Fallout 3 Impressions

ydejin · Post by **ydejin** » Fri Jan 09, 2009 4:04 pm

Kyosho wrote: I haven't experienced it myself (because I've learned from previous games not to), but I'd swear I read multiple times on the official forums right after the game came out, that containers do indeed respawn in FO3. The ones in your house don't. And I think ones that were empty from the start, don't. But I could be wrong on that last one.

Yep, the manual specifically says not to leave things in containers you don't own.

Little Raven · Post by **Little Raven** » Fri Jan 09, 2009 4:38 pm

Kyosho wrote:I haven't experienced it myself (because I've learned from previous games not to), but I'd swear I read multiple times on the official forums right after the game came out, that containers do indeed respawn in FO3. The ones in your house don't. And I think ones that were empty from the start, don't. But I could be wrong on that last one.

Huh. I could swear that I read on the modder forums that when they actually looked inside the data files, they found that the default setting on containers was to never respawn. Admittedly, I didn't use the bathroom lockers all that long, but I never lost anything.

Turtle · Post by **Turtle** » Fri Jan 09, 2009 5:48 pm

They probably take longer to respawn/clear out than just leaving it lying around.

Bad Demographic · Post by **Bad Demographic** » Fri Jan 09, 2009 7:09 pm

ydejin wrote:
Kyosho wrote: I haven't experienced it myself (because I've learned from previous games not to), but I'd swear I read multiple times on the official forums right after the game came out, that containers do indeed respawn in FO3. The ones in your house don't. And I think ones that were empty from the start, don't. But I could be wrong on that last one.
Yep, the manual specifically says not to leave things in containers you don't own.

Things will also disappear if left lying around (not in a container) for a long time. For a long time I dropped things outside Megaton (in the sheltered area) and one time, when I had completed some quest, a whole bunch of my stuff disappeared.

Matrix · Post by **Matrix** » Fri Jan 09, 2009 7:18 pm

So how do i get house in megatone? i ran around talking to everyone to get a key (i am guessing its the house that needs a key). As it seems containers are not safe.
fell free to spoil it foe me, since i spent 7 levels running around carrying it all on me.

Little Raven · Post by **Little Raven** » Fri Jan 09, 2009 7:22 pm

Spoiler:

But seriously...containers are pretty safe. If they do respawn, they don't do it often.

ChuckB · Post by **ChuckB** » Fri Jan 09, 2009 7:49 pm

Matrix wrote:So how do i get house in megatone? i ran around talking to everyone to get a key (i am guessing its the house that needs a key). As it seems containers are not safe.
fell free to spoil it foe me, since i spent 7 levels running around carrying it all on me.

Spoiler:

Matrix · Post by **Matrix** » Fri Jan 09, 2009 8:34 pm

Thanks, i already had high enough skills to disarm bomb, so in 2 minutes i had my house. Finlay i can load up on at least some junk, i have been as lean as it comes.

Jafisob · Post by **Jafisob** » Fri Jan 09, 2009 8:37 pm

Little Raven wrote:
Spoiler:
Disarm the bomb. Or blow it up.
But seriously...containers are pretty safe. If they do respawn, they don't do it often.

Incredibly informative information never posted because of hitting the evil save button rather than the submit button.

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Fri Jan 09, 2009 8:37 pm

Little Raven wrote: Huh. I could swear that I read on the modder forums that when they actually looked inside the data files, they found that the default setting on containers was to never respawn.

That's possible, but it is also possible that not all of the containers in the world were left at their default settings. I'm not sure, for instance, how much of the Radiant AI they kept around, but if the NPCs need to find food, there needs to be respawning food containers somewhere for them to get it from (since most NPCs have houses, fridges are probably high on the list of suspect containers.)

Tscott · Post by **Tscott** » Sat Jan 10, 2009 9:56 am

I'm simply amazed that I'm still playing this game. I finished the main quest with one character in about 60 hours. Then immediately started a new one and have been simply exploring, searching and looking for stuff I missed the first time. I'm almost 50 hours into this second game at level 18 and the world still seems like there's something new to find at every location. This is something that Oblivion and Morrowwind never quite got right for me.

Oh and speaking of finding things...

Spoiler:

Matrix · Post by **Matrix** » Sat Jan 10, 2009 10:31 am

Tscott wrote:I'm simply amazed that I'm still playing this game. I finished the main quest with one character in about 60 hours. Then immediately started a new one and have been simply exploring, searching and looking for stuff I missed the first time. I'm almost 50 hours into this second game at level 18 and the world still seems like there's something new to find at every location. This is something that Oblivion and Morrowwind never quite got right for me.

Oh and speaking of finding things...
Spoiler:

(clicking makes it bigger)

I'm only missing the energy bobblehead, because I haven't done much of the main quest yet.

i am still at start of my first go (17 hours or so) and it is very immersive. Tully impressive what they did with a game.

Odin · Post by **Odin** » Tue Jan 13, 2009 7:27 pm

I just bought this and installed it. I'm looking at breaking my WoW addiction and thought this might be just the trick. Any suggestions on "best-of-breed" mods or sites I ought to check out? I found a few mentioned in this (very long!) thread, but since they weren't really the main topic I didn't see a lot of discussion along those lines. It's possible I just missed them tho.

Sith

Bad Demographic · Post by **Bad Demographic** » Tue Jan 13, 2009 8:18 pm

Sith Lord wrote:I just bought this and installed it. I'm looking at breaking my WoW addiction and thought this might be just the trick. Any suggestions on "best-of-breed" mods or sites I ought to check out? I found a few mentioned in this (very long!) thread, but since they weren't really the main topic I didn't see a lot of discussion along those lines. It's possible I just missed them tho.

Sith

Possibly something that slows down the rate at which you level up, because you level up really fast in this game.

Gamingdude · Post by **Gamingdude** » Wed Jan 14, 2009 1:14 am

Sith Lord wrote:I just bought this and installed it. I'm looking at breaking my WoW addiction and thought this might be just the trick. Any suggestions on "best-of-breed" mods or sites I ought to check out? I found a few mentioned in this (very long!) thread, but since they weren't really the main topic I didn't see a lot of discussion along those lines. It's possible I just missed them tho.

Sith

I'm wondering if the mods are even really needed or is it okay to just play the game right out of the box? Been thinking about this one, but the mod scene just went crazy over Oblivion. So much so that I never really played it, it was just too confusing what I needed and what I didn't.

Matrix · Post by **Matrix** » Wed Jan 14, 2009 1:35 am

Little Ravens mod does a good job of slowing leveling. I am very happy with a pace it gave, each level up is meanigfull. I am playing on hard, so it certainly takes a lot of planing in some places, and i think too fast leveling might have spoiled it.

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Wed Jan 14, 2009 2:37 am

I played and finished it before any mods are patched and enjoyed it a ton.

LucidSmoke · Post by **LucidSmoke** » Wed Jan 14, 2009 1:59 pm

Agreed. Use a slow leveling mod. The game feels great out of the box. I am really glad I am using slower leveling...it feels right.

Freezer-TPF- · Post by **Freezer-TPF-** » Wed Jan 14, 2009 2:26 pm

IMHO the leveling is okay if you're just playing on normal difficulty. If you're playing on higher difficulties, which increases the XP you get (odd design decision), then I can see wanting to slow that XP/level gain down.

ChuckB · Post by **ChuckB** » Wed Jan 14, 2009 3:34 pm

Freezer-TPF- wrote:IMHO the leveling is okay if you're just playing on normal difficulty. If you're playing on higher difficulties, which increases the XP you get (odd design decision), then I can see wanting to slow that XP/level gain down.

I agree. I'm playing this on the PS3, so far I have spent 50 hours and I'm level 12 (of 20). Did a lot of exploring, a good number of quests (including some from the main quest). I really like the game for its sandbox feeling and in a way, I don't want it to end, but if I come to the end after ~100 hours, that would feel right for me, epic enough, but not endless

Tscott · Post by **Tscott** » Thu Jan 15, 2009 8:59 pm

Update:

Spoiler:

ydejin · Post by **ydejin** » Thu Jan 15, 2009 10:01 pm

Tscott wrote:Update:

Spoiler:

Congrats Tscott!!!

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Fri Jan 16, 2009 10:35 pm

2.0 mod pack is out

http://www.fileplanet.com/fileblog/arch ... _865.shtml" target="_blank

Normann · Post by **Normann** » Fri Jan 23, 2009 7:43 pm

Is this just me or is this game boring to anyone else? Now I am back at it after the last patch fixed the slow down issue some of us experienced. I left off at level 10 or so. Now I am level 19 and I don't feel motivated to do anything at all. Firefights are no fun. For me the VATS is not doing it because it is very repetitive. But real time fights are poorly implemented. Enemies zig zag instead of running without any concept of inertia or tactics so I can't even keep my cross hair on them. So I have to go VATS all the time and one head rolls after the other. Yawn... But the worst thing is by far the never ever changing scenery. I understand post nuclear war, but is really everything going to be gray? Inside and outside even the people's cloths? I think STALKER did this so much better. And then I have not found a new weapon or a new something, anything to get excited about for hours now. Anytime I work my way into a hard to reach location, there is a case, and nothing in it. Over and over. I don't feel the need to explore because I never find anything real interesting anymore. Back in Morrowind you had to go to specific location where you could find rare items. I remember reading in forums "where did you find this" or "that?". Nothing like that here. Oblivion was already a step toward this direction as well when enemies started to drop glass armor every corner around level 15 and up.

I don't know but I think Oblivion, when it came out in 06(?), was much better than this, and so was Morrowind. I can't help but think that the developers saw a fairly quick way to milk a good title since they already had a working RPG game, they just had to repaint it. But in the process a lot was left out. Like proper AI, decent animation (perhaps VATS hides both well since everything is slow motion), and level design with variety. Compared to this Bioshock was a piece of art in every respect. Too bad that I did not really dig the setting but I did play it through with interest. I doubt I will finish F3.

I know many of you enjoy this game a lot. So anyone else out there who is bored by this game?

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Fri Jan 23, 2009 7:53 pm

Near the end of the game i had been exploring all the wastes and learning the tunnels. just seeing what I could find. But there near the end it got boring. It was just the same old fight after fight and like you said head explodings in VATS . I just stopped exploring. i didn't clean out the Chinese factory or anything. it would ju8st be all the same again and my lvl was capped and I had all the guns I was going to get. So I just went straight to the end and finished it.

Freezer-TPF- · Post by **Freezer-TPF-** » Sat Jan 24, 2009 1:41 pm

Normann wrote:I know many of you enjoy this game a lot. So anyone else out there who is bored by this game?

Not bored, but I am definitely finding it tedious to continue. I've played about 55-60 hours, level 14-15 character. Part of it is my own fault, as every time I get to a new location I feel compelled to search thoroughly for skillbooks or schematics. The wasteland palette was appropriately powerful when I emerged from the Vault, but now it just adds to the tedium and not in a good way.

I've only explored a relatively small part of the HUGE world, and I just cannot imagine really trying to go everywhere and see everything. I don't have the endurance for that, so I am trying to fight my completist instincts and focus more on the main plot so I can finish. I have really enjoyed a lot of the special areas and it is always fun to find an interesting location, but the tedium of the repetitive combat and searching (which I am trying to do less of) is making it difficult to continue.

Creepy_Smell · Post by **Creepy_Smell** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 1:06 pm

I finished last night @ 41hrs and lvl 17. I'm going to take a break from it before going back pre end game save and get up to lvl 20 and explore more.

I enjoyed it but would love to see a Stalker + Fallout 3 mix taking the best parts of each. I think most of my time was spent doing Moira's quests which I do think were good for getting you to see some of the sites. I'd often run off to something else while on one of her quests. Once I decided I wanted to finish the main quest it only took a few hours (Think I was lvl 14 at the time).

Rawrkan · Post by **Rawrkan** » Thu Feb 19, 2009 4:19 pm

if i leave stuff on the ground inside my megaton house will they dissapear after some time?

Ralph-Wiggum · Post by **Ralph-Wiggum** » Thu Feb 19, 2009 5:01 pm

Rawrkan wrote:if i leave stuff on the ground inside my megaton house will they dissapear after some time?

Not sure, but there are lockers in the house. If you put the stuff in the lockers it shouldn't disappear.

Turtle · Post by **Turtle** » Thu Feb 19, 2009 5:10 pm

Nothing you leave inside your house, even outside lockers, will p. However, anything outside your house will eventually disappear.

JonathanStrange · Post by **JonathanStrange** » Thu Feb 19, 2009 5:19 pm

I did get a bit bored by the landscapes and I did find the fighting aspects of FO3 not ultimately thrilling - which is a shock to me 'cause it's initially cool.

However, this is after finishing the game and starting again and have put into FO3 way too many hours - most of which were fun and had that "I'll play another ten minutes..." feeling to them.

So I easily got my money's worth and then some. Feeling bored and let down by a game that I've thoroughly played, stomped on, worn as a hat, tossed around, tried all sorts of things with? That's nothing new to me. I've experienced it dozens of times.

Then I put the game away and say "It was just one of those things. We were crazy mixed-up kids."

This reminds me of all those beloved games that I'm nostalgic for still - but have NO desire to play again 'cause that was then, this is now.

If I never play FO3 again,I've no regrets. It was a trip!

Rawrkan · Post by **Rawrkan** » Thu Feb 19, 2009 7:37 pm

Turtle wrote:Nothing you leave inside your house, even outside lockers, will p. However, anything outside your house will eventually disappear.

Thanks for the confirmation, i didnt want my gun collection to dissapear magicly.

Skinypupy · Post by **Skinypupy** » Mon Mar 30, 2009 12:03 pm

I'm sure it's buried back in the previous 30 pages, but don't you find a dog companion somewhere in this game? I'm a little over 20 hours in, and haven't found one yet. The only dogs I ever see attack me on sight. Then again, I haven't done much of the main quest (just got to GNR), so maybe I'm just not there yet.

Little Raven · Post by **Little Raven** » Mon Mar 30, 2009 12:48 pm

Skinypupy wrote:I'm sure it's buried back in the previous 30 pages, but don't you find a dog companion somewhere in this game?

Yup. I've always heard that junkyards are a great place to pick up a dog...

dbt1949 · Post by **dbt1949** » Mon Mar 30, 2009 1:15 pm

But watch out for the mines nearby!

Sarkus · Post by **Sarkus** » Mon Mar 30, 2009 8:26 pm

Skinypupy wrote:I'm sure it's buried back in the previous 30 pages, but don't you find a dog companion somewhere in this game? I'm a little over 20 hours in, and haven't found one yet. The only dogs I ever see attack me on sight. Then again, I haven't done much of the main quest (just got to GNR), so maybe I'm just not there yet.

The dog is nowhere near the main quest or any major optional quest you are likely to be following. In that regard he's the hardest companion to find as you either stumble upon him or have to spoil yourself to find him. I completely missed him my first time through, even though I visited about 60% of the map locations and did almost all the major named optional quests.

DCL · Post by **DCL** » Mon Mar 30, 2009 9:49 pm

I actually found the dog on my own. But I'm well into the game and I've been doing a lot of exploring (one of the funnest parts of the game) because in another thread I started I was advised to do a lot of exploring because the main quest is so short. I really wish there was a way to find a companion for a good karma character early because it was so hard for me at the beginning and a companion would have helped. Now I'm much stronger and and don't need their help as much but I have found 2 now, that dog and that lady in power armor (who is pretty kick ass)

Anyway I had a question about finding a weapon that can shoot darts. I keep finding darts, I have like a thousand darts, but I can't find any weapon capable of shooting the stupid darts. Do you have to find the schematics for the weapon (so far the only gun I could find that shoots the rail thingys I could only find in a schematic, still looking for the parts) or is there any place you can buy it?

Bad Demographic · Post by **Bad Demographic** » Mon Mar 30, 2009 10:04 pm

Instead of the woman from the Brotherhood of Steel, I bought Charon's contract. He was a pretty good companion.
I left the dog in my apartment in Megaton.

Yes, you need a schematic to build the weapon for the darts. I don't recall the name of the weapons - maybe the dart gun? (that would make sense) - I think it uses surgical tubing and a toy car. And maybe a scorpion gland. I don't recall what else.

KiloOhm · Post by **KiloOhm** » Tue Mar 31, 2009 7:38 am

DCL wrote: I could only find in a schematic, still looking for the parts) or is there any place you can buy it?

It's called the "Dart Gun" and it's a schematic. All schematics can be bought and found you just haven't found it yet. I don't recall off hand where you can find it. Maybe the toy car factory since toy cars are one of the ingredients in it.

Doomboy · Post by **Doomboy** » Tue Mar 31, 2009 4:52 pm

All this recent talk has inspired me to play Fallout 3 again. I got the 2 DLCs, and installed a couple of mods I've had my eye on for months (better living through chems and four eyes), and started over again.

Currently level 4 and exploring Vault 106, which I accidentally discovered on my way to Arefu. I forgot how creepy that particular vault is.