Is Fallout 2 requiring much of minmaxing?

Valdetiosi

Valdetiosi

Valde
I guess I could have worded out the title more appropriately, but I do want to point out few things that are concerning me as I make my first playthrough of Fallout 2.

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As you can see from this, I mainly have character associated with Gifted & Good Natured Traits, aiming for in the long run using unarmed, small guns, repair, speech and possibly lockpicking. I saw it that Agility is necessity for the action points and luck for criticals, but as I have leveled up and read little about what this game has, I read that there is Sniper & Slayer perk. The former multiplies LCK with 10 for the critical chance and latter turns every hit from unarmed/melee into critical strikes. Considering that I have taken More Criticals and Better Criticals perks now that I'm upon Level 9 and at Den, I have concerns mainly if this build can last to the end or should it have been much more focused on minmaxing to get stuff done?
 
If you have read Per's guide for Fallout 2, you've probably noticed that it's pretty much written as minmaxers or powergamers in mind and there's a reason for that. The game includes plenty of pretty useless/underutilized perks and traits and there are indeed some stuff that require particular stats/traits/skills which you will definitely miss out on (e.g. you won't be able to have a career in porn with those stats) unless you read the guide before creating your character. Neither Fallout or Fallout 2 gives you plenty of room to role-play the way you want to, which sucks, well, at least when compared to our expectations from RPGs these days.
 
nkchan16 said:
If you have read Per's guide for Fallout 2, you've probably noticed that it's pretty much written as minmaxers or powergamers in mind and there's a reason for that. The game includes plenty of pretty useless/underutilized perks and traits and there are indeed some stuff that require particular stats/traits/skills which you will definitely miss out on (e.g. you won't be able to have a career in porn with those stats) unless you read the guide before creating your character. Neither Fallout or Fallout 2 gives you plenty of room to role-play the way you want to, which sucks, well, at least when compared to our expectations from RPGs these days.
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Thanks, it's mostly more about efficiency, as Critical class was on my aiming here, with 2 companions max.
 
Valdetiosi said:
Thanks, it's mostly more about efficiency, as Critical class was on my aiming here, with 2 companions max.
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I particularly always use CHA 3 and always have in my party 4 members (90% of the time is Vic, Sully, Cass and Marcus)

mentats + blue memory module + Mirrored shades + Magnetic Personality.
 
Cobra Commander said:
I particularly always use CHA 3 and always have in my party 4 members (90% of the time is Vic, Sully, Cass and Marcus)

mentats + blue memory module + Mirrored shades + Magnetic Personality.
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Yeah, the trouble is I didn't know much about those items/perks, so I figured as there would be no other way to raise SPECIALs, I would keep it standard 4. And about drugs & alcohol, are the effects big enough to make difference and is addiction a worse thing to happen next to radiation poisoning?
 
Valdetiosi said:
As you can see from this, I mainly have character associated with Gifted & Good Natured Traits, aiming for in the long run using unarmed, small guns, repair, speech and possibly lockpicking. I saw it that Agility is necessity for the action points and luck for criticals, but as I have leveled up and read little about what this game has, I read that there is Sniper & Slayer perk. The former multiplies LCK with 10 for the critical chance and latter turns every hit from unarmed/melee into critical strikes. Considering that I have taken More Criticals and Better Criticals perks now that I'm upon Level 9 and at Den, I have concerns mainly if this build can last to the end or should it have been much more focused on minmaxing to get stuff done?
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You'll be able to finish the game just fine. Better criticals is actually one of the best perks in the game, and while more criticals...isn't, it is also not the end of the world.

The main drawback of your build is the mediocre intelligence, which means your skills will be suffering a bit, and also locks you out of a number of dialogue options and hence game content.

As far as drugs go, most of them offer excellent benefits for tough battles or situations. Addiction withdrawal is painful, but it passes with time in most cases. The only drug you need to be a bit careful with is Jet, because the addiction is permanent unless cured, which is difficult if you're not familiar with the method.
 
Valdetiosi said:
Yeah, the trouble is I didn't know much about those items/perks, so I figured as there would be no other way to raise SPECIALs, I would keep it standard 4. And about drugs & alcohol, are the effects big enough to make difference and is addiction a worse thing to happen next to radiation poisoning?
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You can "cheat". By waiting, no only you recover from addiction (excepted Jet addiction) but you also regain health. Chems are very powerful.

Me? I don´t use, actually, aside from mentats to recruit a char. after that, they stick with you after the loss of the charisma. Just do not tell them to wait somewhere, or they will not come back unless you use mentat again. It happens straight to me when I go to Vault City and I have to get Marcus to wait.

I don´t use because Fallout 2 later is easy, there is no need. Only real danger I remember so far, at the moment, is a damn random encounter with an Enclave squad, This guy are no joke, they come in at 8 members sometimes, and always seem to shoot first, with real chances to 0HKO you with a critical hit, even if you have APA.

I always run away from this encounter.
 
Yes. Can be up to 300, but you don't need, 200 is your target here for combat skills. (185 maybe)

Some skills need a check to more then 100, like science and speech. Better read a faq about skill books. Remember, skill books have a limit to their benefits. If I'm not mistake is 90 or 100. So read all books that you can find and them you can start to spend points in that skill. But dont do this for small guns, you need the points as soon as possible.

Unarmed can be up to 90 for free in San Francisco.

And have Vic in the party, he can repair things for you.
 
Oh, now I see. Unarmed char.

So you can also skip the points in small guns. Don't spend points in stupid things like trap, doctor, steal, gamble, sneak and throw. About.......50 in barter is enough.

Outdoorsman is actually pretty useful. I THINK if you have Cassidy in the party, you can "use" his outdoorsman, but I'm not sure.
 
My advice: Don't worry to much about min-maxing for your first playthrough. The game is perfectly winnable with a subpar character. Besides, not being able to solve every situation in the most profitable way, actually improves the flow of the game. Else you'll spent more time looking at a walkthrough (and spoiler yourself) than playing the game. An optimized character is something for second and third playthroughs.

Drop the tag on repair, it's not used that often and you can raise it with other means than skillpoints. Take a gunskill or maybe doctor if you're going pacifist
 
Brunzer said:
Yeah, I think that's true. Memory is a bit hazy though. But a quick google search gave some confirmation too.
According to the wiki his outdoorsman skill is nothing special though: http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/John_Cassidy
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Yeah. Funny, I thought it was about 80. Still, it's an extra help, as the game probably calculates the chance of a encounter for all the characters. If one fails, he tries another and so on, until the whole party fails and the meeting happens.

I guess :lol:
 
Cobra Commander said:
If one fails, he tries another and so on, until the whole party fails and the meeting happens.
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I always thought the game calculates the chance once against the highest skill in the party and you either fail or pass as a group. If what you say is true, having more partymembers gives quite an advantage. It would make sense in a way, 5 people see more than 3 (in theory).
 
Brunzer said:
I always thought the game calculates the chance once against the highest skill in the party and you either fail or pass as a group. If what you say is true, having more partymembers gives quite an advantage. It would make sense in a way, 5 people see more than 3 (in theory).
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No. What you said is what makes the most sense. Requires less processing.

If every time you entered one of the squares on the map this calculation for the whole party was done, it would be okay, but it's every step, then .....I had not thought of that.
 
Cobra Commander said:
Yeah. Funny, I thought it was about 80. Still, it's an extra help, as the game probably calculates the chance of a encounter for all the characters. If one fails, he tries another and so on, until the whole party fails and the meeting happens.

I guess :lol:
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Sulik is the one with outdoorsman 80. I'm not certain it actually works for NPCs, though, regardless of what people are theorizing.
 
Cobra Commander said:
Still, it's an extra help, as the game probably calculates the chance of a encounter for all the characters. If one fails, he tries another and so on, until the whole party fails and the meeting happens.
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No, the game checks against the highest-skilled party member only.

According to Per's guide:

If an NPC has a higher Outdoorsman value than yours it will be used automatically while travelling. This will probably only make a slight difference if any: the only one of them who has a significant skill level is Sulik, who reaches 80% at his highest level. Keeping a Motion Sensor in your own inventory will automatically apply its bonus to the party member with the highest skill (it does nothing if it's in the inventory of an NPC).
 
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