learning to fight with melee and unarmed and with explosives

[charwo]

As much as I like the childhood in the Vault character creation and tutorial, I found it severely lacking in a couple of respects. Lest of all concern is teaching me how to use mines effectively. I've seen it done, but seeing it and understanding the theory behind it are two different things. I just keep getting my ass shot. On a related note: grenades are a beautiful thing in VATS. This is the first Fallout game where I can actually make use of grenades, and frankly, there's few things more wonderful than chucking frag grenades down on unsuspecting bears further down in the cave and killing half a dozen at once. With Charon in the middle while wearing power armor. It let's me bring out my inner psychopath (we're going to call her Betty for obvious reasons) and lets her squee in laughter and joy and carnage. But...outside of VATS....two things happen. Outdoors the grenade never goes anywhere close to my target, and indoors, they hit the ceiling, bounce back and my LW dies. Usually horribly. Which amuses Betty to no end, especially because I have a RL reset button. So, I can only use grenades in VATS, which is fine if there's no way to learn to do it manually.

 

The other issues are more important: don't know the first thing about melee/unarmed combat. I mean, sure I can make the attack button click, but I found unarmed combat unpleasant because I need to gauge distance, I don't know how to block properly, nor how good blocking works mechanically and most frustrating when I try to attack in VATS, I'm not close enough to hit. In the old Fallout games, I'd spend action points to close the gasp and slice and dice. Maybe it would be viable if the VATS included action points in terms of closing distance movement and compounded it with the attack order. In any case, the tutorial taught me how to shoot guns, it didn't teach me the much more complex art of fisticuffs. Is there help I can get on the subject?

[M48A5]

Using grenades requires practice, mostly. You cannot put the aiming point on your target, outside of vats, and than lob a grenade and expect it to land anywhere near the target. You have to throw it in a high arch. Using a grenade in an enclosed area requires even more practice. For blocking, you would use the right mouse button.

As for using mines, I usually set up my mines and than lead the target to the area, making sure I have gone past the mines before the target gets to them. It's just a matter of trial and error until you get it right.

[charwo]

What does the blocking do? Does it lessen the damage, negate it, and are enemies going to telegraph their moves so that you know when it is time to block?

[M48A5]

Blocking stops an enemy's blow from hitting your body. How much the damage is lessened would depend on the type of armor you are using. The enemies do not telegraph their moves, it takes practice to effectively block. That is why I rarely fight melee or unarmed. I am more of a sniper type. I have no reason to get up close and personal with any of the enemies.

My one exception is killing ghouls using the ghoul mask and deathclaw gauntlet.