Here’s the problem with the quest. If you don’t steal the journal before exposing Karl in speech to the Khan’s, the game won’t let you use Karl’s journal. You can call it by design, but the quest literally won’t you proceed any further. UNLESS…you go kill all of Caeser’s camp and take the slave journal. Not because it makes logical sense, but only because you did not steal the journal before Karl was killed.
That’s a bug in my book.
As to why they didn’t fix it, I can’t speak to that. But if you get to talk to them, can you ask about all of the other bugs they left also?* ;)
* - Obsidian is not known for fixing bugs in released games.
Sepiche
4262
Only 7 patches for F:NV? What bums!
Razgon
4263
Yes, but now that means their games are waaayyy too buggy!
Sarkus
4264
The patches have primarily been technical issues focused. That’s why I’m surprised they would miss a quest bug, since a lot of those were dealt with early on.
So, having finished Dead Money and packed myself full of Sierra Madre loot…can I leave some of it in the chest by ladder at the abandoned BoS outpost? It won’t disappear, will it?
Razgon
4266
Nope - it will stay there forever - I have 5 gold bars there as well ;-)
flyinj
4267
I’m currently level 20 and I’ve done about 3-4 quests on the actual Strip. Should I play Old World Blues now, or wait until I’ve finished the game? Will it make me too powerful and screw up the play balance for the rest of the main quest if I do it now?
It seems like there is very little auto-scaling in this game, so I’m not really sure where I’m supposed to play the DLC.
JoshV
4268
To be fair, publishers usually don’t put much into paying for fixing bugs, they’d rather release more DLC.
Arbit
4269
I’m curious about this too. I’m about level 18 and I haven’t done any of the DLC. What is the recommended order to play them?
I don’t think you can actually do anything after you really finish the game, can you? I mean, it autosaves now before the final stuff but after you get the endgame cinematics etc. it’s fini, I think?
Razgon
4271
Thats right - its to give you a save to play the DLCs, but the game itself stops after the main quest.
flyinj
4272
Ok, so, in any case, what is a good level to be at before starting Old World Blues?
Whatever order you like. You may find Honest Hearts a lot more interesting at lower levels, though, and on higher difficulty levels you might want to leave Dead Money for a bit.
(Although in hindsight, I’d of skipped Honest Hearts entirely, it’s not that good)
I started OWB at level…oh…15. It was fine. Except, as I mentioned before, you MAY want to raise energy weapons a little before you start it.
I’ve just finished the first couple of bits in there, and this is very, very true. Almost all the stuff that I found really painful about Dead Money went away. The only thing remaining is those annoying find-the-radio puzzles. Surprisingly, I was expecting to really hate the invulnerable holograms, but they’re actually kind of fun. The thing that sucks about the Ghost People is that you have to fight them, and their combat rules are unpleasant. Supposedly you can sneak by them, but in practice that often didn’t work even with 100 Sneak. In contrast, the holograms have well-defined behaviors, so sneaking past them is quite doable. The holograms are really designed to let you sneak, and the Ghost People… aren’t.
On the subject of levels for the DLC, I think the clearest clue is how tough the locks and computers are. Enemies may change based on your level, but those don’t. It seems like there are several Very Hard (skill 100) locks in Dead Money, maybe one in Honest Hearts, and none that I recall in Old World Blues. On the other hand, Honest Hearts seems geared overall toward a player in the 15-20 range, and is probably doable earlier, Old World Blues is probably more 20ish though manageable (if difficult) starting at 16, and Dead Money seems like strictly level 30+ material.
Razgon
4275
I think Dead Money has a warning about difficulty levels in it, saying that Very Hard is VERY hard, due to the cloud- I did it on Normal around…24 I think, and it wasn’t very hard…so to speak :-D
Ugh, I’m hoping Dead Money isn’t as hard as needing level 30+. I’m in the Police Station right now and haven’t been doing too badly after I figured out not to turn my back on a “dead” Ghost People. At least my exploring in Dead Money is practically how I managed the rest of the game, since I’m playing a stealthy sort of character.
Finished Honest Hearts tonight, I enjoyed it though I think that was because it’s the first time I’ve played the game since beating the game shortly after release. Lots of caves and annoying people saying the same stuff over and over again. I mostly used energy weapons through the main game, but I started using guns during the DLC.
I’ve finished all 3 expansions now. Dead Money took me 14 hours of playtime, plus however much I lost from repeated reloading from creepsaves. Which I did a lot.
Things I missed:
The .308 and Stimpack codes for the vendors. They’re apparently in areas you must visit, so I guess I didn’t search carefully enough. I think I’d have felt a lot more charitable toward all the nasty stuff under the cloud, prior to the casino, if I’d found the Stimpack code.
Most of Dean’s stashes. I think I got 3 or 4 out of 15.
2 of the 3 perks you can get from talking to your companions. I’m not sure how I missed Christine’s, since I exhausted every possible dialog branch, was polite at all times, and didn’t miss any skill / stat checks. With Dog/God, it’s simple : I didn’t talk to him after the trigger event until it was too late.
The whole add-on feels like it’s an attempt to ape Bioshock / System Shock, and not a terribly good one. I do like the idea of the vending machines, but ended up not really using them all that much. It’s another case of RPG hoarding - I had 14k or so chips at the end, that I kept expecting I’d spend on something good, and the vending machines end up giving you relatively little you really need. Though of course missing the Stimpack code is a big part of that. I did buy a few Super Stimpacks once I found the code for that.
Overall, the Casino parts are better, except that the end stuff is extremely annoying. I think I’d rather stick a knife in my eye than play it again. OK, maybe I’m exaggerating a little, but not much.
I’m bummed because I didn’t get the the snowglobe from Dead Money, and I can’t go back to get it. Conversely, I also didn’t get the snowglobe from Old World Blues but I know I can go back at any time to locate it. Which comforts me, not unlike thy rod and thy staff. Actually no, it’s nothing like that.
Oh right, I didn’t get the Dead Money snowglobe either, but no way I’m going to re-play it just to get that. I found the Old World Blues and Honest Hearts snowglobes without consulting the wiki, though.
One thing I like about Old World Blues is that you can go back to your base from the main game really easily, and it’s easily better than Novac, which is in my mind the next most convenient one. Not to mention that you have the funky things you can do with stuff that’s normally considered junk.
On the other hand, once you’ve finished Old World Blues, you’ve kind of blown the power curve. I don’t really think there’s much in the main game that’s remotely challenging once you have your super base and some of the gear you get out Old World Blues.
