Friday, May 15, 2009

Fallout 3: Enclave Deathclaws

Okay, so this is weird. The Fallout Wiki says:
Deathclaws make another appearance in the game as the Enclave camps begin to appear. These camps are likely to house cages containing Mind-Controlled Deathclaws, which are just the same as regular ones with the exception that they will not attack Enclave forces.

Is that the way it's supposed to work, then? On my XBox 360 version of the game, fully updated, the Deathclaws held in Enclave cages attack the Enclave soldiers almost as soon as they've been let out of the cage.

In one memorable incident, the Enclave officer outside Dukov's Place was shooting at a Radroach and decided she needed help, so she opened the Deathclaw cage. The Deathclaw killed the Radroach, stood around for a moment, and then killed the officer.

So far, every time I've seen the Enclave unleash their Deathclaws, they've turned on the Enclave soldiers. According to the Fallout Wiki, they're not supopsed to do that. I wonder which is wrong? The game is so loving buggy that I wouldn't be surprised if it was a bug, but it's not in the wiki's list of bugs.

It's been funny, yeah, but I'm just wondering. I mean, the Enclave aren't meant to be that stupid, are they?

On reflection, my theory is that when the Deathclaw is released, it doesn't attack Enclave soldiers. If there's no-one else around to attack, however, it will attack the Enclave. This would explain the behaviour we've been seeing.

The question remains, though; is that supposed to happen? It makes the Enclave officer releasing a Deathclaw into a lose-lose situation for the officer; either the Deathclaw loses, and anything tough enough to kill a Deathclaw is also going to kill them, or the Deathclaw wins and then kills them.

So it's either a bug or really dumb game design. Hey, wait, I've just accidentally described most of the game. Oops.

(okay, I'm exaggerating, but if you've played it...)

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