Does anyone know if there are any tin-can grenade schematics available? There are no hits so far online and the gamer’s guide doesn’t really cover schematics vendors or locations. I guess the grenade gun will be OK, but I’m hooked on watching a grenade land at someone’s feet in VATS - especially if they notice it before it goes off: “NOOOOOOO! BOOM! MWAAAAARRRRR!”
I’m running around in the space suit too. Looks a little goofy (in a cool way though) with the bubble helmet on, but the stats are better than leather and there’s no AGL penalty like with metal armor.
I’m still getting my butt kicked regularly, but Oblivion taught me to save often, which I do before every fight I see coming.
Yeah, I think you’re right. The RACE is a separate station. I’d like to get Mr. New Vegas without nearly so much repetition. Of songs, at least. I guess I’ll start working on encoding my playlist appropriately.
Who do you think is the best companion? I randomly stumbled onto Veronica early in the game and it was love at first sight. I encountered Boone and Cass later and didn’t want to give up Veronica. I frequently have Elvis Costello stuck in my head now because of her…
Well, I threw Cass under the bus, so I have Boone and Ed-E as companions (though some Brotherhood guy has Ed-E right now and can’t seem to find the guy to get him back). Boone seems ok, though I wish he’d stick with just ranged attacks, since it’s annoying when he runs into a pack of radscorpions and I have to reload.
Yeah, I agree. The scale seems different, with smaller scale combat being the norm. Which is a good thing, considering that my character in this game is a lot weaker than my character at the same level in FO3. It was like when I first got Point Lookout and I was still using regular combat armor and the best weapon I had was the regular sniper-rifle. Those hillbillies were handing me my head, let alone the ramped up undead guys. In this game, a lot of the fights are just like that, so I’ve had to learn a bit of caution…I can’t just wade in to a pack of mobs and simply one shot blow their heads off while staying in VATs for the whole fight. I have to plan routes of escape so I can fight while retreating. And in Hardcore mode I need to make sure I don’t get to beat to hell, need to watch the rate of damage even more than the damage itself to judge when to take stims (and when to bolt).
Since I see no reason why the two radio mods should stack, since one modifies Radio New Vegas and the other adds a new station, hopefully I can actually assemble two playlists and switch between them. For RNV, I could build a playlist based on whatever I can cobble together from the titles of quests, and filled in with others I feel would tie them together into a unity. Then for RACE I can build my own playlist around my own take on the feel of the world, or perhaps just a general counter-point to the main playlist, and with a stronger emphasis on that old Okeh and Stax/Volt-type R&B.
Of course, the dramatic music they ported from the old Fallout is counter-point enough, I daresay. Nothing in the game is more evocative of that old Fallout feeling than that ‘slow klaxon’ music. That’s the stuff to be listening to as you explore those old vaults.
I notice however that suddenly there is a point in targeting something other than the head. In FO3, there seemed to be little statistical advantage to targeting the torso, but in FONV until you get close up the torso is a good deal easier to hit. Plus, I have actually disabled a melee-only creature by shooting it in the legs, like in the old Fallout. And you can trip creatures, forcing them to spend time getting back to their feet, again an important strategy in the old Fallout, and the main advantage to keeping Dogmeat alive.
But of course it does not enable my favorite technique for dealing with Deathclaws in the old games – targeting the eye, and saving the game after each successful shot.
She’s bugged and doesn’t level up with the player as the other companions do. There’s a mod to fix that, though. Another bug I saw with her was when she got stuck after her quest ended and didn’t follow the player no matter what I did. Had to reload an earlier save, so if you are getting to the end of her quest make sure to save just in case you get the same bug.
And yeah, I loved having her around too, especially when she used a chainsaw. Was a bit sad she switched to super sledge later on but at least she still had her sexy power armor on.
Finished this last night. [spoiler]First rushed through with the Yes-Man questline, establishing an independent New Vegas. Didn’t like the ending since I’d been a friend to the NCR and figured I could use my vast army of rocket-launching robots to wipe out the Legion and help them out, only to find I had no alternative but to tell General Oliver to GTFO. The only plus side was I didn’t have to wipe out the Brotherhood, instead joining them as a Paladin (!) - when the Lone Wanderer was only a Knight and wiped out the Enclave…looks like their standards have slipped! Thus got some Power Armour training.
Then reloaded and did the NCR route, despite my distaste for their anti-Brotherhood ways (annoyed there was seemingly no peaceful way to resolve that…had to blow the poor bastards up). A bit more happy with that ending, although Veronica’s end was pretty tragic.[/spoiler]
On difficulty, I think there are two things to be said. The first - Boone + Silenced Sniper Rifle + Better Criticals perk = win button. Can wipe out Legion camps in minutes and not take a scratch, go Deathclaw hunting for fun and profit, make Fiends my bitch.
Having said that, the boss fights are much tougher. Fallout 3’s tended to be somewhat tedious bullet sponges - Overlords, Reavers, even ol’ Jingwai were of no real danger to a Level 30 character with more StimPaks than God. Just keep unloading clips into them. In NV, taking down Caesar then later Legate Lanius (and General Oliver in the Yes-Man ending) were real challenges. Possibly because I play with HC mode, can’t pump in endless StimPaks.
Well, I just set a new personal record for completing a quest, about 3 seconds, most of which was cut scene.
I get a bounty from one of the casinos. When I end the dialogue. Boone gives his battle cry, and the music starts. It slows-mo’s to Boone’s decap, and a splatter falls at my feet. I search the splatter, grab the hat, and turn it in for the bounty.
[spoiler]I did the Yes-Man ending, and while Oliver’s bodyguards killed me the first time around in few seconds flat, the second time when I tried it I just ran behind the first corner I could see and my metal minions took them all out while I cowered.
Lanius was hard though, almost ran out of .308 AP ammo. Didn’t really like the fight, had trouble hitting him outside of VATS with how fast he ran all over the place. In hindsight it would have been a lot easier if I had actually used some of the bazillion chems I carried around.
Never killed Caesar, by the way. Finished game just fine without doing that.[/spoiler]
I had to go out of my way to [spoiler]pop Caesar. Early in the game I was trying to get to him, but couldn’t swim across Lake Mead or cross the dam, so was out of luck there. Instead went to the Legion camp south of Ranger Outpost Delta where there’s a raft that takes you straight to the Legion HQ, the Fort. A great old shootout there. Took Boone and Rex, which was probably a shock for him - seeing his old dog turn up to attack him. Boone had a great line after I blew Caesar’s head off.
“Whatever happens, we killed that prick in the middle of his fortress.”
For Lanius, I talked him into a mano-a-mano duel in the NCR ending (my speech wasn’t high enough in the Yes-Man ending, had to fight all the Praetorians). Took him out with my trusty Marksman Carbine and armour-piercing 5.56mm ammo. Have to be quick, he regenerates his health.[/spoiler]
For the big fights I did copy my Fallout 3 tactic, a Scarface style concoction of Buffout, Jet, MedX and Psycho. In Hardcore I got used to popping a StimPak before going into a fight, so I’m regenerating as I take the hits.
Has anyone been East of the river? I don’t mean at the Fort but swimming across the river into the land where there are no markers. I went there and it is very unwelcoming. I didn’t find any loot or interesting element but I didn’t stay there for long. I have difficulty believing the game makers would have put a big chunk of land there for nothing.
Didn’t get much of a chance to play in the last couple of days, but finally managed to get a 50 cal sniper rifle. It’s pretty powerful, but the problem is that it’s a one shot weapon in VATS…one shot takes all of my APs.
Pretty devastating when it hits…will take a Deathclaw down to a fraction of it’s life in a single shot.
