fallout 3: do enemies respawn in quest areas?

[gorcorps]

Alright, I'm fighting my way through merigold station and I'm at the point that I'm out of ammo and can't get any further. I need to get out, get more ammo, and then get back out there. Will I have to fight through the same hordes of fire ants or do they stay dead once dead like the NPCs? I'm asking because if they respawn I might just hold off on finishing this one until I level up a bit more, but if not I can finish it with a bit more ammo.

 

[Dangerer]

I'm not too familiar with how the game handles respawns, but to the best of my knowledge you should be able to leave, fast travel your house to drop off stuff, rest up, buy ammo, do whatever and head back and there should be no respawns at all. I specifically remember fast traveling between my megaton house and Marigold station more than 10 times due to having like 3 strength and no carry weight, there were no respawns either.

 

[gorcorps]

Good to hear. You get a house in megaton? Do you get that for disabling the bomb (or something else) or do you start with that I didn't notice.

 

[tatteredpotato]

AFAIK everything stays dead in quest areas forever.

 

[DaveSimmons]

The fire ants stay dead once you finish the quest. Until then they might respawn after a few of days like raiders and critters do at some other map locations.

FYI, you might bring some mines with you for the ant tunnels. Sneak, place mines, rile them up then lead them into the mines :evil:

 

[Dorkenstein]

Yeah, I encountered some certain spots where raiders would respawn, but that's all so far. Mines were my savior in those tunnels.

 

[gorcorps]

Got through it and nothing seemed to respawn while I went back to re-equip. Good thinking Bethesda. I've put nearly 7 hours in already and I've barely scratched the surface it seems. I've finished entire games in less time than that. This may take a while

 

[nakedfrog]

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
The fire ants stay dead once you finish the quest. Until then they might respawn after a few of days like raiders and critters do at some other map locations.

FYI, you might bring some mines with you for the ant tunnels. Sneak, place mines, rile them up then lead them into the mines :evil:

Yes, that helped a lot.
It seems to take a while for generic raider encampments to respawn, too.

 

[DaveSimmons]

It can be annoying, I wanted to use one of the diners that was a raider hangout as a waypoint by fast travel, but fast travel took me right into the middle of a respawned group of them.

Fort Bannister (outside) definitely respawns after a few days too.

 

[spittledip]

My question is: how do you run out of ammo??? There is plenty out there. In the meantime, just build the Rock-it launcher and presto! Every piece of junk is ammo.

 

[Dorkenstein]

I ran out of ammo for the hunting rifle and sniper rifle all the time. I didn't find the rock-it launcher as useful as I thought I would.

 

[gorcorps]

Originally posted by: spittledip
My question is: how do you run out of ammo??? There is plenty out there. In the meantime, just build the Rock-it launcher and presto! Every piece of junk is ammo.

I just started so I have little money and the enemies I've been facing don't drop any ammo.

 

[Dorkenstein]

I remember the ant quest being a pain, too. Once I beat it I exulted over all the slain ants. The queen was a punk though.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Originally posted by: gorcorps

Originally posted by: spittledip
My question is: how do you run out of ammo??? There is plenty out there. In the meantime, just build the Rock-it launcher and presto! Every piece of junk is ammo.

I just started so I have little money and the enemies I've been facing don't drop any ammo.

Try only using VATS for your guns. Get behind cover while your APs regenerate.

Also, put a lot of points into Repair so you can get the condition of guns above the 5)% that Moira can repair to. The better the condition, the higher the damage, the less ammo needed to take out the bad guys.

Edit: and into the gun skills of course. Damage done for non-critical hits is based on weapon type, condition, and your small/big/energy skill.

 

[Kabob]

I *think* enemies will respawn eventually, but you'll have to be gone for a LONG time before they do. I could be wrong though, but I could have sworn I visited one of the forts, cleared it out, then went back about 10 hours of play time later and it was full of enemies again.

You and I must be doing the "Those!" quest at drastically different points in the game. I just did it this morning before work and the quest from start to finish took me maybe 30 minutes, but I can carry a decent amount (270 lbs I believe) and have more ammo than I know how to use. I could have done the quest about 8 levels ago but skipped it.

 

[erwos]

Originally posted by: kabob983
You and I must be doing the "Those!" quest at drastically different points in the game. I just did it this morning before work and the quest from start to finish took me maybe 30 minutes, but I can carry a decent amount (270 lbs I believe) and have more ammo than I know how to use. I could have done the quest about 8 levels ago but skipped it.

I think the varying experiences come from the fire ants being somewhat brutal on new players. They do lots of (fire) damage, they soak up a fair bit of damage themselves, and you're often trying to kill more than one at a time.

 

[Queasy]

Originally posted by: erwos

Originally posted by: kabob983
You and I must be doing the "Those!" quest at drastically different points in the game. I just did it this morning before work and the quest from start to finish took me maybe 30 minutes, but I can carry a decent amount (270 lbs I believe) and have more ammo than I know how to use. I could have done the quest about 8 levels ago but skipped it.

I think the varying experiences come from the fire ants being somewhat brutal on new players. They do lots of (fire) damage, they soak up a fair bit of damage themselves, and you're often trying to kill more than one at a time.

If you're facing two or more at a time, shoot their antennae until they're disabled. Then they attack each other.

 

[erwos]

Originally posted by: Queasy

Originally posted by: erwos

Originally posted by: kabob983
You and I must be doing the "Those!" quest at drastically different points in the game. I just did it this morning before work and the quest from start to finish took me maybe 30 minutes, but I can carry a decent amount (270 lbs I believe) and have more ammo than I know how to use. I could have done the quest about 8 levels ago but skipped it.

I think the varying experiences come from the fire ants being somewhat brutal on new players. They do lots of (fire) damage, they soak up a fair bit of damage themselves, and you're often trying to kill more than one at a time.

If you're facing two or more at a time, shoot their antennae until they're disabled. Then they attack each other.

Sure... but if your small arms is at 40 and you've only got a hunting rifle, that's a lot easier said than done.

 

[Queasy]

Originally posted by: erwos

Originally posted by: Queasy

Originally posted by: erwos

Originally posted by: kabob983
You and I must be doing the "Those!" quest at drastically different points in the game. I just did it this morning before work and the quest from start to finish took me maybe 30 minutes, but I can carry a decent amount (270 lbs I believe) and have more ammo than I know how to use. I could have done the quest about 8 levels ago but skipped it.

I think the varying experiences come from the fire ants being somewhat brutal on new players. They do lots of (fire) damage, they soak up a fair bit of damage themselves, and you're often trying to kill more than one at a time.

If you're facing two or more at a time, shoot their antennae until they're disabled. Then they attack each other.

Sure... but if your small arms is at 40 and you've only got a hunting rifle, that's a lot easier said than done.

Heh. I can't remember what my small arms skill was at the time but I was swapping between the hunting rifle, the laser pistol, a
handgun, and a SMG while facing the fire ants. Occasional grenade and/or proximity mine too.

I stocked up with weapons between the foodmart and the school.

 

[Kabob]

Originally posted by: erwos

Originally posted by: kabob983
You and I must be doing the "Those!" quest at drastically different points in the game. I just did it this morning before work and the quest from start to finish took me maybe 30 minutes, but I can carry a decent amount (270 lbs I believe) and have more ammo than I know how to use. I could have done the quest about 8 levels ago but skipped it.

I think the varying experiences come from the fire ants being somewhat brutal on new players. They do lots of (fire) damage, they soak up a fair bit of damage themselves, and you're often trying to kill more than one at a time.

Exactly my point.

I'm with him Queasy, it can be tough to hit enemies at a lower level (although I'd be surprised if the only weapon they had was the hunting rifle...).

Between the Terrible Shotgun, the Xuanglou (or whatever) assault rifle, Lincoln's repeater, and Fawkes with his gatling laser it didn't take too much efford (although Fawkes almost killed the queen, even when I ran away he wouldn't leave her alone!) I've also maxed out most of my skills to the point where I decided to pick up Energy Weapons for fun and I'll probably max it as well before I hit 20 (I'm at 17 now).

Here's a question for those of you who've beaten the game. Can I get rid of him without firing him and then pick him up elsewhere later?

 

[nakedfrog]

Originally posted by: kabob983
You and I must be doing the "Those!" quest at drastically different points in the game. I just did it this morning before work and the quest from start to finish took me maybe 30 minutes, but I can carry a decent amount (270 lbs I believe) and have more ammo than I know how to use. I could have done the quest about 8 levels ago but skipped it.

It was one of the first quests I did and it was a bit rough.

 

[Queasy]

Originally posted by: kabob983

Originally posted by: erwos

Originally posted by: kabob983
You and I must be doing the "Those!" quest at drastically different points in the game. I just did it this morning before work and the quest from start to finish took me maybe 30 minutes, but I can carry a decent amount (270 lbs I believe) and have more ammo than I know how to use. I could have done the quest about 8 levels ago but skipped it.

I think the varying experiences come from the fire ants being somewhat brutal on new players. They do lots of (fire) damage, they soak up a fair bit of damage themselves, and you're often trying to kill more than one at a time.

Exactly my point.

I'm with him Queasy, it can be tough to hit enemies at a lower level (although I'd be surprised if the only weapon they had was the hunting rifle...).

Well, I can see where trying to fight the ants only with a hunting rifle would be really difficult. I had completed a couple of quests prior to taking on Those! and had raided the school and the foodmart so even though I didn't have a lot of experience yet, I had lots of firepower and ammunition.

 

[Kabob]

I'm tempted to try my next playthrough using melee so I won't run out of ammo...but something tells me it'd be tough. Although, considering how long it's taken me to get where I am I'm wondering if I'll have a 2nd playthrough anytime soon!

 

[digiram]

Originally posted by: spittledip
My question is: how do you run out of ammo??? There is plenty out there. In the meantime, just build the Rock-it launcher and presto! Every piece of junk is ammo.

Rock-it-launcher FTW. My fav. weapon so far.

 

[Kabob]

I've got 2 schematics for the Rock-It Launcher but I've yet to build one. Heck, I've yet to build anything...guess I'll never get the Master Builder achievement (or whatever it's called).