Fallout 2 bugs (contains spoilers!)

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Yes I know I could put it in another Fallout topic - but it's not very much related!

And caution: this text also contains spoilers! Anyway, here goes...

For all those who play Fallout 2 and those who are planning to play it, I'm gonna number here its bugs I noticed long ago. Since I played the game on NT4.0 and never patched it, I can't say which bugs occured because of sucker OS and which are removed with patch(es). I don't even know if all of these are bugs, or intended things. And I don't care if anyone think this is stupid thing to write, or if it's removed by moderators. Also, if there's a bug you know of, but I missed it, please add.


Fallout 2 bugs

You probably obtained Fallout 2 version 1.0 that is full of bugs. Things here are strictly based on that version. Although you can patch the game, it is still possible to finish it without a patch because almost all bugs can be avoided.

Some bugs can occur anywhere or anytime so I call them global bugs, but some will get you affected at certain locations so I named those local bugs. The best method to keep safe from bugs is to save the game in a new slot every once in a while (i.e. when you're finished with exploration of certain area). But there are only ten slots, so saving should be done wisely.


Global bugs:

I'm unsure if it's a bug, but sometimes your NPC attacks you without logical explanation. This can be experienced if you told your party member NPC to wait for you and when you aproach him closer after that, he attacks you. Anyway, if this happens, you can get him in party again by aproaching him to a certain distance behind his back, or use sneak skill!

If you are radiated and advance to next level that gains you a new perk to choose, do not use RadAway before picking a perk. Although you'll see a message of radiation cleaning, you'll in fact remain radiated which will waste anti-rad drugs. So pick a perk first!

In some places your Skilldex red button will vanish from screen and you won't be able to use it. However, you can still use shortcuts or get those skills with method of holding a left mouse button when pointing an object.

A bug also, but good one (feature!), sometimes allow you to pick up things without purchasing. That means when you get into a store don't just talk to salesman and barter, first try to pick up things from bookcases, shelves or tables.

Late in the game you'll obtain powerfull gauss rifle or gauss pistol that sound like energy weapons, still they are in fact small guns (or this is a bug).

Robodogs can be cured with doctor of first aid skill. I thought that you need to know robotics!?

There are some serious bugs about your car. Sometimes happens that your car loses front or back part (half of the car). If it loses a trunk, that means you left the car in some place else and walked to certain destination. To get the trunk back, just enter the car and then leave it in the same spot. Or walk back to a place you left it before. If you find only the car trunk and front half is vanished, try to use exit grid to get the whole car back (most critical area where this happens is Navarro). Bad thing is that this method doesn't work every time and can leave you without a car! Next bug is most ugly one: you lose your car forever if it runs out of power while driving over cities. Power drain will make you to leave the car and you'll automatically enter green circle area - but the car won't be there! However, I don't want you to think that finishing the game without a car is impossible, but on a second thought I wouldn't dare to try that.

Athough the manual says that there is no maximum level for your hero, the game won't let you advance beyond level 99. This means you can't make all skills to 300% nor all of the perks (btw, when you finish the game and choose to continue, there's a place and item that sets all skills to 300%). A bug or another manual lie.

And I really don't understand why the game crashed sometimes when I used PIPboy Archive option (maybe because of my OS?). So, save the game before you use it.


Local bugs:

These are bugs in certain places that can make things impossible to do or force your game to crash.
In some stores you can't sell Geiger Counter, i.e. Vault City Amenities.

Klamath
When you rescue Smiley and then return to Klamath to talk to him at Buckner's, you can repeat the talk many times until he improves your outdoorsman skill to 300%! So, you can sell all issues of "Scout Handbook" you found.

Den
Smitty will offer you a car for $2000 if you get him two essential parts (Fuel Regulator and Fuel Controler). But due to serious bug, it is possible to buy a car here if you have $2000 and Fuel Regulator only. DO NOT do it! Maybe this is not related, however when I got the car this way, I wasn't able to find Becky's book and couldn't perform some more quests after (that book is dumped below the graveyard but a friend of mine told me that he found it once in the toilet above which can be another bug)!

If you mock Frankie at the Hole about cheap drink at Becky's, he'll ask you to find reason for that. When you buy enough drinks from Becky, she'll tell you her secret of low prices for trusting you as a good customer. Return to Frankie and inform him that Becky has a still. Don't accept destroying the still, just tell Frankie that you have better idea that buying drink from Becky is cheaper than import from New Reno. If you convince him into it, that's 900 XP more. This quest is bugged - although Frankie accepted to buy drinks from Becky's, if you talk to her after that she'll point that you're responsible for her still destroyed!? So, first perform everything of value related to Becky (collect money from Fred, get her book back from Derek and get rewarded for killing Metzger), then go for Frankie's quest.

Gecko
I was idolized there, still the reactor guard attacked me when I tried to optimize the power plant. But before that he let me pass to repair the plant?! However, when I played the game with another hero, guard didn't attack me. If this happens to you, some other plant natives will attack you too. But don't worry, you'll return again here to optimize plant later in the game, when you obtain better weapons. And then when you kill closest agresive idiots, just end combat and noone else will attack you inside the plant. So, if you are really attacked, load your previous game before the attack, and proceed to the other tasks.

New California Republic
There's a rule in this area: you can carry weapons at Bazaar but remove them from hands to inventory before you get inside the city or you'll be attacked. This action doesn't affect your NPC's so if you have any of them in party and order them to remove their weapons in inventory the city police will attack you anyway. The best thing to deal this is to leave your NPC party members at the Bazaar and always enter the city alone!

Also at Bazaar, west from Rawhide Saloon you'll find a cloaked person named Ratch amongst junk. Save the game then talk to him. There's a bug here so do exactly as I say. Talk to Ratch about Claudia and pay him $1000 to improve your car. Stop talking and use PIPboy to rest for 6 hours. Talk to Ratch again and he'll inform you shortly you got Claudia improval. Then you can ask him for town gossips and pay $5 for each, after that you can steal back all of your money (including that thousand). The bug will occur if you wander around insead of waiting when you pay Ratch for car improval and will terminate your oportunity to improve your car!

Inside the city a woman with a robot on the street will ask you to help her when she spots you. Go with her and face the crazy policeman Jack who wants to blow up the power plant. This bastard is almost imposible to kill at this stage so I used next strategy. Steal him a bomb and his desert eagle pistol, then enter combat with melee weapon (use spear or combat knife) and he won't strike back?! You'll have to hit him many times, but don't let him to blow up the plant. This is a bug or Jack is too scared to move when you start slicing him with cold weapons. Another way to deal him is to shoot at him then run out the house where other policemen will kill him.

Also in the city when Tandi gives you a quest of Vault 15 if you ask her any question about her past or your father, the game will crash.

Modoc
In butcher Grisham's home you can talk things with his children and get laid with either of them. Butcher will catch you and you'll be attacked or forced to marriage with an unuseless NPC. You can get divorced in New Reno later or kill that unwanted NPC party member, but there is another way to pull out of this if your speech and inteligence are high - just lie you were playing a doctor and you won't get married. But don't do this. If you trick the butcher this way you'll never be able again to control distances of your NPC's (they will always act as ordered to remain where they are no matter what you say to them) which is a serious bug that can make your life imposible.

Broken Hills
Left from Dan's house is Old Ghoul's Home. Talk there to white ghoul and he'll ask you some things for treasure information. Those can be Cat's Paw magazine, a rubber doll and some Rotgut. When you bring those to him and get XP, DO NOT attempt to find treasure, you won't get nothing more than BUGS! Treasure is not real treasure, and causes tremendous game slowdowns.

New Reno
When you manage to get Myron as party member tell him to wait for you and he'll start whinning and mention some Golgotha treasure. At Golgotha when you touch the grave with treasure Myron should inform you that you touched the right one. But since sometimes this isn't visible on the screen, just to say that you should loot Rupert Dinkos grave.

At Chop Shop where lies your stolen car, you can pay for car upgrade and you'll get a promise to get some cells for your car if you return from time to time, but trully you will never gain any of this.

When you talk to Mrs. Bishop about things and say goodbye she'll offer you a drink. Accept it and get laid. But be warned: any NPC in party will disappear forever due to a bug, so leave them outside before talking to her.

When you find Lloyd locked in Desperado basement, persuade him to show you where he hid the money. There is another vanishing NPC bug here - if you take any of party member NPC's with you to follow Lloyd into the grave with the money, the game will crash! So, go there alone.

In the gym you can talk to Stuart and get some boxing fights. There is a bug here that forces the game into endless loop if you don't take the boxer down in the first round. To avoid this use strategy to hit the boxer in the eyes or in the head and then run around until he passes out.

San Francisco
If you fight on the street (unarmed fights), DO NOT save the game between fights - when you try to reload, you'll find out that save is corrupted?!

When you save Suze, it can happen that Badger doesn't respond when you try to talk to him. If that happens, return downstairs and the use second ladder to climb up which will solve the problem.

Toxic Caves
Elevator here can be opened with Electronic Lockpick MK1, but it can't be opened with MK2 version?! OK, maybe MK1 is better than MK2 or this is some sick joke.

Enclave
If you leave any NPC to wait in docking place, he will disappear when you finish the game and choose continue adventuring. So, before setting the ship's way to Enclave, remove all NPCs from the party!


[This message has been edited by Extremist (edited May 02, 2001).]

 

This game is absolutely unplayable without the patch. Period. You will also prefer to dl the children patch if you have the european version. This adds children back into the game.

Both are available at: http://fallout.gamestats.com/

 

The game IS playable since I managed to finish it without a patch even the first time I played it.

If it wasn't playable, it wouldn't be my second best game in the whole world! Period.

 

O.k. it is playable, but you need extreme masochistic tendensies to play the game then.....

 

You call me that type of person?

Read this again then: http://www.sorcerers.net/ubb/Forum7/HTML/000433.html

This is too bad, we'll get high on moderators' black list for spammers...

[This message has been edited by Extremist (edited May 02, 2001).]

 

Good work extremist, that's a nice list. I never played the game with a patch, and never heard about the existence of it untill on these boards I have some things to add and to ask here:

- The book you gotta find for Becky is placed on random places in the Den. I found it on four places untill now: The graveyard, the toilet, near a trashcan, behind the entrance fence. So it's nut a bug.

- I experienced attacks without any reason through the whole city of Gecko. It always made the reactor quest very annoying and I started to hate that town a lot.

- When you first meet that very, very big guy with two goons (forgot his name), the game had a tendency to crash a lot, right on the moment that those guys emptied their miniguns on those civilians.

- After a big battle on the caravan drives quest from the NCR, you almost always end up alone in the world map, and you do not continue the drive, even though none of the cattle and none of the friendly guards got killed. Always a very annoying load and save section, but those caravans yield a lot of cash, experience and equipment to make it worthwhile.

- When you have to find the kid for the tanner in modoc, you find the BB-gun in the well, talk to the tanner again and it ends with the request to leave him on his sorrows to mourn for his lost son. But the Pip-boy mentions all of the sudden that I have to go and find Johny in the slag caves?! Never found him there, big mistery for me... Never saw a kid in this game too... So this quest stayed open.

And the question: I never managed to open that door in the toxic caves, always thought that nothing was there. I once put my repair and science skill to 300% and tried to open it, but nothing happened, even with the lockpicks. What the hell is down there that the requirements are so high? It is never mentioned in the story of the game either, only smiley had a short message about it when you talk to him.

Well, keep on the good work, thanks for the list. And mods, thanks for not erasing this thread, there are some people who will find this usefull. Too bad you can't cover Fallout on this great site too. ( I know, it has nothing to do with D&D )

 

I'm a big fan of both F1&2 and I play F2 for around 20 hours without the patch, of course it did work better with it. Thanks for the bug list, Extremist. Most of thost bugs are fixed by the patch and some I would not consider bugs, like taking things from stores, it's called stealing.

All and all it's not an extremely buggy game after you patch it. I finished it about 5 times doing all kinds of crazy things and never really had any problems.

 

That BB quest is one of Interplay's sick jokes.
You probably have international version without kids, so download that patch as Grovflab pointed above.
Interplay removed kids from international version because some country laws prohibit use of children in games (but child slavery or abusing is legal ).

Anyway, you need good perception to spot kid's father sadness. Then you go to Modoc and you'll find that kid in Modoc quest to expose happenings at Haunted Farm (underground). Just don't give the father that gun!

Down the Toxic Caves is hostile robot (don't remember exact type). You just kill the bastard and loot the place for some junk not so important, otherwise I'd remember what were downstairs. Anyway, since you put the question, there are two places to get Electronic Lockpick MK1.
One place is Eldrich's Weapon Shop in New Reno. There you have to enter the basement where lockpick lies on the floor, which will probably force you to kill Eldrich. Whatever, before you turn hostile on him, do buy that damned special item (voice recognition module, sometimes you can even find it in Vault City's Vault) because it's needed for Vault 13!
Second place to get it is Lao Chou's store in San Francisco. But since stores are filled with items randomly when you step into area (at least in my unpatched game version, and including Bazaar store where you can sometimes find batteries for your car), save the game outside in wastelands, then reload until you get the lockpick. Or Gauss Rifle. Or more Power Armors. Or another Interplay's sick joke called Tesla Armor that is pure junk. Or... This is going too long.

Voltric, you may be right, I always put tag on stealing and had it high.


[This message has been edited by Extremist (edited May 02, 2001).]

 

Igneous, you have to use an electronic lockpick on that door to open it. It doesn't matter what you skill in theiving, just go find an electronic lockpick. Inside is a bozar, Combat Armor Mk II, Gauss ammo, and other expensive stuff.

 

Thanks for your help guys, I forgot to mention I bought an English Low Violence Version , which I thought was the only version available. The gore never went beyond the little puddles of blood coming out of the death bodies

If I buy a new copy through for example Amazon.com or another online american store, do I get a normal, full gore, version? I remember playing Fallout 1, and choosing Big guns tag skill everytime for those nice minigun, flamethrower and rocket launcher effects on those critters.

thanks

 

I didn't even know these was a low gore version. I know in the options menu you can turn the gore off but why would you? There is nothing like a flamethrower crispy or a plasma rifle fry to make the game more enjoyable.

 

Really?

Personally I enjoyed cutting the idiots in pieces with a single shot from Gauss Rifle.