Cobra on 1/4/2006 at 17:33

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If anyone has already done this, then do ignore me. However, I am planning on playing IW Alginon style (realistic, no inventory/augs.) I have a big question that needs to be cleared up before I do it properly:

Does the Alginon style permit the use of money?

I am presuming it does, as Alginon had to pay to get into the Lucky Money club to contact the other Dragon Head. But is it frowned upon? So that I should only use it when absolutely necessary to do so. If it is the latter, I imagine getting a pilot to Mako is going to be very difficult. It is hard enough when I can use Sid Black. Without being able to use money freely I will have to try sneaking through the inclinator three times when the templars and co. are in it, someone manage to get to the metro in the thug infested station, and finally break out Ava. That is besides all the other potential stuff in later missions..

Anyway, presuming I can use money freely, the only point where I must break these self imposed rules is right at the start: Nassif doesn't let me through a particular door unless I install at least one Biomod canister. I can work around it via getting a black market one later on and going to electrical discharge (and as I am not using any ranged weapons, it will be useless.) The above senario is the only one where I must install a biomod, although of course I do not use it thereafter.

I will post accounts of how I did it, if anyone actually cares. ;) I have just finished Mako, using Sid Black as my pilot.

Cobra on 2/4/2006 at 17:02

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This bit is easy, I am not sure why I really need to go through it, but what the hey.

After going through the motions of greeting my fellow trainees (Billie the Rebel, Klara the Ditzy muppet, and Leo head-up-his-ass.) All hell unsurprisingly broke loose. I dived into the locker room to not pick up any equipment, and returned to the female SSC guard who suggested I sneak past him. After temporarily wondering why the locker rooms were unisex, I decided to let her do all the work, by catching the seekers attention and running back to the guard, where she shot the seeker for me. The tactic of getting my allies to fight my battles will be one I am using a lot, so be warned.

Back in the small area which included our rooms (the one where an SSC guard had got smacked with a grating, yet more evidence of the conspiracy of the architects with their conveniantly placed air vents.) I told the SSC to stay where he was, whilst I sneaked through Klara and Leos room, via an air vent, and skipped across behind the seeker into my room, and out through the bathroom. I promptly lept across, and into the Bio lab.

Now, here comes the first 'problem' where I have to break the rules. After a terse exchange with Nassif, she did not give me the key code untill I installed one level of Biomods. As I do not think there is anyway around this one, I installed Agressive Defense Drone level one, and I promise I won't activate it. Obviously installing a passive biomod would be a bust, although later on in the game, I would have killed for a run silent or strength enhancement.

Anyway, after speaking to the scientist with an unhealthy interest in my personal hygine, I dodged the camera and walked up to the scientists (camera dodging is something else which I will rely upon a lot, they seem to be pretty much deaf, which is good.) I talked to the scientists, and realising that there was no way I was going to take out two Seekers, promptly ran on. By sheer accident I choose the most suitable option out of the many provided. I picked up the explosive crate, slipped through another vent and went up the stairs. Another air vent awaited me, but unfortunately this one had a spider bot inside. Downstairs the Seekers were disordering the internal organs of the three scientists. I opened the grate, waited for the spider to pop out, then threw my explosive crate at it.

Nothing. I realised, to my horror, that without strength enhancement, explosive crates are not uber-nades, but something I need to persuade people to shoot for me. Not good news. I managed to get the spider to shoot the crate for me, the trick is to pick it up, wait for the spider to rear up to shock you, then throw the crate at it. The resulting explosion blew the spider up, and also took me down to quite low health. Thankfully a med bot (ironic that the people who you can count on most in IW are machines and AI, really) healed me up, so I went through the now clear vent, to the lab beyond.

The next bit was the most difficult part (although that is not saying much) so far. The lab is on two levels, with this highest one furthest away from me. One seeker and a Camera are looking at ground floor (hence why my route through the vent was the best one) whilst a second seeker is patrolling the top floor. The solution was actually quite simple. Tossing a chair across the room allowed me to distract the top floor seeker, and because there was a railing which went over the lower level, I could run across it, and exiting stage left before the seekers to shoot me. After discussing the finer points of religious fundamentalism (you can tell it is a post 2001 game, can't you?) I went out into the mean streets of upper Seattle.

Cobra on 3/4/2006 at 23:03

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Well, whilst the readers (or reader, Makahlua ;)) ponder over the busts I have found, I might as well carry on regardless of how I did the mean streets of Seattle.

After a conversation with the freindly WTO checkpoint (why have a checkpoing between Tarsus and the Enclave itself, and not between the Enclave and the inclinator?) I decided I would talk to the Thugs. You can of course pay them the money, but I choose instead to pick a fight and run away. The Aero bot and the WTO soldiers made short work of them. Considering how open-ended Seattle is, the bits I will break down into sections. Also, as I am still not sure whether money should be never used, I shall shall give alternate methods for Uber-scrooges.

Club Vox.

N.B. It is not necessary, hence Uber scrooges do not need to enter.

I went into Club Vox breifly just to pick up quests, the only thing which requires you to DO anything is to try and get the Cadaver, as well as sneaking around the back. I do not THINK there is a keycode to storage, so I didn't get the cadaver (and as I won't be buying anything from the Omar, it doesn't really matter.) However, I did skip across to the secure area, it is done be mantling up on top of a wall beside one of the 'Secure area doors', the one by the dance floor. There is a conveniant grate which you can flick aside, and bingo, you are in. I didn't ultimately grab the incriminating evidence, because I could not be fagged, but hey, if you want to, I can't imagine it is very difficult.

Emerald suites

Now, under Billies helpful advice I got into another of those air vents, and made my way across to Nassifs room, and picked up some dirt on Mark Finely, who just happened to have an appartment here too, and Donna Morgan wanted me to raid it, fortutitous. I decided against barging on the assassin.

Now, there were three methods to getting into the Culture ministers appartment, however, all of them cost money/multitools, so scrooges can't do it. However, it was painfully easy for me to find the 'secret' room. The keycode is hidden behind some wine bottles, and it is a simple matter of making sure the spider bot is far away when you start jumping the lasers. Dodging the camera is similarly easy, and that was that. Getting out was much pretty plain sailing. Job done, Morgan wanted me to meet up with her.

WTO terminal

As of yet, I have been unable to get past the thugs without paying the charge, the switch to disable the Gold beams is in the monosyllabic guys room. It is about this stage I realised I must be wearing Tapshoes, or my adversaries have the hearing of Bats - sneaking without run silent is painful, as I find out throughout my attempt. However, as it is necessary, I decided it would be 'simpler' to run through the inclinator.

Inclinator, part one.

This is probably the first vaguely challenging part of the game so far. After observing the freindly chat between the boss had her workers, I agreed I would clean up the inclinator. I already had the route planned out in my head - I could sneak through the vents in the upstairs office, out onto the beams beyond, and through there I could get to the computer, and hence the solution.

Only one problem, Fido the riot-shotgun-toting-robot-dog was in my way. Unfortunately, I couldn't tempt him out to play with the WTO soldier, and as soon as I alerted him, he would stay fixed at the door. Trying to run past him got me a lot of shotgun in the face. So I waited, a long, long time. Eventually he turned around, and I sprinted to the office, and from then on, I went down. I didn't actually bother getting my measley reward, and just went down the inclinator.

Lower Seattle/Order Church/Herons loft.

Note at this point I have abandoned Scrooge play. You will see how insanely difficult it would be later, but if you can do it, you have a stronger resolve (and probably even more free time) than me.

As befitting of a dystopic area for the less fortunate, there was not much to do. I didn't want to talk to the Omar, and I didn't need to the visit the Greasel pit although I did just to pick up some Credits on betting on the Gobs, as well as talking to Sid Black. For those after some money, you can go across to the Herons loft, pick up the soft key to the coffee shop, and roast his stock on one of the open fires (a hall mark that things are really rough.)

Anyway, I went to the Order church and aquainted myself with everyones favourite new age monotheists. I charged myself at the Med bot (soon to become my best freind in all of Seattle) and spoke to Lin-May Chen. It turns out that the group of people out to kill me were extremists under this Captain Lamar bloke. Chen asked me to go back to the Inclinator and spy on him, and grab some info. That done, I went back to the inclinator.

Inclinator, the second coming.

This is were things get nasty, on the lower level there are two thugs within ten meters of me, one with a sniper rifle, and there was a guy on the balcony above the inclinator with another sniper rifle. Sneaking past them with my tapshoes wasn't going to work - the area was too well lit anyway. So, I learned a new tactic which I would rely upon a lot. The Nike solution. I got as far as I dared without being spotted, and ran like hell to the lift, and managed to hit it with getting hit by the sniper only once (thank god for 'Realistic' damage.) Despite some of the thugs being on the lift when I triggered it, they didn't follow me up. At the top of the inclinator, there are two pairs of bad guys, not including the paladin with Lamar. Deciding the second group is better circumvented, I dashed to the ladder, and climbed up to the platform with the computer console, I then made my way across to the vents, and into the office, behind Lamar, and close to the Data cube.

To those of you who have played IW, you might know how nasty shotguns are when you are within five feet of them, same goes for flamers. The paladin had a flamethrower, and lamar packed a shotgun, and there was no way for me to read the datacube without having to talk to, and hence provoke Lamar. I got pasted numberous times attempting to dash back to my vent without getting killed (it is quite tricky.) However, I eventually managed it by ensuring that I had the data cube highlighted as the convo triggered. Once it ended I could quickly click it, read it, then dash back to the vent. I managed this finally with only one shotgun blast to my debit. Humourously, the paladin with the flamethrower managed to set light to everything BESIDES myself, including Captain Lamar - further proof that fanatics make unreliable freinds.

Considering the two thugs down near the inclinator were sniffing around the ladder I went up, I elected to use a different vent, and descend into the stairs the mechanic used to be trapped down. From there I could run to the inclinator switch without getting shot at, and so it was.

Unfortunately, at the bottom, there was the gang of thugs I had left which were pleased to see me again. It seems that NPC positions and states being frozen on leaving an area happens in IW as well as thief, but you do not notice it as much because you tend to be taking out all the hostile NPCs in a zone. I had to run like a maniac from them, and the two snipers made life painful and caused a lot of reloads untill I managed to evade them, admittedly with only no units of life left (so a hit of anything would kill me.)

Order Church/Herons loft/Greasel pit

After availing myself to the Church's medbot, I went back to speak to Chen. She now gave me the task of finding a pilot. I choose to fly Sid, as flying Ava entails the following (for anyone who wants to scrooge it):

Firstly, you have to go through the inclinator rigmorole as you cannot enter the penthouse, and hence have Donna Morgan give you the find a pilot goal.

Then you need to make your way up the inclinator AGAIN, except this time it is likely both the top and bottom sections of the inclinator will have alerted bad guys.

Then you need to try and get through the metro terminal, the button to release the gold beams is behind the nervous attendant, good luck getting that.

Then you can get to the WTO facility, and now you have to break Ava out, as well as run to her whilst WTO troops turn up.

Oh, and if that isn't enough, whatever health you have left you have to complete most of Mako with, as the next Med bot is with Stan at the biolab, and obviously it would be even harder if you tried to backtrack to the church to use theirs.

Anyway, spending money now, I went to the Herons loft. I paid Sophia Sak her 200 (a bargain compared to trying to fight her and all the SSC empty handed.) I also found a nice way of killing Gob-zilla. You see, if you stay outside the window, eventually the trainer catches you, and she usually tosses a spider bomb. Providing it doesn't go through the window, it will kill the Greasel for you. However, you need to do this AFTER paying Sak, as if you do it before all of the SSC and Sak can go hostile. Anyway, after doing that, I made a healthy amount of money on the now stacked odds, enough to pay Sid Black, and thus off I went to Mako.

Cobra on 4/4/2006 at 14:27

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My current endgame plan is to side with the templars in Cairo ASAP- I don't think it will be humanly possible for me to dodge all the rocket launchers. That will also make the START of liberty Island a sinch, as I can run to the Templars and let the PAPs shoot the crap out of everything, so once I have whittled down the illuminati and Templars as much as possible, I will try going into Unatco itself. Billie should be freindly, as I am a templar now. Hopefully I can tempt the seeker bot to pick a fight with a templar or something..

However, getting OUT is going to be hell. I am pretty sure I must upload aquinas to Denton, as there is no way I can kill the dentons without equipment. I am hoping there will not be too many elites and PAPs left. However, I am almost certain getting out of Unatco will be the hardest part of the game, because even if I get past billie, etc to the entrance, there are (IIRC) 5 PAPs with rocketlaunchers fanned out outside. That will not be fun.

However, I am stuck on a more humble problem in Trier. I can get out of the laboratory, but I take a lot of damage because I need to run through two paladins to a ladder, and one of them carries a shotgun. The best I have managed so far is 3 units of health left. As there is no Med bot in trier proper, I am going to have to try and attempt the entire Cathedral with three Health. I haven't even managed to get inside yet.

Presuming I manage that, I am unsure whether all the bad guys get wiped on my return to the black gate, if not I am probably screwed, as the two paladins who hang around by the entrance will still be there. Presuming that I have antartica, and besides the wide open area with milbots, and then PAPs, I remember there is a corridor with a flame turret which I cannot get around - I hope there is a code somewhere. Then I need to get into- and then out of - JC's sanctuary, and there are PAPs and cameras and turrets. Not fun.

If I miraculously manage that, and are still alive, I need to finish the entire Versalife base. I am pretty sure the transgenics are going to make that hell. Only right at the end of that can I get myself a Med bot, and heal up.

Then Cairo, I imagine it should be okay, untill I get to the mosque, and then I have the pleasure of being greeted by Paps and Paladins, and trying to run the Milbot gauntlet....



P.S. Unfortunately Mahla, I cannot find any pick upable items with no enhanced strength besides a chair. I will look again, I might be able to push something all the way to the Gold beams, but considering how low my health is, and the fact all the templars are alerted, that will be quite a trick. If anyone finds something you can pick up with unenhanced strength, do tell me.
This could take some time.

Makahlua on 6/4/2006 at 02:30

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Yeah the trashcan in the Metro I was talking about earlier is definetly pick-upable w/o upgraded strength (I know b/c in my most recent game I had the BotDom biomod on my arms). Cardboard boxes are also a no-no, but a tire might work. Assuming you can carry it in between maps?