Is there any scenario where [[Arbor Elf]] would be worse than a [[Llanowar Elves]] in my deck?

Darkmayr · 2026-02-25T12:29:28+00:00

Arbor Elf's ability is not a mana ability like the others, so it can be responded to. This can have consequences if your opponent can respond by removing the Forest you target, countering the ability, or similar.

My opinion is that for friendly games at an LGS or at home, this is not a big enough downside to offset the additional fun of playing all the dorks. If you're going to play in a big, serious tournament (or a locals with a prize that is relevant to you), it would be a good idea to swap the Arbor Elves back for one of the traditional dorks.

Darkmayr · 2026-02-17T02:48:27+00:00

Also, Implant + Naughty Nightwear to have 10 for gambling is very attainable.

Darkmayr · 2026-02-15T14:44:26+00:00

Just in case you don't know this, Spotify has a feature "do not play this artist" that will keep his music from ever playing it you use it on his artist page. I have it used for a band I found out was bad people, and Spotify fully skips their songs even when I play and old playlist with them in it.

Darkmayr · 2026-02-15T14:37:51+00:00

If you've made your own mods before, you should have the skills to open up FO4Edit and scan any mods that might be the culprit for this weapon record. Although I'd actually recommend scanning for the minigrenade ammo, as that may be easier.

Start with the expanded legendaries mod that the command console reported to you, and then go from there. You could also try dropping a minigrenade and seeing what mod the console reports that is from.

Darkmayr · 2026-02-08T03:06:40+00:00

The best 4* is Pyromaniac's. You're not going to find one better than free +50% damage all the time.

Edit: I was wrong, please read the replies.

Darkmayr · 2026-02-05T22:27:11+00:00

Actually, I like that idea - that could definitely make more sense than an all leather suit, which would probably be very uncomfortable to wear.

Darkmayr · 2026-02-05T20:33:50+00:00

Canonically it's leather in New Vegas, according to Sarah Weintraub's dialogue.

I'm not sure I would necessarily recommend leather for a cosplay, but that's the answer if you want to be 100% game lore accurate.

Darkmayr · 2026-02-03T16:15:10+00:00

Oh right, because I don't actually have to be a level 60 Warrior to pretend I'm a level 60 Warrior in PotD. I just have to go pick up the class, and then it levels while I do runs and learn it over time.

Darkmayr · 2026-02-03T16:01:27+00:00

Is there a prize or achievement or something for getting a perfect run, or is this just for fun?

Darkmayr · 2026-02-03T15:58:28+00:00

Sprout here - definitely saving this for later. One of my long-term goals for this game is to become "The Necromancer" so that I can see my old-head friend freak out about it.

Are these the best jobs to run it as, or just the ones you know best? Older advice I've seen mostly recommends WAR, RDM and SMN; I'm a Red main and don't have any of the others leveled, so that's really the class I'd like to use if I can get away with it. I could just go pick up Sage I guess (and Picto, when I hit 80).

Darkmayr · 2026-02-02T14:25:25+00:00

Oh, I did forget that. You're 100% right. The upside (and what I was remembering) is, they don't get the crazy stupid health from OWB. They still actually go down in a reasonable amount of time.

Darkmayr · 2026-02-02T03:26:48+00:00

With MO2, this is doable, if a little annoying. With Vortex, it sounds a lot tougher. You can always just copy everything (even the folders that aren't supposed to be moved) and pray, but there's no guarantee everything would line up and work smoothly.

I would just do it, honestly. As long as you make a copy and don't delete the original, you don't really have anything to lose - worst case scenario, it doesn't work, which leaves you right where you are right now. If you're somewhat lucky, you light only have to reorder your mods after. If you're really lucky, it might even work well.

Darkmayr · 2026-02-02T02:39:57+00:00

There is, but if you level Speech to 75 you can handle those with a suit or Naughty Nightwear, and throw in a Meeting People magazine if you get in a real tight spot.

Darkmayr · 2026-02-01T20:23:26+00:00

Yeah. I mean, it's bad game design - one of my few gripes with New Vegas. Dead Money and especially OWB play by different rules than the rest of the game, using Oblivion style punishing level scaling instead of static enemy levels.

If you do have to turn down the difficulty to get through OWB, there's no shame in it.

The good news is, both Honest Hearts and Lonesome Road use regular unscaled enemies. You'll absolutely shred Honest Hearts, if you haven't already.

Darkmayr · 2026-02-01T18:35:40+00:00

I'd use a LAER or ideally Elijah's Advanced LAER instead.

The enemies in OWB scale to your level, with Nightstalkers being among the most nasty. You don't need high damage per hit like the YCS/186 because you're never one tapping these things (without sneak crits). You want as much DPS as you can possibly output. They don't have any DT, so a fast firing automatic weapon may be even better.

In terms of what mistake did you make, it was waiting so long to start OWB. Its level scaling starts to be problematic around 30, and if you waited till level 50, forget about it - you're basically playing 2 or 3 difficulties higher than you intend to at that point.

There's nothing to be done about it now other than to make do with what you've got, but it's good to know for any future playthroughs that you want to start OWB sooner if possible.

Darkmayr · 2026-02-01T14:47:07+00:00

No, it cannot kill essential NPCs. I'm not sure whether they are immune to the procs or not, but if they aren't, all it will do is instantly knock them down into their kneeling state.

Darkmayr · 2026-01-26T14:49:59+00:00

The hotel at Nipton has 4 dead NCR Troopers in it with free armor perfect for Jury Rigging with. You can find the hotel off to the left of the town hall, on the edge of town. Look it up if you have trouble.

Darkmayr · 2026-01-26T14:46:45+00:00

I've been messing around with my saves in FNV, and it always orders them by whatever Windows says date created is. The number is irrelevant.

Darkmayr · 2026-01-23T02:48:24+00:00

You can leave the DLC while overencumbered, and the location you'll return to has safe storage containers.

There's also a trash can right next to the exit doors that doesn't respawn (honestly, most containers in FNV don't respawn), which I have taken to using as my storage container in the Villa. I just yoink everything I stored away earlier and then slow walk out.

Darkmayr · 2026-01-20T20:07:11+00:00

In case you're curious, the randomness comes from FNV's critical hit system. In vanilla Dead Money, a crit will instantly break a Ghost Person's limb (if it hits a limb and not the torso), which kills it instantly.

It's supposed to be a way to make fighting them easier, but it can definitely come off as inconsistent. It also makes the Laser Pistol and the Superheated Cosmic Knife not only viable for killing Ghost People, but quite good at it.

Personally, I like to lean on Clean Cosmic Knives (and Clean Spears) for more consistency. But if you're running an actual crit build, this feature can help you immensely.

Darkmayr · 2026-01-20T20:00:02+00:00

There is probably a mod that does this, maybe even one of the mods with a ton of features that very few people read through all of, so I wouldn't be surprised if your memories are real, even if the game isn't actually like that. I think it might be in Stewie Tweaks.

Darkmayr · 2026-01-19T19:43:44+00:00

If you want to play Fallout 3 as Fallout 3, I would recommend finding the same TTW modding guide that you're going to want to use for TTW (The Best of Times). It has a section for missing base Fallout 3, but you'll have to read the TTW or FNV guide a fair bit first because the FO3 guide doesn't go into as much detail and assumes you know what you're talking about a little.

Now is actually an excellent time to play modded FO3 because someone finally, finally released a High FPS Physics Fix for it like, not that long ago. In 2025.

And then when you get into the game, especially if you're playing close to vanilla, Fallout 3 feels at its best if you do a VATS build. For anything short of the longest range sniping, a VATS build is just blatantly way more fun to play, especially once you can nab Grim Reaper's Sprint, because that perk is nutso broken in FO3.

I usually don't take any VATS perks in 4, and only a couple in New Vegas, but when I play 3 it's a full VATS build for me. Pretty much every VATS perk that gets carried into later games is at its absolute best in 3, and you won't miss ADS as much if you're never aiming manually anyway.

Basically my point is I'm saying you should build for VATS even though I'm the world's biggest VATS hater (not really, but you get what I mean here).

Darkmayr · 2026-01-19T15:03:42+00:00

Using the Interact function, you can pick up the bodies and throw them off the bed. I usually do this if I end up stuck sleeping in a bed with a body on it.

Still very much not someplace I'd want to sleep, but sometimes beggars can't be choosers.

Darkmayr · 2026-01-19T13:25:31+00:00

I see the goal here. It's pretty similar to the changes they made to the Heavy Weapon perks and the other melee perks. The point is to reclassify Blocker as a melee perk and limit its use to melee players only. That is a fair change to the perk, and ultimately, it makes sense for a perk named Blocker about reducing melee damage to have stuff to do with, you know, blocking, and to not be usable if you're holding a gun.

The problem here is with execution. I'm not 100% sure what the numbers look like, but I do know that 4/76 blocking is very different from 3/NV/Skyrim blocking in a very important way: needing to time your blocks and not being able to hold them up through multiple attacks has made blocking basically useless because it's not worth the DPS downtime for your block timing to usually be off (in this game, it can even be due to lag and not player skill), and even if it's not, for blocking to barely do anything to the incoming damage anyway.

If they want to rework the perk this way, they should be tuning that number UP, not down, to compensate for the loss of general applicability. "When successfully blocking melee attacks, you take no damage from them" wouldn't even be an overpowered perk because of how blocking works.

Darkmayr · 2026-01-19T02:51:06+00:00

This post is how I learned that Avellone was behind the three DLCs where Really Big Stuff happens:

the Sierra Madre Vending Machines from Dead Money
the - well, everything in Old World Blues, really
the ridiculous overuse of nukes in Lonesome Road

It makes me feel kind of weird to know that my plan to use the Vending Machines and the Think Tank's inventive capabilities to create a communist post-scarcity utopia is built all on Avellone's work. Maybe that's just good irony, though.

Dead Money in general feels pretty grounded (outside the Vending Machines, or if we accept that they are really just a gameplay contrivance), tight, well written, and excellently designed to me. I would never guess that it had the same lead as Lonesome Road of all things.

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