Some nice tips. I tend to use vault111.com but your link is much more in-depth! I tend to design my character in paper and use the following logic:

What perks do I need and what SPECIAL are they on.

Take those numbers (n) and do n-1 except in the case of endurance.

[I do this because "You're SPECIAL" and bobblehead in early game fixes 2 fields almost instantly].

Total up how many stats I need to finish off that build which is usually 4-9 that are really needed at the start. (I ignore STR until later for example with a gun character).

Take Idiot Savant for low INT characters then do stats for levelling.

Or go straight into stats for high INT characters.

After that my choices are "reaction" based. My evaluation of my own weaknesses and hindsight for upcoming difficult events dictate where the perks start to go.

?????
Profit

There's a lot of random, often unavoidable, ways to die in this game. I wouldn't have been interested until after I finished a "normal" playthrough. You might want to consider playing it Dead is a Really Bad Dream, instead of a Dead is Dead play. Save when you sleep in a proper bed. If you die, you go back to that save. Waking up in a wasteland would give most people bad dreams about dying horribly.

Okay so the realism mod is ridiculous!

Name: General Lu Bu

PCN: Mojave Courier

Rule Set:

Survival Difficulty

Darker Nights (mod)

Real World Damages (mod)

No Fast Travel

No Container Abuse

Character Starting Stats: 1,3,3,6,2,6,7

PCLOD: Level 2

Killed by a raider attacking the Concord Musuem

Going to go for the same character build again and change the damage mod...

By the way, you who play with restricted weight, how do you make any money in the game if you don't scavange anything to sell?

i was actually thinking about recording this attack i had on raider settlement with dude in power armor in fatman...

here's the strategy (if possible), attack from the an elevated position preferably on something with a large front surface like top of a building or big rock/cliff

when he fires the fat man (unless it hits u square in the face, which it did to me once, omg i wish i had recorded that, made me laugh so hard), it will either hit the front surface of what your standing on (keepin u safe from blast) or it will fly right by you in an ascending manner so unless there's a large object right behind you that it can it, you will be safe

it shouldn't take long for him to fire his 3-5 mini nukes and then be out of ammo, then you can engage as u plz

obviously this wont work for an enemy posted in an elevated position like a tower or something

i usually use melee, 10mm pistol (better damage & accur), .38 auto pipe rifle (so much ammo), shotgun (high close range dam), laser rifle (high dam energy, decent range), and sniper rifle

every once in a while i might swap one of these out for something else depending on the scenario, but this is my base

in situations where i know i'm gonna need to break out the heavy stuff, i'll go back to settlement and get my power armor and whatever heavy gun(s) i think i need (which i keep stored at settlement)

sometimes i'll store my big guns with my settlement guards who will then make short work of anything that attacks xD, fun to watch

I'm making my game a lot more challenging/fun by using survival mode, not using local leader perks for settlements and not using perks that effect damage

also...i remapped VATS to other side of keyboard so i dont even use it accidently

if you're going to go as far to make this game difficult and play DiD, then you should try and assess your targets visually and if you think its a good idea to try to attack, u jus better have an escape plan

I think VATS is a very cool mechanic, but when i'm playing for immersion and difficulty i wish i could manually disable it

Artfu1D0dger, do you play DiD? You can't really see how powerful an enemy just by looking at it, especially when it comes to creatures.

I was thinking a bit of maybe applying a new rule, something I did when playing Skyrim, that was to not go into the inventory screen when in battle (and by battle I mean in a situation where you are totally exposed and there are enemies shootring right at you, it can be ok if you can duck down behind a cover and are not in immediate danger).

This way you would have to have slots ready with your combat equipment, like stimpacks and chems so you can use them in realtime. I think this will make the game a lot harder though, in those times when I have really got suprised by a super strong enemy that almost kills me in one hit I usually go into my inventory to first take a deap breath and try to assess the situation I am in, then pump up on chems. But this way you would not be able to do that. Feels a bit scary to try this

Btw, one of my most epic moments was when I was exploring a sort of flooded factory, it is one of the rare buildings of being part of the main map so there is no loading to go into this complex (even though it is not very big), either way there was some small critters like bloatflies and roaches etc hanging around, nothing dangerous, so I went in and explored it fully, then on my way out, just when I step out of the opening suddenly two bigass Mirlurk variants (not sure what they where called, warriors, kings or something, but I had not seen them before and they looked really mean!) pop out of the ground, I jump into Vats to see their lvl, they are both lvl 22 with a big red skull indicating they are way above my level (I was at about lvl 5). I panic and run back into the building as far as I can, and they continue after on the catwalk down. It is not very big though and I am at a dead end, I quickly run back and place one of my lunchbox mines by the opening. Run back to the dead end that is a small room with some windows, I can see that both these disgusting creatures are now standing on the catwalk looking down on me, I have some luck with their AI here being a bit confused so I unload everything I have in one of them, when his health is around 50% he suddenly starts to get a move on and crawls down the walkway toward me, he goes over my mine that takes him to about 1/4 health, then he is almost on me and I inject everything I have, physchojet, buttmentas and the rest, I manage to take him down while in slowmotion. After he is dead I quickly run out and replace the blown mine with my last lunchbox mine and repeat the procedure with the other creature. Man it was a real terrifying fight, and I was just lucky that they got a bit stuck or I would have been eaten in two bites

I tend to sell mutfruits back to the vendor in abernathy farm.

"Obituary" updated. Please feel free to post updates to your characters. I'll try and keep this as up-to-date as possible.

Cool reading updates here I normally don't play with Here's mine.

Kate has somehow miraculously survived her ordeal until now. After her near death immolation at the Corvega factory, she went on south, hooked up with some brotherhood dudes, did a few missions looking for tech but mostly found ways to kill herself. After almost succeeding and heading back, she was very nearly sniped to death by a Gunner while his friends kept me pinned down. Thanks to a long and lucky headshot with a cranked up laser musket he got blasted, and I got my hands on my first sniper rifle. Life improved after that.

Getting across to Downtown Boston almost ended in her death as raiders in power-armor evidently is still a major health hazard. Good thing grenades still seem to work. This time she found a tricked out 10mm handgun with all the whistle's and bells attached, and was merry on her way. She got her hands on a missile launcher, proceeded to blow up a few legendary enemies, and receive nothing cool. She almost died again. Especially to that glowing ghoul that spit radiation and didn't mind shotgun-wounds to the head. Now she's lvl 17, been to Vault 81 and back again, bought a place to live and enough materials to do a little bit of crafting. She's down to her last ~500 caps, but in good health and gradually becoming deeply religious.

My ridiculous self-restrictions:

That green text you're using doesn't work for those of us who don't use the dark background. Please darken the text if you want people to actually read what you posted.

Name: General Lu Bu

PCN: Mojave Courier

Rule Set:

Survival Difficulty

Darker Nights (mod)

Real World Damages (mod)

No Fast Travel

No Container Abuse

Character Starting Stats: 1,3,3,6,2,6,7

PCLOD: Level 2

Name: General Lu Bu

PCN: Mojave Courier(1)

Rule Set:

Survival Difficulty

Darker Nights (mod)

Create Your Own Difficulty (200%/200%)

No Fast Travel

No Container Abuse

No Companion Abuse

Character Starting Stats: 1,3,3,6,2,6,7

PCLOD: Level 11

Killed by a molerat triggering a lunchbox mine...

No Container Abuse

What does this mean?

This sounds fun!

Saving a spot. I may join soon

It basically means I estimate how much a container (from companions to boxes to safes) can truly hold and can only put a certain amount in it. For example a Fat Man can't fit in a dog... or 500 mutfruits in a safe (they would go off) so they have to be in a cooler and hold maximum of 75.

I actually forgot to add No Companion Abuse, which basically means if a companion goes down in battle I can't use them anymore, they are just another settler.

Sadly Kate was killed today by a legendary raider sporting an explosive automatic handgun (and all of her friends). She was investigating a non-descript tower only minutes after signing on with the brotherhood, and opting *not* to use her newly aquired brotherhood power armor for a simple recon field trip. Shot to death in a small kitchen she finally died with a smile on her face, high as a kite and drugged out of her mind.

Name: Slapstick83
PCN: Kate
Rule Set:
Hard
Gameplay overhaul - Arbitration (mod)
Carrying restrictions (self-inflicted)
Weapon equipped restrictions (self-inflicted)
Limited Fast Travel
Character Starting Stats: 2,3,9,3,6,3,2
PCLOD: Level 21

That stinks because to me it looks like the text that you see on computer screens in Fallout.

What should I do?

So I think i'm lvl 6, went by the quarry where you fix the water pipes; upon completing that mission two mirelurks jumped out and i accidentally killed Sully and barely made it out alive, i was finally able to take out the mirelurks, but i'm not sure what's gonna happen now that Sully's dead

should i just roll with it or would reverting to saved game so i dont kill Sully violate terms of DiD? xD

xD...ok, i'll roll with it

guess we both need to learn to be more carful...not sure what i was thinking nailing the mirelurk with a molotov while Sully was right next to it xD

Binoculars are in game. I found a pair at a small raider camp close to a bunker area. Just sitting on the railing waiting for me to pick them up.

I play with really bad armor and my endurance is at 2... not to mention my agility is also at 2...

My character wouldn't last an hour doing this, if I am not wearing power armor I get one shot killed all day long... And I never wear power armor... Maybe I will try this once just to see how horribly I fail.