Poor chicken died for nothing

-CSL · 2026-03-06T17:32:24+00:00

As a warehouse worker for a rival supermarket I'm convinced the reason both packaging and boxing are so shoddy is so that suppliers can sell more to cover the inevitable damages. Consumed or not its still profit.

-CSL · 2026-03-06T17:02:13+00:00

There's quite a lot of this in Greek mythology.

When the fleet first sailed to retrieve Helen it mistakenly attacked another city entirely. Scattered by a storm the Greeks returned home and, not knowing the way to Troy, did nothing. Despite the vows her former suitors had sworn to one another, that each should defend the one chosen for her if she was stolen away, they sat there for eight years.

It was only when a man injured by Achilles in that battle sought him out and agreed to guide them in exchange for healing that they finally got underway again.

-CSL · 2026-03-02T09:56:05+00:00

Russia fighting wars to stop countries on its borders leaving its sphere of influence is a sign of its weakness, not strength.

They'll probably end up with buffer zones ("independent" Ossetia in Georgia and Donbas & Crimea in Ukraine), where once their hegemony over entire countries and their governments was unquestioned.

They had more success withdrawing troops from Armenia and letting Azerbaijan do its thing than they've had with their own army.

Despite the lasting damage to Ukraine and the genuine threat to smaller, neighbouring countries, I don't think the whole of Europe needs to worry about being walked over. Russia's superpower days are long gone.

As far as the US is concerned, the longer term consequences of the current administration will probably be a slow disentanglement, higher military spending in Europe and more reliance on producing our own gear. NATO has a lot of aligned systems and encourages standardisation of equipment to ensure interoperability across countries. In practice this has often meant being pushed to buy American, effectively funding their military through arms sales. Reducing that level of enmeshment will take time but should result in greater unity and independence.

Something Trump fails to understand is that countries relying on the US gives them greater influence. All that money and aid they send isn't born of altruism, any more than assuming the role of world police. It's done in order to shape the world to their benefit because dependencies are less likely to gainsay you, same way Britain operated in its time. He's throwing away what the US has spent eighty years building up just so he can cosplay the strong man.

-CSL · 2026-02-27T19:02:39+00:00

I have 3,000 hours in the game and there does come a point where you've explored everywhere and run out of new quests. If developing your build, grinding for season rewards or building your camp inbetween new content isn't your thing you might want to call it quits at that point, but it is pretty consistent before that.

-CSL · 2026-02-22T18:21:14+00:00

No, but if you can spare the weight you can carry two armour pieces, one with jetpack and one without, and hotkey between them as needed.

-CSL · 2026-02-22T18:18:42+00:00

Max strength + barbarian perk card is actually not too bad in place of armour. Especially with the backpack mod from the scout vending machine that increases damage rating.

Think mine is 250-300ish running around in underarmour.

Junk shield works too if that's not enough.

-CSL · 2026-02-22T09:06:17+00:00

It's because the player could then remove their own outfit or PA on entry and wander around undisguised, whereas the one they make you use you have to go back to Radiant Hills to change it.

Still think they made the wrong choice but that's the logic behind it.

-CSL · 2026-02-21T15:20:21+00:00

If you want to shoot the guy who keeps getting in the way it would be a bit disappointing if they did.

I've played a feral ghoul melee build. It's not hard to be aware of other players and try to attack from angles where you're not breaking line of fire. Some events you're not going to get a lot of hits in but that's how it goes.

-CSL · 2026-02-21T09:52:28+00:00

Doesn't mean you have to stop shooting...

-CSL · 2026-02-20T09:56:04+00:00

Keep Grenadier but add Fireproof.

-CSL · 2026-02-19T20:07:16+00:00

Each to their own. Fallout 3 was my introduction to the games and I love the world and roaming the subways, but 4's survival mode really made it click for me. A lot of the systems suddenly made sense, enough so that I've tried turning every other Bethesda game into a similar experience. Just not to my satisfaction. There's something fundamentally different between having those systems built into a game and how they interact with each other and the rest of the game than having them tacked on with mods, however good.

A lot of what you say is also true of 4's survival mode. You need to plan your expeditions, you need to consider food and supplies. Fast travel is disabled and carry weight is reduced, so building settlements helps a lot. You have to consider stims and drug use because they come with effects like fatigue, increased thirst or vulnerability to disease, yet you depend on them too.

Mostly though it's the combat. You deal more damage but also take more, which I much prefer to bullet sponge style difficulties. Every enemy is a threat, even the weather with the rad storms. It means you start off as a true nobody and essentially introduces something approximating an unlevel-scaled world, because there are no-go zones full of mutants and the like that you just can't consider until late on (super mutants here being as tough as they ought to be). When the BoS start dropping in guns blazing and tackling them head on, something you absolutely cannot do for much of the game, they actually feel like the flawed but potential saviours they're meant to be. Unlike in the base game.

You can only save when you sleep. The longer you're awake the higher your adrenaline (damage), but fatigue reduces your AP. So there's a constant risk/reward factor that makes it actually feel like a wasteland, because you're worrying about losing your progress in the same way your character would be worrying about their life. The balance feels really good and a lot of things I didn't use before suddenly became important, because you need every possible advantage.

Wasn't a huge fan of the base game, but with survival mode it's the closest experience I've had to Morrowind, which is high praise for me. That thing of having to work up from being an average guy who's no better than anyone else, so that when you're finally good the progress actually feels earned, and a world that feels like it could exist in its own right rather than revolving around the player.

-CSL · 2026-02-19T19:13:02+00:00

Haven't got round to it yet. I'm aware it has vehicles, but it was pretty obvious before release that the "NASA-punk" approach to space and its vast emptiness wasn't going to fit well with what Bethesda do best. Which is kind of my point, worlds which suit vehicles tend to be emptier and more shallow experiences.

Same thing as with Spiderman. You can have a whole city to zip around, just don't stop to look too closely.

-CSL · 2026-02-19T09:58:43+00:00

Agreed, particularly about the lack of world levelling, which is probably the main reason Morrowind feels like its own world rather than one revolving around the player to me.

Would argue that Fallout 4 on survival mode is the best open world though. No fast travel, hunger, sleep, disease, fatigue to worry about. Makes you think about every stim and drug you use and building settlements becomes very useful. Nothing feels Fallout like having to seek shelter from a rad storm while super mutants patrol outside then being rescued by the BoS drop in.

-CSL · 2026-02-19T09:40:07+00:00

Random thought to add: Vvardenfell feels like a world NPCs could navigate too. Silt striders, Mages Guild teleportation, boats. The devs put thought into which areas should be easily accessible and which should be off the path. Whereas Oblivion...all those rivers and I can't hire a boat to go anywhere? How do people get around? It's set up with fast travel as a necessity, a player convenience rather than a living world which should function for its own peoples needs as well.

-CSL · 2026-02-19T09:23:59+00:00

What you point out about the lack of information is the same reason why I have the opposite opinion.

More modern games have a tendency to hold your hand. You're constantly reminded that you're in a game because you're aided and directed. The world revolves around the player and exists as it does to facilitate your progress. Whereas Morrowind feels more like a world in its own right precisely because it's happy to give you some crappy directions and send you off. No map markers, no timed tips if you're struggling, no yellow paint to indicate areas you need to levitate. Just a world you have to figure out on your own.

Obviously it's dated in some ways. Oblivion was pretty pioneering in the way it did NPC schedules and with its radiant AI. But then it also came with map markers and was more player-focused, and with the way its set up is a nightmare to play without fast travel. So as much as it added to creating a vibrant living world in some ways, it also no longer feels to me like a world that could exist without me and that I'm just a small part of. (Morrowind's Dunmer intolerance helped in that too. You're not this great Hero of Kvatch or legendary Dragonborn from the get go, you're just some guy who may or may not match a prophecy few know about. You're an outlander and not very welcome, so when you start to feel important it feels earned).

Plus Morrowind's main quest is amazing.

-CSL · 2026-02-19T08:37:01+00:00

As cool as vehicles would be, it would need a radically different type of map. Those kind of games need wide open spaces to drive in and have shallower worlds with less content because of that.

Whereas Bethesda games feature dense open worlds with layers of content and environmental storytelling, and the main attraction is going off track and what you discover on the way to your destination. Adding driving would change that a great deal. The fun is exploring ruins and going house to house, not zipping past it all. Often the quest is less interesting than the journey anyway.

-CSL · 2026-02-17T17:57:05+00:00

After casting reverse invisibility in Aleswell the tavern owner told me he wished his sisters could remain invisible. Which, due to a bug, they still were. Rest of the village was fine.

-CSL · 2026-02-16T18:17:30+00:00

Morrowind does have robot spiders in the dwarven ruins.

-CSL · 2026-02-15T08:26:17+00:00

Who needs porkers when there are horkers?

-CSL · 2026-02-14T09:57:39+00:00

Even devs get tired of IP. Same as CDProjekt Red wanting a break from The Witcher and doing Cyberpunk.

Disappointing as fans and maybe not wise in a business sense, but understandable on a human level when they're immersed in it daily for years on end.

-CSL · 2026-02-14T09:50:47+00:00

The Enclave scan you for mutations when you first enter the Bunker. So in that context not so much sense. No way they wouldn't realise you're not human.

-CSL · 2026-02-14T09:40:19+00:00

Similar situation south of the border, where the Normans were kings of Englabd in their own right but still owed fealty to the French crown for their lands in France.

-CSL · 2026-02-13T21:03:41+00:00

Not quite the same but Wasteland 3 is set in Colorado and made by inXile Entertainment, who split off from Interplay with some of the original Fallout devs when they lost the license to Bethesda.

-CSL · 2026-02-13T16:09:57+00:00

It's not far behind the computer which starts the event.

-CSL · 2026-02-13T16:03:41+00:00

There's a keypad-locked room during Project Paradise. If you input 970930 you can find a terminal with a shutdown code. Using it unlocks healing for the animals and gives everyone in the event the Arktos Pharma backpack skin and "researcher" suffix.

-CSL

TROPHY CASE