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I broke down and bought the Game of the Year Edition on Steam.

I won't be able to play at all until tomorrow.

Just looking for some pointers. I am thinking about playing a scavenger type character. I want to build my own weapons and clothing, and explore more than quest.

I am an alt-a-holic so when I quest what is a good build to "mix it up with the big boys?"

sixpackshaker said:

I broke down and bought the Game of the Year Edition on Steam.

I won't be able to play at all until tomorrow.

Just looking for some pointers. I am thinking about playing a scavenger type character. I want to build my own weapons and clothing, and explore more than quest.

I am an alt-a-holic so when I quest what is a good build to "mix it up with the big boys?"

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I believe everything in Fallout 3 scales to your level, so it honestly doesn't matter. The only truly dangerous foes are deathclaws. Some pointers...

- Learn to love the Hunting Rifle. Ammo is plentiful, it has great accuracy and power, and you will find them EVERYWHERE. There are stronger and better weapons, but few are as easy to fix or have ammo as easy to get.
- Look out for bobbleheads. They'll ether give you +10 to a skill or +1 to a stat. There is NO reason not to get these as soon as you can.
- Get the perk that gives you extra skill points each level. I don't know if it's the case with all the DLC, but originally skill points were at a premium and going 9 INT and rushing to Rivet City for the INT bobble head was a common strategy in vanilla.
- Animal Friend is pretty great. At level 1 you don't need to worry about Yao Guai ruinning your day. At level 2 they will ruin people's day FOR YOU.
- When you find blueprints for a crafted weapon, the more blueprints you have, the higher it's durability when constructed. Generally speaking, all the crafted weapons are the best or near the best of their class.
- Higher durability = Higher damage/damage reduction. Weapons can also jam if low on durability.
- A good way to make the game completely broken is to do the Operation Anchorage stuff. Don't do this unless you want to break the game in half, as you get power armor training, a suit of power armor that doesn't degrade, and some of the best weapons in the game. You can do this right after leaving Vault 101, so don't do it unless you are having a hard time.

Other than that, my only advice is to go about things are your own pace. The Capital Wasteland is meant to be explored and you can do so at your leisure.

When you're ready, I highly suggest you get Fallout: New Vegas GOTY edition. It's better than FO3 in almost every way and is based on the Van Buren script that was originally going to be Fallout 3 in the 90's.

Explore, explore. Take your time with the main quests. Go find shit, blow that shit up and take everything. HOARDE.

In addition to Ash's excellent advice, I would pick one weapon skill to build and stick with it for most of the game. You can do more if you want to, of course, but this game really benefits from focusing your leveling rather than jack-of-all-trades.

I am partial to Small Guns myself, mainly because of the Hunting Rifle, which I agree is just all-around excellent, but since you don't need weapon ranks to try out different weapons, you can take your time on figuring out which skill to build.

My guy ended up going Small Guns and (later on) Energy Weapons, FWIW.

EDIT: Also the unique Hunting Rifle, Lincoln's Repeater, it's practically game-breaking if you have lots of Small Gun skill ranks.

Speaking of game breaking: I'm not sure how you play, but if you're not into stealth, do NOT start the Operation: Anchorage DLC first thing like I did. I blundered into it literally first thing, and it definitely changed the game. Fortunately, that's how I play anyway, so for me it worked out.

SpecialKO said:

In addition to Ash's excellent advice, I would pick one weapon skill to build and stick with it for most of the game. You can do more if you want to, of course, but this game really benefits from focusing your leveling rather than jack-of-all-trades.

I am partial to Small Guns myself, mainly because of the Hunting Rifle, which I agree is just all-around excellent, but since you don't need weapon ranks to try out different weapons, you can take your time on figuring out which skill to build.

My guy ended up going Small Guns and (later on) Energy Weapons, FWIW.

EDIT: Also the unique Hunting Rifle, Lincoln's Repeater, it's practically game-breaking if you have lots of Small Gun skill ranks.

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Lincoln's repeater isn't as game-breaking as it could be. It uses .44 magnum ammo, which is actually rather hard to find outside of stores. It's also not technically a hunting rifle, even if it's repaired with them. Ol' Painless is the unique hunting rifle. There is also a unique level-action rifle in the Point Lookout DLC area that can actually be better than Lincoln's if you go high luck, take finesse, and get the survival expert crit chance increase because it'll have a 90% crit rate and do 5X damage compared to Lincoln's 2x. The Backwater Rifle also only uses 10mm ammo instead of the .44 use in Lincoln's.

My advice on energy weapons? They don't really shine in this game unless you get the Alien stuff and that has ammo problems. Ether go Small Arms or Melee your first time around.

Ash has given some great advice, but I disagree with just a few of his points:

1. Animal Friend works against molerats, brahmin, dogs, and yao guai. Among these, only yao guai pose anything close to an actual threat, and they're relatively rare. Additionally, since yao guai can only attack with melee, you can kill them fairly easily if you backpedal while firing at them. Therefore, I have never found it worthwhile to put a perk point in Animal Friend, much less two.

2. There are quite a few great energy weapons outside of the Mothership Zeta alien weapons. Most notably, there's a unique plasma rifle you can obtain in Rivet City that pretty much owns everything in sight. The Pitt has a laser shotgun that's also excellent, while Operation Anchorage gives you an energy-based sniper rifle.

Now, regarding your intention to build your own weapons, I regret to inform you that Fallout 3 isn't a great game for that. There are only a handful of craftable weapons, and before you can craft them you need to find the schematics for them, which isn't always a trivial task. Admittedly, many of the craftable weapons are considered top of their class (eg the Deathclaw Gauntlet is probably the best unarmed weapon, the Bottlecap Mine is the most powerful mine, the Nuka Grenade is the most powerful grenade, etc), but specializing in craftable weapons will be quite challenging for a first playthrough. Also, there are no craftable armors.

For your first playthrough, I heartily suggest a stealthy sniper playstyle, with a focus on the Small Guns skill. A stealthy approach helps you assess a battle before you engage the enemy, while sniping from afar gives you the chance to take down enemies before they even get close. However, do bear in mind that the sniping mechanics in FO3 are quite broken, so a sniper playthrough can cause a bit of raging. (I can elaborate on this point if you want)

Remember to save regularly, in multiple slots. FO3 isn't a very stable game, and there are still quite a few annoying bugs, some of them easily game-breaking.

Finally, let me re-emphasize what has already been said a few times: Explore, wander, do sidequests, soak up the atmosphere. The main quest in FO3 only accounts for, I'd say, 10% of the game. The true meat of the game comes from exploring the world Bethesda managed to build.

Oh, and after you've played through the game at least once, you can get into mods. Glorious, glorious mods.

The problem with energy weapons is that they simply aren't as effective as small arms. Yes, the unique plasma rifle does excellent damage... but it's also inaccurate and requires fusion cells, which are expensive as ammo. Yes, the laser splitter does good damage... but you also need to scavenge around a junkyard for awhile to get it and it's no terribly accurate. Yes, the gauss rifle is very accurate and does good damage... but it also eats fusion cells for lunch, only has one shot, and is expensive to repair because nothing repairs it except alien epoxy and NPC vendors.

AshburnerX said:

The problem with energy weapons is that they simply aren't as effective as small arms. Yes, the unique plasma rifle does excellent damage... but it's also inaccurate and requires fusion cells, which are expensive as ammo. Yes, the laser splitter does good damage... but you also need to scavenge around a junkyard for awhile to get it and it's no terribly accurate. Yes, the gauss rifle is very accurate and does good damage... but it also eats fusion cells for lunch, only has one shot, and is expensive to repair because nothing repairs it except alien epoxy and NPC vendors.

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However, once you reach the point in the main quest when the, ah, energy-weapon-happy enemies show up, ammo is generally no longer a problem. But, yes, energy weapons are not as immediately accessible as small guns. So yeah, for a first playthrough, it's better to focus on small guns, and leave energy weapons for the future.

I ended up using (And it's been awhile so I'm probably going to say things incorrectly) the hunting rifle for almost everything until I got the plasma rifle, then that was my main weapon with the hunting rifle to back me up. Really, it's all about that hunting rifle.

This is one of the things I like more about New Vegas: Virtually all weapons are viable for the time you get them, even if some are better than others. Starting out, you'll find that plain old Varmint Rifle will last you well into the 50+ skill range because of it's excellent accuracy and decent fire speed, where it'll probably be replaced with ether a Battle Rifle (if you have Gun Runner's Arsenal) or a Hunting Rifle. Hell, it might last you even longer if you find most of the mods for it. Modding weapons really extends their life in New Vegas... plus the ability to craft special ammo makes older guns better if you don't have the skill to make a stronger handload/max charge.

Now "I don't want to set the world on fire" is scorched onto my brain.

And I don't really mind.

sixpackshaker said:

Now "I don't want to set the world on fire" is scorched onto my brain.

And I don't really mind.

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Eventually you'll want to install the Project: NEVADA mod which adds a ton of functionality to the game. It also has a bunch of new songs for the radio. Trust me, it'll save your sanity. But save it for your second run.

AshburnerX said:

Eventually you'll want to install the Project: NEVADA mod which adds a ton of functionality to the game. It also has a bunch of new songs for the radio. Trust me, it'll save your sanity. But save it for your second run.

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Project Nevada's for New Vegas. Sixpack's playing Fallout 3, isn't he? "I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire" is from FO3.

bhamv3 said:

Project Nevada's for New Vegas. Sixpack's playing Fallout 3, isn't he? "I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire" is from FO3.

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Oh that's right... I get them confused sometimes. There's something LIKE project Nevada I think though...

AshburnerX said:

Oh that's right... I get them confused sometimes. There's something LIKE project Nevada I think though...

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Well, the same mod author also made Fallout Wanderers Edition (FWE), which is considered one of the best gameplay overhaul mods for Fallout 3. Not sure if it adds new radio music though.

I just finished the main quest. Now I don't know if I want to start over or continue with this version of the lone wanderer...

sixpackshaker said:

I just finished the main quest. Now I don't know if I want to start over or continue with this version of the lone wanderer...

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My advice? If you don't feel like redoing stuff and just want to experience what the game has to offer, just keep going with this character. Doing new games is more fulfilling in New Vegas than it is in FO3.

I like how most of the advice in this thread has boiled down to mentioning that New Vegas is better.

Ravenpoe said:

I like how most of the advice in this thread has boiled down to mentioning that New Vegas is better.

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It's not that FO3 is bad... it's not. It's actually great. It's just that New Vegas did everything so, so very right.

I do need to check the specs for New Vegas, see if my crap computer can run it.

I may start over, because I went all stealth and small arms, which seemed to do nothing until you get them both over 85.

On the whole I consider New Vegas to be the superior game, but there were a few things that Fallout 3 did better.

For example, New Vegas never managed to match that moment when you step out of Vault 101.

Fallout 3 was an interesting experience for me. The first two Fallouts were (and still are) two of my most favorite games of all time. I was beyond excited. I liked Bethesda games. The beginning was fantastic. Then, the more I explored, the Brotherhood, the Enclave, FUCKING HAROLD, the more I realized that I was playing bad fan fiction. Bad fan fiction in a world that was fun to explore in.

OK, I went out and bought New Vegas Ultimate Edition. I think I may restart. I am not very far into the game yet. But I just found out about gambling to earn implants... So I guess I'll get ready to have a Lucky Cyborg character.

sixpackshaker said:

OK, I went out and bought New Vegas Ultimate Edition. I think I may restart. I am not very far into the game yet. But I just found out about gambling to earn implants... So I guess I'll get ready to have a Lucky Cyborg character.

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It's not the ONLY way to play the game, but it's not a bad way to play ether. By the end of the game you'll be drowning in caps ether way because of the strength of enemy weapons. You can also make more any time you want if you set up your Caravan eck a certain way.

My advice for a first time build?
- Charisma is your dump stat. High Speech is way more important than Charisma.
- Small Frame is great for an extra Agility at creation.
- Specialize in Guns and then ether Science, Lockpicking, for Speech for obvious reasons
- Get your guns and repair high enough to unlock Handloading as a perk.
- Once your guns and repair are decently high, get your Survival to at least... 60 I think?
- Head to Westside (I think) and talk to the sheriff guy. He'll teach you the highest end handloads, the semi-wad cutters for pistols.
- Probably want to take Cowboy (guns + melee 45) too for the extra damage

Alternatively, get about 20 explosives and take Grunt if you want to use rapid fire guns. Energy weapons are a good choice too but you really miss out on a lot of the fun weapon customization if you take them instead.

Also, once you've played through New Vegas a few times, consider getting a mod called Tale of Two Wastelands. It combines FO3 and FNV into one single game, allowing you to freely travel between the Capital Wasteland and the Mojave.

bhamv3 said:

Also, once you've played through New Vegas a few times, consider getting a mod called Tale of Two Wastelands. It combines FO3 and FNV into one single game, allowing you to freely travel between the Capital Wasteland and the Mojave.

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WHAT?!?!?

Dave said:

WHAT?!?!?

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I think you need to own both games and have them installed though.

I do. Guess I'll go searching for it tonight.

You need the GotY/Ultimate editions of FO3 and FNV. The mod uses FNV as the "base" game, and adds the FO3 areas as additional "modded" areas. This means that ToTW uses FNV's game mechanics, such as having actual iron sights and sniping, expanded crafting, better companion interface etc. It also means that mods for FNV are largely compatible with ToTW, so for example you can use Project Nevada with ToTW if you want.

There are still a few bugs and quirks in the mod to work out, but on the whole it's already very awesome and very worth playing.

EDIT: Oh, also, when I say you can travel freely between DC and the Mojave, strictly speaking you need to spend 500 caps on a train ticket every time you want to travel. So, technically, you don't travel freely, it costs 500 caps a pop. But honestly, that's pocket change, especially later in the game.

Well I made a character last night and ran him all the way to Vegas, BABY!, at level one and broke the banks at all the casinos. But he was a little too imbalanced. So I think I'll scrounge around with my original character and try to make enough caps to buy a luck implant, then just gamble enough to get the rest.

sixpackshaker said:

Well I made a character last night and ran him all the way to Vegas, BABY!, at level one and broke the banks at all the casinos. But he was a little too imbalanced. So I think I'll scrounge around with my original character and try to make enough caps to buy a luck implant, then just gamble enough to get the rest.

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Huh... how'd you get to Vegas at level 1? What route did you take?

bhamv3 said:

Huh... how'd you get to Vegas at level 1? What route did you take?

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It's pretty easy to just run straight up the highway, running away from radscorpions and powder gangers. Sometimes I accidentally hit level 2 before getting there, just from shotgunning attackers.[DOUBLEPOST=1395941441,1395941407][/DOUBLEPOST]But not -straight- up through deathclaw territory, of course.

Ravenpoe said:

It's pretty easy to just run straight up the highway, running away from radscorpions and powder gangers. Sometimes I accidentally hit level 2 before getting there, just from shotgunning attackers.[DOUBLEPOST=1395941441,1395941407][/DOUBLEPOST]But not -straight- up through deathclaw territory, of course.

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Even Deathclaw territory is doable if you are fast enough. But yeah... you basically go north and work your way over.

bhamv3 said:

Huh... how'd you get to Vegas at level 1? What route did you take?

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Run to Hidden Valley, run along the left fence line, I just ran past the rad scorpions. You will come to the shack that gaurds the intrance to black rock, run up the hill behind it hanging to the left. Follow the cliff face, like run along the cliff face not down on the ground level. Towards the end a death claw will catch up to you. Be ready to use all your stimpaks and food to get through the fight/flight. Jump down from the cliff when you see the RobCo building. Walk along the prison at vegas wall to get free laser rifles, and pistols from dead raiders as they fight the NCR. You can even pull a few more raider to the NCR, just don't engage them. Sell all the non-special weapons you have to make enough caps to start gambling.

Man, I can't get my most recent saved game to load! I can't stress how much this angers me. My computer just met the minimum requirements to play. I think I may have picked up some malware. And it is just enough of a change in performance to cause New Vegas to crash.

Personally my favorite build I ever made was a junkie fist-fighter. Loaded up on every drug in the game popped em when I got into combat so I was rocking 10's down the line. Outside of combat everything is a bit of a mess but in combat when the Med-X and Buffout are going I could take on a Deathclaw unarmed and come out on top. (In strait FO3. In New Vegas they made them properly terrifying.)

I think that Melee weapons are pretty OP. I mean I remember going back with the Fistfighter and easily cleaning out locations that were a pain in the ass with guns. Great for feeling like a badass.

Melee and Unarmed are pretty great in New Vegas too. It's easy to get strong unique melee weapons fairly early in the game (You can get Knock-Knock as soon as you find the irradiated town) and some of them (like Pushy) have perks that simply make melee easier.

I have just about finished the game with a stealth sniper. Now I am starting a Cowboy Character. So I'll play with explosives and melee now.

I just finished the game with the stealth character. Then I learned that "A Requiem for the Capital Wasteland" was removed. So much for playing through DC with a Courier.

sixpackshaker said:

I just finished the game with the stealth character. Then I learned that "A Requiem for the Capital Wasteland" was removed. So much for playing through DC with a Courier.

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It's been renamed Tale of Two Wastelands:

http://taleoftwowastelands.com/

Your dream lives on!!

(Although ToTW starts with you being born in FO3, so strictly speaking you're playing through the Mojave with the Lone Wanderer.

I messed around with the install of Tale of Two Wastelands last year and I could not get it to work. This last weekend I successfully got the install to work (newer PC.) Now I wish I tried harder to get TTW installed. It has been pretty fun to play, but hell! the Super Mutants and Talon Company Mercs are now bullet sponges. It took 5 clips of ammo to kill one Mutant Master (with 100 points in guns and a Chinese Assault Rifle.) And they are all over the place with TTW.

I will have to use console command and give myself a vast pool of ammo just to take down one random MOB.

sixpackshaker said:

I messed around with the install of Tale of Two Wastelands last year and I could not get it to work. This last weekend I successfully got the install to work (newer PC.) Now I wish I tried harder to get TTW installed. It has been pretty fun to play, but hell! the Super Mutants and Talon Company Mercs are now bullet sponges. It took 5 clips of ammo to kill one Mutant Master (with 100 points in guns and a Chinese Assault Rifle.) And they are all over the place with TTW.

I will have to use console command and give myself a vast pool of ammo just to take down one random MOB.

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Huh... that doesn't sound like my experience with ToTW. Are you running any other mods in addition to it?

Just a whole lot.

Actually most of the MOBs were fixed with a patch. But the Mutant Master and Talon Company (especially the ones in reinforced combat armor) are still hard kills. I think with my version, the Brotherhood of Steel add-on loads from the start. So there are plenty of critters wandering around with 20 armor and 1k hit points.

sixpackshaker said:

Just a whole lot.

Actually most of the MOBs were fixed with a patch. But the Mutant Master and Talon Company (especially the ones in reinforced combat armor) are still hard kills. I think with my version, the Brotherhood of Steel add-on loads from the start. So there are plenty of critters wandering around with 20 armor and 1k hit points.

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Broken Steel adds three specific enemies that have high HP: Super Mutant Overlords, Feral Ghoul Reavers, and Albino Radscorpions. If you're not fighting one of those three, then they shouldn't be bullet sponges. Also, these three should only show up when you're relatively high level, like 20+.

Methinks it's due to one of your other mods conflicting with ToTW, or causing the change.

Hmmm, if I never played New Vegas, should I play it "pure" first (played Fallout 3 twice)?

SpecialKO said:

Hmmm, if I never played New Vegas, should I play it "pure" first (played Fallout 3 twice)?

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I'd say yes. I liked New Vegas quite a bit more than Fallout 3.

Yes, but put off the main quest as long as you can.

I cheat like hell now at New Vegas.

I always liked the setting of Fallout 3 more. But New Vegas has better game mechanics and better weapon variety. Hell I used to play most of Fallout with just the hunting rifle, and a combat shotgun. Now with the mod to play Fallout 3 settings with the New Vegas rules, I am having a good time again.