Fallout: New Vegas – Extra Hardcore

Introduction

Extra Hardcore is just a small project designed with keeping Fallout: New Vegas difficult and challenging for veteran players in mind.

It’s a set of custom rules that I, the author, play by. I have tried to keep the rest of this document impersonal, so it reads more like a set of rules.

Please keep this in mind: every rule and specification listed on this page is one that you (yes, you!) must enforce by yourself. That being said, you can use, ignore, modify, add to, or do whatever you want with any of these rules.

I have created a small site that allows you to input your data and see various rules you need to follow. It saves your data using cookies. It really only shows your carry weight and follower eligibility, but I still find it useful.

Rules

Throughout this document, you will see rules listed like so:

Rule: Basic rule description. Elaboration and clarifications here.

These are important rules. If this rule is not being followed, gameplay may not continue until the rule is being abided by.

Getting started

In an effort to provide the maximum vanilla challenge, settings are tweaked to make everything more difficult.

Rule: The following conditions must be satisfied: The game must be in hardcore mode.

The difficulty must be Very Hard.

The HUD Opacity must be zero .

Combat

Combat is already difficult on Very Hard difficulty, but these rules should make it even more of a challenge.

Rule: The Pip-Boy may not be used during combat. It is recommended to assign hotkeys, as combat becomes close to impossible without them.

Auto-Inject Stimpaks are recommended.

Rule: VATS may never be used.

VATS takes a lot of skill out of the game, so it is effectively disabled.

Travel

This rule has two options. Fast travel is extremely useful, but it makes the game easy once locations have been discovered. The choice is up to you.

Rule: Fast travel may be used once per in-game day OR

is prohibited

Carrying weight

Rule: Your maximum carrying weight is determined by the following formula :

Rule: You must stay at or below your maximum carrying weight.

This formula accounts for both endurance and strength. It also factors in the current weight of all armor being worn. Some of this weight will be countered depending on how high your endurance is.

This formula also scales with your level to a degree. It isn’t anything game-breaking – at END 5 and STR 5, an extra pound is allowed about every three levels (very roughly).

Weapons

Weapons may not be too heavy, but they are usually bulky. For this reason, there are restrictions on what kinds and how many you may have. Remember that you must always stay at or below your weight limit.

Rule: The following list has the maximum amount of each type of weapon allowed: 1 large melee weapon (two-handed)

1 small melee weapon (one-handed)

2 large guns (two-handed)

3 small guns (one-handed)

5 throwables

Ammo

Rule: You may carry five clips/reloads for every weapon in your inventory. They may be different types of ammo, but the total amount of reloads must not exceed five.

Apparel

Rule: Anything being worn is allowed your inventory, as long as you can carry the weight. Rule: You may carry one additional piece of apparel. For example, you can have a Combat Helmet, Authority Glasses, and Combat Armor, all being worn. You may have one other piece of apparel in addition to the worn items, e.g. another suit of Combat Armor or some general clothing.

Money

A simple table for weights is below, to help simplify the heft of each currency.

Currency Amount in a pound NCR bills 500 Bottle caps 200 Legion coins ~77 (76.92)

Name Worth (caps) Weight (lb) Worth to weight ratio (caps/lb) Bottle cap 1 1/200 200 Legion Aureus 100 13/1000 7,692 Legion Denarius 4 13/1000 308 Legion Denarius, mangled 2 13/1000 154 NCR $100 40 1/500 20,000 NCR $20 5 1/500 2,500 NCR $5 2 1/500 1,000

Caps

Bottle caps are great. They allow us to buy things!

Rule: You take on an one two-hundredth of a pound for each cap in your inventory.

Bills

NCR bills are lighter than caps and are worth more, making them a more suitable form of currency for use.

Rule: You take on one five-hundredth of a pound for each bill in your inventory.

Coins

Rule: You take on thirteen thousandths of a pound for each coin in your inventory.

Food, drink, medicine

While it’s really useful to stockpile food, drink, and medicine in your pack, there’s no way that would work in a practical situation.

Rule: You may carry a maximum two meals, two drinks, five health items, and two miscellaneous medical items at any time. Meals restore FOD. They are food.

Drinks restore H2O. They are liquids.

Health items restore HP (food/drink excluded). They are Stimpaks, Healing Powder/Poultices, etc.

Medical items remove negative effects like radiation or animal poison. They are RadAway, Rad-X, Snakebite Tourniquets, etc. The only exception to this rule is that you may carry as much food and drink as you would like while you are at a dining establishment (including anywhere that sells food as a major function, e.g. The Atomic Wrangler).

Chems

Rule: You may carry a maximum of five addictive chems at a time. Being immune to addictions does not exempt you from this rule.

Miscellaneous items

Reloading bench parts

Rule: No reloading bench parts may be carried, unless they are picked up during normal play. If parts are picked up or obtained (for example, by firing rounds), they must be stored in a storage container at the next possible time for later use.

Bobby pins

Rule: You take on one seven-hundred-twentieth of a pound for each bobby pin in your inventory.

Followers

Followers are an effective way to manage storage and effectively carry more in the wastes. However, recruiting them is another story.

Rule: Followers may not be recruited unless you pass the following check: This check is only necessary when asking a follower to join you; it is not necessary to keep journeying with the follower afterwards. This rule is excepted by quest companions.

The left side of the equality is always truncated; the right side is rounded.

All followers’ stats can be seen on the wiki.

Carry weight

Followers also have a limited carry weight. The same formula for player carry weight can be used to determine how much a follower can carry. Simply use the follower’s SPECIAL stats instead of the player’s. Also, do not factor in the weight of the follower’s armor.

Rule: Followers’ carrying weight is determined by the following formula:

Notes

Quest items that cannot be removed from your inventory do not count against you. For example, the Big Mountain Transportalponder! does not count as a small gun, since it cannot be removed from the inventory.

This is the style of rounding used in this set of rules: If the number has a decimal equal to or greater than 0.5, the number should be rounded up to the next nearest whole number.

If the number has a decimal less than 0.5, the number should be rounded down to the next nearest whole number. 14.58 → 15

14.14 → 14