Balance issues or just me?

[canadian69]

Ok, just started playing the game and already I am noticing some really stupid stuff, like shooting a friggin' gecko in the head like 8 times before it dies and having a raider beat me to death with a pipe while I pump him full of 9mm at point blank range. WTF? I started on Hardcore, but turned it off thinking that was the problem, but nope, still the same crap. I have better success with VATs, but it shouldn't be required at zero range from the target. Nor should I have to use it constantly on every target. I've got about 300 hours logged in FO3, so I thought I knew what I was doing. Maybe not.

[revelationjp]

I had the same problem, rad scorpions ambushing me at every turn, and my weapons ineffective. Someone told me to use AP rounds, but i had found aprx 2 AP rounds at that point. Turned difficulty down a notch and it's much better now.

[overload1977]

yea i have seen some weird things in VATs 100% hit rate, but don't hit and no damg. :wallbash:

[dkmeffedk]

Think about it a bit from the aspect of the reality. If you get worn out, old 9mm with loosened spring and mechanism, force of the bullet is going to be low.

 

I encountered this same problem at start too, and tested immediately differences between good conditioned weapon and poor one. Weapon condition seems to be a lot more unforgiving than in vanilla FO3 as the spread, reload time, accuracy and force is altered by it strongly. On a shotguns it shows up most clearly.

[revelationjp]

While I love realism in a game, let's be honest, we play games to get away from reality. Frustrating game mechanics make for loss of fun, realistic or no. After 10 deaths to creatures that should've matched my level and equipment (i was still very near goodsprings), i decided my fun trumps realism and after notching down the difficulty a bit, the fun factor went up satisfactorily.

[canadian69]

Ok, I have downgraded difficulty to easy, then just for fun, console toggled collisions off and floated out over the wastes in search of rad scorps. From the safety of altitude I dropped a granade right on top of a giant rad scorp and it did next to no damage. Total BS. However at this difficulty level I have no problems killing coyotes with a single shot from a rifle or shotgun, which do very little against geckos and next to nothing against rad scorps. The creatures are totally unbalanced, god only knows what I am to expect when confronted by a deathclaw. They really botched this by comparison to FO3. Unless they were trying to frustrate me, in which case they achieved their goal.

[revelationjp]

I agree Canadian69. the rad scorps armor value is way too high. i've discovered that i have the best results with the 9mill smg, which is completely opposite of the way it's supposed to be. according to the manual, high armor enemies are countered by using weapons with a higher DAM rating, to supposedly blow through thier DT. However, my high DAM weapons do nothing to rad scorps while my dinky smg chews through them (relatively speaking) fairly quickly. Add to it that the Giant rad scorps can kill with 2 or 3 blows, and it seems to me to be very unbalanced. Even on easy mode like i am now, it seems off, cuz now all the other enemies (humans, animals, etc...) give me no challenge whatsoever, but the radscorps still are over challenging.

[Spizzay69]

i ran into a deathclaw when i was lvl 7 or 8... think killed me in like 2 hits and i didnt do any dam whatsoever

[GrindedStone]

It's not the balance. It's your whole mindset about combat. When you start out with FO3 you charge in, a real aggressive tactic, and also maybe even searching out for the "Action". When in truth you should be trying to stay alive. So yah a pure combat character playthough gets old an is actually kind of lame while also not really working (as per the reasons you have stated above in this post)

 

I challenge you instead to view your game from the pure character playthrough instead. This requries somewhat defining what this character is about, how they feel about certian issues an whatnot. Which can in fact be writen out in your head from the sheer random things that are happening to them in the wasteland, or you could put things in a hat an draw something out, or you could just define it based off what you want. I tend to react more so to the things around me than plan out where I'll end up. For example some NPC might do something an this steers me toward good or evil because I liked them or they totaly stepped on my feet.

 

 

ENVOKE THE ONE DEATH RULE

 

1. (Nothing to lose = Nothing to gain) just as (High risk of loss in any form = High yeild in what you can gain)

 

2. Create a character, flip a coin if it's tails you have to be a girl. Put some effort into it so that when they die you'll feel it. Awe man I really liked that one.

 

3. When you die you now have to start over as penalty for death. No cheating... Delete the save games. Flip a coin, create a new character.

 

4. I personally hate starting over, thus making the penalty that much worse. Which changes your approach to combat as well as makes to do things you wouldn't normally want to ever do (thus broading your experience)

 

5. The difficulty setting doesn't really matter or even HC mode, in any settings the one death rule is going to change you. The harder the game the better you get at fighting.

 

6. Now work on your character playthough (role play) while also envoking this one death rule to which provides a rich experience over the period of time you spend trying to stay alive, and also later on when that character is dead, looking back on them in sadness. Boo Hoo I miss that one...

 

7. Now when you win you win big time & when you lose you lose big time. However the stuff you need to stay alive is the same stuff that makes you a better fighter. It's not Stand an shoot, charge in a shoot, or even run an shoot. It's basicly do anything you have to do to win. A mixture of Finding cover quickly, Using the enviroment to trick the attacker, Running away, Charge them, Switch weapons, VATS, Freefire. You would be surprized at what you are willing to do when it's life or death...

 

 

This all started from getting stuck in the same exact combat character playthough which is pretty much a pure combat character just out to finish quests an finish the game. You just don't get that much out of that besides entertainment. When you move toward a more broad experience game you might find yourself actually feeling things in the real world from what happened in a game. Which is kind of cool. I mean I never wanted to play a African American Character because I wanted it to seem like it was me in the game which is stupid because I'm always going to make the same choices over an over again. However if it's another person that I'm playing thru Character Playthrough means (role play) then there's no telling what I'll end up doing. Which looking back playing a African American character in FO3 was really a lot of fun. Just like when we always played Male characters because we didn't wana be a girl. Eventually we tried being a girl an even liked it somewhat more than just getting to stare at tail all day. With the one death rule this is always changing rather than always being the same.

[Mansh00ter]

Just to add my 2c - a worn out pistol will hit just as hard as a brand new one. The force of the bullet doesn't lessen if the spring mechanism is weak, you just might get a misfire or perhaps the gun would blow up in your hand if its that old and worn out. But the bullet hits like a bullet regardless.

 

As for house rules, I prefer not to use the "one death" rule because the game doesn't really cater to the kind of gameplay which would enable the player to totally utilize the environs for survival (at the most basic level, there isn't even a working cover system). Instead, wait for some weapon realism mods which will come out eventually. I hardly play without those if I can. If I were not out and about on a trip I'd be making one right now.