Fallout: New Vegas - Fall 2010

Ah that one. It's in my quest journal. I guess ED-E and I will remain a twosome.

DSGamer, regarding your second spoiler. (can't quote directly cause I see the entirety of your first spoiler).

Spoiler:

I did the same thing, though the assassination attempts seemed to be more frequent when I was near Legion territory.

I grabbed the Explorer perk and boy are there a lot of locations in this game. I tried finding a few I missed near Goodspring, but those damn radscorpions just swarmed me.

I made the switch to the PC version. I figure both versions are buggy, why not get the better looking one. After doing the dx9.dll and a few other tweaks, the game is running on high settings on my m11x with a great framerate (30-40 outside/60+ inside). The only problem is the game crashed about four times in the span of a couple hours. The game was unplayable without the tweaks. Now it is playable, but still really unstable. At least the game looks a lot better.

Rat Boy wrote:

I grabbed the Explorer perk and boy are there a lot of locations in this game. I tried finding a few I missed near Goodspring, but those damn radscorpions just swarmed me.

Yeah I picked that and was pleasantly suprised I have to say - at 41 hours in I thought I'd covered most of the map already but there's still about 2/3 of the markers undiscovered :O

And those radscorpions ARE a pain in the bum.

No kidding. The damage threshold on giant radscorpions is obscene. It's not as much of a problem once you get access to big hitters like sniper rifles, but in the early game, my strategy has basically been to run like f*ck while throwing dynamite at my feet. Usually that times the explosion right.

I did not expect to get an explanation of Hegelian dialectics in a videogame. I think that might be one of my favourite gaming moments of the year.

Randomly: taking the perk that makes enemies explode when killed by energy weapons might seem funny, but it's a *really* bad idea if energy weapons is your only combat skill. Trust me on this.

Having just made it to Caesar for the second time -- actually third, but the second time I paused to talk to any of the f*ckers -- this time with female character, I'm kind of disappointed that there doesn't seem to be an option to question him on the appalling treatment of women by the Legion. It'd be nice to hear some incentive as to why you'd work to enslave yourself.

Alien Love Gardener wrote:

Randomly: taking the perk that makes enemies explode when killed by energy weapons might seem funny, but it's a *really* bad idea if energy weapons is your only combat skill. Trust me on this.

Same thing for Bloody Mess. It's cute the first few times but eventually it becomes a matter of, "I shot yet another guy in the head and his arms and legs fell off, yet again. How completely unsurprising in any way."

LobsterMobster wrote:
Alien Love Gardener wrote:

Randomly: taking the perk that makes enemies explode when killed by energy weapons might seem funny, but it's a *really* bad idea if energy weapons is your only combat skill. Trust me on this.

Same thing for Bloody Mess. It's cute the first few times but eventually it becomes a matter of, "I shot yet another guy in the head and his arms and legs fell off, yet again. How completely unsurprising in any way."

At least Bloody Mess doesn't cause limbs to fly in your face and damage you in close combat. Couple close quarters explosions with small frame and hardcore mode and the later fights got unecessarily painful.

Cazadors are a real pain in the butt. I'm trying to work out if shooting them in the wings does more damage but it's a bit inconsistent at the moment.

FedoraMcQuaid wrote:

Screens of my dudes.

My first guy. Guns, repair, 'wasteland justice' type guy. Somewhat stereotypical :D.
SS Gear:

Spoiler:

rebreather, NCR 1st recon beret, bounty hunter duster, Mysterious Magnum

My second guy. Science, speech, find other ways to solve things type guy (somewhat villainous)
SS Gear:

Spoiler:

Suave gambler's hat, Dirty pre-war business wear, eyeglasses, Laser RCW (aka, laser tommy gun)

How are you getting your screenshots? I've not been able to get a view of my character except from behind?

tanstaafl wrote:
FedoraMcQuaid wrote:

Screens of my dudes.

My first guy. Guns, repair, 'wasteland justice' type guy. Somewhat stereotypical :D.
SS Gear:

Spoiler:

rebreather, NCR 1st recon beret, bounty hunter duster, Mysterious Magnum

My second guy. Science, speech, find other ways to solve things type guy (somewhat villainous)
SS Gear:

Spoiler:

Suave gambler's hat, Dirty pre-war business wear, eyeglasses, Laser RCW (aka, laser tommy gun)

How are you getting your screenshots? I've not been able to get a view of my character except from behind?

Hold down the F-key and you'll be able to rotate around your character.

tanstaafl wrote:

How are you getting your screenshots? I've not been able to get a view of my character except from behind?

On PC (in FO3/oblivion at least) you press and hold the key (R probably) to switch first/third person perspective, and move the mouse.

Ah, I was using the mouse wheel to pull out to the third-person over-the-shoulder view but hadn't figured out how to rotate the camera. Thanks.

ETA: OK, here he is. Love the hat.

IMAGE(http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1250/5127288170_995e96b3b7_z.jpg)

I can't get any screenshots to come out. Every time it's just a black image. Any thoughts? Win 7, DX11 card. Settings at max.

What are you using to get screenshots? I use Fraps and don't have any problems. (On Win 7, "Ultra" settings, nVidia 260 GTX, using the DX9.dll that someone posted upthread.)

Can someone help me figure out how to win at Caravan? I thought you had to have two out of the three caravan stacks in the 21-26 stack, and higher than the opponent. Why did I not win this game?

IMAGE(http://www.pucemoose.com/pics/cara1.jpg)

in this case, it's because you're tied on the third caravan. If you use a jack on either of his cards in that row to bring him down to less than 26, you'll immediately win.

Warning to people with Veronica as a follower,

If you finish her side quest (get to the actual end), there is a known bug (which I found out the bad way) where she just doesn't move anymore. Hurray! I just got her some awesome armor and weapons and now she won't move.

I wanted this character throughout the game. Going to have to load an earlier save now.

Spoiler:

Inside the Follower's shack, when you finish the fight, Veronica won't move. You can apparently go to Gibson's Shack, and unmarked shack just NW of Gibson's Scrap Yard and monkey with a terminal and she glitches out of it, however you needed to have done a quest to find her technology. I had the Orbital Laser pistol before that quest came up and it was bypassed, so I can't use that. :(.

tanstaafl wrote:

What are you using to get screenshots? I use Fraps and don't have any problems. (On Win 7, "Ultra" settings, nVidia 260 GTX, using the DX9.dll that someone posted upthread.)

I was just pressing PrtScn.

Strewth wrote:

in this case, it's because you're tied on the third caravan. If you use a jack on either of his cards in that row to bring him down to less than 26, you'll immediately win.

The rules say 1 can be tied. FO:NV is a buggy POS is why you didn't win.

I played this game for a few hours today and experienced two Crash to Desktop and the Veronica bug. Starting to piss me off. :(.

PandaEskimo wrote:

I played this game for a few hours today and experienced two Crash to Desktop and the Veronica bug. Starting to piss me off. :(.

Try the direct x fix. I can't use it since I have dual monitors, but it solves a lot of crashing problems.

Okay, I just hit about hour 16 and I realized I'm feeling depressed. I think this happened with FO3.

I love the story and the universe, but man... Back to Kirby and Red Dead Redemption.

Yeah, those Giant Radscorpions have insane DT. My cowboy repeater at 96 or so Guns, does like 38 damage a shot, and it still pings the red shield sometimes

I'm thinking of picking up a late Shotgun Surgeon even though I'm L24, just to add some spice to my gun variety. There's really some extra perk slots if you do almost all real time shooting, You can skip Grim, 2x Action Boy, 10% vats reduction, plasma 10% ap reduction. I have 26 28 30 perks left and nothing "essential" to get. Maybe Shotgun Surgeon on 26, maybe Endurance special training on 28 for DT implant. Probably conclude with Explorer

I wonder, does the laser splitter actually make laser rifle crappier? Anyone know if DT is counted against a triple beam weapon three times , each time for one of the beams.

mooosicle wrote:

I wonder, does the laser splitter actually make laser rifle crappier? Anyone know if DT is counted against a triple beam weapon three times , each time for one of the beams.

I'd say so, yes. Doesn't seem sensible to list the damage as 3xwhatever otherwise.

PandaEskimo wrote:

I can't get any screenshots to come out. Every time it's just a black image. Any thoughts? Win 7, DX11 card. Settings at max.

Don't use the printscreen to copy into clipboard and paste into an image editor. That will give you the black thing. When you hit it go into your New Vegas files and right in the main folder will be your screenshots. Annoying that you can't get the actual screencap as the game's default screenshots seem to not capture in the full resolution and result in some mediocre quality. I would suggest as suggested before to use a program like FRAPS to SS.

Alien Love Gardener wrote:
mooosicle wrote:

I wonder, does the laser splitter actually make laser rifle crappier? Anyone know if DT is counted against a triple beam weapon three times , each time for one of the beams.

I'd say so, yes. Doesn't seem sensible to list the damage as 3xwhatever otherwise.

Just like a shotgun it makes x damage for each projectile the laser splitter does the same. So it does a DT/DR check for each one. So if your damage was 10x3 then each projectile would do 10 damage pre locational damage/DTDR/crit checks. So if you got a body shot, with all 3 projectiles, on a target with 5 DT, and you don't crit you would hit for an overall of 15 damage onto the target. If it was a set damage reduction then it would be an assumed 30 damage for all reduced by 5 DT making 25 damage. So a set damage for all would be higher damage factoring out DR (which is a percentile reduction). Without the laser splitter it would be 10x1 so either was the laser splitter is significantly better. I WOULD factor in DR for this but I'm not sure if DR is calculated before DT or after.

Ok... so anyone else experience this:

I side with Yes Man, go and update the securitrons at the fort and.... I come back to the Strip, only to be locked out. Locked out! Gahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Is selling them the only thing you can do with the snow globes? If so:

Spoiler:

Is the robot in Mr. House's place the only one that will buy them? If I side with Yes Man, will she still be there to buy them?

Oh, a little too late. I got curious and tested most of my weapons out

Everything was done with ~95 Guns/~95 Energy. I divided up weapons into three tiers, from lowest to highest, if they could successfully assault the following, from lowest to highest - Crimson Caravan (Leather Armor, Unarmored), NCR camps, and Super Mutants

Sadly, some of my most favorite big guns from the Fallout series are very underwhelming. The Minigun couldn't even slaughter Crimson Caravan, it killed them, but the spread is about as bad as the TF2 heavy, except you don't have to make 3000 5mm bullets in TF2. I used up 500 bullets in around 20 sec of fighting.

I tried Heavy Incinerator and Flamer, cause I really wanted to see if Pyromaniac might be worth it. They both fared horribly. The bright side is that flame fuel tanks are really light, but the killing speed was horrible. I did a follow up test with my 25% durability bumper sword with my ~20 melee skill and I did around the same damage against Crimson Caravan. I don't know how the Heavy Incinerator does 38 damage, cause I was holding on to the fire button, and it killed slower than my revolver, which has way slower firing speed and around the same damage.

Assault Carbine is similarly meh like the Minigun. The Marksman Carbine, on the other hand, although the single damage bullet isn't very high, it's amazingly accurate, fires fast, and the built in scope is awesome. Too bad, it uses the same 5.56 as the Service Rifle, which what I was using in my Teen levels, if I had the Marksman Carbine it would have been a different story for those stinky Fiends.

It's already been sort of confirmed, but I tested a really broken down tri-beam laser and a fully repaired one. Yep, it's pretty clear that each beam takes DT, cause it red shield pinged against supermutants, and Tribeam total damage is 60.

Similarly, my Hunting Shotgun and Riot Shotgun were underwhelming.

tl:dr
Flamer, Minigun, Incinerator, Heavy Incinerator, Assault Carbine, shotguns without shotgun surgeon are meh

Laser Rifle is awful. Beam splitter will make it even awfuler. Tri-Beam Laser isn't bad due to pretty high damage, but with the triple DT, it's like using hollow points, and it uses up triple ammo also

Marksman Carbine is awesome for mid-game

BlackSheep wrote:

Ok... so anyone else experience this:

I side with Yes Man, go and update the securitrons at the fort and.... I come back to the Strip, only to be locked out. Locked out! Gahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Yes. It appears to be bug. I just went back to an earlier save (save often with this game) and retraced my steps. I saved before I left the casino then fast traveled to the gate to make sure I was not locked out.

Alternately you can:

Spoiler:

Pickpocket or destroy the securitrons at the gate to get a key. This should not affect how the securitrons on the other side of gate treat you.

Hot damn the entrance to Vault 22 is awesome. I haven't gone inside yet and I've just been basking in the scenery for about 5 minutes. The mantis are definitely one of my favorite new creatures.

I've been cranking up a bit of modding for New Vegas, mainly to adjust gameplay to better suit my masochistic tendencies (no quest mods yet). If anyone is interested, here's a quick list of the mods I've made and here's a link to the mod page. Puce Moose Tweak and Balance Center

Eight modules are currently available.

PMT - XPadjust.esp
1) Increases the XP required to gain a level by 83%.
2) Halves the XP obtained from lockpicking and hacking, and triples the exploration bonus (finding new map locations).
3) New necklace automatically given to the player. When equipped, this necklace hides the ugly neck seam and grants a perk to the player based on the player's Intelligence score. This perk provides a small bonus to XP whenever XP is earned (to prevent those annoying 1XP kills.), and will shift dynamically if the player's Intelligence value changes while the necklace is worn.

PMT - Slower Backward Movement.esp

This mod slows down your character so you can't merrily run at full speed backward while taking pot shots at enemies. At full health, with an agility of five, you'll move at exactly 50% of your normal speed when backpedaling.

PMT - Reduced Ammo and Chems.esp

When I walked into a facility not too far from the starting location and managed to grab over one hundred rounds of .308 ammo without a fight, difficult lock-picking, or karma loss I knew something had to be done. Reduced Ammo and Chems reduces the amount of ammunition you find by 84% (instead of 25% in vanilla New Vegas), and drastically reduces the ammunition found from most 'placed' clips. No longer will you find stacks of ammunition sprinkled around like toothpicks; when you do find them, there will usually just be one or two overlooked rounds for you to pilfer.
First aid kits are less likely to yield the 'good stuff', and finding a Stimpak in one is no longer a guarantee.
The variables that control scarcity can now be customized by the user. Please see the readme included in the download for details.

PMT - More Demanding Hardcore.esp

This mod gives hardcore mode a nastier bite, and requires the player to pay more attention to what he eats, as well as how often he drinks and sleeps.

1) Doubles sleep/starvation/thirst rates
2) chems weighted, and stimpaks are more expensive and heal over 10 seconds instead of six seconds.
3) Less healing and hunger reduction from pre-war foods. On the bright side, weight has been reduced on a few food items.
4) Faster accumulation of radiation and no loss of rads over time.

PMT - Nastier mines and grenades.esp

Mines shouldn't be a minor nuisance, nor should they give you three seconds warning before exploding. They should be deadly and expedient. This mod decreases the detonation timer from 3 seconds to 0.9 seconds, increases damage by approximately 50% across the board, and increases explosive radius for most mines by 20%. Most tossed grenade types also are granted an increase in damage. These changes affect mines and grenades used by you *or* enemies, so tread lightly and get ready to make an expedient exit and dive for cover if you see that 'grenade warning' arrow.

PMT - Rude Awakening.esp

When I first left Doc's house, I realized that I had two weapons, dozens of rounds of ammunition, stimpaks, food, water, caps, and other assorted items. While it was pleasant to be laden down with presents, it didn't really sit well with the hard scrabble life out in the wastes.

This mod drastically reduces the amount of 'freebies' located in Doc's house, and removes any of your pre-order bonus items to a locked (average difficulty) safe within Doc's house. It also makes the items you receive when leaving his house considerably lousier; expect to enter the harshness of the Nevada sun with a handful of caps, a drink or two, a morsel of food, and maybe a hat if you're lucky.

PMT - Quieter Vats.esp

Perhaps it's my audio configuration, but the VATS interface noises seemed louder and somewhat irritating in New Vegas. This is a tiny mod that simply attenuates the volume of most of the interface sounds in VATS (when you enter VATS, select a target, etc.), making the sounds quieter.

PMT - Reduced Challenge Notifications.esp

PMT - Reduced Challenge Notifications.esp suppresses the constant 'You have killed xx / xx enemies with a xx' style messages that continually spam the player during normal play. Challenge rewards are still obtainable, and you will still see 'threshold' updates (5/10, 10/20)

PMT - Total Challenge Remover performs a Sherman's March on the challenge system, squashing all challenges. You will not receive updates of any kind, nor rewards. This also disables a few non-quest-based achievements.

Puce Moose is a masochist.