Talk:Fallout 3 skill books

Book Sort Order
"It was ordered alphabetically before (by full book name, not abbreviation))"
 * But that shows up as unsorted since the abbreviation is what displays on the page. Also, "Paradise Lost" shows up at the end of the page.
 * -- Erinker666 08:40, October 8, 2009 (UTC)
 * I've changed the abbreviations to be closer to the actual titles. Paradise Lost was at the end mostly for technical reasons; I've fixed that as well.
 * -- Porter21 (talk) 09:16, October 8, 2009 (UTC)
 * Works for me, I just like things organized when its in a table.
 * -- Erinker666 09:39, October 8, 2009 (UTC)

Remove the "no" column?
With the ability to sort the second table, the "no" column does not appear to serve a function. Would there be any objection to removing it or is it connected to by some other function of the wiki I am unaware of? -- Erinker666 06:34, 23 January 2009 (UTC)
 * No comment, so I made the change and removed the count reference in the large table.
 * -- Erinker666 02:00, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

Location Naming Schema
I made a few corrections to obviously bad locations (e.g. Grognak #5 is clearly supposed to have a primary location of Canterbury Commons, and it's description reflects that, but the primary location was set to Broadcast Tower KB5). I also changed one of the descriptions (for the book north of Arlington Library in the Pulowski Preservation Shelter) to indicate Arlington Library as the primary location, not Pulowski Preservation Shelter (which isn't useful if you are doing a sweep by location, since there are tons of those shelters). I would suggest that *all* primary locations be changed to indicate a marked map location, with the description giving directions from the primary location if needed. For example, while I did not change the books with "Abandoned Shacks" as primary location, given that it is unmarked and easy to miss, I would humbly submit that they all be changed to Jalbert Brothers Waste Disposal, with the description indicating they are in the Abandoned Shacks to the north. Same goes for any other location not explicitly marked on the map. We already do this for a number of other books, and for checklist searching I think it would be helpful. -- Anonymous Poster
 * I agree, Mr. Anonymous, that World Map marked locations should be referenced for world map books. Are you also suggesting this to be the case for books inside locations that may not have a direct world mapping? For example, Queen Ant's Hatchery is accessed via the Marigold Station location. If we follow your logic, then it would be marked as location = Marigold Station, with a description = "In the Queen Ant's Hatchery, on the table next to the computer."
 * -- Erinker666 20:33, 23 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Hard to say on that one. I think if the location has multiple named map markers as entrances, you have to use the name of the location itself, with the description specifying which entrance is closest. Most Metro stations would remain identified by the name they show when you are inside them (unless they were disconnected from the network). On the other hand, locations with only one map marker entrance (such as the Queen Ant's Hatchery) can be considered part of the enclosing entrance, so the books there would be described as you specified.
 * -- Same Anonymous Poster 22:37, 26 January 2009 (UTC)
 * I have been going with the concept of consistent association with a world map marker, going for the marker that best describes the inside location (i.e. Flooded Metro instead of Mason District South) regardless of the internal map naming schema. World map items are associated with the closet or most convenient location (Flooded Metro instead of Arlington Library for the Raider camp items.) The basis for my thinking is this page is used for collector types, who would be Fast Traveling everywhere and thus want to know everything via world map markers.
 * -- Erinker666 23:39, 26 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Makes sense. Less clear "rules" for applying it, but it nicely solves the problem of not knowing if the Metro station you happen to be running through has a specific item.
 * -- Same Anonymous Poster 18:28, 30 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Also, I have been putting in sub-map notations, like "In Bethesda Offices West, on the main desk..." to help people find things once they get in the general area.
 * -- Erinker666 22:12, 30 January 2009 (UTC)

Pages out of Sync
It appears that each book's individual page contains a copy of the relevant section of the locations table from this page. Personally, I don't think having the same information in two different places like that is a great idea, as it invariably leads to inconsistency. I would propose removing the large table on this page; it's unnecessary and cumbersome, especially to edit. The edit tool even indicates that the page is too large and should be split up. This page can still be a convenient jumping-off point to each book's respective page. -- AnyLameName 16:32, 24 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Well, I think this page is useful, as it gives you all book locations at a glance, so I wouldn't remove the large table from here. As for it being too large, it's really an old thing that is not relevant to modern browsers.
 * -- Ausir 17:50, 24 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Fair enough on the browser thing, but what about data integrity? When I first started editing I didn't realize there were individual tables, so I only made my changes on the larger table. Is there any way to link the tables so that one edit will update both tables?
 * -- AnyLameName 18:02, 24 January 2009 (UTC)


 * I wouldn't want this page to be removed. For me, it's one of the most useful pages on the site, especially since you can arrange skill books by location. I actually used the big table arranged by location as a checklist so I would know what skill books to get when I visit each location.
 * By the way, editing the small tables will automatically synchronize the changes to the big table. So the rule is to edit the small tables, not the big table.
 * -- Jargonz 08:33, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
 * So I'll grant that a lot of the discussion ending up happening on user talk pages, which was less transparent, but this has been tabled and acted upon for months now. If you look at the source, the big table has already been removed, and replaced with includes of the small tables from the various books' individual pages. And yes, I'm aware of the rule about how to make the edits. I helped put the rule in place, and Porter21 and I did the work make things how they are today (format-wise, of course there was lots of help with the actual content). Don't worry, this page won't go away. We just changed how it was managed. If you want to see more of the discussion check my talk page.
 * -- AnyLameName 14:46, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

Page Format
I broke up the large table into one table per book, but left them all on this page, so no content has been removed here but I think it looks a bit nicer and making each one a section definitely makes editing easier. Next I'd like to make it so each table exists in one place and can be included here and on their respective pages so that the information only needs to be edited once. I think I need to make them templates to do that; some advice from a more experienced editor would be appreciated. -- AnyLameName 23:39, 24 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Never mind, figured out what I need to do. I'll get started on that now.
 * -- AnyLameName 00:34, 25 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Your modification made this page less useful to me, because it cannot be sorted by location and thus allow someone to know what books are available in a specific location without going to another page. I used it keep track of what books I had gotten vs which ones I couldn't find. This page was the master list, where each book already has its own dedicated page (see the name anchors from the first table on this page.)
 * -- Erinker666 02:00, 25 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Having the two places for the information is exactly why I made the change. People were editing the information in one location and not the other. The sorting by location is a fair point, though. It's late tonight but tomorrow I can probably rewrite the templates so that they can be included smartly to make one large table here and individually on their respective pages. It will mean a little more boilerplate on the individual pages but nothing terrible, and as long as their is only one source for the lists I'm happy. I'll make the changes tomorrow and we'll see what you think.
 * -- AnyLameName 05:49, 25 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Fair enough.
 * -- Erinker666 06:11, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

Double Listing
The Grognak for John's Treasure Box is also listed under Scrapyard, so it's listed twice. Did this one take the place of another, valid location, or is it just an "extra" entry? -- (A Wanderer) 22:36, 25 January 2009 (UTC)
 * For now I'd refer to the individual book pages in case of discrepancies. This page here is being redone and is somewhat out of date.
 * -- Porter21 U 23:00, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

Bad entry, too little info to correct
Lying, Congressional Style is said to be in the "entrance" of the Museum of History. I've searched high and low without finding it. More suspicious is the fact the the Museum of History page does not list among the "Notable Loot". I'm assuming this is a copy'n'paste error (similar to the older ones where the location was wrong, but the description was right), but the description is too vague to identify the intended location. Anyone know of a Lying, Congressional Style that is in an entrance to something that isn't already in the list? -- Anonymous Poster
 * There is none, see my entry on Talk:Lying, Congressional Style. There are 24 locations for this book; the list had 2 locations summarized in one (My Megaton house and Tenpenny Tower Suite) and instead had the non-existing Museum of History location as #24. The entry might have referred to Paradise Lost.
 * -- Porter21 U 22:59, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Just an idea
Could someone make an Excel spreadsheet for these and post it on the page?
 * Not as much fun.
 * -- Erinker666 09:39, October 8, 2009 (UTC)

Danielles Book?
Shouldn't Danielles Book be included with the other books at the bottom?

Shalebridge ant tunnel Science book.
I have tried over 20 times to get the Science book in Shalebridge to reappear on the ant scientist in the tunnels. Plus on a related note the first time I went to this place in multiple play-throughs also I only got the book once. The scientist was dead every time I got to the tunnels. Why can I not get a supposedly "unlimited" amount of Big Books of Science? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.40.170.178 (talk • contribs). Please sign your posts with ~ !
 * I remember reading somewhere that the scientist does no longer respawn with the latest PS3 patch. No idea whether it was patched for the other platforms as well at some point, but it's possible. He definitely respawned with earlier versions of the game. -- Porter21 (talk) 20:43, January 26, 2010 (UTC)
 * I remember reading somewhere that the scientist does no longer respawn with the latest PS3 patch. No idea whether it was patched for the other platforms as well at some point, but it's possible. He definitely respawned with earlier versions of the game. -- Porter21 (talk) 20:43, January 26, 2010 (UTC)

Yeah. About that. I have the X-box version. Well that is the version I'm playing.



100 skill
Does reading a skillbook when your skill is a 100 already sill increase your ability? No, right? -132.183.138.24 00:40, February 6, 2010 (UTC)

Wrong. It does, but it dosen't affect your attacks and stuff, and it dosent show on Pip-Boy. CheezeWEEPツ 00:45, February 6, 2010 (UTC)


 * What does it affect? -01:18, February 6, 2010 (UTC)
 * Nothing. It goes up in the game, it dosent do anything but go up but it dosent show it. CheezeWEEPツ 01:25, February 6, 2010 (UTC)

BIble
is there a bible in fallout 3 anywhere??ive been trying to find ever since i saw the book of eli, lol.


 * There are Bibles, but they are only textures in the ground. CheezeWEEPツ 00:22, February 10, 2010 (UTC)

i've been collecting every burned ruind and scorched book in the wastes

323x Screen locality books
'''== ! DOWNLOAD ! =='''

All books picture:

http://www.edisk.cz/stahnout-soubor/90484/323_screen_Location_Books.rar_35.57MB.html

Table formatting
When you copy-paste the tables into word, the tables don't show up....Anyone knows how to change this? Because it takes way to long to sort everything in order and create it.... Thanks!
 * Open the wikitext editor. Select all. Copy. Paste into Notepad.--Gothemasticator 10:15, March 27, 2010 (UTC)

Where can I find the wikitext editor?

reason why?
is there a reason for collecting the books?

Unobtainable skill books
I added a note about skill books which may become unobtainable. Anyone hunting down all the books will eventually realise that some got unobtainable but I think it is nice to know the exact number of actually obtainable books in advance, especially when planning a new character. Of course there are a few more books which require certain conditions to access (for example the copy of Pugilism Illustrated in Arefu) but as far as I know there are no more which are mutually exclusive or require certain perks. Forgetful 11:54, March 30, 2011 (UTC)