Ulysses was slated to be a companion in New Vegas from what I remember. But I think the idea just didn't fit in with what they currently had + the timeframe they had to make the game as it'd require reworking some things. We all know it's miraculous that NV is as good as it is when the pre-planning, planning, development on Bethesda's engine with a team that has no experience, and whatnot all under 2 years is pretty wild. I mean of course it was even buggier on launch and probably to this day. They took what Fallout 3 had and added a shit ton of stuff to it and more complex questlines. No way that the engine that was probably strained by Fallout 3 was going to smoothly bust out New Vegas with smaller development time on a less experienced team. I know there's nuance in there like Bethesda is said to have provided assistance and they didn't have to make every asset you see in the game but it's impressive for sure.
I think Ulysses would probably be received better if the base game had more Legion sided content and territory and he was fleshed out there. I understand the qualms people have with the DLC but I also think people misinterpret a lot of it still.
I'm not sure if the DLC presents these things in a way that most players beat the game, reload, and then do the DLC to forget that the Second Battle has not occurred yet. That is truly the end of the game. Whatever decisions you make up to that point are the determining factors of the ending and Lonesome Road won't actually change that (I don't think?) but it implies it does. And that Ulysses says something about how it'd cut the throat of that faction so the victory would be a shallow one at that point.
I think it was really just too ambitious to live up to what it needed to be and the expectation of consequences to the final DLC on the main game are too high to be reasonable given the stakes presented. Which I'll just say again, I think they should have maybe gone with a different storyline somehow but I don't think it was overall awful. But I get that the other DLCs really are their own bubbles that don't have implied major impact on the game and rather tell their own stories and provided context into the past. So when Lonesome Road says it'll have devastating consequences, you expect more than seeing the rubble of a supply route with some ghoulified soldiers there.
I think Ulysses would probably be received better if the base game had more Legion sided content and territory and he was fleshed out there. I understand the qualms people have with the DLC but I also think people misinterpret a lot of it still.
As PaxVenire says,You know one thing I never understood, was why the heck did they make it out to be an important decision? Like why did they present it as "THE FATE OF THE MOJAVE WASTELAND LIES IN YOUR HANDS!" when really, it's just those affected areas that have been nuked. Am I missing something here? Like are talking about the Mojave being affected by your choice of nuking either area in the long run or...?
Yeah, this is true. You don't have to directly nuke either faction at their homes or their outposts in the Mojave to cripple them. I don't remember the significance of Dry Wells besides it being very important to the Legion and the Twisted Hairs but I remember the Long 15 essentially being a supply route for the NCR in Vegas so if that's cut off, they will fail at the second battle of Hoover Dam. They are already struggling with supply, troop count, and morale. Losing a supply route would be devastating. I'd assume that Dry Wells is probably a similar fate for Legion as some sort of supply route nearby that losing it would be a loss in the upcoming battle. Or at probably that either decision would be so catastrophic that winning the Battle at the Dam won't mean anything as they wouldn't have the means necessary to protect it and control Vegas afterwards.
I'm not sure if the DLC presents these things in a way that most players beat the game, reload, and then do the DLC to forget that the Second Battle has not occurred yet. That is truly the end of the game. Whatever decisions you make up to that point are the determining factors of the ending and Lonesome Road won't actually change that (I don't think?) but it implies it does. And that Ulysses says something about how it'd cut the throat of that faction so the victory would be a shallow one at that point.
I think it was really just too ambitious to live up to what it needed to be and the expectation of consequences to the final DLC on the main game are too high to be reasonable given the stakes presented. Which I'll just say again, I think they should have maybe gone with a different storyline somehow but I don't think it was overall awful. But I get that the other DLCs really are their own bubbles that don't have implied major impact on the game and rather tell their own stories and provided context into the past. So when Lonesome Road says it'll have devastating consequences, you expect more than seeing the rubble of a supply route with some ghoulified soldiers there.
