Mojave Wasteland

Hey can anyone help me out right now? I got lost in the Desert, and now I can’t find my way back to Vegas. I need to know the fastest route to The Strip. Any suggestions?

Over the course of the Fallout series, we have witnessed the birth, rise, and expansion of the New California Republic. Over the four decades between the events of Fallout 2 and New Vegas, the NCR has dramatically spread its control and influence across the Pacific Coast and the Southwest.

In this post, I’d like to hear your thoughts on the New California Republic’s eastward expansion under President Kimball. Specifically,

1. Do you feel that the NCR’s eastward expansion is morally good, or morally acceptable?

2. Do you think that its eastward expansion is feasible in the long term?

3. Do you think the methods the NCR is using to achieve these goals are morally okay, and/or sensible and feasible?

I figured it’s been a good while since we’d had one of these in-depth lore debate posts, and I’m curious to hear your thoughts.

So a couple of weeks ago me and my family went to Vegas on vacation, and during the trip we took a day and went and visited Goodsprings and Red Rock Canyon. Since Fallout: New Vegas seems to collectively be our favorite Fallout game, I decided to share some pictures and commentary from it.

As a bit of a disclaimer, I had meant to plan this part of the trip out more and do more research about locations and such, and chat with fellow Nukapedians like Katy Webb and Kdarrow that have been to these areas, but unfortunately I ran out of time to really plan so this isn’t a complete tour of the Mojave or NV locations.

Primm

I originally hadn’t planned on going to Primm since I wasn’t sure how much time we’d have and wanted to make sure we had plenty of time to explore Goodsprings and Red Rock, but thanks to the nonexistent signage pointing out the turn-off to Goodsprings, we ended up driving too far and ended up in Primm. Here’s a pic of the rollercoaster, I think it’s called El Diablo or something in real life:

Thankfully, no Powder Gangers could be seen. Unfortunately no Primm Slim, either.

Goodsprings

We eventually found the turn-off to Goodsprings after going back up I-15. The town is pretty small, and fairly easy to navigate. We passed on the cemetery on the way in, though I didn’t go in till later.

We stopped at the Goodsprings sign and I took some pics:

Apparently another Courier left a Nuka Cola bottle and a Sunset Sarsaparilla—unfortunately there were no Sunset Sarsaparilla Star caps to be found.

We ended up stopping at the Pioneer Saloon (known in-game as the Prospector Saloon) for late lunch, and the food was actually surprisingly pretty good (I didn’t know what to expect). I figured having a Blue Moon beer would be a good way to celebrate the occasion, since “Blue Moon” is the song playing in the intro if I’m not mistaken. So if you ever make your pilgrimage out there, don’t bother bringing sandwiches out there with ya.

There were a couple of other Fallout fans there to visit Goodsprings, one of them with a cool NCR shirt on, I should have asked him for a picture. Other than that there were a bunch of bikers there; apparently the Great Khans were making a stop in Goodsprings before heading back to their home territory, lol.

The General Store (Chet’s store in the game) has apparently been bought by the Saloon and was being used as the main entrance. There was seating inside the saloon itself, as well as seating in between the buildings and behind them. Here’s a couple of pics of the buildings:

Ghost Town Cafe (Chet’s general store in the game).

And here are some pics of the interior:

The interior of what used to be the General Store. Apparently Chet is hedging his bets on the outcome of the 2nd Battle of Hoover Dam by putting up both flags. Tbh sounds like something he would do.

My barter skill wasn’t high enough to buy any of these survival items Chet was selling. That, and I left my supply of caps at home. [btw this stuff wasn’t actually for sale]

In case your Pip-Boy map isn’t working, Chet has a handy map on the wall you can reference (sorry about the poor photo quality)

There was a ton of graffiti in the saloon’s bathroom, here are some Fallout-themed ones I found in the men’s bathroom. I meant to graffiti my username on the wall, but completely forgot.

In all of my playthroughs, they also go out with a bang.

I agree, I most definitely agree!

After all that I went back and visited the cemetery, and took some pics:

The Goodsprings Cemetery. In 260 years, Victor will be rescuing you from a grave in here…

The cemetery is a good bit bigger irl than in the game, and also more rectangular than in-game, so I couldn’t figure out where exactly Courier Six’s grave would be. Didn’t end up looting any of the graves, had forgotten my shovel at home lol.

Oh and I almost forgot, here is the schoolhouse:

The sign outside the school. Apparently the school is also a historical landmark in real life; it is one of the oldest schools in the state, or something like that.

I wasn’t able to go inside unfortunately. Probably better for it: I didn’t exactly have any good weapons to deal with the Giant Mantises.

Red Rock

It was getting late in the day by this point so we pressed on to Red Rock. I couldn’t find the exact spot the Khans have their camp at in the game though. Anyway, it was still beautiful and next time I go to that area I am definitely spending a solid day hiking out there.

Here’s some pics:

I do not know this for sure and I didn’t have any cell service out there so I couldn’t look it up, but I think this might be Quarry Junction, or it’s real-life analog. Naturally, I kept my distance

Quarry Junction: the shortcut route every newbie Fallout: New Vegas player tries to take but invariably regrets.

The Deathclaws may rip apart unsuspecting mailmen, but at least they’re thoughtful enough to put out handicapped parking signs

Well that was it for that day; it was getting late and we called it quits after Red Rock.

Though we hadn’t originally planned on it, we did end up going and seeing Nellis the next morning since we had some time.

Here are some pics of Boomer country:

Sorry for the long post, here is a Fallout New Vegas meme:

Source: https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~268260~90042606#

To set the scene for the question: You are a raider chilling in an abandoned Vault in the Mojave wasteland. You and your gang have just finished killing off and looting a trade caravan and are enjoying some chems and whiskey when you hear “Big iron” slowly getting louder and gunshots echoing slowly more frequently. You’re only equipped with base level leather armor and a 9mm pistol (75% condition). What do you do?

I was thinking Spring Mt. Ranch State Park would be a good spot because it has the pond for a water source, Brooks Tumbleweed Ranch wouldn’t be a bad choice either

Would Caesars’s Legion win the Second Battle of Hoover Dam? Would Benny and Yes Man successfully overthrow Mr. House? I’m curious to know what you think.

Welcome everyone to the very first edition of What If Wednesday, a weekly post I’ll be doing about an alternate version of an event or characters fate and how it would affect the Fallout universe and timeline.

In the years leading up to Fallout: New Vegas, the Mojave chapter of the Brotherhood of Steel attempted to repair a power plant called HELIOS One, and activate its hidden offensive weapons. Unfortunately for the Brotherhood, the expanding New California Republic fought the Brotherhood for control of the facility and ultimately won due to superior numbers.

With that in mind, here’s today’s scenario:

What if the Brotherhood of Steel was able to maintain continued control of Helios One? How would that affect the political state of the Mojave and NCR–Legion War?

My thoughts:

The NCR military would’ve likely regrouped and tried to take it again. However, because of the reduced morale, it is likely they would’ve lost again. Ultimately, as the threat of the Legion became more pronounced, the NCR would probably sign a truce with the Brotherhood so they could focus on fighting the Legion.

The Brotherhood would’ve probably begun an military operation to cleanse nearby tech-rich areas like the Repconn Facility of ghouls and mutants. Black Mountain would also be a target, as the Brotherhood hates mutants and it would seek to control the working radio station there.

How would this affect Fallout New Vegas?

The Brotherhood would likely have its own main questline, as it would be stronger in this scenario. If it did not, it would have more significance, as it is possible Caesar would want to turn them against the NCR, only to betray them after the war of course.

What are your thoughts?

So here’s the scenario: the NCR main quest ending occurs with their annexation of the Mojave. If the Legion falls apart due to infighting after its loss at Hoover Dam, how far east could the NCR realistically expand? Even if the Legion dissolves, eventually the NCR will encounter the MWBOS, which may or not be hostile. Plus there may be other factions to the north or south of the New California Republic that could pose a threat.

What are your thoughts? How far could the NCR expand without falling apart or overextending itself?

People say that it was turned into a AAA shooter like COD or something, but just because the shooting is better now doesn’t make it a shooter. People say it’s not an RPG anymore: 1: if Zelda is an rpg this is, 2: it has the RPG elements: they are just different and updated. The dialogue system could be better, but I still think that it is good. All they needed was to use the d-pad or have a “More” button. Sure, there are less options, less negotiations, but I think that is because they made the shooting decent, and they wanted you to shoot. Also, in 3 and New Vegas, there was not much negotiating. I really don’t get it. I much prefer the Commonwealth to the Capital Wasteland and the Mojave, and Diamond City is better than anywhere I’ve been in 3, and only The Strip is better (that I’ve seen) in NV. It has great lore with Valentine, and the companions are great. I get that you don’t like that you have a spouse and child, but you completely can ignore that fact. People say that the dialogue choices are fake and always get to the same place: same as in 3 and NV. You have basically multiple ways to get to the end of the talk. You can still do the same thing, it’s just a bit more obvious. Do you have any ideas on this? Sorry for this long block of text.