The Outer Worlds

Outer Worlds

Outer Worlds was the only game really on my radar this year, and I use radar in the loosest sense because I didn’t realize it was out until this morning. I went to see some reviews.

When I saw a dev interview titled, You can kill everyone in The Outer Worlds. It’s a development nightmare, my heart sang because

yes, please.

And as I go down a rabbit hole of articles I’m seeing things like:

Romance, he said, has a tendency to funnel gameplay and temper the decisions players make in the game in unusual ways. For that reason, they opted to leave it out.

“We had to pick what we were going to put our time into,” Boyarsky said. “Other people have explored the romance angle in different ways. We felt like sometimes it kind of waters down your roleplaying for your character because it turns into this mini game of how do I seduce this companion or that companion. So it was just one of the things we felt wasn’t really what we wanted to focus our time on. […] We’re really trying to be focused on a specific experience so that we can polish that experience and give players the best version of that experience that we can.”

And

There will be a modicum of character customization options, Boyarsky said, but players should expect a more old-school approach. For instance, you’ll rarely see your character on screen outside the inventory menus. They won’t have even have a voice. That will leave room, he said, for the developers to spend their time and treasure crafting a complex narrative adventure. Early gameplay shows branching dialogue paths with plenty of nuance, a composite of memory mechanics from games like TellTale’s The Walking Dead and stats-based rolls common in isometric RPGs.

And

“It’s a typical Obsidian game,” Staples said, “so it has a lot of choice and consequence. A lot of building your own character and playing the way that you want to play.”

“Along the way,” he continued, “the game watches how you’re doing and what happens to the player and we call it a flaw. Say that I’ve been fighting a lot of robots and here’s an opportunity of where we say, ‘You can take a flaw and have robo-phobia where you’re scared of robots and all your stats will go down when you’re near robots. If you accept that, you can take a perk right now.’

It’s like Obsidian heard my lamentations and said, “Don’t worry, Ren. We’ll make it all right.”

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Bethesda is still breaking everything and I guess hoping we somehow won’t notice, I don’t even try to understand anymore.

Bethesda is dead, long live Obsidian.

Now to wait and see how the Switch port goes. Maybe. I think I might be willing to snuggle up with my PC again for this one.

The Outer Worlds: Wuv, Twoo Wuv

It’s early, but I am now formally in love with Pavarti, which is no surprise to anyone, and I am very happy I cannot romance her and that completing a romance arc is not necessary to see all of her characterization and development.

For one, I don’t deserve her, and she deserves the best. To use the community parlance, she is the best girl.

Two, I’m Captain Fucking Hawthorne and I’m not gonna cross that line. (I’m still calling myself that, in spite of being called out twice now, no idea if it will catch up with me but god I hope so, I could almost feel Max looking at me when the salvager called me a liar.)

Three, she’s too young for me.

Three, coming from BioWare games the lack of romance options and dialogue icons is actually kind of refreshing. There is no icon informing me, This Is A Formal Flirt. -> Do This For Romo -> Click Here Now

The Doylian knowledge that the game does not have romances shapes my perception that Obsidian is a bit more forthcoming in their characterization. I have some ideas about Max. They’re not trying to surprise me, I’m talking to a person off and on and I’m putting some things together. It feels like a natural progression.

Going into it, Max and Pavarti were the only companions I knew about and it turns out they are the first two you can recruit so I have no idea who I can recruit or when, or even how many, which is nice. I suspect I may have a stowaway soon? That’s the beauty of not knowing, lots of NPCs have names and dialogue trees and you talk to someone on a whim and next thing you know you’ve got another bunk taken. I’ve picked up a doctor who may not quite be on the up and up. We’re going to check out a distress call to get money for some kind of space pass. The game never crashes. It’s all good.

The Outer Worlds: Stealthy and… not so stealthy

I’ve been chipping away at the Outer Worlds when I can, an hour here or there. I decided to try a high-persuade, high-stealth build. For persuade I rarely encounter a persuasion option I can’t trigger. Only recently did I encounter the first (55 persuade to convince Sanjay to talk about Graham, I had 50.).

Stealth is not as straightforward. I will try to avoid killing any human NPC, and so far, marauders are the only NPCs I’ve been essentially ‘forced’ to kill, either because I could not figure out a way to stealth past or because domino aggro led them to attack me.

The domino aggro is when you spend about 20 minutes caaaaaarefully navigating past a maze of patrolling aggro NPCs, and within the last five feet to the destination door one of them notices you and it triggers the entire crowd and they descend upon you like a pack of wolves and they probably kill your foolish hippie ass because you dumped all your points in silly skills like stealth and persuade and making daisy chains have no fightmsucle to speak of.

The way some of OW’s stealth sections are designed it is very easy to have a domino effect. Interiors can have creative solutions that let you avoid this, but not always, and sometimes you have a crappy situation where once you sneak in, you then have to sneak out, and it’s not always simple.

A good example is the printing press. I stealthed aaaaall the way to the end, triggered one of the lizard things, and the entire complex came after me. If it hadn’t I would have had to sneak BACK OUT because there was no handy sealed back door or other way to backtrack past all the critters.

OW is zone-based and generally speaking, assume you’re not supposed to climb mountains. So this is not a game where you can blaze a weird trail jumping up the side of a mountain to avoid a conflict. There are choke points with beasties that are difficult to kill (mantiqueens are my bane right now). On the one hand, I’m really happy I was able to do some fast talking and get C3 to help clear out Devil’s Peak, since the mantiqueen in the caves could easily make chopped liver of me, but I still have to contend with various mantiqueens at choke points as I’m doing other missions. I tried luring different enemy groups to fight each other but it didn’t work very well, they kept retreating back to their respective areas.Collapse

All the stealthing is turning me into a secret homicidal maniac, so I often find myself wondering how I will murder everyone in a given place on a later playthrough. I wonder what an optimal build is for a murder run.

The Outer Worlds IV

I had the day off so I finished up Monarch (mostly). Spoilers under the cut.

As I was watching Sanjay and Zora leave the OSI church I thought about a character who would go to all the trouble to arrange that, only to cap both of them on their way out the door. It would certainly be an easier way to get rid of most of the planet’s leadership, and Graham, while minimizing personal risk.

I want to tell you about something that hurt my feelings. I went to visit Phineas and he was behind bulletproof glass. Now, I understand the Watsonian reason (he reasonably doesn’t trust me) and the Doylian (the devs don’t want you murdering him as soon as you get off-planet) but it hurt my feefees also made me deeply suspicious and cranky, and I’m trying to decide if my suspicion is reasonable or if I’m reading too much into practical dev decisions, which happens all the time. Phineas, you old dog, I know you’re fucking with me. You just better be fucking with me for the right reasons or so help me

I found some stuff in the Rezzo factory I didn’t like with a REDACTED person and I’m trying to figure out how to get the scoop on that. I somehow managed to unravel the plot threads on Monarch in an optimal fashion so it was a very satisfying narrative experience. I also found the stuff in Rezzo where they’re talking about using the pigs over at Boarst Wurst for experiments, maybe?, so I’m going there next. Collapse

This is not a spoiler. Boarst Wurst reminds me of chickynubbins and I think Margaret Atwood would enjoy this game very much. Especkishially the murder. 80% probability Margaret Atwood plays murder FPS

Also not a spoiler, all the corporate memos in the game, where workers are trying to reason with their Corporate Overlords, give me flashbacks of when I was emailing Epic Games and Private Division. I wonder if someone can make a mod that replaces “The Board” with “Epic Games.”

The Outer Worlds: Approaching Endgame

I figured out an interesting thing about Outer Worlds quest system. I returned to the Emerald Vale to finish up a few quests when I noticed several waypoints had not been updated, they pointed to a place where the quest NPC no longer was. I completed a different quest and all the markers reset. When you update one quest status you update them all, but this should also trigger whenever the player leaves a landing site to avoid the bug I mentioned.

Anyway, I’m in Byzantium and apparently the very last stretch of the game. I wasn’t able to locate my hours played on XB1 (yes, I did look under stats) so I really have no idea how much time I’ve put in. I still have a few locked planets and I haven’t finished the companion quests (just Pavarti’s), but I have the vast majority of quests on the main planets and this amount of time investment feels about right for the amount of lore/meat in the game.

So, Byzantium. I loved Rockwell’s vid, very enjoyable (paraphasing: I told you, you can’t say shit like that, you idiots). For reference, I’m to the Ministry of Morals, I haven’t gotten the gas yet.

I really like sustainability being the real issue in Halcyon, not only because it figures into our first big questline, but also because it allows Phineas to still have good intentions that are understandable while still being impractical/dangerous. One thing that bugs me is I sent the doctor to him, but when I went to visit to check on that she wasn’t there and he made no reference. Instead, he warned me against being corrupted by the Board, and there’s no option for conversation. The big conversation is presumably after I get the gas but still.

I initially became a bit suspicious of Phineas, in part, because as I studied Hawthorne’s logs to better impersonate him I concluded he wasn’t stupid, and getting squashed by my pod was… kinda stupid. But my impression of him is based in part on his interest in science weapons, and of course you can be interested in science and still be kind of an idiot, so shrugemoji

For a while there I was starting to wonder if the Board was still “present” or if the Maker had turned his back on us etc. etc. Well, they’re apparently there, they’re just sleeping Bureaucracy.

I understand where Ellie is coming from, and why she’s like she is, but I can’t say I’m sympathetic or even particularly like her as a companion. Nyoka, Pavarti, and Max tend to have the most interesting things to say, though I admit I don’t take Felix out too often and I suspect poor SAM will only get play if everyone deserts me when I go careening into the murder dome. I mean, if you take Max to Monarch he just goes on and on with some of the faction NPCs, it’s pretty awesome, but I’ve only ever had Ellie offer one-liners.

I respect that SAM actually is a robot and there’s no apparent attempt to have him be more than that. I think ADA has the AI Magic aspect covered.

Regarding my build, I finally got around to modifying a decent long gun with a scope, and I can tell you, there are few things more satisfying that going into time dilation and head-shotting about 5 guys in a row and finishing before the first body even hits the ground. The companions are always like WHOA CAPTAIN! lol. I don’t know if I mentioned this before, but in the beginning I found the sheer volume of consumables overwhelming, and I just kinda ignored the most of the equipment and upgrades since I was focused on trying to stealth anyway. It took me a while to warm up to the tinkering aspect, but I like it fine now and know what parts to look for next time. And of course, being able to respec was extremely helpful. Collapse

I wish there was a way to see stats for player choices in this game. The XB1 stats are skewed because of Game Pass, but only 8% of players made the same faction choice I did on Monarch, which seems low. Am I really taking the path less trodden?

The Outer Worlds: Endgame

I was very ready for my murder spree, so I pushed through the last area of the game. I probably should have taken my time, but I blitzed it and enjoyed myself nonetheless.

An enjoyable experience, and I’m happy to start my murder game though historically my enthusiasm usually tapers out about halfway through my second playthrough on these types of games. As I was playing they patched a few issues, including font size and guns staying holstered. The font size on item descriptions is still small so I have trouble reading those.

Edit: I can’t believe I forgot my marauder/raider spiel! You don’t want to miss that, oh boy.

So, OW does not fix a big pet peeve I have with Fallout-type games, which is the nameless cannon fodder hostile factions. According to the people of OW, marauders are subhuman cannibals who cannot speak properly. First, the only cannibals I have ever seen were those weirdos on Monarch. In fact, you find foodstuffs at Marauder camps and they clearly eat it. Second, Marauders do talk. They’ve yelled at me quite a bit! Their voices are different, they sound like they are in pain or having difficulty speaking, but they definitely have a capacity for verbal language.

I remember at least two characters remarking on the marauder propoganda. One mentioned that marauders appeared to have a different type of language, distinct from whatever the basic human language is called in OW. (~Perhaps~ mauraders have learned other ways to communicate when around hostiles, which other humans clearly are to them.) IIRC another character questioned the assumption that marauders are subhuman and noted the different groups seem to have distinct and complex organizational structures.

I REALLY HOPED Zoe’s quest would shed some kind of light on this, or provide commentary, but it doesn’t. I stealthed all the way to her, but could not speak to her–the game requires you kill the marauders she’s living with to advance the quest. Zoe just says yeah we traded and now they’re dead lol. Zoe’s a bit of a shit.

Obsidian kinda addresses this in Fallout New Vegas, with the Khan faction which are I guess “acceptable” raiders who can be treated like people. In Fallout 4 there was a one-off scene I could never get to repeat where raiders recognized Nick Valentine, who was in my party, and became passive, and one even said, “Hey Nick, we didn’t know you were with them. How’s it going, man?” And Nick’s like, “Uhhh… good to see you?” I loved that interaction. But it’s an anomaly, by large Fallout 4 is just filled with people to kill, same as every other game.

Anyway, my theory is there is a lot of human experimentation done by many corporations in Halcyon, and obviously humans are having issues with the native plants, animals, and diseases. Marauders are everywhere, so we can’t just say UDL did it or whatever, but possibly the issues consuming local flora and fauna make some people sick in a way that the healthier humans don’t like, so they expell them, and those people get together and form groups for protection.

I am honestly a little surprised Obsidian didn’t address the matter. I’m still looking for codex stuff I might have missed.

Murderino Diaries Vol. 1: Welcome to the Murder Dome, Spacer’s Choice

I have embarked upon a massive murder and mayhem quest in the Outer Worlds with my new captain, Murderino. These are the tales of my journey. There are misspellings. There are arbitrary tense changes. There is a wanton disregard for NPC life. There are spoilers. Reader beware!

Mayhem is a key distinction, here. Don’t fret, gentle friends, there will be all the murdering a murderino can murder, but mayhem is important. I have read about several genocide/murder runs and they all just run up to everyone and shoot them. Where’s the fun in that? How can we learn and grow if we arbitrarily shoot all the NPCs in the face and end the game in 10 hours? These players mention that their actions do not affect the ending slides much. That’s probably because they aren’t initiating dialogue/finishing quests and therefore not tripping enough plot flags. I intend to recruit all the companions, as they will open the way to additional murder victims, and I want to see how much it takes for their consciences to override their apparent need to follow a sneaky, rugged ne’re-do-well with too many guns and exquisite facial symmetry.

My first playthrough I was overly cautious about stealing because I wasn’t sure how important my actions were. What if Marauders attack Edgewater after I’ve stolen all the ammo and guns? Now I better understand how the game works and I have a vested interest, not only in stealing everything in sight but in pickpocketing weapons, if I can. I do not have to do all the murdering myself. There are several places where I can side with a faction, allow them to whittle down the opposing faction, then mop up. Maybe this would be better called Doublecross Dome.

Welcome to Emerald Vale! I used my medic skill to patch the gent in the cave up, lied to get his gun, then shot him in the face with it. I belatedly realized Phineas saw me murder an unarmed spacer in cold blood and now knows I’m a deranged homicidal maniac (though he doesn’t say anything at all in the comm, which is surprising). Oh well!

When I was trying to sneak past the marauders the first time during my pacifist run it seemed like there were sooo many of them, but this time it seems like there are barely any at all. I kill them and examine their campsite. Down the hill, I lie about the gent being alive and convince the soldiers to finish off the mauraders. As soon as the deed is done I shoot both in the back.

After I talk to ADA I go back outside the ship to meet Ernest (I think it was?), who was sent by the town to check up on the guards. I briefly consider Ernest and decide I don’t want his death or disappearance to alert the town to my nature. He accepts my homicidal tendencies easily enough, so I let him be. (Interestingly, in one of my many runthroughs on PC marauders killed the guards and Ernest assumed I did it. There’s no way to tell him otherwise, which means the game assumes it as well.)

I know how to get to Edgewater peacefully, but I decline to do so, cutting through the pass and killing the mauraders there. They have murdered and robbed several residents. I leave the marauder camp to the east alone in case there’s a quest about it. I chat with Silas and agree to shake down people for gravesite money, then make sure to steal all Silas’ shit from his house. (Except the shoves and spades, man’s gotta have tools to work with.)

In Edgewater I’m ready to steal and learn. Unfortunately, there is not much to steal OR learn, though there is a terminal with a bit of backstory for Pavarti. I take anything that isn’t nailed down and eyeball the safe in the General Store, which I desparately want but am not prepared to take. Silas said something about collecting fingers, which sounds like a cute way to accessorize, so I check in with the Constable, who I missed my first game. I accept the bounties, maybe I’ll learn something about marauders after all. I note there are 3 cells, and she asks me if I want to report anyone. Dare I dream? Will the game allow me to be so devious?

I recruit Pavarti and find it impossible to be unkind to her. I also meet Max, and after mercilessly antagonizing him (11/10 would badger man of the cloth again) I finish up his recruitment quest. The Vicar may end up putting a crimp in my plans. He agrees to join my crew, but only when I’m ready to leave Edgewater. If he’s still part of the town when I attack he’ll aggro. This will no doubt be the first of many small complications to my grand plan to annihiliate all human life in Halcyon.

In the meantime, now that I’m not working hard to avoid every marauder camp in Emerald Vale I’m starting to realize how dang MANY of them there are. The easiest way to get a sighted weapon at this early stage is to loot a Hunting Rifle. It’s finger time!

I was not sure if Bernie Cotton would aggro, so I approached cautiously. So cautiously that he didn’t even notice me when I climbed the latter and snuck to his seat on the roof, where he was gazing at the stars. I took a moment to crouch beside him to see what he saw–the ringed moon, framed in the night sky by pink and purple. I must admit, it’s a spiritual view. Well, after that I had to give him a fighting chance, so I stood up and walked in front of him. He aggroed and immediately faced outward, looking down across the field. Based on that I’m not sure how Cotton made even it that far, to be honest, I just unloaded into his back and considered it a mercy.

Next was Doc Maybell. She was holed up in a cave. I took out the lookout and crept along a rock shelf that ran along the back of the cave, placing me directly above them. She was busy at the fire, it was almost as though she were reading the flames. The marauders with her were all watching the entrance, of course. Seeing no obvious way to interact with her, I opened fire. She fought tooth and nail, but that didn’t keep her finger from joining my collection. All this for two parcels of stolen Adrena-Time. I probably stole more from Edgewater within the first five minutes I was there. Waste of a perfectly decent physician, for sure.

Anyway, Guillaume Antrim can wait, it’s time to visit the deserters and figure out my murderategy. (Get it? Murder-strategy? No? Please stop? Ok, you’re probably right.) Unlike some of the other factions these two aren’t necessarily wanting to tear each other apart, this is a war of supply lines. I already know that I have to choose a location to power, I can’t cut power to them both, but I reason killing the power to Edgewater will leave the surviving population more vulnerable and I can clean out Edgewater after they’ve left. I spoke with Grace and learned about Zoe, and decided to venture out there on my way to collect fingers.

I took out Guillaume Antrim easily, as I’d warmed up to my modded hunting rifle. I took out Zoe’s camp as well. I chatted with her, confirmed she was a little shit, and shot her in the head. I looted her body and took the ring to Grace as proof. After collecting the bounties, I went to the Geothermal Plant, which was cleaned out easily with a plasma rifle, and cut the power to Edgewater.

I’d never done this before, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I was thrilled to find the town depressed and desperate and ripe for murder, however I was EXTREMELY SAD to see most of the buildings were now sealed up, so I couldn’t get into the General Store to raid the supply room. I went to collect my prize and met Tobson, who I lacked the ability to intimidate. This made my job easier, as I had the opportunity to kill him and several guards and claim they shot first.

I made a point of returning to the ship to make sure Max was on board before I wiped out the town. Max is… bugged? I guess, so I couldn’t get him to formally join my party, he just stood in the entryway (actually probably not bugged, more on this later). On top of that, Ernest is gone, talk about adding insult to injury I should have killed him straightaway. I returned to Edgewater and finished the deed, which was easy since most were unarmed. Cleaning out the OSI church was really depressing, honestly, and not particularly fun.

I then went to the Deserters. After talking to Adelaide, and learning she will only support a chosen few who play lip service to her ideology, I realized I’d definitely made the right choice. It’s so much easier to divide and conquer when dealing with leaders who care more about their personal grudges and interests than people. I hiked back up the hill and killed Grace, who was the only person left in Emerald Vale capable of defending the spacers. The deserters didn’t even realize what I’d done, which shows how woefully unprepared they were to survive on their own without support. I killed the rest easily.

Now, meta talk, during this process it became clear the game wasn’t registering my homicide and betrayal as such. Pavarti cheered me on as I murdered her neighbors and friends (I kept thinking, Pavarti, nooooo, I would much prefer her getting angry). Reading on the wiki, it sounds like you get trophies for killing Tobson OR Adelaide, but I inferred you need to do this before the quest is finalized. When I killed Adelaide after the fact her trophy (shears) was not on her corpse. Apparently murdering everyone after quest completion means nothing to the game, at least in Emerald Vale.

Going forward I need to assume the game is most likely to acknowledge murder if it is tied to a dialogue option or occurs prior to related quest completion. Killing everyone after the fact is meaningless from a gamimg perspective.

I did it this way to make sure I could recruit Max. I think the developers consciously chose to require you leave the planet before Max formally joins so they didn’t have to implement his reactions to your activities. Seems like I ought to be able to recruit him as long as I don’t go near the OSI Church and aggro him. I think I still have a save at the Geothermal plant (I keep 4 rotating saves for this playthrough). If it’s possible, I may backtrack after all and assault Edgewater before I reroute the power. Then I can hack Tobson’s office and the General Store, I’m just so curious about those rooms.

Murderino Diaries Vol. 2: Roseway is Red, Blood is Red Too, If I Kill You, What Will This Game Do?

This entry mysteriously vanished from my note-taking app while I was in the middle so I had to rewrite it. Thus, some of the details may not be perfect.

I didn’t have a save file to go back to so I ventured forward, into space, to continue murdering where no one could hear the screams. I wasn’t quite ready to have the Groundbreaker go aggro on me, so I decided to focus on the mayhem component of my quest.

Exploring the waste disposal I gained access to high-level catwalks which would be perfect for a shooting spree. While I was up there I discovered a spacer locked in the bathroom. I released him, shook him down for money, then shot him in the back as he walked away in disgust. Mainly, I wanted to see if anyone would hear the shot. No one did.

After setting Ellie’s quest in motion I went to Udom. I harassed him mercilessly, which I highly recommend, then attempted to turn in Welles. This asshole actually wanted ME to pony up 8k so he could do his job. On top of that, Gladys wants 10k for a navkey to Stellar Bay. (As an aside, Udom has a 35 persuade check to explain why he lost the item in the first place. I couldn’t trigger it, in spite of having the skill points. I must have locked the option when I made fun of him.) You can technically skip Roseway and land at the dangerous and unregulated Cascadia landing pad, it’s not gonna be a fun trip. Finding myself at a financial impasse, I decided to go down to Roseway and cause some trouble. I ignored Felix when I originally passed by, and when I returned to my ship I found him waiting on the dock to ask for a job.

Roseway is in complete disarray, which makes it the perfect hunting ground for a violent opportunist. I insult the scientists profusely and manage to get the locations of all their secrets. The lead scientist, Anton Crane, has asked that I recover his research from a lab overrun by raptidons and outlaws. The research, which is for diet toothpaste, could have some value. I’m in! He also asks me to check up on his assistant in the Aunti-biotics lab. Vaughn assures me that one must find a buyer to sell the lucrative raptidon musk data he’s experimenting with. Don’t you worry, sweatie, Old Murderino will figure it out. Finally, Orson wants me to obtain contraban schematics. I set out, murdering every outlaw and marauder in my path. (I read on Reddit that the concussion flaw leads to funny dialog options, so I made a point of sticking my face in front of every mine I could find. I have since learned you get the same effect by creating a low intelligence character.)

I take a different path this time, going for the schematic, then the secret lab. I pick up Lillian’s cigarette case in the raptidon pen since I remember it will be there. My plan was to give it to her for the XP, then loot it from her body, but if you give her the case it’s gone so I just antagonized her instead. She immediately goes aggro–clearly, SOMEONE needed a smoke. Naturally all the outlaws outside the lab are toast courtesy of moi. My TTD head-shot sniping technique is getting quite good.

This is the first time I’ve simply walked through the front door to the secret lab. Max remarks that I need to watch my back if I’m going to waltz right in there. Well, it turns out Waltz is Murderino’s middle name! So I do just that, resisting the tremendous urge to cap all the security forces on entry. I bee-line for the outlaw leader who is stuck in a cell surrounded by raptidons, figure out she has the goods, and go about exterminating the rapts. On my way to unlock her cage I kill the rest of her now-pacified outlaws. Then I kill her. This part of the game annoyed me a little because when I attempted to kill the corporate guards I automatically failed all the scientist missions in Roseway, which I haven’t finished yet. At first I thought it was because they were in contact with Crane, but now I think it had something to do with my Auntie Cleo reputation. I reloaded my game and decided to come back for them after I’ve cleaned out the main base, empty though the gesture is.

While I was doing all this I came across the means to sedate the raptidons, which I somehow missed the first time I played. This is how you preserve the mother raptidon as Anton requested. I can’t imagine not killing the raptidons, unless I was doing a pro-Board run, but I can see the usefulness of putting them all to sleep.

I circled around to the Antibiotics lab, which looks like hell just like everything else around here, and wished my plasma carbine did not do such a bad job of putting down these robots. I’ve already gotten my first flaw, plasma vulnerability, and I continue to charge headfirst into every mine I find. Come on, concussion! Daddy needs some funny dialogue options!

Imagine my surprise when I find Jameson… eaten! It turns out this was a time-sensitive quest. The game observes Jameson was overrun while I was busy with other things. “Well played, Obsidian,” I murmured, as I looted his mutilated corpse. I return to Roseway to antagonize the scientists some more. After I finish telling Crane about the death, and reveal I’m keeping his research as well, he goes aggro. Surprise, Auntie Cleo just hit “angry” on the faction meter. I killed everyone in camp and briefly debated going back for the corporate guards, but decided against it.Collapse

Back on the Groundbreaker, I’ve finally got what I need to turn in Welles, so I do, and get a personal invitation to see Sophia, the Adjutant to the Chairman. In my previous game my contact with Sophia is limited, so I don’t know much about her other than she is driven and committed. This is also where Murderino’s story starts to get much more interesting.

Murderino Diaries Vol. 3: The Adjutant, My New BFF in Murder

Last episode I offered to sell Welles out in exchange for some nebulous reward and was invited to Byzantium. Something I have since learned is if you want the whole story of Outer Worlds you need to gain access to Sophia via a pro-Board run. She quickly became one of my favorite characters. DO IT. TAKE THE PLUNGE. And if you are gonna see it for yourself, you should skip the murder diaries for now. I expect to document a proper pro-Board run in the future.

Unsurprisingly, the office is quite secure, and I am not currently prepared to kill the ultra lethal guards so I decided to bide my time. I respect Sophia’s unwillingness to meet me in person. On the comm she informs me that shutting down Edgewater actually did the Board a favor. They planned on “erasing” the town because it was a drain on resources. This is an interesting twist, as one might assume helping Edgewater was a pro-Board move.

Sophia wants to test my mettle and asks me to assasinate a former employee, a cartographer named Lockwood. Well I can hardly say no, though I play it cool and keep the anti-social behavior to a minimum. See, I can act civilized when properly incentivized. Sophia explains they hired another contractor, Bradshaw, but he is taking his time. I jog over to the Exploration Beaurueere and find the incompetent in question posing at reception. It’s clear who is he is in about five seconds, and if you have a high Intelligence stat you can call him on it. He admits the cartographer hasn’t shown up to work in a while. His big plan is to pose as the receptionist until she comes back. He wants to make it a competition. That sounds like a great plan, I say, as I casually walk behind the office divider, and I shoot him in the back of the head. The employee in the atrium doesn’t even hear the gunshot. As I’m ransacking what little there is I find the receptionist’s torso in a closet. Great work, Bradshaw. If I hadn’t put him down someone else would have, it was practically a mercy-killing.

I use the key I looted from his body to get into Lockwood’s office and learn she got spooked and went into the tunnels to hide. I went into those tunnels on my previous game and found a lot of destroyed robots and eaten humans, but I don’t remember finding the source? Well, it’s a giant sprat, surprise~! The sprat has good loot, as all giant animals do, presumably because they eat so many people. I find Lockwood and pump her for info and confirm she was asked to formally remove Edgewater from the map. Sophia wasn’t speaking metaphorically, they really were going to erase Edgewater. At this time, I really wish I had Pavarti in my party. As soon as Lockwood has told me everythign she knows I waste her. Max doesn’t bat a lash, but Felix chews me out. It’s awesome. What has really set Felix off is my apparent alliance with the Board, he’s mainly upset I killed someone because Sophia asked me to, but the fact she was an unarmed, non-threatening person added fuel to the fire. BOY is he pissed. I like the cut of this lad’s jib. I will have to bring him along more often.

Back at the ranch, Sophia has decided I’m gravy. When she asks me about Welles location I’m appropriately cagey, which she also respects, and she asks me to plant a tracking signal at his lab. It’s the moment of truth. This will convince her I can be trusted.

I go to the lab, this time appreciating the many precautions Welles has taken to protect himself from me, and something unexpected happens. I have the option to double-cross Sophia and tell Welles about the signal! Friends, this is Mayhem I cannot refuse! I eagerly do so. Welles doesn’t even care that I went to Sophia in the first place, he’s pleased to have this opportunity to get at them. He asks me to place a corrupted signal, which will stall them until he can prepare his defenses.

OHHHOHOHO did you hear that? Wellesian Defenses? Sounds like CHANCES FOR MORE MURDER! At the comm, I have the option for either signal, but I place the corrupted one, to Welles’ delight.

Sophia is now willing to meet in person, but there’s no way I can kill her and get out alive so I decide to ride the train and see where it goes. She acknowledges the difficulty of capturing Welles due to the corrupted signal but does not seem to suspect I had any hand in it–however, she’s clearly one of the smartest characters in the game, so even if she did suspect she would not tip her hand. She gives me a navkey to Monarch and asks me to clear the airwaves. An Intelligence check notices the secret phrase she gave me corresponds to a romance serial. She gets defensive about romance serials, which I find endearing and formally cements my infatuation with her. I hope this doesn’t interfere with my intent to kill her in the name of mayhem. Regardless, we all know what time it is: MONARCH TIME<

Murderino Diaries Vol. 4: Murder in Monarch… and Possible Retirement?

In the Outer Worlds, all roads lead to Monarch. It is a large planet with many quests and multiple faction interests, and no matter what choices you make you will end up there.

Welles contacts me when I arrive at Monarch. I debate whether to take the call in case Sophia is somehow watching, in fact I put him off twice, but I finally decide to go for it since my curiosity gets the better of me. Welles tells me about Nyoka. Sophia’s contact also suggests Nyoka, so she can be recruited either way.

I’m bringing Felix and Max with me this time. I expect comedy, gentlemen. I explore Stellar Bay a bit and am honestly impressed by the sheer number of ways one can obtain pills for Nyoka. You can intimidate the dispensary nurse, hack a system to modify her allowances, lockpick a save, steal the key to the safe from the nurse, steal the password for the computer from a dead body in the graveyard, or any combination of the above and there are still probably one or two I missed. Once Nyoka is on my ship I head out.

Speaking of my ship. Is it me, or is ADA plotting to kill me in my sleep? I suppose I’ll have to deal with that when the time comes. And suddenly, I’m reminded of SAM! I forgot about SAM! Thanks to my looting compulsion, I actually picked up the Acid Steeper in Roseway, so I’m able to repair him for duty. If those with consciences fail me, I will have recourse.

The Monarch wilderness was rough my first game, but actually having skill points devoted to fighting skills certainly helps and even Mantiqueens go down reasonably enough. I work my way toward Devil’s Peak, stopping by Amber Heights and Fallbrook. I allow Max to succumb to his enthusiastic violence which makes me sadpanda on the inside. I also listen as Max and Felix’ banter evolves from friendly to downright antagonistic at points–it’s a pretty interesting progression. At Devil’s Peak I take the more dangerous aboveground path with no real problems. My plan was to use C3 as canon fodder, but what can I say, my smart mouth got away from me. I killed them and stole their stuff, then hiked back up where Joy is to see if I can lie to her, but she immediately aggros. Oh well, more loot for me!

In the tower, all I have to do is apply a little pressure and Hiram folds like a cheap deck of cards and agrees to feed me intel. I was tempted to kill him, but I didn’t want to arouse Welles’ suspicions. Hiram reminds me I have to deal with MSI and the Iconoclasts individually to stop the transmissions and I decide the latter will be the easiest to manipulate since they are already vulnerable and their leadership is unstable.

In order to trigger the weapon-seeking faction choice quest you have to end the broadcasts. There are really only 2 ways to do this as far as I can tell. Either you assist the MSI and Iconoclast factions by providing the BOLT and the printing press respectively, or you murder them. There does not appear to be an option to sabotage either party. I help liberate the printing press, making a point not to help Zora in any way and encouraging Graham’s zealotry. I convince the Van Noys to charge the press. They’re pretty damn tough, so when they survive, I take them out myself. When I report back to Graham Zora will not engage me. Makes sense. If you don’t show Zora you’re a reasonable person, she’ll never trust you.

Delivering the BOLT is straightforward. I take out Huxley because listen, that’s what I do, deliver the goods, verify they’ve both shut the fuck up back at Devil’s Peak, and this triggers the weapon mission. Giving the weapon to the Iconoclasts leads to a long, drawn-out battle where we charge the road for 2 klicks and wipe out MSI soldiers, effectively dropping MSI’s reputation to “scared”. At the end of it, Sanjay is dead and the Iconoclasts have occupied Stellar Bay. This is just as depressing as I knew it would be, so while Murderino is thrilled with the chaos I am ready to leave Monarch. I’ve done what Sophia asked. I’m curious how long the game will let me play both sides, so I arrange for Welles’ data to be sent as well. Hiram doesn’t even bat an eye at my apparent duplicity.

Sophia is thrilled with me. Remember when, before, I said the game didn’t seem to register the slaughter of Edgewater? Sophia fully acknowledges it here, which makes me think there would have been more to the Edgewater questline if I hadn’t up and murdered everyone so early. (After some reading, I’ve confirmed that killing everyone in Edgewater BEFORE you’re told to kill everyone is a kind of in-game loophole that prevents you from facing the consequences. Well, that’s no fun!) Sophia lets me watch the unedited clip of the Chairman’s speech (and this is actually something I don’t agree with, design-wise, because Sophia SHOULD Have shown me a clip without the funny outtakes), tells me about the food crisis, and explains her plan. She wants me to gain control of the HOPE and skip it to Tartaurus. Now, having played this game once before, I know I am not being given the deets. The Board has found a way to put colonists in suspected animation, what the hell are they going to do with a ship full of people already in suspension? Presumably they going to kill them all, so they can stuff the current residents in there, effectively replacing Welles’ Dream Team with the current crop of Halcyon overachievers.

Meanwhile, back at Welles’ lab, Welles is thrilled to get the data from Hiram and wants me to track down the chemicals he needs. We’re still not to a fork in the road on the main Welles V. Board questlines. In fact, Felix corners me and demands to know why I’m helping the Board, and there’s an option to tell him I haven’t decided. He’s pissed, but he hasn’t left yet. I’ve barely explored Byazantium at this point, and there are still a number of planets on the map I can’t travel to, but I know at least 4 are not currently reachable (I think the idea is they were put there for potential DLC). Collapse

I wish I’d decided to play a by-the-books pro-Board For Science as my second PT, because I think playing an opportunisting murderino has blurred the questlines at the expense of the story reveals. Murderino’s Wild and Wooly Death Run has essentially become a lololololo run, so I may soon retire ol’ Murderino. I already have my next challenge in mind: playing the cleanest pro-Board run as possible, keeping as many people alive as I can in the process. Is it even possible? Regardless, it seems much more fun than killing everyone for the hell of it.

That being said, Murderino’s run has been educational, and it is interesting to see how you can play both sides all the way up to the end. I have neglected my crew this run, so far the only one that treats me any differently is Felix. Figuring out how to piss the companions off enough to make them leave has become a subject of academic interest. Tune in next time.

Murderino Diaries Vol. 5: Death to Our Corporate Masters, Our Parents, Our Mentors

The conclusion of my rambling play notes. Last installment, I noted I’d been neglecting my crew. I decided to start off by paying a little extra special attention to Ellie…

…By murdering her parents, natch. Originally I was gonna follow the quest until she cashes in the life insurance policy, then I figured fuggit, I didn’t want a situation where they were gone or the apartment was sealed, so I capped them both after our initial conversation. It went about as well as you’d expect, Ellie got furious and ditched me. I assumed she would go aggro, but instead she vanished and now her companion screen is locked as if I’d never recruited her.

While I was in Byzantium I decided to murder Sophia for science. Before I did so, I waltzed into Minister Clarke’s place for a little extra murderin on the side. I slaughtered the entire security detail. When I arrived at Clarke’s office, he berated me for doing so, then immediately began acting like I was a low-level thuggish moron. The Watsonian explanation is that Clarke does not have good survival instincts (no one on Byzantium does, really) and the Doylian explanation is the devs didn’t actually think anyone would play the game this erratically. I grill him for intel and shoot him in the head as usual.

I originally planned on getting the chemicals, but I don’t want to lose access to Sophia yet so I went for her next. I waltzed in (middle name, remember?) with Felix and SAM. I found that SAM makes a GREAT door barrier and BFF all around. I had him stand in the doorway to Sophia’s office and after I chatted with her one last time, for posterity, I shot her in the head. SAM did a tremendous job of holding back the corporate guards and we cleaned them up with minimal losses. Have I mentioned SAM is great in general? His combat is hilarious and I enjoy his robotic asides. I really like it when other characters chime in and respond to him as though he’s not just an extremely deadly toaster.

This whole segment was kinda unusual though. My Board reputation is at “Confused,” which happens if you get a certain amount of positive rep and then max out the negative. No one on Byzantium knew what to do with me. Each time I went to a different floor the corporate guards were neutral until I started killing them. When I left I fully expected chaos on the streets, but it was as though nothing had happened. My guess is they set it up this way so you couldn’t accidentally box yourself in at Byzantium and not be able to get to your ship, but it could be an oversight or I may even be exploiting some sort of bug or issue with the dual reputation meters.

Well, it looks like me and Felix are chummy again, as soon as I talk to him he is estatic and promptly offers up the deets to his personal quest. Let bygones be bygones, I murdered Sophia Akande in cold blood in her office and birds are singing, the sun is shining… etc etc. So far Felix is the only companion who gives a damn about faction alignment.

I decide to test Felix’ loyalty by embarking on his quest. I go to Scylla to talk to Harlowe and I start to have an epiphany, but I put it aside to be an asshole. I agree to do what Harlowe asks, then decide naaah, and shoot Harlowe and take down the entire base. Felix is FURIOUS, and says he needs time to think, and I figured that was it but he doesn’t leave me like Ellie did. He goes back to the ship, and the next time I see him he says, “Good to see you, boss,” like nothing happened. Well, sure. Where’s he gonna go, right?

This is where my epiphany fully realized. The companions, sans SAM, are part of the same corporate brainwashing that ALL of Halcyon is part of. Ellie is an outlier–considering her background and emphasis on personal independence, she is bucking the system in a way none of the others do, and when you cross a line, she leaves your party for good. But to all the other companions you are the boss, and the boss is god. I picked up on this when we were talking to Harlowe. Felix was basically a resource that Harlowe wanted to negotiate use for. I didn’t finish the quest obviously, but at that point Harlowe was no different than the Board in that sense. And why would he be?

Welles was saying this all along, but I didn’t appreciate how right he was. It isn’t just that the Hope has scientists, engineers, doctors, and architects hand-selected for the New World (and… me, team mascot), but the people of Halcyon truly are trained to accept authority and obey in a way I didn’t fully appreciate until now. But, also–the devs talked about this. They didn’t include romances because they wanted players to have more autonomy and I assume the companion’s unwillingness to buck is part of this.

Anyway, I concluded Ellie and Pavarti can be lost (I am aware the latter can die), and Felix may leave you if you do a full Board run that is yet to be determined, but the other companions will stay with you no matter what.

I set about to test my theory. First up, Max. I took him to the Hermit. She refused to help him because of the murder. Max was upset and called her a charlatan. There is a 70 persuade option to attempt to convince her to allow Max to take the drugs, even though she doesn’t think he’s ready, but I didn’t try it. Instead, I killed her. Max was angry–for about a second, and it wasn’t even about her. It was about his perception that he’d wasted his life. It was sad, and made me feel sad, and when I triggered conversation immediately after he was still talking as though he was with OSI. I can only assume the devs thought very few players would actually kill the Hermit, so they didn’t have a dialogue tree change for that. Max has not abandoned me, but he has abandoned himself. I suppose that will have to do.

(I’m was curious about that persuade option so I loaded an old save to see what would happen. The meditation proceeds as normal. You can attack his mother, which he naturally objects to, but you can’t stop him from finding inner peace. So as long as you don’t, you know, wantonly murder the Hermit, Max can get closure.)

Next up, Nyoka. I take her with me to kill Hiram. No reaction. I murder everyone in Stellar Bay. No reaction! And this is as depressing as mowing down everyone in Edgewater, once you get rid of the Iconoclasts occupying the city there are tons of unarmed civilians running around screaming things like, “I don’t want to die!” and “Please don’t hurt me!” and cowering in random corners, and it takes FOREVER to round them all up. I appreciate Obsidian did this by the way.

I give up on Nyoka, having no more screws. I am certain I have missed Pavarti’s breaking point, which would have been the eradication of Edgewater if I had not botched the Board quest by killing everyone ahead of time. I could try to take her back to Edgewater to see if I trigger a reaction, or even murder Junlei, but… look, I’m Murderino Waltz Hawthorne, ok? I’m not devil incarnate.

Well, it’s time. Time to confuse everyone one last time by following Sophia’s instructions for the Hope and skipping it to Tartarus. Except… I can’t! I belatedly realized by killing Sophia I closed off her quest line. I could load an old save, but given the situation I think I would rather fully side with the Board during a pro-Board run. Murderino’s run ends here. Maybe I’ll come back to it? Naaah.

Shit I learned:

• You can sort of go off the rails, but why would you want to? The story works best if you pick a logical path, as usual, and the game accommodates a lot of micro-decisions, but it has trouble with random murder for no reason.
• You can do anything to your companions, essentially. Go wild.
• SAM is amazing.
• The load times on XBO are balls. I find myself planning out mission routes just so I can avoid extra load times.
• Thank you, Customer!

I wanna do a True Believer Pro-Board run and a Dumb run (just start with low intelligence) but just thinking about those load times… guh. There are supposed to be 3 main endings. 2 are obvious based on the factions but I wasn’t sure what the 3rd could be. Well, I watched the 12-minute Speed Run, learned a neat trick, and had to lol when I saw what the 3rd ending is. Well played, Obsidian.

Spoiler: You fly the Hope into the Sun because YOU ARE AN IDIOT HAHAHAHAHAA. A satisfying ending to any dummy game, for sure.

The Outer Worlds: Peril on Gorgon

The first TOW expansion has been announced. The content will be available after the player leaves planet Monarch and raises the level cap to 25.

My only issue with the Outer Worlds on GamePass is I have an older XBox One and the load times are bad (several minutes, and even saving the game strategically to avoid too many loading areas in a row there’s still a notable bit of downtime). I didn’t buy the Switch version specifically because of complaints about the load times. I wanted to see the PC version had any performance patches so I grudgingly reinstalled the Epic Games Store Launcher which of course still doesn’t work right, and I managed to install and play TWO a whole five minutes without crashing. This doesn’t mean anything, I’d need to see at least 30 minutes of uninterrupted play to be convinced. The load times are about the same as XBox for me, but the difference is it’s more convenient to document my Corporate Sexymann run, which I still want to do, and take many luscious screenshots.

There is a third, quite distant, option. My partner is a music composer and his rig is fancy and fresh and in that sense it is superior to the my duct-tape chewing-gum alliance I have negotiated on my own PC. However, he is really deep in Assassin’s Creed right now and I’m certainly not going to ask him to hand over his PC during the sacred Child Siesta Time so I can play through the Outer Worlds a third time. It would be nice to see if the load times persist, however, just to confirm if this is My Problem or if it is in fact Obsidian’s Problem.

The Outer Worlds: The Sexymann Diaries Omnibus

A while ago I started a Sexymann Life-Preserving Corporate run, to see what was possible, and I got side tracked. I posted all my play notes on Tumblr which makes them annoying to read and hard to find anything, so I am creating this DW masterpost to remind myself of what I was doing with the RP so I can decide if I want to complete the expansions with Sexymann or roll a new character.

I did my best to give the Tumblr notes some semblance of order but be assured this is a personal reference post and will likely be a dumb wall of text to anyone else. I originally attempted to rewrite/streamline but gave up halfway through and started copypasta so eh. If you are unfamiliar with my TOW runs be advised I like a) lulz and b) trying to break stuff.

Sexymann is an over-achiever who isn’t above intimidation but mostly just wants to impress the Corps and have a beer with buds after work. They’re in favor of preserving life because You Can’t Work for the Corps If You’re Dead!(TM) So this fellow walks a line between Captain Murderino and my original Pacifist Captain. My goal is avoid killing any non-mob NPCs, Marauders are fair game because they’re slackers and a drain on the exquisite Corporate system.

Emerald Vale

I made a point of putting Adelaid in charge of Edgewater because I knew, thanks to my Murderino game, that this would put Sexymann in’s Corp-loving ass in a tough position later on and might result in some interesting events with Pavarti. I have talked down Reed Tobson before, but this was the first time I recruited Vicar Max before I did so. Reed asks for guidance and Max gives it: move on. Tobson is the quintessential Spacer’s Choice man, but Sexymann has come to regard himself as something of a corporate fixer and decided poaching Adelaid was the best thing for matrix synergy.

For some reason it took me forever to get a freaking hunting rifle, I eventually looted one off Cotton. I took Max with me to collect that last bounty and after I shot down Cotton he said something about it all being part of the Plan, and I know that’s one of his post-battle barks but considering Cotton was the previous vicar/priest/whatever it was rather timely.

I have grilled the Edgewater Constable a bit about Marauders before, IIRC this is one of the few places in the game you can discuss them in any depth. (Now that we’re getting DLC maybe that will change at some point.) When the connection between Adrena-Time and marauders comes up the Constable notes everyone loves Adrena-Time, because it was manufactured to be addictive. I guess I’m still a little annoyed that Zoe can barter with marauders but I don’t have some type of barter->xp ability as player, because on my total pacifist run I absolutely would have made the attempt.

Groundbreaker

The last time I tried to sell out Welles at the Groundbreaker I insulted Udom Bedford A LOT and this locked the persuade option to learn why he pawned his stuff, which was a nice detail. Well, Sexymann Corporate was super nice to him and we learned Udom writes illegal fanfiction.

We’re not too far into this third play, having just arrived at the Groundbreaker, and yet I find my thoughts wandering to things like, “Vicar Max has such a soothing voice when he’s not screaming,” and, “Wouldn’t it be nice if he read contraband literature to me until I fell asleep.” So that’s where we’re at on that.

I don’t know if pro-Board Yesman (uuugh missed opportunity! THAT should have been the name!!) Sexymann would help on the Groundbreaker at all. I’m going to poke my nose into that questline, but from an RP standpoint Sexymann is Lawful/Corporate “Good” so I’m not sure where we’d fall in that questline.

Roseway

partner: …did you name your character Sexymann?

me: um

I wanted to see if I could shake things up at Roseway. Ratting out the Auntie Cleo shennanegans doesn’t do much, it turns out, except cost you reputation. Anton doesn’t give a shit about Orson. If you rat out Vaughn, then tell him about it, he freaks, which is kind of entertaining, and immediately starts obsessing about how he can avoid getting canned.

If you have 20 medical after you give anton the research you can talk to Anton again and discuss the dangers of suppressing the appetites of manual laborers and he actually has a crisis of conscience. I saved Jameson but didn’t see him around Roseway after the fact.

I don’t think there’s any benefit to getting Auntie Cleo faction beyond the vendor bonus (and uh not getting shot on sight, of course). This is the only place you can get in with them and the effects appear to be limited to the immediate zone. I guess this makes sense as it’s technically an optional area, you could feasibly shake down enough people, or steal, and find a way to skip the distress call mission.

Byzantium

I fixed SAM (”THANK YOU CUSTOMER”) and gave Udom his badge and let me tell you, we are practically BFFs at this point. Next stop Byzantium to talk to Sophia Akande, one of the most interesting characters in this game. One of my goals was to complete the Lockwood quest without any murder. This particular quest, which is given by Sophia when you first arrive, was what inspired me to attempt a “good” or at least “less murdering” corporate run. The trick is not keeping Lockwood alive, but rather keeping the other hired gun from aggroing. I tried tried pickpocketing Sherman Bradshaw and stealing his gun, but he still shows up at Lockwood’s hideout with a gun no matter what you do (outside shooting him of course) so I settled for chatting with him about the options, which opens up an opportunity for Lockwood to pay you both off.

Sophia was pissed I let Lockwood live but accepted that I did what she asked me for and obtained the maps. I’d somehow forgotten Sophia is really into romance serials, which is a nice touch.

Monarch

I will be siding with Stellar Bay, which I have never done before. I brought Ellie because I never use her and found she actually chimes in quite a bit and even got into it with Everett Gill, which was enjoyable. I also brought SAM, and they will arbitrarily pop off about GREASE or STAINS and whoever I’m talking to is always like WTF IS THAT THING which is just… really enjoyable, excellent quality thank you Obsidian.

I think I mentioned this on a previous playlog but Nyoka is the first character I cannot lie to about my identity, I cannot introduce myself as Hawthorne only as Sexymann. This annoys me because I get a real kick out of introducing myself as Alex and having characters say, uuuh no you’re not, but anyway.

I actually explored Fallbrook pretty thoroughly because I became interested in the Sublight storage vault and how to get into it (you get it from Nelson’s silly sprat quest). I got a domicile which… is fine? There is some loot, not sure why else you’d want it. I picked up an ID and – I couldn’t believe this – easily managed to pickpocket Marin’s terminal key and used it to access the terminal right in front of her. Unfortunately the terminal just tells us that an unknown client, probably a corp, has requested drops. This is just a way for the player to be informed of the UDL presence if Marin is dead.

I picked up an interesting tidbit that Byzantian socialites tend to slum it at Fallbrook. Ellie actually chimes in a fair bit here. I was examining her outfit (I put it on Max, NICE) I realized Ellie really is a tourist. The clothes, the hair, the way people on Monarch talk to her. It’s subtle and interesting. I’m glad I brought her to this planet. I’d swapped out SAM for Max at this point, to handle Max’s quest. SAM’s ongoing commentary on this planet is how disgustingly filthy everything is.

I gave Stellar Bay what they wanted, the BOLT and the corp blackmail, and Sanjay said he’d stop his side of the transmissions. It was time to figure out how to get rid of the Iconoclast broadcasts. The Pro-Board thing to do is probably kill them, but this is a pacifist run so

Companion Bits

Two interesting bits last gaming session.

First, Felix pulled me aside and questioned me about sparing Lockhart. He hoped this meant I was going to betray the Adjucant. I assured him I would do no such thing, but also told him just because I was loyal to the Adjucant didn’t mean I would follow her orders blindly. He respected this. I was looking around in his room and found a collection of anti-corporate essays that “doesn’t appear to have been read” or something to that effect, which I thought was a nice touch.

Second, Orson Shaw calls me up out of the blue–I’d forgotten I gave him his weapon blueprint. Turns out Auntie Cleo didn’t want the weapon, and Orson being Orson decided it was better off in my capable hands than the junk pile. Well, thanks.

I helped Vicar Max with his personal quest my first game, but I didn’t visit the hermit until I was near the end. I decided to go ahead and do that quest sooner this time so I could hear his positive-resolution banters. I took Nyoka as well, which was an excellent choice. I was going to take Sam, but decided to just YouTube it instead and I was glad I did because Sam’s reactions aren’t as funny.

And… I guess because I’m still Murderino at heart… I killed the Hermit afterwards just to see what would happen, with the intention of reloading. As is typical in the Outer Worlds, my companions gleefully joined in the slaughter and did not comment on it. Something I’ve learned about this game when I did my murder run is if you want a reaction you have to do things BEFORE the linked quests resolve. (If you kill the hermit before his quest is resolved Max gets mad for about 5 seconds but then immediately gets over it.)

Screw You Graham

A very fruitful gaming session!

First, Max being nice and empathetic to Felix is.... warbling heart-eye emoji

I finished Felix’s personal quest for the first time. It is buggy as shit but WHATEVER. Sexymann Corporate has come to view Felix as a son, and as soon as I got a whiff of bad vibes from Harlow I decided I would expose him, show it to Felix, and allow him to figure out the rest. I pushed Harlow a bit too hard on the controntation scene and he aggroed, so I reloaded and went a bit easier on him–I pressed him to admit his duplicity, but then pointed out I too was a Board agent so we’re cool here right? The quest is either bugged or the devs didn’t expect anyone to do this, so after Harlow and I acknowledge we are both Board members Harlow starts acting like we never had that conversation. Fortunately, Felix chose to stay with me anyway. I think the quest is bugged because as I was leaving Felix triggered banters that acted like we hadn’t even met Harlow yet. And… now that I think of it, I seem to remember some wonkiness when I entered this zone with Murderino, too.

After that I decided to finish up Zora’s quest, because I wanted to see if I could get her to overthrow Graham before the weapon ship crashes on Monarch. Well, you can’t do that, probably so the devs don’t have to do a second cut of the “DID YOU SEE THAT?” radio scene. Zora wants some time to think. I decided to confront Graham anyway and I have to say… the way this character is written is truly masterful. I pressed him hard on the massacre and he CONSISTENTLY dodged like a boss.

I can’t remember the exact details on the truce option, so I don’t know if going down this path with Zora will block off siding with MSI. I fully intend to side with MSI but I’d like to see how far I can get with it and if I can turn up anything new.

In Which I Realize my Pro-Board Run is Fucked or WHY SOPHIA WHY

Before I get to spoilers, let me just say that while I’m happy for Max now that he’s enlighted and free I kind of preferred his crotchety banters to zen!Max where he says lots of nice things and sounds vaguely stoned. I mean, they’ve both enjoyable but I think I like my Max with a little tooth.

I’d forgotten that you technically don’t have to side with the Iconoclasts OR Stellar Bay, so when the weapons ship crashed I hoofed it out there to get the goodies first, because there was no way Sexymann would let the Monarchians get their mitts on it, and then it was off to Sophia’s.

…And Man oh man these fuckers got me good. My pacifist pro-Board run has reached an impasse due to one of the very first decisions I made!

I knew from my Murderino run that I would probably be asked to do a very bad thing (kill Edgewater) on my Board run. Well, apparently you only get asked to do the bad thing if you get rid of Reed! In that case Sophia decides the dissidents at Edgewater are too dangerous to keep alive and she will order you to kill them. You can argue to no avail. If you tell her no in her office, she pulls a gun on you, so I acquiesed to keep everyone alive until we could figure something out. My companions were very upset by this, but I told them to trust me and they did. (Well, mostly, Felix is understandably skeptical.)

Back on the ship, Vicar Max remarked that if the colony’s big reveal had happened before his enlightenment he would have questioned his faith. As it was, he asked me what my plan was. I told him I didn’t know. He looked me in the eye and said he had my back and let me tell you, Sexymann really appreciated that, because while they act the strong, stoic type they are in fact quietly losing their shit. Sophia is trying to keep everyone from starving, and she maintains Welles’ plan to bring a bunch of people out of hibernation will only exacerbate the issue. She’s not wrong, that’s actually a problem I had on my pro-Welles run, but I assumed Adelaide’s sustainable farming techniques would make the difference here.

Anyway, back in the Vale I explored the town and the plant, and as far as I can tell, there’s no getting out of this one. Either you wipe out a whole damn town or you double-cross Akande. There’s no way to warn the citizens or sabotage the robots. I even tracked down that robot nerd and, yeah Ludwig IS technically right about robots killing everyone but he’s right by accident, he can’t help me out here.

This is.... ooooh this is annoying, because it’s top-notch RP fodder and in that respect I love it but the whole point of this run was I wanted to see the pro-Board ending! I am way too attached to this Captain and their relationship with their found family to do this quest. I can’t believe Obsidian has put baby in a corner like this!

I’m not the only one bummed about this. People were speculating there would be a patch but clearly that isn’t happening.

Sexymann Chafes at Their Burden

bugs and weirdness aside, i think it’s a testament to the outer worlds writing and rp ability that i am actually resigning myself to YET ANOTHER playthrough of this game because i’ll be damned if i don’t get a full board run at some point and

(clutches pearls)

Sexymann would NEVER do this!

a lot of reddit is convinced obsidian made a mistake with the foundation quest but i’m not sure the dev choice is an oversight or unintentional here. i think it’s telling that a certain captain, by a certain player–one who likely has foresight of the colony’s food shortage because they have already beaten the game one–is more likely to find themselves in this situation. i almost feel like the devs said, “you had a Grand Plan? how’s that working out for you?”

a lot of felix’s conversations foreshadow this. Sexymann explicitly told him, “I’m loyal but I don’t follow orders blindly.” felix even says, paraphrasing, “you’d never kill a bunch of innocent people, right boss?” those fuckers set me up!

and sophia! what is this, some kind of test? she can’t actually think killing edgewater is going to make a difference. when i told her about the farm stuff she completely blew me off. does she respect me or not?!?!?!?!?

oh, Sexymann. Sexymann helped Max through his crisis, now its time for a shoulder to lean on

a burning need for fic, i have

TOW Despair

ssssssssooooooooooo last night was very unproductive but I confirmed my options, or lack thereof :\

the outer worlds assumes that if you agree to That Quest, you are absolutely going to do it. My goal was to slink off to Welles and come clean, but there is no way to discuss the tracker with him (cue theme song THATS WHAT FIC IS FOORRRR to the tune of the Rizzo company jingle).

This is an area where, as a game that puts RPing first, I feel like the Outer Worlds sometimes fails me. I’ve had similar issues with past runs because TOW allows you to play both sides all the way up to the end of the game, but sometimes doesn’t seem to flag or acknowledge a given path.

I decided to try to salvage this run in-character by having Sexymann just flip Sophia a bird and ignore her questline entirely and go on to help Welles and do absolutely everything they can to get on Sophia’s nerves, because Sexymann, much like me, becomes a righteous pain in the ass once they’re a company man scorned. And I do this understanding the flags in TOW are a little wonky so my companions may not ever acknowledge I switched sides–that is, my son Felix may never look up to me–but again:

***cues Rizzo ***

Sexymann’s Midlife Crisis and Return to the Groundbreaker

back on the outer worlds, sexymann corporate is going through a midlife crisis and it is not fueled by drugs it is fueled by sophia akande treating them like an automechanical instead of a person and demanding cold-blooded mass murder from a human who has ONE line they cannot and will not cross, and it is that line. sexymann, who has so many talents and skills, has been relegated to piece of meat with a gun. sexymann is clearly NOT appreciated, and sexymann has way too much charisma and style to not be appreciated.

it’s a beautiful, messy breakdown, which includes screaming FUCK!! into a canyon, and culminates in barging into the garage and demanding that pavarti “clean the grease off” because they’re going to the groundbreaker

the doylian reason for putting off most of the companion quests is that i’ve already seen them, and the only ones i did (felix and max’s) were to see something new (max’s post-drug trip dialogue, and felix’s I’ve never completed because Murderino killed everyone). the watsonian reason is sexymann was too busy being a corporate blue flamer and the next board superstar to pay much attention to their crew’s needs and took for granted that the crew would do whatever they said with a spring in their step

so, sexymann introduces pavarti to junlei, something they promised to do actual months ago, and then quietly dies inside when a romance sparks because sexymann maaaaay have been slightly in love with their mechanic

i’m trying to remember if sexymann could have reasonably intuited that pavarti would fall head-over-heels for junlei. i don’t think they could have predicted it, but after the first meeting it’s clear and sexymann just bucks up like a buckaroo and does the right thing. good on you, sexymann.

i took felix down to the groundbreaker bays for the first time and enjoyed the extra dialogue, since macready and the guys know and love felix. doing the groundbreaker quests after the fact is ridiculously simple when you are nearer endgame stats (i’m at level 25) so it’s very much like taking it easy, doing a little bit of charity and trying to help sexymann take some consolation in being AWESOME AT EVERYTHING while trying to distract themselves from their failures as a human being

ellie observes this all with a slow headshake and makes a point of coming along to keep an eye on her emotionally-unraveling boss. felix is still giving his captain the cold shoulder and stink eye and sexymann is increasingly desperate to repair their relationship and is taking him EVERYWHERE. because when they’re in the middle of some crisis… it’s like old times. felix is a son again. but when they return to the ship, felix remembers his anger, and is like a hostile teenager.

(sexymann has an entire backstory about leaving a youngish son behind to join the crew of the Hope and Felix has become a surrogate.)

now on the rebound, sexymann decides to careen into cascadia to take out aggressions, having decided the only thing better than annoying sophia by allowing msi to return to the board is annoying sophia by allowing msi to return to the board AND keeping the iconoclasts alive to be a nuisance.

i briefly considered the sublight questline but i think sexymann would turn their nose up at sublight for the most part. one of the (apparently many) future replays might be a captain who does every quest in the game as messily and murderly as possible (not necessarily a murderino, but someone who enjoys a high body count) and that person would be a good fit for the subline quests since i know how the last one turns out if you take the pacifist route. so i will be skipping boarst as well.

next up: finish helping nyoka and boker peace!

This PT is Officially Ruined, Now Murdering for Science, Also Bugs, Also Collectibles

vicar max and felix seem to be the overwhelming fan favorites for romances, and they’re great characters, but i think if i could pick it would be nyoka or maybe ellie. i LOVE nyoka. i REALLY LOVE the idea of one of my captains on their knees paying, um, tribute, followed by excellent pillow talk.

my first run i didn’t take ellie with me often, but i did finish her personal quest, so i developed a bit of a dislike for her, but this game i took her with me often and i’ve actually come to appreciate her quite a lot. sexymann does still consider her a bit of a ‘tourist’ which is unfair, she does have a lot of lived experience as a spacer, but as a player i love how often her byzantium shows.

anyway last night we did some things For Science since Sexymann’s run going off the rails has spoiled a bit of the RP magic and made me amenable to What Happens If. There was (is?) a debate on reddit as to how to make certain companions leave, and the theory on Nyoka is that if you kill Hiram she’ll bolt. I tested this one before with Murderino and got no reaction, but I hadn’t activated her personal quest yet.

So when she sent me to Hirim to find out information I decided to shoot him in the face.

Unintentional hilarity ensues. For one, Sexymann went out of their way to keep C3 alive and they’ve been hanging out in Hirim’s tower for months now. So while I’m running around chasing Hiram and his robot guards with a shotgun they’re all just chilling out like nothing ever happened. They are the most worthless corporate mercs ever.

After I killed him Nyoka was furious and told me off but her quest didn’t fail! Instead, it updated to , “Wait for Nyoka to find out information.” I thought this was pretty interesting. I talked to her immediately after that and actually LOLed because she’s like “HEY CAP :)”

Oh, Obsidian. You will never change. Anyway RELOAD OBVIOUSLY, but that will be another angle to explore on a different run.

One last tidbit. When I was in the old OSI Church I found a Book. I’ve picked it up before, actually, because I’m a loot fiend. It’s notable because when you return to the ship it says, You Acquired a Book or something like that. I got curious because, well, what does this mean? Fashionably late to the party as always but I learned in addition to getting collectibles from quests you can also find collectibles in the world and they end up on your ship. I’ve found some of these, like the OSI prayer beads, before but I didn’t realize the connection between them showing up in Max’s room (I assumed those were already his and not a found collectible, you get them pretty early on the Groundbreaker and I guess I hadn’t visited his room before then).

Slow on the uptake? You know it! Reddit thread for those interested. There isn’t a cheev for it. Researching this I looked into the tossball cards and was disappointed to find they are just flavored junk. After all the time I spend railing against collectibles my reaction to real-world collectible junk, which is sports cards (I watched a documentary on the baseball card bubble/scam that was both interesting and depressing), is WHY CAN’T I COLLECT THESE? oh well.

Early Retirement Program and Also Obsidian WTF

Sexymann and I discovered the Early Retirement Program last night. Suffice to say Sexymann has now been radicalized.

As soon as I got out of there (after destroying every piece of Board property we could find, natch) I went to Akande’s office. You can’t talk to her about this program. You can’t tell anyone except the quest giver.

There are some lively discussions on reddit about this small quest with tremendous implications, and the general consensus is Obsidian ran out of dev time and wasn’t able to develop it further but… jesus, Obsidian, what the fuck? You can’t drop something like this into a random side quest and then just be like, “okay, well that’s it, bye!” I think about all the silly quests that have dialogue and callbacks and it’s like… seriously what the fuck? This was the one you left partly on the cutting-room floor? Assuming that’s what happened, I cannot imagine leaving it like this was anyone’s choice or intent.

The quest implies that “problem” employees, be they dissidents or low producers, are sent to early retirement by the way they emphasize the randomness of the process. This seems like an incredibly inefficient way to get rid of “waste” when Corps hitherto have had no compunction with doing things like leaving people stranded on inhospitable planets or sending automechs to murder everyone.

I had this whole fic scenario where Sexymann returns to Akande and is like, tell me about ERP, and she won’t do it. She’s like handle Emerald Vale and I’ll take care of everything. Sexymann says, Sophia, tell me about ERP, and she just won’t budge, and Sexymann leaves so thoroughly shellshocked they pretty much just lie on their bunk staring at the wall for an hour. Anyway they won’t be seeing Sophia again until the very end of the game.

After that, Sexymann went to see Clarke and waltzing into the Chairman’s office is easy when you already have the Board’s trust (thanks Sophia!). Killing all their robots netted me a fun description, understanding, which was something like “the Board understands even great employees sometimes make a few mistakes” and I was thinking yeah just you all wait you’re gonna love this.

More Griping about Foundation and ERP

Thinking about how anti-climactic the Foundation quest and the Employee Retirement Program are in current implementation.

Solution:

On a pro-Board run, if the Captain declines to do the Foundation Mission, instead of going aggro Akande (who is much smarter than that I think) thanks them for their service and gives them a ticket to the Early Retirement Program.

Once you leave the building the fast-travel is hub is disabled and if you reenter all security is hostile. So if/when the captain makes it back to that office Akande is (understandably) aggro at that time.

I will accept fic in lieu of formal game modification.

BUGS

i am starting to get a little a n n o y e d with how buggy this game is in terms of dialogue fires and whatnot.

i’m also noting that is seems every run around this point–say maybe the 80% completion mark–i am kind of over it and ready to finish up.

i skipped the hope and FINALLY got felix to stop giving sexymann the stink eye. i still see dialogue wonkiness (he’ll say “i need to talk to you” then nothing triggers)

my crew’s on-ship scenes keep replaying (at first i thought it was because i finished max’s earlier, i’ve seen the “ellie and calm max” scene and “felix and calm max” about 4 times, but i’ve also seen nyoka&pavarti and nyoka&ellie multiple times now)

edit: there was a banter that made me laugh. nyoka was complaining about someone being in the can. i barged in there and max was calmly washing his hands (good job max), and when i activated him he started going on about the Fibonacci spiral. it was just funny to me.

welle’s arrest takes on a new meaning this game since sexymann is directly responsible, they planted a bug and then progressed the board line too far to warn welles about it. so they are pretty torn up about it and very committed to fixing the mistake.

and i said i wouldn’t but after skipping the hope, which is the only way to formally fail the foundation (kill edgewater) mission i went back to akande and her dialogue is unchanged, she acts like nothing has happened. you could argue the board might take a minute to realize the chemicals or hope have been stolen, and you could argue she doesn’t trust sexymann enough to reveal they arrested welles, but it still kindo sucks

i heard an interesting rumor about felix so i am going to power through tartarus tomorrow with him in tow, i raised a few of my stats so i should be able to do whatever. my first pacifist/sneak run i ended up having to kill akande and fight the robot which royally sucked.

Tartarus & End

I appreciate that you can either fight your way through Tartarus and revel in battle alongside your allies or run like hell. I always run like hell, partly because this is a point-of-no-return and partly because I’m way more interested in the dialogue battles than the corporate skirmishing.

Chairman insulted my robot, how dare! If you bring SAM he also reveals that his staff talks about the Captain and crew like… all the time? Which makes sense, as the player is either Akande’s superstar or a thorn in the side. But it’s a little disconcerting HOW MUCH the Chairman knows about your crew when you finally meet.

Despite all my grousing about Foundation and other elements of my hacky Board run, I have to say that convincing Akande to stand down on Tartarus was very satsifying and really worked for my RP. I also felt her ending slide was really appropriate.

I’d somehow forgotten Felix bails if you spare the Chairman, so that appears to leave Nyoka and Max as the two companions that won’t leave you no matter what. I realize now this happened to me my first pacifist run as well. So this time I took Felix for the persuade boost, LOST Felix, and had to find another way to convince Akande. Real men admit when they respec for the final level.

Weirdly, I think this was the “best” ending I’ve gotten so far by the slides, and it’s because Sexymann was willing to kill the test subjects to steal ALL the chemicals. My True Pacifist Captain was unwilling to do this.

The other day I realized Nintendo Switch doesn’t even have an accounced date for Peril on Gorgon, so I went ahead and got it on Xbox. Felix and Ellie came along simply because I forgot to change my loadout, but it was a good choice because Felix is gushing about how all this is just like a serial.

All the corps are really shitty, but I’d say going into this my opinion of Spacer’s Choice was definitely the lowest because of the automechanical incident at the Geothermal plant. So at the mention of “chemicals” and “people losing their minds” I prepared for the corp to somehow sink to even greater depths of depravity. Stay tuned.

Reading through the notes, this was a pretty awesome run from an RP perspective even though some things broke or were buggy. Sexymann’s story does feel closed, however. I don’t know if completing the expansions the first time with a Dumb Run is necessary a smart choice, but it certainly is a Spacer’s Choice.