Topic says it all.

If you had to choose the best advising point that would be most helpful to a new player with no clue what to expect, what would it be?

Played Fallout 1, 2, and 3, but always expecting something new I can boner on and miss that would be helpful.

Don't get your hopes way up there. NV is just a copy of FO3 set in the desert. It lacks the first timer appeal FO3 had, and just seemed like a rerun to me.

don't play it like it's FO3

That's okay. I love Fallout games, and 3 is just getting too played out for me. Don't mind the same old thing, but new stuff to do.




Like how? I think you mean like exploring randomly?

For what to expect, go with your own feelings but know that your actions have real benefits and consequences in New Vegas. Expect multiple playthroughs. This is NOT exactly like F3. Other than that, enjoy yourself, its a great time. If you have any specific questions, feel free to ask

The guns aren't stupidly weak, so you won't be dependent on uniques like in Fallout 3, and you can likely be less reliant on crits and VATS as well.

Queue

Thanks all, started it, and it's pretty fun. Just kind of feel overwhelmed about all the choices for ammo and stuff. Right now I'm just sticking with normal ammo for all, and see how far that can take me.

Just had 1 question. For my hotkeys, I see that something is already taking up hotkey spot 2. I'm not sure what it is, or how to use it. Can anyone explain what that is, and how I can use it? Seems pretty important to be a permanent hotkey.

Thanks.

2 is "Switch ammunition". Normal -> AP -> HP -> Hand Load for guns, Normal -> OC -> MC for Energy Weapons. Armor Piercing bullets are extremely important, but you can get very far with Normal ammunition.

-Nukeknockout

Pick a personality for your character and stick to it. NV is not black and white like Fallout 3 so it can be much more interesting trying different personalities.

Raise your speech skill up very early on, especially your very first play through so you can absorb the great story telling of this game. Don't worry about meta-gaming, just play the character you want to be.

Here is some advice, once you can start carrying good amounts of ap / hp rounds, for guns that have both this type, just stop carrying regular ammo and don't pick it up when you find it. Once you start understanding how ammo works, get handloader perk (you won't regret it) as you will be able to make special ammunition types that do much more damage and sometimes have no decay penalties, but some do have weapon decay penalties.

I like to kill my enemies as fast as possible and I feel like regular ammo (for most types of guns) doesn't cut it. But there are exceptions of course.

If your using energy weapons, you might want to consider making maxed charged ammo which requires high science, it has heavy decay penalties but I want to kill my enemy in one shot, not 3-4.

* Some quests in New Vegas can be solved by what you DO, not just which option you pick when talking with an NPC. Keep your mind open, don't assume that just because they don't suggest it you can't do it and feel free to ask for options from other NPCs.

* You don't get as many perks or as many skill points.

* There are more ways to use your skills in New Vegas.

* Don't try to do all the quests in one playthrough.

You're Actions have consequence, like Fallout and Fallout 2 and unlike Fallout 3. So whatever you do good or bad will be remembered by the factions. If you start helping NCR that will piss off the Legion. If you go around killing NCR, thenNCR will hate you.

Edit: So think before you do, because you might not be able to go back.

You're getting some nice tips and general good advice, but my recommendation is just play through without a whole lot of study or asking about every little thing- fumble your way through, make a lot of mistakes, and have a ton of fun doing it! :biggrin:

Then come back afterwards and start asking questions, once you have a much better idea what to ask and how to use the advice. The first playthrough is magic- don't spoil it by finding out everything you need to know beforehand. If you love it as much as most of us do, you'll end up doing multiple playthroughs, anyway.

Don't trust caesar

FONV is quite a bit different from Fallout 3. Stats are important but don't give any overwhelming advantages. You don't "have" to have high Intelligence and Agility the way you did in FO3.

Perks only come every 2 levels.

VATS is useful but the addition of scopes and iron sights makes firing outside of VATS practical and, for a long range sniper character, actually a better idea. Use the zoom in ability (right mouse on PC) to increase your accuracy.

Crafting has a lot more recipes and is considerably more useful than in FO3. As soon as you can, check a Workbench, Reloading Bench and Campfire to see what all you can make. Just understand some crafting recipes don't become available until you've taken certain perks or completed some quests.

Understand DT! It works differently from the AC in FO3. DT reduces the damage you can do to a target by a set amount instead of a percentage the way AC does. For example if your weapon does 10 damage in each attack and your target has a DT of 5 only 5 points of damage will be done. If your weapon does 50 and the target has 5 DT then 45 damage will be done. This counts for each shot fired by automatic weapons and each pellet in a load of buckshot. This makes some weapons that have incredible DPS like sub-machine guns nearly useless against heavily armoured targets. Just allow for the fact that there is a "bleed through" effect so a minimum of 20% damage will still get through (important to remember when you get all that armor yourself and realize you aren't bullet proof).

Like FO3 you can play an Energy weapon character from the start but the weapons you can get are rare and hard to keep repaired. Once you get up in levels and get the right perks they can be incredilby powerful. Guns have useful weapons at all levels and are more common so much easier to get extras to repair your own weapon.

In hardcoe mode Stimpaks heal you over time and you can only have the health boost from one Stimpak active at any time (taking a second only increases the duration of the healing effect not the amount healed per second). Survival skill will let you make a variety of foods that have weight but can be stacked to increase the amount healed per second.

Radiation isn't as big an issue as in FO3. There are a few areas with high radiation but they can be safely avoided if you don't feel like exploring them. Just know there is often some very nice loot in those irradiated areas.

Modding a weapon can have a huge impact. The lowly Varmint Rifle with a Night Vision Scope and Silencer fitted can become a real killer.

Sneak, like in all Fallout games, is almost easy mode. A successful sneak attack will do the Base Damage plus Critical Damage x2 for a body shot and x4 for a head shot. Basically a sneak attack head shot can do x8 damage with most weapons.

i play FNV and FO3 in normal mode. but FNV is alot more challenging imo. i find it alot harder keeping good karma. ammo, and stimpacks seem alot harder to find. bottle caps seems easier to find right away however imo. i maximized one skill at a time in FO3, doesnt seem to work as well playing FNV.

I'd like to second this. I wish someone had told me this on my first playthrough. Speech is NOT a dump skill in FNV. In general you don't have to be a one-man killing machine like in FO3, once you pick up companions they will probably do most of the killing for you so feel free to put some points into ancillary skills like Medicine and Science (the latter especially opens up many nice dialogue options).

Save a lot. Not just autosaves and quicksaves but actual saves. Other than the infamous bugginess almost all the advlt NPCs are non-essential and you don't want to accidentally fail a quest because you kill an NPC associated with it.

Love and obey him

Fallout 3 =/= Fallout New Vegas.

Do NOT go over the hill were the graveyard is....be warned.
Stick to the roads until you feel ready to fight violent critters,take your time, listen to the NPC so you get the full story and do NOT believe NCR propaganda

Do *not* rush through the game! If you do that then you might not be strong enough to defeat the harder, lategame enemies. I did rush to New Vegas and had some trouble with the later quests. Also, don't expect too much of the Strip and don't see it as "the place to be". Of course you are safe from "the wasteland" there, but it isn't the endgoal and you can't/shouldn't be there forever (especially not on higher difficulties + hardcoe mode).

Shoot first, rob the corpse.

Quicksave often.

This! Save often and in different slots

Barter can play second fiddle to other skills for a good chunk of the game if you use Weapon Repair Kits to their fullest advantage, Large and expensive weapons yield enormous returns if fully repaired and a broken weapon needs 5 repair kits. Eventually, even in a vanilla playthrough, you will have dozens and dozens of repair kits, so don't just sell off weapons with unusually high resale value. Your long-game will thank me, Treat repair kits as a more accessible version of Alien Epoxy.

You have any play style quirks that would benefit from an equipment survey or are you totally disinterested in a heads up as to items?

Go north
If you survive you will return a beast.