Welcome to the Big Empty is a main quest in the Fallout: New Vegas add-on Old World Blues.
Quick walkthrough[]
| Main Quest: Welcome to the Big Empty | |||||
| Enter the Sink from the balcony. | |||||
| Enter the Dome chamber of the Think Tank. | |||||
| Speak with Doctor Klein and the other members of the Think Tank. | |||||
| Reward: Variable XP Sonic emitter K9000 cyberdog gun (skill-dependent) Moderate amount of .357 Magnum and SEC ammo (skill-dependent) Varied amount of caps (skill-dependent) The Sink as player character housing | |||||
| Leads to: All My Friends Have Off Switches X-2: Strange Transmissions! X-8: High School Horror! X-13: Attack of the Infiltrator! Sonic Emitter Upgrade | |||||
Detailed walkthrough[]
After being teleported to Big MT during Midnight Science Fiction Feature!, the player characters awakens on the balcony of the Sink, facing outwards towards the expanse of the massive crater beyond a protective forcefield. A message appears indicating they feel strangely heavier, and the way to answers lies through the door behind into the Sink itself.
The inside of the Sink is homey, but most of the appliances in there won't work, with the same message at each one that they lack the required personality modules. In the master bedroom, on a shelf to the right of the bed is the unique clothing item of the mad scientist scrubs. The only way forward is through the only unlocked door leading into the Think Tank.
Once entered, the Think Tank area cannot be exited until this quest is finished, so get ready to talk. A lot! Before entering the Think Tank, it is advisable to prepare for both the first conversation and follow-up chats with the Doctors by permanently or temporarily increasing skills and SPECIAL attributes to maximize potential rewards from respective dialogue checks.
Meeting the Think Tank[]
After entering, the player character gets a message saying a strange feeling of pacifism affects them, preventing them from drawing a weapon (unarmed fists included) in the Think Tank. Proceed forward into the larger dome and approach the five multi-colored think tank robots, with the one in front, Doctor Klein, speaking for the other members of the group, also called the Think Tank, consisting of Doctor 0, Doctor 8, Doctor Dala, and Doctor Borous. After some initial bickering and insults thrown around by the five Doctors, they realize that the Courier is actually listening to them and can understand them, a rare occurrence in lobotomites. One can then pass either a Science 55 or Speech 55 skill check to confirm their sentience. While trying to ask Doctor Klein further questions on what happened to them after coming to the crater, the conversation is interrupted by a broadcast sent to the Think Tank by their enemy, the robotic mad scientist Doctor Mobius from his stronghold in the Forbidden Zone, threatening brain-draining demise at the stinging stingers of his robo-scorpion army.
Afterward, the Think Tank argues on how to deal with Mobius, with Doctor 8 suggesting making the "lobotomite" Courier do the job for them. The other Doctors' remarks on how a brainless lobotomite could be useful leads into the explanation of the Courier's earlier feeling of heaviness and the surgical scars: the Think Tank removed their brain; passing a Medicine 55 check additionally reveals that their heart and spine were removed as well, and all subsequently replaced with advanced pieces of technology. However, the disembodied brain was subsequently lost and presumed to have been taken to Mobius in the Forbidden Zone.
Doctor Klein charges the player character with recovering technologies from Big MT to find a way into the Forbidden Zone but is scarce on the details of what those are. An Intelligence 6 attribute check can be passed to get the Think Tank to be more specific on what needs to be found, to which they reveal that they are too afraid of the dangers outside the Dome to retrieve the technologies personally and are embarrassed to have to ask an organic for help but realize they have no choice. Attempts to refuse helping them reveals that due to the presence of the radar fence keeping all brainless organic entities within Big MT, the Courier is unable to leave the crater until they get their brain back from Mobius, necessitating doing as the Think Tank asks. Specifically, the Courier is requested to locate three key pieces of technology found in Big MT's various research centers: the sonic emitter, the stealth suit Mk II, and the X-2 antenna, though they are not required to bring them back; the Think Tank will download the digital schematics for each item once they are retrieved from their respective locations. This triggers the next main quest(s) X-2: Strange Transmissions!, X-8: High School Horror!, and X-13: Attack of the Infiltrator!.
Though the Think Tank will emphasize sticking to the main objective and retrieving the technologies while warning against wandering to other areas of the crater, there is no urgent time limit to finding them and one will be able to freely explore. Doctor 0 then reveals that the sonic emitter they needed was actually in the Think Tank's possession, only lacking a vital module upgrade that would allow it to take down Big MT's protective force fields. After Doctor 8 "sonjacluates" onto the device and Doctor Dala then stereo-lizes it, the sonic emitter is given to the Courier with the "Revelation" audio file pre-loaded.
At this point, the player character will have two options for additional rewards consisting of passing either an Energy Weapons 50 and/or Guns 50 skill check to inquire about getting some useful supplies for their dangerous job ahead. The former option convinces the Think Tank to supply 150 small energy cells. The latter option convinces them to gift a conventional weapon in the form of a K9000 cyberdog gun and a supply of 150 .357 Magnum ammo, with a further Guns 75 check garnering additional supplies of 150 .357 Magnum hollow point rounds, and 150 JFP hand-loaded rounds.
Before sending the Courier off to get the technologies, Doctor Dala suggests giving them a place to rest while in Big MT, with Doctor Klein ultimately settling for letting them reside in the Sink above the Dome. This also allows for the use of the Sink Central Intelligence Unit designed by Mobius as a one-stop shop vendor that utilizes caps, starting the side quest All My Friends Have Off Switches to enhance the Sink's suite of personality-equipped utility devices. An Intelligence 8 check gets Klein to reveal that most of the Sink's technology was created by Mobius but that their core personality chips were scattered across Big MT in the past. A separate option involving a series of Barter skill checks at 25, 50, 75, and 90 convinces the Think Tank to offer up four individual gifts of 250 caps for 1,000 total as well as other aid items such as 2 doctor's bags, 5 stimpaks, and three skill magazine copies of Fixin' Things, Programmer's Digest, and Patriot's Cookbook.
Once the SICU personality chip is handed over, the Think Tank dismisses their lobotomite lackey and disperses to their own stations around the Think Tank dome, where one can continue with the main quests in the game world, explore more of the Dome to advance the guiding quest Picking Your Brains and its associated side quests with each of the Think Tank members, or go back to the Sink to reactivate the SICU.
Quest stages[]
Notes[]
- If no dialogue is skipped, the entire sequence of talking to the Think Tank members can take up to 30 real-time minutes, depending on the chosen dialogue options.
- There is a dialogue option to skip past the first part of the sequence, learning about the surgery and questions from the doctors by pointing out that the large screen behind them has a message, proceeding straight to Mobius' threat and the three succeeding main quests quests triggering.
- The Brainless, Heartless and Spineless perks are added to one's repertoire the moment the Courier spawns on the Sink balcony. The pop-ups during the dialogue sequence with the Think Tank telling that the perks were added will not appear before, but the perks can be viewed in the Pip-Boy menu and will be fully functional.
Behind the scenes[]
In 2016, developer Chris Avellone said that he regretted the length of the dialogue sequence where the player meets the Think Tank for the first time, but explained that it was born out of the development team's desire to explain things to the player more directly. Avellone was personally opposed to this, but acquiesced after some things were left unexplained in Dead Money.[Non-game 1]
Bugs[]
Upon spawning on The Sink balcony at the beginning of the quest, the game may freeze. Restarting the system, and reloading the autosave will take the player right back to The Sink balcony. There is very strong, almost stand-still lag. Resetting the PS3 will usually fix this problem.[verified]
- One way to avoid this is to quickly turn to face south while the screen is still black and try to activate the door into the Sink before the player character's vision returns, bypassing the bug and allowing one to then walk back out onto the balcony without further issue.
- The lag does persist, but only if the player returns to or remains at the balcony. Reloading the save and/or restarting PS3 does not seem to help. There is always stand-still lag, even when trying to look around. Entering The Sink will usually fix this issue.[verified]
- Avoiding the lag issues mentioned above altogether can be achieved by saving and reloading the game immediately prior to teleporting via the downed satellite.[verified]
Gallery[]
References[]
Non-game
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