7thsealord

Noting that the Springvale Raiders were sufficiently motivated to plan / organize a tunnelling effort to acquire Vault 101's "riches". Suggesting that there are Raiders capable of some semblance of thinking / planning ahead. Most are probably psychos (as you say), or just totally into the whole "instant gratification" thing, but (at the very least) there could be a few who are less psycho than others. Which would be scary, thinking about it - a Raider leader tough / psycho enough to keep his gang in line, yet sane / smart enough to do serious mid / long-range planning. As regards Tenpenny, agreed. Walk in, cap the old b#####d (check U-Tube some time - amazing variety of assassination methods shown), toss his body off the balcony (yep, I do that too), walk out without even raising a sweat. It really SHOULD be more complicated than that. But there is a lot about the whole Tenpenny Towers situation that is dissatisfying. I mean, the "peaceful solution" in which the Ghouls eventually wipe out the Humans is a definite twist, but I dislike the very limited options here. One can waste the Ghouls, and put up with the consequences (such as getting crap from Three Dog over it forever). You can waste the Humans - not many prizes there, let's face it but, apart from Tenpenny, humilation is the most they deserve. You can try to organize peaceful co-existance, and then see it go horribly horribly wrong. I know happy endings out there in the Wastes are meant to be a rarity, but still.

Another fair point. All I can think of is that maybe Silver made some kind of deal with the leader of the local Raider gang. For what, I can't say. Maybe she becomes their "front" for acquiring supplies they need but can't always get by force (figure that Raider gangs go through a LOT of ammo and drugs, if nothing else). There was also that project the Springvale Raiders had going, to tunnel into Vault 101 - maybe she was making some kind of contribution to that.

Excellent point. That very old saying, about having your cake and eating it, comes to mind. Escaping from V101, without harming/killing anybody whatsoever, would be an achievment. Honestly though, I think this is simply impossible as things stand.

That would do the job, certainly. Just seems like overkill. ;)

During the Escape quest, the only people directly dangerous to the LW are the security guards, none of whom are necessary for the later quest - or would have much to say or do even if they were there. Most guards seem to be placed so they cannot be avoided during the escape, and seem automatically hostile whatever the LW does on the way out. Aside from the Overseer (whom you simply avoid by sneaking past while he is grilling Amata), none of the other V101ers encountered at this stage (four in all, I think) are hostile, so that is not a problem. My own experience is that pretty much all of the "good" (as in high-value) loot to be grabbed at this time is security armor and weapons, so you have a big problem if you REALLY don't want to kill the people using them. Aside from some odds'n'ends in a couple of places you have to visit anyhow, there really isn't much else worth grabbing. You could always use console commands to give yourself a Stealth Suit or some Stealth Boys. That will get you around some of those guards, but not all of them - the two who show up when you open the Vault door are definitely hostile and seem unavoidable.

I have a lot of fun with reverse-pickpocketing - whether doing the 'Shady Sands Shuffle' on Slavers at the Lincoln Memorial, or giving the snootier residents of Tempenny Tower some REALLY interesting outfits to wear. But it should be easier to simply GIVE stuff to factions that you are friendly with. Big Town is a good example - once I complete the base quest there, I usually start re-equipping the residents with better armors and weapons (usually taken from Talon Company). As the game stands, this means a lot of stealthing and a certain amount of Karma loss, just to give out valuable stuff that is to the recipient's benefit. I mean, think about it. You struggle to survive in the Wastes with nothing but a Brahmin-Skin Outfit and a .32 Pistol. Your buddy the LW wants to give you (for argument's sake) Power Armor and a minigun. Unless you are a hard-core pacifist, you will probably accept this offer. Graciously. For Evil types, the idea of re-equipping their buddies at Paradise Falls with BOS armour might hold appeal. Or even just solving age-old questions like, what happens if I give everybody in Underworld their own Fat Man, then unplug Cerberus's inhibitor? This mod should be a strictly one-way thing. That is, you can give stuff away, but not take anything back - to prevent people from simply taking one-of-a-kind items from whichever NPC they deal with. Don't know how doable this is. but thought I would at least float the idea.

Gee, if that had been the case, these forums and the mod list would be maybe a quarter the current size at best. ;)

Good stuff, for the most part. Pretty much how I'd want to see things go - except my LW is female and she eventually offed Wernher (whom she saw as being absolutely no better than Ashur, and very likely worse).

Interesting thought - that Eden basically "played to lose". Plausible that he did long-range planning about how to restore the US (or a reasonable facsimile thereof) and then discovered that removing himself and the Enclave from the equation was the best way to do so. On other points ... The effectiveness of any computer is limited by (and is only as good as) its programming; the people who creat, install and mess with that programming; and the data that goes into said computer. "Super-computer" does not automatically equate with infallibility, after all. Also, it isn't like the LW gets to do an in-depth analysis of the Enclave's command structure either. For all we know, problems between Eden and Autumn might have been building up for quite a while (eg. Eden may have decided that a "low-risk" strategy towards the BOS was the way to go, with Autumn wanting to go Medieval on their @$$e$), with the LW's arrival basically lighting the Big Fuse. In fact, I would bet on something like this being the case - the sort of split that happens is not something that would just happen out of the blue. Pure supposition on my part, I know. But we see events from the perspective of just one person, with only a very broad idea of what might have gone before and of what was going on behind the scenes.

Hmm. Not disputing your points, which seem fairly valid, but I do have a couple of possible counter-arguments. First, the Enclave was being run by both "President Eden" and Colonel Whatshisname. That would have made for a seriously muddled command structure given that the two of them seemed to have quite different ideas about certain things. Which would have probably meant that Enclave forces were working at cross purposes at least some of the time. For example, one set of orders sending Company 'A' off to such-and-such to do whatever, and another set of orders telling them to remain at base, and so on. Not a good situation for any organization to have, since a lot of people would start taking sides as regards who to obey / ignore (and not necessarily all the SAME side at that). Which would mean that the Enclave had all this groovy firepower, but unit cohesion would have been utter c##p. Second, the Enclave probably felt they had enough superiority to go for "shock and awe". Big demonstration of muscle, thereby cowing the BOS into negotiations, retreat or even (best case scenariuo) outright surrender. After all. there is no sense in destroying valuable facilities that you might be able to acquire intact later. Noting also that Liberty Prime's first appearance probably was a very nasty surprise for the Enclave.

Could have simply gotten lucky in escaping the area. It can happen. Not saying it would have been easy. But, as one possibility, the wandering Fire Ants got distracted by somebody / something else around the time that Bryan made his move. There have been times that I get all the way into Grayditch without incident, and others when it seems to be nothing but frackin' Fire Ants just to get there in the first place. As regards food, we don't know what the Pulowski Shelter might have had inside it beforehand - I've seen some quite surprising stashes in those things. However, from the way Bryan talks, I get the impression that he might not have used the Pulowski until after his first talk with the LW. Just my impression anyhow. Suggesting that he was hiding elsewhere. Probably several elsewheres, not necessarily fortified bunkers or even especially secure, just places that the ants didn't visit more than once in a while for some reason or another. We also don't know just how long Bryan was hiding out. Given the need for food and at least occasional rest, it was probably not all that long between the big attack and his "finding" the LW. My own (totally unfounded) guess for that time period is anywhere from several hours to a couple of days. Certainly not much longer than that at most, IMO.

Improbable, I agree. But he does mention having some "really good hiding places" and, unlike all the adults, he didn't bunker down OR go head-to-head with the Ants. Not doing either of those things probably did more to save his life than anything else. I tend to compare him with Newt out of 'Aliens'.

Well, it didn't need to be a kid doing the voice acting. In a lot of animated movies and tv shows, kids voices are done by adults. Yeardley Smith, who does Lisa Simpson's voice amongst others, being a prime example.

Robot behaviour in the vanilla game is sometimes a little "off". I have noticed that sometimes robots will first show up on radar as "friendly" but then go hostile as soon as they detect you. Is this happening at all, or are they autopmtically hostile?

Are you really sure? Considering all the weirdnesses to be found in the DC Wastes, a few talking (or telepathic) dogs seems rather minor. ;)

Can't speak for 100% of Companion mods. But, of those I have tried, all have dialogue options to set a specific place as home (take them there, select "This is your home..." or nearest equivalent, and that's it), and to dismiss/send them to that place. My impression is that this is now a standard feature in Companion mods. For the Vanilla Companions, someone did put up a mod that supposedly made them dismiss back to your Megaton House - which, upon reflection, may be what you are asking about. Problem is, this small mod is totally dependant on another totally unrelated and much bigger mod simply to function (don't ask me why) and the author has never fixed this.

Continuing my new game, and have just gotten through the whole Grayditch experience. Bryan Wilks, you seem a nice kid, and I KNOW you were traumatized by your experiences. But in the name of all that is holy, WHY in our long and detailed conversation about Garyditch and its citizens, did you not mention that these particular Giant Ants BREATHED FIRE? Yeah, you call them Fire Ants, but that is not exactly a clear description of what they do. I mean, throw me a frickin' bone here, would ya? Going by Mr Brandice's notes, Giant Ants were rather common in the area. But it all srarted going south when the ones that BREATHED FIRE showed up. Odd that you never mention that - thanks a bunch, kid.

Um, a lot of FO3 mods do that already. A lot of the better companions have this sort of thing built-in. Also, most of the better bases have navmeshes and idle markers - which all mean that companions left to themselves will wander around, eat, sleep, use the workbench, talk to other companions, fiddle with computer terminals, and so on.

These 2 mods are sitting right in between the .esm's (master files) in the load order you provided in your first post by the way. That's a bad idea regardless of whether they were masterupdated or not. As was said, these mods are tagged as ESMs by FOMM, but have now been moved to the bottom of ESM order. Don't know what else I can do there. BTW, worth noting my daughter just spent a big chunk of the day playing through Orion's Gate with zero problems.

Ran the newest FO3Edit, removed MasterFix and now using FalloutRemastered, shifted Zan-Autopurge up the list, shifted things around so all the ESPs that come up on FOMM as ESMs are all below the "genuine" ESMs. Game seems OK, but the dialogue is still broken. Noting also that when I fast travel away and fast travel back, Roy is walking away from the intercom and things can proceed normally.

Correct. Master Fix is a rather old mod though. Why not try it's successor instead: Fallout Remastered (same rules about merged patches apply to that one too btw) Where are all the plugins from the 20th century mod by the way? The master file alone is quite useless, I'd say. "Zan_AutoPurge_SmartAgro.esp" <-- What does this do? Is it another on of those automatic "purge cell buffer" plugins? Not a clue what's in there, but as a rule of thumb one should never load any other mods behind Master Fix. THanks for that, BR. Yeah, Zan-Autopurge does purge cell buffers. Looks like further changes are in order, which I'll get onto tonight. Further thoughts welcomed from all.

Have been using an older version of FO3Edit, but will update that.

Thanks for replying. Wouldn't recognize a MasterUpdate if it was painted dayglo orange. Or know how to do it. FOMM has certain ESP files tagged as ESM files (as mentioned in a previous thread) and I don't have the slightest idea how or if I should even try to change them otherwise. Forgive my ignorance - would shifting those ESP/ESM files so that they are below all the "genuine" ESPs be a step in the right direction? As I understood the instructions for Master Fix (and correct me if I'm wrong, anybody), they are supposed to kept out of the Merged Patch and go in Load Order AFTER it. I put the Auto-Purge file there as a kind of experiment some time ago, and stability seemed to improve.

Started a new game from scratch (been a long while) and now have a problem with the cinematic dialogue (which had not occurred before). No problems leaving 101. First happened with the Simms-Burke confrontation (which I hoped might be a one-off glitch), and now with Roy at Tenpenny Towers. In both cases, the dialogue starts normally but then, at some stage (not always the same point), the talking will stop and those involved will simply stand there. In the case of Roy / Tempenny, I can't use the Intercom because I get a message that the item is in use by someone else, and talking to Roy only gets the response that he is busy talking to someone else. Yes, I could go through everything mod by mod by mod on the off chance I can find a culprit, but that approach has very little appeal, strangely enough. Anticipating some possible responses, I don't use BOSS because of a bad experience with it, but here is the load order, for which there is undoubtedly a great deal that could be done better. Most of these mods have been used in prior games without trouble of this kind. Fallout3.esm Anchorage.esm ThePitt.esm BrokenSteel.esm PointLookout.esm Zeta.esm Unofficial Fallout 3 Patch.esm CALIBR.esm 20th Century Weapons.esm DSR1.esp DCInteriors_ComboEdition.esm * The Librarian.esm resetfollowers_v3.3.esp Sydney Follower.esp TalonExtraArmor.esm * Vault 101 Revisited.esm Abbreviated Effects.esm Unofficial Fallout 3 Patch - Operation Anchorage.esp Unofficial Fallout 3 Patch - The Pitt.esp Unofficial Fallout 3 Patch - Broken Steel.esp Unofficial Fallout 3 Patch - Point Lookout.esp Unofficial Fallout 3 Patch - Mothership Zeta.esp Fallin3 SouthEast Wasteland.esp The Pitt Crash Fix.esp Better Wasteland Clipboards.esp BenTweaks-FO3.esp * Northern Enclave Base.esp CEI - CaesarrulezExcessiveInteriorsEN.esp Dree Perks.esp WEP Pack 1.esp WEP Pack 2.esp Not alone in the Wasteland anymore.esp Regulators.esp Tailor Maid.esp Tailor Maid PITT.esp Tailor Maid Brokensteel.esp Tailor Maid Black Retex.esp Rivet City CLEANED.esp Rivet City Merchants With Point Lookout.esp BeefedUpCitadel.esp All Anchorage Armors Usable.esp New Paradise Falls NPC's.esp ParadiseLost.esp stash3.esp AntiRobotTesla.esp Despicable Dashwood v2.esp 01Tucu'sBandanas.esp GNROutpost-Op.Anch.esp EnclaveHideout.esp UncleShubsSaladScissors.esp RaiderExpanded.esp fairfax.esp raiders.esp EvRaiders.esp SatComRaiders.esp CanterburyCommonsInteriors.esp TecVault.esp Mannequin.esp X_InfiltratorsExtended.esp aaloBlackSmithForge.esp Haldurs Improved Workbench.esp DCInteriors_DLC_Collectables.esp ActionFigures.esp WolfCustomDeagle.esp HambonesMinigun.esp Gauss Rifle boost.esp 700NE rifle.esp 1alexscorpionsnipergear.esp betterpowerarmor.esp GreenWorld.esp Tenpenny_plant_remover.esp Attentater's Wasteland Economy.esp * colossus T51c.esp * GhostArmor HGEC - Conversion.esp * GhostArmor HGEC - Conversion FN92 VATSCAM.esp AsharasPresets.esp BS Eye Pack V.1.esp Moon.esp Frazzled.esp Sgt. Rock.esp Better Caravans.esp Better Companions Ess.esp Better Companions Clover Ess.esp FollowersRelax.esp Bittercup_by_Jumonji.esp Victoria.esp JessiCompanion.esp Wasteland Weather Overhaul .9 (no interiors).esp 2.5X Missle Damage.esp reduced karma loss for Stealing.esp I'll Touch What I Want.esp BA_WRM.esp Moira 100 Repair.esp * BM19DisablePipBoyGlove.esp Slower Degradation (-50%).esp Reduced Dust Particles.esp TakingOutTheTrash.esp no blur on hit.esp Timescale 8.esp fessentialdeathtime300.esp WastelandMastery.esp MaxLevelWorkaround-HP-BS.esp Sydney Follower - Load Order Fix.esp Merged Patch.esp Fallout 3 Master Fix.esp Fallout 3 Master Fix - Unofficial Fallout 3 Patch.esp Zan_AutoPurge_SmartAgro.esp * = Most recent additions. Advice for fixing the dialogue problem and improving the load order would be appreciated. Thanking all in advance.

Well what did you expect. Lucy is a bit of a tease. Just started a new game, and Lucy specifically mentions having previously sent a number of letters to Arefu, with no response. So I guess it could be inferred that at least some of the Caravan dudes deliver mail - they just aren't very good at it.