Fallout 3 impressions

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Hugh H

Senior member
Jul 11, 2008
315
0
0
Originally posted by: zinfamous
Originally posted by: Slew Foot
Originally posted by: pontifex
i learned a few things so i decided to start a new character but i still can't decide where to put attribute points and what skills to take.

attribute points right now are 6, 6, 6, 5, 5, 7, 5. not sure i want to spread so thin or specialize more.
anyone have a list of what all of the stats do exactly, like how much extra carry weight each point of ST gives, or how many HPs each point of endurance gives?

i like sneak, small guns, and lockpick, because i think they will be useful, but i'm wondering if I should drop one of those for maybe medicine or repair or even other ones.


oh, and hacking is ridiculously hard...why do they have to make stuff in these games so difficult? i just keep clicking different words until i get the right one.

Theres a faq over at gamefaqs which details out all the attributes and their effects.
FOr hacking, you can eliminate the dummy words by finding all the sets of [], {}, (), that appears in a line, then you strategize the words that will give you the most bang for the buck in terms of finding the correct one.


This game is awesome so far, im taking it slow, exploring things very carefully.

traditionally, sneak is pretty useless. if you're into small guns, then focus on perception and luck. As I mentioned in the other thread, each previous game gets you power armor at some point, which when equipped will boost your strength, added to the likelihood of finding a doc that can permanently boost stats permanently. Perception increases your hit chance, and luck increases your criticals. Luck also increases your rare encounters--not sure if that's a factor in this one, but it allowed you to get the better weapons before.

strength doesn't affect damage from guns, so anything more than 5 was always a waste before. (as power armor + boosts would get you to 9-10 near the end of the game) Charisma can be lower than you think--put ~7 into intelligence, and tag speech.

Does this have the attribute that lets you boost all stats by 1 from the start? I always chose that, much better than "skilled," as skill points become rather meaningless the further you go.

I usually went with S: 5, P: 7-8, E: 4-5, C: 1-2, I: 7-8, A: 6-8, L: 7-9. I always tagged small guns, speech, and lockpick. In the previous games, that pretty much opened up all the possibilities and you become devastating with the rifles. Once you start finding energy weapons, start putting some points into that.

Does Fallout 3 limit your level max?

Oh yeah: this is all based on the design before Bathesda took over...so not sure how much those numbers apply now...

But Strength also affects how much weight you can carry... right?

 

RS8

Senior member
Oct 14, 2007
202
0
71
I think strength affects your weight. At least it should. @ 8, I think my limit was only 230. And you need Endurance @ 5, just to get the bonus weight perk that lets you carry another 50.

As for luck, the only other thing I can think of besides the crits, is the whole 'mystery stranger' thing which you can only pick if you have it @ 5. Level cap at 20 by the way.

edit - I don't like sneak either, I'm so used to stealing from previous FOs, it doesn't work that well in this one. Well, I guess it depends on how you're playing the game.
I just found it useless when it comes to sneaking around enemies as well since they're pretty good at detecting you.
So I just use it for a quick crit when I see someones back.
 

DangerAardvark

Diamond Member
Oct 22, 2004
7,559
0
0
Originally posted by: ZzZGuy
Man, this game can be a mind F*** at times.

Go to small town for quest, search house and find the skeleton of a small girl in bed with all her toys still out and wearing the tattered remains of the dress she was wearing when she died. After moving through the town I find a dog owning about 5 bandits and comes over to me all nice and friendly, now I have a pet dog that can hold his own in a fight. Shortly after from out of nowhere a woman comes up to me screaming "THE BOMB IS GOING TO EXPLODE!", she then runs away and promptly explodes, right about then is when the homicidal robot from the old Lost in Space attacks me. THEN as I'm sneaking my way though a ruined downtown area of some place two guys in ragged clothing run past me screaming followed by this MASSIVE scorpion which totally ignores me and proceeds to chase down and kill the two guys.

I LOVE THIS GAME.

LOL. Now you're REALLY making me want to play this game. I can DL while I go watch a movie.

I LOVE STEAM.
 

Jschmuck2

Diamond Member
Jul 13, 2005
5,623
3
81
Originally posted by: zinfamous
Originally posted by: Slew Foot
Originally posted by: pontifex
i learned a few things so i decided to start a new character but i still can't decide where to put attribute points and what skills to take.

attribute points right now are 6, 6, 6, 5, 5, 7, 5. not sure i want to spread so thin or specialize more.
anyone have a list of what all of the stats do exactly, like how much extra carry weight each point of ST gives, or how many HPs each point of endurance gives?

i like sneak, small guns, and lockpick, because i think they will be useful, but i'm wondering if I should drop one of those for maybe medicine or repair or even other ones.


oh, and hacking is ridiculously hard...why do they have to make stuff in these games so difficult? i just keep clicking different words until i get the right one.

Theres a faq over at gamefaqs which details out all the attributes and their effects.
FOr hacking, you can eliminate the dummy words by finding all the sets of [], {}, (), that appears in a line, then you strategize the words that will give you the most bang for the buck in terms of finding the correct one.


This game is awesome so far, im taking it slow, exploring things very carefully.

traditionally, sneak is pretty useless. if you're into small guns, then focus on perception and luck. As I mentioned in the other thread, each previous game gets you power armor at some point, which when equipped will boost your strength, added to the likelihood of finding a doc that can permanently boost stats permanently. Perception increases your hit chance, and luck increases your criticals. Luck also increases your rare encounters--not sure if that's a factor in this one, but it allowed you to get the better weapons before.

strength doesn't affect damage from guns, so anything more than 5 was always a waste before. (as power armor + boosts would get you to 9-10 near the end of the game) Charisma can be lower than you think--put ~7 into intelligence, and tag speech.

Does this have the attribute that lets you boost all stats by 1 from the start? I always chose that, much better than "skilled," as skill points become rather meaningless the further you go.

I usually went with S: 5, P: 7-8, E: 4-5, C: 1-2, I: 7-8, A: 6-8, L: 7-9. I always tagged small guns, speech, and lockpick. In the previous games, that pretty much opened up all the possibilities and you become devastating with the rifles. Once you start finding energy weapons, start putting some points into that.

Does Fallout 3 limit your level max?

Oh yeah: this is all based on the design before Bathesda took over...so not sure how much those numbers apply now...

:Q Noo! I sneak all the time. In fact, while sneaking I've literally blown the heads off of super mutants with my sniper rifle with a "super" crit that you can get while you're sneaking.
 

Chaotic42

Lifer
Jun 15, 2001
34,395
1,585
126
Were any of you who were skeptical about the big changes to Fallout actually impressed with the game once you got it? Is it really Fallout 3, or is it Oblivion 2?
 

Born2bwire

Diamond Member
Oct 28, 2005
9,840
6
71
God Dammit All! So FO3 is out today but I can't buy it from Steam because I have to have a credit card with a billing address in Hong Kong. Grrrrr...
 

imported_Imp

Diamond Member
Dec 20, 2005
9,148
0
0
Originally posted by: ZzZGuy
Man, this game can be a mind F*** at times.

Go to small town for quest, search house and find the skeleton of a small girl in bed with all her toys still out and wearing the tattered remains of the dress she was wearing when she died. After moving through the town I find a dog owning about 5 bandits and comes over to me all nice and friendly, now I have a pet dog that can hold his own in a fight. Shortly after from out of nowhere a woman comes up to me screaming "THE BOMB IS GOING TO EXPLODE!", she then runs away and promptly explodes, right about then is when the homicidal robot from the old Lost in Space attacks me. THEN as I'm sneaking my way though a ruined downtown area of some place two guys in ragged clothing run past me screaming followed by this MASSIVE scorpion which totally ignores me and proceeds to chase down and kill the two guys.

I LOVE THIS GAME.

I didn't have anything close to that. My closest 'wtf' moment was today when I was getting ready to attack a raider town. As I turn around, what do I see? A deathclaw chasing some settler around. I think there were 2 more guys, but I couldn't find the corpses.

The gibbing is absolutely beautiful. I am now regularly blowing limbs and heads off, yet I still grin like a retard everytime. I love melee too. I found a sword and played out Pulp Fiction's gimp scene with Raiders...

Also, I finally bothered to find out how repair works. Can'r believe you need duplicates of items. I was looking for a hammer somewhere. Wish I'd known earlier, then I may not have had to take 20 realtime minutes to walk back to Megaton from a town after looting the shit out of it.

Does anyone know what the deal is with the Chinese in this game? I've found a bunch of items and signs. Were they the nukers? What's the back story?
 

ZzZGuy

Golden Member
Nov 15, 2006
1,855
0
0
Originally posted by: Imp
Originally posted by: ZzZGuy
Man, this game can be a mind F*** at times.

Go to small town for quest, search house and find the skeleton of a small girl in bed with all her toys still out and wearing the tattered remains of the dress she was wearing when she died. After moving through the town I find a dog owning about 5 bandits and comes over to me all nice and friendly, now I have a pet dog that can hold his own in a fight. Shortly after from out of nowhere a woman comes up to me screaming "THE BOMB IS GOING TO EXPLODE!", she then runs away and promptly explodes, right about then is when the homicidal robot from the old Lost in Space attacks me. THEN as I'm sneaking my way though a ruined downtown area of some place two guys in ragged clothing run past me screaming followed by this MASSIVE scorpion which totally ignores me and proceeds to chase down and kill the two guys.

I LOVE THIS GAME.

I didn't have anything close to that. My closest 'wtf' moment was today when I was getting ready to attack a raider town. As I turn around, what do I see? A deathclaw chasing some settler around. I think there were 2 more guys, but I couldn't find the corpses.

The gibbing is absolutely beautiful. I am now regularly blowing limbs and heads off, yet I still grin like a retard everytime. I love melee too. I found a sword and played out Pulp Fiction's gimp scene with Raiders...

Also, I finally bothered to find out how repair works. Can'r believe you need duplicates of items. I was looking for a hammer somewhere. Wish I'd known earlier, then I may not have had to take 20 realtime minutes to walk back to Megaton from a town after looting the shit out of it.

Does anyone know what the deal is with the Chinese in this game? I've found a bunch of items and signs. Were they the nukers? What's the back story?


I forget where I read/heard it but the USA was at war with China which is what sparked the nuclear exchange.

On a side note the USA also annexed Canada.
 

Jules

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
15,213
0
0
Originally posted by: ZzZGuy
Originally posted by: Imp
Originally posted by: ZzZGuy
Man, this game can be a mind F*** at times.

Go to small town for quest, search house and find the skeleton of a small girl in bed with all her toys still out and wearing the tattered remains of the dress she was wearing when she died. After moving through the town I find a dog owning about 5 bandits and comes over to me all nice and friendly, now I have a pet dog that can hold his own in a fight. Shortly after from out of nowhere a woman comes up to me screaming "THE BOMB IS GOING TO EXPLODE!", she then runs away and promptly explodes, right about then is when the homicidal robot from the old Lost in Space attacks me. THEN as I'm sneaking my way though a ruined downtown area of some place two guys in ragged clothing run past me screaming followed by this MASSIVE scorpion which totally ignores me and proceeds to chase down and kill the two guys.

I LOVE THIS GAME.

I didn't have anything close to that. My closest 'wtf' moment was today when I was getting ready to attack a raider town. As I turn around, what do I see? A deathclaw chasing some settler around. I think there were 2 more guys, but I couldn't find the corpses.

The gibbing is absolutely beautiful. I am now regularly blowing limbs and heads off, yet I still grin like a retard everytime. I love melee too. I found a sword and played out Pulp Fiction's gimp scene with Raiders...

Also, I finally bothered to find out how repair works. Can'r believe you need duplicates of items. I was looking for a hammer somewhere. Wish I'd known earlier, then I may not have had to take 20 realtime minutes to walk back to Megaton from a town after looting the shit out of it.

Does anyone know what the deal is with the Chinese in this game? I've found a bunch of items and signs. Were they the nukers? What's the back story?


I forget where I read/heard it but the USA was at war with China which is what sparked the nuclear exchange.

On a side note the USA also annexed Canada.

If you explored the Food Distribution center, The computers have all the info on it.
 

Dumac

Diamond Member
Dec 31, 2005
9,391
1
0
I'm really impressed with this game. I hated Oblivion, but Fallout 3 is knocking off my socks. However, I feel that if I had played the original two I may feel a bit differently...

Still, I'm really enjoying the game.
 

Jschmuck2

Diamond Member
Jul 13, 2005
5,623
3
81
Some helpful things I've learned while playing this stupidly addicting game:

Hold down tab (or your pip boy button) to turn on the flashlight. This will affect your sneaking.

Hold down R to holster your weapon.
 

novasatori

Diamond Member
Feb 27, 2003
3,851
1
0
Originally posted by: Jschmuck2
Some helpful things I've learned while playing this stupidly addicting game:

Hold down tab (or your pip boy button) to turn on the flashlight. This will affect your sneaking.

Hold down R to holster your weapon.

ty
 
Sep 19, 2005
108
0
0
Just to ask..

How long is the game? I am the type that likes to go around and get everything and build things up over time. However it only is fun if it has a means to a end.

Is it like oblivion.. where you would have to work hard to get over 60 hours into it, or like elder scrolls 3 where hundreds of hours was a solid number?

 

Dangerer

Golden Member
Mar 15, 2005
1,128
0
0
The dad is voiced by Liam Neeson

As for the length of the game, it's probably pretty long if you do all the sidequests, the mainquest itself is actually very very very short.

Originally posted by: Imp
Spoiler
Something weird in Megaton. After I disarmed the bomb, I took a n ap in my house. Upon coming out and walking around town, I found the Sheriff dead. No one mentions it except his son. WTF happened? It's possible he walked off a ledge, but it's not that far up. Do I need him later?

SPOILER:
I played the game with a bunch of save files to see several outcomes. Basically if you tattle to the sheriff about the Burke wanting to blow the place, the sheriff will attempt to arrest Burke and Burke immediately kills the sheriff. Since you disarmed the bomb, I'm guessing Burke killed the sheriff behind the scenes. I disarmed the bomb as well, but knowing the outcome I went ahead and killed Burke first. Didn't like the guy anyway since I'm going for good karma, but he's damn corpse is forever stationed next to the bar lol.

btw, I'm so stupid and sold the gorgnak comic book, lost my free +1 str. damn

anyway as for my stats
S=1
P=7
E=1
C=6
I=10
A=8
L=7

I went with intense training x2 to max out agi before picking up education.

I'm already about 5 hours into the game and kinda regret my choices since I had no that about bobbleheads can't increase points over 10
 

pontifex

Lifer
Dec 5, 2000
43,804
46
91
Originally posted by: Chaotic42
Were any of you who were skeptical about the big changes to Fallout actually impressed with the game once you got it? Is it really Fallout 3, or is it Oblivion 2?


i'd call it a Fallout mod for Oblivion.
 

Magusigne

Golden Member
Nov 21, 2007
1,550
0
76
My Stats are

Strength=6 (How the hell could you get by with just 1 str) - increased carry, dialogue options
Perception- 4 (Confirmed- Does not affect accuracy just location of enemies on compass)
Endurance-5 (didn't touch this)
Charisma-1 (Not quite regretting this choice yet, but speech is definately very low)
Intellect-10 (Maxed for most skill points and dialogue options
Agility-8 (Sneaking and more AP)
Luck-7 (lots of things)

My character is a gunslinger. Small arms is up high with perks along with repair, science and lockpicking are up along with sneak. Level 6 right now, I sneak around with a silenced pistol and often get one shot sneak kills.

I originally wanted to be pure evil but it seems like you shut down alot of your early dialogue options. My only complaint about this build is the lack of speech success due to low speech skill points and a 1 in charisma. I get by though..I just don't get extra caps that I could usually..but so far that has not been a problem at all.
 

stumben32

Member
Mar 5, 2008
85
0
0
One thing I have not figured out is repairing my gear.

I get the (R) highlighted, hit R to repair then theres is an arror on my pip boy telling me to select what to repair with but I cannot select anything...I hover over the arror and it disapears.....

What the heck is going on with this? Maybe I just dont have the proper item to repair my gear....but I certainly am lugging around a ton of junk.

So hooked on this game
 

Magusigne

Golden Member
Nov 21, 2007
1,550
0
76
Originally posted by: stumben32
One thing I have not figured out is repairing my gear.

I get the (R) highlighted, hit R to repair then theres is an arror on my pip boy telling me to select what to repair with but I cannot select anything...I hover over the arror and it disapears.....

What the heck is going on with this? Maybe I just dont have the proper item to repair my gear....but I certainly am lugging around a ton of junk.

So hooked on this game

Your repair skill isn't high enough to do the repair then.

I don't understand the nuiance of it yet but..if you have 2 identical items...you can use the parts from one to repair the other. If your current Item is at roughly 35% condition and your repair skill is 25 that means that in order to do a meaningful repair on the item you need at least a 35 or better in repair (I'm guessing) if everything is greyed out after you select repair its because your repair skill isn't high enough.
 

imported_Imp

Diamond Member
Dec 20, 2005
9,148
0
0
Originally posted by: Jschmuck2
Some helpful things I've learned while playing this stupidly addicting game:

Hold down tab (or your pip boy button) to turn on the flashlight. This will affect your sneaking.

Hold down R to holster your weapon.

Jesus effing C... There IS a flashlight! I've been waiting to buy one somewhere, and went WTF when people were talking about turning off your PIP boy light.

Originally posted by: novasatori
its liam neeson
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1073664/

I didn't catch it at first, my wife did hehe.

Knew he sounded familiar.

Originally posted by: stumben32
One thing I have not figured out is repairing my gear.

I get the (R) highlighted, hit R to repair then theres is an arror on my pip boy telling me to select what to repair with but I cannot select anything...I hover over the arror and it disapears.....

What the heck is going on with this? Maybe I just dont have the proper item to repair my gear....but I certainly am lugging around a ton of junk.

So hooked on this game

Apparently you need the exact same item for 'parts' in order to repair. It's a way to lose weight and retain money too.

 

pontifex

Lifer
Dec 5, 2000
43,804
46
91
Originally posted by: Powernick50
Originally posted by: stumben32
One thing I have not figured out is repairing my gear.

I get the (R) highlighted, hit R to repair then theres is an arror on my pip boy telling me to select what to repair with but I cannot select anything...I hover over the arror and it disapears.....

What the heck is going on with this? Maybe I just dont have the proper item to repair my gear....but I certainly am lugging around a ton of junk.

So hooked on this game

Your repair skill isn't high enough to do the repair then.

I don't understand the nuiance of it yet but..if you have 2 identical items...you can use the parts from one to repair the other. If your current Item is at roughly 35% condition and your repair skill is 25 that means that in order to do a meaningful repair on the item you need at least a 35 or better in repair (I'm guessing) if everything is greyed out after you select repair its because your repair skill isn't high enough.


it also appears that some things can't be repaired beyond a certain amount, which seems dumb to me. for instance, i found the caravan trader outside megaton and he can repair stuff. when i select some items, it says "can't repair past 52%" or something like that. unless that means his skill level can't repair it past that much?
 

Magusigne

Golden Member
Nov 21, 2007
1,550
0
76
Originally posted by: pontifex
Originally posted by: Powernick50
Originally posted by: stumben32
One thing I have not figured out is repairing my gear.

I get the (R) highlighted, hit R to repair then theres is an arror on my pip boy telling me to select what to repair with but I cannot select anything...I hover over the arror and it disapears.....

What the heck is going on with this? Maybe I just dont have the proper item to repair my gear....but I certainly am lugging around a ton of junk.

So hooked on this game

Your repair skill isn't high enough to do the repair then.

I don't understand the nuiance of it yet but..if you have 2 identical items...you can use the parts from one to repair the other. If your current Item is at roughly 35% condition and your repair skill is 25 that means that in order to do a meaningful repair on the item you need at least a 35 or better in repair (I'm guessing) if everything is greyed out after you select repair its because your repair skill isn't high enough.


it also appears that some things can't be repaired beyond a certain amount, which seems dumb to me. for instance, i found the caravan trader outside megaton and he can repair stuff. when i select some items, it says "can't repair past 52%" or something like that. unless that means his skill level can't repair it past that much?


As far as I know. The caravan traders are a little wierd to me..sometimes they have very low repair skill as shown in the top right corner yet they can repair things sometimes better than me (higher skill).

Yes..if you can't repair past 52% thats because you need to be a higher level repair skill to repair it any further than the 52%.
 

dlock13

Platinum Member
Oct 24, 2006
2,806
2
81
I love having the Caravan Trader repair my gear, and then turn around and just kill him and take my caps back. So fun! Instead of paying 1200 Caps for the Rock-It Launcher schematics, it was free!
 
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