The Outer Worlds

[Art Blade]

yep, one of those can indeed turn stuff pristine on repairing an item and you'll see that those pristine weapons and armour parts take a lot longer until they degrade to rubble.

[Dweller_Benthos]

I rarely let anything get below 95% anyway, unless I go for a while shooting a lot of things and a weapon degrades a bit. Next time I run the game I'll see if I can find anything that explains what those icons mean. I've seen a few on other items as well, you'd think they mean something.

[Dweller_Benthos]

Did a little searching and reading on the mod types and what icons mean. Of course, the in game list of icons doesn't include the ones that show next to weapons, armor and mods. Those are described in the info about certain items. So you have to read each description to find out what icons mean. So, referring to the weird pristine armor mod I posted before, the second icon when looked at closely is the "wrench" icon for something that needs to be repaired. The very tips of the wrench are just slightly greyed out showing that the item needs repair. Now, this icon is also slightly different than the one that shows on weapons and armor when they have lost durability and need repair. Not sure why an armor mod would need repair, I think it's a glitch, as it doesn't repair when you tell it to repair in the menu. So I put it back in the storage locker and used the regular one to get my +20 carry weight.

The other icon I was wondering about was the bolt icon you see on some items:

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Look on the right side items for the pick axe and rake thing, they have the bolt icon. This is explained in the weapons description that it's to signify a weapon that's an improvised weapon. Not sure why that needs a special icon all it's own but there you go.

I've done everything on Byzantium for now, and just need to head back to Phineas with the chemical stuff. I only took the 23% to leave the people alive in the lab tanks, whether that matters or not, doesn't seem to, as the wiki only mentions that you can do either.

[Art Blade]

OK; got it, regarding those symbols. I remember having seen something like a one-time only message when you first come across such items, it tells you what it means, but never again and nowhere else.

As to those 23%: I tried both. If you drain that stuff completely, everyone and everything in those tanks starts to moan and make awful dying noises and then it's silent because you effectively killed everything "on life support" by taking it all. So I reloaded and took 23%.

[mandru]

On the subject of the allowed % of damage to gear before repairing.

Some info from a thread I came across on Reddit.  Someone had posted that repairs cost the same in parts whether at 99% damaged or 1% damaged.

A repair is a repair.

If I'm not mistaken there is a repair function when you are out in the field away from a workbench but I've not tried looking that up.  If true I suspect that a field repair would cost more in parts than at a workbench much in the same way that the workbench awards more parts than something broken down direct from your inventory.


Art, as for the "23% vs All" chemical grab.

While it's a horrifying choice I had to balance my decision (taking or leaving) the chemicals supporting those few in stasis against the cost (of literally) thousands of Earth's best and brightest aboard the Hope.  I opted for the hope that the Hope's sleepers once awakened could save the Halcyon Colony once those chemicals were in the hands of someone who knows now how to use them and guide the revived scientists in using them properly.

The choice puts the player in an unfair situation where they are a monster whichever way they choose.

 

[Art Blade]

yep, which is why I really like the game: it leads to moral dilemma. More than once you'll have to make decisions that are not easy at all. It's not like your typical main stream game painted in candy colours and filled with meaningless actions.

As to the repair bit:

Reddit got it wrong. What is true, though, is that you've got quite a range of % of damage that cost the same in repairs which means it doesn't really make sense to spend parts on repairs when it's still good at 99% or only like 95% or even 90%, all the same. But when it's down to maybe 50% or worse, when the warning symbol (a pistol) shows on your screen and the performance is really decreasing, too, then it will cost significantly more to repair it. I never bothered to analyse it further but that's just as much as you'll need to know. When you've got plenty of repair parts, repair it whenever you feel like it, even at just a few % damage but if you barely can afford any repairs, hold back with repairs. That, and the fact that the perks, the companion boosts, the workbench vs inventory, and stuff like that all change the amount of repair costs.. you can experiment a lot, really.

[Dweller_Benthos]

Yeah I just repair when it's convenient. At this point I have so many repair parts it's not worth thinking about it. Last time I hit the "repair all" button and I think it said something like, "You have 1456 repair parts, it will cost 7 to make this repair, continue?" those numbers aren't accurate but you get the idea.

As to taking the 23% or all of the chemicals, does taking them all change how the conversation goes with Phineas? Does he have enough to do something with the 100% or does he still say there's not enough and you have to continue the quest line anyway and go to the Hope and decide where to skip it to?

Speaking of, I had the meeting with what's-her-name, the chick who's apparently really running the show and not the guy on the posters. Akande? Anyway, it went as you'd expect, she asked me to wipe out Edgewater and even if Parvati wasn't standing right there ("Hey, you don't mind if we kill everyone in your home town, do you?") I would have told Akande to go pound salt. So that ended up with us (Parvati and Ellie) killing everyone and hightailing it out of there. I had already loaded the corrupt tracking signal at Phineas' lab and told him about it so there was nothing else to do. I had already decided that the board was not going to have their way no matter what the consequences. I had read enough of the various messages on terminals about how they are pretty much scum that I had no hesitation deciding their path was not the way to go. I don't think I'd even replay the game and intentionally go that route, it's just so reprehensible.

[Art Blade]

I saw it through, that board path, and checked its different endings. Like, rich beyond comprehension or the most powerful person in the known universe.. not bad, but only if you don't mind turning everyone outside Byzanthium (or what was it called?) into mindless slaves and deprive them of everything, even their feelings..

[Dweller_Benthos]

OK, nope, not going to do that path, for sure, even if I could at this point. I doubt I'll play the game over again to see it that way either. I think I'll do the DLC now then continue the main quest later.

[mandru]

When I ran the mission of skipping the Hope it was a "frantic get in, make the hop, and escaping with as much of my skin still intact as possible" type affair.

Later on it occurred to me that there was a lot of the Hope that I'd left unexplored.

Parvati while unfazed by the sleepers on our second visit she made a comment (something along the lines of) it being unsettling to be back aboard the Hope.  Maybe it was the lure of so much repairable machinery through out the ship calling out to her that had her overwhelmed. 

My first time in and out of the Hope scanning the terminals I'd stumbled across had given me a hint at what the active crew had gone through.

In making a concerted effort to seek out every terminal and following the crew's thoughts and interactions with the failure of the ship herself and each other revealed that there were some gut wrenching choices made that were made by the various crew members when it was discovered that a ten year trip was going to be extended to a fifty year transit to the colonies with far less than enough food. 

There was also a fair amount of Bit Cards, weapons/armor to break down for parts, and other swag to add to my inventory for buffing up in preparation towards the end game.


I'd wondered why the UDI troopers aboard the Hope hadn't reported her position so the Board could reclaim and keep the presence of the Hope secret but I found that on my first visit I'd set the Hope's security systems to be hostile towards the UDI forces aboard.  The ship's security was far more effective against the Board's goons than I had been.

In my frantic escape after the hop I played the bullet sponge ignoring the ship's security and troopers by huffing Adreno as I bolted to get back to lift off in the Unreliable.

On my return there was but a single aggressive female guard (out in the docking area) who showed zero interest in discussion when I encountered her.

Fire on me?  As someone whose better armed and armored, I'm gonna shoot back. 

In dispatching her the game tried to apply a flaw on me that was basically phrased as "By killing so many humans you have developed a guilt complex that increases your weapon sway by 100% and diminishes you aim accuracy by 50% - Accept or Deny."

Of course I responded "Oh Hell Nah!" and went merrily on my way. 

Beyond that one human there were only a handful of remaining mechs so I had the leisure of making a deliberate search of every nook and cranny of the hope for all crew info and wealth collection.

[Dweller_Benthos]

Interesting, I was of the same mind, I didn't want to rush into the Hope right away, that's why I'm doing the Gorgon DLC now, and I'll take the Hope mission when I've finished that up. I kind of did Monarch "backwards" by landing at the far away pad because I didn't buy the landing pass yet, so I took the long way around and killed everything in the way. I'll probably do the same on the Hope, just fight my way through.

[mandru]

D_B, if you're cool with the board (they think I'm a maniac that needs psych hospitalization or preferably shot on sight  ) there's an officer near the main entry doors on the Hope that can issue you a UDI Pass Card that will temporarily change your appearance and get you by most hazards.

[Art Blade]

good read, mandru. I think by now you've immersed yourself well enough both in story and game mechanics that you should be able to enjoy yourself which I think you do. Since you're an expert lore analyst and keen digger for story titbits (erm, sorry for the British English spelling which is actually tit + bit unlike AE tidbit) I wonder how you like what you found out so far, compared to the lore of FO4.

Any thoughts?

[Dweller_Benthos]

I doubt the board is very happy with me, at least not after killing what's-her-name, so we'll see what they have to say once I get aboard the Hope.

[mandru]

D_B I suspect that officer's body may just have a UDI ID that can be lifted off of it. 


Comparing FO4 to TOW?  That's a tall order.

First off the thing that's slowing me down on jumping back into my 2nd play through of TOW is the unpleasant gob of skull sweat that goes into character creation.

In FO4 every game start is on an equal footing other than your cosmetic appearance.  The skills you employ grow as you play.  And there's no upper limit of the levels your character can attain that I've been able to discern.

TOW demands that in addition to fussing over your character's cosmetic appearance you're additionally stuck with your initial Character Summary before you even see what the game is about.  My understanding of the game mechanics is that you can rebalance your Perk selections (at a price) but if they don't match up with your initial Character Summary the redistribution of Perks aren't going to have the impact that a different initial Character Summary would have allowed.

TOW has a repressively low ceiling on a character's top end attainable level.


FO4 is about free will or will to power so to speak and moral decisions along the way.

TOW is centered on the precept that the amoral Board owns you and determines your worth and expendability.  Who has a voice and who doesn't.  If a property sits low on the Board's balance sheet there's Adreno-time to create a temporarily brighter burning candle.

TOW's Mega corporations believing they own people right down to controlling their thoughts through changing the meaning of words, stealing the voices of anyone with oppositional opinion, and forcing mandatory allegiance through threat of cancellation is far too close to the political situation we are currently experiencing (here) for me to make further comment on that subject.


I'm all about rampaging against defined enemies and having the luxury of revisiting locations and being able to make different approaches in clearing out enemies.  That is something that is particularly enjoyable for me in FO4.  Gunner's Plaza for example is a rich source of respawning enemies and dependable resources that can be revisited and reharvested for use elsewhere in the game.

In TOW once you clear a building that has transition to enter it stays empty.  A storage bin once emptied stays empty.  Only unnamed NPCs that are outdoors respawn but it seems that the value of their carry contents decreases as you repeat an area.

A favorite weapon in FO4 is yours until you decide you've found something better.  TOW weapons can be upgraded and expensively tinkered but require repairs and replacement as you and your enemies level increase.

In TOW when I recently broke away from my repeated runs through Tartarus I went back to Edgewater to fight respawned marauders I found that their levels were so ridiculously low the stuff that could be looted off them wasn't worth collecting. 

Off the top of my head that's about all I've got for now.  I left out the dissatisfaction I have with the weight factors of having to carry around three sets of armor/outfits to reach certain useful skill benchmarks but I consider that to be more of a personal problem.