I know there’s another F3 thread but it’s way over my head.
I started the game (hey, Liam Neeson!) and managed to get out of Vault 101 alive. The outside world! Awesome!
I walked around for about two minutes and was incinerated by three people with a flame thrower. Well, that was disappointing.
I restarted from outside 101, walked for about ninety seconds, and was nearly killed by a wild dog. I managed to kill him, though, and walked about fifty yards, and then was shot and burned to death by some people with guns and a flame thrower.
I’m all for a challenging game experience with against the people with guns and flame throwers I have about as much of a chance as the cast of “Little People, Big World” do of becoming NFL offensive linemen. My BB gun does not exactly do the trick, a baseball bat burns just as well as I do, and I have two rounds of 10mm left and anyway a full clip wouldn’t help agaionst the flamethrower guy.
Does anyone wanna throw me a clue as to what I should do in the very first few moments of getting outside to avoid being incinerated, and maybe find something of value, like a stimpack or some non-irradiated food?
Could be your difficulty is set a little high for a first walkthrough. But that aside, as you come out of the vault if you veer right and down a bit, following the quest indicator for your dad, you’ll see a big metal structure - that’s the enclosed town of Megaton. It’s friendly ( if you don’t start anything ) and the standard base for “good” characters. You can do some minor quests in the town to strengthen yourself up, by stuff from the local merchant ( who has a nice multi-part quest for you ), get the next waypoint for finding your father, etc.
Veer left and down you’ll see a street with a couple of boarded up houses. One is occupied and with decent speech you can talk the inhabitant out of some quick cash to start your new life ( or, you know, just kill them, if you’re that sort of monster ). Go much further and you find Springvale School, full of raiders. Go slow, sneaking and sniping with VATS and they’re a decent early challenge.
ETA: Playing through a few different starts, I’ve yet to be attacked if I make a beeline for Megaton soon as I leave the vault. It’s quite close.
I just started, myself. I must have come out the vault with more ammo than you did. I veered left and around the hill, crawled up the overpass, and killed raiders until I found the silly flamethrower guy… he got me once, I had to come back. Then I went straight to Megaton.
Are you using VATS? Sneak around and you should see the baddies before they see you. Then you can crawl up close enough to have a decent hit chance, and any damage you deliver from VATS while “hidden” is automatically a crit… I’ve been dropping Super Baddie Mutant whatever thingies with one shot that way, it’ll definitely work on raiders and dogs.
I wouldn’t worry about irradiated food… it’s about the only way I’ve kept my health up, a couple times.
Anyway, if you’re stuck w/low ammo now, I’d hit up the guy in the boarded up house (who I did not know about, and shall visit myself post-haste), or just scrounge up random trash to sell in Megaton and get yerself some rounds. Just remember to sneak.
You must not be heading straight for Megaton. That’s where you need to go first-- you might meet a molerat or a stray dog on the way, but those should be laughably easy to beat. You shouldn’t run into any raiders between the vault and Megaton. Get yourself there, gear up, do some dinky little quests and get some levels before exploring around. My first real, challenging combat experience was at the little supermarket, by request of what’s-her-nut in the general store, and there were only maybe 6 or 7 raiders total in there, none of them carrying anything worse than a 10mm submachine gun. Actually, following that chick’s series of quests is a very good way to make sure you don’t get in over your head.
If you went north or West after leaving the vault, you might’ve run into some super mutants, which are difficult to impossible for you to deal with fresh out of the vault.
There’s a little, mostly abandoned town (Springvale?) right near the vault. Megaton is a little bit south of that. Springvale has a couple tough baddies in it, but should be doable. If you’re still having difficulty, head to Megaton first and get a level or two.
Did you get any clothing in the vault? You said you had some 10mm ammo, do you have the 10mm pistol? If all you have is a bb gun, you’re going to have a really hard time killing anything, and I’d seriously consider restarting and grabbing the pistol before leaving the vault. As for non-irradiated food, there really isn’t much of that. Just scarf down anything you can eat, you can get Radaway later on to make your rads go down.
Alternatively, head up the hill behind the Vault, then over the ruined overpass. You’ll meet about a dozen raiders that come after you one or two at a time, and drop all sorts of good stuff. You’ll be well equipped by the time you drop off the other end of the bridge.
There’s a couple points in the Vault where you have the opportunity to loot a substantial amount of 10mm ammo - a locker in the security office where you run into the Overseer and a guard interrogating Amata, and a locker in the Overseer’s office itself. The BB gun is just a toy.
Also make sure to pay attention to the compass/radar thingy on the lower left of the screen; if you see red “blips”, those are hostiles. You should be able to quickly turn toward them, go into VATS and be able to assess the situation. If it looks like a fight you’re gonna lose, hightail it out of there.
There’s a fake rock behind Megaton (walk around the perimeter until you’re at the far side of the town) containing a sniper rifle, some ammo and I think some other useful bits and pieces.
I musta missed my chance, here. There’s two intact houses in Springvale - one is really boarded up, just graphics. The other, I’ve already been to, Silver (the chick who used to work for the barkeep in Megaton) is in it.
You could always just go back to Silver and either steal her stuff or kill her and take it, if you’re OK with an occasional evil act. You’ll gain more than enough good karma by doing “good” quests to make up for it.
Thanks for the help, guys. I got to Megaton, and have done a few quests - cleared out the supermarket, stopped The Family from raiding the people who live on the freeway (peacefully) and met Silver.
I must admit, though, I saw no entrance into the school.
Have you gotten the message that you’ve discovered the school yet? If so, you should be able to go to the World Map and fast travel to it…it should put you right by the entrance.
A quick tip that’ll save you a lot of caps; south of Megaton are the ruins of Fairfax. Be warned, it’s pretty thick with raiders. East of it is Fort Independence, HQ of the Brotherhood Outcasts; they’ll take technology (Power Armour, laser and plasma weapons, sensor modules, scrap metal) in exchange for 5.56mm ammo, frag grenades, RadAway or Stimpaks.
). Go much further and you find Springvale School, full of raiders. Go slow, sneaking and sniping with VATS and they’re a decent early challenge.