obvious plot gap is really horrifically obvious now.

[minngarm]

Right I get your points about it not being a perfect solution but I however still see it as the best of all options, as it prevents the long war between NCR and Legion from expanding beyond riverbank patrolling.

[marharth]

Doesn't Mr. House still have his missile defense systems up? Was it just a one time thing or not?

[Fallout10mm]

I think he said the anti nuclear missle laser defences were offline because he had to shut down the reactor, due to the unstable version of the os he was using (which wouldnt have happened if he had the chip before the war started) nearly causeing it to meltdown, which is why just before the final battle at hoover dam he as you use the override chip on the substation so he can restart his reactor, Anyway I think Ulysses had already locked in the cordinates to the Long 15 and Dry Wells so you had to choose which (or both) would get nuked (course he didnt count on EDE being able to hack the override)

[Tefnacht]

Assuming the destruction of Hoover Dam would end the large scale conflict between the Legion and NCR is pretty naive in my opinion.

 

The Legions endgame is to ultimately destroy the NCR. They just stopped at the dam because it is the first NCR stronghold on their way. You don't move your front line beyond such an enemy fortification without taking it first. Blow up the dam and the Legion will simply move on and lay siege to the next NCR base they find.

 

To cross the Colorado you don't need the dam. Its just a river. A very big river, granted, still not a impenetrable wall. If the Legion really wanted to cross it in full force, they would find a way.

 

Nuke the dam, killing thousands of NCR and Legion soldiers and pretty much wiping New Vegas from the map ... you just cause severe suffering for the Mojave, deny the NCR a power source the Legion wouldn't know how to use anyway and ultimately change nothing.

 

The only party you really crash is House's. Without the dam the strip is practically shut down (or caught up in the blast too). The NCR and Legion who have their roots way outside the area will simply count their losses and then continue their fight somewhere else, killing each other over other things.

 

You just end up with A LOT of irradiated blood on your hands and a really messed up reputation if word ever gets around. Both major powers in the wasteland would want you very, very dead.

 

I can see absolutely nothing “good” in nuking the dam. I really see no obvious plot hole.

[minngarm]

Youve got a lot of valid points there. However I dont think it would be so easily for the legion to cross with the NCR scouting and bolstering any other possible fordings as well.

[ModelV]

Or the Legion could just go around lake mead in force? Its just a river and the NCR would be crippled if new vegas and the dam were destroyed since thats where most of their troops are while the bulk of the Legion forces are relatively safe atop fort hill. All it would do is give the Legion an edge while at the same time making them very mad.

 

Also House should have control over the power supply feeding to the strip so if he needs to he could reroute the power from the rest of the strip into the lasers. Id say hes got a decent chance of hitting them both.

[minngarm]

Yea theres a lot of good counter points to it that I hadnt considered yet, but your also forgetting that the dams destruction would reduce the water level on the north end of the dam and flood the south side, where the legion had crossed before. This would basicly destroy any crossings already in place south of the dam. Then the reduced water level to the north would leave a bog all the way up the river that would make crossing there exceedingly slow and easy for even a small company of NCR to counter. If your not sure about that, try hunting boar in a marsh land sometime, its not so easy to move about.

[Fonger]

1) The NCR advancement only came to the Mojave after scouts confirmed of the existance of the functioning Dam, they came for the near endless energy supply it is and the massive amounts of resources that could be moved acrossed it to further their advance east if so be it.

this alone is a plot hole

 

and its big enough to sail the Lusitania through

 

its 300 years after the bombs fell

 

and the dam hasn't silted up yet.

 

it should be a mud pond flowing brown by now

 

(if its flowing at all)

[minngarm]

Right, its not touched on at all, but considering the area was not touched by the nukes, more or less. Its perfectly possible that those who were working the dam continued to work it, and trained their children, and their children's children to do it. Then theres the chance that it has automated systems to maintain itself, or that house could have used his robots to maintain the facility forseeing his need for it.

 

 

Not to write off the plot gap itself, but there are some feasable ways for it to have been in general maintained. I doubt the legion and NCR scouts found it completely empty. Infact didnt they mention it somewhere in the game that they had to "clean it out" or some such?

[Fonger]

Not to write off the plot gap itself, but there are some feasable ways for it to have been in general maintained.

like the 24/7/365 automated dredgers

 

just keeping the equipment in working order won't stop the silt from filling in the landscape

Edited October 8, 2011 by Fonger