Current Events > First time playing Fallout 3 and I am fuckin idiot

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The game doesn't really explain how the equipment system or any of the menus work and I'm sort of confused. I struggled trying to figure out the computer hacking and lock picking and I told my friends and they were like "lol we beat that when we were 12." I've never played any Bethesda game before, so maybe I'm missing out on the Todd Howard language or maybe I am just stupid. Any tips or tricks for a first time player?

Just watch a youtube vid

PC? If so get a mod that skips the lockpicking and hacking minigames

Crimsoness posted...

PC? If so get a mod that skips the lockpicking and hacking minigames

Series X :/

I would second watching a YouTube video, but tbh I kinda agree with your friends lol

Yeah, the hacking is awful.

i found it tough the first time I played. I got stuck in the subway

Didn't replay it again till a few years later after I beat new vegas

Computer hacking is basically just Wordle but you pick from pre-selected words and don't see which letters are the correct ones. Exiting the Terminal resets your number of tries.

Lockpick is just trying to find the invisible "hitbox' for the lock and then turning.

Locking picking is a simple concept you turn the one thing that can freely be turned. At some spit you should be able to turn the other piece if you meet resistance stop and move the first thing some more but If the second part does turn a little you know you are jn the ballpark of where tbe first thing needs to be turned to

Hacking computers. You highlight a word nothing that's gibberish. Click on it you should see a number somewhere that's telling you how many letters in the word you picked are In the actual password. Cheap trick even if it's tedious never use your last attempt as you will get locked out back out and try again and you get a fresh set of attempts though the password will be different now.

But what I did originally was just keep mashing random words until the last attempt back out go back in rinse and repeat. Eventually you will get lucky and hit the password

For lock picking, imagine the door knob is a circle graph and you are trying to get the Bobby pin into the wedge of the graph. Set the pin, then rotate the door knob. If it vibrates, move the Bobby pin to another "wedge" and try again.

For hacking, you're just guessing which word fits, kinda like Wordle.
If you get a partially right answer, that's how many letters of the password are correct and in the correct position.
So if you guess "fart" but the password is "dart" you'll get a 3/4

Eh, just keep playing, you'll start to understand it.

While I enjoyed the lock picking and hacking, I also strive to max those out so I could just brute force all of them by the middle part of the game.

ClayGuida posted...

Eh, just keep playing, you'll start to understand it.

While I enjoyed the lock picking and hacking, I also strive to max those out so I could just brute force all of them by the middle part of the game.

I preferred oblivions lock picking. Even at low levels I could open master locks with a shitty lockpick. My step sister would always hand me thr controller when she came across a lock above a certain level. I can do this style but it's guaranteed your Bobby pin/lock pick is eventually gonna break. Oblivion I could go a super long time on just one. Eventually I'd slip up and break one though.

IIRC they almost never put anything essential behind locks or hacking because the game design accounts for players not being able to do those things. So even though it might bug you from a completionist standpoint, you really dont have to sweat it that much if there's a door you can't get past

Sufferedphoenix posted...

I preferred oblivions lock picking. Even at low levels I could open master locks with a shitty lockpick. My step sister would always hand me thr controller when she came across a lock above a certain level. I can do this style but it's guaranteed your Bobby pin/lock pick is eventually gonna break. Oblivion I could go a super long time on just one. Eventually I'd slip up and break one though.

Having recently fired up Oblivion for the first time in over a decade, I couldn't get the Skeleton Key fast enough. Oblivion's lockpicking minigame got on my last nerves quick, especially considering Oblivion's stingy-ass loot system where too often the value of what I got out of the chest was less than the lockpicks I used to crack it open.

The next ES game should make it so that if you set your intelligence low enough you can just bash every lock open without even getting the option to pick it

DipDipDiver posted...

The next ES game should make it so that if you set your intelligence low enough you can just bash every lock open without even getting the option to pick it

I'm suddenly reminded of a mod for New Vegas (that maybe is for Fallout 3 as well) that makes locks susceptible to explosions, although to balance that out, your explosives skill must be equal or higher to the lock's difficulty to succesfully break it.

masterpug53 posted...

Having recently fired up Oblivion for the first time in over a decade, I couldn't get the Skeleton Key fast enough. Oblivion's lockpicking minigame got on my last nerves quick, especially considering Oblivion's stingy-ass loot system where too often the value of what I got out of the chest was less than the lockpicks I used to crack it open.

If you get it down though it's so easy to go extremely long periods of time without breaking a pick. I've done master locks with novice picks with base lock picking level.

I got to where I could pick out both the visual and audio cue for it

menu system, basically everything is through the pip boy. you can equip one armor and one weapon at a time. you can also hotkey anything to one of 9 directions on the DPad for easy equip or use. things degrade, so you can collect two of the same object and if your repair is high enough you can repair one with the other.

item use is also through the pip boy in 3, i believe, so eating and using stimpacks will be through that too. think you can also hot key one for easy use (i believe stimpacks are auto assigned to the DPad in New Vegas). the left most option in the pip boy shows you your statuses, and you can individually heal a body part with a stimpack if it gets crippled. left most option in the pip boy is the radio, useful for unlocking things and listening to the awesome soundtrack.

that's all i remember off the top of my head.

Go the scrapyard and get your buddy

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/a/abf40b83.jpg

Sufferedphoenix posted...

If you get it down though it's so easy to go extremely long periods of time without breaking a pick. I've done master locks with novice picks with base lock picking level.

I got to where I could pick out both the visual and audio cue for it

Like you alluded to in your first post, some people just aren't built for it, and I'm one of them. Breaking one pick just leads to a cascade of frustration where I burn through like a fifth of my total picks on one lock, and there's sooooo many locks in the game that it's just too much to put in the mental effort to git gud at it when there's an unbreakable pick easily available once you reach level 10.

masterpug53 posted...

Like you alluded to in your first post, some people just aren't built for it, and I'm one of them. Breaking one pick just leads to a cascade of frustration where I burn through like a fifth of my total picks on one lock, and there's sooooo many locks in the game that it's just too much to put in the mental effort to git gud at it when there's an unbreakable pick easily available once you reach level 10.

The most pins I've broken picking one lock is 2.
That's because I'm always very cautious when lock picking. The instant the lock resists, I immediately stop applying pressure. I then rotate the pin to a new position and try again.

If you have trouble understanding the lockpicking mechanic, try visualizing a half of a pie graph.
Now, a section of that half-pie is where you want the pin to be in for the lock to openable. The easier the lock, and the higher your lockpicking skill, the larger that section is.

Fallout 3 was one of the few games I played completely through more than once.

I remember playing 3 when it came out, then played through all the DLC on a new play through another time. Think I even played another character too, to do all the other missions you can lock yourself out of.

Good shit.

If you played the first two Fallouts it easy

masterpug53 posted...

Like you alluded to in your first post, some people just aren't built for it, and I'm one of them. Breaking one pick just leads to a cascade of frustration where I burn through like a fifth of my total picks on one lock, and there's sooooo many locks in the game that it's just too much to put in the mental effort to git gud at it when there's an unbreakable pick easily available once you reach level 10.

But you cant complete the quest line and keep it. So fine on a secondary play I get. But I never got what's so hard about the system.

Sufferedphoenix posted...

But you cant complete the quest line and keep it. So fine on a secondary play I get. But I never got what's so hard about the system.

I was talking about Oblivion's lockpicking minigame, not Skyrim's.

The only gripe I have with Skyrim's lockpicking is that there's a huge leap in frustration from Expert to Master-level locks, which would be a fine hurdle challenge-wise if Master-level locks weren't fucking everywhere. By comparison Fallout 3 had maybe a dozen total Very Hard-level locks in the entire game. Other than that I thought it was fine. There's a reason that's been the default Bethesda open-world lockpicking minigame since Fallout 3.

Also it's been awhile since I played Skyrim unmodded with vanilla perks, but iirc the Master-level lockpicking perk is that your picks no longer break.

I had never played an Elders Scroll so my first playthrough I didn't even understand quest markers. I ended up confused in DC before ever reaching Megaton.

Kim_Seong-a posted...

Computer hacking is basically just Wordle but you pick from pre-selected words and don't see which letters are the correct ones. Exiting the Terminal resets your number of tries.

Lockpick is just trying to find the invisible "hitbox' for the lock and then turning.

This

There is a technique, but honestly semi educated guessing and spam resetting BEFORE you lock it out (dont use your last chance) is faster.

masterpug53 posted...

I was talking about Oblivion's lockpicking minigame, not Skyrim's.

The only gripe I have with Skyrim's lockpicking is that there's a huge leap in frustration from Expert to Master-level locks, which would be a fine hurdle challenge-wise if Master-level locks weren't fucking everywhere. By comparison Fallout 3 had maybe a dozen total Very Hard-level locks in the entire game. Other than that I thought it was fine. There's a reason that's been the default Bethesda open-world lockpicking minigame since Fallout 3.

Also it's been awhile since I played Skyrim unmodded with vanilla perks, but iirc the Master-level lockpicking perk is that your picks no longer break.

My bad I get confused with oblivion cause lock picking level doesn't matter to me.

NightRender posted...

I had never played an Elders Scroll so my first playthrough I didn't even understand quest markers. I ended up confused in DC before ever reaching Megaton.

This. I've never played any bethesda game unless you count doom but I stepped outside the vault and walked around, fought some insects and now just found the town megaton. still don't know what I am supposed to be doing though

Bring up the Quest tab on your Pipboy

Alternatively, explore to find side quests

For hacking you can also remove duds and replenish your tries by finding pairs of brackets and selecting them for example anywhere you see "( " followed by ")" at some point or <>, [], etc.

ponyseizures posted...

This. I've never played any bethesda game unless you count doom but I stepped outside the vault and walked around, fought some insects and now just found the town megaton. still don't know what I am supposed to be doing though

it's only linear if you choose to make it. you can go to the pip boy and go to the quest tab and choose a quest. then, in game, your compass will have an arrow/flag where your destination is. this can lead you into multiple doors and interiors, but it will eventually get you to your target. if your quest has multiple choices, they'll all appear on the compass at once, making it both easy and confusing.

but one of the main points of these games is to just go exploring. running into situations or stories or side quests is almost the entire point. you'll eventually find out which ways are dangerous to go, which ways require higher levels, etc. but exploration is literally one of the main pillars of this game, so go out and explore. don't worry so much about breaking the linearity of things.

got so many 1000 hours in fallout loved that game to death wish i could go through it again brand new with out knowing everything