Fallout: New Vegas/Characters/New California: Difference between revisions

A democratic republic from [[Exactly What It Says On the Tin|California]] with holdings in Nevada, Oregon and Baja. Originated from a group of survivors of Vault 15 and the small town of Shady Sands, the NCR has since become the largest and most powerful known faction in the wasteland. Basing their development model and values on the ideals of the pre-war United States, they are dedicated to restoring order and progress to the Wasteland but also have some really aggressive expansionist policies. Which resulted in them over extending themselves and put a heavy toll on their economy. They are currently seeking to annex the entire Mojave Wasteland though the use of both diplomacy and military force.

 

* [[Badass Army]]: The majority of the NCR forces avert this; they're poorly-trained, demoralized and little better than conscript soldiers, with their biggest advantage being [[We Have Reserves|manpower]]. The Rangers and First Recon, however, are at least a match for the best of Caesar's Legion, and the Heavy Troopers get an honorable mention despite the kitbashed equipment they have to work with.

** Compared to the Legion counterpart, the NCR troopers in general are poorly trained. But this is balanced out by their equipment; they have better armor and all of them have guns thanks to the Gun Runners, who supplied the military as well as selling personal weapons to the soldiers.

** {{spoiler|As mentioned above, the best ending for Primm will be for the town to get annexed by the NCR. The town will be rebuild and turned into a major trade center.}}

** {{spoiler|The best ending for the Followers of Apocalypse is only available if you make them cooperate with the NCR. In which they will be able to continue caring for the less fortunate citizens in New Vegas. Originally it was unavailable due to a bug in the game's programming, but has now fixed by the last patch.}}

{{quote| '''Courier:''' "Excuse me, do you mind {{spoiler|giving Sheriff Meyers a pardon}}/ {{spoiler|allowing the Great Khans to leave peacefully}}/{{spoiler|not attacking the super mutants}}?<br />

'''NCR officer:''' "Sorry, doing so is against the rules."<br />

General Lee Oliver is the head of the NCR Army in the Mojave Wasteland. Often mocked for being ineffective and not doing much, content to sit and watch the Legion grow across the Colorado, resulting in pleasant nicknames such as General Wait-And-See.

 

* [[Armchair Military]]: Why he's not particularly popular amongst the troops.

* [[Badass Boast]]: Makes a few of these if you try to talk him off in the House/Independent endings, for all the good that does him.

{{quote| ''"You're not just pissin' on me. You're pissin' on the bear!"''}}

* [[Cruel Mercy]]: If he's talked into surrendering, House states that he'll be publicly disgraced and held responsible for the loss of not only the Mojave but the countless lives of soldiers, along with...

* [[Driven to Suicide]]: {{spoiler|House gives him around a 40% chance of doing this in his ending. Probably applies to the Independent route, too.}}

* [[Jerkass]]

** [[Straw Man Has a Point|Jerkass Has A Point]]: If you take the Wild Card ending and successfully bluff him out of attacking you, he'll have a brief conversation with you criticizing you for thinking you have what it takes to build a nation (build roads, train troops, maintain trade routes, etc.). At first this may just look like Oliver being, well, Oliver, but when you think about it, he does have a point about a random package courier not being the best person to run New Vegas. {{spoiler|He actually is partly right; the Courier doesn't have what it takes to build an NCR-style liberal democracy or provide widespread support and social services for the people, but that outcome may not be what he/she sees as best for the Mojave.}}

* [[Kaizo Trap]]: In the House and Independence endings; while Oliver himself dies quite easily, his 5 [[Elite Mooks|Veteran Ranger]] bodyguards armed with brush guns are entirely capable of mowing down a level 30 power-armor wearing player before the Securitrons can kill them, if the player tries to make a stand and fight instead of running away and letting the Securitrons do their job. (The rate of fire on the brush gun has been noticeably reduced after the most recent patch, so this doesn't happen quite as often, although it can still occur).

* [[Meaningful Name]]: Probably named after General Robert E. Lee and General Oliver P. Smith.

* [[Only Sane Man]]: He's the only very high ranking NCR officer without some huge flaw. For example, Moore and Oliver are both violent and jingoistic, Oliver is an [[Obstructive Bureaucrat]] and [[General Failure]], and Chief Hanlon is {{spoiler|actively trying to undermine NCR morale}}.

* [[Reasonable Authority Figure]]

* [[Stealth Pun]]/[[Punny Name]]: ''Very'' subtly done, especially given the spelling of his name (as opposed to the more phonetic Shu). He is referred to in dialogue simply as Colonel Hsu and the HUD gives his full name, Col. James Hsu: Only through the Power of [[Fridge Logic]] does one notice that in a casual setting his name could be ''Jim'' Hsu...

 

=== Colonel Cassandra Moore ===

The third highest ranking NCR military officer in the Mojave and the commander of the forces at Hoover Dam.

 

* [[Berserk Button]]: Of all the factions of Vegas, Moore has a special hatred for the Brotherhood due to them being long-time enemies of the NCR and having lost plenty of men to them.

** She was also [[Kicked Upstairs]] because of an injury she sustained fighting them. Now she's stuck behind a desk she doesn't really want.

* [[General Ripper]]: Especially towards the Brotherhood. Only partially justified because in the battle of HELIOS ONE, she received a crippling injury which forced her early retirement as a ranger that she is very bitter about, even though she was promoted to Colonel after that.

* [[Glory Hound]]: Some [[Dummied Out]] content reveals that she gets promoted post-game in the event of an NCR ending - most-likely due to taking credit for the Courier's missions.

* [[Iron Lady]]

* [[Jerkass]]: At the least, [[Word of God|J.E. Sawyer]] believes that Moore should be of Evil alignment, which she is in a mod that he created.

* [[Kick the Dog]]: Although somewhat justified considering the various factions of Vegas, she favors aggressive military action towards even the Kings, one of the few good factions of the Mojave.

* [[Noodle Incident]]: Evidently got kicked out of Gomorrah at some point.

* [[Retired Badass]]: Used to a Ranger until an injury sustained while fighting the Brotherhood forced her to take a desk job.

** Also Red to Colonel Hsu's Blue. Moore's a hot head who considers violence as a first option. Hsu is more level-headed.

* [[Token Evil Teammate]]: For the NCR.

The commander of the NCR Rangers in the Mojave, stationed in Camp Golf. Responsible for winning the first Battle of Hoover Dam against Joshua Graham.

 

* [[Cool Old Guy]]

* [[Guile Hero]]: When asked what his proudest achievement is during his long career as a Ranger, Hanlon doesn't talk about Hoover Dam or any other military campaign, but rather tells a story about a group of NCR settlers who had gone missing and whom Hanlon was dispatched to find. Upon finding them, he finds that they have taken over the only water supply in the entire area, and had "self-defensed" hundreds of indigenous people to death when they tried to reclaim their water. Hanlon tricked the settlers into believing the tribals had succeeded in wiping out Hanlon's entire Ranger squad (when in fact Hanlon had been sent alone), scaring them into abandoning the settlement and returning to California with Hanlon and thus ending the situation without further bloodshed. This provides an insight into how Hanlon views himself, and somewhat explains his decision to {{spoiler|fake demoralizing battle reports to drop NCR morale, in order to force an end to the Mojave Campaign and have the troops return home to California.}}

* {{spoiler|[[Driven to Suicide]]}}: {{spoiler|If the Courier chooses to expose the fact that he's been falsifying information, he gives a speech through the intercom to his men before committing suicide.}}

* {{spoiler|[[Heel Realization]]}}: {{spoiler|If you have killed Caesar or discovered his illness, you can end the Return to Sender quest by telling Halon that the Legion will be a massive threat to all of the NCR without their leading ideologist alive, which causes Halon to come back to his senses and agree to stop falsifying the reports. Going with this option also means that he is not [[Driven to Suicide]]}}.

* [[Revolvers Are Just Better]]: Has a Ranger Sequoia like all NCR Rangers.

* [[The Rival]]: To Oliver. Hanlon considers him a [[General Failure]] while Oliver wants to use the second Battle of Hoover Dam as his chance to outshine him.

* [[Kicked Upstairs]]: He claimed that he was given position due to his support to Kimball during the election. However, if you read the reports written by his predecessors, being the ambassador to New Vegas is considered to be the worst job in the NCR government.

* [[Reasonable Authority Figure]]: He prefer diplomacy unlike most NCR leadership who would rather use violence.

 

=== President Aaron Kimball ===

 

* [[Big Good]]: In the eyes of many NCR citizens.

{{quote| '''Kimball:''' ''(To his bodyguards)'' Okay, let's get the fuck out of here. What the hell are you waiting for – do you think I want to get shot? Let's go.}}

* [[Jerkass]]: According the the comments of numerous NCR NPCs, he's a greedy, imperialistic dick who just cares about annexing everything he sees. {{spoiler|Could potentially be a case of [[The Extremist Was Right]] if you help the NCR take control of the Mojave}}.

* [[Our Presidents Are Different]]: President Target, to be exact. Depending on who you side with, you'll either help his speech or his assassination go off without a hitch, or interrupt both if you can't stand the blowhard but are bound by the mission to save him.

* [[Rousing Speech]]: The reason why he traveled to Hoover Dam is to give one of these. But things will go horribly wrong unless you intervene.

* [[Shout Out]]: The solider that he awards a medal to is clearly a [[Forrest Gump]] [[Expy]].

{{quote| ''"Alright, let's get the fuck out of here."''}}

* [[Worthy Opponent]]: Caesar, of all people, actually considers him to to one and described Kimball as 'a man of potential' since he approves of Kimball's heavy handed and expansionist policies when dealing with the raider tribes that attacked the NCR back when he was a general. However, Caesar despise the fact that instead of using his influence to seize control of the republic via a military coup, Kimball choose to be democratically elected instead.

 

** [[Cool Shades]]: Everyone but 10 of Spades, who just wears normal glasses.

** [[Determinator]]: Sterling was tortured to the point his hands and feet were fucked up. Instead of letting that slow him down, ''he escaped captivity by crawling away on his knees and elbows.''

** [[Submissive Badass]]: Betsy. In fact, it's the best way to resolve the quest to get her therapy, via going drill sergeant on her and telling her she needs to be psychologically fit to fight or she's useless as a soldier. Gorobets wanted to do this, but due to being aware of his own chronic [[A Father to His Men]] tendencies he asks a third party (the Courier) to get her to seek help because he was afraid of straining relations with his subordinate by being a hardass.

* [[Black and Nerdy]]: 10 of Spades has comic books under his bed.

* [[Dark and Troubled Past]]: Corporal Sterling was an Ranger who was tortured and nearly killed by the Legion before being transferred to First Recon, Bitter-Root was at Bitter Springs on the Khan’s side, and Corporal Betsy is recovering from the emotional trauma of being raped by Cook-Cook.

* [[Defector From Decadence]]: Bitter-Root, who used to be one of the Khans.

** [[The Hero]]: Gorobets

** [[The Lancer]]: Bitter-Root

* [[I Call It Vera]]: "La Longue Carabine", Sterling's custom scoped Cowboy Repeater.

* [[Improbable Aiming Skills]]: A bullet through the eye from 800 yards, indeed. What makes it more amazing is the fact that only Sterling has a scope on his rifle.

* [[Memetic Badass]]: In-universe.

* [[New Meat]]: 10 of Spades, called so because he's not yet the Ace of Spades. {{color|white|That would be Pacer.}}

* [[There Are No Therapists]]: Averted. Bitter-Root and 10 of Spades have both been to therapy, and an entire quest is devoted to getting Betsy to go.

* [[Unfriendly Fire]]: Bitter-Root implies that {{spoiler|he used the confusion doing the NCR's attack on Bitter Springs to "settle some scores" with the other Khans}}.

* [[Video Game Cruelty Potential]]: You can tell 10 of Spades it was his fault that {{spoiler|Betsy was raped}} and make fun of his stutter. Twice. If you mock him enough, he'll eventually refuse to speak to you.