Played the heck outta Fallout3 and Fallout2. Was reluctant to do Steam, but changed my toon a few weeks back and bought Skyrim. Has been a good experience. Just bought and DLing FONV Ultimate; at $29.99 how could I resist?

So as a brand new (though with lots of FO3 experience) player to FONV what do you guys recommend?

Obviously no spoilers please, but I bet some of you vets will have some vague but intriguing suggestions to entertain me as I embark into the irradiated and fearful world of FONV?

As a Fallout 3 veteran, you may be interested in upping the difficulty a bit with the game balance overhaul mod from the game's lead designer, http://www.falloutwiki.com/JSawyer. It'll make the game more challenging while still allowing you to play on the game's normal difficulty, so you can have a challenging game without turning enemies into bullet sponges.

One important difference between Fallout 3 and NV that you do need to know is that the http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Damage_Threshold feature from the original games is back.

Cool. Thank you Povuholo. Exactly the kinda 'headsup' info that can help you get going

I would seriously suggest playing the game 'vanilla' first before u start modding it. Some might like the mod, others don't and so I would first at least try to go vanilla. Start with very hard/hardcoe, should at least give u some challange (enough for me anyway, especially since I'm playing Dead is Dead-style), if it's not enough then install the mod.

Also, for ur first char simply don't put many points in charisma. Also, realise that this game is way more gray than the black and white story line of FO:3, so before u start pissing off one of the factions in the game, try and understand them first. Then see what faction suits u, and which do not. Once u ruin ur rep it's almost impossible to get it back, especially once you have visited the strip in New Vegas.

Other than that I'd say play the game, explore, have fun and realise that there are really many, many ways to play this game. So don't think that you are done once u finish the game the first time!

Cool, cool. Yeah I've heard a lot of good things about the large permutations for playstyle and replayability with FONV.

I think I will go modless at first. I generally like 'reality' mods (eating and sleeping; more realistic encumbrance; more limited fast travel) and usually try to play dead-is-dead. But tbh, I'm already frustrated that this dang game installation is slow!

So the prospect of installing -anything- else before I get into playing it is not appealing atm.

Sheeze I have so many Bethesda related apps and installers and manager programs. Is this FOMM that you linked to Povuhollo, is that pretty much the top notch 'mod manager' for FONV? What about Nexus Mod Manager?

The machine that I last had FO3 installed is past on to the Great Silicon Valley in the sky, but I seem to recall I had something called FOMM, FOSE, and two maybe even three other apps that were all involved in getting mods to work together. Oh! I remembere now it was something called Fallout Wanderer's Edition. Amazing how much of this stuff you can forget.

I got heavy into EVE Online about a year ago an dit was fun for about 6 months, then it started to feel like a 2nd job and I have recently let my account lapse. When I realized that I was 'paying' ~100 million ISK (Interstelar Kredits, which is an in-game currency that you can accumulate from killing NPCs) for my character to "live" in our alliance wormhole system, which thus compelled me to log on and play in order to keep the ISK flowing . . . it just didn't feel fun anymore. Lot of mixed feelings on that, as that is a years worth of skill training that is now sitting there on inactive toons . . . but, just not in a life-place to be doing any hardcoe MMOGs. The nice thing about TES and FO games: they are just about as engrossing as EVE or any of the other really good games out there; but unlike an MMOG, the 'social' side is completely elective.

I would have to agree with the difficulty upgrade to hard, or even very hard, if you played as much fallout 3 as I did I suggest it. I Don't use a computer (Not my decision lol) so no info on mods from me, its pretty different. But all I can say is treat it as a whole new thing, dot treat it like fallout 3 its allot different. The best thing you will ever get out of a game is always keep wondering and keep it fresh lol. After a long while of game play its hard to keep it fresh.

It is explained best right here.

Well the 'hardcoe' mode will satisfy some of the reality you're looking for. Fast travel is only possible for locations u have visited, on the other hand u can simply choose to walk instead of hitting fast travel if that's ur thing.

And I have played EVE as well... It was fun untill I had some guy with no-life whatsoever hunting me. I managed to get aboard something of a mothership (dunno exactly anymore cuz that must have been like 5 years ago) and didn't touch the game for 4 days. I then decided to leave and the guy actually was still sitting there and attacked me the moment I flew out of the mothership. I could not believe it and well... since then I decided this game was not for me I remember some war between two factions going on, one of them was named Boons or Goons or something. Meh, was a crappy experience anyway.