Forcing the console generation to enjoy the real stuff

[ecliptic]

I'd recommend G1 over G2 for starting... I just think G2 loses some of it's impact (particularly when you're wandering around the destroyed penal colony area). It's also a bit shorter, if I remember correctly.

 

[sprayahen]

from his take on fallout2 i think he would REALLY enjoy PST

please with blog again

No matter what game comes next after FO2, I'll definitely keep blogging about my exploits. It's way more fun to document my first experiences than to just play privately, and I love the feedback.

 

[SCO]

Arx Fatalis is also a good option, if you don't want to play Ultima underworld 1 & 2 (but why wouldn't you?) while being a good game on it's own (well not at first, but it heats up on the middle).

It is also, hardcore.

I recommend some older adventures too.

Best of breed, per style:
Lucasarts: monkey island 1, grim fandango, the dig.
Sierra: Conquests of the longbow, gabriel knight 1, quest for glory (series)
Legend: superhero league of hoboken,
Cryo: KGB, Dune, Lost Eden (these last two are aural experiences - check out the music on ytube)

 

[sprayahen]

I'm encountering some FO2 pushback in the mining towns and would greatly appreciate any tips from those following the blog (and any Fallout veteran, really). Is there a bug in Broken Hills with the status screen telling me I've already destroyed the mine even though I'm supposed to have the option to destroy it or repair it? Also, deathclaws and wanamingos are lethal. Apparently the SMG and leather combat armor isn't cutting it. I'm not giving up, because I'm focused on completing this game, but... let's just say I'm struggling. Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

 

[GarfunkeL]

Can't remember about Broken Hills un-patched since its been so long. But go to NCR and/or New Reno to get better gear. Combat armour is the best you can get at this stage.

 

[Forest Dweller]

Probably because in its current state it's not useable, so it shows up as "destroyed" on your Pipboy just through inaction on your part. If you fix it that should sort itself out.

 

[kmonster]

In the pip boy status screen quests are crossed out when you've completed them or they aren't available any more.
Don't bother too much about Broken Hills, all the quests there are optional. You don't have do everything in the game.

Deathclaws were extremely deadly in Fallout1, but not in FO2. Most of those I met in FO2 had only 50 hit points and were much weaker than molerats. I didn't like it. :evil:

If you wear leather armor with 2 damage treshold plants can not hurt you with their spikes which do only 1-2 damage unless they score a critical.
It's similar with wannamingos. They have very good armor. If you use a machine gun burst to shoot 10 times for 10 damage each at a monster with 10 damage treshold you won't hurt it.
You were extremely lucky when you killed a wannamingo with a critical hit which ignored armor.
By aiming at body parts you can increase the chance to score a critical by up to 60 percent.

You can defeat the wannamingos now. But since it will be hard, slow and painful I recommend doing other stuff first. There's a lot to do in New Reno or Gecko for example.

 

[RatFink]

yeah stay north for a while you havent really been to vault city have you?
so check gecko and vault city! lotsa experience to get there!
and for gods sake get that worldmap patch! encountering plants, scorpions, dogs, geckos, etc. is a good and easy source of exp plus if youre lucky you get caught in a crossfire and you can loot fallen bandits/highwaymen/whatever for gear and cash.


in my run at the moment im making pretty good results with the magnum revolver and aimed shots at eyes! nice to see 2 enemies splatter all around me in one turn! (cost 4 ap to shoot the magnum revolver!)
i'm at lvl 14 now and just rode into broken hills, i'm quite curious to see what i can do there! feels like its been a long time that i played this game.
...plus, you should shovel more shit around

edit:

Deathclaws were extremely deadly in Fallout1, but not in FO2. Most of those I met in FO2 had only 50 hit points and were much weaker than molerats. I didn't like it. Evil or Very Mad

tried to kill one some levels ago. it had 300-something hitpoints! got some lucky shots in its eyes and it tried to run away, so i killed it easily but that was sheer luck! even the small one that was with it hat around 200 hitpoints! 50 hitpoints for a deathclaw..that is weird..

 

[Jim Cojones]

Deathclaws were extremely deadly in Fallout1, but not in FO2. Most of those I met in FO2 had only 50 hit points and were much weaker than molerats. I didn't like it. :evil:

The weaklings are only found in caves, mostly in random encounters but there's also one in Broken Hills. The deathclaws you meet on the desert are at least as powerful as in the first game.

 

[kmonster]

wannamingos are way more annoying than deathclaws. here's what you do: go get yourself a nice pancor jackhammer. buy lots of ammo. burst wannamingos. repeat.

I disagree. Versus good armored enemies like wannamingos burst mode will use tons of ammo and do less average damage per round than aimed shots.
For characters with the one hander trait the .44 magnum revolver and the .223 pistol are the best early available weapons, the pancor jackhammer isn't that good.

 

[Overweight Manatee]

I'm encountering some FO2 pushback in the mining towns and would greatly appreciate any tips from those following the blog (and any Fallout veteran, really). Is there a bug in Broken Hills with the status screen telling me I've already destroyed the mine even though I'm supposed to have the option to destroy it or repair it? Also, deathclaws and wanamingos are lethal. Apparently the SMG and leather combat armor isn't cutting it. I'm not giving up, because I'm focused on completing this game, but... let's just say I'm struggling. Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

1. The safest place at the moment to gear up a bit is vault city. You can't find the raiders at this point, but there are alternative ways to get in... otherwise, New Reno is the next definite hub to get stuff at, including energy weapons.

2. One handed guns will only take you so far, you eventually need to get two handers if you really want to be able to get through some heavily armored enemies without relying on instant kill criticals to the face (which is still effective as your wanamingo encounter showed, but you need high crit chance). Contrary to what you may think at first, small guns includes everything from pistols to assault rifles to railguns and they can last till the end of the game. You may want to try out that combat shotgun you scored recently, it can burst fire and tear things apart. I don't know if you have found this out yet, but all skills can go over 100%. It costs more skill points per % you buy, but for weapon skills it helps a lot and will help you especially since you have problems shooting two handed guns. It's also possible to use the mutate! perk to change the one hander trait for something else.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

wannamingos are way more annoying than deathclaws. here's what you do: go get yourself a nice pancor jackhammer. buy lots of ammo. burst wannamingos. repeat.

i think you can find a pancor in one of the wandering salesmen or on that weapons dealer in NCR. there's also somebody you can steal one from, but i don't remember who. alternately, you can complete the sheriff's quests in broken hills and get the G11 from the fuckheads, but pancor is better.

I think you can also silently kill a NCR guard

 

[sprayahen]

Excellent suggestions everyone; the feedback here has been invaluable. I'm managed to struggle my way through Broken Hills, and I even finished the quests in Gecko, too. With Level 10, I was able to go back and finish Sheriff Marion's quests in Redding, which is nice. I'm still working with pretty weak armor and guns, though, and growing more and more concerned about the one-hander trait. I guess that's more of a melee fighter's skill, huh? Learned my lesson there. At this point, I still haven't been to New Reno or NCR, but I'm also a full citizen of Vault City now and haven't explored it much yet. When it comes to upgrading my equipment, what do you guys think is the best location of the three considering my one-hander, small guns skills?

 

[Clockwork Knight]

New Reno. You can even buy gun upgrades there. If you're on Vault City, NR is probably gonna be the next "big" city you will visit.

 

[Lockkaliber]

Get the magnum speed loader upgrade! It'll turn you into a killing machine, unless you go too far south!

edit: you can get this in gecko, from skeeters junkyard if I'm not mistaken.

 

[kmonster]

Don't worry about the 1-hander trait, it's not a bad one.
I used 1-handed guns most of the time although I didn't have this trait. It's not difficult getting through the whole game without ever touching a 2-handed weapon.
You can still use 2-handed weapons if you want, you get only a -40 skill penalty, but the best weapons you've seen until now are 1-handed and when you find better 2-handers you'll also find better 1-handers, even burst and long range weapons.

My favorite weapon is the magnum .44 revolver which is available since the Den. It needs less AP than 2-handed guns (allows even 2 aimed shots per round when you take the bonus rate of fire perk at level 15), ammo with 2/1 damage modifier is very cheap and available everywhere. But there are other very effective 1-handed guns.

Don't worry about the one hander trait, worry about getting spoiled too much. Don't let others tell you where you should go next or how you can get which benefits.
There's no need for metagaming unless you're really stuck.

 

[Overweight Manatee]

This is probably the perfect time to tell you that you could have gotten into Vault City as soon as you arrived, had you taken off your armor and shown that you had the vault suit on.

As for one handed guns: they are usually about 25-50% weaker, and when you factor in armor DT that gap widens considerably. They do shoot fast enough to get off another shot per round, but they are definitely still weaker. Not at all unusable though, come end game you end up badass enough to kill just about anybody with anything. Shooting people in the eyes tends to kill them no matter how strong or weak the gun is. "The enemy was hit for 0 damage. Death is instantaneous."

 

[Murk]

I'd recommend G1 over G2 for starting... I just think G2 loses some of it's impact (particularly when you're wandering around the destroyed penal colony area). It's also a bit shorter, if I remember correctly.

G1 is significantly shorter than G2 (especially if you count the add-in), and yes I echo the play them in chronological order as well.. not even for storyline purposes but because you'll appreciate the games and characters more.

 

[Nex]

I'd recommend G1 over G2 for starting... I just think G2 loses some of it's impact (particularly when you're wandering around the destroyed penal colony area). It's also a bit shorter, if I remember correctly.

G1 is significantly shorter than G2 (especially if you count the add-in), and yes I echo the play them in chronological order as well.. not even for storyline purposes but because you'll appreciate the games and characters more.

/agree

All this fallout talk makes me want to play it again. Good thing I have today off :D

 

[Donkey Balls]

the best one-handed small arm is still the .223 sawed-off pistol, isn't it? shame i have no idea about where you get one

Gauss Pistol is better. It's available in San Fran.

 

[Destroid]

Level 15?? I don't think I ever hit that in FO1 and maybe barely got there in FO2.

 

[ecliptic]

I remember sniper rifling my way through FO1 on the first playthrough heh, the poor NPCs just wandered back and forth as I shot their eyes out from four screens away. Never moved up to large arms or energy weapons.

 

[kmonster]

As for one handed guns: they are usually about 25-50% weaker, and when you factor in armor DT that gap widens considerably. They do shoot fast enough to get off another shot per round, but they are definitely still weaker. Not at all unusable though, come end game you end up badass enough to kill just about anybody with anything. Shooting people in the eyes tends to kill them no matter how strong or weak the gun is. "The enemy was hit for 0 damage. Death is instantaneous."

Instant death kills independent of damage dealt are only available with the "better criticals" perk. Without it the best you can get is "damage x 4.0 & ignores armor& blindness & knockout" (which isn't really worse).
Most of the game 1-handed small guns won't do less, they'll do more damage per hit than 2-handed ones, (the quite common .223 pistol is faster and does more damage per hit than the rare sniper rifle for example) and near the end the faster speed will make the best 1-hander more powerful than the best 2-hander.
I could make a detailed comparison about the available weapon types for different parts of the game, but this will spoil too much.

 

[Destroid]

Common .223 pistol? You must be talking FO2 I guess, since I recall there only being 1 in FO1.

 

[hiver]

Thre guy is playing without any random encounters occurring so he can go wherever he pleases.