difficulty of FO2 and "playing it hardcore"

[ntz]

hello,

i tried to reply after many many years this gem in my collection .. i changed the way i cope with this kind of entertainment (games) already and i'm focused now on "playing it hardcore" style .. i did so (recently) with FO3 and with real ease , was like kindergarten trip

if you need to know more just read the very first column on playithardcore.com .. this strategy is focused on completing games without dying or reloading, or with less possible amount of thes events.

I'm playing latest killap's unofficial 1.02+ patch, now to my problem:

I've found FO2 very very hard and even if you know all the factoids and suggested strategies, which are rather cheaty and NOT much RPG, and you follow them, it's still almost unbeatable without presuming on very often save/load ..

to be honest, i don't like this way cheaty (however suggested) strategy, that everyone has to select small guns+lockpick+speech (don't catch me by a word, you surely know what i'm talking about) and "proper" perks (whilst avoiding "unproper" ones) .. as I said i want it as RPG, i don't need the best build for amuse myself or for entertain myself better, well, opposingly i'd rather use an "unproper" or even "useless" perks (as they are considered and described by FO2 experts - sadly) just because i enjoy the imagination in my head .. that's a main problem of this approach, if you follow the best practise/strategy guide, you are terribly limited in character creation and evolution .. anyway, i'm unable to play this game on normal difficulty without cheating with reloading often ..

it all starts in klamath already .. even if you do all quests and gain all possible XPs in arroyo and klamath, you're still weak (max 6-7th level) and poorly armed and further progress is in this early phase very dependant on saving/reloading oftenly .. I tested following strategies:

- to roam around arroyo and klamath to get some extra stuff and XPs in random encounters .. default WorldMapEncounterRate=30 makes them ridiculously lot so don't worry, you won't wear out your shoes at all .. well, this doesn't work well, you probably pay more expensive bullets for some XP than finding them .. you won't come rich on this and you won't get better stuff

- build my character in different way, tried to have high Outdoorsman to be able to avoid encounters .. also doesn't work well, even if you change encounters rate to 45 they are still pretty often so you can't go outside southern from Den and quest fights are still terribly tough ..

- i also tried many different approaches from combat oriented to sneaky oriented, nothing worked .. often dying in early/mid can be still resolved ONLY by save/load which is very unplesant

*******
What I am doing wrong please ? What do I miss ? What would you suggest to achieve this goal ? What strategy would you pose to survive in RPG style - so even if it helps much - you won't kill everyone for caps and XP because your character IS GOOD ..
*******

i tried 3 character builds which i'd like to play (below) and with every charater ended up frustrated and discouraged around 10-12th level .. i also tried super builds (cheaty "properly" built characters - which i don't count to these 3) and above listed strategies with them ..

my main 3 characters were:

1) nasty bitch from Vault (woman):
ST 4, PE 7, EN 4, CH 6, IN 6, AG 8, LK 5
Sex Appeal + Finesse
Tagged - Small Guns, Speach, Sneak

Comment - I won't notice perk progression at all, if you read this guide (fallout.wikia.com/wiki/The_Nearly_Ultimate_Fallout_2_Guide) and check suggested perc progression for advised builds you see that's all cheaty same - f*ck it .. let's assume, that i possibly had *also "useless" and "unproper" perks, same with next listed builds

2) Iron Mike:
ST 8, PE 4, EN 8, CH 2, IN 4, AG 7, LK 7
Heavy Handed, Chem Resistant
Tagged - Unarmed, First Aid, Throwing

Comment - in Nearly Ultimate FO2 guide has this character special section "stupid" .. Well, i tested this variant with Small Guns but i din't liked it

3) Baer Thrills survivalist :
ST 5, PE 6, EN 5, CH 5, IN 6, AG 6, LK 7
Good Natured, Fast Shot
Tagged - Outdoorsman, Small Guns, Doctor

Comment - Notice good natured, this character has very important these skills as well .. i liked it very much


Any comment or suggestion is welcome and desired .. I really would like to make one more passthrough in FO2 (and i re-played it already several times years ago) .. What strategy will you use to play fallout as much PIL as possible ? That's my question ..

in advance,
regards, ntz

ps. i consider perk gifted as criminal and using it very rarely (when I want to play gifted character - which is not usual)

 

[ntz]

well, to be precise i believe, that these all difficulties experienced in early/mid phase of game are mostly related to poor armanent you have .. it's not easy to make say $5000 to be able to buy some basic real armor and basic gun (at least smg or rifle) + something little for your minion(s)

 

[zegh8578]

Um, not sure exactly what you're asking. I can't find anything you're doing wrong.
The game is hard, in terms of how suddenly you might die, and stuff like that. I played the game a total of unhealthy ammount of times, and in my only "iron man" type playthrough (no save/reload) I was killed as soon as I exited Arroyo, by a one-hit spear critical. Wham. Dead.

 

[ntz]

thanks for reply .. nice that you played the game "unhealthy" times .. i was asking for some general strategy for this "iron man" style ..

also FO1 seems much easier to me in this ..

 

[zegh8578]

i was asking for some general strategy for this "iron man" style ..

There really isn't a lot of strategy to it, that I can think of, other than to hope for the best

Well, one "strategy" would be to know the game well, and take the utmost advantage of everything: Have as many stimpacs as you can find (don't waste them. Carry "fruit" with you as an alternative way of healing, also heal yourself with skills or resting when out of combat, to save valuable stims), trade as much as you can, squeeze every bit of value out of your trade, but this goes for a normal playthrough too - my point is - an "iron man run" is easyer if you know every oportunity to cover yourself with good equipment.
Studying a walkthrough // learn the game well by playing it often?

Otherwise - good luck! It's a tough game to survive, playing it "iron man"

 

[mobucks]

Have good stealth, run 9/10ths of your AP away from encounters, hit stealth button, exit combat, exit grid.

Too gamey? Pick up bonus move and just try to run.

 

[ntz]

@zegh8578

thanks for advice .. that's what i'm trying to avoid - i mean following detailed guides or so .. i'm trying to play more dumb than i know about game and its opportunities .. ofc i won't start comming at the beggining for 25k XPs and power armor

anyway, i need to point out again, that i really would not be following pewrfect guides advising you what perks and skills you should use and which are useless ..

now i took a sit off from fo2 and replaying fo1 .. it's much easier compared to fo2 .. was thinking about difficulty - at least combat difficulty, but no, i kept it at "normal" position yet

 

[ntz]

perhaps i have solution .. it just probably only wants to decrease chance for a random encounters on the map in fo2

playing now fo1 and "iron man" style can be succesfully aplied there. fo1 is drastically more easy ..

i don't have tested out, if decreasing random encounters will damage the game balance, because encounters are very important source of XPs in fo2 .. not sure how quests and main storyline will work with generally lesser experience and thus that with lower character level. But i guess it won't hurt much .. it's weird when you do 2 encounters per square in fo2 when encounters per square are in fo1 lesser than 0.3 ..

i did some investigations and it's like that .. default settings in last unofficial patches are something like that you really have 2 encounters per square in fo2 whilst only 0.3 in fo1

i really hate myself, that i have read some parts from all those ultimal guides and so .. playing now fo1 with character build, which would be considered by these hardcore players as absolutely weak and bad:

ST 7, PE 5, EN 7, CH 4, IN 6, AG 6, LK 5
Traits - Good Natured, n/a
Tagged - Small Guns, Melee weapons, Outdoorsman
Perks - Awarness, Bonus HtH Attacks, Explorer