Forum:Dumb question about ammo

Hi, I am a newbie. I have played Fallout 3 considerably, but i am struggling with the new concepts in Fallout:New Vegas

I am going to ask a series of ridiculous questions:

1. What is the value of crafting ammo. So far, I have not been able to craft any useful ammo, or have the recipes for crafting ammo for guns that I have. For example, I can convert MFC to Electron Char Pack Overcharge, but what consumes Overcharged electron charge packs?

2. I have a bunch of different kinds of ammo for my .22 - Stock, Hollow Point, Plinking. All my .22 ever fires is Stock ammo. How do I load the Plinking, or the Hollow Point. Do I need a weapon mod? If so, where can I find weapon mods to allow me to use the various ammo types for each size?

3. How the hell do you play caravan? Strategy guide talks about different kinds of decks, but wait - just tell me how the game works, thanks.

I have the Prima strategy guide for New Vegas, but none of these topics are covered, so I assume these are probably dumb questions, feel free to ridicule me, as long as I can get an answer.

Thank you

67.79.121.116 19:22, March 31, 2011 (UTC)

1.  (a) with the handloading ability you can create ammo variants which do considerably more damage. (b) after a while you may find yourself with a preference for certain types of ammo which are not available widely (45-70). being able to handload means you can make ammo to fit the good weapon out of garbage ammo. (c) Max and Overcharge are variations of Energy Cells, Electron Charge Packs and Micro Fusion Cells - they degrade your weapon faster than normal ammo but increase the dame done with each shot. Energy Cells are used in most energy pistol type weapons, Micro Fusion Cells are used in energy rifle type weapons, while the Electron Charge Pack is used in the Lasar Gatling Gun & Laser RCW (a nifty laser Thompson Sub-Machine Gun) & Tesla Cannon. ( point 2 is about how to use Max and overcharge ammo)

2. there is a button to change ammo types, on the PC it is the "2" button on the keyboard (not numpad) by default. If you have both .22 stock ammo and .22 plinking ammo in your inventory and a gun which uses .22 ammo in your hand, press the change ammo button to change the type of ammo you are using - make sure the gun is not holstered if you donlt start reloading.

3. Someone else will have to explain caravan. I have figured it out and win most of the time, but I couldn't explain the basics of play if you stuck a gun to my head.

4. they aren't very stupid questions (especially caravan). The value of handloaded ammo is immense because of the way the DT system works, but it isn't obvious until you actually use it. The Laser RCW goes from being a big disappointment with regular electron charge packs to an "OMG" with Max ECPs, if you fell like you're getting too little umph from a weapon try upgrading the ammo before ditching the weapon.75.67.224.12 20:18, March 31, 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for the reply.

Apparently the ammo button is the up button on the d-pad on the xbox 360, so that helped just knowing there is an ammo button, I thought I was going crazy. It looks like it does show up on the weapon menu, but I just missed.

Now it makes sense why I have all of this ammo I couldn't use. Wow, I have quite a stockpile (what I hadn't sold already)

I did manage to find a youtube video on caravan that helped me a little, it may make more sense to you:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWH-7t1VPrc

67.79.121.116 20:36, March 31, 2011 (UTC)

It took me till my second game to figure out the up button changes ammo types, so don't feel bad. Caravan is complicated, I understand the basics, but not the entire game. Example, start a pile with a 10, and the next card must be a lower card like 9 or less, say you start with a 5 you can go either way, higher or lower, but say your next card is a 7, you can only go higher, or if its a 4 you can only go lower, in order to change that, you have to use a queen on your 4 then you can play a higher card. The goal is to get each pile to equal between 21 and 26. Playing a king on a card doubles the value of that card, example, play a king on a 5, and it turns into a 10, play it on a 7 it turns into 14. Jacks and jokers are a bit more confusing, you'll have to get someone else to explain. Good luck to ya. Go to the new Vegas general discussion, and the topic is "Caravan", there are some helpful advice in there.Pappy002 06:11, April 1, 2011 (UTC)