Fallout: New Vegas - Fall 2010

Best way to deal with Cook-Cook is to get up close and personal. Take out a melee weapon (preferably a fast one like a machete) run right up to him and swing away while constantly running into him and left and right.

Spoiler:

he'll pull out a flamer instead of that damned incinerator and wont be able to target it if you move just right

Turbo is really good too for dodging if you can do damage with your guns quickly. It doesn't last long.

Does EE-D trigger aggression for anyone else?

Sometimes, NCR troops will get into a fight with it randomly

Orphu wrote:

So, one thing that kind of annoys me, but maybe I'm missing something. All of the training manuals I've picked up seem to be temporary buffs now instead of permanent skill points. I don't really see myself carrying around a library of skill buffs just in case I need them.

There are still books. Just less of them. I find them mostly off the beaten paths of the main quests though.

mooosicle wrote:

Does EE-D trigger aggression for anyone else?

Sometimes, NCR troops will get into a fight with it randomly

This is a common bug. See fallout.wikia.com.

FedoraMcQuaid wrote:

Sometimes quest trigger conversations don't trigger right. Try engaging dialog multiple times.

No it was working correctly, I didn't notice it had added a note to my misc folder (I wish the sub-quests had their own quest journal along the lines of the main quest entries).

Spoiler:

There's a couple of NCR troops just north of where you find the body, you need to "z-drag" it over to them. Wish they'd put in some sort of over-the shoulder "body-carrying" animation though - having the dead trooper floating around by his leg about three feet in front of me for 5 minutes is a bit silly

EDIT: oops Brill posted it 5 days ago...

Hope I'm not being a dirty skimmer here (550 posts since release?) but I just had to know.

I present, Goodsprings, NV:

http://bit.ly/92GPqn
(click for google streetview)

I know it's not a big shocker since Fallout 3 had you running around recognizable places from DC, but I just think it is really cool that they took this small town and put it right into the game. Apparently Clark Gable waited for word about his wife Carole Lombard at that bar after her plane went down.

I'm not really feeling the factions.

Caesar's Legion = Batsh*t insane + cartoonishly evil + goofy costumes.
NCR = Noble paladins who will save you forever (whether you like it or not).

I was expecting something with a little more depth. A real choice other than "good side" and "evil side." I'm sure that the NCR has some daaaark secrets but it's pretty clear that they're the good guys. I was hoping to play each side off the other. The opportunity tends not to present itself very often.

Still a little meh about the "grenade machine gun." It looks like they named it after a real thing, like there is a weapon people called the "grenade machine gun." I'd still much prefer the "25mm Automatic Cannon" or even "Automatic Grenade Launcher." I might mod the game to include a new version, which fires solid slugs (instead of grenades) and uses the Guns skill. All the high-end guns are your typical Fallout ammo-guzzlers.

Danjo Olivaw wrote:
Puce Moose wrote:

Has anyone encountered any such 'What the hell's wrong with you?!' responses from the NPCs, or have those reactions been removed entirely?

The kid crier just out of Freeside was pissing me off, so I aimed at his head. His response was suitably entertaining, so the invincibility of children remains untested at this time.

I found two kids chasing a giant rat with knives in their hands and thought I might help them get their meal, so I entered VATS. I could target the rat but not the kids, and ended up shooting neither. No idea what happens when you shoot the kids without using VATS, because I'm not some sort of damn psychopath.

LobsterMobster wrote:

I'm not really feeling the factions.

Caesar's Legion = Batsh*t insane + cartoonishly evil + goofy costumes.
NCR = Noble paladins who will save you forever (whether you like it or not).

I was expecting something with a little more depth. A real choice other than "good side" and "evil side." I'm sure that the NCR has some daaaark secrets but it's pretty clear that they're the good guys. I was hoping to play each side off the other. The opportunity tends not to present itself very often.

Whoa, that's so weird, since so many people claim that is really well done... What game would you say had that aspect properly implemented, just to get a bit of perspective?

Yeah, I'm finding my impressions of New Vegas are a bit out of line with the mainstream. I keep thinking I just need to give it more time.

Planescape: Torment would be a good example of factions done well. In that game, the factions were more about philosophy than morality, and those philosophies caused them to gravitate toward certain roles. The people obsessed with death ended up at the mortuary, for instance. One faction set itself up as the town guard of Sigil, but not every other faction recognized their legitimacy (whether they actively challenged it or not).

Basically when someone did something terrible in that game it was because they had a good reason beyond, "because I could and I'm a f***ing badass with a wolf on my head." Even when characters were genuinely cruel, there was personal emotion and reasoning behind it so they didn't feel like generic asshole archetypes.

PandaEskimo wrote:
Puce Moose wrote:

Shucks! One of the few things I'm disappointed in is the (so far) complete removal of the 'reactions to player actions' from the NPCs. Some of my favorite things to do in Fallout 3 involved jumping on tables, throwing crap around, jumping like crazy, etc., just to hear the incredulous responses from the populace. Now you can shoot a hole in the wall an inch away from their face and they don't even blink. Has anyone encountered any such 'What the hell's wrong with you?!' responses from the NPCs, or have those reactions been removed entirely?

They make comments about your companions, like the eyebot and rex, they also told me to mind my space and to not look at them. Not sure if those were reactions or just incidental dialog.

FedoraMcQuaid wrote:

Yeah, I've counted 5 quests now that get messed up if you do them out of order. I guess Obsidian isn't really used to the whole do what you want when you want thing and expected people to do them a certain way.

Also, anybody having problems with disappearing companions? ED-E seems to be gone. I still have his perk and I never got a death message. So I figured I must have left him somewhere but when I try to enter a no companion zone it reads as there being a companion with me. He doesn't show up on tracker and I don't see him anywhere. He doesn't follow through fast travel either.

I had sort of the same problem with ED-E. I told him to go back to Primm (needed party room for a quest) and when I went to Primm, he wasn't where he was supposed to be. I looked all over to find him even in the other "send companion to X" place.

I ended up trying the "player.moveto " console command. I'd never used them before and didn't have to enable the console on the Steam version. Then I was teleported to the Primm house and there he was. Worth a shot.

his ref id is 001732d1. (there are other ref id's for other versions of him, so if you've done part of his quest, look to his page on fallout.wikia.com http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/ED-E)

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Fallout_3_console_commands

Ya i've left my guys in a spot before and had to go backtracking to find them. Spent a good hour doing this over the weekend actually

oMonarca wrote:
LobsterMobster wrote:

I'm not really feeling the factions.

Caesar's Legion = Batsh*t insane + cartoonishly evil + goofy costumes.
NCR = Noble paladins who will save you forever (whether you like it or not).

I was expecting something with a little more depth. A real choice other than "good side" and "evil side." I'm sure that the NCR has some daaaark secrets but it's pretty clear that they're the good guys. I was hoping to play each side off the other. The opportunity tends not to present itself very often.

Whoa, that's so weird, since so many people claim that is really well done... What game would you say had that aspect properly implemented, just to get a bit of perspective?

I like that there's not a lot of depth as you call it. Nice to see that there's not much different between the 2 sides when you look at them as a whole. Both sides have bat sh*t crazy buggers doing the wrong thing.

LobsterMobster wrote:

I found two kids chasing a giant rat with knives in their hands and thought I might help them get their meal, so I entered VATS. I could target the rat but not the kids, and ended up shooting neither. No idea what happens when you shoot the kids without using VATS, because I'm not some sort of damn psychopath. ;)

thought it was crazy seeing the kids goto town on the rat after dropping it.

LobsterMobster wrote:

I'm not really feeling the factions.

Caesar's Legion = Batsh*t insane + cartoonishly evil + goofy costumes.
NCR = Noble paladins who will save you forever (whether you like it or not).

Yeah, I can't really see myself joining Caesar's Legion in any play-through, other than forcing it to see a particular questline or ending -- there's nothing redeeming about them. At the same time, the NCR doesn't appeal too much either (though more so than the latter). I was hoping for more grey areas for the two main factions.

Like I said earlier, I'd read that the factions came from a tabletop campaign and they feel like that. They feel like someone had a story to tell and wanted to nudge the players in one direction over the other, even at the cost of verisimilitude.

On another, more pleasant note, I found that my earlier slaughter of Legion guys has not made me a target. They aren't too happy with me but I can even walk through their camps with no trouble.

I wonder if they'd act the same way if I were to wear my fancy new hat.

LobsterMobster wrote:

Yeah, I'm finding my impressions of New Vegas are a bit out of line with the mainstream. I keep thinking I just need to give it more time.

Basically when someone did something terrible in that game it was because they had a good reason beyond, "because I could and I'm a f***ing badass with a wolf on my head."

I agree that there is much less subtlety than the PR was trying to suggest. It doesn't help that all the NCR voice actors sound like Boy Scouts.

Unfortunately, you have to spend hours and hours in conversations with everyone before you get the back story that kinda sorta complicates things. Don't forget the third main faction is "the people" and because they are in more contact with the NCR, you will hear them complaining about the fascist NCR with their taxes and their self-interested desire to suck the resources out of the area. Obsidian was probably hoping that would add some moral complexity without having to invent complicated double-agent, play both sides against each other kind of quests.

However, like I said, a lot of this stuff doesn't come out until you've talked to a bunch of people, and I have yet to talk to anyone from the Legion except psychopathic wolf-head guy. Maybe if I go get to know them they'll turn out to be really nice, upstanding guys who just need an upgrade to their tactics? Maybe I can both reform their barbaric ways and help them champion the plight of "the people?" Probably not, but I haven't tried yet. I've been too busy turning in the severed heads of drug fiends to this NCR Sergeant who says he needs the heads as "proof." The sicko.

GODDAMN FILTHY ENABLERS.

Downloading now...

Montalban wrote:

I've been too busy turning in the severed heads of drug fiends to this NCR Sergeant who says he needs the heads as "proof." The sicko.

Probably looking for ammo for his Rock-It Launcher. In FO3 I loaded mine exclusively with skulls. It's a tremendous shame that you can't pick up skulls in New Vegas.

FedoraMcQuaid wrote:

Best way to deal with Cook-Cook is to get up close and personal. Take out a melee weapon (preferably a fast one like a machete) run right up to him and swing away while constantly running into him and left and right.

Spoiler:

he'll pull out a flamer instead of that damned incinerator and wont be able to target it if you move just right

Turbo is really good too for dodging if you can do damage with your guns quickly. It doesn't last long.

Did you ask for info on him before you took off after taking the mission for cook-cook? I did what he suggested and didnt have to put a single shot into him or get close.

Put a single shot into him?

All right, screw you, Brotherhood of Steel. Your power armor's overrated, anyway.

Rat Boy wrote:

All right, screw you, Brotherhood of Steel. Your power armor's overrated, anyway.

Dont have the armor yet, but the best armor i've found for me has actually been that silly space suit. low weight and DT10 i think.

ranalin wrote:

low weight and DT10 i think.

I didn't notice the damage threshold on it but I've been carrying it with me since I got it because its rad resistance is +40 which it ten more than the radiation suit.

The legion seems pretty terrible and the game really makes them into the bad guys but if you work with them for a while they seem much more reasonable. On the other hand the NCR seem great from the inside but if you talk to people around you get a LOT of mixed opinions. Some people even see them as insurgents. Yes, Caesar's Legion is all around a bit evil and tyrannical but that's how they're supposed to be. Yes, the NCR is more good then bad. The main thing is you can come to see the reasons behind what they are doing, you can see some good in the legion. You can see some corruption in the NCR. They sort of HAD to have a good guys and a bad guys but I think they did a pretty good job of making them feel NOT cartoony and over the top.

I think it's great that I've been playing for 30+ hours and haven't found/seen things you guys are talking about, such as the space suit and ED-E.

NCR looks a bit more evil if you consider the question of free will. They do save and protect people, but don't give those people any say in that matter. You could call them benevolent slavers.

LobsterMobster wrote:

NCR looks a bit more evil if you consider the question of free will. They do save and protect people, but don't give those people any say in that matter. You could call them benevolent slavers.

C'mon guys, take it to P&C.

The NCR were a bunch of complete tossers in Fallout 2 if I remember rightly. They've certainly mellowed a bit (on the surface at least) since then.

I'm enjoying the pure villiany and bonkers setup of the Legion though, much more than the "BoS, only eeeevil (sort of)" Enclave. It was immensely satisfying to retrieve the wolf-hat from the puddle of goo that had once been that jackass who thought he and his men actually stood a chance against me

I need to stop looking in this thread. I really want this game, but I'm holding out to see if it goes on sale during the christmas sale. This thread is wearing down my resolve.

Tkyl wrote:

I need to stop looking in this thread. I really want this game, but I'm holding out to see if it goes on sale during the christmas sale. This thread is wearing down my resolve.

I feel the same way, and I still need to make it through the GOTY version of FO3!

Tkyl wrote:

I need to stop looking in this thread. I really want this game, but I'm holding out to see if it goes on sale during the christmas sale. This thread is wearing down my resolve.

I'm in the same place, I want the game, but not the bugs that are what the game is made on.

Thinking of where Bethesda go next, and the problems of developing one of their big massive games and developing a new not-buggy engine and game systems, I'm wondering if their next game instead of a massive new thing, might be Guild Wars style parts that slot together, can co-exist, but will also work stand-alone.