Fallout 3

[Quillan]

STOP! THIEF!

Ok, a little background on this: On my second playthrough, I've been mainly exploring areas I didn't go my first time. One on of my early exploration trips into the DC ruins, I came out of a metro station into a battle between a couple of Brotherhood of Steel guys and some super mutants. After the fight was over, I talked to them, and it opened a minor quest involving rescuing a lost BoS initiate. The Brotherhood leader here was Paladin Hoss. Well, later on, I returned home from one of my exploration trips loaded down with loot to sell. Since I arrived just after midnight, I went home to my shack, used the infirmary inside to fully heal/derad, and decided to sleep until just before 8 AM to pass the time.

When I woke up, I ran down the stairs, and I would swear I saw someone in power armor running out of my shack. I hurried out, and sure enough, there was Paladin Hoss running away. I followed him and caught up to him, but he wouldn't stop and wouldn't talk. I forgot to take screenshots, so I shrugged it off and went on to Craterside Supply to sell. Moira wasn't there, and I figured the game had glitched and failed to spawn her, so I reloaded a save I had from just before I returned home, and redid everything. Since I was redoing it, I redid everything the exact same way to see if the Paladin would reappear. Sure enough, he did.

I got ahead of him and took another screenshot before he hit the gate. Again, he wouldn't talk. It wasn't until I was reformatting the screenshots that I noticed what he was carrying:


This bastard stole my alien blaster! It was in the locker opposite the door! I was keeping this for later in the game, once I had a good energy weapons skill. Now I'm going to have to go back where I found Paladin Hoss and see if I can find him again. THIEF!

Different subject: I wanted to show a rather graphic indicator of what the Repair skill can do for you. This is my character at the current time. My usual gear is a Chinese assault rifle, combat armor, and a combat helmet.


Here's a screen from my PIPBoy. Pay attention to my DR and the stats of the weapon.


I've only got a 95 repair (90 base plus 5 from the utility jumpsuit) and the combat armor is 32 DR plus 5 DR from the helmet. The weapon damage is 48 repaired to this level and 100 small guns. For other loot, I basically use repair to "compress" loot into smaller but more valuable packages. Instead of having to drag back 10 different suits of armor that each are worth around 15 caps, I turn those into 3 different suits of armor each worth about 150 caps. The only things I have problems keeping at this level of repair are the rarer weapons like the .44 magnum and the sniper rifle, where I don't find that many of them to use for parts.

Finally, if you really want to stock up, check out these. I was stunned at what I found while exploring:


This is

Spoiler:

the National Guard Depot

This wasn't the only area inside with this level of gear either. I found at least 10 combat helmets, 4 suits of combat armor, a half dozen 10mm SMGs, 8-10 assault rifles, a couple of 10mm pistols, a sniper rifle, a missile launcher with plenty of ammo, and the minigun in the place.

[FrostyBoy]

Is it a bit hard to get inside there? If not, seems a little strange that no one ever found it.

[Quillan]

It's not terribly hard to get inside, though there's a bunker in the back that requires a password to open and the password isn't there. And people have found it, because I've found references to it at other sites. The thing is, it's just out of the way. It doesn't lie along any of the routes you'd take going to or from quests, so you have to wander to find it. The area I took the screenshots does require you to go all the way through the entire area to find the switch that opens the armory, but I found a firing range and smaller armory on the way through there had had almost as much gear.

If you really want to find something wierd, go find the Republic of Dave, or the crashed alien ship.

[Felch]

Anybody been to Canterbury Commons yet? Kind of a funny quest there.

I haven't found the Republic of Dave yet. Although it is on my list of things to look for. It's always amazing just how much of the map I haven't explored.

[Main_Brain]

Originally posted by Heraclitus
Is there a maximum level and how high is it? Do monsters respawn? (linked to previous question) Is monster strenght dependant on your level (like Oblivion), [oh god please no]? Is there a romance sidequest?

I think the max Level is 20, Monsters dont respawn (indoors?)
Monster Strength seems to be: More far away from Vault 101= Harder
Romance? I once a girl but her father was the Overseer

[Heraclitus]

Originally posted by Main_Brain

Monster Strength seems to be: More far away from Vault 101= Harder

Pheww.... I prefer this mechanic, to how it worked in Oblivion.

[Heraclitus]

Originally posted by Main_Brain

Romance? I once a girl but her father was the Overseer

[ColdWizard]

Originally posted by N35t0r
Is the demo (is there a demo?) representative?

There is no demo.

[Heraclitus]

I hope a strong modding community arises, this game has so much potential if someone used the engine and setting and crafted a deep story.

[Grandpa Troll]

Is this real hard to pick up?

Just curious, is this online or can it be played single player?

Also, is there a strategy guiide with it?

(I would want this PC, as opposed to console)

Is saving easy? (as oppossed to having to be at the start of a chapter)

Thanks

GT

[Felch]

Grandpa,

It's an easy game, easier for me than Oblivion, and the difficulty is adjustable mid-game.

It's strictly single-player.

There is a strategy guide. It's a thick beast, but I'd recommend not getting it, since lots of the fun comes from wandering and seeing cool stuff.

It's out for the PC.

Saving is very easy. It can be set to autosave at various triggers (sleeping, entering buildings, that sort of thing), and you can even save in mid-combat.

There aren't any chapters as such. There's a main quest with about ten chunks to it, probably another dozen or so minor quests, and then tons of little weird things in the world to discover.

[Grandpa Troll]

Thanks Felch

I guess the strategy guide came to mind if maybe you had to go "to old warehouse, second doorway turn right and look under a desk" sort of hidden item that you might not find otherwise.

I may end up getting this as have enjoyed what I have heard so far

GT

[Felch]

Originally posted by Grandpa Troll
Thanks Felch

I guess the strategy guide came to mind if maybe you had to go "to old warehouse, second doorway turn right and look under a desk" sort of hidden item that you might not find otherwise.

I may end up getting this as have enjoyed what I have heard so far

GT

The finding things quests aren't usually that bad. There's an in-game radar thing that leads you to most quest objectives. Sometimes you have to uncover clues, but even if you get stuck there's always something else to do.

[Quillan]

There are a few items that you'd likely need a strategy guide to find (like all the Keller family transcripts or the full collection of bobbleheads) but these aren't related to any of the important quests. Besides, if you're trying to find any of those rare items and get stumped, there are sites online that'll tell you where they are, so no need to get the strategy guide. Felch is absolutely correct, it's a lot of fun just wandering and seeing what you run across.

Here's the latest oddity I encountered last night: I'd gone well outside out of the DC ruins to investigate a map note that I'd picked up from something I read. Since I learned that the metro tunnels in DC often are your only way around, I explore the tunnels at every metro station. This map note was one of the metro stations out in the wasteland. It turned out to be inhabited by raiders. I kept killing and exploring, and found a set of utility tunnels connected to it. In the utility tunnels I ran across a named guy; he was hostile so I killed him, but when I accessed his computer it turned out he was a scientist type hiding inside this group of raiders. He'd had this idea of trying to make mole rat meat edible. Apparently it's always been edible, but disgusting and bad tasting, and he's been trying to work out something that would make it better.

Well, he succeeded. According to his notes, a combination of mole rat meat and wonderglue, left in a metal box, produced a tasty and beneficial jerky, and he was planning on setting up shop in one of the city ruins to get rich selling this stuff. I thought the backstory was neat enough, but on a table in the room was a "Mole Rat Wondermeat maker", which you could use. Combine 1 Mole Rat Meat and 1 Wonderglue in it, and you get 1 Mole Rat Wondermeat in return. Mole Rat Meat is +2 rad/+5 health, Wondermeat is +2 rad/+20 health. The only problem is the meatmaker isn't portable, and there were no schematics for it.

[Grandpa Troll]

Originally posted by Quillan
There are a few items that you'd likely need a strategy guide to find (like all the Keller family transcripts or the full collection of bobbleheads) but these aren't related to any of the important quests. Besides, if you're trying to find any of those rare items and get stumped, there are sites online that'll tell you where they are, so no need to get the strategy guide. Felch is absolutely correct, it's a lot of fun just wandering and seeing what you run across.

Here's the latest oddity I encountered last night: I'd gone well outside out of the DC ruins to investigate a map note that I'd picked up from something I read. Since I learned that the metro tunnels in DC often are your only way around, I explore the tunnels at every metro station. This map note was one of the metro stations out in the wasteland. It turned out to be inhabited by raiders. I kept killing and exploring, and found a set of utility tunnels connected to it. In the utility tunnels I ran across a named guy; he was hostile so I killed him, but when I accessed his computer it turned out he was a scientist type hiding inside this group of raiders. He'd had this idea of trying to make mole rat meat edible. Apparently it's always been edible, but disgusting and bad tasting, and he's been trying to work out something that would make it better.

Well, he succeeded. According to his notes, a combination of mole rat meat and wonderglue, left in a metal box, produced a tasty and beneficial jerky, and he was planning on setting up shop in one of the city ruins to get rich selling this stuff. I thought the backstory was neat enough, but on a table in the room was a "Mole Rat Wondermeat maker", which you could use. Combine 1 Mole Rat Meat and 1 Wonderglue in it, and you get 1 Mole Rat Wondermeat in return. Mole Rat Meat is +2 rad/+5 health, Wondermeat is +2 rad/+20 health. The only problem is the meatmaker isn't portable, and there were no schematics for it.

Sounds pretty cool

So just curious, how can one determine if a person is hostile, like I mean if I see 3-5 figures from a distance, should I take 'em out or is there a way before they engage me for me to be sure