Taking the plunge

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I just bought Fallout 1 and so far and am loving it, even if I haven't gotten very far. I just cleared out the scorpion caves after desperately trying to get the money to recruit the first NPC.

My build stats:

Str: 8

Pe: 5

End: 4

Cha: 8

Int: 5

Agl: 10

Lck: 8

Has the Gifted and Small Frame abilities, and specializes in Unarmed, Small Guns, and Speech. Is this a build that will have a lot of difficulty?

And, the timer. I understand that even after you find the chip it stays. Is that going to be an issue that prevents free exploration? I don't want to gimp my game by exploring too much and make finishing in time possible.

General tips and hits are also welcome.

 

Charisma is almost entirely useless. It affects your bartering skills slightly, but for all effects and purposes, you'll do just as well with Cha 1, so that's a lot of wasted points there. Every stat can also be raised by 1 over the course of the game, so starting out with 10 is generally also a waste. Strength can be raised by 4 total, so 8 is excessive even for a brawler.

As far as skills go, I generally spec in Lockpick in every single build simply because it's a massive convenience. Having both Unarmed spec and Small Guns spec seems a bit much.

As far as the timer goes, don't worry about it. You'll have more than enough time to explore and there are ways of increasing the timer.

If you haven't already, you might also want to download and install all the patches, fixpacks, and general improvements. GOG's FAQ thread lists the correct order of installing stuff and where to find it. If you're having trouble locating the files or don't know which versions to grab, let me know. I've got all of that on my hard drive.

 

Aw, man. That's a lot of wasted stats then. Luckily I just started so creating a new character shouldn't be too bad. I'm still going to go for the "monk" h2h specialist style though.

I figured CHA would have been more useful, but alas. What does Perception do anyway? I don't really get it.

 

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Perception

 

It's not really that important for hand to hand combat, but it might be worth getting it up to 5 if you want the Awareness perk.

 

You can actually do quite well with a high charisma character. Charisma allows you to talk your way into and out of many encounters (especially with a high speech). Having anything at a 10 to start is a bit of a waste as you'll have a chance to increase all stats later in the game by one or two (along with the power suit which gives additional strength).

Perception allow you to be an incredible sniper -- you will kill things and kill them well. I find that a sniper or a mini-gun specialist work very well. Unarmed is great in some areas, but be sure to get some good gauntlets early on.

You can win this game with nearly any build -- play what you want to be and have fun.

 

Speech, yes. Charisma, not so much. You can converse just fine with low Charisma.

Charisma is important in F2 since it determines the amount NPCs you can have, but you can ignore it almost completely in F1 and FT.

 

Well I started over with a 2 CHA 4 END 8-9 in everything else, same perks and specializations. Arriving in Junktown, I go to Ginzo's store. For some reason, he summons his guards at a random patron and they gun him down. After I steal his rifle I get a sweet new desert eagle.


However a misplaced judgement call started a series of unfortunate events, as after speaking with the leaders of the only gang, I attacked them afterword for threatening me cause, you know, gangs are bad and i'm a goody two shoes and all. Turns out the guards didn't like that, so me and Ian had to blast our way out. My Karma is now is a sad -1. But I stand by my decision as I don't want to metagame the outcomes I want but RP my way through it all.

After quickly passing through the Hub to sell my loot I travel further south. To my surprise, I stumble upon an overturned nuka-cola truck with 8000 caps in a crate! Not bad for only 2 hours of play or so.

Best of all, before getting to Adytum I stumble upon ANOTHER event, this time a crashed UFO which nets me some strange picture and an energy weapon that does 30-90 damage.

Definitely enjoying this game so far

 

What I dislike about Fallout is the random rolls in conversations. Most other RPGs check for fixed stat values, which allows for a more predictable turn of events, but Fallout generates random numbers against a predetermined minimum which can result in you not being able to get a quest or finish one the way you want. Random rolls work fine in PnP, where the GM ensures that you always have a chance to earn XP and rewards, but in a video game you just get shafted if you fail rolls most of the time.

 

High charisma and high intelligence will open additional dialog options. High speech can help overcome a somewhat low charisma -- but several dialog options will not be present with a low charisma.

 

I know you allready rerolled a char, but if you're not to far ahead yet (or dont mind using the falche char editor) here;s my thoughts on a character build :

Statwise:
Str can be improved by 4 total, so don't put more then 6 to start here. (+1 permanent from the brotherhood doctor, 3 from brotherhood armor)
Perception : Important for ranged combat, get at least 5 here for the perk Awareness. Again, can be improved by +1 at the doctor, so a min score of 5, max of 9.
Endurance : Important for close combat chars, as it governs your HP. again, +1 available at the doc so score of 9 max.
Charisma : like people noted earlier, not all that great. opens up some conversation paths that allow you to solve quests in diffrent ways/avoid conflict, but doesn't limit you in how many companions you can have in any way. 1 Charisma chars are viable. can be increased by +1 again, but only during a random encounter which is not guaranteed to happen (patrick the celt)
Intelligence : The most important out of all stats. the higher it is, the more stat points you get each level up. also governs conversations, and the dialog available to you. i wouldn't play less then 7 here. again, +1 from the doc so 9 max to start with.
Agility : The higher it is, the more AP you get. +1 from the doc again, so 9 max.
Luck : Take at least 5, for the beter criticals perk. can get +1 from chuck in adytum, so 9 max. if you plan on taking the sniper perk it's worth starting with 9 luck, getting the +1 for 10 total so all your hits with guns are crits.

For an unarmed brawler, this would be my build :
Gifted Trait for +1 all
STR 6 (+1 at doc + suit for 10 total, more damage)
PER 5 (for awareness)
END 9 (tons of hp, +1 for 10 total)
CHA 2 (not important at all, see above - 2 is min score with gifted trait)
INT 7 (for conversations, so you're not just another brainless heavy hitter, +1 at the doc for 8 total)
AGL 9 (More AP = more hits. +1 to max to 10)
LCK 9 (better chance at critical hits, even more once you get the better criticals perk & more unique encounters - +1 from chuck in adytum, also with this high a luck score you should have no trouble finding the random encounter that gives you another +1 to charisma.)

Tagged skills :
Unarmed - Obviously.
Lockpick - For convenience, makes a lot of the content easier/less aggravating to get through.
Speech - CHA would add bonuses to this but we only have 2, tag this to offset that disadvantage.
To offset the low CHA as soon as possible, pump some stats into speech first, then split points between unarmed and lockpick since you'll start out with a fairly high unarmed already.
Alternatively, get the small frame trait as well, put the extra stat point onto cha for a total score of 3 - still not great but it'll help your speech checks.


On getting the +1 to skills at the doc : Bring plenty of caps.
Strength costs 2k and takes three weeks to complete.
Endurance costs 3k and takes one week.
Perceptions costs 4k and takes one week.
Agility costs 5k and takes three weeks.
Intelligence costs 6k and takes three weeks.
For 20k total cost to +1 them all. 16k if you don't get the +1 to perception, but as long a you're allready getting the other ones...

So, scavenge everything - bring all companions and use them as packmules. barter with everyone that has even a few caps to convert items with weight into caps with none.
Also, steal, steal and steal some more - then resell the stolen items for the caps they carry.

 

Called shots are fun. I almost took the fast shot feat instead of small frame and now i'm glad I didn't.

Are there any NPCs that specialize in big guns, energy weapons, or melee weapons? I'd prefer a follower with different skills than me. So far i've only found Ian.

Lockpick is looking like a useful skill right now but I suppose I can save it for later. I'm only level 3 at the moment and my 3 major skills are in the 80% range.

As for strength, I need it to offset the annoying carrying capacity for now. I'm a "loot everything" kind of guy. I imagine 4 end is going to hurt me but I wanted a 9 int for the dialogue options and 9 luck just to see what it does.

 

Yeah, I like called shots, too. I almost always take the Finesse trait, just because it stacks the odds for critical hits.

I wouldn't restart now, though, the alien blaster is easily one of the best small guns in the game and it should make things much easier in the beginning.

 

You won't get many more NPCs -- the two best were in Junktown and if you went all Rambo in there you probably killed them as well. There is one more much later in the game and she uses throwing weapons and one handed small arms. I'd start over just for Dogmeat and Tycho. Tycho is an upgraded Ian so no big loss there, but I can't imagine the game without Dogmeat -- Dogmeat (or some facsimile) also makes appearances in Fallout 2, Arcanum, Fallout 3, and Mad Max: The Road Warrior.

Big guns, energy weapons, and melee weapons are the purview of the vault dweller (although Ian can use knives -- don't give him an SMG).

Fast shot, bonus rate of fire, bonus ranged damage, and action boy are all fun to have if you want to specialize in big guns (strong back comes in handy as well). If you like called shots - finesse, more criticals, better criticals, and sharpshooter are good.

I liked the alien blaster but the range sucks - I ended using a turbo plasma rifle instead (for my sniper).

Alien blaster ... over rated.
Gifted ... over rated. Choose finesse (for a sniper), fast shot (for a big gun guy), or heavy handed (for melee) -- for the second I recommend bloody mess.

 

Dogmeat lives. Not so sure about Tycho though.

I haven't even used the alien blaster yet. The burst shot on a machine gun is doing just fine.

 

Alien blaster early game is great, though I never used it late game. Gifted is nice as a trait, heavy handed is pretty marginal, I find. Bloody mess is fun for a while, but in terms of affecting gameplay utterly without use.

Bonus ranged damage is small, but if you go the minigun / machinegun route the damage does stack up very quickly. Not useful for called shot / sniper characters, though.

 

Gifted is the most cheesy trait you can take at character creation. There is no possible way to overrate it.

 

I have to agree with keneth here, gifted is way better then any of your reccomendations. You can easily offset the skill penalty by putting 2 of the extra stat points this nets you into INT, and still have enough left to max out one stat completely, or better yet spread them out a bit. it basically doubles the available stat points you get to spend at the beginning. (from 5 to 12)

The 10 point loss in skills doesn't really matter either, even though over 18 skills that totals to 180 points.
4 of the skills can be raised with books and magazines (small guns, science, outdoorsman and first aid) and of the 14 that leaves you with, there's only going to realistically be 4 or 5 important enough to warrant raising them anyway - 3 of which can be your tagged skills.

all in all it's the most useful trait available, far more so then the others you suggested.
Finesse is just decent - the added 10% crit chance is not a multiplier but just added onto a characters existing crit chance, and it gives you a -30% damage penalty. might as well go for 10 luck and get the sniper perk.
Fast Shot is actually pretty great for gun toting chars, i would still take it as my second trait together with gifted then with any other combination of traits though.
Heavy handed on a melee char is just laughable. it helps a bit during the early stages of the game, but once you hit high enough levels to get better criticals + slayer, since this trait gives you a -30% penalty to your crits.

 

All of the traits have trade offs and they are optional, the only trait that doesn't have a trade off is bloody mess (which gives a slightly different ending). Heavy handed makes the beginning easier and end harder; finesse is the exact opposite. Fast shot can make the entire game easier with the right supporting perks.

There's more to the game than just killing everything as fast as possible (although critical hits to the eye with the turbo plasma rifle are fun). Each skill has definite advantages -- skills are make a huge difference in gameplay in Fallout (and Fallout 2). Science, repair, doctor, first aid, lock pick and weapons (2 or 3) are the usual skills. Sneak and steal are simply awesome -- the vault dweller will be rich beyond the dreams of Avarice. Barter is another great skill -- in one go through I was able to buy everything of value from the gun runners and brotherhood (really helps for a big gun user). With a ton of caps and/or great bartering skills you can buy every book from the library -- that's a huge skill boost.

Just saying there is no one best way to play -- it's pretty hard to mess up the vault dweller to the point of not being able to finish the game.

 

Some traits are definately better then others though, for example the bruiser trait - it might give you 2 strength, but the 2 ap you lose is the equivalent of losing 4 points in agility.
I still feel like gifted is the winner by far because of it's huge advantage, and how easy it iss to offset the disadvantage.
And skills are a big part of the game yeah, but you can raise 2 of the ones you mentioned (science & first aid) to 91 with skill books alone. same goes for outdoorsman and small weapons.

Sneaking isn't worth putting (much) points in - it doesn't work in a lot of the situations where it would have been useful to sneak up in enemies anyway (random encounters), and even with a relatively low sneak score you can still use it to loot containers that NPC's would usually go hostile over if you did so outside of sneak mode.

also, steal is bugged to hell, it does nigh on nothing for you. your steal skill is only rolled against your targets steal skill, and does nothing otherwise. yet you get a bonus to success chance % if you approach from the side/back when stealing, and unless you have the pickpocket perk, a penalty the higher the item size is. (which oddly doesn't correlate with item weight) in the end, over the course of a playthrough a character with 50% steal should do just as well as one with 150% and get caught just as often. not worth pumping it imho, just save before stealing anything.

On barter - selling prices are static anyway, and charisma is much more important in barter checks then the actual skill. besides, it's absolutely not needed to gather a large amount of caps. Basically only worth boosting by a lot if you have a horrendous charisma score, so you don't have to pay through the nose to buy items, otherwise there's better skills to put points into.

Now i'm not saying those skills are totally useless, but they sure as hell are less useful as the other ones available.
It all comes down to the fact that in the first 2 games SPECIAL is pretty unbalanced, meaning quite a lot of the skills are basically throwaways.
Sure, you can put points in them, but it'd be more for novelty's sake then because they are the best option to pick.

Lockpick, speech and 1 or 2 weapon skills are the best options to pick.
As far as weapons go, you can raise small weapons with magazines, so no need to tag it to reach a decent score in it.
Big guns are only readily available quite late in the game and small guns/energy weapons are more effective anyway.
you can heal limbs with your starter score in doctor, and raise first aid with magazines - just heal using first aid or stimpacks.
throwing is useless, not enough grenades to last you the entire game & there's tons of weapons better then throwing knives.
Science, repair and outdoorsman can be raised with books to 91%, no need to have a higher score in any of them really.
There's just not enough traps in the game to warrant putting points into the skill. if you do walk into a few, just fix any broken limbs and heal up instead.
It's way too easy to raise funds anyway, no need for high barter skills, definitely if you have a decent CHA score.
Gambling is basically a gamebreaker if you have more then 60% in it and/or high luck - you're basically guaranteed to make a profit at the roulette table, completely removing the need for the barter skill at all.