Not A Perfect Sunday
Feb. 25th, 2024 11:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickMy parents had trouble both with the bank and our internet provider today, which meant the mood in the household was a little, uh, off, shall we say. Not completely horrible, but -- waking up to them angrily trying to figure out what a specific charge was in their account wasn't the BEST way to start the day. Not to mention I woke up later than I wanted because I once again stayed up later than I should have. . . I got through most of what I wanted to get through anyway, though --
Tumblr: Not the greatest day on here, thanks to my late start, but I got some stuff done –
Victor Luvs Alice – Caught up on the dash before lunch, then reblogged a couple of posts about tumblr apparently being in deals to let AI art company Midjourney scrape tumblr’s content to train their AIs (obviously without anyone’s permission), and the KOSA bill (which is basically “we’re gonna find a way to censor people we don’t like under ‘save the children’ rhetoric’) right after lunch because, well, important information. Even if it kind of kills my desire to post anything on the platform, meaning I didn’t actually do any work on any of my drafts. *sigh* We’ll see how I feel about things tomorrow, I guess.
Valice Multiverse – Absolutely nothing happening here, so I just left it as it is. We’ll see what happens on Tuesday.
Fallout 4: Had a fairly chill, and surprisingly heartwarming, time in the Commonwealth today –
A) Started where I left off last week, with Victor and Deacon chilling out in the little military bunker not that far from Abernathy and Concord after running in there to avoid a radstorm. With the bad weather having cleared out, I had Victor step outside and use his Pip-Boy map to orient himself correctly toward Abernathy (after briefly considering running over to the Drumlin Diner to see what they had in stock – decided quickly that that would just be an unnecessary distraction) and prepared to head out –
Only to get the “you need to use the bathroom” message and have to pop back into the little bunker to use Victor’s port-a-potty. XD At least it wasn’t in the middle of enemy territory this time! Always awkward when you have to deal with toilet matters in the middle of a firefight. . .
B) Anyway – with that settled, Victor and Deacon headed out, working their way across a broken road; past someone’s campsite set up by an old busted up tractor trailer; and into the wilderness next to Gorski’s cabin –
Where they encountered a small group of bloatflies. One of my least-favorite enemy types! I had Victor get his sniper rifle out and try to get a better position to shoot them before they could spot the pair, but no dice – Victor shifting around got the flies’ attention, and poor Victor got sprayed with gross bloatfly stuff a couple of times before he and Deacon could take them down. *shudder* Hate that – especially since they’re supposed to be spraying you with their own larva, and I know from experience that sometimes results in bloatflies popping out of you later on. . . Hopefully it won’t happen this time! I didn’t see any warnings about Victor getting sick, at any rate. . .
C) Anyway – with that sorted, and Victor downing an apple pie both to improve his health and his carry capacity, the pair continued on, passing Gorski’s cabin and crossing another road before reaching Abernathy! :) This was one of those instances where the settlement had suffered an attack, but everything had already been fixed by the game – Victor just had to check in and confirm that it was all fixed before the game went “right, we’re good” and started increasing happiness again. :p While wandering around their house, I also discovered that there were a bunch of ladder-stairs up to the roof area, and followed them up to see what was up there – basically some basic defensive watchtower stuff, and a pretty decent view! :) Probably should build something up there at some point – windmill generator or two? Hmmm. . . We’ll think about it. At any rate, I had Victor return to ground level, grab one tato and the melons from the patch out back, then sent him and Deacon onward –
D) To Sanctuary! Because I had a quest to turn in, and I wanted to check what supplies were in the workbench that might be useful for upgrading my power armor back at the Red Rocket. As luck would have it, when I arrived, Trashcan Carla happened to be in town, so I had Victor go and chat with her and see what was for sale. Ended up trading my two lowest-charge fusion cores (trust me, I have PLENTY more) and four missiles for a 10 lb lead weight, some duct tape, a gold-plated flip lighter, a gold watch, a high-powered magnet, a TV dinner tray, and a toy rocket ship. *nods* Not a bad deal, I don’t think. :) I then had Victor track down Preston to have the final conversation to conclude “Old Guns” – Preston was extremely pleased with Victor’s work as General and getting them artillery again, saying that we should be building it at all our settlements – I’m happy to do that, Preston, just maybe AFTER the trip into the Glowing Sea. XD He also asked Victor’s opinion on Ronnie Shaw, as Preston himself had only ever heard of her secondhand – I had Victor go with the option that she knew her way around The Castle, being the only remaining Minuteman who had seen it in operation, and was the one who got them into the armory in the first place. Preston declared that her coming back to the Minutemen meant that they must be doing something right, and that was that. :) Another quest in the bag!
E) With THAT sorted, I decided my next best move was to run over the bridge to the Red Rocket and check on Victor’s special blend of X-01, T-45, and raider power armor to see what I needed to upgrade it. Tessa’s Fist, the special Legendary raider power armor arm, was already as good as it could get (which – wasn’t very good at all; I really should replace it at some point), but the other bits needed adhesive, aluminum, ceramic, circuitry, and rubber if I wanted to upgrade them. I’d spent a lot of time collecting aluminum during my travels, and of course I always grab any adhesive I can get my hands on, but the other three. . .circuitry was okay, but I wasn’t sure about ceramic, and I DEFINITELY needed more rubber. So I ran Victor back over to Sanctuary to see what was in their workbench –
Um. Nothing I needed, really. Plenty of junk, yeah, but it was primary steel, wood, leather, and other things of that nature. No aluminum, no rubber, very little ceramic. Hmmm. Wondering if I was going to have to go to the Drumlin Diner and see what they had in stock after all, I went ahead and scrapped the one leather chest piece that was in my inventory, then sent a tired Victor into this house to see about getting some sleep –
And thought, “well, hang on – is there anything in here that I can scrap in Workshop mode that might help me out?” So I entered into that mode and started scanning around. The TV was just more steel and wood, and I didn’t want to mess with most of the furniture, so I turned my attention to the kitchen. . .
And discovered the fridge door would give a bit of rubber when scrapped! And the fridge (which yes, is scrapped separately from its door) would too! Delighted, I scrapped both of those (and the stove for good measure, even though that was just steel), had Victor go get a drink from the water pump across the street, then sent him to bed around 8:30 PM to get his eight hours.
F) Woke up the next morning with Victor really needing to pee – and with the Lover’s Embrace temporary XP-boosting perk! :D Apparently Preston climbed into bed with Victor at some point during the night. :) I had Victor jog across the street to the outhouse area and relieve himself (very important as I’d stashed my port-a-potty back at the Red Rocket in a corner to stop it getting accidentally scrapped at any point), then go around picking all the crops in the little farm plot behind the crafting house –
And then spent the rest of the morning exploring all the wrecked houses and scrapping every fridge, fridge door, and tire I could find for rubber; all the busted sinks, toilets, and bathtubs for ceramic; and some other items like fallen coat racks and old cabinets just to clean the space up a bit. I’d just completed my round in the final house on the roundabout at the end of the street –
G) When Codsworth, who’d been hanging out in that house, asked if he might have a word. Curious, I had Victor ask him what was up –
And got his final affinity conversation! :D Now, I knew Codsworth idolized his old master because I’d seen the pop-up a little while ago (he really likes it when you craft stuff and upgrade your guns, and Victor does a LOT of that, soooo. . .), but I didn’t think you could get the affinity conversations if the companion character wasn’t your CURRENT companion. But apparently you can (or maybe one of my mods allows them to trigger as a bonus), and so Codsworth happily waxed poetic to Victor about how much he’d admired him and his family since his activation, how pleased he was to see that Victor had survived the bombs, and how he considered Victor a true hero for carrying on after the awful news about his wife and Shaun. I had Victor modestly say that he was only doing what he needed to survive, but Codsworth insisted that Victor wasn’t giving himself enough credit, and that he was an exemplary ideal of humanity given all that he’d done. After all, Codsworth had seen the Commonwealth tear down good men and women alike in his 200 years waiting to see if his family would ever return to him. He was very proud of Victor for remaining a good person who liked to help people, and declared that Victor was definitely the person to turn the Commonwealth around, and he wouldn’t hear another word against that. I had Victor thank him for the kind words, and delighted in picking up the “Robot Sympathy” perk from him (which reduces energy weapon damage from hostile robots by 10% – nothing to be sneezed at, especially when dealing with Assaultrons!). So that was very sweet too. :)
H) With my warm fuzzies acquired, I had Victor go and pick up all the rubber and ceramic he’d scrapped from the workbench, then sent him and Deacon back over to the Red Rocket to start working on that power armor! Victor grabbed a bunch of useful junk off Deacon (anything aluminum, ceramic, and/or rubber) and got to work –
And, to my pleasure, he had MORE than enough materials to upgrade every T-45 piece of armor all the way up to Model F, and the X-01 pieces all the way up to Mk. VI! :D So now every piece of armor on this set is the absolute best it can be. I also had Victor put away some magazines on the magazine rack (and then build another one when the rack he was trying to use indicated it was full, scrapping some shelves to make room), and find Ada and chat with her to get some of the stuff she was carrying off her (some more aluminum, some clothes (including a Hazmat suit), stuff like that – oh, and Grognak’s Axe, since I’m hoping to display it XD). I was then considering what kind of additional mods I wanted to add to the power armor before I started off toward the Glowing Sea –
I) And had the thought, “okay, before I do anything else – what is my carry capacity in this thing?” So I had Victor hop in to take a look.
Carry capacity is an embarrassingly shitty 360 units, as compared to Victor’s current standard 780 with all his Strong Back perks and backpacks and stuff. Welp – had Victor eat some melon flambe, snag a bit more aluminum junk off Deacon, then add Calibrated Shocks to both legs to increase THAT! Though I don’t know how much those mods actually increase carry capacity. . .I suspect that I’m going to have to leave a loooot of shit behind. *grimaces* I checked the other pieces, but as far as I can tell, there’s no mods on the arms, torso, or head that let you increase carry capacity any further. Meeh. So, with that, I saved and quit for the day, intending to have a think over the next week about what mods I want to add to the head and torso specifically. Because mods that increase my action point refresh speed are always appreciated, but the jet pack on the torso would probably be fun. . .and there’s always the “sanitation system” upgrade from one of my mods so I wouldn’t have to worry about bathroom needs in my power armor. . .decisions, decisions. . .
Writing: As per usual, a playsession of Fallout 4 means an update to the FO4 Playthrough Progression document! And this update was pretty much identical to what happened above, with just a few tiny tweaks to make certain things make more sense in a more “realistic” world –
A) Victor immediately washed himself off after getting blasted by the bloatflies because, well, you wouldn’t just want that stuff staying on you, would you? *shudder* Ew. A rinse with purified water was VERY necessary there!
B) Victor didn’t just take the melons at the Abernathy farm, he helped the family harvest them! And he went up on the roof because he was helping Blake fix a leak up there – though he is interested in maybe putting a guard post or some wind turbines up there later, as I was! We’ll see what happens the next time he swings around their place. . .
C) Victor said a proper hello to Ada, Dogmeat, and Mutt before going to check on his power armor at the Red Rocket (as you do to your robot sort-of-daughter and doggy friends). And upon going back to Sanctuary for supplies and finding none of the aluminum or rubber he needed, he ended complaining to Preston about it, who came up with the idea of checking the fridges and ripping out the rubber lining. So the two of them worked together to get all the supplies Victor needed the next morning (after a night of cuddles :) ).
D) Victor and Codsworth hugged after the latter gave his big speech about how great a person Victor is and how he’s definitely the guy to help turn the Commonwealth around. :) And joked that Codsworth was probably spending too much time around Preston. XD
E) Victor got Deacon’s help in upgrading the power armor, and the moment where I saved and closed became them all having lunch together, and Deacon and Alice being like “prove it” when Victor said he could turn an extinguisher into a jet pack. ...Maybe I have picked my torso mod after all. XD
So yeah – same adventures, just with a little extra flavoring. Next time, we’ll finish off upgrading the power armor and make our plan for the Glowing Sea!
YouTube: Got started a bit later than I wanted this evening (as per usual, honestly), but I did indeed get through my usual Sunday two –
A) First up, from the Subs, we had GrayStillPlays and “When sports have 99.999% chance of ending your life,” aka Gray plays Happy Wheels! Yup, one of my favorite games for him to play was back tonight, with some real good boards. :D We started with the traditional bottle flip, featuring three endings (normal, watermelon, and the choice between shoutout and secret win – Gray got stuck in the tube to the Watermelon ending due to losing a leg, but got there in the end), then proceeded to watch Pogo Guy survive a particularly nasty laser box (with Gray having a NUMBER of close calls dodging the harpoons); Bike Dad NOT survive a train crash (while still winning anyway); Segway Nixon taking on someone’s very first spike fall (which proved to be EXTREMELY narrow at the bottom – Gray was impressed and rated five stars); Segway Nixon work his way through someone’s bright yellow rope swing (which was pretty tricky despite having guide arrows all over the place – also featured the World’s Longest Conveyor Belt Ride); Pogo Guy falling through a particularly mean jet fall (which had a “Very Impossible” final area – fortunately this board let you win as a bunch of Pogo chunklets); Bike Dad and Young Tom Hardy taking a trip to a deadly “playground” (with spike ceilings, laser-guided pellets, and a plea to rate the board five stars – Gray was nice and did so); a dude doing discount Getting Over It by swinging himself over a handful of obstacles with a hammer (Gray was relieved, as apparently he’s played the actual game and HATED it XD); Segway Nixon taking on Satan’s ball throw (with lots of death, as you might imagine – Gray was less concerned about that and more concerned about getting the “participation award,” though XD); Segway Nixon yeeting himself across a board with the help of a meteor and a rocket, and having to figure out when to let go of the latter to win (a very tricky proposition – he ended up getting it while split in two); Segway Nixon deciding who should live and who should die while being dumped down various pits (Gray did one “all save” run and one “all kill” run, because either way he won); Bike Dad and Tom Hardy taking on an EXTREMELY long stair fall (Tom got crunched, but Bike Dad made it to the bottom – he won in bits, but he won); Segway Nixon dealing with a troll board where nothing was what it seemed (like the arrows in an arrow run never going off, but spikes falling on his head anyway when he retreated to the “live zone” – it was a weird board XD); Pogo Guy getting mulched in a “don’t move” pain-focused board; Hobo Guy escaping the hospital on a rocket-powered gurney (which Gray had to do twice because he’d forgotten he rebound the key for “nitro” to something other than Shift); and finally a soccer ball solving various puzzles and parkouring its way across a frankly BEAUTIFUL landscape (seriously, this thing was amazing – had an animated windmill in the background and everything! And it wasn’t by Dylan – instead it was by someone going by “Timer HD.” Really good job there, THD!). A very fun trip back to good old Happy Wheels – I hope there’s more to come in the future!
B) And second up, as per my usual Sunday Recommendeds, we had Jon and “Fallout 4: Sim Settlements 2 - Part 25 - Accidents & Emergencies!” This one featured Mayor Bob wandering around the Eastern and Northern parts of the Commonwealth, clearing up a few missions and working on getting some very important goodies –
I. First things first, Jon did a recap of what happened last episode (namely, Bob taking on the Glowing Sea and actually advancing the main plot a bit), and reminding us what goodies he got – namely, a near-complete set of X-01 power armor (which he couldn’t modify yet, not having the perks to build a power armor station), and a Neverending Gamma Gun from one of the Legendary Mole Rat Brood Mothers he fought! The power armor was nice, but the Gamma Gun was what Jon was really interested in – because, while he couldn’t actually do much with upgrading it (the Gamma Gun doesn’t have many upgrades AND needs high levels of the Science! perk, which Bob just straight up doesn’t have), he COULD go do the Cabot House quests, complete them in favor of Jack, and then get the cool mod to turn a Gamma Gun into a physics gun from him. And then attach that mod to THIS gun, which never needs to be reloaded, and – yeaaah. He was pretty sure that would be fun. And visiting the Cabot House would put him in the general area of where the Nightingales had gone last time, so he figured he could visit them, see what was going on in Mass Bay Medical Center, then go see the Cabot family and start doing their missions!
II. However, before anything else, Bob needed to pick up some very particular loot. So, on the way to Mass Bay Medical, he took the time to stop by Hester’s Consumer Robotics! Specifically, to take out the robots inside – and even more specifically, to take out the sentry bot in the back with his new Penetrator perk, then loot the burning shell for its fusion cores! Because, well, he’s learned the importance of having a few on him for power armor reasons after the fiasco last time. XD Even better, looking in the “you finished this dungeon” steamer trunk got him combat rifle that was even better in every way than the one he was using, AND the place had enough good loot around that he was able to slap a muzzle brake on it for better aiming and suchlike. Hester’s Consumer Robotics – where scavengers like to shop! XD
III. Once he completed his “shopping,” Bob then went over to Mass Bay Medical, where he found a couple of dead raiders and one glitchy Gunner standing like a statue outside (general consensus in the comments is the guy is a corpse who glitched out; based on my own experiences, he’s probably going to physics out at some point, and I hope we get to see it XD). Going inside had him find more dead Gunners and raiders, and one of the Nightingales, Ellis, arguing with Raphael over whether or not to help a wounded raider (Raphael was all for leaving him for dead and not wasting supplies, with Ellis arguing that Nightingales are here to help EVERYONE, and besides, RAPHAEL broke Fiona’s nose when they found him and they didn’t leave HIM). Bob took Ellis’s side, as he felt like that was the Nightingale creed (though Jon is very worried their desire to help everyone is going to get them murdered), and Raphael reluctantly allowed Ellis to stabilize the guy – though he was pleased to learn that Ellis had at least had the foresight to tranquilize him beforehand (apparently while the guy was trying to attack him). Bob then talked with Raphael about what was going on – apparently, the Nightingales arrived here to find the aftermath of a bunch of raiders taking on a Gunner camp. Raphael found it very weird because raiders normally avoid Gunner camps because Gunners have better weapons and defenses – and because these raiders gave the Gunners a run for their money during the fight. Which, even if the Gunners were out of ammo, REALLY shouldn’t have happened – Gunners are just too good at what they do. He also mentioned that Fiona was upstairs, trying to coax the last of the Gunners into letting the Nightingales help them, but he didn’t expect it to go well. Exploring further, Bob ran into Cassandra, who was examining the corpses – she had him look at one particular dead Gunner to see what he could see. Bob, however, wasn’t able to find anything wrong with the dead woman, so he asked Cassandra what was up, and she explained that the Gunner died from relatively minor wounds. Her diagnosis? That the Gunner, and her compatriots, were sick with some form of cholera, and that’s why the raiders had an easier time with them. She warned Bob about drinking the water in this building, and told him that if he was heading upstairs to help Fiona with negotiations, that he should let the survivors know the Nightingales had the means to help diagnose and treat them.
IV. Well, that sounded a lot like Bob should go upstairs and help with negotiations! So Bob did just that, finding Fiona talking to Commander York and trying to convince him that they were just doctors trying to help. York was having none of it – especially after Raphael arrived and start once again going on about how it wasn’t worth it to waste supplies on this lot – so Fiona appealed to Bob for help. Bob swanned up in his fabulous dress and asked York who he was – he explained that he was the field-promoted leader of this lot, and that they were holding the hotel on Gunner business. However, he and his squad were NOT doing well, and they were willing to hand over the hospital if the group just let them leave. Bob assured them that the Nightgales were on the up-and-up and had medicine for their illness downstairs, with Fiona backing him up, assuring the Gunners they’d be free to go at any time. York insisted there had to be a catch, so Fiona said that if they wanted, they could “gift” them some hospital supplies afterward – York, feeling generous, said that if the group managed to cure them, they could have the whole damn hospital. Though he’d be keeping an eye on Raphael the whole damn time. (Which, given how Raphael is? Fair.) Fiona thanked Bob for helping talk them down, even knowing that they were Gunners, and mused that this place could be a good new headquarters for the group – at the very least, it was bigger than their current spot by Diamond City! But she’d have to consult the others on that, since it was in a more dangerous part of Boston as well. In the meantime, she and her friends would treat the survivors and start exploring the place – she promised Bob they’d set some goodies aside for him and asked him to drop by again in a few days. Though Bob actually got some of his goodies right away – not only did he unlock the Hospital plot right after the mission (meaning his settlements will now recover from disease outbreaks faster), “Idiot Savant” triggering on the quest completion meant that Bob got enough XP for a level-up right away! He promptly got the “Armorer” perk so he could make his power armor stations and give the old X-01 a fresh clean and polish. :P
V. With the Nightingales’ business wrapped up for now, Bob was clear to start working on the Cabot House missions and getting access to that sweet artifact mod – but he had a few things to take care of along the way. Namely, clearing out a safe path to and from Mass Bay Medical to the center of town (which involved killing the raiders in front of the Combat Zone so they couldn’t give him grief, along with a passing super mutant and its mutant hound); getting wrapped up in the “Art Vs Art” random encounter (which is a man fighting against his synth duplicate – Bob killed the one who was already mostly dead, who unfortunately was the real Art – however, since this is weirdly a REPEATABLE encounter, he’ll come back to life soon enough I think) –
And visiting the Third Rail in Goodneighbor to talk to Griff there for Alyssa’s paper back in Concord, getting the story of how super mutants invaded his arm and killed his wife, taking her head clean off with a club like it was an exploding pumpkin. :( Jon was once again like “if we said the super mutants ate your wife, the story would sell better, though I do like that metaphor about the pumpkin,” and I was once again like “Jon, you are lucky the NPCs can’t hear you through the computer screen.” XD
VI. With his second story in hand, Bob then spent the night at the Hotel Rexford, then took the opportunity the next morning to swing by Mass Fusion and clear out the Gunners there for the Strength Bobblehead! Nobody there gave him too much trouble, though he was very surprised to see that the Gunner inside the power armor up top was able to survive and fight on through his fusion core being exploded. O.O Bob got him down eventually though, and claimed his bobblehead, giving him a bit of extra strength, and thus a bit of extra carry capacity. Because we all love more carry capacity. :) He then proceeded onward to Cabot House to properly start “Special Delivery” –
And skipped over the actual “talking to Jack” bit. O.o Probably because he’s done it before, but it still felt a little weird, as starting the Cabot House missions WAS one of the focuses of this episode. *shrug* Anyway, he got his mission orders – to report to Parson’s Insane Asylum to talk to the leader of security there, Maria, and started heading north, cutting through Malden (where he had to take out a Radscorpion, because Malden is a Known Chaos Spot in the game), and swinging by Greentop Nursery to chat to wanderer Ricky about HIS super mutant experience to get Alyssa’s third and final story. Poor Ricky got to see his parents torn about by super mutants in the building they used to live in – the image has been burned into his brain so hard he sees it whenever he closes his eyes. Now he’s a homeless wanderer, using Jet to numb the pain. :( Jon started in on his usual “good but would be better if we said the super mutants ate your parents” spiel –
Only for the husband of the old couple who lives at the nursery to run up and say that his wife had been kidnapped. Bob was a little suspicious that word had gotten out that he was willing to just hand over caps to people to pay “ransoms” for kidnapped family members, but said screw it and handed over the money, since he had plenty. The husband gratefully took it –
And commented that he hoped the super mutants who took his wife would keep their word, as they were an unpredictable lot. Jon was like “you’re giving me mixed messages here, Fallout 4.” XD But he had a sense of humor about it, and was happy enough to get the settlement to join his growing empire. More towns for Mayor Bob to mayor over!
VII. Having gotten all of his interviews for Alyssa, Bob went back to working on the Cabot delivery, making his way over to the Insane Asylum (and managing NOT to kill the guard out front, despite the guy being marked in red and thus looking like an enemy – Jon was reasonably certain he’s accidentally killed the guy before, and I seem to recall him doing so in his first Survival LP with Grills Bears) and talking with Maria, who directed him over to the shack that was all that was left of Parson’s Creamery (yes, there was an ICE CREAM place near the damn insane asylum XD) to take out the raiders within. A bit of careful tagging and shooting with his sniper rifle put down all the raiders without much trouble, and Bob was able to retrieve the mysterious serum off one of their corpses to bring back to the Cabots. And that might have been the ending point for the episode –
VIII. Except that Jon realized that Recon Bunker Theta, aka the spot where Paladin Brandis from “The Lost Patrol” is holed up, was not that far away, and figured he might as well send Bob over there to see the guy and wrap up THAT quest that he accidentally did while clearing out the National Guard Training Yard and the nearby Revere Satellite Array. So Bob made his way over there –
To find, of all things, a Brotherhood Patrol Squad outside. Talk about the best random encounter to get outside this particular bunker. XD (I have decided to headcanon that they’d tracked Brandis down, but couldn’t get into the bunker because they didn’t have the code, and he wasn’t responding to their requests he come outside.) Bob swanned in and stuck on his red dress, and was able to talk Brandis out of shooting him AND – with a bit of careful persuasion – get him to rejoin the Brotherhood. Possibly only to get his special gun that he gives to you if you do that and then say hi to him again on the Prydwen. XD And so the episode ended with Jon laughing about the Brotherhood being right outside Brandis’s hidey-hole again, and declaring that next time should be more Cabot missions, plus probably more Nightingale stuff. Should be a fun time!
Workout: Back on the bike, with another Sims video from James Turner – “I tried to play The Sims with every lot challenge again... (Part 1)!” Yes, the Every Lot Challenge Challenge is back – mostly because, apparently, James’s For Rent Bigwallet LP was suffering so much from bugs that he needed to take a break and do something different until some of it got patched. *rolls eyes* Great job EA. . . Anyway, as we have some new lot challenges to work with thanks to the newest expansion packs, James decided to bring the ELC Challenge back, but with a few twists: rather than living in StrangerVille and dealing with THAT nonsense as well as all the lot challenges, Semaj is in a run-down haunted house in Evergreen Harbor (the world that came with Eco Lifestyle); he’s starting off with no money (making this a bit “Rags To Riches” as well); and in order to remove Lot Challenges (and bad lot traits, like the “Vampire Nexus,” “Cat Hangout,” and “Dog Hangout” traits), he has to complete the “The Sims 24 While 24” Challenge Checklist from EA, featuring a variety of activities to do in the game in honor of the franchise’s 24th birthday! Each checklist item completed prompts a spin of the Challenge Wheel, and whatever random challenge it lands on gets removed. Some of them are really easy, while others are a little more difficult, so it’s going to make for an interesting challenge!
So, how did Semaj’s first few days in what I believe is now called the “Every Lot Challenge Again” miniseries go? Well, everything started out pretty good:
A) A trip to Willow Creek to get frogs to breed for challenge and profit got him an immediate opportunity to “Shower In The Rain,” which promptly took the “Spooky” lot challenge off his lot (which – actually doesn’t make THAT much of a difference, because his house is still a Haunted House Residential)
B) A trip to Forgotten Hollow to meet Vlad (as one of the other challenges is to woohoo him) resulted in him successfully breaking into Vlad’s house and discovering that the guy is a serial regifter on top of being a vampire! Which completed the challenge “Break Into A Sims Home” and spared him the horrors of the “Dog Hangout” lot trait (which brings ALL the stray dogs to your lot) – though James DID end up replacing it with “Mean Vibe,” so it seems it’ll be a while yet before he has any truly good lot traits
C) A trip to Glimmerbrook – inspired by seeing Simeon Silversweater, the Sage of Practical Magic, hanging around Willow Creek and passing by his own lot – saw him head to the Magic Realm, where he got Morgyn Ember to turn him into a Spellcaster, fulfilling the “Transform Into An Occult Sim” challenge (and getting a head start on “Lift The Curse Of The Night Wraith,” which you can only GET if you’re a Spellcaster) and getting “Simple Living” taken off his house (meaning he no longer had to buy or farm his own ingredients to cook)
D) And a successful first night in his haunted house saw him make some progress on befriending both Lilith Vatore and Vlad, meet his first specter, and make loads of grilled cheese to “Unlock The Grilled Cheese Aspiration!” Though James decided that Semaj would have to actually COMPLETE the aspiration to remove a challenge, as just unlocking it seemed too easy. But still, everything seemed to be coming up Semaj. . .
E) Aaand then the chaos started. Beginning with Lilith Vatore asking if she could crash at Semaj’s for a few days and starting a stay-over event; then continuing with Semaj visiting Oasis Springs and failing to fish up anything useful near the park (or breed a new frog species, as he’s been trying to do for a while); then continuing FURTHER with the haunted house getting A LOT MORE FUCKING HAUNTED on the second night (complete with angry red specters and all sorts of goo puddles forming on the first floor near the stairs); then getting even WORSE with the Gremlins lot challenge activating and breaking ALL of Semaj’s plumbing and kitchen appliances, which spread puddles and caused mold to grow EVERYWHERE; and culminating in Semaj trying to clear some of the mold piles with fire (because starting a fire is also a challenge that he has to complete), only to constantly set HIMSELF on fire in the process. And then James was like “I’m not sure if those fires count, they seem to go out pretty quickly.” XD Fortunately a friendly neighbor showed up to fix everything, and Lilith was around to help mop puddles, but – yeah. Things got REALLY chaotic REALLY quick after the initial day. Which I’m glad of, as we don’t want this challenge to be too easy – I’m actually a bit annoyed that “Simple Living” went bye-bye as quickly as it did. Make your Sim suffer, James! :P Ah well, what can one do. . .still looking forward to the other episodes in this miniseries!
Whew -- that was a lot! And now it is time to go to bed, as I have work tomorrow. Hopefully it won't be a shitty Monday -- keep your fingers crossed everyone! Night all!
Tumblr: Not the greatest day on here, thanks to my late start, but I got some stuff done –
Victor Luvs Alice – Caught up on the dash before lunch, then reblogged a couple of posts about tumblr apparently being in deals to let AI art company Midjourney scrape tumblr’s content to train their AIs (obviously without anyone’s permission), and the KOSA bill (which is basically “we’re gonna find a way to censor people we don’t like under ‘save the children’ rhetoric’) right after lunch because, well, important information. Even if it kind of kills my desire to post anything on the platform, meaning I didn’t actually do any work on any of my drafts. *sigh* We’ll see how I feel about things tomorrow, I guess.
Valice Multiverse – Absolutely nothing happening here, so I just left it as it is. We’ll see what happens on Tuesday.
Fallout 4: Had a fairly chill, and surprisingly heartwarming, time in the Commonwealth today –
A) Started where I left off last week, with Victor and Deacon chilling out in the little military bunker not that far from Abernathy and Concord after running in there to avoid a radstorm. With the bad weather having cleared out, I had Victor step outside and use his Pip-Boy map to orient himself correctly toward Abernathy (after briefly considering running over to the Drumlin Diner to see what they had in stock – decided quickly that that would just be an unnecessary distraction) and prepared to head out –
Only to get the “you need to use the bathroom” message and have to pop back into the little bunker to use Victor’s port-a-potty. XD At least it wasn’t in the middle of enemy territory this time! Always awkward when you have to deal with toilet matters in the middle of a firefight. . .
B) Anyway – with that settled, Victor and Deacon headed out, working their way across a broken road; past someone’s campsite set up by an old busted up tractor trailer; and into the wilderness next to Gorski’s cabin –
Where they encountered a small group of bloatflies. One of my least-favorite enemy types! I had Victor get his sniper rifle out and try to get a better position to shoot them before they could spot the pair, but no dice – Victor shifting around got the flies’ attention, and poor Victor got sprayed with gross bloatfly stuff a couple of times before he and Deacon could take them down. *shudder* Hate that – especially since they’re supposed to be spraying you with their own larva, and I know from experience that sometimes results in bloatflies popping out of you later on. . . Hopefully it won’t happen this time! I didn’t see any warnings about Victor getting sick, at any rate. . .
C) Anyway – with that sorted, and Victor downing an apple pie both to improve his health and his carry capacity, the pair continued on, passing Gorski’s cabin and crossing another road before reaching Abernathy! :) This was one of those instances where the settlement had suffered an attack, but everything had already been fixed by the game – Victor just had to check in and confirm that it was all fixed before the game went “right, we’re good” and started increasing happiness again. :p While wandering around their house, I also discovered that there were a bunch of ladder-stairs up to the roof area, and followed them up to see what was up there – basically some basic defensive watchtower stuff, and a pretty decent view! :) Probably should build something up there at some point – windmill generator or two? Hmmm. . . We’ll think about it. At any rate, I had Victor return to ground level, grab one tato and the melons from the patch out back, then sent him and Deacon onward –
D) To Sanctuary! Because I had a quest to turn in, and I wanted to check what supplies were in the workbench that might be useful for upgrading my power armor back at the Red Rocket. As luck would have it, when I arrived, Trashcan Carla happened to be in town, so I had Victor go and chat with her and see what was for sale. Ended up trading my two lowest-charge fusion cores (trust me, I have PLENTY more) and four missiles for a 10 lb lead weight, some duct tape, a gold-plated flip lighter, a gold watch, a high-powered magnet, a TV dinner tray, and a toy rocket ship. *nods* Not a bad deal, I don’t think. :) I then had Victor track down Preston to have the final conversation to conclude “Old Guns” – Preston was extremely pleased with Victor’s work as General and getting them artillery again, saying that we should be building it at all our settlements – I’m happy to do that, Preston, just maybe AFTER the trip into the Glowing Sea. XD He also asked Victor’s opinion on Ronnie Shaw, as Preston himself had only ever heard of her secondhand – I had Victor go with the option that she knew her way around The Castle, being the only remaining Minuteman who had seen it in operation, and was the one who got them into the armory in the first place. Preston declared that her coming back to the Minutemen meant that they must be doing something right, and that was that. :) Another quest in the bag!
E) With THAT sorted, I decided my next best move was to run over the bridge to the Red Rocket and check on Victor’s special blend of X-01, T-45, and raider power armor to see what I needed to upgrade it. Tessa’s Fist, the special Legendary raider power armor arm, was already as good as it could get (which – wasn’t very good at all; I really should replace it at some point), but the other bits needed adhesive, aluminum, ceramic, circuitry, and rubber if I wanted to upgrade them. I’d spent a lot of time collecting aluminum during my travels, and of course I always grab any adhesive I can get my hands on, but the other three. . .circuitry was okay, but I wasn’t sure about ceramic, and I DEFINITELY needed more rubber. So I ran Victor back over to Sanctuary to see what was in their workbench –
Um. Nothing I needed, really. Plenty of junk, yeah, but it was primary steel, wood, leather, and other things of that nature. No aluminum, no rubber, very little ceramic. Hmmm. Wondering if I was going to have to go to the Drumlin Diner and see what they had in stock after all, I went ahead and scrapped the one leather chest piece that was in my inventory, then sent a tired Victor into this house to see about getting some sleep –
And thought, “well, hang on – is there anything in here that I can scrap in Workshop mode that might help me out?” So I entered into that mode and started scanning around. The TV was just more steel and wood, and I didn’t want to mess with most of the furniture, so I turned my attention to the kitchen. . .
And discovered the fridge door would give a bit of rubber when scrapped! And the fridge (which yes, is scrapped separately from its door) would too! Delighted, I scrapped both of those (and the stove for good measure, even though that was just steel), had Victor go get a drink from the water pump across the street, then sent him to bed around 8:30 PM to get his eight hours.
F) Woke up the next morning with Victor really needing to pee – and with the Lover’s Embrace temporary XP-boosting perk! :D Apparently Preston climbed into bed with Victor at some point during the night. :) I had Victor jog across the street to the outhouse area and relieve himself (very important as I’d stashed my port-a-potty back at the Red Rocket in a corner to stop it getting accidentally scrapped at any point), then go around picking all the crops in the little farm plot behind the crafting house –
And then spent the rest of the morning exploring all the wrecked houses and scrapping every fridge, fridge door, and tire I could find for rubber; all the busted sinks, toilets, and bathtubs for ceramic; and some other items like fallen coat racks and old cabinets just to clean the space up a bit. I’d just completed my round in the final house on the roundabout at the end of the street –
G) When Codsworth, who’d been hanging out in that house, asked if he might have a word. Curious, I had Victor ask him what was up –
And got his final affinity conversation! :D Now, I knew Codsworth idolized his old master because I’d seen the pop-up a little while ago (he really likes it when you craft stuff and upgrade your guns, and Victor does a LOT of that, soooo. . .), but I didn’t think you could get the affinity conversations if the companion character wasn’t your CURRENT companion. But apparently you can (or maybe one of my mods allows them to trigger as a bonus), and so Codsworth happily waxed poetic to Victor about how much he’d admired him and his family since his activation, how pleased he was to see that Victor had survived the bombs, and how he considered Victor a true hero for carrying on after the awful news about his wife and Shaun. I had Victor modestly say that he was only doing what he needed to survive, but Codsworth insisted that Victor wasn’t giving himself enough credit, and that he was an exemplary ideal of humanity given all that he’d done. After all, Codsworth had seen the Commonwealth tear down good men and women alike in his 200 years waiting to see if his family would ever return to him. He was very proud of Victor for remaining a good person who liked to help people, and declared that Victor was definitely the person to turn the Commonwealth around, and he wouldn’t hear another word against that. I had Victor thank him for the kind words, and delighted in picking up the “Robot Sympathy” perk from him (which reduces energy weapon damage from hostile robots by 10% – nothing to be sneezed at, especially when dealing with Assaultrons!). So that was very sweet too. :)
H) With my warm fuzzies acquired, I had Victor go and pick up all the rubber and ceramic he’d scrapped from the workbench, then sent him and Deacon back over to the Red Rocket to start working on that power armor! Victor grabbed a bunch of useful junk off Deacon (anything aluminum, ceramic, and/or rubber) and got to work –
And, to my pleasure, he had MORE than enough materials to upgrade every T-45 piece of armor all the way up to Model F, and the X-01 pieces all the way up to Mk. VI! :D So now every piece of armor on this set is the absolute best it can be. I also had Victor put away some magazines on the magazine rack (and then build another one when the rack he was trying to use indicated it was full, scrapping some shelves to make room), and find Ada and chat with her to get some of the stuff she was carrying off her (some more aluminum, some clothes (including a Hazmat suit), stuff like that – oh, and Grognak’s Axe, since I’m hoping to display it XD). I was then considering what kind of additional mods I wanted to add to the power armor before I started off toward the Glowing Sea –
I) And had the thought, “okay, before I do anything else – what is my carry capacity in this thing?” So I had Victor hop in to take a look.
Carry capacity is an embarrassingly shitty 360 units, as compared to Victor’s current standard 780 with all his Strong Back perks and backpacks and stuff. Welp – had Victor eat some melon flambe, snag a bit more aluminum junk off Deacon, then add Calibrated Shocks to both legs to increase THAT! Though I don’t know how much those mods actually increase carry capacity. . .I suspect that I’m going to have to leave a loooot of shit behind. *grimaces* I checked the other pieces, but as far as I can tell, there’s no mods on the arms, torso, or head that let you increase carry capacity any further. Meeh. So, with that, I saved and quit for the day, intending to have a think over the next week about what mods I want to add to the head and torso specifically. Because mods that increase my action point refresh speed are always appreciated, but the jet pack on the torso would probably be fun. . .and there’s always the “sanitation system” upgrade from one of my mods so I wouldn’t have to worry about bathroom needs in my power armor. . .decisions, decisions. . .
Writing: As per usual, a playsession of Fallout 4 means an update to the FO4 Playthrough Progression document! And this update was pretty much identical to what happened above, with just a few tiny tweaks to make certain things make more sense in a more “realistic” world –
A) Victor immediately washed himself off after getting blasted by the bloatflies because, well, you wouldn’t just want that stuff staying on you, would you? *shudder* Ew. A rinse with purified water was VERY necessary there!
B) Victor didn’t just take the melons at the Abernathy farm, he helped the family harvest them! And he went up on the roof because he was helping Blake fix a leak up there – though he is interested in maybe putting a guard post or some wind turbines up there later, as I was! We’ll see what happens the next time he swings around their place. . .
C) Victor said a proper hello to Ada, Dogmeat, and Mutt before going to check on his power armor at the Red Rocket (as you do to your robot sort-of-daughter and doggy friends). And upon going back to Sanctuary for supplies and finding none of the aluminum or rubber he needed, he ended complaining to Preston about it, who came up with the idea of checking the fridges and ripping out the rubber lining. So the two of them worked together to get all the supplies Victor needed the next morning (after a night of cuddles :) ).
D) Victor and Codsworth hugged after the latter gave his big speech about how great a person Victor is and how he’s definitely the guy to help turn the Commonwealth around. :) And joked that Codsworth was probably spending too much time around Preston. XD
E) Victor got Deacon’s help in upgrading the power armor, and the moment where I saved and closed became them all having lunch together, and Deacon and Alice being like “prove it” when Victor said he could turn an extinguisher into a jet pack. ...Maybe I have picked my torso mod after all. XD
So yeah – same adventures, just with a little extra flavoring. Next time, we’ll finish off upgrading the power armor and make our plan for the Glowing Sea!
YouTube: Got started a bit later than I wanted this evening (as per usual, honestly), but I did indeed get through my usual Sunday two –
A) First up, from the Subs, we had GrayStillPlays and “When sports have 99.999% chance of ending your life,” aka Gray plays Happy Wheels! Yup, one of my favorite games for him to play was back tonight, with some real good boards. :D We started with the traditional bottle flip, featuring three endings (normal, watermelon, and the choice between shoutout and secret win – Gray got stuck in the tube to the Watermelon ending due to losing a leg, but got there in the end), then proceeded to watch Pogo Guy survive a particularly nasty laser box (with Gray having a NUMBER of close calls dodging the harpoons); Bike Dad NOT survive a train crash (while still winning anyway); Segway Nixon taking on someone’s very first spike fall (which proved to be EXTREMELY narrow at the bottom – Gray was impressed and rated five stars); Segway Nixon work his way through someone’s bright yellow rope swing (which was pretty tricky despite having guide arrows all over the place – also featured the World’s Longest Conveyor Belt Ride); Pogo Guy falling through a particularly mean jet fall (which had a “Very Impossible” final area – fortunately this board let you win as a bunch of Pogo chunklets); Bike Dad and Young Tom Hardy taking a trip to a deadly “playground” (with spike ceilings, laser-guided pellets, and a plea to rate the board five stars – Gray was nice and did so); a dude doing discount Getting Over It by swinging himself over a handful of obstacles with a hammer (Gray was relieved, as apparently he’s played the actual game and HATED it XD); Segway Nixon taking on Satan’s ball throw (with lots of death, as you might imagine – Gray was less concerned about that and more concerned about getting the “participation award,” though XD); Segway Nixon yeeting himself across a board with the help of a meteor and a rocket, and having to figure out when to let go of the latter to win (a very tricky proposition – he ended up getting it while split in two); Segway Nixon deciding who should live and who should die while being dumped down various pits (Gray did one “all save” run and one “all kill” run, because either way he won); Bike Dad and Tom Hardy taking on an EXTREMELY long stair fall (Tom got crunched, but Bike Dad made it to the bottom – he won in bits, but he won); Segway Nixon dealing with a troll board where nothing was what it seemed (like the arrows in an arrow run never going off, but spikes falling on his head anyway when he retreated to the “live zone” – it was a weird board XD); Pogo Guy getting mulched in a “don’t move” pain-focused board; Hobo Guy escaping the hospital on a rocket-powered gurney (which Gray had to do twice because he’d forgotten he rebound the key for “nitro” to something other than Shift); and finally a soccer ball solving various puzzles and parkouring its way across a frankly BEAUTIFUL landscape (seriously, this thing was amazing – had an animated windmill in the background and everything! And it wasn’t by Dylan – instead it was by someone going by “Timer HD.” Really good job there, THD!). A very fun trip back to good old Happy Wheels – I hope there’s more to come in the future!
B) And second up, as per my usual Sunday Recommendeds, we had Jon and “Fallout 4: Sim Settlements 2 - Part 25 - Accidents & Emergencies!” This one featured Mayor Bob wandering around the Eastern and Northern parts of the Commonwealth, clearing up a few missions and working on getting some very important goodies –
I. First things first, Jon did a recap of what happened last episode (namely, Bob taking on the Glowing Sea and actually advancing the main plot a bit), and reminding us what goodies he got – namely, a near-complete set of X-01 power armor (which he couldn’t modify yet, not having the perks to build a power armor station), and a Neverending Gamma Gun from one of the Legendary Mole Rat Brood Mothers he fought! The power armor was nice, but the Gamma Gun was what Jon was really interested in – because, while he couldn’t actually do much with upgrading it (the Gamma Gun doesn’t have many upgrades AND needs high levels of the Science! perk, which Bob just straight up doesn’t have), he COULD go do the Cabot House quests, complete them in favor of Jack, and then get the cool mod to turn a Gamma Gun into a physics gun from him. And then attach that mod to THIS gun, which never needs to be reloaded, and – yeaaah. He was pretty sure that would be fun. And visiting the Cabot House would put him in the general area of where the Nightingales had gone last time, so he figured he could visit them, see what was going on in Mass Bay Medical Center, then go see the Cabot family and start doing their missions!
II. However, before anything else, Bob needed to pick up some very particular loot. So, on the way to Mass Bay Medical, he took the time to stop by Hester’s Consumer Robotics! Specifically, to take out the robots inside – and even more specifically, to take out the sentry bot in the back with his new Penetrator perk, then loot the burning shell for its fusion cores! Because, well, he’s learned the importance of having a few on him for power armor reasons after the fiasco last time. XD Even better, looking in the “you finished this dungeon” steamer trunk got him combat rifle that was even better in every way than the one he was using, AND the place had enough good loot around that he was able to slap a muzzle brake on it for better aiming and suchlike. Hester’s Consumer Robotics – where scavengers like to shop! XD
III. Once he completed his “shopping,” Bob then went over to Mass Bay Medical, where he found a couple of dead raiders and one glitchy Gunner standing like a statue outside (general consensus in the comments is the guy is a corpse who glitched out; based on my own experiences, he’s probably going to physics out at some point, and I hope we get to see it XD). Going inside had him find more dead Gunners and raiders, and one of the Nightingales, Ellis, arguing with Raphael over whether or not to help a wounded raider (Raphael was all for leaving him for dead and not wasting supplies, with Ellis arguing that Nightingales are here to help EVERYONE, and besides, RAPHAEL broke Fiona’s nose when they found him and they didn’t leave HIM). Bob took Ellis’s side, as he felt like that was the Nightingale creed (though Jon is very worried their desire to help everyone is going to get them murdered), and Raphael reluctantly allowed Ellis to stabilize the guy – though he was pleased to learn that Ellis had at least had the foresight to tranquilize him beforehand (apparently while the guy was trying to attack him). Bob then talked with Raphael about what was going on – apparently, the Nightingales arrived here to find the aftermath of a bunch of raiders taking on a Gunner camp. Raphael found it very weird because raiders normally avoid Gunner camps because Gunners have better weapons and defenses – and because these raiders gave the Gunners a run for their money during the fight. Which, even if the Gunners were out of ammo, REALLY shouldn’t have happened – Gunners are just too good at what they do. He also mentioned that Fiona was upstairs, trying to coax the last of the Gunners into letting the Nightingales help them, but he didn’t expect it to go well. Exploring further, Bob ran into Cassandra, who was examining the corpses – she had him look at one particular dead Gunner to see what he could see. Bob, however, wasn’t able to find anything wrong with the dead woman, so he asked Cassandra what was up, and she explained that the Gunner died from relatively minor wounds. Her diagnosis? That the Gunner, and her compatriots, were sick with some form of cholera, and that’s why the raiders had an easier time with them. She warned Bob about drinking the water in this building, and told him that if he was heading upstairs to help Fiona with negotiations, that he should let the survivors know the Nightingales had the means to help diagnose and treat them.
IV. Well, that sounded a lot like Bob should go upstairs and help with negotiations! So Bob did just that, finding Fiona talking to Commander York and trying to convince him that they were just doctors trying to help. York was having none of it – especially after Raphael arrived and start once again going on about how it wasn’t worth it to waste supplies on this lot – so Fiona appealed to Bob for help. Bob swanned up in his fabulous dress and asked York who he was – he explained that he was the field-promoted leader of this lot, and that they were holding the hotel on Gunner business. However, he and his squad were NOT doing well, and they were willing to hand over the hospital if the group just let them leave. Bob assured them that the Nightgales were on the up-and-up and had medicine for their illness downstairs, with Fiona backing him up, assuring the Gunners they’d be free to go at any time. York insisted there had to be a catch, so Fiona said that if they wanted, they could “gift” them some hospital supplies afterward – York, feeling generous, said that if the group managed to cure them, they could have the whole damn hospital. Though he’d be keeping an eye on Raphael the whole damn time. (Which, given how Raphael is? Fair.) Fiona thanked Bob for helping talk them down, even knowing that they were Gunners, and mused that this place could be a good new headquarters for the group – at the very least, it was bigger than their current spot by Diamond City! But she’d have to consult the others on that, since it was in a more dangerous part of Boston as well. In the meantime, she and her friends would treat the survivors and start exploring the place – she promised Bob they’d set some goodies aside for him and asked him to drop by again in a few days. Though Bob actually got some of his goodies right away – not only did he unlock the Hospital plot right after the mission (meaning his settlements will now recover from disease outbreaks faster), “Idiot Savant” triggering on the quest completion meant that Bob got enough XP for a level-up right away! He promptly got the “Armorer” perk so he could make his power armor stations and give the old X-01 a fresh clean and polish. :P
V. With the Nightingales’ business wrapped up for now, Bob was clear to start working on the Cabot House missions and getting access to that sweet artifact mod – but he had a few things to take care of along the way. Namely, clearing out a safe path to and from Mass Bay Medical to the center of town (which involved killing the raiders in front of the Combat Zone so they couldn’t give him grief, along with a passing super mutant and its mutant hound); getting wrapped up in the “Art Vs Art” random encounter (which is a man fighting against his synth duplicate – Bob killed the one who was already mostly dead, who unfortunately was the real Art – however, since this is weirdly a REPEATABLE encounter, he’ll come back to life soon enough I think) –
And visiting the Third Rail in Goodneighbor to talk to Griff there for Alyssa’s paper back in Concord, getting the story of how super mutants invaded his arm and killed his wife, taking her head clean off with a club like it was an exploding pumpkin. :( Jon was once again like “if we said the super mutants ate your wife, the story would sell better, though I do like that metaphor about the pumpkin,” and I was once again like “Jon, you are lucky the NPCs can’t hear you through the computer screen.” XD
VI. With his second story in hand, Bob then spent the night at the Hotel Rexford, then took the opportunity the next morning to swing by Mass Fusion and clear out the Gunners there for the Strength Bobblehead! Nobody there gave him too much trouble, though he was very surprised to see that the Gunner inside the power armor up top was able to survive and fight on through his fusion core being exploded. O.O Bob got him down eventually though, and claimed his bobblehead, giving him a bit of extra strength, and thus a bit of extra carry capacity. Because we all love more carry capacity. :) He then proceeded onward to Cabot House to properly start “Special Delivery” –
And skipped over the actual “talking to Jack” bit. O.o Probably because he’s done it before, but it still felt a little weird, as starting the Cabot House missions WAS one of the focuses of this episode. *shrug* Anyway, he got his mission orders – to report to Parson’s Insane Asylum to talk to the leader of security there, Maria, and started heading north, cutting through Malden (where he had to take out a Radscorpion, because Malden is a Known Chaos Spot in the game), and swinging by Greentop Nursery to chat to wanderer Ricky about HIS super mutant experience to get Alyssa’s third and final story. Poor Ricky got to see his parents torn about by super mutants in the building they used to live in – the image has been burned into his brain so hard he sees it whenever he closes his eyes. Now he’s a homeless wanderer, using Jet to numb the pain. :( Jon started in on his usual “good but would be better if we said the super mutants ate your parents” spiel –
Only for the husband of the old couple who lives at the nursery to run up and say that his wife had been kidnapped. Bob was a little suspicious that word had gotten out that he was willing to just hand over caps to people to pay “ransoms” for kidnapped family members, but said screw it and handed over the money, since he had plenty. The husband gratefully took it –
And commented that he hoped the super mutants who took his wife would keep their word, as they were an unpredictable lot. Jon was like “you’re giving me mixed messages here, Fallout 4.” XD But he had a sense of humor about it, and was happy enough to get the settlement to join his growing empire. More towns for Mayor Bob to mayor over!
VII. Having gotten all of his interviews for Alyssa, Bob went back to working on the Cabot delivery, making his way over to the Insane Asylum (and managing NOT to kill the guard out front, despite the guy being marked in red and thus looking like an enemy – Jon was reasonably certain he’s accidentally killed the guy before, and I seem to recall him doing so in his first Survival LP with Grills Bears) and talking with Maria, who directed him over to the shack that was all that was left of Parson’s Creamery (yes, there was an ICE CREAM place near the damn insane asylum XD) to take out the raiders within. A bit of careful tagging and shooting with his sniper rifle put down all the raiders without much trouble, and Bob was able to retrieve the mysterious serum off one of their corpses to bring back to the Cabots. And that might have been the ending point for the episode –
VIII. Except that Jon realized that Recon Bunker Theta, aka the spot where Paladin Brandis from “The Lost Patrol” is holed up, was not that far away, and figured he might as well send Bob over there to see the guy and wrap up THAT quest that he accidentally did while clearing out the National Guard Training Yard and the nearby Revere Satellite Array. So Bob made his way over there –
To find, of all things, a Brotherhood Patrol Squad outside. Talk about the best random encounter to get outside this particular bunker. XD (I have decided to headcanon that they’d tracked Brandis down, but couldn’t get into the bunker because they didn’t have the code, and he wasn’t responding to their requests he come outside.) Bob swanned in and stuck on his red dress, and was able to talk Brandis out of shooting him AND – with a bit of careful persuasion – get him to rejoin the Brotherhood. Possibly only to get his special gun that he gives to you if you do that and then say hi to him again on the Prydwen. XD And so the episode ended with Jon laughing about the Brotherhood being right outside Brandis’s hidey-hole again, and declaring that next time should be more Cabot missions, plus probably more Nightingale stuff. Should be a fun time!
Workout: Back on the bike, with another Sims video from James Turner – “I tried to play The Sims with every lot challenge again... (Part 1)!” Yes, the Every Lot Challenge Challenge is back – mostly because, apparently, James’s For Rent Bigwallet LP was suffering so much from bugs that he needed to take a break and do something different until some of it got patched. *rolls eyes* Great job EA. . . Anyway, as we have some new lot challenges to work with thanks to the newest expansion packs, James decided to bring the ELC Challenge back, but with a few twists: rather than living in StrangerVille and dealing with THAT nonsense as well as all the lot challenges, Semaj is in a run-down haunted house in Evergreen Harbor (the world that came with Eco Lifestyle); he’s starting off with no money (making this a bit “Rags To Riches” as well); and in order to remove Lot Challenges (and bad lot traits, like the “Vampire Nexus,” “Cat Hangout,” and “Dog Hangout” traits), he has to complete the “The Sims 24 While 24” Challenge Checklist from EA, featuring a variety of activities to do in the game in honor of the franchise’s 24th birthday! Each checklist item completed prompts a spin of the Challenge Wheel, and whatever random challenge it lands on gets removed. Some of them are really easy, while others are a little more difficult, so it’s going to make for an interesting challenge!
So, how did Semaj’s first few days in what I believe is now called the “Every Lot Challenge Again” miniseries go? Well, everything started out pretty good:
A) A trip to Willow Creek to get frogs to breed for challenge and profit got him an immediate opportunity to “Shower In The Rain,” which promptly took the “Spooky” lot challenge off his lot (which – actually doesn’t make THAT much of a difference, because his house is still a Haunted House Residential)
B) A trip to Forgotten Hollow to meet Vlad (as one of the other challenges is to woohoo him) resulted in him successfully breaking into Vlad’s house and discovering that the guy is a serial regifter on top of being a vampire! Which completed the challenge “Break Into A Sims Home” and spared him the horrors of the “Dog Hangout” lot trait (which brings ALL the stray dogs to your lot) – though James DID end up replacing it with “Mean Vibe,” so it seems it’ll be a while yet before he has any truly good lot traits
C) A trip to Glimmerbrook – inspired by seeing Simeon Silversweater, the Sage of Practical Magic, hanging around Willow Creek and passing by his own lot – saw him head to the Magic Realm, where he got Morgyn Ember to turn him into a Spellcaster, fulfilling the “Transform Into An Occult Sim” challenge (and getting a head start on “Lift The Curse Of The Night Wraith,” which you can only GET if you’re a Spellcaster) and getting “Simple Living” taken off his house (meaning he no longer had to buy or farm his own ingredients to cook)
D) And a successful first night in his haunted house saw him make some progress on befriending both Lilith Vatore and Vlad, meet his first specter, and make loads of grilled cheese to “Unlock The Grilled Cheese Aspiration!” Though James decided that Semaj would have to actually COMPLETE the aspiration to remove a challenge, as just unlocking it seemed too easy. But still, everything seemed to be coming up Semaj. . .
E) Aaand then the chaos started. Beginning with Lilith Vatore asking if she could crash at Semaj’s for a few days and starting a stay-over event; then continuing with Semaj visiting Oasis Springs and failing to fish up anything useful near the park (or breed a new frog species, as he’s been trying to do for a while); then continuing FURTHER with the haunted house getting A LOT MORE FUCKING HAUNTED on the second night (complete with angry red specters and all sorts of goo puddles forming on the first floor near the stairs); then getting even WORSE with the Gremlins lot challenge activating and breaking ALL of Semaj’s plumbing and kitchen appliances, which spread puddles and caused mold to grow EVERYWHERE; and culminating in Semaj trying to clear some of the mold piles with fire (because starting a fire is also a challenge that he has to complete), only to constantly set HIMSELF on fire in the process. And then James was like “I’m not sure if those fires count, they seem to go out pretty quickly.” XD Fortunately a friendly neighbor showed up to fix everything, and Lilith was around to help mop puddles, but – yeah. Things got REALLY chaotic REALLY quick after the initial day. Which I’m glad of, as we don’t want this challenge to be too easy – I’m actually a bit annoyed that “Simple Living” went bye-bye as quickly as it did. Make your Sim suffer, James! :P Ah well, what can one do. . .still looking forward to the other episodes in this miniseries!
Whew -- that was a lot! And now it is time to go to bed, as I have work tomorrow. Hopefully it won't be a shitty Monday -- keep your fingers crossed everyone! Night all!
