I was really excited when I came across a few places in New Vegas in which I could base my adventure.

As the game rolled on, I encountered a few more places to set up camp. My mind was genuinely blown when I found I had a suite (or rather, THE suite) at the Lucky 38, and then I secured a place in the Ultra-Luxe, and THEN and THEN and THEN...


And then I was really underwhelmed. Once I had seen all of them or had them in my possession, I gave up and just stayed in Novac - and the Novac motel room isn't even my favorite place to set up camp!

My favorite place is in NIPTON. You know that building where the Legion guys were standing out front? The big building? To the right of that massive bonfire of tires and Nipton's former residents is a house that had an enterprising little genius living in it that was working on Robots and trying to get laid. This house is damned AWESOME. It has a Workbench right beside a convenient tool cabinet, it has an attractive computer lending its glow to the room, there is a safe in a comfortable bedroom with a sofa and adjacent bathroom with a BATH TUB in it. There is a full-blown kitchen with a fridge and oven.

You know what else is cool about it?

Right across the street is the home of a former neighbor whose home has an Ammunition work bench! Right across the street!

There's also a camp fire by the trailers, which is a bit of a walk, but it's more convenient and closer than any other camp fire at any other property, besides maybe Novac's motel room.

I'm telling you, this place is sweet.

The Mister Gutsy robot even respawns here and there and you can shoot him up for some flamer fuel and energy cells.


So why are all the other housing assets so lackluster? To me, anyway.


The Presidential Suite: Sure the Presidential Suite can be upgraded, but why bother? Going to it is a Fast Travel to the North Gate (one loading screen), through the gate (another loading screen), another gate (another loading screen), going into the Lucky 38 (another loading screen), going up the elevator to the suite (yet another loading screen). Once you're there, the place is massive. It's too much space. The place is absolutely pompous, like it should be - it is a Presidential Suite - which is too much damned room to fill. It doesn't 'feel' like Home in Post-Apocalyptia. Mostly it's just too damned big and a massive hassle to get into, though. Don't even get me started on the bugs.

The Bon Vivant Suite: Yeeaaah. It's more of the same, but fancier and more interesting, but even less useful than the Presidential Suite.

Novac Motel Room: This is the earliest officially player-owned housing available, and it's still my favorite. It's cozy, has the essentials, you can decorate it very comfortably, it's near a very useful merchant, and though it cannot be upgraded and has no crafting workbenches, it is within a reasonable walking distance from a campfire, work bench, and ammunition work bench. It exemplifies New Vegas living.

Safehouses: I've bumped into 3, know there are 4, but only have been in one. I've read up on the others, and these are just weak. All the hoops one has to jump through to get into these things (some of them are particularly hoopy) and the best thing you see in one of them is a room mate with a 100 repair skill and a hungry wallet. The best thing that can be said of them is that a Fast Travel will land you right at the front door, so the storage assets are convenient.

Atomic Wrangler Room: If you've been in Freeside, you know what to expect of this room in the Atomic Wrangler. It's nothing outstanding and is a decent walk down the street and some loading screen to get into it. This would be a poor choice for a base of operations.



I mean, I am so greatly underwhelmed by the selection of housing that I am veritably praying for some new options in future DLC packages. How did New Vegas flounder on this aspect of the game when Fallout 3 so exquisitely nailed the Player Housing experience?

No vac, to paranoid about things missing to try anything else, though in f3 I had the base fom opperation anchorage. I liked that place.

I think that having housing located within several loading screens is most certainly the biggest flaw a house can have. The second to that is to lack special features that makes the location useful: One being nearby a bazaar filled with merchants, another suited to crafting, yet another that has automated item-sorting storage, and so on. Personally, I think going with a single fast-travelable house that can be extensive customized and be a place to put all your efforts into would be the best bet for developers.

Personally, I loved my wastelander home in megaton, and rightly so I like and use the novac hotel room. But all other housing annoys the hell out of me. The thing that grinds my gears is the huge amount of loading screens for the plush housing. I could see if there was a fast travel point to the front of the casinos with housing and if the door to the wrangler was just an open-able door than another loading screen, but no. Though I have to admit I haven't even tried any of the faction housing.

Oh but early on in the game, before I found proper housing, I had set myself up in the recently cleared Bison Steves in Primm. But now, my next play through on the Legion side might have to set up in Nipton.

The one in the middle of the big lake, I like It's like that film waterworld.

Wow. I cannot believe this discussion thread got moved here.

I bet it never would have budged if I hadn't put that very considerate, probably unwarranted warning in the topic subtitle.

This is my eyes rolling. Whatever.



But yeah, J D, that's exactly a big part of why these housing options svck. The Megaton Home has a short walk between two loading screens. The Tenpenny Tower Suite had a slightly heftier load with three loading screens, but had a second exit to the outside tower balcony so you could immediately fast travel away from it. Going into each of these swankier New Vegas places is taking on a lot of loading screens, a lot of walking, and when you're done in there, you're looking at another two loading screens and another stroll to get out.

The places are terribly inconvenient. I have no idea why there aren't more Fast Travel points in the Freeside and Strip areas, at least to the fronts of the relevant buildings. The Lucky 38 at least could provide an option with Victor outside to go directly to locations inside. If they did that and dropped a Fast Travel point at the Lucky 38, it would become the most convenient location in the game.

And, lordy, I STILL wouldn't use it because it's too damned big, too dark, too red!


Anyone else miss House Themes as much as I do? Ungghhhh this game's housing options.

I can live with the housing arrangements they gave us if they allowed us to buy the stuff for it NO MATTER WHICH ONE WE CHOOSE!! But dont get me wrong im not too thrilled about our housing options AND id like to see the add the house medical stand, work bench and all the other options u could get in 3. I thought DC was worse off than Vegas but they have more options...?? WTF is up with that

I enjoy using the abandoned Brotherhood of steel bunker. I even got Boone there guarding lol,

I like Novac because there's Doctor there and both workbenches out in the open so I only need to load another place if I want to store excess junk in the safe.

I personally am actually annoyed at the number of safe houses available in the game.

There was something very special about Megaton/Tenpenny -- namely, you had to make a fairly game-changing decision in order to earn either one of them, and then it actually became YOURS. -You- became a resident of Megaton, or Tenpenny, not some boneheaded drifter who, according to the story, will need to shove out as soon as the business end of the year picks up (Novac, haha). It even declared it to the world right on your door, with the "My House" sign.

I get that hardcoe mode required some tweaking in the game, because otherwise you wouldn't be able to get enough sleep. Or would you? I role-played my characters in FO3 and generally never ran short of beds. The number of freebie abandoned shacks in the game just floor me and svcks the fun right out of trying to scrounge a living out of the wasteland. The upside to New Vegas is now I have to eat and drink and sleep. The downside is is that now there's a bed and free containers every ten paces. Really?

I plan on doing some fairly heavy modding to the game after I finish one or two play-throughs. I've got a large number of ideas and am keeping tabs of odd things I'd like to fix -- most of which will probably get swept up by the Unofficial Patch project -- and one of them is that I have GOT to do something with all the free flippin' housing or ambiguous areas. I hate walking up to a place titled something like "Bob's Shack" and there not actually being a Bob there. How in the hell does my character know there was once a dude named Bob here? If anything, it just makes me feel even more that the game got pushed out WAAAAY ahead of time, because it suggests there was supposed to be some sort of content there.

Had no interest in the luxury suites from the start, experience in Tenpenny towers in FO3 was quite enough, in NV I found an abandoned shack near the Yangtze memorial, looks like the remains of an aircraft passanger section, I don't know if the containers are safe but there is a reload bench and it's my kinda place, still got plenty of exploring to do so I'm hoping to find more shacks of this kind, so far non of the official player homes impress me.

yea man my home is the Sniper's Shack. Fast travel instantly no loading screen and the bed is 2 paces from the ammo container (safe). incredibly convient. well sort of playing on hardcoe makes it so every time i head home i have to eat and drink and sometimes take a nap when i get there.

Yeah, I know that Abandoned Shack you're talking about. I nearly set up camp there myself until I found that place in Nipton. I hate being a squatter, though. Hate hate hate it. What choice do I have, though? An overblown, buggy Presidential Suite that takes at least 4 loading screens to get to? Hotel rooms with no upgrades? Conveniently located Safehouses with only storage to offer?

It is a damned shame that the most attractive locations to set up base in are not intended player housing. The most useful, reliable, convenient locations in the game for players force us into being squatters. They never feel totally ours and never feel completely safe because of it, but the other housing is so phenomenally lackluster that a lot of us risk it.

I don't mind that there are so many houses, though, since with hardcoe Mode, it makes sense to have multiple places to lay low or bed down for the night.


If they ever do revamp the New Vegas housing situation, I hope they include a place or two that you could actually buy up and furnish. Or rework some of the existing places. Work bench, maybe a Juke Box, you know - housing upgrades. The sort of thing we loved in Fallout 3 but is totally underrepresented in New Vegas.




Top 3 Things I'd Love to See Happen to New Vegas Housing:

1) Buying up the Abandoned Shack or otherwise claiming it, complete with a means of upgrading it. (Think: Early Game housing in the West.)

2) Expanded Novac motel room. Know how a lot of hotels and motels have a door in them to join them to the next room over? It's a golden opportunity to install a workbench and some other stuff. (Think: Housing in the Southeast, tie it to reputation there so they're willing to slip you another room to keep you coming by regularly.)

3) Themes available in some existing housing (Presidential Suite, particularly - wouldn't it be nice to have a firing range or laboratory instead of a big long table?), upgrades available in more of them, Fast Travel locations at least outside the building, and a doorman/bellhop to help conduct you to your room (Dialog-based immediate room entry, skipping the actual building).


I also want to see Ovens/Stovetops become useful for Campfire crafting. I mean, it makes sense, since the bulk of these crafting recipes are cooking, and I haven't run into a campfire yet that was in a convenient location.

I've only gotten two of the safehouses, but I quite like the Brotherhood one. It's one loading screen and has a map marker. But I agree, not being able to fast travel to the strip is annoying. I bet a mod for that will get released by next monday.

I haven't been in the Brotherhood one, but I read that it has a guy with 100 repair skill in there. That's handy, but I bet he doesn't give you aaaany kind of a discount.

A true wastelander carries everything he needs on his back.

The place called "Harper's Shack" has a workbench, a reloading bench and a campfire, but I have not found it yet.

My favorite non-traditional place to use is: The Prospector's Den, It has several rooms with many different containers for storage, but they don't feel like they are too much. It also has a campfire and a reloading bench, but no workbench.

I don't have a favorite "normal" place.

Find a cool building, kill everyone inside, move in. I have never liked the actual player housing, simply because they are boring, and seem extremely out of place. For example, you pay some laughably small sum to stay at Novac, and you get to stay there. Permanently. Sure, the wench says "until the busy season starts up", but the busy season is evidently after the game ends. So you basically get free room and board for doing absolutely nothing.

Finding your own place to camp is a lot more immersive, imo. Of course, that requires a player to overcome his primitive fear of 'stuff disappearing'. It's amazing how many people didn't get the memo that all interior cells in the game don't reset. It's been that way since FO3 came out.

I only use the presidential suite because I like having all the companions I'm not using hang out there. Plus I like to collect basically everything so all that room is nice.

Although it has a weird glitch where when I enter the suite sometimes my screen will turn blue like I just used "cateye" And all the loading screens are kinda lame. But other than that I accept it.

Well there is a camper in goodspring near the graveyard... Thats my house.

A few nights ago I woke up there, and I was shocked to see Sunny Smiles was sleeping with me . I thought great I could live with that. (I forgot that during the Tut you go to her house, and I guess she just decided to lay there that night).

Well next night I woke up, and it was the old man with the dinomyte o.O . I guess its just a cool down place for the whole town... I also guess my character had one to much to drink that night.

I think the number of houses for player is indeed for hardcoe, but what makes me stay in Novac is the fact that I have to move a 1000pounds of stuff among 2 people and ED-D.

Megaton house as great because it is almost in the middle of CW, I can easily stop by and drop loot when moving place to place; in NV there is no such prime location, rangers safehouse being closest but again suffer 2nd loading (though short). I am also amazed that it doesn't have loading/working bench (can't remember which).

I also agree stove and oven should function as campfire, who say you can't make gecko leather with a stove lol

As soon as I downloaded the GECK, I opened it up and set up Victors shack the way I wanted it. I even put a fast travel marker in front of it, with a campfire. I also got me a snazzy workbench and reloading bench, plenty of storage, and upgraded lighting.

I also like that there is a dropbox close by in town.

=)

I HATE the Casino homes. I haven't tried any of the safehouses yet.

This is silly. How does your character know the name of anything if you don't have someone telling him? There are a lot geographic, uninhabited places. Would you prefer a house be called "Unknown House" or canyon be called "Unknown Canyon"? Oh, yeah, that would make a lot of sense. Fill up the map with a lot of places with no names.

The difference between happening onto a LANDMARK area is that your player probably has heard of it, and... well, it's a landmark.

An argument could be made for larger areas like Wolfhorn Ranch.

But small, dinky places obviously owned by hermits gone to the great Wilderness in the Sky should not have titles that would suggest game content would be there. In the case of "Bob's Shack", I would EXPECT there to be a Bob there, not just another squatter safe-house - especially if it claims a marker on the map. There's a lot of areas, like the Abandoned Shack, which are nearby other fast-travel landmarks (the Memorial) but do not have their own map marker. The name with the fact it's not an 'important area' tells me there's no content there.

I'm all for more choices in housing, but the number of freebies available in the game really just put me off. There is absolutely no achievement here, what-so-ever.

If you are playing hardcoe Mode, it's probably because 1.) You are a roleplayer and want realism, or 2.) You want more of a challenge.

By strewing free beds and containers ALL OVER the wasteland (and literally, in some cases, only a minute or two apart), you are kind of just removing the whole point of playing hardcoe in the first place.

Personally using the shack abit southwest of Novac, ontop of a hill, somewhat close to a Deathclaw nest.
It has loads of containers, a bed, reloading bench, a workbench. It's a 2 room shack so quite big but not too big for you to furnish with random crap