First details on Dead Money, New Vegas' first DLC

WorstUsernameEver

WorstUsernameEver

But best title ever!
We already put up the DLC announcement as soon as it went up, so it's only natural that the moment Bethesda published the first details on their newsletter we'd be on it. Here's what Senior Designer Chris Avellone has to say on the setting of the DLC:<blockquote> Can you discuss the setting for Dead Money?
Dead Money is set in the Sierra Madre, an opulent and extravagant resort that was supposed to be the greatest casino in the west – except that it never opened. Bombs fell before the gala opening, and the Sierra Madre froze in time, its state of the art security system locking the place up tight. Nothing could get in, and none of the guests could escape. Years passed. The climate control and air conditioning system within the facility began to spit toxins into the surrounding city, causing a slow cloud and haze to form over the area - which proved lethal to anyone who tried to explore the city. Only a mysterious group called the Ghost People survived to call the city home, trapped inside what appeared to be hazmat suits and never speaking to their victims... only capturing them alive and dragging them away to the depths of the city deep within the Cloud.

And so the Sierra Madre faded from the history books, only occasionally being seen in posters across the wastes, until it took on mythic ghost story status... a supposed "City of Gold" in the Mojave Wasteland where all the treasures of the Old World were rumored to be held. It was kept alive as a late-night saloon story by prospectors who'd claimed to have found maps leading there... and were willing to part with the "map" for a few caps. Or a drink. Or a warm place to sleep.</blockquote>And a screenshot that should presumably set the tone of this DLC:<center>
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whenever they mention a "city of gold" or "treasures of pre-war society", my general question is "why is it still intact?"

With the Enclave having been quite powerful at a time, the Brotherhood having sponsored travels to the east coast and having bases in several states, now with NCR a rather large force...why hasn't a sizable force/army taken the place if it is some jewel of the wastes?

Some places are surely just extremely isolated or very well hidden, but Vertibirds are presumably pretty quick transport and didn't seem in short supply on FO3.

I hope this is the only 'pre-war' village, tech, bunker, etc... of the DC, b/c it just seems very contrived to me when 200 years old robots are functioning but shooting my gun 100 times makes it break.

Personally, I'd perfer "new world", wasteland settings.
 
The gas mask dude vaguely reminds me of the Lobotomites. As for why it remained isolated, well, it's explained, though I'm not really sure if I find the explanation convincing. I guess at this point I just have to accept that things in the Fallout world last a whole lot longer than in the real world. Is it a retcon? Well.. it kinda is.
 
Dead Money is starting to sound a little more interesting .The screen shot and details about the toxic fog reminds me of The Pit.
 
WorstUsernameEver said:
It was kept alive as a late-night saloon story by prospectors who'd claimed to have found maps leading there... and were willing to part with the "map" for a few caps. Or a drink. Or a warm place to sleep.
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C&C! :lol:

Seriously though: It sounds pretty interesting.
 
So, it's not going to be a high-class Ocean's 11 style of casino heist. I guess I can live with that. I'm still curious where they are going to put this Sierra Madre complex.

Apart from that, this screenshot looks pretty silly. Glowing neon eyes, brown pijamas and a bear-trap for a hand? Sorry, but right now this guy's clothes are utter fail. He reminds me of giant beaver/molerat (heh, you can see the buck teeth!). Or is he actually a molerat man? If not, I'd rather have the baddies just running around in radiation suits. They'd look much more menacing.
 
The Courier is lured to the Sierra Madre by a faint radio broadcast advertising the gala grand opening.
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grand opening still being played? 200 years later? thats abit much but hey it sounds like it might be beth logic everything makes sense with beth logic


After the fall of HELIOS One, Father Elijah of the Brotherhood of Steel set out to find new weapons to eradicate NCR. And in the process he found the Sierra Madre.
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wonder if we will meet up with elijah and mabye make an alternate ending with BOS winning the dam instead?
 
We really don't know nearly enough about the explanation to make assumptions here. The only thing we know is that the security system is still intact. What kind of security system it was we have no idea. Maybe its directly connected to an alternative power source? We really have no idea if Helios 1 or the hoover dam are the only one.

For all we know this could play mostly in an underground facility with a destroyed sierra above.
 
For all we know this could play mostly in an underground facility with a destroyed sierra above.
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God, I hate underground mazes in FPP games. I always get lost in these.
 
John B. said:
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. design following?
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More like it STALKER + Borderlands wannabe. In Gamebryo pos.

Not that I care much but, any info how long this dlc would be?
 
Ausir said:
For all we know this could play mostly in an underground facility with a destroyed sierra above.
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God, I hate underground mazes in FPP games. I always get lost in these.
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It would be much less of a problem if the maps in F:NV weren't that bad or in most of the games you got today. It's really strange how they manage to make the games looking better and better, having sharper lines and such and fuck up simple 2d maps.
 
WorstUsernameEver said:
The gas mask dude vaguely reminds me of the Lobotomites. As for why it remained isolated, well, it's explained, though I'm not really sure if I find the explanation convincing. I guess at this point I just have to accept that things in the Fallout world last a whole lot longer than in the real world. Is it a retcon? Well.. it kinda is.
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Do remember that as a result of the nuclear war the climate has become a lot more arid. Things suvive well in a desert climate.

Besides, Fallout 2 also had several "this thing suvived almost two centuries without maintenance, meng" elements, the most notable being the squeaky clean Sierra Army Depot and the EPA (according to the design doc anyway). One can also argue about the Toxic Caves, although those seem to have fallen apart well.
 
cool storyline! I need that before Christmas on my PC.
about the screenshot, well...not so good. but it was the same with the firsts screens for New Vegas.
 
Ausir said:
For all we know this could play mostly in an underground facility with a destroyed sierra above.
Click to expand...

God, I hate underground mazes in FPP games. I always get lost in these.
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Particuilarly when those underground areas have severl interlaping levels ! The kind of map you get in Fallout 3 (which was already used in Oblivion ..) is only a 2D map which works for outside nicely, but inside of buildings or caves and underground areas this is just awfull. Other games did it better with having every level of a dungeon some own map that is only shown when you are on that level.

Lexx said:
I am so sick of casinos in Fallout.
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I can only agree : /

Casinos, Casinos, Casinos. Not to mention that their explanation for why its left untouched doesnt really impress me. Toxic gas ? A grant opening short before the bombs fell in that caos, with vanishing resources, wars and the chaos inside the US they have nothing better to do then open a huge Casino ? From what I remember there have been riots in the streets of the US and the army used against them.

Would have been better to simply make a city and military instalation or something similar to the glow if you want.

Tagaziel said:
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Duno the Siera army depot looked pretty decayed to me. Also one should not forget that it was more or less a military underground instalation which are many times much more durable then any civilian building.

Thing is neither in F1 or F2 the kind of question why something is still around has bothered me so much as like in F3 or Vegas. Simply because it was maybe 1 or 2 locations that feelt that way in the past games. in F3 its literely everything while in Vegas you have a lot of new things which is alright ... but often enough stuff that feels strange. Like a still runing steel mil ? Or something similar. Its more cause everything is so damn close to each other. You have the Ropco office and some raider camp no 2 min away from it, with McNamara (or what ever the name was) next to it and the city of Vegas of course ...
 
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