Escort & teleportation

[Resdulac]

In F3 there are several escort missions. Most can be " shunted " by teleporting directly to the destination. In some cases escorted NPC are carried simultaneously (as prisoners from Germantown Commissioner). Others make the journey walking alone and should be waited for, but then they are not attacked and not at risk (as the caravan of slaves to the Lincoln Memorial).

 

As against, if you escort NPC(s) throughout the journey, you must face a series of attacks. These fights are not facilitated by the escorted ones, which often tend to do anything (escape, clutter the line of fire, attacking with bare hands, etc. ). They may be given weapons, but they are rarely effective. I saw one to those I gave an assault rifle abandon it to gather a mass on a corpse and then rush melee on mutants and super-giant scorpions. You must suffer to arrive without any loss.

 

So teleportation is simple, fast, efficient! Indeed, forums and wikis show that way favoured by most players.

 

But then one might wonder why we play this game? If its to finish it quickly and effectively, it can be done in a few hours by only following the main quest. Just see wikis to know in advance where to go, possibly using a few "unlock" codes for recalcitrant locks. Needless to waste time reading the dialogues and files on terminals, I think someone should be able to finish the game by playing " Diablo way " ( I see, I kill ).

 

After all, those who find their pleasure that way are right. Many do not have enough time or experience to play " the hard way ". But I believe that a different attitude can be adopted with more roleplaying and a refusal to use some facilities set in the game for the ease of neophytes players. Maybe tougher, but more funny!

[Wreckless1]

I agree with the concept of what you're saying, but trying to babysit friendly NPC's that have some of the worst AI I've ever seen in ANY game EVER is a very real immersion-killer for me. The AI is so bad that it completely ruins friendly NPC's for me - I'm tired of constantly looking back over my shoulder to make sure they didn't get stuck on a rock or something equally stupid and asinine.

 

As for escort duty, I tried taking the 'truly escort them' approach and at first it worked with the

Big Town rescue

; giving both

Shorty and Red

a hunting rifle each with about 20-25 rounds allowed me to actually escort them - mostly because the Hunting Rifle doesn't shoot fast enough for them to blow through their ammo, and since they're not running straight at the enemies we encounter, I can actually shoot them without worrying about accidentally hitting either of them.

But then the other escort missions just get plain stupid. There's no way to even offer

Cherry

different clothing so she's not wandering around DC ruins in her bare feet and sexy sleepwear, let alone a weapon. Nor can you offer a weapon to

your Dad

when you escort him - he just blasts off like 15 or 20 shots from his .32 Pistol and then runs for a lead pipe or combat knife and proceeds to get *IN* the way as much as is possible for an NPC.

 

I can't believe that *ANYONE* in their right minds would rush a giant radscorpion bare-handed, let alone cross in front of my blazing assault rifle to do so. Nor would you completely fail to offer someone a weapon or better armor for the duration when you're already carrying 15 Hunting Rifles and enough various raider armor to pave every square inch of a mall parking lot in leather. So from a role-playing realism standpoint, the NPC would almost certainly want better armor, and if they didn't want a gun they should be ducking and trying to put you in between them and the bad guys. So many simple concepts just slipped Beth's coding in the AI... and its almost infuriating that they'd be so lax in that area after making such an amazing game in so many other respects.

 

So with all that being said, I just click that Pip-Boy and show up there... and fervently wish that Bethesda had given me a different viable option.