Jackalgirl

On my second playthrough on the PS4. The PS4 is claiming that my copy of The Outer Worlds is up to date, patch-wise. During the "Don't Bite the Sun" quest (Parvati's companion quest), I shifted the companions (Max and Parvati) into regular clothing: he in his vicarly duds, and her into a regular outfit with a brown leather jacket (90% sure it's one of the Town & Country sets). I'd been doing this throughout the game: when my character heads out on standard vendor-selling trips, she and her companions usually shift out of their armor into regular clothing. At any rate, after we'd picked up Parvati's outfit from Jolicoeur, we headed back to Groundbreaker. During the part where you're supposed to check on how the date is going, I noticed that Parvati was wearing the brown leather jacket outfit, and not the fancy outfit from the Haberdashery. After the date, all seemed well, and I shifted Parvati back into her armor. Then today I noticed that her brown leather jacket outfit was no longer in my inventory (my character usually carries that one, Max's, and the outfit I've picked out for my character as a matter of course, since she usually goes out with Max and Parvati). I thought that perhaps I'd accidentally sold it to Ike or Belle on the Groundbreaker Promenade, so I double-checked the buy-back feature and nope, neither of them had it. I suspect that somehow the Jolicoeur outfit got bound up with the brown leather jacket outfit, and when the mission completed, both disappeared. It's not a huge deal, but I was fond of that outfit. It suited Parvati (and Felix, too). I'm sure I will find another copy if it somewhere. : )

I totally forgot to mention that, although it did cross my mind: you're absolutely right: Adelaide's solution is even shorter-term if you start requiring that she and hers only make use of volunteers. Not everyone is Parvati. ; ) It's a good book, but dang is it kind of overwhelming (in a depressing sort of way).

I like where you're going with this. It makes total sense. I have this sense, though, that when there's a TOW 2, the arc will involve what happened to Earth, so I suspect something's up (I actually said, out loud, "I'll be it's aliens, too bad about Lilya Hagen!"). But now that you mention it, I'm very intrigued by those encrypted messages. I wonder if, at some point (probably TOW 2), your character/companions will be able to decrypt them.

It does seem to be working on the small scale, but the availability of the organic materials only works for now, with a colony in severe decline. If things were to turn around (as the "be good!" branch of the story seems to want) and the colony were to thrive, I'm thinking that in the long run there would likely be more people than resources (unless you somehow convinced people to limit their breeding, which could be difficult for a given value of culture). It seems to me that an integrated approach would be best for the long-term, combining Adelaide's technique, some accelerated adaptation, as well as trying to build up a culture that values minimum use of resources, maximum return to the environment, and maximum local self-sufficiency (if you've ever read "Ishmael" by Daniel Quinn, I'm talking about a Leaver society, vs. a Taker society).

As Felix would say: "DUH!" ; )

Bwah hah hah hah -- yes, I should have said "banked up good with with everyone BUT the Board". In total agreement! As for Eva, I can't kill her. What she wants to do is just too interesting & compelling. But Tartarus came with all kinds of surprises, especially for the Better Half, who basically just killed everyone and was totally on his own. He was surprised by how my version of the story went. I, of course, was absolutely delighted. "Grimmy!!!"

I am about 90% sure that this is a Tip of the Hat to the episode "Shindig" from the TV show "Firefly" (source of the movie "Serenity").

Huh! I haven't picked up Ellie and gotten to Byzantium yet; when I get home I'll have to pop on over to the Groundbreaker and see if he's there. I'm not sure that I followed the right dialogue tree, though -- something to remember for the next run through. Thanks! Agreed that it's too harsh. I always got the sense from Reed that he was doing his best (though he could have done better) with a really terrible situation; his desire to do the best for his people is what makes him agree to essentially commit suicide -- I mean, he did agree to give over to Adelaide. So there's something there. I wonder if he'd be willing to work for SubLight, if it was framed to him that the communities of Monarch really need that factory? I'd like to think so, because he'd be putting people (the more people the better) ahead of his own pride, which is exactly what he did in Edgewater. Aethel's (my character's) general philosophy is to get good ties with as many people and corporations as possible, so that when it comes time to completely rework the system, she's got some good will banked up. : ) Yes. I think I may just go back and to that just for funsies. I think it might make me feel better!

Here are mine: Max Parvati Felix Nyoka Ellie I might, in a future play-through, pick up Ellie a little earlier and see if she grows on me. I agree with other posters' comments about how her companion quest seems pretty underwhelming (though it is amusing). Edited to add: Ohmygosh I totally forgot SAM. He falls in under Nyoka, only because he doesn't have an extended quest. But his dialogues with Felix are delightful.

Yes, so I've gathered; ah well, it was a (n admittedly uneducated, as I haven't played Fo) thought. That's a pity, though; I do love crossovers/cross-references/tips of the hat (like the cows in the cargo hold, squee!). Thank you for the recommendation -- I'll definitely go with that one (if I ever come up for air from TOW / TOW DLC)!

I'm on iTunes, so I'm rather breathlessly waiting for the TOW soundtrack to show up there. In the meantime, I've had the occasion to do a lot of driving, and as I'm listening to my very old and standard "road trip" playlist, it occurred to me that some of the songs seem to fit the characters and situations of TOW very well*. Felix: Uprising (Muse) Parvati: Marble Machine (Wintergatan) Nyoka: My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Fall Out Boy) Ellie: Immortals (Fall Out Boy) Max: The Belly Dancer (Gordon Duncan)** Sanjar/MSI: The Power of Bhangra (vs. Motivo) (Snap!) Anything involving TDD: Right In (Skrillex), Born Too Slow (the Crystal Method) Aethelflaed (my character): Sad But True (Orbital) The Mather Family (and the crew of the Hope): A Little Priest (Angela Lansbury & Len Cariou, from "Sweeney Todd: the Demon Barber of Fleet Street) Monarch: Jupiter Shift (the Crystal Method) I haven't figured anything out for SAM yet. I guess I need to expand the playlist! If you're interested, most of these songs can probably be found on YouTube (especially "The Marble Machine", which you should go and watch right now, because it is freakin' amazing). For other computer games, I sometimes turn the music track off and play my own playlists; does anyone do this with TOW? Or if you've heard listened to music and it's brought TOW to mind, what songs or tunes have struck you as "TOWish"? * Could just be that I'm obsessed. Because I am. ** It's a tune played on guitar and bagpipes, normally in the Mixolydian Mode, but in this case retuned for the Phrygian. "I'm sure you understand what that's like." ; )

I'm not a Fallout player (yet), though I've watched the Better Half play it. And something occurred to me:

3. If you think you only have two choices, there's probably a third way hidden in there somewhere.

I really sympathize. That was a tough one. I managed to make it (eventually) by sprinting and jumping, but I had to save after each successful jump. One time, I came down a ladder and automatically backed off of it to my doom. I'm glad you made it!

By the by, I went to the Outer Worlds Wiki and according to it, you're correct: you do have to kill all the outlaws (either without or after you've cooperated with Cass), including Lillian (presumably after you've given her back her cigarette case). I'm not sure I'll be doing that -- as fond as Aethel is of her adreno, I'm not sure she wants to murder a bunch of people (even though they're mercenaries) just to get on their good side. She thinks people (where "people" are defined as "not Clive"*) are more important than stuff. * Man, that quest really got under my skin. : (

No, I totally forgot. And now I can't remember what I did with that. I'm on the road so it'll be a while before I can check, but that's on my new & improved checklist now. : ) How'd that happen? I'd love to hear the story! Indeed. I'm thinking that most of the comments I've heard in the "low-budget" range have been complaints about the shortness of the game. But then other people are very happy that it's possible to get through the game in a reasonable amount of time (where "reasonable" means "not ground down by so many main-arc-related fetch quests that one loses all interest in the game"). You can't please everyone. But I love it for the stories, like you. The depth of the characters, and how they change, is really awesome. I'm hoping for more places to explore also, and maybe ways to explore the companions' backgrounds and motivations even more. It would not surprise me if Obsidian/Private Division did that; they clearly put a lot of thought and work into them. I think of all of the stories, though, "Slaughterhouse Clive" was the most disappointing. You really don't have a long-term productive choice there. On the first run-through, I skipped it entirely. On the second run-through, I did the option that lets you let SubLight and Clive team up, and boy do I regret it. I wish I could just have Aethel kill Clive, ghost SubLight, and then go fetch Tobson and say, "hey, I've got a management job for you on Monarch..."

I think it's the "Vulcan's Hammer" quest. I'm not sure if I already auto-botched this for Auntie Cleo, because I don't think I acquired the quest on this play-through but I think I did get the schematics. I'll have to go through and figure out if I can salvage this quest. I'm going to be out for a week working on other projects that will preclude me from checking, but I'm definitely thinking that next play-through I'm going to have both a checklist and a notebook, LOL. Thank you for reminding me about Journey into Smoke, also -- I usually approach quests from the most offset position I can, so I completely missed Lillian this time around, too. Huh! Yeah, that's not something I could do, either. I'm sure it's available on YouTube! Sheesh, for a game that supposedly was low-budget, there are a LOT of detail and options here. I am really looking forward to the DLC, which I hope opens up the other planets in the system.

Now I need to go back and find those other quests, because I don't think I've ever gotten about 53%. Hm! I've worked it Anton's way both times, so I'm not sure about the storyline you're talking about here -- but if you don't kill him (and I think if you give him his research), you do run into him again later, as a part of a different quest/storyline involving the "early retirees" in Byzantium.

Indeed! YouTube is really handy for that. There's a video about the "ice cream endings" that's pretty funny. As for Felix, I'm still holding out hope that his ending will change a little. If not, it'll just run in my head that he makes his home in Stellar Bay and is with Nell. Yes, I always pay attention to them when they say that -- always -- although I discovered quite by accident that Max will give you advice about the MSI/Iconoclast situation after a certain point (if I recall correctly, and I'm not saying that I am, it's after you complete the print shop quest). He didn't ask Aethel to talk with him at all, so now I make it a point to have her periodically talk with the companions. Aethel also had to go talk to Parvati in the Unreliable to kick off "Don't Bite the Sun"; Parvati didn't ask her to speak with her. But other than those two instances, the companions have spoken up when there's something on their mind. Yes! Although I'm disappointed that I can't actually have the captain ask Parvati to have SAM check in with ADA, or for ADA to be more overtly jealous of the way that Parvati pampers SAM. Have you been able to dig into ADA's background more, or get her to uncover the "[REDACTED]" parts of her self-knowledge? I have never played that, so I'm not familiar with that either. But I do hope you feel better soon!

Well, Aelthel's reputation with them right now is "Friendly" (53%), if that helps. Without totally spoiling things, completing the quest does have some amusing by-products and how you complete the quest affects those changes (for example, you can give the research you retrieve to Anton, or sell it to Gladys, or there's a third option I'll let you find on your own if you want to). There's at least one conversational option that wakes him up a little. But his actions have consequences for him, too, later on down the road...

I will tell you that I've successfully saved the matriarch, but not without having to kill at least one or three of the lesser raptidons. I've been able to successfully sneak over to the tubes (just wait for the raptidons to move to their farthest "pace orbit" away from them), but getting to the terminal without having at least one or three of the little ones aggro on me is impossible. Could be I'm just impatient, but I have to kill quickly and then leap onto the terminal before mama enters the fray. I've been able to do it twice (but had to lock the companions to stand outside the chamber, of course).

I went with the Phineas ending; I just can't bring myself to play an evil character. But Felix's ending seemed lonely, and it sort of surprised me given the conversations he had with post-vision Max while we were walking around (the background conversations that the companions have, especially when Max is in the party, are really wonderful). At one point, Felix asked Max if he could read some of Max's books from seminary, which Max welcomed, so I thought there'd be an opportunity for Felix to expand his education, and when his ending basically said, "Felix, being too dumb for anything but manual labor, spent the rest of his days working hard alone," my heart cracked for him a little. Indeed, the various ways that companions interact with each other (and with NPCs) based on where they are in their own arcs is very interesting and layered, and calls for many more play-throughs*. ; ) I have also found it useful to ask my companions when there's a decision to be made; they usually give me the "Middle Path" answer I'm looking for for my character. One thing I've noticed, though, is that on my PS4, I don't get any kind of "companion wants to talk to you" marker. So I periodically have to stop and see if they have something to say. That's a pity. Because it seems like there's hope for Felix with Nell. * More walk-throughs -- I'm already playing this game so much. You know you're playing "The Outer Worlds" too much when you sit down to watch "A Christmas Story" with your family and when Ralphie** daydreams about defeating Black Bart & his gang with Old Blue***, you want him to kick into TTD and start popping off heads. ** Even funnier when you realize your Better Half's character in TOW is named "Ralph". *** I have now named my character's rifle "Old Blue"

The OSI puzzle cube is on Sanjar's desk in Stellar Bay on Monarch. I haven't stolen it yet as I'm friendly to MSI and there are two guards standing by the wall behind the desk, but your mileage may vary. ; )

So, I'm on my second play-through. I happened to have Felix in the party when I went into Left Field Tossball Betting in Stellar Bay...and he started flirting with Nell. Next thing I know, over in the factory bay, Velma's referring to Felix as "the infamous Felix". In the first play-through, Felix's end story was kind of sad. I'm wondering, now, if that will change, so I'm looking forward to eventually reaching the end again. But I'm also wondering if it's possible to find partners for the other companions, either with generic named NPCs or in other quests. Has anyone come across something like this for Nyoka or Ellie? I'm going to have to spend more time introducing companions to various NPCs and see what happens, now. But I'm not complaining!

Aethelflaed. Named after the warrior-queen of Mercia, daughter of Aelfread (Alfred) the Great. She thinks it's a terrible name to saddle a child with (so much pressure!), but Max thinks she's aptly named.