Suggestions for self imposed saving system on first Hardcore run.

[sebbety]

Hi folks,

 

I started playing NV a month or so back as I had some spare time, but ended up playing it all the time, even when I didn't really want to play but had nothing else to do so played for a few hours, and this stifled my enjoyment of the game. So now I'm going to start again after a couple of weeks off and I will be used to the systems of the game from the off. Also, I'll make sure to only play when I find myself with spare time and really have a big desire to play.

 

For this restart I've agonised for the past week or so about whether or not to play on Hardcore mode, reading articles and threads in various places about the different systems' annoyances and challenges, suggested important/useless perks, SPECIAL setup suggestions etc... I've decided that I'm going to give it a go, though this time I'll probably enable the Couriers Stash pack so I have the Vault 13 Canteen to make thirst an easier - though still more difficult than non-hardcore mode - prospect. I found in normal mode that - like in Fallout 3 - stimpaks and many other things were easy to stockpile while rarely, if ever, needing them anyway, and I'm intrigued by the prospect of ammo having weight (although it would make weapons like the Missile Launcher, Grenade Launcher and others highly impractical, but then in normal mode it is too easy to walk around with all the big weapons and a huge amount of ammo), and having to be more careful about my fighting strategy and who I pick fights with and when.

 

The main problem I have is none of it really matters anyway when you can save eveery 5 steps without problem. In my previous playthrough I adopted a system of not saving after fights etc which meant it was necessary to use Stimpaks and trying not to savespam all the time, but often the temptation is too much to resist and I'd still save every 10 yards for fear of running in to a fight accidentally that was going to seriously deplete my supplies.

 

What I'm mainly asking about is if anyone has implemented in their own game a self-imposed system of saving. Obviously never saving is not an option, and as I say saving every 5 steps takes all the challenge away, but I'm wondering if there is a happy medium that I can employ to make things more... honest? Nothing that is going to leave me dying and having to traverse a vast swathe of the map and have multiple conversations and complete several quests all over again, but also not something that takes away all the challenge.

 

Perhaps, if I can find a suitable save system to employ, I may not even play in Hardcore mode - as there are some parts of the mode that I'm not too keen on - as really a more challenging save system might be enough to achieve the level of challenge I'm after.

 

Any ideas or help would be great :)

[dubiousintent]

I'd suggest "CASM with MCM" as it allows you to customize when it saves ... extensively.

 

-Dubious-

[sebbety]

Hi dubious.

 

That's great, thank you, I was not aware of this mod.

 

I don't think I'll download it as I've given up on trying to mod the game in any way, but I will definitely employ a couple of methods that I'll make sure to stick to. Think I'll save on discovery of a location and exiting combat (either by killing the enemies or running away). I could also save on returning to an already discovered location but could just cover that by keeping save on fast travel as on. Might also save on Quest Completion, but not sure.

 

Will now have to decide whether I will definitely play on Hardcore or not. Think I won't actually as I will probably get quickly annoyed at having to drink all the time out of radiated sources, then having to find RadAway to combat it, and that process being continually repeated. Also, I'm not a fan of companions dying permanently which would be a *censored* if I'm saving at end of combat, although I would then just have to go back to my last save before that one I guess as punishment.

Edited May 23, 2016 by sebbety

[sebbety]

Actually, no, I think I'll play in Hardcore mode but will enable Couriers Stash to give me a little boost. Really looking forward to playing this game more thoughtfully.

[madmongo]

I tend to favor a somewhat realistic style of role-play approach to the game. Saving every 5 steps would completley ruin that for me. I try to go through the entire game without getting myself killed. I don't save often because if I do screw up and die, then I want there to be a substantial penalty for that.

 

I run a heavily modded version of FNV. One of the things I did was I placed a trash can in Doc Mitchell's house and I immediately dump all of the stuff added at the start of the game into that trash can. You're supposed to be a courier who just got shot in the head. Why are you carrying around three sets of armor, numerous weapons, and a handful of throwing spears? Doesn't make sense to me. I like to start out with basically nothing, since everything I had of value was taken by the Khans after Benny put a hole in my skull. I modified Sunny Smiles to give me a crappy pipe rifle (added by another mod) instead of giving me a decent weapon.

 

I also modded the game so that weapons do double damage. In the vanilla game, you can shoot a raider dead square in the face and often he'll just shrug it off. That seems unrealistic and silly to me. Doubling the damage tends to make the weapons seem much more realistic in terms of how deadly they are. Also, not only do you do double damage to your enemies, but they do double damage to you as well. Makes you think twice about charging into a raider nest if you know that you can be killed much more easily.

 

I tend not to save very often. The game is a bit buggy and can crash on you. I installed NVAC which helps a lot with that. Also, any time you go through an area transition (like a door) the game will often auto-save. So I tend not to bother saving. On the other hand, if I've been running around in the wasteland for the last hour or so and haven't saved, I'll often save at that point just so I don't lose all of that running around to a game crash.

 

The main decision point for me on where to save is how far I am willing to go back if the game dumps.

 

I think your plan of saving on location discovery and at the exit of combat is a pretty good one. I would add to that a periodic save if you've gone a long time without saving just so that a game crash won't make you redo a lot of play.