Fallout 3 Fallout 3 - first play through

I got FO3 Game of the year edition and going to start the game for the first time.

1. I have not played FO1 or FO2 before so I don't know great deal about the SPECIL system. What is the ideal character setup for first time player please?

2. I have only installed the texture pack. I don't want to alter the original game too much but is there any other must have mod please? How is FO3 vanilla please? Is it bad as Oblivion and *really* needs mods to be playable?

The only mod you need for a first playthrough is the Darnified UI. Texture packs may or may not give you crashes depending on your system makeup.

As far as SPECIAL goes, it's all up to you. The only universal stat would probably be intelligence to garner more skill points throughout the game.

FO3 doesn't really need any gameplay tweaks out of the box, unlike Oblivion. You might want to find a mod to slow down the rate you level up. I found I was nearing the (original) level cap before I felt even close to ending the game, but play around and see what you think.

Some of the DLCs don't get the concept of game balance, Point Lookout in particular. It might be worth looking for a mod to take away some of the more blatant computer-cheats (I made my own, but I'm sure someone else released one), but again, give it a try and see what you think. You might like unloading 5 full clips of ammo from a super-powerful gun into the skull of some generic human to kill it.

Imo, Fallout 3 is completely broken out of the box in terms of game balance. There are definitely some mods I would never play without. I ripped this list out of a thread I made about a year ago when I played FO3. You should be able to locate all of these mods at Fallout3nexus.com.

RH_Iron Sights - A mod that adds true 'down the sight' aiming. Makes combat a lot more realistic and enjoyable for me. I couldn't imagine ever playing FO3 without it now. Many thanks to skavenhorde for pointing it out to me.

DarNified UI - Makes fonts a lot smaller, and allows you to customize certain aspects of the HUD and menus.

Arwen's Reduced XP - Necessary to slow the hyper-fast levelling process.

Delay DLC - Delays activation of the DLCs by making it so you have to actually stumble upon those quests. Otherwise you get a ton of "new quest" messages as soon as you exit the vault, which I find unrealistic and immersion breaking.

Bobble NoBoost - Removes the overpowered stat bonuses from finding Bobbleheads.

No Enchanted Armor - Removes skill bonuses from armors/clothing. Your character will already be overpowered in this game without the additional skill bonuses.

Achievement Remover - Removes all achievements from the game. I found them to be annoying and immersion breaking. Some people like achievements though..

Karma Revamp - Overhauls the karma bonuses and reductions, so your karma doesn't fluctuate so drastically. It was way too easy to become good/evil in the vanilla game imo.

I also did some further editing with the UI mod. My compass doesn't show quest markers, landmarks, or NPCs. Also, I don't get a message telling me if I'm "hidden" while sneaking.

Finally, I changed the timescale to make it more realistic. In the vanilla game, an entire day/night cycle lasted only 48 minutes, which I thought was completely ridiculous. I'm using a setting that makes the day/night cycle last 3 hours. Explanation. I think I used a setting of "8".

Definitely, the timescale change is one I would have installed had I known about the problem ahead of time. The XP slowdown mod is also a must, unless you just want to get through the game as fast as possible without fully exploring it.

The overly fast experience never really bothered me in Fallout 3. I enjoyed the game mostly for the exploration (and that was the game's strength IMO) more than the shiny perks.

Exploration becomes more repetitive if you level up too fast and want to see everything because of level scaled enemies.

I'll just insert a disgruntled Chris Avellone like "Curse Them!" (from the New Vegas making of DVD.) in the light of the fact that you haven't played the original games.

Don't worry too much about your skill development with the SPECIAL system, just play the character you want to and you'll do fine. It's very difficult to fail in character building with Fallout 3. For instance, there were youtube clips I recall posted on NMA where a chap played with ridiculously low stats in just about everything in the attempt to prove how little of an impact they have.

Think of a character archetype in your head and just run with it (whether that be stealth oriented and good with rifles, a melee oriented bruiser, a charismatic pacifist or my personal favourite, an all guns blazing Avenging Angel type who wishes to cleanse the wasteland of the dreadful writing and dialogue that Bethesda cobbled into this game.

Having said that, this is your first fallout experience - so that won't affect you at all.

Nontheless, have fun in your first fallout steps! (literally…)

Thanks all for your tips. I created a new character and just got out of the vault and got the first town.

For some reason I can't get into the combat. I only have the starter gun from vault and it seems slow and doesn't do much damage.

Also anyone know good map replacement mod please? I find it hard to navigate with the built in map.

You mean the BB gun, or the 10mm? The 10mm's a pretty good pistol, but the BB gun's useless. You'll probably want to pick up a hunting rifle soon. If you go to the Super Duper Mart west of Megaton you might be able to get some better gear.

As for the map, I can't help you. I didn't have any problems with it.

As far as I concern, just rush through vanilla Fallout 3 so that you can begin with New Vegas. The difference in content and storywriting will be very evident to you as soon as you begin to play New Vegas where character choices actually matters. Sure, you can make F3 hardcore and delete half of the game to make it feel "realistic" yada yada, but it will not fix the fundamental flaw in the end; it's shallow story and content.

Menigal said:

You mean the BB gun, or the 10mm? The 10mm's a pretty good pistol, but the BB gun's useless. You'll probably want to pick up a hunting rifle soon. If you go to the Super Duper Mart west of Megaton you might be able to get some better gear.

As for the map, I can't help you. I didn't have any problems with it.

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Its the BB gun. I did not take the pistol from the girl. I will shop for better gun thanks!

JemyM said:

As far as I concern, just rush through vanilla Fallout 3 so that you can begin with New Vegas. The difference in content and storywriting will be very evident to you as soon as you begin to play New Vegas where character choices actually matters. Sure, you can make F3 hardcore and delete half of the game to make it feel "realistic" yada yada, but it will not fix the fundamental flaw in the end; it's shallow story and content.

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I don't have New Vegas yet. I though I will play them in order.

Btw what level do I have to be before I can start New Vegas pls?

Heh, using the BB gun would be a good challenge to try someday, if you're a complete masochist!

New Vegas is a completely different game, so you can play it whenever you want. It's completely unconnected apart from the setting.

lostforever said:

I don't have New Vegas yet. I though I will play them in order.

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Do play them in order.

If you are the Obsidian type you might find it hard to go back to FO3 after playing New Vegas. The former isnt a bad game, but NV is so much better in terms of writing quality and quest quanity.

I'd avoid the Operation Anchorage DLC for FO3 and Dead Money for New Vegas (unless you enjoy dungeon crawling with limited healing options.

Dead Money had some really interesting characters and very good writing. It's not the best DLC out there, it have some glaring flaws, but it's still interesting.

If you want to breeze through the game: guns, repair, speech.

Intelligence is the most useful attribute since it allows you to max out skills early on, not everyone bothers hunting for all the skill raising books hidden throughout the wasteland. I always start with 10 INT.

Science and lockpick are most useful in 25 point increments, ranks 25-50-75-100 corresponding to the easy, average, hard very hard challenges you'll be running into.

The pitt and operation anchorage dlcs can be done early on, point lookout and mothership zeta are for high level characters. Broken steel only begins after you finish the main quest.

FO: New Vegas is a better rpg.

Thanks once again for the tips guys.

I have been playing around with a "trial" character to figure certain things out before I being properly. I have not done much as I don't want the ruin the game.

This is the character I went for,

S - 4, P - 3, E - 5, C 4, I - 8, A - 8 and L - 8. Tagged LP, repair and small guns.

I find that i hate failing "speech" checks so I think I am going to tag that but that means dropping LP...

KapitanUnterhosen, you say start with 10 INT but where will you get the 2 from in my case please? Also I was under the impression that you can't go over 10 in a certain attribute in special system? if yes will i waste any int books I find later on?

thanks

You don't get any attribute raising books(such as for INT), books only permanently raise skills by 1 point(or 2 if you take a certain perk).

Skills only go up to 100 and there are about 25 books for each skill hidden throughout the wasteland(not that i recommend going on wikia-backed skillbook hunts on a first playthrough).

The only way to permanently raise attributes is through regular level-up perks(you can get up to 10 extra attribute points through a level-up perk), story-based perks(for STR and PE), or unique bobbleheads hidden throughout the wasteland(one for every skill and attribute, raises attribute by one, skill by 10).

You don't even need 10 INT to max out your skills or have a lot of skillpoints, but if you're dead set on it you could just take the extra attribute perk twice or perk+bobblehead(although you'll usually only find the INT bobblehead after you've leveled up some)

I wouldn't worry so much about your stats. You're probably going to find yourself maxing out far too quickly anyways. I actually recommend against starting any higher than 6 or 7 in INT.