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Update 4 ? Problems with Primm and Powder Gangers

Well, it's time to say goodbye to Goodsprings!



OH GOD THE TEXTURES DIDN'T LOAD



Peaceful geckos runnin' around after whatever.



Some hostiles, too.



One of the fun things about VATS is that you can get fun bullet cameras sometimes if it'll be a finishing shot. Or sometimes not, VATS remains slightly buggy and you can occasionally watch a bullet fly across forever to plink harmlessly off the wall next to your target who wandered off sometime during the animation

I didn't mention it earlier, but VATS itself has had some changes from Fallout 3, the biggest of which is that the damage reduction while in VATS has been drastically reduced ? from 90% to 25%, in fact! Also the critical chance has been lowered, weapons no longer take enhanced damage when fired in VATS (thank christ) and time doesn't slow down as much. It's still useful, but these power reductions aid in making the FPS elements more prominent.

(It has some other problems, one of which is being frequently unable to hit a particular enemy, but I'll talk about that more in detail when we meet that type of critter.)

We come up on Primm, and are accosted by this guy.



What's going on in Primm?

Some convicts from the prison up the road have taken over the town. Everyone inside is either dead or in hiding. What's more, there are two tribes of raiders causing trouble in this area as well. You'd be safer heading back up to Goodsprings.

Shouldn't you be protecting the town or something?

We'd love to, but they don't fall under NCR jurisdiction. Even if they did we're in no shape to protect them.

Why can't you protect them?



This here is kind of a running thing with NCR.

You should talk to Lieutenant Hayes. He's in a tent down the road. Just stay on the west side of the overpass if you don't want to get shot.

Knowing the situation, we proceed to just head straight into Primm because is the best way to solve problems.



Frag mines! The next step up from the powder charges I fucked up the powder gangers' attack with. If I'd headed down this far and stolen these, I probably could have just ended the entire charge at the beginning. These will kill your legs, all right.



There's usually a few dudes around this section, but I don't know where they are this time. There were generally too few escaped convicts in Primm in fact.



This is one of the two convicts on the old roller coaster track. Courier takes him out no problem.

We loot somebody's house (it's Deputy Beagle, he has no idea how to use this shit anyway as we'll discover)





There's all of two guys on the streets, this is one of them.



Courier gets a non-lethal but crippling headshot on the second and he ends up cowering like this

No survivors.





This is what's left of Primm's sheriff.

Don't feel so bad about shooting that cowering guy anymore.



Cowboy repeater under the bed, to match the Sheriff hat and duster we found in the house. It uses .357 magnum and is honestly not a terrible gun but this one's in shit condition and we don't have anything to repair it with at the moment.



Seriously, fucker would jam like no tomorrow and get us killed the way it is.



Hey, who's this?



Another courier, eh? Let's see what you were delivering...



Compare that to mine...







The other track convict was around here but I think I killed him THEN screenshotted instead of the other way around



The Magic Quest Compass points us in here, so let's head on in.



Who are you?

Johnson Nash's my name. Husband to Ruby Nash. Lived in Primm going on eight years now, thick and thin. I'm a trader primarily, for what it's worth with things like they are. I also run the local Mojave Express outpost.

I'm a courier with the Mojave Express.

Well, I don't got any work right now, sorry to say.

I lost a package I was supposed to deliver.

I'll tell you whatever I can. Do you have a delivery order you can show me?

Sure do. What can you tell me about this job?



What was strange about it?

That cowboy robot had us hire six couriers. Each was carrying something a little different. A pair of dice, a chess piece, that kind of stuff. Last word I had from the office, it looked like payment had been received for the other five jobs. Guess it was just your chip that didn't make it.



He canceled?

Yeah, got this look when he saw you next down on the Courier list. His expression turned right around, asked me if your name was for real. I said, sure as lack of rain, you were still kicking. Then he turned down the job, just like that. I asked if he was sure, it was good money.



Do you know who he was? Where he went?

No idea. Sounds like you two had a history for him to act like that. And turn down the money, too. Hope he didn't see any trouble in that package of yours. Maybe he thought your name was bad luck. Not for me to say.

Cowboy robot? You mean the one over there?



What the fuck, Victor, what the fuck. Anyway, some men stole my package. A man in a checkered suit and some thugs. Did they pass this way?

Well, now that you mention it, a few nights back one of the townies was out scavenging for supplies. He said he saw a fella with a daisy suit come through with some of them Great Khan misfits. They was talking about a chip.

One of those men shot me. I need to know the best way to get to them.

Well for that your best bet is going to be talking to Deputy Beagle. Since they came to town he was keeping a good bit of notes on them, and he was slinking around Bison Steve when your pretty-boy friend came through. He may have heard where they were going.



This here is a crazy robot who could tell us all about Vikki and Vance (a pair of small time crooks the casino is named after and who got killed in a shootout between cops and Bonnie & Clyde). We can talk to him about some missing items:









But somebody's been tampering with him and we can't fix him just yet. This is an unmarked quest; I'll get to it in a little bit. We have some things to do anyway.





Dude inside.





This is one of the few reasons for the software locks to be A Thing ? if the lock is too much for your lockpicking but your Science is enough for the computer, well, pop that open! This is the case for now, so I do it.



The little bit of XP pushes us up and I tank it into lockpicking for reasons.



Intense Training goes into Endurance again.



I do not need this key.



That level pushed us past 50 lockpicking, so we can open Average locks now!



Obsidian kept Med-X as Med-X, but it's morphine.



I'll be back for you, SAFE.



This here is a rarer type of book! It raises Courier's Barter skill by 3, permanently.



I can repair this panel and make the elevator work again. Woo!

Through a nearby maintenance door...









Big Boss Man somehow missed the unsilenced gunshots and screaming.



I fuck up the sneak attack and he comes after us. He's got an incinerator and Courier is just a little on fire right now.





Here's the man we came to see, though.



You must be Deputy Beagle.

Why, yes I am. It's a pleasure to meet you.

I hear you may have information on some Khans that came through here with a guy in a checkered suit.

Indeed I do good sir, and I would be thrilled to share that information with you as soon as I am released from captivity.



I'll set you free now.





I don't actually care, the bandits on this floor are dead, but I wanted the speech check XP (I couldn't make the other one)

Oh! Why, uh, of course! I would never let you fight my kidnappers with my help. Uh, without it! You lead the way!

We walk on out.



Breaking myself out of a hostage situation ? not to diminish your role in it, of course ? but it was quite thrilling. Problem is, there's still no law in Primm. What're we to do the next time ruffians menace us and hold us hostage?

Don't care. Can you tell me about the man in the checkered suit who came through here?

Ahh yes, my memory is much clearer now that I am free from my bondage. I was sku... er, performing recon, gathering information on some of the Powder Gangers, when some great Khans arrived with your friend in the suit. They were talking about some delivery they took from a courier, I assume that was you.



Cool. I'll head there after I deal with the upstairs.





There are in fact some more convicts upstairs.



Some sort of ransom was going on at some point.



And somebody got real fucked up and committed suicide in a tub. Grim.



This door takes us out onto the track, but the two guys there are dead so there's nothing for me to do right now.



There's an up-upstairs though, accessible through this bit of collapsed floorceiling.



Exploding heads dum de dummm



Gun cabinet!



With decent stuff too!

Well, let's go see about Primm's law problems in detail.





What are you talking about? You're the sheriff now!



Coward. Anyway, what are the qualifications for a Sheriff?

It should be someone brave like you, but more of a homebody. Someone who'll settle down and watch over us.





I'll help bring law and order back to Primm.

You will? That's just marvelous! I'll start thinking up questions for the interview!

Let's see about that old correctional facility why don't we?





It is not undefended, but Courier is a good enough shot to fix that from a distance. Pretend I showed you me doing that to the other towers and some guys in the courtyard, too, since it seems boring to actually put those screenshots in.



Also Courier gets his first crippled limb from a powder charge I didn't see in time!



"Requires Key", my old nemesis, we meet again!



(Fortunately we killed the guy who has it, he's standing right fucking by it)



Our first REAL fight is inside!



I handle it by running around and being a cheap jerk.



This guy is an option for Primm's law problems. You guys will vote on that. Official options at the end of the update.



I didn't snipe a dude because I didn't see him, but down he goes.



Good, goooood.



Decent loot inside here (and the nearby Cell Block A), and a named NPC I could have dealings with if I weren't hostile with the Powder Gangers.



Let's see about Administration, though.





Named guys again! (And a large number of Powder Ganger Guards with 9mm SMGs, a tough guy with some brass knuckles, and the boss Eddie ? it was a tough fight, but I softened them up with a good frag grenade toss)



Here's Eddie going down.



Scrambler is the muscle.



A guy with an SMG.



There is ammo behind this door. I probably missed some of it because it got scattered around when I used a grenade downstairs. Oh Gamebryo physics.





Hey, nice!



Heh heh heh.



Turbo is fun. It's addictive, but it activates bullet time and can really swing a tough fight in your favor.



There's another gun case, which handed out a shotgun upgrade!

Anyway, there's one thing to do. Back to Primm!





Remember this safe?





Which I technically still can't open?





Suck it, safe.



Lucky is the game's unique variant on the .357 magnum revolver. It's a lot better ? better damage, better critical chance, better critical damage, lower AP cost, lower weapon spread, and full extra attack per second! All at the cost of, uh, weighing half a pound more.





It also has a unique skin!

So, we have the first vote!

Who should be the new law in Primm?



edit: The audience chose PRIMM SLIMM