Fallout 3 gameplay issues

[imported_Imp]

I am a regular RPG horder, stash most stuff I find, and conserve ammo by cycling between weapons. As such, I had no money or ammo problems in Fallout 3.

I guess the main idea is to only shoot when you know you'll hit the person. Unlike a regular FPS, which rewards spray and pray, blowing through all your ammo, this game will punish you. And use VATS as much as possible.

 

[CP5670]

I hoard a lot in this game too, and I have way too much money and ammo for everything. It's a good thing there is effectively no limit on how much of that you can carry.

Pre-war money works well for the rock-it launcher, since it takes up no space in your inventory.

The best weapon overall is probably the A3-21 plasma rifle, which you can get fairly early in the game. It does huge damage to everything, especially with headshots, its ammo is not that hard to come by and it doesn't degrade easily.

You might try a mod that gives merchants more caps, so you can sell them more stuff.

This can be done with console commands. I gave Moira a ton of money so I didn't have to go around looking for sellers, and also increased my weight limit to reduce the frequency of selling trips.

 

[shortylickens]

Originally posted by: CP5670
I hoard a lot in this game too, and I have way too much money and ammo for everything. It's a good thing there is effectively no limit on how much of that you can carry.

Pre-war money works well for the rock-it launcher, since it takes up no space in your inventory.

The best weapon overall is probably the A3-21 plasma rifle, which you can get fairly early in the game. It does huge damage to everything, especially with headshots, its ammo is not that hard to come by and it doesn't degrade easily.

You might try a mod that gives merchants more caps, so you can sell them more stuff.

This can be done with console commands. I gave Moira a ton of money so I didn't have to go around looking for sellers, and also increased my weight limit to reduce the frequency of selling trips.

This game is a hell of a lot more exciting with increased weight limits and the ability to sell all your junk to one person.
The core game without mods is too damn slow and painful. Playing is actually a chore.

 

[Sylvanas]

Ammo gets more plentiful in the later parts of the game, it makes the early stages more challenging when you usually have to go in and start stabbing the bad guys .

 

[spittledip]

Originally posted by: CP5670

The best weapon overall is probably the A3-21 plasma rifle, which you can get fairly early in the game. It does huge damage to everything, especially with headshots, its ammo is not that hard to come by and it doesn't degrade easily.

You obviously haven't found the alien blaster yet It has limited ammo, but I was glad to stumble across it when I did.

 

[way2fast91]

Originally posted by: Kelvrick

Originally posted by: Dorkenstein
Nope, deathclaws are bipedal. Different beastie.

The walking crab like things then? Yea, in early game, I'd just run away. Now, I just own them with headshots. Usually 2 vats against the head with an assault rifle (3 shots each) and they go down.

hmm, I should start playing again. I stopped when I accidentally repaired my lincoln repeater rifle into another gun and didn't notice. Have to go back like 6 saves and got too angry to play anymore when I noticed.

Kelvrick, we are talking about the Large, blackish, walks on two legs, very fast, scares the crap outta you when it sneaks up behind you in the dark while playing in a dark living room on a 61" tv Deathclaws.

If you have no idea what I am talking about, then consider yourself lucky.

 

[GodlessAstronomer]

Deathclaw. He is a badass motherfucker.

 

[CP5670]

I first saw the deathclaws fairly late in the game. I was pretty much unstoppable by that point and they didn't seem like much of a threat.

You obviously haven't found the alien blaster yet It has limited ammo, but I was glad to stumble across it when I did.

I got the Firelance version of that, but it degrades quickly and the ammo is very hard to find. The plasma rifle's MF cell ammo can be found on most of the enclave guys. I have something like 1200 rounds of it and I never actually bought any.

This game is a hell of a lot more exciting with increased weight limits and the ability to sell all your junk to one person.
The core game without mods is too damn slow and painful. Playing is actually a chore.

Yeah, I was wasting too much time just making selling trips before I started doing that.

 

[Frodolives]

I haven't played for a while, but I remember it didn't take too long before I had a pretty huge excess of money and ammo. I agree with hopeless about leveling up your repair skills. It pays off in several ways.

 

[Apathetic]

Here's what I'd recommend:

Ignore the quests - just go out and explore. There's tons of burned out houses, trucks, etc that have some ammo stashed in them.

I think the perk which lets you find more ammo is called Scrounger. Give it a try.

Invest several points in the repair skill and repair all your own weapons as much as possible. This will save you a LOT of caps.

With your extra cash, buy the Rock-It Launcher schematic. I can't remember if there's a quest which gives this as a reward or not.

Check out some hand-to-hand weapons. My favorite is the Shiskabob (it's a flaming sword which sets your opponents on fire).

Dave

 

[error8]

Thanks, Dave.

 

[BFG10K]

Originally posted by: Frodolives

I haven't played for a while, but I remember it didn't take too long before I had a pretty huge excess of money and ammo.

Same here. I?m level 27 and I have about 10,000 caps and thousands of rounds of ammunition for each of my nine guns. My mini-gun in particular has over 15,000 rounds of 5mm ammunition, while my A3-21 plasma rifle has over 4000 rounds of ammo.

The only mods I?ve applied are to those relating to removing the level cap.

Honestly, gaining money & ammo is trivial: collect loot and sell it to vendors, then buy ammo with it. If someone?s short on money and/or ammo, it probably means they?re racing through the game and not collecting loot or finding the numerous ammo boxes.

I see people stating they?ve finished the game in nine hours, but they?re doing themselves a great disservice. I?ve logged about 80 hours but I?ve only explored a third of the wasteland.

Also multiple Deathclaws aren?t a problem. Once I killed four of them with a single nuke, and other times I?ve taken out 2-3 at once with the A3-21 plasma rifle or the Terrible Shotgun. I don?t even use VATS, I just fight like a regular FPS.

Originally posted by: spittledip
You obviously haven't found the alien blaster yet It has limited ammo, but I was glad to stumble across it when I did.

Alien ammo is finite (i.e. no vendors sell it), so it?s only a matter of time before you can no longer use it.

 

[TheVrolok]

Originally posted by: BFG10K

Originally posted by: Frodolives

I haven't played for a while, but I remember it didn't take too long before I had a pretty huge excess of money and ammo.

Same here. I?m level 27 and I have about 10,000 caps and thousands of rounds of ammunition for each of my nine guns. My mini-gun in particular has over 15,000 rounds of 5mm ammunition, while my A3-21 plasma rifle has over 4000 rounds of ammo.

The only mods I?ve applied are to those relating to removing the level cap.

Honestly, gaining money & ammo is trivial: collect loot and sell it to vendors, then buy ammo with it. If someone?s short on money and/or ammo, it probably means they?re racing through the game and not collecting loot or finding the numerous ammo boxes.

I see people stating they?ve finished the game in nine hours, but they?re doing themselves a great disservice. I?ve logged about 80 hours but I?ve only explored a third of the wasteland.

Also multiple Deathclaws aren?t a problem. Once I killed four of them with a single nuke, and other times I?ve taken out 2-3 at once with the A3-21 plasma rifle or the Terrible Shotgun. I don?t even use VATS, I just fight like a regular FPS.

Originally posted by: spittledip
You obviously haven't found the alien blaster yet It has limited ammo, but I was glad to stumble across it when I did.

Alien ammo is finite (i.e. no vendors sell it), so it?s only a matter of time before you can no longer use it.

Did you have to restart after applying the level cap patch?

 

[BFG10K]

Originally posted by: TheVrolok

Did you have to restart after applying the level cap patch?

No, I had already hit level 20 and I wasn't getting any more XP. I then applied the mod and started leveling as normal again.

 

[Maximilian]

Use the find more ammo perk, cant remember what its called. Also go to fort lauderdale (it might not be called that but it is a fort of some sort) its south of megaton, just a bit north of the city area theres a bunch of outcasts hanging around there and they give you a ton of assault rifle ammo in exchange for technology, such as enclave power armor, laser rifles, plasma rifles etc.

 

[CP5670]

Use the find more ammo perk, cant remember what its called. Also go to fort lauderdale (it might not be called that but it is a fort of some sort) its south of megaton, just a bit north of the city area theres a bunch of outcasts hanging around there and they give you a ton of assault rifle ammo in exchange for technology, such as enclave power armor, laser rifles, plasma rifles etc.

Yeah, but nobody is going to give him those things for 5.56mm ammo. By the time you get good stuff like that, the AR ammo is literally everywhere.

The only things I ever gave him were sensor modules. You can find large quantites of those easily.

The only mods I?ve applied are to those relating to removing the level cap.

What mod are you using? I tried a few of them but none of them seemed to have any effect. I have been using console commands to put my level back to 19 and increasing the health and other parameters manually whenever I reach level 20.

 

[TheKub]

Definitely increase your repair skill (I dare say is nearly the most important skill there is). Keeping your guns in tip-top shape will make them do more damage. Also, when you kill a dozen raiders and have a bunch of armor scraps that are worth 20caps it so much nicer to repair them down to 2-3 sets that are worth 150caps. You get to stay out longer and you get a better return at the shops.

As for lack of ammo? start aiming for the head or level sneaking. A stealth headshot will normally kill most enemies with a single shot (9mm pistol for low levels, hunting rifle for mid, scoped magnum for mid-high, laser\plasma for high). I remember being strapped for ammo up until I did the super-duper mart quest at like level 5-6 from that point it was a non-issue. Yeah I may had run out of a particular type of ammo but I never was stuck out in the wasteland and empty.

Another option, level melee\unarmed with those there is no ammo to run out of.

As for caps, yeah a lot of time you will have far more loot than the shop has caps at that point trade for whatever meds\ammo they have even if you don?t need them they have no weight and you can trade them later for other items you do need. Thought with fast travel hit Megaton, Rivet City, and Underworld and its unlikely that you will use all their ammo before they restock.

 

[DefDC]

Originally posted by: TheKub
Definitely increase your repair skill (I dare say is nearly the most important skill there is). Keeping your guns in tip-top shape will make them do more damage. Also, when you kill a dozen raiders and have a bunch of armor scraps that are worth 20caps it so much nicer to repair them down to 2-3 sets that are worth 150caps. You get to stay out longer and you get a better return at the shops.

As for lack of ammo? start aiming for the head or level sneaking. A stealth headshot will normally kill most enemies with a single shot (9mm pistol for low levels, hunting rifle for mid, scoped magnum for mid-high, laser\plasma for high). I remember being strapped for ammo up until I did the super-duper mart quest at like level 5-6 from that point it was a non-issue. Yeah I may had run out of a particular type of ammo but I never was stuck out in the wasteland and empty.

Another option, level melee\unarmed with those there is no ammo to run out of.

As for caps, yeah a lot of time you will have far more loot than the shop has caps at that point trade for whatever meds\ammo they have even if you don?t need them they have no weight and you can trade them later for other items you do need. Thought with fast travel hit Megaton, Rivet City, and Underworld and its unlikely that you will use all their ammo before they restock.

Good advice. I agree that Repair is probably the most useful skill. Always keep your weapons repaired, and condense your extra weapons and armor. I've restarted a few times, and it's always the first thing I level up.

Once you find a few stores that sell ammo, trade your junk. Don't worry so much about caps, as you do ammo. I didn't find a huge use for money until I was buying schematics. I was able to trade bandit armor to see myself stocked up on everything I wanted.

Don't spread yourself too thin. I'd recommend leveling your repair first, and then your small guns. Hunter rifles are cheap and effecting. I could agree using the Rock-it launcher could be handy, but that seemed to be higher maintenance than just using the hunter rifle.

I created a melee character, and it was kind of fun, but not as much as a small guns user. (IMO)

 

[imported_Devine]

The only gun I've really used is the sniper rifle, I found the shiskabob early in the game and used that the entire game. I like to be sneaky sneaky so it worked out for me, never had any ammo problems whatsoever

 

[BFG10K]

Originally posted by: CP5670

What mod are you using? I tried a few of them but none of them seemed to have any effect. I have been using console commands to put my level back to 19 and increasing the health and other parameters manually whenever I reach level 20.

This one:

http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=121

When you hit level 21, it loops back to 20 so it doesn?t break the game's internal calculations, but you still keep all extra stats you allocate to yourself. This effectively creates an unlimited level cap.

It also scales leveling so it takes more and more XP level again.

 

[NoSoup4You]

Not sure if anyone's answered this yet, but as to the original posters issues finding ammo, it sounds like he put only one point into Luck. Luck shoud be at 8 to start the game. Then you'll pick up the Luck bobblehead and the lucky 8-ball from Big Town to bump you up to 10 luck.

What luck does is increases your chances of critical hits, which helps conserve ammo! I also believe it increases the amount of ammo you find in crates, so you should be more than fine with ammo.

My first character only had 1 or 2 in luck and I had the same problem, no ammo... So I restarted and dumped 8 into Luck and I never had trouble finding ammo afterwards.

 

[CP5670]

Originally posted by: BFG10K
When you hit level 21, it loops back to 20 so it doesn?t break the game's internal calculations, but you still keep all extra stats you allocate to yourself. This effectively creates an unlimited level cap.

It also scales leveling so it takes more and more XP level again.

I'll give that one a try. This is basically what I have been doing already, but it's tedious to do it all manually through the console.

 

[I Saw OJ]

I had the same issue at the start of the game. I only had a few rounds for each of my 15 or so weapons that I had. So I was contently switching back and forth between weapons, plus I was always near the weight limit for carrying stuff. After I got a companion it all changed and he became my pack mule

 

[PhatoseAlpha]

Originally posted by: NoSoup4You
Not sure if anyone's answered this yet, but as to the original posters issues finding ammo, it sounds like he put only one point into Luck. Luck shoud be at 8 to start the game. Then you'll pick up the Luck bobblehead and the lucky 8-ball from Big Town to bump you up to 10 luck.

What luck does is increases your chances of critical hits, which helps conserve ammo! I also believe it increases the amount of ammo you find in crates, so you should be more than fine with ammo.

My first character only had 1 or 2 in luck and I had the same problem, no ammo... So I restarted and dumped 8 into Luck and I never had trouble finding ammo afterwards.

I didn't think luck was that useful, but even so, 8 luck is too high, since you forgot the +1 from the lucky shades.



At any rate, early on, if you don't know exactly what you're doing, the rock-it helps a lot. Effectively unlimited ammo since you can pick things back up.

Be sure to get a dart gun too. It kills nothing, but one shot insta-cripples both legs. Very handy on deathclaws or melee weapon opponents.

 

[imported_Imp]

Originally posted by: PhatoseAlpha

Originally posted by: NoSoup4You
Not sure if anyone's answered this yet, but as to the original posters issues finding ammo, it sounds like he put only one point into Luck. Luck shoud be at 8 to start the game. Then you'll pick up the Luck bobblehead and the lucky 8-ball from Big Town to bump you up to 10 luck.

What luck does is increases your chances of critical hits, which helps conserve ammo! I also believe it increases the amount of ammo you find in crates, so you should be more than fine with ammo.

My first character only had 1 or 2 in luck and I had the same problem, no ammo... So I restarted and dumped 8 into Luck and I never had trouble finding ammo afterwards.

I didn't think luck was that useful, but even so, 8 luck is too high, since you forgot the +1 from the lucky shades.



At any rate, early on, if you don't know exactly what you're doing, the rock-it helps a lot. Effectively unlimited ammo since you can pick things back up.

Be sure to get a dart gun too. It kills nothing, but one shot insta-cripples both legs. Very handy on deathclaws or melee weapon opponents.

I had that dart gun equiped for hours, and never remembered to use it, so didn't know what it did. That sounds pretty cool, but 'Eugene' made every problem go away for me alright...