the way Broken Steel did for FO3?

Correct. No extended edition ending. When you finish the war, you finish the game. :(

But hey, at least you aren't pointlessly killed.

My favorite time with the original ending was when I had Fawkes the Supermutant with me and he refused to go into the chamber to save us both with his radiation immune body. That was hilariously great.

Scratched wrote:
Demosthenes wrote:

Either way, I think the larger issue with New Vegas was that winning the battle would have resulted in a pretty big shift in terms of what would happen to the world. If you won it for the Legion (which I think might make you a jerk, just saying ;)), 90% of the map should be changing from NCR to Legion control.

I think Obsidian said they wanted to handle the ending like that, so you see what happens afterwards, but like many things they were cut short. At least they do give you a nice notice of the point of no return.

The issue I was thinking of was more a matter of quest givers and their positioning. No point in going back to try to do an NCR quest at the solar plant if the Legion rolls over the place. Though I guess they could ask you to shut it all down.

Demosthenes wrote:
gore wrote:

I mentioned this in the "confessions" thread but I specifically never finished this game because I didn't want it to ever end. I got to a point in the game that seemed like it was at (or very close to) the "point of no return," and I just quit.

There's something about having the option for that finality, but instead just walking away, that I find really compelling. I'm not sure FO3 was actually well served by having an endless mode after Broken Steel.

So... you didn't like that New Vegas had that "end" point. But... you didn't think 3 having the ending lead to unlimited wandering worked either? I'm confused. :D

No. I like the fact that FO:NV has that finality, but I was happy to exercise the option to simply walk away from the entire conflict and move on without seeing it through. It just seemed like the right thing to do. Screw all those jerks, I'm outa there.

Broken Steel always felt broken, like some kind of taped on extension to the game. The ending, which was supposed to be so climatic in FO3, was revealed to have little real effect on the world when you were able to continue playing the game. It took a bad ending and made it an anticlimax. I think FO3 just kind of broke apart towards the end of the main story line, regardless of which version you opted for.

It didn't help that BS broke the already screwed up FO3 power curve even more.

Demosthenes wrote:

My favorite time with the original ending was when I had Fawkes the Supermutant with me and he refused to go into the chamber to save us both with his radiation immune body. That was hilariously great. :(

Yeah, I had the same ending. So ham-fisted and poorly written. I think they wanted to have the Big Sacrifice moment that disaster movies always have (think Bruce Willis in Armageddon), but realized too late they'd written themselves into a corner with some of the companions.

Quintin_Stone wrote:
Demosthenes wrote:

My favorite time with the original ending was when I had Fawkes the Supermutant with me and he refused to go into the chamber to save us both with his radiation immune body. That was hilariously great. :(

Yeah, I had the same ending. So ham-fisted and poorly written. I think they wanted to have the Big Sacrifice moment that disaster movies always have (think Bruce Willis in Armageddon), but realized too late they'd written themselves into a corner with some of the companions.

Indeed. The ending ruined, for me, an otherwise really great game. But I never got any DLC or have ever picked it back up because that ending made me angry.

tboon wrote:
Quintin_Stone wrote:
Demosthenes wrote:

My favorite time with the original ending was when I had Fawkes the Supermutant with me and he refused to go into the chamber to save us both with his radiation immune body. That was hilariously great. :(

Yeah, I had the same ending. So ham-fisted and poorly written. I think they wanted to have the Big Sacrifice moment that disaster movies always have (think Bruce Willis in Armageddon), but realized too late they'd written themselves into a corner with some of the companions.

Indeed. The ending ruined, for me, an otherwise really great game. But I never got any DLC or have ever picked it back up because that ending made me angry.

I would say that the DLCs were probably my favorite parts of that game. Point Lookout was so much fun. Operation Anchorage was kind of a slog, but the rewards (that stealth suit) were a lot of fun to play with back in the Capital Wasteland. Mothership Zeta was hilarious for its tapes and the nice 50s aesthetic to the aliens. Broken Steal at least gave me the option to send Fawkes in and save us both and get on with our lives.

tboon wrote:

Indeed. The ending ruined, for me, an otherwise really great game. But I never got any DLC or have ever picked it back up because that ending made me angry.

Yeah, completely soured me. For me, it's not even a serious question on whether NV was better than FO3. Also I found my dad completely by random, without following the storyline. Needless to say, I was confused. They didn't seem to take into account that you might find his location simply by wandering in the wastes.

Quintin_Stone wrote:
tboon wrote:

Indeed. The ending ruined, for me, an otherwise really great game. But I never got any DLC or have ever picked it back up because that ending made me angry.

Yeah, completely soured me. For me, it's not even a serious question on whether NV was better than FO3. Also I found my dad completely by random, without following the storyline. Needless to say, I was confused. They didn't seem to take into account that you might find his location simply by wandering in the wastes.

From my perspective FO:NV is just a better game, almost universally. There are two things I feel FO:3 was a little better at:

- FO:NV was a little jankier around the edges at release (but it's rock solid for me now, and FO3 had its own share of technical issues too)

- FO3's introductory segment, where you grow up in the vault and then are suddenly thrown into the wasteland, was exceptionally powerful for me.

Now, that said, I purchased and played all the FO3 DLC except for Zeta, and I've not yet played the DLC for FO:NV. While I did enjoy the FO3 DLC as standalone chunks, in the context of an overall play through the perks/levels/items you got from them added up to make you Supreme God of everything and moved the balance beyond "you know, this is kind of broken" to "why even bother?"

I suspect FO:NV may fare better if you play through its DLC, because on the highest setting (Hardcore / V. Hard, I think?) I was still finding challenges in the vanilla game. Maybe I'll get around to that DLC, some day...

gore wrote:
Quintin_Stone wrote:
tboon wrote:

Indeed. The ending ruined, for me, an otherwise really great game. But I never got any DLC or have ever picked it back up because that ending made me angry.

Yeah, completely soured me. For me, it's not even a serious question on whether NV was better than FO3. Also I found my dad completely by random, without following the storyline. Needless to say, I was confused. They didn't seem to take into account that you might find his location simply by wandering in the wastes.

From my perspective FO:NV is just a better game, almost universally. There are two things I feel FO:3 was a little better at:

- FO:NV was a little jankier around the edges at release (but it's rock solid for me now, and FO3 had its own share of technical issues too)

- FO3's introductory segment, where you grow up in the vault and then are suddenly thrown into the wasteland, was exceptionally powerful for me.

Now, that said, I purchased and played all the FO3 DLC except for Zeta, and I've not yet played the DLC for FO:NV. While I did enjoy the FO3 DLC as standalone chunks, in the context of an overall play through the perks/levels/items you got from them added up to make you Supreme God of everything and moved the balance beyond "you know, this is kind of broken" to "why even bother?"

I suspect FO:NV may fare better if you play through its DLC, because on the highest setting (Hardcore / V. Hard, I think?) I was still finding challenges in the vanilla game. Maybe I'll get around to that DLC, some day...

They're hit or miss, to me. Old World Blues is the only one I would emphatically suggest. The rest are ok ish, kind of good.

Demosthenes wrote:
Scratched wrote:
Demosthenes wrote:

Either way, I think the larger issue with New Vegas was that winning the battle would have resulted in a pretty big shift in terms of what would happen to the world. If you won it for the Legion (which I think might make you a jerk, just saying ;)), 90% of the map should be changing from NCR to Legion control.

I think Obsidian said they wanted to handle the ending like that, so you see what happens afterwards, but like many things they were cut short. At least they do give you a nice notice of the point of no return.

The issue I was thinking of was more a matter of quest givers and their positioning. No point in going back to try to do an NCR quest at the solar plant if the Legion rolls over the place. Though I guess they could ask you to shut it all down.

I respect that, for sure. Great stories of this genre tend to have large arcs, and large arcs are seriously compromised if big changes don't result. Those changes make the world scaffolding hardier, let us hang more on it. Even in the vanilla NV, I feel like I'm finding stuff in places I've already visited. Either I didn't explore too carefully or the world is changing. I hope the latter.

I'm playing NV differently than 3, if not in style (killing from a sneaky distance), then in format. I bought FO3 with my PS3 almost completely ignorant of all then-current games, of DLC as a general concept, and specifically of Fallout *. (I had forgotten about that interesting game I'd watched my friend play for a few minutes in 1998 or so.) I played FO3 GOTY, with all DLC outta the gate, and spent quite a while with the Winterized T-51b power armor as well as Jingwei's Shocksword and the cloaking armor. I followed the main quest about as closely as the side quests, and spent quite a while wandering after I'd found my father and gone through all the DLC. I fast travelled more often than not, even if I was disappointed when my wife selected the explorer perk that shows all locations on the map. I started a couple of games, but the one we "beat" clocked in at around 110 hours or so.

For NV, I started on hardcore and have no DLC. I've walked almost the whole game, only sparingly using fast travel, e.g., when I know I don't have much time left and want to get to a better spot. I spend a large chunk of time just wandering, variably picking up side quests, and I'm not sure how much I've moved the main quest along. I've picked up a couple of the named weapons but have made do mostly with a combination of sniper rifle, 10MM SMB, and .357 magnum (though lately I've been using the Gauss rifle over the sniper). I've almost exhausted all the ingredients for weapon repair kits in the Mojave. As of today, I'm 165 hours in, most of which have come in the after hours.

I say all that because I, too, don't want it to end, but I also don't want to walk away. I've walked most everywhere I've been, even west past the Mojave Outpost gate. (It's bland filler out there.) I guess the fact that I'm still finding new things speaks to how hard Obsidian worked. I would love to see a post-war Mojave, new people and factions moving into other areas. maybe the Khans move outta Red Rock. Whatever. New settlements, plants regrowing, etc. Still, I think I'm getting a great return on my time investment as it is.

It's probably at least as much a product of my play style as of how the games were written, but I felt more important to the goings on of the Capital Wasteland and, by corollary, feel freer in the Mojave. Because NV uses reputation more than karma, I can choose how to handle each group independently, e.g., I have no conflicts about profiting from the NCR dogtags I found on already-dead soldiers even if I'm leaning more toward the NCR's favor overall. I'm just making a living out here. There is no noticeable, magical communication of my heroism or villainy across the wastes as there was in FO3. The desert is truly wild--as much as can be codified in a game engine.

(Interesting bug which I hope doesn't wreak havoc on my saved game: the kids in Freeside, that chase each other around, just came out the gate with me. They're wandering the wasteland, though keeping fairly close to the New Vegas wall.)