Oh, checked my vortex list (was doing some Vortex updates) and found one that is very good but an actual cheat… but it’s really nice if you’re doing a repeat playthrough of DM. Which, before I modded, was the one I tended to skip over.
It gives you a bit of extra gear in a suitcase right in front of the Police Station. Most of it is pretty basic, but two big cheats. First, it has a very lore-unfriendly gas mask that lets you ignore the Cloud damage (huge), the second is a Signal Jammer you can deploy to “pause” the interference your collar is picking up from broadcasts.
The first is an out-and-out cheat, and again, not lore friendly, but it makes playing the repeats less stressful, and worth not just flat our skipping. The second is much more balanced (it takes up your equipped weapon slot) but after all, I’m wandering around with a high enough science to hack pretty much anything anyway, plus I’m smart enough to impress the floating brains, why couldn’t I build it myself?
But yeah, it’s a QoL cheat, and without it, I’d have skipped DM again for the last playthrough.
Very much IMHO, there are two parts about this. One, Fallout rarely wants groups to be completely good or completely evil. They want at least some depth to make the factional choices interesting. The legion is overtly evil by most Western morality, but it does much better in keeping things organized, people safe and fed, and in terms of control. IMHO, it does the above too well for realism, and even the game admits that once Cesar is dead, that’s going to crumble.
So the NCR is portrayed as corrupt, full of cronyism, and betraying their own values in favor of the wealthy and dynastic groups within. Which hurts a LOT more in 2026 than it did when I first played it 15 years ago.
I had an argument about this when chatting with a friend of mine about the game and TV show. His default was to play for an NCR win - because they’re the best of the worst. I normally rotate through the Mr. House ending* or the Free Vegas ending with me (good karma) in charge. Because the Legion is vile, and the NCR is verifiably corrupt and arguably (per Ranger Chief Hanlon) better off concentrating on their own territories rather than bleeding out for the prestige and power of controlling the dam.
(*) - I tend to lawful neutral, and House is, in a legalistic sense, the owner of that robot army, the owner of much of the territory, the one that preserved as much as he could, AND the one actively working to rebuild society enough to recover or escape from the hell that is Fallout Earth. Granted, if I build off what’s being shown in the TV series, different arguments can be made. By most standards though, he’s a slightly more laissez faire or benevolent dictator than the Enclave is/was.
Yep. In fact, the corruption in the NCR was so bad that it convinced a guy named Edward Sallow (I had to look his name up, couldn’t remember it off the top of my head) to change his name to Caesar and create the Arizona Legion.
Corruption in the NCR runs deep, and it’s not limited to taxes. It’s probably a bit of a commentary on the evils of capitalism (a common theme in Fallout), but the brahmin barons are the wealthy elite, and they tend to rule over the NCR, in the same way that modern wealthy folks control our government through corruption and graft in the real world. The NCR is expanding rapidly, basically gobbling up other territories so that it can tax them to death to feed its huge bureaucracy and make the brahmin barons even more wealthy.
There is also probably a bit of bias going on here. The people who left their homes back west and came to the Mojave region were more likely to be unhappy with how things were going in the NCR. Those that were more content with the NCR’s government stayed home and you don’t get to meet them in the game.
“Kimball’s War” (aka the war against the Legion) is also very unpopular in the NCR. People are fed up with sending their sons and daughters to a far away land to fight and die for things that don’t really matter much to them. That has a lot of parallels with Vietnam and other military actions in the real world.
In the Mojave, at least, but back home in New California proper, it’s implied that things are going pretty well, no? Some of the characters we see (I’m blanking on who) tell us they came East to escape high taxes and dull routines by coming to the frontier.
Caesar is definitely the embodiment of Tacitus’ line, about making a desert and calling it peace. He snuffs out the various cultures he finds and assimilates them into the Legion.
Yeah, you can say that again. And that may be why the NCR is portrayed so much more positively in the TV show. (I do love the line about one side murdering and crucifying people and the other being vaguely problematic!).
The Viva New Vegas mod pack has some scenes that occur if you complete certain quests - I think the specific mod is called The Living Desert - and it makes the NCR feel even more incompetent. Like, I decided to bring a sample of some genetically modified plants to an NCR scientist even though his own employee asked me to destroy it rather than give it to him. I figured I’d warn him it was dangerous and tell him about the disaster that happened in the vault where I found the plants so it would be safe enough to hand over the research. Of course, I then find some plant monsters out in the desert near a destroyed caravan that was carrying the samples and breached. He made the samples and shipped them by brahmin almost immediately. I cleaned up, but there was a note saying this was the second shipment… Great!
That’s how I feel right now but I haven’t gone into Freeside yet. I may change my tune after I talk to House and hear his pitch in person again.
I really need to get to House, I can’t remember how reasonable he is portrayed ingame. I have positive memories of him from the playthrough I did in College, but I think I might have ended up killing him anyways for the Free Vegas ending? I forget. Maybe I killed him only to see what happens before reloading.
The Legion is a lot more brutal than I remember, so I don’t necessarily trust my recollection of House. It was a very long time ago, and I might have played it right after FO3 and been a bit burned out or something.
That said I also haven’t met Caesar yet so maybe he softens the image I have of the Legion. I kinda doubt it though.
Maybe it’s just because I’ve been playing the Old World Blues mod for Hearts of Iron IV alongside my FNV playthrough, but I do think some in-game comments back up this implication - I think it the Dam and then Vegas fall to Caesar, he will be able to strike at the heart of the NCR. Remember that the Legion controls land all the way out to Denver in the east and Tucson, Arizona (now Two-Sun) in the south.
Vegas is as far from major Legion cities like Phoenix as it is from Bakersfield, where Shady Sands is, so I don’t think the idea that Caesar could threaten the NCR is particularly outlandish. They’re capable of campaigns at that distance, especially if they take New Vegas as a capital which I think the end slides imply is Caesar’s goal (he found a a Senate housed in the Lucky 38 I believe).
I told Hanlon that I’d turn him in which made him shoot himself with my new favorite revolver, by the way. The thing is a certified hand cannon - currently one of the only ways I have to kill Deathclaws without blowing through a few hundred rounds is to headshot them with this revolver.
I might have made a different decision if I didn’t think the Legion was a real threat, but IMO if they take the Hoover Dam, the NCR is in real trouble.
It’s interesting because he was a Follower of the Apocalypse and pretty much all the followers I meet in the Mojave are pretty burnt on the NCR, telling me they no longer cooperate with it; there was a Follower doctor at the HELIOS station who apparently will ask you to divert power to everyone (which I’d have been happy to do) but not if you tell him you’re with the NCR (which is what I did).
But none of them get as homicidal about it as Sallow does.
Oooh, that’s a good point. I thought of the Brahmin Barons as more of an analogue for Western style cattle barons just in a thematic sense, but you’re right, it makes a lot of sense to think of them as the precursors to the kinds of megacorps that brought the prewar US to the brink of nuclear war (and then past the brink).
Makes a lot more sense as to why people would describe the NCR as “repeating the mistakes of the past”.
It’s a troubling thought. Almost enough to make you want to cosplay as a Roman Legionnaire while you tear it all down. Almost.
That’s how I’ve been justifying continuing to side with the NCR so far - remembering that many of these people have a reason to be biased against the NCR and remembering that they’re probably represented a little more incompetently just because you need room to help them out.
If the NCR really can’t hold Vegas (or is too corrupt to do it well) maybe an independent Vegas (under House or myself) might be better for everyone, since they still get a buffer against the Legion.
And as I mentioned, that’s one of the reasons those are my default options as well. Again, if Hanlon (who is arguably a broken idealist) who is literally in possession of all of the NCR’s up-to-date intelligence, feels that it’s an endless burden, I’m not going to second guess him, though he is certainly suffering from a lot of survivor’s guilt. But doing a lot of the NCR quests in Forlorn Hope, looking at what happened at Camp Searchlight, and all the other dialog tends to prove his point.
And who’s getting rich? People like the freaking Crimson Caravan and the Van Graffs who are literally killing the competition.
IMHO (again) Mr. House is at best the sort of paternalistic capitalist that thinks they know best in all situations (which again, hurts a lot more in 2026…), but he’s willing to put his capital where his mouth is, both pre- and post- war. It’s not a good answer, but there are hints that a good karma win with him is going to have a non-zero effect on his attitudes:
The Courier, fair and kind-hearted to those in the Wasteland, ensured that Mr. House would keep New Vegas stable and secure for future generations. Mr. House afforded him/her every luxury at his disposal in the Lucky 38, out of gratitude - and a quiet sense of pride for his choice in lieutenants.
“Stable and secure for future generations” isn’t the same as free and happy, but is absolutely a pretty good result for a post-nuclear world. And House has proven he can stay sane and stable for centuries though there’s no concrete evidence about how long his tech can support him.
And given high enough skills, you can beat the legion at the dam, hand it over to House/Yourself, and convince the NCR to leave. To me, the best result. Though with LOTS of quibbles about Papa-Tech-Is-Always-Right which is now x10 in the Musk Era.
Anyway, lots of arguments can be made, and the TV show changes a lot. Not discussing that, because those are recent/current spoilers, rather than discussing a 16 year old game.
I felt like Hanlon wasn’t a reliable source mostly because his plan struck me as completely irrational. I think he realized that, too, when he shot himself.
I did a bunch of quests at Camp McCarren, not so many at Forlorn Hope yet. I’ll have to head that way and see if there are any I missed.
The Crimson Caravan struck me as relatively benign so far (although I just started the quest chain where they’re buying out competition and stuff, so maybe it will get worse). The Van Graffs I haven’t met yet, beyond a few piles of ash on the road that had some awesome plasma weaponry.
True enough. I do wonder about House. I feel like of you put him in charge, he wouldn’t be content to rule New Vegas forever, he’d want to expand to all of Nevada or even America eventually. IIRC he says in-game that he wants to run off to space, and maybe that’s true, but he will need a big industrial base first. Stability and security for future generations are just a way to ensure you have enough people to build your rockets.
No argument - as I said, at best he’s a paternalistic “captain of industry” who wants it done his way… But he shows more vision that the NCR who are fast tracking towards the worst of plutocratic expansionist elements of our current timeline (dammit!), and he’s smart enough to figure out that by giving out stability and a certain amount of controlled fun/pleasure he can get people to do what he wants willingly, rather than forcing them all like Cesar.
And the worse your karma if selecting him, the more ominous his ending ends up being.
I’ll let you get through Cassidy’s quests and then you can judge Crimson Caravan and the De Graffs. I won’t spoil it more.
“Cassidy” is technically her last name. I like to think we got on well enough to be on, if not a full first-name basis, at least to the point of a friendly nickname: “Cass”.
Trivia some folks may not recognize: she’s the daughter of one the Chosen One’s companions in Fallout 2.
Yeah, I know, but since @Babale just started the “buyout” stage with her and Crimson Caravan, the talk is mostly about Cassidy Caravan she inherited from her father. I’m trying to back down from my possibly excessive spoiling.
All I know about the Van Graffs so far is that I can side with them when I play New Reno in HOI4 Old World Blues in order to get tons of bonuses to laser guns.
Speaking of which, I just got a crazy powerful named plasma rifle in REPCON HQ. I have specialized in Guns, not Energy, but this gun still one shots most of the robots. But the ammo is so heavy that I probably won’t be using it for real.
It freakin’ rocks if you like Energy weapons, that’s for sure. For a hardcore/survival style playthrough though, pick up MF Hyperbreeder Alpha from Cliff Briscoe in Novac (it’s a vendor specific weapon). It’s heavy itself, but being able to use and not worry about ammo for it tends to be nice in a hardcore world with ammo weight and limited or no fast travel.
The Followers originally cooperated with the NCR, providing medical aid, knowledge, and education to the NCR’s citizens as the NCR grew. But the Followers wanted to focus on knowledge and making the world better, while NCR President Aaron Kimball wanted to focus on making weapons and bringing the Mojave under the complete control of the NCR. This difference in philosophies and goals led to the Followers splitting off from the NCR, and in response, the NCR created the Office of Science and Industry (OSI) to take their place. Unlike the Followers, the OSI is more than happy to use their scientific knowledge and research to help further the military goals of the NCR.
This split is fairly recent, so yeah, there’s a lot of bad blood between the NCR and the Followers.
The scientist that hired you to explore Vault 22 is the local director of operations for the OSI in the Mojave region. The woman who works for him (Angela) is also a member of the OSI, and the idiot trying to fix Helios One (Fantastic) was hired by the OSI.
I got some kind of breeder reactor gun off a guy who ambushed me and tried to kill me right at the start, and used it for a while, but eventually I just needed stuff with higher damage.
Unfortunately I have a bad habit of taking the golf bag approach to weapons. I really need to rectify that… Right now I’m running with:
1 - Ranger’s Sequoia, it’s a revolver with .45 ammo which has been a bit hard to find but damn does it do a lot of damage
2 - Light Machine Gun, 5.56 ammo - I looted a few while fighting super mutants around Tabitha’s fortress, and since I had a 10mm SMG in that slot that I felt wasn’t pulling its weight I subbed in the LMG since I already had some other guns that used 5.56. (Before the Sequoia I also had That Gun which chambers 5.56. it shoots much faster than the Sequoia but I like having a 1 click headshot button for close quarters).
3 - All American, a unique Marksman Carbine. 5.56 ammo is super common. Great midrange gun, with a scope. AP 5.56 is not uncommon either.
4 - Nephi’s Golf Driver, it’s a 1 weight melee weapon (.5 with Pack Rat?) for pathetically weak enemies.
5 - Sniper Rifle. 'nuff said. For when I need to headshot someone further away than the All American is practical at. Also decent vs Deathclaws (because I can sneak attack and then unload a few clips into them). I have a silencer and light frame on it.
6 - Hunting Shotgun, because 12 gauge ammo felt hard to come by at the time, but I’m saving a riot shotgun for when I am more comfortable burning through ammo rapidly.
Well, I’ve been running around with Cass and Gannon some, and both of them seem to have a much more negative view of the NCR. Cass complains that they both fail to keep the roads safe and tax caravans into unprofitability to the point that many merchantz are happy to trade with the Legion. And Gannon hasn’t elaborated on why yet, but he keeps hinting that I should be doing more to protect Vegas’ independence.
Also, the guy who takes over as NCR commander in Primm sounds like a real asshole, but neither a robot sheriff nor the vigilante justice guy who was in prison sound like acceptable alternatives, since the robot is pretty stupid and the vigilante guy straight up tells me he’s killed before and will do it again if he needs to.
Maybe he’s not wrong about how justice has to be done in the Wasteland, but I’d like to think That the NCR is a real step forward in moving beyond the Wasteland and returning to civilization.
This is entirely my read on FNV and the general lore, and again, keeping the TV show out of it right now, because IMHO it’s version of the NCR isn’t 100% consistent with prior lore (though it would be 100% appropriate for a population’s looking to a verifiably better past and ignoring the warts!).
NCR did a great job of moving from barely surviving or isolated settlements to a semi-unified, civilized nation and then hit the fast-forward button on the civilization to plutocratic, cronyism plagued, corrupt expansionistic capitalistic state. Does it have the possibility of recovering at the time of FNV? Possible - but much like the modern US, it’s squandering both it’s capital and it’s people. Not that opposing Legion control is wrong, but overlooking all their internal problems or actively making it worse is a colossal flaw.
