Somewhat Better Sunday

Like, it wasn't great -- Dad had a nasty coughing fit last night and was still recovering from it for most of the day; Mom went out and got another order of the Chinese food we missed out on last night for lunch today, only for them to forget the sweet-and-sour sauce for the sweet-and-sour chicken and not put a lot of wontons in the wonton soup; and I had a sudden attack of severe grogginess in the afternoon while trying to write up my Portal 2 session today, dragging that out (I'm blaming the PMS) -- but it wasn't as full of "bad vibes" as yesterday was. Which I appreciate. I also got a bit more done overall:

Tumblr: Well, it was another quiet day over on The Valice Multiverse, but I did get something done relating to my upcoming Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) queue for the week – specifically, after missing my chance to work on them yesterday (why does making my granola have to take so long?!), I managed to make a third Valicertine for this year’s set and finish off the Bonus Image (you know, the one where I made fun of my tendency to take all the in-game pictures of my OT3 while playing their save in The Sims 4 by talking about how one should find a polycule where they can make memories...so many fucking memories XD)! Though it took a little longer than anticipated, mostly because I spent ages trying to figure out what old Chill Valicer Save screenshot I wanted to use for the third Valicertine – I’ve used most of the good ones already! In the end, I combined slices of two screenshots – Smiler doing karaoke duets with Victor and Alice post the Valicer Wedding – and did a Valicertine about how True Love is all about finding someone you don’t mind embarrassing yourself with – especially on your wedding day. :P So at least I’m all set with THOSE for Valentine’s Day on Saturday! Now I just have come up with a couple new Not-Incorrect Quote scenes to add to the Valentine’s Day set I did last year...

Writing: Did another page’s worth of editing on Chapter 6 of “Londerland Bloodlines” this afternoon, covering:

A) Alice getting across the museum floor after the next guard had passed the dinosaur skeleton by scrambling across on her hands and knees, then ignoring the “Security” door in favor of slipping into the bathroom nearby – unfortunately, someone was in there, but fortunately, he was in a stall, allowing Alice to fake going into a stall herself, then creep as quietly as possible across the floor before slipping unnoticed into the supply closet on the other side

B) Alice discovering the vent Victor had told her about in the closet and – after building a box staircase to reach it and using her lockpicking kit’s torsion wrench to unscrew the grate – climbing inside...only to discover the damn thing immediately doubled back on itself over the bathroom; cue her having to crawl through the ductwork as quietly as possible directly over the very guard having a pee she was trying to avoid earlier (there was a grate over him and everything!). Fortunately he noticed nothing and she was able to get past him without incident

C) Alice coming to a T-Junction and using her Auspex to check for crayon clues as to which way she should go – and said crayon clues showing up a bit faster than usual; Alice put it down to being full of Victor’s Sanguine blood and quietly looked forward to what it might be able to do for her Obfuscate

D) And Alice going right down the T-Junction as per the clues and finding herself above a (fortunately empty) security office, with an easily-opened grate right below her allowing her to drop down should she so wish

Nothing too spectacular, but it’s always good to make progress on this monster of a chapter. I’m tempted to just work on this for the rest of the week, honestly, since I’ve hit a nice little break point in my “The Van Dort Vacancy” edits – we’ll see how I feel as the days go on!

Portal 2: I returned to Aperture Science today for another half-hour of completing tests while GLaDOS insulted me – only got through three chambers today, but the chambers are getting more complex, so that’s only to be expected. Today’s physics-and-portal-based-puzzles included:

Chamber 9 – The first chamber of “Chapter 3: The Return,” and one that involves a faith plate, a laser, and our good friend Wheatley! Yes, this is the chamber where you officially learn he’s alive (though, like me, you may have seen him peeping in on you in tests earlier) – when you first arrive in the chamber (getting past all the floor panels glitching out), you’re presented with a faith plate that launches you straight up toward the ceiling. And when you step on it and get launched, you get catapulted high enough to see Wheatley, back on his management rail over a little catwalk overlooking the chamber, gleefully telling you he’s alive! How did he survive being crushed by GLaDOS, you ask?

...we have no idea because, while he attempts to tell Chell the story, Wheatley being Wheatley, he keeps talking even when she falls back down to the floor and can’t hear him. All we know is that a bird was involved somehow. XD It certainly doesn’t help that there’s a good chunk of time between launches because the faith plate keeps sending a distress signal and GLaDOS keeps having to come in to fix it (she cruelly jokes that it must not be calibrated for someone of Chell’s “generousness,” but now I’m wondering if it was trying to narc on Wheatley to her...I know the faith plates really SHOULDN’T have AI, but given what Aperture is like, I wouldn’t be surprised if they did). Anyway, this went on for three launches, after which GLaDOS decided to fix the situation by lowering the ceiling rather than continue to fiddle with the faith plate, cutting Wheatley off from Chell –

And bringing us to the test proper! Which involved the aforementioned faith plate in the lower half of the room, now launching you into a portal-able bit of ceiling, and a laser in the upper portion of the room, which had to be redirected through a chunk of wall with a redirection cube (to make the laser turn at the right angle) and portals (to get it through the wall) to actually hit the receiver to make the exit door open. As you might imagine, there was a lot of flinging Chell through a portal in the ceiling to where she needed to go in the upper portion! Basically it went like this:

I. Use portals to get Chell up on the upper portion generally and get the lay of the land. Note the laser going into the wall, the little portal-able wall chunklet in front of the receiver, the redirection cube dispenser above the laser on its own little platform, the door above the receiver on its own little platform, and a bunch of tilted panels sticking out from the wall allowing me to send Chell up to where the cube dispensing unit and the door are

II. Use portals to fling Chell up to the redirection cube dispenser via the tilted platform in front of it next to the laser...only to discover that the button used to actually dispense a cube is on the OTHER side of the room, in its own little high nook

III. Use portals to fling Chell up to the cube dispensing button via the other tilted platform on the other side of the laser facing the other direction, and press the button to get a cube

IV. Use portals to fling Chell back over to the cube dispensing area to actually get the cube using the original tilted platform. Drop cube in front of laser, then carefully hop over laser and reposition cube so the laser is firing directly into the center of the wall chunk blocking the receiver

V. Figure out where to put portals so you can direct the laser through the wall chunk into the receiver

VI. Remove those portals so you can set up a fling onto the upper platform with the door using the tilted wall chunk designed for that purpose, and fling Chell up there. Listen to GLaDOS call Chell “like an eagle...piloting a blimp” and giggle because it is a very good line

VII. Re-set up the portals on either side of the wall chunk, adjusting position until the laser is going through them and into the receiver

VIII. Walk through the exit door and into the elevator victorious.

Not too hard, but it did require a bit of thought! As these later chambers will.

( As usual, this got longer than intended )

Workout/YouTube: Another Sunday, another ride on the bike and evening watch session featuring Jon of Many A True Nerd’s F:NV YOLO Remastered series – specifically, “Fallout New Vegas: You Only Live Once Remastered - Part 29 - Skill Issue!” The continuing adventures of our beloved Drunken Melee Courier P. D. Shoot as she –

A) Resolved a bit of an issue with her skills – namely, the base values of Science, Speech, and Lockpick all not being high enough because she was used to boosting them to hell and back with her various outfits, magazines, booze, and drugs. A strategy that was currently serving her well in the main game, and had worked in most of the DLCs, but which would not work in “Dead Money” because Father Elijah, prick that he is, steals most of the stuff the Courier’s carrying when he kidnaps them to kick off their horrible adventure in the Sierra Madre. And because she only had two level-ups left thanks to her “Logan’s Loophole” trait locking her levels to 30, she couldn’t rely on those to get her the skill points she needed to boost everything up to where it should be for The DLC Jon Fears Above All Others. So how did she resolve the issue?

By finding some skill books, of course! Two each for Speech, Science, and Lockpick, earning her six free points in each skill. Specifically, she visited:

I. Cerulean Robotics in Freeside (you know, where she found FISTO), where she killed a bunch of the respawned rats and claiming a “Lying, Congressional Style” Speech book from the front office floor

II. Brooks Tumbleweed Ranch (home of the Nightkin selling the “wind-Brahmin” for however many caps the Courier may be holding on them), where she had a giggle at all the tumbleweeds inside just “living life” before getting another “Lying, Congressional Style” from one of the lockers there

III. Y-0 Research Center, just northwest of the Forbidden Zone Dome Entrance in the Big MT, where she grabbed a “Big Book Of Science” Science (natch) book off a skeleton laying outside – though she ended up having to do this twice when her initial attempt to grab the second “Big Book Of Science” from Nipton resulted in a game crash and sent her back to The Sink before she got the first one (she also grabbed some more cazador poison glands from Dr. Borous while she was in the area so she could make some more Turbo later)

IV. Nipton Town Hall in, well, Nipton, where she used her incredible sneaking skills and the power of Turbo plus the Industrial Hand to get past all the dogs inside without incident and grab the second “Big Book Of Science” (along with some Mentats and a Programmer’s Digest magazine) from the mayor’s old desk – though, while she managed to avoid crashing the game this time (by fast-traveling to the town instead of walking there from the drive-in the Big MT teleport gun automatically takes you to when you return to the Mojave), she did briefly suffer a moment of absolute terror when she checked her Pip-Boy and found all her weapons (and almost all her apparel too) missing. Fortunately, bringing up Chance’s Knife via the powers of hotkeys made them all appear again, but damn. New Vegas, P. D. is only preparing for “Dead Money” at this point, she’s not ready to live it!

V. Silver Peak Mine, up in the mountains near the Followers Of The Apocalypse safe house, where she took advantage of the fact that there’s an opening “mine shack” room that you have to pass through in order to enter the mine itself to avoid the Legendary Cazador living in said mine and just grab a copy of “Tumblers Today” Lockpick book from one of the lockers in the actual shack (she also got some turpentine for later Turbo crafting)

VI. And (after waiting until it was night again so she could sneak around more effectively), Bitter Springs Recreation Area, just up the road from Callville Bay (itself accessed by P. D. TRYING to fast-travel to the crashed B-29 that she raised from the waters for the Boomers – obviously, the game can’t actually let you fast travel into the middle of a lake to an object that isn’t there anymore, so it puts you instead near the spot where you have to trigger the ballast to raise the plane), where she managed to successfully sneak past all the cazadores on either side of the road on the way there –

Only to take a minuscule amount of damage from a rat inside the main recreation area shack itself because she managed to sneak attack crit one of its friends right in front of it and it proceeded to surprise her in return when she turned around. Like, she managed to slap her good armor on and do all the drugs while it was leaping at her with the help of the Pip-Boy time stop, meaning the actual damage was so low (like a fraction of a hit point) that it didn’t actually show up in the health calculations once the fight was over, but still. Jon noted that this was typical of the series – the thing he was most worried about went fine, while something he didn’t worry about at all nearly went very badly. XD But at least P. D did get her second “Tumblers Today” book off the desk in the back room for those sweet skill points!

So yeah – after all those trips and the reading of the skillbooks, P. D.’s base Speech went up to 86, base Science went up to 86, and base Lockpick up to 83. All much better base numbers for approaching the final two level-ups and “Dead Money!”

B) And decided on the faction she wanted to back for the final fight at Hoover Dam – the NCR! Which might surprise you, given she’s been making great pals with Caesar’s Legion all this series (to the point where she’s Idolized by them, but considered a Smiling Troublemaker by the NCR). However, Jon decided it would be better for P. D. to join up for the NCR instead for three reasons:

One, while she’d gotten just about everything she wanted out of the Legion, the NCR still had some potential goodies to hand over if she did their missions.

Two, facing off against the NCR with the Legion at the dam meant fighting a lot of people with guns, while facing off against the Legion with the NCR meant fighting more melee-focused people like herself with the people with guns backing her up.

Three, there was apparently a very interesting and weird interaction she could get from a third faction tied into one of the NCR quests from being someone who was leaning very heavily toward the Legion but then swapped to the NCR.

I think we can all agree these are excellent reasons for P. D. to join the New California Republic – especially the third one. We love weird interactions. :p As a result, P. D. spent the rest of the episode completing another quest for them and advancing their questline to confirm her choice – though, uh, it didn’t go as smoothly as Jon would have liked:

I. First, when she went back to Cottonwood Cove one last time to check the reward boxes left there for her for her good work, not only did she not get the random 50 Stealth Boys Jon was hoping for (though she did at least get one), she straight up didn’t get one of the boxes she was owed – the game seemed to have glitched out and forgotten to load it in. Not a huge deal (P. D. doesn’t need Stealth Boys nearly as much with her incredible Sneak, and she already has plenty of money), but still.

II. Then, when she went to visit Ambassador Crocker at the Embassy, she was able to get the mission to deal with the violence against NCR citizens in Freeside by either killing Pacer (the main asshole stirring the pot) or appealing to The King to stop the violence, “Kings’ Gambit,” without a problem – but the moment she left his office, one of the local unnamed NCR Trooper MPs (Military Police guys) ran up to her, snapped off a line about what a coincidence it was to find her outside the Strip (note: the Embassy is actually ON the Strip), then told her that she should have paid her dues and that “nobody fucks with the NCR and lives to brag it about it. You’re dead, punk!” before –

Well, not actually doing anything, because P. D.’s Sneak is so good that he couldn’t actually see her to attack. XD Leaving her awkwardly hiding in the corner staring at her Pip-Boy in [CAUTION] while Jon went “what the COCK is going on???” He could not understand why this one guy was suddenly so anti-P. D., given she still had a mostly-positive reputation with the NCR – and he didn’t dare have P. D. fight him, because THAT was likely to turn the entire NCR hostile, and there were troopers EVERYWHERE. He ended up having her do a dose of Turbo to get past the guy as fast as possible and escape out the front doors without causing a scene – fortunately, nobody outside wanted to start any shit, and she was able to make it back to the other side of the Strip (with the Lucky 38 and whatnot) without any trouble. If still really confused about what had set that guy off. (Interestingly, as per the comments, this is simply an extremely common bug with the NCR MPs (or possibly that particular NCR MP), where for some reason they’ll act like the Courier has wronged the NCR no matter how well-liked they are and try to either attack them or shake them down for caps – and yes, fighting them DOES instantly tank your reputation with the NCR and lock you out of that ending. Jon has just SOMEHOW managed to avoid it before this playthrough.)

III. THEN, after visiting Freeside (and dropping a safety save in the streets just in case completing this mission somehow ended up in her being enemies with both the Legion AND the NCR, meaning she’d have no choice but to do the Forbidden Yes Man Ending) and using her favor with The King to get him to try and calm the violence against NCR citizens there, she took a moment to visit Nellis (to steal turpentine) and the Crimson Caravan Company (to pick their Broc flowers and use their campfire to make more Turbo, juuuust in case she needed it), before returning to the NCR Embassy. Where she very anxiously snuck past all the troopers hanging around outside and the very guy who’d yelled at her before in the hall (who was now completely neutral, go fig) before slipping into Ambassador Crocker’s office and closing the door –

Only to find Ambassador Crocker not there. Which made sense, as she had arrived in the middle of the night – but even after she’d waited in there until 2 in the afternoon, he refused to show up for work! Dude just would not leave his bed. Forcing a terrified P. D. to sneak BACK out into the hall, avoid all the soldiers, and find him lying around in his private room. Fortunately he woke right up when she went to speak with him, but Jon let him have it over some of his subordinates being a little trigger happy and nearly giving him a heart attack! XD But P. D. did manage to turn in the quest, and got herself 600 caps, some NCR fame, and a level-up to Level 29 out of it. She promptly brought her Science skill up to 100, maxing it out, and got Lockpick up to 86, with the plan being to max Lockpick out with the final level-up and put the remaining handful of points wherever she wanted (maxing out Speech was unnecessary, as apparently the highest Speech check in “Dead Money” requires a skill of 85, and she’s at 86).

And so the episode ended with P. D. being told to report to Colonel Moore over at Hoover Dam for more assignments (Jon was only TOO happy to leave the Embassy behind) and then fleeing the building before anyone else could attack her. XD Next week, it’s over to the dam to get Moore’s assignments and do those – including the mission with the third faction that should reacting interestingly to P. D. having done a bunch of Legion stuff before swapping to the NCR (given what I recently saw in Useless Steve’s old playthrough, this MUST be the Khans, who currently have a bit of an alliance with the Legion). I’m looking forward to it – especially if that episode is as buggy as this one was. XD Poor Jon, he suffered so this week, and it was so so funny…

Hey, look at that, I managed to finish the entry all in one go! And slightly earlier than usual too for a Sunday! XD And now it is time for me to go to bed, as I do have work tomorrow. Hopefully it isn't too horrible a day...night all!