What Game Should I Play Next?

Considering how long it takes me to finish games, surely you understand my concern.

What does making it more realistic have to do with how long it would take you to finish?

*Edit* Wait, I think I misunderstood. If you're worried about that adjustment causing any undesirable glitches, it doesn't.

Yeah, that was my concern exacerbated by my slow playthroughs...

Heh heh… I played FO3 for months. It was intentional though..

Thrasher said:

I think the red markers on the compass could be considered realistic if you assume your character could detect enemies using all senses that not properly captured in the game. Like smell or vibrations or just better sound or visuals.

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It was my line of reasoning too

I`m nearly lvl 8 with 21 hrs gameplay - you got me worried there and I`ll install the experience mod tonight.
Timescale…doesn`t bother me really, but I might try adjusting a bit, since it`s a console thing.

The thing with loot must be strength related I think - mine`s 6 and I manage to keep >half of my inventory free, even with 4-5 guns, aid, armour etc… So, didn`t have to trek back`n forth more than twice yet. Also remember there are other places where traders hang out than Megaton…

What worries me is that (apart from constant tweaking the graphics) I can`t get used to control scheme in this game. I got mouse working ok-ish, but keyboard is abysmal…moves too far after slight keypress…must borrow a 360 pad and try that, otherwise it might kill the game for me.

Perception seems to be about having powerful senses, so being able to detect enemies from farther away didn't strike me as much of a stretch. At least not compared with the ability to stop time

Personally, I was most annoyed with the removal of traits, the overly generous amount of skill points, and the fact that being better at handling a weapon - somehow significantly increased damage with ranged weapons upon impact.

Oh, and I'll refrain from commenting on Bethesda writing.

Generous skill points? Hmm…dunno about that…there`s so many skills I want to invest in (all of them actually & still cant` hack a computer/barely can pick a lock.
Anyway i`m fresh after Arcanum, with it`s stupid 1 (thats ONE) skill point per level. F*&k that s%@t, ok?

Traits - yes. But, they could also prune much more…

If you`re better with weapons, (semi)logically you can target more vital points, causing more damage. Or something…

As for writing - well It`s passable. You look for Dad (whom I hated , could be worse. Side quests ain`t so bad either… ok, so it`s not exactly Gene Wolfe, but not much else is. I gave up on "quality writing' in games some 20 years ago, and I write my own story in my head. It`s only annoying when REALLY bad.

zadokAllen said:

Generous skill points? Hmm…dunno about that…there`s so many skills I want to invest in (all of them actually & still cant` hack a computer/barely can pick a lock.
Anyway i`m fresh after Arcanum, with it`s stupid 1 (thats ONE) skill point per level. F*&k that s%@t, ok?

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You can't have gotten far, then. In vanilla FO3 - you could max out all vital skills before you reached the cap - and you did that way before you were done, if you like exploring.

If you`re better with weapons, (semi)logically you can target more vital points, causing more damage. Or something…

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That's why accuracy should be the only thing affected, and not impact damage. Then you could aim for a vital spot and do vital damage. Pretty basic, really. If they had to do something, then they could have upped crit chance along with skill. It's lazy game design 101.

As for writing - well It`s passable. You look for Dad (whom I hated , could be worse. Side quests ain`t so bad either… ok, so it`s not exactly Gene Wolfe, but not much else is. I gave up on "quality writing' in games some 20 years ago, and I write my own story in my head. It`s only annoying when REALLY bad.

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I'm mostly talking about the ridiculous NPCs - that were pretty much all insane or over-the-top in their humor.

New Vegas is a zillion times better.

But it's subjective.

DArtagnan said:

You can't have gotten far, then. In vanilla FO3 - you could max out all vital skills before you reached the cap - and you did that way before you were done, if you like exploring.

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Not far, no, and I`m gonna install this slowEXP mod...

That's why accuracy should be the only thing affected, and not impact damage. Then you could aim for a vital spot and do vital damage. Pretty basic, really. If they had to do something, then they could have upped crit chance along with skill. It's lazy game design 101.

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How d`ya know it`s impact? There could be a few factors, like distance/armour... the game doesn`t really tell me anything apart from enemies health bars depleting/% in VATS

I'm mostly talking about the ridiculous NPCs - that were pretty much all insane or over-the-top in their humor.

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Thats true about them being insane (especially that supplies lady from Megaton) -but it made sense for me, given the circumstances

New Vegas is a zillion times better.

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So I hear...and it`s a very pleasant feeling to know it`s out there. Probably by the time I`ll get around to play it, Skyrim will be out, and so my grand plan to rely only on Bethsoft for AAA`s will be complete

How d`ya know it`s impact? There could be a few factors, like distance/armour… the game doesn`t really tell me anything apart from enemies health bars depleting/% in VATS

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Because the damage number visibly increases along with the skill for the same weapon, so it can be nothing else.

DArtagnan said:

You can't have gotten far, then. In vanilla FO3 - you could max out all vital skills before you reached the cap - and you did that way before you were done, if you like exploring.

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100% true.

They made it far too easy to max out your skills in the vanilla game. Part of the problem is that there's too many available bonus points to be had. They put way too many skill books in the game, and the Bobblehead bonuses are just plain stupid. I modded them out btw. (the bonuses, not the Bobbleheads themselves).

I don't have a problem will the weapon skills affecting damage though. It makes some degree of sense to me that the more skilled you are with a weapon the more damage you could potentially do.

After a few more hours I finished clearing the Springvale School and the raider infested dilapidated elevated roadway to the northeast. Nasty sniper trap that one! This is going VERY slowly. I have 6 strength and had to make 5 trips to dispose of all the loot from the roadway (about 9 sets of armor, and a flamethrower, among other goodies). I had about 50 spare weight for looting. Maybe I need to carry fewer weapons, but I am trying to keep my options open for found ammo and also carrying a ripper and spiked knuckles to save ammo when possible. Plus the food santinizer… I may have to hack encumbrance using the console…

Anyway, I am getting irritated by the best weapons disappearing from boss kills. This happened in Oblivion too. The enemies would flail away their weapons when they died and they would disappear into the many gaps in the graphics mesh. Is the same thing happening here? Or was it because I shot their arms and destroyed their weapons?

Not to mention it's hard to find them when they are there… Items and even dead enemies seem to be designed to camouflage with the environment - the ever present brown and gray…

EDIT: Not to sound like I'm not liking it, but after a while enough irritants and repetition can add up to tiresome gameplay…. I am still liking it very much.

Regarding loot, it sounds like your problem is simply trying to pick up too much stuff. I never looted armor from Raiders, you don't need it.

It's possible to target a weapon, even in non-VATS mode, and knock it from the enemy's grasp. I'm guessing you might have done that, and then killed him before he was able to retrieve it. I did have a few instances where an item would seem to disappear, but that was extremely rare.

Yeah, I guess I am too completist to leave stuff behind and worry about being broke. I need to get over it (or see a Dr. for OCD).

Thrasher said:

Yeah, I guess I am too completist to leave stuff behind and worry about being broke. I need to get over it (or see a Dr. for OCD).

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Not a thing wrong with that. If there's a broken arrow to be looted, there's a merchant somewhere that will give you half a copper for it. If you want a +1 Sword of Occasional Scratching, you only have to pick up and sell 7-million broken arrows and that bad boy can be yours! For such a small investment of time, how could anyone not?

I'm with you, Thrasher. I didn't realize there was any other way to play...

Oh, to be carefree. I never got "Don't worry. be happy" When I stop worrying, I'll be dead...

Yikes! The capital wasteland has got me by the... So maybe I have explored an eighth of it after 56 hours and am now level 9...

I'm lawnmowering a spiral out from Megaton, ignoring the far flung main and misc quest locations for now, while taking 1 hop forays into the city through the tunnels as I find them. The MANY Mirelurks in the Flooded Metro tunnel to the Mason district were almost too much. How did you handle them?

Also, should I enable any of the DLC now? I was planning on doing them at the end with one potential exception. I'll enable Broken Steel when (and if) I reach the default level 20 cap.

Mirelurks can be a real pain, especially when you're traveling solo. Their armor rating is very high everywhere but their face. A good tactic is to cripple one of their legs by either shooting it or getting them to walk over a frag mine. Once they're slowed down, you can just back up while shooting at will. I found the combat shotgun to be effective against them, but I still avoided them when possible because there's very little reward for killing them.

As far as the DLC is concerned, I used a mod called "DelayDLC", which does a good job of integrating them into the game realistically.

Damn things are fast. In cramped quarters, they are usually on me after the first shot unless I get lucky with a critical to the legs. I try to sneak critical them (that's mostly an instant kill with the sniper rifle), but in cramped locations (or in water) that's too hard or impossible.

I can sell Miralurk meat for quite a tidy sum, good price/weigh ratio there.

But, in reallity, they were simply in the way. I HAVE to clear out every single tunnel.

Thanks for the DelayDLC link. I'd like to control DLC introduction manually, and wonder about the mitigating factors.

Well the Mirelurks inside of buildings or underground will never respawn, so it's worth taking them out. I usually ignored the ones in the Wasteland if I could help it.