I totally agree with your second statement. There is really no personal incentive to help out the different factions. No physical rewards. Just a few caps here and there. I think that may be why I'm so bored with the quests in my second game. It's just too much work. :shrug:

I just want to be a god so I can fistfight a deathclaw.

I do like the opportunity to have a perfect character but it has to take alot of strategy, planing, loot gathering etc.
Heck, I do efficient leveling in oblivion/morrowind

Except that the way the levelling system works, putting it in makes it mandatory rather than optional. Must take all skill points at levelup, must take all perks at levelup. So yeah...I'm all for options, which the godmode Fallout 3 character wasn't.

Extremely good point. What would be the point? With Fallout 3 I always knew that I'd be an unstoppable force with mastery of all skills so I didn't care where I put points. The leveling system was pointless (pun). I think the only way that the developers could please some of these people who want to be omnipotent gods-of-the-wastes would be to scrap the leveling system altogether and just give the player 100% on every skill, and leave just perks. Oh wait, Ion Storm did that with Deus Ex: Invisible War and people hated it...

Maybe they just want a Wasteland version of the Master Chief. Someone impossible to kill and somehow skilled in everything from marksmanship to basketweaving.

They want to be like Chuck Norris

The levelling system would be better as it was in TESIV - a natural specialisation, based on your usage of weps/skills. Excluding the terrible "levvelled monsters", which were beyond painful, and hopefully will be done away with in Skyrim.

Having said that, RPGs have traditionally been about creating God like characters. The Fallout franchise is one of the few that forced you into specialising your skills. Historically, your specialisation came at the point of selection of your class/race, and within that selection, there were things you could and couldn't do, but apart from that, you always worked your way up to demi-god status, as you gained skills, found the uber-weapons, the Mighty Magic Armour of Testakles etc.

Of course, the solution to all the whinging about the 5 extra levels and the skill points is too easy. If you're, say, playing a specialised melee character, dump all your skill points into another weapon class and continue as you were.

Because Fallout isn't TES? Plus that system svcks in and of it self. I would much rather them finally overhauling out all the "oblivion left over" mechanics and return to a full Fallout mechanics scheme. That originals had an Awesome system I think. Add in some of the improvements that tactics put in. (stances and skill penalties for various armor types.)

I dislike uber characters prefer roleplay, but I really hate uber NPC's more, balance is two way,
Being outnumbered by a squad of heavily armoured npc's with fantastic weapons, only to discover they're only that strong due to a buff of +20 DT and bonuses to dam and criticals.
Making an special npc in medium armour out in the wastes harder and stronger than a paladin in power armour.
Which if available to the player would make most on these forums rant about being unbalanced and need to be removed asap.

As for ranger armour the're a few places you can find it.
No spoiler when you get to Novac just talk to everyone untill you get an unmarked quest, from a npc there, which will lead to an early find.

Another good reason to return to the orignals Mechanics. You have one set of rules that everyone played by. Instead of Every enemy is an exception with various buffs and bullet spungatude.

Actually Fallout has always prided itself on choice and consequences, not just choice alone. That is something that got lost with Fallout 3, and most are glad to see it return.

Having a Godlike character is fun, up until you realize 30 seconds in that things are just eh. I find it challenging to figure out where to alocate skill points. But since Unarmed, Melee, and energy weapons are my dump stats, I have it easier than most.

I think FO3 is a pretty cool guy. eh maxes every skill and doesn’t afraid of anything…

I think the forum is more pleasant to read when people can respond to one another without insulting each other for opinions they disagree with.

On maxing out skills: The skill point distribution was redesigned specifically to make it impossible to do this, I think, because carefully placing every point is a good part of the fun for longtime RPG players. You can still have a pretty well-rounded character with Intelligence as high as 8, though. No, you can't get 100 in everything, but you can be in expert in multiple kinds of weapons and have some maxed roleplaying/support skills, too.

On Ranger Combat Armor: This was addressed by the very first reply. You can indeed get it (post-patch) without killing anybody. It does make you look like you're dressed as a member of the NCR, though. Personally, I prefer to wear one of the Dusters (Sheriff's Duster, Bounty Hunter Duster) with the Ranger Vet Helmet, so you can still move at light-armor speed and end up with a fairly respectable 10 DT. (Edit: Actually, I guess only the Bounty Hunter Duster actually adds DT.)

Chinese Steath Armour FTW.