Let's Play Fallout New Vegas, part 18: The Ownership Cycle

So, its been 6 months since I last did anything with this LP. I'm not sure I can attribute the lack of updating to anything but my own laziness. I kept finding different things to distract me, whether it be AAA games, online chat, or silly Gameboy Advance games I'd completed before and wanted to replay for nostalgia or something. In the meantime, playing more of a fallout game I'd completed once and didn't have the scope of Skyrim seemed an odd thought, even though the guilt gnawed at me on many an occassion.

But, I think I've finally come full circle, and decided to try this whole thing again. I hope you'll still stick with me, and see if we can make this thing go anywhere.





Okay, dang, I can't fix their power thingies, what do I do to make these crazy bastards like me?



Oh, giving you more explosives. Of course, silly me.

Well, I have a few rockets that....I found....In a place. They might help you.



Those rockets are probably better off in their armory than their power plant anyway....But just in case, I'll go be elsewhere. Hey, there's some of their brats, maybe I can get them on my side with my snappy dressing.



I'm making the place more awesome, what does it look like?



Kid, don't they let you play with leftover dynamite? Thats all the fun you need!



.....Thats nice.



Mister Cuddles? Who in the fliparoo is that?



Lemme guess, you were a dinosaur at the time. Sure, if I see any stuffed animals about, I'll deliver them back to you.



(Can I just shoot a passing Yao Quai, put a hat on it and call it good?)

Eh, maybe I can help the old guy with something else.



Or maybe I'll just see if this place has anything worth taking.



Looks like no.

At best I can take some of the electronics....Oh, theres Loyals cute assistant again. Hey Blondie, is there anything I can do that doesn't involve me learning what a science is?



You're right, its not very exciting at all.





(Handsome, sure, but still pretty Blond.)




(Voyeurism, the beginning of all true romance!)



Yeah, someone would probably think you're giving the signal to open fire. Well, I guess I could check the place out again...



Yeah....(I wonder if I should tell him that bazookas with two grenades taped to them don't actually count as women.)




I've seen worse sets of priorities.



"Can be trusted not to drink motor oil." Sorry, just compiling a list of your 'pros' for her.



Yeah, I'm sure you've got a long and happy life ahead of you.



Anyway! More unattended boxes! Ooh, pretty valuable armor...



No no, don't put it on you moron! .....Lets leave. Quickly.



Apparently these guys eat and relax right next to tons of bombs. This doesn't suprise me.



These must be the things they kill pretend chinese with all day.



Ooh, a weapons workshop. Much more interesting than a flying machine workshop.



Lots of scrap metal lying around, and some spare rounds. Don't mind if I do.



Dagnabbit, all this ammo. If there weren't so many people walking about...Well, I can get it legit, I guess.




Mostly grenades, as expected.



While I can see how you might prefer a fully working nuke launcher over a cheap one that has pieces missing, I'll pass on both.



Dang, I have nothing to sell this guy that isn't marked as boomer property.

I have a thing where I just can't stand to sell unique weapons, even ones I'll never use.



I've been gone for ten minutes!



Look, do you want this scrap metal I, er, found far away, or not?



Its scrap. If I needed any I could just stea-...er, kill robots for more. Just take this heavy junk.



Hmmm....This is a lot easier than looking for teddy bears...



Er, don't mind me, I have a license to inspect spare parts caches...

Oh look Jack, it just so happens I found eight more pounds of random junk in, um, my back pocket.



No need to thank me, I'm just exploiting humanity's greatest natural resource.



I think these fools are actually starting to trust me. Better secure their support before they start ask me to help find all their missing things...



I do everything I do well, Ma'am.




...I just came from there....



...I thought you blew people up, not drowned them.






(Why not base your entire reason for existing on a magazine article? It beats sucking on plutonium until your brains glow.)




Well, I do need people who can blow things up for me, and you guys are the definite experts in that. So I'll think about it. But how am I supposed to get that thing out of the lake?




Wait, if its that simple, why haven't you guys done it already?




Right, right, lazy and inbred, gotcha. I'll do it, since I'm just a nice girl.



....Wait, isn't it at the bottom of a lake? How am I meant to get to it there?



Jack, useful? I refuse to beleive!



Doesn't the chef have one in the next building? Or would you have to Grenade-dickpunch each other to decide ownership?

Gah, why does all this have to be so complex?



We're a grand total of 8 Science Skill off being about to work around the problem, which means finding a Science magazine is another way to beat this puzzle, though potentially more expensive.

How about I check your supply lockers for one? There might be one in the out-of-direct-sight shelves conveniently close to the door...

---WHOOP WHOOP WHOOP---



Gotta recycle every rivet, right?



Ho ho ho, now I can make bullets. Not that I really need to, but having the option is nice.

In Fallout 3, Scrap Metal was a valuable resource, with no less than 3 quests to hand it in for caps, medkits, or ammo. But in New Vegas, the only real collector for it is Jack, who doesn't really give anything for it but more kudos with the Boomers. Its far more useful for crafting, with high-Repair characters being able to use it in many recipes, while gun-specialists can melt it down to make new bullets. Lead is a lot lighter than scrap, which is handy for when you want to keep a supply of it around like we are for now. If you want to use specialist bullets and don't want to pay through the teeth, pumping repair and hording lead and powder is a good plan.



Back home to take stock, Boone.



Jigger a few parts together...Ooh-hoo-hoo, a nice little piece of pain.

Now, off to the Gun Runners to sell everything the Boomers hopefully are only missing now.



Gah, stupid robot can't afford the armor. Gonna have to offload it somewhere else.



Take these stupid grenades, please!! Give me pretty bullets for them!



Hmm, a bunch of empty cases to make Government rounds for my hunting revolver....Tempting, but it might be simpler just to steal them from someone else.



Armor-piercing Sniper ammo. Perfect...

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

Well, that was both eventful and uneventful. Nice to see you can steal your way through most problems, actually.

So, we're almost done with the Boomers, with only one major step left to go. Time to make some choices:

1) Do we risk going to Lake Mead without the rebreather, or go looking for a Pressure Cooker or Science Mag? Do we deliberately hunt for them, or just go off on another quest until we come across one?
2) Should we look for a 'swimsuit' to go into the Lake in, to avoid getting Benny's Suit wet, or just brush it off as a gameplay thing?
3) What should we try after this (or during it)? We still have to meet the Brotherhood (which will probably end poorly for them), and deal with the Great Khans (who are potentially already hostile to us), and theres the matter of getting to the bunker in Caesars camp, which currently might be possible without a fight, but if we got much further might be tougher. Of course there are other quests we've picked up, and chances for random exploration.
4) Are we serious about making our own bullets, or will I just stash the powder and lead in our apartment and head off to steal them as we need?

Suggestions very welcome! Lets keep this thing going!!!