Having watched the best buy video thing I learned a little more about the skill magazines. All I can say is, what the [censored]? A magazine giving you a temporary skill boost makes no sense to me.

"I read this large book about repair so I get a permanent bonus. Sweet!"

"I read this magazine about repair so I get a lot better but only for a few minutes. I guess after a few minutes I forget what I just read. ADHD much?"

Seriously, what sense does it make that a book gives a permanent bonus and a magazine gives a temporary bonus? I realize the magazines give a much higher bonus than books but the premise makes absolutely no sense. Reading a book somehow lets you retain the information as opposed to a magazine where you forget what you just read a few minutes later?

really the only reason they would do that is to make the game less of you becoming god and more of you being a wastelander like everyone else... although still op

it's supposed to be a refresher course on "locks" you already know so you're like "OH YEAH" and can complete a lockpick.

game logic

Were still in the realm of video games where mushrooms make you super and guns have auto refilling magazines.

The magazine wasn't that interesting.

No I think you misunderstand me. I'm not griping that the magazines are temporary because I want a god character. No I'm griping because reading information from 1 source giving you a permanent skill increase while the same information from a different source giving you a temporary skill increase is just plain dumb in my eyes. It just makes absolutely no sense that after a few minutes you would just "forget" what you learned in the repair magazine.

The magazines are suppose to be boosts to your stats. The situation with the elevator in the best buy vid was a perfect example of how to use the magazines

Saying magazines are stupid is like saying chems are stupid in the context of game mechanics.

you're not Learning anything "new" from the magazines, it's a refresher course on things you already know.

So if you want to hack a computer in a really important situation, you use a magazine, but they are of limited supply. They seem pretty useful to me.

What sense does it make that you can be walking down down the street only 1 xp away from the next level, step on a Radroach, level up, dump all your skill points into (say for example) Science, and suddenly be that much better at hacking into computers? For stepping on a bug?

Somebody already said it: It's game logic.

But that's dumb. The whole premise of "forgetting" what you just read a few minutes after you read is dumb.




No.. Chems are just that. Chems. They alter your mental and physical state and will wear off once they have been metabolized. A magazine on the other hand is read just like a book, yet somehow you are unable to retain the information as you could from a book.

The magazine introduction might very well signal that the book distribution is going to be rarer in this game, regardless of how little sense the magazine mechanics makes. It'll probably be used by players as a stop-gap measure through much of the 1st half of the game.

Does it really bother you that much? Either accept it or don't use them, there were many things we couldn't explain in FO3.

I'm guessing (hoping) one of the first mods will change all of the skill magazines into various chems.

Like how Radroaches got into vault 101 when its suppose to be sealed

If it makes you feel better, consider a magazine as a cheat sheet and a book as a course of study. If you look at a cheat sheet, you'll have the knowledge for a short bit but soon forget it. If you read the whole book, you've studied it and it becomes more permanent.

Radiation turns you into a ghoul. It's a game.

A 3 pt. skill boost remains balance in the game, but if you gain a permanent 20 pts. every time you read a magazine you would be a god. They are for when you really need to acess something using a skill you haven't invested your characters pts. into.

No, they aren't. In the example in the video, she needed 50 repair skill to repair the elevator. What you're saying is she had 50 repair skill but somehow "forgot" some of it so by reading the magazine for a "refresher course" she will suddenly remember enough to get above 50 points and repair the elevator but of course after a few minutes will "forget" it again.

She can't have forgotten how to repair the elevator because it took a higher skill than she possessed. The book boosted her skill by 20 points for a few minutes, but then she will "forget" what she just read a few minutes later.




No that's just the way Fallout works, XP and all that then once you have enough you get to increase skills.

And, likewise, this is just the way magazines work in Fallout. Deal with it or get a mod that turns them into something you're okay with.

Ah don't worry theres only 200+ magazines in the game

Yes I agree, it's strange.

Mods away!

I'm not sure how I feel about it.

The magazines are very obviously to make up for the fact that there are fewer skill points. So they add books which give a temp buff to allow you to do what you don't have enough skill points to do.

Seems pretty back asswards to me, but whatever. At least I'll have an option on the challenges that require skills I didn't have enough points to spend on. Yeah, that's making tons of sense.

I wonder if the buff stacks with same?

My biggest question about the magazines will be would the stats stay when you Level Up during the duration of the magazine

OMG GUIZ DIS WIL SOOOOOO BRAEK MY EMERSHON. WATEVA SHAL I DOOOOOO



Really though, its a game. You're thinking about it too much.