New Vegas: Off the beaten path

[Trolldor]

If you've got plenty of Radaway and Rad-X have a good search around Searchlight. There'll also be another group of people there you can find (if you really look) who are looking for something. Help them out.

Also look for the 'Legendary' creatures scattered throughout the Wasteland, such as the Legendary Nightstalker and Legendary Cazador. Big game hunting can be quite rewarding in F:NV.

Except Vault 11.

Fuck Vault 11.

I found Vault 11 to be funny as f*ck. I sat back and howled with laughter when I reached the conclusion to that particular one, especially with all the sinister build-up.

It was hilarious, but at level 6 with only just above starting gear level stuff, I got wasted by the six turrets, two protectrons and two brain bots. And all my saves were just before that last room.
Much rage was had because I had no explosives.

 

[EHKOS]

Check out Chances stuff, then read the graphic novel.

 

[Grouchy Imp_v1legacy]

Except Vault 11.

Fuck Vault 11.

I found Vault 11 to be funny as f*ck. I sat back and howled with laughter when I reached the conclusion to that particular one, especially with all the sinister build-up.

It was hilarious, but at level 6 with only just above starting gear level stuff, I got wasted by the six turrets, two protectrons and two brain bots. And all my saves were just before that last room.
Much rage was had because I had no explosives.

Ah, fair do's. I was level 28 with power armour, a gauss rifle and the 'Meltdown' perk. I'm gonna guess that I had an easier time of it than you!

[small]Christ, you go Vault-delving at level 6?!?[/small]

 

[LaughingAtlas]

It was hilarious, but at level 6 with only just above starting gear level stuff, I got wasted by the six turrets, two protectrons and two brain bots. And all my saves were just before that last room.
Much rage was had because I had no explosives.

I think he means the grand joke of the sacrifice, I too found it hysterical.

OT: Did you ever kill the deathclaw mother, alpha male, and all their children? Best feeling in the game, I think.
"Bow to me, wasteland, I vanquished the black deathclaws!"
In fact, just about all the fun in new vegas, in my opinion, comes from killing things. Slaughtering the chem Fiends, invading those select areas where hordes of one type of enemy seem to have gathered and killing every one that appears, fighting your way to the fire and queen and smashing her head before eating her babies, and of course clearing out casinos, those wretched hives of scum and villainy. "Lord Death on Murder mountain" was a very well-named perk.

 

[Vault101]

Exploration and the main quest is what is great and bad about Fallout. It's great that theres always something over the next hill though I wish there weren't so many hills and no pop in scenery because I want to be able to see something in the distance and set off towards it.

I love exploring the wasteland and its ruins. The feeling that until the bombs dropped I'm looking at the personification of the American Dream. White picket fences and a pie baking in the oven. Kids playing outside as the perfect man in his perfect suit drived his perfect car to his perfect job. His perfect wife cooks the perfect meal in her perfect kitchen for her perfect family. Now it's a burnt out wreck with skeletons and a slowly rotting, irradiated pie.

I love finding that sort of thing, just like I enjoy the random encounters that make the wasteland feel full and dangerous.

What I don't like is that the main quest takes us away from this and that in New Vegas the game ends. The main quest should have loads of opportunities for stopping and exploring the wasteland. New Vegas drags you from place to place with little chance to stop.

I actually dont mind so much that Vegas actually ends...it gives a sense of closure that I didnt get with Fallout 3 (dont get me started on the orginal ending.....)

 

[Altorin]

Except Vault 11.

Fuck Vault 11.

I found Vault 11 to be funny as f*ck. I sat back and howled with laughter when I reached the conclusion to that particular one, especially with all the sinister build-up.

It was hilarious, but at level 6 with only just above starting gear level stuff, I got wasted by the six turrets, two protectrons and two brain bots. And all my saves were just before that last room.
Much rage was had because I had no explosives.

Ah, fair do's. I was level 28 with power armour, a gauss rifle and the 'Meltdown' perk. I'm gonna guess that I had an easier time of it than you!

[small]Christ, you go Vault-delving at level 6?!?[/small]

ha. I did Vault 11 with a melee only character at level 8 on hardcore mode.

that was hell.

I never could kill the turrets. I managed to kill the robots after about an hour of trial and error, but I had to use Stealth Boys to enter and exit the final room to unlock the door/finish the quest, because the turrets would rip me a new asshole in about 5 seconds flat.

 

[Altorin]

What I thought this thread might be about was how Fallout NV herded you along the south around the wasteland towards Vegas, and if you went off the road, you found horrible radscorpion and deathclaw death.

I dislike that overall - I liked how FO3 basically let you wander all you want without constantly finding some impossible monster to kill you. But it DID lead to a couple instances of me running for my life, wearing little peasant rags and using a comparitive pea-shooter of a gun, screaming "OMG!! RADSCORPION!! JESUS CHRIST!" before dying.

It was a "fun" like in dwarf fortress.

 

[Grouchy Imp_v1legacy]

ha. I did Vault 11 with a melee only character at level 8 on properly immersive RPG mode.

that was hell.

Fixed that for ya!

Also,

What I thought this thread might be about was how Fallout NV herded you along the south around the wasteland towards Vegas, and if you went off the road, you found horrible radscorpion and deathclaw death.

I dislike that overall - I liked how FO3 basically let you wander all you want without constantly finding some impossible monster to kill you.

I find myself in disagreement with you on that one. I disliked how I could wander the Capital Wasteland secure in the knowledge that I would never run into anything I couldn't handle. At least with NV you end up with some real "Here Be Dragons" responses overlaid on the wasteland map, and I think that helps make the wasteland wildlife appear almost territorial.

Also I like the feeling of having to properly prepare for an expedition into the wasteland, of making sure you're taking the right tools to deal with the creatures you know you can expect to encounter. For instance, even though I hardly ever use flamethrowers, I will always equip one when exploring the western map near Red Rock Canyon due to the number of Cazadores you find there, but when exploring elsewhere I'll leave the flamer at home.

 

[Anjel]

I only recently got into Fallout: New Vegas, mostly due to Shamus and the rest playing through it on Spoiler Warning. I just finished it a few hours ago, mostly doing every quest I could find apart from the main quest for as long as humanly possible, so when I decided to focus on the main quest I was surprised by how quickly the game ended, and was disappointed that I couldn't continue playing. I was having a blast just exploring the wasteland, and I'm planning on loading an old save to see what I missed.

My task for you all is to provide focus for my wanderings, guiding me to whatever quests/areas/experiences you recommend seeking out that you don't think many people would have experienced. Ideally I'm asking for just enough to peak my interest and find what you're talking about in a manner that won't spoil the experience, but this is by no means a spoiler free zone, so feel free to share your journeys through the wasteland if that's something you want to do.

If you're on a PC I'd strongly recommend some mods. I'm writing from work and can't access the Nexus but there is one where you can become a gun for hire, tracking down special characters. The mod is fully voiced as well which is nice.

There are a crap ton of mods but if you visit the Nexus, choose a category and sort the results by 'descending' and 'endorsements' and just pick the odd one or two off the first page you can't really go wrong.

I'm still playing through myself, so have loads more to explore. I also read about the game ending after the main quest so I am avoiding any more of it until I've had my fill

 

[Khazidhea]

When I first started the game I had a look at a few mods, since I didn't really like the look of Veronica's face, but one of them (I don't know which one) went wrong somehow and all the people appeared as red boxes with a white exclamation mark so I just uninstalled them all and didn't go back to look for more.

I had fun killing the deathclaw mother, that was shortly after I'd found a sniper rifle and I had a good time testing my new weapon.

Vault 11 was also pretty good, humour plus a challenge is always a good thing in my book.

I agree with Vault101, I don't mind the actual ending of New Vegas, especially compared with the ending of Fallout 3, but it's a credit to the game that I didn't want to finish the game, so it was annoying that I couldn't just continue on with what I enjoyed most - wandering around finding my own fun.

Also, I agree with Grouchy Imp, having areas of the wasteland being dangerous unless you were well prepared is a strength of the game, in my opinion.

 

[Cowabungaa]

I went off the beaten path. It let me to completely destroy the main quest, it's just a jumbled, intanglible mess now. If you make a sandbox game, for the love of the gods, make it more robust than that.

 

[Dectomax]

Next to the Dam, on the other side is a small cove. Go there, get cool stuff.
Just north of Primm, where you start finding Ghouls, find there point of origin. It's quite cool. ( Take rad-away )

There are a few others...I haven't played it in a while, I think i know what i'm loading up now.

 

[endnuen]

Near the allied technology HQ, there is an interesting ant mound

 

[Alexxerth]

I really hope the next Fallout game focuses more on the aspect of wandering. Personally I never use fast travel, you miss out on the small things then.