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A system of cells interlinked
What's it doing?
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“It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance.” ― Thomas Sowell



Think I might finally start Fallout 3 today. I've been putting it off because there's always been some pressing work when I get home, and I've been exhausted in the evenings. But if I can have a productive hour or so right about now I should be able to start it.

Yay, another addiction vying for my time.



I got for good luck my black tooth.
What's it doing?
It keeps sort of freezing up and stuttering. It seems like it takes forever to pull game info off the hard drive. The audio and video skip when I try to play most games. It plays DVD and Bluray with no problems though.
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"Like all dreamers, Steven mistook disenchantment for truth."



You ready? You look ready.
It keeps sort of freezing up and stuttering. It seems like it takes forever to pull game info off the hard drive. The audio and video skip when I try to play most games. It plays DVD and Bluray with no problems though.
That's a fairly common problem, unfortunately. Bad laser on the disc drive.
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"This is that human freedom, which all boast that they possess, and which consists solely in the fact, that men are conscious of their own desire, but are ignorant of the causes whereby that desire has been determined." -Baruch Spinoza



The People's Republic of Clogher
You sure it's not a hard drive problem?

If you've got a 2.5" SATA laying around, try it in the PS3.
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"Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how the Tatty 100 is done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves." - Brendan Behan



The People's Republic of Clogher
Tatty, which character from DA1 voices male Hawke, do you know?
Dunno but I've recognised Flemith (obviously), Leliana (yay!) and Oghren (I think). Might it be the English bloke who plays Alistair and Drake's mate from Uncharted 2?

How are you liking it? I played up until the party gets to the city.

Aaaanyway, after vowing not to buy any of the Fallout New Vegas dlc and wait for the inevitable GOTY I picked up Dead Money today.



I got for good luck my black tooth.
You sure it's not a hard drive problem?

If you've got a 2.5" SATA laying around, try it in the PS3.
It very well could be. I'm not a "techie" guy. I'm trying a full system restore (reformatting the drive and going back to original firmware etc...).



So, thoughts on the first hour or so of Fallout 3 soon, but first...am I supposed to have random people shooting at me in the first couple minutes of exploration outside the vault? I saw some people and they started firing at me and I had to run quite a way to get away. I figured this was normal, but then I ran into a whole pack of dogs. Then more people trying to kill me. I couldn't go five feet without this happening, it seemed, and here I thought I'd be talking to everyone. Is it something stupid that signals me as a threat, like having a weapon out, or do I just need to get used to running away constantly for awhile?



You want to post like me?
So, thoughts on the first hour or so of Fallout 3 soon, but first...am I supposed to have random people shooting at me in the first couple minutes of exploration outside the vault? I saw some people and they started firing at me and I had to run quite a way to get away. I figured this was normal, but then I ran into a whole pack of dogs. Then more people trying to kill me. I couldn't go five feet without this happening, it seemed, and here I thought I'd be talking to everyone. Is it something stupid that signals me as a threat, like having a weapon out, or do I just need to get used to running away constantly for awhile?
Heh. Raiders and wild animals will attack you on sight but what you need to do is head to megaton, where people are friendly. It's not far from when you exit the vault and there's a stash of loot hidden in a hollowed out rock next to the city wall. The rock is marked by three sticks pointing straight up and is guarded by two or three mole rats. When you're standing in front of the megaton entrance just head right, following the city wall and you shouldn't be able to miss it. After that head into megaton and find Moira's Craterside supply. She'll send you on a quest chain called Wasteland Survival Guide. You want to head to the super duper mart first. There are some raiders in there but also a lot of weapons, grenades (don't be afraid to use those), ammo, food and chems. Before you do anything for Moira voice your concern about payment for the sick stuff she wants you to do, otherwise I'm not sure you'll get any. I think you can get an armored vault suit from her by becoming sick with radiation and then letting her treat you. The easiest way to do this is just to head to the big bomb in the center of town and repeatedly drink from the water it's lying in.
It takes a while to get into and get used to Fallout but once you have a couple of good weapons in hand and have gotten the hang of the mechanics it's really fun and rewarding.
By the way; if you sneak and land a shot undetected it's an automatic critical hit.
How did you put your special points?
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The Freedom Roads



The People's Republic of Clogher
So, thoughts on the first hour or so of Fallout 3 soon, but first...am I supposed to have random people shooting at me in the first couple minutes of exploration outside the vault? I saw some people and they started firing at me and I had to run quite a way to get away. I figured this was normal, but then I ran into a whole pack of dogs. Then more people trying to kill me. I couldn't go five feet without this happening, it seemed, and here I thought I'd be talking to everyone. Is it something stupid that signals me as a threat, like having a weapon out, or do I just need to get used to running away constantly for awhile?
Basically, society is now so primitive that what remains of the lawful upstanding populace has found itself huddled in disparate encampments for protection while the wasteland is overrun with raiders, slavers, mutants and not-very-nice dogs.

You'll occasionally come across an NPC not flagged as unfriendly and if they're not a wandering trader they're usually the trigger for a side quest. You'll know these people pretty quickly as they won't try to kill you in three different ways.

As Kasper says, get to Megaton as quickly as possible - If need be, you'll find a save block automatically created just before you leave the vault where you can change stats, ostensibly to avoid going through the tutorial again on a new play through. Use it.

There are a number of not-too-dangerous quests in Megaton and, most importantly, the opportunity for you to obtain a permanent home (and you'll need one). Whether that home is in Megaton itself or in Tenpenny Tower is totally. Up. To. You.



The People's Republic of Clogher
PS3 seems to be healthy again after the restore, thank Christ.
Might just have been some corrupted data then. Did you find the problem on a particular game or everything you tried to play?



You want to post like me?
There are a number of not-too-dangerous quests in Megaton and, most importantly, the opportunity for you to obtain a permanent home (and you'll need one). Whether that home is in Megaton itself or in Tenpenny Tower is totally. Up. To. You.
Nah Yoda is a Megaton kind of guy I think. Let us know man.



You want to post like me?
As Kasper says, get to Megaton as quickly as possible - If need be, you'll find a save block automatically created just before you leave the vault where you can change stats, ostensibly to avoid going through the tutorial again on a new play through. Use it.
And you might wanna put your Intelligence up to at least 9. I raised mine to 10, took the educated perk at level 4, I think, and I get 23(!) skill points to distribute every time I level up. Here's a
that explains the whole thing.



Or you could just play the game and not care, up to you.



The People's Republic of Clogher
I think everybody's first attempt is just to play it as you feel it and usually results in a restart a few hours later. I can remember being much the same as Chris on my first run-through - disappeared off into the wastes, encountered some enemies waaaay above my pay grade and thought "Yikes, this is hard".



That's helpful stuff; thanks, guys. So, the pistol I start with isn't supposed to be able to kill a raider, necessarily? My problem is mainly that my weapons and stats suck?

I did, indeed, do a little restart as Dave mentions, though I did it a lot earlier, thank goodness. Initially I tried to emphasize whatever traits I was better or worse out in real life. But I read around a bit and it was suggested that Charisma and Luck, for example, aren't terribly useful, so I went back and emphasized Intelligence and Perception for the most part. I think I went 10 and 9 on them, respectively. I'll check that video out, K; looks very useful.

The second system produces some really tough decisions; I'm leaning towards hacking and melee weapons, I guess, but would I be correct in saying that, though you shouldn't spread out your SPECIAL points, it's not as bad to do so with the secondary skill points?

I'm also wondering how many of my choices in the beginning matter much going forward. So far I've responded to everything exactly as I would in real life, but I'm not yet clear on how this stuff builds. From the sound of things, it all matters, which is difficult to contemplate on this scale.



A system of cells interlinked
No Agility? You're toast. This is one of the things that annoys me about this game. You can absolutely make it out that vault door with a character that is TERRIBLE, making the game ridiculously hard. If your agility is low, I would quit now and restart, because all the combat is going to be next to impossible. If you are playing an aggressive combat-based style, Agility is by far the most important stat (with small guns). Perception is up there, too. Once I re-rolled the character with higher agility, combat got WAY easier.



I forget where my Agility was; probably near average. What does it do, specifically, in combat? Is it speed, basically? Because I seemed to be a bit faster than other humans, but slower than dogs and such when I got out there.

Yeah, reading around some more, it seems like the skill system is not very balanced. Might be a great game in spite of that (seems like it is; I'm already genuinely thrilled by its prospects), but this seems like a big flaw out of the gate. I enjoy a game I can pick up and not have to read about to prepare for, but I guess this is a notable exception.



Oh, also, I finally got around to making that thread:

Can video games be art?

Lemme know if you guys want me to add your earlier posts in this thread to that one. Or you can just copy/paste them. Whatever's preferable to you.