The men’s bathroom on the upper levels of Megaton (near the bar) has a locker near the entrance that is safe to store stuff in.
How do you get the key to it?
Crap, I suppose I should have defuse the bomb before getting Lucas Simms killed by the stranger at the salon
You can still get the reward from his son. If you don’t wanna bump your explosives skill just pop some mentats.
Son? Where? In megaton? I’ve swore I spoke to everyone there
Crazychop
He often hangs out, strangely enough, in his house (on your right when you come in the main entrance to Megaton).
I found a list of all the components. Scrap metal can be turned in for caps in Megaton. Do the quest for the water plant guy to open that up.
At level 5 I’ve not tried to progress the main quest past Megaton yet. I’ve been exploring, side-questing, collecting, and trying to gear up before doing more of the main quest.
In what order do you folks recommend doing the main quest vs. the various DLCs?
It doesn’t matter a huge amount, but I’d do Operation: Anchorage first - you get some very nice loot out of it (the winterised T15-b armour you get never degrades), plus power armour training.
Save Point Lookout for last, those locals will bend you over and give you a good spanking at low levels. Even at level 30 they can still give the Lone Wanderer a good kick in.
Do The Pitt whenever.
Broken Steel kinda sorts itself out, really.
My concern is that finishing the main quest will end the game before I’ve had a chance to do DLCs and explore. Is that the case? So even at level 30 you can keep on playing?
Finishing the main quest did end the game, but my understanding is that Broken Steel changes this. I haven’t gotten the DLC yet so can’t confirm this from experience.
If you’ve got Broken Steel the game doesn’t end; you can carry on exploring as you like.
I use:
MTUI - much better UI
Unofficial Fallout 3 Patch - fixes bugs
Vault-Tec Experimental Dimensional Safe - holds unlimited items (I won’t play this or Oblivion without the equivalent of this mod
Slower Degradation - for weapons and armor
I’ll be adding some of the others mentioned in this thread too. Thanks!
I’m having trouble figuring out how to use the Fallout mod manager. I stuck some .ESP files under both their own folder under fomm (\fomm\mods\modname) and in the base directory (\fomm\mods) but they won’t show up on FOMM’s mod list. All I can see are Fallout3.esm and the DLC packs.
Where are you supposed to stick mods to get FOMM to manage them?
Just stick all mod files in the main C/etc /etc /Fallout 3/data folder.
Specifically, how do you use mines and grenades? Equip, target, right-click, run away? I can’t seem to get it right.
Also, how many weapons do you small guns people carry? I’m carrying too many, I think, but I don’t know which to dump:
10mm submachine gun
frag grenades
sledgehammer for close up
Chinese assault rifle
hunting rifle
repellent stick for mole rats (dump this?)
combat shotgun for head shots
haven’t even hotkeyed the mines
Plus a sniper rifle when I get one?
Just click, you’ll arm the mine and then drop it. To use mines effectively, just drop em as you’re jogging backwards. Good against any melee enemy.
Unless you’re adding melee points ditch the stick and hammer; you’ll get punted attacking stuff with the sledgehammer if melee ain’t your specialism. If you’re just keeping it for weaker enemies your 10mm SMG will take care of em, 10mm ammo is ten a penny. Keep everything else. I have 8 weapons hotkeyed, so you don’t have a massive amount of weapons. Sniper rifles I feel are a tad useless; the .308 ammo is quite rare and they’re surprisingly inaccurate.
Your hunting rifle will be your best friend. Keep it in good nick.
At the far NE of the map is a location called the Republic of Dave - you can steal a unique hunting rifle from a safe called Ol’ Painless - among the most accurate weapons in the game. Get it early, you won’t need a sniper rifle.
When I’m specializing in small guns, I generally only take Blackhawk (a unique scoped .44 magnum) and Ol’ Painless (a unique hunting rifle). Both have a spread of 0 (meaning they always hit where you aim). I don’t worry about close-range weapons (although Blackhawk will work just fine) because my style is to wear the Chinese stealth suit with a high sneak and snipe from a medium-to-long distance. If I know I’m going to be doing a lot of close-in work (sewers or subway, basically) I’ll take The Terrible Shotgun (a unique shotgun). The sniper rifles (I’m partial to the Reservist Rifle) are nice, but too heavy for the limited use I get from them – and Blackhawk already has a scope.
Automatic weapons are useless. Even the best in the game, the Xu Long unique Chinese automatic, is too inaccurate for anything but short range – and if you’re that close, you might as well use a shotgun.
I also ALWAYS carry the dart gun, no matter what specialization I take. It instantly cripples both legs, so it’s too useful not to use, especially when you run headlong into a Deathclaw or Ghoul Reaver.
One piece of advice I will offer: Make sure you have either completed (or have no intention of doing) the quest “You Gotta Shoot 'Em In The Head” before claiming the reward from Operation: Anchorage.
If you take the Winterised T-51b Power Armour whilst Mr. Crowley’s quest is still “Active”, it will be marked as completed and Crowley won’t talk to you any more as he thinks you’ve double-crossed him.
I’ve found lockpick and science to be very useful skills- The Science skill allows you to hack terminals top open locked doors and safes without keys, turn turrets on your enemies, and also unleash Protectron Robots to do the same.
Also, I will mention that the main quest in The Pitt is not as morally obvious as the rest of Fallout 3.
I like the combat shotgun if I’m playing small guns, with a rifle of some sort for longer range engagements as a secondary weapon.
But I generally don’t go small guns. Lasers, that’s what it’s all about. Put a little sizzle into your supermutants.
Trying to use energy weapons in the early game is harder than the Hulk’s boner. If you don’t get the Firelance random event early, then you’re stuck using a poorly-repaired laser pistol from the Super Duper Mart for your first dozen levels. Getting the Protectron’s Gaze in the early game? Heh, good luck with that. Hope you have lots of med-kits.