I find that a good supply of explosives really help in some of the tougher fights: lob a few grenades, or plant some mines, and things go a lot smoother.
I sometimes plant mines when I know/suspect I will run into trouble, and just run back past it if I do.

I don't think you guys are quite hearing Savlian. Although you're certainly being nice by responding. :hubbahubba:

Disclaimer: He's agreeing with things that I was saying previously, so I'm just trying to hop on a bus. :facepalm:

At any rate, there's all this talk of planning out a response, constructing a mine periphery, establishing that the threat level is too high and easing back to town for some seltzer and a warm bath, (dang, I'm going to exaggerate), filling out some forms for life insurance, trying to negotiate a truce, getting some real skillz dewd, hiding behind the penguin, and what not.

But, as he says, he dies within a second. If he can see them, then they can seem him, and they put an accurate shot down the newly navigated one-pixel corridor between.

My new target for blame is the Fallout 3 AI. Within the context of many games, it leans kinda cheaty. It seems to know when you're reloading or need to reload. It sees through walls and trees. The other day I experimented as I was hiding behind a rock (I live behind a rock) and I'd edge towards first this side of the rock and then the other and the AI was putting shots on the side of the rock that I was heading for, even when I didn't actually crest. Now that's cool, I guess, if you want to use a roleplaying-style excuse and go "Well, the enemy wants you dead, blah blah blah, and so he's aggressively laying down some covering fire. And you would too. Why, my grandpa says that the Germans actually taped their triggers down and mounted their guns pointed at the enemy, yadda yadda."

Still, the AI isn't laying shots down where you're NOT going. Naww, it's looking through the barrier at you and waiting for you to display your small finger so it can light that finger up with however many hitpoints you contain in your whole body.

Also, the AI doesn't seem to be detailed enough to be changed for the enemy it's simulating. Crackheads, soldiers, and God all have the same accuracy and tactics.

That's enough spewage for me. I don't mean any harm with the sarcasm. I just woke up feeling kinda fruity and chatty and, well, there ya go. I actually feel respect for and give thanks to the fine FWE team and even Bethesda! :hugs:

Of course an ambush like that is unfortunate, but the increased spawn number is actually through MMM.
In any regard, Talons are in no way the toughest enemy. You can kill them with one headshot with most weapons(except for maybe a 10mm or a .32). Also for situations like this, like Tubal says, always bring explosives along. One frag grenade could have kill all of them, or atleast the majority. We did add a hotkey for grenades afterall




Well the enemies can "hear" you. So if your sneak skill is bad, or you are wearing power armor, yeah they are probably gonna find you if you are close by.
And I've said it often enough, if you find the fights go by too quickly, simply load my FWE Tweaks file, it reduces weapons damage globally and also decreases enemy accuracy.

And anyhows, if you watched my gameplay videos, you actually can see the enemies missing quite frequently or shooting at a space that I just occupied moments before or shooting against the wall(it's especially visible towards the end of the video).

Hey,

I can't seem to find stimpacks in any decent numbers. Every 1st aid kid i check has a blood bag and some drugs, however stimpacks never seem to show up. My enemies don't carry them either. Over the course of the game, now being level 10 myself, I have found around 10 or so stimpacks. That, of course, means the only way for me to heal up after fights is to take a nap. Matters get worse once I get a crippled limb. With triage, I can only restore a tiny amount of health to a limb, but that will be gone really quickly again. Without triage, I could theoretically use stimpacks - if only I ever found them. What that means is I need to sleep after every non-trivial fight. Crippled limbs mean a trip back to the doctor... *IF* I can find a way to restore them first - otherwise it'd mean a trip to the next medic (only know the one in megaton anyways) snail style - thanks, but reload.

So, my question is: Am I missing something? Are stimpacks supposed to be *this* rare? Is there really no way to get my limbs healed by a decent amount of hp without deactivating triage and using the stimpacks I don't have?

I might add that my medicine skill still is at about 30. Maybe the system only works for characters with higher med skills? That would, in that case, have been nice to know from the start (and would likely mean I'd have to cheat myself a decent medicine skill, something I hate doing).

I'm attaching my load order in case something is conflicting - shouldn't be the case, though.

Found it two days ago (been hitting the forums less hard lately). Installed it. Grateful for it. Thanks for making it. :clap:

I'm currently running FWE/MMM/WMK/FOIP/Etc. Normal difficulty, but some of the harsher features from FWE and MMM. I have two purposes in this thread: 1) To commend Mez and the rest of the mod creators on making an incredibly difficult, but exciting experience (examples below); and 2) To ask a quick question about companions, esp. Jericho.

The quick question first: I haven't tried recruiting Jericho recently (playing from at/near the beginning, haven't got to other companions yet). In previous versions that I played, where Jericho used actual (instead of unlimited) ammo, he couldn't hit the broad side of a barn and frequently ran out of ammo. Given the lack of funds and ammo at lower levels, I don't feel I can afford to recruit him and have him waste ammo like crazy. Especially because I am trying to play realistically and avoid dying. I won't actually give up on my char if I die, but I want to minimize dying at all costs. So, I would like to have a companion to guard my back, but, again, I don't feel I can waste ammo like crazy. So, how is Jericho with using up ammo currently? Any recent tweaks?

Ok, now some major props and examples from my recent playing around at lower levels: Fresh out of the vault (but not having played through the vault, I "wake up" with vault dweller origin), I have limited supplies. In particular, I have no mines. I am scared for my life at every encounter! Any time I see raiders, there's a large pack of them--often with automatic weapons and if they get a glimpse of me, I have to run for my life or find myself dead. No more heading to springvale school and wiping it out right off the bat. It's a death trap! Same goes for superduper mart. Death trap. Very, very difficult encounters. MMM makes more raiders/enemies appear. FWE makes them deadly. Raiders are no longer target practice--they're the real deal. Supermutants make me wet my pants a little when I see them.

I tagged stealth, small guns, and repair and I only go out at night under the cover of darkness--of course, this means night ghouls that I have to watch out for! But, it means better sneaking, which is absolutely crucial. I look for cover constantly. The ONLY time I fight instead of running is if I can plan out the encounter beforehand--i.e., I see them before they see me--AND if I have a way that I figure will work to kill my opponents effectively. One example: My goal was to get to Minefield first off to stock up on frag mines, which are essential imo to survival at low levels. The gist of it is: "Hey, over here, come kill me!" Then run for your life hoping they give chase right into a mine and kablammo! Around a corner works nicely. Anyway, I barely survived an encounter with 4 raiders, but they had a nice stockpile of supplies, so I was still doing ok. But, I needed to sell some stuff and I happened to stumble upon Meresti. The problem? 3 talon mercs guarding the entrance and supermutants just outside the area. Krikey. Fortunately, no one had seen me. I had 3 frag mines (found in the raiders' stockpile) and a couple of grenades. I planted a couple mines spaced out down a path between some cars and a train and then lobbed a grenade toward the 3 mercs. I got lucky and the grenade took out 2 of them. The third then gave chase and got blown up on the first mine--success! My best encounter thusfar. Emboldened, I then picked up the other mine and looked out toward the supermuties. I realized then that the gate into the trainyard provided a natural chokepoint. Then, there was another chokepoint between two traincars just inside the gate. I laid down my two remaining mines at each and then sent out a couple warning shots toward the muties. They came running through and 2-3 died on the mines and I took down another with my shotgun. Again, success! I managed to take out 3 mercs and 3-4 muties thanks to some mines. No way I would win if any of them got the drop on me. Then I went to rest up and buy/sell in meresti.

Anyway, that is a story of success, but I have many more of failure. Heading to superdupermart at first made me want to give up in frustration This is too tough! I thought to myself. Fortunately, I just decided to switch up my approach instead. Now I try and scout out every encounter. I had one scouting mission that was incredibly thrilling. I was level 2-3 only and I stumbled across some beat-up buildings absolutely crawling with raiders. At least 20, I would say. Death for sure if they got a whiff of me. But, it was night and I was very careful to stay hidden. I scouted around the perimeter trying to see if there was any way to isolate some of the raiders to lower their numbers. I managed to scout all around and note the location of many of the raiders. Unfortunately, they were often in groups of 3 and there was one posted up above with a sniper rifle and then the main part of their camp had like 10 of them. I scouted it all out, which was thrilling as I was in spitting distance of some of them at one point. But, I couldn't initiate combat because there was just too many of 'em so I snuck away instead. Having to know when to attack and how is a huge part of the thrill now. I love the challenge--frustrating as it can be at times. Trying to play dead-is-dead (or close to it) makes it even more thrilling. Everytime I step out onto the wasteland, I am actually afraid. When I notice enemies, I'm afraid. This is an experience I never really had in the vanilla game. Raiders were target practice, muties not much more challenging. Behemoths--a bit scary, but more in terms of the visual appearance. Now the thrill of fighting raiders is intense. Very, very enjoyable!

Thanks, cool descriptions of the mod(s)

You said you were playing on normal difficulty. I, so far, am on hard, as I usually try to do in my games. Do I understand you correctly in that normal difficulty still provides decent difficulty midgame?

Great mod, but I'm experiencing a quite annoying problem with it. Or well, just the bullet time part of it.

When I first activate bullet time, it works just fine. But when my AP runs out, the game freezes completely and I have to close it with the task manager, which is a pain because it starts using up a bunch of system resources and slows down the system. I have no experience in Fallout modding, but to me this sounds like some kind of script loop?

Anyway, anyone got any ideas as to what this problem is and how I can solve it? Except for turning off the AP draining, of course. Here's my load order:

Fallout3.esmAnchorage.esmThePitt.esmBrokenSteel.esmPointLookout.esmZeta.esmCRAFT.esmCALIBR.esmFO3 Wanderers Edition - Main File.esmEnhanced Weather - Rain and Snow.esmMart's Mutant Mod.esmBunker72 v3.esmDestruction.esmStreetLights.esmUnofficial Fallout 3 Patch.esmUnofficial Fallout 3 Patch - Operation Anchorage.espUnofficial Fallout 3 Patch - The Pitt.espUnofficial Fallout 3 Patch - Broken Steel.espUnofficial Fallout 3 Patch - Point Lookout.espUnofficial Fallout 3 Patch - Mothership Zeta.espCRAFT - Activation Perk.espCALIBRxMerchant.espDarNifiedUIF3.espFellout-Full.espOwned!.espdD-Larger Blood.espWastelandMastery.espB72v3 Clutterfree.espB72v3-02.espB72v3 Mainelevator timerswitch.espB72v3_MHOO.espB72v3-03.espBoSPatrols.espKillableKidsOptional.espSCC Armor.esp1alexscorpionsnipergear.espDCInteriors_ComboEdition.espDestruction - Main.espDestruction - Main - Statics.espDestruction - DLC.espDestruction - DLC - Statics.espDestruction - CP - Fellout.espEnhanced Weather - Rain and Snow in Fallout.espEnhanced Weather - Radioactive Rain and Snow Plugin.espEnhanced Weather - Weather Sounds in Interiors.espEnhanced Weather - Sneak Bonus during Storms.espFellout-Anchorage.espFellout-BrokenSteel.espFellout-PointLookout.espUPP - Pack 1.espUPP - Pack 2.espUPP - Experience Perks.espUPP - Beverage Perks.espUPP  - Quest Perks.espFO3 Wanderers Edition - Main File.espFO3 Wanderers Edition - DLC Anchorage.espFO3 Wanderers Edition - DLC The Pitt.espFO3 Wanderers Edition - DLC Broken Steel.espFO3 Wanderers Edition - DLC Point Lookout.espFO3 Wanderers Edition - DLC Mothership Zeta.espFO3 Wanderers Edition - Followers Enhanced (BrokenSteel).espFO3 Wanderers Edition - UFP Support.espFO3 Wanderers Edition - Alternate Travel.espFO3 Wanderers Edition - Lvl 30 High Skills.espWeaponModKits.espWeaponModKits - FWE Master Release.espWeaponModKits - OperationAnchorage.espWeaponModKits - ThePitt.espWeaponModKits - BrokenSteel.espWeaponModKits - PointLookout.espWeaponModKits - Zeta.espEVE.espEVE Operation Anchorage.espEVE - FWE Master Release.espEVE - FWE Master Release (Follower Enhanced).espEVE Anchorage - FWE DLC Anchorage.espEVE - FWE with WeaponModKits.espMart's Mutant Mod.espMart's Mutant Mod - Zones Respawn.espMart's Mutant Mod - Natural Selection.espMart's Mutant Mod - Tougher Traders.espMart's Mutant Mod - Hunting & Looting.espMart's Mutant Mod - DLC Anchorage.espMart's Mutant Mod - DLC The Pitt.espMart's Mutant Mod - DLC Broken Steel.espMart's Mutant Mod - DLC Point Lookout.espMart's Mutant Mod - DLC Zeta.espS.T.A.L.K.E.R. Mutants[addon for MMM].espMart's Mutant Mod - FWE Master Release.espMart's Mutant Mod - FWE with EVE.espMez's Merged Patch - FWE-WMK-MMM.esp

Thanks!

EDIT: I tried experimenting a little. I disabled all mods except for FWE and made a new character. Still the same problem. However, I also found out that the game also freezes when I turn off bullet time myself. So it freezes a short time after bullet time is disabled. I'd really like to get this problem fixed, because I'd love to use bullet time

EDIT #2: Now I tried running the game with just DK_Bullettime, which I downloaded separately. This resulted in the same problem. However, because I didn't have FWE installed, I also had more AP, so the bullet time lasted longer, and the game freezed already at half AP. So it turns out the freezing had nothing to do with the bullet time ending, it actually happens a few seconds after activation.

Right. Thank you. (I didn't respond yesterday because my Internet connect went out).

Pretty much every time I've won was with explosives. I did last night too. Beat all five on the second try. But that means laying down the mines. It's a little unrealistic, since it was an ambush (at least they were not visible from behind the building).

So I ran until I saw the first blip. Then set up some mines. But if I (the player) didn't know those were five Talons (only saw one blip, might have be just a lone molerat) then I would not have gone into sneak mode.

With FWE and MMM, it seems to me that explosives and sneak are very important. My character has both very high for a level six. And small guns too. At least until later levels when I'll have improved health and DR.

I could kill Talons with one head shot but that means focusing on one, and if there are four others firing high powered weapons at you, then your PC dies with the Talon. And in an ambush situation you can't seperate them very well.

I am very reluctant to use the reduced weapon damage option.

Once again thanks for a great mod. It reminds me of OOO, which is extremely high praise!

I haven't got to midgame yet If it becomes easier, then I will up the difficulty level. At low levels though, normal is already very hard--at least to me. If you're an uber player, and find it easy, then you could up the difficulty earlier on I guess.

So you complain you die to fast, but you don't want to use a mod that reduces weapon damage? And you find it to difficult, but don't want to set the difficulty down to easy?
So what exactly can we do for you at all?


Also on that note, my FWE Tweaks is not there to just reduce damage or make the game easier. It just changes things up, because my problem was not that my enemies did too much damage, but that I did too much damage and could even one shot super mutant masters. Through my tweaks mod, difficult enemies actually appear much tougher, while the "light" enemies like raiders and such, still die from one single headshot(or even bodyshot).
Also my tweak mod nerfs Bullet time a good deal as I found it overpowered as soon as you had super human reflexes.

I am continually getting the RI/Primary needs screen popping up. Quite annoying, not to mention making the game unplayable. I have clicked exit and even disable many times but it keeps returning. Is there a fix for this or can it be completely removed?

Primary Needs has a hotkey that you can assign to open it. I can't remember what the default is, but it sounds like you have a key you use frequently bound to the same thing as the hotkey. Next time the menu opens, there is an option to change the hotkey, so assign it to some other rarely used key.

Yes, that was it. So simple. I like that. Not sure why it was bound to my "W" key, but I must have inadvertatly done so. Thank you very much for your quick reply!!

Mahalo.

Glad to help! Usually when it's a bizarre error like this it's something simple =) I just had to think of what might cause it, and this was the "simpliest" possible problem. Enjoy!

Hey Mez, any word on Jericho's ammo usage (see above). Thanks!

We've talked about this a few times:

1. All AI actors use the same gamesettings, so if we increased follower accuracy, we would at the same time increase enemy accuracy
2. AI doesn't instantly recognize when another actor dies(I think this is actually done on purpose by bethesda), so nothing we can do in that regard either.
3. We don't want to give Followers back unlimited ammo.

So I personally say this minor issue simply does not warrant the massive amount of work(not to mention it could create possible bugs) it would take to fix it. Also in FWE followers are essential, they give a good deal of additional firepower AND you can have more than one follower in FWE. So compared to all those bonuses, that they use a bit more ammo is really a minor drawback.
There are two simple solutions for you to this:
1. Give them a weapon that uses ammo that you dont use.
2. If you don't have much ammo, don't give them full automatic weapons.

I think it best to view it as an ammo-tax, for getting to use multiple weapons at the same time.

This is especially important if you don't want them to blow through ammo, as the "overfire" for automatics is substantially higher than semi-auto weapons. I typically give my followers things like hunting rifles, sniper rifles, pistols, wattz weapons, along with ammo to use it. If I do give them something like a minigun or gat laser, my character holds onto the ammo until I want them to use the weapon, at which point I'll hand over a couple 100 5mm or EC charges and let them go to town. The last thing you want if followers opening up with M60's or miniguns on mole rats, so don't let that situation happen.

One random idea I've had is to make the "worn" weapon versions of the assault rifles (assault, chiense assault, FN FAL) actually be semi-auto. Kinda goes with them being worn and all? But the upshot is they would make modest weapons for followers. Or maybe just make the assault rifle semi, and leave the others as is.

I repeadily praised this mod. I hope you're not taking offence.

I never said it was too difficult. And I never complained.

My recommendation was a reduced spawn rate for lower characters. I understand this is mostly MMM. But maybe something in FIOP could help. but if not I understand.

I hope you're not upset with my posts. I was just asking questions and making suggestions.

The question was is what I'm experiencing normal. If so I'll deal with it. I don't want to make my game easier that what it's supposed to be. And I had what I thought were useful mod related comments on how to play (sneak explosives)

The constructive recommendations for consideration or rejection is to not have a band of five Talons ambush a lower level character.

I said in pretty much every post I love the mod and thank you for it. Please don't take offense. The "So what exactly can we do for you at all?" has a very negative tone. What you can do if you want is let me know if what I'm experiencing is normal or if I'm playing wrong, and maybe consider recommendations. Again please don't take offense, now I'm kind of afraid to post at all, even with priase for fear someone will think it is a complaint.

No, you shouldn't be afraid of voicing your opinion. But we've also often gotten complaints by people who played on Hard or Very hard and they complained about the difficulty, so sometimes you have to sort the real feedback from that of people who just whine because they don't understand what FWE is about.

But in any regard, what you experienced was very unlucky I agree. But that's simply the nature of a dynamic game by Fallout. Sometimes you can get lucky, sometimes less so.

Savlian, don't worry about it =) I don't feel you're were being overly criticial at all, and I'm not upset by your posts in the least =)

In answer to your question, I think your experience is within the range of "normal experience" as far as FWE goes. FWE + MMM chanegs the dynamics of the gameplay in a lot of ways, and the result is based on complex interactions happening with spawns, leveled lists, etc..... In otherwords, the five talons that jumped you at a low level is a perfectly plausible event, but also something that can't be easily predicted or manipulated. You can use the console to turn off (or down) the MMM increased spawns implementation, that will reduce the numbers of enemies you face overall, but it isn't specific enough control spawning for Talon's or other factions specifically.

EDIT: The new version of FWE, as mentioned, will build in optiosn to control a lot of aspects of game difficutly. I wouldn't worry about turning down the global damage as a cheat in anyway (in fact it can make other apsects of the game more difficult, like it takes more ammo to kill things). Needless to say, FO3 is a single player game, so I don't think cheating is part of the discussion. You either enjoy your gameplay experience or you don't. That said, I don't want to tell anyone how they should be playing their game either. I created the mod they way it is because its the way "I" like the game to feel, but that doesn't mean it's right for everyone. By adding in a lot of in-game options (next version) for controlling gamesettings and other components of the mod, I'm hoping that FWE can be tailed so it's more enjoyable on a per user basis, for the kind of game other people like to play. It's not cheating to use any of these options in my view.

Ok, interesting comments about follower ammo. I think I agree, for the most part. So, I'll plan on giving my followers appropriate weapons. Thanks!

alllllrighyt then!

might as well get the http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=1062671 going before they lock this one down =)

thanks for the continued support for FWE!