» Tue Mar 19, 2013 10:33 am When I first discovered that you could get radiation poisoning in Fallout 3, I thought it was a great idea. I envisioned an ongoing and escalating dilemma between consuming food and avoiding radiation. The idea that what kept you alive might eventually kill you seemed perfectly suited to a story set in a post-apocalyptic nuclear wasteland.
However, I soon learned that radiation exposure was not a concern. Stimpacks were in such abundance that it was unnecessary to eat irradiated food, and what little radiation poisoning I did acquire was easily removed with radaway. Thehe feature was rendered almost completely irrelevant. Furthermore, with few limits on my inventory, I soon had an armoury and infirmary in my back pocket, and instead of scavenging for useful items, I could afford to be wasteful. I would not even bother to run from an exploding vehicle, because I had dozens of stimpacks which could be applied instantly with my Pip-Boy. Far from being a dangerous place, the Capital Wasteland was all bark and no bite; it offered nothing but nuisances with big teeth and menacing haircuts.
I wanted to change all this, but the difficulty setting in the menu offered little satisfaction. Increasing the difficulty setting in videogames often means nothing other than that enemies can survive twice as many bullets to the face. Disappointingly, Fallout 3 also increases the amount of XP awarded to the player.
I resolved to solve the problem my own way--a list of self-imposed rules that would bring back the challenge that should have been there all along. Although some of my rules do make Fallout 3 more realistic, others do not; my primary goal was not realism, but creating a more interesting challenge. I wanted to make caps scarcer, ammunition more valuable, and aid items more difficult to use. I wanted to create a greater incentive to avoid combat, and a situation where radiation exposure is a genuine concern. But I also wanted rules that were relatively easy to remember and follow. Few things as possible should be prohibited completely--if it is a feature of the game, such as chems, stimpacks, sleeping, homeowning, having followers, particular perks, or whatever else, then it should remain a feature, but merely with some constraints attached. Lastly, I wanted rules that did not require a user mod, and so could be implemented by console and PC players alike.
However, I soon learned that radiation exposure was not a concern. Stimpacks were in such abundance that it was unnecessary to eat irradiated food, and what little radiation poisoning I did acquire was easily removed with radaway. Thehe feature was rendered almost completely irrelevant. Furthermore, with few limits on my inventory, I soon had an armoury and infirmary in my back pocket, and instead of scavenging for useful items, I could afford to be wasteful. I would not even bother to run from an exploding vehicle, because I had dozens of stimpacks which could be applied instantly with my Pip-Boy. Far from being a dangerous place, the Capital Wasteland was all bark and no bite; it offered nothing but nuisances with big teeth and menacing haircuts.
I wanted to change all this, but the difficulty setting in the menu offered little satisfaction. Increasing the difficulty setting in videogames often means nothing other than that enemies can survive twice as many bullets to the face. Disappointingly, Fallout 3 also increases the amount of XP awarded to the player.
I resolved to solve the problem my own way--a list of self-imposed rules that would bring back the challenge that should have been there all along. Although some of my rules do make Fallout 3 more realistic, others do not; my primary goal was not realism, but creating a more interesting challenge. I wanted to make caps scarcer, ammunition more valuable, and aid items more difficult to use. I wanted to create a greater incentive to avoid combat, and a situation where radiation exposure is a genuine concern. But I also wanted rules that were relatively easy to remember and follow. Few things as possible should be prohibited completely--if it is a feature of the game, such as chems, stimpacks, sleeping, homeowning, having followers, particular perks, or whatever else, then it should remain a feature, but merely with some constraints attached. Lastly, I wanted rules that did not require a user mod, and so could be implemented by console and PC players alike.
INVENTORY
Reduce inventory size by 100. For example, if the standard inventory size is 200, then do not exceed 100. If this limit is exceeded, then some item must be used, dropped, or sold immediately. Consequently, heavy weapons and armour become impractical for characters with low strength.
Use the up, down, left, and right d-pad hotkeys as slots for weapons: the right hotkey is for any big or small firearm (e.g. pistol, rifle, or rocket launcher); the left hotkey is for a small firearm (e.g. pistol or rifle); the down hotkey is for a melee weapon (e.g. baseball bat or supersledge); and the up hotkey is for either grenades or mines. Do not use the diagonal hotkeys. Each firearm and melee weapon must be assigned to an appropriate hotkey, or else it must be used for repairs, dropped, or sold immediately.
Any combination of 6 grenades and mines may be carried, but they do not all need to be assigned to a hotkey. For example, you may carry 2 bottlecap mines, 2 frag mines, and 2 pulse grenades, even though only one type of grenade or mine can hotkeyed at any time. Any grenade or mine picked up which exceeds this limit should be used, dropped, or sold immediately.
Ammunition is limited to 10 times a weapon’s ammunition capacity. For example, a 10mm pistol has a capacity of 12, so it permits up to 120 10mm bullets. This limit is cumulative for weapons that use the same ammunition. For example, a 10mm SMG has a capacity of 30, so it permits up to 300 10mm bullets, so carrying both the 10mm pistol and 10mm SMG permits up to a total of 420 10mm bullets. An exception to the above limit concerns weapons which have an ammunition capacity of 1, such as the missile launcher or gauss rifle. In this case, maximum ammunition is 20. Ammunition cannot be carried for weapons not assigned to a hotkey. Any additional ammunition should be used, dropped, or sold immediately.
Heavy apparel weighs more than 10, such as power armour. Light apparel weigh 10 or less, such as the vault 101 jumpsuit. Any combination of 6 items of apparel may be carried, but heavy apparel counts as 2 items. For example, if you are carrying power armour, then you can only carry 4 items of light apparel. Any apparel in addition to these limits should be used for repairs, dropped, or sold immediately.
No more than 1 stimpack, 1 radaway, and any combination of 5 chems may be carried. You may pick up additional stimpacks, radaway, and chems, but they must be used, dropped, or sold immediately.
No more than 3 bobby pins may be carried. Although a highly unrealistic limit, a radical restriction is necessary to rebalance lockpicking. A user-enforced rule cannot alter variables like the availability of lockpicks or the difficulty of lockpicking, but it can limit the number of lockpicks you carry.
None of the above limits apply to the ‘Tranquility Lane’ or ‘Operation: Anchorage’ simulations.
GAMEPLAY
Do not use the Pip-Boy during combat, or when the stealth indicator reads ‘[CAUTION]’ or ‘[DANGER]’, except to assign a weapon to its hotkey. For example, if you run out of ammunition during a fight and grab a weapon from a fallen enemy, then you may use the Pip-Boy to drop the empty weapon and assign the new weapon to its hotkey, but nothing more.
Do not use stimpacks to heal damaged or crippled limbs; you must instead sleep or visit a doctor.
Do not loot apparel from the opposite six, unless it is a unisix item, like hats or glasses.
Remove the crosshair, but do not turn off the HUD. The Perception attribute is nearly useless without the HUD’s compass.
Do not exploit bugs, and do not reload saved games to undo your mistakes. Live with the consequences of your choices, mistakes, and failures, unless they were caused by a glitch, bug, or other mishap, e.g. your cat unexpectedly jumped on your lap causing you to accidently selected the wrong dialogue option.
SAVING AND LOADING
After sleeping for at least 6 in-game hours, immediately create a save. This is a checkpoint save. You can save and quit at any time, and you may return to any save to undo the consequences of glitches, bugs, and crashes. However, if you die, then you must return to a checkpoint save. Moreover, you must wait at least 12 in-game hours before you can sleep again and create another checkpoint save. Consequently, if you die, then you will lose all progress made since the last checkpoint save. The longer you go without sleep, the bigger the penalty is for dying.
BOTTLECAPS AND WEALTH
You may carry up to 1000 bottlecaps with no penalty. Every additional 100 bottlecaps, however, reduces inventory size by 5. For example, if you have 1245 bottlecaps and an inventory size of 100, then the extra 245 bottecaps reduces inventory to 90. (Round down the extra bottlecaps (245) to the nearest hundred (200), divide by 20 (10), and then subtract from 100 (90).) You may prefer to hold additional wealth in alternative forms, so look for items with a good weight to value ratio.
Excess caps must be stored or spent as soon as possible. The intent here is just to prevent you from casually roaming the wastes with a bank vault’s worth of cash in your back pocket. If you only intend to make a short journey to a nearby merchant or storage unit with the excess caps, then the limit may be temporarily ignored.
CHARACTER CREATION AND LEVELING UP
Without boosters (such as apparel and chems), none of your attributes may exceed 9. Perks that permanently increase attributes, such as Intense Training and Almost Perfect, are not allowed. Moreover, all bobbleheads are prohibited, and each type of skill book can only be read once. Perks earned by the completion of quests, such as Ant Might, are the only way to exceed attribute and skill caps.
The maximum value that a skill can achieve depends on the value of its governing attribute. The table below shows how this works. On the left is the attribute value, and on the right is the maximum value of the related skill.
- 1 --- 82
- 2 --- 84
- 3 --- 86
- 4 --- 88
- 5 --- 90
- 6 --- 92
- 7 --- 94
- 8 --- 96
- 9 --- 98
For example, if Intelligence has a value of 8, then its related skills--Science, Repair, and Medicine--are capped at 96. Consequently, it is impossible to hack a computer or pick a lock rated as ‘Very Hard’ without some temporary booster, such as mentats.
Skill progression slows as it approaches its maximum value. The following rule will prevent you from quickly maxing out any skill, and force yout to develop skills more evenly. The table below shows how the rule restricts skill progression. On the left are the skill value ranges, and on the right are the maximum skill points that can be added upon leveling up.
- 1 to 9 --- 10
- 10 to 19 --- 9
- 20 to 29 --- 8
- 30 to 39 --- 7
- 40 to 49 --- 6
- 50 to 59 --- 5
- 60 to 69 --- 4
- 70 to 79 --- 3
- 80 to 89 --- 2
- 90 to 99 --- 1
However, when all skills are very high, it may be impossible to assign all skill points and comply with these rules. For example, if you have 18 points to distribute at level 29, but also many skills approaching their maximum value, then there may be skill points left over. In this case, remaining skill points should be evenly spread among the lowest skills not already at their maximum value.
