-So was both Washington D.C., and Boston, and yet they managed to do just fine. Even Tuscon was able to rise up as something of a civilized town, despite the fact that, according to Raul, Arizona was so thick with raiders it was impossible to trade two miles down the road, which is far worse then D.C. or Boston.
On the other hand, Vegas had the benefit of not being hit by the bombs, having a massive amount of fresh water and farmable lands, and having basically no raiders. The idea they degenerated into tribals in the first place is absurd, but the idea that they didn't manage to build anything in Vegas, despite having everything, while literally every other major city that wasn't just leveled during the war managed something, is nonsense.
And, House rebuilt the strip, and the casinos, before the NCR started arriving. They didn't get money from them to fix the places up and make them operable. They had to be operable in the first place for the NCR to spend money there.
What is it with you and your hatred of tribals? Why is the idea of a society of people devolving into tribals so unthinkable too you? Also, that's kinda what happened though. It was just a buncha raiders and tribals hanging around in Vegas without much happening. Things OUTSIDE of Vegas happened and was built. But Vegas remained untouched by civil hands until the NCR first started popping up. Oh, and also there was something about a lot of rioting happening after the bombs fell. Seems like civilization kinda feel apart.
And, that's kinda wrong. House never REBUILT the strip, just refurbished it. Cleaned the place up. Got the casino's running. Simple stuff at the start. Then some money came in. Things got better. Each places got their own identities. ETC ETC. And technically the NCR did pop up before house started to rebuild New Vegas. But it was just some scouts. Then House got together the Three family's to help make a treaty with the NCR. Then House opened up shop for them to gamble. He didn't need to make houses, or really make a community.
But again, a lot of what happened pre New Vegas is very unknown to many. For all we know there COULD have been a civilization of people there, that were then crushed by raiders or something. But that's just speculation.
-Actually you kind of do since the game is full of invisible walls and monster walls, and all the major problems in places like Goodsprings, Primm, Novac, all are framed around asking where did Benny go, and them giving you some task to complete in exchange for the information. The game literally forces you to go after Benny.
And the things you listed about the deathclaws and Black Mountain are, like the rest of the game, level locked to a level you can only really reach once getting past the 188 Trading Post, and at that point you have no logical reason to detour back to the starting areas to do those thing when Vegas is in your sights.
Nnnooooo, that is entirely wrong. You never have to ask about Benny once in the entire game. Just don't hit the "Do you know anything about the man in the checkered suit who shot me?" speech option and you're golden. In Goodsprings you just talk to Sally, then ask Trudy about the Powder Gangers and the rest of the quest goes on. In Novac you just ask about the ciminal problem then you go to get a new Sheriff ETC ETC. You never have to talk about Benny once in the entire game. Just because the option is there doesn't mean you have to click it.
And again, they are not level locked at all. You don't need to be a certain level to get through Black Mountain. It's certainly easier if you do them at a later level, but so is everything else. There is an intended path for you to take, but you can still do whatever you want. But that doesn't mean you will succeed in doing what you want to do. In the Classic Fallout you can head for the Military Base right from the start. You'll die because you're under equipped, but it never tells you " You must be this level too get into the base!"
And in my case, those invisible walls are just stopping me from jumping over mountains instead of walking on the path of some kind. So long as it isn't a mountain there's not a lot of invisible walls that I know of.
-Nothing you do in places like Goodspring, Primm, Novac, or Boulder City make you some idealized champion worthy of being the NCR or Legion's top dog agent. You don't even have to high tail it to Vegas, even if you follow the natural story path, nothing you do is really that big of a deal to make you the first pick for diplomat.
It's not the one thing that you do, it's the multiple things you can do. Like fixing the Helios Solar Panels, or using the Helios laser to wipe out an entire NCR troop. Or helping The Legion spread word of their doings to demoralize them even further, or bringing order to the Primm and taking out the Powder Gangers. Or killing entire NCR encampments. Shit, I remember Caesar specifically always taking note of everything noteworthy I do when I first meet him. And the general thing of "Rising from the grave and hunting down the man who shot me" is also something noteworthy.
All of this adds up to the point where you show that you're the kind of person who gets stuff done.
And let's take The Legion questline for example, since I know that one the best. First thing you do is confront Benny. Then he runs off to Fortifacation Hill and you meet Caesar. He then gives you a test. To go down into the Bunker and destroy all the Securitrons in it. After that you've proven yourself worthy of something bigger. Since it's kinda known that you're in it with Mr. House in some way he sends you, the only person able to, to go and kill Mr. House. After doing this, you've pretty much proven yourself loyal to the Legion. And each faction, save independent, follows a similar concept.
-And the BoS just recently arrived in The Commonwealth, and yet they are actively trying to pacify raiders, super mutants, and ferals. The NCR is just sitting around with their thumb up their ass until you come along.
They can't even be bothered to investigate a town on fire because they are just so comic book cliche, pants on head retarded, inefficient at everything they do. Which is why its impossible to take the claim that they are good for the mojave impossible. They dont do anything, they largely don't even try. All because they tried to make a point with the NCR, that democratic systems have terrible problems with corruption and inefficiency slowing them down, but took it so far it moved past the realm of plausibility.
But, this isn't even the full force of the NCR. the game makes a point of how little there is in the Mojave. It's not like the NCR is diverting every person they can into the Mojave. If the NCR put full force power into it, you bet your ass things will get done at a rapid pace. You have to remember, a lot of this is all new, and unlike the BoS who are just a militaristic group of jerk offs who're only there to kill and collect, the NCR is there to settle. They gotta fix everything there. Build railways, set up safe trade routes back home, start up farms.
All while having to deal with Mr. House and The Legion constantly harassing them and demoralizing them. It's not even democratic problems, it's just resource problems. Back home the NCR are doing great, but in the Mojave it's still new. It's still growing. And they still have the full force of a smart army right at their door step. And one of the reasons The Legion is fucking them over so much is that The Legion IS throwing everything they've got into Hoover Dam. Caesar is sending his entire Legion against the NCR and House. Yet, this sliver of what the NCR truly is still holds out, barely managing.
And that's just the stuff I recall off the top of my head. The Legion is behind damn near every single thing going on in the mojave that is even worth mentioning. Its this utterly ridiculous conspiracy, only achieved because they are just SO good as spying/infiltrating/convincing people that they cannot be matched, at all. Like a good mustache twirling villain is.
It's almost like The Legion is a major player in the Mojave and are actively attempting to take over everything. Weird how that is, innit? The other giant faction going against the first giant faction actively do things to each other. Strange! And, it's kinda easy to convince people that you can't be matched when up to that point you kinda can't. Especially when you constantly massacre tons and tons of NCR troops. A lot of this stuff is simple Art of War stuff. Demoralization, divide and conquer, spread your enemy thin, ETC.
-A list of how House has shot his whole plan in the foot
--Despite waking up from his coma years before Shady Sands was even founded, he did nothing to try to organize the people around Vegas, thus ruining literally over a century's worth of buildup he could have had. Hell, House could have BEEN the NCR instead of needing to leech off them.
--Then, when he finally does decide to do something, its at the very last minute possible, forcing him to rush his defenses to hold back an oncoming army. Which only weakened his overall position in his dealings with the NCR. Something that could have been avoided had he done something in the 100+ years he was just sitting around with his thumb up his ass.
--Then, when he does actually make his city, he throws everyone who wouldn't immediately play ball into ruinous slums around his city, making everyone hate him, and making his already weak hold on the city even weaker, since even the people in Vegas hate him. This could have all been aovided had he done the logical thing, and elevated the first tribes who stepped forward into the three families position, but also worked to help everyone else in the city to not have to live in such shitty conditions. Even the real world Vegas has a small armies worth of average Joes to keep it running.
--Then, when it comes to running his city, he takes the worst, most hands off approach possible. Which only causes the Omertas, Whie Gloves, and Chairmen to scheme behind his back, because no one likes being ruled by someone who apparently couldn't give less of a shit about you. This is something any businessman could tell you would happen if you took that approach.
--Then, when it comes to his platinum chip, he idiotically sends one of his own, easily identifiable, and trackable, robots, to make a contract with the Mojave Express, and places an incredibly suspicious order to several seemingly random items, which only makes finding the plat chip increadibly easy if you knew what to look for.
--And, because of all this, at the start of New Vegas, House is in a city where everyone hates him, his own chosen Three Families have betrayed him, his own handpicked successor Benny has betrayed him as well, and stolen his mcguffin, and he is facing down two armies he has no chance of beating without the literal deus ex machina random event hat allowed The Courier to survive being shot in the head, and possibly make it to Vegas to work with him. Something that's not even guaranteed The Courier would do.
House is a grade A idiot, and nothing he has done makes sense, and has, in fact, been entirely defeatist to his whole plan. There is no reason for you to want to help him given his obvious inability to do anything right.
Boy you need to learn how to hit Enter a few extra times. Anyway....
First of all, what would've house even DONE in those early years? He runs a buncha casinos. How do you run a casino when there's no one to use them?! Like, seriously. In the first years of the Strip, the point of it all is to make money! What was he going to do with a buncha raiders and tribals?! Tribals don't have a valid form of currency!
Second of all, how is that his plan failing?! He got what he wanted, the Strip has its power and he's in a position of power! Mission successful!
Thirdly, why work with people who don't want to work with you? The others didn't agree to his terms so he kicked them out. A lot of them were just unreasonable savages with the only ones to've maybe still helped him were the Kings. Other than that, the rest were just savages who weren't going to help him! Don't work with people who don't work with you!
And House does not have a weak hold on the city. He has a strong one to everyone but the major factions. And The Legion won't touch NV until Hoover Dam is taken, and the NCR made a deal with House. I don't see what a buncha tribals and raiders can do against an army of securitrons.
Fourthly, The only scheming the White Gloves do is eating people. But even then, they've mostly stopped that until you make them do it. The only Chairmen scheming against Mr. House was Benny. Which I'm fairly sure House knew about. Other than that they're perfectly fine with House leading. Shit, from what I've read they'd prefer House over The Legion and NCR. The only one of the three familys that go against House actively is the Omertas. But they'd do that regardless of who's in charge or how they did business. Even if House opened up the Strip to everyone The Omertas would still be scheming because that's what they do.
Fifthly, the only reason why Benny knew about The Platinum Chip in the first place is because he stole and reprogrammed a securitron to hack into Mr. Houses database to tell him about the chip and the six decoys. Which is also the only reason why Benny caught up to Courier Six. If it weren't for Yes Man Mr House would've gotten the Chip no sweat.
Finally, everyone doesn't HATE House. Hell, The Three family's don't hate him. Two of them just want power and the other just wants to eat people. And Mr. Houses plan would've worked perfectly had Benny not hacked into Mr. Houses entire database with a stolen securitron that was reprogrammed by someone. But Mr. House never knew about that. If he did he would've done something about it.
Edit: And as a side not that I don't think was mentioned, House even suspects the Omerta's to be scheming against him! He's so good he predicts them trying to doublecross him! Go House!
Honestly, I don't see why any of this isn't a reason for you not to trust him. Every one of his failings happen because of something he didn't know about, and if he did he would've fixed it. If he knew the bombs would've gone off 20 hours earlier Vegas wouldn't've been touched at all. And if he knew about it Benny would be dead, not you. And that's pretty much it.
-Everything you listed, with he exception of the Boomers, comes from the NCR, and only proves my point. The Mojave has no history of its own, it just has a bunch of people from the NCR who showed up in the last 7 years. Even towns like Goodsprings were made by NCR citizens being given land grants.
The Khans, the Fiends, The Tribal Chairmen, The Slitherkin, The Tribal White Gloves Society, think Jacobs town, Also, I can not find a source for Goodsprings being founded by NCR people. Nor can I do the same for Novac, Primm, and Nipton. They all seemed to be their own thing. Seems like a fair number to me.
-Except even Sawyer has stated that the Courier has little to no reason to go after Benny, and that they should have let you leave the region via the mojave outpost. The game's own lead writer has self admitted there is no reason for The Courier to go after Benny.
Well, for one this game gives you the freedom to make your own reason to go after Benny. But if that don't work for you then here's a solid reason. Revenge. I know that when I first played the game I took the quickest route to New Vegas to give him a piece of my mind. I don't see how revenge isn't a good reason. Like, seriously. Who wouldn't want to instantly go after Benny to shot him back in the head!? Why is it that so many people always want to not do that to Benny. It makes no sense to me.
But if you don't like revenge, then how about going to get your package back to deliver it? He stole it, why not go back and get it to finish your job? I'm just saying, that saying there's little to no reason for the Courier to go after Benny seems kinda dumb to me.
Also, gonna need a bit of a source for that apparent self admittance.
-But the problem is that those areas with deathclaws, such as at Quarry junction, are very obviously placed to serve as a barrier to prevent you from just going to Vegas. Which makes it feel unnatural. Places like the Deathclaw Promituary on the side of the map, or that Dead Wind Cavern, THOSE are natural placements of deathclaws. the monster wall of Deathclaws and stuff just north of Goodsprings/Quarry junction is just fake feeling because of how obviously it was just placed there to prevent you from reaching Vegas.
But Quarry Junction has the infestation of death claws. That's it. Just don't go through Quarry Junction. Just head to the Powder Gangers facility, through hidden Vally, past the front of Black Mountain, and you're safe! Just don't walk through Quarry Junction! Why is this so hard for you people!? It's not like there's a literal wall, it's just that the game heavily encourages you to go around it all and not straight towards it. But if you don't want to, then just go minorly around Quarry Junction! I did that with my pacifist no killing character going straight for Vegas!
-Nothing you said about the factions not making you a Legate, or General, has anything to do with what I was talking about. At all. You aren't proving yourself to the factions as you do the main quest, you are doing the main quest because you already, somehow, proved yourself to them, which is why they are giving you these major tasks. The point was that you don't really do anything, even by following the main quest line, to be considered worthy of being given that honor.
On the other hand, in Fallout 4, you prove your worth just to get in, and get higher ranks because you prove yourself over the course of several major and important missions for those factions.
UGH! I explained this too you! Legion as example! First they let you in Because you're Courier Six and connected with Benny and House. Then you prove yourself by doing a thing! In the Legions case blowing up the Bunker. Then you kill Mr. House himself effectively neutering Vegas's defense systems. Then later on in the Legion questline you kill the NCR President, and then you save Caesar's life! If that's not proving yourself too them, then I don't know what is! And you do similar things for each faction. That's how you prove yourself too them!
The difference between New Vegas and Fallout 4 is that in New Vegas
-The NCR are just terrible at everything, period, and can't manage to put on their own pants without falling over and needing your help.
-The Legion are nothing but unrepentant rapists/salvers.
-House is just a jackass whose every action since the war has been self defeating.
-Yes Man is just holding the Mojave hostage with robots.
While in Fallout 4
-The BoS are bigoted assholes. But they actually get shit done, and actually make the wasteland a better place, even without your help.
-The Institute has done a lot of terrible stuff(supposedly), but once you reach them you see they have accomplished a lot, that most of the terrible things they are supposedly responsible are not their fault, and that they actually have some sympathy for the people of the surface.
-The Railroad are terrorists, willing to do a lot of shady shit to achieve their goals, but their goals serve a noble purpose of trying to free people from slavery. And they have managed to do so while fighting against the most technologically advanced faction on the East Coast for 20+ years.
-The Minutemen, while lacking organized leadership, and prone to internal squabbles, are a coalition of people, working for the betterment of everyone. And had lasted over a century, and gotten a lot of stuff done, before collapsing.
Fallout 4 strikes a far better medium between factions having problems, but also being able to do stuff. The factions in New Vegas are just unable to do anything(NCR), unrepentant evil(Legion), stupid(House), or dictator(Yes Man). New Vegas's faction are just so lopsided it hard to see them as beliveable things. They are almost so one sided that they come off as caricatures of the thing they are supposed to be.
Home stretch baby!
The NCR is a stretched out, barely holding on faction that even with its limited resources and power still manage to keep a good foothold in the Mojave. And even if they loose in the Mojave, they still have the entire west coast to fall back on.
Caesar kinda explains it best himself:
Mr. House is a genius planner who's only downfall is variables out of his knowledge. Which is proven to the point of his only few downfalls being the off timing of the bombs and Benny gaining a backdoor to his database.
And you do as you do with Vegas.
Wheras the BoS is a self interested, genocidal military bent on killing all that isn't human. Without even helping the rest of The Commonwealth in any other meaningful way.
Same deal with The Institute. They're a self interested, uncaring faction of jackasses who say they care about humanity, yet they kidnap people from the surface and turn them into super mutants by the hundreds, only to throw them back on the surface to wreak havoc. All while claiming to care about humanity and wanting to do no harm to the surface. And doing everything else in their power to make sure life doesn't reform at all on the surface. I think that the all right arrow options for The Institutes speech is quite fitting.
While the Railroad is just there, also not interested in helping the commonwealth in any meaningful way aside from removing The Institute and freeing the synths.
And the Minutemen is an incompetent faction of people who are willing to let any random stranger that saves them once become their leader. A dying breed. While they're possibly the only faction intending to HELP The Commonwealth, they have no chance out in the wastes, and without a writing cop out would be dead by the next game.
Vegas is filled with factions all interested in rebuilding in their own certain way, while The Commonwealth is cluttered with unhelpful factions who won't help society at all. All of them not thinking in the grand scheme of things. Only in the now.
