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Fall of the Titanomachy Welcome back! Last time on Encased, we killed a bunch of zombies with a wrench and then learned that it was all caused by whatever poo poo those dumbasses were digging up in the basement. Today we're going to the basement, but first we have to call our boss.   : The Silver adjusts his glasses. : Come in, C12-Nashville. Kingsley spea- Oh, that's you. Good to see you.  : Report that Nashville is in the middle of an anomalous zone and a strange maelstrom is raging above the base. : Inform him of the dead bodies at the entryway and the people gone mad.: The chief officer listens to the casualty report without interrupting. He's visibly shaken.: Once you finish speaking, Kingsley gets lost in thought, biting the end of his pen. : Report that the parking lot turrets were switched to aggressive mode, but you solved the problem. : Tell him the situation isn't clear yet, but something gravely serious must have happened.: You describe recent events. Martin convulsively jots everything down in his notepad. : Tell him you don't have anything to add to your situation report. : Inform him that Louise Dekker-Schulz (Silver) has lost her mind. : Inform him that Ronald Steele (White) is fine and is now helping you with the investigation. : Inform him that Tim Ginzburg (Orange) left the crew and you don't know where he is now. : Inform him that Robert Mayland (Black) is dead and you have personally seen his body.: The chief officer puts his pen on the desk and sits back in his chair, his gaze empty and detached. Kingsley obviously didn't expect or want this. : Inform him that Maria Werner (Blue) is dead. : Tell him you don't have anything else to report about the crew.: Once your report is over, Director Kingsley becomes lost in thought.: First of all, I need to apologize. On behalf of the corporation and myself. Forgive me. I shouldn't have sent a new employee on this task.: His voice sounds oddly dull.: Martin wipes his glasses with a red handkerchief.: Your report seems to suggest we're facing something incredibly dangerous. I always tend to follow my instructions to the letter... In this case, the instructions say you should wait where you are and wait for rescue. But sadly, I know what we're dealing with. Wait, you loving knew? Poor Louise lost her mind because of the guilt and you sent her to her death. We'll talk about Kingsley in a bit.  : Nod and leave. ...huh. I don't think that was Kingsley. TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 Oh, some jackass took the elevator key.  Oh, hey, it's the dead woman at the entrance.  This pizza loving lady is not Jan.  The key is in the fridge. We grab it and take the elevator.  Monty you are a god drat loving moron and I am glad the Dome prevented you from having kids.  Anyway, welcome to the Nashville basement.  Naturally the first thing we do is loot the place.   More ominous logs!  : Ask if he's going to help you to find the relic. : Ask him where to search for the relic. : Ask if there's anything you should know about the relic.: The White hesitates before replying. : Nothing, save for this strange report I saw in the computer room. It was compiled by a physiologist from Nashville who observed the halo eye symptoms in himself.: Ronald chews on his lips.: He's looking at you.: The report's author states they found something... alive in this cave. The relic communicated with him and kept talking until the medic completely lost his marbles... : Find out how Louise is doing.: Ronald moves his flashlight over the Silver's face.: Louise's unfocused gaze listlessly tries to follow the yellow light.: Steel turns off his flashlight.: I'm no doctor, but I think she's getting worse.: Her eyes are wide open. Thin but distinct white rings glow around irises dotted bright orange.: She shakes her head. : My teeth are soft, like... like cotton.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
I was expecting a bit more from RONALD STEELE, but oh well.  This wacky glowing relic is not the wacky glowing relic we want.  The lights in the excavation area are out so we need to turn on three generators.    You have to run through this darkness that damaged both of my high-psyche previous characters. I'm not sure if it was patched out because - like I did on my first playthrough - people got lost and died or if it only triggers on high psyche characters.  The miners are all insane. You can beat them to death for XP if you really want to, but we won't be doing that.   Nothing stands in the way of us going up and finding the relic.   It's the Golden Sphere! This is actually from Roadside Picnic, where it was a mythical wish granting device - yes, Stalker used this too - that various governments and individuals were trying to get their hands on. I can't talk about it too much here because Encased draws a lot from it, but in the novel at least one character uses it to wish for children.  It doesn't matter what you pick here. You can scan it, you can science it, whatever. : You aim your scanner at the artifact's glowing surface, but the device will not function. Only a sine curve is quivering spasmodically on the monochrome screen. Ah, poo poo.    Concord is the tutorial station. Hope you didn't leave anything behind!       What?  : Melville examines you closely. : Safe and sound, I see. How did you pull that off? No one survived where you were heading. The only worse place is the center of the Dome, where the Spire.. well, you know.: The old man points vaguely upwards with his crooked finger.: You're aware, aren't ya? The Spire has fallen. Now the road has closed. As if folks would want to come here anyway... And there we stay, like crabs in a barrel.Welcome to the game's theme - even on the brink of extinction we're gonna gently caress it up fighting it out over stupid poo poo. There was discussion in the thread of how Roadside Picnic is fundamentally an optimistic story. Encased is fundamentally a story of human failure. : He thumps his timber leg on the ground, driving the mist away.: Don't think that I'm complaining. My business is on a roll. They come and they go.: Melville's face seems to petrify. He speaks slowly but flounders anyway.: The gas station can be crowded nowadays, everyone needs my gas station... Folks went crazy, I tell ya - Fighting over nothin'.: The old man woefully shakes his head.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
  : Get her to calm down - you're not a ghost.: She nods timidly. : Yes, I see. This... both you and this mist - it's all in my head.: Clara never moves her gaze off you.: I remember you saying, "Find the car and drive away..." If I knew you were sacrificing yourself, I would have stayed. If someone frees you from your oath out of generosity or humanity, does that mean that the oath shouldn't be fulfilled? I still don't know what the answer to it. : Tell her you're in heaven.I don't know where I am but there's no reason to torment Clara right now. Incidentally, if you don't tell Clara to drive off and forget her, she begs your forgiveness for her cowardice in leaving you. Of course, we know that there's absolutely nothing she could have done - everyone at the site save the player, RONALD STEELE, and Ginzburg were either driven insane or killed. We can also surmise that Clara had absolutely no idea what she was being sent into - even Louise alludes to this on the radio, when the player picks it up and she doesn't reply. : Clara sighs heavily.: I see - Why are you appearing to me? Is this some sort of a sign? Do you know about signs? This is when - : Her voice suddenly becomes deep and thick. She drawls as if her words were being played from a corrupted tape.: Clara's face alters subtly, as if it had turned to stone.: Abbot is very kind to me. But his faith is nothing I could get used to.: She says in a dull voice.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 Oh, not THIS rear end in a top hat!   : Holy poo poo!: He looks at his empty hand with a puzzled expression.: Ginzburg looks up and examines your face with a suspicious squint.: Do I know you? Yes, I do! : Ask what crap he's talking about. The... Church? There was literally a dude in the starting area ranting about Communism. : He shakes his head.: Or maybe it's not the glasses. I see all kinds of poo poo since that day. People pay cash just to speak to me...: His face abruptly goes blank, and his voice sounds dead and dull.: Not everyone can escape from Nashville. That means something, doesn't it?: He says, gazing at your face with glassy eyes.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 : You? Wow. This is... amusing. I was certain you were dead.: He walks up and touches you with his palm, but you feel nothing.: Ronald looks disappointed. His uncertain gestures suggest he feels nothing.: What was I hoping for, anyway?: Steele looks you in the eye.: Do you know how unreal it was to survive and keep my sanity with all the psychic stress Maelstrom was generating? A lot of people lost their minds. That was what we saw here. And what happened after at Ankara, on the west side of the Dome...: He looks you in the eye.: You know, I'm locked inside my head right now. From my perspective, it looks like the computer room where Louise locked me in. How ironic.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 All of the visions disappear and it's time to keep walking.     A bunch more visions have appeared!  : Kingsley is much shorter in person. And older.: He notices you.: I never thought we'd meet again... I must thank you. Thanks to your report, I was able to start the evacuation in time.: Martin comes closer.: You notice small changes in his uniform: some of the insignia have been replaced by larger patches resembling military chevrons.: Kingsley nods as if anticipating your quesiton.: Yes... Yes, the uniform is new, but the man is the same - head of Magellan base. I intended to resign after the Incident, but Nakamura decided otherwise... I couldn't argue with her.: He surveys the thick mist around you.: One thing's certain - you're standing here, that means you're alive. Yes, I know what this is. Partly.: He looks you in the eye and says.: Scientists on the Emulator Project have been telling us a lot about it. Not everything of course; even they don't know what it is.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
So, Kingsley. There's a bit more going on with him in that he's not an evil or malicious man, just someone who once went into CRONUS believing in the vision of world peace through alien technology and international cooperation and who was stymied by the idiotic bureaucracy. His most revealing quote comes if you're a Silver. An alternate introduction posted:
This is Kingsley in a nutshell - he's caught working for a corporation that owns a private security force, and his options are either to resign while remaining trapped in the Dome with no employment prospects while abandoning his people to some other, potentially more ruthless competitor, or to stay in place and try to fix things. Of course, with CRONUS the tree is rotten from the top down, so there will be no fixing things, and while things got bad enough that Kingsley resigned - which is probably a death sentence - Nakamura made him somehow go through with it. This won't be the last we see of Kingsley.  : He's examining a shred of mist hanging in the air. He's so involved in his research that he doesn't notice you at first.: Meeting your eyes, the scientist instantly darts back.: Then he comes up to you and begins to palpate your hands, face, and clothes.Excuse me?  : Ask him about the thought form and the pink mist.: The White winces. : Have you any grasp of the context? I'm talking about anomalies. The pink mist is obviously a term particular to this field. A thought form... well, it's a derivative of this pink mist. Eyewitnesses often see people in it.: Sebastian smiles dreamily.: I see answers in it, myself. Numerical sequences which... but you probably wouldn't understand.: The scientists loses all interest in you, steps aside and continues to study the mist.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
    Excuse me?   I'm not sure if they patched this or what, but I could swear my Silver character saw her as "beautiful". : She looks at you with surprise.: Then she frowns pensively and steps closer.: She stands so close you can see multicolored reflections in her bionic eye.: After poking you to confirm your ethereal nature, she waves her hand left to right. Obviously, she's hoping to disperse you like mist.: Naturally, she fails. The woman chuckles discontentedly and leaves.: The clicking of her heels fades quickly away.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 : His stony black eyes resemble those of a blind man, but their gaze is fixed on you. : He smiles, a warm and kindly expression wildly at odds with the menace in his eyes. : Name your price and I'll buy your design. But be reasonable. Take time with your answer. Think it through.: With the smile still fixed on his face, he steps back into the mist, never taking his eyes off you.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
Well let's keep talking to the rest of these weirdos.  It's pretty obvious Maelstrom is showing us these guys but we don't yet know why. : He claps his hands behind his back and stops a few steps away, scanning you with his gaze. : The man circles you. His glance bounces from your face to your uniform, to your shoes, and back. : But you... you are something else. So, let's see...: A pre-war haircut, old time uniform - clean and pressed. Shoes aren't worn out, just got 'em.: He recites with enthusiasm.: He frees his plump palm and carefully touches you with one finger.: You're ethereal but light-tight. You respond to my movements. You're not using an image that's familiar to me... You don't look like anyone I know, and your badge says...: He raises himself on tiptoes and fixes his eyes upon your badge.: The name. Of course. Of course! The name!: He flings his arms about and leaves without even saying goodbye. The mist seems to slam shut behind his back, like a pair of wing-doors closing.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
   : You're the man. You're responsible for me. The night stand! The top drawer! There they are! My pills! Just say "pills" before we go to sleep. Is that so difficult, Johan?: She pushes him lightly on the shoulder.: The man nods automatically, lost in thought.: The woman clasps her hands in front of her chest. She's boiling with frustration.: I can't depend on you, can I? I haven't been able to relax in years because I have to control the situation for the both of us. JOHAN! HELLO! MY PILLS! P-I-L-L-S! : Olivia falters and points her finger at you.: And what is this? Or who is this... Mind telling me? Without the never-ending riddles, Johan, just tell me!: Johan gives you an appraising look. : Is it Maelstrom? Abbot trying out a new device? I don't know, darling. Now, be so kind to take these goddamn pills, since you remembered. And if you must yell, do it quietly. I have a migraine.: The woman flings her arms up fiercely and walks away into the mist. Johan lets her go ahead, then follows.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 Two more to go!  Is she - is she gonna make head go WHOOOOP?  : She smiles, although on her this expression is more like an evil grin.: She begins to prowl around you in a circle, wary eyes locked on your face.: While circling around you, she steps into the mist and stops in place, a vague, distant silhouette.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
Last vision!  : You take a step towards him, and he strides forward as if to block your way. : The stranger raises his hand, forcing you to stop.: He looks up again. : We have to be like the Soviet Union and Germany in the 1930s: mutual favors, mutual limits, parity. We've always worked on such terms!Uh... : As he finishes speaking, his lips stop. The man in the turban keeps standing there, a lean figure looking angrily upward.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 The last of the visions poofs out.  Huh.  Well, we will leave the befuddled Dell here, as that was a lot of  . Next Time: A brave new post-apocalyptic world!
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Feb 22, 2022 02:33
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While I kinda realize the problems poor old Kingsley has with being a middle manager, I am thinking back about his earlier comments regarding society falling apart in hours without cold water and, really, that's just good old elite panic, his informed cynicism is just some hybrid of bog standard cynicism and also perhaps being given the pleasure of having to deal with being effectively a slave-owning society, oh, that might do it.
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Feb 22, 2022 03:51
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Im sure this maelstrom business is just a big misunderstanding. It'll all turn out fine
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Feb 22, 2022 04:18
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So that was several different chunks of context, all jumbled and tossed directly at our heads like a brick. It’s good design at least to talk to the people we know first, to get more clear on some of the rules of this exposition, before throwing us in the deep end. Certainly a way to cap the prologue. Lots of questions, many of them jumbled. The important first one that comes to my mind, since it’s the most easily answered: how long has it been since we got sent to Nashville?
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Feb 22, 2022 04:29
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Long enough for not only a church to form worshipping the big storm that makes head go whoop, but the church to start building headgear to increase head:whoop ratio. The driver seems to have enough survivor's guilt to figure you've got to be dead, so -- minimum two months?
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Feb 22, 2022 05:52
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There appears to have been a war, and some major supply shortages alongside a change in uniform. I’m thinking a decade at the minimum, maybe closer to two.
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Feb 22, 2022 06:31
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Something to note. TGEK didn't update her portrait to represent her talking, but if you look at the screenshots, Clara looks terrible at this point.
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Feb 22, 2022 06:41
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Keldulas posted:Something to note. TGEK didn't update her portrait to represent her talking, but if you look at the screenshots, Clara looks terrible at this point. For the record, this is the happier Clara. She goes even more to poo poo if you don't give her permission to run.
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Feb 22, 2022 06:44
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Is that accompanied by a third portrait?
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Feb 22, 2022 06:51
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I believe it's just dialogue.
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Feb 22, 2022 06:52
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This is dope. I was already enjoying the LP but had no idea this section was merely prologue!
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Feb 22, 2022 08:54
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Android Blues posted:This is dope. I was already enjoying the LP but had no idea this section was merely prologue! There's a reason the game describes itself as post-apocalyptic.
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Feb 22, 2022 09:14
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The Lone Badger posted:There's a reason the game describes itself as post-apocalyptic.
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Feb 22, 2022 12:44
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God drat what a strong prologue. Excellent twist, now it has my full attention
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Feb 22, 2022 14:06
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I don't remember the crown girl from when I played this...
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Mar 1, 2022 17:44
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I'm going to wager the church man is evil.
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Mar 6, 2022 02:51
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Azuth0667 posted:I'm going to wager the church man is evil. Wait are you telling me that a CHURCH get this, a CHURCH might be run by someone EVIL? In a video game? Impossible!
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Mar 6, 2022 02:55
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Excellent so far. I would never have heard of this game; thanks for playing it for us. I do find the sillier nature of the abridged dialogue segments gives me a bit of tonal whiplash.
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Mar 6, 2022 04:28
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A Brave New World Welcome back! Last time on Encased we kind of, um, unleashed the apocalypse at the behest of our corporate masters.   Anyway, we're back in the cave with the wrecked Golden Sphere relic. I'll make this short and sweet - there's nothing in this cave we can appropriate and it's time to leave.  Unfortunately the game makes us leave the servoshell behind. I might have mentioned this is a max level upgraded servoshell, so there was no way the game was going to let us keep it.  The Board of Directors were not bright people.  : You slowly spread your fingers. At first you can't see anything, only a blind whiteness... Gradually, the pulsating light resolves into the outlines of a red rock and a tall white structure at its foot.  Welcome to the Nashville outskirts! It's a silly place.  We are, of course, going to loot everything. What's Project Emulator? Maybe we'll find out!  It seems enough of civilization has survived for there to be radio broadcasts at least.  : Rotate the tuning knob.: You rotate the controller.: The emergency message is now coming through loud and clear.  So, it was very briefly mentioned, but CRONUS leadership was called "The Committee". Earlier in the game posted:
So despite CRONUS being one hundred percent responsible for this fuckup they somehow still have enough power to have "New Committee" citizens. Great.  In other words, there's literally nothing they can do about it because they idiotically unleashed forces beyond human comprehension or understanding.  : Hit the dashboard.: The speakers fall silent for a moment, then begin to crackle and skirr with double force. The text of the announcement is still barely audible in parts.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 From here you may safely assume I beat up these afflicted and loot the area following the ABL system. It's not very exciting.  Despite this being the time of the New Committee, these people are still spewing out their crazed nonsense and trying to murder us.  What's exciting is that now we have free access to the overworld!  We have a black and...vaguely sepia toned map here of various places we could go - with the obvious exception of Maelstrom, which is the bright purple and green anomaly on our otherwise colorless map. We COULD go check it out. I will inform you right now that is not a good idea.  We're instead going to Junktown. We could go to Magellan instead and maybe Kingsley would give us a place to crash, but I happen to know what the game is about to tell us in two seconds.   So the reason for our survival is clear - Maelstrom let us live because it wants us to do something. We don't know what, but it apparently involves going to this building.  : Keep going, no matter what.: With a herculean effort, you get to your feet and continue walking.: The hum and pain in your head soon disappear. All that remains is the slowly dissolving fog and the blue glow fading away in the distance.: You've seen this fading glow before, but from a different angle - the explosion that flashed through the clouds, pushed apart by Maelstrom - this strange beam of light is what remains.: It must mean something. Maybe there to the northeast is where your path now lies.: Keep going.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
We have a few reasons to go to Junktown anyway which we'll see in a moment.  Not least that we're overencumbered with the supplies we've acquired in the course of our legitimate business activities and could use... whatever currency they use in the unknown year of the New Committee.  Eh we got a wrench and a heat laser, we should be fine.  I'm of two minds about this sequence. On one hand, yeah, it's kind of a clumsy "the plot demands you go here" dump, but on the other hand we are clearly receiving visions from some kind of power beyond comprehension. Hell, last update we even learned there was an entire church dedicated to worshipping Maelstrom as a god and the game made it very clear we're alive for a reason.  So we're getting the visual shorthand used by many games for beacons and quest markers in a textual description because Maelstrom wants us to go to this building. We don't know what it is or why yet, but we can presume it involves the people in the visions. : Somewhere in these slums is the unknown, but apparently important goal of your journey...TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 Welcome to Junktown! There are some people we can talk to, so let's do that.  This guy seems alright so maybe he can give us a better idea of what the hell is going on.  : Inquire about the quarantine.: The guard gestures toward the horizon. : They say Maelstrom began to expand, which hadn't happened for a long time. That's why the quarantine was declared. Citizens must remain in the city and non-citizens, and those who didn't have time to relocate, are all here in Junktown. Fortunately, we have the Emulator.: To be completely honest, I don't really believe this thing works. But it's better than nothing, right? Welcome.: He shakes your hand.: Move away.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
Well, poo poo. We at least can speculate that this "Emulator" is in the building from our vision and works possibly better than CRONUS gives it credit for. If it was considered valuable, it probably wouldn't be in Junktown! Well, who else is at the gate?  : She clutches your hand in a death grip. : You're my last hope! Please! We've actually seen her before! The Very First Update posted:Katarzyna here was being pressured to commit fraud by her supervisor. : Ask what she wants.: She hugs you so fiercely that for a second you forget how to breathe.: Thank you! I just know you're a good person. If you won't help me, nobody will, and I'll just die. Die here, amongst these...Some alarm bells may be going off right now. We'll get to those in a minute. : Katarzyna pulls herself together.: I've been banished from the City. From Magellan. They took my selectrone and stripped me of citizenship. No one wants to help me. Everyone's afraid they'll... end up like me. All because of that damned Nakamura and her laws. : Find out who Nakamura is.We've heard a bit about her. Kingsley told us that Nakamura kept him as the head of Magellan Station despite the obvious gently caress ups, what we don't know is why. : The White is surprised by this. Well, yes Katarzyna, we have. : [Science 50] Observe that in legal terms, Nakamura must have had serious justification to claim power.: Belitskaya looks away.: Well... she didn't literally seize power. When Maelstrom appeared, communication with the outside vanished and the Spire collapsed. No one knew what to do. Kimiko organized the evacuation of Concord. She accommodated the staff in Magellan... : Ask how they could possibly banish someone from Magellan.Considering that Martin "no classified information" Kingsley got to stay on after - by his own admission - orchestrating the literal apocalypse this is a very good question.  : [Perception 6] Tell Katarzyna you know she's lying. Her gestures and expressions make it obvious.: The White frowns bitterly. She's not happy to be caught in her lie. : Ask why she lost her citizenship. So, we don't have the influence score to get Ms. Belitskaya to talk here (and after reloading and using the magazines, it turns out they don't actually give us the Conviction ability we'd need to open her up here, so I will tell you. It's the fraud in the beginning where she was misreporting artifacts. Of course, we were literally there when she ineffectually protested to her boss that it would be fraud, and one is forced to notice that Vladimir is pointedly not wandering the desert in filth and exhaustion. We will comment on this later, because Katarzyna here is not a one-off NPC. : Tell her you want to ask something else. : Return to her request and ask what she specifically wants from you. : Tell her you'll help her for free.Yeah, I know, she's obviously lying to us, but there's a reason I'm doing this.  : She looks back at the city behind the wall.: So do we have a deal? Come on! I can't wait to return to Magellan.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
Astute observers might be wondering why we're going out of our way to help the obviously sketchy lady, and there's a very good reason.  She's our first party member! Now, the party member limit is one of the few things I dislike about this game. We are capped at a party size of three including the main character. However, if we have an active quest with a temporary party member like Kotya here, she does not count against the three person limit. Once we finish her quest, she becomes a real party member and joins us in our foolish expeditions across the desert to follow the visions of an inscrutable alien entity and then we're down to three people. There are six party members and I'm gonna be honest, I love big parties in my RPGs. Oh well!  She doesn't have much to say if we chat her up now. Let's take a look at her - not like that, you pervs!  Katarzyna is stereotypical white wing - she's got the starter science gear, hi-tech weapons and science training, high charisma, low psyche. Her weapon is interesting - all of the companions have a unique weapon with special abilities and they are going to be your number one use of upgrade books because upgrading generics is usually not worth it.  Katarzyna's is the hilariously named "My Ex's Heart" cryolaser, which lets her spam precise shots without cooldown. Now, it's a funny joke, but if we take a look at what this tells us about the character there's a lot she's not telling us. First, she has a sense of humor that doesn't carry over in any of the dialogue she has with the player, from which we can imply that the personality she's exposing to us is more calculated than authentic. Second, far from being a clueless naif she has a lethal weapon she personally modified to kill people more efficiently. The cryolaser is not a cartoon freeze ray that does no lasting damage, it kills people by freezing them solid. There is no nonlethal mode, the best you get is weakening people to kill them.  This lady is a food merchant who buys our stuff and is mysteriously blond and black haired at the same time.  We aren't cool enough to steal the mini car but we can honk the horn.   Huh. I guess there's some weird crap happening that Nakamura won't allow to be investigated?  : Ask him who he is. : Introduce yourself and tell your story. : Ask him how to get into the City so you can talk with Nakamura. : Well....: He scratches the back of his head. : Ask him what there is to do around here.: The sheriff shrugs.: There's not much in the way of entertainment. You can always wander the streets bothering people with stupid questions. There's a bar, and also the cave under the bar, where people sometimes beat on each other's faces in the spirit of sportsmanship, and money. You can watch, or even take part if you're interested. Although something tells me that you need something more serious.: He pauses meaningfully.: You raise your eyes to find Kurt examining you.: Spengler runs his hand over his thin red hair.: I'll get straight to the point. A local guy left Junktown and moved to the caves just after this quarantine business began. He founded some kind of commune there, beyond the reach of the New Committee's laws.: He strolls around the room as he speaks.: What's wrong with that, might you ask? I'll tell you. Bad rumors about that cave. Many left to live there, but only a few return now and then for supplies, and always the same ones...: Kurt returns to his table again.: I've long since realized what it means to be sheriff here. This is the New Committee. You need a written confirmation for everything or you'll get into so much poo poo that you won't ever wash it off. I can't set foot there. But you, you're a different case. : Ask him what changed during those two years. : Ask him if absolutely everything is crap. : Ask who Nakamura is. So we can identify one of the mysterious figures from our vision! I'll talk a bit about Nakamura later in the update. : Leave.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
Onwards!  We finally manage to get one of these. You might be tempted to use them on your starter weapons. Unless you have the DLC heat laser or some other unique weapon, don't - all the generics can be found at higher levels in either randomly generated loot or at vendors.  This man is promising totally awesome free poo poo if we listen to his sermon. We will do so another time.   Umar tells us stuff we already know, namely that the quarantine isn't based on real medicine and there are a bunch of refugees. He doesn't like Nakamura and gives us a bit more context. Oh well, onwards! May as well hit the bar.  : One of the Blacks takes a truncheon off his belt and taps the table slightly with it, attracting the sitting man's attention. I'm talking to you, butthead. Davey now eats pap, 'cause you broke his jaw. : The end of the truncheon knocks against the Orange's shoulder. You think it's funny? loving jokester. : Ask the Blacks what they want from this mob muscle. Well, we don't necessarily want to pick a fight with NC police, but we want to help this man for mysterious - alright, you got me, he's a party member. We're also low on health and medkits. : Offer to cover up the case with a couple of beers at your expense and a small compensation for the wounded warden.: At the sound of the word "beer", the policemen brighten.: The Orange shakes his head in displeasure, muttering something under his breath. Money doesn't grow on trees in this game, but we did sell a bunch of crap. : [Combonds 400] Give them the money.: The policemen count the notes contentedly, order their beers, and leave, laughing in drunk voices.: The Orange looks at you from under his eyebrows. His face's calm, but he keeps clenching and unclenching his fist. : You shouldn't have. That's not the way to deal with them. We go back and talk to him again because why not.  : [Combonds 5] Buy him a beer. : Ask who he is and what he does.: The Orange looks down at his fists.: Crump's the name. Yep, that's what my ma called me. I hit people. I've fought people for money. I've worked as a bouncer, I've made "debt collections." I'm very good at it, maybe one of the best. Then I ended up under the Dome 'cause of the program. But nothin' really changed. : Ask what he means. : Ask for more details. : Say you have some business and you need to go. We immediately chat with him again and...  : Offer to travel together. : Hit the road. : Lies a lot, fusses around beside the point.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
All right! Crump here is our first real party member. He's a melee powerhouse who uses unarmed attacks. We'll take a better look at him next update, but right now our little party does not get along. If you pick up Crump first, Katarzyna asks you to protect her from "this... Crump" and we now have an awkward collection of criminals to accompany us on our vaguely defined adventures involving psychic visions from a hellstorm. We should also probably discuss Nakamura. We've actually met her, she was the one-eyed lady from the vision:  Nakamura is the leader of the New Committee faction, which as we now know is the remnants of CRONUS leadership imposing - per Katarzyna - draconian new laws exiling people for previous corruption. We can't say a lot about the New Committee, but from what we've seen they've imposed a medically ineffectual quarantine on the city, run a corrupt police force and have some kind of elite force I've literally never interacted with in playing the game. Her design is interesting due to the bionic eye, a cliched representation of being coldly analytical a la Darth Vader, but with various characters of authoritarian mindset describing her as beautiful including potentially the player character. We are told that Kimiko organized the evacuation by Spengler, but it's never really made clear how much was Nakamura and how much was anyone else - after all, Kingsley credits the evacuation to our warning, which is hard to square with Spengler's blind praise of Nakamura as being surrounded by corrupt advisors but also a shining beacon of moral purity yea it's totally a cult of personality who are we kidding. Well, we now have to decide what to do in this brave new world! Decisions Lie Before Us Are we doing the cave of hippies, the fight club, checking out this "Emulator Project" from the visions, or dick around the Kshatriya base which I've never been to before?
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Mar 10, 2022 03:09
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: Hey, uh, citizens of the New Committee! Please evacuate! 
: He... he beat up the warden!
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Go to the base.
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Mar 10, 2022 03:45
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Fight club, then hippies!
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Mar 10, 2022 04:08
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Given that the game actually does give portraits to a fair amount of people, I'm sort of wondering if the low party limit is due to the game expecting a fresh player to accidentally miss a couple. I like the party members reacting to each other, I wonder how long the game manages to hold that up. Normally details like that fall off later on, but the game has given a solid impression asofar. Fight Club, if only because the idea of two dudes just going in melee while a random white coat freeze rays people is kind of silly.
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Mar 10, 2022 04:38
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Fight club
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Mar 10, 2022 04:41
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Hippie Fight Club! Wait, punctuation's wrong Hippies then Fight Club Because we need to get swole for the ring, and there's no better way to do that than beating up hippies.
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Mar 10, 2022 06:12
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Fight club.
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Mar 10, 2022 06:20
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Cave of Hippies, You never know what you'll get high on there.
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Mar 10, 2022 09:38
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Cave of Hippies - they might have a thing that makes your head go WHOOOOP!
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Mar 10, 2022 16:21
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TheGreatEvilKing posted:
Crump sat alone on a stool at the bar "My name is Crump, " he'd casually remark Waitin' for the chance to his fists as he drank
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Mar 10, 2022 16:37
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Crump sat alone on a stool at the bar "My name is Crump, " he'd casually remark Waitin' for a fight while he is drinking He just kept sayin' life is punching and kicking He's Crump, he's Crump What's in his head? He's Crump, he's Crump, he's Crump Is he inbred?
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Mar 10, 2022 17:08
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Yeah okay that was a much better attempt. 
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Mar 10, 2022 17:23
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quote:Ask the Blacks what they want from this mob muscle. out of context statements for 500, Alex
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Mar 13, 2022 04:07
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Azuth0667 posted:Go to the base. new for us *and* you? yes do the base
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Mar 23, 2022 21:20
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Impress Women With Your Manly Wrench Welcome back! Last time, we got a bunch of quests in Junktown and the thread tied between the Hippy Cave and Fight Club. I am thus abusing my LPer perogative to do Fight Club for... reasons. Look, I got distracted by Elden Ring, ok? Now that I've awkwardly stood up poor Ranni because I didn't see her summon sign next to Fractured Marika while also letting Fia bear our weird three way child rune and completely ignoring her ending she literally died for we can get back to the Encased LP.  I wander the town, ignoring the desperate pleas of this prostitute looking for a place we can crash and get our HP back as I'm under the delusional belief we're low on medical supplies. Unfortunately, Junktown sucks, so I end up just tearing through our food supplies to heal up.  : Say the Sheriff told you there are underground fights on the premises.: Bethany angrily plants her fists on her hips. : loving Spengler! Shoots his mouth off just like an old washerwoman.: Mortensen watches you thoughtfully.: See the hatch in the corner? Go down to the rathskeller and see for yourself if you want it or not. I was very shocked to see the first dialogue option, as I was expecting something completely different and quest related. Let's check it out! : Ask what kind of housing she's got on offer.:: Beth puts the glass aside.: I rent a few shacks here. There's a bad one, a decent one, and a really chic little house. Chic by local standards, I mean. Hell yeah! Let's become rich slumlords! Ka-ching! : Ask if you can buy one of the houses in Junktown. ...poo poo. I also know of at least one residence we can get for free, soo.... : Say you'd prefer something else.I then take a look at the food which... honestly isn't that interesting! Sorry! TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 This trapdoor is cleverly hidden behind the bar.   Katarzyna immediately has a little freakout. : I don't like it here. Hey? Psst! Let's go! Let's leave, eh?: Oh... they never listen to me. Patsy Logan is our fight arranger here so we of course want to risk life and limb beating strangers with a wrench for money. There's a very good reason to rush this questline now.  Now's when I actually scarf down all our food. At least we get buffs?  : After adjusting his glasses, Patsey scrutinizes you carefully and only then crooks a bony index finger for you to approach. : Say you want to be champion of the pit.: Patsey is so delighted, he seems about to take flight from sheer exuberance. : We want to fight? Do we? Good, wonderful! But first we have to defeat someone. Defeat, yes. Do we want to? Eh? Do we? : Ask who Ken Mason is. : [Combonds 50] Say you're ready to fight and also want to place a bet on yourself.This is free money, as if you lose in the arena you die but if you win you don't seem to kill your opponent. At least, I don't think so? I'm not sure.  : Proceed to the pit.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 We immediately spawn into the pit. Fighting in the pit is solo, but you get a pre-combat period where the opponent runs across the screen at you if you wanted to buff or you just wanted to cheese them with powerful psionic attacks before they can melee you.  There's not a lot going on in these fights. It turns out we can just use our items to outheal incoming damage while still outputting enough damage to eventually grind Ken here to death. He's a newb and he sucks, don't worry about it.  We get out of the arena at low health. Fortunately there is medical care that can bring back dead NPCs after wrench injuries, might as well see what it can do for us.  We freak out Patsy because we always have our weapon drawn outside the arena.  The guards have some drama.   Naturally the object of his affections doesn't think about him at all. Whatever, to the medbay!  Having beaten up Ken we are now officially a fighter and can get into the fighters' cool club.  We can also mock him about not giving him a tip.  There's another CRONUS healing machine here that charges us money. Spoiler alert: even when we get a free one for our base it charges us money. I guess if I had a magic machine that could instantly heal gunshot wounds and brain damage for a hundred and twenty bucks that would be a bargain.  The medical tech is a useless rear end in a top hat, but he gives us permission to steal everything so we do that.  Including this teleporter! We can't use it, but it sells for OKish amounts and also lets us get places we couldn't normally get.  We get another medkit and some more drugs we can ethically sell to honor our new spiritual guide, Pablo Escobar.  I then realize we have 10 of the drat things. I'm not sure if we just picked them up, or our party members had them and dumped them into shared inventory,  We also find this acid knife thing. I'm not sure if melting flesh on contact is good for a surgical scalpel - I suspect it isn't - but it does more damage than our wrench so I equip it. This will turn out to be a mistake in a few minutes.  We chat up some loser gamblers and an alcoholic lady.  We go back to Patsey and prepare to battle Fox. Who is Fox, anyway? : Logan throws up his hands, as if imitating fireworks.: Fox, Fox, Fox! That's the right question we asked. We don't know who the Fops are yet, but they sound ominous! We do the usual bet song and dance about betting on ourselves and get in the pit.  Anyway, Fox is special. For one thing, she heals from biochemical damage like the one from our spanking new knife. Good troll, game.  She also has unique dialog and a unique portrait.  Fortunately our wrench makes short work of her.  Well, that and medkit tanking. It's not a very exciting fight, we have one melee party member. What do you want from me?  Fox also does not explicitly die horribly in the bloodsport arena, and I'll stop being coy - she's a party member.  After you beat her she appears in the pit.   : Retort that her granny obviously wasn't as good at fighting.: Fox snorts. : She wasn't good at anything. So here's our semi cheesy strategy here. Remember, we have a party limit of two - but, Katarzyna is a special party member who doesn't count against the cap. Once we get her to Magellan Station, she does, but for right now we can have our turbosized crew to do adventures with. : Say you don't mind traveling together.: I don't mind either. Interesting coincidence.: Fox looks around.: I know for a fact I won't miss this place.: The girl ties the torn ends of the string and puts her mask on.: Her gaze seems quite different when she looks at you again. Yeah, Fox has this weird multiple personality thing with the mask going on. We'll talk to her about it later.  TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 So, Fox. Fox is three levels higher than us right now, and while she's specialized with knives she's also a powerful psionic.  Her custom weapon is a knife that not only deals poison damage but renders Fox immune to it. She's specced for backstabbing people as well as using that pyrokinesis gauntlet. The game takes into account in dialog that she's a psion as well, so if she tells you about people's motivations you should generally listen. There's also a unique weapon that is perfect for her we will probably be stealing once we get to it.  Incidentally, I forgot to show off Crump's unique weapon. It gives him a little pile of resistances in addition to helping him punch better.  There's one more guy between us and the champion. The Kshatriya are the New Committee special forces we've vaguely heard about. You might think Mr. Levy here would be a challenge.  We beat the ever loving poo poo out of him while he ineffectually fucks with our fatigue bar.  As a result of the brutal wrench murder we hit level five, and I dump all of our points into melee.  This also unlocks our new best ability - pounce. It's a gap closer, which dumps the main weakness of our build (spending AP to move into combat) that ALSO stuns the target for a round on hit. It's a real, turn-skipping stun! Dell chugs a bunch of instant coffee to remove his fatigue and I figure we're ready to challenge the arena champion.  The game tries to warn me and I don't listen. Sure, he's wearing power armor, and I only crushed him easily last time by being massively overleveled and tearing him apart with psionic attacks, but I got him this time, right?  A second synapse fires and I go looking for a higher level blunt weapon so I can use our pounce ability with it. Unfortunately I can't find one in Junktown, so we go back in with our crappy level 1 pipe wrench that's falling behind in damage. What, you think I'm wasting our melee upgrade on that? No!  Alright, we've stunned him - except we do no damage because we have a level 1 wrench vs loving power armor. It's not like he's gonna combo us down in a turn rig -  MOTHERFUCKER!!!!!  I'm not sure what's worse, that we died or that Fox thinks we're a dumbass. Oh well! Next time: The Worst Hippie Cave!
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Apr 6, 2022 01:15
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Love that Fox is like "Jesus, that dead guy sucks" even though it's a game over and won't matter.
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Apr 6, 2022 03:28
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"Look at this idiot, taking a pipe to a knife fight" - Fox, definitely
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Apr 6, 2022 12:23
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Fox seems interesting, I hope the mask thing doesn't get too weird
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Apr 6, 2022 19:27
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The Worst Hippie Cave Welcome back! Last time on Encased we got arrogant in the arena and got one-shot to death by the arena champion. Today we're going to leave our revenge for later and go wander off to do some sidequests. The thread wanted to see the Hippie Cave, so we're going off into the cave the local sheriff warned us about while totally ignoring both the main quest and Katarzyna's quest that reduces the max party size.  Yea, yea, rub it in.  The cave is directly north of Junktown so off we trek.  Only to run into this random encounter! We of course go closer.  Jeez, MOM, we're running with criminals now!  I completely forget that the case is OUTSIDE the car and waste a bunch of time breaking into the trunk and the car itself before this happens:   : Offer a friendly greeting.: With a sigh of relief, the stranger places the key on the wing of the car. : Sorry, hard day... Courier business, you know. The car broke down. Very inconvinient[sic]. Yup. Looks like I forgot to refill the oil. Can you repair cars?That's the generic Blue NPC portrait, which the game uses for our courier friend.  : Ask why he was hiding behind the dune. : Ask what's inside the case.: The stranger glances at this case.: No idea. I'm a courier. I just deliver the goods. At this point you can tell him you robbed the case and that it's super dangerous so he should let you have it, but... we didn't because I was dumb. : Placate him, you didn't do anything of the sort. : Agree to fix his car and leave. TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
At this point I realize I screwed up our chance of getting a unique relic we will never use, so I reload the game.  I have Crump bash open the case, we grab the contents and run before the guy can spawn. Sucker!  This relic. The way it works is that if your party members die in your presence while equipped, you get a permanent psyche boost - so you can unequip the relic afterwards. You can get stupid high psyche while doing this, as you have 6 party members - and then you can take the Loner perk, which gives you 75% more XP for not having companions. You can even pick up the "Miss Norway" relic from the intro that gives you imaginary friend party members, though I've never used it myself and am unsure how it works. It's a legitimate build, I just don't want to slaughter the companions.  On to the hippie cave.  This is going to suck, isn't it?  It is, for all of the wrong reasons.  The obvious way to approach this is to cross this bridge, but for one, it's mined.  Second, this guy is backed up by two turrets, who have fairly heavy weapons and will do a number on Team Crime.  The solution is to think criminally and sneak in through this pipe, but this raises its own issues...  ...namely, the game's absolutely dogshit pathfinding means that Crump here wanders out of the pipe and onto the bridge. Suddenly I understand why people do Mobius Strip psyker builds.  It takes us a bunch of reloads, but we finally get the party through the pipes to spawn here, where we can fight the hippies without the turrets. They start as hostile, I wonder why? Oh well, Fox can barbecue them with her pyrokinetic assault.  Katerzyna brings the cryolaser to bear.  They foolishly try to beat the poo poo out of Crump, who is about to reveal that he's a better puncher then I expected.  Fox backstabs a scrub.  It turns out that Crump can melee attack people at range, which I *think* is due to his unique weapon being vaguely Buddhist themed? No idea, but it's cool!  Take a note of these damage values for later.  The game has a fairly neat system where hostile NPCs will run off and try to alert their friends to come beat your rear end.  It leads said associates to getting a heat laser in the face.  No idea who Frost is, but yea, the hippies are secretly CANNIBALS! Dunh dunh dunnnnnh!  To make a long story short most of the cannibals run into Crime Team's Meatgrinder and get beaten to death.   That lets us turn off this generator which powers down the turrets at the entrance.  ...Jesus gently caress, you weirdos.  We do get this not an AK off the cannibals. Thank you for your generous contribution to Crime Team.  We also need to clear the bridge of sentries and mines for reasons that will soon become apparent.  Thus I want to show off something hilarious about the jump move, and not just the derpy animation.  We are running Dell at extreme levels of fatigue, so that with the additional 250 from his wombo combo he is knocked out for literal hours of real time now. He's regenerating 2 per turn after collapsing from exhaustion, but this is nothing stimulants can't fix!  Oops.  The game's pathfinding has also boned us, so Kat and Crump are at the other side of the map and it's time for Fox to shine, which she does by one-shotting this loser with a giant critical.  The last cannibal in the cave has a mysterious Crump related accident and dies, allowing us to clear the mines from the bridge.  The easiest way to do this is to just have a psyker use their free ranged attacks to blow them up.  Now that we have this crime novel, we can go see what else is in the cave.  There's a whole thing where the cave doors, generators, and whatnot are marked as forbidden and it would be considered a crime to open the cage here, but we literally killed any cannibals who would object. I'm not sure if you can negotiate with them, they attack on sight. Whatever!  There's a man and a woman in the cage, who have been stripped naked and presumably about to be eaten before we showed up.  It seems to have been a weird cult?  Thank you, Mr. Penn. How's Tarja doing?  : I'm gonna vomit now. Poor Tarja is traumatized and hides her face because the cannibals mutilated her.  They make a beeline for the bridge, which is why we cleared it - if you don't, they aggro the turrets and die. Let's go back to the sheriff!  Unfortunately we collapse from fatigue and the game forces us into our campsite. Encased has a bunch of survival meters like hunger, thirst, and fatigue that honestly serve to add pointless tedium and little else. Finding food and water is not difficult.  We can report to Spengler that we killed all the cannibals.  We get nothing, but I guess the loot and XP from the cannibals will have to suffice.  Anyway, we're off to a different location to get some tools that will help us out later.  On the way we encounter something spooky! : Go down the path. So this encounter introduces something new I'm not sure the rest of the game uses.  Resources for this game are real thin on the ground, but my understanding is that this really only happens in certain narrative encounters and you get a game over if your sanity is shredded. Then again, last playthrough I was playing a psionic with a high mental resilience, so who knows? : Take a look at the deep center of the lake. : Check your condition. The game has made it very clear that weird psychic poo poo is literally apocalyptic. Our psyche is also trash. : Go back to the path and leave the lake. The "against all odds" indicates this was a Fortune check, and as we have it at 10 (for reasons that certainly do not involve me going for an alpha strike build) we get out OK.  : Ask Crump what happened after you lost each other in the fog.  : Ask Fox what happened after you lost each other in the fog.  : Ask Katarzyna what happened after you lost each other in the fog.  : Say you're sick and tired of this place and want to leave.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 We're going to the Picnic Zone because doing a quest for our friend Aaron Melville is going to unlock not one but two of the game's unique weapons.  We're forced to rest and the game hits us with this random encounter where our fatigue doesn't heal. I suppose it's better than the sex dream with Nakamura.  Kotya is far too happy about this.  It's time to meet our second faction leader.   The Picnic neutral zone is pretty self explanatory. : Ask who she is to old Melville.: She grins. : His granddaughter. Although sometimes I seem to be a sitter, a nanny and an accountant. And a builder, and a cook, and just about anything, really. We trade with her because she might have an upgraded wrench.  She doesn't, but she does have this technical manual for melee weapons which we are going to use eventually. TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
Speaking of Aaron, let's go talk to the man himself.   : Melville raises his eyes.: Why can't you stay at home? Why are you goofing around, bothering peopl- : Ask how his life is going.: The old man waves vaguely.: Heh, life! Life, you say... Nothing but fuss and bother. Merchants, travelers, everybody needs something. Buy this, sell that! : Ask what happened to his leg.: He scratches the back of his head, as if considering whether or not to tell you about it.: Oh, all right. Listen...: When I'd only just been assigned here, I used to wander into the march. Supplies were short then, and there was a lot of stuff in the marshes leftover from expeditions. I figured I might find something useful out there.: I was working there one day, and I saw a cave! So I went on in, old fool that I am... Inside was a generator and some other equipment, and a staircase leading down. Clearly an abandoned excavation site or something. Thought I got lucky, and decided I wouldn't go back empty-handed. : Gasp.We may as well play along.  As you may have guessed, Al is not a normal earth crab. More on that later. : That Audrey is one clever cookie, unlike myself. She rushed to the scene, snuck her way over to me, and dragged me out of there. Boy, I never got a scolding like she laid on me that day, heehee. : Offer to get Melville his leg back. : Move away.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 On the way to the swamp we meet this lady who wants us to help with the well. We'll do it some other time.  We have to go through the swamp filled with radiation, giant cockroaches, and murderous anomalies.  This is super irradiated and drops nothing good.  Not pictured: the crapton of electrical anomalies that ripped up the team due to poor pathfinding.  This is the generator Melville spoke of. We fuel it up and turn it on. It debuffs Old Al here.  Meet Old Al. Old Al is our first MOBIOS, which are Forefather robots that wander the dome. The official description is that they're combat robots.  Old Al is going to shrug off most of our non energy damage and has 6 levels on us, but I'm gonna do it anyway.  I immediately gently caress up and get Dell knocked out again via overexerting himself jumping.  Katarzyna whiffs on applying an electrical DoT.  This is why I don't think the MOBIOS are purpose-built combat robots - their ranged attack is literally rock throwing. They have manipulators, but I think they're supposed to be more for construction. We've seen enough Forefather technology that an actual battle robot would be mounting, I dunno, black hole generators or something similarly insane that would crush our party in seconds.  There's not a lot to this fight. Katarzyna and Fox are on ranged damage duty from the top of the cliff, as we had a spare electrokinetic glove Fox can use to deal energy damage. Crump and Dell (after I revive him with stimulants) are stuck punching the technologically advanced armored robot with fists and a wrench respectively.  The rock applies these nasty debuffs along with disabling weapons use for a turn. Just because combat probably isn't their primary focus doesn't mean they're not good at it.  Old Al dumps more fireballs on the party.  Electrokinesis away!  We finally beat Old Al to death and get a level up for Dell.  We get this relic, a few crafting materials, and Melville's leg. This relic is special because it can actually be crafted into a unique melee weapon. But wait, there's more!  We can start our mad quest to stack as many damage modifiers as possible by maxing our melee combat skill.  We also gain the ability to listen to evil psychic voices in our head that give us more action points. A lot of guides recommend this perk as your resilience stat lets you shake off the turn skips. I saved before picking this perk in case it screws us.  I also discover this little encounter as we wait to heal up. Taking the latter option lets you play a "Harry Harrison" sci-fi game, which I'm sure the thread will be thrilled to discover as people were trying to have our character be a Stainless Steel Rat reference.  Here's the description of Melville's leg.  : [Leg] Give Melville his leg. : Let's see it...: The old man pulls a photo out of his trousers pocket.: He delicately takes the photo and smiles in the warmest way you've ever seen. Then he turns the picture so you can see it.: It depicts Melville some fifteen years younger. A girl easily recognizable as Audrey sits in his lap. Two smiling people stand by: an athletic man and a frail, curly-haired woman closely resembling Audrey.: Family... it's the most important thing, you know. : Offer to make Melville a new prosthetic.: The old man stares at you, wide-eyed.: Yeah? I can't tell if you're Santa Claus or Mother Teresa! If you've got time and effort to spare on such a thing, 'course I'd be grateful. With all my heart.: You take his ex-leg as a model for the prosthetic. And we're off.  : [Photograph] Show Audrey the photo you found in the cave. : Tell her how you found her grandfather's leg in the cave in the marsh.: Audrey slowly shakes her head in amazement.: I'm much obliged, of course, but you shouldn't have taken such risks. Oh, Gramps... I should tell him I'm not angry. Of course, he's quite a handful, and I might not be a bowl of cherries either, but we shouldn't be arguing. That's not the way to go. After all, we're...: She looks at the photo and smiles.: Family. I mentioned two unique weapons as a result of this quest. The first is literally Melville's prosthetic leg.  It's... wait, HOW MUCH damage? All of our weapons are currently doing somewhere around 20-30.  This is the weapon I was originally intending to craft, but unfortunately we're missing two dead CPS and Audrey doesn't have them either.  For comparison, here's our trusty wrench.  : Tell Melville you'd rather keep the prosthetic to use as a weapon, if he doesn't mind.  Melville rules. TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
Next time: More Party Roundups!
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Apr 11, 2022 00:21
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TheGreatEvilKing posted:It's... wait, HOW MUCH damage? All of our weapons are currently doing somewhere around 20-30. That has to be the result of a slipped finger there, as that's 10 times what you're already throwing out. Does ... anything come close before the endgame?
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Apr 11, 2022 01:17
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berryjon posted:That has to be the result of a slipped finger there, as that's 10 times what you're already throwing out. Does ... anything come close before the endgame? You can't upgrade it, but that's about what endgame weapons were doing from when I first beat the game a while back. I'm gonna do some more recording and play around with it and talk about the results next update. EDIT: Looks like we get 5 attacks with it before it breaks, so it's less of a turbocharged weapon and more of an in emergency delete boss. Combat is not very hard in this game (and I'm on the second-highest difficulty) so this will probably be saved and then used never. TheGreatEvilKing fucked around with this message at 01:30 on Apr 11, 2022 |
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Apr 11, 2022 01:24
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My endgame melee weapon was my own two fists. Well, servoshell gauntlets.
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Apr 11, 2022 01:34
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