obvious plot gap is really horrifically obvious now.

[jjb54]

 

 

 

Tens of thousands of people depend on the dam for their water and their livelihood, many would be killed by fallout and floods downstream, many more by thirst afterwards. It would be a terrible option, unless you were playing a character who just wanted to watch the world burn!

 

 

so for that option you have to have joined the Toaster faction. Small appliances tremble in fear everywhere.

 

 

THE WORLD WILL BE BATHED IN THERMONUCLEAR FIRE! AGAIN!

 

 

Its bathtub time for the evil toaster :tongue:

 

 

I have to agree, the dam would not be a 'good idea' no matter who you hated or even if you want to 'level' the playing field. Also New Vegas (et all) would indeed pretty much CRASH the game in no small way, when you stop to think just how many quests are there. Some are small, but other's are not so small to the game.

 

This is similar to a post I read in the Skyrim Forum where a guy wanted a mod that took out (erased) all the major cities: Whiterun - Solitude - Markarth - Winterhold - Windhelm and Riften. He didn't like them. o..0 and wanted them, well gone - poof . (Don't ask, as I have no clue.)

[KoolAidMan188]

Why the hell doesn't anyone build a boat?

[greenknightfury]

Well problem being most of the people living in the region are in New Vegas, and the Dam not only provides power, but also makes for that nice clean water lake. Without Hoover dam most of the available water in the region is just gone and everyone outside of Goodsprings dies a horrible death from lack of water or flees the area. Of course Goodsprings and everyone in it dies a horrible death at the hands of the desperate horde of people hunting for water who will then end up leaving it behind not long after because they wouldn't have the rest of the supplies needed to survive there; or it would turn into a warzone betwen multiple raider groups till someone blew up/poisoned the water sources, then it becomes a lifeless wasteland.

 

 

So yeah that's why non-nihilistic(/non-pyschopathic) Couriers wouldn't blow the dam or New Vegas.

[HackWithTHeJacket]

The only possible way this concept even comes close to working is if you think that the Legion is incapable of building a goddamn makeshift bridge. I'll remind you, these are the guys who threw up the Legates Camp not 200 feet away from Hoover Dam in about three days.

[peadar1987]

The only possible way this concept even comes close to working is if you think that the Legion is incapable of building a goddamn makeshift bridge. I'll remind you, these are the guys who threw up the Legates Camp not 200 feet away from Hoover Dam in about three days.

 

There are makeshift bridges, and there are makeshift bridges across the Colorado River, which looks like this: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d3/Horseshoe_Bend_TC_27-09-2012_15-34-14.jpg

 

To move any sort of army across that is going to be very difficult. The bridge isn't the hardest part, it's getting the supplies for the bridge down the canyon, building the bridge, and then moving an army, again with supplies, across that canyon in sufficient strength to defeat the huge NCR force which will surely be waiting for them there by the time all the previous stuff has been done.

 

Boating across Lake Mead is too exposed, and opens any troops up to NCR fire.

 

You also have Legion arrogance and pride to account for. They believe they can take on the NCR in a head-on assault on the dam, and don't mind losing men to do it. They also want to restore the pride lost when they failed to take the dam previously.

[likeitsillegal]

Why would you want to Nuke Hoover Dam or New Vegas? Why would it be considered anything short of a Lawful Evil choice at best? I think you're underestimating how nuclear radiation spreads - we're not talking just the destruction of House. We're talking thousands of people wiped from existence, buildings turned to dust, scorched Earth (including the primary source of water and crops for the NCR and Westside) and radiation spreading over most of the explorable world space. Hoover Dam is an even greater risk - how much land would you stand to flood by destroying it? What kind of person would destroy something as important as the Hoover Dam rather than risk a faction they don't like taking it over? Helios one can supply some power, but without Hoover Dam most of the Mojave would be in the dark.

 

Doesn't House mention having a defense system that is capable of shooting down Nukes coming towards New Vegas? And if he has the Platinum Chips, he would have the upgrades available to defend ALL of the Mojave from a nuclear blast? Nuking either the Dam or the Strip is not viable because you would essentially lock out all endings. Without the Lucky 38, Yes Man has no means to control Securitrons. The Legion would recede without the Hoover Dam and House would be dead. You would be branded a mass-murderer by the NCR since the Strip is a huge tourist attraction and Freeside, McCarren and Hoover Dam all house NCR soldiers. If anything, the NCR would push harder into the Mojave, using the mass genocide of their citizens to support a war effort because even without Hoover Dam there is still Helios One and another power substation. You were right about one thing, though. Hoover Dam, either directly or indirectly is what is drawing everyone to the Mojave. You destroy that and people would leave, rendering the entire world space a habitat for little more than fauna and junkies/raiders.

[Danny159]

Doesn't House mention having a defense system that is capable of shooting down Nukes coming towards New Vegas? And if he has the Platinum Chips, he would have the upgrades available to defend ALL of the Mojave from a nuclear blast?

 

You could argue launching them at New Vegas you can have Mr House his missile defence knock them out.

 

So you don't need Ed-E's copy to abort the launch entirely.

That could be an option for Couriers who decided NOT to bring Ed-E

Edited July 29, 2014 by Danny159

[greenknightfury]

There's a thing that you newcomers prolly would never understand it in your bone: water is life.

 

To a character in Fallout setting the act of destroying the Dam is utterly unthinkable. Water is life.

 

The Dam is holding the greatest source of clean water in known world (fallout). No other come close. Even the Midwestern or the East Coast. West Coast? In their wet dream. They get their water from water purification chips.

 

The electricity that the Dam provide is just the facade of power, the obvious resource that New Vegas want, NCR want. The water is what NCR immigrants want, to make farms and to live. THAT is why a huge wave of them come calling to the desert.

 

The Dam represent both a power source, and a great invasion route into and out of Colorado East. The Legion want to control it to defend, they dont care about electricity or water much. The NCR want it for all it provide: electric, water, and invasion route for their expansion drive.

 

Destroy it is anathema to NCR. Dude, a big faction of NCR are a collection of water merchants, ie the people who sell water. Contaminate the biggest source of clean water? They will put a bounty on the responsible party so high every bounty hunter will be after your ass. If Caesar order it they will raise a crusade to burn him alive.

 

Legion shouldnt want to do it, because nuke the Dam mean every tribe downstream of Colorado get their fortune destroyed. They will not have a route to expand into Colorado West.

 

In Fallout 1 lack of water is why the Vault Dweller have to go out into the wasteland, hire a water caravan to trade with V13, and ultimately be exposed to The Master. In Fallout 2 the drought savage Arroyo and push Chosen One to go finding GECK. Even in FNV, with Hardcore ON, lack of water mean death.

 

Why on this fallen earth would anyone want to nuke the Dam?

 

 

This right here is the ultimate truth, only a madman(/woman) would think of destroying the source of that much pure water in the Wastes,especially as it would also cause the drying up of the wells that supply pretty much all the other water in the Mojave and the storms that that big open area of water brings is the reason that so much food grows right from the ground without effort all over; both the fruit bearing cacti are very water hungry, they were common in the area of Texas I lived in and only grew well right near water sources or with tending, the mesquite is less water hungry, the yucca more along with the jalapeno.

 

The problem is they made the Mojave so empty compared to the Capital Wasteland that most don't realize it would be a huge population center with the advantages of clean fresh water and edible plants growing even without tending. The place should be full of farms, not just the few you find, the area south of good springs and the long empty stretch between the farm and Novac should have lots of farms, as should the empty areas near the lake at least. Along with Cottonwood Cove reasonably being a large farming area if they had thought in design.

[greenknightfury]

To the OP: Why that?

Why did ED-E magically copy himself and then head in a direction decidedly away from Navarro?

 

Why were the nukes in the Divide so fail-deadly that all it took was some random device to cook them off?

 

Because Chris Avellone wanted to nuke the wasteland again and Sawyer wisely told him he couldn't, but he threw Avellone a bone so he could nuke the wasteland, create plot holes so big a super mutant behemoth could charge through, commit rampant comma abuse and completely neglect subject nouns to his heart's content.

 

The entire story of LR is a broken jumble of fail after the other three excellent DLCs. It reinforces the very thing that was later officially stated (obviously by someone who had never read the script of the game, it's peppered with reference to how you have amnesia) as wrong: that the Courier has amnesia. Also in a surprise twist that you have to add at least twenty years to the age you thought the Courier was, and wonder how some random Khans and Benny overwhelmed the unstoppable force that cleared the deathclaw infested Divide to the point where it became a new nation.

Edited July 31, 2014 by greenknightfury

[Danny159]

The entire story of LR is a broken jumble of fail after the other three excellent DLCs. It reinforces the very thing that was later officially stated (obviously by someone who had never read the script of the game, it's peppered with reference to how you have amnesia) as wrong: that the Courier has amnesia. Also in a surprise twist that you have to add at least twenty years to the age you thought the Courier was, and wonder how some random Khans and Benny overwhelmed the unstoppable force that cleared the deathclaw infested Divide to the point where it became a new nation.

 

 

Wait wait wait...

You call Honest Hearts excellent?! That's such a boring DLC...

A bunch of fetch quests and exploring some boring caves...

 

Also the divide might not have been a Deathclaw infested place before the nukes went off.

And I think it would maybe only add 5 years to your Courier his/her life.

 

Maybe your Courier just found that the route through the divide was a quicker route?

And people followed you because of that?