Fallout 4: Confessions and Angel's Pip-Boy Diary #7 · 11:46pm Nov 28th, 2015
Today was the season finale for what has been, overall, an absolutely amazing season of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. I seriously think this has been the best season since the first one.
art by Legacy350
That said, I have to confess that there are a few episodes which I haven’t seen yet. Not the least of which is the finale. Sadly, due to a technical issue, I wasn’t able to watch the finale on Saturday morning. So instead, I’m going to either download the two-part finale and watch it online tonight during the slow hour at work, or I will catch the rerun tomorrow. Either way, I intend to see it before the weekend is out. If you would like, I could dedicate part or all of my next blog to discussing my thoughts about it.
Once I have watched the couple others that I missed, I will be do a blog celebrating the season as a whole. That should be later this coming week.
Speaking of confessions, I’m have a few to make regarding my playthrough of Fallout 4.
First, I have cheated. I recently used the console commands to give myself a few hundred extra wood and steel. I was in the middle of a building project, and I didn’t want to stop to go scrounging. I feel the cheat was fair – there is so much wood and steel just beyond the reach of the settlement boundaries that I should, in character, be able to scrap.
I wouldn’t give myself extra resources that are legitimately something you need to strive to get in-game and in-character, like screws and adhesive. (There is never enough adhesive!) But wood and steel? Yeah, I cheated on those. And I have since spent caps on wood and steel shipments, and built up a massive amount from scrapping items.
Second, I changed the setting from Survival mode to Very Hard in order to survival a battle. For what it is worth, I only switched modes after I had killed the Legendary Festering Bloatfly. But I needed the change in healing-over-time to overcome the damage-over-time of the dead creature’s poison. I changed the settings back to Survival a minute later.
The next part of Angel’s Pip-Boy Diary follows after the break.
art by Yahmos
Angel's Pip-Boy Diary
Days 12 - 15
Day 12
November 4, 2287Slept in the Baker’s cellar again. After a late breakfast, I spoke a while with Preston.
Preston talked about the Quincy Massacre. It was an attack from the Gunners, a particularly vicious and powerful mercenary group. The former leader of the Minutemen, Colonel Hollis, died there. When the other groups of Minutemen refused to come to the peoples’ aid, it publicly broke the organization.
Preston Garvey is a soldier, but not a leader. He has turned to me, instead. Preston says that we need someone who can unite the people, and I agree. I’m less confident than he is that said someone should be me. But as nobody else is stepping up to the plate, I’m willing to take the role of “General” for now. I can always step down when a better candidate comes along. And in the meantime, this puts me in a position to proactively build the Minutemen into the force of law and order that I believe the Commonwealth needs. Plus, I like the ring of “General Angel”.
Mr. Garvey suggested that I look into clearing out the Sunshine Tidings Co-op. I remember that place. It isn’t far from Walden Pond. I used to buy fresh produce there. Much better than the preservative-saturated stuff you could get at the market in Concord, although it didn’t last as long. (I have to wonder if there is centuries-old produce at the Lexington Super Duper Mart that is still perfectly edible. Probably not, but only because scavengers and settlers would have eaten it all long ago.)
I stopped by the Abernathy Farm. Codsworth called me “General”. It says that I am “no longer the woman who went into that Vault.” I have to agree, for better and worse.
While looting the wreckage of a bus, I was overwhelmed by the knowledge that, for me, all these skeletons were living people less than two weeks ago. It hit me hard. I had to stop and sit for a while, just breathing.
I reached Walden Pond, this time skirting it from the opposite side, and ran into the tour. I can’t believe it is still running. I searched for an engine with a power core, but there was none. I have no idea where it was getting its power.
A wandering eyebot drifted into the area, advertising employment opportunities at Cambridge Polymer Labs. The competing messages from the eyebot and the tour were surreal.
From a note knifed into the wall of the Walden Gift Shop, I discovered that there was a gang hiding out in the sewers beneath the store. Proactive General Angel cleared them out. I would have offered a less lethal solution, but they started shooting the moment they saw me. Sometimes, the bad guys make the decisions easy.
I found some good materials down there, including a rather unique wrench. That will come in handy in the workshop, I bet.
Coming back out of the sewers, I chanced upon a camp where ghouls were feasting on two dead scavengers. The most horrific thing about ghouls, I think, isn’t their feral aggressiveness or ghastly appearance, but the cannibalism. What causes that? I wonder if the mythical “sane” ghouls have urges for human flesh.
There is a small army of cats and their trader just up a ways from Walden Pond. She’s young and pretty (and daringly dressed), but the cat obsession reminds me of the cat lady that the Sanctuary Hills Homeowner’s Club forced to move out of the neighborhood last year. (Well, for a definition of “last” unique to me.)
I hit the raider shack, which turned out to be exactly what I suspected. Codsworth, unfortunately, doesn’t do sneaking. I also can’t help but notice that it had no opinion on my bloodily hacking raiders apart, but it complains when I pick up rubbish. Well, I do suppose that it was a housekeeper, and some of that programming still holds. A housekeeper with a flamethrower.
I am questioning, not for the first time, my sanity in letting Codsworth tend to Shaun. I shouldn’t considering how very well it tended to him.
From there, I had to decide: Sunshine Tidings or Corvega. They are in opposite directions, and neither is pressing.
I’ve decided on Corvega, if only because I do not want to take Codsworth with me into what could become a stealth-dependant fight.
Preston Garvey didn’t seem keen on Corvega as a fortress base. I suspect the losses his group suffered in Lexington soured him on the idea of living close to that place. Or it’s possible he had considered the factory before and has cause to dismiss it. It would probably be folly trying to hold such a huge structure with our current lack of manpower. So instead, we’re off to clear out everything not nailed down in that place.
Along the way, Codsworth helped me fight off yet another pack of wild mongrels. It’s damn impressive in any fight against savage animals. They got a few good bites in on me though. I’m recording this while taking a break to allow the stimpacks to do their work.
Just across from me is an extremely bloody skeleton. And right next to it, a set of barding for a dog. It is almost like God is saying I should have brought Dogmeat with me instead.
New Perk: Hacker Rank 2
Day 12 – Sunset
November 4, 2287As Codsworth and I approached Corvega, I again picked up that military broadcast. Only this time, there was more than just static. A woman identifying herself as Scribe Halen of the recon squad Gladius, is calling for reinforcements or extraction. She is (or at least was) fortified in the Cambridge Police Station.
The message was on a loop, so there is no way to know how old it is. The distress signal could be decades outdated. Still, Corvega will have to wait. Codsworth and I are diverting to Cambridge.
It is a good thing that this is Massachusetts and everyplace is within walking distance of each other.
Day 13 – Midnight
November 5, 2287I just saw a car fall off of the decaying elevated highway south of Corvega. It was too far away to hear the impact, but the sight was a pointed reminder that the remnants of America’s infrastructure haven’t finished crumbling apart. I should be careful where I walk and careful where I stand. It would be a shame to survive raiders, monsters and mutated animals only to die to a collapsing wall.
I’m moving towards a parking lot southeast of the Corvega factory. A firefight just erupted, and one of the parties is using laser weapons…
Day 13 – Morning
November 5, 2287Great news! The work Preston Garvey and I have started seems to already be paying dividends. A small group have taken up the call of the Minutemen. I lent my weapon in their skirmish with a group of raiders. We won the fight and they’ve secured the area, making (what I expect to be a very temporary) camp in the ruined store.
I never made it to the Cambridge Police Station. The entire town is heavily infested with ghouls. Codsworth, with masterful understatement, called the city “unsettling”. I made it as deep as College Square before I had to turn back.
We spent hours thinning the feral herd; and the entire time, I could hear sporadic gunfire from the direction of the station. It would seem that the recon squad is still alive, still under assault, and blessed with a wealth of ammunition. They may be under siege, but they are a militarized group in a heavily fortified position. I have to trust that they will still be there when I come back.
For now, I need more ammo of my own. Not to mention that I need to dump the bulk of the crap weighing us down.
Codsworth has proven exceptional against ghouls. In the very least, I certainly wouldn’t have reduced the subhuman population by half the number that we did without its flamethrower and blade. Personally, I’m not sure I would have survived without its assistance, especially when faced against the ghoul that had hidden in the Pulowski Shelter or the one in the back of the shipping truck. Both were drastically tougher and more dangerous than the rest of the monsters, and I swear I saw them completely heal from their wounds in a most frightening manner partway through each fight.
A couple notes:
I stumbled across an old race flyer advertising “The October Classic” which was to be held on Halloween, two hundred and ten years ago. If by some miracle Easy City Downs has neither thoroughly looted nor utterly destroyed, the purse for the races should hold enough pre-war money to make a bed out of the cloth. The chances of that are so small that I’m not actually going to bother seeking out East City Downs. But if I find myself in that area for other reasons, I might as well check it out. I find the idea of sleeping in a bed literally made out of money too amusing to pass up.
On the way back to Sanctuary, I was attacked by a scorpion the size of a Corvega! The thing burrowed up out of the ground right under me. Again, I’m lucky to have had Codsworth with me.
I’m amazed that anyone travels anywhere knowing that they can be attacked without warning by Giant Scorpions of Doom. How did I not know about these things? You would think that is something that Preston and the settlers would have mentioned on the trip from Concord to Sanctuary.
So, when traveling, watch out for things falling from above, things burrowing up from below, and things swarming at you from every direction. Welcome to the new Commonwealth of America, eff-you.
Day 13 – Evening
November 5, 2287Change of priorities and change of plans – recon squad Gladius is going to have to wait. Sanctuary is all over the radio. Just as I was reaching the Red Rocket station, the world’s worst DJ announced Sanctuary’s founded and offered, “Good luck on that whole surviving thing.”
Well, that “surviving thing” is now going to be a whole lot harder with Travis essentially pointing every opportunistic raider and bandit in our direction. With that announcement, defenses for Sanctuary have become an urgent concern.
I spent the rest of the day drawing up plans and getting work started. We’re building new walls along Sanctuary’s eastern boarder, and repurposing the picket fences around the back. A mental guard wall will defend the path back towards Vault 111. I’m also looking for possible turret positions. Obviously, the bridge will need a couple. Fortunately, Sturges should be able to build several with the scrap I scavenged from the Corvega factory.
Preston Garvey will accompany me on my return to College Square once the defenses here are seriously underway. As amazing as Codsworth is against ghouls, I still have concerns about its stability. And I cannot ignore the benefits of having a tireless robot working on the rebuilding. Codsworth can advance construction more than any three of the other settlers combined, save possibly for Sturges. Plus, I think it will function better in the familiar environment.
Day 14
November 6, 2287I spent the entire day building fences and overseeing additional work on Sanctuary. Around noon, a man walked into town. To my surprise, our first visitor was neither a settler nor a bandit, but someone offering to sell us a guard dog. He was reluctant to part with the girl, despite having walked all this way to sell her. Dogmeat gave her a sniff of approval, and I bought her on the spot.
New Perk: Local Leader Rank 1
Day 15
November 7, 2287Sanctuary now has a couple of turrets guarding the entrance from the bridge. We had almost completed the fencing when the Abernathy farm sent out a call for help. The farm was beseiged by a pack (herd? swarm?) of ghouls attacking in broad daylight. I rushed to their assistance.
It was a brutal but quick fight. I’m having dinner with the Abernathys, after which I plan to head back to Sanctuary for a very long rest in the Baker’s cellar. Tomorrow, I will make another attempt at assisting Gladius.
art by KodokunaShiroiOkami
Not sure if you're aware of this, but you can craft vegetable starch at a cooking station that scraps into 5 adhesive. The recipe is: 3 mutfruit, 3 tato, 3 corn and 1 purified water. There's also something for oil in the chemistry station, if you need that, too.
These blogs have turned into the highlight of my day. Keep them coming!
And yes, I would be very interested to hear your opinions on the season finale. It certainly didn't pull any punches.
3575659 Anything for aluminum? Even after 4 or 5 copies of Tales of a Junktown Jerky Trader and 2 levels of the skill that's supposed to make shop prices go down (what was that called again?) it's still expensive and I'm nearly constantly encumbered now as is.
Wow, the looting of junk really has a more important role it seems then three and Las Vegas it seems. I also like how playthrough and story seem to mesh together in this story.
Certainly seems like one can get easily sidetracked from ones set goals with everything happening in the Commonwealth as you explore it.
Don't feel bad; I exploited a glitch using the You're Special! book and Dogmeat to give myself all tens in my SPECIAL.
KKat, Actually, the adhesive is pretty easy to make ingame. Really. You must plant the Tato's fruits, have mutfruit trees and corn and purrified water. The recipe is available from the start at the cooking stall. If you create the utility item "Vegetable Starch", each one is worth I think 5 adhesive. It's really a good way to get independent on scavanging for it.
I freaking love these blogs, nice job on them! :D Hahaha!
Awesome.
I can't expression enough how hilarious I find this sentence.
Sounds like an average wasteland day to me. I'm accustomed to running from big scorpions by now. Mostly from bad memories of the first overly grown one I ran into.
I hope you do a blog post on the season finale! I thoroughly enjoyed it, so I hope you do to.
Damn, I swear that guy came through but never sold me a dog. Boo.
(loving these blogs)
3575792
I don't personally know a way to get tons of aluminum easily. Just be vigilant for aluminum cans, surgical trays and aluminum canisters, I suppose.
3575933 Thanks anyways.
Also, word of advice, don't ever carry so much you rely on the power armor with calibrated legs just to go from place to place unencumbered. The legs will break and sometimes you'll have to make sacrifices. 
3575911 I never saw the man.
3575792
3575933 Mahkra Fishpacking plant in the northeast. There are Mirelurks outside and synths inside that will be hostile if you aren't allied with the institute. At the bottom is a conveyor belt filled with trays if you pick up every tray its 81 aluminum, and yes it all respawns after enough days.
3575933
And TV dinner trays. Don't forget about those.
3575938 While I find that interesting about how Angel feels about Cogsworth too. I also find the amount of emotional expression of Cogsworth also interesting. especially how he reacted to the news on the TV about the attack. Not to mention some other robotic residents of the Commonwealth seem also to have a lot more going inside their minds then I really thought possible from what Fallout 3 indicated to me.
3575856 That's some good advice. Did not know that.
However I'm all about savaging and exploring every single building I come across so I have enough adhesive from random duct tape rolls to keep me going for quite some time.
3576045 You sir, are a life saver.
Also I completed the main story quests with the Railroad (it's a bit more complex than that, rode the fence between Institute and Railroad for a while there, made the best choice I could think of but don't wanna spoil) so I figure the Institute shouldn't be a problem. Even if they were there I'm level 53 now and have stockpiled a ton of Stimpaks so that helps.
3575746 Ditto. Literally everything you said.
3576166 I'd imagine that household models may have more sophisticated AI depending on make and model. The only other thing I can think of is the idea that over 200 years somehow he developed cognition on his own?
...must find way to mod in bed of money...
3576342 Maybe, though I never expected for Cogsworth to react to the news like that and put two and two together and realize how important the news was to his owners.
Though with his box still being in the home, he might have been the latest model or maybe it might be the area. With all these strange A.I.'s in the area and the institute, could it be that all these robots might be precursors to the Synths or possibly some newer models provided for the area?
Potential spoiler, in case anyone hasn't seen the finale yet. Not much of one, but enough to warrant a warning, I think.
I swear that final future that Spike and Twilight (along with Starlight) enter is essentially post-war Equestria from Fallout: Equestria. I mean, they've canonised war, the airforce, Rainbow Dash as a commander, and a barren wasteland...you can't tell me that's not a nod to Kkat's work.
3576694 I can see that. I mean they'd have to start somewhere, right? And seeing the gen 1 synths definitely supports this hypothesis.
Also, I'm pretty sure it's name is Codsworth. 
Why does your character look like a female Harry Potter? .3.
3575968
I remember him because he had a dog, but he never said anything when I tried to talk to him.
Post your toughts abaut the finale when a stabile version is out.
What did you guys think off the zebra armor that Zecora wore?
Um, just to put it out there.. 1080p HD video of the finale is up, if anyone is looking for a good link. Link will go down soon enough, they do not last after the week it airs. I just realized they added a thumbnail, and a funny one at that.The video is down now, if anyone is looking for a link there are alternative sites like kisscartoon and dailymotion. Where EQD links to dailymotion and such on their episode posts.
I'm re-watching the finale for the missed dialogue I didn't catch. Also to process it better.
Of course we would all love a blog on your thoughts of the Season 5 finale. Just got done reading this diary blog and so far so good. That's quite humorous in a way, the radio guy giving away the location of the settlement to any enemies. Guess that's why some listen to the radio on and off. As for the cheating and confession thing, well if the truth will set you free. Not a problem for me, just be sure to use the cheats in moderation of course.
Also speaking of Walden Pond mentioned, not too far going to Lonely Chapel I found a wounded dog called Mutt. Anyone else? The girl seems to just stay by where found, wonder if it was random event or what.
3578102 He never showed up in my town, but there is a lady who sells junk that wandered in one day