Nice Productive Fall-Like Sunday
Sep. 17th, 2023 11:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickYeah, the weather was really nice today -- warm, but without being too hot, and nice and dry. My parents and I went ahead and took the air conditioners out of the windows today, since HOPEFULLY we shall not need them going forward. I've currently got my fan in my window to keep my room cool, and that is working beautifully, let me tell you. :D Ah, I love this time of year, when I can have all three of my windows open and just enjoy cross breezes and such -- better in spring, since it's getting warmer and lighter then, but fall has its pleasures too. :) Anyway, here's how my day went --
Tumblr: Despite a slow start this morning, I was very productive on here, yay –
Victor Luvs Alice – Did my best to keep up on the dash and tags after making my bed and getting dressed and all that, then spent about a half-hour before lunch and the half-hour after it getting the main text on all five posts making up this week’s Chill Valicer Save update sorted! And THEN, because I had the time due to watching Gray’s latest video early today (see the “YouTube” section), I was able to complete the alt image text and tags on the first two posts before watching the adventures of Mayor Bob! So got a really good start on all of that – just have to make sure I can get at least another two posts all sorted out tomorrow!
Valice Multiverse – Pretty simple over here tonight – just sent in an ask to Marie to a “social media meme” (where the askee would do an edit featuring the asker’s muse of a phone notification or a Spotify playlist or the like) at her request and shucked an ask reply about “if you want to be paid for just existing, be a CEO” into the queue. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.
Fallout 4: My goal today was to clear out the Boston Public Library for Daisy, and I have done that! Well, me and the robots there. XD Here’s how it went down –
A) Trip to the library itself was almost entirely uneventful – left the playground (after finding Mentats, shortening, and a couple of sleeping bags in the main UFO climbing thingy) and headed around, past the general area of the State House (ignoring a tempting locked door on the way – it was only Novice-level, but it looked like there were super mutants inside. . .actually, thinking about it, I wonder if that’s a secret way into Trinity Tower? Have to investigate later), and over to the waterfront – right by the Charles River Amphitheater, in fact! I left that alone for the time being (couldn’t get close enough to officially “discover” it) and continued up the road to the left –
Only to run into a footbridge over the main road with a super mutant on it. A super mutant that, if I recalled correctly from Jon’s various FO4 LPs, was armed with a missile launcher. I had Victor grab the Mighty Sniper and try to sneak up for him to get a good shot. . .
Aaand got noticed and partially missiled – Victor got out of the way in time, but was close enough to the blast to end up with a broken leg and a broken arm. *sigh* At least I have LOADS of stimpacks! And plenty to drink to counteract how thirsty stimpacks make you. Victor stuck himself, glugged a Nuka-Cola and some purified water, and then took a shot back at the mutant while he tried to reload, taking him out in one hit. Mighty Sniper, doing the job! I then had Victor head over to the bridge to loot the mutant, but didn’t find anything particularly good – just some bug bits. And the missile launcher itself, but I didn’t want that – too heavy for a start!
B) However, going up on the bridge itself was a good move, as I realized that was how the game wanted me to go to get to the Library anyway. So Victor and Ada went up and over the bridge, through some houses, across a little square with a couple of mongrels in it (there was some growling, but Victor and Ada were able to creep past without incident), down another gap with a dead pack brahmin in it, and then to the Library! I had Victor do a little perimeter check, just to make sure the outside was clear (which – for some reason, netted him 12 XP. O.o I heard fighting somewhere nearby between what sounded like some raiders and a vertibird – maybe the Brotherhood killed someone I’d only injured the last time I was here?), then brought him back over to a side door by the dead super mutant I was pretty sure I’d killed earlier. Because this side door is the FUN way to get into the library – it has a pickable lock, but I wanted to use the intercom, which has an AI tell you that the library was closed and that only employees and those with prior appointments could get in. I had Victor react sarcastically at first by saying he had a prior appointment made 200 years earlier, but the AI cheerfully informed him that they had no record of that. So instead Victor claimed to be an employee, and when the AI asked for his ID number, rattled off “12345. . .6?” as per the speech check prompt.
Cue the AI greeting Victor as the Mayor and asking him to excuse the mess it unlocked the door. XD Quite amused, I had Victor go inside and head into the reading room just beyond –
Aaaand promptly got exploded by a grenade trap I’d failed to see. *facepalm* Always look at the floor, Vic!
C) Fortunately for my sanity, I’d actually saved RIGHT before engaging with the intercom, so – after a brief interlude where I remembered “Oh yeah, I wanted to see if I could summon some Minutemen for this fight,” fired off the flare gun, and got a message indicating that there were no Minutemen in the area (darn) – I had Victor once again pretend to be the mayor and go back in. THIS time, I was a lot more careful and kept my eyes on the ground – tripwire for the trap was right at the bottom of the stairs, and Victor was able to successfully disarm it and the grenade bouquet it was attached to. With THAT settled, he was able to check out the room – as stated, it was a reading room of sorts, with a few dead super mutants, a bunch of file cabinets (with lots of goodies, yay) –
And most importantly, a book return machine! THE book return machine, in fact, as this one has a special prize. I had Victor return all the overdue books in his inventory, including Daisy’s – 17 total, which netted him 85 tokens! And that was more than enough to buy the special prize in this machine – the “Finding Your Funny Bone” Massachusetts Surgical Journal! So now Victor does +2% extra limb damage, nice. :D
D) With THAT part of Daisy’s quest done, it was time to explore the library and see what was what. Fortunately, there were a couple of big holes in the wall that lead into one of the main halls, with a barricade manned by friendly turrets and robots at the far end and a few more dead super mutants around. Victor looted everything he could, then headed behind the barricade to check out what was there – but he didn’t get much farther than finding one of the dead “employees,” Dalen, before the AI announced a security breach. Cue super mutants flooding the room, and Victor, Ada, and the other robots engaging in a fight for both their lives and the books! Victor and the Two-Shot of course more than held their own, and between him, Ada, the Protectrons, and the turrets, the invasion was pretty easily repelled. :D There was even a Legendary Brute among all the corpses – though all he had on him was an Irradiated BOXING GLOVE, of all things. *shakehead* I’ll sell it to KLE0, she’ll probably get a kick out of it. More importantly, Victor also got a level-up out of the deal – he is now level 38, just ONE level away from when I can start taking stuff like “Gun Nut 4” and “Armorer 4.” *pumps fist* As he wasn’t quite at that point yet, though, I settled for taking the third rank of “Hacker,” which will now allow him to hack Master-level terminals, yay.
E) With super mutants at the front repelled, Victor was good to continue exploring a bit (as the bots continued fighting super mutants deeper in the building, finally repelling the attack for good while Victor grabbed duct tape and took his new perk). I had him grab some more new junk, then return to the barricade just as his Cram sandwich wore off, meaning he was back to being overweight. I had him eat another one so he could continue to move around at speed (I have GOT to start clearing out his inventory), then had him explore behind the barricade. In addition to Dalen, we had Curator Given’s terminal, which detailed what he, Dalen, and the others in his team were doing here – desperately attempting to scan and preserve the books for future generations before the super mutants could destroy the library. His last entry indicated that he could no longer keep the robots in good repair (I dunno, buddy, they looked like they did pretty good to me) and asked anyone reading to use the supplies in the back to continue their work. Awww. . . :( If only I could, Given! I will in the fanfic universe, that’s for sure. . . Anyway, I had Victor then go into the back room (where Given’s corpse was), snag the Intelligence bobblehead off the computer (Victor is now up to 9 Int, good for him!), and pick the lock on the supply closet for the goodies (yes, there is a key next to the terminal, but picking locks gets extra XP!). I then had Victor drop the portable workbench to scrap the spare guns he’d picked up –
And discovered, to my delight, that the spare combat rifle I’d grabbed had a LARGE Quick-Eject magazine on it. Something I can’t even BUILD for my beloved Two-Shot yet because it’s locked behind “Gun Nut 4!” So I built a quick standard magazine for that before junking it and slotted that new quick-eject mag onto the Two-Shot. Now it holds 40 shots at a time – very nice! :D
F) And then it was time for Victor to do a little cooking (to clear out some of the meat he’d picked up); do a little more exploring on the caffeine high of a Nuka-Cola (working his way around to the main stairs, where there were a TON of dead Protectrons and super mutants – so THAT’S where all the gunfire was coming from); do a little more looting (because can’t leave all those good military-grade circuit boards go to waste); and hack a novice terminal he found in the main hall (which, hilariously, took two attempts – failed the first outright, got it on the first try the second time – shame it was just another turret-and-Protectron-control computer) before unchaining the door back into the barricade hall and setting up camp in the back room right before midnight. I ended the playsession right after he’d woken up, stuffing a modded apple pie down his throat so he’d still have the carryweight necessary to get back to Goodneighbor. XD
And that was that! Very productive playsession, I feel, what with the level-up, the bobblehead, the new magazine, AND the surprise gun mod. :D Next week, back to Goodneighbor to report to Daisy, sell some stuff, and do another Silver Shroud mission! *thumbs up*
Writing: Naturally, it being Fallout Sunday, I had to update the FO4 Playthrough Progression doc with Victor, Ada, and Alice helping to clear out the Boston Public Library! As usual, it was pretty much just like the above, with a few minor changes –
A) Victor didn’t even notice the super mutant on the bridge until he was nearly missiled (he was too busy checking the amphitheater for signs of raider activity – no, Victor, that’s actually a DIFFERENT breed of asshole who has set up in there) – fortunately, the same combination of “stimpack and then the Mighty Sniper” took care of that whole mess.
B) Victor didn’t try to summon any Minutemen before entering the library, never sarcastically claimed he had a prior appointment 200 years earlier to the AI (the “sarcastic” option is in fact rather mean-spirited, with the PC openly calling the AI an “asshole,” and doesn’t seem like something he would say), and of course didn’t miss the grenade trap and get blown up. Though he and Alice did have a good laugh over the “123456” number belonging to the mayor. XD
C) Victor DID call up the Castle after reading Given’s terminal and ask them to send a patrol around to continue protecting and archiving the library, because he was quite touched by Given’s entries; the Castle agreed, and the fanfic snippet ended with some initial scouts who were in the area showing up, and Victor bringing them up to speed and helping them learn how to work the machines over breakfast.
Yeah, Victor’s a good guy who wants to protect the books too. :) And now that he knows that they’re in safe hands, he and his friends can head back to Goodneighbor and tell Daisy the good news! We love to see it. :)
YouTube: Got through my usual Sunday two, no problem –
A) First up, before my workout, we had GrayStillPlays and “I had 0.00000001 seconds to choose what to delete and this happened,” aka Gray plays Delete One Part 5! This is one of those silly mobile games where you have to solve a puzzle by erasing something from the scene – very first one is to help an onion slide down a slide by erasing all the grater bits from it. XD Other scenes included finding a nest of recently-hatched baby birds under a man’s horrible toupee (so mama bird could feed them); discovering a woman’s hidden lover (not under the covers or in the wardrobe, but curled up BEHIND HER AND HER HUSBAND’S WEDDING PICTURE – Gray was very surprised); erasing the wrapping paper from a woman’s present (it LOOKED like a car – Gray guessed it was actually a UFO, but it was in fact a giant tortoise); revealing that what looked like a sexy mermaid was in fact some sort of dragon-lady ready to eat the guy ogling her; saving the Earth from a meteor (while also erasing all the continents if you wanted); helping a man make a putt in golf by removing the hill in his way (Gray ATTEMPTED to just make a straight-up hole for the guy to drop his ball into, but the game wouldn’t let him); erasing the broken loop-de-loop from a roller coaster (Gray was like “noo, I want them to fly off”); creating a sunset for a couple on the beach by ERASING THE CLOUDS UNDER THE SUN TO MAKE IT FALL (the first time, Gray accidentally dropped it on some random island instead of the water and probably destroyed a random village); and helping a woman get down to her lover by erasing the floor of the balcony she was standing on (and not erasing part of the ladder above the guy; that just sent the ladder crashing onto his head. Gray did that three times XD). Just your average mobile game goofiness made better by Gray’s over-the-top reactions to said goofiness – perfect for a Sunday!
B) And second, after supper, we had Jon and “Fallout 4: Sim Settlements 2 - Part 2 - My Kind Of Town!” With Mayor Bob settling into being a good mayor and figuring out how to make a self-sufficient town before teaming up with Jake for more ASAM goodness! Here are the highlights –
I. First part of the episode was all about Bob fixing up Sanctuary so it could be more self-sufficient – namely, by tearing down some more ruined houses and building more “industrial” plots around the cul-de-sac so the residents could actually scavenge for more building supplies and useful junk on their own (the settlers are allowed to use “your” personal storage when you’re actually in the settlement – anything you scrap yourself and store in the workbench – but once you leave, then they’re dependent on what they produce themselves). In the meantime, though, they did need some more of the basics – Bob set up a water pump by his own place for more water, and turned one of the still-standing houses by the bridge into a “dormitory” of sorts by sticking some beds in there. He also set up a couple more house plots, and was absolutely delighted by a cool tower house that appeared behind Jake’s initial shack and the concrete bunker. . .
II. Which meant he was quite sour when he encountered Lily, the young lady who came with her family fleeing a settlement wracked by disease at the end of last episode, kicking the sensor just outside of it because it wouldn’t do what she wanted. When confronted, though, she explained that she was trying to get it to help her build a store instead of a house, as she wanted to set up shop in the settlement. As nobody was sure if ASAMs could do that (though Bob was optimistic), Old Paul suggested that Bob go and track down the “stranger” in Concord and ask if he had any more and what else they could do. Bob was more than willing to do that, as ASAMs were running low after all this building. So – after taking a moment to talk to Preston Garvey to finish up “When Freedom Calls” (and get “The First Step,” though I don’t know if Jon will be doing that – shame, because it’s one of the rare instances where Preston sends you to Oberland Station instead of Tenpines Bluff, so it’s a little different than usual) and to Sturges to basically instantly complete the vanilla “Sanctuary” quest for the XP, and to set down a couple of bigger residential plots by the bridge to see what was built on them (a cool giant apartment building of sorts shaped like a chimney in one case; the other isn’t being built as there aren’t enough people yet) – Bob set off into Concord to track down his new friend and see about more ASAMs and what else they could do!
III. But first, Concord had to be looted now that all the raiders were gone – and during his looting, Bob came across something interesting in a Pulowski Preservation Shelter. Namely, a “Nightingale Medical Cache,” containing stimpacks and two “disease cures.” Jon wasn’t sure what all that was about, but he is in favor of a faction just wandering around leaving medical supplies around for people!
IV. Anyway – after looting Concord, Bob went and found Jake in his workshop – then, seeing Jake was distracted, snuck up and unlocked his terminal to read his personal entries. Seems Jake was on the trail of some pre-War packages that might contain more ASAM technology for him to work with, and previously had a bad encounter with some raiders at a nearby base (Jon correctly guessing said base was USAF Station Olivia from Abernathy’s “Returning The Favor” quest). Having gotten an inkling at what the next part of the campaign might be like (namely, Jake sending him places looking for ASAMs and related tech), Bob engaged Jake in conversation and explained that, no, he wasn’t complaining about how complicated the ASAMs were, he wanted more, and ones that could do more. Jake, who has apparently had trouble convincing settlers ASAMs are worth the trouble, was shocked and delighted, and inquired as to Bob’s backstory – Bob filled him in on the “Pre-War dude frozen in Vault 111, my wife was murdered and my kid kidnapped” main plot, and Jake expressed his sympathies – accidentally letting slip that he might relate to losing a child. . . He quickly got the conversation back on track to settlement building, though, and after Bob freaked him out slightly by admitting he’s in the settlement business for “blood and money” (seriously, that was the label on the speech option) –
V. Who should come running in but Old Paul, gasping to them that raiders had attacked Sanctuary and had taken hostages! Bob and Jake promptly followed him over to where the raiders had kidnapped roughly half of Bob’s citizens, and Bob approached in his nice suit and captain’s hat to negotiate their release. Turns out the raiders were part of Gristle’s gang and were pretty pissed off at Bob wiping said gang out. . .but they were also very easily bribed with 100 caps into leaving the settlers alone. So they weren’t that upset. :p They released the settlers and headed off, and Jake complimented Bob on a job well done (even if it wasn’t what he would have done) as the settlers worked their way back to Sanctuary. Jake then asked for Bob’s opinion on the Commonwealth – Bob went with the optimistic “people are rebuilding and recovering” option, and Jake pointed out that they’d been “rebuilding and recovering” for over 200 years. In his opinion, the Wasteland was a mess, with settlements far too prone to being destroyed by attacks from raiders, feral ghouls, and ESPECIALLY synths. (Jon noted he seemed to have some extra anger toward that group and wondered if it was related to the tragic backstory.) But Mayor Bob seemed to have what it takes to help people build back and fight back, and so he proposed a partnership – the two of them, helping rebuild the Commonwealth! Bob was up for that, and so an alliance was forged – complete with Jake FINALLY properly introducing himself. XD His full name is Jake Evans, if you’re curious. Nice to finally PROPERLY meet you, Jake!
VI. Anyway, with the partnership official, it was time for the pair to track down more ASAM equipment – specifically, that shipment to USAF Station Olivia that Jake was trying to retrieve before. Jake suggested they ask the nearby Abernathy settlement for more current intel on the raiders (aka “why don’t you do ‘Returning The Favor’ along with my quest?”) and stop by a supply cache that he’d hidden nearby before hitting the station – Bob thought that was a good idea. Not in the least because the Abernathys had a bunch of tatos he could grab and horf down his gullet because he was STARVING. XD So yes, they went and chatted to the Abernathys about the locket situation, then – after a good night’s sleep – headed over to the station! Via the waterfront route, because that allowed them to sneak around, grab some meat from a wandering Radstag, take out some raiders, and end up at the Robotics Disposal Ground to grab the special sentry bot sitting there!
. . .and then Bob found a whole bunch of neutral raiders just hanging out in the yard. Raiders who did not stop him from activating his sentry bot to go defend Olivia, and when the mole rats came bursting out of the ground, started attacking them and not Bob. Jon decided that maybe they were there for later plot reasons and quickly left them to it; the comments indicated that they were in fact the raiders Bob had bribed into leaving his people alone earlier, and thus weren’t interested in another fight. At least with Bob – the mole rats were fair game. XD
VII. ANYWAY – with the sentry bot activated, Bob and Jake hit up Jake’s secret stash (which apparently contained some basic armor, like batting helmets – not that Jake wore his, as Jon had slightly broken him by making him wear a captain’s hat to match Bob; Bob didn’t wear his either as Jon didn’t like the look), then sized up Olivia. Jake told Bob that he’d scout the road for nasties while Bob took out the raiders outside – minutes before the game informed Jon that goal had been completed as apparently the sentry bot had wiped them all out. XD And then Jake told Bob that he’d cleared out the lookouts and that they shouldn’t have any trouble, just as an angry mongrel dog started sneaking up on them. XD The mongrel was easily taken care of, though, and the two got inside with no problem, where Jake found some records on an old terminal of the delivery he was looking for – something called a “Comm Hub,” locked behind the nearby intelligence room security door. He tasked Bob with clearing out the raiders while he hacked it open, which Bob did very well, using Molotov cocktails to wipe out leader Ack-Ack in a single hit before she could even pull out the minigun. :p Bob also found the locket the Abernathys were looking for, AND the key to the intel door. Meaning he could open it before Jake could “officially” open it. XD Might want to patch that out in future, KingGath! XD But the door was opened, and the boys found the Comm Hub inside. Unfortunately, it was rather busted up (time not having been kind to the package), so Jake needed to take it back to his workshop to take a look and see if he could fix it up. In the meantime, he had a lead on where Bob could find some more ASAMs – West Everett Estates! A location not far from Lexington. . .that happens to be swarming with super mutants. Hmmm. Well, Bob’s done well so far, so might as well go over and give it a look-see, right?
And so the episode ended with Bob returning the locket to the Abernathys, then heading back to Sanctuary to build another generator so everyone had enough power, sink another water pump for water, and build another turret for more defense before settling in, proud in a good couple of days’ work well done. :) And never realizing that, as per the comment, there were LOADS of ASAMs in Jake’s workshop that he could have picked up any time he wanted. XD Ah, good old Perception -1 Jon. . .but next week, Bob ventures further out into the Wasteland to fight super mutants for super tech! Looking forward to it!
Workout: Back on the bike tonight, this time with GrayStillPlays’s latest compilation video – “I found the best rated mobile games so you don't have to!” AKA a look at the weird and wacky and occasionally wonderful mobile games Gray has played over the years. As per usual with his compilations, the first game shown was a new one, Daddy Long Legs, where you played as a weird long-legged creature (a blob, a blob with a Santa hat, or a long sub sandwich ‘hamburger horse,’ for example) and had to tap to get it to walk across a course, trying to beat your current record before it inevitably fell over as you could only move one leg per tap and they didn’t always move sensibly. XD It was a very cute game and had some fun achievements, like walking 50m with the Daddy Long Legs (a difficult proposition!) or falling over twice or saving yourself from falling over twice. XD Gray certainly seemed to enjoy playing it! As for the actual repeats, we’ve gotten past that horrible “puzzle” game about feeding people stuff (the one where the graphics were so bad I seriously thought it could be a jokey horror game) and I’m wrapping up the one where he was a spider who had to eat other spiders to evolve into a better super-spider. :p Looking forward to walking down memory lane the rest of the week with whatever comes next!
Not bad, not bad at all. Any night where I don't go to bed feeling completely stressed out is a good night. :) And now it is time to hit the sack and try and get some sleep. Again, at least this week is only a four-dayer for me, followed by a personal four-day weekend. :D Looking forward to it -- night all!
Tumblr: Despite a slow start this morning, I was very productive on here, yay –
Victor Luvs Alice – Did my best to keep up on the dash and tags after making my bed and getting dressed and all that, then spent about a half-hour before lunch and the half-hour after it getting the main text on all five posts making up this week’s Chill Valicer Save update sorted! And THEN, because I had the time due to watching Gray’s latest video early today (see the “YouTube” section), I was able to complete the alt image text and tags on the first two posts before watching the adventures of Mayor Bob! So got a really good start on all of that – just have to make sure I can get at least another two posts all sorted out tomorrow!
Valice Multiverse – Pretty simple over here tonight – just sent in an ask to Marie to a “social media meme” (where the askee would do an edit featuring the asker’s muse of a phone notification or a Spotify playlist or the like) at her request and shucked an ask reply about “if you want to be paid for just existing, be a CEO” into the queue. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.
Fallout 4: My goal today was to clear out the Boston Public Library for Daisy, and I have done that! Well, me and the robots there. XD Here’s how it went down –
A) Trip to the library itself was almost entirely uneventful – left the playground (after finding Mentats, shortening, and a couple of sleeping bags in the main UFO climbing thingy) and headed around, past the general area of the State House (ignoring a tempting locked door on the way – it was only Novice-level, but it looked like there were super mutants inside. . .actually, thinking about it, I wonder if that’s a secret way into Trinity Tower? Have to investigate later), and over to the waterfront – right by the Charles River Amphitheater, in fact! I left that alone for the time being (couldn’t get close enough to officially “discover” it) and continued up the road to the left –
Only to run into a footbridge over the main road with a super mutant on it. A super mutant that, if I recalled correctly from Jon’s various FO4 LPs, was armed with a missile launcher. I had Victor grab the Mighty Sniper and try to sneak up for him to get a good shot. . .
Aaand got noticed and partially missiled – Victor got out of the way in time, but was close enough to the blast to end up with a broken leg and a broken arm. *sigh* At least I have LOADS of stimpacks! And plenty to drink to counteract how thirsty stimpacks make you. Victor stuck himself, glugged a Nuka-Cola and some purified water, and then took a shot back at the mutant while he tried to reload, taking him out in one hit. Mighty Sniper, doing the job! I then had Victor head over to the bridge to loot the mutant, but didn’t find anything particularly good – just some bug bits. And the missile launcher itself, but I didn’t want that – too heavy for a start!
B) However, going up on the bridge itself was a good move, as I realized that was how the game wanted me to go to get to the Library anyway. So Victor and Ada went up and over the bridge, through some houses, across a little square with a couple of mongrels in it (there was some growling, but Victor and Ada were able to creep past without incident), down another gap with a dead pack brahmin in it, and then to the Library! I had Victor do a little perimeter check, just to make sure the outside was clear (which – for some reason, netted him 12 XP. O.o I heard fighting somewhere nearby between what sounded like some raiders and a vertibird – maybe the Brotherhood killed someone I’d only injured the last time I was here?), then brought him back over to a side door by the dead super mutant I was pretty sure I’d killed earlier. Because this side door is the FUN way to get into the library – it has a pickable lock, but I wanted to use the intercom, which has an AI tell you that the library was closed and that only employees and those with prior appointments could get in. I had Victor react sarcastically at first by saying he had a prior appointment made 200 years earlier, but the AI cheerfully informed him that they had no record of that. So instead Victor claimed to be an employee, and when the AI asked for his ID number, rattled off “12345. . .6?” as per the speech check prompt.
Cue the AI greeting Victor as the Mayor and asking him to excuse the mess it unlocked the door. XD Quite amused, I had Victor go inside and head into the reading room just beyond –
Aaaand promptly got exploded by a grenade trap I’d failed to see. *facepalm* Always look at the floor, Vic!
C) Fortunately for my sanity, I’d actually saved RIGHT before engaging with the intercom, so – after a brief interlude where I remembered “Oh yeah, I wanted to see if I could summon some Minutemen for this fight,” fired off the flare gun, and got a message indicating that there were no Minutemen in the area (darn) – I had Victor once again pretend to be the mayor and go back in. THIS time, I was a lot more careful and kept my eyes on the ground – tripwire for the trap was right at the bottom of the stairs, and Victor was able to successfully disarm it and the grenade bouquet it was attached to. With THAT settled, he was able to check out the room – as stated, it was a reading room of sorts, with a few dead super mutants, a bunch of file cabinets (with lots of goodies, yay) –
And most importantly, a book return machine! THE book return machine, in fact, as this one has a special prize. I had Victor return all the overdue books in his inventory, including Daisy’s – 17 total, which netted him 85 tokens! And that was more than enough to buy the special prize in this machine – the “Finding Your Funny Bone” Massachusetts Surgical Journal! So now Victor does +2% extra limb damage, nice. :D
D) With THAT part of Daisy’s quest done, it was time to explore the library and see what was what. Fortunately, there were a couple of big holes in the wall that lead into one of the main halls, with a barricade manned by friendly turrets and robots at the far end and a few more dead super mutants around. Victor looted everything he could, then headed behind the barricade to check out what was there – but he didn’t get much farther than finding one of the dead “employees,” Dalen, before the AI announced a security breach. Cue super mutants flooding the room, and Victor, Ada, and the other robots engaging in a fight for both their lives and the books! Victor and the Two-Shot of course more than held their own, and between him, Ada, the Protectrons, and the turrets, the invasion was pretty easily repelled. :D There was even a Legendary Brute among all the corpses – though all he had on him was an Irradiated BOXING GLOVE, of all things. *shakehead* I’ll sell it to KLE0, she’ll probably get a kick out of it. More importantly, Victor also got a level-up out of the deal – he is now level 38, just ONE level away from when I can start taking stuff like “Gun Nut 4” and “Armorer 4.” *pumps fist* As he wasn’t quite at that point yet, though, I settled for taking the third rank of “Hacker,” which will now allow him to hack Master-level terminals, yay.
E) With super mutants at the front repelled, Victor was good to continue exploring a bit (as the bots continued fighting super mutants deeper in the building, finally repelling the attack for good while Victor grabbed duct tape and took his new perk). I had him grab some more new junk, then return to the barricade just as his Cram sandwich wore off, meaning he was back to being overweight. I had him eat another one so he could continue to move around at speed (I have GOT to start clearing out his inventory), then had him explore behind the barricade. In addition to Dalen, we had Curator Given’s terminal, which detailed what he, Dalen, and the others in his team were doing here – desperately attempting to scan and preserve the books for future generations before the super mutants could destroy the library. His last entry indicated that he could no longer keep the robots in good repair (I dunno, buddy, they looked like they did pretty good to me) and asked anyone reading to use the supplies in the back to continue their work. Awww. . . :( If only I could, Given! I will in the fanfic universe, that’s for sure. . . Anyway, I had Victor then go into the back room (where Given’s corpse was), snag the Intelligence bobblehead off the computer (Victor is now up to 9 Int, good for him!), and pick the lock on the supply closet for the goodies (yes, there is a key next to the terminal, but picking locks gets extra XP!). I then had Victor drop the portable workbench to scrap the spare guns he’d picked up –
And discovered, to my delight, that the spare combat rifle I’d grabbed had a LARGE Quick-Eject magazine on it. Something I can’t even BUILD for my beloved Two-Shot yet because it’s locked behind “Gun Nut 4!” So I built a quick standard magazine for that before junking it and slotted that new quick-eject mag onto the Two-Shot. Now it holds 40 shots at a time – very nice! :D
F) And then it was time for Victor to do a little cooking (to clear out some of the meat he’d picked up); do a little more exploring on the caffeine high of a Nuka-Cola (working his way around to the main stairs, where there were a TON of dead Protectrons and super mutants – so THAT’S where all the gunfire was coming from); do a little more looting (because can’t leave all those good military-grade circuit boards go to waste); and hack a novice terminal he found in the main hall (which, hilariously, took two attempts – failed the first outright, got it on the first try the second time – shame it was just another turret-and-Protectron-control computer) before unchaining the door back into the barricade hall and setting up camp in the back room right before midnight. I ended the playsession right after he’d woken up, stuffing a modded apple pie down his throat so he’d still have the carryweight necessary to get back to Goodneighbor. XD
And that was that! Very productive playsession, I feel, what with the level-up, the bobblehead, the new magazine, AND the surprise gun mod. :D Next week, back to Goodneighbor to report to Daisy, sell some stuff, and do another Silver Shroud mission! *thumbs up*
Writing: Naturally, it being Fallout Sunday, I had to update the FO4 Playthrough Progression doc with Victor, Ada, and Alice helping to clear out the Boston Public Library! As usual, it was pretty much just like the above, with a few minor changes –
A) Victor didn’t even notice the super mutant on the bridge until he was nearly missiled (he was too busy checking the amphitheater for signs of raider activity – no, Victor, that’s actually a DIFFERENT breed of asshole who has set up in there) – fortunately, the same combination of “stimpack and then the Mighty Sniper” took care of that whole mess.
B) Victor didn’t try to summon any Minutemen before entering the library, never sarcastically claimed he had a prior appointment 200 years earlier to the AI (the “sarcastic” option is in fact rather mean-spirited, with the PC openly calling the AI an “asshole,” and doesn’t seem like something he would say), and of course didn’t miss the grenade trap and get blown up. Though he and Alice did have a good laugh over the “123456” number belonging to the mayor. XD
C) Victor DID call up the Castle after reading Given’s terminal and ask them to send a patrol around to continue protecting and archiving the library, because he was quite touched by Given’s entries; the Castle agreed, and the fanfic snippet ended with some initial scouts who were in the area showing up, and Victor bringing them up to speed and helping them learn how to work the machines over breakfast.
Yeah, Victor’s a good guy who wants to protect the books too. :) And now that he knows that they’re in safe hands, he and his friends can head back to Goodneighbor and tell Daisy the good news! We love to see it. :)
YouTube: Got through my usual Sunday two, no problem –
A) First up, before my workout, we had GrayStillPlays and “I had 0.00000001 seconds to choose what to delete and this happened,” aka Gray plays Delete One Part 5! This is one of those silly mobile games where you have to solve a puzzle by erasing something from the scene – very first one is to help an onion slide down a slide by erasing all the grater bits from it. XD Other scenes included finding a nest of recently-hatched baby birds under a man’s horrible toupee (so mama bird could feed them); discovering a woman’s hidden lover (not under the covers or in the wardrobe, but curled up BEHIND HER AND HER HUSBAND’S WEDDING PICTURE – Gray was very surprised); erasing the wrapping paper from a woman’s present (it LOOKED like a car – Gray guessed it was actually a UFO, but it was in fact a giant tortoise); revealing that what looked like a sexy mermaid was in fact some sort of dragon-lady ready to eat the guy ogling her; saving the Earth from a meteor (while also erasing all the continents if you wanted); helping a man make a putt in golf by removing the hill in his way (Gray ATTEMPTED to just make a straight-up hole for the guy to drop his ball into, but the game wouldn’t let him); erasing the broken loop-de-loop from a roller coaster (Gray was like “noo, I want them to fly off”); creating a sunset for a couple on the beach by ERASING THE CLOUDS UNDER THE SUN TO MAKE IT FALL (the first time, Gray accidentally dropped it on some random island instead of the water and probably destroyed a random village); and helping a woman get down to her lover by erasing the floor of the balcony she was standing on (and not erasing part of the ladder above the guy; that just sent the ladder crashing onto his head. Gray did that three times XD). Just your average mobile game goofiness made better by Gray’s over-the-top reactions to said goofiness – perfect for a Sunday!
B) And second, after supper, we had Jon and “Fallout 4: Sim Settlements 2 - Part 2 - My Kind Of Town!” With Mayor Bob settling into being a good mayor and figuring out how to make a self-sufficient town before teaming up with Jake for more ASAM goodness! Here are the highlights –
I. First part of the episode was all about Bob fixing up Sanctuary so it could be more self-sufficient – namely, by tearing down some more ruined houses and building more “industrial” plots around the cul-de-sac so the residents could actually scavenge for more building supplies and useful junk on their own (the settlers are allowed to use “your” personal storage when you’re actually in the settlement – anything you scrap yourself and store in the workbench – but once you leave, then they’re dependent on what they produce themselves). In the meantime, though, they did need some more of the basics – Bob set up a water pump by his own place for more water, and turned one of the still-standing houses by the bridge into a “dormitory” of sorts by sticking some beds in there. He also set up a couple more house plots, and was absolutely delighted by a cool tower house that appeared behind Jake’s initial shack and the concrete bunker. . .
II. Which meant he was quite sour when he encountered Lily, the young lady who came with her family fleeing a settlement wracked by disease at the end of last episode, kicking the sensor just outside of it because it wouldn’t do what she wanted. When confronted, though, she explained that she was trying to get it to help her build a store instead of a house, as she wanted to set up shop in the settlement. As nobody was sure if ASAMs could do that (though Bob was optimistic), Old Paul suggested that Bob go and track down the “stranger” in Concord and ask if he had any more and what else they could do. Bob was more than willing to do that, as ASAMs were running low after all this building. So – after taking a moment to talk to Preston Garvey to finish up “When Freedom Calls” (and get “The First Step,” though I don’t know if Jon will be doing that – shame, because it’s one of the rare instances where Preston sends you to Oberland Station instead of Tenpines Bluff, so it’s a little different than usual) and to Sturges to basically instantly complete the vanilla “Sanctuary” quest for the XP, and to set down a couple of bigger residential plots by the bridge to see what was built on them (a cool giant apartment building of sorts shaped like a chimney in one case; the other isn’t being built as there aren’t enough people yet) – Bob set off into Concord to track down his new friend and see about more ASAMs and what else they could do!
III. But first, Concord had to be looted now that all the raiders were gone – and during his looting, Bob came across something interesting in a Pulowski Preservation Shelter. Namely, a “Nightingale Medical Cache,” containing stimpacks and two “disease cures.” Jon wasn’t sure what all that was about, but he is in favor of a faction just wandering around leaving medical supplies around for people!
IV. Anyway – after looting Concord, Bob went and found Jake in his workshop – then, seeing Jake was distracted, snuck up and unlocked his terminal to read his personal entries. Seems Jake was on the trail of some pre-War packages that might contain more ASAM technology for him to work with, and previously had a bad encounter with some raiders at a nearby base (Jon correctly guessing said base was USAF Station Olivia from Abernathy’s “Returning The Favor” quest). Having gotten an inkling at what the next part of the campaign might be like (namely, Jake sending him places looking for ASAMs and related tech), Bob engaged Jake in conversation and explained that, no, he wasn’t complaining about how complicated the ASAMs were, he wanted more, and ones that could do more. Jake, who has apparently had trouble convincing settlers ASAMs are worth the trouble, was shocked and delighted, and inquired as to Bob’s backstory – Bob filled him in on the “Pre-War dude frozen in Vault 111, my wife was murdered and my kid kidnapped” main plot, and Jake expressed his sympathies – accidentally letting slip that he might relate to losing a child. . . He quickly got the conversation back on track to settlement building, though, and after Bob freaked him out slightly by admitting he’s in the settlement business for “blood and money” (seriously, that was the label on the speech option) –
V. Who should come running in but Old Paul, gasping to them that raiders had attacked Sanctuary and had taken hostages! Bob and Jake promptly followed him over to where the raiders had kidnapped roughly half of Bob’s citizens, and Bob approached in his nice suit and captain’s hat to negotiate their release. Turns out the raiders were part of Gristle’s gang and were pretty pissed off at Bob wiping said gang out. . .but they were also very easily bribed with 100 caps into leaving the settlers alone. So they weren’t that upset. :p They released the settlers and headed off, and Jake complimented Bob on a job well done (even if it wasn’t what he would have done) as the settlers worked their way back to Sanctuary. Jake then asked for Bob’s opinion on the Commonwealth – Bob went with the optimistic “people are rebuilding and recovering” option, and Jake pointed out that they’d been “rebuilding and recovering” for over 200 years. In his opinion, the Wasteland was a mess, with settlements far too prone to being destroyed by attacks from raiders, feral ghouls, and ESPECIALLY synths. (Jon noted he seemed to have some extra anger toward that group and wondered if it was related to the tragic backstory.) But Mayor Bob seemed to have what it takes to help people build back and fight back, and so he proposed a partnership – the two of them, helping rebuild the Commonwealth! Bob was up for that, and so an alliance was forged – complete with Jake FINALLY properly introducing himself. XD His full name is Jake Evans, if you’re curious. Nice to finally PROPERLY meet you, Jake!
VI. Anyway, with the partnership official, it was time for the pair to track down more ASAM equipment – specifically, that shipment to USAF Station Olivia that Jake was trying to retrieve before. Jake suggested they ask the nearby Abernathy settlement for more current intel on the raiders (aka “why don’t you do ‘Returning The Favor’ along with my quest?”) and stop by a supply cache that he’d hidden nearby before hitting the station – Bob thought that was a good idea. Not in the least because the Abernathys had a bunch of tatos he could grab and horf down his gullet because he was STARVING. XD So yes, they went and chatted to the Abernathys about the locket situation, then – after a good night’s sleep – headed over to the station! Via the waterfront route, because that allowed them to sneak around, grab some meat from a wandering Radstag, take out some raiders, and end up at the Robotics Disposal Ground to grab the special sentry bot sitting there!
. . .and then Bob found a whole bunch of neutral raiders just hanging out in the yard. Raiders who did not stop him from activating his sentry bot to go defend Olivia, and when the mole rats came bursting out of the ground, started attacking them and not Bob. Jon decided that maybe they were there for later plot reasons and quickly left them to it; the comments indicated that they were in fact the raiders Bob had bribed into leaving his people alone earlier, and thus weren’t interested in another fight. At least with Bob – the mole rats were fair game. XD
VII. ANYWAY – with the sentry bot activated, Bob and Jake hit up Jake’s secret stash (which apparently contained some basic armor, like batting helmets – not that Jake wore his, as Jon had slightly broken him by making him wear a captain’s hat to match Bob; Bob didn’t wear his either as Jon didn’t like the look), then sized up Olivia. Jake told Bob that he’d scout the road for nasties while Bob took out the raiders outside – minutes before the game informed Jon that goal had been completed as apparently the sentry bot had wiped them all out. XD And then Jake told Bob that he’d cleared out the lookouts and that they shouldn’t have any trouble, just as an angry mongrel dog started sneaking up on them. XD The mongrel was easily taken care of, though, and the two got inside with no problem, where Jake found some records on an old terminal of the delivery he was looking for – something called a “Comm Hub,” locked behind the nearby intelligence room security door. He tasked Bob with clearing out the raiders while he hacked it open, which Bob did very well, using Molotov cocktails to wipe out leader Ack-Ack in a single hit before she could even pull out the minigun. :p Bob also found the locket the Abernathys were looking for, AND the key to the intel door. Meaning he could open it before Jake could “officially” open it. XD Might want to patch that out in future, KingGath! XD But the door was opened, and the boys found the Comm Hub inside. Unfortunately, it was rather busted up (time not having been kind to the package), so Jake needed to take it back to his workshop to take a look and see if he could fix it up. In the meantime, he had a lead on where Bob could find some more ASAMs – West Everett Estates! A location not far from Lexington. . .that happens to be swarming with super mutants. Hmmm. Well, Bob’s done well so far, so might as well go over and give it a look-see, right?
And so the episode ended with Bob returning the locket to the Abernathys, then heading back to Sanctuary to build another generator so everyone had enough power, sink another water pump for water, and build another turret for more defense before settling in, proud in a good couple of days’ work well done. :) And never realizing that, as per the comment, there were LOADS of ASAMs in Jake’s workshop that he could have picked up any time he wanted. XD Ah, good old Perception -1 Jon. . .but next week, Bob ventures further out into the Wasteland to fight super mutants for super tech! Looking forward to it!
Workout: Back on the bike tonight, this time with GrayStillPlays’s latest compilation video – “I found the best rated mobile games so you don't have to!” AKA a look at the weird and wacky and occasionally wonderful mobile games Gray has played over the years. As per usual with his compilations, the first game shown was a new one, Daddy Long Legs, where you played as a weird long-legged creature (a blob, a blob with a Santa hat, or a long sub sandwich ‘hamburger horse,’ for example) and had to tap to get it to walk across a course, trying to beat your current record before it inevitably fell over as you could only move one leg per tap and they didn’t always move sensibly. XD It was a very cute game and had some fun achievements, like walking 50m with the Daddy Long Legs (a difficult proposition!) or falling over twice or saving yourself from falling over twice. XD Gray certainly seemed to enjoy playing it! As for the actual repeats, we’ve gotten past that horrible “puzzle” game about feeding people stuff (the one where the graphics were so bad I seriously thought it could be a jokey horror game) and I’m wrapping up the one where he was a spider who had to eat other spiders to evolve into a better super-spider. :p Looking forward to walking down memory lane the rest of the week with whatever comes next!
Not bad, not bad at all. Any night where I don't go to bed feeling completely stressed out is a good night. :) And now it is time to hit the sack and try and get some sleep. Again, at least this week is only a four-dayer for me, followed by a personal four-day weekend. :D Looking forward to it -- night all!
