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Fallout New Vegas |OT| Obsidian does what Bethesdon't

EatChildren

Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
dream said:
Something good?

Compare the dialogue in New Vegas to the dialogue in Planescape Torment. The latter is just as wordy but they actually have interesting things to say and most of the characters you meet have unique voices. In contrast, the dialogue in New Vegas isn't interesting and it very seldom sets up things like motivation and character development -- it's just there to be skipped once you realize how dull it is.

While I'm not going to defend New Vegas writing, it's not like Fallout 3's was any good. Fallout 3's monotinous writing coupled with their emotionless talking heads and terrible voice actors had me skip a crazy amount of dialogue. Same for Oblivion. Bethesda's writers are flat out shit.
 

Dies Iræ

Member
I hope someone here who has completed Fallout 3 can help me out, I may have reached a game-breaking glitch. I'm trying to get into Vault 87. I believe there are two ways: (1) the mayor lets you in, or (2) you hack a terminal to gain entrance. When I ask the Mayor of Little Lamplight to let me into Murder Pass, he goes to the gate and then stands there doing nothing. He won't open the door. The other option seems impossible, too. I have 20 science; however, the terminal requires 50. There aren't enough science-up skills that I can acquire (save leveling up a lot) and the book glitch in the ant caves hasn't worked as it causes my copy to crash.

Is there another way into Vault 87??

Damned glitches :(
 

Snuggles

erotic butter maelstrom
Tkawsome said:
So I was doing a mission that required me to talk to a friendly scientist. When I walked up to him, he randomly yelled "Ah ha!" and started shooting my robot buddy. What's even stranger is that he was cool with me, he was still recognized as "friendly".

Weird. Maybe he has a history with your robot.

There are a lot of strange moments like that. I have a dog companion, but I left him back in Freeside for the time being. The weird thing is that NPCs still talk like he's right there. I'll be in Vegas and some guy will be like "there's something funny about that dog".

WHAT DOG
WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT
 

Wallach

Member
dream said:
Something good?

Compare the dialogue in New Vegas to the dialogue in Planescape Torment. The latter is just as wordy but they actually have interesting things to say and most of the characters you meet have unique voices. In contrast, the dialogue in New Vegas isn't interesting and it very seldom sets up things like motivation and character development -- it's just there to be skipped once you realize how dull it is.

What are you talking about? Give us a specific example.
 
Snuggler said:
Weird. Maybe he has a history with your robot.

There are a lot of strange moments like that. I have a dog companion, but I left him back in Freeside for the time being. The weird thing is that NPCs still talk like he's right there. I'll be in Vegas and some guy will be like "there's something funny about that dog".

WHAT DOG
WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT

Where did you get a dog? I want a dog.
 

Warnen

Don't pass gaas, it is your Destiny!
I love RPGs, dragon age and demons soul are among my favorites. Don't need a win button, just need a fun button. Can't find it in this game, couldn't find it in the last one either. Just should have passed on it.
 

EatChildren

Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
kai3345 said:
Pretty lame that on Non-Hardcore, companions are just "knocked unconscious"

How is the NPC AI though? I cannot imagine Gamebyro coupled with Bethesda/Obsidian coding resulting in anything less than some truly god awful fucking frustrating bullshit. I'm picturing a whole lot of escape/menu/load whenever traversing the Wasteland with your friends, if they could die for good.
 

Snuggles

erotic butter maelstrom
Tkawsome said:
Where did you get a dog? I want a dog.

This is hardly a spoiler, but his name is
Rex the robo dog
and he can be found at
at the King's hangout in Freeside. He'll let you borrow Rex on a quest to get him fixed if you ask him about Rex's condition. I think it's someone at the Old Mormon Fort who brings up the topic.

I had to keep him back because he kept getting killed. : (

I love RPGs, dragon age and demons soul are among my favorites. Don't need a win button, just need a fun button. Can't find it in this game, couldn't find it in the last one either. Just should have passed on it.

Yeah, I 'spose it's not for everyone, but as a big WRPG fan this is like, the perfect formula for me. The core gameplay (combat/survival/crafting) is solid and deep, the roleplaying elements are just right and I'm actually interested in exploring and learning about the setting. I can lose myself for hours playing this.
 

kai3345

Banned
EatChildren said:
How is the NPC AI though? I cannot imagine Gamebyro coupled with Bethesda/Obsidian coding resulting in anything less than some truly god awful fucking frustrating bullshit. I'm picturing a whole lot of escape/menu/load whenever traversing the Wasteland with your friends, if they could die for good.
It seemed fine to me. The AI seems to act "in character"

For example I've got Boone set to Passive (only shoots if I shoot) but will shoot any Legion member he sees on sight.
 

iammeiam

Member
EatChildren said:
How is the NPC AI though? I cannot imagine Gamebyro coupled with Bethesda/Obsidian coding resulting in anything less than some truly god awful fucking frustrating bullshit. I'm picturing a whole lot of escape/menu/load whenever traversing the Wasteland with your friends, if they could die for good.

Ranged AI is manageable, since they just hang out and shoot. Melee AI is more of a bitch, since they don't understand the concept of kiting. I can't take
Rex
exploring without reloading every goddamn fifteen minutes as he runs headlong into a pack of Geckos on the other side of the hill. I've also tried having him wait while I try to deal with a pack of nearby enemies, but he has a pretty wide range in which he'll still attack if you do.

At one point I sent two melee companions back to the hotel so I could sneak around an area. Both of them had engaged in combat and been knocked out (I didn't get the death warning, so I'm guessing sending them away makes them immortal) before getting out of sight range.
 

roMonster

Member
EatChildren said:
How is the NPC AI though? I cannot imagine Gamebyro coupled with Bethesda/Obsidian coding resulting in anything less than some truly god awful fucking frustrating bullshit. I'm picturing a whole lot of escape/menu/load whenever traversing the Wasteland with your friends, if they could die for good.

In my experience: they're very aggressive--even when set to passive. I was just in the
REPCONN building
and I felt more like I was following my companion through the tight corridors rather than leading.
 
Game is completely unplayable on my m11x-r2 :(

The game won't even launch if I use the d3d9.dll, it just seems to get stuck in a loop where the launcher restarts whenever I try to play. So I put everything down on the lowest settings and I'm getting wildly variable framerates where it sits at a smooth 45 - 60 and then just dips down to < 15 fps for seemingly no apparent reason in random places.

Then I got into my first largish battle with 10+ AI involved and it went slideshow, even with the ini setting turned on and using all 4 cores of my i5. And by slideshow I mean 1 frame every 2 - 3 seconds. Updated to the latest drivers, reinstalled directx blah blah. No dice. Still unplayable on the lowest settings.

Ah well. My desktop rig isn't posting at the moment so maybe I should figure out what's wrong there and try to get it running on that.
 
A question for anyone who can beaten the game/got near the end.
I chose to side with Yes-man, killed House and upgraded the robots... now I have no active quests. What am I supposed to do to advance the storyline and finish the game?
Is this a bug?
 
Dies Iræ said:
I hope someone here who has completed Fallout 3 can help me out, I may have reached a game-breaking glitch. I'm trying to get into Vault 87. I believe there are two ways: (1) the mayor lets you in, or (2) you hack a terminal to gain entrance. When I ask the Mayor of Little Lamplight to let me into Murder Pass, he goes to the gate and then stands there doing nothing. He won't open the door. The other option seems impossible, too. I have 20 science; however, the terminal requires 50. There aren't enough science-up skills that I can acquire (save leveling up a lot) and the book glitch in the ant caves hasn't worked as it causes my copy to crash.

Is there another way into Vault 87??

Damned glitches :(

if he agreed to let you in and hes supposed to be doing, then its just stuck. happened to me a lot in fo3 on ps3. best thing you can do is keep restarting the game at that point or an earlier point until the AI kicks in
 

WEGGLES

Member
Dumb question, but I need an npc that can repair my stuff. :lol

I'm a bit of a ways in, so NPC + Town would be great. My stuff is wearing out, and my skill at repair isn't too high/I dont have stuff to repair with.
 

-tetsuo-

Unlimited Capacity
(._.) said:
Main story mission rush to the end

He's done over 40 quest. He fast travels everywhere and skips dialogue etc. though.


dream said:
Compare the dialogue in New Vegas to the dialogue in Planescape Torment.


Let's just compare this game to the strike of lightning perfection of the most perfectly written game ever.
 

Steeven

Member
...this is why RPG fans can't have anything nice. People want to be able to press a button to win (no skill checks) go anywhere at level 1 (super strong animals) and don't want to read. (Verbose dialogue). I mean, what kind of game were you guys hoping for...

It's not that I mind stronger opponents, like I said earlier, I really like Fallout 1 and 2. It's the way they force you to say: thou shall not pass. Because of the map design, there is no other way or it's way too hard to work your way around; it takes too much time. I thought it was awesome that by exploring by yourself, you could gain a great advantage by stumbling upon some crazy armor or weaponry and shit (again, I'm referring to F1 and F2). But in this game... that does not happen to be the case.

Besides, those fucking flies move like they're buggy as hell.

Edit - I actually like this game is more of a challenge. In F3 you could just punch everything to pieces without dying. And although that is fun in a way, playing with some sort of Godmode never satisfies in the end.
 

Wallach

Member
Steeven said:
It's not that I mind stronger opponents, like I said earlier, I really like Fallout 1 and 2. It's the way they force you to say: thou shall not pass. Because of the map design, there is no other way or it's way too hard to work your way around; it takes too much time. I thought it was awesome that by exploring by yourself, you could gain a great advantage by stumbling upon some crazy armor or weaponry and shit (again, I'm referring to F1 and F2). But in this game... that does not happen to be the case.

Besides, those fucking flies move like they're buggy as hell.

Well, I definitely stumbled across some pretty high level loot by doing so and lived (I think I was level 6 at the time), though I walked away with advanced radiation sickness.
 

Steeven

Member
Wallach said:
Well, I definitely stumbled across some pretty high level loot by doing so and lived (I think I was level 6 at the time), though I walked away with advanced radiation sickness.

If that is the case then I am wrong and need to search more. But I found the loot in F3 not satisfying either though. Can't really blame Obsidian for that. Maybe I'm just a greedy pig.
 
Basileus777 said:
A question for anyone who can beaten the game/got near the end.
I chose to side with Yes-man, killed House and upgraded the robots... now I have no active quests. What am I supposed to do to advance the storyline and finish the game?
Is this a bug?

It was definitely a bug. I loaded an earlier save and redid some of those quests in a different order and it's working fine now.

The first time I took out House before upgrading the Securtrons. Something must of have broke the quest line.
 

Dorrin

Member
I'm curious if anyone is running a melee/unarmed/sneak build and if so how is it going?

I'm only level 3 and I'm using guns/repair/science right now, already thinking of another playthrough. I'm tempted to bump up explosives too great fun with dynamite early on :D .
 
WEGGLES said:
Dumb question, but I need an npc that can repair my stuff. :lol

I'm a bit of a ways in, so NPC + Town would be great. My stuff is wearing out, and my skill at repair isn't too high/I dont have stuff to repair with.
There's an NPC that does repairs in the main office of the NCR outpost near the southwest corner of the map. It's down the highway south from Primm with the giant statues out front.
 

HK-47

Oh, bitch bitch bitch.
dream said:
Something good?

Compare the dialogue in New Vegas to the dialogue in Planescape Torment. The latter is just as wordy but they actually have interesting things to say and most of the characters you meet have unique voices. In contrast, the dialogue in New Vegas isn't interesting and it very seldom sets up things like motivation and character development -- it's just there to be skipped once you realize how dull it is.

Planescape and Fallout never tried to do the same thing. Fallout's characters and depth has always been weaker compared to Torment or MotB. It more about the world rather than the specific characters or stories.

Now thats I've said that, I do wish Fallout had characters as involved as a Planescape. But its just never happened. Also Avellone isnt the lead creative director/writer on this project. Some people seem to think he is.
 
Biggest disappointment so far is how lame the New Vegas Strip is. In FO3 when you hit Rivet City it was a pretty major thing (especially if you found it after getting lost in the metro tunnels), the Strip is so anticlimactic in comparison.
 

HK-47

Oh, bitch bitch bitch.
_tetsuo_ said:
Let's just compare this game to the strike of lightning perfection of the most perfectly written game ever.

Hey Mask of the Betrayer happened. So did The Witcher, Bloodlines and System Shock 2.
 
Where the hell do you find the armor in all the PR? I thought they were part of the NCR but I've been to all the major NCR camps and haven't seen anyone with it.
 

Trickster

Member
I'm in the process of doing the quest
I Fought For The Law
. I'm at the point where I have to ask the
townfolk of primm if the NCR is planning anything for the rehab facility. Only problem is that it seems that I have to talk to johnson nash
, but I can't find him and there is no quest marker to help me find him. I'm kinda wondering if he's dead somehow, but I figure that the quest would have been failed if it weren't possible to complete.
 
The writing in New Vegas is better than Fallout 3, but it's not exactly exceptional either. Where the game really shines compared to Fallout 3 is how factions and decisions are handled, how it has better designed (and more plentiful) quests, and a setting that seems much more alive.

On the other hand, it's actually a buggier game, and the technology is even more dated in 2010.
 

Zeliard

Member
HK-47 said:
Hey Mask of the Betrayer happened. So did The Witcher, Bloodlines and System Shock 2.

The Witcher's writing wasn't particularly impressive. The dialogue was generally laughable, although the choice & consequence system is one of the best we've seen.
 

-tetsuo-

Unlimited Capacity
Zeliard said:
The Witcher's writing wasn't particularly impressive. The dialogue was generally laughable, although the choice & consequence system is one of the best we've seen.


Ya Witcher's strength is off the C&C system. I still need to beat it :(

MotB and Bloodlines deserve it, though. System Shock 2 is a little different as well.
 

Zeliard

Member
_tetsuo_ said:
Ya Witcher's strength is off the C&C system. I still need to beat it :(

MotB and Bloodlines deserve it, though. System Shock 2 is a little different as well.

I thought System Shock 2 had some strong character writing, particularly the Shodan character.
 

WEGGLES

Member
goldsoundz said:
There's an NPC that does repairs in the main office of the NCR outpost near the southwest corner of the map. It's down the highway south from Primm with the giant statues out front.
Excellent. Thankyou.

I just went there for one quest and decided to check this thread. Perfect timing.
 

-tetsuo-

Unlimited Capacity
Zeliard said:
I thought System Shock 2 had some strong character writing, particularly the Shodan character.


SHODAN is like the greatest villain ever. Walking into Polito's office in SS 2 shattered my 15 year old mind :eek:

But i meant different as the way it's presented. Really no direct "conversation" in that game.
 
Keeping a running tally of my lockdowns, up to 6 now in probably around 12 or 14 hours. Actually not too bad, considering. Have only had one instance where I had two lockups back-to-back, otherwise I've been able to get several hours in before one pops up, then if I fire the game right back up, I can keep going for several more before I get another. Ironically it seems like the game's running better the more I play; I feared the opposite.

Aside from that, I really, really, REALLY like this game. The depth and scope of the game's morality and choice-factor is unlike anything I've ever played. I'm sure there have been deeper games, choice-wise, but I haven't played them.

I was having a hard time getting into it, thinking FO3 was the better game. I think I've officially changed my tune. I think this game better now.

8/10 even with the bug and freezes. A proper patch could push this game in to the 9.5 area.

I love it.
 
This game only has like three songs. Normally that bugs the hell out of me, but I've come to embrace it because it only needed one:

"Big Iroooooon, big irooon!"
 

Zeliard

Member
Boone and I have this sort of love/hate relationship going right now because I'm on bad terms with the NCR, and have been from almost the start, when I killed one of them and stole his nice armor.

Thanks to that armor I can still disguise myself as NCR, though Boone warned me not to mess with the NCR anymore when I talked to him in different armor.

I think I'm gonna have to let Boone go eventually because I'm not really interested in helping out the NCR, at least this playthrough. Powder Gangers are a bunch of llamas too. I hope there's a Legion dude you can recruit.

_tetsuo_ said:
SHODAN is like the greatest villain ever. Walking into Polito's office in SS 2 shattered my 15 year old mind :eek:

But i meant different as the way it's presented. Really no direct "conversation" in that game.

True.
 

jax (old)

Banned
re: writing.

it most certainly isn't good. I give them credit that ALL the dialogue is recorded which is no mean feat but man, a lot of it is so boring to read and you can pretty much get a gist of what is being said because your eye reads it much much more quickly than the puppets talk. Only when you meet someone who is clearly special/special event happens, then I find the dialogue to be more interesting.

* in particular, everytime, npcs actually interact on screen with dialogue pertinent to their story, that's interesting. eg:
veronica and the BOS guys
The heads talking to you when you talk to NPCs are mostly dull

agree with :Basileus777 mostly.


* oh negative karma. I'm vindicated with the chaos legion and last night they sent a group to kill me and oh man, the assassin character they brought was a real difficutl SOB to kill. Save load. die save load die. Ended up having to up a load bunch of meds + psycho + steady and then it was still a close close fight. My speech skills are 70+ science is 50+ and I'm guessing at LVL 10, I'll need to really start focusing on weapons skills.


I'm finding that world quest events, you really need to up the speech.science.lockpick in FONV
 
Red Blaster said:
Biggest disappointment so far is how lame the New Vegas Strip is. In FO3 when you hit Rivet City it was a pretty major thing (especially if you found it after getting lost in the metro tunnels), the Strip is so anticlimactic in comparison.

Dude, seriously? I hear ya on the strip being a bit anticlimactic, but Rivet City? It was just a big boat with a market, some hotel rooms and that museum. I hated going there.
 
Tkawsome said:
This game only has like three songs. Normally that bugs the hell out of me, but I've come to embrace it because it only needed one:

"Big Iroooooon, big irooon!"
Its all the reason you need to wander through the wasteland with only a revolver to keep you company.
 
NEOPARADIGM said:
Dude, seriously? I hear ya on the strip being a bit anticlimactic, but Rivet City? It was just a big boat with a market, some hotel rooms and that museum. I hated going there.

Big boat with a city in it > empty casinos

:p
 

Zeliard

Member
Red Blaster said:
Biggest disappointment so far is how lame the New Vegas Strip is. In FO3 when you hit Rivet City it was a pretty major thing (especially if you found it after getting lost in the metro tunnels), the Strip is so anticlimactic in comparison.

Feels purposeful to a large extent. You have so many characters talking up New Vegas as this pillar of excitement, mostly based on reputation, but when you get there you find it's no less run-down and desolate than any other area.

They also can't populate the towns and such with too many NPCs - there's an engine limitation there. It was the same in Oblivion, a setting that should naturally be far more populated than a post-apocalyptic one.
 
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