I need one more point in intelligence before I can start getting the science perk to upgrade my power armor. But then I also want to use amorer so I can upgrade my normal armor. And I also want to add points to sneak. It's so hard to choose when everything is so much fun.
I mean, I'm almost level 30 and don't even have the required intelligence for science yet... So I did say screw it early. I don't see how one can survive on the highest difficulty setting without sneaking. To many enemies in any camp/building, and I usually run into multiple legendary ones every mission. Just don't see how you can survive without some sneak.
Well, in a game that lacks a number of key combat components (such as crouching behind cover), I'm not too worried about making combat easier on myself. I typically just use sneak to pick off a couple enemies from a mile away before the rest of them somehow spot me and come running straight at me. Outside of that, I only try to hide when I'm about to die. Sometimes it works, sometimes I die regardless. How do you approach combat, IP?
Get behind cover, shoot the legs of melee dudes, weapon arm of firearm dudes, bodies of flying things if there are too many or they're closing I do a tactical retreat while laying mines and tossing grenades. If I find a real good position, I purposely lure as many as possiblevto it through a kill zone or checkpoint. I use vats for the first volley, do the rest manual unless I'm getting overrun. I sometimes sneak to begin exploring but don't put points in it
I run into enemies somewhat regularly that dont lose legs or arms. Had a glowing ghoul of some sort just last night who didn't go down despite 10+ shots to the right leg. I take a somewhat similar approach to what you listed minus the grenades and mines. But like I said, I usually thin them out from afar a little first. Also, my retreat is typically a "get the **** out of there before you die" and hide until your stimpak can regenerate some of your health. If I start breathing heavy, I'm gone if I don't take off immediately. Also, the sneak comes in handy for otherwise hopeless situations. Last night, a group of 3 super mutants descended on one of my settlements with mini guns. I got shredded three times before finally just deciding to book it up a nearby hill and take them out from afar.
I bet your endurance isn't very high or you don't have many perks there. That can help. But you are also playing on the highest difficulty. I don't like it because enemies who are bullet sponges really breaks immersion for me.
You don't see upping your defense or HP through perks as breaking the challenge of the game in a similar way to sneaking? I can see that, but a lot of it is much more realistic. I like that healing takes time and most enemies take skill to defeat. By this level in New Vegas (which I played on a regular difficulty), I was literally unstoppable. I never entered a situation worried about struggling to defeat an enemy or dying multiple times. With 4 on this difficulty, almost every combat situation is a challenge, and I often have to try multiple approaches to attacks before one will work. I also like the sparseness of ammo on higher difficulties. It's the wasteland, so supplies should be hard to come by. At this point I have enough caps to where I don't mind buying ammo, but there were times early on that I had to worry about running out, which made the game more realistic.
I agree on the slow healing and scarcer ammo. I really liked the mode in NV where you needed food and water. Added a whole new feel. I long for the days of Morrowind, where the game world didn't level with you. Starting out was really, REALLY hard and you had to run away a lot. As you got higher level and better equipment, you could go more places. Even still, there were a couple of challenges that would be difficult without strategy no matter what. But Bethesda has increasingly made their worlds level with you, to the point of constricting gameplay into only 2 or 3 branches. In Fallout 4's case, you can max stealth/agility, max endurance, or wear a lot of power armor. It'd be really hard to avoid doing at least one of those 3 things.
I was hoping they'd have that in 4, but alas, I was left disappointed. Oh well. As for the world, enemies are definitely significantly stronger the further south you go in the commonwealth. I love the occasional mission up north that allows me to face mostly easy enemies with the occasional legendary one. I figured I'd avoid power armor because of the need for fusion cores early on. Now I'm sitting on 40+ and deciding I might as well use them.
I hate that damn dog. When I was with him, every time I would try to run from an enemy, he'd be chilling behind me so I couldn't go anywhere and I'd end up dead. If I didn't want him to do anything, he'd be running around like ****ing Moon Moon.
