Oh, I have big non-canon plans for an update after Broken Steel. I don't think I'll be downloading the mod, this LP will be mod free, perhaps except for a short update showcasing some mods.CM156 said:
Let's Play Fallout: New Vegas [The Servant]
- Thread starter AlternatePFG
- Start date
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Yeah, I don't really bother with mods for the few PC games I haveAlternatePFG said:
I tried one for Neverwinter Nights 2, and it just didn't work for some reason. Ah well.
This is a really short update, originally I just wanted to show off the house in Georgetown, but things got a bit more complicated from there. Even then, it's going to be a very short update. I simply wanted to show off an interesting location that we certainly would not be seeing if we just did the sidequests or main storyline.
On an unrelated note, it's taken me a while to think about it, but I actually like the Gun Runner's Arsenal DLC. The new weapon mods actually really change up the model of the weapon and some of the new weapons are awesome. Shame there aren't any mods for the new 5.56mm Pistol or Battle Rifle though.
The new flamethrower is all kinds of awesome. It shoots blue flame.
[HEADING=1]Mini-Update - Some Minor Matters[/HEADING]
So there is this one extremely minor location in the game, most people would probably miss it. It's pretty much one interior cell and that's it. There's absolutely no items of interest (Except for a speech skill book, but for obvious reasons, we don't need) and it's not involved in any sidequests in anyway. It's just an interesting reference to something that actually fits with story, rather than detract from it.
We're in Georgetown. Georgetown on a whole is a very interesting part of the game, it looks very nice and actually has some buildings with some actual color. The problem is that 99% of the buildings are boarded up, and cannot be explored. This is one of the few that can. Let's check it out.
The place itself is just kind of a crappy run down townhome. On the surface, there doesn't seem to be anything at all of interest in here.
There's a robot you can activate in here.
You can tell the robot to do a few things. You can deactivate it completely, tell it walk the dog, pick up some groceries, read the children a bedtime story or put it in security mode. If you tell it to walk the dog, it'll go outside and then attack you for some strange reason. You can also send it to the grocery store, which gets it pretty much instantly killed by some super mutants across the street. Putting it security mode has it roam the house randomly.
Let's try the fourth option.
The robot slowly hovers off to do it's job.
The robot reads the poem, unaware the kid has long been dead.
This whole house is actually a reference to the Ray Bradbury short story, There Will Come Soft Rains. [http://www.jerrywbrown.com/datafile/datafile/110/ThereWillComeSoftRains_Bradbury.pdf] (Which is based on the poem of the same name.) I pretty much got the reference right away, because I read that short story awhile back. It's an interesting read if nothing else, I'm somewhat surprised that Bethesda actually referenced it in the game. (Let's face it, a lot of the other "references" are pretty stupid.) I actually really liked this reference, as small as it is. I feel like it fits with the game and it's pretty unobtrusive.
It's a nice touch is all I'm saying.
Oddly enough, apparently you can find the dog's body outside, that hasn't decayed in over 2 centuries apparently. I guess they don't have a dog skeleton model or something. It's like I could find the damn thing, I had to look it up on the wiki. Apparently the thing is glitchy as hell and might end up floating in the air, stuck in a wall or doing other such nonsense.
Now for something completely different. I wanted to make a routine trip to Tenpenny Tower to get some more ammo, repair some weapons, etc. I wasn't going to show this but something interesting happened.
The first sign that something was up was the fact that there were two ghouls outside, by themselves and the door guard was nowhere to be found.
The lobby is completely empty. Uh oh, somethings up. Let's check the basement.
Oh shit, how did this feral ghoul get in here? What's with all the blood?
We immediately blast its head off.
God damn it. I thought killing Roy would stop this from happening, but nope, it happens anyway. I guess the implication is that the ghouls killed residents anyway.
They even killed Dashwood, who was a nice guy and actually liked ghouls. Someone is going to answer for this.
Of course, instead of talking, the ghouls attack us right away.
It goes about as well for him as you'd expect.
If there's any consolation to this, we get access to the shop inventories when we kill them now.
We fight the other ghouls too, this time with a flamer we looted from the other store.
They killed every single person in this tower. There is no one left alive inside the tower now. Roy is dead. Gustavo is dead. Tenpenny is dead, even though he's been dead a pretty long time now.
And soon after we fight the ghouls outside. They really don't stand a chance.
Oh yeah, by the way? We lose karma for this. Fuck you game.
Well, Tenpenny Tower is a ghost town. So, I guess I wasn't able to successfully trick the game after all. The only way for this quest line to have an ending that doesn't involve wiping one group out is simply not getting involved at all.
Ah well, let's just continue on now. I already said everything I needed to say about that stupid quest during it's respective update.
We're in Georgetown. Georgetown on a whole is a very interesting part of the game, it looks very nice and actually has some buildings with some actual color. The problem is that 99% of the buildings are boarded up, and cannot be explored. This is one of the few that can. Let's check it out.
The place itself is just kind of a crappy run down townhome. On the surface, there doesn't seem to be anything at all of interest in here.
There's a robot you can activate in here.
You can tell the robot to do a few things. You can deactivate it completely, tell it walk the dog, pick up some groceries, read the children a bedtime story or put it in security mode. If you tell it to walk the dog, it'll go outside and then attack you for some strange reason. You can also send it to the grocery store, which gets it pretty much instantly killed by some super mutants across the street. Putting it security mode has it roam the house randomly.
Let's try the fourth option.
The robot slowly hovers off to do it's job.
The robot reads the poem, unaware the kid has long been dead.
This whole house is actually a reference to the Ray Bradbury short story, There Will Come Soft Rains. [http://www.jerrywbrown.com/datafile/datafile/110/ThereWillComeSoftRains_Bradbury.pdf] (Which is based on the poem of the same name.) I pretty much got the reference right away, because I read that short story awhile back. It's an interesting read if nothing else, I'm somewhat surprised that Bethesda actually referenced it in the game. (Let's face it, a lot of the other "references" are pretty stupid.) I actually really liked this reference, as small as it is. I feel like it fits with the game and it's pretty unobtrusive.
It's a nice touch is all I'm saying.
Oddly enough, apparently you can find the dog's body outside, that hasn't decayed in over 2 centuries apparently. I guess they don't have a dog skeleton model or something. It's like I could find the damn thing, I had to look it up on the wiki. Apparently the thing is glitchy as hell and might end up floating in the air, stuck in a wall or doing other such nonsense.
Now for something completely different. I wanted to make a routine trip to Tenpenny Tower to get some more ammo, repair some weapons, etc. I wasn't going to show this but something interesting happened.
The first sign that something was up was the fact that there were two ghouls outside, by themselves and the door guard was nowhere to be found.
The lobby is completely empty. Uh oh, somethings up. Let's check the basement.
Oh shit, how did this feral ghoul get in here? What's with all the blood?
We immediately blast its head off.
God damn it. I thought killing Roy would stop this from happening, but nope, it happens anyway. I guess the implication is that the ghouls killed residents anyway.
They even killed Dashwood, who was a nice guy and actually liked ghouls. Someone is going to answer for this.
Of course, instead of talking, the ghouls attack us right away.
It goes about as well for him as you'd expect.
If there's any consolation to this, we get access to the shop inventories when we kill them now.
We fight the other ghouls too, this time with a flamer we looted from the other store.
They killed every single person in this tower. There is no one left alive inside the tower now. Roy is dead. Gustavo is dead. Tenpenny is dead, even though he's been dead a pretty long time now.
And soon after we fight the ghouls outside. They really don't stand a chance.
Oh yeah, by the way? We lose karma for this. Fuck you game.
Well, Tenpenny Tower is a ghost town. So, I guess I wasn't able to successfully trick the game after all. The only way for this quest line to have an ending that doesn't involve wiping one group out is simply not getting involved at all.
Ah well, let's just continue on now. I already said everything I needed to say about that stupid quest during it's respective update.
On an unrelated note, it's taken me a while to think about it, but I actually like the Gun Runner's Arsenal DLC. The new weapon mods actually really change up the model of the weapon and some of the new weapons are awesome. Shame there aren't any mods for the new 5.56mm Pistol or Battle Rifle though.
The new flamethrower is all kinds of awesome. It shoots blue flame.
Yeah, I'm liking the new GRA, especially the new anti-materiel rifle mods and the Bozar.AlternatePFG said:So there is this one extremely minor location in the game, most people would probably miss it. It's pretty much one interior cell and that's it. There's absolutely no items of interest (Except for a speech skill book, but for obvious reasons, we don't need) and it's not involved in any sidequests in anyway. It's just an interesting reference to something that actually fits with story, rather than detract from it.
We're in Georgetown. Georgetown on a whole is a very interesting part of the game, it looks very nice and actually has some buildings with some actual color. The problem is that 99% of the buildings are boarded up, and cannot be explored. This is one of the few that can. Let's check it out.
The place itself is just kind of a crappy run down townhome. On the surface, there doesn't seem to be anything at all of interest in here.
There's a robot you can activate in here.
You can tell the robot to do a few things. You can deactivate it completely, tell it walk the dog, pick up some groceries, read the children a bedtime story or put it in security mode. If you tell it to walk the dog, it'll go outside and then attack you for some strange reason. You can also send it to the grocery store, which gets it pretty much instantly killed by some super mutants across the street. Putting it security mode has it roam the house randomly.
Let's try the fourth option.
The robot slowly hovers off to do it's job.
The robot reads the poem, unaware the kid has long been dead.
This whole house is actually a reference to the Ray Bradbury short story, There Will Come Soft Rains. [http://www.jerrywbrown.com/datafile/datafile/110/ThereWillComeSoftRains_Bradbury.pdf] (Which is based on the poem of the same name.) I pretty much got the reference right away, because I read that short story awhile back. It's an interesting read if nothing else, I'm somewhat surprised that Bethesda actually referenced it in the game. (Let's face it, a lot of the other "references" are pretty stupid.) I actually really liked this reference, as small as it is. I feel like it fits with the game and it's pretty unobtrusive.
It's a nice touch is all I'm saying.
Oddly enough, apparently you can find the dog's body outside, that hasn't decayed in over 2 centuries apparently. I guess they don't have a dog skeleton model or something. It's like I could find the damn thing, I had to look it up on the wiki. Apparently the thing is glitchy as hell and might end up floating in the air, stuck in a wall or doing other such nonsense.
Now for something completely different. I wanted to make a routine trip to Tenpenny Tower to get some more ammo, repair some weapons, etc. I wasn't going to show this but something interesting happened.
The first sign that something was up was the fact that there were two ghouls outside, by themselves and the door guard was nowhere to be found.
The lobby is completely empty. Uh oh, somethings up. Let's check the basement.
Oh shit, how did this feral ghoul get in here? What's with all the blood?
We immediately blast its head off.
God damn it. I thought killing Roy would stop this from happening, but nope, it happens anyway. I guess the implication is that the ghouls killed residents anyway.
They even killed Dashwood, who was a nice guy and actually liked ghouls. Someone is going to answer for this.
Of course, instead of talking, the ghouls attack us right away.
It goes about as well for him as you'd expect.
If there's any consolation to this, we get access to the shop inventories when we kill them now.
We fight the other ghouls too, this time with a flamer we looted from the other store.
They killed every single person in this tower. There is no one left alive inside the tower now. Roy is dead. Gustavo is dead. Tenpenny is dead, even though he's been dead a pretty long time now.
And soon after we fight the ghouls outside. They really don't stand a chance.
Oh yeah, by the way? We lose karma for this. Fuck you game.
Well, Tenpenny Tower is a ghost town. So, I guess I wasn't able to successfully trick the game after all. The only way for this quest line to have an ending that doesn't involve wiping one group out is simply not getting involved at all.
Ah well, let's just continue on now. I already said everything I needed to say about that stupid quest during it's respective update.
On an unrelated note, it's taken me a while to think about it, but I actually like the Gun Runner's Arsenal DLC. The new weapon mods actually really change up the model of the weapon and some of the new weapons are awesome. Shame there aren't any mods for the new 5.56mm Pistol or Battle Rifle though.
The new flamethrower is all kinds of awesome. It shoots blue flame.
Ahhhh. Too bad it didn't work. Oh wellAlternatePFG said:This is a really short update, originally I just wanted to show off the house in Georgetown, but things got a bit more complicated from there. Even then, it's going to be a very short update. I simply wanted to show off an interesting location that we certainly would not be seeing if we just did the sidequests or main storyline.
[HEADING=1]Mini-Update - Some Minor Matters[/HEADING]So there is this one extremely minor location in the game, most people would probably miss it. It's pretty much one interior cell and that's it. There's absolutely no items of interest (Except for a speech skill book, but for obvious reasons, we don't need) and it's not involved in any sidequests in anyway. It's just an interesting reference to something that actually fits with story, rather than detract from it.
We're in Georgetown. Georgetown on a whole is a very interesting part of the game, it looks very nice and actually has some buildings with some actual color. The problem is that 99% of the buildings are boarded up, and cannot be explored. This is one of the few that can. Let's check it out.
The place itself is just kind of a crappy run down townhome. On the surface, there doesn't seem to be anything at all of interest in here.
There's a robot you can activate in here.
You can tell the robot to do a few things. You can deactivate it completely, tell it walk the dog, pick up some groceries, read the children a bedtime story or put it in security mode. If you tell it to walk the dog, it'll go outside and then attack you for some strange reason. You can also send it to the grocery store, which gets it pretty much instantly killed by some super mutants across the street. Putting it security mode has it roam the house randomly.
Let's try the fourth option.
The robot slowly hovers off to do it's job.
The robot reads the poem, unaware the kid has long been dead.
This whole house is actually a reference to the Ray Bradbury short story, There Will Come Soft Rains. [http://www.jerrywbrown.com/datafile/datafile/110/ThereWillComeSoftRains_Bradbury.pdf] (Which is based on the poem of the same name.) I pretty much got the reference right away, because I read that short story awhile back. It's an interesting read if nothing else, I'm somewhat surprised that Bethesda actually referenced it in the game. (Let's face it, a lot of the other "references" are pretty stupid.) I actually really liked this reference, as small as it is. I feel like it fits with the game and it's pretty unobtrusive.
It's a nice touch is all I'm saying.
Oddly enough, apparently you can find the dog's body outside, that hasn't decayed in over 2 centuries apparently. I guess they don't have a dog skeleton model or something. It's like I could find the damn thing, I had to look it up on the wiki. Apparently the thing is glitchy as hell and might end up floating in the air, stuck in a wall or doing other such nonsense.
Now for something completely different. I wanted to make a routine trip to Tenpenny Tower to get some more ammo, repair some weapons, etc. I wasn't going to show this but something interesting happened.
The first sign that something was up was the fact that there were two ghouls outside, by themselves and the door guard was nowhere to be found.
The lobby is completely empty. Uh oh, somethings up. Let's check the basement.
Oh shit, how did this feral ghoul get in here? What's with all the blood?
We immediately blast its head off.
God damn it. I thought killing Roy would stop this from happening, but nope, it happens anyway. I guess the implication is that the ghouls killed residents anyway.
They even killed Dashwood, who was a nice guy and actually liked ghouls. Someone is going to answer for this.
Of course, instead of talking, the ghouls attack us right away.
It goes about as well for him as you'd expect.
If there's any consolation to this, we get access to the shop inventories when we kill them now.
We fight the other ghouls too, this time with a flamer we looted from the other store.
They killed every single person in this tower. There is no one left alive inside the tower now. Roy is dead. Gustavo is dead. Tenpenny is dead, even though he's been dead a pretty long time now.
And soon after we fight the ghouls outside. They really don't stand a chance.
Oh yeah, by the way? We lose karma for this. Fuck you game.
Well, Tenpenny Tower is a ghost town. So, I guess I wasn't able to successfully trick the game after all. The only way for this quest line to have an ending that doesn't involve wiping one group out is simply not getting involved at all.
Ah well, let's just continue on now. I already said everything I needed to say about that stupid quest during it's respective update.
On an unrelated note, it's taken me a while to think about it, but I actually like the Gun Runner's Arsenal DLC. The new weapon mods actually really change up the model of the weapon and some of the new weapons are awesome. Shame there aren't any mods for the new 5.56mm Pistol or Battle Rifle though.
The new flamethrower is all kinds of awesome. It shoots blue flame.
And the gun runner DLC looks really cool. I take it that you recomend it highly?
For 4 bucks, it's a pretty cool weapon pack. Especially if you're playing on consoles, while there was a mod that added a ton of weapon mods to weapons that didn't already had them, consoles couldn't get it. Even if you have the PC version, the mods have cool visual changes on the weapons and are pretty well integrated into the game.CM156 said:
Sounds like fun. I'm a console player, at the moment.AlternatePFG said:
Is there still no unique Silenced .22 Pistol? Sadface
Oh well. I'll likely be picking it up anyways.
As a side note, have you played Deus Ex: Human Revolution yet? That is, if you plan to.
Oh yeah. Rented it, beat it. It's probably my favorite game of the year so far, once I can afford it, I'll probably buy the PC version.CM156 said:
I see. I've heard mixed things about the gameplay balanceAlternatePFG said:
If I get it, what play style would you recomend?
I primarily played a stealth character, but was pretty much balanced in anything. Specializing really doesn't have much of a point in the game.CM156 said:
Sounds like fun. I'll likely play it over break. I'm currently on a video game hiatusAlternatePFG said:
I've not played the other Deus Ex games though. Thank goodness this is a prequil, right?
I enjoyed being specialized for the challenge. I'm a big fan of self-imposed restrictions. I may have failed theAlternatePFG said:
"Save Malik"
I told you that would happen in the tower. Actually, you got lucky. None of the corpses appeared for me, everyone was just gone. I then killed all the ghouls just like you did. The way I see it, if they can't get along in this world then they can damn well learn to get along in the next one.
This is a very long text, please read it all.AlternatePFG said:To make up for yesterday's short update, I have a big one in store for you guys today.
[HEADING=1]Chapter XV - The Fate of The Pitt[/HEADING]Last update, we were given the choice between helping the slaves bargain, by stealing the cure for a disease that is epidemic in the Pitt, for their freedom, or helping Ashur and the raiders stop their rebellion and taking out their leader, Wernher.
Of course, Wernher completely failed to mention to us that the cure in question, is a baby.
Instead of giving the baby to the ill-equipped slaves, who are probably not very knowledgeable in that particular area of science is probably a bad idea, so we decide to help Ashur.
Our goal now is talk to to Midea to find Wernher. For some reason, Wernher finally has chosen now to actually show his face.
We walk out the door, and you can already hear the chaos that's going on. Raiders are fighting with the slaves, who are all armed with auto-axes.
How the fuck did the slaves manage to hide all these weapons underneath the raiders nose, and mobilize in the time it took us to enter and leave Haven? The guards must be blind.
We avoid killing the slaves because we're playing a good character and not only are we trying to stay in character, you get bad karma for defending yourself against the people armed with chainsaws trying to kill you.
I know the game has only been out for a couple of weeks, tops, but I'm already getting bad flashbacks about the last level of Human Revolution when playing this part. That final part of the game was a pain in the ass on a pacifist playthrough. (I wasn't on a pacifist playthrough, but I wasn't playing a shoot everyone in sight playthrough, either.)
The raiders can take the slaves pretty easy, as well, the raiders are armed with guns that can gun down the slaves before they can even get into range with their wimpy, broken auto-axes.
You know, this all could have been avoided if the raiders and slaves were a bit more sensible.
An impressive battle at the very least. Uptown is a bit weird in it's layout but it's a cool idea I suppose.
Now it's time to confront Midea and ask her about Wernher's location.
"You're not the first to win their freedom and forget where they came from."
I didn't come from here though, you idiot.
"Did you know the cure is actually a baby?"
"Of course I knew, you dolt. I also knew it's the only chance we had of finding a cure and ransoming our freedom."
I hate how the PC can't call them out on this, and tell them that by endangering the kid, they're endangering their only chance for a cure and by extension, their only chance for freedom.
"If they ever find a cure, do you think they'll share it with us? Of course not. Why waste medicine on people you'll just work to death, anyway?"
"If you want to live, you'll tell me where Wernher is hiding."
"[SUCCESS] Fine, if it'll get you out of the way, go check under the blast furnace in the steelyard. Look for a rooftop door in the southwest. It's got a blue light, you can't miss it. But Wernher will put you in your place."
"Your riot isn't going to change anything. Except getting the slaves killed..."
"They'd rather die for freedom than die working for the raiders."
Forget this then, we know Wernher's location and we can find him now. Note that for some strange reason, if you have the Child at Heart perk, you can convince Midea to see the error of her ways. Why is it Child at Heart? I have no idea, presumably it has to do with the baby, but isn't Child at Heart only meant to work on kids in the game? Is it implying that Midea has the mental capacity of a 9 year old?
That might be true actually.
Some of the slaves are still working though... Odd.
There's still some gunned down slaves at the outside of the Mill, so something went on over here.
As soon as you walk through the door, a dozen slaves rush at you with auto-axes. Fighting them would be pretty easy, but would take a huge chunk out of our karma and be rather out of character for Lily, so instead we just run to the door to the Steelyard.
The raiders are actually pretty outnumbered here. Let's not stick around.
The raider behind the desk is probably shitting his pants.
They chase us out of the Mill, I wonder if they follow us to the Steelyard...
Nope, they don't. Phew. No more pacifism by running past enemies in this game at least. That's what sucks about pacifism playthroughs in many RPG's most of the time you just have to run away and hope not to get killed in the process. Deus Ex and Human Revolution both give you useful non-lethal combat options which is nice, except for Human Revolution's aforementioned "Oh god I'm out of P.E.P.S. ammo and I have to run away from enemies now" final level.
Still plenty of trogs in the Steelyard, even though we cleared it out on a previous update. These things really aren't much of a threat at all though, more of a minor nuisance.
Wernher's hideout is right by an area we already passed, so it should be easy getting there.
Oops. So much for pacifism.
Not shown: Me running all the way back here from the entrance of the Mill, because killing the guard makes Wernher instantly hostile for some stupid reason.
Wernher has a makeshift lab set up in here, but the place doesn't look at that clean and well suited for experiments.
"...Wait. Where's the cure? Did you lose it? Where is that little bastard?"
"Your plans are over, Wernher. Ashur knows everything."
"And you just went along with, did you? To hell with everyone else but you, huh? Here, I thought that you of all people would understand that sometimes you have to get your hands dirty to make a difference."
That's what I'm doing right now. These conversations piss me off, as you don't get many dialogue options at all to justify why you did this, and the game just gives you "I'm not kidnapping a kid" rather than "It's for the greater good, etc."
"But you're just a coward, afraid of making a choice. Afraid of changing the world!"
"[Speech, 57%] One chance, Wernher. Leave now, and never come back."
"[SUCCESS] Sure, fine. Obviously, you've joined with Ashur and I think you've got a bright future as a lackey. You really do."
I'd rather be Ashur's lackey than your lackey.
"But you know what? Fuck this city, and fuck the raiders, fuck the slaves, and fuck you too, fucker. I'm gone."
How eloquent. Here is where the whole grey morality thing of The Pitt falls apart. Wernher really is just an asshole trying to use the slaves as an excuse to gain power over the Pitt for himself. If you leave him in charge, the slaves are still slaves. Slaves without food (unless you count trog meat) or protection, who will probably be wiped out by a random group of raiders walking by. I don't think they have the proper scientific knowledge of to get the cure from the baby either. The slaves aren't even very sympathetic either. Helping Wernher and the slaves effectively kills everyone, not just the raiders.
Yet somehow, after that, killing Wernher gives bad karma.
Fuck this game.
It's so hard to resist shooting Wernher in the back, but that's not something our character would do. We're a lawful good "only shoot when necessary" right?
One has to wonder if the wasteland would be a better place without people like Wernher though and if he's still around, there's nothing stopping him from pulling this shit again.
So this is their lab. Not impressive, and in the middle of a polluted Steelyard.
There's one more thing to check out in the Steelyard before returning to Ashur for our reward. The power plant. Why not? This DLC is short enough as it is.
The slave attacks us on the way out. I shoot her, and she runs off.
It's still counts if she isn't dead! :V
The power plant is the only other location we have left to visit. (Except for the underground but that's only accessible if we help Wernher anyways.)
To the surprise of no one, the power plant is somewhat irradiated. One would wonder why the entire Steelyard area isn't at least somewhat irradiated, but I digress.
We encounter some wildmen getting chased down and eaten by trogs. Again, the trogs are scripted to take them down in one hit, but trogs are really not scary at all, unless they surprise you.
Guess they had to use them a ton though, considering they're the only new enemy in this DLC.
You know, if they ever decided to clear out the Steelyard, they could maybe get the power plant back up in running again...?
Hope you like trogs, because you have to fight a ton of them in this place.
You can hear some trogs eating a corpse upstairs. The idea is that this place was inhabited by the wildmen up until you came in. Or at least that's the only explanation why there's some beds in here and a ton of freshly dead corpses.
Coming up is an interesting bit of environmental storytelling and one of the few interesting terminal entries in this game.
You find a skeleton of a man, who obviously committed suicide and a computer terminal nearby with some entries with some details of what happened at the power plant.
It's an interesting read. [http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Supply_plant_terminal_entries#Tom_McMullin.27s_entries]
I mean, it's not on level of the Survivalist Journals from Honest Hearts by any means, but I still particularly liked them.
On an upper floor, you can find the aforementioned bed with a unique auto-axe by the name of the "Man-Opener". It's even glitcher than the normal auto-axe and that's saying something.
That's it for the power plant. There's a bit more if you do Wernher's side of the quest, but since we haven't, there isn't much else for us here. Nice area though, I guess.
We encounter a wildman outside the building.
Still love that VATS.
We head further down the train tracks in the Steelyard but we get attacked by a large group of trogs along the way. Past them is a good stash of ingots.
We could go down their if we helped Wernher or killed him and took the key, but alas, we did not.
Not pictured: Me walking all the way back to the Mill.
Raiders are still having trouble with the slaves. Going to walk away and hope no one notices us...
Quick jump cut to Haven. I did not realize you could quick travel in The Pitt until now. Huh. Well, you learn something new every day.
Ashur patiently waits for our return.
"The Pitt has a bright future ahead of it, and so do you."
"What do you mean about the city's future?"
"Now that Marie's back, we have a chance at curing the disease that's been ravaging The Pitt since the bombs. Without it killing our kids, we can grow like a real city. No more bringing in slaves. No more forced labor. Things can get better. It's taken me a lot of work to rebuild this city. With your help, it's finally going to have a chance."
"What's going to become of the workers?"
"Right now, nothing. Until we can reproduce a treatment from Marie, they'll have to keep working. Otherwise, this city falls apart. But once we do have a cure, things will be different. We won't need to kidnap people for our city. We'll be able to grow naturally. Until then, this is the way it has to be. It's just what has to be done."
"So, how about my reward?"
"You've keep the city in one piece and put a stop to Wernher's plans. Yeah, I guess you've earned one. As a full citizen of The Pitt, you'll have full access to the ammo press in the Mill. It's how I keep my soldiers well armed, so make good use of it."
If we helped Wernher, we'd pretty much get the same rewards, plus Ashur's armor. You get the armor anyway for getting 100 ingots in the Steelyard though.
"And I think Sandra's made some progress with the cure. So here's a little something to help with radiation."
"So, what do I do now?"
"That's up to you. We'll keep working on the cure and keep the city running. You're free to come and go as you like. Of course, you can help out at the mill by collecting metal from the Steelyard. It'd help lighten the load on the workers. And if you want to work on Sandra's good side, you can always bring her toys for Marie. It's a little thing, but it'd make a difference."
I think the most important thing for Ashur to do is hire a less psychotic staff but that's just me.
"Where did you get that powered armor?"
"This thing? It's a relic from my time with the Brotherhood of Steel, decades ago. It's been through so much that they'd hardly recognize it as one of theirs. A little like me, come to think of it."
"Do you ever miss the Brotherhood of Steel?"
"Not in the slightest. During the Scourge, we looted The Pitt and left the rest of it to rot. I was just a dumb convert who got stuck here afterwards. See, beneath it all, the Brotherhood's just lazy. It's easier to loot a dying city than the work to bring it back to life, so that's what they did."
That's what everyone in the Captial Wasteland is doing.
"They're so obsessed with the technology of the past, they don't care what needs to be done for today and tomorrow. It takes real work to rebuild and run a city. But there isn't a machine to do it for them, so the Brotherhood ain't interested. Good riddance."
"I have to go now."
"You're always welcome in The Pitt."
Oh fuck you game. A lot more people would have died if we helped the slaves, that's all I have left to say on the matter. The game pretty much comes out and says "You bastard" here, which is something it loves doing by the way. (Three Dog's/The Games reaction to you killing Roy in the Tenpenny Tower quest or the evil ending voiceover stick out the most.)
So much for moral ambiguity. Say bye to Ashur, this is probably the last we'll see of him. Too bad he isn't a companion or something.
And now, we finally leave The Pitt. What do I think of the DLC overall?
I think it's pretty obvious that Bethesda was trying to do an actually interesting ambiguous choice here. It is much better than the main game which is pretty much black and white with few exceptions and even those exceptions end up being infuriatingly stupid.
It's just that there are way too many problems with helping the slaves in this scenario. Wernher is an asshole who'd probably keep things the exact same way, except for him being the head honcho instead of Ashur. The slaves are hardly able to survive out here as it is, and their only source of food and protection is gone. Even if the slaves did not die right after yanking control from the raiders, there is a good possibility that the cure they want will never be created.
Now, if the choice for the slaves was to return back to the wasteland or if Wernher was less of an asshole, then I think we'd be getting somewhere.
The Pitt also kind of highlights some of major problems with the main game as well. Limited dialogue options that usually make your character look like a dolt and some rather weird scripting issues that will probably change on repeat playthroughs. The level design is actually pretty nice, I think all the locations in The Pitt are pretty interesting.
The weapons are okay I guess. The Auto-Axe is cool, but so buggy that it's hardly worth using, and the Infiltrator is pretty much just a silenced and scoped assault rifle.
The armor on the other hand, is pretty cool. There's a few more variants of the raider armors, and Ashur's power armor is awesome. Not worth going on a fetch quest for 100 ingots though. (Only applies to Ashur's ending.)
Here's the kicker though: The Pitt is incredibly short. This playthrough of The Pitt took me maybe 90 minutes, if you were being more through in finding all the ingots and such, you could get more time out of it, but isn't that saying something when they're trying to drag out an already short DLC with a prolonged fetch quest?
Packaged in with the GOTY edition, sure I think The Pitt is a great addition to the game but buying it on it's own is certainly not worth it.
The somewhat improved writing does give me a little bit of hope though. Maybe Bethesda will learn it's lessons from The Pitt and actually improve their storytelling for the next Fallout ga- Oh wait, Mothership Zeta came after this DLC, didn't it?
Nevermind.
We're home. Somehow, I missed the Capital Wasteland.
Okay question time: What did you think about The Pitt?
I´m sorry for only awnsering now, you probably have already forgotten this, but I think this viewpoint is pretty naive. I understand your reasons, but your argument is flawed. Ashur is using what I like to call the "dictator argument". First, I just don´t understand how mining and processing metal and steel would help to developt a cure. I mean, it´s not like they need funding. If they did, I´m pretty sure that they could produce bottlecaps in those metal refineries and then paint them to look like actual Nuka-caps, and I bet my sweet ass most iidiots in the Wasteland wouldn´t tell the difference.
Second, even if this work was necessary, the raiders are a pretty powerful force. As seen in the attack to Uptown during the "revolution", the raiders are same by same as the slaves, not to mention that those guys are much more phisically capable than the washed out slaves. Not to mention that most pitt slaves are from the Capital Wasteland. Which means that instead of using people that already had the Pitt disease, they just kidnapped healthy (by comparison) people in the wasteland because they didn´t want to spoil their hands with hard work. And even if by some force of magic, the only thing raiders were good was firing guns, do you really think that Ashur would let the slaves free. Think for a second. If you were made to work by someone, badly treated, seeing your companions die from exaustion or by being shot down by raiders, just to improve an industry that is ultimately useless in the Wasteland(seriously, why in the fuck's name they would need a steelyard other than making guns and ammo?) you would just walk away in the first chance you had to kill the bastards who did this to you? Most likely Ashur would keep making them work or just gunned them down.
Now, let´s take a look at the slave´s side, shall we? If the industry is so damn important for them to find a cure, the slaves would just keep working, but this time by choice, and I´ve the ideia that people work better when you aren´t throwing grenades at them. Even if some people gave up and went away, you could just hire more by making bottlecaps in the presses and giving them paycheck. Also, it´s said in game that most slaves are form the Capital Wasteland. Midea is probably from there to 'cause she didn't developted the disease that affects most Pitt slaves (the lack of face marks hints that away), so she could be educated, and she is, seeing that if you side with Werhner she is the one in charge to developting the cure. And don´t you think the coincidence that the baby´s mother is the only educated person in a ray of 100kms?
Again, if the slaves knowledge proves to be insuficient, they can just search and recruit other scientists to help them, a bit like project Purity, but much more big and with much more incentives to join in (this time, they have the cure right in front of them, they just need to find out how to use it. Project Purity started from scratch, but it was still able to collect a bunch of specialists). And if you´re worried about them hurting the child, if you speak again to Werhner he will say that Midea isn´t letting anyone hurting Maria, much to his displeasure (yeah, he´s a complete asshole, but he can be a powerless asshole if you follow step nº3)
Third. It is possible to side with the slaves without making Werhner the new Pitt overlord. Just to the normal mission, but first spare Sandra, and then refuse to release the trogs to uptown. That way, there will still be some raiders alive, including Ashur and his wife, so the slaves most likely won´t attack them, because the lost would be bigger than the win, stoping werhner from taking over Ashur´s place, and I doubt that ex-slaves, now armed with their ex-master´s weapons, would thake kindly to being explored again. And no, this is not contradicting my previous statement. The slaves got free and killed a lot of raiders. That is probably enough.
I´m finished. Please tell me what you thought.
I never said the setup in The Pitt was at all entirely sensible, and like many, many other points in the game, the game never gives you the most sensible option. They do explain why they're doing all this work, to help spread The Pitt's empire by actually using the metal to actually build stuff. They aren't using it to develop a cure, the cure is just a thing that they're doing on the side.
The raiders are assholes, I don't think I ever really said otherwise.
I realize that Midea is somewhat educated, but do you really think the slaves have better resources to make the cure? Do you think that after they get their cure, they aren't going to treat the baby like crap, or worse? Sure, hiring other people from the wasteland would be a great idea, but the game doesn't give you that choice.
You can't continue the DLC on Wernher's side unless you release the Trogs. Again, that's another sensible option that the game never gives you.
I guess if I hadn't made it clear during that part of the LP, nobody in The Pitt is remotely reasonable. Ashur is dead set on having slaves even if he doesn't need to, Wernher wants to kill all of the slavers and not negotiate after the getting the baby.
The raiders are assholes, I don't think I ever really said otherwise.
I realize that Midea is somewhat educated, but do you really think the slaves have better resources to make the cure? Do you think that after they get their cure, they aren't going to treat the baby like crap, or worse? Sure, hiring other people from the wasteland would be a great idea, but the game doesn't give you that choice.
You can't continue the DLC on Wernher's side unless you release the Trogs. Again, that's another sensible option that the game never gives you.
I guess if I hadn't made it clear during that part of the LP, nobody in The Pitt is remotely reasonable. Ashur is dead set on having slaves even if he doesn't need to, Wernher wants to kill all of the slavers and not negotiate after the getting the baby.
Today's update will be split into two updates, because apparently it exceeds the word limit for the forums.
[HEADING=1]Chapter XLII - Wait, You Want Us to do What?[/HEADING]
Alternatively titled "Insert Your Own 42 Joke Here".
So, now we have one final major, marked sidequest for us to do. (We will not being doing Strictly Business for Karma reasons.) The "Wasteland Survival Guide" quest, we need to talk to Moira to get it. It's a long fucking quest, I only assume it's meant to be completed over the course of the game, and not all at once.
"Well, it's a dangerous place out there in the Wastes, right? People could really use a compilation of good advice. Like a Wasteland Survival Guide!"
Oh god, this is already tied with the Nuka-Cola sidequest for the hardest sidequest to justify in character. If you're in the middle of a quest that could save the wasteland, I don't think you're going to stop everything you're doing and help some person write a book.
"For that, I need an assistant to tset my theories. I wouldn't want anyone to get hurt because of a mistake. Nobody's ever happy when that happens."
Oh great, we get to be guinea pigs. Add it to our resume. Note that this is the third time we've been someones lab assistant. (I really should just do a resume mini-update at the end of the LP.)
"No... Then they just yell a lot. At me. With mean, mean words."
Moira is kind of annoying, but it's hard for me to stay mad at one of the few NPC's in this game that isn't a total asshole.
"Okay, I guess I'll help with this "Survival Guide".
"All right, then! Now, I think the first chapter will have to be about surviving day-to-day dangers."
Oh, so you mean super mutants, raiders, mirelurks, etc.?
"Things like where it is and isn't safe to find food, the dangers of radiation, and how to avoid and even profit from dangerous landmines."
Oh...
"Ooh, sounds like fun, doesn't it? Which do you want to do first?"
"What's this about radiation?"
"Well, that's what I need your help for, isn't it? I know lots about it from books, but I never seem to get a live example. Not for long, anyway."
That's encouraging.
"So I need you to get a bit of radiation poisoning so I can study its effects. Oh, not a deadly dose, of course - I can fix you up before that!"
"Okay, I'll get irradiated. Just be ready to fix me up when I get back."
We already have enough radiation, but we want way more than this to complete the optional objective for this particular part of the quest, because doing the optional objectives gives you better rewards.
"Oh, you're a peach! Or, at least, some sort of hardy fruit that grows in the savagely irradiated mockery of agriculture we have nowadays."
Argiculture? Where?
"Now, 200 rads should be enough for basic sickness, but if you can get 600 or more rads, my tests will be even more accurate."
Screw that, let's be extreme and go for 900+ rads. There isn't any bonus for that, but shut up!
"Just make sure you can get back here, and I'll see to it that you're well taken care of!"
Even though the bomb is diffused, this is our closest source of radiation. Let's take a bath in the water.
Of course, we can't get slowly irradiated in peace, because there is this guy rambling about the bomb being holy or something. Why is every single religious group in this game a crazy cult?
Damn it, we have to listen to all this guys crap while we're slowly waiting to get enough rads. He goes on for a really, really long time too without repeating.
We entertain a particular thought of Lily setting the guy on fire, but of course, we don't actually do it. But it's hard to resist. So. Annoying.
Then I realize we can just drink the water and get incredibly irradiated quickly. Too bad I didn't realize this earlier.
We keep drinking until we get as much rads as we can get before dying.
Oh I get it. Radiation puns.
"I'm about as irradiated as I can get without burning a hole in the floor."
"I can tell... You're positively glowing!"
Oh haha, more radiation puns...
Please heal us now...
"Now just hold on and try not to move. Tell me how it feels, and I'll get you fixed right up."
"Just do your examination and fix me up, please."
This is where we kind of screw up. We want to do all the skill/SPECIAL checks to get the best rewards in the quest, and I pick the wrong. Eventually I reload a save and go back through this part and the next part of the quest to fix that.
"You're a mighty lucky one, you know that? At this state, most people'd have trouble standing up, much less walking over here."
Well, we literally only had to walk feet away and come back.
"Now, let me take a few notes, and I'll handle that nasty radiation with a bit of my own home-made rad-cure concoction."
Oh god no, I'll chance the radiation poisoning. Do you have any rad-away?
"I've never had a chance to test it out on someone so heavily dosed, but I'm sure it'll work out fine. Exciting, isn't it?"
So Moira heals us. Apparently her concoction is composed of brahmin milk, a couple of magnets and some "happy thoughts".
Somehow, it works.
"Well, you're alive... That's the good news. But there was a little side effect. A teeny, tiny, um, mutation. But it seems to be benign, at least."
Is it an extra toe?!
""Here, take a few radiation Chems, as my little way of saying, "I'm sorry I twisted your DNA like a kitten with a ball of yarn.""
Fuck the Enclave, Moira is the real villain in this game.
"I'm ready to continue research on the first chapter."
There's three different sections to each chapter. There are three chapters. Hopefully not all of them will involve us horribly mutilating ourselves.
"Getting food doesn't sound so bad. What are you looking for?"
"Well, food and medicine. Everyone needs them once in a while, right? So they need a good place to find them!"
WHY DON'T THEY MAKE THEM THEMSELVES-
Oh, sorry. I just lost my sanity there for a second.
"There's an old Super-Duper Mart not far from here. I need to know if a place like that still has any food or medicine left in it."
Well... We took it all...
"I guess I can check the Super-Duper Mart again."
Once again, we make another screwup here. We can say we've already been there, but I didn't realize that this counts for the optional objective too. So pretend like this part of the conversation never happened.
I reloaded, and say that we've already been here. She responds accordingly.
"Really? You did? You did! Well, all right! Tell me all about it!"
"[Intelligence] The Raiders were using the pharmacy as a place to store their best gear."
Okay, so my question about the store having a mini-nuke in it has now been answered. I'll give you this one, Bethesda.
"So, you're saying that they acquired a well-protected stash? I wonder how many other places are hiding treasures behind monsters, hrm?"
That second sentence doesn't make sense in context...
"Well, keep what you got. Just traded for a big food shipment, myself. Here, take a bit, my treat - the taste kind of grates after a while."
We sell it right back to her for a meager profit.
"Oh, and take this! It's an old Food Sanitizer. Just carry it with you, and it should automatically make most food and drink more, um... better."
If you're noticing a pattern, it's that Moira is giving us a not negligible reward. At a high level, this quest is probably the most profitable in the entire game. It's also one of the longest too.
"Let's finish up the chapter with that landmine research."
I hope she doesn't want to study landmine wounds next...
"Landmines are one of the few dangers out there you can profit from."
Bullshit. Loot is a major aspect of this game, every bad guy with a gun you can profit from.
"I've heard stories about a ghost town that's just full of mines. Tradeers just call the place "Minefield"."
Minefield apparently only exists for this quest.
"Sounds like the place for some fieldwork! Get in there, get back, and tell me all about it. And could you bring back a mine for my studies?"
We sold her like 5 mines before coming in here...
"I'll head into Minefield. Wish me luck."
"Oh, don't worry. No one ever goes there because they say it's a ghost town. And since ghosts don't exist, you can just focus on the landmines."
I wouldn't be so sure about that. What about the Dunwich Building?
"I hear there's a playground in the middle of the town. Reach that point and come back, and I'm sure you'll have some stories to tell!"
That's rather arbitrary, but okay...
Our closest location to Minefield is the Scrapyard, at least it isn't too far away. Notice the sign on the left with the propaganda poster. That little shack on the right? That's where you go if you have the contract killer perk.
More Yao Guai. I'm pretty sure that the Deathclaws show up in random places on the map instead of Yao Guai once you pass a certain level, but I could be wrong.
It's not match for our flamer.
This Minefield. It's just a block of houses in the midle of nowhere. Before you ask, no there isn't a settlement here, for some strange reason. Why is it called Minefield?
That's why. The mines have a tendency to blow up nearby cars, resulting in a wave of nuclear explosions.
It doesn't help that there is a sniper in a building down the street taking potshots at you.
Oh crap, another flaming car.
Dogmeat can eat those bombs for breakfast. I've honestly never been able to kill Dogmeat before. The most damage he has taken during the entire LP was during the Head of State quest, our first encounter with a Ghoul Reaver and even then he hardly took much damage.
Our Energy Weapons skill is high enough that we can pretty much snipe with the laser pistol.
We get a crit and vaporize him.
The guy has some supplies set up here. I couldn't find his actual body to loot it, I can't seem to find that particular pile of ash.
And there's some ammo up here too. It's not like we need anymore ammo of course.
So now, we just walk over to the park and complete this particular section of the quest. Let's fast travel back.
"Because, you know, they're on the ground, like potatoes. And hot, because they, um, explode. Anyway, what's up?"
"I got through Minefield alive, and I even brought you a present."
"My very own landmine!"
You have like 10 in your inventory, lady.
"Just what I've always wanted. Well, always since I sent you out on this, anyway."
This is the 3rd sidequest where I feel like the quest giver has sent many other people out to their deaths before asking you. Moira just tries to make herself look innocent by looking utterly, utterly stupid.
"Now, tell me all about it. What was it like going through there? What's it like disarming a landmine?"
"[Agility] Fast hands and faster wits can get you an awful lot. Including landmines."
Skill checks are never a bad thing, but these aren't skill checks, they're SPECIAL checks. If you don't have a 7 in INT or CHA for this quest, you're fucked.
"That's a pretty good way of putting it. I think I'll use that in the book. Maybe I should credit you as a co-author, instead of just a researcher?"
Co-author eh? Add it to the list.
"I know you may not want to see any more explosives for a while, but obviously you know your way around them. Have a couple of rainy-day toys of mine. And looking at this landmine, it gives me an idea. It's a terrible device that does terrible things, of course. But it's easy to make your own, too."
You get a Bottlecap Mine schematic. Why would you use money to a make a mine, it never made sense to me. Is it the shrapnel? Couldn't you just use other various, non valuable pieces of metal. Regardless, this is a great reward. Schematics are usually rewards for completing quests entirely, and we're only 1/3rd of the way through. I got to admit, this quest really does give some great rewards for completing it, especially if you do the optional objectives.
"Does that finish out the first chapter?"
"It most certainly does. And if I keep writing in the style of some of your reports, this is going to be one mighty slick book!"
Of course if we lied or didn't do the optional objectives, things wouldn't be going so well.
"Here, for your services, I've saved up quite a few stimpaks. Of course, you may need them: we've still got two more chapters to go."
More stimpaks? Sure, we already have over 100 of them.
"I'm ready to start researching the next chapter."
"The second chapter's going to be a bit trickier, I think. It'll cover how to handle creatures out there, for better or worse."
So, are we going to fight the really threatning creatures this time? Super mutants, deathclaws?
"For example, replling Mole Rats, learning about Mirelurks, and when all else fails, how to handle being injured."
Oh...
"So, let's buckle down and get to work on this chapter. What first?"
"I'm going to hate myself for this, but what do you mean about handling injury"
"Well, I never get to study anyone who's severely injured. Not without them crying to be fixed right away or trying to bleed out and all that."
This is why people around here don't like you, Moira.
"But obviously, you can handle a lot of abuse, so if I'm ever going to find a good example of human anatomy and injury resistance, it'd be you."
So, in essence, we're a crash test dummy? Add it to the list.
"Next time you get badly injured, return here so I can examine you before I heal you up. I mean, you're going to get yourself hurt anyway, right?"
...Okay, I'll give her that.
"[Medicine] Why get myself hurt? I'm a good enough doctor to explain this part for you."
Thank christ, we have a speech check that lets us avoid having to have Moira try to stitch us up. Alternatively, we just throw ourselves over the railing outside Moira's store and drag up broken legs back to Moira.
"That'll save a lot of time and effort. Oh, and blood, on your part. A real-world example might help more, but I won't turn down the help! Oh, and here's your pay for it all. Guess you earned it by working smarter, not... um... more self-destructively."
"I'm ready for more research on the second chapter. What's this about studying Mirelurks?"
"Mirelurks are a big threat in some areas, and knowing more about them can help people learn to avoid, or even outsmart them. So I picked up this observer device to study them in their natural habitat."
You know, as stupid as she seems, Moira really is rather smart when it comes to stuff like this.
"I need you to hide it in one of the spawning pods in their lairs."
"All right, I'll try."
"That's great. I recommend the nest at the Anchorage War Memorial. I knew a trader who talked about Mirelurks down there. Just go inside and find one of their spawning pods, probably down near the water. Put this observer inside, and get out quietly."
Spoiler: It doesn't go quite as planned...
"And be sure not kill any Mirelurks inside their nest! If you do, it could ruin the validity of the study!"
We fast travel in front of Dukov's Place and find the same exact random encounter as we did before. A mind controlled deathclaw attacking it's handler.
There isn't only a deathclaw here of course.
There was a Tesla Armor trooper attacking us too. More power armor for us = more caps. It's not like we need more caps, by the end of this update we'll have about 10000 caps.
We can see the Anchorage Memorial statue from over here. That's not how the liberation of Anchorage went down. We can vouch for that.
So we can't kill the mirelurks if we want the best reward for this quest. Note that it doesn't matter if your companion kills the mirelurks, nor does it matter if you kill any mirelurks outside the place.
Let's use a stealth boy to get through this part. If you haven't noticed, I've been hoarding the things. In fact, I pretty much hoard all the medical supplies you can get in this game.
We try to avoid this mirelurk hunter, but Dogmeat makes it hard for us.
Fuck it, let's just run in, put the thing on the mirelurk eggs and get out.
Alright, good. Let's get the hell out of here.
We have to dodge every attack from the Mirelurks in here. Dogmeat pulls the aggro of like 6 of them.
We survive and make it outside.
"I slipped the observer in with the eggs, and they're none the wiser."
Erm, yeah. It's not like they chased us out or anything...
"I'll bet most people would have just gone in there, guns blazing, without half a thought. But not you! You're the best research assistant ever! I've been getting a good signal, but what do you think about them from your first-hand observations of them?"
"[Intelligence] They descended from local crabs. I'd call them "Scylla Serrata Horrendus."
We have enough strength and charisma to pass the other checks for some reason. I don't remember having a 7 (the minimum to pass these checks) Strength...
"That's very scientific of you! Personally, I wasn't sure if they were crabs or if they came from some sort of brine shrimp, perhaps. Some of these observations about their armor and camouflage gave me an idea for reinforced, neutral-colored headgear. Here, consider it thanks for not interfering with them. Oh, speaking of which, take these. So you can continue to avoid them in the future."
6 stealth boys from that. 6.
"The last task for this chapter is something about Mole Rats, right?"
"Mole Rats can burrow into almost anything and cause a lot of trouble."
Really? They're about as strong as radroaches...
"So I figured I'd make a chemical repellent stick for people to shoo them off. But I need it to be tested before I put the recipe to paper in the guide. So I need you to find some Mole Rats and test it out a bit."
"I'll test out the Repellent for you."
"It'll be easy. One tap with the applicator, and it overwhelms their senses with a sort of "feel-bad" sensation. Then they're gone before you know it! You could test it out on just a few Mole Ratties, but for real testing, try it on ten or more. There should be plenty in the Tepid Sewers, downtown."
What a creative name for a sewer level...
The Tepid Sewers is literrally a few feet away from the Anchorage Memorial. It's time to go in and beat some mole rats with a stick.
Using the repellent stick causes their heads to explode...
There is also some raiders down here. The repellent stick isn't quite as effective on him, I'm afraid.
We still need to kill 2 more mole rats, and there's none to be found here.
We take the wrong turn and end up in the raider infested part of the sewers, which also apparently happens to be part of the metro. Let's turn back.
That's a bit of a problem. Where are we going to reliably find two mole rats to kill?
Back in Megaton of course. Behind the city there is a ton of mole rat spawns.
And now we're done. Back to Moira.
"I tested the Mole Rat repellent extensively."
"Oh, excellent! Substantial field-testing, precise reports, and such dedication! What more could I ask for in a research assistant? So, how did my chemical repellent work? Safe and clean like a charm, I'll bet!"
Well, no. Unless cleaning up bits of mole rat brain off your shoes is your idea of clean.
"[Intelligence] It appears that Mole Rats have a most fatal allergy to it. Explosively so."
"Those poor little Mole Ratties! I wonder if I could make a hypoallergenic version? Oh, but that'd hardly be effective. I should mention that. Proper handling of Mole Rats could be important if they could be domesticated. Milked, maybe?"
Ew.
"Anyway, keep the repellent. Oh, but for you trouble, umm... Here, have the leftover chems from working on the repellent. I'm sure you can find some use for them."
"I suspect this completes the second chapter's research, correct?"
"Correct, as always! And your feedback's really led to a very smartly written book. Maybe too smart for some folks, I worry."
Well, if Moira can read it, I'm sure it's fine.
"Of course, if the reader can't be bothered to understand something important as a book on how to stay alive, then what can we do, huh? And in case those readers blame you for their ignorance, here's your payment: two big boxes of ammo. Now, on to the next chapter!"
You get 500 rounds 5mm ammo. Yeah.
"I'm ready to start researching the last chapter."
"The last chapter's a bit more esoteric. It's about the survival of humanity as a whole, and how to rebuild society. Deep stuff, huh?"
Riggght.
"We need to know how large settlements are formed, how to harness the old technology, and I'll need you to get ancient history from a nearby library."
I know how large settlements are formed in Fallout 3. "Oh look, that looks like an odd and inconvenient place, but wouldn't it be cool if someone built a city on it?. LET'S BUILD THERE!"
"We're in the last stretch, now, so let's finish it up strong! What first?"
"Researching local history sounds easy."
"Don't be so sure. You'd be surprised how confused people get, even about important things."
Didn't we already learn the history of Megaton from Simms-
"In this case, I'm talking about Rivet City. It's the most successful survivor settlement around, but no one here really knows how it started. Of course, that's why it's important to know how a plce like that succeeded. So I need you to go there and some researching!"
Why not? It's the least possible lethal thing we can do in this sidequest.
"Sounds reasonable. I'll research Rivet City's history."
"Oh, now I can't wait for what you find out down there! And check around to make sure you're hearing the real deal!"
Back in Rivet City. Again. You know, the sidequests at least make good use of the games major locations.
We want to find out more about Rivet City, so let's talk to Pinkerton.
For some stupid reason, we have to arbitrarily talk to some random NPC in the Muddy Rudder before talking to Pinkerton. Awesome.
You're not aspiring to do much if you name your bar the Muddy Rudder.
"I'll tell you what I tell all the fresh meat. Don't start anything down here or I'll have Brock kick your ass."
"Nice place you have here."
"You must be drunk. Are you going to order or what?"
"Have any stories about this place's history?"
"History? What, not enough shit around here already, you need to dig up more? Don't know if it ever had an official start. It's just been here forever, stuck in the river and full of assholes."
"[Speech, 100%] I bet someone like you hears lots of stories. Can't you share one?"
"[SUCCESS] No, I can't fucking well share one! What sort of moron are you?"
What? Did we fail that check or something-
"But, fine, if it'll get you out of my face: go down to Pinkerton's shed in the broken-off bow of the ship."
Oh, I see. Well, let's backtrack all the way back.
"If he decides to give you a history lesson, it's no business of mine. Now get the hell out of my bar."
"Tell me about the city's history."
"What? I have better things to do than yak about those back-stabbers up topside. Now get going!"
Yeah, Pinkerton really doesn't like the other people living in the city.
"I hear you're the only one who knows the truth about Rivet City's founding."
"Hah! Sounds like you've been poking around, all right. I'm surprised any of those reprobates even remember me. Maybe they still laugh about how they edged me out of the council, back then. But you can set the record straight!"
"Setting the record straight is exactly my goal."
It's all about telling him what he wants to hear.
"For that, you have to go all the way back to when remnants of the Naval Research Institute cleared the Mirelurks off the wreck about 40 years ago. We were looking for new lab-space, and this bucket of bolts just happened to have a well-preserved science bay on it. Everything else just grew up around that lab once we got it up and running. The science team was led by one "H. Pinkerton."
"So, you used to be in charge? How did you end up here?"
"That last until 'bout 18 years ago, when those ambitious backbiters like Li and her team little team showed up."
He really doesn't like Doctor Li. I don't blame him.
"She came in with her big "Purity Project" pipe dream, and my whole staff started working with her, those traitors! She even took my seat on the council. By then, I was glad to leave it behind. But hell if I'm leaving the city I made great!"
"Do you have any hard evidence of all this?"
"Of course I do! A good scientist always keeps track of their data! Here! They probably don't even remember, but I kept the records of that first council meeting. Take them, if it'll put them in their place!"
Alright, now we return to Moira. Alternatively, we could have just read his terminal to get the information but I was stupid at the time and forgot about it.
So, now we have one final major, marked sidequest for us to do. (We will not being doing Strictly Business for Karma reasons.) The "Wasteland Survival Guide" quest, we need to talk to Moira to get it. It's a long fucking quest, I only assume it's meant to be completed over the course of the game, and not all at once.
"Well, it's a dangerous place out there in the Wastes, right? People could really use a compilation of good advice. Like a Wasteland Survival Guide!"
Oh god, this is already tied with the Nuka-Cola sidequest for the hardest sidequest to justify in character. If you're in the middle of a quest that could save the wasteland, I don't think you're going to stop everything you're doing and help some person write a book.
"For that, I need an assistant to tset my theories. I wouldn't want anyone to get hurt because of a mistake. Nobody's ever happy when that happens."
Oh great, we get to be guinea pigs. Add it to our resume. Note that this is the third time we've been someones lab assistant. (I really should just do a resume mini-update at the end of the LP.)
"No... Then they just yell a lot. At me. With mean, mean words."
Moira is kind of annoying, but it's hard for me to stay mad at one of the few NPC's in this game that isn't a total asshole.
"Okay, I guess I'll help with this "Survival Guide".
"All right, then! Now, I think the first chapter will have to be about surviving day-to-day dangers."
Oh, so you mean super mutants, raiders, mirelurks, etc.?
"Things like where it is and isn't safe to find food, the dangers of radiation, and how to avoid and even profit from dangerous landmines."
Oh...
"Ooh, sounds like fun, doesn't it? Which do you want to do first?"
"What's this about radiation?"
"Well, that's what I need your help for, isn't it? I know lots about it from books, but I never seem to get a live example. Not for long, anyway."
That's encouraging.
"So I need you to get a bit of radiation poisoning so I can study its effects. Oh, not a deadly dose, of course - I can fix you up before that!"
"Okay, I'll get irradiated. Just be ready to fix me up when I get back."
We already have enough radiation, but we want way more than this to complete the optional objective for this particular part of the quest, because doing the optional objectives gives you better rewards.
"Oh, you're a peach! Or, at least, some sort of hardy fruit that grows in the savagely irradiated mockery of agriculture we have nowadays."
Argiculture? Where?
"Now, 200 rads should be enough for basic sickness, but if you can get 600 or more rads, my tests will be even more accurate."
Screw that, let's be extreme and go for 900+ rads. There isn't any bonus for that, but shut up!
"Just make sure you can get back here, and I'll see to it that you're well taken care of!"
Even though the bomb is diffused, this is our closest source of radiation. Let's take a bath in the water.
Of course, we can't get slowly irradiated in peace, because there is this guy rambling about the bomb being holy or something. Why is every single religious group in this game a crazy cult?
Damn it, we have to listen to all this guys crap while we're slowly waiting to get enough rads. He goes on for a really, really long time too without repeating.
We entertain a particular thought of Lily setting the guy on fire, but of course, we don't actually do it. But it's hard to resist. So. Annoying.
Then I realize we can just drink the water and get incredibly irradiated quickly. Too bad I didn't realize this earlier.
We keep drinking until we get as much rads as we can get before dying.
Oh I get it. Radiation puns.
"I'm about as irradiated as I can get without burning a hole in the floor."
"I can tell... You're positively glowing!"
Oh haha, more radiation puns...
Please heal us now...
"Now just hold on and try not to move. Tell me how it feels, and I'll get you fixed right up."
"Just do your examination and fix me up, please."
This is where we kind of screw up. We want to do all the skill/SPECIAL checks to get the best rewards in the quest, and I pick the wrong. Eventually I reload a save and go back through this part and the next part of the quest to fix that.
"You're a mighty lucky one, you know that? At this state, most people'd have trouble standing up, much less walking over here."
Well, we literally only had to walk feet away and come back.
"Now, let me take a few notes, and I'll handle that nasty radiation with a bit of my own home-made rad-cure concoction."
Oh god no, I'll chance the radiation poisoning. Do you have any rad-away?
"I've never had a chance to test it out on someone so heavily dosed, but I'm sure it'll work out fine. Exciting, isn't it?"
So Moira heals us. Apparently her concoction is composed of brahmin milk, a couple of magnets and some "happy thoughts".
Somehow, it works.
"Well, you're alive... That's the good news. But there was a little side effect. A teeny, tiny, um, mutation. But it seems to be benign, at least."
Is it an extra toe?!
""Here, take a few radiation Chems, as my little way of saying, "I'm sorry I twisted your DNA like a kitten with a ball of yarn.""
Fuck the Enclave, Moira is the real villain in this game.
"I'm ready to continue research on the first chapter."
There's three different sections to each chapter. There are three chapters. Hopefully not all of them will involve us horribly mutilating ourselves.
"Getting food doesn't sound so bad. What are you looking for?"
"Well, food and medicine. Everyone needs them once in a while, right? So they need a good place to find them!"
WHY DON'T THEY MAKE THEM THEMSELVES-
Oh, sorry. I just lost my sanity there for a second.
"There's an old Super-Duper Mart not far from here. I need to know if a place like that still has any food or medicine left in it."
Well... We took it all...
"I guess I can check the Super-Duper Mart again."
Once again, we make another screwup here. We can say we've already been there, but I didn't realize that this counts for the optional objective too. So pretend like this part of the conversation never happened.
I reloaded, and say that we've already been here. She responds accordingly.
"Really? You did? You did! Well, all right! Tell me all about it!"
"[Intelligence] The Raiders were using the pharmacy as a place to store their best gear."
Okay, so my question about the store having a mini-nuke in it has now been answered. I'll give you this one, Bethesda.
"So, you're saying that they acquired a well-protected stash? I wonder how many other places are hiding treasures behind monsters, hrm?"
That second sentence doesn't make sense in context...
"Well, keep what you got. Just traded for a big food shipment, myself. Here, take a bit, my treat - the taste kind of grates after a while."
We sell it right back to her for a meager profit.
"Oh, and take this! It's an old Food Sanitizer. Just carry it with you, and it should automatically make most food and drink more, um... better."
If you're noticing a pattern, it's that Moira is giving us a not negligible reward. At a high level, this quest is probably the most profitable in the entire game. It's also one of the longest too.
"Let's finish up the chapter with that landmine research."
I hope she doesn't want to study landmine wounds next...
"Landmines are one of the few dangers out there you can profit from."
Bullshit. Loot is a major aspect of this game, every bad guy with a gun you can profit from.
"I've heard stories about a ghost town that's just full of mines. Tradeers just call the place "Minefield"."
Minefield apparently only exists for this quest.
"Sounds like the place for some fieldwork! Get in there, get back, and tell me all about it. And could you bring back a mine for my studies?"
We sold her like 5 mines before coming in here...
"I'll head into Minefield. Wish me luck."
"Oh, don't worry. No one ever goes there because they say it's a ghost town. And since ghosts don't exist, you can just focus on the landmines."
I wouldn't be so sure about that. What about the Dunwich Building?
"I hear there's a playground in the middle of the town. Reach that point and come back, and I'm sure you'll have some stories to tell!"
That's rather arbitrary, but okay...
Our closest location to Minefield is the Scrapyard, at least it isn't too far away. Notice the sign on the left with the propaganda poster. That little shack on the right? That's where you go if you have the contract killer perk.
More Yao Guai. I'm pretty sure that the Deathclaws show up in random places on the map instead of Yao Guai once you pass a certain level, but I could be wrong.
It's not match for our flamer.
This Minefield. It's just a block of houses in the midle of nowhere. Before you ask, no there isn't a settlement here, for some strange reason. Why is it called Minefield?
That's why. The mines have a tendency to blow up nearby cars, resulting in a wave of nuclear explosions.
It doesn't help that there is a sniper in a building down the street taking potshots at you.
Oh crap, another flaming car.
Dogmeat can eat those bombs for breakfast. I've honestly never been able to kill Dogmeat before. The most damage he has taken during the entire LP was during the Head of State quest, our first encounter with a Ghoul Reaver and even then he hardly took much damage.
Our Energy Weapons skill is high enough that we can pretty much snipe with the laser pistol.
We get a crit and vaporize him.
The guy has some supplies set up here. I couldn't find his actual body to loot it, I can't seem to find that particular pile of ash.
And there's some ammo up here too. It's not like we need anymore ammo of course.
So now, we just walk over to the park and complete this particular section of the quest. Let's fast travel back.
"Because, you know, they're on the ground, like potatoes. And hot, because they, um, explode. Anyway, what's up?"
"I got through Minefield alive, and I even brought you a present."
"My very own landmine!"
You have like 10 in your inventory, lady.
"Just what I've always wanted. Well, always since I sent you out on this, anyway."
This is the 3rd sidequest where I feel like the quest giver has sent many other people out to their deaths before asking you. Moira just tries to make herself look innocent by looking utterly, utterly stupid.
"Now, tell me all about it. What was it like going through there? What's it like disarming a landmine?"
"[Agility] Fast hands and faster wits can get you an awful lot. Including landmines."
Skill checks are never a bad thing, but these aren't skill checks, they're SPECIAL checks. If you don't have a 7 in INT or CHA for this quest, you're fucked.
"That's a pretty good way of putting it. I think I'll use that in the book. Maybe I should credit you as a co-author, instead of just a researcher?"
Co-author eh? Add it to the list.
"I know you may not want to see any more explosives for a while, but obviously you know your way around them. Have a couple of rainy-day toys of mine. And looking at this landmine, it gives me an idea. It's a terrible device that does terrible things, of course. But it's easy to make your own, too."
You get a Bottlecap Mine schematic. Why would you use money to a make a mine, it never made sense to me. Is it the shrapnel? Couldn't you just use other various, non valuable pieces of metal. Regardless, this is a great reward. Schematics are usually rewards for completing quests entirely, and we're only 1/3rd of the way through. I got to admit, this quest really does give some great rewards for completing it, especially if you do the optional objectives.
"Does that finish out the first chapter?"
"It most certainly does. And if I keep writing in the style of some of your reports, this is going to be one mighty slick book!"
Of course if we lied or didn't do the optional objectives, things wouldn't be going so well.
"Here, for your services, I've saved up quite a few stimpaks. Of course, you may need them: we've still got two more chapters to go."
More stimpaks? Sure, we already have over 100 of them.
"I'm ready to start researching the next chapter."
"The second chapter's going to be a bit trickier, I think. It'll cover how to handle creatures out there, for better or worse."
So, are we going to fight the really threatning creatures this time? Super mutants, deathclaws?
"For example, replling Mole Rats, learning about Mirelurks, and when all else fails, how to handle being injured."
Oh...
"So, let's buckle down and get to work on this chapter. What first?"
"I'm going to hate myself for this, but what do you mean about handling injury"
"Well, I never get to study anyone who's severely injured. Not without them crying to be fixed right away or trying to bleed out and all that."
This is why people around here don't like you, Moira.
"But obviously, you can handle a lot of abuse, so if I'm ever going to find a good example of human anatomy and injury resistance, it'd be you."
So, in essence, we're a crash test dummy? Add it to the list.
"Next time you get badly injured, return here so I can examine you before I heal you up. I mean, you're going to get yourself hurt anyway, right?"
...Okay, I'll give her that.
"[Medicine] Why get myself hurt? I'm a good enough doctor to explain this part for you."
Thank christ, we have a speech check that lets us avoid having to have Moira try to stitch us up. Alternatively, we just throw ourselves over the railing outside Moira's store and drag up broken legs back to Moira.
"That'll save a lot of time and effort. Oh, and blood, on your part. A real-world example might help more, but I won't turn down the help! Oh, and here's your pay for it all. Guess you earned it by working smarter, not... um... more self-destructively."
"I'm ready for more research on the second chapter. What's this about studying Mirelurks?"
"Mirelurks are a big threat in some areas, and knowing more about them can help people learn to avoid, or even outsmart them. So I picked up this observer device to study them in their natural habitat."
You know, as stupid as she seems, Moira really is rather smart when it comes to stuff like this.
"I need you to hide it in one of the spawning pods in their lairs."
"All right, I'll try."
"That's great. I recommend the nest at the Anchorage War Memorial. I knew a trader who talked about Mirelurks down there. Just go inside and find one of their spawning pods, probably down near the water. Put this observer inside, and get out quietly."
Spoiler: It doesn't go quite as planned...
"And be sure not kill any Mirelurks inside their nest! If you do, it could ruin the validity of the study!"
We fast travel in front of Dukov's Place and find the same exact random encounter as we did before. A mind controlled deathclaw attacking it's handler.
There isn't only a deathclaw here of course.
There was a Tesla Armor trooper attacking us too. More power armor for us = more caps. It's not like we need more caps, by the end of this update we'll have about 10000 caps.
We can see the Anchorage Memorial statue from over here. That's not how the liberation of Anchorage went down. We can vouch for that.
So we can't kill the mirelurks if we want the best reward for this quest. Note that it doesn't matter if your companion kills the mirelurks, nor does it matter if you kill any mirelurks outside the place.
Let's use a stealth boy to get through this part. If you haven't noticed, I've been hoarding the things. In fact, I pretty much hoard all the medical supplies you can get in this game.
We try to avoid this mirelurk hunter, but Dogmeat makes it hard for us.
Fuck it, let's just run in, put the thing on the mirelurk eggs and get out.
Alright, good. Let's get the hell out of here.
We have to dodge every attack from the Mirelurks in here. Dogmeat pulls the aggro of like 6 of them.
We survive and make it outside.
"I slipped the observer in with the eggs, and they're none the wiser."
Erm, yeah. It's not like they chased us out or anything...
"I'll bet most people would have just gone in there, guns blazing, without half a thought. But not you! You're the best research assistant ever! I've been getting a good signal, but what do you think about them from your first-hand observations of them?"
"[Intelligence] They descended from local crabs. I'd call them "Scylla Serrata Horrendus."
We have enough strength and charisma to pass the other checks for some reason. I don't remember having a 7 (the minimum to pass these checks) Strength...
"That's very scientific of you! Personally, I wasn't sure if they were crabs or if they came from some sort of brine shrimp, perhaps. Some of these observations about their armor and camouflage gave me an idea for reinforced, neutral-colored headgear. Here, consider it thanks for not interfering with them. Oh, speaking of which, take these. So you can continue to avoid them in the future."
6 stealth boys from that. 6.
"The last task for this chapter is something about Mole Rats, right?"
"Mole Rats can burrow into almost anything and cause a lot of trouble."
Really? They're about as strong as radroaches...
"So I figured I'd make a chemical repellent stick for people to shoo them off. But I need it to be tested before I put the recipe to paper in the guide. So I need you to find some Mole Rats and test it out a bit."
"I'll test out the Repellent for you."
"It'll be easy. One tap with the applicator, and it overwhelms their senses with a sort of "feel-bad" sensation. Then they're gone before you know it! You could test it out on just a few Mole Ratties, but for real testing, try it on ten or more. There should be plenty in the Tepid Sewers, downtown."
What a creative name for a sewer level...
The Tepid Sewers is literrally a few feet away from the Anchorage Memorial. It's time to go in and beat some mole rats with a stick.
Using the repellent stick causes their heads to explode...
There is also some raiders down here. The repellent stick isn't quite as effective on him, I'm afraid.
We still need to kill 2 more mole rats, and there's none to be found here.
We take the wrong turn and end up in the raider infested part of the sewers, which also apparently happens to be part of the metro. Let's turn back.
That's a bit of a problem. Where are we going to reliably find two mole rats to kill?
Back in Megaton of course. Behind the city there is a ton of mole rat spawns.
And now we're done. Back to Moira.
"I tested the Mole Rat repellent extensively."
"Oh, excellent! Substantial field-testing, precise reports, and such dedication! What more could I ask for in a research assistant? So, how did my chemical repellent work? Safe and clean like a charm, I'll bet!"
Well, no. Unless cleaning up bits of mole rat brain off your shoes is your idea of clean.
"[Intelligence] It appears that Mole Rats have a most fatal allergy to it. Explosively so."
"Those poor little Mole Ratties! I wonder if I could make a hypoallergenic version? Oh, but that'd hardly be effective. I should mention that. Proper handling of Mole Rats could be important if they could be domesticated. Milked, maybe?"
Ew.
"Anyway, keep the repellent. Oh, but for you trouble, umm... Here, have the leftover chems from working on the repellent. I'm sure you can find some use for them."
"I suspect this completes the second chapter's research, correct?"
"Correct, as always! And your feedback's really led to a very smartly written book. Maybe too smart for some folks, I worry."
Well, if Moira can read it, I'm sure it's fine.
"Of course, if the reader can't be bothered to understand something important as a book on how to stay alive, then what can we do, huh? And in case those readers blame you for their ignorance, here's your payment: two big boxes of ammo. Now, on to the next chapter!"
You get 500 rounds 5mm ammo. Yeah.
"I'm ready to start researching the last chapter."
"The last chapter's a bit more esoteric. It's about the survival of humanity as a whole, and how to rebuild society. Deep stuff, huh?"
Riggght.
"We need to know how large settlements are formed, how to harness the old technology, and I'll need you to get ancient history from a nearby library."
I know how large settlements are formed in Fallout 3. "Oh look, that looks like an odd and inconvenient place, but wouldn't it be cool if someone built a city on it?. LET'S BUILD THERE!"
"We're in the last stretch, now, so let's finish it up strong! What first?"
"Researching local history sounds easy."
"Don't be so sure. You'd be surprised how confused people get, even about important things."
Didn't we already learn the history of Megaton from Simms-
"In this case, I'm talking about Rivet City. It's the most successful survivor settlement around, but no one here really knows how it started. Of course, that's why it's important to know how a plce like that succeeded. So I need you to go there and some researching!"
Why not? It's the least possible lethal thing we can do in this sidequest.
"Sounds reasonable. I'll research Rivet City's history."
"Oh, now I can't wait for what you find out down there! And check around to make sure you're hearing the real deal!"
Back in Rivet City. Again. You know, the sidequests at least make good use of the games major locations.
We want to find out more about Rivet City, so let's talk to Pinkerton.
For some stupid reason, we have to arbitrarily talk to some random NPC in the Muddy Rudder before talking to Pinkerton. Awesome.
You're not aspiring to do much if you name your bar the Muddy Rudder.
"I'll tell you what I tell all the fresh meat. Don't start anything down here or I'll have Brock kick your ass."
"Nice place you have here."
"You must be drunk. Are you going to order or what?"
"Have any stories about this place's history?"
"History? What, not enough shit around here already, you need to dig up more? Don't know if it ever had an official start. It's just been here forever, stuck in the river and full of assholes."
"[Speech, 100%] I bet someone like you hears lots of stories. Can't you share one?"
"[SUCCESS] No, I can't fucking well share one! What sort of moron are you?"
What? Did we fail that check or something-
"But, fine, if it'll get you out of my face: go down to Pinkerton's shed in the broken-off bow of the ship."
Oh, I see. Well, let's backtrack all the way back.
"If he decides to give you a history lesson, it's no business of mine. Now get the hell out of my bar."
"Tell me about the city's history."
"What? I have better things to do than yak about those back-stabbers up topside. Now get going!"
Yeah, Pinkerton really doesn't like the other people living in the city.
"I hear you're the only one who knows the truth about Rivet City's founding."
"Hah! Sounds like you've been poking around, all right. I'm surprised any of those reprobates even remember me. Maybe they still laugh about how they edged me out of the council, back then. But you can set the record straight!"
"Setting the record straight is exactly my goal."
It's all about telling him what he wants to hear.
"For that, you have to go all the way back to when remnants of the Naval Research Institute cleared the Mirelurks off the wreck about 40 years ago. We were looking for new lab-space, and this bucket of bolts just happened to have a well-preserved science bay on it. Everything else just grew up around that lab once we got it up and running. The science team was led by one "H. Pinkerton."
"So, you used to be in charge? How did you end up here?"
"That last until 'bout 18 years ago, when those ambitious backbiters like Li and her team little team showed up."
He really doesn't like Doctor Li. I don't blame him.
"She came in with her big "Purity Project" pipe dream, and my whole staff started working with her, those traitors! She even took my seat on the council. By then, I was glad to leave it behind. But hell if I'm leaving the city I made great!"
"Do you have any hard evidence of all this?"
"Of course I do! A good scientist always keeps track of their data! Here! They probably don't even remember, but I kept the records of that first council meeting. Take them, if it'll put them in their place!"
Alright, now we return to Moira. Alternatively, we could have just read his terminal to get the information but I was stupid at the time and forgot about it.
[HEADING=2]Will Moira's Book Ever Be Created? Scroll Down a Bit to Find Out![/HEADING]
[HEADING=2]The Thrilling Conclusion![/HEADING]
"After a lot of searching, I've got the real history of Rivet City."
Not a whole lot of searching.
"A-ha! Not just as easy as asking around, was it? Good information takes real work to uncover, after all. So, tell me all about it!"
"[Intelligence] It began as a research station, which is why it's still a scientific haven."
Haven is kind of pushing it. It ain't no Big MT.
"Hrm. With the protected location and resources that came from those scientific advances, I can definitely see how it grew so quickly! A bit of smarts leads to a big reward, huh? Speaking of which, in thanks, have a few of these for the next time you've got to be quick on your wits."
More drugs for us...
"Oh, and I'll let the Rivet City traders know they'll be favorably mentioned in the book. You'll get a discount buying gear from them in the future."
That's another useful reward. Where was this kind of stuff during the Nuka Cola Challenge?
"I'm ready to continue research on the last chapter."
"I've got to do a section on working wtih old computer electronics, so there's some research to be done in the old RobCo Production facility."
"I could check the library. Maybe someone's already written a book like yours."
"Oh, that'd sure save me a lot fo time. But I bet their book wouldn't have anything about exploding Mole Rats, would it? Books are where the old world kept its knowledge, and libraries aer where it kept the books. And there's supposed to be one in Arlington. See if it's still there, and if you can download records from its computer. Information dumps like those would be invaluable for rebuilding humanity!"
And nobody tried to this before?
"Okay, I'll check out my local library."
"Great! The library should be in old Arlington, not far from downtown. See if you can download the artchives from its computer. If you can't get those, then even the card catalog would be useful. Any little piece of information could help the book. And thus, humanity!"
This is the Arlington Library.
Oh great, just what we need.
"Whoa, calm down. I was just exploring this area."
"You're awfully brave to be walking around down here by yourself. Are you scavenging the ruins?"
"I'm searching for records from the library."
"It seems that we have similar goals in mind. It's rare to meet someone who has proper priorities."
Okay, so at least the Broterhood realize the benefits that finding the archive could have. You would think that they would have done this earlier though...
"I am Senior Scribe Yearling. Order of the Word. I have a proposal for you if you are interested."
"I'm interested in this. Tell me more."
"Good. My task here is to collect the written works of those who came before in order to supplement the Brotherhood Archives at the Citadel. Although most of the pre-war books have been destroyed, there are a few that have survived. But finding a book in these ruins is... difficult. I could have a million initiates to comb the ruins, and I'd still never come close to recovering every book that remains undamaged."
"And you want me to help you gather books, right?"
"Precisely. The collected knowledge of a lost age is worth far more than any weapon. So, return here with any books that you find in good condition. I will compensate you for every volume that you bring me. Think on it, and return when you have books to offer me."
This is an incredibly good way of getting caps. You get about 100 caps per Pre-War book, in the library alone you can find about 11 of those books, so it's an easy 1100 caps. The Brotherhood gives you a ton of easy money for collection quest, they give 100 caps and 25xp per each Brotherhood holotag, but you have to kill Brotherhood soldiers to get them effectively.
We sell her all our Pre-War books and continue further into the library.
We already got the first thing we need, but it's going to take a bit more work to get the optional objective.
So the Brotherhood soldiers slowly progress through the library, and gun down all the raiders. Due to their power armor, you'd think they would be able to take a lot of damage.
But we have to kill the raiders before they kill the paladins. They suck.
The next serious of screenshots shows off just how overpowered Grim Reaper's Sprint is.
That's an entire room of guys cleared out instantly.
Pfft, they were waiting down there for us to finish wiping these guys out. Even though they can't take much damage at all, the Brotherhood soldiers are at least competent at shooting guys.
Now we're going through a school area for some reason? There's classrooms and lockers here, but we're inside a library...? I don't know.
The Kneecapper really does kick some ass, and I always thought the sawed-off shotgun in this game was pretty fun to use, but kind of sucked.
Turns out the Paladins that accompanied us through this hallway died. Oh well, they have decent loot on them, and we can sell off their holotags later.
We went the completely wrong way. Whoops.
Okay, we check out another hallway and it has more Brotherhood guys in it. Let's help them fight their way to the Archives.
There's some really annoying turrets in this room.
The library is pretty much falling apart as you can see.
Another little raider "base" in one of these rooms. It seems like the raiders were making their last stand here. Why were they in the library in the first place.
Dogmeat gets a little toasty, but doesn't seem to mind being on fire.
We find the Archives and leave. Not before stopping by the Scribe and selling the extra Pre-War books we found.
You probably can't see it in this screenshot, but there is vaguely glowing specks across the street by that building over there. Wonder what they are?
Well, most of the books are charred and unreadable, and we sold all the readable books to the Brotherhood...
"The library's still standing, and I've got the archives right here."
"Really? A whole library's worth of data, right there? That's great news! So, what did you find? Tell me about it!"
"[Intelligence] This is an entire library's archives. You know how valuable that is, right?"
"I suspect you and I are two of the only people who really appreciate its value, yes! Oh my goodness, when I'm done with this, I'll have to work on copying all of this information. It could take a while, you know."
Nope, not helping you with that.
"Oh, but here's a book of mine and some caps for your research. Think of it as pay for a civilization worth of overdue books."
We get 450 caps and a speech skillbook...
"The last subject is old technology, right? Sounds interesting."
"It does, doesn't it? I mostly just deal with it after it's junked. But a trader gave me this bit of electronics from the RobCo factory. If there's a way to reactivate and control the robots there, it'd make for a good example of harnessing the past's technology for the book!"
"Just go in and conenct the widget to the mainframe? I can do that."
"Yeah, you should just be able to plug it into the mainframe at the RobCo production facility. It'll give you access to robots and terminals. Okay, here. And be sure to keep an eye peeled for any other examples of how to make old technology work for you out there!"
Oh man, the optional objective in this sidequest is going to be "fun" for us.
You see, we need 50 science to hack the terminal and get the optional objective for this quest. We don't have enough science, so we're screwed. So guess what we have to do?
Grind. We're just about to level here, and remember those blue specks we saw outside the Arlington Library, those were Tesla Armored Enclave Soldiers. So, let's fight them and hope we level up, I guess.
More Grim Reaper's Sprint brokenness.
Three guys in a row, all in full power armor, get taken down pretty much simultaneously by us.
So now what? We still don't have quite enough XP to level up and all the Enclave guys are dead. Where is a place where we know that we can find a bunch of guys to fight-
The Mall.
It's surprisingly bereft of enemies.
Eventually we find a small group of super mutants.
But it's still not enough...
Let's just continue towards the Capitol Building...
A ton of Talon Mercs show up out of nowhere. And they all start shooting at us.
Eventually, we finish them all off and level up. Finally!
Alright, we have just enough science to do the optional objective of the quest. We've almost capped medicine.
Silent Running, because why not? Alright, now let's finally go to the RobCo Factory. We're almost done with this quest.
At first, all you fight in here is radroaches. This factory really isn't an interesting location, it's just endless radroaches without much say about it. Let's just skip ahead to the interesting part.
We activate this computer and...
The robots come alive and attack us. And they hurt. We make it outside the building without much trouble though. The robots were supposed to help us, not hurt us after hacking the terminal. Weird.
"I reactivated the robots and was able to modify their programming."
"Harnessing the technology of the past and modifying it for your own purposes? That's just the thing! Tell me all about how it worked out!"
"[Intellignce] Even after reprogramming, the robots were of questionable value as allies."
By questionable value, I mean they shot at us.
"Well, they're only human. Err, well, made by humans. Well, probably manufactured by other robots, but you know where I'm going with this. Seems like a good thing to watch for when dealing with tech of any age. And it helps to pack a few pulse grenades, just in case. Here, have a few."
We sell her the pulse grenades right back. They aren't really useful, and it doesn't even have the disable power armor effect that it does in New Vegas, which would have been really useful against the Enclave.
"Oh, and take my book on science - for some reason. I just can't get into the computer parts, but I've got the rest pretty much memorized."
You could have given that to us earlier, so we didn't have to waste an extra 2 points on science!
"And now my research for your book is completed. Isn't it?"
"Yes, that concludes our exceptional expert endeavor!"
Our? You were the one who risked their life 8 times for your stupid book.
"I have to admit, I was worried it would go over some peoples' heads, but it should be fine. For all your hard work, I want you to have this Mini Nuke. I kept meaning to use it to dig a well, but honestly, it just makes me nervous."
So, our last reward is a mini-nuke. Meh.
"Now, I just need to do a few last tweaks and it'll be ready to print and distribute! Thanks for all the help!"
If you look in the GECK files, it was originally planned for you to print the survival guide by going to the Hubris Comics building. Thankfully, they decided not to drag out this already extremely long quest even longer.
"Let me guess. You need me to go print and distribute it, right?"
"So cynical! No, no. I can take care of all that with a few traders I know. What makes you think I'd force you to handle something so dangerous?"
...
"Now, you should just lie back and bask in the praise for helping with the book!"
"It certainly was an epic piece of work. So, is the final product worth it?"
"Oh my... it's brilliant! Even I'm astounded by my genius! No, it's more than that. By OUR genius!"
Thanks for the distinction.
"I'll share these with the traders, and soon, everyone will know about the Wasteland Survival Guide!"
She isn't kidding, you can find Wasteland Survival Guides in the Mojave desert. I really doubt they have anything to do with each other.
"But now, the very first copy of our book goes to you. It wouldn't be nearly as good without your input. You're the real Wasteland survival guru!"
So, that's the other reward for completing the quest. You get a perk, depending on how many optional objectives you did and what options you choose. We choose the INT/CHA options, so we get a pointless boost 6 point boost in medicine and science. You also get some rad resistance from the perk too. The way it decides your perk is kind of vague. [http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Survival_Expert]
There's another way to complete this quest. At any point in the quest, you can convince Moira that making the book is a bad idea through a speech check. Moira then gives up on making the book and you get the Dream Crusher perk. The Dream Crusher perk reduces any chance that an enemy would land a critical hit on you by 50%. Moira also gets a way higher repair skill and you get 30% discount. It's a pretty good reward honestly, but for the sake of the LP and to stay in character, of course we'll help Moira.
So, that's it for the sidequests in Fallout 3. Some of them were interesting and fun, some of them were stupid and others were just really pointless. One very obvious difference is that some of the sidequests actually have a decent amount of choice, unlike the main storyline of the game, which has none...
I just realized something: I can't put off Lamplight anymore. *sob*
I honestly like this quest, it takes you to some interesting locations and it isn't just all about shooting endless waves of enemies. It goes on for a bit too long though, but I assume that this is really meant to be played over the course of the entire game.
Still, a major downside is that it's an entire quset about Moira. So if you hate Moira, this quest will probably make you want to snap the disk in half.
Sorry about the split into two thing. I didn't even realize this was a limit to the length of comments on this forum. This was probably the biggest update I've made so far.
I can't remember which one I got. I think I got one that gave me a bonus to Speech, if one like that exists. I don't know.AlternatePFG said:
I did it rather early on though. I still had enough to get it done "correctly"
Oh, and the Wasteland Surival Guide [http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Wasteland_Survival_Guide_(Fallout:_New_Vegas)] in New Vegas IS the one writen by the Lone Wanderer and Moria Brown.
Also, according to the wiki [http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Moira_Brown], she has an Int of 7. HOW DOES THAT WORK?
I just can't think of a darn thing to say. I guess the quest was cool, but some early on players might have gotten confused and thought it should all be done at once, leading to some frustration. I personally didn't do it until I was like halfway through the game. Man, I just can't really think of anything smart or relevant to say. And for some reason I am getting a deejay-vu feeling.