Poll: Fallout: New Vegas help/opinions/suggestions?

[otakon17]

I would say do Dead Money, then Old World Blues and finally Lonesome road. The small story bits really improved the experience for me and Lonesome road certainly comes last thematically. Dead Money is pretty good for earlier in the game as your items and caps don't carry into it. That said, a lot of people find Dead Money the hardest and least fun of the DLC, and as such leave it till last. Works any way around tbh.

As said, ED-E upgrades are really not that important, I would seriously suggest going the RP route.

Are you on console or PC?

RP Route? also I'm on console.

If you are playing on PC, I would suggest playing Dead Money next, and possibly installing a mod to disable the radios. You'll know why when you get there. In terms of narrative, Dead Money is 'before' OWB.

However, in my not-very-humble opinion, Dead Money gargles a truly titanic amount of gonads. I was not a fan. Old World Blues, on the other hand, I thought was fantastic. Play Dead Money first (if you must) to get it out of the way, then cleanse the palate with a dose of Old World Blues!

I'm on console, so no mods for me. I have a feeling I'm going to die a lot in dead money.

Make sure you keep a separate save file of Dead Money until you complete it, don't save over your main game until after you get the hell out of there.

 

[crimsonshrouds]

Story wise, Dead Money first, though it doesn't matter a whole lot. The only one that matters is to play Lonesome Road last.

As for gameplay, it depends on what you like. If you enjoy atmosphere drenched survival horror gameplay, Dead Money is your man.

If you want comedy and energy weapons, go for Old World Blues.

I'm part of a small, vocal minority that feels Dead Money is by far the best DLC, but it certainly isn't for everyone. Lots of sneaking around, lots of limits on where you can go and what you can do and a very oppressive claustrophobic atmosphere.

For ED-E, I get the laser first, but you know you can get both, right? You don't have to choose one or the other.

In terms of your next character, it would probably be best if you picked one of those 3 combat styles for the best possible stuff.
I made an Unarmed Legion follower a little while ago named Maximus Aurelius because it sounded cool and had names from Gladiator. He runs around in Enclave power armor and hits things with his shotgun fist.

On a side note, did you take Intense Training a fuckload of times or just mod your SPECIAL stats?

I believe i got the perk all ten times and all the implants which is why my endurance is 10 . My ten luck was what i went for got the luck implant and "robbed" all the casinos bought the rest of the implants .

 

[crimsonshrouds]

I would say do Dead Money, then Old World Blues and finally Lonesome road. The small story bits really improved the experience for me and Lonesome road certainly comes last thematically. Dead Money is pretty good for earlier in the game as your items and caps don't carry into it. That said, a lot of people find Dead Money the hardest and least fun of the DLC, and as such leave it till last. Works any way around tbh.

As said, ED-E upgrades are really not that important, I would seriously suggest going the RP route.

Are you on console or PC?

RP Route? also I'm on console.

If you are playing on PC, I would suggest playing Dead Money next, and possibly installing a mod to disable the radios. You'll know why when you get there. In terms of narrative, Dead Money is 'before' OWB.

However, in my not-very-humble opinion, Dead Money gargles a truly titanic amount of gonads. I was not a fan. Old World Blues, on the other hand, I thought was fantastic. Play Dead Money first (if you must) to get it out of the way, then cleanse the palate with a dose of Old World Blues!

I'm on console, so no mods for me. I have a feeling I'm going to die a lot in dead money.

Make sure you keep a separate save file of Dead Money until you complete it, don't save over your main game until after you get the hell out of there.

I did that with honest hearts and that was what I planned for the other dlc. I already had one save corrupted on me -_-...

 

[crimsonshrouds]

Hmmm... I'd vote Dead Money first, then Old World Blues - firstly there's the story component, but also because Dead Money fits your stats better. 10 Endurance is great for soaking cloud damage, 10 Luck lets you bankrupt the cacino you get access to somewhere along the way and over 50 Energy Weapons lets you use the Holorifle you get given at the start to it's fullest potential. High Lockpick, Repair and Science are good too, as they let you crack open a bunch of early-on secrets that can kit you out in good armour and weaponry (Police Station, Science 75 to hack a computer to open an armory - you won't regret it). Low explosives and Melee might hurt a little, but the enemies are easy enough to deal with (look for glowing blue things on walls to deal with Holograms) that the Holorifle will do just fine.

Big notes for Dead Money though - it's very dark, foggy and maze-like, so it's very easy to get lost in it when you're doing the first half. Outside Hardcore mode the cloud that fills it isn't too damaging with a good endurance (don't stand around in it though unless you've got plenty of Stimpaks), but it can hide speakers which will kill you if you don't break them/flee from them in time. Save often when exploring new areas and if you hear your collar start beeping back up and look around to see if you can find the radio/speaker setting it off; if you can't, just sprint through, either trying to find the thing or just to escape it. It can get a little frustrating on the first run when you don't know where everything is, but Dead Money is definitely a DLC that's worth going through.

As for an Explosive/Melee character - Strength, Perception, Endurance and Agility are good SPECIALS as they give you a big buff to your primary skills early on and are necessary for your later-level perks. Charisma is useless skill wise for melee-focused; Intellect is the standard 'Get better faster', with no perks tied into it but the extra skill points being pretty useful for leveling; Luck is about whether or not you want to rely on critical hits or not (though a decent luck is always good for money-related matters).
A good spread I've found with my Melee characters is:

Strength - 8
Perception - 6
Endurance - 8
Charisma - 1
Intelligence - 6
Agility - 7
Luck - 4

Implants and armour can buff your strength to 10, so if you take any Intense Training perks dump them elsewhere. Perk-wise, a good spread is:

Spoiler: Perks

Fantastic Perks
Slayer - LVL 24, 7 AGL, 90 Unarmed; it's a 30% speed buff to melee/unarmed attacks, which is awesome.

Ninja - LVL 20, 80 Sneak, 80 Melee; +15% critical chance is good and a +25% critical damage is handy if you're sneaky.

Admanatium Skeleton - LVL 14; Help keep you going as you close in on enemies and keep you safe if you blow yourself up. Always a good choice.

Unstoppable Force - LVL 12, STR 7, 70 Melee; bonus damage when enemies block your melee attacks, which is super handy when your damage revolves around melee attacks.

Piercing Strike - LVL 12, 70 Unarmed; -15 DT to enemies with BOTH melee and unarmed; a must-have as this lets you hit Deathclaw-level enemies with maximum power.

Super Slam - LVL 8, STR 6, 45 Melee; 15-30% chance to knock down enemies can be handy for stun-locking big bosses. Depends on the size of the weapon you're using though.

Stonewall - LVL 8, STR 6, END 6; +5 DT to unarmed and melee, but more importantly you get knock-down immunity - fantastic when you're going toe-to-toe with Bighorner packs, Deathclaws or Legion.


Demolition Expert - LVL 6, 50 Explosives; +60% explosive damage at max rank. 60%. Imagine that on a Fatman. Just... imagine.

Splash Damage - LVL 12, 70 Explosives; +25% blast radius is awesome for groups, but it's something to be careful with if you favour the HE explosives or the Fatman, as the blast radius on those is already massive. Do NOT use Big Kid's in the Fatman if you take this - unless you start running as soon as you shoot it you'll get hit by some of the blast, which is gonna suck.

Implant GRX - LVL 30, END 8; at max rank with the Chemist and Day Tripper perks this will save your life in sticky situations or allow you 30 seconds of unstoppable punching action; insanely useful for melee characters as you can even pop 2-3 applications of it to help you get close to high-powered ranged enemies like Snipers or Assassins. A must have.

Optional:
Paralyzing Palm - LVL 18, 70 Unarmed; useful for Unarmed attacks as your VATS attacks can paralyze enemies, but it only affects unarmed and VATS is much riskier to use in Vegas as a melee-focused character. If you use VATS and Unarmed a lot then take it, but if you're more Melee Weapons-focused then it's a waste of a perk.

Hit the Deck - LVL 12, 70 Explosives; -25% explosive damage received from all sources can be useful if you're accuracy isn't that good, but if you're good enough with your explosives (or using too strong explosives) then it's not really that useful. Considering the low number of enemies that use explosive damage, this is something that can be easily skipped.

Bloody Mess - LVL 6; +5% damage, punch enemies so hard they explode into gorey chunks. Great fun with an unarmed/melee character, but it's silliness is something left up to personal taste.

Toughness - LVL 6, END 5; +6 DT at max rank is pretty useful when you're approaching someone in with a gun in melee and the added resistance to your own explosives isn't something to sneeze at. Can be ignored however if you don't have the perks to spend/have stupidly awesome armour though.

Mad Bomber - LVL 6, 45 Repair, 45 Explosives; gives you access to a bunch of explosive recipies, but they're all a little underpowered or require stupid resources to make, so I find it's best to not bother taking this perk and find yourself a Missile Launcher instead.

Thank you for all the intel and actually reading my entire post. most people don't read the whole op for some reason. You have given me a lot of food for thought on how to progress and it is much appreciated.

I'm not really a fan of the melee-type build, primarily because while you're hitting your opponent ,your opponent is hitting you.

Ranged weapons all the way for me.

I'm going to build a melee guy to work for Caesar because i think it would be more fitting.

 

[Austin93]

Wall of Text Incoming

For the DLC missions, I found each one had it's own "point," so to speak. Lonely Hearts took place in what I considered to be a very beautiful environment and I enjoyed the change of scenery. I enjoyed Dead Money for it's seemingly "survival horror" angle. It was probably the only mission the second time I played this game that actually gave me trouble. Old World Blues was definitely the most fun in my opinion and had me laughing more than any of the others. Finally, I found that Lonesome World had the best story in that it somewhat helps to create a picture of the Courier pre-Benny.

If I were to play through them again, my order would go from the one I least enjoyed to the one I most enjoyed, so while I enjoyed all of them, it'd probably go Lonely Hearts, Dead Money, Old World Blues and then Lonesome Road. I technically enjoyed Old World Blues more than Lonesome Road, but in my opinion Lonesome Road rounds out the Courier's story nicely and so I'll forego my usual rule to put that one at the end. Having said that, this is just my ordering due to enjoyment, it probably doesn't make much sense story wise.

As for ED-E, I agree with Eclectic in that you should choose based on which faction you want to help more and what you want ED-E to look like. First time playing, I went with the Brotherhood because I liked the look of shiny ED-E, as they remove the license plates from the chassis. Second time through I went the Followers because I prefer the Followers and their willingness to share what they have. Ultimately, both of my Couriers could tank enough damage and deal enough that ED-E's upgrades didn't make a lot of difference either way.

For a melee/explosive/unarmed character, I can sort of help. The Courier I'm playing now is melee and unarmed, but not explosive. Having said that, once I got the katana and super sledge the unarmed half sort of dropped away. As far as S.P.E.C.I.A.L goes, I'd advise a high strength, endurance and intelligence. Strength and endurance should be obvious, so you can get to the enemy before they kill you and so you can do a lot of damage when you get to them. Intelligence I always put to 10 on my characters as it lets me maximise the amount of skill points I get. By level 50 my courier has 100 in everything, except barter, energy weapons, explosives and survival, which are 49, 92, 23 and 81 respectively. Granted, there are certain skills that have been increased with perks and whatnot, but that should at least give a rough idea. These I put really high at the cost of perception and agility, as a melee character isn't using much V.A.T.S and ED-E's enhanced sensors perk lets me see all of the enemies on the map anyway. Of course, you might want to take a hit to charisma or luck instead of perception, as perception is the governing attribute for explosives.

As for perks, I always suggest Jury Rigging for every build because it is a great way to earn money and to keep your really powerful and probably very rare weapons in good condition. For the melee I'd also highly recommend virtually all of what Shanicus recommended, in particular the Adamantium Skeleton, Toughness, Piercing Strike, Unstoppable Force and Super Slam perks. Especially Super Slam. With the crazy high attack speed of the katana, you can almost be guaranteed that any enemy you come across will be knocked down. I can take 3 Deathclaws in the Thorn thanks to that and Piercing Strike alone.

Hope that's helpful in at least building the melee side of your melee/unarmed/explosives character. As for a name, go with Sir Billingsworth, because it's the first name that popped into my head.

TL;DR
1) Play Dead Money next. 2) ED-E's upgrade is nearly unnoticeable in the long run so go with your favourite faction. 3) Go high strength, endurance and intelligence. 4) Get Jury Rigging, Piercing Strike and Super Slam for your perks. Keep in mind these suggestions leave out the explosives side. 5) Name the character Sir Billingsworth.

Edit: Fixed a typo

 

[Sir Thomas Sean Connery]

selfsnip

I believe i got the perk all ten times and all the implants which is why my endurance is 10 . My ten luck was what i went for got the luck implant and "robbed" all the casinos bought the rest of the implants .

Ah, I forgot about the implants.

A natural 10 Endurance can certainly take you places...

 

[NoGlobsGamer]

I think you should uninstall dead money and skip straight to Old World Blues.

I hated Dead Money more than anything in New Vegas including the bugs. If I ever have to see purple fog ever again I'll scream!

The picture itself is oddly reminiscent of Dead Money... Too reminiscent... I'm on to you internet!

 

[ToastiestZombie]

I actually liked Dead Money more than Honest Hearts and Lonesome Road. I loved the survival horror atmosphere, the story was brilliant and it forces you to think before going forward. Some tips for OP, if you're going to do Dead Money make sure to have at least 50 in melee before starting it, and do Lonesome Road last.

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

I say Dead money to get that shit done with, though it may be kind of tough with your melee at 23. You could wait a bit and dump some skill points into it, but if you wait too long the enemies get kinda bullet-spongy.

Also, Old World Blues badguys get very bullet-spongy at end game, so don't wait too long to do that one. Or wait and get your skills up.

I dunno, just go in and have fun with it. You can plan ahead in future playthroughs.

As far as ED-E, it doesn't make much difference. If you're playing hardcore then I'd get the armor. Either one may glitch his carry weight though(making his empty weigh 2/120 instead of 1/120). And definitely dismiss him if you go into a casino or the Fort, because that could glitch his carry weight too. I will say that completing Lonesome Road unglitched my ED-E's carry weight, but that's pretty much at end-game.

 

[BlumiereBleck]

Dead Money, it has a better story. It's also challenging and extremely fun.

 

[Skeleon]

Dead Money was awesome in my view, but then I like ghost stories and survival games. Yeah, it has some survival elements and much of the first half of the game is spent trying to navigate environmental hazards. It'll be stressful but rewarding. And it has a lot of the grim background story tidbits that you can find that made Fallout 3's various optional locations so interesting to me.

Old World Blues was great in that it had so much content, but it was a bit too silly for me. It also never stopped being silly, so that could get tiring. Kind of like a kid on a sugar rush. I also think going to Dead Money first makes the most sense because of the allusions to Old World Blues it contains. Lonesome Road should almost definitely be the last DLC you tackle.

As for the robot upgrades? Frankly, none? Because why would you want to get that robot when you can get the perk that makes you more powerful without companions instead? I guess I just don't trust companions and their sketchy AI, so I never use them unless I want to do particular quests that are associated with them or something.

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Lonesome_Road_%28perk%29

 

[Reed Spacer]

What I'd like to know is why the manual for the PS3 version insists you only get perks every two levels when you really get one every level.

 

[loc978]

What I'd like to know is why the manual for the PS3 version insists you only get perks every two levels when you really get one every level.

...if true, that's one more bug in the PS3 version. The only Fallout game that granted a perk every level was 3... and there was a fair amount of outcry over it.

 

[Reed Spacer]

What I'd like to know is why the manual for the PS3 version insists you only get perks every two levels when you really get one every level.

...if true, that's one more bug in the PS3 version. The only Fallout game that granted a perk every level was 3... and there was a fair amount of outcry over it.

Well, admittedly it's been quite a while since I'd last played

I was literally going to create a new character and play the game again today anyway, so I can verify.

 

[Bob Thenecromancer]

I recommend playing through Dead Money first because at the end there is a vault with some gold bars that will net you about eight thousand caps. Also dat holorifle. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sYGE91yfbc

 

[Multi-Hobbyist]

Old World Blues has an .... absolutely hilarious toaster. Me and my best mate were almost literally rolling on the floor. But we sure were in tears. Have no clue why to this day, but man funny stuff.