
- Brotherhood of steel: generally wearing power armor below 50% repair, largely wielding small arms like Chinese assault rifles, also in the ~30-50% repair range. So total dr in the ballpark of 50% and dps around maybe 30 on average (if that).
- Enclave: vastly better base gear, but apparently incapable as an organization of maintaining their gear above 50% repair: average dr of maybe 55% and average dps of maybe 35 (if that).
- Eulogy Jones, the overlord of the *entire* slaving trade in the wasteland, can't even afford power armor or weapons better than assault rifles and combat shotguns for his troops
- Rivet city: the most powerful, impervious "good" settlement, and the guards wear combat armor and carry small arms
- Not a single npc with over 2,000 caps in their possession, and over ~4,000 caps between the items you can loot in their shop/residence *and* what they carry.
Now compare that to my character at lvl 21 in fallout 3:
- 17,000+ caps
- in possession of 75 alien atomizers, each and every one at 100% repair.
- in possession of ~30 alien disintegrators, all 100% repair
- around 5,000 rounds of ammo for said alien weapons
- 7 100% repaired suits of power armor
- 2 100% sets of t51-d power armor
- 1 set of Chinese stealth armor (god mode in Fallout 3

- 2 100% suits of hellfire armor and 2-3 ~50% suits
- 2 100% tesla armors and 2-3 ~50-60% suits
- 2 100% outcast power armors
- 2 100% brotherhood power armors.
- multiple 80%+ repaired mini guns, missile launchers, Gatling lasers, plasma rifles, laser rifles, etc etc etc.
If I keep at it by lvl 30 I'll have 5x all of that.
So in short, at lvl 21, my pc is more powerful than any single npc in the game by many factors of magnitude. Yet what can I do with all of this power?
Can I create a true city with all the agua pura and start actual farming on a large scale to provide clean , radiation free food along with hope, peace, and security for the capital wasteland?
Nope.
Can I marshal an army of raiders to overrun Megaton, lay siege to Rivet City and Vault 101, and pillage everything in sight (after dropping an orbital strike on the citadel, of course)?
Nope.
Can I assassinate Eulogy Jones and then take over as the slave lord of the wasteland?
I dunno, never tried

Can I start my own small mercenary band, all equipped with high end 80%+ repaired power armor armor and 80%+ alien weaponry/small/energy/heavy weapons? And then use that mercenary bad for good, evil, or neutrality as my whims seem fit?
Nope.
....
So here's my suggestion for Fallout 3, New Vegas. Make a DLC addon for the endgame that provides the opportunity to do all of the above, within whatever happens in the game. Let me take the inevitable massive pile of caps and fully repaired gear I will eventually amass and actually use it to create a small settlement or mercenary band, and then grow that settlement/mercenary band into a true force that can, if given enough time and energy dominate the entire landscape. Let me (given massive timesink, of course) bring order and peace to the Wasteland if I so choose, or turn the Wasteland into my personal playground of torment and agony for all that oppose me, or walk a fine line between the various factions and carve out a niche between them. let me be *truly* good or *truly* evil and if given enough time and dedication let me do it on *massive* scale up to and including domination of the entire gameworld.
That would be an endgame worthy of the hero/villain/paragon of the wasteland. That would be a DLC worthy of my hard earned bottlecaps... erm, pre war money... greenbacks, whatever.
So this is my suggestion for Fallout 3: New Vegas. The DLC to end all DLC: New Vegas: Conquest.