Anyone else doing their first playthrough?

[Andr0idOS]

So, is there anybody besides me that hasn't played this game but is on their first playthrough? After reading an article on Kotaku about the first dungeon I got inspired to give the game a shot since I love Fallout 3 and New Vegas so much. I've read the Fallout bible and have spent hours on the Fallout wiki just reading about random stuff. Most people seem to have high opinions of this game so I want to give it a fair shot and try to get through the game. I am "cheating" though by using a walkthrough from gamefaqs, it helps a lot with these older games.

I really wish I knew about this game as a kid, it would've been perfect for my ancient piece of crap that had a hard time running Starcraft: Brood War, it probably would've lagged a fair bit but I had all the time in the world to figure out what to do on my own and loved games like that.

Any Fallout 2 vets got some tips to share? :)

[Risewild]

A couple of small tips:

• 
  Put the combat speed to maximum in the game options.


• 
  Do not give up in the beginning (Old Fallout games are not a walk on the park specially in the start).


• 
  Think about your actions, they will have consequences.


• 
  Save every time you enter a settlement/town/area.


• 
  Be careful, you can hit your followers by accident and they can hit you too.


• 
  Be careful, this game has critical failures, and they are not nice (hurt yourself, drop your weapon, lose entire ammo clip you're using at the moment).


• 
  Be careful about failed lockpick attempts, they actually jam locks sometimes.


• 
  Enjoy this great game :D and also the special encounters.

[TrickyVein]

You're playing Fallout 2 for the first time?

First of all, you rock. My advice for a first-time playthrough is to experiment and be OK with making mistakes. If you don't get the desired outcome of a quest or meet a character that derails you from completing another quest, don't worry. You'll only have a sense of how large the game is and what 'right' actions to take after completing it at least once. Then you can find out how much stuff you missed or didn't do. I highly, highly recommend playing with the Restoration Project by Killap. It makes the game larger and better without changing its core - you'll only understand how awesome it is if you complete the game once without it. 

Even though you've already built your character, or are in the process of doing so, here's some advice for putting points into primary and secondary stats:

• 
  Most (good) weapons require a min. Strength of 6 - so unless you plan on PA strength boosting, getting the red memory module or getting addicted to something to boost your stats throughout the game, I'd put at least 5 or preferably 6 points into Strength.


• 
  Max Agility lets you own combat encounters, which is almost required for playing solo with no companions.


• 
  The only combat skill which matters is Small Guns. There are just so many guns that provide opportunities for advancement for your character throughout the game. Energy Weapons are fun and powerful but also rare and expensive and they're not a viable choice for the oil rig (unless you plan on taking a non-combat approach) - energy weapons against weak-armored and fleshy opponents is tons of fun though. Melee and Unarmed are easy to boost to high levels but there are only a few super weapons that make putting points into these skills worthwhile and it requires that you have a pretty tough character. Throwing? Big Guns? Grenades are rare, as are big guns - I've never experimented with these much though there are some pretty fun-looking big guns you can find later in the game.


• 
  Putting points into Speech really pays off.

And:

• 
  Don't sleep with either of Grisham's kids.


• 
  Don't stand in front of Sulik in combat if you give him an SMG.


• 
  Don't kill children.


• 
  Do try and piss off Lynette.

[Andr0idOS]

[quote=Risewild]

A couple of small tips:

• 
  Put the combat speed to maximum in the game options.


• 
  Do not give up in the beginning (Old Fallout games are not a walk on the park specially in the start).


• 
  Think about your actions, they will have consequences.


• 
  Save every time you enter a settlement/town/area.


• 
  Be careful, you can hit your followers by accident and they can hit you too.


• 
  Be careful, this game has critical failures, and they are not nice (hurt yourself, drop your weapon, lose entire ammo clip you're using at the moment).


• 
  Be careful about failed lockpick attempts, they actually jam locks sometimes.


• 
  Enjoy this great game :D and also the special encounters.

[/quote]

Sweet, thanks for the tips man. Critical failures eh? Sounds like an interesting game mechanic! I've been keeping two backup saves along with my main save, just in case. Any especially good/funny encounters I should look out for?

[quote=TrickyVein]

 

You're playing Fallout 2 for the first time?

First of all, you rock. My advice for a first-time playthrough is to experiment and be OK with making mistakes. If you don't get the desired outcome of a quest or meet a character that derails you from completing another quest, don't worry. You'll only have a sense of how large the game is and what 'right' actions to take after completing it at least once. Then you can find out how much stuff you missed or didn't do. I highly, highly recommend playing with the Restoration Project by Killap. It makes the game larger and better without changing its core - you'll only understand how awesome it is if you complete the game once without it. 

Even though you've already built your character, or are in the process of doing so, here's some advice for putting points into primary and secondary stats:

• 
  Most (good) weapons require a min. Strength of 6 - so unless you plan on PA strength boosting, getting the red memory module or getting addicted to something to boost your stats throughout the game, I'd put at least 5 or preferably 6 points into Strength.


• 
  Max Agility lets you own combat encounters, which is almost required for playing solo with no companions.


• 
  The only combat skill which matters is Small Guns. There are just so many guns that provide opportunities for advancement for your character throughout the game. Energy Weapons are fun and powerful but also rare and expensive and they're not a viable choice for the oil rig (unless you plan on taking a non-combat approach) - energy weapons against weak-armored and fleshy opponents is tons of fun though. Melee and Unarmed are easy to boost to high levels but there are only a few super weapons that make putting points into these skills worthwhile and it requires that you have a pretty tough character. Throwing? Big Guns? Grenades are rare, as are big guns - I've never experimented with these much though there are some pretty fun-looking big guns you can find later in the game.


• 
  Putting points into Speech really pays off.

And:

• 
  Don't sleep with either of Grisham's kids.


• 
  Don't stand in front of Sulik in combat if you give him an SMG.


• 
  Don't kill children.


• 
  Do try and piss off Lynette.

[/quote]

I'm glad you said that, because I forgot to kill the Dunton brothers while helping out Torr, but didn't feel like loading back and taking 15 minutes to beat those damn scorpions again. I'm currently using the high-res patch and unofficial bugfix patch, I'm saving the RP for a 2nd playthrough. I have 7 in strength I'm pretty sure, along with 9 in agility and perception. Don't remember my stats off the top of my head though. I figured small guns would be valuable so I tagged that skill! I ALWAYS put lots of points into speech in any Fallout game, lol.

What's with the stupid kid in Klamath that runs around with his arms up like the wacky inflatable tubeman? I chased him around for a good 10 minutes just laughing at the way he ran and what he said to me, haha.

[TrickyVein]

All of the children use the same silly sprite. I don't know. 

If you want to see some of the more special encounters, or basically any that don't suck and drop you in the middle of raiders or creatures then it pays off to put points into the Outdoorsman skill. 

Something that I really, really like about using the Restoration Project is that it makes traveling across the world map much more dangerous and fun. The travel time is reduced so you can't just zip across the map and encounters are much more frequent. There's great incentive to get the Highwayman or join up with a caravan going around the big circle.

[Andr0idOS]

Cool, that's good to know. Making traveling more dangerous seems like a scary prospect to me at the moment, I tried to go to San Francisco to get the power armor early, but kept running into the Enclave on my way there. I didn't have time to do anything before I was killed lol, so I went where the game wanted me to go and went to Klamath.

Do I get any decent weapons anytime soon? I only have the sharpened spear and pipe rifle so far. I've seen the 10mm pistol for sale but I'm to broke to buy it, might steal some stuff to barter with.

I'm looking forward to beating this game and starting a new game with the RP though.

[TrickyVein]

[quote=Andr0idOS]

Do I get any decent weapons anytime soon? I only have the sharpened spear and pipe rifle so far. I've seen the 10mm pistol for sale but I'm to broke to buy it, might steal some stuff to barter with.

[/quote]

You will, and when you do you'll feel awesome. It might be after completing some quests in Modoc, or maybe in the Den. Flick, in the Den carries decent weapons but his prices are probably pretty steep. Maybe you'll make it to Redding or Broken Hills and catch a break there. It's up to you. At some point you'll feel confident about entering into combat with another human NPC with a gun.

Though if you're still around Klamath I would definitely suggest braving through the Toxic Caves to find Smiley and finding a way to rid the town of rats first, as an opportunity for advancement for your character. 

[Andr0idOS]

Is there anything decent around klamath I can pick up right away? Having trouble even filling up Whiskey Bob's still due to those damn geckos. Kill one, move ahead two steps, and another comes in for a fight. So annoying. Doesn't help most of my attacks miss.

I really want to get through this game, especially since I know that the beginnings of these older games are usually quite hard. I'm trying to steal enough to trade for a 10mm pistol, because I'm tired of only landing 1 in 10 attacks.

[TrickyVein]

I suggest you move on to the Den if you want to find some decent gear. There's nothing really to find in Klamath in the way of weapons, and Maida charges way too much. It really pays off to put points into barter in this game too, especially in the beginning.

[Andr0idOS]

The Den eh? Alright, I'll head over there next time I play to try and pick up some decent gear. Thanks for your help man.