Metal Gear Scanlon: 3: Part 06

Not the most thrilling episode, but the next one should be good!

Drew has been taking play tips from Brad.

Hey dudes. Just sitting here in this hollowed out tree stump with your dead friend, smoking. Hey, why are you shooting me :(

I think Dan is taking the whole "first time experience" thing far too literally. It's ok to tell Drew what the mechanics of the game are, or if he's about to not notice something that would save him a headache (like his suppressor being worn out.) The more Drew gets upset at the game, the more prone he is to not think about how to properly play MGS, and the more likely he is to have some Strut F level catastrophe happen. That can be avoided with a little bit more coaching. The only thing I think anybody really cares about is that story stuff isn't spoiled.

Alternatively, mash the H button. I've found that's quite useful.

Well-put, @atomicoldman. (Seriously, the H button's a life-saver, especially its pressure sensitivity functions)

What is it exactly? I just played through this boss last week, but I only have an inkling as to what Dan was to referring to.

If you save after the cutscene and wait one week before coming back to the game, The End dies of old age and curses you for not letting him have the final battle. You essentially skip over an entire great boss battle that is a highhlight of not just the series but videogames.

The EVA thing is not a spoiler. Its extremely obvious and the fact that every character is somehow fooled is probably the stupidest thing in MGS3.

I don't understand why you wouldn't just tell him ~the secret~ about The End. Like, you are going to tell him after the fight anyway so I'm not sure what the difference is. It's not something he would ever know without you telling him. Obviously you are going to have him actually do the fight regardless, so you really just made it unnecessarily awkward at the end.

Last few episodes have not been enjoyable to watch, as it is never fun to watch somebody get frustrated. If Drew is actually enjoying the game then he should really try to show it more, and if he isn't enjoying the game then he should just stop playing it.

I kind of wish Dan hadn't said anything and let Drew discover what would happen had he quit where he wanted to quit, but I understand wanting to save Drew's sanity (though Para-Medic warned him too, I guess).

The Mk22 isn't even equipped anymore, so I guess we're all in on playing as Shirtless Rambo Snake!

Fine with me but I'm not sure it's going to work on The End.

Ohhh okay I figured that was it. Yeah Dan could've just told him that. Thanks!

Yo, someone needs to just fess up and tell Drew that the way most people play these games is just headshotting all the guards with tranqs from far away. It'd make his life easier.

They technically saved during the fight, didn't they? Drew's gonna be grumpy when he loads up that save.

I know this will get lost in a sea of "play THIS way Drew!" but Drew should really go back to using the tranq gun. When you kill guards even with head shots they scream out before they die and can alert buddies.

"All You Need is Kill" is an awesome name Drew. Don't speak such foolishness.

I loved how awkward the end of this episode was for Drew. I kinda hope they bring up this save file later on to actually show Drew what they were all sneaky about.

There is no doubt they will. I wouldn't be surprised if Dan makes sure to keep that save file with The End bossfight by itself so that he can show Drew the cutscene if it happens.

I'm also fairly certain that, in addition, if you load the save after 2ish days but before a week, The End will capture you and send you back to the cell in Graniny Gorki, so you have to run all the way back to the fight.

I'll be more specific to avoid confusion. It was a bummer because it was spelled out to him before he had the chance to make the connection. Although, Drew might have missed it 'cause the character's first appearance was so brief that he didn't remember it.

I think they are focusing too much on making some episodes too boring. But, I could care less if an episode is uneventful if it means Drew will actually enjoy the game. I mean the Persona Endurance Run was mainly dungeon grinding and persona fusing but I enjoyed watching because it was clear that Jeff and Vinny were having fun on some level. I come to the site because I love seeing these guys have a good time and fun around.

@humanity:The first moment that tranq. gun gets even taken out and attempted to be used we'll all simultaneously sigh in relief.

@mechazawasan: It's mainly a lot of little things he's not noticing as a potential strategy for dealing with guards, like the very first area of this episode. He COULD have gone to the top of the staircase, looked down, and taken out the guards from there. There were only 2 of them.

Of course that all falls apart if @danryckert withholds what's happening or about to happen with Drew's suppressors. Dan, I saw your face when he wasted that entire suppressor on one guy. Can we start treating them like rations in MGS1 and 2, when you would warn Drew that he was about to die without them equipped?

i always heard that but i found it pretty easy when i beat it recently, you just got follow his footsteps and shoot him in the head.

I love how long Drew's health bar is now because he's constantly getting hurt and dying.

Drew is just bad at metal gear, you need patience and a love for experimenting.

Drew begrudgingly tries to play the way he thinks MGS3 is meant to be played, by sitting in bushes doing nothing, but he gets caught because he decides to shoot people and misses, letting them get away and alert the others.

Then he gets upset and just runs around gunning people down, which isn't fun at all as the game isn't designed to be played that way.

Best example is at the wooden hut, he takes 10 minutes crawling underneath it, then when at the other side, imminently gets up and starts spiriting, gets spoted (of course) and runs back to where he started crawling under it. WHY DO THIS?

Hey @danryckert! I also sent you a more condensed version of this on Tumblr, but here's how the mechanics of MGS3 work! It is not fun watching Drew get frustrated and run around for an hour chucking grenades and shooting assault rifles anymore, so please read these and then pass this knowledge on to him!

1. The Camo Index

The Camo Index determines how close enemies have to be to actually spot Snake. The higher the number, the closer they have to be to see him. For example (these distances aren't necessarily accurate) a 0% camo index will get you spotted from fifty feet away, while a 95% camo index a guy has to literally be a few feet away from you to see you. This applies to both the "I think I see a guy off in the distance, I'm gonna go check" spotted and the "I can clearly see the enemy intruder, start Alert Mode while I unload my AK into him" spotted. The range of the "I'm going to go check" spotted always extends out farther than the "Start Alert Mode" spotted, but the range of the former typically isn't too much farther out than the latter.

This is not a "dice-roll", it is an entirely consistent mechanic. If you are within an enemy's field of vision, they will always spot you from the same distance at the same percentages. Additionally, crouching and laying down both make the index raise significantly compared to standing, while moving drops it by 5 or 10% depending on if you're moving slowly or fast. Moving or standing only make you inherently more visible because of their affect on the camo index, running while wearing the perfect camo could still make you less visible than laying still while wearing the absolute worst camo. The same is true for being in the light versus being in shadow, or being in grass. They all affect the camo index, which is ultimately all that matters when it comes to determining how visible you are.

2. Alerts, Evasion and Caution

First off, we need to talk about what happens when you enter an alert. The instant an enemy sees you the Alert timer pops up at the top of the screen, but if you take them out before they can call out to the other guards in the area, the Alert timer will disappear immediately afterwards. This means that the other guards in the area are unaware of what happened. If the entire line of dialogue gets out, the other guards will know and you will go into Alert Mode. If a guard with a radio is in the area they will call for reinforcements, which there is a limited amount of. If there is no radio, the Alert will be limited to the guards in the area.

If you are in Alert Mode and the timer is stuck at 99.99, it means the enemy can see you. When the numbers are ticking down it means you are currently out of their field of vision, but they are still coming after your current location at all times. As you get farther away from all enemies the timer starts to decrease faster, while the countdown will slow back down as they get closer again. Simply stay away from any enemies for a few seconds, be it by running away or by killing any in the immediate vicinity.

Once Alert Mode runs down, the guards will go into Evasion Mode. In Evasion Mode the enemy is actively seeking out Snake, often working in groups and generally starting from around the area they lost you in. If seen by an enemy in Evasion Mode, the game will instantly jump back up to Alert Mode. While in Evasion Mode you simply want to stay out of enemies' vision, as the timer counts down fairly fast. Confronting them is more likely to make you end up back in Alert Mode than anything else.

Once Evasion Mode runs out, the game then drops down to Caution Mode. In Caution Mode the guards go back to their normal patrol while staying more alert than usual, with the reinforcements also going on standardized patrol routes. During Caution guards can see slightly better, and move along their routes faster than usual. Unlike Evasion Mode, being caught in Caution still requires a guard to call out to their comrades before the Alert starts, though the lines they shout out are much shorter than the ones while not in Caution. Once Caution Mode ends guards will go back to their normal behavior, and any reinforcements will immediately start to run towards one of the exits to the map.

Caution Mode can also be entered from normal mode if a guard notices Snake's presence in any way. This can range from being shot in a non-lethal area like an arm or leg, hearing a bullet ricochet off of a noisy object such as a railing or glass, or most importantly to Drew, if a corpse is discovered. If guards are already in Caution Mode and Snake does something to tip them off to their presence, such as the discovery of a new corpse or a missed shot, the Caution timer will reset to 99.99 and start the countdown all over again.

3. The Tranquilizer Pistol

The MK22 Tranquilizer Pistol will put enemies to sleep, knocking them out for several minutes. How long it takes for an enemy to fall asleep depends on where they shoot them; a shot in an arm or leg will take several seconds to knock them out, while a shot to the head knocks them out immediately. Once an enemy is asleep you can easily bypass them, as very few areas require you to backtrack over the same spot multiple times. How long an enemy will remain asleep is displayed by the number of Zs floating over their head. If an enemy is close to waking up, simply shooting them once more in any part of their body will immediately reset their sleeping timer.

The Tranquilizer Pistol is the best weapon in the game, and here's why.While hitting a guard in an arm or a leg with a lethal gun will startle them and trigger Caution Mode, guards do not notice being hit with a tranquilizer gun, continuing to walk their patrol route until the tranquilizer kicks in and they fall asleep. Additionally, while the discovery of a dead guard will trigger Caution Mode, if a guard comes across someone who is sleeping, they will simply wake them back up, avoiding Caution Mode once again. These mean that using the Tranquilizer allows you to be a bit sloppier or less coordinated, as messing up generally doesn't penalize you. The only time a bad Tranq shot will penalize you is if you miss the guard completely and the round instead hits something else close-by that makes noise like a metal bar or glass. If you miss and hit some grass or a far off hill or something they won't notice.

Less Cautions mean less Alerts, which means getting through areas quicker, using less ammo, and losing less life. While you are in Alert or Evasion the lethal weapons can be more useful, as the Tranq pistol has a slow rate of fire and enemies grouped together will try to wake each-other up when they see their comrades fall asleep. When you are undetected or in Caution though, the tranquilizer should always be the go to solution. There is no reason to be killing guards before they know you're there.

Hope this all helps, as I would love to see Drew get into the groove of playing this game like he did MGS1 and 2, but the mechanics are far less gamey and obvious in 3 than they were in the previous entries.

This is all so stupid because Dan has already mentioned "The End save easter egg" multiple times to Drew in previous episodes of Metal Gear Scanlon. Dan is so extra wary of what he says because of all those idiot complainers who complained that he was saying too much.

This episode: Drew gets a little better at sneaking, and a lot better at slaughtering the fuck out of everything!

Also, "All You Need Is Kill" is the best name.

@danryckert

I'm 30 minutes in and god damn this is grueling.

In the first 10 minutes, Drew accidentally fired an unsurpressed gun twice, because he either forgot or is unaware of the mechanic. Dan VERBALLY recognizes the issue, but makes no suggestion or input along the lines of, "Hey man, remember those fuckloads of SP boxes you picked up? Maybe use one."

My fucking favorite quote, "So Dan, if I'm in caution mode and they see me, will it immediately go to alert mode?"

"Probably"

You can't be serious. I just can't fucking believe it. I'm going to get off what's been on my chest since episode 1 of this game:

Drew can play this game however he wants. Fine. If that way is literally the most mind-numbing, low effort, brainless way possible, fine. If Drew doesn't give a shit about tranqs or suppressors that would objectively better his experience, fine.

But if Drew asks about a basic mechanic that hasn't fucking changed since the first god damn game, and Dan answers with a half-hearted "Probably" then fuck it. Then just admit this series is nothing but a chore for all involved producing it and the content is no longer coming from a place of enjoyment.

And after you admit that, for the love of god, don't play 4. Stop the madness.

Why? 4 has barely any gameplay in it to begin with. Almost every episode will be Drew and Dan with the controller down watching cutscenes lol

@danryckert please tell Drew to use the mk22 (tranq gun). Him using a whole suppressor with the m1911 on one guy is insanity. Also please Don't be afraid to give him hints and tips.

@TechnoSyndrome: It would be great if Dan just printed that out, and read it out loud to Drew when they sit down to record the next episode. He's already curious about how exactly the Camo Index works.

Also suppressors.

cute

I'm not being sarcastic, it honestly is the truth. There are graphs, man. MGS4 is over 60% cutscenes.

I just used the shortcut for this boss fight. Run and gun :D

@danryckert

THE CAMO INDEX IS NOT A DICE ROLL. Percentage doesn't mean you have that much "likelihood" of not being seen; It isn't a diceroll, and 75% does not mean you have a 1-in-4 arbitrary "chance" of being spotted. The higher a percentage is, the closer you are to invisibility, meaning the closer you can be to a guard without him immediately seeing you. You're only truly invisible at 100%, and 100% is generally only possible with The End's moss camo on certain patches of green or the super-secret unlockable Stealth Camo, but you still want to aim for the highest number possible, keep a safe distance from enemy personnel, and crawl rather than run new and unfamiliar areas where unseen guards are liable to be lurking.

And use the Tranq Gun on guards when you're stealthing. Aim for the head for an insta-KO, but a body shot will take effect after a few seconds. Sleeping guards will stay asleep for several minutes.

Let me re-iterate: use the Tranq Gun

use the Tranq Gun

use the Tranq Gun

use the Tranq Gun

I hate to say but this sums up how I feel about the series so far, especially the last few episodes. It I feel like the "let's treat this like it's mid 2000's all over and the game just came out " angle is a mistake. One because even the first time people played this the internet was a thing that im sure plenty of people used as a resource, and two, ultimately all it seems to be leading to is drew getting frustrated and in an effort to not bore the audience, tries to gun his way through everything and ACTUALLY MAKES IT MORE BORING FOR THE AUDIENCE. I do sympathize with dan because I understand he's essentially trying to serve to masters (the audience and drew) but, in my opinion, as long as you don't spoil story moments and lead drew step by step through situations, fuck the audience. There will always be people that disagree with the way you're going about but drew is the one that matters in this. There might not be an outright wrong way to play this series but there's definitely a much much harder, more frustrating and grueling way to do it, and I worry drew has fallen into that pattern. Also, like everybody else said, use the tranq more often, and if you are gonna try to take guys out with bullets, its headshots or nothing. Just my two cents.

I'm just going to go ahead and repost this entire block of text in the desperate hope that it helps Dan get the message, because this advice is excellent, and it is CRUCIAL. Please, Dan, have Drew read this, I can't keep watching this bullshit.

Is it just me, or does the End boss fight seem like a Monster Hunter mission without the ability to paint the enemy?

Ok after MGS 1 and 2 you think that Drew should know how to play this games. But honestly he doesn't :) You dont play run and gun all the time. This looks so boring. Honestly I cant imagine you beating any stealth game.

Drew is bad at Metal Gears

Drew, we all just want you to enjoy this game so much I feel like it's morphed into a weird pressure that you feel to provide entertaining videos. While we're certainly not bored by this series-- it's fun as hell and I love it, for one-- I think we're all conscious of a place you can go to where MGS3 is as lovable as we, your audience, remember it. You came close a whole bunch of times through MGS1 and 2, but it seems things have gone awry along the line somewhere recently, and I'd argue that it doesn't really matter where things went wrong or why they went wrong. We just have to acknowledge that they did, and get back on the right track!

We're all just wanting you to enjoy this game and you still can. I think a new approach, a fresh start after a prolonged break from the game (not too long though!) would go a long way to helping your enjoyment of MGS3. I'm sure you're busy, but if you took some time to play off-camera and get a grip on some of the more esoteric control methodology of the game, the little things that people have mentioned in the comments like peaking up out of the grass and crawling all the time etc etc. I think you and this content would benefit hugely.

You had some good stuff going at the beginning of this game. Take it back to basics! You have a strong foundation in this game, I think you just need to slow down and be patient with it, and honestly, that will actually improve your audience's enjoyment of these videos. Nobody is going to complain or skip forward if you're lying in the grass strategising on how to infiltrate and blow up a distant storehouse. That is the essence of this game! That's what we want to see.

So don't be afraid to veer from the path you're on and don't feel like you've made your choice on how to play it and that's that. You can start afresh! You're not even halfway done with this game. Good luck, and Godspeed! I love this series and thanks so much for taking the time to do it!

Always great when Dan starts the episode off by giving Drew half-true advice. Distance is THE MOST IMPORTANT THING in the camo mechanic. The higher the percentage, the closer guys have to be in order to spot you, that is how the system works. There is no dice roll involved. It's just some common video game sense: if your camo index is 75%, they need to be pretty close to see you. If you THINK you're too close to be safe, you probably are.

Also as others have said, stop using lethal ammo when you haven't been spotted. If you don't get the headshot with a tranq dart, no big deal. If you're using bullets, you'll instantly trigger Alert.

The start with Dan saying he was going to give Drew some advice to make it easier made me so happy. Then he explained the camouflage system totally wrong and didn't even mention the tranq gun. Tell him to use the tranq gun, @danryckert! In one of the previous couple episodes Drew lamented at the fact he wanted a gun where he could shoot someone and they'd eventually die/pass out. This is exactly what the tranq gun does!

Story stuff and obvious surprises are what I wouldn't want spoiled for Drew and I think everyone agrees with that. It's totally fine to remind him of gameplay mechanics.

PLAY THIS WAY DREW I'M SURE THIS WILL GET NOTICED IN THE SEA OF TEXT FROM OTHERS WANTING YOU TO PLAY ANOTHER WAY.

This game looks like a clunky, poorly controlling overly micro-managed and menu-driven mess of a video game that doesn't even really pay off on either the Cold War setting or the weird interconnected clownshow that is the extended Metal Gear fiction.

What happened to using Mk22 trank gun? Its the most usefull weapon in the game. Drew should just switch to using that constantly to avoid alarms even though the other guards find the sleeping guard insteast a dead one which is instant alarm.

I'm playing along with Drew using my original PS2 copy of MGS3 with the bad camera.My one tip to Drew is shoot every bad guy in the room in the leg,not the head,with the Mk22.This way they all fall asleep together rather than kicking each other awake.Even if one guy falls first,the others won't have time to investigate before they fall asleep.Oh and also don't walk around with a bunch of crap you don't need equipped,like a shotgun with no ammo.All you need is the Mk22 and Motion D.At least thats how I play.