Fallout 3

[Imran Siddiqui]

Have played like 5-6 hours and have just finished up in Megaton. Yep, I'm taking my time and stuff like talking to the old woman in Megaton about the history of the town is stuff I love in an RPG.

Absolutely love the game so far.

[snoopy369]

Originally posted by Quillan
Well, assuming you disarm the bomb in Megaton, you'll be given a house there. If you blow it up, I assume you'll be given a suite in Tenpenny Towers. Aside from that, since indoor locations don't respawn, you can drop them inside the Super-Duper Mart after you've cleaned it out.

What about the houses around the Minefield - are those what you call 'indoor locations'?

[Solver]

Random containers tend to respawn and aren't safe. The only really safe containers are in your house.

[Quillan]

Originally posted by snoopy369


What about the houses around the Minefield - are those what you call 'indoor locations'?

If you drop the stuff on the floor, yes. I went back in the Super Duper Mart and the Tepid Sewers at least 2 games weeks after I'd cleared them, and no mobs had respawned. In fact, all the bodies were still lying where they were before. The containers were still empty. I can't promise that if you put something in those containers it won't vanish.

I finished the game last night. I waited until I was level 18 before I made any significant effort to follow the main quest, and was level 20 before I went really deep into it, and there's still tons of stuff out there I haven't seen or done. I decided to post a couple of screenshots.

Here's my character right after I got to wear power armor. This isn't the standard power armor, it's the Prototype Medic Armor I found while exploring. This stuff talks to you; it's rather unnerving at first, because it's extremely gung-ho and will shout in your ear.


Solver, this one is for you. An up close and personal shot of a deathclaw. Of course, it's dead and in a research tank, but it'll still give you an idea:


And finally, here's an old Fallout staple:

[Solver]

That Deathclaw looks unfriendly. And I also have a new pest to hate now, last night I ran into some bear-like creature with a Chinese-like name, Yao something.

I've had some Iguana on a Stick, too... though I do remember from Fallout 1 how certain merchants, uh, acquire the meat.

[Main_Brain]

Wow, you have alot of Ammo =)

[Quillan]

That comes from three things, Main_Brain:

1) I had a good repair skill, so I did most of my own repairing, and saved money that way.

2) I used the money I saved to buy ammo every time it was available.

3) I used a variety of different weapons (that used different ammo) for various situations. Towards the end, I was carrying a hunting rifle for general combat in open lands (.32), a Chinese assault rifle for up close (5.56 mm), a SMG for up close with lesser foes (10 mm), a scoped .44 Magnum (.44) for close sniping, a sniper rifle (named variant later) for longer range sniping or the really tough foes (.308), a Fat Man (mini-nukes), a dart gun (darts), a railway rifle (rail spikes), and loads of shotgun shells and energy cells for when I picked up one of those weapons.

[Felch]

Repair is critical in this. I haven't found any towns that will bring your gear much above 50%, so if you really want to get bang for your bullets you need that skill maxed early. I worked on it in my game and had Small Guns at 100 by level 7, and Repair at 100 by 8. That makes all the difference.

Save money by not repairing, and return to town with more valuable loot because you're repairing in the field. Even Raider armor becomes worth picking up if you can bring it to 100%.

[Alinestra Covelia]

You can only repair something by scavenging something else that's similar, right?

My roommate is using Combat Shotgun but he's finding it hard to repair it because he doesn't find many other Combat Shotguns in the area.

I have one question too - they say I can learn how to use the Power Armor from somebody in the Lab. Is the Lab a separate map location? I tried looking around the GNR station for it but couldn't find it.

[snoopy369]

I think the Lab is the steel folks to the west? Not entirely sure.

Combat Shotgun gets dropped by some Talon Mercs (you'll find plenty of them ) and some raiders in more high techie areas, in my experience (like west of Megaton).

[Alinestra Covelia]

So I found the Talon fortress and massacred all their top commanders. Does this mean the Talon merc attacks will stop? I've been playing for about half an hour afterwards and haven't seen any Talon mercs. (Though that may not be a representative amount of time.)



Also, I started up a running gag about how my roommate should kill Amata (the girl in the Vault who befriends you). This came about in his first runthrough when he killed the people in the Vault who were attacking him, but then unintentionally killed the Overseer. Amata got mad at my roommate and told him off.

I said he would have to kill her. He said no. Then he came up with various arguments, over the course of the next few days, why he shouldn't. Likewise I came up with various arguments why he should.

Roommate: She's nice and innocent. Why should I kill her?

Me: You butchered her father in front of her eyes. She's going to come after you and try to kill you.

RM: I want her to sleep with me. I need her alive for that.

Me: No you don't. In fact she'd probably be MORE likely to give her consent dead than alive.

RM: I've already killed too many Vault dwellers.

Me: And she's the only remaining witness! Quick, cover it up! It's not too late to blame it on faulty electric wiring!

RM: It's my XBox, you know.

Me: Yes, and playtesters have found that leaving her alive can lead to the RROD. We can't take the risk of bricking your XBox. Let me help.

etc.

[Quillan]

The "lab" is inside the Brotherhood of Steel headquarters. I'm not going to say anything more than you must progress farther through the main quest before you can gain access to it, so wearing power armor has to wait for a while.

As to repairing, yes, you'd need another combat shotgun to repair it. I can't say that better weapons drop later in the game; unlike Oblivion it seems more due to location than to your level. The farther afield you go, the more advanced the weaponry seems to become. In the immediate area of Megaton, the raiders usually have pistols and hunting rifles with the occasional assault rifle and SMG. As you go way off, they tend to have more combat shotguns and assault rifles.

The super mutants tend to have better weapons than the raiders do. The brotherhood and the outcasts always have good weaponry, and if you go far enough to start running into Enclave soldiers they almost all have lasers and plasma weapons.

Also, many similar items can be used to repair. For example, normal combat armor, Talon combat armor, and Ranger combat armor can all be used to repair each other. Power armor and outcast power armor (as well as that prototype medic armor I had) are interchangeable parts, but enclave power armor isn't, and enclave power armor won't work to repair Tesla armor either.

[Main_Brain]

I did not even know you could repair your Equipment yourself

[snoopy369]

I found a nice scene outside a train station, where Talon Mercs and several Super Mutants fought each other ... I took several kills where I got the last shot on a 2hp or less guy Hopefully I got experience from those - didn't pay attention at the time. Got a lot of nice equipment out of it. Definitely wish I could carry a bit more, but I can carry more than I used to now that I ditch my equipment at a house near the minefield (until I play enough to get my own house...)

[Solver]

I found Dogmeat. Saw him ambushed by some Raiders, fought em off and now he's with me. I wonder, is it a random thing or what? Did I accidentally stumble onto the location where he always is? I'd be surprised if so, it was pretty much in the middle of nowhere.