This was a short but sweet DLC for Fallout 3 - it took about 3 nights to get through. I even had to ditch a few hours worth of saves to go back for some audio tapes that I'd missed, for one of the achievements.
A few things to remember before starting this add on pack - travel light, and dont bother bringing any heavy weapons. Fights are at relatively close range, and you will primarily be using the energy weapons you pick up from the aliens. You find some earthly ammunition around, but mainly you'll be working with the alien blasters and rifles that you pick up. I ended with a ton of rifles, and more pistols than I could count. I think I picked up somewhere in the neighbourhood of 4000 or so rounds of alien ammunition (with no ammo perks) Its convenient that the alien pistols, rifles, and cannons all use the same ammo.
There are unique versions too - if you find the shooting range, dont forget to poke around and find the unique rifle and cannon. Do the Albino Radscorp shoot for the Xenotech perk.
It was nice not having to think about radiation for a while. There are also health stations that charge you up to about 80% health or so, so dont worry too much about using stimpaks.
Another nice thing is that Somah can repair with a skill of 75 whenever she is around. Good prices too. I don't think she stays around after you complete the DLC, but I haven't checked.
The only bothersome part to this DLC was the Alien Archivist perk - you have to find 25 recordings at special terminals all through the ship. Here's the order to get them in, so you dont miss any. You can check the fallout wiki for more detail.
1. Holding Cells - 6
2. Engineering Core - 4
3a. Waste Disposal (via Maintenance Level) - 1
3b. Cryo Lab and Cryo Storage - 4 and 2
3c. Research Lab (via Cargo Hold) - 2
Insert space walk interlude...
4. Weapons Lab - 1
5. Experimentation Lab - 3
6. Biological Research - 1
7. Living Quarters - 1
Upsen.
Showing posts with label fallout 3. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fallout 3. Show all posts
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Monday, July 27, 2009
Fallout 3 Pitt Glitch
I finally finished the Pitt DLC, and all the achievements for Fallout 3. Well, at least until the next DLC comes out: Mothership Zeta, coming out Aug 3, I hear.
Problem with the Pitt - in the Steelyard, I had a heck of a time with a glitch. Starting from the 2nd trip there, I would always fall through the corrugated rooftop that leads to the upper catwalks. I rebooted the console and the same thing happened. I went back and reloaded old saves on the rooftop, and I would actually just start falling after the game was loaded.
It turns out that this is because I also have the Point Lookout DLC installed - something goes wrong when you have both the Pitt and Point Lookout installed, and sections of that rooftop becomes a hit-or-miss affair. (usually a miss)
So I went into the console memory options and deleted Point Lookout. After loading the game again, the rooftop was solid. The game warned me that I would lose my Point Lookout gear and perks etc though.
I got the steel ingots I was missing, and the achievement after I turned them in.
You can redownload Point Lookout at no cost, if you purchased it online. (Assuming redownloading 400+megs doesn't impact your internet plan) If you installed it from a disc, you'll need the disc again, of course.
I didn't check the status of my perks and gear after reinstalling Point Lookout though, I haven't played the game since.
edit Aug 1 - I loaded up the game and found that the Perks and gear I'd gotten from Point Lookout had all disappeared. After the reinstall of Point Lookout, I got the message that there is a new ferryboat available, as if I had never done Point Lookout before. The location on the Capital Wasteland map is considered unexplored again too. Looks like I get a second romp through the Bogs if I feel like it.
Upsen.
Problem with the Pitt - in the Steelyard, I had a heck of a time with a glitch. Starting from the 2nd trip there, I would always fall through the corrugated rooftop that leads to the upper catwalks. I rebooted the console and the same thing happened. I went back and reloaded old saves on the rooftop, and I would actually just start falling after the game was loaded.
It turns out that this is because I also have the Point Lookout DLC installed - something goes wrong when you have both the Pitt and Point Lookout installed, and sections of that rooftop becomes a hit-or-miss affair. (usually a miss)
So I went into the console memory options and deleted Point Lookout. After loading the game again, the rooftop was solid. The game warned me that I would lose my Point Lookout gear and perks etc though.
I got the steel ingots I was missing, and the achievement after I turned them in.
You can redownload Point Lookout at no cost, if you purchased it online. (Assuming redownloading 400+megs doesn't impact your internet plan) If you installed it from a disc, you'll need the disc again, of course.
I didn't check the status of my perks and gear after reinstalling Point Lookout though, I haven't played the game since.
edit Aug 1 - I loaded up the game and found that the Perks and gear I'd gotten from Point Lookout had all disappeared. After the reinstall of Point Lookout, I got the message that there is a new ferryboat available, as if I had never done Point Lookout before. The location on the Capital Wasteland map is considered unexplored again too. Looks like I get a second romp through the Bogs if I feel like it.
Upsen.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Fallout 3 Alignment Achievements
I've finished all of the achievements in Fallout, except for The Pitt, which I'm working on right now. I haven't spent this long on a single-player-only game in quite some time.
One of the achievement types is for reaching certain xp levels while at different alignments. If you reach level 8 as a good character, you get a certain achievement. If you reach it as an evil character, you get a different achievement. Neutral, and you have a third achievement. This seems to imply that you have to play through the game 3 times, once as each alignment.
What I did was I played through as a good character, saving fairly frequently. Whenever I levelled up at an achievement level, I would reload the save before I levelled, go to the Underworld where there is a computer terminal in the back room. Opening the terminal and closing it again right away takes away karma even if you don't actually use or hack the terminal, and can be repeated over and over again. After I knock myself down to neutral, I save and then destroy all the ghouls living in the Underworld, which finishes the levelup and gets the achievement. I reload the neutral save, and continue opening/closing the terminal till I get evil status, then do the Ghoul wipeout till the levelup hits.
Voila, you will have all 3 of the alignment based achievements for the level.
If Underworld is too difficult to get to, you can probably do the same trick with Colin Moriarity's terminal in his Megaton saloon. Just opening and closing red terminals will raise eyebrows but no armed response if npcs are around. I used Underworld cause there is a lot of xp available from the zombies and all on the one map.
Upsen.
One of the achievement types is for reaching certain xp levels while at different alignments. If you reach level 8 as a good character, you get a certain achievement. If you reach it as an evil character, you get a different achievement. Neutral, and you have a third achievement. This seems to imply that you have to play through the game 3 times, once as each alignment.
What I did was I played through as a good character, saving fairly frequently. Whenever I levelled up at an achievement level, I would reload the save before I levelled, go to the Underworld where there is a computer terminal in the back room. Opening the terminal and closing it again right away takes away karma even if you don't actually use or hack the terminal, and can be repeated over and over again. After I knock myself down to neutral, I save and then destroy all the ghouls living in the Underworld, which finishes the levelup and gets the achievement. I reload the neutral save, and continue opening/closing the terminal till I get evil status, then do the Ghoul wipeout till the levelup hits.
Voila, you will have all 3 of the alignment based achievements for the level.
If Underworld is too difficult to get to, you can probably do the same trick with Colin Moriarity's terminal in his Megaton saloon. Just opening and closing red terminals will raise eyebrows but no armed response if npcs are around. I used Underworld cause there is a lot of xp available from the zombies and all on the one map.
Upsen.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Fallout 3 DLC Pack: Point Lookout
I picked up the Downloaded Content Pack for Point Lookout.
The first thing I did when I got to the ferry was find what options there are for getting passage to Point Lookout.
Bsaically, the only choice is to buy a ticket from the boatman, Tobar.
The most you can really do is sell him enough junk to cover the 300ish cost of the ticket.
Tobar is marked as an essential NPC, so he gets the "unconscious" flag instead of death, so you can't kill him for his boat after he tells you how to get there.
You can't threaten or charm your way into getting there. You can't pickpocket him for a ticket, though I guess that doesn't really make much sense, stealing a ticket to give back to the boatman. If you attack him, he fights back, when you take him down, he just gets back up after a while and wishes you a good day. Same for after you arrive in Point Lookout, he is still an essential "friendly" npc.
So annoying.
As an aside, what is with the super tough foes inside Point Lookout? In the main game, you headshot stuff with a single bullet from a sniper rifle, two if it's a tough one. Here you can throw away the sniper rifle cause it hits like a almost-broken handgun. I'm relying on the TESLA CANNON to kill the hostile axe-wielding, shotgun-toting rednecks. And it takes 3 shots! Enclave soldiers in power armor only took one shot, geez. It's like they are all tough as giant albino scorpions or super mutant overlords.
The speed at which the Tribals hack through power armor with axes puts deathclaws to shame.
The difficulty is not impossible to handle, but it feels incredibly out of place compared to the rest of the Fallout world.
The first thing I did when I got to the ferry was find what options there are for getting passage to Point Lookout.
Bsaically, the only choice is to buy a ticket from the boatman, Tobar.
The most you can really do is sell him enough junk to cover the 300ish cost of the ticket.
Tobar is marked as an essential NPC, so he gets the "unconscious" flag instead of death, so you can't kill him for his boat after he tells you how to get there.
You can't threaten or charm your way into getting there. You can't pickpocket him for a ticket, though I guess that doesn't really make much sense, stealing a ticket to give back to the boatman. If you attack him, he fights back, when you take him down, he just gets back up after a while and wishes you a good day. Same for after you arrive in Point Lookout, he is still an essential "friendly" npc.
So annoying.
As an aside, what is with the super tough foes inside Point Lookout? In the main game, you headshot stuff with a single bullet from a sniper rifle, two if it's a tough one. Here you can throw away the sniper rifle cause it hits like a almost-broken handgun. I'm relying on the TESLA CANNON to kill the hostile axe-wielding, shotgun-toting rednecks. And it takes 3 shots! Enclave soldiers in power armor only took one shot, geez. It's like they are all tough as giant albino scorpions or super mutant overlords.
The speed at which the Tribals hack through power armor with axes puts deathclaws to shame.
The difficulty is not impossible to handle, but it feels incredibly out of place compared to the rest of the Fallout world.
Monday, June 8, 2009
Fallout 3
This one's been out a while but I haven't gotten around to playing it till a little while ago. Fallout 3 is a post-holocaust game where a futuristic 50s world launched World War 3, and you'll find plenty of info out there about the game. This post is just some of my notes.
First things first - look up "Fallout 3 perk: Wired Reflexes" on the net and make sure you get this when the opportunity presents itself. It's one of the few things in the game that you can't go back and get later. In fact, if you are a completionist, look up all the "quest perks" and make sure you are aware of them.
Its a nice story and a fun game despite all it's flaws. I find that's almost always how it is with Bethsoft RPG games - I hear about it, I'm wowed by what they say you can do, I'm wowed by what you actually can do, and then I am wowed by all the bugs. I play on despite them, until eventually the bugs overwhelm the desire to play. It's been that way since The Elder Scrolls: Arena way back.
Fallout's not the most polished game, with computer characters randomly dropping out of the sky on top of you, (Hello Paladin Hoss) and your follower suddenly appearing in rooms ahead of you. (Hello Charon)
The zoom in the VATS targeting system doesn't target properly - If you go behind cover but have a clear shot, half the time VATS will reposition you enough that your shots are blocked. Don't queue up multiple VATS strikes if you are behind anything that might block your target, whether it's a wall, hull-down cover, or too much rubble in the way, as you will just waste all of the action points shooting the same bit of blockage.
Sometimes the NPC comments really are irritating. If you stop with your crosshairs on any owned, locked container in the game, you can be sure someone will insult you with a "Yes thats locked for a reason, and yes I can see you eyeing it" within 3 seconds. That's one of the milder comments. Sometimes you are minding your own business when someone will walk by and say stuff like "You better not cause any trouble, or you'll answer to me." It's dialogue that make you want to ask them "Is that a threat?" while cracking your knuckles.
Tenpenny Tower was really bad for this stuff, so many people there will insult you out of the blue, no matter if I'm dressed in a business suit or a suit of powered armor. There's characters around who don't understand that insulting the wrong person means you pay with your life. The AI really needs to accommodate what they see you wearing. No one should be rude to a jetted out, heavily armored wasteland mercenary with a mini-gun strapped to his back, unless they think that they (or their guards) can take him on and win.
Another irritating spot was this one NPC called Herbert Dashwood - he holds a key you need for one of the quests. He tells you that you should try and steal it off of him and he wont tell anyone about it - but his perception is so high I couldn't do it - and he tries to shoot you in the face when you fail to steal the key, instead of letting you steal it while he looks the other way like he said. Wonderful programming. Of course, you can ask him for the key, and he'll call you uninteresting for not playing his game. Why add in that little "game" when the system just makes him shoot at you like any other NPC?
Anyways, this one location seriously make me stop being a do-gooder in the game and switch to just blowing anyone away that is too rude.
The conversation system is so filled with contradictions. Some characters will greet you warmly and then when you initiate conversation, they tell you to screw off. Others tell you to mind you own business and then have a whole dialogue tree available when you do talk to them. Get it straight Bethsoft. :P
Despite all this stupidity, it's still fun to play. So far.
Upsen.
First things first - look up "Fallout 3 perk: Wired Reflexes" on the net and make sure you get this when the opportunity presents itself. It's one of the few things in the game that you can't go back and get later. In fact, if you are a completionist, look up all the "quest perks" and make sure you are aware of them.
Its a nice story and a fun game despite all it's flaws. I find that's almost always how it is with Bethsoft RPG games - I hear about it, I'm wowed by what they say you can do, I'm wowed by what you actually can do, and then I am wowed by all the bugs. I play on despite them, until eventually the bugs overwhelm the desire to play. It's been that way since The Elder Scrolls: Arena way back.
Fallout's not the most polished game, with computer characters randomly dropping out of the sky on top of you, (Hello Paladin Hoss) and your follower suddenly appearing in rooms ahead of you. (Hello Charon)
The zoom in the VATS targeting system doesn't target properly - If you go behind cover but have a clear shot, half the time VATS will reposition you enough that your shots are blocked. Don't queue up multiple VATS strikes if you are behind anything that might block your target, whether it's a wall, hull-down cover, or too much rubble in the way, as you will just waste all of the action points shooting the same bit of blockage.
Sometimes the NPC comments really are irritating. If you stop with your crosshairs on any owned, locked container in the game, you can be sure someone will insult you with a "Yes thats locked for a reason, and yes I can see you eyeing it" within 3 seconds. That's one of the milder comments. Sometimes you are minding your own business when someone will walk by and say stuff like "You better not cause any trouble, or you'll answer to me." It's dialogue that make you want to ask them "Is that a threat?" while cracking your knuckles.
Tenpenny Tower was really bad for this stuff, so many people there will insult you out of the blue, no matter if I'm dressed in a business suit or a suit of powered armor. There's characters around who don't understand that insulting the wrong person means you pay with your life. The AI really needs to accommodate what they see you wearing. No one should be rude to a jetted out, heavily armored wasteland mercenary with a mini-gun strapped to his back, unless they think that they (or their guards) can take him on and win.
Another irritating spot was this one NPC called Herbert Dashwood - he holds a key you need for one of the quests. He tells you that you should try and steal it off of him and he wont tell anyone about it - but his perception is so high I couldn't do it - and he tries to shoot you in the face when you fail to steal the key, instead of letting you steal it while he looks the other way like he said. Wonderful programming. Of course, you can ask him for the key, and he'll call you uninteresting for not playing his game. Why add in that little "game" when the system just makes him shoot at you like any other NPC?
Anyways, this one location seriously make me stop being a do-gooder in the game and switch to just blowing anyone away that is too rude.
The conversation system is so filled with contradictions. Some characters will greet you warmly and then when you initiate conversation, they tell you to screw off. Others tell you to mind you own business and then have a whole dialogue tree available when you do talk to them. Get it straight Bethsoft. :P
Despite all this stupidity, it's still fun to play. So far.
Upsen.
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