Crafting in this game is awful for the simple reason of specific mats being too rare and not found on merchants to purchase!

I have so much stuff accumulated in my storage in my house. Probably close to 10,000 lbs of just stuff I accumulated. So I go through my inventory to see what I can create I go to create a stimpack I have 30 empty hypodermic 2 xander root and 1 broc flower, ok so I can create 1 stimpack.

How about a super stimpack turns out I have 15 stimpacks, 57 nuka-cola and 0 mutfruit I have yet to even see 1 mutfruit in the game!!!

Even trying to create bottlecap mines, I have 4 cherry bombs after playing for 80 hours and I need 5 to create 1 mine! That is pathetic! I have found some cherry bombs in places that would be considered stealing if I took them and that’s about it.

I can’t really use my stimpacks to create slasher because there better used to heal myself.

I can’t make any good poisons because I found a total of 8 horsenettle and 1 poison takes 5 horsenettle

Why would I waste my radaway on creating mass purified water when it’s better used to remove radiation from myself?

I can’t create hydra because I have yet to accumulate any cave fungus.

Homemade flamer fuel, weapon repair kits, some steaks from meat of random animals, and overcharged MF cells/Energy Cells are just about the only things I crafted with all these mats. I am really disappointed here.

The requirement of large amounts of white horsenettle makes crafting with survival a pain in the ass along with other rare mats for crafting other things. You’re better off just selling the junk with a high barter skill, buying stimpacks from your local doctor and having a high medicine to get the most out of using them. This is not an MMORPG here where I have to go out and farm for mats and no one is going to be willing to take the time to do that. Also, why can’t I use a stove to do the cooking in my house?

In fallout 3 I had my house full of all kinds of crafted stuff; 60 bottle cap mines, 30 nuka-cola grenades, 6 schishkebab’s (using 5 to repair). 5 railway rifles. 4 deathclaw gauntlets. The point is I spent a lot of time crafting in FO3 with the few options that were available to me and hardly any time crafting in new Vegas because you made it too complicated. Even the reloading bench svcks and is completely useless because it’s just easier to use my barter to buy ammo I need from merchants.

Most of the crafting recipes have too many ingredients, it's true. Sorta regret taking survival as a tag skill, since it is virtually impossible to keep a stock of certain items (poisons in particular--like you said, where the hell are you supposed to get all that horsenettle?).

Totally agree with you on this one. I have had up to 75 survival, tons of materials (well, not tons, but definitely around 100 lbs of stuff, which, when most things weight .03-.25lb, is a lot) and have STILL not been able to craft much stuff at a fire. Even when I've done lots of exploring, I'll find myself lacking some necessary element.

They need to either increase how much stuff you find (which would be kind of hard- ie. repopulating the world with items) or drastically reduce the quanitity of an item necessary to craft.

It basically makes any survival kind of a waste, besides the extra hp bonus you get, which, while great, feels kind of weak considering all these awesome receipes that I can't even touch.

Agree completely. I have a ton of mats as well. Maize for example. I have so much of that I could open my own liquor store. Yet not enough of one or two types to make anything viable or worth it. And I havent found any weapon schematics. They keep referencing them so much they have to be there somewhere. But I have not found a single one.

The only thing I am making enmasse and have found tons of mats for is the weapon repair kits. I have almost 100 in storage now and 10 on me. Also while I am on it. What about armor repair kits?

Res

The only crafting that I've done is making ammo, weapon repair kits, and some explosives.

I have to say that I'm extremely disappointed is the ammo crafting. Four non-standard rounds????? Really??? I have 12.7mm cases and can't even reload them. Utter crap.

I also find it kind of a drag that (as far as I'm aware) the campfires are in such awkward places - that's why I use Victor's house in Goodsprings, as it's the only place I've found with all of the crafting spots within a decent distance (and even then, the campfire is still a bit of a trek). Others have suggested that being able to cook on the ovens would have been better, that way you wouldn't have to lug around unnecessary crafting items in the hope of coming across that one rare one to make a single recipe.
I do enjoy the reloading benches though.

There's more if you get handloader. If you're having trouble loading rounds you need to get the rest of the stuff for it, like primer, powder, and lead.

I know about hand loader and the components. Hand loader adds like 3 new rounds and that's it.

When did 3 become the new 6?

10mm JHP Hand Load
.308 JSP Hand Load
.357 Magnum JFP Hand Load
.45-70 Gov SWC Hand Load
.44 SWC Hand Load
.50 MG Match Hand Load

I would definitely like to see Armor Repair Kits, for some of those harder to find things(chinese stealth suit, which I know repairs with the recon armor, but that is expensive a lot of the time.) They have a lot of things you can craft, but the vast majority of it is useless because it's easier/cheaper to buy what you need, or the ingredients are just too few and far between. The only thing I ever craft is Weapon Repair Kits so I can keep my Anti-Material Rifle in top shape. Other than that...pfffft, who cares.

Although I have found enough of some of the things you mention without problems (I don't care about stealing in NV), I agree with your sentiment. Crafting should actually be fairly easy for most stuff. Some of the requirements should be lessened. I can see why it is made so redundant in normal mode, but in hardcoe mode it could have been much more demanding and useful. Lower requirements and up the advantages to make it more rewarding. Also, I read some post here, how in hardcoe it should be rads * 10 or something for most food before crafting, which sounds like a good idea to me. I even want to be able to setup a campfire for crafting (say @survival 50+) anywhere I want.

I also miss the craftable weapons from FO3, and was actually a bit surprised this wasn't expanded upon.

As for Hydra, I assume it is a bug. So far I have got one cave fungus. That and "Pile of nightstalker eggs" which I have none (eggs yes, but "pile of" no) may hopefully be addressed in a patch.

And finally, I think the integration of crafting with the UI (console) lacks. At least show the recipes that use it when highlighting an item and full info on those recipes related to the item should be a button press away. Some marking could make clear you have all you need for the recipe in your inventory. But hey, there are so much more general (console) UI improvements possible it is a bit off topic.

semantics. You don't get many and some (.22 & 12.7mm) aren't even options.

I agree with this 100%. I was very disappointed with crafting. It was one of the things I was looking forward to in FNV. such a shame. thank god i have pc and can get some awesome mods for it.

P.S. has anyone found anymore schematics or new recipes in the game? i have not found one. And that disappoints me too

There's no semantics in 3 being a completely different number from 6. You're right that some options are missing, but don't lie about the numbers.

I said LIKE 3, mostly to draw attention to the fact that I don't think that there are very many of them. Not that there are 3. The fact that you actually counted them and are making a deal out of it is kinda weird.

Ow and some drugs that you can only get by crafting with a high survival skill (80+ ?) that would up some of the skills (sneak, guns, melee) temporary with a fairly low addiction level would also be welcome. It would increase the usefulness of the survival skill

My first character I made totally ignored survival and camp fires and he has a fine life without them. My new character is melee based and playing in hardcoe mode, now I see why they have survival in the game. You can make some great and very helpful food and items to quench your thirst and fill your hunger. Granted alot of the recipes call for some outlandish items as stated by others, but overall the fact that you can turn Bighorner Meat into Bighorner Steak is great.. its lower weight, more filling, heals longer and lasts pretty long. I havent looked into the skill much more than that to see if/what else is worth it to make without killing yourself traveling all over the world getting rare ingredients.

Crafting beyond hand loading ammo is a joke in this game and even with that the UI is so clunky it's ridiculous. I still haven't been able to figure out exactly what I'm going to end up with when breaking down ammo nor how many rounds I'll end up with when I use a recipe. There has to be a simpler way. And we should be able to hand load multiple things at once instead of constantly making one thing at a time and getting dropped out of the UI.

That said, I use nothing but hand loaded ammo now. With 100 Repair and the Hand Loader perk you can keep yourself swimming in ridiculous ammo. Add the Jury Rigging perk and you're a real survivor. Hence I never bothered with the Survival skill.

speaking of which. WHERE THE H#LL can you get the gunpowder (and often primers) without breaking-down other similar-type ammo?????

I've never once seen a merchant/trader carrying powder.

I've seen 'box of primers' or somesuch. But i couldn't break THAT down into separate primers. Simply enough.. WTF?

I rarely, if ever craft. Once in a while, I'll stumble upon a campfire, figure out what I have, and try making it. With most of my skills in the 50-100 range, my survival skill is still only at 20 or so. I up it from time to time, but feel that others like Barter, Speech, Medicine are used more anyway.

I actually have plenty of horsenettle, but I find it in totally random places. Like completely off the beaten path.

question, has anyone even found the purpose of tanned gecko skins?

also, does the bleak venom even do anything. I hit a deathclaw with a throwing knife while sneaking, and reloaded did the same thing with venom on it and it did the same damage, it didnt even do the supposed -10(15s) or vice-versa

why are thrown weapons so lacking.

i mean was survival and crafting supposed to be the alchemy equivalent in oblivion? if so there is something seriously lacking. And why does the .50bmg get match grade ammo why cant the .308 or 5.56 thats just utter bull. There is just not enough reason to get the skill to unlock those few extra bullets.

i mean how many things were left out of this game...

what are they gonna release all the features that were supposed to be in the game on release date with a nice big "see we care about the community we released content for free" all BFBC2 style

Yeah.

Crafting is really lame, the ONLY thing I find I can readily make is Cactus Water.

There needs to be more ingredients / materials in game.

the only thing i make with crafting is the gecko steaks, i've been usign those for health as i try to avoid using stems just so i can get the 10k hp restore from food.

I've found a good amount of many of the plants. But that's because I wandered off-road alot. Also, they tend to appear in regions.... where you find some horsenettle, you'll find more. Probably have a couple dozen Broc flowers, and a few dozen horsenettle. Xander root's a pain, that stuff's invisible.

My cooking was limited to Bloatfly Sliders, the various Steaks (Gecko, Brahmin, Bighorn) and some of the combined meals (Desert Salad & Caravan Lunch).

Primers & powder.... only place I've found them sold is at .

I find even crafting for ammo underwhelming, because primers are rare. I got that perk where I recover more hulls and cases I think, but I cannot make my own ammo because I don't recover primers. In the end I have to break down my ammo for primers, but what's the point in that?
I could break down other ammo, but I might as well sell them instead, and use the money to buy the ammo that I want.

Repair kits are really cool though. But other than that, not much use for crafting.