FO: NV (General Discussion)

[Cantousent]

LC, you really could never complain that you hadn't gotten your money's worth out of New Veags: The Boone Experience. I'm going to start my fourth run soon. I haven't done anything with the consoles commands at all except for one thing. I couldn't find all the irradiated dogtags for this one quest. I scoured the area and then finally resorted to looking online. I found a command to take me to where I had killed the varmint and used it only to find out he wasn't anywhere there and I was stuck inside of a structure to boot. So, I looked around again and found a command to give me the tag. That's the only time I used the console commands that I can recall, although I did have to look up a few things when I got confused, but a few things out of so many steps in so many quests is not bad at all. I think the design team did a good job of making the quests fairly Cantproof. ...And if it's Cantproof, any idiot can do it.

[Calax]

Actually I've got a pair of berets already because of a bug.

 

And that same bug undid the rep damage that finishing Roses quest after I shot people in the head.

[TheHarlequin]

With no fast travel, I seriously doubt that the Lucky 38 in the most significant place for most players. Of course, I can only speak for myself, and I wasn't much into it.

 

By the way, I got a more or less good ending for the BoS last time, Harlie. I have to say, there's really no 'good' ending for them per se. Doesn't matter who's in charge. Doesn't matter whether you finish Veronica's quest. Basically, they can exist longer and dwindle or be extinguished as a force immediately.

 

That really sucks to be blunt. Why they screwing the BoS? They were like the powerhouses in FO1 and 2 now... they are the red headed step child the writers seem to want to kick around. Sad when the DC BoS is really in a much better position then the west coast chapters. What I read ingame I get the impression ALL the BoS on the west coast are more or less in the same boat as the vegas branch. Are they trying to kill them off canon wise I wonder?

[sorophx]

Arcade desperately needs a Combat Armor in this picture

[Serrano]

Arcade desperately needs a Combat Armor in this picture

 

It looks a bit like he's eying up Boon's armour and Boon is glaring "No" back at him doesn't it?

[Calax]

With no fast travel, I seriously doubt that the Lucky 38 in the most significant place for most players. Of course, I can only speak for myself, and I wasn't much into it.

 

By the way, I got a more or less good ending for the BoS last time, Harlie. I have to say, there's really no 'good' ending for them per se. Doesn't matter who's in charge. Doesn't matter whether you finish Veronica's quest. Basically, they can exist longer and dwindle or be extinguished as a force immediately.

 

That really sucks to be blunt. Why they screwing the BoS? They were like the powerhouses in FO1 and 2 now... they are the red headed step child the writers seem to want to kick around. Sad when the DC BoS is really in a much better position then the west coast chapters. What I read ingame I get the impression ALL the BoS on the west coast are more or less in the same boat as the vegas branch. Are they trying to kill them off canon wise I wonder?

It seems that they're moving more towards a stance where they might be the best technologically and trained, but they're just out manned by anything they go up against and they've stagnated due to their membership not being added to from the outside. Honestly at this point I'd see the Followers of the Apocolypse overtaking and absorbing the BoS to a degree simply because the Followers are ideologically similar (don't let the bad tech get into the hands of evil people) but more flexible and have a larger membership and an easy way to maintain that membership (rather than just having women constantly pop out babies to keep the roster strong).

 

Maybe it turns out kinda like the the Sisters of Battle from Warhammer 40k. The BoS is based entirely around military and warfare while the Followers are mainly about helping but both operate under the same leadership.

[Tigranes]

The BoS weren't powerhouses in FO2. They were, even at their peak, never a large or dominant force in a given region; they were a small elite force who had their time, and by FO2 were already suffering various troubles. Even if we accommodate FO3's randomly thriving DC BoS into account, it has to count as an offshoot that got a life of its own.

 

BoS weren't screwed in FNV, it's actually surprising enough such an esoteric and hostile group who everyone knows has amazing technology has managed to survive in such a coherent way for centuries of the apocalypse and even explore new regions. I guess it's a testament to their ability to unlock particularly effective pre-war tech.

[Cantousent]

Personally, I think the BoS would have managed to keep up their numbers if they'd concentrated on childbirth. They had access to *much* better medicine after the war and they also enjoyed significantly better stability. ...But we can pick apart the story forever and come up with reasons why this and that should be different. I wanted a better ending for the BoS, but I don't mind all that much that the devs went this particular direction. Frankly, like Tig says, I was more surprised by FO3 than NV when it comes to the BoS.

[Ausir]

Another roundup of JE Sawyer posts

 

And of various other Fallout tidbits

 

By the way, I got a more or less good ending for the BoS last time, Harlie. I have to say, there's really no 'good' ending for them per se. Doesn't matter who's in charge. Doesn't matter whether you finish Veronica's quest. Basically, they can exist longer and dwindle or be extinguished as a force immediately.

 

I think the ending in which they ally with the NCR is pretty good for them.

Edited December 4, 2010 by Ausir

[LadyCrimson]

New Veags: The Boone Experience.

His name always makes me think of Ludlum.

 

The Boone Identity

The Boone Supremacy

The Boone Ultimatum

Arcade desperately needs a Combat Armor in this picture

I only had three, and the 3rd was on Raul. Poor Arcade. I've grown quite fond of him in an exasperated-sibling kind of way tho...

 

@Cant - yeah, I made a new chr. last night. A no-combat one that's purposely built for multiple companions and Ferocious Loyalty. High END (to survive half-health for FL at times), max CHA, low everything else (includ. 5 INT to get Arcade early via Ant Nectar) and focus on repair/barter/speech/lockpick. No combat/damage/vats perks. Only time I fire a shot is to attract attention once in a while, but mostly I use the followers 'caution' reaction to trigger fights. So far it's been interesting. Multiple followers means it's not hard, but it is interesting/fun! (ps...getting Arcade at lvl2 is a bit too much, tho, with his high dmg. energy pistol. He outspeeds/outkills Boone if you go back to the early areas once you grab him. So I made him Wait for a while. heh)

Edited December 4, 2010 by LadyCrimson

[sorophx]

I envy you, C... enjoying one game for such a long time

[Cantousent]

My high skills character really did have sky high skills. I didn't even go all the way to level 30 and I had seven skills at 100. My lowest score was 13 (melee) and my highest non maxed score was barter at 34. I hadn't put points in barter, it just happened to get there because of my SPECIAL spread. The rest of my non maxed skills were over 25. So, if I'd gone until level 30, I would have had seven maxed skills and a minimum of 30 in the rest. ...But I also didn't take any combat perks in the least, either, so that's a trade-off. Wasn't quite as broken as Fallout 3, but I think both games were far more about exploration and the experience of the wasteland than tactics or strategic builds.

[LadyCrimson]

I envy you, C... enjoying one game for such a long time

To be honest, I think I spend more time recording/editing combat videos than actually playing in any sensible fashion, lately. But yeah...kinda makes up for most of the last several games I've bought, which all ended up essentially shelved in a few days.

 

Two Worlds1 I played for almost 3 weeks I think...which until NV was the longest time spent on a game at once in 3 years. NV has renewed my game-time obession, at least for a while. I remember when almost all new games did that to me. *memories*

[Azure79]

So did you buy a red beret for your husband yet?

[WorstUsernameEver]

Who had the brilliant idea of making 'Return to Sender' a quest with oh-so-many endings and incredibly brilliant writing an incredibly tedious and incredibly long FETCH QUEST? And what was his/her reasoning?

 

I did. The ranger stations are located around interesting areas, so the primary gameplay enjoyment was intended to be derived from the exploration required to reach them. If you've already discovered all ranger stations and done everything around them (not likely), that's a problem. But then again, if you've already discovered the stations, you can fast travel to them.

 

 

Josh's reasoning sounds rather weak to me.

Edited December 5, 2010 by WorstUsernameEver

[sorophx]

I'm amazed people actually wanted something more from that quest. the moment I got it I knew it was Obsidian's way of dragging me through the entire map, I played along. the quest works as it was intended.

[WorstUsernameEver]

I was the one who wrote that question. And yeah, I personally wanted something more than a fetch quest, especially since, contrary to what Josh thinks, I didn't find the ranger stations interesting at all and certainly not worth the long and tedious treks. It practically kills the quest replayability and it's a pity

[TheHarlequin]

Who had the brilliant idea of making 'Return to Sender' a quest with oh-so-many endings and incredibly brilliant writing an incredibly tedious and incredibly long FETCH QUEST? And what was his/her reasoning?

 

I did. The ranger stations are located around interesting areas, so the primary gameplay enjoyment was intended to be derived from the exploration required to reach them. If you've already discovered all ranger stations and done everything around them (not likely), that's a problem. But then again, if you've already discovered the stations, you can fast travel to them.

 

 

Josh's reasoning sounds rather weak to me.

 

I disagree. I think his reasoning was sound and was the exact impression of the purpose of that quest as I assumed. You are saying the quest does NOT drag you all over the map where odds are you are going to encounter other locations as you travel? How is it weak then?

[Malcador]

Eh, that quest wasn't a problem. Goal was to give you an excuse to 'explore' a bit - I found Bitter Springs as a result, only problem was Foxtrot, I tried going through the mountains, whoops

[WorstUsernameEver]

I disagree. I think his reasoning was sound and was the exact impression of the purpose of that quest as I assumed. You are saying the quest does NOT drag you all over the map where odds are you are going to encounter other locations as you travel? How is it weak then?

 

I'm saying that in a sandbox environment there's no need to force the player through a long fetch quest to make him explore. Whatever the supposed benefit was (I honestly didn't find many locations while trekking to bring those damn codes) it was outweighed by the tediousness of the quest gameplay.

[Cantousent]

I can see being irritated by the quest.

 

For my part, it was actually useful though. For one thing, it gave me the lay of the land. On the first run, I went to all the spots. On the subsequent runs, that information I got exploring to find the places in the first run allowed me to plan out how I was going to stack my quests. The internal reasoning for the quest was actually quite sound. Sure, I had to buy into the idea that they would have someone they barely knew take the NCR codes to all those locations. On the other hand, all crpgs require the player to buy into the idea of being entrusted with things on short notice, especially sandbox. The fact that they would need someone to do it made a lot of sense. The culmination with Hanlon was excellent. It was marred by a bug for one of the endings, but it was a real payoff. Probably one of my favorite moments of the game was dealing with Hanlon. ...And, as opposed to the complaints that folks make about other quests, the whole line had some real heft to it. It didn't have the rushed feel to it that a lot of sandbox game quests do.

 

The locations were spread all over the place and some of them were pretty damned remote, though. Gotta give you that.

[LadyCrimson]

So did you buy a red beret for your husband yet?

No. In real life I think berets mostly look stupid on people. I'll stick to getting him a RedSox uniform.... (edit:no offense to ppl who like berets...I mean military berets, too, not the cutesy knit caps some ppl call berets)

 

I'm amazed people actually wanted something more from that quest. the moment I got it I knew it was Obsidian's way of dragging me through the entire map, I played along. the quest works as it was intended.

Agreed.

I think most of the quests (even some of the 'fetch' ones) are done well enough and are non-annoying. There's always going to be a few for every player that they don't like...I don't understand why people get upset over a few quests that they think are 'tedious.' With all the quests in the game, do you expect all quests to fit your personal tastes/reasoning? There's plenty of other quests related to those areas/camps, no one forces you to do the ones you find dull. (edit:except the main quest, in theory, you 'must do'...but then again, no you don't...only if you care about playing the very end game bits)

Edited December 5, 2010 by LadyCrimson

[LadyCrimson]

Another topic: I've read a lot about how companions will sometimes pick up all these weapons from the dead and such, but I've NEVER had that happen to me. Until last night. Was ambushed by several bandits AND one of those special legion parties that show up randomly once you're vilified, and while being swarmed, Boone scooped up a 10mm machine gun, shot it for 10 rounds, shouted it was empty, and reverted back to his default rifle.

 

I'm guessing I usually equip any companions I have with something other than their default weapon, so quickly, that they don't think most things are worth picking up. That and they're usually at a distance, too far away to 'want' to rush over to pick up something. But this time I left Boone with his default rifle....

[Malcador]

Weird too, I come across areas seemingly more naturally than FO3, I guess the lack of tall buildings helps makes landmarks noticeable.

[WorstUsernameEver]

With all the quests in the game, do you expect all quests to fit your personal tastes/reasoning? There's plenty of other quests related to those areas/camps, no one forces you to do the ones you find dull. (edit:except the main quest, in theory, you 'must do'...but then again, no you don't...only if you care about playing the very end game bits)

 

Well, I generally expect area designers to limit their reliance on fetch quests. New Vegas is really littered with them. It's especially weird in that I don't really remember any other Obsidian game having many fetch quest, nor a modern RPG having that many fetch quests (The Witcher was previously the worst offender). And yeah, I will avoid that quest, though it's pretty bothersome in that the quest is pretty well-written and has some really nifty options in how you can tackle the final part, not to mention that it also has its ending slides.