Shrinweck wrote:They did a better job with the combat difficulty. I've felt fragile throughout the entire game even with a fairly combat-geared character. In my upper teens death claws could still practicallly three hit me and the more powerful 'boss' dreadclaws could all but one hit me. Armor and damage thresholds play into many weapons being completely useless later. This makes deathclaws all but invulnerable. The only gun that I found could do anything against them was the sniper rifle and even that was very helped out by critical hits.
Also I've been stealing shit all game and I'm still rated in good karma.
My biggest issue with Vegas is you really have to have points in speech to solve certain quests or even advance in them. This goes to a lesser extent in other skills, too (repair, science, barter, and medicine). I have a feeling wanting to play again is going to be a certainty. Especially after seeing what melee weapons can do.
I am a lot more fragile in FO:NV (3 STR, 3 END, Small Frame trait, Hard w/ Hardcore mode...). That's probably as fragile as you can get, lol. I actually like it a lot better...I am playing careful and cautious, I have to or I will end up splattered. Mines scare the crap out of me.
The armour/DR aspect of the combat really changes things up too. I don't care how pimped out your Varmit rifle is, as even with the right type of ammo, killing a full grown Deathclaw with it will probably not happen. Also, my first character is a sniper type...I'm not sure if I am alone in this, but I've been using non-VATS combat mostly. It just *feels* a lot more polished than it did in FO3 (the mod scopes allow for some impressive distance). From what I read, Obsidian tweaked VATS to support melee combat a lot. I haven't tried melee yet, but apparently there are special attacks that are VAT-only and that sort of thing. Obviously, at some point, I will have a character with minimum INT and melee-only...just has to be done
As for speech, I have high speech in this run and I feel the same way you do -- I wish I had higher in other skills to tackle certain quests (especially the crafting skills and barter). Even though NV is smaller in size than FO3, I think Obsidian did a good job mixing it all up...skills can lead to different ways to complete things or open up entirely new side quests. Which Faction you support dictates which quests you can get in the same areas. Definitely the sorta game you want to play through multiple times, with multiple builds.
Anyway, fun game but pretty buggy.