I use VATS basically all the time, for several reason - the foremost that I find it fun. Don't know why you find it useless with FWE - it's certainly not for me.

You take more damage than in vanilla and are defenseless for so long, I wouldn't recommend relying on it when you're being pounded by miniguns.

I use VATS a lot. I like it. Especially the zooming in head shots...

I haven't played Fallout 3 in awhile because of MMM somehow affecting my hit chances in VATS.

Uh, I know that you take more damage then Vanilla in FWE, Captaain, but VATS drops the damage you receive to what, 1/15 or something of what it normally is? You can point-blank hit someone with a Fat Man and not turn into your component molecular structure. I.E. Vaporize So, uh, shooting at people who are shooting you with miniguns in VATS is good, not bad.

I don't think comparing it to God Mode is really accurate. It doesn't allow you to survive insane falls.

To be honest, I hate using mines. Don't see the reason to use them when you can't really throw them on the ground in front of your enemies when said enemies are shooting at you.

I really don't think that Fat Man thing is accurate, at least with my current settings. I can't count how many times I died after getting my shots off in VATS and watching those little scenes while getting bombarded with bullets.

I use Vats alot because, it kills things easy and critical hits are higher in Vats. I also, want to use it less for the fact that I can't use it in other games.

Draw the enemy toward you and allow them to trip the mines you've set in place.
It's all about patience and cunning.

This isn't an FPS so it kinda makes sense.

I largely use VATS as a crutch.

In the beginning, ammo is fairly scarce (thanks to FWE..) and (thanks to MMM), going through the subway tunnels with 'only' 200 energy cells is.. well.. Not quite enough. Not at all.

Vats is nice, because (in FWE), my high perception means a fairly good chance to hit stuff, coupled with a nice agility (and a few perks here and there), I can actually hit stuff fairly often fairly easily, and somewhat faster than I could in realtime.

Of course, once I get past that stage.. Collect a follower or two, stuff simplifies itself. Vats is no longer a requirement, and I honestly only use it for the initial engagement (pop a door open, hit vats to see what is there, take out one or two high priority targets..) or for shooting at some guy with a missile launcher because he thinks he is cool.

However, largely as the game goes on the precision and advantage of vats is decreased. I would say this is because you dont gain action points as you level up - If i were to change things slightly, I would add a level modifier for AP's. Of course, that would just throw vats into the OP range the 'older' your character gets.. but hey.. *goes off and figures out the geck*

Yeah, I've lowered the damage taken while in VATS. It's extremely annoying getting killed while being unable to do anything at all. I also think VATS was changed in FWE 5, which is the only version I've tried, so perhaps it was more useless in previous versions?



Not a bad idea. FWE has a couple of nice perks, though. "Track Star" etc., which ups the regeneration of AP.

Basically, I think VATS is fun and feels new. It's cool to explode grenades/molotov cocktails in the hands of Raiders etc. I've played countless first person shooters, so free aiming feels a bit stale. Also, bullet time might be nice but it's a bit "been there, done that" with that as well.

But there are other reasons I'm using it as well. With FWE on my ageing computer I get choppy gameplay - and especially in situations with lots of enemies. Without VATS I would probably be so frustrated so I wouldn't continue playing.

Well, to each his own as always.

Well, I was talking about vanilla based VATS. I don't play with FWE, so I wouldn't know if it broke/fixed VATS to deal more damage.

But yeah, in Vanilla Fallout 3, lobbing a Fat Man at a target less than 10 feet in front of you is uh, bad, without VATS.



Also, I still fail to see any use for land minds to be honest. Too much time to prepare that you could use to put a bullet in someone's eye.
Yeah, it's a RPG/FPS hybrid. With like 90% RPG and 10% FPS.
How many RPGs are in first person perspective like this and aren't considered FPS/RPG hybrid.

Sorry, but Mines, useless.

VATS (with the default game) in basically a cheat, since it stops time and the PC only receives 1/10th the normal damage while in VATS.
In the default game, the PC is given a HUGE advantage over the NPC, not just while in VATS, but also in normal combat, where the PC can hide behind cover, and the NPC have been dumbed down so that they just stand there shooting at you.

If you feel that the default game in too hard, you would really hate my http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=1079218, as it rebalances much of the game play . . . putting the PC and the NPCs on a more level playing field. I found the default game (even without using VATS) to be way too easy. I made it through the main quest with just the Overseer's 10mm and Butch's leather jacket . . . then I started modding my game.

And mines are NOT useless, they are extremely useful. But as SevenExxes pointed out, you do need to use a bit of strategy. Yes, FO3 is a RPG/FPS hybrid, but that doesn't mean that surviving in the game should not require the player to use some strategy, instead of just running into combat, and then whining that the game is too hard. I'm currently playing Mass Effect ,which is also a RPG/FPS hybrid, and that game is much more balanced than FO3's default game. You die real fast in ME1&2 unless you use some strategy.

I used to have to use VATS all the time when playing Fallout 3 on my laptop. The video card couldn't handle too many people on screen shooting their guns at once without lag affecting my ability to shoot back. Now that I have a good desktop - HP Pavilion Elite m9650f for $600 ftw - and there's no lag to contend with, I don't use it at all.

Also, using one of the many mods that disable auto aim helps.

Maybe you might want to start using a companion mod. The only one I really have experience with is Phalanx. The companions may not be too helpful as far as actually killing things - I still can't figure out how to get Malcolm to stop trying to knife enemies with machine guns even though he is equipped and set to ranged weapons - they are very helpful in that they give the enemy something else to shoot at. The aforementioned Malcolm is a new companion from Phalanx who comes very early in the story line. Neither Dogmeat nor Charon, both of which you can get in the vanilla game, are too hard to get early in the game, either.

Well, just because I disagree on mines being useful doesn't mean I'm stupid or anything. As long as we can agree on that, right? We're not going to call the Hague War Crimes Tribunal on me are we? Just because I hate mines?

Strategy aside, I prefer to shoot my targets, not throw mines near them and hope they run over them while walking towards me firing heavy machine guns.

I've run into plenty of challenges while playing this game. Some of us are not experts at video games. Plus, I just like the slow motion effects of VATS.

Also, I've seen enemies use cover before in this game. Although, most of the time it is by sheer blind luck that they move backwards as I'm charging my lasers. Er, my alien Blaster. I love that weapon.

I also hate companions. I don't know why, it's just not part of the game I like. Like Mines.
Also, the game is not really that hard without playing with FOOK 2. I was doing mostly fine on Normal Difficulty. Then I turned it down to Easy for an even more relaxing time.

I play games to have fun, relax, and enjoy myself, not scream in frustration when I die a lot.