Yeah, it's hard to say whether it would be useful or not for me. I mean, if a bunch of vendors commonly sell EW ammo like MFC's and EC's and caps are plentiful in NV, the perk does lose a portion of it's usefulness, especially considering it only works on brand new containers one time.

For the Silent Running, I'd have to agree on that. In F3, I chose it because you had double the amount of perks by the same level cap, so I gave it a go. On tough enemies or groups close together, I'd shoot a well placed shot and land some crazy Sneak Attack Critical damage before charging in like Rambo.

P.S - Was reading the forums here earlier and there is apparently another patch coming very soon after the prep one for Dead Money, supposedly being a major update, including bug / glitch fixes, improvements and changes. Any truth to that? If so, can you post a link to where announcements like this are usually made?

Thanks again Skyline.

Cheers!

No official word about what the patch would fix. If anything, it wouldn't contain any nerfs because of all the crying.

Anyways, I hardly use MC/OC because I switch off hardcoe on my EW character after Lv10. I also played before EW is patched. I made some OC for Laser RCW in case switching weapon isn't ideal. I also have some OC made for Dead Wind Carven, but only use it against the Legendary Deathclaw.

Even in F3 it would have worked without silent Running just as fine. As Skyline said, SR is a perk for Melee/Unarmed characters.
You can, by the way, still sneak in absolute silence, even without SR. You just have to be careful and do it slowly.

Sorry, I'm still new to the NV terms - MC / OC = Max Charged / Over Charged?

Also, I believe I started off with a SPECIAL like this:

ST - 7
PE - 5
EN - 6
CH - 3
IN - 7
AG - 6
LK - 6

I'm assuming Luck works the same way as it did in F3, where each point of Luck = +1% Crit Chance correct? I'm not exactly sure how Crit Chance is calculated in total, but from my understand, with Built to Destroy (+3%), Finesse (5%) and 6 LK (6%), I would have.... 14% Crit Chance? I was thinking of lowering CH to 2 and devote another point to LK, but would that even be worth it? Is there anything else, such as gambling where a higher LK is better to have?

Yes, MC/OC=Max Charge and Over Charge cells.

Gambling is pure cheating with >8 luck. That being said, last time I tried you still need to spend half an hour to hit slot jackpot.

I would pull that point of intelligence off if you are going to get Dead Money, either on Endurance or Luck.

Why off IN ? Don't you need an even number of IN for the extra gain of skill points per level? And why put more on EN? LK? What am I missing? lol =P.

Also, if you happen to have a link to a reliable site which posts news on things like patch announcements and such, please let me know.

Cheers!

No, you don't. With an odd number you just get a point more every other level. Like 13 points in one, then 14 in the following, then 13 again, rinse...



Your assumption is correct
Are you planning to play on hardcoe mode? Then I'd say, better take it from EN or STR, if you want to play with companions.
The lower your CH, the worse your companions will do, and in HC mode they can die.
6 LK is good to start with. You can always take a rank in Intense Training, at level 2 there aren't any other useful perks available anyway, and buy an implant later on.
With 8 LK, you're set up nicely. You can get piece of apparel that offers another point of LK later in the game, even 2 pieces of clothing if you're following the Legion route.
Most of the Energy Weapons have a multiplier between 1.5 and 2.5, constant use of EW will grant you achievement perks, which will improve your crit probabilities further on, the Laser Commander perk adds an addtional 10% base crit chance for Laser weapons(one of the reasons to prefer Laser over Plasma, projectile speed aside), and somewhere in the game there are 2 people wearing a uberl33t stat cap granting another 5% base crit chance. One of them you can hire, the other usually has some kind accident in my games :whistling:
My current build is at around 70% crit chance with a Laser Rifle :shocking: . Pretty neat, huh?

There is a whole squad with u86r1337 beret.

You're right, I never thought of them :laugh:

Yeah, I like having companions with me and I do want them to be badass in combat for sure and I won't be playing on hardcoe mode. I would miss out on another Implant if I take away from EN and have 2 less points for the ST requirement of the Minigun (not to mention even less carry weight and 1 less ST requirement for the good Plasma / Laser weapons until I find Power Armor that adds +1 ST). I would miss out on the CH and DT implants.

I was going to use Intense Training @ Level 2 for EN for an extra Implant, but you say LK instead?

Awesome Crit Chance BTW ! =P

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1125221-please-read-from-the-teams-at-obsidian-and-bethesda/

As for the whole luck deal, I would suggest having it at an odd #. Reason being is that for every point of luck, your skill gets raised by 0.5. So having it @ 3, 5, 7, and 9 raises your skills by 1, 2, 3, and 4 respectively. 7 is quite sufficient for Luck. This is only my recommendation since I'm a skill points jerk in essence haha. There's also items to raise your luck so, in my opinion, stick with Endurance for Intense Training.

With EN of 7 you would have 46 SPECIAL points anyways, don't know why do you need more.

Companions only have trouble with poison, no amount of Charisma can help it.

Did I tell you with Dead Money you can get a perk with +5% critical for wearing Light armour?

I would assume for the purpose of his build, which is being one of those PA tanks on 'roids. There's other places to put it of course, I'm just going with what he wants.

..I still think you're over-thinking it though Zyane.

Edit: That's a perk I'm interested in taking... but it'll take me another 20k XP to get there haha.

I have missed Cowboy and Shotgun Surgeon on my "scout" character, so I choose Cowboy and that Perk instead of two new Perks.

Yeah, I tend to over-anolyze a lot when it comes to RPGs.

With my current SPECIAL, I have enough EN for all Implants except for EN and the HP Regen (that is if I take EN for Intense Training at Level 2).

ST - 7
PE - 5
EN - 6
CH - 3
IN - 7
AG - 6
LK - 6

Seems like the only stat that wouldn't hurt too much and perhaps devote to CH is LK or ST, but then when it came to using the Minigun, I'd have only 8 (with PA) instead of the required or suggested 10.

If you want your companions to be badass, you'll need a CH of 5 At least, in Normal mode, they're immortal...
With an EN of 5, you can still get 5 of 9 implants, that is fine. Buying the EN implant will not allow another, btw.
The ST requirements for all the good EW are very low, between 2 (Q35) and 5(YCS186 Gauss). The only exception here is the Plasma Caster.
Remember, not meeting a ST requirement for a certain weapon doesn't mean you can't use it. You're just getting an accuracy penalty. There are many ways to boost your strength through so many consumables which all stack.
You can even boost a ST 3 or 4 char to 10 easily, if needed. Carry weight is completely irrelevant. You'll have mules, and 10lb per point of ST isn't much anyway.
Make up your mind, which weapons will be those you are going to be using most of the time.
If it's Miniguns and other super heavy stuff, ok.
If not, and you want to use them only on these special moments, then a Bighorner Steak and a Whiskey for a +4 boost will do the job perfectly. And it's not that the weapons would become useless, when missing the requirement.

Well, my final base starting SPECIAL will be determined by this - does + to CH by any means affect Companion Armor/Dmg or Base CH only?

Your companions DT and DAM are always influenced by your current CH value, that of course includes all temporary effects, too.

Thanks for the info, was searching for how that worked but nothing really turned up.

I'm still reading up on how DT works, but would the +3 DT from the Implant even make any difference? If not, I can take 1 off EN and stick with the SPECIAL implants only (excluding EN). I did take Kamikaze, but that's only -2 DT. As for HP, I couldn't find the stats on how much HP you gain per level based on your EN.

Implant is +4. Toughness is +3. With 2 ranks of toughness and Implant you are on DT10 naked. With Reinforce Leather Armour you are on 25.

HP gain is constant, Endurance only means you start off with more HP.

Yeah, I see that now... I thought I recalled that the higher EN was, the more you gained per level, but it looks like I read the info wrong. So, I guess it's safe to take another EN away (sacrificing an implant and using Level 2 Intense Training on?), but my dilemma is where to place it =P. Since none of my perk selection requires any amount of EN, my only real concern is amount of implants I can take.

ST - 6
PE - 5
EN - 6
CH - 4
IN - 7
AG - 6
LK - 6

I am just the crazy kind try to maximizing the Implants I can take because they are bonus SPECIAL points. However I wouldn't brother with Endurance Implant.

I agree. If I stayed with my current SPECIAL, I'd be able to get all Stat Implants (excluding EN - waste anyway) but I would miss out if on the DT Implant if I devote Intense Training on something other than EN @ level 2. Can't really decide what stat to use the perk on =|.

I would stick with Strength 5 base and raise to 6 with Implant, put it on Endurance. Than you can do whatever you want with intense training.

That's an option, but I would then incur even further accuracy penalties for not meeting the ST Reqs for some of the heavier weapons (being 2-3 ST points below).

BTW, are there any High Def Texture packs for NV yet? The Gamebryo engine is so dated and definitely looks like it. I see 4Aces Hires Texture pack (a massive 4.5 GB altogether), but that's about it.