Fallout Thread III: Preston Garvey Demands BLOOD!

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Irradiated or Explosive on a shotgun or submachine gun is always lulz-worthy. Plasma-Infused is safer than Explosive, although the damage boost isn't as much.

Plasma-infused combat shotgun with bayonet... now THAT is a weapon I can have fun with

[Rater202]

I can't believe this, though I should have expected it. I can't!

There's now a mod that allows you to attach any mod to any weapon. It's... it's crazy. It looks gamebreaking and potentially funbreaking so I won't get it yet, but from what I see on youtube...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpENYTq8kKs

...Okay. I'm making adjustments to some of my "if I ever gain the ability to travel the universe" lists.

[5ColouredWalker]

Just remember to get my Rechager Laser RCW! Guaranteed to never run out of ammunition! Fire until it breaks!

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Just remember to get my Rechager Laser RCW! Guaranteed to never run out of ammunition! Fire until it breaks!

What, you mean the Hyperbreeder Alpha? That was always a good sidearm for an energy-weapon based character in F:NV. Excellent backup if you were playing with, say, the unique gauss rifle or the holorifle.

[5ColouredWalker]

No. I'm talking about the theoretical weapon [Thus mine, since I thought it up.] based on adding a 'disk' of MFB's in front of the RCW's ammo disk and connecting the two. With the RCW's recycle mod and 3 of breeders attached, you could fire until the gun broke.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

No. I'm talking about the theoretical weapon [Thus mine, since I thought it up.] based on adding a 'disk' of MFB's in front of the RCW's ammo disk and connecting the two. With the RCW's recycle mod and 3 of breeders attached, you could fire until the gun broke.

You could, but the Hyperbreeder Alpha would do more damage with a lot less effort.

[Avilan the Grey]

So, I guess I now look like everybody else who play a non-power armor character...

Spoiler: NanaNanaNanaNana NanaNanaNanaNana SILVERSHROUD

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Fought my first Glowing One today. Got a bit lucky, but overall easier than I thought.
I got corned by it, a Roamer and two regulars. And I managed to basically just shoot my way out.

[Vinyadan]

Hello everyone, I am having a problem with Fallout 2.

I created a character (Abraxes) who won't be attacked by animals. Is that normal? The temple run went OK (I hated it, but animals did attack me there), then I made the mission where you need to save the dog and the geckos wouldn't touch me. The evil plants in the village, however, did attack me. I later went to the first town (Klamath), where I helped the "not so smart" guy guard his brahmins. The scorpions there wouldn't attack. I then talked to the two brothers hiding near the plants and tried to make them angry, but they also didn't attack me. A random encounter with mice and a mole rat also just saw the animals just going around and not attacking. I left the area without fighting, getting as close to them as possible.
The thing began looking weird when I went in search of the missing trapper, the one who wanted to find out where the golden geckos come from. The golden geckos won't touch me.

I have now started a game with a new characters (the premade Naag). He wasn't attacked by geckos, but I managed to get attacked and surrounded by radscorpions further south in the wasteland.

This is the first time I play the game, so I don't know if what I am experiencing with Abraxes is normal. Are only big mutated animals supposed to attack me? The thing with the golden geckos feels really strange - making a rescue mission without having to fight and saving someone from non-aggressive enemies.

I am playing with fog of war enabled, could this be the cause? Other options?

[GloatingSwine]

Do things fight back if you attack them?

If so use your good fortune to set yourself up advantageous starts to every fight.

[Balmas]

An Irradiated Ripper.
You punch so it's forced into them, then hold down the button. Other variations are the Cryo-Ripper [So they stop moving] and the version that causes bleed [So you bypass radiation immunity].

Irradiated or Explosive on a shotgun or submachine gun is always lulz-worthy. Plasma-Infused is safer than Explosive, although the damage boost isn't as much.

Plasma-infused combat shotgun with bayonet... now THAT is a weapon I can have fun with

Personally, I prefer the bleeding version for shotguns and automatic weapons over irradiated, explosive, and plasma weapons. While those versions all do their damage immediately, and the irradiated shotgun does twice as much damage, the bleeding weapons have the utility that I need if I'm going to justify hauling around a twenty pound weapon.

After all, nothing sucks quite like bringing along a fancy new weapon only to find that what you're fighting today is immune to your special effects. Really, that's part of the reason why I can never justify bringing along radiation weapons; most of the types of enemies in the wasteland are completely immune to radiation. A radiation weapon only really gets its benefits against humans, which translates to raiders and gunners. If I'm bringing something, I'm going to bring the one that does half the damage 100% of the time instead of something that does twice the damage maybe 30% of the time.

Actually, that introduces a few questions I have about shotguns. As I understand it, damage taken is calculated as a ratio of total armor against amount of damage. If we apply this to shotguns, we ought to see a decrease in effectiveness beyond what would be expected according to the paper damage, because shotguns have many, low-damage pellets. If armor behaves as I understand it, then shotguns should be less useful against people with high damage resistance vs a weapon with identical paper damage but a single pellet. Is this the case?

I note also that explosive weapons seem to be more effective than their low extra energy damage would seem to indicate. Does the amount of explosive damage stack, or does it also suffer improportionately to enemies with high energy damage resistance?

[chainer1216]

Stomp McPunch III has entered the wasteland! Started with 6 STR and END and middling everything else. This was a mistake.

I went into the game blind, I wasn't aware of any of the changes, what's thrown me off is modding in general and the way armor is pieced together. Both systems are supercool and all but I hate how very few cloths can be worn under armor. Why can't Stomp McPunch III wear leg and chest armor with her dress?!

I feel so perk starved, it feels like hacker, locksmith, science!, blacksmith, and armorer are all necessary picks and you just have to squeeze in picks for whatever your build is supposed to be occasionally.

The fact that fist weapons can't be used in power armor pisses me off. How can I be Stomp McPunch if I'm not effectively punching people!?

I'm thinking of starting over with a more generic AGI stealthy snipey build.

[Triaxx]

Everything but the inability to use punch weapons in power armor is solved with Armorsmith Extended. It let's you wear anything as under armor. It's incredibly nice.

That said, Power Armor has an inherent strength boost, and additional damage boost, so even 'bare' fists are effective while wearing it.

[GloatingSwine]

Actually, that introduces a few questions I have about shotguns. As I understand it, damage taken is calculated as a ratio of total armor against amount of damage. If we apply this to shotguns, we ought to see a decrease in effectiveness beyond what would be expected according to the paper damage, because shotguns have many, low-damage pellets. If armor behaves as I understand it, then shotguns should be less useful against people with high damage resistance vs a weapon with identical paper damage but a single pellet. Is this the case?

Shotguns seem to use their overall damage to calculate damage resistance, then scale damage for the amount of pellets that hit afterwards.

I note also that explosive weapons seem to be more effective than their low extra energy damage would seem to indicate. Does the amount of explosive damage stack, or does it also suffer improportionately to enemies with high energy damage resistance?

From what I hear, explosive weapons apply damage to every limb in range of the explosion, so you could be doing their damage five or six times over.

That's why bottlecap mines and grenades are so deadly in the early game.

I'm thinking of starting over with a more generic AGI stealthy snipey build.

If you're not using the Cheat Button (VATS) then AGI is the god stat. Mister Sandman and Ninja make sneaky snipers the king of the wasteland, one-headshotting everything in sight even with the piddliest of guns.

[Chambers]

Re: Fallout 2

I haven't played the game in so long I wouldn't know where to start with advice other than make sure the game is patched. I remember that when it was released it was buggy as hell, and on my first play through there was a glitch in NCR that literally prevented me from continuing with the game. Some NPC was bugged and couldn't talk to them to update the main quest.

[Balmas]

Stomp McPunch III has entered the wasteland! Started with 6 STR and END and middling everything else. This was a mistake.

I went into the game blind, I wasn't aware of any of the changes, what's thrown me off is modding in general and the way armor is pieced together. Both systems are supercool and all but I hate how very few cloths can be worn under armor. Why can't Stomp McPunch III wear leg and chest armor with her dress?!

I feel so perk starved, it feels like hacker, locksmith, science!, blacksmith, and armorer are all necessary picks and you just have to squeeze in picks for whatever your build is supposed to be occasionally.

The fact that fist weapons can't be used in power armor pisses me off. How can I be Stomp McPunch if I'm not effectively punching people!?

I'm thinking of starting over with a more generic AGI stealthy snipey build.

Let's see wheat I can't pull together from the wiki

• Each point of STR translates to an extra 10% of melee damage over its base damage. This is more important in a straight melee character; stealthy melee characters generate most of their bonuses from sneak attack, so base damage is worth less in their builds. Depending on your build, I'd either put Strength at 4, for a stealthy build with Blacksmith, or 9, for a loud build with Rooted.
• Iron Fist, Big Leagues: Damage boosts are always good. I'd pick up only one of these, as you'll never be able to use both at the same time. I'm inclined to think that melee is a better option, if for no other reason than Pickman's knife, the super sledge, and the fact that you can use it in power armor, but you've stated you want unarmed damage. It's up to you.
• The STR 9 perk, Rooted, buys you an extra 50% damage resistance and damage with melee and unarmed weapons while standing still. Definitely something you want to pick up if you're going for a straight beat-'em-up character, as the damage and resistance boosts are amazing in a straightup fight. Stealthy characters may wish to pick up Ninja instead of this.
• On that subject, Ninja, the rank 7 Agility perk, is flat out amazing on a stealthy melee character. 10x normal damage on a sneak attack? Definitely nice to have, especially since it pairs--and stacks with--Mister Sandman so well.
• Blitz, the level 9 AGI perk, allows you to use VATS to essentially teleport right next to an enemy and shove a knife in their throat. This alone would be worth putting AGI to 9.
• Melee builds are usually heavily based on VATS. Luck makes everything about VATS better. My game has changed entirely since I got some of the luck perks like Critical banker, Grim Reaper's Sprint, and four leaf clover.

[Ailurus]

Actually, that introduces a few questions I have about shotguns. As I understand it, damage taken is calculated as a ratio of total armor against amount of damage. If we apply this to shotguns, we ought to see a decrease in effectiveness beyond what would be expected according to the paper damage, because shotguns have many, low-damage pellets. If armor behaves as I understand it, then shotguns should be less useful against people with high damage resistance vs a weapon with identical paper damage but a single pellet. Is this the case?

Honestly, it doesn't matter because Bethesda went back to damage reduction instead of damage threshold. 1 100 damage hit on a target with 40% damage reduction = 60 damage. 10 10 damage hits on a target with 40% damage reduction = 10*6 = 60 damage. I'm sure it's a little more complicated than that, but for the most part the fact that it's percentage reduction means that whenever I need something dead NOW I just grab my tricked out combat shotgun (which I named the Ghoul Blaster for hopefully obvious reasons) and it wrecks face on everything I've tried it on so far, including power-armored targets.

[Vinyadan]

Fallout II: It's the Steam version, so I think it's up-to-date. I just found out something weird, anyway: combat with mistakenly friendly creatures does start if I activate the weapon button. It seems that the problem is that the game doesn't automatically open the combat system, unless I tell it to. I don't need to hit them, I just press the button and they immediately jump me.

I know it's a lucky thing in a certain sense, but I'll try playing the game normally I'm reinstalling it, and trying with default FOW settings.

EDIT: Thanks everyone for support, after the reinstall and disabling FOW everything works fine. The little geckos are now lusting after Abraxes Cle's blood; had I had more characters at disposal, he would have been called Abraxes Cleaner

[DigoDragon]

So, I guess I now look like everybody else who play a non-power armor character...

I want that in Carmen Sandiego colors.

[Avilan the Grey]

I want that in Carmen Sandiego colors.

Make a request at the Nexus

...Not sure if I am to keep it myself or give it to Curie. She's French, and it seems a French classy agent girl would wear something exactly like it.

[tonberrian]

Honestly, it doesn't matter because Bethesda went back to damage reduction instead of damage threshold. 1 100 damage hit on a target with 40% damage reduction = 60 damage. 10 10 damage hits on a target with 40% damage reduction = 10*6 = 60 damage. I'm sure it's a little more complicated than that, but for the most part the fact that it's percentage reduction means that whenever I need something dead NOW I just grab my tricked out combat shotgun (which I named the Ghoul Blaster for hopefully obvious reasons) and it wrecks face on everything I've tried it on so far, including power-armored targets.

Err, no, that's not how DR works in this game. It is percentage based, but it's based off the ratio of damage to armor. Many small hits do less damage than one big hit if you're attacking anything with Damage Resistance. Exactly what the difference is depends on the particular numbers in question (and damage type and relevant perks), but for example a 60 damage hit against 10 damage resistance deals around 57 damage, whereas three 20 damage hits deal around 13 each, so 39 in total.

[GloatingSwine]

Honestly, it doesn't matter because Bethesda went back to damage reduction instead of damage threshold. 1 100 damage hit on a target with 40% damage reduction = 60 damage. 10 10 damage hits on a target with 40% damage reduction = 10*6 = 60 damage. I'm sure it's a little more complicated than that, but for the most part the fact that it's percentage reduction means that whenever I need something dead NOW I just grab my tricked out combat shotgun (which I named the Ghoul Blaster for hopefully obvious reasons) and it wrecks face on everything I've tried it on so far, including power-armored targets.

It's not percentage reduction. Not even nearly.

Fallout 4's armour system is based on the ratio between the incoming damage number and the armour number roughly on the formula:

0.5*(<Damage>/<Damage Resist>)^0.366

What that means is that if your damage number is the same as the enemy's armour number then you do 50% of your damage number, but if your damage number is twice the enemy's armour number then 64% of the damage number happens.

Weapons with twice the damage number are, therefore, more than twice as good. A 50 damage weapon fired at a 50 armour target does 25 damage, but a 100 damage weapon fired at the same target does 64.4 damage. A 25 damage weapon fired at that same target only does 9.6 damage. That's why automatics burn so much ammo for so little effect, and why rifles are strictly better than pistols even at the same damage number, because only 70% of the enemy's armour is counted (a weapon with 50 base damage and Rifleman 5 does 73 damage from a paper number of 100 to our hypothetical 50 armour target).

[tonberrian]

So what can you do about synth settlers?

[cavalieredraghi]

So what can you do about synth settlers?

Wait what? You have synth settlers?

[Vinyadan]

So what can you do about synth settlers?

Spoiler

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Talking about Covenant?

[tonberrian]

Spoiler

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Talking about Covenant?

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No, I mean settlers that show up with unexpected energy resistance in VATS if you have the perk for it that are synths that end up crazy and kill people and sabotage things.

[Avilan the Grey]

Wait what? You have synth settlers?

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As far as I understand it there's a small chance that one of your generic settlers are replaced by a synth. It's a random event.
Also, they also replace brahmin with synth brahmin occasionally (not a joke)

[Starbuck_II]

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No, I mean settlers that show up with unexpected energy resistance in VATS if you have the perk for it that are synths that end up crazy and kill people and sabotage things.

I've never noticed them killing people/sabotage things.
Just I get an "Under attack" message, I visit the place, it seems fine. Then my settlers all start targeting the same settler.
Then

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I find they have Synth components in inventory

[shadow_archmagi]

Honestly, it doesn't matter because Bethesda went back to damage reduction instead of damage threshold. 1 100 damage hit on a target with 40% damage reduction = 60 damage. 10 10 damage hits on a target with 40% damage reduction = 10*6 = 60 damage. I'm sure it's a little more complicated than that, but for the most part the fact that it's percentage reduction means that whenever I need something dead NOW I just grab my tricked out combat shotgun (which I named the Ghoul Blaster for hopefully obvious reasons) and it wrecks face on everything I've tried it on so far, including power-armored targets.

It's not percentage reduction. Not even nearly.

Fallout 4's armour system is based on the ratio between the incoming damage number and the armour number roughly on the formula:

0.5*(<Damage>/<Damage Resist>)^0.366

What that means is that if your damage number is the same as the enemy's armour number then you do 50% of your damage number, but if your damage number is twice the enemy's armour number then 64% of the damage number happens.

Weapons with twice the damage number are, therefore, more than twice as good. A 50 damage weapon fired at a 50 armour target does 25 damage, but a 100 damage weapon fired at the same target does 64.4 damage. A 25 damage weapon fired at that same target only does 9.6 damage. That's why automatics burn so much ammo for so little effect, and why rifles are strictly better than pistols even at the same damage number, because only 70% of the enemy's armour is counted (a weapon with 50 base damage and Rifleman 5 does 73 damage from a paper number of 100 to our hypothetical 50 armour target).

Excellent response, but, in relation to the ORIGINAL question about shotguns:


I believe that shotguns count the damage of the entire blast, and then reduce it based on how much of the blast missed, which is why your shotgun's damage is listed as 200 instead of 20x10, and why I can take down Brotherhood dudes in power armor with three point-blank shotgun blasts.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Personally, I prefer the bleeding version for shotguns and automatic weapons over irradiated, explosive, and plasma weapons. While those versions all do their damage immediately, and the irradiated shotgun does twice as much damage, the bleeding weapons have the utility that I need if I'm going to justify hauling around a twenty pound weapon.

After all, nothing sucks quite like bringing along a fancy new weapon only to find that what you're fighting today is immune to your special effects. Really, that's part of the reason why I can never justify bringing along radiation weapons; most of the types of enemies in the wasteland are completely immune to radiation. A radiation weapon only really gets its benefits against humans, which translates to raiders and gunners. If I'm bringing something, I'm going to bring the one that does half the damage 100% of the time instead of something that does twice the damage maybe 30% of the time.

I'm not aware of anything immune to Plasma, hence why I mentioned it. Also not aware of anything immune to explosives, although at very close quarters, back-blast becomes a hazard. Wounding is one I hadn't considered previously, but now that you mention it, would also be on the list of 'prefixes I would love to see on a combat shotgun'.

Does/Can the Silver Shroud submachine gun come with a prefix? Because giving it one of these is just... it makes being the Silver Shroud something that would be viable for quite some time.

Also, an Instigating hunting rifle is destined to become a sniper rifle. There is no better affix for one.

[thracian]

Bleed damage is insane on a shotgun or a rapid-firing weapon. Furious seems attractive on something like a minigun, but with bleed stacking I think it still comes out ahead.