I've just finished a playthrough wherein I followed Mr. House up until he told me I had to exterminate the Brotherhood of Steel. They had been quite nice to me, so I told him to go [censored] himself, and used the Yes Man to gain control over Vegas. Sell Mr. House's ideals to me, because honestly I don't see him being a terribly good hope for the wasteland. Caesar is a giant dike, he was totalitarian Roman-Style society. NCR provides a flawed pre-war style government. Yes Man is a libertarian with a sizable army. What does Mr. House have to offer the wastes, or the Courier?

If you haven't already, just try going to an earlier save and talking to House about the full story behind the platinum chip, and the history of his own plans for Vegas. You do get the sense that he's a brilliant guy who does genuinely care about the fate of mankind, albeit in an extremely detached, calculating kind of way. If anything will sell you on supporting House (even in the face of questionable actions like wiping out the Brotherhood), it'll be the man's own words. As for how Vegas turns out if you help him, it's much more satisfying to experience it on your own, but if you're in a real rush you could check out http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Fallout:_New_Vegas_endings. If I had to pick, I'd say that both NCR and Yes Man are probably better for the Mojave than House (though things aren't a complete disaster under him either).

Personally, destroying the Brotherhood was a bit too much for me as well (and I don't think the House ending was "good" enough to make up for it), so I generally haven't helped House myself, aside from the one time, to get the achievement and just generally satisfy my curiosity.

Mr. House is the best hope for mankind, why you ask? Yes-Man is very suspiciously indicative in his end dialogue he'll likely control Vegas. We know what usueally happens in robot controlled societies. NCR will get the massive slap on the nose they deserve, forcing them to reconsider their behavior, and if you resolve the ending in peace with NCR, Olider is indicated to be disgraced, and will highly likely commit suicide by Houses calculation, and Kimball if saved, will be blamed for NCRs failure, forcing NCR to reconsider it's expansionist ideals, and possibly forcing them to see they need to focus on defending their territories. Caesars Legion will crumble, how so? Well, with you working for House, Caesar dies of his tumor, and if you kill Lanius at the ending, then the Legion will be left in an internal power struggle, turning on each other like snarling starving dogs around a juicy piece of meat.

Now, how will Mr. Houses ideals and goals save the world? Well, look at it this way, he founded RobCo, a Fallout famous Pre-War robotics company at the age of 22, then,when he predicted the Great War 15 years prior to it's happening, he swiftly took action to start saving mankind. Now, you're likely asking, 'What did Robert House DO to save humanity?' I'll tell you. He started hoarding an army of Securitrons to help keep order and ensure safety, and the platinum chip, had it arrived 20 hours earlier, would save Las Vegas from ALL the warheads, but considering he dealt with a cascade of software glitches while saving Vegas from annhilation, he stopped 90% of them from hitting the region. Secondly, when the NCR got Hoover Dam and alotted 5% of it's power output to it, what did House do? He resurrected the spirit of Old Vegas in all it's glory. Lights, running water, safety, and law and order. With House continuing to run the helm of the ship, he could easily resurrect the old world,and with Kimball and Oliver blamed, Vegas would not be hard hit, and House, being the businessman he is, would likely start extensive reignition of old world High Technology sectors of industries, slowly, but surely, putting the world back on the tracks the old generation threw themselves off of.

Now, House isn't a FotA kind of 'Save the World', he is saving the world in a more detached esoteric style. Also, the Brotherhood must be disposed of because it is an almost 100% assured by both House and Yes-Man though that the Brotherhood would assault Vegas. Why? Because the Lucky 38 and Securitrons are a kind of technology they don't posess. The Brotherhood, being the crybabies about technology they are, can't stand the kid next to them having shinier tech than they.

Im gonna have to disagree with you on that one Martyr.

If Yes Man would be evil and take over New Vegas, then I don't see why this wouldn't be mentioned in the ending sequence. Also, even if Yes Man were to take over New Vegas (maybe some dev tells us) then there would be a fight between him and the Courier. Of course, the outcome of this fight is completely subjective. Who are you to say the Courier can't win this fight? I mean, he/she has already destroyed 3 armies by the time that Yes Man becomes ''more assertive''.

True, but Yes-Man is unkillable unless you bomb Vegas, which would make the whole game that happened before his hypothetical takeover pointless.

yeah, he's unkillable because if he weren't then you couldn't end the game after you've killed him. eventually he'd run out of securitons to jump to.

No, his in game reason is he is backed on the mainframe something like 1,000 times a minute or something, if you killed all his securitrons, he'd just have to shut down and destroy hoover dam, and shut off all the lights vegas, and seal the Lucky 38, playing desperate man, well, robot.

There is just no motive for Yes Man to be 'evil'.
And to the OP, don't listen to Martyr. He's the personification of TEH EVIL
He kills cute little scribe ladies just for having a voice he doesn't like, and takes joy in doing so
A typical follower of the House, with a spirit just as ill-lead and corrupted as that of his master :meh:
Don't listen to him. Leaving mankinds fate in the hands of House and his sinister minions, means its doom.

Yes Man btw, is not a libertarian. He's the metaphor for the players choice, nothing else.
He's as good or as bad as the player is.
His personality was programmed by a FotA member, an organization which views are very far away from libertarian thinking.

Actually, Lucius is third, so he becomes new Legate if Caesar dies and becomes the new Caesar if the Legate also dies.
Though having Caesar in a coma and Lanius being killed I see a real morale drop in Legion so I'd expect some internal struggles.
Still, their loyalty is so blind that Lucius would likely be accepted in a year or two and then his time to take control of how Legion runs.

I think Marcus in Jacobstown is right about the Legion in a way, though he puts too much emphasis on Caesar. Lanius can lead in his stead, perhaps indefinitely, Lucius I feel cannot. I get the feeling there'd be a power struggle if the top two dogs were cut out swiftly. The rest of the Legion is quite loyal to the Caesar but losing two so quickly...


As for House, Martyr said it best.

Of all the choices he's the only one with credentials, a true CV and an actual goal (the Legion debatably possess one). NCR want land and resources to fund the homeland, that's all, it's made abundantly clear. Legion like I said it's debatable but generally we can agree they want to take over, using force to indoctrinate and conquer.
Yes Man is the Courier, at least until the ending (his closing lines worry me), so is as good or bad as you up to the point.

House is better than the Courier. Even an INT 10 Courier is lacking, despite potentially being smarter than House (potentially, Arcade is INT 10 and has his idiot moments...) House has got too much knowledge, smarts aren't everything. He owned RobCo, he owned REPConn. House has all the access to the pre war tech and the fastest way to reboot a technological progress.


As for the BoS, I've stated my distaste for the western BoS innumerate times, talk to House about why he wants them dead and actually listen to his reasons. Humorous but valid.

I'll sell you in this regard: why is killing the Brotherhood such a bad thing?

Honestly? Of all groups, that's -THE- group that silences the natural pacifist in me and encourages me to take action. I don't see how putting an explosive collar around your neck when they meet you is seen as "friendly," and sure they may seem peaceful hiding up in their hole, but let's face it: the moment they return to the Wasteland, they're back to their crusade to take all technology from the hands of others. The endings suggest this, dialogue with Hardin suggests this, dialogue with MacNamara suggests this.

Do you REALLY want tech-zealots establishing a decent-sized base right next to a city that's protected by high-tech robots? House's demand to destroy them is the most logical offensive manuveur in the game.

Really? I thought Lucius was the leader of the Pretorian Guard, and nothing more.. Plus, wouldn't Vulpes likely try to vye for control?

@Freqnasty- Calling me names is just mean. :cryvaultboy:

Yes Man (as we all found out in a previous thread of mine) is secretly evil.

Ah that's funny, he isn't in my game. You must have a special copy. Unless of course you mean the Yes Man ending where he states that he will reprogram himself to be a bit more "assertive". Really people, "a bit more assertive" could mean anything. It could be that he doesn't need as much tending to as before, and will just do his basic chores without the Courier babysitting him, it could be a plan Mr House installed into his computer software, forseeing Yes Man's takeover. To conclude that Yes Man is "secretly evil" is not based on anything.

Edit: /\ That sounds a little more unfriendly than it was supposed to. No offense intended, of course.

No it's true, Lucius is third in charge, behind Caesar and Lanius. When Caesar dies because of his tumor, Lanius has not yet arrived in the Mojave. Therefore, the Courier at that moment reports to Lucius. I believe he also states somewhere that he's third, I think it's when you ask him if he's second-in-command.

House has the kings killed if you create an alliance between the NCR and the kings.
Ask house why he wants to kil the BoS. Because there ridicoulus? Im going to go mass murder a group of well meaning people because there ridioclous
Beatrix Russel says many people were killed when house used his securitrons to move people out of the strip


Yeah basically i never saw the reason for helping house. Between the BoS and kings, and killing innocent peoples. He probably would killl millions for his twisted idea of saving mankind by shooting off into the stars or rebuilding New Vegas

who are you to say the Courier can't stop this?

the BoS are tech-crazy people with guns, to them, the Luck 38 is a goldmine. It's certain they'd simply waltz on to the strip and try to steal Mr. House's technology, killing many people in the process. Exterminating them is the right thing to do.

How bout the kings, or the innocents who lived in the strip until house forced them out of there home and kill a couple in the process?

the kings may end up supporting a faction that wants to assassinate Mr. House, and the innocent people that were killed when Mr. House pushed them out of the Strip... That's the reason I support Yes Man.

The kings were working in a full scale relief effort for the people of freeside. You seriously think they would provide military suport for the NCR? House wiping out the kings is one of the main reasons i normally never side with house

I'm not saying that, but if yes man is as evil as the conspiracy believes, then you helping him in the game leads to him having full control over Hoover Dam, El Dorado Substation, and Vegas's power supply. He could easily hold Vegas ransom, finding some way to permanently shut them down at most, derailing manking further by decades at minimum. All of this is hypothesis, but it does have some logical backing, IE it's plausible he could do all this.

@Wrighty- Stop blaring the Kings being murdered as being the only path. The NCR never does something out of the kindness of their hearts. If House controls the Mojave, and the Kings aid the NCR, what will NCR do? They use the ruse of 'relief effort' in an attempt to give them popular support, giving them a foothold at the doorstep of Mr. House. It's like in the United States, if the Communists started spreading relief to people in the United States, where as the government is tied up in it's buerocray, the people would begin to favor the Communists, leading to the possibility of a staged Coup D'etat. Same applies to the NCR/Kings relationship. If you help the Kings start war with the NCR, House sees this as a sign of loyalty to Vegas.

My problem is that you cant have a full scale relief effort for the people of freeside caus if you do, House will send in his robots and kill all the well meaning kings. If you lead the kings to fight with trained better equipted soldiers, chances are plenty of kings will die. So with house you have a choice of all the kings dieing, or quite a few of the kings dieing. And the kings are the most well meaning and generally the coolest faction in the mojave

The problem for House isn't that there is a relief effort, it's the fact that House can forsee just what kind of devious methods the NCR could do with the kind of foothold they'd have in Freeside.

So house wont let the NCR help anyone and would kill innocents and people who actually help freeside, because they might use it against him. Real nice guy.

Maybe the NCR would use it against house but maybe not

Well, take a look at NCR in the game, name ONE time, they do something selfless. Do you see their crops going to Freeside? Do you see them protecting every town? How much effort do they put into protecting their Caravans? The NCR isnt satan, but they arent white knights. It's not so much the Kings House wants abolished, it's that they would do for NCR, helping the Kings commit war on NCR helps keep NCR influence out of Vegas.