I don't even have any DLC for New Vegas, and the damn thing runs like a pig in the outdoors. I managed to lag my way to the gas station where Ringo was hiding, and once inside everything became playable, damn it.

And every time I exit, Core 1 on my dual-core CPU stays pinned at around 70-80% load. Just blamed on the system process, nothing underneath to explain it.

I can't wait for the updated patch. I should have known better than to get the game now when it's still in public alpha. Just what the hell did they do to the Gamebryo engine this time?

Pretty good game. The improvements on Fallout 3 are very welcome and the writing by the Obsidian team is enjoyable. Contrary to what most people have said, I really never get bugs or glitches. I mean, clipping and some lag at times, maybe an enemy gets stuck in the ground somewhere, but nothing major and game breaking. Not even a crash. I just assume I have a magical Xbox though.

I personally find New Vegas to be superior to Fallout 3.

It gives me great pleasure to announce that I have entered the Mojave Wasteland!

New Vegas is installed, configured, updated, knows how to use my hardware, and functioning beautifully. Now, where's that Agave? I need to make me some Tequila!

WOO HOO !!! Now that's what I'm talking about !!!

New avatar, my first F:NV Char-gen face.

Not too bad, if I say so myself.

Not bad at all! I let my son make mine because we had company over that wanted to play when we first opened it (and I was cooking) - the man could scare children!!! (Plus, it is a man, I wanted a female character, lol).

808 bytes were wonky in my local files. Validating the game cache means Deputy Beagle has been freed and it's off to rustle up some more troops.

*shakes head* computers...

This is probably the funniest glitch-out I have ever seen in this game.

Whoa, that is freaky! Although it would be cool if the doctor was supposed to be that way!

I helped Ringo in the shootout with the Powder Gangers. There were two in particular: one with a cleaver and one with a baseball bat.

After sodding off and making the lives of several convicts down Primm way nasty, brutish and short, I returned to Goodsprings and noticed:

1. Mr. Cleaver had the thing jammed in his stomach, handle first.

2. Mr Batsman had the bat rammed in a rather painful location.

The life of a courier is wierd sometimes...

Caravan can be very confusing, so I've attempted to better organize the rules of the game. Please tell me if this helps you better understand how to play:

---Before you play...

You must own at least 30 cards to play.

A 54 card starter deck (The Tops set) can be obtained from Ringo during the tutorial.

---Building a deck

Identical cards are allowed, but they must be from different sets of cards.
IE: You can place an Ace of Spades from The Tops set and an Ace of Spades from the Gomorrah set into
your deck, but not two Aces of Spades from The Tops set.

30 cards per deck.

---The Goal

Build three lines of cards, competing to have each "caravan" contain the highest bid (numeric value)
without going under 21 or over 26. The player who sells the most caravans (see endgame rules) wins the pot.

---Opengame Rules

To start, draw 8 cards and place one numeric card or ace of any suit on the table to start your caravans.

Discarding is not allowed during the initial round.
[BUG] The player can actually make unlimited discards during the initial round because the game does
not properly block the discard function and fails to give the opponent a turn if you do.

---Midgame Rules

Once the bids are started, you can spend your turn in three ways:

1. Play one card into your caravans and draw one card
2. Discard one card from hand and draw one card
3. Disband a caravan, removing it from the table

The second card placed on the caravan sets the direction, higher means all subsequent cards must be
higher, and vice versa for lower.

You may also place any card that matches the suit of the previous card so long as it is not the same
card (IE, you can't play a 3 of spades on another 3 of spades, but can on a 10 of spades). You may
also change the direction of the caravan by doing so (IE: 9 of hearts, 7 of diamonds, 3 of spades,
5 of spades, and the descending caravan is now ascending).

Face cards are not played normally, they are instead attached to the top card in an existing caravan
(placed to the side of it) to provide a special effect. Face cards may be played on the opponent's caravans as well as your own. See the card rules for more info.

---Endgame Rules

Once a caravan has reached a value between 21 and 26, it is "sold" and can no longer be modified.

If the opposing player manages to obtain a higher numeric value on his opposite caravan than the
one you sold without going above 27, then you are outbid and the caravan sale becomes his.

The player who sold the most caravans when all caravans have been sold wins the pot.

If a caravan ties, the game continues until either player can sell it.

If either player runs out of cards, they lose automatically.

---Card rules

Numeric cards are worth exactly that number (10 of spades adds 10 to a caravan bid).

Aces are worth 1.

Attaching a Jack to a card removes that card and any other cards attached to it from the table.

Attaching a Queen to a card changes the caravan's direction and switches the current suit to
the Queen's suit.

Attaching a King to a card doubles its value. This effect stacks (two Kings triples the card, and so on).

Attaching a Joker to a card 2-10 removes all other cards of that number (and their attachments) from the table. The card the joker was attached to, however, stays put.

Attaching a joker to an Ace removes all non-face cards of the Aces suit and their attachments from the table (IE: placing it on the Ace of Spades removes all 2-10s of spades from the table), save the ace it
was played on.

Again, please let me know if this helps you understand this convoluted game a little better.

Thank you for the legit rules! I never know how to play that game in real life. I enjoy exploiting the bug that allows you to cheat in New Vegas, so those rules don't exactly apply when you really try to play.

This needs to be on it's own thread and PINNED !!!! AWESOME, Thomas Kaira !!!! Thank you !!!!

BethBlog says that more DLC for New Vegas will be released in the coming months. Cool. I played Dead Money recently and it was alright. I'm hoping the next ones are a bit better though. DM was kinda tedious and the story didn't really catch me. The companions did though, so I hope we get more of that. Nice, fleshed out party members. Also, I'm super excited to find out the big secret behind Ulysees, who I'm hoping ends up being some kind of amazing boss fight or something. I've also heard that future DLC would add an area to the game that players "likely thought they would never see", as well as "a personality from Fallout 3". Personality? Obviously we'll be seeing the return of Three Dog.


Oh, and PC and PS3 users get Dead Money this 22nd. Have fun.

Or Moira, lol. RagingMudcrab - I know the DLC that is out now adds 5 levels, but do you know if it "Un-ends" the game if you have finished the Main Quest Line?

Moira would be pretty fun to hang out with again. It's actually somewhat likely it will be her too, considering the Wasteland Survival Guide somehow made it's way to the Mojave from DC. She coulda brought it.

Sadly, Dead Money does not allow post-game playing. And according to senior producer Jason Bergman, it never will. That seems... incredibly stupid. I'd have thought Bethesda would have learned from Fallout 3. I remember people being upset about that. Did Obsidian not hear about it? Admittedly the ending for New Vegas isn't anywhere near as bad and phoned-in as FO3's, but still. I want to play after !

Plus was a fun idea.

I agree, it is ridiculous to end the game - maybe Bethesda will talk some sense into them, lol.

One thing I liked really well in New Vegas is !

Yeah, that was awesome. It made you feel like the little things you did actually had an impact on the end game.

I agree - it is like you really don't know how many people are effected by your seemingly insignificant actions - and then suddenly you find out they were VERY impacted, good or bad.

In Fallout 3, they did this to a certain extent, but after New Vegas - I found myself wishing FO3 had carried it further than they did.

One thing I think was overdone in Vegas was the sheer number of enemies that attack at once, the Deathclaw Promentary is ridiculous - but IMO, Bethesda should have used SOME of that idea in Oblivion. For instance, Oblivion rarely had more than 3 enemies attack at one time. It was too easy. If you get attacked by 3 mudcrabs you don't even have to stop walking ... but if you got attacked by 20 at low levels, they could kill you.

One thing I wish they had in FO3: for people like me who open every single bathroom door to see if someone threw Jet or a skill book into a toilet - I wish they would ... just every now and then ... have a ghoul pop out and charge you making that awful noise when you open a stall door in a bathroom.

I am the same way. I always check every stall. After all, you never know when there might be robot in there taking a dump of spare parts! You are right though. While I have run across mole rats in the main area of the bathroom and the occasional raider, I cannot recall ever finding anyone in one of the stalls.

I thought the Deathclaw area was ridiculous too until I bought the .50 caliber rifle. Then it was FUN.

The reason Oblivion didn't have many enemies was because that version of Gamebryo couldn't handle very many NPCs on screen at the same time.

The Anti-Material gun? That is what I made it through with (finally! And without Veronica, I don't know where she went, but it wasn't the Promentary, lol).

Me neither. One time there was more than one skeleton in a stall that gave my foot a jolt when I stepped on it - that was the only thing I ever found that knocked some health out of me and surprised inside a stall.

I wouldn't want a Reaver to pop out, just a regular ghoul, or rat, maybe even a raider - but the element of surprise would have brought about a scream, pounding heart - and made me a little more cautious when opening stall doors for a while.

Then when nothing happened and I had relaxed and begun just flipping them open again ... BAM! Have it happen again.

I seem to remember at least one toilet stall somewhere that has a land mine in it

Yes, the Anti-Material rifle may be the greatest weapon in the game. It's brutally destructive. Totally worth the gargantuan amount of caps to demolish those pesky Deathclaws and such.

Speaking of getting mobbed by enemies, I hate Cazadors. They're Satan's abominations.

Pushy does an awesome job with them, but they usually attack in groups. Two killing you while you beat one can still end up with your charcter falling in slow motion while hearing that death music.

I hate them too. When I see them I end up pulling out a thermal lance or similar close range power weapon.


When I got my nifty-fifty I splurged and bought the incendiary rounds at 14 caps a pop. I don't remember if the game has HE rounds for the fifty but if it does I bought those too. Well worth it seeing a flaming Deathclaw running around in pain before dying a horrible death.

I had Boone with me for most of the campaign so I bought a fifty for him too. Dropped a lot of caps at the BoS HQ that day.

What is a Thermal Lance? GAAAAH! A weapon that takes down Cazadors and I haven't heard of it? GAAAAH!

The Anti-Material rifle is the only reason I made it through the Deathclaw Promentary and "The Fort" - unfortunately, using VATS on it can be dangerous to your followers sometimes - why VATS even targets them when an enemy is right there I don't know - but when you finally get it where it is supposed to be aiming (on the enemy) and shoot - there is Veronica in flames yelling, "I'm hit!"

My bad, it's actually Thermic Lance.
http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Thermic_lance

Does huge damage.

The fort.... Caesar's place?

I used lol missiles from Annabelle to get inside, and then lured Caesar himself out of his giant tent (and all of his body guards) and used the Hammer of Dawn on all of them!

EDIT: By Hammer of Dawn I mean the Archimedes II super weapon.

I've only gotten Archimedes II to actually work once - after that it did the play through but nothing happened.

Yes, I did mean Caesar's Fortification Hill.

*

At Cottonwood Cove I was sneaking when I released the barrels and killed them all in one fell swoop - and never took a lick on their opinion of me, I was still accepted after all that - (that I really liked, it is much more realistic if you are not seen when you do something that no one knows you did it IMO).

They give you your weapons when you go down into the bunker. I destroyed the whole robot army (thereby ticking off Mr. House, whose screen instantly became red) - and then sneaked up the steps, using the Anti-Material gun to set fire to the legion inside that bunker without alerting them to my presence. That was the only way I could get access to my guns in the Fort.

Then I hid behind something and set fire to (killed) that Legion that takes your guns outside Caesar's tent.

Because the Legion wasn't alerted that I had killed their members I was able to get into the tent with all my guns as a non-hostile. I crouched as soon as I got in and burned them all (dogs included) till they just barely had any life left (because if any one of them dies the others instantly attack you).

Then I walked back to the bedroom and started opening fire on them. They all died quickly. It was hard to kill Caesar, I really liked his personality - but had to.

I had all Caesar's troops dead (except the one you can't get to); disabled all House's robots, (including those in Vegas thanks to the Robot Expert perk) - only four of them would not be disabled at the gates directly outside the Lucky 38 (all the rest of the gate robots in Vegas DID disable) - inside the Lucky 38 there were two robots that wouldn't disable and Victor won't, and Yes Man won't - but Jane did.

(over-rode their AI on House's PC) - Unhooked House from the main line, but kept him alive.

Got the Boomers and NCR to work together ...

- ALL SET FOR THE FINAL BATTLE - LEVEL 30 - AND MY GAME CRASHED, ALL SAVES CORRUPT !!!! GAAAAAAAAH !!!!!!

I could have SCREAMED - in fact, I did scream, lol. Now I have to go through all that all over again - GAAAAAH!!!!

I couldn't get into the bunker under the fort. not sure why. the door was just locked and I couldn't get in. So I skipped that part.

EDIT: I thought that the body guards in the fort were insanely difficult. I tried using my standard weapons against them and they just shrug it off. I don't care who you are, you don't just shrug off a .44 magnum. Light machine gun they just laugh at. I had to bust out some serious firepower to make a dent.

I stormed the fort (none of that sneaky sh!t mALX) before I bought my nifty fifty (anti-materiel rifle). Perhaps that would have helped?

I got to the inner ring of the walls and had to use Annabelle (unique rocket launcher) to survive all the troops there, and Caesar and company just ripped me apart the 1st few times I tried. I just gave up fighting them straight up and ran outside, targeted the Hammer of Dawn at my feet and RAN LIKE HELL.

You have to have the platinum chip with you, and put it in the old-timey computer looking thing over that stairwell in order to open the door - plus either House/Yes Man/or Caesar has to send you there to start the quest or it is probably sealed.

I did use the Anti-Material gun, it was the only way to get through that place - didn't have Annabelle at the time. Those guards - and the dogs too - are tough as nails.

Oh, my character loves stealth, lol. I have a very low HP level and a few hits will take me down. I died numerous times before finally realizing no one could die till I had all their health down very low. Incindiary bullets in the AM gun - they burned without knowing they were under attack. After that, I left the tent and crept through town, shooting at anything that came up red on my compass. When I ran out of bullets I had to use Pushy, there was no sneaking then, lol.


I killed myself the one time the Achilles II worked - forgot to run like H, lol.

Oh, did you try fighting those dogs in the Arena there? Those dogs are tough as nails too !!

I had the chip, but the computer wouldn't respond when I tried to activate it. I wonder if I'm the victim of Obsidian's stellar programming...

I killed everything in the Fort when I stormed it so I probably did kill the dogs. That was a true lulz fest.
I never actually talked to Caesar. I had Boone with me and the 2 of us killed everyone there. We walked through the main gate and took out the guards there pretty fast. I blew one's head off with the .357 and turned around to get the one I knew was behind me, just to see Boone rev the ****ing chainsaw and rip him apart. The timing was perfect.

Achilles II is my favorite weapon just because it's so awesome. I have noticed that it fails to shoot pretty often when I want to use it though.

How in the world did you get your weapons? They took mine as soon as the screen loaded for landing at the fort!!

We (Boone and I) killed everyone at Cottonwood Cove with scoped rifles and used the boat ourselves.

GAAAH!!! I couldn't get it to work without that guy in the radiation suit!! And the guards didn't nab you as soon as you landed? They were in my face, the screen locked so I couldn't back out of the conversation without flat out refusing to turn over my stuff !!! GAAAAH !!! I've missed something, grrr.

It might actually be Boone specific, because when you get close to the place, he initiates a dialog

"We are getting close to Caesars territory and I will shoot anyone of them I see. I hope that's not a problem."

to which I responded:

"Sounds like a solution, not a problem."

"Alright. We'll get along well"

He was using his special scoped hunting rifle at cottonwood cove and I believe I was using the unique varmint rifle. (has a night sight scope, a silencer, maybe extended mag(?) and it does extra damage)

After we cleared the place and killed the dude in charge of the boat he did some more dialog

"I'm going to the fort. You can come with me if you want. I bet it'll be a one way trip though."

Were you actually able to see yourself going down the river in the boat or did it still do the loading screen? When you landed, did you have to walk to the gate or were you there in the gate-guard's faces?

I had Veronica

it did a loading screen when we went down the river. I do not remember if I had to talk to anyone when I got there or not. There might have been some forced dialog but if there was I kept my weapons.

I may have to try getting Boone. I remember I didn't want to make a fuss at the gate because I didn't want to take on the whole fort at once, lol.

Oh, and if you fight in the Arena at the fort, they take away all your weapons (even if you have a good machete) and give you a crappy machete. Those dogs are some tough mutts, genetically altered into super-dogs. I died several times in there - but I was trying to gain a good reputation with the Legion so I could get my guns back. Turns out the only way I could get them back was to get the quest that took me down into the bunker - from any one of the people (House, Yes Man, or Caesar). (so I killed myself all those times in the Arena for nothing, lol)

I got that bunker quest from Yes Man so why couldn't I get in there? *frustration*

The door was just locked and the Yes Man computer terminal wouldn't respond.

If it happens again, check your inventory for the platinum chip. They instantly remove it from you when you land at the fort.

Had Yes Man plugged himself into House's terminal at the Lucky 38? I didn't un-hook House from it till after I went down in the bunker. He got on the screen and told me to put the upgrades into the robot army - instead I destroyed the whole army of robots. When I came out of there, House's monitor was RED, lol.

I had the chip because I had just taken it off of Caesar's corpse.

Yes Man was installed into the computer.

I think Yes Man gives you the quest after he takes you into the basement of the Lucky 38 and shows you his (formerly House's) plan - had he done that yet?

Not sure if that "Wildcard" quest he gives you with all the factions you are supposed to check out has one that would eliminate that step

- or - that group of quests cannot be completed without failing some of them (based on your choices) - you may possibly have failed a quest that had to do with that bunker. - you can find out: go to your journal for quests and read the screen on the right for any of those main questline quests given by House, Yes Man, or Caesar - look for the place that says to access the bunker and either upgrade or destroy the robot army. If it is in the failed or completed list - something you did/choice you made ended that option for you.

If neither House or Yes Man came up on the screen to access the bunker, something possibly was done out of order, closing off that opportunity.

As far as equipment goes, you didn't miss much - a laser rifle and some ammo from the robots that attack you, I think a couple pulse grenades or mines. It is highly radiated, even with the radiation suit I got sick and had to leave, go to Goodsprings for a cure, come back. (ran out of Rad-X and Rad-Away)

I trapped most of the robots in one room and then threw in a pulse grenade - done. To destroy the robot army you have to blow up generators.

When I arrived at the fort I had not made up my mind on factions - just didn't like the idea of the Mohave or Vegas being run by robots. They give me the creeps.

House's screen turned red, so I knew he was going to be my enemy when I returned. I had to do something about that - so I used a stealth boy and sneaked up on all the robot gate guards and disabled them. The four guarding the inside gates in the area around the Lucky 38 cannot be dismantled - but after I did the next steps I walked out and they were not hostile to me at all.

Inside the Lucky 38 I sneaked up and dismantled all the robots (including Jane, but Victor could not be disabled) - then used that computer terminal at the window behind House's monitor to cancel the guard robots command to attack me.

After you open up the secret entrance to House's chamber there are two more guard robots that can't be dismantled and remain hostile - Victor was still showing red.

I was not able to go back into the 38 to see if they would attack me later, my game crashed and all the saves became corrupt. Victor is supposed to hunt you down like a dog, and I was looking forward to seeing him in a busted heap.

As far as I know, I still would have gotten my nice suite at the Lucky 38 - I will find out when I reach that stage again because I plan to re-enact and see what would have happened.

Have you done the final battle at the dam yet? My game crashed before I could, and boy was I ticked !!!

Yep I did, I was pissed that I didn't see the Boomer's bombing run. They were supposed to show up, but I never saw it.

Oh that is right! You did tell me that! Someone else said they showed up when the battle was over - I may get on YouTube if I get time and see if there are any vids showing what they are SUPPOSED to do, lol.

I also had the BoS along and they were not bosses like I hoped. They dropped faster than the Rangers did, and they had POWER ARMOR. wtf is up with that?

How strange is that? Maybe because most of them are skilled only in unarmed? I gave Veronica some awesome guns and have yet to see her use any one of them. (some energy, some not)

I am glad you said something about that, it makes me realize that as allies they are ... somewhat over-rated. Not that I will pop in there and blow them away, though. I have yet to kill a BOS in either Fallout game I've played.

Do you have any idea how we are supposed to contact the Remnants of the Enclave? I have found their bunker, but can't get in.

I've never found it. I was not aware they were in the game. I did the endgame because I was getting really poor. I don't know how to make caps in that game. I first made tons by playing blackjack but then a game update came out and after that I literally lost every round. The computer will just keep drawing card after card after card and get like 20 or 21 every time. pissed me off so much. I'd get to 17 or so with my cards and then either stay and get beat by the computer or draw another and go over 21. EVERY TIME.

You need to do a lengthy quest given to you by Arcade Gannon. Its too long for me to write here (REALLY REALLY LONG) so I recommend to check out the Vault.

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/For_Auld_Lang_Syne