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Old thread. Disregard.
freakish light
butterdick jonesand his heavenly asshole machineRegistered User regular
butterdick jonesand his heavenly asshole machineRegistered User regular
Well, you morons have managed to fill up an entire thread in three days, so we need a new one. Carry on.
So Fallout 3 is out now. People have a lot of questions about it. In fact, people keep asking the same questions over and over again. I figure I might as well answer them here, and direct people to this post.
But this thread isn't just about Fallout 3, even though it's the greatest thing since sliced bread. We also cater to the retro crowd of Fallout and Fallout 2. I'll split this into two parts, then.
Fallout Classic!
Fallout 3: The New Fallout. Same great Fallout taste, brand new formula!
So Fallout 3 is out now. People have a lot of questions about it. In fact, people keep asking the same questions over and over again. I figure I might as well answer them here, and direct people to this post.
But this thread isn't just about Fallout 3, even though it's the greatest thing since sliced bread. We also cater to the retro crowd of Fallout and Fallout 2. I'll split this into two parts, then.
Fallout Classic!
What is a Fallout, you ask? Only the best turn-based post-apocalyptic RPG released in the 1990s!
Fallout 1 follows the exploits of the Vault Dweller as he journeys through the wastes in search of a water chip for his Vault. Without it, everyone in the Vault will surely die. On the way, he encounters radscorpions, deathclaws, gigantic rats, hideously mutated mutants, ghouls, super mutants and, arguably the most horrible of all, the dreaded Iguana on a Stick. Hint: It's not made out of Iguana.
Fallout 2 begins 80 years after the end of the original Fallout, and a direct descendant of the original Vault Dweller heads out into the wastes to save his village once again.
"But how do I get this wonderful game?" you ask.
There are a couple of ways. First, you can probably find a box verson on Amazon or eBay or something. Second, www.gog.com has 1 & 2 for the low, low price of $6 each. GameTap has Fallout 1 on its free list, and Fallout 2 is on the paid subscription plan. Fallout Tactics is also coming soon. The caveat with GameTap is that you can't install mods, no matter how hard you might want to. If you prefer to play an unmodded experience, then by all means go get it today. *Note: only in North America. Sorry Euroguys.
The Fallout Tutorial!
If you're brand new to Fallout, check here first. This will get you on your feet.
Fallout Patches
Even though a lot of us might not like the NMA guys, they know their Fallout mods and their patches fix bugs and things that should have been in the game in the first place. Some people like their games buggy, I like my game fixed. If you prefer the classic experience, you can skip these. I recommend it, personally.
Here's all of the mods in a single, easy pack: Fallout Patches Download *Note, this pack doesn't include the children patch. Installing all of these together shouldn't cause issues, but if you have some, I'll investigate a fix and put a warning in here.
Fallout 2 list:
Fallout 1 follows the exploits of the Vault Dweller as he journeys through the wastes in search of a water chip for his Vault. Without it, everyone in the Vault will surely die. On the way, he encounters radscorpions, deathclaws, gigantic rats, hideously mutated mutants, ghouls, super mutants and, arguably the most horrible of all, the dreaded Iguana on a Stick. Hint: It's not made out of Iguana.
Fallout 2 begins 80 years after the end of the original Fallout, and a direct descendant of the original Vault Dweller heads out into the wastes to save his village once again.
"But how do I get this wonderful game?" you ask.
There are a couple of ways. First, you can probably find a box verson on Amazon or eBay or something. Second, www.gog.com has 1 & 2 for the low, low price of $6 each. GameTap has Fallout 1 on its free list, and Fallout 2 is on the paid subscription plan. Fallout Tactics is also coming soon. The caveat with GameTap is that you can't install mods, no matter how hard you might want to. If you prefer to play an unmodded experience, then by all means go get it today. *Note: only in North America. Sorry Euroguys.
The Fallout Tutorial!
If you're brand new to Fallout, check here first. This will get you on your feet.
First, you can right-click on your "weapon" button to change modes. The one with a little target on it means you are now in "called shot" mode. You can aim for specific body parts, and if you knock them hard enough it'll cripple the enemy. Aim for the eyes, and their PE goes down as well as their chance of hitting you. The arms, they'll drop their weapons. Legs, they can't move as fast (like, one or two tiles per turn). If you make a critical shot to the groin, they'll fall over and lie prone for a turn, giving you a 95% hit chance on the entire body (except maybe eyes, depending on your skill). If you nail them in the head, human enemies will get knocked unconscious, but creatures (such as radscorpions) just get mad. Burst mode, available on some weapon models, means you fire a bunch of ammo at once. Use it at close range and it will decimate enemies. Longer range means more bullets will miss and it's not as effective. Also, your NPCs can and will do this while you're close and kill you or your friends, so be wary of giving NPCs SMGs. Third mode is reload, pretty self-explanatory.
The buttons that control turn-based combat are on the right side of the interface. "Turn" ends your turn, and "CMBT" ends combat. Pretty simple, right? You can speed this up by using hotkeys, spacebar for Turn and Enter for combat.
There are a couple of different cursor modes you can cycle through by right-clicking. The red hexagon moves your character to that location. In combat, the number inside the red shape is how many AP you spend moving there. The crosshair is to attack enemies, and the number is your hit chance %. The arrow lets you interact with things and people, and if you click on something and hold the button and then move your mouse, you get additional options. The Pip-Boy icon lets you use skills, like Steal or Repair. The bag lets you use an inventory item on or with the selected item. I think there's an eye icon to examine the person or thing. There might be one or two more that are self-explanatory. In Fallout 2, there's a hand icon when you're next to an NPC to push them out of the way. Additionally, if you get stuck by a non-moving member of your party in Fallout 1, try talking to them about changing tactics and then change the follow distance to close and move around a little.
After you get an NPC, you're going to want to manage their inventory, changing weapons and giving them ammo. This is easy in Fallout 2, but not in Fallout 1. To put stuff in, just barter with them, but to take stuff out you have to steal it. Don't worry about your steal skill, they won't catch you no matter how bad you are at it and there's no other way to get equipment out. You can also plant stuff on them from this screen, but it's not as good as barter because I don't think they take weight into consideration when you barter things to them. Some of these problems might be addressed by the Fallout companion mod, but I haven't used it so I can't comment.
There are two little red buttons on your interface. One of them opens the Skilldex, where you can use your various skills like sneak, first aid, doctor, etc., and the other one is less obvious. This switches between your active hands. There are two places in your inventory where you can equip items, your left and your right hand. Put a weapon in one and a tool or something harmless in the other, and when someone asks you to holster your weapon (in town, for example), just hit that little red button and nobody's angry anymore. What's useful about this feature is that you can use it in battle without using AP, so if you want to use a sniper rifle for long range and a shotgun for close range, just put them in different hands and switch back and forth as needed.
Every action in battle per turn takes a certain number of Action Points (referenced above). Moving, firing, accessing your inventory, only so much can be done per turn, and this is determined by your AP. Certain perks and traits can change the amount used, but the number you start with is determined by your AGI. The number of action points remaining in your turn is denoted by the green lights above your weapon button. Ten lights, ten AP left. Note that it is possible to go over 10 AP, the lights just won't decrease until you're under 10.
If you find yourself stuck somewhere and everything is closed, it's dark and you just need time to pass, hit Z. It'll bring up your alarm clock and you can rest for however long you want.
That's all I can think of. If anybody has any more questions I'll answer them and put them in here for future reference. Hope it helps.
The buttons that control turn-based combat are on the right side of the interface. "Turn" ends your turn, and "CMBT" ends combat. Pretty simple, right? You can speed this up by using hotkeys, spacebar for Turn and Enter for combat.
There are a couple of different cursor modes you can cycle through by right-clicking. The red hexagon moves your character to that location. In combat, the number inside the red shape is how many AP you spend moving there. The crosshair is to attack enemies, and the number is your hit chance %. The arrow lets you interact with things and people, and if you click on something and hold the button and then move your mouse, you get additional options. The Pip-Boy icon lets you use skills, like Steal or Repair. The bag lets you use an inventory item on or with the selected item. I think there's an eye icon to examine the person or thing. There might be one or two more that are self-explanatory. In Fallout 2, there's a hand icon when you're next to an NPC to push them out of the way. Additionally, if you get stuck by a non-moving member of your party in Fallout 1, try talking to them about changing tactics and then change the follow distance to close and move around a little.
After you get an NPC, you're going to want to manage their inventory, changing weapons and giving them ammo. This is easy in Fallout 2, but not in Fallout 1. To put stuff in, just barter with them, but to take stuff out you have to steal it. Don't worry about your steal skill, they won't catch you no matter how bad you are at it and there's no other way to get equipment out. You can also plant stuff on them from this screen, but it's not as good as barter because I don't think they take weight into consideration when you barter things to them. Some of these problems might be addressed by the Fallout companion mod, but I haven't used it so I can't comment.
There are two little red buttons on your interface. One of them opens the Skilldex, where you can use your various skills like sneak, first aid, doctor, etc., and the other one is less obvious. This switches between your active hands. There are two places in your inventory where you can equip items, your left and your right hand. Put a weapon in one and a tool or something harmless in the other, and when someone asks you to holster your weapon (in town, for example), just hit that little red button and nobody's angry anymore. What's useful about this feature is that you can use it in battle without using AP, so if you want to use a sniper rifle for long range and a shotgun for close range, just put them in different hands and switch back and forth as needed.
Every action in battle per turn takes a certain number of Action Points (referenced above). Moving, firing, accessing your inventory, only so much can be done per turn, and this is determined by your AP. Certain perks and traits can change the amount used, but the number you start with is determined by your AGI. The number of action points remaining in your turn is denoted by the green lights above your weapon button. Ten lights, ten AP left. Note that it is possible to go over 10 AP, the lights just won't decrease until you're under 10.
If you find yourself stuck somewhere and everything is closed, it's dark and you just need time to pass, hit Z. It'll bring up your alarm clock and you can rest for however long you want.
That's all I can think of. If anybody has any more questions I'll answer them and put them in here for future reference. Hope it helps.
Fallout Patches
Even though a lot of us might not like the NMA guys, they know their Fallout mods and their patches fix bugs and things that should have been in the game in the first place. Some people like their games buggy, I like my game fixed. If you prefer the classic experience, you can skip these. I recommend it, personally.
- Fallout Children Patch (for GOG users / 1.2 European version)
- Fallout 1.2 Patch (optional if you have GOG, I think)
- Fallout 1.3.4 Patch
- Fallout Resolution Patch
- Fallout companion patch
- Fallout engine tweaks
Here's all of the mods in a single, easy pack: Fallout Patches Download *Note, this pack doesn't include the children patch. Installing all of these together shouldn't cause issues, but if you have some, I'll investigate a fix and put a warning in here.
Fallout 2 list:
Fallout 3: The New Fallout. Same great Fallout taste, brand new formula!
Hacking!
When you enter the Hacking minigame, you'll get a screen filled with words and random characters. The goal is to guess the correct word, and it plays out like a game of Mastermind. Pick a word, and the system will tell you how many letters in that word are in the same place as the target word. For instance, if you pick "Meaning" and the word is "Fucking" (for example), you would get 3/7 correct for the "ing" part. There are hidden character sets, delinated by {} <> () on a single line in that order, but there may be characters in between them like {$#$#&%}. Click on one of these when the whole sequence is highlighted and you'll get more password guesses or a dud will be removed from the screen. If you get down to one attempt left and there are no hidden character sequences, and you're not sure you can guess correctly, just cancel out with B and try again. You get a fresh puzzle, but you also get all your guesses back.
Holstering and the Pip-Boy Light!
To holster your weapon, hold down reload (X on 360, R on PC, probably [] on PS3). To turn on the light on your Pip-Boy 3000, hold down the Pip-Boy button (B on 360, Tab (?) on PC, probably O on PS3).
Hotkeys and You!
To set a hotkey for an item in your inventory, on PC press a number key and then click on the item. On 360, hold down the right bumper and hit a direction on your d-pad while the item is selected. On PS3, I think you hold down R1 and hit a direction, but I'm not 100% on that one. (who uses ps3 anyway lolol)
In-Game frequently asked questions
Housing
I'll update this with other questions I see getting asked a whole lot, at least the ones I know the answers to.
Also, I'll put some more information on the actual game in here later.
When you enter the Hacking minigame, you'll get a screen filled with words and random characters. The goal is to guess the correct word, and it plays out like a game of Mastermind. Pick a word, and the system will tell you how many letters in that word are in the same place as the target word. For instance, if you pick "Meaning" and the word is "Fucking" (for example), you would get 3/7 correct for the "ing" part. There are hidden character sets, delinated by {} <> () on a single line in that order, but there may be characters in between them like {$#$#&%}. Click on one of these when the whole sequence is highlighted and you'll get more password guesses or a dud will be removed from the screen. If you get down to one attempt left and there are no hidden character sequences, and you're not sure you can guess correctly, just cancel out with B and try again. You get a fresh puzzle, but you also get all your guesses back.
Holstering and the Pip-Boy Light!
To holster your weapon, hold down reload (X on 360, R on PC, probably [] on PS3). To turn on the light on your Pip-Boy 3000, hold down the Pip-Boy button (B on 360, Tab (?) on PC, probably O on PS3).
Hotkeys and You!
To set a hotkey for an item in your inventory, on PC press a number key and then click on the item. On 360, hold down the right bumper and hit a direction on your d-pad while the item is selected. On PS3, I think you hold down R1 and hit a direction, but I'm not 100% on that one. (who uses ps3 anyway lolol)
In-Game frequently asked questions
Housing
There is a very easy way to get a house early in the game. Just go to Megaton, and either defuse or detonate the bomb. You'll need an Explosives skill of at least 25 to disarm the bomb, and you don't need anything (I think) to blow it up. The Sheriff in Megaton will give you a key and a deed to a house there, or Burke will give you an apartment in Tenpenny Tower. If the Sheriff is dead, his son will give you the key and deed. If Burke is dead, there's no way to get a reward for blowing up Megaton. The game tells you this with a pop-up dialog box.
Where the Fuck is the Family?!
Go to the metro station that Evan sends you to. Talk to the ghoul, and he tells you they're somewhere east, or you can take the tunnel to get farther into their compound. If you go overland, you can save a hostage and fight some super mutants near a burned-out church. If you go underground, there are two Mirelurks (crab people) waiting for you. I prefer the Mirelurks, as you can just drop a bottlecap mine in front of each one and they go down in one hit. There are a couple sitting around in the Super-Duper Mart. After you get through the underground tunnels, you'll come up in another part of the subway. This place is FULL of traps, proximity mines and pressure plates and tripwires galore. Take it slow, save before you attempt it, and you'll be OK. Just pay attention.
Where's Dogmeat?
First, talk to one of the caravans that passes through Megaton, and get them to talk about the Canterbury Commons. Head up to the Meresti train station, directly east of the Metro station with the ghouls that want Sugar Bombs, and put your marker on Canterbury Commons. Go there in a straight line, and you'll stumble across the Scrapyard. Dogmeat is here, defending himself against three raiders. Kill them and he's yours.
I'll update this with other questions I see getting asked a whole lot, at least the ones I know the answers to.
Also, I'll put some more information on the actual game in here later.
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More like Oblivion with guns.
Thankfully I have a backup plan in the form of a free 30 day trial of Gamefly, so I can get the 360 version for free and play that.
Still, time for a new rig.
Pssh...Oblivion with guns...and nukes.
My rental for this game is up on Sunday.
Which (360) version should I buy, collectors, limited, lunchbox, pine scented?
e: goddamn I love the fat boy.
e2: oh hey, I think I just wrote my future wife's wedding vows.
I'm a bit pissed that I keep finding good weapons only to find I can't get ammo or it's practically broken, but really, that's only because I'm an impatient bitch.
Where Madness and the Fantasical Come to Play
Does anybody know if I get the RROD will they replace my DVD drive as well? My X Box is literally a few weeks out of warranty but if I had RROD I would hope they would fix everything that was wrong with it.
Basically the problem is it finds my discs unreadable a lot of the time, and then will freeze or just crash the game when it becomes unreadable while playing. Could this be caused by dust build up? Is there an easy way to fix that?
Yah..I am pretty close to the beginning and I run out of ammo ALL the time. Oh well
grim and frostbitten kingdoms. goozex referral. steam.
I suppose having Jesus level karma helps balance out my kleptomania.
For the life of me I just can't be "neutral" no matter what I try. I steal a lot, but I generally take the "good" route with quests, because the evil route is always so over-the-top evil I can't imagine taking it.
grim and frostbitten kingdoms. goozex referral. steam.
I don't think you get back the xbox you sent in, because I've heard of people getting HDMI ports that they didn't have before, or losing them if they did have them. I think it's just whatever refurb box is ready at the time.
I'm no expert, though.
My suggestion is to fight mostly stuff that shoots back early on. Once you're established with a good load of guns and ammo move onto quests that have lots of monsters. Try and find a couple of raider bases and wipe them out, should give you a good start.
*snickers*
So I found some fun stuff. Especially a
The Fat Man is a thing of beauty. The fact that a behemoth took one to the face and still had a shred of health left? Frightening.
I'm still waiting for someone to get this right.
I took a peek behind the door with cheats and just as a warning if your playing a stealth character or other non-combat character.
I think the Sheriff has one.
Oh yeah, I forgot about that Mister Gutsy. Look around for some pulse grenades, he'll take two of them before he goes down.
If you do some evil work in the place where you get the Schematic for that you get a built one, and another sharp weapon when looting the joint.
Did you play NWN2? Bishop was an awesome portrayal of an evil character.
EDIT: Oddjob, I don't even remember where I got the schematic. Heh.
grim and frostbitten kingdoms. goozex referral. steam.
Ugg I just finished oasis last night;
Although it was cool seeing harold and bob again, and I felt kind of bad forcing him to be a tree for several hundred more years...but eh it's for the good of the mother....errr, wasteland! Although I have a feeling when I finish this playthrough, I'm going to hear about how the oasis was destroyed by greed.
For frank:
grim and frostbitten kingdoms. goozex referral. steam.
Wait. His he
because I blew his limbs to the four winds with a frag grenade so I could grab his weapon.
Is he supposed to be important?
Where Madness and the Fantasical Come to Play
Programmer: Don't you think these "evil" options are too extreme?
Designer: Gamers are deviants, nothing is too extreme for those wackos!
You get the schematic after peacefully finishing the Blood Ties quest. Make sure you don't piss them off, or he probably won't give it to you.
Fixed
Oh, I got the schematic. I just don't remember getting offered any more quests there or anything.
grim and frostbitten kingdoms. goozex referral. steam.
grim and frostbitten kingdoms. goozex referral. steam.
I vote for slave-driving murdering douchebag myself.
Edit: and fuck fire ants - fuck them with a large rusty convenient piece of re-bar in every orifice.
I didn't think the choices were too extreme at all. Certainly no more so than what I usually did after the quests were over anyway.
*KABLAM*
*loot*
*throw severed body parts off cliff*
The slave trade is quite economical but the way it works is a bit wonky, so I usually just went for the head.