The closest thing I can find to my trusty Ol' Painless

I suppose it will depend on what's available.
I mean, I could say what weapon I prefer, like many in this thread are doing, but that isn't really whats being asked.

So, for early in the game? Whichever has the best combination of ammo capacity and availability.
A shotgun wont do me any good if I can only find 5 shells- there won't be a whole lot of vendors early on.

When you say "problem solver" I think of the weapon I'll fall back on when my strategy goes to crap and I'm in a hopeless situation with limited ammo and have no way out. In that case, can't go wrong with a riot shotgun. It needs ammo capacity and stopping power over all else. If I'm the one controlling the battlefield on the other hand, that plasma sniper sure looked nice.

Oddly enough I have a Saiga-12 in my closet now. Having a semi-automatic 12 gauge shotgun with a 10 round clip could be useful in game. Wonder if someone will mod that in?

N99 10mm pistol and M14

Depending on how they're done this go around, pistols. I loved that there was a 9mm in NV, but it just wasn't practical to use it over all the other guns I had.

Rifle, scoped or not, I haven't decided but rifles of all stripes will be my go to weapons. Here's hoping we get a Chinese assault rifle again :3

My first play through will be companion heavy, so my friends/charisma will help me solve my problems.

But my second play through will be stealth focused and will probably go something like:

1. Whatever I can find that uses the type of ammo that I can find.

2. Silenced pistol + 1

3. Solid single shot rifle + 2,1

4. Sniper rifle + 3,2

5. Silenced sniper rifle + 3,2

prolly some crappy six shooter i find early on, maybe a worn down hunting rifle.

That is two- caps third line of defense exactly, the first is his charm, the second a really good pair of running shoes.

It is truly amazing the trouble you can escape with a kind word, or a great set of sneakers.

Ideally? Laser rifle with a scope like in New Vegas.

In NV my current set-up for my main is : All-American, Ratslayer, That Gun,This Machine, Sawed-off Shotgun and Chance's Knife.

I want to carry as least as possible, but I find in NV each of those has it's purpose with maybe That Gun being made redundant by the Shotty.

I don't like to use rifles in enclosed spaces so that is where I use the Shotgun, That Gun replaces it when there are hordes of enemies since the Shotgun reloads slow and fires two shells and then needs to re-load, it also consumes ammo quickly because of that when That Gun comes in handy again..

All-American is my all-round gun, it has good fire rate and decent damage with hand loaded ammo it is a very nice weapon to have. But I still rather pick off Deathclaws from as far away as possible, and that is where This Machine comes in handy, good range, good stopping power, one or two shots. Cazadores are another darn mess, this is when Ratslayer shines, I've murdered entire nest using Ratslayer without getting hit even once and with fairly low sneak skill.

The knife s for close quarter stealth kills which I rarely do and as a last ditch effort to save my hide when I'm out of ammo.

So.... yeah it's complicated, for each job a tool, but early on I guess it's whatever I can get my hands on, partial to shotguns and assault rifles, we'll see...

The forks i hid under the crib before the bombs fell.

The answer, is a Laser, and if that don't work, use more Lasers, until the battlefield looks like a rave.

If I can find that M14 or the thompson lookalike early on tgen it'll be those two.

If we're talking strictly about the early game, sticking with Energy Weapons may be difficult. I'll always have my trusty Laser Pistol, but in a pinch I'll probably have to resort to grenades and other explosives. It'll be tricky.

That's what I did in FO3.

Early game is going to see points in the Science and whatever the armor crafting one is called (assuming the perk allows creation of player armor rather than just power armor) perks first. Then Lone Wanderer, than Sharpshooter. I want to use an energy sniper, but ill settle for a marksman's rifle until I can get the parts. Keeping my weapons and armor up to date is my first priority.

Come on folks, this is the east coast we're looking at.

When you step outside to begin with your choices are going to be on the lines of a .32 rifle you have to cycle the bolt 6 times to get a round loaded in or the classic ballbat you find leaning against the wall just inside the vault door.

Useualy its a minigun.

But that long laser pistol from E3 keeps calling out to me.

I'm just going to cut a deal with the east side boys, and later for all that gangster [censored]

Whatever the best weapon I come across is.....probably that crappy pistol used on molerats during the E3 trailer......what's this crap about trying to plan what your early game weapon will be....like you'll have choice lol. Early game you make do with whatever the hell you've got and like it.

I'm sure I'll end up building a silenced 10mm pistol at the crafting table in the first few minutes of the game.

A lot of the weapon mods are perk dependent.....so you may not even be able to use the the crafting table, let alone build anything initially and even if you do you may find the mods you want just aren't there as they may depend on the higher ranks of the weapon modding perks lol. Seriously people.....early game you just make do.