HELIOS One/ARCHIMEDES II are plot wise underused

If they had but removed it I would be really sad. :(

It would not have to be something you can trigger early, only after you have collected all the coordinates and optimized the weapon before the final run.

[spoiler:264ed23dcc]The battle at Hoover Dam would still be there.[/spoiler:264ed23dcc]
 
I don't think that "finding coordinates" is a good way to try to explain it. There should be some other reason. Maybe something that can be pinged on or whatever. Maybe the player would need to place something and trigger it then from Helios One computer terminal (so you don't have to make fancy exploding effects). Dunno.
 
That could work too, but there would have to be some kind of ingame mechanic in place that would make sure you can't fire on strategic locations right from the start.

I thought updating the targeting computer would make sense as its records are probably way out of date.
 
Maybe there could be some crypted pre-war data in the mainframe computer of Helios One, that the player has to decrypt or re-enter or whatever. And this will be done with visiting the places.

Though, it also sounds a bit cheap. I really loved how B.O.M.B.-001 in VB worked, with the virus combined, etc. It's hard to find something similar cool for Helios One, without doing a kind of cheap copy.
 
I understand Lexx.

It wasn't fully intended to suggest that ARCHIMEDES II would replace B.O.M.B.001, but rather that the player gets more use out of it that just some gimmick.

[spoiler:a3ea46a5ba]That like the Boomers, Khans, BOS, and Enclave remnants it played a role in the end game, being used to weaken one of the factions.[/spoiler:a3ea46a5ba]
 
Quite a few NPCs and quests hype up the importance of H1, so it is unfitting that it is relatively unimportant in practice.

Maybe a DLC could build upon it some more and expand the capabilities of the station. Then again, it seems we need lots of DLCs for lots of different major things anyway (a Strip that has more than four casinos, for instance).
 
The Dutch Ghost said:
It wasn't fully intended to suggest that ARCHIMEDES II would replace B.O.M.B.001
Click to expand...

I know, but the idea behind it is kind of pretty similar.
 
Mapex said:
Quite a few NPCs and quests hype up the importance of H1, so it is unfitting that it is relatively unimportant in practice.

Maybe a DLC could build upon it some more and expand the capabilities of the station. Then again, it seems we need lots of DLCs for lots of different major things anyway (a Strip that has more than four casinos, for instance).
Click to expand...

That would be nice, and yes I would like to see DLCs that expand on the FNV region, adding more quests, npcs and locations rather than just go with new lands.

If Obsidian would do something like this with HELIOS One I think it would be a very nice addition to the end game run.

Lexx said:
The Dutch Ghost said:
It wasn't fully intended to suggest that ARCHIMEDES II would replace B.O.M.B.001
Click to expand...

I know, but the idea behind it is kind of pretty similar.
Click to expand...

I honestly would like B.O.M.B.001 to appear in Fallout but now that Bethesda has brought in their own concept that apparently does jack shit, I would have liked to see the concept at least return into a limited capacity, a weapon that can wipe out locations.
 
I think the BOMB weapon platform could have worked in some way if done correctly maybe even not with that much work involved.

Thinking about a limited use, questrelated only where you get a chance to access the platform in some way and choose targets from a list maybe limited to either your science or repair skill in combination with high intelgice (the higher the skill the more areas you can destroy), so you would get access to the locations in the NV area destroying some locations completely like the dam, legion camp, the strip (together with freeside) of course it would require a few huge animations for the explosion (its a nuclear bomb after all) and a new area for the bombed location similar to how it was done with Megaton after you wiped it out just a bit biger of course and with high radiation.
 
Personally Crni Vuk, I would have liked to keep B.O.M.B.001 reserved for a large overlapping conspiracy, where as ARCHIMEDES II location destroying capability would have fit in with the 'balance of power' story that featured heavily in FNV.

B.O.M.B.001 really has that 'changing the wasteland permanent' sort of strength, where as ARCHIMEDES weakens two of the major factions (NCR and Caesar's Legion) and can wipe out two somewhat smaller factions (Mr House and the BOS Mojave chapter).

And of course destroy one of the sources of the conflict in the Mojave, or destroy its own power source, rendering it useless as a tactical and strategic weapon.
 
One could argue that the player has the choice to inflict heavy damage on the "headquarter" of one of the factions only. Which means, he would have a choice to destroy:

- Mc Carren
- The Strip
- The Fort or additionally
- HELIOS One itself, to "disable" the whole thing.

This would limit the needed work (landscape changing / entrance blocking) to this places only. Still, it would be a lot work. It's needed to edit the endgame slideshow, you have to take care that you don't break endgame needed quests (especially on the strip?) and so on.

Now just a logical explanation is needed to justify the limited target choice. Maybe something related to the power grid? You can only target locations which are using lots of energy or something like that.

Making it possible to destroy the dam is not a good idea, as it would for sure break the whole endgame battle and would make it needed to add some alternative path for it, which is too much work for such a 'small' feature, in my opinion.

Limiting the choice with skill or other stats is pretty bad too and doesn't make really sense. Either I am able to use the weapon to destroy stuff or I am not.

/Edit: Editing the Fort would be pretty easy. I would do it like this:

1. If the Fort is destroyed, remove the fast travel waypoint to it
2. Remove the NPC at the dock, so you cannot travel to the Fort with him.
3. Remove Vulpes Incula / The other one who appears on the Strip to clean your reputation and invite you to Kaizar, if you haven't met him yet.
4. If it would be possible, add big black some trails over what has been the Fort before. Sadly, I doubt that this is possible, as particle effects are not shown in the LOD, as far as I can see (that's why the water stuff in front of the Hoover Dam is only visible if you are right in front of it [which sucks donkey balls] and also why the black smoke at Nipton is only visible if you are in or very close to the town [which sucks too])

HELIOS One is simple too:
Remove all NCR soldiers, exchange the power plant with a destroyed version, maybe also destroy the solar panels, remove all ways to enter the building.

See. Pretty easy, huh? :p
 
I, too, feel that this was underused. During the course of the quest, I was convinced that whatever I chose to do, it would have significant repercussions on the game's plot, depending on where you diverted the power, or if you destroyed the whole thing, or if you armed the weapon and handed it over to either of the factions (or kept it for yourself). In the end, the quest led to nothing but the usual statistics on the character sheet - such as karma - or some extra caps if you powered-up the Strip for Fantastic. It's defnitely missed opportunity to not make the outcome of Helios One more significant, and quite possibly it's cut content we're talking about here, as some of you have already mentioned. Too bad. :(
 
Hello Lexx

Perhaps it would make more sense that you can destroy the Fort only after you have visited it and
[spoiler:80e7499069]activated the army of Securitrons under it or destroyed the generators[/spoiler:80e7499069].

That way the Caesar encounter could remain in place.

I guess what I suggested with all the previous options does sound very ambitious.

Like Lexx said Kindo, it would be nice if we could have had a look at the original design documents.
Who knows what got lost.

The Jackals, Vipers, and Scorpions (Scorpion Bite? I don't remember) were quite more fleshed out in Van Buren.
If they had planned something similar for FNV it is a shame that had to go.
 
Archimedes could have worked as the final ace in the hole of Mr. House, with the controls to hijack Helios ONE placed somewhere in Hoover Dam (in a normally unreachable place) that you have to find and activate with the Platinum Chip during the final battle. That way you could have fired it on any location (Hoover dam, Lucky 38, Doc Mitchell's house...) influencing only the ending.

That would also make the Platinum Chip less lame.
 
The Dutch Ghost said:
Hello Lexx

Perhaps it would make more sense that you can destroy the Fort only after you have visited it and
[spoiler:de89bfaecf]activated the army of Securitrons under it or destroyed the generators[/spoiler:de89bfaecf].
Click to expand...

This is a pretty good idea and would be logical. After this moment, the amount of energy at this spot should be pretty high.
 
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