Yeah but they could at least provide something ingame that states that your character found out how to use the tech. At least a terminal stating you were arrested for stealing Energy Weapons manuels or something. It could have easily been added.

Well, not everyone picks up a laser rifle on his way to Megaton.

I take the time to "build" my character. He's a big fan of tried and true firearms - the smell of gunpowder and poking bullets through things is what he likes to do. And, with guns, it's actually a little simpler (in my opinion, anyways) than laser firearms. Chances are, the lasers have a bunch of circuitry, and focus a laser through a crystal of some kind. While a gun, you have a bullet in a tube with a hammer. That's a little basic..but you get what I mean. I think it would be easier to pick up a handgun and start shooting, than going for lasers off the bat.

I swear, if there was an exercise mod for Fallout, I'd have it. Hit the gym every mornin', take a jog, hit the shooting range. Then, around level five or six, start taking down larger game and/or groups of raiders, etc.

I like to progress my character. The first few levels are about learning how to use certain guns, how to repair them, and learning to feed myself easier. Part of a character building process for myself.


So, if anyone wants to whine about not knowing how to use the guns, go make a mod that sets tag skills to +0, and start from there. You'll have all the learning you can handle.

Not everyone has this for the PC. Besides, im complaining about how he all of a sudden knows hot use laser weapons, not a regular gunpowder using gun. Guns in general take common sense to use, but if somebody tossed a laser rifle at me, I would be like "Wtf is this?"

Ah...I admit, I'm spoilt by the splendor of PC modding...forgive me, console users. (I usually lurk the modding forums, is another reason it doesn't occur to me.)

Well, I was playing earlier, and with a terribly low laser guns skill, I decided to experiment a little. I picked it up, fire, reloaded, and was just giving it an overall go-over. And, honestly - it seems to look easy to use. Pop in the cell, pull the trigger. Pull out a dead cell, put in a live one.

If anything, they look like they were made for general military use - and believe me, the military would want it simple. That way, there's no specialized training involved.

But, at the same time, pre-war soldiers didn't have to maintain them, either. I can see how, then, it would be utterly confusing to a random vault dweller (not even twenty-one yet!) could get confused as to the proper care of one. But, not usage.

I guess...this whole post just equates out to a "neutral" view on the matter.

Well, basically, I can't say anything, for my character several In-Game Years past until I decided to play the main quest, I think it was 2283 when I started playing MQ, but then again, there are some other things...

THE POWER OF STIMPACKS!!! :blink:

orly? because the devs wanted the game "Not so Chalengin'", you can carry as much stimpacks, when ever. where ever. to an enormous quantity, and using a whole load of 'em takes a few seconds. trust me, you will not regret buying it!

THE POWER OF PERKS! :celebration:

basically, in anything realistic, perk? what the hell is a perk??? ah, nevermind. when you're using some bad-ass perks, I.E. bloody mess, this means, that you character is, simply, able to mutilate a BIG super mute to 10000 pieces with a single shot, from a .32 pistol... so he is bad-ass enough to tear those Enclave jimbo's to shreds...

THE POWER OF DIFFICULTY! :flame:

yeah, this doesn't exist in reality either, but then again. Your LW is able to "Magically" Weaken or Strengthen his / her / both Foes, Oh MY! so if any one had this power in their life... No one wants to know what would've happened... but then again, the LW can do this, but his foes can't, this means he has "every" advantage possible over his / her / both foes...

THE POWER OF MINI-NUKE! :nuke:

remember that thing you found in the ruins, yeah that thing that looks like anything but a gun, IT SHOTS NUKES... oh the american soil... anyhow, this weapon-gun-something is able to Shoot actual mini-nukes... amazing... no one can do that... but the LW can, and will, It only took me 4 nukes to destroy the "Whole" enclave base...

THE POWER OF STUPIDITY!

remember that stupid-smart chick from megaton... things she asks you to do... NO one would survive them... not even Fawkes... but then again, the pay is good, people wind up lining before her shop to accept a task. no one would be dumb enough to accept... or DAD, he is supposed to be one of the smartest characters in the game... but... he asks "you" to go and clean a whole Memorial, filled with Super Muties and gives you no support... WTF... but LW obeys like a lapdog, and cleans the whole memorial, then get's back to daddy to hear a sense-less "i'm proud of you"... This statement brings us to : no matter how smart your character is, he must obey like a stupid lapdog, act like a stupid lapdog or be stupid lapdog... and eventually survive everything. remember that old saying :"Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity." we know the whole game is based on A.I. so many others to say... little time to say more...

:clap: :clap: :clap:

THE POWER OF... ERR... I FORGOT :facepalm:

this one I forgot, if anyone can, say it instead of me.

It's a game, a game is meant to be fun, and it wouldn't be fun if your character died soon after exiting the vault because someone who spent his entire life living in a vault doesn't have the skills needed to survive in a nuclear wasteland. It's the same as how a theoretical physicist can fight his way through an alien invasion and, years later, comes back to become humanity's only hope for liberation from different aliens. Basically, the game needs to make a few breaks from reality for the sake of gameplay.

It's not just games either, lots of works of fiction do things that are not realistic for the sake of the plot, as long as it's not too glaring, though, audiences can usually suspend their disbelief on the matter. And even if it is too extreme, in some works, this can be ignored if it's cool enough. Simply put, it would be better to stop thinking "How can I do that?" so much and just sit back and enjoy the game.



Well, taking a look at a laser rifle in Fallout 3, it doesn't look like using it would be all that different from using a gun. You'd still have to point it at your enemy, and pull the trigger. Now you probably won't be very good with it without more experience, but I don't see why you'd need special knowledge to use it at all. Besides, energy weapons is one skill you can tag at the start, of course, this may in part be simply for gameplay reasons, but if you can tag it, maybe it's because it's possible to get energy weapons training in the vault, although you don't SEE any energy weapons in Vault 101, that does not necessarily indicate that it doesn't keep any stocked. A better question is probably how your character can swim upon exiting the vault, because swimming is something you'd definately need to learn, and I don't see any pools in the vault.



The care of such a weapon falls under repair skill, though, and if you don't have a high enough repair skill, you won't be able to keep any weapon in good condition. Because of how the game mechanics function, though, there's probably not much it can do to stop you from repairing energy weapons in particular if you're not good enough.



The entertainment factor is key here, both games and movies need to provide audiences with entertainment. And while they are different in nature, in that games are interactive and entertain players by providing them with a fun gaming experience, whereas movies are not interactive and entertain people by telling an interesting story, scaring them, showing characters performing impressive stunts or shooting people, or through other means that don't require intervention on the viewer's part. In both cases, though, audiences probably won't be too entertained by spending hours watching someone try to familiar himself with something unfamiliar, unless the entire point of your work is to tell the story of how someone learns something new, in order to achieve some goal. And in your post, you seem to have denounced many works of fiction that are widely regarded as classics, as I'm sure anyone could name some highly successful stories which begin with someone relatively unfamiliar with what said character will have to do. In fact, this could be said to have its own merits, since it allows room for character development, and developing characters are generally more interesting than static ones. It also may be assumed to be easier for viewers to relate to characters in a story about a subject they cannot be expected to be too familiar with (say, surviving in a post apocalyptic wasteland.) if the characters come from a background closer to them. In speculative fiction stories, it's also a good oportunity for exposition. If your story is about space travel and you've thought up all these interesting technologies, you can have more experienced characters explain these technologies to newcomers to the field, in the proccess also explaining them to your audiences, although it might still distract from the pacing of the story if executed poorly, it would probably seem less out of place than having a long segment of out of character exposition just thrown in there, or having characters explain things that the characters they are explaining to should already be expected to know.

I realize its just a game, but realistically, how would he know how to do these things? Yeah, its obvious when you see him do it, but if you were to just throw me that same Laser Rifle, and lets say I have never even heard of this game before, and you told me to reload it, I would be totally lost. Yeah, once you show me how to, its fairly simple. But just being handed the weapon, and told to reload, it would be confusing. Now, with regular gunpowder weapons, it would be fairly simple since their arent many modes when it comes to guns.

the lone wanderer isn't super human. nor is the lone wanderer very good at combat or anything else for that matter. how than does the lone wanderer do all these things? luck pure and simple. the lone wanderer is so lucky when he presses random buttons on a gattling laser it doesn't blow up and kill him. and in a fire fight he will never ever get shot. ever.. until when his luck runs out than he will be killed in the most horrific way imaginable by a bloat fly. either that or hes some sort of incarnation of chuck norris :shrug:

well thats my theory anyway

Well, the Chosen One was strong enough/smart enough to defeat Frank Horrigan and the Vault Dweller was strong/smart enough to stop The Master from mutating Everyone in the Wastes, so i'd say they're just as Super-human as the Chosen One is.


@Golin: So you're saying The Lone Wanderer is http://spacequest.wikia.com/wiki/Roger_Wilco?

There have been some discussions about this already but here is an answer to some ppl who posted.

Realistic scenario:
The Lone Wonderer received a lot of training after completing the GOAT. He/She had access to one of the most complete information databases in the capital wasteland. That database included technical manuals and science journals. Your father gave a gun when you were 10 and considering how there is NOTHING to do in the vault I am surprised he/she didn't come out of the vault as an uber marksman. Your father is also one of the best bio chemists and doctors in the capital wasteland if not in the world. Considering that he raised you alone you undoubtedly had to spend days at his clinic observing, learning and potentially assisting.

A little far fetched scenario:
Also, we have very little knowledge of what kind of a specialty Lone Wanderers mother had. Geneticist maybe? Hell if Lesco can come up with a virus that enhances your strength or perception what would a scientist of far greater caliber be able to do? Especially with access to BOS technology and resources.

Conclusion:
Your char. being superman doesn't break lore at all. Read some of the insanely technical and impossible quests that a spear wielding tribal did in FO2.

Three words for you guys ITS A GAME if he was weak and non super human that would make the game bad end of my part of discushon

Ok it's a game, but it still ok to have some expiation for something like that. In KOTOR you were the force turned flesh in KOTOR2 you were the grim reaper of the force. In Morrowind you were the reincarnation of Neravar chosen of the goddess. In another game which is on the tip of my tongue, you were the son of the god of murder but didn't know it. There tends to be some back story which attempts to somehow justify your abilities. There isn't one in FO3, but that doesn't mean we cant talk about the issue and justify it somehow.

If it wasn't this way, you'd be dead the second you encountered the first enemy once you leave the vault. I mean come on, you leave the vault with no training, all you can do is shoot roaches with a toy gun.

But is the main quest really that urgent though, I mean originally its just some guy trying to find his dad, who wants to start up a water purification project that's just been abandoned and hasn't run in years. The Enclave's appearance is variable.

His dad could be stuck in that Vault for years doing nothing and being subject to Bruan's insanity...

But either way, its just a game....we have to remember that, wouldn't be that fun if you weren't a super human compared to everyone else...

Right, because deadra and super mutants ARE realistic.

I think part of it has to do with the Hero of most games just being exceptional. There are many places in reality where people had the opportunity to do great things, but you'll only ever hear about the ones who succeeded (or at least came close). Some of it is blind luck, some of it is conditioning, and some of it is natural talent (which they were lucky enough to be born with). Take any rich person, any person in a position of power, any person who survived epic battles in a given war, then ask why it couldn't have been you. The answer is that it could -- after all, none of them have super-human powers -- it just wasn't.

For the Lone Wanderer, clearly you had access to quite a bit of information about the life outside the vault long before leaving. Additionally, just before leaving the Vault, you come across some recon data talking about the area immediately outside, as well as some of the monsters you'll be facing. If you watch a movie, and the good guys are about to storm the bad guys' lair, they usually recap the synopsis of the plan. In reality, of course, they would have spent hours upon hours poring over the details to make sure there was absolutely nothing they missed. In Fallout, when you read a report, computer screen or skill book, I think it's fair to say the book is simply a representation of the many hours it would have taken your character to actually read the entire book, and perhaps more hours of practicing what was learned in the book. Now, if you presume that everything in the game is just a sample of what would have been there in real life, one could easily imagine you taking that report then reading over the hours it would have realistically taken to get to Megaton*, giving you quite a bit of background already.

Then, once you get into the world, you are a noob, and it's easy to die. You get into a fight with Raiders, and what happens? You probably die. Then reload. The main story only plays out on the timelines where you survived, so you basically end up with a story where you are very lucky. By being lucky a few times, you start getting a feel for how things work. Before long, you've figured out how the Raiders work, how Radscorpions attack, etc. Realistically, only one out of a thousand people might get that lucky, but, because this is a story about a hero, that one in a thousand "happens" to be you.

Realistically, you probably wouldn't be able to figure out everything you do in the extremely short timespan most people's games take place over, but I don't think it's terribly unrealistic either. You can teach a person how to drive a car on a racetrack to 90% of its limits within a few days, or even hours -- it's that last 10% that's much harder to learn. But if you force someone to race a car or die, they'll either die or learn quickly. Likewise, everything the LW does is a matter of learn or die, and the LW happens to learn rather than die, or the game wouldn't be much fun.

And to some extent, "it's a game" does apply, because the designers balanced realism with fun. Some of us would prefer the balance shift further towards the realism side, while others think it's already too realistic, and the developers did their best to make a good compromise.

* The game is compressed into a roughly 10-times size scale. From the Capitol Building to the Lincoln Memorial is 2 miles in real-life, while in the game it's only a couple hundred yards. From the Capitol Building to Falls Church is 10 miles in real life, while it's perhaps a mile in game. So anything that took you 6 real-life minutes to travel through in-game, would have taken roughly an hour if the scale of the world were accurate. They compensate for this by speeding up time, so those 6 real-life minutes might equate to an in-game hour (not sure the exact scale though). I think it's fair to say the events that take place are also compressed by quite a bit. Realistically, you can't fight super-mutants for hours on end, then get an hour of sleep and be good. So I imagine that a super-mutant battle is representative of days of fighting, then that hour-long nap you take represents taking a weekend or so to recuperate.

Actually, to be fair, it took me 3 years from start date to battle Horrigan in the end. I did lots of traveling.

95% of that was just travel time. You didn't spend more time fighting or learning the ropes in FO2. There was even less justification of why you are such a bad ass in FO2. It did for some reason feel more natural. I guess because there was a more natural transition. You started out with a spear and slowly worked your way up. Even at high levels the enclave would still pulverize you if you were unprepared. You do feel like the son of god in FO3.

Yeah. I probably felt the weakest in Fallout 1, even if I still kicked ass in power armour.

The LW doesn't seem to be any more implausible than Audie Murphy

Bethesda messed up the life system.
Shouldn't have been 20HPx1Endurance. 10 End means 300 starting life.
After that 10Hp per level. 29 levels. 290+300=590Hp.

It shoulden't have been like this.
Initial life should have been 50hp. 1End=10hp
Max starting life 150Hp.
+3Hp per level.
at level 7 you can pick a perk to give you additional +1Hp per level.
at level 30 you would have 260Hp. With lifegiver 290Hp.

With this life we woulden't be gods.
Very Hard would be freakin' extreme.
We woulden't need enemies with better weapons/enhanced damage/bullet spounges.

Bethesda needs to balance everything way better for FO4.

The Lone Wanderer is jesus reincarnated...

No, that isn't serious.

It's just so that the game isn't super challenging, all games have plot-holes, every one...

My beef with this issue is the way enemy encounters level up with your PC. Protectron encounters become sentry bot encounters, radscorps become giant radscorps, Yaoi Guai and Death Claws are more prevelant etc.

If the LW had surrended to the Overseer at the begining and never left the Vault (with dear old Dad being stuck in Vault 112 forever), then it can be assumed that these enemies would have increased anyway (if we ignore the 'it's just a game' argument). Similarly in FO (if the water chip hadn't broke), the master would have taken over the West Coast, the Enclave would have arrived as in FO2 and fought the Master (with debatable results). It's as if the FO3 enemies were just waiting for the LW to emerge and improve. Of course, that's exactly what does happen, it is just a game after all, but lore wise an explanation would have been better.

The Enclave have been in the Wasteland for years, as shown by their radio transmissions and (sp)eyebots. The activity at the purifier seems to have set them off, so I'm satisified with their emergence. The other escalating threats however? Without reverse pickpocketing armour onto the merchants they're all dead by the time I reach level 20, showing they're unprepared even for the more aggresive wildlife. Hell, I followed Crazy Wolfgang just after I left the Vault and he was killed outside the Nuka Cola plant by a Raider. As your character progresses the other NPC's seem to be stuck at level one. I would have liked to see them arming themselves better as time progressed, Harith having 'Clavy tech in his inventory etc. Otherwise it just feels as if the whole game is a playground for me and my Super-Human PC, with a 2D backdrop to play against.

The reason this works, lore wise, is because the game wouldn't be playable if it weren't the case. Similar to how a pair of Hobbit's can make it all the way to Mordor, rather than say, dying of exposure in the woods. If you'd like a realistic take on the Fallout universe, might I suggest a trip out to the desert with no supplies?

The playabilty of the game is separate to the lore of the of the game. Playability involves game mechanics, lore involves plot and story elements. The why rather than the how.