Well, you morons have managed to fill up an entire thread in four 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!
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.
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.
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 3: The New Fallout. Same great Fallout taste, brand new formula!So, wait, what is Fallout 3?
Okay, you've obviously been living under a rock for the past couple of years.
Fallout 3 is a post-apocalyptic hybrid of a turn-based RPG and an FPS. Your character grows up in one of the last unopened Vaults - which are basically big underground self-sustaining fallout shelters - living peacefully with your father. One day, he up and leaves the Vault (which is unheard-of, as nobody leaves the Vault, ever, period). Forced out by the maniacal Overseer, who is convinced that both you and your father want to destroy the Vault's stability, you get thrust into the harsh, unforgiving reality of the Capital Wasteland. This is basically the area in and around Washington, D.C. (which is
not the same place as Washington state, the latter being on the west coast and the former being on the east coast, for you eurotrash out there reading this) and includes some real-life places such as Olney, Bethesda, Maryland, Fairfax, VA, Falls Church, etc, etc. Of course, the scale has been compressed and the landscape is unrecognizable, but it's still neat seeing all these places in-game that you can also see on a map.
I'll let wiki handle the basics of gameplay and whatnot.
Gameplay
The game features both first-person and third-person perspectives and the player can change to either perspective during gameplay. Main character creation occurs as the player experiences the character's childhood. As a child in the Vault, the character receives a book titled "You're SPECIAL," whereupon the player can set the character's seven primary aptitudes. The character receives weapons training and a PIP-Boy 3000 later on during childhood, and the player's performance in various tests determines the rest of the attributes. Additionally, several quests inside the Vault influence the player character's relationship with his or her father. Skills and Perks are similar to those in previous games: the player chooses three Tag Skills out of a total of 14 to be the character's specialties. The maximum level the player can achieve is level 20. The Traits from the previous Fallout installments, slightly modified, were combined with Perks in Fallout 3, and the player can choose a new Perk each time after gaining a level.
An example of VATS in action
The Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System, or VATS, play an important part in the fighting phases of the game. While using VATS, real-time combat is paused creating a combat system that the Bethesda developers have described as a hybrid between turn-based and real-time combat. Various actions cost action points, limiting the actions of each combatant during a turn, and both the player and enemies can target specific body areas for attacks to inflict specific injuries. The game features a new health and radiation system as well. The player can measure an object's radioactivity and gauge the effect it will have on the character.
Another game mechanic is that firearms wear out over time: as a weapon degenerates, its rate of fire slows and it loses accuracy. However, worn out firearms can be used to repair a similar weapon, or to make more reliable and powerful weapons. Weapon schematics can also be found and used to create various devices such as the Rock-it Launcher, created by combining a leaf blower and a wood chipper, that can fire various items such as lunchboxes and stuffed animals, or the Clever Shrapnel Bomb, made out of a Vault-Tec lunchbox and bottlecaps. Along with equipping various weapons, the player can also utilize different armors and clothing that may have effects that can alter various skills. For example, a pair of mechanic's coveralls may boost the player's repair skill while it is worn. Armor and clothing come in two main parts for the head and body, allowing a player to wear different combinations of hats and armor. Also, a player's inventory has a specified weight limit, preventing a player from carrying too many items. Some items like weapon ammo have no weight, due to the developer not wishing to bog down inventory management.
The player can have a maximum party of three, consisting of himself/herself, Dogmeat, and a single NPC. Dogmeat can be killed during the game if the player misuses him or places him in a severely dangerous situation and he cannot be replaced. It is possible to not encounter Dogmeat depending on how the game is played. Only one NPC can travel with the player at any time, and in order to get another NPC to travel, the first one must be dismissed by the player.
The karma system is an important feature in the gameplay. The player's actions, including conversation and combat choices affect the player's status in the game world; a player who makes good choices will be received more positively by NPCs, and a player that makes bad choices will have the opposite reaction. Extremes of karma also have other effects: a high karma leads to the player being attacked by bounty hunters, and for random NPCs to give the player gifts in thanks of their service. Crimes can also be committed by a player, and whichever faction or group that is harmed by a crime will be fully aware of the player's action. Other factions that were not affected by the crime will not be aware of it, and since a town is usually its own faction, news of a crime committed in one town will not spread to another. Factions can range in size and boundaries, however, and may not be restricted to a single area. The game world itself is similar in size to that of Oblivion, which has a 16 square mile game world.
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, [] 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 console, hold down RB or R1 and hit a direction on your d-pad while the item is selected.
Whoever told me you don't need to hold down RB, you're a dirty liar.In-Game frequently asked questionsHousing
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.
How do I get into Rivet City? There's no bridge!
Okay, this isn't so frequently asked and it's not a spoiler, but I had trouble with it the first time I went. Climb up that building with the stairs on it that appear to lead nowhere, and at the top (next to the poor guy who needs water) there's an intercom. Click it, and Harkness will send the bridge over for you.
How do I get into the broken-off bow in Rivet City?
There's an entrance underwater to the left of that locked door. Go through it, through a couple more underwater rooms, and you should come up into air. Don't forget to hit the switch to unlock the door, and go see Pinkerton. WARNING: He does not want to be found. His place is booby-trapped to hell and back. Move slow and pay attention.
List of Bobbleheads, via
Vault wiki
SPECIAL - increases each stat by one
* Strength - Megaton - Lucas Simms' House. On desk in the second most bedroom on the second floor.
* Perception - Republic of Dave - Museum of Dave
* Endurance - Deathclaw Sanctuary - Deathclaw Sanctuary Entrance
* Charisma - Vault 108 - Cloning Lab
* Intelligence - Rivet City - Science Lab. On one of the desks in the center of the lab.
* Agility - Greener Pastures Disposal - Office
* Luck - Arlington Cemetery North - Arlington House
Skills
will increase skill stat by 10 points.
* Barter - Evergreen Mills - Market Bazaar - In a dark cave-nook, in the corner of the room to the right of Smiling Jack (trader). Jump over the work bench, it's on the right-most shelves.
* Big Guns - Fort Constantine - CO Quarters
* Energy Weapons - Raven Rock - Sector 2B
* Explosives - WKML Broadcast Station - Sealed Cistern
* Lockpick - Bethesda Ruins - Bethesda Offices East on a desk with an active lamp.
* Medicine - Vault 101 - Dad's desk. It can be obtained before you take your G.O.A.T., during your escape from the vault or during your brief (optional) return to Vault 101.
* Melee Weapons - Dunwich Building - Virulent Underchamber
* Repair - Arefu - Evan King's House
* Science - Vault 106 - Living Quarters
* Small Guns - National Guard Depot - National Guard Armory: sitting on a shelf in the sealed storage room in the basement.
* Sneak - Yao Guai Tunnels - Yao Guai Den
* Speech - Paradise Falls - Eulogy's pad
* Unarmed - Rockopolis
Huge gigantic awesome map with lots and lots of locations - if not all of them - filled in. Spoilers, obviously, for people who like to explore on their own.
http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/fallout/images//d/d6/Wastelandmap.png
I'll update this with other questions I see getting asked a whole lot, at least the ones I know the answers to.
Posts
Spoilers for mid-game
You won't be disappointed with how the whole President thing works out.
So I'm at level 9 right now I haven't gone for GNR and the main story and instead mostly been exploring the wastes. Is it time to grow some balls and head into downtown or mess around more in order to steamroll the opposition?
I can't figure it out.
Killing guys by decapitating them with dictionaries? Fucking awesome!
I think turn left out of the subway exit. You should see a burned-out building with super mutants in it, and then
Downtown isn't really that hard if you go through the subways it tells you tell. There was one point where I ran into like 10 supermutants and stood no chance fighting them. Thankfully, there are a lot of Sneakboys in one area. You can use those or just run past them. At level 9 you could probably take them out though. GO FOR IT!
On a different note, I find it funny that some enemies will follow you to the ends of the earth on land, but if you pass through a door that requires a load, you are safe. I understand why this is. Also, another AI related thing: why is everything so hell bent on killing you? There are no options for hostiles between fight you or limp away severely wounded. I wish I could talk to more raiders, but sadly I need to tear them limp from limp with my bullets.
(Story Spoilers)
also; anyone seen a crutch lying around anywhere? I found everything else for the rail spike gun, but can't locate a damned crutch
Edit: Foomy, check out empty vaults and anywhere with a "classroom" type setting. Crutches litter classrooms I've noticed, for some reason. Bethesda must have gotten hurt a lot as school children.
How close am I?
grim and frostbitten kingdoms. goozex referral. steam.
Check raider bases and such. I found few in the
There are still a couple of twists and turns left.
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The amount of ammo you come across is god damn ridiculous. You'll have ammo in every orifice of your being. Even if you think you don't have ammo issues, you can sell this shit easily.
You have brought me such joy.
grim and frostbitten kingdoms. goozex referral. steam.
I always felt like I had ammo issues when I was playing.
But what do you mean by 530lbs of ammo? None of it has any weight.
He's got so much weightless ammo, it weighs 530lbs.... that's a LOT of ammo.
Played em before?
(no plot spoilers, just game mechanics)
Also, I launched an ICBM, but I don't know what it did :P
I made it up to about level 6, mostly doing sidequests. I was always out of ammo. My character had nothing for combat skills, either, so I started over, using the [strike]trash cannon[/strike] Rock-it Launcher instead, and I'm doing a fair bit better this time.
Took out some unfortunate Chinese vault dweller.
Nope. I was but a youngster when they came out. I've been playing all kinds of old stuff. Working my way through Deus Ex at the moment.
Cool stuff. Play em in order and remember to save in multiple slots.