Fallout VIII: Another Thread Needs Your Help General

[Lord Raziere]

So this session, first went around and got killed randomly try to get to various factions for Wild Card: Side Bets. first got blown up by Boomers, then Cazadors got me trying to get to the Khans, then still couldn't get into Brotherhood of Steel Bunker due to lockpick requirements, and Veronica doesn't seem to have any dialogue concerning it yet. also I've got the Pimp-Boy 3 billion. Aw yeah, funky! and no, the tilt is not a bug. its a feature. I'm wearing the pip-boy equivalent of a rolodex, I can handle a strange tilt of the screen.

So after that I went and tried some Crimson Caravan stuff, closing deals, laying off a troublesome employee, getting rid of bottle cap counterfeits (though I'm privately wondering if getting rid of the presses is such a good idea if they control the value of the currency. one would think the bottle caps would need maintaining in their numbers....)

after that I went south, killed some critters for the Mojave Outpost, then made a second attempt at going to the Boomers and succeeded in getting past their artillery by going along the canyon walls. I bet the pattern is bull and the guy who tries to sell me a way through with timing is running a scam where he gets 300 bottlecaps from everyone that dies.

So yeah, I helped out the Boomers, learned their history, cured two of their patients, dealt with their ant problem, fixed their solar panels (I killed Fantastic while I was out getting the parts to repair them, and NO ONE CARED. so I took his scientist labcoat for myself) then helped them get their plane out of a lake! In the process I discovered Bitter Springs, which I decided to help out by finding supplies and the guy who was killing them and talking him out of killing refugees. also I got a rebreather! I can breathe underwater now.

then I went to Camp Golf and fixed up their Misfit squad using Respect and niceness. their scores still need work though, oh well! quest already complete I guess, guess I should've done their squad training as well. oh well, I'm sure they'll be fine, they have teamwork. and thus reinforcements are sent to Bitter Springs!....he is sending the Misfit Squad I just fixed isn't he?

I got the Cowboy perk to up my damage thematically and I'm thinking I'm seeing the subtle differences in damage now. I feel like I can actually kill things now.

anyways, I'll have to level up my lockpicking next to 75 so that I can get into that hidden valley bunker which I get by finally check out those darn Great Khans. though I'm not gonna lie, they seem a hard sell, I mean......Khan-themed raider people? sounds little better than the Legion to be honest.

[Erloas]

I'm pretty sure it's more just a limitation in the engine/coding. The game doesn't know that the people who own those things are dead, so it's still flagged as theft. I guess they could go in and flag each individual item with a specific owner along with it's own karma and flags for if they're alive or dead, but that honestly seems like a nightmare. I'm sure their time is better spent elsewhere.

It's not like Karma matters anyway.

It should be pretty easy to at least mark the area/owning faction the same way it marks their reaction/attitude towards you. In that once it is bad to the faction it is no longer a karma hit to steal from them (assuming at least the faction isn't tagged so that working against them is bad karma, not sure if that is ever the case or if all factions are considered grey).

Did they not do random encounter and NPC reactions at all based on Karma? I know the originals had some events that would only happen if you had certain flags such as bad or good karma.

[Haruspex_Pariah]

As far as I can tell, Cass is the only NPC who reacts to your karma (maybe Mortimer?). I think some of the endings are keyed to karma as well, though I'm less certain about that.

In retrospect I feel that New Vegas could have done away entirely with the karma system. It feels like a legacy concept that CRPGs as a whole just don't need. This isn't a world like Faerun where your ability to interact with outsiders or magic items is keyed to your alignment.

With the reputation system, and many NPCs responding to you based on specific actions instead of the cosmic points you have tallied, the karma system as it exists in New Vegas doesn't add anything. Maybe they could have done more with it, improved it in some way, but I'm not seeing how.

[SZbNAhL]

As far as I can tell, Cass is the only NPC who reacts to your karma (maybe Mortimer?). I think some of the endings are keyed to karma as well, though I'm less certain about that.

In retrospect I feel that New Vegas could have done away entirely with the karma system. It feels like a legacy concept that CRPGs as a whole just don't need. This isn't a world like Faerun where your ability to interact with outsiders or magic items is keyed to your alignment.

With the reputation system, and many NPCs responding to you based on specific actions instead of the cosmic points you have tallied, the karma system as it exists in New Vegas doesn't add anything. Maybe they could have done more with it, improved it in some way, but I'm not seeing how.

I think they just kept it because it was already in the engine from FO3 and it was probably more effort to take it out than to leave it in.

[Triaxx]

If you need lockpicking, you're not in the right bunker for the Brotherhood. There's several in Hidden Valley.

[Lord Raziere]

If you need lockpicking, you're not in the right bunker for the Brotherhood. There's several in Hidden Valley.

all leading to rubble that do nothing. I've checked.

[Haruspex_Pariah]

all leading to rubble that do nothing. I've checked.

Well apparently there are four bunkers in the Hidden Valley. All this while I only knew of two.

[Brookshw]

If you need lockpicking, you're not in the right bunker for the Brotherhood. There's several in Hidden Valley.

One of the ways to get into the BoS bunker is via lockpicking (though most bring Veronica), souns like the right place.

[Haruspex_Pariah]

As far as I know, simply having Veronica with you should be a free pass into the bunker, assuming you're at the right one. Shouldn't be any other requirements, I don't think.

[Triaxx]

Yeah, Veronica should run right up to the intercom and start talking.

[Serenity]

You may need to take her a few places first. McCarran, the Silver Rush, and Fiend HQ at Vault 3 come to mind.

[Triaxx]

Those cause her to ask but I believe she'll get the door before then.

[Erloas]

I wandered into Hidden Valley, thought I checked all the bunkers, the ones I could lock-pick were all destroyed behind. The one that I couldn't was well beyond my ability (75 I think).

The tips helped, I would have thought they would do something to tell you such fundamental gameplay things, but they were well hidden. Usually can find that by checking the key mapping, but those aren't listed, because they can't be changed I assume.

I'm thinking that I've taken an unusual starting path through the area, probably thanks to the DLC things.

[Triaxx]

I will note that at least one of them contains some treasure behind it. Not a huge haul, but definitely nice to run into early on.

[Haruspex_Pariah]

Small child runs up to you, pretending to be a famous boxer. Option appears when you initiate dialogue: offer child performance-enhancing drugs so he can "really" be like his idol.

I just sat there for a moment like, wtf. Even by Fallout standards that's a bit twisted.

[Erloas]

Small child runs up to you, pretending to be a famous boxer. Option appears when you initiate dialogue: offer child performance-enhancing drugs so he can "really" be like his idol.

I just sat there for a moment like, wtf. Even by Fallout standards that's a bit twisted.

So funny story, when I first went to college (1999) I showed a very sheltered roommate Fallout 2, which he subsequently binged on for... too long (especially since it was my computer). He got to the point where you meet the President and decided he had replay the entire game up to that point with a female character just to see, and sure enough there were Lewinski references.


The real question is, did you try that option?

[Triaxx]

Yeah, Fallout is home to some very twisted humor.

[factotum]

If I remember right, can't you marry someone in Fallout 2 and then send her out on the streets as a prostitute to get some extra caps? The game's always been a bit twisted!

[Triaxx]

As well as sell her/him for a profit.

[Haruspex_Pariah]

Eh, I was farming reputation at the time and didn't want to risk angering the community.

Unrelated, Riot Shotgun with And Stay Back plus Shotgun Surgeon is super fun. Deathclaws can't touch this Courier. The rate of fire and reload speed on the gun means ASB triggers often enough to effectively CC-lock anything. Even took out Rawr.

[Winthur]

Even by Fallout standards that's a bit twisted.

Fallout 2 lets you rape the daughter of a town's cattleowner, which is found out and then turns everyone in town hostile*. Fallout 2 also has a questline where an impoverished woman pleads for you to rescue her husband from jail, and you can force her to offer you her body as payment since she doesn't have much else. Yeah.

*When I first played the game I wasn't sure what I did, because I was 12 years old and I still played these games with a Polish-English dictionary on my lap. I thought that I was basically giving her the Johnny Bravo style of flirting. To this day I feel like the dialogue options imply you being creepy or just bad with girls, and not necessarily... well, you know. Still, ouch. It doesn't help that she kind of does the same thing to you if you're attractive enough, only it ends in a shotgun wedding.

[Haruspex_Pariah]

Hmm. I fear that I may have opened a potentially dangerous floodgate.

Looking back, I couldn't have been much older than 14 myself when I played fallout 2. Still remember taking the bus and coming home with the box that had the disc inside. These days I don't even have to leave my chair to buy a game.

Maybe the worst of it just went over my head. Though I remember being rather amused by the death animations.

The strongest impression I had was the intro, how "Kiss to Build A Dream On" cheerfully plays over a PSA cartoon, only to be followed up by a shocking cutscene and a somber slideshow adeptly narrated by R. Perlman.

[Triaxx]

I suspect either your version is different Winthur, or you're mis-remembering it. If I recall she was very much enthusiastic about it. It was refusing the shotgun wedding that turned them hostile if I'm not wholly mistaken.

I'll be getting there eventually in my LP, so I'll find out.

Also 2 of the three copies of Fallout 2 I own are on disc.

[Winthur]

I suspect either your version is different Winthur, or you're mis-remembering it.

Nope.

Spoiler: Spoilers

Show

If you go to Miria with a character whose Charisma is below 7 or 8 (I don't remember), you will only be offered the dialogue options that lead to Miria's rape and all of Modoc turning permanently hostile.
If you go to Miria with a sufficiently charismatic character, you get to pick "shy" dialogue options that imply Miria is putting the moves on you. After you go through this, Miria jumps you and you start having sex, at which point the shotgun wedding sentence is triggered.
And since we're on the topic of things that are shocking, here's something despicable you can do: marry Miria, sell her to the slavers, go to her pa, and tell him she is gone. He will die of a heart attack on the spot.

Not to humblebrag, but I really have played these games way, way too much to have made a mistake. I wouldn't want to spread misinformation, so I would double-check in Per Jorner's walkthrough if I was unsure.

[Triaxx]

Now, if I can only get DarnUI to properly display it's font, I'll have FNV totally rebuilt and ready to go. Yay.

[Balmas]

Now, if I can only get DarnUI to properly display it's font, I'll have FNV totally rebuilt and ready to go. Yay.

Have you already edited your Fallout.ini file? In order for DarnUI to display its text properly, after you install the mod with NMM/MO, you need to go to the [Fonts] section and replace that entire bit with this bit of code taken from the DarnUI forum page:

[Fonts]
;sFontFile_1=Textures\Fonts\Glow_Monofonto_Large.f nt
sFontFile_1=Textures\Fonts\DarN_FranKleinBold_14.f nt
;sFontFile_2=Textures\Fonts\Monofonto_Large.fnt
sFontFile_2=Textures\Fonts\DarN_FranKleinBold_16.f nt
sFontFile_3=Textures\Fonts\Glow_Monofonto_Medium.f nt
;sFontFile_4=Textures\Fonts\Monofonto_VeryLarge02_ Dialogs2.fnt
sFontFile_4=Textures\Fonts\DarN_Sui_Generis_Otl_10 .fnt
sFontFile_5=Textures\Fonts\Fixedsys_Comp_uniform_w idth.fnt
;sFontFile_6=Textures\Fonts\Glow_Monofonto_VL_dial ogs.fnt
sFontFile_6=Textures\Fonts\DarN_Sui_Generis_Otl_13 .fnt
;sFontFile_7=Textures\Fonts\Baked-in_Monofonto_Large.fnt
sFontFile_7=Textures\Fonts\DarN_Libel_Suit_Otl_24. fnt
sFontFile_8=Textures\Fonts\Glow_Futura_Caps_Large. fnt
sFontFile_9=Textures\Fonts\NVFont_Test.fnt

What this does is comment out the old content of the [Fonts] section with semicolons, and then replace all of the new ones with the text files found in DarnUI.esp.

Project Nevada has a compatibility patch for DarnUI (for the grenade icon), and will automatically patch itself if you apply Project Nevada after DarnUI. If you're using Gopher's OneHUD, you'll also need to go to the OneHUD page and download the DarnUI Compatibility patch. If you're using both, you'll need to use Universal Interface Organizer (UIO), as it'll remove a ton of the headaches you'd normally get with multiple interfaces.

[Triaxx]

I've managed to solve all of it, except the ammo/ condition meter which still looks... wrong. I'm not sure why. I do know I needed to move to oHud from individual files. Otherwise it didn't rebuild things correctly.

[Lord Raziere]

So.

I've done a lot since last I've talked here.

I got the great Khans to not fight for Caesar and to ride off somewhere else. now they will be someone elses problem.

What else? I've gotten to the brotherhood of steel, and I think I've played my cards right, cause Veronica has left it and the that Followers outpost is dead, so I'm on the right track, and I've got the Pulse Gun to defeat the jerks that attacked it. The pulse gun really helps. and now I've got a lot of guns and goodies from both Vault 34 and the Steal Bros. (heh. Brotherhood of Steal) and now I THINK I just do this until I learn the power armor perk then I'm good to do something that'll make sure this all works out for the best, but if I remember from what I've read the Steel Bros will be jerks no matter what and I don't think I want them around. like I know I've ensured Veronica's loyalty and got her out of the toxic Steel Bros place, but its just a matter of figuring out what to do about them myself. lets face it, I probably don't want them around screwing up my New Vegas and my robot army. Which I went through the whole trouble of convincing Veronica to leave it really, so I can destroy the place with a clean conscience- well, after I exploit them to learn how to use power armor for all its worth.

in other news, shotguns are apparently good in this game. I used up half my shotgun ammo in Vault 34 before I completed it and by then I had done everything important and I was tired of firing at ghoul officers that take forever to kill. there was also that Vault 34 Hard Luck Blues quest where I had to choose between the Sharecropper farms and saving a family trapped in the vault, but to me it was obvious to save the farms. Sure its NCR, but this is the post-apocalyptic wasteland. every farm that feeds people will do more good for humanity in the long run, and lets face it, Vault 34 is so irradiated and full of ghouls that the people trapped there probably sent that SOS message years ago and become ghouls themselves since. I'd just be letting more ferals roam free.

oh and Vault 11 before that. yeah, that was an adventure. the twist that the election was about who get sacrificed- then the twist that no one ever needed to be sacrificed at all was quite horrifying. the fact that Vault-Tec put in the line comparing self-sacrifice to driving a race car as being just as important, plus the fact that the whole presentation was made as if they were still in pre-War America with no consideration for future generations....I think Vault Tec didn't even expect people to take the sacrifice thing seriously. Their hypothesis must've been "oh people will just automatically say no, no one will die, the Vault will be available to open, and the experiment will be complete, who would seriously buy this sacrifice someone each year bull?"
Then two centuries later.....they finally say no, and the remaining Vault residents realize what horrible human beings they are. Ouch. the fact at any time they could've just said no and everything would've been fine must've stung hard. well, at least no utilitarian whackjobs who think sacrificing people for the greater good are going to screw things up.

oh and Vault 3 before that, but I forget what exactly went on there. it seem kind of normal to me, just overrun with Fiends.

man I keep nearly dying and have to replenish my health with Stims. how much does it take to up your defense so your not the edge of death in nearly every single battle, jeez. Toughness perk took now.

but yeah, once I'm finished with the Steel Bros, I' think I'm gonna go do the DLC content. see what those are about. make sure I do those before I potentially kick off the point of no return.

[Cristo Meyers]

man I keep nearly dying and have to replenish my health with Stims. how much does it take to up your defense so your not the edge of death in nearly every single battle, jeez. Toughness perk took now.

What armour are you wearing? Defense is pretty much entirely tied to armour in NV.

but yeah, once I'm finished with the Steel Bros, I' think I'm gonna go do the DLC content. see what those are about. make sure I do those before I potentially kick off the point of no return.

Old World Blues is probably the most entertaining, but Lonesome Road is the most fun. If that makes any sense.

Honest Hearts is beautiful, and has some cool equipment, but not much else to recommend it. It's right in the middle of the road. Dead Money is like someone decided they just weren't being punished enough and decided to go full-on Challenge Run.

[Lord Raziere]

What armour are you wearing? Defense is pretty much entirely tied to armour in NV.

Old World Blues is probably the most entertaining, but Lonesome Road is the most fun. If that makes any sense.

Honest Hearts is beautiful, and has some cool equipment, but not much else to recommend it. It's right in the middle of the road. Dead Money is like someone decided they just weren't being punished enough and decided to go full-on Challenge Run.

Mostly reinforced leather armor or the space suit when rads are a problem, but I've switched to combat armor recently. but if I can get power armor....probably that, even if I'll have to do some inventory management to figure that out. I've got a lot of weapons.

ah so.....don't do Dead Money unless I'm confident in my abilities then, got it. probably gonna Old World Blues first though. I like Science!