Fallout VIII: Another Thread Needs Your Help General

[Anteros]

Fallout 3 and 4 are good for exploration in a sandbox sense. You can go in any direction and find something interesting because the world is a nonsensical mix and match of whatever random thing the writer's were thinking of at the time. Individual areas are interesting, but they don't add up to an interesting whole.

New Vegas is interesting to explore because it feels more like a real setting that's consistent and makes sense. Fallout 3 and 4's "random" type of exploration can be fun for a while for me, but New Vegas' setting had much more staying power, and kept me invested for a lot longer.

[GloatingSwine]

Fallout 3 and 4 are good for exploration in a sandbox sense. You can go in any direction and find something interesting because the world is a nonsensical mix and match of whatever random thing the writer's were thinking of at the time. Individual areas are interesting, but they don't add up to an interesting whole.

Part of this is because Bethesda's content generation process has lots of different writers who basically work in their own bubbles and don't have much in the way of either oversight or interaction.

[Haruspex_Pariah]

Strange thing happened when I did the Motor Runner bounty quest. I came all prepared for a massive fight against the entire vault. I made sure the prisoners and the ranger got out first. But after killing Motor Runner and his doggos, only two or three Fiends attacked me. The rest either reverted to neutral or were neutral all along. Patrolling the halls, tinkering with terminals. So I just...walked out of Vault 3 and returned to McCarran to turn the quest in.

I always thought that killing Motor-Runner would irrevocably set the Fiends against you, but I guess not? If it had been a stealthy kill I'd understand, but it was far from it. I basically stepped into his room and opened fire.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Strange thing happened when I did the Motor Runner bounty quest. I came all prepared for a massive fight against the entire vault. I made sure the prisoners and the ranger got out first. But after killing Motor Runner and his doggos, only two or three Fiends attacked me. The rest either reverted to neutral or were neutral all along. Patrolling the halls, tinkering with terminals. So I just...walked out of Vault 3 and returned to McCarran to turn the quest in.

I always thought that killing Motor-Runner would irrevocably set the Fiends against you, but I guess not? If it had been a stealthy kill I'd understand, but it was far from it. I basically stepped into his room and opened fire.

Did you have the Great Khan quest active at the time, or were wearing Great Khan gear? If they think you are a Khan, they will leave you be. And honestly... I could see the Fiends be mostly okay with someone getting fragged. Actually, most of 'em probably would think it's f**king hilarious, those who don't assume he tried to f**k over his dealer and got fragged for his troubles. They're kind of darwinistic like that.

[Haruspex_Pariah]

Did you have the Great Khan quest active at the time, or were wearing Great Khan gear? If they think you are a Khan, they will leave you be. And honestly... I could see the Fiends be mostly okay with someone getting fragged. Actually, most of 'em probably would think it's f**king hilarious, those who don't assume he tried to f**k over his dealer and got fragged for his troubles. They're kind of darwinistic like that.

I actually completed the Khan quest first, using Speech (for some reason I'm averse to wearing the Khan disguise) to talk past the "greeter" and then gave the package to Motor Runner, left the vault to turn in the Khan quest as well as to get some gear and supplies for the big fight I thought would happen. Then came back some days later to rescue the ranger and the prisoners, then back again to Motor Runner for the actual kill. So I guess my cover as a Khan delivery boy was still active?

[DigoDragon]

I always thought that killing Motor-Runner would irrevocably set the Fiends against you, but I guess not? If it had been a stealthy kill I'd understand, but it was far from it. I basically stepped into his room and opened fire.

I find it unusual. When I killed Motor, the entire vault was gunning for me. And I was about as stealthy as throwing a Nuka-grenade onto Motor's lap.

[Lord Raziere]

So after Helios One, I went around and tried to do various things: discover Hidden Valley- which I'll come back to when I unlock the doors. I tried going up Black Mountain....which I'll come back to when I can kill the super-mutants. then I went to Mojave Outpost.....but not before being ambushed by Legion assassins sent specifically after me. had to run, too tough for me to kill.

At the outpost, I got a tip from this drunk cowgirl that Crimson caravans might have a job for me, given the only other alternative is protecting a caravan while that gang of Legion assassins are still out there around Nipton, I decided to take her advice. which lead me to going , delivering an in-voice to this scientist guy named Hildern at the McCarran camp, who in turn sends me on a trip to investigate Vault 22 to discover the secrets of how some plants are growing out of control, sounds like a job for SCIENCE! also apparently other people were sent before me, including mercs and a scientist.

I get there and there is a sign that basically says "RUN, THE PLANTS KILL YOU." spraypainted in red.

.........Hildern must've not paid very much for those mercs. or that scientist.

Well, what does some ignorant wastelander know? we need to INVESTIGATE! and do SCIENCE! I go in, fighting through mantises and reading journals and seeing fungi here and there. and yup, soon it turns out, this place is infested with some weird fungus that kills humans and raises them as plant-corpses. and venus fly traps. oh and apparently there are caves in this vault, because those are always a good idea....? They never seem to be a good idea.

but yeah, Vault 22 is legit creepy, as it becomes clear there are airborn spores, I put my space suit to protect me from breathing them in. with some investigating around and reading all the terminals it turns out this out of control experiment was because......they wanted to make a few pest control methods and somehow ended up making a fungal zombie plague.
...
...
...
wow. you really screwed that up didn't you? just.....stellar.....guys I think think that Vault-Tec was a division of Aperture Science. Cave Johnson bought them out and came up with this stupid vault experiment scheme. Because it sounds EXACTLY like what he'd do. Anyways, I eventually find the data and Kelly, rescue her and then after a few tries, figure out how to light the spores on fire with me dying, which involved the right room and quickly closing the door before it hits me after I shoot some plasma at these fans.

After that, it was a simply matter of having a talk with Kelly about how the failures of science are just as important as successes and that this can serve as a warning to others to not do this. like certain other weapons that humanity made. that.....caused....the end of the world in this....universe....hm. well this might be a bad idea but I go back to Hildern and hand him the research and while trying to be like "but dude seriously, don't turn into some stupid fungus biological weapon to use for the NCR." and he's like "have some faith! we're not stupid Vault alchemists! I work for the government!"
*glances around at wasteland around us, remembers that NCR hired Fantastic*
....that is what worries me, Hildern. that is what worries me. I swear to god Hildern, if I see any spore hulks in Legion armor ravaging the wasteland in my life time, I'm going to hunt you down and make what I'm going to do Benny seem tame and nice in comparison.

Speaking of Benny. I finally have enough Science to get into the strip without paying. because screw paying 2000 caps just to get in. and when I do-OH MY. This is beautiful! so colorful! It almost as if.....this isn't post-apocalyptic! What wizardry did they use to accomplish this? I see Gomorrah. I go in, to see what I can do.....and yeah.....I'm just plain disappointed. lets just leave it at that. and after all those advertisements I saw....tsk tsk....

so of course I went over to Lucky 38 to see what this House guy wants with me. so apparently the founder and leader of New Vegas wants this Platinum Chip for mysterious reasons, was once the RobCo leader, has some way of extending his lifespan, and arranged for me to deliver it to him all discreet-like., and is offering to pay it to me for four times the price to get it for him from Benny. Well. this clearly is important plot stuff that will somehow lead to something that I can't prevent yet, might as well accept it and kill Benny next time.

I've decided to get Nerd Rage and the lifegiver perk, to try and increase my survivability...hey for some reason Nerd Rage is an INT perk, and I've got high int. don't notice much difference though. stupid 20% health.

[Triaxx]

It's not a fee, it's do you have 2000 caps minimum. So as long as you have more than 2k, you go through. Can't gamble what they've taken already.

[SZbNAhL]

Speaking of Benny. I finally have enough Science to get into the strip without paying. because screw paying 2000 caps just to get in.

A bit late now, but you don't actually have to give them 2000 caps. You just have to *have* 2000 caps. You get to keep them.

[LuckGuy]

If I want to set up a largely stock New Vegas install (with all dlc), with only the technical improvement mods like the unofficial patch, 4gb loader, stutter remover... Is there any shortcut to downloading them individually from the Nexus? For want of a better word, is there a modpack I can get?

Thanks.

Edit: it's cool if it has bigger stuff like texture packs and gameplay mods too, I am just hoping to avoid downloading a ton of mods individually again. Something like Big World for BG2.

[Triaxx]

Mod packs are kind of a dirty word among the Bethesda community. Too many mod thieves floating around.

[Mando Knight]

Mod packs are kind of a dirty word among the Bethesda community. Too many mod thieves floating around.

We'll see if that remains the case once 76's private servers and mod system go live. I imagine that players will congregate around or distribute collaborative modpacks or similar systems rather than trying to troubleshoot a load order and distribute a bashed patch to their friends for their shared modded server.

[Triaxx]

We'll see. Bethesda fans aren't much for forgetting things. See the love for Morrowind and the irritation over Horse Armor.

[Haruspex_Pariah]

Been messing around with Explosives recently (in the game). Killed Davison by preparing a trail of maybe half a dozen frag mines, getting his attention with my grenade rifle, and then running to the end of the trail. By the time he got to me he was crippled in multiple places and I finished him with one Power Fist punch.

After watching MATN solve many of his problems with placed explosives, I thought I'd give it a try myself. It's a different way to go about things, certainly. The fact that you can, with some foreknowledge, harvest a significant number of free explosives from around the world makes it easier.

It is hard to use Explosives as primary weapons though, given the wide variety of terrain and encounter types. Which means you almost always need to invest skill points and weight into a secondary weapon.

[Lord Raziere]

A bit late now, but you don't actually have to give them 2000 caps. You just have to *have* 2000 caps. You get to keep them.

cool whatevs.

So, I went into the Tops, persuaded Benny to be alone with me in this presidential suite (high speech skill! who needs charisma?). he tired to convince me to talk so I can get answers, but I refused and killed him with spiked knuckles, took his stuff then decided to investigate further. going over to 13th floor and finding this modded securitron Yes Man, I finally get answers as to whats really going on:

Spoiler: Spoilers....?

Show

So apparently this little platinum Chip is actually the key to taking control all the robots in New Vegas and shaping it however I like. including killing Mr. House, just choosing who gets to live or die, whether to support NCR or the Legion, all fun stuff like that. ok. mind blown, it seems I've stumbled upon the New Vegas One Ring of power, and now can decide however I want to rule this place.

now I know why Mr. House paid so much for this thing, its a threat to his regime. his status quo. I knew it was better to actually investigate rather than let Mr. House get this. If I went back without seeking answers, I'd have handed over the key for a paltry 1000 caps none the wiser. and letting Benny have it probably would just have him call the shots, and considering Benny was like in charge of this casino mafia and had plans to take over New Vegas himself, he'd probably keep the crime running just with him on top.

so yeah, thats two people who just tried to manipulate me out of this Chip of power, both of them responsible for me getting shot and this whole journey starting in the first place.

and now I have a decision: keep the chip and become all powerful? Or hand it over to Mr. House?

Lets assess: Mr. House is clearly valuable and competent. He has single-handedly restored Vegas to some of its former glory. Which is more than be said of most places. He is a pre-war person with access to very rare technology and knowledge that would be useful to have, he clearly is a good negotiator to get people to work peacefully together and thus get profit, made a place that is truly safe where people willingly give up their weapons to have fun at least. he has made a clear objective improvement in terms of quality of life for everyone around him.

But what are his cons? He is clearly manipulative. set me up as a courier to unknowingly deliver his Chip to him, then dig me up and have Victor trail me around and thus probably spying on me, try to make me unknowingly hand over the key to power, and while there is an improvement in quality of life, there is also the fact that he is basically allowing criminal thugs to run these places, who are probably only different from the raiders outside the walls in terms of cosmetics. that and I don't know WHAT his real plan for the wastelands are from this point forward, I mean he said something about sharing his tech, but hm, something about the way he is a secretive manipulative former greedy corporate CEO with robots watching everyone and not even meeting me face to face makes me think he isn't entirely trustworthy, just a feeling, a hunch if you will.

So.

The question becomes: What can I get from him alive that I can't dead, and is it worth giving up becoming the ruler of this place instead? (Probably not by my estimation- you have to make a pretty stellar offer to counter "become the new king" and 1000 caps doesn't even come close. That and still can't trust him entirely.)

I don't know. I'll have to think this over. investigate around. Clearly Mr. House isn't the only one who is good with robots, as Yes Man got modded, and Benny had this plan all ready to go to take things over. Its best to make an informed decision about something this big and I do not have enough info.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

That chip has additional uses as well. I'd at least have a chat with House and use your Legion immunity to go run an errand for him, even if you plan on using Yes Man to topple his empire. For reasons. Undisclosed spoileriffic reasons.

[Triaxx]

It wasn't manipulating you per say. Talk to House about it and he'll explain what he did. As for the rest, I invariably end up taking Vegas for my own, just because I adore being a god king of my own town.

[Haruspex_Pariah]

One thing I like about New Vegas is that even after all this time, and all the damn spoilers/guides I've read, I'm still finding things that surprise me.

Spoiler

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I found out that House actually had a half-brother, Anthony House, who ran H&H Tools, and didn't seem to like Robert House very much. You can explore the H&H building in Outer Vegas, and find it housing traps, turrets, and robots. The story is delivered via messages and journal entries left on terminals, which is par for the course for New Vegas.

The part that gave me chills is how the various emails sent by human resources and Anthony's own journal entries paint a picture of him slowly devolving into paranoia and madness. Initially all he does is voice suspicion about one of his employees. Then he has employees run DNA tests for a "traitor gene" and has equipped himself with a special hat to protect his thought energy from being stolen. One of his journal entries is nothing but the word "nevertheless" repeated again and again for multiple pages.

It was one of the few times where I genuinely wanted to Science a terminal, even though I knew it probably only had lore in it.

[Triaxx]

Indeed, it's actually related to a piece of cut content. There's an override mentioned that would have been important later.

[Lord Raziere]

Yeah, I just tried to talk to Mr. House without giving over the chip and he just shot me with Securitrons. as I suspected. so how am I supposed to do this errand for him then topple him if I give over the Chip?

[Winthur]

Yeah, I just tried to talk to Mr. House without giving over the chip and he just shot me with Securitrons. as I suspected. so how am I supposed to do this errand for him then topple him if I give over the Chip?

Just try it and load the game afterwards if you don't like the result. Trust me.

[Triaxx]

Yeah, give him the chip. The decision isn't now.

[Erloas]

So having been a long time fan of Fallout, but didn't really like the direction Fallout 3 went (I think Wastelands 2 is a better sequel to Fallout 2 than Fallout 3 was, knowing full well that Fallout 1 was the "spiritual successor" to Wastelands 1 in the first place).
But that has been long enough now that I want to try them again for what they are, completely different game that happens to share a name and theme with other games I liked.

I did try Fallout 3, Steam says I have about 15 hours. Game never really pulled me in. Can't even tell you how long ago it was that I played or how far I got. So I couldn't say if it was the mechanics or the storytelling that were the biggest issue, but neither really pulled me in (I've had other action-RPGs win me over on just one of the two before).

So with the Steam summer sale, which would people recommend: New Vegas, or Fallout 4?

[Anteros]

So having been a long time fan of Fallout, but didn't really like the direction Fallout 3 went (I think Wastelands 2 is a better sequel to Fallout 2 than Fallout 3 was, knowing full well that Fallout 1 was the "spiritual successor" to Wastelands 1 in the first place).
But that has been long enough now that I want to try them again for what they are, completely different game that happens to share a name and theme with other games I liked.

I did try Fallout 3, Steam says I have about 15 hours. Game never really pulled me in. Can't even tell you how long ago it was that I played or how far I got. So I couldn't say if it was the mechanics or the storytelling that were the biggest issue, but neither really pulled me in (I've had other action-RPGs win me over on just one of the two before).

So with the Steam summer sale, which would people recommend: New Vegas, or Fallout 4?

Given what you've said you should definitely go with New Vegas. Fo4 is basically just Fo3 but polished. New Vegas actually feels like a Fallout game.

[Lord Raziere]

So a few tales from the Strip:

Spoiler: New Vegas

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I've took advice and gave Mr. House the chip and get this: he upgraded the Securitrons....and gave the Platinum chip right back to me. So yeah. Either he really trusts me, or is a fool despite all his intelligence. I didn't bring up Benny with him. If we wasn't going to, I wasn't either. So yeah, apparently I'm going to dot hat Legion thing.....at some point.

But instead of that, I decided to do a few things around Vegas and Freeside: first I went to Joana. Lesbianism: Achieved. then I arranged for her and Carlitos to be free, complete with calling his thugs to help him escape, he is confused as to why I'm doing all this for free and my private answer is that I've already slept with his girl! and he will never know, cause I was so charming she did it for free before I even knew about her situation, so I considered it up front payment.

Next I helped out and joined the Kings. For a gang, they're good people. informed him that the NCR's ambassador never made it, defused the situation, everything is cool and now I'm the first female King- aka, I'm the Queen. aw yeah.

Next I investigated the Omertas. Did some sneaking with Cachino, investigated around, they were definitely planning to assault something or someone. I blew up all the guns they weren't going to use after making sure Troike could go, then killed the bosses with one of the assault carbines I got from their storage room, then went and tried to figure out what was up with Clanden, but I could never get his key off him, so I looked around his room, and saw that there is a lot of blood stains, combined with his "contract work" and "this and that" saying, I figured that he was some kind of assassin or contract killer, so I killed hima fter killing the bosses with a sneak attack punch and got good karma because of it, so whatever he was doing, I think I did the right thing. thats what I got in general from the Omertas: I have no idea what they were doing, but I'm pretty sure that given the people they were, it wasn't anything good and they aren't going to do it now. my best guess is some kind of armed takeover of Vegas, probably rush the Lucky 38 and kill Mr. House and take control of things with the extra bodies to distract the Securitrons, but I don't see that working.

Oddly enough I got a message saying that I killed Clanden when he died. which is weird, since he doesn't seem all that important in the grand scheme of things. But if killing him is good karma, I doubt I did anything wrong. I seem to have a knack for accidentally doing the right thing through preemptive killing without full information available to me.

Next time I'll be looking into doing this Legion errand for Mr. House. an errand where I'll be going into likely the heart of their base, temporarily giving my Platinum Chip to the one faction thats probably the worst idea to give it to, all for some "surprise" that he has planned that he won't tell me, in the middle of a bunch of slaving misogynist Rome cosplayers. Great.

[Triaxx]

Fallout New Vegas is the game you want. All the wit and charm of Fallout 2's writing, combined with superior gunplay to Fallout 3. Including but not limited to, more realistic weapons, iron sights, bullets that go in the direction the gun is pointed more often than not. Guns not made out of tinfoil and held together with tissue paper.

Fallout 4... is more like a Far Cry game than anything else I can think of. A big open world with an enormous set of railroad tracks running through the middle of it. You can wander off and do other things, but you will eventually get run over by the plot train.

[Lord Raziere]

I agree, I've played FO4, and I'm currently having more fun with Vegas than I ever did with FO4. I can't exactly describe why very well.

like when I played FO4, I was constantly hounded by alerts about my settlements, and when I fought outside power armor it was terrible, and when I modded it to indefinitely use power armor I could feel competent in combat, but it was so easy I was practically invincible and the story of trying find a son was forced to me, and I didn't actually care about the son so I tried to avoid it as much as possible, but the whole thing felt.....eh to me. like the dialogue was nothing special, and....bleh. for some reason the whole experience was annoying half the time.

while in Vegas, its like.....somehow more organic? more fleshed out? like, there are options in the dialogue that FO4 will never have, combat is....hm.....how to say it.....I can win a lot of it, but some I can't, and somehow....like....it seems similar but....not? I can't exactly describe it. the dialogue and characters are definitely better and it seems more natural in its progression.

I dunno, there is just a bunch of little details and differences that add up to an experience in both, and the Vegas experience when you put it all together just somehow works in ways that FO4 doesn't. but I definitely feel like a character in New Vegas, like the person I'm playing is an actual character within this world. in FO4, I just felt like some guy gunning a bunch of people down for other people. like there is options in Vegas that simply don't benefit ANY faction, while FO4 in, the only options seem to BE factions you get what I mean?

[factotum]

Add my vote for New Vegas as well. FO4 is a fun game, don't get me wrong, but if you didn't like FO3 because it wasn't enough like a Fallout game then FO4 is not going to go down well. The main problem New Vegas had was bugs upon bugs, but this long after release they've fixed most of those.

[Rynjin]

while in Vegas, its like.....somehow more organic? more fleshed out? like, there are options in the dialogue that FO4 will never have, combat is....hm.....how to say it.....I can win a lot of it, but some I can't, and somehow....like....it seems similar but....not? I can't exactly describe it. the dialogue and characters are definitely better and it seems more natural in its progression.

I think that thing you can't put your finger on is that, unlike 4, New vegas isn't level scaled for the most part. Things are where they are. If you leave Goodsprings and head up the wrong way, there's Cazadores, Giant Radscorpions, and Deathclaws ready to tear your face off if you're not prepared for the danger.

So there are some areas that feel organically more difficult because they're populated by more badass dudes. Be they better equipped humans or tougher monsters, you never quite know what you'll find, whereas in F)4 generally speaking you'll be fighting things your level, even if it doesn't make sense. Roll into Corvega at level 1 and you'll fight level 1 Raiders. They spontaneously level to 100 if you go there at 100.

It feels like your progress is meaningless; yeah you're stronger, but your enemies soak more bullets so that 20% extra damage being canceled out by their 30% increased health makes leveling feel like a punishment in some cases.

[Triaxx]

Yeah, the Oblivion problem rearing it's ugly head again. Combat in F4 is... They were so focused on 'we're going to make the gunplay better' that they just had to show it off. (Personally I think they made it worse, but it's a minority opinion.) The actual combat comes down to a need to engage carefully. This isn't Just Cause where you can engage, get hurt, then instantly escape to heal. Exploit explosives and the wholly undocumented, but surprisingly useful cover system.