The floating text is good enough since most reactions are like that anyway.
Do you know why Ian prefers the 10mm Carbine before the .45 SMG when you select Use Best Weapon? To me the .45 SMG seems better, at least when it comes to damage. The 10mm Carbine can be loaded with AP ammo though.
-Going into the game what are you looking forward to?
Getting the best ending, huge faction fights and the high difficulty.
-After having completed it what did you think of the game?
It's short (a bit longer than 1), but highly replayable. Different factions offer a variety of choices that affect other locations, highly reactive cast of companions makes it really enjoyable and adds an extra layer to making choices.
-What would you improve?
Skills like Repair and Science are pretty useless early on and then have really high checks near the end. I'd add some easier checks earlier in the game to show players that these skills are useful.
-What's your thoughts on the main quest?
I dislike the amnesia, just like in Nevada- it really restricts the roleplaying. The final location offers a lot of options to navigate it and get answers to questions player might have. I like the different choices it offers.
-If old, does the game still hold up in 2022?
Just like others, it comes with sfall and high-res patch and works out of the box.
-If not Fallout 1, does it add to Fallout lore in a good way?
I like what they did with New Mexico. It's definitely a good addition. Rebirth is a bit questionable in some parts, but the canon ending eliminates them.
-What's the game's strengths and weaknesses?
Strengths:
Highly replayable, short
Highly reactive and interesting companions
Good moral choices- being good doesn't pay as much as being evil, but has some other benefits. You can commit some of the worst atrocities in the series.
Combat- new weapons, higher difficulty and huge fights between different factions make it really fun.
Low Intelligence dialogue is a treat. Some quests are also changed to accomodate the dumb character.
Weaknesses:
Faction quests restrict you from working for the other side. Majority of them feel natural, but there's one questline where it feels REALLY artificial.
-What would you like to change in the game?
I would change the faction conflict I've mentioned above, so it would feel more natural when player takes a side.
-What build did you use during your play-through?
Low Endurance sniper with high Luck. Invested a lot into Gambling to buy books in Sedit, later tagged Science. Abused drugs and invested into Unarmed to win the ring fights in Sedit.
-What's your weapon of choice?
Rifle. Got the hunting rifle in Sedit, later bought a Browning in Corath and finally got a sniper rifle from one of the Rebirth patrols.
-Describe your favourite quest and why you like it!
Strike in the Corath mines.
Depending on who you work for you get different goals- either turn it into full blown riots or force the workers to go back to work. You get a variety of different options to achieve them- attack the guards, plant some explosives, murder the strike leaders or use your skills to convince the miners to either attack the guards or stop the strike.
And both results don't feel like right options- either the mercenaries get slaughtered by miners and police opens fire on protesters or you force the miners to go back to their hard, badly paid job.
-What's your favourite location in the game?
Albuquerque. On one side of the wall depressing ruins where poor are harvested for their organs, various refugees (farmers, tribals, merchants, mercenaries) that were forced out of their homes by Rebirth are harassed by a gang and executed for having any mutations. On the other side lies the Empire and it's green gardens and clean, adobe buildings. But it hides some dark secrets and a ruthless fight for power.
-What ending did you strive for/get?
I had to make some choices, that maybe aren't the best ones currently, but secure a better future.
-If the game is a total conversion mod: Could it be considered as part of the Fallout canon?
Another one down! How many times have you played it now? If you were to compare it with Nevada what would your judgement be?
I will have some use of that info in your post when I begin Resurrection later this week (hopefully).
I only have the Master and Mariposa left. I just killed Morpheus, then convinced BoS to attack Mariposa and begun the attack. However it feels like the BoS guys are just in the way. And is it even recommended to do Mariposa before the Master, does the order matter? It's sad but I only have time for one option right now.
Like Fallout 2 vs Fallout 1.
Resurrection is shorter and easier to replay, Nevada is much bigger and adds a lot to the isometric Fallout formula. Even the main quests are similar- Resurrection has a mutant threat, while Nevada has an antagonist that kidnaps your people to experiment on them.
Resurrection has better fights and a great cast of companions (and I prefer it's main quest). Nevada has a big, world full of details and loads of ways to interact with it.
From the little research I did I think you will have the best experience of Fallout: Tactics with first Redux mod and then Equilibrium installed on top of it.
Fallout Tactics Redux is a major revision of the Fallout Tactics single player campaign from the ground up. Recruits and weapons are completely redesigned, maps offer better, more challenging gameplay as well as improved features and appearance, and new characters and narratives are explored. Original game content is also expanded and enhanced, and a significant amount of "lost content" written by the original developers of the game that could never previously be seen by players has been restored to full playability. All this is in addition to a thorough review of every nook and cranny of the game, which has resulted in hundreds of bugs squashed and errors fixed.
The goal of the mod is to provide additional fixes and a thorough rebalance of existing ingame equipment, expanding equipment choices and providing more variety. Most stats were redone based on common sense or RL weapon parameters, however, if it stood in the way of the original purpose of this mod, common sense rules were bent without hesitation or completely broken. Additionally, the mod includes an extensive audio/visual rehaul to provide better immersion.
*** ATTENTION ***
This mod builds upon changes and bugfixes found in Fallout Tactics Redux mod v1.3 by Endocore and WILL NOT WORK PROPERLY WITHOUT IT.
Major features:
- Version 2.0 introduces a smooth equipment progression to the game, you will gain new items at a steady pace almost all the way to the final mission.
- Enemies are stronger than in vanilla game and much better equipped, each enemy in the game was manually checked and outfitted to ensure he's ready for you.
- Some ammunition types were changed, some were scrapped and some new ones were introduced, the system is probably more straightforward now.
- Armor was nerfed across the board again with special attention to reducing DR values because it messed up the damage calculation too much, as a result ammo modifiers work properly now.
- Fixed a lot of bugs related to weapon damage types.
- Added a ton of weapons with proper desriptions, some as replacements and some as additions to extend the gearing curve further, the game has close to 150 weapons in total now.
- Also added some unique armors to the game, usually offering some sort of twist rather than straight improvement.
- Real life weapons are more realistic, they use proper ammo, have proper weight and fire rates.
- Unarmed progression was reworked too for all the Bruce Lee fans out there, you get new moves at a faster rate, most were renamed and improved. Close quarters combat is more viable in general.
- All weapon and ammo sprites were replaced with high quality versions.
- Weapon sounds were also replaced and some bugs were fixed, a lot of weapons still share sounds but there should be much more variety now. For instance, in heavy weapon class, RPD, Bren, SAW, M60 and Browning all sound differently.
- Weapons and defenses were rebalanced repeteadly. The playing field should be more level than ever.
- Some of the races were modified, most wasteland animals are more deadly and some get free perks.
- Some recruit types were modified, super mutants and deathclaws should be much better now.
- Added a special new recruit that was strangely absent from Tactics even though he appears in every other Fallout game. He's part of a story mission and has an accompanying npc that provides his backstory.
- Quartermaster only sells armor, ammo and common weapons, but he gets it at a more steady rate. Some weapons or armor are more rare or even unique so you will have to find those yourself.
- Ammo is a bit more scarce so you might want to buy some.
From the little research I did I think you will have the best experience of Fallout: Tactics with first Redux mod and then Equilibrium installed on top of it.
If you are worried about lore do not play it. If you want to have a good time play it. Frankly anybody that played Fallout 3, 4, or 76 should be ashamed if they don't install and play the mod. It is a little buggy though.
Yeah, you both should try playing as Diana from Twin Mothers. That's right they even incorporated the lore from Van Buren, with even Lanius included while also being more humanized and given characterization should you join with him.
But damn, they make air combat being too casual when it should be game changer for even getting your own piece of aircraft. Like i mean B-29 you can get in the FNV should be reflected as devastating in this game, but sadly blame the game engine reducing such hardware to mere percentage damage.
But it does allow you to experience much more strategical context when it comes to very big faction like NCR, Brotherhood, and Caesar Legion. Too bad the submod for Courier 6 has not been updated for...forever. Although you can have enclave submod that can be more fanatic in purity or reformed.
Started Fallout 1 Et Tu.
Made my way to the Hub and noticing stuff that shows that the designers weren't experienced with their tools (especially when you look at 2, Resurrection and Nevada).
As mentioned by Alphons there's a lot of contrast between Fallout: Nevada and Fallout 1 and it gets very apparent when you play the later right after the former. Where Fallout: Nevada is full of side-content Fallout 1 is much more bare-bones and on point with the main quest. Being smaller in both scale and scope and with an engaging main quest Fallout is a game that you run through fast.
There are fewer NPC:s to talk to, and the discussions you can have are always on topic. Others have copy-pasted dialogue or as in most cases just floating texts. This quote by Lexx gives you the idea:
Oh, also interesting - many of the dialogue files in Fo1 have between 150 and 250 strings only. That's probably what was their target line count to keep size in check.
Most NPCs in Fo1 have no more than 150 lines maximum. Location important NPCs have up to 200 to 250 lines ("information vendors"). Major characters have about 300 lines. Even the Master only has 300(!) lines.
There's also a lot of empty houses in populated areas like Junktown and the Hub.
I haven't played Fallout 1 since like ten years ago and I didn't remember this about the game so that was quite a realisation.
The game is still great even though it wasn't the RPG masterpiece I remembered. It's still Fallout 1 which introduces us to this great universe and it does a great job at world building. I'm very happy with having replayed it so that I have it fresh in my mind once again.
Playing the game with Et Tu was a great experience. This new way of playing Fallout 1 makes the game feel less dated as it brings some quality of life features that removes certain minor annoyances. I liked the addition of geckos and smaller Rad Scorpions (I would like some smaller ones in the Rad Scorpion cave as well). But no ants in Et tu?
Fallout 1 is an impressive achievement. Think of all that art and animations they created for the game. Fallout 2 mainly reused old assets and could channel resources into other aspects but Fallout 1 had to cover everything.
-What would you improve?
As a minor improvement I would just add little bits of reactivity to your actions here and there. If you have done something of importance it feels great when characters in the world recognise that. Currently there are several occasions where NPC:s react as nothing have happened.
Parts of me wants to give Fallout 1 a complete overhaul that adds a lot of new quests to give each location loads of new content.
-What's your thoughts on the main quest?
The main quest is the primary reason to play Fallout 1. It let's you explore a little while searching for the water-chip and along the way you get to learn about this captivating post-apocalytic world. The Fallout lore is introduced to you through the main quest. You learn about the Brotherhood of Steel, the Glow and FEV. You also meet most of the most memorable characters while on the MQ. I genuinely think Fallout 1 has the best main quest I have ever played. It could be argued that Planescape Torment has a better one but I'm not easily convinced.
-If old, does the game still hold up in 2022?
Playing with Et Tu it definitely does so, for me at least. However I can now see how the game can feel dated to new players. I don't think I could really understand that before. That reminds me of this old text from 2008.
-What's the game's strengths and weaknesses?
The strengths are the engaging main quest, world exploration, creative problem solving, interesting characters, unique locations, art style and general mood and atmosphere.
I don't know if it's a weakness but Fallout 1 features much less side-content than other entries in the series. There are fewer side quests, less dialogues and less reactions to your actions. This lack of content could also be seen as a strength as the game never overstays it's welcome. And the side-content that is in the game is enough to help you gain resources to proceed with the main quest. In certain ways Fallout 1 is really more of an adventure game than a full scale RPG.
-What would you like to change in the game?
I wouldn't like to change anything however I would like to add things as mentioned above. It's mainly about populating empty houses, adding reactivity to your actions. More side quests and also update the maps so that they look more detailed. More junk in Junktown!
I could actually see the possibility of a rare special encounter near the Glow where you encounter some S'Lanter. A character with high science-skill would be able to reprogram a security bot at the Glow into a companion?
-What build did you use during your play-through?
Didn't dump Charisma this time as I wanted the companions. Started with 5 and then got 1 extra from the singing Celt. Gifted and Good Natured. Energy Weapons, Science and Speech as tagged. Took comprehension and after having killed the Khans, and gotten all the loot, I went straight for the Hub and raised Small Guns, Science, Repair, Outdoorsman and First Aid by reading books. Then I went back to Junktown and helped Killian get rid of Gizmo.
-What's your weapon of choice?
The Alien blaster. I mean I tried other weapons but no other weapon is as good as a blast to the eyes from this little thing. I got it quite early as well. I even killed the Master with it in three or four shots. I mean I really tried to give the Turbo Plasma Rifle and the Gatling Laser a chance but they weren't good enough compared to the blaster.
-Describe your favourite quest and why you like it!
I liked finding the missing caravans and finding that first Super Mutant in the cave, that quest has a certain atmosphere to it. I remember that the rescue Sinthia quest made quite an impressions the first time I did it. However this time it wasn't that much of a deal since the novelty of it was gone. I think I like the quest where you are sent by the Regulators to kill the Blades but then realise that the Regulators are the bad guys and then kill them in a big fight. The fight was a bit underwhelming though as you barely make it out of the house before it's all over.
-What's your favourite location in the game?
Necropolis is the coolest but all locations are done really well and are iconic in their own way. The locations are done well in Fallout 1, they are all unique and memorable.
-What ending did you strive for/get?
I strived for a good ending in a general sense and that's what I got. However I wish I had done things a bit differently but that's for another playthrough. For example I cleared out Mariposa before I went to the Master and when I arrived in his lair after killing everything in my way the only option he gave me was to kill him. I missed out on all that iconic dialogue with him. So next time I will deal with him first and then Mariposa. I think you should be able to talk him into self destruct even while going this route. I mean you have destroyed Mariposa, killed the Children of the Cathedral, killed the Nightkin and the Super Mutants. He has nothing left so he might as well kill himself.
-Didn’t get to shoot the Overseer so that was disappointing, my character let him enter the Vault without killing him.
-As discussed previously in this thread Thandi does indeed help form the NCR, that’s mentioned already in Fallout 1. I didn't remember NCR was mentioned already back in Fallout 1.
-If you kill the Khans it says that nobody ever hears about them again. So I guess the canon ending is that you rescue Thandi without a fight, if they are to appear in Fallout: New Vegas.
-The Masters Army killed all Ghouls in Necropolis, next time I have to take him out faster I guess.
-No ending slide for The Boneyard.
-I got a good ending for Junktown where Killian Darkwater kept order.
-The Hub prospered.
-The Followers became important for New California and the BoS became a house for developing and sharing technology.
Next time I will help Gizmo instead of Killian. I won't use the worthless companions. I just spent a lot of time keeping them alive. Even when they had Power Armor they where worthless and died a lot.
I will make sure to defeat the Master before Necropolis gets cleared out and I will help Decker in the Hub and the Regulators in Boneyard.
-If the game is on Steam then write a sentence that would catch the NMA perception of it and that we could use for our Steam curator.
I'll come back for this one.
Some general things I noticed:
The Overseer doesn't want to loose the young generation. It's clear they didn't have the idea of controlled repopulation of the wasteland using GECK's in mind when the developed Fallout 1. He's afraid the young people of the Vault will just scatter by the wind if he let them leave. It's like the only options in his mind is keeping the Vault population intact or they will scatter and disburse. There's no option of starting a settlement under his rule.
If you are a Brotherhood of Steel initiate and you have convinced the Elders to send a strike force to Mariposa. You have successfully executed that plan and also killed the Master. After being exiled from Vault 13 why doesn't the Vault Dweller just go to the Lost Hills Bunker and live there? I mean a vault is a vault and he's a member of the BoS.
-In interactions with Gretch and Doc Morbid you can mention Iguana Bob without having been to the Hub and met him.
-You can’t tell Harold that you killed the Deatclaw. Not the lady in the Gun Store either. That's a little bit of reactivity that I would have liked.
-You can't talk to Mr. Hightower even after you've saved his life by killing Decker or by not robbing him for the Thieves Circle. He should be grateful to you!
-You can report Decker to the police after he’s given you a quest to Kill Mr. Hightower, but you cannot report the Thieves Circle when they asks you to steal from him.
-Loxley speak with an English accent.
-In the Hub I would like to see more reactions to your actions and more quests. Had this been Fallout: Nevada Decker would have a long questline and that would the other major factions have as well.
-You can't exhaust certain dialogues as the way you can in other RPG:s. If you’ve selected an option then you can, in a lot of cases, not ask the other things. That’s happened to me a lot. You get to ask a couple of questions and then that NPC will only have floating text. In other RPG:s you would be able to go back until you’ve exhausted everything. In Fallout 1 you have to decide on what’s most crucial to ask. Example, after you have killed the Deathclaws and given the weapon reward to the Blades, when you talk to Gabriel you have the option to ask “Weren’t you guys leaving?” but if you click the other option then you will never be able to ask why they decided not to leave. In other games the option to ask that would remain. This happened in Necropolis for example with the Ghoul leader in the sewers. He would also talk about the Waterchip without you even having asked about it. Also Lasher at the Cathedral and many others. It’s often best to save before dialogue and then reload to see all options.
-Merchants don’t have that much money so you will be swimming in loot. On the other hand you don't need to buy anything.
-The BoS are much more technologically advanced than I remembered. I thought they just hoarded pre-war tech but they can actually craft their own designs as well as improve old ones. They can also construct high tech bunkers, I had just thought they used and maintained pre-war military bunkers, as Lost Hills were initially.
-You are sometimes forced into asking about the water ship even though you’ve already found and delivered it. For example with the followers.
-According to the Gun Runners they manufacture weapons from scrap metals found in the area around their factory. But according to Katja they trade weapons from the hub that they resell in the Boneyard. And also that they sell weapons from former enemies.
-Brotherhood of Steel sell weapons for food according to the gate keeper. They don’t grow food but they make weapons. They trade with the Hub. Could it be these weapons that end up in the hands of the Gun Runners?
-BoS would be interested to know about the hardened Power Armor that Miles in Adyton can help you with. But you can't tell them about it.
-The Followers mention Nightkin on several occasions but even though the player character know nothing about them you cannot ask who/what they are.
-Can you even say to Talius that you are from Vault 13?
-The Cathedral is the only place where I’ve seen power generators with blinking lights!!!
-Morpehus speaks with an English accent.
-Can you actually choose if you want to become a scribe or a paladin?
-After you have read Dr. Vree’s studie of a Super Mutant specimen you can’t mention your findings at The Glow to her. By reading her report you get the impression that she would be highly interested in the Holotapes from there.
-If FEW is a virus and the dead Super Mutant Vree studied still had a lot of virus in it’s body why doesn’t it infect humans who come in contact with it? Why are you only transformed after you have been dipped in the virus?
-You can’t tell Maxon about blowing Mariposa or that you found a holotape from his grandfather Roger Maxon who served there. The only thing you get is one of the Elders giving an appreciative floating text saying thanks.
-No dialogue with Nicole after you have destroyed the Master and Mariposa. Even though she sent you to the Cathedral to find out information about their leader. Some people in the library have floating texts that acknowledge it though. Talius would be interested I think but you can’t tell him.
-While travelling the world map the box telling you about random encounters just say: "Encounter investigate?". In Fallout: Nevada you got information on what kind of encounter it was so that you could decide on whether to check it out or not. Now I don't know what the encounter is which makes it difficult to call. Maybe my Outdoorsman was to low (98%).
I won't use the worthless companions. I just spent a lot of time keeping them alive. Even when they had Power Armor they where worthless and died a lot.
Weird. I feel like especially in ettu they are almost too good. Get them to level up a few times and with the right weapons and armor, they can deal with almost any fight on their own.
After Toront's review there's no other option...
I've played Tactics only once and the lack of side content was the biggest flaw to me. You get some smaller decisions during the missions like the Supermutant research, sparing that guy that pisses in cola or killing the Brotherhood spy for a mafia guy (I think in Cold Water?), but there're no dialogue options or normal side quests.
Tactics is a bit silly itself with stuff like Microsoft worshippers, so it probably won't stick out too much.
Regarding Fallout 1- I see it as a core of the franchise. It has eveeything that a Fallout game should have. That core is present in 2, NV, Nevada, Resurrection and games inspired by it.
Some extra reactivity and dialogues would be nice.
Also like half of the available perks are worthless. I mean, has anyone ever picked the poison resistance one?
This is a workaround in ettu, because we can't disable the box (doesn't exist in Fo1). Also we can't make it show the type of encounter without rewriting the whole encounter system, which is not going to happen.
In ettu I have cut the money on merchants in half. Even without selling anything it should be no issue to end the game with at least 30k caps (this is why the Gun Runners have the option to give them 10k caps to increase the spawn rate of rare (fo2) weapons).
-You can report Decker to the police after he’s given you a quest to Kill Mr. Hightower, but you cannot report the Thieves Circle when they asks you to steal from him.
-You can't talk to Mr. Hightower even after you've saved his life by killing Deckor or by not robbing him for the Thieves Circle. He should be grateful to you!
I've also only played it once. But I think it's great that we are trying different mods. That way we will cover more of Fallout: Tactics and can form opinions of different mods. Then we can give better recommendations to others. I will try Equilibrium. It will be interesting to hear your opinions on it!
I'll add xkcon as a recommended mod in the first post.
Weird. I feel like especially in ettu they are almost too good. Get them to level up a few times and with the right weapons and armor, they can deal with almost any fight on their own.
I should have been more precise, the companions were mainly a hassle at Mariposa and at the Cathedral were the tougher enemies are. Otherwise they were mostly ok. Ian could most often kill an enemy in one SMG Burst. However my character had good sequence and could shoot twice with the Alien Blaster so I did most of the killing, in a lot of encounters the companions didn't get to kill anyone/anything. Tycho wore Power Armor and wielded a Riot Shotgun whereas Ian wore Brotherhood Combat Armor and used the 10mm Carbine. They were often killed by the Super Mutants and they didn't do that much damage either. So my character had to carry the fights almost by himself. I don't know why I brought Dogmeat with me other than his iconic status. Even though you have to reload some extra times due to him dying, it's worth it for the company.
In ettu I have cut the money on merchants in half. Even without selling anything it should be no issue to end the game with at least 30k caps (this is why the Gun Runners have the option to give them 10k caps to increase the spawn rate of rare (fo2) weapons).
Well had the Vipers and their poisonous snakes been in the game there would have been extra use of the Snakeater perk. They also had poisonous arrows? Just kidding, it would probably not have been motivated to take the perk anyway.
@Alphons do you get stat upgrades in Fallout: Resurrection?
Not the hospital ones. Getting some poor guy's eyes or muscles doesn't feel right. There's one more though
Talk to Albuquerque shaman near the entrance and allow him to perform ritual. If you have positive Karma and didn't join the hospital donor collectors or Mutant Hunters you get permanent Luck bonus. You lose a Luck point if you don't meet the requirements. You can't also work for the hospital or MH anymore, due to associating with tribals.
