[Best Stories] The Lone Ranger

[Drool]

I mentioned in another thread that I was kicking around the idea of a solo PC run. And so I'm doing it. Ladies and Gentlemen, allow me to introduce you to a Ranger with no team. Perhaps he has bad BO. Oh well, he won't be alone for long. Not that early NPCs will be much help.

ST: 14
IQ: 18
LK: 14
SP: 12
AGL: 13
DEX: 12
CHA: 12
MAXCON: 32

Brawling
Climb
Clip Pistol
Rifle
Swim
Perception
Acrobat
Picklock
Silent Move
Combat Shooting
Medic
Safecrack
Cryptology
Forgery
Assault Rifle

His name? Deadmeat.

[Drool]

Surprisingly, it wasn't as difficult as I anticipated. The beginning was just very, very slow.

After getting Jackie from Highpool, I spent an inordinate amount of time at the Ag Center, brutalizing bunnies and lizards to grind up a few levels. Quite a few, actually. I also looted all the fruit and such to sell in Quartz. Pretty much my only sequence break was hitting Darwin early to get Deadmeat a chainsaw from the black market.

After finally finishing the Ag Center, there was a bit of fooling around in the mine for more explosives and money, before heading to Quartz. I cleared out Scott's Bar, got Laurie's loot, cleaned out the room in Stagecoach with the author (because foes spawn in melee range), killed Mulefoot and the dudes in the restaurant part. Then I went to the Courthouse. Using the password and that handy Silent Move, I was able to rescue Danny (adding him to my group), which gave me some much needed cash. I also hired Mayor Pedros. Then I "cheated" a little and went to Needles to grab Christine before going back to Ugly's. Cleared out Ugly's and got Ace. Left Felicia with a bomb in her lap because nobody had bomb disarm. Sorry, Felicia!

Off to Needles. Went through Needles like the freaking Angel of Death now that everyone had some kind of firearm (mostly Uzis and M19s). Slaughtered everyone in the police station (and looted it), laid waste to the Jerk gang meeting (nabbing an assault rifle for Deadmeat), and then went through the Temple of Blood. The fight with the Blood Priest was long because there were a zillion coydogs and they kept knocking us out. Still, we made it through and didn't lose anybody.

Made a quick stop in Vegas to grab Covenant, then went to Darwin again. Despite not having Doctor, I was still able to use Antivenom and cure Mad Dog Fargo and Metal Maniac. I added them to the party. And... that's pretty much where I ended for the night.

At this point, it's really just academic. I have a six person team (Deadmeat, Ace, Christine, Covenant, Metal Maniac, and Mad Dog Fargo) all wielding assault rifles. I don't have good armor, but a stop at Fat Freddie's will give me the money needed to give everyone Kevlar Suits. Then it's just a matter of clearing the sewers. Once I do that, I can replace NPCs with clones of Deadmeat and I'll have a "real" party for wiping out the Guardians and Cochise. Honestly, the biggest problem is getting Deadmeat Doctor, Cyborg Tech, and Energy Weapons. He needs five more levels for all of that, and someone else would have to nab Clone Tech. I'm not sure if I'll bother finishing the game off, since there's no reason I won't be able to with the current group, and I'm getting sick of inventory juggling.

So, it's certainly possible to manage with a single player-created character. The biggest problem is the very beginning when you simply don't have enough people to easily manage. Sure, Jackie's pretty good with her knife, but she has very low attributes, and a Maxcon of 10. Knowing the game really well, and knowing just where to go when certainly helps, but I think a brand new player, if they're patient enough, could manage it as well. Frankly, knowing what skills to take and where to find good NPCs (specifically: Covenant, Metal Maniac, and Mad Dog Fargo) are the biggest help. Especially since, with a bit of luck, you could easily make Covenant your first NPC.

[Takamorisan]

Proceed I'm quite interested in Deadmeat story.
Hope he survive :3

[Drool]

Heh. Easter cut short my play time, so I wasn't able to do much aside from some grunt work. I visited Fat Freddy and agreed to his deal for the cash. Unfortunately, he only fronts 1k, not the 10k I seemed to remember. Still, with selling a rocket from Vegas, I was able to get everyone in Kevlar Suits.

Then... I kind of cheated. I was sure the sewers wouldn't provide the levels I needed for Deadmeat, so I went to Spade's Casino and tried to climb rocks for... awhile. I got about six levels in the basement. Well, Metal Maniac didn't, because he couldn't climb, but the rest did. Of course, a third of the party is still too stupid for Energy Weapons, but they'll probably be replaced with clones anyway. Luckily, everyone but Metal Maniac was able to get Doctor, which I have a feeling I'll need in the Sewers. With any luck, I'll be able to finish in a day or two.

[MDF_MadDogFargo]

I like this. Thanks!

[Drool]

Stupid freaking sewers...

[twilobyte]

Well, it was a good run. Thanks for the stories!

[Drool]

Oh, I'm not done. I decided to go ahead and finish this idiocy.

I watched Rare Exports (damn fine film) after work, so the subtitles kept me from finishing the game, but I did finish the sewers. After the disaster with the Centron Deluxe Model and his cronies, I took my time advancing through the sewers. I ended up retreating to the church three or four times to make us of my resting macro. Since this is a fresh party, there's no way I could afford the prices at Nuclear Medicine.

The cautious approach helped a lot, letting me slowly fight my way through the waves of cyborgs. It reminded me of my first play-through where I'd yelp each time another group of Cyborgs showed up. Since I had decided that I'd be going the clone route, only Deadmeat was grabbing energy weapons and power packs. Which was just as well, since he was running low on 7.62 anyway. By the end of the sewers, his Energy Weapon was at 3 or 4 and he was pretty comfortable with his Laser Carbine.

It was getting close to bedtime (well, past it, actually), so Deadmeat and his band of hirelings made for Sleeper One. I had just enough time to brew up three jugs of cloning fluid...

[Drool]

Meet the new boss(es), same as the old boss.

[Drool]

And so, with his clones ready to help him, Deadmeat got down to business.

First things first, everyone went off to visit Finster. I didn't feel like mucking around too much, so I just rode the elevator to the top and then straight down to free the prisoners and then back up to pop a cap in Finster's ass. Deadmeat jumped into the mind maze and things went reasonably well. While Forgery made quick work of the webs of deceit, the other webs took forever because Deadmeat's strength was only so-so. He's not too bad at baseball, though: got a double and stole both third and home. Maybe my poor Cubbies should draft him!

After that, we did a quick stop over back at Sleeper One to crack the vault for better armor and to give Meat Shield a Mason Cannon. Then it was off to those nutty Guardians. I was getting a little sick of things, so I kind sped through the Citadel. A quick stop at the Guardian Vault to Energy up the clones and an Ion Beamer for Deadmeat. Then, right up the Outer Sanctum to raise the portcullis to get me that sweet, sweet Power Armor. And more power packs. Then I nabbed the keys and bailed. Nobody knew how to fly a Helicopter, and I had enough Power Packs, I didn't slaughter everyone in the Citadel.

Nothing left but Cochise. Due to a lack of Sleeper exploration and a lack of Toaster Repair, I had to nab the plasma coupler outside Cochise, which meant plenty of random encounters that chewed through my Maxcon. Bit of a pain, frankly. I burned through Cochise as quickly as possible, only detouring to grab Vax because... well... he's freaking useful, especially in the Funny Rooms. Man, screw that environmental simulator.

Sadly, Deadmeat died as he lived: pointlessly.



Luckily, we cloned him. So let's just take a gander at Cannon Fodder.





Not a bad little experience. Not one I'd repeat any time soon, but was worth doing, I suppose. I guess the next step would be trying a truly solo run, but that sounds completely suicidal. Hope you all enjoyed. If you have any questions about the run, feel free to ask. It's pretty straight forward, but who knows?

[Zombra]

Wow. A noble experiment with the side benefit of being entertaining to your fellow forum goers. Nice work!

[RangerBen]

Very cool. I hadn't seen that Cocshie end graphic combined with a skeleton before. I guess I never had anyone killed in the blast. Looks like I missed out on some fun times with that combination. Agreed--thanks for posting!

[Drool]

I was inspired to leave someone behind by the clue book, back in the day ("...Kate was barbequed in the big blast."). Usually, I just leave Vax behind since, once I'm done with Cochise, I don't need him anymore. It's actually an animated image, starting with the character in silhouette and banging on the wall with one hand (like you're seeing them through a window). They get blasted into that skeleton and then disintegrate. It's a pretty neat little animation, and it's worth sacrificing someone at least once to see.

[ad1066]

I may be remembering it incorrectly, but it seems to me that the image only existed in the EGA version. When I first played it in CGA, there was no portrait, only the text in the bottom window "so-and-so was killed in the explosion." So I was quite surprised several years later when I first played it in EGA.

-- Ben

[Drool]

Thanks!

[mysterymovieguy]

The first time I played WASTELAND when I got stuck I would just move on to another quest, and then go back to it when I knew how to complete it, but when I went to Vegas I was completely under prepared, and in 1 situation I lost all, but 1 Ranger, so every time In Las Vegas I would get ambushed I would purposely die, and reload the game until I could escape. That never happened, so eventually I started a New Game.