Fallout: New Vegas - Let's Play!

[Kipi]

Today I felt the strange urge to replay Fallout: New Vegas again. After all, it has been some time since I completed the game last time and I also realized that I never really played all the DLCs back then. In fact, the only DLC I have finished is Old World Blues. I also thought that, since I'm going to replay this wonderful game anyway, I could make a Let's Play from it as well.

The version of the game I'm using in this Let's Play is Fallout: New Vegas Ultimate Edition, with latest patch (1.4.0.525) installed. This means I have access to all four DLCs as well as the Gun Runners' Arsenal and pre-order add-on Courier's Stash. There will be no mods in use, which means no unofficial patches as well.

The Format and Style

The format I'm using to write the story is diary, written by the Courier himself. For the sake of organization I'm going to divide the story to chapters, the length of each chapter being variable. The rate of updating the story in this thread is based on the chapters, each chapter being posted as a whole, no chapter is going to be posted before it has been completed.

While I'm going to use diary format for the story, there will be metagaming as well. This section will be separated from the diary section by using indenting and red text. In these sections I'm usually explaining why I did something, especially if it has relations to later parts of the game. For clarification, here is a short example of this system:

28/10/2281, 20:08

This text is what Courier is writing on the diary. Everything here is IC (In Character).

[INDENT=1]This is example of metagaming. This section contains technical details as well explanations of decisions OOC (Out of Character).[/INDENT]

[INDENT=1] [/INDENT]
While I try to stay as accurate to the game as possible, there are situations where I'm going to refer dialogues and actions of NPCs which don't actually exists in the game itself. In such cases I will always use metagaming to tell which things were made by me and didn't actually happen inside the game. This should help those who aren't that familiar with the game to not becoming confused.

I'm also upload pictures to enhance the story. Since it's would require a lot of work, if being possible at all, I'm not going to take a screenshots from everything. I'll try to use as many as I can without slowing down the progress too much. Also, all the pictures will be uploaded to my Photobucket account and linked here.

Finally, this thread WILL contain spoilers. After all, it's impossible to tell the story without revealing the plot of the game. I'm going to use the metagaming sections to spoilers unless it's directly related to events my character is going through at the time. This warning is especially important to those who haven't played the game yet, either the vanilla or any DLC. If you don't want to be spoiled, which will happen if you read the story, then I suggest to play the game first and then come back.

The Character

Few words about the character. While I'm going to explain things in more details during the story, there are certain things that needs to be explained here. First of all, my character is based on one specific guide, which can be located [url='http://www.haeravon.com/faqs/Fallout%20New%20Vegas%20Ultimate%20Edition%20Character%20Creation%20FAQ%20v1.01.txt']here[/url]. I did some tweaks to suggestions found in that guide, though the main idea is still the same; to make a character who is able to get more or less every skill to maximum and able to do everything I can think of. Yes, this means I'm practically power gaming.

To compensate the fact that I'm going to power game I'm also going to use the Hardcore mode, which means I have to worry about food, water and sleeping as well. Besides, the Hardcore mode also makes healing much more difficult, it gives certain weightless things a weight and, finally, my companions can die permanently. I have actually never completed the game in this mode, so it's going to be a fresh experience to me as well.

Without revealing my plans too much right now, I could say that my character can be considered as "good" in terms of alignment and behavior. While the decisions will be based on the needs of my character in most parts, I'm going to stick with helpful and good actions as long as it's justified and benefits me in one way or another..

Final Words

This Let's Play will be a long one and may take some time before it's finished. While I have certain major decisions already made in advantage, I'm more than happy to hear suggestions and ideas both for the story and technical sides. Technical styles includes, but is not limited to, style of writing and character development. In fact, any kind of comment or question is appreciated.

Also, since I don't speak English as my native language, there may and will be spelling issues and grammar mistakes. I try to fix those as soon as I find them. My apologizes in advance.

Hopefully I can make this story interesting and entertaining enough!

[Kipi]

This post is reserved for links of each chapter and will be updated as the story progress.

[Kipi]

Chapter 1 - Who Am I?

19/10/2281, 8:33 a.m.

Who am I? I can't remember my name! In fact, I can't remember anything!

The doctor suggested that I should write things down in case I loose my memory again. Perhaps it's a good advice and worth of trying. But I think I should start from the beginning. Well, "beginning" may not be the best term to use here since I can't remember anything prior waking up. Everything I know was told by the doctor and I don't even know if I can trust him?

Okay, start from the beginning. I woke up today from a completely unfamiliar place and this man was sitting there, right next to me. The worst part is that I was, and still am, unable to remember anything. Not even my own name! The realization struck me like a lightning and I tried to stand up and flee in panic but attempt failed miserably as I fainted before I was even able to sit up.

When I woke up again the man was still there, this time telling me to slow down and take it easy. I decided to heed his words and slowly I was able to get myself to sit. At this point the man finally introduced himself as Mitchell, a doctor of small community known as Goodsprings. He also said that he had some good news and some bad news to me. The good news was that I'm still alive, despite the odds. The bad news was that he had to surgically remove a bullet from my head. The bullet alone should have had lethal, which made it basically a miracle that I was still alive. Then he asked me if I remembered anything of what had happened to me, which I didn't. The doctor said that the damage to my brain probably caused the complete loss of memory and it may be permanent. After this he decided to tell me what he knew of me and what had happened to me.

Apparently a group of people had attacked me in nearby graveyard. While the actual course of events was unknown to him, at some point I was shot in the and buried. Fortunately to me there was this robot nearby, which dug me up immediately after the attackers had left and brought me to this doctor. Using all his skills he was able to remove the bullet and stabilize my condition, resulting me to survive. He didn't know who the attackers were nor why I was attacked, though he did find a note from my possessions about couriers and platinum chip.

After this small discussion I felt a bit stronger so the doctor wanted to do a proper evaluation of my condition, though first he wanted me to tell him my name. Since I had no clue what my real name was I decided to be called as Courier, since I apparently had been working as one at some point. The doctor was satisfied to this and so we began the evaluation process.

First he wanted to test out my physical attributes. The process was quite complex and I never really understood everything but finally the doctor imported all the results to a machine of some sort. This machine did some calculations and finally gave simple numerical results, basically giving a grade between 1 and 10 to each of my physical attributes.



The results indicated that I had average strength and perception. The doctor suspected that my senses had been damaged somewhat by the bullet, though he was unable to say how much. My endurance, which basically means how healthy I am, is above average, which partially may have explained how I was able to survive from the bullet and surgery. My intelligence was also above average, which surprised the doctor. After all, he had been poking my brains while removing the bullet. Apparently the biggest issue I have is the ability to learn new things. This means I'm not learning new things as quickly as I should. My agility is also quite good. The machine also indicated that I'm very lucky, a result which didn't surprise the doctor at all. After all, I survived from a bullet and brain surgery. The only major damage, besides the loss of memory, was caused to my appearance. When I asked him what he meant he just gave me a mirror to see it myself. What I saw from the mirror almost caused me to panic again; my head and face was full of scars, there wound caused by the bullet was so visible that it can be seen miles away and the doctor had to take skin from my neck to patch me up!

It took few moments from the doctor to calm me down. He explained that, while I looked terrible, Everything else seems to fine and I should be able to live proper life still. The only thing I should be really concerned about was the fact that my bones are rather fragile, especially the bones in my limbs, which means I have higher chance of suffering from breaks. But, as long as I'm aware of that, I should be okay.

After I had calmed down from the shock caused by my appearance it was time to test out my mentality. The doctor was unable to find out anything strange, though he had nothing to compare the results. Well, at least I can be considered as sane man. The test also revealed that, even though I don't remember anything, my body still remembers few things. The doctor explained that this is called as "muscle memory", or something like that. It means that some things, like how to use guns or pick locks, were still natural part of me even though I was unable to remember ever doing those things.

When the evaluation was over the doctor suggested that take a few moment to get comfortable to my condition and everything he had told me. When I would be ready leave I should meet him at the front door so that he could give me few advises. He also told me that I could take everything I need from his house, even use the small alchemy device to make some healing devices, known as stimpaks. I thanked him for his generosity, to which he replied that perhaps I could be able to help me in future. I found some food, healing supplies and some things my instinct told me to be usable later, though I have no clue to what those could be used. I also found a broken gun. When I asked the doctor about the gun he told me that I could have it if I was able to repair it. Both of us were surprised when I fixed it in few minutes. Muscle memory, perhaps?

When I was ready to leave I had one last discussion with the doctor. He advised me to talk to a woman called Sunny Smiles, who could be able to show me few tricks to help my survival. He also suggested that I should head to Primm, a small town close by. The reason why I should go one of the headquarters of courier service is there and perhaps I could get more information about me from there. Not a bad advice.



Finally, the doctor gave me some more supplies. He gave me some weapons, ammunition and even armors. He also gave me a device known as Pip-Boy. This device contains all kind of interesting tools, like flashlight, map, radio, list of items I'm carrying, this diary I'm now writing, information of my condition and so on. I'm quite surprised the doctor insisted that I should take this device, though I'm grateful.



So, here I am, standing outside the house of doctor Mitchell. I still have no idea who I am or why I'm here, but at least I'm confident that I can survive out there. But enough of this, I must go and find this Sunny Smiles now. Perhaps she can tell me something new about myself?


[INDENT=1]I mad this chapter intentionally this short. It reveals the starting point of the story and the character creation.[/INDENT]
[INDENT=1] [/INDENT]
[INDENT=1]The attribute points has already been revealed by the image, but what about skills and traits? Well, the entry already hints that my character, known as Courier, has fragile bones and is slow learner. In terms of traits this means Small Frame, which gives bonus agility point (effectively making it 8 instead of 7 as shown in the image) with the side effect of limbs being damaged more easily. Second trait is Skilled, which gives a small bonus to every skill but causes 10% penalty experience gained. As for skills, I tagged Survival, Speech and Lockpicking.[/INDENT]
[INDENT=1] [/INDENT]
[INDENT=1]In this update certain details were made up by me. First of all, there was no fainting at the very beginning of the game. Secondly, the information about being courier is actually revealed when leaving the house, not at the very beginning. I decided to change this to justify the name I chosen for my character. The attribute creation was also completely made up by me, in reality I just changed the scores in machine and there was no dialogue related to it. Also, "mental test" section was simplified since more or less everything fit better to physical evaluation.[/INDENT]
[INDENT=1] [/INDENT]
[INDENT=1]The doctor never says anything about exploring the house or taking stuff. I just wanted to explain in character why I took all those things from the Doc's house. Also, the stuff added by Courier's Stash were given by the doctor in the story but in reality those items just appear in the inventory.[/INDENT]

[Kipi]

Since my desktop decided to stop working I'm forced to use my laptop from now on. Unfortunately the version installed in my laptop is heavily modded, which forced me to make a decision: Should I uninstall all the mods and perhaps even install the whole game again or should I just forget the "vanilla" part of this play through? I decided to keep the mods since it was somewhat taunting task to get all those working properly, so now on this Let's Play is not vanilla game anymore.

The list of mods I have installed is following:

• New Vegas Script Extender
• The Mod Configuration Menu
• Project Nevada (All cores installed)
• Project Nevada - Extra Options (Full install)
• Project Nevada - Extra Options - MCM Fix
• Lucky 38 Companion Container Fix
• JIP Companions Command and Control
• Caravan Overhaul Compilation
• Weapons Mods Expanded Ultimate Edition
• Weapons Mods Expanded Ultimate Edition - Patch Collection
• Couriers Stash Pre-order Pack Selector
• Magazine Exchange
• Goodsprings Reborn
• Psiclones
• Save Cass
• The Rockwell Pursuit (With update)
• Vault-HQ1
• Primary Needs HUD
• Unified HUD Project
• Stutter Removal

Since the Project Nevada adds the ability to custom certain settings, here is the list of what I have changed compared to default settings of vanilla game:

• Core
  • Features
    • Dynamic Crosshair
    • Enhanced Vision
    • Sprint
    • Slower Backpedaling
    • Grenade Hotkey
    • Enhanced Stealth Field
    • Enhanced Zoom
    • Health Visuals
    • Visor Overlays
    • Immersive Primary Needs
  • Settings
    • Visor Borders
    • Recoil Spread
• Rebalance
  • Character
    • Perk Every Level (in vanilla, perk every 2 levels)
    • Action Points Agility Multiplier = 6 (in vanilla it's 3)
    • Carry Weight Strength Multiplier = 25 (in vanilla it's 10)
    • Throwing Range Strength Based = Yes (in vanilla it's "No")
  • Combat & Damage
    • Minimum Damage after DT = 25% (in vanilla it's 20%)
    • Head DT requires Helmet = Yes (in vanilla it's "No")
    • Damage Transfer to Limbs = 75% (in vanilla it's 50%)
    • Explosions - Knockout = Yes (in vanilla it's "No")
    • Explosions - Ringing Sound Effect = Yes (in vanilla it's "No")
  • Stealth & Movement:
    • Speed with crippled leg = 70% (in vanilla it's 85%)
    • Speed with both legs crippled = 40% (in vanilla it's 75%)
  • Miscellaneous
    • Healing from Food = No (in vanilla it's "Yes")
    • Hunger Points Per Day = 150 (in vanilla it's 115)
    • Thirst Points Per Day = 350 (in vanilla it's 350)
    • Sleep Points Per Day = 216 (in vanilla it's 58)
    • Force Multiplier = 0.50 (in vanilla it's 1.00, affects the "ragdoll" effect)
    • Vendor Respawn Rate = 96 hours (in vanilla it's twice per week)

Project Nevada - Extra Options Basically control several values of how things are calculated (like the energy drain when using stealth from armor). The only notable values so far are the AP cost for Sprinting (25 AP per second) and Tackling (20 AP).

Some of the mods listed earlier add quests, locations and NPCs. I'm not going to give out more details here. Instead I will specify those in metagaming when encountered. You can also just search any of these mods from New Vegas Nexus, all the mods were downloaded from there.

Since I'm using mods now I'm basically forced to restart the game. Fortunately I can keep the first chapter and I don't even have to edit it. Instead I'm going to introduce all the new things introduced by mods in future chapters.

Oh, and since I'm using my laptop now, the color of HUD is different from now on. Otherwise, everything else should remain unchanged. I'm still going with Hardcore -mode. In fact, since I increased the rate of all primary needs, things should be even more interesting. On the other hand, now I'm able to keep track of all those values without entering the Pipboy, thanks to one of the mods.

My plan is to get next update out today or tomorrow, depends on how often the game crashes. One of the mods, Stutter Removal, has a bad habit of crashing the game after few hours, but at least it keeps the game smooth, even after all those heavy mods I installed.