Just ordered FO2 for about six bucks, and Im frickin stoked man! I gotta wait about two weeks though

I played the original when it first came out, but dont remember much of the details

Tell me advise, tips, and all things awesome about FO2

(As I said, I played the original, so Im already very aware that its very different from FO3)

FO2 - One of my all-time favorites.

In the beginning of the game , you have to walk all over Northern California, Southeren Oregon, and even Nevada. It takes months of game time going back and forth. But then you get the car! I loved that car, zip, zoom right to town. Liked the "real" craps tables in the den too. Hated the wanamingos, forgot the town. (redding?)

As I recall, theres a way to beat the game very quickly (a few hours of real time), but I'll keep it a secret.

Tips:
1) talk to everbody
2) do all the quests that you can in one area before moving on as travel in the begining takes 4 EVER.
3) don't be afraid to run away from random encounters, they can be very deadly.
4) When I played, the caravans were buggy, so I stayed away from them. Instead of travelling the wastes alone for months to get to a town, you could hitch up with a travelling caravan. But you'd have to go through several random encounters, and if at any one of them, a stray bullet, from one of your groups shotguns hit one of the caraven guys, or the caravan leader was killed, you cold get stuck on the map and have to reload (from many days/months prior).
5) build your APs and get the Bonus Move perk so you can shoot and run away from enemies in the same turn. It will help to keep you alive. You will learn this early on when you have to take on the gekos in Arroyo.
6) Have fun (this should be tip #1)

Where did I put that old game anyway, I think I'll play it again myself.

Tips:
- Proceed with caution. There game is very hard in the start, but it will get ridiculously easy after you get the hold of it.
- Speak to all people you see. Especially named ones. There are plenty of quests in the game.
- Don't take too many chems at lower levels. Addictions are a real pain in the ass in this game.
- Stay away from the mid-coastal area until you are directed there. The Enclave doesn't like visitors.
- Remember to patch your game, and even better, get Killap's Fallout 2 Restoration Project from NMA.
- Power armor will make you pretty much invincible against conventional weaponry.
- Critical hits hurt. Usually, at later levels with Power Armor, you may take 15 hits of no damage and then die of a single critical hit.
- Big Guns are pretty useless in this game. By the time you start getting them, you'll have Gauss Rifle which will deal with anyone.


Good starting strategy, copied from Fallout 2 walkthrough:

First tip- cancel your order and get it from www.gog.com where you can download it now, so you don't have to wait 2 weeks. It's 5.99 and already patched to work on XP and Vista.

In Europa in the Netherlands more localised in a shop where I life nearby and ocassion buy cd's and dvd's I have seen a Fall Out packet for I believe 10 euros, isn't there such packet in the US of A ?

Including Fall Out 1, Fall Out 2 and Fall Out Tactical

There is:

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Fallout_Trilogy

Agreed.

~FO2 is a bigger Fallout 1 with all the fixes we wanted (No more transferring money in '999' cap chunks, and improved NPC combat options).
The overall atmosphere has changed to be bit lighter, but it will surely satisfy and surprise.

*Save your game immediately after completing the Temple (where you start the game). As you may remember, Fallout will not autosave your game for you, and its easy to die before you leave the village.

enjoy playing :fallout:

Yeah, Ive since seen that, but I bought it direct from a seller, and it should have already shipped. No big deal though, I can wait.

Anyway, a few specifics...

Do SPECIALS like "charisma" play more of a role then they do in FO3? How about reputation?
The build Pistolero posted looks like a pretty good start for how I wanna build my first character, but In FO3 charisma is pretty worthless. Im looking to build a stealthy, small guns, high luck/agility/critical, ranger/marksmen type of character (like my main FO3 file). Any good weapons/armor I can obtain early on? How does sneak work? Do you need to use power armor late game?

Any opinions on worthless perks? I'll spot the obvious ones that won't work for me, so I mean ones like "scrounger" in FO3, that look good on paper but, debatably, are pretty unnecessary.

Not to mention the ability to "push" NPCs out of doorways and such with the right-click-hold menu... God, that was annoying in Fallout.

The NPC combat options were more than just improved, they blew the old ones away. By the end of the game (likely much earlier than that), any NPC companions in Fallout would be long dead.



Yes, the level of your S.P.E.C.I.A.L. characteristics in Fallout and Fallout 2 actually has a profound effect on game play. Your actual Charisma is very important (at least as important as Speech or Barter) in opening new dialogue options, getting good prices, getting a better reaction from people you first meet, etc. Your Agility is the only thing aside from perks that determines your AP count. Your Luck determines your crit rate, special random encounters, various other hidden things (like guessing passwords), and also how useful the Sniper perk is (my Luck is 10 in my current game of Fallout 2, thus I always get critical hits with Sniper). Your Intelligence effects not only skill points, but dialogue options, how well you can do certain scientific activities, how long it takes you to read skill books, and is checked for a number of quests.

Charisma also determines the max number of NPC followers you can have.

Ok, at this point, I think I'll be going for these small gun orientated, combat perks...

-sniper
-sharpshooter
-silent running
-ranger
-survivalist
-more critical's
-better critical's
-bonus move
-action boy
-ghost

Think I wanna add some explosives stuff to...

These are all considered "crap" perks.

Once you get Sniper, Sharpshooter will end up being a waste of a perk. Stealth isn't nearly as useful in the first Fallout games as it is in F3 (you can't sneak up on everything all the time, particularly in random encounters, and sneak attacks don't automatically kill everything), and Silent Running is just a convenience perk. Ranger, Survivalist and Ghost are just not terribly useful compared to Living Anatomy, Bonus Rate of Fire, Bonus Move, Quick Pockets, Awareness, etc.

Unfortunately, while Fallout 2 offers a lot of character creation options, many perks and builds are plain and simply better than others at allowing you to do as much as possible within the game world, while dishing out great damage.

This is the "best" character build, without a doubt, so good some consider it cheating (personally I replace Awareness with Bonus Move):

Right on man, good stuff :goodjob:

Could I swing it with Strength at 9 and perception 8 (for sniper), or is having to use jet/mentats to get the sniper perk just a one time deal?

- You don't have to fight Cameron in the Temple of Trials, you can steal the key from him also.
- Be sure to get Sulik when you reach Klameth (or soon after.)

When you reach The Den:

Save. Save often. Save on multiple slots.

If something important happens - save. If something's about to happen - save.

And don't keep it all on the same save slot, either. There's what - 10 slots or so - use them. I like to alternate, and work my down, and then start overwriting from the oldest ones down. That way, if anything terrible happens, I only have to backtrack so far...

RPG rule #1

*And if the NPC had AP's, you can actually push them in combat as well. (I would push NPC's out of the way to not risk shooting them, and to move them away from dangerous melee attackers.)

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

I do that too early on in the game, in order to prevent Sulik (or anyone else with a burst weapon) from killing Vic, Cassidy or the Chosen One with SMG fire. I often wonder if this tactic will stop Marcus from killing the entire party with the Bozar as well, but I'm too chicken to even test it out.

Useless info: I just discovered something tonight that isn't on Per Jorner's walkthrough. You know how Nuka-Cola machines will violently eject the bottle sometimes when you put a coin in the slot, damaging you if you don't make an Agility check? Turns out the chance for a bottle to be ejected is based on LK, because once I have LK 10 violent ejections never happen anymore.

It's pretty much fallout 1 with a much larger scale and a focus on political factions

with 'fast shot' you cant target specific body parts anymore.

As you wanted to be a sniper... I loved to stand on max range and shoot people in the eye or.... groin...

Well yes, but once you get the Sniper perk (and high Luck, which is quite easy due to the Hubologist in NCR), called shots become nothing more than flavor... and a waste of 2 AP per shot, since 1.) you don't have Fast Shot and 2.) you're spending an extra AP to make a called shot, for little or no benefit.

With Fast Shot, Bonus Rate of Fire, Sniper, Luck 10, Agility 10, and two Action Boy perks, I can fire a Gauss Pistol six times in a single turn, scoring a critical hit each time. Using called shots and without the Fast Shot trait, I could fire only 3 times, doing a total of half as much damage.

If the OP wants to use called shots for most of the game to have fun with that system, I'd advise him to choose Finesse or Small Frame first, then choose the Mutate! perk and switch to Fast Shot at level 21 (or level 27) after he gets Sniper. This is considered less ideal and a definite waste of a perk slot, however.

Huh, that sorta svcks

Is it worth it? I think Id like to be able aim my shots...

Nah, fast shot seems worth it. I suppose without the sweet FO3 VATS animations, it doesn't make any deference, so long as their dead

By the way, Im totally joining the frickin NCR Rangers

My rule of is to always use observe (is it called that?) on every NPC whenever I enter a new room. That way I can get a feel for the locals, and pick out any unique NPCs that may have quests. Not all of them are going to necessarily look different.

Also don't make the mistake of thinking that strength is worthless to a gunslinger character. During the start of the game your forced to rely solely on the melee and unarmed skills, plus many weapons have a minimum strength requirement for proper use, or else your aim is going to be pretty lacklustre.

Don't get addicted to Tragic the Garnering.

And for chrissakes, do not catch yourself starring at the Hydroelectric Magnetosphere Regulator for hours.

Also, unlike in Fallout 1, where all enemies dropped whatever armour they were wearing, enemies in Fallout 2 do not. While it may not make a bit of sense, it does make getting better gear harder, and this means that all your armour is either going to have to be bought or awarded to you so bear in mind that for this reason alone it is worth saving as much money as possible early on. After a while though, much like in the other games you will be making a ludicrous amount of money so its no sweat making dough later in the game.

And that should be it. By the way, remember that it always pays to be perceptive of everything NPCs say. You never know what you might pick up.

Or you can just save a lot and do a Navarro run to get APA at the start of the game. Which is better than having to scavenge some crappy leather jacket off of raiders you can't beat with a spear and a vault suit.