Suitable weapon progression for the DC wasteland?

Post by **khumak** » Thu Aug 25, 2016 3:41 pm

Seems like melee weapons have much more penetrating power than the early guns. I just started playing TTW recently and dumped 50+ rounds of 9mm and 10mm ammo into a soldier ant without doing any damage, then killed it pretty easily with a chinese officer sword. I wonder how well weapon damage scales with monsters if you use MMM? I have MMM set to the hardest settings and PN set to FWE settings. In previous FWE Fallout 3 playthroughs the 223 pistol was always my goto weapon til pretty late in the game. Early game I would usually try to find or buy a Lever rifle.

Post by **jlf65** » Sun Aug 28, 2016 2:36 am

I usually go for the sniper rifle in the rock behind Megaton first, but if you play with MMM set to high and a number of other mods like Early Enclave, you need more PUNCH. That's why I always use The Stolen Barrett Crates:

http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout3/mods/15826/?

That puts a .416 and .50 Barret in Vault 106, which is close enough that even a level 1 player should be able to sneak over to it. You don't have to go in very far, so don't worry about lock picking skills or whatnot.

I intend to make a TTW version of this when I get the chance - been too busy programming lately to work on this as much as I'd like.

Post by **Bandy** » Tue Sep 13, 2016 5:42 pm

Some good advice here that explains many questions I had on first play through recently (though tried to avoid your spoilers like sniper rifle in a rock - damn - but I got Arkansas' honestly...). I've found FO3/TTW a real struggle to survive and progress on hardcore, but still very rewarding.

I had to restart after only a handful of levels to correct patch problems, and on second playthrough (if you can call it that) has been much easier out of the vault for some reason. Just random variation in game? Some playthroughs progress harder than others? Getting better at surviving? Some or all of the above.

I know discovering VATS made a huge difference, but I find it more of a crutch and it doesn't sit well (feel like it's cheating) when I have to use it such as when outnumbered, or stumbling on a supermutant (with MCM rebalance on). Is it true that perks and skills are only factored in with VATS and not if you try shooting from first person 'iron sights' view?

Post by **jlf65** » Tue Sep 13, 2016 7:56 pm

Some of it is knowing what to expect - where the safe paths are, and where the bad guys jump you. That allows you to (for example) go straight from the vault to Megaton without ever encountering anything except for the odd rabid dog.

I think quite a few people try to avoid VATS as much as possible. I do. Especially as you get higher in level, there's less reason to use it. A mod I'd like to see would change VATS a little so that is was less cheaty, and actually had a valid reason for use.

Perks that apply to VATS only apply when using VATS. Perks that apply outside VATS only apply when not using VATS. You'll see two perks that are basically the same thing in the list, but one is for VATS and the other is not. Depending on if you're a VATS user, you'll pick one or the other. I always pick the ones that apply outside VATS.

Post by **khumak** » Thu Oct 06, 2016 2:32 am

I think the biggest issue overall regarding early game guns in DC is lack of ammo. Sure, you can find a hunting rifle and/or sniper rifle right away but you have like 5 bullets for it with basically no way to get more. The early game 9mm and 10mm guns have no penetrating power. I would say the earliest gun you can get in DC that is effective, has a readily available ammo type, and can be easily obtained without dependence on a particular mod is the chinese assault rifle. Doesn't work very well as a sniping weapon but for killing things you really don't want to let get close to you they work well.

Personally, I use the Vending Machines of the Waste mod and use it to buy a fully modded varmint rifle as my early game gun. Doesn't really do enough damage to kill anything unless you get a sneak attack headshot, but against raiders that's pretty much what I'm going for early game. And the important part is it uses the same ammo type as assault rifles so every most groups of raiders and super mutants will have at least 1 guy who drops that ammo.

Post by **Bandy** » Thu Oct 06, 2016 11:31 am

Enjoying my first foray into FO series, and have had a few restarts from vault while setting up TTW and adding other mods to taste (guess I mentioned that above...).

With each restart there is quite a range of experience with what you may find/loot -- what comes your way is random after all. In one game I found a firelance within the first few levels, and the loot level % were set to stock values in MCM (I checked right away as it just seemed off, too powerful). After that I turned all the loot % down, and left that pretty alien pistol on the shelf of my Megaton home, it was just too tempting to use it...

Maybe just me, but having it too easy in the beginning is not fun at all. The struggle to survive out of the vault is what the early levels should be about. Yes, good ammo should be rare and needs to be used wisely. Don't take on too many raiders right away, think tactically, plant mines and satchel charges and lure the NME onto them. I still haven't got the hang of landing grenades in the right spot yet... lol.

Post by **khumak** » Thu Oct 06, 2016 3:44 pm

The Firelance is really just a teaser for the DLC with the aliens. Yes, it's incredibly powerful but without mods you can't get any more ammo for it. So for 24 shots (assuming you found ALL of the ammo for it) you're a badass and then it's just a decoration for your trophy room. It's a random event so some games you might get it right away and others you might not see it til long into the game.

Post by **jlf65** » Thu Oct 06, 2016 6:21 pm

I was about to comment on the ammo - there's VERY little available. I've never found more than 21 were the Firelance appears, but there some more alien power cells next to an overturned army truck in a crater out toward Jury Street. After that, you're stuck until you start MSZ. So I put the Firelance away when I get it as well, but for an entirely different reason.

And if the Firelance is too powerful, you aren't ranging far enough from home in the early levels.

Want an early level quest that will make the Firelance seem barely adequate? Go a little North-West to Big Town and get the quest to rescue Shorty and Red.

Post by **paragonskeep** » Thu Oct 06, 2016 9:48 pm

Ammo in Fort Independence as well. Once you make friendly with Casdin.

From wiki

A maximum of 362 alien power cells can be found in the core game.

24 can be found together with the Firelance in the random encounter"Unidentified Flying Debris".

120 (10 stacks of 12 cells) can be found in and around the alien crash site.

96 (8 stacks of 12 cells) can be found under an overturned truck in a radioactive crater due east of Fort Bannister. Upon seeing bombed out buildings, changing heading a little to the north will lead right into it. There may be some Enclave at the site and an Enclave scientist at the truck checking it out (Note: This location only deals minor radiation, approximately 1 Rad/sec).

2-22 without the Scrounger perk (17 on average), or 2-122 with the perk (92 on average), can be found in two ammunition boxes in Fort Independence, in the Outcast weapons room (hard locked door) containing the Miss Launcher. The method by which the outcome is determined (rolling for 1s at a 75% chance, 10 and/or 50 times) pretty much guarantees that the results will be on the high side (i.e., near 75% of 10 or 50).

Post by **jlf65** » Thu Oct 06, 2016 10:55 pm

There's more of that ammo than I thought! And maybe I'm strange, but I've never explored around the crashed alien ship. Also odd, but I've never gone into Fort Independence. Even after all this time, there's still more for me to do in DC. That's part of what I love about Fallout.