How did the Courier forget? (Lonesome Road Spoilers)

[Tribe Reimanen]

One thing i never understood about LR is how the Courier forgot about Ashton and Hopeville. He helped build the entire settlement by delivering packages, helping civilians, etc, untill he delivers the detonator. After the explosion the just forgets the place existed or something, even asking "What happened here?" To Ulysses upon seeing the Divide. The FNV Wiki is also not giving me any type of answer.

[Valden21]

That's because the Courier is a courier. In-game dialogue indicates that the Courier works for a delivery service that spans the Mojave and the surrounding areas, so even though the Courier HAD been to Ashton and Hopeville, they probably forgot due to all the other places they had visited as part of that job. Aston's entry on the Fallout wiki implies that the device which made the nukes detonate was triggered via remote transmission, so the Courier didn't actually activate it; that happened automatically once the Courier got close enough to the settlement. It's very likely that the Courier didn't actually know what they were carrying, and just thought it was a delivery of supplies from Navarro, as both Ashton and Hopeville were part of a crucial supply line for the NCR.

[psychotron666420]

It's purposefully left open to interpretation so it doesn't restrict the clean slate character background many enjoy in RPGs.
Hence why you can ask in the base game "what is NCR" like you know nothing about them.

Possible but all viable answers include

1. The courier had amnesia from being shot in the head or the explosion in the divide itself

2. Ulysses simply has you mistaken for a different person

3. Ulysses was the one who did it (hence him being kept alive by the robots in the divide but the courier not being all ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up like Ulysses is from the explosion) and his madness/grief has projected his actions onto you - a figure he can blame and destroy.

4. The courier subconsciously blocked out the memories from the divide as some tend to do in traumatic situations.
After all there is an anomaly about your brain - as is the center of the old world Blues dlc.

5. The courier is a raging drug addict who regularly mixes multiple contradictory drugs (as is evident by about 70% of the player base playstyle, especially considering all the Logan's loophole trait builds there are) and it's either had its toll or simply the courier doesn't care to remember.

Remember to note as a rule of thumb, especially in well written RPGs with lots of dialogue choices, just because you CAN say some dialogue options that hint at something in your past or lack of knowledge about something, doesn't mean your character is bound to that.
For example just because you can tell Bruce Isaac that you've seen him sing in new Reno, doesn't mean that's true for your character unless you pick the dialogue and want it to be true (because maybe you're also lying to stroke his ego?)

It's about the options of role playing your character. Maybe your guy actually knowns nothing about ncr at the beginning of the game, or maybe he knows a lot and simply doesn't ask those questions.

[Vex Hilarius]

If you were a mailman and you deliver something to a location you haven't been to in a while, then find that location is completely different, would you know what happened to it?

[pontfogel]

Originally posted by psychotron666420:

It's purposefully left open to interpretation so it doesn't restrict the clean slate character background many enjoy in RPGs.
Hence why you can ask in the base game "what is NCR" like you know nothing about them.

Possible but all viable answers include

1. The courier had amnesia from being shot in the head or the explosion in the divide itself

2. Ulysses simply has you mistaken for a different person

3. Ulysses was the one who did it (hence him being kept alive by the robots in the divide but the courier not being all ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up like Ulysses is from the explosion) and his madness/grief has projected his actions onto you - a figure he can blame and destroy.

4. The courier subconsciously blocked out the memories from the divide as some tend to do in traumatic situations.
After all there is an anomaly about your brain - as is the center of the old world Blues dlc.

5. The courier is a raging drug addict who regularly mixes multiple contradictory drugs (as is evident by about 70% of the player base playstyle, especially considering all the Logan's loophole trait builds there are) and it's either had its toll or simply the courier doesn't care to remember.

Remember to note as a rule of thumb, especially in well written RPGs with lots of dialogue choices, just because you CAN say some dialogue options that hint at something in your past or lack of knowledge about something, doesn't mean your character is bound to that.
For example just because you can tell Bruce Isaac that you've seen him sing in new Reno, doesn't mean that's true for your character unless you pick the dialogue and want it to be true (because maybe you're also lying to stroke his ego?)

It's about the options of role playing your character. Maybe your guy actually knowns nothing about ncr at the beginning of the game, or maybe he knows a lot and simply doesn't ask those questions.

Now that's a great answer!

[Rage]

the divided exploded during the couriers time couriering. meaning at some point he went to ashton and hopeville, then at some point when not around a quake happened which set it off and the passages most travels went down would of been ruined. then the radiation and storms would of prevented the courier service from sending people into it so they didnt lose packages to the radiation and unstable land.

[Facetable]

The delivery of the device to Ashton/Hopeville was just one of their jobs as a courier. So regardless of what the circumstances were behind the delivery (whether they knew what they were doing or not) they left after the job was done and later wound up getting shot/amnesia in the Platinum Chip job. It’s possible The Courier may have gone back and saw what had happened, but unless they had known about the device, they could’ve gone on without understanding what had caused the destruction, then got amnesia for everything after the chip job

[Tribe Reimanen]

Originally posted by Power Fisting Lesbian:

If you were a mailman and you deliver something to a location you haven't been to in a while, then find that location is completely different, would you know what happened to it?

You would have heard about the 2 towns becoming the most dangerous place on earth though right? and you would remember where it was?

[Yzal]

Courier dropped package and leaves.
Ashton/Hopeville goes down in flames.

Ulysses is literally shooting the messenger.

[Tribe Reimanen]

Originally posted by Lazy Dog:

Courier dropped package and leaves.
Ashton/Hopeville goes down in flames.

Ulysses is literally shooting the messenger.

The courier didnt just drop a package, he spent a lot of time fixing the place up and went on a lot of trips delivering packages.

[Doctor Go-Go]

Since when were add-ons and expansions required to make sense?

[psychotron666420]

Originally posted by 2021camero:

Originally posted by psychotron666420:

It's purposefully left open to interpretation so it doesn't restrict the clean slate character background many enjoy in RPGs.
Hence why .

So basically crap writting.

The dlc is the worst thing about Fallout New vegas. They are either outlandish or make me question the narrative in a bad way.

In terms of an RPG, no it's not bad writing at all. Being allowed the freedom of roleplay is the main staple of a role playing game, and restricting that like fallout 3 did with the forced back story restricts roleplay heavily.

If it was a movie,maybe you'd have an argument that it's not good writing, but for handling an RPG and allowing people character freedom, it's well done.

[psychotron666420]

Originally posted by 2021camero:

Originally posted by psychotron666420:

In terms of an RPG, no it's not bad writing at all. Being allowed the freedom of roleplay is the main staple of a role playing game, and restricting that like fallout 3 did with the forced back story restricts roleplay heavily.

If it was a movie,maybe you'd have an argument that it's not good writing, but for handling an RPG and allowing people character freedom, it's well done.

Originally posted by psychotron666420:

In terms of an RPG, no it's not bad writing at all. Being allowed the freedom of roleplay is the main staple of a role playing game, and restricting that like fallout 3 did with the forced back story restricts roleplay heavily.

If it was a movie,maybe you'd have an argument that it's not good writing, but for handling an RPG and allowing people character freedom, it's well done.

Enough damage controlling New Vegas has crap writing. Can't hold a candle to Morrowind, B gate II, FFIX, DAO. You can't just "suposedly have a blank slate charater like this. Then take that away 2 DLCs later. What a crap villan too. I would rather run through the death maze or talk with the lab geeks again.

It is by FAR the worst DLC in the game.

What part of purposefully ambiguous don't you understand. It's left purposefully ambiguous so it doesn't ruin the blank slate. Enough variables that it can be completely true or completely false.

And how is morrowind "so much better" in terms of writing for rpg choices and consequences? Morrowind is my favourite game period, but it has little to zero choices in dialogue or quests that actually impact the story in any way.

The story plays out the same way every time, it's already set in stone from the beginning. New Vegas has 4 distinct paths, with tons of variations between that path that consists of the main story. In terms of RPG and role playing, it's not even comparable.

Morrowind is more written like a movie with a set story. New Vegas is written like an RPG that plays out depending on choices made by the player.