[Bad Memory] Vegas sewers

[CaptainPatch]

This isn't a memory, as it is happening _right now_ while I'm playing the game. It's that damn river of sewage. EVERYBODY in the party has Swim 5, yet none of them can get across the stream without getting sucked under and getting a case of Sewer Rot. And with Sewer Rot (as with pretty much AL diseases), while you have it, you can't heal any Hit Points. So naturally, when the party encounters robots, they're getting nickled-and-dimed to death as each encounter whittles away a few more more Hit Points.

It wouldn't be a problem at all if you could Use Swim to advance the party one space, then do it again. But the program chooses to _immediately_ start sliding the party towards the exit. Even with Macro-keys, there isn't enough time to hit a key before you've been sucked under. I get stuck hitting an arrow key like mad, to no avail. AFTER I've got the Sewer Rot and can finish crossing, but that just postpones the inevitable

The irony is that usually when a PC improves a Skill it's a Good Thing. In this case though, when the "So-and-so improved their Swim Skill", the damn window covers where the party is in the stream. Do they need to go South, or are they already in the chute about to be sucked under, so you have to go West first. How far West to get out of the chute? You don't _know_ because that window sits right on the important portion of the map. And the only way to close the window is to hit Enter -- and in that microsecond, the stream sweeps you two or three squares closer to your doom. And it seems that just about every time I've almost cleared the stream, up pops that damn improvement announcement again.

The game is rigged, I tell ya. It was all a dastardly plot to induce nervous breakdowns.

[Drool]

When you enter the water, the game rolls. It's not a matter of being too slow, it's a matter of bad luck. Or, in the case of the sewers, lack of skill. No, seriously, I usually don't try to get across that without a rope until everyone's at a 6 or 7 Swim, and even then, I only do it if I've forgotten to grab a rope.

Of course, I usually powerlevel Swim by going all the way north and hopping in the river and riding it down to the bay. Yeah, it beats the crap out of your party, but with it only doing 1 or 2 damage each time, you don't run the risk of being seriously wounded or worse. And it just amuses me that a bunch of Rangers would learn to swim by body-surfing down a river.

[CaptainPatch]

I think I figured out the optimal approach:

This is one of the times you're supposed to Disband the party members and send them across one at a time. As a party of 7, if any ONE of them slips, it slides the entire party towards the exit. But if just ONE is crossing Using Swim 5 or 6, he _should_ be able to quickly recover his footing and resume his passage.

I'll get back and tell you how that works out later.

[Drool]

I never tried that, but it could work. Like I said, I usually just used a rope.

[Shax]

I never tried that, but it could work. Like I said, I usually just used a rope.

Yup, rope is the way to go.

[AgentTate]

My problem with the sewers was never having enough ammo. Get halfway in. Run out of ammo. Too beat up to make it out alive...

[TheLastOutlaw]

My problem with the sewers was never having enough ammo. Get halfway in. Run out of ammo. Too beat up to make it out alive...

This is why you field a party of ax murderers.

[AgentTate]

My problem with the sewers was never having enough ammo. Get halfway in. Run out of ammo. Too beat up to make it out alive...

This is why you field a party of ax murderers.

I did learn eventually that bringing in at least one person with a proton ax was absolutely essential.

[john irwin finster]

This is actually an example of why I loved this game. Sure, you could try swimming across and get sick/killed... or you could use a rope. Solving little puzzles like this is what kept things interesting.

[Kromiv]

I am also replaying the game right now as well, and just finished the Vegas sewers. I haven't played this far through since 88, so I really didn't remember anything of this place. I was having the same problem you were of getting across the water. I did eventually figure out that you could use the rope to cross the first part of the river (going north to south). But over further to the east you have to go north to cross the river again to get the android head. I was stuck on that for a while too. I did make it across the river eventually. But as I was exploring further, I discovered a path in the wall that you could knock out with a pick axe that will open a tunnel between the north and south sides of the river.
So really, you can go through the whole sewers without getting in the water at all.

[Gillsing]

Regarding the first crossing in the sewers, the back of the C64 'box' showed a screenshot where a rope had been used, so that helped me figure it out after much involuntary swimming. Then I got stuck down there and took a long break. Didn't get back into the game for a while, but when I did, I finally found those wall sections that could be blasted with TNT. So I managed to finish the game just in time to switch to the Amiga 500.