Ashton Silo choices? (SPOILER)

[Brraven]

Lonesome Road (The way it felt)

 

*enters LR, finds eyebot, eyebot starts talking for 'a stranger'*

"I've been waiting"

"Who are you?"

"No one you know"

"Oh. Well what do you want?"

"To have a reckoning for all the things you did!"

"What the hell are you talking about? Get serious"

"You have to come. I can't bring myself to kill you."

"Wait, did you just say you wont kill me?"

"Yes. Because we have to meet in person and talk so you ca...."

"Yeah yeah, look.. sounds REAL interesting, but.. I got 2 mil in caps

and hookers in Gommorah waiting., I'll be back (maybe)"

"But.. but..but..."

 

People seem to be arguing this from the wrong line of logic. It doesn't matter if you pushed the button because you were smart,

stupid, good or evil. Lonesome Road failed (in much the same way that NV failed) ...by not really giving you a reason to care!

 

I had not 'sided' with anyone yet. Was still on good terms with both NCR ~AND~ the Legion. But Ulysses treated me as though

I was NCR. Even before the silo, Ulysses has already admitted he didn't know you personally and that he has no intentions of

killing you. By the time you 'should' be heading into LR, you are already level 25+ (and in my case, hadn't even found Benny

yet, despite being level 33). ANY information about my past PRIOR to being shot by this time is worth FAR less. You've done

a lot of living and have a new life. Apparently as a major contender in what the future of the Mojave is going to be. At this point

in your life, unless you having living family you don't remember, your past as a mediocre courier is meaningless. Combined with

the fact that this freak-job admits he knows NOTHING about you except that you had been to the Divide before.

 

So once you have completely convinced yourself there is a reason to even GO into the Divide to find Ulysses (like, a $10 purchase),

then it becomes easy to just slap the switch and meta-game WHY you did it afterward.

 

Frankly. it had already broke the immersion. I made a special save right after the first time I 'talked to' Ulysses, finished the entirety

of the DLC, and then reloaded the save from 'that point, left and didn't go back to the divide again. From the perspective of my character,

I WAS NOT THAT CURIOUS.

 

And before anyone says "But he would have nuked the..."

No.

At no time does he say he has any intentions of launching nukes till much later.

In FACT!! He said he is not going to kill you, so if you are going to meta-game anyway, he can NOT launch the nukes for fear of killing

you. He offers NOTHING of any REAL value. Information about how I 'used' to travel there? How I brought death to everyone? Good.

Wonderful. But that doesn't tell me who I am. And it's in the past. The Wasteland is harsh enough without obsessing on my past mistakes.

 

This was even worse than the start of NV with the

"You've just been shot in the head and buried, saved only by a (Deus Ex Machina) Securitron who 'happened' to find you. What are you going to do next?"

"Well obviously, even though I've already been nearly killed by Mr.Checkers once and I have NO reason to CARE why I was killed (because I have no memory of my delivery) I'm going to chase him down!!"

(even though self-preservation says RUN COURIER, RUN!!!)

 

Heavy-handed Developer-guided "player-choice" is worse than "few choices in a world where at least you have CONCRETE reason (AWOL father) to go out and explore.

You are a courier. Not special forces.

At NO time in NV ~OR~ it's DLC, are you given any REAL reason to play, except 'curiosity'.

"You bought it, might as well explore"

 

Let's change the setting around a bit.

 

"Courier, come find me, or I will blast every last person left on the planet to dust"

"Oh heck. Guess I gotta do whatever it takes to stop that from happening, even pressing this big red Nuke button".

 

Suddenly you have a reason to bother.

 

Just my $1.50

[minngarm]

Read the note your given when you exit docs house the first time. If you dont get the chip back and finish the delivery, the contractor (house) will have you killed according to your contract. Its just not shoved into your face as much as it needs to be to make it sink in. Just a simple note that was found on you.

[Gopher]

Read the note your given when you exit docs house the first time. If you dont get the chip back and finish the delivery, the contractor (house) will have you killed according to your contract. Its just not shoved into your face as much as it needs to be to make it sink in. Just a simple note that was found on you.

 

But its hardly much of a threat is it? I mean if I had to choose the least dangerous path between avoiding the Mojave Express hitmen, and walking into a Mafia stronghold and killing the boss whilst surrounded by all his heavies ..... not really a motivation. And if you want to pretend that the Mojave Express is actually scarier than a Mafia boss, then it makes no sense that you survived. Why? Because Benny was not stupid. Ambitious and even reckless maybe, but not stupid. And if the Mojave Express were to be feared more than him, he would not have put one bullet in to your head and buried you in a shallow grave. He would have decapitated you and dumped bits of your body in a nearby cave inhabited by carnivores. The last thing he would allow is even the smallest chance they might find out he had hit one of their own ... IF they were actually a force to fear.

 

And even if were to accept it as a reason, I have to say that nothing in the game gives me any sense of urgency with regards the re-acquisition of the chip. In the end it really doesn't matter what rational arguments we throw at each other, the bottom line is that the game just did not make me care about the main quest or my own character. It did a far better job of making me care about my companions, and a lot of the NPCs (including Benny, who for some reason I just really liked). If I could have done all the NV sidequests with the NV companions, but whilst playing the Vault Dweller, The Chosen One or the Kid from 101, I would have loved it more.

[Borsek]

You guys try to find points in the game... I just like to pwn stuff with a 200+ guns arsenal... also, I liked the fact that you weren't forced into anything, there was no sense of urgency in the game, no 200 days until the legion comes stuff (like FO1, still, it was a great game).

 

I use the game as my little playground, modifying guns and my character, adding NPCs, that sort of stuff. Then I kill them.

 

I guess LR was a curiosity thing for me, the player... my character has like 200k caps and as you pointed out, hookers in gomorrah... although I could probably buy that place anyway (well, buy at gunpoint, but those are details). So I played LR for the loot, new enemies and new story... it wasn't 10/10 for me, but it had some nice moral points and finally provided me with a challenge (killing ulysses). Sure, he's not a big deal, but it is certainly more satisfactory to kill him than a den of deathclaws.

 

 

If you want a good storyline play games from the 90's, back then, games were more about storylines and interesting characters, plot twists and so on, while now they're mostly just about graphics and basically feel more like watching an interactive movie instead of playing a game. Don't get me started on modern FPS games, I have had the misfortune of COD: Black ops being recommended to me recently, and I must say that the game insulted my (albeit limited) intelligence. So whenever I feel like playing an FPS, I go play new vegas. I can do whatever I want, it can be challenging, and it's a good game imho.

 

My list of must play games: Half life 1,2,ep1,ep2; Ufo series (from enemy unknown to apocalypse, skip interceptor and the rest of the trash until UFO: Afterlight), Age of Wonders series, Baldur's gate series, Crysis (1 and warhead, 2 was not so good), X series (at least X3: Reunion and Teran conflict), Fallout series, Space pirates and zombies, Braid, Terraria, Serious sam series, Warcraft series (not WoW), Starcraft and Diablo series (basically anything and everything from blizzard), Super meat boy, Supreme commander and if you're an addict Eve online.

Edited October 13, 2011 by Borsek

[ModelV]

Well Lonesome road did make things very clear:

 

"Dont feel like what Ulysses has to say is important? Then you can just turn around."

 

Its very open about this but i still see reason to go into the Divide and see what this guy has to say:

 

"You dont have to see the man to see the effect he has."

-Hanlon

 

This goes both ways in the story of the Courier and Ulysses he knows what your capable of just by gazing into that canyon and you know the effect he has from your travels throughout the rest of the DLCs. My character has spent quite a long time(ever since hearing about him in Primm) tracking him down through Zion valley to the Sierra Madre to the Big Empty and finally The Divide. Ive found enough reason to track him down in my play through pay attention on your next one and youll find the reason too.

 

 

And F3's reason for playing the main quest was not any better then NV. Dad gets price for worst father in the wasteland for leaving you behind without any word in a Vault full of killers(Yes James was fully aware of what the Overseer was capable of and what his reaction to him leaving would be.) I say screw him and i would only track him down to shoot him. He doesnt given tell you why hes leaving in his note for crying out loud!

[Gopher]

You guys try to find points in the game... I just like to pwn stuff with a 200+ guns arsenal... also, I liked the fact that you weren't forced into anything, there was no sense of urgency in the game, no 200 days until the legion comes stuff (like FO1, still, it was a great game).

 

Sure, if that is what you prefer. And I even enjoy games like that. Bethesda specialise in that sort of thing, with Morrowind, Oblivion etc. And I love those games too. But for a Fallout game that was kind of unexpected. With Skyrim I will pretty much be ready for that :)

 

In many ways, FNV was Oblivion with guns, which was one of the major worries people had for FO3 when it was first announced Bethesda would take over the franchise. But yeah, I love Oblivion. So don't hink I am hating NV. Far from it. Still like the game immensly.

[Gopher]

And F3's reason for playing the main quest was not any better then NV. Dad gets price for worst father in the wasteland for leaving you behind without any word in a Vault full of killers(Yes James was fully aware of what the Overseer was capable of and what his reaction to him leaving would be.) I say screw him and i would only track him down to shoot him. He doesnt given tell you why hes leaving in his note for crying out loud!

 

You say there is no reason, then give an excellent reason :) Love or hate, at least there was some emotional hook there. But for some reason I could never hate Benny. It was not personal. Was just business, and I survived anyway. They should have had him kill my dog or something. I could get mad about that.

[Brraven]

Read the note your given when you exit docs house the first time. If you dont get the chip back and finish the delivery, the contractor (house) will have you killed according to your contract.

Its just not shoved into your face as much as it needs to be to make it sink in. Just a simple note that was found on you.

 

Which I would have been (somewhat) willing to believe was ample reason, if not for

 

#1) The note you mention specifically states, quote,

"Failure to deliver the proper recipient may result in forfeiture of your advance and bonus, criminal charges, and/or pursuit

by mercenary reclamation teams. The Mojave Express is not responsible for any injury or loss of life you experience as a result of said reclamation efforts."

 

Okay, so the reclamation teams come to me. I tell them I don't have it. Direct them to the people of Goodsprings to get confirmation and point them toward Mr. Checkers[benny].

Net injury... zilch.

 

#2) Once you get to Primm you realize that the other couriers were killed also, AND the man who runs the Express was trapped hiding from powder gangers, so was of no threat himself.

Now the reclamation team comes and you say "don't have it. Ask Doc in GS. And also, see? Someone killed the other couriers too!"

Net injury... zilch.

 

The ~only~ reason a reclamation team would try to kill you is if you resisted their attempts to retrieve it, thus giving them the idea that you were stealing it.

 

Escaping crazed vault dwellers to search for a negligent father is still more motivation than "You might get a visit from the Post Office Police".

 

The only real substantial reason to do much of ~anything~ in NV is curiosity. And high intelligence stat is not the same thing as knowledge of what a missile silo is or what it might do.

The game is set some six generations after the war. Most people alive shouldn't know CRAP about pre-war knowledge. At best with high enough science (and maybe energy or explosives)

skill you might guess what something is. But even then it's all guesswork. So again I say, by the time you get to the missile silo, doing things for crap reasons should be second nature.

 

Courier Six (regardless of Int stat) is like a aborigine with a high IQ. He can process information given well, but has little knowledge.

He is given NO reason to do ANYTHING except morbid curiosity and a lack of self-preservation.

 

Courier Six is...

...the Mojave's Moira Brown.

[minngarm]

The hit squad isnt from the Mojave Express..... Its from the contractor. AKA Mr House. Now this is meant as its written in green and white, do the job, or die trying, fail to, and ANYWHERE in the Mojave and NCR territory you will be hunted down, tortured, and killed. Oh and its all legal since you accepted the contract.

 

Now your faced with, get the goods, fight a unknowable number of hit squads sent to kill/retrieve you all over the west, or break for Legion territory, and hope the hit squads cant come after you there or that the Legion doesnt cut you apart for being from the NCR. Dont over simplify the contract, its some very heavy s***.

 

But yes it needs to be mentioned by doc or sunny or trudy that your contract is pritty heavy, hell even victor.

[ModelV]

Are you familiar with the concept of Self motivation? Yes or no question but regardless:

 

Why stay in Goodsprings? You have no house, no place to sleep, no work other then hunting geckos and have some heavy competition in that.

 

So what do you do next:

 

Forget benny: Well i could see if i can start a life in Primm south of hear.

 

Kill benny: Go to Primm track Mr Checkers!

 

Find Primm:

 

Forget benny Reaction: ****! Well should i should still see if there are any survivors. Yep. Should i help them?(irrelevant). Well now that thats over there isnt any work nor place for me to stay here either. [Like NCR] I guess i can head over to Mojave outpost and sign up as an NCR trooper(cant really do this in such a simple way but anyway) Oh waits this i have an assignment to check on the smoke from nipton?[Dont like/hate NCR] I guess ill head up into Nipton and find work.

 

Kill benny: ****! I should see if there are any survivors who saw benny/know about my contract. Well now that thats over i should get to nipton and then to Novac.

 

Start humming Metallica:"hmm hmm hmm On the road again."

 

Find Nipton:

 

*******************************!

 

 

You see where im going with this? Anywhere here is a better one:

 

Why go to Vegas?

 

Its ****ing Vegas!!!!

 

OR

 

Benny is there ima kill him!!!

 

Entering the Strip gives you reason to play through the rest...more or less.