Fallout 3 Impressions

Tscott · Post by **Tscott** » Sun Aug 30, 2009 5:21 pm

I just ran across mention of a pacifist character on the fallout 3 wiki. I had to check it out to see- but felt they cheated because they picked up a companion to do some of the stuff like clearing out the Jefferson Memorial. If you're curious you can find it at the bottom of this page: http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/User:Dcruze" target="_blank - Contains many spoilers obviously.

Kyosho · Post by **Kyosho** » Sun Aug 30, 2009 7:00 pm

Ah, interesting. His goal seemed to just be the main quest and finishing it as quickly as possible. Also, like you said, he kinda cheats by letting the companion do the killing. But still, it gave me stuff to think about. Thanks for posting that.

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Sun Aug 30, 2009 10:25 pm

His method didn't seem so much playing a pacifist character as playing a character that arranges for everyone to die without pulling the trigger himself. I'd think that if I wanted to play pacifist I'd go all out into speech and sneak, followed by medicine, barter, and science. You can talk your way through a lot of the quests, and sneak past a lot of the monsters. Medicine to help you survive, barter because without killing, you'd end up with less to sell, and would want to make it count. Science because either that or lockpicking is fairly necessary, but science also lets you disable turrets. I would indeed go for the stealth armor (I won't mention, per request, where it is, but I will say that it is in a DLC.)

Perks that might be useful:
~Intense training (stats are good)
~child at heart (more dialog options = more non-violent options)
~comprehension (maybe - without weapon skills to worry about, skill points would be plentiful)
~toughness
~fortune finder (this character build would be the only one I'd take FF with, again because of the lack of loot)
~animal friend (fewer enemies!)
~Nerd rage!
~Life giver
~Silent running
~Fast metabolism
~Chemist

The ghoul mask would be invaluable, but I don't know of any way to get it unless you were willing to allow other peoples' deaths because of your actions.

Of course, if you were roleplaying a pacifist rather than trying for the 'no kills' challenge, you would have a much easier time. Roaches, hostile beasts, feral ghouls, robots, and so forth would all be fair game, as they aren't what most would consider 'people'.

Octavious · Post by **Octavious** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 1:49 pm

Just finished the main quest in The Pitt. It was okay but the whole entire thing seemed kind of silly. I'm a slave but then I can wander into this area and load up on a billion weapons and then wander around with them? WTF.. I doubt I'll ever replay that one again but I don't regret buying it. I may pick up the space one but I'm still mulling over it in my head. It just doesn't seem to fit to the rest of the game...

Octavious · Post by **Octavious** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 1:27 pm

So I'm at level 10 now and I'm just amazed at how much stuff I missed during the first play through. I would say 90 percent of the stuff I've done so far is stuff I missed. And that's after spending 30 hours playing the first time around. I think this might be my fav. game of all time at this point. I'm playing without a single mod and loving it to death. (360 so it's not a option)

One thing I adore is the whole booby traps. In Oblivion they weren't a big deal in this one it can mean instant death. I was wandering around in DC and hit a trip wire and was thinking in my head "did I just hit a tripwire? What's the banging noise?" Then boom my legs are gone.

Little Raven · Post by **Little Raven** » Wed Sep 02, 2009 10:31 am

Ok, I haven't played this game in almost a year....yesterday I bought all the DLC and started a new character. (didn't really have a choice about that...I'm guessing one of the patches invalidated my old saves?)

Installed a few mods: A better female body; Better Living Through Chems; and my own level-reducer/weight balancer. I'm ready to go!

Any suggestions on what level range I should be when I hit the various DLC adventures?

Tscott · Post by **Tscott** » Wed Sep 02, 2009 11:59 am

Little Raven wrote:Ok, I haven't played this game in almost a year....yesterday I bought all the DLC and started a new character. (didn't really have a choice about that...I'm guessing one of the patches invalidated my old saves?)

If you're logged onto LIVE now and weren't before, they just moved the default location of your save file. (Why? I don't know!) You can move saves from "My Documents\My Games\Fallout 3" to "My Documents\My Games\Fallout 3\User Name" and they should work. Or you can move stuff from wherever LIVE has it (searching for *.esm files may be the easiest way to find these folders) to the DATA directory where Fallout 3 is installed (the *.BIK files go to DATA\VIDEO) and not run it using LIVE at all. If you want more details, you can check out this thread where I went through the same thing (with more swearing).

Little Raven · Post by **Little Raven** » Wed Sep 02, 2009 12:02 pm

Oh....that's nice to know. I was wondering why my previous character had vanished so completely. And yes, I had never logged into LIVE before.

I'd planned on starting over all along, but it's nice to know I can resurrect the past if I so desire. Thanks, TScott!

Grifman · Post by **Grifman** » Wed Sep 02, 2009 12:12 pm

Octavious230 wrote:I would say 90 percent of the stuff I've done so far is stuff I missed. And that's after spending 30 hours playing the first time around.

If you played only 30 hours of Fallout 3 the first time through, no wonder. There's easily 75 or 100 hours in this game.

ali3nSXaddict · Post by **ali3nSXaddict** » Thu Sep 03, 2009 12:29 am

For those on consoles (sorry, I realise this is a pc folder....) what should one do - or not do - to level more slowly?

Tscott · Post by **Tscott** » Thu Sep 03, 2009 2:52 am

ali3nSXaddict wrote:For those on consoles (sorry, I realise this is a pc folder....) what should one do - or not do - to level more slowly?

You can avoid those little repeatable quests that some NPCs will give you: like gathering scrap metal for the guy in megaton. Those give you a bit of experience for each item you turn in, so don't.

A lot of locked stuff will have two ways to open them. One by lock picking, one by hacking. Only do one or the other- otherwise you'll get XP for doing both.

Get a high sneak score to travel the wastelands in (relative) peace. Use stealth boys for added sneakiness.

Obviously avoid the perks "Fast Learner" and "Here and Now". And don't sleep in your own bed- you'll get a 10% XP "well rested" bonus for the next 8 hours.

Perks to take: "Animal Friend" will avoid fights with certain wasteland critters. "Robotics Expert" will let you disable hostel robots for no XP (note: you can attack after they're disabled, if you want to loot and get the XP after all). "Silent Running" while it doesn't directly affect XP, you'll be able to move faster and still avoid fights while sneaking. Also, there's a spoilerish item that will let you avoid fighting feral ghouls if you side with the (non-feral) ghouls in a certain quest.

Finally, getting a good companion will help, since you won't get XP for any enemy they kill on their own.

For what it's worth, I don't mind the speed at which the game levels up. You don't have to do all of the above, but if you use some of those ideas, you'll be better able to control how fast you level.

I should note that all the sneaking AND a companion don't always mix. You may have to choose between the two. Also, you can always look for ways to kill indirectly: a few shots into a broken down car nearby can sometimes end a battle spectacularly and without XP if you never directly shot your foe.

Octavious · Post by **Octavious** » Fri Sep 04, 2009 8:58 am

I made sure to not take the perks that would make you level faster but otherwise I don't avoid anything and I have no problems with the leveling speed. I'm playing on Normal difficulty I think if you crank it up you will level faster as you get more xp. The game is hard enough on Normal IMHO.

Tscott · Post by **Tscott** » Sat Sep 05, 2009 12:13 am

86 hours in, and I'm done.

Whew. Fallout 3 may become my favorite game ever. This is my 4th time through (the 3rd time finishing the main quest) and I'm still having a blast. This time I did all the DLC for the first time, as I have stated before. Plus I did some new (to me) quests and a few favorites (I rarely can turn Moira down, because the Survival Guide is such a great way to level up early on).

To reiterate some of my thoughts: Op: Anchorage, The Pitt and Mothership Zeta are all ok additions to the game, but not that essential. They're like the Dunwich Building, Fort Constantine, Grayditch, or Old Olney. Fun to encounter (or not) while out in the wastelands, but not missed if you choose to do other stuff instead. One complaint about all of them is they tend to be overwhelming (and unbalancing) with the loot- especially Mothership Zeta. I finished that one with over FOUR THOUSAND ammo for the alien weapons- and I used the alien weapons throughout that entire area. Plus all the Adapted Biogel and Alien Epoxy meant that I pretty much didn't have to worry about healing or repair for the rest of the game.

On the other hand, I loved the loot in Point Lookout. The lever action rifle was my go to gun for most of the game after I got it. That area was fun to just explore and the main quest was interesting and surprising. I think I've still got at least 33%-50% of that area that I missed and will have to come back to someday.

Then there's Broken Steel, which I just finished the main quest about a half hour ago. If I had any complaint about vanilla Fallout 3, it was the ending. With Broken Steel, I feel I finally got the ending this game deserved. If I have any complaint here, it's that there is no middle ground between the standard enemies and the new "leveled" enemies from Broken Steel. Once you reach level 25 or so, you're taking care of Super Mutant Masters, Giant Radscorpions, Feral Ghouls with no problem. Then comes along a Super Mutant Overlord, Albino Radscorpion or Feral Ghoul Reaver and it's like the game switched your weapon for the BB Gun and didn't tell you. It would've been nice to have maybe a level in between the "basic" and the "ultra-tough". But I did develop tactics to handle them all, and once I finally got to Fawlkes (just as I hit level 30) he was a huge help in tackling those foes (I was companionless through most the game before then).

To restate what I have said before, if you've got FO3 already and don't want to mess with LIVE and don't want to rebuy the game when the GOTY Ed comes out just to get the extra stuff, just get the second Add-on Pack with Point Lookout and Broken Steel. They both add a lot to the game and in the case of Broken Steel, finally give it an all right ending (and lets you keep on playing afterwards if you wish).

Kyosho · Post by **Kyosho** » Sat Sep 05, 2009 5:46 am

Tscott wrote:Then there's Broken Steel, which I just finished the main quest about a half hour ago. If I had any complaint about vanilla Fallout 3, it was the ending. With Broken Steel, I feel I finally got the ending this game deserved.

Alright, I think I'm finally sold. Raising the level cap, or the ability to continue playing could be (perhaps poorly) implemented via mods. But having a proper ending to the game, that's significant.

As far as Point Lookout, without really spoiling anything, how do you get to the place? You can't just wander there, right? You have to actually go looking for it? I still haven't explored the entirety of the vanilla game world so I wouldn't want to stumble onto a DLC location without realizing it.

Stuie · Post by **Stuie** » Sat Sep 05, 2009 6:56 am

Kyosho wrote:
Tscott wrote:Then there's Broken Steel, which I just finished the main quest about a half hour ago. If I had any complaint about vanilla Fallout 3, it was the ending. With Broken Steel, I feel I finally got the ending this game deserved.
Alright, I think I'm finally sold. Raising the level cap, or the ability to continue playing could be (perhaps poorly) implemented via mods. But having a proper ending to the game, that's significant.

As far as Point Lookout, without really spoiling anything, how do you get to the place? You can't just wander there, right? You have to actually go looking for it? I still haven't explored the entirety of the vanilla game world so I wouldn't want to stumble onto a DLC location without realizing it.

Once you install the Point Lookout DLC, you will have a quest that points you in the right direction.

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Sat Sep 05, 2009 8:14 am

What mods let you raise the lvl cap or continue after the 'end' ? I dont have any of the DLCs.

Octavious · Post by **Octavious** » Sat Sep 05, 2009 9:05 am

Broken Steel raises the level cap. If you're only going to get one get that one. If you're only going to get two get Point Lookout and Broken Steel. IMHO of course.

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Sat Sep 05, 2009 10:25 am

Tell me of some essential mods if Im starting over and going evil. Id like some new textures, sounds, weapons, quests, and more than anything a good companion mod. theres so many companions out there I have no idea which to get. The only 2 things Ive grabbed so far are the 1.7 patch and a mod that allows companions to relax with different idle animations.

EDIT: and they need to work without any of the DLCs

Lee · Post by **Lee** » Tue Sep 08, 2009 1:06 am

I don't remember if this may have been answered or not previously.

What's the secret to picking up mines? I crouch and walk up to one keeping the crosshairs on it. Sometimes it lets me defuse it, sometimes it blows up. I can't move any slower. I can' figure out what the secret is.

Tscott · Post by **Tscott** » Tue Sep 08, 2009 1:21 am

Lee wrote:I don't remember if this may have been answered or not previously.

What's the secret to picking up mines? I crouch and walk up to one keeping the crosshairs on it. Sometimes it lets me defuse it, sometimes it blows up. I can't move any slower. I can' figure out what the secret is.

Hit "E" quickly. Or whatever you have use/pick up mapped to. The higher your explosives skill is, I believe, the longer time you're given to hit "E" to deactivate. Also make sure you're only walking up to one mine at a time. If you accidentally set off two at the same time, you may get the one you're after and not realize the other is about to explode. I usually hit "E" 4 or 5 times in a row, just in case my mouse slipped off the mine for a split second.

Tscott · Post by **Tscott** » Tue Sep 08, 2009 12:19 pm

Lee wrote:I can't move any slower. I can' figure out what the secret is.

I think I just figured out what your problem is. It's not about how slow you approach it, it's going to activate whenever you reach a certain radius from it. You should hear a beep and see a light flashing, and you'll know you tripped it. I'll often run right on top of the mine, full speed, and quickly press "E". You get the same time to deactivate it whether you're jumping up and down on it, or slowly and carefully creeping in cloaked with a stealth boy.

Anyway, how sick am I? After finishing the game with all the DLC, I've started up a new one. Evil, melee, heavy weapons. Been relying on the Rock-It Launcher through my early levels (those baseball pitching traps are great for getting ammo) and just made my first Deathclaw Gauntlet and Shishkebab. I'm currently trying to make sure Moira gets to Underworld ok (going to crush her book writing dreams as soon as she gets there), but she's making it tough as she's walking through downtown DC in broad daylight and the Supermutants are out in force.

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Tue Sep 08, 2009 1:19 pm

Im replaying evil this time too. Im going small guns for pistol like the 223 and energy weps because I found an amazing mod that changes laser beams to look WOW.

Tscott · Post by **Tscott** » Tue Sep 08, 2009 3:18 pm

Daehawk wrote:Im replaying evil this time too. Im going small guns for pistol like the 223 and energy weps because I found an amazing mod that changes laser beams to look WOW.

I've been playing almost pure vanilla FO3 for all this time, but those pics you posted in the mods thread almost got me to head down that road...

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Tue Sep 08, 2009 4:09 pm

Lol. My first time through was vanilla. I figure since I dont own any DLC I might as well mod it. I think I have 78 mods installed. I should take more pics.

Kyosho · Post by **Kyosho** » Wed Sep 09, 2009 1:18 am

I've been trying to get back into this but I just can't seem to. I really want to play one of the characters I started before. It was my secondary, evil character. She's about 30 hours in. But, somehow it feels weird going back to it. I kind of want to start her over but I don't know.

I had a blast with my "good" character, but this other one was so much more fun. Evil, sadistic bitch, pretty much. With something of a soft spot for kids. Hah. I had this whole screwed up backstory for her. Wrote an AAR of sorts on another forum. It uh...wasn't appropriate for this forum. Haha. She only used knives. No other melee weapons. Just knives, for that up close and personal heart-to-heart. A little bit of explosives thrown in for those "oh shit" situations. Ended up getting a certain female companion (you probably know the one) that just fit so perfectly with this character.

Role-playing really is the key to enjoying this game. It can be so awesome.

Oh, and that pacifist character I tried last week (or whenever that was) just wasn't any fun for me.

Tampa_Gamer · Post by **Tampa_Gamer** » Wed Sep 09, 2009 8:15 pm

Going to install a bunch of mods later this week and give this one another go. The only DLC I am interest in is the Point Lookout and Broken Steel. I see it on Amazon for $19. Is the cheapest route? With the GOTY edition coming out soon, is this anticipated to drop pricewise?

Grifman · Post by **Grifman** » Thu Sep 10, 2009 6:39 am

Tampa_Gamer wrote:Going to install a bunch of mods later this week and give this one another go. The only DLC I am interest in is the Point Lookout and Broken Steel. I see it on Amazon for $19. Is the cheapest route? With the GOTY edition coming out soon, is this anticipated to drop pricewise?

Who knows? I can't predict the future, can you?

I'm certain there will be a price drop but who knows when? You'll just have to take your chances like the rest of us.

Tscott · Post by **Tscott** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 1:22 am

My current character relaxes for a moment in her evil lair:

Kyosho · Post by **Kyosho** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 3:11 am

Haha, that is awesome.

So yeah, I actually have started playing this again. That pacifiist character being a complete wash, of course. I couldn't bring myself to go back to my old characters and started a new one. My first character was good, my second pure evil, and this one is kind of neutral. I remember Pete Hines and Todd Howard saying that there was a lot of stuff for more "grey" characters in this game than you'd normally find in other games, and I'm pleasantly surprised. My character's status floats right around neutral, sometimes going into evil, sometimes (though rarely) getting into the good side. Then I'll do something that flips it back the other way. And yet, it is all in character for the type of character I'm playing. All the really interesting quests seem to have three major options, with some additional stuff. Good, Evil, and shades of "grey."

I'm playing a character who is very intelligent and logical but also fairly emotional in reactions. Female, really high speech stat and all the speech type perks. Also by having a main focus on melee and action points, my agility and strength are high. They've actually come up as additional conversation options a lot more often than I would have thought. Even just in Megaton, I've found a lot of different ways of doing various things that I didn't even know were there before. In fact, I thought I knew of every way you could deal with the bomb situation, but I was wrong.

It blows my mind how much stuff Bethesda put into this game that 75% of the people who bought it will never see, or in some cases, never even know is there.

I think my biggest complaint on this playthrough is the leveling speed. I know it's a common complaint, one I had myself on my previous characters, but this time it just seems insanely fast. It's because I know where most locations and NPCs are. While I'm still doing the quests differently, I'm doing them faster. Which results in faster experience and much faster leveling. I forget what level I am, around 10ish I think, and I really haven't put that many hours in. I know that's to be expected when you already know a game. But It seems more extreme than it should be. I'll probably have to get a leveling mod again. Problem is, I've discovered that the game is a lot more unstable on my system with the patches applied, so I have been playing unpatched. I'm not sure many leveling mods still exist for the unpatched game. I'm also not sure I'll ever be able to play the DLC due to this. Suckage.

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 1:08 pm

Oh lord I collected teddy bears my first play through. It was ugly.

Brian · Post by **Brian** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 4:42 pm

Daehawk wrote:Oh lord I collected teddy bears my first play through. It was ugly.

I collected them on my 2nd play through. Had hundreds of the little ones and three or four of the bigger ones. Finding the teddy bear assembly line really added to my bear count.

Tscott · Post by **Tscott** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 7:07 pm

My first playthrough, the teddy bears were ammo for the Rock-It Launcher. Then they were basically ignored. My last play through they were ignored until I got a repeatable quest from The Pitt. This time, whenever I find one I keep it and drop it off when I get home. Except for the ones from the assembly line, one of my first stops. Those 20 or so teddy bears sat in a mailbox in Springvale, until I got my penthouse apartment.

I was just looking at the wiki, and saw the larger bears listed. Don't think I've ever collected any of them. I've got some exploring to do.

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 7:55 pm

I think I found 3 large bears my play through.

Well I installed KOTOR 2 the other day and haven't touched FO3 since. KOTOR 2 has me around it's finger. And I just got the dancing girl outfit for my now evil leaning jedi handmaiden mwahahaha

Kyosho · Post by **Kyosho** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 8:11 pm

My psycho/evil character collected mutilated torsos and limbs and stuff from super mutant gore bags. After killing the super mutants, she also would put a bullet in the head of any captives they'd had. Figuring that they'd seen their friends eaten/ripped apart, etc. and was doing them a favor.

My new character collects shot glasses.

Tscott · Post by **Tscott** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 9:22 pm

Kyosho wrote:My new character collects shot glasses.

Coffee mugs are my character's other obsession.

They're the ammo of choice for the Rock-It Launcher. They're plentiful, easy to spot after shooting and don't roll away like baseballs and pool balls do.

Two Sheds · Post by **Two Sheds** » Tue Sep 22, 2009 11:07 am

Well, I burned out again. Go through the main game and all the DLCs, and then a little ways into Broken Steel before I just lost interest. Uninstalled. I don't think I'll be going back, but I'm not disappointed--I got a lot of gaming time out of FO3 and I had a lot of fun while I was there.

Mr Bismarck · Post by **Mr Bismarck** » Tue Sep 22, 2009 12:11 pm

Fallout 3 sociopath.

An attempt to kill, (almost), absolutely everyone in the game.

Kyosho · Post by **Kyosho** » Tue Sep 22, 2009 1:56 pm

Awesome, thanks for linking that. I've often considered playing through in that manner. In fact, I consider trying it every time I play an open-world game, but never do it. It's been a great read so far. Looking forward to further installments of it.

Stuie · Post by **Stuie** » Tue Sep 22, 2009 2:10 pm

Kyosho wrote:After killing the super mutants, she also would put a bullet in the head of any captives they'd had. Figuring that they'd seen their friends eaten/ripped apart, etc. and was doing them a favor.

On my evil playthrough, I would free them, count to three, and then hunt them down.

Two Sheds wrote:Well, I burned out again. Go through the main game and all the DLCs, and then a little ways into Broken Steel before I just lost interest. Uninstalled. I don't think I'll be going back, but I'm not disappointed--I got a lot of gaming time out of FO3 and I had a lot of fun while I was there.

I thought I was done, too, but then I installed the Wanderers Edition mod. New life breathed into the game yet again!

Mr Bismarck · Post by **Mr Bismarck** » Tue Sep 22, 2009 2:31 pm

The Wanderers is hard. I spend much of my life right on the border of radiation sickness, (whereas in the vanilla I'd be healthy all the time), finding sources of clean(ish) water consumes me and when three Talons show up to have a word with me there's not much heroism to be found, usually I just make liberal use of the sprint button and make a run for it.

At least with FWE melee has become a real option for me - taking the perk that lets me keep my weapon ready while I sprint, then charging a target to hack with the officer sword as I go by is a beautiful thing.