Hi All,

I am a long time reader of these boards and the Fallout 3 boards as well, never posted there and my first time posting here, so here it goes diving in head first ( I don't know how deep the water is, I hope I don't break my neck).

I just wanted to say how much I am enjoying F:NV. I approached this game with the mind set of taking my time. I wanted to play differently than I played Fallout 3 ( which I enjoyed). I read so many different ideas and suggestions on the best way to make Fallout 3 more realistic ( I guess before the realism mods came out) and enjoyable ( if you are into that kind of thing in a game) that I wanted to give those people some props with their clever insights. I was intrigued and looked forward to playing New Vegas in hardcoe mode, and I have to say it is fun, I wish it were Hardcoryer (SP) LOL.

One of the ideas I read was to never fast travel, so I have been trying that for the most part, I have to admit I fast travel from time to time ( I am only human), especially when its late at night and I am getting sleepy and I want to see an end result of a quest. Keeping the fast travel to a minimum I have to say has been enjoyable for me, it makes me plan the route I am going to take to get to the new map marker (and if its a bit far I might skip it for a bit till I "naturally" get closer) rather than look at the closest destination I can fast travel to then sprint there. But, it is nice to have fast travel as an option.

One other thing I wanted to try that I read, was to walk to most destinations and only run if it were applicable to the situation at hand. For instance, I walked from Primm to the NCR outpost on the Mountain and back again, from Primm to Nipton, Primm to Crimson Caravan and back again and so on and so on ( my son thinks I am nuts) in Fallout 3 I ran everywhere all the time. I find myself able to walk in the game if I do it from the start of a day of New Vegas play, let me see if I can explain what I mean by that. If I start my day playing NV by walking then it feels natural to me and the running ( yes I do break my own rules from time to time) feels rushed, but if I start my play for the day running because I have limited game time or I really wanted to get some quest done quick, then the walking feels excrutiating and almost unbearable like I am in slow motion and crawling everywhere. Its the psychology of it I think. But for the most part I have been walking when I start my play and I only run when I am in battle or I hear something interesting happening in the distance. I do tend to run when I am in towns, like Freeside and Novac there are some back and forth quests inside the towns so I am a little loose with my own rules on those occasions.

So far just those two things and playing in hardcoe mode has been a boon for me and I am 70 hours in and enjoying this game tremendously, I haven't even stepped foot into Vegas proper ( Mr. House and Lucky 38) yet, as a matter of fact I am in Jacobstown now for the first time and have completed the quests there and I am going to walk to Boulder City for the first time to continue the main quest I believe ( I forgot the name, I've ignored it for so long).

So if I didn't break my neck on my first post, I'll post again regarding my experience in walking from Jacobstown to Boulder city. ( I am pretty sure its going to be good).

Thanks for listening (reading) my two caps.

Surgeon


P.S I thought it was kind of funny ( I did chuckle out loud) when I chose to play in hardcoe mode and this rather ominous prompt came up about how its not recommended to play in hardcoe mode and the default is no. For me it is nothing like that what so ever, it has been nothing but fun. You think that message was intended as a joke by Obsidian?? the first funny event in F:NV before you even started the game?

Welcome, it sounds to me as if you play the game in a similar way to me (it's about the journey, not the destination). Like you I only use fast travel when I am short of time IRL (and usually feel a bit guilty for doing so), but I prefer the experience of walking from A to B, talking to people I meet along the way, seeing if I can finish any quest stages or pick up new quests en route to my eventual destination, rather than rushing to finish one quest at a time. As a consequence, my last character clocked up over 130 hours of playing time. It was great fun

I sense your trying to make the game feel as real as possible. You made a good point with the less fast travel thing, it would make the game more enjoyable (for me anyway). I have been been thinking about making a hardcoe character for sometime now, Im going to make one once Im done with my other three lol.

Not really, hardcoe remains me too much of the days I was into MMO; having no as default make me feels Fallout ain't turning MMO soon.....

Great first post. You have given me things to think about and I look forward to more about your journey to Boulder city!