Fallout IX: Nuclear Cash Cows Go MMOoooooo!

[LibraryOgre]

You might also have the gunners happy to include Synths in their ranks. Want to bolster your ranks AND make an ally? Launder Synths for the Railroad... or the Institute.

[Rodin]

Asking for meaningful decisions in a modern Fallout game? Have you gone stark, staring mad, man?

If I had a genie wish I would ask for a choice-based story by Obsidian, characters and sidequests by Bioware, and world construction by Bethesda.

If I had a monkey's paw wish I would get a choice-based story by Bethesda, characters and sidequests by Obsidian, and world construction by Bioware.

[PopeLinus1]

Asking for meaningful decisions in a modern Fallout game? Have you gone stark, staring mad, man?

I think we probably all are, at this point.

[Anteros]

If I had a genie wish I would ask for a choice-based story by Obsidian, characters and sidequests by Bioware, and world construction by Bethesda.

So you want an unfinished story that starts strong and is extremely rushed at the end? And a glitchy open world?

I got nothing on Bioware's side quests, even when I'm trying to be negative. Those are solid.

[veti]

So you want an unfinished story that starts strong and is extremely rushed at the end?

Wait, there's some other kind?

[MCerberus]

If I had a genie wish I would ask for a choice-based story by Obsidian, characters and sidequests by Bioware, and world construction by Bethesda.

If I had a monkey's paw wish I would get a choice-based story by Bethesda, characters and sidequests by Obsidian, and world construction by Bioware.

This is like if Captain Planet were made of jank. All you're missing is art design by Squeenix

[Vinyadan]

This is like if Captain Planet were made of jank. All you're missing is art design by Squeenix

And sound FX by Human Soft and a soundtrack by these guys.

[PopeLinus1]

And sound FX by Human Soft and a soundtrack by these guys.

I want the graphic design to be in the style of the Yellow Submarine movie.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

If I had a genie wish I would ask for a choice-based story by Obsidian, characters and sidequests by Bioware, and world construction by Bethesda.

If I had a monkey's paw wish I would get a choice-based story by Bethesda, characters and sidequests by Obsidian, and world construction by Bioware.

This sounds like an ooold joke from way back in the day. Like twenty years ago old.

In heaven, games are put through the QA team of Blizzard, with sound and graphics from Squeenix, and on EA's timetable.

In hell, games are put through EA's QA team, and on Blizzard's timetable, with the sound and graphics outsourced to some nameless third party out in China.

Something like that, at any rate.

[Rodin]

This sounds like an ooold joke from way back in the day. Like twenty years ago old.

In heaven, games are put through the QA team of Blizzard, with sound and graphics from Squeenix, and on EA's timetable.

In hell, games are put through EA's QA team, and on Blizzard's timetable, with the sound and graphics outsourced to some nameless third party out in China.

Something like that, at any rate.

This is indeed the joke I was going for, updated for relevance to the current thread. I picked Obsidian because of New Vegas and Outer Worlds. I picked Bioware because they drove their franchises into the ground trying to emulate Bethesda's open world exploration. And I picked Bethesda because...well, guess.

As noted above, it's not a perfect transition. I still feel like combining the franchises (Mass Effect/Dragon Age, New Vegas/Outer Worlds, and Elder Scrolls/Fallout) would result in some SuperGame that would melt our faces Raiders of the Lost Ark style.

[PopeLinus1]

melt our faces Raiders of the Lost Ark style.

Eh, I wasn't doing anything this weekend anyways.

[LibraryOgre]

Played a little bit of Fallout 4. Ran into two alpha deathclaws fighting each other, which was kinda cool. Shot each of them once, let them kill each other, reaped the XP.

[Balmas]

…So, Bethesda finally released its 2020 roadmap for Fallout 76. I have some thoughts and some concerns, mostly revolving around the new Seasons mechanic.

If you haven’t already read the patch notes, you can find it here:
https://fallout.bethesda.net/en/arti...&sf122357656=1

The TL-DR version is that Bethesda is introducing a battle-pass-esque system of earning new cosmetic items. Instead of rewarding you with Atoms, weekly and daily challenges will reward you with something called S.C.O.R.E., which will let you rank up on the battle pass. Rewards for ranking up include mostly cosmetic items, but also in-game currency like legendary scrip, gold bullion, and caps. There are a hundred ranks to advance through, and roughly seventy days in which to do it per seasonal pass. Expect to spend between one and two hours per rank of advancement, Bethesda says, depending on where in the pass you are. Alternatively, you can spend Atoms to advance, at a rate of 150 atoms per rank unlocked.

That last bit is one of the primary reasons I’m concerned. Bethesda is introducing a major Atom sink at the same time as they remove the primary source of free Atoms, a move which seems like it’s designed to drive players towards purchasing ever more Atoms. (For those keeping track at home, that’s now the fourth source of revenue that Bethesda is asking for: an initial price to play the game, a subscription service to allow you to enjoy the game, a microtransaction store to have items which actually look good, and now a battle pass to sink any extra accrued free Bethesda-bucks.) And I can’t say for 100% certain what the challenges will look like, but if it were my money to be earned, I’d probably make the last… let’s say 20-30 levels hard enough that either only the truly dedicated or deep-pocketed would go for it. Not impossible, certainly, but hard enough and enough of a time-sink that it’d make the 150 atom price to skip that challenge attractive, especially with the end of the season and the sunk-cost fallacy closing in.

It’s not all bad news, of course. I’ve been looking forward to legendary perks and the One Wasteland system for a while now, so it’s good to see that they’re not just rumors. Still, it’s disheartening to see another move from Bethesda pushing for an increasing need to either play the game every single day or reach for my pocketbook.

[Thomas Cardew]

That's disappointing. I had contemplated trying it out on the free weekend but I'm really not interested getting attached if they're increasing both grind and monetization.

[Wookieetank]

That's disappointing. I had contemplated trying it out on the free weekend but I'm really not interested getting attached if they're increasing both grind and monetization.

And the bugs/glitches are still in full force. Was playing with my brother a couple of nights ago and attempting to warp to him, ended up stuck in 3 different objects on 3 subsequent warps. Ended up having to warp to a "nearby" location and hoof it 5 mins to finally meet up with him. And this was all withing 10 mins of loading up the game. And endgame combat lags soooo bad. I really don't know how both of my brothers can play this game almost daily.

[Thomas Cardew]

I mean it's Bethesada, that's to be expected. The only way stuff ever really got fixed in their games was by fans creating and modding free unofficial patches...


But I won't be trying it out. Sounds like it's still a buggy mess that they expect me to continuously pay for the privilege of grinding through with the option to pay to stop grinding. I have Korean MMOs if I ever get that urge again.

[Balmas]

So, after a long while with only playing Fallout, I finally got the hankering for some Fallout 4 and got a modded playthrough going. One of those mods was Be Exceptional, a mod which takes most of the passive perks and turn them into skills, like you had in earlier fallouts. It's amazing the difference that makes, but perhaps not for the reason you might think.

See, for most of vanilla Fallout 4, your progression is level-gated. You can take the first rank of any perk you meet the special requirements for, but after that, you need to also meet a level requirement. For instance, Gun Nut 2 requires you to be level 13, which means that any mods which require Gun Nut 2--like 10mm recon scopes and calibrated powerful receivers--aren't freely available until level 13 at the earliest. Damage perks are similarly locked, with Rifleman 3 locked behind player level 18.

The effect of turning those perks into skills is that those perks are no longer level-locked. You can rush certain skills early, which is what I did in my playthrough. That meant that as soon as I hit Diamond City and could afford Old Faithful, it was basically all over. Even with survival mode boosting enemy damage, I had maxed out crafting skills and rifleman, and so was doing far more damage than was appropriate.

It also shows me that older fallouts--and new vegas--were correct to spread out perks a bit more, because when you have both perks and skills every level, you're leveling up effectively twice as quickly.

[Balmas]

Whelp, it took a few months, but I've finally managed to get to allies with both the settlers and the raiders in Fallout 76.

And just like that, my desire to play Fallout 76 has drained away.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

So, in other news, today is the exact birthdate of Robert House. Oxhorn did a video on it in his typical droll manner.

[Vinyadan]

I have finished my first run of New Vegas. What an incredible game. Any mods you would recommend?

So, in other news, today is the exact birthdate of Robert House. Oxhorn did a video on it in his typical droll manner.

Spoiler

Show

For a happy party, I let him see me with his own eyes

[SZbNAhL]

I have finished my first run of New Vegas. What an incredible game. Any mods you would recommend?

Leaving off stability fixes, since you've already completed a run so whatever you're doing must work:

• The Someguy2000 series (New Vegas Bounties 1-3, The Inheritance and Russell) are incredibly popular quest mods, and rightly so. I've heard them described as unofficial DLC, and I wouldn't argue.
• Afterschool Special gives you a short quest to convert the Goodsprings School into a player home. I found it satisfying, others find it tedious fetchquestery, but it's certainly nice to have somewhere to live before you reach Novac.
• Speaking of housing, Mobile Truck Base gives you, well, a mobile base. In a truck. Pretty self-explanatory. As somebody who doesn't fast travel, I find it incredibly convenient not having to maintain multiple safehouses.
• Another Kick in the Head (a Death Alternative) is kind of marmitey*. It replaces regular plaer death (in which you reload your last save, not really having lost anything) with a system of being robbed by your assailants and rescued by a nearby friendly faction (the stolen items end up in the inventories of various merchants across the wasteland, often Chet). I find it makes death more interesting, others say it introduces a tedious item scavenger hunt every time they take a wrong turn into deathclaw country. As I said, marmitey.
• Other than that, the only mods I use are a few bugfixes and quality of life things: Lucky 38 Reloading and Cooking puts a hotplate and a reloading bench in the Lucky 38 (gets less use since I downloaded the truck), Dead Money Vending Machine In Player Houses saves a lot of trips to the Abandoned BoS Bunker (I hope that doesn't count as a spoiler), BrotherhoodHouseAlliance reinstates a dummied-out speech check to convince House to ally with the Brotherhood of Steel, if that's something you're into and Brain Perk Bugfix - OWB fixes a bug in the perk your brain gives you in Old World Blues (again, I hope that doesn't count as a spoiler)

For general modding advice, I highly recommend Gopher's channel over on Youtube. Good recommendations clearly presented. I also like his let's plays, but that's a matter of personal taste unrelated to his modding credentials.

*i.e. people love it or hate it

[Rynjin]

I'll second the Someguy Series.

I love Project Nevada, as well as the various More Perks for X mods. I typically use Project Nevada's 1 perk per level feature along with it.

There are mods that add new Weapon Mods, like Weapon Mods Expanded. Which one you want relies on what OTHER mods you have installed though, because I know some of them are compatible with certain mods but not others...it's a mild headache, but worth it to add more weapon diversity.

There are a few other mods I run with, but they slip my mind ATM. I typically have a pretty trim load order for New Vegas.

One other suggestion, that technically counts as a mod: Tale of Two Wastelands, assuming you also own Fallout 3. It combines the two games, and acts as a sort of stealth update to Fallout 3, giving it New Vegas' slightly updated mechanics.

[Triaxx]

A couple spring to mind. Signature Weapons and Armor, A World of Pain, and Complete Incendiary Ammo Overhaul. But those are inspired by how I like to play.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

The combination of A World Of Pain and Project Nevada really makes the Mojave a more interesting place to explore, and I really enjoy the pairing.

As another couple of options for Player Housing, the first is Sortomatic/Sinkomatic. Sortomatic is basically an API for house sorting. If you have it, the player home in Goodsprings from AWOP will be sortable. Sinkomatic turns the SINK in Old World Blues into a fully sortable room. There's also a mod that improves the tool used to return to the Sink after you finish the DLC called the Improved Transportalponder to basically make the SINK your home away from home.

Alternately, the Underground Hideout mod gives you an amazing player home, with an interesting way of getting it (assuming you don't bypass). One of the interesting things of this mod, aside from the usual, is the hydroponics section so you can grow your own crops (every two or three in-game days, they produce), and the armory with walls you can store weapons on, giving you a 'gotta collect 'em all' goal, should you so decide.

As far as mods, there's several to recommend:

First, let's get the basics down. NVSE is pretty much required and a given if you're running almost any suite of mods these days. NVAC is also a big no-brainer. Beware of NVAS (anti-stutter) as older versions will CTD a Win10 user, use NVTF instead. JIP LN NVSE Plugin is an API mod that also provides a metric ton of fixes to stuff under the hood. While we're talking about fixes, Yukichigai's Unofficial Patch (YUP) fixes a TON of bugs and glitches associated with the game, and highly suggested regardless of whatever else you'd like to do. And while we're on the topic of things you probably want, the 4GB Patch is another 'must have', particularly with large mod lists. Simply put, it makes the game Large Address Aware, letting it use more of the system's RAM, and thus perform better.

If you want a shinier experience, the way you do that is through ENB's. That's a long enough discussion that I don't feel I could do it justice here, please do research, but it can give you FO4 level of graphics with enough tweaking, assuming you can throw enough RAM at the problem.

The other thing you can do is shop around for some better textures. EVE is a common go-to for this problem and supports a broad selection of other mods as well.

From there, there's the 'fun' mods, those that you personally find enjoyable. Some ideas:

WMX (Weapon Mods Expanded) basically gives every weapon in the game three mods it can use, adds a ton of weapon mods to the game, and even makes unique weapons moddable, with the caveat that some unique weapons have certain functionality removed if said functionality is given by a mod (for example, Christine's Silenced BoS Rifle is not silenced by default, you need to install the Sniper Rifle Silencer). This will let you, for example, apply the .45 ACP's silencer to A Light Shining In Darkness, or apply the marksman carbine's mods (including silencer) to the All American. Good times had by all.

Bottle That Water does exactly what it says on the tin: if you have empty bottles, you can bottle water at any water source by sneak-right click. It will also dump any dirty water in favor of clean water if you find a clean water source. Very handy if you're doing a Hardcore run.

Gun Runners Expanded. Ever wonder why the Gun Runners don't actually... oh, I dunno... run guns? They just have one kiosk outside their facility, and that's it. This changes that, adding in kiosks across the Mojave, each with their own focus. There's a more lore-friendly version that doesn't have one in Goodsprings, if you prefer.

[Vinyadan]

Ok, thanks everyone! So, let's say (they aren't in load order):

1. New Vegas bounties 1
2. N V b 2
3. N V b 3
4. The Inheritance
5. Russell
6. Afterschool Special
7. Mobile Truck Base
8. Lucky 38 reloading and cooking
9. Dead Money Vending Machine in P. House
10. BrotherhooldHouseAlliance
11. Brain Perk Bugfix - OWB
12. Project Nevada
13. Weapon Mods Expanded (I don't mod weapons much, but I guess it doesn't hurt to have the option)
14. (Tale of Two Wastelands?) If I can find the old game... I also am vaguely worried about widening the scope too much, plus I still haven't bought the FO3 addons.
15. Signature Weapon
16. Signature Armor
17. A world of pain
18. Complete incendiary ammo overhaul
19. Sortomatic
20. Sinkomatic
21. Underground Hideout
22. NVSE
23. NVAC
24. JIP LN NVSE plugin
25. Yukichigai's Unofficial Patch (YUP)
26. 4GB Patch
27. ENB
28. EVE
29. Bottle That Water (my first playthrough was on Hardcore, while it wasn't actually difficult, it would definitely have been handy and makes sense for immersion)
30. Gun Runners Expanded

Project Nevada in particular sounds great.

Two mod questions:

• I think you have to rebind your weapons after you leave a casino because you give up your weapons when you enter, is there a way to solve that?
• Any mods with better fast travel placement? In particular the Lucky 38, but also the NCR fort, Freeside, the various Strip sections... Having a few more locations by the Khans also wouldn't hurt.

[Balmas]

So, it's been two months since I released a New Vegas video.

Welp, hiatus over!

Spoiler: Chapter 2 Prologue

Show

Two mod questions:

• I think you have to rebind your weapons after you leave a casino because you give up your weapons when you enter, is there a way to solve that?
• Any mods with better fast travel placement? In particular the Lucky 38, but also the NCR fort, Freeside, the various Strip sections... Having a few more locations by the Khans also wouldn't hurt.

Unfortunately, not really for the first that I know of. Any time a weapon leaves your inventory, you lose the associated hotkey. For the second, at least, I'm aware of one mod that does it somewhere in my load order, which adds fast travel points to the Strip, Freeside, and other clustered areas, but I don't know the name.

(Incidentally, if you're looking for mods, I actually archived my entire New Vegas install, complete with self-contained Mod Organizer installation. If you want it, download it here and just copy-paste over a vanilla New Vegas folder. Open MO, launch Mod Organizer.exe, and tell MO to launch New Vegas. Cheers.)

EDIT: You shouldn't really install New Vegas Bounties III until you've done I and II, as it kicks off the quest immediately on being loaded.

[Triaxx]

Hmm... now that my net's behaving, I should really go back and watch the rest of your NV series. I lost the thread when my net quit working right and never got back to it.

[Serenity]

I don't know of ones that directly add map markers for all those places, but there are mods that make Freeside and New Vegas respectively into a single united worldspace each, making them more navigable and making any lack of fast travel markers to specific points a lot less noticeable.

[Ogremindes]

Anyone familiar with the A World of Pain mods? For Fallout 3 in particular. I'm setting up Tale of Two Wastelands, and while there's not exactly a glut of content mods for the Capital Wasteland in TTW, what I've read about AWOP leaves me unsure if I want to throw it into my load order.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Anyone familiar with the A World of Pain mods? For Fallout 3 in particular. I'm setting up Tale of Two Wastelands, and while there's not exactly a glut of content mods for the Capital Wasteland in TTW, what I've read about AWOP leaves me unsure if I want to throw it into my load order.

I'm more familiar with AWOP for F:NV rather than FO3, but I absolutely enjoy the addition, as it gives some much needed additional places to go and discover in the mostly barren Mojave. It also gives one heck of a challenge, as compared to vanilla F:NV, with enemies who actually utilize game mechanics (did you know that the most heavily armored enemies in vanilla F:NV only really have a DT of around 15 or 20 at most?).

There are some patches you want to apply if you use it in conjunction with TTW, and you need to make sure to get the TTW-specific AWOP FO3 from the NV nexus instead of the FO3 nexus, which has thrown a lot of people off.

Not really sure if this answers your question. What exactly have you heard about AWOP in FO3 in TTW that would cause you to hesitate including it?