It was rough, but survivable until I got to Den. And ... Now I rescued Vic, and I'm just getting creamed by random encounters. E.G. leave Den and two squares out Vic and I get hit by 6-12 Raiders/Bandits/Highwaymen, mostly with guns, and soon I'm hearing about how with my death Arroyo is doomed yadda yadda.

Googling info on this led to a default 'WorldMapEncounterRate=30' config to change in ddraw.ini to something like 75 or 100. However the supposedly 'default' setting doesn't seem to actually exist (either eyeballing it of Ctrl-F in Notepad++) and manually adding the setting with figures of 30, 60, 90, and 300 shows no signs of having a consistent effect (with 300 I once managed to go ~13 squares (counting corners I cut across - ~5 diagonally by length), then it went "Ha Ha" and reverted to form of an encounter every 2/3 squares)

It *does* seem to be scanning this file as SkipOpeningMovies=1 did toggle off opening movies.

Everything referring to this setting is rather old, but the FAQ/Readme/Setting/Update texts don't seem to indicate this has been updated. I've got no armor because I haven't found a merchant with more than 150 caps so far (and don't seem to be getting more on any quick/obvious pace) and at this point the only one with armor I might barter for is back in Klamath and frankly given fallouts armor system I'm not sanguine that little bit would help.

For reference I'm just over 5th level.

Am I under/overleveled? Have I missed some seemingly obvious quest? I did skip on saving 'Smitty' because I frankly didn't feel like fighting my way through that many damn geckos and when I snuck in I found no way to sneak back out without him getting into combat and I figured the heck with it I'd just come back when I had electronic lockpicks later and nothing about it seemed strictly necessary.

Or is this just weird, and I shouldn't be getting hit with this many.

This is not feeling like the 'Fun' I was anticipating after defeating Fallout in three days.

Encounter frequency is rather high in F2 with only the Unoffical Patch as well.
But is there a difference between Restoration Project and vanilla?

Insofar as I can tell, the restoration mod is unofficial patch plus a suite of mods, and this seems to be a known issue (or was at one time).

Unfortunately although this project comes highly recommended, everything I'm finding on this issue is quite some time ago and I have no personal basis for comparison to know if I'm looking at a technical issue or something I've missed that would make this seem much more sane.

It seems at first blush to be a known issue that can be fixed by changing a number, but at least as described the fix isn't working and given that not merely how many encounters but that every encounter is so highly overpowered ... Maybe I have a fatally flawed build, maybe I'm over/under leveled, maybe I'm expected to have no companions or two, maybe I'm supposed to have uber armor from the toxic caves, maybe maybe maybe ...

What I know right now is, the moment I added Vic and tried to leave Den, encounters jumped from 'Tedious and difficult but if you played them out carefully you could win as long as it wasn't Kragga or whatever his name was' to 'Left Den ... *bam* ... Can't fight, can't run, bullet riddled corpse'.

And *that* can't be right.

So I suppose the first question I need a straight answer to is ...

Is this the expected result in the game? Should I be getting hit with gangs outnumbering me on the order of 6-12 to 2 every 1-3 squares trying to leave out of Den at level 5.

Because if that is the *expected* threat level at this point in the game and everyone else is doing just fine, I need to completely change my approach because I fatally misunderstood something about the basic character design and need to use a character editor or start over.

Probably the character editor because I've already redesigned once and I have zero desire to go through that temple trial again.

I think they did make the earlier encounters more dangerous in the later versions of the RP. The idea being that you're supposed to run away from encounters where you're outclassed.

Having a higher perception helps start further away from enemies, while having a higher outdoorsman skill allows you to avoid encounters altogether.

Having said that, I've never had such a massive encounter rate, at least not consistently.

Perception 7 (Gifted, with 7-9 on sPeCIAL), so it's not that. I was never surviving to run away.

Went back an older save point, saved Smiley and added Sulik to the party which helps a bit - even 12 to 3 is easier than 12 to 2 and 6 to 3 is much easier than 6 to 2 (and got to Level six and put both perks into Bonus Move and 36 skill points into hand to hand, so I can advance or retreat fast and hit 'em a bit each time. Weird with a strength of 4 but hey - Starfleet Battles ... speed kills.). I can't say I'm happy about it - I really tend to prefer making runs without companions, making them an absolute necessity is vastly annoying, never mind making a lot of them necessary. But between that and figuring out the GECK quest isn't the hard time limit I thought I was facing (e.g. the 150 day limit in FO 1) and thus taking more lime to rest rather than healing on the move, I made it to Modoc anyway.

And for some reason I'm not getting hit with as many gun heavy gangs now - I was getting hit where half of them had guns so hit and run was useless - now it's back to 1-3 of them have guns, so I can go in and take a shot at blinding them even if I can't take them out it means they're not blowing us to pieces at range. Then I can ropeadope the rest.

But even so, so far this game is a kind of a frustrating grind, at least for me. If I want a game I have to plan my moves out 4-5 moves like chess, I have Nethack for that - {G}.

Feh. Worst comes to worst, I'll play Planescape or try to finally completely finish Baldur's Gate (I've never beaten Throne of Bhaal, although I have defeated Demogorgan, so that's cool.) - <G>.

But at least I actually survived a couple encounters, so getting a third member of my posse helped. My frustration level is down somewhat - at least I can see surviving to Vault City as likely, not merely a statistical possibility.

Strange that more companions would actually help, since I was under the impression that the number/quality of enemies scale with the number of companions you have? Maybe that's not the case after all.

I guess I never noticed any of this because I always travel with a number of companions as soon as I'm able.

I'm the exact opposite - if companions can die and/or screw up my ability to sneakily backstab my way through an RPG, I'm done. Even Nethack I play with the 'nopet' option toggled off(Which honestly seems like it should qualify as a Conduct given how much harder it makes the game, but nooooo - Nethack will track if your Vegetarian, Vegan, Foodless, Atheist, Nudist, or half a dozen other conducts, but ascend without ever having had a pet? Meh, noone cares - {G}.) because I hate that someone might kill my pet, because I'm a friggin' dweeb.

Shhhh ... I is sneak sneak sneaking through the ... QUIET DOWN LYDIA!

Remember the game for Red Storm Rising? My ex roommate used to launch harpoon from way over the horizon all the time ... I used to quietly place myself ahead of the convoy, passively wait under the thermocline for them to be right over me, launch five torps all at once and sink the whole convoy with about five-ten seconds between the first torpedo siting and the and last ship sinking ...

Red storm Rising needs wishlisted for GOG if it's not - if you guy's haven't played that you really should ...

I know it's totally off-topic but I used to LOVE Red Storm Rising. Had it on my 'ole Amiga way back when. Convoys weren't too hard, even ones with carriers - though I did get ridiculously good at both dodging torpedoes as well as manually steering my own. The mission that always gave me the most trouble was finding that damn boomer in what was generally the last mission before the end of the war - luckily most of the time it didn't make any difference if you don't find it (if you're winning).

Back on topic though - sneaking in Fallout 1/2 is pretty dodgy anyway, even with patches/mods. If my companions die I usually always restore, though I admit I may have let Dogmeat die towards the end of Fallout since he loved those force fields so much...

Also I didn't get much mileage out of the dogs (or robodogs) in Fallout 2 since they die rather easily.

And Myron (I think is his name?) I don't keep around for long, just to make drugs (and in the RP, to put the EPA on the map).

is your luck super-low?

Oh I'm an Atari ST alumni, so we're required by law to despise each other - {grin}. but yeah, carefully guiding all the torps in and imagining the panic when they all went active at once was one of the great joys of that game. Unless perchance you had somehow missed a sub escort and were suddenly running a permit against an Alfa going "Shit Shit Shit!!!", but even then ...

Yeah, I find Fallouts 'Sneak' system annoying - a weird combo of annoying skill rules, combined with an overpowered albeit limited workaround; admittedly one of the issues I had with FO:3/NV was that it didn't improve the skills you used more a'la the Elder Scrolls, but then it's heritage is more pen and paper RPG where tracking that would be a chore. But as someone that used to run and jump down the temple of Vivec to level acrobatics, it's a weird change.

Since getting into Vault City has broken open a number of quests a lot of this has eased back down - I still lose sometimes but quest XP has levelled the party up to a point where at least some of these encounters are survivable.
Luck of 8 - I sacrificed Strength/Endurance of 4/3 for high other stats (+Gifted too). I considered Small Frame as well but did sex appeal for the speech and RP bonuses. Given the Highwayman I may take the weight hit for small frame next time.

Are you playing the RP? I ask because in the vanilla game, your team mates level up randomly, so provided your level is above a certain threshold, there's a chance of your team mates gaining a level. In the RP they level up as soon as you reach that threshold, with the end effect being that your team mates become more useful faster than in vanilla.

Sulik becomes pretty decent with either melee or sub-machine guns (if you don't get in the way!), while Vic becomes a pretty damn good sniper later on (and with either a sniper rifle or a scoped hunting rifle at least he usually doesn't hit you accidentally). I usually give Cassidy one of those shotguns with burst-fire and watch him go to work.

Personally I find with a sniper character (such as Vic) it's best to not use the "snipe" combat setting, since he'll tend to spend most of his time getting into "sniper range" (which usually means heading away from enemies). IMO best options for a sniper are for them to be "on their own" so they can snipe without worrying about trying to follow you or getting into "perfect" sniper range.

It's probably worth noting that it might take a few level ups for your companions to be able to use the heavier weapons such as the Gauss rifle, since they refuse to use a weapon if their strength is less than the minimum for the weapon.

Yes, I decided to jump right in with the Restoration project.

Now, what I'm confused about at this instant is ... Getting Sulik to use a gun? I just assumed he wouldn't, no matter what gun I give him, when I select best weapon he uses a melee weapon instead; Does it have to be a submachine gun then or is there anything single shot you can get him to use?

Sulik can use:
14mm pistol and .223 pistol.
And besides guns (pistols, SMGs), unarmed, melee weapons, Sulik can also use throwing knives, rocks, granades, and other throwing weapons.
If you've NPC armor mod installed, I believe you can also ask him to use Combat Shotgun, and other large weapons.

Wait, really? Is this the NPC armor mod that is part of the RP, or a separate mod? If part of the RP, is there a separate option to configure that extra weapon capability, or is it active by default? Because if it's the latter then I've been missing out this whole time - I just always assumed his weapon use was limited as usual.

Though Sulik does kick ass with even the base 10mm SMG.

That weapon limiting thing of F1/F2 was always kind of strange, since it was based on available animations of the character in addition to the usual limitations (strength, skills).