Merging Station

[Oddminzer]

It's my first playthrough, so in Merging Station I'm going the games suggested route and loading up a DAD with a bunch of BUG-traps and running it into the station. Thing is, as SOON as i cross the firewall, all the other DADs INSTANTLY become aggro and evaporate me, literally the second I cross the firewall. What am I missing? I've even tried nesting the first DAD inside a second DAD but no dice.

[mindthunk]

You need to keep DAD's 'safe' status (Shown in HUD, bottom left) so that the dudes at the station don't see him as hostile. There should be (or should have been) an objective (in TAB/TASKs) nudging you to "Keep DAD Safe". If it's too late to keep any of your DADs safe, you may have to find a different way through (the suggested route is only one possibility). Or reload an older save.

[AzraelAlumina]

The easiest way to get a safe DAD is just not to attack enemies with the DAD you want to use as a mule. You can check if the enemies are hostile if you see "unsafe" in the robot's description.

There is also another access the area beyond the firewall, but IMO it's a bit tricky to find and you need the telekinesis skill (which you likely already have), a MOM/DAD beam or a damage source to access it

[mindthunk]

There are MANY ways through!

[oku]

I remember my problem here was that I didn't originally understand when the hints or prompts told me to keep my DAD "safe" I just thought it meant to keep him alive and I didn't connect to the "hostile" meaning yet, so I too went through the barrier to instant death. Maybe a clearer lesson in the difference between safe and hostile is needed?

[mindthunk]

It's been taught several times before this point - the early PUP set-piece for example, and then when you ctrl the MUM in Legacy systems + a number of METAs about it + some 'Insights'!

BUT I hear you (all). I'll see what can be done.

[oku]

Originally posted by mindthunk:

It's been taught several times before this point - the early PUP set-piece for example, and then when you ctrl the MUM in Legacy systems + a number of METAs about it + some 'Insights'!

BUT I hear you (all). I'll see what can be done.

You know, I think it was just the way it was worded in the tab, keep DAD safe and I thought oh I shouldn't let him come to harm.

But wait, I remember now what I wanted, if safe was printed in a different color or italicized to make it stand out from the sentence to call attention to it. That's all I would need to make me stop and think about what the message really means.

[mindthunk]

gotchya, will do that

[Oddminzer]

That did it, cheers! I think I'd just been playing for too long and was getting tilted aha. Wonderful game, thanks lots, will positive review when finished for sure!

[fitzroy_doll]

Even with the helpfully highlighted text, I also misunderstood this to mean "physically safe", not "status safe". It was quite a shock after painstakingly getting the the train to the right place, getting dad on the train, dealing with the mums, filling up dad with traps and then dying in seconds. Players who are bad at stealth (like me) will probably have not paid much attention to the safe status up to this point, so it is easy to misinterpret.

However, the great thing about this game is that "death" is not the end, so with a LOT of reprintings I was finally able to get through this area. There was a great moment later when the nested dads were destroyed and then all the traps came pouring out and blew up everything on that side of the tracks.

[mindthunk]

I genuinely can't remember if I've done this yet (ensure the "safe" text shows up green in the objective to reinforce what kind of 'safe' is meant). I'll check and if it's not been done it's going to get done SOON. Thanks for the reminder / feedback. Glad you had fun anyway :)