Going to play Fallout: New Vegas for the first time, requesting sage 'dex advice.

[Sheepherder]

Yes, Mod Organizer is the best alternative. NMM seems to work perfectly for me though so I never bothered making the jump.

http://robbiecwilson.hubpages.com/h...nd-fix-mod-conflicts-and-update-all-your-mods

When I had to choose how to install the multitude of mods for FNV, I found only 2 popular alternatives, either FOMM or the Nexus one.
Well, the makers of the more popular mods recommended to use Nexus over FOMM, citing that Nexus is in constant development, and FOMM stopped updating a while ago.
So, it was a sort of no-choice, and I went with Nexus. Can't obviously compare it to the alternatives, but it works just fine.

FOMM/OBMM is indicated for FO3/Oblivion since those two are old enough that NMM's development didn't focus too much on them.

Or use this: http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/54991/?
It's a FOMM fork for FO3 and F:NV which is still being developed. Better than NMM, but I don't think it handles mod download links.

 

[Starwars]

I just finished replaying Honest Hearts. Enjoyed it more than I'd ever done before. I think it's a pretty nice "break" from the rest of the Wasteland, and the characters and themes feel a lot more downplayed and down to earth than the sledgehammer-like approach of the Avellone led DLCs. I still enjoy those quite a bit for what they are but yeah... Avellone is definitely not my first choice when it comes to the Fallout setting.
That said, there's too much fighting in HH. Though, I also think it often manages to surprise. It's level-scaled pretty heavily I think but it seems to work pretty well just within this DLC because it's hard to know what to expect when you go into it.

Graham is a fantastic character and Daniel is well-written too though he felt like he could've needed some more fleshing out. The tribal characters are pretty cool as well.

 

[boobio]

For those that use Project Nevada, is bullet-time a good alternative to vats? Can you play NV to completion with just bullet-time?

 

[Somberlain]

For those that use Project Nevada, is bullet-time a good alternative to vats? Can you play NV to completion with just bullet-time?

Yes and yes. Personally, I never use VATS. PN also lets you customize bullet time AP cost etc.

 

[Morkar Left]

For those that use Project Nevada, is bullet-time a good alternative to vats? Can you play NV to completion with just bullet-time?

Yes, it is. You can even play NV without using any of it. Personally I prefer realtime over bullet time. I don't know why but as soon as I use bullet time my reflexes adapt to it and get equally slow. Must have something to do with my hand-eye coordination not being in sync anymore :shrug:
I like VATS if properly tweaked (bigger ap impact and slower regeneration).

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Also, reduce the defense boost. NV already tones it down considerably (10% damage taken in FO3 VS 75% damage taken in NV), but it's still more defensive than it should be (if anything, carefully aiming at precise body parts should leave you more vulnerable). Nevada lets you choose from a list of values. You can even leave it at zero if you're hardcore enough, but that will require you to always stay behind cover and the game isn't always clear on object boundaries so you might end up wasting clips on invisible walls.

For that matter, you don't need to ever use Vats. You can activate the melee/unarmed special attacks outside of it. You'll miss out on some extras like double damage, though.

Spoiler

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Melee_Weapons

Special Attacks
When the player character has 50 Melee skill points, they have access to special melee moves which consume a certain amount of AP for a variety of effects in V.A.T.S.

• Most one-handed edged weapons (such as combat knives) have the Back Slash special attack.
• Most one-handed blunt weapons (such as the lead pipe) have the Lights Out special attack.
• Most two-handed melee weapons (such as the sledgehammer) have the Mauler special attack.
• Staff-like weapons (such as baseball bats) have the Grand Slam special attack.
• There are a variety of other attacks, some unique. Only thrown melee weapons and the Broad machete have no special attack.

V.A.T.S. vs. real-time
It is possible to execute all special melee moves outside of V.A.T.S., although the animation can look different in first-person view than in third-person view. It is not required to have 50 points of the skill to perform the moves. To perform any special move described above, initiate a power attack (hold attack button) while moving forward. However, executed outside of V.A.T.S. they don't have any special properties, but have a benefit of a standard power attack: doubling weapon base damage.

Unlike in Fallout 3, apotentially significant amount of damage can be taken in V.A.T.S., heightening the danger of meleeing in it, as one cannot dodge or block while in V.A.T.S. However, all melee weapons, except thrown, do twice as much base damage.

===

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Unarmed

V.A.T.S. Special Attacks

“As your Unarmed skill increases, you will unlock the ability to do uppercuts (50 Unarmed) and crosses (75 Unarmed) - both inside V.A.T.S. and out.”— Fallout: New Vegas loading screen

Unarmed weapons in Fallout: New Vegas can utilize up to three special attacks in V.A.T.S., each at the cost of 20 Action Points, depending on the character's Unarmed skill. At an unarmed skill of at least 50 Stomp and Uppercut special attacks become available. Stomp, an attack dealing double damage, where the target receives a swift downward kick, that can only be used on enemies after they have been knocked down. Uppercut is an upward punch that deals an additional 15% damage. At an unarmed skill of at least 75, Cross is a punch thrown across the body that deals 10% greater damage, with an additional 250% damage to limbs.

Unlike Ranger Takedown, Legion Assault, Scribe Counter and Khan Trick, other special unarmed moves that must be learned before use, these special attacks require only an investment in skill points to unlock.

Name Requirement AP Damage Bonus Notes

Uppercut Unarmed 50 20 15%

Cross Unarmed 75 20 10% 2.5x Increased Limb Damage

Stomp None 20 100% Only on knocked down opponents

In addition, all unarmed attacks in V.A.T.S. do twice as much base damage (just like power attacks in real-time).

Or use this: http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/54991/?
It's a FOMM fork for FO3 and F:NV which is still being developed. Better than NMM, but I don't think it handles mod download links.

For some reason it won't let me install, the wizard complains about an already existing FOMM folder (which doesn't exist, only a GEMM one). I'll track it in case I ever have to reinstall the games.

 

[Sheepherder]

For some reason it won't let me install, the wizard complains about an already existing FOMM folder (which doesn't exist, only a GEMM one). I'll track it in case I ever have to reinstall the games.

FOMM is installed into a GEMM folder.
Also, look into appdata and Documents folders and see if they contain any FOMM folders.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Yeah, I've been running FOMM from that folder, even though the new installer points you to C/Program Files/FOMM by default. I've been looking through some threads to understand WTF is going on. There's one FOMM folder in User/Documents (for crashdump.log), and one FOMM folder in User/AppDate/Local (for user.config). Deleted both and the wizard still whines about it. In any case it looks like I can still use the old version (FOMM 0.13) to mod both FO3 and NV, so apart from the mysterious existing folder that doesn't exist it's no big deal. I was using NMM to deal with NV and I didn't seem to run into any issues, but having an alternative is nice.

On the plus side, during this search I found one video by Gopher that explains how to fix CTDs with FOMM if you ever used NMM to mess with FO3/FNV (just delete the relevant .xml files from the NMM folder). I'll leave it here in case someone in the future with this same issue finds this thread.

Spoiler

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

Especially in close quarters, where melee enemies move very quickly and chaotically, making both melee and ranged attacks versus them a matter of spray-and-pray.

Hope you saw this in one of my earlier posts in the thread:

"- no NPC dodging mod (http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/37141/?): this removes enemy behavior where they dodge your bullets at close range which was probably created to force the player to rely on VATs at close ranges"

This mod alleviates some of the retarded NPC behavior where they dodge your bullets too quickly. There is still their regular melee behavior where once meleers get in melee range, they will try to circle you instead of just standing there, but that's not as retarded.

 

[Azrael the cat]

Hardcore mode - yes, it's pretty good, unless you are a popamoler who thinks ammo should be weightless.

Yeah and feel free to fast travel to store near you every 20 minutes of game time to micro manage the inventory. Unless you start with 9 in ST you'll get encumbered really fast with all the humongous amount of loot you can find. Also, if you're like me and want to test every weapon that can be found in the game before disposing it, you don't want additional weight limitations, more like vice versa.

Other features like mandatory eating, shitting and sleeping are ok if you love Oblibions & CO and all the larping crap. If you rather prefer exploring wastes, kicking ass and doing quests (which there are endless torrent of) like in original games, instead of spending half the game clicking on beds, foodstuff and searching for doctors to cure you from radiation, don't play ''hardcore''. For more challenge there are probably bunch of user made mods that deal with it much better.

I personally use three mods right now.
Vats range and vats accuracy fixer (if you intend to play mostly real time, you don't need it),
the one that removes silly lock picking/hacking mini games and substitutes with the pure skill based check,
and weight reducer, because i hate constant micro management of inventory in muh Fallout. This is not Jagged Alliance.

The idea of hardcore mode is that you can't loot everything. Put it this way. Say you're a no good thief looking to raise money for crack. You look outside and see a bunch of parked cars (worth $200000 all added together), playground equipment worth $10000, a lawnmower worth $300, some houses worth $5000000 and the road bitchumen could be resold for $2000. But you x can't carry any of that shit, so you break into one of the cars, steal its $20 radio and move on.

Hence you don't just loot everything. You take ammo if you need it and can use it. You take food if you don't have enough. You only take shit for cash if it is light enough to be used as currency, or if you're so broke that the few random goods you can hold are worth lugging around for the meagre change you'll get from it at the shop.

 

[Gnidrologist]

The idea of hardcore mode is that you can't loot everything.

And i'm not even looting everything. The unique wepons you can found in every corner of the map are worth the 2/3 of inventory space alone. I would never go back to that fucking Vault 34 just to for All Americana, because inventory space was too low at the time. Besides, even with no weight for ammo and chems, and default weight (had 5 ST), inventory gets heavy goddamn fast. With hardcore shit i would basically be limited to single weapon (maybe a sidearm) and ammo/stimpaks/food whole game long.
That's too for me.

May rethink the possibility of trying this if i ever play for the second time.

 

[Metro]

Simulates realism. You probably aren't going to be hiking across a semi-desert wasteland with multiple assault rifles, sidearms, and grenades strapped to you. Anyway, money has little purpose in New Vegas aside from those augments at the clinic.

 

[T. Reich]

I'm kinda on this with you. The original Fallouts never really had the weight restriction problem, unless you played the loner character. Even then, in FO2 you had a car with its near-limitless trunk.

I'm actually almost inclined to find a mod for FNV that removes the weight limit, Gothic-style. After all, it looks like Gothic (when in 3rd person), it plays like Gothic (with its exploration), so it could be more like Gothic in inventory management ways.

Unfortunately, for me the biggest problem with inventory isn't the weight limit, by far. It's the fact that it's super-clunky to use, and that instead of item icons they decided to use the item names, making the inventory a nughtmare to navigate. I hate it with passion.

 

[Morkar Left]

And i'm not even looting everything. The unique wepons you can found in every corner of the map are worth the 2/3 of inventory space alone. I would never go back to that fucking Vault 34 just to for All Americana, because inventory space was too low at the time. Besides, even with no weight for ammo and chems, and default weight (had 5 ST), inventory gets heavy goddamn fast. With hardcore shit i would basically be limited to single weapon (maybe a sidearm) and ammo/stimpaks/food whole game long.

May rethink the possibility of trying this if i ever play for the second time.

Use backpack mods. Feels more realistic and looks better.

 

[I'm Big Into Anal]

OR

or

grab a companion

a living backpack as it were

 

[WhiteGuts]

ED-E + Boone masterrace

 

[T. Reich]

ED-E + Boone masterrace

Word. That's how I roll atm, and I also got Paciencia for dat long range critical sniping. In the open wasteland nothing can challenge me.
Because I'm the last thing they never see.

 

[WhiteGuts]

Do their personal quests for upgrades.

 

[I'm Big Into Anal]

i went into the divide and upgraded ede before things got too hot at level 5 or 6

 

[valcik]

Same here Poos!
You can get one or two upgrades in the first location of Lonesome Road, not even mentioning Riot Gear available in the commissary terminal unlocked by ED-E. Also, sneaking through the silo with low-level character can be really immersive experience. Mah immershun! It's only for those Couriers with some balls of course. ^^

 

[Onholyservicebound]

That's too for me.

Seeing as everyone liked FNV and the anti-Sawyer/ends fun meme started with pillars, a game which has unlimited inventory and stresses switching between a bunch of weapons, restrictive carry weight isn't very "Sawyerian" at all.

I'm kinda on this with you. The original Fallouts never really had the weight restriction problem, unless you played the loner character. Even then, in FO2 you had a car with its near-limitless trunk.

Yes they did, Fallout 3 is what introduced weightless ammo and a higher starting carry weight.(1 str in Fallout 3 = same carryweight as 5 str in Fallout 1/2)
By comparison the original games has a much more restrictive inventory, ammo weight was the biggest limiting factor, and I'm pretty sure most items were at least a little heavier. If anything New Vegas ammo is way lighter than in the first games. Obviously there's ways to circumvent the weight limit, but it's progression based, same as NV.(In forms of perks, lucky 38 storage, str upgrades)

 

[T. Reich]

Yes they did, Fallout 3 is what introduced weightless ammo and a higher starting carry weight.(1 str in Fallout 3 = same carryweight as 5 str in Fallout 1/2)
By comparison the original games has a much more restrictive inventory, ammo weight was the biggest limiting factor, and I'm pretty sure most items were at least a little heavier. If anything New Vegas ammo is way lighter than in the first games. Obviously there's ways to circumvent the weight limit, but it's progression based, same as NV.(In forms of perks, lucky 38 storage, str upgrades)

Just to make things clear:
1. I'm comparing the loot haul potential of FNV with Jsawyer's mod (which basically halves the weight capacity of both the player character and their companions) versus loot haul potential of FO1+2.
2. Loot haul potential = the max weight a party could carry, considering all factors.
3. FNV (unmodded) has 400 max carry weight with all perks and special gear, with 250-300 carry weight within reasonable expectations (a STR score of 5 or so, plus 1-2 carry weight perks). Plus 2x200-ish carry weight for 2 companions. A total reasonable max of 700 pounds.
4. FNV with Jsawyer mod has around 250 max carry weight with all perks and special gear, with maybe 130-150 carry weight within reasonable expectations by endgame. Plus 2x120-ish carry weight for 2 companions (because the mod cuts their carry weight as well). A total reasonable max of 400 pounds.
5. FNV doesn't allow to overload companions, and if you're overloaded, it's next to impossible to play, so it's not an option.
6. In FNV there is no analogue of car, if you want to stash your excess loot somewhere, you will have to return to it yourself to make use of it, which takes too long to be useful.
7. In FNV power armor doesn't give nearly as much benefit as it does in FO1+2, with only +1 STR bonus.
8. In FO1+2 you have 375 max carry weight with all perks and special gear, and 250-350 carry weight within reasonable expectations (that include near 10 STR because you'll obviously be using power armor, get +1 STR implant, and will probably take 1-2 carry weight perks).
9. In FO1 you can have 2 decent humanoid companions (well, at least 1), whose carry weight limit is, well, limitless in practice, due to how the whole companion interface works (or rather doesn't) in FO1. Ergo, you will have no problems with hauling all the shit around, at the low cost of having Ian or Tycho moving at snail's pace, IIRC.
10. In FO2 you can't abuse that trick too much, but:
* you can easily have more than 2 companions
* these companions can wear power armor, making their carry weight at least 250 usually
* you have a car
Basically, you can always load up your haul monkeys with loot and carry it to the car to store. And the car is almost always very easy to come back to, and it's kinda a given that it travels with you.

Basically, FO1+FO2 = no carry weight problems, unless you're playing a solo wimp. FNV = little to no problems with softcore vanilla and companions, big problems with Jsawyer and companinons, or in vanilla solo hardcore, and absolute nightmare if you go solo Jsawyer HC.

 

[naossano]

About the car, sure you don't have it in FoNV/Fo3, but you are always one single click away for every single location of the gameworld, each of them containing tons of containers. It is like having a billion car's trunk. The gamebryo fast-travel system annihiliate any carry weight limit. You don't have to hesitate between picking item X or item Z as you can take both by using teleport.

 

[Somberlain]

You can't fast travel while over-encumbered and you can only fast travel when you are outdoors.

 

[naossano]

Do you consider it as a drawback when you unload stuff at the entrance, teleport half of your stuff, then teleport back for the rest ?
There is zero limit as you are everywhere in a mere second.
You will never hesitate (at least in vanilla) to pick any item you want, as you are always one click away from any stash you want.
The carry weight effectively have no relevance in your choice to pick an item or not.
(provided you are interested in said item)