that would be awesome. I'm very frustrated that, after I kill everyone in the building (sometimes without losing any karma), taking owner-less equipment costs me karma. I'll have to try this with the Powder Gang.

Oh god, yes, though my offset I gain from killing them is still pretty damn decent compared to what I lose stealing from them.

Why?
What do they hae that'S worth it?

Early on it's a good way to stock up on .357 and 9mm, as well as dynamite and getting the schematics for the Powder Charge.

Fun fact, you can actually jack the schematic without suffering Karma loss.

It's not the dollar amount, it's the idea of the thing. I killed them, I get looting rights.

"I already killed them, how am I more evil by taking their stuff?"

Ah, that ^^
I thought you were talking about taking stuff in buckets without them noticing . . .

Well the one problem solves the other. So now that they're all dead, I'm going to take their stuff out (in buckets so I can keep it).

i don't know what changed, but for some reason, FNV keeps crashing every some minutes for me now <.<

I'm wondering if you just pick it up and drop it if the karma loss is negated.

Oh hoh hoh, it's apparently contagious over internet forums!

Yeah, the game does have some weird karma loss/stealing triggers:

Wait...its ok for me to slaughter these legion members or dynamite-using-raiders, and get +karma for it, but if I loot their stuff from their camp when they're dead, i get -karma? Its ok for you to splatter the guys head, but don't you dare open his footlocker!

The act of killing them is good, but the act of looting is bad. If you loot after you kill you get less good karma due to your mercenary motivations. If you kill but don't loot everyonr is impressed by your super Zen buddhist skill at arms combined with anti materialism.

LOL, I wish I could actually play this game. XD

Considering this is the Nevada wasteland, I'm not surprised that a man's private property is sacrosanct.

Considering this is the Nevada wasteland, I'm not surprised that a man's private property is sacrosanct.

I mostly find it annoying that even though no one ever (or usually ever) sees the stuff that changes your karma, and yet they can somehow tell what it is. I guess I just don't notice that red and black aura around myself like everyone else seems to

Massively successful is open to debate, all I'm saying is for a lot of people I talked to CAD either doesn't register on their radar or they were aware of it and have gone away from it, for a few the miscarriage storyline was kind of the final straw.

In related news a funny thing occured to me today. It's always funny how RPG's only reward kills and not defeats in most examples. Lets say i'm walking down the interstate and a group of vipers attack me, I headshot the leader right off the bat and wing a few of the others causing them to break and run, i only get credit for those guys if I run them down and kill them, what's worse I can't fast travel or sleep until I have ran them down and killed them.

ugh, for some reason i decided to get all buddy buddy with the brotherhood, after frying the helios plant to high heaven. This by way of a certain young lady i picked up at a trader station. Sadly this means that i need to dig around inside a irradiated, ghoul infested vault! Radiation sickness and glowing ones do not mix! Btw, the quest is borked to high heaven. One option is some farming stuff, that i happened to pick up during a earlier quest. I am sure the data is still stored on the pip-boy but the quest wants me to download it from the source. A non-completable option...

And i really need to do something about my AP regen, as it is basically worthless in any fight that involve 2+ enemies. That or get the lady some power armor (i think there are some dead paladins somewhere that i can loot) so that she can beat them into submission (my own fist broke down from over-use, and repairs are highly expensive!)...

I have been acquiring a ridiculous amount of dynamite.

Seems to fall from the sky or something.

Does the blessed fiery flow of sticks taper off later on?




-k

What's to stop you?

If you're talking about Veronica, can't she repair stuff for you on the cheap?

Raul is the guy that can repair, I havn't ran aroudn wtih him as generally speaking by the time your capable of getting him, you don't need him.

Ah, right, she does not repair, she is basically a walking work/reloading bench i think . .

yep, she is a walking workbench.

i wonder if i can repair something from broken condition if i can get my repair skill high enough...

Yes, for quite a bit of time you end up getting dynamite, then they start transitioning into frag grenades. Those early raiders near your starting city will continue to use dynamite, as that is 'their thing', but as you start heading north and into 'higher level' zones, grenades become more common, as do missile launchers.

On a side note, I love using 40 mm grenades in a lowbie grenade rifle, its just funny

I feel so much like a terminator when i walk around blasting people to pieces with my single shot grenade launcher.

In a way. You can craft Weapon Repair Kits at a Workbench, which then do the job without needing another piece of equipment.

I still love Boone as a companion, but that's because he's a perfect pair to a guns/sneak style character. With his perk highlighting enemies it makes it a lot easier to snipe enemies and if I don't kill them in 1 shot he pretty much cleans them up.

Boone + ED-E + Scoped Rifle = world-record setting kills. Boone was always pissed at me for taking shots at enemies he couldn't see, but that's how one clears Cottonwood Cove from the Sniper's Nest.

I might go to Henderson this afternoon. Did you all know that Henderson used to be called Hooterville? They changed the name.

Even though I've been having stability issues I console myself with actual visits to Henderson which are in any case very much like going back in time anyway.

REPCONN HQ and the Test Site are among my two favorite sites to visit because of rockets, a fortune in Pre-War Money, and the Q-35.

Also - WAYNE NEWTON IS A DEEJAY.

Except that they only affect the equipped weapon, and you can't equip a broken weapon

Hm. Don't let your weapons break?

I find I can always get a copy of whatever's broken, and if I can't - well that's what Jury Rigging is for!

Fallout.ini hasn't changed back, so I guess the key to that is to change it in both places.

I don't think I want to feel acute frustration this evening, but sometime later I'll try FNV again and see if it's any more stable for having had the .ini changed.

I'm going to try the iNumHWThreads=1 fix.

Also, I would have thought that Steam would update itself, but when I went to check my Steam settings it said it wanted to update, so I've gone and done that. Maybe updating Steam would help...I did notice that Steam kept changing the game to auto update even when I repeatedly set it to not auto update.

EDIT: Hmm, I went a little longer before crashing. I wonder if that was a fluke, or if the iNumHWThreads=1 was a help.

I know, I know, get the crack that disables Steam support. But I feel a little bit leery of searching on the internet for cracks, since I'm afraid I might end up getting a computer virus.

EDIT 2: Just tried toning down my Windows audio settings, but still very unstable.




I'm running Win XP service pack 2. Could not having service pack 3 have something to do with this instability I'm having with Fallout?

Okay, now I'm all stressed and frustrated. I'm going for a run.

gah, rage quit. Ended up rushing the yes man branch and now i am faced with a bunch of praetorian that i can barely see because their ballistic fists fill my screen with smoke...

Ah, more thinking fixed the "problem". Rather then rush in i beat up some passive praetorians, grabbed their ballistic fists, tuned one up to past 75%, and discovered that uppercuts have a interesting side effect.

For the most part the ending summary sounded ok.

Found myself doing some weapon testing so I can find just the right mix of power, accuracy and speed. I'm focusing on anything with a scope right now, or that I can put a scope on since I generally have ED-E and Boone for long range testing. The more I can blast folks before I'm even spotted, the happier I am.

Going with PC version allows me to load a weapon with ammo and mods whenever I want, so I can just revert to my Cottonwood Cove save to see how each fares against Legion targets, then nip over to Searchlight for ghouls and Black Mountain/Scorpion Gulch.

Leaning towards the Sniper Rifle as the .308 is an excellent cartridge for the majority of the long range, non-VATS work I'm doing. The Hunting Rifle is nice, but I'm having serious problems putting rounds on target through the scope, so it's hitting the bottom of my list.

The AMR has excellent punch - especially with a Bloody Mess/Center of Mass/Better Criticals/Finesse/Ninja build that can gib Hardened Sentry Bots on a sneak attack critical, but the time between shots leaves something to be desired in a close combat situation. .50 Incindiary is my load of choice, though I'm putting together a few mags of .50 Match Handload for big targets.

Ratslayer is a lovely Varmint Rifle. My next playthrough I'll sneak through Primm Pass to go get that before returning to Goodsprings to take care of the Powder Gangers. VR's are a great plinking weapon early on in the game, up until heavy troopers on any side start showing up, Giant Radscorps, or Deathclaws. That Ratslayer has all the mods I like putting on the VR makes it a must-have for early on, and ammo's cheap!

I'm not terribly impressed with the Laser Rifle for distance work. I have a fully modded one with scope, dual barrel and focusing beam. The first few shots have been 'eh', but I'll give it a better try on my next attempt.

Next up to try is the .44 mag lever-action wth a scope, and the .45-70. I am digging the lever-action rifles for work on scorpions. Great punch with a high rate of fire.

Yeah in general I wasn't impressed much by the energy weapons, though in this case, 'flamethrowers' fall under energy weapons, and those were always fun. Always a giggle to watch immolated things.

I noted that for my 1st playthrough, 90 percent of my weapons were projectile type firearms, with the noted addition of the lowbie single shot 40 mm grenade rifle, as it only required like an explosive rating of 25 (i think).

I kept the plasma defender pistol as my sole 'true' energy weapon, largely using it to splatter random critters and low armored foes, while i saved my handloaded .308 rounds for more serious stuff.

I did pick up the unique plasma rifle, laser rifle, etc, but those mostly stayed in storage as I couldn't really rationalize using them.

Oddly this time around I also didn't use missile launchers like I did in the past, partly due to my lower explosive rating. Oh and at hardcore missiles are kinda heavy to keep carrying around. I had a fatman, and realized i hadn't used it once by the end of the game.

I do wish shotguns remained viable late in the game. I had the unique hunting shotgun usually filled with slug 12 gauge, but even that wasn't very good at later levels, especially with limited range.

I also wish there was a way to specialize more in a weapon, so if you WANT to use a .357 lever action rifle until the end of the game, you could. I know that doesn't fit the combat model, but to me, you seem to start off with so many options, but then have to go .308 and .50 cal by the end of the game. .44 doesn't even cut it anymore.

Do they? I'll have to look at it again, I thought Flamers and Incinerators were under Explosives.

Energy Weapons are great at the lower levels - hell, you can start with a Laser Pistol that'll vaporize any Powder Ganger you see until you run out of Energy Cells - but by the time you finish out the Fiends you're more or less done with them. I'm still just not impressed with the Q-35 when I can bullseye a named Fiend with a single round from my lever-action, or blow a leg off with the Sniper Rifle. The Tesla Cannons are workable, though. Still cannot get a Gauss Rifle to save my life - I may just have to cheat and load one up for testing purposes, though I'm already pretty sure on how it'll work.

I do have to say, .50 Incindiary + Bloody Mess = fireworks with nearly every shot. It lets me see just how many giblets I break a Fiend into.

My problem with a lot of RPGs that present modern firearms is how they never seem to get away from a stepladder mentality, where the crappy guns are ubiquitious at the beginning and you must upgrade to better ones.

Whereas in reality almost any firearm would be deadly if properly maintained and used in an appropriate way.

I suppose at game design school they teach you that it has to be that way so there can be a reward mechanic. But for me as a firearms enthusiast, I rather would want to design a game where "every sword is perfect."

(That's a Deus Ex reference right there.)

I've noticed that in Fallout that even the 'worst' weapons are deadly enough if you've got good aim. People take a lot more damage if you keep hitting an area you've disabled. A Super Mutant will still go down if I get the drop on him with a sneak attack 10mm JHP.

It is also slightly realistic that a 5.56 is going to do a bit more than a 9mm against an armored target, though. I find I have to get a good rifle round and aim high if a guy's wearing Metal Armor, but anything under that is fair game for light pistol rounds.

I've been using the All-American for my outdoor sniping. I haven't stumbled upon a lot of .308 ammo for the Sniper Rifle, so I don't use it often.

I typically buy every round I come across, plus if I can nail the Fiends/Legion who have Hunting Rifles at long range, then I can scavenge their ammo. I need to add the All-American to my list as well, the marksman carbines seem to be pretty nice.

I went through basically the entire game with the QX-365 or whatever it is called. Right near the end I got the Gauss rifle, but my low energy weapons skill meant it wasn't all that great, especially after I broke both my arms and my head in the final mission with no doctors bags x.x'

Only thing I didn't like about it was that it burned through 5 ammo a shot. Luckily I had the energy reload perk so I got more empties and could recharge them more effectively, but it was still expensive to use too much.

Yeah, the cost makes it fairly prohibitive unless you aren't using MFC's for anything else. Hell, I think the Tesla Cannon is cheaper to fire, and it's an energy bazooka.

The unique Gauss costs one less to fire for comprable stats from what the Vault says, but I prefer the F3 version that's only one cell per shot.

I haven't found the unique Gauss. I just bought mine from the Brotherhood.

I forget where the Vault says you can get it. I haven't been shooting for it much because I saw how much it cost.

Setting up a playthrough where I recruit all the guys and have them hanging out at the Lucky 38. Only way to do it is to go straight to Vegas and not do a single quest unless it has to do with the companion in question, like One For My Baby or finding neat swag for Veronica. I'll then do their personal quest and send them on their merry way to the '38 where I will decide who to use after acquiring them all. Should make for a hell of an ending!

Has anyone tried to run a melee character yet?

Given the Western theme it could be funny to play Chuck Norris.

You'd have to do some serious stealth capping and have judicious use of Stealth Boys to pull it off. There are a ton of people with guns, and cazadors hurt.

I might give it a try with a Bumper Sword or a Rebar Club for awhile, unless I can snag a Ballistic Fist or something somewhere, but that'll be way after I'm done with my sniping test.

Gauss Rifles are BOSS!
I can oneshot most everything with them . .
Also, wanna have fun?
Get the Meltdown perk.
Get a high Damage NOT DPS Energy-Weapon and go into the plant vault.
Find someting small to shoot at.
For example, baby mantis. Shoot open one Egg.
Then shoot at one of the babies.
Watch the fireworks. There's a chain-reaction of exploding insects!
But make sure to keep yourself and your companions FAR away . .
i blew up my complete team on the first time i noticed this <.<;,

Pffffhahahahahaha I need to try that now. I keep taking Meltdown but I never use the energy weapons.

I did just pick up that unique Tesla Cannon... moo hoo ha ha.