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warhammer651
Jul 21, 2012

Glazius posted:

Well. That's certainly a huge-looking desert.

Does 2B, like, move slower in the sand or anything?

no, but once you're going down hill she does this slide thing that interrupts your sprint, which is annoying

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The Repo Man
Jul 31, 2013

I Remember...

warhammer651 posted:

no, but once you're going down hill she does this slide thing that interrupts your sprint, which is annoying

Pretty sure the slide is faster than a fully maxed sprint, but yes the interruption can be annoying. If you want to just Zelda: The Ocaraina of Time-it, you can learn to time your dashes to be faster than just sprinting. Or if you are super pressed for time, there is "Jump Arcing." You can do it from the very beginning of the game, since all it requires is the bare android fists in the heavy attack slot. Jump - Evade + Heavy Attack - Evade Cancel just as you land.



There isn't any reason for most players to do this, it's really just for speed runners.

Tzarnal
Dec 26, 2011

The Repo Man posted:

Pretty sure the slide is faster than a fully maxed sprint, but yes the interruption can be annoying. If you want to just Zelda: The Ocaraina of Time-it, you can learn to time your dashes to be faster than just sprinting. Or if you are super pressed for time, there is "Jump Arcing." You can do it from the very beginning of the game, since all it requires is the bare android fists in the heavy attack slot. Jump - Evade + Heavy Attack - Evade Cancel just as you land.



There isn't any reason for most players to do this, it's really just for speed runners.

Reminds me of the Roll - Jump movement you'd fall into in the new Ninja Gaiden games.

Zoig
Oct 31, 2010

I only really noticed the sound when I was looking right at the dang thing, and even then I only heard it once, it stopped after I got close to it.

Considering how much of a help it is, I'm not surprised its just kinda sitting around with its only indication of where in this big sprawling desert being a sound that you both need to know to look for that and can only be heard by younger folk.

Yapping Eevee
Nov 12, 2011

STAND TOGETHER.
FIGHT WITH HONOR.
RESTORE BALANCE.

Eevees play for free.

The Repo Man posted:

"Jump Arcing."
Looks like 2B's been playing too much Warframe. (I'm sure she finds it very relatable. :v:)

KamikazePotato
Jun 28, 2010

Attitude Indicator posted:

she scoots around on her rear end like a dog.

it's a questionable design decision.

Man, sand surfing is great. You move so fast and cover so much distance when doing that.

bman in 2288
Apr 21, 2010

KamikazePotato posted:

Man, sand surfing is great. You move so fast and cover so much distance when doing that.

Cons: I get sand up my butt.

The Dark Id
Aug 13, 2005

Why
you
know
I
LOVE
THIS SHIT !!!!
[citation needed]
Episode XIV: Another Life in the Sands


New Music: Memories of Dust




Welcome to the Desert Zone. Yeah... it’s uhh... it’s pretty big. And there’s a lot to cover here. Our first order of business should be discussing transversal of the desert. Unfortunately, we cannot order 9S to plank and ride him like a sleigh down the sand dunes. It’s against YoRHa regulations, you see. With that in mind, you’d think crossing sand would be... problematic considering 2B’s choice of high heels. Granted, the same could be said of rocky canyons or grassy fields or cracked roads. You’d think that, but...



This sand sure is slippery.

As it turns out, 2B suffers zero impediment to her movement speed on sand and can, in fact, do sick slides down sand dunes at speeds slightly above her top dashing speed. She’s an android. She has VERY good motor controls and balancing. Unless it’s an area boundary, 2B will only begin sliding when going down slopes. She can sprint straight up most inclines and keep going without a problem. She’ll only begin sliding if she stops running. I fully appreciate such agility. Especially when playing other games with slope sliding mechanics.

I’m looking at you, Geralt... I’d say the same to Link, but his shattered corpse is currently jutting at odd angles at the bottom of a ravine.



Investigating the machine surge involves venturing to a number of hotspots on the map and rumbling with any machine lifeforms we find poking about. Sounds simple enough. There’s also a Save Terminal blip along the path, which ought to be helpful getting around this massive sandbox.



On to the first hotspot, where we find several masked machines exploding from the ground, ready to throw down. Oh, and also...



De...sert...
K-Kill... Mee...meat...
These machines are... talking.
Yeah, I heard from the Resistance that they’ve been seeing this a lot lately. Couldn’t tell you why, though.





OK, fine. The machines are talking. Engels and friends could talk... kinda. Just the one word. And that machine was an idiot. It’s no big deal. Neither is dealing with the masked machines. Swords wielding ones get a bit feisty with lunging attacks and wide sweeping blows that are faster than what we’ve seen thus far. But, it’s easily managed.



On to the next position. The hotspots make a big sideways U across the desert, with that aforementioned Save Terminal where the U bends. Position #2 holds...



Ex...terminate...enemy...
Sssss...cared... Enemy...scary...
Do you think they even understand the concept of being scared?





Not sure about that one, 9S. Maybe one day they could learn to be scared. But for now, they’re fairly fearless. Oh, and some of ‘em have welded a buzzsaw to their chests. Buzzsaw dudes can be quite annoying. Their attacks all involve flailing rapidly in 2B’s direction and if accidentally ran into, they can get a decent combo on her for a good chunk of health. They’re also surprisingly high poise for having such little health, so their flailing is difficult to knock ‘em out of safely.



But, there’s always the tried and true option of just hanging back and shooting ‘em. :v:





Our next stop is one of two Save Terminals in the desert. And this is the only important one, if we’re being honest. I’d hate to have been the androids that had to drag this thing to exact middle of the desert.



At the terminal, we can check the e-mail we received from the Council of Humanity. It’s just a reworded version of the earlier radio broadcast moral booster. But we do learn the League of Assemblymen are the ones doing the broadcast on the behest of the Council of Humanity. Why do I get the feeling all the remaining humans have given themselves several increasingly verbose titles?

Look, Bill the Chef insisted his title be changed to William the Scion of the Culinary Arts and Janitor Tom wants to be called Thomas, the Arbiter of Hygiene when the androids are around, OK?



The terminal’s activation gives us a clearer view of the Desert Zone. Hmm... Yep... yeah, that’s still REALLY big, huh? The western section of the desert is still rather nebulous. But there’s a good reason for that we’ll get to momentarily.



First we’re going to go on a little field trip. The Machine Surge hotspots aren’t going anywhere. Our first destination are the ruins southwest of the save terminal’s position.



There are a few more talking machines in the area. Though, these lines are said by any machines we first encounter roaming the desert. It isn’t just the hotspots that have hostile machines. The desert is just lousy with pockets of angry boys. But they’re not why we’re investigating these definitely not the ruins of Façade.





This is why. In the back of this set of ruins we find an elevator with a rapidly bowing machine in front of it. Unlike most machines we’ve encountered thus far, this one isn’t hostile. Indeed, we can straight up talk to it. So...



You are fortunate enough NOT to be qualified to enter! Oh but how cruel the gods can be, to allow such misfortune to occur! Please, you must get away from here as far as you can! Just standing here will be detrimental to your health, as you will be slowly consumed by rage! There is only one thing I can do for you now! I will... Nay, I MUST self-destruct! This will result in a rain of useful materials. They are yours to keep! One day you will discover the truth, of that I am sure. May you live a long and healthy life!



And then, true to its word, it explodes leaving behind a rain of useful material in the form of... 80G...



This elevator is still locked and up until literally just as I was writing this update, there was absolutely nothing that could be done with this nor any indication of what it was meant to do. It’s now been revealed, this is (one of three) entrances to NieR: Automata’s upcoming DLC. What’s revealed so far is a Battle Arena with some additional cosmetics such as a Kainé outfit for 2B and a young Brother Nier outfit for 9S. And maybe some other stuff.

I’m sure I’ll purchase it and show it off eventually. But considering the content shown included a Level 85 boss, not for some time... Also don’t link to the DLC information just because I briefly talked about it, you dingus. Go to the main Games thread if you wanna talk about that. Sheesh.



Getting back on track. Remember how I said the western part of the desert was still rather nebulous? That’s because there’s a raging sandstorm at the boundary of the desert with winds so strong you’d think they were invisible walls. :v:

There is a way past the sandstorm and land to explore behind it. But that’s beyond the scope of today’s tour.





Continuing eastward from the Apologetic Machine and its locked DLC gate, there are a couple points of interest. To the south through that narrow stretch of land on the mini-map is another save terminal and some other goodies. We’ll get to that in a moment. First, remember that previous update? And the beeping I told you to listen for...?



That beep is an in-world sound. It’s an indicator of a Pod related upgrade. The sound is a high pitched frequency that it’s possible your ears can no longer hear as you age. But the beep does get louder, the closer we get to the tone.





At this point on the map, roughly right between the two save points and the entrance to the area, we find an abandoned Pod. Aww... What happened to this little guy?



Hypothesis: The owner discarded this pod and left it in safe mode. Motives unknown.
Why was it abandoned...? Pod, reactivate it for me. If it’s usable, try to overwrite the original owner with my ID.
Activation complete. Access granted. Previous owner ID successfully overwritten. Special weaponry now available.



2B now has access to TWO pods. Pods can be switched with left or right on the D-Pad. So what does this secondary Pod do, you ask? Well, firing infinite ammo bullets is fine and dandy.



What if instead it shot infinite homing missiles? Now that sounds like a fun time, right? Well that’s exactly what Pod 042B does. The missile volley is fairly good against weaker targets and definitely handy for the bullet shielded ones. It has overall a lot less DPS than the Gatling and is much poorer at stun-locking enemies. But it’s satisfying. Additionally, the second Pod can be equipped with a different Pod Program in the menu (once I go get a second one, at least) that has its own cooldown timer. So it’s quite possible to combo Pod Programs together now.





But wait, there’s more! A sort of undocumented feature it took me about 50% of the way through the game to realize. We can now hold the Pod Program button and it will charge the attack with our second Pod tagging in to do double damage with two blasts from the same Program. It’s a PRETTY good feature to never really tell the player about... Pods are extremely powerful friends.





While we’re in the neighborhood, we may as well hit the secondary Save Terminal in the region. This one is in the southernmost part of the area, right next to an oasis.



Or uhh... make that an oil field. Well, can you really ruin the environment when it’s a barren desert?





Remember how I said 2B could fish in any ankle high liquid we came across? I used the term “liquid” instead of water intentionally, as you totally can go fishing in this oil spill. Though I doubt our Pod enjoys this one as much as a pleasant stream.



We can even get some, uhh... interesting catches in here. Here’s a few examples of what I caught in a brief fishing session...



Just a giant sardine covered in oil. I dunno, I think my cats would probably still eat it.



The machine lifeforms made machine carps. They’re not malicious or anything. They just liked carps.



They did, however, make robot piranha blowfish hybrids. The Alien R&D lab must be an interesting thing to behold. All of these ought to cover the expenses of buying another Pod Program for our Missile Buddy next time we’re in the Resistance Camp.





Before we leave the oil slick save oasis, there is one more item of note in the region. We can climb up the canyon’s perimeter to find a small base camp being staffed by a couple of YoRHa soldiers. What are you jerks doing around here...?



We’re investigating this area.
If we can minimize machine activity in the desert area, we’ll be able to transport the oil safely. It may be unexciting work, but if it can help save even a single ally, I’ll do whatever it takes.
I know we both have serious missions to do, so let’s give it our all.



I just want you all to keep in mind those two are up there. We’ll check back in on their operation in the future. For now, let’s get back to our task of clearing out those hotspots.



Backtracking a ways, the next targeted destination are a set of ruins just north of the central Save Terminal we hit up before going on a field trip. Here we find...



Whyyyy...
N-no... Stay...away...
What’s with the weird-looking outfits?
I’ve seen that sort of thing when I was going through some old data. It looks like what humans used to wear long ago. Certain human collectives used to use face paint like that, too.
Huh...



Yeah, well. Not anymore... Bad run in with a Doom Boar. Long story...





The penultimate targeted region is back to the east a decent clip. Machine patrols get somewhat heavier in this direction. But we’re only worried about the one right now.



...elp...meeeee... Help...me...!
!?
2B, it’s fine. Their speech doesn’t mean anything. They’re just emitting words at random. If they wanted help, why would they be attacking us?
...Yeah.



Alright, that’s a fair point. Kill ‘em all! Flying masked machines have absolutely no difference from the normal ones. They’re a couple levels higher. That’s it. They just shoot orbs.





We’re almost done with the Desert Zone. We have one final destination to the northeast, near an opening in the canyon’s face. Unlike the other areas, there is only a sole machine hanging out.



You picked the WRONG day to go take a stroll alone, buddy.





Unlike the last handful of machines that talked about being scared but fought to the death, this one actually chooses to bug out once its HP falls below 30%. It does this by doing a flying head-butt into the sand and burrowing underground.





Pod 042 doesn’t want this jerk getting away and used its scope view to target him. Our new goal is murdering the poo poo out of that particular machine. gently caress that guy! Nobody escapes 2B’s wrath.



Our pursuit leads us to the end of the Desert Zone area. Tune in next time...







...for some aggressive real estate brokering. And the first true “what the gently caress?!” NieR: Automata will offer.






Video: Episode 14 Highlight Reel






Desert Machine Lifeform Concept Art – I wonder how many rules there were against cosplay and robots.

The Dark Id fucked around with this message at 05:06 on Apr 20, 2017

KamikazePotato
Jun 28, 2010
While charging a Program to have both Pods use it at the same time lengthens the cooldown timer, some of the charged abilities are way stronger than the base version. You can do some crazy stuff with Pods.

NHO
Jun 25, 2013

Haven't heard the beeping, got the quest mark on the Pod instead.

Also, either you haven't suffered through or haven't encountered new enemy type in a desert.
When I first met them, I kinda got hit by all of them, because they reminded me of a different game. With a desert. And screams. And explosions.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!

Begemot
Oct 14, 2012

The One True Oden

NHO posted:

Haven't heard the beeping, got the quest mark on the Pod instead.

Also, either you haven't suffered through or haven't encountered new enemy type in a desert.
When I first met them, I kinda got hit by all of them, because they reminded me of a different game.

Pretty sure they don't show up in the desert until... later.

Materant
Jul 22, 2010

see, what you don't understand is he now has

THE MANLIEST MUSTACHE

it defies physics


Begemot posted:

Pretty sure they don't show up in the desert until... later.

No, they can absolutely show up now, just not at any of the quest markers here. It's a bit of a surprise Id didn't run into them.

DeafNote
Jun 4, 2014

Only Happy When It Rains
that selfdestructing nonhostile robot caught me off guard
I still cant stop laughing

Omobono
Feb 19, 2013

That's it! No more hiding in tomato crates! It's time to show that idiota Germany how a real nation fights!

For pasta~! CHARGE!

NotSpain archers? Zero and sisters? Some doves?
Caim and Angelus?

gently caress I'd like a Caim, Angelus and Caim's crocs boss fight, even as a non-canon bonus boss.
(I have no clue if Caim is in the game or not)

The Dark Id
Aug 13, 2005

Why
you
know
I
LOVE
THIS SHIT !!!!
[citation needed]
I am purposefully going to avoid showing off that enemy type for at least 20 updates now. Also stop talking about stuff not coming up for 20 updates now. I'll get to it! :argh:

The Dark Id fucked around with this message at 19:21 on Apr 19, 2017

McDragon
Sep 11, 2007

That last robot that runs away ended up being the first one I went after. It ended up being a very short part of the quest. 2B just kind of lost interest in the aggressive ones and just wanted to kill the deserter I guess. Heh, deserter. I swear that was accidental.

It was quite a while until I realised the desert was actually huge-rear end. And it decided it was just going to throw me a quest marker for the pod later on. Of course, getting said pod made me fail the other quest I was on at the time, right at the end. Game has to troll you sometimes even when it is being nice.

Jen X
Sep 29, 2014

To bring light to the darkness, whether that darkness be ignorance, injustice, apathy, or stagnation.
I think I kinda under-appreciated the desert after experiencing breath of the wild's, which, much like basically everything in that game, was the best executed desert I've ever seen in a video game.

The robots speaking was unsettling as hell though, so automata had that going for it.

AradoBalanga
Jan 3, 2013

So the machines are screaming for help while 2B murders them without abandon. We're about to hit the "Are we the bad guys?" part of this game, aren't we?

HenryEx
Mar 25, 2009

...your cybernetic implants, the only beauty in that meat you call "a body"...
Grimey Drawer
It’s just accessing random nonsensical data from the old world. There’s no actual meaning behind anything machines do.

Josuke Higashikata
Mar 7, 2013


Definitely not Facade Machines are very cute.

Spikey
May 12, 2001

From my cold, dead hands!


HenryEx posted:

It’s just accessing random nonsensical data from the old world. There’s no actual meaning behind anything machines do.

I believe machines are like dogs and they just sort of do things arbitrarily.

Ratoslov
Feb 15, 2012

Now prepare yourselves! You're the guests of honor at the Greatest Kung Fu Cannibal BBQ Ever!

AradoBalanga posted:

So the machines are screaming for help while 2B murders them without abandon. We're about to hit the "Are we the bad guys?" part of this game, aren't we?

Given the history of this series, we hit the "Are we the bad guys?" part at the title screen. Possibly earlier.

MechanicalTomPetty
Oct 30, 2011

Runnin' down a dream
That never would come to me
I hate sand bots. They're coarse and rough and they get everywhere.

Edit: At least the aliens didn't populate the area with robot wolves. I'm not sure YoRHa is prepared to handle a foe that powerful.

vdate
Oct 25, 2010
If you just hang out without attacking at any of these target areas, do the machines extend you the same courtesy?

Materant
Jul 22, 2010

see, what you don't understand is he now has

THE MANLIEST MUSTACHE

it defies physics


vdate posted:

If you just hang out without attacking at any of these target areas, do the machines extend you the same courtesy?

Nope. Them robots are dicks.

MarquiseMindfang
Jan 6, 2013

vriska (vriska)

Ratoslov posted:

Given the history of this series, we hit the "Are we the bad guys?" part at the title screen. Possibly earlier.

Dunno. Considering the machines booted the natives off of their own planet, I think we're still firmly on the side of justice here.

StandardVC10
Feb 6, 2007

This avatar now 50% more dark mode compliant

AradoBalanga posted:

So the machines are screaming for help while 2B murders them without abandon. We're about to hit the "Are we the bad guys?" part of this game, aren't we?

I was expecting it to take a bit longer, to be honest.

Augus
Mar 9, 2015


GeneX posted:

I think I kinda under-appreciated the desert after experiencing breath of the wild's, which, much like basically everything in that game, was the best executed desert I've ever seen in a video game.

The open world aspect of this game definitely wasn't done any favors by having Breath of the Wild to compare it to, yeah.
Sand-sliding is very much appreciated though.

Ixjuvin
Aug 8, 2009

if smug was a motorcycle, it just jumped over a fucking canyon
Nap Ghost

StandardVC10 posted:

I was expecting it to take a bit longer, to be honest.

Automata has poo poo to do and places to go.

But really, don't pay them any attention. It's clearly just a tactic meant to distract and unnerve.

motoh
Oct 16, 2012

The clack of a light autocannon going off is just how you know everything's alright.
Mobility in general in this game is amazing. It rarely feels like a chore to get somewhere when you can just make the bionic man noise, or pick up a deathmoose taxi.

Ursine Catastrophe
Nov 9, 2009

It's a lovely morning in the void and you are a horrible lady-in-waiting.



don't ask how i know

Dinosaur Gum

Augus posted:

Sand-sliding is very much appreciated though.

Even if it does get a little ridiculous sometimes. You keep sliding until you lose enough momentum to stop, which includes "sliding sideways or up hills if you're going fast enough".

This occasionally results in situations where you're fighting a mob and 9S spends most of the time ineffectually sliding in circles around you until you've moved far enough to kick his AI into doing something differently.

MythosDragon
Jan 3, 2016

Can confirm blanks are here now at the very northern tip of the desert, Im only a bit past the next update and will play along Id then.

Nuebot
Feb 18, 2013

The developer of Brigador is a secret chud, don't give him money
I never found those two YoRHa near the oil pool.

Begemot
Oct 14, 2012

The One True Oden

Nuebot posted:

I never found those two YoRHa near the oil pool.

They're easy to miss, standing up on a little rocky plateau that doesn't look climbable at first glance. I didn't see them until I went back there later to do some fishing.

Spatula City
Oct 21, 2010

LET ME EXPLAIN TO YOU WHY YOU ARE WRONG ABOUT EVERYTHING

MarquiseMindfang posted:

Dunno. Considering the machines booted the natives off of their own planet, I think we're still firmly on the side of justice here.

In a general sense, from a certain angle.

but think of it this way.

Imagine there's a kingdom which is invaded and conquered by a neighboring kingdom. A contingent of the kingdom's army and subjects flee to an island, and from then on there's period wars. but, okay, fast forward 500 years. Company C is a group of local constables, keeping the peace. and then the "rightful" army comes through and kills all of them. Is that justice? Company C didn't invade the kingdom. They were born there! their parents were born their, their grandparents, and so on. Where is the justice in killing them? What right, really, does that army have?

Ursine Catastrophe
Nov 9, 2009

It's a lovely morning in the void and you are a horrible lady-in-waiting.



don't ask how i know

Dinosaur Gum

Spatula City posted:

In a general sense, from a certain angle.

but think of it this way.

Imagine there's a kingdom which is invaded and conquered by a neighboring kingdom. A contingent of the kingdom's army and subjects flee to an island, and from then on there's period wars. but, okay, fast forward 500 years. Company C is a group of local constables, keeping the peace. and then the "rightful" army comes through and kills all of them. Is that justice? Company C didn't invade the kingdom. They were born there! their parents were born their, their grandparents, and so on. Where is the justice in killing them? What right, really, does that army have?

so what you're saying is if you don't manage to retake your kingdom inside of a generation, it's squatter's rights territory

Qrr
Aug 14, 2015


Ursine Catastrophe posted:

so what you're saying is if you don't manage to retake your kingdom inside of a generation, it's squatter's rights territory

That's the basic premise of most of the Americas. Actually I imagine the entire world is places that used to belong to someone else, and the current people have no intent of giving it back.

Alavaria
Apr 3, 2009
They're constantly refreshing the timer on their territorial claims by having androids there to keep it at least at a contested status.

It's a massive proxy war anyway since instead of humans vs aliens, it turns out as androids vs machine lifeforms.

Alavaria fucked around with this message at 01:11 on Apr 20, 2017

MythosDragon
Jan 3, 2016

Qrr posted:

That's the basic premise of most of the Americas. Actually I imagine the entire world is places that used to belong to someone else, and the current people have no intent of giving it back.

This is the truth, almost no place on earth is controlled by their original inhabitants. In fact, the only place I feel comfortable saying is controlled by its original generation is the originating territory of whoever won the last major war of China, assuming anyone can tell after 4000 years of intermingling.

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Glazius
Jul 22, 2007

Hail all those who are able,
any mouse can,
any mouse will,
but the Guard prevail.

Clapping Larry
Oh huh. A giant ancient ruin in the desert. Only it's a modern ancient ruin instead of like a temple or something.

Man, climates have just shifted right the hell around in the last few millennia, haven't they?

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