Fallout 3 questions

[CPA]

Never played Fallout 1 or 2, so I'm not sure about a couple of things related to SPECIAL and skills.

1) How much of impact does any specific SPECIAL ability have on any specific skills. For instance, does each increase of 1 in Intelligence increase Hacking by a certain percentage?

2) When using Med Stats or another "aid" that impacts a SPECIAL, does that also increase the appropriate skills, if there is a correlation (as asked in question 1).

3) Is there ever a time where you can change of increase SPECIAL abilities?

4) If you're low on say lockpicking, is there a work around to the doors that require a certain level of lockpicking? I hate coming to a door that requires 100 lockpicking, but I only have 61. By the time I get to 100, those doors may not matter anymore or I may have forgotten about them.

 

[chizow]

Originally posted by: CPA
Never played Fallout 1 or 2, so I'm not sure about a couple of things related to SPECIAL and skills.

1) How much of impact does any specific SPECIAL ability have on any specific skills. For instance, does each increase of 1 in Intelligence increase Hacking by a certain percentage?

I believe its 1 SPECIAL = 5 skill points. Yes, increasing SPECIAL will increase skill points up to the max of 100.

2) When using Med Stats or another "aid" that impacts a SPECIAL, does that also increase the appropriate skills, if there is a correlation (as asked in question 1).

Yes, so popping Mentats before attempting a hack or defusing explosives which you didn't have the skill for will allow you to (if within 10 points).

3) Is there ever a time where you can change of increase SPECIAL abilities?

There's 10 ranks of Perks that allow you to +1 any SPECIAL up to the max of 10. There's 1 bobblehead for each SPECIAL scattered through the wasteland (+1 to stat). There's also 1 bobblehead for each Skill (+10 to skill). And there's a bunch of books that increase each Skill by +1 (+2 with Perk).

4) If you're low on say lockpicking, is there a work around to the doors that require a certain level of lockpicking? I hate coming to a door that requires 100 lockpicking, but I only have 61. By the time I get to 100, those doors may not matter anymore or I may have forgotten about them.

You can equip armor that gives +AGI and +Lockpicking (there's that Vault 101 suit at the beginning that gives +5 lockpicking and +5 repair, very handy). I don't recall any meds that increase AGI.

There's some tips in the big Fallout 3 threads that give some tips on how to distribute points, but overall I feel stats in F3 clearly favor some SPECIAL over the others. Int, Luck, Agi, PE are probably the most important. SPECIAL has enough impact on your effectiveness in-game that it'd be worth a re-roll early on if you choose poor stats.

 

[TBSN]

check out gamefaqs.com, there is a page that explains how the SPECIAL stats affect the skills.

 

[CPA]

What do you mean by "(if within 10 points)"? Does that mean you can only use Mentats twice at one time to bump up 10 points and anything above that is ineffective?

Also, these bobbleheads - I have been playing for hours, am doing the quest for the Declaration of Independence at the National Archives. I have yet to see any bobblehead. Where the heck do I find them? Are they in secret locations or have I just not spoken to the right person?

 

[coldmeat]

I got addicted to Buffouts by using too many at once, I don't know if it works the same for Mentats. I don't know what the side effects are though because I haven't gone back to play the game. I'm not really into it. Maybe it's how my guy has ridiculously bad aim and I'm always running out of ammo.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Bobbleheads are in out-of-the-way places to make you buy the strategy guide. The first one was in the vault's medical clinic / your dad's office on a table. At some point in the game you'll have a sidequest to go back to the vault so you can snag it then.



SPOILER ---- one bobblehead is in Rivet City in the science lab. --- SPOILER

 

[CPA]

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
Bobbleheads are in out-of-the-way places to make you buy the strategy guide. The first one was in the vault's medical clinic / your dad's office on a table. At some point in the game you'll have a sidequest to go back to the vault so you can snag it then.



SPOILER ---- one bobblehead is in Rivet City in the science lab. --- SPOILER

Well, I was in the science lab and can't say that I ever saw the bobblehead. I'll look again. I should mention that even though I posted this in the PC section, I'm actually playing the XBox version. I wonder if the took out the bobbleheads in the XBox version. Oh, and I asked in PC because I knew I would get a quicker response.

 

[hdeck]

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
Bobbleheads are in out-of-the-way places to make you buy the strategy guide. The first one was in the vault's medical clinic / your dad's office on a table. At some point in the game you'll have a sidequest to go back to the vault so you can snag it then.



SPOILER ---- one bobblehead is in Rivet City in the science lab. --- SPOILER

theres a sidequest that takes you back to vault 101? whoa, i missed that one.

 

[PhatoseAlpha]

1. It's not 5 points per stat. Not even fixed, IIRC, and it's not a major impact, really. Less for luck, but luck affects all skills.
2. Aid and equipment effects on Special do travel down to the skill effects for skill use. Doesn't count at level up though, of course.
3. As noted, there are takeable perks, bobbleheads, and at least 1 quest perk increase special skills.
4. While there are booster, they just aren't very major. You get the vault 101 utility jumpsuit before leaving the vault, and that's the best booster for lockpick I've found. So, while you can boost them, it's almost never going to be more then a few points tops.

Fortunately, if the door is locked and there's not a workaround or key, there's almost certainly nothing worth sweating about behind the door.

 

[CPA]

Originally posted by: PhatoseAlpha
1. It's not 5 points per stat. Not even fixed, IIRC, and it's not a major impact, really. Less for luck, but luck affects all skills.
2. Aid and equipment effects on Special do travel down to the skill effects for skill use. Doesn't count at level up though, of course.
3. As noted, there are takeable perks, bobbleheads, and at least 1 quest perk increase special skills.
4. While there are booster, they just aren't very major. You get the vault 101 utility jumpsuit before leaving the vault, and that's the best booster for lockpick I've found. So, while you can boost them, it's almost never going to be more then a few points tops.

Fortunately, if the door is locked and there's not a workaround or key, there's almost certainly nothing worth sweating about behind the door.

The one that ticked me off was the Android/Pinkerton quest. If I'm correct Pinkerton is in the part of the aircraft carrier that is cutoff from the rest (Rivet City). The only entrance I found to him is a hatch door that you need 100 lockpick to get into. I only have like 61.

 

[nakedfrog]

Originally posted by: CPA
The one that ticked me off was the Android/Pinkerton quest. If I'm correct Pinkerton is in the part of the aircraft carrier that is cutoff from the rest (Rivet City). The only entrance I found to him is a hatch door that you need 100 lockpick to get into. I only have like 61.

There's another entrance, IIRC that door you found is where you come out. The main entrance is under water. I noticed a few doors like that, 100 lockpick required, but I ended up coming out the other side via a different route.

 

[CPA]

Originally posted by: nakedfrog

Originally posted by: CPA
The one that ticked me off was the Android/Pinkerton quest. If I'm correct Pinkerton is in the part of the aircraft carrier that is cutoff from the rest (Rivet City). The only entrance I found to him is a hatch door that you need 100 lockpick to get into. I only have like 61.

There's another entrance, IIRC that door you found is where you come out. The main entrance is under water. I noticed a few doors like that, 100 lockpick required, but I ended up coming out the other side via a different route.

Doh! I went around the whole ship, but never thought about going under water. Thanks!

 

[DaveSimmons]

The bobbleheads are in the xbox & PS3 versions.

I missed the bobblehead in Rivet City the first time I was in the science lab but it -is- there on one of the tables downstairs.

FYI, max SPECIAL values are 10 and skills max is 100 so don't use the intense training perk to raise a SPECIAL to 10 if you haven't gotten the bobblehead (+1) yet, and don't put points into a skill above 90 if you are still finding books and bobbles (+10).


Some misc notes I made for myself for when I play again and have forgotten the fine points:
------------------
- it's real-time until you enter VATS mode for targeted shots
- real-time gun damage seems about half as much as VATS shots to me
- skills max out at 100, so don't think an item or chem can raise you above it
- if you want to be good at more things take an INT of 8-9 and the Educated perk at L4
- bobbleheads are your friends, take the one in the vault medical / dad's office and see what happens
- tagging skills just gives you a one-time +15 it does not lower the cost of later points
- books are always +1 unless you take the Comprehension perk (probably worth it, I've found >30 books)
- small guns, explosives (to 40), energy weapons are all good skills. Explosives 40 will let you solve a town's big problem and get you some storage space.
- speech is much less useful than in FO 2, I didn't use it for about the first 1/3 of the game (so you could skip tagging it and just add a couple of levels of points later)

- Tesla armor is better than power armor (PA lowers agility = less action points for VATS )

- The condition of items has a big effect on the damage they do.

- Repair isn't documented in the manual, but it's simple: take 2 of the same or sometimes similar items (10mm Pistol can repair Silenced 10mm Pistol), pick one to repair, pick the other one to use as parts for the repair. Your skill sets the limit on how high you can repair to (max 100%)

- You can pay bottlecaps to repair something up to what the skill level of the merchant allows, but most can't even repair items to 50%. If you have a high skill you might want to first pay caps for a partial repair before using (your own skill + a second copy of the weapon / armor) to repair it more:

- you have a missile launcher that is condtion 20%
- you pay to repair it up to 40%, the highest they can go.
- you use a second missile launcher (condition 10%) to repair +10% to = 50%
(If you did your own repair first, the merchant could still only repair to 40%)

Repair is an essential skill in FO3 especially to improve the condition of rare items. Tag repair and put a lot of points into it.


NPC: Star Cross
Likes railway rifle, scoped 44, shiskabab, flamer (& supposedly plasma rifle); has sledge and unlimited-ammo laser pistol; will wear enclave & brother helmets; armor never degrades, give t41 prototype?
Ignores Hunting Rifle, Laser Rifle, Minigun, Assault rifles

NPC: Fawkes (vault 87)
Has gatling laser unlimited charges

 

[imported_Imp]

Originally posted by: CPA
What do you mean by "(if within 10 points)"? Does that mean you can only use Mentats twice at one time to bump up 10 points and anything above that is ineffective?

Also, these bobbleheads - I have been playing for hours, am doing the quest for the Declaration of Independence at the National Archives. I have yet to see any bobblehead. Where the heck do I find them? Are they in secret locations or have I just not spoken to the right person?

Bobbleheads are primarily in middle of nowhere caves/buildings. You really have to explore everything to find them all without a strategy guide. I explored almost everything and am still missing 3 or 4 bobbleheads.

 

[Smilin]

I just finished the game. I'm about to play through again.

Some tips:
Start on Very Easy, change difficulty after a few hours of gameplay. It's just damn hard when you're low on ammo and don't have enough skills to aim. Later on if you leave it at easy you won't be gaining enough XP

I'm probably going to add a bit more into medical this time around. It really has a big impact on how rad-x and stimpacks work.

Gettign addicted really isn't a big deal. It costs 50 caps to get yourself fixed by the megaton doc. One 50 cap fix cures multiple addictions. The negatives to addiction aren't that high. At the end of the game I found I had horded meds waay to much. Use em.

Lockpicking:
If you get some good motion on the first attempt, proceed. If not, stop picking and restart. You'll never break a bobbypin this way. Each stop/restart changes the sweet spot though so do the stop/restart immediately after a sweet-spot miss. reason is: if you get close to the sweet spot you want another 2 attempts. If you get two misses then hit a near-hit you have to stop/restart and the sweet spot moves (I hope that ramble made sense)

Hacking:
Stop after 3 attempts and restart to get a new set. No excuse to get locked out.

Start-of-game must-do:
Moira will give you that quest to get irradiated up to 200 rads or optionally 600. you MUST do the 600...it gives you a great perk. If you turn in the quest at 200 you never get a shot at this.

Take the time to defuse the megaton bomb. I went almost the whole game without the "house". It sucked.


Hauling shit around:
Some extra points in repair will help you combine that one extra weapon to save weight.
A shot of liquor gives a poor-mans strength boost to get you back to town.
Use companion characters as mules (not seen till later in the game).


Lockpicking:
I put a lot into this. I never found anything in the game that was irreplaceable inside a locked box. It's just ammo, caps and an occassional minor item. Don't feel like you're missing something if you pass up a locked door/box.


Use the perk that gives you an extra point of skill for reading a book! When you first get the option you're like "one point...meh". Keep in mind you only get one point so adding one is effectively a 100% boost per book. Trust me, by end game it adds up. I wish I had used this perk.

Conversely I don't think I'll use the 10% added experience perk. Hell, just kill 11 enemies instead of 10. You'll make up the difference. Flip the difficulty up to very hard just before finishign someone off if you want then turn it back down.





SPOILER ALERT-------------------------------







-the entrance to the forward part of the rivet city aircraft carrier is underwater. Its a passageway that used to run the length of the ship but has been exposed now that the ship is cut in two.
-Vault 101 re-entrance. This side quest will appear on it's own. You'll one day get notified that a vault 101 emergency radio channel is back online.

 

[Mr. Lennon]

I whacked The Overseer in the beginning. Is this going to effect anything later in the game?

 

[DangerAardvark]

Almost all "Very Hard" doors either have a key or a terminal that opens them. There's a ton of doors that require 75 in lockpicking though.

Also, getting repair to 100 ASAP is one of the best ways to make money, plus you can repair your weapons to 100%, which makes them hit harder. You can get the repair bobblehead early on too, in Arefu.

 

[Born2bwire]

Originally posted by: Zeppelin2282
I whacked The Overseer in the beginning. Is this going to effect anything later in the game?

Hahaha, you cheeky little bastard.

 

[Smilin]

Originally posted by: Zeppelin2282
I whacked The Overseer in the beginning. Is this going to effect anything later in the game?

Dunno, you're in uncharted territory there. I don't think it will affect anything though. You're essentially done with Vault 101 when you leave. There is a side quest that involves it but it's unrelated to the main quest.

 

[imported_Imp]

Originally posted by: Smilin

Originally posted by: Zeppelin2282
I whacked The Overseer in the beginning. Is this going to effect anything later in the game?

Dunno, you're in uncharted territory there. I don't think it will affect anything though. You're essentially done with Vault 101 when you leave. There is a side quest that involves it but it's unrelated to the main quest.

SPOILERS

I 'had to' whack him too due to a botched speech attempt and some impulsive choices of dialogue. When i went back to vault 101 for the quest, they mentioned that I kicked his ass. So, my guess is that it'll just change that sidequest a bit.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Vault 101 sidequest spoiler -

... if you didn't whack the overseer before you left the first time, there is a nonviolent way to complete the sidequest if you poke around a bit.

On the other hand, when I did it the violent way there was no karma hit and all Star Cross Paladin said was "good riddance" as the body hit the floor

 

[CPA]

I didn't even come across The Overseer when I was escaping dang it, I would have loved to wack him.

Also, found the entrance to Pinkerton and found him to complete the Android quest. Moving on to other things. I broke into Rivet City Marketplace, but didn't have the guts to kill the security guard that popped up. I want to loot the place soooo bad, but I just can't get myself to kill the guard and kill my karma.

 

[AlucardX]

do i lose the bobblehead perk's if i place them on the bobblehead stand in my house? I can't get them off the thing and back into my inventory.

 

[CPA]

Originally posted by: AlucardX
do i lose the bobblehead perk's if i place them on the bobblehead stand in my house? I can't get them off the thing and back into my inventory.

I did the same thing. My guess is no, you don't lose the perk. Still have only found one of those bobbleheads, though

 

[TBSN]

Originally posted by: CPA

Originally posted by: AlucardX
do i lose the bobblehead perk's if i place them on the bobblehead stand in my house? I can't get them off the thing and back into my inventory.

I did the same thing. My guess is no, you don't lose the perk. Still have only found one of those bobbleheads, though

I'm almost positive it's permanent. Don't worry, I just found my second one and I feel like I've been playing for a while, although I haven't started the main quest yet...