FO: NV (DLCS) Discussion

[HoonDing]

*looks at the item packs*

 

...nah, don't need them. I might be interested in the Gun Runner's one, but mostly for the katana. Not because it makes much sense to have/use one in NV (imo) but because I just like Japanese swords, even in games. It can be a room decoration/screenshot pose item.

But will there be also samurai armor?

[mkreku]

Finished it tonight. Definitely worth my money. I'm OK with it being the last DLC for New Vegas. I've played the game for 300 hours now and it feels like it is enough. Bring on the next open-world project, I say!

[Tale]

I actually thought you'd go through with it. Yay, my ED-E lives!

[C2B]

Pwnstar on the SA forums did a nice write-up about the DLCs themes. Thought might be worth posting here

 

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthrea...mp;pagenumber=2

 

 

In Dead Money we have the theme of letting go of your hopes/dreams/fortune/etc being the hardest thing. We have this expressed through the vault full of gold bars at the end that you cannot take with you if you want to get out of there alive. (Lets just forget about abusing game mechanics or all the stimpacks you can take with you or whatever other bull**** you want to come up with. You are missing the point) You go through all of this to get to the treasure and in the end you have to let go and just leave. When you are asked what compelled you to follow the radio message to the Sierra Madre the answer that comes up the most is that you were curious, you wanted to know what you would find. There's also the recurring theme of beginning again.

 

Honest Hearts is kind of a separate thing because it was made my Joshua Sawyer instead of Chris Avellone so it doesn't really fit into the ongoing story. There are some intertwining things about Ulysses training the White Legs though. They end up worshipping him instead of the Legion, just like how the Dead Horses worship Graham instead of his Mormon ideals. Following a symbol, not what it represents.

 

Old World Blues is about history repeating itself. The world was destroyed by science and stupidity a long time ago. Now we've got this group of idiotic scientists living forever and creating scientific horrors with no regard for the consequences, trapped inside an endless loop of death and rebirth. They gently caress around, play at war then they have their memories wiped and start all over again. They don't know there is a world outside their crater, they are literally shortsighted. We also have Elijah, Christine and Ulysses running around here bringing Dead Money and Lonesome Road into all this. Ulysses asked the head brain a question that freaked him so badly he erased all memory of their encounter. ("Who are you, that would forget your own history?")

 

In Lonesome Road we have Ulysses sending you the message, come and find me. He talks to you through ED-E and tells you how to reach him. Why you ask, why do I care about any of this? Why should I come find you? He tells you, because then you'll know the answers. Why I'm here, why I hate you etc. You can leave if you want, there is nothing stopping you but you will never know the real story. It comes back to curiosity. He is talking to you the player as much as your character. Why are you playing this DLC? Because you want to know what the deal is with this Ulysses guy. You don't have to play, you can just go and take over Hoover Dam. You have his plan, setting off the nukes. Repeating history. Your history of destroying the Divide. World history when we blew ourselves up. Pay attention to his dialogue and he will mention that he wants to "begin again" and that letting go is the hardest thing etc. The core themes of the DLCs are all brought back in Lonesome Road and in Ulysses himself.

 

Also about Ulysseus

 

 

I'm not sure if I'm underestimating goons but I don't think you are actually getting the whole deal with Ulysses. He's not an ultra badass warrior poet genius character. He's an incredibly messed up individual whose life, culture and way of thinking was shattered by the Legion. His tribe believed a lot in symbols and what they mean (his whole thing where he freaks out at the White Legs copying his hair style without getting the meaning behind it) He takes his name not from Odysseus the traveler but from Ulysses S. Grant, the warrior who turned a country warring under 2 flags into a country living under one.

 

He follows Caesar but he doesn't give a poo poo about the Legion or believe in anything it stands for beyond a symbol that could possibly unite the land. If everyone lives under one banner then nobody gets their lives destroyed by someone bearing another. He wears his coat with the American Flag on the back because that's what symbol this land used to follow. A symbol more powerful than the Bull or the Bear, a symbol that united a nation. The other Ulysses believed in that symbol and it worked for him.

 

Then there is you, just a regular courier. You are ferrying poo poo from out West into the Mojave and back. In between the two there is some small town built on an old US Army missile base and they decorate with American Flags cause those things are everywhere around here. As you are going to and fro you are creating trade lines with this place and their town is getting a bit more successful just out of necessities sake. It becomes a trading hub between the main civilization back in the west and the frontier of the Mojave. NCR decides they want this place because its got great strategic value, since the route to the Mojave goes right through the middle of this place. The Legion decides if they want it then we'll just gently caress it up.

 

Ulysses gets sent down to do some damage and he sees this place, a bustling trading hub covered in symbols of the Old World. Not NCR or Legion, just good ol' USA. It's a big deal to him so he wants to know more, he's really into history so he finds out this place used to be basically nothing until the Courier started traveling along the road and opening up trade lines. Now this town, covered in symbols is a symbol itself. Ulysses decides this place is important. It represents something more powerful than the Bull or the Bear. This is the Courier's home, the place he built, one man, up from nothing. A symbol of the Old World returning, strong as ever. Ulysses resolves to find out more about this great man. Or woman but lets say its a dude for simplicities sake.

 

The Courier is basically just a regular dude delivering packages, the reason he doesn't really remember The Divide is because it didn't mean anything to him. Its this town along the way to the Mojave. It used to be pretty small but they expanded a bit. It's not a symbol to you so you don't really remember it. It's just a place. You pass through hundreds of towns a year. You never stayed long or did anything there so why remember it?

 

Ulysses is doing his thing when he finds out the Courier is going to be delivering a package to The Divide. He's coming back! He hasn't been around in a while, this must be important. So he tracks down the Courier and starts shadowing him. He sees the package and its some computer gizmo with a US flag stamped on it. Hoooooly shiiiit something is going down here. Ulysses is all about this. This is like The Symbol. The Courier drops off the package then keeps on walking. Ulysses doesn't notice, he's transfixed by this package. What could it be? Someone plugs it into a computer, ****s around with it and it starts talking. This is probably a countdown I'm assuming. It stops and a bunch of nukes in their silos under the town go off and there is fire and earthquakes destruction everywhere. The Courier destroyed his home, the place he built with a symbol of the Old World. This is so uncool. Ulysses life and beliefs are shattered once again even harder than before. Later he's all depressed delivering packages when he sees the order forms for this latest hob. The Courier's name is on this list, mother****er is still alive! He's can deliver this platinum chip thing, I've got plans to make.

 

Basically Ulysses is a goon who finally meets Christian Bale and cries when Bale tells him he doesn't give a poo poo about Batman, its just a job for money.

 

 

Edited September 22, 2011 by C2B

[Lexx]

That's really interesting. Especially the wall of text about Ulysses. I had a similar feeling about it, but not as clear as this.

[WorstUsernameEver]

Well, whatever the canon ending is

Chris Avellone hates the civilized version of the Fallout setting and put tunnelers to work to kill it with the blessing of Bethesda

[Lexx]

A back door to kill off the post-post apocalypse. :>

[Walsingham]

It occurs to me that the mixed reviews are 100% predictable.

 

Each of the DLCs has its own emphasis on some aspect of gameplay. Honest Hearts was pretty with weak story, Old World Blues was open with plenty of humour, Dead Money was dark and story emphasising, Lonesome is combat hefty. There's something for everyone, but equally for some people they're only going to like one in four. I try to take each on its emphasised merits and am much happier.

 

As mkreku says, we're talking about hundreds and hundreds of hours of gameplay. I can't think of any other game I've played so much, nor been happy to consider replaying.

 

Lonesome road at level 10, with a passel of stealth boys, and enough jet and buffout to sink a battleship.

[HoonDing]

I came out of the Divide with more loot than a Spanish schooner, but it's all pretty much useless since the game is essentially over. I only have the battle of Hoover Dam left.

[Flouride]

Finished it, loved it and now I feel empty knowing Fallout: New Vegas is done. Though I have to go back to the Divide to get some gear I left behind, snowglobe and for the nukes since I apparently missed 4 of them...

 

Whoever came up with the Courier's mile location, I want to punch you hard!

That band of irradiated Marked Men kicked my ass so bad with their healing skills, not to mention the **** deathclaws. I'm never going back there again! :D

[Walsingham]

The courier's mile is certainly scary. I went in,, just about managed to kill two deathclaws, and ran away.

[Gromnir]

It occurs to me that the mixed reviews are 100% predictable.

 

well then, given that the press reviews hasn't been mixed should be more than a little surprising to walsh. heck, even Gromnir has been mild perplexed that the albeit limited number o' press reviews thus far has been disappointing.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[WDeranged]

Bah, I keep hovering my finger over the install button in Steam but with just over a month till Skyrim and a crapload of other games to play till then I need to resist the urge.

[mkreku]

Want to know something sad? I saw the achievements (are they called that?) on Steam and now I want to play that Gun pack that's coming out soon. Yeah, I'm that easy.

[Gorgon]

Doing one last play through with my melee guy. With everything souped up the humble war club turns everything to a fine red mist in a few seconds. Only problem is death claws do so much damage even with my heavy armor it takes just two or three hits, and the feat that protects against KO doesn't seem to work all the time with them.

[Lexx]

More GRA stuff.

 

The Brush Gun looks fancy. Will be my first target. :>

[HoonDing]

Wheres mah Chinese assault rifle?

[WorstUsernameEver]

Wheres mah Chinese assault rifle?

 

In Fallout 3:

To answer a more general question about why we didn't just throw every weapon from F3 + all F3 DLCs + your mom's PC mod (not really) into F:NV, there are two reasons:

 

1) All weapons that were placed in the game were done with a specific progression/role in mind, from niche to niche and type to type. Arbitrarily adding more weapons in muddies those progressions, so it should be done with some thought -- or not done at all.

 

2) Even if those weapons were in a shipped F3 product, they still need to be handled in leveled lists and tested along with every other weapon. Often, weapons or variants were never intended to be in the game/scheduled to be developed because frankly, the volume of weapons was already pretty enormous. One gun here or there may not seem like a big deal, but there are a LOT of weapons and weapon-related assets to maintain.

 

There's also a third reason, which may seem odd in retrospect: we tried to remove original F3 weapons when practical (especially if there was overlap) in order to highlight the things in F:NV that were new. We could possibly have left the R91 in, filling the role provided by the Assault Carbine, but then you'd either not have the Assault Carbine or we'd have to find a different role for each weapon.

[Walsingham]

I'm loving the explosives the last two play throughs. It's why God gave us cazadores.

[Flouride]

I'm loving the explosives the last two play throughs. It's why God gave us cazadores.

 

Damn cazadores. They still roam and rape me in my nightmares. 4 cazadores on hardcore mode was always a nice surprise. Either they killed me in seconds, or they killed one of my companions forcing me to reload.

Edited September 27, 2011 by Flouride

[Walsingham]

I got attacked by EIGHT recently in Honest Hearts at level 14. I think something is bongo'd in the levelling. Maybe because we have multiple characters at all sorts of levels on my account.

[Lexx]

In my latest playthrough, I find Legion assassins to be much harder as well. I knew they had been changed with the latest patch, but it really wasn't working out good with my high-level player savegame. Now with a new game and all fresh, it feels pretty different and a lot harder.

Edited September 27, 2011 by Lexx

[Gorgon]

Ulysses is basically Kurtz from Apocalypse Now. I don't remember if Brando came up with most of that stream of consciousness babble himself or if he was just given bad lines. Anyway the important thing is not the words but the overall bouquet of the word soup. As poetry slam characters go, he's not bad.

[WorstUsernameEver]

Ulysses is honestly not that bad at a character, but it's handled kinda clumsy. It doesn't help, I guess, that he already was a companion that was re-purposed for another role they had planned.

 

EDIT: He should shut the **** up sometimes, though.

Edited September 27, 2011 by WorstUsernameEver

[Lexx]

Damn, the unique Brush Gun in GRA costs around 28k caps. I don't have that much yet in my new characters inventory.