Fallout – Do NPC companions level up when they are not in the party

Modern CPUs usually change their clock speed based on CPU load in the default setting. You might be able to use the Power item in the Windows Control Panel to switch the power scheme from the default Balanced scheme to Energy Saver. That should lock your CPU to its lowest clock speed.

You can use something like CPU-Z to monitor the clock speed to see if your CPU actually clockspeed changes when you change the powerscheme.

I have actually used this technique to play Commandos. Normally my CPU would switch into performance mode (all 4 cores at 3.2GHz) and the game would run too fast, making it hard to play. After setting the Windows Powerscheme to Energy Saver (all 4 cores on 800Mhz - 1 quarter of full speed) the game would run at the correct speed.

Edit: About using a Virtual Machine:

Virtualbox has the ability to limit the virtual CPU to a percentage of the host CPU, see CPU execution cap in the Processor Settings section. The manual does note that limiting the CPU this way may induce timing problems in the guest, which isn't what you want for older games obviously. Another problem with virtual machines is that hardware acceleration for graphics is still not very well supported, so that limits the usage of VMs for games quite a bit.

I have tried this with Commandos for instance, but the result was not playable. That's when I switched to the technique above to limit the speed of my CPU via Windows Powerscheme.

Having San Francisco revealed on your map can only happen right before you get there, oddly enough. In the The Military Base, you will find a Survey Map held in a footlocker in one of the outter tents that will reveal San Francisco's location after using it. Geographically, this is very close to San Francisco, so having it revealed at this stage isn't terribly useful.

If you want to know which cities to visit, I would suggest that NCR (New California Republic) should be the last city that you visit before trekking out to San Francisco.

To clear up any confusion, there are a few NPC's which will mention San Francisco beforehand, however they will not reveal it on the map:

• Doc Holliday in Broken Hills tells you a story about San Francisco. You can relay this story to the doctor in San Francisco, but this will not reveal San Francisco's location.
• Brotherhood of Steel's NCR outpost will tell you to visit their San Francisco outpost if you pass a level check, however this will not reveal San Francisco's location.
• The Hubologist in NCR will give you a letter to deliver to San Francisco if you manage to pass a speech check, but this also will not reveal San Francisco on your map.

SPOILERS / DIRECTIONS BELOW: (mouse over to reveal)

If you are following the general path that the game is intended to be played out in (see image below), you will likely come upon New Reno or Broken Hills. Moving on from there, you will likely travel South to NCR. From NCR, you travel West until you hit The Military Base, and then San Francisco. Alternatively, you could simply leave from Arroyo (where you start the game) and head straight South to San Francisco, saving often to avoid being killed by random encounters.

Final notes:

• If you are going to play through Fallout 2, I highly recommend installing the Fallout 2 Resoration Project 2.1.2b. It fixes many problems with the game (including technical problems on modern systems) as well as adding additional content should you desire it.
• Refer to this guide if you need any help. Use the search function to find keywords. Everything in the game is in there.
• If you are using the Restoration Project, refer to this guide for additional help.