SPOILER ALERT

Rivet city is on the extreme south end of the DC ruins, on the river where it bends off the map. You don't take the subway there (but you could), you can just walk down the river like Three Dog says to. It's a giant fucking aircraft carrier, it's hard to miss. You'll pass by the Jefferson Memorial and a shit ton of Super Mutants so be careful unless you're tough enough to fight them.

I've been playing the hell out of this game this past week (staying up too late once the baby goes down). I'm level 17, and I've explored a lot but it's obvious that there's a ton more content.

Things I've learned that might be useful:
Energy Weapons rock, especially if you do the "Good Karma" side of the Android quest.

Mini-Nuke sucks. It's heavy, there's shit for ammo, and unless you specialize Big Guns, you won't hit with it in VATS. I've noticed that if you freeaim and miss, (and this applies to missiles too) you can still do damage. But if you VATS and miss (which is why you need lots of Big Guns skill), it does no damage, even if it blows up right in front of them.

The bottlecap mine schematic (and all schematics) improve when you find more schematics, so don't skip buying them if you already have them. Right now I have bottlecap mine v3 which means for each Lunchbox, Sensor Module, Cherry Bomb, and 10 bottlecaps I make 3 mines. The mines do 367 damage a piece. I get excited when I find lunchboxes.

Making caps gets easier later. Someone mentioned the Brotherhood chick giving you 100 caps for each pre-war book. There's a person that will pay you caps for every place that you visit. (even retroactively for the places you've already visited). There's people that will give you caps for Nuka-cola Quantum. Caps for technology turned over to the outcast Brotherhood. Caps for killing people. Caps for saving people. Sell shit for caps. I sometimes have a problem spending caps.

Rivet City does kick ass for ammo, but (and this is what I love about this game) if you do a certain quest, and the person doesn't die suddenly there's a much better place for ammo! There is so much dynamic content in this game I think I'm going to have like 4 playthroughs to test out all the different plot options and skills.

[Edited on November 3, 2008 at 2:09 PM. Reason : ]

11/3/2008 2:05:30 PM

what type of dlc do you think they will have?

11/3/2008 3:30:08 PM

armor for your molerat mount

11/3/2008 3:31:25 PM

i never even come close to running out of ammo. not sure how you guys do.

i use small guns though. for walking around the wasteland i just use a hunting rifle since id ont need mega dmg. use the assault rifle or submachine gun for up close/higher dmg. bust out anything else i happen to have for tough baddies.

[Edited on November 3, 2008 at 3:41 PM. Reason : busted out the rockets at GNR if you know what i mean.]

11/3/2008 3:41:30 PM

Just had a thought about leveling

I'm level 6 now so it will be weeks till I get to level 20

but I wonder if at level 20 you can pick "here and now" as your perk

Normally, this perk would suck

But if you can choose it at 20, then you'd get another set of skill points to dish out plust you could pick another perk as well

I'm guessing it doesn't work like this, but it would be cool if it does

11/3/2008 4:01:38 PM

i doubt it

i level up pretty rapidly between killing everything in sight to picking locks and finding locations

the perks you can get at level 20 look pretty awesome so i wouldn't want to waste one

11/3/2008 4:30:30 PM

Well I wouldn't waste one either if it didnt give you the option the add more skill points; obviously I'd save and reload if it didn't work

11/3/2008 4:36:40 PM

Been using the Chinese Assault Rifle. It's pretty awesome. Just sucks though because you can't use regular assault rifles to repair it.

11/3/2008 4:42:57 PM

^I love that gun too.

11/3/2008 4:55:45 PM

I'm using a few of the unique weapons in the game. The Terrible Shotgun (upgraded combat shotgun) from the evergreen mills raider base, and the Lincoln Repeater rifle from the museum of history.

11/3/2008 5:05:29 PM

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/A3-21's_Plasma_Rifle

11/3/2008 5:06:17 PM

Ok so i'm walking around the Ghost Town (place with all the mines) and i keep looking in mail boxes and i'm always surprised to find baseball bats and even a vacuum cleaner!

11/3/2008 5:09:54 PM

I just got a fancy new haircut from my robot butler.

11/3/2008 5:12:56 PM

He tells lame jokes.

11/3/2008 5:14:46 PM

Quote :

"^^see i haven't gone into the city yet to look for the dad. Still finishing the Megaton quests and some surrounding ones."

??? I havent even entered Megaton yet... the subway isnt in the city, at least I dont think it is, I know I havent been to Megaton yet

11/3/2008 5:29:27 PM

^Megaton is the very first thing you do. Like when you leave the vault and look on your world map, the very first quest is to go into megaton and ask about your dad.

11/3/2008 5:33:03 PM

^^ you might run into springvale before megaton, but megaton should be pretty close to vault 101

11/3/2008 5:43:03 PM

This game will let you know if you are really good or evil.

11/3/2008 5:43:14 PM

yeah, first thing I ran into was Springvale, then Grayditch

I assume Megaton was DC, and thats always been way in the distance

11/3/2008 5:53:49 PM

Springvale is close to Vault 101 i guess. But megaton is still the first place i went because it was the only marker on the world map when i left Vault 101.

-woops i think that map is actually real. Can anyone find an actual in-game map?

[Edited on November 3, 2008 at 6:14 PM. Reason : .]

11/3/2008 6:09:27 PM

is your karma level listed anywhere? i clicked all through the pips thing and either keep overlooking it or its not there.

i've been leveling up my repair, but have yet to use it. i was hoping i could make cool weapons, but you have to have schematics and they are all $texas. i keep spending all my money on health packs and ammo. and i'm having to fund that by becoming a junk dealer and alcohol/tobacco supplier to the merchants. i should have named my guy Fred G Sanford...or maybe Lemont.

[Edited on November 3, 2008 at 6:22 PM. Reason : .]

11/3/2008 6:20:15 PM

karma is in the PIPboy. it just says good, neutral, or bad

11/3/2008 6:23:05 PM

I got addicted to Whiskey. Then i went through withdrawal and had to get cured.

^^I've gotten 2 schematics already from missions. The best one by far is the bottlecap mine schematic like disco_stu said. It does like 350 damage!

-Oh and remember, just like oblivion only use health packs when you're in combat. Otherwise you can just sleep and regain full health.

[Edited on November 3, 2008 at 6:24 PM. Reason : .]

11/3/2008 6:24:23 PM

^^^ You haven't repaired any weapons yet?

11/3/2008 6:36:54 PM

You have to repair weapons. They don't do any damage if you don't. It's so easy to repair, just make sure you have 2 or more of the same weapon and use the others to repair one.

11/3/2008 6:44:40 PM

repairing items is one of the best things you can do, especially if you have a low str and can't carry a lot.

11/3/2008 7:06:45 PM

^yeah they get rid of weapons by repairing one, plus they raise the value along with the damage. For example if you get a bunch of armor from raiders and can't carry it all, then repair them to get a higher selling value.

11/3/2008 7:08:30 PM

word. i've just been trading the weapons with from the people i kill if their weapons are in better condition. i never bothered to figure out repairing weapons.

11/3/2008 7:20:03 PM

Just got out of the Vault, killed everyone on that big bridge, got myself a sniper rifle...and the game crashed.

11/3/2008 7:24:18 PM

^yeah i've had some game crashes. Save alot. Did you turn up anti-aliasing all the way? I turned mine off and the crashes stopped as much.

11/3/2008 7:36:01 PM

My current karma level is "Very Evil Marauder".

11/3/2008 7:42:01 PM

im just an evil fat cat

11/3/2008 8:01:27 PM

nm, very evil pirate of the wastes haha

11/3/2008 9:43:53 PM

11/3/2008 9:51:17 PM

dammit i thought killing an evil npc like jerricho would net me good karma

i put a shotgun to his face and lost karma

11/3/2008 9:58:32 PM

i don't know much about the dc area, just out of curiosity, how much of this is geographically correct? how much of the actual dc area does this cover?

11/3/2008 10:22:26 PM

are the damages wonky? i mean, i use a hunting rifle most of the time despite its smaller dmg. seems to work better overall.

i just did a 2 shot non-VATS kill on a super mutant by hittng him in the head twice. somewhat lucky, but funny none the less.

11/3/2008 10:41:39 PM

^^Check out the map i posted before the last map. It's a google map of the DC area with game points on it.

http://fallout3.wordpress.com/2008/07/22/fallout-3-maps-at-nma/

^I love killing 3 raiders with 2 shots to the head to each one.

11/3/2008 11:00:07 PM

yeah i still use the hunting rifle despite all the other crazy guns i have by now.

I'm walls1441 and i approved this message.

[Edited on November 3, 2008 at 11:00 PM. Reason : coolest i've felt so far was shooting a grenade out of someone's hand.]

11/3/2008 11:00:27 PM

After going to the Ghost Town and picking up all the mines, i have like 45 frag mines now.

11/3/2008 11:06:45 PM

my favorite is when u miss big time, but end up blowing up a car and killing htem.

11/3/2008 11:07:07 PM

I was freestyle exploring on the far left side of the map in some bumfuck town and got suckered into taking a tour of this chick Nuka cola shrine and agreed to collect nuka cola bottles for her

then I realized it was going to be boring as fuck doing that so I blasted her with the sawed off and looted her corpse

[Edited on November 3, 2008 at 11:36 PM. Reason : x]

11/3/2008 11:35:54 PM

Just got to the ant quest. How do i kill the source of the ants for the kids? Are they in Marigold Station?

11/3/2008 11:41:49 PM

what happens if i kill a major character in the plot before i complete their part of the story. Like what if i just waltzed up and killed third dog or whatever the fuck his name is

I'm walls1441 and i approved this message.

[Edited on November 3, 2008 at 11:45 PM. Reason : i've been too lazy to create multiple saves to try different things so far.]

11/3/2008 11:45:15 PM

i tried killing the chick in the vault and she just went unconscious like in oblivion.

11/3/2008 11:47:05 PM

Ok found the doctor ant guy.

Ok i found the naughty nightwear. lol. No idea what to do with it.

[Edited on November 4, 2008 at 12:08 AM. Reason : .]

11/3/2008 11:54:23 PM

flaming sword is awesome:

11/4/2008 12:44:26 AM

YAY i just made a dog friend!!! He can find ammo for me!!

11/4/2008 2:07:01 AM

Quote :

"I was freestyle exploring... so I blasted her with the sawed off and looted her corpse"

big mistake...the quantum grenades are probably the strongest nade you can make in the game...you get the schematics from her after the quest

besides, if you are doing freestyle exploring you're going to find the bottles you need for it

[Edited on November 4, 2008 at 3:03 AM. Reason : .]

11/4/2008 3:03:19 AM

Haha, I wonder what's in the 'Bethesda Ruins'...

11/4/2008 8:16:34 AM