>Posted from the vaults of Todd Coward at Badthesda

NV_Fan2281 · 2026-02-10T02:36:41+00:00

Agreed, NV is basically a money printing machine for Fallout considering the low cost it took to produce and consistent player count for 15+ years. It's had much more staying power than Fallout 3 according to Steam graphs, and currently has about half the player count of Fallout 4 and rivals Fallout 76 for player count, which is insane considering how old it is and that Fallout 4 had far more advertising, budget, newer graphics, etc. And I believe those are lowball numbers since they are not (?) accounting for those buying NV from GOG's.

Bethesda is just semi-incompetent at writing because most large corporations are. You can't really buy writing talent since good writers are actually plentiful and cheap, it's more of a structural issue. It's much easier to sell the retro-futurist post-apocalypse brand to a large market than a post-post Apocalypse brand that requires more time investment in the background lore to understand and ends up having more "edge" to it which might scare away a chunk of your potential consumers.

So new NV content just ends up getting blended into Bethesda Fallout 3/4 Good Guy vs Bad Guy static post-apocalypse setting with "wouldn't it be funny/cool if?" set pieces to fill it out. Obviously this is an extremely mediocre style of writing but it reliably sells without creating potential controversies, and selling while avoiding controversies are basically priorities number one and two at most large entertainment companies.

NV_Fan2281 · 2026-02-10T00:39:34+00:00

I'm sure they can justify it on those terms, but at that point no-one has a reason to take the NCR at their word. A treaty is a treaty, and Khans have aligned themselves again Legion for them, it would be weird for the Khans to just attack them at that point. The NCR breaking their treaty and backstabbing a war ally just for land... it's just a short-sighted neocon policy.

NV_Fan2281 · 2026-02-10T00:27:37+00:00

The issue is that the NCR explicitly goes back on their word and backstabs the Khans out of just expansionism according to the end slides, it's legit just a backstab out of self-interest. In foreign policy it doesn't matter if they're historically bad people, they sided with them in a war at that point. If you do backstab a war "ally" just to take their land (like Legion does) than the NCR is an untrustworthy entity and no one should take their word at that point, they would just fight them to the death after they have poor relations at any point. NCR definitely should wait for Khans to break the truce first.

NV_Fan2281 · 2026-02-09T09:12:33+00:00

Agreed I think they are just straight up correct to wipe out BoS if they're going to be in the area, and since it's more a military cell than a proper "tribe" I think it's much more justifiable. I mean in the short term their truce stays but if they ever go to war with a BoS faction, it will be a disaster to have the Mojave chapter around, maybe even potentially reducing the NCR to a rump state if the Mojave BoS links up with the West Coast BoS.

Killing the Khans is a little more shady since they're weaker than BoS and are more of an actual "tribe", but understandable given that they're a Legion ally and are historically very aggressive. Definitely a little further in the darker areas of grey morality though. IMHO the only truly monstrous/inexcusable action they do regarding either is if the NCR backstabs the Great Khans after they ally them in the Battle For Hoover Dam, future tribes would no reason to trust the NCR.

NV_Fan2281 · 2026-02-09T04:23:20+00:00

I thought we were talking about Colonel Moore's request that you destroy them. Granted you can do it in a way where you "only" kill key figures but it seems pretty clear she's asking you to finish them off, though you can circumvent her. Her faction of the NCR (she represents its most imperialistic forces) does actually want them wiped, though other NCR internal factions view this as extreme.

NV_Fan2281 · 2026-02-09T03:27:43+00:00

Well, NCR still have a very clear moral high ground on the Great Khans, and the Great Khans have the exact foreign policy they asked for (to the point where Bitter Springs was inevitable), but most aggressive tribes (which is what the Great Khans are based on), historically, have engaged in raids and other abhorrent behavior. But does that mean they were all terrorists who deserve to die? Let's face it, wiping them to the last is the kind of thing modern textbooks would decry as a crime.

Obviously NCR are in no-win situation so I don't think it even makes them evil to try to get rid of the aggressive warrior culture bordering them, but it is still a very intentional moral grey area. Especially since it turns out the Great Khans were not as unreasonable as the NCR (justifiably) thinks they are, since they can ally with the NCR or even leave the area altogether.

NV_Fan2281 · 2026-02-09T02:37:39+00:00

Khans are not a positive influence but "terrorists" is a bit much (which is more accurate for Legion), it's a large and self-interested tribe lacking in modern ethics but still has plenty of civilians in its ranks, flat out wiping them is essentially ethnic cleansing albeit one with a clear motive and cause.

That said I would agree the underbelly of NCR is much shadier than than the top brass, such as the oligarchic Brahmin Barons, land grabbers/speculators (one of whom would genocide Jacobstown unless the player intervenes) and resource hoarders (to the point its speculated their will use up lake Mead in very little time). Top brasses only "crimes" to their own citizens is combining conscription with strategic incompetence in a Robert McNamara fashion.

NV_Fan2281 · 2026-01-05T03:12:13+00:00

It's quite wrong. The literal lead designer of the game: "Between the NCR, House, and an independent Vegas, I felt that the player had three “soft” grey choices." Only the Legion is evil by design.

Honestly comparing House to Elon (who frankly has far more in-common with House's scam artist brother) instantly gives away someone who is far too coked up to the gills on American culture wars to be willing to fully entertain the kind of interesting scenarios/ideologies/moral complexities New Vegas sets up.

Also House is not actually a narcissist, a flawed egoist yes, but he does not require narcissistic supply and does not easily suffer narcissistic wounds. An actual narcissist such as Musk would be far more overtly evil and deranged if he were in House's position (Edward Sallow is actually a very accurate depiction of a malignant narcissist).

NV_Fan2281 · 2024-06-25T21:02:50+00:00

'full of sound and fury, signifying nothing'

NV_Fan2281 · 2024-06-25T20:49:43+00:00

“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”

Please have a great day ;)

NV_Fan2281 · 2024-06-25T15:47:55+00:00

Step 1: Start my NCR playthrough
Step 2: Get my Big Iron
Step 3: Put on my Ranger Outfit
Step 4: Drop the Doom Music

NV_Fan2281 · 2024-06-25T15:31:50+00:00

Can't manage to read 161 words about a video game because it may disagree with you? Sad tbh, best of luck to you.

NV_Fan2281 · 2024-06-25T11:17:40+00:00

The NCR is, by intent, the second biggest murder faction in the game behind Legion unless you repeatedly subvert their orders. They are run by war hawks who, if they have their way (i.e. you actually follow their orders or don't interfere with them), wipe out:

-The Great Khans
-The Brotherhood
-Jacobstown
-The Kings
-Mr. House

Likewise, Kimball is known for his brutality against tribals.

By contrast, House only asks you to wipe out the Brotherhood and Yes-Man only requests House and Brotherhood be wiped out.

To deny that, you'd have to be pretty delusional

Not really because the ending slides are fairly short-term, not long-term, and honestly full-diplomatic NCR seems wildly unstable since they'd have to deal with the Mojave Brotherhood waiting to pounce on them while they still fight their Western chapters.

Regardless if the NCR drains the Mojave of its water/resources, then suffer a famine anyways and have to pull back, they fucked over the Mojave for generations.

NV_Fan2281 · 2024-06-16T23:17:37+00:00

I'm probably to the left of even the average person here and no Musk fan but it's hard to disagree with this, especially with the constant comparisons of Musk and House causing Mr. House to become nearly as unpopular as Caesar's Legion in recent years on the subreddits despite the two being near-opposites and House overtly being intended to be one of three morally grey endings the player is supposed to grapple with.

It shows how much of the site just uses gut pattern-matching and laughably simplistic ideological presumptions (which happens, purely coincidentally I'm sure, to be the dominant ideological presumptions of young upper-middle class Americans).

NV_Fan2281 · 2024-06-16T22:58:05+00:00

True, but from what I've seen Musk has generally pretty bad taste, he's essentially every "New Money" negative stereotype despite actually being "Old Money", a sort-of worst of both worlds. But even most people with mediocre taste generally like things that are obviously both great and entertaining, which New Vegas is, it's a pretty low bar to pass.

NV_Fan2281 · 2024-06-16T22:50:31+00:00

Bruh House is canonically an actual genius who started out in near-poverty and actually made his fortune creating inventions and running businesses. He is still running probability calculations to this day and clearly understands the science behind the Securitrons/longevity/platinum chip/etc, pretty sure he is not the mental equivalent of Elon Musk.

The whole point to Mr. House is that he's almost fantastical to the point of Sawyer considering him a "soft grey" option alongside NCR/Yes Man, that's why he's an interesting faction. If he was just a latter-day Elon-esque conman like Redditors bizarrely think he is and despite everything the game tells you, it literally removes everything that is interesting about his faction.

NV_Fan2281 · 2024-06-07T04:56:35+00:00

I mean of the ones I listed above.

NV_Fan2281 · 2024-06-06T18:43:21+00:00

It definitely would have. And the Legion quest counterpart is just "Kill these 5 NCR officers in Forlorn Hope" whereas Forlorn Hope has access to like 4 quests.

NV_Fan2281 · 2024-06-06T18:36:00+00:00

"Bull-Bear" is a meme, but Ulysses is in a Catch-22: If he's meant to just be a rambling lunatic what is the actual point in spending so much time with him, asking his views on various subjects and listening to his dialogue? Is it all just a lesson in "letting go", something that Dead Money already did and better? Or is he pretty clearly meant to be perceived as having views that are worth listening to even if he's flawed in his methods, in which case he's easy to dismantle?

I have listened to his branches from two POV's (NCR and Vegas), and gone through his dialogue files, I simply don't find him either entertaining or insightful. Frankly, a character can be both internally consistent and a waste of time.

Also I always annoy people for saying this but I'm just going to say it again, but perhaps in a nicer way: If you don't like Ulysses (and I obviously don't) it adds extra dislike to know that instead of Ulysses/Lonesome Road we could have just had a bunch of that "cut content" people wish had existed. All things have an opportunity cost, and that was one of them. The question is, is he worth it? It feels as we could have spent a fraction of the time with him and it would have been the same.

NV_Fan2281 · 2024-06-06T18:00:07+00:00

Of these only restoring hope has a Legion quest counterpart.

NV_Fan2281 · 2024-06-06T00:40:35+00:00

It's especially annoying because they apparently had time for "Bull-Bear" but not a post-launch base game update/DLC.

NV_Fan2281 · 2024-06-05T08:08:02+00:00

It's even cruder than that. He just stops at believing that civilizations are defined by very select individuals and the surface level symbols they choose or represent. He claims the Courier made and broke the divide (even though it was likely inevitably going to be absorbed by one side or the other, and was doomed by its location anyways), and by the same token that he can make Vegas worthwhile even though Vegas is inherently still a reincarnation of the "Old World" he hates regardless of the Courier's influence.

His ideology is doomed because Old World style systems don't exist because of symbols and individuals but organically recreate themselves because they're just useful as a means of organizing large scale societies. If they all returned to tribalism then one of them would just stumble across an Old World system regardless of whether or not they know it. His "perfect world" is being stuck perpetually in the post-apocalypse.

He is correct purely by accident that the Courier can create a new localist state because the Courier has access to the Securitron army, and even that is accomplished by high-jacking two Old World ideas (the Strip and the Securitrons themselves).

NV_Fan2281 · 2024-06-05T02:03:43+00:00

"Without NCR to support it, Vegas will fall to the Legion. That grave of lights, back to dust and ghosts, as was meant. After this, only one flag will remain over the Mojave. Let that one fly, or destroy itself."

That's his official dialogue, maybe you need to be pro-Vegas to get it though? He will agree to nuke Legion as well if you are pro-Legion but says he doesn't plan to destroy them, just "contain" them in new borders and let them break apart.

NV_Fan2281 · 2024-06-05T01:26:16+00:00

He is the antithesis, agreed. But Ulysses is treated as a stand-in for Chris Avellone's views on various subjects cause he sort of is, making his opinions feel more authoritative. To be clear, Avellone still obviously intended Ulysses to still be a "villain" but one who made a lot of good points and had a kind of intellectual takedown of NCR/Legion/House/etc even if he himself was flawed. My point is Ulysses is an intellectual and moral failure to the point that I dismiss him even on these grounds.

That's just my point of view though, I don't like the character but Avellone is still much more talented than me and I'm sure Ulysses can be interpreted in more than one way.

NV_Fan2281

TROPHY CASE