Wild Wasteland, the dilemma.

[Maxwell Sinclair]

To run, or not to run, that is the question. I'm about to start a brand new playthrough and I want to gauge the community's position on wild wasteland, I want to know what you guys think of it, do you consider it essential, if so, then why? Do you think it's a waste of time? If so, why?

[Belanos]

It's certainly not essential, all it does is unlock some quirky encounters and various easter eggs in the game. As for being a waste of time, that's a matter of preference. It does add some flavour to the game, so it all depends on how important that is to the player. It's also a good trait to take if you don't want to suffer from any negative effects from a trait. All the other ones have a positive and negative component to them, Wild Wasteland is completely neutral.

[Maxwell Sinclair]

I'm not particularly worried about the mechanics of it. I know it comes with more unique items and such. I'm just curious what people think of it, if the general consensus is to run it or to not. I usually do but I'm thinking I might now this time.

Also there are plenty of replacement traits that work really well. Such as Trigger Discipline, sure you fire slower but the accuracy is better than the negative. Or skilled, you get +5 to everything and -10% experience, but that doesn't matter because you're still going to reach the level cap eventually.

[Azael Ijima δ]

Well it had some funny moments to the game, and about content you can obtain it basically change one thing, a weapon. ↓

At the top north of the map you can encounter a group of mercenaries without Wild Wasteland, the boss have the unique Gauss Rifle. With Wild Wasteland the mercenaries will be replaced by a group of aliens, the captain will have the famous Alien gun present in Fallout 3. ☺

[Maxwell Sinclair]

Originally posted by IHiO_Yakino:

Well it had some funny moments to the game, and about content you can obtain it basically change one thing, a weapon. ↓

At the top north of the map you can encounter a group of mercenaries without Wild Wasteland, the boss have the unique Gauss Rifle. With Wild Wasteland the mercenaries will be replaced by a group of aliens, the captain will have the famous Alien gun present in Fallout 3. ☺

That's the one weapon that gets locked off if you DO pick wild wasteland yes. If you do not take wild wasteland then you lose out on a lot of uniques, including the Holy Hand Grenades, the suave gambler hat and such.

[Xerkie]

The Holy Hand Grenades and Alien Blaster alone make Wild Wasteland worth it in my book.

[Azael Ijima δ]

Ah yep forgot the Holy Hand Grenades, nice throwables mini-nukes. :P

[Bansheebutt]

It's pretty inconcequential.

I modified Jsawyer mod to allow 3 traits at the beginning of the game solely for if I feel like having it or not. I feel it shouldn't be in exclusion to the other more mechanically interesting traits.

[Maxwell Sinclair]

Well, I decided not to run it right now. But for a reason. The first DLC I intend to do, will be Old World Blues. The Auto Doc in OWB can change your traits for you, once. So I figure I'll go and get the YCS180 whatsitsname that you get when you don't take WW, and then I'll take WW via OWB.

I think if you were going for unique collecting, this would be the best order to do it in, as there is so much more content to collect with WW than without.

[Xerkie]

Actually, if you kill the Mercenaries wielding the YCS Gauss Rifle and then switch to Wild Wasteland, the Aliens will not spawn. It's either the YCS or the Alien Blaster. Also, if you take the Mininukes in the Searchlight basement then switch to Wild Wasteland, the Holy Hand Grenades won't appear.

[Xerkie]

And also Vice Versa.

[Area 51 Escapee]

Save it for your 2nd playthrough

[Carver]

If you want a more realistic or gritty playthrough, go without it. If you want a more light hearted or goofy one, play with this on.

[Bansheebutt]

Originally posted by Carver:

If you want a more realistic or gritty playthrough, go without it. If you want a more light hearted or goofy one, play with this on.

Even this is over-selling it.

The silliest thing it adds to the game ia the alien encounter, everything else is (dated) pop culture refrences and obscure mentions.

[Ladez]

It's a waste of a trait slot.

[talgaby]

I don't even recall the last time I didn't have it active. It just feels like an integral part of the game they removed in the last seconds to cater to the shooter player crowd who wouldn't be able to process subtle pop culture references that don't point to Call of Duty or Battlefield anyway.