First time, I wound up going independent. I was going to go with House until he wouldn't back down on one issue (murdering the brotherhood of steel). Since then I've finished both House and the NCR (having a very difficult time siding with Caesar, he's one of those people I would gleefully murder IRL if I could get away with it)... and I'm leaning a bit more toward NCR being better for quality of life in the region. House is better for technological progress, though, and would probably be a better choice in the long run. The independent ending is pretty fucked.
Poll: New Vegas: which faction did you chose?
- Thread starter Erttheking
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My first playthrough was Independent, mostly because it's closer to my philosophy IRL. I'm a rather hardcore libertarian, so I'm rather opposed to both the NCR and the Legion on principle.
That said, after having played through it and seeing the consequences laid out therein, I'm gonna have to go with the NCR as the "best" choice. With hindsight and everything, it's the one that ends up working out the best IMO. If only because Yes Man was getting ready to betray me after I killed Lanius.
That said, after having played through it and seeing the consequences laid out therein, I'm gonna have to go with the NCR as the "best" choice. With hindsight and everything, it's the one that ends up working out the best IMO. If only because Yes Man was getting ready to betray me after I killed Lanius.
Whats shitty is that in the game files are disabled options, and remnants of others, to create a bortherhood/House peace, and one that would get House to give the strip to the NCR, instead of killing him.loc978 said:
NCR. I guess it's in my blood to support civilized, structured organizations promising peace and order. ;]erttheking said:
Holy shit! Odo was Mr. House?!?! How the fuck did I not see that?!ParanoidEngineer said:
I would have followed him in a heart beat!
Shit! Now I feel like I missed out...
I went Independent. You could be an absolute bastard and play everyone into your hands.
Also, Odo was Mister House? Holy shit, now I kinda feel bad about stabbing him.
Also, Odo was Mister House? Holy shit, now I kinda feel bad about stabbing him.
House spend well over a century plotting the salvation of mankind, he was a man of business and practicality and rejected moral persuasion and compassion, feeling the end justified the means. I can't see how the "upstarts" (NCR, LEGION, Courier) could have swayed the man... he saw himself as the one hope for mankind, and everything else a problem to overcome...SajuukKhar said:
A compromise would have gone against his very meaning as a character in the game. I wouldn't like that choice... I though the choice you faced after making the decision to go against him was powerful.
Kill him and undo all of his work, or make him watch all he strived for be torn down by you.
After playing through lonesome road I found it added a lot of depth to the decision, which is a shame since it came after most people had played through the game...
Pretty much comes down to NCR or Mr. House for me.
I ruled out the Legion pretty early on (played a few times through) because going backward in civilization isn't a good way to move forward on rebuilding - plus, obviously the slavery and the fact that is makes no sense what-so-ever for my always female Wanderer to sign up with a group that views women as inferior/property.
I dropped the option of running things myself when the DLC stuff came out and it dawned on me: I'm way too active and busy in the wider world to devote my time to keeping Vegas running independently. Place needs a leader and I prefer to be the power behind the throne, not the poor bastard sitting on it all day till my ass falls asleep.
So that leaves NCR or Mr. House. Sometimes I go with my more patriotic/republic feelings and swallow the fact that though democracy has its problems and can include varied levels of corruption as society becomes more stratified on the wealth scale, it's still a good system that puts value on the people who comprise the society it governs.
Then again... it's post-apocolyptia and a little autocracy might be called for. I tend to believe Mr. House when he says that there's not an interest for him in being a figure of worship - he wouldn't have stayed dormant as long as he did if he wanted to be perceived as a messianic figure. He's very pragmatic and does what makes logical sense - which can make him seem a bit too calculating at times, but a solid plan to use economic power to get the hell up off the ruined planet and out looking for more fruitful alternatives is a decent plan given the situation. He's not out to obliterate the NCR, he looks to use their society to fund his plans; he only wants the autonomy required to carry them out over the time line he's worked out. The destruction of the Brotherhood as a mandate was the only cringe-point for me, but again I can see his practical need to remove a group that would be so obviously hostile to HIM even if they aren't all "bad guys."
So I flip between those two options, depending on my character composition on the given run through.
I ruled out the Legion pretty early on (played a few times through) because going backward in civilization isn't a good way to move forward on rebuilding - plus, obviously the slavery and the fact that is makes no sense what-so-ever for my always female Wanderer to sign up with a group that views women as inferior/property.
I dropped the option of running things myself when the DLC stuff came out and it dawned on me: I'm way too active and busy in the wider world to devote my time to keeping Vegas running independently. Place needs a leader and I prefer to be the power behind the throne, not the poor bastard sitting on it all day till my ass falls asleep.
So that leaves NCR or Mr. House. Sometimes I go with my more patriotic/republic feelings and swallow the fact that though democracy has its problems and can include varied levels of corruption as society becomes more stratified on the wealth scale, it's still a good system that puts value on the people who comprise the society it governs.
Then again... it's post-apocolyptia and a little autocracy might be called for. I tend to believe Mr. House when he says that there's not an interest for him in being a figure of worship - he wouldn't have stayed dormant as long as he did if he wanted to be perceived as a messianic figure. He's very pragmatic and does what makes logical sense - which can make him seem a bit too calculating at times, but a solid plan to use economic power to get the hell up off the ruined planet and out looking for more fruitful alternatives is a decent plan given the situation. He's not out to obliterate the NCR, he looks to use their society to fund his plans; he only wants the autonomy required to carry them out over the time line he's worked out. The destruction of the Brotherhood as a mandate was the only cringe-point for me, but again I can see his practical need to remove a group that would be so obviously hostile to HIM even if they aren't all "bad guys."
So I flip between those two options, depending on my character composition on the given run through.
Considering Obsidian's normal operation procedure is "make characters that seem really focused on goals yet you are able to sway them to something else in 3-4 dialog skill checks"Ragsnstitches said:
I wouldn't have found it surprising.
The House always wins, baby. I was a guy who could get things done and House was the guy with vision and know of. Together we are going to make sure New Vegas, and humanity, has a future.
But what God must Vegas, light of worlds old and new, follow now? You? A Wild Card? Fool. You sit there, in your ivory tower, with the smiling face running your little patch of debaucharous paradise for you, watching the world tear itself apart beneath you.DustyDrB said:
Translation: Independent is probably the worst long-term option, except maybe Legion Wins/Caesar Dies. I have the same reaction when people say "Oh yeah V was totally in the right in V for Vendetta". The anarchy that Independence creates may very well spell doom for the Mojave.
OT:
The Bear is unrelenting, and does not relinquish an asset so easily. Spurn them, and the wrath of Tandi's armies will bore down upon you, and even the Screens will not save you when that occurs. However, the arm of the Bear can reach only so far before it begins to strain itself, and it has become too fat and bloated to comprehend the wastes on a vast scale.
The Bull will relish and stagnate no matter where it goes, an insatiable beast that knows only destruction. They will rape the land of all that the new world has struggled to create.
House, for all his faults, represents the best long-term solution. He is a fool, believing himself to be the ressurector of a world long dead, but he has the knowledge, the tools, and the power to get us to the point where we can make our own future. I played along with House, but in my Head-Canon, I put a bullet in his brain the instant he served his purpose.
Except that it still exists as an option regardless of your status with the other factions, so it really doesn't matter a whole lot why it was developed.SajuukKhar said:
Besides, I was mostly referring to the story. Even if you go around methodically killing every single NCR representative, the NCR will still exist beyond the in-game borders. The same is true for the Legion.
If you go independent with the assumption that you're simply rejecting the choice of an authority, the remnants of NCR and Legion are just going to keep doing what they're doing anyway until there's only one left to declare itself the victor, regardless of your presence. If you go independent with the assumption that you become the authority... again, both the NCR and Legion still exist - and now they're both pissed off at you. So you'll likely get a few years of relative peace, while both factions recover their numbers and make plans to secure the region again. Honestly, I'd love to see this as the canonical ending to the game, just for the hilarity of the pissed off forces of both the NCR and the Legion setting up a temporary truce in order to put your head on a pike... before going right back to ripping each others' throats out.
I played with House first because that was where all the money was. I'm pretty sure he gives the most money for missions and for the snowglobes. He also gives you your own apartment, so I couldn't say no to this guy.
Then I played with Yes Man after I went on a murder spree and killed all of the faction leaders.
The only reason I touched Ceaser's Legion was for the achievements and I hated myself the entire time. I hated it so much that I deleted the file completely from my hard drive. Nothing in New Vegas brought me more pleasure than bringing Boone with me to blow the head off of Ceaser and taking a dump on his throne.
Then I played with Yes Man after I went on a murder spree and killed all of the faction leaders.
The only reason I touched Ceaser's Legion was for the achievements and I hated myself the entire time. I hated it so much that I deleted the file completely from my hard drive. Nothing in New Vegas brought me more pleasure than bringing Boone with me to blow the head off of Ceaser and taking a dump on his throne.
Independent, though if it wasn't for the Brotherhood, I'd've gone with House. He had the best long-term plan laid out for the Mojave.
The Legion is just horrible. A pack of vicious dogs who would tear themselves apart the moment Caesar was no longer holding the leash.
The NCR, for all their talk of freedom and peace are just another bunch of imperialistic assholes hiding behind a false banner of peace. They move in, claiming land that's already settled, and if you don't want them there? Too bad, it's join or die.
The Legion is just horrible. A pack of vicious dogs who would tear themselves apart the moment Caesar was no longer holding the leash.
The NCR, for all their talk of freedom and peace are just another bunch of imperialistic assholes hiding behind a false banner of peace. They move in, claiming land that's already settled, and if you don't want them there? Too bad, it's join or die.
I've sided with all four factions, but after a huge amount of humming and aahing and slapping myself in the face, I went with the NCR in my first playthrough. They were dicks too and I didn't like them either, but out of everybody you could align with, I thought that choosing NCR would probably result in the most happy/decent endings for everyone. (I looked up the endings on the Fallout wiki later, and my assumption was more or less right.) That, and I figured that the NCR would be able to pull their shit together more once they had the Legion off their back.
I Can't Believe It's Not Andrew Ryan Mr. House was my first choice originally, but even though I liked him (seriously, was the snowglobe obsession anything other than adorable?), the more I advanced through his questline the more I was put off the idea of him running Vegas. He seemed like too much of a control freak, overly-nostalgic, and I disliked how he planned on running the entire place more like a business (e.g. ignoring Freeside because where's the profit in helping drunkards and chem addicts?). But the exact moment he turned me off was when he started all that babble about space colonisation. What?? All right, I can kind of get behind the autocracy and the capitalism boner, but space colonisation? You mean this planet's fucked, so let's go fuck up another one? Okay then, Newt Gingrich, but you can get someone else to help you out with that.
The only group that was always out of the question for me was Caesar's Legion. Caesar was one of my favourite characters, but I thought the overall faction was slightly disappointing. I know that each choice is meant to be morally grey, but the Legion's disadvantages so outweighed the advantages -- especially in comparison to the other factions -- that it bordered on ridiculous. They're definitely the token "bad guys" in the game, at least to some extent. Also, aside from Caesar, it felt like not much effort had been made with the other characters. I always forget his name, but Whatshisface who has enough swag to walk up to you in Nipton wearing a dog hat and sunglasses springs to mind: it felt like the references to his disobeying orders in the past and being capable of independent/creative thought would go somewhere, but it never did.
Jesus, that was more text than I'd intended. Whoops.
I Can't Believe It's Not Andrew Ryan Mr. House was my first choice originally, but even though I liked him (seriously, was the snowglobe obsession anything other than adorable?), the more I advanced through his questline the more I was put off the idea of him running Vegas. He seemed like too much of a control freak, overly-nostalgic, and I disliked how he planned on running the entire place more like a business (e.g. ignoring Freeside because where's the profit in helping drunkards and chem addicts?). But the exact moment he turned me off was when he started all that babble about space colonisation. What?? All right, I can kind of get behind the autocracy and the capitalism boner, but space colonisation? You mean this planet's fucked, so let's go fuck up another one? Okay then, Newt Gingrich, but you can get someone else to help you out with that.
The only group that was always out of the question for me was Caesar's Legion. Caesar was one of my favourite characters, but I thought the overall faction was slightly disappointing. I know that each choice is meant to be morally grey, but the Legion's disadvantages so outweighed the advantages -- especially in comparison to the other factions -- that it bordered on ridiculous. They're definitely the token "bad guys" in the game, at least to some extent. Also, aside from Caesar, it felt like not much effort had been made with the other characters. I always forget his name, but Whatshisface who has enough swag to walk up to you in Nipton wearing a dog hat and sunglasses springs to mind: it felt like the references to his disobeying orders in the past and being capable of independent/creative thought would go somewhere, but it never did.
Jesus, that was more text than I'd intended. Whoops.
No Gods! No Masters!
House and NCR were both ok too though. House is a fucking boss and I really wish I hadn't had to have killed him.
Legion though... god damn. Legion was just stupid. I mean, seriously? What kind of philosophy do they stand on?
"DON'T USE STIMPACKS BECAUSE TECHNOLOGY IS BAD! INSTEAD, LET'S USE A ROBOT TO CURE CANCER!"
"LASER WEAPONS ARE EVIL BECAUSE THEY ARE HIGH TECH! USE A FORCE-FIELD GENERATING GLOVE INSTEAD!"
"POWDER GANGERS ARE BAD BECAUSE THEY LOOT AND PILLAGE! LET'S LOOT AND PILLAGE A TOWN JUST FOR ASSOCIATING WITH THEM!"
"WE BELIEVE IN STRONG MORAL CONVICTIONS! LET'S CONVINCE THE WHITE GLOVE SOCIETY TO ABANDON THEIR MORAL CONVICTIONS AND BECOME FUCKING CANNIBALS!"
I almost couldn't play as a Legion character because they were too fucking stupid. The achievement for siding with them almost went un-achieved. Serious roleplayer that I am, I just made a character that I decided had been dropped on it's head as a child and that was why he liked the Legion.
House and NCR were both ok too though. House is a fucking boss and I really wish I hadn't had to have killed him.
Legion though... god damn. Legion was just stupid. I mean, seriously? What kind of philosophy do they stand on?
"DON'T USE STIMPACKS BECAUSE TECHNOLOGY IS BAD! INSTEAD, LET'S USE A ROBOT TO CURE CANCER!"
"LASER WEAPONS ARE EVIL BECAUSE THEY ARE HIGH TECH! USE A FORCE-FIELD GENERATING GLOVE INSTEAD!"
"POWDER GANGERS ARE BAD BECAUSE THEY LOOT AND PILLAGE! LET'S LOOT AND PILLAGE A TOWN JUST FOR ASSOCIATING WITH THEM!"
"WE BELIEVE IN STRONG MORAL CONVICTIONS! LET'S CONVINCE THE WHITE GLOVE SOCIETY TO ABANDON THEIR MORAL CONVICTIONS AND BECOME FUCKING CANNIBALS!"
I almost couldn't play as a Legion character because they were too fucking stupid. The achievement for siding with them almost went un-achieved. Serious roleplayer that I am, I just made a character that I decided had been dropped on it's head as a child and that was why he liked the Legion.