Crafting in New Vegas is seriously lacking : Fallout: New Vegas

» Sun Mar 06, 2011 1:03 am

Maybe a DLC can have a handloading store or group that makes ammo.

» Sun Mar 06, 2011 10:54 am

I'm actually working on a crafting mod of sorts to go into another mod I'm working on, sorry to all the non-pc players but anyone else feel free to pm me with suggestions. Actually have it right now to allow the crafting of weapons if your gun skill is high enough (not to a broken extent). Wouldn't mind changing a few other recipes, its pretty simple to do.

» Sun Mar 06, 2011 7:57 am

Most of the good crafting isn't even survivalist.

party time mentats 5 CHR + 2 PER and +2 INT
It requires: Honey Mesquite Pod (1), Mentats (1), Whiskey (1), and a Science skill of at least 50. It is possible to use this drug with regular Mentats for a combined effect of +6 CHR + 4 PER and +4 INT

slasher +25% damage, +25% damage resistance
This item is made at a campfire. It requires: Banana Yucca Fruit (2), Psycho (1), and Stimpak (2). It essentially combines the effects of Med-X and Psycho into a singe drug except it is possible to combine the effects of this drug with previously mentioned ones to gain a whopping 50% boost to both damage resistance and damage.

Add weapon repair kits and the rare doctor's back I can create and that's it except for ammo.

» Sun Mar 06, 2011 12:31 pm

I'm not really interested in more crafting from DLC unless they update the interface for it. The crafting interface feels ancient. It's just a list box with a really crappy selection tool. There aren't any icons, drag and drop support, animation, or even sound effects. I have actually seen better UIs in indie-games.

Heck, Ultima Online had better crafting and it came out in 1997. For that matter, Minecraft, a game developed by ONE person that is still in ALPHA has a better crafting interface.

I honestly wish that the person they assigned to make crafting had been assigned to do something else and that crafting had just been removed from the game entirely.

I am really starting to get the vibe from Obsidian that they don't have enough focus during development and end up trying to do too much.

» Sun Mar 06, 2011 3:16 am

I agree, another thing could be that all possible recipes (I mean the highlighted one) are at the top of the list, so you could easily see what is craft-able right now.

» Sun Mar 06, 2011 12:28 am

I am really surprised, more people posting on this thread, did not mention the removal of the crafted weapons from FO3. But I to was svcked into the skill of survival on my first build thinking how great it was going to be. I saved tons of items like, toy cars and the steam gauges exc. Only to find out the items I could craft, were very much out of balance and completely broken in the game design sense. I enjoy FNV, but not to any degree of FO3. Sorry to say the replay value of this game is gone straight out the window.

» Sun Mar 06, 2011 4:09 pm

Crafting was a good idea gone horribly wrong. Most of the crafted items are not worth the time and effort to craft them.

Rocket, Party Time Mentats, and Weapon Repair kits are worth the effort - but it takes a determined effort - thorough searching for loot, and always buying the KEY ingredients from vendors

» Sun Mar 06, 2011 3:55 am

While I think crafting as a system is rather clunky, I think it can also be pretty damn useful. Some of the food items are awesome especially since, if I remember correctly, their benefits go up as you raise your Survival skill. What I miss is more checks for it in dialogue but I think it's a pretty good alternative to Medicine. Not as focused but a broader use instead.

» Sun Mar 06, 2011 9:07 am

I am really surprised, more people posting on this thread, did not mention the removal of the crafted weapons from FO3. But I to was svcked into the skill of survival on my first build thinking how great it was going to be. I saved tons of items like, toy cars and the steam gauges exc. Only to find out the items I could craft, were very much out of balance and completely broken in the game design sense. I enjoy FNV, but not to any degree of FO3. Sorry to say the replay value of this game is gone straight out the window.

I agree with this. Science, guns or repair, and explosives should all give you some sort of crafted weapon options. Explosives should allow you to create more than just mines. How about homemade grenades and other IED's??

Survival should allow you to make some simple weapons, maybe deathclaw gauntlet or how about poison traps (run over a trip wire and get stabbed with a poisoned spike.

The fact that the only real viable weapons that are crafted are powder charges and bottlecap mines is upsetting, Considering that the rock-it launcher is bugged.

Has anyone tried the dog tag fist?

» Sun Mar 06, 2011 2:02 am

I expect more from DLC, but the only problem I have with it now aside from a lack of recipes is that ammo requires unique to type casings and hulls. It makes creating hard-to-find ammo rather impossible since you will almost certainly never have any casings if you can never find the bullets.

I have never had this problem, to be honest.

when actually shooting Ammo type A (whatever type)... you automatically get some of the casings/hulls back (My guess between 1/5 to 1/10)... Hand Loader perk knocks that up to almost 1/2. Plus you can buy the casings from vendors all over. At any given time I probably have 50-100 cases for my most-used ammo, minimum, unless I JUST made a whole bunch.

the main kicker is finding enough powder/primers IMO. Best way I've found so far is pair up types.. 9mm & .357 rounds for example. both use pistol powder and small pistol primers. So go with weapons that use one OR the other. and cannibalize ALL of the other ammo of the type (I break down 9mm to make .357's) and you're not that bad off.

(Now that I know the trick of how to 'open' boxes/bottles of powder/primer... I know I have a bunch of it to look for and re-buy so i can USE the damned things)

» Sun Mar 06, 2011 11:19 am

I do agree with the general sentiment of this thread.

After a full playthrough of NV, I used the campfire a grand total of one time... in the tutorial mission.

I used the workbench to occasionally make a repair kit.

It was a kick in the crotch when I took the Hand Loader perk assuming I would be able to make HP or AP ammo (or even incendiaries!)... nope, just got a couple of handload recipes. It was a second kick to the crotch when the .44 SWC load is broken (You need to take Hand Loader and get the recipe from a guy who makes a high Survival check. Well, we just established that Survival kinda svcks so I never got it that high.)

I was assuming that the reloading bench would be a great source to make lots of new ammo by looting casings off of bodies or containers and then assembling them with purchased primers or powder. Well the Gun Runners did sell powder jars and boxes of primers, occasionally. Never seemed to be sufficient, though.

Turns out that the bench isn't for making any new ammo. It's for breaking down ammo you already bought and then reassembling it into slightly better handloads. Except since the component requirements for the handloads use more powder than the base ammo, you end up with less ammo than you started with.

(By the way, it's bugged the same way that the Caravan cards are bugged; you have to remove them from your inventory and then put them back in for the jars to "break down" so you can use the components. That is, if you have a powder jar or primer box, drop it on the ground, then pick it back up. You'll get a Primers Added message.)

All in all for someone who anticipated spending most of their time at the reloading bench, it was a pretty significant disappointment. Maybe I just expected more.

For all the things NV did right, crafting's one of the things it dropped the ball on.

Once you figure it out (the UI is a mess) and get the Hand Loader perk the reloading bench can become your best friend. I use nothing but hand loaded .308 and .45-70s now. The key is understanding what breaks down into what you need. .308 is cheap and readily available and gives you all the components to make .45-70 hand loads except the cases which you can get by simply shooting off .45-70 HPs which are easy to get. Just last night I made 500+ of each with ease. Also, I have no problem with the fact that you can't breakdown ammo then get the exact number of special ammo by putting it back together. Obviously, just from game terms, that has to be some loss for upgrading to far better ammo. The loss is 20-30% depending on the round. You can actually make a large profit, even with that loss, from breaking down ammo and making the special variant of it. Personally, I just like to use to kill bad guys though.

Granted, the box and jar bug is a hassle but it isn't the end of the world. Hopefully it gets patched.

» Sun Mar 06, 2011 7:18 am

what i do is make a shopping list of items to look for for me i make

Repair kits, doctors bags (finding the surgical tubing is a pain).
Powder charges are worthwhile. and you come across those ingredients relatively easily.
Bottlecap mine svcks because i rarely come across cherry bombs.

The survival recipies beyond roasted gecko are useless. and a major dissapointment.

The ammo reloading bench is even worse.

Crafting is so poorly implemented in this game, and why you can't even make the cool stuff from Fo3 is a mystery. i mean yeah most of those items were useless compared to the regular weapons but hell, it's cool firing that railway rifle. or rockit launcher.
props to the shishekebab, that was always worth making.

I'm very surprised they failed so badly in crafting implementation. even the interface is tacky and unstable.

i mean a quick fix for this is to simply make the vendors sell the basics. I mean one of the main reasons it's possible to make powder charges is that it's easy to find the ingredients.
Even then it's just unfair.

So pardon me while i go back and play the game with minimal crafting done.