Fallout

[Dhavaer]

I got Fallout 3 for my Xbox 360 some time ago and liked it, so when I saw a collection of the original 3 games (1, 2 and Tactics) I decided to get it. After playing the original for half-an-hour or so, I discovered that I suck at it. Can anyone give me some advice to get me through the early game?

[Maxymiuk]

That depends where you're stuck. If it's half an hour in, I'll assume it's Shady Sands? My memory's a bit hazy, but if I recall correctly, it goes like this:


There's three major "quests" to handle in the area.
- Visit Vault 15. It's a big hole in the ground, so you'll need rope to get in. Buy it in Shady Sands.
- Clear out the radscorpions for the Elder - if there's any eggs in the cave, destroy them too. (plus, you can bring a few of their tails to the village doctor, who'll turn them into an antidote)
- Once you're done with the radscorpions, Tandi's kidnapping will trigger. The Elder will ask for your help and send you to the raider camp. There you can either kill them all (a daunting task, even with Ian in tow), or intimidate the leader into giving her back.
- Once that's done, the grateful Elder should mark the next town you should visit on your map


EDIT: Bah, for some reason I've read "suck" as "stuck".

Ok, here's a few quick tips on the pre-Bethesa Fallout series:

- Combat is turn based (duh). Therefore, your Action Points are one of your most valuable resources. High Agility is practically a must for every character
- Unlike Fallout 3, Perception has a large influence on ranged combat. So if you're going the gunslinger route, pump that as well.
- You can talk your way out of roughly 3/4 of the plotline fights. Charismatic characters are viable!
- Let's just say that, overall, stats have a much higher impact on your character than they did in Fallout 3, mmkay?
- In Fallout 1, skills go up to 200% (300% in the sequel), but I found that you'll hardly ever need more than ~130% in your main ones.
- When facing multiple opponents, either try to get range on them (the AI generally can't shoot the broad side of a barn past 1/2 their weapon's maximum range), or look for chokepoints and cover. Doors, or tent entrances are great for making the enemies engage you single-file. If you went melee... well, you better have high Endurance, that's all.
- Making the enemy shoot their own people in the back is a viable strategy.
- Often getting off another shot is better than reloading. Put that second quickslot to good use.
- Targetting body parts! There's very few things that can shrug off a blow to the eyes (or groin).

[Dhavaer]

I'm not so much 'stuck' as 'unable to not die'. So exploring Vault 15 is easier than the radscorpion cave?

[Maxymiuk]

Yeah, I noticed that after I've posted. Sorry, not enough sleep. Edited my previous post.

And yes, Vault 15 is a good place to gain your first level or two. Still lots of critters around, but they're not going to swarm you as much, and you don't have to worry about poison.

[Dhavaer]

So Perception governs to hit with ranged weapons? I was wondering why I couldn't hit anything past spitting distance with 6 agility and small guns tagged. How much of a penalty are called shots made at?

[Maxymiuk]

The penalties vary, from *consults wiki* -20% for legs, to -60% for eyes. But since the penalty is applied to the "virtual" hit chance dependent on your stats and skills, as opposed to the displayed hit chance, which always caps at 95%, it's fairly easy to make called shots to the eyes at 80-95% by the time you hit level 5-6.

[Dhavaer]

That'll be something nice to look forward to.

[Sir Enigma]

If you end up too stuck on the radscorpions, you can go back to Vault 13, and on the lowest level, you can talk your way into the vault supply room and get some more ammo and a shotgun (you may need some speech skill or intelligence, I always have both so I'm not sure what the minimum requirement is). The shotgun makes the scorpions a lot easier.

[Triaxx]

I've heard the games described as the following:

Fallout 1: A survival game. The trick is to live rather than fight everything.

Fallout 2: An adventure game. You can fight and feel godly.

Fallout Tactics: A piece of absolute garbage. But only by purists.

My personal feelings on Tactics are: Hey! This is fun. Wait, where did that come from. Rockets? What the? *chews on keyboard* Hah, ambush... Grenades? Are you kidding me? Where did they get grenades? Agghhh! Robots? What the hell are robots doing in my post-apocalyptic game? And why aren't my miniguns doing anything? Raaggha! Hey, this really is fun.

---

Sucking comes from trying to play it like a combat game. Play it instead like a survival horror game. Conserve every single round of ammo you have, run from any fight you want to, cower behind as many minions as you can. And if you happen to have the advantage either of surprise or numbers, just wait, you'll be boxed in, or reinforcements will arrive, and not for you.

[Philistine]

Then there's the really easy way to deal with the Radscorpion Cave: use the Explosives from Vault 15 to blow the mouth of the tunnel closed, sealing them in.

Vault 15 is a really good place to visit early on. In addition to the easy XP from all the rats (plus a big chunk for advancing the main quest), and the Explosives to shortcut the radscorpion quest, you can also pick up a hunting rifle, a SMG, and a Leather Jacket (which isn't much, but is better than no armor at all). It's well worth the trip.

[The Rose Dragon]

Take Ian. Take him and keep him until you get a Hardened Power Armor. I swear, he's gotta be immortal for the first half of the game.

You don't actually need Strength higher than 6, since Power Armor adds a +4 to Strength anyway.

Gifted is cheating. But it's a legal form of cheating, so take that. The total penalty is negligible (since you won't use many of the lost skill points anyway), and the bonus is awesome (you get 12 points instead of the normal 5).

If you're going to go Small Guns like I did during my first play, dump Luck. Even at Burst Mode Small Guns don't do that much damage, so you'd rather rely on skill than the occasional critical hit.

If you're going Energy Weapons or Big Guns, you should keep Luck at 5 - 6 minimum and probably take Fast Shot or Finesse, to get more crits or get more out of each crit.

Speech is the most important skill if you have an Intelligence of at least 4. It gets more important as it increases.

My favorite character in both Fallout 1 and Fallout 2 has the following stats:

STR - 6
PE - 7
EN - 7
CH - 8
IN - 7
AG - 10
LK - 2

Traits - Gifted, Fast Shot

Tagged Skills - Small Guns, Speech, Barter (note that you may switch Barter for Science, Repair, Energy Weapons or Big Guns depending on preference).

This is gonna be a real spoiler that can spoil both the story and the gameplay, so be careful opening it.

In Fallout 2, one thing that really increases your chances of survival is to go to San Fransisco (just go as south as you can), speak to the Brotherhood guard and get the mission for the Vertibird plans. Ask how you can get into a guarded base, save the game, go to Navarro, tell you're looking to join the Enclave, get the password and enter. Inside you'll find lots of goodies, including an Advanced Power Armor, the Vertibird plans and some very cool weapons. If you return the plans to the guard, you get access to the Brotherhood base, which has even more cool goodies (such as a Pulse Rifle), and you get to level 6 at the first two hours of play. All without inflicting a single point of damage.

[Triaxx]

Philistine: Where exactly do I go with those explosives in the cave?

The Rose Dragon: The problem is it requires a lot of saving to get there or death ensues.

[The Rose Dragon]

The Rose Dragon: The problem is it requires a lot of saving to get there or death ensues.

Not a single save besides the one at San Fransisco. You simply have to stay away from around the Navarro. Agility 10 ensures that you move faster than anything the game can throw at you at that point, so you just have to make a run for the exit area quickly enough.

The save at San Fran is only needed because Gary might refuse to give you the password, and you might get killed by Enclave soldiers if you are unlucky.

[chiasaur11]

Explosives are in Vault 15.

Seconding the Ian tips, least till you can get Tycho. Made the scorpion caves a lot easier.

Also: to the person surprised by robots in tactics:

Robots have been in good old Fallout forever. Part of the charm.

Oh, and the worst bit, (for me at least), is yet to come. Taking on the entire raider base... yeesh. Sure you can go in stealthy, or negotiate, but did I?

[Cubey]

The problem with early game in Fallout (both 1 and 2) is as follows: the base chance to hit is equal to your skill level. Even with tagged Small Guns, you'll be lucky to hit anything 60% of the time.

Solution: play smart. Get enough XP to advance to level 2 as soon as possible, without fighting if you can help it. Get an ally - Ian in case of Fallout 2, he's good and you can easily make him join for free. If you are forced to fight, don't even bother aiming. Just shoot and hope you hit.
When you advance to level 2, which is easier than it sounds, just put ALL your available skill points into Small Guns, Unarmed or Melee, whatever of these you use (don't bother with Throwing, Big Guns and Energy Weapons until you actually find any). With Small Guns at ~80, you're good to go.

[Maxymiuk]

My favorite character in both Fallout 1 and Fallout 2 has the following stats:

STR - 6
PE - 7
EN - 7
CH - 8
IN - 7
AG - 10
LK - 2

Traits - Gifted, Fast Shot

Tagged Skills - Small Guns, Speech, Barter (note that you may switch Barter for Science, Repair, Energy Weapons or Big Guns depending on preference).


I found that as long as I have Speech tagged and give it regular skill point injections, it still works well, even with Charisma 4.

I took Fast Shot once, and then avoided it like the plague. I like to get maximum bang for each bullet, so no way am I losing my headshots.

I try to avoid dumping Luck, as it works both ways - the lower it is, the bigger the chance your weapon jams, or explodes in your face.

My typical build was:

STR 6
PER 10
END 4
CHA 4
INT 8
AGI 10
LCK 6

Traits: Gifted, Small Frame
Tags: Small Guns, Lockpicking, Speech

In short, a somewhat surly (and usually snarky) marksman that could make his way into places by force, stealth, or charm. Hunting (later sniper) rifle in one quickslot, a combat shotgun in the other. Once it became available, I took the Tag! perk for Energy Weapons.

And now that we've sufficiently nerded up the thread... :smalltongue:

EDIT:


The problem with early game in Fallout (both 1 and 2) is as follows: the base chance to hit is equal to your skill level. Even with tagged Small Guns, you'll be lucky to hit anything 60% of the time.

Actually, your chance to hit in ranged combat is determined as follows:

Skill - 30% + (8*PER)% - (4*distance)% - target's AC +/- misc modifiers such as lighting, weapon traits, perks, etc. = to hit %

[The Rose Dragon]

Note that there is no Ian in Fallout 2 (an NPC even comments on that if you can find him - the NPC, not Ian).

You can get Cassidy in Fallout 2 for free, and you won't regret it. Just... don't give him any drugs other than Stimpaks. He has a crappy heart.

[The Rose Dragon]

I found that as long as I have Speech tagged and give it regular skill point injections, it still works well, even with Charisma 4.

I like Charisma high just because (often it does not have any actual in-game effect). You do need Intelligence high to get some real use out of it, though.

I don't like Small Frame because of my tendency to overcarry. I had over a thousand bullets for my favorite weapon once (Turbo Plasma Rifle). Even after selling everything I didn't use, with a Strength of 10, and Strong Back I still had to drop some of the cool loot (I have Barter just to sell that cool loot and get more ammo).

I never had my weapon explode or jam or drop with any alarming frequency (only twice in a total of six or seven playthroughs and one included an entire playthrough with Jinxed). Now, Vic, on the other hand, broke his weapons like they were limitless.

Fast Shot is a very good choice if you're using Big Guns, since you can't make Aimed Shots with them anyway. Or if you're using Turbo Plasma Rifle, in which case you can get up to five shots a round.

That, and I don't rely on my luck in aiming much. I miss 70% of the time I have a 70% chance to hit.

[chiasaur11]

I found that as long as I have Speech tagged and give it regular skill point injections, it still works well, even with Charisma 4.

I took Fast Shot once, and then avoided it like the plague. I like to get maximum bang for each bullet, so no way am I losing my headshots.

I try to avoid dumping Luck, as it works both ways - the lower it is, the bigger the chance your weapon jams, or explodes in your face.

My typical build was:

STR 6
PER 10
END 4
CHA 4
INT 8
AGI 10
LCK 6

Traits: Gifted, Small Frame
Tags: Small Guns, Lockpicking, Speech

In short, a somewhat surly (and usually snarky) marksman that could make his way into places by force, stealth, or charm. Hunting (later sniper) rifle in one quickslot, a combat shotgun in the other. Once it became available, I took the Tag! perk for Energy Weapons.

And now that we've sufficiently nerded up the thread... :smalltongue:

EDIT:



Actually, your chance to hit in ranged combat is determined as follows:

Skill - 30% + (8*PER)% - (4*distance)% - target's AC +/- misc modifiers such as lighting, weapon traits, perks, etc. = to hit %

I maxed int, had decent luck, picked gifted and skilled as my traits, and tagged science, energy weapons, and repair.

The wait for laser pistols was disappointing, but watching one's enemies explode more than made up for it.

[The Rose Dragon]

I maxed int, had decent luck, picked gifted and skilled as my traits, and tagged science, energy weapons, and repair.

The wait for laser pistols was disappointing, but watching one's enemies explode more than made up for it.

Never, ever took Skilled. Worst trait next to Jinxed and Bloody Mess, IMNSHO. You don't need extra skill points ever (an Intelligence of 7 ensures that, even with Gifted, you got more skill points than you'll ever need). And Perks are the most precious supply you have.

It becomes even more important in Fallout 2, where the number of good perks are increased and so are the number of levels, but it's still not enough to take them all.

Maxy, where does the skill at weapon come into play? Cause I know that without Big Guns, you can't even hit a Super Mutant with a Rocket Launcher (the hit chance is something around -26% at 5 hexes).

[Maxymiuk]

I like Charisma high just because (often it does not have any actual in-game effect). You do need Intelligence high to get some real use out of it, though.

If I recall, you need Charisma if you like to surround yourself with meatshields. The formula is CHA/2 = max followers, rounded down.


I don't like Small Frame because of my tendency to overcarry. I had over a thousand bullets for my favorite weapon once (Turbo Plasma Rifle). Even after selling everything I didn't use, with a Strength of 10, and Strong Back I still had to drop some of the cool loot (I have Barter just to sell that cool loot and get more ammo).

In Fallout 1, I generally didn't find enough ammo to worry about space. That, and my "one shot, one kill" philosophy helped cut down on ammunition usage like nobody's business. Plus, my followers made good packmules. In Fallout 2, where the game just throws ammo at you, you get the handy dandy travelling storage space.


I never had my weapon explode or jam or drop with any alarming frequency (only twice in a total of six or seven playthroughs and one included an entire playthrough with Jinxed). Now, Vic, on the other hand, broke his weapons like they were limitless.

Luck of the draw, I guess. Whenever I'd dare to drop Luck to 4 or less, I'd become a Murphy's Law magnet.


Fast Shot is a very good choice if you're using Big Guns, since you can't make Aimed Shots with them anyway. Or if you're using Turbo Plasma Rifle, in which case you can get up to five shots a round.

That, and I don't rely on my luck in aiming much. I miss 70% of the time I have a 70% chance to hit.

Good point about big guns. I tended to avoid them, due to high STR requirements. Though luck doesn't affect hit chance at all, if I recall, just crit chance. Me, I regularly got 80-95% chance to score an aimed shot to the eyes. But hey, different playing styles, right? :smallcool:

[The Rose Dragon]

Good point about big guns. I tended to avoid them, due to high STR requirements. Though luck doesn't affect hit chance at all, if I recall, just crit chance. Me, I regularly got 80-95% chance to score an aimed shot to the eyes. But hey, different playing styles, right? :smallcool:

I mean my real-life luck. Seriously, I could shoot a 70% hit chance target five times and miss four of them. My cousin would shoot a 45% chance target give times and hit four of them.

[Maxymiuk]

Maxy, where does the skill at weapon come into play? Cause I know that without Big Guns, you can't even hit a Super Mutant with a Rocket Launcher (the hit chance is something around -26% at 5 hexes).

Ranged Weapon Skill - 30% + (8*PER)% - (4*distance)% - target's AC +/- misc modifiers such as lighting, weapon traits, perks, etc. = to hit %

If I recall correctly, after Gifted, Big Guns ends up at 15-20% max during chargen. So you start out at -10% chance to hit and it gets worse from there.

[chiasaur11]

Never, ever took Skilled. Worst trait next to Jinxed and Bloody Mess, IMNSHO. You don't need extra skill points ever (an Intelligence of 7 ensures that, even with Gifted, you got more skill points than you'll ever need). And Perks are the most precious supply you have.

It becomes even more important in Fallout 2, where the number of good perks are increased and so are the number of levels, but it's still not enough to take them all.

Maxy, where does the skill at weapon come into play? Cause I know that without Big Guns, you can't even hit a Super Mutant with a Rocket Launcher (the hit chance is something around -26% at 5 hexes).

I know, I know, but it better seemed to fit a Reed Richardsy science genius type. Besides, I wanted a guy who would found a cool, high tech, restoring lost glory society, rather than the official vault dweller, who founds Arro, like a total putz.

[The Rose Dragon]

Well, your descendant does that. Except he uses a GECK and the knowledge of Vault 13 people.

So, who didn't go on a killing spree after getting the hintbook in Fallout 2?

[Triaxx]

I wasn't surprised about the robots, but that there were so many of them. I expected a few dozen but not that many. Fallout two had only a handful plus the ones in SAD.

[chiasaur11]

Well, your descendant does that. Except he uses a GECK and the knowledge of Vault 13 people.

So, who didn't go on a killing spree after getting the hintbook in Fallout 2?

Well, sure, but there's a primitive, superstitious, and above all not laser toting stage in between, and frankly, I don't want to be remembered as the guy who founded a post apocalyptic community that uses spears when lasers were available. Also: the Temple of Trials. Do not want my name on that one.

[The Rose Dragon]

What I question is that how could such a primitive tribe build a building as massive and impressive as the Temple of Trials.

The Interplay Axiom: The rate of diffusion for laser and plasma weapons gets closer as one approaches the player character.

[Maxymiuk]

I'm half-convinced that the Vault Dweller decided to found Arroyo near what was either a half-built Vault, or one of those still-functioning underground military installations that seem to be all over the place. Then they simply bricked the whole thing over.

Crazy? Yes. Implausible? Very. Explains how the damn thing has functional hydraulic doors all over the place? Absolutely.

[The Rose Dragon]

One problem with that thought.

The Temple of Trials is completely aboveground.

That also doesn't explain the cave which conveniently opens to the plains.

[Philistine]

Philistine: Where exactly do I go with those explosives in the cave?

A short distance inside the entrance to the cave, there's a spot on the wall which looks just a little different (and IIRC if you "Look" at it using the binocular cursor it has slightly different text, something like "the wall looks unstable here"). I think it's within 10 hexes of the entrance. Once you get there, arm the explosives ("Use" them in your inventory, it should ask you for a timer setting for the fuse), then drop them on the ground and run back toward the entrance.

You do need 1 Radscorpion tail for a quest; but it's very likely that you'll meet plenty of them later on, when you've got a few more levels under your belt.

[Oracle_Hunter]

Feh, Radscorpion Cave is cake when you have Ian. Even if you suck at combat, all you do is take a pot shot at a Radscorpion and then run away until the Scorpion gets close to Ian. Then let Ian kick its ass. Rinse and repeat :smallamused:

If you really having problems, there are tons of ways to cheat. Gifted is all well and good, but I prefer The Wheeler-Dealer gambit. Get high CHA and tag Barter. Pump that sucker until you are able to trade a given item (say, a Stimpack) for itself and come out ahead on the deal.

So, you offer a Stimpack at 40 caps but your trading partner only wants 35 caps for his Stimpack. You can now swap Stimpacks back and forth until you have all his caps. You can do this before you leave Shady Sands too; it makes the game hilariously easy.

Alternatively, you can do the Shooty McShootsalot build; Gifted and Fast Shot and max out Agility and Perception. Tag Small Arms initially, but trade up to Big Guns ASAP. Later in the game it is possible to shoot the Turbo Plasma Rifle for 2 AP - that's 5 shots per round :smallbiggrin:

[revolver kobold]

Another trick to get unlimited money, without having to tag Barter or pump up your Charisma is as follows:

When you get to Junk Town, head to the bar (the one where the barkeep keeps his wifes urn of ashes on the bar. The name of it escapes me at the moment). Use your Steal skill on the urn to flog it without being caught (probably best to save before you try this). Then, give it back to the barkeep.

He is so thankful that he offers to give you free drinks from now on. Nuka-Cola has no weight, so just grab as many as you like. From that point on, nearly everything I bought was done entirely with Nuka-Cola.

[Oracle_Hunter]

Another trick to get unlimited money, without having to tag Barter or pump up your Charisma is as follows:

When you get to Junk Town, head to the bar (the one where the barkeep keeps his wifes urn of ashes on the bar. The name of it escapes me at the moment). Use your Steal skill on the urn to flog it without being caught (probably best to save before you try this). Then, give it back to the barkeep.

He is so thankful that he offers to give you free drinks from now on. Nuka-Cola has no weight, so just grab as many as you like. From that point on, nearly everything I bought was done entirely with Nuka-Cola.

Aw, but it's so much fun to walk up to a merchant and trade with him until all he's got is a single flare :smallbiggrin:

Also:
I loved bartering for Tandi from the Raiders and coming out ahead! The Raider Boss had some great stuff!

[chiasaur11]

Aw, but it's so much fun to walk up to a merchant and trade with him until all he's got is a single flare :smallbiggrin:

Also:
I loved bartering for Tandi from the Raiders and coming out ahead! The Raider Boss had some great stuff!

I just gave him the explodo because I am so clever.

If your gambling is above 50 percent, that works for unlimited caps too.

[Dhavaer]

Another question: how do I select which type of ammunition to use?

[Cubey]

AP is a waste on radscorpions and everything else you encounter in early game, by the way. Use hollow point.

Fast Shot is generally a waste. Being able to aim where you hit (once your skill is good enough) is a much better benefit than -1AP/shot. At least if you want to use Small or Energy weapons. If you want to specialise in Big Guns, feel free to go for it.

[Oracle_Hunter]

Fast Shot is generally a waste. Being able to aim where you hit (once your skill is good enough) is a much better benefit than -1AP/shot. At least if you want to use Small or Energy weapons. If you want to specialise in Big Guns, feel free to go for it.

I'd disagree about Energy Weapons. 5 Turbo Plasma Shots per turn is better than 2 aimed shots per turn. And the Alien Energy Pistol is a fine backup weapon.

[Cubey]

Not really. Most aimed hits ignore armor and deal at least twice the damage of a normal shot. It gets only better than this if you aim for the eyes (and any mid- and lategame combat-oriented character worth their salt will have near 95% chance to hit even on an eyeshot). Normal, quicker shots have an advantage only when you face enemies so weak they die from one shot anyway. That's ~50 HP for Turbo Plasma Rifle.

However, it's totally different if you cannot aim energy weapons at all. I am gravitating towards the "you can" option, but it's been a while and I'm not certain. The wiki isn't clear on the matter.

[tyckspoon]

AP is a waste on radscorpions and everything else you encounter in early game, by the way. Use hollow point.


Unless you've used one of the modding patches AP ammo is a waste on pretty near everything. The game's hit/damage calculations come out in such a way that the armor reduction isn't worth anywhere near enough to make up for the penalty to base damage. Plus JHP/FMJ ammo is far and away more common.



Not really. Most aimed hits ignore armor and deal at least twice the damage of a normal shot. It gets only better than this if you aim for the eyes (and any mid- and lategame combat-oriented character worth their salt will have near 95% chance to hit even on an eyeshot). Normal, quicker shots have an advantage only when you face enemies so weak they die from one shot anyway. That's ~50 HP for Turbo Plasma Rifle.

However, it's totally different if you cannot aim energy weapons at all. I am gravitating towards the "you can" option, but it's been a while and I'm not certain. The wiki isn't clear on the matter.

Yes, you can aim with Energy Weapons. The only weapon class that cannot normally make aimed shots is Big Guns. The difference between Fast Shot and aimed shots, late-game, is the Sniper perk: 5 shots with a 70-100% chance of critting depending on your Luck is better than 2 shots with a near 100% crit rate. You do lose out on the eye chart's higher value crits, however, like the chance of instant kills and the greater occurrence of triple/quad damage hits.

[chiasaur11]

Not really. Most aimed hits ignore armor and deal at least twice the damage of a normal shot. It gets only better than this if you aim for the eyes (and any mid- and lategame combat-oriented character worth their salt will have near 95% chance to hit even on an eyeshot). Normal, quicker shots have an advantage only when you face enemies so weak they die from one shot anyway. That's ~50 HP for Turbo Plasma Rifle.

However, it's totally different if you cannot aim energy weapons at all. I am gravitating towards the "you can" option, but it's been a while and I'm not certain. The wiki isn't clear on the matter.

I should hope so.

My trusty laser rifle shot through the eyes of pretty much every super mutant in the old military base.

Energy weapons are definitely good for eye shooting purposes.

[Oracle_Hunter]

Yes, you can aim with Energy Weapons. The only weapon class that cannot normally make aimed shots is Big Guns. The difference between Fast Shot and aimed shots, late-game, is the Sniper perk: 5 shots with a 70-100% chance of critting depending on your Luck is better than 2 shots with a near 100% crit rate. You do lose out on the eye chart's higher value crits, however, like the chance of instant kills and the greater occurrence of triple/quad damage hits.

I would also like to note that 2 AP shots allow you to do a lot more run 'n gun - very useful when you can make use of cover :smallcool:

...yes, I know that Hardened Power Armor doesn't really need you to move tactically in combat, but the late-game areas provide so many opportunities to take potshots.

Heck, being able to open a door, fire, and close the door afterward is lots of fun.

[Philistine]

Another question: how do I select which type of ammunition to use?

Heh. For some reason I have a feeling that the answers given so far - while true enough - haven't addressed the actual question you were asking here. :smalltongue:

If you did want to change ammo in a particular weapon, you'd just click on the stack of ammo, move it over the weapon, and click again to load the weapon with that ammo type.

[chiasaur11]

Heh. For some reason I have a feeling that the answers given so far - while true enough - haven't addressed the actual question you were asking here. :smalltongue:

If you did want to change ammo in a particular weapon, you'd just click on the stack of ammo, move it over the weapon, and click again to load the weapon with that ammo type.

First you empty the gun.

Right click it, click on the ammo removal icon, then slide the old ammo back into the sack.

Also, if you give it to them via the trade interface, Ian and Tycho can hold an unlimited amount of stuff. Just don't give them guns and ammo you want.

[Oracle_Hunter]

Also, if you give it to them via the trade interface, Ian and Tycho can hold an unlimited amount of stuff. Just don't give them guns and ammo you want.

And never give them burst fire or (heaven help you) explosive weapons!

Trust me on this :smalleek:

[chiasaur11]

And never give them burst fire or (heaven help you) explosive weapons!

Trust me on this :smalleek:

Tycho did okay with the combat shotgun. Didn't use burst much, only on a deathclaw.

Still didn't bring them into the base or the cathedral. Just picked them up before the whole thing went boom.

[revolver kobold]

Tycho isn't too bad with a burst weapon (as long as you aren't daft enough to stand directly in front of what he is shooting. I always used the Sniper Rifle, so I never had that problem).

But Ian. UGH. No matter where you stand, he ALWAYS seems to be able to catch you in his spray. I swear the designers put in some kind of code when writing him that made sure that no matter where he was, or where he was aiming, you were bound to cop it from him.

[paladin_carvin]

Hey Fallout fans.
First, I just started FO2 after now getting over 1000 achievement points in FO3. I'm getting my butt kicked by mutant ants... but I've got some plans... the biggest pain is that I don't have an actual gun yet that is where my points are... weapon-wise anyway.

Anyway, I was wondering. I need some opinions of some FO fans 'cause I want to make a new tabletop RPG for Fallout. I'd go to a Fallout forum, but I can tell already that it has a strong following, so I'm a bit intimidated since I never touched it till 3. Does this seem like something you guys would be interested in?
Edit: Reply to Kobold
This is a quote from Jess Heinig, Game Designer for Fallout. Asked what his favorite thing in fallout was-

"A close second in favorites was the party members. The engine didn't really
have support for party members, and the dev team didn't have much of an
incentive to add them (nor did anyone think that it was feasible). I wrote up
a script for Ian, THEN I showed it to Tim Cain. Eight million bugs later, we
had "functional" party members who would shoot you in the back."

[revolver kobold]

There is a table top version of Fallout floating out there somewhere. I have a copy on a CD somewhere.

I think you can download it from NMA, but I avoid that place like the plague, so maybe someone else will be able to tell you where you can find it.

[paladin_carvin]

There is a table top version of Fallout floating out there somewhere. I have a copy on a CD somewhere.

I think you can download it from NMA, but I avoid that place like the plague, so maybe someone else will be able to tell you where you can find it.

I knew if I didn't mention it someone else would. I know it, but it's based on the old game and is a VERY literal translation. It pretty much is FO1/FO2 with dice replacing the random number generators. Sounds great, but it isn't so great in practice. It's very dry and the world is lost among the calculations. I think a game based on the Legend of the Five Rings roll and keep system will work great with the SPECIAL system while also giving life to the system as a whole.
EDIT:
Oh, since it came up, I checked in the Fallout bible, and it says that the Temple of Trials was built off of a pre-war building, most likely a church. The statues were carved by Arroyo inhabitants. As for the location of Arroyo itself, all I could figure out is that it is NW of Vault 13. But I couldn't figure out where that was.... I could figure out Vault City though.

[Cubey]

Yes, the old Fallout tabletop is a very literal transition from video game to dice, which sucks for a tabletop because you have to make hundreds of rolls and annoying calculations instead of actually enjoying the game. What makes a good video game does not necessarily translate well into a tabletop.

However, there is also this. (http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/J.E._Sawyer%27s_Fallout_RPG) I didn't check it out so I have no idea how good it is, but couldn't be much worse than the previous game.

[Triaxx]

You don't have to fight those scorpions and ants. They can be avoided, though you'll miss out on all the fabulous experience. Just remember that you can cut down their number of attacks if you attack from one hex away with the spear. They'll have to move and loose at least one attack, then you can back away one hex before attacking.

[revolver kobold]

I knew if I didn't mention it someone else would. I know it, but it's based on the old game and is a VERY literal translation. It pretty much is FO1/FO2 with dice replacing the random number generators. Sounds great, but it isn't so great in practice. It's very dry and the world is lost among the calculations. I think a game based on the Legend of the Five Rings roll and keep system will work great with the SPECIAL system while also giving life to the system as a whole.


I've given it a quick shot once before, and there is a reason why its on a "cd somewhere in my room" and not next to all my other role-playing books.

Generating the world wouldn't be that hard in my usual group of gamers/friends, as we are all ridiculous Fallout nerds (Not the the extent of most of NMA, let me just clarify that. I actually enjoyed both Tactics and Fallout 3). But the system, works great as a video game, but is very tedious as a pen and paper.

We were thinking of running a Fallout RPG, but using the World of Darkness rules, and seeing how that went.

[Kane]

I'm having trouble reconciling a few things here...

Somebody said that Fallout 1 was like a survival/horror type game, in the way that you always have to save ammo and you can't win every combat.

They also said that Fallout 2 was more of an action/adventure game, and you could go out and kick ass.

The exact reverse was true for me. The moment I went to the Glow in F1, everything, from then on, was almost embarrassingly easy. (Okay, the Military Base was pretty tough, but aside from that and the Citadel Vault, which you could bypass, everything was nice and gave me a warm, fuzzy 'a-badass-am-I' feeling.

Whereas in Fallout 2, aside from the bugs I've run into where my weapons are always 'out', or my car partially vanishes, I seem terminally wimpy; I can't kill scorpions in the begining, and later on, even wearing powered armor, I cant' take out, say, the raiders in Vault 15. (Thank you, burst fire.:smallannoyed:) I've also never managed to kill a wanamingo, thanks to how resistant they are to bullets.

Basically, I die left an right, and it's really annoying. Advice?

[charl]

About the fallout pen and paper, they were originally planning to use GURPS for fallout, but there was a problem with the violence level so they instead made up the SPECIAL system.

[chiasaur11]

I'm having trouble reconciling a few things here...

Somebody said that Fallout 1 was like a survival/horror type game, in the way that you always have to save ammo and you can't win every combat.

They also said that Fallout 2 was more of an action/adventure game, and you could go out and kick ass.

The exact reverse was true for me. The moment I went to the Glow in F1, everything, from then on, was almost embarrassingly easy. (Okay, the Military Base was pretty tough, but aside from that and the Citadel Vault, which you could bypass, everything was nice and gave me a warm, fuzzy 'a-badass-am-I' feeling.

Whereas in Fallout 2, aside from the bugs I've run into where my weapons are always 'out', or my car partially vanishes, I seem terminally wimpy; I can't kill scorpions in the begining, and later on, even wearing powered armor, I cant' take out, say, the raiders in Vault 15. (Thank you, burst fire.:smallannoyed:) I've also never managed to kill a wanamingo, thanks to how resistant they are to bullets.

Basically, I die left an right, and it's really annoying. Advice?

I agree with you about the first one. Haven't played #2
I mean, Deathclaws, the gangs in Adytown, heck, even the muties when I could take them one by one, they all were less dreaded foes than "Ah. Hope the burst weapon and explosions don't waste Dogmeat." and even that became a non issue after visiting the base. Poor dog got wasted by minigun fire. Didn't leave one mutant alive after that.

[Maxymiuk]

Whereas in Fallout 2, aside from the bugs I've run into where my weapons are always 'out', or my car partially vanishes, I seem terminally wimpy; I can't kill scorpions in the begining, and later on, even wearing powered armor, I cant' take out, say, the raiders in *removed to protect the innocent*. (Thank you, burst fire.:smallannoyed:) I've also never managed to kill a wanamingo, thanks to how resistant they are to bullets.

Basically, I die left an right, and it's really annoying. Advice?

If your car partially vanishes, it's part of the bugs that plagued the game on release. Make sure you got the game updated.

What weapons are you using, out of curiosity? And how liberal are you with burst fire? I only ever had trouble with ammo through Klamath (damned golden geckos just won't die), but then, as I mentioned earlier in the thread, I embrace the sniper philosophy. Also do you, you know, visit traders occasionally?

I assume you mean the Lesser Scorpions in the tutorial section, yes? I've noticed that if you're 4 hexes away from them at the start of their turn, they'll move up to you, but won't have enough AP's left to attack.

The raiders you mention are indeed one of the hardest fights you'll face before Enclave patrols. I won't even attempt the place before getting Combat Armor for myself and at least Metal Armor for my followers (though it's possible to complete the place solo).
Ideally, you want to bluff your way in, enter level 2 (the residential area), get into a far room and start taking potshots. Everyone will rush you, but you should be able to take them out as they file in through the door. Take out the raiders with the best weapons first (you did take the Awareness perk, right?). After that the bluff's up of course, but 1st and 3rd levels give you a lot more breathing room, as the raiders are spaced out far enough that you can deal with one group before the other bumrushes you.

Wanamingos have almost no resistance to fire damage. If you don't carry flamers around, I'd recommend either one of the high-end Big Guns (Bozar or Vindicator), the Gauss Rifle, or a H&K G11, since they're pretty much the only things that can put a big enough dent in the critters. Additionally, the wiki claims that they run from combat if you cripple their leg.

For any other advice, I'd need to know what character build you've started out with.

[Mo_the_Hawked]

Mmmmm...Bozar...Hot steaming lead death. That gun was a monster, that and the Jackhammer.

[paladin_carvin]

I've given it a quick shot once before, and there is a reason why its on a "cd somewhere in my room" and not next to all my other role-playing books.

Generating the world wouldn't be that hard in my usual group of gamers/friends, as we are all ridiculous Fallout nerds (Not the the extent of most of NMA, let me just clarify that. I actually enjoyed both Tactics and Fallout 3). But the system, works great as a video game, but is very tedious as a pen and paper.

We were thinking of running a Fallout RPG, but using the World of Darkness rules, and seeing how that went.

If I worked up basic rules (Character creation, weapons, skills) within a few weeks, would you guinea pig it for me? It would be d10.

[Kane]

If your car partially vanishes, it's part of the bugs that plagued the game on release. Make sure you got the game updated.All right, I'll try and find those. Thanks. (I'd heard about the bugs, but since nothing seemed to happen until about halfway a third of the way through the game, I thought I had most of the patches.)

What weapons are you using, out of curiosity? And how liberal are you with burst fire? I only ever had trouble with ammo through Klamath (damned golden geckos just won't die), but then, as I mentioned earlier in the thread, I embrace the sniper philosophy. Also do you, you know, visit traders occasionally?At suggestion of a friend, I did a character build based off of this pm he sent me:
I found this on TVTropes under "Revolvers Are Just Better". I'll copy-paste the entry. This is Fallout 2.


Fallout 2 has a .44 Magnum Revolver that is available at The Den. This revolver can fire faster than the pistols you can find at the beginning of the game, and has more damage than the Desert Eagle as well. You can use it until up to New Reno, where there's the .223 Pistol, which has more damage. However, with the Fast Shot trait, you can shoot faster for one AP less. This means that you can shoot three times with 9 AP. You can also upgrade the revolver to use a Speed Loader, which makes it reload for 1 AP. Cue The Chosen One shooting a revolver three times, then reloading it. All in one turn. Now, if you get the perk Bonus Rate of Fire, you can fire it for 2 AP, which means that you can UNLOAD your chamber into a enemy, then reload it and shoot it five times in the next turn. This makes the gun so powerful you can use it until you find a Gauss Pistol, which is around endgame. Revolvers really are Just Better.


In short, .44 Magnum + Fast Shot + Speed Loader + Bonus Rate of Fire = You feelin' lucky, punk?
I seem to have missed the bonus rate of fire perk, or something. (Are their requirements for it?)

I assume you mean the Lesser Scorpions in the tutorial section, yes? I've noticed that if you're 4 hexes away from them at the start of their turn, they'll move up to you, but won't have enough AP's left to attack.****, I feel stupid. No, I meant the geckoes and golden geckos in the beginning, though I think I was referring to the scorpions you can protect the brahmin from in Kalamath.

The raiders you mention are indeed one of the hardest fights you'll face before Enclave patrols. I won't even attempt the place before getting Combat Armor for myself and at least Metal Armor for my followers (though it's possible to complete the place solo).
Ideally, you want to bluff your way in, enter level 2 (the residential area), get into a far room and start taking potshots. Everyone will rush you, but you should be able to take them out as they file in through the door. Take out the raiders with the best weapons first (you did take the Awareness perk, right?). After that the bluff's up of course, but 1st and 3rd levels give you a lot more breathing room, as the raiders are spaced out far enough that you can deal with one group before the other bumrushes you.

Wanamingos have almost no resistance to fire damage. If you don't carry flamers around, I'd recommend either one of the high-end Big Guns (Bozar or Vindicator), the Gauss Rifle, or a H&K G11, since they're pretty much the only things that can put a big enough dent in the critters. Additionally, the wiki claims that they run from combat if you cripple their leg.

For any other advice, I'd need to know what character build you've started out with.Going for the above-mentioned 'game breaking', I went with maxed small guns, speech (of course) and first aid, which I understand I should have gone for doctor instead. (read it somewhere). Gifted, Fast shot, nine or ten intelligence, ten speed, everything else lower. (I like my skill points.)
I think I responded to everything I meant to, but I could have missed something. Also; Link so relevant it hurts. (from laughing.) (http://www.theonion.com/content/video/are_violent_video_games)

[Selrahc]

For both games the challenge level ends at a certain point, and that point should be a long way before you get power armour.

I remember in my first game of Fallout the most difficult moment was the raid on the crime lord in the hub. That was a ridiculously tricky thing to do, since I must have pretty much run to the hub really early. The cops died in seconds, the companions died a few turns later and I finally managed to grab victory while I was on just one hit point. Really wish I'd grabbed Tycho.

In Fallout 2 I had the even more harrowing experience of trying to take down the wanamingo mine at level 7 going in. That was some seriously intense action, so yeah, I feel your pain on the wanamingo front. Criticals still do the job though.

I'd suggest that you have a surfeit of actions points. Melee enemies who only get one attack or less per turn won't be that dangerous. Enemies prefer attacking you over all your companions, so if you run, and maybe take one shot while your 3 companions all take multiple attacks, the enemy will spend all its actions following you. Keep that up until someone gets a critical hit and you should be able to deal with wanamingo mine. Against ranged opponents then never present a target. Hide behind cover at the start and end of every turn.

If you're having trouble, but you've got money to burn then go get some assault enhancements. Hardened power armour from Frisco and some surgically implanted armour make you pretty much invulnerable.

Later on in Fallout 2 you are essentially a god of the wasteland. I remember the advanced power armoured badass, and a robot, a ghoul, a berserker and a mechanic also in power armour. 7 gauss pistol shots putting holes through the skulls of seven enclave troopers, with my companions perforating a few more. Pulling out the alien blaster so I could one shot deathclaws. Man... good times.

[chiasaur11]

Heh. Gangboss raid was a PITA. I was just glad I picked up the nasty little number the dirt farmer guy gives you for wasting some raiders at his farm. Not easy, but no-one bit it that I didn't want to bite it. Of course, saving there led to issues. Had to restart the whole game.

The worst bit for me though was trying to take out all the raiders who kidnapped Tandi without her or Ian biting it. Had to take them one at a time, aim careful, and even use a grenade.

Still, the first good gear made up for it. Not a laser rifle, mind you, or the nifty toys you get from settling matters in junktown, but not useless, at least.

[tyckspoon]

Pretty much everything can be solved with a 44. Magnum or .223 FMJ crit in the eyes. The only real exception is Enclave troopers, and by the time you seriously have to worry about them you can probably get your hands on a Gauss gun. Just spend your first couple of levels pumping your Small Guns skill and it'll carry you through the rest of the game without too much trouble- this is true of both Fallout 1 and 2. It is also true of both games that although you can kill things easily with aimed shots, you need to take care not to fight all the enemies at once (tip: if you have a halfway decent Lockpick skill you can close and lock doors to create your own combat zones.) That will get you killed until you have at least Combat Armor, at which point most normal guns cease to be a big problem. Plasma and fire will still kill you very quickly, which is why you run the hell away from Fire Geckos and Enclave and still take it slow and careful when going through Super Mutant zones.

[revolver kobold]

If I worked up basic rules (Character creation, weapons, skills) within a few weeks, would you guinea pig it for me? It would be d10.

Definitely. I've got a few mates (who aren't members of GitP), but I'm pretty sure I could talk them into giving it a shot too.

Let me know how its all progressing.

[paladin_carvin]

Definitely. I've got a few mates (who aren't members of GitP), but I'm pretty sure I could talk them into giving it a shot too.

Let me know how its all progressing.

Awesome. If you or anyone else has some things that 'must be in the game'- let me know. I'm concentrating on making a system that works for humans. Super Mutants and robots and stuff will be in the game, just... they will be a list of stats, not something you can make yet. Ghouls are humans, as far as I'm considered, just with the disadvantage 'ghoul' (though, it comes with quite a few benefits, too).

Here is my thread about it. http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=107632

[Atelm]

I remember in my first game of Fallout the most difficult moment was the raid on the crime lord in the hub. That was a ridiculously tricky thing to do, since I must have pretty much run to the hub really early. The cops died in seconds, the companions died a few turns later and I finally managed to grab victory while I was on just one hit point. Really wish I'd grabbed Tycho.



I remember that. Decker and his unnamed cronies weren't difficult; it was Kain (or Cain?) Decker's bodyguard who causes real problems. I know I had to use a psycho drug on the character, the only time in the game, in order to survive him, since he comes at you straight away.

But it still was extremely hard as he wouldn't go down until I had wasted 5 or so Sniper Rifle rounds on his sorry eyes, the last one being a critical which tore him to shreds.

To my suprise that fight was considerably harder than fighting the Lieutenant or the Master. (Nowadays I usually just bypass the Lieutenant entirely, and just talk the Master out of his plans.)

[Triaxx]

Let's see, played right, you can have an SMG as soon as you hit the Den and if you use it to pop Flick like a Balloon, you're full of ammo and guns, and you can go through most other encounters like grease. Remembering the Ammo trick for upgrades gives you more than you'll likely ever need. Modoc will give you an assault rifle, and the Den>Modoc>Redding run nets some of the best ammo encounters in the game, plus the M60 which is a good early big gun. Not to mention all the goodies in the Sheriff's office in Redding.

On top of all that, make sure you check behind the walls in buildings since there are some hidden things that are very A)useful, or B) expensive.

[chiasaur11]

I remember that. Decker and his unnamed cronies weren't difficult; it was Kain (or Cain?) Decker's bodyguard who causes real problems. I know I had to use a psycho drug on the character, the only time in the game, in order to survive him, since he comes at you straight away.

But it still was extremely hard as he wouldn't go down until I had wasted 5 or so Sniper Rifle rounds on his sorry eyes, the last one being a critical which tore him to shreds.

To my suprise that fight was considerably harder than fighting the Lieutenant or the Master. (Nowadays I usually just bypass the Lieutenant entirely, and just talk the Master out of his plans.)

Heh. I knew from the start I was going to double cross Decker and his flunky, so I traded with them so as to remove most of their combat potential.

Made the fight easier.

[Maxymiuk]

At suggestion of a friend, I did a character build based off of this pm he sent me:

I found this on TVTropes under "Revolvers Are Just Better". I'll copy-paste the entry.

*snip*

In short, .44 Magnum + Fast Shot + Speed Loader + Bonus Rate of Fire = You feelin' lucky, punk?


What they forget to mention is that the .44 has absolute crap for range. No offense to your friend, but said guide seems to forget an important rule of Fallout: You're always outnumbered. Sure, I could pull off... up to 11 shots per round with the gun (Max Agility, above perks/traits, two Action Boy perks for 12 AP's). Kinda nice. However, it still means that in order to actually find a use for those shots, I need to be within 15 hexes of a given number of enemies. Given that they're likely to be wearing some kind of armor, you're going to drop two, maybe three during your round. Then the rest proceeds to tear you a new one. Most fights against slavers, raiders and the like, you can probably slug through. Anything more, like the place you mentioned, and you're going down through sheer attrition.

I'd recommend you invest into Perception and carry longarms around.


I seem to have missed the bonus rate of fire perk, or something. (Are their requirements for it?)

Level 15, AG 7, IN 6, PE 6


****, I feel stupid. No, I meant the geckoes and golden geckos in the beginning, though I think I was referring to the scorpions you can protect the brahmin from in Kalamath.

Heh, yeah, geckos are a tough nut to crack for beginner characters. That's why I dislike Fast Shot - the 10mm Pistol, or even the Pipe Rifle can't really drop them fast enough, if all you do is go for the torso. I always try to aim for the eyes, or to cripple their legs.


Going for the above-mentioned 'game breaking', I went with maxed small guns, speech (of course) and first aid, which I understand I should have gone for doctor instead. (read it somewhere). Gifted, Fast shot, nine or ten intelligence, ten speed, everything else lower. (I like my skill points.)


High Perception is crucial to any ranged character, due to the 8%/point accuracy bonus it provides with ranged weapons. If you're bent on going the gunslinger route, I'd switch out Fast Shot for One Hander and start putting bullets in people's noggins. Also, keep a lookout for SMG's, since even Clint Eastwood types sometimes just need to quickly fill a room with flying lead.

Hope this helps. :smallsmile:

[Dhavaer]

I seem to have gotten a bit stuck. I've just become a member of the Brotherhood and I can't figure out what I'm supposed to do now. I also have a feeling I'm not using as powerful a gun as I could be; I'm using a hunting rifle at the moment.

[revolver kobold]

You should REALLY have a Sniper Rifle or Assault rifle at the very least by now. If you are a member of The Brotherhood, how far along the Waterchip mission are you?

For access to better weapons, hit up The Hub. You can buy a sniper rifle there (which runs on the same ammo as the hunting rifle), and if you have high enough small guns and luck, you should be able to drop most people with a shot to the eyes. To get easy money, every guard in The Hub carries an assault rifle and about 100 or so rounds for it. Steal them all.

[Selrahc]

I'm fairly sure you can requisition a gun from the brotherhood as well as some combat armour. Or indeed, some power armour.

I'm also kind of at a loss as to how you infiltrated the glow without ending up laden down in assault rifles, sniper rifles, combat shotguns and all the other junk that is down there.

[Dhavaer]

I've completed the waterchip mission. I can't find any weapons I haven't already seen in the Hub, and the only weapons in The Glow were energy weapons, which I have 10% for. I haven't seen an assault rifle, combat shotgun or sniper rifle.

[revolver kobold]

If you've completed the Waterchip mission, you should be dripping in heavy weapons that all the Super Mutants lug around. Failing that, if you want more weapons, get a suit of Power Armour (however you pull it off, there are a few ways), and go run around a few kilometers west of Vault 13. You're bound to get a few guns doing that.

If you can't figure out what to do now, go to The Hub, and sign up for the caravan missions to investigate whats killing them all off. Then return to the Brotherhood. That's about as big a tip as I can give you without holding your hand.

Also; one of the ways to get free Powered Armour is also at The Hub.

The Hub is a good place to be.

[Dhavaer]

I have 10% big guns too. Miniguns aren't much good to me.

[revolver kobold]

Well, looks like the sniper rifle is your best bet.

Step 1) Head to Junk Town
Step 2) Use my previously mentioned glitch to get a few thousand bottles of Nuka Cola
Step 3) Buy a sniper rifle in The Hub.

You should be set.

[Dhavaer]

Where in the Hub sells Sniper Rifles?

[revolver kobold]

There is a weapons dealer out in Old Town. He should be able to fix you up.

[Dhavaer]

Finally! Someone who sells things I actually want to buy! I was beginning to think I'd be lugging that combat armour around forever. I'm going to start on the caravans now.

[Atelm]

Another option for good weapon sellers are the Gun Runners in L.A. Boneyard south of The Hub, you'll have to go through some Deathclaws to get to them though.

[grinner666]

Here's my usual build for a Fallout 1 or 2 character (things change in Fallout Tactics, but not that much)

ST 5, PE 7, EN 4, CH 6, IN 10, AG 8, LK 7; Gifted, Fast Shot

You need a PE 8 to take Sniper, and as others have said a high Perception is useful from the get-go if you're fighting with ranged weapons. AG 10 is a waste of two points if you (as I) like the Psycho (or Buffout) combat drugs, as they add two to your AG, to a max of 10. ST is far more important in FO1 than FO2, since you have to barter with your own party members to get your own stuff back . . . a good reason to Tag Barter in that game, though I usually get by with trading the NPCs' weapons up in return for whatever I've given them to hold for me. In FO2 all it's useful for is using heavy guns like the automatic shotguns, and you can always give one of those to Cassidy.

In FO1 you might want a lower CH and a higher LK, as CH has no bearing on the number of followers you can collect and you don't have the Church of Hubology to give you two free LK points. :smallwink:

My Tag skills vary, but nearly ALWAYS include Speech and Lockpick. For a combat character I'll go with Small Guns. Other choices I've taken without regret have been Sneak, Barter and Energy Weapons.

Avoid First Aid, Repair, Science and Outdoorsman like the PLAGUE for Tag skills; there are enough books on these subjects around that you can raise them to comfortable levels without putting skill points into them, much less Tagging them. Likewise, there's plenty of training for Unarmed in FO2, and besides you probably want to avoid the "I-have-to-run-across-the-battlefield-to-hit-the-guy-with-the-plasma-rifle" style combat anyway, for anything but a couple of minor side quests where Unarmed is all you've got.

I've got to disagree . . . strongly . . . with the "Don't take Fast Shot" crowd. First, one Critical to the eyes does not necessarily take out anything, even with the Improved Critical perk. Second (and this is especially true in the early game), there is no way to assure getting a hit to the eyes . . . even a 95% chance to hit is going, in my experience, to miss more like one time in TEN than one in twenty, so more shots is crucial throughout the game. Third, though hitting the eyes does give something like a +30% to the chance of a Critical, that chance is ALSO affected by your chance to hit in the first place . . . which means the two are basically a wash as your chance to hit the eyes is -30%.

Better to hit more often than attempt to hit harder with fewer shots. This is especially true in the early game, when your chances of hitting at all are basically crap, but remains true even in the middle and late game as Criticals become easier and easier. With a Small Guns/Fast Shot character with any kind of points in Sneak I can usually end up, by level 15 with two or three "Unfortunately his spine is now clearly visible from the front" shots in the first round of combat, and several thereafter while pumping massive amounts of damage into the enemy with sniper rifle and/or .223 pistol shots . . . without aiming. In fact, by the time I'm on the oil rig I can insta-kill four times out of five . . . with five shots a turn using the Gauss pistol. Far better to do loads of damage reliably than to try to rely on that elusive Critical hit. Without Fast Shot, even if you're no longer relying on aimed shots for your Crits and have the Bonus ROF perk, you're only going to get three shots with 10 action points. If you ARE still relying on aimed shots, you're down to two shots, three if you've wasted two perks on Action Boy.

[Triaxx]

First of all, the .44 is an awesome back-up weapon, because it does do more damage than the 10mm pistol. Second, it should be a back up weapon because of the short range. Third, Fast shot is bad because you can't aim. And shooting for the eyes is not always optimal for several reasons. If you critical, it can blind them, but there's also a damage bonus for hitting the eyes.

As for slowing them down, I prefer the .44 to the groin. A critical hit is likely to knock them to the ground which means they're three AP down and tend to stand and shoot instead of closing the distance.

As for Criticals, you have to remember that this is back when Sniper still worked as advertised, instead of being pointlessly gimped to keep the 'challenge' in Tactics. So once you get sniper, you can do some truly massive damage with fast shot and a heavy weapon. I prefer to keep one-hander until I lay hands on a fast firing weapon such as the Jackhammer, or Bozar and then Mutate it into Fast Shot. Then it doesn't matter if they close in because I can annihilate them.

Grinner: What do you use for Tactics?

[grinner666]

Actually, at the levels in which the .44 revolver is actually USEFUL, it's awesome . . . roughly 90% of your opponents are going to try to close into melee anyway, so lack of range really isn't a problem. Best to have a hunting rifle in your other open weapon slot, however. :smallbiggrin: Or a CAWS.

In Tactics I still usually go with a Gifted, Fast Shot sniper type, but my Tag skills and statistic allocation change . . . slightly or dramatically, depending on how much I feel like cheating on that game.

If I'm cheating, I usually allocate stats this way:

ST 5, PE 8, EN 2, CH 7, IN 9, AG 8, LK 8

The low EN can be corrected by driving or walking a couple of squares west and one square north of Bunker Beta; there you will find an "abandoned" gas station where you can trade with an old woman for an elixir that permanently adds +1 to your EN, put it and anything else you feel like you don't have enough of on the shelves conveniently provided, and then leave and keep coming back . . . the shelves will have everything you left there the first time, every time you return. Keep doing so until everybody in your squad has EN 12. Yes, that's a terrible cheat. I'm ashamed of myself for mentioning it.

:smalltongue:

You want the higher CH score, so you can later increase it to 8 and qualify for the Divine Favor perk, which increases your perks to one every other level for the late game.

If I'm not cheating, I'll generally use these stats:

ST 5, PE 8, EN 4, CH 7, IN 8, AG 8, LK 7

As for Tag skills, unlike in FO 1 and 2 Traps is a pretty essential skill; I tend to Tag it even though that isn't strictly necessary. I almost ALWAYS Tag Small Guns at first, and take Energy Weapons with the Tag! perk later on, as the gauss weapons really aren't as impressive in Tactics as they were in FO2. For the third I usually take Sneak (hitting somebody before they know you're there is another good way to get a Critical; Farsight and my character make a GREAT Sniper team. It can also be quite fun to disarm a mine, sneak up near a patrolling soldier, and place it in his path); Rebecca can be had as a unit member at 3rd level for high-CH characters (others at 5th or 6th), and she's already got Lockpick as a tag skill; before 3rd level you can usually find keys to every locked door or box.

One interesting factoid in Tactics is that you can save your Perks for later levels; I usually do not take a perk at 3rd, Leader at 6th, SOMETIMES take Improved Critical at 9th, Gain Charisma at 12th, and take Divine Favor at 14th . . . then take a new perk every other level from 16th to the end of the game.

:smallbiggrin:

[Dhavaer]

How do I cure a crippled arm?

[Selrahc]

I think Doctor is the skill for a crippled arm. Or paying for healing somewhere will work. Also, time may be a possible cure as well.

I never get crippled... so I can't remember for certain.

[grinner666]

Yup, Doctor will cure any crippling or blinding injury; I've never tried getting somebody to heal me or another party member because I've never wanted to wait that long.

[Triaxx]

Dhavaer: Either use Doctor yourself, or go to one of them. Two in Vault City, a couple in NCR, one or two in New Reno, one in Redding, and one in San Francisco. I'm not totally sure about Doctors in F1 though.

Grinner: Exactly my point. Though I wish the first two games had Tactics Double option for the first shotgun.

Cheating? I typically limit that in FoT to creating my characters in FTTools. The elixir trick is limited to pre-patch versions. I much prefer the option to hand craft my team over the option to have a few extra HP. Especially when my team consists of:

Me: Sniper/Trapper
Longshot (Farsight): Sniper/Mechanic
Medicine Man (Stitch): Medic/Close Combat
Jarhead (Robin): Sniper/Locksmith
Dwayne (Jax): Super Mutant Melee/Big Gunner/Thrown Weapons
Plink (Torn): Fast Shot, Sniper/Driver

When your dedicated melee specialist can consistently get 'Torn in half like a phone book', without critical hits... The biggest problem usually comes in getting him a big gun early on during the gap between melee being useless, and Big guns showing up. I'd kill for an M60, instead of having to find Uprising, and killing the two morons there, because the Vindicator eats ammo like a Sumo at a Buffet. Works great if you've already got hermit and the poison from there. Another game where they were encountered post Quincy saw one of my few uses of Remote Detonators. Plus some Plastic to make sure it did the job. :smallbiggrin:

As for perks, I give one the Medic Awareness and everyone else grabs night vision, that way I can fight at night and take the advantage away from the opposition. Leader is good, but my crafted team has 10 AG anyway, except for the big gunner who mows the enemy down anyway. Steady Arm is awesome for a big gunner because with 9 AP and Fast shot that's three bursts per round. If he can get Better ROF, he can empty his minigun EVERY round. :smallbiggrin: Pity it's mutants only. Which is why I love my custom squad. Sucks that Mutants don't get More Criticals though. I guess it's to stop you from one turn killing a Behemoth.

Anyway, you have to take Divine Favor at 15, and you'd snag four more perks without it because of the level cap so you're not gaining anything unfortunately. If it were at level 9 it'd be more useful, but...

There's actually two spots in Freeport where you can put those Anti-Personnel mines the game gives the main character to very good use. The stairs on the south end of the map have three patrolling guards on top. If you watch the way they move, then sneak out and put a mine where the trailing guard walks, he'll move right over the top of it and blow all three up in a single blast. Further up are two bridge guards. Drop a mine as close as you feel comfortable, then back out of range, but still in line with the mine. Swap over and take a potshot at the guards. They'll run straight into the mine and BOOOM! Tons of fun. Also good later on if you can lure certain bots over the anti-vehicle mines that the game throws in spades at you.

[revolver kobold]

How do I cure a crippled arm?

Use the Doctor skill on yourself. A Doctors Bag will help increase the chance of this working.

FUN FACT: You can use both the First Aid and Doctor skill 3 times each per day, getting you 50xp for each use of Doctor, and 25 for each use of First Aid (I think those are the numbers). So at the start of the game, if you survive a battle, instead of hitting the stimpacks or sleeping right away, use all your skills on yourself to gain an extra hundred or so XP.

Doctor skill also cures a crippled legs and blindness.

[Kane]

I just finished the first mission of Tactics, and moved on to the second. I thought I'd post my status, just to see if I'm completely cocking this up. (It usually takes me a few attempts to get a decent start. For instance, I tried to start with energy weapons instead of small guns. Didn't work too well...)

Protagonist:Lvl2 (he dies, I lose) small guns, sneak, lockpick
'Farsight':Lvl2 small guns, sneak, melee weapons
'Stitch':Lvl3 Small guns, doctor, first aid

(Stitch started out at second level.)

I've burned through the doctors kit and first aid kit I started with, (though I have an untouched one I found), and, aside from a Colt .45, I have no new weapons. I have 200+ rounds for both the rifle Farsight uses and my MP5, but only 53-ish for the shotguns Stitch is armed with.

Am I okay? Is there anything I should change?

[Maxymiuk]

Am I okay? Is there anything I should change?

Sneak on your protagonist is great for the first few missions, but eventually you'll want to move on to heavier armors, which give you significant penalties to the skill (it becomes chancy to use, unless you put it at 130% base or so). That said, having a sneaky person as a forward scout is going to be invaluable in later missions.

Melee weapons, I'd advise you against ever touching, unless you play the game exclusively in turn-based mode, and even then you should avoid charging with them through open terrain.

Recruit Jo into your squad ASAP and start working on her pilot/repair skills. You'll be thankful for it later.

Once better recruits become available, start looking for people to cover energy/big guns and traps.

Protip: once you get your hands on multiple ammunition types, start paying close attention to what your squad members are actually using. They tend to default to what they consider "best" and you end up with them using fletchette shells against heavily armored targets and other shenenigans.

[Triaxx]

Nah 53 is about right. They are very powerful, but also very short range. Raise his percentage to 66 so he's not shooting snipers with shotguns shells. One of the things that occured post patch was to add more health items in the first mission because you will get banged up and with only one rifle early and bad skills from being level one, it's very hard to avoid.

No new weapons? Did you forget that you could loot the bodies? Click on the corpse and you'll run over and can pick up his weapons. No matter. Go to the square directly west of Brahmin Wood and save the game then wander around until you get some Radscorpions killing civilians. DO NOT help, just let the bugs kill them then kill the bugs and loot the civvies. They'll have Neosteads and probably some ammo, that you can either use, or sell. (I say keep one, and sell the rest.)

[Dhavaer]

Hurrah! I've finally finished the game, and started on Fallout 2. Thanks for all the advice, guys.

[Erloas]

Man this thread is really making me want to play the games again. I really want to, but I also want to finish painting my eldar, keep up on WAR, work out and sleep. I don't know what it is I'm doing but I'm not getting half of those things done atm... but anyway...

I want to go back and finish (or actually restart completely and finish since I have no copies of my old games) tactics.

I remember when I first showed my first college roommate Fallout 2, he literally didn't sleep for 2-3 days straight (the biggest problem of which was that he was using my computer to play). In fact the first time he was almost done, down with the president and the secretary and he decided to stop right there and go back and make a female character with decent charisma and see what he could get to happen with the president.

One of my other friend's favorite tactic was to un-steal some explosives on various people then wander off and wait for them to explode, then come up and loot them without people getting made that you killed someone, since they didn't know who killed them. He was just a thief, he was always stilling things from everyone. Go into NCR and steal all the weapons from the weapon merchant guards and then blast the merchant and take down the guards.

Early on in some of the rough cities I generally just found one merchant I didn't like as much, killed them and took what they had and started building my empire of junk from there.

A little luck is always a good thing to have too. Its the difference between running into a group of super mutants or enclave out in the middle of no where and running into the fun encounters like the downed transport surrounded by red shirts, or the Monty Python bridge.

[Triaxx]

Those robes were awesome. Almost better than combat armor, and if you got really lucky, you could find it just out of Arroyo. Which was awesome. Hit me now Rat!

[The Rose Dragon]

Those robes were awesome. Almost better than combat armor, and if you got really lucky, you could find it just out of Arroyo. Which was awesome. Hit me now Rat!

You could also get Advanced Power Armor just half an hour into the game, and it required no luck.

[JellyPooga]

You could also get Advanced Power Armor just half an hour into the game, and it required no luck.

Yeah, but it's a really cheap tactic and makes a lot of the game rather dull because aside from levelling up, you've no upgrades to get...apart from AdvPAII on the rig and the stat-booster chips. I always found it more fun to work my way up the kit ladder personally...

Did anyone else prefer the look of Power Armour over Advanced Power Armour so much that they used the inferior model? I just couldn't stand the hunchback look of Advanced Power Armour, so went with the 'white knight' look of the standard PA.

[Triaxx]

Of course you could also split the difference and use the Hardened Power Armor. The trick was getting the money for the Combat Armor upgrades to make up the difference. If you can make the sacrifice of Charisma, you are actually doing better than in just plain APA. Of course you don't get the strength bonus but there's also the Strength Module to fix that.

[tyckspoon]

Those robes were awesome. Almost better than combat armor, and if you got really lucky, you could find it just out of Arroyo. Which was awesome. Hit me now Rat!

Those special encounters are keyed by level.. IIRC, the first ones start showing up once you hit level 6. The Bridgekeeper's Robes *are* excellent early armor if you get the encounter, but just out of Arroyo? If you spent that much time levelling you shouldn't have any trouble at all with Klamath, robes or no.

[Triaxx]

Well... I did kill all the Geckos... And who goes to Klamath first? I don't go there until I'm packing New Reno heat. Preferrably something in the 40-kilowatt range. ;)

Actually I just spend a while wandering around until I find an encounter, or get bored with beating the heads in on random enemies.

[paladin_carvin]

Heeey, so I think I mentioned before that I was working on a Fallout RPG... a new one that is. I have a thread up about it and just updated with an example. I uh... am really hoping for some feedback, and I would especially like some old school fans opinions. http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=107632 Thanks for the look.

[Inhuman Bot]

*pokes head in*

If I were to buy the FO series online, from what I understand, GOG.com, (link here (http://http://www.gog.com/en/frontpage/)) is a trustworthy site, or so I've heard from PC gamer, long ago.

Anyone able to back this up?

[chiasaur11]

*pokes head in*

If I were to buy the FO series online, from what I understand, GOG.com, (link here (http://http://www.gog.com/en/frontpage/)) is a trustworthy site, or so I've heard from PC gamer, long ago.

Anyone able to back this up?

Well, a gaming website I frequent says they're alright.

And they seem reliable enough on these matters.

[tyckspoon]

Good Old Games is fine. I've got their editions of both Fallout and Fallout 2; they work fine (er.. that is, I've had no more trouble from them than I did from the physical disc copies I have. The Fallout games were never really marvels of clean coding.) and can even be fan-patched and modded in exactly the same way as the originals.

[paladin_carvin]

For a legit reason to bump this, old-school Fallout fans: have you ever played a Fallout RPG in any format?

Now for the less legit. Click the link in my sig and join my fallout game. Need some creative folks to join in and help me develop. You guys rock, love to have you join in.

[GolemsVoice]

I loved all Fallout games, but I fear I cannot be online often enough to help you develope, though I'd love to.

[paladin_carvin]

I loved all Fallout games, but I fear I cannot be online often enough to help you develope, though I'd love to.

Well, if you got any ideas, I'm all ears.

[TheEmerged]

RE: Fallout 2, leaving starter town at Level 6. This can easily be done, with no exploit other than reloading the game and having more time on your hands than any human should. I think I left it at 24 one time. How? You get experience for pickpocketing. That's all I'll say.

RE: GOG.com. Are these perchance patched/updated, or are they "release" copies?

[tyckspoon]

The GOG version is patched up to the last official Interplay patch. I would recommend acquiring Killap's bugfix patch in addition to that, since the Interplay patch still left several hundred bugs of various severity. If you feel like a second go-round after that, try it with the Fallout Restoration Project mod.

[Triaxx]

It's only boring after the first week of doing it.

[TheEmerged]

The GOG version is patched up to the last official Interplay patch. I would recommend acquiring Killap's bugfix patch in addition to that, since the Interplay patch still left several hundred bugs of various severity. If you feel like a second go-round after that, try it with the Fallout Restoration Project mod.

Just as a followup, I scored the GOG version of Fallout 1 and it's running fine on Vista 64. In fact I fell for the "just one more fight/turn" thing for the first time in years the night I installed it :smallredface:

You forget how much of a 'survival' game it is in the first few levels if you haven't played in a while. I'm up to having to rescue Tandi, which was always a roadblock. Yes, I know how to beat it -- couple of different ways, actually. My favorite is still sneaking in with the 'useless' sneak skill and shotgunning most of them from behind :smallamused:

Any idea if that Restoration Project mod works with the GoG version of Fallout2 as well? I'd hate to 'patch' it into uselessness...

[Winthur]

Big question:
Print screen doesn't work when I play Fallout. I don't see the "Saved screenshot" caption, and when I put the result to MS Paint, I get a big black screen with only a few lines (literally, lines. If you still don't understand, turn on Paint, fill the work with black colour, and draw a bunch of grey lines. Now you get the idea.) How to make the screenshots capped properly?

(BTW: Today I finished Fallout 2 a second time. San Francisco bugs were a pain in the butt, but I did it. So I'm opting for my fourth Fallout playthrough.)