Im looking to make the most challenging game yet.. no hud, very hard hardcoe..

i plan on using only crafting/cooking for supplies ie no traders... no whoring loot.

all my needs will be done over the campfire or workbench.

im gonna take the cannibal perk just for extra sustenance.

anyone played this kind of game? any tips? share your wisdom.

Augh, I couldn't play like that. Hell, I play on Very Easy just because I can't spend 2 minutes trying to take down one enemy :laugh:

I think Lady Crimson plays on those settings, one very tough gamer there.

I have no clue about just crafting however.
I've gone through the game doing that as much as possible, but it gets a little too stale after a bit.

I hope you have fun trying it out though, good luck.

Very Hard hardcoe doesn't sound like any kind of fun to me. In fact, it sounds more like a controller being crushed under a boot heel and a game disc being snapped in half.

No HUD is just annoying to me, doesn't really raise the difficulty, just makes it incredibly annoying.
I guess it's part of "realism" to not have a bunch of bars on the screen but I'm not much for realism anyway.

It's called a challenge.

People are so used for the HUD and other content in the game helping them, that when taken away, it relies on one's own actions and awareness to pull through.

A few people have tried it and it definitely gets you thinking a lot more. It maybe difficult, but it does prove a challenge.

It's not. The way "difficulty" is implemented in Bethesda's games is pretty half-assed, damage your enemies do goes up, damage you do goes down. It's not a "difficulty" setting, it's a "balance" setiing, which is why i keep it on normal and use mods instead that increase diffculty.

As for disabling the hud, fights in New Vegas are so small and easy that if i need to heal during them i must've been distracted by something.

I've done very hard hardcoe and it simply isn't fun. It's not really a challenge, you do have to play tactically but I do so anyway.
As for the HUD, only thing I use it for is spotting enemies with EDE's enhanced sensors. Health isn't much of an issue, I rarely get hit in actual combat (mines...on the other hand...)


I mean, yeah go for it but for me personally it just made the game a chore to play, shouldn't be that way.

I'd call it more of an annoyance setting :teehee:

It could be pretty fun to play without the HUD I guess. The way how perception works have to be reworked a bit though, so you become aware of critters in another way than through the compass markers.

Having no cross hairs is fun, if you combine it with 3'rd person view it's a riot.

I play in hardcoe with limited possessions, and I find that's sufficient for me. Playing on VH would only encourage me to ruthlessly exploit the sneak-critical mechanic in order to avoid dumping multiple magazines into a single opponent, and I would far rather have a challenge be provided by opponents that actually used tactics.

As for the OP's desire for the mentioned style of play-through, it's eminently feasible given the high amounts of sustenance and healing a single crafted edible can provide with a high Survival score. Having tried something similar in terms of healing, I will say that radiation could be a problem as there is very limited means of reducing it via edibles; this being the case, I highly recommend getting the Rad Absorption perk at L28 unless one is willing to keep visiting doctors to remove radiation poisoning.

Wow, you must eat iron and defecate nine inch nails. I thought hardcoe on Hard was enough of a challenge. Don't forget to not use VATS while you're trying to be Snake Plisken.

Oregon Trail needs a rebirth.

Not a way that I'd choose to play; the recent Fallout games have too little information to begin with. Stripping out the HUD, and ignoring the option to use aimed shots... IMO just makes it even less "Fallouty" than it already is.

**Still... If what you are seeking is a kind of substitute reality :shrug:, then what you describe might be fun for a while. You might first, make a new character, and test yourself for Strength, stamina, IQ, and the like; make reasonable guesses for what you can't test, and set your SPECIAL attributes to best match your scores, and give him your own name. ~Save your game and do not accept respawns.

You die, you start again.

*You might also choose to only advance skills to a level that you are personally capable of. (Can you pick a lock?)

**The Witcher 2 supposedly has an "INSANE" mode, where you get only one life and the game ends. I plan to try that a few times. :drool:

Really now? The small developers still dare to try something ...insane :hehe:

All kinds of props to you if you complete a game at those settings. I just tried hardcoe again and quit it for the second time too. I made it to Level 5 the first time and Level 13 this time. The first time, I kept getting limb damage and ED-E died. This time I had a mod so companions couldn't die and I was doing ok but found that the weight of ammo got to me. I kept finding things like 11 missiles and wanted them all! I decided it just wasn't fun for me. The achievement wouldn't have been 100% hardcoe anyway. So again, all kinds of props to you for trying it! Good luck.

so you did turn on very hard and hardcoe mode cool. sounds pretty tough but if you would do that in F3 i would say to you good luck because you would need it.

I haven't tried playing in exactly the fashion the OP is suggesting so no real tips to give, but I'd say it'll mostly be more meticulously time-consuming and If that's what you're going for, you should get it in spades. I've always largely ignored merchants (even for ammo) so no problems there. In terms of combat, however, most of that won't make much difference (no HUD is the only thing that will a bit, imo). No matter what (vanilla) settings you run with, if you want a bit more combat challenge (vs. roleplay-reality challenge, 2 different things), my main tip would be to self-gimp skills/weapons/perks.

Sometimes I play with zero HUD but more often I have it set to only 1 'bar' in the Settings. 1 bar makes it almost useless 90% of the time when running frantically around in combat, but if I squint really hard for a few seconds, still allows me to read item text (most of the time...). Not being able to read item text doesn't sound that bad, but over time it can be very annoying. To be honest tho, the original/main reason I don't like HUD isn't for difficulty, it's because I can't stand looking at it...it really pulls me out of world-immersion seeing those giant HUD thingies at the bottom of the screen. Loathe it, and I don't need red dots to tell me where enemies will be. It's also one reason I turn dialogue text off.

I don't use crafting for ammo, since I don't care much about max bullet dmg - so can't speak to how difficult it is to keep yourself supplied in that fashion. But I also don't buy much from merchants, since I don't care about the 'big ammo guns' or non-regular ammo much at all, and the rest is easy to stay stocked via looting/finding.

While at this point I've tried/played HC during some solo games, I find while it does make certain aspects of the game more of a meticulous chore, it doesn't make combat harder, and that's what I personally desire -not roleplaying reality. Turning off the HUD & not being able to instantly keep track of your health meter is a bigger combat-handicap than "RealityCore". So I don't actually use it much - and never when I use companions.

I would suggest very easy hardcoe no HUD, much more realistic, makes 3rd person combat nearly impossible.
I'd also stick with something without much DT, like merc troublemaker or raider badlands.

I did very easy hardcoe no HUD once...was quite the thrill :chaos:

My first time through I played Very Hard, hardcoe mode. I had HUD but in general the game is still painstalkingly easy. I've even taken away the HUD a few times and it's fun for a moment but then you realize there's some important information. In any case I suppose you could not trade with NPCs and make your own stuff but honestly it seems like a time svck to me. But hey to each his own. I guess my only tip would be don't try to take on the BOS or Deathclaws at any level under any circumstances head on. I'm normally able to take on a Paladin or two and with Boone can take on two Deathclaw's at a time but honestly once you put it on this mode it's almost impossible past that. Even the best weapons don't do anything against the toughest ememies. If you like taking on the NCR you'll find their overwhemling force will really slow you down so try to stay as far a way as possible. With the Legion you can just put your companion in power armor and give them a displacer. Give them stimpaks and snipe the whole time.

Yeah im mainly going for how realistic and immersing can I get this game to be. I self gimp to the nth degree, in both fallout/elder scrolls.

I enjoy these games best at the lower levels... where its a struggle to survive and each abandoned shack becomes a goldmine for the single can of pork n beans it may contain.

playing VH/HC/no hud is an attempt to extend this feeling through the whole game. On normal, I usually become bored around level 5, where I can pretty much walk round the wastes safely.

:rofl: That's exactly how I felt. My XP mod kept me at lvl 5-12 for a long long time and that's enabled me to enjoy each character a lot longer...since I started using the IWS spawns tho, I've had to readjust it to silly levels to keep from over-leveling too fast. Crazy.


Me too. With almost all games. It's one reason I re-start so often I guess, even with action-fests like Diablo.
I used to like things like what NV-HC does more, but don't have the patience for it now...it's too bad (for me) really. But I get my enjoyment from other things. Anyway, hope you get what you want out of this playthrough, let us know how it goes!

Games like NV and FO3 seem a two edged sword more and more.
They hook you in, then just as you get comfortable you're left with the need for more..
Whether it's a tactical challenge, realism, role play or just some silly things.

On the PC you can mod the game, or use the geck to make even basic gameplay a challenge.
One that if you self gimp, you truly expose yourself to danger.

Unfortunately some can not mod, others are less inclined to do so.
Making it two edged, do I play at the maxium settings to get a challenge or find another way to get this from the game.

I too hope you manage to find the best way for you, and to hear all about it.
Good luck, and good gaming Do'tirath.

thanks

if you dont already I reccomend only carrying what realistic.. ie 1 rifle, 2 pistols and a few stimpacks.

what contributes to the boredom is having 15 types of weapon on hand. Since carrying only what would be realistic, I've enjoy F/TES a lot more. I play on console, and if theres only one thing I could self gimp it would be this. I cant enjoy the games when im carrying an armory on my back, or 30 health potions or whatever.

Yup....I carry 1 rifle, 1 pistol, 1 unarmed. Hardly ever use the unarmed but since spiked knuckles are light and reasonable to have in your pack, I keep 'em around "just in case."