I've heard alot of talk about bullet sponges on this form and have heard many ways on how to deal with them. So if you had the choice how would you go about taking care of bullet sponges, and many other questions. I personally don't like them at all and beileve they should be given better armor and weapons instead, I also hate becoming invinsible to all but the most deadly enemys at the end of the game. Please tell me what you think of the questions, how you think it can be improved, and if I should make another topic like this at some time, and thank you all for you responses :celebration:
Please ignore any spellnig mistakes spellnig was never my strong suit

I hated the bullet sponges in Fallout 3 they added in with Broken Steel. I mean seriously, a reaver takes more shots to take down than a deathclaw does, when all a ghoul is is basically a human corpse? Maybe one or two bucket sponges scattered around that make sense, but overall no I hate the idea of them and I don't want them in my game.

Not to mention the Tribals in Point Lookout. Major bullet sponges.

I go up to young deathclaws and say coochycoochy because I take that little damage

I just hate it when they give a bunch of weak enemys ALOT of HP so its not really hard to beat them... it just takes FOREVER

Not really in NV no, one or two maybe but should be based on something other than difficulty..
Like size, mutation, chems.. etc, for example the FO3 Overlord was basically a supermutant which suddenly had massive health and weapons that were more powerful.
Plus the ability to deal added damage as standard, it made behemoths moot and uneeded and leapt the shark in design concept, the same for the reavers.

In general fine based on game, design, story... etc, though currently after FO3 BS and DA2 + DA:O I'm more and more siding with the no bullet sponges at all group.. especially in rpg's.
I strongly believe that all humans, and humanoids in rpg's follow the same rules, guidelines, leveling / equipment / skills rules and combat / game system in general.

In CRPG's you see this less and less, the original FO at least followed this as closely as I've seen any game.
DA:2 there was so little conection between player character / companion and npc that you may have well played poker with magic the gathering cards.

If I made a game, it'd likely be rubish.. well maybe not in concept but definitely in design... but I would not have bullet sponges or bosses no.

Do I like to be one.. based on the game maybe.
If I'm facing 5 - 15 high damage elite foes yes, especially in melee.. but to become one I have to sacrifice other benefits ( like intelligence or skills.)
Just like I believe bullet sponges have to sacrifice like the player to be them as well ( which tends not to happen.)
If facing lower challenges then no it's not needed, FO:NV is fun as a low endurence character.. plus buffout is a good chem for a chem addicted user.

What do you mean by bullet sponges?

I'll let you figure this one out. It say it in the name what it means.

I'm the only person so far to vote "other" on the how do you kill them; I'm basically a sniper but whenever possible I like to plan something and carry it out. My best one was in F3, there was a Super Mutant Behemoth attacking a building, I stealthboyed across the square, left a big pile of mines at the bottom of the steps and then attracted him over by sniping him from the top of them. Boom and he was dead. Come to think of it, most of my plans involve explosives of some sort. Another poster pointed out that leaving mines around where you knew enemies respawn was a cheap way of picking up loot.

Bullet sponges are only a problem when I become one or the enemy obviously has poor armour, otherwise they're necessary because the player becomes so powerful in the latter stages. Perhaps they should make lightly armoured enemies strong in other ways, sneaky and quick for instance.

I'm playing Crysis 2 at the moment, it handles the problem well. You've got special armour but you can still get deaded in a very short time and you're mostly fighting aliens who are pretty spongey but have weaknesses to be exploited. It wouldn't be possible to run a game like Fallout like this though because you die all the time, several times per stage and it would make travelling the world absurd, getting killed infrequently maintains the immersion.

This.

The problem with being a bullet sponge is that it's tedious. The reason deathclaws are so popular and are referred to as being incredibly dangerous isn't so much because of their defense, but their offense. A deathclaw can still be oneshot and it can still be killed before it reaches you, it's just that when one DOES reach you (which their speed allows for) then you better act quickly or you're dead. A deathclaw challenges you to stay on your toes; a bullet sponge bores you to death and tests your patience.

I played Fallout 3 recently and when Super Mutant Overlords started spawning, they were ridiculous. Yes, they hurt like hell, so they were dangerous, but this meant that my tactic ALWAYS involved shooting away their gun first to make sure they didn't deal immense damage. Still, it'd take me like 2 minutes just to take down this stupid thing as it tried to punch me.


Luckily I don't think Fallout New Vegas has any real bullet sponges. With weapons like the Brush Gun and the Anti-Material Rifle, and all the high DPS ones, it's not hard to take down anything in particular.

Damn i really hated the sponges in fallout 3. I'll be o'k if they added a little more HP to groups that make sense (military, mutants, melee/unarmed etc.) with a high endurance or something. But the sponges make me not want to play broken steel or point lookout that much. I mean why do tribals and hillbilly mutants have a higher HP than most super mutants? so i usually set the difficulty to easy. So i rather see groups with better armor and weapons and have the armor and weapons be in better condition.

remember Albino Radscorpions? literally just running around the DC wasteland doing pirouettes for 15 minutes sinking clip after clip into those THINGS :swear: :banghead:

I hate bullet sponges so much, I couldn't be bothered running in circles shooting them all. I get them to stand together and shoot them with my MIRV, It's worth it.

I'd have prefered an obvious solution to them tbh.
FO had DT and DR, instead of lots of health in FO3 the simplest form would have been bring back DT.
Keep health based on the PC formula, make DT absorb all but 1% of damage from weapons that could not best it.
Then have some powerful but less common guns to beat the highest DT.. or special ammo like in FO:NV.

Then NV added this back but to seemingly balance the game capped bleed through aty 20%.
Making hordes of npc's with full automatic low damage weapons as damaging as the few anti arrmour weapons.

The DLC's actually improved things ( only played dead money atm,) Ghosts are good because you actually need to make sure they stay down.
Holograms can't be killed, you need to disable them.

NV + dlc's has actually gone a long way to making the rpg intersting in its foes, and increased the challenge with out uber health.
I'm hoping next game the high bleed through on DT is cut and similar planning in creatures is placed into them to make encounters interesting.
This would make NPC's difficulty based on their equipment and skills / perks, and creatures on the type you face and what weapons you have.

Bullet sponge = enemy difficult to kill by "soaking up" bullets like it is nothing

Plasma weapons are my answer to bullet sponges., Seriously, some other weapon(flamer, plasma rifle, missile launcher)should be stone death on them. Otherwise, it's God moding.

No.

Yes.

I kill them dead.

No, I'd make better enemies have better AI, hidden bonuses, special attacks and behavior patterns.

No.

This is the major problem. If you can justify it, I'm ok with it. In Point Lookout those stupid Swamp Folk took WAY too many shots to the head to kill. There needs to be some challenging enemies in a game or you're playing Animal Crossing. The Legendary enemies was a GREAT idea. Add ons should have tougher enemies than what you face in the main game because most of the time you're facing them at higher levels.

I liked Animal Crossing

I dont like the bullet sponge concept alone but I would be in favor if other factors made enemies harder to kill ie maxed out skill (max accuracy and damage), more aiming for your head and arms to cripple your aiming, higher critical chance/damage, regeneragtion of HP, armor and weapons at 100% condition, the most powerful ammo types, the ability to have a chance to evade your attacks (dodging), taking cover behind objects more often (better AI), and so forth.

Oh I know one of you nabs didn't just diss Animal Crossing.... :toughninja:
That game is amazing.

I think it's good to have a few bullet sponges in the game just for variety's sake. Not a lot, but a few. A creature that you just sneak past becuase it isn't worth getting tangled up with it, no matter how uber your character. The albino rad scorps from FA3 are one example; even with Entomology I would just run away. Killing two of those things is enough to wreck your weapon! And the truth is, even the toughest bullet sponges can often be taken if you have the right tactic/weapon combo.

I honestly don't mind bullet sponges, a lot add a sense of danger and make you think about engaging, or simply sneaking past it.

Are you talking about Bullet Sponges that are well integrated or Bullet Sponges that are brought up just cause? They are completely different kind of game experience.

A character that can take A LOT of damage before dying. Almost impossible to kill.