Part 2: Training. This is my rifle. There aren't many like it, because the world ended in nuclear fire

Post 2: This is my rifle. There aren't many like it, because the world ended in nuclear fire.

Time for training, boys and girls!

Actually, just boys. No women in the tutorials.



Free MP3 download: Moon Worshiping Savages.wav


Before every mission, PipBoy will present you with a screen like this, filled with details and voice over goodness.

No, I don't know how PipBoy touchscreen is supposed to work.



By the way, Paladin here lied to us. Rex is a son of a BoS Paladin and a one legged prostitute. Basically, a bona fide scion of the Brotherhood!



Anyways, Rex's first task is to get rid of the straw dummy here. Since he's using an SMG in burst fire mode and at point blank range, the dummy doesn't stand a chance.

You might think that this is a little irresposible, what with the steel wall directly behind the dummy, but everybody knows that nuclear war unleashes BS band radiation that only affects shrapnel.



Now, this is post-Apocalypse, not post-scarcity, so you can't just go spraying bullets all the time. So Rex is ordered to experiment with firing single shots.



However, the young Initiate is feeling a little cocky today and wants to try something different.



He aims for the head! Since he's an Initiate still, the chances of hitting the head at the distance of wet fart is a little better than coin toss.



Three or five bullets later, Rex finally hits the dummy. THUD, HEADSHOT!



Not impressed with Rex's performance, Paladin Ziskele orders him to take out a knife and try something more suitable for recruit's (lack of) skills: stabbing inanimate objects.



This Pipboy is equipped with a tool that gives interesting information about your inventory. Said feature is sorely lacking in PipBoys found in Capital Wasteland and New Vegas.



Just as Rex is about to collapse from exhaustion, a clumsy strike finally connects with the dummy and it collapses. Hooray for victory!



But Rex's straw rite isn't over: now he has to loot the still cold corpse of the straw man (he will be sorely missed in debate circles all around the Midwest).



Rex pries the key from his cold, never-actually-been-alive potato sack fingers. Finally, he can get out of this room!





Being a finely trained recruit in the organization best fit to carry the legacy of US military, Rex know that you don't unlock and open the door in one action. Who know what might be on the other side: ghouls, raiders, maybe even COMMUNISTS!



However, the next room contains a squad sized element of dummies and a native animal of the Wasteland: the container!

(the game also educates you on the importance of TAKE ALL button. Seriously, what were they thinking in 1997).

Containers are totally immobile as well as being the place were the Crimson American Stimpack likes to roost.



This container was also home to a pack of rare Grenades. A grenade is a proud bird that doesn't fly unless you throw them. Yet even then they refuse to fly and explode in a fit of rage (and shrapnel) once they hit the ground.

It's an angry sort of bird.



Ol' Rex here prepares to make it rain on that squad of dummies...



It flies! The flight of the grenade would be majestic if not for the absolutely horrible animation given to it. Luckily for us, I rarely have the chance to use them. Unless I decide to redo Flashman as unarmed-big guns-throwing guy, for that WWI vibe of raining grenades before charging in to give them a wallop. Unfortunately, the game doesn't feature a "box of Stielhandgrenate" and I don't remember if there are sharpened entrenching tools. There is, however, the shittiest weapon to ever be thrust upon a poor sap in the trenches.



Dummies die in a flash of fire and straw. The middle one thinks it's better than everyone else and uses a different death animation. Show-off!



Another one! Do these beasts never end?!



This time, Rex is to demonstrate the stance system, which makes a lot of sense in Continuous Turn Based mode and likely doesn't exist in Turn Based Mode (never tried, never will).



Defensive mode will make the tab of the trooper seeing an enemy flash, all because the game has little to no voice acting. Fun fact: Silent Storm had actual voice acting and it was hilarious to listen to Lithuanian Vermacht sniper's quotes.

Aggressive stance, however, has levels of accuracy needed for the trooper to light someone up. 95% is basically unachievable dream land of snipers, 1% means you're less shooting at someone and more suppressing horizon. Having melee characters on aggressive means not having to click on targets once in range.



Another dummy down! Most impressive (and aggressive!)







Next, Rex is tutored in the fine art of body stances. Standing up is good for running around and punching people, not so good for shooting and not getting shot. Crouch is better for shooting, sneaking and taking cover (actually, I have no idea if cover works in BoS). Prone is the king of sniper shooting, yet it's also best for getting punched.



Rex drops on the ground to mock the dead dummy. Not so smart now, huh?



He then proceeds to crawl through the small opening in the wall to the other side. Rex wonders if Paladins who want to get that part of the bunker also have to crawl in their Power Armor.



Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle!




All that effort, and all to get into a room that's locked? Rex sure hoped that all of this would prove to be worth it!



With 23% in Lockpick (no, I haven't the slightest what that 23% means. Are you a 23% of a trained, union approved locksmith or what?), Rex would barely be able to untie his shoe laces, but the Brotherhood had prepared for that. The door was secured with the simplest of latches, the kind that would fall off if a hummingbird had a coughing fit nearby.



Success! Rex's sub par skills and deft hands prevailed against the lock!

Unfortunately his hands would be horribly mangled in a critical failure to unhook the bra oo his celebratory "just passed training" hooker.





But for now... Sneaking! As everybody knows, sneaking is done by standing in place and turning into a shade. Most people don't believe in ghosts or are afraid on vengeful undead spirits and will choose to ignore you. But every so often, you'll meat a descendant of a person who got offended by the singular ghost in Fallout 2 and they'll see right through your guise!

Of course, you can increase your chances to remain undetected by crouching or going prone. Not being seen is very helpful in the pursuit of not being seen.



"WoOooOOoooOOo, I'm totally a ghost!"



Now, Rex is a little hurt, which isn't that bad compared of to more common injuries of wasteland, such as "torn in half by death claw" and "has a lethal dose of radiation". The most basic way to be less sick (and more healthy), is to treat yourself with the surprisingly ubiquitous Stimpacks. While the exact amount of healing depends on your first aid skill (I guess it's all in the wrist?), this is still the easiest way to heal in battle. There are other things that heal you, like 200 year old donuts, but stimpacks are best.

Meat platters are worst.

It's also entirely optional, but commendable to say "Ahhh, that's the stuff" every time you use a stimpack.



Now, for skills. As you see on the left, Rex has a built of an average soldier: not too bright, yet not stupid, kind of lacking in charm, built almost like a brick shithouse and more agile than any outhouse had any right to be.

As for skills, he has tagged the somewhat unimaginative, yet soldierly Small Arms, Melee Weapons and Throwing. Which means he has reasonable chances of shooting, stabbing or throwing a grenade and hitting someone. 20 free skill points don't actually mean a 20 point increase: I don't remember if it's in tagged skills only, but you can get a 2-3 point increase in skills for every skill point spent.



Like so, Rex, using 20 skill points (with his int, that's 1.5 level up worth of XP) increased his accuracy with small arms two fold. Could have used that when you were trying to snipe that dummy, dummy!





A bath?! Oh boy!


Now that Rex is on his way to THE BATH and his fateful encounter with a bra, let's take a look at some of the more advanced training programs.

Some images are actually links to moving images!



AMBUSH

It's not only for raiders or cowards!



Here, we will demonstrate a viable tactic to tackle enemies that don't need really tactics to tackle.



After admiring the playback capabilities of usually green on black PipBoy, Strom and Doc set out to kill a dog.



First, Strom runs to the ruined wall. Luckily, dogs naturally have the worst sense of smell and sound of any surviving animal, so he is undetected.



Next, he squats, angrily. Maybe he would be a nicer person, but his water merchant father never hugged him.



Then Doc goes to play bait, as soldiers with valuable experience in medicine are usually tasked to.



And the dog runs after him, where he's sawn in half by a burst from Strom's SMG!

Wait...



"ARGH, my everything!"



"OHGODOHGODOHGOD shit, I only have this pipe, shit shit shit..."



Finally, the animal is laid to rest.



Paladin Ziskele displays his lack of care for fresh recruits by reading of the "training section - success" text off his PipBoy without even taking a look at the training area.


STEALTH

If they can't see you, you can steal their shit

After watching the introductury video...



You get to do it yourself, again!



You can't see it, but Ghost has about 100% sneak score. That's why you can't see it.



Having fully recovered from his ordeal with the dog, Strom has also picked up some skill in sneaking, to avoid future dogs.



The plan goes off without a hitch. Ghost, sneaking and set on aggressive stance, stabs the raider with his Chainsword Jr....



...while Strom takes the other guy out with a well aimed SMG burst. The dog blunder would never again be repeated.



Ghost is a little sad, because the raider wasn't cut in two and his torso didn't fly off spraying blood and gore.

That's because Ghost is a psychopath.


SNIPING

The noble art of shooting someone from so far away that they can't shoot back



Sniper rifles AND area of effect weapons? It's like I died and went into radioactive heaven!



Yes, let's see how guys with poetic names like Bullseye and Boomer will handle it.



First, get on your hands and knees...



...and crawl!



Crawl as if you had forgotten to sneak, because I totally forgot that part!



By the time Boomer gets in place, Bullseye has already killed one raider.



Not to worry, there's time to use a grenade yet!



Watching the burning, writing form of the raider, Boomer wonders if that's how candle light dinners looked before the war.



Success! Now you have the barest minimum competence needed to be a Brotherhood initiate! Welcome to the Brotherhood of Steel!