Hey, I was just curious out there as i've tried different approaches to this, and I just wanted some input not necessarily a problem or anything like that...

The main question I have for you all is... what kinds of hotkeyed weapons do you like having on you? You don't have to have all 8 taken up to reply, but I'll assume most take advantage of such a thing... and how do you go about deciding what weapons to use when. Do you go gun-ho and use an anti material rifle from the beginning and be godly? Or do you use a dinky 9mm pistol all the way to endgame?

My prefered method, is using the weapon skill requirements to make sure i'm not over powering myself, and thus not making the game too broken at early levels. For example, for my guns character, I used (including modded weapons as well as DLC add on weapons/armor) the Zero skill required weapons for the first six levels... after that, I would use the skill level 25 weapons until level 14, the level 50 skill weapons until level 22, the level 75 weapons until 30... and then just use the skill level 100 weapons in my hotkeys after that even if the DLCs boosted my level up to 40. For armor, I followed a similar thing, for the first ten levels, I allowed a max DT of 10, but usually I didn't quite make that, more like 7 or something... then at level 20, I allowed myself a max of 20, and then, as you can guess, 30 DT max at lvl 30.

This way, I never have the same old boring weapon set ups, and I have to never worry about using a gatling laser at lvl 4 and getting bored with a charcter because i'm using stuff way over my PC's level.

Now, for the second part of my post, I'd like to suggest what weapons I like best in their respective categories...

For explosives (easiest for me to list) is by far the grenade launcher because not only is ammo pretty cheap, you don't need hundreds of grenades to kill something like the inacurate grenade M.G. and you won't kill yourself as much as with the missile launcher and fatman, especially after the new weapon damage tweaks...


For guns, i'd have to say my all time favorite is the Riot Shotgun. This thing has it all... it degrades generously, does sick amounts of damage, and best of all... is NOT effected by that persistant weapon reload bug that is STILL not fixed in third person... also you have access to slugs and magnum shells as well as coin shot which is nice. For some reason I like the hunting rifle a lot... for some reason, it just calls out to me and symbolizes the Fallout NV Courier. I have no idea why, it just fits so well, even when the AMR is leagues above it as well as the sniper rifle, and of course, mod added weapons too, but I never can seem to just stash it away at base once I've upgraded guns to the maximum.

Energy weapons,... I love E.W., even if they svcked before, and are now just getting their just desserts (hate that the Tesla cannon no longer does splash damage...GRRR), I loved these from every fallout game. No other game implements them so well, and so skillfully lore wise to make their existance believable. I like the Q35 because it is an all around weapon, although, my all time favorite E.W. is the Gatling Laser. This beast is godlike with all the mods added onto it, and gets sweeter if you have the WME mod from Jonnyeah. it's so deadly it should be illegal. The Laser RCW is great, and during those awkward mid levels, is a great friend and ally to rely on with its steady power and fast RoF. but the Gatling Laser takes the cake for me. The plasma caster is nice, but IMO is just trying to be a Gatling Laser copy cat. The second best IMO is the tesla cannon, especially now since you don't waste 90 ECP's per shot...

Melee... I can't really say too much about these and unnarmed, although Unarmed has a bit more diversity and function. For melee, you just find the biggest, baddest SoB you can hold and beat people to death with it... nuff said. For looks though, Super Sledge is very nice. for Unarmed though, Ballistic Fist is just UNREAL when you get the Unarmed perks. This thing eats people ALIVE as well as the crazy powerful Displacer Glove.


well, that's it... why don't you go ahead and share how YOU do your setups during leveling your characters? Maybe you have a better idea that is even more efficient? Or maybe you just want to share your opinions on why weapon 'x' is better than weapon 'z' or just weapons you love just because?

:o.