Geniunely Essential Mods/General Advice

[Deleted2402016User]

Hello,

 

I am about to play Fallout 3 for the first time and I have a few questions :).

 

I have never played this game before. I have played about 50 hours of Oblivion with about 5-10 different thief builds. That is the kind of character that I would like to be. A kind of thief/assassin type. I'm a very patient gamer who is looking forward to ploughing 500+ hours into just one build. I'm the kind of gamer that wants to do everything, exploring every nook and cranny. I think that you get the impression of who I want to play as.

 

1. What kind of character racials/stats should I choose?

 

2. Is there a time limit like F1?

 

3. Is there that HIDEOUS levelling system like in vanilla oblivion? In fact, how does a character level?

 

4. Can the game be played like a normal FPS? Or is it more like the combat system of Final Fantasy?

 

5. What is the typical body mass of the Aquila clanga, more commonly known as the Greater Spotted Eagle?

 

6. And lastly my most important question. What are the genuinely essential mods of F3? I don't mean SUPER NUCLEAR WEAPON MOD 6000 which adds 55071 weapons and new enemies etc. I mean mods that fix patches, give you more game options that sort of thing. I don't mind if a mod enhances something a little like the graphics etc. but total graphics change is not acceptable.

 

Does anyone else have any general advice?

 

Thanks,

 

James

[LusifurTheSchnozzle]

1) There's really no wrong way to play Fallout 3, but Sneak is *very* good, as any attack made from sneaking will result in a sneak attack critical. I'd recommend small guns as your primary combat skill, seeing as it covers everything from pistols to assault rifles to sniper rifles, and small guns are the bulk of the weapons you'll find, and ammo will be plentiful. For a third, I'd go for one of these: Lockpicking, Science, Medicine, Repair. All are useful, and you'll probably wind up maxing all of them at one point, especially if you plan on a 500+ hour play through.

 

2) No time limit, but the game will end upon completion of the final quest, unless you have broken steel DLC.

 

3) Nearly everything contibutes to a general pool of XP. When the pool fills, you level, and can distribute points based on your intelligence stat to your skills however you want. Then, you can choose a perk, which vary from stat increases to new abilities, crafting recipes, etc. Your attributes do not change like in Elder Scrolls, unless you take the Intense Training perk or receive certain perks via questing.

 

4) This is a bit of a base breaker, as you can either play it like a normal FPS, or you can take advantage of the VATS system at any time, which is like a compromise for the old chance to hit system from FO1/2. I wouldn't say it's anything like Final Fantasy.

 

5) Uhm...

 

6) I don't really know; I'd recommend a playthrough with just the vanilla game first. There's definitely a lot of content.

 

Also, I'd recommend checking out LinkThe1st's videos on youtube. He has an excellent character creation guide that discusses the various nuances, as well as a getting started guide and guides to many of the collectibles. Are you playing the Game of the Year edition with all the DLCs, or just Fallout 3?

Edited May 30, 2012 by LusifurTheSchnozzle

[Deleted2402016User]

Can I max out all of the skills? What about the level cap?

 

Fallout 3 GOTY with all DLCs via steam.

 

Can other people please advise me as well as I would like to get most people's opinion.

[SteamClangBoom]

The level cap is 30 with DLCs. The original level cap was 20, and the skills were balanced for that. I don't think you can quite max every skill by 30 (maybe if you're careful with your skill books...?), but you can come close enough that it hardly matters. There are mods (namely Fallout Wanderers' Edition (FWE)) that address this (...because, from the point of view of an RPG fan, it's pretty abominable).

 

You'll spend plenty of time sneaking in FO3. It's pretty familiar to a veteran of Bethesda RPGs. Energy Weapons, unlike in previous Fallout games, are pretty viable from the start if you can back them up with a reasonable score in another weapon skill for a level or two; you'll have access to laser pistols pretty early, if you know where to go/take the right quests early on. I would suggest Small Guns to start with, though. They're pretty equivalent in power, and you'll end up with both skills maxed anyway.

 

I would second the suggestion that you play the game vanilla first. Without playing having done a vanilla playthrough, you'll have nothing to compare the mods you use against, and will likely not appreciate or understand the changes they make as much/well as you would otherwise (though you'll still receive the full effect of mod conflicts, CTDs, missing meshes, etc.). Moreover, if you intend to use many mods (as I do; there are many outstanding mods for FO3 at this point), the game will become a confusing mess. You'll be drowning in items whose source and purpose are completely unknown; without having played the game unmodded first, you'd be pretty overwhelmed.

 

If you're set on doing a single, modded playthrough, the mods I would consider essential would be: Fallout Wanderer's Edition, Martigen's Mutant Mod, Project Beauty/Fallout Redesigned (took a name change somewhere along the road, still generally referred to as Project Beauty), Fellout, Fallout Street Lights, some sort of radio extender (CONELRAD is pretty cool but gets old quickly, there are some great GNR extender mods (GNR Enhanced) that add a lot of period-appropriate music (whose copyright has, of course, long since expired)), NMC's Texture Pack, Energy Visuals Enhanced, probably the Unofficial Patch, DCInteriors, CRAFT & CALIBR (included in FWE) and eXCALIBR to go with it, Weapon Mod Kits, and Underground Hideout (if you're into house mods).

 

I'll elaborate, and make the list a little more legible this time:

- FWE: big and configurable. adds (optional): basic needs (hunger, thirst), sprint/bullet time features (so the game can be played more like an FPS), damage increases (combat is less forgiving), stat/skill system overhaul (enhances RPG elements), general balance adjustments. I highly recommend it; you can change almost all elements of the mod in-game.

- MMM: also configurable. adds variety to the enemies encountered as well as a few new ones. allows for increased spawn rates for more interesting encounters and a less strict levelling system for the same reason. some small chances of a behemoth or ghoul horde to put the fear back into you. I highly recommend it; again, highly configurable.

- Project Beauty: doesn't actually make the game any prettier. reworks faces but stays true to lore and artstyle. a general improvement; probably worth picking up even on an otherwise vanilla playthrough.

- EVE: vast improvement on the existing energy weapons. improves the textures of the weapons themselves and the firing/crit kill animations and sounds. adds a few legacy items. I'm just returning to FO3, but I seem to recall it making a few less desirable but small additions to enemies the last time I used it (many versions ago). recommended nonetheless. minor conflicts with FWE and WMK - FOIP (Fallout Interoperability Project - necessary for using major mods such as these together) patch addresses this.

- WMK: makes available attachments for most weapons in the game. pretty basic, textures are well done and tasteful. mostly just scopes, suppressors, etc. attachments are purchased as kits and added to the weapon. recommended.

- Fellout: addressed some of the uglier elements of FO3's atmosphere and weather. makes the nights darker.

- Fallout Street Lights: adds street lights to many roads in FO3. sounds like a small change but makes a big difference. use particularly if using Fellout; they complement each other nicely.

- GNR Enhanced/CONELRAD: Three Dog, your friendly GNR DJ, gets to be absolutely f***ing unbearable after a few hours of play. these add a great deal of music and increase the number of tracks played before Three Dog returns. if you intend to play for any real length of time, I would recommend it. hearing the same song hundreds of times is bad - hearing the same bit from Three Dog related to a quest you completed weeks ago is horrible.

- NMC's Texture Pack: replaces the mediocre original textures with much better ones. covers most textures in the original game (doesn't address DLC textures, though, iirc). tastefully done and true to the originals. use this even on an otherwise vanilla playthrough.

- DCInteriors: being that you'll spend a great deal of time wandering through the city center of Washington, D.C., you'd expect there to be more than zero house, storefront, etc. interior cells than exist in the original game. DCInteriors addresses this, and adds a lot of small, believable interior cells to fill this void.

- Underground Hideout: there are two possible player houses included in FO3 (you'll only own one - you choose which in a relatively early quest), and neither is terribly impressive. If you want something with a little more functionality and style, this is a very well-executed house mod. This assumes, of course, that you are comfortable with the yo-MTV-Cribs-style world of house mods.

 

This is a really basic list - there are many, many good mods available for FO3, ranging in scope and ambition from an FWE-style overhaul or massive world extensions to humble wardrobe additions. My current (and not yet fully functional) load order is some seventy entries strong. These are just the biggest, the most sweeping changes and the most accessible to a new player.

 

Hope that helps.

Edited May 31, 2012 by SteamClangBoom

[LusifurTheSchnozzle]

Just from my perspective, but I generally only play Fallout 3 with FWE and MMM, plus their dependencies. I've tried running with more mods, but I found it dragged down the engine a little bit, and of course had all the CTDs, etc. Take that as you will, I'm just saying I prefer playing with as few mods as possible, or rather, just a few that make very big changes.

[SteamClangBoom]

Just from my perspective, but I generally only play Fallout 3 with FWE and MMM, plus their dependencies. I've tried running with more mods, but I found it dragged down the engine a little bit, and of course had all the CTDs, etc. Take that as you will, I'm just saying I prefer playing with as few mods as possible, or rather, just a few that make very big changes.

 

Yeah, I have some power to spare, so as long as I stay away from hardware intensive mods, I can afford a pretty long load order. I don't have many (any) problems with CTDs, to be honest, but then I'm willing to spend days tweaking my load order and mod settings, selecting plugins, etc. before I actually start playing. It's personal preference, though; obviously, the bulk of the changes made in my (or any other) game are from a few key mods. If I really had to narrow the list down, those are probably the two I would choose.

Edited May 31, 2012 by SteamClangBoom