Forums » Fallout

Getting into Fallout

    • 19 posts
    August 20, 2015 8:35 AM EDT

    So I've just bought my first fallout game (New Vegas), and I'm enjoying it so far.
    And I've got to admit, I regret not buying it earlier as I've been looking for a good open-world shooter.


    It seems like there's enough lore keep me interested, but so far I've got no clue what's going on (what's with the bottle caps??), although I'm only still in the first town.
    I was wondering if some of the more experienced with fallout could give me the quick basics or a brief history or something?
    Are there any items I've gotta look out for or particular skills that I should train? I mean, I understand the need for Lockpicking, Guns, etc but how useful are skills like Medicine or Survival?
    Also, I've heard that the game can get pretty glitchy, but other than a few ctd's I've had no problems so far (I assume the crashes were because of my crappy laptop)?

    I'm not asking you guys for a full-detailed walkthrough or do's and don't about what to do (that would spoil some of the fun, eh?), but if some of you are willing to give me a few tips to help me on the way that would be very appreciated!

    • 71 posts
    August 20, 2015 10:16 AM EDT

    Well I'm no lore junky, but I can give you a quick rundown of the basics. Fallout takes place in a divergent future from ours, so basically the Fallout world's history is the same as ours, up until a specific point in time in which everything changes. So kind of like that Bearenstain/Bearenstein Bears thing. I'm pretty sure it goes off on it's own timeline sometime in the middle of the 20th century. Anyways, you basically just need to know that before the Great War, the Fallout world was the kind of future that people imagined in the 1950s. Nuclear powered everything (cars, Tvs, drinks, it's why there's no cables on appliances), and vast increases in technology (robots, floating cars), but nuclear era social norms never go away (white bread suburbia, old style dress, think a sort of Madmen culture, almost). Computers also never got any smaller, for some reason.

    The Great War happens in 2077, and basically just has the world blow itself up with nukes. Fallout NV takes place some 200 years later, in the Mojave. Las Vegas was spared from the nukes through a defence system, that's why it's still in running order. The West coast in general wasn't hit as hard anyways, so that's why NV has a more civilized vibe than 3, as people were more easily able to rebuild. The post-war world has bottlecaps as a currency, though you'll also find some NCR (a group trying to create a stable country out of the wastes, sort of modelled off of the old American gov't) money and Legion (a monarchist group looking to govern with some form of Empire, like the old Romans) money. Caps are the universal currency though.

    I never power play, and usually roleplay, so I can't give you any optimized build or anything. But I will say that I find it useful to invest in both medicine and repair. They just come up a lot, as does science. A personal preference of mine  is to specialize in about 3-5 skills, usually guns, sneak, medicine, speech, and lockpicking, for me. But that's more or less just a 'build' that I've always rolled in both 3 and NV. The game has the potential for a 'perfect' character, but you don't need to worry about it all too much. It's more difficult than Skyrim, but it works in the same way in that your free to invest in whatever skills you want basically, within reason. Hopefully I was of some help, like I said, I'm no lore junkie or anything, but I think I've covered the basics. Hope you enjoy the game, and in turn get sufficiently pumped for 4 coming out this fall .      

    • 19 posts
    August 20, 2015 10:40 AM EDT

    Wow, thanks! I already figured it was some sort of post-nuclear war world (seeing as some npcs also mentioned radiation) but now I actually sort of know what happened.
    I never powerplay either (RP for me) and I'm also rolling sneak + guns + lockpick so far, something about those stealthed cinematic rifle shots is appealing to me

    Now if I could only figure out how to stop my pc from crashing this'll be golden

    • 1217 posts
    August 20, 2015 11:25 AM EDT

    We've actually got a couple of short primer lore articles in the Fallout Lore group that might help you:

    Part I

    Pat II

    There are a number of other handy lore articles (and more on the way) if you click on the "Fallout Lore" tag.

    Regarding your playthrough itself, my personal philosophy is that the most successful and entertaining FO3 and New Vegas builds tend to have one major (tagged) combat skill, and two major utility skills. Usually one for accessing loot/areas (Science/Lockpick) and one for general support, so Medicine, Survival, Repair, Barter etc. It usually doesn't matter which ones you choose, it'll just change how the game plays a little bit.