Replaying Fallout 1/2?

[kedaha]

I was going to ask this on RPGCodex(first post in 2 years!) but after browsing a few threads... no.

Playing some Fallout 3 has put a hankering for the originals in me, I know theres a high resolution patch (http://www.nma-fallout.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=42386) - which looks amazing - but are there any other fanmade mods/patches that improve it significantly?


PS: Sorry if this has been covered in another thread, I dont think it has though!

[Roy Ziegler]

There's a fan patch for Fallout 2 that restores a bunch of cut content. I've heard that's pretty good. You'll have to find it on NMA.

[roguefrog]

Maybe after Fallout 3. The contrast will be shattering.

Fallout 2 has the quite significant Restoration Mod (http://www.nma-fallout.com/forum/dload.php?action=file&file_id=1097). It adds the cut content back in to make it feel more complete.

[Jason McCullough]

That's what I've been doing! Here's the mods and patches to improve the base game and restore missing content. No extra 3rd party content though.

For both games, I'm using the the high res patch to go to 1440x900 game resolution and then sfall to stretch that to 1920x1200.

Fallout 1
1. sfall for Fallout 1 (http://timeslip.chorrol.com/sfall.html).
2. Fallout 1 High Resolution Patch (http://www.nma-fallout.com/forum/dload.php?action=file&file_id=1169&sid=c1a57fce550ad08687a0c1091051edf4).
3. 1.2 European Patch (http://www.nma-fallout.com/forum/dload.php?action=file&file_id=1169&sid=c1a57fce550ad08687a0c1091051edf4).
4. 1.3.4 Unofficial TeamX Patch (http://www.nma-fallout.com/forum/dload.php?action=file&file_id=1075&sid=c1a57fce550ad08687a0c1091051edf4).
5. The Nearly Ultimate Fallout Guide (http://user.tninet.se/~jyg699a/fallout.html).
6. Falche 1.2 Character Editor (http://www.freelancer.ag.ru/cgi-bin/freelancer/download/load.cgi?/fallout/f2download/falche11.zip).

Fallout 2
1. sfall for Fallout 2 (http://timeslip.chorrol.com/sfall.html).
2. Fallout 2 High Resolution Patch (http://www.nma-fallout.com/forum/dload.php?action=file&file_id=1173&sid=c1a57fce550ad08687a0c1091051edf4).
3. Restoration Project (http://www.nma-fallout.com/forum/dload.php?action=file&file_id=1096&sid=c1a57fce550ad08687a0c1091051edf4).
4. The Nearly Ultimate Fallout 2 Guide (http://user.tninet.se/~jyg699a/fallout2.html).
5. Fallout 2 Restoration Project Walkthrough (http://numerometria.com/F2RP_WT.htm).

All of the new content and gameplay mods suck, IMHO.

[Bill Dungsroman]

There's a fan patch for Fallout 2 that restores a bunch of cut content.

Oh, no way that sounds pretty cool.


I've heard that's pretty good.

I'm up for it!

You'll have to find it on NMA.

http://talkingaboutgames.com/images/stories/nonsense/darth_vader_nooo.jpg

[Bill Dungsroman]

That's what I've been doing!

Here's what you want for Fallout 1 to improve and extend.

1. sfall for Fallout 1 (http://timeslip.chorrol.com/sfall.html).
2. High Resolution Patch (http://www.nma-fallout.com/forum/dload.php?action=file&file_id=1169&sid=c1a57fce550ad08687a0c1091051edf4).
3. 1.2 european patch (http://www.nma-fallout.com/forum/dload.php?action=file&file_id=1169&sid=c1a57fce550ad08687a0c1091051edf4).
4. 1.3.4 unofficial TeamX patch (http://www.nma-fallout.com/forum/dload.php?action=file&file_id=1075&sid=c1a57fce550ad08687a0c1091051edf4).

OK now this is cool. I tried replaying F1 a few months back and it was still fun but graphically, pretty painful.

[Ben Sones]

The high res patch looks pretty awesome. Anyone know if it would work with the GOG version of the .exe?

[Desslock]

The high res patch looks pretty awesome. Anyone know if it would work with the GOG version of the .exe?

It does.

[Talisker]

Sweet -- maybe I'll try playing through Fallout2 while waiting for my 360 to get fixed. Made it as far as the catastrophic car bug the first time out, never tried it again post-patch.

[Talisker]

Fallout 2
1. sfall for Fallout 2 (http://timeslip.chorrol.com/sfall.html).
2. Fallout 2 High Resolution Patch (http://www.nma-fallout.com/forum/dload.php?action=file&file_id=1173&sid=c1a57fce550ad08687a0c1091051edf4).
3. Restoration Project (http://www.nma-fallout.com/forum/dload.php?action=file&file_id=1096&sid=c1a57fce550ad08687a0c1091051edf4).

Jason -- I presume I should patch up Fallout 2 to whatever's the most recent before loading that stuff? (or are you using the gog version as your base?)

[Jason McCullough]

(Added a couple more links to original post)

No idea what version the good old games one is. I'm using the off-the-cd fully patched executables before I apply these.

[Juan Rayo]

heh.
This thread makes me thing of a friend who just got into fallout this year, and played 1 and 2. He loved it, too, and one day talking over the phone he told me how proud he was because he got to work in the porn industry in new vegas.

"really?" I asked "and what did you do?"
"I was a fluffer... not sure what that means, but I made money off it"
"... ah... yeah, you are doing fine... just keep up the good work".

Man what a great game.
Still haven`t told him what his job entails :)

[Talisker]

Gotcha -- so I'll want to patch up to 1.02, then (I've got the original release CD).

[Zylon]

Why in god's name would anyone want to apply a patch that makes the already-tiny character graphics even tinier?

[Rock8man]

Why in god's name would anyone want to apply a patch that makes the already-tiny character graphics even tinier?

Mostly it's a matter of changes in technology. On my old 24 inch CRT monitor, Fallout 1/2 looked great and I can't imagine trying to make the characters smaller, like you said. But on my current LCD screen, 1280x1024 is the native resolution, and the resolutions lower than that look horrible. Much more so than on a CRT screen. If I still had my old CRT monitor though, I definitely would not want the high resolution patch.

[Jason McCullough]

Why in god's name would anyone want to apply a patch that makes the already-tiny character graphics even tinier?

That's what the upscaling is for. You can combine the two and get correct-size graphics with a much bigger field of view.

[Jasper]

That's what I've been doing! Here's the mods and patches to improve the base game and restore missing content. No extra 3rd party content though.

For both games, I'm using the the high res patch to go to 1440x900 game resolution and then sfall to stretch that to 1920x1200.

Fallout 1
1. sfall for Fallout 1 (http://timeslip.chorrol.com/sfall.html).
2. Fallout 1 High Resolution Patch (http://www.nma-fallout.com/forum/dload.php?action=file&file_id=1169&sid=c1a57fce550ad08687a0c1091051edf4).
3. 1.2 European Patch (http://www.nma-fallout.com/forum/dload.php?action=file&file_id=1169&sid=c1a57fce550ad08687a0c1091051edf4).
4. 1.3.4 Unofficial TeamX Patch (http://www.nma-fallout.com/forum/dload.php?action=file&file_id=1075&sid=c1a57fce550ad08687a0c1091051edf4).
5. The Nearly Ultimate Fallout Guide (http://user.tninet.se/~jyg699a/fallout.html).
6. Falche 1.2 Character Editor (http://www.freelancer.ag.ru/cgi-bin/freelancer/download/load.cgi?/fallout/f2download/falche11.zip).

Fallout 2
1. sfall for Fallout 2 (http://timeslip.chorrol.com/sfall.html).
2. Fallout 2 High Resolution Patch (http://www.nma-fallout.com/forum/dload.php?action=file&file_id=1173&sid=c1a57fce550ad08687a0c1091051edf4).
3. Restoration Project (http://www.nma-fallout.com/forum/dload.php?action=file&file_id=1096&sid=c1a57fce550ad08687a0c1091051edf4).
4. The Nearly Ultimate Fallout 2 Guide (http://user.tninet.se/~jyg699a/fallout2.html).
5. Fallout 2 Restoration Project Walkthrough (http://numerometria.com/F2RP_WT.htm).

All of the new content and gameplay mods suck, IMHO.
Sweet! Thanks for posting this. I'm waiting until I finish Fallout 3, but definitely curious to replay the previous ones, and had been dreading interface woes.

[Hanzii]

Does the patches above for Fallout 1 ruin saves?

I'm halfway through my first ever playthrough and apart from looking ass there's a few graphical glitches (the screen goes completely black and I have to paint it back with the colors), so it's a bit painfull to play.

[Talisker]

Does the patches above for Fallout 1 ruin saves?

I'm halfway through my first ever playthrough and apart from looking ass there's a few graphical glitches (the screen goes completely black and I have to paint it back with the colors), so it's a bit painfull to play.
From what I can tell, sfall and the high-res mod should be fine.

[Warning]

Does the patches above for Fallout 1 ruin saves?

I'm halfway through my first ever playthrough and apart from looking ass there's a few graphical glitches (the screen goes completely black and I have to paint it back with the colors), so it's a bit painfull to play.
I had that too and it went away when I uninstalled Tivo Desktop Software fwiw.

[Foxstab]

If Fallout 3 made you want to play the originals - don't.
Fallout 3 is not Fallout.
And the originals may cause you too much contrast.
Forget fockout 3, purge your mind of the filth, then with an open and clear head go play fallout 1/2.

[Roy Ziegler]

shut the fuck up, donny

[Staff Sergeant]

If Fallout 3 made you want to play the originals - don't.
Fallout 3 is not Fallout.
And the originals may cause you too much contrast.
Forget fockout 3, purge your mind of the filth, then with an open and clear head go play fallout 1/2.

I swear to god, Foxstab is Draikin's sockpuppet, because, come on, even he knew he was going to get banned eventually. Either that or it's just some troll, because this guy acts like a wingnut in every thread he's ever posted in.

[dermot]

1. sfall for Fallout 1 (http://timeslip.chorrol.com/sfall.html). (http://www.nma-fallout.com/forum/dload.php?action=file&file_id=1169&sid=c1a57fce550ad08687a0c1091051edf4)
Is it just me or does the logo on that page look a vagina, complete with clitoris?

[Bill Dungsroman]

If Fallout 3 made you want to play the originals - don't.
Fallout 3 is not Fallout.
And the originals may cause you too much contrast.
Forget fockout 3, purge your mind of the filth, then with an open and clear head go play fallout 1/2.

Don't listen to this moontard.

[kedaha]

The fact Fallout 3 is such a different game is what makes me want to replay them. They should go nice together :)

Thanks a lot Jason!

[nKoan]

I started replaying about a week before Fallout 3 came out. Didn't get very far, just to Vault 15 before FO3 came out.

Anyway, the Hires mod works with the GoG version, but for me it was running slower than all hell. Maybe it'll work better now that I've gotten a new video card.

If I don't get burnt out on FO3, than I'll probably replay the original after I finish 3.

[nKoan]

[/URL]
Is it just me or does the logo on that page look a vagina, complete with clitoris?

That's just the oblivion logo, right? And yes, it does.

[Roy Ziegler]

That's just the oblivion logo, right? And yes, it does.

Yeesh. What sort of demonic vaginas have you guys seen?

[Joe M.]

Apparently I'm the only person who absolutely despised Fallout 2. I remember everyone being hyped about it, buying it, installing and loving everything it was supposed to be. Then I experienced its combat and wanted to stab myself. I don't know why, either. I think I played Pools of Darkness about a billion and a half times, so I used to enjoy turn-based combat. Maybe it's just too jarring a transition (for me, anyway) in modern games.

Anyway, I spent something like two months thinking (fairly derisively) "great, another fallout game" before a buddy of mine insisted it was "different". It is. Very.

[Zylon]

I actually started my first playthrough of Fallout 2 a few months ago. I liked it for the most part, loved having the car available, but ended up stumbling straight into the endgame with a Speech skill so high that I felt like I was cheating my way past what was supposed to be quite a bit of climactic content. And I realized that FO2 had utterly failed to make me hate these guys enough to enjoy destroying them. So I got back on the oil tanker, rode it back to shore, and haven't played since.

The original Fallout did a really, really good job of setting up The Master and his mutant troops as a real, tangible, horrific, constantly-encroaching threat. Fallout 2's Enclave? Feh. Just a bunch of thugs in power suits.

[Jason McCullough]

Fallout 2 was a lot more baroque. It was more, more, more - more gameplay, more sidequests, more viable character builds, more dialogue options! Kind of like Baldur's Gate 2.

The plot did suffer because of the unfocused approach, though.

[The Bitter Cynic]

I've been kinda dabbling a bit in both games because they're both on GameTap.

Entertaining games and a bit fun.

[scharmers]

If Fallout 3 made you want to play the originals - don't.
Fallout 3 is not Fallout.
And the originals may cause you too much contrast.
Forget fockout 3, purge your mind of the filth, then with an open and clear head go play fallout 1/2.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v222/scharmers/mau-1.jpg

[Staff Sergeant]

Question on Fallout 2: Is there a level cap? I only get a perk every 3 levels, I need to know if I should plan on only getting 6 perks or what.

EDIT: My starting build is:

STR 5
PER 6 (I may have lost 1 PER in the beginning challenge or something, it's 5 currently but I made it 6 at the start, is that permanent?)
END 5
CHA 5
INT 8
AGI 6
LUC 5

Beginning Traits:
Fast Shot
One Hander

Tagged Skills:
Small Guns
Repair
Sneak

Is this OK or am I screwed and should start over?

[Pogue Mahone]

Apparently I'm the only person who absolutely despised Fallout 2.

If it means anything Joe, I'm not a great fan of Fallout 2 either though quite likely not for the reasons you or others might have. I just ran out of steam playing through it -- I think there is definitely for each game a perfect length or duration, and in my opinion the original Fallout was there. It didn't need to be cut or expanded. I realize that, generally, 'more' is what people look for in a sequel but in this case it was just a sprawl and I couldn't maintain interest. It seemed more difficult, too, which contributed to the lack of guilt I felt when I just stopped playing.

One more thing, I almost always hate time limits in games, they stress me out. But Fallout is one of the very few exceptions for me. It wasn't tight enough that I felt like I had to race, but did impress the graveness of the situation very effectively.

[Morberis]

Question on Fallout 2: Is there a level cap? I only get a perk every 3 levels, I need to know if I should plan on only getting 6 perks or what.


I believe so, might be 20.

As for screwing yourself over, I'm not sure but in my experience it was pretty hard to screw yourself over with the beginning stats and yours looks pretty standard.

[Staff Sergeant]

I believe so, might be 20.

As for screwing yourself over, I'm not sure but in my experience it was pretty hard to screw yourself over with the beginning stats and yours looks pretty standard.

What about the perception? It has dropped to 4, each time it dropped when I ate some healing powder. Do I need to restart, or will that wear off? I definitely need my 6 PER.

[Skorin]

The level cap in Fallout 2 is 99.

[Mikail]

All of the new content and gameplay mods suck, IMHO.

Some of the screenshots of the environmental agency mod (can't remember the name exactly; it was for a faction that was supposed to appear in FO2 but was cut due to time constraints) looked very good. The level design showed a lot of attention to detail, and really reminded me of visiting the Shed Aquarium in Chicago. However, IIRC there hasn't been any further development in recent years. Also, I believe it was created by Russians, so the translation would probably have sucked.

[Jason McCullough]

Fallout 1 has a cap of 21 levels, Fallout 2 a cap at 99. It's really hard to get above level 30 though.

[Staff Sergeant]

Ach, I was trying to figure out why I couldn't aim my shots and I realized it's because I chose Fast Shot.

[hong]

Fallout 2 was a lot more baroque. It was more, more, more - more gameplay, more sidequests, more viable character builds, more dialogue options! Kind of like Baldur's Gate 2.

The plot did suffer because of the unfocused approach, though.
I agree. They should have remembered: if it ain't baroque, don't fix it.

[Foxstab]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v222/scharmers/mau-1.jpg

For lashing out at anyone not sharing your opinion of fallout3 being the 2nd coming of the messiah, you ARE the NMA fags. Sorry.

My claim has always been: Fallout 3 is more of Oblivion but with guns, it isn't fallout. And it should not be branded as Fallout 3, this being nothing more than a cash-out opting.
Now it seems over half the gamespace agrees that it isn't like the previous fallouts, yet some of you criticism haters apparently have a problem accepting that and dropping to wikipedia behaviour slamming (NMA) tags on everyone who doesn't agree.

Lets chant the mantra: NPOV! NPOV! NPOV!


The fact Fallout 3 is such a different game is what makes me want to replay them. They should go nice together :)
So long you go eyes wide open onto this, enjoy having lots of fun! :)

[Morberis]

Fallout 1 has a cap of 21 levels, Fallout 2 a cap at 99. It's really hard to get above level 30 though.

Thanks for clearing that up.

[Staff Sergeant]

Fallout 3 is more of Oblivion but with guns

Holy shit, that's some damn original thinking! Where do you come up with this stuff? Seriously, shut the fuck up.

[stusser]

Shrug. F3 plays nearly identically to oblivion, but the attraction of fallout was never the engine, it was the inventive setting and the wide gameplay, with multiple paths to solving quests, non-combat solutions, non-linear gameplay, etc. F3 has all that stuff. It's a fallout, to me.

[Jasper]

My claim has always been: Fallout 3 is more of Oblivion but with guns, it isn't fallout.
Your claim has always been... Of course, why would your claim change? I bet you haven't even played Fallout 3, and so have no idea how good it is.

Bonus Tip: If you weren't such an asshole about telling other people which games to like, perhaps they wouldn't all laugh at your middle school antics.

[Zylon]

His claim has always been to get people to fall for his gobsmackingly obvious trolls.

He's been depressingly successful.

[JMR]

All of the new content and gameplay mods suck, IMHO.


I haven't tried any of them but, before I subscribe to your newsletter, could you touch on why they suck?

[Jasper]

I agree. They should have remembered: if it ain't baroque, don't fix it.
This is a side effect of having everything be voiced, rather than just text. I like how good voice work can really nail a setting, but it's damn expensive.

On the plus side, Fallout 3 isn't as buggy as Fallout 1/2 were, likely in large part because testing wasn't as complex. It's still plenty buggy though. :-/

[Jasper]

His claim has always been to get people to fall for his gobsmackingly obvious trolls.

He's been depressingly successful.
Honestly, I don't think he's trolling. Sometimes someone who comes off like a tool is just a tool.

[Staff Sergeant]

His claim has always been to get people to fall for his gobsmackingly obvious trolls.

He's been depressingly successful.

I realized this and pointed it out about Draikin, but that just pissed off some people. Now I'm happy to join in the troll-bashing. We enjoy piling on an idiot, the troll enjoys his 10 seconds of internet attention that day, everyone wins! :)

[Jason McCullough]

I haven't tried any of them but, before I subscribe to your newsletter, could you touch on why they suck?

They're by and large made by gun-obsessed Russians with terrible language skills. I guess if you want to shoot lots of stuff, go right ahead.

They're good at fixing things already in the game or re-enabling turned off content, but the creativity isn't so hot. And unlike Oblivion, you can't add much to the engine, so creativity is all there is.

[Oghier]

...the attraction of fallout was never the engine, it was the inventive setting and the wide gameplay, with multiple paths to solving quests, non-combat solutions, non-linear gameplay, etc. F3 has all that stuff.

Well said. I feel exactly the same way. This is an excellent RPG.

[Foxstab]

Holy shit, that's some damn original thinking! Where do you come up with this stuff? Seriously, shut the fuck up.

This:
Shrug. F3 plays nearly identically to oblivionQUOTE]
The fact this has been repeated in such reference by everyone I've seen who reviewed the game.

[QUOTE=stusser;1531536]the attraction of fallout was never the engine, it was the inventive setting and the wide gameplay, with multiple paths to solving quests, non-combat solutions, non-linear gameplay, etc. F3 has all that stuff. It's a fallout, to me.
X-Com hardcore fans consider "Interceptor" a blasphemy.
I liked it. I can see where it tries to be like X-Com, tries hard, but ultimately, to me it isn't. Still a fun and good game, just isn't quite an X-Com game.
Eitherway, at least yours is a honest and argued reasoning, for which I'll honor you in turn back by shutting my fucking mouth up. :)


EFG, go have fun waving your torch.

[dermot]

It's ridiculous to expect that a game developed in 2008 would play anything like a game that was developed in 1997 or 1998. RPGs in 2008 look like Fallout 3; end of.

[Staff Sergeant]

This:

The fact this has been repeated in such reference by everyone I've seen who reviewed the game.


X-Com hardcore fans consider "Interceptor" a blasphemy.
I liked it. I can see where it tries to be like X-Com, tries hard, but ultimately, to me it isn't. Still a fun and good game, just isn't quite an X-Com game.
Eitherway, at least yours is a honest and argued reasoning, for which I'll honor you in turn back by shutting my fucking mouth up. :)


EFG, go have fun waving your torch.

Waving my torch? I'm not disagreeing that Fallout 3 is nothing like Fallout 2, I'm telling you to shut the fuck up because idiots like you have been foaming at the mouth over it for the last year. You aren't adding anything that a previous troll didn't add at least 8 months/a year ago, so shut the fuck up and take this shit to NMA where they will pat you on the back for it.

[ioticus]

Am I forever cursed not being able to finish Fallout 1? I played Fallout 1 years ago on a Windows98 PC and was unable to complete it because I was getting "unable to load" error messages on my saved games. Now, years later I thought I could finally finish the game by starting all over again on my Vista64 PC and everything was running smooth until I hit the "unable to load game" message again. Yes, I use multiple saves but not knowing when I'll be unable to load a game just kills the experience for me. It it just me or does anyone else have this problem? I would love to be able to finish this classic game.

[extarbags]

For lashing out at anyone not sharing your opinion of fallout3 being the 2nd coming of the messiah, you ARE the NMA fags. Sorry.

No! No! Did you hear that everyone? It was us all along! It is we who are the NMA fags!

[anaqer]

What about the perception? It has dropped to 4, each time it dropped when I ate some healing powder. Do I need to restart, or will that wear off? I definitely need my 6 PER.
You may have figured it out by now, but yeah, it does wear off in a couple of hours (6?).

As for the character build - whoa, no Gifted? Are you even allowed to play without Gifted?

[Staff Sergeant]

No! No! Did you hear that everyone? It was us all along! It is we who are the NMA fags!

"No! I must kill the NMA fags" he shouted
Foxstab said "No, extarbags. You are the NMA fags"
And then extarbag was a zombie.

[Staff Sergeant]

You may have figured it out by now, but yeah, it does wear off in a couple of hours (6?).

As for the character build - whoa, no Gifted? Are you even allowed to play without Gifted?

Should I replace Fast Shot with Gifted (What does this do? More skill points and less perks?) I've heard Fast Shot is a really good trait but not being able to aim my attacks is making me feel like I'm somehow missing out :(

[Talisker]

Should I replace Fast Shot with Gifted (What does this do? More skill points and less perks?) I've heard Fast Shot is a really good trait but not being able to aim my attacks is making me feel like I'm somehow missing out :(
Gifted raises all your stats by 1, at a cost of fewer skill points per level... which you can counteract by putting a couple more points into your INT.

Fast Shot is OK, but yeah, for me, Fallout is always about ramping up my small arms skill such that I run around exploding people's heads by targeting their eyes.

[Staff Sergeant]

Gifted raises all your stats by 1, at a cost of fewer skill points per level... which you can counteract by putting a couple more points into your INT.

Fast Shot is OK, but yeah, for me, Fallout is always about ramping up my small arms skill such that I run around exploding people's heads by targeting their eyes.

Damn, looks like I'll be re-rolling with Gifted, my same stats, and whatever the other perk I picked alongside Fast Shot was.

[extarbags]

On paper, Gifted looks like a balanced tradeoff, so it's understandable that you didn't take it. In reality, it's the min/maxing trait. It ups all of your stats by one and lowers all of your skills and gives you less skill points; fine. In reality, this just gives you seven free stat points to work with, so you still take low numbers in ones you don't care about (let's say luck, endurance, and strength) and give yourself freakishly high scores in the ones you do (not uncommon to have eight each of perception, charisma, intelligence, and agility). The high intelligence makes up for the lost skill points, and you just tag the skills you care about... who cares if your outdoorsman skill will never rise above 6% when you can shoot people in the eyes from a thousand yards away?

[Staff Sergeant]

On paper, Gifted looks like a balanced tradeoff, so it's understandable that you didn't take it. In reality, it's the min/maxing trait. It ups all of your stats by one and lowers all of your skills and gives you less skill points; fine. In reality, this just gives you seven free stat points to work with, so you still take low numbers in ones you don't care about (let's say luck, endurance, and strength) and give yourself freakishly high scores in the ones you do (not uncommon to have eight each of perception, charisma, intelligence, and agility). The high intelligence makes up for the lost skill points, and you just tag the skills you care about... who cares if your outdoorsman skill will never rise above 6% when you can shoot people in the eyes from a thousand yards away?

Is there a reason I shouldn't put my INT up to 9 or 10? Why just 8?

[extarbags]

IIRC all stats start delivering diminishing returns after eight or so. You could go higher if you really want, but it's not like INT is a crazy awesome clearly-the-best gamebreaking stat. I think you get 40 stat points normally, 47 with gifted... I think that if you're not going for melee or unarmed combat, STR, END, and LK are the ones you can most easily dump. If my math is correct, five in each of those leaves room for eight each in AG, PE, CH, and INT, like I said; you can drop them lower if you want to get extra, but if I was going to max one out, it would be PE, no question.

[Staff Sergeant]

IIRC all stats start delivering diminishing returns after eight or so. You could go higher if you really want, but it's not like INT is a crazy awesome clearly-the-best gamebreaking stat. I think you get 40 stat points normally, 47 with gifted... I think that if you're not going for melee or unarmed combat, STR, END, and LK are the ones you can most easily dump. If my math is correct, five in each of those leaves room for eight each in AG, PE, CH, and INT, like I said; you can drop them lower if you want to get extra, but if I was going to max one out, it would be PE, no question.

What does PER do that's better than skill points?

[extarbags]

What does PER do that's better than skill points?

Perception is mainly used for determining your chance to hit things. It doesn't sound like much, but it's everything in these games... start with low perception and you'll be whiffing against everything for half the game. High perception, on the other hand, helps you max out your chance to hit much, much sooner. If you tag Small Guns and focus on it for your first few levels, let's say, you can have it up to 100% (max is 300% for whatever reason) by like level four or five. With seven or eight perception, this will probably give you 95% (the max chance to hit) to hit guys from about ten feet, or to hit them targeted up close. With ten perception, this will give you 95% on basically anything in your weapon's range, usually including targeted shots, essentially letting you bypass the other 200 levels of Small Guns, which cost two points apiece from 101-200 and four points apiece from 201-300. So in this example, putting those two points into perception is like starting the game with ~600 extra skill points in Small Guns.

[extarbags]

BTW, it's totally cool to not even take Gifted for your first playthrough, and probably more fun that way. These aren't very min/maxy kinds of games here, but the option is there, and this is how you do it.

Ultimate min/maxin' build, I'd say, would probably be like

-Gifted
ST: 4
PE: 10
EN: 3
CH: 8
IN: 8
AG: 10
LK: 4

You could tank luck even more, but I'd rather have it higher than that (maybe as high as six) for my first playthrough, because it determines random encounters and you'll miss some of them if your luck is low. Hell, if you really wanted to, you could go down to one endurance and max out IN too.

[Jason McCullough]

You can drop CH to the minimum, actually. In FO1 it's useless. In FO2 you actually need it.

[Staff Sergeant]

We're talking about FO2 here (at least I am, anyways).

I put my first level up skill points into melee weapons to make using this damn spear a little easier, when can I expect to get a gun? I'm already at the Den, so no spoilers beyond the Den, please.

EDIT: And my PER is 9, so that sounds like it will be sufficient for what you were saying there, although man, is it brutal to hit things. I have like 28% against those stupid spore plants and maybe 31% against the little geckos (by the way, are they supposed to attack/ignore you arbitrarily?) using my spear, and my melee skill is 66% thanks to a skill point dump level 2 and some training from the cocky spear guy at Arayo (sp?) Village.

[Staff Sergeant]

Sorry, asking a lot of questions:

Is Here and Now a good perk in FO2? I realize it is a bad idea for FO3, because of the cap, but with no cap in FO2 it seems like a good idea early on: more HP, more skill points, and closer to that next perk.

EDIT: Hoooooooly Shit, just encountered the "wrong people at the wrong time", what the fuck is up with the guy with the armor that makes him look 10 feet tall? Goddamn I love this game, it seemed like crap for the first little bit, but somewhere in the last 4-5 hours I've spent playing it, it became one of the best games I've ever played (mild spoiler maybe it was when I found my pipe rifle in Vic's house /spoiler)

[anaqer]

Sorry, asking a lot of questions:

Is Here and Now a good perk in FO2? I realize it is a bad idea for FO3, because of the cap, but with no cap in FO2 it seems like a good idea early on: more HP, more skill points, and closer to that next perk.

EDIT: Hoooooooly Shit, just encountered the "wrong people at the wrong time", what the fuck is up with the guy with the armor that makes him look 10 feet tall? Goddamn I love this game, it seemed like crap for the first little bit, but somewhere in the last 4-5 hours I've spent playing it, it became one of the best games I've ever played (mild spoiler maybe it was when I found my pipe rifle in Vic's house /spoiler)

Yeah, that's an awesome encounter.

Here and Now is only worth taking the very first time (lvl3), but even then I always tend to go for something with a little more flavor... Awareness, Healer, Quick Pocket, the like.

[extarbags]

We're talking about FO2 here (at least I am, anyways).

I put my first level up skill points into melee weapons to make using this damn spear a little easier, when can I expect to get a gun? I'm already at the Den, so no spoilers beyond the Den, please.

There are loads of guns available in The Den, and two available in Klamath. You can buy one if you can afford it, or you can somehow not get killed in a random encounter with some raiders.

EDIT: And my PER is 9, so that sounds like it will be sufficient for what you were saying there, although man, is it brutal to hit things. I have like 28% against those stupid spore plants and maybe 31% against the little geckos (by the way, are they supposed to attack/ignore you arbitrarily?) using my spear, and my melee skill is 66% thanks to a skill point dump level 2 and some training from the cocky spear guy at Arayo (sp?) Village.

It's because your skill is so low. It'll improve when it's around 100%, but honestly, guns are available and better, so there's no point in splitting your skill points between the two skills.

Is Here and Now a good perk in FO2? I realize it is a bad idea for FO3, because of the cap, but with no cap in FO2 it seems like a good idea early on: more HP, more skill points, and closer to that next perk.

Here and Now is bad, I think... levels come really slow later on, so it's effectively "capped" around 24-26 or so. First perk you should take is Quick Pockets (bad in FO1 but awesome in FO2... I know it doesn't look like much, but it basically lets you reload all of your weapons, switch weapons if you need to, and stimpack to full health for the same AP that just reloading one weapon costs you now), second one is Awareness, which also doesn't look like much but is absolutely instrumental in making effective choices about who to attack and when.

EDIT: Hoooooooly Shit, just encountered the "wrong people at the wrong time", what the fuck is up with the guy with the armor that makes him look 10 feet tall? Goddamn I love this game, it seemed like crap for the first little bit, but somewhere in the last 4-5 hours I've spent playing it, it became one of the best games I've ever played (mild spoiler maybe it was when I found my pipe rifle in Vic's house /spoiler)

Frank! Impossible to answer without major spoilers.

[Staff Sergeant]

About the perks, I went for comprehension (can't hurt to get more out of some skill books right?), but at level 6 I'll go for awareness if you say it's good (+2 to PER in random encounter placement? Doesn't sound like much but OTOH maybe it'll prevent me from getting trapped by volethingies in a random encounter and having to restart from a saved game aha)

EDIT: spoilers: That Lara chick who's in charge of the rival gang in Den died in tha attack (actually everyone died except for one of the good guys, yay, best possible outcome for me), so I have about 100 ammo for my rifle, and by selling all the stupid shit like flares and knives and pistols (kept one for myself, didn't get much ammo though), I'm loaded with cash :D

[extarbags]

About the perks, I went for comprehension (can't hurt to get more out of some skill books right?), but at level 6 I'll go for awareness if you say it's good (+2 to PER in random encounter placement? Doesn't sound like much but OTOH maybe it'll prevent me from getting trapped by volethingies in a random encounter and having to restart from a saved game aha)

Quick pockets!

[Staff Sergeant]

Oh, okay, thanks :)

[DarkHorsePlague]

There are loads of guns available in The Den, and two available in Klamath. You can buy one if you can afford it, or you can somehow not get killed in a random encounter with some raiders.

Man I loved that about the original fallouts... finding your first guns was an accomplishment, and really made you more powerful.

The one complaint I am having with FO3 is the lack of scaling in weapons a la the originals. I have fond memories of being instantly killed when going up against miniguns without any armor. [mini spoiler] In FO3, it seems I can kill minigun weilding super mutants from the get go.[/spoiler]

[extarbags]

Man I loved that about the original fallouts... finding your first guns was an accomplishment, and really made you more powerful.

The one complaint I am having with FO3 is the lack of scaling in weapons a la the originals. I have fond memories of being instantly killed when going up against miniguns without any armor. [mini spoiler] In FO3, it seems I can kill minigun weilding super mutants from the get go.[/spoiler]

You might be misremembering... the first gun in Fallout 2 is maybe an hour into the game, just lying around in a shack in the first real town you go to. In Fallout 1, you start with a gun.

[Miramon]

You might be misremembering... the first gun in Fallout 2 is maybe an hour into the game, just lying around in a shack in the first real town you go to. In Fallout 1, you start with a gun.
Heh, in Fallout 2 you can also play so your first gun is a plasma rifle 5 minutes in.... but actually I found that if I didn't mind a 50% chance or so of getting killed first, right out of the village I could wander around in the wilderness and probably find some random gunfight, and scavenge the losers' stuff.

[anaqer]

extarbag,

sure, but he still has a valid point about the amount of damage done to you, especially as it relates to minigun-wielding super mutants. At level four, and clad in rags of raider "armor", picking them off with a 10mm is a bit different experience than what I'd expect from an early encounter with the banes of the wastelands.

[Tyrion]

I hope this isn't misconstrued as a counter-troll, but I tried playing through Fallout 1 a few months ago, and I was shocked at how mediocre it was. I still love Fallout 2, and I'm currently enamored with Fallout 3, but Fallout 1 is far worse than its successors.

* The writing sucks. Most dialogue is incredibly brief and perfunctory. There are a few okay bits (like the final boss) but even these are hamstrung by being way too barebones.
* The gameplay sucks. There are lots of basically useless skills and it's easy to screw yourself and make a near-worthless character. Fallout 2/3 suffer from this as well, but not nearly as badly. The interface is poor, too.
* Content is sparse. There isn't enough to do or interact with to make the world feel real. Dungeons are empty, repetitive, and boring.
* The atmosphere is more boring than desolate. Fallout 2 was a much darker game (a few funny references aside) and gave a much better sense of bleakness as a result. Fallout 3's atmosphere is aided by the whole "open-world with modern graphics" thing.

It's not just a matter of me playing the game so far after its release--I love the almost-as-old Fallout 2. The game just isn't very good.

[Foxstab]

Tyrion, this is perfectly normal.
When it comes to FO 1&2 there are many who dislike/prefer one over the other.


extarbag,

sure, but he still has a valid point about the amount of damage done to you, especially as it relates to minigun-wielding super mutants. At level four, and clad in rags of raider "armor", picking them off with a 10mm is a bit different experience than what I'd expect from an early encounter with the banes of the wastelands.

Remember now, it's a console game, not a PC game.

Goddamn I love this game, it seemed like crap for the first little bit, but somewhere in the last 4-5 hours I've spent playing it, it became one of the best games I've ever played
ONE OF US! ONE OF US! ONE OF US!

I'm currently replaying Baldur's Gate 2 and I'm starting to wonder why I ever stopped playing this and went to play other RPG games instead...the fuck were I thinking?
It's like trying to enjoy other westrens after The Good The Bad and The Ugly. Impossible. Nothing can ever measure up.
Much like Lucas can never measure up to Eps IV-VI.

IV-VI...IV-VI...Hmm....


......./\
....../=\
...../-|-\
..../=||=\
.../--||--\
../--/--\--\
./--|---|--\
/---/---\---\
IV=/^v^\=VI
IV-VI==IV-VI



*goes to play lunar lander*

[BostonBum0]

Does the patches above for Fallout 1 ruin saves?

I'm halfway through my first ever playthrough and apart from looking ass there's a few graphical glitches (the screen goes completely black and I have to paint it back with the colors), so it's a bit painfull to play.

Hanzii, Did you ever get this problem fixed? I installed Fallout 1 and 2 on my computer this past weekend and am having similar problems with Fallout 1. I would like to blame the problem on Windows XP, but I am not sure that is my problem.

[Staff Sergeant]

ONE OF US! ONE OF US! ONE OF US!

Jesus H Christ, one of you? I'm done feeding you. Get a little creative or at least try to make responding to you feel less like bashing my head with a bat with rusty nails stuck in it.

[Staff Sergeant]

Is it just me or with the high res + scaling does it get a little hard to read text and pick out small objects on the screen? My monitor is either 19" or 21" (honestly don't know), and I sit like 1 foot away from it, still have difficulty. It's not game-breaking, just slightly annoying that I occasionally have to look really hard at things/lean in.

That said, the game looks like poo without the patch, so I probably shouldn't complain.

[madkevin]

It's like trying to enjoy other westrens after The Good The Bad and The Ugly. Impossible. Nothing can ever measure up.

It's good to know you're wrong about movies, too.

[Talisker]

Is it just me or with the high res + scaling does it get a little hard to read text and pick out small objects on the screen? My monitor is either 19" or 21" (honestly don't know), and I sit like 1 foot away from it, still have difficulty. It's not game-breaking, just slightly annoying that I occasionally have to look really hard at things/lean in.

That said, the game looks like poo without the patch, so I probably shouldn't complain.
I found setting TextureFilter=1 in my sfall options (the ddraw.ini file) helped significantly. I have the hi-res patch set to 1280x800, and am scaling it to 1920x1200 with sfall.

[Staff Sergeant]

Oh lordy, look what I just found in the readme for the patch I have:

• Thanks to all those out there that sent in bug reports and thanks to the friendly people over at No Mutants Allowed with all the help they have provided. Thanks!

(Emphasis mine.)

What the hell???

[extarbags]

Welcome to the double-edged sword of awesome Fallout 1 and 2 mods: they all use NMA as their home base.

[Staff Sergeant]

Sorry guys, don't want to turn this into some kind of really crappy AAR, but I just encountered the crashed shuttle. Almost as cool as "the wrong place at the wrong time" in terms of making me wonder what the hell is going on. These good and bad random encounters are genius, and it makes me sad that no other game uses them (at least not as well as this).

EDIT: Shuttle site showed up on my map. Apparently it's not a random encounter, but it is really small, so it's still cool that I found it :)

[Staff Sergeant]

I know there is a 13 year limit on the game, and I know that it can be removed with the patch I have. Can anyone tell me if removing the 13 year limit will invalidate a save file I have of a game with the limit, or can I keep playing it? I find myself wasting a lot of time as this is my first character ever, and I'd really hate to run out of time before getting to a high level or finishing the major quests.

[Jason McCullough]

It's virtually impossible to hit the 13 year time limit.

[Staff Sergeant]

Well the ghoulish guy from the Vault Dweller tribe keeps psychically telling me to hurry the fuck up. I can ignore this?

[extarbags]

Well the ghoulish guy from the Vault Dweller tribe keeps psychically telling me to hurry the fuck up. I can ignore this?

Yes, absolutely.

[Staff Sergeant]

Yes, absolutely.

Oh good. After the second vision, I decided to go to Vault 15 and make some headway on the quest (I was just fighting stuff to get experience and money at the time), but halfway from New Reno to NCR I got molested by Deathclaws, Supermutants, and Centaurs. Definitely won't try going that way again until I level up a bit.

In case you guys care, I'm level 6, have metal armor, and luckily found a sniper rifle, which I'm using. Vic is my packhorse, and he currently has 2 flamers and 6 14mm pistols, which I plan on selling/trading for .223 FMJ ammo and maybe some more armor for Vic so he doesn't die while he's carrying my stuff. I gave him a pipe rifle but he sucked at using it and wasted ammo, and that ghoul doctor is just useless, he never even attacks and I have no idea how to make him live up to his name and heal me and Vic in combat.

[Desslock]

Well the ghoulish guy from the Vault Dweller tribe keeps psychically telling me to hurry the fuck up. I can ignore this?

The original time limit was much shorter (500 days), which is why you get those urgent messages - the patch moved that out to 13 years, which is effectively forever, so you don't need to worry about it.

[Staff Sergeant]

The original time limit was much shorter (500 days), which is why you get those urgent messages - the patch moved that out to 13 years, which is effectively forever, so you don't need to worry about it.

Wow, really? 500 days? I'm level 6 and it's already mid-January, that's at least 90 days. It would be impossible to beat the game your first time playing it, then.

[Mark L]

Let me just say that hearing stories from someone playing FO2 for the first time is really enjoyable. It's like reliving one of the best games I've ever played :)

[Staff Sergeant]

I guess my plans now that I've established that 4 grids south of New Reno is temporarily off-limits are to do the missions for the supermutant sheriff (hopefully recruiting him in the process, totally willing to ditch Vic or Lenny or both for him), investigate the Ghost Farm, go back to Khalack (sp?) and recruit Sulik (because oh God do I need a party member who isn't useless), and try to find one of those special tool kits to trade for the fuel convertor I need to get the car, because I can afford the car.

[Staff Sergeant]

OK Holy shit I have way too much stuff. Is there a trader who consistently has a large amount of cash, or failing that, a place for me to stash my stuff without fear of it getting robbed or me forgetting where it is? I seem to remember a container of some sort if Arroyo, but that is really far out of the way. Hmmm, maybe Vic's house in Klamath...

[Desslock]

Wow, really? 500 days? I'm level 6 and it's already mid-January, that's at least 90 days. It would be impossible to beat the game your first time playing it, then.

It certainly wasn't impossible, but you couldn't really mess around, or explore just for fun. I think it was actually 400 days if you sent the water caravan when looking for the water chip as well (which bought you time on the first deadline). But they realized pretty quickly that people liked to explore, so they bumped the 2nd time limit out to an essentially irrelevant 13 years.

[Staff Sergeant]

It certainly wasn't impossible, but you couldn't really mess around, or explore just for fun. I think it was actually 400 days if you sent the water caravan when looking for the water chip as well (which bought you time on the first deadline). But they realized pretty quickly that people liked to explore, so they bumped the 2nd time limit out to an essentially irrelevant 13 years.

Water chip? Is that what that jackass store owner is trying to sell for like $2500? I don't think I've done anything to advance the main story other than check Vault City's vault computer, due to a combination of not knowing anything and an inability to complete any quests (I need protective equipment to enter the mutant town's mine, horrible monstrous encounters keep me off the south 1/3 of the map where Vault 15, San Fran, and NCR are, etc.). I think my only viable quests right now are the ghost farm and perhaps getting a car if I ever find that damn super tool kit or whatever Skeeter wants.

As a side note, I originally tried to be a good guy, but my greed overcame me in the form of shooting everything that breathes in its eyes in order to gain exp and expensive items. As such, I'm considering just fucking murdering Skeeter and taking his fuel converter (if I have to slaughter a town of ghouls, whatever, they'd be dead in 20 years without my help anyways) so I can have a car.

[Jasper]

Wow, really? 500 days? I'm level 6 and it's already mid-January, that's at least 90 days. It would be impossible to beat the game your first time playing it, then.
I don't remember how close to the deadline I was, but I made it my first (and only) time.

I liked the sense of urgency it gave you, in stark contrast to every other RPG where you're out to save the girl/town/world while the clock ticks down, but always have time fuck around on piddly can't-get-your-priorities-straight side-quests, which you are in fact better off getting side track over since you'll get XP and Loot.

[malkav11]

The water chip is the main quest in Fallout 1. And yeah, you couldn't dilly dally on that one, but it was perfectly doable.

And I don't recall if a store sells one in Fallout 2 or not, but if so it'd be their little joke on people that'd played the first one. That and the vault full of water chips.

[Slainte Mhath]

Believe it or not, I am a Fallout virgin.

I picked up I & II a very long time ago with the intent to play through both and they got lost in my backlog. This thread, especially the helpful links to files in the OP and other replies, has inspired me to unearth them from the backlog and start playing. (It also helped a lot that I finally got around to finishing Bioshock the other night after putting off doing the last 1/3 of the game for like 6 months, so now I need a new "kill an hour" game).

Using the mods and patches listed at the start of this thread I was able to get Fallout running on my XP machine at 1400x900. I'm frankly stunned at how nice it looks given it's age! I rolled up a character, watched all the intro movies (so awesome!) and stepped out of the vault for the first time ever...and promptly realized I don't know what the hell I'm doing. The control system is not intuitive at all, and trying to hunt and peck your way around it is kind of frustrating. However, between the walkthrough posted in this thread and the original manual in PDF that I got off the No Mutants site I was able to get the hang of things, and I actually rerolled my character because of helpful hints I discovered about usefful/useless skills/traits.

So far I'm enjoying it immensely and could kick myself for having missed this so long ago.

[roguefrog]

Welcome to the awesomeness that is Fallout.

[Talisker]

Goddamn but Fallout 2 is buggy. I never finished it my first time out because of the car bug; now, when my character equips a rifle (be it assault, hunting, or bb gun), he can't actually shoot anything with it -- the, uh, big weapon button at the bottom (the one you right-click to select aimed shot, reload, auto, etc, with the AP cost on it) has no text, and doesn't respond to clicks. If I unequip my guns, I can punch and kick stuff.

I tried selling my guns and buying different ones, but no dice.

Fucking Fallout 2.


Edit: doh, apparently my right arm is crippled, n/m. Would be nice if it'd tell me that when I try to use my guns :)

Fucking right arm.

[Foxstab]

I just liked to get the waterchip out of the way, then do the rest of the game.


Goddamn but Fallout 2 is buggy. I never finished it my first time out because of the car bug; now, when my character equips a rifle (be it assault, hunting, or bb gun), he can't actually shoot anything with it -- the, uh, big weapon button at the bottom (the one you right-click to select aimed shot, reload, auto, etc, with the AP cost on it) has no text, and doesn't respond to clicks. If I unequip my guns, I can punch and kick stuff.

I tried selling my guns and buying different ones, but no dice.

Fucking Fallout 2.


Edit: doh, apparently my right arm is crippled, n/m. Would be nice if it'd tell me that when I try to use my guns :)

Fucking right arm.

Welcome to the notorious MaxGlobalItems bug.
That, and corrupted save games.
Both creeped upon you when you least expected it in both games.
Beyond that, I pretty much have no complaints *cough* you shot dogmeat, you team killing fucktard! *cough*.

I hope game programmers took lessons since then and now make the items stack size at least 5x DWORD worth.
People like to hoard, Okay?

Seems fallout 3 didn't go without much TLC (http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Fallout_3_bugs) either.

[shang]

Seems fallout 3 didn't go without much TLC (http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Fallout_3_bugs) either.

Heh. From the bug list:

Vault 106 Underground installations: Enemies appear & dissapear suddenly. Screen fades to blue & purple colors.

[Staff Sergeant]

Problems:

Sulik won't join me. He says I have too many problems with too many people or some-such thing. I am well liked across all towns and I have positive karma (well not anymore, but when I tried to recruit him I did). I have the reputation of a berserker and a childkiller, if that matters.

Accidentally slaughtered Redding because I talked shit to dangerous Dan, he came after me and so did the whole town. Every named NPC is dead and I own a useless deed to a mine that I can never sell back. Fucking waste of money (I guess I might as well and go back and loot everyone's bodies).

I can't talk to the bartender in the Den because she just freaks out that I'm a childkiller and the whole town tries to kill me. I realize that being a childkiller, some people are going to attack me, but should a bartender really have the authority to turn an entire town against me?

[Foxstab]

Heh. From the bug list:
Vault 106 Underground installations: Enemies appear & dissapear suddenly. Screen fades to blue & purple colors.

That's not a bug, it's a feature!
I've seen it in other games too.

should a bartender really have the authority to turn an entire town against me?
Have you ever watched The Simpsons?

[Staff Sergeant]

Something I've noticed with my small guns sharpshooter is that there is no point aiming for anything but the eyes. I pretty much always have a 95% chance to hit the eyes, plus a 12% chance of critical hitting on top of eye damage. Probably about 35-40% of the time the enemy is blinded and either starts missing or running away, and a critical hit will kill stronger enemies while a normal hit will kill weaker enemies.

The point I'm making is that there is no reason to aim for anything but eyes (there's a small chance that a headshot will knock them unconscious, but wouldn't an eye-shot also do that?). If I shoot for the arms or legs the person dies before I can cripple them, so I might as well just shoot at the eyes or head and kill them faster. This is the same for radscorpions as well; I have never, ever crippled the legs or tail before killing it.

I'm using a .223 pistol in close and a sniper rifle for range, if weapons matter for crippling people.

[Kevin Grey]

That's not a bug, it's a feature!
I've seen it in other games too.


Spoilers for Fallout 3:

http://fidgit.com/archives/2008/10/fallout-3-vault-106-is-freakin.php

Not a bug at all.

[scharmers]

Vault 106 Underground installations: Enemies appear & dissapear suddenly. Screen fades to blue & purple colors.

Yeah, nevermind that your player is being [REMOVED FOR YOUR PROTECTION] the entire time in that Vault. Reminds me of the "bug" in Oblivion where all the people in one town are invisible.

So here's some more bugs I'd like to report:

- game does not have an isometric, turn-based view, stuck in first person or an over the shoulder view
- allies do not indiscriminately unload SMGs into player's back
- other sarcasm

[Jason McCullough]

Problems:

Sulik won't join me. He says I have too many problems with too many people or some-such thing. I am well liked across all towns and I have positive karma (well not anymore, but when I tried to recruit him I did). I have the reputation of a berserker and a childkiller, if that matters.

Charisma governs how many NPCs you can have at once. See the guide I linked at the beginning of the thread.

I can't talk to the bartender in the Den because she just freaks out that I'm a childkiller and the whole town tries to kill me. I realize that being a childkiller, some people are going to attack me, but should a bartender really have the authority to turn an entire town against me?

THAT'S WHAT YOU GET.

[malkav11]

Something I've noticed with my small guns sharpshooter is that there is no point aiming for anything but the eyes. I pretty much always have a 95% chance to hit the eyes, plus a 12% chance of critical hitting on top of eye damage. Probably about 35-40% of the time the enemy is blinded and either starts missing or running away, and a critical hit will kill stronger enemies while a normal hit will kill weaker enemies.

The point I'm making is that there is no reason to aim for anything but eyes (there's a small chance that a headshot will knock them unconscious, but wouldn't an eye-shot also do that?). If I shoot for the arms or legs the person dies before I can cripple them, so I might as well just shoot at the eyes or head and kill them faster. This is the same for radscorpions as well; I have never, ever crippled the legs or tail before killing it.

I'm using a .223 pistol in close and a sniper rifle for range, if weapons matter for crippling people.

I never got to a point where eyes were universally a guaranteed hit, and I'd get into the 200+% range with my sharpshooter builds quite quickly. That's why I generally shot people in the groin first - almost guaranteed crit, and a crit to the groin stuns and usually knocks down the target, making the followup shot to the eyes much easier.

[Staff Sergeant]

Charisma governs how many NPCs you can have at once. See the guide I linked at the beginning of the thread.

I had Vic and Lenny. Lenny died, still can't get Sulik to follow me.

I never got to a point where eyes were universally a guaranteed hit, and I'd get into the 200+% range with my sharpshooter builds quite quickly. That's why I generally shot people in the groin first - almost guaranteed crit, and a crit to the groin stuns and usually knocks down the target, making the followup shot to the eyes much easier.

I have PER 9 and small weapons 150+%, which is probably why eyes are a guaranteed hit for me (guaranteed at all times with a sniper rifle, guaranteed in close with my .223).

[Tim James]

On a related note, I just finished Wasteland and can't recommend anyone go back and play it even for historical purposes. A few parts are neat but there's really no reason to bother.

[Dave Markell]

I guess my plans now that I've established that 4 grids south of New Reno is temporarily off-limits are to do the missions for the supermutant sheriff (hopefully recruiting him in the process...).

Be warned that you'll get shot in the back by his minigun. A lot. I regretted recruiting Worf, big time.

[Slainte Mhath]

Playing Fallout 1, or trying to. Couple of things with the controls are keeping me from enjoying the game.

1) I've killed Rad Scorpions in the caves and turned the tails into antidotes at the doc in Shady Sands, but I can't seem to "use" an antidote to heal the sick guy in the back room at the doc's place. When I use an antidote there, it uses it on me, not him. When I talk to him, he just has floaty text, not barter or anything. What gives?

2) It's freaking dark in the caves and in Vault 15. I tried to use a flare, and it subtracted it from my inventory, but no noticeable light was generated. Am I doing something wrong? When I say "use" I mean I clicked it in my INV and then picked the "hand" icon from the little list that appears.

3) Hunting and pecking for goodies on the ground is annoying. This may simply be because I'm running the hi-res mod in 1400x900 mode, so the screen is smaller than it was designed to be and everything is that much harder to see/click, but sweeping the screen with my "look" icon waiting for it to turn into a "hand" icon is boring and repetitive.

Outside of those nitpicks I think the game is pretty awesome for being a decade old. I like the combat, and I the overall theme and atmosphere is very well done.

[Kalle]

For flares, equip them as you would a gun, then use them.

[Zylon]

3) Hunting and pecking for goodies on the ground is annoying. This may simply be because I'm running the hi-res mod in 1400x900 mode, so the screen is smaller than it was designed to be and everything is that much harder to see/click, but sweeping the screen with my "look" icon waiting for it to turn into a "hand" icon is boring and repetitive.

"Doctor, it hurts when I punch myself in the face."

[Jason McCullough]

It's not any easier at low-res. I blame Roberta Williams.

[Zylon]

It's not any easier at low-res. I blame Roberta Williams.
Of course it's easier. How can it NOT be easier? Running at native resolution, you can actually see objects laying on the ground.

[Slainte Mhath]

What was the original Fallout resolution, 640x480? 800x600?

Thanks for the tip on flare use, that's what I was doing wrong.

I'd still love to know how to actually give the sick guy the antidote.

[Desslock]

Playing Fallout 1, or trying to. Couple of things with the controls are keeping me from enjoying the game.

1) I've killed Rad Scorpions in the caves and turned the tails into antidotes at the doc in Shady Sands, but I can't seem to "use" an antidote to heal the sick guy in the back room at the doc's place. When I use an antidote there, it uses it on me, not him. When I talk to him, he just has floaty text, not barter or anything. What gives?

Right-click on him to bring up a menu of options- you use the antidote in that fashion.

2) It's freaking dark in the caves and in Vault 15. I tried to use a flare, and it subtracted it from my inventory, but no noticeable light was generated. Am I doing something wrong? When I say "use" I mean I clicked it in my INV and then picked the "hand" icon from the little list that appears.

You need to drop or throw the flare - it will be in your inventory as a glowy flare separate from the others. You can only throw as an attack, however, so generally just drop it.

[Slainte Mhath]

Thanks for the tips. I finally managed to heal the sick guy. Part of my "jeez it's dark" problem also turned out to be the default brightness setting in the options was apparently all the way down. I adjusted it to halfway and I can actually see things on the floor now, while the "it's supposed to be dark" places are now dim as opposed to pitch back, so the flares seem to be working as intended now.

I've made some real progress and it's fun. My only gripe is a play style issue. I'm one of those people that collects every scrap from every defeated enemy and sells them back in town to earn the cash to gear up. With the barter system, that seems like it's very difficult. I can tote back a leather armor, and it's valued at $800! That's more than any single NPC has on them in caps and inventory. I've wiped out the stores of the NPCs in Shady Sands and Junktown just off the equipment from the raiders I've killed, and I have tons more stashed in a locker at Vault 13.

[extarbags]

I've made some real progress and it's fun. My only gripe is a play style issue. I'm one of those people that collects every scrap from every defeated enemy and sells them back in town to earn the cash to gear up. With the barter system, that seems like it's very difficult. I can tote back a leather armor, and it's valued at $800! That's more than any single NPC has on them in caps and inventory. I've wiped out the stores of the NPCs in Shady Sands and Junktown just off the equipment from the raiders I've killed, and I have tons more stashed in a locker at Vault 13.

Yeah, you have to start finding some items with a high value-to-weight ratio to use as proxies for cash. Grenades and throwing knives work well for this, and you always need stimpacks.

[extarbags]

It's not any easier at low-res. I blame Roberta Williams.

It's literally infinitely easier, because it's not even possible to do reliably with that high-res patch installed. As much as I appreciate the effort that must have gone into that thing, I think the only way to play this game is with the blocky, stretchy, shitty graphics that the original resolution provides. It's not like a twelve-year-old game engine is going to wow you with its visuals under the best of circumstances anyway.

[Zylon]

I think the only way to play this game is with the blocky, stretchy, shitty graphics that the original resolution provides.
Running MAME must be like enduring the nine circles of Hell to you people.

[Tim James]

You should try playing that recent indie demake, Fillauth. I wasn't getting my hopes up at a joke remake, but I couldn't even make it past the blocky graphics anyway.