Fallout: New Vegas

I <3 New Vegas now more than at any previous point, I have to say. I was underwhelmed by my first playthrough, but I often find that's the case with RPGs - I never play them properly the first time through.

I gave up trying to Sneak Attack Critical those things as well. Far as I am concerned, any mob you put a whole twenty round magazine of .308 rounds into the centre of mass of should go down and stay down, damnit, 8-)

@Mikey: So far, everything he's said has been complete bullshit, even if you don't factor the hypocrisy in. He's trying to say that the NCR and Legion are just as bad as one another because the NCR is having some trouble defending people in the Mojave (you know, those people who don't want to be protected) whereas if the Legion want to kill someone they can get it done. Well no shit. If the NCR wanted everyone dead, they would've done it. But they don't because that's not how they operate. He even refers to the legionaries- those guys that rape slaves and torture people for fun- as his brothers.

He also says that the NCR is repeating the past... completely ignoring the fact that the NCR has gone out of its way to avert the flaws of the pre-war United States. And also ignoring that the NCR has civilized a huge portion of the former United States to pre-war standards, and has the best standard of living in the post-war world. He seems to honestly believe that they're as bad as the Legion just because they can't completely protect communities that aren't their's in warzones, completely ignoring that they don't have to be protecting the Mojave at all, and that tactically it would make more sense to let the Legion take the Mojave.

Plus tons of other stuff I'm not writing down.

"Dear diary:

Today I saw some White Legs wearing dreadlocks - just like me. Only, they don't understand the symbol behind that hair, of how it is my last reminder of the Twisted Hairs. Like the Bear, they took a symbol without knowing its importance, without knowing its history. How dare they steal my hairstyle without knowing how super important it is! They just like me or something but they shouldn't do that, because my hair is special and definitely not a fashion choice."

Honestly I figured you wouldn't take anything away from it so I was mostly speaking to those who actually understand the faction they support and I'll leave it at that.

Honestly Ulysses is just another case of seeing something beautiful or worthwhile (Vera Keys/Sierra Madre, Hoover Dam, New Vegas, New Canaan/Zion, Big Empty, Pre-Nuked Divide etc.) Wanting it but losing it at the end and afterwards pretty much going on a childish fit because they don't realize that its not theirs to have. So focused on the old that they can't move on and look towards the future...but in the end, The Courier forces the people or their situation to change...but the only way to do that sometimes is through war...and war...you know the rest...

That's pretty much my whole view on Ulysses and pretty much New Vegas as a whole.

That's the point of Ulysses' diatribe against the NCR - there's plenty of intelligent people within the NCR that say the same thing.

They don't have to protect the Mojave, but they are doing so, because the NCR is overly expansionist, and that's the problem. They're expanding at such a rate that they are not able to hold the center and have to rely on excessive taxes for a costly foreign war for a resource they may or may not actually need.

They don't care about New Vegas, they care about Hoover Dam. Having the support of the locals just makes it easier for them to hold the line without fighting a war on two fronts.

As for what Mike said. "Begin again, but know when to let go."

edited 14th Oct '12 10:24:09 AM by DevilTakeMe

What annoys me most about Ulysses' philosophy is that it all boils down to Murder Is the Best Solution instead of anything constructive.

Like I said earlier, he's trying to do it the faster way since he doesn't want to wait, like a kid who knows what he's getting for Christmas so he opens it early without his parents consent and gets punished for it in the end. The problem is that the kid at the moment knows "Opening this gift to get it early" and not the repercussions.

Edit: Also want to add the fact that the kid's punishment may be not getting the gift at all.

edited 14th Oct '12 10:31:45 AM by MikeBreezy92

Ulysses doesn't to create a second nuclear holocaust because he hates NCR/the Legion/New Vegas. Ulysses' goal is revenge. The Courier destroyed the nation that Ulysses considered to be his home so Ulysses is going to do the same to the Courier. To him, destroying NCR/ New Vegas and forcing the Legion to become less dependent on war or die is just a fortunate side effect.

You know, the statement that "war... war never changes" bugs me a lot. It has changed, at the very least when we invented total war.

Yeah, war's changing all the time. It's a really stupid set of Arc Words.

The point of the statement is that people are still spending their time killing each other over the same things they always did even though humanity is on the precipice of extinction.

"War has changed. It's no longer about nations, ideologies or ethnicity. It's an endless series of proxy battles, fought by mercenaries and machines. War, and its consumption of life, has become a well-oiled machine. War has changed. ID tagged soldiers carry ID tagged weapons, use ID tagged gear. Nanomachines inside their bodies enhance and regulate their abilities. Genetic control. Information control. Emotion control. Battlefield control. Everything is monitored, and kept under control. War has changed. The age of deterrence has become the age of control. All in the name of averting catastrophe from weapons of mass destruction. And he who controls the battlefield, controls history. War has changed. When the battlefield is under total control, war... becomes routine."

-MGS 4 Snake

Now think about War in Fallout and in the world in general...it hasn't gotten like this at all. Its still people fighting for selfish "I'm right you're wrong"/"You got what we want and we will take it by force." reasons. It hasn't changed one bit.

So I finally took down Ulysses...

...by shooting him in the back of the head with an Anti-Materiel Rifle from the door while he just stood there. Then I just wiped up the Marked Men. That was anticlimatic. Guess I'll reload and go talk to him.

edited 14th Oct '12 11:53:12 AM by CPFMfan

Why they're fighting has nothing to do with it. In particular though, total war represents a change in how war is fought. The whys of war are meaningless, the hows aren't.

I'm pretty sure you can kill him later if you want anyways.

edited 14th Oct '12 11:41:49 AM by Balmung

The whys and hows are the most important aspect of war....or there wouldn't be a point to wars in the first place.

Just because the technology is different and the ways are different doesn't mean the core aspect of war has changed...

So I took down Ulysses again after something I said made him attack. This was much more climatic, with BFG carrying Marked Men pouring in and me and Ulysses having a sniper battle. Then once they were dead it changed into a run and gun battle with submachine guns. Then finally we went melee. I ended up killing him in a VATS round with the Ballistic Fist, and only managed to survive the next wave of Marked Men due to the stimpaks I looted off him.

But, since I want to see all possible outcomes, I guess I'll do this fight one more time and talk him down.

The whys aren't important because so often the whys we're given are lies, or quickly become irrelevant.

There are differences in how a bronze age army and a modern army fight above and beyond the weapons they have.

Read "Soldiers and Ghosts" by J. E. Lendon, and you'll learn that's quite incorrect.

I got my new computer from my dad and uncle, but it is disappointing in its performance. I have only installed Tribes so far, and that barely runs, even at base setting, so that throws out doing an LP of New Vegas. Also, I don't remember the resolution for my new moniter, but it is somewhere around the 19XX-1200 range. Is this supported by NV, or is there a mod that makes it so that resolution works?

So, for my last confrontation, I talked Ulysses down and helped him fight off the Marked Men, which I swear is harder than just killing him. I know that I said I wouldn't nuke the Legion, but... I really want to visit that area and kill more legionaries.

I headed back to the Divide after getting Ulysses's gifts to see all his dialogue. Most of it's pretty pointless minus his exposition on Lanius. I still have no idea how he thinks Lanius could win at Hoover Dam. Anyway, after that, I Ballistic Fisted him while he didn't have the Marked Men or the super Eyebots to protect him, then lit his body on fire, decapitated it, and threw the pieces off the cliff to erase the legacy of the Flag Bearer. Overall, it was a good ending.

edited 14th Oct '12 12:32:27 PM by CPFMfan

Okay, so "quickly" depends on the time scale, (and especially starts to lose meaning when follow-up and "revenge" wars are waged).

edited 14th Oct '12 12:29:42 PM by Balmung

I think I'm going to spend the next hour reloading and killing Ulysses in various ways.

Is he really worth the effort?

It's fun. For example, I just hit him once and he jumped off a cliff. Before that I sent him flying off with the YCS/186.

Edit: Now I head shotted him with Graham's gun after he ran through a very visible plasma minefield in the ten yards in between us.

edited 14th Oct '12 12:54:41 PM by CPFMfan