I found Keller Family Transcript Nr. 3 today - actually the Hobo found it, I haven't yet found them all in one playthrough, and Nr. 3 is the first for the Hobo. So far I know of two more and since the Hobo wanders a lot, chances are he'll find them too.

My characters usually come across two or three of them in their travels. I think the Antagonizer is my only character to find all five, and I had to specifically go looking for them all to get all of them. She wanted to get into that secret vault in the National Guard depot.

That´s cool

I came across all of them by accident, I think. Maybe I looked up the very last one so I wouldn´t have to wander around forgetting all about it

Nice to see others playing some Fallout. You'll be seeing more of me too, now that my Skyrim season is coming to a close.

-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E


*click*

Pipboy App ON, *date needs calibrating* ... Re-connecting to subject Cho Zenwahn. 10 seconds.... 20 seconds....

Well, I'm back. And you have no idea where I've been. Too much to say right now. I'll talk about what happened, where I went after going into that stupid pod. It's crazy. I managed to hook up Vault 112's mainframe to my Pipboy, though. The picture you see below was stored in its memory.



Yeah, that's me in that pic. Weird, huh? ... But right now, say hello to my father, Pipboy app.

Father: Son, it's so good to see you. But what are you doing here?

I could easily ask you the same thing. Things have gone down and I've been all over the Wasteland looking for you. You left me back in that stupid vault to fend for myself. Now, I want to know why.

Father: You've came all this way and risked your life for answers? It must be important to you

Well dad, Duh. Wake up. I had no choice. Vault 101 went up in mutiny, you know that don't you? I had to fight my way out of there, not to mention all the [censored] I've had to go through out in the Wasteland.

Father: That's where you belonged. You're an *unidentified word*, capable of fending for yourself, and you had a good enough life ahead of you. What's out here is my task, my responsibility. I never wanted you to have any part of this insanity.

Well, too late for that. Because here I am.

Father: Project purity was underway long before you were born, we were all involved, including your mother. We were all devoting our lives to it. The idea of free, clean water for everyone drove us to succeed. So many sacrifices were made for that ordeal. My responsibility was to see it through to the end. To make sure those sacrifices mean something.

Well I want to help. I want to be involved. Come on, this is silly. What else is there to do out here in the Wasteland? Count me in.

Father: Yes, what about you? Why, in fact are you outside the vault at all? I don't even want to know how you got out. As much as I appreciate your help, you were supposed to stay there, to make a life for yourself there. Not out here.

Like I said, things went down which you don't know about. The Overseer is dead, and goodbye to that [censored]. I'm glad I'm out of there. Yeah, it is tough, but just walking around in actual sunshine makes it all worth it.

Father: Is that so? You're 19 years old, are you sure you know what you want from life already?

Are you kidding? You'd rather have me live underground like some [censored] mole rat?

Father: I suppose it doesn't matter now. I suspect there's no going back for either of us. We just have to forge ahead.

Yeah, that's the spirit. I'm in. Where should we go next?

Father: That's my boy. Let's hurry. Now that we know what we need, I want to get back to work as soon as possible.

Hey dad! ... Hey, where are ya going?! Slow down! Hey, I have to get my stuff first!

*click* Pipboy App OFF, Date: 12:14.77, 21:05

Cho the Mole Rat? I think not!

Ah, a family reunion in the Capital Wasteland. Isn´t that nice? *sniff*

The greatest challenge in Cho's life will be to catch up with his father on his journey to the Rivet City, running straight through every raiders' camp, and swimming right across Potomac.

Hey, following roads and avoiding danger is for whimps

So are more people playing Fallout 3 than 4 right now?

I encountered a "new" random encounter today and I don't see it mentioned on the FO wiki either. The Hobo has passed through Minefield many times and explored its houses but today as he entered one of the houses, radroaches inside were alive again, probably because the cell reset itself. However, there was one wastelander in the same house, incapable of fighting the roaches, and after the Hobo killed all of them and afterwards talked to the man, he thanked him, gave him 11 bottle caps and went to sleep.

Cool! I bet the Wastelander was supposed to be a corpse, that got set to alive after the cell reset.

I think the same because there is one encounter mentioned where you find a dead wastelander, surrounded by a lot of roaches. But what surprised me is that he paid the Hobo after he killed the roaches. I mean, of all my characters, he had to pay the only one that couldn't care less about caps.

That´s so cool! Never had that happen in my game

The Hobo found another Keller family transcript, labeled as Nr 2. Now only three more remain.

I remember from previous playthroughs locations of two of them (which I don't have yet) so I might guide the Hobo to find them, but the third one is still a mystery, unless it's located close to "the vault". This has to be my favorite unmarked quest in FO3.

I had a fun Fallout moment while playing Hecate yesterday. She was sneaking around in the fields west of the highway south of Primm, coming up on the Highway Patrol Station. She spotted a Raider walking down the highway, and took aim with Ratslayer. All the while she had Radio New Vegas on, and Mr. Vegas was just wrapping up an news segment. He finishes and says something like "This song is from me to all of you."

I have modded the radio station to change the songs. So what starts playing just as Hecate fires and blows the Raider's head off is this. I watched the kill movie of the Raider's head coming off just as Paul Simon says "Hello Darkness my old friend." I nearly laughed as a chill ran down my spine. Then Hecate set about silently (Ratslayer has a silencer) killing Raiders to the rest of the song. Not one even saw her.

Haha, that's awesome and chilly at the same time.

I had a rather similar moment with Blondie some some time ago, when she killed a whole tribe of Fiends, then turned on her modded radio and There won't be many coming home started playing.

I LOVE that song!!!

(and yes, I am here trying to find a hint about where Hecate is, )

This has been


*ping!*


another chilling moment!

That's awesome, SR. I love when spontaneous things happen like this.


More people are playing FO3 than Elder Scrolls, certainly. I am thinking I'll eventually get Fallout 4. Maybe later this summer, or maybe not until next year, we shall see.

I do wanna try FO3 on PC first though. Cho's game on Xbox is getting incredibly difficult now that the Enclave is all over the Wasteland (my updates are way behind my gaming with him). I can't wait to get into modding Fo3 to make some proper companions, for sure. Because the way things are going in his game, if his game was dead-is-dead he'd be a goner by now.

The strange man in black trenchcoat with a cyber arm has been seen in Megaton, showing various people an image of some middle-aged guy called James on his PipBoy, asking about his whereabouts. Eventually he came to Moriarty, seemingly the only person who could tell the man in black about James but Moriarty demanded payment for the information. Weighing his options, the man in black decided that it's better to leave Moriarty alive, so he stole a password for his terminal and read that James headed to the GNR Tower Plaza.

Not having any more business in Megaton, he left the town at night and headed east. Though his thoughts should be focused at James only, the man in black couldn't help but think about prostitute Nova which he hired in Megaton. She reminded him of some other girl but of whom exactly, he couldn't tell.

Oh, dear Nova. She´s a cutie, is she not?



As for me I´m currently wandering the wastes over-encumbered again. Too much loot

I had an interesting development in Hecate's NV game today. She was exploring Scorpion Gulch and came across the bomb crater with all the centaurs and the two dead BOS guys. After killing all the abominations, she found a little trail way in the back that led up the back of Black Mountain. It took her right to the very top, where there was a locked gate that she was able to pick.

That put her right on top of Black Mountain, without even seeing a single Super Mutant. She got into the treasure building, and repaired the broken robot within (Rhonda). It turned on, and Tabitha immediately appeared and walked over. I was expecting a big fight. But instead Tabitha thanked Hecate and then walked off with Rhonda the Robot to go explore the Wasteland. The Black Mountain quest then got added to my journal, and a second later completed.

That sounds convenient; get the quest and finish it at the same time

Three Dog couldn't just believe SX4 that he's on the good side and didn't want to reveal him immediately where scientist James went. So he sent the half-android on a mission to replace the broken satellite dish at the Washington Memorial so his radio signal could be heard all over the wasteland. Though Three Dog's request irritated SX4, he didn't have any other option than to help fighting the 'Good Fight'. He turned on his Long-time Running Special Ability and ran all the way back through metro tunnels to the Mall, vaporizing anyone that tried to do him harm, mostly radroaches, ghouls and Super Mutants. Only a few hours after he left Three Dog, the DJ already had his signal back. Since the special running ability exhausted SX4, he had to recharge his worn-out batteries at the top of the Washington Monument.

__

SX4's game is more action-paced than my Fallout playthroughs usually are. Since he boasts a huge damage resistance, he usually doesn't bother sneaking on his enemies and rushes straight to them, often gaining attention of more enemies in the area. While most of the time he doesn't have problems dealing with more at once, there were situations when he got overwhelmed like in the L'Enfant Plaza or in the Mall, where several Super Mutant Brutes or Masters attacked together and even SX4 had to retreat.

Do you have a mod that makes him extra resistant, Lopov?

That must be fun, he doesn't have to sneak, and even attracts lots of attention ha! Now you can do quests at warp speed. It probably took weeks for me to do this GNR stuff with Cho

No mod but I boosted his Damage, Poison & Rad Resistance with the console, and made his health regenerate automatically at a steady rate.

His game feels more like a shooter at times but as I said there are instances when caution is needed.

I hope SX4 took a moment to enjoy the view from atop the Washington Monument while he was recharging. Or at least what is left of the view. Lol.

How did you do the health regeneration? I have tried it in New Vegas and FO3, but never got it working. In New Vegas I simulated it by using the Vault 13 Canteen and changing the name and message it displays when it heals you. But i never got anything to work in FO3.

@Acadian - the view is very good (for wasteland standards) but as many screenies as I take, I forgot to take one from top of the monument.

@SubRosa - It's the console command "player.setav healrate XXX" and by XXX you specify the number - how fast you want to heal yourself. I use 750, it's not too slow but not too fast either. I did some experimenting with numbers, from 500 all the way up to 5000, then I settled for 750.

wow, I didn't know that healrate command worked in FO3. I thought Skyrim was the first time it was implemented. I will have to give that a try with Persephone, if I ever get back to playing her in FO3 or NV.

Acadian: Yes, that view of The Mall / top of the Monument (and the view from the top of this tall building that I'm forgetting its name) are two awesome views in Fallout 3. It's not like ES where there are lots of places to gather sights, unless they're gun sights (ha ha).


---------------------------

*click*

Date: Sunday, 12.16.77, 10:35 AM

Okay, I'm in this place called Andale right now, with a bunch of wackos. My dad is still with me, we're traveling back to Rivet City. Dad's a funny fellow. Keeps running ahead of me, and he's terrible at combat, and he refused to spend the night in here with these nice folk. The more I think about it though, the more I can see his side of things. Break.

Andale. It's a little town to the south of Vault 101 and Megaton. Everybody here keeps telling me their stupid little "town", if we can call it that, has won some sort of contest, like Andale is the best town in the entire U.S.A. You think I'm lying? Check this [censored] out.

unidentified male voice: Glorious day, isn't it?

Oh hey Jack Smith. This is Jack Smith, Pipboy App. *ahem* Yeah, pretty nice outside. Then again ... it's always pretty nice outside, right? Hey Jack Smith, what were you telling me about Andale last night?

unidentified male voice now identified as "Jack Smith": Andale, greatest place there is! We win town of the year every year. We've got no end of food, and no .... troubles at all. Yep, there's no better place to raise a family!

Ha ha hey you're right, Andale is a great place to raise a family ... it really does have a different vibe than the rest of the Wasteland. I can't wait to visit again! ... Break.

Had to get away from that nut, that unidentified word. I mean, can you believe that [censored]? What a loony! Okay, let me find the missus.

unidentified sounds, Pipboy app cannot decipher--

Hey Missus Smith, how's it going this fine day?

unidentified female voice: The good lord made Andale for days like today.

That so? .... hey, what's your name? Like, what's your whole name? Many apologies, but I forgot it overnight.

unidentified female voice: Hello again, I'm Linda Smith. Stick around for awhile. I've been thinking about making some meat cookies later. Isn't that exciting?

Meat .... cookies? Ahem, well tell me about Andale. I know you like it and all, but last night I was pretty tired. Don't remember everything you said.

unidentified female voice now identified as Linda Smith: It's the best little town there is. We don't have a care in the world here. I mean, honestly, what more do you need to know?

Heh hah, well, um, not a care in the world eh? Must be nice. Well hey, look at the time! 11:02 AM, gotta go outside now.

Linda Smith: I really look forward to preparing you some dinner sometime.

Meat cookies it was? I can't wait. I'll have mine well-done, thank you very much. A little toasty on the edges. And WOOH look at the time! ... Well, those deathclaws won't shoot themselves, now will they?

Linda Smith: Oh well that's too bad. I was hoping--.

unidentified sounds, Pipboy app cannot decipher

Sheesh. I thought my father was strange. Now I can see why he wanted to sleep outside.

*click*

Pipboy app OFF. Date: Sunday, 12.16.77, 11:03 AM

Meat cookies?

'Well, those deathclaws won't shoot themselves, now will they?' - Well done. Ranks right up there with 'I'm sure there's somewhere else I need to be.' or 'I'm busy tonight; I have to wash my hair.'

@Renee - did Cho figure out the secret behind Andale's happy life?

__

Doctor Zimmer couldn’t believe his luck – just when he was about to give up his hunt on the escaped android, the supreme model SX4 walked into the science lab of the Rivet City on a mission to find some scientist gone rogue. That mission could wait, and doctor Zimmer had tools at his disposal to convince SX4 that finding an escaped android called A3-21 is much more important. But what doctor Zimmer didn’t know is that SX4’s been receiving a lot of visions from his past life recently and began to question his orders. He was even able to convince Zimmer that he’ll search for the missing android but in reality he began to doubt his own decision.

Later on he was approached by Janice Kaplinski, one of the scientists of Rivet City, who immediately recognized SX4 to be an android. She obviously sensed something human in him and asked him to find Pinkerton in Rivet City if he wants to help himself and the missing android. Confused because of many parallel thought processes running in his head, SX4 decided to search for Pinkerton, and found him in his hidden lab in the broken bow of Rivet City.

To be able to recall memories from his past life and liberate his thought control processing, SX4 had to undergo a brain surgery, performed by Pinkerton. The scientist warned SX4 that meddling with microchips in his head might cause forgotten memories to emerge, and that some of them may be distorted events of what truly happened. As he explained, the most important test which SX4 has to pass while in coma, is to realize that his real life ended two hundred years ago – if he’ll manage to accept this fact and live on, it’ll become possible to free himself from mind control of his creator and make an important step towards becoming an independent entity.

After short preparations SX4 lied down on Pinkerton’s operating table and after sedating the android, the complicated surgery began. SX4 faded away and while his body remained in Pinkerton’s laboratory, a battle in his mind was just about to begin…

…as he opened his eyes, he was wearing winterized combat armor and just jumped down from a military vertibird that brought him on a mission to Anchorage. Not it was time for Nick Volodymyr to relive events which led to his own death.

I chuckled as I read the typical Bethesda experience of NPCs shoving quests at the player every time you turn around. I could imagine . . . 'Cannot process. Quest overload . . .'

Very cool how SX4/Nick starts the Anchorage adventure as a memory!

Yeah, I am excited to see how SX4 fares in Alaska. Um.... okay. Okay that's pretty wild. So when he goes to Alaska, this is him reliving his past, right? Ha! Wild.

There's a secret in Andale? Oops. Cho didn't spend very long there, his farther ... I mean his father was in a hurry to leave the next morning.

Andale, huh...?


Lock and load!


I´ve been thinking about SX4´s name a bit. I think Lopov is hinting he will be moving to Essex, England, in either four months or four years. Amirite?

SX4 is apparently the name of a car, similar to the one Lopov currently owns in real-life. I just asked him the same question a few days ago

The secret to Andale? Let's just say the Gourmet stays there...

Maybe Cho has to speak to some more residents of Andale because not all of them think it's the happiest place on Earth.

SX4 was indeed bombed with quests from all sides, both vanilla and custom. It really felt like complete processing overload.

Yeah, sort of. Partially it's his memories, partially his fears, and so on...not even he or the scientist that operates him, know how such visions are caused.

Renee explains it below, from where SX4 got his name:

Ugh.


Been wandering around over-encumbered for an hour and with a full inventory in Gunny. Had to wait two entire days before I could sell some of the stuff at Tenpenny Tower and later some at Megaton.

Upon returning home, I decided to change weapons since I was running low on minigun ammo and I have been wanting to have some missile fun

And as if that´s not enough, today I made save number 10.000!!


Currently wrecking some havoc at L´Enfant Plaza.

Having relived the battle of Anchorage and reconciled himself with his own death two hundred years ago, SX4's overcame controlling mechanisms in his head chips, hence allowing doctor Pinkerton to tinker with his brains. After a long and complicated surgery he managed to free SX4 of thought control processing, installed by his creator, and again enabled his ability to recall some real-life memories.

When the surgery was over, SX4 was richer for one scar on the left part of his forehead but he no longer felt under control of the Doctor and thinking of the past no longer caused him headaches.

However, his actions haven't gone unnoticed. In a hidden laboratory not far from the Capital Wasteland, the man with an eyepatch noticed that he had just lost SX4's signal. He's been suspicious about his most advanced half-android for a while now but it seemed that he had underestimated his capabilities. Just like some others before him, SX4 was now considered as a rogue android - a threat that must be eliminated immediately.

"A shame to lose such an advanced model but the only punishment for disobedience is death. Goodbye, my son," said the Doctor as he was checking the interactive map of the Capital Wasteland to determine which hunters were near to SX4.

Uh oh. Looks like SX4 exceeding his program has caught someone's eye. Plant all the microchips to program all you want, believe that artificial intelligence is no more than the sum of its programming and parts. . . but somehow life finds a way.

That was a neat touch adding the scar. Now Nick is himself again. Well, sort of. At least he is his own man. But now the hunter has become the hunted. He'll be putting that sword to good use...

Overriding the program. Somehow that feels familiar to me

I love that part when he loses SX4's signal. That's always a tense moment in movies, when you see somebody go off-screen. That's freakin bad ass how he becomes his own mind.

All of this started because of a Suzuki too.

I am back to Hecate's game in the Mojave Wasteland. She did find the missing 'O' from the Recponn sign. I never realized that is what it was before. It does not look like a letter to me. I always thought it looked like a guitar case.

I have also done some work on Ame-No-Uzume-No-Mikoto for Fallout 3. Her name is too long to fit in the name field! So I had to officially call her Ame-No-Uzume. I'd like to make her mouth less puckered looking. But unfortunately there is no way to do it in the game. I think I will look into trying to do it with the GECK. Maybe I can export her face from the game to the Geck, then tweak it there, and make a preset with the finished face.

That is if I decide to go with an Asian, instead of a Native American Coyote Shaman. I might try working on a face for that too, and see which I like better when I am done.

Ok, I also created Kaliska, my Coyote Shaman. Now, decisions... decisions...

I like the idea of her being Native American, simply because we're in America, where lots of Indians still exist.



*click*

Pipboy App ON, Date: Wednesday, 12.25.77, 9:43 AM

Well I'm back here in Rivet City. Don't know what happened to my father. Um ... he sort of disappeared out there in the Capitol Wasteland. During one of the many gun-battles we faced, you know, after awhile there's so many of them I start to lose track. But I know for sure he was with me after we left Andale a few days ago. Break.

My Pipboy .... good news is my Pipboy is indicating he's here. Or somebody I'm supposed to meet. I am standing outside the science lab now. Let's go inside.

unidentified sounds... Pipboy App cannot decipher ..... 10 seconds ... 20 seconds....

Bunch of people in here. HEY, I'M BACK. IT'S ME, CHO! ANYBODY SEEN MY FATHER?

unidentified female voice: Hey! Welcome back.

Daddy James ...confirmed it. Don't you see? This is what we've been waiting for.

unidentified female voice: I don't know James, so many years have passed. Is it really worth trying?

Daddy James: How coud it not be worth improving the lives of everyone in the Wasteland? What could--

AHEM. 'scuse me while I kiss this guy. Hey, dad, remember me? You know you've got a habit of leaving me behind.

Daddy James: We need to get to project purity. The computer there is our best chance to repair the unidentified word.

Yeah sure, whatever. And you know, I agree with you. Would be nice to have clean water. Still doesn't change the fact that I'm feeling a little .... I get it though. Thing is, you also have a habit of rushing into things without preparation. Seriously, you want to go there with that stupid sledgehammer for a weapon? ... Here, I've got this pistol, check it out, okay? And--

Daddy James: After 20 long years, I finally have a chance to make things right. To finish what I started so long ago. I owe this to Madison. I owe it to your mother. I can't wait another moment. Are you coming with us?

Yeah sure, whatever. I'll come with you guys. Not like I have anything better to do. But do me a favor, okay? ... SLOW DOWN. I'm amazed you made it here to Rivet City on one piece, with all the beatings you took.

Daddy James: That's my boy. It'll be good to work with you, side by side.

I .... Wow. Hey, finally I ... *unidentified sound* sorry, I'm gettin' a little choked up here. ... Ha ha just kidding. Let's get going. But seriously though, a sledgehammer?

*cick* Pipboy App OFF, Date: Wednesday, 12.25.77, 9:58 AM

SubRosa - Oooh! A coyote shaman sounds fabulous!

Renee - Poor Cho gets no love.

Cho is getting choked up. I am afraid it will only get much worse later...

Hecate has now explored all of the Mojave Wasteland, except for inside the walls of New Vegas itself, and the Legion Fort. I am not sure if I want to try any of the DLCs with her. Old World Blues does not suit her, and Dead Money is right out since I didn't like it the one time I tried it. That would leave possibly exploring Zion or the Divide.

I have been having a lot of fun with Hecate, so I am thinking of going back to playing her in FO3. Either picking up where I left off with her after finishing Broken Steel, or restarting her all over again fresh.

So I think I might just wrap up New Vegas in the next few days, and get back to FO3.