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This page is about the area called New Vegas. For the game developed by Obsidian Entertainment, see Fallout: New Vegas. For the settlement called The Strip, see New Vegas Strip. |
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New Vegas is a post-War city established in the ruins of the pre-War city of Las Vegas, Nevada in the Mojave Wasteland,[1][2] with the most prominent fixture being the New Vegas Strip controlled by the enigmatic Mr. House and his Three Families who govern the Strip's casinos. It appears as a major location in the eponymous Fallout: New Vegas as well as in the Fallout TV series.
Background[]
The Great War[]
Unlike other major cities of the United States, Vegas emerged from the Great War relatively unscathed, entirely due to the preemptive actions of Robert House, a native of Las Vegas. In 2065, House correctly predicted that a nuclear exchange between the United States and China would take place within the next 15 years and began dedicating the resources of his company, RobCo Industries, to the protection of his home city. He used his intelligence network and vast wealth to ensure that when the war finally came, he would be prepared to survive and restore Vegas anew.[3][4][5]
House calculated that his defenses would protect against the majority of enemy nuclear missiles, but that at least some damage to the outer areas of Vegas and the surrounding towns was unavoidable. To this end, he had engineers in Sunnyvale develop the platinum chip, a sophisticated, high-density data storage device that would upgrade his defense systems and those of RobCo's patented Securitrons to the Mark II OS, ensuring that Vegas and the surrounding area would be as safe as possible.[6]
He further outfitted the Lucky 38 Casino with radar-jamming systems, missile arrays, a laser defense network, and life-support systems[3] to cement his grand plans to revitalize the city and beyond[7] while continuing to oversee the growing tensions around the world.
The platinum chip was originally due for delivery to Vegas by courier on October 23, 2077 per House's calculations. However, he realized too late that his predictions had been off by a factor of 20 hours. Before the platinum chip could leave Sunnyvale, the city was reduced to rubble by the breakout of the Great War, with the chip buried beneath it.[3] Left with systems running the inferior Mark I OS, House was forced to make do, though his defenses still managed to stop 68 of the 77 ICBMs aimed at the Vegas area.[8] Although House's preparations allowed for most of Vegas to survive intact, a series of system crashes due to the unstable OS eventually rendered him comatose for several ensuing decades. Immediately following the Great War, civilians in Las Vegas celebrated their survival, but the subsequent fallout from the warheads that struck outside the city gradually seeped in and killed all of them regardless.[Non-game 1]
By late 2104, rumors that the city might have survived reached as far as Appalachia and Atlantic City.[9] When House eventually was able to resuscitate himself and come out of his coma decades following the nuclear apocalypse in 2138, while Vegas had fallen into disrepair he chose to observe and wait for the right time to make his move. In 2161, the Desert Ranger Tycho mentioned that his father had told him about an individual he met in Vegas who reminded Tycho of the casino kingpin Gizmo of Junktown.[2] Later, the city came under the control of squabbling tribes who were the descendants of Vault dwellers.[Non-game 2] These Vault tribes included the Mojave Boot-Riders and Slither Kin, among others. The Great Khans left California in 2267 and made their home in Vegas for a time and fought with the local Vault tribes.[10][11]
Recreating Vegas[]
In 2274, New California Republic scouts arrived in the Mojave from New California and found the Hoover Dam still intact, also alerting House to the existence of stable wasteland societies and piquing his interest. Seizing the opportunity, House sent a wave of Securitrons from the Lucky 38 to offer an ultimatum to the raider tribes that had settled in the ruins: join House and be part of his city of "New Vegas", leave unharmed, or die. Of the groups House met, three accepted his offer and were remade into the Chairmen, the Omertas, and the White Glove Society, known collectively as the Three Families.[12] Only the Kings and the Great Khans refused but did not resist House's takeover as they abandoned the Strip, with the Kings settling in the northern slums of Vegas that became Freeside, while the Great Khans migrated to Bitter Springs far to the east from Vegas. While House considered the Three Families as well as the Securitrons enough to protect the "New Vegas" Strip for the time being, he knew that if the NCR wanted and then tried to take it by force, they would not be able to resist in any meaningful way.[13][14]
When the Mojave Campaign began and the main NCR forces arrived to assume control of Hoover Dam, House sent a Securitron envoy to meet them, calling for parlay between the NCR's leaders and himself. Afterward, they reached an agreement and signed the New Vegas Treaty, under which the NCR were allowed to send 95% of the dam's power output back to their inner territories as well as given permission to garrison McCarran International Airport as a base of operations for the New California Republic Army, and to establish an embassy on the Strip.[15] Meanwhile, House remained as the sovereign ruler of the Strip which would also retain the remaining 5% power output from the dam as well as give unrestricted access to NCR citizens and soldiers, leading to a boom in New Vegas' economy as tourists from all corners of the NCR, as well as stationed troopers on leave, would flock to the casinos and spend their hard-earned salaries on gambling, alcohol, and prostitutes.[13][16][17][Non-game 3] Early into the NCR's contact with New Vegas, there was hope of it and the rest of the Mojave Wasteland rapidly being annexed into the NCR, even possibly becoming the sixth state of the NCR union.[18] However, while these hopes remain, the likelihood of success has been frustrated by Mr. House's inaccessibility to NCR diplomats within the Lucky 38.
East/West conflict[]
Around 2275, the NCR's expansion efforts into the Mojave, already stymied by their treaty with New Vegas, were met with a new threat: on the other side of the Colorado River, the conquering army known as Caesar's Legion approached. Having learned about the existence of New Vegas and Hoover Dam from a scout of his own, the Legion's supreme leader Caesar had set his eyes on conquering the Mojave with New Vegas as his "Rome" and mobilized his forces. In 2277, the two armies clashed in the First Battle of Hoover Dam, which was a decisive loss for the Legion. However, Caesar did not abandon his plans to take control of Vegas; he returned to the Legion's territory in Arizona to rebuild his depleted armies.
The Legion's arrival has created a delicate power balance in the Mojave Wasteland by the early 2280s; while the NCR would have annexed New Vegas long ago, the substantial threat of the Legion means that if they attacked the Strip, Hoover Dam would be vulnerable; similarly, the Legion cannot take New Vegas as their new capital without leaving themselves vulnerable to NCR retaliation. Meanwhile, Mr. House watches and plans from the top of his tower high above the Strip. By October 2281, with the Legion having made several gains, pushing the NCR entirely out of Arizona and beginning to establish footholds on the other side of the Colorado River, the situation quickly intensified towards a Second Battle of Hoover Dam. The battle may have been largely determined by the actions of the Courier, an outsider who was drawn into the conflict due to a personal vendetta.
Power vacuum[]
The exact outcomes of the Second Battle of Hoover Dam are unclear. The NCR and the Legion continued to fight for Vegas over the years, and Vegas was seemingly also claimed by Securitrons at some point amidst the two factions' conflicts.[19] However, the NCR had all but vanished from the Mojave by 2296, with major NCR encampments such as Camp Golf left abandoned.[20][21] The only known NCR personnel remaining in the Mojave were a handful of isolated holdouts who had been there ever since the destruction of Shady Sands, and the citizens of Freeside had not seen any NCR symbols in seemingly a very long time.[22]
The Legion remained in force in the Mojave, though they were crippled by a succession crisis after the death of their founder, the original Caesar.[23] Mr. House was also seemingly out of the picture; by 2296, his systems had gone offline,[24] and almost all of his Securitrons were either broken, damaged, or disabled around New Vegas.
Freeside remained a thriving community in 2296, although many members of its former ruling gang, the Kings, had been turned into feral ghouls outside the city limits.[25] The Strip itself had been taken over by a pack of deathclaws, and subsequently abandoned; while some in Freeside were fine with this development, others wished for someone to get rid of the deathclaws and reclaim "[their] town."[22] These deathclaws had supposedly moved up from Quarry Junction,[19] though Robert House also believed that they had set on New Vegas by the Enclave.[26]
Return of conflict[]
After the battle of Griffith Observatory in 2296, the disgraced Vault 33 overseer and pre-War Vault-Tec employee Hank MacLean fled east to the Mojave Wasteland from Los Angeles, where he observed New Vegas in the distance. At the same time, he was pursued by the Ghoul and his daughter Lucy MacLean, who suspected he was looking to reconnect with surviving Vault-Tec personnel in the region.[27] The Ghoul, personally, believed that Hank would lead them to a facility where his family may have been preserved.
Hank indeed retreated to the Las Vegas management Vault located beneath New Vegas, which he used to mass-produce brain-computer interface chips following a testing period. Using these chips, MacLean amassed a force of brainwashed "office workers," captured from various wastelanders and wasteland factions, with the goal of wiping out factionalism in the wasteland using this method of forced pacification. Hank was acting independently in this regard, but his actions were intended to support Vault-Tec, and the Enclave's plans for the wasteland through them;[26] Hank had also informed his superiors at an Enclave complex in the Rocky Mountains not long before he started his experimentation.
Lucy later ended up being brought into the management Vault. The Ghoul ended up encountering Maximus and Thaddeus, former San Fernando Brotherhood members who had fled with the cold fusion technology due to circumstances within the Brotherhood, and allied with them to achieve their respective goals. Maximus, newly equipped with a suit of NCR power armor, inadvertently became a symbol of the NCR's return to the people of Freeside while fighting the deathclaws on the Strip to allow the Ghoul to enter the Lucky 38.[22] Inside the Lucky 38, the Ghoul used the cold fusion diode to activate Robert House's cold fusion reactor and thus his preserved digitized consciousness, bringing a version of the CEO back to life.[28]
The deathclaws on the Strip broke through to threaten Freeside, forcing Maximus to fight a defensive battle against the creatures. He was forced to abandon his power armor and was left in a seemingly hopeless position, preparing for melee against the deathclaws; however, he was relieved by the arrival of NCR military remnants under Captain Rodriguez, who took over the battle and seem to have subsequently established control over Freeside, using the community as a place to rebuild and recruit new members for their nation.[29] The immediate threat posed by Hank MacLean and his brain-computer chips was also ended when Lucy MacLean killed Diane Welch, preventing Hank from programming any new chips, and captured Hank himself, though Hank claimed to have already sent out sleeper agents controlled by miniaturized chips to carry out unspecified orders before he brainwashed himself to permanently remove all his memories of his secrets.[30]
However, the forces of Caesar's Legion, reunified under the man who was formerly known as the Lacerta Legate as the new Caesar, subsequently arrived on the outskirts of New Vegas, intent on conquering the city as their holy land and new capital.[31] It is suggested that this will likely lead to a renewed NCR-Legion War, though it remains to be seen whether this conflict will occur, and to what degree.[29][32]
Layout[]
Situated in the northern half of the Mojave Wasteland, New Vegas features a wide variety of socioeconomic situations, ranging from the affluent New Vegas Strip, through the impoverished Freeside and North Vegas Square, the arable fields of the NCR sharecropper farms, the resourceful Westside, to the derelict South Vegas ruins, and the outskirt hubs of inter-regional commerce consisting of the Crimson Caravan Company, Gun Runners, and the 188 Trading Post.
Most districts of the city have had walls of varying degrees of quality, ranging from concrete topped with barbed wire to train cars and neon signs, erected around them to keep out wasteland creatures and raiders, from the South Vegas ruins to North Vegas Square. A vast network of sewers, some of which are inhabited by humans and other creatures, exist underneath the city.[33] The areas outside of the Strip and Freeside are collectively referred to as "Outer Vegas".[34][35][36]
The Strip[]
Glittering and awe-inspiring both before and after the Great War, the Strip is the heart of New Vegas.[37] The hotels, casinos, restaurants, and iconic skyline establish the Strip as a premier tourist destination and serve as the driving force behind New Vegas' economy.[38] Several pre-War establishments have come back alive with the Strip's signature lights and a vast variety of entertainment offerings, powered by electricity from the Hoover Dam.[39][40][41]
Vendors are allowed to work on the Strip selling non-alcoholic drinks and snack foods, signing a franchise agreement to forfeit 50% of their profits to Mr. House at the end of each working day.[42] Radio New Vegas can be heard here and throughout the region.[43]
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Freeside[]
Freeside is the main slum of New Vegas. Controlled by the Kings and the Van Graffs, the streets are dangerous and lack the luster of the New Vegas Strip. Many gamblers and tourists find themselves under attack by thugs looking for a quick source of caps. Recent tensions between the NCR and the Kings have worsened the situation. Similar to the rest of outer Vegas, Freeside shows resentment towards the NCR, who are seen as unwelcome oppressors.
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Westside and North Vegas[]
Westside is one of the better-off residential areas of the city. The settlement supports its own militia and has become self-reliant, growing its own food and maintaining its own water supply. The residents often complain of problems with the Fiends and a smaller gang, the Scorpions, who remain a threat to the citizens. Likewise, in North Vegas Square, the citizens battle the same threats and similarly pride themselves on their independence and watching outsiders suspiciously.
| Inhabitants |
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East Vegas[]
Under the control of the NCR, east Vegas is one of the safer areas of the city. Protected from Fiends by Camp McCarran, east Vegas is home to several businesses with roots in New California, including the Crimson Caravan New Vegas branch, a Gun Runners factory, and a clinic run by the Followers of the Apocalypse. Aside from businesses, the area is also home to sharecropper farms settled by NCR citizens encouraged to move west by the Thaler Act, and a refugee camp run by the NCR Army in Aerotech Office Park.
South Vegas[]
The southwestern region around Vegas is firmly in the hands of the Fiends, who rule from the fortified ruins around Vault 3. Several of their raider compounds can be found outside of their main territory.
Notes[]
- In the entire Fallout series, Vegas is one of only two known pre-War locations that contains more than one Vault-Tec Vault within its boundaries, namely Vault 3 and Vault 21. The other known location is Santa Monica, which is home to Vaults 31, 32, and 33, which are interconnected as part of their experiment.
- Due to the bright lights and the skyscraping height of the Lucky 38, the city can be seen from almost all areas of the map.
- If one has a reputation with the NCR low enough that they attack on sight, the drunk military police on the Strip will not attack. However, four NCR troopers with cattle prods may spawn outside of Michael Angelo's workshop and attack immediately. If killed, this earns infamy from both the NCR and the Strip, despite the fight starting unprovoked. The Securitrons in the area will become hostile, forcing the player character to destroy them as well, resulting in additional infamy. The Securitrons in the other sections of the Strip will not be hostile, however.
- The in-game version of the Fabulous New Vegas sign appears in the Atomic Command holotape game in Fallout 4.[44]
- According to a paper note found in the Monongah police station in Appalachia, a shootout involving a supposed Chinese spy named "Shanghai Sally" occurred in the Ultra-Luxe casino in 2072.[45]
The New Vegas Strip also appears as an exterior theme and quest location in Fallout Shelter.
Appearances[]
New Vegas appears in Fallout: New Vegas, the Fallout TV series, Fallout Shelter, and the Fallout: The Roleplaying Game sourcebook Royal Flush. In the original Fallout, an unmarked and unnamed location on the world map roughly corresponds to where Las Vegas would be located, ten squares east and six squares south of Vault 13. The city is also mentioned in the Fallout: New Vegas add-ons Dead Money, Honest Hearts, Old World Blues, and Lonesome Road, as well as in Fallout 4 and Fallout 76.
Behind the scenes[]
The in-game New Vegas is based on the real-world location of Las Vegas, located in Clark County, Nevada. Many locations in the game have real-world equivalents in and around the city, such as the casinos, neighborhoods, landmarks, and businesses.
Gallery[]
Fallout: New Vegas[]
.jpg "New Vegas Strip (intro).jpg (655 KB)")
Fallout TV series[]
Fallout[]
Fallout Shelter[]
Texture files and signage[]
References[]
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RPG
- ↑ Royal Flush p. 201: "NEW VEGAS SETTLEMENT ATTRIBUTES Population: Approx. 20,000 (varies seasonally)"
Non-game
- ↑ Fallout: New Vegas Official Game Guide Game of the Year Edition pp. 462-463: "House Arrest
When blaring civil defense sirens heralded mankind's doom on October 23rd, 2077, the citizens of Las Vegas bore witness to an astonishing spectacle. Huge laser cannons unfurled from secret housings in the roof of the Lucky 38 casino and Hoover Dam's intake towers and began spitting blasts of green fire into the sky, destroying warhead after warhead and sparing Las Vegas's urban center and the dam from direct hits. Citizens filled the streets and cheered. And then they died horribly from the lethal fallout that blew in from the dozens of warheads that detonated around Las Vegas.
Though Mr. House's missile defense grid performed admirably, the Great War was in actuality the day of his greatest setback. Having spent decades preparing for the statistical inevitability of atomic war, house found himself forced to protect Las Vegas with buggy software. Had the Great War occurred even 24 hours later, House would have received and installed Mark II of his defensive systems' operating software. Instead, the disc containing the upgrade-which had just passed quality assurance-was buried in the irradiated ruins of the Sunnyvale, California lab where it was developed.
Defending Las Vegas from atomic destruction set off a cascade of system crashes that plunged the Lucky 38 into darkness and nearly killed Mr. House. Running on a trickle of emergency power, the electrode-studded command helmet by which he controlled the Lucky 38 shorting out with maddening frequency, the replenishing salve bath and pharmaceuticals he'd spent billions to develop going rancid, his ensconced body aging, House battled to reboot his data core with an older version of the operating system. It was a daily struggle that would grind on for nearly five years, inflicting a physical and mental strain so severe that House lapsed into a coma when the reboot was finally achieved.
When House finally came to, decades had passed. Immediately he began using his Securitron robots to search out human settlements, and eventually he was able to hire salvage teams in the distant west to search for the priceless upgrade disc in the ruins of the Sunnyvale. The disc was not to be found for many years, during which time House was forced to improvise an ad hoc defense of the Vegas region against the encroachment of NCR forces, namely the recruitment and employment of the Three Families to augment his downgraded Mark I Securitron robot defenses." - ↑ Fallout: New Vegas Official Game Guide Collector's Edition p.42: "Freeside"
"Las Vegas wasn't heavily damaged during the Great War, but people didn't immediately "settle" into the remnants of the old city. The various Vault tribes that emerged years later, hunted and fought among the ruins, but it was not until the "return" of Mr. House that they ceased (most) of their hostilities. Mr House directed the tribes to use his sizable quantities of pre-war construction materials to build the crude (but effective) outer walls that separate The Strip and Freeside from the rest of New Vegas. While Mr. House valued the area around Fremont Street, he ultimately viewed it as secondary in importance to the Strip itself and he had a second, inner wall that separated the two areas. When NCR prospectors (and eventually the army) arrived in the region, people typically went straight for The Strip, leaving Freeside (as it had become known by locals) as an informal stopping point. Eventually Mr. House recognized that he could use Freeside as a filter for undesirables, and pulled his favored tribes and all Securitrons into the Strip, leaving Freeside to fend for itself."
(Fallout: New Vegas Official Game Guide faction profiles) - ↑ Fallout: New Vegas Official Game Guide Collector's Edition p.463: "A Vision for New Vegas: Mr. House proposes an automatic future for New Vegas: undisputed authority of a technocratic visionary. His long-term goal is to use the attractions of New Vegas as an economic engine to reignite mankind's technological progress. While he has no desire to control every aspect of the lives of those would inhabit the region, neither would the ways and means by which he achieves economic and technological progress be up for discussion. As the ruins of the former world mutely attest, democracy is a failed experiment. The time has come for Mr. House to heroically save Vegas for the second time, forging an independent, dynamic, high-technology enterprise zone. So long as Mr. House's basic rules are followed, his intentions are to take a "hands off" approach towards the subjects of his kingdom; he is effectively a libertarian dictator creating his own version of paradise rooted in the old world. If the player supports Mr. House, she is supporting the New Vegas libertopia, a place where the strong rule unfettered for as long as they stay strong and where the weak are continually trampled underfoot. But it's a place where Mr. House wants you to dream, that someday, you could be one of the strong."
(Fallout: New Vegas Official Game Guide/Behind the Bright Lights & Big City)
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