Novac is a town in the Mojave Wasteland in 2281.
Background
Before the Great War, this community was a small hamlet built as a refueling and restroom break along Highway 95. Presently, the faded, cracked concrete and peeling buildings give the sense of depression; indeed, Novac is little more than a lonely desert highway motel, a small Brahmin ranch and multiple surrounding buildings that have been fortified for the protection of its inhabitants. Watching over them is the landmark of the area: a giant fabricated dinosaur named Dinky biting off the top of "The World's (2nd) Largest Thermometer". The interior of "Dinky" also serves as the settlement center (a converted gift shop from pre-War times, with a sniper's nest in Dinky's mouth). Dinky is the "attraction" that drew in tourists from both post and pre-War. Most of the locals are friendly folk, though most aren't trusting of outsiders. They appreciate the protection of the NCR, but are afraid of what's going on at the REPCONN Test Site up the road. The local law enforcement, Ranger Andy, is unable to investigate due to an injury, and periodic intrusions by feral ghouls and the odd Viper from the hideout down the road. The town is named Novac because of the no vacancy sign of which part of it has rusted off to say "NO VAC". "[1]
Layout
Novac consists of a residential area with several houses, including Jeannie May Crawford's house, the McBride house, No-bark's shack and a house with Novac settlers living in them. There are 3 bungalows inside the motel compound as well, where Ranger Andy and Cliff Briscoe live.
The main part of Novac is the motel area. Here you can find the Dino Bite gift shop, eight motel rooms and the Dino Dee-lite front desk, where you can buy a motel room for 100 caps from Jeannie May Crawford. Alternatively, she will give you a room free of charge once you attain Accepted status in Novac. Cliff Briscoe will give this room instead if Jeannie May Crawford dies, likely during the quest One for My Baby.
The Dino Dee-lite motel room you can acquire is located up the stairs on the immediate left after entering the motel compound. Inside it is a bed and storage facilities that are safe to store your items in. Also, in the bathroom of the motel room is a First aid box.
Across the street from the motel is a gas station with some spare parts, a workbench and a reloading bench. There are two graves you can open with a shovel beside one of the residences that runs parallel to the motel's main building, as well as a kitchen tent that traveling merchants rest in front of. Near the grave site is a shanty that contains a usable workbench. With all graves, walking near them will trigger faint, ghostly whispering.
Buildings
Inhabitants
- Doctor Straus
- Bruce Isaac
- Cliff Briscoe
- Manny Vargas
- Craig Boone
- Daisy Whitman
- Jeannie May Crawford
- No-Bark Noonan
- Novac settlers
- Alice McBride
- Dusty McBride
- Ranger Andy
- Chris Haversam (optional)
Notable loot
- D.C. Journal of Internal Medicine can be found on the bed in Ranger Andy's bungalow but must be stolen.
- That Gun is inside Dino Bite gift shop inside a locked closet behind all the rocket souvenirs on a metal shelf or sold by Cliff Briscoe at the Dinky the T-Rex shop.
- Sunset Sarsaparilla star bottle cap in the kitchen of a house called "Novac House" North-East of Jeannie May Crawford's house. The bottle cap is in the kitchen on the table to the left as the player enters.
- Sunset Sarsaparilla star bottle cap in Daisy Whitman's room, the northernmost motel room on the second floor. The cap is marked as property so taking it is stealing and you will lose Karma for doing so. It is suggested not to kill Daisy Whitman, due to her being essential to complete the quest For Auld Lang Syne.
Related quests
Notes
- There is a poster for the Museum of Technology in Bruce Isaac's motel room.
- The crafting supplies at the gas station have to be stolen. You get negative Karma for taking them.
- The two closest campfires are located in a cave west of the water tower up on the hillside and Gibson's Shack north and a little west behind Gibson Scrap Yard.
- If you go east of Novac, an unnamed raider can be found dead on a bridge (random spawn, may not always occur). This is one of the few raiders that is not a member of any group such as the Fiends or Great Khans.
- Some Jet and Med-X, as well as a Hydra, can be stolen from an unoccupied upper-floor motel room.
- Cass states that when she first saw Novac from a distance, she thought Dinky the T-Rex was a giant gecko.
- The name comes from what's left of the old "No Vacancy" sign on which all but the first five letters have fallen off, therefore becoming 'No Vac'. This way of naming a town is similar to Arefu from Fallout 3.
- Traveling merchants can frequently be found in Novac.
Appearances
Novac appears only in Fallout: New Vegas.
Behind the scenes
- Unlike most other towns in the Mojave, Novac has no real-world equivalent. There is a road crossing at US 95 and NV-165 (the road to the real-world location of Nelson, where Novac would be if it existed), but there is nothing there in the real world. However, it has the largest thermometer from Baker and Claude Bell's Dinosaurs.[2]
- Novac was the first cell developers constructed because it is better to not build tutorials around areas that will end up being destroyed, also because of game engine fluctuations.[3][4]
Bugs
- If you push Manny Vargas or Boone onto the teeth of the dinosaur and then do a Ranger Takedown on him, he will fall off of the dinosaur, and then fly back up, creating humorous results. [verified]
- [5] [verified] After the 1.6 patch, sections of the motel will not load properly, leaving working doors hanging in empty space.
- Items stored in the player's hotel room, in the wardrobe & footlocker etc., can be lost with the original junk contents replacing them. [verified]
Gallery
See also
References
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