4061

All the DLCs adjust to your level, so in theory you could do them very early on. That said, I’d probably hold off on them until at least level 10 if only because the loot is geared towards higher level characters and will make the game pretty easy if you have stuff like the unique armor and guns to get from each. For example, there is no point in ever touching power armor once you get the unique Desert Ranger armor from Honest Hearts.

4062

I just picked this game up over the Steam summer sale. I think it’s far superior to FO3.

My favorite touch so far has been the older couple in Novac. They had one minor quest (find out who/what is killing their brahmin) but otherwise were just a cute older couple. I half expected them to be the ones that killed Boone’s wife or have a basement packed with corpses because they were older and personable and you just can’t have those sorts of characters in a video game… but no. Just a charming older couple. Populating a world with people you might encounter in a real word accomplishes a lot more world-building then some radiant AI bullshit, it turns out.

4063

Totally agree.

I’m really enjoying it a lot more than FO3.

4064

Touching back on the earlier comments about implants and special stats and whatnot:

Its very easy to start with 9 int and get 10 while still level 1.

*spoilers I guess - but game has been out for awhile!

Start game, get a stealth boy, several locations around Good Spring have a chance to randomly have one, as well as one guaranteed spot. Pick up graveyard snowglobe - stealthboy through deathclaw territory. Enter NCR base - steal some NCR clothes - take tram to strip - talk to house - get other snowglobe - turn both in - go get Int implant.

In the numerous playthroughs I’ve done I’ve found an Int 9/End 9 character other stats whatever to be the most flexible. Basically allows a master-of-all-trades very durable toon. Choose perks based on your primary combat mode - all work equally well - except for unarmed which takes a few levels/perks to make it work. This has been done on VHHC a bunch of times though I don’t play HC anymore because its mostly just an annoyance.

4065

The new DLC is definitely the best so far. With heaps of new dungeons to explore, I haven’t got to half of them after I finished the main quest. The “appliances” and doctors have a lot of personality, based on many stereotypes and made to say funny things. The plot twist is almost predictable, and IMO a bit too sentimental (I got the “good” ending…), but it is the journey that counts, not the destination.

It is also closely connected to the first DLC, and set the stage for the last.

4066

This may be the first DLC I ever pay full price for, then.

4067

I think it’s more than that. Having to eat and drink isn’t that important, but the limitations that Hard Core puts on healing kick the difficulty up another notch that I like. Mainly no more sleeping restoring everything (including crippled limbs), and no instant health. You still end up with a lot more stimpacks than you need, but the fact that they aren’t instant anymore is a big plus.

I also kind of like being a little more concerned about inventory space.

4068

Wow, just reading about this DLC…it has ideas from Van Buren (cancelled BIS Fallout 3) written all over it.

4069

Didn’t Chris Avellone have more to do with this DLC than the rest of the game?

4070

I thought I read that Chris Avellone wrote all the DLC for F:NV.

4071

Most of New Vegas does, as do the DLCs, so I’m not sure why you are now getting excited about that angle. ;-)

4072

Well the early Van Buren design docs MCA wrote up were very science heavy involving a rogue scientist and a complete science boy path. This DLC seems to land closest to that. Van Buren had the NCR at war with the Brotherhood of Steel over the dam, not Caesars Legion…which was another raider band like the Vipers. The true threat to the wasteland and main antagonist though was always the rogue scientist who had access to all the pre-war weapons of mass destruction and their launch codes. They scrapped that completely but those concepts look to be resurfacing in some form in this DLC.

4073

That’s true but there are a whole bunch of other things that you can see in the design documents that have also shown up. Characters like Ulysses and the Burned Man, locations like New Canaan, and so on.

The original producer on Fallout New Vegas (he was an assistant producer on Fallout 3) used to post over at GamingTrend a lot and when New Vegas was announced I asked him if they were going to use Van Buren stuff in anyway with that game. His response was that he couldn’t really talk about that, and as it turned out I can see why. ;-)

4074

If I’m looking to get into New Vegas with the new DLC, what are the best mods released since the game launched?

4075

Most of the best mods are content mods, but if you are just getting into the game there is plenty of content. So you can always add those in later. Appearance and interface mods are very much a personal thing, and a lot of people feel that many of the major issues from Fallout 3 were addressed by the vanilla New Vegas changes (things like slower leveling, an optional realism mode, etc.) If I were you I’d probably just play vanilla for a bit and see what it is you think you might want to change, and then go looking for mods that address those things.

4076

You misunderstand, I already played through New Vegas once at launch but I’ve been meaning to go back and check out the DLC and, hopefully, some mods as well.

4077

I’m kind of curious about this as well, but a quick search turned up nothing I’d actually want to install. Even the “best of” lists were full of things I don’t want to do.

For the most part, I don’t want the game to be easier. Except maybe in one regard: it’d be nice to see a mod that made the Survival skill a little more interesting, and obviously anything that did that would reduce the game difficulty. I gather Honest Hearts helps some in this regard, but I haven’t played it so I don’t know how much.

Turning up the Hardcore sleep requirements might not be a bad thing, either. Right now you don’t get “minor sleep deprivation” until you’ve been up 48 hours or so.

4078

Sorry, that wasn’t apparent in your first post.

The only content mods that seem universally positive are the two Vegas bounties mods and the World of Pain content mod. The rest is whether you want to add companions, add guns, change how the world looks, or have sex (of course). Tons of mods for that stuff, but they all really just depend on what you are looking for.

4079

I don’t really care about more loot, the game is imbalanced enough as it is. I’m mainly looking for mods that improve how the world looks as well as reasonable gameplay tweaks and improvements with limited scope (not complete rebalance mods, unless there’s overwhelming community support and testing already done). Content mods might be nice but I never got the sense that there’s not enough to do in New Vegas.

4080

Looks like Fileplanet has what I’m looking for.

Fallout New Vegas Plus Mod Pack