Dogmeat

[PZ]

I just watched a FO3 trailer in which it appeared that the main character (you) is walking with a dog - can you befriend man's best friend in the game?

[Art Blade]

yes, he can be found at a scrapyard. But beware: He is very mortal. And will be gone for good if he gets killed. That's why you should not send him out to find any stuff...

I had laughed so hard many times when I had modded him immortal and fitted him with a new definition of brute strength.. he always managed to run into hostiles before returning goods he garnered somewhere, and I enjoyed the combat sounds from a safe distance  ;D

[deadman1]

Darn it Art beat me to it again ( must type faster)  ;D

[Fiach]

In the 360 version, if he gets killed, he will resurrect back a the the first vault after a period of time.

I think he is a great help, but you have to realise that he is just a dog, he makes a great tank to keep monsters busy, while you w@&k your way through them. He can also be healed with the stimpaks.

If the odds are too huge or if you need to use a particular strategy, you can bring him somewhere safe and tell him to "Stay", he will also collect ammo for you, from hard to reach places, as well as scavenging around your local area.

[Art Blade]

you can download my mod here and test it ;) By the way, telling Dogmeat he's a good dog is a charm, that makes him essential (immortal). And I loved Charon, but his looks... I changed him into an immortal DukeNukem guy  ;D Fawkes is immortal, too, but kept his looks. Two new weapons (gun, SMG) that use themselves up, especially the smg, fires so fast it melts in your hands. And careful, both weapons will kill anything with one shot.

ArtMod, read about it here

[Art Blade]

Darn it Art beat me to it again ( must type faster)  ;D

didn't even see that post, lol  ;D

[deadman1]

Darn it Art beat me to it again ( must type faster)  ;D

didn't even see that post, lol  ;D

I had just finished when I saw that someone had already replied, checked it out and you had told PZ the same thing was going to  :)

Btw I´m thinking of buying the GOTY edition of FO3 although I already have the game, it´s only 35€ and the want 45€ on STEAM for the vanilla version. I ´m trying to figure out what 4000 GFW points would cost me (that´s for all the 5 add-ons) but I can´t find that info on their website for some reason  :D

[Art Blade]

I think you find the info if you use the Live! prog we used for FUEL, there is some buy points info and how much they cost, if it's that what you mean

[PZ]

Wow, the replies are much appreciated, and I love the idea of wandering the waste lands with my dog (especially a modded one).  :-X

[Art Blade]

hehehe :) An "essential" character usually is part of the story line that must not die before that thread of the story is over. I abused that feature to make the dog "essential" - if he catches a lethal blow, he'll drop unconscious, and will wake up just as fresh as a morning orange juice  ;D

[PZ]

Excellent - I'll anticipate trying out the modified dog  :-X

[PZ]

What do you do with the esp file Art?

[Art Blade]

just put it into the folder:

HD:\games\fo3\data\*.esp

there will be one already. When you start the game, there is a checkbox somewhere like enable mods or the likes, check it, and load your game. I haven't played for some time so I don't recall exactly where, but you'll find it, maybe if there is a launcher program you should find it there. It cannot be hard to find though. Just make sure you always load the artmod, like check if the mod is enabled. Should you forget it, any content of any mod will just be ignored, that may cause you to lose modded items (as long as you had them in your posession) and of course the modded characters return to vanilla. So it is possible to "undo" a mod at any time. But if you want the dog (along with Charon and Fawkes), you should keep it enabled.

I can't wait to read your post once you've seen Charon LOL

The doggie, you can enable the immortality by simply using "you're a good boy" from the dialogue option, and I made it so you can disable it too (I think I even changed the displayed message of the dialogue), I think sending him away makes him mortal again.

If you need more info, please ask :)

[Art Blade]

A tip for the non-cheaters and non-modders:

If you have a buddy, like charon, you can give him stuff from your inventory so he carries it with him, in case you got too heavy with loot. And, even better, if you find armour, especially power armour you can't use due to not having received a lesson yet how to wear it, you can give it to your mate. He wears it if he fits in, so you protect him with better armour. Despite of using it, it won't rot away on him (other than your stuff you use).

[Fiach]

I think 1000 points is €12

[PZ]

I just enabled a cheat on a saved game to see how the sniper rifle feels - it is a .308 with great stopping power.  I'm in the tricycle factory and the ghouls abound - easy w@&k with the .308.  I've not added the dogs yet - am waiting to savor that for when I become a bit more accustomed to the game.  For instance, I had to invoke God mode to figure out how to use VATS which is a great way to fight your foes  :-X

[PZ]

One interesting thing is that I don't know how what I am doing will impact the play of the game.  For instance, I just encountered 3 slavers who were marked as green in my threat indicator.  As I conversed with them, I was outraged at the callous way they treated people that they had enslaved so I killed them.  I guess it remains to be seen what happens to me as a consequence.

[Art Blade]

FO3 indeed offers oportunities to meet with people that might be part of a side story (mission givers) so if you kill people you can talk to, you might end up missing out on a quest. But hell, if you don't like slavers, why bother with a possible mission (aka quest) that would only involve more ugliness... do what you like, but it most certainly has consequences (like, you'll never know if you had killed someone that he would have been useful later on... hehehe)

Just do what you have to, in the end you can only screw side missions up, not the main mission (well, I think not... see "essential characters")

[PZ]

Very interesting - lends itself well to replay value - I'll not kill the slavers next time  :-X

[Fiach]

There are many encounters like that in the wasteland, some with moral consequences, others, just weird, cannibals, vampires, aliens etc.

Those guys were from Paradise Flats (I think is the name or Falls?), they will give you an opportinity to w@&k as slavers for the camp, this can be handy, as you get a slave collar that you can use, it hypnotises people for you. Its a mezotron or something.

There will come a point in the main story later, where you will have to go to Paradie Flats to rescue some NPC's, so you havent missed anything really on that occasion.

[Ricamundo]

Oh i guess ive buggered that up then. Ive been to Paradise falls, killed the slavers, since they started shooting at me anyway, and freed the captives. I wasnt on a quest there, i just happened to find it.

I didnt know how to open the electried fence around the giant freak thingy, so he's still in there, and at least one of the freed slaves won't run away, as he's too busy cowering nearby. ::)

Ive been unimpressed with the sniper rifle so far, its in good nick, but at any longish range i rarely hit anything. Even VATS misses 1/2 the time. Is there a perk/skill i need to add points to?

POSSIBLE SPOILERS>>>>

I just went back to Megaton and sold off a bunch of assault rifles i'd picked up off of dead enemies, and i bought a decor pack from Moira. I chose the Shag pad and added my own Nuka Cola machine. 8) I also got my own suite @ Tenpenny Towers, but for some reason, i dont have a key for the front door, i have to go thru Tenpenny's suite and out onto the balcony, and around and in the back door of my place. Unfortunately, i  was seen stealing something from a room by one of the residents. She went off screaming Thief! and the security guys started shootin, so i offed everyone. ???  Funny, i lost karma each time, but when i killed Tenpenny himself, i gained karma. :-\

[Fiach]

Oh i guess ive buggered that up then. Ive been to Paradise falls, killed the slavers, since they started shooting at me anyway, and freed the captives. I wasnt on a quest there, i just happened to find it.

I didnt know how to open the electried fence around the giant freak thingy, so he's still in there, and at least one of the freed slaves won't run away, as he's too busy cowering nearby. ::)

Ive been unimpressed with the sniper rifle so far, its in good nick, but at any longish range i rarely hit anything. Even VATS misses 1/2 the time. Is there a perk/skill i need to add points to?

POSSIBLE SPOILERS>>>>

I just went back to Megaton and sold off a bunch of assault rifles i'd picked up off of dead enemies, and i bought a decor pack from Moira. I chose the Shag pad and added my own Nuka Cola machine. 8) I also got my own suite @ Tenpenny Towers, but for some reason, i dont have a key for the front door, i have to go thru Tenpenny's suite and out onto the balcony, and around and in the back door of my place. Unfortunately, i  was seen stealing something from a room by one of the residents. She went off screaming Thief! and the security guys started shootin, so i offed everyone. ???  Funny, i lost karma each time, but when i killed Tenpenny himself, i gained karma. :-\

Shame about the cola machine, but I did say not to buy it lol :)

I dont remember the freak thingy, but the cowering guy wont leave. You have saved yourself a fair bit of hassle, when you get to Little Lamplight, you will know what I mean.

Nothing wrong with the rifles, maybe your shoot skill isnt high enough.

I saved megaton, so I dont know much about the tenpenny suite sorry mate.

[Art Blade]

I know about TenPennySuite. I did exactly what Rica did, offed the building, starting with some security who, for some reason, didn't like my doings. I was as surprised about the good karma boost on killing TP. Later I learned that I committed a bad mistake, regarding TPS - about the first real good thing I did was disarm the nuke in Megaton. Now, if you don't take on the quest about the nuke, one of the goons of TP asks you to do something else with it... and as a reward, TP will give you the TPS. You know, "there can only be one" home, either the dump in Megaton or the suit in the TPTower. Depending on which style you prefer (good, neutral, bad), the decision should be made which home to choose.

[PZ]

This is going to be fun - am looking forward to finding my dog.  I loaded Art's mod via the launcher, but my assumption is that I need to find the dog in order to make it my friend.

[Fiach]

Well you have to rescue him, he is being attacked by bandits in the Scrapyard.