Hey all

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:

If your INT, AGI and PER are that high you must be a pretty high level. If you're not taking Fiends' heads off with a BB Gun by now something is wrong. If your points are in guns you should be ok though. Interesting. Oh you need to get your endurance up if you want to buy all the implants.

The level of your SPECIALS have little to do with your level. However, the low endurance is most likely what's giving you trouble, as it reduces your health and durability severely.

Also, in case you're a tad rusty, make sure your armor and weapons are well repaired. Worth noting is that, unlike fallout 3, there ARE enemies that will kill you unless you've got an end-game character. Pop a few boosterdrugs if you have to, and since you're on hardcoe mode, stimpaks heal over time which makes it even more important to time them correctly.

Edit: double post, on my phone so it's a bit messy here.

Give us a complete build, your current skill ranks, weapons, armor and perks. From there we can tell you whats wrong.

what level are you? because fiends should stop being a nuisance after, id say around level 5-8

Complete build, eh? Okay, since you asked, I now have an excuse to bore you all with a big list... :wink_smile:

Level 8

S.P.E.C.I.A.L:

STR: 4
PER: 10 (+1 from gear)
END: 4
CHA: 4
INT: 8
AG: 9
LUCK: 3

Skills:
Barter: 19
Energy Weapons: 42
Explosives: 34
Guns: 50
Lockpick: 27
Medicine: 35
Melee: 12
Repair: 40
Science: 55
Sneak: 25
Survival: 20
Unarmed: 12

Perks:

Commando, Comprehension, Ranger Takedown, Retention, Scribe Assistant, Shotgun Surgeon, Small Frame, Trigger Discipline

Weapons/Gear:

Leather Armour (Reinforced)
Desperado Hat (not exactly high tech power armour there :biggrin: )
Glasses

Dynamite
Sawn-off Shotgun
Service Rifle
9mm Pistol
Laser Pistol
Laser Rifle
Magnum

I have the fancy revolver with the huge scope, but have not found any ammo for it sadly. Looking at my stats, I'm thinking perhaps I should have just focused on one combat discipline early on instead of doing some branchy stuff :s

Does Damage Threshold play a huge part in combat? I somewhat foolishly skipped over that part a bit in my haste to kill Geckos early game. I'm wondering if that's why enemies like Cook-Cook in his big metal suit just laugh at my rifle, while Veronica's Power Fist goes right through it and turns him into a canned food in about 3 hits. Hmm.

Have used standard bullets all game too.

I'm wondering if I should start over. Or at least make my next character more competent at Repair, Guns and Explosives/Survival or something earlier on. I keep finding loads of Hard locks but no freaking Hard or Average computers, which sometimes makes Science seem crappy. Perhaps I was wrong to lower my Luck so much too, since it's made Crit Hits quite a rarity.

Anyway, I'll stop speculating now and let all you experienced folks do the assessment :tongue:

First of all Luck is the stat for crits so you won't do a good sniper with Luck 3.



Its not a mistake to take two weapon styles, but you should focus putting skillpoints into one weapon stye till it is about 75 to do a reasonable amount of damage.

Since weapons from the "Guns" branch are easier to find and buy early in game and you already put more points into this skill, I would advise you to boost Guns and Repair. At level 14 you can get one of the best perks of the entire game: Jury Rigging. With Jury Rigging you can repair Power Armors with Metal Armors and light headgear with nearly destroyed sunglasses etc. But you need Repair 90 and level 14 to get this perk.



Not one of the best weapons



Also a bad choice.

One reason that you don't do enough damage could be the DT of the enemies. As far as I remember not the DPS counts against the Damage Threshold, but the damage one single bullet can do. And a burst of a weak gun cannot pierce the DT of a heavy armored opponent.

I would go with the cowboy repeater or the brush gun. Cowboy repeater with all mods [meaning ingame mods from vendors not mods from fnv-nexus] is cheap and at your level really a piece of destruction.

Hope this helps.

i've never had my strength or endurance that low, so that could be part of your problem there. you should also try focusing more on one skill rather than evenly distributing the points - I did that in Fallout 3 and when i first started playing New Vegas as well, before i realized that skill points are handled differently in this one. so i would put some points into your Guns skill and boost your Endurance and Strength if at all possible.

The higher your DT, the better. there are perks that can increase your DT and maybe you should look into them, but if you're playing as a sniper character why are the fiends even close enough to be seeing you? the scoped hunting rifle could be your friend now, although at your level that may be a little pricey/rare. I always use the Cowboy Repeater to snipe on low-level characters, it doesn't have a scope but i've landed some pretty ridiculous shots with it.

I would also, if I were you, do a total re-gear. Sell all the weapons you're using now, loot a bunch of crap, get a few thousand caps and buy totally new stuff. I'm not surprised you're having trouble with the sawn-off shotgun, that thing has been nothing but a crap fest for me. Try the Lever Action.

Beyond this, I dunno. This game is definitely tougher than FO3, it has a tendency to remorselessly kick your ass with little to no warning. things can be smooth sailing for the longest time and before you know it you're up to your neck in bad guys so stay vigilant!

:foodndrink:

Well the things that stand out to me most are your weapons and strength. Weapons have strength requirements, and without meeting them your weapons will be less accurate. 4, at least with a guns build, won't work for the majority of weapons. Your weapon choices are also not very powerful and that should sort itself out as you get more gear and otherwise progress your character. Also, DT does factor in a lot. To me, it doesn't seem like you necessarily have to start over, as there is even a perk later on that decreases Strength requirements by 2.

If you aren't going to use a minigun or AMR 4 sSTR is perfectly fine... once you get the perk for +2 toward strength checks using weapons. Your main problem is low guns skill.... at 50 skill you probably are not doing enough damage to overcome the enemy's DT and pumping up the skill will make a HUGE difference there. My first character I leveled weapon skills slowly and really suffered for it, but my next character I pumped up guns to 100 first thing and totally wrecked everything.

For a guns char, you're too light in STR, END, and LCK, and could take some points out of PER, INT, and especially CHR, to build them up- minimum 5 in STR, 6 in END, and as much luck as you can scrimp up. And that's before implants.

Definitely hold off on the extra weapons skills until you have at least 75 in guns- get real good with one, and then play with the others later if you want to branch out. What you are doing, is being mediocre with all of them, and not good with any of them.

Weapons- the ones you have are pretty low end, and when combined with your low level of 8, your poorly developed guns skill, and your total lack of sneakability (25? mega-ugh!), it's no wonder the Fiends, and especially Cook-Cook, are taking your lunch money. Frankly, you shouldn't even be messing with demi-bosses like him yet, at that low level. Although the ace-experts who've beaten the game 100 times with just their underwear and a rusty spork will claim they can take Cook-Cook out at level 3 with ease, no... you shouldn't be messing with him yet in your condition. It's normal for him to kick your ash, as poorly prepared as you currently are.

For the best weapon a lowbie guns char can get, do fetch yourself the Ratslayer. http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Ratslayer

In my opinion, if you are going guns and want to be a good ranged killer, Sneak is as equally important as the guns skill. I bring them up at the same levels usually, until they're up to 80+... then max them out with books. Eventually, when you have great weapons and skills and perks, and are a stone killer, you can stand up tall like Lucas McCain in the Rifleman, at high noon, and mow 'em down Rambo-style and survive... but until then, learn to use sneak, and darkness (night+sneak= major succeed), plus a scoped weapon (Ratslayer, Hunting Rifle, eventually sniper rifles, etc.), and learn to major in sneak headshots from range. Learn this, and guns will start to come together for you, quickly.

And remember- at level 8, you aren't supposed to be Rambo yet. Don't expect to be, unless you want to get slaughtered. In the early-game, caution and careful, patient tactics are your friends. And the night... and sneak... high, effective, beautiful sneak! Right now, you couldn't sneak up on a dead molerat- enemies see you coming long before you get within effective shooting range, and you totally lose all the benefits of sneak criticals for thinning them out before they rush you. Learn to sneak and snipe effectively, and you can often take out whole groups of 4-5 enemies before they can even get a bearing on you to start attacking.

There's a good reason our special forces train so heavily for night attacks and stealthy operations- because it works- surprise, confusion, win. And it does in FO:NV, too. Go own the night...

I'll just add to the advice you're receiving in a general way.

I tend to make a balanced character because all of the SPECIALS are important depending on what you're doing.

Charisma affects your companion's ability to deal out damage and take it. It affects Companion Nerve from +5 at CHA1 to +50 at CHA10.

Intelligence will affect how many points you can pass around when leveling.

Luck affects everything else whether you gain Caps from gambling or not.

Since we can increase our Specials in the game by getting Implants (along with the Intense Training perk), I start with END7. That gives me 7 Implants to use among 9 choices. There are 2 extra enhancements having to do with Healing and Damage Threshold.

My favored Specials start at: 5, 5, 7, 5, 7, 5, 6 and then I work them up from there.

Good luck!

"...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.

"
It sounds like your character is kind of all over the place. For example, it's ok to have a low Endurance if you're a dedicated sniper; enemies normally aren't close enough to hurt you. You frankly don't even need any DT to play a sniper. But if you're using a shotgun, you're going to (normally) have to be close to your enemies, meaning you will take more damage in return. Can't afford to have a low endurance there. A low Luck hurts your critical hit chances. A high Perception is pretty much useless (at least that high). If you're sniping you won't be in VATS much (it's more accurate to snipe free-hand) so won't need a high Agility or high action points.

My advice would be to pick a combat style, pick a weapon type, stick to it, and build your character accordingly. After picking one combat skill (guns or energy, not usually a good reason to pick both), pick either Medicine or Survival, some non-combat skills like Science/Speech/whatever you like. Your understanding of how the game works will improve A LOT during your first play through. Where combat is concerned, stick to doing one thing well on your first play through and it will go better. Good luck and enjoy.

Your build is not the best, but it is savable, and to be honest a damn sight better then my first build.

Advice...
Small frame is why you get crippled a lot. I hates it
Low STR... As someone else said weapons have a STR min however I think only your minigun will be effect right now. When you see the PERK that lowers your STR requirement by 2 grab it. *
Low gun/energy score. Next few lvls I would pump every point into one of them.
DT is huge. If you see a man with what looks like a lot of armor use a AP round, if you see a big beast use a HP round.
If you want to snipe raise your sneak, throw a scope on your laser rifle, or grab a hunting rifle/cowboy repeater/varmint, and throw on a scope/silencer on 'em

Tactics...
Best way to use a shotgun in my book is to shoot the MOB from a distance with anything to get its attention.
Duck around a corner, and switch to your shotgun.
When he rounds the corner blow his face off.

If you are not opposed to spoilers then I also suggest finding some unique weapons... they help a lot.

* You may also want to stock up on Steady. It will help you keep some of the higher end weapons that require high STR under control. That and oddly booze... I would acquire an alcohol addiction. Oddly enough it will reduce the wavering of the weapons (by raising your STR, and let you pack 10 more pounds around)

*EDIt* ALSO WELCOME TO THE FORUMS

Imo, your strength and luck are too low. The perk that really makes your character strong and arguably the best perk in the game is Better Criticals. And if you got a low luck, you can't take that perk.
Also strength is pretty important, if you got a rifle that requires strength 6 and your strength is 4, expect to be less accurate and do less damage.

My advise? Max out your luck to 10 (with surgery, take the finesse and Better Criticals perk.

There are two things you can do about strength, you can wear power armor to increase your strength or just raise it. I recommend always having at least a strength of 6 (with surgery), this will guarantee that you will be effective with just any rifle, but if you want to use big weapons like the minigun or gatling laser or plasma caster or tesla cannon, you should wear a suit of T-45d power armor which raises your strength by 2, or just raise your strength.
Basically if you love using any oversized weapons from the grenade machinegun to Annabelle, you should have a strength of at least 8 or 9.