I'm at level 12 of my first playthrough.

I started on Normal, hardcoe off.

At about level 5 I decided I was getting killed a lot more than I wanted (I'm primarily a casual player), and also going through too many stimpaks, so I dropped the difficulty down to Easy.

This didn't seem to have much affect, so at about level 8 I dropped the difficulty down to "Very Easy". But I'm still getting slaughtered.

I'm at level 12 now, and one swipe from a Fire Gecko nearly kills me, and Powder Gangers, etc. do the same thing - they get my HP down under 50 before I can get two shots off. I spend the rest of the battle injecting stimpaks, drinking sarsparilla, turbo, jet, etc just to survvive each battle.

I have to pump about 60 rounds from a Cowboy Repeater (in pristine condition) into a deathclaw to kill it.

I'm not a great player, but I'm not this bad. Lots of experience with FO3, ME1/2, All Halos, etc.

And what's with the repair costs? 3500 caps to repair a Fire Axe or Shishkabob?

You're level 12? Then don't try Deathclaws yet.

The world is not leveled to your skill like FO3, So enemies can be many levels higher than you.

i tought that too. Deathclaws are even on level 24 a pain in the ass. Maybe you were in the wrong areas. You ar not supossed to face Deathclaws on Level 12.

The game is unleveled, unlike Fallout 3. This means you will meet things that will kill the most ardent hardcoe players at level 1 if you ignore warnings from signs, people and quests. Stick to the roads when traveling if you want an easy ride.

I find it absolutely hilarious that your complaining this game is way too hard, and some other dude in this forum is complaining that the game is way too hard. And they're on the same page ^_^
On topic, I'm not quite sure what to do about it. Maybe you could alter some settings in the G.E.C.K? Very easy is called that for a reason.

Uhh... When I was level 5 I single handedly wiped out the Powder Gangers attacking Goodsprings, all of them in the NCRCF, and the ones in Primm without any trouble at all.

Above posters are correct.

The only way you are finding deathclaws at level 5 is if you are ignoring signs and people and going into areas you have been warned against. You can't go north from Goodsprings much further than Sloan. Quarry is also off-limits until later unless you want to be some Deathclaws' Courier Salad.

Powder gangers are not very strong.

he was saying that because the main guy was talking about getting killed by pgangers 1 vs 1.

powder gangers hurt you. might i ask.... what armour are you wearing. also are you in ncrcf? that place is a pain. save it for later if its giving you trouble(although i did it before primm soooo)

armor is more important this game because insted of ujst massave boosts to dr we also get Damage Threshold. that means that a good suit of armour will keep small arms fire from hurting you(just dont ignore anythign biger than a 9 mm pistol if your only in leather.)

as for the comment about deathclaw.... why are you fighting deathclaws! your lvl 12. i havent died yet in my game but i can atribute that to me beign realistic. i heard someone say avoid the deathclaws.... i avoid the deathclaws! im guessing this was eather in quarr juncton or around boulder city. the latter isnt your fault, thres a nest there that nearly got me too, and no warnings about, but in quarry junction you. are told. by. the. people. that there are deathclaws in the area. AVOID them till you get. i dunno an alien baster and a hold hand gernade? deathclaws are alot more varied and nukmorus and varied in level. the biggest one is lvl 33 and can terrorize a max lvl character,. you find a lvl 20 deathclaw in quarry i belive, if it isnt the lvl 33.


well that should help

Ah my mistake.

Fallout 3 wasn't "leveled" either - at least not in the way where Oblivion would scale everything to match your level.

When the developers place a spawn point, they control what level range and types of enemies will appear there. They can also control what difficulty level a particular spawn point appears on. The game engine will then attempt to match enemies to the player's level - but there's still a chance that you'll see something above/below. For instance, in Fallout 3, when you go the the Mall at a low level, most of the super mutants are going to be regular ol' charlies, difficult at low levels, but pretty easy once you get up around level 6-9. Come back at a higher level (say, 15-ish) and you're going to see a lot more brutes and masters mixed in. So yes, it's leveled, but not really. And the developers can easily say "always spawn a super mutant master" here (and do in places).

In FO:NV, it sounds like the developers made the ranges much tighter - or else purposefully set the lower-end of the range in certain areas to spawn only tough enemies.

Different design strategies, but it's still the Fallout 3 engine underneath.

The first time I played FO3 I thought the same thing...but I found out I wasnt using VATS. The way you say you are emptying so much ammo into things it sounds like you may not be using it also. VATS saves lives

Anything that nets you 50 XP/kill is supposed to be difficult. As for the powder gangers, maybe you need some better armor.

Or better weapons. Or weapons in better condition.

I found that the Varmint Rifle or the 9mm Pistol work just fine against Powder Gangers, especially if I get the sneak attack. But it didn't work well until I repaired both weapons up past 80%. I bring out the Cowboy Repeater for harder enemies and use range and stealth to my advantage.

Have you considered that MAYBE your endurance is super low that you have crap HP and MAYBE you just aren't good of a strategic player? I find the game challenging with hardcoe and difficulty cranked up but not overly challenging where i'd die from a rock thrown to my head... maybe remake your character and think things through a little

I'm finding Very Hard, hardcoe enabled to be just what the doctor ordered, personally. Given, I'm a diehard Bethesda fan with 120 hours of FO3 and 180 hours of oblivion logged, so I wouldn't be surprised at all that it might be too hard for others, but Very Easy shouldn't be giving you this much trouble.

If you take the advice already given and focus on staying in areas meant for your level, and you're still having trouble, you might consider starting over and making a better build. It sounds like yours may be incredibly nerfed.

Just like FO3, the sniper type build makes the game substantially easier as long as you don't mind crouching for 80% of combat and 30% of the game in general. Namely,

Guns
Repair
Sneak

S. 3/4/5
P. 6/7/8
E. 4-9
C. 1/2/3
I. 7/8/9
A. 4-8
L. 5-9

Personally, since I started out in hardcoe, I decided to play it safe and give myself 8 Endurance. It means my build isn't optimal, but it also means I haven't really run into situations where I get so frustrated at how easily I die that I want to quit. For the first 4 or 5 levels, a 9mm and leather armor were more than enough for me, with the Varmit Rifle on deck for longer range sneak attacks and when I ran out of 9mm ammo.

Let me tell you what happened to me. When I started the game I was being pounded from all sides by gangers. I would struggle in every fight, usually ending up with crippled limbs and few bullets. I had to run around large groups, and was terrified of quests that involved them, because I knew I'd be getting killed a fair few times.

Move to today, 18 hours played later. I'm walking past Primm for a quest. It's the first time I've been in the area since I was hounded out at level 5. Suddenly in a small gully five gangers pop up in ambush, the game even lets them taunt me with a little discussion! I ready myself for the Final Powder Ganger Showdown.........

........and blow off every ganger's head in one shot from my worst gun. I laugh hysterically at the ganger's futile ambush. I had grown, improved with time and experience. They had not.

First play through in Fallout 3 or FO:NV - I usually recommend that you keep all stats between 4 and 8. Which keeps you from screwing up your build too much in any one direction.

Just go counter-clockwise around the map, go with the flow. As you get around to the east side, you'll be offered a choice of at least two companions (one for the asking, the other if you finish a quest). At which point things will get a lot easier if you can deal with the micro-management - because they will be a lot more powerful then you and have super-fast reflexes.

(And only 30% spent crouched in general? Unless my character is in a very safe location like a town, I spend 90%+ crouched as a sneaky sniper.)

try to make a character with maximum perception, agility and luck. tag sneak, repair and guns, and max those out asap. Get the best weapon possible, as soon as possible. Sneak everywhere and shoot things in the head. Don't stand out in the open, don't get surrounded. Kill them before they can kill you. Once you get even as basic a gun as a 44 mag pistol, the game becomes incredibly easy with this strategy.

Thanks everyone for the advice.

So what exactly do the difficulty settings do, if all the enemy's attributes are fixed?

Also, regarding the advice to read the signs, stay on the roads, etc.

I was on the road when I walked into a Khans camp where everyone had been killed by Cazadors. The Cazadors came after me, and I was able to survive, but I went thru a lot of stimpaks and several vials of antivenom.

Another time I was scavving somewhere southwest (I think) of Jean Sky Diving. I walked into a small trailer and was instantly surrounded by a herd of giant radscorpions. I was able to kill them, but it was a long, drawn-out battle.

So for the Cazadors, I was on the road. For the herd of radscorpions I wasn't too far off the road :sadvaultboy: and in neither case do I recall any warning signs (except for a dead body near the Khans camp).

Thanks again.....

The difficulty setting change the damage you deal and take from enemies I think it's 2x more dealt and less taken with very easy. If you're getting your rear handed back to you when going places, then simply go somewhere else. Put off the quest you might have to do till later, go look in another direction.

Finding places to buy good guns is important, and there's plenty of places to get your exp up with no cazadors and deathclaws, like Freeside. Try asking for work. You could also find a companion and double your firepower.

i played the game on normal.... at high levels i couldn't take out deathclaws... I find it really depends on the type of weapon you are using... for the flying [censored]ers i used a 10mm machine pistol and wiped the bastards out easy.

if you have trouble with ammo, try finding surplus ammo (i found out later you gotta drop the [censored] and pick it back up to actually get the ammo which in my opinion is [censored])... 1 box of 5.56mm bullets is 250 bullets and it's not too expensive... it also has pretty decent damage.

I tried playing Very Hard, and it just pissed me off to waste so much ammo on the bastards so i stuck with normal (mind you some enemies on normal are still pretty tough)

It wasn't that i couldn't handle Very Hard, complete damage randomness is bad enough in this game on any level.


There is one thing about this game that kicks the [censored] out of FO3 and that is that you can actually [censored] aim with your weapon without using VATS.

I'm level 19 and haven't faced a Deathclaw yet.. primarily because I like living. Secondarily because I'm avoiding almost the entire western half of New Vegas so I'll have something to do later.

Depending on the level design, higher difficulty levels may also turn on additional spawn points.

(All depends whether the map designer put in additional spawn points for NPCs to be used at higher levels of difficulty. Most cells in FO3 had such spawn points present.)