2881

The quest I’m talking about simply involved speaking with someone who happened to be tucked up into the mountain by the quarry. No other portion of that quest (so far) has been difficult in the least. Getting to this particular person is markedly more difficult than anything else about the quest. It seems out of keeping with the rest of it for sure.

2882

There’s a mod for that.

2883

Use the right ammo, AP works well.

2884

I’m taking Giant Radscorpions out at level 9, as long as there isn’t more than one or two. My tactic is to cripple one limb on each and then use the incinerator to flame them to death. It’s a slow tactic, but effective. They generally travel with a posse, so I try to take out the lesser radscorpions with explosives.

2885

I killed 8 deathclaws at another location at level 14 with Boone with nothing more than hunting rifles and regular ammo:

  1. Stay out of their detection range, the further away the better so they don’t all charge you at once
  2. Shoot at one at a time. Once you shoot it, it will become aware of you and charge but the others won’t. At decent range it will take him too long to get to you.
  3. The deathclaw will go down before it even gets close to your or Boone
2886

This.

The key is to kill a Deathclaw before it closes the gap. If you are face to face, prepare to die.

2887

I also have that quest pending (Great Khans, isn’t it?).

I find it more realistic that way. You go to do a mission, part 1 easy, part 2 easy, part 3… it’s also easy in theory (just speak with someone) but it results that the quest giver didn’t know that the khans camp was overrun by Deathclaws. It’s also a nice surprise for the player, as you were imagining an easy mission as the rest and then encountering a very hard obstacle in your way.

But in the end it’s not a problem. There are dozens and dozens of other missions, and heck, it’s a optional side mission.

And, as some people above have pointed, with certain tacics, companions and weaponry it can be done with less level that i thought.

2888

If you’re thinking of the one I think you are thinking of, I have to agree–in my first playthrough I never actually did that, though it had little impact on the endgame it seemed anyhow. But it was odd, because every other stage of that quest was pretty easy comparatively. Then again, as Naeblis notes, it ain’t a game breaker either.

I think my issues with Deathclaws have stemmed largely from not having a long-range specialist when I took them on.

2889

I’ve killed small packs of deathclaws (3 or 4 in size) at medium levels without trying to game the encounter. I just use high damage long-range guns, try to cripple their legs with VATS, back up constantly after firing the first shot, and repeat until they’re dead. It’s not easy but it’s not that hard, either.

2890

What is the best mod site? The name of the mod you are talking about would be great too. I googled and didnt see anything.

2891

New Vegas Nexus by far:

2892

And here’s the specific mod. I use it, too.

2893

Anyone play in Hardcore mode and have any feedback about how you liked it? I have a pal at work who has been playing that way (early on) and is trying to get me to try it. Anyone find it particularly fun/unfun?

2894

Just about everyone is playing hardcore mode. It is not really that much hardcore, it just adds a bit more survival flavour to the game. Recommended.

2895

I found it interesting, though not something I want on every playthrough. For me it made getting injured an expensive endeavor, thus I had to be more careful about how I approached situations.

On the flip side, it did get a little annoying later in the game when I was fast traveling everywhere and getting dehydrated every 2 minutes of gameplay.

2896

re: Deathclaws

“…make a delicious omelet” thing in Sloan.

I imagined that my character, Boone, and ED-E just kinda looked at each other and started laughing. Then we fast-travelled back to Novac.

2897

Hardcore doesn’t add very much actual difficulty to the game, except for two things:

  1. It’s significantly harder to heal crippled limbs, since doctor’s bags are rare and you have to either use a bag or sleep to heal limb damage
  2. Your companions will die rather than becoming unconscious.

The hunger/thirst/sleep stuff is very easy to manage and mostly just adds to the amount of inventory fiddling you have to do. You’re never going to actually be in a position of running out of something and being in trouble because of it. Even in the raw desert, you can pick a direction and walk and be able to gather Prickly Pear Fruit for food and water faster than your danger meters go up.

On the other hand, having your companions die tends to mean that you just have to go without companions in many places - the companion AI is so bad that there’s no realistic action you can take that will save them from certain situations.

I turned off hardcore mode partway through because I felt that the extra supply management was annoying without bringing a corresponding feeling of challenge or strategy. Likewise, it felt like I had so little control over whether my companions lived or died that I preferred to just turn off hardcore mode and not have to worry about it.

2898

I have to agree with this. Hardcore mode is a good start, but it need some tweaking to be really hardcore.

2899

Not true/irrelevant based on your likely sample size. Hardcore players do tend to talk about it a lot, though.

It is not really that much hardcore, it just adds a bit more survival flavour to the game.

This is true, if by survival flavor you mean micromanagement of otherwise irrelevant items (food, water, doctor’s bags) in the context of a game that continues to be much more about enjoying the flavor of world and the choices you make in than any particularly interesting strategic or tactical decisions you make.

In the case of the hardcore additions, there is no real optimization or strategy to it. It’s just one more meter to chase, in a game where that’s not exactly the system’s forte.

Recommended.

For that fix, I’d rather play games that are better oriented to that style of play such as STALKER. Fallout NV is very interesting to explore and occasionally very dangerous when you go off the beaten track. But Hardcore adds little that’s substantial to that equation. It’s worth trying because it might suit you, but I’d expect for many it’s just another damned thing to worry about when they’d like to get back to blowing off heads and making epic decisions. Play it on normal, save hardcore for second attempts if needed.

2900

Yeah, hardcore mode is pretty much a laundry list of stuff I’m very glad they made optional because I wouldn’t have wanted it in my game.