Fallout VII - Vault-Tec calling

[Triaxx]

I like to just upgrade ADA to Tesla, throw on the head laser and then a Cryojet and Minigun. She's basically an unstoppable death machine at any range in that configuration. Combine it with the 'regens the player' mod, and stimpaks become totally optional.

I've seen Horizon, but it wasn't my cup of tea, even though it does some interesting things. Much like FWE, I like some bits and don't like others. I disliked enough to say no. Still, looks well done.

Talky characters in Fallout 1/2 could be insane, because anything you could talk to, could be talked into killing themselves. Talk your way to the bottom of the military base, and set the self-destruct, then talk your way down to the Master, and talk him into suicide. You couldn't talk Horrigan to death, but you could get lots of help with your charm and watch them wreck him.

Tactics with two Leader Characters? Easy mode.

@Balmas: The thing about the EPA is that the size and back and forth nature is probably why it was cut content.

[Winthur]

.

Talky characters in Fallout 1/2 could be insane, because anything you could talk to, could be talked into killing themselves. Talk your way to the bottom of the military base, and set the self-destruct, then talk your way down to the Master, and talk him into suicide. You couldn't talk Horrigan to death, but you could get lots of help with your charm and watch them wreck him.

The point is that your dialogue options in Fallout 1 and 2 are governed by Intelligence and Speech %; hardly ever do you get Charisma checks in dialogue (Mostly in 2, and they're mostly tied to female characters bartering certain "favors" for other favors). Charisma can be reduced to 1; with Speech around 120%, it will never be a problem. Even funnier: my level 1 Iron Man characters always wait outside Vault 13 for a day to quickly attempt to solve the "Rebel factions in Vault 13" quest. With just tagged Speech and CH1, I still manage to get the Speech check that wins this quest in 3 out of 4 characters.

Charisma is fun in Tactics because it gives fun perks that feel meaningful (what the hell does Presence in FO1 or 2 even do? Cult of Personality?), determines the recruits you get and, well, it's just more of a choice.

Fallout 2 can be fun with a Charismancer - companions can pack a punch even if they're stupid sometimes - that build is further enhanced in the Restoration Project if you turn on being able to control companions on your own. It's a little broken because the companion inherits your tags (so if your Unarmed is tagged and you recruit Sulik he will get double Unarmed% or something like that, and that will cause him to be a little bit too effective) and obviously the companions are crazy, only kept in check by their AI; end-game Sulik has like 14 AP and a raw 40% critical chance strike, and all of his stats are top tier.

[Triaxx]

I always use Empathy, but at least in 2 you need Charisma for companions. Follower limit is CH/2.

That said, you're right. I forgot speech was Int. Too much NV.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

So, playing F:NV on an alternate save to my LP. This time I went almost straight into AWOP Underground around level 10. Came out the other side, victorious over the entire Tech Raiders, and freed the military outpost, at around level 16 or so.

That arena. I freely admit, I cheesed it so hard. Sat at the entrance and sprayed a couple hundred rounds of 12 gage Magnum Buckshot into the other side, setting some of the cars off which took care of the two leaders, then finished everything else off methodically. Because screw dealing with a guy wielding a Grenade Machine Gun M backed up by a Grenade Launcher M and an Anti Matériel Rifle M sniper which can one-shot kill me. Plus the hacked assaultotrons with House's firmware upgrades unlocked so they can use missile launchers. Oh, and someone brought a Missile Launcher M to the party as well.

So yea. Got all three armory keys, no clue where said armory actually is. Got a Marksman Carbine M chambered in .308. Basically a sniper rifle with FAR faster RoF and magazine capacity. Fully upgraded, it has 21 rounds in the magazine, and with Signature Weapon, I'm doing over 100 damage a shot. With the Rate of Fire of a Carbine.

[Triaxx]

I believe there's a map, if you're totally unable to find it.

But I remember that fight being a total nightmare the one time I found my way there.

Ugh. TTW, why. So... not only does the game no longer load from the main menu, unless I'm in the house in Megaton, but I'm having trouble with the last mission, because so far, Liberty Prime has wandered off the bridge into a building. (INSIDE THE UNPASSABLE STRUCTURE) Then he got stuck on the stairs to the irradiated metro chasing Enclave. Then got stuck doing some Dance moves on top of the bridge across the river. And finally, after getting to the very end, just before opening the final barrier, turned left, walked UP THE WALL to the scaffolding outside the memorial, walked across, fell into the pond, worked his way out, and then attempted to make sweet, sweet love to Rivet City. WHY?

[Rynjin]

TBH it sounds like you borked the initial install of the game. The not loading from the main menu thing is one of the main symptoms of not properly following the install directions or properly patching any other mods you may be using.

[Triaxx]

Probably. Though it's run surprisingly crash free otherwise. May be having had to remove Nevada Skies to be able to access the Citadel.

[Rynjin]

That'd probably do it. Removing or adding a mod mid-playthrough often messes things up with TTW.

[DigoDragon]

Oh Veronica, how I missed your fists of fury and witty banter.

Found Vault 34 from a quest trigger and explored it. Pretty much irradiated and swimming in ghouls, but nothing a good powerfist can't stunlock from my fav companion while I shoot them in the head. I think the one thing that actually did give me trouble was the turret I failed to notice in the Overseer's office. XD

[Triaxx]

Well, it was that or be unable to enter the Citadel. I ended up standing on the ground beneath the Citadel, without any way up or out. Annoying to say the least.

[Avilan the Grey]

...I think I have decided to clean out Nuka World now. I was going to wait until I finish the Amoral Combat quest but quite frankly I have no use for a Gatling laser so I think I'll just blow through it all.

[Triaxx]

Yeah, but that's kind of the absolute best Gatling laser ever. But still, I guess. Which one's Amoral Combat?

[Avilan the Grey]

Yeah, but that's kind of the absolute best Gatling laser ever. But still, I guess. Which one's Amoral Combat?

The quest that gives you challengers. The guy with that weapon is the last one.
Thing is you have to wait a minimum of two days per challenge.

[Triaxx]

Ah, I was under the impression you got it for doing the 'kill 'em all' quest for the woman in the market stalls, or for talking to Garvey after becoming boss and then he asks you to shoot everyone. Conflicting reports hurt my head.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Ah, I was under the impression you got it for doing the 'kill 'em all' quest for the woman in the market stalls, or for talking to Garvey after becoming boss and then he asks you to shoot everyone. Conflicting reports hurt my head.

Nah, Garvey just triggers Open Season in a different manner.

[Avilan the Grey]

Nah, Garvey just triggers Open Season in a different manner.

Speaking of which I am going to restart that. For a stupid reason: I bought ADA, and I forgot how much she bores me. She is the most pointless companion in a Bethesda game ever. No emotional connection to anything, you can't talk to her... I'm switching to someone else just because.

[Caelestion]

Emotional connection? To a Bethesda companion? That's pretty much new to Fallout 4. Besides, she can carry a huge amount of stuff and never complains about it.

[Triaxx]

Who doesn't love a huge murder robot?

[Avilan the Grey]

Who doesn't love a huge murder robot?

Thing is that I feel more connected to a robot I built with almost zero personality, because ADA is just... disconnected. It's hard to explain.

[Avilan the Grey]

I put ADA and Danse in the Nuka Red Rocket. Both can handle themselves, plus Danse needs to be out of the commonwealth.

[Triaxx]

That's part of her charm in my opinion, though Bazooka Joe and Sir William are also awesome dudes. (Dual Missile Launchers, Back Launchers and the Assaultron Face Laser, for Bazooka Joe, and Gatling Laser, Assaultron Stealth Blade and Face Laser for Sir William.)

I always sent Danse up to the northern settlement in Far Harbor, the name of which escapes me. Places to go, giant lobsters to kill and eat. All the things a Power Armor loving synth could want.

[DigoDragon]

Who doesn't love a huge murder robot?

I just picked up Rex from the King to get repaired. Nothing says eclectic melee as wearing a talking stealth suit and being followed by a large cyberdog and a BoS scribe in power armor.


The Boomers and Kings have been secured to be of help to the NCR. Once Rex is fixed up and happy, I have to see what I can do to get the Great Khans to abandon their plans to join Caesar. If it's speech, I got a win button for that.

[Triaxx]

Ah, it feels good to be back in New Vegas... CASE, not again...

Yup, definitely back in New Vegas proper.

[Balmas]

I just recorded the first two episodes of Fallout 3. Gosh, I'd forgotten just how much fun this game is, even with its flaws.

I must have spent a good five minutes shouting at Lucas Simms about how Megaton as a whole makes no friggin' sense. Lucas Simms says that it originally started as just a few survivors who couldn't get into Vault 101, and the settlement grew from there, eventually sprouting a religion around the bomb. But why would anyone start the settlement around the bomb? Why would anyone come in and join a settlement around a bomb? They could have built it anywhere else around Vault 101. There's the Springvale school, there's the town of Springvale itself, there's tons of flat land just to the west of Vault 101's entrance. But no, instead of living in the nearby town with pre-established buildings, they decided to haul airplane parts from who-knows-where to build a town around an undetonated friggin' bomb. Oh, sure, rule of cool, mad max homage, and all that jazz, but UGH it drives me batty.

[Rynjin]

Yeah, would have made way more sense if the Atom cultists got there first and the whole settlement spiraled out from that. Doing the hard work of building a settlement in a non-optimall, highly dangerous location? Insane.

An already extant settlement with running water, electricity, and relative safety (due to high walls and being a known settlement of crazy zealots that nobody wants to mess with) growing due to fake and real converts coming to "bask in Atom's glow"? Far more understandable.

Exploring Megaton as a weird post-apocalyptic theocracy or something would have been awesome.

The Children of Atom cult is one of the few unique things Bethesda added to the Fallout universe, it would have been nice to see them expand on it more and explore what kind of impact such an unstable (but powerful) group of genetic mutants would have on its surroundings.

Far Harbor is a weird outlier in the Bethesda canon in that regard.

[Triaxx]

I always assumed, given the nature of the city and the crater, that they didn't necessarily build around the bomb, but rather built and then as they expanded down, discovered the bomb. On the other hand, it's one of the hold overs from the original 20-years after the bombs plan.

It's less Bethesda not making sense than them making sense and changing the time line.

Then again, Springvale is a Raider infested cess pit. Who have attacked Megaton at least once.

[Balmas]

I always assumed, given the nature of the city and the crater, that they didn't necessarily build around the bomb, but rather built and then as they expanded down, discovered the bomb. On the other hand, it's one of the hold overs from the original 20-years after the bombs plan.

It's less Bethesda not making sense than them making sense and changing the time line.

Then again, Springvale is a Raider infested cess pit. Who have attacked Megaton at least once.

...Okay, but the way the town is set up, you have dozens of buildings on the rim of a crater, with the wall around it. You have supports going down almost to the edge of the pool of radioactive water with the fifteen-foot-tall bomb in it. In order for them to sink the support struts for the rest of the town, they'd have to walk by the bomb every day and ignore it.

As for the twenty-years difference: nope, still not buying it. Which takes more time? To build a town from scratch, using airplane parts that you need to haul there? Or to just use houses that are already standing? Springvale is a decent location, especially for the amount of work that would need to be done to get it functional. It's right next door to Vault 101. It has standing houses. The school is a large, easily defensible structure. If you were pressed for time, it'd be a much better option than building around a bomb, twenty years or no.

As for the raiders--what you do, is you go in, you murder them, and you occupy their place. Suddenly, there's no raiders and you have a nice piece of easily habitable land that, as a bonus, has no nuclear bomb at its core.

Yeah, would have made way more sense if the Atom cultists got there first and the whole settlement spiraled out from that. Doing the hard work of building a settlement in a non-optimall, highly dangerous location? Insane.

An already extant settlement with running water, electricity, and relative safety (due to high walls and being a known settlement of crazy zealots that nobody wants to mess with) growing due to fake and real converts coming to "bask in Atom's glow"? Far more understandable.

Exploring Megaton as a weird post-apocalyptic theocracy or something would have been awesome.

There! See, with one small change, it begins to make sense! That one change takes it from a poorly thought out nonsense town to one with real potential for some interesting choices! Take what you've already said, and maybe add in tensions between Confessor Cromwell and Lucas Simms. The Lone Wanderer needs to decide which person winds up in charge of Megaton; does he disarm the bomb and discredit Confessor Cromwell somehow, or does he figure out a way to increase the amount of radiation the bomb puts out and accelerate the irradiation of the town? Or does he maybe persuade Cromwell/Lucas that if the church wants to find rebirth in Atom's glow, then they should do so and nuke the town!

And, here's the thing, make it karma neutral. I'm thinking of Junktown right now. Both Gizmo and Killian had their points; under Killian's strict law, the town suffers more than if Gizmo's unethical practices allow its businesses to grow. It's a matter of opinion and choice, instead of being a simple matter of helping a good person save a town from a bad one. That way, you avoid the problem of "Do I nuke this random town for no reason or... Not?"

[Triaxx]

We'll have to agree to disagree here. Too easy to provoke a fight I don't want to get into.

Upside, CASE was just a load order issue.

[DigoDragon]

undetonated friggin' bomb.

It drives me nuts as well, but thankfully it's a fairly easy fix. Kinda. I'm surprised none of the cultists bat an eye as I stick my hand into their metal-cased puppet god and pull out some wires.

explore what kind of impact such an unstable (but powerful) group

I see what you did there.

As for the raiders--what you do, is you go in, you murder them, and you occupy their place. Suddenly, there's no raiders and you have a nice piece of easily habitable land that, as a bonus, has no nuclear bomb at its core.

See, I always thought Landmine was a good location to set up. There's only one nut job there screaming about his name pronunciation (which you can easily take care of) and then it's just a matter of clearing out landmines to get in (which you can also easily take care of). Heck, you can disarm the mines, move them to the town perimeter, and rearm them. Profit! Landmine has several intact buildings, a sniper post to defend it from raiders, and it's near a junkyard you can go salvage for parts.

[Triaxx]

Okay, LOOT is no longer allowed near my NV load order. Sorted like I'm supposed to after adjusting mods, and then suddenly nothing behaves itself. Fixed now, but seriously, having to dig around in FNVEdit to see how things are over-writing one another is what LOOT is supposed to solve, not cause.