Ways to make the Mojave Desert a little more realistic.

[Rossum]

I know there are lots of things about New Vegas that don't make sense and this is.a thread to post some of those ideas and possible solutions to them (at least in an i-game way).

 

I'll start off:

 

 

Problem: The roads leading into New Vegas are simply too dangerous for large numbers of gamblers to travel there to lose all their money. Aside from all the Deathclaws, powder gangers, and other threats that are supposed to have only appeared recently there are also legion raider parties, nests of giant ants and scorpions right next to the roads, and other stuff that would make rich NCR citizens think twice about traveling to Vegas.

 

Solution: There are groups of mercenaries who regularly patrol the roadways and keep the various hostile wildlife off the roads... for a price. The various Jakel and Viper gangs the Courier runs across had origionally set up there to rob travelers but soon discovered that the roads in the Mojave are too dangerous for lots of merchants to go through (they might make a decent living in NCR territories where there is lots of trade but in the Mojave there isn't as much traffic).

 

So, they set up a 'protection racket' where the gangs pick a section of road and attack any of the giant ants or radscorpions that show up in those areas. At the same time, they charge travelers a modest toll to cross their section of the road safely. The gangs thus keep the roads safe enough to travel on at the minor expense of having to pay them money (if they rob everyone who passes through then fewer people travel there, if they keep the roads safe and charge tolls then more people could come through and they make more money that way). So the roads are safe enough to travel on for rich folks.

 

The various protection gangs have been able to divide up the turf in an exceptable manner and work to keep other more hostile gangs from muscli ng in, so they also attack legion or Powder Gangers who come near. There might be a few cases where the protection gangs let someone get robbed (as in the case with Cassidy Cravans where the Van Graffs and Crimson Caravans bribed them) but overall its safe enough for people to travel them.

 

However, the recent break out of the Powder Gangers and the Deathclows (who came in as a result of the gangers stealing all the dynamite for the construction) not only made the roads impossible to travel in that area but the powder gangers moved southward and started attacking the Jackels and Vipers who were protecting the roads there. Combined with legion raiding parties coming in from the East and most of the gangs who were protecting the roads got overworked.

 

I suppose a Mod could be made that makes the Vipers and Jackel gangs patrol the roads and deal with any threats that reach their turf. They would ask the Courier to pay a toll and in exchange the Courier either gets a key item that makes them non-hostile or gets reputation with them. If you help them clear out threats on the road or get them new recruits/equipment/ammo then they will let you travel the roads for free and provide you with aid while you are in their territory.

 

 

Problem: House doesn't seem to have any sort of manufacturing base or anything other than casinos that would encourage people to go to him. Hell for the friggin Founder and CEO of RobCo he doesn't really seem to have much in the way of robots. Sure the Securitrons are nice but for those of us who played Fallout 3 and thought having a robot butler who can dispense purified water was neat, and Sentrybots were murder machines, a bunch of casinos and one-wheeled TV robots looks... boring.

 

Solution: Before the bombs hit, House had numerous caches of supplies scattered around the Mojave (and possibly other parts of the world since RobCo was an international corporation). Many of these caches had little to no security (basically a locked door in a sewer somewhere that included a stash of vital supplies and a map to the Vegas Strip that said "Come to Vegas where your dreams can come true!") and were there to kind of help people out and advertise his place. More secure stockpiles were set up with special locks that could only be opened with keys that he had.

 

When he took over the Strip, he provided the Three Families with keys to those stockpiles and had them arm themselves with lots of pristine pre-war weaponry. He also had lesser stockpiles of robots (like Mr. Handys and protectrons and such) that he brought in to help in the fight and aid in constructing the Strip. If the Courier searches the Mojave he might find some of the lesser stockpiles laying unlooted and if he goes through the House quests would get keys to the more secure pre-war stockpiles (the ones too far away from the Strip to aid the Three Families).

 

On that note, when Caesar saw the bunker under his fort he immediatly recognized it as one of Houses securely locked stockpiles. Since the House stockpiles can include anything from weapons to robots to medicine factories to frozen samples of pre-war flora and fauna then Caesar might want it checked out, blown up, sealed up, or whatever.

 

However, House also has numerous robot factories set up near or around the Strip which primarily produce Mr. Handys and Protectrons. The NCR might even have a deal with him where he makes new robots to send back to the NCR territories. However, he can't produce new sentry bots or Securitrons (which is why he needs the Securiton stockpile underneath Fortification Hill).

 

The change would mainly be in seeing numerous new robots around the Strip and surrounding areas. Like Protectron police forces, or Mr. Handys around areas offering to dispence purified water "compliments of Mr. House" or do repair work. Basically seeing the beginnings of Houses technocratic utopia where robots keep the wheels of society turning while everyone else just stays out of Houses way.

 

There could also be evidence that House has tech similar to the Sierra Madre Vending Machines, he gathers raw materials, has them turned into Sierra Madre Chips (or Strip Chips) and can then turn them into spare parts for his robots or whatever other items he might need. Not sure if House would put those chips into circulation as a currency or just stockpile them for himself (or a loyal Courier who does his work for him). Perhaps if you work for House then he will pay you in Strip Chips and give you access to a Vending Machine that can transmute them into whatever items you want. He'd prefer you didn't sell the chips or tell anyone else about them until he's ready to take over the Mojave. If his enemies discovered that his technology let him essentially make whatever the hell he wants whenever the hell he wants then they would want to take him out before the battle of Hoover Dam.

[evilneko]

I got the impression that the road turning dangerous was actually a recent development, traceable mainly to the Powder Ganger revolt. In Goodsprings they tell you the NCR pretty much keeps the road clear, but when you get out to see for yourself you find things have changed. The Goodsprings residents obviously don't travel much, and don't know about the Deathclaws (well, they don't know how bad the Deathclaw problem is) to the north and that the NCR has pretty much abandoned much of the road.

[Seviche]

I got the impression that the road turning dangerous was actually a recent development...

Everything in NV has the feeling of "All this sh*t just changed while Dr. Mitchell and that creepy robot were busy interrupting your dirt nap."

 

OP- Besides, the sudden influx of dangerous junk is only really there to challenge the player and try to make the story interesting. If the wasteland was realistic it'd be a very different story... lots of boredom punctuated by sudden bouts of lethal and frantic activity.

 

A realistic wasteland would be a better civilization-style game than a first-person shooter.