Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

Fallout What's the reason for the courier to care about the main story of New Vegas?

Roguey

Codex Staff
Staff Member
Sawyerite
Joined
May 29, 2010
Messages
35,660
But thinking from the character's perspective; the obvious thing to do would be going to the NCR, waiting for the way to clear up if necessary.

From your first interaction with the NCR it's obvious they are so overwhelmed they can barely do anything (including retaking a town and prison from their own rebelling prisoners).
 
Joined
Jan 14, 2018
Messages
50,754
Codex Year of the Donut
But thinking from the character's perspective; the obvious thing to do would be going to the NCR, waiting for the way to clear up if necessary.

From your first interaction with the NCR it's obvious they are so overwhelmed they can barely do anything (including retaking a town and prison from their own rebelling prisoners).
which is why one courier alone is capable of doing everything an entire army can't
best writing ever, gotyay
 

Roguey

Codex Staff
Staff Member
Sawyerite
Joined
May 29, 2010
Messages
35,660
which is why one courier alone is capable of doing everything an entire army can't
best writing ever, gotyay

It's a red tape thing i.e. they could but they've been ordered not to, and the same thing applies to most RPGs in existence.
 

Nano

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Mar 6, 2016
Messages
4,648
Grab the Codex by the pussy Strap Yourselves In
The problem is not Benny himself. The problem is the wasteland filled with raiders, legion soldiers, mutated creatures and whatnot. I mean, gamewise, you can take on that stuff. But thinking from the character's perspective; the obvious thing to do would be going to the NCR, waiting for the way to clear up if necessary. Doing anything else is really suicidal.

It's a blank slate protagonist. You can just headcanon that he had a lot of combat training.
 

almondblight

Arcane
Joined
Aug 10, 2004
Messages
2,549
Why does the Vault Dweller have to care about what happens to Vault 13 after leaving it?

Fallout would have been better if it didn't force you to save the vault. The game ends when you stop the mutant invasion, there's no need to stop it early just because the vault dies.
 

DeepOcean

Arcane
Joined
Nov 8, 2012
Messages
7,394
I wanted vengeance against Benny and was curious about why the "game was rigged from the start.", if you follow the game main quest, it becomes obvious you are on the middle of something bigger than you thought and I was really curious to discover why, the major problem for me was that the confrontation with Benny was very disappointing and it happened way too quick but I think it was a narrative choice. Benny had to be taken out of the picture or you would be forced to be railroaded by having to react to his actions instead of taking agency but there are better ways to deal with him.

The biggest weakness of New Vegas on my opinion isnt the main character motivation because chasing Benny works well until you actually reach Benny, then after you kill Benny, it fizzles out on a rather anticlimatic manner, especially because he doesnt have any opportunity to antagonize you after shooting you in the head being a rather generic gangster because of that. The major problem is on the transition of the Benny story to the faction choices, it is done on a rather abrupt and impersonal manner. I think there should be more political intrigue inside New Vegas that despite being the title city, was terrible underdeveloped.

Benny shouldnt be some guy you meet on a bar and be an ambitious smooth political operator with strong local support, you meet Legion/NCR agents trying to pull the local factions to their respective factions and Mr. House wanting to keep their loyalty. Mr House enters in contact with you at first to know if you still had the Platinum chip and then hires you, give you a ton of information about the New Vegas minor factions and give you quests to solidify his control over them, that is the only way to locate Benny as he is hiding.

The NCR and Legion agents notice you leaving Mr. House tower and they also try to hire you to actually pull the minor factions to their respective sides/discover Mr. House weaknesses and they will help you locate Benny OR you could get the information they provided you and actually work for yourself and dont ally with anybody, if you choose this option, help the minor factions to remain independent, will open the way for the future anarchy Yes Man choice. Those quests would be also an excellent opportunity for some missing antagonism from Benny as he tries to sabotage you indirectly so when you actually meet him, you are properly pissed off.

By the end of the New Vegas politicking quests, one way or another, you are introduced to the NCR, Legion, Mr House and other minor factions interests and what each faction wants for New Vegas. After all that, Mr. House/NCR/Legion/the New Vegas minor factions locate Benny for you and you force a confession from him about the Platinum chip, discover the purpose of Yes Man and he has some opportunity to explain his position and that he wanted an independent New Vegas as House was a tyrant and the other factions only wanted to exploit the city, after that, the game continues as it is with you having the option of meeting each faction leader and make the final choice.

Also, New Vegas made a strange choice of all companions have very little to do with the main quest, that was a mistake, some like Veronica are just Brotherhood of Steel fan service as the Brotherhood barely has anything to do with the main quest, the game is missing a strong Legion companion and a strong NCR companion and a strong independent companion that served as the faces of the choices.
 

laclongquan

Arcane
Joined
Jan 10, 2007
Messages
1,870,144
Location
Searching for my kidnapped sister
What's the motivation for a courier to care who owns a patch of desert and a dam?
A particularly vengeful character would want to pursue Benny, but it sort of falls apart after that.

Contrasting that to Fallout where you have a clear reason to continue on after delivering the waterchip as the mutants pose a serious risk to the safety of the vault.

Pure roleplay only.

If you are just a player playing that character and dont give much of a damn about the actual happenings in the past of that one, then of course you dont care. You can wander all over the places and just delay the mainstory, avoid visiting casinos, the dam, and the legion's camp. I know I never meet my killer in the Legion's camp and deal with that fucker as he deserved in all the 18 months I play FNV (almost certainly restart before getting enough interest to visit there).

If you roleplay Courier, then you would want to care about his/her past, thus chasing after his/her killer, and the customer who ordered the transport. All of that lead pretty quick back to Las Vegas, The Dam, and the Legion's camp. Thus the main story was advanced.

As for F1, the actual roleplay reason to continue after the water chip is because you should have been scared shitless by the SM team in Watershed (or escape from Lootie in Mariposa and somehow get to surface). So we chase after their shadows to revenge.

I still think the hidden nature of the ghoul VD in Library a big mistake. They should have pushed him to The Hub, so VD meet him earlier, get warned earlier, and make it somehow personal (it's several of his/her vault colleagues, quite possibly relatives or acquaintances that get captured and changed by the SM)
 
Last edited:

Alex

Arcane
Joined
Jun 14, 2007
Messages
8,750
Location
São Paulo - Brasil
But thinking from the character's perspective; the obvious thing to do would be going to the NCR, waiting for the way to clear up if necessary.

From your first interaction with the NCR it's obvious they are so overwhelmed they can barely do anything (including retaking a town and prison from their own rebelling prisoners).

Sorry, I didn't mean joining the NCR. I meant fleeing for the NCR lands.
 

madhouse

Guest
Butthurt over being shot by a faggot.

Realistically nothing but a very unlikely revenge story.
 
Self-Ejected

Shitty Kitty

Self-Ejected
Joined
Sep 9, 2020
Messages
556
Also, New Vegas made a strange choice of all companions have very little to do with the main quest, that was a mistake, some like Veronica are just Brotherhood of Steel fan service as the Brotherhood barely has anything to do with the main quest, the game is missing a strong Legion companion and a strong NCR companion and a strong independent companion that served as the faces of the choices.

More companions would have been nice and more faction-loyalist ones would have been great. Boone is kind of bland but is alright as a nominally NCR-loyal companion, some of his interactions are interesting. Rex is really the only companion that has a solid link to the Legion. Cass is pretty much a "free agent" but clearly despises the Legion, Arcade LOATHES the Legion, I don't remember Veronica opining much on the Legion but I doubt she likes them. Meanwhile, the only companions I can think of who are incompatible with the NCR on any level are Rex with a certain brain, Veronica who just doesn't particularly like the NCR but I can't remember her ever flipping shit over it... and Raul, the only companion that really ventures anything close to a positive opinion of the Legion, doesn't give a single fuck if you storm the Fort with him and annihilate the Legion camp and Caesar. Lily doesn't really seem to give a shit one way or the other. Veronica is only incompatible with a House-aligned playthrough at that one particular point, and for some reason you can STILL have her aboard even if you go down that path (probably a bug or something like a flag not getting set). No one else is really strongly aligned with or against House. Absolutely no one gives a shit about an Independent run barring Boone flipping shit if you start stacking a lot of NCR bodies, which I seem to remember being perfectly avoidable.

Sorry, I didn't mean joining the NCR. I meant fleeing for the NCR lands.
The problem with booking it for NCR turf would be that the Legion's still out there, even in their own territory NCR has slid into a state of serious dysfunction and corruption, and it's heavily implied that without the Courier's intervention one way or the other the NCR starts falling the fuck apart in the Mojave under incompetent generalship and attrition (meaning that the Legion will probably not stop at the Dam for too long unless Caesar eats shit before stabbing into NCR turf).
 

Flying Dutchman

Learned
Joined
Aug 19, 2020
Messages
475
The only reason for the Courier to care about New Vegas is that it's a cool thing on the horizon when you start the game and you likely bought the game to go to post-apoc Vegas, so of course, you want your money's worth.

However, true to compelling world design, you'll get killed if you actually try to walk to the Interesting Place(tm) directly at the start and instead do a counter-intuitive paint-by-quest-markers roundabout path through a variety of circle jerk locations. Primm, especially, sucks and Nipton had what amounted to negative content - there was next to nothing there except Vulpes. The list goes on from there.
 

madhouse

Guest
Butthurt over being shot killed by a faggot.

Realistically nothing but a very unlikely revenge story.

Remember? Courier was buried in a grave and all.

Consider the long history of work and travel Courier has, Benny has his coming the moment Courier doesnt die.
I always thought it somewhat awkward how courier is brought back to life. They get shot in their skull and wind up in a shallow grave until some robot fuck digs them out after Benny and his company leave. Then the local doctor with minimal medical equipment pieces together your skull and you're quite alright unless you roll 1 intelligence. All of this probably after some significant time spent laying on the ground and bleeding like a pig with their brains mushed.

I've never played Fallout beyond reaching New Vegas. It's always a disappointment how there isn't much to see beyond the Freeside and how everyone has suddenly decided that the courier is an an important person for being a gofer. House offering to work for him is somewhat plausible, but considering he was nearly killed and saved by his own robot, why would he take him on? I never understood why NCR or Legion would suddenly care about them. Surely it would be of some note seeing them enter the Lucky 38, but at the same time they're still a goafer, a random nobody, not that any organization would suddenly take them on to be their enforcer to solve the Mojave problem. Again, it is awkard. I wish joining the factions was more sensible and the game didn't die out like that. Disposing of Benny is also extremely anticlimatic.

Also;
NCR da gud guyze, but not to seem like Mary Sue's, they also have corruption problems and some oligarchy (except almost everyone in NCR acts like they're a pure and noble human being).
Legion is literally edgy fucktards and savages that avoid using guns and for no good reason will willingly choose to have massive attrition in their ranks when fighting and will use every imaginable way to screw themselves. Medicine? Fuck that, da weak shud berish :-DDDDDD. The way they are presented is so awfully retarded and obviously catering to the edgy type of walktrhough a la D:AO where every "evil" choice was being an edgy retard. When Caesar finally explains his motivations, he namedrops Hegel and retards suddenly jump up and say: "OMG SUCH DEEP WRITING, HE NAMEDROPPED A PHILOSOPHER, SURELY WHAT HE SAYS IS INTELLIGENT AND THE WRITING IS SOOOOO DEEP!". Not that having weaknesses isn't a good choice, it is, but making it purposely so utterly retarded is stupid and ruins the worldbuilding. It doesn't help that the first Legion representative the player will meet will realistically be that edgy Eliot Rodger character in Nipton and listening to him is like listening to some bullied 15 year old saying out loud his revenge fantasies for his bullies. Morrowind is one of the few games where slavery and such is at least represented in a realistic way and not as a caricature for example.
I don't know anything about Independent or House ending because I never finished the game. I didn't use any companions besides that eye bot as I can't stand having companions in a solo character games.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

laclongquan

Arcane
Joined
Jan 10, 2007
Messages
1,870,144
Location
Searching for my kidnapped sister
1. They got a robot sheriff who can operate without sleep (if necessary). While he can not intervene in a killing (not enough firepower), he can investigate the site right after that no problem. And we all know that one has deep connection to both the transport order and the sides in THAT conspiracy. So it's no wonder the Courier get rescued ASAP.

2. The bullet to the head is a bit of a far fetch UNTIL you learn that Courier has SUCH a long history of works and travels. God know what kind of implant (s)he got before that killing, that disable the shot so much it doesn leave serious aftereffect.
 

madhouse

Guest
2. The bullet to the head is a bit of a far fetch UNTIL you learn that Courier has SUCH a long history of works and travels. God know what kind of implant (s)he got before that killing, that disable the shot so much it doesn leave serious aftereffect.
Walking across the globe won't prevent death by gunshot to the head. Nothing in the game indicates that he has such a thing; you might as well imagine he is possibly the Dragonborn because he possibly found a device that lets him travel to Skyrim gameworld and ergo was the chosen one after all. For all we know such wonders might exist in our imaginative universe outside of what is seen or told in the game.
 
Joined
Jan 14, 2018
Messages
50,754
Codex Year of the Donut
Butthurt over being shot killed by a faggot.

Realistically nothing but a very unlikely revenge story.

Remember? Courier was buried in a grave and all.

Consider the long history of work and travel Courier has, Benny has his coming the moment Courier doesnt die.
I always thought it somewhat awkward how courier is brought back to life. They get shot in their skull and wind up in a shallow grave until some robot fuck digs them out after Benny and his company leave. Then the local doctor with minimal medical equipment pieces together your skull and you're quite alright unless you roll 1 intelligence. All of this probably after some significant time spent laying on the ground and bleeding like a pig with their brains mushed.

I've never played Fallout beyond reaching New Vegas. It's always a disappointment how there isn't much to see beyond the Freeside and how everyone has suddenly decided that the courier is an an important person for being a gofer. House offering to work for him is somewhat plausible, but considering he was nearly killed and saved by his own robot, why would he take him on? I never understood why NCR or Legion would suddenly care about them. Surely it would be of some note seeing them enter the Lucky 38, but at the same time they're still a goafer, a random nobody, not that any organization would suddenly take them on to be their enforcer to solve the Mojave problem. Again, it is awkard. I wish joining the factions was more sensible and the game didn't die out like that. Disposing of Benny is also extremely anticlimatic.

Also;
NCR da gud guyze, but not to seem like Mary Sue's, they also have corruption problems and some oligarchy (except almost everyone in NCR acts like they're a pure and noble human being).
Legion is literally edgy fucktards and savages that avoid using guns and for no good reason will willingly choose to have massive attrition in their ranks when fighting and will use every imaginable way to screw themselves. Medicine? Fuck that, da weak shud berish :-DDDDDD. The way they are presented is so awfully retarded and obviously catering to the edgy type of walktrhough a la D:AO where every "evil" choice was being an edgy retard. When Caesar finally explains his motivations, he namedrops Hegel and retards suddenly jump up and say: "OMG SUCH DEEP WRITING, HE NAMEDROPPED A PHILOSOPHER, SURELY WHAT HE SAYS IS INTELLIGENT AND THE WRITING IS SOOOOO DEEP!". Not that having weaknesses isn't a good choice, it is, but making it purposely so utterly retarded is stupid and ruins the worldbuilding. It doesn't help that the first Legion representative the player will meet will realistically be that edgy Eliot Rodger character in Nipton and listening to him is like listening to some bullied 15 year old saying out loud his revenge fantasies for his bullies. Morrowind is one of the few games where slavery and such is at least represented in a realistic way and not as a caricature for example.
I don't know anything about Independent or House ending because I never finished the game. I didn't use any companions besides that eye bot as I can't stand having companions in a solo character games.
iirc if you go back to the doctor at some point he has additional dialogue
it has been a long time since I played so that's all I remember
 

Silverfish

Arbiter
Joined
Dec 4, 2019
Messages
3,068
When Caesar finally explains his motivations, he namedrops Hegel and retards suddenly jump up and say: "OMG SUCH DEEP WRITING, HE NAMEDROPPED A PHILOSOPHER, SURELY WHAT HE SAYS IS INTELLIGENT AND THE WRITING IS SOOOOO DEEP!".

The best I've been able to figure is that Caesar, baffling and outright laughable as he is, benefits mightily from being sandwiched in between President Eden and The Institute.
 

Roguey

Codex Staff
Staff Member
Sawyerite
Joined
May 29, 2010
Messages
35,660
I always thought it somewhat awkward how courier is brought back to life. They get shot in their skull and wind up in a shallow grave until some robot fuck digs them out after Benny and his company leave. Then the local doctor with minimal medical equipment pieces together your skull and you're quite alright unless you roll 1 intelligence. All of this probably after some significant time spent laying on the ground and bleeding like a pig with their brains mushed.

This is the Fallout experience.

https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Razlo
https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Morbid
 

Risewild

Arbiter
Joined
Mar 23, 2018
Messages
492
Location
Australia
They get shot in their skull and wind up in a shallow grave until some robot fuck digs them out after Benny and his company leave. Then the local doctor with minimal medical equipment pieces together your skull and you're quite alright unless you roll 1 intelligence. All of this probably after some significant time spent laying on the ground and bleeding like a pig with their brains mushed.
Well, this actually makes sense in the Fallout New vegas universe. The Courier got shot in the head by a 9mm gun. The second weakest gun of all FNV pistols/revolvers, only ahead of the silenced .22 pistol (it's a unique 9mm but still only deals 4 more damage than the normal 9mm pistol). Also in this universe there are stimpaks and super stimpaks, that instantly heal even the worst of wounds, and can heal broken bones too (unless the game is in Hardcore Mode), and there are also doctor bags that can instantly heal crippled body parts.

It's also a universe where a doctor can heal to full health (including all the crippled body parts) in an instant (pay docs to heal option) and remove the rads too instantly. :lol:

All the Doc had to do was remove the bullets or their fragments and use a stimpak and/or a doctor bag and the Courier is healed. :lol:
 

madhouse

Guest
Fallout game that has a grittier atmosphere and one shot headshot mechanics and in general more dealdy combat would be of massive appeal to me. I've tried all kinds of different mods, the engine is just too arcadey to pull it off. Imagine medicine system being something more like Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead where minor shit can massively disadvantage you... but to dream of such games is to expect Bethesda to release a good game and donkeys to grow wings and sing like angels.
 
Joined
Jan 14, 2018
Messages
50,754
Codex Year of the Donut
People who try to turn Fallout into a post-apoc survival simulator completely miss the point of Fallout
 

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom