So after a bit of playing with FWE and a series of unfortunate and disappointingly unspectacular deaths, I'm getting rather frustrated. Because everyone else loves the thing (and it really is a beautifully crafted piece of software), I assume any inadequacies can be blamed on me.

So far, I've determined that the usual routine of "charge in, spray bullets, ????, profit!" isn't going to cut it. I have not, however, figured out a reliable alternative, other than "put as much distance as possible between me and anything that moves." Because this tactic doesn't lend itself well to experience gains -- and because confrontation is pretty much inevitable -- I feel there's probably something that I'm overlooking.

So the question then is this: how does FWE want me to play? I'm out of bullets, out of health items, and even living through a toe-to-toe confrontation with a Mole Rat is an iffy prospect. I'm used to playing a sneaky sniper type, but neither my sneaking nor my sniping are up to par at the moment. I can't figure this thing out, and changing any of the settings (except turning off Primary Needs, I'm not playing the Sims) would feel like a cop-out. Would any grizzled FWE veterans care to share their advice?

My experience with FWE was that it was too easy. You can just wait around a corner and gun down raiders as they run up to you. If you're crouching and an enemy is close, you'll have 95% headshots with just a little skill investment. I certainly never ran out of ammo or caps. There are bullets and cigarettes EVERYWHERE.

FWE wants you to acknowledge that it is more entertaining to die in a quick, deadly battle rather than a standard I-shoot-you,-you-shoot-me,-I-win-because-I-have-stimpak showdown. FWE wants you to put points into your weapon skill asap so you can actually hit your enemies, because weapon skill is no longer used to calculate damage ( their range is deadly, but so is yours at the right skill ) on default settings. Here is a list of what FWE wants you to do:

01. Die often
02. Pay dearly for your mistakes and for not being prepared
03. Get your motherflunking ash behind cover
04. Get your weapon skill up to 75 asa-funking-p
05. Make your shots count
06. Kill them when they are reloading
07. Use your stimpaks early
08. Lay deadly mines and fall back
09. Flush them out with grenades
10. Punish foolish rushers
11. Know who not to mess with before you're ready by scouting them from a distance
12. Know what's in front of you and what's around you
13. Keep your equipment in good condition
14. Plan the systematic and painful doom of your enemies with hate and discrimination
15. Kick some ash when you've got the hang of it and realize that you have become the die hard badash survivor of the wasteland
16. :facepalm: when you get a load of Fallout New Vegas "hardcoe" Mode :rofl:

You might not like how easily someone with a minigun can miraculously mow you down from a large distance while you are running for your life. It could save a headache, a mod that affects gunspread so that low skill or low weapon condition == bad aim. You also might also want a mod that makes vendors ( ammunition ) restock faster or have a larger stock. Or get Amy Wong companion.

So if I'm reading this correctly, it pretty much boils down to:

1. Up your weapon skill asap
2. Use your brain.

Does that sound about right?

Taking cover is also useful. If an enemy is shooting all of his bullets into the wall, they're not hitting you.

Yes. I'm not saying you are not using your brain, but you can exploit their dumbness. You will be playing smart to win my any means.

1a. Use cover, use the environment for cover, have cover nearby
1b. Get your weapon skill up fast and use cover
1c. Use cover, use mines, kill them when they reload, blow up cars, use chems

High weapon skill is crucial for FWE. Weapon skill of 30 is absolutely terrible. You will waste much ammo missing them while their AI aim and undiminished weapon damage kills you fast.

I actually don't ramp up my weapon skills right away. My main "just walking around" weapon is a large blade (combat knife or sword) used to dispatch molerats and dogs. I also keep mines and a scoped rifle handy for when I spot danger before it spots me. I also move fairly slowly across the wasteland so as not to stumble across anything bad. I basically find some form of cover and sneak around it looking for danger, opportunity and more cover in the general direction I want to go. When I'm ready I sprint to my next "safe" area and do it again. If I happen across a pack of baddies I look at my inventory vs their numbers, if I don't like the match up then I detour. If I do engage then I try pick off the ones who are farthest from the group first.

For your first time i would suggest using the "Alternative" settings, that is not quite as punishing as the default settings. Compared to unmodded Fallout 3 FWE is a major difficulty increase, so consider everything a lethal treath. If something hostile sees you before you see it you're in trouble, so move with caution.

I've been enjoying FWE but it does change the game up a bit doesn't it. Even a bunch of things you might not even notice for a while. I was getting my ash kicked for a little while too.
First of all, if you're a sneaky sniper, you should have Sneak & Small guns Tagged: in FWE a tagged skill doesn't just get the one time boost, it also gives you 2 points for every skill point used on it at the level up.
Also, as you can probably get your favorite skills up to 100 no problem (especially if they're tagged), the skill books are more important because they give you special perks rather than skill points. Once again, try and get those sneak & guns books.

And even then, you're going to find yourself outclassed sometimes. I too was moving very slowly and carefully through the wasteland until I got ambushed by some super mutants while trying to sneak by their encampment (I think it was the ones by Rivet City). They unleashed all sorts of holy hell on me. Luckily, I was able to severly injure two when one tried to trow a grenade; I shot it while it was still in his hand. By that time an Abomination had gotten pretty close to the monument I was using as cover so I switched to combat shotty and dropped him without taking too much damage. Wolfgang's caravan must've gotten hit by one of the mutant's stray bullets because they all of a sudden joined the fray and thankfully took down two floaters that were just soaking up everything I shot at them. With that momentum, I figured I would enter the encampment and finish off the two or three left. I almost died but it was worth it because at the end I was standing on a good pile of mutant corpses. Most of them had crap: sledgehammers & hunting rifles but there was a Supermutant Gunner with an HK CAWS shotgun. And I have kept that gun on me since I pried it from his cold dead hands.
They aren't common (haven't seen others) and it wont make the game too less tense but an HK would definitely help you.