This post isn't directly about Fallout 3, but was certainly inspired by Fallout 3...and I don't see much in the way of active Fallout 1 forums anymore...

I loved Fallout 3, and it inspired me to travel back in time and check out Fallout 1 and Fallout 2. I've just started playing Fallout 1 via Gametap...and it seems to be very hard to get started in the game. I get to Level 2 between Vault 13 and 15...but after that everything kills me. Radscorpion Lair? Me = Dead....Raiders? Me = Dead....Random encounter 1 minute into the game that pits me vs 5 Rad scorpions in the desert? Me = Dead.

I'm totally cool with the game being hard, I'm just curious as to if it's normally that much of a pain to get a foothold at the beginning of if i'm just retarded.

The game is neat though, I feel the same way about it as I do about playing Diablo II from time to time just for kicks and giggles.

I'm hoping the mods allow this topic because it's all in good fun and is in no way negative...but if they delete it for being off topic, feel free to PM me to discuss Fallout 1 and 2. I'm on a bit of a Fallout Kick right now.

Thats belongs in Fallout Series Discussion. Its commonly posted in.


And yes, Fallout 1 is much less Forgiving then Fallout 3. You really have to be good with your combat skills if you want to fight well. Wereas in Fallout 3 i can easily club a super mutant to death with a stick with no skill at all.

A good idea when playing Fallout 1 is to Find Ian in Shady Sands. He's a Companion NPC, and will make combat much easier. Just dont give him a weapon with a burst function.

Yeah, I miss that about Fallout 3. Just keep in mind that your SPECIAL stats count for a lot more in the old games. If you're playing ranged you need high perception and agility or you will svck. A high endurance will help a lot too. I commend you for overlooking the dated graphics and giving the old games a shot. Once you create a good character and get the hang of the combat, it'll get a lot easier.

Don't you mean if you give him any kind of firearm at all to make sure you duck and cover?

And yes, both the original Fallout games are much more unforgiving than Fallout 3; FO1 in particular.

(Heck, I've been playing through FO2 for the sake of nostalgia and at level 24 every once in a while an Enclave patrol will get the better of me. Damn crits)

Thanks for the move by the mod...and the friendly advice from the first poster. I never thought to just scroll down and see that there was a series discussion. Bad move on my part.

I LOVE new graphics. I love me some shiny player models and awesome animations and all that good stuff. Sometimes good gameplay can override the technology lover in me. Besides, if a traditional top-down RPG is what you crave, you HAVE to go old school. They just don't do it anymore as far as i know. I don't know a single RPG that's been released anywhere near recently that can compete with Final Fantasy 1, Chrono Trigger, Breath of Fire 3, or even the hack and slash goodness of Diablo II, in my mind.

It's always cool to go back and be impressed by neat things that you wouldn't expect from an old game too. I got a huge kick out of shooting at Mole Rat and accidently critting the Cave Rat behind it yesterday. I didn't expect that from an old point and click dos game

I just noticed a TeddyBearMan reading my thread...you never played Firearms Mod for Half-Life did you?

By the way, maybe this is just me looking to much into the small stuff, but does anyone else find it to be a classy move that Bethesda made forums for the fans of a game series that they didn't even make until the most recent title?

I love my Half-Life games, but the only mods I used were the staples (TFC and the like)

We must push little cart!

Hehe, I played a little mod called Firearms for 2 years. There was a guy in my clan that called himself TeddyBearMan. Ahhh the good ol' days.

Back in my TFC days I used TeddyBearMan![SMoD] ... ah yes the good ol days. Have to give Valve credit for making a game that lasted nearly a decade.

Yup, I played various Half-Life and Half-Life 2 mods as Shadow{}Wolf. Those were good times. I always end up wanting to join leagues and be competitive though, which I don't have time for anymore.

Anyway...back to the topic at hand...Radscorpions own me.

I have to admit, I like the random danger element though. The game has no mercy. You might run into a couple of rats at level 2 outside the fault...might run into 5 rad scorpions.

I laughed a bit yesterday when I had a "random encounter" that was basically me tripping and falling down for 1 hp.

Random encounters were great in the old games, they really made it worth while to invest in the Outdoorsman skill which increases your chance of finding them (along with the perks associated with it). If you should happen to move on to Fallout 2 and get an encounter that's completely pitch black, don't stop to smell the roses, RUN!

I suggest you start over and tag Small Guns, Lockpicking, and Speech. At your first level up, pour points into Small Guns and keep doing so until you reach 100, which won't take long since you tagged it and recieve double points.

Yeah, it takes a little while to get the hang of. If you don't have a combat oriented character, then you might want to try finding non-violent solutions or running away if it's not possible. If you've not found Shady Sands yet, do so. Get a companion, Ian, from there to help out in combat. Basically you are very weak when you start, hey you've been living in a vault all your life so it's gonna be a bit of culture shock right? Even if you have a combat oriented character, running away is often necessary early on. Easy to forget that option since it's not something people find 'cool' so it doesn't feature much in more modern/mainstream games.

Stick with it and know that your persistence will pay off. Respect. (and jealousy 'cos you're playing for the first time, which can only happen once)

Did you consider running away?



Are you kidding? That's where the fun begins!



Fallout 3 must've been a bit of a disappoitnment then. Don't you graphic[censored]s usually consider an engine dated after half a year?
Besides, animations are not what Bethesda does well.



Oh, come on. The skills are a good beginner build, but raising Small Guns to 100 asap? I've got a character who's about to visit the Master and isn't even close.

To be fair for a first playthrough playing a Combat Boy, makes things a bit 'easier' so to speak. As that way your characters life expectancy when you find yourself in combat is a bit more than a wet paper bag.
Then you can take what you've learned to try out other builds on subsuquent play throughs.

You must be playing on wimpy. You need at least 150 small guns to be able to hit those long distance eyeball shots on tough difficulty that are absolute necessities when facing deathclaws and supermutants.

No, I must not. Since the game doesn't ask you to choose a difficulty at the start, I never even think about it. Thanks for reminding me though, I shall try to play a hard and rough game for a change.
Also, while eyeshots with the .223 Pistol - which Beth apparently didn't include in Fallout 3, which is sacrilege - are fun, the Tubo Plasma Rifle with Fast Shot is my personal favourite.
Since combat is often initiated at short distance, you don't need to do "long distance eyeball shots" very often. Nor do you normally fight Muties or Deathclaws early on. So.. a high SG skill is good of course, but let's not scare people by suggesting you need to get it to 100% as fast as you can. Maybe he wants to save some skillpoints for that TPR.

It depends on your perception.

"Long distance" is also relative to the weapon being used. "Long" with most SGs doesn't compare to "long" with an energy rifle. In FO1 I'm almost always near the max range of most pistols .223 when I start combat so I'm often able to kill the first super mutant or two before they turn the corner I step behind at the end of each turn. I was reacting mostly to your <100 near the master, you're in Deathclaw (optional) and super mutant (mandatory) territory there so if you're a combat character then you're going to have serious trouble with such a low combat score (unless you're energy weapons on that char). You can get by with the 10mm SMG burst mode from melee range through Junktown without ever spending a single skill point on SG although you'd better hae the Endurance to soak up the extra damage because you're in the center of every fight. After you head to the Hub, you start running into things that actually have armor and need the -AC mod that the .223 ammo gives you and the higher damage of the .223 pistol or the same effects from the plasma weapons if you go energy. Don't forget that to kill

PS: I consider any aimed chance below 85% to be unacceptably low, not only because a couple of misses will get you killed late game but because it ruins your crit chance, which is the reason you're targeting shots in the first place. We might just differ on what an acceptable chance to hit is too when we recommend skill levels.


True, I usually have only medium Perception and very high Intelligence (about 5P and 9I) so the longer ranges really require a lot of skill on my chars. I still bee-line for at least 75SG ASAP, even with the higher P characters. That can be done by level 4 with high Intelligence so its not like you spend the whole game gimping your non-combats to do it.

i dont thibk its very hard i would recommend getting speech at the start and going to necropolis and talking by the mutants(or get a flame thrower or graned or just do the classic save burst routine)
as far as gear goes you can actually find really good weapon through the so you really dont have to buy weapons just follow the quest and you can get hunting rifle(a great weapon) assoult rifle smg cattleprot

Tagging small guns is worthless . Tag energy weapons or Big guns, or both. Small guns become increasingly worthless later in the game. Just use a shotgun or scoped rifle or a burst weapon untill you find a good energy weapon to use.

Suggest tagging melee. It is great early in the game, and still is very useful late in the game with the right end game melee weapons.

Au contraire, eye shots with the sniper rifle can prove surprisingly effective, especially against super mutants when you're invading the military base.

Thanks for the advice...

...and as for the person who asked if i considered running away...

On the radscorpion one I didn't even get a chance There were so many of them there was only one turn, and it involved me going splat.

A laser rifle has the same range and will do much more damage to the super mutants eyes.

But requires a heck of a lot more skill points to get to the same level. There's also the matter of surviving to the point where you can get a laser rifle.

I was assuming that you had enough AG to have high sequence and be able to run quite far in a turn. Hope you enjoy the game anyway.