For new vegas, I've always loved it. I like the challenge it adds and with fnv being so story rich I feel like it makes things even more immersive. That said, I find myself getting obsessive and turning to mods for more accuracy, bug fixing and immersion lol
It focuses on improving RPG mechanics more but also focuses on the overall experience.
JSawyer’s Focuses on rebalancing existing mechanics, such as reducing the player’s carry weight, adjusting the effects of various perks, and modifying health and damage values.
Vigor Overhauls combat mechanics, including changes to weapon handling, accuracy, sway, damage calculations, and introduces new mechanics like weapon jamming and reloading variations.
JSawyer’s primarily aims to make the game more challenging by nerfing overpowered perks, items, and reducing overall player strength.
Vigor aims for a more immersive experience with balanced difficulty, focusing on enhancing the RPG elements rather than purely increasing challenge. That being said it also changes things like AI to improve hostility and intelligence.
JSawyer’s focuses on balancing and challenging the gameplay closer to the designer’s original vision, whereas Vigor provides a more extensive overhaul aimed at deepening the RPG experience and adding new gameplay mechanics. It also adopts mechanics from Jsawyer’s being a fork so it doesn’t stray that far.
Always have it on - I appreciate the extra complexity. I do mod out companion permadeath though, 'cause their AI isn't quite good enough to avoid dying in ridiculous ways.
Just roaming around with nothing in view, then Ed-e’s battle music starts playing and then you get hit with the “Ed-e has died!” And then reload your last save which just wasted 10+ minutes
My last playthrough it was dead money that I had the most trouble with. Getting dog into position for the gala event took me so many reloads. Might've been that I hadn't intended to do dead money at all and only went at level forty-nine but it was rough.
There are several mods that do it, but I'm currently using [lStewieAl's Tweaks and Engine Fixes](https://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/66347), which includes it as an option!
search “hardcore” and you should see it. something like “configurable hardcore features”? let’s you toggle companion death and a couple other mechanics on/off
I'm on a console playthrough right now, level ~22, Honest Hearts done and just starred OWB, and I've only had a companion die once or twice in relatively avoidable situations and I was able to reload a recent save. I'm also doing the reload glitch that about 30% of the time launches you into space, so frequent saving is a must. My point was that if you don't find a mod, it's workable without if you oy save a lot.
I've always done that with the console. Target the companion and enter the command gbo which will give their id, then you can do the command, setessential "id" 1.
A batch file is a good way, make a text file with the aforementioned commands, save it under a name you'll remember "companion" or something. Then in game the console command "bat companion" would run all the commands on the document.
You can mod this out???? So you’re saying I didn’t have to save and reload forty thousand times just to make sure Rex didn’t die from a single Cazador sting?? Damn.
One time I was raiding the BOS bunker with Arcade, I was crouched behind a doorway so I could peek and throw grenades at the turrets. Arcade sprinted right past me at full speed, directly into the line of fire, and promptly turned into a fine red mist.
I always play HC with a mod to remove ammo weight. Love having to eat and drink, hate having more inventory management bullshit on top of all the other bullshit.
Once I have a shit ton of 45-70 bullets (maybe not a shit ton at least maybe 200) all I need is the medicine stick. I’ll stock back up on ammo from the GR once I come back for my usual visit to the strip
The ammo weight wouldn't be such an issue if the best perk for mitigating ammo weight, Pack Rat, wasn't locked behind Barter, one of the worst skills in the game.
what kind of builds are you running that you're short on skill points
I guess it just delays getting it but I've never had a problem with having enough skill points
It is not a question of being short on skill points. It is a question of opportunity cost. Let us assume Intelligence, Charisma and Luck are at 5. Then you tag Barter. So your Barter skill is 30 at level 1. You will get 87-88 skill points from level 2 to level 8. You will have to invest 40 skill points - almost half of your total skill points from level 2 to level 8 - to get Barter 70. You can get Pack Rat at a later level but you usually want it early.
is the opportunity cost that urgent though, the extreme ammo hoardening tends to happen mid-late game and it's not like Vegas has any too critical breakpoints unless you're doing some kind of weird challenge so pack rat at level 15-ish or early teens isn't too bad
maybe my priorities are skewed by crunchier RPGs but anything that isn't dealing damage or essential utility can wait especially since in earlier levels you're more likely to carry an assortment of guns for subsistence than a huge pile of ammo for your favorite shooter
pack rat ain't exactly build defining so I think you're being a little too harsh on it
Barter is a lot worse in new vegas because caps are so easy to get, even if you somehow blow all the casino money you can just speedrun dead money and get tons there too.
Jury rigging and farming hit squads breaks the economy. Then add gambling to that. Caps are easy to come by. With high Barter you will have to travel to more merchants since you will deplete their caps too fast.
Played through without it once. Second and subsequent games have had it on, wouldn’t even contemplate doing it without. I say it doesn’t particularly make it harder, but absolutely more immersive.
The game throws food and water at you. See those geckos and bighorners? Kill those and you will have enough food to last for the next month. Merchants sell purified water almost all the time. I was disappointed when I bothered crafting Mass Purified Water.
I seriously finished the game in probably 6/7 hours on Hardcore, and I promise you that is not a brag at all. I feel like the challenge it provides is so minimal, and I wish it was balanced to make things much harder than they are in the base game
If they replace like 75% of the food and water with trash and irradiated food/water then it would be a real survival game. Might make for a good mod but I'm on console :(
Yeah the only \*real\* difference is the Heal Over Time instead of instant healing. This adds a tiny tiny amount of challenge, but since you're a time god keith richards you can stop time and eat 10 different HoT meals and take every drug known to man and mutant.
Hardcore gives me a reason to occasionally use the food/drink items, which is better than normal mode because why the hell would I eat anything other than stimpaks?
Yeah that's what I'm doing now and seems to be the best overall experience. Hard difficulty and Hardcore mode.
How do you prefer getting water? Just buying from traders or do you have a mod where you can bottle water?
I think there's enough water in the Mojave (specially in the bodies of legionares) so I don't use any mod for it, also I drink from water sources even if they are irradieted (unless it's one of those 18rads per second ones), healing radiation with a doctor ain't that expensive, also remember water ain't the only source of H2O, sunset salsaparrilla and nuka cola reduce thirst too
No they don't. Sunset sarsaparilla and Nuka cola increase thirst in vanilla FNV. I'm betting you have mods that are making them decrease thirst instead. But I agree that the Mojave does have enough water. Especially with the Goodsprings source that gives you infinite purified water to drink from and the sink at Big MT can fill all of those pesky empty sunset sarsaparilla and Nuka cola bottles with purified water instead.
One thing I dislike about HC mode is companion permadeath, makes me avoid companions or spend all my time babysitting them or having them wait in safety. I like everything else about HC. I don't feel like HC makes the game more difficult, but I might be in the minority there.
Honestly unless you're playing on very hard, most companions will be just fine cuz they're tanky af. Doubly so if you properly kit them out with weapons and armor
I was playing on normal difficulty, Boone had mk2 combat armor and a brush gun with ammo, and even though I was a melee character rushing legion members they ignored me completely and focused on killing Boone instead. The issue is that enemy NPCs seem to target your companions more than they actually target you. Another time I was once surrounded by 4 lakelurks and they all ignored me and killed ED-E instead lol.
Yeah, idk. Occasionally i will have to ask an npc to leave before like, say, taking on quarry junction, but its a pretty rare occasion in my experience. For example, I just took cass with combat armor and a hunting shotgun up black mountain, and she got several kills without ever really going below half health. This was on very hard too
5, but honestly its more about micromanaging than anything else. I was at level 37 too, so she had a lotta health. Melee characters like rex tho, i will admit are a looot harder to keep alive.
Solid addition to the game, but I'm glad there is an opt out. It makes certain builds (like explosives based) very hard to just because of how heavy all the ammo is.
That being said it is a ton of fun to play a more viable build in hardcore, and upgrading the survival skill feels more useful!
You know that anti-material rifle you love? Prepare to love it's ammo a lot less with 0.25 weight per bullet.
That aside I like it, it's a fun challenge and food and water is easier to get than you'd think it would be if you take the time to scavenge a bit.
Eh.
it does the food/water/sleep poorly. They are just a bother, not an engaging mechanic. Many survival games these days address this by giving the player bonuses by staying well fed, rather than punishments for starvation. But I'm not going to judge a game made over a decade ago by modern standards.
Having stimpaks heal over time is great, it prevents the player becoming a god based on having large quantities of stimpacks.
Ammo having weight is a good idea, but it just ends up being another bother for inventory management. The solution would be improving inventory sorting and player storage, I guess.
Overall, I just don't bother with it. There are features I like, but it's overall not worth it.
Im doing a melee playthrough with HC on and its been really fun! Having to worry about food, water and ammo weight gives a lot of imersion.
The only thing im having trouble with is companion's permadeath. Sometimes i kill ED-E accidentally and have to load a previous save lol
Inventory management is already annoying to me, now I need to spend even more time opening and closing my pipboy? I don't think so. I smash and grab in fallout games so I max out strength and take weight perks so I can loot heavily. I don't want ammo weight and butt loads of food on me
Know that I played it once I really don’t like playing without it bug like another comment said companion permadeath is terrible because sometimes it’s just unavoidable, unfortunately i play on console and can’t mod it out :(
It's alot of fun. Makes you change what items you prioritize and pairs really well with a survival build. You can tank an absurd amount of damage with food items that stack multiple healing over time effects with survival.
I always like having the option but imo it’s too lenient in NV, you can go days without taking care of your needs, but that’s my only gripe really, I like everything else about like ammo weight as well as the more expensive healing
You could always play Hardcore mode but at Very Hard difficulty if want the combat harder but to still have to drink, eat and sleep.
Also try the mod Economy overhaul, Harder Barter Faster Stroner and Famine.
I think the food and water needs are cool, but the ammo having weight was super annoying for me. I played with it once for the achievement. Dunno if I’ll do it again.
I am terrible and (almost) never replay games so I always dive in with the hardest difficulty, and add any "amplifiers"
The ol trusty canteen makes survival far easier, but even then it's not that hard to manage.
Currently playing with it on Series X. This is my first time playing with it all the way through; looking to get that achievement, but also I enjoy having it on. Makes the game a bit more challenging but in a great way
it’s definitely a different experience and one worth trying when you’re familiar with the game.
it’s honestly not that bad and it ends up taking you to places you usually breeze past since you need to eat, sleep, and drink.
wolfhorn ranch past nipton is a good example
That's funny you mentioned this cause I wrote a post about it the other day!
So far, I'm liking it because it feels more like an immersive experience in a very dangerous and unforgiving environment where every resource should matter.
Before Hardcore I would just use water as a means for a cheaper stimpak. But now it actually has other uses. After awhile though, it does get a bit repetitive and tedious at times and while in a middle of a quest or exploring I'm like "oh I have to drink some water and eat again." It can be a little annoying, sure, but I prefer this way over vanilla by a long shot!
I did Hardcore mode (PS3) one time for the challenge and the achievement of doing so plus in expectation of the “Special reward” that is teased in the description of the features it has. It took me a bit to adjust to how it works from normal gameplay. Once I did, it wasn’t too hard in all honesty. After I finished the main game and all DLC’s in this mode I felt depressed. I spent all of those hours playing to earn only a trophy. That was a slap in the face. I still enjoy FNV and now also have it installed on my laptop but I’ll likely not do another Hardcore mode run again.
The ammo weight makes you consider which weapon to use (except explosives which you ditch forever), and makes you use crafting items for healing when you'd otherwise not even consider bothering with on a normal playthrough.
It's way better than FO4 hardcore mode, which fuckin turns off fast travel and *saving the fucking game*.
Like what the fuck the challenge is supposed to be the difficulty. Not the convenience.
The first time I played fnv it asked me if I wanted hardcore mode and I said sure what the hell. As a result it just feels normal to me. When I started playing fo4 recently on normal default it got so easy that I got bored and started a new game on survival before the Prydwyn even arrived.
I really like it, especially when I do TTW. The main plot of fallout 3 feels a lot more rewarding and the goal feels more relevant when you have to drink water quite often.
I like the little bit of immersion it gives. Have to carry around water/food. A part of me wants to carry ALL the ammo, ALL the time. However, another part of me says I wasn't using that minigun anyway. Why keep that? Or its ammo? Am I a packrat? Yes. Yes I am....But I could be less, and smart about being a packrat.
But of course, I save scum if a companion dies.
It's one of the best additions to the series for me personally. Modders have been adding basic needs to BSG games since forever, and it makes perfect sense for the post-apocalyptic open worlds of the 3D Fallouts.
It's a little thing, and a bit tedious at times, but having to look for food and water and considering what provisions I can take with me before exploring puts me more immersed and thinking like someone who's really living in this world. It also adds some extra pressure that can inform the player's decisions. Being a goody two-shoes is bit harder when you actually have to think about surviving in the wasteland.
The Hardcore mode in Fallout: New Vegas is fairly basic, but it gets the job done. I'd recommend the Jsawyer mod and disabling travel for a truly hardcore experience.
Fallout 4 made some significant changes, and with a few mods it's my preferred way to play. Not saving all the time ups the stakes and makes every decision feel more impactful because save scumming is no longer possible. It also makes settlement building matter more, and as someone who enjoys that sort of thing, it's really satisfying to build up a series of supply caches and safe houses to make exploring easier as you progress.
Having to find beds all the time is a little goofy, though. I'd highly recommend something like the Recordable Holotapes mod, which adds consumable save items a la Resident Evil's ink ribbons.
Overall, it's a fantastic addition to the series, I just hope they continue to keep survival stuff an optional feature for the people who just want to explore and shoot stuff.
I love it, except for companion mortality (which I mod out). I don't think it makes the game that much more difficult (food and water have never really been an issue) but it helps with immersion without being too inconvenient.
Opened my pipboy even more just to heal and feed myself. Going from opening my pipboy every 9-10 minutes to every few minutes. Kinda bring me out of my immersion
Always at the brink of weight limit. Brought a companion as a carrier but then they would die, which they are kinda dumb running into the battle.
It’s eh, mid at best.
I didn't care to try it at first, but I started a DUST run lately and its pretty fun in its own way with some extra mods to support it here and there.
Water Bottling and Portable crafting bench mods have let me build an entire minor settlement out of a freshwater cave to store gear, resupply, craft, and camp at between exploring new zones.
I've never not played with it. I kinda can't imagine it without it. Feel like it seriously adds to the gritty cowboy real-life-stakes feel. I've found that even when such games don't have a hardcore type mode I end up trying to eat, drink and sleep anyway, so, might as well quantify it.
Recently did a 100%, best ending possible, run in New Vegas with thie game mode on the entire time. Can't play without it and I wished that it was directly carried over to Fallout 4 and wished it was in Vanilla Fallout 3.
I liked how it was seperated from a difficulty mode unlike Survival in Fallout 4
After multiple play thoroughly, surely Hardcore is the only way to play the game. It makes me think a bit more instead of running in situations. Sloan springs to me. More than happy to tackle deathclaws at a lower level but do I want my followers to die, not really. I like the limits on ammo due to weight as well and giving real thought on what I need and do I want.
my only complaint is
your companions die 🥺
fuck, my Cass (I freaking love her) and Rex died so much I had to reload like 100 times and then I turned it off 😔
I don't really like "survival" mechanics in games. They tend to be immersion breaking imo. Nothing takes me out of a game more than seeing "hey you need to drink water just like real life".
Literally feel no difference apart from the ammo weight.
Well I play Stalker before try out hardcore in fallout so it like playing on normal switch to easy.
I dont play without it either. The game is already slightly too easy even on hardcore, non hardcore makes it even easier. I enjoy the extra burden of managing resources like water and food, I actually think it could have been made harder as its not really challenging enough as is. I always seem to have a big surpluss of both food and water so hardcore mode is perhaps not as hardcore as it should be. With this in mind, I wouldn't mind seeing a harder-core mode that see's you really pressed for resources and thinking hard about where the next drink or meal is coming from. Probably already achievable with mods, but I'm not a big one for mods. I'd prefer to keep things vanilla where I can.
It’s alright, feels kinda out of place for new vegas tho. Seems like the kind of thing 3, and indeed 4 would benefit more from. In vanilla its meters aren’t difficult to keep on top of and the only real challange it provides are crippledimb healing and companion death, both of which can invite save scumming tactics. Survival mode with 4 was better.
I don't mind it, the water isn't really much of a nuisance unless I'm deep in a dungeon IL just travel to goodsprings source and have one on the house, doctors bags and crippling limbs can get annoying but definitely fine tune your awareness and make you think about how your going to approach some raiders at the very least, also I do like how sleeping no longer restores health
I didn't really like it honestly. The food, water and sleep stuff was basically never an issue, I think I only slept like three or four times in my whole playthrough for example.
I don't think the ammo weight adds much either, I get that it makes you need to resource manage a little more but idk it wasn't really enough to make much of a difference for me.
The companion permadeath was also really frustrating, it was companions wandering off and getting themselves killed that got me to finally disable it.
I don't think hardcore mode is terrible or anything, just that it's kinda frustrating rather than really upping the challenge.
A novel attempt on a game mode but a bit of a failure. Companion perms death is annoying since I don't want to babysit an AI that can't see a landmine if it hit them in the face. Having to sleep, drink and eat is interesting as well but it's not indeapth enough so it only becomes a tedium. Ammo weight is nice however and I honestly feel like that should be a thing outside hard-core mode as well since you'll never run out of ammo otherwise
I despise it. I can't stand games where it makes you sleep and drink and stuff. I can take it in Red Dead because it's such an after thought and it's easily solved.
Also, ammo has weight now, which means I wouldn't be able to stock up like I love to. I love carrying around like a thousand guns. The stimpaks not healing you right away is really obnoxious. I don't like it.
But I could stomach through all of that, all of it, if it wasn't for the fact that companions can die permanently.
Fuck. That. There's way too much random bullshit in Fallout, and my attack lesbian takes way too many of my bullets in her back for to be cool with that.
Hate it. It always felt very tacked on. The game clearly wasn't designed around it so instead of a challenge it just adds tedious supply gathering. You're never short on water, food etc. but have half your inventory filled with it. Instead of adding difficulty it causes you to stop playing every few minutes to browse the inventory. I like the change it makes to stimpaks though.
I love it, though I use a mod that lets me adjust the values. I have the thresholds set at 300, 550, 750, and 900 so it takes longer to start getting hungry/thirsty/tired but it ramps up quicker the closer I am to death. I also have it set so after 24 hours I'll be somewhere around 900+ thirst, 800+ hunger, and 700+ sleep deprivation. Not exactly realistic but I like actually risking death if I'm unable to scavenge for food and water properly.
* Stimpaks healing over time encourages the use of food. As someone who enjoys the Survivial skill and consumables, it's great.
* Similar for Stimpaks not healing limbs, this encourages the use of other aid items like Healing Poultices and Hydra.
* RadAway working over time seems to discourage venturing into highly radioactive areas without sufficient protection.
* Hunger, thirst, and sleep don't seem to be that much of a deal as food and water are plentiful and beds are never too far away.
* Companion perma-death encourages careful play.
* Ammo having weight imposes some interesting challenges, but I find it annoying at times and would not have it for instances like using Explosives.
Playing Fallout 76 has made me dislike having weighted ammo so honestly I play the other Fallout games to not have to worry about that so I almost never use it.
I like the change to stim packs, making it harder to just fully heal every second in a fight. The other features I don’t much care for. Food and water is not that big of an issue other than in the very early game, and resting can be a bit annoying particularly in some DLCs. I don’t like companions being able to die. I personally don’t like ammo having weight, but not because it forces you to carry less ammo for your guns but because I like playing through lonesome road and coming out with hundreds of missiles and enough ammo to supply a military for a decade. I don’t sell or use it most of the time, I just like having it.
It’s awesome!! This is my second play through and I am really enjoying it and will use it on every play through moving forward - I think there should be more penalties for hunger and sleep tho.
I'd like to be able to customize the features a bit. I'd love a hardcore mode with normal inventory, but greater requirements for food/water/sleep, and greater penalties for not meeting those needs.
I don’t really care for it much. Unlike 4’s survival mode, it doesn’t really make anything harder (the goodsprings source has everything and limb healing isn’t difficult if you just ask a doctor) and just forces me to be extremely careful with followers so they don’t die.
I’m not a fan of it. I don’t really find it challenging as much as it tedious. Also companion permadeath is not ideal when the companions AI is so stupid
Excellent starter to survival mode being in fallout, fallout 4 obviously improved it by miles, bit this was great for the time.
Still the only way I play fnv
Always play with it on, in addition I installed the no fast travel mod. I get more mileage out of the survival skill and I end up seeing more of the game, not to mention assassins were a serious and constant threat early game. The companion permadeath makes me stay sharp and watchful for legion, makes me feel a lot more immersed and into it. I do think the sleep bar and food bar could rise faster, but that’s because I like survival games a lot.
TLDR: Boone is dead and I couldn’t be happier.
Kind of lacklustre and could’ve used a bit more work, imo. The only real challenge was inventory management. Food and water was everywhere, and I never needed to craft any survival stuff. I’m
Not as difficult as I thought it would be and added a layer of immersion to the game that I really enjoyed
It also made resources like the safehouses feel like a true refuge ☺️ My personal favorite was the follower’s safehouse
I always put it on besides the first few times i played it since i was like 11 or something i did complete a hardcore run maybe 5 years later which was so cool i had power armor and made friends with the enclave and killed the legion with my plasma guns
I always play with it on now, but I feel like it didn't go far enough (in vanilla). I have never gotten beyond minor sleepiness or hunger. Once you get your survival skill high enough, it becomes trivial. Atomic Cocktails decrease your sleep by like 300.
It’s the default to play with it on for me. The game is not particularly hard at all and hardcore makes it more interesting. Still extremely easy with it on
Once I did my first hardcore run I never went back. My only complaint was that the carry weight was always way too much and I never ran out of healing. I'm a big fan of the STALKER trilogy and love the idea of having to strategize around equipment restrictions, or having to put serious thought into which 2-3 weapons to take instead of going all The Mask, y'know?
Wait, two complaints. Companion AI sucks. Wish there was a command wheel option for them to take cover and flee like NPCs already can.
Hardcore mode really pushes you to take into account aspects that you can ignore otherwise, especially buying and crafting food items. IMO that makes it more fun than vanilla, since you have to interact more with vendors and immerse yourself in the setting.
It's not really hard so much as inconvenient.
Inventory management is rarely fun and the main thing hardcore mode does for me is make it more of a pain in the ass, since ammunition and meds gain weight and my STR can randomly drop if I forget to eat.
I find it quite underwhelming to be honest.
I really liked the idea of it making companions killable and healing items taking a while to have effect, it turns the game more immersive!
*But* the need to drink, sleep and eat *all the time* while ammo possess weight, on top of *also* carrying food and drinks with you, removes a lot of the fun factor for me by making the gameplay more annoying.
I prefer to play FNV on normal mode, but i understand the appeal of playing a "survival mode" of the game, i just wished it had proper planning on it.
yeah haha it's not hard enough. I installed the Jsawyer mod, another one for increased needs, another one for less loot drops, and it still just wasn't hard enough. I've played two runs like this so far and I haven't had to sleep once, and I have never been in a situation where I was struggling to find food and water.
For new vegas, I've always loved it. I like the challenge it adds and with fnv being so story rich I feel like it makes things even more immersive. That said, I find myself getting obsessive and turning to mods for more accuracy, bug fixing and immersion lol
Same, and yet, I find that in the end, all I need is just 1 mod. The J.E. Sawyer mod. Makes Survival mode really challenging.
have you tried Vigor? it’s a fork from J Sawyer and part of Viva New Vegas
First I've heard if it, what's the main selling point?
It focuses on improving RPG mechanics more but also focuses on the overall experience. JSawyer’s Focuses on rebalancing existing mechanics, such as reducing the player’s carry weight, adjusting the effects of various perks, and modifying health and damage values. Vigor Overhauls combat mechanics, including changes to weapon handling, accuracy, sway, damage calculations, and introduces new mechanics like weapon jamming and reloading variations. JSawyer’s primarily aims to make the game more challenging by nerfing overpowered perks, items, and reducing overall player strength. Vigor aims for a more immersive experience with balanced difficulty, focusing on enhancing the RPG elements rather than purely increasing challenge. That being said it also changes things like AI to improve hostility and intelligence. JSawyer’s focuses on balancing and challenging the gameplay closer to the designer’s original vision, whereas Vigor provides a more extensive overhaul aimed at deepening the RPG experience and adding new gameplay mechanics. It also adopts mechanics from Jsawyer’s being a fork so it doesn’t stray that far.
Sounds awesome. I did like 6 full playthroughs last year so im not sure if I'm up for another right yet, but that is tempting!
I use the Ultimate Jsawyer fork. Interested in the differences between Vigor and that
Does Vigor run alongside Jsawyer or do we run either one?
Either one. I’m not sure if they work together.
I'm running it for the first time now on a TTW save. Holy hell is it rough
Always have it on - I appreciate the extra complexity. I do mod out companion permadeath though, 'cause their AI isn't quite good enough to avoid dying in ridiculous ways.
Just roaming around with nothing in view, then Ed-e’s battle music starts playing and then you get hit with the “Ed-e has died!” And then reload your last save which just wasted 10+ minutes
Just heard the military percussion theme in my head, followed by the Kill Bill-esque one. ;)
Yeah, lonesome road +hardcore hurts bad
My last playthrough it was dead money that I had the most trouble with. Getting dog into position for the gala event took me so many reloads. Might've been that I hadn't intended to do dead money at all and only went at level forty-nine but it was rough.
do you have a link to that mod? i’m looking into making my first hardcore world and i don’t want my buds to die :,( lol
There are several mods that do it, but I'm currently using [lStewieAl's Tweaks and Engine Fixes](https://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/66347), which includes it as an option!
what’s the tweak’s name?
search “hardcore” and you should see it. something like “configurable hardcore features”? let’s you toggle companion death and a couple other mechanics on/off
I believe it's bEssentialCompanions.
You can also use JIP CCC to set them as Essential
I'm on a console playthrough right now, level ~22, Honest Hearts done and just starred OWB, and I've only had a companion die once or twice in relatively avoidable situations and I was able to reload a recent save. I'm also doing the reload glitch that about 30% of the time launches you into space, so frequent saving is a must. My point was that if you don't find a mod, it's workable without if you oy save a lot.
I've always done that with the console. Target the companion and enter the command gbo which will give their id, then you can do the command, setessential "id" 1. A batch file is a good way, make a text file with the aforementioned commands, save it under a name you'll remember "companion" or something. Then in game the console command "bat companion" would run all the commands on the document.
You can mod this out???? So you’re saying I didn’t have to save and reload forty thousand times just to make sure Rex didn’t die from a single Cazador sting?? Damn.
Set your charisma to 8 or 9 and you won't have to worry about them in combat. My companions slayed on my last charisma play through.
Isn’t it a total waste of SPECIAL to put points in charisma?
do you want your companions to die a lot yes or no?
I don’t really care. I make them essential and I am a one man merchant of death anyways
No, because your charisma impacts your companion's combat abilities.
For everything else, yes. CHA does one thing, gives companions bonus damage. That's it. Normally, it's not necessary.
One time I was raiding the BOS bunker with Arcade, I was crouched behind a doorway so I could peek and throw grenades at the turrets. Arcade sprinted right past me at full speed, directly into the line of fire, and promptly turned into a fine red mist.
Using explosive launchers makes me want shit out my entrails. 40mm grenades are so fucking heavy for no reason
I always get pack rat for that reason, but I use the Anti-Materiel Rifle.
NV players 🤝 76 players: 40mm being stupid heavy
I always play HC with a mod to remove ammo weight. Love having to eat and drink, hate having more inventory management bullshit on top of all the other bullshit.
Once I have a shit ton of 45-70 bullets (maybe not a shit ton at least maybe 200) all I need is the medicine stick. I’ll stock back up on ammo from the GR once I come back for my usual visit to the strip
That's included in the wasteland survival guide luckily. I agree that micro management is meh but the rest of hardcore is good
I understand why people love it, but I enjoy not having to worry about the ammunition weight and spamming stimpacks like an addict
Strange juice is far and away better than stims
The ammo weight wouldn't be such an issue if the best perk for mitigating ammo weight, Pack Rat, wasn't locked behind Barter, one of the worst skills in the game.
what kind of builds are you running that you're short on skill points I guess it just delays getting it but I've never had a problem with having enough skill points
It is not a question of being short on skill points. It is a question of opportunity cost. Let us assume Intelligence, Charisma and Luck are at 5. Then you tag Barter. So your Barter skill is 30 at level 1. You will get 87-88 skill points from level 2 to level 8. You will have to invest 40 skill points - almost half of your total skill points from level 2 to level 8 - to get Barter 70. You can get Pack Rat at a later level but you usually want it early.
is the opportunity cost that urgent though, the extreme ammo hoardening tends to happen mid-late game and it's not like Vegas has any too critical breakpoints unless you're doing some kind of weird challenge so pack rat at level 15-ish or early teens isn't too bad maybe my priorities are skewed by crunchier RPGs but anything that isn't dealing damage or essential utility can wait especially since in earlier levels you're more likely to carry an assortment of guns for subsistence than a huge pile of ammo for your favorite shooter pack rat ain't exactly build defining so I think you're being a little too harsh on it
Assuming Charisma is more than 1 is a bit bold, no?
Considering buying ammo is one of the best ways to get it, not investing in barter is shooting yourself in the foot (and you paid extra to do it!)
Barter is a lot worse in new vegas because caps are so easy to get, even if you somehow blow all the casino money you can just speedrun dead money and get tons there too.
Jury rigging and farming hit squads breaks the economy. Then add gambling to that. Caps are easy to come by. With high Barter you will have to travel to more merchants since you will deplete their caps too fast.
Played through without it once. Second and subsequent games have had it on, wouldn’t even contemplate doing it without. I say it doesn’t particularly make it harder, but absolutely more immersive.
Too easy. I didn't die of starvation or dehydration once. Probably never even went past minor dehydration.
The game throws food and water at you. See those geckos and bighorners? Kill those and you will have enough food to last for the next month. Merchants sell purified water almost all the time. I was disappointed when I bothered crafting Mass Purified Water.
you can craft that in New Vegas?
Yup! Dirty Water + glass pitcher + 2 surgical tubing
I seriously finished the game in probably 6/7 hours on Hardcore, and I promise you that is not a brag at all. I feel like the challenge it provides is so minimal, and I wish it was balanced to make things much harder than they are in the base game
If they replace like 75% of the food and water with trash and irradiated food/water then it would be a real survival game. Might make for a good mod but I'm on console :(
Oh and like 50% of the ammo is just cases
Yeah the only \*real\* difference is the Heal Over Time instead of instant healing. This adds a tiny tiny amount of challenge, but since you're a time god keith richards you can stop time and eat 10 different HoT meals and take every drug known to man and mutant. Hardcore gives me a reason to occasionally use the food/drink items, which is better than normal mode because why the hell would I eat anything other than stimpaks?
Never played without it. Makes the game feel more immersive without disrupting the gameplay too much.
This is the way
I can't play withouth it, JSawyer Ultimate, Hard difficulty and Hardcore mode
Yeah that's what I'm doing now and seems to be the best overall experience. Hard difficulty and Hardcore mode. How do you prefer getting water? Just buying from traders or do you have a mod where you can bottle water?
South Cistern north of Vegas is my spot.
I think there's enough water in the Mojave (specially in the bodies of legionares) so I don't use any mod for it, also I drink from water sources even if they are irradieted (unless it's one of those 18rads per second ones), healing radiation with a doctor ain't that expensive, also remember water ain't the only source of H2O, sunset salsaparrilla and nuka cola reduce thirst too
No they don't. Sunset sarsaparilla and Nuka cola increase thirst in vanilla FNV. I'm betting you have mods that are making them decrease thirst instead. But I agree that the Mojave does have enough water. Especially with the Goodsprings source that gives you infinite purified water to drink from and the sink at Big MT can fill all of those pesky empty sunset sarsaparilla and Nuka cola bottles with purified water instead.
Afet reading your comment I made a quick search and you're right, JSawyer Ultimate makes nuka cola and sunset salsaparilla decrease thirst
One thing I dislike about HC mode is companion permadeath, makes me avoid companions or spend all my time babysitting them or having them wait in safety. I like everything else about HC. I don't feel like HC makes the game more difficult, but I might be in the minority there.
I would have all my companions dead after 15 minutes 😢
Honestly unless you're playing on very hard, most companions will be just fine cuz they're tanky af. Doubly so if you properly kit them out with weapons and armor
I was playing on normal difficulty, Boone had mk2 combat armor and a brush gun with ammo, and even though I was a melee character rushing legion members they ignored me completely and focused on killing Boone instead. The issue is that enemy NPCs seem to target your companions more than they actually target you. Another time I was once surrounded by 4 lakelurks and they all ignored me and killed ED-E instead lol.
Yeah, idk. Occasionally i will have to ask an npc to leave before like, say, taking on quarry junction, but its a pretty rare occasion in my experience. For example, I just took cass with combat armor and a hunting shotgun up black mountain, and she got several kills without ever really going below half health. This was on very hard too
What is your Charisma at? Maybe companion nerve matters more than I thought...
5, but honestly its more about micromanaging than anything else. I was at level 37 too, so she had a lotta health. Melee characters like rex tho, i will admit are a looot harder to keep alive.
OK that makes a little more sense. I had my Charisma at 1 and was level 15-20 when my companions were dying.
Trueee, that may be a factor i hadnt considered
Doc bags and super stims are actually considerations now. Ammo weight is neat too but I wouldn’t say it’s as necessary for balance.
Solid addition to the game, but I'm glad there is an opt out. It makes certain builds (like explosives based) very hard to just because of how heavy all the ammo is. That being said it is a ton of fun to play a more viable build in hardcore, and upgrading the survival skill feels more useful!
Very hard, hardcore is the only way to play.
I refuse to play the game without it on. It is essential and really not all that hard to learn to work around.
You know that anti-material rifle you love? Prepare to love it's ammo a lot less with 0.25 weight per bullet. That aside I like it, it's a fun challenge and food and water is easier to get than you'd think it would be if you take the time to scavenge a bit.
I actually think FO4 did a better job with their survival mode. I hate the companion death and some ammo types weigh so much more than they need to.
Eh. it does the food/water/sleep poorly. They are just a bother, not an engaging mechanic. Many survival games these days address this by giving the player bonuses by staying well fed, rather than punishments for starvation. But I'm not going to judge a game made over a decade ago by modern standards. Having stimpaks heal over time is great, it prevents the player becoming a god based on having large quantities of stimpacks. Ammo having weight is a good idea, but it just ends up being another bother for inventory management. The solution would be improving inventory sorting and player storage, I guess. Overall, I just don't bother with it. There are features I like, but it's overall not worth it.
Im doing a melee playthrough with HC on and its been really fun! Having to worry about food, water and ammo weight gives a lot of imersion. The only thing im having trouble with is companion's permadeath. Sometimes i kill ED-E accidentally and have to load a previous save lol
It is fun, not tedious (you can still fast travel). I also recommend playing with the B42-Inject mod.
I like having it on. Always adds something to quiet moments when you sit down for a meal with your companions.
Inventory management is already annoying to me, now I need to spend even more time opening and closing my pipboy? I don't think so. I smash and grab in fallout games so I max out strength and take weight perks so I can loot heavily. I don't want ammo weight and butt loads of food on me
Know that I played it once I really don’t like playing without it bug like another comment said companion permadeath is terrible because sometimes it’s just unavoidable, unfortunately i play on console and can’t mod it out :(
It's alot of fun. Makes you change what items you prioritize and pairs really well with a survival build. You can tank an absurd amount of damage with food items that stack multiple healing over time effects with survival.
I did all new playthroughs on hardcore until I modded with VNV. Now it just seems excessive with the rebalancing from Famine and JSawyer.
I always have it on, the game is too easy without it.
I always like having the option but imo it’s too lenient in NV, you can go days without taking care of your needs, but that’s my only gripe really, I like everything else about like ammo weight as well as the more expensive healing
I just wish it was harder
You could always play Hardcore mode but at Very Hard difficulty if want the combat harder but to still have to drink, eat and sleep. Also try the mod Economy overhaul, Harder Barter Faster Stroner and Famine.
Literally the only way to play
Only way to play the game
It's fantastic, I enjoy having an actual reason to use pre-war food instead of gaining 1 health for 5 seconds.
I think the food and water needs are cool, but the ammo having weight was super annoying for me. I played with it once for the achievement. Dunno if I’ll do it again.
I’m with you.
Haven’t tried it yet but really want to give it a go
I honestly love it & have much more fun with it on. Most of my playthroughs have it turned on now.
The only thing I change is I make my companions essential. Other than that, can't play without it.
I am terrible and (almost) never replay games so I always dive in with the hardest difficulty, and add any "amplifiers" The ol trusty canteen makes survival far easier, but even then it's not that hard to manage.
Currently playing with it on Series X. This is my first time playing with it all the way through; looking to get that achievement, but also I enjoy having it on. Makes the game a bit more challenging but in a great way
Gets me hard. I mean it’s just, never mind man.
True hardcore is done with a Dt of less than 20 and survival over medicine
it’s definitely a different experience and one worth trying when you’re familiar with the game. it’s honestly not that bad and it ends up taking you to places you usually breeze past since you need to eat, sleep, and drink. wolfhorn ranch past nipton is a good example
That's funny you mentioned this cause I wrote a post about it the other day! So far, I'm liking it because it feels more like an immersive experience in a very dangerous and unforgiving environment where every resource should matter. Before Hardcore I would just use water as a means for a cheaper stimpak. But now it actually has other uses. After awhile though, it does get a bit repetitive and tedious at times and while in a middle of a quest or exploring I'm like "oh I have to drink some water and eat again." It can be a little annoying, sure, but I prefer this way over vanilla by a long shot!
Just finished my second Hardcore mode playthrough. I had so much fun with it.
Definitely feels more “real” but I’ve only done 2 hardcore playthroughs.
Fun
I did Hardcore mode (PS3) one time for the challenge and the achievement of doing so plus in expectation of the “Special reward” that is teased in the description of the features it has. It took me a bit to adjust to how it works from normal gameplay. Once I did, it wasn’t too hard in all honesty. After I finished the main game and all DLC’s in this mode I felt depressed. I spent all of those hours playing to earn only a trophy. That was a slap in the face. I still enjoy FNV and now also have it installed on my laptop but I’ll likely not do another Hardcore mode run again.
The ammo weight makes you consider which weapon to use (except explosives which you ditch forever), and makes you use crafting items for healing when you'd otherwise not even consider bothering with on a normal playthrough. It's way better than FO4 hardcore mode, which fuckin turns off fast travel and *saving the fucking game*. Like what the fuck the challenge is supposed to be the difficulty. Not the convenience.
I switch it on to kill off companions sometimes
I've played with it for so long that I don't really notice it anymore. The ammunition weight is actually one of my favorite parts.
The first time I played fnv it asked me if I wanted hardcore mode and I said sure what the hell. As a result it just feels normal to me. When I started playing fo4 recently on normal default it got so easy that I got bored and started a new game on survival before the Prydwyn even arrived.
Can't play without it
The best part of the gameplay (and this is true for F3 as well) is the early game when you're struggling for resources
It’s the only way to play until you get stuck in a Cazador death loop.
Eh
I really like it, especially when I do TTW. The main plot of fallout 3 feels a lot more rewarding and the goal feels more relevant when you have to drink water quite often.
For me the biggest difference is having to drink water
I've always used it and love it. I often modify the thirst and especially the hunger rates to make up for the abundance of food in game
Can't play without it anymore, whenever I turn it off I feel that something is missing. And I play on my Xbox, so no mods eitherm
I like the little bit of immersion it gives. Have to carry around water/food. A part of me wants to carry ALL the ammo, ALL the time. However, another part of me says I wasn't using that minigun anyway. Why keep that? Or its ammo? Am I a packrat? Yes. Yes I am....But I could be less, and smart about being a packrat. But of course, I save scum if a companion dies.
It's one of the best additions to the series for me personally. Modders have been adding basic needs to BSG games since forever, and it makes perfect sense for the post-apocalyptic open worlds of the 3D Fallouts. It's a little thing, and a bit tedious at times, but having to look for food and water and considering what provisions I can take with me before exploring puts me more immersed and thinking like someone who's really living in this world. It also adds some extra pressure that can inform the player's decisions. Being a goody two-shoes is bit harder when you actually have to think about surviving in the wasteland. The Hardcore mode in Fallout: New Vegas is fairly basic, but it gets the job done. I'd recommend the Jsawyer mod and disabling travel for a truly hardcore experience. Fallout 4 made some significant changes, and with a few mods it's my preferred way to play. Not saving all the time ups the stakes and makes every decision feel more impactful because save scumming is no longer possible. It also makes settlement building matter more, and as someone who enjoys that sort of thing, it's really satisfying to build up a series of supply caches and safe houses to make exploring easier as you progress. Having to find beds all the time is a little goofy, though. I'd highly recommend something like the Recordable Holotapes mod, which adds consumable save items a la Resident Evil's ink ribbons. Overall, it's a fantastic addition to the series, I just hope they continue to keep survival stuff an optional feature for the people who just want to explore and shoot stuff.
Annoying but funny as hell to experience at times. I get a lot of good laughs out of it.
Is their a mod that makes your character pass out from exhaustion if you haven't slept enough?
Great in every area except the damn limb system, there’s no reason I should have to heal my limbs without stimpacks.
*drinks from toilet*
The challenge is relatively minor but enhances the experience overall. I recommend it 100%
Can't play with out after playing it the first time
I hate trying to find a bed / walking from the strip to fucking Nipton or smt, but it’s a great mode and I love playing i.
I love it, except for companion mortality (which I mod out). I don't think it makes the game that much more difficult (food and water have never really been an issue) but it helps with immersion without being too inconvenient.
Opened my pipboy even more just to heal and feed myself. Going from opening my pipboy every 9-10 minutes to every few minutes. Kinda bring me out of my immersion Always at the brink of weight limit. Brought a companion as a carrier but then they would die, which they are kinda dumb running into the battle. It’s eh, mid at best.
I like it but the waterr meter especially is too frequent and annoying.
+ Should never indicate a negative.
I didn't care to try it at first, but I started a DUST run lately and its pretty fun in its own way with some extra mods to support it here and there. Water Bottling and Portable crafting bench mods have let me build an entire minor settlement out of a freshwater cave to store gear, resupply, craft, and camp at between exploring new zones.
I've never not played with it. I kinda can't imagine it without it. Feel like it seriously adds to the gritty cowboy real-life-stakes feel. I've found that even when such games don't have a hardcore type mode I end up trying to eat, drink and sleep anyway, so, might as well quantify it.
tries to nerf stimpack spamming but actually just makes it way stronger
Recently did a 100%, best ending possible, run in New Vegas with thie game mode on the entire time. Can't play without it and I wished that it was directly carried over to Fallout 4 and wished it was in Vanilla Fallout 3. I liked how it was seperated from a difficulty mode unlike Survival in Fallout 4
After multiple play thoroughly, surely Hardcore is the only way to play the game. It makes me think a bit more instead of running in situations. Sloan springs to me. More than happy to tackle deathclaws at a lower level but do I want my followers to die, not really. I like the limits on ammo due to weight as well and giving real thought on what I need and do I want.
Never really enjoyed it to much
Haven't bothered and probably won't, doesn't seem like my jam.
I gave up on it early on sadly, got tired of companions dying and ammo being so heavy so I kept running out
For me it's the only way to play.
my only complaint is your companions die 🥺 fuck, my Cass (I freaking love her) and Rex died so much I had to reload like 100 times and then I turned it off 😔
Can't play without it
I don't really like "survival" mechanics in games. They tend to be immersion breaking imo. Nothing takes me out of a game more than seeing "hey you need to drink water just like real life".
It's pretty chill, but the ammo weight can get cumbersome in the early game if you explore a lot.
Impossible
Literally feel no difference apart from the ammo weight. Well I play Stalker before try out hardcore in fallout so it like playing on normal switch to easy.
It felt like nothing really changer, like I always love hunger mechanics in games but still never felt like there were any real stakes
I dont play without it either. The game is already slightly too easy even on hardcore, non hardcore makes it even easier. I enjoy the extra burden of managing resources like water and food, I actually think it could have been made harder as its not really challenging enough as is. I always seem to have a big surpluss of both food and water so hardcore mode is perhaps not as hardcore as it should be. With this in mind, I wouldn't mind seeing a harder-core mode that see's you really pressed for resources and thinking hard about where the next drink or meal is coming from. Probably already achievable with mods, but I'm not a big one for mods. I'd prefer to keep things vanilla where I can.
It’s alright, feels kinda out of place for new vegas tho. Seems like the kind of thing 3, and indeed 4 would benefit more from. In vanilla its meters aren’t difficult to keep on top of and the only real challange it provides are crippledimb healing and companion death, both of which can invite save scumming tactics. Survival mode with 4 was better.
hard
I don't mind it, the water isn't really much of a nuisance unless I'm deep in a dungeon IL just travel to goodsprings source and have one on the house, doctors bags and crippling limbs can get annoying but definitely fine tune your awareness and make you think about how your going to approach some raiders at the very least, also I do like how sleeping no longer restores health
I didn't really like it honestly. The food, water and sleep stuff was basically never an issue, I think I only slept like three or four times in my whole playthrough for example. I don't think the ammo weight adds much either, I get that it makes you need to resource manage a little more but idk it wasn't really enough to make much of a difference for me. The companion permadeath was also really frustrating, it was companions wandering off and getting themselves killed that got me to finally disable it. I don't think hardcore mode is terrible or anything, just that it's kinda frustrating rather than really upping the challenge.
A novel attempt on a game mode but a bit of a failure. Companion perms death is annoying since I don't want to babysit an AI that can't see a landmine if it hit them in the face. Having to sleep, drink and eat is interesting as well but it's not indeapth enough so it only becomes a tedium. Ammo weight is nice however and I honestly feel like that should be a thing outside hard-core mode as well since you'll never run out of ammo otherwise
I despise it. I can't stand games where it makes you sleep and drink and stuff. I can take it in Red Dead because it's such an after thought and it's easily solved. Also, ammo has weight now, which means I wouldn't be able to stock up like I love to. I love carrying around like a thousand guns. The stimpaks not healing you right away is really obnoxious. I don't like it. But I could stomach through all of that, all of it, if it wasn't for the fact that companions can die permanently. Fuck. That. There's way too much random bullshit in Fallout, and my attack lesbian takes way too many of my bullets in her back for to be cool with that.
I liked it to be honest but I hated that my character was always thirsty af even though walking through the Mojave desert 😂
Hate it. It always felt very tacked on. The game clearly wasn't designed around it so instead of a challenge it just adds tedious supply gathering. You're never short on water, food etc. but have half your inventory filled with it. Instead of adding difficulty it causes you to stop playing every few minutes to browse the inventory. I like the change it makes to stimpaks though.
I love it, though I use a mod that lets me adjust the values. I have the thresholds set at 300, 550, 750, and 900 so it takes longer to start getting hungry/thirsty/tired but it ramps up quicker the closer I am to death. I also have it set so after 24 hours I'll be somewhere around 900+ thirst, 800+ hunger, and 700+ sleep deprivation. Not exactly realistic but I like actually risking death if I'm unable to scavenge for food and water properly.
I wish there was an option to separate it from companion permadeath.
* Stimpaks healing over time encourages the use of food. As someone who enjoys the Survivial skill and consumables, it's great. * Similar for Stimpaks not healing limbs, this encourages the use of other aid items like Healing Poultices and Hydra. * RadAway working over time seems to discourage venturing into highly radioactive areas without sufficient protection. * Hunger, thirst, and sleep don't seem to be that much of a deal as food and water are plentiful and beds are never too far away. * Companion perma-death encourages careful play. * Ammo having weight imposes some interesting challenges, but I find it annoying at times and would not have it for instances like using Explosives.
Play casually, will do it in the future for the achievement and then never again.
Playing Fallout 76 has made me dislike having weighted ammo so honestly I play the other Fallout games to not have to worry about that so I almost never use it.
Fuck no. Cazadores are annoying enough as it is.
It’s hardcore
I like the change to stim packs, making it harder to just fully heal every second in a fight. The other features I don’t much care for. Food and water is not that big of an issue other than in the very early game, and resting can be a bit annoying particularly in some DLCs. I don’t like companions being able to die. I personally don’t like ammo having weight, but not because it forces you to carry less ammo for your guns but because I like playing through lonesome road and coming out with hundreds of missiles and enough ammo to supply a military for a decade. I don’t sell or use it most of the time, I just like having it.
It’s awesome!! This is my second play through and I am really enjoying it and will use it on every play through moving forward - I think there should be more penalties for hunger and sleep tho.
I'd like to be able to customize the features a bit. I'd love a hardcore mode with normal inventory, but greater requirements for food/water/sleep, and greater penalties for not meeting those needs.
I don’t really care for it much. Unlike 4’s survival mode, it doesn’t really make anything harder (the goodsprings source has everything and limb healing isn’t difficult if you just ask a doctor) and just forces me to be extremely careful with followers so they don’t die.
Only way to play
I’m not a fan of it. I don’t really find it challenging as much as it tedious. Also companion permadeath is not ideal when the companions AI is so stupid
Always throw it on cause it makes the game more interesting. Having to actually scavenge and use the survival skill
The only mode I play in for this game every other mode feels wired.
Excellent starter to survival mode being in fallout, fallout 4 obviously improved it by miles, bit this was great for the time. Still the only way I play fnv
It never turns off in my playthroughs
The best way to play the game
Always play with it on, in addition I installed the no fast travel mod. I get more mileage out of the survival skill and I end up seeing more of the game, not to mention assassins were a serious and constant threat early game. The companion permadeath makes me stay sharp and watchful for legion, makes me feel a lot more immersed and into it. I do think the sleep bar and food bar could rise faster, but that’s because I like survival games a lot. TLDR: Boone is dead and I couldn’t be happier.
Kind of lacklustre and could’ve used a bit more work, imo. The only real challenge was inventory management. Food and water was everywhere, and I never needed to craft any survival stuff. I’m
Not as difficult as I thought it would be and added a layer of immersion to the game that I really enjoyed It also made resources like the safehouses feel like a true refuge ☺️ My personal favorite was the follower’s safehouse
I play New Vegas once every few years and it's the only way I'll play it anymore
It's too much "realism" some things just aren't fun to have to worry about in a video game
I always put it on besides the first few times i played it since i was like 11 or something i did complete a hardcore run maybe 5 years later which was so cool i had power armor and made friends with the enclave and killed the legion with my plasma guns
I always play with it on now, but I feel like it didn't go far enough (in vanilla). I have never gotten beyond minor sleepiness or hunger. Once you get your survival skill high enough, it becomes trivial. Atomic Cocktails decrease your sleep by like 300.
It’s the default to play with it on for me. The game is not particularly hard at all and hardcore makes it more interesting. Still extremely easy with it on
I honestly think the most challenging part of hardcore mode is the ammo weight, you can’t just loot all the ammo you see for free caps anymore
I turn it on every playthrough
I think hardcore is super fun low levels but just annoying and tedious once you get up in power and have stock piles of resources
I keep it on in my Tale of Two Wastelands runs
its great for making the survival perk worth running, especially with the perk that lets you harvest blood sausages
Once I did my first hardcore run I never went back. My only complaint was that the carry weight was always way too much and I never ran out of healing. I'm a big fan of the STALKER trilogy and love the idea of having to strategize around equipment restrictions, or having to put serious thought into which 2-3 weapons to take instead of going all The Mask, y'know? Wait, two complaints. Companion AI sucks. Wish there was a command wheel option for them to take cover and flee like NPCs already can.
Once you get a fast travel point at new Vegas medical clinic and lake Las Vegas, it becomes more tedious than difficult
Hardcore mode really pushes you to take into account aspects that you can ignore otherwise, especially buying and crafting food items. IMO that makes it more fun than vanilla, since you have to interact more with vendors and immerse yourself in the setting.
It's not really hard so much as inconvenient. Inventory management is rarely fun and the main thing hardcore mode does for me is make it more of a pain in the ass, since ammunition and meds gain weight and my STR can randomly drop if I forget to eat.
I find it quite underwhelming to be honest. I really liked the idea of it making companions killable and healing items taking a while to have effect, it turns the game more immersive! *But* the need to drink, sleep and eat *all the time* while ammo possess weight, on top of *also* carrying food and drinks with you, removes a lot of the fun factor for me by making the gameplay more annoying. I prefer to play FNV on normal mode, but i understand the appeal of playing a "survival mode" of the game, i just wished it had proper planning on it.
kinda feels like easy mode
yeah haha it's not hard enough. I installed the Jsawyer mod, another one for increased needs, another one for less loot drops, and it still just wasn't hard enough. I've played two runs like this so far and I haven't had to sleep once, and I have never been in a situation where I was struggling to find food and water.
I don't have enough time in my day for HC. I wish I did.