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Fallout New Vegas: Mod Usage Guide

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Category: Fallout New Vegas Guides

Last Updated on Monday, 12 September 2011 21:17

Written by Giskard

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Fallout New Vegas: Mod Usage Guide

Introduction

So many people have trouble with their mod list and the reasons for it are many, but the amount of bad advice that is being spread around certainly does not help. Since we modders are usually expected to clean up the mess other people cause and are often blamed for it our selves. I felt I would address this issue directly by helping you players see how mods work and how to spot trouble with your mod list. This guide there for covers modding topics but I have attempted to make it easy to follow for you players.

Given the nature of the topic, it is not always possible to simplify things for players but I will give it a go. Remember if you do not understand something, just post a question on our forum and I'll try and answer it best I can.

Mod Installation.

When you decide to install a mod, the first question is, where does it go. For Fallout New Vegas, Fallout 3 and Oblivion, the answer is in the data folder found in the games own folder. E.g. Fallout New Vegas/Data or Fallout3/Data or Oblivion/Data, you get the idea. Some modders like my self know you do not know about the Data folder when you first start playing these games so we have our mods install directly in to the game folder it self and we pack the mods so they always install correctly. Leaving you without any need to know about the Data Folder.

But should you need to manually install a mod from scratch, just open up the mods archive, open up the the Data folder and drag everything you find in it, it in to the Game Folders own Data folder, saying yes to any overwrite questions (usually). Everything in the data folder will automatically be copied in to the right place.

It is usually wise to read the mods readme first since some mods come with special instructions and spending 5 minutes reading about them beats spending 2 days trying to work out why your game no longer loads up. This happens a lot and users dislike being told they could have solved their problem days ago if they just read the mods docs first.

Common Problems: Game Fails to Load

Sometimes a game will crash before it reaches the first menu. When an esp file needs an ESM that is not installed, that is the result 99% of the time. You will find disabling the mod that needs the missing ESM file will allow your game to load correctly when the issue is related to a missing ESM file. If you have GECK or the CS for older games installed, loading it up and clicking on the mod will list the ESMs it requires on the right of the screen.

How to safely try new mods.

After installing a new mod never save the game or if you do save, save to a test save and leave your actual save games alone until you have tested the new mod and know it works correctly. By not saving over your actual game saves you play with, you avoid corrupting your saves with errors caused by your mod list. You are basically running the new mod in sandbox mod, so it can not do your original saves any harm until you save over them. Should the mod turn out to cause you problems, you simply remove it and load up your original saves, abandoning your test saves at the same time. Overwriting them with new saves later gets rid of them for good. If the mod turns out to be good, then you just save over the original saves and continue playing having successfully finished your tests on that mod. Again you can save over your test saves later.

Typing Save NameOfSave in the console will let you name your test save so its easy to identify in Fallout New Vegas.

Modding 101 Principles: Player Version.

So you have your self a few mods and your starting to have problems. People are telling you its safe to use tools, patches and merge files and whilst things seem to work, other problems have started appearing. Before long your too scared to install a new mod in case it causes you more problems. You decide you simply do not want to risk it, so you miss out on a good mod because your afraid to use it. This happens because your a victim of bad advice and are likely to be using tools, patches and merge files to "cure" your problems when in reality, your creating more problems for your self by doing that.

There is one basic rule of thumb that replaces all that bad advice and that is never to install to mods you know will conflict with other mods you have installed. But you players often lack the experience need to identify conflicting mods without installing them first so that one rule of thumb which works very well for those who know the basics, is not an option for you. You need a crash course in Modding Principles to stand any chance of being able to employ that rule and get your game stabilized and this is it.

Try and remember these are modding topics and there for complicated in nature, I will try and dump then down to player terms but even I can only do so much.

Your very own Mega Mod

When you look at the mods you have installed you see lots of separate mods, but what your actually looking is a giant megamod you created. Each individual mod you install inserts its code in to your very own and totally unique to you megamod. When that code is bad or conflicts, your megamod breaks and you end up with trouble and lots of crashes. You are the modder responsible for making your own mega mod work, when it fails to work, it is you that is responsible for the crashes and nobody else. Blaming others is what many players do best and thats a great way to annoy other people, usually mods. But the truth is, the mega mod you know as your mod list is your creation. You players made it, you players break it, it is your fault and your responsibility and nobody elses.

So you have to make sure the code added does not conflict and is not bad by testing new mods first to make sure they work correctly in order to keep your mega mod fully functional and your game stable. After all you are the creator of your mega mod, not I and not any other modder, but you.

When your megamod is unstable and simply moving mods up or down the list makes you nervious, then that is the time to rebuild your mega mod from scratch, . It should never make you feel that way, when it does, there is something wrong.

Modding Rules 101

Rule 1: Only one thing can edit an item at a time.

Only one mod can edit an something at a time, if that is an NPC then that means only 1 mod can set that NPCs Stats, spells, packages, equipment or what ever. It is all part of the NPC and the mod to edits that NPC last takes control of it all. Other mods can change spells guns etc, but that cannot add or remove them from an NPC another mod controls unless the mod controlling it is an ESM file.

Merging them would not work either because you cannot have an NPC with a Gunskill of 50 and 90 at the same time. And when making NPCs for specific purposes, the stats modders give them are critical for certain things to work such as quests, so changing an NPC so it runs away sooner, might mean an NPC that should fight to death leaves the area and disappears, preventing the quest from ever completing, especially if the game does not track the AI after it leaves the cell due to an box being ticked on the NPC it selve. Also for Oblivion, the NPC cannot be a Mage and Thief at the same time, only 1 will take effect. So all the talk of merging NPCs in Overhauls is actually bullshit and always has been. One must override the other, that is the rule.

This issue can lead to NPCs not turning up at locations when another mods take them over. This issue comes up a lot with quest mods when overhauls edit all the NPCs, including quest NPCs used by the game. In the past I had to make use of quest NPCs in Origin of the mages guild to make them go to the council chamber to give quests to the player. When other mods edited them too, my quests broke. That fancy feature was not worth the trouble it caused and in hind sight, I should have used the Dialog trick to add lines to those NPCS without editing them.

That trick was used on LT Hayes in my NCR Mod to add my dialog to that quest NPC without editing him my self. So this issue will not arise because of him.

Rule 2: Last mod loaded controls the world.

Think of your mega mod and all the lines of code injected in to it. What ever mod edits an item in your mega mod last, controls that item. Any edits of that item before it gets ignored. So if those edits where important, and they get ignored, you could find your game crashes out when the required code is not found in your mega mod by one of the mods you are using. That mod will appear to be bugged in reality, you have not loaded all of the code it needs to function, so it crashes. Which is a side effect of letting 2 conflicting mods override each other usually and is very common.

Rule 3: New Items.

First new items cannot conflict with anything because they are new to a mod and cannot be used by other mods unless they are in an esm. So usually a new item is as conflict free and as safe as you can get unless they are bugged of course. Any vital item in a mod should be a new item made specifically for that mod in order to avoid problems. This can be as simple as selecting something you want, giving it a new FormID name and then saying yes to the question Create new form, or it can be as complicated as creating an entirely new worldspace. Either way, new = best possible solution to the conflict issue.

Rule 4: Usage Conflicts.

You need to be aware before messing with your mod list (Mega Mod) that a mod does not need to edit something to use it.

This is modding 101, mods can use items without editing that item. If they do not edit an item, no edit based conflict check can will reveal they use it either. Scripts and doors and other things can often use items without even being detected in an Editors usage check and thats the best check there is. Those kind of mods that use something but do not edit it, usually become silent victims of the edits other mods make and frequently are blamed for being buggy or causing crashes. The reality is usually another mod broke them when it edited something they use. This is a very common issue most players fail to understand.

Only a usage based scan will reveal which mods need an item and since mods are just 1 giant list of used items in your Megamod. That means there are going to be millions of lines of reported conflicts to search through and check and that leads to humans making mistakes. So Usage Conflict Tests are pointless.

Rule 5: Edit Conflicts

If you consider your Mega Mod as it truly is, just a list of lots of formIDs with the last edit of a FormId overriding the previous edits, then some issues leap out at you right away. For example, if 5 mods edit a door and mod 3 adds a script to that door so when the player uses it, a quest starts. Using what we know about the last edit overriding all others, we know for certain that mod 5 will override mod 3s changes and that quest will never run. You will never be able to start that quest but your game will functional normally except for that quest.

The nature of overriding mods edits means the reason the modder edited them in the first place is being ignored and the player doing it does not care about what has just been broken. Usually because there is no neon sign advertising the broken mod for them to see. Just a feature that never appears in their game.

So overriding edits in other mods can cause serious problems for your mega mod when code that is supposed to exist is simply never loaded because another edit loads later in the mod list. Moving mods around often helps solve this but in doing so, your going to break one of the other mods instead. So all your doing is choosing which mod you wish to break.

And as I said above, merging does not mean all edits get to work, the 1 edit per item rule prevents the over edits from ever getting loaded. So any override of an existing edit is a bad thing and can cause crashing amongst other mods that edit that item and mods that simply use that item too.

That means Edit Conflicts should be avoided and the best way to avoid them is not to use mods that conflict in this way. It also means the merge ideal is not safe to use because of the dangerous described above in rule 4 and rule 5, thats why merge files tend to cause other problems when used.

Rule 6: Patches

Who makes your patches is the single most important thing you need to know because a patch is a kind of merge file of 2 mods and the skill needed to make the patch depends on the mod being patched. If it is quest mod being patched then you really want a person that knows that quest mod well to do it and not some person that has never made a mod in his life. If it is an eye candy mod then almost anybody can make that patch because it is a simple task.

But as I said above, certain things cannot have 2 values at the same time as I said in Rule 1 and that is especially true for patches.

The biggest danger with patches is the person making them lacks the skill to make the mod he is patching and goes a head and makes the patch anyway without knowing what he broke or even how to fix it. So the best patches to use come from the modder who made the mod being patched. I personally recommend ignoring all patches for third parties because my experience is, those people usually do not know what they are doing nor do they test their work, where as mod makers usually do since it is their mod they are patching and that make a big difference to the quality of the patch and support you get for it.

Practical Application of this Advice.

Get in to the habit of using test saves for a while after installing new mods, that way if the mod doesn't work right or other problems come up, you can remove it and revert to your old saves.

Do not be afraid to try out different mods, the advice here should give you the confidence to test any mod you please and not worry because your save is your "Get out of jail free card", your guarantee that all will be well when the mod is removed. if it needs removing. Of course if you find your self having to juggle mods around to make things work then your doing something wrong. Check the mods readmes, try not to use too many mods that have to be loaded in specific places to work with other mods. That way you avoid the situation where 2 conflicting mods have to be loaded first.

The exception is ESMs which always load first.

But there is rule of ESM creation that says one ESM should not use another ESMs content. But there are also tricks that allow you to do that safely anyway. But ESMS can be a major source of problems if not made correctly. So be aware of it.

When 2 mods do conflict, choose 1 and use that, do not try and use them both at the same time. Remember using the test system described here you can try both mods 1 at a time safely and keep the one you prefer. You can save the other for your next new game and swap them over when your current game ends, thus increasing the replay value of your game. That is what I do btw.

Also it should not be necessary to bash your mod list in anyway if you do this right and make wise decisions as to the mods you use, if you find your self using a bash system to get mods to work, consider your self as having failed Modding 101.

Finally if in doubt, ask the modder, most modders will answer your questions or point you at one of their guides. It is usually best to look for their guides first because I can tell you for a fact being asked the same quests over and over when the answers are in the readme or else where soon gets annoying.

I hope this helps enlighten you players as to how mods work in your game and I home the Mega Mod example makes this pill easier to follow because it is a great way of explaining what a mod list is.

Good Luck.

Fallout New Vegas: How to use Custom Textures.

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Category: Fallout New Vegas Guides

Last Updated on Monday, 12 September 2011 21:15

Written by Giskard

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Fallout New Vegas: How to use Custom Textures.

Written for Fallout NV Version 1.1.1

Introduction

Getting custom textures to work in Fallout New Vegas is getting increasingly difficult, in fact its almost as if the game developers do not want you to use custom textures in their game. So far 2 fixes for the custom textures not loading issue have been posted else where on the net and 2 patches have broken them. This is the third fix, lets see how long this lasts.

Download the TEG File first.

First go and download the TEG BSA file from the Guild, it is a fake BSA file, totally empty but we need it to trick the game in to letting us use custom textures. If you have Fallout 3 and your data folder contains a ArchiveInvalidationInvalidated!.bsa file, just copy Fallout New Vegas Data folder and rename it to TEG!.bsa. You can actually name it anything but if you use another name, you must replace TEG!.bsa with your own name when ever you see it below.

The steam path to the data folder is this

Steam\SteamApps\common\fallout new vegas\Data

For everybody else, just look in fallout new Vegas\Data.

Choosing the right Ini File to edit.

Depending on how yo launch your game, the ini file you have to edit may change. Steam over writes the other inis with its own, so if your a steam user you have to edit the steams Fallout New Vegas INI, if your not a steam user that does not happen so you can edit the normal INI. So read the sections below and choose the right ini for you. Then we will proceed.

If you launch the game from Stream

If you are a steam user and always launch your game from Steam, you must go in to the Fallout New Vegas folder and find Fallout_default.ini, each time you launch Fallout NV from steam, that file is used to replace your other Fallout ini's so if you edited those, they will be overwritten and never used.

If you Launch the game your self from the Icon (or else where)

If you launch the game the old fashion way or any way other than steam then you have to "Your User Name\Documents\My Games\FalloutNV and edit the FalloutPrefs.ini file instead.

Making the ini edits

Near the bottom of your chosen ini file is a section called [Archive], in that section you will see these lines.

[Archive]
SInvalidationFile=ArchiveInvalidation.txt
iRetainFilenameOffsetTable=1
iRetainFilenameStringTable=1
iRetainDirectoryStringTable=1
bCheckRuntimeCollisions=0
bInvalidateOlderFiles=0
bUseArchives=1
SArchiveList=Fallout - Textures.bsa, Fallout - Textures2.bsa, Fallout - Meshes.bsa, Fallout - Voices1.bsa, Fallout - Sound.bsa, Fallout - Misc.bsa

But we are going to change them to look like this

[Archive]
SInvalidationFile=ArchiveInvalidation.txt
iRetainFilenameOffsetTable=1
iRetainFilenameStringTable=1
iRetainDirectoryStringTable=1
bCheckRuntimeCollisions=0
bInvalidateOlderFiles=1
bUseArchives=1
SArchiveList= Fallout - Voices1.bsa, TEG!.bsa, Fallout - Textures.bsa, Fallout - Textures2.bsa, Fallout - Meshes.bsa, Fallout - Sound.bsa, Fallout - Misc.bsa

So scroll down to the line "bInvalidateOlderFiles" and if it says 0, change it to a 1 so it looks like this.

bInvalidateOlderFiles=0

Now go to the line SArchiveList and change it from this....

SArchiveList=Fallout - Textures.bsa, Fallout - Textures2.bsa, Fallout - Meshes.bsa, Fallout - Voices1.bsa, Fallout - Sound.bsa, Fallout - Misc.bsa

to this

SArchiveList= Fallout - Voices1.bsa, TEG!.bsa, Fallout - Textures.bsa, Fallout - Textures2.bsa, Fallout - Meshes.bsa, Fallout - Sound.bsa, Fallout - Misc.bsa

What did we did just do ?

We cannot put our TEG!.bsa first because it crashes the game at launch, but we cannot put it after Textures.bsa either or it will not let custom textures load at all. We need to move one of the other bsas to the from of the list and put it first, then put our TEG!.bsa after it. I have chosen Voices1.bsa since modders rarely update its files and if we find out later the first BSA cannot be override this way, then it is best to make it one people hardly bother with.

Now with those changes, any mod that edits default textures in the game or needs custom textures will work fine.

Fallout New Vegas: New Players Guide

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Category: Fallout New Vegas Guides

Last Updated on Monday, 12 September 2011 21:15

Written by Giskard

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Fallout New Vegas: New Players Guide

Introduction

Fallout New Vegas is one of the better RPGs available today and has some pretty deep game play for you to enjoy. But those coming to this game from Fallout 3 as I did are likely to pick up a weapon and do the Rambo routine and die pretty quickly, then complain the game is not ballanced and its crap when in fact they simply misunderstood the nature of the game. I know this because I fell for that my self. Once I realised this is an RPG not a shooter, everything made sense and I enjoyed the game immensely.

Character Creation

You will want to add a point to Strength right away when setting up your character since gun and melee skills use it and this is a kill or be killed world your entering, but just a point for now, this is an RPG not a shooter and there are other things to consider. After that Perception and Charisma are the two most important Stats to have early on because they involve spotting enemies before they eat you and increase your ability to get juicy bits of information out of NPCs, something that you will find very very very handy through out the game.

Fallout New Vegas especially makes heavy use of all stats and skills but these get used automatically or more often than others, so I have singled them out for you. Also RPG games traditionally involve a lot of NPC dialog, so Charisma is especially important.

Beyond those stats and skills, Intelligence gives you more skill points to spend on skills when you level up. So pilling a few points on Intelligence early on is an especially good idea. If you play a typical game, you will not be able to max out your stats before the game ends, and the game will put pressure on you to upgrade some stats instead of others so you can do certain quests. So the more points you get coming in from the start, the better it is for you.

When choosing the difficulty, I recommend VERY EASY or EASY as your starting difficulty, feel free to ignore me and chose Normal so you can brag how good you are, but when your pumping lead in to a baddie and nothing is happening, keep in mind I did warn you. Learn the game first then increase the difficulty because there is a lot to learn here.

Guns and Melee

The game uses a damage threshold system, where your weapon has to beat the targets DT to damage it, for example a weapon with a damage of 5 will cause 1 point of damage to a target with a DT of 4. The DT is removed from the damage, what ever is left is the damage you cause. There are some other factors involved too, but that is basically it. If you shoot at a target and see a red shield appear at the bottom of the screen in the middle, that means that weapon is not causing any damage. But try and remember hit locations have different armour, a head shoot on a Power Armoured trooper will not be any easier but a head shot on a scout without a helmet will be against an unarmoured target location so the DT will be lower.

Typically 9mm weapons are useless against most things and that is what you start with, so you will see this a lot early on. I recommend you stick to shooting weak targets until you can get a better weapon.

Melee weapons appear to be treated differently, they nearly always cause damage and lots of it.

The 2 Key changes the ammo of a weapon if you have any other types, typically the ammo is broken down in to these groups.

Normal = General all round ammo
Hollow Point = Good against unarmoured targets, e.g. head shots
Armour Piecing = Good against Armour but causes less damage.

Through out most of the game, a weapon that does 30+ damage tends to be good to keep around, weapons that do less than that waste a lot of ammo but are far more common than the good stuff you actually need. So like it not, you will be stuck with those bad weapons most of the time. Also do not forget if you have more than 1 weapon or armour of the same type, you can repair 1 by selecting it and pressing R, this lets you combine them in to a more healthy weapon or armour that does more damage and is less likely to break. It also increases the value of the item and reduces the weight your carrying too.

Shooting

There are 2 modes to "aim" in Fallout New Vegas and I honestly do not see much point in 1 of them. The two mods are VATs which is kind of a slow mod cam and the new Iron Sights were you look down the barrel of the gun and aim in the traditional way.VATS is from Fallout 3 and really is obsolete in Fallout New Vegas. The Iron Sights system is much better and far more realistic. To use it simply zoom in using the weapon of your choice, if you also kneel down, the accuracy is improved dramatically. If you run around, the accuracy drops off dramatically.

This game is far more realistic when it comes to combat, so take advantage of it because it pays to do so.

The other thing to watch for is weapon mods, you can have scopes and other cool stuff added to your favorite weapons, so seek out these cool additions to the game but remember one thing, the good weapons are rare, harder to find parts of and repair, the crap ones are common, easy to fix and easy to find parts for. So do not count on seeing lots of Plasma Rifles at a high level and none at low levels. You tend to only see these occasionally but they can appear at any level. Also certain creatures such as the LakeMirks shoot their sonic blast at you as they did in Fallout 3, only now they can actually kill you quickly with it, so best keep moving when you see those babies shooting at you.

Accuracy is effected by other skills such as perception and agility (depending on the type of gun, eg energy weapon or normal gun) which when combined with your gun skill/energy weapon skill and your Luck stat helps you hit more often and cause criticals more often.

In hardcore mode if you are in need of food, drink or medical assistance your accuracy will suffer. Also if you have a crippled limb, your accuracy will suffer.

The Survival Skill

I know this sounds boring bit it helps a lot to have a good survival skill and to do the tutorial at the start to learn how to make use of it. This skill lets you cook items to make new items and those new items can help keep you alive. Unfortunately, the cost of the supplies is far more than the value of the finished item right now, so it is not exactly balance but still worth while learning. For example, certain cattle meat when cooked adds to your carrying capacity for a short time as well as increasing your health over time too. The higher your survival skill the better the effects.

Also Hardcore mode makes use of the Survival skill far more than the normal game, more on this shortly.

Certain creatures will poison you during combat and there for keeping a supply of anti venom on you helps, if you can cook it up as needed even better. Also certain quests give you recipes as a reward, allowing you to cook new things if your skill is high enough.

I would recommend getting your Survival Skill up to 50 if you want to play a Survival game and get used to hunting various types of cattle and turning their meat in to stakes because these not only feed you but they heal you too. And as I recall, you need a Survival skill of 45 for some of those meats.

Food Recipes are part of the survival features and are used at the camp fires you see in the game. Some NPCs give you new recipes if you do something for them, for example theres a couple of wasteland omelets known to me, one requires a Deathclaw egg. Once you get the recipe, you can use it at any campfire.

Hardcore Mode

Despite the name, this simple adds a realism feature to the game, forcing you to eat and drink and see a doctor and I recommend you turn this on because it adds to the game a lot. Unlike other options, the game asks you if you want to turn this on when your generating your character so do not worry if it is greyed out at first. So keep a supply of Food and water on you if you enable this mode. Make note of the watering holes and use them to quench your first. I know in Fallout 3 dirty water had no real purpose but in this game, even radioactive water is useful. So do not turn it down. For good, the best you can get is meat from cattle and a good head shot with a Cowboy Repeater will take down most cattle with a single shot. Failing that any rifle should do it if you aim for head.

Wilderness survival tips

First job, increase the object fade distance to max from the Graphics part of the Options menu, you really need to see what creatures are around you and the default setting leaves you blind them them but them easily able to see you, so make that change early.

Creatures in Fallout New Vegas tend to all be dangerous and tend to travel in packs, so you are not taking on 1 at a time, you will be taking on several at a time. Some can kill you quicker than a Death Claw and the thing I am thinking of when I say that is basically just a large wasp. Others will nibble you to death, but the out come is the same, you die. So the old Fallout 3, charge in guns blazing is not such a good idea. Guns for range combat in this game, they should be swapped for Melee weapons the moment close combat starts.

Even with Melee weapons, you have to take in to account the weapon you are using. For example a Chainsaw causes constant damage so charging in with that and keeping it aimed at the baddies is a good idea. But a sledgehammer only causes damage when you swing it, so the rest of the time you are taking damage, not giving it out, so the attacks need to be timed better. Chainsaws are uber weapons in this game, so if you find one, keep it and remember, the reason some NPCs can knock it away is because their Melee skill is higher than yours.

With weapons, especially rifles, it is usually best to avoid contact with creatures, but if you want to try some sniping, do so at a good distance. If they cannot see you, they cannot charge at you and you can keep shooting at them until you kill them. Using the Iron Sights, you can often take a creature out with a head shot easily from extreme range. If you get bonuses to criticals such as happens when you wear Boones Sniper Cap (he is an NPC companion), then this is even easier. In Vats mode the hit chance tends to be very very low compared to Iron Sights so I do not usually use it except when I am in the thick of combat and need to slow things down. Usually against those wasps I mentioned earlier.

Also if playing Hardcore mode, which I recommend btw, always keep food and drink on you. Each item has a stat to say what it deals with and Food is listed, as is health, so check you have the right items. Food that also regenerates health is best. Remember in Hardcore mod, nothing is instant, it takes time for the food to have an effect or the health to be restored, so do not eat dozens of items right right, eat 1, then wait a little before eating another. You will be told when an items effect has ended. Though in some cases such as cattle, it effects several different things and whilst the health regen may end quickly, the boost to your carrying capacity lasts longer, so in those cases, you should give it a few seconds then eat again if need.

You will notice some meat only provides 1 HP per second for 5 seconds, where as others provide 3 HP for 15 seconds. This is partly down to the meat, party down to your survival skill and whether the meat is cooked or not.

Charming NPCs.

Getting an NPC to open up to you is very important in this game and not just a thing to get you a bonus as it was in Fallout 3. You will need to have a high Charisma and a good Speech skill. The Speech skill, whilst important, is not vital enough to warrant you adding lots of points to it early on. Simply surviving is more important when the game starts. But as soon as your able to, start adding points to the Speech skill and if you can, add additional points to Charisma when the perks appear. There is 1 perk in particular that will let you do that.

Leveling Up.

Typically you want all your skills to be at least 25 as quickly as possible since 25 is the lowest rating for most skills before they can be useful. Usually 25, 50, 75 are the key skill numbers to aim for but in hardcore mode, ill health, lack of good and water etc all reduce your skills for a time. Some skills need to be higher than 25, earlier. So assign most of the skill points to the skills you need right away, and put the left overs on others that are a little low. This way the less important skills get a boost too, so when you need them, you are not totally out of luck. Also the skill levels determine what perks get unlocked, so this also unlocks more perks.

As mentioned earlier, the Intelligence stat determines how many points you get to spend on your skills when you level up, as does certain perks you can take, if they have been unlocked.

Perks tend be a good way to boost your stats and skill points, so take that in to consideration when choosing your new perks, do not ignore the chance to add a point to a stat early on.

Books and Skills

Unlike previous Fallout games, books in Fallout New Vegas provide mostly a temporary boost to your skills, usually it is by 10 points, which is often enough to let you do a quest that needs a slightly higher skill than you have. So keep these books on you and use them as needed. Other books, much rarer books add 3 points to a skill permanently. But the temporary ones are far more common and really need to be kept on your person to be useful.

Gambling in the Casinos.

Most players do not touch their luck stat and leave it at 5 which is the default value. But a luck of 5 is just enough to ensure you lose most bets in a casino and miss out on most critical hits. Where as a luck of 7 is just enough to ensure you win most card games in a casino. The slot machines may need a luck of 8 to win most of the time but you can still do well with a Luck of 7 if you are smart.

Black Jack is a game you can win most of the time with a Luck stat of 7 if you "Stay" when your had reaches 17 or higher. In Black Jack, anything over 17 makes it risky to take another card where as anything lower than 17 makes it likely the house will beat your hand. So 17 is the magic number, you stay once you hit 17 or over. The advantage of 17 is you force the house to risk it rather than risking it your self. Whilst you may lose with a hand of 17 some of the time, you will also win some of the time. But the winning hands are usually 18 or over. 17 just about breaks even.

Reputations and how they work.

The Reputation system is separate from the faction system in Fallout New Vegas and has 3 distinct areas of interest.

Enemy
Neutral
Friend

You can have a reputation as an Enemy, Friend and Neutral all at the same time. For example a good friend with a bad enemy reputation will inspire mixed feelings in others. Where as a good friend with no reputation as an enemy will be seen as a true friend. Neutral tends to early on and its usefulness ends when you take sides in the game.

Quests, the Plot, Factions and Consciences

(Contains some spoilers, skip this part if you wish to avoid them)

Without revealing too many spoilers here but finding it unavoidable, you will find every quest can be done many different ways, the more complicated the way, the more experience points you get. Many quests are linked to events else where, so if you see the name of a character mentioned in the quest briefing or heard whilst doing the quest. Back off for a bit and see if you can find out more about him because the chances are extremely good that there is another location somewhere with another quest involving that character that is effected by your decisions.

One good example of this is the Super Mutant Marcus, another is Vault 34, even the main plot it self presents you with a situation where your choices in one quest, effect side quests later on.

As a result, you will find it desirable to correct any bad reputation temporarily with a faction by wearing their uniform, in that way, you can often at least speak to them even if they would normally have shot you on sight without it.

The thing to know about the plot is each of the 3 major factions is out to destroy the others, e.g. the NCR, The Legion and Mr House. With some variation on that theme, some will accept new allies, some will not. If you want a balance game and wish to maintain factions for later and not destroy them, go for the "No Gods No Masters" ending by talking to Benny's Yes Man Robot and kill off Mr House. That is the only way YOU get to choose who dies. But before you do, understand the plots for the other 3 are much much better than the Yes Man plot which is still cool and amusing, so it is worth playing all 3. Just remember save the game after you enter the Las Vegas Strip because that is the point when you are given a choice of paths to take. Everything done up until that point apparently does not matter.

I say apparently because I found all sins are not quite so forgiven as the game claims and I needed to use the uniform trick to do some of the quests after that.

Every faction as a series of quests assigned to it that raise your profile with them, some of those quests involve attacking other factions, but most of the time they are unique to that faction and will allow you to increase your reputation with a faction and even return to friendly terms with them. So it is perfectly possible, even if you have to use the uniform trick to do it, to do the quests of your enemies and improve your status with them. That means you can do most of the quests in the game before you are forced to choose your path as mentioned above. Also another tip in respects to reputations, showing you understand a faction and sympathize also can raise you reputation with them by doing little more than talking to them.

Those wanting to enjoy as much of the game as possible should simply avoid the Las Vegas Strip for as long as possible, but even if you have the 2000 caps or pass needed to enter the strip, you can still simply not do what the plot asks you to do and enjoy the Las Vegas Strips other pleasures before picking up where you left off later.

Endings and Consciences

When you enter the New Vegas Strip for the first time, the main quest starts with an invitation to meet with the 3 main plot characters, eg Caesar, Mr House and the NCR Ambassador. Yes Man is Bennies robot and he offers you an alternative to wiping out everybody else that all 3 other factions insist upon.

If you choose the NCR, the Legion will automatically start to hate you as you do the NCR missions, if you choose the Legion, the NCR will start to hate you as you do the Legion missions. And that usually starts even before you enter New Vegas. So where the Legion and NCR are concerned, there is no friends to both sides game here. If you choose the NCR, you choose to be enemies of the Legion and visa versa.

But Mr House and Yes Man plots are different, they do not make an enemy of the NCR too early on and Mr House gives you options to avoid combat with the Legion for as long as possible too. Though eventually you will have to fight them. Mr House does wipe out many other factions though such as the brotherhood of steel so if you choose him, many minor factions will be destroyed. These factions are destroyed by the other big players too.

Only Yes Man gives you any options to save them.

Now if you wish to play the NCR and choose the Yes Man ending to maintain the status quo the only real thing you must understand is main plot is separate from the NCR missions you see around the Mojave, when see the "do not tred on the bear" quest, it is refering to the Ambassador not the NCR generally.

The Ambassador will not work with you any more, in disappears in fact since his only job is giving you orders to wipe out factions or get them to join you. Anything you did in the Mojave for the NCR prior to helping Yes Man remains as it was.

To stay friends with the NCR whilst helping Yes Man, you must raise your rep with the NCR before hand, and then avoid shooting NCR troopers once you start working for Yes Man. That way you can be in the NCR and do the "No Gods No Masters" ending.

Final words

Take your time with quests for factions and explore a little because there are often unmentioned features to find, even some dialog to hear that makes the game a lot more enjoyable. Also most of the game has none respawning containers so you can stash your gear almost anywhere. That means any shack is a potential new home for you. But remember, because the containers do not respawn their items, they will run out eventually. So try not to waste anything you know you will need.

As a desert wanderer, always try and have this list of items on you until you get used to the game and feel more comfortable playing it.

2 Rifles that use different ammo (I recommend 1 be a Cowboy Repeater).
1 Melee weapon
3 Bottles of water (hardcore mode)
3 Food (hardcore mode)
Lots of Simpacks
2 Radx
2 Radaway

Unlike Fallout 3, this game makes full use of everything, so there are no useless items to be found or earned when you level up.

Also you will have choices to make, sometimes you will find you are not fond of many but must choose 1, when that happens remember you can play the game through again as a different character and choose differently next time.

That is after all the whole point of an RPG :)

Fallout New Vegas: How to Play Caravan

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Category: Fallout New Vegas Guides

Last Updated on Monday, 12 September 2011 21:13

Written by Giskard

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Fallout New Vegas: How to Play Caravan

Introduction

Caravan is a game of cards playable in Fallout New Vegas, only the instructions for the game are not clearly given so most people playing it for the first time end up thinking the game is bugged out and not working when actually, they simply lack the information needed to place and move cards most of the time. So I wrote this guide to help other players.

The Game

First you need about 30 cards, either get a pack by helping Ringo, or buy them when you see them for sale or do both, those lose cards can also be used to cheat in the casinos too.

As a general rule, the Jack, Queen, King and Joker cards are your weapons of mass destruction and should be held back for when they are needed. Cards Ace to 10 are your meat and two veg, the cards that do most of the work involved in winning your games.

When the game starts you get to place your bets and randomize your cards if you wish. After choosing your cards, its best to place your lowest or highest cards first since each caravan either counts up or down from those cards. Only by using a special card later can you change the direction of the count. So starting with an Ace or a 10 is ideal.

First you need to select 3 cards for each Caravan (3 Stack of cards, excluding the one you choose your cards from). All 3 starting cards have to be placed to start your 3 Caravans off, other cards can be placed on them after that. To place your cards, use the Up and down and left and right Cursor keys (Arrow keys) to position your cards and W to place them.

Use the R key to cancel your current card if you dislike your selection.

The aim of the game is to make all 3 caravans worth between 21 and 26 points, the numbers on the cards when added up give you their total.

Now you can place any card you like on each pack providing it his of higher value than the original card and not the same value as card already placed in that caravan. Each Caravan or stack of cards, is separate so you have 3 piles to get to between 21 and 26 in order to win.

The Jack, Queen, King and Joker cards are special and described in the Holotape in game so I will not repeat it here except to give you some of the basics.

You can use the colour cards on your own caravans or your opponents caravans to take them over the limit in order to get them to remove their caravan entirely. For example a King doubles the value of the card you placed it on, so if your opponent has a 10 of spades and his pack is worth 26 points, placing a king on the 10 of spaces makes it worth 20 points so the caravan is suddenly work 36 points instead of 26 and goes bust.

A joker removed all cards above it, which can help reduce the value of a winning hand so your own caravan can win. Queens I believe reverse the direction of the count so you can count back down against instead of endlessly upwards but you will have to check that.

Hope this explains Caravan to everybody well enough to let you play the game.

Good Luck