Nipton

"City of the Dead"

Nipton is a small town of the southern Mojave Wasteland that will be found ravaged by Caesar's Legion in 2281.

Ranger Ghost, an NCR sniper found on the roof of the compound at the Mojave Outpost, may ask you to investigate the lack of traffic from their direction but the smoke could already be seen from a distance by anyone.

Background
Before the Legion hit the town, it was populated by gamblers, thieves, and prostitutes under the leadership of Mayor Joseph B. Steyn; the town would service NCR soldiers in the night and Powder Gangers in the day. Steyn had hatched a plan with the Legion to turn over both NCR soldiers and Powder Gangers to Vulpes in return for some caps, but instead Vulpes had the brilliant idea to have a lottery to "educate' all of them. The winner was spared, the runner-up was crippled, the third place winners became slaves, the "Lucky Losers" were decapitated for a quick death, the mayor was burned on a pile of tires, and the rest were crucified.

Layout
Upon arrival the player is greeted by Oliver Swanick, an ex-Powder Ganger who won the lottery to save his life. Alternatively, if the player stumbles upon the town hall first, Vulpes Inculta greets you or become hostile if wearing NCR clothes. Venturing through the settlement, the player will see multiple crosses holding the losers of the lottery. The rest of the town is in ruins and burns as you walk the streets.

Outside of Nipton Hall is a crucifix along with skulls on a post and pile of junk on fire. Vulpes Inculta meets the player outside of the hall and tells them to spread the word of Caesar's Legion. After speaking to him the player is granted the quest Cold, Cold Heart. Alternatively, if the player is wearing NCR faction armor, Vulpes and the other legionnaries will be hostile and attack on sight. Inside the hall itself, you will find many Legion mongrels. They are automatically hostile, even if dressed as a member of Caesar's Legion, but do not give the player Legion Infamy.

Nipton General Store has a man named Boxcars inside. He will tell you what happened, and the quest Booted can start. Even though both of his legs are crippled from the "lottery," Boxcars will still engage in combat if attacked.

Nipton Hotel is a small establishment with four New California Republic (NCR) Trooper corpses dumped unceremoniously inside.

The house with the sand bags in front of it is heavily booby trapped; there is a frag mine in the corner of the living room, kitchen and the bathroom. Both of those doorways conceal shotgun traps. There is a cage with 3 bark scorpions inside when you enter the house; if you trigger the pressure plate they will be released. There is an Easy-Locked safe with a grenade rifle in it; stepping across the threshold will release the bark scorpions. The Average-Locked cabinet in the kitchen contains some provisions. Also, there is a dead legion recruit with a machete, armor, and a helmet.

A campfire can be found in the trailer area, proceeding south by south-east of the Nipton General Store.

Appearances
Nipton appears only in Fallout: New Vegas.

Behind the scenes

 * The real Nipton is an unincorporated town in California, and is located just west of the California/Nevada state line (a sign showing the border can be found in-game). The Legion Lottery may also be a reference to the fact that Nipton has the highest lottery ticket sales in the California state lottery, due to the fact that Nevada has no state lottery.
 * There are two signs on the road directly southeast of Nipton: one, facing west, welcomes travelers to Nevada; the other facing east, welcomes them to California. This is a reference to the real Nipton's immediate proximity to the border between the two states.
 * The Legion's sacking of Nipton could be an allusion to Shirley Jackson's short story "The Lottery", in which the winner of the lottery is murdered by the other townsfolk. This is mentioned by the Caesar's Legion patrol; Mayor Steyn's office corroborates this, as well as the abundance of lottery tickets strewn across town hall. There are also strong parallels between Jackson's story and the social machinations of experiment conducted in Vault 11.
 * If you have the Wild Wasteland trait and look around in front of a destroyed building near the eastern entrance of the town, you can find the charred skeletal remains of two people named, respectively, Owen and Beru. This is a reference to a famous scene from Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, in which Luke Skywalker returns home to find that his uncle and aunt of the same names have been incinerated in a similar fashion by Storm Troopers.
 * The Declaration of Vital Essence may be a tongue-in-cheek reference to the film "Dr. Strangelove", in which the character of Gen. Jack Ripper is highly and vocally paranoid about guarding his "precious bodily fluids" and "Purity of Essence". Admittedly, in the film he spoke of his essence as though he were referring to his own vigor "in the bedroom".

Bugs

 * There's a glitch that prevents you from being able to speak with Vulpes Inculta, even when he triggers the conversation. The camera will zoom in on him like it would usually do when initiating conversation, but will then quickly retract, bringing the player back into control. Reloading doesn't seem to fix this issue. To Fix this issue you must go back to an earlier save.
 * Boone or ED-E will not enter the Town Hall (First Floor) but will teleport to the Assembly Floor when the Courier enters that floor. This can take place after killing all the legion personnel outside the hall.
 * Sometimes, when fast traveling to Nipton, you may find a crucified prospector instead of a Powder Ganger. He can't be removed from the cross but he can be interacted with. He will most likely be killed by the bark scorpions by the next time you travel there.
 * Standing near the entrance of the Town Hall may trigger an attack from a Jackal Gang Member. It is unknown whether or not this attack was scripted or if the member had simply walked close enough to detect the character.
 * The people on the crosses can be removed from them in the event that you enter and suddenly exit the Nipton Town Hall. They will not walk but just stand there in front of their crosses. Some can be interacted with and some can be pickpocketed.
 * The game can freeze in Nipton and reloading a previous save will cause the game to freeze in a similar spot again. This happens when speaking to Oliver Swanick after meeting Caesar's Legion.
 * A generalized version of the above: the game may freeze or crash upon leaving Nipton in any direction, either on foot or by fast traveling. This tends to happen after a prolonged period of play, like an hour or more. Supposedly Nipton is heavy on memory, and the engine is so "optimized" it uses raw pointers to moveable or even freed heap chunks, causing all sorts of corruption after a disk swap. This issue is not specific to Nipton, it's just very prominent here.