The Outer Worlds: New Vegas, but it's Firefly and also Capitalism is Evil

[Balmas]

It's the same ending as you get in the normal course of events, as far as I can tell:

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Thing is, in a "kill everything" run the one person you definitely can't kill is Phineas Welles, because he's either imprisoned or behind bulletproof glass whenever you see him, so the game ends with you rescuing him from prison, just as in the regular "anti-Board" ending.

There's also a third ending:

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The third ending is only available if you have below-intelligence Intelligence. When you get to the Hope, you have the option of either letting ADA pilot the ship safely to Phineas's asteroid... or you can take direct control of the navigation and send the ship hurtling into the sun, which gets you a non-standard game-over and no ending slides.

What's the max level for gear? I know players max out at 30. But does gear max out at level 30 also?

Gear maxes out at the standard player-level-plus-five of normal tinkering, so items max out at level 35.

[factotum]

I'm a fair way through my "support the Board" run now, and I have to say, it's my first disappointment about the game. Namely, it's just too similar to the other playthrough--almost all the quests are identical and I even just got asked to do exactly the same thing by the Adjutant:

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Namely, wipe out everyone in Edgewater.

I recall there being a *lot* more differences between the various ways the main plot could go in New Vegas.

[Spore]

Oddly enough I feel a board-friendly line is usually the one that keeps most people alive. Which is honestly why my two characters are

1) a smart gunslinger with dubious motives that usually works out the way where she gets the most bits and kills the least amount of people.

Example choices:

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Bringing Adelaide to Edgewater
Trying to befriend the pyromaniac on the Siegebreaker (failing and massacring his entire crew)
Killing the bandit leader on Roseway.

2) A dumb brute who wants to be the "hero" and jumps to every noble conclusion, no matter how high the body count.
Example choices:

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Fueling the power to Adelaide, because her way of life is the right choice. (damned be those who suffer from a plague in a now unpowered sick house)
Bashing MacCreed's head in because he is evil even though I'd be charismatic enough to solve it peacefully.
Helping the bandits who killed an entire research lab because they're anti authority.

[factotum]

OK, I completed my Board run, and my disappointment has increased, if anything. The entire final mission was basically identical to how it goes in the anti-Board game, just with the characters swapped around, and frankly it makes no gosh-darned sense!

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The idea that Phineas Welles, who wasn't able to escape his cell in the anti-Board run, not only escapes from it in this one but also somehow turns the entire prison population to his side, then manages to equip them with the same advanced weaponry that the Board soldiers have in the other one? My suspension of disbelief is blown out of the water there.

I was planning to do a "super hard" run where I set the difficulty on Hard and forced myself to use only melee weapons, but I just don't want to grind through the same old quests a third time, so that's getting shelved. The game is still good, don't get me wrong, but it is *way* less enticing for multiple play-throughs than Fallout: New Vegas was. Maybe if they release some DLC I'll come back in a few months.

[Cespenar]

OK, I completed my Board run, and my disappointment has increased, if anything. The entire final mission was basically identical to how it goes in the anti-Board game, just with the characters swapped around, and frankly it makes no gosh-darned sense!

I got a lot of "some corners were cut" vibes off of the quest design and writing in general, to be honest. Especially compared to Obsidian standards.

[Driderman]

I don't think it's so much a case of corners being cut as it is a case of this pretty much being a B-level project and as such, it has had neither the monetary or personnel support that a primary A-level project would have had. The Outer Worlds wasn't really intended as some 80+ hours, multiple playthroughs with their own unique storyline monster of a game,I suspect, it was made as a 20-40 hour FPS-RPG telling a clear and more-or-less finished story that doesn't entail years of DLC expansions and support, other than the necessary patch and bugfix updates.
It was never marketed as being the new Fallout: New Vegas either as far as I've ever seen (but of course the internet quickly ran wild with that "by the original creators of Fallout" marketing line) but hopefully if sales are good, Obisidian might look into developing more, better funded games for The Outer Worlds setting as both Halcyon and neighboring colonies could easily support more stories in the future.

[Anteros]

I got a lot of "some corners were cut" vibes off of the quest design and writing in general, to be honest. Especially compared to Obsidian standards.

To be fair, "corners were cut" is probably the thing that Obsidian is most known for.

[Cespenar]

It was never marketed as being the new Fallout: New Vegas either as far as I've ever seen (but of course the internet quickly ran wild with that "by the original creators of Fallout" marketing line) but hopefully if sales are good, Obisidian might look into developing more, better funded games for The Outer Worlds setting as both Halcyon and neighboring colonies could easily support more stories in the future.

I don't know, that line was intentionally a pretty antagonistic way of marketing, so I expected them to at least produce something up to their own level of quality, if not something that would have Fallout 4 run for its money.

Still, if the "B-level project" thing is true, that would explain things, yes.

To be fair, "corners were cut" is probably the thing that Obsidian is most known for.

True, though here I felt the missing parts were sprinkled all over the game, rather than their usual schtick of cutting a big chunk at the end. Which made it all the more conspicuous.

[Driderman]

I don't know, that line was intentionally a pretty antagonistic way of marketing, so I expected them to at least produce something up to their own level of quality, if not something that would have Fallout 4 run for its money.

I don't know, it's completely true without actually promising anything . Tim Cain and Leonard Bojarsky are (some) of the original makers of Fallout. That doesn't mean every game they make is Fallout. You just read something into that statement (probably exactly what the Marketing Team was aiming for).

[NeoVid]

I just reached the final scene, and, um...

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I was really expecting that there would be some climactic argument with the Chairman, instead of him immediately opening fire on my squad of fighting machines and getting one-shotted. A pretty massive disappointment compared to the rest of what I'd experienced.

[factotum]

I think it's theoretically possible to talk him down:

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You have to do it when he comes up on the monitor shortly before you find RAM, though, not when you reach the final room.

Note I've not done this myself, I just heard it was possible.

[Rodin]

You absolutely can talk him down, because that's exactly what I did. I just read your conversation and had no idea what you were talking about, so I looked it up. It turns out that...

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If Akande is alive, Chairman Rockwell is in a press/green screen room well ahead of both RAM and the monitor where you speak to Akande. If Akande is dead, he's on the monitor instead.

If Akande is dead, Rockwell is pissed off and cannot be talked down. You have to fight RAM, and then Rockwell is hostile when you enter the final room.

If Akande is alive, you can talk Rockwell down in the press room, and then tell Akande that Rockwell has flipped and she'll get pissed off and leave. RAM will be deactivated when you arrive, and you just stroll through and rescue Phineas.

Hence my confusion - I talked down both, and so I met no final boss at all. I had the keycard and high stealth and could have completed Tartarus as a Pacifist if I had so desired. In fact, I don't think I killed a single named Board member in my entire run. The only named characters I killed at all were the cystpig factory owner and the leader of the Iconoclasts. At least...I think so. I can't remember any others. And I only killed the cystpig dude because I failed the speech check.

Oh wait, I guess I killed off the generic Marauder bounties in the first area. I don't really count those guys though.

[factotum]

Ah, that makes sense.

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I killed Sophie in my "anti-Board" playthrough because she didn't give me much choice--she pulled a gun on me when I refused to slaughter the population of Edgewater. So, I never met the Chairman until he spoke to me on the monitor.

[Rodin]

Ah, that makes sense.

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I killed Sophie in my "anti-Board" playthrough because she didn't give me much choice--she pulled a gun on me when I refused to slaughter the population of Edgewater. So, I never met the Chairman until he spoke to me on the monitor.

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I had been pretty openly anti-Board throughout my playthrough and wasn't very nice to her on the phone when we first talked. When she asked me to come and meet with her, this was my reaction:



So I just went straight to the Hope instead. I never actually met her in person, only talked to her on monitors.

[Destro_Yersul]

There's also a third ending:

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The third ending is only available if you have below-intelligence Intelligence. When you get to the Hope, you have the option of either letting ADA pilot the ship safely to Phineas's asteroid... or you can take direct control of the navigation and send the ship hurtling into the sun, which gets you a non-standard game-over and no ending slides.

Guess what ending the Speedrun uses.

[boj0]

Best part is: the devs called it a valid choice and a real ending

[Spore]

Best part is: the devs called it a valid choice and a real ending

I mean its AN ENDING.

1) It ends the story permanently.

2) The lets the hero relax with a nice crisp tan.

3) It is epic and a character choice.

[NeoVid]

Ah, turning the whole Board permanently hostile with an earlier action would make sense. I suppose I'll imitate some of the speedrun video for a second playthrough, just so I can zip through to the part I was hoping to see.

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Despite opposing the Board for my whole run, I'd managed to do it underhandedly enough that I was at higher approval with them than disapproval, and I'd intended to try and keep it that way for the whole game... then when I met Adjutant Akande, she ordered me to kill off the population of Edgewater... while Parvati was in the room with us. With her there, I wasn't even willing to pretend to play along, so the Adjutant and her guards tried to take me down. It went badly for them.

By the way, I can only imagine how hard the RAM fight would have been if I hadn't brought a companion armed with the Mind Control Ray.

[The Glyphstone]

So I'm finally getting around to this now that I have a better computer. I've avoided reading the thread to dodge story spoilers, but mechanics-wise, are there are any major 'trap' build options or paths? A certain level of skill at which further investment stops being useful?

[NeoVid]

The game is easy enough that you can dominate without cranking weapon skills much past 50, which leaves plenty for other skills... Though I didn't bring up any skill past 80, since the companion bonuses can put you well over 100 in several utility skills. Remember that the base stats in this game go from -1 to +3 max, so temp boosts that give +1 to a base stat are massive.

[boj0]

I don't think there are any trap options, maybe the ones that boost carrying capacity; but since there is a respec terminal on the ship you can pick anything and change it if you don't like it

[Spore]

I kinda prefer a "bardic" approach anyhow. The system supports it so well. Basically be decent enough in almost any category. Now I am an acceptable hacker/lockpicker/marksman/socialite/team leader. Not gonna touch melee or defense but that is just me.

[Brookshw]

I don't think there are any trap options, maybe the ones that boost carrying capacity; but since there is a respec terminal on the ship you can pick anything and change it if you don't like it

I took the carrying ones and didn't regret it, but that was likely due to the lack of attractive alternatives. The perks were so......lackluster. At least for my playstyle.

[Spore]

I took the carrying ones and didn't regret it, but that was likely due to the lack of attractive alternatives. The perks were so......lackluster. At least for my playstyle.

I feel overall carrying capacity is the second best thing to pick after tier 1 perks like lone wanderer lone wolf, toughness and a synergistic build around TTD. Because it saves on attribute points if you never want to wield a melee weapon. Whereas you cannot really save on them and get the same result with perks on other stats.

Drawbacks on the other hand can become relatively crippling (as can below average stats imho because their penalties are rather harsh). I took mechanicals as a phobia and now i cannot really use SAM effectively. Oddly enough it does not trigger from hostile robots unless you have line of sight but if you pass SAM's dock in the Unreliable even with a closed door, your phobia triggers. You can't visit any crew quarters or even the living room without phobia. Plus you have the option of screaming at the poor fella.

I feel like a sentient cat who knows there is a roomba around at every waking moment.

[NeoVid]

My first playthrough was a breeze thanks to item duplication -I mean, building my companions for crit chance+ability use and having a good array of guns with different elements. Unlike the Fallout games, companions aren't going to leave you with no enemies alive to fight, but they'll come pretty close if you give them something like the Gloop Gun and an N-Ray machine gun. I went heavy into perks that increased companion effectiveness, and doubling their stat boosts made for hilarity when I found I had a Stealth skill of 138.

[factotum]

Unlike the Fallout games, companions aren't going to leave you with no enemies alive to fight, but they'll come pretty close if you give them something like the Gloop Gun and an N-Ray machine gun.

Depends on difficulty--in normal difficulty your companions can totally clear out most encounters by themselves if you've been specialising in Leadership and Determination, especially if you make good use of their special abilities and have the perks to make those recharge more quickly.

[xroads]

By the way, I can only imagine how hard the RAM fight would have been if I hadn't brought a companion armed with the Mind Control Ray.

It was tough, but I actually used the Gloop Gun as my companions charged in blasting with their more classic firearms.

Spoiler: The biggest problem...

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... were the numerous drones, which pushed their way into the elevator and surrounded me. Fortunately, we managed to drop the big guy which in turned somehow killed all the drones.

[JadedDM]

Not really sure how I even did this, but:

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I wound up killing it so quickly, that I didn't even realize it had adds until I saw their shells littering the room after the fight. Some of them didn't have time to even leave their little rooms.

[The Glyphstone]

Is there some sort of in-game reference utility where I can review the helpful pop-ups and tips I get shown in early game? Stuff like 'certain types of armor resist damage', I remember that as a tooltip warning but can't go back and read in detail.

[NeoVid]

I forget what the tab that archives those is called, but it's right next to the Quests list. All the popup tips are listed there, but they don't get added to the list until after they've been triggered in gameplay.