Okay, in my last character, whose game just ended, I noticed something strange during his last year in the Wasteland. Shops, both in San Fran, both in NCR, New Reno's, and Broken Hill's have unchanging inventories. Now, my character lived like 9 years before the game ended, and I sold a lot of stuff to a lot of people. Eventually, their stock never changed. No new guns, no new cash to take, no new ammo, including 2mm EC and 4.7mm caseless, which I really needed for my Gauss Rifle and my Vindicator minigun. So what the hell happened? I'd really rather avoid this in my newest playthrough.

Did you check the shelves/tables ?

Wha? That changes their inventory or something? Or its a whole new inventory?

different inventory

shops like the NCR bazaar and the... Red999(Long time...) shops have a different inventory for each shelf and table.

I discovered the NCR stuff on my current (10+something) playthrough... I thought that going for the shelves always leads to "stay away from there" comment. Besides those two, any other such noteworthy shops?

Hello BebopMagnum

Ok the first thing you might want to do is check the version of your Fallout 2. This should be in the bottom right on the intro screen. Some newer versions of FO2 are automatically patched to 1.02. If this is the case you want this patch http://www.nma-fallout.com/forum/dload.php?action=file&file_id=704

That's an unofficial patch by Killap. And its quality is guranteed.

As for why the shops aren't respawning, I can't imagine why. Shops should restock even though they don't wipe any previous items you sold them (which is solved with the unofficial patch). Hopefully that should both fix, and improve the merchant stocks in any future playthoughs.

Important Note: Patches like this normally make any previous save games obsolete.

But I did see a 'save converter' somewhere. NMA will probably have something like it.

Uhm, let's see. Both the General store and the Weapons store in San Francisco have different shelves with different inventories, and they have some nice items on there, so you should definitely check them out. The General store in NCR, maybe even the stores in Modoc and Vault City have this option as well.

Whilst I understand where the original devs were going with the whole "you can't poke your nose where it doesn't belong or you're going to get your ass kicked" But it did conflict when coming to a store like the on in NCR, and not knowing about the different shelves, kindof takes away from that whole dynamic if you think you're going to get told off You will always be warned the first time, so it's best to check even if you aren't sure.


Modoc doesn't as far as I know, the guy gets shirty if you try to look on the shelf. Vault city doesn't as far as I know. The only places of note (which are also the most interesting, and handy for the late game) are the Stores in NCR and San Fran. Though the stores in San Fran have a very high mark up, so I would goto NCR first and then to San Fran for anything you couldn't find at NCR.

This is very good news! I do believe I'll be making use of this on my new character. I'll delete my old saves and get this patch running. Is it difficult to install? Oh and I'll check my Version, FalloutChris.

Thanks for the help everyone!


EDIT2: Okay, it was version 1.00. I can't connect to the internet on that computer, so should I just continue on with my current character (lvl 3) and use the shelf/table method?

(I'm basically wondering if this will save me from maximizing a persons inventory with stuff I sold them, to where all they have is gold and guns I sold)

It's not difficult to install The Killap patch uses an installer, so it just extracts everything to the Fallout 2 directory, and then it works You might need winrar or winzip or any kindof extractor in order the access the installer, but most computers have some form of unzipping software as standard

If you've got version 1.00, you might want to install the official 1.02 patch first. Just to make sure all the bugs are covered It uses a self-extractor for the install, if you have any problems with it (which you shouldn't) you should be able to manually access it just like the Killap unofficial patch which winrar or winzip Go http://www.nma-fallout.com/forum/dload.php?action=category&cat_id=16&sid=dfddfca6836f353d61d7a5985b2a9c7e for the official patch, just scroll down to the list of v1.02 patches and pick your region, UK, US, whichever one applies to you

Just remember that patches usually come with a readme with info on howto install it, so you'll rarely be lost

Both those patches together should come to roughly 9MB, so if you need to download them from another computer then transfer them onto a memory stick it wont be a problem

Using the shelf/table method will still have items stacking up, just on those specific shelves

Cool. Oh and I don't think I'll be doing the patches for a week or so, when my second character is done
I just used this shelf method and found an LE Red Ryder BB gun at the NCR bazaar. 25-25! It's like a super hunting rifle! I stole two Bozars and sold em to afford it. Heh, a level 3 with this kind of firepower... I'll be level 10 in no time!

Hahah, it's really funny you say that I almost mentioned the Red Ryder a couple of posts back But thought I'd see if you found it, and you did It's arguably the best Small Gun in the game if you really emphasise on your Small Gun proficiency (not counting the Gauss Rifle) and it holds 100rounds which is also handy BB ammo can be hard to come by, but I lucked out by finding the NCR merchant selling 1000 at one point, so I was sorted Bozar is also arguably the best Big Gun, it's about the only weapon I can think that gives Big Guns a real tactical edge over outright muscle

I agree, last game my four tags were Lockpick, Speech, Small Guns, and eventually big guns, because I found an Avenger Minigun and slaughtered like four dudes in metal armor with one burst (and like 60% big guns skill so wow)

Decided immediately to buy the Bozar my good friend Eldridge had for sale in New Reno. Soon I was hitting in the 2-300s and up to three kills a burst Bozar is great because It's about as powerful as the Vindicator but its ammunition is quite common. Before my game ended (sadly only at level 27) I had around 1200 rounds of the stuff
.223 FMJ FTW! My three favorite guns use the stuff

Yep, it's all about the .223 It's also my favourite ammo It's why I use the Hunting Rifle and .223 Pistol in my early-mid game Bozar is definitely worth investing in Big Guns for, not just for the fact that a .223 FMJ 10 round burst is one of the most satisfying combat experiences, but also because it's long range and accuracy for a burst weapon are practically unparalleled ^_^ Bethesda definitely missed a trick with this one, seeing as they added the whole concept of weapon degradation, the Bozar could have been an amazing Big Gun, with the downside that it wore down at an alarming rate.

BebopMagnum, since you are a low level character, and are unlikely to have done much, I would recommend you look at the thread in my sig.

There is a mod, called Restoration Project, which incorporates all the latest patches (including Killaps) and also adds content into the game which was originally planned but cut out due to time restraints by the developers. Its an awesome addition to Fallout 2 and makes the game much more enjoyable (and longer aswell).

Have a look if that interests you.

Aha, aware of this I was not Yeah I went through the readme of the restoration patch and it does infact include the unofficial patch. Handy that

I'll probably end up downloading Restoration Project and the official patch later on, but as of now my other computer is unable to connect to the internet, this computer cannot play FO2, and I do not have a memory stick for transferring the data.

Fortunately, I'll have internet on it in a week or so. I'd be happy to delete my level 27 (whose save file is like 3 days from the game over screen) and my level 5 character once I have internet back.