I'll try to keep this as short as possible.

Had my first visit to the Hoover Dam, and made the unfortunate mistake of navigating inward to a point I was lost. Now, some people are color blind, others are unlucky. Me, I have a poor sense of direction. In fact, if given a 50/50 chance, I'll undoubtedly choose the wrong one. Each time. Everytime. And the slow-to-bring-up, overly-often-to-bring-up, wait while you get your bearings-style map that FO:NV uses doesn't help.

Needless to say, my character had a breakdown after 17 minutes of running around, trying door after door, looking down hallway after hallway, all looking the same, with no signs, no assistance on where to go, that he just starting shouting "OUT! OUT! I WANT OUT! GET ME THE [censored] OUTTA HERE! AARRRRRHH!!"

Of course, it's customary to compliment this experience of insanity and equal parts frustration with pulling out a weapon and killing everyone around me (Boone included, God rest his always-in-my-way soul). So, I've killed about 20 NCR people (even though I was in good with them) and I've yet to find my way out. I'm deeper in the dam now and have saved my game so I can continue the spree at a later time (completely out of character, but hey, when insanity strikes, you gotta heed the call!)

p.s. If I meet the UI/Map designers for this area in real life, I'm gonna slit their freaking [gets taken away in straight jacket].

NO! It's not me! It's them! I JUST WANT OUT!! OUTTTTTT!!!

Wow.

Create a waypoint on the main map outside of Hoover Dam, follow the "empty" arrow until you're out.

Easy

Place a marker on the map to let's say goodsprings, follow the marker.

Or better yet, just make sure your on any quest... I dont understand how you got there with out understanding map markers.

I find the nav marker system in the game to be less than useful in a couple regards...

First, it doesn't detect height/floor differences, so you don't know if where it wants you to go is on the same height you're at (and this dam is multi-level)

And secondly, because the arrow just points in a straight invisible line of where you are to the marker, it can actually lead you down some directions that can dead end or not allow you to get where you want.

If the arrow took an actual permissible path via the game world, that would have helped out a lot more.

....

..

.

Oh yeah... OUTTTTTT!!!!

Still not that hard.
Just follow the marker, you end up in a dead end then go back and try the next floor and follow the marker, still at a dead end? Go to the next floor.

Yeah, I know. It's extremely easy, right?

Must be the sheer fact that I have no sense of direction which is making this a nightmare.

I hope this game doesn't require me to visit the dam often; I don't ever want to come back here sans for the fight between NCR/Legion.

There are four main stations, you want to find station 1.

Look at your local map and it will tell you whether you're in a station or the offices.

If you're in the offices just go upstairs and you'll find the door to station 1.

There are doors in the middle on the ground floor leading to each consecutive station

I'm confused, you seem to be frustrated of your own lack of direction, but then you start talking about your character not finding his way out and his reaction.

Are you roleplaying or are you genuinely not able to get out?

I'm sure I can find my way out, eventually. The fact that every corridor, room and door all look similar in what seem to be multiple areas of the dam, make this level extra disorienting for me.

As for the OUT! Massacre, it did happen, but that was after a literal 17 minutes of frustratingly looking for an exit. I made a save before I plunged into the darkness though.

The worst thing about that place is that there's nothing to do there. It's completely populated by no-name NPCs and it's needlessly large and maze-like. I spent like an hour exploring everything and talking to people, and the only quest I got was from that one chick in the offices. A couple of NPCs even trick you into thinking they have a quest for you.

"Oh man a couple of the turbines are broken."

"What's wrong with the turbines?"

"Oh, nothing, I'll get a soldier to fix them later!"

"AUUUUGH"

In the end, if you're going to make a place that big, at least have something to do in it to make it worth all the time spent wandering around and getting lost.