tryin to get into this game in anticipation of fallout 3

K

kenshindono

First time out of the vault
so fallout 3 looks great, figured id try to get ahold of the first 2 games and give them a shot to familiarize myself with the universe. Plus i usually like retro games.. man this first one is hard to love, the controls are god awful. The game itself seems ok but im really struggling with these archaic poorly layed out controls (wasn't this released around the time of diablo and stuff? those were fairly intuitive controlls)

anyway i cant find a section for gameplay questions so i'll ask a couple that were on my mind here

1) how the heck do you repair weapons and stuff? i click repair but cant select weapons or anything. I had a gun randomly explode on me and get destroyed once that was lame

2) quest related.. how do you hand scorpion tails into the guy in the first city? i glanced at some guides and they say to turn it into him but i have no idea how to do that with this crappy interface. theres no dialog option for it and he doesn't take it through bartering

3) any general tips?

tnx, hope i get used to this interface soon
 
Read through the entire manual, if you haven't yet.
Your own equipment doesn't need repairing; it's usually easy to tell when you need to use the skill on something else.
 
Here's a clue. Go buy the games (when you buy them you get manuals rather than pirating them and getting none).

Read them.

As an aside, when you come to a Fallout community and begin with something like "Man, these games really suck" you're probably not going to get much help.
 
Retro games? God-awful controls? Wow... I must be a dinosaur or something because I remember (once you get the hold of action points... you do know how the turn-based system works, right ken?... the controls are pretty intuitive.)

As to your questions:

1) You don't repair weapons. In FO, it's assumed that your character or some people he/she comes across in the wastes keeps the guns in working order. The Repair skill is for fixing random stuff, not guns.

Also- when you had the gun explode on you, it wasn't because you'd not repaired your gun; you had a critical failure. Maybe your Small Guns skill was too small, or your Agility was too low, or you just got unlucky. *Everyone's* had that happen.

2) Yes there is a way to do it, and it does involve dialogue. Are you talking to the right guy? The doctor? He's easy to find.

And EVERYONE takes ANYTHING through the trade window. It's just that they don't always give a good price for it, or a fair trade.

3) Buy the games, read the books (if you've got them, otherwise, go to the menu where you can change controls and see what you have to do) and, if the combats are going too slowly for you, speed up the combats in the Options menu. Oh, and read Per's walkthroughs. The Lizard knows.
 
I'm in a generous mood. Be thankful.

Without the manual I found the controls pretty easy to learn. Point click... then later some of the others which I find rarely useful. Since it isn't a twitch game I can afford to take my time with a mouse.

You can't repair weapons, they explode, snap, and zap their way into oblivion. I might ask what was your luck(or if you had jinxed trait)? Because I have hardly ever had those kinds of critical failures. Repair is a skill you use on certain objects, like the pump in necropolis and a few other things.

The crappy dialog interface isn't much different than any other rpg. With the exception, it has some kick ass dialog. You turn it into him by talking... that may be a problem if your character is a dumbass(int lower than 4, which in fallout 2 can be very amusing) or it's night, or if there is a PEBKAC error.

Any general tips... hmmm.... don't go into this expecting to see the garbage bethesda is spewing out.

Fallout 3 disregards the canon, interface, and color scheme of fallout.

If you think f3 looks like it's gona be da bomb.... then I can't help you. Fallout 3 has more related to oblivion than fallout.

And I thought Oblivion sucked...
 
The games are really hard to find anywhere these days, and im pretty sure black isle isn't even around anymore, so i just downloaded it. I had never actually 'pirated' anything before so i had to do a bunch of digging how to even get it working, lol

I didn't say the game sucks i said the controls and interface suck.. and they DO. Love the games all you want but theres no way you can defend this interface. Even for its time it would still be considered bad. Like i said diablo 1 came out around the same time and was way smoother

Ah i remember reading in F3 that you have to keep weapons repaired assumed it was the same here. Guess i just had bad luck, my small arms skill is kinda low

as for trading with that doctor.. hmm i didn't see a dialog option at all, he just kept saying if only i had a poison sample. so i try opening barter up and i cant put it on the table. My char actually has a rather high speach skill, maybe i'll finish clearing the cave and try again i had left a few alive because i was pretty injured

I do think fallout 3 looks great, but thats not to say i dont like old rpgs or strat games. My favorite rpg of all time is suikoden 1

I think fallout 3 looks good on its own but obviously i havent played the originals like you guys have.
 
kenshindono said:
The games are really hard to find anywhere these days, and im pretty sure black isle isn't even around anymore, so i just downloaded it. I had never actually 'pirated' anything before so i had to do a bunch of digging how to even get it working, lol

I didn't say the game sucks i said the controls and interface suck.. and they DO. Love the games all you want but theres no way you can defend this interface. Even for its time it would still be considered bad. Like i said diablo 1 came out around the same time and was way smoother

Ah i remember reading in F3 that you have to keep weapons repaired assumed it was the same here. Guess i just had bad luck, my small arms skill is kinda low

as for trading with that doctor.. hmm i didn't see a dialog option at all, he just kept saying if only i had a poison sample. so i try opening barter up and i cant put it on the table. My char actually has a rather high speach skill, maybe i'll finish clearing the cave and try again i had left a few alive because i was pretty injured

I do think fallout 3 looks great, but thats not to say i dont like old rpgs or strat games. My favorite rpg of all time is suikoden 1

I think fallout 3 looks good on its own but obviously i havent played the originals like you guys have.
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Hey, your not the bethesda fanboy I took you for(we get far too many...) Welcome here and sorry for being an ass.

You won't always have a dialog option to barter nor do you need to barter to complete the quest. You just need a rad scorpion tail in your inventory to open up the dialog where you say you have the sample. Just plunder a scorpion and go.

I'd also advise you to kill off the rest of the scorpions. You'll get a job well done and extra xp. Also check around the bones for ammo.

If you've got a high speech character then talk to Ian. He's the dude in a leather jacket and jeans somewhere in shady sands. Since your small guns is low, let him to the fighting, but don't get in front of him. NPC's are notorious for shooting you, and others in the back.

Last note on characters, high speech or charisma doesn't mean you get more dialog options. Only a high intelligence can give you more. What it does do is make people react differently to what you say and opens up different dialog trees as you progress though the dialog.


PS, http://www.interplay.com/ They have links to where you can buy fallout. Just poke around a little bit. You can also use the search function on our boards. We have a dedicated thread JUST for this.
 
Tip for reducing your problem with the interface:
1. Press F1 any time during gameplay.
2. Memorize hotkeys.
3. Have fun!
 
heh no worries, im sure you get a lot of people coming here with stuff like 'lolz where can i get warez for fallout to practice my l337 skillz for fallout 3!' =P Im hardly a bethisda fanboy. I disliked oblivion quite a bit, i felt it was a massive step back from morrowind which i actually kinda enjoyed.

i did take the guy with me when i first went to the caves, but didnt' kill them all. Iim gonna go back with him and finish clearing them out then talk to the guy for the poison and see if that helps.

hmm good to know about speech and cha.. i thought it effeted the actual options. AH hotkeys, yes that will help

one other side question people were talking about floaters and 'aliens' or wanamingos possibly being in fallout 3. Suposedly they were super ridiculously uber mobs or something in fallout that would utterly crush you? are they from F1 or 2, and if so where are they so i can avoid them, lol
 
You get aliens and floaters on the desert between San Francisco and New Reno (kind of diagonal stripe) but actually the're not that tough to kill if you have a good gun and a few people to help. In Fallout 1 you can encounter floaters near the Glow (rare thing), among the mutants in the Military Base area encounters (in which case you'll be worrying about their miniguns and not pets) and in the cave leading to the Master's vault (they're never a problem), and aliens are never there. In FO1 floaters are wimps. It's in FO2 that you learn to respect them.
 
I wouldn't call floaters, aliens/wanamingos (and deathclaws) 'über mobs', but they are dangerous. Tough armor, strong attacks, plenty of hit points, and the latter two have bonuses to their critical-hit chance. They can kill you easily if you're unprepared, but are good hunting later in the game. Fortunately, you usually won't find any until you're about ready to take them on.
 
kenshindono said:
The games are really hard to find anywhere these days, and im pretty sure black isle isn't even around anymore, so i just downloaded it. I had never actually 'pirated' anything before so i had to do a bunch of digging how to even get it working, lol
Click to expand...

Well... the games are on Gametap, and it's not really that hard to order the jewel case online.

...Okay, maybe the earlier games are harder to find now, I don't know, the last time I had to check was around '03 or so. Very true on figuring out how to get it working, though. Newer OS' are *supposed* to be backward compatible, but rarely are- especially MS' stuff. They're pretty notorious for that.

I didn't say the game sucks i said the controls and interface suck.. and they DO. Love the games all you want but theres no way you can defend this interface. Even for its time it would still be considered bad. Like i said diablo 1 came out around the same time and was way smoother
Click to expand...

I know you said the interface sucks. It still doesn't, though. I know, because I've been a fan of Diablo since it came out- a bit before, actually, since I was following the previews on the Blizzard site- and I've been a fan of Fallout since about '99 or 2000. I had the full box and manual with Diablo 1 and 2, even bought both strategy guides (D2's before LoD came out) and just had box and game for FO1, and *without going online*, figured out the controls for myself. How's that for intuitive?

As to "bad?" Not even close. I could definitely list some games with bad controls at the time, but FO1 wasn't one of them.

Ah i remember reading in F3 that you have to keep weapons repaired assumed it was the same here. Guess i just had bad luck, my small arms skill is kinda low
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Bethseda's radically changed the way skills work- even just based on the trickles of info we've had from 'previews' and people who went to that Penny Arcade event about a month ago- and having to repair guns is one of those things. It's really sort of a "high fantasy-ization" of the Fallout universe.... but I digress. If you've got a low Firearms skill, you won't hit or (if it's really low- like closer to the 20s) may have a critical failure and lose your weapon. It also may happen if you have a low (below 5) Luck attribute. That's a strange, strange atrribute.

as for trading with that doctor.. hmm i didn't see a dialog option at all, he just kept saying if only i had a poison sample. so i try opening barter up and i cant put it on the table. My char actually has a rather high speach skill, maybe i'll finish clearing the cave and try again i had left a few alive because i was pretty injured
Click to expand...

You don't barter the tails with him; if you have the tails (unless your version has a minor bug in it) he should ask for it, then go make the antidote. Remember not to ask him to do anything at night, though. He hates that.

I do think fallout 3 looks great, but thats not to say i dont like old rpgs or strat games. My favorite rpg of all time is suikoden 1

I think fallout 3 looks good on its own but obviously i havent played the originals like you guys have.
Click to expand...

I'm honestly going to reserve judgement until I can play it. Play, not buy. I really don't have any interest in giving cash to Bethseda because of all the crummy aspects I've seen so far and the fact that giving them a successful title will only encourage them. And because of their *wonderful* interactions with the fan community.

It looks... okay to me. It is a bit behind the times, and the animations, especially walking animations, look pretty bad, but it might be an okay game. It'd just be much easier to deal with as a non-Fallout title.
 
any pics of these floater and aliens? they sound cool.

Just a heads up i would never use gametap, no way im installing their programs on my comp.

I guess we'll have to agree to disagree on the interface.. its just terrible imo

btw should i even bother with the genesis shadowrun or the ones on xbox and stuff? i seem to recall those gettin pretty bad reviews back in the day
 
I'm not flaming here, I just want to give you an advice. Spend some more time in this universe, try to submerge yourself into the atmosphere. Afterwards, if you still think of this game as you described in your topic, then please steer clear of it.

Saying that Fallout is archaic is like saying Mozart is old so I will not listen to it......does not make much sense, but tells volumes of the speaker.
 
Actually he didn't say Fallout was archaic, he said the interface was. ;) Still, I agree! Try and call Starcraft archaic.

kenshindono said:
The game itself seems ok
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Just a quote from Tenacious D Pick of Destiny movie:

'So? What'd you think?'
'It was OK.'
'It was OK?'
'M-hm.'
'You were OK. We were kick-ass.'
 
I only saw this just now, but: strike for warez talk.
We don't need to know that you pirated this game. We don't care.

And critical misses can always happen. They're more likely to happen if you have low weapon skill (because you miss more) or low luck (because you're unlucky). But having either of these be high doesn't preclude them from happening.
 
kenshindono said:
The game itself seems ok but im really struggling with these archaic poorly layed out controls (wasn't this released around the time of diablo and stuff? those were fairly intuitive controlls)
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That's weird I never had any problems with Fallout's controls and they were intuitive enough to allow me playing through demo without reading any manual.

kenshindono said:
1) how the heck do you repair weapons and stuff? i click repair but cant select weapons or anything. I had a gun randomly explode on me and get destroyed once that was lame
Click to expand...
Sadly, weapons don't get broken and don't require repair or maintenance. Sometimes they explode on critical failures when you have very low weapon skill.

kenshindono said:
2) quest related.. how do you hand scorpion tails into the guy in the first city? i glanced at some guides and they say to turn it into him but i have no idea how to do that with this crappy interface. theres no dialog option for it and he doesn't take it through bartering
Click to expand...
Are you sure that you are talking to the right NPC?

kenshindono said:
3) any general tips?
Click to expand...
Read dialogues, read descriptions, think.
 
And try to get a grasp of the atmosphere. Atmosphere!... which you'll not find in overwhelming quantities in FO3, I think.
 
put a couple hours into it and its growing on me. I still dont like the interface very much but its pretty fun. Im wandering around too much though im pretty sure the people in my vault are all going to die, lol. With that npc i guess my problem was talking to him at night and before i finished the quest when i went back and killed all the scorpions he took the tails

still wondering about the brotherhood of steel, and fallout on genesis and stuff.. hm though genesis i may be confusing with shadowrun. did they make a fallout for genesis? If so was it or the brotherhood of steel on xbox worth playing?
 
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