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. Although not a bug per se, the entire radiation poisoning 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 scavanging for useful items, I could afford to be wasteful. I would not even always 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. So I decided 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 easy to follow, because players should not have to spend too much time complying with them. Another goal is that nothing be prohibited completely -- if it is a feature of the game, such as drugs, stimpacks, sleeping, homeowning, having followers, some perk, 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 to enforce, and could be implemented by console and PC players alike.

The following rules are intended for the "Normal" difficulty setting.

Use the up, down, left, and right d-pad hotkeys as slots for weapons: the right hotkey is for either a one- or two-handed firearm; the left hotkey is for a one-handed firearm; the down hotkey is for a melee weapon; and the up hotkey is for either grenades or mines. Do not use the diagnoal hotkeys.

INVENTORY

Any item picked up which exceeds the below limits should be used, dropped, or sold immediately, i.e. the following rules limit what you can carry, and not what you can pick up and use.

• 5 grenades
  
• 5 mines
  
• 2 items of apparel that weigh more than 5
  
• 2 items of apparel that weigh 5 or less
  
• 0 stimpacks or radaway
  
• 3 weightless medications
  
• 3 of any one type of weighted aid item
  
• 2 bobby pins
  
• 0 ammunition for weapons not in inventory
  
• mag*5 ammunition for weapons where mag > 1
  
• 20 ammunition for weapons where mag = 1
  
• 0 firearms or melee weapons that cannot be assigned to an appropriate hotkey
  
• 0 of any item if encumberance is = max/2

GAMEPLAY

• Do not use the Pip-Boy during combat, or when the stealth indicator reads "[CAUTION]" or "[DANGER]".
  
• Do not use stimpacks to heal damaged or crippled limbs
  
• Do not load a previous save to undo your mistakes
  
• Remove the crosshair
  
• Do not exploit bugs
  
• Do not increase any skill when levelling up more than (100 - its value)/10 and then rounded up to the nearest whole number
  
• Do not sleep in any bed outside unless with a follower
  
• Do not loot items of apparel that weigh more than 5
  
• Do not fast travel

SUGGESTIONS

• Do not run everywhere.
  
• Do not create a character with high Strength, Endurance, or Intelligence.
  
• Avoid perks which increase attributes or only increase skills.
  
• Do not get the "Comprehension" or "Educated" perks before level 20.
  
• Deactivate autosave and manually save seldom.
  
• Do not listen to the radio when in hostile or underground locations.
  
• Select appropriate apparel for the situation.
  
• Do not use the internet to discover the locations of useful items like the bobbleheads.
  
• Do not install any DLC until imminent completion of the main quest or reaching level 20.
  
• None of the rules need apply in the "Tranquility Lane" or "Operation: Anchorage" simulations.

NOTES

Inventory Rule 7 - an exception to this rule might be considered with the "Quantum Chemist" perk, since it would otherwise make gathering the required number of Nuka-cola excessively prohibitive.

Inventory Rule 8 - although this is a highly unrealistic limit on the number of bobby pins the player can carry, a radical restriction is necessary to rebalance the lockpicking mini-game. Since a user enforced mod cannot alter variables like the availability of lockpicks or the difficulty of the mini-game, the rule must concentrate on whatever variable is easily controllabel by the player -- the number of lockpicks in inventory.

Inventory Rule 10 - this rule counts ammunition both loaded and not loaded in a weapon. Although this is less realistic than having 4 or 5 magazines plus whatever is already loaded, I discovered that the menu screens tended to lump all the ammunition together, and so calculating the right amount became disruptive. It was easier to just place the limit on all the ammunition. The more realistic options seems good at first, but I found it just didn't work given the design of the game; if the rule must be enforced by the player, then a good rule is one that can be enforced with little effort.

Gameplay Rule 4 - although some people have suggested turning off the HUD entirely, this renders the "Perception" attribute almost entirely useless. In my experience, it is enough to merely turn off the crosshair.

Gameplay Rule 6 - the purpose of this rule is to emulate a feature of most RPGs, i.e. skill progression slows as it approaches its maximum value. When following this rule, you will be prevented from quickly maxing out any skill, and you will be forced 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 skill points that can be added upon level up.


This limit is only intended to restrict skill points distributed at level up; skill points earned from skill books, bobbleheads, and perks are not counted. (In fact, with a skill starting at 25, it would take until almost level 30 to reach 100 without additional boosters.) Furthermore, when all skills are very high, it may be impossible to assign all skill points and comply with the rule, in which case the rule should be deviated from as little as possible.

Or you could just download FWE if you have a PC.

Ahem,

I just returned to this thread after reading Eurogamer's review of New Vegas.

The original version of this thread was quite popular among console players. I wonder now whether it motivated Obsidian to include the "hardcoe mode" as standard in New Vegas. Does anyone know?