Very Bad Vibes Saturday
Jan. 10th, 2026 11:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickYeah, between Dad still being in a lot of pain and having stomach issues (but insisting he does not want to go to the hospital to see what might be wrong), Mom being annoyed Dad doesn't want to go to the hospital (and surprising me when I got up this morning talking about a meet-up today that I was certain, and eventually proved, was happening tomorrow), and my own burgeoning PMS brain, it was -- not a great day off. :( Just rancid vibes all over the damn shop. But I did manage to get my to-do list more or less sorted:
Dreamwidth: Accomplished both of my main goals for the day over here, I’m happy to say:
A) I answered all of Moose’s messages waiting for me in my inbox – three before lunch, one after (because we ate slightly early)
B) And I posted Moose’s gift fic this afternoon! Featuring more of the Weird Video Game Triangle, aka the Telstar Arcade, and the reveal that its creator, Coleco, actually made something ELSE that was much more popular back in 1983… Hope you enjoy!
So yay, birthday celebration missions accomplished~ *thumbs up* Hell, I even had leftover birthday cake and ice cream for dessert tonight! ...I would have had that anyway, admittedly, but I still like that it lined up with your birthday, Moose. XD
...and unfortunately, that's all you're getting for now, because it's 2 AM and I really have to go to bed and try and get some sleep. *sigh* Don't know how successful I will be, though, because Mom and Dad have headed over to the emergency room because Dad finally cracked and decided he did need to go to the hospital, thanks. So -- yeah. We'll see what happens with that, and what happens tomorrow. I'll try to finish off this write-up tomorrow. Night all.
EDIT 1/11/2026: I am back, my parents are back, Dad is on some pretty heavy-duty painkillers because apparently he didn't crack a rib, he instead bruised up pretty much everything inside him when he fell into that bookcase at the bottom of the basement stairs, I'll talk more about it later. For now, here is the rest of what was planned for this entry:
Fallout: New Vegas: I got to this later than I originally intended (due to the Bad Vibes of the day making me spend a good half-hour or so on someone’s tumblr just rereading random stories because that made me feel better), but I did get to it – and as of today, I have officially finished Courier Victor character creation! Let me tell you how the playsession went down:
A) First things first – before jumping back into Doc’s Mitchell’s house to conclude Victor’s examination, I had some admin to complete regarding my game:
I. First, I opened up Steam and right-clicked F:NV in my Library to open up the Properties menu, where I set the game to only download and install updates when I launch the game, much like my settings for Fallout 4. Reason being, I think there’s an anniversary edition/update for this game coming out at some point this year (I’m pretty sure Bethesda has made some noises in that direction, anyway) – and given how much Bethesda mucked up the “modern hardware” and “anniversary edition” updates for Fallout 4, I don’t think I want to get those updates. So changing “Wait Until I Launch The Game” will make sure that any updates of that nature are not automatically downloaded and applied – instead, Steam will let me know there is an update pending, and wait until I confirm the update/try to launch the game to install them!
...which I will not be doing, because thanks to my various mods and whatnot, I have to open F:NV via Mod Organizer 2. >D Meaning, if we do get any surprise anniversary updates, they’ll be locked in permanent limbo on Steam and thus unable to affect my game (much like how I’m protected from FO4’s updates by opening the game through Vortex)! Or, at the very least, I’ll get a grace period to figure out how to deal with it. *nods* Very important, that!
II. Second, I opened up the game itself (via MO2, of course – which hopefully will be running better now that I’ve turned off the “hey, do you want to see our broken tutorial?” message) and headed to the “Tweaks” section in the Settings menu on the start-up screen to review what tweaks were already turned on and which were available. Very important that I know what’s actually IN my game, you know. *nods* I won’t give you a full accounting of all the available tweaks – it would be a VERY long list – but I will tell you that I turned on:
a. 12 Hour Pip Boy Clock – changes the Pip-Boy clock to be in 12-hour format (because I’m not a fan of 24-hour time – like, I can read it, but I find the standard 12-hour clock easier to understand)
b. Container Encumbrance Indicator – lets you know if picking up items from a container will put you over carry weight by marking things in red (as I am an extreme hoarder, I figured this would be very handy for helping me decide what to loot and what not to loot without breaking poor Victor’s back)
c. Detected By Whom – changes the [DETECTED] message to indicate who specifically is detecting you, up to five names (just thought this would be handy, just in case I’m being DETECTED by someone who could cause trouble later)
d. Force Lockpick No Break Lock – stops a failed forced lockpick from breaking the lock and instead just breaks the bobby pin (“Failing a lockpick breaks the LOCK?!” I thought in a panic when first reading that description – I realize now that I probably misread it, as F:NV has an option to force a lock open that FO4 doesn’t have, but I’ll keep this on anyway because if I DO try that option, I’d much rather lose the bobby pin than access to the lock itself!)
e. Free Wild Wasteland – allows you to activate the “Wild Wasteland” trait without spending a trait point on it (because “Wild Wasteland” has some fun stuff in it and I wanted the option to turn it on without having to waste any of Victor’s two precious trait points on it – now, granted, I don’t know how EXACTLY you turn it on with this set of mods, so I may have missed my chance while picking Victor’s traits to get it for free...but the game offers you a free restat when you first leave Goodsprings, so I’ll have a second chance to turn it on then if necessary)
f. Invert Pip-Boy Repair Menu Sorting – flips the order of items that need to be repaired in the Pip-Boy so that the high-condition items are on the bottom (because why the FUCK would you put them on the top, what sense does THAT make???)
*nods* Important tweaks all! Even if turning them on required me to restart.
III. And finally, once I’d restarted to apply my new tweaks, I popped into the game proper – and promptly paused to open up the Mod Configuration Menu to go through those mods that could be configured in THERE and see what they did (including spreading all the fun pre-order bonuses around so you didn’t get a ton of stuff right at the start of the game; stopping the DLC from spamming you with their starting quests at the very beginning and instead offering the quests when you’re at an appropriate level to tackle them; tweaking XP gain and how much XP you need to level up; etc etc). Having already informed the “Aqua Fria” mod in my previous session that “I will be leveling up to Level 50, as the Ultimate version of the game with all DLCs intended, not stopping at Level 35 like you want me to for some reason,” I didn’t find anything I wanted to change this time around – though I may go back and uncheck “Use Power Armor without training” before completing the tutorial. I’m currently undecided if I want that to be a thing or not. (Not that I expect my Courier Victor to use power armor much, but – still.)
B) Having finally gotten through all that, it was time at last to continue character creation by having Victor pick his SPECIAL stats via the Vit-O-Matic Vigor Tester! Which was a bit weird for me, as assigning your SPECIAL in this game is pretty different from how you do it in Fallout 4 – in that game, every stat starts at 1, and you get 21 points to distribute between them as you see fit, for a total of 28 starting SPECIAL points. In this game, every stat starts at 5 and can be reduced down to 1 if you want more points for another stat, and you have 5 bonus points to distribute between them as you see fit, for a total of 40 starting SPECIAL points. Meaning I had twelve more points to play with when it came to Victor’s stats –
Meaning that, for a lot of this section, I was like “okay, uh, I was picturing this stat maybe being lower, but then where would I put the extra points.” XD That plus my delightful tendency toward overthinking what would be appropriate numbers for Victor led to this part of character creation taking a while. But eventually I came up with a set of stats that I liked and felt fit Victor’s character (presented with the goofy names assigned to them by the Vigor Tester):
Strength 3, “Doughy Baby” – Victor is a thin, thin boy who I cannot see having a lot of muscle on him, so – much as it pained me and my desire to pick up and hoard everything in the wasteland – I set this stat as his lowest. He is just not that strong! (Amusingly, this is the only stat of his that is the same as his FO4 self’s stat as a result.)
Perception 5, “Wary Trout” – This stat gave me a lot of trouble, mostly because of an observation I made when I rewatched the movie last year – you know how Victor’s kind of clumsy at times? I originally attributed this to a lack of agility (as was reflected in the starting stats of my FO4 Victor, who had Agility 4), but upon seeing him in action again, I realized that the problem wasn’t his agility at all – it was him either being flustered as hell (like during the wedding rehearsal, or when first meeting the dead in the Ball & Socket) or straight up not paying attention to his surroundings (like when Victoria surprised him at the piano, or every time he ran into something running away from Emily). Meaning that, while trying to stat out this Victor, I was like “well, we should make Perception low, a 4 at most” –
And then I ran into the “but then where does the extra point go” problem, because I didn’t want to make any of the other stats too high. So I sat and had a good think while figuring out some of the other numbers, then decided, “You know what? Victor may have his unobservant moments, but he’s not THAT bad, and most of them are because he’s under a lot of stress. I think we can leave this as thoroughly average.” So yeah, Victor gets to have bog-standard Perception in this game. ...with the added bonus of getting a stat title that references fish, because, you know, son of fish merchants. XD (Admittedly, I would have gotten that with a 4 too – “Unsuspecting Trout” – but still. Oh, and if you were wondering, FO4 Victor had Perception 3 (I apparently did notice that he wasn’t PARTICULARLY observant before), so he’s definitely improved in this entry in the series!)
Endurance 8, “Flame Retardant” – Victor takes multiple hard hits to the head while trying to escape Emily (crashing into the headstone and smacking into the same tree twice) and keeps on trucking just fine, so I figured this stat had to be high (as it was for FO4 Victor, who had Endurance 7). It ended up 8 in this game because I had a couple of extra points to spread around after setting the other stats, and I figured I might as well bump this one up a little. (Also I could hear Alice saying “I would very much like my love to be flame retardant,” so… :P)
Charisma 4, “Peevish Librarian” – This is another stat that I rethought after watching the movie again – we all know that Victor is awkward, shy, stutters when he’s really nervous, and can blurt out some nasty things when he’s angry, but I think when I made him Charisma 2 in FO4, I was doing him a bit of a disservice. Because he can be charismatic sometimes – see him sweet-talking Victoria by telling her he stopped being afraid of marriage when he met her, or cheerfully gathering the Dead Downstairs to tell them about how he and Emily are redoing their wedding properly Upstairs. It’s just not his default mode (unlike, say, Smiler). So I decided in this game, where I had more points to play with, he could be just below average instead. That felt right.
Intelligence 8, “Know-It-All” – This stat is more implied than explicitly shown in the movie, but I would definitely argue that Victor is smart – his sketches of butterflies, while beautiful, also have a scientific bent to them, and he’s not bad at on-the-fly planning (like realizing right after telling Emily she’s lucky she’ll never have to meet his mother that “wait – I can probably get back Upstairs if I suggest she should meet her”). So I was happy to make this one of his higher stats – especially as it would result in more skill points being available per level-up. And, much like Endurance, I ended up bumping this up from the FO4 score of 7 to 8 because I had some extra stat points to distribute and this felt like a good spot to put one. *nods* Amusingly, this was the stat Doc Mitchell chose to comment on when Victor finished up at the Vit-O-Matic (as he has special lines he can say for any stat 8 or higher or 3 or lower): “Look at that. Maybe them bullets done your brain some good.” XD I assure they did NOT, Doc! Victor came with this!
Agility 8, “Knife Catcher” – And here we come to the stat that changed the most between games – as previously stated, when I made Victor in FO4, I gave him Agility 4 to represent that he’s kind of clumsy (though I used the “You’re SPECIAL!” book in Shaun’s nursery to bump it up to 5 pretty quickly, then brought it up to 6 once Victor hit Level 5 after all his adventures exploring his old neighborhood and helping Preston). Rewatching the movie, though, made me realize that Victor is actually agile as FUCK – the dude is able to keep away from Emily for AGES, climb that GIANT cliff up to the look-out spot pretty much no problem, climb up to Victoria’s balcony also no problem, and – oh yes – HOLD OFF BARKIS FOR QUITE A WHILE WITH SUPER-QUICK PARRIES WHEN BARKIS HAD A SWORD AND HE HAD A FORK. Hell, even one of his clumsy moments highlights how agile he is – remember how he managed to accidentally flip his candle from one hand to the other during his wedding rehearsal? So yes, I went into this determined to make Courier Victor an extremely agile boy! Though not TOO agile, because – well, one, I wanted to represent the clumsiness SOMEHOW, and not maxing out the stat seemed sufficient, and two, because I needed to leave some space for a certain trait to work its magic...
Luck 4, “Spilled Salt” – And finally we have another stat where I went “I think this should probably be lower but I have no spot where I could put the extra points that feels right.” Victor is pretty unlucky during most of Corpse Bride – screwing up his wedding rehearsal for three hours straight; accidentally putting the wedding ring he was practicing his vows with on the finger of a murdered bride, who promptly rose to claim him; being dragged down to the Land of the Dead, unable to escape; having his love confession to his living bride interrupted by his dead one, who he thought was still in the woods; and ending up having to fight a man armed with a sword with a fork, as above. So I wanted the stat to be low – hell, FO4 Victor only had a Luck of 2 when he started out. But, well, there were only so many points that I could shift around without mucking up one of his OTHER stats, so I decided 4 would be sufficient. We’ll say that “surviving being shot in the head and buried in a shallow grave in the desert” forced his Luck stat to rise some. XD
TL;DR version: Strength 3, Perception 5, Endurance 8, Charisma 4, Intelligence 8, Agility 8, Luck 4 were the base stats I chose for my Courier Victor, both because I’d rethought what some of his stats should be since making Sole Survivor Victor (particularly Agility) and because I had more points to play with. *nods* All righty then!
C) With that done at last, Doc Mitchell noted that it was good that Victor seemed fine physically, but cautioned that the damage from the bullets could have left him a little – mucked up in the head. So he suggested Victor follow him to his couch so he could ask a few questions and get an idea about how well Victor’s dogs were barking, so to speak. Victor obligingly followed him into the next room and – after a brief pause to try out the controls for jumping and picking up objects in the world – plopped himself on the aforementioned couch so Doc Mitchell could give him a psychological exam! Said exam consisted of three parts:
I. Word Association – Doc Mitchell said a word, and Victor had to say the first one that popped into his head (well, out of the provided list in the dialogue box, anyway). The pairs I went with were:
a. “Dog” = Feed (because Victor has fond memories of his childhood dog)
b. “House” = Shelter (felt like the most obvious answer for him)
c. “Night” = Sleep (again, just felt obvious)
d. “Bandit” = Bribe (after thinking about it for a little bit, I decided Victor was more likely to try and pay a bandit to go away instead of getting into a scrap if he could avoid it)
e. “Light” = Beam (this one was kind of random – I almost went with “Dark” because opposites, but decided this option was mildly more interesting. Maybe it made Victor think of flashlights)
f. “Mother” = Regret (because Victor’s mother is Nell Van Dort and he knows how much she regrets having him as a son :( though I was tempted by “Tantrum” because she does like to throw fits)
II. Agree or Disagree – Doc Mitchel presented a statement, and Victor had to say how strongly he agreed or disagreed with it. The statements (copied from the Fallout Wiki) and Victor’s opinions on them were:
a. “Conflict just ain’t in my nature.” – Strongly Agree (I feel Victor isn’t keen to fight if he doesn’t have to)
b. “I ain’t given to relying on others for support.” – Disagree (Victor was happy enough to seek out help from Victoria with his Emily problem, and let the Dead fuss over them and make all sorts of preparations when he decided to marry Emily properly)
c. “I’m always fixin’ to be the center of attention.” – Strongly Disagree (Victor does NOT like being the center of attention nine times out of ten, mostly because he’s the center of attention when he screws up – see the wedding rehearsal)
d. “I’m slow to embrace new ideas.” – Disagree (Victor may have been badly confused by the Land of the Dead in the movie, but he accepted it as a place that existed pretty fast, so…)
e. “I charge in to deal with my problems head-on.” – Strongly Disagree (Victor spends the vast majority of Corpse Bride running in the opposite direction of his problems)
III. Rorschach Test – Doc Mitchell presented Victor with three ink blots and asked him what he saw. I obviously can’t show you the inkblots here (though you can see them on this page), but I can tell you that Victor saw:
a. “An angry two-headed ant” in the first one (it’s what it looked like to me)
b. “It’s some piece of space-age technology” in the second (honestly, this one looked to me like a guy standing above a canyon – probably proof I’ve been exposed to too much “Lonesome Road” in my F:NV research – but as the guy looked like he might be hovering on something, I went with this one)
c. “A bearded man” for the third (because it kind of looked like one, and because unfortunately I don’t have the mod that allows you to say what it REALLY looks like, which is two bears high-fiving XD)
Of course, once the exam concluded, Doc Mitchell had to admit that he didn’t really have anything to compare the results to, so he just gave Victor said results and asked him to make sure he thought they were right. And you may be wondering now, “What results? What was the point of all that?” Well, the point of all that –
Was to determine which skills Victor was best at! Because skills are a thing in this game! There’s thirteen skills altogether – Barter (covers vendor prices and haggling), Energy Weapons (coves all laser guns and the like), Explosives (covers both traditional mines and bombs, plus any gun that fires grenades or the like), Guns (covers all regular ballistic guns), Lockpick (covers – well, lockpicking), Medicine (covers healing and how well drugs work), Melee Weapons (covers all weapons that can be swung, stabbed, or thrown), Repair (covers – well, repairing stuff, but also crafting stuff), Science (covers hacking terminals and other sciencey things), Sneak (covers – well, sneaking), Speech (covers persuading people in dialogue), Survival (covers cooking, making poisons, and how well food boosts work), and Unarmed (covers punching people bare-handed or with special “unarmed” weapons). I’m not exactly sure how the base values are determined (just that the more you have in any skill’s linked ability score, the better the base value is), but I know that the psychological evaluation is supposed to help you determine what your “tag skills” are – three skills that are supposed to be your specialties and thus get an immediate 15-point boost, allowing you to pass harder checks and get more benefits from them right away. And as per Victor’s answers, the game had decided that Victor’s “tag skills” should be Energy Weapons, Science, and Sneak! Which – Science and Sneak I was fine with, as I felt those fit Victor rather well (Victor is scientifically minded when it comes to insects, at least, and he eluded Emily for a while, so he’s definitely got some sneaking) –
But I looked at Energy Weapons and was like “hmmm. Not sure this is right.” Fortunately, you are allowed to change your “tag skills” if you want, so I untagged that and checked out the others, trying to figure out which one I wanted to give the boost to…
And came up with a rather surprise answer – Melee Weapons. Despite the fact that that skill is tied to Strength, and we know that’s Victor’s most shit ability. So why tag it? Simple – the only time we see Victor fight in the movie, it’s with a melee weapon! Admittedly an improvised one, but it still counts! So yeah – went with it! My headcanon is that he can’t hit hard, but – thanks to his agility – he can hit FAST and maybe do “death of a thousand cuts” or something. :p (Though I confess, I was tempted to boost “Barter” thanks to him being the son of fish MERCHANTS...but Victor isn’t really the salesman type, so…) This put Victor’s skills at:
Barter – 12
Energy Weapons – 14
Explosives – 14
Guns – 20
Lockpick – 14
Medicine – 20
Melee Weapons – 25 (tag skill)
Repair – 20
Science – 35 (tag skill)
Sneak – 35 (tag skill)
Speech – 12
Survival – 20
Unarmed – 20
Not too bad a spread! But we weren’t done yet...
D) With body up and moving and brain unscrambled, Doc Mitchell had one last thing for Victor to do – fill out a form with his medical history (joking that he didn’t expect to find Victor had a family history of taking a bullet to the head or anything, it was just a formality). Which, in game-mechanical terms, meant it was time to choose Victor’s potential Traits! Which are also a thing in this game! Traits are, essentially, special starting perks that allow you to define your character a bit more, and always come with a benefit and a drawback – like, for example, you can be 20% faster at firing guns, but 20% less accurate (or vice-versa). You don’t have to pick any if you don’t want – they’re not required, unlike tag skills – but if you do, you’re allowed to pick up to two. Now, I already knew what I wanted for Victor’s first Trait – “Small Frame,” which gives an immediate +1 to Agility (see why I didn’t want to max it out?) but increases all damage to limbs by +25%, meaning they’re more likely to be crippled. Which, before you say anything, fits him because it’s not “small” as in short, it’s “small” as in thin – Victor may be six-foot-three in my headcanons, but he is a LANKY son of a bitch. The Vault-Boy icon for the perk even upholds this interpretation! So yeah, “Small Frame” was a must, and was immediately picked –
But I really wanted to give Victor two traits, and I wasn’t sure which of the other ones I wanted. After going through the list and considering things for a while, I eventually narrowed it down to “Fast Shot” – which is the one I described above, 20% faster fire rate but 20% less accuracy – and “Skilled” – which immediately boosts ALL skills by 5 points, but makes it so you get 10% less experience from completing quests and killing enemies and whatnot. And while I felt like “Fast Shot” probably would suit Victor as a trait –
Well. I already have bad aim in these games (there’s a REASON I rely so heavily on VATS in FO4 to make my shots). And after confirming that I wouldn’t be that inconvenienced by the loss of experience via some research on my phone (with the wiki assuring me I’d be a mere one or two levels behind the norm), I was like “screw it, give me the extra skill points.” Victor could use ‘em! We’ll say he learned a lot of things from books before becoming a Courier. So yeah, increase all those skills up there by 5 – and possibly Guns and Sneak by more, as they’re tied to the Agility stat and I raised that too… I’ll have to double-check Victor’s skills again when I next enter the game!
E) And that finally wrapped up character creation! I am sure you are all relieved. :p Having gotten everything he needed from Victor, Doc Mitchell showed him to the door, then returned to him the stuff he’d had on him when he was brought in – 6 bobby pins, a 9mm pistol and 24 bullets, 4 stimpacks, 18 caps, a Mojave Express Delivery Order (the sixth of six) – and, thanks to me tagging the Melee Weapons skill, a straight razor! He admitted that he’d looked at the note, hoping it might help him find some next-of-kin, but quickly realized it was just something rambling on about a platinum chip of some kind. He also handed over a Pip-Boy 3000 and a Vault 21 vault suit –
Which were not items Victor had on him when he was recovered from his shallow grave, but instead Doc Mitchell’s own old Pip-Boy and vault suit! Turns out he grew up in Vault 21! He handed them over because he felt Victor would get more use out of the Pip-Boy than he did, especially after what Victor had been through (and because he knew what it was like, having something taken from him) – aaand because Victor up to this point had been wandering around in his underwear because I guess Benny and the Khans stole his clothes when they attempted to murder him. XD So yeah, Vault 21 suit needed for modesty! (Plus, as I discovered while looking through the Pip-Boy, it gives +2 to both Melee Weapons and Speech, which is nice.) I’d always assumed that the suit and the Pip-Boy were items the Courier just had on them – I didn’t realize they were gifts from Doc Mitchell! After that, how could I have Victor say anything but “Thanks for patching me up, Doc”? :) Doc assured him that it was what he was here for, and recommended Victor go talk to Sunny Smiles, over at the saloon, to learn a few things about fending for himself in the desert (aka complete the tutorial) before he left town. And that it might be a good idea to talk to the others in the saloon too – along with Victor the Securitron, who was the one who pulled Victor the Courier out of his grave… He then told Victor that if he ever got hurt again, feel free to swing back on by, he’d patch him up – “But try not to get killed anymore.” XD I really like you, Doc. You’re great.
And so my playsession ended with Victor – freshly suited up – hanging out in Doc Mitchell’s house as I refused to turn on Hardcore Mode (I do like some survival elements in my Fallout games, but I don't think I'm ready for that yet!), learned how to scroll through the Pip-Boy in this game, checked all his starting gear (and got some pop-ups telling me about special ammo types and how “apparel” helps protect you, along with a quick lesson on how Damage Resistance and Damage Threshold work to reduce incoming damage), and read through the Delivery Order for the platinum chip – apparently Victor was supposed to bring it to the Strip’s North Entrance – the one in Freeside – where he would have been met by an agent and given the payment for the package, which he then would have taken back to the Mojave Express office in Primm for a 250 delivery completion bonus. Interesting. He’s definitely not heading to Primm just yet though – next time, we enter Goodsprings proper, meet Sunny Smiles, and complete the tutorial! Because I’ve never actually seen that, because Jon didn’t complete the whole thing when he started F:NV YOLO Remastered. Looking forward to it!
Writing: Well, thanks to the above write-up being absurdly long and my PMS brain being extremely distracted, I didn’t do much in the way of writing – but I did set up a new F:NV Master Doc to go with my BG3 Master Doc! There’s not much in it right now – just the beginnings of where Victor’s initial stats will go – but I made sure to write up a little script-scene of the part where Doc Mitchell asks Victor’s name, and then goes “not the name I would have picked for you.” Victor was like “...what name would you have picked?” prompting Doc Mitchell to examine him –
And say “think you look more like a ‘Vincent’ to me.” To which Victor replied “Really? First the Everglots, now you? Why does everyone think I should be named Vincent??” XD It just amused me to do – and it was a nice, easy way to get some writing in without overtaxing my brain too much. I have some ideas for BG3 ones featuring Tav!Smiler too...we’ll see what happens!
FreeTube: Well, I can’t give you the usual recap of the latest CaFae Latte video, because there wasn’t one tonight – C. M. instead uploaded an interview she did with 180 Degrees, a Minnesotan charity, talking about “Child Homelessness and Criminal Justice in Minnesota.” Which – is extremely important stuff, I grant you, but also very depressing stuff, and given my mood...yeah, no. So instead I went searching for a Fallout: New Vegas-related video to watch! And boy did I find one: “BECOMING GOD IN FALLOUT: NEW VEGAS” by The Spiffing Brit! A video he made two years ago showing off a fun exploit that lets you create an absolutely terrifying superweapon, that simply required a quick poke into The Divide to get the necessary ingredients! Said demonstration consisted of:
A) The Spiffing Brit starting off by poking gentle fun at how many video essays that Fallout: New Vegas inspires, particularly by hbomberguy, who in those days talked about video games instead of real-world issues
B) Spiff creating the video’s protagonist – the incredible being known as Ken (because, yes, he had just seen and enjoyed the Barbie movie, thank you very much) – with F:NV’s somewhat jank character creator; if you’re curious, he has Strength 8, Charisma 8, Intelligence 2, and the Wild Wasteland trait, so he’s definitely an interesting guy
C) Spiff waiting out all the ridiculous DLC pop-ups once Ken entered Goodsprings itself (I am so glad mods should spare me THAT nonsense) before proceeding to power-level his fantastic plastic Courier via a previously-discovered exploit:
I. First, he had Ken talk to Joe Cobb, leader of the local Powder Gangers, to start the “Run Goodsprings Run” mission (where you help the gang take over Goodsprings), and go kill Ringo, the guy he was tracking who was currently hiding in a shack on the edge of town, for him
II. Then, he had Ken return to Joe and get the next stage of the quest – shake down the local store owner and Doc Mitchell for supplies...before killing Joe and his fellow gang members because stealing is only right when the BRITISH do it
III. Then he had Ken head to the general store to talk to the owner and shake him down for supplies...repeatedly, because, obviously, the people he was supposed to DELIVER those supplies to were dead, and thus this particular quest objective could never been completed. Meaning that Ken could just keep spamming the dialogue options to make the owner give up the goods, meaning that he got a bunch of free supplies and 25 XP per passed Speech check! Logic loops in games are fun. :D
D) Spiff eventually letting Ken leave Goodsprings after having gotten him to Level 14 via the above method, sending him across the Mojave and over to the Divide, where – after traversing the Hopeville missile silo with the help of ED-E – he entered Hopeville itself and braved the Marked Men to kill the one carrying the Red Glare rocket launcher, who was standing right beside the Laser Detonator necessary to explode the warheads in the DLC and actually progress through it, thus securing the two guns necessary for his terrible, terrible exploit.
E) Spiff showing off the terrible, terrible exploit, which for some reason only works if you’re using a controller:
I. Ken equipped the Red Glare and assigned it to one of his hotkey slots
II. Ken then moved to the ammo section of the Pip-Boy, found the rockets for the Red Glare, and assigned that to a different hotkey slot
III. Ken then moved back to the weapons tab and equipped the Laser Detonator as his main weapon
IV. Ken then hit the hotkey to change the ammo type to the rockets...resulting in the Laser Detonator turning from a laser gun that shoots a beam that does no damage to a ROCKET gun that RAPIDLY SHOOTS INFINITE ROCKETS
F) Spiff having Ken return to the Mojave proper and start causing chaos with his new Rapid Fire Infinite Rocket Detonator, including absolutely SLAUGHTERING the coyotes (not wolves, Spiff!) by the entrance to The Divide; attacking an NCR camp and sending the dismembered troopers flying; vaporizing multiple Powder Gangers; taking out all the Deathclaws on the most direct route to New Vegas (but sparing the guy at the entrance to the Deathclaw area, Chomps Lewis, because he recognized Ken as a force of nature and kindly gave him some medical supplies); slaughtering Camp McCarran and just vaporizing half the people in his path; and taking out the Securitrons at the entrance to the Strip pretty much no problem.
G) Spiff having Ken, upon entering the Strip, hit The Tops to take out Benny and show off one final excellent exploit related to his new super-gun – the fact that, given that the Laser Detonator at its base is classed as a quest item and not a weapon, it cannot be taken from him by casino security, unlike the rest of his more traditional guns. Meaning he could freely bring it into The Tops with him and explode everyone inside, yay! XD
H) Spiff ending things by having Ken go on a massive rampage through both sections of the Strip, slaughtering everyone and everything without mercy or even much thought, thanks to the power of his Infinite Rockets Gun.
Yeah, uh, that was – that was fun. XD Oh Ken, you are such a card...and even better, if you want to try out this exploit yourself, you don’t HAVE to do it with the Laser Detonator and Red Glare rockets – Spiff pointed out during the murder of the Deathclaws that it works with any combination of gun and ammo. He just likes the Laser Detonator/Red Glare combo because it’s so amazing. XD Good stuff – I keep forgetting how funny Spiff is until I actually watch some of his videos again! Might have to keep him in mind for more nights where I don’t have a “scheduled” video...
*looks up at that* Aaaand I just spent the majority of my Sunday finishing up my write-ups of what I did on Saturday. *facepalm* In my defense, I should have REALLY considered just how different F:NV character creation is to FO4 character creation, and the fact that I'd want to explain the shit out of most of my decisions, and maybe saved most of it for another day, considering I started playing late. And the PMS brain. *sigh* One fucking day, I will learn time management again, I swear...
Dreamwidth: Accomplished both of my main goals for the day over here, I’m happy to say:
A) I answered all of Moose’s messages waiting for me in my inbox – three before lunch, one after (because we ate slightly early)
B) And I posted Moose’s gift fic this afternoon! Featuring more of the Weird Video Game Triangle, aka the Telstar Arcade, and the reveal that its creator, Coleco, actually made something ELSE that was much more popular back in 1983… Hope you enjoy!
So yay, birthday celebration missions accomplished~ *thumbs up* Hell, I even had leftover birthday cake and ice cream for dessert tonight! ...I would have had that anyway, admittedly, but I still like that it lined up with your birthday, Moose. XD
...and unfortunately, that's all you're getting for now, because it's 2 AM and I really have to go to bed and try and get some sleep. *sigh* Don't know how successful I will be, though, because Mom and Dad have headed over to the emergency room because Dad finally cracked and decided he did need to go to the hospital, thanks. So -- yeah. We'll see what happens with that, and what happens tomorrow. I'll try to finish off this write-up tomorrow. Night all.
EDIT 1/11/2026: I am back, my parents are back, Dad is on some pretty heavy-duty painkillers because apparently he didn't crack a rib, he instead bruised up pretty much everything inside him when he fell into that bookcase at the bottom of the basement stairs, I'll talk more about it later. For now, here is the rest of what was planned for this entry:
Fallout: New Vegas: I got to this later than I originally intended (due to the Bad Vibes of the day making me spend a good half-hour or so on someone’s tumblr just rereading random stories because that made me feel better), but I did get to it – and as of today, I have officially finished Courier Victor character creation! Let me tell you how the playsession went down:
A) First things first – before jumping back into Doc’s Mitchell’s house to conclude Victor’s examination, I had some admin to complete regarding my game:
I. First, I opened up Steam and right-clicked F:NV in my Library to open up the Properties menu, where I set the game to only download and install updates when I launch the game, much like my settings for Fallout 4. Reason being, I think there’s an anniversary edition/update for this game coming out at some point this year (I’m pretty sure Bethesda has made some noises in that direction, anyway) – and given how much Bethesda mucked up the “modern hardware” and “anniversary edition” updates for Fallout 4, I don’t think I want to get those updates. So changing “Wait Until I Launch The Game” will make sure that any updates of that nature are not automatically downloaded and applied – instead, Steam will let me know there is an update pending, and wait until I confirm the update/try to launch the game to install them!
...which I will not be doing, because thanks to my various mods and whatnot, I have to open F:NV via Mod Organizer 2. >D Meaning, if we do get any surprise anniversary updates, they’ll be locked in permanent limbo on Steam and thus unable to affect my game (much like how I’m protected from FO4’s updates by opening the game through Vortex)! Or, at the very least, I’ll get a grace period to figure out how to deal with it. *nods* Very important, that!
II. Second, I opened up the game itself (via MO2, of course – which hopefully will be running better now that I’ve turned off the “hey, do you want to see our broken tutorial?” message) and headed to the “Tweaks” section in the Settings menu on the start-up screen to review what tweaks were already turned on and which were available. Very important that I know what’s actually IN my game, you know. *nods* I won’t give you a full accounting of all the available tweaks – it would be a VERY long list – but I will tell you that I turned on:
a. 12 Hour Pip Boy Clock – changes the Pip-Boy clock to be in 12-hour format (because I’m not a fan of 24-hour time – like, I can read it, but I find the standard 12-hour clock easier to understand)
b. Container Encumbrance Indicator – lets you know if picking up items from a container will put you over carry weight by marking things in red (as I am an extreme hoarder, I figured this would be very handy for helping me decide what to loot and what not to loot without breaking poor Victor’s back)
c. Detected By Whom – changes the [DETECTED] message to indicate who specifically is detecting you, up to five names (just thought this would be handy, just in case I’m being DETECTED by someone who could cause trouble later)
d. Force Lockpick No Break Lock – stops a failed forced lockpick from breaking the lock and instead just breaks the bobby pin (“Failing a lockpick breaks the LOCK?!” I thought in a panic when first reading that description – I realize now that I probably misread it, as F:NV has an option to force a lock open that FO4 doesn’t have, but I’ll keep this on anyway because if I DO try that option, I’d much rather lose the bobby pin than access to the lock itself!)
e. Free Wild Wasteland – allows you to activate the “Wild Wasteland” trait without spending a trait point on it (because “Wild Wasteland” has some fun stuff in it and I wanted the option to turn it on without having to waste any of Victor’s two precious trait points on it – now, granted, I don’t know how EXACTLY you turn it on with this set of mods, so I may have missed my chance while picking Victor’s traits to get it for free...but the game offers you a free restat when you first leave Goodsprings, so I’ll have a second chance to turn it on then if necessary)
f. Invert Pip-Boy Repair Menu Sorting – flips the order of items that need to be repaired in the Pip-Boy so that the high-condition items are on the bottom (because why the FUCK would you put them on the top, what sense does THAT make???)
*nods* Important tweaks all! Even if turning them on required me to restart.
III. And finally, once I’d restarted to apply my new tweaks, I popped into the game proper – and promptly paused to open up the Mod Configuration Menu to go through those mods that could be configured in THERE and see what they did (including spreading all the fun pre-order bonuses around so you didn’t get a ton of stuff right at the start of the game; stopping the DLC from spamming you with their starting quests at the very beginning and instead offering the quests when you’re at an appropriate level to tackle them; tweaking XP gain and how much XP you need to level up; etc etc). Having already informed the “Aqua Fria” mod in my previous session that “I will be leveling up to Level 50, as the Ultimate version of the game with all DLCs intended, not stopping at Level 35 like you want me to for some reason,” I didn’t find anything I wanted to change this time around – though I may go back and uncheck “Use Power Armor without training” before completing the tutorial. I’m currently undecided if I want that to be a thing or not. (Not that I expect my Courier Victor to use power armor much, but – still.)
B) Having finally gotten through all that, it was time at last to continue character creation by having Victor pick his SPECIAL stats via the Vit-O-Matic Vigor Tester! Which was a bit weird for me, as assigning your SPECIAL in this game is pretty different from how you do it in Fallout 4 – in that game, every stat starts at 1, and you get 21 points to distribute between them as you see fit, for a total of 28 starting SPECIAL points. In this game, every stat starts at 5 and can be reduced down to 1 if you want more points for another stat, and you have 5 bonus points to distribute between them as you see fit, for a total of 40 starting SPECIAL points. Meaning I had twelve more points to play with when it came to Victor’s stats –
Meaning that, for a lot of this section, I was like “okay, uh, I was picturing this stat maybe being lower, but then where would I put the extra points.” XD That plus my delightful tendency toward overthinking what would be appropriate numbers for Victor led to this part of character creation taking a while. But eventually I came up with a set of stats that I liked and felt fit Victor’s character (presented with the goofy names assigned to them by the Vigor Tester):
Strength 3, “Doughy Baby” – Victor is a thin, thin boy who I cannot see having a lot of muscle on him, so – much as it pained me and my desire to pick up and hoard everything in the wasteland – I set this stat as his lowest. He is just not that strong! (Amusingly, this is the only stat of his that is the same as his FO4 self’s stat as a result.)
Perception 5, “Wary Trout” – This stat gave me a lot of trouble, mostly because of an observation I made when I rewatched the movie last year – you know how Victor’s kind of clumsy at times? I originally attributed this to a lack of agility (as was reflected in the starting stats of my FO4 Victor, who had Agility 4), but upon seeing him in action again, I realized that the problem wasn’t his agility at all – it was him either being flustered as hell (like during the wedding rehearsal, or when first meeting the dead in the Ball & Socket) or straight up not paying attention to his surroundings (like when Victoria surprised him at the piano, or every time he ran into something running away from Emily). Meaning that, while trying to stat out this Victor, I was like “well, we should make Perception low, a 4 at most” –
And then I ran into the “but then where does the extra point go” problem, because I didn’t want to make any of the other stats too high. So I sat and had a good think while figuring out some of the other numbers, then decided, “You know what? Victor may have his unobservant moments, but he’s not THAT bad, and most of them are because he’s under a lot of stress. I think we can leave this as thoroughly average.” So yeah, Victor gets to have bog-standard Perception in this game. ...with the added bonus of getting a stat title that references fish, because, you know, son of fish merchants. XD (Admittedly, I would have gotten that with a 4 too – “Unsuspecting Trout” – but still. Oh, and if you were wondering, FO4 Victor had Perception 3 (I apparently did notice that he wasn’t PARTICULARLY observant before), so he’s definitely improved in this entry in the series!)
Endurance 8, “Flame Retardant” – Victor takes multiple hard hits to the head while trying to escape Emily (crashing into the headstone and smacking into the same tree twice) and keeps on trucking just fine, so I figured this stat had to be high (as it was for FO4 Victor, who had Endurance 7). It ended up 8 in this game because I had a couple of extra points to spread around after setting the other stats, and I figured I might as well bump this one up a little. (Also I could hear Alice saying “I would very much like my love to be flame retardant,” so… :P)
Charisma 4, “Peevish Librarian” – This is another stat that I rethought after watching the movie again – we all know that Victor is awkward, shy, stutters when he’s really nervous, and can blurt out some nasty things when he’s angry, but I think when I made him Charisma 2 in FO4, I was doing him a bit of a disservice. Because he can be charismatic sometimes – see him sweet-talking Victoria by telling her he stopped being afraid of marriage when he met her, or cheerfully gathering the Dead Downstairs to tell them about how he and Emily are redoing their wedding properly Upstairs. It’s just not his default mode (unlike, say, Smiler). So I decided in this game, where I had more points to play with, he could be just below average instead. That felt right.
Intelligence 8, “Know-It-All” – This stat is more implied than explicitly shown in the movie, but I would definitely argue that Victor is smart – his sketches of butterflies, while beautiful, also have a scientific bent to them, and he’s not bad at on-the-fly planning (like realizing right after telling Emily she’s lucky she’ll never have to meet his mother that “wait – I can probably get back Upstairs if I suggest she should meet her”). So I was happy to make this one of his higher stats – especially as it would result in more skill points being available per level-up. And, much like Endurance, I ended up bumping this up from the FO4 score of 7 to 8 because I had some extra stat points to distribute and this felt like a good spot to put one. *nods* Amusingly, this was the stat Doc Mitchell chose to comment on when Victor finished up at the Vit-O-Matic (as he has special lines he can say for any stat 8 or higher or 3 or lower): “Look at that. Maybe them bullets done your brain some good.” XD I assure they did NOT, Doc! Victor came with this!
Agility 8, “Knife Catcher” – And here we come to the stat that changed the most between games – as previously stated, when I made Victor in FO4, I gave him Agility 4 to represent that he’s kind of clumsy (though I used the “You’re SPECIAL!” book in Shaun’s nursery to bump it up to 5 pretty quickly, then brought it up to 6 once Victor hit Level 5 after all his adventures exploring his old neighborhood and helping Preston). Rewatching the movie, though, made me realize that Victor is actually agile as FUCK – the dude is able to keep away from Emily for AGES, climb that GIANT cliff up to the look-out spot pretty much no problem, climb up to Victoria’s balcony also no problem, and – oh yes – HOLD OFF BARKIS FOR QUITE A WHILE WITH SUPER-QUICK PARRIES WHEN BARKIS HAD A SWORD AND HE HAD A FORK. Hell, even one of his clumsy moments highlights how agile he is – remember how he managed to accidentally flip his candle from one hand to the other during his wedding rehearsal? So yes, I went into this determined to make Courier Victor an extremely agile boy! Though not TOO agile, because – well, one, I wanted to represent the clumsiness SOMEHOW, and not maxing out the stat seemed sufficient, and two, because I needed to leave some space for a certain trait to work its magic...
Luck 4, “Spilled Salt” – And finally we have another stat where I went “I think this should probably be lower but I have no spot where I could put the extra points that feels right.” Victor is pretty unlucky during most of Corpse Bride – screwing up his wedding rehearsal for three hours straight; accidentally putting the wedding ring he was practicing his vows with on the finger of a murdered bride, who promptly rose to claim him; being dragged down to the Land of the Dead, unable to escape; having his love confession to his living bride interrupted by his dead one, who he thought was still in the woods; and ending up having to fight a man armed with a sword with a fork, as above. So I wanted the stat to be low – hell, FO4 Victor only had a Luck of 2 when he started out. But, well, there were only so many points that I could shift around without mucking up one of his OTHER stats, so I decided 4 would be sufficient. We’ll say that “surviving being shot in the head and buried in a shallow grave in the desert” forced his Luck stat to rise some. XD
TL;DR version: Strength 3, Perception 5, Endurance 8, Charisma 4, Intelligence 8, Agility 8, Luck 4 were the base stats I chose for my Courier Victor, both because I’d rethought what some of his stats should be since making Sole Survivor Victor (particularly Agility) and because I had more points to play with. *nods* All righty then!
C) With that done at last, Doc Mitchell noted that it was good that Victor seemed fine physically, but cautioned that the damage from the bullets could have left him a little – mucked up in the head. So he suggested Victor follow him to his couch so he could ask a few questions and get an idea about how well Victor’s dogs were barking, so to speak. Victor obligingly followed him into the next room and – after a brief pause to try out the controls for jumping and picking up objects in the world – plopped himself on the aforementioned couch so Doc Mitchell could give him a psychological exam! Said exam consisted of three parts:
I. Word Association – Doc Mitchell said a word, and Victor had to say the first one that popped into his head (well, out of the provided list in the dialogue box, anyway). The pairs I went with were:
a. “Dog” = Feed (because Victor has fond memories of his childhood dog)
b. “House” = Shelter (felt like the most obvious answer for him)
c. “Night” = Sleep (again, just felt obvious)
d. “Bandit” = Bribe (after thinking about it for a little bit, I decided Victor was more likely to try and pay a bandit to go away instead of getting into a scrap if he could avoid it)
e. “Light” = Beam (this one was kind of random – I almost went with “Dark” because opposites, but decided this option was mildly more interesting. Maybe it made Victor think of flashlights)
f. “Mother” = Regret (because Victor’s mother is Nell Van Dort and he knows how much she regrets having him as a son :( though I was tempted by “Tantrum” because she does like to throw fits)
II. Agree or Disagree – Doc Mitchel presented a statement, and Victor had to say how strongly he agreed or disagreed with it. The statements (copied from the Fallout Wiki) and Victor’s opinions on them were:
a. “Conflict just ain’t in my nature.” – Strongly Agree (I feel Victor isn’t keen to fight if he doesn’t have to)
b. “I ain’t given to relying on others for support.” – Disagree (Victor was happy enough to seek out help from Victoria with his Emily problem, and let the Dead fuss over them and make all sorts of preparations when he decided to marry Emily properly)
c. “I’m always fixin’ to be the center of attention.” – Strongly Disagree (Victor does NOT like being the center of attention nine times out of ten, mostly because he’s the center of attention when he screws up – see the wedding rehearsal)
d. “I’m slow to embrace new ideas.” – Disagree (Victor may have been badly confused by the Land of the Dead in the movie, but he accepted it as a place that existed pretty fast, so…)
e. “I charge in to deal with my problems head-on.” – Strongly Disagree (Victor spends the vast majority of Corpse Bride running in the opposite direction of his problems)
III. Rorschach Test – Doc Mitchell presented Victor with three ink blots and asked him what he saw. I obviously can’t show you the inkblots here (though you can see them on this page), but I can tell you that Victor saw:
a. “An angry two-headed ant” in the first one (it’s what it looked like to me)
b. “It’s some piece of space-age technology” in the second (honestly, this one looked to me like a guy standing above a canyon – probably proof I’ve been exposed to too much “Lonesome Road” in my F:NV research – but as the guy looked like he might be hovering on something, I went with this one)
c. “A bearded man” for the third (because it kind of looked like one, and because unfortunately I don’t have the mod that allows you to say what it REALLY looks like, which is two bears high-fiving XD)
Of course, once the exam concluded, Doc Mitchell had to admit that he didn’t really have anything to compare the results to, so he just gave Victor said results and asked him to make sure he thought they were right. And you may be wondering now, “What results? What was the point of all that?” Well, the point of all that –
Was to determine which skills Victor was best at! Because skills are a thing in this game! There’s thirteen skills altogether – Barter (covers vendor prices and haggling), Energy Weapons (coves all laser guns and the like), Explosives (covers both traditional mines and bombs, plus any gun that fires grenades or the like), Guns (covers all regular ballistic guns), Lockpick (covers – well, lockpicking), Medicine (covers healing and how well drugs work), Melee Weapons (covers all weapons that can be swung, stabbed, or thrown), Repair (covers – well, repairing stuff, but also crafting stuff), Science (covers hacking terminals and other sciencey things), Sneak (covers – well, sneaking), Speech (covers persuading people in dialogue), Survival (covers cooking, making poisons, and how well food boosts work), and Unarmed (covers punching people bare-handed or with special “unarmed” weapons). I’m not exactly sure how the base values are determined (just that the more you have in any skill’s linked ability score, the better the base value is), but I know that the psychological evaluation is supposed to help you determine what your “tag skills” are – three skills that are supposed to be your specialties and thus get an immediate 15-point boost, allowing you to pass harder checks and get more benefits from them right away. And as per Victor’s answers, the game had decided that Victor’s “tag skills” should be Energy Weapons, Science, and Sneak! Which – Science and Sneak I was fine with, as I felt those fit Victor rather well (Victor is scientifically minded when it comes to insects, at least, and he eluded Emily for a while, so he’s definitely got some sneaking) –
But I looked at Energy Weapons and was like “hmmm. Not sure this is right.” Fortunately, you are allowed to change your “tag skills” if you want, so I untagged that and checked out the others, trying to figure out which one I wanted to give the boost to…
And came up with a rather surprise answer – Melee Weapons. Despite the fact that that skill is tied to Strength, and we know that’s Victor’s most shit ability. So why tag it? Simple – the only time we see Victor fight in the movie, it’s with a melee weapon! Admittedly an improvised one, but it still counts! So yeah – went with it! My headcanon is that he can’t hit hard, but – thanks to his agility – he can hit FAST and maybe do “death of a thousand cuts” or something. :p (Though I confess, I was tempted to boost “Barter” thanks to him being the son of fish MERCHANTS...but Victor isn’t really the salesman type, so…) This put Victor’s skills at:
Barter – 12
Energy Weapons – 14
Explosives – 14
Guns – 20
Lockpick – 14
Medicine – 20
Melee Weapons – 25 (tag skill)
Repair – 20
Science – 35 (tag skill)
Sneak – 35 (tag skill)
Speech – 12
Survival – 20
Unarmed – 20
Not too bad a spread! But we weren’t done yet...
D) With body up and moving and brain unscrambled, Doc Mitchell had one last thing for Victor to do – fill out a form with his medical history (joking that he didn’t expect to find Victor had a family history of taking a bullet to the head or anything, it was just a formality). Which, in game-mechanical terms, meant it was time to choose Victor’s potential Traits! Which are also a thing in this game! Traits are, essentially, special starting perks that allow you to define your character a bit more, and always come with a benefit and a drawback – like, for example, you can be 20% faster at firing guns, but 20% less accurate (or vice-versa). You don’t have to pick any if you don’t want – they’re not required, unlike tag skills – but if you do, you’re allowed to pick up to two. Now, I already knew what I wanted for Victor’s first Trait – “Small Frame,” which gives an immediate +1 to Agility (see why I didn’t want to max it out?) but increases all damage to limbs by +25%, meaning they’re more likely to be crippled. Which, before you say anything, fits him because it’s not “small” as in short, it’s “small” as in thin – Victor may be six-foot-three in my headcanons, but he is a LANKY son of a bitch. The Vault-Boy icon for the perk even upholds this interpretation! So yeah, “Small Frame” was a must, and was immediately picked –
But I really wanted to give Victor two traits, and I wasn’t sure which of the other ones I wanted. After going through the list and considering things for a while, I eventually narrowed it down to “Fast Shot” – which is the one I described above, 20% faster fire rate but 20% less accuracy – and “Skilled” – which immediately boosts ALL skills by 5 points, but makes it so you get 10% less experience from completing quests and killing enemies and whatnot. And while I felt like “Fast Shot” probably would suit Victor as a trait –
Well. I already have bad aim in these games (there’s a REASON I rely so heavily on VATS in FO4 to make my shots). And after confirming that I wouldn’t be that inconvenienced by the loss of experience via some research on my phone (with the wiki assuring me I’d be a mere one or two levels behind the norm), I was like “screw it, give me the extra skill points.” Victor could use ‘em! We’ll say he learned a lot of things from books before becoming a Courier. So yeah, increase all those skills up there by 5 – and possibly Guns and Sneak by more, as they’re tied to the Agility stat and I raised that too… I’ll have to double-check Victor’s skills again when I next enter the game!
E) And that finally wrapped up character creation! I am sure you are all relieved. :p Having gotten everything he needed from Victor, Doc Mitchell showed him to the door, then returned to him the stuff he’d had on him when he was brought in – 6 bobby pins, a 9mm pistol and 24 bullets, 4 stimpacks, 18 caps, a Mojave Express Delivery Order (the sixth of six) – and, thanks to me tagging the Melee Weapons skill, a straight razor! He admitted that he’d looked at the note, hoping it might help him find some next-of-kin, but quickly realized it was just something rambling on about a platinum chip of some kind. He also handed over a Pip-Boy 3000 and a Vault 21 vault suit –
Which were not items Victor had on him when he was recovered from his shallow grave, but instead Doc Mitchell’s own old Pip-Boy and vault suit! Turns out he grew up in Vault 21! He handed them over because he felt Victor would get more use out of the Pip-Boy than he did, especially after what Victor had been through (and because he knew what it was like, having something taken from him) – aaand because Victor up to this point had been wandering around in his underwear because I guess Benny and the Khans stole his clothes when they attempted to murder him. XD So yeah, Vault 21 suit needed for modesty! (Plus, as I discovered while looking through the Pip-Boy, it gives +2 to both Melee Weapons and Speech, which is nice.) I’d always assumed that the suit and the Pip-Boy were items the Courier just had on them – I didn’t realize they were gifts from Doc Mitchell! After that, how could I have Victor say anything but “Thanks for patching me up, Doc”? :) Doc assured him that it was what he was here for, and recommended Victor go talk to Sunny Smiles, over at the saloon, to learn a few things about fending for himself in the desert (aka complete the tutorial) before he left town. And that it might be a good idea to talk to the others in the saloon too – along with Victor the Securitron, who was the one who pulled Victor the Courier out of his grave… He then told Victor that if he ever got hurt again, feel free to swing back on by, he’d patch him up – “But try not to get killed anymore.” XD I really like you, Doc. You’re great.
And so my playsession ended with Victor – freshly suited up – hanging out in Doc Mitchell’s house as I refused to turn on Hardcore Mode (I do like some survival elements in my Fallout games, but I don't think I'm ready for that yet!), learned how to scroll through the Pip-Boy in this game, checked all his starting gear (and got some pop-ups telling me about special ammo types and how “apparel” helps protect you, along with a quick lesson on how Damage Resistance and Damage Threshold work to reduce incoming damage), and read through the Delivery Order for the platinum chip – apparently Victor was supposed to bring it to the Strip’s North Entrance – the one in Freeside – where he would have been met by an agent and given the payment for the package, which he then would have taken back to the Mojave Express office in Primm for a 250 delivery completion bonus. Interesting. He’s definitely not heading to Primm just yet though – next time, we enter Goodsprings proper, meet Sunny Smiles, and complete the tutorial! Because I’ve never actually seen that, because Jon didn’t complete the whole thing when he started F:NV YOLO Remastered. Looking forward to it!
Writing: Well, thanks to the above write-up being absurdly long and my PMS brain being extremely distracted, I didn’t do much in the way of writing – but I did set up a new F:NV Master Doc to go with my BG3 Master Doc! There’s not much in it right now – just the beginnings of where Victor’s initial stats will go – but I made sure to write up a little script-scene of the part where Doc Mitchell asks Victor’s name, and then goes “not the name I would have picked for you.” Victor was like “...what name would you have picked?” prompting Doc Mitchell to examine him –
And say “think you look more like a ‘Vincent’ to me.” To which Victor replied “Really? First the Everglots, now you? Why does everyone think I should be named Vincent??” XD It just amused me to do – and it was a nice, easy way to get some writing in without overtaxing my brain too much. I have some ideas for BG3 ones featuring Tav!Smiler too...we’ll see what happens!
FreeTube: Well, I can’t give you the usual recap of the latest CaFae Latte video, because there wasn’t one tonight – C. M. instead uploaded an interview she did with 180 Degrees, a Minnesotan charity, talking about “Child Homelessness and Criminal Justice in Minnesota.” Which – is extremely important stuff, I grant you, but also very depressing stuff, and given my mood...yeah, no. So instead I went searching for a Fallout: New Vegas-related video to watch! And boy did I find one: “BECOMING GOD IN FALLOUT: NEW VEGAS” by The Spiffing Brit! A video he made two years ago showing off a fun exploit that lets you create an absolutely terrifying superweapon, that simply required a quick poke into The Divide to get the necessary ingredients! Said demonstration consisted of:
A) The Spiffing Brit starting off by poking gentle fun at how many video essays that Fallout: New Vegas inspires, particularly by hbomberguy, who in those days talked about video games instead of real-world issues
B) Spiff creating the video’s protagonist – the incredible being known as Ken (because, yes, he had just seen and enjoyed the Barbie movie, thank you very much) – with F:NV’s somewhat jank character creator; if you’re curious, he has Strength 8, Charisma 8, Intelligence 2, and the Wild Wasteland trait, so he’s definitely an interesting guy
C) Spiff waiting out all the ridiculous DLC pop-ups once Ken entered Goodsprings itself (I am so glad mods should spare me THAT nonsense) before proceeding to power-level his fantastic plastic Courier via a previously-discovered exploit:
I. First, he had Ken talk to Joe Cobb, leader of the local Powder Gangers, to start the “Run Goodsprings Run” mission (where you help the gang take over Goodsprings), and go kill Ringo, the guy he was tracking who was currently hiding in a shack on the edge of town, for him
II. Then, he had Ken return to Joe and get the next stage of the quest – shake down the local store owner and Doc Mitchell for supplies...before killing Joe and his fellow gang members because stealing is only right when the BRITISH do it
III. Then he had Ken head to the general store to talk to the owner and shake him down for supplies...repeatedly, because, obviously, the people he was supposed to DELIVER those supplies to were dead, and thus this particular quest objective could never been completed. Meaning that Ken could just keep spamming the dialogue options to make the owner give up the goods, meaning that he got a bunch of free supplies and 25 XP per passed Speech check! Logic loops in games are fun. :D
D) Spiff eventually letting Ken leave Goodsprings after having gotten him to Level 14 via the above method, sending him across the Mojave and over to the Divide, where – after traversing the Hopeville missile silo with the help of ED-E – he entered Hopeville itself and braved the Marked Men to kill the one carrying the Red Glare rocket launcher, who was standing right beside the Laser Detonator necessary to explode the warheads in the DLC and actually progress through it, thus securing the two guns necessary for his terrible, terrible exploit.
E) Spiff showing off the terrible, terrible exploit, which for some reason only works if you’re using a controller:
I. Ken equipped the Red Glare and assigned it to one of his hotkey slots
II. Ken then moved to the ammo section of the Pip-Boy, found the rockets for the Red Glare, and assigned that to a different hotkey slot
III. Ken then moved back to the weapons tab and equipped the Laser Detonator as his main weapon
IV. Ken then hit the hotkey to change the ammo type to the rockets...resulting in the Laser Detonator turning from a laser gun that shoots a beam that does no damage to a ROCKET gun that RAPIDLY SHOOTS INFINITE ROCKETS
F) Spiff having Ken return to the Mojave proper and start causing chaos with his new Rapid Fire Infinite Rocket Detonator, including absolutely SLAUGHTERING the coyotes (not wolves, Spiff!) by the entrance to The Divide; attacking an NCR camp and sending the dismembered troopers flying; vaporizing multiple Powder Gangers; taking out all the Deathclaws on the most direct route to New Vegas (but sparing the guy at the entrance to the Deathclaw area, Chomps Lewis, because he recognized Ken as a force of nature and kindly gave him some medical supplies); slaughtering Camp McCarran and just vaporizing half the people in his path; and taking out the Securitrons at the entrance to the Strip pretty much no problem.
G) Spiff having Ken, upon entering the Strip, hit The Tops to take out Benny and show off one final excellent exploit related to his new super-gun – the fact that, given that the Laser Detonator at its base is classed as a quest item and not a weapon, it cannot be taken from him by casino security, unlike the rest of his more traditional guns. Meaning he could freely bring it into The Tops with him and explode everyone inside, yay! XD
H) Spiff ending things by having Ken go on a massive rampage through both sections of the Strip, slaughtering everyone and everything without mercy or even much thought, thanks to the power of his Infinite Rockets Gun.
Yeah, uh, that was – that was fun. XD Oh Ken, you are such a card...and even better, if you want to try out this exploit yourself, you don’t HAVE to do it with the Laser Detonator and Red Glare rockets – Spiff pointed out during the murder of the Deathclaws that it works with any combination of gun and ammo. He just likes the Laser Detonator/Red Glare combo because it’s so amazing. XD Good stuff – I keep forgetting how funny Spiff is until I actually watch some of his videos again! Might have to keep him in mind for more nights where I don’t have a “scheduled” video...
*looks up at that* Aaaand I just spent the majority of my Sunday finishing up my write-ups of what I did on Saturday. *facepalm* In my defense, I should have REALLY considered just how different F:NV character creation is to FO4 character creation, and the fact that I'd want to explain the shit out of most of my decisions, and maybe saved most of it for another day, considering I started playing late. And the PMS brain. *sigh* One fucking day, I will learn time management again, I swear...
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Date: 2026-01-12 01:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-01-12 04:46 am (UTC)