Fallout: New Vegas and the Invisible Walls of Doom

[Tomo Stryker]

Its 1:35 in the morning and the last thing I'm going today is ***** about the invisible walls on that small hill that is about two feet tall. Yes I'm sure most of you don't really care or have already left this forum because its boring, but if your still reading then let us continue. Earlier today I decided that I wanted to pop in Fallout New Vegas and chip away at it's game. The experience was marvelous and aside from some minor annoying bugs it has satisfied me. But throughout the journey something that has constantly been bugging me through this trek was the invisible walls that "enhance" the difficulty. I can completely understand why the producers put them there, its so that people like me are forced to find a clever way of killing half a dozen Death Claws with whatever is in my inventory instead of waltzing up a hill and not even bothering with them. But I had it when I was doing a quest for The Great Khans and I realized my objective was on the other side of this hill and the only way to get to it was A) Running all around the Quarry and finding the entrance then fighting at least two dozen Death Claws B) Jumping up a hill until I can pass over this whole situation then be rudely interrupted by a wall that I cannot see through or C) Waste over two hours attempting to do A) with reloading saves and whatnot. Either way, I loved Fallout and it was a relishing experience but the invisible walls have angered me more than anything else so far in this game. Let me catch some breath..... alright, anyway it is time for you to comment. Please let me know if I'm not the only one truly uprooted from my immersion when I find an invisible wall to my front and a Casador in my back shoving its stinger up my ass because I can't continue up the flipping hill.

 

[zfactor]

Boooooo!

They put insisible walls in the name of "Difficulty"? That's stupid, it shatters immersion. People should be rewarded for finding a different way to an objective, even if it is easier, it lets the player make stategy decsisions to avoid danger.

 

[DeASplode]

I know exactly what you mean.

I haven't played much so don't remember much of the game in terms of places or factions, but near a big lake, there's a campsite for Rangers I think?

Well, around by this campsite, there's a large pipe that goes on for quite a bit. I tried to walk under it and couldn't get through it. I tried to crouch under it and couldn't get through. I switch to third person and there's at least two feet between my characters head and the bottom of the pipe.

Because my character has a high perception, I stick to mountains as often as I can. I noticed a pack of Wolves near the 'Cannibals' cave. So I try to get up on a rock and nope, invisible wall. I beat the Wolves easy, but I wanted to save my ammo.

Things like this easily break any immersion I have in the game.

 

[Marsell]

it restricts travle and pisses people off to no end

 

[wammnebu]

yeah that part really pissed me off, i wanted to travel to the giant white epcott dome, but i kept meeting invisible walls

 

[Vampire cat]

I have a mod that removes them for PC, so if you use the PC version I could send it to you...

 

[twistedheat15]

I actually haven't run into any the whole time i've been playing till yesterday on a 2nd char. Was sneaking around and ran into a pack of coyote snakes and tried to go up a then it just "lol no bish" me while i ran around a while mountain full of invisible wall then proceeded to be mauled to death. ; ; not a big deal though but still ; ;

 

[C95J]

It's a ***** for sure but I didn't find it negatively impacting my game to be honest. I was just having to much damn fun.

this is what I would have posted

 

[TimeLord]

Invisible walls break immersion.

Fact.

It was the only thing that ruined F3 for me.

 

[Crossborder]

I bumped into one just before Novac. It bothered me enormously.
Then I downloaded a mod and all was well again.

 

[Nannernade]

The only time it negatively impacts my game is when the object could easily be climbable, but then I get over it take out my Anti-Material Rifle and kill something two miles away with a headshot sending them flying back 20 feet.

 

[voetballeeuw]

I don't really mind 'em. Except for the one time when I crossed through the valley of cazadors, since apparently there's a giant clusterfuck in one small location. I kept jumping up the hill but couldn't get out. That was goddamn annoying.

 

[Tomo Stryker]

I have a mod that removes them for PC, so if you use the PC version I could send it to you...

Sorry but I don't think the Xbox 360 takes mods.... unless Microsoft took the stick out of their ass about community content. Thanks for the offer though.

 

[Chamale]

Yeah... It took me 100 hours to reach an invisible wall in Fallout 3, at the extreme west edge of the map. In New Vegas, it was 12 hours in. I was feeling real proud of myself for jumping up a hill, only to find that the top of it had an invisible wall on it. I walked back down and ran into a flying, immortal, untargetable Deathclaw. I should have stopped playing right there and not picked up the game again until January of next year.

 

[Tomo Stryker]

Yeah... It took me 100 hours to reach an invisible wall in Fallout 3, at the extreme west edge of the map. In New Vegas, it was 12 hours in. I was feeling real proud of myself for jumping up a hill, only to find that the top of it had an invisible wall on it. I walked back down and ran into a flying, immortal, untargetable Deathclaw. I should have stopped playing right there and not picked up the game again until January of next year.

That is what I'm talking about. Its not game breaking, I just adapted my play style and I got to admit, I do prefer Iron Sights with my Marksman Carbine to VATS with my indestructable Assault Rifle from Operation Anchorage.

 

[Fragged_Templar]

Pretty much this

The only time it negatively impacts my game is when the object could easily be climbable, but then I get over it take out my Anti-Material Rifle and kill something two miles away with a headshot sending them flying back 20 feet.

but then again by my reckoning, the only things that are actually unclimbable are shear cliffs/mountain walls and smooth stone/metal walls.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

Boooooo!

They put insisible walls in the name of "Difficulty"? That's stupid, it shatters immersion. People should be rewarded for finding a different way to an objective, even if it is easier, it lets the player make stategy decsisions to avoid danger.

I agree with your basic conclusion (invisible walls are bad) but that is all. The AI in fallout, new vegas and oblivion all have problems when trying to fight the PC when the PC is positioned on a hard to traverse hill. That tends to make enemies that are supposed to be exceedingly hard to kill trivial given the right terrain.

It is less a reward to a clever player than a blatant exploitation of AI navigation issues.

Besides, when it comes to combat, it isn't like this line of games has ever failed at giving the player plenty of leeway to exploit. Hell, in oblivion just cast a 100% weakness to magicka three times and the same weakness to fire once and then your starter fireball (8 damage if memory serves) suddenly does 80 damage. The low level fireball you get early in the mages guild is suddenly sufficient to kill anything (that I ever found) in the game in one shot!

Vegas has the same thing. Grab a sniper rifle (or gobi campaign rifle if you wish, though the ability to silence the former is more useful than the perks of the unique version). With a careful build, you can easily end up with 10 luck (without dumping all your SPECIAL points into the experience). Put on the 1st Recon Beret (+5 critical chance) and suddenly your chances of getting a critical hit is automatically 75% (the sniper rifle has a 5x critical chance multiplier on top of your base 15% chance). Then, with maxed gun skill the weapon delivers 65 damage in a shot. This is doubled on a head shot. Add some psycho, the bloody mess perk and better criticals and JSP hand load rounds and suddenly you're delivering 610 damage in a single shot. To put that in perspective, the creature with the most HP in the game is the Legendary Deatclaw and he has a mere 850!

If that wasn't absurd enough, same principle but use an Anti-Material Rifle with handload rounds and you're doing very nearly 700 damage (though only the first shot has the benefit of being guaranteed a critical and your follow on shots only have the 15% chance of being a crit)