Stealthboys and Suppressed .45 Pistols with handloaded ammo are your friends.

I lost all my Stealthboys when I tripped the trap in the abandoned bunker, and I never had any .45 pistols, suppressed or otherwise. I'm taking the DLC in the order it was released: Dead Money, then Honest Hearts, then Old World Blues. I'm not sure if I want to finish the main campaign before or after Lonesome Road, though.

You kind of have to finish Lonesome Road before you finish the main campaign, because once you finish the main questline(any four of them), then that's it, game ends and Ron Perlman tells you how War Never Changes; there is no post-story gameplay. In case anyone is wondering, they did originally plan for you to go on past that point, but after realizing how much work was needed to properly change the post-storyline gameworld to account for all the possible outcomes, they decided against it.

Good to know, thanks.

I've finished Dead Money, successfully trapping Elijah in the vault. Crazy old bastard wanted the treasure all to himself; now he's got it... minus the one gold bar I took for my troubles. I think I'll raise my Barter skill to at least 75 before I try to sell it, though. Kinda regret leaving Dean alive, and I really wish I could have brought Christine back to Veronica.

I started Honest Hearts, and already made contact with Joshua Graham.

The hardest part about New Vegas isn't beating the game.

It's letting go.




By the way Tanegar, I bet dollars to donuts you totally shot Follows-Chalk by accident when you first showed up. Everybody does it.

Curious, which one of the Dog/God combo did you leave alive (if any?).

Also, if you're real quick you can make it out of the vault with EVERYTHING. Allows you to buy all those nice new gun runners arsenal gear.

I may have. After crossing the bridge, there were two figures up on a rock to my left. One was a White Legs warrior, whom I shot, and the other turned out to be Follows-Chalk. The White Legs was crouching in front of FC when I shot him, and they both looked like they fell down.

I took the conversation option that forced Dog to strangle himself. Kinda felt bad about it, but at least the ending showed he/they are at peace. I really should have capped Dean when I had the chance, but I don't feel strongly enough about it to revert and go back through the whole vault sequence again. There really should have been an option to bring Christine back to the Mojave and reunite her with Veronica, though. I'd have done it even if it meant losing Veronica as a companion.

Not the type of man you expected, I bet.You got that right. I still have challenges to go after getting the Arsenal!You can combine Dog and God into one mind which is actually a very nice way to let him/them off. Although he has to live with his scars, and has no memory other than owing you a great deal. That's the one I like.

As for Christine... When you get to Old World Blues, you'll find out why she can never go back.

I need to sift through the entirety of OWB and find all the pieces to that part.

Yeah. It's a sad, sad story.

Also, because I watched a lot of Kevin Spencer, I call Christine "Broken Head" a lot.

The gun cabinet inside the Sierra Madre's vault had 2200 rounds of .357 magnum ammo. That's not a typo: two thousand, two hundred. I won't have to worry about ammunition for my cowboy repeater for quite some time.

-k

Or Lead and Pistol Powder for other handloaded rounds.

Finished Honest Hearts. Surprised by its brevity. Helped Joshua Graham exterminate the White Legs, and feel pretty good about it. Anything that denies Caesar more warriors is a good thing in my book. Next up, Old World Blues. Big Empty, here I come.

HH was shorter, but had a big moral to it. It really defines "Tribalism" in Fallout, and even the concept of it today. And, again, Joshua Graham was a massively impressive character and nothing that was expected by anyone I think! Still a monster, but a very cultured one, and one that's aiming himself.

Did you get him to spare Salts-The-Wounds?

OWB is an open-area sandbox and exploration bit. A lot of people deride the fact that the story seems scattershot, but I'll give you one major hint that *REALLY* makes up for that.

Read the terminals. All the terminals. Carefully.

Funny as it is, it just shows how DARK Fallout really is!

No, I took the option to fight Salt-Upon-Wounds. Have you noticed that A Light in the Darkness, the unique 1911 you get after finishing Honest Hearts, only has a capacity of six rounds? I don't remember if the regular .45 Automatics had a (more) correct seven-round capacity or not. Also makes me wonder if anybody in the Mojave carries a round in the chamber.

It's a customized Colt Commander, IIRC (Fallout Wiki confirms) which do correctly use 6-round magazines. The .45 Pistol (M1911A1) does hold 7-rounds in the Magazine, and has proper sights (that are luminescent!) while the ALSiD has "Trench" sights.

You won't find anyone in the Mojave Wasteland carrying a .45, but you can get ammo and firearms after Honest Hearts (Trade routes open up to the Mormons that were able to get away from the White Legs.). I have a character in mind if I ever write some New Vegas fanfic who will carry a customized M1911A1 that he calls Marilyn, and has a custom Battle Rifle named Bettie for when things get serious.

And, yes, John Browning was a Mormon, and thus the .45 Automatic Pistol being the "Tribal Weapon" of the Mormons is very, very appropriate.

Also, according to the Fallout Bible, it's likely that New Canaan is actually a VAULT that actually worked! The only thing wrong with the vault, which was near Salt Lake City, was that all the jumpsuits was designed to fall apart, and the machine to make them fail shortly after the vault closed. This is likely the reason that they're so well-educated, dressed, and have (Or had, it's up in the air if they had back-up plans, but knowing history, it's likely they did) manufacturing capability.

EDIT: The greek on the side of ALSiD is John 1:5, "And the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not."

I find that more than a little odd, considering the ubiquity of Browning Hi-Powers ("9mm Pistols").

I'm thinking that Nevada had a lot of 9mm ammo and such hanging around in old military bunkers when they switched over to 10mm, and thus the 9mm became popular there.

As for ubiquity of the Brownings, Gun Runners use whatever old designs they can find. Likely they found one for the Browning, and one for the M3 "Grease Gun" with the 9mm Adapter that was almost never used in WWII (If it ever was used at all.).

Why the Thompsons ("Thunder Drums" of the White Legs) were in an old armory with ammo, I can't guess at. But the Mormons would be making or reloading their own brass to make .45 ammo for personal use and export with their pistols. The .45 makes better sense in Fallout than the 9mm in a lot of ways (Honestly, how many people do you see in anything heavier than Leather Armor? A few folks in makeshift Metal Armor, that's it. BoS excluded, of course.).

I decided to finish up Heartache By the Numbers before heading to the Big Empty, as it's been stalled on my quest log for a while now. I had gotten Cass to sell her caravan to Alice McLafferty, but I couldn't recruit her because Veronica was with me. Now I'm helping her hunt the people who attacked her caravan and, apparently, a bunch of others.

Oooh won't that get interesting ^^

If by "interesting" you mean "bloody," then yes. I took her to see Jean-Baptiste at the Silver Rush, and when he tried to kill her I burned everyone in the place with the Holorifle. That is one nifty weapon, lemme tell ya. Then we went over to the Crimson Caravan and killed McLafferty, although I'm surprised there was no conversation option for Cass to confront her. I just had to outright murder the bitch. Oh well. Apparently the soundproofing in McLafferty's office is really good, because nobody outside the building turned hostile.

Actually, I think they were just happy to sit there and listen to her death gurgles.

Back in the Big Empty. Things are going much better now that I have Guns 100 and a riot shotgun for cyberdogs and lobotomites. Haven't encountered Robo-Scorpions yet, but I keep the Holorifle warmed up. Hopefully 100 damage per shot will put those little yellow bastards in their place.

Dr. Borous is hilarious.

They all are! I like Dala the best.

The Holorifle works pretty well on the Robo-Scorpions. They're still absurdly tough, taking four to six shots apiece, but at least they're manageable. Lobotomites and cyberdogs are easy meat for the riot shotgun. Overall, I'm feeling much better about my long term chances than the last go-round.

It gets worse. You'll be glad you have the riot shotgun.

Hope you got the Hand-Loader Perk.

I actually just grabbed Hand Loader at my last even level (34 I think). I find it incredibly frustrating that you can't see the stats for ammo types in the reloading bench screen.

Make one, it's not like you're wasting much.

This just in: the Shotgun Surgeon perk makes the riot shotgun a viable weapon against the smaller Robo-Scorpions. I look forward to getting back to the Mojave and seeing what it does against Legionaries.

Anybody else find it odd that guys wearing armor made (apparently) from leather and metal plates seem to be bulletproof?

They scale with your level.
But they still LOOK like the normal weakling legionaires . .

They're tribals. They're very tough and rugged, shrugging off pain and suffering on account of their extensive and intensive training, and lack of any medical attention other than Healing Powder and Bitter Drink. (Well, I bet they set bones as well. Loose too many people for just a broken limb.).

For those of you who were waiting for it:
The ultimate edition is out. ALL of the DLC in one convenient package for you, folks.

And for those of us who are early adopters and spoiled everything for you...

I bought the Fallout 3 GotY edition when it came out because I had abandoned all hope that those fuckers were ever going to release the DLC for the PC. Then those fuckers released the DLC for the PC. Have I mentioned what fuckers they are? Because they're totally a bunch of fuckers.

Yes.

For my fellow PC players out there (ok, actually I played it extensively on both console and PC, I digress) Have you ever wanted more of a challenge from the game aside from just sticking it on the highest difficulty? Did you play it on hard core and scoff at how little you actually needed to eat, sleep, and drink? Scoff no longer if you haven't previously used any version of what I am about to present to you.

http://twofoldsilence.diogenes-lamp.info/2...wyeresp-v3.html

One of the Obsidian members fixed the game to make it harder. Cut HP, cut carry weight, cut starting skill levels, cut the level cap down to 35 ( assuming you have all the DLC) balanced a bunch of other stuff, cut the intervals on hydration, hunger, and sleep (so they increase twice as fast). It's definitely worth checking out if you played the game a ton of times and want a new challenge.

Not being a raging masochist, I'm fine with playing on non-hardcore normal difficulty, thanks.

I wouldn't call it masochistic at all. My very first playthru was on hardcore / normal. I had no difficulties whatsoever. Every so often I had to eat or drink and was otherwise fine. Stims being a heal over time actually became a boon (thanks to a nifty feature of the chemist perk), actually, rad-away as well. With this mod, play on hardcore is actually thought provoking. How much water am I going to need? I have to manage between supplies and weapons/ammo more carefully. I recommend at least reading the change logs, it's neat.

Yeah, I love Hardcore Mode for the ammo weight alone. Has me actually thinking about what to carry, why, how, and so on. Also makes energy weapons a little less valuable despite their armor-piercing capabilities due to their heavy ammo, unless you use the new over-powered cells.

Water was less of an issue, the Mojave is pretty nice for Fallout. I would have loved that for Fallout 3 (I only have it for Console) where it was a major issue in the Capital Wasteland, and diving for that +10 Rads Toilet would be a OMG period when your last bottle of water is gone!

Almost never had an issue with food. Just might be my playing style or the way my head works, but I always packed food.

Now, take that, cut your carry weight and double your reliance on food and water.

My character with 7 str can only carry something like 125lbs. He also cut the freebies. They are still in game, in Chet's shop, for reasonable prices. But no more free armor and weapons outside of what doc Mitchell gives you. Also it takes about double the xp to go up a level. I'm not one that normally loves high difficulty (exceptions going to Ninja Gaiden Black, Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, Ikaruga, Steel Battalion) but this strikes me more as feeling like classic fallout with a survival twist, rather than Fallout pasted onto The Elder Scrolls.

I bought Dead Money and Honest Hearts for my birthday. Yeah, Dead Money ... whewww... I know I missed stuff, but I just don't have the heart to go back and look. I died SO MANY TIMES because of those stupid speakers.

Important lesson: when you're back in the Mojave, remember the enemies 'level up' as well. You know what's worse than a deathclaw? A REGENERATING, BURNING, ANGRY DEATHCLAW AT 0 HP WHICH CANNOT DIE. I thought Windsong Caverns would be a fun test of level 40 and bare-knuckled fighting. I was wrong

Yeah, the levelling Enemies are my one main gripe about the game <.<

I want Fallout 4 now.

The alternative can be immersion breaking, and impossible if playing in iron-man save mode. It was only a matter of chance to run across a far superior group of enemies who could kill your entire party before you had a chance to act in the original fallouts.

That's why I like taking Logan's Loophole now. Cap your level at 30, be immune to addiction and chems last twice as long (stacks with chemist). Along with taking the GRX implant at 30 for free uses of turbo every day and day tripper, you can just tear stuff up.

aren't they making an MMO in the fallout universe right now?
or is that fallout 4 i am thinking about now?

i like it better like that . . so you can be reasonably safe in certain areas, if you ain't really unlucky . .

that sounds like quite the potent combination, i may have to try it out . .

Bethesda isn't planning an MMO Fallout, Interplay should still retain the rights to it.

And Stahl, I highly recommend the Logan's Loophole character. You will be point starved a little, obviously, but taking skilled can help make up the deficit. I say pick 1 ranged and 1 CQC skill to work on and run with it. (Actually, I did a sort of Solid Snake like build using unarmed and guns and sneak. Grunt perk as well, then used the assassin suit from Dead Money and a silenced .45 from Honest Hearts.

But if you want the GRX implant you need 8 End, which means likely starting with 6, pumping it with Intense Training once and getting the implant for 8.