We have a new update on The Future of the Penny Arcade Forums.
[Fallout] New Vegas: Ultimate Edition is now out on Steam! Now you have no excuse.
Hahnsoo1
Make Ready.We Hunt.Registered User, Moderator mod
Make Ready.We Hunt.Registered User, Moderator mod
War... war never changes...
The Fallout Thread
This is the new thread for all things Fallout-related, but it's mostly to discuss Fallout: New Vegas.
The Past
Fallout 1, Fallout 2, and Fallout Tactics can all be purchased from Good Old Games (gog.com). If you don't have them, what are you waiting for?
Fallout: Van Buren... doesn't exist. Sadly. It looked pretty sweet, too.
Fallout 3 can often be found sold as a GOTY edition sale of some sort.
The Present
Fallout: New Vegas Story DLCs:
* Dead Money - Chris Avellone is purposefully trying to dick you over in this DLC. At least it has great characters and a good story. Plus, you get 37 Gold Bars to feed to THE WALL.
* Honest Hearts - Zion is beautiful. The Survivalist Story is awesome. But the main questline is short.
* Old World Blues - The best Fallout DLC so far. Has a lot of humor, but all the enemies are bullet sponges.
* Lonesome Road - The final "main" DLC ties up the long-awaited storyline between the Courier and the enigmatic Ulysses. It's linear, the floor is almost always tilted for some reason, and it has diverging dialogue depending on your faction affiliation.
My personal recommendation for purchase:
Buy Old World Blues first, then it's a coin-toss between Dead Money (more story-driven) and Honest Hearts (more open-world, better gear overall). Get Lonesome Road only if you have purchased the other three DLC.
Also, two mini-DLC packs were released on SEP 27:
* Courier's Stash - Gives you all 4 pre-order DLCs, at a low price. Miss out on the pre-order content? Now's your chance to get your very own Canteen. Or Weathered 10mm Pistol. Or something.
* Gun Runner's Arsenal - Adds a TON of fun new weapons and ammo to the game, as well as a lot of crazy challenges (fight a Deathclaw with the weakest pistol in the game? I'm there!). Well worth the price of admission.
The Future
Umm. War... war never changes? Who knows what's on the horizon for the Fallout franchise? If you know, then let me know, so I can update this thread.
The latest news is that Fallout: New Vegas Ultimate edition is now out on Steam. No new content, but you get all 4 story DLCs, and you get the Courier's Stash and the Gun Runner's Arsenal. It's basically all of New Vegas without the collector's edition stuff.
As for the retail versions -
Latest news from Bethesda:
What I do know is that New Vegas is done, according to Jason Bergman. No more patches, no more DLC. Now we wait with bated breath for the next Fallout game.
Mods are AWESOME!
i here u liek modz. here r sum modz. (shamelessly ripped off from Elderlycrawfish, dj.subversive, and others)
But there are many terrible mods on New Vegas Nexus. Where do I go to find mods that don't involve porn/hentai/anime/Naruto/furries/poop? Well, we have a handy list of mods right here, just for you. Note that I may sound a bit sarcastic for some of these descriptions, but I wouldn't put them up here if they weren't recommended by a few PA forumers. Although I refuse to put up the uterus-eating mod. Yes, this was a thing. (credit (?) to OpposingForce for documenting it in all of its glory)
But Hahnsoo1! I don't want to sift through all of those mods! I'm lazy. And I can't read.
Fine! Sheesh. The TL;DR version of Must-Have Mods:
* FOMM - To manage your mods
* NVSE - To make sure your mods run properly
* 4GB Extender - To prevent crashes
* DarNified UI - To maek purty oowee (Installation Instructions)
* Underground Hideout - To Serve The Wall
Now, without further ado...
The Fallout Thread
This is the new thread for all things Fallout-related, but it's mostly to discuss Fallout: New Vegas.
The Past
Fallout 1, Fallout 2, and Fallout Tactics can all be purchased from Good Old Games (gog.com). If you don't have them, what are you waiting for?
Fallout: Van Buren... doesn't exist. Sadly. It looked pretty sweet, too.
Fallout 3 can often be found sold as a GOTY edition sale of some sort.
The Present
Fallout: New Vegas Story DLCs:
* Dead Money - Chris Avellone is purposefully trying to dick you over in this DLC. At least it has great characters and a good story. Plus, you get 37 Gold Bars to feed to THE WALL.
* Honest Hearts - Zion is beautiful. The Survivalist Story is awesome. But the main questline is short.
* Old World Blues - The best Fallout DLC so far. Has a lot of humor, but all the enemies are bullet sponges.
* Lonesome Road - The final "main" DLC ties up the long-awaited storyline between the Courier and the enigmatic Ulysses. It's linear, the floor is almost always tilted for some reason, and it has diverging dialogue depending on your faction affiliation.
My personal recommendation for purchase:
Buy Old World Blues first, then it's a coin-toss between Dead Money (more story-driven) and Honest Hearts (more open-world, better gear overall). Get Lonesome Road only if you have purchased the other three DLC.
Also, two mini-DLC packs were released on SEP 27:
* Courier's Stash - Gives you all 4 pre-order DLCs, at a low price. Miss out on the pre-order content? Now's your chance to get your very own Canteen. Or Weathered 10mm Pistol. Or something.
* Gun Runner's Arsenal - Adds a TON of fun new weapons and ammo to the game, as well as a lot of crazy challenges (fight a Deathclaw with the weakest pistol in the game? I'm there!). Well worth the price of admission.
The Future
Umm. War... war never changes? Who knows what's on the horizon for the Fallout franchise? If you know, then let me know, so I can update this thread.
The latest news is that Fallout: New Vegas Ultimate edition is now out on Steam. No new content, but you get all 4 story DLCs, and you get the Courier's Stash and the Gun Runner's Arsenal. It's basically all of New Vegas without the collector's edition stuff.
As for the retail versions -
Latest news from Bethesda:
We’re pleased to announce the Fallout: New Vegas Ultimate Edition will be available in retail stores across North America on February 7th 2012 and throughout Europe on February 10th. The Ultimate Edition comes complete with all of the game add-on content for Fallout: New Vegas – Dead Money, Honest Hearts, Old World Blues, Lonesome Road, Courier's Stash, and Gun Runners' Arsenal.
What I do know is that New Vegas is done, according to Jason Bergman. No more patches, no more DLC. Now we wait with bated breath for the next Fallout game.
Mods are AWESOME!
i here u liek modz. here r sum modz. (shamelessly ripped off from Elderlycrawfish, dj.subversive, and others)
But there are many terrible mods on New Vegas Nexus. Where do I go to find mods that don't involve porn/hentai/anime/Naruto/furries/poop? Well, we have a handy list of mods right here, just for you. Note that I may sound a bit sarcastic for some of these descriptions, but I wouldn't put them up here if they weren't recommended by a few PA forumers. Although I refuse to put up the uterus-eating mod. Yes, this was a thing. (credit (?) to OpposingForce for documenting it in all of its glory)
But Hahnsoo1! I don't want to sift through all of those mods! I'm lazy. And I can't read.
Fine! Sheesh. The TL;DR version of Must-Have Mods:
* FOMM - To manage your mods
* NVSE - To make sure your mods run properly
* 4GB Extender - To prevent crashes
* DarNified UI - To maek purty oowee (Installation Instructions)
* Underground Hideout - To Serve The Wall
Now, without further ado...
Hahnsoo1 on
0
This discussion has been closed.
Posts
ECPAFNVGML for short... yeah, we need a better acronym
The best mods are linked in bold. The best of the best mods also have Highly Recommended or ALMOST ESSENTIAL in the description.
Enhance Your Member/Performance Enhancements
Here are some mods or utilities that help you run other mods, or help you run New Vegas better in general.
* Fallout Mod Manager - You want to run some mods? You should probably be running this. Set your mod load order, run any combination of mods that you want, quickly and easily. ALMOST ESSENTIAL.
* New Vegas Script Extender - Needed for a number of mods out there (mostly things with a custom key setting like "Sprinting" or grenades). ALMOST ESSENTIAL.
* 4 GB Extender - (links to the NVSE version of the Extender) The default New Vegas game only addresses up to 2 GB of RAM. This loader enables the Large Address Aware on the executable, allowing you to use the RAM that you've got. Greatly increases performance in many cases. It may have the side effect of disabling Steam screenshots, however. If you have 4GB or more of RAM, Highly Recommended.
* New Vegas Configator - Yeah, that's not a typo. They really named it "Configator". Anyway, instead of rooting around in .ini files, you can use this program to mess with your settings. At your own risk, of course.
* FNVEdit - Mostly used to create "Merged Patches" for mods that heavily conflict with each other. Helps stability, doesn't really help performance much.
* DarNified UI - If you are playing on PC, I highly suggest some sort of UI mod so you don't feel like you are playing X-Box on a crappy TV. I use this one, personally. Be sure to read the instructions, as it uses custom fonts which need to be added to the fallout.ini file.
* Community Bugfix Compilation Patch - One of many community bugfix patches. Fixes a load of bugs, like the name implies. Doesn't change the gameplay much, if at all.
* New Vegas Stutter Remover - The one time I used this mod, it crashed my game. :-P Anyway, this may help your performance if you see lots of stuttering. Or it may not.
Gameplay Overhaul Mods
Why do you want to make New Vegas into Call of Duty? WHY? Oh, very well...
* Project Nevada - This is the most recommended modular gameplay overhaul mod. Extensively uses NVSE. Adds Sprint... which is what most people seem to use it for. It's also notorious for decreasing stability of your game. Use with caution.
* Increased Wasteland Spawns - Also known as IWS. Populates the Mojave, to your choosing. More townsfolk, patrols, guards. Increases the amount of wandering baddies, use the level of your choosing.
* FOOK - New Vegas - Back in the day, when you really wanted to frak up your Fallout 3 game, you installed FOOK and cursed at your computer as everything in the Capitol Wasteland gets borked. Well, FOOK has returned in New Vegas!
* A World of Pain - Also known as AWOP. This is a huge content mod, all in a tiny little download (mostly because it only uses in-game content and no custom meshes, textures, sounds, etc). It adds around 100 new locations to explore, while attempting to stay out of the main New Vegas quest areas. It essentially adds more New Vegas to New Vegas. Highly recommended for a 2nd playthrough. New Areas are great, Underground is a bit too large and dull, Tech Raiders are nasty bullet sponges.
* Monster Mod - Basically the Mutant Mod from Fallout 3, transplanted to New Vegas. Adds a ton of new monsters. Breaks canon occasionally, but if you are looking for more monsters to kill, here you go. Has a synergy mod with AWOP in the form of Rumble Zones, which allows you to take on mutated big monsters in arena-like environments.
* Perk Every Level - For those of you who want to make overpowered twinks. Here's a perk every level. Go and be a god of the Wastes, you cheater.
* Skill Based Perks - A different way of being the god of the Wastes, this mod gives you perks when you reach particular skill thresholds. A bit more organic than "Perk Every Level", and it gives you a lot of perks that you wouldn't necessarily pick up.
* More Perks - It does what it says. Adds more perks. Also has DLC-specific perks.
* Literature Exchange - This is a deceptively brilliant mod that allows you to exchange skill books for each other at a 1-to-1 ratio. Also works for magazines. With this mod, you no longer have to hoard those skill points, afraid that you'll "overlevel" your skills and waste a future skill book when you cap out at 100.
* A Requiem for the Capital Wasteland - I only list this because I'm sure folks are interested in it. If you have both Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas installed on your PC, this mod will attempt to merge them. It's not guaranteed to work, and it's very buggy, but once it's up and running... yeah. Enjoy FO3 in FNV! This is a very difficult mod to get up and running, and I only suggest trying it if you hate your life and want to spend hours fussing over a mod installation.
* Real Time Settler V2 - Also known as RTS. While the original RTS mod was ported over to New Vegas, then completely dropped by the mod maker, this person is picking up the slack. Build your own village!
* Wasteland Defense - Build a base (like Real Time Settler), defend it from waves of raiders. Allows you to make fairly robust forts and equip a bunch of mercs and robots with a wide variety of equipment. It's nice for a change of pace, but some of the enemies are stupid bullet sponges (the Nightkin Leader has over 4000 health, for example).
Quest Mods
* Underground Hideout New Vegas - This is a spectacular homebase mod. Adds a place for you to stash your stuff, autosorts things, puts all your weapons up on a wall, and about a million other high quality things. Highly Recommended. SERVE THE WALL.
* The New Bison Steve Hotel and Lucky Casino - Remember that crappy Bison Steve Hotel in Primm? Now you can renovate it and own it. Also has a player home and Bobble-heads. Fully voice-acted.
* New Vegas Bounties I and II - Become a bounty hunter in the Mojave. Notable for voice acting, and the fact that many of the bounties can be resolved by non-combat options. Some of the bounties are fun homages to various movies.
* Tales from the Burning Sands - A quest pack in short chapters by Puce Moose. Fairly interesting, if a bit short.
* DEIMOS - A short 2 hour quest with an interesting sci-fi theme. It's a bit bare bones, but it's fully voice-acted. I thought it was neat.
* Angel Park - *Note: currently under review, we'll see what happens.
* WARZONES - Misanthropy Pure - Adds a bunch of "battle zones" where two factions are duking it out. This mod MAY make your system crap its pants, due to the sheer amount of NPCs that are added to the fights. Comparable to running IWS at High Spawns.
Gear Mods
Armor
* Tailor Maid - A port of a FO3 mod, this allows you to customize your character's clothing.
* Dragonskin Tactical Outfit - Adds some medium armor variants, reskinnable. Helmets, balaclavas, and gas masks, as well as backpacks for extra carrying capacity.
* Reinforced Chinese Stealth Suit - Adds a questline for the infamous Chinese Stealth Suit, with a working stealth field. Has some neat add-on/craftable accessories to boost the suit (carrying capacity, advanced targeting, night vision, rebreather, etc).
* Faction ID Cards - Removes the faction-specific flags on armors and replaces it with a Faction ID card system.
Weapon Mods
CHOOSE YOUR SIDE!!!
* Weapon Mod Expansion (WME)
* Weapon Mods Expanded (WMX) - These Weapon Mod Mods (I always wanted to say that) are basically the US Republican and Democratic Party of New Vegas weapon (mod?) mods. They do basically the same thing. Read up on each one, and choose one (but NOT both! That will really bork up your game).
Weapon Packs
* Classic Fallout Weapons - I hear you liek gunz, so I got you gunz fo yo gunz! Just a huge amount of lore-friendly (If you're into that sort of thing) weaponry that you've seen in previous Fallout installments.
* AG Supplementary Uniques - Adds a bunch of weapons that are mish-mashed from existing weapon parts. Worth a look.
* Fallout 3 Weapons Restoration - New Vegas has a bunch of Fallout 3-specific content just sitting around in its data files. This mod restores the Fallout 3 weapons that still exist in the game data.
Individual Weapons
* RHINORevolver - A 3 shot .45-70 Govt revolver handcannon.
* Survivalist Crossbow - This thing is pretty darned strong, but so much fun. The crossbow can be modded with a scope and repeater magazine (8 shots), fairly high damage/range, and best of all different bolt types (Poison, Frenzy, EMP, Incendiary, Stun, Explosive, C4). Unbalanced but sooo much fun to use. *Note: Currently unavailable on Nexus, creator is revamping it or something. You might still find it on other mod sites if you can't wait.
* Lamprey Mini Missile Launcher - A 12-shot, mini-missile launcher with craftable custom ammo.
Other
* Official Pipboy Readius - A sharper looking Pip Boy. Instead of a gauntlet, this looks more like a car GPS.
* Black Wolf Backpacks - Adds a wearable backpack, so you actually look like a wasteland traveler.
Graphics Mods
It is highly recommended that you use the 4 GB Extender if you use ANY graphics mods. Fallout:NV's grasp on reality is tenuous at best, and it will often vomit and crash at your feet if you try to pretty it up.
* Nevada Skies - Changes the weather (as in, the weather actually changes) and the skybox (ooo, purty). Also makes the nights dark as all hell. Highly Recommended by those who like graphics mods. Also includes URWL for New Vegas mod, so you don't need that if you have this.
* Electro-city - Adds a ton of streetlights to the inhabited areas of the game. When you're done shitting all over your nights with Fellout and Nevada Skies, you can brighten it back up with this mod.
* Enhanced Shaders - Has a regular version (don't use this without the 4GB Extender) and a lite version. Basically enhanced all of the graphics overall by changing some of the shaders.
* Fellout - The original "crap all over your nights" mod so that you can't see shit when night falls on the Mojave. Most people like Nevada Skies a lot better. Don't use this AND Nevada Skies.
* Essential Visual Enhancements - Also known as EVE. The original "OMG WHY IS MY GAME CRASHING?!" mod offender. It adds a bunch of enhancements to the graphics of the game, including changes to the meshes, textures, special effects, etc. Unfortunately, this also makes it completely incompatible with a lot of other mods out there.
NPC Cosmetic Enhancements
* Anthony Lings Coiffure - Because you can never have enough hair.
Texture Packs
* Detailed Normals - A large texture pack that attempts to pretty up the textures in the game.
* Vurt's Wasteland Flora Overhaul - A texture pack that focuses on improving the look of the plants in the game.
* Weapon Retexture Project - Retextures weapons. 'Nuff said.
* Ojo Bueno Hi Res Textures, or the "lite" version Poco Bueno - Moar textures, in Value Meal and Kid's Meal sizes.
* NMC's Texture pack - More texture lipstick for the pig that is Gamebryo.
Radio Mods
Radio Stations
* Blues Radio
* MMRX - Mojave Music Radio Expanded - country/western additions to MMR
* Extended New Vegas Radio Generator - ENRVG is a base that you can use to customize Radio New Vegas
* CONELRAD 640-1240 - Dozens of Nuke-themed songs.
* Existence 2.0 - A radio station run by a renegade robot AI.
* Radio Active Channel Extender (RACE) - A new radio station that can support up to 250 songs of your choice (I've personally edited it to support 500 songs, so it isn't a hard limit). The description includes various conversion utilities and files to easily convert your own music. Note that unless you intend to convert the in-game radio objects to RACE, you don't need the mono .ogg files. As long as the radio station is only on your Pip-Boy, you can get away with only using MP3s.
Song Packs
* More Where That Came From - Recently removed from the Nexus.
* The Secret Stash - Under moderation at the Nexus.
* RACE Ready Music - Intended to be used with the RACE radio mod, this is like More Where That Came From, but with a more New Vegas radio feel (more cowboy/western music, more jazz/big band, more Vegas standards). 200 songs of various genres.
* Vintage Fallout Radio Tracks - This offers 10 song "mini-packs", each of them with a different theme. You can choose which themes you like the best, and just use those.
Companion Mods
If you're playing with a companion, you're either playing a glorified Escort quest (Hardcore) or you're playing Easy Mode (non-Hardcore). Still, I guess there are some mods for you freeloaders out there...
* Willow - Want some blonde runway supermodel following you and cooking for you all day long in the Wastes? Seriously, this is probably one of the better companion mods. It just annoys me, that's all.
* Christine - Do you like your companions to be Bald, Broken, and Deadly? The infamous Christine from Dead Money can be used as a companion.
* Wendy Gilbert - What is it with mod makers and chick companions? Anyway, this is probably one of the more customizable and less annoying companions out there. She levels up Oblivion-style, though. The more she uses her skills, the better she gets.
* Sunny Smiles - Seriously, more chicks? This allows you to recruit the tutorial instructor Sunny Smiles from Goodsprings.
* Melissa Lewis - Okay, whatever. *sigh* The Great Khan who sits above the Deathclaw quarry.
* Marcus - Finally! A dude. Sort of. Have flashbacks of Fallout 2 with Marcus.
* Reunited and It Feels So Good - Requires the DLC Dead Money and Honest Hearts. Allows you to recruit the DLC NPCs as companions in the main game.
* Companion Sandbox Mode - When you want to play The Sims in Fallout New Vegas. This allows you to manipulate your Companions more, so they aren't just standing there like idiots.
* Charisma Based Follower Limit - Changes the amount of companions you can have to be dependent on your Charisma score. Hey, a use for the Charisma score, finally!
* GARU - Gives you a gnome. This gnome is magical. It enables your companions to have infinite ammo for all of their weapons (not just their default ones). Because the game wasn't Easy Mode enough.
Tiny Mods
Mods that do very little, but some folks around here like them.
* Lucky 38 Casino Marker - Puts a discoverable map marker for the Lucky 38 casino. Very handy for Fast Travel to the Strip.
* Canteen - Adds a refillable canteen to the game, lets you re-use empty water bottles. Good for hardcore mode.
* Kobu's Free Wild Wasteland Trait - Does what it says. Adds a free Wild Wasteland Trait, for those of you who want two Traits AND Wild Wasteland.
* Mysterious Increase - Increases the appearances of the Mysterious Stranger and Miss. Fortune, making them more likely to crash your game. *thumbs up*
* Four Eyes Fix - Changes the Four Eyes trait from terrible to semi-useful.
* Barber Machine - Adds a machine to the Lucky 38 suite that lets you change your character face and hair. Almost superfluous, especially if you have Old World Blues, but there you have it.
* Lucky Lighter - Adds the old "Lucky 8 Ball" property to Benny's Lighter. Because the game only has 3 ways of increasing luck with items, and one of them involves being a cannibal.
* Color Me Evil - Makes it a LOT easier to hang out in the negative Karma range, by reducing the positive bonus to Karma for various actions like killing Fiends/Ghouls.
Performance/Crashing issues
Q: Brah! My Fallout: New Vegas installation keeps crashing! What can I do?
A: If you are playing the Steam version of the game, right click the game in your Steam Library, go to Properties, and try "VERIFY INTEGRITY OF GAME CACHE" in the Local Files tab. This often fixes crashing problems.
A: If you are crashing after extended sessions and you have 4 GB or more of RAM, try using the 4 GB Extender.
A: Sometimes a cell does not properly unload itself from memory, causing you to crash when you approach a certain area from a certain direction. Often, this can be fixed, oddly enough, by approaching the crashing area from a different direction. This may not be possible in some areas (like crashing as soon as you get to the Strip or crashing when you enter Fort McCarran).
A: Auto-save on Travel is a big culprit when it comes to crashes that occur on Transition screens.
A: Don't use EVE. Seriously. It conflicts with SO many mods out there.
A: Project Nevada is neat! But it also is a common cause of constant crashing. Try removing it.
A: Reduce the number of saves in your save game directory. Oddly enough, sometimes this works. Just move or delete your archived saves to somewhere else.
Q: My audio is lagging behind, for some reason. How can I fix this?
A: New Vegas needs to be set as an exception to the FFDShow codec. Look up on a search engine how to do this (under "New Vegas" and "FFDShow", as it's pretty detailed (but simple). This was a common problem with Fallout 3 and Oblivion, too.
A: Alternatively, you can just remove FFDShow entirely.
A: Make sure you are outputting in 2.1 audio channels, instead of 5.1 or 7.1. The game doesn't use surround anyway.
A: Use the analog output instead of the optical output on your sound card. Break out those headphones or something.
A: Set the audio Hardware Acceleration to none or set the sample rate conversion quality to "Good" (which is the worst, oddly enough)
A: In the Task Manager, set the Priority of the Fallout New Vegas executable to High. This WILL cause a crash eventually, but it will fix the audio problem.
A: Install the Silent Hill Homecoming d3d9.dll file (Link to instructions from this thread)
Q: Crap, my last auto save and quick save are borked. Help?
A: On the PC version of the game, the game actually saves a backup of the prior Quicksave and Autosave every time. Go to your \My Documents\My Games\FalloutNV\Saves directory. Delete or backup and move the autosave.fos and quicksave.fos files and replace them with autosave.fos.bak (renamed to autosave.fos) and quicksave.fos.bak (renamed to quicksave.fos).
Q: My Pip Boy is lagging pretty badly when I switch tabs. How can I fix this?
A: Not much you can do about this, if it's the Quest tab. The more quests that you accept and complete, the more laggy this tab will get. I've had some success with removing unnecessary quests (like quests from the DLC) using the console. Look up the Quest ID in the wiki, then use console command "resetquest". If it's the Items tab, you can dump items from your inventory into a safehouse to fix that.
Q: When I open containers/vendors, the game lags. How can I fix this?
A: This is typically due to the game crapping itself from trying to keep track of so many items in all containers and NPCs. This is usually the result of increasing spawns (more items because there are more NPCs) or using mods with custom enemies (mod makers like to have 5 to 10 items in the inventory of their NPCs, for some reason). Unfortunately, the game caches the cells that contain these enemies, so even if you move to a relatively desolate area, you may have container lag for a long time after the offending area. If you are on console, saving and quitting the game back to the shell typically clears this problem up. If you are on PC, you can try the console command "pcb" or "PurgeCellBuffers", which will clear up the problem immediately. This has been known to crash the game, though, so save before doing it.
A: You can also alleviate it somewhat by enabling an option in your fallout.ini and fallout_default.ini files under [BackgroundLoad] called "bSelectivePurgeUnusedOnFastTravel=0" (change this to =1). This will make your spinning loading roulette wheel on your loading screens to stutter a bit when you Fast Travel, but it will unload all of the assets not being using by the cell that you are traveling to. This will prevent container/vendor lag entirely (or, at least, after a Fast Travel it will).
Q: VATS is lagging pretty badly. How can I fix this?
A: Sometimes popping into and out of 3rd person view can help. Otherwise, you may want to run the PurgeCellBuffers command. Finally, Anti-Aliasing sometimes causes severe VATS lag, especially on extended sessions.
Q: My game lags a lot when there are lots of NPCs nearby. How can I fix this?
A: If you are on PC, you can often greatly reduce the lag from having too many NPCs nearby your location by going to the console and using "temo" or "ToggleEmotions". Unfortunately, this will disable achievements for that session, but you should see an improvement in your framerate.
Q: How do I remove Mouse Acceleration?
A: Find the fallout.ini file (typically it's in \My Documents\My Games\FalloutNV\) and the fallout_default.ini file (typically, it's in your Steam\steamapps\common\fallout new vegas\ directory), back those files up, then edit them by adding the following lines to the [Controls] section:
fForegroundMouseAccelBase=0
fForegroundMouseAccelTop=0
fForegroundMouseBase=0
fForegroundMouseMult=0
General Gameplay
Q: How should I allocate my SPECIAL stats?
A: You really can't go wrong with any SPECIAL distribution. Even the most unbalanced distribution of points will give you a playable character. It is recommended not to raise any SPECIAL above 9 (since you can use an implant to upgrade it to 10). It is recommended to start with a high Endurance, because each point of Endurance gives you one implant slot, and this basically boils down to a +1 SPECIAL attribute point per implant slot (assuming you are using the vanilla New Vegas implants). Feel free to dump Charisma down to a 1, as it's only used for a handful of useless perks and Companion Nerve isn't a great passive bonus. There are very few, if any, Charisma-only speech checks. Intelligence is no longer the "god stat" of New Vegas, and you can easily get away with a 4-6 in Intelligence and still get 100s in every skill (there are a handful of important speech checks involving high Intelligence, but this can be solved by using Mentats. Also, there are a LOT of humorous dialog options if your Intelligence is below a 4... the "dumb" playthrough is quite hilarious). Finally, a high Luck stat will ensure winning at pretty much any casino game, but it also provides great benefits (from crit percentage to a bonus to all skills to passing some unusual speech checks).
Q: Is it possible to get 100 in every Skill?
A: If you have 2 or more DLCs (which raise the level cap by 5 each), then yes. Even without DLC, a lot of folks have come close to getting 100 in every skill at level 30 (although not QUITE there). However, this assumes you take Educated at level 4 and Comprehension at level 6 and you pick up every skill book and implant in the game.
Q: What are some good perks?
A: Educated (req. Intelligence 4) at level 4. +2 Skill points per level.
A: Comprehension (req. Intelligence 4) at level 6 (or level 4, if you didn't take Educated). Potentially worth over 80 skill points with all DLC, and doubles the benefit from Magazines.
A: Better Criticals (req. Perception and Luck of 6) will increase all critical damage by 50%. Sneak Attack Criticals benefit from this.
A: Jury Rigging will greatly increase the pool of items that can be used to repair your favorite items.
A: Energy Weapons Builds: Vigilant Recycler
A: Guns Builds: Hand Loader, Cowboy and/or Grunt (Honest Hearts)
A: Unarmed Build: Piercing Strike, Slayer
A: Unarmed Build AND Old World Blues: Pyromaniac affects the Saturnite Fist Super-Heated, making it the best unarmed weapon in the game.
Q: What are some crappy perks?
A: Friend of the Night is scripted to be based on TIME and not ambient darkness levels. Thus, you can be stuck indoors with no night vision. Lame.
A: Here and Now! is a waste of a perk.
A: Junk Rounds (Dead Money) only makes 1 bullet from a ton of crafting materials. A single bullet.
A: Adamantium Skeleton
A: Computer Whiz/Infiltrator: if you fail a Force Lock or Hacking check, just reload your game. Or better yet, never use Force Lock and never attempt to guess a password with one attempt left.
A: Miss Fortune/Mysterious Stranger: While not terrible perks, per se (although they only work in VATS), they have a tendency to crash the game in VATS, especially in the late game.
Q: How do I get to The Strip quickly and bypass all of that stuff in the South of the Mojave?
A: Go to Sloan (east-ish from Goodsprings) and head north. There will be a ton of Deathclaws blocking your way, but if you hug the eastern cliff walls heading toward Neil's Shack, go North from Neil's Shack, and stay on the cliffs, you can sneak past the Deathclaws on the main road. Use a Stealth Boy if you have to and save often.
Q: In what order should I do the DLC?
A: I would recommend, in order of lowest level to highest level viability:
Honest Hearts - Any level (pretty easy)
Old World Blues - Level 12+, earlier the better (due to monster HP scaling).
Dead Money - Level 15+, due to high skill checks, although the books from HH and OWB will help with that. Also, some OWB content foreshadow events in DM.
Lonesome Road - Level 25+ (recommended by the DLC, not sure if it's accurate), mostly because it is the end story for the Ulysses arc, which chronologically comes after OWB, HH, and DM. Without the references to the previous 3 DLC, most of the writing won't make sense.
Q: Two Bears High Fiving? WTF?
A: One of the inkblots that Doc Mitchell shows you in the tutorial looks like two Bears high fiving. A small mod was made to recognize this, and later it was added as a Wild Wasteland event in Honest Hearts.
Acronym Hell
AWOP - A World of Pain, content mod for New Vegas.
DLC - DownLoadable Content, the way Bethesda maek moneyz from u.
DM - Dead Money, DLC for New Vegas.
EVE - Essential Visual Enhancements, graphics mod for New Vegas.
FNV - Fallout: New Vegas.
FO3 - Fallout 3.
FOSE - Fallout Script Extender, needed for some Fallout 3 mods. The New Vegas version is NVSE.
GRA - Gun Runner's Arsenal, DLC for New Vegas.
HH - Honest Hearts, DLC for New Vegas.
IWS - Increased Wasteland Spawns, content mod for New Vegas.
LR - Lonesome Road, DLC for New Vegas.
MMM - Mart's Mutant Mod, content mod for Fallout 3.
MoMod - Monster Mod, content Mod for New Vegas.
NVSE - New Vegas Script Extender, needed for some New Vegas mods. The Fallout 3 version is FOSE.
OWB - Old World Blues, DLC for New Vegas.
SMMG - Shoulder Mounted Machine Gun, from Lonesome Road.
URWL - Ultra Realistic Wasteland Lighting. Now part of Nevada Skies mod for New Vegas.
WME - Weapon Mod Expansion, mod mod for New Vegas.
WMX - Weapon Mods Expanded, mod mod for New Vegas.
Tips and Tricks
Here's a list of console commands for Fallout: New Vegas. PC only, obviously. Note that using a console command will disable Steam achievements for that play session, but if you save and exit out of the game, then reload the game you will be able to unlock achievements again.
The Skilled Trait glitch - Skilled is a Trait in Old World Blues that gives you a -10% penalty to XP, but +5 to all skills. However, if you respec your character when leaving Goodsprings, and grab Skilled again, you don't lose your old bonus. In other words, you get +10 to all skills, while still having a -10% penalty to XP. If you use the Auto-Doc in Old World Blues to respec your Traits, you can do this again for a total of +15 to all skills!
The Dead Money casual clothing Agility bonus glitch - In Dead Money, eventually you unlock the option to turn in a large variety of casual clothing to the Sierra Madre Vending Machine for a paltry amount of Sierra Madre chips. If you have the item of clothing equipped while you are turning it into the Vending Machine, however, you retain the Agility bonus for wearing Casual Clothing. This can be repeated as many times as you want, for a bonus of +1 Agility each time you do it. Note that while the skill bonus for Agility caps out at 10, and the bonus Agility doesn't count for the purposes of perk prerequisites, your reload speed and weapon sheathe/unsheathe animations will give you higher bonuses above 10, to the point that it can actually cause the game to crash if you are TOO fast in reloading some weapons.
Q: Hey, I don't actually want to know where all the skill books in AWOP are. I really don't care. I don't even have AWOP installed on my system.
A: Well, screw you all! I made a list, and as OP creator, I HAVE TEH POWAH!
Q: How can I Serve The Wall Better?
A: THE WALL, ALL HAIL THE WALL. SEE IT, SERVE IT, FEED IT! (courtesy of Elderlycrawfish)
I admit, I've been playing Deus Ex since last week, and I feel as if I've been cheating on New Vegas.
Fallout could use a cover system like in Deus Ex.
Not saying one is better than the other, though that is true :P
However, I gotta say with any future Fallout games, I have no problem with Bethesda expanding on their east coast story, while Obsidian expands the south west story.
On Bethesda's side of things I would love to see, what was it called, The Institute?
I've just been hearing for pretty much forever that it was non-canon, etc. and I never really understood why. The only thing I could figure out was that the people playing it didn't like it, and that was why. But having not played it, I can't say for sure.
So New Vegas. I hear it has two bears high fiving!
I am sure there is some kind of crazy synopsis on what is and is not canon out there somewhere.
It's a weak game, but I don't disown it's existence or anything though. They'd have to do something really awful for me to completely and intentionally act like a game doesn't exist. Like I dunno, some console spinoff that's a shitty action game with a heap of wildly inappropriate product placement for energy drinks and a general theme of mind numbingly stupid and out of place x-treme idiocy. Thankfully nothing like that ever happened.
Origin: Galedrid - Nintendo: Galedrid/3222-6858-1045
Blizzard: Galedrid#1367 - FFXIV: Galedrid Kingshand
I've been playing Fallout 3 recently as well. Couldn't STAND the shooting mechanics until I cheated myself 100 small gun skill, modded in iron sights, and realized that pistols have the worst accuracy ever. Now I'm having fun though.
Well, not the Enclave's patriotic stuff or the violin music, that's just boring.
Origin: Galedrid - Nintendo: Galedrid/3222-6858-1045
Blizzard: Galedrid#1367 - FFXIV: Galedrid Kingshand
There are also spray-painted references to all the other DLC there, as well.
The harder the rain, honey, the sweeter the sun.
So I bit the bullet and did DM for my new character. Maybe knowing what to expect, plus having Light Step and a better unarmed focus, made it far more tolerable this time around. That said, I hope to not have to do it again. My new guys' hideout is feeling much better now that the DM Wall is pleased by my offering, and the gold shelf has never looked better.
Tales from the Burning Sands added something that I'm starting to appreciate: more cooking recipes. Always hated that so many ingredients felt so underutilized. Sure, I could just dine on gecko steaks and grilled mantis, but my guy is a true gourmand now: none of that common wasteland fast food for me!
Also, am really liking AG Supplementary Uniques, despite my earlier sentiment that large weapon mods are exceessive. The look and feel of these guns fit in so well, and just trying to catch 'em all is fun. I guess it also provides me with sufficient bangbang without having to use a Wall weapon...
I wasn't sure if they were still WIP because you didn't know what to put up there, or what.
The ones I wanted to suggest were graphic mods, which I haven't seen much talk about other than Nevada Skies.
Agreed. I actually played for the first two hours of this recent start with no radio, the ambient music and sound is actually pretty gorgeous.
I was kind of wondering how they were going to handle the "40 new mods for core guns", which I'm assuming will just be GRA versions of those guns? Either way, I'm looking forward to it. Also, the GRA challenge achievements are apparently combat-type challenges.
edit: and that's the formspring you quoted
should have read it!
give me guns
give me all the guns
There aren't any batarians in Fallout, but just in case
But at range? I'm a one-man artillery battalion. Give me meltdown on top of that and there's no chance anything survives a volley. Not that there's much surviving as is, but....