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It’s why the woodstove is such a lucky camp here, it’ll pull the morale back out of the tantrum zone. The only better camp would’ve been the bag of marshmallows.
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Jan 16, 2022 01:10
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Real shame about the lack of morale, though.
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Jan 16, 2022 02:51
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Odd Wilson posted:
Yeah, haha...
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Jan 16, 2022 04:45
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I'm rooting for this crew to make it through the final stretch together, it'd be fitting. What do you think your chances are to complete this run?
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Jan 16, 2022 04:54
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This group is really fun. I do think that having only one parody makes things way more interesting, sorry Bryu.
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Jan 16, 2022 05:29
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Odd Wilson posted:
Odd Wilson posted:
Kip means sleep, not food. I feel like food spirals are the #1 run ender. Everything else you can recover from over time (apart from RNG instakill rolls when you're on low health, obviously) but once you're low on food it's very difficult to claw your way back up.
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Jan 16, 2022 10:07
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JeffRaze posted:This group is really fun. I do think that having only one parody makes things way more interesting, sorry Bryu. *Looks at a team containing Lank, Gerdziller, and "Gal" Fieri* Uhhh.... about that.
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Jan 16, 2022 11:56
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I gotta say, your skills with this game are impressive, Odd.
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Jan 16, 2022 12:46
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BraveLittleToaster posted:I'm rooting for this crew to make it through the final stretch together, it'd be fitting. What do you think your chances are to complete this run? I've already seen this run to it's conclusion, so the answer is that it's a secret But at this exact moment, I still had faith I could make it to the border... just maybe not with the group intact. We've got an absolute pile of explosives and molotovs alongside more shotgun shells I can use, so if I hit the despair siege, I think I could still keep some of the party alive. I'll be honest, I was on the edge of my seat a bit here. Keldulas is right, getting this event was kind of a lucky last chance though. Only better thing here would've been free marshmallows as that's a guaranteed team meal. Black Robe posted:Kip means sleep, not food. I thought it meant sleep and food, but I'm not from the UK. I'll, uh, do something about that. Thanks for the heads up! Food spirals are brutal, but for me, it's usually just being incapable of finding enough gas that triggers an inevitable lack of food through walking events. In desperate circumstances, you can always "dismiss" party members to make it through a rest event, but that's a risky play and really only a good one if you think you can take the end with a smaller team. PinkDawn posted:I gotta say, your skills with this game are impressive, Odd. I've played way too much of it for my own good, I guess. I'm not usually much for games with forced/intended permadeath, (pretty much this and Don't Starve are the only ones,) so I still kinda surprise myself with how much time I've sunk into this game. (For some reason though, I don't mind doing ironman runs of games without permadeath. It's weird.) We are definitely still getting lucky when it matters though. The RNG has been kinda nice to this LP, all things considered. Left 4 Bread fucked around with this message at 17:07 on Jan 16, 2022 |
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Jan 16, 2022 17:04
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FoolyCharged posted:*Looks at a team containing Lank, Gerdziller, and "Gal" Fieri* Haha, you got me there. I meant to say non-speaking parody character. I like the writing and character's bouncing off eachother, but it's less fun if half the party can't really banter. Just having Lank works though, because all three of the other characters can react to them.
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Jan 16, 2022 18:43
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Odd Wilson posted:I thought it meant sleep and food, but I'm not from the UK. I'll, uh, do something about that. Thanks for the heads up! If you're looking for a roughly equivalent piece of (northern) UK slang, scran is food.
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Jan 16, 2022 21:45
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UPDATE 26: A TOONIE FOR THE TIMMY * Tunes: Every Step of the Way *  --------------------------------- RESULT Kaiju chops a bunch of wood and gets the woodstove going before passing out from exhaustion. She will be very tired tomorrow! Kaiju's strength increases to almost  (5)The fire feels great! Lank's morale increases to almost  (1)Gal Fieri's morale increases to almost (1)---------------------------------  GAL FIERI: Awesome. Fire.  LANK: Hmph!♪  KAIJU: I just really felt like tearing some logs in half.  ALEX: ...Neat. Can I go back to sleep now? In hindsight, I should have made Gal do this, but it's fine. Alex also didn't get a morale up for some reason. She should have, and I don't know why she didn't, but I've seen it happen before.  --------------------------------- Shaky Hands Kaiju, under intense pressure, starts to get shaky hands from the stress. Kaiju's medical decreases to (0)Kaiju's shooting decreases! Kaiju's mechanical decreases to almost (1)--------------------------------- ALEX: ...You okay? KAIJU: Uhh... I guess I'm getting too swole to control. Do they mean that literally when they say it? LANK: KYAUGH?♪ GAL FIERI: I don't know if the bodybuilder guy warned us about this, I wasn't really paying attention. LANK: SI-YAAAAAAGH!♪ ALEX: Huh?  --------------------------------- Busted Leg The group meets a woman limping around with a crutch. One of her legs was wounded in a recent fall as se was getting away from zombies. 1. Lank- Help her leg 2. No time to help 3. Kaiju- Tell her to COOL IT!!! --------------------------------- LANK: KYAUUUGH?!♪  FRAN: Uhhhhhhhhh... ALEX: He's asking if you're okay. FRAN: Oh. Oh! I, uh, I'll be fine. I just kinda twisted it really bad-  --------------------------------- THE PLOT THICKENS Kaiju tells the woman to COOL IT. She takes this as advice that she should apply cold compresses to her leg. After the group helps her with that, she offers a reward! Kaiju's morale increases to  (3)Alex's morale increases to (3)Lank's morale increases to  (4)Gal Fieri's morale increases to almost (5)1. Group Shooting Training 2. Morale Pep Talk 3. Group First Aid --------------------------------- GAL FIERI: ...Amazing. FRAN: I never know when you're supposed to use cold or heat. KAIJU: I mean, I just kinda said it randomly, but sure if it works, great. ALEX: Oh, hey, some bird with glasses and talking about rats was looking for someone with blue hair. FRAN: Ah, Dee! Yes, I was just about to ask about her! Where'd she go? GAL FIERI: In the opposite direction. Like, right down this same road. FRAN: *sigh* Figures... Anyways, thank you! ALEX: Not a problem! FRAN: I hope you make it to Canada! The pancakes are really good!  Everyone's morale up to near max! KAIJU: That was nice. I hope they find each other. LANK: SI-YAAAAGH! *clank as sword bounces against the roof* ALEX: I'm feeling good now! GAL FIERI: I'm just thinking about pancakes now. I could make... grillcakes. KAIJU: Do you grill everything? GAL FIERI: It is the superior form of cooking. I am a Seared Belt in Grillmastery.  --------------------------------- Last Shop Before Canada An enormous army of undead shambles around the carnage that surrounds the border to Canada. Many have tried to get through. Most only succeed in having their bodies added to the horde. Maybe your team will be different... This is the last chance to trade! Good luck! You have 0 food left. --------------------------------- * Tunes: Horsemann Shuffle * ALEX: Wow. Didn't think they'd have a sign. GAL FIERI: Do you think they legally have the right to that name? KAIJU: I'm not sure it matters. Yeah, that was a really short Day 2. The days aren't really measured in forced rests or anything in this game, it's just kinda based on time on the road. I could have saved the COOL IT, but the reward possibilities were nice. I wanted food, but the morale pep talk was pretty much the same thing. On the terms of weaponry, the only thing I'm wanting for is an Assault Rifle. Seriously, we're loaded with guns and explosives.  GAL FIERI: Roomy place, but exactly what are we doing here? ALEX: Um... I was going to say buying supplies, but we don't really have any food. KAIJU: We can probably just go to Canada now. ALEX: At least let me walk around for a bit, my legs are falling asleep.   GUARD: I AM ERROR LANK: Hyup, hyah, KYAAAAAAAAAAA! GUARD:  LANK: GAL FIERI: ...What did I just witness? KAIJU: Some sort of mating ritual? GAL FIERI: ...You would say that, wouldn't you.  --------------------------------- Is This Cosplay? This person is covered in blue tights, a weird helmet, and is wearing a big plastic tube on one of his arms. This would normally be more suspicious, but you're used to this sort of thing. He strikes a dynamic pose with his plastic tube arm. You need 20 food to recruit him to the party. Can't spare the food --------------------------------- ALEX: AHAHAHAhahaha... Oh, that's a good one, mate. KAIJU: We haven't had 20 food since I joined! GAL FIERI: We haven't had 20 food since I joined.  --------------------------------- Weapons Bartering The group sees a woman standing near a stockpile of crates. The crates seem to contain a large amount of food and drink. I got food! I'm looking for some great weapons! She takes a look at what the team is carrying... --------------------------------- We've got so much gear and so few equipment slots, I offload our duplicate Cowboy Rifle and Hunting Rifle, netting us +4 food. This is enough for a half-meal and is really all we need.  I also trade 25 gas for 2 more food. Could I have kept it to keep the van? Sure, but it's not like I need the car bomb at the end when I've got more pipebombs than I can really use. I did this with the intent that I'd only need to quickly nab 2 pieces of food on the coming cabin siege. That way I'd be covered for a full meal. With that, our intrepid team of interesting people leave to meet their final test.  ALEX: Alright, shotgun and hunting rifle on hand. Should be good enough. ALEX: Um... Lank, here, have the chainsaw. KAIJU: Wait, you're giving him a chainsaw? LANK: *DA NA NA NAAAAAAAA* ALEX: I don't see why not. I can't crank it for the life of me, and you're already carrying the axe. GAL FIERI: I'd use it, but I'm not taking my hands off the Flavorblaster. KAIJU: Are you just giving it different names now? GAL FIERI: It can have as many names as it wants. ALEX: Speaking of whatever you call it, how much fuel you got? GAL FIERI: Little more than a fifth of the tank. ALEX: So not much. Make it last, I guess? KAIJU: ...How do you get more fuel for that? KAIJU: Actually on second thought, I don't want to know. LANK: WAUGH?! GAL FIERI: It's not that bad, it's just- KAIJU: SKREEEEEEEAAAAAA  --------------------------------- Close to the Border Giant armies of undead perpetually lurch around the Canadian border, unable to cross. The group gets caught up in a lesser swarm before they can find a safe camp. SIEGE ALERT! THERE'S NO ESCAPE! HORDE SIZE: Overwhelming! CURRENT TIME: Nightfall SIEGE LENGTH: 1.5 HOURS --------------------------------- * Tunes: Rotten Shotgun * KAIJU: Holy crackers, I guess it's a good thing you did that equipment check! GAL FIERI: Shut the front door, talk about lucky! ALEX: Did you two seriously ignore what the bodybuilder had to say?! He warned us about this specifically! LANK: KYAAAAGH?!  GAL & KAIJU: I was hungry. KAIJU: ...That's something we agree on. GAL FIERI: Never thought I'd see the day. LANK: KYAAHGUGAAAGH?!   GAL & KAIJU: Oh, right, zombies. ALEX: Have your passive-aggressive spats later, we've got a border to get to! *Chainsaw revving*   LANK: KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!!!♪  LANK: HYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!♪ GAL FIERI: It shoots lasers?  ALEX: You never noticed? KAIJU: Not really, no. ALEX:  It's shot lasers since the White Sword stage, but this is the first time I've had a screenshot where it hadn't already connected with a zombie. Also Lank hasn't had full health in forever, so this is really the first time having access to it again.  LANK: HYAAA! ALEX: Ugh, they just keep coming! Could you put that axe to a bit of use? KAIJU: Sorry, I haven't slept right since the last cabin. This thing's kinda heavy when you're running on nothing. ALEX: Hand it to me then! KAIJU: never  GAL FIERI: Alright, alright, stand back, it's time to crank up the heat!  GAL FIERI: Got some more fuel too. Plenty of grilling to come! ALEX: ...I, uh, just realized something. Do you just... not turn that thing off? GAL FIERI: Nope. Why would I? ALEX: Might explain why you're always running out of fuel for it. GAL FIERI: It's called being prepared.  KAIJU: We've got more coming up behind-  LANK: KYAAAAAAAAAAA! KAIJU: Nevermind.  ALEX: They're coming from below! GAL FIERI: I got this!  *Rifle shot* ALEX: They're still coming from all angles! KAIJU: I don't see any signs of it slowing down!  LANK: HYA HYUGH HYAGH KYAAAA!♪ *SPIN ATTACK* LANK: SI-YAAAAAAAGH!♪  --------------------------------- PHEW! The siege is over! You can now try to escape! --------------------------------- ALEX: Haaah... alright... let's check the cabin.  GAL FIERI: More FOOOOOD!  KAIJU: WHY GAL FIERI: whoops, got excited there Of course, the game has to give me one last blindside. Just before you forget that Gal's AI is a wildcard. There wasn't any furniture in her way or a zombie up where she flamed. She just decided to light half the cabin on fire on a whim.  --------------------------------- MISSION SUMMARY Found 11 food, total now 18 Found 55 gas, total now 58 Total rifle ammo: 176 Total shotgun ammo: 104 119 zombies destroyed. --------------------------------- Felt like more zombies than that, but whatever. Also, gee thanks game, leave me starving up until this point then give me more food than I can use.  ALEX: "I freaking hate Mondays." KAIJU: What's wrong with Mondays? ALEX: I dunno, I was just reading off this cereal box.  --------------------------------- Glimmer of Hope on the Death Road The group feels inspired after managing to survive that situation! They feel like they are getting the hang of this... Choose a reward for the group: 1. Morale and random skill gain 2. Morale and one health healed 3. Fitness 4. Alex- +1 All Skills --------------------------------- ALEX: I... uh...  --------------------------------- RESULT Alex is becoming a zombie master! Alex's strength increases to  (2)Alex's fitness increases to almost (5)Alex's shooting increases to (3)Alex's medical increases to (3)Alex's morale at max! --------------------------------- ALEX: I feel kinda weird. GAL FIERI: I told you not to trust the lasagna flavored cereal. It was a trap laid by BIG BURGER CORPORATIONS!  ALEX: No, I feel good, just a weird kind of good. At this point, why not?  --------------------------------- Last Rest Before Canada The group prepares for the brutal day ahead of them. Canada is close, but the zombie forecast is bad! The group eats a decent meal. Lose 16 food! Morale maxed out! Kaiju is ready to splat some zombs! Alex can't wait! Lank can't wait! Gal Fieri feels good about the odds! Full team dexterity increased! --------------------------------- KAIJU: FOOD ALEX: FOOD LANK: KYAH KAIJU: FOOD ALEX: FOOD LANK: KYAH GAL FIERI: Aaaaaalright! The Flavorville Funkalicious Taste Explosion Feast is here! Dig iiiiiiiin!  While they eat, it's time to set up the loadouts going into the City of Lost Hope. Alex swaps out the shotgun for the double barreled one, and the hunting rifle is changed out for 6 pipebombs. The others' loadouts are pretty much set. Lank and Kaiju lead the normal wave clearing, both wielding strong multi-hit weapons. Lank's got the chainsaw (32 gas) for moments that need extreme firepower. It'd have more gas if I just decided to abandon the van, but I was maybe holding out to get more gas on this map. (Seriously, I could've taken out 50 zombies easily with that 14 gas.) Gal Fieri is um, doing the thing she usually does. Sieges are her strength though, so I can't complain. We'll really be able to put her to use here, as long as that 14 fuel holds out (not long with the idle usage).  --------------------------------- City of Crushed Hopes Nearly at the border to Canada, the group is surrounded by seemingly endless undead. To survive, they must face one last siege. This is the final siege, but not the battle! SIEGE ALERT! THERE'S NO ESCAPE HORDE SIZE: Overwhelming! CURRENT TIME: Late Afternoon SIEGE LENGTH: 4 HOURS ALL OR NOTHING! --------------------------------- * Tunes: Frankenstein Goes to Jamaica * Also, I've mentioned the "safe strategy" for this map in the thread a bit- you duck into a house quickly and hide in there while the zombie AI almost entirely forgets you. I've got the ammo and the power though, I'm just going to *FLEX* on the game and handle this in the streets without fear. (we also just got a bad layout for ducking into a room)  ALEX: Alright, the bodybuilder told us to check for a loop we could run the zombies through. KAIJU: The plan is to run in circles for four hours? ALEX: ...Kinda?  ALEX: Alright, we can circle around these two buildings... I guess?  GAL FIERI: Will this even work? Zombies are swarming from all directions, you know. LANK: KYAAA!♪  LANK: KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!♪ GAL FIERI: Well, if he's going to keep being the zombie equivalent of a food processor up there...  GAL FIERI: This ought to add a bit of spice to those dreary undead days! In practice, the napalm launcher is a flamethrower with a mildly larger spray, but also leaves three burning columns of fire on the ground for a while.  Ideally, you lead the zombies through the lasting flames as they'll melt in those rather fast. If it's a large horde you're trying to take out, it's also better to try and spray the flame in a sort of fan if you can. It makes a lot more use of the flame.  I'm using a lot of the napalm now, as I'd rather have melted zombies with it rather than have Gal waste all the fuel leaving the launcher idle.   KAIJU: So, um, about that circling thing? There's, uh, kind of a big horde on the other side of the building up there! ALEX: Don't worry about it, just hold off this horde here!  *Shotgun blast* ALEX: Gal! GAL FIERI: On it!  GAL FIERI: I'm out! That's all the sauce for today!  Despite being out of napalm now with more than two hours left to go, this spot isn't a bad chokepoint. It's a long street, and the configuration of the buildings keep the zombies coming from the north stuck up there.  Also the annoying AI made Alex pick up a rusty machete again, and I have to make her pick the objectively better weapon back up.  KAIJU: Whoah whoa whoa- *Shotgun blast*  ALEX: A tad bit overkill, but I got it! KAIJU: Thanks, it came out of the trash pile when I wasn't looking! LANK: KYAAAYAUYAUGH! ♪ ALEX: I know we're losing ground- GET BACK!  ALEX: FIRE IN THE HOLE!  *EXPLOSION* The problem with the chokepoint here is that the zombie flow is just that strong, that it pushes me back even with extremely liberal application of the double barrel. (I've still got enough for most of a second clip, so I'm not worried about it. We've only got one map left to do following this, after all.)  This bomb is more than enough to clean a very easy path to strafe through, although I don't like that crowd that's snuck up behind us.  Attempting to regain lost ground, I push into the thin horde to run into a situation worse than a normal large horde- thin hordes on both sides.  ALEX: I'd really appreciate if these things would stop clawing out from underneath us! An unfortunate bit of timing regarding the spawns ends up getting a decently sized group right on our backside.  Easy to escape, sure, but creates the growing problem that my only real safe egress is to move down and forward. This puts me in a bad spot given now I'm soon to be surrounded on all sides. I could have whipped out the chainsaw sooner and cleared the back horde off us instead of running to this potentially more dangerous position, but I wanted strafing room to start making better use of these pipebombs.  LANK: KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA   With maybe 3 or 4 ticks of gas and 4 more shells, I've managed to get my position reset, and everyone's back on decent stamina.  When trying to face down hordes like this, you really have to be on point with the floor/roof spawns. If you can, push close to the big horde just before the spawn happens so you can duck back and not lose too much ground as well as stay on the offense. You really want to stay on the offense here when possible.  GAL FIERI: You know, girl, you're really making me like the idea of explosives. KAIJU: Maybe stick to fire, so that you don't lose an arm. GAL FIERI: Hey, if you're not making mistakes, you're not challenging yourself.  More zombies end up coming up behind us, but that one pipebomb was perfect for just clearing out this wave. Only 50 in-game minutes to go.  ALEX: Move, move, move! LANK: waaaAAAUGH!♪ This is what it looks like when you don't move out of the way of floor spawns. Luckily, I was able to slip out without damage.  I then opt to do some more strafing while the crowds are thin.  We looped back around after some more fighting, and another pipebomb goes into the horde.  And not but a litle bit later, we're in the clear.  ALEX: Doesn't look like much in here, let's go!  And then Alex and Gal got stuck inside, needing me to pop back in with the chainsaw to clear out the 2 zombies holding them in there. With the horde right up on us, I take what we've got left and bail on this.  --------------------------------- MISSION SUMMARY Total Gas: 18 Total Pistol ammo: 208 Total Rifle ammo: 185 Total Shotgun ammo: 56 *375 ZOMBIES DESTROYED* --------------------------------- Not the highest number I've gotten, but still extremely metal.  ALEX: Fifty-seven shells left, 3 pipebombs. Lank? LANK: Hyut!♪ ALEX: 18 gas? KAIJU: Hey, why are we slowing down? ALEX: Saving the gas for the chainsaw. We can walk there. GAL FIERI: I'll be honest, strolling up on the border on foot is a lot cooler than this mom van.  KAIJU: Fine, I'm tired of running, but maybe this'll give us a better shot at sneaking across.  --------------------------------- The End of the Death Road The border to Canada is just north of here! The group must cross the bridge and then reach the fort that serves as a checkpoint right outside of Canada. This is the final challenge! Good luck! Your zombie forecast is: SWARM SIZE: Sardine Packed AGGRESSION: Mega-Cheesed CURRENT TIME: Near Noon YOU CAN MAKE IT! --------------------------------- * Tunes: Canada, Schmanada * Time for the final run!  GAL FIERI: FOR CANADA, WOO! KAIJU: Or we could just go in guns blazing. ALEX: I appreciate the thought, but we weren't going to sneak past this, let's be honest. LANK: KYAAAAAAAAAAAAH!♪  With just two shots of the napalm and some good fanning, I can create this utter wall of flame.  ALEX: It's clear, let's go! Hop to it!  *SHOTGUN BLAST*  *SHOTGUN BLAST*  *SHOTGUN BLAST* KAIJU: You're going ham with that thing, aren't you? ALEX: WHAT DID YOU SAY?! KAIJU: Nevermind? ALEX: I'M SURE WHATEVER YOU SAID WAS QUITE NICE, BUT I THINK I'M GOING DEAF  GAL FIERI: Oooooh, that's a big wall of zombies! LANK: SI-YAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH! ALEX: Go around, go around!  KAIJU: We're not slipping past this! LANK: hyyyyyyaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA  KAIJU: Now I'm glad we saved that gas! LANK:  ♪  MOUNTIE: 'Ey, welcome! It's aboot time! GAL FIERI: Mounties! You're real! MOUNTIE: Ya, last time I checked I was.  ALEX: I'll throw the rest of these bombs if you don't mind! MOUNTIE: Thanks for the 'eads up, eh?  *EXPLOSION* MOUNTIE: ooh, slapshot  *EXPLOSION* MOUNTIE: Felt that one, eh?  *EXPLOSION* MOUNTIE: OOH, NOW WATCH IT, MISS ALEX: Sorry!   *CLANG*   MECHA-MOUNTIE: LET ME TAKE CARE OF IT EH? GAL FIERI:  KAIJU:  LANK:  ALEX: Neat. MECHA-MOUNTIE: CHEW ON SOME DEATH RAY, HOSERS!  MECHA-MOUNTIE: EH-ZER BEAM! MOUNTIE: Oh geez, eh, that was fast. Usually he takes a bit longer!  MOUNTIE: Are you transporting any fruits or vegetables? ALEX: We ate all our food before we got here. We hadn't eaten in days! MOUNTIE: Oh, we can't have that now.  MOUNTIE: Here's a toonie for a double-double at Timmies. Have fun in Canada now, eh? KAIJU: Wow, thanks!  --------------------------------- Victory Over The Death Road YOU'VE GOT A CAN-DO ATTITUDE, EH? CONGRATS ON MAKING IT TO CANADA! The Prime Minister himself makes the group honourary citizens of Canada. He welcomes them to the last remaining nation on Earth! Onward to Canada! ---------------------------------  PRIME MINISTER: Righto, you folks are just in for the new Canada Cosplay Con! KAIJU: We're uh... not cosplayers. PRIME MINISTER: That's fine, just wanted to let you know the current goings on. Not everyone's into it! KAIJU: At least I think not. Uh, Lank? LANK: WAUGH?!♪ GAL FIERI: Is there some sort of "Barbecue Convention"? PRIME MINISTER: Quebec BBQ starts in two weeks! GAL FIERI: AWESOME  PRIME MINISTER: Anyhow, ready to go? ALEX: Yeah. Let's go!  * Tunes: Green on Green * *DA NA NA NAA: Beat game with L#nk!* Rare Characters mode complete!  *BUNCHA WEIRDOS: Beat Rare Characters Mode!* Total Zombie Kills: 1820 DEATH ROAD TO CANADA A game by Rocketcat Games & Madgarden  ALEX: I met a bunch of weirdos!  MOUNTIE: Lots of interesting people on the Death Road! BUT... WHAT BECAME OF THEM IN CANADA?  ALEX: It's too cold here! Alex invents a better mousetrap. It has carbon fiber and a USB drive. She would go on to make various random inventions with her newfound, or possibly reclaimed skills in various mechanics, repairing cars on the side. In attempting to follow the T*L*B's advice, she learned a bit of martial arts in honor of her lost friend. She would eventually come into posession of the Shiny Axe once again, but nobody knew how.  LANK: HYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH! Lank blundered around for the rest of his life, smashing pottery. It was eventually discovered that he was attempting to outrun his engagement to a fish-person-thing, somehow originating from his various ceramic escapades. At some point he was accidentally cryogenically frozen under the Canadian ice, and was rumored to arise once Catastrophe Bizzarro Krankor returned to terrorize the world.  GAL FIERI: What's next? Gal Fieri would often return to the border, just to throw heavy furniture at more zombies. Gal would attempt to re-establish Flavorville, but ultimately failed given a lack of money and the fact that nobody in Canada knew who she was. She would then take on the odd job of being a fire lookout, and was instrumental in preventing wildfires in the following years. Fires happened a lot more commonly now, for some reason...  KAIJU: I'm still stuck in this costume! Help! Kaiju destroyed Toronto. Not the real city, just a cardboard replica. This was an unusually common occurrence, and the cardboard city industry crumbled due to the fact that these accidents weren't illegal in Canada. She'd go on to detail these happenings in her autobiography, of living in a monster suit. It went on to be a bestseller and the basis for multiple mangas, somehow. Nobody was ever able to get her out of the suit, and she eventually went on to accept this lifestyle, becoming a partial local legend as she lived in various forests around Canada.  THANK YOU FOR PLAYING! DEATH ROAD TO CANADA I hope you got an OP character! We sure did, game. We sure did. (there was also like 7 molotovs in the boot we didn't even use)  * Tunes: Death Road to Canada Main Theme * So ends another tale of the Death Road...
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Jan 21, 2022 17:26
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And so ends another run! A short wrap-up update for this run will be in the works, but I'll also be taking a small little break to catch up on other stuff for a bit. The the next run, well, I'm still figuring that out. I can't lie that I might be feeling a bit of burn out on this game (I always sorta play it in bursts), but it'd also feel incomplete to leave this with just two runs and not showing off the higher difficulties. We'll see what I'm feeling in a few days.
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Jan 21, 2022 17:39
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Really been enjoying this Odd, thanks for doing these.
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Jan 21, 2022 17:47
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The kooky group made it way to Canada with no casualties, I'm sure Esme is proud of them. Glad to see it happen. That random busted leg event with the morale boost was super clutch, I see. Everything just went your way right at the end.
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Jan 21, 2022 17:49
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Woo! Take your time with resting, roguelikes are sometimes just a bit much for me too.
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Jan 21, 2022 17:49
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Congrats on the victory! I totally understand the burnout, please feel free to take as long of a break as you need.
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Jan 21, 2022 18:02
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I'm happy the entire gang made it. Hell yeah Esme would be proud of them.
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Jan 21, 2022 18:30
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This was a nice thing to read
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Jan 21, 2022 19:01
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Donkringel posted:Really been enjoying this Odd, thanks for doing these.  BraveLittleToaster posted:That random busted leg event with the morale boost was super clutch, I see. Everything just went your way right at the end. This group was armed to the teeth enough, I think I might've been able to make it out of the despair siege with some people alive had it happened, but it wouldn't have been pretty. Space Kablooey posted:Take your time with resting, roguelikes are sometimes just a bit much for me too. TooMuchAbstraction posted:Congrats on the victory! I totally understand the burnout, please feel free to take as long of a break as you need. I dunno, maybe it's just the challenge being presented that gets me so hooked on them sometimes. I binged on Crawl: Stone Soup real hard for two weeks one time. never again (also comedy is creatively taxing) BraveLittleToaster posted:The kooky group made it way to Canada with no casualties, I'm sure Esme is proud of them. Glad to see it happen. JeffRaze posted:I'm happy the entire gang made it. Hell yeah Esme would be proud of them.  ESME: You did good kid, you did good... *sniffle*  SAPH: Are you crying? ESME: I'M NOT CRYING YOU'RE CRYING SAPH: Whatever, I'm going back to my grave now SAPH:  KirbyKhan posted:This was a nice thing to read i have created a nice thing to read i am hooray 
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Jan 22, 2022 05:21
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This was fantastic. Please take as long as you need. Better to come back refreshed and recharged than try to force something you're not feeling.
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Jan 22, 2022 08:36
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Maybe just leave the thread sitting open, pop in to do a run when you feel like it, rather than trying to keep to a schedule and burn yourself out? I've also been really enjoying the thread and I'm happy to leave it in my bookmarks to be occasionally surprised by updates every now and then.
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Jan 22, 2022 09:17
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Black Robe posted:Maybe just leave the thread sitting open, pop in to do a run when you feel like it, rather than trying to keep to a schedule and burn yourself out? I've also been really enjoying the thread and I'm happy to leave it in my bookmarks to be occasionally surprised by updates every now and then. This sounds like a good way to go about it, I think. I maybe schedule myself too much sometimes, but it's mostly because I'm prone to being distracted or just procrastinating for whatever reason. I have to do it, otherwise I'll end up with a thousand projects all barely started.
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Jan 22, 2022 21:25
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Yeah, this has been a fun ride. I wouldn't mind you leaving the thread open for maybe later. Doing a run here or there as you have interest is a good way to avoid burnout.
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Jan 23, 2022 03:01
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Black Robe posted:Maybe just leave the thread sitting open, pop in to do a run when you feel like it, rather than trying to keep to a schedule and burn yourself out? I've also been really enjoying the thread and I'm happy to leave it in my bookmarks to be occasionally surprised by updates every now and then.  Thanks for the LP, Odd! Weird characters mode was a lot, I'm sure that's part of what was so creatively taxing haha
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Jan 23, 2022 04:00
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Gal Fieri... The thread's been great! Count me in on the list of people who have been enjoyed your writing. I look forward to reading more if or when you find the spark again!
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Jan 23, 2022 04:05
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FoolyCharged posted:Yeah, this has been a fun ride. I wouldn't mind you leaving the thread open for maybe later. Doing a run here or there as you have interest is a good way to avoid burnout. I'm on board with the plan to leave it open. I don't really like closing off opportunities anyhow. I could consider doing a video or two at some point later, just to show off the live gameplay at higher difficulties, maybe just mix it up a bit. Althalin posted:Thanks for the LP, Odd! Weird characters mode was a lot, I'm sure that's part of what was so creatively taxing haha It's not easy keeping up with the sheer weirdness, that's for sure. I appreciate the game throwing me a bone at times on what to write, but this run turned out to be a bonestorm. It was very fun though, I can't lie. I never knew what sort of curveball the game was going to throw at me and make me write next. MetaMeme posted:Gal Fieri... Gal turned out way better than she should have, especially with me somehow giving her the wrong Perk/Trait combo. The napalm only build proved to be volatile, and part of me is still surprised it didn't get the team killed at some point. The reception to this thread has always been way more than I ever thought it'd be, especially for some idea I randomly had as a late Halloween special with no planning whatsoever. I really do owe a big thanks to everyone who's been along for these Canadian bound road trips, lurking or not! As for everyone looking forward to more of my writing, I'm just glad to hear folks like it. I've definitely got other games in my pocket (five, easily) that I can do similar narrative stuff for, and I know I'll eventually want to do some more tales of weird journeys to Canada- it's all just a matter of when. Believe me, I'm not burnt out on narrative LPs, just a bit exhausted with Death Road for the moment. I am still gonna take that short break, using it to get caught up on my other LP and other stuff. Sit back for a bit and all that. I'll still probably inevitably dive into doing something after a while, we're just going to have to see what that is.
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Jan 23, 2022 07:26
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Add me to the list of people who reinstalled DRtC because of this thread. I last played it in 2017.
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Jan 23, 2022 08:29
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Odd Wilson posted:As for everyone looking forward to more of my writing, I'm just glad to hear folks like it. I've definitely got other games in my pocket (five, easily) that I can do similar narrative stuff for, and I know I'll eventually want to do some more tales of weird journeys to Canada- it's all just a matter of when. Believe me, I'm not burnt out on narrative LPs, just a bit exhausted with Death Road for the moment. You should link your other LPs here.
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Jan 23, 2022 15:38
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:You should link your other LPs here. Um, sure, I guess. At the moment, I've really only got one other LP. It's not a narrative and not really everyone's cup of tea, but it is crazy and weird at times.  https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3981456 Follow the misadventures of a guy named Bush in a town where everyone over the age of 30 does a pub crawl every night because there's nothing else to do. Of course Bush is always busy with farming, fighting monsters, grinding the cooking skill, and tediously managing the lives of nature spirits because the environment would collapse if he didn't. Oh, and there's a giant flying whale island that's going to crater the town at some indistinct date, but don't worry about that. In the meantime, we're trying to make people like us by being a walking gift shop. It's the strange first 3D entry in the more anime spinoff of Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons and I never gave it a fair shake seven to eight years ago, so here's me doing that now. I've still gotta revise the formatting and whatnot for the earlier updates, but it's there if folks want just more of me in general. Sometimes I talk about the mechanics and design of the game compared to the others in the series, but it's usually focused on the day to day happenings. https://lpix.org/sslptest/index.php?id=159665 If you wanted more narrative stuff from me, I did this too. This was my second choice of a game to LP, but I ended up not doing it because I thought doing the narrative was going to be too much work, (funny how that turned out, eh?) I think I already linked it before, but there it is again! Wow! The marvels of modern technology. If I end up starting anything else up (not unlikely), I'll put it here too. [/end selfadvert]
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Jan 23, 2022 17:54
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Oh man, a narrative screenshot LP of Don't Starve would be amazing. But you're right, a hell of a lot of work. Maybe someday.
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Jan 23, 2022 20:37
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Black Robe posted:Oh man, a narrative screenshot LP of Don't Starve would be amazing. But you're right, a hell of a lot of work. Maybe someday. Agreed with this. Maybe someday! But yeah, this has been a heck of a wild ride, Odd! I'd love to see you pop back in later, when you're recharged, for more fun.
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Jan 25, 2022 05:08
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Black Robe posted:Oh man, a narrative screenshot LP of Don't Starve would be amazing. But you're right, a hell of a lot of work. Maybe someday. PinkDawn posted:Agreed with this. Maybe someday! Believe me, I'd love to do it. I've still got all the recordings for that Wilson run on my backup drive, waiting for the day. That day's just not going to be anytime soon as it's going to task what writing skill I seem to have to the very limit. Don't Starve's got a lot of lore behind it, and while I know most of it, there's the other side of that coin which is the characters themselves. Writing convincingly for the characters is a fantastic, but immensely daunting challenge. Just those two updates you see in that test post took me quite a while, not including the revisions, and I admittedly leaned on Wilson's Field Notes quite a bit for the second one. This is all aside from the fact that Don't Starve is just such an unpredictable, hands-on game. If I say, wanted to show off treeguards at a narratively appropriate moment, it's complete luck if that even happens. wait a second, that's not very different from death road, where was i going with this I did have a full sort of "roadmap" for how I'd go about doing the Don't Starve LP. We'll see if any of this ever comes to light though. Sure is a wonderful "someday, maybe" though! In the meantime I'm doing... things. Mostly writing more RFF updates so that I can maybe have an update reserve again, but I've got two other LP ideas kinda standing above the others. One was the obscure game I meant to do even before Don't Starve with a strong narrative angle, and the other is a rather unique and obscure game with a lot of thread voting potential that I want to do almost from a preservationist angle. They were kinda both in the background of my head before and while I was doing DR2C. As to which I'll choose to do, I dunno. I'm unpredictable even to myself. I could just blow a gasket and whatever strong whim hits me at the time. That's how this LP got started after all: a half-awake insomnia-ridden me sitting up at 3:00 AM and thinking "hey i should do a death road lp" and then just putting all together the next day. the origin story kinda fits with chaos of this game, i'll be honest PinkDawn posted:But yeah, this has been a heck of a wild ride, Odd! I'd love to see you pop back in later, when you're recharged, for more fun. I'm not entirely out of ideas for this game even right now, (besides, I still haven't beaten KEPA mode like I said I would,) I just need to come back recharged on this game and maybe get some of these other LPs out of my brain in the meantime. Anyways, I managed to make this simple reply be nearly 3000 characters, so hooray me, I guess? Left 4 Bread fucked around with this message at 07:37 on Jan 25, 2022 |
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Jan 25, 2022 07:32
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Update 27: WHAT A BUNCHA WEIRDOS - RUN 2 RECAP uhhhhh how do i start this * Tunes: Four Under The Floor * that'll work I'll admit, that run kept me on the edge of my seat at times. Some real bad stuff could've happened, but just didn't. Believe me when I say there's a lot more rare characters in the game, we saw but a droplet of them. We saw almost as many on our first run, I'll be honest. Well, since we're talking about characters, I'll guess we'll cover the party first. We had a pretty consistent team this time around.   ESME ESME: BENCH PRESS DAY IN, DAY OUT ESME: GET SWOOOOOOOOOOOLE Esme's whole Seeker of the Forbidden Pump and GOD OF FURNITURE routine is mostly a reference to jokey headcanon between my brother and I and one particular berserk character that survived way more runs than they should have. Mechanically, Martial Artist Berserker is volatile but quite effective. Esme was the frontliner we needed to pull us through the early game, although she'd later be better suited with a good sword or axe. If you were wondering, she actually could have survived the event with the arcade machine, despite being tired. I just got bad luck there, which is a shame because she would've wrecked hordes with that axe.  At the end of the day, I don't usually expect Berserk characters to make it to Canada but they're useful while they last. There's not many events that have special results for Berserk! or the Angry-Strong subtype, but they help.  * ALEX * ALEX: You know, I'm glad I eventually got over that skeleton fear. Alex was the sleeper MVP of this team. Going from a no-stats Explorer City Seeker to a maxed out mechanical good fighter, she made it way longer than I would've thought. Standing as the only party member with all three inventory slots kinda has that effect. Having the extra fireproof trait doesn't hurt either. Character-wise, the choice to make her vaguely British was just something that happened in the moment. She just kinda rolls with whatever goes on as the sane basis that the narrative needed, not questioning too much. She lacked any real direction in life before and after the zompocalypse, which is how she ended up with Esme. She was almost definitely one of those people who travels the world a bunch aimlessly before the *MYSTERIOUS AMNESIA* She was also the only person on the team with any measure of loyalty, I think. Kaiju had average loyalty, maybe?  ~ LANK ~  LANK: Wah?  Lank is a legally distinct character and we here at Death Road Narratives are not liable for HYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA If there was a character I wanted to find on this run, Lank was easily in the top three. Mechanically good, and just a pure level of that would be the perfect display of the fun characters available. The bit with the anime mask was not planned, but it was an Lank is most definitely a mutual carry. He starts out kinda eh and you have to escort him through a few missions, but he'll start contributing decently with the White Sword. When he gets the M#ster Sword and a point or two of fitness, he's ready to frontline like nobody else. This dude just turns zombies into salsa. We never actually used a Lnk Bomb, mostly in part to the generally few equip slots on the team. That there was already one other friendly fire risk on the team. She's also up next!   GAL FIERI GAL FIERI: In my defense, you shouldn't have made it so flammable. Totally not a parody of Guy Fieri, Gal brought the Flavor Experience to this run, whether we needed it or not. She didn't end up actually killing any team members despite a few misfires, so I guess it worked out okay. Character-wise, she's a possible fallen TV star after her... "hobby" of fire got a hold of her. Normally she'd have played more into her past fame and persona, but she realized the group of weirdos she'd fallen in with wouldn't really care either way.  The use of this build is very niche (and was a clerical error on my part in the first place), but proved to be quite nice when the right moments arrived. I'll say it again- Napalm is extremely good in this game when applied right, and a normal launcher is fully worth every trashburger. I won't deny, Gal was a liability a lot of the time, but this type of character would be very good to find late in most runs or just before a scheduled siege. It's just a shame about not being able to turn the thing off to save gas.  -SUMO-  SUMO: Did you know that Sumo wrestlers aren't allowed to drive cars? There's a lot of really specific rules. He didn't end up joining the team, which I think was the better choice. If you really need a tank, Sumo's quite durable and has a high knockback push, but there are better options. At the time, we needed more offense and less defensive play, and in general, offense is usually the best defense in this game. I believe he also has the Gourmand trait, which is a pricy tax on food consumption.   BRYU  BRYU: Hadookin'?! Bryu and Saguts are mostly the same character in practice. They're not half bad, but the AI is terrible at playing them. Hadooks are really pricy on stamina use, but it's nearly the only thing the AI will do. The secondary kick bound to the weapons swap button isn't half bad. Given the nature of the AI on these characters, I give them the "Player good, AI bad" designation like a number of otherwise fun characters end up with. I really focused on not letting Alex die at this point, so I was mostly sticking to using her. He wasn't amazing, but at the end of the day his punching power was appreciated to help make up for Esme's absence and the team being tired at the time. Character-wise, I'll be honest, I don't play much Street Fighter so uh there's only so much I can do with incoherent battlecries   KAIJU KAIJU: ...Yeah, I'm never getting out of this thing, am I? The thread voted for Kaiju over BRYU, and honestly it was a good call mechanically. Even with only 1 slot, I feel like she was much more useful for the fact I could give her a weapon and she had about the same physical stats. She mostly ended up with the axe later just because she had a lot more strength and some better fitness than Alex, which let her use it more. In writing her, I went for two angles. The first is that she's been stuck in the suit so long she's kinda just very used to ignoring the consequences of said suit (uncontrollable screeching, tearing up everything, the smell). The other is that she's an anime fan that tries to act like she's not one. Also that this whole situation she's in was probably easily avoided. The whole thing with the Anime Club was something I thought of when we recruited Kaiju, but never thought would actually happen. And, then it just kinda did. The only thing worse than not having enough money to fix your car is getting stood up on a monster date.  THE LAST BODYBUILDER  TLB: *MOURNFUL GRUNT* Known more easily as TLB, this guy's a fun character... for you. Since we'll probably never see him again, I'll go ahead and explain his gimmick. So, TLB has a strength score of 126, when the base max is 6. A Berserk TSTC can get up to 12. ...Yeah, it's a lot. The caveat is that TLB cannot attack, he merely flexes. The only method he has of fighting is throwing furniture, and given his unsurpassed strength, there's very little he can't throw. Dumpsters, fridges, yanking toilets from the plumbing, even ruined cars. The latter is hilariously destructive if you do ever get the chance. Tunnel runs and the Canada bridge run are so easy with TLB on hand. The problem is having furniture to throw: if there is none or you break all of it, he's out of ammo. On the upside, he regularly gives uplifting speeches which is great for morale. A secret upgrade also exists that lets him throw zombies around, which completely fixes his ammo situation, but good luck finding that when you've got him in your party!  -THE RUN- The three big things I remember looking back on this run are the drought of food we hit about mid-way, the unluckiness with cars, and probably the most rescues I've done in a run. We also had pretty few bandits, I think. That was nice given how beat up we were around the day 11 area. We saved 4 people I believe, and every time I was just hoping for food or gas. Moody or Giga Guy would've been some strong characters to have recruited at the time, but we pretty much had no food every time we hit a trading camp.   The latter end of the run with the starting morale spiral had me really on edge. Normally I don't get too on edge about runs these days unless it's deep in some high difficulty run, but not wanting to lose the LP team brings that care back. We absolutely could've tantrumed out at a point to get the dreaded despair sieges. While I think we might've been able to take it with all the firepower we had, we definitely would've lost someone. Kaiju's grating nature really came in handy too- I still stand by the decision to use it on the limping lady. The one thing we direly needed was morale, and this gave it to us in spades. Believe me, you don't know how good the final gauntlet dexterity boost is until you don't have it. Also, it was just really fun to just plain dunk on the City of Lost Hopes even though I could've hid in a building. We had a pretty lucky closed circle layout there, and I know it wouldn't have gone so smoothly without it. In the end, Gal's napalm only carried us for an hour and a half, and neither Kaiju or Alex were more than average fighters. Lank put in tons of work there, and on an unluckier layout we'd need another character of his crowd clearing capabilities at the minimum. It was a good run, and a ton of fun. Having to write a narrative when you never know what's coming next is a big challenge, but there's a certain fun in flying by the seat of your pants. As for the next run? Well, we shall see, in time... ---------------------------------------------------------------------  DIEDRA: Ratland needs me. I have to go back. FRAN: ...And why is that? Don't you remember how they kicked us out? DIEDRA: It's been taken over again. I caught word from a loyalist... DIEDRA: The Illumirati have shown themselves. FRAN: The what? DIEDRA: The Queen-Empress returns to defend her homeland! FRAN: ...Your "homeland" is West Virgina. DIEDRA: Not anymore! Wasn't rad enough. WILL RATLAND BE FREED FROM THE GRASP OF THE ILLUMIRATI? WILL FRAN EVER GET TO STAY IN CANADA? WHY IS THIS IN ALL CAPS? FIND OUT............SOMETIME FOR NOW JUST *COOL IT* Left 4 Bread fucked around with this message at 07:44 on Jan 28, 2022 |
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Jan 28, 2022 07:03
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:You should link your other LPs here. I have started up another LP for the time being! I've really wanted to get this one off my mind, it's a rather neat game that flies under the radar for a lot of reasons. It's not a narrative if you were looking forward to that, but it's got a lot of voting and it's definitely unusual. I do have another narrative LP I've put some work towards, but it lacks a lot of opportunities for voting so the idea is that I'll slowly write a lot of the updates for it ahead of time. I'll probably be back to doing more DR2C runs before I get it ready, to be honest.
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Feb 4, 2022 22:25
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