J.E. Sawyer on the Legion and post-endgame play

[plaidchuck]

So what's the worst thing about combat in fallout 3/NV?

The horrible AI is one of my complaints. I hate when raiders charge at you from 300 meters away armed with only a switchblade, pool cue, and spear. Many games share that shortcoming though including the original Fallout.

One of mine as well, but as you said the originals share that problem. I'm trying to figure out the two are different unless you just have a sheer hate of anything FPS.

 

[EvilBastrd]

So what's the worst thing about combat in fallout 3/NV?

The horrible AI is one of my complaints. I hate when raiders charge at you from 300 meters away armed with only a switchblade, pool cue, and spear. Many games share that shortcoming though including the original Fallout.

Okay, what is horrible gameplay that doesn't exist in 1 and 2?

 

[TorontoReign]

So what's the worst thing about combat in fallout 3/NV?

The horrible AI is one of my complaints. I hate when raiders charge at you from 300 meters away armed with only a switchblade, pool cue, and spear. Many games share that shortcoming though including the original Fallout.

One of mine as well, but as you said the originals share that problem. I'm trying to figure out the two are different unless you just have a sheer hate of anything FPS.

Sure. No I don't hate FPS. I do hate a half-ass FPS though. The current Bethesda engine is pretty horrible. New Vegas was good despite those shortcomings, but just barely. The bugs are pretty awful in regards to combat and everything else for that matter. VATS glitches are pretty common which is a shame. Taking out the groin shot is a bitch move too. Mods like Project Nevada have turned New Vegas into a much better FPS (debatable of course), and it seems like that is the case with all Bethesda games - Mods make them better. I love New Vegas, but fuck the engine that it is run on. I don't see them improving it anytime soon either. Skyrim has many of the same issues that their other games do.



Once again, the previous game shared some of these issues. They were buggy and caused many issues for me when they first came out. Fortunately we had the Restoration Project's. The real issue is why Bethesda has produced 5 games on an engine that gets worse and worse every year. Skyrim didn't really fix any of the issues that were present in Oblivion. I fear for Fallout 4 because of this.

 

[EvilBastrd]

Isn't the Restoration Project similar to mods?

I guess I am lucky. I have encountered one VATS bug, but I would not say it is common, as on my current playthrough, I haven't encountered it yet, level 17 prolly 30 hours.

I haven't encountered a game breaking bug, either.

Agree that groin and eye shots should come back. But, I haven't seen anything on this topic about how NV has some kind of unique poor gameplay. /shrug.

In fact, the main criticism I have for NV is the story. I feel this Legion stuff and a Legion companion would have made the game a lot better, and I think it was a good game, with a decent enough story, and better than recent RPGs I have played.

 

[TorontoReign]

Isn't the Restoration Project similar to mods?

I guess I am lucky. I have encountered one VATS bug, but I would not say it is common, as on my current playthrough, I haven't encountered it yet, level 17 prolly 30 hours.

I haven't encountered a game breaking bug, either.

Agree that groin and eye shots should come back. But, I haven't seen anything on this topic about how NV has some kind of unique poor gameplay. /shrug.

In fact, the main criticism I have for NV is the story. I feel this Legion stuff and a Legion companion would have made the game a lot better, and I think it was a good game, with a decent enough story, and better than recent RPGs I have played.

Yeah the RP is a mod. New Vegas is actually one of my favorite games, so I'm not trying to diss it. I have encountered numerous bugs with New Vegas. I have at least a few hundred hours on multiple characters. I still encounter various bug when playing it, but a lot of them are non issues. On my second character I encountered a bug where I couldn't enter the Strip anymore. I encountered another bug where I would randomly get killed by the C-Finder. Another one was where ED-E runs off and gets murdered for no reason. Anytime I fast travel to Gun Runners, he starts running towards the mountains, and gets either lost or killed. Never fails.

I thought the story was the games strong point.

 

[plaidchuck]

Totally agree there as well. 5 games and the same bugs and they still can't port to the PS3 without freezes, lagging, and lower graphics quality. Also the whole NPC and face engine needs redone or replaced, unless this was improved with Skyrim, haven't played it. Also after 5 games everyone has the same body type regardless of age or height?

 

[TorontoReign]

Totally agree there as well. 5 games and the same bugs and they still can't port to the PS3 without freezes, lagging, and lower graphics quality. Also the whole NPC and face engine needs redone or replaced, unless this was improved with Skyrim, haven't played it. Also after 5 games everyone has the same body type regardless of age or height?

It wasn't really fixed with Skyrim either.

 

[Per]

Cain wanted to turn Fallout into a big AAA thing I believe but from what others told me but he has never been good at running a game company so I am pretty sure that sooner or later Fallout would have bombed even if he had kept the rights of it.

Actually, you mean Caen maybe.

In a RPG, it is all about story. You don't need graphics, you don't need turn based, all you need is quality continuation of a story.

I disagree. An RPG has "story" (narrative progression of some sort) and "gameplay" (an abstract model for conflict resolution). A CRPG of the type I typically enjoy attempts to represent both of these things. You can only strip out or bastardize either one so much before it stops being a game of the type I typically enjoy (and certainly stops being the same kind of experience).

 

[Crni Vuk]

So what's the worst thing about combat in fallout 3/NV?

The horrible AI is one of my complaints. I hate when raiders charge at you from 300 meters away armed with only a switchblade, pool cue, and spear. Many games share that shortcoming though including the original Fallout.

yeah, but with TB combat they had at leats a chance to get close enough.

In F3 or Vegas? Not so much ...

 

[Makagulfazel]

In F3 or Vegas? Not so much ...

I recommend Project Nevada + Very Hard + Hardcore.
I have loved my DLC playthrough with these settings. I think it helps that the writing/voice acting in Dead Money and Old World Blues were so great. Unfortunately, the best part of Honest Hearts was the story you were conveyed through random exploring and stumbling across the interconnected log files. All I have left is Lonesome Road

 

[For NCR]

I recommend Project Nevada + Very Hard + Hardcore.

Project Nevada is the best thing to happen in NV since the NCR upgraded Armor (OK, the last one is my opinion).

 

[Crni Vuk]

In F3 or Vegas? Not so much ...

I recommend Project Nevada + Very Hard + Hardcore.
I have loved my DLC playthrough with these settings. I think it helps that the writing/voice acting in Dead Money and Old World Blues were so great. Unfortunately, the best part of Honest Hearts was the story you were conveyed through random exploring and stumbling across the interconnected log files. All I have left is Lonesome Road

Hey, I am not saying its a "bad" mod, but if it is basically giving the enemy just "more health" then I am not sure if I would like it really.

I don't think that anything can fix the awfull AI which is as well what surprise ... a left over from Oblivion ...

 

[Makagulfazel]

Hey, I am not saying its a "bad" mod, but if it is basically giving the enemy just "more health" then I am not sure if I would like it really.

I have 210 health with Lifegiver - would be 385 on vanilla. Back-pedaling is slower. Sprint drains AP. Very few food items give health. Rarer ammo and stimpacks. Slower XP gain. The mod is very modular and even uses the Mod Configuration Menu, which allows you to tweak your perferences directly in game. For example, I didn't want more implants in the game, so I removed them.
My biggest problem is that(especially with the DLC), the jack-of-all-trades leveling up has not been addressed. Once you get into the high-30s or 40s, you start to cap out all the skills. But, the combat is much more rewarding than it was in my first couple of (non-DLC)playthroughs.

 

[TorontoReign]

Hey, I am not saying its a "bad" mod, but if it is basically giving the enemy just "more health" then I am not sure if I would like it really.

I have 210 health with Lifegiver - would be 385 on vanilla. Back-pedaling is slower. Sprint drains AP. Very few food items give health. Rarer ammo and stimpacks. Slower XP gain. The mod is very modular and even uses the Mod Configuration Menu, which allows you to tweak your perferences directly in game. For example, I didn't want more implants in the game, so I removed them.
My biggest problem is that(especially with the DLC), the jack-of-all-trades leveling up has not been addressed. Once you get into the high-30s or 40s, you start to cap out all the skills. But, the combat is much more rewarding than it was in my first couple of (non-DLC)playthroughs.

I second that. I can't even play New Vegas without Project Nevada anymore. It just won't do.

 

[The_Noob]

From the sounds of it, it seems like playing Morrowind as a pure mage on full difficulty but with guns and a survival bar.

Ah, it brings me back, frantically searching for restore health abd magicka potions while being blasted apart by daedroth. Only truly good game Bethesda has made this decade.

 

[Tagaziel]

Project Nevada and J.E. Sawyer's mod v4 is the way to go. The game's awesome, challenging and incredibly fun. Combat isn't even broken now, but forces to diversify and use all kinds of weapons, particularly grenades to break up enemy groups.

 

[Slaughter Manslaught]

Project Nevada and J.E. Sawyer's mod v4 is the way to go. The game's awesome, challenging and incredibly fun. Combat isn't even broken now, but forces to diversify and use all kinds of weapons, particularly grenades to break up enemy groups.

Are both mods mutually compatible?

 

[WorstUsernameEver]

Project Nevada and J.E. Sawyer's mod v4 is the way to go. The game's awesome, challenging and incredibly fun. Combat isn't even broken now, but forces to diversify and use all kinds of weapons, particularly grenades to break up enemy groups.

Are both mods mutually compatible?

At the very least, Project Nevada base module is compatible with JE Sawyer. Equipment and Cyberware also probably are, Rebalance isn't, but that goes without saying.

Also, I'd like to recommend at least the Classic Perk module of Cirosan's Classic Overhaul, it's p. good (the whole mod is p. good, and it has a compatibility patch with JE Sawyer, but I imagine some of the mechanical changes might not be to everyone's tastes): http://ooccommunity.com/media/cirosans-classic-overhaul/

 

[Makagulfazel]

FYI, I was wrong. Project Nevada does have an option to limit skill points per level, right in the in-game mod configuration menu.

 

[HerrMike]

I've played through with Project Nevada and it didn't seem to make all that much of a difference. I'd still recommend it, but I was slightly disappointed. New gear was nice.