A Question of Survival

Raksha · Post by **Raksha** » Mon Dec 08, 2003 8:03 pm

The coolest in *any* game. Period. 8)

Stainless · Post by **Stainless** » Tue Dec 09, 2003 4:54 am

Kashluk wrote:The early shotgun rampage makes the game sooo much easier

I find the shotguns redudent in Fo2. As soon as I get Cassidy and vic I'm equipping them with hunting rifles, which they'll use until I get the sniper rifle or by some fluke the guass.

Kashluk · Post by **Kashluk** » Tue Dec 09, 2003 5:14 am

You never had fun with combat shotguns / pancor jackhammers on unarmored or lightly armored targets?

That means you've got a whole big slice of Fallout left untouched...

Stainless · Post by **Stainless** » Wed Dec 10, 2003 1:59 am

In Fallout 1 the combat shotgun was my bible.

However, in Fo2, I not usually going up against unarmed tagets. people in leather armour, etc. Better off using something like getting two shots off with the hunting rifle and probibly killing them, then using 3 rounds of ammo. I just detest reloading

Kashluk · Post by **Kashluk** » Wed Dec 10, 2003 7:14 am

Hm... I don't know. Maybe I've always ditched saved the hunting rifle to be my weapon and let Cassidy go CHARGE with his burst-fire shotgun. It looks fine when he runs next to them and gives 'em a full laod of pellets right in the stomach. Makes them bleed. Bad.

Better than hunting rifle, IMO.

Raksha · Post by **Raksha** » Wed Dec 10, 2003 9:30 am

What I like about Cassidy is that you can simply give him a sniper rifle and tell him to watch your back, and you will have the pleasure of seeing bullet after bullet whistle past your ear and into the face of the stray nightkin that was about to rip your guts out through the powerarmour. Since I tend to play light-weight characters good at stealth, theft and speed, this is a very reassuring tendency of Cassidy's.

Kashluk · Post by **Kashluk** » Wed Dec 10, 2003 4:33 pm

Your chivalry knight in his shining armor

Raksha · Post by **Raksha** » Wed Dec 10, 2003 4:39 pm

Actually, the word I would use is "meat-shield", but I'd violate The Code by explaining that to a male.

Blizzard · Post by **Blizzard** » Tue Dec 30, 2003 6:27 am

I set my charisma around ... umm ... lol ... TWO! Then I get magnetic personality at level 6, because my chair tends to be Melee, Small weapons char. I love shooting a person up until they get right next next to me (like aliens and such) and then knocking the crap out of them with a supersledge.

My fave perks are Bonus HtH dmg, and action boy, plus a good slayer in there.

Stainless · Post by **Stainless** » Tue Dec 30, 2003 4:03 pm

I just find burst fire more harm then good. Having cassidy busrt fire some poor bastard is all well and good, but when a stray shot hits the brahman I'm trying to protect, or gets a critical on Goris, it's just flat out annoying.

Kashluk · Post by **Kashluk** » Tue Dec 30, 2003 5:01 pm

Well, that's true... I only use the Burst-option with my buddies, if they have the charge-option available as well. That way, they'll ram to the enemy and *then* burst

Efficient, time & bullet saving, plus it keeps them off of shooting at your own back.

Raksha · Post by **Raksha** » Tue Dec 30, 2003 5:51 pm

And it removes half the excitement! But seriously, I've never really had a problem with burst mode shooting at anyone, except for Marcus shooting Cassidy in the back and he did that regardless of if he used burst mode or not. I think he intentionally shot Cassidy, out of spite... Then again, I have a copy of the game that refused to give me dialogue options, screwed up the ending, and generally acted like a freak, so that might have had something to do with that.

Franz Schubert · Post by **Franz Schubert** » Wed Dec 31, 2003 7:02 am

I hate it when they use burst fire on mantises and rats. I mean, it takes one bullet to kill it, so why spray 5 or 10?

Stainless · Post by **Stainless** » Wed Dec 31, 2003 2:34 pm

Indeed. I've had marcus put away his pulse rifle, and whip out the rocket launcher for a rat.

Raksha · Post by **Raksha** » Wed Dec 31, 2003 7:17 pm

But he went hand to hand, empty handed, against an Enclave patrol... yeah. He's not exactly a bright tactician.

Blizzard · Post by **Blizzard** » Wed Dec 31, 2003 8:24 pm

I've had marcus kill me + sulik along with what we were killing. I never get that bastard, I stick with cassidy and sulk, mostly.

Kashluk · Post by **Kashluk** » Thu Jan 01, 2004 12:37 am

The whole thing called "virtual reality" kinda shatters at that point, when all your friends draw their biggest & baddest cannons and give that mantis a full load of 2mm EC, micro plasma and 9mm JHP... Really makes you wanna stroke the monitor with a baseball bat. A few times. Even more, if your buddies end up killing each other during the process as well.

American Tourister · Post by **American Tourister** » Thu Jan 01, 2004 1:40 am

I think from now on I'm going to let Marcus join me, and immediately cut him loose, just to gain the Exp points. He is SO overrated.

BTW what is the best weapon for skynet to carry? I just got him with the best brain for the first time, and he seems like a pretty good party character. "Uses small rifles and big pistols", so does that mean the gauss rifle would be best? Or give him a gauss pistol and have him Charge!?

OnTheBounce · Post by **OnTheBounce** » Thu Jan 01, 2004 2:18 am

American Tourister wrote:I think from now on I'm going to let Marcus join me, and immediately cut him loose, just to gain the Exp points. He is SO overrated.

Yes, he is overrated. However, like any of the CNPCs it's really a case of using him to maximize his strengths and minimize his weaknesses. Most people seem to act like he can run around and batter anything down, but that's just not the case. I avoid giving him Big Guns, and usually have a Turbo Plasma Rifle ready for him when I pick him up. (There's a Plasma Rifle in SAD, and Algernon's just a hop, skip, and a jump away...) Once he's gained a couple of levels he's getting two attacks/round and that's nothing to scoff at. Make sure he doesn't get overwhelmed a close range by multiple opponents where his lack of armor becomes a serious issue and he's a solid member of your party.

He's really fucking nasty w/a Pulse Rifle, too...

American Tourister wrote:BTW what is the best weapon for skynet to carry? I just got him with the best brain for the first time, and he seems like a pretty good party character. "Uses small rifles and big pistols", so does that mean the gauss rifle would be best? Or give him a gauss pistol and have him Charge!?

Skynet is probably best used as a sniper. I recommend a Sniper Rifle and later a Gauss Rifle for him. Perhaps using the Gauss Pistol as an intermediate between the two. Don't set him to "Charge!", but rather have him stay back from the enemy. He only has the equivalent of Metal Armor Mk II, so he's yet another CNPC that can't afford to sit there and get into slug-fests and walk away from it, especially since he can't use any sort of healing chems. His ability to repair himself or to be repaired using the Repair skill can ease the burden on your healing supplies and medical skills, though.

One aspect of choosing CNPCs is that people seem to evaluate them in a vacuum, taking only their stats into account. You really have to look at the sum total of your CNPCs and this will largely determine whether they do well or not. For instance, if I'm going to take Vic and Skynet, I definitely want someone like Sulik w/the heaviest hitting HTH weapon available helping to slow the enemy's advance while my "snipers" take them apart from a distance. A roving pack of snipers tends to get overrun to easily, so take steps to avoid it. A pack of HTH fighters can be taken apart as they close, so try to avoid that as well.

Cheers,

OTB

Franz Schubert · Post by **Franz Schubert** » Thu Jan 01, 2004 12:20 pm

OTB the Wise wrote:One aspect of choosing CNPCs is that people seem to evaluate them in a vacuum, taking only their stats into account.

Yes I do, in every game except Fallout, that is. Fallout is much more about the RPing than other games. I think the problem with most gamers today is that none of them seem to know what an RPG is. For instance, it's amazing how many people think Diablo is an RPG. I was at my local gaming store a while ago, and I overheard some kid telling his friend "You should get Warcraft III, it's great. It's practically an RPG."

The genre definitely needs another great RPG. The problem is: The perfect RPG wouldn't sell very well.