APBD Special - Nuka Edition · 4:58pm Apr 11th, 2017
art by Scientsit
Well, I'm going to be gone for a bit, heading off to a couple conventions. But I had to put up something before I left. The Season 7 premiere is almost here, and we've just been given our first glimpse of the upcoming My Little Pony movie!
The teaser trailer spoils nothing whatsoever about the movie, but only shows us the new animation (sort of) and ramps up the hype. If you haven't seen it, check it out below!
(And if you are wondering what I mean by "sort of", the trailer was released with improper conversion, crushing the shadows and leading to a trailer whose animation appears substantially inferior to the final product. You can read more about it here, or check out Dr. Wolf's video regarding it here.)
Obviously, I am going to watch this movie as soon as I can. (Sadly, I am unable to see a lot of movies when they come out because of the way movies are divided between our town and another -- as much as I look forward to this movie, I'm not going to pay an extra $50 or more in cab fare to catch it.) But my hopes are that I can see it in the local theater when it releases. And I will definitely give you my Afterthoughts on it soon after.
I will also be continuing my Afterthoughts with Season 7, as a lot of you seemed to enjoy reading those for Season 6. My next blog will very likely be an Afterthoughts on the premiere, which I will write after I return from my convention vacation.
Meanwhile, I have finally gotten around to playing the Nuka-World DLC for Fallout 4. I was hoping to find a fresh settlement to tackle and show off... but sadly, Nuka-World has no settlements. (Edit: It does have one. Thank you, TIAS-A1927.) Even the player home they give you isn't a proper player home, lacking a workbench. This was but one of several disappointments with the DLC, which I am now playing through to get to the end, having already determined Angel's course of action. Once done, I am hoping to install a few mods that might allow me to make some interesting use out of the place.
After the break, I offer a new bit of writing related to my "Angel's Pip-Boy Diary" series. This time, instead of hearing from Angel, I thought I'd write about her first few days in Nuka-World from the perspective of a member of one of Nuka-World's raider gangs talking with a few others as they gather on the edge of the Commonwealth, forming a raiding party.
I hope you enjoy. 
No, you heard me right. We’ve got ourselves a new Overboss.
How’d that happen? Let me tell you.
Monorail pulls up middle of the day, and we all hear the news: we got ourselves a runner. Fresh meat for the Gauntlet. Only, not so much a “runner”. This gal takes her sweet time. After the first two hours, only one watching her is Red Eye, cuz he has to; and she’s torturing him with how slow she’s going.
But she makes it. All the way through. We get the call that the main event is about to start, and the Disciples show up eager to see Colter splatter another woman. Operators show up for whatever reason they do; I’d guess boredom, but with what happened, I’m guessing Mags ordered them to. As for us, we knew to start paying attention when, instead of running, she spent the “audience participation” part of the Gauntlet picking off every single raider that ran across the top of the cage.
So the event starts, and there’s Colter in his invincible power armor tied to the arena’s electrical grid. And this gal? She doesn’t even enter the arena. She takes shelter in the doorway and starts taking shots at Colter with this suped-up 50-caliber sniper rifle of hers. And every shot is hitting Colter’s helmet in exactly the same place. And it’s working! For the first time, somebody’s actually damaging that suit of his. And Colter can’t even get at her; his power armor can’t leave the arena. Oh he’s taking shots at her. But she has cover. And every time he gets lucky, she just ducks out of sight and treats herself to a stimpack. Waits until she’s good, then starts sniping him again.
At this point, we’re thinking either she’s going to run out of stimpacks or run out of ammo… but if she doesn’t, she’s actually going to drill right through Colter’s so-called “invulnerable” armor and splatter his brains inside that ugly helmet. You can see the damage she’s doing. But just when I think we’ve got this fight figured, suddenly this gal jumps right into the arena with Colter! And she’s holding a squirt gun! She sends some water his way and Colter’s damn power armor shorts out! Gal whips out her gun and blows his face off.
And that’s it. Colter’s dead. No more Overboss.
Only that’s not it, because Gabe immediately proclaims this gal our new Overboss. No joke. We don't know her from cattle; she ain't even a raider. Yet that flies. Apparently, the bosses all made some kind of deal that whoever took down Colter gets his job. I wouldn’t believe it if the Mason didn’t say it was true.
So here we all are, getting our first look at the new Overboss. And she don’t look like much. She’s clearly smart and has one hell of an aim. With that sniper rifle of hers, at least she shares something in common with the Operators. The Disciples? The Gauntlet was their funhouse, and she just walked through it. As for us? Well, she is clearly down with our dressing-as-animals thing, but this gal dresses like a bunny rabbit! Nobody, and I mean nobody, knows what to make of her.
Gabe gives her a few words but other than that, she doesn’t talk with anyone. It’s six o’clock when she walks out of the Arena. And what's our new Overboss do first, having fought through the Gauntlet and Colter? She doesn't talk to nobody, she doesn't take a rest, she hardly even looks around. She just walks on out of the park... but not before walking the cage, stripping the weapons from all her kills.
After that, she heads back to the monorail, and most of us are thinking bunny gal is rabbiting. But no. All night long, we’re hearing the sound of that gun of hers. I figure she was bleeding off the adrenaline by hunting the wildlife at the edge of the park.
Come morning, the Operators are having a shootout with a squad of Gunners at that house out on the parameter, and the Overboss appears. She jumps into the fight, and even hunts down the Gunner commander who tried to escape out the back.
Now I know what you're thinking, cuz I was thinking it too: she showing favoritism to the Operators? So I went and had a talk with Harvey. See all these bodies scattered around the Nuka-World Transit Center? Way Harvey tells it, this is her work, and these were all Gunners. That woman laid siege to this place with just that sniper rifle of hers, her armor-mesh bunny suit, and a jetpack. So I’m thinking she has something against Gunners.
After that, I dunno. I think she found somewhere out there and finally went to sleep. Nobody saw or heard from her again until six o’clock that evening – exactly one day after she killed Colter. She walks back into the park all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and has herself a little pow-wow with Gabe. Then she goes and meets with all the bosses. Tells them what they want to hear, I think, cuz everyone decides to give this gal a chance. But us in the Pack don't just listen to words. Real predators know how to read body language. And between you and me, all those raiders who don’t think so much of the new Overboss? Feeling’s mutual. Except for maybe Gabe, I’m pretty certain she don’t care for any of us.
And get this: Harvey says she saw through his act. After wiping out the Gunners at the transit center, he says, she stripped them, took off for a few hours, then came back. She knew it was a trap and she came to Nuka-World anyway.
Yesterday morning, before the sun was even up, the new Overboss walks out of the park again. This time, she's got Gabe in tow. An hour later, we start hearing that gun of hers; sounds like she's dealing with Kiddy Kingdom's ghoul problem. That’s right, what Colter wasted a year not doing, she’s already started.
Shooting lasted until early this morning. No flag though.
After an hour of silence, a few of the Pack went over to check it out. Place is clean of ghouls. While they were there, we started hearing that gun of hers going off in Dry Rock Gulch. Word is, the new Overboss isn’t going to give out any of the uncontrolled areas until she’s taken all of them. Which, at this rate, won’t take a week.
That is, assuming she doesn’t just decide to come and clear us out too, and take it all for herself.
So me, I figure it’s a good idea to volunteer for chores in the Commonwealth for a bit. We in the Pack ain’t cowards, but we’re not stupid either. We’re wolves. And wolves know better than to fuck with a deathclaw.
art by MisterMech
Side Note: All the raider gangs in Nuka-World are deplorable, and playing through the content is rather grating for anyone who doesn't want to play as human filth. So Angel's intention is to clear the different zones of Nuka-World of hostiles, then divide the zones such that the worst of the three, the Disciples, get absolutely nothing. That will spark a war that will hopefully end not only with the Disciples wiped out, but the other groups thinned enough that she can turn around and wipe them out too, giving the territory over to the traders they had enslaved. In game terms, this means I will be playing through the DLC's main storyline (I will be using this mod to skip raiding my own settlements), avoiding all radiant quests, then afterwords initiate the Open Season quest.
But Kkat, there is a settlement on the DLC! And it's awesome, it's a red rocket station east of the park, and if you clear it entirely with scrap everything, you have a huge plain territory bigger than Starlight Cinema. http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Nuka-World_Red_Rocket
I'm working on there right now, using those amazing mods you suggested me with pre-fallout building style.
Also, gladly waiting for both the new season, the movie, and your afterthoughts!
Kinda disappointed in Nuka-World. There are only a quests for raiders. If you don't wanna be a raider you can kill all of them and... that is. There are no quests from freed original Nuka-World owners. Nothing. Zilch. Zero. Nada. Good job, Bethesda. So I either become a Raider even if it goes against all that I achieved up to this point or don't get anything at all. Brilliant!
I had to put off putting my money down on this game after the Automatons DLC and the Workbench. I find I've put too much cash down on a game that requires mods to make it playable. I feel these were changes the company itself could have done, given the time and money put into development. It feels like they got to the 96% part and said to themselves, "Good enough. Let others clean up our mess."
It's a fun game, but after hours and hours of exploring, the little things start to get annoying and I think to myself, 'why didn't they fix this in the first place?'. Turning to mods to correct some of the more glaring mistakes is annoying.
I'm just nitpicking. I love the game, but it does have its frustrating moments.
That being said, I have no interest in Nuka-World. It feels like it's there to destroy what you built.
Love your writing as always, kkat. I played Nuka World when it first came out, and while it has some good points, it was pretty disappointing. Do try the Grandchester mansion though; it can be a little buggy, but if the triggers work right it can be fun. And the Hubologists quest is a good laugh. And I liked the Sarah Petrovita quest was pretty neat, once I found all the blasted letters.
There is a settlement there? Huh, good to know. But I was happy enough with that small home base on Mount Fizz or whatever it's called.
Thanks for pointing out that mod. I played along until they asked me to siege the commonwealth and I had to take on all three gangs at once.
YAY! Can't wait for more afterthoughts.... and yeah nice going Bethesda, a DLC only people that like being utter assholes in games can get anything out of.
Oh boy, they have no idea how right they are about Angel. So many surprises and even a NPC from Fallout 3 that you can talk to and go out on an adventure...
I kind of feel like the Commonwealth invasion should have been the last thing to do on the DLC. A moment of no return if you will. It makes sense that you would play along at first. And it would also make sense that until things were stabilized at the park, no other attempts at other settlements would be considered. So I sort of feel like it was a missed opportunity. It could have very well have been a choice worthy of a whole nother ending where you forget about your son and embrace being a raider or chose to end the left over raider gangs and continued to pursue your son and the original endings. But alas.
Hey, a kkat post! Always a treat, lets see what on my dear friends mind.
okay, a iamalittlepip gif, starting out strong...
You're lying aren't you?
Ehh... gotta be honest, I've since tempered my enthusiasm for all that brings me joy in life when a certain group in a certain game company took a sixty dollar dump into my xbox one, the purchase of said console had been done solely for something I had told would be amazing. I am now sad.
Nice too see that fans pick up the ball where bethesda dropped it so they could entice the proverbial pooch they have boinked angrily, but damn it, this shouldn't have been an issue to start.
Can I also reiterate the point that nuka blinking cola owned a monopoly on beverage to the point that one could drink water, sunset sarsparilla, or their isotope infused cancer causer, yet for all that wealth, all they could build was one amusement park, and how this should give a clue as to the dire state of the world the powers that be had made things? No? no one cares you say? okay
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yet ever grows the mountain of evidence that this rendition of my glorious and deeply beloved fallout has fallen into the grubby flexing fingers of fucking feckless fools who have thus torn my beloved in twain. I wonder if this is the franchise equivelant of how Titus felt when he saw what happened to his daughter
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Not true.
You could also drink all manner of booze too.
And Sunset Sass whatver was a regional thing only.
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true. but somethng tells me they probably made that too
also sarsparilla is a tea, i think
I'm coincidentally in my first playthrough of Nuka World right now. I left Gabe hanging at the overboss home, went to the traders and started killing every single raider in sight. Now I'm just sightseeing and looking for Cappy paintings.
The DLC was clearly not designed for a raider-hating character, even through that is the premise for going on board the train in the first place. Sure, speaking with the traders gives you the quest to kill the raiders, but that seems to be all, save for the sightseeing missions.
4492745 Sarsparilla is actually a drink (generally a soft drink) that has a lot in common with root beer. There was a time when it was considered medicinal, and was a popular non-alcoholic drink in the U.S. West.
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4492701 Don't forget Vim! Of course the Far Harbor DLC made it abundantly clear what Nuka Cola did to competitors that didn't sell out.
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oh. well thank you kkat. learn something new everyday
4492792 That's actually true of most old soda's. "Dr Pepper" was called Dr for a reason. Pepsi was named after 'Dyspepsia' (fancy term for indigestion) which it was supposed to help cure. Coke really did have Cocaine in it, and back then Cocaine was seen as a perfectly legitimate medication.
Yes, Soda was once considered a health drink.
I hope you have fun at the convention!
I actually have a trip planned for my birthday this weekend so I won't be catching the season premier. At least I think the premier is this weekend.
Once I get back, I plan on sitting down and watching the premier along with Fate of the Furious with a few friends. 
I can't be entirely certain, but I think in the Nuka-World DLC I took down the factions just before the last quest where you are asked to invade Sanctuary Hills. I think I beat them all up with Macready and a couple of well made power armor suits.
Looking forward to your after thoughts!
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you know, in far too many ways to my liking, it seems life in the old days was way more fun then nowadays. damn kids with their safe corners and spirographs and their electric hockey knock em bop em sentient mechanations
My "non-violent" solution to Nuka-World was to use the option to talk settlers into leaving the target settlement without violence, said settlement being the Murkwater construction site. I choose that one because it literally had one or two people in it, and it was basically a role-playing version of a glorified trade post. I gave it to the Operators, the only Nuka-World gang that seemed even remotely sane and reasonable. Not an ideal solution, as Garvey still pitches a fit, but my "role-playing" idea behind it is that my character is working towards a longer term goal of civilizing Nuka-World, first by getting rid of the freakin' Disciples who are pure nutters, and then gradually trying to turn the Operators, who are money oriented, towards being a more legitimate trader group who can eventually oust the Pack on their own, or crack enough skulls to get them to play caravan guard. Once things settle down, one could get the collars off the slaves, turn Nuka-World into a decent trading hub, all without a large scale bloodbath.
Yeah, my mind had to do some mental gymnastics to "role-play" that concept, but I preferred it as a solution over just wiping the whole place out. I like Porter Gage too much anyway. Him and Garvey just need to have a drink and talk out their differences like sensible people.
4492925 I'm old enough to remember the past wasn't actually better than the present if you push through the film of nostalgia. And there is nothing that the past had to offer worth trading away the ability to be part of an internet community like this and share in the friendship of people like all of you.
Interesting armor choice
I basically did what you are doing minus giving the Raiders anything. I just wiped them out, not exactly easy and feat at level 115 and at very hard difficulty. But hey, I needed a challenge was getting bored outta my mind.
Everything has just become bullet sponges.
Anyway neat look into her adventures and I'm on the same train with disappointment with nuka world, wish besthda had had more dlcs with stories but oh well.
4513324 I'm guessing that sauerkraut is an analogy for something
Nice to know someone else knows my pain
That AK at the vendors is quite nice expensive as hell but I think worth it. Although I don't remember spending that much course at the lvl I was at I suppose I had maxed out my Charisma and prices perks.