The manual should be available at the store page for your game on Steam. Or you can get it here:

http://cdn.steampowered.com/Manuals/22300/fallout3_us_pc_manual.pdf?t=1224882949

Thx Pokey, but I want to spend more time playing and less time reading, could you please tell me which keys to use to open a lock? pretty please?

From page 34 in the manual:

W,A,S,D Keys: Apply torque with the screwdriver
Mouse Controls: Rotate the bobby pin
F: Force Lock
E: Exit

When torque is applied, the closer the bobby pin is to the correct position, or “sweet spot,” the more the lock will rotate before the bobby pin breaks. Only when the bobby pin is in the correct position will the lock rotate fully, and open.

You can also try to open a lock by forcing it, but if you fail the lock will be permanently broken and can only be opened with a key.

Reading is a good thing

I reckon minefield early on is a good place to sleep. You can pick the lock of the first house you come to and all you need do is wallop a few roaches once inside. You also can't get into too much trouble if all you do is approach the first house and then leave.
Wrecked houses are a good place to look early on too - you won't find a bed terribly often but the houses don't often contain enemies.
You will eventually find beds all over the place.

ps - excellent signature quote TM; says it all about so many things! thumbsup:

It's been years since I have been on GameBoomers. But my regular game board is temporarily shut down. So I was looking for a place to get help with Fallout 3. This looked like a good place especially since Pokey is here (hi, Pokey, it's Kay from FFC). Pokey has helped me get through almost every nonadventure (darkside) game I have ever played.

I have started Fallout 3 right after finishing Fallout 1 and 2. My first impression is that the way this game looks and works sends my anxiety level straight up in comparison to the previous Fallouts. And I am not even out of Vault 101 yet. VATS and playing on very easy are going to be my salvation. But it looks like it is going to be a great game.
kay

Kay, great that you are back for a visit. I hope the site is back up again soon. If you need any help, you can get it here. You did so well on the first two Fallouts that I doubt you will have much of a problem. I was pretty anxious in the beginning, but once I exited the vault, I felt better. Let us know how you are doing. I finished the game but still have it installed and visit it once in a while. It is a great game.

I did it! I opened not 1 but 3.... very easy locks!! lol Now I am on my way to the Arlington library, so wish me lock. Is there any quests that pay a lot of money? I need 300 caps to fix my laser pistol. And I know TM is going to kill me for this, but I can now repair my 10 mm pistol, but do not know what to repair it with, I have a bunch of stuff stashed in the common`s lockers but do I need a hammer or what? I know I should read the manual or check it on a site, but only have a few hours on the weekends to play. And from what I have seen in some official sites, walkthroughs are huge.

ok so ignore what I said, I did go and read the manual and now I know a need the same item to repair it, so next time I find a 10 mm pistol, instead of selling it, I will repair my own. Now TM can be proud of me. lol

Pokey

I am loving this game. I mostly have the "how it works" under control and I am out exploring, getting experience and searching for weapons.

I think this is a game that is a challenge, I can get absorbed in and will take me a couple of months playing an hour or so a day. That's exactly what I enjoy these days.
kay

Kay, I knew you would like it. It is a great game for exploring and there is a lot of territory to cover. Have you found a place to sleep?

Pokey
When I cleared all the raiders out of the Super Duper Mart, I was able to find a bed and sleep there. I had hoped this would work for a while. But when I came back later, there were new raiders there. I read that if I disarm the bomb in Megaton, I might get my own house. So that might be a possibility if I can figure out how to do that. But as of yet I do not have a safe place to sleep of my own. This is on top of my to do list.

Kay





But

Kay, if you do Moira's quests, she has one for the Minefield. You will find an easily accessible house there that has a bed. I used it for quite a while till I got my own house in Megaton. You can use mentats to raise your skill in explosives. There are some nice online maps that are very helpful.

On your way to the Minefield, you might want to check out the Junkyard.

Did you get a computer upgrade?

Kay, you need an explosive skill of 30 to dismantle the bomb in Megaton. You can do it with much less if you take some mentats before attempting to dismantle it. Regardless of your skill I would try it but SAVE first. Dismantling is actually quite easy: All you have to do is look at it and you get a message choice to either attempt to dismantle it or to leave it alone.

Kay, you need an explosive skill of 30 to dismantle the bomb in Megaton. You can do it with much less if you take some mentats before attempting to dismantle it. Regardless of your skill I would try it but SAVE first. Dismantling is actually quite easy: All you have to do is look at it and you get a message choice to either attempt to dismantle it or to leave it alone.

To the moderators, sorry that this message appeared twice. Don't know how I did it. Please delete it.

Pokey, My old computer became increasingly cranking and then went kaput. So I went to Best Buy and got their top of the line Dell and a 24 inch screen. It is very nice but of course it is Vista. The upside is I can now play Outcast 3 and Oblivion but probably can't play any older games at all. And my greatest disappointment is that since it is 64 bit Vista, I can't play any of the games on Gametap since they are all 32 bit. And I don't even understand what this bit stuff means. But life is full of tradeoffs like this so I will soldier on.

I will venture out to Moria's minefields and look for that house.

Rowan, thanks for the info on dismantling the bomb. I think I will just save and give it a try without the requsite explosive skills just to see the outcome.

Kay

Giving the bomb a try is worthwhile because that house is a major benefit. After having the house my life got a lot easier. There's an item you can buy from Moira that will heal all radiation, health, and addictions. Forget what it's called but every time I came "home" I had this routine where I would check my locker and exchange stuff I wanted to keep/get rid of, then I went to the Nuka machine (also from Moira) that upgraded all nuka colas I was carrying, then of to that medical machine which cured me of all ill effects mentioned above. Then I would go over to an alchemy table (also from Moira) which concocted a new free potion to carry with me, then off to bed to make it daylight again. All in a day's work.

Kay, I think all 32 bit games will play in the 64 bit OS except for fairly old games that have a 16 bit installer. Your biggest problem is Gametap. I hope they will be able to accommodate 64 bit sometime in the future.

The house in the minefield is the Gibson house on the edge of town. The teleport should land you right outside it once you have found it.

Hi, Kay, by Arlington cemetery there is a house that you can use for sleeping and also has great looting and even a workbench for you to create weapons in the basement and all the locks are very easy.
Now about me, I still need to find out how to make 300 caps because I need to fix my laser gun and cannot do it by myself and the money I get from whatever I do sell, usually spend it on stimpacks. Thx. Really.

Do you have the Red Racer Jumpsuit? It gives +5 in repair. You can go broke fast paying for repairs. You can find one at the Red Racer factory or buy one in Rivet City. You can make quite a bit of money from raider's armor and their guns. I didn't use that many stimpacks and had a lot at the end of the game. I'd usually find a bed instead.

Got the Gibson house, got Dogmeat (pal of my past), deactivated the bomb in Megaton, and got my Megaton house. I think I am on my way to move out and save the world.

I expect, however, I will limp in here at times looking for help or sympathy. And it is nice to know where to find it.

Regards
Kay

Also, try using your doctor and first aid skill on yourself to heal. One of the vault 101 suits also gives a +5 boost in both science and repair. If you sold it see if the merchant still has it in inventory to buy back.

I finally caved in and bought Fallout 3 at Gamestop/EB. It was half the regular price. I then fired it up as I wanted to play for ½ an hour. I ended up playing for 2½ hours, if not 3 hours.

I was then roaming the Wasteland a bit, finding different sites, but always ended up getting killed. Ok, partof the 2½ hour was reloading a lot. I played on the normal setting. And the first 1½ hour was the growing up in the Vault 101 part of the game.

Anyway, when you get to Megaton, outside there is a guy asking for purified water. I thought I had some as I think I pickpocketed Billy? for it. No luck, though.

Where can I get purified water from? then ?

I've found Springvale, though. Is there a bed there I can rest in for the night?

And can I doublecross mr. burton, tell him I want to blow Megaton, then go to the Sheriff and tell him about mr. Burke's plans?

A house that is mine to sleep in have always been a dream of mine - at least in Fallout 3...

I have to say that I find this to be a great game; I haven't played much, so maybe my findings will change a bit over the course of the game.

VATS seem to be roken for me - for some reason. Or the design and executioon of VATS is just - not very well done. Does anyone else have trouble with using VATS?

The only place I found purified water was in my Megaton house. You will have a good supply then. Yes, there is a bed in the school at Springdale but you have to battle to get to it.

If you doublecross Mr Burke, be sure to save first. I didn't like the result.

Do you have a weapon other than melee? You need a gun to see the full options in VATS, targeting many parts of the body. It worked for me though sometimes it seemed a bit flaky on the targeting some parts of the body.

I never used VATS for the entire game.

You will find purified water throughout the game but it occurs fairly rarely. Giving to the beggars gains you karma.

If you doublecross Mr. Burton...

I just found Evergreen Mills and played through it. It was really a great area, I was experienced enough to figure out good stratgy and had excellent weapons for the task. I'm trying not to spoil. It was just a really immersive, really well done area for when you've been playing for awhile.

Karsten VATTS is pretty usefull if you can get close enough, eaither by rushing up or by building up your sneak and in general weapons of choice skills. I do a lot of sniping and don't use VATTS for that. I've been playing since the game came out so I'm at level 20 now and I got the perk that gives you back all your action points if you kill a bad guy in VATTS...now that is really usefull. I can take out a whole room full of bad guys now without ducking behind cover and scambling around. I guess my advice is..as you level up and add to your skills keep trying out VATTS and you should be able to use it greatly to your advantage in certain situations.

I'm just haveing a ball playing this game.