having only played "modern", shall we say "streamlined" rpgs to this point, i confess i'm at a loss here.
just started playing Fallout, my first gog purchase, and i have some perplexing issues, mainly involving battle mechanics (enjoying the hell out of tyrian 2000 -- high scores in episodes 2 & 3, though i suppose that's routine).
apparently, i can store/equip two weapons from my inventory (a primary and secondary weapon?). i have a knife and handgun (early days here). how do i choose which item to use in a given battle? can you choose/change mid-combat -- say if you wandered into a map equipped with a knife and got ambushed by raiders? if not, why even have two items? and how does one acquire "action points" to complete a battle or search a corpse? is that by wandering around the "numbered" tiles until you've built up points? also, what's the deal with first aid/healing and under what criterion is it effective -- seems to work selectively. i'm in the radscorpion cave right now, having so far killed two of the critters (i equipped the gun -- put it in the "primary" position) and hoping i don't bite it here, so i need to heal up and lose the poison. (is this even a good idea to be here right now?)

if you've followed so far, i thank you for any assistance. i've read nothing but good things about this game on this site, so i'm definitely sticking with it, and i'm sure i'll figure it out eventually, but this could save me alot of trial-and-error (plan B). i realize this game is from the early years of gaming (and i'm guessing this game gets alot of nostalgia-colored fondness) but the gameplay to this point seems a bit cumbersome and, to me, confusing. (love the opening scenes, though.)

on a completely different tangent, i just viewed a 9-minute "speed run " through fallout in which the player never came anywhere near shady sands, let alone a radscorpion:

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

so what exactly is the point? (is it all in the journey?) regards.

Reading the manual will actually help a lot... the game has an older, not-so-well-designed user interface, and learning both the user interface and the game mechanics at the start is quite tricky without reading the manual first. The manual is long, but worth it. You can find the manual in PDF format in your install directory. You can also download it separately by going to your GOG account page, clicking on Fallout, and then looking under "additional content".

About switching weapons: You have two weapons equipped at any given time. The one that's currently "active" will appear in a big box at the bottom of the screen. To switch to your other weapon, click on one of the circular red buttons to the left or right of the weapon picture. In the picture of the currently selected weapon, you will see something like "AP 5" in the corner... this shows how many action points it will take to attack. The green lights above the picture show how many action points you have left in your turn. So you can determine whether you can move a few spaces and still have enough action points left to attack.

You can also right-click the picture of the weapon to change what kind of attack you want to do. There are options like swing or thrust for a knife, or single-shot versus burst-fire mode for some types of guns. You can also switch to "aimed" shots this way... when an aimed shot is selected there will be a small "target" symbol in the bottom right corner. Aimed shots take more AP but can target specific body parts of an enemy, like arms, legs, head or eyes. These can give better critical hits for certain types of characters, but it's usually harder to hit. You can use aimed attacks with melee weapons too (or even your bare fists).

About the speedrun, that's more of a powergaming type thing to do and requires that you already know where everything is in the game. I think the game is far more enjoyable when one takes the time to explore the wasteland and interact with the various communities there, but the game does have a very open-ended design with only a few main goals that you can tackle however you please. One way to do that is to speedrun it.

Let me finish by recommending you take a look at the manual again... it not only helps to understand the interface and mechanics, but also will give you a lot of insight into how you want to design your character. Fallout is a game that plays very differently depending on what kind of character you make, so it's good to have a sense of what you might want before you start.


EDIT: I had the wrong button for switching weapons... rather embarrassing. It's fixed now.

You should indeed read the manual, it's probably the best help you'll get since it's hard to describe the UI and how the game works in a short forum post.

Still, to answer your questions:

- You can change weapons in two ways. One is to access inventory through the INV button. That'll cost you 4 AP though. The other is to click the big red button next to where the weapon you're using is shown. that will switch between your two equipped weapons. it doesn't cost you any AP.

-the combat-system is turn-based, you can only do so many actions each turn. Each tile costs you 1 AP to walk through, using a melee weapon usually costs 3 or 4, shooting a gun usually costs 5. The number of AP you get each turn is determined by agility/2 + 5, btw, which is why agility is by far the most important stat for your character, along with intelligence.

-if the radscorpion cave is the first thing you're doing, it's probably a bit too early. I usually try to be level 2 and to have recruited the first NPC (Ian in Shady Sands) to do it. To heal you can either try to use medecine (effectiveness depends on skill levels) or stimpacks which you should find in your inventory. you won't get a way to heal poison easily until after you've finished the quest unfortunately (hint: pick up as many radscorpiion tails as you can )

-when you're replaying the game, it's nice to impose some challenges on yourself. Speed runs are one of those, as are completely pacifist runs or any number of other things. Either way, they're not something you should do your first time through.

Unhelpfully, I also recommend you read the manual's first chapter at some point (low priority) because of its interesting scientific information. It's a well written manual!

ok, thanks all, that was great help -- i'll download the manual and start from there (i was looking for a tutorial somewhere, but a manual works just fine). cheers.