Fallout: New Vegas

I really wanted to roleplay the whole deep cover guy killing Caesar through brain botched brain surgery but you don't get to that until long after you burn bridges with every other faction besides Yes Man.

I mean, that makes sense. Caesar is not known for his sweet, trusting nature so you have to prove yourself before he lets you fiddle around in his head.

"You kill me, you got nowhere else to go."

Well I just ran into a first, an insta crash every time I try to go into a building, specifically the East Pump Station in New Vegas. It appears to be a totally unnecessary building apart from a shitty little sidequest so whatever.

Apart from that everything seems really stable, too. It's weird and I dunno if I should abandon this playthrough (just started and only played like a half hour) and start over with a new mod setup or not. I ca only hope it's just one building that leads to this crash 'cuz I have no idea what I could have installed that did this.

Edited by Nikkolas on May 15th 2020 at 8:33:07 AM

So given that NV has like four or five mods built around keeping everything from crashing constantly, is it safe to say it's more unstable than Fallout 3?

Bethesda has the rep for releasing unfinished games and needing mods to make them playable but after failing to get anywhere in NV multiple times, I'm ready to just give up and replay FO 3 instead. Assuming its' better than this shit. I know some people told me Skyrim is prone to crashing on PC but that never happened to me and I played it for about 20 or so hours. Meanwhile, I can't go one hour in NV without crashing or freezes and when it freezes I can't even shut the game down so I have to sign out or restart.

> So given that NV has like four or five mods built around keeping everything from crashing constantly, is it safe to say it's more unstable than Fallout 3?

Fallout 3 shipped with a bug that made the game crash on P Cs with twin cores so I'd say it;s more stable then fallout 3

can we have a [[quoteblock]] button?

You ever thought about how interconnected some stats are? Like, I was surprised to see in FO 3 that Big Guns is determined by Endurance, not Strength. Yes recoil and all that but it seems like you should be really strong, too.

Besides, does it make any sense to have a character with 2 Strength but 9 Endurance? I'm hoenstly asking. That just seems impossible or illogical.

I guess every character has to have their role. It's like how I always got mad at people who tried to tell me Flash is stronger than Superman because it takes so much strength to run that fast and even a pebble at FTL speeds would destroy the planet or something. But that is totally not how speedstars are written in most stories. They're very fast but cannot hit as hard as the slow, tanky character. There is a clear divide between Strength and Speed, even if you need to be strong to be fast in real life.

Sorry, this is the kind of shit I think about while contemplating how to build a character.

Not really that odd, to be honest. Look at marathon runners. Can run for twenty-six miles and how ever many yards that a marathon takes, but I wouldn't expect them to deal with the combat load of an infantry soldier over a period of a couple of days as that takes both Endurance and Strength.

a lot of Charisma responses read a lot like intelligence responses too.

So I followed the Viva New Vegas Core guide and everything seems really good right now. Of course I was just doing a bunch of obvious things obviously wrong but now everything is great. At least I'm finally making some real progress and with only one weird glitch. A motel room in Novac was just...bizarre. Not even sure how to describe it. But I could turn around and leave and nothing happened and no other problems at all that I've noticed yet. Certainly no crashes which was my main concern.

My Character: S3 P9 E4 C4 I2 A9 L9

Traits are Fast Shot (shoot 20% faster but with less accuracy) and Low Tolerance, a trait from the Chems, Alcohol and Meds mod which gives me longer buffs from chems at the cost of easier addiction. I never used Chems at all when I first played the game outside of very desperate situations when I was like "shit, what do I have to give me an edge here." But here I wanna incorporate them into RP'ing hence the mod.

I'm also RP'ing a Fiend. I never had any real interaction with them in my first run, never found Vault 3 or anything. Also I found this mod that adds back Fiend dialogue and interactions apparently cut from the game so interested in that. I figure this RP history thanks to Alt Start will let me do all that since otherwise they are default hostile I think.

But yeah, being a junkie, I figured it made sense to make my PC pretty far wasted in the physical and mental department hence the low physical stats and Intelligence. Also being a drug addicted maniac probably hurts your likability factor some and thus the lower Charisma score. I mainly got high Perception for Lockpicking. I can't imagine going through this game without Lockpicking. I neglected that stat in my first ever Fallout game FO 3 and it really sucked. Plus it makes sense for my character to be quite adept at stealing. How she survives.

Still, I can not imagine this game without companions so Veronica and friends will be my protectors. I got that Ares mod for the android chick but any other suggested companions?

Oh and my weapon preference from the alt start mod is Shotguns. Love watching my enemies splatter.

[to Ranger Andy]"Hey, just because you're idle and you will never walk again... I forgot where I was going with that."

-Approaching HELIOS One and stopped by NCR guard - Need food fill belly.

Veronica: Do you know anything about the Brotherhood of Steel?

[Intelligence 2/6] I've heard they shoot lasers from their eyes.

I'm so glad I gave myself that 2 INT. And the failed checks are the best thing ever.

Also how did I totally miss her my first run until I was told where to go look. She's right there on the route to Vegas. I saw the sign for Boulder but somehow missed that and instead I found myself at her place.

So the mod started me out near Searchlight. I wandered around until I got to Novac then got Veronica and then started doing stuff for Crimson Caravan. I went to se Cass but en route to running to the Mojave Outpost I saw lots of smoke and figured that must be Nipton since we were right by the outpost and I remembered Nipton was right passed it. Only, as I approached it, the lottery winner just charged at me, no dialogue or cutscene or anything. I shot him dead. I also saw no Vulpes in the town. II took up the quest to free the Powder Gangers taken as slaves by the Legion just to se what would happen.I'm now Villified by the Legion. I mainly just wanted to fight them to see how well me and Veronica could do against our first real opposition.

I figured from the start that my peculiar combination of low Endurance and primarily using Shotguns - which are a close range weapon - would be a challenge. And it was. They were shredding me to pieces. Veronica was a decent meat shield once I gave her a couple Stimpaks but if they ever started really targeting me, I died very fast. I'm gonna need a lot of protectors in this game. On the bright side, I had fun with my first real challenging battle and I got some good loot of their bodies.

I am clearly a hero. Everyone is always talking about "I shot Vulpes first thing after seeing what they did to Nipton." Well, I couldn't shoot a man who wasn't there but I did wipe out a Legion raiding party to free slaves so where the hell is my good karma.

Once I'm better equipped and have done more quests though I wanna piss off everyone. It just feels right with my character. I was thinking I'd go House and I'm very curious what happens in the House route if you have low Reputation with the NCR. I recall in the Yes Man route I watched an LP of they couldn't save Kimball because they had such poor reputation with the NCR that they couldn't get near the Dam. I wonder if low NCR rep ruins thE House route and forces you to Yes Man. I'd hope not.

I'm annoyed with my dear Cass, though. I don't have anywhere near the stats to get her to give up the caravan for my employer. I'll have to dedicate every single point for the next 5 or 6 levels to Barter to get her to give in. So one of the first quests I set out to do and I an't do it. She was my most trusted companion last run but she is in my shit list now. My current character wouldn't want a goody two shoes like her, anyway.

I chose the Cherchez La Femme perk straight off so me and Veronica are more alike anyway.

Usually I make my special stats focus on intelligence, charisma and endurance with decent strength (mostly for weight carry) while taking some out of luck, agility and perception. However, I usually also use intensive training and implants to eventually improve the ones im lacking in. As for traits I usually get good natured and skilled and I often get the swift learner perk to counter the skilled disadvantage.

Edited by Kaiseror on May 18th 2020 at 2:03:51 PM

I generally do Agility, Luck, Charisma, and Perception.

(to Arcade) [intelligence] This place is really complicated and stuff. You're smart. Can you help me do...things?

Arcade: Don't help bad people. Bad people are bad.

Oddly, he seems to associate bad people hurting others only with Caesar's Legion. So I could be an NCR-aligned serial killer and he wouldn't care?

There really isn't an evil companion in NV, is there? If it wasn't clear I am big on roleplay and it just doesn't feel right to have Boone let alone Arcade along for the kind of shit my PC gets up to. It's totally unbelievable they'd participate in such activities. Between Boone, Arcade, Cass and Veronica, Veronica is about the only one I can kinda see being indifferent to, say, working for the Van Graffs or murdering and robbing some merchants. I guess there's Raul and Lily but...who cares about them?

Interesting notes about the great oh-so-invincible NCR starving to death in about ten years. Those armies of tanks and vertibirds they totally have won't stop that I guess.

(to Fantastic) Me take your job cause me smarter.

(to Ignacio) I is scientist.

They really went all-in on the dumb dialogue with Ignacio, though. Usually with everyone else you get one dumb line to start off with and then the rest of the dialogue is standard. But with him all dialogue is turned into Stupid-ese.

Ya know, I give the NCR a lot of shit for being dumb enough to arm convicts with dynamite. But I think my criticisms were misplaced. Oliver's tactics are also not the dumbest thing the NCR does in this game. By far the most idiotic thing they do is hire Fantastic to fix a power plant that is also a space weapon. What braindead chimp hired him?

Were the Van Graffs in FO 1 and 2, then? My new friend Gloria said if I knew them I wouldn't ask about their relation to the NCR.

What? Cass has been killed by the man everyone said was a murderous psycho? I never saw this one coming. On the other hand, I gained NCR Fame and helped them kill a bunch of Legion guys so I think it balances out karmically speaking. Also I got a branded set of Combat Armor for my troubles. I greatly enjoyed working for Gloria and I will wear my Van Graff Combat Armor with pride.

Being Vilified by the Legion has its benefits, though. Ever since I freed those slaves and stuff, I've had a couple assassin squads come at me and give me awesome goodies. And unlike with the NCR they aren't everywhere so there's nothing to worry about except assassins. First time was totally random, I had just got done at the Boomers place and was looking for the guy to get me my 600 Caps and I couldn't find him. I shot a random dude because why not and then suddenly started getting blasted by energy weapons. I was like "what?! This random Chem Addict had friends with that kinda firepower?!" Then I saw in VATS that it was Legion assassins. Had one other encounter after that when visting Ranger Station Charlie. I was in bad shape at the time too but I managed to survive and got great loot.

Edited by Nikkolas on May 20th 2020 at 1:37:05 AM

Does anybody have the faintest clue why Van Graff hitmen attacked me in Goodsprings? I completed Birds of a Feather no problem. This must be something one of the mods did since I don't think it has any bearing on quests as I couldn't talk to Gloria about it and they aren't suddenly hostile to me at the Silver Rush.

I got some amazing loot out of it, though. A Tri-beam Laser Rifle and several Plasma Rifles at Level 14.

Update: Okay, another hit squad came after me. This is no bueno. These guys can kill me in a couple hits and they will just be randomly spawning as I wander for another 100 hours? There's gotta be something I can do about this. Google search turned up a lot of people getting attacks but that was from doing Cass' shit. I allid with the Van Graffs no problem.

I'm not aware of Van Graff hitmen in the base game, so it does sound like something added in a mod. Do you have any quest mods or the like that would add them?

Um...I don't think so. Here are all the mods I'm running:

ARES has some quests but she's been around forever and this just started happening.

The only recent mod I added was Melisa Lewis as a companion.

Edited by Nikkolas on May 21st 2020 at 2:18:00 AM

Why do you have so many?

I don't think it is that many. I see people with literally hundreds of mods. I have like a dozen or so I think.

I'm counting 30 in that list. And the concept of "too many" might be relative here. I mean, I don't use mods at all sans for KOTOR II, which is a special case since it's barely complete and is just the restoration mod. So, thirty mods is a high number.

I haven't learned how to do modding for most of my life, never knew where to search or what's safe, and, this might sound stupid, I play the game I bought.

Also, "Bouncing Natural Breasts.esp"? Wha?

Edited by fredhot16 on May 21st 2020 at 2:28:59 AM

As somebody who played FO 3 and FONV on console and was very proud to do so even as everyone told me I just had to mod then, I agree. But I got this computer now so I figure I'll use it and try out a few mods. Some of the things you saw are related as in they are all part of the same mod. And some mods require other mods to work in teh first place so that is largely what added up to what you see. Also some mods are just really simple and easy like the Immersive Hit Reaction thing. Very quick but very interesting little addition where you or enemies will be knocked around and unable to do shit for a few critical seconds if you, say, get riddled with bullets. Because that makes sense.

You don't wanna go down the BNB route, friend. That isn't even the tip of the iceberg of the kind of weird sex shit for NV. I just got the girls to wear skimpier outfits because it's fun. If the guys had it, I'd do that, too. Skyrim is a bit more egalitarian in that respect as you can make both men and women walk around in skimpy attire and I did just that.

Found the most likely mod. The Living Desert adds a Van Graff hitsquad, which as far as I can tell is supposed to be triggered by completing Heartaches by the Number.

Apparently earlier versions accidentally sent them after you if you simply failed Heartaches — if you're not using an earlier version, well, I guess that bug might've resurfaced.

i am indeed using an older version of that mod. I dunno how, maybe they are one of the NV mods that ar still updating. I downloaded a bunch of mods earlier this year. Or maybe I got an older version back when I was trying to find TTW mods?

Oh well. Thank you very much for telling me about this. I went and swapped the old version out for the latest one. Shouldn't be a problem, I hope.

Anyway, I'm gonna have to be nice and bring Arcade with me at some point. I wanna meet hte Enclave Remnant. The only companion quest I did in my first run was Cass'.

Edited by Nikkolas on May 21st 2020 at 12:29:17 PM

...I ended using Raul as my primary companion in my Legion route... and ya know, I actually like him a lot. He just kinda gets Overshadowed by Awesome because Veronica and Boone exist.

I agree. Raul is fine but fine is obviously inferior to great.

And even he isn't really evil so much as just...apathetic. He doesn't support the Legion, he just tolerates them which might be more than anyone else does but is still not the same thing as being pro-Legion.

And hell, you don't even have to be Pro-Legion. Plenty of bad people in all factions. Could have an evil Khans companion or something.

That's why I got the Melisa Lewis companion mod. Although she's really hard to get to. That Khan camp is sandwiched between Giant Radscorpions and Deathclaws as far as I can see.

Edited by Nikkolas on May 21st 2020 at 1:39:51 AM

So the Alt Start Roleplay mod is interesting. Of course it's limited by the fact the dialogue in the game is all centered on you being a Courier with no real relation to or familiarity with any of the groups in the game. The Fiend history and some of the other more generic ones can work because it totally fits Motor Runner might have no fucking clue who you are. But if I was a Great Khan, shouldn't Papa Khan know me or something?

But still, the Brotherhood of Steel Histories get around this by saying you're from another chapter and are just arriving in the Mojave. That makes sense. You can play as somebody who was forced out of your chapter or you were separated from them due to an attack, etc.. But the point is, when you inevitably talk with the BOS like a total stranger, that makes sense with these backstories.

The Enclave Remnant backstories interest me a lot but they aren't very detailed. I gather that you are supposed to have lived with the Remnant here in the Mojave or something. I never did Arcade's quest and know nothing about the Remnant or what goes on there. I just know you get an automatic 2 Trust for that quest from choosing one of the Enclave histories.

Of course, this is all in your head. I was once told Bethesda roleplaying is a bit like playing make-believe with a toy house and dolls when you're younger. The house and dolls say nothing, you just make up all the shit in your head for them to say and do. Your TES PC doesn't really have a history beyond the one you make up for them in your head. These RP histories are just as made up as anything I can sit here and write about how I'm some long lost Enclave child who has never interacted with the Mojave Remnants.

Otherwise we'd run into the problem I pointed out earlier of "why doesn't anyone in your chosen faction know you?"