Fallout 3

[Briareos]

The ants can be a real pain if you're low level, I would suggest doing some other missions first. For ammo can just enter random buildings like the school near Megaton or the super duper market, places like that have loads of it and you get even more from killing the raiders.

Thanks, on a levelling note, when you up your small weapons skill does it just increase the accuracy or does it increase the damage dealt too?

[sharky_ob]

Thanks, on a levelling note, when you up your small weapons skill does it just increase the accuracy or does it increase the damage dealt too?

Yes, you do more damage the more you level that skill.

[Womble9]

Secondly, just been going up against some fire ants (hence the lack of ammo). I know the trick of shooting the

->Open Spoiler<-

antannae to make them frenzy

but it only helps if they come at you in groups. I'm shooting the hell out of them and barely a scratch, essentially I have to wait until I get a lucky critical, is this what I should expect?

Using your sneak makes a critical hit far more likely and when you've killed an ant make sure you seach them as

->Open Spoiler<-

getting and using ant nectar will make you far more resistant to their flames

. I also found that if I managed to get

->Open Spoiler<-

up behind them I could quite easilly batter the buggers to death!

[Riskbreaker]

Secondly, just been going up against some fire ants (hence the lack of ammo). I know the trick of shooting the

->Open Spoiler<-

antannae to make them frenzy

but it only helps if they come at you in groups. I'm shooting the hell out of them and barely a scratch, essentially I have to wait until I get a lucky critical, is this what I should expect?

Grenades > Ants

[B1gBeard]

For me this has been one of those defining experiences in nearly 30 years of gaming (and I didn't think there would be anymore moments like this).

I've got about 35hrs clocked up on the board so far and could easily play for another 35.

The world has completely sucked me in, much more so than Oblivion. I've found myself wandering the wasteland from ruin to ruin and settlement to settlement sucking up the atmosphere and imagining if this is how it would really be.

Every place I visit seems to have a story to tell whether its childs toys spread around the floor, bodies from recent skirmishes, pockets of humans fighting to survive against the odds or skeletons still lying in their beds and baths.

Whenever I scan the horizon there is always somewhere else to head towards, interesting characters to find and stories to uncover.

->Open Spoiler<-

My journey from the GNR building on the quest for Three Dog was one of the most intense and atmospheric experiences I've had. When I found the slavers at the Lincoln Memorial looking for my slave friends I felt a great sense of justice wiping the bastards out and whooped for joy when I fought my first Glowing One.

Its feelings like this that have placed this game way above any other I have played for a long time.

The rest of the game, combat, interface, camera, controls etc I couldn't really tell you much about. They are just the tools that let me experience the world and they do the job.

Amazing.

[Briareos]

Grenades > Ants

Gotcha, with a low explosives skill are grenades just less accurate in VATS?

[gamelife]

must say that i've really enjoyed this game so far. ive not been able to stop playing since buying it on friday and tbh its a complete masterpiece and its like nothing ive ever played before.

even spending hours wondering around buying and selling stuff to max out my health and ammo reserves has been fun.

[Briareos]

Oh noes! Speaking to another player at work who has also been playing the moira missions and he has pointed out something I missed. In the land mine mission I

->Open Spoiler<-

didn't manage to bring her back a landmine (how do you pick them up anyway?)

and so I didn't get rewarded with the

->Open Spoiler<-

landmine schematics

. Is there any way I can get these later on or it it nerfed?

[sharky_ob]

Gotcha, with a low explosives skill are grenades just less accurate in VATS?

Nope, as with all the weapons, the higher your skill the better your damage modifier too.

[sharky_ob]

Oh noes! Speaking to another player at work who has also been playing the moira missions and he has pointed out something I missed. In the land mine mission I

->Open Spoiler<-

didn't manage to bring her back a landmine (how do you pick them up anyway?)

and so I didn't get rewarded with the

->Open Spoiler<-

landmine schematics

. Is there any way I can get these later on or it it nerfed?

There's definately alternative ways to get some of the schematics. Not seen another bottlecap mine one though. If you get two of the same schematic you can make a more powerful version of the weapon.

To disarm mines, you have to get close to them (use sneak) while pointing your crosshair at them. If your explosive skill is high enough a prompt will come up asking if you want to disarm. You can then pick up the mine.

[Rick]

I love this game.

I just wish i could spend more time on it than i have been doing

[Riskbreaker]

Gotcha, with a low explosives skill are grenades just less accurate in VATS?

Can't remember paying much attention. I imagine so. What I would say is that I was watching my brother play through the Grayditch area at a much lower level than I had been (level 4 I think) and his explosives skill was around the 25 mark. Each grenade he threw would kill an ant outright.

[Briareos]

Can't remember paying much attention. I imagine so. What I would say is that I was watching my brother play through the Grayditch area at a much lower level than I had been (level 4 I think) and his explosives skill was around the 25 mark. Each grenade he threw would kill an ant outright.

Excellent news thanks!

Does anyone know the minimum explosives level needed to be able to disarm a mine?

[SuperBeatBoy]

I don't know, but the higher the skill the longer they take to explode if your trying to get near one to disable it.

[Riskbreaker]

Yeah I was messing about with nades last night, I'm fairly sure they don't even have an accuracy rating in VATS, not one that I can recall seeing. My explosives skill is only around 35, I noticed that every now and then a grenade would roll past my opponent and blow up behind them. But plenty of my nades would be on target and explode on impact.

I was using them on Super Mutants though, they aren't exactly hard to miss

I think it's 25 for disarming a mine, don't quote me on it when you lose a limb though. There are some other types of trap you'll encounter that require a higher skill level.