
Got Fallout: New Vegas on the Steam sale. Very impressed so far and having lots of fun having been a long time fan of Fallout. I think I prefer the feel to Fallout 3, the game feels far more gritty to me for some reason. I'm playing on hardcoe Mode, and it's pretty cool having to manage water levels and stuff in addition to the standard gameplay.
Unfortunately my enjoyment has hit something of a barrier recently. I played a melee character in Fallout 3 and so decided to do the polar opposite in New Vegas and build some kind of sniping, gunslinging death machine.
My character has a boosted 10 Perception, 8 Intelligence and 9 Agility, so has an absolute ton of AP and very high accuracy at pretty long distances. I use the INT for conversations and hacking for loot. I sacrificed my Endurance, so I get crippled quite a bit, but it's not too bad if I can do quite a bit of damage, or so I originally reasoned.
I've been pumping my skills into Science, Guns and Energy Weapons. My Medicine is reasonable too. I've just got to the area outside New Vegas, where the Raiders and so on are, and I'm finding that suddenly my character just svcks.
I will be fighting a Fiend and use a shotgun to his head or chest at point blank range and do about 1/4 of his health bar in damage, usually not even hurting his limb(s) either. Then he'll shoot back and I'll have to hide to use a Stimpak. It's got to the point where I will dump a whole clip into someone's chest at 95% accuracy in VATS and they will be left covered in bloody holes, but mostly unhurt.
By contrast, my companion (Veronica, I think? The Power-Fist girl?) will just run in and one-shot the same enemies with her melee, sending severed limbs everywhere. It's got slightly ridiculous - almost every fight I just hide somewhere like some kind of peace protester while she murders everything effortlessly.
I don't expect to one-shot everything and the game to be a breeze, but I can't understand why a character I've seemingly built correctly (also took perks like Shotgun Surgeon, Commando) can be as effective as an angry kitten in combat.
Have I made some kind of glaring character build screw-up? :cryvaultboy: