Fallout 3 Gameplay Discussion

[snwbrdr435]

I found the fallout 3 map somewhat smaller then i expected coming from bethesda (oblivion/morrowind) HUGEEEE

[MinisterofDOOM]

Yeah, it's a lot smaller but it's better suited to the game. The TES games need a wide variety of climates and things, plus you have horses as a means of faster travel. A Fallout game by nature has a much more confined setting than Oblivion which are by their nature very vast games. I'm very glad that Bethesda kept Fallout on it's own scale instead of making The Elder Scrolls: 2277. A lot of people were worried when they heard someone new would be doing Fallout, but I think Bethesda has done it EXACTLY right. The world feels right, the lore feels right, the characters feel right...all spot on.

The map in Fallout: New Vegas could conceivably be larger since it's likely New Vegas will include much of what was supposed to be in Van Buren (which took place across most of the southwestern US).

Funny you mention that, though, because my friends who have never played Morrowind or Oblivion keep commenting on how huge the Fallout 3 map is.

[crackage]

Fallout 3 is awesome. I love how open-ended it is and you can really create your own character. Great game!

[BusyBadger]

Where is the Lincoln Repeater, I scoured the entire area of the Lincoln Memorial and couldn't find it, but I do have an Abe Lincoln doll that I found somewhere.

Lincoln's Repeater is in the Museum of American History...I think its on the top floor. I found it to be a much better weapon using VATS than any sniper rifle, even with the reduced range - it does have a 15 round capacity though!

Beware...the Museum is chock-a-block full with ghouls.

[MinisterofDOOM]

That's what the Ghoul Mask is for!

[OriginalWheelman]

That's what the Ghoul Mask is for!

I too said "f*** these hoitey toity bastards."

[BusyBadger]

That's what the Ghoul Mask is for!

My method of dealing with a tangle of ghouls was quiet approach and a head shot with a silenced 9mm. I never wear the Ghoul Mask, I always saw more advantage in whacking them.

[MinisterofDOOM]

I enjoy using the ghoul mask to get to the center of a room full of them, then attack one and watch them not even affect my health as they attack my awesomness. A couple missiles at the ground does the trick.

[Chaotic_Warlord]

So I am almost done with the Wasteland Survival Guide quest, I just have one last thing to do and that's to go get the full history of Rivet City. I was looking over the Survivalist Perk last night on the Fallout wiki and I'm not sure just how good it will be for me considering I don't want to try to figure out the responses I gave. Either way I found Tenpenny tower last night after going to Robco and I may save that one for later since there are like 5 quests that I want to finish before I get to that.

I'm a level 16 now and I'm still trying having a hard time deciding which perks to go for when I level up. I did take your advice though and have a ton of crap stockpiled at my house including the awesome laser Gatling Gun. But I have Eugene which does an awesome amount of damage and miniguns are plentiful, not so much with the laser gatling gun.

I'm still trying to find the alien crash site because I want the alien ray gun, but I haven't been focusing my xp points on energy weapons. Next time I get on there I'll have to write down what I have so I can share. Seriously though there are just way too many perks to choose from. Are there more to choose from on the DLc's or what is in the main game is what you get?

Oh how do you get the the broken off front section of Rivet City? and how am I supposed to head shot the couple of people on the ship for Mr. Crowley's quest without having the whole ship come after me?

[MinisterofDOOM]

Ugh, I hate Rivet City. So confusing. I still can't find my way around.You don't have to Kill Ted to get his key. He's easy to blackmail. If you don't have one of the multiple stats that allow stat checks to convince him to give you the key outright, you can pay him (a mere 25 caps) and he'll give it to you. Of you can pickpocket it from him with the help of a stealth boy...his perception is low, so he isn't likely to catch you. All that really matters for Crowley is the keys (actually what the keys unlock). You can convince him you've killed the targets as long as you have the keys. The keys unlock some mint-condition T51b power armor which is worth taking (see the strategies on the wiki) if you don't have Operation Anchorage. If you outright take it, you won't get your reward from Crowley, though, so if you want the armor AND reward (and experience, I think) you need to go unlock the doors to access it at the army depot before delivering the keys to Crowley. Then immediately fast-travel to take the armor because he'll set out to grab it immediately as well. Probably best to save before attempting all this in case it goes wrong.

The DLCs do add new perks but for OA and The Pitt they're not level perks, they're quest reward perks, so you won't have to choose between even MORE at level-up. You get them for completing certain parts of the DLCs.Broken Steel adds perks for level 20-30 characters but nothing for below 22.

I just started a new character a couple of days ago (she's at level 7, I think). I forgot how much tougher things are early on! My level 30 guy can wade through ANYTHING in numbers. My new girl could be killed by Mole Rats. I did a stealth/thief character this time and I'm going to explore the negative karma side of the game. Stealth is a LOT of fun (as I discovered with my 100-sneak level-30 character). Makes the early game somewhat less evil as you have alternatives to direct confrontation.

[Chaotic_Warlord]

I have a question. What happens after you hit level 20 and don't have any of the DLC?

I'm a level 18 and halfway to a level 19 and I still don't have my SPECIAL as high as I would like and I don't have all the perks I want done yet. Guess I need to go get the DLC just to so i can keep leveling up.

[MinisterofDOOM]

Yeah, you can't gain experience after level 20, so you can't continue levelling. There aren't any perks available for post-20 anyway without Broken Steel.

Broken Steel is the ONLY DLC that raises the level cap. The other two (and the upcoming two) merely add new side-quest content.

[Chaotic_Warlord]

good to know, I leveled up to level 20 yesterday thanks to my annihilating everyone at Fort Bannister. I have to say that with all the Talon grunts giving 61 xp I was highly upset that Commander Jacobson (or whatever his name is) only gave 32 xp when you killed him and he was 3 times tougher than the grunts were.

So I need to get BS to level up more, I was planning on getting the Pitt and Op Anchorage first in hopes that I could continue to level up. Between the 2 which one is better. Op Anchorage has the glitch for the armor, but the Pitt seems to have some better weapons.

[MinisterofDOOM]

The pitt probably does have better weapons, depending on which way your character is. The Infiltrator (silenced assult rifle) and the unique version of it (penetrator or something like that) are really useful as they're silent weapons but still powerful. If you're melee, there's the autoaxe and it's unique variant, which are tons of fun. But Operation Anchorage has the gauss rifle (an energy sniper rifle. I'd say the Infiltrator is more useful overall as far as weapon, but the Winterized T51b from OA is immeasurably useful.

One other thing to consider is that The Pitt allows you to use an ammo press that will turn scrap metal into ammo or one type of ammo into another type of ammo. I have honestly never had a need for it, since after 20 I was always rolling in ammo thanks to Scrounger.

As for sheer fun factor, I think OA was more fun than The Pitt for me. The Pitt pissed me off because you're making moral decisions that all suck. EVERYONE is a world-class ***hole and you just feel like a jerk helping any of them. But the quests are to help them, so that's what you do.

[OriginalWheelman]

I think I need to reinstall and play it evil this time. I played neutral last time. Maybe I'll play good, my wife already did the evil way and I saw the ending already. Either way it'll be a good test for the new rig.

[MinisterofDOOM]

I ended up being good just from playing without any real karma intention. I tried not to close any important doors through dialog and wasn't a total a** and my karmas is "messiah." I'm playing through evil and while stealing is a LOT of fun (hooray for not having to deal with fences like in Oblivion!) making decisions has come back to really bite me in the butt sometimes...so much so that I've loaded saves from a level or two back (which means lots of quests to redo) to recover from the impacts.

[Chaotic_Warlord]

Right now I'm just walking the wasteland finding new area's, have a bunch of unique weapons already but I'm still searching for the Lincoln Repeater and the Victory rifle. Like a retard I opted to not go with the explorer perk so I'm searching for locations old skool with out a map.

[positron1]

Bought a copy of Fallout 3 days ago and now I'm playing the waiting game. I'm anxious to jump into this game after reading about it!

[positron1]

Just got my copy out of the mailbox! Now I can see what you guys are talking about on here!

[Chaotic_Warlord]

Positron, fair warning, it's like Evercrack, once you start you won't be able to stop. While it's not as addictive as a MMORPG, whcih I go out of my way to stay away from, it's pretty freaking close.

If you have played Fable or Oblivion it's on that scale of "I gotta keep playing so I can level up/find new locations/beat this quest" It's very easy to get sidetracked with the quests though. I've only done a couple of the main quests and in fact I got to the last part of Scientific Pursuits and instead of working my way to Vault 112 to finish it and start Tranquility Lane, I got sidetracked and started exploring instead.

Speaking of exploring I've found the location of Vault 87, but because the radiation level are soooo high that it kills you in like 2 seconds, I can't get close enough to get it on my PipBoy for the caps. How do I get in there? I know that I don't need to right now because I have to in a later main quest, but I want to because my curiosity is killing me.

Oh and now that I've reached level 20 and can't level up anymore I'm really wishing that I had been strategic with my level ups as there are quite a few Perks that I wish I had opted for instead, like Solar Powered, Life Giver and Better Criticals. I also need to decide if I want to have a follower or not as I keep having to leave some good junk back in locations due to me not having the ST to carry more and I have Ant Might and Strong Back so my ST is 290, with Buffout its like 310 or something.

I'm definately going to have to play through this again when I finally do get to the end but with a much better gameplan with the level ups and perks. That in my mind means that a game is good as I rarely if ever play through a second time, especially when it's as big as this one is. As I play mostly FPS and driving games, if I play through it's usually at the hardest difficulty right away for the added achievements, and with driving games I never start over from the beginning as my garage generally has everything I want already.

Oh and I picked up the Strategy Guide on Friday, best money I ever spent on a book, it has so much information and I'm not even using it for the walkthrough of the quests, the Tour section, map, appendixes, and first chapter make the book worth the money spent, I definitely suggest picking it up if you haven't already.

[MinisterofDOOM]

You actually can't get into Vault 87 through the front entrance...ever. Even if you made it through the irradiated area, the front entrance has been destroyed.

The only way in is through Lamplight Caverns...you'll be guided there by the main quest before you're required to enter the Vault.

The Vault 87 location marker on my level 30 character's world map is still "undiscovered" (I can still see it thanks to Explorer).

[OriginalWheelman]

Using the Adv Rad Suit and a lot of rad away every few feet I got to the door once, but it's [INACCESSIBLE] anyway. I think there is a dead scientist there, but I don't think he has anything of note on him. There really is no point in trying.

[Chaotic_Warlord]

MOD, I just dl'ed the PITT and Op Anchorage DLC but haven't played them yet as I am trying to get the last couple of items that I want to get. I am at the last main mission, if I play through that will the game just end or will I be able to just continue working my way through the last few locations that i need to map for Reilly, plus I have a couple more unique weapons I need to find.

If I play through the last mission is that the end of the game as in it goes to a end screen and you have to start over or load up a save file in order to play the DLC.

[MinisterofDOOM]

Yes, if you finish the last mission (take it back), it goes to the classic fallout ending slideshow (which changes depending on how you played) and then kicks you back to the main menu. You'll have to leave the main quest there until you're finished with everything else or until you pick up Broken Steel. With broken steel, you still see the "ending" and the slideshow, but then you get to keep playing instead of getting kicked back to the main menu.

[OriginalWheelman]

Check out what I found in Arlington.

[MinisterofDOOM]

Huh...have you talked to Harold yet?

[Chaotic_Warlord]

Well I just got the last bobblehead today out of vault 108. I have more locations to scout out and a couple more Nuka-Cola Quantum's to find so I can finish up the Nuka Cola Challenge, but the last 5 or so are proving to be difficult as I found the Jackknifed Nuka Cola truck and the super duper mart long before I started the challenge and either sold the ones I had or drank them. I have to come up with I think 3 more and they are kinda hard to find in the few locations I do have left.

I do however have a massive stockpile of damn near everything in my Megaton house, and have almost 6000 caps. I have yet to get the alien space ship rare encounter yet though which is bothering me as I may have had it early in the game and never realized it. I do have the one alien blaster but haven't used it at all. I also have most of the unique weapons.

When I do start Take It Back, what is a good weapons load out to have and since I have Fawkes is he able to come on the mission with me so I can load him up with the heavier weapons and extra armor?

[snwbrdr435]

^ I did take it back after broken steel came out, all i did was just follow the robot. Didnt really need much else.

[OriginalWheelman]

Yeah I went through the whole Oasis thing. I didn't use either of the things they gave me, I just killed him.

[Chaotic_Warlord]

Just did The Pitt, gotta say, I'm not terribly impressed. The weapons are good, but whole thing was way to short for it to be 800 MS points.

I am however highly upset that I dropped 800 MS points for Operation Anchorage last week and wouldn't you know it they have it for 33% off this week. If I had known they were going to do that I would have waited and gotten all 3 DLC at the same time.