Spoiler Warning S5E3: I Have High Science

By Mumbles Posted Friday Apr 8, 2011

Filed under: Spoiler Warning 149 comments


Link (YouTube)

I’ve made about four characters in Fallout: New Vegas so far and each time they’ve had exactly the same build. There’s a lot of really awesome quests in this game that frankly get more interesting if you have high science and so I never want to give that particular skill up. I also can’t run a game without high speech, since I think being able to worm your way out of a bad situation is a lot more gratifying than only knowing how to solve problems with bullets. It goes without saying that by association, my S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats were Charisma and Intelligence (with a little luck thrown in) since they not only pertain to the skills of my choosing, but I’ve always found them more useful than any of the others. The point is, every time I went to make a fresh character I just couldn’t live without those skills. The only differences were who I sided with and if I decided to be a cannibal or not with that particular character.

Oh, who am I kidding. There’s nothing like asking Boone to wait for a second while I eat someone’s liver raw. Cannibalism, I will never quit you.

This is the part where you say “Yeah, well you know, that’s just, like, your opinion, man” instead of starting a flame war about superior builds. The great thing about these games is everyone can play them differently and find a comfort zone that fits them personally. I’m sure there are even some of you who liked to play drastically different characters for the full Fallout experience and that’s awesome, too!

Unless you put all your points into Barter. Seriously, man. What are you thinking?

 


From The Archives:
 

149 thoughts on “Spoiler Warning S5E3: I Have High Science

  1. Chambers says:

    Hey, Mumbles! Be nice to the Barterers! You can be mean to everyone else, but NOT THE BARTERERS!

    Also, I’m smelly!

    1. Mumbles says:

      8|

      iwillmurderyouinyoursleepyeomaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaann

    2. Daemian Lucifer says:

      Oh,we still are doing this?

      I wonder if there is a mod to add yeoman chambers into new vegas.

      1. X2-Eliah says:

        Probably one of the nude mods does that.

        1. Sydney says:

          [claws at face]

          1. Irridium says:

            I’m actually having trouble choosing between either nude mods, or the standard horrors that are the NPC’s.

            Hm…

            1. roll-a-die says:

              All I shall say, is, welcome to fallmart, please accept our complementary gray t-shirt and boxers, in every size from Infant to XXL.

              1. PurePareidolia says:

                Or in this case, child and adult only because everyone in Fallout has the same body type

    3. Raygereio says:

      Why don’t you shower then? o_O

  2. X2-Eliah says:

    I’ve got the same problem, I am simply not able to pick different builds unless I really force myself. For example, in NV I always take high luck, and high int.
    Likewise, I’ll always pick 1 gun skill, repair, and science (or even 1 gun skill, repair and lockpick).

    I just can’t deviate from that. That’s probably the reason why I don’t really consider a game’s length from [playthrough length] x [playthrough count]; imo a game length is defined strictly by [playthrough length].

    1. Jarenth says:

      I… also kind of have this problem. ‘Replayability’ has never registered as a thing for me.

      1. theLameBrain says:

        Heh.
        That is so different from my mileage!
        I played 10 to 20 hours easy before I ever finished Primm.

        I made hundreds of characters, trying out every skill combination I could think of, then thinking of another and having to build it RIGHT THEN.

        I am now thouroughly sick of the opening of this game, although I love the game itself.

      2. Ramsus says:

        Yeah I’m like this too.

        My builds are always high Int, high agility, charisma is the dump stat (how original!), medium everything else, skills: lockpick, science, speech, and then when leveling pump up guns to match pace. Because…yeah…it doesn’t matter how low your charisma is when you have tons of skill points in speech. It does matter how low your agility, strength, or endurance is even if you have maxed out other stuff.

        1. krellen says:

          I started a game with a high-charisma talky (not fighty) character specifically planning to have a posse like I did in Fallout 2, and was so disappointed to find out I could only have one companion.

          1. Daemian Lucifer says:

            Technically,the robots count as companions as well,so its 2.Besides,if you were able to go with 2 or more of them,thered be no need for you to ever draw your weapon.

            1. Jarenth says:

              This was, of course, one of the joys of Fallout 2: standing by and twiddling your thumbs while your gang of roving murderers friends took care of everything.

            2. krellen says:

              My plan was to never draw my weapon. So that would have been perfect.

        2. Sleeping Dragon says:

          The problem I have with this kind of flexibility is that, in my opinion, a smart and/or smooth (ideally both) character typically gets to experience more of the game. Sure, I may have it harder in the combat part but I will get the dialogues, info and background that a combat oriented character would never see at all. I can see the appeal of playing a “no questions asked” mercenary or even a thug to dumb to even think of question in a pen and paper RPG but in computer games I find it lacking. I’m the kind of player who diligently explores every dialogue option and reads the codex entries though ;)

          Also, I really, really don’t buy into replaying games most of the time. It took the SW ME2 season for me to reinstall it and finally do the renegade run, and only because I didn’t want to have the Lair spoiled.

  3. Jjkaybomb says:

    I loved having high science in this game, I had about 70 or 80 by the time I got to vegas. When the robot stopped me for the toll, I made it reboot and it let me into the city, no payment.

    Speech can do crazy stuff like that sometimes too. Always fun to talk your way out of everything.

  4. Deadpool says:

    Interestingly enough, Barter was the best skill in Fallout 1. At high enough levels, you could sell things for more money than you bought. And the inventory limit on weight wasn’t implemented during barter, so I could go to the gun runners and buy their ENTIRE INVENTORY with about a dozen Stimpacks and Super Stimpacks and a half hour to kill. Couldn’t pick anything up after that, but I had every weapon, armor and ammo in the game, so who cares…

    1. McLokast says:

      Or my favorite, trading 1 Stimpak for 2 Stimpaks…

      Yeah Barter was kinda broken.

    2. Someone says:

      In New Vegas, Barter is mainly useful as a substitute/addition to speech, as it also can usually be applied to reach a non-violent solution and get out of a hairy situation (unlike speech, said solution usually involves a monetary exchange of some sort). Oftentimes both skills can be used in the same conversation, sometimes only one of them. I consider it to be mainly “second speech”, getting stuff cheap is just a nice bonus.

      1. Kojiro says:

        Actually, there’s one more use for Barter: Pack Rat. Half the weight of all items with weight two or less. That includes ammo in Hardcore mode. You can carry so much more ammo and food with it.

  5. Bentusi16 says:

    Barter, Survivalism, Energy weapons

    For the masochist in all of us.

    1. Kavonde says:

      …That was actually my first playthrough’s build. On Hardcore.

      I am having an easier time with Speech/Guns/Repair, though.

    2. PurePareidolia says:

      More like barter, survival, explosives: I’m doing an energy weapons build and after taking down the fiends, and going through the Repconn HQ I had no shortage of guns and ammo.

  6. Nyctef says:

    Whee! New episode!

    BTW, what’s the name of the credits music this time?

    1. 8th_Pacifist says:

      I would also like to know this.

    2. bucaneer says:

      No idea what it’s called, but I’ll join the crowd in saying that the credits are awesome, just like they were for FO3 (I never got tired of watching Reginald presenting the surprise gift to Three Dog).

      1. Bobby Archer says:

        Reginald Cuftbert is just the giving type.

        Give ’till it hurts!

        (or blows someone up)

      2. Sekundaari says:

        My personal favorite was killing the Behemoth with a Fat Man at the GNR plaza. Because of Reginald’s first shot knocking out and flipping a paladin like a baseball flips Charlie Brown.

      3. Gantidae says:

        Yes, the credits this time around are superb. Best music so far, and Josh is getting much better in his production.

        1. BenD says:

          But we need changing credit taglines. We neeeeeeed them.

          1. krellen says:

            I would expect new titles no more often than once per recording session, so every four-five episodes.

    3. McNutcase says:

      Cold Funk. Filed under Calming, Grooving, Relaxed.

      1. Nyctef says:

        Great, thanks :)

      2. Adam says:

        More like “Ice Cold Funka Cola”

  7. Starwars says:

    Barter is a lot more fun in this game than any of the previous Fallouts because it’s used fairly frequently in conversations. Hell, you can talk down one of the final bosses with it. That was awesome.
    I don’t really have a problem with creating different builds in a game such as this. Whenever I play, I always make up a character concept before-hand and then try to play according to that. One of my favorite was a real asshole Tribal like build with melee weapons, survival and a mixture of some of the other skills.

    Also, Energy Weapons got a serious boost with the big patch that came out, they are really pretty powerful.
    I think the way hacking works is that you can’t skip that little “intro” sequence when you have a computer whenever you shut down a terminal and open it again. It actually made me learn how to do the hacking game proper, using the brackets and all that stuff. Plus, they changed it in New Vegas so the higher Science skill you have, the fewer entries you’ll have to choose from in the mini-game.

    About the Powder Gangers, there is a store at the NCRCF as well. So in that sense, it could actually be a benefit to help the Gangers take over Goodsprings since you keep Chet as a store as well as have access to the one at NCRCF. But really, it is of little consequence.

    Victor is so weird in the beginning there. I’ve replayed the game a few times and I’ve only gotten that conversation once and I’m not even sure what triggers it. Is it perhaps if you drop below a certain amount of HP or something?

    1. acronix says:

      Actually, Fallout 3 already had that: the more science you had, the less entries you had to check. If you had, say, 100 science, easy terminals would have just 6 or so entries, and at least 5 bracket things. The “bonus” was neglibile for Hard terminals, though.

    2. Someone says:

      Actually, siding with the gangers makes perfect sense for an evil, selfish character. An angry psychopath will simply want to mess stuff up and gain instant gratification by killing those weaker and taking all their stuff, which is also why the gangers themselves don’t concern themselves with hiding – standing in plain sight of the future victims and intimidating them is a part of their macho cult-of-strength convict posture.

      For a character who is actually looking ahead, the town is of no consequence, as he/she is unlikely to return there and simply sees it as a one-off opportunity to obtain some supplies and valuables for the rest of the journey, at the expense of the townsfolk.

      It only doesn’t make sense for the metagaming player, as he expects to kill all the nearby bandits and monsters, and repeatedly haul the trophies back to the shop to build up some cash. And even then, only if the player is not aware that the shop will stay open.

      1. Even says:

        More like it makes sense only for a sociopath. They could have made the questline so much more satisfying if there was an option to bargain with either side, like coerce the townsfolk into giving the guy up or intimidating the Gangers to back off. Or just make them pay for your services. Currently it’s just a ridiculously Mass Effect-esque binary choice, complementary with poorly motivated Paragon/Jerkass options. The worst thing is when the Gangers offer you jackshit for what is basically just mindless murder.

        I just can’t play evil if it doesn’t make any sense.

        1. Someone says:

          Sure, the gangers don’t bring out a huge bag-o-swag to your feet to have your pick of the litter, but you are still free to take anything you want (even though the items are marked as owned, I don’t think taking them triggers retaliatory action, as all the owners are dead).

          Although, come to think of it, it is kind of a bummer that you can’t talk anyone out of fighting.

    3. PurePareidolia says:

      Same, once I figured out hacking I kind of like it.

  8. Daemian Lucifer says:

    Well its not like that store has any real money.You cant even sell a single gun there later on.

    Whats that about computers?Was that in a patch or something?I never had the trouble of accessing the computer immediately after exiting.

    “Hes violating that dog.I should go tell him about scale itch.”

    And yay!Planting explosives action!Oh,and dont forget the fridge.

    Energy weapons arent that bad.They have nice crits.But nothing beats melee build.

    1. acronix says:

      I think they mean what Starwars up there mentioned: you have to eat the “accessing terminal” screen, in which a bunch of admin code is written, for half a minute before being able to do the minigame again. If you wait 30 seconds, you can skip it as normal.

      1. Daemian Lucifer says:

        Oh thaaaat.Meh,it wasnt that much of a hassle.

  9. Dante says:

    I liked Mumbles sighing at the end because of Ruts’ OCD spelling fetish

    1. some random dood says:

      Um, that wasn’t a spelling OCD – just Ruts had a chance to get a BEEEEEEES reference in there again….

    2. Someone says:

      Wasn’t Rutskarn the one who brought up how there is no “O” in “ammunitiOn” and therefore the “ammo” abbreviation doesn’t make sense, in one of the Bioshock episodes?

  10. acronix says:

    I always keep barter at 30-40, ussually, so if I see something nice on the vendors I can get it for a reasonable price. My first character, though, got it all up to 80, and since I got the eventual in-dialogue barter check, I didn`t feel like wasting my points.

    On later playthrough, though, I just got speech, a weapon and lockpick/science.

    EDIT: BWAHAHAHA! “Reasonable price” with 40 barter…I`m so funny!

  11. Vect says:

    My primary build was Speech, Guns and Science. I got Barter, Medicine and Lockpicking up as much as I can (the former two for the speech check perks more than anything) and had at least 80 Speech by the time I got to the Gates to the strip.

    I tend to be anal about how I do these games. Normally I always prefer playing Mages/Glass Cannons because it just seems so much more satisfying to play those than regular warriors. Roleplaying-wise, I just generally try to play a character who at least wasn’t a total asshole and generally a decent person though is selfish/greedy enough to try and maximize personal profit if it’s relatively harmless (that’s why my character Cereza got her Barter skill up).

    Also, the Victor thing seemed to trigger because in early levels, he’ll come as backup. It’s normally supposed to be out in the wastes, but well… Victor’s not a guy who understands timing.

  12. Grag says:

    I stopped collecting books about an hour or two in, it was just getting too unwieldy. If there’d been more mojave express dropboxes I might have kept it up, but it just got to be too much work.

    The only thing I’m collecting are parts for that stupid food processor.

    1. Daemian Lucifer says:

      I rigged that one with repair.I need no steenking parts!

      1. Grag says:

        misread that for a moment as “stinking pants”

        Oh the joys of changing diapers…

        1. Daemian Lucifer says:

          Hey,Im not Rutskarn!

          1. Sekundaari says:

            OK, we believe you.

  13. Entropy says:

    Science, Small Guns, and Speech. All the way. Sneak for the 4th one you do when you max out the rest.

    Also for my stats I tend to go with below-average Str, decent Per, Great Int, and NO luck.

    I never found any problem with lethality. Except I couldn’t get some of the more fun luck based perks.

  14. Raygereio says:

    You know; I really wanted to take Shamus aside there at the beginning of the episode and ask him “How many seasons of Spoiler Warning did you do with Josh behind the wheel? Do you honestly think there will be anyone alive besides Reginald after he’s done?” ;)

    Also did anyone else threw his or her hands in the air in joy and shouted “The Glorious Mutton Chop is back!” when Reginald stuffed a piece of dynamite with a life fuse in someone’s pockets without them noticing? Anyone?

    1. Sekundaari says:

      I merely stared at the screen intensely, forcing it to zoom in on me and halting the passage of outside time. But the thought was there.

  15. wtrmute says:

    Usually I go for Speech, Lockpicking and Energy Weapons. I’ve always found so many damn Guns And Ammo magazines that I never felt the need to waste a tag on that skill. I haven’t played NV yet, but I guess that when I do I’ll have to look up whether lasers truly are as bad as you all say.

  16. HeroOfHyla says:

    Well now I want to play this. Before, I had decided to avoid it because it didn’t seem like it would be different enough from FO3 to justify the purchase.

    1. Grag says:

      This LP may force me to get back on that whole “finishing the game” business. I had planned on going through HL2 more tonight (Yeah I’m late to the party on that one)

  17. NonEuclideanCat says:

    I collected teddy bears on my Fallout 3 playthrough. All of them, even the enormous one that spawned inside a wall. Then I went to the small, spare room in my Megaton house and unloaded them all. Individually. I had to keep the door closed unless I was depositing more bears because having so many objects in one place made my 360 chug HARD.

  18. Sekundaari says:

    For me in Fallout 3, Small Guns, Repair and Speech. Awesome PER, AG and LU, mid-high STR, a weakish endurance and ugly as hell. And 5 or 6 INT would be enough to max pretty much whatever skill I wanted by level 20, with no pure skill perks other than Comprehension. Did they give you less skill points in this game?

    By the way, the Bug Guy in Fallout 3, AntAgonizer (no really), was actually a bug gal. It would have been cool to be able to take over her role and position as an ant leader. It would be cool if Reginald could do the same here.

    I enjoyed Josh’s anger at the suggestion he might actually not kill the gang the helped to take over the town. Also the pants exploding, of course!

    1. Starwars says:

      I *think* they reduced the number of skill points you get per level in New Vegas. What I do know is that they definitely reduced the impact that INT has upon the number of skill-points per level.

      1. Piflik says:

        Yeah…in the original Fallout games it was 2*Int+5 to determine the number of skillpoints per level, in Fallout 3 it was Int+10 and in New Vegas it is 0.5*Int+5…Int has less and less influence on the character…

        1. Ringwraith says:

          Although the drop from 2 to 3 was also due to the fact that skills could no longer go above 100, so less skill points were needed as it would be far too easy to max them all out if the skill point calculation carried over into 3.
          Although that still didn’t quite work hence the rebalance by dropping it again in New Vegas.

          1. Kanodin says:

            If I recall correctly, weren’t there seriously diminishing returns on raising a skill past 100 though?

        2. Sleeping Dragon says:

          I can sort of understand it from the design perspective. In FO3 a character who started with high int (and possibly read a few books along the way) could easily max all, or at the very least most/all relevant, skills. This heavily promoted certain builds over others and consequently limited the fun of replaying the game.

  19. Michael says:

    Please tell me that Josh gets to the top of the ridge, slaughters the lizards, kills the guy’s ladyfriend, and returns to tell him nothing happened. Or somehow demands payment out of him.

    Such a classic Cuftbert move.

    Or, maybe, for a change of pace, kills the guy, too.

    1. Piflik says:

      Killing the girl is somewhat difficult…just sayinig…

      1. Daemian Lucifer says:

        Reginald can still do it.

    2. krellen says:

      That’s actually more or less how the quest is scripted, yes.

      1. Michael says:

        Wow, really? I just said that because it sounds like the type of thing Josh would make Cuftbert do. I haven’t actually played this game, yet.

        I guess this means I’m Nostradamus?

        1. Daemian Lucifer says:

          Or just genre savvy.

        2. RejjeN says:

          You will see, you will see :)

        3. PurePareidolia says:

          No, Nostradamus’s predictions were vague, inaccurate and only ‘worked’ after the fact. You called it pretty well ahead of time, so I’d say you’re doing better then him actually.

    3. Someone says:

      I’m looking forward to the gang trying to figure out what all the cards and the balls are about.

  20. Nick says:

    So, I guess I was the only person to enjoy the hacking minigame and detest the lockpicking one?

    1. McNutcase says:

      I look at the lockpicking minigame and think “Wow, this is SO MUCH better than Oblivion!”

      See, Oblivion had this crazy idea that the lockpicking skill of the character should depend on the lockpicking skill of the player. The Fallout games in the same engine have a lockpicking minigame which is actually solvable with virtually no skill, which is how a minigame should be. I bought this game to shoot dudes in the face and stuff explosives down their pants, not to play minigames!

      1. Someone says:

        Oblivion had this crazy idea that the lockpicking skill of the character should depend on whether or no the character has the Skeleton Key.

        1. Gale says:

          Oblivion had this crazy idea that the lockpicking skill of the character should depend on whether the player has made an Unlock Very Hard Lock spell yet.

      2. Ringwraith says:

        Although the auto-attempt button meant you could just simply throw lockpicks at the problem.

        Also, each grade of lock got significantly easier once you had passed the milestone for each one (25 Easy, 50 Normal, and so on), and not just in the form of the milestone perks.

    2. Tizzy says:

      Am I the only one to despise mini-games? I mean, you’re already playing a GAME to begin with, why would you need to play a game within that game? Especially since you’re playing a game which is already LONG even without the mini-games!

      In an RPG, I think all mini-games should be optional: you either do a skill check OR play the mini-game. You can even give a chance for the player to use the mini-game when they wouldn’t be able to pass by skill alone.

      But mini-games is NOT why I play RPG’s, and I’d really like to understand why everyone seems to be jumping on that particular bandwagon.

  21. James says:

    i allways have speech as a dump stat and allwyas have good strength cus i love to carry tonnes of loot, and defiantly useful for hardcore mode where ammo has weight, i too crit stack alot, being able to one shot on a sneak attack critical is brilliant. oh and my tag skills are always the same.
    Small Guns (Guns in NV)
    Lockpick
    Science.

    i will shoot hack and pick my way through and god help them if they get in Boone’s or Veronica’s or Cass’s way.

    anyone else find the Van Graff’s a total motherfucking whore to kill, they’ve all got pucking plasma weapons and high condition combat armor and boss level health, DAM THEM TO HELL, i had to order Cass to hide because they just kept killing her it was very annoying

    1. Daemian Lucifer says:

      About that spoiler part,I had no problem because we were in closed quarters,and I had MA HAMMA!I usually am all for the range,but new vegas made me love getting close and personal soooo much.

    2. Dumbledorito says:

      I think I had to plant a ton of detonators around the place in key positions in order to have a chance at winning that encounter. Even then, there was a lot of trial and error between where I could stand in relative safety vs. being able to take down enough mooks and boss health to make it out alive.

      1. Archaic says:

        I agree with the planting explosives approach to that particular part of the game i tried to fight them with guns and energy weapons and they proved to have to much health for me to make any difference in any individual persons health. although along with the explosives a stealth boy seemed to help as well if only as a way to become instantly hidden if things went south.

    3. BenD says:

      Stay outside. Shoot the guard (preferably sneak crit to the head so he’s down for good). Wait a few seconds, then kill things that present themselves for killing. When it seems to be over, go in and do the hard part, which is now easier. (Easier yet with an Atomic Cocktail)

  22. Jarenth says:

    Wow. Only three episodes in and we’re already up to Season 2-level hilarity. This is shaping up to be an excellent season.

    1. X2-Eliah says:

      Agreed. Ramp up the crazies!

      1. PurePareidolia says:

        To Black Mountain!

        1. Daemian Lucifer says:

          Humans need to learn TO STAY AWAY!from the black mountain.

    2. Sekundaari says:

      It is looking good already, but whoa, hey, let’s not be hasty now. Instead, I’m thinking of making a list… of crazy.

      Acrobatics – check
      Exploding pants – check
      Pissing off allies – check
      Angering an entire town – check
      Consuming enormous amounts of food in the blink of an eye – check
      Killing a bunch of super mutants in close combat with nothing but grenades (or possibly a tire iron), V.A.T.S. and a whiteout – V.A.T.S. nerf may have made this impossible
      Stealing a baby carefully while saying Yoink!
      Being drunk’n’drugged
      Suffering from multiple withdrawals
      Needless nuclear explosions; crippling oneself with them
      Stealth-killing multiple people with a flame sword while making loud yells
      Donning a summer bonnet

      And probably a bunch of other stuff I didn’t list, feel free to continue.

      1. bucaneer says:

        The current look of Reginald Cuftbert (hopefully) is, in a proud old tradition of sequels, the darker and edgier version of FO3 classic, with a cowboy hat instead of a summer bonnet. Though like most proud old traditions of sequels, it must die.

        Continuing the list:
        Bug magnet – check
        Stealing/pickpocketing stuff from NPCs in broad daylight – check
        Walking around with 10% health, annoying OCD viewers

        1. Sekundaari says:

          I noticed there is a bonnet in New Vegas too, so that one is an easy accomplishment.

          Striking a Tesla Coil in wrath
          Not sleeping, but waiting 72 hours straight, standing still
          Monologizing a rant at an NPC before murdering them
          Wearing an NPC’s murdered friend’s stuff around them – check?
          Winning a simulation

          1. Jarenth says:

            The season is still young, of course.

  23. GiantRaven says:

    With the hacking there was also a third option. In the jumble of characters between the password choices, if you could find an enclosed set of brackets it was possible to select it and either remove a dud choice or get your allowance of guesses replenished. No need to quit the computer when you only have one guess remaining.

    1. Daemian Lucifer says:

      Sure,but sometimes you screw up even the second three attempts,plus hunting the brackets can get annoying.

  24. McNutcase says:

    I now want to play this game solely so I can accept the girlfriend-gecko quest, hit the respec, and come back to the guy as a completely different person.

    “Here’s your girlfriend, buddy!”
    “Uh… weren’t you, like, a guy before?”
    “Nuh-uh, you must be mistaken.”
    “No, I’m sure of it, you were like this totally buff guy with a beard that looked like you’d glued a badger to your chin.”
    “You’re crazy. I’ve always been an eagle-eyed skinny chick with magenta hair…”

    1. bucaneer says:

      This gives me an idea. Is there any mod that would let you change your appearance to Admiral Ackbar’s?

  25. Halfling says:

    No idea why. But I think Josh might be turning into the video game version of Plinkett. His rage is starting to sound more and more like him.

    1. Irridium says:

      And yet I see this as a good thing.

      1. Halfling says:

        Indeed it is.

  26. B.J. says:

    I’m a lot like you Shamus, ever since I figured out the “perfect” build in Fallout 2, I used it in all of my successive playthroughs.

    I found Fallout 3 and New Vegas to be more flexible since Tag skills don’t matter as much and its possible to max just about everything anyway.

    1. Someone says:

      Shamus? Don’t you mean Mumbles?

      1. RejjeN says:

        Can’t believe people are STILL confusing the posters xD

      2. krellen says:

        Just remember, Batman is the girl.

        Relevant.

  27. Gantidae says:

    In every Fallout game I’ve always gone high INT. Being smart has so many more benefits to it than anything else. Low CHA though. I never cared about more companions in the first two, (Drink?) and in the latter games it makes no difference whatsoever except on some of your starting skills. Which can easily be shored up using the extra skill points from high INT.

    1. Michael says:

      Please no, if I start playing the drinking game to the comments as well, I’d never make it out of this season.

      I’m pretty sure I would have had alcohol poisoning to the point of blindness several times last season on the episodes alone.

      Aside, I completely agree with you. High INT gives you so many more skill points, which you can use to increase the variety of ways you can kill people. There are even some conversation options based on INT that kill people.

      CHA never did that for me. “Stupid Sexy Fallout.”

  28. Kavonde says:

    I know Mumbles was just trollin’, but Barter in this game is a fairly legitimate substitute for Speech. In most situations where you can use Speech to threaten or cajole someone, you can use Barter as well to convince them that their current path is not economically viable because you will shoot them.

    1. Jeff says:

      Not to mention that, on Hardcore, Barter is the prereq for the perks that increase your carrying capacity. The one that halves the weight of stuff under 1 pound makes a huge difference when you start having ammo stockpiles.

  29. Kdansky says:

    And because there is too much shooting in all current RPGs (except in those where there is too much stabbing and burning), I made this:

    http://blown-to-bits.blogspot.com/

    Yes, shameless advertising for my own program, which I published yesterday. I am such a bad person.

    1. krellen says:

      All this talk of shooting and stabbing has made me long for a good old game where you could neither die nor kill people, Loom.

      1. Mumbles says:

        Arrgg ask me about Loom!

        1. krellen says:

          Tell me about Loom, Mumbles.

          1. Mumbles says:

            You mean the latest masterpiece of fantasy storytelling from LucasFilm’s(TM) Brian Moriarty(TM)? Why it’s an extraordinary adventure with an interface of magic, stunning, high-resolution, 3D landscapes, sophisticated score and musical sound effects. Not to mention the detailed animation and special effects, elegant point ‘n’ click control of characters, objects and magical spells.

            Beat the rush! Go out and buy Loom(TM) today!

            1. Shamus says:

              Geeze what an obvious sales pitch.

              1. Falcon says:

                Sorry, but on some topics I just get carried away.

            2. krellen says:

              I love the part where Brian Moriarty trademarked his own name.

        2. Will says:

          I’m Bobbin. Are you my mother?

      2. Irridium says:

        Wasn’t that an old Lucasarts game?

        And yes everyone, Lucasarts used to make games other than star wars. Made some damn good ones at that.

        1. krellen says:

          Yes, back when they were Lucasfilm Games.

          Loom.

          The ability to acquire Loom on Steam is sorely trying my stance against Steam.

          1. Daemian Lucifer says:

            Come on,you know you want it.Join us,join the collective.Resistance is futile when such games are on the line.Become one of us.One of us…..

            1. Falcon says:

              I too resisted the siren’s call of Steam for a long time myself. Alas I am also a cheap bastard and so one fateful day a sale arrived, one which promised gaming Nirvana for a small pittance. I converted that morning and have since been glad to proclaim it’s virtues.

              A.K.A great game selection, and the sales are incredible. $64 for Rome: TW, Medieval 2:TW, Empire, Napoleon AND Shogun 2 on release day?! YES PLEASE!

    2. Someone says:

      Must…Resist…Plugging…Blog!

  30. Mailbox says:

    It did feel like you were encouraged more to make different character builds in this game compared to the previous. It seemed balanced enough that the idea of a “perfect build” was not worth the trouble.
    That being said.

    I can’t escape from making characters with 9 in Intelligence. I need those skill points. Like wise I never go below 5 in Strength and my first three perks are always Confirmed Batch/Black Widow, Educated, and Comprehension. Other than that my characters are pretty different.

    What’s wrong with Barter!?! I can’t live with myself if my character doesn’t have over 50,000 caps on hand. I exercise the full extent of this games economy and it PAYS off. Zing! Getting the barter dialogue options, I always go for extorting more money out of the deal.

    I collected pre-war money and Nuka-Cola in Fallout 3. Did the same in New Vegas, but my new item compulsion were Bottles of Sarsaparilla and all the items required to make repair kits.

    Yeah, go save that girlfriend. *snicker* *cough* *wink* *nudge nudge*

    1. Daemian Lucifer says:

      Barter is useless because at about half the game youll be owning every shopkeeper in the land,and still wont be able to sell all your junk.Plus,youll already have everything that is worth,so thered be nothing worth to buy.Not even implants,because youll have all of those as well.

      Sunset sarsaparilla was the only thing I chugged whenever I got my hands on one.Yeah,gimme those starred caps!

      1. Mailbox says:

        You can always buy and sell from The GunRunners. I’m always buying up all the ammo. I like having 2k+ 40-75 govt ammo. People say that ammo is rare… but you can always get 70-90 rounds from GR and 200-400 rounds from the quarter master in the Dam.
        But my original statement was I like having caps I must have as many as possible. So barter is important to me.

        Yeah I only did that on the first character for the quest.

  31. Fat Tony says:

    Hey does anyone else want Redginald “Out West” Cuffbert to constantly have a cowboy hat rather than a floppy bonnet?

    1. PurePareidolia says:

      Ideally it should be both, but I’m not sure where the Chinese Stealth armour is in this game.

      1. Someone says:

        Believe it or not, it’s somewhere in Hoover Dam!

    2. Irridium says:

      Problem is that its impossible to repair the Desperado hat with other hats, but you can use the Desperado to repair other hats.

      This is so stupid its, well, stupid. Its so easy to fix. Hell, even I was able to fix it in a relatively short amount of time(about 10 minutes or so). Just add more hats to the thing’s repair list and BAM!, Desperado hat can now be repaired with other hats.

      1. Even says:

        Jury Rigging always helps. It’s still a shame that you can only get the perk with 90 points in Repair. By the time you can get the perk you’re probably wearing something else anyway.

  32. kreek says:

    i would like to go on record as saying

    energy weapons USED to suck compared to guns in fo:nv
    but then they got an ammo buff that fixed that

  33. potemkin.hr says:

    Come on, who needs barter when you have sneak and lockpick :P

  34. brashieel says:

    Exploding pants. This is the Spoiler Warning I know and love.

    1. PurePareidolia says:

      I hope exploding pants becomes part of the drinking game.

      1. Daemian Lucifer says:

        You want people to die from alcohol poisoning?

        1. Michael says:

          There’s someone in the comments above that wants to apply the drinking game rules to the comments as well.

          How’s THAT for alcohol poisoning?

  35. John Magnum says:

    I just thought I’d mention that Bethsoft actually didn’t make the engine. The engine used for Morrowind, Oblivion, Fallout 3, and New Vegas is Gamebryo, which Bethsoft licensed from Numerical Design Limited.

    But yes, Bethesda published New Vegas, and Obsidian used buttloads of assets from Fallout 3.

  36. Lisa says:

    I’m a science/lock-pick/sneak kinda girl. I tried (in Fallout 3) to make a tank kinda character, and tried a few builds in between, but I love the “hide in the shadows, kill stealthily and pick every lock (and computer!) around” type of game-play. I guess I see lock-picking and hacking as the same thing with different technologies.

    Now I just wish I could play a “bad” character, but it seems it’s not in me. Which is bizarre given how much I enjoy “kill everyone” game-play in other games…

  37. GTRichey says:

    Barter has one amazing use in this game during one quest there’s a barter check of 85 or so (maybe higher, I can’t remember) and you have an opportunity to get the Mysterious Magnum (which is exactly what it sounds like) This alone makes barter worth it for a guns build in my opinion.

  38. f0nz13 says:

    Ah collecting in Fallout 3! I collected every single coffee mug in the game I found. It was glorious. Every time I entered my house in megaton, every room exploded in a buggy shower of cuppage!

  39. Xanyr says:

    And so Josh’s quest to depopulate New Vegas continues

Thanks for joining the discussion. Be nice, don't post angry, and enjoy yourself. This is supposed to be fun. Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked*

You can enclose spoilers in <strike> tags like so:
<strike>Darth Vader is Luke's father!</strike>

You can make things italics like this:
Can you imagine having Darth Vader as your <i>father</i>?

You can make things bold like this:
I'm <b>very</b> glad Darth Vader isn't my father.

You can make links like this:
I'm reading about <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darth_Vader">Darth Vader</a> on Wikipedia!

You can quote someone like this:
Darth Vader said <blockquote>Luke, I am your father.</blockquote>

Leave a Reply to McNutcase Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.