Finally playing FO2/couple of questions

[mgeorge]

I picked this up 6 or 7 years ago, but just never got into it after playing for 1/2 hr or so. At that time I wasn't used to RPG's all that much, especially turn based. So after my GPU died recently, and I now have to use onboard graphics, decided to give it another shot.

I installed, then applied the Killap patch. The game is quite interesting and nowhere near as confusing as I initially had thought. Although it did take me 15 or 20 min. figuring out how to place the explosives at the door at the beginning.

I do have a couple of questions though. I'm not sure what perks, skills etc I should be using. I found a very good site about the game at Gamebanshee but the guy writing it seems to be more into fighting where I'd prefer to use stealth and diplomacy.

Is the sneak/diplomacy a viable option in the game or am I better off going for more of a combat orientated char? Also I'm finding the map kind of useless as none of the locations are named. Right now I'm supposed to find Vic the Trader, but have no idea where this "Den" is.

BTW; Just installed the high rez patch for the game as well, and it's amazing how much better the game looks.

Appreciate any replys.

[Koki]

What are you doing asking about FO2 in FO3 board you silly man you

spoiler:

I guess stealth and diplomacy would work, though they would be quite boring and the latter is hard first time around when you don't know what's possible. You will also have to skip many areas/quests which require you to fight, unless you have followers. But if you do have followers, you will have to tell them to "wait here" every time you want to sneak, and so on.

Anyway, you'll want Gifted no matter what road you're taking. Probably also Good Natured if you're planning to sneak by everyone, or even Jinxed. As for stats, IN for those juicy skill points and some dialogue options - CH is much less important but amount of followers you can have is CH/2. 10 AG is normally "required" but if you don't plan to fight, you'll only use it for armor class and skills it affects. I dunno what else, a character like that doesn't need much.

Tags, eh - Speech, Sneak and Lockpick probably. Steal if you want to sneak around and put armed explosives into people's pockets for fun and profit.

Get that silent running perk ASAP, you'll probably also want whatever gives you a Speech, Sneak or Lockpick bonus. If you go Steal route, read this useful article first at The Vault.

[mgeorge]

What are you doing asking about FO2 in FO3 board you silly man you

Thanks for the link. Where else would I put this thread? It says Fallout Discussion. I understand FO2 isn't a Bethesda game, but couldn't find out where else to put this, and TBH,would prefer TTLG,ers advice to other forums.

[june gloom]

Ignore Koki, he's miserable.

(His advice regarding the actual game is sound, though.)

Also, if you're using Killap's official patch, I hope to god you're not using the AP ammo fix. That's just completely broken, as I found out the hard way.

[PeeperStorm]

There are a whole bunch of guides and FAQs at GameFAQs. They'll give you more advice than you could ever want on playing the game.

One caveat: Don't believe the hate that some of them have for the Jinxed trait. It's an outstanding trait for a character with high Luck and no companions. Actually, you can make it work pretty well with companions too, but it takes a little extra management on your part.

[Koki]

The problem with these guides is that they're all written for the normal, patched Fallout 2. Killap's patch changes a lot, so some things can not play out as described.

[Dresden]

I'm not familiar with the fan mods, but if you want to play vanilla FO2 on easy mode, here's what I do:

Get Finesse trait. Go for at least 8 AGI, 6 STR. Tag Unarmed, Speech, and Science. Unarmed is actually quite good in FO2, as you get new moves with armor piercing and crit damage bonuses as your stats and skill goes up. Just walk up to things and punch or kick them in the eyes for massive damage. Speech and Science are good for the social character route and killing the last boss, who you can't skip.

Punch and kick your way to victory like a badass.

[mgeorge]

I'm not familiar with the fan mods, but if you want to play vanilla FO2 on easy mode, here's what I do:

Get Finesse trait. Go for at least 8 AGI, 6 STR. Tag Unarmed, Speech, and Science. Unarmed is actually quite good in FO2, as you get new moves with armor piercing and crit damage bonuses as your stats and skill goes up. Just walk up to things and punch or kick them in the eyes for massive damage. Speech and Science are good for the social character route and killing the last boss, who you can't skip.

Punch and kick your way to victory like a badass.

Haha. This is what's strange about the game. The perks and skills you went with are attributes that the few guides I've looked at said are pretty much useless. There are so many options in the game that everyone has different strategy's. I'll guess I'll have to just go with my gut reaction and hope for the best. I asked because sometimes in older games if you pick the wrong stats, you're in big trouble later in the game.

But mostly I wanted to ask about the stealth to see if I could play it at all in a Thief type way. It's obviously nothing like Thief in the gameplay dept, but if possible I always go the stealthy route in any game.

[Koki]

Haha. This is what's strange about the game. The perks and skills you went with are attributes that the few guides I've looked at said are pretty much useless.

Well, they kind of are. 10LK Sniper build does the same but better in every way possible.

And you don't need Science to kill the last boss.

[mgeorge]

Is there any way to annotate the map? I'm at the Den and keep getting quests. Problem is I have no idea where to go to complete them and the Pip Boy is no help either, other than giving me very vague information. The in-game maps just have these little dots on them. My memory sucks, and it's hard for me to remember all the shit I have going on. If I could make notes on the map, it sure would make it easier.

I'm playing a pre-generated char, some chick, and I had sex with some guy to lower the payment on a quest to free some guy that's being held captive, but the game gives you no feedback on how much the discount would be. All it says in the Pip Boy is that I need to get cash to get him out. I don't want to be spoon fed every bit of info, but if the whole game is like this, I think I'll pass as it's to freakin confusing.

Maybe I'm missing something?

[Koki]

Well how about you ask the guy how much he wants?

[ZylonBane]

I picked this up 6 or 7 years ago, but just never got into it after playing for 1/2 hr or so. At that time I wasn't used to RPG's all that much, especially turn based. So after my GPU died recently, and I now have to use onboard graphics, decided to give it another shot.

Please tell me you've already played Fallout 1. Starting with 2 is a terrible mistake.

[Nameless Voice]

I agree with ZB - play the first game first if you haven't already. Its interface is slightly worse, but its story is better. (Both still have better stories than FO3, though.)

[mgeorge]

Please tell me you've already played Fallout 1. Starting with 2 is a terrible mistake.

No I haven't actually. I believe I picked up both games initially, however moved a couple of years ago, and haven't been able to find the first game. Does it make that much of a difference? Maybe I'll pick up a copy and start with that.

[june gloom]

Yes, please do, it's cheap as chips on gog.com and it's a better game anyway.

[Thirith]

Please tell me you've already played Fallout 1. Starting with 2 is a terrible mistake.

It does tend to make you more tolerant towards the pop-culture cracks and silly humour of the second game if you start with that one. You get more of the NMA brand of hatred for Fallout 2 (still a great game, even if it does overdo its brand of humour) from people who played the games chronologically.

[mgeorge]

I did find FO1 and playing it now. Fascinating game. I find the humour hilarious. I left the first vault with no idea what to do and wandered into an area with this supermutant that wanted to do experiments on me. The guy was a freakin hoot! So polite and polished, nothing like the supermutants from FO3. Anyway, I saved there, and decided at first to give him the info he wanted, and as I figured, was killed. Reloaded then told him to go fuck himself, but he threw me in a cell. I was able to lockpick the door, but as soon as I left was thrown back in the cell with seemingly no way out of the situation.

So I reloaded again, and went on my way.

The only thing that concerns me is this time limit on the first quest. I got a warning as I was exploring about making sure I finish it in time. I've only got 70 days left.

I've gotten used to the mechanics of the game finally and really enjoying it, however there's one thing that's bugging me. I applied the high res patch, found it in the game installation folder and it seemed to install fine, however when I go into the game's main menu, there is no "options" tab there, so I can't change the res. I tried Googling it to no avail.

[june gloom]

You do realize they specifically mark Vault 15 for you to visit first, right? You went in completely the opposite direction.

As to changing the resolution, you have to do it manually, but I disremember the exact file.

[Koki]

You do realize they specifically mark Vault 15 for you to visit first, right?

It's even shown in the goddamn intro.

[ZylonBane]

I did find FO1 and playing it now. Fascinating game. I find the humour hilarious. I left the first vault with no idea what to do and wandered into an area with this supermutant that wanted to do experiments on me. The guy was a freakin hoot! So polite and polished, nothing like the supermutants from FO3. Anyway, I saved there, and decided at first to give him the info he wanted, and as I figured, was killed.

You're normally not supposed to end up there until much later, but with a specific character build it's possible to finish this area. In fact the entire game can finished in under 10 minutes if you know exactly what you're doing. This is a fantastic testament to how flexible and open the game's design is... you're free to go anywhere in the entire world from the very first moment, but unlike hand-holding games like Oblivion, you will get slaughtered if you stray into dangerous areas before you're tough or smart enough to handle them.

[mgeorge]

Yes, I am a moron. I didn't know vault 15 was marked on the map. After the beginning area, it said there was light to the west so I headed in that direction. I've restarted the game and am now in junk city after meeting some traders who offered to bring me there. I figure I'll head out to vault 15 after I do a few things here. If the timer runs out on the first quest and I'm screwed, I'll just restart.

If I have any more questions, I'll certainly seek advice from the kindly folks here at TTLG!

[ZylonBane]

The time limit really isn't that big a deal... it provides more than enough time to find a water chip unless you're just killing weeks upon weeks wandering back and forth across the wastes. If you talk to the right people you can even extend the deadline quite a bit.

[mgeorge]

Wow! The more I play I realize why people think FO3 was somewhat dumbed down and think this is the better game. The graphics are more than I expected, and there's more gameplay options in general. I just realized that by using the Doctor skill I gain XP and health which is nice. Also just used my Barter skill for the first time and think I got the better of the deal as well.

Don't think there's a game manual on the disk so I'm flying pretty much blind in the gameplay dept, but it's more intuitive than I initially thought. I've decided to just roll along and see what happens. If I get a game over screen from fucking something up, so be it.

[Koki]

Don't think there's a game manual on the disk so I'm flying pretty much blind in the gameplay dept, but it's more intuitive than I initially thought.

http://www.replacementdocs.com/download.php?view.487

[june gloom]

Wow! The more I play I realize why people think FO3 was somewhat dumbed down and think this is the better game.

That loud grinding noise you hear is my teeth.