I didn't think it was so bad. It wasn't the best DLC, but it certainly wasn't the worst.
My favorite part was actually the whole ingot collection quest, because it focused on Fallout 3's strong suits, exploration and combat. Also you get some pretty good loot out of it.
I also like that Bethesda at least tried to add some moral ambiguity. Sure the decision became obvious once logic was applied, but at least they tried to not make everything black and white.
I think the problem is the way in which they approached a "Moraly grey" choice
For example, have you played Dragon Age 2?
You have to side with either the Templars or the Mages
The Templars: Power triping religious authoritarians who hate mages.
The Mages: Demon consorting, power-tripping anarchists who hate templars.
Both: Are led by an insane person who either turns to blood magic or tries to kill you with a sith lightsaber
Now, does EITHER group sound like one you'd like to side with?
I think the best "Moraly Grey" choice is if you get a third option, which boils down to "F*** you, I refuse to play."
Refusing to side with either group, and focus on helping civilians.
Rather than present both sides as amoral pricks, I wish they would allow both sides to, through the story, make their point. Kinda how they did it in Mask of the Betrayer.
EDIT:
Oh, and in regards to Dragon Age 2, I agree with the templars. At least their second in command is smart and rational. The mages, however, don't really have a second in command. But of the main mages in the story:
Merrill is a (fully nutso) blood mage
Anders is a possesed terrorist
And the first enchanter. Well... Best not to go into that.
one a scale of "sucks" to "Best add-on ever" I'd give it a "'s okay". I had fun with it but the only time I ever went back there was when I was to impatient to find ammo I wanted.
It was a bit of a chore, really. It's a fetch quest with an arena attached when it comes down to the thick and thin of it. Most of my time was spent navigating uptown so I could find the last few raiders or a safe way down. I only do the DLC now so I can get the ammo press: all that 10mm ammo needs to do something.
What do I think of The Pitt:
This is only going by following your LP of it. Seems like it is very clumsily-paced, like they were so proud of Ashur as a character that they rushed you to get to him. Then that makes the content short. He does seem like a better character than anyone I met in my run of the main game, but going from Newbie to Worker to Ashur's best friend (why does he trust you?) was strange.
Still, it was enjoyable to follow it here.
Well, RPG's in general should take more cues from Mask of the Betrayer. That game was brilliant.
Another Lily's Log. I'll be doing one after each DLC. I'll probably update the next actual update later this afternoon.
(Side note - Sorry for the clunky beginning of the log, I really have no idea how you could justify this excursion to The Pitt in-character, for that matter I don't really see how you could justify any of the DLC in character, maybe except for Broken Steel and maybe Mothership Zeta, if you come upon it by accident.)
This log is extremely long due to it being the entire Pitt DLC in one entry.
[HEADING=1]Lily's Log - The Pitt[/HEADING]
I wasn't too far from the Jefferson Memorial. I could have just went straight there and perhaps found my dad. While I was heading over there however, there was a strange radio signal coming from the north.
A man broadcasted a message, asking anyone who would listen to help him "Free his people". I know this sounds insane and I still question why I decided to interrupt searching for my father to follow this message but I had a feeling in my gut that if my father was even still alive, he wouldn't be going anywhere anytime soon.
Besides, it's not like anyone else is going to help those people.
It was a long journey, to get to the source of the radio signal, and I was pretty much being constantly attacked by the creatures around me. It's like everything is lethal out here...
Eventually, I make it the origin of the radio signal. A man was fighting off some raiders, and I decided to help him out. He revealed to me that he was the man broadcasting that message. His name was Wernher and he wanted me to help him free the slaves of The Pitt. All I would have to do was to sneak in and steal a cure for the disease that spreads throughout The Pitt, so that the slaves could ransom it for their freedom. If only things were so simple...
I managed to get a disguise so that I could sneak into The Pitt off of a dead slave. I tried to reason with Wernher that there were other ways to go about this, but he seemed insistent that this was the only way. I didn't particularly trust the man, if this whole thing turns out to be a sham and he ends up trying to kill me, I wouldn't have been surprised.
If he takes me for a fool however, he is sorely mistaken.
We took a tunnel from the Capital Wasteland to the ruins of the old world city, Pittsburgh. While I didn't exactly buy Wernher's story, as soon as I stepped out into The Pitt, I could see just what condition The Pitt was in. Horribly polluted, to the point where the sky is blocked out by some sort of sickening orange cloud.
After a brief battle with some raiders, Wernher told me I was on my own. I donned the slave outfit and walked over the bridge to The Pitt. Mines, wild dogs, and a sniper all slowed me down from getting there, but I made it eventually.
One has to wonder though, what's the purpose of booby trapping the main entrance to your settlement?
Once I walked through the front gate, the raiders escorted me into the city. Apparently they though I was a run away, but aside from a passing mention of it, they didn't seem to care that I was armed to the teeth.
The working conditions for the slaves were terrible, and the people watching them were needlessly cruel. I had to help them, though I was regretting the decision of willingly becoming a slave. This put me in a bad spot, if I was discovered, I only had a pistol with hardly any ammo to defend myself.
I talked to a slave named Midea, who told me that I needed to recover ingots in the Steelyard to avoid suspicion. Aside from huge fault in the logic of sending the slaves in gather materials in the deadly Steelyard instead of some well armed guards, I decided that was probably the best course of action.
The whole time I spent in the Steelyard was a hellish experience. Horrible pollution and smoke obscured my view most of the time, and I was getting by creatures called trogs. Apparently this is what happens to those who live in The Pitt for too long. No wonder they need a cure so badly...
After the long and arduous task of gathering steel ingots, I made it back to the Mill in one piece. The Mill was an impressive piece of work, perhaps the only thing I've seen outside of the Vault that actually creates resources.
Now, after returning from that particular task, Midea informed me that the raiders were holding an arena, whoever won gained back their freedom. The idea was that we were supposed to win our freedom, get close to Ashur, and steal the cure right out from under him.
Ashur held a speech in front of the slaves about progress or some such nonsense. I seriously doubted that this man was anything other than a twisted tyrant, just like all the other raiders in the Capital Wasteland.
I fought in the arena and won, with barely a scratch on me. I gained my "freedom" which probably would have been more meaningful if it was not my fault for getting into this situation in the first place. I was granted an audience with Ashur, and I assumed that this would be my chance to steal the cure, and finally free the slaves. I was ready to leave that building, guns blazing, mowing down any raider who got in my way. The situation was not as simple as that however.
When I met him, Ashur came off as a reasonable person, which came as a surprise to me considering all of his guards were no better than the raiders who roamed the Capital Wasteland. He explained to me the reasons for what he was doing with The Pitt, that eventually once a cure was created, there would not be a need for slaves anymore. While I was cautious in debating this fact with him because of the entire facility of armed guards around me, I felt like Ashur truly meant well but I still did not agree with the methods that he used.
When he asked if I knew Wernher, I told him that Wernher was the one who sent me. I'd rather be honest and have him somewhat trust me than to try to backstab me later. He told me to take a look at the "cure" and before I realized what the cure actually was, I still was dead set on stealing it to give to the slaves...
The cure to the disease was a baby. The daughter of Ashur and Sandra, the scientist who was working on the cure to begin with. The baby was immune to any form of mutation, meaning not only could they make a cure for the disease in The Pitt, but other diseases involving radiation as well.
Not only was I outraged at the fact that Wernher lied to me about the cure being a baby, but I also realized that this baby meant more than just The Pitt. They could use this cure to help people throughout the wasteland, and if what Ashur said was true, the slaves would not be needed for much longer. I doubted the slaves had the technology to reproduce a cure from this child, not to mention that harm may come to the child if I gave it to the slaves.
Not to mention without the protection of Ashur's army, the slaves of The Pitt would be wiped out anyway.
I decided to help Ashur. Wernher lied to me and I wanted answers. I knew that Midea would know something, so I ran out of Haven. The slaves were rebelling, attacking the guards with auto-axes. They attacked me, but I did not fight back. I ran all the way to Midea's house without shooting a single bullet.
I managed to convince Midea to tell where Wernher was. She called me a traitor, and she would not listen to reason.
After making my way through city and into the Steelyard, I found Wernher's hideout.
Wernher confronted me about not taking the cure, saying that I didn't have to courage to change anything. It turns out I was right in my prediction of Wernher manipulating me to gain power. Wernher was a fool who would not listen to reason, just like Midea. It wasn't about the child, it was the consequences of taking the child and perhaps harming the chances of a cure ever being made. I managed to convince Wernher to leave The Pitt but part of me regrets letting him live.
Would the world be a better place without a person like that? He could just start this all ovr again with another random person who he hired to follow him to The Pitt. I'm sure Ashur and the raiders would at least be a little more cautious next time.
After making my way across the town and back to Haven, Ashur congratulated me for "saving" The Pitt. I could not convince him to free the slaves just yet, he said the cure would have to come first.
While I did think Ashur's actions would have the best outcomes for the Pitt and the Pitt would be much safer under him than Wernher, as I walked back to the tunnel and slowly made my way back to the Capital Wasteland, I found it hard to live with what I've done.
Even if The Pitt does flourish and the slaves become freed eventually, they will be enslaved for what will probably still be a very long time and probably as a result many of those people will die. I am responsible for that, I could very well have changed things. Even if I believe it's the best outcome, that the slaves would probably be in just as bad of a shape if I freed them, it's hard to justify it.
The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few...
[HEADING=1]Chapter XVI - Project Purity[/HEADING]
Last update we finished off The Pitt DLC and returned to the Capital Wasteland. Now we continue on our journey to find our father, our latest lead was the Jefferson Memorial, only a short walk away from Rivet City. Let's go there.
Now, we walk all the way back fast travel back to Rivet City. I still don't see a way you can justify walking all the way to the other end of the map for the DLC in-game but I'll shut up about it now.
Not pictured: Me going back to Megaton and dropping off a good chunk of the clothing, weapons and other crap we gathered from The Pitt. I also bought some supplies from Moira's as well.
In between updates, I might just get the rest of the ingots from The Pitt just so we can get the unique infiltrator (The Perforator) and the tribal power armor.
The Jefferson Memorial is barely visible through the fog.
Of course walking down the road leading to the memorial leads to "Surprise, more super mutants!!"
It's like there's a mandatory combat quota between each major part of story exposition. I don't really have an issue with that, but it kind of ruins the pacing a bit. Okay, we already decimated the pacing by doing The Pitt in between these two parts, but it just doesn't make any sense to have you fight through some mutant infested ruins, get a tiny bit of info, and then fight through some more mutant infested ruins.
I mean, at least change the pace and make them dog infested ruins or something.
We're hovering around 200 shots for the hunting rifle, and we have a few in extra rifles for repair. We pretty much hit that point in the game were the game loses any semblance of challenge. (Excluding higher difficulties of course)
There's a bunch of pipes hooked up to the memorial. Wonder what the scientists were doing over here.
I got like 5 crits in a row while fighting up here by the way. No idea how.
Now we're inside the memorial. It looks quite a bit bigger on the inside than it does the outside.
There's a turret that will shoot the super mutants in the other room but it will also shoot you. We can't hack to target only the mutants (Low science) so it would make sense just to back off, but hey, that's our XP damn it.
The infiltrator has a ridiculous rate of fire and it's silenced. The perforator is pretty much an improved version of that.
I'd still argue The Pitt is the least game-breaking DLC, maybe aside from the ammo mill.
Oh yeah, and it has a scope. Am I the only person who wishes it didn't go into scope mode in 3rd person? I mean, I'd rather it just zoom up further than usual, going into scope in 3rd person feels rather iffy.
So, I guess the idea is that super mutants are set up in here now with the sandbags and whatnot...? Why were they fighting that turret back there then...?
The amount of combat in this area is ridiculous.
So the scientists were set up pretty well over here. One has to wonder what the purpose of scientists are in a society that's still trying to scavenge food instead of growing it themselves but hey, at least they're doing something.
And now, here we are. Project Purity. The place which the games story revolves around, and it also has to be where a good chunk of complaints about plot holes and other stuff are centered.
I'm going to keep this little rant short, because I'm saving it for when the game really gets going with Project Purity, but I feel like I should at least highlight my main issues with it.
Project Purity really doesn't make much sense. Removing radiation from water is actually not too difficult, and there's still robots in the wasteland that can purify water at smaller scales. I get that they want clean water to be available for everyone, sure. The problem is that in order to clean the water, they need to waste a GECK to do so.
Now apparently, in Fallout 3, instead of just being a kit that helps with farming, the GECK is made of magic. Stupid change in lore, but fine, I'll buy it. Why would you waste it on the water then? For that matter, how does it even work on the water? For some reason, even though it's been 200 years none of vegetation in the Capital Wasteland has grown back and people are still scavenging for food like the Great War happened only a few years ago. This is still why I think Fallout 3 seems to have been written as a prequel before they decided to set it later in the series. That's the only way I can see half the stuff in this game making sense. They could still just filter the water if they use the GECK for farming.
Now, the common fan wank answer is "Well, it's Fallout, 50's pseudo-science dictates that nothing would grow back and they wouldn't be able to filter water". There's two problems with that however. Fallout was never completely focused on 50's retro. It was an element of the games sure, but along with that were wild west and other elements too. Fallout 3 completely focuses on the 50's idea, much to it's detriment. The second is that it's supposed to be darker and more serious than the previous games in the series, which is why the magic GECK and focus on 50's themes just don't make sense and feel incredibly out of place. The games tone is just all over the place, there's a huge disconnect between the main plot, the sidequests, and the actual world.
Don't make your main plot revolve around something that has to be hand waved in order for it make sense.
Now we find notes from our dad. Listening to them gives us his location. He's the link to them in the wiki. The particular ones we found here are "Project Purity Personal Journal" 5, 8, and 10. [http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Project_Purity_journals#Project_Purity_personal_journals_2]
The other problem with the main plot is that it's just a rehash of the first two game's main plots, fused together. Don't believe me?
Fallout 1
Goal: Fix the water chip
Villains: Super Mutants
Fallout 2
Goal: Find the GECK
Villians: The Enclave
Fallout 3
Goal: Find the GECK so you can clean the water.
Villians: Super Mutants and The Enclave
There are many, many other elements shared between the first two and 3 but I'll leave it at that.
So now we're off to Vault 112 to find our father. Weren't we there before-
Sorry for the rant heavy update. This is where the main plot of the game goes from "It's alright but the characters are annoying" to "This is bullshit" in my eyes.
So alright, another question: If there was one area you'd want me to visit in this LP, tell me which one and why?
[HEADING=1]Chapter XVII - Wait, Haven't We Done This Before?[/HEADING]
Okay, so last update, we went to Project Purity and finally tracked down our father's next possible location. The question remains though: Will he still be there?
So now we leave Project Purity and we're off to Vault 112. It's not going to be a short trip, our closest fast travel point is Vault 101 and even then that's only maybe halfway there. So let's fast travel to Vault 101.
Not pictured: Me returning to The Pitt and collecting all 100 ingots. Yeah. Mostly to just get the most overpowered (In my opinion) weapon in the game, the Metal Blaster. Also to get the badass Tribal Power Armor but shhh. I probably could have just cheated for it, but damned if I cheat in my own LP.
I'm sure you wouldn't have wanted to see it anyway.
Leveled up in the middle of scavenging for ingots.
Commando should be useful for us, and there aren't really any other perks that could be useful to us. Impartial Mediation is interesting, gives you plus 30 speech if you're neutral, but keeping neutral karma is a pain in the ass.
Just showing you the 100 ingots proof. We also get the Perforator, a unique version of the Infiltrator.
Now, back in the Capital Wasteland, we're standing outside Vault 101. I wonder if it's too late to start banging on the door in the hopes that someone lets us in?
Yeah, we went this route earlier in the mini-update right after the first one. The only difference really is that we don't have to run past all the radscorpions.
Those overpasses are still standing even after 2 centuries and a nuclear war. I somehow doubt that...
Some raiders attack us on our way across a nearby road. Now it's time to show off the Metal Blaster.
While this particular shot wasn't a critical hit, except to him them nearly 99% of the time with the metal blaster with a decent luck. Why? Because it shoots 9 blasts at the same time per shot. It doesn't cost 9 ammo for each shot either, each shot costs only 1 microfusion cell.
We have a terrible energy weapons skill and it still gets 1 hit kills. Not to mention all you need to repair it is a laser rifle.
The Perforator is pretty damn strong too, but it's more dependant on your guns skill.
One has to wonder what the logic of building a hideout on top of a crumbling overpass. Even if the ground doesn't give way beneath you, you can still trip and fall off at any time.
I mean it's cool, but that pretty much sums up quite a bit of Fallout 3 in general doesn't it? Rule of cool without a whole lot of logic.
Found a nearly broken sniper rifle off of one of the raiders. Might as well use it. Snipers are pretty useful in this game for the most part.
And after all that fighting, there really isn't any reward for it, unless you count the sniper that the raider dropped. Whatever.
Nice view though.
Really? How does that car plus wooden plank bridge work? How would it support your weight? Once again reiterating the question: Why would you have your hideout up here?. Just wait till we get to Arefu.
There's a scavenger hanging out in a broken down barn...
Out of nowhere, a pack of dogs appear and attack the scavenger. INNOVATIVE RANDOM ENCOUNTER SYSTEM
I know it's 50's style DC, but the placement of buildings outside of the main city seems weird. It seems like there's suburbs, but they literally are about a block of houses in the middle of nowhere. Tenpenny Tower is the worst offender by far.
I admit, that was a funny line from the dying robot.
I mean, I'd imagine 50's DC to have a bigger density of buildings but I'm not sure. Can anyone explain perhaps?
We can see Tenpenny Tower in the distance. we'll visit it in due time.
However, if we decided to be evil assholes and blow up Megaton, we'd live there instead. There's absolutely no advantage to that, the house you get is smaller.
Evergreen Mills for later.
Radscorpions aren't the annoyance that they would be if we were level 2 and went straight here.
The Metal Blaster still works like a charm though.
So apparently, this is where the Vault is located. Seems inconspicuous.
I hope Dad's intel wasn't wrong. It would suck if he left a note saying he decided to go back to Rivet City instead.
Oh look, a nuka-cola quantum.
There's a few mole rats in the garage to annoy you. As if there wasn't enough annoying combat on the way here.
Using the metal blaster seems like overkill here.
Hitting a nearby switch opens up a nearby passage.
GAH!
Fucking molerats.
Now it's a fine pile of ash.
So now we are in the lower parts of the garage. Still seems like a weird place for a Vault- Oh god it's a trap.
Whoops, guess I was wrong. It really is a Vault.
This Vault is actually still in use (Well sort of) unlike every other Vault in this game. Unless you count 101 of course. (Speaking of 101, I only got the 1984 reference with the number "101" like yesterday. I feel like such an idiot.)
GAH! Stop it with this stuff jumping my face.
"Please re-dress in your Vault-Tec issued Vault suit before proceeding if you have misplaced your suit. I am authorized to distribute a new one. Once dressed, please proceed down the stairs to the main floor so that you may enter your assigned Tranquility Lounger."
This robot is still online and working after 200 years.
Woah. This Vault is much different than the other ones, that huge computer in the middle of the room looks kind of cool.
Ominous glowing red computer, never a good sign.
The Vault is completely empty, aside from the robot we encountered earlier.
Let's check out the Overseer's Office.
There's the overseer's office but unfortunately we can't get in there.
So all the inhabitants of Vault are inside this virtual reality pods. They've been in here for 200 years, somehow preserved and kept alive by these pods. Somehow it makes sense why there aren't any sleeping quarters or other common areas.
They use this same stock NPC for each pod, regardless of gender, except for...
Our dad!
Awesome, at least we don't have to do anymore fetch quests for annoying NPC's. We can't get him out, so logically the only option is to get into one of those pods ourselves.
What can go wrong?
Apparently the simulation screen is just a monitor. Huh...
Actually, I'm kind of regretting this choice now-
Uh oh.
What the fuck...?
So, my question for you guys is: What do you think of the LP so far? Anything you would like me to improve on?
Also, I'm just going restate the last question: Is there any area at all that you would like me to visit the most, and maybe say why.
The metal blaster is only overpowered until you start fighting the ridiculous Broken Steel ghouls and super mutant overlords. I hated those things so much. I did a lot of sidequests before bothering with the main quest so there were a bunch of overlords in the museum with the lander dish, and I was not prepared for them at all. I died so many times...
The only thing I'd have suggested re: the LP was more color commentary but this last update was actually pretty good about that. Make sure to check out the Republic of Dave.
I think the LP is going great so far just to tell you and I can't think of anything to improve upon. As for your question the location I would like you to visit most is the Dunwhich Building mainly because I always found it interesting other than that just Evergreen mills for all the violence.
This is probably the most dialogue heavy update I've done since the first, so keep that in mind. Tranquility Lane has no combat (Well, unless you play through it fully evil) or exploring, just dialogue everywhere.
[HEADING=1]Chapter XVIII - "Wacky" Hijinks in Tranquility Lane[/HEADING]
Last update we walked all the way across the wasteland (again) to get to Vault 112. Will we finally find our dad, or just another NPC to tell us that he just left to go someplace else.
Read the rest of this update to find out!
Spoiler: We find him.
So, we entered the VR pod and now we're stuck a in simulation called "Tranquility Lane". Basically, Trainquility Lane is every 50's styled sitcom you could imagine, including the black and white color scheme, and the never-ending cheerful music that can't ever leave your head even if you try to force it out by beating your head against a wall. The main difference being, is that Tranquility Lane has 100% more murder.
I guess that could improve any sitcom, honestly.
Bethesda wanted to go for dark humor here, what with the murder of the inhabitants of the town with cheery music playing in the background, but honestly I feel like it kind of falls flat. And it feels incredibly out of place with Fallout 3. Seems like something more suited to a random encounter in Fallout 2 than anything. I'll leave that up to you whether that's good or bad.
This is Lily now, we don't have any weapons or items to speak of.
Even our Pip-Boy is replaced with this stupid watch.
Gah, this already makes me want to puke. We got to get out of here.
Okay, let's go talk to Betty.
That's kind of a random patch of flowers.
Oh god, I already see where this is going.
"I was just starting to get bored. Oh, we're going to have so much fun."
"And you are...?"
"I'm Betty. I live here on Tranquility Lane. Want to play a game?"
"No thanks. No games for me."
"Ha ha. You don't get to say no. If I want to play a game, you're going to play. And I want to."
"Look, kid. I'm not interested in playing games."
"I said, I Want to play a game. It's easy. You make Timmy Neusbaum Cry, and I'll help you. If you don't... Then I guess you're stuck here."
But thou must.
In reality, there is an alternate option to get Tranquility Lane finished in like 5 minutes, but where's the fun in that. We'll still do it of course, cause we're good characters after all, but only after a few of Betty's "games".
Well, I've done few things pettier than this in video games, but why not?
"It's not real, none of it! It needs to end... The suffering must end!"
"Finally, someone who knows what's going on! How do I get out of here?"
"We're not really here. We're not really talking. It's all made-up, make-believe. We're sleeping, dreaming. The dream became a nightmare. It has to end, it just has to. But we're not in charge. He is, and he doesn't want us to wake up."
"Who are you talking about?"
"He calls himself Betty now, but he's still the same. He can put on a new face all he likes, but underneath he's still evil. Braun. Bastard thinks because he helped create this place he's God here. But I know he still uses the Failsafe terminal. I know it."
"What Failsafe? What the hell are you talking about?"
"It's in the abandoned house. He doesn't want us going in there, because he's afraid we might find it."
Pfft, in order for someone to find it, they need to memorize the almost omnipresent background music that I'm almost sure the NPC's can't hear. If they can hear it, than truly this Braun is an absolute monster.
"It's the only terminal to the outside; the only way to shut the whole thing down. You've got to find it."
We'll do this eventually, but first, time to bully a random kid.
"[Speech, 100%] Hey, I heard your parents are getting a divorce because of you."
"[SUCCESS] What? Did I do something bad?"
"Sorry, Timmy. I just thought you should know."
"No, no! Not my mommy and daddy! Nooo! [crying]"
You get evil karma for picking on a small child. Really, Bethesda? The evil karma equivalent for making the little kid cry, of eating people with cannibalism 50 times, or half the karma drop of murdering random NPCs.
Fuck the karma system.
Now we return to Betty to get our reward, which really is just more info. You have to wonder what's going through your character's head as this is happening.
"I had a feeling you'd come around. Your approach was somewhat uninspired, but it'll do."
Alternatively, we could have just punched him in the face, murdered his parents, or give him a military school pamphelet to make him think his parents are sending him off to military school.
Multiple options and different responses for different ones, good job Bethesda. It just seems like they forgot to do that with the rest of the main quest. (Sidequests usually have a good amount of options to them, some of them are rather stupid though.)
"Since you won this game, you get a prize. You may ask one question, which I will answer as honestly as possible."
"Where's my father?"
"Your father?"
Let me narrow it done for you: He's a middle aged guy. That should help.
"Look, I know he's in here. I mean, in the Vault."
"Your father? Oh, I had no idea. This is simply too rich. He's the reason you came here? I mistakenly assumed you had simply blundered in here on your own."
Why, and how, would someone know of Vault 112, decide to enter it, find it completely abandoned except for the VR pods, and decide to get in one VR pods themselves.
Oh wait, us.
"Well, this certainly changes things, doesn't it? I daresay it gives you a whole new level of motivation to avoid angering me."
"What have you done with my father?"
"Were I you, I'd be more concerned with myself at the moment. And besides, we're done with questions for now. Perhaps we'll address it at a later time. First, I have something else for you to do."
"What do you want me to do?"
"Pay a visit to the Rockwells. They're very happily married, and I'd like you to change that. Put an end to their marriage, and we'll talk."
I'll give Bethesda credit, never before have I played an RPG where the quest objective is "Getting a 50's couple living inside a simulation divorced."
"Fine, but it's only because I want more answers from you."
"Rationalize it any way you'd like. If you succeed, we'll continue our discussion."
We have to split these two up. You can do it in multiple ways. You can simply speech-check them into fighting with each other, you can grab lingerie from the neighbors house and put it on the desk downstairs (Which is what we will be doing) or, if you want to be a really evil bastard, you can read Janet's diary saying that she would like to kill Mrs. Simpson. You can then murder Mrs. Simpson with a rolling pin and frame Janet for it. I'm sure Braun would love that.
Again, really creative quest design, it's just that I don't like Tranquility Lane. It completely ruins the pacing of the story, the tonal shift is huge, and I don't find it very funny. (I find the idea funny, but I personally didn't like the execution of it.)
Now we have to walk upstairs and steal a nightgown from the bedroom. If you're wondering, no, the NPCs don't react if you walk randomly into their houses and go through their stuff.
Now we take the Lacy Underwear, and take it back to the Rockwell's house.
Again, they have no qualms with a kid they've never seen before going into their basement.
You place the clothing here, now it's time to call Janet down to show her it.
"You'd better come down to the basement. There's something you need to see."
Kid I've never seen before breaks into my house, and tells me there is something I have to see in my basement. Nothing strange about that at all.
"What were you doing in our basement? What's down there?"
"Just trust me. It's important."
"Okay, if you say so."
Her reaction is what you'd expect.
Okay, so kid sneaks into your house, goes into your basement and comes back up telling you about evidence of your husband cheating on you. Nothing strange about that?
"It looks like Roger is a fan of women's clothing."
"But... This isn't mine. What is this doing here?"
"Well, then I guess he's cheating on you."
Some of the PC options are pretty hilarious. "Maybe it's his. You know, for him to wear when no one is looking..."
"My God... I knew it. I knew it!"
Pretty stupid. So, the outcome is what you'd expect, now it's time to return to Betty.
There's our dad, apparently Braun turned him into a dog for whatever reason. We don't know this right now of course.
I swear, it seems like Braun is getting off on this somehow.
"I enjoy your company far more than your father's. He responded quite negatively to my requests."
"I did what you wanted. Now you have some explaining to do."
"You have amused me thus far, but I still don't think you're quite in a position to be demanding anything. Still, I suppose you've earned the right to some further answers. What would you ask of me?"
"Where's my father now?"
"He's here, and he is unharmed. He has merely been rendered unable to bother me."
"I want to see him. Where is he?"
"If you continue to behave, and do as I ask, I may be willing to release both of you. But first you have work to do."
"Fine. Let's just get this over with."
"Oh, come now. Show some enthusiasm! There are fewer rules this time. I'd like to see just what you're capable of. I'd like you to kill Mabel Henderson. Please put some effort into it; do something creative. Beating her to death won't impress me."
Murder would be completely out of character for us. I suppose we should have drawn the line at the very beginning but I wanted to show at least some of the cool stuff.
"No, I won't do that."
"Still you resist me, when you know that I have the answers you seek. Well, I am not going to beg you. You know what I ask of you, and so you know what you must do to retain my favor."
For those who are curious, you have quite a few options to kill Mabel:
- You can rig a chandelier to fall on her
- You can rig her over to explode
- You can put rollerskates near the staircase, so that she trips on them and falls down the stairs
- Hack her Mr. Handy to attack her
Again, a good amount of options here. I realize how psychotic that sounds, complimenting that the game gives you a good amount of options for killing a housewive.
No wonder games get such a bad reputation.
Instead of helping Braun, we go to the nearby abandoned house in order to activate the failsafe.
Okay, this is kind of creepy. It's not nearly as bright, or as clean as the other houses.
When they reused this house (Not in black and white format of course) in Old World Blues, it still freaked me out for some reason. No idea why.
So now, you have to activate each prop that plays a tone. The goal is to have each tone vaguely match the song playing in the background.
It's just trial and error, but at least it's creative.
And the screen just phases into existence once we finish with the puzzle/mini-game thing.
There's a bit of background info on Vault 112 in this terminal.
Apparently Tranquility Lane isn't the only simulation. [http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Tranquility_Lane_terminal_entries#Tranquility_Lane_terminal]
It's not even the only simulation in the game, we have yet to play Operation Anchorage. And while Tranquility Lane is a huge tone shift, at least it's got some decent design elements. Operation Anchorage on the other hand, has a huge tone shift, and is in general, crap.
The failsafe kills everybody in the pods by having virtual chinese soldiers gun them down and kill them. You can't save the people, because they're like 200 years old and would die instantly after leaving the simulation. It's considered a mercy kill, but I'd still wish for a third option that lets you grant control over the simulation to the vault dwellers but eh, would make the other options rather pointless.
They don't seem to notice us, so let's get the fuck out of here, and maybe gloat at Braun before we leave.
"You've ruined everything! EVERYTHING!"
"I put these people out of their misery. You're getting exactly what you deserve."
"You've taken them all from me. You've left me with nothing! It's not fair... Nobody to play with ever again..."
A door magically appears near the playground. You walk through it and...
The simulation ends. Just like that.
Okay, so let's just pretend this whole thing never happened. I don't think this occurance is ever mentioned in the game again.
It's dad. Thank god, I'm happy that the game finally decided to stop dragging out this "Find dad" thing and actually have us find him. I was worried there would be like a note in the overseer's office saying that dad is at the Republic of Dave or something, all the way on the other side of the map.
WARNING: Incredibly long conversation incoming.
"It's so good to see you, but... What are you DOING here?"
Come on, you really didn't anticipate the Overseer losing his shit and chasing me outside as well?
"I came here to find you."
"Well, I'm glad you did. This certainly wasn't how I expected things to turn out. I wasn't ready for Braun, or I might've fared better."
"Good thing I showed up to save you."
"It certainly is! It's nice to feel like I'm on two legs again. And thanks to Doctor Braun, I know that Project Purity isn't lost after all."
Speaking of Braun, we should probably take a stop by his VR pod and drop a grenade in it on the way out.
"Whad did you learn?"
"I was right about Braun. The technology he developed is unstable, even dangerous, but it can be adapted for Project Purity."
Did Bethesda even bother to look up what the GECK really was?
"I need to return to Rivet City and talk with Madison. If we can find a GECK, we can make Project Purity work."
"So you're going back to Rivet City right now?"
"Yes. With what I've learned, Madison is sure to see that we can finally succeed where we failed so many years ago. I'd like you to come with me. I'd like you to be there when we finally open the floodgates."
"Okay, let's head for Rivet City."
"That's my girl! Let's hurry. Now that I know what we need, I want to get back to work as soon as possible."
"Can we just talk for a second?"
"Of course, honey. What's on your mind?"
"How could you leave me like that? What the hell were you thinking?"
"I wnated you to be safe. I didn't want this for you - a life out here in this godforsaken warzone."
I don't think you can even mention the Overseer flipping out and attacking you. Sure the wasteland isn't much better but we would have been dead for sure if we stayed in the Vault.
"I couldn't tell you what I was doing because I didn't want you following me. A plan which clearly was not as successful as I imagined it would be."
I would expect him to have more questions like "How did you find me?" or "Why did you leave the Vault, aside from wanting to find me." but nope.
"Why would you put yourself at risk like this? You have some sort of death wish?"
"What? No. No, of course not! I just... This is important work. Clean water can change the lives of so many people. It's worth the risk to help them."
"Helping people? What about helping your own daughter?"
And now the dialogue options just make your character sound selfish, but honestly, he knew the Overseer was paranoid. He should have seen this coming.
"I can understand that you're angry. You have a right to be. Perhaps the choice I made wasn't the right one."
Pfft, no it wasn't.
"At the time, I thought I was doing what was best for you."
Yes, trapping me in a Vault with the psychopathic overseer, without any idea of what is going on, is what was best for me.
"How could abandoning me be the right choice?"
"For almost twenty years now, I've done everything I can to see that you have a good life. The Vault wasn't perfect, to be sure, but it was the safest place in the Wasteland. That's why I took you there in the first place. I didn't see it as abandoning you. I saw it as moving on, knowing you were safe."
*facepalm* You can just say "You know what? Fuck you, Dad." but I think that would be a bit out of character, even if it is totally appropriate in this situation. Besides he just shrugs it off and says, I'm sorry you feel that way.
"Just forget it. Let's get this over with."
"I hope that you can understand why I've done the things that I've done. The last thing I want is to lose my daughter."
"What's the big deal about water, anyway?"
"The Vault you grew up in had its own water purification system. Clean water was never a worry."
Unless your water chip breaks, then you're screwed.
"Out here, things are different. Water out here is never clean, and almost always irradiated. It's barely able to sustain any kind of normal life. If we can change that, humanity has a real chance at rebuilding. Starting over."
People are already rebuilding elsewhere though. It's just that the capital wasteland is filled with stupid, lazy people.
Yeah, if you can?t tell, James really pisses me off. It?s a shame too, cause Neeson does a really good job with the voice acting. And seriously, at the beginning of the game before he leaves the Vault, he's a likeable character.
The worst part, is that you're never really given the dialogue options to chew him out. You can't ever bring up what happened in the Vault, and all you have to choose from are forgiving options, selfish options, or "I don't really give a shit either way" options.
Level up. So close to 100 lockpick...
And Dad just kind of runs off towards Rivet City. By himself. Unarmed.
Let's follow him before he gets murdered right after walking out of the Vault.
I just realized something: An entire update without combat. That's a first for Fallout 3.
Okay, new question: What did you think of Tranquility Lane?
I thought it was brilliant, although the karma system kinda screws the whole thing over. You either have a choice of being a massive dick and ruining your karma or being an even bigger dick and ruining your karma. But, here's the kicker, it wouldn't have been as good if there was a good option, it would have ruined the entire thing. That's the problem with karma systems, there's too much dependency on them. Had Bethesda cut out karma recording and just used reaction from people, this probably wouldn't be a problem.
I disagree that it was misplaced though, the tone shift was the entire point. Throughout the wasteland you have people who are either good, bad or in it for themselves. Braun isn't any of them, he's just a guy who is preserving the life of people and having fun. He'd gotten bored of Tranquillity Lane and decided to have some fun with a bunch of virtual people.
He wasn't a bad person, there was no moral issue with what he was doing, he was just bored and a little psychotic. The idea behind the tone shift was that it was just another vault gone wrong; people who should have lived perfect lives didn't.
I remember liking Tranquility Lane when I played Fallout 3, but it doesn't look as good now in your LP. Maybe it was because I hated the tone of the rest of the game so much that this was a welcome change.
Since I didn't think it would be interesting enough for a full on update, I decided to do a short one dedicated to us just following Dad through the wasteland. Unlike the other mini-update, this will be part of the LP's 'canon' so to speak, so anything that I've found (Which you can probably guess by the title) will show up later.
[HEADING=1]Mini-Update - Following Dad and Surprise Firelance Event[/HEADING]
Wow, what a strange collection of glitches and random occurances this update turned out to be. First things first, I took way too many screenshots. If I tried to do this like a full on update, I'd be here all day, and it'd be incredibly boring. So, I'm only going to give a fraction of the shots I took while out in the wilderness (Once we get into the main part of DC, things pick up and get interesting), where actually interesting stuff happens.
So, we can just fast travel to Rivet City, or we can escort dad there ourselves. Nothing bad happens to him if you just ignore the escort, but I feel like it's kind of fun and it makes absolutely no sense for your character not to follow him at this point anyways. He runs really fast when you follow him, but I believe after a certain distance, he stops. I didn't find this out till later in the update, so at one point I used the disable console command so he wouldn't go anywhere.
Whoops.
We leave Vault 112.
He goes in pretty much the complete opposite direction that we took to get here. Now you're probably wondering: There's a quite a few monsters that could snap a normal person like James like a twig. Can he die?
To that, which I'd respond, nope he is immortal. 90% of all the major plot important NPC's in this game cannot be killed. Unlike pretty much every major Fallout game, many of the plot important NPC's can't be killed off.
I'm going to keep complaints on this this basic for now, because this is a minor update, but in pretty much every other Fallout game you kill a good amount of the main NPC's. And it has nothing to do with age of the games either, because in New Vegas the only NPC you can't kill Yes Man.
To be fair, with the type of story they're going for here, implementing something like that well would be impossible. It's just a bit annoying.
Dad mentions the BB gun while fighting with you. This is interesting, because he never makes any comments that would imply that you're with him otherwise.
We can still see Tenpenny Tower taunting us in the distance.
Dad punches a robot to death.
We walk past the RobCo Facility.
Dad runs off in a random direction because he's chasing a bloatfly that ran away. It took him a long time to get back to the path.
We're pretty much at southernmost point of the game.
We pass Andale. Andale is interesting, but now is not the time.
We're walking along when suddenly you hear something explode above you. I instantly knew what this was because I watched a video of it like a day ago. It's the Firelance Event. Basically, the firelance is like the alien blaster, but it sets people on fire instead. I've never encountered one before in this game, and I was pretty excited.
What makes it a pain in the ass though, is that the gun and ammo are scattered all over the place.
There it is. On the plus side, we got an alien blaster without having to play that godawful Mothership Zeta. I consider this a win.
Dad walks into a huge stretch of road completely filled with raiders.
The Peforator is pretty useful in this area. Not any cover near the raiders at all, so you can sort of snipe them with it.
Dad picks up a variety of weapons that I don't end up scavenging.
This is the firelancer. Yeah, pretty awesome.
The disintegration effect is similar to the normal blaster, minus the blue of course.
Wait, don't go that way!
We just stumbled upon one of the bigger areas filled with raiders in the DC ruins. Dad makes a futile attempt to shoot a nearby turret.
God I hate rocket launchers. Enemies are so deadly with them and when they finally get in our hands they suck.
I love the metal blaster, even though it's pretty much just an extremely modified laser rifle. Wish it looked different. A new texture is all I'm asking for.
Dad beats a raider to death with a baseball bat. It seems every time I look at him he's wielding a new weapon.
That takes care of that pesky turret.
Every single raider and enemy in the area comes out just to kill us.
Dad is much more effective with the bat than his fists, naturally.
We find a watselander fighting a deathclaw. Pretty early in the game, don't you think?
Time to take the firelance for a spin.
While it was already severely weakend, the firelance disintegrated the deathclaw with ease.
Alien weapons are pretty fun to use, but due to the rare ammo, using them on anything other than the most powerful enemies is a waste. It's better than them using energy cells lke they did in the first two though, that made them pretty overpowered. (Though finding them was pretty damn rare.)
We pass the Citadel, and the brotherhood are firing at super mutants nearby. The Citadel is the pentagon, which the Brotherhood of Steel are using as a base. Unfortunately, we are unable to enter there until a specific point in the plot.
The Perforator/Infiltrator is probably one of my favorite weapons in the game, but I wish there was a semi-automatic variant.
We're getting close to Rivet City now.
The Broterhood is surprisingly friendly to us.
There's a bandit base in the broken bridge.
I just find it hilarious how he runs into a hail of bullets and walks out completely unscathed.
Gah super mutants shooting rockets at us. Dad just charges straight in, as usual but they're on a bridge between the two buildings.
After dealing with the mutants, dad is nowhere to be found. Apparently went inside one of the buildings to get at the mutants.
And then for some bizarre reason he leaves again. Maybe it's becasue once the hostiles weren't in range, he resumes his normal path? I don't know.
We've been past this tower thing before, so we're close to Rivet City. Instead of the short way, he decides to go around Jefferson Memorial instead.
When I was spending this whole time following him with my weapon put away (To move faster) I sometimes almost thought that James was the player character in third person. No idea why, it just got boring after awhile.
And finally, we're at Rivet City.
So what did we earn from this long, boring adventure?
Well, we got the firelance, which I'll probably use all about once in this update and never again...
Why not Fallout 1 or 2?
Again, I don?t have much to say on the matter of these, except that they are really, really good games. Buy them if you haven?t already, preferably on GoG and not Steam.
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