Ugh highpool.

[Majigato]

I like a harsh game. I actually liked that you can only save one of them. But when one option has the potential for unforgivable obtuseness it gets annoying.

If you choose highpool but you “only” kill off the raiders, put out a burning building, save a dog, and prevent the entire town from going ole faithful; but you failed to treat every patients booboo, fix their every appliance, regrout their bathtubs, realign their chakras and do their taxes for them. Then naturally they all vote for the “f$!k the Rangers” guy...

Anyone else find that irritating?

[Whirl]

I always save Highpool. There are lots of farms around, but without water, what the hell will they feed us with?

And I always perform all their quests to make them like me. Even the marbles and rocket. I mean, Sean Bergin is still a ♥♥♥♥♥ but nobody listens to him now..

Hey, I always give Ag Center a good, thorough cleansing of pod people, evil rabbits and exploding pods. Then when I go back to base, I pretend that we went back later and got all those gigantic veggies. Those'll hold us over for a bit while the other farms get to their feet.

[red255]

If we are debating Highpool vs Ag Center.

Highpool is a ranger's job. you are saving civilians inside your territory from Raiders. you SIGNED UP FOR THIS.

Ag Center there are mutated zombie plant people exploding all over everything, its a space marine's job. I mean you'll help out if you aren't busy but seriously.

Also Game tells you about highpool first, which you can get to before he stops talking, making Ag Center not an option. You get the SOS to highpool first, you respond to the SOS for highpool because if you get an SOS for a Civilian town within your juristicion you respond to it.

Vargas ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up, not having a second patrol near enough to take care of Ag Center. he should have sent Delta.

[Whirl]

It's kind of a balance. Highpool have the water, which is more important than food, and you get their call first. As a Ranger it's your job to take out raiders like the Wrecking Crew. Then again, they hate Rangers and surely the RSM will be turning up like they pay the guys for, right?

Then again Ag Center has fruit and veg, and they are much more amicable. And you agreed to help them, after all. And it's sabotage. And when you see the food, it is totally impressive. Then again, what went wrong there is mostly their fault and risking turning into a pod person is not exactly the job you've signed up to do.

There's no right or wrong answer, it's a matter of opinion.

[ÄmJii]

Originally posted by Hotwire:

Then again Ag Center has fruit and veg, and they are much more amicable. And you agreed to help them, after all. And it's sabotage. And when you see the food, it is totally impressive.

It still begs the question how are they gonna grow their crops once their water reserves run out? They can't just fetch more from Highpool, that's for certain.

[SnapSlav]

Originally posted by Hotwire:

I pretend that we went back later and got all those gigantic veggies. Those'll hold us over for a bit while the other farms get to their feet.

It would be rather difficult to hold yourself over when you're turned into a pod person by eating the tainted mega-veggies. They were quite explicit in the game that the mutant cocktail tainted everything it touched, and nothing was safe to eat once it was infected. Granted, if you arrived after the place was destroyed, you wouldn't know that, so it would be perfectly within your RPing to just assume these massive mutant veggies were edible, but we know that they're not...

Originally posted by ÄmJii:

Originally posted by Hotwire:

Then again Ag Center has fruit and veg, and they are much more amicable. And you agreed to help them, after all. And it's sabotage. And when you see the food, it is totally impressive.

It still begs the question how are they gonna grow their crops once their water reserves run out? They can't just fetch more from Highpool, that's for certain.

All those wells in towns and oases kinda betray the point that the region will suffer if Highpool's resevoir is destroyed. The game makes it seem like water is tough to come by out in the AZ-wastes, but still plenty of it.

[Equinsu ocha]

i choose highpool for the sniper over the old slow cackling granny

[Schanez]

They give you the choice to save neither. Rangers are not the "good guys". Their backstory is litteraly, they took over a Prison, because it was the best stronghold in the area. No parol to the prisoners, just yeet them through the gate.

Its only later, that they start fixing the problem they themselves created. Highpool and AG Center are both seen as assets to the community overall. Water reserve stronghold and food respectively. And while you are sent there to assist the people, no one bothers to send a skilled team to the other place, you have no chance of reaching on time. There are litteraly three recruits sitting on their asses doing nothing, while you are sent to save the day. From a gameplay perspective, I understand it. From a story point of view, it is silly.

As for Highpool and their attitude, well there is a lot of story between Ranger Citadel and Highpool. A lot of resentment. Worth noting, is that Rangers moving to the Citadel from the Prison turned Highpool from a safe heaven to the east most border stronghold.

Not only are the Rangers seen as killer of kids and dogs, they also forced a peaceful town to become a vanguard from raider attacks. To which the town seeked assistance from the Scorpions. Which you might realize, having contact with such hostile towards rangers party might slowly shift the moods in a town.

[red255]

you are in the arizona DESERT. its a choice between a settlement of people with water, and a research lab with food.

so I save the many people with the water resource, because there are more people there and water is more important than food.

also Vulture's cry is rather strong compared to Rose.

also if you move as soon as you hear the message, you'll reach Highpool before Ag Center even broadcasts its emergency after which time you leaving highpool destroys Ag Center and Vargas has given you orders for Highpool, so its on Vargas to save Ag Center.

you do Ag center its extremely long and you run out of ammo.

its on Vargas to have enough Ranger Patrols to keep up with threats. there are several ranger teams, why not send Ranger Team Delta to take on Ag Center while you do highpool? You are ranger team Echo, that means 5 teams of rangers at least. the greenest ranger team. send a more experienced team to AG center. there was enough time.

[Whirl]

Most of the people in Highpool are in their late thirties. They were all there when your team murdered one of their friends. If cops killed one of your friends, would you be cool about it? They have a right to be angry at Rangers. Bergin lost his nephew, dammit.

But if you get Kate elected and don't harm any innocents, while Bergin will still be grumpy, nobody will listen to him any more.

Rose is okay, but if you get Vulture's Cry, it saves you the effort of making a sniper (you don't need one earlier). She is 8 Intelligence, which is still very good for points. And she lasts all the way through the game. She can replace Angela as the Outdoorsman in California, fights endgame, and though Animal Whisperer isn't the most fantastic skill, it's nice for somebody to come with it rather than spending points on it.

Honestly, Ag Center plans to grow giant crops and all, but giant crops are going to need more water and if you lose Highpool you're out of that extra water you'd need, never mind many people struggling to find every-day clean drinking water. We can't all go out and hunt for random Oasises True, things will be tough with less food but now I've cleaned out AG center and its pod people and insects, and I have supplies of the Cure to reverse-engineer, we can pick the food grown so far, and till the fields next year. It was Larsen's fault, and once the antidote serum is in the water supply, and we have the cure, we doon't have to worry about the infected food.

It's a first-come, first served thing. HighPool called first and they didn't cause their own screw-up the way AG Center did. If I don't kill Wreckers then THEY'LL be on your backs too. I'm so sorry, Kathy, it's got nothing to do with you shouting...

[MudCrab]

Point to remember in this discussion is that we the players know the full back story and that we can only save one location, but only from hindsight.

In your first playthrough however - assuming you are playing spoiler free - you don't know you can't save both. A lot of games give you no time limit for quest so it is easy to assume that you are just getting quest dumped and you can save both. It is only once you commit yourself and start exploring/solving that you start getting the radio messages from the other location saying 'Hurry! Where are you!? We are dying here!!!' and you, the player, plus you, the characters realise that you can't do both.

Plus also remember that the two attacks were co-ordinated. It is a plot point that both attacks happened at once.

So... choices choices... which one SHOULD you save? Personally I do Ag Centre, mainly because I enjoy that part of the story but also because it is basically closer on the main map. Also we have bio-plague vs what 'seems' to be just a raider attack. Dunno. Just me.

[Whirl]

Honestly, I cleaned up Highpool as fast as I could, and rushed to Ag Center. I rushed to Ag Center and did everything I could, cleaned out the pods and all the pod people, I feel so bad about Kathy, I think she's nice. But everybody comes around in Highpool (except Sean, but who cares about him?) If you need multiple medics, you're kind of playing the game wrong anyway.

At least Highpool can grow their own food and puts less of a drain on other resources. You pass their small fields. Fixing up the Raider situation means no problems with stealing food.

Plus, if you save Highpool it's easier to fix things up with the Red Scorpions.

I'm tryin', Kathy, I'm coming as fast as I can, but I can't be in two places at once. Ironically, since Highpool is easier to clean out, you get to the infected Ag Center faster than you get to the ruined Highpool. I actually tend to be closer to Highpool when the problems kick in.

The last thing we want is leftover raiders stealing the food you worked so hard to grow, too.

[Radiac]

I finished this game twice and chose Highpool both times. I did this because I like Vulture's Cry and wanted her for my team. I lot of people like Rose, but I never did Ag Center.

And Bobby, the kid who had his dog killed by the Wasteland 1 Desert Rangers, actually lived, despite it being canon that the rangers of that game shot up the whole place.
He grew up to become Robert Danforth, the dog-kennel-owning leader of the Red Scorpion Militia, who are an even worse group of self-interested bullies and crooks you have to deal with.

[DoughnutGuy]

I played Wasteland when it came out back then. And I can tell you that kid asked us to help. We tried. But the dog was rabid, then the kid was rabid, then the whole town was rabid, and then Red Ryder was rabid. We didn't attack any of them, they all attacked us.

[Whirl]

I also use mechanical skill on their water purifier. Everything's great in Highpool and I'm so, so sorry about the Ag center but we need the water, okay? Arizona's a frikkin' desert. And Rose dies anyway.