Things that dont make sence FO3 version

[Rossum]

In point lookout its revealed that the ferryman has some kind of deal going with the insanely superpowerful tribals where in exchange for some Punga fruit he will secretly follow new recruits through mirelurk infested swampland, wait for the recruit to get knocked out by giant punga-fruit, and then perform a lobotomy on them before (or after) dragging them back through that mirelurk infested swamp and laying them on a bed in front of the cave.

 

Why the heck don't the tribals have an actual doctor on hand to perform the lobotomies? I mean... I can understand that the tribals with lobotomy scars in their heads are retarded but... wouldn't Tobar (who I assume isn't retarded) find it easier to just stay in Point lookout and get someone else to ship Punga Fruit around?

 

Being a ferryman and being a tribal cult lobotomy doctor both sound like pretty time-consuming jobs, it would make more sense to split the two jobs between two people. Though Tobar does keep alot of brain bits in jars so he's probably not all there in the head anyway.

 

Its just that having a plot supposedly make sense because everyone involved is certifiably retarded and activly work to cut out pieces of the brains of new recruits sounds kind of... stupid.

 

Even then, mad scientist who is just a brain in a jar tries to backstab me after I just took out his archrival for 200 years who can go toe-to-toe with afromentioned insanely powerful Tribals.

 

Little bit of advise for any brain-in-a-jar scientists out there... if you're just a lump of grey matter in a glass tube and your only defense is a bunch of weak protectrons (who can be taken out with a single shotgun blast or even pressing the off button if your opponent is a robotics expert) and the guy in front of you has several guns, a missile launcher, and a pile of frag grenades... and has already walked right though the security robots you've had protecting the place ... just don't tick off people who can blow you disembodied brain to mush. You're giving mad scientsts a bad name. At least wait until you can get your mind-control powers boosted up to the point where you can control their brain... and then use them as a minon to take over the world.

 

Really, if the Calvert guy had offered to help me take over the world... I would probably have gone along with it. Thats pretty much what I want to do anyway and having a brain-in-a-jar scientist buddy to manage the civilizations I lay waste to would be a nice deal. But no, brain boy wants to backstab me and then I have to bust his fishbowl open and use his brain as a basketball.

 

For that matter, if I ever go brain-in-a-jar then I'll probably get myself installed in a robobrain or something. At least then I would have limbs so I can do stuff myself.

 

====

 

Also, at the very start of the game during the Escape from vault 101... I can kill all the security guards who come after me. Even on Very Hard and without any skill ranks in small guns or melee weapons (I had the RobCo certified mod and wanted to save my skills for science and stuff) it can be done easily.

 

The vault doctor leaves and then the Overseer goes nuts and beats Johnas to death, then sends his goons after me with the intent to kill on sight and he even drags his own daughter in for interrogation. If I can take out all the security guards who come after me, take care of the radroach infestation, use the medical skills I learned from my Dad, and get on Amata an Butches good sides by rescuing them or their loved ones from radroaches or security guards... then I should very well be capable of taking over the vault.

 

Me: My fellow Vault Dwellers... it grieves me to inform you that my father has left the vault. I don't know why, but since the previous overseer had Jonas beaten to death for no adequately explored reason I'm pretty sure he did it because of fear.

 

Overseer: I had Jonas beaten to death after your father opened the door! I had no choice in the matter!

 

Amata: You had all the choice in the world! How could you do something like that to him? Or me?

 

Me: Listen, I'm sure we can work things out... I mean, I did kind of kill all the security guards.

 

Officer Gomez: ahem

 

Me: Oh, sorry. Most of them... mainly the ones who were trying to kill me. But I was able to handle to save alot of people from the radroaches and the injuries they got from the fight.

 

Butch: Yeah, I really owe you for saving my mom.

 

Paul: And me, that radroach bit me pretty bad. Without you, I probably wouldn't have made it.

 

Me: Thats right, plus from what I read on the overseers terminal the vaul was opened before and they sent out scouting parties.

 

Paul, Butch, Amata and all the other kids: What? You're kidding? They lied to us this whole time and try killing people who walk outside.

 

Me: Yeah, its all pretty messed up. What say we elect Amata to the position of Overseer and I take the job of vault doctor? At least until we get all this stuff sorted out. I say we toss the old Overseer and the surviving crazy security team into the jail cell... you know, so they don't all beat us to death in our sleep.

 

Mr. Brotch: That sounds like a plan to me... I mean most of those security guys only got the job because the G.O.A.T. assigned it to them.... and that thing is a freakin joke.

 

Officer Gomez: I know, I only got to be on the security force because I accidentally put down 'ask for a minigun' on that one question instead of 'offer most prized possession' I've been regretting that mistake my whole life.

 

Everyone: Hahhahah! (scene fades to black)

 

 

Narrator: And thus, stability was once again restored in Vault 101. While there were many questions left unanswered, things have gone on, and everyone lived happy and content.

 

 

 

Meanwhile, Father is stuck in the Tranquility Lane simulation forever, Project Purity is never finished, and the Enclave has no reason to invade the Capital Wasteland. Happy Ending!

[gsmanners]

You can't stay in the vault if you kill the guards because (realistically speaking) too many people respect the guards and would become paranoid and hostile to you if they see you. If you kill half the people in the vault out of self-defense, you send your friends into a depression which they blame on you and begin to resent you for. It makes no sense to stay whether you're good or neutral (good: too shocked to resist leaving, neutral: too curious about the world to resist leaving).

 

I like the idea of Dad being a dog forever (I think I'll make a mod that does that), but you have to admit that a lot of contrived junk is what moves this story along. LW in my game leaves the vault because he feels betrayed and abandoned by Amata, and he goes searching for a reason to not immediately kill himself (I like the idea of LW being emo/suicidal).

[Rossum]

Me: *talking to Lucy West for the first time* Hi there, I hear you need something done for which I'm the only person in the world who can do it.

 

Lucy West: Why yes, I need you to deliver this letter to my folks back in Arefu, I haven't heard from them in months.

 

Me: Interesting, have you considered asking Doc Hoc, Wolfgang, Crow or any of the other caravan traders who regularly go all over the wasteland? Possibly even to Arefu.

 

Lucy West: Um... no, as a matter of fact. I just figured I would write a letter and have a random stranger deliver it.

 

Me: Meh, okay I'll deliver it... eventually.

 

Lucy West: Thank you so much.

 

 

Several weeks or months later... after I've repaired the GNR dish, rigged the election in the Republic of Dave, killed Roy and the other Ghouls bothering Tenpenny Tower, and helped The Mechanist defeat his arch nemesis and restore peace to Canterbury Commons:

 

Me: *dressed up in The Mechanists which I got by reverse-pickpocketing him some better gear* The Mechanist has returned! and I bear grave news about your family, Lucy West!

 

Lucy West: *instantly recognizing me* Wow! You're that person I asked to deliver a letter to my family in their precariously placed backwater hovel... several months ago. How are they.

 

Me: The Mechanist regrets to inform you that the scaly claw of EVIL holds your home town in its inhumane grip! The town of Arefu has been plagued by a gang of miscreants who call themselves The Family (an evil super villain syndicate if I've ever seen one). They have slaughtered the towns Brahmin and have apparently taken an unholy interest in your dear brother Ian!

 

Lucy West: Oh no!

 

Me: And even worse... as much as it pains my ATOMIC POWERED HEART to say this... your own parents are dead! Their throats were apparently torn out by some inhuman beast and the very blood was sucked from their veins! Of your brother Ian .... there is no trace.

 

Lucy West: Oh my God! My parents are dead! My Brother is missing... oh God you have to find him, he's all I have left in this world! My life is ruined... and I spent every last cap I have on my home here and have no visible means of income!

 

Me: Fear not, citizen! I shall not rest until the titanium pincers of JUSTICE has dealt with the foul villains who have done this to your family! ... but first I think I'll get some Stimpaks from Gob over here. *I get some cheap stimpaks from him and pay for it with assault rifles*

 

 

I show up later, still in my Mechanist costume but a little mellowed out:

 

 

Me: Hi there. Listen, I've got some bad news, some bad news, some good news... and some sort of really creepy news, and some good news.

 

Lucy West: Oh, really? I almost forgot about all of that.

 

Me: Really? You almost forgot about how your parents died from having their throats ripped out and your brother was seemingly abducted by a gang of psychos who had already killed all the Brahmin and left your townsfolk huddled in abject fear for their lives.

 

Lucy West: Oh yeah... sorry, it was kind of surreal.

 

Me: Okay... yeah, that was partially my fault. But anyway! The bad news is that apparently Ian's the one who killed his own parents by ripping their throats open with his bare teeth in a fit of insane cannibalistic hunger, more bad news is that he was being dragged into some kind of cult of cannibals who being brainwashed into thinking they were vampires of some sort and only drink the blood of their victims. The good news is that I was able to get him out of there and broker a sort of mutually beneficial deal between the Family and Arefu so that the townsfolk won't be afraid of their lives so much anymore... sort of.

 

Lucy West: ...okay... what's the creepy news?

 

Me: Well, its actually two kinds of creepy... three or four if you thing about it. First off, the deal was that the residents of Arefu would donate their own blood into blood packs to feed the Family... and in exchange one of the Family Guys will sit around in a barn outside of the place right next to the Brahmin pens and defend against attacks... probably only at night since he's a (%*^ing vampire wanna be. For some reason the Arefu people thought it was a good idea (maybe they plan on harvesting it all from Brailee or something... I dunno).

 

Lucy West: ...umm...

 

Me: The second creepy part is that apparently your brother Ian had that messed up cannibal problem ever since he got brain damage as a kid and you were the only thing keeping him from going psycho on everybody. So, I guess the town consisting of one cray old man, one really crazy lady, one sarcastic guy, and another lady with no real personality think its totally okay to live next door to a kid who killed two full-grown adults in a fit of insanity.

 

Lucy West: Yeah... Ian is kinda creepy like that...

 

Me: Thirdly... um... I personally find it creepy that this is the 'good' solution to the whole problem. I can't help but think that this stupidly precarious 'deal' is going to go sour in some way and things will get real nasty when I'm not around. I mean, its technically an 'evil act' for me to just gun down those cannibal freaks where they stand because they haven't shown any hostility towards me. So... yeah. Your brother and the rest of Arefu was totally safe when I last saw it... all the residents were wandering around without a care in the world. So I just hope that the Family doesn't backstab then when their back is turned or Ian doesn't go nuts and eat somebody again.

 

Lucy West: ... *in shock*

 

Me: Oh, and finally the good news! I was able to deliver your letter to your brother Ian and that really helped him out. The knowledge that you miss him so much was enough to really get over the guilt of murdering his own parents with the intent to eat them. So, I consider this little quest of mine to be a success! *I walk out the door*

 

Lucy West: *still in shock, her right eye starts twitching*

 

Me: *pokes my head back in through the door* Who knows... maybe the knowledge that you miss him so much will inspire him to come over here to visit you someday. And he might even bring his new friends! *I slip back out*

 

 

That night Lucy is sitting wide awake in her little home in Megaton, clutching a shotgun and keeping an eye on all the doors and windows.

 

And I get goood karma!

 

===========

 

Oh, and the Talon Company mercs keep tracking me down all over the wasteland and getting their asses blown up. You'd think that after the fourth or fifth three-man team gets wiped off the map and their stuff is found in Crazy Wolfgangs inventory they would stop... or at least start sending larger groups at me.

 

Plus, if these guys will take all the contracts that others won't then why can't I just kill two of the guys, put a few shots into the kneecaps and arms of the third, and then ask him about taking down the contract? I've got piles of caps, 99% of which I got by killing stuff like noisy Talon Mercs and selling their stuff and organs. I should be able to just pay them to get the heck out of my face... or maybe pay them to start attacking the Enclave or something.

[gsmanners]

Karma is a pretty big WTF all around this game.

 

The way I see it, Lucy can't really afford to send mail via the traders because she's too busy throwing her money away on the cult. Everything else about that quest makes little sense, but here's the really funny thing: Lucy's house has two beds. One is marked as owned by her and the other is marked as owned by Ian. Think about that for a minute.

 

As for Mercs, there really ought to be a mod that lets you buy them off. If Burke has connections, then it stands to reason you should be able to find them, right?

[evilneko]

Blaze totally ran the hell outta there after discovering the Wests, and told Evan to go tether a goat when he tried to ask her to go take care of the family. The hell I'm gonna do anything for you after the way you've treated me so far, turkey! Count yourself lucky I don't reduce you to a pile of ashes right now!

[MythicDawnAssassin]

Am I the only one who wonders how the heck Col. Autumm survives Project Purity's radiation? I mean it is not mentioned in his terminal, desk or on his body and you can't talk about it in the dull conversations.

AND how does Project Purity get so much radiation in the first place, since it's omly meant to clean water? How does it magically get away when you activate it?

AND why does daddy first do his best to initialise the Purifier, but when the Enclave comes 'he can't allow them to steal the honor in their hopeless bit to redempt themselves from their deeds in the previous game'?

[gsmanners]

Actually, Col. Autumn injects himself with deus ex machina serum. The *real* WTF there is he does so sans needle. The plot device itself is (hopefully) the author's own lament of this story losing what little genius it had, succumbing to the demands of marketing and cheap melodrama.

 

They don't say why, but I like to think that James has jury-rigged the control panel to a self-destruct mechanism that he has tweaked to act as a purifier (if you set it to its "activate" mode). So, naturally when you "damage" the purifier as he does intentionally, it switches into self-destruct mode (it takes a while to get there, but hey it is 200 years old).

 

In case you didn't notice, Col. Autumn (you know, the one Enclave leader who isn't trying to kill 99% of all living things) just shot Janice right in front of you for no reason. Does that inspire you with confidence that they will redeem themselves? I think that him killing himself is pretty stupid, but you can certainly see that the Enclave are not fit to run a Brahmin farm, let alone control a purifier.

[Rossum]

Yeah, about the purifier takeover... how and why did James and Doctor Li decide to go to the purifier when I am the only person there with combat experience?

 

 

Okay... from what I can see of the timeline:

 

1. James leaves vault 101 and can apparently run and talk faster then Speedy Gonzales because he leaves vault 101, I get woken up right after the overseers goons beat Jonas to death (but before they get to me), and I make my way out to Megaton (no matter how fast I go, I can't catch Dad till I get to Tranquility Lane).

 

2. James visits Moriarty in Megaton and gets directions to Three Dog.

 

3. James makes his way past all the wasteland monsters and raiders and stuff in the tunnels (he probably didn't run into any Super Mutants since the ones in front of GNR were just passing through or something). and talks to Three Dog... and just chats for a while before running to Rivet City.

 

4. James talks to Doctor Li and when she refuses to help he heads to the Purifier and... apparently makes a bunch of notes or something. Its odd that when I get to that purifier to find his notes that the place is swarming with Super Mutants. Maybe James has some sort of ninja-like ability to do research on computers with no power and then make holotape notes while Super Mutants are standing right next to him. Or maybe he was originally from Point Lookout and is actually so freakishly strong that he CAN walk all the way across the wasteland or through enemy infested territory and just punch them out of the way with his fists. Or maybe he did something stupid and the Jefferson Memorial was all sealed up and fine until James opened the door, messed around, and then walked out without closing it... thereby letting all those Super Mutants wander inside and bother me when I get there. And there aren't any signs that he killed anything on his way through.

 

 

Me: Hey Dad, I just realized that everywhere you go, raiders and Super Mutants are setting up shop and killing people like me when they try to follow you. What gives?

 

James: Can't talk now, Daddy has to run halfway across the wasteland in his jumpsuit without any weapons or supplies. Just don't try to deviate from my incredibly dangerous path or else I'll stand around like a moron and wait for you to find me.

 

Me: ...

 

 

5. Anyway... after he walks out of Project Purity he does that long trek through the wasteland without any plans, companions, or supplies. And then climbs inside a VR thing that turns him into a dog.

 

 

 

Yeah, so anyway James is like some kind of immortal kung-fu master or something so he doesn't mind walking around without any guards or weapons. But you'd think that Li or one of the other people there would want something like that.

 

And on that note... I've SEEN James fight against those mutated bear things and win with his fists alone, and he can soak up machine gun bullets with his face and headbutt teams of Raiders and Talon Mercs to death. Why they hell didn't he just feed Col Autumn his own feet and then beat up the Enclave Soldier standing next to him?

 

And... well, I know this is kind of cheating but I played the game with the RobCo certified mod and decided to put a Sentry Bot in the control room to help guard Dad and the others. Unfortunately, the sentry just drove around and didn't help... I think I was able to make it hostile to Col Autumn by pickpocketing him through the glass with the glitch and stuff... but then Col was essential and thus was able to survive getting shot repeatedly in the face with gatling lasers and missiles.

 

But, really... those scientists should have brought some security other than myself or at least armed themselves. This is the Capital Wasteland after all and even a 10mm pistol can be essential in dealing with vicious dogs or whatever people run into out there.

 

What would totally make sense is if I were able to tell Charon or St. RL-3 or dogmeat to keep an eye on Dad while I was doing all the repairs and stuff. If Autumn were to march into that room while one of MY followers were there... he'd be dead as soon as he pulled out his gun if not sooner. Dogmeat and RL-3 can survive mini-nukes and car explosions... no way Autumn could stand against either of them.

 

And heck, if I put RL-3 in that room and James still decided to turn on the radiation then RL-3 could just sit there and take shots at whatever scientists tried to walk inside. And Autumn would get double-killed when he tries getting out of that room.

 

 

So um... yeah, those scientist guys really should have gotten some guards other than myself and my followers. And James should have remembered how freakishly strong he is and beat Autumn up.

 

 

Seriously, the more I think about it the more I think that James was actually once a Tribal from Point Lookout. He's insanely strong compared the ravenous monsters that roam the wasteland and acts as if he's got a fair chunk of his brain missing.

[MythicDawnAssassin]

Actually, Col. Autumn injects himself with deus ex machina serum. The *real* WTF there is he does so sans needle. The plot device itself is (hopefully) the author's own lament of this story losing what little genius it had, succumbing to the demands of marketing and cheap melodrama.

 

They don't say why, but I like to think that James has jury-rigged the control panel to a self-destruct mechanism that he has tweaked to act as a purifier (if you set it to its "activate" mode). So, naturally when you "damage" the purifier as he does intentionally, it switches into self-destruct mode (it takes a while to get there, but hey it is 200 years old).

 

In case you didn't notice, Col. Autumn (you know, the one Enclave leader who isn't trying to kill 99% of all living things) just shot Janice right in front of you for no reason. Does that inspire you with confidence that they will redeem themselves? I think that him killing himself is pretty stupid, but you can certainly see that the Enclave are not fit to run a Brahmin farm, let alone control a purifier.

So Col. Autumn has no right to start a purifier, just because he's a murderer. If you keep saying that, then they won't get a chance to redeem themselves and will always remain bad. Why do good guys always have to do the good things and bad guys not. More important why did Beth make this cliche story? Isn't it better if you let bad guys do (unintentionally) good stuff. Compare that to Jaws and Mayday in the Bond films.

 

Assassin out

[gsmanners]

Col. Autumn could redeem himself from inside a jail cell, if I had my way. Barring that, he could eat some lead justice and redeem himself by being fertilizer for a more worthy life form. Letting bad guys step on their own land mines may work for Disney and Shakespeare, but it rarely pans out in action-related video games.

 

This main quest is pretty linear. It's mind-boggling when you realize that James admits himself to not be a capable fighter, yet he somehow made his way through downtown DC and half the wasteland without so much as a scratch. The scene in the rotunda makes a lot more sense if you realize that the Enclave had just previously captured Anna Holt and are presumably holding her hostage. There's also Dr. Li to think of, standing just outside the chamber.

 

I've often thought that if you could bring in the BoS in the midst of all that maintenance, you could reasonably salvage the situation.