The Official Fallout 3 thread of post-apocalyptic proportions!

Amazon screwed up delivery of my PS3 Collector's Edition (which after the PS3 reviews I was 50/50 about sending back anyway) and a collector's edition strategy guide, so I popped out and picked up the UK GAME Limited Edition with the Figure for 360 + a regular strategy guide.

I might keep the delayed collectors edition when it comes for all the making of stuff and the bobblehead. Plus I get the figure from the 360 GAME LE. Oh well :D

Started playing and have just found Megaton - awesome so far and pretty much what I hoped it would be, love VATS. I think I'm going to be evil on my first playthough though -
the penthouse suite sounds way sweeter than the Megaton house
 
I kinda regret getting the game early as I feel so left out by all the discussion, because i've done it all already, and the help I do need, no one can provide because its so far into the game :( Well if anyone can tell me which Metro station I need to use to get to Reily Rangers base, let me know because I spent about 2 hours wandering the empty underground with no luck.
 
Alright so I'm about 25 hours into the game now, but I'm only coming up to the part where
I'm supposed to look for my dad at the memorial or something, this is after I went to Rivet to look for him -
in the main quest. My play type is heavy on the speech and intellegence, with a focus on Energy weapons. Anyway, I can't freaking find anything other than laser pistols. I would like to find a Laser Rifle, or even better, plasma weapons - but I'd be happy with a rifle since I have the commando perk - anyone know of a vendor that sells laser rifles? I'm pious as f**k if that changes anything.
 
Campster said:
I've cone to the conclusion that Far Cry 2 and Fallout 3 are sort of on opposite ends of the spectrum. Far Cry 2 fundamentally only has about three missions - stop a convoy, get to a point and flip a switch/nab some intelligence, or assassinate a dude. They're real general, but that's so you can go about them in really different and interesting ways.

By comparison, Fallout 3 has you doing all sorts of stuff. Saving a town from raiders, helping an author write a book, deciding whether to save or nuke a town, finding your dad, etc. But how you play all of those is largely the same - shoot everything in your path until you reach some sort of Scripted Event or NPC. And the shooting in Fallout is... uninteresting, at best. It can generally be described as "VATS->Headshot, headshot, headshot->Generic shooting as AP recharches->Repeat."
Click to expand...

This just isn't true. I've completed at least 4 side quests in Fallout 3 so far without ever even attempting them - my speech/charisma was high enough that I was able to simply lie to the questgiver and tell them I did the quest, and be rewarded accordingly.

As far as the VATS headshot strategy, that will only work for so long. Eventually you face mobs where it becomes poor strategy to continually go for the head, and it's better to start targeting them more appropriately. Check the manual, each crippled limb/part means something different. It also isn't as obvious as "shoot the legs and the guy will move slower." If you cripple the legs of one of those enemies that has a charge attack, like a Mirelurk (the big crabs), they won't be able to use it anymore. Shoot the antennas of ants and they'll go into frenzy and start attacking anything that's near them. Shoot the weapon out of someone's hand, and they'll go run around desperately searching for another. Etc. VATS has some surprising depth to it.
 
painey said:
I kinda regret getting the game early as I feel so left out by all the discussion, because i've done it all already, and the help I do need, no one can provide because its so far into the game :( Well if anyone can tell me which Metro station I need to use to get to Reily Rangers base, let me know because I spent about 2 hours wandering the empty underground with no luck.
Click to expand...

I'm sneaking looks into the prima guide at work and it says "the fastest way is to exit the museum of history, pass willow, and head east along the mall towards the capital building - expect lots of trouble. once through the west entrance, head to the seward square exit and head south then east past seward square north metro station (qhich is the safer way to travel)" I paraphrased, and there is more after that, but I figure that should help.
 
chespace said:
Is there a digital version of the manual with the Steam version of the game?
Click to expand...
Yeah, a link was posted in this thread a loooooong time ago actually. I'm sure you can right click on the game in your games tab and find it there too.
 
Zeliard said:
This just isn't true. I've completed at least 4 side quests in Fallout 3 so far without ever even attempting them - my speech/charisma was high enough that I was able to simply lie to the questgiver and tell them I did the quest, and be rewarded accordingly.

As far as the VATS headshot strategy, that will only work for so long. Eventually you face mobs where it becomes poor strategy to continually go for the head, and it's better to start targeting them more appropriately. Check the manual, each crippled limb/part means something different. It also isn't as obvious as "shoot the legs and the guy will move slower." If you cripple the legs of one of those enemies that has a charge attack, like a Mirelurk (the big crabs), they won't be able to use it anymore. Shoot the antennas of ants and they'll go into frenzy and start attacking anything that's near them. Shoot the weapon out of someone's hand, and they'll go run around desperately searching for another. Etc. VATS has some surprising depth to it.
Click to expand...

To add to that, assess the situation, and you can sometimes get some awesome effects out of VATS - coolest thing happened to me yesterday. I was in the Library archives or whatevs it's called and I'm in the last room and there are three dudes about to jump me, I take one down and switch out of vats, and then one of the bastards pulls out the rocket launcher. I'm like "Okay, no health, no food to eat, no nothing, and I only have enough AP for one shot... fuck" - I see that when I froze VATS again, the rocket was halfway out of the rocket launcher, heading towards me... had a hunch and shot -at- the rocket launcher, and BAM, the rocket blows up in the dudes face, killing the guy next to him and severely injuring him. It was awesome.
 
three things:

[1] i wish they would patch in the option to autoplay the audio logs you find. not a huge deal, but it would be nice to not have to skip to the menu to access that stuff.

[2] is there a soundtrack available anywhere? i love the sort of old-timey music they play on enclave radio. it would be awesome to be able to have that shit available while i'm cruising around at night.

[3] again, how do you switch between more than two camera angles on the x360 version?
 
Kinitari said:
To add to that, assess the situation, and you can sometimes get some awesome effects out of VATS - coolest thing happened to me yesterday. I was in the Library archives or whatevs it's called and I'm in the last room and there are three dudes about to jump me, I take one down and switch out of vats, and then one of the bastards pulls out the rocket launcher. I'm like "Okay, no health, no food to eat, no nothing, and I only have enough AP for one shot... fuck" - I see that when I froze VATS again, the rocket was halfway out of the rocket launcher, heading towards me... had a hunch and shot -at- the rocket launcher, and BAM, the rocket blows up in the dudes face, killing the guy next to him and severely injuring him. It was awesome.
Click to expand...

A very similar thing happened to me, but with a grenade. :lol

A guy threw a grenade just as I was hitting VATS, and while it was suspended in midair I targeted it and had enough AP for three shot: one went to someone's leg, and two went to the grenade. That guy, who was a raider, also had two other raiders in the vicinity, and the grenade blew up and killed that first guy, blew the other guy's leg off (the one who's leg I shot earlier), and simply sent the third flying back. I can't put into words just how awesome that entire sequence looked in VATS, but I'm sure you guys know what it was like.
 
Zeliard said:
Shoot the weapon out of someone's hand, and they'll go run around desperately searching for another. Etc. VATS has some surprising depth to it.
Click to expand...

Too bad it reduces the weapon CND to 0 so you can't use it after they die :(
 
beelzebozo said:
three things:

[1] i wish they would patch in the option to autoplay the audio logs you find. not a huge deal, but it would be nice to not have to skip to the menu to access that stuff.
Click to expand...

True, but what makes that trivial for me personally is that the audio logs and such will still play even after you close your pip-boy and start walking around again. It would've been a lot more annoying to me if it forced you to stay in your pip-boy menu to listen to the whole thing.

beelzebozo said:
three things:[2] is there a soundtrack available anywhere? i love the sort of old-timey music they play on enclave radio. it would be awesome to be able to have that shit available while i'm cruising around at night.
Click to expand...

No idea. I'm sort of conflicted between turning the radio on and off. I really love Fallout 3's ambient music, and combined with the visuals, it gives the world an awesomely eerie and alien (yet still familiar) feel. However, I also do like the '50s soundtrack, and it's oddly hilarious at times listening to some of those songs while in some hardcore fight against a Super Mutant or ghoul. So I never know which way to go, ambient music or radio. I guess a good idea would be to turn the radio off at night and bask in the ambience, and then turn it on during the day.

Hazaro said:
Too bad it reduces the weapon CND to 0 so you can't use it after they die :(
Click to expand...

Yeah, but the cool side effect of that is it forces them to go find another weapon. It's fun seeing them running around like chickens with their heads cut off.

I never tried picking up a gun that I shot off, though. Is it impossible to repair things with CND at 0?
 
Anyone run into enemies with endless supplies of rifles? Is this a glitch or done on purpose? En route to GNR, I came across two different raiders with assault rifles. Since they were kind of at a distance and pecking at me from behind cover, I couldn't target much beside their rifles so I shot at them and destroyed them. I figured, like usual, they'd either run or charge with a melee weapon, which would make them easy kills. Or, maybe they would pull out a pistol, which happens from time to time. They both pulled out pistols, but after firing a few shots off from that, another rifle would appear on their backs and they'd pull it out and shoot again. The second one, I destroyed 3 rifles before charging at him with a shotgun and blowing his head off. Hopefully this doesn't happen with missile launcher or minigun guys.

Also, Moira in Megaton.. how can she cap? Bitch is always out of caps. I just tagged along with the BoS at GNR and I'm only like 8 or 9 hours into the game but she is the only merchant I have found so far. I really want the
schematics for the bazooka or whatever
that she sells but it's going to take forever without being able to sell her stuff. A friend at work said if you come back a few days later she'll have more caps but so far no luck.
 
Bumblebeetuna said:
Anyone run into enemies with endless supplies of rifles? Is this a glitch or done on purpose? En route to GNR, I came across two different raiders with assault rifles. Since they were kind of at a distance and pecking at me from behind cover, I couldn't target much beside their rifles so I shot at them and destroyed them. I figured, like usual, they'd either run or charge with a melee weapon, which would make them easy kills. Or, maybe they would pull out a pistol, which happens from time to time. They both pulled out pistols, but after firing a few shots off from that, another rifle would appear on their backs and they'd pull it out and shoot again. The second one, I destroyed 3 rifles before charging at him with a shotgun and blowing his head off. Hopefully this doesn't happen with missile launcher or minigun guys.
Click to expand...

Strange, that's never happened to me. I've shot a lot of weapons away from people, and everytime I did, they had to run around and find another weapon lying around if one wasn't nearby (occasionally they would also have another weapon on them, but always something different like a bat or pistol if they had an assault rifle before).

Flek said:
are there some ?
Click to expand...

I'm still fairly early on (only recently got to Galaxy News Radio), but I'd say it's doubtful, just looking at Fallout 3's particular environment. I'm not sure how a vehicle that doesn't hover or fly would effectively navigate the 3D space. Too many jutting sections, gaps, etc.
 
Just gotta say I'm really loving this game. I thought after playing Fable 2 that that would be the year's best for me, but I'm feeling like Fallout 3 is going to supplant it. Havn't finished it yet, but it's amazing.
 
Kinitari said:
To add to that, assess the situation, and you can sometimes get some awesome effects out of VATS - coolest thing happened to me yesterday. I was in the Library archives or whatevs it's called and I'm in the last room and there are three dudes about to jump me, I take one down and switch out of vats, and then one of the bastards pulls out the rocket launcher. I'm like "Okay, no health, no food to eat, no nothing, and I only have enough AP for one shot... fuck" - I see that when I froze VATS again, the rocket was halfway out of the rocket launcher, heading towards me... had a hunch and shot -at- the rocket launcher, and BAM, the rocket blows up in the dudes face, killing the guy next to him and severely injuring him. It was awesome.
Click to expand...



That is frickin cool!
 
Bumblebeetuna said:
I really want the
schematics for the bazooka or whatever
that she sells but it's going to take forever without being able to sell her stuff.
Click to expand...

Is it the
Rock-It Launcher schematics? If so, the travelling trader that is right outside of Megaton has one. I killed him and took it for free, along with some other useful supplies :D Just wait for him and his bodyguard, along with the brahmin, to move out of the site of Megaton and unleash hell on them.
 
Zeliard said:
Is it impossible to repair things with CND at 0?
Click to expand...
Yep.

I ran into some trouble with some supermutants, one had a missle launcher and was nuking me from afar. I had to destroy it out of self preservation.

After I killed him, I looted it off of him. It wasn't until later on when I found someone who would repair it (520 caps) but I didn't bother to pay the crazy cost. Luckily for me I found someone selling a missle launcher for 42 caps. Bought that and then repaired the old one with it myself.

My question: I think I accidentially killed someone in Rivet City (or else this is a glitch)...
The dude who is addicted to Jet (can't think of his name) I had talked to him before and refused to give him any Jet. But I met with him later on and there was the option to give him some Jet, so I figured, sure why not? Didn't give me anything for it, so I left. I entered through a door that loaded into a different section. When I got there I heard a groan and there the dude is on the floor dead. So my question is, did the Jet kill him, or was this some glitch? Also, is he important for any quest?
 
Hootie said:
Is it the
Rock-It Launcher schematics? If so, the travelling trader that is right outside of Megaton has one. I killed him and took it for free, along with some other useful supplies :D Just wait for him and his bodyguard, along with the brahmin, to move out of the site of Megaton and unleash hell on them.
Click to expand...

Wait, those guys left the Megaton site after Power of the Atom and I was wondering where they went. Where did they go?
 
Zeliard said:
Wait, those guys left the Megaton site after Power of the Atom and I was wondering where they went. Where did they go?
Click to expand...

Is
Power of the Atom the mission where you either save or nuke Megaton? I decided to disarm the bomb (got a free house out of it!) so if you blew it up they probably just died in the explosion.
 
Hootie said:
Is
Power of the Atom the mission where you either save or nuke Megaton? I decided to disarm the bomb (got a free house out of it!) so if you blew it up they probably just died in the explosion.
Click to expand...

Nope, I disarmed it. Should they still be in front of Megaton? I don't think I killed them earlier, either, since the robot greeter is still alive and doesn't hate me. And I don't recall fighting him, which I would have if I'd attacked the traders.
 
Zeliard said:
Nope, I disarmed it. Should they still be in front of Megaton? I don't think I killed them earlier, either, since the robot greeter is still alive and doesn't hate me. And I don't recall fighting him, which I would have if I'd attacked the traders.
Click to expand...

Well what I did was simply walk to where they were (RIGHT outside of the gates), then after a minute or two they began to walk away on a path. As they were travelling (only for a minute) they killed a molerat. I looked around and saw that the rocks where blocking the view of Megaton completely, and when I crouched it said "Hidden". So I took out my grenades, Reverse Pickpocketed one onto the Bodyguard, then threw 1 or 2 at the trader himself to kill him. Took his keys and opened up the Brahmin, where I found the schematics.


EDIT: Hey I just remembered something...I ordered the Fallout 3 CE from Circuit City's website and it said I'd get a free mini-strategy guide with it. But I was bored today and it popped into my head that I didn't receive one. Did this happen to anybody else? WTF...
 
Hootie said:
Well what I did was simply walk to where they were (RIGHT outside of the gates), then after a minute or two they began to walk away on a path. As they were travelling (only for a minute) they killed a molerat. I looked around and saw that the rocks where blocking the view of Megaton completely, and when I crouched it said "Hidden". So I took out my grenades, Reverse Pickpocketed one onto the Bodyguard, then threw 1 or 2 at the trader himself to kill him. Took his keys and opened up the Brahmin, where I found the schematics.
Click to expand...

Damn, I never noticed them leaving. Guess I'll have to hunt them down. :P
 
Hootie said:
Definitely try. Those damn schematics cost 1100 caps!
Click to expand...

Plus the
Rock-It Launcher
was the weapon I was looking forward to most in the game. Finally, a truly great use for all the junk you can pick up. :D
 
Hootie said:
EDIT: Hey I just remembered something...I ordered the Fallout 3 CE from Circuit City's website and it said I'd get a free mini-strategy guide with it. But I was bored today and it popped into my head that I didn't receive one. Did this happen to anybody else? WTF...
Click to expand...
You really aren't missing much. It's like a 10 page pamphlet and all it talks about is Megaton, and doesn't really go in-depth except for the main megaton mission.

Only thing worthwhile is that it has a coupon for 25% off the ACTUAL strategy guides if you were interested in them.

Since you ordered online, could it be possible they e-mailed it to you somehow? Did you get the giftcard?
 
I've only played for 8 hours or so, but VATS isn't really all that exciting to me. I peek out, deliver 4 headshots (a few could miss of course), wait for AP to regenerate, repeat until dead. I have yet to encounter any enemy that gives me significant problems.

However, the dialogue options for some of the characters are better than I expected out of Bethesda. It's not Black Isle or Troika level, but significantly improved over Oblivion.
2mcagc4.jpg

ip9pab.jpg


For the moment I'm trying to play a "chaotic good" character in AD&D terms and it seems to work out fine so far.
 
Can anyone help me? I'm about to name my character, but I don't know the format of the naming. Do I do a first and last name or is that my preference, like does your character already have a last name?
 
Hootie said:
Well what I did was simply walk to where they were (RIGHT outside of the gates), then after a minute or two they began to walk away on a path. As they were travelling (only for a minute) they killed a molerat. I looked around and saw that the rocks where blocking the view of Megaton completely, and when I crouched it said "Hidden". So I took out my grenades, Reverse Pickpocketed one onto the Bodyguard, then threw 1 or 2 at the trader himself to kill him. Took his keys and opened up the Brahmin, where I found the schematics.


EDIT: Hey I just remembered something...I ordered the Fallout 3 CE from Circuit City's website and it said I'd get a free mini-strategy guide with it. But I was bored today and it popped into my head that I didn't receive one. Did this happen to anybody else? WTF...
Click to expand...
Wait... you can reverse pickpocket grenades into people's pockets and they'll explode??

Dechaios said:
Can anyone help me? I'm about to name my character, but I don't know the format of the naming. Do I do a first and last name or is that my preference, like does your character already have a last name?
Click to expand...
My character only has a first name
 
Man, there's so much stuff to do. Haven't felt this overwhelmed with choices and options since Oblivion.


beelzebozo said:
how do you go about it? the camera switch is the left bumper--how do you switch from the reggae third person to the over the shoulder?
Click to expand...
I'm playing on the PC with a 360 controller, so I dunno if it also works on the 360 version - hold the left bumper and move the camera closer with the right analogue stick. Let go of LB and the camera should stick to over the shoulder.
 
Is anyone actually playing this game in third person? Perhaps it's different with a controller, but with KB/mouse that didn't work for me at all. First person controls are almost perfect though.

Oh, and the GUI is completely consolified yet again (it would be possible to make a much more usable one on PC) but at least they provide an in-game excuse for that (and fully support mouse wheel wherever it makes sense, unlike the Oblivion default interface). Now that they have some actual dialog choices it would be nice to be able to read more than 2 of them without scrolling though.
 
Durante said:
Is anyone actually playing this game in third person? Perhaps it's different with a controller, but with KB/mouse that didn't work for me at all. First person controls are almost perfect though.

Oh, and the GUI is completely consolified yet again (it would be possible to make a much more usable one on PC) but at least they provide an in-game excuse for that (and fully support mouse wheel wherever it makes sense, unlike the Oblivion default interface). Now that they have some actual dialog choices it would be nice to be able to read more than 2 of them without scrolling though.
Click to expand...
Hell no. Looks and feels disgusting. Absolutely not made for third person, just like Oblivion.
 
dhelfric said:
Well, there are several beds at the school.
Click to expand...


Thanks..haven't found a school yet, but it's good to know there are free beds somewhere..

Also, if a 'generous' NPC runs out of money (i.e. one that likes you, and pays you more for stuff), how long before they have more money again? Is there any way to speed up that? I don't wanna sell my stuff for half its value (which is all the others will give me at the moment).
 
chespace said:
I'm also really warming up to the graphics in this game. Here are pics shrank down from 1920x1200, max everything, 4xAA, 16xAF, vanilla INI.
Click to expand...


Bah, I don't see how you can enjoy the graphics without having the water reflect everything and 4-6 more uGrids loaded. :D

 
gofreak said:
Is there any way to sleep for free? Or do I have to pony up 120 to Nova? How many 'sleeps' does that get you?
Click to expand...

just find a bed that doesnt belong to anyone when there are no enemies around.
 
Durante said:
http://pastebin.com/ ?
Click to expand...

http://pastebin.com/m240c672f

Note: I downed the uGrids from 11 to 9 because of stability issues. Also, that number has to be odd! Default is 5.

MAKE SURE YOU HAVE BACKED UP YOUR ORIGINAL INI. DON'T BLAME ME FOR STABILITY ISSUES OR SAVE GAME COMPATIBILITY PROBLEMS. If you change your uGrids and find the performance to be unacceptable, DO NOT SAVE THE GAME, or you might run into a compatability problem and your game will crash when you fire it back up after you reset the uGrids.

SAVE YOUR ORIGINAL INI!

Summary of Changes:

More uGrids are loaded, getting rid of those crappy distant textures and allowing you to see enemies from far off.
Distant trees extended.
Water reflects everything.
Shadow res and shadow filtering are better.
Performance is significantly worse. If you're used to 60fps, say hello to 30-40 outside.
 
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