Well, as some of you know, I've been plagued by most if not all the bugs throughout the game...no issues, advice and workarounds have done their bit, which I'm very thankfull for...

But now I've reached the point where I have to do certain things to progress any further along the game line...and this involves fighting a decent number of harder enemies...the problem is that VATS isn't working with the large number of npc's, and the strongest and most effective weapons I have are plagued with the 'lever-action glitch'.

The end result is either I attempt to fight through FPS style, which I haven't done either in FNV or F3, and I give up on my decent weaponry, which means I weaken my character and all those perks are now useless. Alternatively, I turn my character schizophrenic and completely alter my gameplay and the psychology of my character and behave in a manner that is totally alien to me.

Do I want to become a genocidal maniac? No. But if I want to continue the game, I must....

I've twisted and turned this over in my mind, and I have come to the conclusion that these two glitches, in this circumstance, have really become 'game breaking', at least until a patch comes out that fixes them. The problem is that I don't think that these glitches will get fixed...I think that they are too embedded in the mechanics of the game to be able to be rectified. I hope I'm wrong, but I have a bad feeling about it.

I'm right there with you and my game has effectively ended because I won't assassinate someone. I'm not an assassin...so I'm waiting for a patch. I'm sorry your game is there too.

ADDED: GStaff posted this today up in the sticky.
Wanted to update everyone on the status of the game updates/patches. We're working on the final touches for PC, 360, and PS3. Once they're available, we'll let you know

if you do decide to continue, all the end game quests can be done with energy weapons at 35 with a modded laser rifle and a whole load of max charged cells on hard difficulty with no perks (other than maybe bloody mess, finesse, better crits and the challenge perks) to prop it up. i got bored of the sniper rifle so decided to try it out. much death, just a lil slower than usual

what about this machine or even better, gobi?
i don't know what your build is, but with jet, rocket, ultrajet, and nuka victory you should easily reach the realm of 200AP. assuming you have GRS, this should be more than enough to get you through any area

edit : double post sorry

What is the problem with VATs that you have? I have CTDs in VATS several times per play session, is that it?

Also, with the lever-action reload issue, I think they will fix it because it's an animation issue. A modder has managed to help this issue out a bit with a fix if you're on pc though.

whats all this about not being an assasin????

i thought VATS wasnt working

What about VATS, exactly, isn't working?

Gungho1, are you playing the PC version? I was having the same problems with reloading and VATS and it was driving me nuts. I installed http://www.newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=36317 (just an ESM file) and it took care of it. The one I'm using replaces the reload animation for the affected weapons, which isn't ideal, but it got rid of the reloading and VATS issues I was having. Apparently they're both related to the reload animation scripts. I'm using it as a stop-gap until the promised official fix is released.

I get this a lot as well (on a PS3)

You're in combat, you hit the VATS button, nothing., You hear an audible click, but VATS doesnt come up.
Very frustrating as you have to switch to manual shooting, which is no way as good or effective as VATS...

As JG says, also, when there's a lot happening, it turns into a slideshow...horrid....

Here's how bad it is - My character, Veronica and Rex vs 7 mixed high level CL....I took out three with headshots, Rex and Veronica had disposed of 1...by the time the reload of the Brush gun was over, all 3 of us were dead, and no other CL was even touched...

I have no issue with my character's capabilities with what he's using, nor with AP - It's a base of 119 at the moment with rapid regeneration and GRS. Nor the firepower he's carrying...the issue is the VATS glitch and the reload issue for lever action firearms at this particular spot in the game on my character...it's one of the gameline bottlenecks, so it has to be done or I completely change the character behaviour...but if I do that, I will be faced with the same problem by taking the other course of action...

It's really good news about the impending patch...I'm hopefull it addresses at least one of these issues for me...now that I've progressed well into the game it's very enjoyable.

Do you mean that the problem is that you are taking damage in VATS while your character reloads (unlike in FO3 where VATS made you invincible)?

Or is something else happening when you go to VATS?

BTW, I once completed a playthrough of FO3 without using VATS and it's actually more fun IMO. I'm currently playing a melee build character in FNV, so I don't use VATS very often. I usually just rush headfirst into a group of enemies and hack away with the supersledge (with super slam perk it knocks them to the ground). Even for sniping, VATS is less accurate than using a scope without VATS because you can shoot an enemy from a much longer distance, even if the percentages in VATS are 0%.

No, he means you just stuck in VATS because sometimes the kill cam just wouldn't go away because the dead body still moving...I know, I actually find out why. One solution to that is change kill cam to 1st person to get free turbo.

As for the reloading gtich....practice quick-redraw and count your shots

There are several VATs related bugs, it can take a long time to enter VATS, it'll get stuck with you being unable to do anything whilst taking damage before VATS ends without firing a shot and there is also the CTD though i've not seen it i've heard it reported several times.

I've experianced the first two of these and the reloading animation bug (on mutliple occasions ??) I'm hoping the patch will fix much of this, the dead body moving error is seriously annoying too so i've started avoiding VATS 'cause of these errors.