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[kmonster]

Originally Posted by twillight

Character Creation Tips:
The most important stat is Intelligence. For a first go have at least 4! The more the better, although 9-10 is only a "must" is you choose the Gifted Trait (best trait award goes to Gifted, lol).
Agility determines you AP, what determines how many shots you can deal in one turn. As Fallout 1's best weapon-cathegory is Big Guns (4 supermutants goes for one shot - sounds good?), even besides Fast Shot trait atleast 8 AP for start is heavily suggested at the beggining.
Get 4 Luck I say, as it don't effect this game too much (unlike in Fallout 2).
Endurance can be dropped to minimum.
Strenght should be 6 for begginers, but for more details check the weapons requirements in a FQ, decide what will be your tagged weapon-category, count in the bonuses (like Power Armor), and use that amount.
Charisma depends on what kind of play you want. With high charisma you can have NPC-comrades (the best one is the dog! And any of the others will mean unlimited storeage), and also many quests will have an alternative solution. If you don't care that, have it minimum. If you want a big party have 8 (if I remember correctly the max followers are only 4 for this game). If you want speech-options tagging speech skill is also suggested.
Perceptionshould be invested in too.

Also before deciding your stats, check the Perk-list! Perks have stat-requirements too, and most player goes with things like "Sniper" and such.

I agree with recommending exactly 6 strength, if you take less or more you might regret it depending on how you play the game.
I don't like big guns, they are heavy and and use lots of rare and expensive ammo.
In Fallout1 charisma doesn't affect the number of companions you can have or dialogues. Int grants dialogue options and the speech skill is checked for success.
If you take only 4 luck you might as well lower it to the minimum, it will hardly make a difference.
Endurance is very useful, with more hitpoints you don't die that fast. Take an even number.
Agility is the most useful stat. You need action points, no matter how you play the game.
Don't bother with perks you can't get before level 18. The game will be over then.

[twillight]

Originally Posted by kmonster

I don't like big guns, they are heavy and and use lots of rare and expensive ammo.

If you take only 4 luck you might as well lower it to the minimum, it will hardly make a difference.

Endurance is very useful, with more hitpoints you don't die that fast. Take an even number.

Don't bother with perks you can't get before level 18. The game will be over then.

In F1 Big Guns are the most efficient to use, especially against Super Mutants who are though and hit heavy, but tend to crowed together. And there are plenty of ammo to find (and steal).

Below 4 luck you'll start to miss a lot, but at 4 there is not much difference yet.

Endurance only gives a low amount of health, and in F1 most of the enemies will either hit you for negligable damage, or do one-hit kills, so I vote against it.

Level 24 is easily achiavable if you do all quests, I disagree with the level 18. (And in Fallout 2 you can and up level 99 very fast!)

[Blood-Pigggy]

Big Guns are not the most efficient, weapon obsoleteness was built into the design of FO1 and FO2, the player was intended to utilize Small Guns, Big Guns and then Energy Weapons, it's why the loot in locations is practically tiered, also the damage resistances on armor reflects this as well. It's perfectly viable to use all threes weapon types regardless of which is the most efficient, including Unarmed (especially in FO2) (although Melee is altogether useless in both FO1 and FO2).

Luck will not cause you to miss, that's only factored by your skills in the various weaponry and SPECIAL stats that affect those weapon branches, such as Agility for Small Guns. Perception only alters range. What Luck WILL do, (and what makes a Luck 1 playthrough absolutely heinous for nearly any player) is not only reduce your critical chance, but increase your critical failure rate, and on Luck 1 it is entirely apparent.

Endurance, agreed, is useless, extra health at the start may be a boon but later on it doesn't matter. Combat is not Fallout's strong suit in any case, in fact, it's pretty awful as far as cRPGs go and the game should be played for character interaction and the well constructed quests.

Also level 24 is not easily achievable with all the quests, level 21 is the highest you will get to in both FO1 and FO2 if you manage to complete the majority of quests. Anything more will take grinding in random encounters.

Take a look at the damn guide I posted for Christ's sake, it's written by one of the senior members of NMA and is composed of information taken not only from extensive playthroughs but the actual files of the game itself. There's really no arguing about the mechanics of Fallout as they are flawed in biased in extremely specifics ways so there is no way to say that there is a "right" character based on preference but there is entirely an easy build to play through the game as while maximizing experience and combat efficiency and this is because Fallout is unbalanced as shit across all its iterations.

[wardencz]

Originally Posted by twillight

You'll either use energy weapons or big guns 99% of times

I disagree, later on, in San Fran., you will probably want to go the small guns as you get your hands on the gauss rifle, imho best small gun in the game.

[twillight]

Originally Posted by Blood-Pigggy

It's perfectly viable to use all threes weapon types regardless of which is the most efficient, including Unarmed (especially in FO2) (although Melee is altogether useless in both FO1 and FO2).

Luck will not cause you to miss, that's only factored by your skills. What Luck WILL do, is not only reduce your critical chance, but increase your critical failure rate, and on Luck 1 it is entirely apparent.

Also level 24 is not easily achievable with all the quests, level 21 is the highest you will get to in both FO1 and FO2 if you manage to complete the majority of quests. Anything more will take grinding in random encounters.

Take a look at the damn guide I posted for Christ's sake.

It is (especially in F1) viable even to not use weapons at all. So what? But the fights are easiest with the weapon-types I mentioned earlier.
And Melee in F2 is FAR from useless. You just need good resistances, and it is perfectly viable to beat the game with melee only. (And why not do it, when for a certain quest some 150% unarmed is required.)

And due to critical failures you miss a lot. And just to mention, the Luck score is involved in ALL random-roll in the game, so YES it DO effect your normal fail-rate.

I never fought in random encounters, and still reached level 24 every time in F1. Maybe you should have do the SIDEQUESTS too, not just the major quests, as those are what makes a the game really fun.
Also in F2 from the quests some level 24-32 (if my memory don't fail me) is achievable without using the exp-bug in NCR.

Finally I don't care in single walkthroughs. I usually grab all the avaiable ones, and that nets you with the right infos, as people tend to leave things out due to fail of memory or lazyness. That is especially true for F2.

[twillight]

Originally Posted by wardencz

I disagree, later on, in San Fran., you will probably want to go the small guns as you get your hands on the gauss rifle, imho best small gun in the game.

I diagree. Gauss Rifle is although the best small gun without doubt, but ammo is rare, and it doesn't deal enough damage. Comparing it to a Laser Rifle, what kills with every shot (as San Francisco is only in the 2nd), or a Bozar, makes Gauss Rifle a bit left behind. Not to mention San Fran is THE LAST city to visit. Better go to New Reno's Military Base! Until you reach that you've to kill only damn rats mostly, what can be done with anything literaly. Comparing that to San Fran...

[wardencz]

Originally Posted by twillight

I diagree. Gauss Rifle is although the best small gun without doubt, but ammo is rare, and it doesn't deal enough damage. Comparing it to a Laser Rifle, what kills with every shot (as San Francisco is only in the 2nd), or a Bozar, makes Gauss Rifle a bit left behind. Not to mention San Fran is THE LAST city to visit. Better go to New Reno's Military Base! Until you reach that you've to kill only damn rats mostly, what can be done with anything literaly. Comparing that to San Fran...

Well, theres no problem killing two advanced power armored guys in enclave/oil rig in one round with gauss rifle, laser is very weak, even against metal armor, ammo isn't that much of a problem since, at Lo Pan's place, every guard has gauss rifle, so theres no problem stealing like 400 rounds of 2mm EC with each guard having at least 50 of 'em.

EDIT: From what i remember, I did around 200 dmg to adv. pwr. armor ofc with critical in eyes

OT: I've seen a video of a guy, killing 5 above mentioned guys with the 6-rounds "revolver" 0.44 cal. (or whatever ammo for DEagle is) in one round.

Till San Fran. you can just do pretty well with Hunting/Sniper rifle aiming at eyes, bots may cause you a slight problem, but when u break their lenses..

As for bozar, you certainly got a point, it's pretty much best heavy gun, as for energy i'd recommend plasma rifle, only problem is that it's on a short range (i guess 25/ turbo 35) but deals much more dmg than a laser.

[twillight]

Originally Posted by wardencz

Well, theres no problem killing two advanced power armored guys in enclave/oil rig in one round with gauss rifle, laser is very weak, even against metal armor, ammo isn't that much of a problem since, at Lo Pan's place, every guard has gauss rifle, so theres no problem stealing like 400 rounds of 2mm EC with each guard having at least 50 of 'em.

EDIT: From what i remember, I did around 200 dmg to adv. pwr. armor ofc with critical in eyes

OT: I've seen a video of a guy, killing 5 above mentioned guys with the 6-rounds "revolver" 0.44 cal. (or whatever ammo for DEagle is) in one round.

Till San Fran. you can just do pretty well with Hunting/Sniper rifle aiming at eyes, bots may cause you a slight problem, but when u break their lenses..

For energy i'd recommend plasma rifle, only problem is that it's on a short range (i guess 25/ turbo 35) but deals much more dmg than a laser.

For one last time: You don't get Gauss Rifle until the very end of the game, while Bozar or Laser rifle comes almost at the start.

Also it seems you simply can not use Laser Rifle well. Plasma Rifle is only better in theoretic, as it is slower, and has terrible aim. With Laser Rifle aim for the eyes, and you can spit on any armor after they melt.

By the way Hunting/Sniper rifle are only for long distance, when you try to shoot something close they have terrible aim. Not to mention they do pathetic damage.

[DarthHelmet86]

A person playing this game with no knowledge is not going to get a Bozar or Lasor Rifle at any where near the start. Anyway this is the best gun in the game That Gun.

[Blood-Pigggy]

Originally Posted by twillight

It is (especially in F1) viable even to not use weapons at all. So what? But the fights are easiest with the weapon-types I mentioned earlier.
And Melee in F2 is FAR from useless. You just need good resistances, and it is perfectly viable to beat the game with melee only. (And why not do it, when for a certain quest some 150% unarmed is required.)

And due to critical failures you miss a lot. And just to mention, the Luck score is involved in ALL random-roll in the game, so YES it DO effect your normal fail-rate.

I never fought in random encounters, and still reached level 24 every time in F1. Maybe you should have do the SIDEQUESTS too, not just the major quests, as those are what makes a the game really fun.
Also in F2 from the quests some level 24-32 (if my memory don't fail me) is achievable without using the exp-bug in NCR.

Finally I don't care in single walkthroughs. I usually grab all the avaiable ones, and that nets you with the right infos, as people tend to leave things out due to fail of memory or lazyness. That is especially true for F2.

It may be viable, but it's useless, nothing does as much damage as Unarmed and nothing causes the same criticals and crippling blows as Unarmed does in the Melee spectrum. It's useless, it's the only weapon skill that doesn't at least do something interestingly from the others enough to make it worth playing.

That's semantics, also the amount that Luck factors into other abilities is negligible, so you might as well not mention it at all.
It is not possible to reach level 24 doing all the quests in Fallout 1 or 2, it isn't, you can say that however much you want, but nearly the whole community of NMA would agree with me, and it's been discuss limitless times in threads where people have mentioned grinding to get perks such as Slayer in Fallout 2, which in that game is a level 24 perk, so no, I have no idea what you're talking about.

Also Per's guide is the most comprehensive, I don't see why you'd slum around on guides with terrible information that most likely HAVE been stolen from Per's guide but whatever, the information in Per's guide is correct, the information is the most useful, and the guide is considered by the community to be the best. I don't see where there's a question here regarding which is objectively better since well, there isn't anything better than Per's guide when it comes to Fallout.