Today we are talking to Dan Taylor, a professional level designer who has in the past worked for Eidos, Square Enix, Ubisoft, Rockstar (among others) on games such as Medal of Honor Heroes 2, Hitman: Sniper, or Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Dan - who started out as a modder for Morrowind, Skyrim, and Fallout New Vegas - has close to two decades of experience in the video game industry under his belt and his talk on Ten Principles for Good Level Design at the Game Developer's Conference 2013 is cu.
Finally got around to playing Fallout NV thanks to the recent Steam summer sale. My expectations were set pretty low as far as production values were concerned and I did not expect the game to look as good as it does.While I think some of the animation and interaction with the environment could use some improvement (I found an abandoned trailer and jumped on top of it. Was disappointed that I couldn't fall down through the hole in its roof.), I'm overall impressed with what the game accomplishes.That said, I'm only in the post-tutorial. I remember there was an option for Hardcore mode and I didn't select it.
Is it a good idea for me to start over and play the game in Hardcore? Any recommended mods?I haven't played Fallout 3 or the classic Fallout games. I enjoy a good challenge but I'd rather avoid excessive grinding or micromanagement. The version of NV I have is the Ultimate Edition, no mods installed. Yes, you should try hardcore mode, it made me enjoy the game more.Despite it's name it's really not that difficult as long as you well hydrated, fed, and sleep all which are easy.
The water is never scarce and neither is food so you'll be fine.As for mods go here are the ones I use- A quest that is heavily inspired by the unreleased Van Buren, the original (unreleased) Fallout 3 made by Black Isle.- Fixes a lot of the games issues or so I heard. I never played Fallout: New Vegas without this mod and haven't encountered a bug/glitch.- An amazing User Interface mod that really makes a difference. Another must.- A mod that gives you features and let's you balance the game to your choosing. I honestly never tinkered with this that much as I like keeping the game original when it comes to features.Also use Fallout Mod Manager, by far the best. Hardcore mode was very disappointing for me. I probably had a wrong expectation that it will make New Vegas a bit more like a survival game where you have to hunt for food and stuff like that. But there is so much food and water in the game.
You can play for hours just with the few gecko steaks you get at the beginning of the game and in the same area there is unlimited fresh water without any radiation.The biggest difference is that ammunition has weight which limits your inventory a lot and stim packs only heal over time instead of instantly. Both are nice changes.I would always recommend to start with hardcore mode enabled.
You can still disable it later on if you don't like the changes. And hardcore mode is independent from the difficulty settings, so for example easy/hardcore is possible if you only want the gameplay changes but not a more difficult game. New Vegas is one of my favorite games of this generation. If it clicks with you like it did with me, you're in for one hell of a ride.Hardcore Mode has its pros and cons.
Submit a new link. Submit a new text post. Get an ad-free experience with special benefits, and directly support Reddit. Get reddit premium.
I'm trying to make my fallout hardest as can be. But I can only find a good use of hardcore with the settings in the game. But I need more. I want to be FORCED to take care of my weapons, have to sleep, ect But I don't want bullet sponge enemies. Obsidian had announced that a special reward awaited all those who were foolhardy enough to complete Fallout: New Vegas with Hardcore Mode switched on, which makes your playthrough of the game.
Best New Vegas Mods
Some of the additions are pretty cool and add some neat consequences. Companions can die permanently so you need to be more careful with them, bullets have weight which means you need to be more aware of the items you're carrying, stimpaks heal over time instead of instantly so you need to avoid situations where you would take heavy burst damage, and crippled limbs can only be fixed by (fairly rare) items called Doctor's Bags or by seeing an actual doctor or sleeping in a bed that you own (which aren't very many, especially early in the game.)The main thing I dislike about Hardcore Mode is the need to eat and drink. There was a mod for Fallout 3 called 'Fallout Wanderer's Edition' that added this functionality (before New Vegas was even announced) and it was really, really cool in that mod: Fallout 3 presented a harsher wasteland where clean water and good food were really hard to come by, and it made survival a very serious struggle. New Vegas, by comparison, has food and clean water in spades. You'll rarely have trouble finding those resources. As a result, eating and drinking start to feel less like a struggle and more like busywork, an excuse to get you into the menu more often.Considering all the other benefits, I usually play with Hardcore Mode on anyways.
It's just something to keep in mind: things might get a bit tedious. If you care at all about achievements though, bear in mind that because you didn't enable Hardcore Mode at the beginning, you can't get the achievement for beating the game with Hardcore Mode enabled. You need to enable it at the beginning and never turn it off.On the topic of mods: I'd say avoid them on your first playthrough and use them as an excuse to spice up future playthroughs. Everyone's going to have different ideas of 'essential' mods for New Vegas because it's a pretty complete experience on its own (especially with the DLC).
New Fallout New Vegas Mod
Your best bet will be to go to and just browse around for whatever seems interesting to you. The Nexus family of websites have a program called 'Nexus Mod Manager' that will take your download requests from the website and handle the installation. Sometimes you'll encounter mods that add more complex functionality to the game that will require a download called the 'New Vegas Script Extender,' hosted at that you'll need to download and install on your own (Nexus Mod Manager can't handle that for you, as far as I know.) Always read a mod's description page to see if it has NVSE or any other mods as requirements.Final tips:- Don't start the DLCs too early. Once you begin one of the DLC quests, you will be 'locked in' to a totally different worldspace and cannot return to the Mojave until the DLC is completed. The DLCs have specific levels at which you should start tackling them. I'm pretty sure there's a disclaimer before you hit the point of no return for each DLC that will advise you on what level you should be, but if I remember right it's something like.Dead Money: 20 or higherHonest Hearts: 15 or higherOld World Blues: I THINK this one scales a bit more than the others and can be done earlier or later. Still, I'd probably wait until your 20s.Lonesome Road: I actually have no idea when you ought to do Lonesome Road.
Someone will have to cover this one for me.-You can bind different items to your 1 and 3-8 keys, and use your 2 key as a dedicated ammo switcher (there are various types of ammo for different guns). I highly recommend binding Stimpaks to one of your hotkeys.- Talk to everyone you can. This game has a TON of sidequests. And I mean a TON.- The game's worst part is the early sections, where you're being sort of railroaded from town to town and if you stray too far you'll be eaten alive by high-level enemies. Stick with it, and by the time you get to New Vegas proper (as in, the city), the game REALLY opens up.- Don't try and specialize in too many things. Pick some skills to focus on and stick to them.
You only really need to focus on one combat skill (Melee, Guns, Energy Weapons, Explosives or Unarmed Explosives is pretty tough to dedicate yourself too and I probably wouldn't recommend it for your first character- although it gets some REALLY cool weapons later on. Lockpick and Science are both used to open locked doors, with some doors exclusive to lockpicking and Science occasionally useful for other things as well.
I typically focus on one of them at the expense of the other. Medicine increases the effectiveness of stimpaks while Survival increases the healing properties of food items (and allows you to cook better food), the tradeoff being that Stimpaks are better for raw healing but are much harder to come by than food.- Your luck stat has a direct relation to how well you'll do gambling on the Strip.- There are usually multiple ways to complete a quest, especially if they take place in 'populated' areas (i.e not crawling with ghouls or raiders). Always consider your options and again, talk to EVERYONE. Raised that bomber).
All pretty boilerplate missions and the story hasn't evolved much beyond 'find who shot you' and 'find the platinum chip.' I really enjoyed Fallout 3, but NV really wasn't able to hold my interest. The main story hasn't been too engaging, the faction missions have been boring, and I haven't enjoyed exploring the desert this game is set in.I really liked exploring the post-apocalyptic Washington DC in Fallout 3. It's story was pretty basic, but I always seemed to find fun side quests that held my interest (the super hero village, Oasis, the nuka cola lady, etc.). For some reason I've barely found any good side missions in NV even though I hear people talk about how great they all are.I haven't played it in a long time, but I haven't given up on it either.
Honestly at this point I think I'm just waiting for the Oculus Rift to come out and play it with that. Thanks for the advice, everyone. Didn't realize hardcore mode could be turned on/off at anytime.
Going to switch it on for now. I'll also be sure to check out the mods. Sawyer's mod and Mission Mojave for sure.As an aside, I still can't get over how excited I am to be playing this game. I read and watched reviews, read posts on GAF-nothing could get me interested in Fallout NV or Fallout 3. It was only until the sale that I thought 'why the hell not?'
And added NV to the other games I was buying. And the only reason I started the game was to test it before saving it to an external hard drive (for 'later') and uninstalling it. Thanks for the advice, everyone. Didn't realize hardcore mode could be turned on/off at anytime. Going to switch it on for now.
I'll also be sure to check out the mods. Sawyer's mod and Mission Mojave for sure.As an aside, I still can't get over how excited I am to be playing this game. I read and watched reviews, read posts on GAF-nothing could get me interested in Fallout NV or Fallout 3. It was only until the sale that I thought 'why the hell not?'
And added NV to the other games I was buying. And the only reason I started the game was to test it before saving it to an external hard drive (for 'later') and uninstalling it.Thanks for the great tips. Did not realize that companions could die.
And yes, I'll be mindful of not starting DLC quests until I'm ready for them (I intend to finish the main storyline and the sidequests first). I'll recommend that you do the second DLC first (Honest Hearts), because it scales the best for lower levels (and is more fun at lower levels imo). Once you've made it to the Vegas area in general, that would be a good time to take on the DLC. The next series of DLC are loosely connected, so they should be played in order: Dead Money - Old World Blues - Lonesome Road.
I would recommend them as late game adventures, because you'll probably also get really good equipment from the DLCs, which give you a significant advantage in the main game. Best to do them late so you don't break the main game balance too much.Hope that helps! I'll recommend that you do the second DLC first (Honest Hearts), because it scales the best for lower levels (and is more fun at lower levels imo).
Once you've made it to the Vegas area in general, that would be a good time to take on the DLC. The next series of DLC are loosely connected, so they should be played in order: Dead Money - Old World Blues - Lonesome Road. I would recommend them as late game adventures, because you'll probably also get really good equipment from the DLCs, which give you a significant advantage in the main game. Best to do them late so you don't break the main game balance too much.Hope that helps! There are lots of decisions that can affect the game and story. To name some: blowing up the BoS bunker, activating the laser at the helios one killing NCR allowing the Legion to move in, solving the issues between the NCR and Kings, taking the prison back or working with the cons, getting factions on your side (eg the boomers will bomb the dam and the BoS will support you with troops if you helped them, or you can choose to kill them). These are game moments, not the ending which is different for every decision you make.
Hell you can wipe out everybody if you want and there's no invincible story NPCs like FO3. There's also multiple ways to beat the game which change the gameplay. Playing from the antagonist's point of view with the Legion, or helping House get the robots upgraded, siding with the NCR, etc.You can piss off a lot of factions which they don't magically forgive you after waiting 3 days like FO3. I guess there's nothing like blowing up a nuke that herp a derps built a town around though.
I liked storming the tower, thought that was fun. You can destroy the citadel, you could exterminate the whole wasteland (less of a choice now that post endgame play was implemented with BoS), you can sell several important NPCs into slavery, you can skip some quests and still get to the endgame, most of the quests have more than one way to beat them), and I have been using mods in FO3 that add factions and things like that, I haven't played vanilla FO3 since the GECK was released, really.Overall I think it is just a mater of taste, neither game is without flaws, it just depends on which flaws matter more to the individual.