The dreaded infinite loading screens. NVSE + NVAC should fix these. They won't help if you alt-tab out while loading which causes a different kind of hang, one that NVAC doesn't catch.

Also, increase iPreloadSizeLimit to 52428800 in your Fallout.ini.

>Also, it had been just long enough since I played Fallout 3
>that I forgot how agonizingly long the tutorial level is.
>That's like half an hour before you even get out of the Vault.

Yeah. It's the reason for making a "master" save with minimal or no mods/plugins just before the door.

(Also that Dogmeat keeps getting teleported back to DC every time I hit a no-companions-allowed area. I can bring him back with the console, but it breaks the 4th wall a little. Wish there was some mechanism for resetting his home base fallback, like there is for household members in Skyrim.)

It's a shame I didn't think of conflating the two FP Fallout games when I did the Mojave Interlude of Desolation Angel. I mean, Azula and Dogmeat, come on, what a team-up. Though she'd presumably have given him a more dignified name.*

(Also, in hindsight, why wasn't Muggy the robot delivering Katara's coffee?)

--G.
* "He's clever, resilient, rather handsome, and occasionally quite inCREDibly irritating. Naturally I called him Sokka."
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

I'm not sure that Fawkes would fit on the Phoenix Queen. Plus Raul might have something to say about sharing space with another super mutant.

>(Also, in hindsight, why wasn't Muggy the robot delivering Katara's
>coffee?)

"Your little...friend seems to be obsessed with coffee mugs."
"If you think that's weird, you should have a chat with the toaster."

--------------------------
CdrMike, Overwatch Reject

Well, we know from Fisto's example that she knows how to program Mojavian robots, and if anybody can sympathize with a single-purpose creation whose only function has been made superfluous by the vicissitudes of history...

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

To say nothing of the pettiness of brains in jars....

Ebony the Black Dragon

"Life is like an anole. Sometimes it's green. Sometimes it's brown. But it's always a small Caribbean lizard."

--------

this world created by the
hands of the gods
everything is false
everything is a LIE
the final days have come
now
let everything be destroyed

--mu

The former, although there are a number of fire-based weapons. The noble Firelance, for example, and Gehenna.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Ah, alas, I so wanted to actually have powers. XD But yes indeed, those are fine substitutes.

>
>--G.
>-><-
>Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
>Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
>zgryphon at that email service Google has
>Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

--------

this world created by the
hands of the gods
everything is false
everything is a LIE
the final days have come
now
let everything be destroyed

--mu

There might be such a mod out there, there are a million-zillion Fallout 3/NV mods. I don't tend to use many, though - the dang game is unstable enough without loading a bunch of stuff designed by who-even-knows-who after the fact - so if there are, I'm not aware of them, is all. :)

I suppose such a thing would probably take the form of an invisible weapon that uses the Unarmed animations and shoots Incinerator or Firelance blasts. No idea how feasible that would be to implement, since I have no experience of the modding tools available.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

I do that until I find the little shop just outside Tenpenny Tower and find the Lucky Shades, then top them off with the Shady hat after helping Moira.

>I always save Megaton.

I've never been able to bring myself to blow up Megaton. But I have allowed ghouls to overrun Tenpenny Tower. It was a surprise to me the first time I completed that quest in what I thought was the peaceful manner, then came back days later to find the original guests gone and Tenpenny dead in his tub. Whoops.

>I always help produce the
>snarkiest but most informative possible version of The Wasteland
>Survival Guide.

"It's like explosive whack-a-mole rat. Can I get it in bullet form? For people?"

>I always stash my extra weapons in the locker
>right next to the workbench, but clothes go in the one over in the
>corner, and extra chems go in the file cabinet upstairs.

I was with you up to the chems part. Those end up in the fridge, along with the food items. File cabinet's for miscellaneous items, like the thousand and one cherry bombs I seem to always end up with.

>(There are
>always a lot of extra chems, since the only ones I ever seem to use
>are strategically placed Mentats and the very occasional emergency
>tactical hit of Jet. I'm really only picking up Psycho for its resale
>value, which admittedly does probably make me an indirect drug pusher,
>but hey, it's none of my business what Crazy Wolfgang does with the
>stuff.)

Funny, with me it's usually the opposite, selling off the Jet while keeping the Psycho. Especially in New Vegas, when you can mix it and Med-X with a bit of Banana yucca to get Slasher.

>I did this long before I ever
>encountered Azula as a character, because I thought it was funny, but
>in her case it becomes strangely fitting - even a bit poignant. :)

Plus, considering the probable age of that mattress, it probably makes sleeping a bit more comfortable.

--------------------------
CdrMike, Overwatch Reject

1. Old World Blues
2. Honest Hearts
3. Lonesome Road
4. Dead Money

Dead Money had an interesting story, and I enjoyed the characters (except Elijah), but I hated the environment and the whole "survival horror" schtick of stripping me of all my gear and making me live off the land. And in the second playthrough, I sort of broke the Aesop lesson by exploiting the game engine's limitations to steal all the gold bars. And the little quasi-replicator you get access to after the DLC ends seriously breaks the game's mechanics. All in all, I was unimpressed. Still, it did provide one of my favorite lines from the DLCs:

"Get up without my permission, I'll blast your ass so far through your head, it'll turn the moon cherry pie red."

I agree with you about Honest Hearts, the scenery is absolutely stunning and I loved exploring it. But the story left a bit to be desired, even if I think Joshua Graham absolutely ran away with the whole thing. I actually found a bit more satisfaction in hunting down the bits of the story about "The Father in the Caves." And finding myself thinking that the whole spirit quest business felt too much like another round through the swamps of Point Lookout, though this time I didn't get a free lobotomy. Now if only there was an option to toss Daniel to the Cazadores...

And Lonesome Road still strikes me, years after I first played it, as way too damned preachy for my tastes. Especially if you do like I did and played it on more than one playthrough, going for different game endings. There's four different flavors of being preached at. Still, the gear is nice and it's good to have some resolution to the whole build-up in the previous DLCs. I just kinda wish the ending had lived up to the hype.

--------------------------
CdrMike, Overwatch Reject

Did you kill Dean? I killed the fuck out of Dean. :)

>And in the second playthrough, I sort of broke the
>Aesop lesson by exploiting the game engine's limitations to steal all
>the gold bars.

Heh, I did that too - not out of monetary greed, as such, I didn't need the caps. I just wanted to have a heap of gold bars in my suite at the Lucky 38. It seemed appropriate. :)

>I agree with you about Honest Hearts, the scenery is absolutely
>stunning and I loved exploring it. But the story left a bit to be
>desired, even if I think Joshua Graham absolutely ran away with the
>whole thing.

Literally, if you picked the "wipe out the White Legs" ending. "This is taking too long, I'm fucking off to the cutscene. See you there." :)

>I actually found a bit more satisfaction in hunting down
>the bits of the story about "The Father in the Caves."

Yeah, the Survivalist's story was genuinely touching, doubly so because it isn't even voiced. It kind of reminded me of the way the text-based storytelling in the Marathon games worked.

>And finding
>myself thinking that the whole spirit quest business felt too much
>like another round through the swamps of Point Lookout, though
>this time I didn't get a free lobotomy.

Well, and it was shorter. The Point Lookout spirit quest did tend to drag on. I know I was just complaining that Honest Hearts was a bit too tightly paced, but hey. (Besides, at least the Sorrows one isn't actually mandatory.)

Speaking of which, it occurred to me when I got to the start of the New Vegas part of my current re-play (through Tale of Two Wastelands) that, man, if you do that, and take it that the Courier is the Lone Wanderer from Vault 101, your brain takes a beating in the course of those adventures. You get a piece of your brain pulled out in Point Lookout, Benny shoots you in the head in the opening cutscene of New Vegas, the Think Tanks rip it out altogether in Old World Blues and you gotta go convince it to rejoin the Hair Club for Couriers... between that and all the psi blasts from Robobrains and Lakelurks, getting knocked unconscious in half a dozen cutscenes, and so on, it's a wonder you can even walk, let alone maintain a 10 INT and outsmart every single other bastard in two Wastelands. :)

(Azula still has the bit Tobar took out in a jar in the Phoenix Queen's sickbay someplace. Every now and then someone will be looking in the cabinet and find it, floating there in its jar with a cheerfully Sharpied label on the outside reading MOSTLY INHIBITIONS, APPARENTLY! :)

>Now if only there was an option to toss Daniel to the Cazadores...

Man, fucking cazadores. I let the Think Tank live, but some days, I could go back to the Big MT and just kill Borous. If only that wouldn't aggro the others. :)

(I can't kill Dr. 8. He's my buddy. :)

>And Lonesome Road still strikes me, years after I first played
>it, as way too damned preachy for my tastes.

Yeah, that does seem to kind of be Ulysses's thing. Although I give them points for making it clear that he named himself after the Civil War general and not the hero of the Odyssey. The latter would've been the obvious reference. :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

No, apparently I missed out on that because my barter wasn't high enough at the time for the skill check. Besides, Dean's a cool guy, and I enjoyed having him along. He was the only source of witty banter in the whole DLC.

>Heh, I did that too - not out of monetary greed, as such, I didn't
>need the caps. I just wanted to have a heap of gold bars in my suite
>at the Lucky 38. It seemed appropriate. :)

I didn't really do it for greed either. I just saw the game trying to teach me a lesson by saying I couldn't take it all with me and declared "Challenge accepted!"

>Literally, if you picked the "wipe out the White Legs" ending. "This
>is taking too long, I'm fucking off to the cutscene. See you there."
>:)

It sort of seems disappointing that you only have him as a companion for the final quest, and only for half of it.

>Yeah, the Survivalist's story was genuinely touching, doubly so
>because it isn't even voiced. It kind of reminded me of the way the
>text-based storytelling in the Marathon games worked.

Yeah, it was nice how they could work so well to give you this moving story solely through text. Compared to the main story of the DLC, it was a nice little touch.

>Well, and it was shorter. The Point Lookout spirit quest did
>tend to drag on. I know I was just complaining that Honest
>Hearts was a bit too tightly paced, but hey. (Besides, at
>least the Sorrows one isn't actually mandatory.)

And particularly funny if you have the Wild Wasteland trait. The quest's description? "Take some drugs, kill a bear."

>Speaking of which, it occurred to me when I got to the start of the
>New Vegas part of my current re-play (through Tale of Two
>Wastelands) that, man, if you do that, and take it that the
>Courier is the Lone Wanderer from Vault 101, your brain takes a
>beating in the course of those adventures. You get a piece of
>your brain pulled out in Point Lookout, Benny shoots you in the
>head in the opening cutscene of New Vegas, the Think Tanks
>rip it out altogether in Old World Blues and you gotta
>go convince it to rejoin the Hair Club for Couriers... between that
>and all the psi blasts from Robobrains and Lakelurks, getting knocked
>unconscious in half a dozen cutscenes, and so on, it's a wonder you
>can even walk, let alone maintain a 10 INT and outsmart every
>single other bastard in two Wastelands. :)

Chalk it up to the weird DNA rewrite you get during The Wasteland Survival Guide quest. Considering how many rads I take in both games, I'm probably halfway to ghoul by now anyway.

>(Azula still has the bit Tobar took out in a jar in the Phoenix
>Queen's sickbay someplace. Every now and then someone will be
>looking in the cabinet and find it, floating there in its jar with a
>cheerfully Sharpied label on the outside reading MOSTLY
>INHIBITIONS, APPARENTLY! :)

This is the opportunity for Sokka/Ty Lee to pull a Pepper ala Iron Man and put a placard on the jar saying "Proof Azula Has A Brain."

>Man, fucking cazadores. I let the Think Tank live, but some days, I
>could go back to the Big MT and just kill Borous. If only that
>wouldn't aggro the others. :)

Right there with ya.

>(I can't kill Dr. 8. He's my buddy. :)

Him and Dr. 0/Zero are my favorites. And I admit liking the latter almost entirely because it's basically James Urbaniak playing Dr. Rusty Venture in a Fallout game.

>Yeah, that does seem to kind of be Ulysses's thing. Although I give
>them points for making it clear that he named himself after the Civil
>War general and not the hero of the Odyssey. The latter
>would've been the obvious reference. :)

True. I have no real problem with Ulysses as a character, especially after finding the recordings detailing his past. And while the long bits of exposition began to grate, it was at least nice to have a bit of a discussion of the pros and cons of the various factions. That and learning ED-E's story made the DLC at least tolerable.

--------------------------
CdrMike, Overwatch Reject

True, although that's not a really high bar - I mean, Dog-and-God both have utterly tedious incidental dialogue (sure, God, go ahead and wear my Pip-Boy around your neck, and while you're doing that, I'll drink homemade Nuka-Cola out of your empty skull) and Christine kind of... can't talk. It's a small sample size, is all I'm saying. Anyway, by the time we got to that scene I'd already concluded that he kinda needed killin', so when I ended up with no options to avoid it in the dialogue tree I wasn't really that upset. :)

As an aside, I like the moments around the game where a smart/perceptive enough PC can have cheerfully one-sided conversations with characters who don't speak, à la those moments in Star Wars when people talk with Chewbacca or R2-D2. Dr. 8, ED-E, and Christine are the most obvious examples. Fun times.

>It sort of seems disappointing that you only have [Joshua] as a companion
>for the final quest, and only for half of it.

I'm still amused by the memory of the moment where I realized that he didn't have an "NPC holding gun wrong" animation glitch, he was just fixin' to pistol-whip a bitch. That dude has issues. :)

>And particularly funny if you have the Wild Wasteland trait. The
>quest's description? "Take some drugs, kill a bear."

Ah, Wild Wasteland. Why would anyone play without it? :)

I like how straightforward picking up that quest is, actually. "Hey, I like your bear glove. Where can I get one?" I was expecting to be told it was like making a Deathclaw Gauntlet - go find a Medical Brace and some Duct Tape, get thee to a workbench. "Take drugs! Kill bear!" was much funnier. :)

>>between that
>>and all the psi blasts from Robobrains and Lakelurks, getting knocked
>>unconscious in half a dozen cutscenes, and so on, it's a wonder you
>>can even walk, let alone maintain a 10 INT and outsmart every
>>single other bastard in two Wastelands. :)
>
>Chalk it up to the weird DNA rewrite you get during The Wasteland
>Survival Guide quest.

Heh, there's that. Still, it's like that website I saw once that added up every time Hal Jordan got punched out in the Silver Age Green Lantern comics, then concluded that he probably turned into a villain in the '80s because of that multiple-concussion-induced rage syndrome boxers and football players get. :)

>Considering how many rads I take in both games,
>I'm probably halfway to ghoul by now anyway.

Hey, as long as RadAway still works, you're still good. :)

Also, as an aside, I've never gotten around to showing it, but I assume that after the Ragnarök, Raul Tejada took advantage of some Medical Science and got his face back. Maybe something akin to a perfected version of that fleshmask system from Darkman. "I wasn't always this handsome, boss." :)

>>(Azula still has the bit Tobar took out in a jar in the Phoenix
>>Queen's sickbay someplace. Every now and then someone will be
>>looking in the cabinet and find it, floating there in its jar with a
>>cheerfully Sharpied label on the outside reading MOSTLY
>>INHIBITIONS, APPARENTLY! :)
>
>This is the opportunity for Sokka/Ty Lee to pull a Pepper ala Iron
>Man and put a placard on the jar saying "Proof Azula Has A Brain."

In fairness, the "inhibitions" label might be in Ty Lee's handwriting. :)

Oh - while I'm reminiscing about DLCs, I should mention my favorite accidentally poignant moment. That bit at the beginning of Dead Money where you get clobbered and they take away all your stuff really annoys me, but it did have one redeeming feature, in that when it happened, I was wearing the Stealth Suit Mk II from Old World Blues. So picture the scene: Azula walks into the bunker, she approaches the radio - POW - the screen goes all fuzzy, she falls to her knees, the floor beckons...

... and just in that instant between everything going black and the loading screen appearing, the Stealth Suit asks plaintively,

"... did I do something wrong?"

Poor Stealth Suit.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

I don't know, he sort of grew on me as the DLC went on. I recommend taking a second to look up the "good" ending for the DLC just to hear his story had you left him alive.

>As an aside, I like the moments around the game where a
>smart/perceptive enough PC can have cheerfully one-sided conversations
>with characters who don't speak, à la those moments in Star
>Wars when people talk with Chewbacca or R2-D2. Dr. 8, ED-E, and
>Christine are the most obvious examples. Fun times.

Yeah, I really do like Christine as a character, especially if your skills are such that you can pick up what she's saying. Plus you get a perk for it, however useless it might end up being by DLC's end.

>I'm still amused by the memory of the moment where I realized that he
>didn't have an "NPC holding gun wrong" animation glitch, he was
>just fixin' to pistol-whip a bitch. That dude has issues. :)

Believe it or not, it's actually a weapon, called "Joshua's Pistol Whippin' .45" in the GECK.

Some part of me likes to imagine that, when Azula made her trek through Zion, she spared at least a little time for a discussion with Joshua about falls from grace and redemption.

>Ah, Wild Wasteland. Why would anyone play without it? :)

One of the unintentionally funny moments of Dead Money is when I'm venturing by my lonesome to the bell tower, and encounter the words "I AM NOT YOUR MUMMY!" scrawled on a pillar.

>I like how straightforward picking up that quest is, actually. "Hey,
>I like your bear glove. Where can I get one?" I was expecting to be
>told it was like making a Deathclaw Gauntlet - go find a Medical Brace
>and some Duct Tape, get thee to a workbench. "Take drugs! Kill
>bear!" was much funnier. :)

And much more convenient. Give bear paw, get gauntlet.

>Heh, there's that. Still, it's like that website I saw once that
>added up every time Hal Jordan got punched out in the Silver Age
>Green Lantern comics, then concluded that he probably turned
>into a villain in the '80s because of that multiple-concussion-induced
>rage syndrome boxers and football players get. :)

Maybe that explains why I ordered General Oliver thrown off Hoover Dam...

>Hey, as long as RadAway still works, you're still good. :)

Something about the mental image of the Wanderer/Courier basically chain smoking his way through RadAway bags when venturing through the more irradiated areas is both amusing and disturbing.

>Also, as an aside, I've never gotten around to showing it, but I
>assume that after the Ragnarök, Raul Tejada took advantage of
>some Medical Science and got his face back. Maybe something akin to a
>perfected version of that fleshmask system from Darkman. "I
>wasn't always this handsome, boss." :)

Yeah, less likely to scare the mundanes that way. And less paperwork when going through customs.

>In fairness, the "inhibitions" label might be in Ty Lee's handwriting.
>:)

It's better that my original idea, which was for Sokka to joke after Azula recounting that particular adventure that all it took to cure her insanity was some brain surgery.

>Oh - while I'm reminiscing about DLCs, I should mention my favorite
>accidentally poignant moment. That bit at the beginning of Dead
>Money where you get clobbered and they take away all your stuff
>really annoys me, but it did have one redeeming feature, in that when
>it happened, I was wearing the Stealth Suit Mk II from Old World
>Blues. So picture the scene: Azula walks into the bunker, she
>approaches the radio - POW - the screen goes all fuzzy, she falls to
>her knees, the floor beckons...
>
>... and just in that instant between everything going black and the
>loading screen appearing, the Stealth Suit asks plaintively,
>
>"... did I do something wrong?"
>
>Poor Stealth Suit.

I have to be honest, the constant banter sorta got my nerves after awhile. But then I hear "You're my best friend forever," and couldn't bring myself to take the suit off.

--------------------------
CdrMike, Overwatch Reject

Yeah, they're an interesting pair - the Burned Man and the Drowned Princess. Probably had a lot to talk about in that regard, although I would suspect that in the UF context Joshua probably found her backstory... bemusing. :)

>>Ah, Wild Wasteland. Why would anyone play without it? :)
>
>One of the unintentionally funny moments of Dead Money is when
>I'm venturing by my lonesome to the bell tower, and encounter the
>words "I AM NOT YOUR MUMMY!" scrawled on a pillar.

I'm pretty sure that's not unintentional, given the nature of the Ghost People...

>>Heh, there's that. Still, it's like that website I saw once that
>>added up every time Hal Jordan got punched out in the Silver Age
>>Green Lantern comics, then concluded that he probably turned
>>into a villain in the '80s because of that multiple-concussion-induced
>>rage syndrome boxers and football players get. :)
>
>Maybe that explains why I ordered General Oliver thrown off Hoover
>Dam...

I like to think that when that moment arrived for Azula, she had Yes Man throw him off the upstream side of the dam, which would actually be a much better statement to the NCR anyway. "There. Now you are wet and humiliated. Go away and think about what happened here today." :)

>>Hey, as long as RadAway still works, you're still good. :)
>
>Something about the mental image of the Wanderer/Courier basically
>chain smoking his way through RadAway bags when venturing through the
>more irradiated areas is both amusing and disturbing.

Man, eatin' RadX like Smarties in Searchlight...

>>"... did I do something wrong?"
>>
>>Poor Stealth Suit.
>
>I have to be honest, the constant banter sorta got my nerves after
>awhile. But then I hear "You're my best friend forever," and couldn't
>bring myself to take the suit off.

"Will you love me if I help you hide?"

It probably reminded her a little bit of Ty Lee. :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Not to mention at that point in his life, he'd already made the trip home and found some level of forgiveness amongst his people. Azula hadn't yet made the last leg of that journey.

>I'm pretty sure that's not unintentional, given the nature of
>the Ghost People...

I should clarify that I meant it added a bit of levity to what was otherwise a rather creepy situation. Sort of the opposite of when in Old World Blues I encountered Y-17s who were shouting "Hey, who turned out the lights?!," which turned an otherwise campy situation into a very disturbing one.

>I like to think that when that moment arrived for Azula, she had Yes
>Man throw him off the upstream side of the dam, which would
>actually be a much better statement to the NCR anyway. "There. Now
>you are wet and humiliated. Go away and think about what happened
>here today." :)

I rather think Azula would have gone with what I did the first time, which was basically emasculate Oliver in front of his own men by making him retreat with tail firmly between legs. Might have had something to do with my having Enclave soldiers, Brotherhood paladins, a battle-ready B-29, and an entire army of Securitrons at my command.

>Man, eatin' RadX like Smarties in Searchlight...

"I'll just check this firehouse for those supplies and ZOMG A RADSCORPION THE SIZE OF A TANK!!!!"

Ah, good ol' fashioned nightmare fuel.

>"Will you love me if I help you hide?"
>
>It probably reminded her a little bit of Ty Lee. :)

A rather bittersweet moment, I'd guess.

--------------------------
CdrMike, Overwatch Reject

True - heck, at the time she still wasn't quite 100% convinced herself that what she was telling him about had actually happened. It'll have given her something to think about, though.

>I should clarify that I meant it added a bit of levity to what was
>otherwise a rather creepy situation. Sort of the opposite of when in
>Old World Blues I encountered Y-17s who were shouting "Hey, who
>turned out the lights?!," which turned an otherwise campy situation
>into a very disturbing one.

Huh, I had the opposite reaction - the Y-17s creeped me the hell out, and then when I heard the Master Trauma Harness say that, I laughed and accepted that, OK, yeah, it's also a goofy concept. :)

>I rather think Azula would have gone with what I did the first time,
>which was basically emasculate Oliver in front of his own men by
>making him retreat with tail firmly between legs. Might have had
>something to do with my having Enclave soldiers, Brotherhood paladins,
>a battle-ready B-29, and an entire army of Securitrons at my command.

Well, yes, probably, particularly since - not being constrained by the game - she also had what was left of the Legion, a supplemental "special forces" unit of Big MT Robobrains, very possibly Liberty Prime, and

oh yes

THE X-42 GIANT ROBO SCORPION

(you have to say it that way)

backing her up.

"I would sooner spit on the grave of my dead mother than let some courier walk-the-wasteland fuck talk to... me... like... that. oh god."

(coolly arched eyebrow) "Really, General Oliver. Language."

>>"Will you love me if I help you hide?"
>>
>>It probably reminded her a little bit of Ty Lee. :)
>
>A rather bittersweet moment, I'd guess.

"... yes. yes i will."

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

I think Joshua Graham is probably the closest thing one could find to a kindred spirit for Azula. Though Elijah may have given her some bad flashbacks to when she lost her marbles.

>Huh, I had the opposite reaction - the Y-17s creeped me the hell out,
>and then when I heard the Master Trauma Harness say that, I laughed
>and accepted that, OK, yeah, it's also a goofy concept. :)

I first ran into the Y-17s outside and didn't think much of them. Then I went into Y-17 itself to get the upgrade module...and in the darkness, realized just how creepy they actually are.

>Well, yes, probably, particularly since - not being constrained by the
>game - she also had what was left of the Legion, a supplemental
>"special forces" unit of Big MT Robobrains, very possibly Liberty
>Prime, and
>
>oh yes
>
>THE X-42 GIANT ROBO SCORPION
>
>(you have to say it that way)
>
>backing her up.
>
>"I would sooner spit on the grave of my dead mother than let some
>courier walk-the-wasteland fuck talk to... me...like... that. oh god."
>
>(coolly arched eyebrow) "Really, General Oliver. Language."

It's like Loki in The Avengers. "If it's all the same to you, I'll have that drink now."

--------------------------
CdrMike, Overwatch Reject

"Goodbye, Elijah. I shall leave you as Sinclair left her, as you tried to leave me. Marooned for all eternity in the bowels of a dead monument to folly. Buried alive."

(closes intercom channel, walks away)

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Because the Wild Wasteland Integrated mod gives me all the benefits of the Wild Wasteland trait without wasting a trait slot. :)

Also, because you don't get the YCS/186 scoped gauss rifle. You get the New Vegas version of the alien blaster instead.

Anyway. Dead Money. Didn't much care for it. Okay, I love Laura Bailey's voice but that's about all Dead Money has going for it. Not true. It adds the Light Touch and Old World Gourmet perks.

Honest Hearts. The opening bit left me wondering how the hell I fucked up so badly three times trying and then I read a walkthrough that told me it's scripted. Left a sour taste behind that the story never really overcame.

Lonesome Road is depressing. And bleak. My take is that it's not all the courier's fault; Ulysses just wants you to think it is.

I'm proceeding under the assumption that he has totally got the wrong person (shit, Azula was in the Capital Wasteland when everything he's talking about happened), and she just can't be arsed to try and disabuse him of the notion over the phone. :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

To quote a friend: "Oh. That's right. You're Crazy. I forgot, and then you started talking again. And I remembered: you're Crazy."

Ebony the Black Dragon

"Life is like an anole. Sometimes it's green. Sometimes it's brown. But it's always a small Caribbean lizard."

Just finished with the Divide. I now have empirical proof that Ulysses's nutty rantings can actually warp what we understand of space and time. Check out when Azula's Pip-Boy thinks she got back to the Mojave:

:)

(For the record, she let him live. ... But she nuked Arizona. It had it coming.)

N.B. It should be understood that the "nuking Arizona" thing was purely a matter of gameplay expedience. In the UF-story context, we may assume that Azula did not, in fact, rain nuclear devastation upon the territories administered by what was, after all, her own Legion by that point. :) Think of it as like killing Mr. House, which she didn't actually do either.

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

I still hate how they make you choose between sacrificing ED-E (even if he's a clone) or nuking a whole lot of people and pissing off one or both of the major factions. Why, of all times, was there no third option?

--------------------------
CdrMike, Overwatch Reject

Yeah, cheap writing trick. OTOH, in my case I'd already assassinated Caesar by that point anyway, so it wasn't like the Legion could hate me more. :) Like I said... gameplay expedience. Or simple economics! Who's going to be the better customers of Independent Vegas - National Cash Register or the Legion of Substitute Assholes?

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Since we were talking about the Wild Wasteland perk earlier, the developers actually put one in for if you elect to launch missiles at both targets. And I admit, considering how much both sides put me through, I felt awful tempted to push the button.

--------------------------
CdrMike, Overwatch Reject

I did, just to see what it looked like. You get some cool horizon mushroom clouds off to the west when you come out of the Divide (because that's where the NCR is was), and you unlock three uselessly irradiated feral ghoul hunting areas instead of two (the Courier's Mile, Dry Wells, and the Long 15), but other than that and the Planet of the Apes joke, it's a bit rubbish. It's annoying to even move around the Mojave if both the Legion and the NCR want you dead, and getting points from the Powder Gangers for blowing shit up on a scale grander than their wildest ambitions doesn't make up for that. :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

It's possible to get all the benefits, but you have to put off confronting Benny until after you finish the DLC. The reason being that when Vulpus gives you Caesar's Mark, it restores your reputation with the Legion to zero, even if you're vilified. Ditto the letter from Ambassador Crocker with the NCR. Which gives you the rather humorous situation of one or both factions basically saying "We're willing to overlook you nuking dozens of our own people if you'll do as we say from this point forth."

--------------------------
CdrMike, Overwatch Reject

Probably more like thousands, if not tens of thousands - the very strong implication in the flavor text is that you're nuking all of Legion territory a/o the entire New California Republic, not just the bits of them right on the margins of the Mojave. It's just that you can only actually go to the "border" areas (Dry Wells a/o the Long 15).

This is presumably why the DLCs are all set up to not-very-subtly hint that you should really finish most of the rest of the game before you attempt them. :)

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

I think it's somewhere in between, that most of the nukes come down on the two spots, but others hit the main territories. It's hard to say, but I imagine it doesn't really matter in the end.

>This is presumably why the DLCs are all set up to not-very-subtly hint
>that you should really finish most of the rest of the game before you
>attempt them. :)

True, they pretty much spell out that if you're playing the DLCs, you're pretty much on the brink of finishing the main storyline. Sort of makes me think of Citadel for ME3, where you can start the DLC almost any time after about midway through the game, but it's best to wait until you're a mission away from the very end if you want to see everything.

--------------------------
CdrMike, Overwatch Reject

I dunno, the ending slide text talks about both powers being utterly lost to history:

"The history of the West was erased for the second time, thorough and complete... and America slept once more."

(Or, if you have Wild Wasteland, "The Couriers finally, really did it. They blew up the lands West and East of the Mojave... damning them all to hell. The act was discovered 200 years later, as other couriers explored the Mojave wastes.")

That sounds pretty definitive to me. No in-game effect, though, you're right - and that is almost certainly not the outcome that Fallout 4 will assume happened, if indeed that game takes any notice of matters on the West Coast at all. It's like the Dark Side ending of Knights of the Old Republic. :)

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

I think the argument in-game is something like "It'll take weeks/months before the side that just got nuked into oblivion realizes the folks back home aren't picking up the phone anymore."

>- and that is almost certainly not the outcome
>that Fallout 4 will assume happened, if indeed that game takes
>any notice of matters on the West Coast at all. It's like the Dark
>Side ending of Knights of the Old Republic. :)

The great thing about the Fallout games so far is that the distances and the lack of long-distance communication means you can get by on making vague mentions to events in other games without saying who won or lost. Though that will probably be harder in Fallout 4, seeing as how D.C. and the events of Fallout 3 are a bit too close for news not to have traveled.

--------------------------
CdrMike, Overwatch Reject

Well, heck, it's established in the Fallout 3 "aftergame" that at least one member of the game's cast went to Massachusetts after the key events in the Capital Wasteland unfolded. Mind you, I'm not going to be bouncing in my seat, all keyed up with anticipation of seeing Dr. Li again, but still. :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

There's been several strong hints that we'll have Three Dog once again conveying the good word to us from GNN. But if there's anyone who I'm curious how they'll shoehorn in, it's Harold on account of his being fairly clearly rooted to the ground (literally) back in FO3.

--------------------------
CdrMike, Overwatch Reject

<1>Unless the story is an Avengers comic or film but those are special cases.

In the cases of both BioWare sequels listed there, I picked up on a distinct whiff of "well, we had a proper second half planned, but the publishers kind of wanted to sell the game at some point so we weren't allowed to make it" going on. FNV's storyline works reasonably well on its own, it's the nailing-on of the DLCs that doesn't quite work.

Interestingly, the four DLCs have their own common narrative that works reasonably well, but it doesn't interoperate cleanly with the main plot. It's almost like the FNV DLC cycle was designed as an extension/aftergame, like Broken Steel for FO3, and then they realized they couldn't do it that way and just sort of jammed into the intermediate midgame.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

This is, in fact, the problem with Obsidian. They promise the moon, vastly overestimate their ability to deliver, then deliver incomplete games when deadlines loom. And then they go and do it again. New Vegas doesn't feel that way but that has more to do with Obsidian getting good at hiding the seams. Damning with faint praise indeed.

Well, there were bits here and there in the vanilla game that hinted at the DLCs, from graffiti like "The Burning Man Walks" to the entry points already being on the map. And Ulysses was at one time planned to be a companion, before they cut him from the game. Plus there are bits and pieces still left in the game code hinting at post-game play. So there's strong hints that Obsidian just cobbled together the DLCs from discarded bits. If so, they did better than some DLCs I've seen.

--------------------------
CdrMike, Overwatch Reject

Oh yeah, that reminds me, while we're on cheap writing tricks, wtf with that moment where they give you no option other than to randomly nuke part of the wasteland in a fit of what-does-this-button-do? There's no other way past that point in the script, even if you know dang well what the button does and you're playing a character who does not make mistakes of that kind. It's not as if there's any visible reason why you can't proceed without doing it, you just Can't Proceed Without Doing It, so that then Ulysses can chide you for it like you're four and just dropped your chocolate pudding on the white rug. Fuck that entire scene, seriously.

Also, not really relatedly, but while I'm mumbling about roleplaying, there needed to be an Ironic Sneering Imperialist version of that perk, where the dialogue options are just different enough that it's obvious you're being sarcastic. 'Cause Captain Inazuma had to have that one, obviously, but she doesn't really mean it any more. :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Yeah, they got seriously anvilicious with their Aesop in Lonesome Road. Leaving it up as a choice or giving us an opportunity, with enough points in a skill like Repair or Science, to bypass the launch in order to open the door would have been keeping with the spirit of the series. But really, it seems like common sense took a backseat to the story they wanted to tell.

--------------------------
CdrMike, Overwatch Reject

They could even have worked around it within the structure they had, since it would be perfectly in character for Ulysses to launch the thing if the PC declined to, then passive-aggressively claim that it's still your fault that he Had To Do That.

In fact, thinking about it, I'm not sure why I didn't kill his ass. The character who deserves to have been whacked more than Ulysses who didn't in my last playthrough was Cachino. :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

I had the same problem in FO2 that I did with Broken Steel: There wasn't much of a sense of accomplishment. "You've saved the day, your story will be told for ages...now welcome back to a world where virtually nothing has changed." I think that's what Obsidian ran into with NV, that they wanted this big and detailed post-game world, but Bethesda wanted to turn out a new game on a deadline and something had to give.

--------------------------
CdrMike, Overwatch Reject

... and I thought, "Uh, all of 'em? I'm gonna need a couple of boxcars for that."

(Or the Wall, but it's not exactly portable.)

"I... well, OK, shit, look, I'll bring the Sprtel-Wood 9700, but if I've got that there's no way I'm going to need my normal Gatling laser except for spare parts."

OTOH, hey, at least you CAN bring all your weapons for your confrontation with Ulysses. If he was the antagonist of Dead Money that line would have to be, "Bring all your marked quest items that we couldn't take out of your inventory with this cheapass area load script." :)

--G.
Thank the gods I still had that camera on me, that's all I'm saying.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.