Hey! I haven't been on this site in for quite a while so I dunno if this is in the right section. I'm not looking for spoilers, just a little way to start off on a good note.

I had written a long sob story about how New Vegas is very different from Fallout 3, but I erased that. Seemed too off-topic and not to the point.

(Don't link videos, please. I can't watch anything until I get DSL/broadband)

First off, I'd like to say this: I'm looking for a sneak/guns/speech character. Stays out of conflict, picks enemies off with a rifle (scope mods are preferred but I know nothing about those), and talks out of conflict with charisma.

Points I'd like to address

• A good route to take in the beginning. In Fallout 3, I'd start off looting Springvale, head straight to Super Duper Mart, clear it out, head to Megaton, finish up a few missions and gather a bit of caps, then head on my way. In this game, I have no idea where to go. Of course, I'm in Goodsprings at first. Stay there for a while and complete the tutorial for extra experience/ammo at the start. Beyond that, I have no idea what I'm doing and I just get lost, irritated, then eventually quit the game. If I go near Primm I just get shot to pieces and I can't stay alive for long on normal difficulty. I need to start out on a good note. This is my number one concern.
• Looting. What do I pick up? What do I ignore? In Fallout 3 it was easy to know what to take and what to ignore, but in this game I'm just seeing a bunch of stuff I have no clue about. Do I take casings, rounds, etc, and breakdown what I don't need for later use? Is the money useless unless you follow a certain faction? I don't know what I'm doing. :c
• Guns. Lots of guns. Damage, familiar concept. DPS? Okay, now I'm at a loss. I understand DPS, and I understand damage. Yet I continue to take damage over DPS. Am I doing the right thing? Remember I'd like to stick primarily to rifles/snipers at a range, but swap to a pistol at a shorter range.
• Ammunition. I know about armor piercing, hollow point, surplus, etc. Is there anything else about ammo I need to know about, or is it just the same as Fallout 3?

What other tips do you think I'd benefit from? Treat me as a complete newbie to this game. I just need to know everything I can before just starting up and dying within an hour. Again. And again. And again.

Most important question: Are you playing on hardcoe?

A Sneak/Guns character would be better off with high damage high crit rather than DPS; one shot one kill sort of affair. First of all, have a balance build; you can either do it yourself or I can post you a sample Sneak/Guns/Explosive build. Primm is your best bet as your starting point, because north east and west are Deathclaws' territory.

Another point is... if you're saying you're being shot to pieces in Primm, you probably should rethink your strategy because Primm is honestly not that difficult. You're probably rushing too much, so SLOW DOWN and make more considerate shots and learn to fight at range and sneak away before the enemies know what happens; it's a good habit to get into for a Sneak/Guns build. Crouch often to get into Sneak mode so you won't be caught off guard.

You can always hang about Goodsprings (Go to the bar after the tutorial mission and pick up some quests there) and kill Geckos and scavenge things until you're more comfortable moving on.

As for looting, anything can be of use. Though, you should save up Turpentines, Scrap Metals, Duct Tapes, Wonderglue, Wrench and Scrap Electronics because you can use them to make Weapon Repair Kits at 50 Repair skill.

As for ammo, a Sneak/Guns build probably benefits the most from different ammunition type. When being Hidden, Hollow Point for your Varmint Rifle can take down most low level creatures, and AP round can take down most low level armored humans and enemies. You might want to try and get the Cowboy Repeater and the Hunting Rifle as soon as you get to Novac.

And don't piss anyone off in the first playthrough (Unless you're ready). You don't want the NCR or the Legion to send hitsquads after you, because those guys can seriously make you rage quit.

Exactly what I was looking for. Initially, I was playing on hardcoe because I enjoyed the added aspect of survival and difficulty, but I began again without hardcoe.

That's what I had figured. DPS seems more for going in guns blazing tearing apart anything and everything in your path. Since I'm not very used to how leveling is in this game (albeit not being much different from Fallout 3), it'd be great if you could post an example build so I know what to focus on best. And yeah, now that you mention it I'm probably rushing a bit. I get overwhelmed by people around me and I can't take them out because my aim is constantly cut off by someone shooting behind me. I try to crouch as often as I can, as was my play style in Fallout 3. Worked well.

I was actually just looking at the workbench and reloading bench, writing down some things I should be on the lookout for. Doctor's bag, stimpak, weapon repair kit. One of my perks is 'Small Frame' (for extra +1 agility, saves me a point in the beginning plus the added chance of crippling doesn't bother me), so doctor bags would be useful for me later on in the game. On that note, I also took Trigger Discipline, because at a long range accuracy is what counts and not so much how fast you can pull a trigger. For level 2, I took Confirmed Bachelor, as I always played a female character in Fallout 3 due to the perk that gives damage buff against male opponents and, of course, most of the stronger opponents are male. Besides that, it gives more options that would seem to benefit a character with some focus in speech/barter.

And again now that you mention ammo, where do I even get that specialty ammo? Goodsprings doesn't have much and I don't recall anything in Primm. Doesn't seem I can make much besides regular rounds at a reloading bench.

I'm with you on not pissing anyone off. Made that mistake a couple of months ago.. yeah, I raged.

Another question: when's a good time to head off for New Vegas? Should I follow story progression and let the main questline take me there?

The main questline will take you there. It leads you in a way as such:

Goodsprings->South to Primm->South to the Mojave Outpost->East to Nipton->Northeast to Novac->North to Boulder City->Straight shot to New Vegas from there if you follow Victor.

It's a weird zig-zag route when you look at it, but the two alternatives are to A.) Go north from Goodsprings instead of south, which will get you torn apart by deathclaws, or B.) Straight through the middle of the map, which is difficult because Black Mountain is right in the middle of it. The questline's way is the safest route.

This build is a long range assassin that focuses on stealth and quickness. I also likes to place mines as insurance between me and my targets, as well as rigging enemies' routes and/or baiting them into traps. High crit damage, high crit chance, and attack from the shadow is the name of the game.

Starting SPECIAL: 5/5/6/1/6/8/9. Reached level 50 with 9/6/7/1/7/10/10. 4 points in Strength after 1 implants and all DLC completed. The rest is all implants. Cost quite a fortune, but I did used the FO3 merchant exploit, so caps weren't a real problem. I try to get high Strength in order to use the AMR later, as well as Avenger minigun if I ever put on Heavy Armor whenever I want to mix things up a bit.

Traits: Small Frame (+1 initial Agility) and Trigger Discipline (25% extra accuracy)

Skills: At level 50, I maxed out: Guns, Sneak, Explosives, Repair, Science, Medicine, Lockpicking, Survival, Barter (need for Pack Rat). Speech was at 74.

Perks: (not in order, I picked them depends on what I was facing at the time)

1) Heave-Ho

2) Educated

3) Bloody Mess

4) Dem Expert

5) Dem Expert

6) Dem Expert

7) Shotgun Surgeon

8) The Professional (Glitched perk, said that it gives 25% extra damage for sneak attack with pistols and smgs. But it actually gives an extra 25% damage for EVERY CRITICAL HIT with pistols and smgs. Wonderful)

9) Cowboy

10) Pack Rat (I was playing hardcoe, so I had to carry literally an armory with me)

11) Strong Back (Same reason as Pack Rat)

12) Finesses

13) Hit the Deck (My own Explosives hurt me quite a lot)

14) Silent Running

15) Splash Damage (I actually regretted this perk because my own mines were starting to become a problem mid-late game - with Small Frame I get pretty easily crippled - which forced me to take Hit the Deck to at least relieve some of the damage)

16) Chemist (For extra Turbo and Stealth Boys time)

17) Better Criticals

18) Light Touch

19) And Stay Back! (Great perk. Saved my sorry butt countless of times. Thank you, Dinner Bell!)

20) Grunt

21) Burden to Bear (Same reason as Pack Rat)

22) Certified Tech (Components to make Satchel Charges can be hard to find, but with this perk, every robot I kill has an 80% chance to give me those components. Satchel Charge is like crack...They make me feel safe... One can NEVER have too much Satchel Charges! )

23) Tunnel Runner

24) Travel Light

25) Just Lucky I'm Alive

Play style and load out:

As for the logistic part of the playstyle, I scavenge A LOT in order to get components to make Weapon Repair Kits and Satchel Charges, until I get to OWB then scavenging became trivial. I don't make complicated food or waste ingredients and spaces on them; most of the time I just stick with the 4-meat diet: Gecko, Bighorn, Coyote and Brahmin Steaks; though Bloatfly Slider can be fulfilling as well as easy to make. I also pick up whatever good food I can get my hands on. And the rest of the ingredients I dump into making Fiery Purgative (For rads and poisons) and Turbo. I also have a lot of water handy (HC mode) as well as Atomic Cocktails.

As for early load out for an assassin, I would recommend go and pick up the Ratslayer (use 5.56mm, already silenced), a Cowboy Repeater, a Hunting Rifle, and any reliable shotgun (Your starting Caravan Shotgun is pretty good), but I prefer to use the Lever Action Shotgun until I got my hand on Dinner Bell. Dynamites and mines on the side but that's up to you whether or not you like to use Explosives).

Later load out would be a silenced Sniper Rifle, La Longue Carabine (Required you to kill an NCR npc, but it's a great weapon), Trail Carbine if you can't get La Longue Carabine, Hunting Rifle, 5.56mm pistol (That Gun can be easily and early acquired in Novac), Lever Action Shotgun, and a Grenade Launcher. The rest is loaded with grenades, dynamites and Satchel Charges.

My current (level 50) load out is Christine's COS Sniper Rifle (Best long range gun in the game for an assassin, period.), Medicine Stick (as expensive as a Brahmin farm), Lucky (Require high Lockpicking skill to get), All-American, AMR, and Dinner Bell. As well as lots and lots of Satchel Charges.

As for outfit, I rolled with the initial Light Leather Armor and 1st Recon Beret for most the game then switch to Joshua's Graham's Armor, until I got Ulysses's Duster at level 50 after LR (A LONG time, I know). Now I'm switching between U's Duster and Assassin's Suit. Light Armor synchronizes well with Light Touch, Tunnel Runner, Travel Light, and Implant M-5 from Old World's Blues.

Note: With both Grunt and Cowboy, Chance's Knife can be quite crazy at close-quarter stealth, so you may or may not want to calibrate your skill points and perks to fit with a Guns/Melee playstyle.

Also, if I wasn't taking Splash Damage and Hit the Deck, I could have gotten Nuclear Chemist and Mad Bomber to make potentially unlimited Nuka Grenades. And Nuka Grenades are pretty sweet.

Don't worry too much about ammo in the beginning. In fact, most of the game you can do without them, only if you need a little more punch for tougher enemies like AP rounds for Deathclaws or power armored enemies. That, again, is another reason why a Sneak/Gun build benefits the most from ammo types; given that these specialty ammo can be rare, shooting them en masse is a waste of caps and resources.

Just let the main story lead you to Vegas. You will eventually meet obstacles that may prolong your entry into Vegas, which will take some exploration to get around.

Absolutely, yes. There are various paths north from Goodsprings that you can try to tackle but they all have some fairly tough enemies to overcome along the way. The "breadcrumb trail" main quest is scaled more appropriately for the lower levels and will also give you plenty of side-quest stuff to be getting along with. My recommendation would be to take your time but also not worry that you might be heading to Vegas "too soon" because there really is no such thing.