:smack: Nope. I remember someone mentioning that earlier but I forgot all about it. I’ve been to CC several times but the trade caravans don’t have much I need. I’ll have to see if I can find Uncle Roe…since I did the Ant/Robot boy quest they seem pretty happy with me (even though I did whack the ant queen after giving her the robot boys armor).
-XT
Actually, it was one of the Paladins that help you clear out the Arlington Library; he actually got iced by the Raiders (I think one of them had a rocket launcher) and I looted his body. No weapon on him, but he had standard power armor and a power helmet.
Aside from Lucky Harith, the only one I’ve seen for sale was in Rivet City, from Flak & Shrapnel. However I wouldn’t be surprised if merchant stores were randomized in some way, including for rare guns like that and the Scoped Magnum.
You’ll need to pay twice ($200, then $500) to access the best stuff.
I’ve got caps to burn at this point…unless there is something in the game really expensive that I can buy that I’ll need em for. I have a Fat Man already (got that from Flak & Shrapnel…no sniper rifles though so you are probably right Tam that it’s randomized). I have tons of stuff to sell too…I don’t even bother at this point as I have more caps that I can spend and I don’t even need stuff like ammo anymore.
-XT
I suppose you could make a lot of bottlecap mines…
I’ve just realized something sad about this game…
[spoiler]During the final mission/battle, I sent the dog to vault 101 to wait for me there.
Then promptly sacraficed myself in the water purifer.
That poor dog is waiting and I’m never going to arrive.[/spoiler]
Reminds me of the saddest Futurama, ever.
Hrm… that video seems to cut out half way. Here’s a more complete one of lesser fidelity.
No one will ever sell you a sniper rifle. However, if you invest the caps, they’ll have a repair skill of 85 or so. With that, they’ll be able to fix up the rifle you have pretty good, but it’ll cost of fortune.
Like I said, I’ve bought one before. But I agree they’re certainly not common.
Speaking of sniper rifles, what’s the deal with “Sam Warrick?” I’ve run across him on seperate play throughs and I assume like Ben Canning and the other purified water beggars, he’s mostly there for color. But I was curious if anyone playiong an evil character has been able to interact with him or if he’s always hostile.
Bethesda have announced details of some of the expansions for the game.
It would seem that at least one of the missions
Continues the game after its current ending which strikes me as a good thing and something that they probably should have put more thought into the first time around… I’ll be interested to see how it works.
The other two expansions look pretty interesting as well… As if I hadn’t spent enough time in the Fallout universe as it is! 
I hope they release them bundled together at some point for 360 users, like the Shivering Isles expansion for Oblivion. Then again, Oblivion, even with the SI expansion disc, had a lot of content included that you still had to pay to download. Which sucks for those of us who never shelled out the cash for the 360 wifi adapter or felt like paying for online play.
I’m guessing the player character starts out as an Initiate.
Depending on how far you’ve gotten into the MQ, the Brotherhood shop has pretty good stuff. I’ve also found a few sniper rifles on raiders and talons, specifically
on raiders around the Bethesda Ruins and on talons around Takoma industrial.
There is a rock behind Megaton that holds a sniper rifle, some ammo and a few other things. When you get close enough to it your crosshairs will identify it as “Hollowed-out Rock” or something along those lines. A free sniper rifle early in the game is very useful. I see no mention of it in any of the strategy guides, but there are a few mentions of it on the web.
Hot damn! I wonder how the Pitt content works? Since there are numerous mentions of the Scourge of the Pitt (talk to Kodiak at the Citadel for more details), maybe it’s a flashback with a different character? They can’t exactly open a magic door to Pittsburgh from D.C., so it’ll be interesting to see how it is implemented with a current character. I was disappointing in my first playthrough that you only semi-joined the BoS in the very last mission, and with no separate questline, so I’ll be very happy to carry on with the Brotherhood. Maybe they have you wake up at the Citadel (there is an unused ‘two weeks later’ segue) if you chose the sacrifice ending…if you sacrifice Sarah perhaps Elder Lyons has you hunt down the Enclave as penance. And what if you use the FEV? It’ll be pretty boring wandering around a graveyard.
Shivering Isles and Knights of the Nine were decent expansions for Oblivion, so I’ve no doubt Bethesda will deliver.
And the expansions for Morrowind were also quite good. If nothing else, they were very rich in content, and that’s what I want. I’m already hooked on the world, now I want more.
The guy in Minefield also has one, of course.
I picked up one from a band of raiders on the broken overpass north of Springdale quite early in the game. And I’m sure I bought one from Moira in Megaton at one point.
Sadly, throughout the entire game I never had enough ammo to put the rifle to proper use. I used the laser rifle for sniping, it seemed far more accurate.