New Vegas, Hardcore

[Mylinkay Asdara]

As most people have said, the Hardcore mode isn't that hard (this is especially true if you have the vault canteen thing that you auto-sip from so thirst is never an issue, ever, really like it should be... in a desert). I would call it "mildly more realistic" mode more than hardcore, simply because you have to remember to eat/sleep/drink occasionally. More of a role playing choice than a mode if you ask me. Food and drink are so plentiful they don't really need to be carried unless you are trekking from one end of the game to the other without stopping off somewhere on the way. I did like the justification of actually sitting at campfires and cooking and such, though. Some of the perks from the dlc are only worth bothering if you are on hardcore I suppose, but you could do without easily enough too.

I think the same mode applied to Fallout 3 would have been more hardcore, honestly. Resources weren't as plentiful anyway, and clean water wasn't widely available, which makes more sense in the whole game theme.

It's fun for your imagination more than a challenge for your skills is basically what I'm - and I think some others here are - saying.

Oh, avoid the Caza-horrors-with-wings - they will kill your companions (you too maybe, but I care more about my companions with the whole death thing).

 

[6_Qubed]

It's fun for your imagination more than a challenge for your skills is basically what I'm - and I think some others here are - saying.

Oh, avoid the Caza-horrors-with-wings - they will kill your companions (you too maybe, but I care more about my companions with the whole death thing).

Cazadors are assholes, I'll give you that, but the ones I'm worried about are nightstalkers. Those things just ignore bullets, and they're creepy as fuck besides.

But companion death is something I'm very worried about, never mind that I just got to Primm; I guess I can kiss firebombing Giant Radscorpians from beyond V.A.T.S. distance goodbye. And fistfighting them is right out. Veronica's gonna be pissed.

But while I'm interested in Hardcore mode for the new gameplay twists, I've never considered myself a "hardcore" gamer; Merely a roleplayer who engages in light munchkinism to stave off boredom.

Oh, and found a new problem; running low on doctor bags.

 

[Terrible Opinions]

Hardcore isn't actually hard at all, it's just annoying and tedious.

The only tough part of Hardcore is in regards to companions, where they they all have a sudden suicidal urge when shit hits the fan. God, they become an incredible liability in the cazador infested areas, especially back when there was a bug that caused companions to drop dead if they were given a stimpak while poisoned.

I'm with these two. I really like the concept of Hardcore Mode in this and similar games, but in practice, I find the main difference is just spending more time fucking around in menus eating steaks or whatever. And yeah, companions handle cazadores fucking terribly.

I'm coming up on the end of a run using jsawyer.esp, a balance mod created by the game's lead designer, and I've really enjoyed it. Someone with low endurance is so god damn fragile...

 

[Sectan]

In my first ever playthrough I chose hardcore mode. Only real difficulty is keeping companions alive as they like to run into bullets and healing crippled limbs, which turns into more of an annoyance than an actual challenge.

 

[Mylinkay Asdara]

Snip.

Cazadors are assholes, I'll give you that, but the ones I'm worried about are nightstalkers. Those things just ignore bullets, and they're creepy as fuck besides.

But companion death is something I'm very worried about, never mind that I just got to Primm; I guess I can kiss firebombing Giant Radscorpians from beyond V.A.T.S. distance goodbye. And fistfighting them is right out. Veronica's gonna be pissed.

But while I'm interested in Hardcore mode for the new gameplay twists, I've never considered myself a "hardcore" gamer; Merely a roleplayer who engages in light munchkinism to stave off boredom.

Oh, and found a new problem; running low on doctor bags.

Can you make them yourself yet? Once you can, that problem pretty much goes away and the one that replaces it is: all these doc bags are too heavy in ingredient form, but do I really need 8 this second? hehe - have fun I had a lot of fun in my head-story with hardcore mode (oh, also, that caravan thing to that pretty canyon area is a good stop off and you get a lot of survivalist of the earth stuff there abouts)

 

[6_Qubed]

Snip.

Cazadors are assholes, I'll give you that, but the ones I'm worried about are nightstalkers. Those things just ignore bullets, and they're creepy as fuck besides.

But companion death is something I'm very worried about, never mind that I just got to Primm; I guess I can kiss firebombing Giant Radscorpians from beyond V.A.T.S. distance goodbye. And fistfighting them is right out. Veronica's gonna be pissed.

But while I'm interested in Hardcore mode for the new gameplay twists, I've never considered myself a "hardcore" gamer; Merely a roleplayer who engages in light munchkinism to stave off boredom.

Oh, and found a new problem; running low on doctor bags.

Can you make them yourself yet? Once you can, that problem pretty much goes away and the one that replaces it is: all these doc bags are too heavy in ingredient form, but do I really need 8 this second? hehe - have fun I had a lot of fun in my head-story with hardcore mode (oh, also, that caravan thing to that pretty canyon area is a good stop off and you get a lot of survivalist of the earth stuff there abouts)

Oh, I find all sorts of ingredients for various things, just not in the right combinations. Just got repair up to where I can make weapon repair kits without having to consume something, magazine, etc, but I'm always missing something for doctor bags. Forceps, I thing.

And now that I have the Incinerator from Primm, the temptation is strong to set fire to the ENTIRE WASTELAND. Even though my energy weapons skill isn't that strong.

 

[Souplex]

S. 8
P. 8
E. 9
C. 4
I. 9
A. 3
L. 1

Traits: Heavy Handed, Skilled.
Tag Skills: Repair, Unarmed, Survival (Dabble in energy weapons, but have survival be the tag skill)
There you go.

 

[6_Qubed]

Hardcore isn't actually hard at all, it's just annoying and tedious.

I found it helped immersion myself. Even if it wasn't that challenging, the fact that you needed to eat and drink occasionally was cool. I just wish it was, more hardcore. Because you have to neglect those metres intentionally for a long time for stuff to go sideways

This right here. Maybe it's just because I had a grenade rifle right off the bat, but I grossly overestimated how tough this would be. Seriously, neither Powder Gangers nor raiders are very well armored, most of their threat comes from numbers. And if they're dumb enough to group close together? Oh so terribly sorry, I appear to have exploded your EVERYTHING. The game's not really designed for you having access to an explosive weapon better than dynamite this early. Man, me and this grenade rifle are like total bros. I know I can't change the weapon's name in-game but screw that noise, I shall name him "Grigori" and we shall have the most splendid adventures together. That all involve blowing things up.

The shotgun can come too. He can be "Bruce".

But yeah, difficulty ain't a thing. Just got to Novac, and things became much simpler now that I'm not mailbox-juggling all my extra stuff. One issue I've always had with Novac, though; NOVAC Y U NO HAVE CAMPFIRE?? Seriously, whole town'd be perfect were it not for that. Tempted to head back to Primm for ED-E, but I'm still concerned about companion death. I wonder if this is what it feels like to be The Doctor...

You can also make Hydra for limb restoration, though you can become addicted. Not sure what skill it requires, medicine or survival I expect.

Medicine. Maybe Science? No wait, the wiki says Survival. Regardless, Hydra is the shit. I wouldn't mind having enough of it to get addicted; Restore all of my limbs to full health at once? Yes please! Stuff's worth its metaphorical weight in gold, and having beaten Dead Money on a previous playthrough, I can say that from experience. Only problem is, stuff's been just as rare so far. I have the recipe, sure, but one of the ingredients is nightstalker blood, which means tangling with nightstalkers.

FUCK.

THAT.

SHIT.

Only way I'm doing that is with a solid 20 40 points thrown into Explosives, and some 40mm plasma grenades. Let's see those dirty little pricks try to hiss at me and poison me to death when they're SMEARED AGAINST THE FUCKING WALLS.

I can't say it enough. Fuck nightstalkers.

 

[Richardplex]

>Hardcore mode
>Can only carry 1 2 handed weapon, 1 1 handed weapon and 1 1 handed melee weapon
>10 clips of ammo per weapon, no carrying of any ammo that isn't used by carried weapons
>Swapping weapons require dropping the old weapon and all the ammo for it
>No carrying stimpaks; they can only be used on the spot when found. This also applies to food and water.
>1 doctors bag because fuck head crippling
>3 grenades maximum
>No companions (because Boone is a fucking ranged god), or making it so they're ineffective (because Obsidian make good characters)
>No drugs
>1 antivenom because cazadors can 1 shot you otherwise
>Repairing must be done on the spot as well
>Quick travel is allowed because there's nothing to see and so few random events
>Can carry as many caps as you want but
>Anything else that isn't weightless can not be picked up.

^ Actual hardcore mode. Makes melee weapons useful for ammo conservation, you constantly are swapping out weapons as they run out of ammo or break, and food, water, caps and health suddenly have become precious resources instead of shit you're overflowing with. Playing like this turns FONV into a pretty fun survival game, which is what HC was supposed to do.

Running out of ammo and limping off with 3 bars of health left ducking desperately in and out of cover as some raider is shooting you, ducking into a broom closet, D:'ing because you realise your trapped and then 'ing because theres a first aid container in there so you can heal up and take down that last raider with your knife is an experience that is unique to playing like this, and I loved every minute of it.

 

[6_Qubed]

YARP YARP

^ Actual hardcore mode. YARP YARP

...

...Wha-

...

...

...

...What about bobby pins. Those locks ain't gonna pick themselves.

Also Grigori is displeased by your lack of explosions.

Grigori: ">8C"

Don't even ask me how something without a face is frowning but goddamn he is not happy.

 

[xplosive59]

I would of found Hardcore mode easier than normal mode if it wasn't for ammo weighing more, why? Because you will always have food and water on you which also heals you, in normal mode I would run out of Stimpacks quickly and complete screw myself, with the hunger bar I always have healing items.

 

[Dark Prophet]

If you weren't playing on easy then only thing which really changes the game is ammo weight, it made me take strong back perk which I usually don't take because I found, looted and stole more ammo than I could carry.

 

[Richardplex]

YARP YARP

^ Actual hardcore mode. YARP YARP

...

...Wha-

...

...

...

...What about bobby pins. Those locks ain't gonna pick themselves.

Also Grigori is displeased by your lack of explosions.

Grigori: ">8C"

Don't even ask me how something without a face is frowning but goddamn he is not happy.

Bobby pins are weightless, thus you can carry as many as you can find.

Explosions are to be used tactically. While in previous playthroughs I never used them, in that one they saved my life a bunch of times.

 

[6_Qubed]

YARP YARP

^ Actual hardcore mode. YARP YARP

YARP

Grigori: ">8C"

YARP

Bobby pins are weightless, thus you can carry as many as you can find.

Explosions are to be used tactically. While in previous playthroughs I never used them, in that one they saved my life a bunch of times.

Had to reread that post. I was confused by the double negative. Whoops.

Gotta be honest though, still not sure about it. "Richardplexcore mode" means no Hydra, and I'm fast on my way towards getting addicted to that shit. Question, though: Would Grigori count as your 2-hand weapon, or your grenades?

 

[Richardplex]

Something something I'M LEETLE GIRL CHILD WITH A GRENADE LAUNCHER FUCK YEAH! something something .

2h weapon. By grenades, I meant consumable explosives - frags, EMPs, bottlecap mines, those sort of things - rather than something with actual ammo.

You could swap out the doctors bag for hydra, that can be your drug slot. Or you know, follow most of the rules but carry around Hydra. Your addiction to it could be the price you pay for carrying as much as you want for example. It's just an adaptation I made of someone else's rules which I adjusted a bit to make the experience funner for me. It didn't allow grenades, secondaries or doctor bags, but I felt that this was a prime opportunity for making pistols useful, and because, like I said, fuck being head crippled.

So yeah, it's essentially guide lines, so long as the main point is maintained: ammo, health, caps and hardcore stats are precious resources. How you go about it is however it makes the game fun.

 

[Daveman]

Hardcore mode is easy, the only tricky thing is worrying about damaged limbs as medical bags are a bit scarce. Didn't even care notice my water or food meters, it's too easy to find both and I typically ate them for health reasons anyway.

 

[6_Qubed]

YARP YARP LOOKIT MAH CHEST HAIRS YARP

Not trying to cast disparaging jibes on your recommendation, friend, but we can't all play strapping barrel-chested man's men who solve all their problems by menacing them with their facial hair so hard they die of pure shame.

Some of us play mohawked hispanic lesbians with an explosion fetish. And there's a sentence I've never seen before.

 

[Don Incognito]

While I concur with the general distaste and fuck-this-shit attitude towards nightstalkers and cazadores, don't forget that both have an absolutely crucial weakness.

They have no armor. Which means they go down to SMGs like a ton of goddamned bricks. Seriously, even a 9mm SMG can make quick work of a small-to-medium cluster of cazadores, especially when VATSing their wings. The special hand-loader ammo makes this even easier.

As far as Hardcore Mode goes, it is a great concept, suboptimal execution. The JSawyer mod and Project Nevada mod make it significantly better, but that is only an option on PCs, alas.

 

[6_Qubed]

While I concur with the general distaste and fuck-this-shit attitude towards nightstalkers and cazadores, don't forget that both have an absolutely crucial weakness.

They have no armor. Which means they go down to SMGs like a ton of goddamned bricks. Seriously, even a 9mm SMG can make quick work of a small-to-medium cluster of cazadores, especially when VATSing their wings. The special hand-loader ammo makes this even easier.

As far as Hardcore Mode goes, it is a great concept, suboptimal execution. The JSawyer mod and Project Nevada mod make it significantly better, but that is only an option on PCs, alas.

First of all sir, hello! Welcome to the Escapist forums, and thank you for making my thread your first! Always nice to see a fresh face, especially when they share my irrational hatred of nightstalkers, even to a lesser and slightly more rational degree.

You bring up a good point though, this playthrough has been distressingly SMG-light. Then again, I have been successfully avoiding the poisonous abominations. Right now, my big concern is radscorpians, because those things have no weaknesses to speak of. Can't even aim for the goddamn head. At moments like this, I defer to my friend Grigori, and he sorts them out just fine.

Getting back on topic however, you bring up a good point, and I'll be keeping my eyes out for a rapid-fire addition to my arsenal from here on out. Thanks for the good idea, and welcome again to the forum!