[Fallout] New Vegas: Ultimate Edition is now out on Steam! Now you have no excuse.

heenato

Give me an endurance of ten and enough explosives, I pretty much become the headless kamakazi's from serious sam.

Elendil

Explosives are outrageously good now. When I first ran my explosives character, I had to use Annabelle with high explosives. I crippled myself more than anyone else.

Now the only reason I use anything besides Thump-Thump is novelty. That can handle anything you need to, and the rest is varying degrees of overkill.

Elderlycrawfish

Query: Aside from faster reload and better weight/durability, what does Thump-Thump bring to the table that the 4-shot grenade launcher lacks?

I usually get a launcher and never switch it out once I do; never been disappointed with its performance, never really had need to try anything else.

Elendil

Elderlycrawfish wrote:

Query: Aside from faster reload and better weight/durability, what does Thump-Thump bring to the table that the 4-shot grenade launcher lacks?

I usually get a launcher and never switch it out once I do; never been disappointed with its performance, never really had need to try anything else.

I've never used the greande launcher much (it seems rare), but: I think the fire rate is faster, despite (or because of) Thump-Thump needing to reload each shot (I have 10 agility, so my reload speed is boosted)

I've thought about taking Rapid Reload to see just how fast it ends up going, but I'm kind of afraid it'd make Mercy pointless as well

it also has the grenade rifle barrel extension built in, so extra range, and it's lighter

Elderlycrawfish

Gotcha. From a vanilla game point of view, I'd see the advantage there.

Since I'm all WME'd out, all of 'em have the barrel extension, so that advantage is moot. I'd definitely lament losing out on the range though, so I can see how that'd be a better plus for Thump-Thump.

The Dude With Herpes

Elderlycrawfish wrote:

Query: Aside from faster reload and better weight/durability, what does Thump-Thump bring to the table that the 4-shot grenade launcher lacks?

I usually get a launcher and never switch it out once I do; never been disappointed with its performance, never really had need to try anything else.

Here is the vault description:

Thump-Thump is a unique grenade rifle which has the extended range of a barrel extension mod found in its common counterparts and enhanced AoE radius. It has 30% faster attack speed, 0.5 lower weight, and is 25% more durable compared to a standard grenade rifle. It also has a unique texture and the words "Thump-Thump" scrawled on the side with arrow pointing towards the muzzle. There is also a drawing of an angry beaver with red eyes holding a rifle on the stock.

Personally I loved Thump-Thump. I got my entire 10k damage achievement with it. It clears shit out fast.

EDIT: also thump-thump is a unique grenade rifle; not launcher. They're two different (but similar) weapons. Rifles have a slightly larger AOE range IIRC, but Launchers reload faster but weight significantly more. Their base damage is identical and both use 40mm grenades.

Elendil

I love the beaver

Elderlycrawfish

I should switch up my explodey ways and try something else for a bit, maybe Annabelle or something. I also adore this fella, I just always forget to craft more ammo for it.

Hahnsoo1

I've fleshed out the Mods section. It should have most of the more popular ones. It's still a work-in-progress, as I track down some more mods that I liked. The Mods section may be pushing the character limit, but I've reserved three posts in the beginning of the thread, so I suppose I can just "bleedthrough" into the other posts if I need them. I'm also still working on the FAQ. Any suggestions on what else needs to go in the OP? I'm NOT putting the Uterus Mod.

Jealous Deva

So I guess after gra comes out, someone will have to mod them all back into the base game.

Edit: meaning in a not vendor only way, not in a available without buying it way.

UncleSporky

I can't imagine playing this games explosives-only (or even primary). Do you vats all the time? It'd be so tough to aim...I guess explosion radius means you don't have to aim...

The Dude With Herpes

I'm confused. The best part of explosives is the lack of aiming requirement for most of the weapons.

As long as you know you're out of the radius go nuts. No need for pinpoint accuracy.

EDIT: Also VATS is terrible for explosives in general due to the delay in doing a damn thing once you go into VATS usually making you blow yourself up. The delay is fine for most other weapons that don't blow up in your damn face, but not explosives.

UncleSporky

I almost never use explosives because I can never tell what the radius is. The effect looks so small compared to what it hits. Every time I try to use a grenade or something I end up with a broken leg so I quit trying.

Buttcleft

You never use explosives on a charging enemy because they will close in on you and make you blow your foot off. Explosives are good for enemies that keep a distance or for first strikes.

Hahnsoo1

Well, at range, VATS is actually fairly good at predicting movement and landing the explosive right at the enemy's feet. The problem is when the enemy closes the distance.

farbekrieg

i found explosives to be alot like melee, you have to put in your research to find the right weapons as well as the perks to make them worthwhile, half assing explosives meant alot of missing limbs

Spoiler:

poof! no eyebrows arms or legs

Elderlycrawfish

I guess part of the equation is getting proper distance out of the grenade-types; a grenade rifle with a barrel mod (or Thump-Thump), combined with Heave Ho!, make it a lot easier to hit far targets while they are well out of range of you getting some of the blast. Then you factor in the 3 ranks of Demolition Expert for +60% damage, and Splash Damage for the 25% radius, and it becomes a great deal of fun.

Hit the Deck also helps for those times when you misjudge and things are too close. It's still gonna hurt, but you've got a better chance of survival with the extra +25 DT for the blast.

I particularly love groups of enemies standing in a pack/around a campfire. You could be at sniper rifle range and be able to shoot a sneak attack grenade right in the middle of 'em. Then it's just a matter of sifting through the parts.

Elendil

I actually haven't taken Splash Damage. I'm pretty comfortable with the size of the splashes as is, and it gives me a little more precision and a little more breathing room for "close-range."

And the Fatman. I used it on the giant roboscorpion from one of the little rooms in that area and still broke my own arms.

When I absolutely want carpet-bombing coverage, I just open up with Mercy.

KiTA

With 8 / 9 int, Comprehension and Educated, in the original Fallout 3 (+ all expansions), do I need to worry about saving skill-points for the various books / bobbleheads, or is it pretty much inevitable that I'll hit 100s in everything?

Orca

In FO3, you don't have to sweat it. There's tons of bobbleheads and books give a crazy amount of skillpoints.

heenato

Plus hell, half the perks in fallout 3 are just "Oh here's a few extra skill points. Keep on truckin'!"

Uselesswarrior

Nice mod list in the OP (ish)

Dr. Phibbs McAthey

Looks good to me too!
Some texture mods I like for those who feel Detailed Normals isn't quite enough:
Ojo Bueno Hi Res Textures, or for those with less beefy machines Poco Bueno, which is the same mod, only at a lower resolution than Ojo (but still much higher than standard resolution).
If you're really crazy, NMC's Texture pack is also...nice. There are lots of things in NMC that aren't covered by Ojo. God help you if you install the highest resolution pack, it's a whopper. I think a lot of the metal textures in NMC look a little amateurish, like he Googled 'weathered metal texture photoshop tutorial' and went from there; goodness knows I've done the same making textures for a post-apocalyptic Second Life sim many years ago (yes, yes, I know). I can say definitively, though, where the Underground Hideout looks well-kept and clean, NMC will make it look like one of the old rusted out vaults. No one messes with The Wall.

KiTA

Orca wrote:

In FO3, you don't have to sweat it. There's tons of bobbleheads and books give a crazy amount of skillpoints.

Right, so if I wanted to say, pump Speech to 90 / 100 immediately, I wouldn't be running out anytime soon?

Hahnsoo1

Speech is a random roll in FO3. There's no reason to pump it up so high, other than convenience, because you can save/reload until you make the roll. Even at the max Speech stat, you are going to have to do some Save/Reload scumming to actually accomplish most of the beneficial Speech checks. The New Vegas method works so much better.

There are around 25 books for each skill in Fallout 3. Each book gives 1 additional point, unless you have Comprehension (which gives 2 points for each book). Also, the Bobbleheads for each skill gives +10 points (one time bonus). This means that with Comprehension, you can actually avoid putting points into any skill after you've earned 40 points in it (without Bobbleheads or books), if you are going for a perfect 100 in every skill run.

If you are going for a "perfect" run, hold off on the attribute Bobbleheads until you get the Almost Perfect perk, which boosts all of your SPECIAL to 9. With Bobbleheads, you can have 10 in each attribute.

Elderlycrawfish

So, Fallout bugs. Lots of fun! Lemme share the one I just saw:

First off, when I first went to Nipton, I didn't fight the Legion. So now there's a couple of 'em that patrol in front of the town hall, but are friendly. Anyway, I had to go to Town Hall to find a Supplementary Unique; when I exited, one of the Legion guys patrolling turned his back to an empty cross, put his weapon away, jumped backwards 8 feet back and about 10 feet up, and crucified himself. Here, lemme show ya:



Apparently this can be done to have the powder gangers re-crucify themselves along the roadway or something. It's crazy either way.

The Dude With Herpes

Hahnsoo1 wrote:

Speech is a random roll in FO3. There's no reason to pump it up so high, other than convenience, because you can save/reload until you make the roll. Even at the max Speech stat, you are going to have to do some Save/Reload scumming to actually accomplish most of the beneficial Speech checks. The New Vegas method works so much better.

There are around 25 books for each skill in Fallout 3. Each book gives 1 additional point, unless you have Comprehension (which gives 2 points for each book). Also, the Bobbleheads for each skill gives +10 points (one time bonus). This means that with Comprehension, you can actually avoid putting points into any skill after you've earned 40 points in it (without Bobbleheads or books), if you are going for a perfect 100 in every skill run.

If you are going for a "perfect" run, hold off on the attribute Bobbleheads until you get the Almost Perfect perk, which boosts all of your SPECIAL to 9. With Bobbleheads, you can have 10 in each attribute.

You can pick up a +1 to either STR or AGI perk via a fire ant quest in an area I don't recall the name of, allowing you to get one or the other of those bobbleheads early before getting Almost Perfect without messing up straight 10's. The STR one is the better of the two bobbleheads to get due to STR just generally providing more benefits in FO3 and it being readily available early on in the game.

If you're getting straight 10's then yeah you'll want to wait till you pick up almost perfect before touching any bobbleheads. It's not hard to get to 30 in FO3 particularly if you have the DLC's. I think I probably spent way more of the game at 30 than I did working toward 30.

Prohass

Dont know if this has been posted, but the guys that did that awesome Nuka Break fan movie are making a web series out of it, first episode:



I think I liked the fan film better, but its definately got potential to go some interesting places and I get lots of chuckles out of it beyond just the references.

Also I love the trailer:

UncleSporky

Stupid perception looking all stupid and being mostly useless because of ED-E and mentats, leading me to forget how necessary it is for perks...

At level 26 just bit the bullet and invested in another point of Intense Training for it...at least I was able to put it in endurance and buy the implant, getting two for the price of one. 6 perception should get me by for now.

Dr. Phibbs McAthey

Looks like some changes to the Nexus today. Though I have to say I still like it better than the convoluted tangle that was the old site. But I'm also crazy.
Also, I did some snooping, the Underground Hideout guy recently responded to a post on the Hideout's facebook page asking when he'll be updating again, and it seems like he's working on it, albeit slowly, around social and educational obligations, etc.

Sir Carcass

The Wall doesn't care about "obligations".

heenato

He's the man that CONTROLS the wall though. He built it...and he could take it down.

SightTDW

Nuka Break looks like it should be plenty entertaining, very impressed.

I was so invested in NV, but completely lost the will to play as soon as the new DLC got a release date. It needs to be next month already...

Sir Carcass

heenato wrote:

He's the man that CONTROLS the wall though. He built it...and he could take it down.

Just like the humans were able to shutdown Skynet, right

Dr. Phibbs McAthey

The Wall wrote:

There will be a patch in the future, dont worry. Maybe in a few weeks I will get back to work on the mod. A job, vacation, work, and girlfriend have been using up most of my time lol. But I have plans in the works. Including Skyrim...

Not a good sign for the future of the Wall when the wall's creator is already looking to move on :\

So now that I've finished Deus Ex I can't wait to jump back into New Vegas and finish up my current game, and start a new one soon after, ideally to coincide with the release of the remaining DLC packs. While I've already done a pro-NCR game on the 360, I've yet to do so on the PC, plus I have yet to be best friends with Boone. I think if I ever get around to a Legion character, THAT will be my explosive-happy character.

UncleSporky

I helped an old lady figure out how to work the crappy microwave in the Martin's food court!

Elderlycrawfish

Dr. Phibbs McAthey wrote:

The Wall wrote:

There will be a patch in the future, dont worry. Maybe in a few weeks I will get back to work on the mod. A job, vacation, work, and girlfriend have been using up most of my time lol. But I have plans in the works. Including Skyrim...

Not a good sign for the future of the Wall when the wall's creator is already looking to move on :\

Considering Skyrim's in November, that gives a good solid month and almost a half after LR comes out to work.

And if not, it's still a hell of a great mod; it'll just be greater if the creator is able to bring it up to date.

Dr. Phibbs McAthey

Elderlycrawfish wrote:

Dr. Phibbs McAthey wrote:

The Wall wrote:

There will be a patch in the future, dont worry. Maybe in a few weeks I will get back to work on the mod. A job, vacation, work, and girlfriend have been using up most of my time lol. But I have plans in the works. Including Skyrim...

Not a good sign for the future of the Wall when the wall's creator is already looking to move on :\

Considering Skyrim's in November, that gives a good solid month and almost a half after LR comes out to work.

And if not, it's still a hell of a great mod; it'll just be greater if the creator is able to bring it up to date.

Don't forget that mod tools aren't always released at launch, either. Skyrim's engine will be all new, so unless they've announced that the tools will be there at launch (I haven't been following it too close even though I'm hella psyched for it), that's something.

Edit: So I got home, started my game up, and I realized I had little recollection of what I was doing. So I'm officially weeding out some mods that I no longer use/didn't use much, ever.
One question that's come up, is do I keep using WMX? Is WME better or just different? What are the key differences between the two?

Jealous Deva

There's really not a heck of a lot of difference, use whichever one the other mods you use are compatible with.

I prefer WME because it does less, WMX adds a couple of weapons and messes with uniques, which I don't much care for. I do like that it's compatible with the fallout 3 weapons restoration, though.

Honestly I run vanilla a fair amount, once you get over the novelty of it most of the mods added by either are just fluff like weight reduction or minor damage increases and the like.

Elderlycrawfish

Yeah, it's mostly a matter of preference I'd say. If anything, check out both mods and see the types of add-ons they give weapons that might interest you.

I generally like the feel of what WME adds to stuff; though it really seemed to make the AER14 (standard laser rifle mods) and Survivalist's Rifle (scope, silencer, springs) really good for my last playthrough. Like, never leave my side good. Not complaining though, as they saved my life a heap of times when doing some of the slightly more difficult mod areas (AWOP, Rumble Zones, Angel Park).

I don't think either choice is bad though, you probably won't have issue with whichever you pick. Other than finding all the weapon mods you need, I guess.