Completely unrelated to the lung post.

[camwyn]

So I pulled down the Mothership Zeta expansion for Fallout 3 last week. I played through the whole thing. I enjoyed it. I am probably going to inflict it on Ellen. Not, however, just yet.

---

See, the thing is, while Fallout 3 is not especially linear (except for aspects of the central quest line), I tend to look at the whole thing as requiring a certain element of progression in order to make Ellen's character feel right. Some of it's just storyline stuff. I plan on having her find Vault 92 soon, completely by accident. It's how I found out about other Vaults when I first played the game, and I really didn't know whether I was allowed to/supposed to go into a completely unknown Vault until I opened the door and found that everything had gone to hell. The fact that it happens to be a Vault that has plenty of documentary tapes lying around indicating exactly what had happened makes it an ideal candidate for Ellen's introduction to the real nature of the Vault Experiment, and the one really important object inside it allows for a bit of tension relief when Ellen gets out and stumbles southward far enough. I can't have her find Vault-Tec headquarters too early, because it would only point her straight at her dad's current location, and that would cut down on a lot of Wasteland questing and development. That kind of thing.

I've also made a point of only letting her get hold of certain items, rather than whatever the maximum shiny reward is supposed to be for finishing part of the game. She doesn't get the winterized T-51b suit from Operation Anchorage, because it makes the game too easy early on; that, plus I like just a bit of realism in these things, which means that if she wants to wear a piece of armor it has to be at least close to her own size. The stimpaks don't work instantly, they require some waiting while you let them heal up the worst of your injuries. Etc. The tech you get your hands on in Mothership: Zeta falls into the category of game-breaky/world-changey, to me. Alien epoxy fixes your guns all the way up without batting an eye. The alien weaponry on the ship, plus the power modules up there, just makes blasting holes in Deathclaws way too easy. And having return access to the alien ship at the end of the DLC totally changes the character of your situation- you don't even have to stay on Earth. Or near Earth, theoretically. Yeah, you don't have navigational info, but you have a working starship and at least one person who knows how to work the controls. Who's going to stick around Dustball Earth with a setup like that? Unless it's to work the ship's death ray or something, in which case AAAH HAHAHAHA HAHAHAA and the Enclave and any other undesirables with a large geographic footprint go up in smoke.

I figure I'm going to put Ellen through Mothership Zeta eventually, but when she returns to the Wasteland, the beacon that makes it possible for the PC to travel back and forth between the Wasteland and the ship goes on the fritz on the ship's end. Since the only human who really had a Repair skill will be off the ship by then, the only candidates to fix it are the remaining alien workers on board- and while they're nice enough, they don't speak English. Communication with the ship may be possible, it'd just take forever to get any results. I'm also sort of tempted to see about getting someone else to go with her for great mutual running-around-screaming; anyone interested? It would probably be before she finally finds out where Vault 112 is and the main quest resumes...

Before that, though, I want her to find Dogmeat, hit Vault 92, and deal with the crazy superheroes at Canterbury Commons. Probably other stuff, too, but I think those three items are the ones that will happen next. If anyone here plays at M'ways and is interested in coming along, let me know, and we'll see what we can arrange.

Thanks for your patience with my rambling.

Comments

[mmexlibris]

It is late, and I am tired, but in my head just now? There was a totally hilarious crack episode of Fallout, with Ellen finding Gecko inside one of her pockets waking up from a hangover, most likely when she was in the middle of a mission. I do not expect anything like this to ever actually occur, but it was, for a brief shining moment, the funniest thought I've had all day.

[camwyn]

South of Canterbury Commons is the entrance to Vault 108. This is also known as the Vault of Gary, or the Vault of the Human Pokemon.

It would be just poor Gecko's luck to wake up in the middle of a Vault populated entirely by homicidal clones of the same man, all of whom can only say "Gary!".

Seriously, the theme music for that place ought to be Yakety Sax.

[vadrice.livejournal.com]

you are a goddamn PRO at cuttext.
in case you didn't know.

[mmexlibris]

LOL, yeah, it would be just his luck.

If you ever want a crack thread, you know where to find me.

[camwyn]

*bows* One can but try.

[moonlup.livejournal.com]

Stumbled across this (http://nuka.fbrtech.com/), thought of you.

[camwyn]

Eee! Thanks.