Like as in we do not know how hard hardcoe mode will be, unless you see how needing water, food, sleep and having fast travel limitation's is going to be for yourself pretty much you just don't know. It varies between player to player and what character build that player picked for themselves.

I am starting out with Gun's, Sneak and Explosives for my first character/playthrough. Will also be working up Repair, but primarly will be focusing on my 3 starting skills with Repair being my 4th priority. My companion will be Raul most likley, his regular maintence perk is pretty nice for me. Fallout 3 for me especially on default normal setting's was the easiest game I may have ever played that is on the top of my head worth mentioning. I literatly only used VATS IF I was one or two shots away from being killed or am crowded by a group of enemies/small creatures as VATS just makes sense then. Consistent headshots in Fallout 3 from about any distence was pretty simple for me and or I would say any decent FPS player.

With that said

Is someone who is going to be setting up most there fights (if you can help it) with sneaking, explosives and consistent out of VATS headshots making and using the right ammo types as much as they are able to going to need survival in hardcoe mode?

This is not Fallout 3 so we cannot just max out a whole lot of stats and skills, at least not as easily and Survival takes up Endurance. I have never put one point in endurance in any Fallout game (Fallout 1, 2, Fallout Tactic's and Fallout 3) ive always just left endurance at 5 even when choosing Gifted. So yea its a gamble to not take up survival in hardcoe mode, we do not know how often were going to run across the materials to make AP rounds & things of that nature for those fights we need them in. You can play the game as smart as you want but unless you have a LOT of patience (using sneak & spotting out enemies as much as possible) you are bound to take damage at low levels. Survival to me is just useful for those first 10 or so levels I would haft to guess.

Everyone plays differently and has different plans for there character, so who is planning on using survival with there character build for hardcoe mode? Edit: And why do you yourself think you will need it in place of another skill & stat?

I am. It's going to be one of my starting tag skills.

Survival will be my 'fourth tag skill', in that I'll try and put a few points into it along with my main tagged skills. Got a feeling it'll be very useful in HC. It was practically made for HC, after all.

I think Survival and Melee are staples for hardcoe Mode.

I think I will, but I have to check some things out in game. Im going to eat people and mutants for food. So might not be worth it.

Tagging Guns, Repair, Survival. Woop woop.

I've actually finished my build--SPECIAL, perks, and traits.

Yes it was and pending on how hard my playthrough will get for me will judge if I do start putting points into survival over something like repair.

My main focus is Sneak, otherwise I would defenitly have Survival for at least my 4th skill. if you play everything smart with Sneak, Gun's, and Explosives I am not so sure that you'd need Survival is my whole thing. Not having to put anything into survival or endurance past 5 for me would really let me focus on a pretty sick character. You do not need survival to drink, eat and or sleep.

Is survival needed? No, however i do intend to take survival with my characters. My sniper/thief will have 1 Endurance and i intend to use survival with her. I'm not sure how benficial it will be however i do think it would be worth getting.

1 Endurance? I wouldn't even bother with Survival then if I was you

Well from what i've worked out you can near max about 6 skills if you got decent intelligence. Survival will no doubt be one i don't put much in but we'll see it might not be worth upgrading it at all its rather hard to tell without any in depth view at it.

I plan to tag Sneak, Speech, Guns and upgrade Repair, Medicine, Lockpicking and Survival. Str 6, Per, 6, End 1, Cha 5, Int 7, Agi 6, Luck 9.

My other character however is basically a charge in guns blazing type. So being a bullet sponge she's going to be chowing down on food constantly.

I will be using survival because food and water are going to be a much more necessary part of this game I think. I think stimpacks will be much more rare but I could be wrong.

I don't think I will on the first playthrough. I'm thinking Guns, Speech, and Repair. I might replace repair with survival. Who knows.

Nope.

Yea that is true I believe, I could be wrong as well lol but I wanna say that's right. I just know for me Sneak was very OP in Fallout 3, unless I was just messin around I never really took much damage or used too many stimpacks. If I was going to make a melee character without sneak I for suure would have survival like tagged if stimpacks are more rare in F: New Vegas.

Although I doubt I'll ever Tag! it, I'll probably sink points into it on every playthrough for the food crafting if nothing else. I hated the food in FO3, +5 HP per piece. Good God. With 200+ HP I need an all you can eat friggin buffet in my pocket.

Well from what you listed your going to have 4 skills you should be able to easily handle a 5th skill no problem. Unless your character is as dumb as a rock you'll probably have plenty of skill points left after those 4 skills.

I don't know all of the perks or exactly want to know them all ethier so from what I know right now this is so far exactly how I am going to build my character I think . . .

ATTRIBUTES
Strength 5 (or 4 STR and more luck)
Perception 7
Endurance 5
Charisma 4
Intelligence 6 (or 5 int and more luck)
Agility 7
Luck 6

SKILLS
Explosives (Tag) Perception
Guns (Tag) Agility
Sneak (Tag) Agility
Repair Intelligence
Survival Endurance

PERKS
The ProfessionalRequired Character Level: 6
Required Attributes/Skills: Sneak 70
Up close and personal, that's how you like it. Your sneak attack criticals with pistols, revolvers, and submachine guns, whether guns or energy weapons, all inflict an additional 20 percent damage.

Jury RiggingRequired Character Level: 14
Required Attributes/Skills: Repair 90
You possess the amazing ability to repair any item using a roughly similar item. Fix a trail carbine with a hunting rifle, a plasma defender with a laser pistol, or even power armor with metal armor. How does it work? Nobody knows…except you.

TRAITS

Built to Destory = All weapons have +3% chance to Critical Hit, but equipment condition decays 15% faster. (+3% crit is worth the %15 decay with Raul as a companion)

Loose Canon = From Frag Grenades to Throwing Spears, you can throw weapons 30% faster at the cost of 25% less range. (Since when do you need the extra %25 range, %30 faster throwing = Great)

Companions, Raul for his regular maintence on equipment to help balance Built to Destroy.

I plan on grabbing Survival for my Melee hardcoe playthrough.

The way I see it, Melee is ideally suited for hardcoe; you only need to carry one or two weapons and no ammo, leaving you plenty of space for food, water, and loot to sell.

Yea if I was going the melee route I would most defenitly use Survival as a 4th skill if not one of the tags

My first character will more than likely have Guns, Energy Weapons, and Science tagged. I may increase Survival whenever I get the chance, like if I have some skill points left over.

I am planning on making a sort of brawler build after that, so I may tag Survival in that class just because he'll be a natural tough guy and will know how to survive.

True.

I have to ask: how did you get Willem Dafoe to pose for your avatar pic?

Ouch lol. Well if all else fails I guess I can be a body double in Hollyweird.

ill try, but ill need at least one combat skill and repair maxed, and if the lock picking and hacking is the same as F3, ill need those maxed too, and with the huge skill point nerf in NV, i'm not sure if there will be much you can do after that.

Is it just me or does the survival skill make medicine seem obsolete in hardcoe mode and survival is completely useless in regular mode. I was going to use medicine as my 4th skill but the more i read and think about it medicine doesn't seem as useful in hardcoe mode as it was in FO3 and survival isn't necessary unless you plan on doing a lot of exploring which i don't plan on doing until my 2nd play though. I'm not 100% sure of how each skill will work so I guess i will have to wait until i can get a hands on experience to know for sure.