Pack Rat Perk : Fallout: New Vegas

» Mon Jul 05, 2010 5:12 am

Barter is still useless since once you get all your implants money becomes a non issue. With a respectable repair skill, you can sell most guns for 1000+ caps. Barter is still a useless skill. sure it can pass some speech checks, but it usually only gives you more caps and speech itself is still superior in that effect. Not to mention, if you role play a certain build your probably not toting around all the weapons, armor, items you find, making those perks even more useless. not once in hardcoe was I ever over encumbered.

» Mon Jul 05, 2010 1:04 pm

I'm playing hardcoe Mode, so this might be coloring my opinions on this a little, but yikes.

Whole time I'm thinking 'Oh, Pack Rat sounds right up my alley, I mean most of what I'm carrying would benefit from it, and now my ammo has weight."

But then I look to get it and whoooah, 70 in BARTER required? What, am I supposed to pick between being remotely competent in staying alive or dedicate myself to playing a trader?

Nevermind that Barter, of all things, seems about as relevant to carrying stuff as Speech or Lockpicking.

I have found Barter to be one of the most useful skills in FONV, second only to Speech. FO3, Barter was no big deal since you stopped buying anything after a while. in FONV, Barter is not just about buying stuff. I thought that was the case when I started the game so I didn't choose to improve Barter at all. By about level 6 or so, I realized that there are many dialogs that offer unique and beneficial options that you will wish you could take. Barter is also about general negotiations, and not just money. I have found it very helpful to have a Barter of 70 in this game.

» Mon Jul 05, 2010 7:05 am

I am finding Barter a bit more useful now, since there are many speech challenges based on Barter skill.

So now I'm on the fence about Pack Rat in new ways. On the one hand I still think 70 is a lot to ask for a level 8 skill, but on the other I sorta think maybe this should be a higher level skill.

Once I got Strong Back I found the bulk of my encumbrance problems solved, however, so overall I'm still leaning toward my original position. That Hypertrophy implant didn't hurt things one bit, either.

» Mon Jul 05, 2010 7:35 am

Alrighty, I'm going to go ahead and say that Barter is much more useful in New Vegas than Fallout 3.

Three key reasons:

1) hardcoe Mode.
2) Weapon Modifications.
3) High-end Medical Options. You know the ones.

And that's assuming you don't do anything crazy like actually buying guns and armor from the Gun Runners Vendortron.

But 70 is really high for level 8. Yep.

» Mon Jul 05, 2010 9:53 am

Barter is much more useful in New Vegas. I have already run into numerous opportunities where I could have come out a lot better if I had a better Barter skill. In addition, everything is more expensive in New Vegas than it was in FO3 and money much harder to come by at first.

As to why Barter is associated with Pack Rat, it is because Pack Rat is the skill merchants have to cram and fit all their merchandise into the small bags atop their brahmin. Because of the nature of their job carrying a lot of goods to transport and sell (Barter) they become great at squeezing extra space out of their backpacks and pockets.

Also, the game assumes that if you need a bunch of extra carrying weight, you are collecting and hauling a lot of stuff for the sole purpose of selling it for profit - hence, Bartering is your endgame and the activity you are engaged in. It all makes perfect sense to me.

Yeah. This.