Welcome to Thunderdome

Posted: **Tue Apr 19, 2011 5:02 pm**

That quest is the fucking cash cow.

I think she only gave me 2K or so for every location. Maybe I have to actually go there...?

I make all my money selling stuff I find in the wasteland. I'm often weighed down and have to spend an hour making instatrips around the wasteland to sell stuff.

Museum of History has Underworld dead ahead, but if you gallop through the doors on the left, there's explorable area with hostiles and loot.

Cool. When I leave the Capitol tonight I'll give that a look.

Towns, no? Grab whatever bobbleheads you want as walking around the Wastes and D.C. will become a bit more dangerous. In addition, sometime after that huge change, wander around your original vault from time to time and scan the radio frequencies... Also, post-change, look for a place called "Deathclaw Sanctuary" in the west-central portion of the map. It's got a bobblehead, a brutal unique melee weapon, and the most fucking rocking unique automatic weapon I've found in game. The DPS is impressive, but it eats ammo like it's sugar-coated crack.

I have two bobbleheads, so I might add that to my list for tonight. Deathclaw Sanctuary for the weekend.

Posted: **Tue Apr 19, 2011 5:08 pm**

Once you put the mods in the right order I have noticed less crashes then just the vanilla goty edition. I crashed about once every 3 hrs with no mods or having them load in the wrong order but since fixing the order I have not crashed yet. I don't there is anyway for the mods to remove crashing altogether because this is a bethesda game and that is just part of the deal but right now I am on about a 7 hr run with no crashes.

Posted: **Tue Apr 19, 2011 5:28 pm**

I think she only gave me 2K or so for every location. Maybe I have to actually go there...?

Yeah, you actually have to visit the locale once. The marker can't be a slash, it has to have the appropriate icon.

I make all my money selling stuff I find in the wasteland. I'm often weighed down and have to spend an hour making instatrips around the wasteland to sell stuff.

Selling isn't that big of a deal, really. At least not weapons/armor. You ought to have enough things that can be changed for cash very readily ...
A) mapped locations (best source of cash)
B) scrap metal
C) sugar bombs
D) most pre-war books
E) blood packs
F) pre-war cash, cigarettes of all varieties (great value-to-weight ratios), assorted foodstuffs you don't need (healing should be done with stimpacks, there's zillions of them), in general any misc/aid items that have a 5:1 value-weight ratio (maybe 10:1 if you're strapped for weight) are useful for selling.

Any weapons/armor I have are kept as repair/crafting fodder. Useless weapons/armor get sold off after the misc/aid items. The useless raider/slaver armor is too bulky to ferry around in large quantities. The higher end useless weapons are useful for caps, but since cash is easy to come by after you map a few places for Reilly, it usually doesn't matter. You ought to be able to scavenge enough explosives to get you through anything. My problem was always finding enough .44, .304, and sniper rifles.

Edited By Malcolm on 1303248588

Posted: **Tue Apr 19, 2011 5:31 pm**

Maybe I'll check some mods after I get through all the DLC once. Finished the normal game, then hard disk crashed. Going through it again.

Posted: **Tue Apr 19, 2011 9:25 pm**

I think bobby pins are hard to find, but I'm probably picking locks wrong.

Posted: **Tue Apr 19, 2011 11:19 pm**

Leisher wrote:I think bobby pins are hard to find, but I'm probably picking locks wrong.

I break one every so often. Within two or three twists, you can locate the general area to check out. Tap the keys very gingerly. The more difficult the lock, the smaller the sweetspot for opening it. Why the locks aren't trapped or why you can't just rip/shoot certain things open is beyond me.

Edited By Malcolm on 1303269668

Posted: **Wed Apr 20, 2011 12:19 am**

I realized tonight that I had been playing without the DLCs active. I never looked into what they brought except the lvl 30 extension. I was wondering why my level wasn't going up, and saw it was maxed out. Activated them and I'm finally progressing again.

Posted: **Wed Apr 20, 2011 1:46 am**

Ooooooooh. Broken Steel is going to add new enemies and weapons. Super mutant overlords with tri-beam laser rifles hit for 120 points unblockable, I think.

Oh, and if you find a place called Evergreen Mills, save and enjoy one of the most amusing enemy in-fights there is. You have to trigger it, though.

Posted: **Wed Apr 20, 2011 9:07 am**

I believe I've been to Evergreen Mills (maybe?), but I don't remember much about it.

I just walked out of the Capitol last night. So I'll get a chance to check out some of these locations.

Out of curiosity, did anyone blow up Megaton? Does it have to be done immediately or later? If you did, how is the apartment in Tenpenny Tower? I didn't, and can't believe I waited as long as I did before disarming the bomb. The apartment in Megaton has been a huge perk. I finally have a place to store items.

Posted: **Wed Apr 20, 2011 12:28 pm**

Evergreen Mills is the place that had the super mutant behemoth locked in the cage. Reminded me a bit of King Kong.

Saving/exploding Megaton can be done at any time. As for Megaton vs. Tenpenny Tower...

A. Apartments are pretty much the same, except for cosmetic differences.
B. As mentioned before, Tenpenny Tower has better vendors than Megaton, so in terms of environment, Tenpenny wins. ***Note : see below.
C. If all you want is item storage, there's loads of landmarked locales that can be used as such. You don't have to finish "The Power of the Atom."

Getting to the point where you can dispatch Burke (is that required or is it just disarming the bomb?) before he clips the sheriff is usually a few levels whereas you can walk to the places mentioned in C straight off.

***Note : There's a couple decent arguments against siding w\ Burke and Tenpenny Tower. Firstly, it means Megaton is gone, period (but I think Moira actually survives). Fewer vendors, fewer sources of caps, quests, parts, drugs, stims, etc. Secondly, getting one of the most practical items in the game (which I'm personally not a fan of) requires you to do things that reduce Tenpenny Tower's vendor population by two-thirds. If you side with Burke and want that item, you've now lost one and two-thirds of a town.

On a side note, I've determined the game needs WAAAAAAAAAAAY more cash sinks. They could just make it obscenely expensive to jack up skills/stats or let you buy perks.

Edited By Malcolm on 1303316949

Posted: **Wed Apr 20, 2011 1:06 pm**

Evergreen Mills is the place that had the super mutant behemoth locked in the cage. Reminded me a bit of King Kong.

I've been there and I think I did it all wrong. I went in at night and did so from the surrounding mountains. I killed most of the raiders before I had set foot on the ground. Once on the ground the Behemoth came after me and I had to put that sucker down. I then released the captives not realizing that I hadn't taken out the guards further down the road.

Oops.

Getting to the point where you can dispatch Burke (is that required or is it just disarming the bomb?) before he clips the sheriff is usually a few levels whereas you can walk to the places mentioned in C straight off.

Is Burke the guy who approaches you in Megaton about detonating the bomb? I had heard about this choice during reviews and had predetermined that I wasn't nuking any city in a land short of resources. Thus, I declined and then shot him in the face.

So I'm running through a game where Megaton exists.

Spoilers
I do dig that there are sooooooooooo many choices to make. Some of mine:
-Megaton is safe and the bomb is defused.
-I killed the fuck out of my Vault's overseer on the way out. I think that's going to bite me in the ass later. He attacked me!!! Oh, and his daughter watched the whole thing happen and wasn't pleased, but wasn't overly pissed either...
-I've been giving purified water to the guys outside of towns.
-I plan to ass rape Paradise Falls rather than enslave people.
-I let the "vamps" live and talked Ian into returning home.
-I'm planning on giving the Nuka-Cola Quantums to the guy so he can bang the chick.
-I put in the dish for GNR.
-I saved Reilly's Rangers.
-I've killed a LOT of Talon folks.
-I got the ghouls into Tenpenny Tower. It seemed a LOT harder than exterminating them would've been.
-I got the fire ant kid a home in Rivet City.
-I got the dude's contract in Underworld, which was fucking awesome, but I don't use companions.
-I cleaned out the police station and saved the kids and Big Town.

That's off the top of my head. I'd be very interested in finding out what negatives my choices earned me.

And yes, I agree about cash. The most expensive thing I've found is home decoration.

Posted: **Wed Apr 20, 2011 2:08 pm**

The way to do Evergreen Mills is letting King Kong loose on the Raiders. Hilarious to watch. Reminded me of the old Doom critter in-fights.

Burke is Tenpenny's contact in Megaton, so yeah, it was him.

Don't give the dude the quantums. Give them to her directly or you miss out on a schematic. You don't get to fuck her, either, in case you were wondering.

Giving water to losers hanging around outside town does nothing but boost karma a bit. I think there's only one spot where not having purified water on hand results in a death, and that's a random encounter.

Talon pricks will ambush you forever (mainly at metro entrances), but they're a great source of combat armor to repair the ranger armor I hope you took from Reilly that, when all is said and done, is as least as good as power armor. If your karma goes negative, the Regulators would show up instead. I assume if you're neutral, no one cares.

If you integrated Tenpenny Tower, go back a few days after the fact and check on them.

Getting Charon from Azhrukal is amusing just to watch the exchange when you buy the former's contract. But companions are fucking worthless with a couple circumstantial exceptions. Which really sucks because I could think of all kinds of tactics and things to pull off if you had three or four humans playing.

If you iced the overseer, you'll at least get to see some consequences for it later on.

Edited By Malcolm on 1303322956

Posted: **Wed Apr 20, 2011 3:37 pm**

About 12 hrs since I installed the mods and still no crashes.

Posted: **Thu Apr 21, 2011 10:17 am**

Just an example of my pack mule ways, I walked out of the Capitol building carrying 2000 pounds of stuff. I proceeded straight to Underworld and began to sell it off.

I'm just shy of 20,000 caps.

Oh, and I found the .44 rifle Malcolm talked about. Used to belong to Lincoln apparently.

Posted: **Thu Apr 21, 2011 2:09 pm**

There's a scoped .44 pistol, that also looks to have 0 spread, that you can grab if you kick off Agatha's quest. It's comparable, if not better, than the rifle.

And what in the fuck do you need 20K caps for?

Edited By Malcolm on 1303409400

Posted: **Thu Apr 21, 2011 2:16 pm**

Who is Agatha? The chick that runs the hotel in Underworld? (That's a guess.)

How do I kick off her quest? If it is the hotel chick, I tried talking to her about Gob, but she just says to tell him "hi". When I go there, I'm given no options to actually tell him that though.

Although I should note that I'm already carrying a scoped .44 pistol. If fact, I find them quite a bit. Not as often as assault rifles, but I do find them.

I can't stop myself. I just grab stuff and keep moving. I've got well over 300 stimpaks and I hammer folks with my terrible shotgun, so I'm just like a tank. Slow moving, near indestructible, and packs a hell of a punch.

Posted: **Thu Apr 21, 2011 2:22 pm**

If you've got the Explorer perk (sounds like you do) Agatha's house is NW of D.C. The pistol you get from that is a unique one.

There's no quest involving Gob and Carol from Underworld, although it seems like there should be.

The stim thing always bugged me. Damn near at will, you can apply ten stims and be back up to full. One of my main gripes. New Vegas takes that insanity away. I tried tanking for a bit, but it was just too annoying having to repair the gear all the time.

Posted: **Thu Apr 21, 2011 3:41 pm**

I've got loads of exploring to do tonight.

Posted: **Tue Apr 26, 2011 4:24 pm**

I'm in Anchorage and these simulations were a really clever way to change the pace for the player.

Fallout 3 is turning to have been a hell of a purchase.

Posted: **Tue Apr 26, 2011 4:42 pm**

Having Broken Steel will extend your play time beyond the normal Fallout 3 plot, so you can do the other DLCs whenever. And on the whole, the GotY edition was a good buy for $40 or whatever I got it for. Lots of things I felt could've been done better, but still a fun game. Getting the sneak skill up high enough almost makes the gameplay remind me of "Thief" or "Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay."