Saving Private Dobbs

B

bji

First time out of the vault
Just for fun, and because I am that kind of guy, I tried saving Private Dobbs, the one who you can get to show up in the 4th level of the army base, from dying.

It seems to me that his death is triggered by getting to the corner of the hallway outside of the room that he shows up in. So I tried to prevent him from getting to that corner. Well, first I tried boosting him up with psycho and buffout, hoping that this would prevent damage, but this had no effect, he still imploded.

Next I tried my awesome hand to hand skills, and easily disabled both of his legs. But he was still able to slowly move to the hallway. I remained in combat mode since I had attacked him and wasn't able to run all the way out of the level before he reached the hallway. I almost made it to the elevator on time, but no nice.

I also tried knocking him unconscious, but he woke up before I could get out of the level.

I didn't try both knocking him unconscious, and crippling both legs; not sure if that would have bought me enough time to get out.

My assumption is that if you can make it out of the level before he gets to the hallway corner, he'll live. I don't know what would happen when you returned to the level, if he'd start running to the hallway again or if he'd have 'forgotten' that that's what he was trying to do.

Probably you can play tricks with the force field and somehow hold him in his room, but I'm not sure how that would work.

Anyone successfully save Private Dobbs from his unfortunate fate? if so, how?
 
In true philosophical fashion:

''Why? ..... ''

I mean, its not like he is useful for anything. If he was somehow a secret recruitable NPC maybe. But he will probably simply stay put in place and offer you nothing.
 
Chancellor Kremlin said:
''Why? ..... ''
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For the same reason that I play the game to begin with ... to have fun. I thought it was a fun little challenge to try to keep the guy alive. Also it would 'feel good' to know that the guy was still alive down in the base somewhere and that I had saved him - even if it was just in a suspended state of animation, waiting for me to show up again so he can finish running and blowing himself up ...

Anyway, it doesn't seem like anybody has tried this or cares enough to give advice, which is cool too ... because I was just trying it for fun and there's plenty more to do in Fallout 2 without worrying about Private Dobbs ...
 
I wondered if there was a way to save him when I tried to get skynet a brain, but I quickly abandoned the idea when I obviously didn't get a chance to calm him down. I didn't go to the extents you did :p Nice try though
 
Hmm.... I don't think Dobbs can run through the forcefield, so if you can get into the hallway with him still in the storage room, he should live forever. Try bringing in NPCs and position them to form a wall across the hallway. The way Fallout's pathing works, most critters don't move at all if there's no route to their destination/target, so he might stay put even when you lower the forcefield.
 
Dobbs will position himself on a specific tile/hex where he gets hit for a fatal amount of plasma damage.
So yeah either wait until the force field is back up, don't speak with him or park an NPC on the hex where he's destined to. I'd taken the LE BB gun instead which spawns on his leftovers.
 
Frank Horrigan@BIS said:
Dobbs will position himself on a specific tile/hex where gets hit for a fatal amount of plasma damage.
So yeah either wait until the force field is back up, don't speak with him or park an NPC on the hex where he's destined to. I'd take the LE BB gun instead which spawns on his leftovers.
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That's a great idea. I will try it. I traded Sulik up for the robot in the base anyway (I can only have one other team member at a time because my charisma is so low), so I should have just parked him on that space (or in the doorway, as someone else pointed out, Dobbs won't move if something is blocking his path) rather than leaving him somewhere random.

As to the LE BB gun, I am playing an unarmed character, don't intend to ever use a weapon in this run of Fallout 2, so I don't need the gun. I'm already carrying as many high value weapons as myself and my NPC can hold, waiting to find a merchant who actually has enough cash to buy them ...
 
You'll have to position the NPC between you and Dobbs though, so you can still talk to him and get your behind back to the lift.

Also, Chancellor: Because we can :)
 
While all of the Bethesda's fans are busy trying to kill such annoying characters such as the Adoring Fan, Fallout fans are compassionate individuals that care for all human life, virtual or otherwise. Private Dobbs is a person and a brave war hero. He deserves to live and we shall make it so.
 
Haha you guys crack me up.

I have long campaigned for the protagonist of Bethesda's new 'Operation Anchorage' to be Private Dobbs. That would be awesome, not to mention an interesting twist.

Alas, my suggestions fall on deaf ears.
 
JesusC said:
So... I have to know, did this ever end up working?

Curiosity will kill me. :(
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I'll let you know soon. I suffered a hard disk crash recently and lost my Fallout 2 saves. So I had to start my game over, and I'm headed to the Army Depot now. Within a day or so I'll have a definite answer on this.

I'm going to try leaving Sulik on the tile that Private Dobbs would blow himself up on. I'll let you know how it goes.

Also, I just had an idea: maybe it will be possible to use the brain extractor to extract Private Dobbs' brain. If I can get him to stand still (by having Sulik stand on his implosion tile, or maybe just by not talking him at all), then maybe I can 'push' him into the brain extractor room? I have no idea if this will work, and I fully realize that it goes against the spirit of 'saving' Private Dobbs, but I'm curious to find out if it can be done. If nothing else, it would be a way to get a human brain into the robot without a high science skill and without wasting a team mate ...

UPDATE:

Well, I completed the base tonight (with science of 100, so I was unable to get the best brain, darn). I tried a couple of ways of keeping Private Dobbs alive. Putting Sulik on the hex tile that I observed Dobbs blowing up on didn't help, because apparently it isn't a single tile that does it, it's either a whole group of tiles, or it's just crossing over a certain threshold. Either way, he just ran around Sulik (or Sulik and me if I positioned us both in the correct spots) and blew up anyway.

So I tried the other thing, which is to trap him in his room with the force field. That worked. I just timed it (by saving after disabling the force field and then entering the room, and saving. Then I loaded and counted how many seconds it took for the force field to come back on. Finally, I reloaded, went and got Private Dobbs, and then waited to talk to him until about two seconds were left before I knew the forcefield would turn back on. After talking to him he was going to run out of the room (and he's faster than me at running it seems) so I entered combat mode immediately and walked out ahead of him. The force field went back up right after I exited the room. I left combat mode, and there was Private Dobbs, standing there waiting to be let out.

Unfortunately, the end result is not too much different from just leaving Dobbs there without ever talking to him.

And finally, I now realize that it never would have been possible to manipulate Dobbs into the brain extraction room. Even if you could get him to stop in the hallway (which seems impossible as he will always run around any obstacle and blow himself up), the game does not ever give you a "move out of my way" icon to push him around. So there's no way to get Private Dobbs' brain I am afraid.
 
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Oh, what the heck :P
 
Oh, so that's really why you wanted to save him. To get his brain. He would've died anyway, eh? :P
 
This is disappointing, after I managed to time the force-field correctly...I can't keep him in the room, move him away from that hex, recruit him or even worse, put him in the brain extraction.

I wonder if a cure for this type of 'symptom' was found in future Fallouts...
 
Isn't there a Mod that makes Dobbs into an NPC?
I always wondered how that worked.
If Dobbs is still healing in his medical gel bath when we extract him, shouldn't it be possible to "heal" him with high enough Science and Doctor skills? Science AND Doctor to heal him by using the base's medical equipment?

Or just Doctor skill to save him as if he were a regular injured patient?

I bet he'd be a better NPC than Sulik-Mr-Burst-Rounds-and-Kill-Me-and-all-my-other-NPCs.

Because I'd rather have a soldier expertly shooting an LE BB Gun rather than a dead guy with a BB gun on his decaying copse ;)
 
I didn't check the brain extraction script (nor have the skills to understand it), but i don't think it was ever intended to have a non-companion sacrified to get the brain.
 
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