Saving Highpool vs Ag Center

[Spacecowboy2011]

So, after searching the forums and googling a bit, I still haven't been able to find any definite answer. I played a lot of WL 2 in beta, and now that it's been thoroughly patched and I remembered having it, decided to come back to it.

What are the main advantages and disadvantages to saving one over the other? Stuff like ammo scarcity isn't really a problem to me, as I spent a lot of my time while searching farming world encounters, so resources aren't really an issue to me at this point. Is Rose or Vulture's Cry better? (I believe that's the cNPC's name in Highpool). Also, I get that the Ag Center is long and somewhat obnoxious, but that doesn't bug me too much either.

So, what do you all think?

[supertrooper225]

It is mainly what skills your team is missing. If you could use another Sniper, go for Highpool and get Vulture. Need a doc? Get Rose at the Ag Center. As far as other advantages/disadvantages there aren't that many. They are just different areas to visit but you can only complete one per game. You will be known for abandoning one of them either way. You are kinda screwed either way. So it is really up to you.

[sparty437]

Rose really comes in handy. I completed the game but saved the AG center. She's really good with Computer Science and Animal Whisperer. She also is pretty good with the pistol. Computer science is really helpful in many areas. Also her surgeon skills came in handy.

[alation13]

I first off used to save highpool, my reasoning was that you can survive 10 weeks without food but only 10 days without water. But really, rose seems to be the better recruit out of the two, so now I go for the ag centre.

[KJTB8]

Originally posted by alation13:

I first off used to save highpool, my reasoning was that you can survive 10 weeks without food but only 10 days without water. But really, rose seems to be the better recruit out of the two, so now I go for the ag centre.

I usually save Highpool for the same reason, except its three days without water, not 10. Also closer to 4 weeks without food. Unless you are fat. REALLY fat.

In the end though, when asking whether to choose Vulture or Rose, the answer is always Scotchmo.

[alation13]

You get the general idea that the decision is pretty arbitary. And yes Scotchmo is a "must have" recruit.

[SimeonCe]

I ussualy have doctor in first 4 recruits, so I dont need surgeon skil that Rose has. Also one of my char has cumputer science. SO I don't need Rose, she has 10 int, but Vulture's cry have 8 int which isn't much worse+ Indian girl have better stats. and vulture's cry have outdoorsman, and animal whisper that I need + she becomes my sniper/energy weapon

[KenseiOmega]

I usually go for Ag. Rose is a better recruit overall. And she has a deeper connection to the world's story. Plus my choice is a town full of jerks who hate me over some stuff I didn't even do vs. a place my organization has a positive history with. Yeah I need water. I can rebuild Highpool on top of the corpses of the aforementioned jerks and the bandits who killed them. Meanwhile there's water all over the desert in oases.

[Power of Seven]

I think the real question is what is your party composition. In Highpool, you'll get Vulture's Cry who is a sniper. In Ag Center, you'll get Rose who is a medic that's good with handguns.

If you have a medic already as part of your core team, then you may not need a second medic. On higher difficulty settings, two medics might be smart. Also, Rose has high intelligence, she'll get a ton of skill points which could help your team more often.

Vulture's Cry specializes in sniper rifles, and the rifle that you can retrieve from storage is actually extremely great for low level (below level 10) characters. Also, I don't think that there's much debate that sniper rifles have way more firepower over handguns. If you need damage, then once you start leveling up her sniper skill, she becomes not too bad.

I just chose Highpool by sheer luck as it's my first playthrough and I had no idea that Ag Center would be destroyed. Anyway, my party consists of a medic and a sniper person already. But I can say for sure that two sniper rifle experts isn't a bad team composition.

[imminence]

For me Highpool was a cakewalk compared to the tedious and partially totally unbalanced stuff in AG Centre.

[alation13]

I don't know about you, but the ag centre is not particulary hard on "seasoned" if you know what to expect, the biggest issue is ammo. I typically use my level ups to keep my party healed though.

[Thorley23]

Mild Spoiler Below:

Conceptually saving Highpool is probably the better choice. The reason is that you wind up losing very little if you think about it. Sure while the food supply from the Ag Center goes the way of the dodo, remember Vulture's Cry really is there to sell these special seeds her people have which can probably solve the food problems without the disadvantages inherant in the Ag Center. I mean if you consider the original Wasteland this is actually the second time they managed to get themselves infested (first by mutant animals, then by mutant plants), and they do seem to have a definite mad scientist thing going on there. Of course in making the initial desicion your characters don't know any of that. While the people in high pool are kind of arse holes you also save more people in an absolute sense than the handfull of ag center scientists as well.

Of course it can also be argued that even after High Pool is wiped out the water is still sort of there and could be collected I suppose. That said in saving the Ag Center I didn't see anything that even suggests it the same kind of solution to the loss of High Pool that Vulture's Cry presents to the loss of the Ag Center, since it definatly seems the food could be traded for elsewhere along with being able to create another self replentishing supply.

Not sure how many people have considered it from that angle though. I kind of figure that if there is ever a Wasteland 3 that saving Highpool will be the canon choice, and the ruins of the Ag Center will likely be a dungeon/explorable ruin.

[alation13]

Or you could look at it along the lines of a group of highly intelligent scientists who are working on reversing the effects of the wasteland radiation vs a group of @ssholes who don't even like you sitting on a precious commodity but doing nothing with it as a point of view.

[imminence]

Originally posted by alation13:

I don't know about you, but the ag centre is not particulary hard on "seasoned" if you know what to expect, the biggest issue is ammo. I typically use my level ups to keep my party healed though.

I did not say, that I had problems to "win" there. What you wrote is correct and I did it certainly in a similar way.

Nevertheless, I consider Highpool the easier option and - again - this does not mean that the
AG Centre is "too hard".

[Incomparable Groan]

Here are a list of the pros for each area I've found as far as GAMEPLAY elements are concerned. For morality, you'll have to consider whether food or water is the most important (Personally I've always though AG center is the best choice, because they've got the food, and since they're growing plants and ♥♥♥♥, they must have some manner of water reserve).

Highpool
+Vulture's cry companion (Good if your group is lacking someone with good perception or sniper)
++Immediate Access to a Medic.
+Shorter considerably much easier than AG center
++You're fighting humans, which means you'll be getting a lot more bullets than you're actually using. In AG center you're fighting insects, and in higher difficulties, this means you'll probably end up spending all your scrap on bullets up until you've passed AG center.

AG Center
++Rose companion (Really good if your group is lacking someone with good Surgeon or Computer skill)
+Longer sections, with more parts to the quests. This also means more experience rewards, so you'll be considerably much higher once you're through AG center, than you would be going through Highpool
+The gorilla suit. Awesome costume, and also part of an achievement. You can only get it at AG center as far as I know.
--This is probably the most important thing to consider, in my opinion. You need to a smart ass of 4/6 to get access to the medic, I forget which, to unlock the medic at AG center. This means that if you go with AG center and you do not have a character who've invested a fair bit of points into smart ass, your only medics in Arizona's going to be at the Ranger Citadel, and at the Valley of the Titan. It makes any difficulty above seasoned extra painful, as it means you'll have to make it all the way through AG center without the access to a medic, and should your party get hurt in the middle of the wasteland, you can expect a long walk to receive any kind of medical attention.

May have missed something, but these are the things that I've considered anyway.

Cheers.

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highpool, all your chicken are belong to us.