The Outer Worlds

[Art Blade]

you're welcome And yeah, maybe get a few perks that increase your inventory. One would be halving the weight of consumables and that quickly adds up as soon as you keep looting those items. And you can add pure carry weight increase as well as from companions.. there are many ways.

A good tactic that works for me is frequently fast travelling to the Unreliable and stuff all your loot into a container there. Just in case you haven't noticed, the kitchen area also $p@rts a couple of containers you can use.

Then take a trip to the Groundbreaker (or any fave vendor) and sell the stuff in bulks.

As to companions, I always travel with Parvati and Felix because of their lockpick boost and persuasion boost which are skills both of them offer and that I keep using a lot. If I need something else like really massive hacking or intimidation, I choose vicar Max and Sam and so on, that's when save games come in handy or at least fast travelling between Unreliable and where you need those replacement companions for.

[Dweller_Benthos]

Spent a lot of time on Monarch this weekend, just exploring and killing everything that moves. Manti-queens are tough, but concentrated fire from a heavy machine gun does the trick, and yeah, Felix and Pavarti help a little, too. Be nice if their AI knew what line of sight was and they didn't stand there unloading thousands of rounds at an enemy only to have it hit the crate that's blocking it a few yards away. I'd also like it if when I'm sniping they don't run in front of me, just saying.

But I had to run back to the Unreliable to dump loot, mod packs especially, they weight half a (Whatever unit the game uses) a piece and I'd easily have 20 or 30 of them, they add up. Grabbed a couple mark 2 weapons that I'll fiddle with a bit, so I'm getting up there.

[mandru]

I ran into a situation that brought high damage to my companions or it is probably more accurate to say that their AI fell short of the requirements needed to keep them from knocking the hell out of themselves. 

I suspect if I had been playing in the highest difficulty setting of the game where companions can die I would have lost both of them.

When you have the mission that takes you through the Rizzo's bottling plant on Monarch there is a science weapon that can be picked up.  I would strongly advise completing all other business in the plant (remove all enemies and achieve the objective) first and then dismissing both companions back to the ship.

Reaching the science weapon requires a few hairy jumps between small platforms and a series of ladders.

Going up to the science weapons location both companions stayed right with me.  But as I descended there was the sound of several screams and crashes as they both missed every jump on the back down and out.  Their health meters were almost completely depleted and on the chance we met any enemies I had to use a bunch of Adrenos to heal them up for the walk back to the ship.

From where I stood I couldn't see exactly what errors the two were making to hurt themselves but it was a harrowing few moments hearing them crash and scream their way back to where I was standing.

[Art Blade]

they were constantly falling in the abyss. I watched them for some time because I found it funny

You can simply point your companions to somewhere away from ledges and they'll still be waiting for you when you return with the gun.

[mandru]

I stumbled across the location Sundered Rock and found a unique weapon called the Hammer of Olympus.  It's rumored to be over powered but I've no scale to judge that claim as my melee is only an anemic level 10.  Too low to give it an accurate test. 

I'll be tossing it in with the rest of the melee weapons I'm hoarding in the weapons storage locker aboard the Unreliable. 

[Art Blade]

I found it, too, and just the name was great. That's about it.

[mandru]

I thought the hammer was a Valhalla thing with Thor's hammer but on further information seeking I found that one of the Olympian squad was a butt ugly God named Hephaestus who (though cast out of Olympus for spoiling the view) toiled in a fiery forge and created most of the rest of the Olympian God's weapons.

Hephaestus' symbol was the hammer and tongs.

Hephaestus is also the name of one of the armor manufacturers in TOW.

[Art Blade]

I don't know when I learned something about Greek mythology but it must have been when I was still in school. It's amazing how even today those great old names which are not limited to Greek mythology still make it into many modern computer games.

[mandru]

The space station (in the Gorgon content) where Dr Low is located is when fully explored is a treasure trove of not only freebies, weapon, and armor parts but there's I believe at least three unique weapons.  There's storage chests and safes to unlock galore.

I also really enjoyed the trip up to the top of the station to repair the generator as well.  Though I'm glad that I made time to build up my companion's operational gear to be as buff as I could afford before taking that trek. 


I have my companion's distance settings set to "Close" and they still charge off into almost every fight well beyond my line of sight and wipe out enemies that I'd prefer to gain the personal experience for killing.


Adjunct Akande of Byzantium invited me to come have what I was hoping would be a civil chat but she tried to strong arm me with a join or die option with no deescalate option so I killed her way to early.  Looking forward to see how this will affect the end game outcome.

Now when I'm in Byzantium any of the UDI guards that see me attack.  Just by their proximity they block me from being able to teleport freely around the map.  Once engaged they prove to be little more than a nuisance against my team's proficiency but still the trip to the mini-canid show was somewhat of a hassle and didn't raise my approval with the Board at all. 

[Dweller_Benthos]

Interesting Mandru, I'm still wandering around ... eh whatever planet has Fall Brook on it. I forget these names because I don't really pay attention in the first place. It's been a lot to do there, finding the lost boy who's 40 years old and all that. I did find a bunch of stuff just wandering around that was quest related and when I finally got to speak to the person, it was a bunch of "Oh yeah, I already did that / found that, here it is" deals.

I'm trying to keep good reputation with everyone, so I'll keep in mind that person in Byzantium and try not to kill them lol.

I've stopped trying to fiddle with companions and their abilities, it never seems to make a difference. I was handily sniping some critters from a cliff edge not paying attention to what Pavarti and Nyota were doing when I heard them fighting something. They had found their way down the cliff somehow, and were running up on the last critter just as I plugged it with the sniper rifle. They had to climb all the way back up again, it was kind of funny. But their tendency to stand in exactly the wrong spot and unload thousands of rounds into a tree, rock or their partner's back because the obstacle is in between them and their target and they don't realize that, gets a little annoying. So I don't bother with them much, just give them good armor and weapons and let them do what they want. I have them along for the stat boosts they give and that's about it.

[Art Blade]

what you guys should do to prevent your companions from interfering:

tell them to stop. By assigning them a spot of your choice where they have to (and will) stay until you tell them to return to you.

In other words, turn them into stationary turrets.

[mandru]

Thanks Art, the stationary turret command has come in very helpful.    +1

I thought that placing the companions out of the way like that would make them inert and out of play completely.

I'm pretty sure that was what the companions in FO4 would do if you instructed them to "stay there".  It was as if they lost all awareness of any conflict going on around them.  So it's good to learn that it's not a behavior that exists in TOW. 

I've even been able to call them back to me before they could directly engage an enemy after trying to jump into the "Here we go killing again!" mode.  It's nice to be able to prevent them from giving away my exact position when  I've set up an ambush after making the effort to read the lay of the situation and place my party into locate a safe position.


On that matter; why does it seem in every game I've played that a group of alerted enemies share an ESP Link that pinpoints my exact location to every other member of the group.  Even if the other enemies are engaged in other activities and nowhere near being able to have a line of sight at the onset of my attack to tell them where I am. 

There should be at least a moment's confusion when the firestorm hits. 


I still haven't figured out how to select which companion will make their special attack so I've never bothered to use their special abilities.  I like being the sniper from a distance.

I've got a mostly silent over powered hot long rifle that's a joy to use.  It's firing plasma rounds that additionally explode on a head shot causing area effect damage which often will convert two marauders into piles of ashes with a single trigger pull.  All without alerting the rest of an encampment that they are under siege.

It is unfortunate (as in FO4) that the ash piles don't continue to glow plasma red or slime green for at least a little while to help find them in taller grass. 

I know that there are enhanced perception perks that illuminate interactable objects.  For me there were other perk options that far more improved my chances at game survivability. 

[Dweller_Benthos]

Yeah I should try to remember to tell the followers to stay put, I just don't think of it. As for the other commands, like Mandru, I have no idea what they are. Sure there are four icons in the lower left of the screen, with the attached keys to activate them, but being not very good at interpreting symbols, I have no idea what they do or who they apply to. I hit a couple of them once and the followers did some cool moves but really it was so disconnected from what commands I had given that it wasn't obvious what was attached to what. So, I never use them because of that. All the perks in the perk tree that are applied to both bullet time mode and companion abilities I have not picked because I never use those parts of the game. Thing is, there are so many of them that there's really not a lot left in the perk tree that I want because I've picked all the other ones that don't apply to bullet time or companion abilities. I suppose I'll be picking them now just to pick something.

I also have plasma or electric shock attached to my weapons and in a lot of cases end up with piles of dust, like Mandru, and it would be nice if they highlighted a bit as I know I've lost more than a few loot piles in the tall grass.

[Art Blade]

a TIP for collectible items and stuff you can interact with for loot

You'd be surprised how much stuff you just don't notice. Try this, maybe with a savegame if you're not sure:

Add a mod (to at least one set of armour) that highlights stuff in a +5m range without looking at it. And if you select a perk that does the same, they will stack so you can actually see stuff glowing from 10m away.

2x +5m highlight distance
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The above is both a reminder regarding highlighting stuff (just keep one piece of armour with a highlight mod and equip it once you start looking around) and regarding those companion commands shown down left.

left to right they mean:
go there / hold key: come back
attack the target I'm looking at (needs to be within range so you might have to get closer to the target if it doesn't trigger)
companion 1 (the upper companion pic top left on the screen, here Parvati) special attack
companion 2 (the lower companion pic top left on the screen, here SAM) special attack

Don't mind the symbols for the companion special moves as they're just trying to depict the characteristics of a companion's special move.

[mandru]

 

I've now been using the stay/return feature but what's the divided lemon symbol over the letter V?


Where I'm a primary sniper I enjoy opening almost every (at distance) encounter with controlled touches of the time distortion.  For run and gun I have a 2766 DPM piece of level 36 fully tinkered plasma injected death-server (light machine gun mk3) for when the enemy gets too close.