FC3: Tips and Tricks

[Art Blade]

<chortle>  :-X :-()

[Art Blade]

Skills: The Heron skill tree, Aimed Reload

Allows you to reload while in scope mode which can be a disadvantage as you don't see your environment.

If you release your aim button right after the shot, your weapon will go into the common reload animation and move the scope away from your eye, as if you hadn't got that skill. :)

[Binnatics]

Skills: The Heron skill tree, Aimed Reload

Really?? I should try that myself :-X :)

[Art Blade]

Keeping your car or other vehicles

Like in FC2, you may keep the same car or boat and the likes as long as you don't use a different one after that. I stole a camouflaged technical which was cool and wanted to keep it for exploring. No matter where I went, when I came back it was still there. I shouldn't have careened over a wooden bridge, though..

The next car was a pastel light blue with a .50 cal mounted gun. I parked it on the Southern island, swam to the Northern island, did some exploring, swam back and it was still there. Even better, after I saved and quit the game, the next time I fired up FC3 that blue car was still in the same spot I had parked it before. :)

[Art Blade]

Almost Unlimited ammo

Don't reload your weapon, instead hit ESC (to see the menu) and again ESC to go back. At least your current gun should be fully loaded again  ???  :)

Happened just now, I killed a few pirates on the beach with my sniper when a steam chat message popped up, so I hit ESC to pause the game. When I got back, my rifle was fully loaded?! Since I hadn't done anything but what I just said I tried again as a pirate patrol car showed up so I shot them, too, hit ESC and again ESC, and indeed, my rifle was fully loaded again!!  ??? :-()

Just tried it with my SMG, emptied almost the entire clip into the car, ESC+ESC, and again, fully reloaded!! 

When you empty your clip, you won't get a "refill" regarding remaining ammo, this trick only refills ALL your current yet not entirely emptied clips of all weapons you've equipped.  :)

[Binnatics]

This is an amazing trick; wouldn't have thought it would w@&k for me, but it DOES!!!! Incredible! Good find!! :-X :)

[Art Blade]

Thank you :)

Particularly nice for the GL-94, it is a treat  :-D

[Jim di Griz]

During MP or local co-op be aware that you (for some reason) cannot pause.

Well, you can...but the pirates don't take a break to make a cuppa  ;) We were about to 'survive getting through the cave' after blowing the railroad bridge and so paused the session to make a drink etc, only to find that the pirates came looking for us... ???

Luckily we were both in the same room still, so there was a mad scramble for the controllers - quite comical actually  ^-^

[Art Blade]

 :-D

[fragger]

Wish I could have seen it :-D

Pirates have no sense of decorum. But teamwork won through in the end, eh Jim? :-D "Against the assault of drinks, nothing can stand..."

[mandru]

In the Hunter missions needed for crafting there is an assigned weapon that is required for the hunt to be successful but keep in mind that it is acceptable if push comes to shove your knife/katana can also be used should the prey turn predator and gets to close to take out otherwise.  :-X

[Binnatics]

That's good to know! :-X
The Tanto is in fact very effective against most animals :)

[mandru]

Ah! Tanto...  :-[

I knew it was one of the Japanese blades and now on a few posts I've named the wrong one.  :D

[Art Blade]

I was intensively trying to ignore it, mandru  :-D

[fragger]

 :-D

There's a Path of the Hunter mission in the south island where you have to kill an albino crocodile with a blade, then skin it. You only get money for it, no upgrade or anything. The only way is to find the croc and jump in with him, then it's a matter of letting him get his gob around you so you can do the button-mash thing to defeat him by stabbing him in the head.

The first time I failed as I didn't know what button would be the designated mashing one (it turned out to be "c", and by the time I'd taken my eyes off the screen to hunt for it I'd lost those all-important first couple of seconds). Reloaded, I went back to try again, this time I confidently jumped into the water with my finger poised above c, ready to mash. Instead, a different key was designated - "<up arrow>". Failed again. Tried again - "<Right Shift>". This time I made it - just. Sneaky blighters.

Something to look out for, I don't know if any of you have had this happen. Sometimes when I'm on a Wanted Dead mission, I'll be in the middle of things and doing a pretty good job of silently taking down the cheese's henchmen one by one, when a noisy group of Rakyat yahoos will come screaming up in a vehicle and queer the deal for me. They'll alert all the pirates and sometimes kill the target, and when that happens you'll still get the "success" message but you won't get your reward. It's a bit like FC2's travelling suit mission in Bowa-Seko.

It's a lose-lose when those island-happy tattooed ratbags show up. They either screw the mission up for you by offing the leader, or if you see them coming and waste them before they get into the scrap you give yourself away. Dumb bit of programming there...

And so much for "Rakyat tradition". You try to do the right thing by them by taking out the pirate leader with a knife, then the Rakyat show up with their AK-47s blazing. Bloody hypocrites

[Art Blade]

 

[mandru]

Any nearby road always seems to be the key focus of the guards with much less attention paid (other than in random pacing) in other directions.  That gives the Wanted Dead locations something that feel to me like a front and back way to approach the group.   

I'm usually dug in under deep cover in a position closest to the leader waiting for a chance to strike.  Sometimes that opportunity is created as the Rakyat squad arrives. When that happens I've often been able to use their consistantly frontal distraction to creep out quickly, take down the target then melt back into the darkness of cover and distance before any of his squad is the wiser.

[Art Blade]

very nice tactic and nicely described, particularly the "melt back" part which is very graphical  :-D :-X

[mandru]

 :-D Thanks Art.

Beyond that Art I've been thinking about my tanto vs katana error and looked into it and came up with the blade name wakizashi.

A tanto by standard measurements is going to have a blade less than 12 inches (30.3 cm) where as a katana has a blade length longer than 23.5 in (60 cm).

The description tanto for the blade in the game felt off for me and I didn't have the descriptive name wakizashi on the tip of my tongue which is the curved Japanese blade that falls in size between the katana and tanto at 30.3 to 60.6 cm.  I'm hesitant to think about facing wild animals with what amounts to a fancy boot dagger or at least I'll suggest that UBI's misnaming the upgrade blade supported part of my error.  ;)


Also I came across this on wiki that in Portuguese catana means large knife or machete.

[PZ]

Even better, after I saved and quit the game, the next time I fired up FC3 that blue car was still in the same spot I had parked it before. :)

Cool  :-X

[Jim di Griz]

I think all three blades have a distinct purpose and can often be seen in sets. Katana is the long battle blade, the Wakizashi was a shorter companion blade. The tanto is used for ritual suicide but may have combat uses as well for the Samurai - of that I'm unsure.

[Art Blade]

Just to cut this short (hehe) -- I think the tantō we get in the game is entirely made up.

The handle/grip is almost as large as a sword's grip which is suited for two-handed use, and that, in a knife, is ridiculous. The blade is made in a way that it could be the top end of any nihontō (Japanese sword), as seen in a katana (worn edge up) or a tachi (worn edge down) or a wakizashi whereas a typical tantō did not have that triangular-shaped tip, nor did those knives or daggers have a tsuba (hand guard). The daishō Jim mentions ("companion blades") only means that two blades were paired in a matching look and only Samurai were allowed to wear two blades. Those two blades could be a tachi or a katana paired with a tantō or a wakizashi, basically any of the first two could be paired with any of the second two, while it is more likely to see a katana paired with a wakizashi.  :)

[Jim di Griz]

There you go, I knew Sir Art Postalot would come up with a full and informed comparison  :-X

[mandru]

I guess it's understandable that UBI could foul up the name and appearance of our upgraded carry blade in FC3 when you consider the fact that they don't know the difference between the LMB and the RMB for the PC gamers to engage the skill tree's Gunslinger Take Down in their tutorial for that move.  ::)

[Art Blade]

I was thinking hey, the tanto we get is a "signature weapon" which are spiced-up versions of a regular base form. Bearing that in mind, it is kind of OK to come up with that kind of unique weapon. :)