I went to Vegas but all I got was shot in the face (Fallout)

[General Zod]

You'll want a Luck score of at least 7 if you plan on hitting up the casinos. That's what I had when I went into the ones on the strip and I cleaned house with simple blackjack strategies.

Cram that! my luck's only 5! Barf! hopefully my INT wuill make up for it.

It's all luck. I'd suggest investing in the Intense Training perk.

[open_sketchbook]

With a high enough luck and enough money you can basically break the casinos. Basically, go in with 5k or so caps, hit the slot machines, put down only the biggest bets, and punch out the moment you get a really big payout. They start getting pissed at you around 10,000 caps as a rule of thumb. Head to a different casino so they don't ban you, and repeat. You will leave Vegas with ten to twenty times what you came in with, and never have to worry about caps again.

[General Zod]

With a high enough luck and enough money you can basically break the casinos. Basically, go in with 5k or so caps, hit the slot machines, put down only the biggest bets, and punch out the moment you get a really big payout. They start getting pissed at you around 10,000 caps as a rule of thumb. Head to a different casino so they don't ban you, and repeat. You will leave Vegas with ten to twenty times what you came in with, and never have to worry about caps again.

Except the slots are incredibly boring. Playing Blackjack will involve at least some strategy.

[Gunhead]

You'll want a Luck score of at least 7 if you plan on hitting up the casinos. That's what I had when I went into the ones on the strip and I cleaned house with simple blackjack strategies.

Cram that! my luck's only 5! Barf! hopefully my INT wuill make up for it.

It's all luck. I'd suggest investing in the Intense Training perk.

I'm not so sure the difference is that huge. I blew the bank with a modest luck of 6, four times. If you're even semi competent in blackjack it's a breeze. Safe play till you've got a good 3000 chips and you're a winner.

P.S while flush with funds I did fish a 1 to 36 win at roulette and I hit the uber jackpot at slots. Game wise I think this is a bit dull. Once you get to the strip, no more money troubles.

-Gunhead

[Gunhead]

I'm pretty sure they kick you out once total winnings reach 16K. At least that's what happened every time when I was playing. But the real trick is to creep towards that 16K and then win big.

-Gunhead

[General Zod]

I'm pretty sure they kick you out once total winnings reach 16K. At least that's what happened every time when I was playing. But the real trick is to creep towards that 16K and then win big.

-Gunhead

I found that it varied from casino. The Ultra-Luxe was about 14k, the Tops was about 10k and the Gomorrah was about 12k.

[Gunhead]

I'm pretty sure they kick you out once total winnings reach 16K. At least that's what happened every time when I was playing. But the real trick is to creep towards that 16K and then win big.

-Gunhead

I found that it varied from casino. The Ultra-Luxe was about 14k, the Tops was about 10k and the Gomorrah was about 12k.

So there's a difference, who knew? Did you blow the bank at that place in freeside? I did but it was slots so no idea how much you can take from them before they ban you.
I never played a hand of caravan. I just couldn't get into it.

-Gunhead

[General Zod]

I've gotten ahbout 4000 caps out of the Wrangler but I haven't emptied it out yet. But I need to get this tasty energy weapon I found at the Devil's Throat repaired and it's going to cost a lot of caps, so I'll probably get around to it eventually.

[Chardok]

Man I love me some caravan. I'll go to a merchant, buy them out, then play them some caravn to rape the money right back out of them. Just stack your deck with 10's, 9's and 7's and you'll win every time.

EDIT________

I hated caravan at first. But once you "get" it, it's fun (If a bit sad that you literally can't lose unless you're retarded once you figure it out)

[Zixinus]

Heh, I actually obsessively collected every weapon and armor, even junk to later sell to the merchants. Repaired what I could too. Always put on a sherif's duster and roving merchant hat before talking to a merchant, plus alcohol.

You can also gain a lot of caps by befriending a faction very closely (I did this with the Followers) and using their discount to get money. I actually sold stuff at-value this way.

I somehow ended up with more money than what I would need to complete the game, even if I purchase five implants (one being the sub-dermal).

[Chardok]

what does that ensemble do? (The duster/hat)

[Ryan Thunder]

I think the duster gives you a bonus to Speech and the hat gives you a bonus to Barter.

[Stark]

I somehow ended up with more money than what I would need to complete the game, even if I purchase five implants (one being the sub-dermal).

Does this surprise you? Without money sinks (the laughably cheap medical care means even hardcore doesn't really have money sinks) the player will inevitably have more money than practical.

I could say something about how competent designers have known this for years, but its not really important in a single player game where the goal is 'make the player feel tough' instead of 'balance'.

[Chardok]

So last night I tried to hit the casinos.

but then I noticed Ip Man in the new movie queue.


DAMN YOU NETFLIX!


(Good movie, terrible dubbing)

[Zixinus]

Does this surprise you?

Not really, as I specifically avoided buying anything and saved up for the implants.

[Stark]

Why? I only need 2 to qualify for the game-breaking perks, and I've nearly got enough money after 4 hours of playing. Saving, not required.

I really wish they'd had the balls to put skill-based eccentricity or wobble on the irons. As it is my captain guns 11 can headshot guys from massively outside aggro range with the starter gun. Being able to trivially kill guys much more powerful than you is part of the reason everyone swims in money. With my awful skills I shouldn't be firing the rifle with such accuracy - I expected to conefire to be reduced from hip, and not basically eliminated.

Losing karma for stealing from factions that hate you (and that you've essentially exterminated), especially when killing the faction members actually INCREASES karma, is fucking retarded.

[Chardok]

It seems like there *is* skill based wobble on the iron sights. I know mine walks bad and my gun skill is basically

"Why are this bullet not fit?!"

"Because that's a rock."

[Grandmaster Jogurt]

The Varmint Rifle and Cowboy Repeater seem to be more accurate than later guns, to me at least. With my 12 points in Guns I was able to never miss against people at the very edge of the draw distance with those guns, but with stuff like the Hunting Rifle I'll miss Deathclaws and turrets at 10m.

[Nephtys]

The Varmint Rifle and Cowboy Repeater seem to be more accurate than later guns, to me at least. With my 12 points in Guns I was able to never miss against people at the very edge of the draw distance with those guns, but with stuff like the Hunting Rifle I'll miss Deathclaws and turrets at 10m.

It's a function of your skill and strength. If you do not meet prereqs to use a weapon, your accuracy with it totally sucks.

[Grandmaster Jogurt]

I have 7 Strength, so I know it's not that. Weapons have a skill requirement? Is that listed somewhere and I'm an idiot for missing it, or is it not obvious?

[Chardok]

The Varmint Rifle and Cowboy Repeater seem to be more accurate than later guns, to me at least. With my 12 points in Guns I was able to never miss against people at the very edge of the draw distance with those guns, but with stuff like the Hunting Rifle I'll miss Deathclaws and turrets at 10m.

It's a function of your skill and strength. If you do not meet prereqs to use a weapon, your accuracy with it totally sucks.

Ohhhhhhh that makes way more sense. I am a sissy girl (STR 5) so...huh go figure. Well played, Obsidian, well played.

Edit ____

To Yogurt: I believe it is listed when you highlight the wepon, now that I think on it. but I hate hate hate that screen so I try to ignore it with that stupid "Fade to DPS" function. Blecch.

[Stark]

I have 7 Strength, so I know it's not that. Weapons have a skill requirement? Is that listed somewhere and I'm an idiot for missing it, or is it not obvious?

In the PIP where the symbol for skill type (ie lightning bolt or bullets etc) there's a number sometimes, above the DPS. The varmint has no preq, which is why its cheese. The only reason to upgrade is armour penetration.

I have strength 6, no gun skill above 11, and I'm skill ridiculous sniper with shit that has listen preq at 25. Its a soft limit, and if you're ~30 below you seem to get meaningfully penalised.

Amusingly my faction rep keeps resetting every time I quit the game. Is the karma thing broken, or do you not actually lose karma for stealing anymore? It says you do, but my karma is still ridiculous.

[SilverWingedSeraph]

Karma loss for theft is pretty ridiculously small. It was even in Fallout 3. Which is a good thing. As long as I'm not an evil murdering bastard I can steal everything that's not nailed down and keep a good Karma level. That said, I'm not actually sure Karma even does anything in New Vegas. It goes up and down but I've never actually seen any sign that having high or low karma does anything.

[Chardok]

Amusingly my faction rep keeps resetting every time I quit the game. Is the karma thing broken, or do you not actually lose karma for stealing anymore? It says you do, but my karma is still ridiculous.

I think you and I have experienced this mechanic before.

I believe Karma works like this:

Rank Wasteland saint = 80000 bajillion points

Points awarded as follows:

Finishing good guy quest: eleventy trillion points
saving a person from (X): seven trillion points
returning a thing to a guy who wants it where guy is obviously good: 67 billion points
Murdering a good person: -200 points
stealing: -7 points per theft
saying something mean: -1 point


Reputation:

idolized = 1000 "I like you" points

points awarded as follows:

completeing a main quest that involves a place/faction: 1000 points

killing a member of faction that likes you: -1 to -700 points (Randomly assigned by jiggwatt flux coronator)

killing a member of an opposing faction: (17-3) + 75 to 1,000 points (Randomly assigned by jiggawatt flux coronator)

doing a thing for a guy that is a member of faction that likes you: +62.73 points to faction that likes you to -32 points for opposing faction



In other words: hopelessly broken

[Stark]

You thought it was small in F3? Are you retarded? Stealing someone's forks was a bigger karma drop than killing them. The best way to drop karma was just to run around a town picking up plates!

By comparison in NV I've 'stolen' maybe 50-60 things and my karma hasn't dropped. Unless karma loss is related to value, having stealing lose karma appears to be totally useless.