The Fo1/2 Awareness perk

[Lexx]

Quick questions:
The Awareness perk. Do you use it? If so, when do you pick it? Do you think it's a useful perk? Do you think the features it enables should be enabled by default (see enemy hitpoints and weaponry)? Any other thoughts about the perk?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Gr1m Reaper]

Never used it, waste of a perk imo.

 

[Mr Fish]

I usually picked it but this time I went with a PER 4 character and didn't think to use drugs when leveling up so I didn't even think about it until I was like lvl 15 or something.

Sure it's nice to see the health and weapon they are using and all but I hardly found it necessary. Then again I had a 10CHA char who had 5 companions with power armor and gauss rifles so, meh.

 

[Black Angel]

It's literally the first perk I always took. Maybe it's just me, but I'm always bothered with the fact that you can only get 'Badly wounded'/'Almost dead' but not the exact health. Knowing the exact health left means I would know what enemy I need to focus my attack on when fighting in groups. No, I don't think it's a feature that should be enabled by default because realistically no one would really pay attention what type of pistol/rifles the enemy is using in firefights. Also, why it's always the first perk I took, probably because there's not much useful perk at the level for the characters I've ever made....

Having said that, I do feel there's a lack of features and implementation that might make the perk useful. It's called 'Awareness', yet it's only ever useful in combat. You can 'take a look' at NPCs outside combat, and the only usefulness is to see how much health your companion has, so you will know if you gotta heal them. You can't use the perk to 'notice' other kind of details on NPCs, like what they're wearing, or if they're wearing an accessory, or something like that.

 

[Kohno]

It’s a good perk with a useful function. The info it gives should definitely not be available by default. One of the fineries of the original games is that the character is allowed to be ignorant and foolish who has to learn the ways of the world (dven from ground up in some cases) and most things can’t be taken for granted.

Like the other perks, it’s also not mandatory, so sometimes I pick it and sometimes I don’t. And there’s no right or wrong time to pick it.

 

[Mr Fish]

Except lvl 24 if you want Slayer or Sniper. (Fallout 2)

 

[Lexx]

The info it gives should definitely not be available by default.

Why? Fallout only has a limited amount of sprites to visualize characters. You see a guy or a gal with a rifle-- but you have no idea what it is. It could be a pipe rifle, it could be a shotgun, hell it could be a gauss rifle. In this situation (which appears plenty in Fo1 and Fo2), unless you have Awareness, or save the game and check in combat, you have no idea what exactly you're up against.
It's a crucial bit of information that the player can't get unless he either takes the perk, or starts cheesing around, which I'd call a design flaw under these circumstances.

 

[gustarballs1983]

@Lexx My opinion is the same as in other thread about this, I'm just here to cast my vote.
That perk is mandatory, I take it as soon as posible. Although i agree that for some builds late game it isn't all that nessecary (since you 1shot everything anyway), but early game is a must since most perks are locked and player has low gun skills , low hp and weaksauce armor. A burst from a 10mm smg from a slaver,raider, marauder etc. can be lethal at point blank, and sometimes there's just too many enemies to kill them all in the first round, (with only vic and sulik) awareness is important to prioritize targets. Burst weapon wielders first then gauss/.223, and then the rest. Usually first round is enaugh to kill off bursters and high power single shot gun wielders. remaining trash can cause little harm and can be killed off in next rounds.

 

[Kohno]

Except lvl 24 if you want Slayer or Sniper. (Fallout 2)

Oh, yes. They are very useful, but you can do just fine without. Unless you're hell bent on a rambo-like character.

Why? Fallout only has a limited amount of sprites to visualize characters. You see a guy or a gal with a rifle-- but you have no idea what it is. It could be a pipe rifle, it could be a shotgun, hell it could be a gauss rifle. In this situation (which appears plenty in Fo1 and Fo2), unless you have Awareness, or save the game and check in combat, you have no idea what exactly you're up against.
It's a crucial bit of information that the player can't get unless he either takes the perk, or starts cheesing around, which I'd call a design flaw under these circumstances.

That's what I tried to explain with the charcter being allowed to be ignorant. You need to "make" him aware of these things if you want the benefits. It's not really "crucial" information, just valuable. You can do just fine without, and often you can recognize the enemys weapon from the sound of it if it isn't obvious from the looks, and you can learn to tell from the enemy what weapons are likely to appear. That's how I did during my first years with Fallout 2, I often didn't even consider taking Awareness because it seemed less useful than somoe other perks, and I don't always take it these days either. It is useful, and that makes it a good perk, but it's not mandatory.

 

[naossano]

IMO, it is a comfort perk that i tend to use as often as possible. But on the other hand, the lack of it provide some welcomed challenge. For instance, in short mods, i usually have a too low level to pick it, which makes the fights more challenging and more fun.

 

[Dead Guy]

It's a good perk that gets worse the more meta knowledge you have about the game. When you've got enough experience the only benefit is basically knowing whether a guy that looks almost dead is guaranteed to die in one shot from your early game pistol or not (ie does he have 2 or 9 HP left? Except for the aspect of knowing an opponents exact weapon, but with experience you know that that rifle model in the hands of an enclave trooper isn't going to be a pipe rifle and in the hands of a robber it's going to be a hunting rifle or shotgun etc.

I'm fine with this info being hidden without taking the perk.

I never pick it anymore.

 

[Mr.Stalin]

Do you think the features it enables should be enabled by default

yes, only if the player character has perception 7+
otherwise it will be necessary to take perk.

 

[CaptJ]

It's very useful but not as game breaking as quick pockets.

yes, only if the player character has perception 7+
otherwise it will be necessary to take perk.

Sounds interesting. I had this idea of high INT giving the player more accurate and more useful descriptions on items or maybe useless extra favor text.

 

[Liadrin]

Awareness is amazing for a noob who just started 1 and 2 and i always suggest it to people who start these games.
For me ? - it's a waste of Perk.

 

[PlanHex]

I'd say the same as most other people. Don't take it any more, but would recommend for a first-timer.
When you know how most encounters work and start being able to tell guns apart via the sound-effects, it's not really worth it.
I prefer taking some Buffout and going for Toughness at level 3, even if that's kinda cheating.

 

[nkchan16]

IMO "Awareness" is for power-gamers rather than role-players. It definitely has a tactical use, but it's also fairly unrealistic and kind of breaks immersion. Why? Because, for instance, a tribal fresh out of his tribe shouldn't be able to tell what kind of weapon an enemy has on him unless it's a knife or a spear and so on. Hit points is...I don't know... it's a thing I've always hated in RPGs. Anyway, in short, I'd rather not take it as a perk early in the game, no matter what Per's guide says, as I'm a role-player.

If you want to enhance or make it more realistic, you can add a few more levels to it and limit the amount of details the PC can see for each level of the perk. As an example, Jagged Alliance 2 1.13 has a setting for the amount of detail you can see on an enemy soldier as a tooltip. You can turn that into a multilevel Awareness perk and each level would give you more details about the enemy.