Fallout: New Vegas

Can you cite a source in which he participated in a battle as something other than strategist?

He is never said to have fought. All he did was train the Blackfoot Tribe. He says so himself:

Followed by his admittance of genocide:

He never fought. It is why he needed Joshua. All he knew, was from books.

And in HH, Joshua Graham mentions how he became Caesars lackey.

his dialogue.

Caesar was never trained to fight. His knowledge is theorethical. And misunderstood. It would explain why he allows only himself to be equipped with drugs, superior weaponry, and every advantage instead of fighting himself. Because he knows he would not last.

edited 24th Apr '15 2:49:23 PM by Aszur

I really just don't understand you. First you say "he never fought himself so he's a coward" and now you point out he never fought himself because he wasn't trained for combat. (in spite of the fact he has 100 in several stats)

That doesn't mean he's not a coward. Caesar knows deep down he's a coward. The man is terrified of that being found out. Hell that insecurity is possibly the biggest driving force behind the Legion.

So he's terrified of being found out which is why he talks for about 15 minutes about how he based his entire empire on Roman history?

Not like he even tried to keep his voice down either.

And then there's those Followers of the Apocalypse people and probably others who could immediately say "oh I know Latin too. And Centurions? Hm...." I'm sure if he was so dreadfully terrified of being "found out" he'd have had them all killed or their tongues cut out first opportunity he got.

Basing everything on his character on a strategy guide is dubious at best. Who exactly wrote the guide? You do know most strategy guides are written by third parties and hardly constitute as canon or Word of God?

edited 24th Apr '15 4:49:50 PM by Nikkolas

Take the stats with a grain of salt. Boone says he wouldn't do well in close combat, but has 100 in melee. Veronica, despite her complaining when you tell her to use ranged combat, has 100 in energy weapons. Cass alludes to being handy with explosives but does NOT have them as a tag skill. Statistically, Lanius is smarter than Caesar.

edited 24th Apr '15 4:46:38 PM by Balmung

Avellone Q&A is over. Some interesting answers there.

Yeah, Caesar's a coward and a hypocrite.

That said, the Legion doesn't have a problem with advanced guns (except that Lanius personally thinks you're an idiot to not have Melee or Unarmed skill first), power fists, or most technology aside from chems, medicine above the tribal level (like the auto-doc), and robots. Hell, they're trying to buy energy weapons from the Van Graffs (Caesar alone knows what their position on power armor would be if they could get and use it).

The thing with the Dam seems to be that Caesar doesn't build infrastructure and that, at the moment, his military doesn't use any kind of gear that requires electricity (beyond Power Fist tech). So he doesn't give a damn about the dam, at least not as a source of power. He wants a big bridge and a monument. That's not an indication that he's against electricity as such.

edited 24th Apr '15 6:09:52 PM by Ramidel

The only coward I saw was the NCR President who ran like a bitch when I went up to him.

I accidentally pissed off Caesar once and he immediately got up and went to punch my head off.

How is that cowardly? He's not a military leader, the sane thing for him to do is to run and let his security take care of it.

Gotta agree. President Kimball isn't in the army anymore, he's a civilian elected official.

Caesar, on the other hand, is expected to at least be able to fight due to the kind of government he runs (all Legionaries are either fighters or slaves). And to be fair, he's quite able to do so; pretty well for an old man with a brain tumor.

edited 24th Apr '15 6:31:06 PM by Ramidel

Funny you call Kimball a coward when he's actually seen combat, unlike Sallow. I mean sure, Mr.President isn't a terribly awesome leader but by Legion standards (apart from the caveat that Caesar is god and no rules apply to him) he's more qualified than their own warchief.

edited 24th Apr '15 6:33:54 PM by Rationalinsanity

I have to say Nikkolas, you're the only person I've ever met who actually thinks a dictatorship that has a ton of slavery and rape is a good idea. I don't know how to feel about that, I mean, I respect your right to your own opinion even though there's no chance in hell of me agreeing with it, but I just don't get it, especially since you played a Female Courier and if you speak to one of the slaves, they warn you that some of the Legionnaries are getting ideas of raping you.

I'm just glad you didn't let Caesar die and let Lanius take over, Lanius being the new Caesar results in him murdering pretty much everything in his attempt to take over the Mojave. Caesar may be a narcissistic manchild who will threaten to kill you if you say something he doesn't want to hear, but he's not Lanius.

I could never do a Caesar's Legion playthrough, not even if I was trying to roleplay the most horrible person I could think of.

There are no good choices in this game. It's why I had no problem siding with the Legion.

The more I learn about the NCR and what I missed, the more I realize the constant "they're the heroes" stuff is laughable.

"Though Arcade was crushed by the Legion's victory at Hoover Dam, he was not among NCR's casualties. During the NCR's retreat from the Mojave Wasteland, he helped defend NCR citizens and refugees on their way to Mojave Outpost. Unfortunately, a NCR ranger identified his father's armor as Enclave property. He was arrested, tried as a war criminal, and imprisoned indefinitely."

I respect honesty. The Legion would have nailed him to a cross and that's horrible but you know what? There wouldn't be a show trial.

The NCR has a pretense of "justice" and "democracy." But that's all it is, a pretense. They're an expansionist, corrupt mess that plays at being hero because they realize it makes their job of conquering people easier.

edited 24th Apr '15 6:58:42 PM by Nikkolas

There are no good answers, because the writers wrote a shitty ending. Even House is hinted at deciding you've outlived your usefulness. Or will, at some point.

But just because it's all grey doesn't mean everyone is the same shade of grey. The NCR is closest we get to a good ending for everyone.

Pretty sure the House ending slides implied the exact opposite, that he went out of his way to keep the Courier on his good side (while privately patting himself on the back for choosing such an awesome right hand).

There may be no Golden Ending, but I generally consider the NCR ending the least bad and the Legion ending as definitely the most bad.

Maybe, but I recall reading on here that it's suggested in them that he's eventually going to kill you.

Well since I did a NCR ending three years ago and did the Mr. House ending recently (My favourite for reasons I've listed many times), I'm going to do two Independant playthroughs next time I play New Vegas. The first one will be a Courier who is a good person and thinks they might be able to make things better for the Mojave with them in power and tries to fix everything for everyone and the other one will be a drug abusing addict who wants power for the sake of having power and will likely just kill a bunch of people for no good reason once he can.

To be honest, Nikkolas, I am not sure you want to understand me. I will simply counter, with quotes, what you say that portrays the Legion or any other faction in ways that are simply not canon by sources you can see in the game.

I do not care to convince you because honestly, I do not care to do that. I am simply going to bring out what the game files, dialogue, slides and game stuff show when you contradict it. Really. Why is it my job to convince someone that thinks even a little institutionalised, systematic, and consistent rape is acceptable in any way, form or shape? And that is just like ONE of the many things.

As for the question of "how legit is it?" Here is a hint. it is called "Official" Fallout New Vegas Strategy guide for a reason. The reason is not that an Officer made it, or that an Official made it, or that it was made in an Office.

I did a Legion playthrough once. Mostly because I dig the costumes.

I don't think any of the endings actually imply that. In his own way, Mr. House is pretty much the most thankful of every faction if you bring him to power. The Courier is "afforded [...] every luxury at their disposal in the Lucky 38, out of gratitude", and if Good a sense of pride in his lieutenant, if Evil partly a sense of fear.

House may be very distant to people, but he's not an outright unfeeling sociopath. If you're employee of the century, he'll genuinely like you. Besides, you had a deal, personal profit and the creation of a shining beacon in the desert, and I don't think House would outright break a contract unless his hand was really forced.

If you were truly useless, he'd probably just fire you.

edited 25th Apr '15 2:14:22 AM by Lavaeolus

So I figured out my angle for my new playthrough. I'm playing the 'dumb merc' who always does what he's told, by everybody.

Only faction in the game that hates me is powder gangers.

And I've been talking with Yes Man. Only reason House is still around is so I can turn in my snow globes. Plus, I'm going to advance ALL the faction quests until they force me to go against each other.

I'll trust you over my faulty memories unless I run across the quote again. Not going to actively look for it, because your version seems like the very best. Being a lieutenant in Heaven beats the stuffings out of reigning in Hell. And if the man's open to suggestions, then he can probably be persuaded to use his Mark 2's to secure and improve at least parts of the Mojave, and to send skilled agents like myself out if we find caches of useful pre-war tech, like the Big Empty. I could be the new face, dealing with people, so he could continue his plans to rebuild a thriving world.

Fuck you, Avellone, Fallout's made for improvement.