New Vegas, Part 17: A classy lady with unclassy problem solving techniques.

Welcome back, friends, as I embark once more on an adventure in the story of Latooni Subota, a young woman who's fancy on the outside, but ugly on the inside. I apologise once more for taking several months out to do the exact same thing in the prequel to this game, it just seemed like the thing to do.






We head back to the Gun Runners to drop off the goods. All the people are leaving for the night, but the robot is 24 hours. The armor's worth a nice chunk of change, not a crazy amount but enough to make the trip worth it.



I suppose I don't need ALL this Jet...




I check their stock once more. In our price range are this lovely moddable Anti-material Rifle that'd probably break me in half if I tried to fire it unaided, and an SMG upgrade to my lovely silenced pistol (I thought I'd already got one of those somewhere...). But I won't get anything quite yet.



We head back to the Lucky 38 to take stock. On the way, Boone shoots an uppity hobo. I do like the convenience of him keeping the riff-raff off my back.




I take the time to offload some of the extra food, water and ammo I've been carrying. Don't need it taking up space.

I almost dump half the drugs I've been carrying too, until I realise that, unlike the survival mod I'd been using in Fallout 3, Hardcore Mode doesn't change the fact that drugs are wieghtless in New Vegas. Frankly, there really isn't any reason to leave any drugs behind, aside from the way they add to the time spent in menus looking for the right one.
Still, being weightless means its never a bad idea to pick them up, even if you're just selling them straight away.




A quick hours nap, and I'm ready to go again.



Right. Now for medical supplies.



Get up you lazy cow, I want to give you money.



YES. Thank you!



By morning, I'm back at Nellis, without the explosive welcome this time, and I catch Loyal as he gets up.





"Worst comes to worst, I have to charge you for extra bullets."





Right. If I throw up, I'll just charge you for that too.



And somehow, the tiny amount of XP from bullshitting Loyal into giving me something that probably doesn't work is enough to get me a level up.




Still focusing on Guns and Sneak.








Level 10 opens up a lot of interesting perk options, but I default to the reliable Finesse perk to up my Crit Chance. It might not be optimal since sneak attacks are automatically criticals and I plan mainly to get sneak attacks, but stealth might not always be possible, after all.




Well, this looks like the building. Time to sneak in.




Well that was quick. Still, it seems to be the only one around, so far.




As expected, the Boomers are packing some heavy firepower, which really begs the question of how these guys ended up as ant chow. And why this place is intact, if they use grenades on exploding ants. Maybe they were too busy trying not to hit the machinery?



They made it sound like this place would be crawling with the buggers, but these guys are easy pickings.



Only a couple more upstairs, I deal with them and head down.



This looks like their tunnel...



Better turn this gizmo on before they notice I'm here.



Ah, the screams of the dying. Wish I could hear them better over the racket this thing makes though.

I was not expecting that to work without applying science to the gizmo in the earlier conversation.




Nothing left but the baby maggots, who can be harvested for meat!



Hey, they ate the Boomers kids, turnabout is fair play.

...Also apparently the Boomers let their kids use grenade rifles. How 'bout that.

Thump-thump is a unique weapon, so we won't be selling it, but neither will it see much use, I expect. A shame, because the explosion and ragdoll physics in these games can get hilarious.
My favorite moment was in my recent Fallout 3 playthrough, where I was in a desperate shootout in the Super-Duper Mart, and threw a grenade at some raiders. When the smoke cleared, I found the explosion had neatly packed two of them into a nearby fridge.




What was the other thing to do again? Oh right, flip the circuit breakers.



One more switch, and then the main breaker, halfway back up the stairs. The generators come back on really noisily.







Ok, wow, theres hundreds of rounds, missiles, grenades, and TWO mininukes here. And this is their power generator room. God, I can't imagine what their armory must have in it.



Boone, be a dear and take some of this crap for me? Thanks hun.



We head for the back door, passing the ant bodies with their neatly exploded heads.



Okay! Now to see about these solar panel things.



Yeah, I have no goddamn idea what these things even are.



Bah. Anyway, I'll get credit for the shooty part anyway.



....Yeah, thats a lovely way to say hello.




....And yet somehow, you're the one they trust with the Grenade Machinegun.




Yeah, 'glad' to help.



Now what in the buggering christ do I do now?

----------------------------

A short update for this one, as I get back into the swing of things. Sorry for the brevity, but its a lot easier to handle than the 200 image mega-updates I used to do.


Ok, a couple of important and not-so-important things to consider.
1) Are people happy with my Perk selection? Its probably the 'best' choice from an absolute numbers perspective, but we can afford to be flavorful if you like. And I don't mind redoing that section again since it was only 20 minutes.
2) What do we do next? We have a mission, but no in-character reason to know how to complete it. We could metagame and pretend we found a clue to where to go, we could try some of the alternate methods of raising our reputation with the Boomers instead, or we could get ourselves sidetracked and do one of the other quests. Or we could faff about, and try a little side adventure.
3) Should we try messing with our weapons loadout any? That Assault Carbine we picked up can be repaired with one we got from the Omertas, and we've just come into a fortuitously large supply of 5mm ammo for it. Its not subtle or smart, but its a powerful spray-and-pray weapon. Also, theres the question of whether to start buying from the Gun Runners yet. They have some goodies at our price point, but there's other stuff at higher price points, and there's the chance to find more cool stuff in-game. Its a question of investing now, or hoping for stuff to come up.


Let me know what you all think.