So. I played FO1 waaaaay back in the day. (And toyed around with it a bit a couple months ago.) I've been playing FO3 for the last while. Got inspired to try FO2, got a copy, installed it....


...and I've got a few questions.

1) Is there any way to shove someone out of your way? Just had fun getting pinned in a tiny room by my "helper" Sulik. And the jerk just kept standing there. Room was too small for me to walk much further in, and I couldn't seem to get him to move out of the doorway. :/


2) Is combat supposed to be this crushingly difficult? (Difficulties set to normal/normal). I tagged Small Guns, Lockpick, Speech. And then the vast majority of the beginning is all Melee, since you don't have a gun. Got through the Trials and first couple areas of Karmath (gecko grounds/refuel still; first couple areas of rats) by using the incredibly cheap "stab and retreat" method. Poke, move back five hexes, repeat ad nauseum; couple dozen attacks needed per fight. Of course, Golden Geckos ripped me a new one, since they move faster. And then I got to the big rats and rat king, and just died, died, died. Can't afford any armor better than a jacket. Don't have above a 40-50% melee hit rate, and then enemy does 2-3 times as much damage as me.

Finally got past the rats with Sulik (barely scraqed together enough money to free him), and then went to find Smiley...... okay, giant fields of toxic waste, massive radiation poisoning, and golden geckos doing enough damage (even with the two of us) that I practically have to walk all the way back to Karmath and rest up (2-3+ days resting?!?!) after every two geckos. And that's using the 10mm pistol I finally found. Doesn't help that I only get one shot per turn (9 AP isn't quite enough.)

Seriously.... is it supposed to be this much of a PITA to do anything? I know I'm just starting out, but these fights seem like I'm a few levels too low for them.
(Currently level 4)


...it really seems alot harder than the beginning of FO1. There, you had a gun and knife. Killed the rats, went to Shady Sands, shot up the scorpions, and then shot up the Raider gang. Needed a couple reloads on the gang, but it wasn't *terrible*. And that was *without* a follower. FO2 feels alot more unforgiving.

You played FO1 but never played FO2??????? Never heard it go down like that before

Yes, when you've got the 'look' arrow selected, click and hold your left mouse button for a list of 'actions' one of those should be a push. You can do this to neutral NPCs too. You couldn't do this in FO1.

Not meaning to sound condescending, but you can't expect to win every battle you come across, you need to pick your battles. The start of FO2 is melee/unarmed-centric, just don't bite off what you can't chew, you can always come back later with better equipment and experience

Again, pick your battles. Rescuing smiley is very difficult at early levels, because golden geckos are actually quite tough (which you're probably aware ). You'll be able to tailor your character to a more gun-centric style later, perks are good

That would be the general jist. In a way it's good, that's what I think anyway. I don't like expecting that I can kick anything's ass in my immediate vicinity just because it 'feels right' that I'll be able to considering the association of a location to the beginning of the game. You can always go back and do something you couldn't prior. You can also really really really try really hard, and sometimes that's enough to scraqe through, where there's a will there's a way, afterall, but sometimes you have to cut your losses and run.

FO1 was alot easier in this sense. I like FO2s spin on the early-game. But it's not forcing you to be hardcoe, you just need to know what you can take on at any given moment.

Lol Its annoying I know. The only thing I can say is to find and get the APA at the beginning of the game. Its rather easy, just head SW on San Fran's town map and you'll see a man wearing metal armor. He'll give you a quest to steal some vertibird plans from the enclave at Navarro. Leave San Fran and head NW to get there. Note: in order to do this you need to have speech in the upper 50+% and no followers with you. Now when you get there do nothing and save the game first, (You have to make a speech check on the man there and you only get one chance, in the conversation choose the topic that talks about the enclave), doing so allows you to enter the compound easily. Head north from the gas station to the base and give the password to the guard. After that enter any building that has an elevator on the ground and use it. The armory is in the NW part of the underground bunker and has the APA, a laser right, combat shotgun, shotgun ammo and energy cells.

Grats, now you have 40 AC and some new toys.

I have a question not mentioned above. So, I've played a lot of FO3, but not so much 1 or 2, and I was wondering how the condition of an item and repair comes into play. Does repair only work on things on the map (like in FO3, if you have high enough repair you can repair a broken door), or can you repair the condition of items like guns and armor? Even more, do you HAVE to do this? I ask because on my first play through I used a guide, and did the quick trip to Navarro to get me some APA MkII, and then gave the APA MkI to Sulik. Well, I was running around in some cave (toxic caves?) and I noticed that Sulik was taking damage...strange I thought, as my APA is protecting my sensitive feet from this noxious green goo, so I check his inventory. Low and behold, he no longer has any armor! Is this a glitch, or does armor go bust after awhile like in FO3?

Incidentally, its quite possible to use the Push command while in combat as a means of control for willful NPCs'. It uses AP's though (and they have to have some in order to be pushed.)

http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj125/Gizmojunk/Animation1.gif

That's all well and good, but I wouldn't suggest power gaming for a first playthrough.

You don't repair any equipment in the originals. If you're very unlucky, you can get a critical failure in combat and the weapon you're using will blow up, but that's got nothing to do with condition, which doesn't exist. When you give the armour to Sulik, go into dialogue, then into the combat intrerface screen, and tell him to wear the best armour he's carrying. The armour an NPC is currently wearing will be in their dialogue combat interface screen. You may also need to give Sulik some boots. I'm not sure if ADVPA fully protects you from walking through green goo, you may have still had some boots in your inventory.

To begin with he said he was having a hard time playing the game, I just gave him an option he could use. It really doesn't mater what you or I think he should do as long as he enjoys himself.

And yes, APA prevents you from taking any damage while walking over the goo, just need to do as Chris suggested and "equip" it from his inventory.

I did, and it worked for awhile, but then it was gone. Later I put combat armor in his inventory, and he equipped that.

On a side note, when you first go to Klamath from Arroyo, do you need to do anything special to go from map screen, into the Klamath screen (aside from clicking on the town/map button)? Because I can't switch from the map to the town anywhere but at Arroyo, and I'm hoping I just forgot to do something, not that I found another bug that results in a start over (I already tried reloading).

You tried clicking on the green arrow that signifies your party?

Thanks for the advice, all.


I think my combat problem stemmed from the idea that, like FO1, I should do all the quests at the town hub that I got to. So, of course I'd try to get Smiley, and kill the Rats, and.... guess I'll move on to the Den and see what's up there....

Boots wear down in the goo after a while. I think if you equip armour you 'take damage' if you don't have boots in your inventory, it's just that you can be taking 0 damage if you're wearing strong enough armour. I haven't been in a position to go back to the caves with APA on though, so I'll need to try that out.

I some towns when you click the green triangles from the world map, you'll then goto another screen where you can pick a certain part of that town to appear in via some more green triangles, it only happens after you visit a town more than once, you can only spawn in a different part of the town provided you've visted that part already.

I got another question:

when I think of playing Fallout 1 & 2 back then on windows 98, I remember you could choose to aim in combat by left-clicking the equipped weapon (a crossair appeared in the box). afaik it was possible to en- and disable this feature in the preferences - but I don't remember how!
so now, with the new releases, I can't activate aiming. what settings are needed to enable aiming? is it possible it all?

You do it by right-clicking the weapon, not left-clicking. Unless you have the Fast Shot trait.

yeah sorry, meant right-clicking..

so, you're saying it only works without the fast shot trait? that's... quite possible... iirc I hardly played without using that trait. :wacko:

Heh, same thing happened to me the first time I played, I decided to use fast shot, and ended up starting a new game because I couldn't do aimed shots.

Yes. You should just read the description of the trait carefully.

Every trait you pick at character creation gives you an advantage or a bonus for something, but it also has a downside. Some have a bigger bonus with a bigger downside, but the pro's and cons are pretty even. It's really the first example of choice and consequence in the games.

I think the only Traits that does not even have an upside or down side is Bloody Mess. Does not impact ya in a way and it doesn't hold the player down either. Just pointing it out.

OP, Try the hit and run. Spend One turn attacking and spend Two/Three turn running away. It might help. :shrug:

I stand corrected :tops: It makes only a cosmetic difference, but doesn't affect your character in any way.

you're probably right. but I tend to stifle anything negative anyway



except keeping you from selecting a more useful trait
on my old german copy I used it only once.. (since there were NO MESS AT ALL )

But that's the thing with traits, you can choose one, or two, or none at all Sometimes I go through without traits. You can't really call it gimping, because you essentially miss out on the downers aswell. I think Tactics comes into its own with the trait system. When building a squad, traits do well to make certain recruits stand out and sell their specialisations that little bit more.

Like "stumpy" he had the "one hander" trait, and was an Demolitions guy.

You know, it's funny, but after installing Fallout 1, I kept getting killed right at the beginning because I kept running into rad scorpions with non-combat characters and got sick of the game. It took me months before I went back and tried it over again. Where as Fallout 2 went rather smoothly for me ... until I ran out of time because I kept forgetting to use my car to travel, always figuring I'd go back for it when I needed the inventory space. Oops. So, as with so many things in life, your millage may vary.

That said, Fallout 2 can be a bit rough for non-melee characters at the beginning if you think you're supposed to kill everything you see. The fact is, you don't have to kill much. Especially if you have a high Agility so that you have plenty of Action Points, you can quite often run past things. And, in fact, sometimes it's better to run past them. I'll give a perfect example:

Until you rescue Smiley, you don't have the skinning perk. So any gecko you kill before freeing him is in essence a waste. Especially the golden geckos. So what I do is intentionally get the attention of the geckos on the cave entrance and lock them in the supply closet. They can't open the door. It's a tight thing to do and takes good timing and lots of AP, but it's like five or six golden gecko pelts saved when you come back later for them. Likewise in second floor, before getting to Smiley I always get all of the geckos from all three paths to chase me, before ditching them down one of the side paths. That way I can then just calmly walk Smiley out of the darn place without killing any of the geckos. This can be quite a challenge, but money-wise is well worth it.

Just be sure to have the rubber boots on!

And then once you have the skinning perk, come back to reap the harvest.

The same as getting through the initial trial. Those scorpions are something fierce to a non-combat character. But the thing is, you don't have to face them ... at all. The worst that you actually have to face are the ants. The scorps are always on offshoots of the path to take. So just skip them. And, in fact, with high enough skills and traits (I don't recall exactly what you need) you can even talk your way out of the fight at the end of the trial.

But also in Arroyo are characters who will train you in melee skills. So sometimes it's even just beneficial to race through the trial, get trained, and then go back through the temple to clear it out. You get the same exp either way.

And, of course, once you make it to Klamath you can steal Vic's pipe gun from his shack. It's a crappy firearm, but it's better than nothing.

For that matter, a highly overlooked skill that makes Fallout 2 a real breeze is Steal. Pickpocketing gives you so much freaking ammo it's ridiculous. It also gives you plenty of money in the form of things to sell. And it even gives you a few weapon upgrades before you find them the legit way. I just can't play the game anymore without investing at least 30% in Steal by the time I hit Klamath. (Which, consequently, is about all you need in Steal if you don't mind hitting the save button a lot before performing your next theft, and only stealing one item at a time.)

Funnily enough, the Steal skill is also one of the most entertaining ways to be an assassin in Fallout 2. Sure, you can super-stimpack people to death easily enough without the Steal skill. But it's far more entertaining (to me) to use Steal to plant armed bombs on people. It can get you into trouble if it doesn't kill them in one blast, because often they'll magically figure out who did it then and chase you down ... unless you use another little trick. Leave the map. By going to another area, the bomb is almost always immediately triggered then, and more importantly, the NPC you planted it on won't chase you down. So then you can go back and plant another, repeat as necessary, stir, mix, bake, enjoy. Leave the super stimpacks for combat.

That's the real beauty of Fallout. (At least 1 and 2.) The game isn't just about combat. There are always plenty of fun ways to get around combat. It's not just a hack-and-slash game. It certainly can be, if that's how you want to play it. But it can also very much be a thinking man's game.

EDIT: Oh, and for the record, having the Advanced Power Armor on doesn't protect you from the green goo in that cave. I just recently went there and was quite surprised by that! You still needs those darned rubber boots of all things. I'm not sure about any of the other armors though. It could quite possibly just be a bug.

EDIT2: Also, really, don't do the gimpy thing and grab the Advanced Power Armor right at the beginning. Yes, it can be done. You don't even have to talk your way past the gas station guy. He's pretty lousy in a fight and you can easily take him down and then use the secret passage in his shack to sneak into the base. It's easy enough to start the game that way. And with some of the best energy weapons, the Mega Power Fist, and the Super Sledge all right there for the taking in the base and/or in San Fran, it really starts you off on an easy path. But it really takes a lot of the fun out of the game. I mean really, where's the challenge when you start out with nearly the best of everything?

Also, it requires a rather lot of save/reload scummery, because running into even one Enclave patrol will likely end with you plasma'd to death.

And even if you can outrun the plasma weapons, there is usually one guy with a Gauss pistol, who would kill highly likely you instantly if you're not wearing any armor.

And then of course there are Deathclaw families, Fire Geckos, Aliens, Floaters, Centaurs...They definitely made sure going to Navarro was a real pain