Any tips on how to make playing this game more "realistic" in terms of deadliness of combat (WITHOUT ANY MODS, because I am on an Xbox)? Note that this is not to say that I want the game to be harder – I want getting shot to be dangerous to me and to my enemies alike, and head shots to be almost guaranteed to be crippling or fatal. I was thinking the following might work:

• hardcoe setting (to make healing slower)
  
• Easy or Normal difficulty (to make enemies' heads less impervious to harm)
  
• Small Frame trait (to make it easier for me to get crippled limbs)
  
• Endurance kept at 1 (for least hit points possible)
  
• Survival skill kept very low (to make healing from food harder, and to make eating/drinking more frequent)

Note that I'm talking about point/perk allocation and settings you can adjust on a console, not rules you actively ignore or disallow yourself from recognizing during play. While it would certainly make things more challenging to ignore fast travel, refuse to get addictions healed by doctors, or pretend like my weight limit is actually significantly lower than it actually is, these aren't things you can limit within the rules and systems of the game, so I'm not bothering with them. I'm perfectly happy selecting sub-par weapons, armor, and stats for roleplaying purposes, but for some reason, I feel like it ends up actually being less immersive if I have to fastidiously monitor whether I'm breaking my arbitrarily-created rules (which I've tried on more than one character and then quit out of boredom). I know I'm not the only player who works like this, so I'd really appreciate if we could focus this thread on how to make a playthrough that works based on options within the rules of the unmodded game, and not get bogged down with a discussion about making up your own rules for roleplaying purposes, which has already seen plenty of heated debate in other threads (like http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1141389-who-was-the-courier-that-passed/page__hl__gamers__st__40).

So, any other suggestions for a "realistically dangerous" playthrough?

Hard, Small Frame, don't wear armor.

I was thinking of a character that was a pure tribal. Refused modern 'witchcraft' and would only recognize healing from natural sources (food/water) or salves that were crafted by himself (over the campfire). This immediately eliminated Stimpacks/Super Stims and would make walking into a war zone a little more intimidating. I also wouldn't be able to carry as much since I am loaded with food items & their components. I am also toying with the idea of him refusing all currency and relying on barter items only. Would make turpentine & gecko hides suddenly very valuable to stock. If I could find away around Radiation Sickness, I was going to forego Radaway & Rad-X, but I can't seem to get by it without using caps to pay doctors to remove any radiation.

Hope some of those 'limitations' help raise your challenge.

Keep your Strength below four.

keep your endurance low and luck low as well. and go with Very Hard difficulty setting. normal is too easy, real life would be very difficult in the wasteland.

high luck results in almost every hit being critical.

I don't see a need for such difficulty if he is going for a realistic play-through he wants heads to splatter when he shoots them. I am playing on hard + hardcoe mode (my first playthrough) and to be honest shooting someone in the head 6 times with a 44 mag from 5 feet away just to take a little more than half health is stupid.

I don't want to have gunfights where I take 30 rounds, I want to dispatch these guys through VATS with 1-2 shots each and feel lucky to escape with my life. But I guess that can be the focus for the next hardcoe mode in the next FO series.

I am rather happy with my wasteland wanderer/survivalist.


to the OP - I would recommend walking everywhere unless in combat/being attacked, carry handguns only or a single assault rifle, flee from most hostile situations unless there is something to gain from it (quest item, recipe, gear). Have your STR low enough to where you would only be carrying a realistic amount of gear but can use the weapon and armor of choice (Some caps, a weapon and maybe one backup, several bottles of water and some stimpacks)


The only REAL problem I have with the game is that so many praise and advertise it as a total free-roamer. The two times I decided to wander away from the beaten path I was attacked by a blind deathclaw (at level 3 or 4) and killed in one sweep... and recently at level 7 or 8 got too close to the lake outside of new vegas and got two shotted by the lake monster.

Oh and I wouldn't aim at keeping the survival skill low, if you are going to play realistic that means you should only be carrying what you can fit in a backpack or dufflebag, you want those few waters/stimpacks to be very helpful.

I'm going to do this on my next playthrough. Thanks for the idea!

no follower

If I wanted this game to be painfully real, I'd get married and have kids and have to visit them every 3 days lest I risk being divorced and lose all my unique armors weapons and etc.

In other words, you don't want want to play Fable? hehe

Never played Fable (Im on PS3), but if that was possible, I'd probably just slay my wife :blush2:

Yeah in Fable 2 you can buy a house, get married, have kids, get divorced, kill your wife, etc.

So, how many deathclaws and cazadores have you met in real life?


To the OP, it really is a pity you cannot use mods, I would have certainly suggested something to make the night times darker, perhaps you can do it with the brightness control?, since I installed Nevada Skies I've got a whole new experience, it really is creepy when you can barely see a couple of feet in front of you.

It could only get better if we could throw the nagging wife off the turret :blush2:

Yes, this. Very Hard does not make sense. I want combat to be equally deadly for me and enemies alike. I think it would completely change the way that I'd play – make me more cautious, but also make fights exciting (rather than simply hard) when I do get into them.



Hm. Having low Strength would make it harder to load up on stuff, AND encourage me to use lower-powered weapons, so that seems like a good way to stick to handguns and few rifles.

As for Survival, I find it kind of silly that I can hotkey Bighorner Steaks for better healing in the middle of a fight than actual Stimpacks. Want to encourage myself to use food for food, and eat more than once a day for sustenance, rather than eating for magic healing powers.

Anyway, thanks for the tips!

It seems there are a number of choices to make between (i) more balanced gameplay vs (ii) more realistic game experience, and it would appear to be a challenge to make it work without using mods. Sounds like fun, let us know how the experience turns out for you!

I've thought about this as well, trying to find a balance between keeping things realistic and not having to keep checking to see if I'm breaking my own rules. But here are a couple of things that can be done easily enough -

- No healing during battles. If you can't fast-travel your way to safety, then it makes sense that you can't heal yourself either. After all, your enemy isn't going to give you a time out while you use a stimpack or two. So, you either finish the fight, or run away. Only when your status returns to [CAUTION] again do you have a few minutes to lick your wounds.

- Limit the amount of weapons you can carry. I usually carry two dual-handed (commando) weapons, one pistol (gunslinger), and one melee weapon. Also some grenades. Anything else I either repair it and sell asap, or give to a companion to carry. Just an idea, since I've never liked the idea of carrying a small arsenal with me everywhere I go.

You could use Cave Fungus and try your hardest not to get irradiated too much(because cave fungus is super rare). Also if your character shuns technology, how do you plan to go about explaining the pip-boy strapped to your arm?

No better than reinforced leather armor.

No playing Caravan.

No high luck gambling.

Don't give companions anything except the weapons, armor and ammo you want them to use (no pack mules)

Obviously things cant be tweaked for your liking but on my current realistic play through I'm going for

Very Hard / hardcoe

No Companions on the road ( take the perk leave at home)
Field Hand clothing / Duster (no armor, but I go w/ an End. of 5 and get a lvl of toughness)
Strength 3. (Keeps the uber weapons out of your hands)
High Luck (still gotta do some damage, control gambling abuse.)
High Agility

I go down in pretty much 4-5 hits.

Use an un-owned location for housing.

When you take the companion out of the equation, I think the game plays better in general. I like those characters but they really pop the survival bubble.

Hard, hardcoe, HUD opacity to 0, no crosshair, small frame, maybe even set the pip-boy color to white.

Small Frame and Four Eyes, then pour stats in Perception and Charisma.

No heal during combat is a bit...er....too much of a self torture; I say no stimpak.

Strength 3 looks low enough while not leaving you too many special on other things.

Turn off crosshairs, and turn HUD opacity to 0
both are in Display in Settings

Realistic difficulty: don't even play. You got shot twice in the head before the game even starts. Good luck surviving that.

Search about it, there is plenty of cases which 9mm through the skull and the victim lives and recover.