Hard to Stay Focused

[zerrodefex]

Anyone else have this issue? I'll start a new game with a character idea in mind and a somewhat set path through the game, but always somewhere along the way I'll get sidetracked and next thing I know I'm back to trying to complete nearly every sidequest there is. Eventually I get so bogged down that I just start over and try again only to have the same thing happen. I've only actually beaten the game 2 times out of the dozen or so runs I have attempted and the DLCs actually make it a bit worse as there is even more available to do. Now I'm nearly level 20 and have yet to even see Benny at The Tops.

[Ferodaktyl]

i'd think this is exactly the way this game is meant to be played. I find sidequests and exploring the world more entertaining that rocketing through the main quest. Even better, i use some mods to slow leveling, so i don't become overpowered to soon.

So, don't worry. You're on the right track :thumbsup:

[zerrodefex]

i'd think this is exactly the way this game is meant to be played.

 

Well Fallout 3 certainly was as until your escape from Raven Rock there is no implied sense of urgency. Even once the Enclave show up they remain at an eternal stalemate with the Brotherhood.

 

New Vegas on the other hand returns to the story-telling of Fallout 1 and 2 where there is a sense of urgency right from the beginning of the game. While there is no time limit on the main quest (didn't Fallout 1 actually have a time limit to keep you from wandering too much?) for the first part of New Vegas you're always one step behind Benny and on top of that it's implied that the Legion will invade the Mohave any day now. While there is no hard time limit it does make it feel weird that everyone else will sit and wait while you spirit off to Zion for a month or so. The story relies a bit too much on The Courier to move it forward.

 

It would have been neat if there was at least a mode you could turn on (separate from Hardcore Mode) that did put some actual time limits into the game. While one can do so as a self-imposed challenge without any game mechanism to enforce it it's easy to just let it slide.

 

 

My biggest issue really is just trying to complete everything just to have completed it. I just can't seem to turn down a quest which I wouldn't otherwise be interested in, or at least which my character would not care about.

[Gnubee]

This happens to me all the time. I keep starting games thinking "ok, this time I can only use revolvers" or some such thing, but then find some other cool toy that I have to use. I run the game pretty heavily modded and I have found that once I get to a certain point (generally some time after I get to New Vegas) one of the mods gets a significant update, so of course I have to start over to check it all out (again!) If I actually calculate the cost of this game based on $/hr played, it is approaching totally free.

[asdfth12]

I was trying to do my first playthrough with just regular guns.

 

Then I got my hands on a Laser RCW. My guns only plan went straight out the window.

[zerrodefex]

It doesn't help that at times the game feel like it's working against you.

 

If I play a guns character then energy weapons rain from the sky, but if I choose energy weapons as a tag skill then suddenly I can't find a plasma defender on any of the Bright Followers. If I choose explosives and want to use my mercenary grenade launcher as a signature weapon then no vendors will stock 40mm grenades. Arggg!