Happy Fun Wasteland Adventure (A Fallout: New Vegas log)

Mitillos · Post Post #0 (ISO) » Sat Sep 03, 2022 12:08 am

I started this particular F:NV run some time ago, but didn't think about posting it here until now. I will be posting as I remember it, so obviously there may be some inaccuracies here and there. I hope everyone will enjoy the narrative, and maybe feel the urge to also play this wonderful game (or play it again). If you have somehow managed to not know anything about this game that's been around for over a decade, but intend to play it, then be warned that there will be spoilers.

This is the story of Kelsey, a courier with the Mojave Express, who cheated death and became the hero of the Mojave. Kelsey was delivering a package to New Vegas, when she was attacked by some assholes. They stole her package, shot her twice in the head, and buried her. This was quite annoying.

She woke up in an unfamiliar house and was greeted by an unfamiliar man, calling himself Doc Mitchell. He said a robot had dug her out of her grave and brought her here about a week ago, so the doctor could remove all the lead that was in her skull. Miraculously, she survived, and so Mitchell patched her up, fixed her face, and even gave her shoulder-length teal-coloured hair, for some bizarre reason.

Once the shock of being alive again passed, Mitchell had Kelsey test her vitals on what he called a Vit-o-matic Vigor Tester, which to Kelsey looked little more than a repurposed Love tester machine, with seven readouts instead of one. It declared her a Lightweight, an Alert Coyote, Tough-as-nails, a Peevish Librarian, a Smartypants, a Butterfingers, and a Leprechaun's Foot. Meaningless nonsense, to be sure, but Mitchell made a comment about bullets turning around and climbing back into the gun. The long period of unconsciousness had, however, left her muscles sore and stiff, and her demeanour on the surly side, so maybe there was something to this, after all.

Mitchell then had Kelsey do a bit of word association, answer some personality questions, and look at some blots and describe what she saw. She was constantly fighting the urge to roll her eyes, but after all, the man did save her life, so she decided to humour him. To show willing, she mentioned she had some training in trading, fixing things, and rhetoric. She also told him about her fragile bones and poor eyesight. Mitchell said he couldn't help with the bones, but she could grab his spare pair of glasses from his work desk. Luckily, they worked for her, even if they were almost broken.

All medical considerations taken care of, Mitchell returned all the equipment Kelsey had on her when she was brought in, and even gave her his dead wife's wrist-mounted RobCo pipboy and said she should feel free to take whatever else she might need from his place. He compared Kelsey to his dead wife, so the poor old man was probably just feeling melancholic from loneliness. Kelsey asked if he could spare some medical supplies, which he happily parted with, so she thanked him and started looking around the house. She found a chemistry set which she used to make more stimpacks, a broken 9mm submachinegun, which she fixed and took, along with a doctor's bag, a magazine about medicine, a laser pistol with some energy cells, and a fedora. Normally, this might seem like a lot, but apparently Kelsey was somehow ambushed while she was carrying enough weaponry to outfit an average-sized raiding party, what with the throwing spears, machete, shotgun, four sets of armour, and an honest-to-goodness grenade rifle.

Mitchell told Kelsey she should ask Victor, the robot that had rescued her from the grave, about the guys who attacked her. He also mentioned that Sunny Smiles was usually at the saloon, and might be able to help her sharpen her survival skills. Thanking him once again, Kelsey took her leave, and stepped out into the quaint little town of Goodsprings.

And there we have it. Character creation and some light looting of Doc Mitchell's house (though not quite as extensive as most murderhobos are known to engage in). In the next post we will explore Goodsprings, do some tutorials, and see what lies ahead for Kelsey.

Mitillos · Post Post #1 (ISO) » Sat Sep 03, 2022 6:26 am

As Kelsey walked out of Mitchell's house, the pip-boy started bombarding her with notifications. Updates to the operating system, new terms of service by RobCo, an overwhelming amount of unsolicited messages advertising various products and services, and some radio signals. She turned the dial to tune in to New Vegas radio and walked down the dirt path. Almost immediately, she spotted a robot rolling around on one wheel. It had a monitor on the front, with a picture of a happy cowboy face on it. The robot spoke with a southern accent, using a lot of cowboy expressions, and introduced itself as Victor. Victor said he'd seen Kelsey get ambushed, and waited until the culprits left before digging her out and bringing her to Doc Mitchell. While it seemed strange that a robot who had settled in Goodsprings over a decade earlier would randomly be patrolling the cemetery right when Kelsey was being shot there (and for that matter, be waiting outside Doc Mitchell's house just as Kelsey was exiting), she wasn't about to question her good fortune. She thanked Victor and continued exploring Goodsprings.

At this point, it seems like her instincts as a courier started kicking in, because she went around to every house, checking the mailboxes. She found some magazines and bottle caps which she helped herself to, as well as some bottles of sarsaparilla in various crates. One of them had a slightly different cap from the rest, adorned with a star, so she kept it separate, to avoid spending it by accident. She then went to the general store where she met Chet, the owner. He explained ammunition types and weapon modifications to her. He was also happy to buy her spare armours and whatever weapons and items she didn't need any more, in exchange for some ammunition, a shovel, and some more caps.

Shovel in hand, Kelsey made her way to the cemetery up the hill. She seemed to still be a little confused, as she started digging up the other graves. Perhaps she was seeing if she would also find someone buried alive that she could save, in turn. In fact, she only found a silenced pistol and some ammunition. One gravestone also had a pretty snowglobe resting against it, so she grabbed that too. Finally, she got to her own, undug grave. She saw a cigarette butt on the ground next to it. The memories of that night came rushing back. The guy in charge of the others... in his black and white checkered suit... smoking that cigarette and trying to sound cool in a tired, contrived, and rather idiotic manner. She took the cigarette butt and decided that she would return the favour. She would get back the package she was delivering, and put two bullets in his worthless head. And unlike him, she would do it properly.

On the way back, she was approached by a man who introduced himself as Malcolm Holmes. He started saying something about wanting to trade, but he realised that Kelsey could tell he was lying about his intentions. He explained that he'd seen her find the cap with the star and that there was a legend telling of a great prize for whomever found enough of those caps. He also mentioned that some people were prepared to kill for those caps, but that he had stopped collecting them, so he turned away to leave. Kelsey could tell he was lying. If he had truly stopped collecting, then why was he so interested in the cap she had found? She waited until he was far enough, and used her new silenced pistol to kill him. Just as she expected, Malcolm had indeed been looking for the caps; he had six of them on him. Kelsey took them, not sure if she believed the legend.

Kelsey made her way to the prospector saloon. Outside, she met a pleasant elderly man named Easy Pete. He talked about Goodsprings, prospecting, Victor, the New California Republic, and Caesar's Legion and even told Kelsey she was welcome to use the spare bed in his home, seeing how she didn't have anywhere to stay while she was in Goodsprings. Thanking him, Kelsey went inside the saloon, where she found a very pretty young woman and her adorable puppy. Cheyenne barked happily, while Sunny Smiles gave Kelsey directions to a couple of other towns nearby and also told her that she might be able to find some more equipment at the old schoolhouse, if she was any good with picking locks or hacking computers. Kelsey kept asking the same questions over and over, just so she could keep listening to her lovely voice. Her aural lust briefly satiated, Kelsey mentioned that Doc Mitchell was the one who had recommended she find Sunny, to help her with her survival skills. Sunny was happy to do so, and asked Kelsey to meet her behind the saloon.

When Kelsey got there, she found Sunny and Cheyenne waiting for her, near a row of empty sarsaparilla bottles, lined up on a fence. Sunny gave Kelsey a varmint rifle and had her shoot three bottles down. Kneeling for stability and looking down the iron sights, as Sunny suggested, Kelsey was able to shoot accurately enough, despite her relative unfamiliarity with firearms. Seeing her latent talent, Sunny suggested Kelsey come with her to hunt some geckos. These mutated lizards were a hazard to travelers, so Sunny hunted them, and sold their meat and hide to traders. Agreeing, Kelsey followed Sunny and Cheyenne south of the town. The first two pairs of geckos were taken down easily. Cheyenne, in particular, seemed to have it out for them. She rushed them, growling and barking, tearing them limb from limb even after death. The third group consisted of three lizards, and they were attacking a woman from Goodsprings. With little regard for her own well-being, Kelsey pulled out her machete, jumped down a small cliff, and rushed the geckos, screaming like mad. When the red mist cleared, the geckos were all decapitated, and the woman was alive, though injured and absolutely terrified. Once she calmed down, she declared she'd tell everyone about how Kelsey saved her life, and made her way back towards the town. She probably used telepathy to do so, because the pip-boy informed Kelsey that her reputation with the people of Goodsprings had improved, before the woman even moved. In fact, it seemed like the pip-boy must have been using telepathy too. Or there was some kind of transmitter somewhere in the town, sending out information about who is liked and who isn't, which is even more weird. I mean, who would maintain it? Who would update it? What if they were somehow shunned by the community? Would anyone ever know? Or was there some sort of appointed committee, that had to approve the changes? By telepathy, obviously, seeing how fast it had happened. Sorry, got a little carried away there and broke the fourth wall, but in my defense, the game started it.

Sunny and Cheyenne caught up and saw the carnage. While Cheyenne happily munched on the gecko remains, Sunny thanked Kelsey and asked her if she was also interested in learning how to make useful items. Agreeing, Kelsey teleported to the cemetery to grab a flower, then to Goodsprings, to grab a plant root from near the schoolhouse. Remembering that there might be unclaimed loot inside, she entered, only to find the place full of mutated giant mantises. After another machete-fest, she took stock of her new life thus far, and thought about the skills she'd been working on getting better at, such as hacking, lockpicking, working with explosives, and so on. She also remembered how much she enjoyed the company of other women (this was probably helped along by Sunny Smiles). She grabbed all the magazines, drugs, and ammunition she found at the schoolhouse (these kids sure knew how to party), then hacked the confiscated items safe and found a stealth-boy. Evidently, some young lad really wanted to spy on his classmates in the restrooms, but the teachers put a swift stop to that. Kelsey claimed it for more wholesome activities, and made her way back to Sunny. After cooking up a dose of healing powder at a campfire, Kelsey was declared ready to face whatever the Mojave had to throw at her and invited to also meet Trudy, the owner of the Goodsprings saloon.

As we continue, the level of detail is likely to go down, since Kelsey will always be picking up whatever money, ammo, magazines, keys, and drugs she finds. It can also be assumed she'll be picking up and drinking all the sarsaparilla bottles she finds, as well as any purified water lying around, despite the fact that this isn't a hardcore playthrough. Next time, we'll finish up with Goodsprings and the surrounding area and start exploring the Mojave a little.

-Edit: Feel free to ask questions, comment, etc.

Ythan · Post Post #2 (ISO) » Sat Sep 03, 2022 6:27 am

I love all the extra shit you get to start with now I forgot about that. Good luck!

Ninja oh nice there's more

Mitillos · Post Post #3 (ISO) » Sun Sep 04, 2022 7:29 pm

@Ythan: Some of it is pretty neat. For example, the weathered 10mm pistol is one of the best early game weapons. It can also get a silencer mod, as well as a laser sight, so its only "flaws" are basically that 1) it's not a holdout weapon so you can't sneak it into places, and 2) it's eventually heavily outclassed in damage by a large number of non-pistol weapons you find.

As soon as Sunny and Cheyenne left the area, a guy named Barton Thorn ran up to Kelsey, begging her to help him. He said that his girl was trapped on one of the nearby hills, surrounded by geckos. Kelsey wasn't about to let someone be eaten to death by these vicious lizards, so she promised to help, and made her way up the ridge. Half a dozen dead geckos later she made it to the top, but there was no girl anywhere to be found. There was, instead a mattress with some bear traps around it. Barton, who had followed Kelsey at a distance caught up to her and apologised for the trick. He thanked her for clearing the geckos and making it possible for him to get to the hidden stash at the top, after he dealt with her. Clearly, this fink was too stupid to live. He had just witnessed Kelsey kill all these geckos that he was having difficulty with, and hardly breaking a sweat. Yet, somehow, he thought he could take her. Once his corpse settled at the foot of the hill, Kelsey turned her attention to the prize Barton was after. After disarming the bear traps, she thanked the corpse of the prospector who had set up this camp area, took everything of value he had, and made her way back to Goodsprings, to meet Trudy, the proprietor of the saloon.

Kelsey found Trudy at the saloon, arguing with a very aggressive guy. She barely caught the tail-end of the conversation before he abruptly turned away and left. She introduced herself to Trudy, who gave her more information on the guys who had attacked Kelsey. They had apparently been very rude, expecting to be given service and drinks for free, and breaking Trudy's radio when this expectation was not met. After they were done in Goodsprings, they made their way south, towards Primm; perhaps Kelsey would be able to get more information about them, there. After fixing Trudy's radio, Kelsey asked her what the argument with that man had been about. According to Trudy, he was Cobb, a member of a group called the powder gangers, and he was looking for a man named Ringo. Though Trudy told Cobb that she did not know where Ringo was, she was far more inclined to let Kelsey know; Ringo had been part of a caravan which was attacked by the powder gangers. He managed to kill some of the attackers before fleeing to Goodsprings to hide from the retribution of their friends. Kelsey decided to find Cobb and hear his side of the story.

She found him leaning against the wall of a house, keeping an eye on the road passing next to Goodsprings. While incredibly rude, he explained that the powder gangers were convicts, brought over by the New California Republic to Nevada, to rebuild transportation infrastructure, so the NCR could maintain control of the area all the way to the Colorado river and the Hoover dam. Unfortunately, the convicts managed to construct some makeshift explosives, kill their captors, and take the prison over. Now, they were using explosives to raid caravans for supplies, which was how Ringo was forced to hole up in Goodsprings. Having seen the town, Cobb decided that it was now the territory of his part of the gang and was considering taking over. Kelsey bade Cobb goodbye, moved away far enough that he could no longer see her, took out her silenced pistol, and shot Cobb in the head. She then made her way to the gas station where Ringo was hiding, to introduce herself and tell him that Cobb was dead. While thankful, Ringo explained that Cobb's friends would probably still be after him, and he couldn't fight half a dozen armed men alone, or even with Kelsey's assistance. He asked Kelsey to find Sunny and anyone else who might be willing to help out, and then taught her how to play a card game called Caravan.

Caravan seems to garner a lot of hate. To some extent, this is likely because of the unclear instructions on how to play. If I'm not mistaken, Obsidian didn't have enough time to develop it properly (in fact, they weren't given enough time for New Vegas (and KotOR 2, come to think of it - game publishers are awful)), and this shows. There is a fairly simple strategy to beat every Caravan player in the game with the starting deck, by simply using the cards numbered 6 through 10, the knaves, kings, and jokers. With this set up, three cards are generally enough for any pile you want to build into a caravan, whereas all your AI opponents will struggle with all the smaller numbers they bring along, hardly adding to the value of their piles in most of their moves. There's even an in-game challenge to lose 5 games, worth 50 XP, and one has to wonder whether the developers thought they were being nice, giving you a silver lining to your losses, or they realised that the game was so easy you actually had to put some effort into losing.

Due to the lateness of the hour, Kelsey found Sunny at her house, sleeping. She wasn't sure how the arrangements here worked, since apparently this house was shared by Trudy, Sunny, Cheyenne, and that woman Kelsey saved from the geckos earlier. Nevertheless, Kelsey helped herself to the only undamaged book in their bookshelf. It was about sneaking, and it had some tricks Kelsey was happy to learn. She then woke Sunny up, to tell her about Ringo's plan to fight the remaining powder gangers. Sunny, being her wonderful and perfect self, immediately agreed to help. She also suggested that Kelsey enlist the help of Trudy, Chet, Pete, and Doc Mitchell. Each of them would take some convincing, but their assistance would be really useful in this fight. Trudy was easy to convince, as she was still grateful Kelsey had repaired her radio. Chet was reluctant to help, but when Kelsey pointed out that if Goodsprings fell to the powder gangers they'd just kill him to loot his store, he agreed to provide some armour and ammunition. Easy Pete had some spare dynamite, which he didn't want to give to amateurs who'd just injure themselves, but Kelsey was experienced enough with explosives by now, that she convinced him she'd be fine. Doc Mitchell, unable to fight due to his age, offered some of his spare supplies. Finally, Kelsey found Victor and asked him to help too and he promised to be ready for the fight. With the entirety of Goodsprings recruited, Kelsey made her way to Ringo's hideout, to let him know preparations were complete. Soon, Sunny joined them to let them know that the powder gangers were making their move, so all three made their way to the town proper, to join the rest of the townsfolk. With enough experience under her belt, Kelsey was now able to think back to what she had learned, and improve her skills further just before the fight.

With everyone helping, using the extra supplies provided, and Cobb already dead, the fight was very short. Some of the powder gangers were only armed with tire irons and knives, so they were gunned down before they could do anything. The rest used shotguns, but Chet's armour and Mitchell's medicine meant that they were completely ineffectual. One of the powder gangers threw a stick of dynamite, but Kelsey shot it while it was in the air. All in all, an extremely uneventful attack, that would have gone unnoticed but for the stench of fresh corpses, the strengthened sense of camaraderie in the inhabitants of Goodsprings, and the fact that Kelsey was now idolised by the folks of the small town, for having helped bring them together to repel these vicious gangsters (whose group now considered Kelsey the worst person alive, and would shoot her on sight - more of that telepathy at work). Victor had not made it to the fight, and when Kelsey questioned him about it, discovered that he had been remotely hacked and disabled during the fight. Filing that under "Suspicious", she said her goodbyes to the grateful people of Goodsprings, and made her way north, along the I-15.

And this concludes the starting/tutorial area of Goodsprings. So, why are we going north, instead of south? Well, the people who attacked us were apparently making their way to New Vegas, and north is the most direct route to New Vegas. Mechanically speaking, it's because we can explore the area, do a couple of easy quests, and even grab a couple more books. Magazines give large temporary boosts to skills, but books yield small permanent improvements, so getting as many of them as possible is really useful. Experienced players might shout at me for not waiting until level 6 and getting a perk which increases the bonus books give, but as it happens I did not get that perk at all. On a reasonably high int and luck run, it's possible to get every skill to the maximum of 100, even without the Educated and Comprehension perks.

Ythan · Post Post #4 (ISO) » Sun Sep 04, 2022 8:16 pm

Yay north!

Ythan · Post Post #5 (ISO) » Sun Sep 04, 2022 8:17 pm

Also rip powder gangers lol

Mitillos · Post Post #6 (ISO) » Tue Sep 06, 2022 7:31 am

The powder gangers' troubles are not over, by a long shot. Let's just say that, since they've decided to shoot Kelsey on sight, turnabout is fair play, and my visual acuity is much better than theirs. Also, turns out that Victor talks in what is known as a western accent, rather than a southern one. As a non-American, I can't really tell the difference.

The long 15. Connecting California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Idaho, and Montana. Lifeline of the West. Road leading to Vegas. A horrible death-trap full of misery. Kelsey made it all the way to Sloan, when she was warned not to continue along the road by a quarry worker who introduced himself as Chomps Lewis. He said that when some powder gangers came by and stole the dynamite from the quarry, the place filled with enormous, powerful, and aggressive creatures called deathclaws, so they had to shut the quarry down. When Kelsey said she could take care of the deathclaw problem, Comps replied with unmasked derision. "You'd have to be the meanest, toughest, roughest bastard in the wasteland to have any chance against them, and I don't think that's you." Slightly humbled, she accepted the truth of the situation and decided that her current path was not a good idea. She decided to take a breather at Sloan, so she introduced herself to Jas Wilkins, the woman running the mess hall for the quarry workers. Jas mentioned that, if Kelsey got her a deathclaw egg, she could try making her great-aunt Rose's

chicken

deathclaw egg omelet recipe. If it worked, she would share the recipe with Kelsey, too. After resting for a bit, Kelsey stole and read a couple of books from the workers' barracks (one was about repairing, the other about explosives). Feeling bad about this, she had a look at the camp generator and managed to fix it. She also saw that the workers had a tame mole rat as a pet and it seemed to be limping, so she healed its leg. Chomps said both of these would help with morale in camp, so he thanked Kelsey and gave her some money. He explained that the NCR had replaced caps with paper money back in California and Oregon, and they were trying to do the same in Nevada. Obviously, the people in Nevada didn't want to be economically dependent on the whims of politicians who lived hundreds of miles away, so they were resisting this. As a result, NCR money was worth less than its nominal value, in Nevada. This did not bother the politicians and the wealthy in NCR. The Californian economy was much larger than that of Nevada, and their caravans traded a lot of goods here. This would be an economic war of attrition, so all they had to do was be patient, keep control of Hoover dam, and eventually they'd be able to annex New Vegas. This, of course, didn't much help the workers, whose pay ended up buying less than it should, but that was a story as old as time.

Kelsey took her leave, vowing to return when she was the meanest, toughest, roughest bastard in the wasteland (or at least close to it), and clear the area of deathclaws. She made her way south, towards Primm. She found three small staging areas powder gangers used for their raids, just off the I-15. She killed the powder gangers from a distance and disarmed the mines they left as protection, before continuing on. For the moment, she would avoid the NCR correctional facility that the powder gangers had taken over. She would need more firepower to take on a prison-turned-fort. After an otherwise uneventful journey, she reached Primm. Seeing some tents across the I-15 from the town, she decided to check those out, first. She was immediately accosted by an NCR soldier, who told her that outlaws who had escaped from the correctional facility had taken Primm over. He warned her to keep her distance, but she was determined to gather more information about the guys who had attacked her. Seeing that the NCR had sent here only two soldiers, one medic, one sergeant, and one lieutenant, she decided to give her luck a go and try sneaking into Primm. This, as it turned out, was unnecessary. She found two outlaws near the centre of the town, and two more walking along the broken roller coaster tracks going around the Bison Steve Hotel. She figured that the rest of the outlaws must be inside the hotel. She decided to check the other buildings, to see if she could find any surviving townsfolk, to help her. Unfortunately, the houses in the town were empty. She found the sheriff and his wife in their home, but they had been brutally murdered fairly recently. Down to the last two available buildings to check, she went to the Mojave Express office. It was also empty of life, but it did have one broken down Eyebot. She examined it and determined it was missing some key electronic components, a couple of sensors, and bits of its frame that she could make with scrap metal. A few repairs later, it was floating again, and sporting its shiny identification plate: Eyebot Duraframe subject E, or ED-E for short. She programmed ED-E to follow and defend her, send information on nearby targets to her pip boy, and carry her spare weapons and armour. Around this time, she also randomly remembered that, in addition to the company of women, she enjoyed the company of men.

Running out of options, she made her way to the only remaining building; the Vicki and Vance casino, across the Bison Steve hotel. This time, she was lucky. All the townsfolk were holed up in here, to defend themselves from the outlaws. Thankfully, they didn't start shooting Kelsey the moment she walked through the door, which meant they hadn't been here long enough to start becoming desperate and paranoid. Johnson Nash, the manager of the local Mojave Express outpost had taken charge and led everyone here when the outlaws attacked. He was surprised that ED-E was still functional and was happy to let Kelsey keep him. He explained that the package Kelsey had been carrying was one of a group of six unimportant-looking items (playing cards, dice, chess pieces, and the like) which needed to be delivered to New Vegas via different routes. The order was made by a robot which had a picture of a cowboy face on its monitor and spoke with a western accent. Nash added that the courier who was originally scheduled to carry Kelsey's package had seen she was next in line and declined the job, saying she should carry it instead. Finally, Nash informed Kelsey that the deputy sheriff, a rather useless man named Beagle, had information on the man in the checkered suit, but he was currently held hostage in the hotel and the town couldn't afford to pay his ransom. Most of the rest of the townsfolk didn't seem interested in chatting with Kelsey, so she turned her attention to the one other person who would: a second robot cowboy. This one was a protectron-type robot, with its cranial dome shaped like a cowboy hat, programmed to be a greeter for the casino and to also pepper his talk with cowboy expressions. Kelsey decided that this must have been somebody's fetish, and that more robot cowboys were bound to be roaming around Nevada. This one, named Primm Slim seemed to have something wrong with its sensors. After telling the history of Vicki and Vance, the thief couple, he said that their memorabilia including Vance's submachinegun could be seen in the display cases. The cases were empty, yet Slim insisted he could see the gun and that Kelsey was loco to suggest otherwise. After checking Slim's corrupted memory files, Kelsey discovered that a new thief couple had stolen the gun and reprogrammed Slim to not be aware of this. They mentioned Westside, a suburb of New Vegas, and Kelsey promised to look for them and the gun.

With some trepidation, Kelsey made her way to the hotel, to save deputy Beagle. She was sure that fighting a large gang of convicts with only one robot to help, in a building they'd been using for some time, would be a difficult fight and she'd likely be heavily injured in the process. Thankfully, her worries were unfounded. ED-E turned out to be a terrifying combatant. He killed most enemies in one shot, some of them being reduced to a pile of ash, and they were the lucky ones. Others had to endure electrocution or burning, praying for death for several seconds of excruciating agony. Only the gang leader proved tough enough to survive for more than a few seconds, and he was treated to several 9mm bullets, courtesy of Kelsey's submachinegun. He did have an incinerator, which spat fireballs with alarming range, precision, and explosiveness, so both Kelsey and ED-E needed some quick medical care. Thankfully, Beagle was safely tied up in the kitchen. He promised to give the information he had on the checker-suit man back at the casino, so Kelsey untied him and cleared up the two upper floors of the hotel, before returning to the Vicki and Vance. Beagle told her that the people who attacked her belonged to a group of raiders calling themselves "Great Khans". Apparently they were going to continue south, then east through Nipton, and loop back north on route 95 to Novac.

Before Kelsey could leave, Beagle and Nash asked her to find a new sheriff for Primm. Nash said that she could ask the NCR to send one of their own, or talk to an ex-sheriff in the correctional facility, who might want the job. Seeing as the NCR could spare only 5 men for a standoff with over a dozen of their escaped convicts, she doubted they considered Primm important enough to commit to holding. She decided to pay the correctional facility a visit and see if this ex-sheriff was any good. Undoubtedly, she would have to shoot her way in, but by this point she had absolutely no sympathy for the powder gangers.

The convicts in Primm are actually not marked as powder gangers. Presumably they didn't want to stick around the correctional facility with the other convicts, and simply decided to take Primm over, instead. At any rate, we now have our first (and possibly best) companion. ED-E is an absolute beast in combat, he can carry a lot of your loot, he lets you notice both friendly and hostile targets from a huge distance (even if they are cloaked), he acts as a portable crafting bench and reloading bench, he can [redacted for spoilers], and even [redacted for more spoilers]. I guess what I'm saying is that, we've basically now won the game, and we're just enjoying the story. Yes, I'm exaggerating, but only slightly.

Ythan · Post Post #7 (ISO) » Tue Sep 06, 2022 7:39 am

In post 6, Mitillos wrote:Also, turns out that Victor talks in what is known as a western accent, rather than a southern one. As a non-American, I can't really tell the difference.

Fascinating. I know Texan is considered a Southern accent but anything else I'd expect to hear in New Vegas is not. I'm not good at identifying accents though so I'm not sure what his would be.

Ythan · Post Post #8 (ISO) » Tue Sep 06, 2022 7:48 am

Also yay Eddie.

Mitillos · Post Post #9 (ISO) » Thu Sep 08, 2022 7:57 am

So, the bad news is that I had to reinstall Steam, and I think I lost my saves. The good news is I just finished this run a couple of days ago, so now it's all just a question of my memory being good enough. And yes, ED-E is the greatest.

Kelsey left the town of Primm going north once again. She found yet another powder ganger camp and decided to use it as target practice, to test the new combat capabilities ED-E provided. The results were beyond her expectations. Three shots with the varmint rifle, three fewer powder gangers around. And there would be even fewer by the time she was done with the correctional facility. She approached it from the west, where a convenient hill provided both elevation and cover. Four guards on towers, one at the entrance, three more milling about the courtyard. Eight more shots to assorted heads later, the powder gangers lost their defenses. The guard at the entrance had a key granting access to the visitors' centre. Kelsey switched to her submachinegun, confidently strode in, and started spraying bullets in the direction of everyone who pulled out a weapon to attack her. In the end, this amounted more to enthusiasm than skill, because ED-E made short work of all but one person wearing a black cowboy hat. This one survivor was named Meyers and he was the ex-sheriff Nash had heard of. Asking him about his past work and how he ended up in the correctional facility, Kelsey decided she would not ask him to be Primm's sheriff. The man was little more than a vigilante, who proudly declared that sometimes justice was too slow, and he happily took the law into his own hands when he felt this was warranted. She decided to go back to Primm and see if she could find a different solution to the problem, but not before making sure the powder gangers in the remaining three buildings wouldn't be able to continue raiding the area. Most of them went down just as easily at the rest, but the leader Eddie had a bodyguard named Scrambler who fought like a demon, before being burned to ash by ED-E. Kelsey found out that another group of powder gangers followed the original instigator of the jailbreak when he left to go north towards New Vegas, so she made a mental note to keep an eye out for them. After looting the facility she made her way back to Primm.

The townsfolk were still hiding out in the casino, milling about aimlessly. None of them had any ideas on where to find a new sheriff, when Kelsey had a flash of inspiration. She asked Nash if he thought Slim could be reprogrammed to act as sheriff. After all, he was a protectron; basic security programming should already be somewhere in his memory. Nash agreed they could give it a try, so Kelsey got to work. A few minutes later, Primm had a shiny new sheriff, the townsfolk were finally leaving the casino for their homes, and everyone was happy, except Beagle who was no longer deputy. Seeing as everyone considered him the incompetent beneficiary of nepotism, he was left to mope alone about his joblessness, and Kelsey left Primm again, this time due south. A couple of groups of raiders and a couple of abandoned buildings provided a break from the monotony of the wasteland. Eventually, Kelsey spotted a huge statue of two men shaking hands, built over the I-15 on top of a hill. Underneath it was a plaque, identifying the men as an NCR ranger and a Nevada desert ranger, commemorating the unification of the two groups against the threat of Caesar's Legion, an invading army of tribals attacking from Arizona. Just past the monument, Kelsey found NCR Ranger Outpost Mojave (or more simply, Mojave outpost). She got her equipment repaired, played a few rounds of Caravan with Lacey the bartender and merchant, and took some time to rest.

Since Kelsey had already heard from a number of people that the NCR was stretched too thin in the Mojave and that Caesar's Legion was full of sexist slavers, she decided to help out a bit. A tough-talking, whiskey-drinking, no nonsense cowgirl named Rose of Sharon Cassidy was going through a seemingly endless number of bottles, but she was sober enough to tell Kelsey that she wasn't interested in shacking up and had not errands for her, but she could check with Jackson (the commanding officer of the outpost), Ghost (a ranger sniper stationed on the roof), and if she ever went near Vegas, the Crimson Caravan company. Ghost had spotted great plumes of smoke coming out of Nipton and wanted someone to check it out, since she couldn't leave her post. Jackson asked Kelsey to clear out the I-15 from critters, around the base of the cliff. This was weird, since Kelsey had come that way and there was nothing, but she agreed, since it was on the way to Nipton anyway. It turned out Jackson's request made sense, as there were half a dozen human-sized ants there now. they were easily taken care off, though, and Kelsey went East. A few more ants and a few more raiders wanted to start some trouble, but they were quickly and permanently discouraged. Then, Kelsey heard several submachinegun bursts ahead. No bullets seem to be coming her way, so she stealthily approached, until she saw a man and a woman shooting at each other. As she came closer, the man died and the woman grabbed an item from his pocket. She then saw Kelsey and approached her, saying that the man had suddenly attacked her out of nowhere and stole her bottle cap necklace. Kelsey said that those six caps with stars on them were pretty and the woman agreed. However, Kelsey was quite certain she had seen seven caps, so she expressed some doubts about the necklace belonging to the woman. The woman said she didn't want witnesses and attacked Kelsey too, but this was her last mistake. With nine more star bottle caps (as the woman had two of her own), Kelsey approached Nipton and saw that the gate into the town was adorned with gold-trimmed red banners, with the drawing of a bull on them. A man came running and happily shouting about the lottery and how he had won it, but seemed incapable of seeing the need to elaborate in any intelligible way. Kelsey moved further into the seemingly deserted town, and once she reached the street leading to the town centre and the town hall, was met with a gruesome sight.

What is this gruesome sight? Only time will tell. Regarding Primm, you can pick Meyers as a sheriff, or have the NCR assign one of their soldiers, but I find both of these choices and their eventual outcomes quite distasteful. Primm Slim is the only reasonable choice, unless you're doing an evil Legion run as a stupid character, in which case Meyers is probably the appropriate choice. ED-E continues to kick ass, killing everything that dares look at us funny, usually in one shot. The Mojave outpost has one of the few characters who will repair your weapons and armour to full condition (at a fairly high price, but money isn't exactly hard to come by in this game, especially in the second half and the various expansions). Unfortunately for Legion characters, he's an NCR soldier in an outpost full of NCR soldiers, so if you're siding with Caesar you won't really get to use this particular service. At this point, we're probably around level 8, or so. Skill points are distributed so as to ensure we can use the various books (thanks, the wiki) to get every skill to 100 by the end. Perks will go towards intensive training for quite some time, the goal being to get all the stats to 10 (which will in fact require either using a glitch in the Dead Money DLC, or just cheating by using the console for the last 3 points). Since going from 9 to 10 doesn't affect much in pretty much any stat, other than making the stats screen look nicer, I feel zero guilt about doing this. If you don't like this, just imagine me at the end having a 96 instead of a 100 in... I don't know, Unarmed or something, since I don't really use that skill at all.

Ythan · Post Post #10 (ISO) » Thu Sep 08, 2022 8:10 am

Smell that air!

Mitillos · Post Post #11 (ISO) » Sat Sep 10, 2022 10:32 am

Couldn't ya just drink it like booze!

Nipton's main street was adorned with certain things that Kelsey doubted had been there long. Heads stuck on posts and crucified men lined both sides, and a large number of human remains were still burning in the large pyre producing the smoke Ghost had spotted. The only living things (aside from some bark scorpions that had wandered into a trailer park on the south end of the town) were five men and three dogs following them. The men were dressed in extremely silly outfits, wearing American football gear that had been painted black and adorned with strips of leather, to make it slightly resemble ancient armour to the extremely casual or the extremely generous observer. The fifth man was even more ridiculously dressed, wearing the pelt of a coyote over his head, so that his face appeared under the snout. They seemed to take themselves extremely seriously, because as Kelsey approached, the other men lined up on either side of coyote guy who introduced himself as Vulpes Inculta, clearly (and incorrectly) thinking that this meant "desert fox". He had a sneering attitude, proclaiming the superiority and purity of Caesar's Legion as well as Caesar's intellect and greatness, and belittling everyone they had killed in Nipton for being degenerates, weak, cowardly, and for offering the town's services to anyone who came by. As Kelsey found out later, a man named Steyn had come over from the Hub in the NCR and managed to become mayor of Nipton, planning to make as much money as possible so he could return to the Hub and run for office in the NCR. He decided to allow powder gangers to use the services of the town during the day, and give permission to NCR soldiers to stay in the hotel at night, thus profiting from both groups. Vulpes, knowing about this arrangement, approached Steyn with an offer of a large amount of money in return for letting him and his Legionnaires round up both the powder gangers and the NCR. However, he betrayed Steyn and rounded up all of Nipton, declaring a lottery to determine everyone's fate. Some were decapitated, others crucified, still more burned on a pyre, while some of the women and children were taken as slaves. Steyn himself was burned on a pile of burning tires, and the winner of the lottery was let go, with the instruction to spread the word of what had happened. The same instruction was given to Kelsey.

All this was enough to tell Kelsey everything she needed to know about Vulpes and the Legion, but at this point she got a strange... flashback of sorts, but one she did not recognise as a memory from her own life. In it, she had been a very angry man who had also just arrived at Nipton, was similarly approached by Vulpes and, upon hearing what he had done, growled "I'm going to wear your head like you wear that dog's" at him. Vulpes showed his true colours, panicking and ordering his soldiers to protect him, but the male courier had already got out his grenade launcher and fired a volley of explosives before they could react. The flashback then moved forward, to a meeting with Caesar. Caesar said to past-life-male-Kelsey that he dared to stand before the mighty Caesar, asked what he was thinking, and received the reply "That I'd decorate this tent with your guts" followed by a large number of stab wounds. Caesar's guards, similarly dispatched, the flashback faded away, and Kelsey knew, without a doubt what the Legion was. A bunch of jumped-up self-important guys, who viewed women as little more than sex slaves, people outside their legion as degenerates, and whose leader's intellect was "towering" only in comparison to the men under him, which just meant that the bar was as low as it could be without the aid of excavating equipment. She thought about her future, and how many deaths of legionnaires it held, and this gave her a warm, happy feeling. She was considering killing the ones in front of her right now, but decided that she would defer this particular gratification, despite the ease with which she could utterly destroy these fools. She also decided not to tell people about what the Legion had done here. Why scare people needlessly? She'd tell Ghost and possibly Jackson, but she saw no reason to tell anybody else. She watched the men and dogs leave due east and checked the crucified men. Powder gangers, too heavily tortured to save if she had been inclined to; even getting them down would kill them over several agonising minutes. Instead, she put a merciful bullet in each of their heads. Perhaps to an observer this might look no different than when she killed powder gangers previously, but to Kelsey, the distinction was there and it was important.

After searching the town hall and a few of the buildings in Nipton, she made her way back to the Mojave outpost. Ghost was surprised and angry that the Legion had managed to move so far west, but she thanked Kelsey nonetheless. Jackson wasn't interested in Nipton, but he was happy to hear that the road was clear again and gave some useful equipment to Kelsey as thanks. Happy to have helped the outpost, Kelsey went back to Nipton, and continued to the northwest, following the trail of the Great Khans and the man in the checkered suit, towards the town of Novac. On the way, she was ambushed by a few raiders, but she was thinking about a few suspicious things she had learned in Primm and Nipton, so she ignored them and just let ED-E brutalise them with his zapper. Eventually, she passed by an NCR ranger station, codenamed "Charlie", but the soldiers there didn't seem interested in talking, so she kept moving. Eventually, she saw an enormous dinosaur statue in the distance, and knew she was close. Another raider ambush was quickly dispatched, and Kelsey soon arrived at the town named after a damaged motel sign. This place seemed more populous and secure than Goodsprings or Primm had been, so she decided that it would be a good idea to stick around for a while, although obviously her first priority would be to get more information on her attackers.

So, first off, Caesar (mispronounced by all his loyal followers and himself - yes, I know they *think* they are pronouncing it in correct Latin, but they are not; it should be pronounced kesar, with a soft k, an e like in "left", and a sharp s, since they are emulating the Roman Empire.) and his "towering intellect". It's 4. Mechanically, he is below average in intelligence. In terms of the actual story, well... he's also not particularly intelligent there. He completely misunderstands Hegelian dialectics, and simply couches his shitty, authoritarian, might-makes-right system in flowery language, simplistic analysis, and multiple fallacious arguments. Sadly, you get not opportunity to call him out on all this, but it doesn't matter, because in this particular playthrough, we will not actually get a chance to talk to him at all. Not a single word will be exchanged with this man, Edward Sallow; we will never find out he has a brain tumour, we will not get to hear him tell us about his origins, his philosophy, his plans, or how he is right because he thinks he is. Why? Well, stick around for a few hundred more posts (presumably, at this rate), and you might just find out. :þ

With that out of the way, let's talk about the little vixen dude. A fight with him and his soldiers and dogs in Nipton can be slightly challenging, but it's not that bad, and you can even make it a lot easier if you account for the fact that after they talk to you, they take a very specific path east of the town. Just a few mines can really mess them up, if you are inclined to prepare them in advance. As to why you'd want to attack him, in addition to his attitude and actions, if you tell him that his crimes are inexcusable, he says that all crimes are and actually invites you to attack his group. First time around, that's what I did, and that's what the flashback was about. I didn't actually have the perk to use the text options I included here, but hey, they're pretty great and I want people to appreciate Obsidian's work on this game. So, why did I not kill him this time? Well, I wanted his death to serve an additional purpose with regard to game mechanics. In the end, it didn't, because I was being extra thorough, but I don't mind. We'll get him later.

Also, if you are familiar with the game and are wondering about whether I checked the general store and the paranoid man's house in Nipton: no and yes, respectively.

Ythan · Post Post #12 (ISO) » Sat Sep 10, 2022 11:08 am

Didn't expect him to live! For now I guess.

Mitillos · Post Post #13 (ISO) » Wed Sep 14, 2022 11:06 am

Apologies for talking so long. Start of the semester and all that. Last time, I disappointed Ythan and an irl friend, by failing to eliminate foxo the clown. Let's see if I can get back into their good graces, by helping the town of Novac a bunch, using the various tools of the murderhobo.

Kelsey made her way towards the relatively undestroyed town. Unlike Goodsprings, Primm, and Nipton, Novac did not seem to have any ruined houses with only their frames left after the nukes fell. Or perhaps the people here rebuilt them. At any rate, the first house on the southwest corner of the town had a small yard, used as a farm for brahmin. Strangely, one of the brahmin was a recently mutilated corpse. This piqued Kelsey's curiosity, so she decided to investigate. The couple that owned the place, Alice and Dusty McBride, were hospitable and kind. When asked, they said that somebody had been attacking their cattle at night and had killed more than half the brahmin they had. Fearing for their lives, they hadn't done anything about it, hoping that the assailant would move on. They only knew that the shooting seemed to come from the west. This seemed to indicate an outsider. Kelsey promised to check it out that night. She would check out the rest of the town, and return at midnight to stop the attacks.

Kelsey moved towards the motel with the no vacancy sign, when she was greeted by a familiar voice with a western accent. "Well, butter my butt and call me a biscuit, if it ain't my old friend from Goodsprings!", it said. She greeted Victor, happy to see a familiar face, even if it was just an image on a monitor. His greeting was almost (though not quite enough) to make her forget her earlier suspicion about Victor and his inability to help during the fight at Goodsprings. when she asked him how come he was here, he said he got the sudden urge to go to New Vegas. Kelsey wasn't sure what to make of this, given that Victor had happily stuck around Goodsprings for over a decade, but decided not to make a big deal of it. If Victor wanted her dead, all he had to do was leave her in her unmarked grave, but that was precisely what he hadn't done. She went inside the motel, and found the owner, Jeanie May. She was cheery and made a point of mentioning how much she loved Novac, even though "some people didn't appreciate it" as much as she clearly believed they should. She told Kelsey she could buy supplies from Cliff Briscoe in the dinosaur, so Kelsey made her excuses and left. The T-Rex building did indeed have an entrance on its side, and a cozy interior used as a gift shop since before the war. A short balding man ran the store now, and happily traded useful equipment for Kelsey's useless junk she had been hauling. In addition to stimpacks and ammunition, Kelsey bought some useful modifications for some of her weapons, and an MF Hyperbreeder Alpha. This was a laser pistol, capable of shooting 7 times per second, and fitted with a microfusion generator allowing it to recharge automatically, eliminating the need for power packs or ammunition. Thus far, Kelsey had neglected training in energy weapons, but this new acquisition gave her the excuse she needed to start doing so.

Having finished her purchases, she turned her attention to the other door of the building. This one seemed to lead to the front of the dinosaur, so she decided to have a look. In fact, it led to the T-Rex's mouth, used as a sniper nest. A man dressed in NCR military uniform was there, keeping an eye on highway 95 which passed by Novac. He introduced himself as Manny Vargas, a veteran NCR sniper who had settled in Novac with his then-friend Boone (another sniper). Manny explained that he guarded the town during the day, while Boone took the night shift. Apparently, he and Boone had a falling out, so he refused to talk more about him. On the other hand, he was very eager to talk about the REPCONN test site, up the mountains west of the town. He said that the checker-suit man was traveling with some members of his old gang, the Great Khans. He also said he would be willing to share the information he had on them, if Kelsey would go to the test site and get rid of the ghouls there. These were people heavily affected by radiation, with patchy, damaged skin. They could be found all over the wasteland, but some of them would eventually lose their mental faculties and go feral. These feral ghouls would sometimes make their way down the mountain and attack the town, and Manny wanted this to stop. Kelsey promised to help, though she figured this was not an urgent task, given the fact that the ghoul attacks had been happening for a while. She did intend to help, but this would have to wait for a bit. She decided to see if she could get the information before dealing with Manny's request, so she made her way to his motel room. Luckily, his computer had a message from the Khans, thanking Manny for hosting them and saying that they and Benny were on their way to Boulder City. She now had a name. In time, she would have revenge.

While waiting for Manny's shift to end, so she could meet Boone as well, Kelsey introduced herself to the people in the motel. One was an older woman named Daisy, who had worked as a pilot, but was evasive when questioned about this. The other was a man named Bruce, who had fled New Reno in the NCR, when his employer (a casino boss and leader of a mafia family) discovered that Bruce had taken from him the money he was owed and, in Bruce's words, "he might have sort of plowed his daughter a little". He was now looking for work as an entertainer, but this was not something Kelsey could help with. Thankfully, by this point, the guard shift had changed, so she made her way back to the dinosaur mouth, to meet Craig Boone. Initially, he was suspicious and slightly hostile, but then he decided that, as an outsider, Kelsey might be the right person for a task he needed carried out. His now deceased wife, Carla, had been abducted by Legion slavers one night, while he was on watch. Somehow, they had managed to follow a route that kept them hidden, so he suspected that someone from Novac had sold Carla to the Legion. He asked Kelsey to find the culprit and bring them in front of the dinosaur while he was on guard. He didn't want Kelsey to kill them, he needed to do this himself, so he also gave her his beret, to wear as a signal when she brought the right person. Kelsey agreed and left the dinosaur. There was one last inhabitant she wanted to speak to: a man some of the other townfolk had mentioned, called No-bark Noonan. Apparently, he had been given this nickname because "not all his dogs were barking" (though, as Kelsey later found out, he himself believed it meant that he wasn't just barking, but told the truth which had a bite). She made her way to his shack, and asked him about everything that was happening in the town.

And we will find out what he said, next time. Experienced players may be wondering why I skipped one of the inhabitants. I had two reasons, both having to do with the fact that New Vegas is quite a buggy game (for which I place all the blame on Bethesda, its somewhat crappy engine, and its extremely crappy attitude towards Obsidian as the developer of this game). The first bug involves a quest where a certain companion needs to hear what the skipped character has to say. This usually craps up, as do many instances when one character has to hear another say something specific. I was trying to mitigate this issue as much as I could. It didn't really work, so I had to fiddle with the console, but there it is. The second bug is actually a positive one, but I ended up not using it, after all. There is a quest which involves visiting a number of NCR outposts. To avoid spoilers, I will leave the description of the bug for when we get to that particular quest.

Bruce and his dialogue is a bit of an interesting reference. The Fallout 2 player character is a tribal from Arroyo, called the Chosen One. The Chosen One goes to New Reno, does a bit of work for his contemporary head of a crime family named Bishop, then very likely "sort of plows Bishop's daughter a little". And his wife. Some years later, a Bishop child is born who, unlike the other Bishops, enjoys roaming the wasteland. Eventually, he takes control of New Reno, subduing the other crime families there. This is the Chosen One's child, and the Bishop from whom Bruce is running. If you've played the first two games (and I believe they are great, so you should), New Vegas has a large number of interesting and fun references to them.

I haven't been mentioning any new perks I got, largely because I don't actually remember the order in which I got most of them, so I'll just list them now. In addition to the ones I already alluded to (Cherchez La Femme, Black Widow, Intense Training a whopping ten times), the perks I grabbed on level-ups are as follows:
- Animal Friend (first level): This one makes animals not be hostile towards you, unless you attack them. I got this one right at the end, when I ran out of things I explicitly wanted to get, and I was already at max level, so I didn't need to keep getting more kills. The second level makes animals fight on your side, but honestly this playthrough was already too much of an overkill to justify conscripting some poor coyotes and molerats to fight for me.
- Better Criticals: This one makes your critical attacks even more powerful than critical attacks normally are. It's not quite as good as in the first two games, where better criticals unlocked the possibility of insta-kill attacks, but it's still a good one if you have a decently high crit chance.
- Broad Daylight: Use the Pipboy light while sneaking. I don't see so well with modern murky brown graphics, so this was really useful a lot of the time.
- Burden to Bear/Strong Back: These two increase the weight you can carry. Pretty self-explanatory.
- Finesse: Higher critical chance. This used to be somewhat less useful in the first two games, because slayer and sniper could make all your attacks automatic criticals, but now it's pretty great to pair with Better Criticals above.
- Heavyweight: Weapons that weigh 10lb or more have their weight halved. Another one for increasing carrying capacity. Depending on how many weapons (and which ones) you are carrying, this one can be much better than the other two, above.
- Light Step: Don't trip ground-based traps. As I mentioned, I don't spot things well in this game. This was a really useful perk for me.
- Rad Absorption: Your radiation level goes down over time by itself. It's not a huge deal, since RadAway is all over the place. I picked it just because I liked the idea and didn't particularly want any other perks.
- Silent Running: No penalties on stealth when going fast. This was just a quality of life perk, so I could move faster without worrying.
- Toughness (twice): More damage reduction, so less damage taken from enemy attacks. Self-explanatory and very useful.
- Vigilant Recycler: The first thing this perk does is give you more drained energy packs of all types (equivalent to spent ammunition) when you use energy weapons. You can recycle these drained packs. The second thing this perk does is make it so 3 drained packs can be converted to one usable pack, rather than the normal 4. These two things are not useful. The wasteland is absolutely littered with energy packs. You will easily end up with thousands of each of these by the end. The third thing this perk does is give you recipes for making optimised variants of these energy packs. This is a fantastic thing, that anyone who plans on using energy weapons (other than the self-powering ones) should pick up. All optimised versions of energy packs do 30% more damage and bypass 5 points of an enemy's damage reduction (instead of the normal 2), for a mere 10% increase in the amount of damage the weapon takes from use. Also, in hardcore mode, where ammunition has weight, optimised packs are 40% lighter.

Ythan · Post Post #14 (ISO) » Wed Sep 14, 2022 12:37 pm

So many good characters in Novac (hi Daisy). Also the most easily accessible limb-healing bed I'm aware of from game start in case you kill all the doctors.

Mitillos · Post Post #15 (ISO) » Sat Sep 17, 2022 7:13 am

Hello, young man. Fine weather for flying. And yeah, if you do things as they come up and move towards Vegas more slowly in the second half of the journey, Novac is pretty much designed to be your base of operations. Legion and raider random spawns are far from the town, there is a doctor with cheap services, Cliff has a good inventory for buying and selling stuff, and as Ythan said, you can get your own motel room, initially at low cost and eventually for free, once the folks at Novac like you enough. Also, the motel itself has a Mojave Express mailbox, so if you have encumbrance issues, it's a good place for solving them. Obviously, Kelsey won't have such problems, since she avoids taking too much junk and also because of her stats and perks. She also won't be sticking around for now, but it's still a nice thing to have, just in case. And now, on with the story.

Recording from Kelsey's Pip-boy of her conversation with No-bark Noonan:

N: Who sent you? I ain't talking. They tried to get me to talk before, but I didn't say nothing. And I don't aim to now, by gum.
K: I don't mean any harm.
N: We'll just see about that. You come any closer and I'm liable to stick you with my stickin' knife. Ol' Sticky's feeling mighty ornery this day.
K: We can talk from this distance.
N: You sure, now? It's kinda hard to hear you.
K: You said you'd stab me with that dirty knife.
N: Okay, okay. Just speak up a little. But not so much that They hear you. They got people everywhere, always listening.
K: Why do they call you No-bark?
N: Cause they know I ain't just barking here. What I say's got bite, 'cause it's the truth. Them quack doctors can say what they want about all the radscorpion stings that done pierced my skull. I know what I seen.
K: I'm looking for a man in a checkered coat. Have you seen anyone like that?
N: Sure have. Camouflage, that coat was, trying to hide from extra terrestrials what can only see in black and white checkers. But they're not fooled 'cause he forgot to put the checkers on his face. I told him so and he seemed to take it to heart. They stayed here a night, and was up by the dinosaur talking to the sniper fella with the moustache a couple of times.
K: What's been going on in town?
N: There's been things of a disturbing nature going on at the McBride Corral. Seems every night one of their herd meets a most unnatural death, and always there's holes all over the body. Work of the chupacabra, the livestock vampire, says No-bark, but they don't pay no mind. Too many holes, they say, and there's bullets in them. Well, says No-bark, we got a chupacabra with an automatic weapon. And that's when they get real quiet, 'cause now they see the predicament we're in.
K: What else do you know about the deaths at the corral?
N: I come face to face with the chupacabra himself one night whilst I was investigating whether this gecko was hiding his treasure from me. He was the meanest, ugliest chupacabra you could imagine. Had two heads, and fangs down to the ground. Best I could tell, anyways, since when he come up to me he was invisible. Had himself a blunderbuss what would rotate and shoot bullets real fast out of a backpack. Never seen nothing like it. Walked right past me having an argument with somebody. But I only saw the one chupacabra, so I guess the other fella had to be invisible too. Only more invisible than the other one.
K: Is anything interesting happening in the area?
N: Folks'll tell you that they seen ghouls up near the rocket factory. Sensationalist hooey, cooked up by superstitious yokels seeing phantoms of their own imagining.
K: Who do you think is actually at the factory?
N: Ghosts. Commie ghosts what don't know they're dead. Hoping to steal our rockets so they can fly up and paint the moon pink and draw a Lenin face on it. I seen one of them disappear and reappear before my very eyes. Although being a scientist, I have to admit I might've just blinked for longer than usual, what with the shock of seeing a commie ghost and so forth.
K: What do you know about the abduction of Boone's wife?
N: Seen it all. Seen shadowy folk come to his room and leave again in the middle of the night. Thought one might've gone in the lobby, too, for a spell. Could be that person went in to get something. Or use the john maybe. Mighty interesting either way, you ask me. I thought it was cannibals, come to eat us all for sure, so I kept out of sight. But now I know better.
K: Who was it?
N: Molerat men, come up from the Underneath to steal young women with promises of riches and fancy mud mansions with all the latest designer appliances. They covet our ladyfolk's long hair for wigs, it's said, being either bald or balding themselves.
K: I have to go now.
N: Let me know if you meet anyone suspicious.

Recording end.

Reading between the lines of this man's insanity, Kelsey gleaned some useful information. The cattle were being killed by an invisible assailant, or possibly two. Having already found a few stealth-boys herself, she was sure this would be something similar. It also looked like the REPCONN issue might involve similar technology. Thankfully, ED-E's sensors were really useful in spotting even invisible foes. Also, the Legionnaires who had kidnapped Carla had briefly gone inside the motel lobby. That was a small room and at that time, Jeanie May would still have been there, so she would definitely had seen them. Since her only comment about Carla was that she was snobby towards Novac, Kelsey decided that some judicious use of stealth might be warranted here. It would have to wait, though, as it was close to midnight, and she had a slaughter to prevent.

Kelsey went around to the northwest side of Novac and started carefully moving southwards, keeping an eye out for the telltale shimmer of stealth boy use. She was not disappointed. A large humanoid talking to itself was skulking behind a rock near the McBride farm. Since it would be difficult to properly aim for its head, she decided to exchange accuracy for firepower. She took out the incinerator she had got at the Bison Steve in Primm, and started lobbing fireballs at the shimmering form. It reacted immediately, but by backing up and continuing to fire towards it, Kelsey kept out of harms way. ED-E also started shooting the enemy with its zapper, and in seconds, it was reduced to a burning corpse. It turned out to be a nightkin. An enhanced supermutant, an elite of the supermutant army from decades ago, the rumour being that they were all insane. This one certainly was. He was carrying a holotape on which he was complaining about the brahmin screaming in his head whenever he closed his eyes. This explained the slaughters, and Kelsey was confident they would end now. She would notify the McBrides in the morning.

Kelsey then snuck into the motel lobby. As she had hoped, Jeanie May had already left for her house. Kelsey found a safe behind Jeanie May's desk and picked its lock. Inside, she found all the proof she needed. A bill of sale, confirming that the Legion had purchased Carla Boone and her unborn child as slaves from Jeanie May Crawford. They paid her one thousand caps for Carla with the document guaranteeing the additional payment of 500 caps on successful delivery of the child. Kelsey was livid beyond belief. She made her way to Jeanie May's house and let herself in. Suppressing, with significant difficulty, the urge to kill her right there, she woke the woman up and asked her to follow her to the area in front of the dinosaur structure. She agreed and they made their way there, Jeanie May asking what this was about and Kelsey walking in silence, a grim look on her face. They arrived at the spot, and Jeanie May once again asked what Kelsey wanted. Kelsey said "I like to show slaving scum how pretty I look in this", and wore Boone's beret. Before Jeanie May could finish uttering a surprised "What?", a single bullet had gone through her head, ripping the whole thing off her neck. Kelsey kicked it as hard as she could, muttering "bitch", and made her way to the sniper nest. Boone thanked her for investigating for him and bringing the culprit for him to take his revenge. He gave her a spare beret from his old regiment and said he would probably move on from Novac, but had no concrete plans. Kelsey convinced him to travel with her, pointing out that she was likely to meet a lot of Legion scum, and snipers work better in teams. In the morning, Kelsey told the very grateful McBrides what had happened with their farm, and was given the key to her own motel room to use as she pleased, from Cliff Briscoe. All this taken care of, she and Boone took off along the 95 going north, with ED-E beeping happily along.

In New Vegas, you are allowed a team of two followers at a time, one humanoid and one non-humanoid. We currently have the best team mechanically. Much, much later we're going to take them to this one place and it's going to be glorious. Boone is a great sniper, and he makes enemies glow with a faint red outline when you are aiming. With ED-E already making enemies more visible and three powerful ranged attackers, we can now eliminate most threats before they are anywhere near us. I actually won't be keeping him long, for now, because this is, in fact, more overkill than I actually need for a complete cakewalk, but for a first-time player or higher difficulties, your first two followers are extremely effective in ranged combat. Note that Boone will shoot Legion and some Great Khans on sight, so you can't exactly have him with you if you want to go near Legion territories and not slaughter everyone, which we will do at some point. Also, Boone's beret is great. It gives the usual +1 to perception that most headwear does, but also increases critical chance for our attacks by 5%. Due to a bug, it can be worn with riot gear helmets, but I don't really like how that looks, so we won't be doing that. Also we've got Four-Eyes, so we'll be avoiding helmets anyway. We'll be wearing the beret and glasses for pretty much the rest of the game, save for when they are taken from us.

Also, Jeanie May is utter and complete scum, as is all of the Legion. Seriously, anyone who actually likes the Legion as anything other than the bad guys, should have a good long think about their moral compass and how it fucking broke.

Ythan · Post Post #16 (ISO) » Sat Sep 17, 2022 7:37 am

Laughed aloud multiple times reading No Bark's dialogue, which I have already heard many times before.

Mitillos · Post Post #17 (ISO) » Sat Sep 17, 2022 9:04 am

Fun fact: The voice actor for Noonan has voiced... well, hundreds of characters from all sorts of things, including almost a dozen or so in New Vegas (not counting random NPC barks). Basically, if you see an old man in New Vegas, chances are Peter Renaday voices him. He voices half of the [redacted for spoilers] group.

Honestly, the text just can't do him justice, so I found a video. It's almost identical to the conversation I transcribed. Enjoy.

Ythan · Post Post #18 (ISO) » Sat Sep 17, 2022 4:49 pm

In post 15, Mitillos wrote:N: Folks'll tell you that they seen ghouls up near the rocket factory. Sensationalist hooey, cooked up by superstitious yokels seeing phantoms of their own imagining.
K: Who do you think is actually at the factory?
N: Ghosts. Commie ghosts what don't know they're dead.

This might be my favorite exchange in Fallout.

Mitillos · Post Post #19 (ISO) » Wed Sep 21, 2022 2:48 pm

Kelsey, ED-E, and Boone walked north a short distance, before spotting a scrapyard next to a house. A woman was sitting outside with her six pet dogs, every single one of them a really good dog. The woman introduced herself as Old Lady Gibson, and her dogs were Rey, Reina, Basura (which was an unfortunate name, in Kelsey's opinion, for such a really good dog), Colmillo, Fiel, and Audaz, all of whom were really good dogs. Rey, who was a really good dog, seemed old and had a bit of trouble moving around but, being a really good dog, he still showed his affection both to Old Lady Gibson and her visitors. ED-E really enjoyed playing around with the dogs, who were all really good dogs. Gibson explained that she and her now dead husband had been prospectors and had gone through the REPCONN facility several times, salvaging everything they found of value and bringing it to their scrapyard, where their really good dogs could help guard it from thieves and raiders.

Kelsey was chatting with Gibson and petting her really good dogs, when the subject turned to the nearby solar power plant Kelsey had spotted on top of the hill just to the north. It was called HELIOS One and, before the war, belonged to the Poseidon Energy conglomerate. After the war, the insular technohoarder group known as the Brotherhood of Steel managed to take control of it, before losing it to the NCR in a very bloody battle, their superior technology having not helped them against the NCR's superior numbers, tactics, and combat experience. When the fighting was over, the Mojave chapter of the Brotherhood, previously operating unrestricted in the area, had diminshed in numbers, status, and power, and the NCR had a damaged solar power plant, which they used to supply additional power to camp McCarran (their Vegas-adjacent headquarters), as well as the New Vegas Strip (so that they could get benefits from Mr. House who was in charge of Vegas). Upon hearing all this, ED-E started playing a message recorded by a researcher named Wheatley, who was in charge of the eyebot development project. He had sent ED-E to the Enclave base in Navarro via its Chicago outpost, but clearly ED-E had been attacked before getting to his destination, eventually ending up in Primm.

After trading a few goods with Gibson and playing a bit more with her really good dogs, Kelsey was about to leave due north again. She stopped when Mr. New Vegas mentioned the Legion taking over the nearby town of Nelson, on his radio broadcast. Figuring she was as close to Nelson as she was likely to ever be in this journey, she decided to make her way there, if only to give Boone the opportunity to keep his skills sharp by practicing on some Legion scum. She went back to Novac and took the road east, past a toxic waste dump, and towards Nelson. On the way there, she found an NCR checkpoint, with a few soldiers milling about. A ranger named Milo was in charge and stopped Kelsey to inform her that the NCR had locked the area down, because of a hostage situation. Kelsey offered to help and, with a little convincing, Milo agreed. The hostages were three NCR soldiers who had been captured by legion and crucified in Nelson, believing that the NCR military would avoid attacking if it meant potentially causing the soldiers harm. Milo agreed with this view, so he wanted Kelsey to kill the hostages, and free the way for the military to charge in. Kelsey was horrified at the idea and said she'd rather free them, but Milo said that she'd only get herself killed that way. Boone agreed with Kelsey, but Kelsey saw she couldn't change Milo's mind, so pretended to agree with the mercy killing plan, so Milo led her to a ridge overlooking the small town. He said he would offer her cover, so she started sneaking towards the three crucified men. Whenever she saw a Legionnaire, she would hide, lob a fireball with her incinerator in their direction, then let Milo, ED-E, and Boone fill them with lead and electricity as they tried to run away from the flame. With this strategy, she managed to stay completely incognito in Nelson, until every Legionnaire milling about had been pacified.

Kelsey then simply walked up to the soldiers, untied them, and led them back to Milo, who was shocked but pleased. Boone thanked Kelsey for recognising other options were available and that mercy killing was a last resort only. Kelsey was curious about his sudden candour, so she questioned him on the subject. He told her that the reason he knew his wife was already dead was that he had killed her. She was surrounded by hundreds of Legionnaires when he finally tracked her down after they kidnapped her. He knew that he wouldn't be able to kill all of them, but he needed to spare her and their unborn child the fate of living as slaves for the Legion. He took the shot and ended her life, carrying the weight of this act with him ever since. He seemed to believe that this was part of some kind of cosmic punishment that he had somehow earned, but refused to continue the conversation at this time, so Kelsey dropped it. She disagreed with this idea of some kind of balancing karma, because she knew that no convenient circumstance was going to visit punishment on Benny for putting her in a grave. She had to do that herself. She just hoped she could help Boone see this too, so he could change his outlook. At this point, an NCR soldier came over and gave Kelsey a radio she could use to call in support from the NCR. This was their way of thanking her for her services so far. Knowing how stretched the NCR was, she recognised the importance this little piece of equipment held, both as a symbol and as a lifeline to the NCR. She said her goodbyes to Milo and went back on her northward walk along the 95, stopping only by the Gibson scrapyard to spend a few minutes playing with Gibson's really good dogs.

Firstly, Gibson has six really good dogs. Secondly, and for full disclosure, I actually skipped a bit of story, here. Just south of Nelson is the Techatticup mine, which is also controlled by the Legion. On your way there, an NCR soldier asks you to save his friends who are imprisoned inside. There's not much to say about this, really. I went in, kept myself hidden and let ED-E and Boone massacre the Legionnaires. The reason I keep hiding from them is that I want to see how long I can maintain a perfectly neutral reputation (i.e. gaining no fame and very little infamy) with them, just by not making the killing blow and by being hidden when my companions finish them off. I actually manage to remain neutral with them until the bit where [redacted] shows up in [redacted] after you [redacted] and [long redacted] on his behalf. Anyway, Legionnaires dead, NCR soldiers saved, quest-giver thankful, NCR gives me emergency radio at this point, if I'm not mistaken. I don't actually ever use it, because unlike my companions, the NCR troops can die and I really don't need the help.

Gibson and her really good dogs live very close to a solar plant, which is placed pretty much where a real-world one actually exists, but is modeled after a different one. In fact, a huge number of locations in the west coast Fallout games are at least close to real-world counterparts that they are either referencing or modeled after. Obsidian (and previously Black Isle and Interplay - same people to a large extent) really did their research and thought very carefully about how society might pick up and continue after a nuclear war. This attention to detail and reasoning is very obvious in a lot of their games. Also, they gave Gibson six really good dogs.

The Brotherhood of Steel have been around since the original Fallout. They are exactly as I described above. They hoard advanced technology (laser weapons, power armour, and anything of comparable technological sophistication) and try to keep it out of the hands of everyone else, even if it means forcibly taking it. Their reasoning is that humanity isn't ready for such technology and only they can be its responsible guardians, or some such nonsense.

The Enclave were the antagonists of the second game. They are what remained of the US government and its military, after the war. They are also going around and killing people for being genetically impure due to exposure to radiation and other factors. This, of course, makes them enormous hypocrites, given that they are just as "infected" as their victims, with their most powerful soldier being one of the probably three most mutated people in all of Fallout canon. He really is an interesting case study, showing the folly of militarism, but that's not really important for our game. Suffice to say that the Enclave were a bunch of quasi-fascist elitists decked out in the most powerful military toys, with everything that this entails. I'm glad I destroyed them in Navarro.

Finally, Gibson's dogs are all really good.

Ythan · Post Post #20 (ISO) » Wed Sep 21, 2022 3:25 pm

In post 19, Mitillos wrote:Basura (which was an unfortunate name, in Kelsey's opinion, for such a really good dog)

I know right

Ythan · Post Post #21 (ISO) » Wed Sep 21, 2022 3:36 pm

In post 19, Mitillos wrote:I'm glad I destroyed them in Navarro.

Dear old friend!

Mitillos · Post Post #22 (ISO) » Wed Sep 21, 2022 4:09 pm

Dear old friend, remember when we did a whole lot of evil shit, and that one tribal came along with his two pet dogs and one pet robot and supermutant Worf and albino deathclaw and they destroyed our entire operation and it made us realise that actually our views were kinda completely stupid.
I may be paraphrasing slightly.

Ythan · Post Post #23 (ISO) » Wed Sep 21, 2022 4:13 pm

Canonically Navarro actually survives to be destroyed by the NCR I think! I assumed there must have been more to it than is seen previously, but it could also be a case of them choosing a particular path as canon.

Ythan · Post Post #24 (ISO) » Wed Sep 21, 2022 4:17 pm

Plasma is cooler than lasers there I said it.