Palpek posted:

Republican Vampire posted:

It's complicated. They've been at war with the NCR since before there was an NCR. They were formed from one of the four factions that emerged from Vault 15 after the Vault collapsed into violent conflict. So there's this long shared history there. Most of their raiding's basically an extension of that conflict, since the only raiding they ever seem to do targets Shady Sands. Sure, they had a couple rear end in a top hat leaders, but on the whole they're pretty chill people who the Republic's treated like poo poo for years. Garl Death-Hand could get along with Killian Darkwater, so clearly they're not that bad. There's a quest in Fallout 2 that involves violently driving them out of their ancestral home and killing most of them so that the NCR can use its tech to launch a violent and corrupt expansion campaign. I think that raiding and doing violence against the people who have been brutally oppressing you for ages is not really that evil a thing to do.

Republican Vampire posted:

Like I said: They've had a couple rear end in a top hat leaders. But the wasteland as a whole is a pretty toxic place full of horrible people. The NCR is habitually way worse, and so is House by the time New Vegas rolls around.

CommissarMega posted:

The NCR is ruled not by its democratic ideals or a President elected by the people, but by brahmin barons and their lobbyists, willing to send hundreds, maybe thousands of their men and women to die in Bumfuckistan, Arizona for more $$$ and prestige, while also being such a bureaucratic nightmare that Fantastic managed to snag an important, high-paying job. Independent endings may leave New Vegas better off in the short run, and maybe you can headcanon a Good karma Courier with access to Big MT as making sure everything stays peachy, but read as written all you're doing is leaving a bunch of independent states too small to resist any organised attempt to take the place over.

Since leaving the technological marvels that are New Vegas and Hoover Dam to the Legion is an exercise in idiocy, the only proper solution is to leave it to someone who can truly appreciate and use them. A leader whose vision, knowledge and foresight had saved Vegas once before, and who also has the will and vision (along with the lifespan to ensure proper enforcement of said will and vision) to do so again.

Blistex posted:

I'm just hoping that they make it so I am not an invincible god by the 35 minute mark like FO3/NV. New Vegas tried to remedy that by requiring 3,500 rounds of .50 AP to kill each of Caesar's men that you would bump into every 15 minutes, but other than that I felt like I was some sort of super-soldier walking around in caveman times.

Crabtree posted:

That's why I really wanted to like the East Coast Brotherhood or the Mid West Chapter from Tactics, certain Elders left to their own devices suddenly realizing the potential they have to create nations or territories for themselves instead of just wasting away until the outside has the numbers and weapons to devour them like another Pre-War relic. Hell, if you even casually try present yourselves as the guardians of people willing to follow your laws, idiots like Three-Dog will gladly preach the gospel of the Good Brotherhood is better than Bad Mutants or Enclave. Of course, there will also be staunch traditionalist that would go against this idea which is also why, in theory, the Outcasts were great. Schisms in the ranks would have been a vastly interesting idea if properly explored. Because then you could see the power minded Brotherhood eventually be the ones to devour the Outcasts as they make no friends or allies in the wastes. The Outcasts would eventually undermine Lyon's authority and Order and they'd have to be dealt with while the Outcasts would desperately call to the West for reinforcements that they ultimately couldn't send thanks to the Brotherhood-New California Republic War.

But seeing as this is Fallout 3, if they followed up on it the Outcasts would then be made cartoonishly evil to set a clear moral choice from the Brotherhood. The dudes in black and red would burn down villages and capture people to be slaves/meat shields to be used in ruin scouting, and even if you sided with them they'd treat you as nothing more than a very talented Wasteland Monkey.

Duckbag posted:

It's not just minor dialog. Like, the whole reason Redding exists as a town is to mine gold for the new mints that have started up. That's why the three factions are all trying so hard to take control of it. I'm not sure if there's a "canon" ending for Redding, but the Fallout wiki seems to think they joined the NCR (I guess Hanlon's from there?), but I'm not sure I trust them. Anyway, at some point between games, the NCRs gold currency collapsed and they had to switch to paper dollars (I think someone says the BoS destroyed their gold reserves during the war). Gold does still appear to be valuable (I know because I got multiple addictions trying to haul like 30 Sierra Madre ingots), so Redding is probably still around, but it might not matter as much who's controlling it.

A lot of the Fallout 2 endings are left ambiguous in New Vegas. It's not at all clear how much of the north NCR controls, or even how many states they have. A data disk in Fallout 2 establishes them as having five states: Shady (in the high desert near the Nevada border, includes the capitol, Shady Sands, as well as Junktown and maybe the Squat), Dayglow (Ghoul-inhabited San Diego), Angel's Boneyard/Los Angeles, Maxson (built around the Brotherhood base in the Lost Hills/Tehachapi area, it's unclear how far west it extends or what happened to it during the Brotherhoold War), and Hub (The Hub/Barstow. Maybe Necropolis/Bakersfield as well). The Wiki lists Arroyo, Klamath, Redding, and Vault City as having joined as states, but provides absolutely no evidence for this and I think it's just some idiot fan assuming more than is reasonable from the Fallout 2 ending slides (all four communities have slides where they join, but it's unclear when or if those events will happen). I'm inclined based on dialog to think Vault City at least is still independent (the others may or may not be NCR territories), also would make no sense for NCR to have annexed two states in Oregon, but not most of the territory in between. There's a quote I can't track down (might not actually be in-game) about the Mojave being a potential "sixth state" for the NCR, which would suggest that Shady is actually still their northernmost state, but a lot of stuff about the NCR is actually super unclear. Like, there isn't even an official map anywhere.

frajaq posted:

I think NMA hated New Reno and that just ain't right

Rinkles posted:

Speaking of Salvatore's, one thing I missed in the new generation of Fallout was the old world mystique of energy weapons.

It's in service of gameplay balance, but being able to find laser weapons on any random fiend feels wrong. I also don't particularly like the ramshackle look of FO3's EWs.

steinrokkan posted:

I think it's that in the previous games once you left for the adventure, you left your background behind, and were no longer bound by any ties to the past (debatable). In FO4, with the PC returning home to his robot, there being an implied plot about his family etc., it seems like the plot will be at least partially about the character reclaiming his pre-war background, rather than about escaping it - so in effect there will be less of a space for player self-actualization. It's all speculation, but it's natural, given how prominently the character background features in all promo materials.

Mordaedil posted:

It's just going to equate a lost sale, ain't much I can do about that. And there's probably a fair bunch of them, calling them babies isn't going to sway them to either side.

CarlCX posted:

I've always sort of felt like Fallout 3 was closer to a sequel to 2, and New Vegas a closer sequel to 1. 1 is a whole lot more serious and dark, 2 is looser and more fun. Before 3 was even a thing people used to be super-upset about how Fallout 2 was perverting the serious tone and lore of 1.

But I think they're all pretty great so 4's gonna be fun as hell.

Raygereio posted:

Does that mean we'll be getting Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel for Fallout 5?

frajaq posted:

I actually never heard about it before you guys just started talking about it, I always thought the only fallout spin-off was the Tactics one

megalodong posted:

Mr Bibs is an exceptional gimmick account but you really shouldn't take him seriously.

OwlFancier posted:

Uhhhh why?

I mean, you could basically tell everyone to get hosed every step of the way during the fallout 3 plot, as well as ignore the plot entirely if you wanted to.

You are required to do plot things to progress the plot, obviously, because that is how a story works, but you can approach it in a variety of ways.

OwlFancier posted:

You are entirely able to use it to murder everyone in the wasteland if you want to though.

sout posted:

I know, just a dumb observation. Do they say where everyone gets their purified water in Fallout 3 before Broken Steel?

Mordaedil posted:

The first Fallouts and nearly no RPG ever (that I've ever played, but I hate the Witcher so ymmv) has put you into a relationship at the beginning of the game, given you an off spring that is yours and essentially forced a religion on you.

I mean, I see a lot of you defending this, but it's frankly something I don't see much outside of narratives that are more common in first person shooter games and the like. But I guess if you count Bioshock as an RPG, then that'd explain why you'd be okay with this. Personally though, I accept a certain amount of limits pushed on my character, like where he came from, where he grew up, what his past family was, his siblings, mother, father and such stuff. But spouse and child? That is really something I would like a say in, for an RPG. Otherwise I'm just playing someone elses character after they left the game and that makes me super uncomfortable.

quote:

But I'm okay with it assuming they are fake memories put in my head as I'm an android, so don't expect me to be boycotting or anything. I'm thoroughly hyped, it just put a damper on it for me, is all. You can't erase that, but you apparently can ridicule me for feeling that way.

Praetorian Mage posted:

I can understand this, which is why my ideal situation would have you choose some parts of your background during character creation.

Sharkopath posted:

From what they've released so far the UI for the vault suit and power armor at least is customizable by limb, but also they've shown off a few different versions of what you can wear over the vaultsuit.



I really hope Scum isn't just a class of raider and if you decide to antagonize them all raiders get labeled as raider scum.

ThePutty posted:

can someone tell me what the point of the settlement customisation stuff is? is it just going to be a place where you can buy poo poo from vendors and absolutely nothing else happens of importance, or will it actually effect poo poo in the wasteland? it's kind of like yeah, that's cool and all but i really don't see a point in actually going to the effort of making a big clubhouse that raiders attack every 3 ingame days

Phlegmish posted:

It will probably a pointless minigame as strongholds usually are.

King Vidiot posted:

Speech is great because it's entirely optional and just affords you another way to bypass quests you don't want to do. The two big things you miss out on without Speech in New Vegas are Cass' quest and recruiting Arcade Gannon. While those are two cool companions and it sucks not getting to run around with them, they're not essential by any means.

Reason posted:

I don't mind if they consolidate the ammo dealing with a million different types for a million different guns made me CRAZY.

Walrus Pete posted:

"It's easy to manage" isn't enough of a reason to keep including a feature that adds nothing to the gameplay.

King Vidiot posted:

But you wouldn't have the required Science and/or Repair skills by then, and the materials aren't that common on the road to Primm. You'd have to go way out of your way, like east to Repconn, to get the parts you need.

Rutibex posted:

But they took out the Rock-It-Launcher, why does Obsidian hate fun?

2house2fly posted:

Please don't misrepresent the weapons, there are also unique versions of each one with an identical appearance but a funny name.

Minorkos posted:

Agreement. I hope bullet casings fall upwards into the sky in Fallout 4 because frankly that's a lot cooler than them falling boringly into the ground.

sout posted:

Having played more Mass Effect, Shep just shot this guy in the face and killed him when I thought I was just going to threaten him through the dialogue wheel. Don't think I got bad karma either.
Oh well, I guess I'm roleplaying Wild Card Shepard then. Which is what I'll have to do in Fallout 4.

Kurtofan posted:

The previous games are there for comparison's sake, we compare and we find that bethesda's narrative is much more limiting in many aspects, including this one. No one is "demanding" anything, just saying "hey look how lovely this is".

Psychotic Weasel posted:

You could play doctor with some drooling moron in Modoc in FO2 and after being walked in on you're forced to get shotgun married to them.

JackBadass posted:

I'd dumb it down for you, but I don't think I could make it any more simple.