Rail Nomad camp - what the hell is going on?

[Janthis]

I have to say I've been enjoying the game so far, minus some confusing quests and questionable design decisions. But now I've gotten to this rail nomad camp and I'm not sure what's going on anymore.

First of all, I get asked to save some kid who's drowning in the lake. Apparently it was impossible for any of my team to jump in after him, and the only way to save him was to use Brute Force on some pillars near the shore. The only one with the skill was Angela, and she got a critical failure (figures). So there was nothing else I could do, the kid drowned, and everyone keeps going on about it like we killed him. Moving on... I enter a bar and find the guy who's been hanging with Ace. After talking to him, Angela shoots him. Now I get chewed out by Vargas for being "trigger happy" and the next thing, the entire town is hostile and wants to fight me.

Was there something I missed? Because this just seems like very poor gameplay design, to be honest.

[XxBarakaxX]

lol, i remember, I Felt the same at this point
My crew didnt had a specific skill you need there, so i did not have many options.
Also from the story and NPC's not the best part.
Always had the feeling that something was wrong

[Amanoob105]

The big deal with Angela makes sense if you read what was said.

Angela was in love with Ace - Guy not only left Ace to die but also came back after the fact and robbed his corpse - Angela is a little p*ssed off with him for that - you might have noticed by this point that she's not the most diplomatic of people - shoots him.

This plus everyone thinks you let the kid die (because it's easier to deal with grief if you have some one to blame, luckily you where in town for that) so you now have two deaths to be blamed for.
Everyone wanting to kill you is just good old "wasteland justice" in action.

The funny thing is there's a 50/50 chance you might have picked the wrong pillar back when this all started and killed him anyway.
Ones the right length for him to grab, the others long enough to smack him on the head.

I guess what I'm getting at here is that games like this are made with the idea that so long as you don't get your whole party killed off there's no "wrong" way to play the game. The game allows you to make your own choises (where it can, it still has to force you in a few places for the story. And no, the rail nomads isn't one of these places) and as a resalt, make your own mistakes.
Not everything you do is guaranteed to work out as you want it to, most of your choises are not without risk. That is good game design.

If you think this was hard on you for making a choise, take a look at how the first wastland game did it. Now that is a game I will never be playing for that very reason. I mean I like a challange in my games but not to the point my hair is in my hands and no longer on my head.

*Edit* A little late to say this, but you can also destroy stuff/knock big pillars over with explosives.

[Gillsing]

Mistakes happen. Maybe Angela tried to knock down the wrong pillar? You could have reloaded from the latest autosave when you entered the area. And 'swimming' in that lake is why the kid is drowning, so jumping into it would only give you two people drowning instead of one. He'll explain it if you rescue him instead of accepting a critical failure.

As for Angela shooting that guy, I thought it was fairly obvious why she did it. Unexpected, and undesirable, but that's the cost of bringing along someone who's too emotionally invested in revenge. I don't remember Vargas blaming my team for being trigger happy though.

Did you kill anyone else? I remember a little test run I did with a couple of Rangers who started killing people, and they could get away with a murder (Quarex) and two cases of self defence (Libby Parker and Samuel Cole) without the place going full hostile. But maybe Angela killing the other Samuel carried more weight than those three members of their own society, and combined with letting Ralphy drown it was enough to make the scale tip over into armed hostility?

[Janthis]

I didn't even know you were supposed to kick the second totem, found out from a walkthrough afterwards. I thought it didn't matter. As for Angie killing the guy, it might be understandable, but then I get ♥♥♥♥ from Vargas about being too "trigger happy" and I don't even have the option to explain or defend myself. Anyway, I honestly don't even feel like helping the town anymore, those dumb ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ can all kill each other for all I care. The only thing I was worried about is I'd learned that you get kicked out of the Rangers and it's basically game over if you kill too many civilians - not sure if this applies even if they attack you first...

[Amanoob105]

Originally posted by ionutz1280:

I didn't even know you were supposed to kick the second totem, found out from a walkthrough afterwards. I thought it didn't matter. As for Angie killing the guy, it might be understandable, but then I get ♥♥♥♥ from Vargas about being too "trigger happy" and I don't even have the option to explain or defend myself. Anyway, I honestly don't even feel like helping the town anymore, those dumb ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ can all kill each other for all I care. The only thing I was worried about is I'd learned that you get kicked out of the Rangers and it's basically game over if you kill too many civilians - not sure if this applies even if they attack you first...

Vargas is the one that said she couldn't be part of the group investigating her lovers killer, you are the one (along with most of us that played this game I suspect) that said it was ok for her to come along.
So her shooting that guy is because of you, and as a commander that cares what people think of the rangers he would know that "excuses" won't bring him back. So yes. That s**ts on you.

And the game lets you do that, helping these people was always optional, as was helping either Ag Center or Highpool. You could have said "F-that" to both of them.

That one I can't help you with, but you could always save the game and fine out. Might even be therapeutic for you to do so .

Here's hoping you have better luck (and/or less people shooting at you) in the rest of the game.

[Boneyard Bob]

Originally posted by Amanoob105:

*Edit* A little late to say this, but you can also destroy stuff/knock big pillars over with explosives.

This. I don't even bother putting points into BF anymore. Just about anything BF can open, the right explosives can open too. And they're easier to get your hands on than leveling a skill.

Originally posted by ionutz1280:

As for Angie killing the guy, it might be understandable, but then I get ♥♥♥♥ from Vargas about being too "trigger happy" and I don't even have the option to explain or defend myself.

Comes with having a boss, no matter the context. Every once in a while you're gonna get your butt chewed off for something that's not directly or entirely your fault, and you're just gonna have to keep your mouth shut and take it if you want to keep your job.

[Janthis]

Yeah, the whole thing seems kinda badly written, like the whole town is a bunch of ignorant violent a-holes (unless that's what they were going for, in which case, good job) who are more interested in placing blame and killing each other than working together. While exploring houses I happened to find the one with the drowned kid's parents, and they attacked me as well. Like I said, the whole town was reacting like I killed his dumb @ss. When meeting the chief, he was like "it's a good thing I respect General Vargas, otherwise I'd kill you all right now!" and I'm just thinking "wow, and I'm supposed to kiss up to these psychos and help them?"

Then I delivered the guy's letter to his sister, she asked me to leave and just shot herself. Boom, done, no explanations. Couldn't even find the letter on her body to find out what it was about. Then I wandered around for a bit and found a guy spewing Latin phrases who started to follow me around and help in combat. Is he part of a quest? Is it a reference to something? No idea.

The game is still fun, don't get me wrong, just a bit weird and confusing at times. At least now I know you can use explosives on locked doors and containers.

[Gillsing]

The Provost is meant to be confusing. Apparently he does something if you keep him alive until you reach a place in Canyon of Titan. Your chance to find out what the letter was about was back in Ranger Citadel, pressing Bowling for information with dialogue skills. The Wasteland is full of little communities with people you (the player) wouldn't agree with. It's a theme of the game. Yes, they're idiots, and your job, if you choose to accept it, is to make things turn out well for them anyway. Because you are the shining Desert Ranger star of the wastes, bringing law and order to maintain the peace.

[Janthis]

Well, that sucks about the letter. I thought it would be impolite to press the guy for information or refuse to leave them alone to their privacy. Oh well, can't help people who don't want to be helped. That really does seem to be a theme in the game. In fact whenever I run across a new community I'm reminded about that scene from Blazing Saddles where Gene Wilder's character says "These are common folks, people of the land... you know, morons." :P

Well, I guess I'll see if I can negociate a peace between the Idiots and the Dumb@sses, though if it requires speech skills they're outta luck, because I didn't take any of those.

[Gillsing]

I does require speech skills, although in this particular case you can bypass those by guessing which word to enter into the 'say whatever you want' field right after the leaders have said that very same word. Or you can check online for the word. Which is: both

And I don't believe it would be possible if the Topekans are already hostile, since then you wouldn't be able to speak to chief Kekkahbah. You also wouldn't have to say the word to James if you already rescued his daughter from being blown up by a bomb. And maybe also if she actually got blown up by a bomb. (I'm not sure about that one.) But either of those scenarios would require that Ralphy doesn't drown before that scene, and that you bring him with you when you have the opportunity.

[Janthis]

So it's not possible unless I go back to an earlier save and rescue that kid? Like I said, at this point I don't even care about them and their stupid feud. Does it have any repercussions down the line if I don't make peace between them, or can I just leave them be and go on my way?

[Gillsing]

If you saved either Ag Center or Highpool there shouldn't be any repercussions, only a different ending slide (I haven't finished the game though - I keep losing interest and play Satellite Reign instead). If you didn't save either of those two places, making peace between the Atchisons and the Topekans will make you eligible to buy explosives from the wandering vendor Dave Oshry[wasteland.gamepedia.com]. And apparently you can just pay him 500 scrap instead, so that's a really tiny repercussion. You also miss out on all the Rangers back at the citadel congratulating you on your magnificent deed of settling a feud that no one else could settle. But that's just the usual 'after the mission' comments from NPCs.

[Janthis]

I did save Highpool, so I should be okay in either case. Thanks!

[mythos_999]

I't perfectly OK to let things scewup in this game. My first play I went back and saved him after letting him drown and doping the pole on him. I brokered a peace between the two side only to have one ambush the other and kill them all. I called it a win and looted the bodies. I'm on my second play and making different choices and having very different game. I'm not going to reload execp for deaths. One way to solve the war is kill both leaders, I plan to do that next time.

[Leviathan]

I just went in there and killed everything.