Gaping plot holes in New Vegas

Beardy Unixer

First time out of the vault
I put off playing New Vegas for all these years, on the grounds that I'd tried Fallout 3 first, and written off the series as dead. Since you lot didn't stop posting about it, eight years later, I finally gave it a playthrough...and played three times back to back. I don't think it's up there with 1 and 2, but I recognise it as a cousin, along with Tactics...and I was one of those people who liked Tactics even back when liking Tactics was considered akin to selling your own grandmother into slavery, so that's not an insult.

Mostly, it's coherent, but there are a couple of plot holes...

First: The Chosen One is almost certainly still alive. He's just five years older than Ceaser, that's his car there in the Mojave, so he's been there, and he allied with Tandi - so he's on the NCR's side - and he's a badass motherfucker who took down the entire Enclave with just two friends (or maybe just one friend - I think Marcus is the only explicitly canon companion), he's pals with the Supermutants at Jacobstown, he's got two living Deathclaw pals (dying off screen doesn't count, even if you're MCA), he has access to unique BoS implants to turn him and his friends into walking death machines, he runs New Arroyo, his son runs New Reno, the Shi and Tanker Squatters owe him as do the, albeit limited in number, BoS remnants, and quite possibly the Great Khans if he dealt with Vault 15 peacefully, as well as all the Ghouls in Gecko, all the Mutants in Redding, and he has a suit of Advanced Power Armour, and a suit of Advanced Power Armour Mark II, which not even the Enclave remnants have.

Why doesn't anyone in the NCR go "Yo, Chosen One, you're pretty much a living God with a personal army way better than ours, go have a word with that Edward fellow, will you?"


Second: All the way through the entire game, the whole of the NCR is like "Patrolling the wasteland almost makes you wish for a nuclear winter". So, Ulysses, being a such a kind, helpful guy, goes out of his way to find a working nuclear silo. He invites me along, and we decide to be the nice guys. Everyone clearly wants it, I don't think it's in their best interests, but I'm not a dictator, the people have clearly spoken. So we give them one. We nuke the NCR, just like they keep asking for, but suddenly, our reputation takes a huge negative hit. What gives?
 
Both of these are jokes right?

Anyways it always bothered me that ceasar's camp is Cleary within artillery range of hoover dam and the NCR is confirmed to have vertibirds against an enemy that's main base is literally tents.
 
There's no telling that the Chosen One stayed in NCR territory. For all we know they settled down and stopped being a warrior. Maybe they died. They also aren't canonically specified as male. Personally I think they might have gotten fed up, said 'enough of this shit mutated wasteland, I'm moving to Portland', and headed north to where life is more casual and shit.
 
Because the devs don't want show exactly what happened with the Chosen One, just to leave it vague. The Chosen One can do different things in Fallout 2 and show exactly what he did might piss off some people.
 
Both of these are jokes right?

Yeah - though given some of the people who've been posting here lately, I should probably have included a smiley or two to make it clear (is there a Subliminal Marijuana Conspiracy smiley? There should be).

The nuke thing was my INT 2 well meaning idiot's reason for directing the bombs to NCR, believing he was doing everyone a favour, though.
 
Mind you, I'm inclined to think the Chosen One could very well:

1. Be sitting this one out because the President is a complete idiot and he's more on the head of the Rangers side.

2. Hanging with his child(ren) in New Reno.
 
Or sucking cocks in Freeside for a dose of jet.

this is the thing, NV is not a direct copy of 2, so there is no obligation and I even think it's right not to show his destiny.

But yeah, his car crashs near Novac, the Bishop kid is his son, Marcus and Cassidy were in his party and he kill the deathclaw in Modoc. A single shot straight into the chicken's eye.
 
Anyways it always bothered me that ceasar's camp is Cleary within artillery range of hoover dam and the NCR is confirmed to have vertibirds against an enemy that's main base is literally tents.
Fair point. Maybe all the NCR higher-ups have an INT of 2.
 
NCR doesn't use Vertibirds for combat, they use them for transport, also they are fighting wars in other places with other enemies, and the Mojave is being neglected in terms of material and troops.
 
NCR doesn't use Vertibirds for combat, they use them for transport, also they are fighting wars in other places with other enemies, and the Mojave is being neglected in terms of material and troops.
Fair enough, but if the Mojave shows in general how the NCR conducts their military operations then they've fallen a long way from where they were at in Fallout 2.
 
It's sad because the NCR is a respectable faction, at least in terms of their ideals; that being said, I think that they're more than a little misguided. What I mean by that is they want to avoid the mistakes of the past by retreading it; it's the same hypocrisy that can admittedly be applied to the Legion as well. Also maybe that's why they won't use the Vertibirds in combat; they don't want the technology to corrupt them lmao.
 
Regarding the vertibirds, I think it is more likely because the NCR knows that they can not replace them when they are gone because the NCR lacks the industrial infrastructure to make their own.

I guess one of the themes of FNV was also that humans revive old styles of governments that were responsible for the entire mess to begin with, failing to learn from the past.
NCR like the pre war US government is to susceptible to corruption and is at this point a democracy in name only because the NCR wants to please the trading houses and the brahmin barons who bring in a lot of money.
They also seek to control as much as possible while they don't really have the resources for that.

The Legion is about perpetual conquest and expansion. Caesar thinks he can make them into a real empire but when the Legion runs out of territory to conquer and people to demand tribute from his creation will really be put to the test.
Most people in it don't follow Caesar because of his ideals but because of the power he handles.
 
Both of these are jokes right?

Anyways it always bothered me that ceasar's camp is Cleary within artillery range of hoover dam and the NCR is confirmed to have vertibirds against an enemy that's main base is literally tents.

Think that’s because the area is actually a lot larger than what is depicted. They were kinda restricted by the power of consoles at the time when it comes to the total size of the map.
 
What makes you think the chosen one is everything you've described ?

The Chosen One is what each player make him\her\it to be. She might have killed Tandi for all we know. Or he refused to help the BOS steal the vertibird. Or it totally ignored the Shi. Or he was a 60 years old guy with 1 INT and 1 CH, who happened to get wasted by the Mortons as soon as he left the Oil Rig. Or maybe she settled with Davin in Grisham butchery and got 250 lbs by eating brahmins.
 
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I have always went that the courier was one of many decedents of the chosen one and that the chosen one was watching from the sidelines with a bag of popcorn enjoying the show and being proud of his kids.
 
Not sure if this is a plot hole exactly, but I've thought it was extremely strange the Casinos on the Strip allow you to exchange Legion currency for poker chips.

For one thing it's already tough enough to get onto the strip to the point Vulpes went undercover to even enter. So brazenly waltzing onto the Strip wearing legion gear will either get you shot or imprisoned.. The NCR would notice and imprison Legion soldiers for obvious reasons. For the Strip, Mr. House, and the Casinos the Legion is the least wanted of pretty much any faction because it'd be the most devastating and literally kill their business and hang them on a cross.


So why in the hell would they even accept Legion currency?
 
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Not sure if this is a plot hole exactly, but I've thought it was extremely strange the Casinos on the Strip allow you to exchange Legion currently for poker chips.

For one thing it's already tough enough to get onto the strip to the point Vulpes went undercover to even enter. So brazenly waltzing onto the Strip wearing legion gear will either get you shot or imprisoned.. The NCR would notice and imprison Legion soldiers for obvious reasons. For the Strip, Mr. House, and the Casinos the Legion is the least wanted of pretty much any faction because it'd be the most devastating and literally kill their business and hang them on a cross.


So why in the hell would they even accept Legion currency?

Legion currency is backed like NCR's (maybe even more as Legion coin is worth more than NCR bill). There's also a flow of their money from all those traders that trade in Legion territory.
 
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