I can't help but feel like we're essentially weak at the start compared to Fallout 3.

I mean, unless I used melee weapons then I died, a lot and very, very quickly.

I haven't gotten much out of the tutorial town yet and ran into rad scorpians which I know was a horrible idea to even try to take them on. But with a laser pistol I barely dented them, I think my energy weapons skill was about 40ish?

The rifle you get from that lady at the start, I was up against what I assume were some kind of bloatflies (I cannot remember the name, they were small, fast insects that flew) and the took me down in two shots.

Now I met two wolves and smashed them in two hits each with a sledgehammer and barely any scratches to me, my melee was about 35 and my strength was 6/7 (forgot the exact number).

But I mean, at level 1 I know we're weak. Compare it to Fallout 3 and you could easily take down all the raiders in Springvale School easily at level 2 with the laser pistol and having about 40 energy skill.

So is it the goal to just use melee weapons at low levels or am I missing something else?

And it's not a rant at all, I'm just wondering if there's a different play style in New Vegas that I don't yet know about.

Oh and in general, with perks being only every even level, are we weaker at level 30 than a level 30 Fallout 3 character?

We aren't weaker, everything isnt scaled the same, so there are blatant hard points in the game which you should not attempt till you have got some experience under your belt.

However, you are not the god-like level 30 character you were in Fallout 3. Mainly due to the different scaling, less special points per level up and less perks.

Unlike fallout 3 what you encounter isn't scaled to your level, you wander off where ever at low level you'll die.

So just follow the mainquest[skipping nothing] and doing stuff around Primm, Novac and the Mojave Outpost. By Boulder City you should be powerful enough to wonder around most places.

And just like on FO3 the laser pistol is a weak weapon, its sub-par starting. Plasma pistol is a starting weapon in the energy department.

Well now, this was probably about... 15 seconds out of town (when the popup appears to give me the chance to change my character one last time).

Sudden I have a bit more of a chance against certain things?

I know it's not scaled but I would have thought on normal, with a skill of around 45 or so for guns, my rifle would be useful.

I didn't go far at all, 15 seconds at the most, maybe 20 of walking and I met both the wolves and the bloatflies, scorpians were a good 2 minutes or so past it.

I was always able to use the laser pistol in the super duper mart at level 2.

Thank for you help though.

Enemies don't scale along with you in this game, which I actually love. At level 15, a killing a Deathclaw is dream. At level 30, killing Power Gangers is good for sh-ts and giggles.

Wow, I met a Young Cazador according to the wiki it's level 12.

I guess saving is a big must have in this one.

Oh, about on average, how would our skill points differ between this and Fallout 3? By level 30 you could essentially max them.

I assume it's a lot less even with ten intelligence from level 2 onwards?

you are warn not go north passed the goodsprings grave site. between the southern part of vegas and the grave site is where the 50 point nasties hangout. you were advised to go south on the main drag where goodsprings is. head south until you get to the main drag heading east/west. go east until you hit the other major road going north/south. you are also told to stay on the major roads.

there are two location south of primm on the main drag. if you go west of them, you will run into reavers. at the other one you will run into giant radscorpions. the area between the two major roads and south of goodsprings is much safer for a low level party.

VATS is nerf, that's why. In FO3 you just keep using VATS to head shot and Springvale simply for you picking.

Also noted weapons are more powerful then they were in FO3. Bison Steve feels like Statesman Hotel if you didn't have decent equipment (for >Lv10).

I maxed guns, lock pick, medicine, repair, barter, speach and I got to around 70-80 with survival.

Rad scorpions are VERY powerful.

No, I was able to go through both the school and the mall without VATS which is what bothers me. I played it on a console and I actually have horrible skills with FPS game on consoles.

Where as on the laptop I have now with using a mouse (an actual mouse, not the touchpad) I seem to svck, a lot.

What bothers me is that in Fallout 3 I seem to be fine, same with Oblivion.

So far, I seem to have to rely on melee weapons...

Never brother to take aim and crouch I guess?

Melee/Unarmed do receive a huge buff compare to FO3.

I did try that but when your movement is so slow and the enemies move faster than you do there's not much you can do.

Thanks for thinking I skipped the tutorial though! :verymad:

As others said, the scaling is different. There are a lot of significant differences in how everything works. There's only a general category of "Guns" now, instead of "Small Guns" and "Big Guns," for example. There's the new skill of survival-which just revolves around the basic gameplay functions that would help a character survive. Repair doesn't work exactly as it used to, either. There's a lot of differences you'll probably notice as you play.

One thing I noticed the most is, as others said, you can't so easily max out all the skills-you're character will have weaknesses and strengths. Unless you really distribute your skill points that evenly-in which case the character will end up a "jack of all trades" and a "master of none." And all the skills, in my experience, actually are pretty useful-this is due to speech checks(which aren't just speech anymore, they also include your S.P.E.C.I.A.L. and skill stats), use of the skills outside(whether in battle or making something work for a quest), and such. My suggestion is to focus on the skills based on how you intend to play. For example, my first account was supposed to be as pacifist as possible-but I didn't want to die too easily either. So I made medicine, energy weapons, and speech my main skills. Everything else is pretty low-with the exception of lockpick, which I greatly heightened the points of at one point. But even that is notably lower than my other skills.

This has made things interesting, to keep it simple, whenever I was forced to fight unarmed or with only melee weapons-or whenever I chat about certain compromises, which have a surprisingly frequent amount of Barter checks.

Another thing you ought to keep in mind is that there is maybe not even a third of the perks that give you skill point bonuses that Fallout 3 had. So that also really changes how it all works.

If you want a long-range fighter type character, for example, you'd probably want to tag things like stealth, guns, and have a decent strength(if you want to use the Sniper Rifle), it can't be pitiful.

If you really want to make a diverse character, find all of the skill books and pick up the comprehension perk. With it, skill books give a whopping 4 extra skill points. Each skill has 4 skill books hidden throughout the ingame world. Find all 4 for each skill and you'll have 16 free skill points for them. It makes a difference, believe me. It will allow you to allocate skill points better and bring you one step closer to making the character of your dreams..... or get relatively close.

Found cover? Do you really need a stick to cover notice to do that?

I really think I should have kids in country with compulsory conscription.

There is no way boatflies can take you down in two shots unless you fight them with your health completely depleted.

Those radscorpions must have been giant radscorpions. Its very bad idea to fight those with laser pistol. You need something which does at last 30 damage to fight them. They have very good armour. All other radscorpion species can be handled even on level 1. Unless you somehow managed to attract too many of them at once. Rule is not to stand in front of them. Be on the move, position yourself at their sides or back. its not that hard, unless you fight giant one ...which you should not until mid game. You can fight them earlier if you place yourself in the spot where they can not go. Like inside destroyed building or abandoned caravan. It will still cost you awful lot of ammo unless you have some better gun. Plasma rifle works well on them for me.

Rifle you got from that lady is perfectly fine for at last next 10 levels and some players use it much further. You should generally follow quest line and listen to what NPCs tell you about surroundings. If they tell you you should not wander north of Goodsprings then you should listen. There are also all sorts of warning sights all around the place, if you see sight which tells "lions ahead" you should turn around and head back.

Cazadores, not bloatflies. You'll find that even at higher levels they can be a nuisance.


Basically no we're not weaker at lower levels but the enemies are tougher, there's no level scaling (well, not really) so the deathclaws you fight at level 1 are just as tough as those you face at level 30.

As others have said, go the route the game wants you to, at least on your first couple of playthroughs divergence=death. South, East, North. That route is designed to give you a learning curve, introduce you to some of the factions and a good number of towns.

I managed to survive the start of FO3 with just a BB gun and a baseball bat, although I did have to run away from super mutants more than once. It was also very tough against wild dogs. I actually found it easier at the start of F: NV if you stay on the roads.

Perhaps you should have read the part where I blatantly said I played Fallour 3 and obviously I'm not new to FPS style games.

I wish my country had forced education in it so people could learn to read.

d_murray, do the replies you've gotten here make sense? You don't start weaker than FO3, but you're more likely to run into critters you can't handle in areas that are very accessible, but against which you get adequate warning. I'm not a very good FPSer, but--so far--the only things that have managed to kill me more than once are the d#$%^&d giant radscorpions, and even with them I got a (lucky) kill at Lvl 5 with either a Cowboy Repeater or a Service Rifle (and AP ammo was my friend). You mentioned Oblivion; just think about OOO and the life expectancy of low-level characters when level scaling is eliminated, or even just reduced.

Yeah I was thinking it was more like OOO which is scary at some parts.

I understand that some parts are just best left till higher levels which kind of makes it less freeform though I suppose skills in the game make it up for low stats.