There are also new places, I don't know all of them by heart but I know there's a new place to explore in Springvale, some new areas in the mountains to the west, a new metro line in the Washington DC and probably quite some more...

It's never too late to save your Dad but I guess that you're perfectly satisfied in your Capital Wasteland.

I´m pretty content with my game´s content now, yes...

Colonel Autumn is dead, the Purifier is activated and the Enclave is defeated (more or less). Billy Bob deserves some vacations and so do I in real life.

See you when I get back.

I can't stay away from Fallout even on my holidays.

Billy Bob is chillin' in Rivet City but being a man of action, he can't spend a lot of time doing nothing. So in the past few days he solved problems related to bandits attacking water merchants and self-proclaimed cults that were intentionally irradiating fresh water. He also tracked down the missing android but didn't turn him in, instead he helped him and got rid of the android's hunters.

When he's not busy, he can usually be found on the flight deck, smoking and chatting with locals, or at the marketplace where he enjoys eating mirelurk cakes at Gary's Galley. Occasionally he'll take a walk to the Jefferson Memorial to make sure that there aren't any hostiles around.

In the near future he'll probably head back to the dangerous wastes again.

After leaving Rivet City, Billy Bob encountered a water caravan by Potomac that comprised of a scavenger, a pack brahmin and two RC security guards. They didn't seem well prepared for the dangerous wastes so Billy Bob decided to protect them.

The caravan crossed the Potomac bridge and headed south past the citadel to the Arlington Library. Until there, the journey was uneventful but not far from the library an Enclave vertibird dropped some soldiers that were quickly dispatched by Billy Bob and the crew.

They continued west - Billy Bob often ran ahead to make the way clear by killing raiders and Talon mercenaries. The caravan then continued in the direction of Tenpenny Tower, past Smith Casey's garage - except occasional yao guais, mole rats and robots they didn't encounter anything particularly dangerous.

But it didn't stay like that for long - a short distance north of the garage, the Brahmin was killed by a sentry bot and some time later one of the RC guards was killed by a giant radscorpion. Nonetheless, the scavenger, the other guard and Billy Bob continued north, past the Five Axles Rest Stop and crossed Potomac, killing more yao guais, mutants, raiders, radscorpions and mirelurks. Not long after they crossed Potomac, the second guard was killed by Mr Gutsy that was protecting some pre-war army stash. The scavenger panicked and ran away while Billy Bob had to deal with Mr Gutsy. When he destroyed it, he found the scavenger, but just in time to see him getting killed by a trio of radscorpions.

This made Billy Bob the only survivor of the water caravan. But what he learnt is, that no matter how harsh the wasteland is and no matter how many more water merchants will die, the clear water has finally reached the Capital Wasteland - even if it means being found on dead merchants and rotting brahmin. After a final nod to his former companions, the young wanderer travelled back to Smith Casey's garage to finish an unfinished business.

*This journey was more interesting than the entire main quest.

Maybe now you understand why I don´t care for any MQ

Same here!

As it happens I´m following someone too now, but instead of a water caravan it´s an Outcast patrol. It´s two guys and a Protectron and we´re about north of Charnel house

Holy crisis!

The sadly ironic thing about Bethesda games is that the AI of most of the NPCs and critters is turned off most of the time, and only turns on when the Player comes near. So that if you didn't shepherd these groups, they would walk right past raiders, radscorpions, and so on, without a hair on their head being touched. But since you are there, the bad guys "wake up" and start attacking everything in sight.

So we´re the whole problem, then? As long as we´re not out there everything´s fine

More random runnin´-around-shootin´-stuff-and-getting-shot-at! Loot is collected and converted to caps! Right now I´m on my way to Germantown

If you look in the Construction Set/Gekco/Creation Kits for the games, each actor has a box called No low level processing . If that is checked, the actor's AI is basically turned off, except when the player is in the same cell.

Did you save those prisoners at Germantown police station or are they still imprisoned?

I can't remember where is the Charnel house, the name doesn't sound familiar, maybe I didn't even found it yet. Because as it happens, I found the Sierra Victor radio yesterday for the 1st time, so the Capital Wasteland still holds many mysteries for me.

Billy Bob can be found in the northwest, precisely in the ghoul-infested Warrington tunnels. On a way there he found a broadcast of the Sierra Victor radio and tracked its signal to a heavily trapped drainage chamber. Afterwards he wanted to enter the Tenpenny tower but Billy Bob sometimes doesn't have a way with words, so Chief Gustavo didn't let him in after being called an asshole, an idiot, a prick, a sonofabitch etc... So he wandered to the northwest and came upon irradiated Warrington tunnels. There he had a long and dangerous battle with a ghoul reaver - but the wasteland made Billy Bob durable and rad-resistant (perks) so even reaver ghouls don't deal him as much damage as they used to. Still, they're definitely the most dangerous enemies that Billy Bob currently encounters.

An unpleasant incident occured at the gates of Megaton - some settlers wanted more water but the Brotherhood of Steel denied it. A battle ensued between two parties and out of nowhere a young man in combat armor appeared, deteremined to defend the settlers who wouldn't stand a chance against the Brotherhood's rifles and lasers. This man, that calls himself Billy Bob, killed both Brotherhood knights with Lincoln's repeater, but he wasn't quick enough to save all settlers - only one survived, on the other hand he saved both Deputy Weld and Stockholm. The water trader wanted to run away but he was finished off by Lucky Harith that was just approaching Megaton.

Although Billy Bob is a honorary knight of the Brotherhood of Steel, he was never fond of them and didn't think twice when he had to defend the settlers. Still, they agreed that this incident shouldn't be made public, so they hauled their corpses a distance away from Megaton. Billy Bob realized once more that the Broterhood took advantage of him and his deeds and that in the end they're the ones who have the most profit from purifying the water.

"Arrogant bastards," he thinks as he lits a cigarette and enters Megaton.

I think they both got killed. I was sneaking through the place and overheard the muties talk about going to the cells and kill them off, but at the time I was new to it all (just recently muties had popped up in my game) and was too chicken to make a run for it and kill those green bastards!

On another note, Casdin had been dead for quite some time in my game. But now he´s back again, courtesy of the console!

I'll never forget how Casdin confiscated outcast armor from Ronny, my first FO3 character. He just wanted to say hello but Casdin immediately took it and warned him not to wear it again because he's not in the Outcasts

I said before that I don't know where the Charnel house is; well I looked it up on the wiki and I definitely remember that Billy Bob was there at least once but looks like that he didn't get the map marker for it, maybe he just wasn't standing at the right point to trigger it.

Tried to give Casdin some Outcast power armour but despite saying he collects it he didn´t take it So now it´s back to selling it off for some yummy caps again

Been running around the area where the sniper house is. Pretty nice area in fact, I like it Though every time I want to go there I can´t find it and have to run around for a few sessions before I stumble upon it

You have to wear it for him to take it. At least that's how I remember. But I'm not sure if your character can wear it if you haven't done the MQ or OA because you lack proper training.

IIRC, one of the Keller transcripts is in the sniper house. Billy Bob found only two so far, one in a tent by Potomac and the other one here.

Oh, the transcripts! Some time ago I found the last ones without even looking for them! Though I actually did look up where the last one was...

But the first four I found on my own!

Well it's deep summer now and I'm finally playing some Fallout 3. I'm addicted all over again, glad to say.

You and me both, sister!

When Joe King managed a 1-shot on a distant raider in the Super Duper mart with his new hunting rifle, that's when I new I was addicted again. He did this WITHOUT Vats, too.

I find that with long range shots like that, I always do better without VATS.

Good to see another Fallout 3 junkie!

A slightly longer story for today...

------------------------------------

They 'met' for the first time a few weeks ago. The man was passing the Scrapyard when he saw the dog finishing off some raiders. It didn't seem that the dog needed any help so the man continued on. Funny enough, they felt the same thing as they glimpsed at each other - and this thought was, "it's not going to attack me". The man went on, towards the Minefield, while the dog, whose owner had just been killed by the very same raiders which he killed, remained all alone at the Scrapyard.

They 'met' for the second time a day or two ago. The dog was being attacked by a giant radscorpion and he stood no chance against its deadly claws. Just as the radscorpion was about to deal a final blow, a loud bang echoed through the dog's head, and a bullet passed the dog's left ear, hitting the radscorpion right in its stinger. The bullet was followed by two more, and the radscorpion twisted in the air and fell on the ground, dead. The dog turned around and saw the man that helped him - he seemed familiar and his instincts told him that this man won't harm him. The man remembered the dog more than the dog remembered him, and he was surprised to see that the dog was still alive. Once again, the man continued on to the Minefield, while the dog remained all alone at the Scrapyard.

They 'met' for the third time today. The man was ambushed by a giant radscorpion south of the MDPL-13 Power station and while fighting it, the dog came running up the hill and bit the mutated scorpion. It's hard to say whether it was the dog's bite or the man's blow that killed the radscorpion but it seemed like the dog wanted to return the favor. "Looks like we're meant to see again," said the man and patted the dog. He liked it, it was for the first time that someone was being nice to him, since his owner was killed.

"Lost your owner, eh?" asked the man. As if the dog understood him, he whined.

"I know how it feels, boy. I lost my Dad too," said the man and patted the dog again, at the same time remembering his father, who sacrificed himself for his son and for the entire Wasteland.

"Say...how about you and me explore these wastes together? What'd you think? It's dangerous out there and I wouldn't mind some company. And an extra pair of eyes. You never know when something's going to creep from behind."

Like the dog sensed the man's intentions, he licked his sun-tanned and sweaty cheeks and barked happily. And so the two lone wanderers who both lost their loved ones and learnt how to live with a pain, joined forces.

Ugh. Don´t talk about Dogmeat and radscorpions. I still remember when he died to one.. Of course I resurrected him but that was the end of our wasteland journey together. Now he lives a quiet life in Megaton.

And if I ever get to it, I may soon have a robot companion...

Aww.

I use a mod that makes both caravan traders and followers essential because else they get butchered at higher levels.

There is a robot companion available close to Tenpenny Tower.


I know, right?

If you have Broken Steel installed, Dogmeat is supposed to get an insane amount of health every time you level up, to the point of about 15,000 hit points.

I remember this from my previous playthroughs but my guess is that the latest unofficial patch fixes this glitch and makes him as he was before Broken Steel because he can get very injured after a battle with a radscorpion or even some less dangerous enemy.

Joe King has returned to Megaton and will soon speak to Moira Brown about the Super Duper Mart. He's found plenty of things to sell, too. He cleared about half of Springvale Elementary, and most of the SDM too. He couldn't break into the computer in the SDM, but I think this is okay. It would have released a robot I think.

It would, and it´s ever so much fun

The robot companion mod I´m gonna use is this one

Gunny looks very neat. Great idea for being able to repair him after he 'dies'.

Exactly! No more invincibility but rather repairability..

And that he can carry stuff for me is icing on the radiation!

The dog wanted to warn his new owner that he shouldn't get too close to a strange object, half-buried in the ground. Whenever he passed through this area with his former owner, they avoided going straight past this thing. He growled and barked but his new owner was getting closer and closer to it, despite his warnings.

"Shut up, boy!" said Billy Bob and with a commanding gesture ordered the dog to sit down. The dog was disciplined and well trained and obeyed immediately, but didn't like where this was going. "If you're so scared of this...whatever it is, then wait here. Wait right here until I get back, understand?" The dog barked twice, once to show that he understood and once more to warn his owner to stay away from the strange object.

Billy Bob opened a bottle of Rad-X, took some pills out and swallowed them with some purified water. Radiation was present around this odd circular object which reminded him of flying objects that he read about in pre-war comic books or shot them down in pre-war computer games that he used to play back in Vault 101. Dad sometimes told him stories about other beings that lived on distant planets which used flying plate-like objects to travel around. Billy Bob didn't know how Dad knew about them but perhaps he read about it in some pre-war books just as he did.

Cautiously, he was stepping down slippery rocks closer to the object when he spotted an odd being lying lifelessly on the ground not far from the object. This being, whatever it was, was very small, about one half of Billy Bob's height, had a green head and a white suit.

"What the [censored]? Un-[censored]-believable," he cursed and jumped down on the object. But right in that moment a strong blue light encircled him and violently started raising him in the air.

"What the [censored] is going on?" He tried grabbing a nearby rock but couldn't reach it. He tried pulling his weapon out but he couldn't. He tried resisiting the strong pull but it was all in vain.

"[censored] [censored] [censored] [censored] [censored] ! ! !"

The dog was watching him from below, but couldn't do anything to help him. All he could do, was to look his helpless owner being dragged to the sky, making some incomprehensible sounds that certainly didn't sound like something nice.

He was watching him for some time , barking loudly but then suddenly the blue light disappeared and so did his owner. The dog laid on the ground and whined; he was sad because he lost another friend. But perhaps he'll come back. And being a good dog, he'll wait for him right where he was ordered to.

I avoid it like the plague. To me they have no business in the Fallout world.

The only add-on I´ve ever visited is Lookout because it gave me a new landmass to explore

Ha ha that's great, Lopov! I love all the cursing! . And it's weird how BB disappeared like that. I hope he's okay.

Allright I got one as well. This is going to be called Return to Moira Brown I think I have the date wrong. I always get confused. Is it supposed to be the year 2077, or 2177, or later? I keep forgetting how it works in FO3.

Friday, 10:37 AM, August 24th, 2077


"So, how's the scavving been?? Got the food from that Super Duper Mart?"

"Yo, what up home slice?" Joe King, one of the three most recent escapees from Valut 101 answers. "Yea I gots the food. [censored] bitch homies in there, but I capped 'em all. POW!"

Joe King speaks in imitation of all the street thugs, the rappers, and the yos he'd seen in back in Vault 101*. Somebody had long ago stashed hundreds of visual media examples onto compact discs and DVDs, and after Joe had watched these over and over, he had begun to speak like the people he had seen. People who lived and died in America before the war. Kept the Tunnel Snakes at bay, that's for sure.

"Really? You DID? Ahh ah, you did!" Moira's voice becomes squeaky and higher-pitched. Like a rat's voice. "Tell me all about it."

"Oh I-a tell you about it, slice. I gots in there wit my [censored] rifle KA-POW. [censored] raider comes up KA-POW! Yo, say hello to my 10 mil, bitch! I would of been kill't, but I killt FIRST. BAYUM!"

"Well as long as it was no problem for you then!" Moira answers brightly. "I mean, who doesn't enjoy cake? Other than robots! I bet they prefer pie. Or Pi."

"the [censored] you talkin about?"

"Well, keep what you got. Just traded for a big food shipment myself. -- Here, take some. My treat. It grates after awhile, but you get used to that."

Joe looks at slop he's been handed, and almost gags. "Yo, where my caps be at, Slice. I aint cappin no bitch homies and not get [censored] paid."

"Oh, and take this!" Moira ignores. "It's an old food sanitizer. Just carry it with you and it should automatically make most food and drink .. moorre .. um, better."

Joe looks at the contraption he's been handed. "Yea I will take that." He doesn't thank her though. With no Overseer out here in the Capitol Wasteland, the freedom to not use proper manners is freeing. "So what up, Slice? How's about you and me headin' over to the Moriartys, I gots some caps. And Moriarty gots the beer."

But Moira is having none of that. "I need someone to research radiation. And I need someone to research how to travel through a minefield," she says with what seems to be forced enthusiasm. "And that'll cover the first section of the book. Which strikes your fancy?"

"Mine field? The [censored]? I ain' goin thru no mine field. [censored] that [censored], Slice."

Moira takes Joe's lack of an answer for a complete one, being a gal of tricks and mind games, she's on it like flies on an iguana stick. "Well, that's what I need your help for, isn't it? I know lots about radiation from books, but have never done any field studies."

"So?"

"So I need you to get a bit of radiation poisoning. So I can study its effects. Ooooh, not a deadly dose of course -- I can fix you before that!"

Joe King thinks this isn't so bad. ..."You pay me CAPS, y'hear? I want caps! ... The [censored] is all my caps, Slice?"

"Oh, you're a peach!, .. or... at least some sort of hardy fruit that grows in the savagely irradiated mockery of agriculture we call our homestead."

"The [censored]?"

"Now, 200 rads should be should be enough for basic sickness, but if you can get 600 rads or more my tests will be even more accurate."

"Damn Slice. You hard. 600 [censored] rads?"

"Just make sure you can get back here. and I'll see to it that you're well taken care of."

"Damn straight, home toast. 'Cause I needs some carin'. Moriarty got some bottles for that!"

Although Moira doesn't pay him, she only gives him a [censored] food sanitizer and some crap food, he manages to make nearly 100 caps after selling her a variety of useless items, or items which he has no use for. This includes a small cache of drugs like Psycho and Jet. Though he has used these sort of drugs before, he prefers alcohol when it comes to getting high.

Joe tries one more time to get into Moira's pants, but it doesn't work. "I be outtie then, Slice."

"See ya!" Moira calls after the man.

.... Crude and obnoxious. Clever, but also just dumb enough, that guy is.

*

I just love mr King´s sweet-talk! And I guess Moira is tougher to deal with than she looks

Btw, I think the war broke out 2077 and since the game is 200 years later, Fallout 3 is in 2277

Yeah, it's hard to say because it says '77' on consoles. Sorry for the language.

I love it when Joe calls Moira 'slice'.





------

They were an odd bunch yet they worked like a team and managed to defeat their captors - the aliens. Sally- a very intelligent child, Somah - a former slaver, Elliot - a shy medic, Toshiro - a samurai, Paulson - a lone cowboy and Billy Bob - a vault dweller. Except Paulson who died while watching Billy Bob's back, everyone made it through the spaceship alive. After some celebrating the party had some well-deserved sleep but in the morning it was time to move on. Sally, Elliot and Toshiro decided to stay on the spaceship and watch over it while Billy Bob & Somah couldn't wait but to step back on Earth. After being separated for almost one week, Billy Bob and his dog whom he calls just "Boy", are roaming the wastes again.

Lol, is this a bug or what, but suddenly the Enclave radio is back in my game? It was off ever since I did the main quest but today I wanted to turn the GNR on and the Enclave radio was clickable again. So we listened to some of Eden's ramblings and then switched to the GNR.

EDIT: Lol, I listened to him again and it's a loop, he repeats the same statements over and over. He goes on on and on about the purifier thing and when he's done, he repeats himself. Specifically, it's this speech that is being broadcasted constantly.

I don't think I have ever had that one before! I guess Eden is the ghost in the machine!

Maybe some scavenger dug through Raven Rock ruins and turned it on again.

But it's also mentioned on wiki, as a bug:

With the Broken Steel add-on, the station will be offline after Take it Back! has been completed even if the player did not convince John Henry Eden to destroy Raven Rock. Once Who Dares Wins is completed, however, the radio station may appear again. All it broadcasts is "We stand now, at the precipice." This glitch may also occur as soon as the player leaves Raven Rock, regardless of whether any add-ons had been purchased. It will loop the message "We stand now, at the precipice." [verified]

Except that I haven't completed Who dares wins so looks like it's possible for radio to turn on regardless of the quest. Also, the looped message in my case is longer.

Whoa there's a spaceship?

Today Joe King did some random exploring, after standing next to the big bomb in Megaton. Standing next to that bomb, he got an easy 200 rads. I think he's going to go for 600 though. After getting his rads for the day, he spent the night in Lucy West's place (and she kicked him out again), then he went exploring, like I was saying. Snuck up on a deadly deathclaw, and decided not to mess with that sucker. Instead, he found a group of raiders living on top of a bridge near Vault 101. He 'capped' them all, too. Very good Mr. King

He managed to level up to 3 or 4 (I forget which) I mostly boosted Small Guns, Sneak, Melee Weapons, Science, and Lockpicking, and gave him the Fast Learner perk. I think that's what it's called. Fast Learner.

A Deathclaw! Unless Joe is high level and ubered up, leaving it alone was a good decision. Those things will ruin your day (and your life!) in a second.

Unless you have the Vulcan, modded to fire straight and twice as fast...

Damn I hate that ammo cap of 250...

There's a spaceship not far from where your character Marge died.
Deathclaws are difficult at low levels but at mid and high levels they aren't as dangerous anymore unless you attack them with [censored] weapons. Reavers become more problematic then because they'll cripple you in a matter of seconds and they have immensely high damage resistance.

On the other hand, deathclaws in New Vegas are much tougher, even at high levels they can kill you with a few swings.


Heh, I didn't know that Vulcan is from a mod, I thought that I just never found it!
But I like the idea of ammo cap, I'm not sure if it exists in vanilla game because I set my own rules: no more than 100 for rifles and no more than 50 for guns. But because B.B.'s main shooting weapons are Lincoln's repeater and Paulson's revolver that both use .44 ammunition, we rarely have 50 bullets for both.

-----

B.B. was lucky today. Extremely lucky. He and his dog were walking to Farragut station and there was some shooting going on behind a corner. Looks like that some bullets made it to a nearby car and suddenly the car exploded. Dog was immediately knocked unconscious but fortunately B.B. was at full health so he survived the blast (barely) but his torso, right arm and right leg were crippled. Stimpaks can't cure crippled limbs (mod), so he had to rest in an office in Farragut. The reason for the explosion was probably two super mutants on the other side of the river fighting with raiders and one of them accidentaly hit the car.

The Vulcan is a mod, but I also had a guy from Bethsoft mod it to shoot faster and straighter, as a minigun should. The ammo cap is B.S if you ask me. Since a minigun is belt-fed it should fire as many bullets as you have. If that wasn´t how they wanted it in Fallout 3, then why even have that backpack?

If I get this correctly, if you have e.g. 1000 bullets in your inventory, you can only fill it with 250 at once and then you have to reload? That's odd, yes.

Correct. I hate it

I usually switch to another weapon before I run out of minigun ammo though so at least I don´t have to see the reloading animation and can thus pretend it doesn´t happen.

MM hmm, that's what it iwas. It was in that barn with the silo near Vault 101, lumbering around. He was in sneak mode and just decided the hell with that. Deathclaw is what killed poor Margey.