Do we know enough to make a guess on a theoretical Shi empire becoming the dominant faction in the west?

What if the Courier had taken his/her membership with the Kings more seriously, and eventually put them in charge of all of Vegas? What sort of epilogue would that have had? On my first playthrough, I liked the King and did not want to follow orders to wipe them out.

What if the Brotherhood had somehow handily won the war with the NCR, especially with Courier support?

And a successful Benny-Courier alliance... What sort of world would that have led to, had Benny gotten everything he wanted?

I wish we'd seen Arizona. I don't care how bad-ass or charismatic Caesar and Lanius are, when you're wiping out the culture of dozens of tribes, there will be pockets of resistance. Maybe for hundreds of years, if they can hide in the wasteland or even in plain sight. People envying or hating Caesar and Lanius' political power; who is third after Caesar and Lanius?
An Arizona DlC would have been cool, and possibly allowed for one more variation on a Legion ending.

What if those Enclave oldies had some fire left in their spirit, and were hoping to use some kind of patriotism to re-found the United States? Could they have gotten anywhere via peaceful (non-genocidal) means and the right words and deals in the Mojave, again especially with Courier support?

And if Yes Man someday starts being No Man...

To me the most appealing/plausible would be:

-Minor endings for the Kings (basically the Courier's thugs in a player-dominated scenario) and Benny (maybe a betrayal of some sort? I just don't see it really working more than short term).

-Major endings for a Brotherhood victory by playing the NCR against the Legion and installing Hardin AND/OR a tie-in with Dead Money (recovering some of Elijah's weaponized tech?) and the Enclave, probably using the core of veterans to train new personnel and maybe rigging ED-E as a comm device to contact Chicago?

Arizona could be interesting as could be some "machine uprising" led by Yes Man, but those two seem to me a better fit for a sequel, not for the actual scope of New Vegas.

Yeah I'd be surprised if the independent courier ending actually went smoothly in the long run. I wouldn't trust yes man. I think there was more that.

Something's up in Chicago, that's been hinted enough. I wouldn't mind if Obsidian let us see something out there (and resolve what parts of Tactics are canon.)

I think whatever's going on with the Shi should be touched in greater depth too. That much potential technology shouldn't be hand-waved away for eternity, but the lore and wikis are vague at best.

House had plans to reach the stars. I doubt he was just babbling... he seemed to have had it all planned for a long time. I'd love to know what would happen in a sequel with an assumed House victory.

I personally think that, with the ascension of the NCR to the extent we have seen in New Vegas, a Shi future is not likely. I would assume the most likely outcome is that they become a semi-independent science-oriented NCR satellite, and not much more than that. The Brotherhood as a whole seemed to me a much more organized and successful effort, and the NCR still threw men at them until they virtually ceased to be a problem.

As for House, I believe him. The guy is a genius, if insufferable. But that's both the beauty and the problem of this game: Your actions could change so much for the Mojave that a sequel that truly explored the consequences of the Courier's life would be virtually impossible. But I would absolutely LOVE if we could import our decisions and got little snippets, cameos, lore, etc. in a future game.

A House victory is probably the best choice for a canon ending if they do a sequel in the same area. Vegas stays unique and from a story perspective House's plans and Vegas provide the most hooks to something new. The NCR and Legion's plans were dull by comparison, a threat to the sin-and-lights city that made it special.
An independent courier ending is just too vague, the courier could have been pretty much anything.

Apparently the Enclave originally planned on going into space, but something apparently derailed that plan and made them go to a genocidal plan instead. I like to believe that something House set in motion even before the war might have thwarted the Enclave's space plan while furthering his own. House isn't the sort of guy to just randomly dream about space after planning for 200 years. He probably knew exactly what he was talking about.

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Do we know enough to make a guess on a theoretical Shi empire becoming the dominant faction in the west?

We don't have enough information to support that unfortunately except memories from Kellog where he did some protection jobs. I would assume that the place isn't a safe place which would mean that the place is ruled/plagued by ruthless gangs.

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What if the Courier had taken his/her membership with the Kings more seriously, and eventually put them in charge of all of Vegas?  What sort of epilogue would that have had?  On my first playthrough, I liked the King and did not want to follow orders to wipe them out.

The Kings, initially, is an isolationist group. I doubt they would care enough to control anything that is outside Freeside and Vegas. They would probably turn the place into a monarchy of sorts with the King at its head.

The end slides would probably be similar to the one we get when we finish(or fail) the quest GI Blues.

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What if the Brotherhood had somehow handily won the war with the NCR, especially with Courier support?

I highly doubt this would happen because...

* The Main West Cost Chapter is highly xenophobic and isolationist. This means they will always have a numbers disadvantage against the NCR and looking at the outcome of their war with the BOS, numbers matter.

* They would most likely wage war on the Courier + Yes Man Army because you know dangerous tech and all(from their perspective).

* If the Mojave Chapter does ally itself with the Courier, there is a big chance that they would be incommunicado with the main chapter(looking at their relationship with Lyons BOS) and will most likely create their own version of BOS which won't help with the NCR x BOS war.

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And a successful Benny-Courier alliance...  What sort of world would that have led to, had Benny gotten everything he wanted?

We don't really get to know much about the man except that he is a weasel and ambitious but the world would probably be the same with the Independent Vegas ending(just add a clip where Benny tried to stab you in the back again).

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I wish we'd seen Arizona.  I don't care how bad-ass or charismatic Caesar and Lanius are, when you're wiping out the culture of dozens of tribes, there will be pockets of resistance.  Maybe for hundreds of years, if they can hide in the wasteland or even in plain sight.  People envying or hating Caesar and Lanius' political power; who is third after Caesar and Lanius?
An Arizona DlC would have been cool, and possibly allowed for one more variation on a Legion ending.

I would love to see this. Maybe quests inspired by old Greek Stories.

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What if those Enclave oldies had some fire left in their spirit, and were hoping to use some kind of patriotism to re-found the United States?  Could they have gotten anywhere via peaceful (non-genocidal) means and the right words and deals in the Mojave, again especially with Courier support?

Or they could have infiltrated the NCR so deep that they have politicians inside. They could start rebuilding America using the NCR. It's way more efficient compared to rebuilding it from scratch IMO(at least when I look at it from the perspective of the Enclave).

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And if Yes Man someday starts being No Man...

I would love to see Yes Man get high jacked by Skynet one day and use the army to gather data so that it can evolve further and maybe realize that it has to destroy humanity . Sounds like a good DLC to me.

Would the NCR have anything that could have stopped liberty prime? Not the service rifles in the Mojave at least.


My own version of a sequel would tell the consequences of a Lanius Speech victory. Lanius _does_ listen to well-chosen words, moreso than Caesar even. Caesar's ego and self-assured-confidence in his intellect probably stops him from really listening to anyone else. He didn't seem to have a really trusted adviser. It would be interesting if Lanius' second really was a bit more of a silver-tongued philosopher. Maybe even a pre-war ghoul architect of all things, because Rome was more than murder and slavery -- it was intellect and architecture too. The right words can reach Lanius as we've seen, and he can be reasonable, sort of. Such a plot development would make him and the legion a little more interesting and less like raiders cosplaying as Romans. Maybe they can build their own Rome, rather than obsessing over stealing one.

a House victory and the next step in his grand plan. It couldn't have been idle babble. I bet he's got the enclave's spaceship and that's why the Enclave abandoned their space plans.

a smarter, more grey-area enclave arrival from Chicago or something like that. A faction that is joinable this time, instead of automatic boogey men to shoot. If the enclave would just calm the hell down and stop with the genocide, they might very well see their interests were very close to the NCR. The NCR is pretty much an "infant" United States reborn anyway, just expanding from the west rather than the east.

Finally do a little more with the Shi; their technology is so advanced that sooner or later it can't help but affect the world in some way, especially if they're trading.

Kimball would probably be ousted after failing to capture Vegas after spending so much money and resources; maybe a shifty, subtle, smart New Reno politician or even an Enclave agent would take his place.

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Would the NCR have anything that could have stopped liberty prime?  Not the service rifles in the Mojave at least.

 

If Alexander is telling the truth, then yes they are. Liberty Prime is not invincible as shown in broken steel so i doubt it could withstand thousands of missiles/mini nukes directed at it.

The NCRs main strength is not the armaments their troops have but their numbers and their industry. They would probably fail in the initial engagement but with enough poking they could find a weapon that could deal with Liberty Prime and mass produce it.

Did they even have a single missile launcher in the entire Mojave? I don't recall...
I guess Shady Sands would have been more well defended, but it felt like Liberty Prime could have soloed most of the Mojave without the courier's interference. Maybe there's a way to play as Prime and find out.

An ending where the Think Tank from OWB escapes from the Big MT, decimates the major factions of the Mojave, and proceed to experiment on the population of the ENTIIIREEE WOOOOOORLD

I would have liked a Sierra Madre dlc ending that cleared the red fog and allowed the rebuilding of the place. What sort of "world" would Dean create, given the chance?
Honest Hearts and Sierra Madre were pretty much off my mind entirely once finished.

Sirdanest wrote:

Did they even have a single missile launcher in the entire Mojave? I don't recall...  
I guess Shady Sands would have been more well defended, but it felt like Liberty Prime could have soloed most of the Mojave without the courier's interference.  Maybe there's a way to play as Prime and find out.

IIRC the Gun Runners was selling various big guns including a missile launcher(Fallout 1) and yup it could solo the Mojave but it would depend on which faction is remaining.

The NCR forces in Nevada would be weakened after a war with the Legion so it might take them some time to create a response force to deal with Liberty Prime.

Not sure how the Legion will deal with it(Maybe artillery strikes from their howitzer or from the Boomers bomber if you have them ally with the Legion).

Mr. House has his army of Robots with missiles so they will put up a fight. Not sure if the laser at the top of his Casino is still working but maybe it could work on Liberty Prime?