Diamonds are a merc's best friend

[fragger]

I'm trying something a bit different. My object is to hunt down all the diamond cases in Leboa before taking on any missions at all, including the Weapon Shop ones, which of course means using nothing more than a Makarov pistol, a G3-KA4 and the Fortune crossbow for dealing with the odd AT and/or pesky sniper. I'm also not taking any bus trips. To offset the trickiness of the task I'm playing on Normal. The last two 'thrus I played were on Infamous and even armed to the teeth I managed to run my rescue buddy's legs off, so attempting what I currently am on Infamous is a challenge I'll leave for another day :-\\ So far I've done the central sector and the western third of the map, starting from the SW corner and going clockwise, scouring each sector in turn. I'm not only getting the diamonds but I'm also unlocking all safe houses and scouting all GPs along the way. I'm curious to see how many diamonds I end up with (if anybody already knows how many there are, please don't tell me - I'm keen to discover for myself). I spent the 10 rocks I got during the tutorial on the aforementioned weapons and 8 on the upgrades for them, but I'm saving all the rest as I continue to get my greedy mitts on them.

It's an interesting way to play, armed only with basic weaponry and an apparently bottomless canister of malaria pills.

I'll post a stat screen when I'm done :)

Incidentally, I discovered that it's possible to safely grab the diamond from the garage in the SE restricted area of Pala by the simple expedient of standing outside the window and reaching through it. The mercs don't react at all. It's simply a matter of standing in just the right spot and looking in just the right direction to make the hand appear.

[Art Blade]

sounds fun :) Regarding that one particular diamond, snatching it through the open window, that's what I usually did. But when I was in a danger-seeker mood I tried to fetch it from the inside and get out undetected -- very difficult and usually doomed to fail  ;)

[PZ]

Good way to do it - I've never retrieved the diamond through the window - indicator of the intelligence of the mercs  :-()

If I'm standing behind this sapling and I can't see them, they can't see me either  :-()

[fragger]

 ^+-+

Okay, I'm back from the Great Diamond Tour! For the FC2 trivia buffs among us – well okay, for me – there are 205 diamonds in all the cases in Leboa. Some need to be spent during the tutorial in order to complete one of the tutorial missions, i.e. to buy your first weapons. So after spending 18 diamonds on initial weapons and upgrades, I finished the tour with 187. They rip your pockets around, let me tell you.

The toughest places to get them from under the circumstances were: Mokuba, Goka Falls and Private Property. I also had some trouble at the OGC – I'd intended to sneak in unobserved and get the case in the shed at the western edge of the plantation, but the sniper spotted me, opened up and alerted all the others. He received an exploding crossbow bolt for his effrontery, but I quickly found myself embroiled in a frantic game of Round and Round the Mulberry Bush centered on the shed as I fought off a swarm of cranky mercs. My gold AK-47 and my Makarov ultimately ran dry and I was reduced to snatching up rusty, jam-prone shotties (don't these lazy buggers ever clean their weapons?) to blast the last few miscreants point-blank while desperately trying to insert surrettes in my arm. I don't think I've ever been ganged up on so quickly or been in such a frenetic scrap. I was seriously depleted of everything except adrenaline when I finally gave the last merc a buckshot makeover.

Those golden AK-47s certainly are durable. I picked one up early and used it all the way around with no jamming, although it's since lost some of its sheen.

I collected what I thought was going to be the last case at the Airfield, only to realise it was case #111, when I know from past experience that there are 112 cases in Leboa. Missed one somewhere, dammit! This meant having to tour around sector by sector to find the one I missed, which turned out to be the one on the roof of the submerged car in the pond north of Cattle Xing.

I was going to post a stat screen, but something odd is happening with my screen captures. I can't seem to capture either the stat screen or any screen messages. This picture was taken when I picked up the last diamond, but the message telling me that I'd found 112 out of 221 cases doesn't appear in the picture.

[smg id=3177 align=center width=400]

Trying to capture the stat screen merely results in a picture of whatever is in view at the time, with the stat screen apparently invisible. Using the PrtScr key or CTRL/F11 for IrfanView yields the same result. Odd.

Anyway, the Diamond Tour was great fun! Now I'm off to the weapon shop to see the dude's face when I dump armfuls of diamonds on his counter :-()

[Art Blade]

 ^+-+

Well done, fragger  :-X

Strange thing about the screenies, maybe just a hiccup of the game or perhaps a vid card driver issue?

[Dweller_Benthos]

For the screen cap to w%&k (OK why can't I spell w o r k? whenever I spell w%&k it comes out weird) with HUD visible, you have to use print screen, then exit or ALT TAB out of FC2 and use a paint program to paste the screen cap into, then it will have the HUD stuff. The normal screen cap function ignores HUD stuff for some reason.

Nice idea though, I doubt I'd have the patience to fight that much all around the map with just a pistol and AK47!

[PZ]

...OK why can't I spell w o r k? whenever I spell w%&k it comes out weird)

Sorry, bad language is not allowed

Spoiler

w%&k is a four-letter word that describes a necessary evil of life.  Global Moderator JRD brought this to our attention a long time ago as he was describing his heavy workload  ^+-+

[Art Blade]

 :-D

[fragger]

 :-D They should beep it out on prime-time TV as well, so the little ones don't pick it up :-()

Thanks for the screencap info, Dweller :-X It's occurred to me that I've never previously tried to do a cap with HUD things in it so I never noticed that quirk before. Cheers :)

[PZ]

It's a good thing we don't take ourselves too seriously  ;)

[Art Blade]

 :)

[mandru]

Cool experiment fragger.   :-X

When you listed out the gear you were using for the run my thought was the gold AKs and I do see that you had grabbed one of them as well mentioned in your mission accomplished post.

I never tried the window grab for the garage diamond in Pala.  ???  I usually park my AT on the road headed for Mike's on the far side of that empty building just North of the garage to get cover for a couple extra seconds of getaway time and rely on the slow reaction time of any merc I might encounter in the garage.  If I can time my dash in for the snatch with the merc's taking a cut off a canteen that also helps but I don't waste too much time standing outside watching and waiting for that to happen.

You accounting of the run in at OGC was a panic.  ^+-+

[Dweller_Benthos]

...OK why can't I spell w o r k? whenever I spell w%&k it comes out weird)

Sorry, bad language is not allowed

Spoiler

w%&k is a four-letter word that describes a necessary evil of life.  Global Moderator JRD brought this to our attention a long time ago as he was describing his heavy workload  ^+-+

I agree with you there, by why is the word w o r k being mangled by the forums? Was that intentional as part of the joke? Because when I spell it without the spaces the "o" and "r" get replaced by "%" and "&".

e.g.: w@&k

I've seen a few other posts like this too...

[PZ]

 ^+-+

Yes, kind of a continuation of the joke in one sense.  As part of forum control, in one of the administration sections we can censor "bad words" to have them come out as we want them to - for instance, any time the word "w o r k" is spelled out without the spaces, the system interprets it as foul language and automatically substitutes what you see.

What makes it funny for me is that I often forget myself and use the word in a different context.  Also, when I see posts where the word is properly used, it still comes out funny  ^+-+

However, if you guys think we should take it off the censored word list, we're good with that  ;)

Of course, we could also leave it as it is, use different vocabulary to get our points across, and then see who falls into the trap.  ???? ^+-+

How does that w@&k for everyone?

[fragger]

I kind of like it, and there's always ways to w@&k detour around it :-() But I'll go with the popular flow, whichever way that may be.

[fragger]

When you listed out the gear you were using for the run my thought was the gold AKs and I do see that you had grabbed one of them as well mentioned in your mission accomplished post.

I didn't think about the gold AK until after I'd started the topic, then I had an "Of course!" moment. In fact I never really bothered with it before but it's quite a cool weapon. I've kind of grown attached to it now, we've been through a lot together :-() I may use other primaries for certain missions, but "Goldie" will still live in the crate during those :-D

[mandru]

In the tutorial the makarov is the cheapest weapon available at 4 diamonds as well as having the highest accuracy of any weapon available at game start but you've got to be right on top of your target.

Then I go after a gold AK and every diamond I can lay hands on.   >:D


On the subject of the censoring of the "W" word.  I was feeling nostalgic last night and went to my profile to look over the history of my posts and the threads that prompted them.  I started with the oldest and spent a couple hours working towards current .

I had to laugh when on my second post here at OWG on 9-24-09 the filter had blocked the word "w%&k"!  So it's not just our current posts but is universal.   ^+-+

[PZ]

...I had to laugh when on my second post here at OWG on 9-24-09 the filter had blocked the word "w%&k"!  So it's not just our current posts but is universal.   ^+-+

^+-+  That's the funny part, I can see posts where w%&k was being used in a completely benign sense, and the forum censor changed it.

... might be a challenge to detour around that cuss word, but I feel that our vocabulary is up to the challenge - could be a funny game to play - guess when someone is trying to avoid the word "w%&k" ...ahem... occupation  :-()

[mandru]

One of the benign usages of the "W" word is the same as in "I can't get it to function!".  So there's always a workaround if it's absolutely necessary.

I'm of in the mindset that once we know that the word's going to be filtered the running gag has intrinsic humor value and at least by being "in the know" I've been reading through the occurrence of its being censored with no problem.

Still I did get a really good chuckle out of DB's consternation over a common word missing from the vocabulary.   :-D

[PZ]

I must admit that I get a good laugh every time I see one of our membership use that word in all naivete.

[fragger]

... might be a challenge to detour around that cuss word, but I feel that our vocabulary is up to the challenge - could be a funny game to play - guess when someone is trying to avoid the word "w%&k" ...ahem... occupation  :-()

That's the way I look at it too 8)

Just back on the diamond subject again, it was cool to jump onto the PC at the Weapon Shop and be able to immediately buy every piece of equipment that's available at that point. I got the lot, plus the AT repair manual and the bolt-action sniper rifle with upgrades :-X I came out of the shop with 1 diamond to my name :-() For some reason I'd never realised that the M1903 sniper rifle can be bought prior to doing any convoy missions - I wish I'd known that in previous games :D

So far since the diamond hunt I've done a convoy mission, two side jobs for Quarbani and the mission to wreck the Special Forces' equipment at Mokuba plus the associated side op to strongarm the Belgian bloke at Private Property, and Goldie is still working without a hitch. I'm curious to see how long that gun will last - I've certainly put a lot of clips through it ????

[mandru]

I have to admit that the first few times I played through FC2 (before I ever learned about the gold AKs) the M1903 was the highest level weapon I'd purchase besides the dart rifle.  It fit my play style and other than the slow reload time I liked its performance.

It wasn't until several times through the game that I started experimenting with the Dradonuv and AS-50 and became familiar with them but I'm thinking now it might be worth going back to that old set up for my next time through after I finish up this round.  The up close run and gun moments of the game were admittedly a lot more exciting when confronted with the single shot limitations of the M1903.   ^-^

[PZ]

There is an old AS50 in a safe house in northeast Leboa - if my failing memory serves me correctly, it is in this region.

While it doesn't serve all that long, it's long range scope is of great benefit at times.

Every time I start reading the comments about FC2, I become fired up to get back into Africa again.  :-X

[Dweller_Benthos]

The M1903 is always one of the first purchases I made, to complete my weapon set of long range sniper, mid range fast fire rate and close up or specialized, which usually ends up being the grenade launcher (the single tube one, not the siz tube one, it's weird to use) the highest cailber fastest rate of fire machine gun, like the PKM and the highest power sniper. I rarely deviated from that weapon set. Towards the end of the game I'd buy all the rest just to buy them.

Oh yeah, and now that I'm "in" on the joke:

w%&k!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


And to get around the censor:

wörk wórk wõrk wòrk

8) ^+-+

Kinda changes that old Monty Python song:

I'm a lumberjack and I'm OK
I sleep all night and I w%&k all day....

[PZ]

 ^+-+ :-X

w0rk

... oops... did I say that?  ????