If this game is going to be taken seriously then encounters need to be scaled to the weapons players can use.
Thank you so much for making this an online game, I love the first two Fallouts.However, I can't really get into this. Each encounter at early an level is certain doom. I'm either stormed by 4-6 raiders with pistols or 14 mutated rats. Weapons are useless without at least 90% skill in them. So at level 2 maybe I can kill some stuff without darting to the edge of the screen screaming mommy.I do have a toon that is level 14 with big guns at 200% and after shooting an Avenger Mini-gun 10 times, I realized something that struck me as kind of odd. That is, a real life mini-gun will pulverize a car engine into dust yet the best mini-gun in this game hardly hurts ghouls and armored folks for half their health. I don't have a fix for you, just this idea. If this game is going to be taken seriously then encounters need to be scaled to the weapons players can use. I'm sure taking 2 hits from a mini-gun would almost garauntee death if not at least being incapacitated in real life. So If my toon is going to get stuck in an encounter he ought to be able with some skill to handle it. No more encounters of 15 Mantis with all my weapons skills below 60% thats just a waste of time for me the player and your servers.It is also silly that every encounter starts players within a 20x20 grid in the center of the map regardless of their perception, Fresh meat for the for fully equipped squads of the "remnants" of the master's army to laser, rocket, mini-gun, etc. down with one shot.
If you want to make enemies, try to change something.
Youtube a guy getting shot in the eye with a Mauser, see how many shots that takes.
from the responses so far I think you are not reading the entire post. I'm confused how the wasteland is so unforgiving yet someone with 200% in big guns only does about 50-80 base damage with a mini-gun. If the wasteland should be harsh then a mini-gun should tear shit up. Have you ever seen a mini-gun in action? Youtube it, I'm sure you will agree the mini-gun in this game is no where near on par with the realness of the encounter difficulty.