"New weapons unlocked" after escaping from the prison

[mandru]

You didn't happen to check to see if the GLAT was superimposed over the 50 cal AT at the safe house closest to the bridge down the rail tracks did you ?   ;D

[Art Blade]

I did  ;D And no, it was not superimposed. It was only a .50 AT so I drove on to the next safehouses, there were GLATs.

[Art Blade]

Wow, I've just been to a safehouse south of Sefapane, at the river bend. Since there's no room for a GLAT, there is a swamp boat with a GL!  :o :-X

[PZ]

Very cool - I hadn't even thought of that potential  :-X

[Art Blade]

Actually you inspired me to do the entire main missions first before I started with the secondary missions. I stopped the main missions at the point where you should go to Sepoko (that leads to the prison mission etc, end game). That leaves you with a near perfect condition: sickness level 2 (quite healthy) and reputation level 3 (quite high).

Now, again, instead of going after the secondary missions, I went back to Leboa to unlock safehouses and scout GPs etc, the next interesting thing, no idea why, is that I haven't had any malaria attack any more ever since (just returned to Bowa, still no malaria attack). I can tell you, it is a new experience entirely. :)

[PZ]

I noticed the same - late in the game the malaria attacks stop.  I presumed because you have run out of malaria missions to complete.  I've often imagined the brain storming sessions in the developers room when deciding on what to put into the game:

"Wait!, I have an idea!  Let's put together some missions where the player has attacks of malaria so we can add diversity to the mission set."

[Art Blade]

hehe, very very early in the game (see one of my first funny tactics and tips) I noticed the malaria attacks were timer based. The higher the sickness level, the more frequent and sooner the attacks. What I've never noticed is that they might stop towards the end of the game. Maybe because the player is so occupied with the final steps, so high a stress level, the devs decided to remove those attacks from there on. I am not sure if they really stop at this point because the sickness level rises towards the end, up to 5. What I did notice is that the higher the sickness level, the less stamina you have, ie can't run as long or jump that often any more without being close to a blackout. Interesting :)

[fragger]

on a sidenote, the landingzone resets your sickness level to 0, and when you leave it (supposedly after you killed your buddies), the screen shakes again and indeed, sickness level 5 (same as reputation level 5) again. Obviously the devs didn't want to torment you with a malaria attack during that "boss fight" :)

Nice observation, mate :-X  Considerate of the devs, too. A malaria attack right then could really take the sparkle off the day ;D

Regarding stamina, do you think sleep helps? I ask because I remember reading somewhere (not here) that your stamina stays higher for longer if you get enough sleep. I'm pretty sure that's incorrect, I've never discerned any difference myself. Sometimes I keep on the move for quite a few game days without any sleep and it's not like I gradually get weaker and ultimately fall down exhausted among the buffalo chips. It might be cool if you did, though (get exhausted that is, not do the fragrant faceplant). You'd then have to drag yourself to the nearest safehouse on your hands and knees, then on your belly, suffering the odd microsleep and mini-blackout, until you finally arrive puffing and dribbling on the doorstep. I can just see my quivering animated hand straining up towards the blurry doorknob...

Must send suggestion to FC3 devs: Get Sleep, Or Get Exhausted.

Anyway, I only ever sleep to advance the time, and as far as I can tell that's the only real reason for doing so.

[mandru]

You'd then have to drag yourself to the nearest safehouse on your hands and knees, then on your belly, suffering the odd microsleep and mini-blackout, until you finally arrive puffing and dribbling on the doorstep. I can just see my quivering animated hand straining up towards the blurry doorknob...

Must send suggestion to FC3 devs: Get Sleep, Or Get Exhausted.

In the delirium that you describe while getting to a needed safe house for sleep there could be some really wild snippets of hallucinations of things like the character you've selected to play's past lives in the form of things that haunt them and also from their experiences in the game up to the point you've played.

A realistic hallucination hits and you don't know if you're fighting for your life or if you're letting every merc on the map know where you are by firing wildly at shadows in the jungle. It could make for some very disturbing and thought provoking game play.

I like it!   :-X

[Art Blade]

I think you two are mildly nuts  ;D

The stamina is only related to your sickness level. I played without having my virtual self sleep for days, too, and I could still outrun buffalos and flocks of mercs  ;D

[fragger]

I think you two are mildly nuts  ;D

I'm glad you think we're only mildly nuts, I can live with that ;D

[Art Blade]

I had absolutely no intention to insult either one of you, but I wanted to express my feelings  ;D

[fragger]

No insult taken mate, I know I'm mildly nuts ;D

[mandru]

Art, for me anyway, you can take that "Mildly nuts" and flip the "M" and make it Wildly Nuts since I've discovered the command line edit for God mode, infinite ammo and non-degrading weapons.  :P

Now that I've been able to get that to w@&k I've spent more time rampaging than actually chasing out the story line.

I'm currently trying to gather back story on the (as it turns out) highly secretive Andre through the eyes of the other buddies for another thread and don't want to foul up that game line. So I'll just jump in on my last save point and shear off the story line and start breaking everything and everyone I can get a hold of for a few hours and close out without a save.

Then I can at a later time get back on task without loosing story line detail.

On my last trip back up into the completed Northern district, when I arrived in Pala I caught a new merc comment as I was strolling around town.

"Hey! Watch your back. I hear that Mad Merc's headed this way."

It's the first time and any credit has been acknowledged for my w@&k up there. So I tested it. I'm at level 3 on rep and when I bump into a Pala merc they apologize which I've not even had happen before with a level 4 rep other times through.

This game keeps surprising me.

[PZ]

Art, for me anyway, you can take that "Mildly nuts" and flip the "M" and make it Wildly Nuts ...

:-X  ;D

[Art Blade]

 ;D ;D

Indeed, it is the first time I did only main plus corresponding best buddy missions, skipping everything else (including arms dealer convoy missions). To stop that before the game gets that twist I don't like (you know, from Sepoko to Prison and onwards) was a decision I don't regret. I've heard mercs comment like that, "I heard he's headed our way" and similar lines ("It's HIM!") really adds a lot of fun, plus the now cured malaria. No more pills!  :)

[Art Blade]

Heard another "new" line: "We gotta get outa here, he's comin' back!" -- best thing: I heard it after I had come back to Leboa ;D ;D ;D

[PZ]

lol, that's a good one - must have made you feel right at home!  :-X

[Art Blade]

hehehe, yes :) First thing I did in return of that line was to put a bullet through his head, by way of greeting  ;D

[Art Blade]

just another side note, after I discovered that at 73% game progress, before going to Sediko and Prison, your malaria gets cured for good (meaning no more malaria attacks) I had sickness level 2 (fair enough stamina) and reputation level 3. I didn't and still don't want to follow the main mission because it only decreases your health and therefore you lose stamina. So, it is a perfect state to play freely and do what you want. Now I accidently found out that all you need to do is to find another buddy (lol, in Sediko, but without taking that mission leading there, though) and ding! you get reputation level 4. Excellent  ;D