That's..... not what you said? You said, "You can do the same thing with House, blow up Lucky 38, destroy his securitrons, damage his reactor, but Yes-Man can just jump from body to body.", implying that we can blow up the Lucky 38 and destroy the securitrons BUT Yes-Man "can just jump from body to body EVEN if we blow up Lucky 38 and destroy the mainframe". To support your point there, you asked me "how many Securitrons there are, and how many Lucky 38s in the world?", which means you're still arguing that Yes-Man can still do it's job even if Lucky 38 is destroyed, 'as long as there are still securitrons'. But if that's not what you're saying, well....
Then my previous point still stands. Which is:
Oh that one. Well, in a way, yes, that is a problem, I agree. However, I would like to point out some other interesting tibits. However, despite NCR having access to Strip and monitoring House they were not capable of cracking his security. And Yes-Man should be pretty safe, considering it took around 40 seconds to disable a bug Courier plants in lucky 38. Of course, no system is unbreachable, but if House could last for so long and he does in endings, I think Yes-Man should do the same.
Actually, let's bring it a step further. House wins, NCR trades, nukes not launched, yada, yada, yada. Even with NCR presence diminshed, House was not hacked and Vegas annexed, unlike some settlements in Fallout 2. If House, could do that, why Yes-Man could not? Both are exposed to similar risks, yet he never failed. In fact, in order to hack House network Benny needed a securitron, so NCR's attempts to hack him will most likely fail, unless they do same. Considering they will kick out followers unless you play out the things just right, thus most likely stopping them from doing so. And let us remember Hildern, who is ready to unleash a horde of parasite zombie fungus on NCR, because he wants fame and money.
Though, I get why you got that impression. My point was that it's easier to kill House than get rid of Yes-man, but let's leave it at that.
Also, regarding some previous posts:
They might get pissed off, but they won't be AS pissed off if you nuke their route to advance eastward. No matter if you support House or Yes-Man, both need to keep President Kimball alive so him (and to an extent, General Oliver) would take the blame for the campaign's failure. Even House would predict a dip in revenue for a few months in advance, maybe half a year tops. But after that, money would start pouring and perhaps even more than ever. In no way the NCR could ever cut off the trade with the Mojave because, remember, the Mojave is self-sufficient enough to contain a massive farmland like NCR Sharecropper Farm (the NCR need that farm in the Mojave because of the famine back west), and I imagine more like that would be established on good soil across the Mojave. Coupled that with all of those clean water from Lake Mead and Colorado River, AND the most important of them all: electricity from the Dam.... you get what I'm saying. Mr. House established the strongest position in the trade with the NCR, and made them an offer they couldn't refuse.
As for corrupt Brahmin Barons, remember that Hanlon called out Kimball's and Oliver's incompetency, and is elected as the new Senator of Redding. I'd say with a powerful man like him in NCR Ruling Council, they would soon be able to solve themselves of their internal problems.
About the Sharecropper Farms, actually that's not entirely correct. It's true they supply the NCR, but not the one back west, straight from Wiki and a direct quote: "
It's NCR owned farmland. It produces a lot of the crops that supply McCarran and the Dam. The farmers are all civilians, though. They work the farms, and in return they get a safe place to stay and clean food and water. Some of 'em aren't all that grateful, though."
Also in Fallout 2, if you did things right, which is not confirmed to be canon, but it could be and most likely is, considering how much did NCR expand: "
Relations between the Slags and residents of Modoc flourished. Between the two peoples, Modoc prospers and becomes a major farming community, supplying all the outlying regions with food"
So, it's not as much farms that keeps NCR citizens alive, rather it keeps their troops and civilians in Mojave well stocked with vegetables. While, I am not denying that NCR is reliant on the DAM, but the water from Lake Mead goes to Sharecropper farms and is mostly meant for NCR in Mojave. So, basically what I am saying is, it will hurt NCR and it's citizens to lose the dam, with electricity becoming most likely a major problem, with Broken Hills running out of Uranium and all that fun stuff. However, I wouldn't be surprised if there were some power plants back in the NCR at this point. I mean, can you imagine a whole country without electricity until they reached Hoover Dam? I mean, Vault City did have working Fusion Generator, so yeah.
Also Gecko – Fallout 2: "
Optimizing Gecko's power plant became the first step in forging a spirit of cooperation between Gecko and Vault City. Gecko's increased power production became instrumental in helping Vault City's expansion. The harsh xenophobia of many of Vault City's leaders faded into obscurity while ghoul and human labored side-by-side to create a center of learning and tolerance where once had stood only enmity and distrust"
Of course, it's nothing more, but an assumption, but I think it rather safe to asssume, it is correct. Sure, NCR citizens could riot with lack of energy, but with some proper politics and media coverage, like with Great Khans they could simply say that they were betrayed by Mr.House after protecting him from the Legion for many years.
He is still just one man. Those barons are most likely stuck in a deep web of different arrangements, so I think even him will have a hard time cracking that. Rather I believe, the region Hanlon rules is both peaceful and fair Also, after spending so much time under so much pressure, I doubt he is going to jump the gun to deal with corrupted goverment. He is simply tired by the conflict and Mojave draining them dry.
Yeah, but you also have to consider this. The world of Fallout.... I'm sure as hell that even though it's been 200 years since the Great War, they all understand such a power contained within even a single nuclear warhead that's enough to put an entire nation like the still-growing NCR to the torch. A man who holds the access to such power would be recognized to be a powerful man, because with a single motion the man can wipe out a civilization even if it wouldn't be on global scale of Great War. But in the world of Fallout.... the actual act of dooming a nation or two to yet another nuclear holocaust would definitely paint the man as a cruel, selfish, insane person who either didn't learn from past, or just a batshit insane psychopath who had finally 'done it' and would do it again if the man want it. I'm sure it has been said before, and said better than I do here. You can argue that it's dumb, but it's the message that Lonesome Road meant to deliver, and not just to give the player some opportunity to put a nuke above someone's head, or to finally give a real form to Ulysses, or to give some restricted background for the Courier. Too bad, like you said, LR was disappointing because the overall impact (not just to reputation) felt pretty much negligible.
I will add something more. The fact, that you either destroy the nukes or let them launch. You can't stop them, unless you sacrifice E-de and then the silo still blows up, losing all the arsenal. I mean, just a threat of having those nukes would keep NCR and legion at bay, but noooo, we have to use them no matter what.
You see, it's a bad choice one way or another, but if I remember correctly, there aren't enough Nukes to destroy the NCR or the Legion, rather it targets the trade routes and closes their access to Mojave.
Or at least, that's how I saw it, considering the fact that Ulysses said: "Not enough Nukes to kill, just cut it's throat". So, really, I can see your point. Nuking both sides is bad idea, but really, the game should award you for you know stopping the apocalypse? It's really disappointing, no sense of acknolwegement or rewards, except some minor increase in reputation...
, I'm sure I'm not the only on who will appreciate the effort. I also know the woes of spinning tires in a thread trying to ensure my own perspective is understood. Sometimes a long post is required to do so.
