a flower in hell on 25/8/2008 at 01:49

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Agility is the only stat worth maxing out right away.

Koki on 25/8/2008 at 04:49

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I think you can actually raise more stats in 1 than in 2. But it's been a while since I (power)played it.

Rogue Keeper on 25/8/2008 at 11:52

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Use Gifted trait for +1 to every stat, at the cost of lower skills. Bruiser or Small Frame traits can add something too. If you don't want them, the least useful stat for practical use is Luck, but don't push it below 3. You should have at least luck 7 to have decent chance for neat special encounters (of which there aren't many in F1). Luck is also good for critical hits, if you have high luck, you can lower your Strength for melee oriented character - you won't do as much regular melee damage, but when you make critical hit, they will feel it alright! See the difference as bulky wrestler versus slim Taekwon-do sensei. For most heavy firearms like flamethrowers, chainguns and rocket launchers you need to have decent strength, 7 should be enough I think...

F1 offers less opportunities to raise base stats than F2. There is only one place in F1 where they can raise your stats by 1 - for nice sum of money. F1 also doesn't have Gain ... perks like F2 has.

Yes, supply them with ammunition regularly. If they run out of ammo, they will use melee weapon in their inventory (Ian rocks with knife, Tycho likes spears). But they may sometimes switch to melee weapon even if they have to reload. To prevent this from happening, make sure they don't have any melee weapon, but enough ammo. You can tell them to use their best weapon available in next fight.

Certainly give your party mates some stimpacks, they will use them when they are injured. But don't give them more than 1 SuperStimpack at one time as cumulative effect of the SuperStims can kill them later (they don't level up in F1, thus their HPs are fixed. Ian has about 50HPs, Tycho about 75HPs, don't know about Katja). You can give them other chems too, but they may not use them at the right moment when you need them to - better dope them yourself before fight.

Also, SAVE before every bigger fight and before travelling. Even swarms of Mantis, Molerats and Radscorpions are deadly to you and Ian on lower levels. On higher levels you can roam most of the wasteland map alone safely. I loved my Ranger character, just me, my leather armor, sharpshooter perk, hunting rifle, spear and Dogmeat, exploring SoCal and cleaning it from the desert vermin...

Final note : On my first Fallout run I was quite confused about where I should go to look for the right info about Water Chip, as the world was so open-ended. That was totally new for me back then (like I said elsewhere it was my first RPG) and it felt great. But at the same time I was under time pressure and that made me somehow nervous. Well don't worry. Don't explore the world at your will until you get the water chip - travelling aimlessly around and between settlements consumes precious time. Save tough battles for later. Ask people about places. Most of people in Junktown mention The Hub as an important location. Follow that lead. Take few side-quests, their accomplishment takes you 1-2 days at most and you earn some XP and equipment. Once you'll be in The Hub ask for more locations... they mention fairly obvious one you should pay attention to. Read useful pre-war info about locations, like holodiscs when you come across some. The path to Water Chip isn't really long if you follow the obvious clues. 100 days should be enough for you.

Now move on Vault Dweller. Overseer's patience is dwindling. :cool:

Rogue Keeper on 25/8/2008 at 15:26

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You can forget about big guns completely if you are diplomat/scientist or skilled thief.

ZylonBane on 25/8/2008 at 19:34

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Or pretty much anything but "Big Gun Guy". High-level characters tend to be frighteningly effective without any need for heavy artillery.