Part 5: Doc Brown, you ain't.

Doc Brown, you ain't.

Last time we met with a former Ratskull, saved an entire village and the innocence of one sassy girl. We have some good leads to go after right now, but first we should finish up our business in the area.

Let's start with something I actually forgot about last time. After we have saved New Safford and reported to Ben, we can talk to him again for some information and a possible reward. If we get something from him, depends again on our speech skill.

:"Hey Ben, how is everyone?"

:"Oh hey. We're all good so far. Thanks!"

:"(eloquence) A simple thank-you is not enough. I believe I have earned a reward, haven't I?"

:"Of course, you are right. I'm afraid I can't offer you much, but I guess you could always use ammunition, right?"
We get some crappy bullets that we will sell post haste.

:"I know how dangerous the situation was for you. By the way, north-west of here there's a Trader, who's sure to have what you need by way of weapons and gear. Who knows when you might meet the Ratskulls again."

:"Sooner than I would like... Maybe I will drop by the Trader. But I have a more pressing engagement first. As head of the village you will have been in this region for quite some time now and have observed the gang's movements. I'd sure be grateful for any information about the Ratskulls you think may be important."



:"Sounds like a pretty friendly sort of guy to me. We will soon know if there's any truth in the rumors. Ok, thanks for your help, Ben. I got a long way ahead of me, so I'd better be going now. Take care. - Heads on poles and drinking blood?! Crazy madman..."
Crazy or ?

After that I get my stealing on. New Safford has some junk but most importantly I find another helmet, remote explosives and a damaged Desert Eagle. It's a good pistol but we have no ammo for it.

Our inventory has become quite cluttered, so we leg it to the trader, Ben has mentioned.

Before we talk to him, I give the area a quick sweep. My reward is a waterskin and a frag grenade.

The trader has some useful things, but most importantly he carries next tier armor.

I buy a vest and some minor things, and finally remember to pick up a pan for cooking.

Have a look at our spiffy new clothes.

The game call's it a "Bullet catch". It actually offers some decent resistance, compared to our leather clothes.

I let Agnes combine her last herb into an ointment.

It gives her enough Xp for the next level but she doesn't reach a talent.

Now let's do something out of sequence. Remember how that crazy newspaper dude offered us information about a good location? We just go there on our own.

It's on the north-east corner of the map, and you're likely to find it just by being nosy.

I find some ammo and damaged grenades on the ground.

Also a dumb pistol and a pistol version of Ivanas Calico rifle. Both are damaged.

But the really good thing here, is this guy.

Look at those arms.

:"What are you doing here in the middle of nowhere?"

:"I live here. I like to be surrounded by nature. Here I have everything I need to live: food, water and everything else. You only need to know how to get it."

:"So you are something like a survival specialist?"

:"A survival specialist? I like that. Yes, maybe I am."

:"Do you want to accompany me?"

:"You want me to come with you? Hmmm... I don't like traveling with other people and I only fight for the right things."

:"I'm fighting for the GNO."

:"The new government? Then you are fighting against the gangs. That really is a good reason to go with you. Count me in."

Milton is a pretty cool guy.

As you'd expect he comes with a high survival skill but he also has good light weapons skill. It won't take him long to max out both, and after that he is very shapeable. Basically you can press him into any other role your team might be lacking. Personally, I plan to raise him as a medic and replace Agnes later. But more on that at the end of the post.

He also comes with the survival talent "Play dead".

It takes the heat off him during battle, but you can't just spam it.

With our team being filled, we should take a look at the rest of the area. There is another village in the north-west.

On the way I marvel at this thing.

I sure would like to give that a spin. It even has a mounted Mg at the tip.

What do you think, Butch?

:"Woow. This is a fantastic vehicle. I would like to drive around in that!"

:"Butch, you're always in such a good mood. You never let things get you down. I really like that!"


Soon we reach the next village.

But to be honest, it is just a collection of not-ruined houses. It doesn't even have a real name.

As we get close, we can hear an old guy yelling about.

:"Damned Seekers! Damned Kids!"
He has six quotes that he will constantly cycle through if you don't talk to him.

:"Hey! Why are you so worked up?"

:"I have every reason to be worked up! First it's this Kid Gang, then the Desert Monks and now the Seekers. It really is too much!"

:"What exactly has happened then?"



:"I can understand that. Would the people return if the Seekers disappeared from the settlement?"



:"Would you like to go back?"

:"No. What would I do there all alone? No one'd want to go back. To be honest I always hated the place. But it's the principle of the thing! I just don't like the idea of a Seeker living in my house. I'd rather pull it down!"

:"I see. Where is your settlement?"

:"Due west of here, in a small valley. You don't aim to go there, do you? If so, give the Seekers now living in the most southerly house a good kick in the ass from me! That's my house!"

This gets us another location on the map, but it's a minor one. Fredo can still educate us a bit though.

About the Kid Gang.


The Desert monks.


And the Seekers.

There sure is a lot of shit going on around here.

When we move into the center of the place, another rad vehicle catches our eye.

It even has a built in jet turbine!

Let's question the guy next to it. I really want to get my hands on this.
:"Hey! That's a strange looking vehicle."

:"That's no strange-looking vehicle, that's a space-time-continuum-defragmentation-operator! Known for short as S.T.C.D.O."
His model has shades, but the face doesn't. Such a missed opportunity.

:"Aha. To me it's a strange-looking vehicle. What's it for?"

:"I can undertake journeys through time in it, heh! I will go back to the time before the great catastrophe and stop it from happening. For certain, heh!"

:"Well, now you got me interested. You reckon you can arrange to save mankind today? Or do you have to wait till tomorrow?"

:"My S.T.C.D.O is not quite ready for operation yet, is it?!"

:"Sorry. Seems like it's a serious business. Can I help you in any way?"

:"I need a Plix-Compensator, don't I? Without it, I can't start up. And I can't get away from here either because I have to guard the machine. Somebody will steal it otherwise, eh?"
Yeah, "somebody" sure would.

:"Ok, I tell you what. If I find this Plix-thingamajig, I will bring it round to you."

:"No joking, eh? Thanks man! If you bring me the Plix-Compensator you can have the rest of my junk. Where I'm going, I won't need it anymore."
You may smell the reference by now.

Our last stop around here is a trade stand.

Yeah, "too bad".

:"You want to complain about my meat as well? It ain't my fault if it don't taste like is usually does!"

:"I don't quite know what you are talking about, but if your meat don't taste any good, maybe you shouldn't sell it any more?"



:"Why can't you get at your herbs any more?"

:"Because a pack of stinking wolves has moved in on my herb patch! How can I get by them? But that doesn't interest nobody around here."

:"The new government is interested in John Doe's problems, however small - and that includes yours. I will help you."

:"New government? I heard of you folks. You got no idea what's happening round here."

:"Oh, you are wrong there, believe me. The government knows more than you think. I will sort this out."

:"Sure. If you really mean it. Follow the path east out of the village. You will soon find the wolves. I will be interested to see how you get on."

This a very easy quest.

There are more than just those, but you don't need to see me shooting a bunch of wolves, so just imagine it.

:"I have taken care of your wolf problem. You can go and pick your herbs again."

:"That's wonderful! Take this meat as a present. It's real fresh, I slaughtered the rats yesterday myself."

:"Thanks. I must be going now. Good luck with your business. So long."
We could have tripled our reward with our speech skill. But that is not really necessary as rat meat can only be sold and not be eaten.

:"Ok, this rat meat story is printable, I guess."
I don't.

Aside from this, the good thing about the quest is that we can process the dead wolfs. With his high skill, Milton will get better meat chunks and animal parts from gutting, than Agnes would. But you need to have a knife in your inventory.

Right now Milton will get a giant meat chunk and a pelt of each wolf. But after his next level he could also get paws and a more effective meat haul. It's a very useful skill and there are more animals in the game that we can hunt. Milton also levels from this and reaches the next breakpoint. I get him the cooking talent. He can now cook extra tasty meat, that will heal more hitpoints.

Let's get to cooking!

The villagers also have a sweet time, with two guitars and a flute.

Since we are mostly done here, I sweep the area for loot. Watch Victor do his job.

I get some junk but also another vest and some drugs. Drugs are pretty great in this game. They'll provide various stat boosts for a time and you can just rest-away the withdrawal. But the other neat thing is that they are good for trade. They are light, can be stacked and are valuable for the most part. Often I will turn surplus loot into drugs at traders. It's the best way to conserve value while cutting down on inventory load.

Let's tie this place up, first the Plix-Compensator. Brace yourself for a hilarious reference.

Remember Marty from the last update? When we go back to him a cutscene sneaks up on us.


:"Hey, young man! What's your name?"

:"Marty."

:"Nice name, sounds familiar. Listen. Say, I see you got a Plix-Compensator. You still need it?"

:"That thing don't belong to me. It belongs to Doc. I haven't seen him for a couple of days though...."

:"Where did your Doc friend go?"



:"Ookaay.. I must admit, you have got me confused young man. But I will accept your offer in spite of that. I'll just grab the thing then. Say hello to your Doc friend for me."

:"There sure are some real freaks around here!"

We haul ass back to Tiberius.

Marvel at his shades!

:"Yeah, somehow I managed it. What are you going to do with the thing?"


Say goodbye to his shades.




:"Wow! The car just exploded! Oh,man...you do someone a good turn and he blows himself to smithereens. Shit! Well, can't be helped. I'd better have a look at his stuff. Might be something interesting here after all."
Nope, aside from a medkit it's trash.

:"The story about the time machine is just right for the newspaper. Hard to believe, but entertaining. - Ok, I think I must have enough news together for our printer friend."
Yeah, let's bring him the good news. Heh, get it? I made a wordpla..ahh forget it.

:"Well? Did you get your headlines?"

:"I guess so. What do you think."

"CRUSHING DEFEAT FOR THE RATSKULL GANG: NEW GOVERNMENT SAVES DESERTER FROM LIFE-THREATENING SITUATION"

"OUTLOOK ON A BETTER FUTURE? NEW GOVERNMENT SUPPORTS SCIENTIFIC TIME-MACHINE PROJECT"

"NEW GOVERNMENT AND ANIMAL PROTECTION: LOST WOLF SAVED"

"RATSKULLS ATTACK ON NEW SAFFORD: NEW GOVERNMENT DEFEATS THE GANG THANKS TO A TACTICAL STROKE OF GENIUS"

"FOOD QUALITY CONTROL: NEW GOVERNMENT DOES AWAY WITH MEDIOCRE RAT MEAT"
Yeah it's all caps in-game. Just imagine Seagull is yelling really loud.

:"Phenomenal! That's just the stuff I need! I will get started on the first edition right away!"

:"Ok, but before you get to work tell me where this factory site is... I want to have a look around. I might find a few things to use. - For all I care you can make a new headline out of it: RE-ARMAMENT: NEW GOVERNMENT BUSTS SECRET ARMS DEPOT"


We've already been to the place but the Xp gives Seagull a level. No new talent for him though. We are done with this map and can now move on to more exciting things, like that big arms depot for instance.

But one thing has been bothering me. See, my unit is really under equipped. The next maps offer new gear but I still am in a bad position. Traders are randomized on each playthrough so you'll never see the same spread of items. I have been a bit unlucky with the spawns so far, so I decide to milk the game a little.

My first order of business is to rest repeatedly, until I get ambushed. You will either face Seekers or wild animals. Both are dangerous and will drain my healing reserves, but will also get me loot or supplies. At the moment I rather have Seekers, for their guns, so I reload when getting animals.

Also because they will ruin me.

That didn't end well at all.

Ambushes will always be straight forward shoot-outs. You don't have to do much, aside from not dying.


But once in a while you can be clever.

Frag out!

Vic doesn't stop

Also he gets a reputation increase for all his antics.

When you have killed them all, you go back to resting if there was still time left. A random selection of loot from that ambush will then spawn around you, once you are back in the world.

I fight another Seeker group but nothing exciting happens. At this stage of the game they drop various 9mm weapons, shotguns and the occasional SKS rifle, but not much ammo.

Agnes and Victor both level from the fights. She maxes out medic and learns her last talent "Resurrect". This allows her to bring up anyone if they have not been dead for more than five minutes. It can sure be handy, but don't rely on it too much. Vic reaches his first heavy weapon talent, "Accuracy".

With full pockets I hop back and forth between this map and the GNO headquarters a couple of times. This will make the traders restock a little bit, but the exact mechanics are mysterious. Also I collect more herbs, refill my water and hunt some more wolfs. Luckily that also makes Butch level. He finally gets rid of his Int penalty and reaches a talent. I pick "Repair weapons" because I have a ton of damaged guns around, and my luck so far leans to many more. On another note though, this talent is the only way to make a profit from traders. You can buy cheap damaged guns, fix em, and trade em back for a profit.

With his increased technical skills, Butch is also able to pull some of the better item combinations.

I combine a leather belt, some rivets and steel plates. And get another armor from it.

After all the legwork and trading, we end up with a wildly changed inventory. I'll walk you through it.


Seagull got his hands on a Sig Sg552, a medium ranged heavy weapon. He will stick with it for quite some time. He also has four large meat chunks which heal 12Hp per pop. I picked up a damaged FAMAS rifle dirt cheap and repaired it. But it has a pretty high rate of fire and would burn my limited 5.56 ammo fast. Also I kept an SKS rifle from the Seekers, but with twelve rounds it's no use right now.

Agnes didn't change much, except for the ton of healing items. That yellow stuff is actually a piece of cheese for our veggy. Yep, she only hates meat but other animal products are okay. Next to it is a loaf of bread, because why not?
She still has some herbs left, and picked up some antidotes. You can get poisoned, but only through lock-traps, I think. Also she whipped up seven doses of Aloe Vera ointment, which heals 18hp per pop. Pretty good stuff.

Victor sports the second tier gloves and stashes some special shotgun ammo and our drugs. That green thing is some sticky tape used for crafting.

Butch picked up a Remington 870 shotgun and some shells. It is not a heavy weapon but still a great step up from the pistol. He also has two giant meat chunks which heal 18hp per munch. But those can only be stacked up to three. I stashed some HE grenades and 7.62 NATO ammo on him.

Ivana didn't really change, as she was performing fine so far. She holds on to the Automag and a pistol for selling.

Milton changed to a 9mm Calico pistol and it suits him. The pan should have been on the other end of his inventory, but whatever. He also has his knife, some 45.colt ammo and a pair of sneakers for sale.

With all that I feel much better about the next areas.


Voting time
---
First up, suggest a name for Seagulls new rifle. He will use it for a while and should personalize it. You can submit your ideas till Wednesday. If nobody cares, I'll make something up, no worries.
---

Then I want to announce a future vote, so you can prepare a bit for it. As I said, I usually switch out Agnes for another member later, and have Milton pick up the medical stuff. But this time you can choose.
It'll be a couple of story updates before the choice, so you can get a better look at both. But I'll still give you a comparison now.

Milton is better suited for combat now, and will max survival and light weapons pretty soon. With four levels, I estimate. Or maybe five. To max his medical skill it would take another six after that. Once past that, we could teach him a bit of close combat, because his stats suit that. But that also depends on if we can get a certain weapon later.

Agnes is a little less tough and will be a liability in combat until we fix her light weapon skill. She has already maxed Medic, and needs three levels to max survival. Then it would take another five to max light weapons. Her Int bonus makes her 2-3 levels faster than Milton. After that we could skill her with throwing weapons which will always be useful.

Both don't add much interaction now, and Milton never really will, but Agnes has interactions with the later party member. They can be a bit funny here and there.

As said, no need to choose now, we still got some ground to cover.
---

Next time: Field of dreams mines.