F2 without save/load story

M

marcino

First time out of the vault
Hi

I`m going to play Fallout 2 without using save/load* and I will try to keep my companion alive whole game. I plan to travel with Sulik, Cassidy and this big and slow killing machine. Any death and I start from begining.
This will be something like report how its going.

Stats:
S 5
P 7
E 8
C 5
I 7
A 10
L 6

Small frame+gifted, small guns, speech and lockpick

Please wish me luck

* there are some exceptions from save/load rule, like zeta-scan and fight with Masticator. I will mention all of them in my report
 
marcino said:
* there are some exceptions from save/load rule, like zeta-scan and fight with Masticator.
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Uh, why? These things are less severe than death.
 
Uh, why? These things are less severe than death.[/quote]

yes, but I don`t want my character to have lowered luck or charisma. It seems that SPECIAL stats are important for me.

Now report:
It will be really quick. After killing million of rats in Klamath, Sulik and I went to collect some car parts. The doors to surface were closed as usual. I took the dynamite and set timer as usual. Sulik was little shocked seeing parts of me flying all over the tunnel.

Yes, you are right. I have to start from the beginning. It is not my first game, I had some deaths, but blowing myself with dynamite was the most stupid ending of first try.
I will be back after killing the rats once again.
 
Well, good luck.

I've been planning on doing the iron man playthrough on hardest difficulty for some time now, but never got round to it. Seems I never will, as I'd probably break my screen.
 
Second try report

This time Klamath and Den without problems. I have reached level 6 and chosen bonus move as second perk (swift learner as first).
In my opinion travel from Den to Vault city is one of the most dangerous paths of the game. These 2 extra points can decide about life and death.
There was no hunting rifle in shops, so I took .44 magnum rev. Later I will give it to Cassidy who does quite good damage with it.
Randoms on the way to Modoc:
twice highwaymen/robbers, first time I escaped through the cave (I call it Moria pass, like Gandalf in Lords of the rings) second time usual escape. Third time I was able to avoid.
Randoms on the way to Vault city:
around 10 slavers with dogs, 2 SMG and probably 1 h&k cavs. I was really lucky escaping with 14 HP. Before I managed to stop and heal, game provided me with new attraction:
5 slavers + dogs, one SMG, one H&K, 3 spears. This time I had to fight, exit grid was behind them. I was really lucky, assault rifle from Modoc saved me. Now boring Vault city.
 
heh neat. I die WAY too often in Fallout 2 to consider an iron man playthrough.
 
The problem is one little crit from Frank Horrigan, and it all goes to shit.
 
I don't think I am even remotely good enough to attempt this. Sounds fun though.
 
marcino said:
(swift learner as first)
Click to expand...
Hm, for 100 000 XP points there is only 5 000 XP bonus, it looks useless to me. Toughness at level 3 looks far more rewarding to me, when you are playing with EN=8.
 
valcik wrote:
Hm, for 100 000 XP points there is only 5 000 XP bonus, it looks useless to me. Toughness at level 3 looks far more rewarding to me, when you are playing with EN=8.

I have always played with toughness. This time I have chosen 5%bonus in order to get bonus move (which is crucial) before leaving DEN. Is it a good choice? Probably not, it seems you can reach level 6 in Den anyway, without random encounters. One advantage is that I will receive Sniper a little bit earlier. Back to report:

second try, 1th of November 2241
I have reached New Reno. Level 11. Getting the car without any problems. I did one totally stupid thing - Sulik has received SMG.
First shot and Cassidy has lost about 70 HP and decided to leave the battlefield. Luckily it was easy fight. After healing Cassidy I gave Sulik combat knife. Now he is safe and quite useless. He will taste some blood after receiving Super Sledge. In Broken Hill I saved before the prison action. I didn`t used it so the game is still clear iron man. Now I`m going to do Sierra Army. After this I will collect Marcus and go back to become Salvatore`s made man.
 
second try, 23th of november 2241

I`ve finished Reno and Redding. I`m hitting NCR now. Level 15th which means bonus rate of fire finally.
RENO: I couldn`t get intelligence bonus in Cats Paw, so I had to use mentats before Salvatore quests. Luckily no addiction. I didn`t manage to steal oxygen tank from boss. The fight was quick and easy. There was no Super Sledge in the shop. Before boxing I saved the game. I took buffouts and bonus from oral sex in Cats Paw. The texts are best in the game (YES, YES, YESSSS .. now go pay the cashier). Before the first fight started, I lost the +1 strength bonus, but still had 7 strength and 100% unarmed. All the fights anded very quickly. Hitting the legs is ...hmm... artificial, but works good. The game is still clear iron man.
REDDING: THe fight with Morton was lucky. At the first round Frog received crit in the eyes and passed away. Marcus with turbo plasma shot the second. At the and Marcus received crit and went unconscious. He is really vulnerable and I can`t imagine, how to keep him alive later.
I had only one easy random. Before I set to NCR, I`m going to give Marcus Rocket Launcher, in case we meet hostile mutants.
After I reach NCR i will buy .223 pistol for Sulik. The fight with Darion will be first true check of my team.
 
It's perfectly doable, especially if you know the game well enough (i.e. played it before).
 
alec said:
It's perfectly doable, especially if you know the game well enough (i.e. played it before).
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I played it several times before and still can't make a complete playthrough without dying once or letting one of my companions die.
It is doable, but knowing the game is not enough, you should be a skilled player too.
 
I started an iron man game once, giving myself a few goodies at the start and thinking I'd role-play my decisions in the game. Consequently there were a lot of quests I didn't do because they seemed dangerous or silly. After leaving the Den at a rather low level I found some robbers in a cave, thought "Wow! I never encounter these usually", tried to take some of them on and got slaughtered.
 
OK, if you want to play iron man, you really need to use your brain and have good knowledge about enemies, to decide if fight for exp or rather run away for keeping alive. No exceptions from these 2 rules.
While the journey to NCR I forgot about brain rule ant I have to start over. I met deathclaws and happily stood up to fight for easy exp. Well, tough deathclaw are a little bit different then one in Broken Hill. When I remembered about it, it was definitely too late. Marcus was first, Cassidy second, Sulik with crippled leg tried to escape. Rest you know.
I played Killaps unofficial patch, hardest difficulty (both fight and game)
Per: In iron man you have to do all quests to get as much exp as possible. You cannot count on randoms, because they usually are dangerous. Caves usually are source of easy exp, but sometimes they are source of quick death. In iron man it is very exciting to come into the cave.
Alec: I wouldn`t write "perfectly playable". I hope it can be done, but there are some randoms, you just cannot survive (or escape). for example "crazy ghouls" near Gecko. Robbers (2x SMG, 1x H&K) near modoc also very hard. The same with "remain of Masters army).
Now the last try. Im going to do it until Reno and then play usual game to get perfect knowledge about second part of the game. When I fill ready I will set off to NCR.
 
Last try

Third and last try

Objectives:
Kill Frank, keep alive Sulik and Cassidy, don`t use save
and load
only one exception from iron man possible: before zeta scan.
highest difficulty of game and fight
Marcus can die. I really don`t see the possibility to keep him alive whole game. Has tendency to fall down and get unconscious.

I have to slow down, because my child is coming back home, but I will keep you informed. If somebody is interested in this crazy idea of course. I also encourage you to make you own try and write your impressions in this topic. On one hand is is quite boring doing this Arroyo and Klamath stuff, but on the other hand it is so exciting to stand up to every fight or just to set off to new location.
 
Isn't this the old concept of Ironman Style? I've finished Fallout2 like that a couple of times myself, albeit not on the Hard difficulty level.

I think it's a very very tall order that you're supposed to keep your companions alive. I don't think it's realistic. When you run into a big Enclave Patrol of 8 patrollers and you are busy trying to survive the fight yourself, and two or three of the patrollers choose to target the same NPC, there's nothing you can do. In an Ironman playthrough, sometimes you simply have to sacrifice a follower to stay alive yourself. When your character is in danger, it is sometimes the NPCs who save you by drawing some of the enemy fire to themselves.

I agree that Marcus is very hard to keep alive. In my opinion though, it's not his tendency to get knocked down that is the main problem. I think the main problem is how unmanageable he is. Unable to be told to stay close to you or to stay where he is, he often strays away from the main group, and then you cannot Superstim him if he gets into trouble. This is especially troublesome on the Oil Rig.

I agree with many here that the trip from the Den to Vault City is one of the most dangerous parts of the early game, as you have a young character with few hit points and no decent armor. Then the trip from New Reno to NCR is quite dangerous as Remants of the Master's Army can mess you up badly if they happen to get criticals, but at that point you already have a car and are less likely to get intercepted. The third massively dangerous traveling you have to do is obviously to Navarro. A big Enclave Patrol is one of the worst things one can run into. Deathclaws and Fire Geckos are dangerous too, but only to the NPC's, as you can simply run away from them, which doesnt work that well when the opponents have long range weapons such as Gauss Pistols (Enclave Patrols), Laser Rifles, and Rocket Launchers (Super Mutants).

I usually play Ironman with a very high Endurance and I pick two levels of Lifegiver as soon as possible. Things get a little easier once one reaches New Reno. Getting the damage threshold bonuses from the boxing ring and some Combat Armor from the army base will make things much easier. However, up until the point one has 500 hitpoints or more, one will ALWAYS have to make sure to kill the enemies with automatic weapons FIRST. Even if you have good armor and the unbalancingly good toughness bonus from the boxing ring, a single armor-piercing critical from almost any burst weapon will end your whole attempt. I had that happen once, I think I was several real-life days into my attempt and was wiping out one of the crime families. Then one of them happened to get a lucky critical with a 10mm SMG ten hexes away or so. End of attempt.
 
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