Let's Play Fallout: New Vegas [The Servant]
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He had the shiskebab equipped so, he's wearing the oven mitt you wear when you wield the shiskebab.DustyDrB said:
Sorry for the lack of update today folks, Fraps decided to start only recording the first 3 minutes and then not even save it properly...
Such are the wonders of the Gamebryo engine.Immortal_Engines said:
[HEADING=1]Chapter XXX - Do Androids Dream of Plasma Rifles?[/HEADING]
(Yes, I had to resort to a poorly made Blade Runner pun for the title. No, I'm not proud of it.)
So, last update we met some vampires. Yeah. Let's move onto part 2 of the trilogy of the truly bizzare, out of place sidequests in Fallout 3. (I'm not counting Oasis for simplicity's sake.)
Today's theme is: Blade Runner.
We head back to Rivet City. If you remember, we already got the quest hook for this particular quest already.
We need to head back to the science lab in Rivet City.
Like Megaton, Rivet City is quite big but there really isn't much of a purpose to the areas in it. There's restaurants and other interesting places scattered across the boat, but there isn't much of a purpose to all of it.
The Science Lab is completely empty except for these guys.
"Sure, I'll look into finding your android for you."
I mean, it's not like we have anything better to do.
"Excellent. Locate my android, and you won't be disappointed. Here, listen to this message he sent me. He's mocking me. I swear I'll make him pay for that."
"So... Any suggestions for finding this android?"
"Like I've said, I suspect he's had facial reconstruction, and possibly even a mind wipe. Search the offices of doctors or techies for android information. If he's come into contact with these people, there may be records. Start with Doctor Preston. He lives on this leaky boat. See if he knows anything. He's a "doctor" after all. Now, if you'll excuse me. I'm busy trying to ignore my surroundings."
Obviously Zimmer doesn't like it here.
So now we have to shake down the doctor here for info that he has.
Apparently the android left a holotape. Read it here. [http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Replicated_Man_holotapes#Start_quest_transcript] There's a ton of holotapes related to this quest, but this is the one you get right at the start.
Now we head over to the doctor's office to get more info about the android. I have the holotape playing while walking there.
Navigating Rivet City is a pain in the ass. It's split into many different cells, so you'll go through many, many loading screens if you get lost.
Wrong area. This is like a place to eat in Rivet City, but there is literally nothing of interest in here. (Actually, you can find Butch here after Trouble on the Homefront. Whoops. Look like I was wrong about him being at Moriarty's)
Nope, wrong place again. This is the Weatherly Hotel. The only purpose of it is to rent a room in Rivet City, and it's involved with "Those!".
Finally.
He's not in here. He's actually back at the Weatherly Hotel. Fuck. Well, I'm sure he won't mind us stealing all the stuff he has out.
"What do you know about this android from the Commonwealth?"
"That old story? Well, now... I haven't heard talk of that in quite some time. It was all just a rumor. A hoax. Someone's idea of a practical joke."
Really?
"Story was there was an android, escaped from the Commonwealth up north. From someplace called the Institute."
Apparently the Institue is so much more advanced than the rest of the world, that they can build human-like androids.
But can they build robo-scorpions? I don't think so.
"There was a holotape that got circulated. I think I've got a copy of it... Yeah, here it is. Give it a listen. That's a man's voice! Hoax for sure!"
"Tell me more about this holotape, about the android."
"Like I said, it's a hoax. Don't bother with it. Someone sent tapes like that to pretty much every doctor in the Wasteland. None of us believed it."
That was helpful...
So now this is where the quest becomes a little bit more open ended. Many people in the wasteland got these holotapes from the androids. The majority of the game's doctors have these holotapes, but also some scientists (Including Moira), slavers and other sympathizers have them as well. Depending on what type of NPC you get the holotape from, it's got a different message. It's rather cool.
So, let's fast travel to Megaton and talk to Doc Church and Moira.
Other places you could go for these holotapes would be Tenpenny Tower, Little Lamplight or Paradise Falls. It's just that Megaton is the only one of those places have been to at this early in the game.
Yeah, Doc Church is kind of an asshole.
"If you do bother me, you better be damn near dead. I'm busy enough takin' care of people I actually like."
What did we do to you? We've helped Megaton an awful lot.
"Follow my rule, I'll keep you patched up, I'll keep getting paid, and we'll get along just fine."
"[Speech, 100%] Ever do any facial surgery? Maybe on someone from the Commonwealth?"
"[SUCCESS] Damn stupid idea. That reminds me of this old hoax. Here, take a listen to this crusty holotape and see for yourself."
Well, so long Doc Church. We'll never need you again, thanks to magical healing beds.
Gah! We wait for a bit then this woman shows up.
Yeah, this NPC is scripted to find you after you start finding clues about this quest. She lives in Rivet City before this quest, and once you start the quest, she's scripted to run after you, no matter how far you are from Rivet City. She's essential though, so if she runs into some annoying super mutants or enclave, she'll just be knocked out.
"Or do you have some kind of personal grudge against an innocent android who simply wants to be left alone? Please, tell me. I'd really like to know."
She's awfully stuck up and confrontational for talking to a person armed to the teeth and in the middle of nowhere. (I was just outside Megaton when this happened.)
"Look, whoever this missing android is, I just want to help. Okay?"
"Well... If that's true, then the first thing you need to do is halt your investigation. No more questions, no more searching. The movement I'm involved with, we help his kind escape their Commonwealth-imposed slavery."
I'm sorry, but really? Don't people have other things to do?
"We help them... disappear. You understand?"
"What would you have me do?"
"You really want to help? Take this. It's an internal componenet from the very android you're searching for. Don't ask how I obtained it."
Implying that I would ask implies that I care.
"Present it to Doctor Zimmer in Rivet City. Tell him the android is dead, and that was on the corpse. He'll believe you. Do that, and Zimmer will go back to the Commonwealth, and leave that poor soul alone. Do that, and you'll have saved a man's life."
So Zimmer went all this way simply to chase after an android? Can't they make more of them?
We still need another clue so... We have talk to Moira again.
Not pictured: Me talking to Moira. Whoops. Just pretend this dialogue is coming from here.
"[Speech, 100%] Do you know who did the memory transfer on the escaped android?"
That's really specific.
"[SUCCESS] Heard a rumor a while back that it was some guy named Pinkerton at Rivet City. Apparently he's got some sweet tech stashed on that boat."
So now we go all the way back to Rivet City. Imagine how much more annoying this quest would be if we blew up Megaton.
So now we're back at Rivet City. We need to find this Pinkerton guy. It's gonna take a bit of work to get to him though. (You can just picked the Very Hard locked door for the easy way, but that isn't fun.)
We're going for a swim.
There's a huge trench in between the broken parts of the ship that Rivet City is built in.
There's a boat out in the middle of the water out over there. Let's check it out.
It's got some ammo and some medical supplies. You can't go any further though, this is the edge of the game's map. All you can really see past there is just a ton of ruined buildings anyway.
Eventually we find the entrance to the sunken part of the carrier.
You can very easily drown in here.
This part is rather annoying.
We run into a mirelurk hunter once we get out of the water. Fighting these things in close quarters is not fun.
After wasting an inordinate amount of ammo, we take down the mirelurk hunter.
This area is pretty cool. You have to navigate the rather maze-like tunnels and they look pretty cool. Lots of traps around here as well.
This is an improvement over Rivet City. No loading screens.
Oh look, ammo.
Scoped .44 magnum, nice.
There's a ton of ammo in here.
I triggered the grenades at the end of the hallway, and since the entire hallway is filled with gas, flames are quickly spreading towards us.
We get toasted by the flames.
Oh look, a computer terminal. It explodes though.
Hit this switch and the door Pinkerton's lab opens.
Wait, what? If I survived that, wouldn't I be more dangerous and capable than someone who didn't?
"This is the part where you tell me what the hell you are doing bothering an old man who obviously wants to be left alone... Get on with it already!"
"Let's discuss the facial reconstruction and mind wipe you did for the Android."
"What are you talking about, girl? I don't know anything about any of that, and a what-did-you-call-it? An android? What's that?"
"Let's just say it's in your best interest to tell me what I want to know."
"Fine, whatever. This android, calls himself Harkness now, comes in and wants a memory job."
So I assume this is a common occurance for you?
"I took new memories, and replaced his old ones. Don't believe anyone's done that before. Certainly not down here. That Commonwealth tech isn't all that fancy when it comes down to it. I'm also the only one in the wasteland with the skill and the nerve to perform facial surgery. That android flesh ain't so different than ours. You want proof? I documented the whole thing. So I could rub it in the face of Dr. Li when I need to rankle her feathers. I hate that snooty *****."
Wow, I like this guy already!
"What's she got to do with this? Show me this "proof" about the android."
You can either agree or disagree with him about Dr. Li being a *****.
"Well, she's got nothing to do with anything, except ruining my whole goddamn life. But I can see you don't give a crap about any of that. Fine."
We already met enough NPC's with long and drawn out backstories.
"It's all in my computer: here's the password. See for yourself. Hell, just take these pictures and this holotape. Straight from the synthman's lips. Just don't go telling Harkness though. He won't believe you anyway. And you really don't want to see him upset. He can be a bit... inhospitable."
Yeah, Harkness was the guy who harassed us on the bridge when we visited Rivet City for the first time. Good times...
"Harkness should be told. You'd want to know if you were an android."
"Maybe I am! Maybe I'm going to have my android army rise up against you and your human ilk! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Sorry... Oh... sorry, I couldn't resist..."
What a hilarious joke.
"I suppose you're right. But don't worry, I didn't really wipe his memories. I just buried them. But you can get them back. All you need to do is use the recall code. Just say to him, "Activate A3-21 Recall Code Violet" and that will activate the hidden subroutines."
"What are you doing here in this wrecked part of the ship?"
"I live here. It's where I do my work. And it's FAR away from Dr. Li and all those other monkeys dressed up like scientists. You made it past my defenses, which proves you aren't a dummy. AND you haven't killed me, so I suppose you aren't here to do that."
Well, we just kinda ran past your defenses.
"I suppose you can hang around if you want. Just don't touch anything."
So now let's talk to Harkness, but first, let's check out his lab...
You would think if he lived down here, he'd move this skeleton.
This guy has a ton of skill books and homemade weapons components. Enough to make a shiskebab. Conviniently he has a workbench in here too.
Fuck yeah! We will probably never use it though...
Back off to Rivet City, it's faster to fast travel back than to walk back up.
I don't know if I showed it before, but this is the Rivet City marketplace. The stores here are useful and are in close proximity to each other. Harkness is right there.
"I'm not sure how to put this... You're not who you think you are."
"What's that supposed to mean? Look, kid. I don't have time for existential debate."
Apparently everyone in the wasteland is just as annoying by crazy cultists as I am.
"And I'm not interested in wahtever religion you're peddling."
"This isn't an existential debate. You're a robot from Commonwealth."
Why can't you just say screw it, and tell him the code right now?
"Excuse me? Look, kid. You have exactly five seconds to explain what you're trying to do here, or you'll be leaving Rivet City by the way of the nearest porthole."
Yeah, Harkness is not the nicest guy...
"The facts will speak for themselves. I have pictures and an audio testimoney!"
"All right, I'll humor you... But this is impossible. I can't be a robot! I'm a human being. I breathe, I eat. Hell, I cut myself shaving this morning. I was bleeding! Robots don't bleed!"
This seems so out of place for Fallout. All of the robots in the series have been those wacky 50's retro styled robots, the Blade Runner-esque androids just feel really out of place.
"I'm sorry about this, I really am. But it's true. You're not human."
"I'm not sure what to say... I'm not sure what to even think about all this... I'll admit, this is pretty convincing evidence, but it doesn't make any sense. How can this be possible?"
"Sorry Harkness, but this is the only way. Activate A3-21 Recall Code Violet"
"Agggggghh!!!"
Whoops wrong code. That was the self-destruct code instead.
"My God, I... I remember. I remember it all. From before. Zimmer. The Commonwealth. The Institute. My God, all those runners I brought down... You... You made me remember. Why? How? I... Never mind... I just... My God... What am I going to do? My life, everything, it's all a lie..."
"What are you going to do about Zimmer? He's the one you were running away from."
"I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to shove him into a very small box, and send him north where he belongs."
That's the Harkness we know.
"Sometimes you have to kill the bad guys."
I'm not sure if that is really in character because you can convince Harkness to simply kick Zimmer off the boat, but fuck Zimmer and besides, I think the wasteland is a better place without him anyways.
"Thank you for warning me about Zimmer, and for keeping this a secret. Here's a little token of my gratitude. Best weapon a man could ask for."
He's not joking, it's a really powerful plasma rifle.
"Just do me a favor and don't go blastng up my boat. People discharging weapons on my boat tends to get me nervous. Unless I'm the one doing the shooting. To kill dangerous thieves from the Commonwealth, for instance."
Normally, we could just walk away here, but let's see how this goes down...
Harkness walks all the way back to the lab and confronts Zimmer. The quest is officially over now but this part is rather cool.
Harkness instantly guns down Zimmer and shoots off his leg.
We target Zimmer's bodyguard just to help out a bit and try out the new revolver we got.
So, Harkness walks off and we really never need to bother with him again.
I wonder who is going to clean up this mess...
So that's it for the Replicated Man. Like Blood Ties, I think it is a well made quest but again it just doesn't fit with Fallout. And the problem is, there just really isn't any depth to the plot of it. It's extremely black and white, and it just kind throws the whole idea of having androids in the Fallout universe without any actual justification for it.
So, last update we met some vampires. Yeah. Let's move onto part 2 of the trilogy of the truly bizzare, out of place sidequests in Fallout 3. (I'm not counting Oasis for simplicity's sake.)
Today's theme is: Blade Runner.
We head back to Rivet City. If you remember, we already got the quest hook for this particular quest already.
We need to head back to the science lab in Rivet City.
Like Megaton, Rivet City is quite big but there really isn't much of a purpose to the areas in it. There's restaurants and other interesting places scattered across the boat, but there isn't much of a purpose to all of it.
The Science Lab is completely empty except for these guys.
"Sure, I'll look into finding your android for you."
I mean, it's not like we have anything better to do.
"Excellent. Locate my android, and you won't be disappointed. Here, listen to this message he sent me. He's mocking me. I swear I'll make him pay for that."
"So... Any suggestions for finding this android?"
"Like I've said, I suspect he's had facial reconstruction, and possibly even a mind wipe. Search the offices of doctors or techies for android information. If he's come into contact with these people, there may be records. Start with Doctor Preston. He lives on this leaky boat. See if he knows anything. He's a "doctor" after all. Now, if you'll excuse me. I'm busy trying to ignore my surroundings."
Obviously Zimmer doesn't like it here.
So now we have to shake down the doctor here for info that he has.
Apparently the android left a holotape. Read it here. [http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Replicated_Man_holotapes#Start_quest_transcript] There's a ton of holotapes related to this quest, but this is the one you get right at the start.
Now we head over to the doctor's office to get more info about the android. I have the holotape playing while walking there.
Navigating Rivet City is a pain in the ass. It's split into many different cells, so you'll go through many, many loading screens if you get lost.
Wrong area. This is like a place to eat in Rivet City, but there is literally nothing of interest in here. (Actually, you can find Butch here after Trouble on the Homefront. Whoops. Look like I was wrong about him being at Moriarty's)
Nope, wrong place again. This is the Weatherly Hotel. The only purpose of it is to rent a room in Rivet City, and it's involved with "Those!".
Finally.
He's not in here. He's actually back at the Weatherly Hotel. Fuck. Well, I'm sure he won't mind us stealing all the stuff he has out.
"What do you know about this android from the Commonwealth?"
"That old story? Well, now... I haven't heard talk of that in quite some time. It was all just a rumor. A hoax. Someone's idea of a practical joke."
Really?
"Story was there was an android, escaped from the Commonwealth up north. From someplace called the Institute."
Apparently the Institue is so much more advanced than the rest of the world, that they can build human-like androids.
But can they build robo-scorpions? I don't think so.
"There was a holotape that got circulated. I think I've got a copy of it... Yeah, here it is. Give it a listen. That's a man's voice! Hoax for sure!"
"Tell me more about this holotape, about the android."
"Like I said, it's a hoax. Don't bother with it. Someone sent tapes like that to pretty much every doctor in the Wasteland. None of us believed it."
That was helpful...
So now this is where the quest becomes a little bit more open ended. Many people in the wasteland got these holotapes from the androids. The majority of the game's doctors have these holotapes, but also some scientists (Including Moira), slavers and other sympathizers have them as well. Depending on what type of NPC you get the holotape from, it's got a different message. It's rather cool.
So, let's fast travel to Megaton and talk to Doc Church and Moira.
Other places you could go for these holotapes would be Tenpenny Tower, Little Lamplight or Paradise Falls. It's just that Megaton is the only one of those places have been to at this early in the game.
Yeah, Doc Church is kind of an asshole.
"If you do bother me, you better be damn near dead. I'm busy enough takin' care of people I actually like."
What did we do to you? We've helped Megaton an awful lot.
"Follow my rule, I'll keep you patched up, I'll keep getting paid, and we'll get along just fine."
"[Speech, 100%] Ever do any facial surgery? Maybe on someone from the Commonwealth?"
"[SUCCESS] Damn stupid idea. That reminds me of this old hoax. Here, take a listen to this crusty holotape and see for yourself."
Well, so long Doc Church. We'll never need you again, thanks to magical healing beds.
Gah! We wait for a bit then this woman shows up.
Yeah, this NPC is scripted to find you after you start finding clues about this quest. She lives in Rivet City before this quest, and once you start the quest, she's scripted to run after you, no matter how far you are from Rivet City. She's essential though, so if she runs into some annoying super mutants or enclave, she'll just be knocked out.
"Or do you have some kind of personal grudge against an innocent android who simply wants to be left alone? Please, tell me. I'd really like to know."
She's awfully stuck up and confrontational for talking to a person armed to the teeth and in the middle of nowhere. (I was just outside Megaton when this happened.)
"Look, whoever this missing android is, I just want to help. Okay?"
"Well... If that's true, then the first thing you need to do is halt your investigation. No more questions, no more searching. The movement I'm involved with, we help his kind escape their Commonwealth-imposed slavery."
I'm sorry, but really? Don't people have other things to do?
"We help them... disappear. You understand?"
"What would you have me do?"
"You really want to help? Take this. It's an internal componenet from the very android you're searching for. Don't ask how I obtained it."
Implying that I would ask implies that I care.
"Present it to Doctor Zimmer in Rivet City. Tell him the android is dead, and that was on the corpse. He'll believe you. Do that, and Zimmer will go back to the Commonwealth, and leave that poor soul alone. Do that, and you'll have saved a man's life."
So Zimmer went all this way simply to chase after an android? Can't they make more of them?
We still need another clue so... We have talk to Moira again.
Not pictured: Me talking to Moira. Whoops. Just pretend this dialogue is coming from here.
"[Speech, 100%] Do you know who did the memory transfer on the escaped android?"
That's really specific.
"[SUCCESS] Heard a rumor a while back that it was some guy named Pinkerton at Rivet City. Apparently he's got some sweet tech stashed on that boat."
So now we go all the way back to Rivet City. Imagine how much more annoying this quest would be if we blew up Megaton.
So now we're back at Rivet City. We need to find this Pinkerton guy. It's gonna take a bit of work to get to him though. (You can just picked the Very Hard locked door for the easy way, but that isn't fun.)
We're going for a swim.
There's a huge trench in between the broken parts of the ship that Rivet City is built in.
There's a boat out in the middle of the water out over there. Let's check it out.
It's got some ammo and some medical supplies. You can't go any further though, this is the edge of the game's map. All you can really see past there is just a ton of ruined buildings anyway.
Eventually we find the entrance to the sunken part of the carrier.
You can very easily drown in here.
This part is rather annoying.
We run into a mirelurk hunter once we get out of the water. Fighting these things in close quarters is not fun.
After wasting an inordinate amount of ammo, we take down the mirelurk hunter.
This area is pretty cool. You have to navigate the rather maze-like tunnels and they look pretty cool. Lots of traps around here as well.
This is an improvement over Rivet City. No loading screens.
Oh look, ammo.
Scoped .44 magnum, nice.
There's a ton of ammo in here.
I triggered the grenades at the end of the hallway, and since the entire hallway is filled with gas, flames are quickly spreading towards us.
We get toasted by the flames.
Oh look, a computer terminal. It explodes though.
Hit this switch and the door Pinkerton's lab opens.
Wait, what? If I survived that, wouldn't I be more dangerous and capable than someone who didn't?
"This is the part where you tell me what the hell you are doing bothering an old man who obviously wants to be left alone... Get on with it already!"
"Let's discuss the facial reconstruction and mind wipe you did for the Android."
"What are you talking about, girl? I don't know anything about any of that, and a what-did-you-call-it? An android? What's that?"
"Let's just say it's in your best interest to tell me what I want to know."
"Fine, whatever. This android, calls himself Harkness now, comes in and wants a memory job."
So I assume this is a common occurance for you?
"I took new memories, and replaced his old ones. Don't believe anyone's done that before. Certainly not down here. That Commonwealth tech isn't all that fancy when it comes down to it. I'm also the only one in the wasteland with the skill and the nerve to perform facial surgery. That android flesh ain't so different than ours. You want proof? I documented the whole thing. So I could rub it in the face of Dr. Li when I need to rankle her feathers. I hate that snooty *****."
Wow, I like this guy already!
"What's she got to do with this? Show me this "proof" about the android."
You can either agree or disagree with him about Dr. Li being a *****.
"Well, she's got nothing to do with anything, except ruining my whole goddamn life. But I can see you don't give a crap about any of that. Fine."
We already met enough NPC's with long and drawn out backstories.
"It's all in my computer: here's the password. See for yourself. Hell, just take these pictures and this holotape. Straight from the synthman's lips. Just don't go telling Harkness though. He won't believe you anyway. And you really don't want to see him upset. He can be a bit... inhospitable."
Yeah, Harkness was the guy who harassed us on the bridge when we visited Rivet City for the first time. Good times...
"Harkness should be told. You'd want to know if you were an android."
"Maybe I am! Maybe I'm going to have my android army rise up against you and your human ilk! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Sorry... Oh... sorry, I couldn't resist..."
What a hilarious joke.
"I suppose you're right. But don't worry, I didn't really wipe his memories. I just buried them. But you can get them back. All you need to do is use the recall code. Just say to him, "Activate A3-21 Recall Code Violet" and that will activate the hidden subroutines."
"What are you doing here in this wrecked part of the ship?"
"I live here. It's where I do my work. And it's FAR away from Dr. Li and all those other monkeys dressed up like scientists. You made it past my defenses, which proves you aren't a dummy. AND you haven't killed me, so I suppose you aren't here to do that."
Well, we just kinda ran past your defenses.
"I suppose you can hang around if you want. Just don't touch anything."
So now let's talk to Harkness, but first, let's check out his lab...
You would think if he lived down here, he'd move this skeleton.
This guy has a ton of skill books and homemade weapons components. Enough to make a shiskebab. Conviniently he has a workbench in here too.
Fuck yeah! We will probably never use it though...
Back off to Rivet City, it's faster to fast travel back than to walk back up.
I don't know if I showed it before, but this is the Rivet City marketplace. The stores here are useful and are in close proximity to each other. Harkness is right there.
"I'm not sure how to put this... You're not who you think you are."
"What's that supposed to mean? Look, kid. I don't have time for existential debate."
Apparently everyone in the wasteland is just as annoying by crazy cultists as I am.
"And I'm not interested in wahtever religion you're peddling."
"This isn't an existential debate. You're a robot from Commonwealth."
Why can't you just say screw it, and tell him the code right now?
"Excuse me? Look, kid. You have exactly five seconds to explain what you're trying to do here, or you'll be leaving Rivet City by the way of the nearest porthole."
Yeah, Harkness is not the nicest guy...
"The facts will speak for themselves. I have pictures and an audio testimoney!"
"All right, I'll humor you... But this is impossible. I can't be a robot! I'm a human being. I breathe, I eat. Hell, I cut myself shaving this morning. I was bleeding! Robots don't bleed!"
This seems so out of place for Fallout. All of the robots in the series have been those wacky 50's retro styled robots, the Blade Runner-esque androids just feel really out of place.
"I'm sorry about this, I really am. But it's true. You're not human."
"I'm not sure what to say... I'm not sure what to even think about all this... I'll admit, this is pretty convincing evidence, but it doesn't make any sense. How can this be possible?"
"Sorry Harkness, but this is the only way. Activate A3-21 Recall Code Violet"
"Agggggghh!!!"
Whoops wrong code. That was the self-destruct code instead.
"My God, I... I remember. I remember it all. From before. Zimmer. The Commonwealth. The Institute. My God, all those runners I brought down... You... You made me remember. Why? How? I... Never mind... I just... My God... What am I going to do? My life, everything, it's all a lie..."
"What are you going to do about Zimmer? He's the one you were running away from."
"I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to shove him into a very small box, and send him north where he belongs."
That's the Harkness we know.
"Sometimes you have to kill the bad guys."
I'm not sure if that is really in character because you can convince Harkness to simply kick Zimmer off the boat, but fuck Zimmer and besides, I think the wasteland is a better place without him anyways.
"Thank you for warning me about Zimmer, and for keeping this a secret. Here's a little token of my gratitude. Best weapon a man could ask for."
He's not joking, it's a really powerful plasma rifle.
"Just do me a favor and don't go blastng up my boat. People discharging weapons on my boat tends to get me nervous. Unless I'm the one doing the shooting. To kill dangerous thieves from the Commonwealth, for instance."
Normally, we could just walk away here, but let's see how this goes down...
Harkness walks all the way back to the lab and confronts Zimmer. The quest is officially over now but this part is rather cool.
Harkness instantly guns down Zimmer and shoots off his leg.
We target Zimmer's bodyguard just to help out a bit and try out the new revolver we got.
So, Harkness walks off and we really never need to bother with him again.
I wonder who is going to clean up this mess...
So that's it for the Replicated Man. Like Blood Ties, I think it is a well made quest but again it just doesn't fit with Fallout. And the problem is, there just really isn't any depth to the plot of it. It's extremely black and white, and it just kind throws the whole idea of having androids in the Fallout universe without any actual justification for it.
(Also, Lonesome Road releases tomorrow. I'm really excited for it.)
I made the choice where I lied about it without getting any more info. I had no idea who it really was.AlternatePFG said:
Same. I hope they add a unique silenced .22, but it doesn't look like it. I won't be able to play for quite a while though. Shame, really.AlternatePFG said:
Ah, well. I seeAlternatePFG said:
Still, it wasn't a quest I really did. I didn't care much for it, so I'm not all that bothered I finished without finding more.
It was a back and forth quest, much like Blood Ties. Most of the time you spent your time just travelling between different people talking about things you don't need to know. I usually just get the quest, go straight to Pinkerton and then finally get A3-21's Plasma Rifle. Like Blood Ties I only ever do it for the rewards, the quest is just boring and bothersome.AlternatePFG said:
Jeez it feels weird to actually post here. I've been following this for the past few days and I've read all of the chapters up the the present and Now I am posting for the first time and it feels...odd? But whatever. I thought the replicated man quest was entertaining. I thought blood ties added a bit of flavor and variety to the capital wasteland (not that I would know much since this and NV are the only fallout games I've played), and I can't wait to see what the third out of place quest is in your opinion. My guess: Either the Super Human Gambit, or Those!. Probably SHG.
On an entirely unrelated note: I have a theory [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.244803-Mabey-we-should-think-of-New-Vegas-as-an-expansion#8929149] That the Lone Wanderer and The Courier are the same person. I realize there are certain bits of dialog in New Vegas that make that impossible but I still think it is a fun idea to play through New Vegas with. ANYWAY, disregarding my theory, am I the only one who would like to see the L.W. and the Big C team up like Chuck Green and Frank West? It could be in a DLC where they meet in-between thier respective wastelands (Oklahoma) and it could involve them dealing with something like a large and expanding tribe of merciless warriors that worship a mysterious leader known only as "The Hand" who, in a shocking reveal, turns out to be *gasp* the last intelligent Death Claw! Or a secret vault has been found in Ft. Smith that contains a doomsday device of some description and now the race is on between the Legion, NCR, and the East Coast Brotherhood (who after two years of growth have become a powerful force) to get to the weapon first, but they all have to compete with the local population that serves as a unique new enemy type. The thing is, the two characters don't actually meet each other until the third-to-last mission where their fight gets interrupted by the bad guy's people. Then they decide to team up for an awesome climax where the newly repaired Liberty Prime shows up to smash through the heavy enemy defenses (much the same as he did in "Take it back!") and then the L.W. becomes a temporary companion for the final fight. Now that I actually type it out, it sounds freaking amazing and I want to play it really badly.
On an entirely unrelated note: I have a theory [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.244803-Mabey-we-should-think-of-New-Vegas-as-an-expansion#8929149] That the Lone Wanderer and The Courier are the same person. I realize there are certain bits of dialog in New Vegas that make that impossible but I still think it is a fun idea to play through New Vegas with. ANYWAY, disregarding my theory, am I the only one who would like to see the L.W. and the Big C team up like Chuck Green and Frank West? It could be in a DLC where they meet in-between thier respective wastelands (Oklahoma) and it could involve them dealing with something like a large and expanding tribe of merciless warriors that worship a mysterious leader known only as "The Hand" who, in a shocking reveal, turns out to be *gasp* the last intelligent Death Claw! Or a secret vault has been found in Ft. Smith that contains a doomsday device of some description and now the race is on between the Legion, NCR, and the East Coast Brotherhood (who after two years of growth have become a powerful force) to get to the weapon first, but they all have to compete with the local population that serves as a unique new enemy type. The thing is, the two characters don't actually meet each other until the third-to-last mission where their fight gets interrupted by the bad guy's people. Then they decide to team up for an awesome climax where the newly repaired Liberty Prime shows up to smash through the heavy enemy defenses (much the same as he did in "Take it back!") and then the L.W. becomes a temporary companion for the final fight. Now that I actually type it out, it sounds freaking amazing and I want to play it really badly.
No, just no.Viking Incognito said:
They are not the same person.
The Lone Wanderer was born at the Jefferson Memorial and lives in the Capital Wasteland, which is on the east coast.
The Courier is from the west coast.
Stop trying to combine Fallout 3 and NV, the whole Fallout universe does not revolve around Fallout 3. In fact Fallout 3 is more standalone than any of the other main series Fallout games (F1, F2 and NV).
Also your little theory or whatever does not take into account almost any canon at all. Even if you did ally with the Lone Wanderer what would he/she look like? What weapons would they use? What armour would they wear? Why are both the NCR and Caesar's Legion heading for this secret vault in Ft. Smith? Taking that into account how would the NCR get past Legion territory and why would the Legion advance east when they've been trying to take over the west all of this time?
I didn't really like it based on the stupidity of making androids meant for menial labor have feelings. Why would you do that? Plus the actual quest itself wasn't that interesting.AlternatePFG said:
I was excited for it until I went onto the PSN store a couple of hours ago to find that it wan't even there. Either because Australia uses Europe's store or because we have to wait for America to catch up to us (after all we do live in the future).
[HEADING=1]Chapter XXXI - Showdown at Canterbury Commons[/HEADING]
And now for the thrilling finale of the bizarre, out of place sidequests trilogy. Vampires, androids, what's next? Aliens? Not yet.
Canterbury Commons is a little bit north of Vault 108, we don't have a fast travel marker anywhere nearby.
Our closest fast travel location is Meresti Trainyard.
It's a bit of a walk though.
Everytime I see a big overpass, I look for a town built on it.
The Enclave interrupts our peaceful walk. It's like everything wants to kill you out here.
These are the weaker guys. They aren't as strong as the Tesla Armored guys, but they're still a threat if you aren't careful.
The plasma rifle we just got is amazing. Again, one of the best energy weapons in the game. Couldn't get it if you helped Zimmer.
There is like 3 enclave soldiers and a robot firing constantly in our direction. I take cover to avoid getting disintegrated by them.
They aren't like the somewhat bullet spongy tesla armor soldiers, they go down in a few headshots.
Can you make any sense of this screenshot? I can't.
One good thing about all these enclave guys in the wasteland is lots of easy, expensive loot.
A raider sees us wipe out a whole squad of enclave soldiers, and thinks that he could take us on his own.
I still want to see a city built on a broken monorail track.
We're able to enter the scrapyard from over here. We can go through here for a shortcut. I'm sure nothing interesting will happen on our way through here.
You can hear shooting, and... barking?
Holy shit, that's one badass dog.
The .44 Scoped Magnum is pretty good.
Yup, there's Dogmeat.
"You know, I think you're the first dog I've met that didn't try to eat me."
" "
"I guess your old master must have taken pretty good care of you."
" "
"I can be your new master. Would you like that, boy?"
""
So, we get Dogmeat as a companion. Awesome. Dogmeat is really good, he's almost indestructible, even in comparison to other companions. (Except for Fawkes of course.)
He should be fine as long as we keep him away from forcefields...
So now we continue to Canterbury Commons. I'm sure there will be no more distractions along the way.
I hope you like yao guai, because at this level you see a ton of them in the wasteland.
Dogmeat makes short work of them.
Oh look, the Regulator HQ. Let's check it out.
This is the Regulator HQ. We're only able to get inside if we have the lawbringer perk, otherwise it is locked. (This is the same for the contract killer location as well, in fact it was back in the scrapyard.)
We leveled up upon discovering this location. We're already at level 15, so we're halfway to the level cap.
I max out repair. We're halfway to the level cap and we already have 4 skills maxxed out skills. (To be fair, without Broken Steel we'd be only 5 levels away from the cap, but we've still neglected the majority of the bobbleheads, skillbooks and other nonsense.)
Adamantium Skeleton because again, there's no other perks that wouldn't be a waste of a perk.
You know, they could have cleaned out the skeletons and stuff from their building.
This is their leader.
"You're not bad people, from what I understand. And the Regulators can always use good folks. So, what do you say? You read the notice, and you're here, so I'm guessing that you want to ride with us. Am I right?"
So, apparently, these guys are all about killing evildoer's. That's it really, there isn't any other depth to the Regulators. They're the karma opposite of the talon mercs.
"Yes, I want to join you."
"Fantastic. Take this coat. We all wear them. The unrighteous fear the sight of the Regulators."
So, they're your basic lawful stupid paladin types. Awesome.
"Now, as for the rest, here's the only thing we want from you: hunt down the evil, the wicked, and the villainous. Bring them to justice."
I could maybe buy the comically evil talon mercs, if people were hiring them to kill people would be nuisances, but these guys? There just really no reason for these guys to exist.
"Bring us their fingers as proof of the deed."
Don't you usually need heads to be able to tell who it is...?
"We'll pay you a bounty for each one. Simple, right? Questions?"
"What do you do with these fingers?"
"Nothing. Nothing at all. They only serve to mark the fact that justice has been done."
Aww, no finger necklaces? I regret taking this perk...
"While we trust our members not to take innocent lives for profit, having a record of the deed is sometimes necessary. While we don't have liars in our midst, occasionally we all... embellish a bit."
If we did have liars in our midst, we'd be able to tell, because we can tell what karma anyone has on the spot.
We find some yao guai attacking their brahmin.
Those things are huge when they stand up.
These raiders are too stupid to live.
For some reason we're carrying around a flamer. I'll ditch it soon, we don't have any points in big guns.
Fallout 3 really is a big game. You can spend a huge amount of time just walking from one end of the map to another. It's just that the Capital Wasteland is honestly pretty samey. Don't get me wrong, there's a huge variety of locations, but there is not much variety in scenery is all.
More fucking yao guai. I could be wrong, someone can correct me otherwise, but different animals show up randomly depending on your level.
I love the perforator.
Canterbury Commons is in sight.
There's enclave soldiers stationed right by the road to Canterbury Commons. How do the traders get past this?
Well, it's just one guy, right?
I see a radscorpion running across the field, killing all the brahmin in the area.
The flamer is completely useless against the radscorpion.
And out of nowhere, giant fireballs start raining from the sky.
Fuck, it's an enclave Hellfire trooper.
After taking care of the radscorpion, we get attacked by a ton of enclave soldiers. The hellfire troopers are actually pretty dangerous, on par with super mutant overlords, ghoul reavers, etc.
They can do some serious damage to you. Thankfully with VATS you can cheese the fight a bit.
I resort to using a plasma grenade against the hellfire trooper.
And he still doesn't go down. After a few more shots, the hellfire trooper goes down quickly.
There are enclave officers as well, they have plasma pistols and don't have any power armor.
There are just a ton of soldiers in this outpost here. More than usual. I'm really not used to this, as I generally just blast through the whole story all at once, so all the enclave outposts disappear by the time I get to Broken Steel.
The bullets seem to get past this guys armor quite easily.
The normal enclave soldiers go down extremely quickly.
They have a bunch of ammo and weapons stashed in this base over here.
After that rude interruption, we get back on course for Canterbury Commons.
Canterbury Commons is pretty much just a block of buildings in the middle of nowhere, just like all the other settlements in the game.
What the hell? A women dressed up as an ant and a man dressed as a robot are facing off with each other, with armies of ants and robots respectively... What?
Citizen? What makes you so much more capable than us?
Ugh, let's find someone sane to talk to.
"Name's Roe. Uncle Roe, to most. Welcome to Canterbury Commons... for what that's worth."
"You seem to be pretty calm, considering there was just war in your streets."
"That must be the twentieth time I've seen those two go at it. They're our problem citizens: the Mechanist and the AntAgonizer."
AntAgonizer? Ugh.
"A while ago, we were attacked by the AntAgonizer - that woman with the ants, obviously. The Mechanist saved the town with his robots. That was all well and good, but I swear their fighters are getting bigger, and it's been driving off the merchants. They simply won't leave!"
Yeah, they might actually bring 5 ants. Then things will get serious.
"I might be able to help."
Why can't these people solve their own problems? (Less of a criticism of the game, more of a comment on RPG's in general.)
"Oh that's terrific! I knew you'd help out. Knew it in my gut, and it's never steered me wrong on a deal, yet!"
He's got protagonist vision.
"Find where the AntAgonizer and the Mechanist hide, and convince them to stop or otherwise end their hostility, and you'll earn 200 caps."
Wow, 200 caps? That could buy us 6 stimpaks!
"You only need to stop one of them, really. Nowadays, I think they only stay in Canterbury to fight each other."
You do know they're not actually real superheroes, right? Wait for their "armies" to wipe each other out, then force them to leave with your guns.
"[Speech, 100%] Double that, and you've got yourself a deal."
Wouldn't this be a barter check?
"[SUCCESS] Hmm. You drive a hard bargain friend. But seeing how we haven't been able to solve the problem ourselves, fine. You got a deal. But I expect results! Oh, and please, do try to use some discretion. We already have plenty of would-be heroes starting wars in our streets. We don't need another."
So apparently Canterbury Commons is the wasteland equivalent of Gotham City.
So, how are we going to find them? Apparently talking to a random kid will give you their location. Otherwise, you'd have to walk around until you bumped into their respective lairs. (To be fair, they're literally yards away from the town.)
"This is serious business. You could get hurt. What do you know about them?"
"You sound like Uncle Roe. He never lets me watch when they fight. They're just about the only exciting thing that happens in this town."
Canterbury Commons has the same problem Arefu has: There's like one or two people guarding the town, tops. And unlike Arefu, Canterbury Commons is actually rather important, it's a trading center. So why haven't they been attacked by enclave/raiders/super mutants/slavers/any other various band of assholes?
"Life around here is pretty hard, huh?"
"Yeah, I guess. There's no one to play with."
Well, there's only like a dozen kids in the game total. (Outside of the Place That Must Not Be Named.)
"Everyone is so serious. It really kind sucks."
This line describes the game in general. (Kidding. About the sucking part at least.)
"But the AntAgonizer's strong and forceful, and the Mechanist, he's smart and good. They make things fun. Well, exciting anyway."
I just really have to wonder, why would there be these people dressing up like superheroes in the wasteland? When every day is apparently a struggle for survival, don't you think people would have better things to do?
"I bet it's awesome to be them. Maybe they'll let me be their sidekick?"
They could use you as a shield, since you're invulnerable.
"What do you know about the AntAgonizer and the Mechanist?"
"You mean the super-heroes? Yeah, I try to wach all of their fights!"
It's their equivalent of cable wrestling.
"What can you tell me about the Mechanist?"
"I knew the Mechanist back when he was just a normal-hero."
Okay, what qualifies as a "normal-hero"?
"He used to be called Scott, and he fixed up stuff around town!"
What a hero, he fixed the broken toaster on many an occasion.
"But one day, the AntAgonizer killed his favorite robot, and I told him he ought to fight back against her like a real super-hero! Ever since then, he's been up in his Forge in the back of the robot shop on the hill, working to protect us all from the AntAgonizer!"
Now we know where to go next...
So the Mechanist is hiding out in a building not very far from Canterbury Commons. It's supposed to be a workshop, but one the outside it looks like a grocery store.
It isn't easy getting to the mechanist actually. He has sentry bots, which are really powerful.
There still are the weaker ones, like robobrains.
This building is awfully big on the inside, it looked a lot smaller when we entered it.
Dogmeat can't do shit against the turrets unfortunately.
Sentry bots are really powerful. I kind of cheese the fight by having Dogmeat do most of the damage, as Dogmeat is nearly invincible. Have you ever tried killing Dogmeat? How much ammo did it take for you to finally put him down?
You continue higher (really, the exterior of the building doesn't match with the interior at all.) and fight more turrets.
To make up for the 10mm pistols not so great damage, we have a ton of ammo for it.
By the end of Fallout 1, Dogmeat was kind of a nuisance. (At least if you were trying to keep him alive.) In Fallout 3 however, he's a monster.
This place is rather cool though.
You continue until you get to this office. It seems like a dead end, but part of the wall looks different from the rest...
You activate the coffee maker, and it reveals the most complicated secret door ever devised.
Like seriously, there's like 6 layers of interlocking doors.
It takes about 30 seconds for it open, no joke. And it isn't even some super impressive high-tech lair.
I can't take this guy seriously.
Oh god, what a ridiculous costume.
"Speak now citizen or I'll be forced to detain you until I can ascertain your true motives!"
"I'm just here to talk. We can find a peaceful way to stop this fighting."
"I realize you mean well, but I'm afraid you're being naive. The AntAgonizer is a madwoman and the only thing that will stop her is force. As much as I wish peace were an option, the AntAgonizer is too deluded, too inhuman to listen to reason."
How much of a threat could a person called the AntAgonizer be.
"Sadly, sometimes the scaly claw of tyranny must be destroyed by the cold, unfeeling pincers of justice!"
"[Speech, 100%] The fighting is causing more trouble for the town than the AntAgonizer ever did."
"[SUCCESS] Is... Is that true? Have I really become a bigger problem for the town than her? Am I really the villain, here?"
well, no. You're just an idiot. Both of you are.
"Does this mean I should stop myself? I... I guess I could just give up my suit and stop being the Mechanist. But I couldn't face the town after causing that much trouble. Here, please. Take the suit. I don't want to think about it anymore."
They really try to make the whole thing "morally ambiguous" but the problem is that the scenario is too stupid for me to care.
We get to take a shortcut out.
So now we go down the hill and find the AntAgonizer.
What is the purpose of the door built into the wall of rocks?
This bunker/base/whatever is filled with mines.
We reveal a secret passage. Let's go downstairs.
The AntAgonizer's lair is through this hole in the wall.
The ants you fight in the tunnel are pitifully weak. If you talk to the kid from earlier, and have the Child at Heart perk, he'll tell you both of their weaknesses.
This is what I'm talking about. This is a secret lair.
How can she see the armor in our inventory...
"Wait. First, let's talk about what you've been doing."
"You would dare to tell the AntAgonizer to wait? No human commands the Ant Queen! But as you have defeated my nemesis, I will allow you to talk. Quickly."
"Humanity's made mistakes, but there's still a chance for us."
What? That dialogue option came out of left field...
"Perhaps... But I'll snuff those chances soon enough. Now, my royal guard, kill this commoner!"
You can't talk the AntAgonizer out of not attacking you if you have the Mechanist's armor on you. Even if you killed him/talked him out of being a super hero, she'll refuse to talk with you unless you have his armor.
The same applies for the Mechanist for some reason, he'll always attack you. We kind of missed off on the optimal reward for this quest, we could have gotten a nice laser pistol. (It functions exactly like the metal blaster, but not as good, so I don't really care.)
The AntAgonizer pretty much gets instantly vaporized.
So, that's it for the quest... It's pretty short, and honestly, not very interesting design wise. There isn't much to finding these guys, and the actual gameplay isn't very fun. Ah well, at least we got Dogmeat along the way. Let's go get our reward...
The NPC is in the building over here.
"That's grand! I do believe it's fair to say you've saved Canterbury. And unlike that Mechanist, you did so with significantly less stress all around! Now, I do believe this is our agreed upon payment for you fine services rendered. And a little bonus, as a special thank-you!"
So now get 600 caps instead of 400. Eh.
So, with that, comes the end of the trilogy of bizarre, out of place quests in Fallout 3. Next time we'll hopefully to get to something less silly.
Canterbury Commons is a little bit north of Vault 108, we don't have a fast travel marker anywhere nearby.
Our closest fast travel location is Meresti Trainyard.
It's a bit of a walk though.
Everytime I see a big overpass, I look for a town built on it.
The Enclave interrupts our peaceful walk. It's like everything wants to kill you out here.
These are the weaker guys. They aren't as strong as the Tesla Armored guys, but they're still a threat if you aren't careful.
The plasma rifle we just got is amazing. Again, one of the best energy weapons in the game. Couldn't get it if you helped Zimmer.
There is like 3 enclave soldiers and a robot firing constantly in our direction. I take cover to avoid getting disintegrated by them.
They aren't like the somewhat bullet spongy tesla armor soldiers, they go down in a few headshots.
Can you make any sense of this screenshot? I can't.
One good thing about all these enclave guys in the wasteland is lots of easy, expensive loot.
A raider sees us wipe out a whole squad of enclave soldiers, and thinks that he could take us on his own.
I still want to see a city built on a broken monorail track.
We're able to enter the scrapyard from over here. We can go through here for a shortcut. I'm sure nothing interesting will happen on our way through here.
You can hear shooting, and... barking?
Holy shit, that's one badass dog.
The .44 Scoped Magnum is pretty good.
Yup, there's Dogmeat.
"You know, I think you're the first dog I've met that didn't try to eat me."
" "
"I guess your old master must have taken pretty good care of you."
" "
"I can be your new master. Would you like that, boy?"
""
So, we get Dogmeat as a companion. Awesome. Dogmeat is really good, he's almost indestructible, even in comparison to other companions. (Except for Fawkes of course.)
He should be fine as long as we keep him away from forcefields...
So now we continue to Canterbury Commons. I'm sure there will be no more distractions along the way.
I hope you like yao guai, because at this level you see a ton of them in the wasteland.
Dogmeat makes short work of them.
Oh look, the Regulator HQ. Let's check it out.
This is the Regulator HQ. We're only able to get inside if we have the lawbringer perk, otherwise it is locked. (This is the same for the contract killer location as well, in fact it was back in the scrapyard.)
We leveled up upon discovering this location. We're already at level 15, so we're halfway to the level cap.
I max out repair. We're halfway to the level cap and we already have 4 skills maxxed out skills. (To be fair, without Broken Steel we'd be only 5 levels away from the cap, but we've still neglected the majority of the bobbleheads, skillbooks and other nonsense.)
Adamantium Skeleton because again, there's no other perks that wouldn't be a waste of a perk.
You know, they could have cleaned out the skeletons and stuff from their building.
This is their leader.
"You're not bad people, from what I understand. And the Regulators can always use good folks. So, what do you say? You read the notice, and you're here, so I'm guessing that you want to ride with us. Am I right?"
So, apparently, these guys are all about killing evildoer's. That's it really, there isn't any other depth to the Regulators. They're the karma opposite of the talon mercs.
"Yes, I want to join you."
"Fantastic. Take this coat. We all wear them. The unrighteous fear the sight of the Regulators."
So, they're your basic lawful stupid paladin types. Awesome.
"Now, as for the rest, here's the only thing we want from you: hunt down the evil, the wicked, and the villainous. Bring them to justice."
I could maybe buy the comically evil talon mercs, if people were hiring them to kill people would be nuisances, but these guys? There just really no reason for these guys to exist.
"Bring us their fingers as proof of the deed."
Don't you usually need heads to be able to tell who it is...?
"We'll pay you a bounty for each one. Simple, right? Questions?"
"What do you do with these fingers?"
"Nothing. Nothing at all. They only serve to mark the fact that justice has been done."
Aww, no finger necklaces? I regret taking this perk...
"While we trust our members not to take innocent lives for profit, having a record of the deed is sometimes necessary. While we don't have liars in our midst, occasionally we all... embellish a bit."
If we did have liars in our midst, we'd be able to tell, because we can tell what karma anyone has on the spot.
We find some yao guai attacking their brahmin.
Those things are huge when they stand up.
These raiders are too stupid to live.
For some reason we're carrying around a flamer. I'll ditch it soon, we don't have any points in big guns.
Fallout 3 really is a big game. You can spend a huge amount of time just walking from one end of the map to another. It's just that the Capital Wasteland is honestly pretty samey. Don't get me wrong, there's a huge variety of locations, but there is not much variety in scenery is all.
More fucking yao guai. I could be wrong, someone can correct me otherwise, but different animals show up randomly depending on your level.
I love the perforator.
Canterbury Commons is in sight.
There's enclave soldiers stationed right by the road to Canterbury Commons. How do the traders get past this?
Well, it's just one guy, right?
I see a radscorpion running across the field, killing all the brahmin in the area.
The flamer is completely useless against the radscorpion.
And out of nowhere, giant fireballs start raining from the sky.
Fuck, it's an enclave Hellfire trooper.
After taking care of the radscorpion, we get attacked by a ton of enclave soldiers. The hellfire troopers are actually pretty dangerous, on par with super mutant overlords, ghoul reavers, etc.
They can do some serious damage to you. Thankfully with VATS you can cheese the fight a bit.
I resort to using a plasma grenade against the hellfire trooper.
And he still doesn't go down. After a few more shots, the hellfire trooper goes down quickly.
There are enclave officers as well, they have plasma pistols and don't have any power armor.
There are just a ton of soldiers in this outpost here. More than usual. I'm really not used to this, as I generally just blast through the whole story all at once, so all the enclave outposts disappear by the time I get to Broken Steel.
The bullets seem to get past this guys armor quite easily.
The normal enclave soldiers go down extremely quickly.
They have a bunch of ammo and weapons stashed in this base over here.
After that rude interruption, we get back on course for Canterbury Commons.
Canterbury Commons is pretty much just a block of buildings in the middle of nowhere, just like all the other settlements in the game.
What the hell? A women dressed up as an ant and a man dressed as a robot are facing off with each other, with armies of ants and robots respectively... What?
Citizen? What makes you so much more capable than us?
Ugh, let's find someone sane to talk to.
"Name's Roe. Uncle Roe, to most. Welcome to Canterbury Commons... for what that's worth."
"You seem to be pretty calm, considering there was just war in your streets."
"That must be the twentieth time I've seen those two go at it. They're our problem citizens: the Mechanist and the AntAgonizer."
AntAgonizer? Ugh.
"A while ago, we were attacked by the AntAgonizer - that woman with the ants, obviously. The Mechanist saved the town with his robots. That was all well and good, but I swear their fighters are getting bigger, and it's been driving off the merchants. They simply won't leave!"
Yeah, they might actually bring 5 ants. Then things will get serious.
"I might be able to help."
Why can't these people solve their own problems? (Less of a criticism of the game, more of a comment on RPG's in general.)
"Oh that's terrific! I knew you'd help out. Knew it in my gut, and it's never steered me wrong on a deal, yet!"
He's got protagonist vision.
"Find where the AntAgonizer and the Mechanist hide, and convince them to stop or otherwise end their hostility, and you'll earn 200 caps."
Wow, 200 caps? That could buy us 6 stimpaks!
"You only need to stop one of them, really. Nowadays, I think they only stay in Canterbury to fight each other."
You do know they're not actually real superheroes, right? Wait for their "armies" to wipe each other out, then force them to leave with your guns.
"[Speech, 100%] Double that, and you've got yourself a deal."
Wouldn't this be a barter check?
"[SUCCESS] Hmm. You drive a hard bargain friend. But seeing how we haven't been able to solve the problem ourselves, fine. You got a deal. But I expect results! Oh, and please, do try to use some discretion. We already have plenty of would-be heroes starting wars in our streets. We don't need another."
So apparently Canterbury Commons is the wasteland equivalent of Gotham City.
So, how are we going to find them? Apparently talking to a random kid will give you their location. Otherwise, you'd have to walk around until you bumped into their respective lairs. (To be fair, they're literally yards away from the town.)
"This is serious business. You could get hurt. What do you know about them?"
"You sound like Uncle Roe. He never lets me watch when they fight. They're just about the only exciting thing that happens in this town."
Canterbury Commons has the same problem Arefu has: There's like one or two people guarding the town, tops. And unlike Arefu, Canterbury Commons is actually rather important, it's a trading center. So why haven't they been attacked by enclave/raiders/super mutants/slavers/any other various band of assholes?
"Life around here is pretty hard, huh?"
"Yeah, I guess. There's no one to play with."
Well, there's only like a dozen kids in the game total. (Outside of the Place That Must Not Be Named.)
"Everyone is so serious. It really kind sucks."
This line describes the game in general. (Kidding. About the sucking part at least.)
"But the AntAgonizer's strong and forceful, and the Mechanist, he's smart and good. They make things fun. Well, exciting anyway."
I just really have to wonder, why would there be these people dressing up like superheroes in the wasteland? When every day is apparently a struggle for survival, don't you think people would have better things to do?
"I bet it's awesome to be them. Maybe they'll let me be their sidekick?"
They could use you as a shield, since you're invulnerable.
"What do you know about the AntAgonizer and the Mechanist?"
"You mean the super-heroes? Yeah, I try to wach all of their fights!"
It's their equivalent of cable wrestling.
"What can you tell me about the Mechanist?"
"I knew the Mechanist back when he was just a normal-hero."
Okay, what qualifies as a "normal-hero"?
"He used to be called Scott, and he fixed up stuff around town!"
What a hero, he fixed the broken toaster on many an occasion.
"But one day, the AntAgonizer killed his favorite robot, and I told him he ought to fight back against her like a real super-hero! Ever since then, he's been up in his Forge in the back of the robot shop on the hill, working to protect us all from the AntAgonizer!"
Now we know where to go next...
So the Mechanist is hiding out in a building not very far from Canterbury Commons. It's supposed to be a workshop, but one the outside it looks like a grocery store.
It isn't easy getting to the mechanist actually. He has sentry bots, which are really powerful.
There still are the weaker ones, like robobrains.
This building is awfully big on the inside, it looked a lot smaller when we entered it.
Dogmeat can't do shit against the turrets unfortunately.
Sentry bots are really powerful. I kind of cheese the fight by having Dogmeat do most of the damage, as Dogmeat is nearly invincible. Have you ever tried killing Dogmeat? How much ammo did it take for you to finally put him down?
You continue higher (really, the exterior of the building doesn't match with the interior at all.) and fight more turrets.
To make up for the 10mm pistols not so great damage, we have a ton of ammo for it.
By the end of Fallout 1, Dogmeat was kind of a nuisance. (At least if you were trying to keep him alive.) In Fallout 3 however, he's a monster.
This place is rather cool though.
You continue until you get to this office. It seems like a dead end, but part of the wall looks different from the rest...
You activate the coffee maker, and it reveals the most complicated secret door ever devised.
Like seriously, there's like 6 layers of interlocking doors.
It takes about 30 seconds for it open, no joke. And it isn't even some super impressive high-tech lair.
I can't take this guy seriously.
Oh god, what a ridiculous costume.
"Speak now citizen or I'll be forced to detain you until I can ascertain your true motives!"
"I'm just here to talk. We can find a peaceful way to stop this fighting."
"I realize you mean well, but I'm afraid you're being naive. The AntAgonizer is a madwoman and the only thing that will stop her is force. As much as I wish peace were an option, the AntAgonizer is too deluded, too inhuman to listen to reason."
How much of a threat could a person called the AntAgonizer be.
"Sadly, sometimes the scaly claw of tyranny must be destroyed by the cold, unfeeling pincers of justice!"
"[Speech, 100%] The fighting is causing more trouble for the town than the AntAgonizer ever did."
"[SUCCESS] Is... Is that true? Have I really become a bigger problem for the town than her? Am I really the villain, here?"
well, no. You're just an idiot. Both of you are.
"Does this mean I should stop myself? I... I guess I could just give up my suit and stop being the Mechanist. But I couldn't face the town after causing that much trouble. Here, please. Take the suit. I don't want to think about it anymore."
They really try to make the whole thing "morally ambiguous" but the problem is that the scenario is too stupid for me to care.
We get to take a shortcut out.
So now we go down the hill and find the AntAgonizer.
What is the purpose of the door built into the wall of rocks?
This bunker/base/whatever is filled with mines.
We reveal a secret passage. Let's go downstairs.
The AntAgonizer's lair is through this hole in the wall.
The ants you fight in the tunnel are pitifully weak. If you talk to the kid from earlier, and have the Child at Heart perk, he'll tell you both of their weaknesses.
This is what I'm talking about. This is a secret lair.
How can she see the armor in our inventory...
"Wait. First, let's talk about what you've been doing."
"You would dare to tell the AntAgonizer to wait? No human commands the Ant Queen! But as you have defeated my nemesis, I will allow you to talk. Quickly."
"Humanity's made mistakes, but there's still a chance for us."
What? That dialogue option came out of left field...
"Perhaps... But I'll snuff those chances soon enough. Now, my royal guard, kill this commoner!"
You can't talk the AntAgonizer out of not attacking you if you have the Mechanist's armor on you. Even if you killed him/talked him out of being a super hero, she'll refuse to talk with you unless you have his armor.
The same applies for the Mechanist for some reason, he'll always attack you. We kind of missed off on the optimal reward for this quest, we could have gotten a nice laser pistol. (It functions exactly like the metal blaster, but not as good, so I don't really care.)
The AntAgonizer pretty much gets instantly vaporized.
So, that's it for the quest... It's pretty short, and honestly, not very interesting design wise. There isn't much to finding these guys, and the actual gameplay isn't very fun. Ah well, at least we got Dogmeat along the way. Let's go get our reward...
The NPC is in the building over here.
"That's grand! I do believe it's fair to say you've saved Canterbury. And unlike that Mechanist, you did so with significantly less stress all around! Now, I do believe this is our agreed upon payment for you fine services rendered. And a little bonus, as a special thank-you!"
So now get 600 caps instead of 400. Eh.
So, with that, comes the end of the trilogy of bizarre, out of place quests in Fallout 3. Next time we'll hopefully to get to something less silly.
So, what did you guys think about "The Superhuman Gambit" quest? In fact, did these quests come off as out of place to you, or am I simply exaggerating it a bit?
Superhero Gambit could have been waaaaay better. I liked the premise: two cheesy 1950's comic-type characters. You should have convinced them to face off against each other...or team up. This is a quest where being totally corny could have been appropriate.
Meanwhile...I'm downloading Lonesome Road right now. Woot! I mean....
Wootalyhoo!!
Meanwhile...I'm downloading Lonesome Road right now. Woot! I mean....
Wootalyhoo!!
Playing it right now, it's pretty interesting so far. I heard it's pretty much linear though, but I don't really have a problem with that as long as the Divide and story is actually interesting.DustyDrB said:
I see what you did there? Reference to the first game?s canon, correct?AlternatePFG said:
I never found Dogmeat. I found all the other companions (But only recruited the good ones). He is so powerful though. It makes the "Puppies" perk useless.
Eh. Wasn't all that great. I got the "optimal" ending my first time through. I did this quest right after Point Lookout though. Hint Hint! They did seem a little odd though. I will admit that.AlternatePFG said:
And you? I take it you don't like them that much?
Oh, and if I may offer a critique, the sort of running joke about towns on the top of over-passes is about as funny as it will get. Sorry. It strikes me as something you don't like, kinda how I despise Bishop from Neverwinter Nights 2 and will go on long rants if given the chance.
Have fun! I wonder though, will this be leading into the next Fallout game?DustyDrB said:
EDIT: I won't be playing till my school lets out in all likelyhood, but I really want to. I hope they add some good perks.
Since I don't see a topic discussing it and I don't really feel the need to make a topic dedicated to it: The weapons in Lonesome Road are awesome. This is the kickass weapon DLC, if anything else. The actual content is good too, but damn the weapons are great.
Are the enemies hard?AlternatePFG said:
Oh, and are the perks you can get any good?
And the story? Is it all we've been hoping for?
Yeah, the enemies are pretty difficult. Not so much the guys shooting at you, but the new creatures (who dig in the ground and attack you from behind) and the deathclaws are pretty tough. I'd say prefer this kind of difficulty over Old World Blues, where the enemies were just bullet sponges.CM156 said:
Perks are good as well.
Story? Well, there isn't much of a story so far, just Ulyssess talking to you. He has some interesting things to say, about it hasn't amounted to much yet. I feel like I'm nearing the end though.