okay, i have only played "modern" rpgs to this point with fairly, shall we say "streamlined" battle systems, so pls bear with me.
just started fallout, my first purchase, and am having some issues (enjoying the hell out of tyrian 2000, have high scores in episodes 2 & 3, though i suppose that's routine).
my main question involves battle mechanics. apparently you choose/equip 2 weapons from your inventory (a primary and secondary weapon?). i have a knife and handgun -- early days here. when involved in a fight, how do you choose which weapon? can you select/change mid-combat? and how does one acquire "action points" to complete a battle or search a corpse? is that by walking around to the "numbered" points, then returning. i've heard nothing but good things about this game, so i'm not giving up, but this just seems incredibly cumbersome and overly complicated, considering i'm fighting cave rats (i beat them -- yay -- and i'm in shady sands). actually i'm in the radscorpion cave engaging -- and having killed two -- radscorpions -- is this a good idea? also, what's the deal with first aid/heailing? under what criterion are you restored to health? seems to work only sporadically.
if you've gotten this far, i thank you -- suppose i'd figure it out eventually, but seems this could save me much trial-and error (that's plan B).

on a completely separate note, i just viewed a 9-minute "speed run" through fallout in which the player seems to have gone nowhere near shady sands, let alone radscorpions:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzSOKi_t5fg

so what's the point? (it's all in the journey?)

Yes a primary and secondry weapon (though you can open the inventory and swap at the cost of AP) to swap between the 2 press the red button to the left of the selected weapon.

Combat is turn based so make us of your AP before ending the turn at which point your allowance will refill depending on your agility it may not fully refill (FO:Tactics has the choice of turn based or real time.)

Loot corpses at the end of combat its easier when you dont have to worry about AP.

Health is restored using stim packs, resting (use the Pipboy) or by first aid/Doctor (these are skill dependent and Useless IMO you need 75+ to do anything useful and will still fail doctors bags and first aid kits help these skills)

Killing the Radscorpians is a good early boost to EXP although it can be ammo expensive (use melee/H2H aimed at the brain if you have a decent skill at it) There is 3 IIRC ammo boxes in those caves.

As for the speed run, ignore it. Just someone showing off to gain online credability.

If you find yourself locked in Turnbased combat even with no ememies around check the options IIRC there is a setting in there for it but it should close once you are deamed "safe" Though from time to time it will open again within a second cause a beasty has just turned round and spotted you.

For a laugh kill a rat/pig rat or mole rat with a groin shot, same with humans sometimes.





Spoiler



Also later in the game watch out for deathclaws, cripple the legs and kill em at range otherwise they'll rip you apart (blinding them is also good)

re: AP, they do fully refill every turn; however, some actions may devour some, such as standing up after being knocked down, and unless your Agility is very high, the number of AP will not reach the end of the AP bar display. (Right above your weapon's picture at the bottom console, a series of green dots.)

Doctor and First Aid are very useful even at low skill levels if you keep trying; it just takes patience, and the reward is faster recovery and a bit of XP for your trouble.

If you have the skill to attack the eyes, you are looking at roughly a 50 or 60% chance to get critical damage. Possible critical hits include instant kills and blinding. A blinded opponent suffers penalties to hit you.
Late-game techniques include gaining Perks which cause all your attacks to become critical hits. I find these make it much easier to break an opponent's leg.

Hello my fellow fallout gamer, do not give up on this wonderful game!

Like others have said, you can swap between weapons during combat by pressing the red button (what button should I press!? I don't know try the red one! (-:) to the left of you're weapons. You can also go to you're inventory for an ap penalty.

You regain action points by ending you're turn or using all you're action points during a turn. It is best to optimize action points the best you can. For example, reloading a weapon before you're turn is ended, using stimpacks, moving as far away as possible from the menacing mutant wielding a power fist.

As for ending combat, this can sometimes be tricky. There may be no enemy's in you're vicinity but you still get the annoying message "combat cannot end while enemy's are nearby" or something to that effect. For this problem try ending turn, then ending combat. Or just run around aimlessly to use up you're action points, then try to end combat.

As for you're other questions, rad scorpions are great for early xp gain but I would recommend something stronger than a pistol.

First aid and doctor are near useless as you will have a large number of stimpacks by mid game, and you can heal crippled limbs with with little to no doctor skill (but it can take a frustrating long time). The reasons I say these skills are useless is because there are far more important skills which fully rely on skill points.

Some may disagree with me, but I strongly recommend you use a character build guide ( not a walk through) for you're first time playing. I also recommend you use a guide that builds a sociable character who relies on simple gun slinging. You may have to use a fallout 2 guide as I believe good fallout 1 guides are hard to come by. This won't make a big difference as the games differ slightly in actual game play.

And discard the 9 minute run through of fallout, that is for extremely bored and experienced users. :-)

Indeed, if you want a character who can learn the setting, you'll want the Intelligence and the Speech to get the options when talking to people. Decent physical stats will help when the going gets rough.

For a first play through, I say avoid the Gifted trait. It takes too much away from skills, and you don't yet fully understand what skills you need. Gifted is for specialists in certain skills, whereas going without allows you to generalize more.

When Mike says doctor is useless, by the way, I think from the way he says it that it only means not to Tag it or put skill points into it. It's useful, but it's not too useful to increase it very high.

But of course, that is what I meant to say. Thanks for the correction.

More a clarification than a correction. It's not like you were incorrect or anything.

But of course. Thanks again for the correction :-o :-)

thanks again everyone, i've come a long way since that post -- a little gameplay clears up alot, but would've stalled out early without all the great input. got as far as the raider's camp before deciding to start all over again -- never setting foot in that hellhole again 8O. great forum gog's got here -- cheers.

Honestly, if you have a character who is decent at combat, the raider's camp is a veritable gold mine. I headed there right after clearing out the Radscorpions to rescue their captives, and after wiping everyone out the amount of loot that was dropped set me up for ages.

Hmmm, I don't remember there ever being any captives in the raider camp, I will have to look into this.

There are two slaves in the room with the 'head' Raiders, they aren't related to the plot in any way but I felt obliged to get them out anyway. If you return to Shady Sands after dealing with the Radscorpions, however, a quest regarding a capive will start.

yeah, i got a schmidtload of guns and ammo before winding up in a ten-on-two situation, but what to do with it all -- a dozen 10mm's + ammo, half a dozen 44's + ammo, knives, spears, caps, etc. don't want to carry it all, nobody nearby to barter with (really needed stimpacs at this point), ended up droppping most of it. say i hadn't actually gotten slaughtered, what to do with all that loot?

Get to a bigger settlement where real merchants are, asking Ian should have brought 2 onto the map.

thx, i'll try it. seems hard not to get outnumbered at the raiders' camp, though -- start a fight and they come out of the woodwork.