Codex of honor : Fallout: New Vegas

» Thu May 03, 2012 5:02 pm

I've yesterday started another NV playthrough. My protagonist is an ex-sheriff, but just like Meyers, he thought that justice was too slow sometimes and had used his own law sometimes. However, he never shot an opponent in the back, meaning he never shot somebody who didn't see / notice him. I decided that I'll do my entire playthrough this way and I find it very interesting so far. I have never used a sneak attack but have always openly attacked an enemy. I've also decided not to use VATS.

That doesn't mean that I don't sneak at all, I just don't attack from a sneak mode. For example, today I was sneaking over the Primm rollercoaster and I spotted a PG that was turned away from me. I stood up, but he still didn't notice me so I shot past his head. Of course he then turned around and we had an interesting western-style duel that finished with him falling down the roller coaster. So in my current playthrough I decided that each opponent deserves a fair chance of defeating himself. Animals excluded, because my PC is hunter by profession too, so sneak attacks are allowed there.

A day before, in Goodsprings, I was helping Ringo defeating PGs, but I decided to get rid of Cobb before the fight. Although I shot close to his head, he didn't react and turn hostile, so I decided to shoot him in the leg and then we continued the duel.The damage was minor, because I was shooting from a distance, so let's say that I gave him a fair chance of self-defense.

Has anyone else used this and what do you think about it?

» Thu May 03, 2012 6:41 pm

I think it sounds very interesting! I'm curious though, what's your stance on Feral Ghouls?

Oh, and could you tell us more about your sheriff. Like his name, affiliations etc.

» Thu May 03, 2012 6:35 pm

I think it sounds very interesting! I'm curious though, what's your stance on Feral Ghouls?

Oh, and could you tell us more about your sheriff. Like his name, affiliations etc.

I haven't run into feral ghouls yet (I've finished Primm today), but it's an interesting question. Sincerely, I haven't thought about it (yet), but I guess I'll try the same as with humans, assuming that they were also human beings once.

My protagonist's name is Gregory Baxter, his visual apperance is on purpose not anything special: middle-aged balding guy with ginger hair, green eyes and gunslinger moustache. :smile:

I only set his height (scale) a lot higher.
I'll write his backstory, but it's a long reading, so I'll put in spoilers so those that aren't interested don't need to read it all:

Spoiler

He was a courier already once he was very young and delivered few items here and there...I'm writing such beginning to justify the game ending, let's say. Then he got married, got a son and settled down. He's a doctor by primary profession and was working as such in a small town (I didn't give it a name) on a border of the NCR territory. The area was overrun with raiders, so he eventually stopped being a doctor (he got an assistant which showed to be capable enough) and became sheriff's deputy. As years passed, he realized that due to sheriff's laziness and strict law-obeying many criminals weren't convicted of their crimes and the rich ones were not accused of crimes at all, because sheriff was afraid to them. With help of local citizens he overthrew the sheriff and assumed the new position. Many known criminals were brought to justice in a few days and the most dangerous of them were sentenced to death - actually death in a duel. Baxter gave everyone a chance to defeat himself the best as they could. As time passed, criminal rate in the region declined and Baxter became a fearsome sheriff. After about ten years, NCR expanded their territory and sent their soldiers to protect the town, so Baxter's not completely law-obedient actions were found out. He was betryed by some influential town citizens that had their own interest with the region and thought that sheriff that sees and hears everything was in their way. He was stripped of his rank and forced to left the town, leaving his family behind, eventually becoming bounty hunter for a few years until he heard of a bounty hunter position in Mojave (Mod - NV Bounties). He decided to travel there, accepting a courier job in between.You can conclude the story from the rest of here...

Affiliations:none so far, will probably stick with the NCR because despite they removed him from his sheriff position, he doesn't see them as bad as he'll see the Legion, House (he's not into fancy hotel suites :biggrin:

), neither he'll be interested in ruling independent Vegas.
Tags: Guns, Medicine, Survival
I'm not exactly sure about SPECIAL, I'm not at home now, but I think it's like that
S 7
P 6 (however using a hat - so it's actually 7 almost always)
E 7
C 4
I 4
A 9 (was 8 originally, but I used intense training) - agility is high because I wanted high Guns at the beginning already
L 4

» Thu May 03, 2012 10:49 am

I've yesterday started another NV playthrough. My protagonist is an ex-sheriff, but just like Meyers, he thought that justice was too slow sometimes and had used his own law sometimes. However, he never shot an opponent in the back, meaning he never shot somebody who didn't see / notice him. I decided that I'll do my entire playthrough this way and I find it very interesting so far. I have never used a sneak attack but have always openly attacked an enemy. I've also decided not to use VATS.

That doesn't mean that I don't sneak at all, I just don't attack from a sneak mode. For example, today I was sneaking over the Primm rollercoaster and I spotted a PG that was turned away from me. I stood up, but he still didn't notice me so I shot past his head. Of course he then turned around and we had an interesting western-style duel that finished with him falling down the roller coaster. So in my current playthrough I decided that each opponent deserves a fair chance of defeating himself. Animals excluded, because my PC is hunter by profession too, so sneak attacks are allowed there.

A day before, in Goodsprings, I was helping Ringo defeating PGs, but I decided to get rid of Cobb before the fight. Although I shot close to his head, he didn't react and turn hostile, so I decided to shoot him in the leg and then we continued the duel.The damage was minor, because I was shooting from a distance, so let's say that I gave him a fair chance of self-defense.

Has anyone else used this and what do you think about it?

I like the idea. As for VATS, i love that somebody finally come to he′s senses and saw that shooters are not supposed to be playid with a device that pauses time and aims for you. It is simply boring, i dont see how anyone can use VATS.

Anyways love the idea.

» Thu May 03, 2012 9:17 am

I agree and for some reason, while I was playing with VATS in previous playthroughs, I always aimed for the head - it got really boring fast. I'll go without VATS for animals / creatures too, except when throwing a dynamite - I think it is hard to hit anything without VATS.

P.S.
I'm going to job now - I work at night today, I can't wait to return home tomorrow and continue playing - I haven't been so excited for a long time when playing a computer game.

» Thu May 03, 2012 7:53 pm

So far it has been quite challening, especially right now. I decided to go after my first bounty and was trying to sneak past some cazadors that are located near Makeshift Great Khan Camp. It was night around 23:00.Things didn't go smoothly and they spotted me.I quickly used stealth boy but one of them got too close to me, so I was spotted. I thought I was dead for sure, but surprisingly, I survived without reloading the game (no reloads so far). I stood up and started running backwards with Varmint rifle and shooting at cazadores. Probably by pure luck I somehow crippled Cazador's wings so I slowed him down and then I was able to finish the young one easily. Then I killed old one too, but was quite wouned and I hid behind some rock so Vipers from Bonnie Springs wouldn't notice me. However, two fire geckos spotted me and started running towards me. Seeing no other choice, I ran towards Bonnie Springs to get attention of Vipers so luckily some of them got distracted by geckos. In the meantime I defeated two Vipers that went after me, but then again two fire geckos (the same, of course) that have killed Vipers went for me. I managed to kill them, but I was close to death. I then searched Bonnie springs and found some victims of Vipers, but I'm still missing one of the leaders, perhaps I missed him somewhere because it was night and I'm using Nevada skies mod which makes nights really dark as they should be.It was challening, but unique and satisfying experience, I'd really recommend this style of playing to some gamers that may be getting bored of VATS as I did.

» Thu May 03, 2012 7:43 am

What constitutes an "animal"? Could super mutants be "animals" that should be hunted down like dogs? Or what about deathclaws? Spore carriers? Cazadors?

I'm interested in your code of honor playthrough OP. Would just like to know who and what you think is deserving of a fair fight.

» Thu May 03, 2012 6:47 pm

Yes, I wrote it quite unclearly. The reasons is that when I started I didn't made my mind about all types of enemies, I 'polished' things while already playing.
Super Mutants deserve a fair fight as do feral ghouls & spore carriers - actually - all creatures that were human beings once, deserve a fair fight. My protagonist also sees himself as some kind of a liberator, meaning that by killing a ghoul / mutant / spore carrier he actually 'releases' themselves from agony - their prolonged life. But he still gives them a fair chance to fight back, giving them honorable death.

Animals, mutated or not and creatures (deathclaws etc) are seen as inferior beings, most of them that can provide meat, are seen as a form of survival, meaning that when possible, my PC loots their meat and skins their hide, making food for himself and selling hide. So they can be attacked from sneak mode. Code of honor applies only to humans or beings that were human once. Maybe I forgot to include some creatures that were human once, but I think you get the idea.

» Thu May 03, 2012 9:55 am

I agree and for some reason, while I was playing with VATS in previous playthroughs, I always aimed for the head - it got really boring fast. I'll go without VATS for animals / creatures too, except when throwing a dynamite - I think it is hard to hit anything without VATS.

P.S.
I'm going to job now - I work at night today, I can't wait to return home tomorrow and continue playing - I haven't been so excited for a long time when playing a computer game.

Look man, ever playid shooters? and i mean real shooters? i have since i was 6, and if u play like that in fallout u will get good in no time. Currently i am playing on hardcoe with very hard, never using VATS and still i havent had any problems on this save (im in HH now, and havent done much of the MQ beside going and saving the Khans)

Its easy if u practice. I shall soon make a topic about how bad VATS is so people can maybe look up to your example and try to play games like fallout like u and i do.

» Thu May 03, 2012 5:12 pm

Look man, ever playid shooters? and i mean real shooters? i have since i was 6, and if u play like that in fallout u will get good in no time. Currently i am playing on hardcoe with very hard, never using VATS and still i havent had any problems on this save (im in HH now, and havent done much of the MQ beside going and saving the Khans)

Its easy if u practice. I shall soon make a topic about how bad VATS is so people can maybe look up to your example and try to play games like fallout like u and i do.

Fallout 3 vats was overpowered. I use VATS cuz it sorta gives me that old fallout feel.

» Thu May 03, 2012 2:02 pm

Fallout 3 vats was overpowered. I use VATS cuz it sorta gives me that old fallout feel.

YEAH [censored] FALLOUT ROCKS. :fallout:

But it could do without VATS :down:

It was fun at first cause the chinematic feel was ok done at that time, but it gets boring easily.

» Thu May 03, 2012 6:27 am

Half the time I totally forget that there is something called VATS. I am used to just using my gun sight or scope to kill stuff (Half Life games etc). I love, love, love to use my Gobi Campaign Sniper Rifle, looking through the scope, lining up the shot, and then hitting my long distance target... then watching the shot through the kill cam! So satisfying!

Plus, when I'm using a melee weapon, it just feels weird using vats, since I see that as an "extended weapon's scope". I usually just rush my enemies with a melee weapon and then just slash and burn them with Gehenna.

@ Lopov87 - I really like your idea about an Honorable play-through. However, I personally put Feral Ghouls and Spore Carriers on the creature list. There is nothing "human" left and they act purely on instinct now. So, yea, I really can't stand Feral Ghouls, so I will not give them any advantage! LOL :wink:

» Thu May 03, 2012 9:19 am

As R.J. said, as I play without VATS for some time, I got better and better. I reloaded three times so far because of death, once by deathclaw that somehow appeared out of nowhere (or at least I didn't see it before), 2nd time by nightkins in a cave (slow Tab-button) and 3rd time by some nightstalker in sulphur caves that got stuck in the wall and I couldn't finish him off. Then he magically jumped out of the wall and out of sudden he attacked me from behind.

@Agrona - I'm thinking too that I'll modify my codex a bit, concerning ghouls and spore carriers. Let's say that my sheriff did a bit of thinking and concluded that ferals aren't worth an honorable death. Haven't run into any spore people so far.

» Thu May 03, 2012 6:19 am

Fallout isn't supposed to be an FPS first. It's supposed to be an RPG, the shooting comes second. And VATS were a fundamental part of the old games, no way they're removing it from the new games.

Besides, the shooting is pretty slow and clunky. And twitchy. This is a game where conserving ammo is vital, and would find myself using about twice as much without VATS.

» Thu May 03, 2012 7:43 pm

As R.J. said, as I play without VATS for some time, I got better and better. I reloaded three times so far because of death, once by deathclaw that somehow appeared out of nowhere (or at least I didn't see it before), 2nd time by nightkins in a cave (slow Tab-button) and 3rd time by some nightstalker in sulphur caves that got stuck in the wall and I couldn't finish him off. Then he magically jumped out of the wall and out of sudden he attacked me from behind.

@Agrona - I'm thinking too that I'll modify my codex a bit, concerning ghouls and spore carriers. Let's say that my sheriff did a bit of thinking and concluded that ferals aren't worth an honorable death. Haven't run into any spore people so far.

Excactly training does actually make you better LOL. I only use it to scout camps or spot my enemies.

Fallout isn't supposed to be an FPS first. It's supposed to be an RPG, the shooting comes second. And VATS were a fundamental part of the old games, no way they're removing it from the new games.

Besides, the shooting is pretty slow and clunky. And twitchy. This is a game where conserving ammo is vital, and would find myself using about twice as much without VATS.

Currection, fallout wasnt supposed to be a FPS. Fallout was a 2nd person game and then of course u got that VATS [censored]. Now its 1st/3rd person which makes it more focused on combat then ever before. Suits me well

Fallout 3 combat svcked, but Obsidian pushed that on the edge with their combat and made it more combat oriented, which means more funzzzzzz.
I dont see VATS as a fun thing thats all, so i dont understand how people would want to use it.