second playthrough now, going for all the evil stuff, actually having trouble being evil, but i'm lvl5, so give me time. the Ratslayer is an awesome starting weapon, but man getting it is a challenge.

was waiting for fallout 3 to drop in price.

Dammit, my game is consistiently crashing during the battle of Goodsprings. RAAAGE.

That's after I updated my nvidia drivers, and reinstalled the game. I'll try turning the graphics down, since the fact it seems to have a problem during that battle is telling me that it could be graphic related. I dunno, though. I remember how F3 tended to lock up my system when it crashed, but whereas now I'm getting CTDs. Hopefully they'll make another patch...

That is really weird. FNV crashes about 10% of the time F3 did for me now.

According to http://segmentnext.com/2010/10/19/fallout-...-freezes-fixes/

Consistient crashes 20-30 minutes in the game, which is what I'm getting, can possibly be resolved by disabling steam cloud synch, so I just did that.

Also, apparently FFDSHOW can cause issues, and of course in the beginning when the game first ran I chose the option to use FFDSHOW. So, if I continue to have issues, I can go look up how to disable FFDSHOW for certain .exes (I used to know but I forgot since it's been so long since I had to do it) and see if that helps.

Finally apparently you can add 2 lines to the .ini, but I'll save that till I find out if the game is more stable with my having disabled steam cloud.

i'm guessing the 2 lines in the ini are the lines for the multicore support/threading? O.o
i had to do that after a certain patch with F³, but seeing how i am using a non official FNV version i don't get any patches and so far only had ONE crash at all . .
And i think that may have been my fault, for equipping gear that would bring an allready maxed attribute and skill combination up even higer . .

Yes.

if they made that mistake again, i'm gonna laugh at them and then cry for the sheer stupidity . .

$20 new from Amazon. How much lower do you want it to go?

$29.99 for the basic game on Steam, or $49.99 for Game of the Year Edition, which includes all the DLC... wait for it... which cost $49.95 by themselves. Buy GotY, you basically get the game for four cents. Can't expect a better deal than that.

What the heck!?

fallout.ini keeps changing itself back to the old way it was, before I changed some lines in it. :o

Could that have to do with Steam validating the files?

Okay, so I validated the files, and then I turned off automatic updates for FNV...let me see if my .ini changes will stay put now or not.

EDIT: I did all that, and FNV seems to revert the .ini after I run it. :/ It didn't take long to crash this time, either. I wonder if the .exe is reverting the .ini back and that makes it crash. :/

really strange problem there O.o
not that i like advocating such things, but try getting a pirated version somehwere that does not work with steam and see how that works . .

My wife got me FNV yesterday for my birthday Having a bit too much fun (perhaps why i called in sick today). I do love the iron sights, and that you can snipe targets before they turn up on the compass. However, I'm a bit worried that Caravan may be unbalancing. I have as of yet to lose a game, and I've made at least 1,500 credits in just an hour of game-time.

I still can't figure out how to play Caravan. I've been far too busy shooting people in the face for caps and weaponry.

Boone and I cleaned out Cottonwood Cove by sniping from the ridge. Now I've got to make the trek up to Bitter Springs, but I need to drop by the Sniper's Nest first to grab the unique Sniper Rifle. The Hunting Rifle's iron sights are horrible, but I'm finding it to be a good VATS weapon.

I'm finding that tricking out a Varmint Rifle is still one of the best investments you can make for realtime plinking. The game really, really wants me to trick out a Laser Rifle for energy sniping as well because those are the only damn mods I can find at any given time, but as long as I've got a stack of 5.56 and a night vision scope on the VR, people fall down. I should shoot for an EW build sometime, but I'm having way too much fun still with regular guns.

It took me a little while to figure out that in order to play my second card, I have to move it down, instead of playing it right on the previous card like I was doing with face cards.

You are right though, the computer players all seem absolutely horrid. However, I can say from experience that it makes a great game IRL.

I can't even play the first card. I click all over the screen and nothing happens, so I'm like "Welp, reload, draw pistol, shoot man in face." I barely know the basic rules for Caravan at this point. My caps come from selling the mass of weaponry and armor I collect while out in the Wasteland. Hunting Rifles are worth a lot.

Looking forward to actually sitting down and winning enough caps at all the casinos to get thrown out.

Oh, it doesn't use the mouse for some reason, you need to use the keyboard. Arrow keys to move, and w, e, and r for various actions. I figure it has something to do with the console in it.

Hmm. I'll have to see if I can steal the caps from all the people I meet, now.

But...shooting people in the face! Argh.

If it were not for the post apoc, this would be a perfect shadowrun game . .

It's tempting to take the engine and do something Shadowrunny with it.

maybe somebody should do a shadowrun total conversion mod . .

That would be wiz, but so much work. So much.

You know what would be wiz about now? A steaming cup of soykaf.

tbh, it's easier to get a reserve of caps, buy everything you want from a merchant, then just beat them in caravan until you get all your caps back.

EDIT: big hint for PC users playing caravan: YOU HAVE TO USE THE ARROW KEYS to move cards around the table. it took me half an hour of banging my head against the keyboard to figure it out. also, this is a really good guide on how to play.

only think I'm missing is the ability to cheat at blackjack. I wish you could palm cards in and out of your hand. I thought that was the point of the casino cards being at various merchants.

for people looking for something shadowrunny, I'm still waiting for Subversion

The cards are actually there to boost your own CARAVAN Deck . .
Furthermore, i am hoping for a Mod that will add in Wanamingos, Floaters and Frank Horrigan . .

I've long felt the same way about the basic Mass Effect game (and no doubt Deus Ex when it hits shelves in a few months will feel the same). Either one of them would make for an amazing SR experience, though, for sure.

Does it still count if we just imagine the pointy ears and stuff?

Caravan is pretty easy. Using the keyboard, first you go through the top and bottom decks and add or remove cards as you wish. THe best strategy for me is to load the deck with 10s, 6s, Kings and a few Queens, then fill in the gaps with whatever. Start the game.

During the game, you select a card. Put it in column 1. Then column 2, then 3, then you can mess with the columns themselves, putting a card next down the column (following certain rules) or beside another card. Generally I do 10+King (to double it), 6 in the column. All three columns must have at least one stack between 21 and 26, and no ties, to win. You can play cards on the other guy's cards, but I've never had to. I normally win in 10 moves, and have never lost.

My quest to make Fallout NV run without crashing to desktop every few minutes continues!

So far http://filenetworks.blogspot.com/2010/10/f...h-freezing.html has been the page with the most stuff I haven't seen before in terms of suggestions.

I disabled FFDSHOW audio AND video for falloutnv.exe (LOL, it came with disabled Fallout3 and Morrowind by default), and that site suggested making the .ini changes in both the .ini in My Documents, but also the default .ini in the Fallout NV Steam folder. Maybe that explains why the .ini kept reverting! So I've done all that. Now I'm going to try and run it again and see if it's stable!

Still crashing, so I'm going to use this dll: http://www.newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=34778

EDIT: Still crashes. I can't believe it; I never had this problem with Fallout 3.

EDIT 2: Removed the DLL, updated Direct X, updated Realtek HD Audio, STILL CRASHES EVERY FEW MINUTES! RAAARRREGHHHHHHHH!

hate to be the one to re-iterate the basics, but:

drivers updated?

winxp or win7?

As i said, try aquiring a pirated version of the game which does not work with steam and see how that works out for you. . .
Then try the stuff you tried before, including the ini tampering, to see if it sticks when steam has no say in the matter at all.

Alternatively, there may be a crack that removes the Steam support so you don't have to download the whole thing first.

Loving FNV wish F3 played on win7 so I could revisit that one too.

It doesn't? That's...odd.

It does just fine for me O.o

It should run on win7 just fine. I admit I haven't personally tried it or anything, but there really isn't any reason it shouldn't work.

Yes and XP.

Yeah, Steam may be the culprit, as F3 wasn't steam when I played it.

There's a term for the sort of thing in a game. It's a scrappy mechanic. The primary reason that H2O/Starvation/Sleep Deprivation are not scrappy mechanics in FNV is because they don't get in the way and they are trivially easy to deal with. The diminishing DR/DV on armor/weapons isn't that bad because it's slot and once again easy to account for.

--



Everyone is killable with two exceptions. Main plot NPCs (which become killable after they are no longer plot necessary) and children. If you want to kill children and plot NPCs go play Fallout and Fallout 2.

--



Caravan in a nutshell.

You assemble your deck, it consists of face cards, number cards, and jokers.

For setup you place three number cards from your hand on the table (I recommend high number or low numbers).

First round you can play a number card on one of your caravans or play a face card or joker on any card on the field.
Every pile has an active suit and a direction (ascending/descending). If you play a number card it must go in the direction of the pile or match suit (I don't know if matching suit alters direction or if direction still stays the same). For instance, if you play a 5 of clubs initially, then a 6 of diamonds, the next card you play on that pile has to be a 7, 8, 9, or 10.

Each face card has a different effect.
Jacks remove the card they are played on and any linked face cards from play. It's played offensively to remove high value cards from your opponent (8-10 + King). It's played defensively if you pop over 26.
Queens alter the direction of the pile, so if you were ascending, you're now descending. This is the only way to continue playing cards once you've ascended to 10 or descended to ace. Offensively, this is good if you're in the last moments of the game, where a queen can force the opponent to play a card that will cause their pile to jump from under 21 to over 26 or force them to play a card that is less than what they need to reach the target mark. Defensively, it's necessary to continue growing some piles if you hit the limits.
Kings double the value of whatever card it's played on. Offensively, you hit a card that will pop an opponents pile over 26. Defensively, you can use it for a quick jump into the 21-26 range.
Jokers, when played on a non-ace number, remove all other cards of that value from the table. I don't recall the effect a joker has on an ace.

The game is one once a pile in each set (yours and opponents) has a value of 21 to 26. So if you have 21/9/26 and the opponent has 3/24/23, the game ends with the winner being the one that wins the greater number of piles (I think). In the event of a tie, the winner is the one with the greater value.

Played through once, was a guns/energhy weapons guy with enough points left over to raise pretty much everything else I wanted to do. With judicious use of skill books I could pass pretty much any challenge especially after getting the perk that made skill mags doubly effective. Played very close to the end as an NCR guy, NCR faction head is a dick asked me to wipe out the brotherhood, who'd I'd already put a lot of time and effort into making my friends. There might be a peaceful way to resolve this quest but with all I'd already done that option was off the table. Got annoyed and dusted off yes man and installed myself as Autocrat in charge of vegas which left a lot to be desired ending wise.

Playing through second time as a melee guy and it is a ton harder, everything hits like a ton of bricks and I havn't even given any though to what i'm going to do about deatchlaws. Also going survival this time and while there are some cool options there it seems like a big hassle to gather the crafting stuff. We'll see if my mind changes after i use poison on some super mutants or ghoul reavers.

One suprising thing for me has been how much more difficult it has been then the previous game, there are deathclaws within easy walking distance of the starting area for example. Kinda lends a different feel to things.

I'm pleased with how reverant and referential this has been of the previous games without completely repeating the stories. A lot of refrences to fallout 1 and 2 are there if you care to look. It will also be interesting to see what's up with the DLC's if they send us back to Shady Sands or somewhere similar.

The Bucket Bug is hilarious:





-k

Less of a bug and more of an oversight. Well, the fact that you don't lose karma seems to be a bug. Not sure why you don't lose the karma.

Heh, I didn't use the bucket, but the whole 1)pick up an item in front of everyone 2)walk with the held item off to a side room, 3)throw/drop said item out of sight of any npcs 4)repeat 5)close door (not necessary) 6)'steal' all the stuff off the floor.

Since you're out of sight of any guards, they don't turn hostile.

Don't mind me! I'm just carrying this heavy plasma cannon to...um...clean it, yeah!

In related news, the CAD guy is funny sometimes by accident when he's not doing comics about his avatar character that no one cares about.

Yeah, I'm sure he has a massive successful webcomic because no one cares about his avatar character.

It's not a total oversight. It's a mechanics issue, though I thought that at one point they had that fixed in Oblivion.

You still get all the negative things that happen from stealing the item (read karma loss) but you don't have any of the other worse things happen to you. There is a pseudo work around to it built in the game but it seems hit and miss on what NPCs exhibit the trait or it may be that the work around only happens when you're sneaking, but NPCs will follow you around inside a building if there are stealable items. Happened in Oblivion, Fallout 3, and I've seen it in New Vegas.

Still, always tricked by just moving fast enough to break line of sight with the NPC.

no, actually you do NOT lose karma, when you do this . .
Curiously, on the other hand, i tried to steal one of the kings uniforms . .
had done so, had it safely tucked away in my inventory/companions inventory . .
Suddenly one of them cries:"Hey! That belongs to us!" and takes it back and i lose karma.

Really? I've lost karma from just stealing items where they were lying when I was in a room unobserved. Magically moving the item no longer causes you to lose karma?

Not in this case it seems . .