r/fo3 • u/CausalLoop25 • 11h ago
Why does Sonora Cruz have a unique 10mm Pistol that does 100 damage?
Why do you think the developers gave her such a weapon instead of just a normal 10mm Pistol? Do you think it was a mistake that they accidentally gave her a dev-testing super gun instead of the normal one? An easter egg of some sort? Maybe they meant to give her a unique pistol, but never got around to finishing the weapon?
If I had to give her a legitimate, balanced unique weapon, here's what I'd do. I feel like a revolver fits the whole cowboy vigilante theme better than a 10mm.
- NAME - The Lawbringer
- APPEARANCE - A Scoped .44 Magnum minus the scope, with a dark mahogany grip and a cleaner silver finish, engraved with tally marks on the barrel indicating kills.
- EFFECTS - Cannot zoom in due to the lack of a scope. Weighs 3 rather than 4, has an Item HP of 300 rather than 240, has a spread of 0.5 rather than 0.3 (due to the lack of a scope), and has an AP cost of 30 rather than 32. Does 50% more damage to NPCs with Evil Karma and double damage to NPCs with Very Evil Karma. The crit multiplier also increases to x2.5 against Evil NPCs and x3 against Very Evil NPCs.
- OBTAINING - Can be obtained by killing or disarming Sonora Cruz, although if you are an evil character, she'll do a ton of damage to you. Alternatively, if you turn in 50 Fingers to her, as well as Junders Plunkett's finger, she will give you the gun as a reward.
18
u/Capitalsteezxxx 10h ago
I never heard of this. Can you do the reverse pickpocket method and obtain it on console, by chance? I doubt it, otherwise I probably would have heard of it by now. But interesting nonetheless.
17
13
u/Bandandforgotten 11h ago
This sounds like a weapon to make killing the Regulators more of a challenge than simply walking in with a mini gun.
I'm making my own TTRPG and one of the things I'm testing is special weapons that the bosses or powerful npcs have to make them a bit more of a threat, and the ability to give my players the weapon if they actually manage to kill my special enemy/npc.
This looks like that
5
u/CausalLoop25 11h ago
Well, it would be if she didn't flee from battle invariably XD
1
u/Bandandforgotten 8h ago
Right? Lol
They probably set her npc to "cowardly" in the GECK and forgot to change it to "aggressive" before sending it out. The Regulators are a pretty small faction in Fallout 3, so it's pretty likely they just said fuck it and forgot completely
3
1
u/ElegantEchoes Tunnel Snakes Rule! 9h ago
No lol, that wasn't their intention with the weapon. It's not an Alien Blaster lol
They also never intended a player to attack Regulator HQ.
11
u/Academic-Arrival8495 10h ago
I remember hearing about this when I was a kid and trying EVERYTHING to get the gun off her and nothing worked.
7
u/WormedOut 9h ago
Probably to kill the death claws when she runs halfway across the map for no fucking reason
7
u/Shadowgooseman 10h ago
My guess is that its supposed to be used if you attack them but because Bethesda magic she always flees during combat, its also not that weird for a character to have an unobtanable weapon, autumn has a 10 millimeter that only appears when he "dies" when he firsts shows up that can only be obtained through the camera loot glitch
10
u/DoctorSpooky 10h ago
It was intentional. I honestly don’t remember exactly why, though. Pretty sure it was to have her be a badass in combat but not have her whip out a minigun or something that wouldn’t look right.
The fleeing is a bug. Oops.
7
12
u/CausalLoop25 10h ago
Yeah she has a "Cowardly" Confidence level and an "Unaggressive" Aggression level which just doesn't seem right given her personality
4
u/DoctorSpooky 10h ago
Yeah. When you make a couple hundred NPCs, some things slip through the cracks. As I said: Oops.
0
u/ElegantEchoes Tunnel Snakes Rule! 9h ago
I don't think what you said is true. Do you have a source that it was intentional and that her fleeing is a bug?
5
u/DoctorSpooky 7h ago
Source: My memory.
Granted it was nearly 20 years ago and it’s a pretty small thing. But I happen to vaguely recall wanting her to have a pistol but still be brutal in a fight.
3
u/TunaSafeDolphinMeat 5h ago
Hey, you worked on Shivering Isles quest design for Oblivion also right?
2
u/DoctorSpooky 5h ago
Yup. :)
3
u/TunaSafeDolphinMeat 5h ago
Ahh awesome; it's not often you get to thank someone for something they worked on that you enjoyed so much that you still occasionally remember bits and pieces years later, so thanks dude! 😁
2
u/___Mania 4h ago
That’s very cool, oblivion is one of my top 3 favorite games of all time, which quests specifically did you design?
1
u/ElegantEchoes Tunnel Snakes Rule! 4h ago
Ah, I can absolutely see why that was changed haha, that would have been quite imbalanced and rather different than other things in the game, as nothing like that was done elsewhere. It also wouldn't make sense for the 10mm Pistol.
Maybe if you gave her an Alien Blaster it would make sense lol
3
u/Not-At-Home 8h ago
I don't know that they need a source for something like this, really. There's precedent for it. Mistakes with NPC personality coding happens all the time in these games. The most famous I can think of is that mannequins in Skyrim will come to life, because they're just reskinned NPCs and sometimes a 0 becomes a 1.
2
u/forgottenchallenge16 1h ago
Obviously it’s a 10mm powered by justice and lots and lots of good karma
1
1
u/Jenkinswarlock 6h ago
Okay so I have done some digging and I’ve been able to make her draw her weapon after hitting her with the mesmetron, I haven’t been able to shoot the gun out from her hands but I think there is a chance to get it
1
u/Beneficial-Band-3291 5h ago
Shit also has a hella boosted fire rate and an absurd sell value. And since Sonora is scripted to always flee‚ she actually never uses her gun funnily enough.
1
u/ElegantEchoes Tunnel Snakes Rule! 9h ago
Wow. I'm surprised to see so many comments like "to make her harder to kill"
C'mon y'all, please. I know it's a small sub lol
2
-1
0
u/killerkitten115 5h ago
Thousands of hours into this game, never took the lawbringer perk, never knew she was a character in this game, something new to try on my next run
-6
u/hillmo25 10h ago
Guns should not affect damage. They should affect fire rate, accuracy, recoil, magazine size etc.
The ammo should do the same damage regardless of which gun it is fired from (if it connects)
4
u/CausalLoop25 10h ago
Well, to be pedantic, barrel length and chamber pressure can affect the velocity of the bullet, which would change the damage to some degree.
0
u/hillmo25 10h ago
wow so doubling the barrel length increases kinetic energy by over 20%.
So i guess a long rifle should do like 50% more damage than a handgun firing the same ammo since that's probably 4x the length.
1
u/shadows_over_elise 6h ago
it's an RPG. that type of mechanic doesn't really work unless every weapon can fulfill a different role while a couple of them still use the same caliber without them becoming redundant. Which I guess is possible but you don't see many RPGs being made like that. I'd play it like that though.
114
u/NotAnotherSkeleton 11h ago
Maybe she was supposed to use it for some scripted event that never made it into the game. A 10mm pistol that does 100 damage is wild.