DwayneGAnd
Look, Ma! Two Heads!

One thing I never really liked about the first game was the timer. From the start of the game, you had a certain amount of time before the mutants invade the settlements. The invasions were cut from the final game. Even when the deadline for certain settlements passed, everyone is still standing around as if nothing happened, which makes no sense. Yet the ending for that town implies that the settlement was destroyed by the mutants. In the final game, you could only get invasion endings for Adytum, the Hub, Necropolis, and Shady Sands, yet Necropolis is the only settlement that actually gets invaded. Which makes no sense if you vist for the first time afterward and the ghoul refugee says that they invaded after those at the watershed were killed, and yet they are still alive. For this reason, I installed the Restoration Mod to give me the feel of a polished and complete game.
The only endings you could normally get for the Hub and Adytum were for the mutant invasions. A mod does restore the good endings. From what I know, Fixt also comes with the Restored Endings. So does patch 1.3.6 which I'm currently using as it gives me the best purist experience and performance. However, to get the good endings requires you to destroy the Master within 90 days to save Adytum which is the first town invaded, and killing the Master prevents the invasions from happening in the first place. So you have until March 5 to accomplish this.
Or you can just modify your vault13.gam file to postpone the invasions until later, giving you enough time to do what you want, such as level grinding the deathclaws at Adytum, reading skill books to get First Aid, Science, Repair, and Outdoorsmanship to 91% (on Hard), get all the implants at the Brotherhood, find the special encounters, etc. This is what I tend to do as I feel the timer forces you to speed through the game and miss out on a lot to get the best endings.
Now I've been hearing about people who have done runs where they kill the Master before March 5. For me, however, this sounds like a very difficult task. Without good armor, weapons, Sniper, Slayer, or very high combat skills, it would be very difficult to deal with all those super mutants in the Cathedral. Though according to the Vault Dweller's memoirs in the Fallout 2 manual, this is exactly what he did.
Now I know there are three different ways: combat, stealth, and diplomacy, which is what the three premade characters are made for. The optimal way for a character you create would be through a combination of stealth and diplomacy using robes and Vree's autopsy disk with high speech. A stupid character however would be forced to fight, a difficult task indeed due to lower skill points.
Has anyone ever accomplished a run where they kill the Master earlier in the game? How do you set about doing this? Is it even worth doing? Is there a point to doing so much earlier? What was your experience in doing so and do you recommend it? Or should I just do what I usually do and change the number of days until the invasions in my vault13.gam file? Does anybody else do that?
The only endings you could normally get for the Hub and Adytum were for the mutant invasions. A mod does restore the good endings. From what I know, Fixt also comes with the Restored Endings. So does patch 1.3.6 which I'm currently using as it gives me the best purist experience and performance. However, to get the good endings requires you to destroy the Master within 90 days to save Adytum which is the first town invaded, and killing the Master prevents the invasions from happening in the first place. So you have until March 5 to accomplish this.
Or you can just modify your vault13.gam file to postpone the invasions until later, giving you enough time to do what you want, such as level grinding the deathclaws at Adytum, reading skill books to get First Aid, Science, Repair, and Outdoorsmanship to 91% (on Hard), get all the implants at the Brotherhood, find the special encounters, etc. This is what I tend to do as I feel the timer forces you to speed through the game and miss out on a lot to get the best endings.
Now I've been hearing about people who have done runs where they kill the Master before March 5. For me, however, this sounds like a very difficult task. Without good armor, weapons, Sniper, Slayer, or very high combat skills, it would be very difficult to deal with all those super mutants in the Cathedral. Though according to the Vault Dweller's memoirs in the Fallout 2 manual, this is exactly what he did.
Now I know there are three different ways: combat, stealth, and diplomacy, which is what the three premade characters are made for. The optimal way for a character you create would be through a combination of stealth and diplomacy using robes and Vree's autopsy disk with high speech. A stupid character however would be forced to fight, a difficult task indeed due to lower skill points.
Has anyone ever accomplished a run where they kill the Master earlier in the game? How do you set about doing this? Is it even worth doing? Is there a point to doing so much earlier? What was your experience in doing so and do you recommend it? Or should I just do what I usually do and change the number of days until the invasions in my vault13.gam file? Does anybody else do that?