F:NV Fallout New Vegas thoughts

[DeepO]

Someone posted this on NeoGAF:

 

[HiddenX]

Someone posted this on NeoGAF:

Maybe Boone did all the hard combat work ?

 

[crpgnut]

Yeah, I'm not sure if this is much bragging rights if Boone can kill and it doesn't count to your totals. It'd be fairly easy to raise sneak to 100 and then just let Boone and Ed-E kill everything. If you know where to go, you could upgrade Ed-e pretty quickly, so that he doesn't miss constantly in combat. I've dropped Boone once I hit mid levels because the game isn't challenging with him in the party on a non-hardcore game. I still need to do his quest I guess, but I really don't know where it starts. I've done the hooded-one's personal quest and am working on the whiskey drinker's quests now and I haven't found anyone else yet.

I don't feel very motivated to help the reclusive guy in NV, though I'll have to at some point I guess. I'm going to put off chasing the suited one for as long as possible though. I really like how the NCR feels kinda hopeless yet most everyone else looks up to/or fears the NCR. I've logged 120 hours in the game, maybe 60 hours with this character and the rest spread out over several other characters and I'm still having a lot of fun. I'm using a 1.5 slowdown mod and I'm level 15 on the 60 hour dude.

 

[DeepO]

Maybe Boone did all the hard combat work ?

Maybe. I thought companions´ kills count toward the player kill count, but I´ve checked it in-game and they don´t.

But it should be possible without ever using companions´ help anyway.
Just have right skills developed (sneak, barter, speech, science, etc), boost xp gain with 3 ranks in Swift Learner and do all quests well rested. To maximize check success further, there´s Comprehension and Educated.
Animal Friend and Robotics Expert should help as well.

I don´t remember really being forced to kill anyone during the main quest, at least in the path I´ve taken. Few side quests most likely aren´t completable
without player´s or companions´ killing/hurting, the Quarry one comes to mind.

Anyway, extremes and technicalities aside, the game offers a good support for roleplaying a more pacifist character and that´s where speech and some other non-combat skills become especially important.

 

[Elwro]

I'm wondering how high should your skill x be for you to even see a dialogue option available for characters with x = n. Initially I thought it was n-25, but then I discovered one option with "Survival [15/60]" which would mean that some options can appear even though the difference is as big as 45 points...

Also, is Charisma good for anything apart from boosting companion stats? Would a guy with CHA 1 and Speech 100 also get the possibility to pass all the checks available to someone with CHA 7?

 

[HiddenX]

Anyway, extremes and technicalities aside, the game offers a good support for roleplaying a more pacifist character and that´s where speech and some other non-combat skills become especially important.

Yes - I like it when all skills, stats & traits are useful/have an effect in a game.

But like Maylander said, it's no fun to use a min-max-strategy and dump one skill to maximize another -> the game gets out of balance.

Fallout New Vegas is not for powergaming, it is made for roleplaying.

 

[Lemonhead]

The steam version of FNV was updated today. See the change log here: http://store.steampowered.com/news/...&appids=22380&appgroupname=Fallout: New Vegas

 

[crpgnut]

Just another thought on leveling mods. I downloaded a 1.5 mod and have been running it for most of this game. I just hit level 19 last night and I still haven't dealt with the guy who shot me in the head. I've not even met my benefactor from the Vegas area. I've done a TON of stuff in the game but I bet I'm still missing up to a 1/3 of map. If someone is a completist, I could see going to a 2.0 slowdown mod right at the beginning so you don't level too quickly.

 

[DPB]

I decided to use the original harder leveling mod, which is the equivalent of 1.33x, and the progression seemed about right. I explored almost everywhere and completed every quest I could find (excluding ones for the Legion) and I hit the level cap just before the final few quests. That said, I always opted for a diplomatic approach and took the Animal Friend perk as soon as possible (I didn't have to kill one single nightstalker, mole rat or bighorner), so I imagine if you went out of your way to kill things you might end up leveling a bit quicker.

I reckon either this mod or a 1.5x one is ideal, the default is too fast and any higher than 1.5x you'd probably have to return to creature respawn points if you wanted to achieve the maximum level.

 

[DeepO]

Just another thought on leveling mods. I downloaded a 1.5 mod and have been running it for most of this game. I just hit level 19 last night and I still haven't dealt with the guy who shot me in the head. I've not even met my benefactor from the Vegas area. I've done a TON of stuff in the game but I bet I'm still missing up to a 1/3 of map. If someone is a completist, I could see going to a 2.0 slowdown mod right at the beginning so you don't level too quickly.

Keep in mind that with 1.5x, at level 20 you´ll have around 45000 experience points gained, but to reach level 30, you´ll need another 55000 to gain.
Imo, there simply isn´t much more experience to gain in the game unless you grind respawns quite a lot.
Grinding aside, 2x slowdown is imo more suited for players who plan to play the game thoroughly, but actually don´t want to reach max level, at least not without sacrificing 3 perk choices on Swift Learner, and use the slowdown more as a means to make the game more challenging when it comes to skill gain/ skill checks (to a lesser extent this applies to 1.5x as well of course).
Everything over 2x is definitely overkill.

 

[BillSeurer]

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/2435-Fallout-New-Vegas

Yahtzee reviewed FO3:NV this week.

 

[Kostas]

I'm almost level 17 and I haven't even done anything for the two main factions. I can certainly see why some were disappointed with the engine, the Strip is less crowded than the new Reno streets, the casinos are fairly empty as well. The writing is top notch and better than anything I've played since the Witcher.

 

[crpgnut]

Keep in mind that with 1.5x, at level 20 you´ll have around 45000 experience points gained, but to reach level 30, you´ll need another 55000 to gain.
Imo, there simply isn´t much more experience to gain in the game unless you grind respawns quite a lot.
Grinding aside, 2x slowdown is imo more suited for players who plan to play the game thoroughly, but actually don´t want to reach max level, at least not without sacrificing 3 perk choices on Swift Learner, and use the slowdown more as a means to make the game more challenging when it comes to skill gain/ skill checks (to a lesser extent this applies to 1.5x as well of course).
Everything over 2x is definitely overkill.

Ah, you made a great point. I don't care about reaching level 30 ever. I just think that I'm overpowered already for most areas of the game. I can certainly be killed by supermutant masters and Deathclaws, but 90% of the game is against other humans who have less than zero chances of killing me. There are a few types of human enemies that are very tough, but the challenge level is completely gone except for in those rare areas. Please note that I'm playing on normal level and I have a solution at hand. I need to remember to bump the difficulty up. I'm sure fiends will be quite a bit tougher on hard or very hard.

I'm thinking if someone mastered speech at the lowest possible level, and knew the game well enough to remember where to go, you could probably reach level 20 very quickly without owning a weapon. You'd probably need a very high sneak skill too though, to get past some encounters.

 

[Kostas]

Bumping the difficulty is definitely the way to go, the game is still nowhere as hard as the original Fallouts were but it's quite challenging even against humans.

 

[akarthis]

I like the teasers to fallout 1&2 a lot. Nostalgia.... If i was a part of the creative team, i would surely put some car keys for the hero to find. It would drive me crazy to look for a car that i would never find. Twisted

 

[Alrik Fassbauer]

Reminds me of a certain chainsaw in LucasArts adventures.

 

[crpgnut]

Very Mild Spoilers:



I ran into a big snag towards the end of the game. I really don't have a preference for who wins between House and the NCR. I guess I'll just go kill every Legion soldier in the game world and then not finish the game. I'm not doing the dirty work for either one of them. The other choice(s) don't appeal to me.

I always want the "good" ending. Games that don't have an optimal ending, I rarely end up finishing. My ending would force all of the various entities to band together to defeat the Legion. So many resources would be expended in that undertaking that nobody would be strong enough to control the region alone. This would force the creation of a multi-party system, each with an equal vote. That body would then become the new government.

To be honest, I'd kill every leader in the gameworld for a clean freak. 200 years after the bombs and nobody has bothered to clean up the debris? Unfathomable. I want rubble clearing robots and cleansweepers. You can only vote if your area is Spic and Span

 

[Maylander]

The "good" ending:

Spoiler

Talk to the robot Yes Man (locked away in Benny's room at the Tops) and become the ruler of Las Vegas yourself by doing his quests.

 

[crpgnut]

The "good" ending:

Spoiler

Talk to the robot Yes Man (locked away in Benny's room at the Tops) and become the ruler of Las Vegas yourself by doing his quests.

Spoiler

I've met him. The problem is that he becomes somewhat self aware if you do this and I'd rather not trust him. Do you know if you can use the robots, yet not allow them to take over after the upgrade? I didn't play through that ending because I wasn't sure where it was headed. My goal would be to keep all factions weak enough so that no one group is in power. If I had to pick a group to be in charge it would be the Followers of the Apocalypse. That didn't appear to be an option.

 

[BillSeurer]

Bumping the difficulty is definitely the way to go, the game is still nowhere as hard as the original Fallouts were but it's quite challenging even against humans.

The original Fallouts were not hard once you got certain equipment. Especially Fallout 2. Heck, even at the beginning I could play Fallout 2 for many hours without reloading as I found out one time when I made a mistake and realized I hadn't saved for something like 5 hours since the very start in Arroyo.

As for FO:NV I am not seeing the supposed godliness of a certain companion. If I was playing hardcore he would have died a dozen times over by now.