harhol:

Anton P. Nym:
For me it was blowing my money on ammo; I was shooting my way through the game, taking down every hostile even if I had to pursue, and with early skill levels it took a fair number of bullets to take each baddy down. Once I got Small Guns up a couple of notches and took the Scavenger perk (more ammo in caches) things got a lot easier financially.

I made sure to pimp Small Guns as much as I could. Granted it's something of a safe (boring?) option but I didn't know how difficult the game might get. I have 10 agility and I also took the perk which gives you Repair +5 and Small Guns + 5 three times, so by level four or five I'd effectively maxed it out. All my other skills except sneak and repair are diabolical though. Everyone hates me and I can't carry anything or use grenades/mines/medicine. An endurance stat of 2 ensures that I go green within a matter of seconds as well. The exploration is harder than the fighting!

Yeah, I see how that'd affect things.

I went big on the interpersonal stuff (Charisma 7, Perception 7, and Intelligence 8, paying for that by taking hits to Strength and Endurance) on the idea of making a noble peacemaker, but found the gunplay too tempting while actually playing. So my guns skill was in the 20s for much of my early play and my mediocre Agility wasn't enough to compensate.

It was fun roleplaying that though; I brought peace to the Wasteland, by words if I could or by bullets if I must. (But when I reached Speech 100 I really only had to shoot the insane or the irredemable baddies. I talked my way out of Andale without having to join 'em...)

-- Steve

Richard Groovy Pants:

fish food carl:
Damn, I'm so frustratingly stuck, I might cry. No matter which route I take, I can't find the station Chevy Chase North. I've gone into the tunnels between Farragut West and Friendship, so many times, but there is no tunnel, line or corridor! They just lead to each other! This is so fucking killing me!

Want me to make a video about it?
Where exactly do you want to go? Is this quest related?

I think he's still trying to find the GNR building to continue the main storyline... I wish I could give verbal directions, but truth be told I can't remember how I first got there, and every subsequent time I just fast-traveled.

-- Steve

I'VE LOST DOGMEAT!!!, i sent him to vault 101 but heres not there i even waited for him for ages. have i lost him for good?

FireFly90:
I'VE LOST DOGMEAT!!!, i sent him to vault 101 but heres not there i even waited for him for ages. have i lost him for good?

It takes a couple of days for him to show up... just keep adventuring, and you'll eventually get a pop-up telling you that Dogmeat is waiting for you.

Just in case, though, you might want to keep a game-save from just before you sent him away... I've heard unconfirmed chatter that Dogmeat can be killed by random encounters while trying to get back to Vault 101. I don't know that's true for certain, but it could be.

-- Steve

cheers steeve. just did a 24 hour wait and he's back

DeathQuaker:

Green-E66:

Eh, I decided that being a neutral/evil character was far more profitable, thus... =P Thanks for the help though. =D

Did you already do the Wasteland Survival Guide? Neutral, evil or no, it's a great questline (lots of neat goodies, plus the joy of Moira's dialogue), but Moira being alive (in some shape or form) is required.

Course there's always another playthru for that.

Already did it up to the last mission, at which point I told her to stop writing it for a snazzy perk. =D

fish food carl:
OK. Doesn't solve my problem though. I don't need to get to GNR but I want the quest, and I'm getting very pissed at the damn tunnel. Some guides online are nice and vague, pointing me in the completely wrong fucking direction.

Sorry, I can't remember exactly how to get there, but keep an eye out for little signs scrawled on the walls with an arrow and the Brotherhood of Steel sigil, those will send you in the right direction.

Burke is pretty cold hearted, after fighting some mercs I returned to Megaton only to realize that he was sending assassins while at the same time sending me letters.

I've already finished all the quests, beaten the game twice, and I'm on a third play. 47 of 50 achievements( 14n, 20n, and 50 speeches.)

I'm level 7 and have 60+ in Medicine (THIS IS A GODSEND), Repair, and Science (science is mostly useless, except for later levels it will let me get the Cyborg perk... my 3 lvls in Daddys boy and Gun Nut helped.

With my 9 Int i've also been able to put 4 pts a lvl into small guns so thats up to 50 now. I suppose i'll start upping energy weapons next.

And if you think Perception is useless I dunno what game your playing. Perception is the stat that lets you detect enemies with the little bar on the bottom of your screen, and lets you know when your in danger- go into stealth mode and look at the messages. You can know when an enemy is looking at you even if you can't see the thing, or if there are enemies behind that rock, or what direction enemies are in. Honestly I wish my perception was higher.

PS: my characters stats are 4 str, 7 perception, 4 end, 9 int, 5 cha, 6 luck (because I wanted Mysterious Stranger).

To find GNR select it as your main quest, the dotted line on your world map will lead you to the station outside of DC you have to go through. Just pick your way through it from there.
EDIT: WHups! Sorry for double post, didn't realize I had two windows open.

EDit: Rather then make a TRIPLE post there was more stuff I wanted to talk about. The game is good but the occasional quick and glitch is troubling (also the collision detection is shit, especially with bullets, don't even TRY to fire from cover). Also every enemy seems to have gone to some elite sniper training school where they learned to hit me behind cover acrossed a river with their Assault rifle.

My playthrough has been rather odd- I told on Mr. Burke to the sherrif, Mr. Burke spasmed a few times, fired his gun at the cieling (never went hostile) then followed the sheriff outside. Next thing I know Mr. Cowboy hat is dead. I then went on to diffuse the bomb. Now I know the Talon Mercenaries come after you after this, but actually I found THEM before they found me- I found their HQ at Fort Something Something in the south east and went through the place (it was pretty brutally difficult at the time) and escaped by the skin of my teeth- but having killed their commander, taken his stuff, and looted alot of weapons and ammo. I'm only lvl 7 but I am SWIMMING in laser pistol rounds and thanks to my high repair I was able to repair one up to almost 100% condition (along with all my other weapons I'm able to get copies of). Too bad it only does 6 dmg, but when i'm tramping around in Power Armor later i'll be glad to have it since Energy Weapons are influenced by perception, not agility.

I can't CONCIEVE of how this game might be with a pure melee character...

I'm kind of getting annoyed from being ambushed by Talon mercs so much. Don't you think they'd step back and think "Oh shit, this guy's killed like 50 of us, maybe we should stop fucking with him..." I'm sure they're losing a lot more than whatever the bounty on me is. But noooo, they just keep coming...
Oh well, at least I'm having no trouble repairing my combat armor...

TsunamiWombat:
I'm level 7 and have 60+ in Medicine (THIS IS A GODSEND), Repair, and Science (science is mostly useless, except for later levels it will let me get the Cyborg perk... my 3 lvls in Daddys boy and Gun Nut helped.

Man, I rushed getting Science maxxed so that I could hack more terminals... more out of curiosity than min-maxing, really. Reading the logs is part of the fun for me. (And turning enemies' turret defenses against them never gets old.)

With a 100 Science and a 98 Lockpick (which I can boost with Mentats) there ain't no place on the map I can't get into...

-- Steve

this game would have been better if it was multiplayer. even with 3 other players...that would have been so amazing.

oh and big guns were pretty useless

small arms were great at the start, and by the time you were done with them you needed plasma weapons. big weapons sound cool but plasma is way more useful

maybe if there were zombie horde rushes like in left 4 dead the flame thrower would be awesome...but nah

the ar21 (w/e) plasma rifle is pretty easy to get and it's the best weapon i ever found. not much stood up to me after that.

i did science and lockpicking because i wanted to get into places, too...but honestly, its not that useful. the stuff you can read with science off terminals is neat, kinda, but not really that useful at all. considering that 100 points into energy weapons would make you unstoppable...it's kind of unbalanced. there should be more to gain from it...at least better info or extra quests or something.

lockpicking is handy if you want to get rich. usually anything science terminals unlock can be unlocked with lockpicking (though it sometimes needs a little more lockingpicking than science)

melee weapons were nice since you could just bash endlessly unlike in fallout 1/2 (you had to use action points) i didn';t bother with unarmed.

medicine isn't that useful. its nice when your stim packs heal more...but you could just get lockpicking instead and end up with a lot more goodies. plus later on i hardly used med packs and i had like 60. the fact that you can instantly heal without needing vats points also made it cheeze.

barter wasn't that useful. if you were really that poor...just kill a shopkeeper when no one is around and steal all their stuff then sell it back to another shop keeper, lol.

speech was handy if you wanted to complete things the easy (non-combat) way. sometimes you could skip longer quests with it. but you didn't NEED it.

repair was pretty important if you ask me. doesn't seem like it until you realize how it works.

stealth sucked. i thought it was cool but things detect you too easily even with 100 stealth. bonus damage is nice but meh, by the time you have enough stealth to sneak up on things you could just kill them normally pretty easily. i never needed it...i only used it for fun here and there

i think speech, repair and small arms to start and plasma to end it. if i had extra points i might get lockpicking. and start with 9 int for sure (you can find a +1 int bobble head later), so you have extra skill points

actually...you get a laser gun pretty early on...you might be able to get away with start with plasma and avoiding melee/small/big all together. then you'd have extra points to put into something else. melee is useful at the start even at a low level...and small arms are worthless at the end so save your points. yeah.

repair is still nice but you could probably hold off until later when you start finding more/better stuff. you gotta be careful at the start...and just rob everything lol.

oh yeah, explosives are also useless. just sell those things for caps.

Anyone ever watch that Mentalist Show? I think I"ll make Patrick Jame, 10 intelligence, 10 perception, 10 luck, and 1 to strength, 1 to endurance and an 8 to agility.
This'll be fun...
Nerd Rage perk FTW

TsunamiWombat:

I can't CONCIEVE of how this game might be with a pure melee character...

Not that hard actually, I"m tearing everyone apart with the Fisto! and my Trusty Super Sledge
Also, anyone find the Ripper to be rather unsatisfying, I really figured it would be much better, but it really kinda sucks.

Aro2220:
this game would have been better if it was multiplayer. even with 3 other players...that would have been so amazing.

I'm not sure how great that would've been, it's an RPG and unless they expanded the world, it wouldn't be that much fun.

Also, anyone think Bethesda should stop making the Elder Scrolls MMO and start making a Fallout MMO? It could be set across the entire united states!
EDIT: Damn, Probation! Whatever, I wasn't eligible for the Morpheus Badge anyway, and at least it's not a ban!

could anyone else get stopped from fixing the robots at big town. I had to kill those super-mutants, and the idiot children got all gunned down. was well annoying.

TsunamiWombat:
(science is mostly useless, except for later levels it will let me get the Cyborg perk... my 3 lvls in Daddys boy and Gun Nut helped.

Not true. Science and Lockpick are the only "roadblock" skills in the game (the only ones that ever need to be at a given level to attempt to use them. They are the only must have skills, because every other skill is usable at any level.

And if you think Perception is useless I dunno what game your playing. Perception is the stat that lets you detect enemies with the little bar on the bottom of your screen, and lets you know when your in danger- go into stealth mode and look at the messages. You can know when an enemy is looking at you even if you can't see the thing, or if there are enemies behind that rock, or what direction enemies are in. Honestly I wish my perception was higher.

The difference is miniscule. It still won't show up anything behind you, and anything in front of you you can see anyway. The only other useful thing you get from Perception is extra points in Lockpick.

corporate_gamer:
could anyone else get stopped from fixing the robots at big town. I had to kill those super-mutants, and the idiot children got all gunned down. was well annoying.

Yeah, that's quite a common bug.

I just whipped up a minefield on the road they come in on and stood on the end of the bridge with a minigun. Makes short work of them.

GloatingSwine:

TsunamiWombat:
And if you think Perception is useless I dunno what game your playing. Perception is the stat that lets you detect enemies with the little bar on the bottom of your screen, and lets you know when your in danger- go into stealth mode and look at the messages. You can know when an enemy is looking at you even if you can't see the thing, or if there are enemies behind that rock, or what direction enemies are in. Honestly I wish my perception was higher.

The difference is miniscule. It still won't show up anything behind you, and anything in front of you you can see anyway. The only other useful thing you get from Perception is extra points in Lockpick.

Ah, but Perception will display targets that aren't in line-of-sight and who aren't audible over ambient noise. A high Perception came in really handy for me planning pop-out attacks while still maintaining surprise... I expect it'd be invaluable for someone playing a stealthy character.

-- Steve

Unless you're using it for a dump stat though (which since the game's official dump stat is Charisma, which has no effect beyond extra points in a couple of skills which can easilty be replaced by extra int and a couple of do-nothing perks, you probably won't need to), there's very little practical difference in what you'll get for 10 perception over 5.

Aro2220:
oh and big guns were pretty useless

small arms were great at the start, and by the time you were done with them you needed plasma weapons. big weapons sound cool but plasma is way more useful

maybe if there were zombie horde rushes like in left 4 dead the flame thrower would be awesome...but nah

the ar21 (w/e) plasma rifle is pretty easy to get and it's the best weapon i ever found. not much stood up to me after that.

What about the Xunlung rifle and Lincoln's Repeater? (Used with Small Guns, both.)

-- Alex

Lincoln's Repeater was the bomb. One of the most fun weapons in game, imo.

Have any of you with the collector's edition watched the "Making Of" DVD? It was pretty cool. I liked the part where Todd Howard was talking about the power outage and how walking around in the dark supermarket inspired the Super Duper Mart, very cool. And that crazy-awesome concept artist who did all the art for the book talking about "Mr. Cleaver emerging from the Vault, looking for some pipe tobacco", lol.

And I just had a pretty cool idea for some dlc or something - your character can become a ghoul! You gain immunity to radiation and all ghouls, even ferals, become friendly (I know there's already the ghoul mask). But your charisma basically drops to 0 and you have a much harder time dealing with normal people. Good idea or not? And maybe there could even be a quest of some sort involved, and maybe even some way to reverse it.