So my adventures continue on in the good ol' Mojave, passing the 20 hour mark with only 2 CTD's in an otherwise stable modded up New Vegas. Unfortunately, I'm creeping up against the wall I suddenly hit in my first playthrough attempt 2 years ago - and that wall comes in the form of the sometimes poor quality of the world design. Long stretches of the environment are just too empty and the exploration is poorly paced. Mods such as DFB and IWS help break up the monotony, but it's not on the same level as professionally designed content and lacks elegance in the implementation (funny example of that below).
Side-Note Perhaps Bethesda's greatest design trick with Fallout 3 was convincing players that they are in a lonely, desolate wasteland - when in reality, interesting little discoveries and hidden dangers are very carefully placed around every corner without ever compromising this atmosphere. The "exploration pacing" is just much better in FO3. To be fair, this problem in NV probably has a lot to do with the fact that this was Obsidian's first attempt at an open-world game. I'm sure they would do much better a second time - and I really hope that Bethesda hands the reigns over for either another Fallout game or an Elder Scrolls spin-off; Obsidian definitely nailed some parts of New Vegas, and with this experience under their belts, I'd love to see their next attempt. (And Bethesda would certainly be wise to take note of what Obsidian did so well in NV).
Mod Story, continued One funny encounter I faced thanks to IWS: I was exploring between New Vegas on my way to Bitter Springs when I came across the most balance-breaking, absurd encounter I could ever imagine: a horde - a big, nasty Mongolian type horde - of Deathclaws gathered at some Railroad complex.
Now, this courier is not a coward, so I refused to load a different save, taking on the Mongolian Deathclaws head on. At this point in the game, I was worried that I had acquired too many grenades and stimpacks, making the difficulty too easy. Well, 10 minutes of frantically hurling every grenade in my inventory and gulping down the contents of my stimpacks (there was no time to inject them properly) took care of this balance issue for me.
By the end of the fight, I had retreated all the way back to the outskirts of Vegas - which of course gathered unwilling participants in the now legendary Battle of the Mongolian Deathclaw Invasion. Oh, the tragedy of war: Innocent caravan traders and ranchers, just trying to make a living in a post-post apocalypse world, their lifeless bodies now strewn across the streets…some of the casualties probably a result of my courageous grenade tossing…Thankfully, due to the chaos of the battle, no one suspects me of friendly fire, and I will be (justifiably) remembered as a hero.
On one hand, I was extremely pissed that the mod author of IWS didn't think of not including super-strong enemies like deathclaws and cazadors in the increased spawn lists. On the other, I am somewhat grateful for a battle that I will certainly always remember - in spite of the absurdity and how balance-breaking it was.
I guess it's time to deactivate IWS… I don't think I have the supplies or the courage to survive another encounter like this one, should the Mongolian Deathclaws decide to return and seek revenge (and they will… Of that I am certain).