My new years resolution is to best my retro game backlog and that includes the original 2 Fallout games along with Tactics. We had a similar thread recently but I didn't write down all I needed prior to it being deleted from the archive.
For ultra builds, the best trait is and always will be Gifted. Can play without it, but it's just too good. That's the first presumption. Other good traits include Kamikaze, Good Natured, Small Frame and Fast Shot (for burst-oriented characters).
As for stats, ST, EN and CH are relatively the least important (EN is not efficient at actual survivability for certain reasons, low ST problems can be easily alleviated with companions and/or car, and CH is a strictly flavor stat for some bonus interactions that aren't very consequential. It also determines your number of companions (ONLY in FO2!), but companions aren't very good without the restoration patch's ability to command them.
Thus, the most important stats are PE, IN, AG and LK. You can put AG relatively averagely if you're willing to use Buffout and Psycho before big fights - that's what I do and what I recommend - and use the stats to pump other things. High PE lets you shoot better, increases the very misunderstood Sequence (which is important) and has use in sidequests. High IN gives you skill points, which are good and counteracts Gifted's con. LK equal or above 6 is necessary to get Better Criticals perk, and very high LK is cool for flavor points (like special random encounters, and finding the Alien Blaster, a really strong energy weapon, in FO1).
The most obvious skill tags is anything that lets you play a diplomatic (Speech) gunslinger with whatever third skill (Lockpick, Sneak, Steal, heck maybe even Doctor) you might enjoy. You can also play a solid melee with all the guidelines above. Melee/Unarmed is a solid choice in original FO, just harder to play than guns.
Note that character building in F:T is very different.
The main differences in F:T character building are as follows:
>CH actually does something, and your main character should have 6-8 CH for a smooth playthrough. High CH characters get to hire much better allies in the Brotherhood headquarters much earlier in the game, which makes up for the "lost" SPECIAL points on your main char greatly. CH8 gives access to a really good perk, too. Only dump CH if you plan on solo play.
>EN now determines the amount of drugs you can take before you're saturated with them and can't take any more. Depends on how much drugs your playstyle employs (I'm all for it, for one), it's now worth putting points in.
>more playable races have been introduced, but for pure powergaming, we're only really bothered with Humans anyway. Ghouls have a lower perk rate and a few problems (one of the best followers in the game is a Ghoul, but has a shitty trait you have to Mutate! away), Super Mutants lack armor options and somehow ironically make for the best covert ops characters, Deathclaws are terribly programmed and only The Mother, who is obnoxiously overpowered for a member of her race, is worth considering, Dogs are niche and Androids are complete shit due to lacking perks and not having anything to compensate).
>Melee and unarmed builds require a lot more knowledge and preparation. There's a certain bug with special unarmed attacks where you get your best attack while being around 120% at Unarmed and then you lose it in favor of a bugged kick when you get really good at Unarmed. It can be circumvented by using a certain glitch (whether it's kosher is up to debate). There's also a bug where hitting someone in the left leg in melee will deal thousands of damage to them. You can make melee viable without abusing any of this, but it's a ton of work.
>Throwing is good, finally. Grenade options expanded and all. Worth.
>Doctor is mandatory to have. Sneak is also amazing, but it depends on playstyle.
>You need Big Guns and Energy Weapons in the squad.
Also, Kamikaze trait has been changed in F:T, but it's even better and more straightforward in its implementation, so it's an even more apparent choice.
Note that F:T has also been designed with real time fighting in mind, and turn-based mode has been put in later. Whether you care about this info is up to you, but in general, F:T oddly enough works better in real time.
OP here, screencapped. I thank you for your time man.
I love fallout but have neither the time nor patience for a custom build and stumble my way through it blindly.
>>2873096
Np, Merry Christmas.
I can elaborate on some things like why EN is not that great if you want. Actually, it's a pretty good point: why EN is a viable dump stat? Because in Fallout, you don't survive by tanking damage, you survive by not getting hit at all. It's better to be agile (in order to peek corners, abuse windows and use hit'n'run) or perceptive (high Sequence letting you hit Sneak and get away in the first turn of combat, also PE somehow calculates what distance you initially approach enemies in random encounters from) than tough, because late game enemies are viable to just score a lucky crit that will either incapacitate you until all your hitpoints are gone eventually, or will kill you instantly (Enclave patrols in FO2 are happy to do so).. Also, EN points are cost-inefficient compared to the Lifegiver perk available at level 12; whether you take that perk once or twice, you will have shitloads of HP even if your build is about close combat. Also, going to your inventory is costly, but being able to eat dozens of Stimpaks from it afterwards, at any point, isn't.
Some EN is nice as a safeguard, but you can make a no-reload run whilst having EN at 2. It depends on how well-versed you are in Fallout combat, I guess.
>>2873063
Here's my go-to gunslinger build (use pic-related ASAP)
S5
P10
E2
C2
I10
A10
L8
Gifted, One-Handed
Awareness, Bonus Move, Better Rate of Fire, Action Boy, Action Boy, Sniper, Action Boy, (you can mutate at 24th to switch onehanded to fast shot if you really want, but you likely wont get that high)
Small Guns, Lockpick, Speech
Increase small guns to at least 100, I go much higher
first aid should be decent, doctor is good in FO2, science is useful
I never touch drugs, and while yes you can increase your stats later, I find it's better to just start out good.
You'll act first, be accurate at great distances, shoot often, and just generally romp through with no real threat....as long as you're careful. In FO2, you'll be eye-shooting your gauss pistol at 6 people each round.
Not OP but this thread is relevant to my interest as well.
Are the games good to go or should I install some patch or mod for fixing stuff? I've never played FO 1&2.
>>2876591
The vanilla games aren't super buggy, but corrupted saves are fairly common. Always keep a backup, especially in FO1. The restoration pack for FO2 is worth checking out, it even added some cut content.
I found these to be really useful when I last played through.
http://user.tninet.se/~jyg699a/fallout.html
http://user.tninet.se/~jyg699a/fallout2.html
>>2876606
>The restoration pack for FO2 is worth checking out
Debatable.
>it even added some cut content
Poorly, and about 80% of the content is original, not cut, content. It also fucks with melee and unarmed combat, make speech checks twice as hard, slows the overworld speed significantly, increases random encounters and introduces a few new bugs of its own.
Fallout is pretty easy, there's an abundance of stimpacks and ammunition, mountains of loot, and you can generally end up with more caps than you can find things to spend them on through the majority of the game. You can buy a stack of 5 skillbooks, for 5 skills, over and over in the Den, the vendor will always restock all of them, letting you easily raise all those skills to 100. This includes science and repair, so if you just get speech and small guns you win pretty much.
right now my end game character is level 14 with:
ST 9
PE10
EN 4
CH 3
IN 10
AG10
LU10
which means what he started with was actually 5.9.3.2.9.9.9
I started with fast shot and barely noticed the absence of aiming. At the start of the game I was bursting twice every round and by the end I was shooting with the turbo plasma rifle, 5 times every round, didn't even tag energy, didn't even aim, shit was just that op.
You shouldn't really expect to finish fallout at a level much higher than 14 or 15.
Fallout 2 is generally more difficult, with a different and more restrictive perk progression.
>>2876849
>starting with IN 9
If you're really optimal about it, you can first get the normalsurgeryand afterwards use drugs to reduce your intelligence to "dumb speech" and you'll be offered the same thing again.
>>2876849
>Fallout 2 is generally more difficult,
The first thing I noticed the first time I played fallout 2 was how much more hp regular human enemies had. I could shoot a guy in the eye three times and he'd still be fighting.
>>2876732
>increases random encounters
Kaga a shit
>>2878584
EN and CH are shit dump stats in FO so why not start with 9 Int
Starting with 6 EN in FO2 is worth it though, you can take toughness early on when there aren't many other decent perk options.
>>2880101
>Starting with 6 EN in FO2 is worth it though, you can take toughness early on when there aren't many other decent perk options.
Awareness, Quick Pockets, Earlier Sequence and even Thief (which is like half the Skilled trait) say hello
Toughness is really overrated
>>2880158
QP is pretty overrated too imo.
