Roaming the islands

[Art Blade]

I had for a very long time a tiny dot in the centre of the screen, I used a water-resistant red marker for it. As for the game, the middle mouse button is supposed to centre the map on you but then again, the map (read: the game) tends to screw up in various ways. If the map behaves strangely, try to hit the ALT key (which is supposed to bring up the legend) to sort out the map, else quit to the main menu.

[mandru]

Yeah, I get the map racing off center a lot so jiggling the mouse a bit to stop what ever is causing the drift and clicking the mouse wheel to recenter on my location has become 2nd nature for me in FC3.

[fragger]

Clicking the mouse wheel to recentre the map on my location has never worked for me, ever, no matter how many times I've Alt-ed the map ???? The button just does nothing. I know my mouse wheel button works fine otherwise because that's my ironsight control.

I also get that immediate map-scrolling thing sometimes.

[Dweller_Benthos]

I'm pretty sure last night when I middle clicked, it centered on the current objective / waypoint. Will have to fiddle with it a bit.

[Art Blade]

the MMB centres on your current position :)

[mandru]

That is if there isn't a remap conflict I would think.  :-\\

[fragger]

I haven't seen this happen before on the north island... I was in the process of liberating an outpost (Broken Neck Home, near the wrecked lighthouse at the south-eastern tip of the north island) when some pirate got a visual on me and activated the alarm. Soon after that, a helicopter gunship arrived! I've previously only seen that happen on the south island. Luckily I was loaded out with the Ripper, which made short w@&k of said chopper. But I mean really - where did these red-shirted, knuckle-dragging bottom-feeders get the smarts to be able to fly a chopper? Judging by the sound of them, and from witnessing their driving prowess, I'm surprised they could get one started up, or even figure out how to get the cockpit door open.

Incidentally, that outpost can be scouted from the top of the lighthouse. From up there, I sniped one heavy and one regular dude, and was even able to free a tiger from its cage for a bit of pirate-scratching-post fun. Then I jumped out of the lighthouse and wingsuited my way towards the outpost but some sharp-eyed, unchewed bad guy evidently saw me doing so because the alarm went off while I was still en chute. Soon after landing I heard the whop-whop-whop of an approaching chopper and thought, "oh fudge", but I whipped out the mighty Ripper and clipped its wings.

What was cool was watching the liberated-outpost animation with the Rakyat flag going up the pole while bits of burning chopper were coming down all around it 8)

[Art Blade]

Hehe :-D To me too it only happened once that they had a chopper coming in which is more likely to happen in the South.

[Dweller_Benthos]

Had a bit of fun with the guys hanging around the sewage treatment plant. I had just done the white bellied tapir hunt and still had the recurve bow on me, so I perched on a rock across the river from the dock and pinged a couple of them before they got wise. Got the long distance bow achievement in the process too. Anyway, once they were moving too much to get with the bow, I took out the sniper and pinged some more of them. A Rakyat patrol boat came along just then and had a nice party with the pirates, but ended up losing (how do you lose against handheld AK's when you have a mounted 50 cal?). Just then I heard a tiger attacking something behind me and spun around to see a dead tapir just a few steps behind me and the tiger looking off over the river. Got out the shredder and took care of him, skinned them both then turned back to the sewage treatment plant across the river.

All the pirates were back again, at their usual posts. So I pinged them all again with the sniper, getting headshot XP points for each one. Jumped in the river, swam over and looked around. My first time here was during my crash period, so I didn't have a chance to look at much beyond grabbing loot chests. Had an idea and got out the C4 and planted some on various spots on the dock. Walked around a bit and killed another tiger. Came back and found some new guys wandering around. They weren't near my planted C4 so I tossed some rocks in that direction to lure them over. One guy took the bait and walked over to investigate. Hit the C4 and found out that they don't all go off at once, but in the order you set them (remembered afterwards something vaguely about this in the intro). So, that guy is now toast and his buddy is of course curious as to what happened, walks over and I hit the button again. Second pirate toast. Two more guys showed up and started to look around. I missed with my third one because I didn't quite remember where I'd set the C4 and he wasn't quite close enough. Stirred them up though, and in the confusion, I blasted the rest with the shredder.

As I think of it, that rock across the river is a prime spot to set up and just ping as many as you can for the XP.

[Art Blade]

amusing story, I particularly liked "..skinned them both" 

About the C4, haven't done that in a while but I think if you keep the button pressed rather than tapping it, they ought to set off all at once.

[Abletile]

Lol, sounds like one cool 'party' 

[PZ]

Good sniper positions  :-X

[fragger]

Good tip about getting the XPs up :-X

Speaking of getting XPs, has anyone here ever done a multiple takedown, i.e. more than two guys in one hit?

[Art Blade]

yes. Apart from the original takedown (from above etcetera) you can get it easily with explosives such as explosive arrows aimed at a manned vehicle or a group of guys while they're loitering.

[fragger]

Cool :-X But I meant like a stab, stab, stab in quick succession type thing. There's a skill for it but I've never tried it out.

[Art Blade]

Oh, yes. You can do two, perhaps three guys in like that. They usually don't exactly line up in front of you :) Easiest way to get them is if you sneak up behind a patrol on foot.

[mandru]

At the airport where you rescue your brother (outside of the mission) there are often two or three guys milling around close enough to each other all looking off in different directions so that it is fairly easy to hit ("F Key" and hold on the PC) Takedown working your way through the lot domino fashion.  But if you're spotted by anyone else nearby, expect things to quickly heat up.  ^-^


Going back to the sewage treatment plant D_B posted about earlier I like the trail that runs along the top of that immediate cliff edge to the West that overlooks the plant.  It puts you high enough that most of the weapons the pirates use either can't reach you or are inaccurate.  Even after hours and hours of camping that spot with the snipers both silent and exploding rounds, the ripper (? the signature BMG) or grenade launcher by using Art's "ESC Key" Trick to refill ammo in the current clip (too bad it doesn't w@&k on the RPG and don't hit a manual reload or you lose those rounds) I've never had a wild animal even show up anywhere near me let alone attack me.  :-X

That overlook is a quick hop from the Amanaki Outpost which is convenient for saving or reloading and you can park your ride at the nearby triangle intersection which will keep it safe from stray bullets but still very close to where you will be working from.  I used this location to fill in several of the last steps possible in the skill tree before moving on to the last few missions on the North Island and pushing South to seriously face Hoyt's goons.

[Art Blade]

very nice, mandru  :) :-X I too like those locations and keep returning to them although just for fun and not for XP (don't need any anymore)  :)

[PZ]

 :-X

[Art Blade]

After the patch 1.05 was released, things changed. Not bad, for SP. The unlimited ammo trick isn't working any more so it means that we now have to pay attention again. The new feature -- for all those who finished a playthrough -- is very welcome, to reset all outposts and be able to retake them again and again  :-X All that combined with the new "Master (very hard)" difficulty level makes an excellent open world game, finally.  :) :-X I still have a few side missions to do but overall retaking outposts is the biggest fun.  :-D

[PZ]

Yes, I have to admit that the outposts are one of my favorite places to visit  >:D

[fragger]

Mine too :-X

[Art Blade]

About the C4, haven't done that in a while but I think if you keep the button pressed rather than tapping it, they ought to set off all at once.

I meant to comment on that before but never made it -- here goes: This assumption was based on my first steps in the game and I had placed three packs of C4 closely together so detonating one would blow up the remaining two giving the wrong impression that you could trigger them at once. You cannot do that, only one by one. :)

[mandru]

I find roaming the islands and thrashing the incidental bad guys I encounter far more pleasurable than the actual mission elements of the game.  But even better than that is the rare opportunity of stumbling across some random weirdness that the developers accidentally included in the works and on the Southern island just a stone's throw to the N.W. of Littlegate Bridge I found a spot that embodies that concept.

What I'm describing is a generously sized pond hidden from the nearby road by woods that sits down in a protected hollow.  It's wrapped on half of its circumference by steep natural stone embankments and there's a small cabin with a pier to be able to dock a rowboat for fishing.  The first time I encountered this location it struck me as being one of those perfect little environmental gems standing out as a place I'd like to have a retirement cabin.

As a kid I was never able to completely resist the urge to jump from high places into water when it was appropriate ( ) and sometimes when it was marginally less than appropriate. ( >:D )

I was hoofing it cross country working my way generally towards Hoyt's compound and found myself standing on the pond's embracing cliff overlooking this idyllic spot.  The light was just right and it struck me as being a little slice of heaven and after pointedly making a quick scan for crocks I gave into that boyish pleasure of the heady rush of a quick plunge from a high ledge.

Completely invisible from the surface the crock had me before the splashdown animation was completed.  :o

Fortunately the Quick Time Event (QTE) for a crock is a lot simpler than that of a tiger with it's struggle, stab and done.  **(In the QTE for a tiger there's a struggle, you get in a first slash, he falls back and comes in after you again if you don't slap some heavy enough mojo on his a$$ in the brief moment he's regrouping )**

Underwater after kicking free of the dead crock I cast a quick glance around found to my to my surprise that I was sharing that small pond with four additional eagerly awaiting and equally invisible from the surface reptilian assailants.  ???

Not to brag but I've become fairly astute in spotting crocks or at least being aware of the conditions where they proliferate and as anyone with a level of survival skills in this game...  Well, basically we've figured out how to avoid them!  How these crocks had managed to fool me into dropping my suspicious nature was a real puzzle that demanded further investigation.  What I found in that location is something that I've thankfully not encountered anywhere else in the game.

From the surface there is a layer of lily pad vegetation containing lotus flowers and on some occasions I've spotted an obvious crock sharing that surface layer.  Crocks generally don't use the lily pad type of cover that lotus flowers provide moreover preferring a smaller leafed and more web like spread pattern plant type that I've come to call duckweed.  So if there's lotus plants it will typically push out or prevent the spawn of the type of weeds that crocks like.

But when you get down below the surface of that pond there is a completely unexpected additional vegetation layer left behind by some possibly inattentive game developer near the pond's bottom where that crock bearing duckweed I mentioned is able to spawn in abundance because it's not having to compete for space with the lotus plants.

I still think its a sweet little spot but I'm going to need to find a reliable source of industrial strength Crock-Away before I'd want to retire there.  ;)

[Art Blade]

sweet. I think what you're looking for is called C4 and to be chucked down and blown up before you go in after it  :-D