Iron Woman

J

James Snowscoran

Still Mildly Glowing
A few weeks back, after reinstalling New Vegas and buying the DLC packs, I got the crazy idea to try to finish an iron man run of the game. I've finished iron man runs of both Fallout 1 and 2 in the past, so it seemed like a good idea. Turns out it is in fact quite hard.

My settings and mods:

- Hardcore mode on
- Very Hard difficulty
- Project Nevada mod installed. Main gameplay effects include
. . . . . - No food healing
. . . . . - Weapon damage 80% at 0 skill (up from 50)
. . . . . - Headshots bypass DT when head is unprotected
. . . . . - HP does not scale with level for both player and NPCs. EN6 courier has 160 HP throughout the game
. . . . . - DT can absorb up to 90% of the damage of an incoming hit, up from 80%
. . . . . - Increased limb damage
. . . . . - Increased impact of crippled legs
. . . . . - Increased sneak difficulty
. . . . . - Slower movement when backpedaling and running with an unholstered weapon
- Bottle that water mod installed, to refill bottles of water from clean sources


I run with the following self-imposed rules:

- No fast travel except for the caravan route Crimson Caravan Company <--> 188 Trading Post <--> Novac <--> Mojave Outpost <--> Primm <--> Goodsprings
- No reloading when bad stuff happens, including player or companion deaths, pickpocket failure, etc. The exceptions are as follows:
. . . . . - When a glitch in the game causes the courier or a companion to die
. . . . . - To experiment with and explore game mechanics (within reason)
. . . . . - When the game behaves really wonky, especially related to allied NPCs (e.g. the NCRCF assault)

I've made a save at level 6 just before leaving Goodsprings (and getting the option of rebuilding the character) as a starting point. So far I've died thrice: Once to nightstalkers outside the cave near Mojave Outpost, once to cazadores near Chance's grave, and once to glowing ones at the Nuclear Test Site. Fourth run is underway, and somehow I'm still having fun. Just made it to the Mojave Outpost and I have been more diligent this time with making appropriate screenshots; I've been toying with the idea of making polaroid-ish pictures with text out of them and adding them to a cork message board background, uploading it here and updating with more pictures as the adventure continues until the courier dies or successfully finishes the battle of Hoover Dam.

Things I have learned so far:

- Explosives are your best friend. Might even be worth getting light step at 14 though I suspect a high explosives skill and decent reactions should be enough to keep the courier alive.
- Dying in a difficult battle feels far worse when you're carrying an abundant supply of chems you didn't use.
- ED-E's perk is damn essential, because unpredictability is your worst enemy. Don't let your robot buddy die!
- All of my deaths can really be attributed to excessive dicking around without moving on with the main quest. Revisiting the areas surrounding the first towns you move through later on with better skills, gear and companions is probably a better option.
- Sniping is easy. Assaults on buildings, vaults or caves are dangerous.

Have anyone else tried something similar?
 
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You.......................are.................hardcore.

Ain't no way in hell i would find the nerve to try something like that, i would probably end up on Xanax by the end the first day.

Good luck to you brave Courier.
 
Stanislao Moulinsky said:
I've made a save at level 6 just before leaving Goodsprings (and getting the option of rebuilding the character)
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How did you gain the needed XP for six level ups in Goodsprings? :shock:
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I did all the quests with all the dialogue skill checks, picked all the locks and hacked all the computers. I whored all the challenges I could. Then I took a scoped varmint rifle, sturdy caravan shotgun and tons of ammo and picked clean the radscorpion nest below from the cemetery.
 
Courier 4 learned something new.

She learned that motorcycles can indeed explode (I really didnt know this)

Courier 5 has begun her journey :)
 
Would be cool to follow your progress more closely with screenshots and updates.

Im relegated to a console tard for the moment, though wouldnt try that myself even if I had NV on PC.

Good luck.
 
James Snowscoran said:
A few weeks back, after reinstalling New Vegas and buying the DLC packs, I got the crazy idea to try to finish an iron man run of the game. I've finished iron man runs of both Fallout 1 and 2 in the past, so it seemed like a good idea. Turns out it is in fact quite hard.
Click to expand...

Project Nevada is the default setting of my NV playthroughs, I can't play the game anymore without it.

I'm in my third playthrough since I installed the mod, the only difference from your settings are:

- DT can absorb 99% of the damage, only 1% bleedthrough (Giant Radscorpions and Deathclaws are much more deadly).
- I don't use the Cyberware or weapons the mods provide, too much "god power"
- I use the default settings with sleep/thirsty/food rates, it's not challeging have to drink water every five minutes, it's annoying.
- I disable visor borders, enhanced zoom and dynamic stealth field

The rest is like yours, no food healing, hard sneaking, increased limb damage and crippled limbs, slower movement, etc.
I have too bottle that water mod installed, it's a must (and makes a lot more sense if you think about it)

I also use the self-imposed rule of if companions die, they stay dead, but not when fast-travelling to very further locations, like from Novac - my base house in the game - to Jacobstown or New Vegas Medic Clinic. I use the rule of thumb of not fast-travelling when going to closer locations, like from Novac to Camp Forlon Hope or Novac to 188 Trading Post or Bitter Springs to Camp Golf or Goodsprings to Red Rock Canyon.

Also, I only use companions in their personal quests, it's too easy rely on Cass DT enhancing, Arcade better healing or ED-E detection.
Trying to battle too manny enemies at the same time without companions is the best way to get killed.
Also you lost your mules, so it's better plan your travels wise.

Since I use only 1% DT bleedthrough, no Power Armor, it's not allowed even for a companion!
I don't like it anyway, even in a vanilla game you move too slow, so I think it's not a lost. :D
Killing the BoS is another story, BTW.

Things I have learned so far:

- Explosives are a girl's best friend. Might even be worth getting light step at 14 though I suspect a high explosives skill and decent reactions should be enough to keep the courier alive.
- Dying in a difficult battle feels far worse when you're carrying an abundant supply of chems you didn't use.
- ED-E's perk is damn essential, because unpredictability is your worst enemy. Don't let your robot buddy die!
- All of my deaths can really be attributed to excessive dicking around without moving on with the main quest. Revisiting the areas surrounding the first towns you move through later on with better skills, gear and companions is probably a better option.
- Sniping is easy. Assaults on buildings, vaults or caves are dangerous.

Have anyone else tried something similar?
Click to expand...

Only if you never played a explosives build you don't know that grenades/mines/dynamite are the courier's best friend. :cool:
Sniping is actually the easist way to play the game, I did a Grunt build one time that only used military weapons and since it was a regular soldier, NO SNIPER, snipers are a special trainned class of fighters.

And yeah, it's funny that since we have more care planning a battle, travelling and studing the enemy we become too confident sometimes and think "those two young Cazadors and two Cazadors? Piece of cake".
Only to realize in the verge of death we screwed up badlly. :lol:

Good to know that are more hardcore players out there.
 
Yeah, I don't use much of the added equipment either, but I do have it turned on simply for the wattz laser pistol and rifle, which I don't feel is too gamebreaking and feels a ton better than the default laser weapons. Most of the other added weapons and armour are indeed too much godmode.

On the topic of DT bleedthrough, I honestly think lower bleedthrough % mostly benefits the player. You won't defeat anyone by peppering them with shots that deal damage lower than their DT anyway.

As a status update, I'm now on the seventh courier. Courier five died in an amusing manner in the merc assault near the abandoned farmstead, I aimed poorly with a grenade and it ended up right next to the courier. Courier six died to a rigged terminal in the REPCONN test facility- I had plain forgotten how deadly those are. Ah well. Lucky seven is a go!
 
Why do you deactivate the screen borders and Enhanced vision modes? they actualy add to the game, specialy if usign the Darker nights mod, now havign a damaged helmet or glasses will obstruct your vision a little, wich I think makes four eyes playthroughs more interesting.
 
James Snowscoran said:
On the topic of DT bleedthrough, I honestly think lower bleedthrough % mostly benefits the player. You won't defeat anyone by peppering them with shots that deal damage lower than their DT anyway.
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I'm in my first playthrough with 99% DT actually, before I was using the same settings of you.
The beginning of the game it was hard to the point I also raised my unarmed skill to being able to do damage on enemies, since my luck is very high (9) and when this attribute is high is better played with unarmed rather than melee.

I finished Sierra Madre recently and I'm using the reinforced armor, before starting the DLC I was using reinforced leather + armor implant.

I'm realizing this, because I have the NEMEAN implant + the complete set of Sierra Madre Reinforced, wich makes 27 DT in total: enemies don't make damage on me!. Even NCR troopers with Service Rifle don't bypass the bleedthrough, unless is a Viper armed with an grenade rifle or cowboy repeater, they can't hurt me.
But their armors aren't replaced, so they use the same mercenary or leather armor.

I think I'll reverse the change and use the old 90% setting that I was using before.
 
Do you intend to do Dead Money with these rules on? Because it gets very trial-and-error at times, it's more or less impossible to do the DLC the first time without dying at the very least once.

That said, congratulations for having far more patience than me.
 
In Dead Money on regular hardcore mode my health was on average around three little bars on the meter. I don't want to even imagine what it would be like on this guy's hardcore mode.
 
I played like this in Dead Money without trouble, but I'm a nut person, I already maded more than 10 complete playthroughs, doing everything possible in the game.

I know, not exactly a parameter for anything, but it's possible to play the DLCs following this rules, just don't go shooting and running like crazy. ;)
 
I was more talking about the radios and holograms, these can kill you very fast, especially in the Casino, where there is so little room that sometimes a single mistake can cost you your life no matter what you do next. The outside is the easy part, apart from a place where 3 ghost people, including 2 with bombs, attack you right as you enter a zone (did it for me at least). Died a few time, and that's using VATS and all.
 
Without hardcore mode and the many mods that add to it I wouldn't have a liking for NV anymore. I like to add a few personal rules, and when I can on a hardcore play-through, find mods that enhance my experience the way I like it.

No fast travel since I have it disabled. I like to just walk everywhere. I use the wait feature to save my games. I don't save manually, nor do I ever load any games till death. Realistic combat particularly with damage. I like for things to stay down when they've been shot in the head (including myself).

Dead Money wasn't that hard on higher levels with perks, and a few maxed out skills. Stick to the shadows. Kill them before they know what hit them. In earlier levels however a modded hardcore play-through is a bit difficult.
 
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