I never played vanilla Fallout. I've always been hip-deep in realism mods, starting with Morrowind. And usually the beginning of games is no joke. Everything is tough and wants to gnaw on your liver. Mudcrabs in Oblivion. Molerats in Fallout. Never enough armor or ammo or spell points. Dying and reloading constantly. Running. And running. And running.

But there's alway a spot in the game when suddenly you notice you're not everybody's chump any more. You finally got that one spell you needed, or tore through that dungeon and found the armor, or got the skill or the perk, and finally... you're there. Or at least you can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

So where is that point in the game for you? Was it a perk? A skill? A weapon?

For me, I really think it was finding Fort Independence. Before that, my biggest limitation was having enough ammo. There were sure enough baddies to shoot at, but I never had enough bullets to put in them, even with the Scrounger perk. And never had enough ammo for the best gun I had. It was always about shooting stragglers in the Wasteland and hoping to find a couple of bullets here or there, and running like the devil from any big fire fight. After Fort Independence... bring it on. I started winning big fights, and walking away with big loot. And that meant smooth sailing.

gauss rifle...most definitely..

I haven't quite gotten there in my current (first try, currently level 6) FWE experience, but I can feel I'm close! I've found that getting the Nuka-Grenade schematic has really helped level the playing field a bit. I'm still fleet-afoot, but if the situation falls into place properly, a giant explosion of flaming chemicals really helps out my team. My small guns skill at 60% or so helps too, sniper rifle is more than just a paper weight now.

Until I met My babe the Samurai Sword and Stealth Armor

The Lincoln Rifle when I play a small arm character.

Harkness's plasma rifle when I play an energy weapon character.

Just wait till you get the blackhawk, oh my goodness that thing is rediculous. I was one shotting super mutants (at around level 15), be sure to look it up on the vault fallout wiki, so that you do NOT miss out on it, it uses the same ammo as lincolns repeater, which is a fairly common .44 magnum round, and only has a 6 shot clip since its a revolver, but the power is devastating, plus its scopped, which is a bonus. Good for a small arms character.

I havent used much melee, dont plan to till i have a chinese stealth suit ( dont have any dlc yet though :/ )

and for energy weapons, the best in the base game is as stated above, harkness's plasma rifle, forgot the name of it

or if you want a heavy energy weapon, the gattling laser in the deathclaw sanctuary

Once I get Lincolns Repeater and the Chinese Stealth armor I start feeling pretty good about my character.

When I got some power armor and A3-21's Plasma Rifle.

Shiskabob, Metal armor, and A3-21's Plasma Rifle. I think I was level 4 or 5, I ran straight to Rivet City.

I replaced the rifle with metal blaster, then finally with mxpx nova. And I now carry on me Lincoln's repeater, Terrible shotgun, Victory rifle, mxpx nova, shiskabob, tribal power armor, csa armor, and finally Ledoux's Hockey Mask. I don't really search for junk anymore, only ammo.

When I was level 7 on my 1st playthrough and finished op: anchorage
When I was level 15 on my 2nd playthrough and got my chinese stealth armor, jingwei's shocksword, 100 sneak, silent running perk, better criticals perk, 100 lockpick, 100 melee weapons, and the best of all: the Ninja Perk. I now play through the whole game in sneak mode and killing Enclave Soldiers in one hit by getting a 75% damage boost to critical hits due to Ninja Perk and Better Criticals Perk. (clever tactic huh?)

On one character (that I can think of): Better Criticals

On the current one: All 3 levels of Unarmed and Fisto

None. If I find something too powerful, I just don't use it. And I will always be cursed by poor skills in first person combat. It's always a fight for survival for me, when fighting anything stronger than a Giant Radscorpion.

Of course there have been occasions where I've sticked to the best equipment. But those instances are usually very brief and very boring.

To some degree it was weapons. Particularly the Lincoln's Repeater and Backwater Rifle (lever-action rifle). The Wazer Wifle also was a revelation, because of it's good criticals and low AP. Basically, the Wazer Wifle got me through the middle of the game and then the Lincoln's Repeater and Lever-Action Rifles took over. At least until some of the real unique weapons started showing up. And even then, those two rifles were still as good as anything.

The difference in getting kills and running for your like is sneaking and having a good chance for that surprise kill.

When you get more AP or very late in the game when you get the almost god-like perk that resets your action points when you kill the first target...and so on and so on, you really cut down on the running to respawn your AP.

When I finally got The Terrible Shotgun, all problems with reavers and albinoscorpions were gone. That weapon makes an ungodly amount of critical damage.

I tend to play Big Guns characters, so sneaking around is out; and unlike Small Guns or Energy Weapons, my 'godly' armaments are difficult to maintain no matter what, so I don't really get to the point of stomping all over everything until I get good armor, perks, and enough of an economic base to be able to consistently fund the use of the Missile Launcher, Vengeance, and Fat Man (while ammo for Veng is cheap per shot, it uses a LOT of it). Even then I still have to be careful in some fights against Super Mutants due to enemy numbers (such as in Seward Square).

I have a couple of characters who never really DO reach that point, because the only weapons and armor they are allowed to use are items that look like something a scavenger would come up with- custom weapons, Raider Armor, and for PA Ashur's/Tribal if/when I get it. I did mod things such that parts for said weapons can be used for repair, but the weapons themselves I have not changed in order to maintain the proper 'feel'. These characters only see occasional use, but when I do play them combat is much more interesting since I cannot either charge in guns blazing nor sit back and sneak-snipe my way to victory. I do not use VATS on these characters either, since the Scavenger NPCs don't have that ability, so everything must be done in Real Time? including the setting of mines. I also have to spread SP around to keep the various combat skills up, so it takes longer to fully develop these characters which in turn keeps them from 'out-leveling' the Wastes.

A really good question.

I don't remember a specific point, but it all has to do with shooting skill and repair for me. I try not to use VATS. Sneaking into SuperDuper Mart with a nicely repaired hunting rifle at about 45 Small Guns skill and wrecking the whole raider crew one undetected head shot at a time was very satisfying.

Also, I've noticed I have stopped dreading the Talon Company's ambushes. I used to get killed or nearly killed every time, now I just think, "YOU F@CKERS BETTER NOT HURT MY DOG!!" and gun 'em down in order of greatest threat to him. OK, sometimes I say it out loud. :whistling:

I love that attackers always say really intimidating stuff like, "I'm going to cut you up!", and when you get decent at playing, you just start to think, "No, you are not, my friend."

What a fun game.

I think around level 7 or so. By that stage I had the skill set/perks to either avoid, take down, or run away from anything bad enough to take my character down.

I'd say Level 12 or 13 with my first character. I made the worst character in the history of FO3 characters with my first character. She was horribly pathetic, and even with that, the game turned around by Level 12 or 13 and, of course by Level 20 she was Queen of the Wasteland. This was back before BS or O:A even. There wasn't anything in particular that turned it around, I didn't play with any particulary amazing weapons because I didn't get LR or A3-21's PR with that character or even the Xuanlong. I'm not sure I had any uniques, actually, because I didn't use the wiki for my first playthrough so I don't know which ones I would have found on my own. I may have gotten Blackhawk, but I can't remember anymore. I didn't even put points into Repair (I'm telling you Worst Character Ever), but even without all of that, I still got into the feel of them game by then and with perks and stuff it worked out in my favor by then.

On first play thru it was when I got the A3-21. I think it was around lvl 14 or 15 when I got it. Till then, it was tough. It was a must have for future toons. Didn't leave home without it.

I've been tempted to do a Scavenger-type character who doesn't raise repair, but since I only use the custom weapons with that sort of character it wouldn't work too well. I do tend to tag Barter and Speech with those characters because they would have long since learned those skills during trading sessions.

My first character was pretty pathetic too, but not because of build. After looking over the perk list I figured out a pretty good pick order, however the actual PLAY of the character was...less than stellar, shall we say :unsure:. That guy, along with the next two characters, never really did reach a point where he was ahead of things because I was still learning where things were and who I could fight early on. Ironically, the one group I was sure I should avoid at ALL costs early on turned out to be a bunch of wimps- the Super Mutants. Having played FO1&2 I knew I needed to stay WAY away from those guys because they would obliterate me, turned out I needn't have worried since I could one-shot them with a cruddy Hunting Rifle.

Eventually I did make a character who reached the point of superiority, and in the process discovered just how big an advantage VATS really gives. I decided then that future characters would no longer use it, and the first couple of such had problems not too different from my very first few ever since I had been relying for so long on the massive DR VATS gives. Eventually I made a Big guns character that used the best armor and took all the DR perks he could, and my free-fire woes went away.

Of course I eventually stopped using the best armor as well, since instead of the VATS DR I was relying on that of the armor, and now my characters don't reach the 'tipping point' until a fairly high level when they have the perks they need and just enough DR to take the edge off the rougher encounters. I also stopped using some of the better weapons after realizing they were providing a MASSIVE edge over the opposition.

I've found it interesting just how many advantages the PC has in combat, but at the same time how removing most of them really doesn't gimp a character in a fight as long as one is smart about how battles are handled. It's also been instructive in that I confirmed what I'd already thought, which is that instead of 'bullet sinks' they could have increased difficulty from the outset by not providing all those advantages in the first place. That said I do not use spawn mods, such as MMM, because I had enough of lopsided fights in FO1&2 and prefer the smaller-scale fights in FO3.

VATS is incredibly powerful. I pretty much only use it...because I'm in my late 40's and carrying a few wounds that stuff up my hand/eye game controller co-ordination, as well as the fact that the challenge, for me, is not in FPS'ing my way through a game, but in actually enjoying the game experience overall. Added to that, my main character's persona is more of a short and sharp close assault build, heavy on small gun skills and speed. Except for obvious heavy opposition fights, I mostly have him in the regulator duster so he's quicker on his feet.

My turning point in Fallout 3 was getting the Xuanlong assault rifle (I love the thing and I have a crapload of ammo for it) and the Lincoln's Repeater. I'm lousy at sniping in this game, so I don't give much heed to my Reservist's rifle.

When I finally got a fully repaired raider armor, and a 10 MM Sub MG. I had been walking around with a bat for close-in , the 10mm pistol for medium range and a hunting rifle for long distance. And when I could stand toe to toe against a super mutant master.

Believe it or not, when I started using hunting rifles, I remember 1 to 2 shotting all the super mutants outside the Jeffreson memorial, I think I was level 7 or 8

Great question, OP. I'd say this happening around level 15, after I had acquired the Terrible Shotgun and realized that I could become a new kind of superhero in the wastes, and subsequently "let my rifle do the preaching" when I discovered Paradise Falls. :flamethrower: