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The_Final_Stand
Nov 2, 2013

So cute and cuddly
I really do like them. Just some guys that like blowing stuff up, which seems wholly sensible in this universe.

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double nine
Aug 8, 2013

at least part of the dislike for boomers is how their base is annoying to navigate, and is mostly a big plain with no interesting features, and, well, the introduction is a bit explosive.

Acebuckeye13
Nov 2, 2010


If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, crisis counseling and referral services can be accessed by calling
1-800-GAMBLER


Ultra Carp
The Boomers are great and the B-29 is awesome :colbert:

McTimmy
Feb 29, 2008
One of my fondest memories is just taking the road to the Nelis gate and not getting hit once.

Discendo Vox
Mar 21, 2013

We don't need to have that dialogue because it's obvious, trivial, and has already been had a thousand times.
Enh, the boomers are ok. They're not particularly well fleshed out, but the same could be said of many things in NV.

Kemix
Dec 1, 2013

Because change
Hey hey hey, the Boomers are great to have on your side! And failing that, I hear they go good with ketchup after being slowly roasted on an open flamer

Randaconda
Jul 3, 2014

by Jeffrey of YOSPOS
I like the Boomers.

The mini-Boomers are so happy when you bring them toys. :3:

LashLightning
Feb 20, 2010

You know you didn't have to go post that, right?
But it's fine, I guess...

You just keep being you!

I need to have another full run at this game. I don't remember the Boomers being this... bloodthirsty towards those from outside their vault.

Dr.Smasher
Nov 27, 2002

Cyberpunk 1987

LashLightning posted:

I need to have another full run at this game. I don't remember the Boomers being this... bloodthirsty towards those from outside their vault.

I do. Violent motherfuckers with artillery and rocket launchers and hate. They're one of my favorite groups in FNV. Their ultimate goal of raising and restoring a B-29 bomber so they can fly around dropping ordinance on their enemies is pretty rad

I brought my Drake
Jul 10, 2014

These high-G injections have some serious side effects after pulling so many jumps.

Randaconda posted:

I like the Boomers.

The mini-Boomers are so happy when you bring them toys. :3:

I like them better than the Brotherhood in this game. They have a few things in common--wanting to keep others out, hoarding bits of old culture--but the Boomers have less angst. Many of them apologize for being rude once you have better rep with them. And they're a bunch of rubes with artillery. It's like visiting home for a weekend. :allears:

I would love them even more if they gave you a Crazy Harry type as an NPC follower.

Randaconda
Jul 3, 2014

by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

queserasera posted:

I like them better than the Brotherhood in this game. They have a few things in common--wanting to keep others out, hoarding bits of old culture--but the Boomers have less angst. Many of them apologize for being rude once you have better rep with them. And they're a bunch of rubes with artillery. It's like visiting home for a weekend. :allears:

I would love them even more if they gave you a Crazy Harry type as an NPC follower.

Oh, man. Should have been able to recruit old cat after you get the plane for him.

ApeHawk
Jun 6, 2010

All the NPCs will look up and shout, "Do this quest!"
and I'll whisper, "Sure, why not."
Nah, I'd make Pete a follower, then make him wield nothing.

That way he wouldn't be able to explode anything.

Not even a hand grenade.

Sketchie
Nov 14, 2012

If anyone wants to know what Sun said to Loyal in the latest update, it's If you do not stop calling me a barbarian, I will put your corn inside your butt.

:allears:

Xandor TikRoth
Mar 10, 2012

I can definitely help with that

Sketchie posted:

If anyone wants to know what Sun said to Loyal in the latest update, it's If you do not stop calling me a barbarian, I will put your corn inside your butt.

:allears:

Had to Google Translate that one. Gave me a chuckle when I read it.

ApeHawk
Jun 6, 2010

All the NPCs will look up and shout, "Do this quest!"
and I'll whisper, "Sure, why not."
I tried so many times to get it to say "Call me a savage one more time, I'll shove all your corn up your rear end." but I gave up after half an hour.

incompetent
Jun 4, 2013

私の尻に玉蜀黍を突き出すと私に野蛮と呼ぶ
shove corn into my butt and call me a savage :downsa:

Randaconda
Jul 3, 2014

by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

incompetent posted:

私の尻に玉蜀黍を突き出すと私に野蛮と呼ぶ
shove corn into my butt and call me a savage :downsa:

same

Glazius
Jul 22, 2007

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

Clapping Larry
Kind of a shame you already oopsed yourself out of two out of three weapons technologies.

Kemix
Dec 1, 2013

Because change

incompetent posted:

私の尻に玉蜀黍を突き出すと私に野蛮と呼ぶ
shove corn into my butt and call me a savage :downsa:

Oooooohhhhmyyyyy.jpg

Anticheese
Feb 13, 2008

$60,000,000 sexbot
:rodimus:

I think someone at Eurogamer is reading the thread and got a nostalgia hit, because they just posted an article on Vault 11.

ApeHawk
Jun 6, 2010

All the NPCs will look up and shout, "Do this quest!"
and I'll whisper, "Sure, why not."

Anticheese posted:

I think someone at Eurogamer is reading the thread and got a nostalgia hit, because they just posted an article on Vault 11.

As much as I wanna believe that, Vault 11 is one of the best pieces of storytelling in a video game to this date and it sticks to a lot of people's minds. It doesn't surprise me that articles are still being made of it, but it IS a nice coincidence.

ApeHawk
Jun 6, 2010

All the NPCs will look up and shout, "Do this quest!"
and I'll whisper, "Sure, why not."
Chapter 22: Sun Vulture and the Geckos, Ghouls, and Guns


Music: Hard Luck Blues





What’re we doing here?
This is the closest settlement to Vault 34. Hoping that they might have something to say about it that’ll help us out.



What do you do around here?
I'm a private in the NCR army, and I've been proudly serving for two years now.
Although, if you were asking what I'm doing right this instant, I'm patrolling the farms. It's a safe post, but a little boring.
I do get to take shots at marauding Molerats once in awhile, and that's always fun.

Are there more dangerous posts?
Oh, you'd better believe it. I feel sorry for the troops who are charged with keeping the Fiends from overrunning everything.
The Fiends are scary because they're unpredictable. One day, they'll be taking potshots at you and then running off before you can shoot back.
And the next day, they'll come rushing at you pumped full of drugs and not stopping until you or they are dead.
HA! Yeah, that brings up memories...like...yesterday.
If the Fiends are so dangerous, why hasn't the NCR wiped them out?
Current orders are to hold the line and nothing more. That's all we seem to do these days - hold the line.
I guess it's a tricky situation since there's a vault in Fiend territory. If the NCR went after them, they'd just hole up.

Tell me about the farms.
It's NCR-owned farmland. It produces a lot of the crops that supply McCarran and the Dam. The farmers are all civilians, though.
They work the farms, and in return they get a safe place to stay and clean food and water. Some of 'em aren't all that grateful, though.
Who's ungrateful?
I shouldn't have brought it up. It's not my place to spread gossip.
Anything you tell me stays with me.
All right. Some of the farmers, especially Trent Bascom, claim the NCR isn't giving them the water they need to meet their crop quotas.
Personally, I think they're just incompetent and making excuses. The NCR ought to send them all crying back to California.



If I never see a stalk of corn again in my life, it’d be too soon.



Nice outside relaxation set-up, though.



What's going on around here?
Well, crops aren't doing so well. I'm thinking it might be something in the water.
The pump station is pretty run down, you could go take a look around the place, see if you find anything strange going on. What do you say?
...why the hell would I do that? I just sat down.
Aren’t you here for quests and whatnot? ‘sides, it’s just a short hike from here.
Why don’t you go do it, then?
I’m just a simple farmer. And I’m kinda stuck here for all eternity.
...I'll go check it out.
Thanks, that's great!
I should get back to work now, see you around.



You work these fields?
Sure do. Came from The Hub on account of the Thaler Act. Farming's decent work, but the whole thing's a bum deal.
Why is this work a bum deal?
Bad soil and rationed water. It's to be expected around here, but the rationing's off. Worst part is NCR won't admit it.
Pretty hard to meet their crop quotas with twenty percent less water than we're supposed to be getting. Not that OSI cares about any of this.
What's the Thaler Act?
Something the politicians back in Shady Sands came up with. They pay us to move here and farm the land. They even protect the fields.

What are NCR troopers doing here?
They're part of the deal, the Thaler Act. We work the fields while they protect the crops and the water.
Lotta folks come to New Vegas and lose everything in Freeside or the Strip. They get hungry, desperate, and try to take our hard work.
Much as I sympathize, their theft would put me in a bad spot. I got a crop quota to meet.
What kind of crops do you grow?
Everything I can. Farmers out here don't have the luxury of being picky. I get by mostly on maize and tobacco.



What can you tell me about these fields?
Impressive, aren't they? You don't see anything like this outside of NCR territory, that's for sure.
We get the water - clean water - pumped in from Lake Mead. If you follow the big pipes, they'll take you all the way to the Lake.
Why are these fields being guarded?
A lot of the crops grown here support the various NCR camps in the region - McCarran, Golf, and Forlorn Hope, to name a few.
We can't have wastelanders popping in here for a free meal, so my squad and I are assigned to keep things from going to hell.

What can you tell me about the Followers of the Apocalypse?
They're based out of the old fort in Freeside. They supposedly helped the NCR out at some point, but they go their own way now.
They know stuff about tech and medicine and usually help out anybody who asks. Can't say I know any more than that.

Trent Bascom says he's not getting his full allotment of water.
The Office of Science and Industry has carefully calculated the amount of water needed for these crops. The whole thing is handled by computer.
Besides, most of these crops look fine to me. If the farmers can't handle the job, they shouldn't have signed up in the first place.
If there really is a problem, they can take it up with Lieutenant Boyd at McCarran. Farming isn't my department.



There are tents all over the Sharecropper Farms, each containing some form of harvest, or just farming supplies.



Despite them talking about water problems, we take a sip. It’s free (and hidden) drinks!





Anybody home?
You’d think they’d keep someone here to run the place.
Budget cuts, I’m guessing.
<sad beeping>





Seems to be pointing towards...Vault 34.
Great. Radiation. Good thing I have all that Radaway. And the space suit.



Same.



Romanowski wasn’t lying about the pipes. One cool detail in the game is how the giant pipes are actually connected to Lake Mead and the farms the NCR owns.



On our way to Vault 34, we run into more Golden Geckos.



Unfortunately, they do not count towards the Purifier perk we took earlier, but they go down fairly easily still.



Looks like we know where all the radiation came from.





Our most direct path to Vault 34 are through these caverns, filled with even more Geckos and radiation barrels.



Guess they forgot to close the door.
Or someone else didn’t bother.



Oh, goody, they turned into ferals. This’ll be fun.



There are four Overseer journal entries to find in this vault, starting with the one at the vault entrance.




Population problems in a vault full of easy-access guns.
And the Brotherhood is having the opposite problem...



So, this vault is kind of a maze. Not too difficult to navigate, but there are barricades and makeshift barriers all over the place, making it hard to map out a straight path.






On top of that, there are feral ghouls all over the place...and some that just spawn behind you for no reason. Yeah, it’s THAT kind of dungeon.



There are also pools of radiation leaking from the ceilings, which means you are constantly being irradiated, and since radiation resistance caps out at 85%, you will ALWAYS be getting at least 1 RAD a second. Pack Radaway before coming here.





Yeah, kinda had a feeling Vault-tec purposefully stuffed a bunch of people and guns in this vault for another one of their experiments.
Jeez, they weren’t even being subtle. Basically telling them to shoot each other to free up more space.



These entries are all messed up.
Judging by the radiation, I’m guessing these terminals are being constantly fried and corrupted.
<confirmational beeping>





And we have floods and sealed doors. Wonderful.



10mm pistols and submachine guns are littered all about, giving off the feeling of yet another vault war.



Needs a key.
This is gonna be a slog, isn’t it?



Can’t even use an auto-doc here. gently caress this place.



On top of regular ferals, we also have Glowing Ones! Here’s one of their radiation blasts in action!



Thanks to all the rads we are picking up just for breathing in here, we gain the perk Free Radical, making our Radaway more effective! Nifty.



In the hallway where the Overseer’s floor door is at, we come across another journal fragment.




Doesn’t look like it worked out all that well.



Being a vault with a bunch of guns, it’s only fitting that there’s a copy of Guns and Bullets lying around.



There are two flooded areas we have to dive into in order to progress.



Each has a body that contains a password. The Security guy in the other flooded corridor has the key we need to get into the Overseer’s place.



Thanks to the Utility Terminal Password, we open up a new passageway.





Which leads the way to MORE WORLDBUILDING.




Great, another reason to hate the Boomers.
Not like they knew the Overseer would try to prevent more people from leaving.
Don’t ruin this for me.




On our way to the reactor, we run into more resistance. This is probably the right time to tell you another funny thing about the Purifier perk. Turns out, it DOESN’T affect feral ghouls. Despite saying it does right on the box. Not a huge loss but still an annoying oversight.



Yet another problem that could’ve been solved by the integration of cannibalism.
I don’t see how that’s better than what happened.
Are you really saying that consensual people-eating is less moral than civil war?!?!
...yes?
Well, ED-E, looks like we need a tie-breaker.
C’mon, iBot, tell her I’m right!
<analytical beeping>
“Reduced breeding?” We didn’t ask for a third option.
Leave it to the robot to add more problems to the mix.
<sad beeping>



Inside the Overseer’s office is, obviously, the Overseer. Only they have become an amber-colored Glowing One. Or as I like to call it, a Golden One. (wiki says it’s also a Reaver but it has a radiation attack, so, semantics and all that). It’s guarded by an elevated position and two turrets underneath it.



Just like in Vault 11, we go for the turrets first. Ouch.



We then proceed to continuously fist it from behind...



It’s a tried-and-true strategy. Shut up.








Looks like they tried your way, ED-E. Still didn’t work.
<sad beeping>
Aw, don’t feel too bad, robro. You’re not the one who filled a vault with a bunch of guns and hot-blooded Americans.



Made everyone stay till the bitter end.



We have the armory door open, but the reactor is still in need of taking a look at, so we head down the stairs below the Overseer’s desk.



But first, the final journal entry.





Egg on my face.
Probably a good thing they didn’t get out; the world doesn’t need more Boomers.



The reactor level is a bit flooded, but nothing serious. Eventually, we run into a room with a terminal.



What the...




Uh. Does this have a time-stamp?
Nope. For all we know, this could’ve been sent years ago.
I mean, what harm could it do to try?



Lemme guess: we can’t both help the farmers AND the trapped vault dwellers.
Ding ding ding.



Decision?
On one hand, the Sharecroppers farm having clean water for the crops will definitely improve the food situation for the NCR.
And?
And on the other hand...the NCR has enough food and water to sustain themselves and others, and I don’t feel good about maybe potentially killing innocent people if I had the chance to help them.



Let’s hope this is worth it. How are things on your end?



Fine.



Diverting all control of the vault to the other terminal, as well as the fifty ghouls we killed on our visit to Vault 34, gave us enough experience to get to level 15. More Melee and Lockpicking, please!



Now that THAT’S done, let’s find that Pulse Gu-




-uhuhuhuhuns. Holy poo poo, they weren’t kidding about the stocked armory. Help me carry all this out, guys. Momma’s going shopping later!
<happy beeping>



In the armory, we find the All-American, a unique semi-automatic Marksman carbine, which boasts an overall better array of stats. It was also designed by Joshua Sawyer himself!



Gross. Of course the gun we’re looking for is surrounded in a puddle of goo.



As Elijah noted, the Pulse Gun is especially lethal to robots and power armor with its EMP damage.



Haha I’d only get that reference if I...actually...had gone...to the...Strip.

Let’s get the hell outta here. My tumors are growing tumors.




Three Days Later



Why are we back here?
I got a message on my pip-boy, said to meet some people here. They claim to be the ones freed from Vault 34...
Wow. Guess that WAS the right call.
Yeah...wonder how much of each other they had to eat before I showed up.
Ugh.
<disgusted beeping>



I’m glad SOMEBODY does. I’m loving majestic.
I've tried to learn as much as possible about the surface world since our community left our home.
How's the "surface world" treating you?
Kindly! The leaders of this fine community have accepted us among them. They give us food and protection from the outside.



Apparently somebody did them ill, all the way inside the surface-city with lights - the Strip, and Freeside, they call it.
Ha. Yeah. That’s life these days. Even cannibalism is an accepted practice out there.
<clears throat>
Well, it’s a work in progress.
...who did you say you were, again?

I was the one who turned off the vents at Vault 34.
You? Did you re-direct the power stream back to our section?
We thought nobody would ever manage to get past the radiation, and the ghouls!
We owe you our freedom, outlander. Please, if there's anything we can do for you...
Since you’re offering, I could use a Vault trinket.



This is a bit of a bugged sequence. If you ask for the “trinket”, Horowitz is supposed to give you something (nothing in the game’s files show what he is even supposed to give you), but sometimes, he gives the player a Food Sanitizer, which improves the health gain from Junk Food and gum...by one point. Yep.





:unsmith:

Siegkrow
Oct 11, 2013

Arguing about Lore for 5 years and counting



OutofSight
May 4, 2017
It is amazing, that somehow some people still live inside the vaults. Even after all these decades the wasteland being explored and repopulated.

Kemix
Dec 1, 2013

Because change
You know, personally, I don't save them. The NCR needs the clean water far more than a couple vault dwellers need to live. Needs of the many, etc etc.

Deathwind
Mar 3, 2013

The lack of timestamps and the vault's overall condition always made me assume that this wasn't a recent message and as such I always shut it down.

ZiegeDame
Aug 21, 2005

YUKIMURAAAA!
So what exactly is stopping you from shutting down the reactor after the trapped vault dwellers leave?

OutofSight
May 4, 2017

ZiegeDame posted:

So what exactly is stopping you from shutting down the reactor after the trapped vault dwellers leave?

Game design, in which "choices do matter".

Glazius
Jul 22, 2007

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

Clapping Larry
In theory, what's stopping you is that the vault's computer system is too badly damaged by radiation to be able to take back control once you route it. Though ultimately it does feel a lot like writing putting you into a contrived situation.

ApeHawk
Jun 6, 2010

All the NPCs will look up and shout, "Do this quest!"
and I'll whisper, "Sure, why not."
The whole quest is pretty bad by Obsidian standards, really. One of the rushed ones, I believe, since there's already a quest to bring you to Vault 34 (Veronica's companion quest) and a quest to bring you to the Sharecroppers Farm (one I'll do way off in the future). For starters, it takes place in one of the worst dungeons in the game: Vault 34 has constant radiation all over the place, which means if you don't take enough Radaway with you, you're pretty much going to die just from standing there. You also have feral ghouls spawning indefinitely from all corners, instead of a set amount to deal with. It's a maze, thanks to all the furniture and flooded areas and backtracking required to progress. And to top it all off, you get pretty much the entire story of what happened from Pete at Nellis (the journal entries go into more detail, but the gist of it is just "Vault was getting too crowded, people rioted, armory got raided, war ensued".

The quest itself also feels very incomplete. It's pretty vague in its descriptions (none of the dialogue or messages tell you to go to Vault 34; your Pip-Boy just marks where the terminal says the problem is), and the moral choice is heavily leaning towards helping the Sharecroppers Farm, since there's no evidence as to if there's even anyone still alive who wrote that message at the reactor terminal. It could've easily been solved by having the VA for Horowitz speak into a radio or something to let the player know that there are, in fact, still some living survivors in the vault who are trapped, but that probably would've cost more time and money than a paragraph of an SOS. The only way to know for sure that saving the trapped vault dwellers is not a futile choice is by either reading a guide or finding them out in the world. And they show up in a pretty obscure place that no one really visits more than once, and there's no way of knowing that there are even there unless you actually happen upon where they settle down at.

The Sharecroppers Farm choice isn't all that better: you get a little bit of NCR rep, but no actual recognition for doing it. Not even from the quest giver.

Deathwind
Mar 3, 2013

It is one of the least rewarding tracked quests in the game, both in lore and loot. Even the auto-failing quests are better as all but one are meaningful player choices and the last one is just glorious in it's own way.

Wugga
Oct 30, 2006

I BEAT MEAT
The only reason I ever do this quest nowadays is if I'm playing a Guns-character because I love All-American with its ugly-rear end camo design.

Weeble
Feb 26, 2016
Must do this quest every time.

Must collect every unique/legendary weapon.

Even if I'll never use them, I must collect.

ApeHawk
Jun 6, 2010

All the NPCs will look up and shout, "Do this quest!"
and I'll whisper, "Sure, why not."
It's another update in link-form. In my defense, it's mostly cuz of all the dialogue I crammed in:

Chapter 23: Sun Vulture and the Mountains of Madness

ApeHawk fucked around with this message at 04:55 on Apr 10, 2019

Podima
Nov 4, 2009

by Fluffdaddy

ApeHawk posted:

It's another update in link-form. In my defense, it's mostly cuz of all the dialogue I crammed in:

Chapter 23: Sun Vulture and the Mountains of Madness

:getin:

Randaconda
Jul 3, 2014

by Jeffrey of YOSPOS
One of the best DLCs ever

Kemix
Dec 1, 2013

Because change
It’s so simple, a lawyer can do it.

Excuse me while I stealborrowstearow that as a catchphrase. Also I see Sun Vulture is a girl of good taste in DLCs to do first.

eating only apples
Dec 12, 2009

Shall we dance?
Oh drat. I'm a little mad at you as I'm halfway through this DLC right now and haven't played it in weeks because OWB is where replays go to die!

It's good though, I always thought it was better played before DM, although it was released after. Looking forward to the next 3 updates of just talking!

GoneRampant
Aug 19, 2016

by FactsAreUseless
Sun Vulture's Bizzare Adventure, Part 2: Cannibal Tendency.

Looking forward to seeing her run around OWB!

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EggsAisle
Dec 17, 2013

I get it! You're, uh...
I don't think I've ever seen a New Vegas LP get as far as one of the DLC's before. :toot:

OWB is a good DLC, and a lot of people's favorite. It's probably the best quality entry overall. I'm really looking forward to Dead Money as well, given our protagonist's... culinary adventurism.

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