Fallout: New Vegas

I'm currently going through Hardcore for the first time with a gun-based build. What kind of ammo/guns should I stick to?

Semi auto pistols, a shotgun, and a sniper.

Don't carry more than half your carry weight in usable ammo. Convert vendor trash into money at every possible chance. Hoover dam water is safe to drink.

Say to the others who did not follow through You're still our brothers, and we will fight for you

That weapon selection seems logical; I’d just carry one of each to keep the weapon weight low as possible so you can carry more ammo.

5.56 ammo is probably the best damage/weight ratio for pistols? I dunno, but 5.56 is good for breaking armor. So.

Say to the others who did not follow through You're still our brothers, and we will fight for you

For cowboy mode, the Medicine Stick and Ranger Sequoia have you covered for late game firepower. At least if you can actually find enough .45-70 ammo.

Edited by Balmung on Feb 5th 2019 at 5:49:02 AM

That's good to hear. I used the Sequoia/Hunting Revolver for my last playthrough as my Weapon Of Choice. Right now I'm using the 9mm and 10mm.

Not sure how well it'll hold up in hardcore mode, but it's the hardest-hitting cowboy stuff, and the only problems I've ever had with it involved tracking down the ammo. I swear hen's teeth are more common than .45-70.

All vendors carry it dont they? In hardcore mode youll be trading in most your ammo anyway so

Say to the others who did not follow through You're still our brothers, and we will fight for you

A lot of vendors can carry it, but they often don't have any or only have a few shots.

And it doesn't drop much because of how leveled loot lists work.

Would probably help to get good at reloading and breaking down things like 50 BMG.

actually, you might do that in general. I can't remember if ammo components is cheaper or more expensive than ammo...

Say to the others who did not follow through You're still our brothers, and we will fight for you

Either way, something has to refill those spent 45-70 cases, right? And 308 has large rifle primers, which 45-70 uses, too. Break down a bunch of 308, which doesn't really have a cowboy-appropriate use, and you can get everything you need to reload your empty 45-70 cases.

I had forgotten that 50 BMG has its own special primers.

Edited by Balmung on Feb 5th 2019 at 1:05:16 PM

I don't see the point of Hardcore Mode. I played it through the start of one playthrough to the end of Dead Money, when the game irrecoverably crashed, and it made an already horrid experience just completely odious.

It's a challenge mode. Literally the point is that it makes the game harder.

The only real deal breaker to me is companion permadeath. They're such dumbasses that I have zero confidence in their ability to not find a deathclaw and try to hug it. I completely ignored companions other than the dog in 3 because the first time I tried, they got themself killed in like five minutes.

Hardcore Mode should've also defaulted everything to "realistic" damage values. No point in trying to increase immersion with hunger and sleep meters if everyone still takes 10 bullets to the face to kill.

We've been here before, haven't we?

I can assure you, getting capped by Powder Gangers right off the bat (because getting shot with a 9mm, especially if all you're wearing is a Vault jumpsuit, is likely going to be fatal right away) would be infinitely more frustrating than having to manage the survival bars and ammo weight. The only way you'd be able to play the game would be the "stealth archer" method, at least until you acquired Power Armor.

How do lizards fly?

You mean that isn't the only way to play anyways?

I love Dead Money, but that's about my limit for survival (/horror) in Fallout. It's cool that Hardcore is an option, but not really my cup of tea. Though maybe part of that is that other than the DLC, the Mojave is compact and dense enough that death in the wastes doesn't seem as imminent a threat as it might in other games.

This could be circumvented by using tactics and stealth instead of facetanking everything. A lot of games do this. The original Far Cry, for example. Heck, the original 2.5-D games basically already did that...

The most fun parts of Fallout games for me are always the early sections when you and the enemies can die easily and don't have a million Infinity +1 Sword / Armor of Invincibility cheats. I wouldn't mind a whole game that's more like that.

From a halfway realistic perspective, a basic kevlar vest (class II-A/II) would already let you take at least a few shots from just about anyone not carrying a rifle, a rifle-caliber pistol, or the heaviest pistol-caliber handguns. A better kevlar vest (class III-A) would render you highly resilient against most pistol-caliber weapons and shotgun shells, short of taking a ridiculous amount of fire or several closely-spaced shots from the heaviest calibers, though would still not be worth much against rifles. Metal armor/combat armor (class III) upgrades that to nigh-immunity to pistol, SMG, and shotgun rounds to the torso, plus the ability to take a few rifle rounds, though you'd still have to avoid getting shot in the head or limbs. The heaviest combat armor like Reinforced Combat Armor (class IV) would mean you're basically set against anything without heavy weapons or AP rounds, though again, your head and limbs would still be vulnerable (though they'd be decently protected against pistol rounds and shrapnel). Powered Armor would be at the level of not having to fear any kinetic weapons bar heavy weapons, lots of closely-spaced armor-piercing rounds, or a golden BB. Etc. And shots to the extremities are much more survivable than shots to the chest (it's not like I advocated removing healing altogether or going full-on "simulationist").

Contrary to what much of the modding community may think, "halfway realistic" doesn't mean "you die in one shot" (actually, "realistic" doesn't even mean that).

Edited by Kamiccolo on Feb 9th 2019 at 2:52:10 AM

Just get you a mod that does that. There's thousands of them.

Oh really when?

Alternatively, an actual survival game

Say to the others who did not follow through You're still our brothers, and we will fight for you

@Kamiccolo: People can actually take a dozen rounds and remain standing and fighting. I've seen security camera footage of just that. Mind you, some of this has to do with real life averting Critical Existence Failure. IRL, a person who gets shot multiple times will tend to die as a direct result of that, but not necessarily right away.

As a general rule of thumb, media tends to overestimate the deadliness of weaker firearms and underestimate the deadliness of stronger weapons. Fallout itself tends to commit the latter fallacy. The best example would be Legate Lanius being able to take a Fat Man to the chest and surviving. A weapon like The Fat Man would realistically invoke The Chunky Salsa Rule with literal tanks-and there's no real explanation why Lanius can survive a hit like that (maybe if he had very good powered armor)

"Any campaign world where an orc samurai can leap off a landcruiser to fight a herd of Bulbasaurs will always have my vote of confidence"

@Unsung

I loved Dead Money too. It was a change of pace, and I liked both the stealth and resource management angles. But I don't see myself playing in Hardcore mode either. I play Fallout largely to relax, and constantly worrying about getting enough water to drink and food to eat does not sound to be anything but anxiety-inducing. I like to take my time.

I stumbled across this post by J.E. Sawyer and thought it might be important to emphasize. The Legion is not "grey", the Independent ending is not the "Courier rules the Mojave" ending. Those were both apparent in the game itself, but it's nice having it confirmed out of universe as well.

God, I love Sawyer.

Also, my meta was to build a stash of Fusion Cells and get Pew-Pew mid-game.

@ Kamiccolo Nice analysis, thanks for sharing that. I can't possibly see the Legion as "gray." I may agree with some of their views on humanity, but none of that justifies their behavior. They're as scummy or more scummy than the people they scorn.