I Could Make You Care

 is a quest in Fallout: New Vegas.

Initiating the Quest
This quest is triggered by Veronica seeing things around the Mojave that cause her to question the wisdom of the Brotherhood of Steel remaining hidden underground and not interacting with the world. There are nine triggered conversations throughout the Mojave Wasteland that Veronica will initiate in response to nine different situations she and the Courier may encounter together. Completing three of the conversations will activate this quest. Some of them can only be triggered by lines of dialogue that only happen once, so if the player has already heard that line before recruiting Veronica, the trigger won't occur. Note that there are three triggers that can never go away - the main doors at Camp McCarran Terminal building, the entrance ramp of Vault 3, and traveling near Nelson or Cottonwood Cove. The Boomers museum trigger can be activated even if the player has already heard the tour, but not if Pete and the boomers are hostile.

Note: If she doesn't initiate the listed conversation, it may initiate if the player talks to her via companion wheel or waits 30 seconds or so. There is a delay in the conversation trigger, and it won't trigger if the player is in conversation with someone else.

Here are the nine triggers, and the things Veronica says:
 * Casa Madrid Apartments - The trigger is some of Tom Anderson's lines. Specifically, the line, "I'm with the Followers of the Apocalypse...," (responding to the question, "What do you do here?"), and all of his lines confessing to the murder of Corporal White (part of the quest The White Wash). All of these lines are only given once. Veronica contrasts his good cause and lack of resources with the Brotherhood of Steel's incredible resources but lack of a good cause.
 * Vault 3 - The trigger area is on the outside, about a third of the way down the ramp to the door. Veronica talks about how the Fiends are giving the NCR more trouble than the Brotherhood ever did.
 * Nelson or Cottonwood Cove - The trigger is the player traveling to somewhere near either location and staying for 30 seconds or so. There is only one trigger, so going to both locations won't count as two triggers. (Some sources, including the official guide, say Nipton may also work, but the GECK doesn't seem to have a trigger for it, and in testing it didn't work.) Veronica comments on savages taking over the Mojave.
 * Camp McCarran Terminal building - The trigger area is just inside the terminal building, at the center set of main triple doors or the eastern set of triple doors closest to Colonel Hsu's office. The third set of triple doors on the west side will not trigger the conversation, as there is no trigger zone there. It is not necessary to pass through the doors; just walk very near them on the inside of the terminal. Veronica talks about her surprise at how many NCR troops there are.
 * Nellis Air Force Base - The Boomers museum. The player just needs to listen to Pete's lecture in front of the mural. The trigger is the last line of his speech. Veronica remarks on the similarities between the Boomers and the Brotherhood of Steel.
 * Old Mormon Fort - The trigger is Julie Farkas's line, "Are you here to drop off medical supplies? ..." which only happens the first time the player meets her. Veronica is impressed with the work they're doing.
 * Camp McCarran Terminal building - The trigger is the line, "A pleasure to meet you! I'm Dr. Thomas Hildern..." This line only happens when the player first meets Hildern. Veronica talks about the NCR investing in new research, unlike the Brotherhood.
 * REPCONN Test Site - The trigger is Jason Bright's line, "We wish to escape the barbarity of the wasteland..." which is his response to the first question about the "Great Journey." This line is only given once. Veronica compares Jason Bright to her old mentor, Elijah.
 * Silver Rush - The triggers are Gloria Van Graff's greeting "Welcome to the Silver Rush..." and her line "Please let me know if anything catches your eye." which is the response to the player saying, "I'm just browsing." Some of these lines will not happen during certain stages of Birds of a Feather. Veronica comments on all the energy weapons.

Some events may force the quest to start at a later stage, even if three of the above triggers haven't happened.
 * Hidden Valley - Have Veronica open the bunker door after having armed Archimedes II during That Lucky Old Sun and having separately obtained Euclid's C-Finder. (Confirmed PC: The quest will start with "Bring the rangefinder to the elder" but you can do the quest normally.)
 * Go to Gibson's Shack south of Helios One with Veronica and use the console to unlock the terminal there. (This never forced the quest to start on my playthrough - I specifically went there to see Veronica could unlock the terminal, but it didn't work. Some other feedback is needed)


 * The quest sometimes seems to be activated without ever having Veronica in the party, possibly by picking up the rangefinder. However, if you try to return the rangefinder to the elder, as the quest says, nothing will happen. There is no speech option to tell the elder about the weapon.

Preliminaries

 * Get the quest to begin by recruiting Veronica and activating three of the nine triggers listed above.
 * Veronica will ask the player to go to Hidden Valley, as she has something she needs to do. Agree to go.
 * Visit the Elder in charge, either McNamara or Hardin, depending on whether the player has finished Still in the Dark and the outcome of that quest.
 * Veronica will try to convince the Elder that the Brotherhood needs to grow and change. The Elder will not be interested.
 * Veronica will ask the player to help her find some data or technology that will help her convince the Elder. She will suggest going to one of her old mentor Elijah's data terminals.
 * The terminal is in Gibson's Shack, near the Gibson Scrap Yard.

Acquiring the technology

 * The player and Veronica will find data on three interesting technologies, only one of which is necessary to continue the quest.
 * Option 1: Euclid's C-Finder & Archimedes II:
 * If the player has already completed That Lucky Old Sun without diverting power to Archimedes II, this option cannot be completed. It also appears that if That Lucky Old Sun has been completed at all and/or the player has obtained Euclid's C-Finder, choosing this option during this quest may lead to glitches.
 * If not already done, complete That Lucky Old Sun and divert the power to Archimedes II. Note that it is not necessary to activate Archimedes, the base-protection technology that will kill the NCR soldiers.
 * The clues will take the player around to Miguel's Pawn Shop, Vault 21, and Freeside. It's not necessary to follow the chain of clues, but may be enjoyable or provide experience.
 * Obtain Euclid's C-Finder from Max in Freeside. It can be taken while he sleeps, bought (at a large discount with 45 barter), or pickpocketed.
 * Option 2: New farming technology:
 * If the player has already completed There Stands the Grass and allowed Keely to delete the data, this option cannot be completed. It also appears that if There Stands the Grass has been completed at all, choosing this option can lead to glitches.
 * If not already done, complete There Stands the Grass and do not allow Keely to delete the data. Make sure to leave with a copy of the data in the player's Pip-Boy.
 * Option 3: Pulse Gun:
 * (Optional) The player can obtain the key to the box containing the Pulse Gun from a filing cabinet in Pearl's office at Nellis Air Force Base. This removes the requirement of picking a very hard (100) lock.
 * The player needs to go to Vault 34 and eventually open the overseer's office, and unlock the armory door. In the armory is the very hard locked box with the Pulse Gun.
 * On an unpatched game, the Pulse Gun may sometimes be purchased from the Silver Rush. This was fixed in the first patch.
 * Note that at any time while doing Options 1 or 2, the player can go get the key from Nellis Air Force Base or the Pulse Gun from Vault 34 and switch to Option 3; it's not necessary to talk to Veronica and explicitly switch paths. It is not clear if the other direction (switching from option 3 to 1 or 2) will work.

The Brotherhood is not pleased

 * Return to the Elder. Veronica will show him the technology. He will remain unconvinced.
 * Veronica will ask the player's opinion about whether she should stay in the Brotherhood or leave. The player can choose for her, or can tell her it is her choice, in which case she will stay.
 * Veronica will want to go outside to get some air. Outside will be a team of rogue Brotherhood of Steel paladins who are angry at Veronica and the player for spreading subversive ideas. The player must deal with them in one of the following ways:
 * If Veronica decided to leave the Brotherhood:
 * The player tells them so, and they let Veronica leave, but tell Veronica never to come back.
 * Note that killing the paladins at this point will fail the quest and make Veronica leave.
 * If Veronica decided to stay, the paladins are not so easily dissuaded. The only solutions are:
 * Pass a 95 speech check to get them to leave peacefully. As above, killing the paladins after succeeding the check will fail the quest and make Veronica permanently leave the player.
 * Scare them off with Terrifying Presence, which is only a temporary solution. They will be there every time the player returns to the Hidden Valley bunker until one of the permanent solutions is taken.
 * Fast travel before the lead paladin can speak, which like the previous option is merely temporary.
 * Kill them all. The player will not gain infamy with the Brotherhood by killing them, at least if they shoot first.

Conclusion

 * Once the paladins are dealt with, the next actions depend on whether Veronica decided to leave the Brotherhood or remain a member.
 * Option 1: Veronica remains a member:
 * Veronica comments about her decision, and the difficulties of staying with such a dogmatic group.
 * The quest concludes. The player gets 1000xp and Veronica gets the Bonds of Steel perk.
 * Option 2: Veronica decides to leave:
 * Veronica expresses an interest in joining the Followers of the Apocalypse. She suggests going to the Followers' outpost.
 * At the outpost talk to Doctor Alvarez about Veronica joining. She says that Dr. Schiller makes the decisions, and he's gone for the day.
 * Go away from the outpost and wait at least 24 hours.
 * Upon returning to the outpost, the player will find the rogue paladins, who have slaughtered all the Followers of the Apocalypse and patients, and accuse the player and Veronica of sharing forbidden knowledge with outsiders. There's no way around it -- the rogue paladins all need killin'. Killing them will not gain Brotherhood infamy and will not make Veronica leave.
 * Veronica will blame herself, but it just reinforces that she made the right decision.
 * The quest concludes. The player gets 1000xp and Veronica gets the Causeless Rebel perk.

Bugs

 * After obtaining the Pulse Gun, your pipboy may still show the objective "find the Pulse Gun in Vault 34".
 * SOLUTION: Drop the Pulse Gun on the ground and wait for several seconds; pick it back up. The Quest should update and ask you to return to the Elder.


 * If the player has completed There Stands the Grass prior to starting this quest, it's impossible to finish the quest with the "farming technology" even if the data was not destroyed by Keely. The quest directs you to the terminal in Vault 22, which no longer has the data. (Verified PC)


 * Activating the Archimedes II weapon system and gaining the Rangefinder before you initiate this quest will automatically flag the journal to tell you to return to the Elder after activating the terminal in Gibson's shack. If you go get a second technology, the quest is seemingly broken. Neither Veronica or the Elder will have conversation options to continue further, and neither will initiate their dialogue scripts between the two, despite there being periods where you cannot talk to either one after coming close to the Elder.


 * After leaving Gibson's Shack after downloading Elijah's data, Veronica may not comment no matter how long she's been with you or how many places you've gone together. Her only response to anything is What's up?.
 * NOTE: Just because Veronica says what's up, does not mean she is stuck in the glitch. So before you give up hope, cross your fingers and take her to another conversation-trigger location.
 * FURTHER NOTE: If you leave the shack before speaking to Veronica, then just go back into the shack and re-download the data, and speak to Veronica before leaving the shack. Fixed!
 * SOLUTION You have to speak to Veronica when you are still in the shack. However, if you have already completed the Helios One and Vault 22 missions, you may get an infinite loop of dialogue, that does not allow you to exit the conversation. It is meant to be done in order.
 * SOLUTION A possible fix to this glitch is to fast travel to Vault 22 and ride the maintenance elevator. This might also fix the bug where Veronica mysteriously disappears after the PC enters the Brotherhood bunker.
 * Console Workaround commands See the discussion under http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Talk:I_Could_Make_You_Care#Possible_console_command_workaround_to_start_I_Could_Make_You_Care
 * WORKAROUND A possible workaround to Veronica being stuck only commenting with What's up? is to steal the Euclid's C-Finder from Max who is in Freeside.  As long as you do not activate the terminal in Gibson's shack or retrieve another piece of technology this workaround should work (Unconfirmed if retrieving any of the requested technologies will also cause this workaround).  This will start the quest and advance it to the point where you return to the Brotherhood with the technology.  After you return to the bunker you can advance the quest normally till it is finished.  The following conditions were met when it worked: 1) Did not visit hidden valley and talk to the BoS (with or without Veronica).  2) Had not retrieved any other piece(s) of I Could Make You Care technology.  3) Had not visited Gibson's shack.  4) Directed the power at HELIOS to the ARCHENEMIES II.  It appears that taking Veronica to the BoS before starting the I Could Make You Care quest will cause this workaround to not work.  However, using the other methods to opening BoS's bunker is uncertain that it will glitch the quest.  If the this quest is not glitched it will appear after taking her to three of the locations and then direct you to Hidden Valley.  If you have already taken her to hidden valley and talked to the BoS then you may have to revert to an earlier save.  NOTE: I have lost misplaced the save which pre getting the Euclid's C-Finder.  Any additional information on the conditions (such as other technologies which trigger, gaining access without Victoria, etc) that still allow this workaround to work would be quite beneficial to the community as I know I am know I am not the only who was quite frustrated trying to get this quest to work.  Additionally, it might be a good idea to create a table on the talk page listing the different conditions (listed above) and various solutions and if it worked or not.


 * The encounter with the Paladins outside the bunker may not spawn, stopping the quest from progressing. This can be fixed by re-entering and exiting the bunker until they turn up. It may take four or five attempts before they appear.


 * While talking to the Elder, both Veronica and the Elder will freeze in place and will not respond to attempts at communication. Upon reloading, the Elder spouts three phrases, and Veronica is unresponsive.


 * After the Brotherhood Paladins confront you outside the bunker Veronica may become immobile.
 * Solution: Traveling to Gibson's Shack and reactivating the terminal inside will fix this bug. Also, after she appears in the shack you may have to speak with her before she will be able to move again.
 * Solution: (Will only work if she chooses to stay.) Don't talk to the paladins before battle. Put some pulse mines in front of the bunker before taking Veronica to talk to the Elder. When the player leaves the bunker, the pulse mines will explode, and the paladins will immediately turn hostile. After the battle Veronica will talk to you. Then you need to talk to her via companion wheel and she will say "Listen...I want...", and after this talk, the quest completes.


 * After taking the Rangefinder option, if you use HELIOS One to power the grid instead, you should be able to discuss the other two options with Veronica (so says the Journal). However, when talking to her only her normal dialogue appears, rendering the mission unsolvable. Choosing to go to Vault 22 after destroying the data also renders the mission unsolvable because the terminal will be blank.
 * Solution: (confirmed on the ) If you take Veronica to Nellis and steal the note from the Filing Cabinet, you receive an update for the Pulse Gun portion of the quest. Complete this portion of the quest as normal and the Elder/Veronica conversation will go off without a hitch.


 * After completing the quest she may stop following you. Fast travel and dismissing and rehiring her had no effect. Reloading to a previous save after entering Vault 34 caused a "DLC not installed" error message and forced a restart.


 * Randomly stops following the player which can be fixed by dismissing her and recruiting her anew.


 * When the Paladins initially deliver their ultimatum, sometimes only one will become hostile and three will run away, still friendly. The quest completes normally after killing the one hostile, but upon returning to the bunker the three have come back, deliver their ultimatum again, and attack. After this fight, Veronica refuses to follow you, and will sometimes start an unprovoked dialogue with you but only give the standard "what's up?". This appears to be caused by her attempting to deliver the quest-ending dialogue but, already having delivered it, getting stuck and refusing to budge until it's delivered. The only way I found to fix this was to clear the speech flags from the console, causing everybody in the game to re-introduce themselves to me.
 * WORKAROUND! To fix this through the console, enter resetquest 00145f85 which erases the completed ICMYC mission from your quest log. After separating from and rehiring Veronica, she seems to work perfectly fine, following the player again.


 * If done after helping Paladin Hardin in the Still in the Dark quest, but before Elder McNamara is ousted, Hardin and McNamara will not talk to the player, and the Brotherhood quests will be locked. However, this does not have any affect on Veronica's quest itself. This can also cause Veronica to stop following you.


 * Quest can be received by buying the Range Finder from Max in Freeside, however after finding Veronica and completing the quest by using the 95 speech option on the paladins that confront you outside of the bunker, the quest does not complete.


 * Game may freeze each time you attempt to enter Gibson's shack. The load screen will freeze (roulette wheel stops spinning) and you will hear a fire crackling.
 * WORKAROUND - (to be confirmed by other users) Approach the hut but don't go in. "Wait" untill the next day (in this case I waited 12 hours, 8:40pm till 8:40Am) then enter the Hut. Retried from save and confirmed I can enter the Hut only if I wait till next day, other wise load screen freezes. NOTE: you may need to deselect the quest i.e. make another quest your primary one.


 * Nellis Air Force Base Trigger has failed for some players and Veronica fails to comment after hearing the speech. (xbox 360) it may take several attempts for this dialogue to initiate.


 * The Kings water fountain in freeside seems to be a trigger to initiate quest dialogue. When speaking to the King member manning the water, Veronica engaged in both the "old mormon fort" dialogue and "silver rush" dialogue. In both instances, the area was visited immediately after the triggers.

Fixes

 * Solution to Veronica not following after I Could Make You Care: During the battle with the paladins, KO Veronica before you kill the last paladin. When she wakes up, you can manually talk to her twice for her standard dialog. *Note* won't work on hardcore for obvious reasons.


 * If Veronica won't follow you anymore (she simply stands in place and won't move, despite being able to interact with her) after you fight the Paladins outside the Hidden Valley Bunker (After suggesting she stay with the Brotherhood to gain her Bonds of Steel Perk), simply travel to Gibson's Shack, re-download the data from the computer, talk to her so she brings up the conversation about what technology to pursue, choose the technology you choose initially to complete the quest, exit the conversation, talk to her again, enter her workbench and craft ANY item (1 ammo conversion works just fine), after the item is crafted and added to your inventory she should now follow you again. Test by simply entering into sneak mode, if she crouches with you she is now following you again. Solution works for Xbox 360,PS3 and PC.


 * If Veronica won't follow you anymore, you'll have to go back to before the part of the mission where she speaks to the elder after you retrieved the notes, and directly tell her you want her to leave (don't suggest for her to stay, and don't allow her to choose for herself).


 * If Veronica gets stuck and won't follow you anymore, and then you get the infinite loop once you get to the comm terminal at Gibson's Shack, you'll have to restart the mission (from a previous save) and work back to the part where she speaks to the elder after you retrieved the notes, and directly tell her you want her to leave (don't suggest for her to stay, and don't allow her to choose for herself). Then go to Gibson's Shack and access the comm terminal, and once you do, it will say (in the upper left side of your screen) "COMPLETED: Access Father Elijah's notes for the comm terminal", and upon exiting the terminal, Veronica will automatically start talking. After you choose one, it will give you the option to exit the dialogue, and Veronica says, "I like the way you think...". Good luck!


 * If Veronica missed too many triggers to initiate her companion quest, the console command set "145f85".ngreetingpending to 1  . will advance her companion quest dialog conversations. This may need to be done up to 3 times, allow a few seconds after the console command for her to initiate dialog.
 * Since there are always three triggers available (McCarran, Vault 3, Nelson/Cottonwood Cove), it's generally going to be better to trigger the quest "normally" - use the console only if the regular triggers won't work.


 * If you have already completed There Stands the Grass and you are unable to download the Vault 22 data: it's possible to reset the mainframe terminal by using the console command 'set e6a6a.DataState to 0'; you can then re-download the data to complete the objective. This should even work if the data was deleted.

Behind the scenes

 * 'I Could Make You Care' is the name of a song by Frank Sinatra.