homepage Forums Land & Armor Combat Tactical Simulations - General Re: Fallout 4 (now with extra New Vegas!...and a dash of 76)

I've noticed that the Tesla rifle is a popular weapon for both Campfire Tales and Tea Time because it fires that electrified arc that can hit multiple targets at the same time. I have one myself but don't use it as often as I should due to its heavy weight.

So I am done with investigatting Morgantown Airport.
Phew. All those mutants.
I have a hard time maintaining health.

A little uncertain what to do next.
I guess I should learn about the Inoculation project now?
I have a ton of unfinished missions that I got on my way here. Don`t think that will be the main things now.

Anyway, my neck hurts and I need a break.
Contibue tomorrow.

A little unusual for me to play these sort of games.
I really would want to tone the mutants down and have a little more realistic enemies.

I am at level 10 I think.
Need to learn crafting and how to get better armour and weapons.
Right now I am still on pump action shotgun and knife battles.
I need to find out about health recovery though.

I can't know if you want us to help with those things, or not? But level 10 is good progress. Enough to get some good perks anyway, and nine SPECIAL points to boost your character.

Mutants get, err more mutany as you go. You ain't seen nuthin' yet!

If you get to level 15 and still need a good weapon I can tell you what I did. Have you chosen a weapon type to focus on? My advice would be for commando or rifleman. Big guns, melee and energy I haven't really bothered with so I won't have specific advice. But I do have some wicked machine guns in my stash so at some point I'll spec in to big guns to give them a rip.

Don`t get me wrong.
I am really thankful for the help I can get.
But as for now you are on a completely other level.
Right now I have just 14 hours logged. Just a recruit.

Somehow I sort of enjoy the process of playing a game that is completely new to me. Except there are some simularities to S.T.A.L,K.E.R. may be. I have those games, but not much time in them.
After all, my time with games has been mainly with sims and puzzle- and adventure games.

After a pretty long session yesterday I found myself thinking about the problems I had in the game WHILE I was watching a TV series afterwards.
That was strange. I was so busy with the immediate dangers in the game that I had no time to think about what was around me in the surroundings and which possibilities they would have given me if I was aware of them.

So next time I enter the game again I can try things I have been thinking of when not playing. If I am right that is a small victory for me.

If I ask for help too much in the beginning I won`t get those few victories. If you know what I mean.

If I am really stuck I will ask of course, but for now the game experience is how much I am able to learn myself without having to ask for help.

Eh, as you americans say, "If you get my drift"?
(or may be not :D)

Both Stalker and Fallout 76 have the similarity of being set in a post-apocalyptic world but the overall mood is completely different for sure. The Stalker games have a depressing and very dark repressive mood while much of the violence in Fallout 76 is quite tongue in cheek and whimsical. Having said that, I enjoy both series of games immensely.

Ok yes, I get it Wigean. I get your drift

When I see someone posting about their struggles and I think I can help I want to do so. The fact I'm higher level now isn't a problem as I remember way back when I was starting out -- 3 weeks ago haha. I can see how a player new to the series could have issues, especially with build/weapon/protection synergy. It's quite possible to take perks that spread the build too thin, which leads to struggles in combat. But I understand and respect your point. At level 15 I noticed a spike in combat and I think it's important to have it squared away when you reach 15 or it can seem worse perhaps, which makes it less fun.

I spent a lot of time last night on a screws and springs hunt. I will overcome!

I have chosen the Handmade Rifle as my main weapon. This is only available once the player hits level 15 when they start to drop. They drop in automatic and semi-auto. And scoped versions too. It's superior to the combat rifle and assault rifle in my view. The best damage of the trio, and has a low recoil impulse and good accuracy. I don't know if there are any advantages to any of these in regards to crafting, repairing or modifying. The automatic has a nice rate of fire, and fires accurate groups in short bursts. The stinging magazine grants 20% armor pen and increases capacity to 25 (from 20). The other mods improve aimed accuracy, damage, AP cost, recoil and range. Suppressors do not affect damage in Fallout, but do reduce range. The unsuppressed Handmade sounds great, but I want the added security of the suppressor. Improved survivability. These mods add about 6 to the carry weight of the standard short-barrelled version.

I have now crafted and rolled a number of these. I'm not concerned at this point with rolling three-stars. The final effect is relatively minor and costs more cores and modules, so for now I'm mostly rolling one star. The legendary effects I want are instigating, anti-armor, vampire, furious and two-shot. This is my main weapon at the moment, Parabellum. 80 base damage is very nice considering its fire rate and supporting perks that raise the actual damage inflicted. Instigating gives +100% damage against targets with full health which is a better effect for powerful, single shot weapons like sniper rifles. In theory only the first shot of the burst achieves this, as the second shot will be striking a target with less than full health. But there seems to be a slight delay so follow-on rounds get the bonus too. I should turn on damage numbers (like Borderlands) to actually check if this is true. Hitman's is the secondary effect, granting +25% damage when aiming down the sights, which dovetails nicely with my play style. The Weapon Artisan perk allows repairing to 200% condition and is represented by the lighter-colored bar in the condition display. I do need a new skin for it, but I don't know if these can be found or must be bought through the Atomic Shop. I see an expensive bundle with the matte black paint and I might have to bite that bullet.

That is something DBond.

Is range in yards?
With that damage rate it would be great for longer range targets.

Springs and screws he?
That`s on my todo list now.
Find out how to craft different things.

Good question, I don't know for sure what unit it represents. But what it does do is affect damage drop off. Out past that range number, it drops sharply, much more steeply than the more gentle curve you'd expect of real-world weapons. I wouldn't be surprised if it was in feet. My 174 is about 60 yards and yeah, maybe I'm dropping off beyond that even with a rifle with a long barrel. Range doesn't affect how far you can shoot, but you're doing way less damage per round at long distance. Of course that doesn't stop us from shooting at long range, just eats up more ammunition. I shoot plenty of targets beyond effective range, whatever point that actually is.

Range on this rifle would be 192 I think without the suppressor.

I'm pretty sure it's yards since Bethesda is a US developer and the game takes place in the US.

Some time ago I had read a post where range was tested in FO4. His conclusion was that it is in a truncated interpretation of feet. It was something like .625. So 100 feet in Fallout is actually 62.5 feet. If I find it I will post a link. Different game, but FO76 is basically FO4 at heart.

I'm closing in on level 75, which is causing opportunity cost anxiety. At 75 I can pick my second legendary perk. Master Infiltrator at level 50 sort of picked itself. I have not ranked it up, the first rank is fine. It has been a marvelous quality of life perk, making it possible to open any lock or hack any terminal without taking up a perk card slot. But for the second one the decision is much less certain. There are quite a few tempting legendary perks. Follow-Through is one that sounds great, but I wonder how often it will prove useful. It grants +10% damage for 10 seconds after any ranged sneak attack. This increases to 20/30/40% for ascending ranks.

As a sneak commando that sounds great. But the fact is most enemies die quickly, meaning this perk will have little effect in most battles. However it would be useful against the toughest enemies, the ones that take a while to whittle down, bosses and deathclaws and 'squatches. In events it would again prove mostly useless since you're nearly always in [Danger] and therefore do not get the sneak attack to trigger the bonus. So yeah, on paper it sounds like perfect synergy for my build and playstyle, but in practice I wonder how often it would prove beneficial.

So that leaves me thinking I will go with Strength. Fully ranked up, it would add five strength to my build, and with it 50 carry weight. My strength is just 4, so this would more than double it. I would then take Sturdy Frame with two ranks for -50% armor weight and three ranks of Blocker for 45% melee damage reduction. Compared to a perk like Bandolier, Sturdy Frame is a massive boost to carry weight. I did take Bandolier early on, but soon dropped it as you need to carry a hell of a lot of ammunition for it to be worthy of a slot. Mini-gunners, yeah, maybe. For me, no. If I carry 600 rounds of 5.56 for my rifle and 300 rounds of 10mm for my pistol, all that ammo might weigh 6. At rank 1 and -45% weight that saves less than 3. Sturdy Frame, even with my light armor, would reduce weight by closer to 10, and with power armor, even more.

Blocker seem a no-brainer if you can spare the slots. That will make it more survivable, and the fact is the most dangerous enemies in the game almost all use melee attacks. So yeah, taking Strength as my second legendary will give a big boost to my carry weight and Blocker will give a big boost to my defense.

Yesterday I did the Recruitment Blues quest, and that was delightful. They captured the essence of any visit to the DMV haha. I was grinning the whole way through. Good stuff.

I don't think we've discussed the "Daily Ops" missions yet. Those can be done stealthily if you decide to do a Daily Op by yourself instead of doing it with a team. What I don't remember is if you can do Daily Ops right away or if you have to unlock them via some quest. I do remember that the Daily Ops missions are part of the Brotherhood of Steel. Have you checked into those yet?

I haven't done a daily op, no. At least my quest for completing one has not completed yet. I do a lot of events, but none are DO's. Which one do you think is easiest to solo?

But even then, I wouldn't take Follow-Through for how useful it might be in the rare instances when I try to solo a daily op. Maybe I'll take it later.

What did you go with for your second legendary?

At last count I was up to 90 springs and 60 screws!

Yeah Wigean, springs and screws are precious. It will depend in part on what you are crafting, repairing and building. But for me these are essential. It seems everything I build or repair needs a bunch of these. I took Weapon Artisan in part to slow the repair roll in order to actually be able to build up my stocks. Doubling the weapon durability means fewer repairs and less mats spent. These can each be found in a number of ways, but in general I pick up all...

Screws

typewriters
desk fans
hotplates
toys (car/truck/etc)
globes
giddyup buttercup parts
silver lockets

Springs

alarm clocks
clipboards (clean version also has a screw)
flip lighters
giddyup buttercup parts (these are great because some give both springs and screws)
gold pocket watch
typewriters

There are more, but in general I snap up all of the above I come across

Here's the thread I mentioned, on reddit, about the range testing.

https://www.reddit.com/r/fo4/comments/hh5wr8/experiment_clarifying_the_range_statistic/

I went with the Strength legendary card because by that time with my character I found myself constantly becoming overburdened by weight. I also got that legendary perk because I was already mostly using heavy weapons.

Great minds and all that. I also had an eye toward giving me the flexibility to spec in to a power armor/heavy weapons build, and the strength legendary perk would give me that. I have some machine guns and grenade launchers that look like a lot of fun, and now that I'm acquiring some PA sets I might have to give it a go.

I built the Excavator as mentioned
I have a full legendary T-45 set, all pieces with some nice mods on them
I have a full T-60 set unmodded
And I have just two quests left to go to get the Hellcat set

And I don't even wear this stuff

In addition to the great carrying capacity, I believe the excavator set also gives you a bonus when you are prospecting for minerals at the different deposits that you can encounter out in the game world. I'm talking about things like the raw cooper, gold and silver deposits which you may have run across while playing.

Right, +4 instead of 1 per scoop. That is useful in certain spots.Good way to get black titanium when you've taken out all the mole miners. I'd guess I will wear Hellcat, if I can get it, and rarely the Excavator, but you never know. If you buy a power armor skin does it work on any type? Or are they for specific sets? In FO4 I didn't care much which PA I put on, whichever one was nearest at the mo. But I took the X-01 to the Glowing Sea.

So far in 76 I reckon I've worn PA for 5 minutes. As such I will probably only mod one set, at least until I'm 500 hours in and need something to do. So I'll wait until I get Hellcat, try them all and make the call. I understand I have a gauntlet to run with scorch beasts and sneak disabled to get to the Hellcat, so maybe that will take some time.

I had a look at the player's list yesterday. You can see a lot of names of players you've been instanced with. It probably had nearly 100 names on it and none were Panzer's or Wigean's. You guys are zigging when I am zagging

The Hellcat armor is definitely optimized for combat since it has that nice 10% reduction in ballistic damage so I would recommend you use that one when you finally do a Scorched Earth or a Seismic Activity event. Concerning the skins, they are always unique to the different power armor sets. There are no universal power armor skins.

Thanks PM, very helpful. I have to have the dusty Excavator skin. the gas company look just doesn't work for me.

I have a tip for new players, and not for Wigean, no

But one thing that is not obvious at all -- and is very important if you want to mod your weapons -- is that you learn modifications for each weapon type by scrapping that same weapon. It is tempting to sell them, but scrapping is what you should be doing with any particular weapon you think you might want to main down the line. When I marked out the Handmade as my rifle I started scrapping them by the bushel. I was able to learn like 43/49 or whatever the number is. I have no idea which ones I might be missing, but whatever they are it seems I am done learning mods from scrapping them. The last six or so have not yielded a mod plan, so there must be some sort of limit, or some mod plans cannot be learned this way. Not sure. But I learned all the ones I want to use so it's fine. The stinging magazine took a long time, it was one of the last I learned, and one I very much wanted so it was the carrot out on the end of that scrapping stick.

So this is all one more reason to pick a weapon class, and better yet, a specific weapon, so you can focus on making it as good as it can be, and customized to suit your style and vision of what you want to carry out in the wastes.

For any fence sitters out there, FO76 back on sale on Steam for a tenner. Twenty gets the game plus the Pitt DLC. Ten bucks is a good deal for a good game and not much risked if it doesn't suit you.

You're welcome DBond and by the way, I sent you a friend invite yesterday.