S.P.E.C.I.A.L. - Is it balanced?

Kashluk · Post by **Kashluk** » Sat Nov 13, 2004 7:05 pm

I think the world deserves to know. FIGHT THE POWER!

Tag gambling, get it over 100% after a few levels and get to New Reno / Redding or some place similar. Then get to a craps table and somehow lock the '1'-key on your keyboard and your game will be stuck in a never-ending gambling loop. You'll loose about 1/3 of the time, but for the two thirds you'll be making some. Then go take a nap, a shower or some breakfast and while you're gone, your character will be so damn rich it makes me feel horny.

requiem_for_a_starfury · Sat Nov 13, 2004 7:22 pm

Anything makes you feel horny, you're a walking bag of hormones at your age.

I think the beauty of S.P.E.C.I.A.L is that there are so many combinations to play. It' only really becomes unbalanced if the game hasn't been properly designed to use the system. Sure some stats are more powerful than others but to get the most out of the games you need to try a variety of combinations so that you can play the different quests etc.

Most of FO2 was designed for the dumber character, an intelligent character can skim through the game quite quickly without needing to visit most of the locations (if you're role-playing and not powergaming that is).

Blargh · Post by **Blargh** » Sat Nov 13, 2004 7:24 pm

Kashluk wrote:Your 3 level character could make endless amounts of money on the first craps table he came accross.

Which is exactly why I didn't bother with it, I found it (and still find it) far more enjoyable to not have ridiculous amounts of money.

Kashluk · Post by **Kashluk** » Sat Nov 13, 2004 7:57 pm

Yeah, I'm a fucking real-life duracel bunny.
---
It still doesn't mean that gambling wouldn't be useful at times.

Stainless · Post by **Stainless** » Mon Nov 15, 2004 7:49 am

Even without gambling you can usually have vast amounts of cash after the 2nd settlement you come across.

Franz Schubert · Post by **Franz Schubert** » Mon Nov 15, 2004 11:01 am

Abusing the system to get tons of money ruins the immersion. For that matter, I think money was too easy to get anyway, just finding and selling guns & shit.

fallout ranger · Post by **fallout ranger** » Tue Nov 16, 2004 7:10 am

gambling is teh best, breaking the slots in redding...ahhhh.

Carib · Post by **Carib** » Thu Nov 18, 2004 1:02 am

The real challenge of SPECIAL is playing it without Gifted.

Now, you learn to measure your abilities...

Oh, and my flavor of ice cream would be Strawberry cheese cake, maple almond, Old time vanilla in Root beer and of course, Rocky Roll.

Franz Schubert · Post by **Franz Schubert** » Mon Nov 22, 2004 5:04 am

It's Rocky Road, dumbass, and it is the best. Although, B&J's Phish Food is right behind it.

Rad_Man · Post by **Rad_Man** » Wed Dec 22, 2004 12:57 am

Though gambling may be overpowered its fun. What other games can you base a character around gambling? Overall, I think there are a few skills that are almost worthless. Science, repair, traps and outdoorsman aren't very good. Science and repair may be useful for a few quests but usually trying a few times will work. Outdoorsman is pretty useless skill considering both FO1 and FO2 are supposed to be in a desolate wasteland.

Stainless · Post by **Stainless** » Wed Dec 22, 2004 4:34 am

Science and Repair have their moments. But traps are never usually powerful enough to worry about them.

Franz Schubert · Post by **Franz Schubert** » Thu Dec 23, 2004 3:10 pm

Lockpicking has its moments too. Getting 70 or 80 points in throwing tends to be fun sometimes too. But from a power-gaming-balanced perspective, they're hopeless.

Kashluk · Post by **Kashluk** » Thu Dec 23, 2004 10:39 pm

Throwing, Traps and Outdoorsman must be the top-three most useless skills, in my opinion.

Mod Whore · Post by **Mod Whore** » Thu Jan 13, 2005 1:26 am

To be honest i think luck and endurance are overated

I used to have 1 luck and my aimed shots would do criticals half the time..
Endurnace i keep to 1 also b/c i think the game is just too dam easy even on both hard difficulties that i need a handicap.

With both these stats so low, i dont need gifted

Breakneck · Post by **Breakneck** » Thu Jan 13, 2005 4:21 pm

Mod Whore wrote:To be honest i think luck and endurance are overated

I used to have 1 luck and my aimed shots would do criticals half the time..
Endurnace i keep to 1 also b/c i think the game is just too dam easy even on both hard difficulties that i need a handicap.

With both these stats so low, i dont need gifted

IMHO it is too hard to complete some quests in Fallout 2 with these stats so low.

Kashluk · Post by **Kashluk** » Thu Jan 13, 2005 5:09 pm

Luck and endurance?

Franz Schubert · Post by **Franz Schubert** » Sat Jan 15, 2005 3:03 pm

Endurance is good for extra HP per lvl, but I don't think many quests rely on it. Or luck for that matter.

Does anyone know if there's some sort of debug mode to the game, so you can see extra info about all the in-game stuff (quests, items, perks, dialogue)? I doubt it, but worth a shot.

Malaziel · Post by **Malaziel** » Sun Jan 08, 2006 2:18 am

If you play ironman as I always do. (Ironman=No saving except when you quit playing and you may not reload for the purpose of retrying anything you fail or saving a party member or if you die) Then the outdoorsman skill become vital because it allows you to go near Navarro, NCR, and San Francisco without dying. I think that Agility is by far the best stat. I usually play a character something like this.

Str. 5
Pe. 9-10
En. 2
Ch. 2-6 (Depending on whether I want all 5 party member slots)
In. 9-10
Ag. 10
Lk. 8 (For sniper)

I tag small, big, or energy weapons.(only one) As well as speech and outdoorsman(without it you will almost always die when going to Navarro)
With this character you can do almost every quest in the game and have a good chance of survival. If you want less preperation for the late game take 2-4 points of luck and put it into endurance.

I take the traits small frame and gifted.

[HpA]SniperPotato · Post by **[HpA]SniperPotato** » Sun Jan 08, 2006 3:48 am

I use:

6 strength
5 PE
6 endurance
6-7 charisma
10 intelligence
rest on agility
2 luck

Bloodgeon · Post by **Bloodgeon** » Sun Jan 08, 2006 6:27 am

Aside from the bozar...is big weapons even remotely useful late in the game?