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 TheGreatEvilKing, What is This? Encased: A Sci-Fi Post-Apocalyptic RPG is a roleplaying game inspired by the first two Fallouts and the Strugatsky Brothers' Roadside Picnic, more the latter as far as story goes. The developers describe it thusly: Steam Page posted:A tactical sci-fi RPG set in an alternative 1970's, where an enormous and inexplicable artifact –the Dome– is discovered in a remote desert. Fight enemies, explore the anomalous wasteland, level up your character, join one of the forces in the ruined world. Oh god, is this game dogshit? I saw those ATOM, Stygian, and Numenera LPs and those were terrible! No, actually, I really like this game! The writing is good and effective, and the developers know how to employ both their writers and artists together to convey effects much better than either alone. The mechanics are a little janky, but they never really screw you over, and the game is very true to the spirit of Roadside Picnic - which also inspired games such as Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl - while being original and having its own things to say. Heck, I even bought the five dollar kickstarter backer reward DLC because I liked the game so much. Granted, I've only beaten it once - which puts me in the top 10% of players if Steam Achievements are to be believed - but this is a genuinely good game, and I hope you'll experience it with me! I've never read Roadside Picnic. What's it about? Roadside Picnic is about the discovery of six anomalous Zones that a bunch of aliens left behind, and humanity's - or more accurate, Red the stalker's - struggle to come to terms with how little they understand. The titular picnic is summarized by one of the characters, a Nobel-Prize winning scientist, as follows. Roadside Picnic posted:A picnic. Picture a forest, a country road, a meadow. Cars drive off the country road into the meadow, a group of young people get out carrying bottles, baskets of food, transistor radios, and cameras. They light fires, pitch tents, turn on the music. In the morning they leave. The animals, birds, and insects that watched in horror through the long night creep out from their hiding places. And what do they see? Old spark plugs and old filters strewn around... Rags, burnt-out bulbs, and a monkey wrench left behind... And of course, the usual mess—apple cores, candy wrappers, charred remains of the campfire, cans, bottles, somebody’s handkerchief, somebody’s penknife, torn newspapers, coins, faded flowers picked in another meadow. This is referring to the alien technology left in the Zone, which ranges from perpetual motion machines to a rumored wish granting device - as well as people coming to terms with mutated children, relatives rising from the dead, and people who leave areas near the zone causing catastrophic accidents by their mere presence. We'll go more into the book as we go through the game. Alright, So What's Happening In This Game? This is an alternative universe game set in 1970s where a Dome full of weird alien artifacts, anomalies, and other insanity was discovered. The people of the earth put aside their differences to end the Cold War and the Vietnam war and establish the CRONUS foundation, which sent people into the Dome to figure out what the hell was going on and also get some of those super sweet alien relics that did crazy stuff. Also, people discovered how to use psychic powers. You are a new CRONUS employee going into the Dome to work in this wacky environment full of alien technology - oh, and it's a one way trip, because you can't leave. Have fun! That Sounds Great! Why Would This Have A Bad Ending? The CRONUS corporation is named after Cronus/Kronos the Greek god. You might have heard of him, he fathered Zeus and the rest of the Olympians that show up in Hades while you awkwardly try to feel out if Megaera is down for, uh, a private punishment session. Those goons familiar with Greek Myth will remember what Cronus is most famous for: devouring his own children. .jpg) We will go into this farther as the game goes on. Let's begin, shall we?   This is all dumped on us before we get to character creation, by the way. Opening Narration posted:We still don't know what it is.  You know, for a corporate office, those are some heavily armed and armored guards. Yes, that person on a stretcher IS wearing a prison uniform. We'll get to that in a bit. Opening Narration posted:The major powers created the CRONUS megacorporation to develop and explore the Dome.  Opening Narration posted:The city of Crystal Sands grew at the foot of the Dome, eventually becoming a major transportation hub.   Opening Narration posted:swarmed recruiting centres around the globe, seeking jobs at CRONUS.  Audience Participation! We need an intrepid CRONUS employee to go under the Dome and have exciting adventures in this wonderful land of company scrip and hostile alien anomalies. Here's what we've got.  We need a Name, Age, Gender (Male, Female, or Other), Body Type (Man, Woman), and a Portrait. (These are the game's terms, but we have one trans companion for what it's worth). We have a few options for portraits here:    I am also accepting custom portraits! Submit them in the thread as an image file of 256x256. If we want to play as the pointy-haired boss from Dilbert, why not?  We need a combat skill. Our options are Light Weapons (pistols/smgs), Heavy Weapons (Machine Guns, Grenade Launchers, and a few exotic weapons), High-Tech Weapons (lasers and other nonsense), Melee Weapons (mostly improvised tools and knives but there are a few wacky melee weapons out there), or Psionics (in electric, telepathy/telekinesis, fire, and ice varieties). I've personally only played a psionic character to completion, but we will start the game with a DLC heat laser. From what I've seen we can make anything work. Lastly, we need to figure out what wing of the corporation we're in. There are five, and while they all favor specific weapons if we want to make an Orange Wing psychic we can make it work. Orange Wing Character Creation Screen posted:Every person deserves a second chance, especially those willing to make amends for their crimes by working for the betterment of humanity. Orange Wing was created especially for these people. Its employees are everywhere, providing every kind of domestic service, from cleaning and delivery to manufacturing and construction. There's a lot of work to be done under the Dome, and every employee of Orange Wing will be find[sic] a way to make their own contribution. Orange wing gets a bonus to deftness, carrying capacity, and crime skills. These guys are pretty much exactly what you think they are, second-class prison laborers who have to do all the dirty jobs while being kept under armed guard and forced to use separate elevators and poo poo. Remember how we talked about how CRONUS was bad? The game wants you to build Oranges for knives. White Wing Character Creation Screen posted:It is often said that the time of great discoveries has passed. Preposterous! Just like Galileo and Newton, White Wing employees are launching a new era of science. They represent the best minds of humanity, working diligently in laboratories equipped with the most modern tech to uncover the mysteries of an ancient civilization. Scientists who favor energy weapons and get bonuses to intelligence, science and medicine. Science, unsurprisingly, favors upgrading energy weapons but we can make a pistol scientist if we really want to. Blue Wing Character Creation Screen posted:The Dome laid dormant for centuries and came to life only with the arrival of people. Today, this region is a gigantic (30,000 square kilometers) construction site with thousands of cars, snow white cities, and a network of motorways spanning the inhospitable desert. CRONUS is rightfully proud of its world class infrastructure, built from the ground up thanks to the hard work and knowledge of the employees of Blue Wing. Blue Wing are the hands-on technicians. They get an experience bonus, guts, and bonus tech skills used for repairing things and upgrading guns. The game wants you to use blunt weapons, but once again, if we want to we can hand out a machine gun to our angry tech and be just fine. Silver Wing Character Creation Screen posted:Determine the first priority out of a thousand. Find experts who can suss out the best solutions to every problem. Equip workers with the right tools and ship the necessary materials where they need to go. Every base build and every successful expedition is a testament to the hard work and deep wisdom of Silver Wing managers. Silver Wing are the managers, but instead of doing hard work and having deep wisdom their encouraged skillset is more about prioritizing white collar crime. I'll say it right now, Silver Wing are the upper caste of the employees and we get things like admin passwords and the ability to call in bullshit favors as management. Silver Wing get bonuses to psionics, extra skill points for showing up, and influence (persuasion et al). Notably, the influence tree in this game has a lot of skills to help people get away with crimes. My only playthrough so far is as Silver Wing, so I know it the best, but I'm perfectly happy to try something new as well! Black Wing Character Creation Screen posted:Using the most powerful weapons and advanced military equipment, the employees of Black Wing protect humanity from the myriad hazards of the Dome. Black Wing's command is made up of the best officers from the most highly trained armies in the world, who coordinate their subordinates to provide maximum security for everyone from every Wing under the Dome. The Black Wing get a bunch of bonuses to using conventional weapons. This is also corporate speak, because a large portion of the Black Wing's job is keeping the Oranges in line while also sallying forth to fight mutants, undead, and rogue former employees. Again, if we want to be a Black Wing with a laser instead that is absolutely fine. Suggest characters below! The combination of traits that gets the highest vote proceeds to the magical land of capitalism and aliens!
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Dec 8, 2021 08:28
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We're going with Dell once I find the time to put up the update.
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Dec 15, 2021 19:31
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Management In Action Welcome! Last time on Encased, goons voted to make our character a Team Fortress 2 reference.  We're going to be playing on Classic, which honestly is not that hard.  Here is our intrepid hero.  He is a master of beating people with wrenches, and we hope to one day expand into making wacky contraptions like the Armageddon grenade.  He is also skilled in science and technology, chiefly because they allow us to upgrade weapons and we are all about that.  We're grabbing the Prodigy trait, because it gives a whopping +4 brains at the expense of gaining 50% less XP. You get XP in this game by grabbing everything not nailed down, and we really need 10 brains for our future build (melee autocrits again). Most of the traits in the game have at least some use and can be built around, I won't go into them unless there's interest.  Off we go into the wonderful land of corporate management and mutations!   Ignore the message from Mr. Kingsley, it's just informing us we have the pay2win items. We're in this transportation pod going down into the Dome with five other new employees. May as well chat them up.  I made a big deal out of the Silver Wing being corporate looters and whatnot, but the vast majority you interact with are just generic middle managers, administrators, and HR people like Monty here.  : He glances down at your badge.The Cronus Icon will be our narrator for this LP.  : Ah, it's you! I found your file extremely interesting. And your CV - wonderful. Inspiring, really. We have the option to either bribe Monty so he likes us more or barter with him. None of these guys have much so we're just going to chat. Another thing I like about the game's writing is that it never shoehorns your actual dialog - you get general responses like "ask what he saw in your file", but you can fill it in with as much snark or whatever you want.  : Ask him what he saw in your file. Interesting. : [Blue Wing] Admit you're fond of technology, comics and sci-fi, and that you've dreamed of finding yourself in such a place.: James smiles condescendingly.: Yeah, my little schoolboy nephew's the same. He loves all those bizarre space travelers. Like Captain What's-his-name... Hyena? No matter. You two would get along well.: An uncomfortable silence rises between you, and Monty abruptly changes the subject. We leave. TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 Let's talk to this guy.  Oh great, he's giving off Gift of Fear vibes. : Ask him how he ended up in prison.: The Orange's face stretches into a broad smile, baring his dentures to the world. : Like everyone, duh. In a black car, under guard. : Ask about the bracelets on his wrists.: Quentin raises his hands to examine the devices.Encased unfortunately does suffer from the excess narration common to most RPGs in the genre. That was an entire screen. : They call 'em "Humane Handcuffs" How 'bout that? Truth is, there ain't nothing humane about 'em - they zap you real hard the moment you get your hands on a gun. But they sure look nice.: Bisley lowers his hands again and smirks. Away we go. TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 : She glances at you and offers her hand in a businesslike manner. : Ask her what's so dangerous about this Orange. : I just follow orders. Even if his crime was embezzlement, I have to keep him cuffed. Those are the rules.: Olafsson shrugs in a sharp, mechanical way, as if racking the slide of an assault rifle.I do like the metaphor.  TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 We are sadly not nearly cool enough to pantomime across language barriers with our fellow engineer.   : We've crossed the border. No way back now. Even traveling the funicular wasn't so... thrilling.: The White presses small hands to her blushing cheeks. So this is a train car right now, and we are literally descending from the top of the Dome down into a hell from which there is no escape. Glorious!  : [Perception 5] Ask Kimura if she sees the dark stain on the outer surface of the Dome.: Kimura peers through the glass in the direction you indicate.: Oh, that's the aircraft that crashed into the Dome during the first expedition. I believe that's a wing fragment, and there's some white canvas. What do you think it is, maybe a parachute?We haven't even gotten here and already in the real world - under the Dome - we're casually discussing mass death events like plane crashes. Compare this with the intro - the Dome ended all wars, and the people of the world came together to exploit its sick alien technology to advance human science immeasurably.  Kimura is pretty oblivious. : Ask what she meant by, "We've crossed the border.": Tomoko shoots you a surprised look.: You are familiar with the details of the briefing, right? To put it simply, the Dome is a selectively permeable environment. : [Science 30] Propose a hypothesis: the lack of fertility in women under the Dome is related to field activity.: Kimura listens without interrupting, as if considering your every word.: It's quite possible... I would like to set up an experiment to test this in practice...: She cuts off abruptly. Well poo poo even I picked up on that one. : Offer to help her test her hypothesis before it's too late. REJECTED! TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 Well, we're stuck in the Dome forever now, may as well leave the transport pod.  I actually like these little segments. Yeah, it's a lot of functional narration, but the art sets it apart from just reading the prose.  Granted, the narration can be unhelpful. Can't win em all!  Of course, we see the generic warehouses and observation deck while the art shows us what we should really be worried about - some kind of purple tornado looking thing.  This is a major plot point. Remember how the introduction promised us this? The Sick rear end Crystal City That In No Way Exists posted:We've been tricked! At least we'll be employed at least.  Eh, it's some boring weather poo poo, maybe the Forefathers left a spaceship pad!  : Stay where you are, trying to see if you can spot the mysterious Forefather's structures, until landing.   Alright. We haven't even stepped into Concord station, and the game has told us a lot with just four NPCs and a look out the window. Let's step back a bit, shall we?  We know from these four characters - in the tutorial zone - that: -CRONUS actively lied about the conditions under the Dome to convince people to come live in the cool cities -The Orange Wing is made up of convicted criminals who are kept in line with the threat of violence and must be constantly kept under guard (contrary to the official CRONUS line of rehabilitation and second chances) -We're stuck under the Dome, but also no children can be born under the Dome, so you can never start a family and the population is only increasing due to the constant influx of people seeking CRONUS jobs Great! We'll compare it to Roadside Picnic for a minute. Roadside Picnic doesn't have a massive megacorporation, it instead has the Zone (which is its equivalent to the Dome) which is officially studied by the Institute, a scientific organization. The protagonist of the novel is a "stalker" named Red who enters the Zone illegally to find and smuggle out alien artifacts. The government does not approve of this, so the military surrounds the Zone with orders to shoot at anyone unauthorized who is caught inside. Here, CRONUS is given carte blanche to do whatever the hell they want. We'll see more as we go through the game.  : A badge reading "Ludovico Nuzzi, Scientific Analyst, Export Department" dangles loosely on his clean uniform, which still smells pungently of washing powder. : Take the binoculars and look where he's pointing. That looks pretty bad, like maybe we should go nowhere near it.   : Ask him what it is precisely that you're looking at. Well, that's just great.  : Ask him what "Scientific Analyst, Export Department" means.: The scientist looks blankly at you, then down at his lab coat. : Ahhh, this! This!: He lets out a blaring laugh.: Ludovico points at the building behind him.: I work in Concord Station, categorizing relics! My job is to classify them by rarity. Then the Blues package them, Silvers issue the documentation, and Oranges move them to the cargo capsule. Just like the one you arrived in!So this man is a scientific expert on the Dome who can tell us nothing about the magical storm message. Great.   : Tell him you need to go.: Nuzzi looks from you to the capsule, and to the landing terminal entrance.: He flings his arms up.: Oh, mi scusi! Excuse me, I'm so sorry! You'd better get going or you'll be late for check-in! Your colleagues are already inside. And the storm is growing stronger...: Yeah, the storm is growing stronger...: The White mutters in frustration, eyes glued to his binoculars, which is fixed on the spinning whirl of clouds.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 In we go.  Incidentally he's not wrong, if we take more than 24 hours to complete the tutorial the station goes hostile.  I keep showing off these loading screens, because we haven't even gotten to the tutorial and the game makes it clear the contrast between the official CRONUS position of the Dome as a cornucopia of wonders for the taking, and the actual experience of the Dome as an inescapable prison filled with weird anomalies and other nonsense.   : The employee glances at you indifferently. His upper lip is ever so slightly curled in contempt. : All new employees must register first thing. Come up to the desk, please.: The nameplate on the desk tells you you're talking with "Dean Rayhet, Administrator": The administrator slaps himself on the forehead.: I almost forgot the regulation pre-registration greeting! Just a second.  : The administrator clears his throat and continues.: By joining our company, you chose the path of science and progress. You are among mankind's best, and we ask that you live up to this.: Dean squints down at the monitor.: ...deserve this title! Do your job honestly, obey the law, respect your colleagues, and...: The music fades, and the administrator finishes his speech.: ...and together we will build the best possible future for all mankind! : Say you're ready and begin the registration. This is really just a flavor thing, so we go with 2. : Pass him a note upon which you've written out your information in advance.: The administrator squints at the paper in his outstretched hand before setting it next to the keyboard and entering the information into the database. Huh. Is there something that makes us special we don't know about? : Dean snaps the docking port of your pass to a recess in the casing of his computer.: The administrator returns your selectrone.: Now you have first level clearance for a Blue Wing employee. You have access to Storage, the repair bays, and various workshops. Your selectrone also has a built in universal key that opens the hatches accessing the air shafts. : Say you'll be satisfied with the short version.: Rayhet snorts.: To make it short, get your uniform from Storage, your weapons from the Armory, pass the psi abilities test, and complete your weapons training in the Training Zone. Then learn how to use the scanner, avoid anomalies, and properly catalogue anything you observe. Last, go to the waiting room and wait for the bus to Magellan. : Respond that you have no more questions.: Rayhet claps his hands in satisfaction.: Great.: He reaches for the tape recorder, but thinks better of it.: Protocol calls for a little welcoming preamble but dash it all, that's nonsense. Welcome to Concord Station! This doesn't get used a lot, honestly. TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
We get a message in the data tab telling us to do the tutorial stuff. However, even here, there are sidequests - and because Dell has a -50% experience penalty thanks to me building him to stack stupid amounts of damage modifiers late game, we're going to go do them.  The first is that our nerd hating acquaintance Monty James apparently is an unperson and didn't get registered. We can help him out.  While I unironically love option 2, we're going to register Monty as a Silver Wing employee because you can always use friends in high places. The rest of our options are just reading CRONUS propaganda, so we'll pass.  Maybe Monty's not such a bad guy after all.  Looting a trashcan reveals the currency of the game - Combonds! Combonds are literally company scrip, because what are you going to do, leave? CRONUS is the only employer under the Dome and they employ a legion of ex-military personnel. Good luck, idiot!  We can also kick open Monty's suitcase he left behind and no one cares. Sucker! Our next guy is a shopkeeper who gives us equipment. I'm not going to paste all his dialogue, but I want you to contrast these.   Dammit. He also gives us our DLC boots and heat laser, so it's not a total loss.  The heat laser is unique in that you can use energy pistol skills with it but it does heat damage instead of energy. Given that this game is very much about swapping damage types to hit the lowest resistance on all kind of nonsense, this is a lot better than people give it credit for. Probably not worth five dollars, but no one ever accused me of fiscal responsibility.  This is kind of an important background conversation for reasons we won't see for a while.   Man, it's been less than a minute since Dean Rayhet gave us the world's least impassioned speech on how following laws is good and this guy's already pressuring poor Kat to commit fraud.  Ah. Of course.     It's corruption all the way down, and did I mention CRONUS has a chokehold on supplies coming into the Dome?    Katarzyna addressing this guy as "Mr. Krachkov" should make it clear who's got the power here.  We go pick up our weapon from the armory.   She makes fun of your weapon choices if you don't pick some kind of firearm, and if we ask her about the baton's drawbacks -  Onward!  I also realize that the heat pistol having a 600% crit mod will make it do wonders as a backup weapon for us. There's actually some synergy between the melee and energy weapon trees, if we can find the skill points.  This guy gives us poo poo for having a low psyche score so we're crap at psionics but gives us a free psi-glove as well. We won't use it, but I can think of at least one companion who will benefit. If you are a psychic it's worth trading with this guy to get all four of the psi gloves to unlock all the powers.  This man gives us a lockpicking tutorial. He doesn't have much of importance to our narrative, unless you ask him about fixing hab pods.  Do you get it yet?  This lady has a corporate presentation. If you have a high influence you can tutor her, you can also shove her away and she starts crying (and no one cares).  This guy tells us to go in and do the combat tutorial against a bunch of holograms.  I'll go over combat when it's more relevant. These guys literally cannot damage us. Every weapons skill gets a set of special moves that you unlock as you go up in skill level, but honestly 99% of the time you're spamming the basic attack unless you're setting up a combo.    This man is important to what the game is trying to say, so you get his full dialogue. : The man turns at your footsteps. He's holding a paper clipboard and a pencil.: His shimmering silver badge reads, "Sebastian Van Ulden".: He glances from you to the glistening watch on his wrist. : I want us to respect one another's time. Please speak loudly, clearly, and to the point. You must be the newcomer I was told about. Nice to meet you. : Greet him and say you're here for your briefing.: The scientist puts the clipboard aside, raises his watch for a closer look and sets the timer.: He shows you his watch dial.: According to the rules pertaining to this briefing, I have to touch on a large number of topics. Therefore I will do so very briefly. Do not interrupt me. When I'm finished, I'll answer your questions. Within regulations, of course.: Sebastian produces his handheld and clicks some buttons.: I checked your scanner. It's working and is connected to the MINERVA database. Every scan will earn you CRONUS or Forefathers' knowledge points.: The instructor watches you with displeasure.: Are you listening? Scan everything that might be of scientific interest. First of all anomalies. They could be dangerous. Make sure to always have medication with you. Yeah, it's, uh... exactly like STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl. To be fair, they have the same source material and Encased is a much different game than STALKER.  He calls you an idiot for most of these questions, except... : Ask for a list of useful medications for researching anomalies.: You'll need some one-use stimulator injectors, bandages to stop bleeding, and antiradiation agents and radioprotectors, including ARAD-3.: The White ticks these off on his fingers. : Say that you have no more questions and you're ready to proceed with practice.: The scientist glances at his watch again.: You're within the time limit for questions. The next step is training in the artificial ecozone.: He casts one finger on the button in preparation to start the timer.: You're going to go downstairs and scan relics. I will be monitoring your progress. Please note: there are several radioactive anomalies in the ecozone. These are the same conditions you'll be working in the field. Radioactive zones and relics are quite common under the Dome.Wait, poo poo, let me go buy the helmet and gloves now! : He smoothly extracts a jar of yellow pills from his pocket.: Here's your ARAD-3. And one more thing. Just a moment... I run back to buy a shovel for reasons. I would buy the engineer hat, but they patched out the XP bonus and we'll find better stuff on our adventures.  Specifically, for this secret here.  We can use it to upgrade our weapons, and it's not common either. The general rule of thumb is to grab everything not nailed down because it's all useful in crafting recipes.  The practical part of the exam isn't that interesting.  We do, however, loot the medkit.   : Wait and see what Van Ulden will say next. It doesn't matter what you pick here. : [Blue Wing] Suggest that the anomalies can sense electronics.: The scientist assumes a superior expression.: I knew you'd come up with something like that. I see you understand nothing about the nature of anomalies, so let me added a couple of points.: He glances at the shimmering blue light in the ecozone.: The truth is, we don't know the precise reason for these phenomena, either. We actually know nothing, no matter how much we try to convince ourselves otherwise.: Sebastian points a thin finger at the clustered lightning.: I personally believe the anomalies are the Dome's security mechanism. The ones you see are relatively harmless, but there are different anomalies in the desert, phenomena that toy with the human mind...: Van Ulden clasps his hands behind his back.: I know you don't care, but I'll say it anyway. Scientists today are required to be wonder workers who can heal cancer with a wave of their hand and solve the secrets of the universe during their coffee break. For some reason, no one wants to understand that fundamental science is always an investment in the future. It produces no answers here and now. TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 Now, we could go start the main game, but where's the fun in that? There are sidequests and other nonsense to do!  Like talk to this rear end in a top hat.  : Wonder aloud what the boxes are for. : Bokshezh! What a thing to shay... 'Bokshezh'! Thezhe are coffinzsh!: Nelson reacts as if you've insulted him deeply. I'm not transcribing this drunken accent.  : Agree - lying down in a coffin is an "all wight" idea. : Lie down into the coffin like the Snow White from the cartoon and ask for an apple. : The lid swings shut, and with the bang you hear a soft metal click.This was of course a completely idiotic idea.  : Open the lid and climb out. It doesn't matter what you do here, it all leads to...   RIP! For what it's worth, you can also lock Nelson inside the coffin by asking him to demonstrate.  I'm not sure why Nelson decided to murder us, honestly.  This guy has a sidequest to scan the relics and write them in a notebook. We do it for XP. If you're fast enough you can probably steal some relics, I've never been able to pull it off.  Huh. Wonder who this Abbot fellow is? We do the quest offscreen, it's very easy.  This guy wants us to steal some crap for him as a stealth tutorial.  Stealth is stupid overpowered in this game and these guys are coded to be unable to detect you.  Seriously, we can stand up and kick the boxes open and no one cares.   We lie to the guy and give him only 1 relic dust. We did do all the work!  Even though we're master criminals these guys won't play cards with us.  This guy is having a thing for a relic "Miss Norway" that creates imaginary companions in your head you can talk to. We may see this later in the game!  Also we find our very first relic in a discarded briefcase! Score! All this guy does is raise our carry weight, but we'll be finding some pretty powerful ones on our travels.  They can't have anything on us! It's our first day!   This man intercepts us and tells us there's been a change of plans and that we now have to go to a separate briefing instead of on the usual Newbie Bus. You can ask him about the other newbie in your wing and you're told that you're the only one qualified to do...whatever this is.  If you're playing along, always scan your relics! That will reveal hidden properties for useless seeming items!  Oh, and drawbacks. No one likes to learn that the new relic they grabbed is radioactive.  We also level up and become a stronger melee fighter. So, what's going on? We'll find out... next time!
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Dec 22, 2021 01:55
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We're Totally Screwed, Aren't We?  : He leans close to the camera, his glasses glittering. : My name is Martin Kingsley. I am Chief Officer of Magellan Base. We were supposed to meet in person, but unforeseen circumstances prevented that. One moment, I'll grab your file.: He reaches for something out of view and produces a thin folder with your name on the cover - apparently, your file.: Kingsley opens the folder to thumb through the pages. You have one awful answer for every wing. Silvers can answer that they love power, for example. : [Blue Wing] Say that you like tinkering with machinery.: The quick strokes of the administrator's pencil suggest he's added two big plus signs to your file.: There's around 6,000 vehicles inside the Dome now, and that number will only keep growing. You have enough work here for years to come.: Kingsley closes the file and folds his hands in front of him.: Thank you for your reply. I learned a little more about you. Now I want you to learn a little more about us. Keep in mind, this is not a rehearsed speech.: He assumes a serious expression.: When the Dome was discovered in 1971, it became a scientific and media sensation, a worldwide phenomenon and likely the most significant discovery in the history of mankind. If you haven't gotten the message from the prominently displayed coffins, hellstorms, casual dismissal of lethal accidents, and the small fact that we're trapped here for life unable to have children, Kingsley is going to spell it all out for you.  Of course, he's still a CRONUS manager so he can't go all out and scream "gently caress the police". : He looks back at your file.: I say, "Do what must be done," because that's what the concept of the five Wings is all about.: Kingsley points at the camera.: You're from Blue Wing. You're looking at the world's most complicated infrastructure, and that complexity keeps growing. Your duties are not limited to maintenance and service. You'll be keeping up the image of the world in its accustomed form. Without hot water and electricity people will revert to beasts in astonishingly short order, though it might seem that...Kingsley is letting a bit of his inner cynic slip through. : Putting the folder aside, he sits back and stares at you in silence.: It gets so quiet that the ticking of a clock can be heard through the speakers. : Say that so are you.: Martin nods slowly.: I apologize once again for this long-distance meeting. Now, as we don't have much time, I'd like to get to the point. I'm sure you're curious why you were taken off the bus to Magellan and brought here instead.  ...How the gently caress are you short on personnel? I want to remind you that Dell was something like 63,000+ on the waiting list. : Martin nosily clears his throat.: Maybe you've heard about Nashville base? While preparing the materials for this mission, I came across a short documentary film about the complex. I think you should watch it.: Watch on. Assume I'm picking "Watch on" until it's no longer relevant.      : The camera glides through dim caverns as the silhouettes of bizarre mechanisms emerge. Metal structures loom up from the dark, surrounded by earth moving machines and exhausted miners wearing orange jumpsuits.  Well, hold the phone, what the hell is there? If we're going in we should at least know what we're up against. : Tell Kingsley you need to know why Nashville is so special. Well, poo poo. : Ask who else is in your group. Uh.... : Ask what your task is.: Martin adjusts his glasses.: So, the task... Nashville base stopped transmitting and receiving signals yesterday evening. A reconnaissance group was sent out earlier today, but we haven't heard anything from them yet, either.: The chief officer rubs his forehead.: Normally I would never give this task to a newcomer like yourself, but I just don't have enough people.Remember how the intro was all about how hordes of people wanted in on the expedition, and there are hundreds of thousands of people on the employment waiting list? : He looks down at the documents again.: Furthermore, the group was lacking someone with your specialization. The communication problem appears to be more severe than I thought. Nashville's technicians could use another Blue Winger's help. I guess it's better if we think the group is still alive?  : Say that you have no questions and are ready to get started. : Leave.TheGreatEvilKing dialog summary posted:
I was waiting for Kingsley to give his speech before we discussed any of the obvious red flags in the tutorial, but it should be clear to the reader by now that CRONUS is a complete shitshow. There are corpses in coffins literally strewn about the side room, a token effort is given to a corporate integrity speech only for us to watch poor Katarzyna get pressured into committing fraud literally in the next room, manual labor is done by enslaved prisoners kept under military guard, and disasters like the plane crash are written off as "meh" because CRONUS is cynically exploiting people's excitement to change the world in the service of making a profit by selling alien artifacts. But wait, there's more! Nashville is to the north. You know what else is to the north? Last update posted:This weird anomalous storm none of the scientists in the base can explain. It's very easy to write Kingsley off as being on the level, because he gives us the "real picture" speech where he points out that CRONUS wants to make the Dome seem like a playground, but we should be very skeptical of Kingsley's claims that he has to send us because he's short on personnel. CRONUS is not short on personnel posted:CRONUS has to keep turning people away because of all the applications they receive. It's not clear how many people are in the Dome - Kingsley gives us a number of 6000 vehicles, but there's no correlation between people and cars as far as I'm aware - but the idea that Kingsley just doesn't have anyone else to send is complete nonsense. It's also clear that someone values keeping the classified nature of Nashville under wraps more than actually going in and figuring out what happened to the people, as even when we point out that we need that information to do our job Kingsley tells us to shut up. Why is Kingsley like this? Last update posted:PR! We can't just let it get out that Nashville base was lost to some kind of weird alien bullshit, because people might start asking questions about what CRONUS is digging up and what they're hiding from the world. It would ruin the carefully cultivated image of the Dome as a magical wonderland playpen where you can frolic with all the cool toys left behind by the nice aliens and most likely get world governments to start investigating some of CRONUS' shadier practices, like defrauding them on relic prices. Thus the best way to handle this is to grab some random newbie with no contacts who can't blab to anyone and send him to figure out what the hell happened. Sure, you could mobilize the Black Wing, but that just makes everyone look bad and thus we're sent to investigate it on the down low.  We're not cool enough to drive cars, but we can honk the horn!  Loot as much crap as you can!  We should probably get going. : The driver's side door is half-open.: A young woman is sitting sideways in the driver's seat, legs hanging out. : Introduce yourself.: She smiles. : Glad to meet you, too! How did you like the load capsule? And the funicular? I've got nuts, you want some? Or candy? Oh, I've got chocolate-covered fruit, try some! Did you know candied fruit are dried, then boiled in syrup?Clara, you seem very nice but not a person I'd want covering my back in a deathtrap situation. I get the impression she has no idea what has happened. Great!  : Lean back in your chair.: Clara slams her door.: Are we going, then? Should probably go now - the roads are bad, very little asphalt, dirt tracks mostly. God willing, we'll get there before that storm hits. Mind if I turn the radio up a bit? Do you like music? Blues, gospel? I, for instance, like -: You can't make out exactly what Clara likes. The roar of the engine smothers the rest of her sentence, and the truck lurches into motion. Yeah, it's a reference!  This is, of course, more CRONUS bullshit, and we know this because Clara just told us the roads were mostly dirt tracks.  : Clara lifts up the hood and thoroughly examines the steaming radiator. : Ask her what you should do next. : Ask her to tell more about these relics.: Your companion perks up a bit.: This place is registered as a resource anomaly zone. Do you know what that is? It's when the relics mined there have been studied and deemed useful. : Ask about anomaly storms like this one.: The Blue looks at the storm once more.: There've been more and more of these lately, and they're getting stronger. I personally think it's divine judgement for how we've squandered the riches under the Dome. More confirmation that people die all the time under the Dome. : Find out what's interesting about this gas station. : Leave, saying that you'll go to the gas station and figure everything out.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
Yes, I will be looking into resizing the dialogue screenshots next update! Next time: Zombies... in a basement!
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Dec 22, 2021 03:05
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Cooked Auto posted:Any chance you can make the dialogue screenshots a bit bigger? They're kinda hard to read. Hopefully it should be improved next update!
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Dec 22, 2021 03:05
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Zombies... in a Basement! Welcome back! Last time on Encased, we... you know what, Kingsley said it better than I can. The Theme of Last Update posted:Also I kinda let the thread slip over the holidays! Sorry! Anyway, we need to stop at the "Roadside Picnic" gas station and cafe because our truck boiled over and we could also use a relic to protect us from the anomaly hellstorm.  We'll take the opportunity to talk a little bit about Roadside Picnic, which is the novel that inspired the game.  In the novel, there are six Zones scattered across the world which were left behind by aliens. They're very similar to Encased's Domes in that they were filled with strange anomalies and odd technological artifacts and are extremely dangerous. People who enter the Zone have weird mutant children - the main character, Red, has a child whom the Strugatskys refer to as "the Monkey" - and even just being close to the Zone has adverse side effects, to the point the government has to step in and prohibit people moving away from the Zone because they cause fatal accidents and dead people next to the Zone come back to life.  Encased differs in the addition of CRONUS. In Roadside Picnic, characters can leave and re-enter the Zone freely, but the military surrounds the Zone and shoots anyone who comes out. The Zone is studied by the scientific Institute, and governments are trying to get their hands on Zone technology to weaponize, but all of the characters in the novel are very clear they're playing with fire and it's common knowledge in the Strugatsky's setting. The novel opens with an interview with Dr. Pillman. Roadside Picnic posted:DR. PILLMAN: That's correct. But I'm not involved in the research on extraterrestrial culture. As a consultant, I, along with my colleagues, represent the international scientific community on decisions about the internationalization of the Visit Zones. Roughly speaking, we make sure that no one outside the International Institute gets access to the alien marvels discovered in the Zones. Here we have CRONUS, who, rather than emphasize the danger and try to control access to dangerous alien artifacts, makes the ethically bankrupt decision to advertise the DOME as a cool alien theme park so they can sell dangerous and poorly understood alien artifacts for money.  Now, in Roadside Picnic, alien artifacts have become a common part of everyday life. Cars no longer use internal combustion but are powered by "spacells", which are apparently some kind of organism that outputs enough energy to power a motor vehicle. Of course, Dr. Pillman - a Nobel prize winning scientist - is on hand to explain that despite all our science and all our intellect, humanity ultimately has no understanding of what it's dealing with or even why any of these items were left here. Roadside Picnic posted:We've found many marvels. In a number of cases, we've even learned to adapt these marvels to our needs. We've even gotten used to them. A lab monkey presses a button and gets a banana, presses a white button and gets an orange, but has no idea how to obtain bananas or oranges without buttons. Nor does it understand the relationship between buttons and oranges and bananas. Take, for example, the spacells. We've learned to apply them. We've even discovered conditions under which they multiply by division. But we have yet to create a single spacell, have no idea how they work, and, as far as I can tell, won't figure it out any time soon. Here's what I'd say. We use them, although almost certainly not in the way the aliens intended. I'm absolutely convinced in the vast majority of cases we're using sledgehammers to crack nuts. That said, the same greedy impulses that motivate CRONUS motivate the military-industrial complex to mess with things they don't understand, but we'll look more at that later.  : The old man angrily sets the magnifying glass aside. : A grandmaster! You're a piece of junk, not a grandmaster! And a cheater to boot... : Ask Melville why he's so unfriendly with visitors.: The old man frowns and sniffles loudly.: You want to write a complaint? Go ahead.: He looks at you for a minute.: When he realizes you're not going to complain, the surly expression slowly leaves his face. The angry look turns to a sad one.: After a brief pause he speaks again.: Yeah, well... I do have some problems.: The old man lowers his voices almost to a whisper.: The Oranges pick on me. Escapees, by the looks of it. They demand food, money, gas. I've got a turret at the entrance, but it doesn't do poo poo. My stand-in screwed something up with the circuitry in the basement, gotta take a look when I get a chance. But with my leg acting up, those rickety stairs just ain't my cup of tea, heh. : Say your truck broke down. : Ask why people are sitting in the cafe when it's supposedly closed. : Move away.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 Anyway Melville gives us his key so we can go fix the turret.  I love the loading screen snippets in this game.  Anyway, it's trivial to fix the generator with Dell's sick technical skills and thus we go in and loot everything that's not nailed down. Encased works on the ABL system - always be looting! You get XP for it, and we need every bit of XP we can get. The game also has a crafting system that you are going to need materials for, and to do that you need to grab everything not nailed down.  We also knock on this pipe to dislodge some rats we can kill for XP.  They're not very interesting. I can talk a little about combat at least. Combat is your standard turn-based affair, where you have a set number of action points per round and movement and attacks take action points. What's different is that based on your weapons skills, you unlock new active abilities - and everyone gets them! Right now we have a desperation attack that has increased crit chance when we have low health, a finishing blow that resets cooldowns, and the basic attack we will use 99% of the time. There's also a gap closer later in the melee tree we can use to avoid blowing a bunch of AP on closing to pipe range.  : Say you repaired the turret.You need to talk to Melville to progress. : The old man squints and gives you a silly smile.: Huh, so it's like that. Well, thank you, thank you. I didn't think you'd be any good, heh.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
The two people in the bar are hippies. I can sum it up in two screenshots.   Onwards!  We need to talk to Melville about the anomalies.  Not much more to say really, I cut out a bit about how we should only take the device and we should be charged for it because it's all company property. To the basement!  Thanks, jerk!  We of course loot both the gas station and the basement under the ABL system. This wrench will help us on our adventure. All we have to do is go down to the basement and -  WHAT THE gently caress  Uh, great! Some kind of... "disfigured body".  Get out the heat ray. ULLLLLLLA!!!!!  Alright. This fight. This fight stuffs a lot of new players into the dumpster. It's not bad if you know what you're doing, but you're up against a fairly powerful enemy who will actually heal himself by walking into those poison anomalies all over the floor.  Someone has conveniently left a bunch of explosive barrels lying all over the floor, so our goal is to blow them the hell up with the heat ray so they damage this extremely unattractive...creature.  This is a hell of a lot easier if you're a ranged character or ideally a psionic. He poisons on hit as well as inflicting another debuff.  Alright, we are doing to debuff the poo poo out of this guy so we can kick his rear end.  We sufficiently weakened it enough that we can end it here with a savage wrench beating. You absolutely do not want to get into a melee slugfest with this thing - you can and you'll burn through a lot of medkits, but those are in short supply right now and we have a bit of an adventure coming up. Also, see that little moon and ZZZ icon? That's our fatigue bar. When using certain abilities -usually ones that don't consume items like psionic or melee abilities - you inflict fatigue on yourself, and if you inflict enough you collapse in exhaustion. Certain abilities inflict fatigue damage as well, and it completely bypasses your hitpoints - if they fatigue you out, it's a game over. This is also how you do combat without killing people, if you care about that.  The developers were kind enough to add a secret passage so you can skip the fight, but if you do both the fight and the passage you get more XP, and that's what we're all about here at CRONUS.  We also find this magazine, which gives us +20 tech for 2 hours. These stack. There are a lot of these magazines for various skills in the game, and you can absolutely use them to get past dialogue skill checks or various other checks you couldn't normally do. Want to upgrade your weapons but you dumped tech? Read comic books! The portal takes us to a tree I totally missed the screenshots of, but the tree also has one of the unironically best relics in the game.  More action points are great, and precision, per the game's tooltips, only applies to ranged attacks. Now, you should always scan relics because it reveals hidden properties, gives you XP, and gives you some fluff.  Remember how a running theme of the game was how CRONUS and humanity as a whole has no idea what it's doing here but is idiotically messing with this stuff anyway? Look at the presumed function of this section - it's a transformation! It's for sports! It's a ball bearing! It's a toy! It's a pet? It goes right back to Dr. Pillman in roadside picnic explaining that while you can use the spacells to power cars nobody knows what the real use is and the aliens are presumably laughing. This is a fairly harmless relic, but other relics in the game are unbelievably dangerous and some will kill you for wearing them. We put this one on anyway.  We can't use this yet, but it might come in handy later.  Ah, crap.  It turns out that using a menial labor force of criminals and treating them like poo poo causes crime! How could this possibly happen? : Examine the car.: The car is in awful shape, despite being brand new. Jupiters first got chrome-plated fender moldings in February 1976, which means it can't be older than six months. : Examine the intruders.: The people standing around the car are so filthy, you barely recognize their CRONUS uniforms under the grim. The name tags have been removed, of course, but the ruffian's tattoos make it clear you're facing Oranges.: You quietly call out, and the bandits turn to you.  : Answer that you've got a better idea. So influence in this game is kind of weird. You unlock persuasion types via secondary stats - you need 6 charisma for charm, 6 intellect for conviction, and 6 muscle for intimidation. We aren't trained in influence at all, and I only have the one business magazine. : Answer that you're going to stress test some skulls yourself.: The racketeer responds with a fake, self-satisfied smile. : Y'know, I appreciate your attitude. Wanna dance? Okay then, put your ballet slippers on!TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 This starts a fight. Assassin's Regards is a pistol ability. It doesn't matter because the gas station turret warms up and everyone pours out of the gas station to shoot their asses.  Oh hey, it's a spacell we don't have the skills to yoink right now. I'm actually not sure what this does, and we don't have 50 survival needed to get it. Oh well!  Melville is much happier to see us now that we helped hit some bandits in the head.  You know, I bet Melville would know about that weird thing we fought. : Tell him some strange creature attacked you in the basement, and you killed it.: The old man scrubs his bald spot.: Ehhh... That'd be my stand-in, I think. And here I reckoned he'd gone and quit on me. Could smell the stench from the cellar, thought a rat croaked down there. So, yeah, whatever the hell is in this place is turning corpses into undead mutants with supernatural powers. That's not the only kind of Necroid we're going to meet, oh no. The game really wants us to realize that this is not a theme park, and we're stuck here. Oh, and the "post-apocalyptic" part of the title? We're getting there. : Ask Melville how's life. Time to leave. : Move away.: Hey sweetheart! Wait a minute, hold up...: The Blue claps you on the arm. Why not? We haven't eaten anything since we got here, and that truck still needs to cool down. : Say that you don't mind sitting down and having a snack with him.: Aaron smiles. His expression is both silly and sincere.: Look, there's a cliff nearby, lovely place. Got a cook pot all ready there, a comfy piece of tarpaulin too, and the logs are a'lying. Even got a little bottle stashed away, heehee...: Melville grunts, reaches under the counter and pulls out a bulky bag smelling of onions.: The old man lays out the bag's contents on the counter: canned pork, onions, eggs and potatoes. He looks quite proud of his stash.: What's a picnic without snacks? Here, I'm gonna teach you my family recipe for pulled pork. First, you have to boil the eggs. And then...: Gesturing excitedly, the old man reveals the secrets of Melville family cuisine.If anyone in the thread knows how to make pulled pork with eggs I'd love to hear it.  It's also kind of a crafting tutorial. I do it offscreen, it's literally just click the option in the menu.  We return to Melville.  : [Pulled Pork] Say you made some pulled pork with Melville's original recipe.: Squinting skeptically, Aaron pinches a piece of pork and tries it.: Well, whaddayaknow, that came out pretty good! TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 The hippies are totally down for free food.  This man is upset that we killed all the bandits. He agrees to go to the picnic.  He does give us some useful info on the Clean Slate program. In CRONUS PR land, it's a way to rehabilitate criminals by giving them honest work. In reality, it's a way to get a bunch of slave laborers who have to work off their crimes while also providing an easily despised underclass that the Blue, White, and Black Wings can hate instead of resenting the Silver Wing assholes who steal everything and get preferential treatment.  This anomaly researcher will also go to the picnic.  He also doesn't give a poo poo about all the corruption because he gets to do cool science here and the critics are like, totally stupid, mannn! For what it's worth, he is studying the Forefathers' battle robots and I'm not going to show the science because it doesn't produce much and doesn't really give any deeper insight. Remember what Sebastian von Ulden said about how science will not save you from the Dome, and no one is working on getting fundamental science to the point where we could have an intelligent conversation with the Forefathers?  Clara is immune to Dell's manly charms (read: I didn't train influence) and hangs out at the truck instead.  So, the picnic!  It doesn't necessarily progress the story at all, but I like it. : The sun peeks lazily out from behind the clouds. Even the distant howling of the storm seems to have calmed a bit. It's a very human moment in a hellscape of corrupt bureaucracy and unholy monsters.  : [Pulled Pork] Serve up the pulled pork. At their cores, both Roadside Picnic and Encased aren't about aliens or weird technologies or psychic powers or whatever.  It's about how people react to these - how does one react to the knowledge that there are advanced intelligences out there with which you cannot communicate, and the inexplicable wonders and terrors they leave behind?  So we have this human moment because at the end of the day it's a story about people, which is something that a lot of science fiction and fantasy media tends to forget and get bogged down in magical nonsense. : You're sitting on a log, gazing out into the hazy desert and scarfing down pork. With half an ear, you listen to what's happening around the campfire.   We again get the theme of people trying to understand the incomprehensible. The game describes the MOBIOSes as "combat robots built by the Forefathers" and they assimilate electronics to reproduce. I don't think this is quite correct for reasons we'll get into later.  It's all postulation, like when von Ulden proposed we'd triggered the Dome's security system.  Of course, we are talking about aliens. We don't even know if biological organisms from wherever the Forefathers came from even need to defecate or secrete anything. I don't think it's a spoiler to say we will never meet the Forefathers or even find a picture of them. : The pork platter is nearly empty. The picnic is coming to an end. Once again we see characters trying to put things into a little box they understand - Melville understands poo poo, so he goes with that. Brightman understands Earth biology, so he assumes the same concepts apply to an alien system. Clara previously explained that the anomalies were the wrath of God. It's like the three blind men and the elephant.  We even got a buff - and a debuff for being tipsy.  : [Anomaly Protector] Say that you have found a relic that protects against the effects of the anomaly. : [Tech 20] Say that you yourself will install the relic into the truck.: Clara slides off the truck's caterpillar track, letting you get to the motor compartment. : [Anomaly Protector] Install the relic under the hood of the truck to protect it form anomalies.: You insert the relic in the space between the filter and the block. : Get in the passenger seat and when Clara joins you, head for Nashville.I'm sure this will go great!   Famous last words.  Yeah, let's be honest, we all knew this was a deathtrap when Kingsley told us not to ask about what the hell was going on.  : Order her to step on the accelerator to reach the entrance faster. : The road turns left and you're on the main road leading to the complex. : Stop here: going further might be even worse.: Clara swings the vehicle into a short, controlled skid, positioning it to shield you as you exit. As the turrets swivel to catch up to your truck, the two of you are already on the ground - outside the kill zone. Oh, gently caress! We're in the anomaly zone, kids!   TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
Well, crap. We got lured here by the promise of cool alien technology and it turns out to be a deathtrap where we get paid in worthless company scrip, we can't leave, and we'll never have children, and now our employer's guns are shooting at us. May as well go in, because what else are we supposed to do, join a gang of hardened criminals and roam the desert? Next Time: Oh, you thought this was bad, huh?
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Jan 12, 2022 03:11
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Not The Wendigo posted:Was the picnic scene the "reward" for handling the bandits? If so that's brilliant and I hope there's more rewards like that. Yes. If you don't help out Melville or try to rob him you don't get a picnic invite. We also can make the pork later in the game too!
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Jan 13, 2022 20:33
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Taking Far Too Much Crap from Our Employer Welcome back! Last time on Encased we had a picnic with a cool old man who provided pork and booze, and then we nearly got gunned down by Nashville base's turret guns. Today we're gonna see if we can make some progress despite CRONUS being terrible.  You might get the bright idea that this is an RPG and you can use your turbo high protagonist stats to fight the turrets with your psionic attacks or whatever. Let me tell you: no. They will absolutely dumpster your character with massed machinegun fire. Maybe Clara has some ideas or an EMP gun or something.  : Remind her both of you are alive, so everything will be all right.: The Blue indignantly throws her hands in the air.: All right?? No, we're not all right! We were drat near killed! : Suggest she wait there while you handle the turrets and get help.: Morgan regards you for several moments. You can't tell if her eyes are filled with horror, awe, or hope, or maybe a mix of all three.: I'll be praying for you.: She replies after a lengthy pause.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 The correct answer is to go into the sewers right the hell now so we can dodge all of the turrets, and there's a manhole conveniently close to us.  Yea, it's a sewer level. If you know what you're doing you can blaze through it quickly. We're skipping at least part of it because I'm out of healing items and could not find more during exploration.  There's a rat pack near your starting location. What makes these rats interesting is that one of the rats has psychic powers and will happily fry your brain while the rest move to melee. Pass.  Despite having a crowbar in the inventory, the door force animation is us kicking it while holding a crowbar.  I then realize that we can just hit the door with a wrench to save our fatigue bar - which might be important if I remember Nashville correctly - and thus I spend far too much time wacking this door for low damage until it collapses.  There is a box of stuff. This level 2 andromeda would be useful if we were actually serious about energy weapons. Weapons range in level from 1 to 10, and while you can upgrade them it's more useful for non-unique weapons to just hunt for a higher level version in stores and loot. There really aren't a lot of unique weapons either - each of the companions gets one, there's a unique psychic katana you can find later in the game, a prosthetic leg, and the DLC heat laser as far as I know - so burning rare upgrade materials on low level trash is usually a waste of time.  We will, however, be using this.  We can use an auto-hacker package on this computer to see if we can learn anything useful.   : Enter "MAIL" to view the plumbing crew emails. I'm just gonna go through these in order.   This is an unsubtle hint about an upcoming encounter which is intended to teach the player about energy resistances. Encased is very much like being a D&D blaster mage where you can't actually "win" by hitting common weaknesses like Final Fantasy, but it's possible to lose hard by throwing fire at a fire elemental. Unlike D&D, you can't just stunlock enemies to death instead of burning resources on ineffectual blasting. We, on the other hand, have a wrench that deals mechanical damage. It's fine.  Is this a Matrix reference? Anyway, things are going to crap around here. Just what were they digging up?  We open the safe and wander away.  The safe has a ventilation access key, a flamethrower, some ammunition for the flamethrower, and an upgrade magazine for energy weapons. We will hang onto the latter. NEVER sell upgrade magazines, they are consumed in upgrading weapons and are easily the most difficult component to find.  It's worded weirdly - it's not a manual you read and save, it is somehow magically consumed when the weapon is upgraded. Video games!  With the key we found we have everything we need to enter Nashville, turrets be damned, but we're going to poke around a bit longer to farm XP - er, soak in the atmosphere.  For instance, the generator on the bottom here powers the turrets.  With our Blue Wing access we can disable the generator, turning off all the turrets in the parking lot. Suck it! Come to think of it, it's really not a good sign CRONUS felt the need to surround the base with automatic guns, is it?  There's also a gunsmithing workbench but we can't do anything useful here. Yet.  Fortified by the memory of tasty pulled pork, Dell takes the long way through this gate.  Gotta confirm the turrets are deactivated!  We find the unfortunate Benito with the keycard for the safe room on him next to our starting location. Boy, do I feel stupid.  Clara is completely useless here so we may as well send her to get help. : Tell Clara the turrets aren't dangerous anymore. She can leave if she wants, for her mission here is accomplished.Unfortunately, we cannot drive off into the Dome with Clara and chill out to some music and maybe some candied nuts.  Huh? Either she's talking about personal failings or the nonsense at Nashville is getting to her.  TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 Clara stops hiding and leaves. I can't blame her for this reaction, honestly - she's not a warrior or a hero, she's a mechanic/driver who loves candy and nuts but also seemed to be using that to repress issues related to her friends who died in various hellstorms. As far as the writing goes, it's a very realistic reaction to being exposed to this crap. Lest we forget, poor Benito's body is just behind the truck.  In fact, the place is littered with corpses such as this unfortunate Silver behind the red car. You can scan them for XP, and you should.  He also had some coffee and some self-medication drugs he was using. Score!  Scanning the dead also reveals their name and CRONUS records about them. No one is ever nameless in this game - all of the desert raiders we killed had names, and you can actually talk them into leaving Melville alone.  As a result we level up and grab our first perk. This perk is great and you want to take it early, because most of the skills in the game are actually useful and provide you with abilities or cool passive benefits up to and including ability score bonuses and bonus perks. There are a lot of weird dud perks, but our plan is to stack as many modifiers to melee damage as possible and just yoloslam people with the wrench.  Near the entrance to Nashville - and the two turrets - are a mound of corpses which conveniently have useful items we can steal. Always Be Looting!  The man in the Black Wing uniform is one of the recon team members. Great!  : Ask if she needs medical aid. : You put the device on the ground and leave.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
Well it seems like at least one member of the recon team is alright, if a little terrified. I think the radio would have been handy to have, but oh well!  RIP Robert Mayland.  This is what the files you get for scanning people look like.  Robert had a gun and a taser, neither of which we can use effectively but both of which can be sold for sweet, hot company scrip.  The parking lot has gone completely to poo poo.  Also this guard post has no medkits! What gives?  Back to the sewer. This disgusting shitpile is infested with...  Giant cockroaches!  They spit poison at me while I miss a bunch of shots at explosive barrels. Go me!  I eventually get the bright idea to hide around the corner so the roaches have to approach me and get wrenched.  They are surprisingly squishable.  By spamming Desperate Strike Dell wins the DPS race with the cockroaches for our sick loot of absolutely nothing.  We can cook and eat the cockroaches if our food situation becomes really awful. I elect not to do the rat fight because we're on the brink of death.  This ventilation shaft is one way to our destination. There's a note.  Note that being fired, as far as I can tell, means you get to wander the Dome in exile so it's basically a death sentence.    Maybe it's the lady on the radio? : Examine her more closely.: You examine the chevron on her jacket sleeve. Apparently, she's one of those responsible for the Nashville site excavation. We've actually seen this before! Last update posted:I didn't go into it too much last update, but this is the stuff Travis Brightman was studying. We have no idea what it is except it's related to the Dome's combat robots, the MOBIOS. : Ask which level she's going to. : Grab her shoulder and turn her around.: The stranger makes no reaction, even as you grab her shoulder and turn her around. What the hell? : There's a thud. Something heavy falls down behind your back, making the platform shudder. An effective moment mitigated by questionable writing. The art is really what sells this.   : [Deftness 5] Tuck yourself up before the fall.: All you manage to do is wrap your arms around your legs and press your head to your knees, assuming a fetal position.  : Exit the elevator.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 Monty was not a very smart man.  We're knocked out for a few seconds, and then we get back up. Oh, yes, we have a status. Something about "Mild Psychic Irradiation"? Whatever, I'm sure it's fine.  This is the most sensible reaction we've had all day. Next time: Figuring out what the hell happened here!
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Jan 17, 2022 00:23
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: Aaaah! Bobby, are you there? Ron went nuts, Maria's dead, I'm scared... I need help, and Kingsley had no idea what the hell was happening here!
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Crows! Welcome back! Last time on Encased, we went through the sewers to find a way into Nashville station. It turned out that the station was under some kind of psychic attack that turned people into some kind of hosed up possessed zombies, and then we fell into a literal pile of corpses. Today we're going to do our level best to unfuck this poo poo.  Base is in lockdown. If you click the TV you get a voice-acted clip. It's a nice touch.  We want this. This is the game's power armor, and what the game doesn't explain is that this is secretly upgraded to max level. The only drawback is that we can't use stealth, but we don't need it with this baby.  We have this handy dandy terminal to see what's going on.  It lets us open the door. There was something about a bulletin board, what are the announcements?  Great!     Uh... what?  What the actual gently caress?  Well looks like we're going to be dealing with some well adjusted people here.  I swear if you tell us about voles in your rear end in a top hat...  We of course pick up.  : Ask who's on the line.  : Try and figure out what happened. We are not getting paid nearly enough for this poo poo. Fun fact, the main character never receives an actual paycheck throughout the entire game.  TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 We need to hack this terminal to open the door.  Yeah, it's not modeled (although the game isn't shy about modeling blood everywhere) but poo poo! The game is very insistent that something terrible has occurred at Nashville and in my opinion does an excellent job of setting up the atmosphere. Keep exploring!  You have to remember, this game is set in the time before Pornhub. There's a reason I'm showing this off, I swear. : Bend over and take a closer look at the cover. : Pick up the magazine and flip through it. Uh... : Examine the inside cover. Dell reads these for the articles. Obviously. : Check out the centerfold. : Take a closer look at the spine.: A dense line of glyphs runs along the spine. Something about them seems familiar. Taking a closer look, you realize some of the writing resembles the Latin alphabet. Suddenly, something legible emerges from the foreign characters: HELPHELPHELP.: Drop the magazine and move on.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 Always loot flowerpots. If you have a high fortune you can find combonds and even relics.  Black wing poster.  This corpse is found outside the power armor room.   He gives us a shotgun.    : Push the button marked Parking lot.: The monochromatic footage almost makes the picture seem less sinister.: The employees' bodies sprawled on the pavement resemble speed bumps. The flames ravaging the overturned vehicles intermittently blind the cameras.: This level is not as big, and there are fewer cameras installed. You push the button and only four of the six monitors respond. The remaining two go dark. I sure hope our company health insurance covers the years of therapy we'll need after this. : Push the Level-2 button.: There's barely any light on the residential level. You glance over the displays. They all seem to be showing an almost identical picture.: An employee stops and looks up into the camera with mad, glowing eyes.: After standing there for a bit, he disappears into the darkness. Soon after, he returns, gazes into the camera again, and leaves. : Push the Level-3 button.: The office level isn't deserted. Vague shapes stand beside glowing screens and pace up and down the dim corridors.: The third monitor displays the computer room. A scientist in a white lab coat is sitting at a desk, gazing into the monitor.: Every now and then, he turns from the screen and jots something down in his notepad. : Push the button marked Excavation area.: The monitors are all distorted with strange, wave-like ripples.: The static looks very odd.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 More looting yields a light weapons technical manual. NEVER sell these.  The deceased Anna Breslin is found near the entrance. She has a selectrone so we can get around at least.  There are footsteps coming out of the vent we can't do anything with now but will be useful later.  They do yield useful experience!  The elevator rejects us harder than most of my potential romantic partners.  This inventory list is a clue to what's in the safe. We want what's in the safe.  It's done through this handle console.  This is the first of the game's - to my knowledge - only tri-part relic. All the parts can only be found here, otherwise it's lost forever. It's also quite good, so be sure to grab it!  We go to level 2 to grab some stuff.  We are immediately blinded!  You rear end in a top hat! : Inform the stranger calmly that you aren't going to harm anyone.: The flashlight's yellow eye freezes in midair.: The stranger steps forward. He's wearing worn out orange overalls with patch pockets. His metal badge reads: Tim Ginzburg. : Reply that you're here to reestablish contact with your group and provide assistance.: Ginzburg barks out a short, spiteful laugh. : Provide assistance? Yeah, be my guest. Maybe you could start by putting Maria's guts back in her belly, then knock some sense into all these people. Oh, and Dekker is still freaking out in there, so give her a punch too. To help her recover.: Except... it won't help for poo poo. Here, take a look.: The Orange directs his flashlight at the blood-covered floor. Don't tempt me. If you try to recruit him he just laughs and leaves. : Inform him that the surface elevator collapsed and he won't be able to escape.: The Orange's expression begins to grow desperate, but in the next instant anger takes over.: Lies! I know the elevator is working - Wait! No, you destroyed it so we can't get out of here!: He tightens his grip on the gun and it wavers drunkenly in his hand.: No? All right then. I'll go up and see for myself. I'll find the exit on my own if I have to.: Ginzburg walks past you onto the platform, and hits the button.: The elevator ascends, leaving you alone in the corridor.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
Well, crap. They even animated the elevator. Let's go laugh at Ginzburg as he's stuck.   : Suggest that it might be possible to get out through the air shaft. : Ask where he got the watch and jewelry. : Ask where the Orange got his gun.: The barrel of the gun is held to your forehead. It feels cold. We'd probably be doing everyone a favor if we wrenched this man to death, but we're going to do something even more irresponsible in a minute. TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 Naturally I see our spare guns to the desperate greedy criminal because I need to lose some encumbrance and also dude has medkits. I... maybe could have just killed him, but idk that we need that fight and also we're nominally assigned to work with him. Welp!  When we get to the residential area the turrets are active and they start attacking us. This raises so many questions - did CRONUS know what was going to happen? These are the only turrets inside the facility, and they're on the residential layer. Were they expecting necrophages like the thing in the cafe basement? An orange revolt? General strike? Who knows!  Hilariously the turrets all have voice lines, including "Violator! Stop the attack!" They are fortunately very wrenchable.  Doors are fortunately also wrenchable.  Don't look in the mirrors!   There's something I need from the toilets, but also you get a buff for taking a leak I guess.  All of the people left up here are nuts. This guy is staring into the mirror endlessly.   You can give him a medkit but then we have to fight and kill him.   We take out the other turret afterwards.  AHHH! : Get to know the young woman... in a visual manner. : Listen closely.: The White's voice is pleasantly deep. Nevertheless, you can tell she's being capricious, apparently dissatisfied over something. : It's you who is stupid, Shimon! All boys are stupid, and your cartoons are silly. All you ever do is punch each other. Some things are more important than that! That's what Mom says...: Her tone become angry, almost enraged.: I'm not going to America! I'm going to have a family and lots of kids, and the first thing I'll do as their mother is forbid them from watching Captain Hyena! Take that! : Sit beside her.: You carefully sit down beside her. You can't hear exactly what she's mumbling, but her voice has a hypnotic effect. You feel sleepy, but now is no time for a nap.We leave this conversation and go to her compatriot.  : Take a cautious look at the Orange. Unfortunately I think they're using a generic portrait for him. : Listen closely to what the man is whispering.: You have to bend close to the Orange's face, your ear nearly touching his lips. His voice is barely perceptible, but his speech is distinct.  : Look! Melissa, look! Captain Hyena is back at it! He'll defeat that pathetic flayer! I'd bet five cruzeiro on it!: The man goes quiet for a few seconds and then resumes his whispering.: Nope, it's not silly at all! It's an American cartoon where good always defeats evil. That's the only way it can be. When I grow up, I'm going to be an American and take us both there. Come on, don't be stupid. To America, of course! We leave. TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 This is great black humor! It's funny, because CRONUS is kind of acknowledging that it's hiding a bunch of crap, but when you think about it those same dark secrets got all these innocent people in Nashville killed or driven insane.  Here's the medical lab!     Anyway, it's time to search the toilet.  This is part 2 of the relic.  To get part 3 we need to huff some Airplane, which is nominally a contraband drug but is anyone really going to give a poo poo about CRONUS regulations at this point?  Sneaking up gets us the third part (although we run into the poison gas our criminal friend mentioned)  We combine all three of the parts to create the Triskele, which I sure hope managed to make itself smell less like poo poo.  It gives us super speed, which is going to be really helpful in our quest to murder a bunch of crazy people in self-defense.  Monty Collingwood is not a smart man, but we have to go to level three to progress the game.  : You hear a chewing sound from somewhere close by. Aw, gently caress!  The game doesn't start combat, we have some time to look around before everything goes to poo poo. This scientist guy seems to have an idea of what's going on, maybe we should get his help?  First, however, the unfortunate Victor Rozalevsky must be put down by Dell and his fearsome Cossack Wrench.  Score!  The game hangs, causing me to redo the fight while he summons in all the jackasses from this room.  These lines are all voice acted too! They do tend to get old after a while, but on initial exposure it really helps sell the effect that you do not belong here and everything is wrong. Even the environment reflects this - look at all the blood on the "equal rights" poster!  It's not a hard fight with the power armor, but one of these jerks is a psyker. If you're playing a psyker, they drop an upgraded telekinesis glove for you.  There are some hackable terminals about psionics and neurointerfaces.  These jerks start a running fight that rages across the entire floor.  I'm unable to kill this guy before he pulls another pack of a gunner, a psyker, and an energy weapons user.  There's a rough moment where Dell gets immobilized and pummeled at range but I'm eventually able to pull them into the storeroom and beat them to death.  Things are bad!  Loot is good!  Near the pack of possessed weirdos we find poor Maria, a member of the rescue team. So far we've found 1 deserter and 2 deceased. Thanks Kingsley!  This terminal lets us both shut down the turrets on floor 2 and report to Kingsley.  We need to talk to this lady to advance the plot. : In a dim room saturated with pale lamplight, you see a woman.: She's sitting on a bench, head in her hands. Indistinct words blurring into sobs reach your ears. You listen closely. The woman is singing. : Knock gently on the wall, so as not to startle her.: The woman stops singing and slowly lifts her head. She flinches a little when she sees you.: Raising her CAERUS's flashlight, she examines you anxiously.: Her silvery uniform is covered with a spray of mud and blood. Her badge is torn off, and its place a bloody handprint has been swiped across her whole jacket. : Tell her Ginzburg mentioned a woman named Dekker and ask if that's her.: The woman fiddles with her hair, trying to smooth it back from her face. : Dekker-Schulz, Louise Dekker-Schulz, Silver Wing, Magellan Base. : Ask for an account of the situation from the start.: She wraps her arms around her slender shoulders.: You really want to hear what it was like? We arrived before the storm. 9:20 am I believe it was. The connection was already lost by then, and there was something wrong with the people... No, not something. Everything about them was wrong.: Schulz looks up at the ceiling as she tries to remember.: Seymour Hobbs, head of security, he greeted us. He reported that communications with Magellan were down and needed to be restored from the command center on the third floor. He gave no details, just said there was a problem.: The Silver blinks rapidly.: Hobbs took us to the third floor, then went back upstairs. Maria went to the command center... and these people, they just rushed at us. They... devoured Maria. Bob shot several of them and locked the rest in the hallway. They're... they're very weird. They don't seem to feel pain at all.In other words, the original rescue team was in way over their heads and probably not briefed on whatever the hell is in the basement either.  Poor Louise has been sitting here in the psychic irradiation for who knows how long and is forgetting things. Great! : Learn more about the group members' fate. : Ask how the technician died.: The Silver's lips tremble, she barely manages to compose herself. : Ask how the Black went missing.: Dekker was already thoroughly dejected, but now her face grows even darker.: It was me who gave the order... sent him to find help.: Louise motions at the walkie-talkie on the bench.: He was still able to contact us when he reached the surface. Then it was too noisy, and the connection was lost. He... n-never replied after that.Earlier in the game posted:Louise was the woman we tried to talk to on Robert Mayland's walkie-talkie, and Robert we found dead in front of the turrets at the entrance. We found Hobbs dead earlier in the update, as he triumphantly activated the turrets and security protocols and then died to try to keep this crap in.  : Tell her you found Bob's body at the entrance to Nashville.: The Silver lets out a silent gasp. She looks as though she's trying to catch her breath.: N-No... that... that... that...  Of course, none of this is in any way Louise's fault! Bob was the member of the group as a trained military professional who had the highest chance of getting out and getting help. Hobbs basically led the rescue team into a zombie hell ambush, and most importantly CRONUS refused to divulge what the hell was actually going on here so that proper measures like "quarantining the site" or "shutting down the power". Louise is presumably a corporate manager - for fucks sake, Ginzburg stole her gun and she didn't even notice. She's not someone with the training to handle this and is now stuck with major survivor's guilt not due to the errors she made, but because everyone involved conspired to gently caress the rescue team over. The communication outage isn't due to whatever this is, but because someone hosed with that computer we set to allow communications. They were walking into a deathtrap completely unprepared and it's a miracle Louise and the scientist survived at all. Hell, Dell nearly died coming in when the turrets fired on the truck. : Ask Schulz about the Orange who fled.: The administrator's tear-stained face freezes in a grimace of distaste.: Bastard. I'm glad he's gone. Like this! Everything with the Orange Wing is self-sabotaging nonsense involving having a bunch of convicted criminals around and treating them like poo poo so the Blues, Whites, and Blacks don't turn on the Silvers. Did you notice that Ginzburg referred to Louise by her last name, despite her being on first-name terms with the rest of the team? It's no wonder that Ginzburg is just abandoning the rescue squad after they treated him like poo poo. : Find out more about the scientist who's going mad.: Schulz glances around at the closed door.: It started as soon as we got here. He saw these people and started... laughing. He kept laughing and saying "Sarovski was right." He'd approach them and touch them. I realized he was off his rocker right away.: She says in a low voice. : Ask about this Sarovski the scientist was talking about. We've been hearing this guy all level and he doesn't sound nuts. : Ask if you can talk to him.: A glint of concern appears in Dekker-Schulz's eyes.: T-Talk? Uh... okay. He's over there, behind that door. You can talk to him when we're done.: Tell her you'd like to discuss something more important. : Say that you've learned enough. : Ask her how you can contact Magellan.: She sits back down, hands clutched to her temples.: When they... ate Maria, we locked the door to the command center. Take the key. Restoring the connection is the top priority now. Oh, gently caress, she's got it too. Let's see what scientist guy has for us.  : Knock on the door.: You can hear footsteps in the room, quiet but heavy. Captain Charisma over here isn't helping his case. : Tell him you aren't Louise.   : Tell him you'll do your best to open the door and leave.Back to Louise!  : Ask her to unlock the door and release the White. Unfortunately we are not logical enough, a psychiatrist, or a manager so all we can do is imply vile things about Louise's choice of sexual partners. : Rudely demand she open the door.: Schulz shies away from you.: Are you out of your mind? There's no call to be rude, we're all on tenterhooks as it is.: The Silver approaches the door and presses her selectrone to the broken panel. A green light flashes.: The Silver returns to her bench, keeping her eyes on the doors as they slide open.: The person who emerges from the dark computer room looks nothing like a scientist. His broad shoulders and military bearing resemble those of an elite forces officer. Only the silver badge that says "Ronald Steele, physicist" and the lab uniform suggest he works for White WIng.: Steele shakes your hand. : It's nice to see living people for a change. Even you, Louise.: Dekker-Schulz is watching him intently. She snorts a laugh.: Did you think you looked normal? You were laughing and chanting. "Sarovski is right! Sarovski is right!" Of COURSE CRONUS loving knew about this. Of loving course. Is anyone surprised?  : Listen to what Louise has to say.: Dekker-Schulz shrugs her shoulders feebly.: So should we reestablish the connection and wait? Louise is basically broken because she tried her best and it got a bunch of people killed. She's not a fighter, hell Ginzburg stole her gun and noped out. None of this is her fault because, again, the security chief led them all into an ambush and turned on the turrets that killed Bob. gently caress Seymour Hobbs. : We can't afford to wait, Louise.: Disgrunted, Ronald interrupts her.: The White turns from Louise to you.: Let's stick to the protocol: first of all, you must contact Magellan. Then the main phase of the operation can begin.: He takes a folded piece of paper out of his pocket.: I did the calculations. It turns out that the base is in a kind of bubble. The strength of the radiation inside the bubble is uneven, and the nature of the wave propagation suggests that the source is down there, in the excavation zone. : Ask him how to get to the excavation area. : Ask what exactly was found during the excavation. Well poo poo. Steele is the most level headed and prepared guy and he doesn't know. : Ask if it's dangerous to approach the radiation source directly. Why the gently caress wasn't this guy expedition leader again? : Tell them it's settled - you need to go down and find the radiation source.: Ronald turns to the Silver.: Go-o-od. Let's go, quick. Louise? Are you ready? I can see you're not feeling well, but you need to pull yourself together.. Um, Louise? : Grab her shoulder and shake her.: The Silver lifts her head. Rings of white light are beginning to flicker in her eyes.: Did you see how many of them flocked to Nashville? Some even managed to make it down here.: You and Steele exchange looks.: A grimace of frustration spreads over the White's face.: poo poo. Let's hurry it up. The relic is down there somewhere.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 Hey, at least we found this relic in a flowerpot.  The command center is full of possessed employees who get killed by wrench. It's time to call Kingsley. Next time: Of course they knew all along. TheGreatEvilKing fucked around with this message at 04:56 on Feb 7, 2022 |
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Feb 7, 2022 04:33
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: Woof! Arf! The broken eye!
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VolticSurge posted:I think the image link here is messed up. Thanks, fixed!
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Feb 7, 2022 04:57
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Keldulas posted:This game is honestly excellent, but holy poo poo is it grim. There's a reason the thread is titled "no happy ending".
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Feb 9, 2022 15:54
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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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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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I believe it's just dialogue.
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Feb 22, 2022 06:52
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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!
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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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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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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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Sparrows sans Mary Doria Russell Welcome back! Last time on Encased we battled a robot so we could make a prosthetic leg and smack people in the head with it. Today we're rounding up another party member.  Turns out the wombo leg has 5 uses ever, which means that I'm saving it either for the only boss fight I can think of or beating the arena champ to death.  All of the factions have these weapon display cases. You can either do all the work to max out rep with a faction... or you can get to 100 criminal, break open the case, and run. Some of the rewards are better than others.  This lady keeps an eye on the weapons case but also allows us to trade in Forefathers and CRONUS points for various medical supplies. This is why you scan everything - the points become medkits.  We're still here because this man has a quest.  : Ask if you can help. : Who're you going to help? Us? Picnic deals with its own problems, and doesn't bother with anyone else's.: The Black falls abruptly silent. : Ask why nobody tried to solve this problem before. Eh, what could go wrong? We'll be fine! : Tell him you're ready to handle it. : Tell him you want to talk about something else. : Move away.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 This unlocks the Caravan location, but unfortunately the Unwanted Survival Game elements rear their head and it's time to chow down on random noodle packets I have lying around.  I'm honestly not really a fan of this. At least in Early Access they listened to all the players who demanded weapon durability be removed from the game, but food's not really scarce enough for this to be a threatening mechanic and combat's not hard enough that the debuffs really matter. I hate to bring up a certain other Russian RPG, but those mechanics sucked then and they suck here.  Apparently I didn't eat as much as I needed to, as we reach the caravan battered, hungry, and thirsty.  We also resist flatulence from eating the dreaded canned beans.  The bandits arrive before us.  The... who? We haven't met these guys yet.  Oh, they're colluding. Great! I'm not sure if the implication is that the guards acquire proceeds lost in the "robbery" or if it's just easier to pay protection money than wipe these guys out. For what it's worth, Phalanx is the ex-black wing faction, so they absolutely have the heavy weaponry to do the latter.  This must be the guy who swore to deal with the problem. The voice actor is very feminine sounding, which confused me for a bit he's a trans dude  : I am your death! I am your retribution! I punish those who are loath to live right. I am Sparrow! And just like that, reality sets in.  TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
Welp! Look, I made fun of the Phalanx guys for - potentially - making a corrupt deal but it's also the only way that guarantees 100% everyone goes home. Our mystery man just shot that in the face.  This starts what can only be described as a complete clusterfuck as the robbers set on us, the caravan, and Sparrow.  Sparrow seems to think he is the Punisher or some poo poo.  One of the robbers nails Fox and Dell with a fear technique. Fear in this game causes you to skip turns by running away, so having the ability to inflict it is very very good.  Sparrow keeps trying to drop cool one liners. You should not take it seriously.  Meanwhile Dell is forced to waste a turn fleeing combat.  Crump punches badmen.  I think this chatter is supposed to represent the Black Wing former employees falling back on their CRONUS training in a crisis. People get very chatty in fights.  Sparrow has a custom handgun named Justice. I think you can guess where this is going. Anyway, there's a bunch more uninteresting turn based combat.   Hey! That was all Sparrow!  : Cool the stranger off; he started this fight on his free will, no one has to thank him. : The merchant moves away with angry muttering.: The caravan takes off and disappears from your sight very soon. Incidentally, this is what happens if you try to initiate conversations with anyone except the main character. Real talk time! : You come up to the stranger. The word you're looking for is "nobility" my dude.  : Admit that you're simply looking for adventure. On one hand you're a crazy vigilante with a penchant for escalating situations into mass fatality events. On the other hand you have a gun and you're really good at shooting people with it. Welcome aboard! : Answer that he definitely may join you. Normally I'd take the opportunity to bitch about the party limit a bit more but the more I think about it the more the challenge is coordinating a collection of wackos while having no real authority. At least in Tyranny you have the nominal might of the imperial law behind you, we're just a crazy dude wandering around the desert because some destructive alien entity told us to. Our party members are a con artist, a violent mob enforcer, and some kind of psychic murderess. Sparrow adds "murderous vigilante" to the list, and the remaining two party members are an anime child robot I never used and an alcoholic who gets bonuses to beating people when he's drunk. : He shakes your hand.: I'm gonna go heal my wounds. You know about the Picnic, don't you? I'll be there. In case you decide to fight evil with me - just call me!TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
So, yeah, Sparrow. This little encounter characterizes him pretty well - he views the world in black and white and wants to do good, but his methods all revolve around shooting people in the face and he has no idea what the hell he's doing. He talks about protecting the weak, but a PHALANX caravan is pretty much the last group of people who needs protecting and his solution gets caravanners killed.  We might have to come back here with Sparrow? I've never been able to get the old man to stop snoring.  I then have the brilliant idea to break into the gas station basement and grab everything.  There's a bunch of useful loot.  They even cleaned up the mess from two years ago!  Unfortunately Katerzyna gets caught on our looting spree. : Belitskaya turns red and pale, wringing her fingers hysterically.: Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God... please, not the jail... it's dirty and filled with criminals. Can we make a deal?She really has that damsel in distress act down pat, huh. I kind of want to do a run as a low intelligence or lady character to see if her nonsense changes in any way.  : Try to settle the conflict in peace. I don't have the skills to get us out of this, and I really don't want to turn Picnic hostile. : Keep silent. : Heavy footsteps are heard soon. You see a guard walking towards you. Uh... hey, buddy. : You are violating the general Dome Code, Article 21, paragraph 4: burglary or attempted burglary in a socially dangerous manner.: He frowns. : Say that you repent of your crime.: He reacts to your confession with a discreet disbelief.: I'll reflect this in the report as well.And, uh, that's it. Nothing happens. TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
We take a -1 rep hit at picnic I plan to offset by doing the well quest in the next update. Audrey's not even mad!  However, I need some input. Do we take Sparrow, and who do we kick out? Remember, Katerzyna has to stay until we do her quest, so our options are Fox and Crump. What are we doing next? We could try to find the Kshatriya base, go to Magellan and do Katerzyna's thing (this also unlocks more party members), or see what is up with that building Maelstrom wants us to see.
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May 4, 2022 01:53
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: This is a robbery! Give us your poo poo!
: Whoa, we're from Phalanx. Let's make a deal if you don't screw us over. Dunno if we're pocketing anything here.
: Dude, what the gently caress! We didn't need that fight! Who asked you to get people killed?
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The Tribulations of Saint Belitskaya Welcome back! Last time on Encased, we picked up the murderous vigilante Sparrow who refused to join our party because we had a whopping two other people. Goons decided to boot Crump and try out Sparrow. Today we're going to deliver Katarzyna to Magellan station and do some wacky adventures or something.  First, however, we got a quest to go into the Picnic sewers and fix the water supply.  This being the Dome it is of course zombies. I mean, Necroids.  Katarzyna immediately begins whining.  I'm realizing I may have hosed up our build. See, we only have a 50% chance to resist the Voice paralyzing us (right now) and there's one more aspect that is going to screw me over before the end of this update.  It doesn't really matter because this game's combat isn't particularly hard, and it's a 4v1 beatdown of a necroid we have to do twice.   This could have gone better! It's The Voice perk from last update, where you need to save against fear in exchange for piles of extra AP. We aren't quite good at that.   I'm pretty sure Crump only says this if the enemy uses unarmed.  Characters are very chatty and it's a nice touch!  After killing the necroids we have to turn off the valves with the contaminated green water so that Picnic only gets clean water. Success!  Sadly there is no gratitude for our band of criminals and STEM majors so we continue on our merry way. +5 reputation with Picnic at least!  We boot Crump out of the party. Unlike certain awful RPGs - looking at you, Rhin - the characters just go back to the bar or the lab or wherever and they're still your friends. They even show up to lend you moral support at certain story junctions even if they're not in the active party.  Sparrow is at least happy to see us.  And off we go!   The thread was also pretty insistent we go do Katarzyna's Magellan Adventure, so off we go again.  The game tries to pop a random encounter but we're too lucky and sneak by.  I am forced to engage with the game's tedious pseudo-survival elements.  We also get a unique encounter that spawns a skeleton that has a unique armor set.  The reference is flying right over my head.  Snazzy!  Anyway, Magellan.  Magellan is fully inhabited and is the closest we'll get to seeing an actual city in Act 1.  Crime!  This guy needs help getting the elevator down, but he gives us a high-capacity power cell we can use to craft energy weapons.  Anyway, we need to get into the main elevator.   It's stuck, but hey, a maintenance ladder!  It doesn't really matter what you do in the following text adventure segment, as it all leads to something like this:  Either you die falling from the ladder or the elevator crushes your dumb rear end. No, what we really need to do is go through the maintenance shaft on the far right I legitimately had to look up on my first playthrough.  : Ask him if he knows why the elevator's stopped. : Politely ask if he can repair the elevator.: The Blue looks at you for a long time.: Okay. Get on the elevator and I'll send you on your way.: The technician thinks for a couple of seconds.: I'm going to switch the electricity on now. The elevator will move as soon as you reach the- Uh oh! BUSTED! : The Blue stares helplessly at the thing, then back at you.: I didn't take them! It was... Herman. Yeah, Herman's the thief! Ah, gently caress it! Now, we could pretty easily murder this dude and score some free new relics, but there's a unique opportunity here. : Shout to Katarzyna to run for help. Huh. "Only" fraud ordered by supervisors, huh. : Kotya takes an uncertain step forward.: Well, yeah. Are you Derek Exler? : That's right, they kicked me out but I'm back. I mean, I'm working on it. We were on our way to Magellan just now, when this elevator - Derek, it's nice to meet you, but we have to hurry.: Katarzyna makes a pleading gesture.drat, she's pulling the same damsel-in-distress only-you-can-save-me bullshit on Derek too, huh? : The Blue steps aside.: No problem! The elevator panel is on that wall over there. Have a safe trip.: Piece of cake!: Belitskaya mutters, moving away.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 This lets us go back and actually enter Magellan proper.  : Ask her why the turnstiles won't open. Argh! Look, I like a lot of the game, but "Utters Elizabeth" here is just a big clunk. : Tell her you'd like to register.: Elizabeth starts vigorously rummaging through some papers. : Great! Let's begin your journey to a fully fledged human be- uh, I mean citizen.: She folds the documents neatly.: Sorry, that's an outdated form, and this one is for Oranges... There, found it! : Listen carefully. : When she's finished, Elizabeth smilingly hands you a piece of paper.: The briefing is complete. I hope you memorized everything. Please take this registration form to the second window.  : [Registration Form] Pass him your registration form.: Edward carefully reviews your form, mumbling under his breath, while you patiently wait. : Well, well, well. So, initial registration, briefing... Oh, that's it! You sh-should have already received the briefing at the first window. Now you have to do a difficult-Oh, I mean an easy test consisting of three questions. Are you ready? : State confidently that it was 1971. : Form no. 1.7.9.: Edward adds a cross to his paper.: I'm afraid that's a wrong - Oh, hell... S-sorry, you gave the correct answer. : The head of the department?: The Silver puts down yet another checkmark, then exhales in relief.: Yes, you answered correctly. The test is finished. You may go- Oh, I mean, wait! I have to give you the second briefing!I legitimately can't tell if they're loving with us or this is an idiotic corporate procedure. Then again, seeing as I had to take a recent "metaverse etiquette" training at my real life workplace, who knows? The game certainly has its moments of bureaucracy inaction such as Administrator Rayhet literally sitting there playing his greeting from a tape recorder. : McKinsey adjusts his collar in a businesslike manner, glances at his list of prompts a couple more times, and starts the briefing. struggling to keep his voice steady.: So, hmm.... Yes, hello, Future Citizen! Let me begin my briefing with - Hell, what do I begin with? : Please note that in the case of contact with any enemy it is recommended to follow the General Military Instruction, seventh edition. The only exception is impact with Fops, contact with them must be avoided at all costs.: The Silver raises his finger up.: Finished with the briefing text, the trainee sighs heavily and sits back in his chair.: Phew! That... that's the end of my briefing. Pl-please go to the first window... Oh dear. Back to the DMV.  : Give Elizabeth the registration form.: Elizabeth takes your registration form, scans it, then adds several checkmarks, satisfied.: Marvelous! After one more test, you'll be registered. Shall we? : Cautiously assume that the right answer is bureaucracy. : Reply that you'll avoid them at all costs.I believe Fox is a Fop so we're kind of loving up that one.  : Excellent. 10 out of 10. They're the best administrators in the world, you wish there were more like them!: Elizabeth trills with laughter, adding yet another checkmark.: Excellent, another correct answer. Aaand the test is done!: Administrator McClain solemnly shakes your hand.: Congratulations! From now on, you are a full-fledged citizen! You may enter and exit Magellan base freely, and bring guests if you wish. Remember our rules and I guarantee your stay here will be as pleasant and comfortable as you could hope. Welcome aboard!: Having finished her passionate speech, Elizabeth casually produces some papers and begins to fill them in, as if you weren't there.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
Now that we're allowed into Magellan proper we can take Katarzyna to-  Oh. Ok. : There are more cameras now... It's only been three months.: she whispers. : The White turns to you.: Thanks for your help. Anytime you need anything, just say so, and I'll get you anything you like. I hope I make it back to the laboratories... And the lovely Katarzyna vanished into the wilderness, taking her command of advanced energy weaponry with her.  There's a lot to explore in Magellan. I'm by no means taking the scenic route, I'm trying to get the parts for the Atilla club we unlocked last update. Astute readers might notice I've kind of screwed myself over there.   There's a lot of barter with Calvin here, but right now he just sells armor we don't need.  Ms. Davenport here can be given steroids or helped up. There's an animation of her struggling to reach the vents.  I'm not sure if this goes anywhere, honestly. Like I said, information about this game is thin on the ground.  However, this gentleman needs our help!  : Listen to the voice coming from the other side of the door. : The officer, who's pacing a parapet above the loading dock, stops and listens intently. : I recognize that voice... Open the gate! That's Keppler. He went out with the caravan this morning. Did you hear me? Open that damned door! The New Committee in a nutshell - Cover Your rear end! : [Tech 30] Walk up to the gate and open it yourself by accessing the emergency panel.: You push the technician aside and kick the cover off the panel. Inside are several thick bundles of wires, as well as a number of fuses. You rip out the topmost fuse and press the button next to it.: Rumbling and scraping, the massive door begins to shift upward...   Well, uh, poo poo. Well, medkits always saves us in combat, so... : [Medkit] Use the injector. : You don't have to wait long - a few minutes later, a thin old man in a white lab coat appears in the warehouse, accompanied by two gloomy looking Oranges and a technician.: The Blue deals with the armor's locks easily. After evaluating the victim's status, the doctor injects a few CCs of painkiller into him and steps aside to let the Oranges through.: The silent attendants load Holiday onto a gurney and roll him away.: The doctor and technician leave shortly thereafter.: Only you and Keppler are left standing beside the ruined servoshell.Talking to Keppler. : Keppler stands by the lacerated armor staring vacantly into space.: When you greet him, he turns and nods dully. : Ask about the circumstances of his partner's injury. : Don't insist. : Ask him what he can tell you about Holiday.: For a moment, a smile creases Keppler's stern face. : He loves wacky jokes and pizza. Scored high in all his training metrics, but discipline is lax. TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
Sadly, Keppler here isn't a party member even though he's a totally boss looking soldier in power armor. Let's go to the medical station, shall we?  He's right.  To get anywhere on this floor we need to go through decontamination, which sucks especially with the companions' poo poo pathfinding.     : Seeing you looking at him, he abruptly stops talking. Oh I'm sure this is on the level. : Say you're ready to help.: The White directs a superior gaze at his colleague. : And you say shampoo caps... : Ask how the decontamination chamber can be switched off. TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 Well, here's a familiar face.   She was not fine. However, we'll have to come back in a few days.  Which brings us to this guy.  : Point out that he looks very upset. : Oh no! No, I'm all right.: He objects, but his lips betray him with their trembling.: Akira gives a short sob and wipes his eyes on his coat sleeve.: Okay, fine. I'm not all right. Forgive my weakness. It is.. unworthy.: He continues, sniffling.: Have you heard about Sonora? It's a collapsed warehouse bunker. I sent my... my robot there, and it hasn't yet returned. And if it hasn't returned, something really dire must have happened. And... : Tell him you'll drop in if you're passing by. TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 This trustworthy looking man wants us to acquire this ring, so naturally we agree.  This doctor treats you for free exactly once before your insurance runs out.  Hey! He made it!    : Ask him what went wrong with the mission. Fops? All we know is that officially you're supposed to run away from them...  : Encourage him by telling him a joke. : Ask him where exactly his squad was attacked. Uh huh. : Inquire whether he saw anything exceptionally odd.: Holiday tries to smile. : Yeah, I was twelve when my mom married that rear end in a top hat. Now that was weird as hell. What the hell were these guys doing?  The Fops are weird. We'll get to them eventually.  : Encourage him by telling him a joke. On that note we head out. TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
On to the military post!    Of course, the role of the blacks is twofold: first to defend against the Dome, and to keep the Orange slave labor population down.  Rationalization in progress.  Margarita the tutorial lady got our warning to escape and now sells guns at Magellan.  Also a bunch of the Black Wing are deserting to join "Phalanx", who we briefly met and hosed up a caravan battle alongside.  A loving corrupt mess!  At least we found an extremely lovely relic in a flowerpot.  John is getting an earful.  Ida has a proposition for us (platonic you perverts).  : She pauses to check her email on her communicator. Leader of the fuckin year, trying to berate subordinates while nervously checking coffee and email.  : Say hello. : Say you're ready to help.: Grace glances meaningfully at John who's now silent and Antonio who's sitting at the terminal. : Did you hear that? Even the newbie has more ambition than you two.  The part about the outside world falling silent we didn't really know before, but now we do!  The horror! : She glances at her communicator again.: And still no messages from that rear end in a top hat... Er, what was I talking about again? Right, the Oranges' contracts state that if they want citizenship, they must agree to participate in scientific programs. But the bastards have suddenly remembered they have rights, and now i get word these rats are huddling in a corner, whispering about an escape. Abandon Magellan, live as a bandit commune in some locked-down facility, and some other crap like that.I missed this - is she taking her relationship troubles out on her subordinates? RIP.  : Ask who Grace thinks is behind the escape. We know he's buying selectrones, but...hmm. : Inquire about the nature of these experiments. : [Science 15] Say that this device is called a 'teleporter', though the correct scientific term is a bit different... : Say you're ready to help and ask what you should do. Clearly the brain trust. I haven't actually done this quest, but I have my suspicions. : Say you'll try to find out about the escape and move away.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
We continue wandering and looting.  This happens.  This also happens, and both parties are offended when we suggest sinusoidal movements.  This backpack will help us with the weight Katarzyna previously carried.  Sports reruns!  We check out the executive level to meet Martin Kingsley in the flesh.  Accurate!   : Say you arrived at Concord together two years ago. : He rushes up to hug you.: Sitting at their desks, Kamau and Randall exchange surprised looks, but say nothing.: James's gaze is full of gratitude.: You're probably at a loss, but you saved my life that day. Who knows how much longer I would've been stuck in that room? I definitely never owuld have made it to the bus in time. And Maelstrom, it...: The Silver pauses to pull a handkerchief from his pocket and wipe his reddened eyes. : Ask to take a look at your file.: The Silver helplessly throws up his hands.: The rules are much more strict now. Only an employee with special clearance can access personnel files. Previously, any Silver could do it. : Ask if he knows what happened to the rest of the group.: Monty nods.: Yes, of course. It's my job to know everything about employees.: He nods at his workspace.: Can you imagine, I had to learn how to use a computer after all. And that, let me tell you, is one hell of a thing!: After pulling himself together, he falls awkwardly silent.: Well, with the permission of the senior administrator, I ran our fellow travellers through the database about a month ago. There are some curious details. : Move away.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 Sadly, we can't get into Kingsley's office. Somehow the secretary reads our personnel file and concludes that we're an alive noncitizen, despite the bureaucrats making us citizens and Monty telling us that officially - as of a month ago, we're fuckin legally DEAD! I guess Ms. Katsaros here doesn't want to pull more of Kingsley's bullshit (check the loading screen, her first name is Artemis) and I can't really blame her.  We go back to the warehouse and I'm able to buy the materials to make the Attila club. Beating people with heat damage is.. it's gonna be a thing.  Yea!  Here's the problem. The weapon requires 5 muscle to use. We have 4. This is kind of a massive problem.  We can chug drugs for temporary boosts, but there's not really an easy way to permanently improve our muscle off the top of my head.  We also kind of used 3 technowoman comic books to make this weapon which we cannot use.  A recent patch added what looked like a respec terminal at Picnic, so off we go.  A scripted encounter awaits us!  Yeah, uh, holy poo poo! Meet the robokids, who this screenshot does a better job explaining than I can.  Specifically, the landfill full of dead robot children created as a sad corporate substitute for reality.  This is the other crappy feature of this game.  You know those lovely vampire raids in Skyrim that no one liked because they'd run in and kill unique NPCs?  This happens every so often. The criminal option just lets you deploy more optimally, but these encounters usually aren't interesting or challenging and they take forever because we have a bunch of allied NPCs. I wish game developers would stop making fights where you sit and wait for the computer to battle itself, but here we are.  We'll just fast-forward to the end here.  I don't know if this was added by a patch or I just never noticed it, but I'm curious to see what it does.  I miss the screenshots, but it's entirely cosmetic. I could make Dell a woman or I could reassign him to Silver Wing, but I can't change his stats. I legitimately cannot find any results for the CRONUS Quantum Filing Terminal on Google. It sucks! Now we might as well go back to Magellan.  This Phalanx guy is selling drugs in a random merchant encounter.  Let's go see John Keppler because his quest reward is legit. : Ask if you can help him somehow.: Keppler stays quiet for a moment.: Actually, you can. Here's hoping this isn't secret information. Holiday and I were going to Nashville to find out what happened out there after Maelstrom.: No one nosed around out there after the Incident, and apparently no one will any time soon. Holiday is in way over his head of course, so neither of us is going there anytime soon.: The soldier sighs heavily and lowers his gaze. : Agree to bring the device to Nashville.: Keppler brightens quite a bit at the news. He puts the device in your hands.: Great. Just place this thingy in the truck parking lot and get the hell out of there right away.: He lays a heavy hand on your shoulder.: Don't play the hero, okay? If you feel you can't handle it, back away.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 Random sandstorm encounter where we fail to catch things!  Nashville is still an irradiated mess.    You can go through a bunch of hoops to get through the other side of those rocks, or you can put the device here and it's still good. There are a bunch of hazards here we're going to come back to later. In the meantime we have one more scripted encounter in camp before we get back to Kepp -  Oh, no.  Oh boy.  Yeah, it could be worse I guess.   I...what?  : Tell him you placed the device at Nashville.: Keppler brightens quite a bit at this news, and even smiles.: Thanks for helping me with this. Charlie will be happy to hear about it. And he wouldn't mind if you take his armor, I think. You deserve it.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 Attempting to take the Mk I instead of the Decommissioned armor gets you this dialogue, but hey, we have power armor now!  Nice!  We'll have to keep an eye out for these parts. Finally, let's go check on Katarzyna and see how she's doing.   The game even realizes we've been here before. : Ask her what happened.: A little grimace of suffering appears on Belitskaya's face.: My... coworkers, friends, acquaintances. They're surprised I'm here. I mean, they're not happy I'm here. Not happy at all! : Ask what she needs. : Tell here you don't mind travelling together once again. Dammit!  TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
Decisions Lie Before Us Do we want to trade out Fox or Sparrow for Katarzyna OR the mysterious party member we will gain next update? Next time: The Anime-Bot 9000 TheGreatEvilKing fucked around with this message at 01:57 on Jun 6, 2022 |
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Jun 6, 2022 01:04
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: Okay, so if we put a shampoo cap on the relic we can -
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Cooked Auto posted:Also, you missed image 122 and linked 133 instead. Fixed, thanks! This is what I get for doing giant updates on weekends.
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Jun 6, 2022 01:58
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Reign of Anime Welcome back! Last time on Encased, we made it to Magellan and you all voted to leave Katarzyna behind. I will probably force her into the party to show off some cool interactions, but right now we have a mystery party member to acquire!  At least we got power armor.  NPCs will comment on your armor if you're wearing it. It's a nice touch.  To get the new party member we need to do Akira's quest to go get his robot.  On the way we pop a random encounter and I decide to do the fight for XP.  It's a bunch of robokids! We found the robokid graveyard last update and now we get to meet the robokids!  They're hostile. As mentioned briefly in the last update, the robokids were CRONUS' half-assed corporate attempt to compensate for people being unable to conceive under the Dome by building robot children.  Much like Kyros, CRONUS ruins everything it touches. From my extremely limited reading of the Strugatsky brothers - who wrote the book the game is based on - the protagonists from the Strugatsky's Earth have mostly overcome things like war and pollution and people generally care about each other. Roadside Picnic isn't as optimistic - people are still attempting to weaponize the Zone's technology - but the government is not nearly as oppressive and apathetic as CRONUS.  Thus while the advice in Picnic is "do not bring guns because there's nothing to fight" the Dome is mostly a hellscape of factions created by CRONUS policy. All of the factions are squabbling amongst themselves because of the legacy of CRONUS.  I believe the official explanation for the robokids going berserk is Maelstrom, and honestly an alien consciousness being able to gently caress up alien technology humans have clumsily adapted for the worst reasons is not exactly unexpected.  We get a level and I realize in 1 level we can use the weapon I rushed but can't use due to my pro build skills.  Also we can get this.  The characters in the game are insistent that the Fops are all violent psychotic nuts with no redeeming qualities, but random encounters with Fops are all people who want to trade.  I'll get into the Fops more later.  Anyway, our quest awaits!  CRONUS in action! Remember back in the OP we discussed CRONUS devouring its children?  In we go. I've made Dell drink a beer so he gets the strength to use his weapon, and I've upgraded it to level 2 so it does some more damage.  : As you come closer, the Phalanxers point their guns at you almost simultaneously. : Tell them you're here on a mission; some scientist from Magellan asked you to find his robot.: The mercenary calms down a bit.: He gives a sign to his fighters, and they lower their weapons.: He points to the corridor on your left hand. : Oh, the robot... Yeah, we found it. But before that, it zapped two of my guys and took the relic. This thing is only lossmaking... By the way, I'm Oliver Reiten, and these are Cassandra and Sven. We don't have the skills to talk our way out of this and the robot is our party member. No deal. : Tell them you have a better idea: you just shoot them all right now and take the relic.: The mercenary laughs nervously.: Seriously, huh? What a coincidence. I have the same idea... My puerile attempts to minmax get us running away in terror round 1. Could I have planned this better? No, the game is the problem.  Oliver goes after Sparrow. Spoiler: Sparrow is right. I have no idea what happened to Oliver's shotgun.  Fox rips off half Oliver's health with psy attacks before buffing Dell.  Sparrow 360 noscopes Oliver with his handgun, ending the battle immediately.  : Tell them you accept their offer to leave peacefully.: The mercenary girl nods with gratitude. : Thanks.: Cassandra and Sven lower their weapons and leave the bunker...TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 We go on a looting spree.   Meet our mystery party member!  : Tell her she almost killed you. : Ask her what is going on here. We don't get the option to convince her here, but re-approaching the door...  : Tell her that Akira sent you, and ask her what's going on. There are a lot of ways this can go, including teaming up with the mercenaries to kill Yoko here and take her relic. I'm not sure if you get the laser rifle or not. : Tell her the mercenaries aren't a threat for now, and ask her to open the door.: Yoko nods. : We have a deal, senpai. You look like a good person. And I call good people senpai.: Yoko looks out into the corridor, looks at you and squints happily.: Yes! There is no danger, thank you!: She looks at the bodies lying on the floor.: Human decisions seem irrational to me. Are they actually ready to die for some relic of low rarity? The first option starts a fight. : Tell her that her calculations could wait. You have to bring her to Akira.: Yoko tilts her head and squints.: Thank you for your help, but no, thank you. I already mapped the return route in the course of my exploratory activity. I will be waiting for you in Magellan. TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 This is a puzzle of valve adjusting where if you miss the sign it's trial and error. If you find the sign you can turn off the steam by adjusting the valves by color order.   There's an audiolog of a former employee who presumably died when the base collapsed. Audiolog posted:Now... Is this thing recording? Great. So, here's the first issue of my audiodiary! Ta-da! Now, what can I say? It's pretty darn fantastic here. I've never seen such electronics. Them puters are absolute beasts. The ventilation's brilliant, the climate control is up to snuff. Everyone's kind and friendly. Though I'm just a minor clerk yet, I earn as much as my former boss in the mainlands. Whoa! What else? Ah yea. There's a real beauty working at the desk next to mine. She winked at me today... Things are looking up.  There's a fire necroid, an ice necroid, and a laser-armed MOBIOS. We lure out the ice necroid using stealth and kill it with ranged fire.  Sparrow's gun Justice does Biochemical damage, so he gets this relic to continue shooting people in the face.  Unfortunately the ice necroid wakes up Big Laserbot.  Uhh....  Ok, Fox took out the Necroid with two critical hits, we should be able to stab the MOBIOS to de-  gently caress!  Ok, we can definitely chunk this thing.  gently caress! Sparrow goes down and I get -5 rep with him.   We win, but at a terrible cos - eh, we can just shoot some bandits or something  In the future these materials should let us upgrade our power armor. Back to Magellan.   : Observe out loud that it looks quite unnerving. : Clarify: a 'daughter'? : Tell him you were happy to help and move away. : Ask Yoko if she is glad to be back at the station. : Tell her it's hard to explain to a robot.: Yoko's gaze draws a circle several times.: The answer is accepted, senpai.: She suddenly stops talking and seems[sic] to 'freeze'. Then she looks at you.: I often think about another function, senpai. You know, I'm a research robot.: The blue light, looking like a faint shimmer of a night-light, flashes in the eyes of the android.: My research program is quite vast. Not all of its functions are possible to discharge in current conditions.: She looks at Akira.: Sometimes I contradict my senpai's will. I suppose it has to do with the presence of my own will. In this case, this is an analitical[sic] construct that defines my functional priorities.: Some little fan in her head begins to hum loudly. Her gaze starts to draw circles in the air as if she watches something rotating.: By all appearances, Yoko is deep in thought. : Ask Yoko whether she wants to explore the world with you. : Tell her you're going to go and talk with Akira. : Ask him whether he would let Yoko go with you. : Say you need a cool battle robot and Yoko is quite suitable.: The White's pasty face flushes red with anger.: She is not a "battle robot!" She is... no, I can't allow it. That is the end of this conversation.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
There is, in fact, a way to get Yoko into the party. We will see it... next update.
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Jun 9, 2022 06:33
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It's Time For Plot! Welcome back! Last time we rescued Yoko the anime schoolgirl murderbot from some robo-racists, whose leader died in a mysterious wrench accident. Today we're going to go add Yoko to our party for real.  To add Yoko to our party we must do the unthinkable: advance the main plot.  This leads us back to Junktown. You might remember after the prologue that we received a vision from Maelstrom telling us to go to a specific building in Junktown, which we completely ignored to do piles of sidequests and level grind.  I keep putting off dealing with the Church people, but rest assured we will have plenty to say about them when we get there.   Hey, it's the security guy from when we first started our adventure who pulled us aside and told us to talk to Kingsley.  It's the prophet Sebastian van Ulden, who tried to warn us that CRONUS was loving with powers human science had no idea how to handle and correctly predicted it was going to bounce back and hit us in inappropriate places. : Try to remember where you know him from. : Wait till he finishes his work.He was kind of a dick.  : Tell him you're experiencing headaches and occasional hallucinations.: The scientist peers at your face for a couple of seconds.: Does this more precisely describe your anamnesis: a humming sound similar to a ringing gong, bright flashes of white light? Your irises are normal, suggesting that Maelstrom's influence merely grazed you.Oh buddy, you are so wrong.  : Move away.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
Henrietta Russo is actually kind of an important character so we may as well talk with her.   : The badge on her white coat reads, "Henrietta Russo, Project Director".: The coat itself is flecked with several stains in different colors. : Tell her you found the body of one Ricardo Alexander near Nashville.: Henrietta makes a forced gurgling sound, either a loud sigh or a sob. : I've long since realized what happened. But still... oh, it's bad. Very bad. Ricardo was... so... you know, very much alive. He never behaved his age. He even looked younger than he actually was. He always joked that we were siblings, twins separated by the time.: Russo purses her lips. Even now, she doesn't cry. : Say you slept in stasis. In a dream, you rose up into the air under the Dome, and here in the north something flashed.: The White chuckles sarcastically.: Let me guess, the thing that flashed was the hundred combonds you'll get for undergoing the examination.For some context: Russo here is examining all the survivors to see if any of them have some kind of connection to Maelstrom to try to communicate with it. : She gives you an apologetic pat on the shoulder.: Don't get mad. It's just that I get told about hallucinations by nearly everyone I meet.: That's why you have to pass the simplest test right now. I have to be certain you really crossed paths with Maelstrom.: The White explains, taking a notebook out of her pocket.: Tell her about the cave in Nashville and the shining red ball.: The White gives you a skeptical look but makes no comment.You weren't there lady! It totally sucked!  : Tell her you were surrounded by white fog, and saw and spoke with other people while in the mist.: The pen stops in Henrietta's fingers.: Okaaay... You were navigating the fog and talking to them.: She shuts the notebook.: Let's get down to your examination. Stand here. I'm going to prepare special parameters for the scan. This will take some time.: Russo puts the scanner back on the computer console and studies you, deep in thought. : Henrietta walks a full circle around you and stops in front of you again.: What can I say? That was the best hundred we've ever spent. : Ask why you should help her.: Henrietta snaps her fingers.: A fair question, however the point is you're not helping me, you're helping all mankind. We're all locked up in here with everything that implies: Maelstrom unstable, politicians squabbling, and communication with the outside world still unavailable. Spoiler: we will not.  Of course, this is exactly what Maelstrom wants us to do. There's some stuff I want to show off with Maelstrom later, but the point isn't that the Emulator Project has any answers, it's literally being jerked around by Maelstrom to... we still don't know why, exactly. Remember, Maelstrom showed us all the faction leaders and then sent us here. : Ask how other factions are dealing with the Maelstrom issue. The Emulator Project is also explicitly aligned with the New Committee, but there's no way around it.  There are a LOT of potential motivations. I have no idea why our character thinks the 8th option is possible, but it is a goal we can shoot for in game. : Agree you'll help in order to clear up the mess people at Nashville made.: The White looks at you with new respect.: A bit idealistic, but I see your point. I want to clear it up too.  You know it got real when the cutscene mode activates.   : Henrietta clasps her hands behind her back and walks around the room.: Things went quite well over the next two years. Maelstrom showed no activity and all the trials were right on schedule, but... several months ago our sensors detected that Maelstrom had begun to... grow. To become stronger. From my own calculations, I realized we needed the help of all those different people. Someone needs to search for relics for the Emulator and help with the coding. Otherwise, the Nashville megaloanomaly will overtake us. It will be too late.Remember, Henrietta doesn't understand that Maelstrom sent us here. This is all according to whatever mysterious purpose it has.   I'm sorry, a what? CRONUS is dead.    : Ask about her socks. I like Henrietta. : Tell her you're listening.: Great! Let's being.: Henrietta opens her notebook.: She runs her eye rapidly over the lines.: Past trials were unsuccessful. That's why it's so important to do everything right and get the system ready for the new trials and a test run as soon as possible. Let's see what we have on that list...: Biting her lip, Russo checks her notepad.: Let's start with the driver. It's not installed. Karma Ishtwani is responsible for it, her door is next to mine, by the way. Find out what's going on.When Henrietta said she'd lost control of the project she wasn't kidding. She seems to be a competent scientist made director mostly as a loyalty hire by Nakamura, because we all know that Dell is gonna have to get out the wrench and bust some heads to keep this project on schedule. Of course, Maelstrom sent Dell over with implied instructions to do that for reasons we still don't know.  This is again a job a "project director" SHOULD be doing, but Russo's in over her head here.  Santiago is the sunglasses man standing outside the entrance. Russo, why are you like this?  Again, Russo is the head of the Emulator Project. They have a nice fancy building and facilities and Russo was appointed by Nakamura herself. Russo could be on the line with Martin Kingsley right now, or go ask Nakamura to make Kingsley do it if that's not working. Naturally, Russo's in over her head and her reply is to have a random man in a hard hat with a wrench go do all of this. Remember, the test revealed our Maelstrom-gifted psi aptitude - completely independent of our psyche score or psionic skill level by the way - but not that we have the charisma to go convince these people to do their jobs.  We don't have a lot of time, which is why all these important jobs are being assigned to three people who are always traveling together and not, you know, delegated.  Yes, Henrietta, you're very helpful. At least you have cool socks. : Give her a nod and move away.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
I need to reiterate what a clusterfuck this is, because once again the remnants of CRONUS are saddling us with cleaning up their entire mess. Henrietta is the "Project Director". Notably, Henrietta isn't a Silver Wing manager - she's a White Wing scientist with presumably no experience actually managing people. Her one qualification for leadership seems to be unquestioning loyalty to Kimiko Nakamura, whom she is apparently on first name terms with. Henrietta is a slob - unable to remove soda stains from her clothing, which is not a difficult task in the slightest - and this helps sell her as someone who's very good at science but completely inept at dealing with people. Her first request is that we deal with her subordinate who is literally down the hall. Henrietta's request to join the project isn't an idealistic request to save mankind, it's because she needs someone to step in and cover her own rear end. The disclaimer about sublimating her ambition isn't because she's actually contemplating the good of the project or mankind or whatever, she doesn't want to have to face Nakamura and admit she hosed up. Remember, we're the only employee who tested positive for the psychic stuff - which she needs to communicate with Maelstrom - and her response to this now irreplaceable asset isn't to max out his security but to send him running around the wasteland to do the job she's supposed to do.  Thus Henrietta clumsily tries to praise us as a good "employee" even though CRONUS collapsed and for all she knows we're a Church of Maelstrom deacon. Oh well, it's not like we haven't been cleaning up after managements' mess this whole time.  We go back to Magellan and boot Fox because the thread requested Yoko.  : Ask him whether he would let Yoko go with you. This is the one time we can throw Henrietta's weight around. : Tell him that you are working for the Emulator, and that you need Yoko's help for the success of your mission.  A lot of CRPG games have some title for the player that lets the game's VA avoid interacting with the name the player came up, such as "Fatebinder" or "Watcher". This game uses "Employee", which I kind of hated at first but makes sense. The "employee" moniker is spread entirely by Russo and Nakamura as an attempt to remind people that you in fact work for them and are subordinate. There's a scene later that shows it off much better. : I... I'm a scientist and I understand how important the Emulator is for the survival of mankind. And, of course, I have no right to think only about myself.: The White looks at Yoko. There are tears in his eyes.Thus we can cynically kick the abuse can down the chain and rob this poor man of his robot daughter.  : Promise you'll take care of her and move away. : Say that you have spoken with Akira, and Yoko can go with you.   : Do you hunt Oranges? Allow me to scan their bodies.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
So, yes, not only did we traumatize poor Akira, Yoko is a fully operational murder bot who wants us to murder Oranges so we can dissect them. She'll fit right in with the rest of the wackos! Here's her heavy laser rifle.  Next time: Reactor fun!
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Jun 27, 2022 04:59
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The Church of Augustus Zuckerberg Welcome back! Last time on Encased we recruited a Terminator disguised as the Weeb-Bot 9000. Today we're gonna be doing some sidequesting and also advancing the main plot a bit. I know we said we were going to the reactor last time and, uh, I kinda lied. Look, we played some real bad games in the meantime, ok?  I know, CRONUS sucks, let's all act surprised.  Today's quest chain is going to result in us finally not being homeless anymore. Sure, we may have inadvertently destroyed human civilization under the Dome, and our only friends are weird and possibly criminal outcasts, but you know, we can only go up from here. Mostly.  Have I mentioned I love this game's loading screens?  Anyway, we need to talk to this lady to proceed in our quest. : No. It's not just a smell. It's THE smell. Acrid and dense, it hangs over the cluttered desk like a thundercloud.: A girl with platinum blond hair and a doll-like face is working on her manicure in the small space not occupied by dirty mugs. : Ask what the catch is. : Agree to help in exchange for a room. : Wonder aloud if there's really no one in all of Magellan Station with the technical knowhow to fix a TV set.: Enfield winces. : Of course there is! But everyone's so busy. O'Mallone in room 6, for example. You can't ask him for anything, you can't even talk to him he's so rude.: Ask what's next on the list. : Ask her what you should do if you don't know how to pick locks.: Enfield coughs loudly into her fist.: Ahem! Uh, you're asking about lockpicks? No, I don't have any, and no, I didn't tell you that.: Ask what's next on the list. : Ask her where you should look.: The administrator looks pointedly towards the Orange residential area.: I think it's the cleaning staff, start with them. I'm a tiny and delicate girl, but you can intimidate them easily. Here's another option: check the surveillance room, if they'll let you in, of course. Reznor's a bitch, so better ask Indra - he's a nice guy.: Say you'll start working on these issues right away and move away.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 Naturally, we bust into the room the COOL way, by just loving kicking it with our power armored boot. Sucker!  Hey, it's Twitch streamer CohhCarnage! I'm not transcribing all the dialogue (he confuses you for the food guy) but he was a pretty big booster of the game as I recall. He appears again in another quest later and I think he voices his own dialogue as well.  As a professional engineer who built our own Forefather weapon out of a dead MOBIOS we can of course fix the drat television.  This guy is the thief but I forget what you have to do to make him confess. That's alright, there's another path through this.  Granted, this is probably not the moral path as the New Committee still runs on Orange slave labor, but oh well.  Yes, we get it!  Hey, free flowerpot relic! Score!  I mean, we're probably never going to use it, but it's the thought that counts.  Indra here is a pretty interesting character who we'll be seeing a little more of in the next act.  He's a total bro and will help us find the watch, so we may as well go fix the surveillance station. : Agree to help.Also, it's XP.  TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 I guess we better talk to Courtney before we touch the computer. : The Black crosses her arms. : Don't touch the equipment! : Take a closer look at her.: You examine Courtney.: She looks sick, weary, and anxious. The edge of a scarf peeks out from under her uniform jacket. She must be chilly because of the air conditioners, although the room isn't particularly cold.I do like the hint here. : Say that you have no questions. Let's try this again.  : Answer that's exactly why you're here. : Looking over the surveillance system displays, you realize right away that the problem is serious: there's no signal at all from the fourth camera. : [Perception 6]: Take note of her nails.: Courtney's nails are definitely not regulation - they're three centimeters long, painted sparkling black, and have almost razor-sharp tips. : Say that you're starting the repairs now.Next, to the mainframe and monitors above Dell.  : Check the surveillance terminal. : Look at the fourth monitor. Good question. Is it corruption? It's probably corruption.  To access the mainframe we need to use our sweet haxx0r skills.   : Look inside the housing.: The inside of the mainframe has a thick covering of dust. : When you find the right video card, you tug it out of its slot. Because I've played this game before I know what to look for. : Check the slot itself.: As your eyes adjust to the darkness, you notice something long and dark stuck between two contacts.  : Wipe the contacts and insert the card in the slot.: You wipe the contacts with an eraser conveniently left inside the housing, then insert the card in place.: Reboot the mainframe.I'm cutting a bunch of dialog about how going through the menus achieves nothing. Let's go check monitor 4 again.   Yeah, it's corruption.  : [Broken Nail] Say that you have found someone's fingernail in the mainframe. : Look at the Black's hands. : [Brains 7][Broken Nail] Accuse Courtney of sabotage in an elegant and well argued manner.: The facts form a neat image in your mind.: You lay everything out for Courtney. The blatant signs of her drug addiction, her possible collusion with the Oranges, and you make sure to mention that the nail you found is black.: Reznor turns pale, but rapidly collects herself.: Is a broken nail your only evidence? You think I'm the only person under the Dome who wears black nail polish? It's a popular color.: She thinks for a moment and then spreads her hands triumphantly.: The nails on her left hand are long, like talons, while the ones on her right hand are neatly trimmed. Oh? Courtney five minutes ago posted:
: The neatly cut white edges of these nails haven't been painted.: This can only mean the nails were trimmed after they were painted. And only because one of them was broken.: The Black framed herself up even worse while trying to prove her innocence. : Tell her people are going to hear about her misdeed and move away.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 We can now go back to Kapoor and finish the quest. : Answer that you discovered evidence of sabotage while repairing the cameras.: Unable to hide his agitation, Indra reaches for his walkie-talkie. : A black fingernail? Do you have it? Very well, thank you. I'll report it at once. This will be a top priority. : Tell him about the stolen watch and ask for help capturing the thief. It's nice to have competent people help you out for once. Well, competent people outside of the party. TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
It's gonna take Indra a few hours (2 in game) to catch the thief, so we may as well update Vivienne on our progress.  : Discuss Vivienne's requests. : Tell her you fixed the broken lock. Lady, we roll with Miss Belitskaya, you don't have poo poo on her. : Tell her the TV set is working. TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 Naturally chatting up the administrator did not take two hours, so we're going to do something unforgivable and go advance the main plot a bit before finishing up our sidequests. I know.  Naturally traveling to Junkyard procs a "sleep doesn't restore fatigue" event.  We're going to the Emulator Project. If you recall, Henrietta needed teleglasses from Reverend Santiago and the Church of Maelstrom.  Reverend Santiago is literally standing outside the Emulator Project. Goddamn it, Henrietta! Why are you so bad at things?  : Pause, and listen, and think, what brought you here to this desert?: Was it money? Adventure? Good will?: One thing every one of us has in common: we all came here seeking the best for ourselves and the world.: And we are all... frustrated. This frustration seems impossible to avoid.: But what if the Church could give you the answer you crave?Is it God? No : These teleglasses - they are everything we ever expected from the Dome.: They are happiness and a better world.: They are adventure.: They are your loved ones and dearest friends. Your memories.: They are the future we've all lost.: And these things - everything - will be yours, if only you attend our sermon.: The doors of the church are open. We'll be waiting for you!Yea, that's not ominous at all.   Look, man, we're not here for your virtual real estate, we have a job to do. : Tell him Russo sent you to pick up the modified teleglasses for the Emulator.: Santiago's lips, still stretched in a broad smile, twitch once or twice. Although his eyes are hidden behind the glasses, you can tell he's examining you closely.: The Reverend's broad smile widens.: You know, it's hard to win Henrietta's confidence. You're a special person, that's for sure. If only I knew why... Anyway, the device you're asking for is the apex of our technology. I'm not comfortable handing it over to a stranger - no offense intended, of course! : Agree and shake his hand.: Santiago's smile deepens.: My intuition is whispering that we'll get along well! Oh, yes, my friend. See you at the sermon. We need to talk to him again. : Say you're ready to listen to the sermon.: The reverend hands you a pair of teleglasses in an opaque white casing.: Wonderful! We'll begin the moment you put these on. Ah, to avoid any confusion I'll tell you these are not Those glasses. You will receive Those after the sermon, as we agreed.: Take the glasses. Notice the symbolism. Santiago is both above the crowd and fenced off. This is not an accessible organization for the most part. : Santiago is contentedly pacing the length of the stage, wearing his usual grin.: Thank you! Thank you all for coming! I do ask that you please forgive the delay. Once my assistants arrive with equipment for any who've come without, we shall begin! Ah, here they are. The implication of the sewage gate is, of course, that the player character is about to get hit with a literal torrent of bullshit. Note the torches as well. Santiago is standing in front of a bunch of screens, and they're handing out virtual reality glasses - but the ordinary initiates are using torches instead of electric lights.  : [Tech 60] See if you can figure out how the glasses work.: You take the glasses off and turn them over in your hands.: Supercolor Navigator manufactured the base, however this unit's assembly and parts are both of lower quality. This example was made here, under the Dome.: Other differences are more noticeable. The main lenses are purple, with additional, thinner lenses bearing a luminous projection net hidden beneath. A small radio aerial is mounted on the side of the device. There are silicone-capped speakers on the inside, near the user's temples.: These teleglasses are also significantly heavier than similar Silver Wing devices. : Put your glasses on.: You place the device on your head.: Nothing's happened yet. The world around you is unchanged, except for the slightly purple mist.: You look around. Everyone is hastily donning their teleglasses.   Oh, great, it's virtual reality that's loving with your head, too.  : Ask about your physical needs: You still need to eat, drink, and return to reality from time to time. : Wonder aloud when the sermon will actually begin. : Ask Maria what the catch is. : Say nothing. Walk beside her in silence.: The soft roll of the waves brings peace. You walk contentedly alongside Maria.: The sky overhead reminds you of a blue-rose abyss. Massive glowing streams rise from the gleaming horizon like flames in slow motion.This is not right.  : The water splashes with each step, but doesn't slow you down at all.: The dark blue dome above grows ever larger and lighter, as if you were strolling right into the heavens, your feet never leaving the sea.    When I said a literal torrent I wasn't kidding. : Then the lanterns all come on again, illuminating the stage where Santiago's standing, arms thrown up.: Thank you for coming everyone! Maria and I will be waiting for you at our next sermon! : Answer that it was both enjoyable and fascinating.Hey, it gets us Church of Maelstrom rep and it can't hurt to butter this guy up before we get the teleglasses, right? : The corners of the reverend's mouth rise up to the limit his facial muscles allow and quiver with tension. : Remind him of his promise: he was to give you the Emulator device after the sermon. : Ask him how to get inside the Church.: Santiago makes a helpless gesture.: Alas, it can't be done as long as the gates of the City are closed. But you're here for this, for Maelstrom to recede... When you do this, the gates of the City will open for you, and the gates of the Church will open for all the suffering souls.: Tell him you'll be there, and leave.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 Personally, I find the Maelstrom church incredibly disturbing. The metaverse or its equivalent in most cyberpunk literature is almost universally depicted as a bad thing. Snow Crash originated the term, and the metaverse is used nearly word for word as it is here - it's a way to escape a nearly ruined reality to have videogame sword fights while the rich loot everything and it all goes to poo poo. You can see this concept in Otherland, where the virtual reality is built on the Omelas-like suffering of a single child as an immortality project for corrupt old rich men, in the Matrix where the titular Matrix is used to paralyze humanity and keep them subjugated - the list goes on and on.  This is of course topical thanks to Mark Zuckerberg's cynical ploy of renaming Facebook after Frances Haugen testified in front of Congress. It is hilarious to me how all the Metaverse boosters cite this literature, proclaim proudly that they haven't read it, and then go on to explain how they want to use it as a cool substitute for reality instead of fixing real problems. : [Emulator Teleglasses] Give her the modified teleglasses.Ultimately the recurring theme of the metaverse in these works is about power and subjugation. The villains of Snow Crash use the metaverse to distribute mind control, as I recall. The Matrix casts the titular VR server as a false reality created to enslave humans, only to reveal that Neo breaking free of the Matrix is but another layer to the lies and the fantasy concocted by the machines to keep humanity in chains. The Church of Maelstrom furthers this theme, and it's not very subtle about it. Santiago literally opens with the pitch that reality is terrible, but if you surrender everything that makes you you - your friends, family, memories, and so on - you can live in someone else's alien fantasy world with a glowing pretty lady. There's a recurring theme of the Church being associated with poo poo, including the sewer grate, the firehouse, a certain diaper scene later in the game : The White sets the device on the table.The irony is that this is a critique of escapist electronic media in an escapist videogame. Yes, it's a grim hell dystopia, but you get to be one of the most important people in the world because you were chosen by an alien intelligence while also being a charismatic man with actual magical powers. I don't think the comparison holds up. For one thing, Encased is a story with a concrete end (we WILL make it there!) and is designed so you can put the game down, engage with reality, and resume it later. The Church's vision is of an eternal fantasy world controlled by them that stay in forever, letting reality fall apart as the teleglasses mess with your head. Encased is temporary, the metaverse is forever. We will discuss the Church more as we have more interactions with them. : Here's something funny. I gave the latest version of these to our engineers. They took it apart and told me the technology can't be replicated at this point. The circuit board customizations are completely foreign to them. We have no idea what makes them tick. : Move away.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 This pops as we're trying to leave Junkyard. I hate it. We've seen roaches before, there's only one thing I want to show off.  Yoko has an energy rifle. Here it is missing a cockroach. Incidentally, these random raids can get NPCs permanently killed because I guess the devs were big fans of Dawnguard or something. I mean, Serana is pretty hot and is voiced by Laura Bailey. I understand.  Crap, I forgot about the weapon thing.  : Ask for news about the man who stole the watch. TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 Oh, uh, don't mind me, just reading this Business Today magazine for absolutely no reason at all.  : Discuss Vivienne's requests. : Give Vivienne the stolen watch.: You hand the watch to the administrator. She examines it with a squeamish grin.: Only a chump like Garcia would steal a piece of junk like this. What? Yes, they already told me who stole it, but thanks anyway. : Remind her about your agreement. Yea we all knew this was coming. : Sigh sorrowfully and move away.Ok, but what if we read.. TWO business magazines????  Incidentally this is your one and only one shot at this. You can break into the room but you can't use anything except the bed then - no stash, terminal, or crafting station upgrades. : [Influence 25] Hint that Kingsley won't be happy to hear how the residential area is plagued by burglars, broken appliances, and smashed doors. : [Influence 40] Say her apology was unconvincing. : Take the money and key, and go.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 Yeah! We have a dorm room run by an administrator who hates us and maintained by Oranges who hate us for keeping them in bondage. Wait. poo poo.  It's been a long day. Next time: Kingsley has a quest!
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Feb 17, 2023 03:26
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: I am Sister Maria. Come with me if you want to live... virtually.
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Man, gently caress Teleporters Welcome back! Last time on Encased, we met the church of Mark Zuckerberg and also proved that Henrietta is the laziest person ever. Today we're going to go chat up Kingsley in person.  Turns out some people are really not happy with Nakamura's attempt to set up CRONUS 2.0. We agree. I don't think it matters.  Now that we're officially the representative of the Emulator Project instead of some random jackoff, things are a bit different. : Ask if you can go into Kingsley's office.I would like a cookie. : Katsaros puts her fingers together. : Let the scanner read your selectrone. Yes, right here.... We got turned away last time but I guess Henrietta was right about people caring about the Emulator. Kind of. We'll see more when we get there. : Say thank you and move away. : In Kingsley's eyes you see growing surprise. : Remind him how in September of 1976 he sent you to Nashville.: Your words clearly embarrass the Silver, but he maintains a straight face.: I'm in this position because I follow direction. : Tell him you expect an apology at the very least.  My guy we kinda contributed to the deaths of hundreds of people maybe billions. : There is no mockery or malice in the Silver's tone - rather, bitter irony.  This is hilarious. "I know you destroyed human civilization under the Dome under my direct order but could you help me write a report?" : Tell him, and add that you feel guilty about what happened. You should've prevented the disaster! It's not clear that this is really anyone's fault, honestly. Should Kingsley have used more clout to put together a real rescue expedition? Probably. Can anyone human force Maelstrom to do anything it doesn't want to do? No. : Kingsley closes the file.: All right. I'll include it in your report. As you must know, the so-called Maelstrom, which appeared in the Nashville excavation zone, destroys human minds. Scientists monitoring its development have reported that it has recently begun to expand.: So, the results. The situation is catastrophic. Maelstrom broke away and destroyed Nashville. It probably destroyed the Spire and swallowed Concord station, too. That's where it's situated now, on the ruins.: The director moves the tip of his pen through the air as if drawing a schematic. Ah. Remember, when we met Kingsley in Maelstrom, he was very remorseful and attempted to resign. You can get some interesting endings regarding Magellan Station and its relationship to the New Committee.  We get dialogue options to DESTROY THE WORLD like some kind of loving idiot. : Say that you intend to help whoever comes up with the best solution, New Committee or not.  : Find out if he has any tasks for you. He's plotting something. : Ask if there's anything you could do for the New Committee.: Martin folds his hands on the table and regards you.: Absolutely. Although our main mission is work on the Emulator, there's something else. Before we can restore them, we need someone to scout the affected facilities and report on their status.: Kingsley opens a map on his handheld.: Take a look. This is where the Gretel object is, a small experimental complex. Communication was lost on September 14, 1976.Hmm. What happened that day? : This point on the map is the Sonora warehouse bunker. The exact date when we lost communication is unknown, but the last successful attempt was recorded in October, 1976.: The Silver goes on. Kingsley, do you remember what happened last time you sent us to a super secret bunker full of bullshit?   Incidentally, if you ask about the citizenship revocations he's not happy about it but we'll come back for that later. Anyway, Sonora bunker was where we met Yoko, so... : Say you've been to one of the facilities. : Report on the condition of Sonora bunker.: The director taps on the table with a pencil while you speak.: "Partially destroyed," then. Okay, I'll write that down. Thank you. : Answer that you have nothing more to report, and move away.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 Christ these people suck.  Courtney's love of the drugs is an open secret.  Let's go to one of the bunkers. I'm sure this will turn out to be 100% on the level and not complete bullshit.  Along the way we encounter a car full of wasps. I'm not dealing with that poo poo. Off we go.  Oh, that's a good sign!  These marauders are stuck in an argument over whether to blow open the door or not.  Whatever. Grab the wrench, it's time to fight!  This is actually a tough area as these guys massively outlevel us. It's not too hard and we don't need to really think, but we're gonna be taking some hits with the companions, both metaphorically and literally.  Atilla wrecks this loser.  We still slaughter them all.  By "we" I mean Dell, as everyone else gets loving rolled by these guys. Every time a companion goes down you eat a -5 reputation hit with them. This is probably going to be my excuse to force Katarzyna back into the party.   There isn't a huge dialogue tree of reputation boosts but there are ways to restore our rep.  The door is jammed shut.  Why, oh why, did I think taking The Voice was a good idea? There was one last idiot near the vent we need to get into.  He drops this entertaining comic book, as well as a cloaking device.  We can bust the vent open, but we unfortunately cannot take our power armor with us. This is a problem.   Welcome to Kaleidoscope! See that console?  It's a teleporter! Worse, it's a teleporter that irradiates you. Welcome to a loving teleporter dungeon!  You basically end up trial and erroring your way through and one misclick sends you back to the beginning. It's not a lot of radiation and you basically have to be trying to suicide to die here. I still dislike it.  There are also a bunch of roaches who outlevel the party. gently caress.  We basically have to solo them as they eat our companions alive, but Atilla's heat damage fucks em up bad.  Yoko, uh, doesn't like us. Maybe her namesake shouldn't have RUINED the Beatles.  After a bunch of bullshit we finally make it here.  I waste two crime mags on opening the relic case offscreen only to discover a personal teleporter. It's a one use device that requires us to grind contraptions to use.  You don't actually get the living crystal relic thing, but you do get some lore.  The password is written down on a dead guy but we are Hackerman. : [Tech 25] Try to circumvent the security system.: An old version of CaerOS is installed on this machine, so circumventing the security system is no problem.: An open directory appears on the screen containing hundreds of files sorted by date. : Enter "READ" to read Professor Matthew Maddock's notes.    : Examine the experiment logs.: You engross yourself in the reading of data.: It takes you several hours to study the data from the experiments.: About 90% of the data is already obsolete, but the other 10% is truly unique.: The terminal screen shimmers, and then the machine suddenly shuts down. : Turn the computer off and walk away.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
No, you can't grab the crystal as a relic. The relic that radiation poisons you to death if you're stupid enough to equip it comes later.  We can read all about the experiments here.  There's going to be a recurring theme at the CRONUS facilities. : Look at page 2: "Introduction". I'll just turn all the pages here.  This is, of course, that CRONUS are a bunch of idiots toying with immensely powerful alien artifacts they don't understand in the hopes of making a profit.   It adds up over time. 5 radiation is not a lot in game, but if you get stuck in the maze it will add up.    This was probably preventable, but everyone involved is an unethical idiot.  : Put the clipboard away.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 There's not a lot more to the base.  This is the only other secret I know of - you can plug in a battery, and...  You get this bonanza for energy weapons users - a level 3 penetrator (which can, among other things, automatically critical in an AoE), a high-tech weapons upgrade manual, and energy weapon ammunition.  Let's grab our power armor and get out of here.  Alright Kingsley, we hit one of the bases. : Say you've been to one of the facilities.: Kingsley loosely clasps his hands and looks at you with interest.: Well, well. I'm listening.: Report on what you saw in the Kaleidoscope bunker facility. : I appreciate your honesty. I very much hope I can contact the relatives of the deceased, if they're under the Dome. I trust you'll remember that Kaleidoscope is a secret facility. And I don't need to remind you that everything you saw falls under our nondisclosure agreement.: he says when you've finish[sic] your report. : Answer that you have nothing more to report, and move away.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
So, yea, Kingsley. Kingsley is really not competent to hold this job. He'd probably do OK as a manager at some accounting firm or somewhere people aren't at constant risk of death because of alien artifacts, but the guy is in way over his head and the last time he tried to improvise - by sending in the player character under the radar to figure out what was going on at Nashville - he contributed to the apocalyptic destruction of society under the Dome. Kingsley doesn't have the courage to openly defy his superiors when necessary - such as briefing the Employee on what the hell is REALLY happening at Nashville - and it's still up in the air as to how much is due to Kingsley's failings and how much is due to learned helplessness. Remember, Kingsley tried to resign after the Nashville debacle and Nakamura kept him on not so much due to his extreme competence as Nashville administrator but because as he said, he follows directions. Of course, he's also under 24/7 surveillance like everyone else, so it's clear Nakamura doesn't fully trust him and he's not a full believer in the New Committee and its nonsense. We will see how well this ends for him. Next Time: More base misadventures! TheGreatEvilKing fucked around with this message at 18:54 on Mar 5, 2023 |
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Mar 5, 2023 08:03
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: Man this sucks. I feel like crap and keep throwing up all the time. I bet it's not really radiation poisoning, I bet it's just Olga's death. I liked Olga, she made these tasty rear end pancakes. I'll miss her and all my many other colleagues who died in this experiment.