I feel like I'm punished for exploring...

[BlackCompany]

I wholeheartedly agree with the punished-for-exploring feel in this game. When you hand players an open world game, where the devs want you to go first shouldn't matter. A game is either open world or it isn't. Period. Exchanging invisible barriers (which are already far too common in this game) for those which walk and have health points is no excuse.

 

Case in point, the firs thing I heard was "go south to Primm, then to Novac through Nipton." So of course, what do I do? I go north. And I get slaughtered. Didn't take long to figure that those Deathclaws, which hang out in the Waste yet never attack either Goodsprings or Sloan, were only present as a walking barrier between you and New Vegas. Pretty sad, really. Coupled with their annoying speed and gods-awful poison effects this is one major reason why I drastically nerfed Cazadore hit points and Deathclaw Perception in my overhaul. Its an open world game; the player should be able to take whatever route they please. As a modder I understand the complications arising from the possible permutations of where the player has and has not been in game at any given point. So test for em. Its one of the many things you're paid to do.

 

On another note I have also noticed the distinct lack of reasons to explore. While I am no fan of purposeless dungeon raids (I actually despise them like I hate few things on earth) I am also no fan of a largely empty world where there exists nothing worthy of discovery. This, is such a world. "Dungeons" are brief, often pointless affairs; large areas of the waste remain devoid of life, including enemies, factions, or buildings (other boarded up 'cutouts' taking up space.) Simply put even when you do explore, some beefy walking barrier keeps you out of interesting places until so late in the game that you have no need to obtain the sort of loot said baddie is guarding in the first place. That, or you arrive at some large building to find it boarded up or useless.

 

Lastly, some exploratory quests which did not lead you back to working for the NCR would have helped. In one game (a waste of 10 hours of my life) i TRIED NOT to get that damned radio. Still got it, somehow. Sad, really, that all roads seem to lead to the NCR in this game. Difficult to role play an explorer when you have ranking officers issuing you commands more often than not. This is why all of those "Join the Legion" mods for Oblivion were, imo, a total waste of time and effort (yes, I tested them.) Turn us loose and let us explore or make a linear action game with a tight story and tighter progression. Choose one, please. I'm not judging one over another. Just pick and stick.

[Herculine]

I have to agree that New Vegas lacks the enjoyment of exploration to be found in earlier games like Oblivion and Fallout 3. Not only have the developers used tough monsters to keep low-level characters confined to specific routes, but they've also placed a ridiculous number of invisible collision barriers all over the map to prevent us from crossing dunes and hills that in any other game we could have easily walked across. But I'm not the first to notice or mention these things; I just wanted to note that I am in agreement that these details are very annoying and in my opinion evidence of very poorly planned world designing.

[frank lee]

I think this is the place for this complaint but just got around to exploring a certain small office building south of Vegas. Five fiends outside, half a dozen ants inside and all for a handfull of caps and two bottles of sarsaparilla! really, is something supposed to happen here later? I didn't loot the cost of my ammo. No notes, no mini quest leads, not punished for exploring just no point.

[Park77]

I do have to say I agree with the collision barrier issue. Wasted time swimming around Lake Mead thinking I could take a short cut to get Lupa's brain for Rex. Blocked by invisible walls all around while trying to scale the hills surrounding The Fort.

 

Might just install the barrier removal mod.

[pob255]

One thing I've found annoying is that while the actual map is big only half of it is actually explorable.

There's a massive chunk of the west of the map, almost a quarter of it, is basically empty and un-explorable

 

At least FO3 used the whole map, the only areas you couldn't get to from just wandering around the main map was the area around Vault 87 due to the high radiation and the area DC (but that was actually empty and the interiors broken off into separate zones, in part for story line reasons and in part for performance reasons (those sub-maps are far more detailed))

 

look at the image from the invisible wall removal mod to see what I mean

 

http://www.newvegasnexus.com/downloads/images/thumbs/35011-1-1289118773.png

unmodded all that shaded area is basically unreachable.

 

Edited November 27, 2010 by pob255

[kukenike]

I think you hit the point Frank Lee, most locations seems only exist to hold some sarsaparrillas... and nothing more... o yes, lot of empty space between them (sorry about my bad english) Have fun! Edited November 27, 2010 by kukenike

[WrathOfDeadguy]

I've installed the barrier remover and played around with it a bit, and I must say it is a breath of fresh air. I ran across a few places where it was possible to get stuck between objects and terrain features, but that's really a design oversight- being able to fart around and really explore more than makes up for the few hiccups. You really have nothing to lose by trying it out, and the game feels much truer to its own design that way.

[Park77]

@Wrath

 

haha, I also installed that mod, and ran amok of the story line a bit.

 

Snuck into the Legion Fort by swimming behind the dam, and scaling the mountain range. Did it to get Lupa's brain and and learn Legion Assault from Lucius.

 

Got weird dialogue options from Caesar that was obviously meant to be read after other events were triggered. Completed the "Ring-a-ding-ding" quest and got the platinum chip to get into Lucky 38 and kill Mr. House despite never confronting Benny or even entering the strip.

 

I really enjoyed getting off the beaten path, especially since getting Lupa's brain for Rex takes way too long otherwise.

 

I ended up reloading though. I want the freedom to explore, but don't want to make my game all buggy.

[Spysix]

One of the bad things while exploring ahead is you sometimes trip quest objects, so when you get the quest later and either go back to the object it doesn't respond anymore.

 

I had this problem when I explored vault 22 without any of the quests and wounded up having to use the console on 3 quests to either reset them or pull some sort of fix.

 

And getting swarmed by mobs? Thats nothing compared to fallout 1 where I stepped out of the vault only to encounter radscorpions wearing plate exoskeletons...using only a 10mm with little ammo...

[Desurage]

sniper from sneak

everything dies