For those who aren’t aware, there is an obscure alternate ending available for Dead Money where the player can choose to join Elijah to harness the holograms, the vending machines and the Cloud to eradicate the NCR and take over the Mojave and its trove of Old World technological treasures.
 
A wonderfully imaginative ending slideshow then plays, detailing the aftermath of your atrocities together years later. Unfortunately, in the vanilla game, you are forced to reload a previous save and choose a more traditional ending in order to complete the expansion. Which has always made this more of a curiosity than a viable choice with consequences. A homage to joining the Master in original Fallout. Still, at least we got that much considering the villainous ending that was cut from Old World Blues altogether, where you could choose to ally with the Think Tank and let them run amok in the Mojave.
 
I always wished that it was fleshed out just a little bit more by the developers, perhaps in the way that Lonesome Road gives you the choice to launch nuclear missiles at both the Legion and NCR and then adds two new areas to explore just a taste of the implied devastation this causes.




 

This mod is my attempt to do just that. It allows the player to continue their game after choosing what is undoubtedly the darkest ending for Dead Money. The changes I made are intended to not interfere with playing through the expansion normally. So you can still have this enabled in your load order even if you choose a more conventional ending and no vanilla scripts or quests will be broken as a result. There's also cut content that I restored or repurposed and expanded on as well.

Now certain conditions have to be met in order for this ending to become available. You must be vilified by the NCR and you must have exhausted all of Veronica's dialogue options concerning Elijah. Upon being contacted by the old man inside the Vault, you must tell him that you have questions before going any further and reveal that you know who he is--Veronica's mentor and the Brotherhood Elder who lost HELIOS One--which starts a conversation that will offer you the choice to team up together to destroy the NCR.

After that, well, step outside and explore your new world.


As further fruit yielded by this dark alliance, an arsenal of devious new weaponry becomes available to the player.

Cloud Kiss Canister grenades featuring Weijiesen's awesome effects which can, whether thrown from the hand, launched from a 25mm or 40mm barrel or the diabolically destructive Toxic Cloud Missile, release an agonizing burst of weaponized toxic Cloud to engulf your enemies and spread terror across the battlefield. Be careful around this stuff, it can poison you too. Use in a well ventilated area as repeated usage of these weapons indoors will leave a haze of Cloud in the air until it slowly disperses. 



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After teaming up with Elijah, you can craft Cloud Kiss Canisters at any workbench if you have enough skill and the right materials.

The Holopistol, an advanced iteration on the holorifle’s design which converts its components into a more compact, devastating close-quarters weapon. Powered by small energy cells instead of MFCs to further reduce bulk, it uses double the amount of cells in order to deliver almost as much power as a fully-upgraded holorifle. It's a hand-cannon, not a holdout weapon. Watch the recoil as compressing that much power into such a small frame kicks like a mule. But if you can handle That Gun, you can handle this. Uses iron glow sights by default but the scope from the original Holorifle can be crafted as a mod and attached to the weapon.



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To unlock this powerful weapon, you must find all of Elijah's Vending Machine codes for the Holorifle weapon mods scattered around the Sierra Madre and combine them with a laser pistol at a workbench. Thankfully, if you've already upgraded the Holorifle, you can always obtain more of its weapon mods by converting Sierra Madre Casino chips at any Vending Machine.

With a little extra work and scavenging, you can make the Holorifle into a weapon better suited to your playstyle during Dead Money, as there are also recipes to convert it to use a ring sight instead of the scope or even convert it into a high spread scattergun.


Craftable bomb collars that can be reverse-pickpocketed onto NPCs or equipped onto companions to make them your begrudging accomplices or tactical suicide bombers. Have them follow you and, when their usefulness has expired or they become a liability, blow their heads off simultaneously using a linked detonator. They'll have a precious few seconds to make peace with their fate and, having nothing left to lose, may attack you, run away or simply drop to the ground clutching their heads in futile panic. If you feel like wearing one of these as a fashion accessory, just remember to take it off before you fire the detonator or won't you be surprised! You can tell them to follow you, wait, trade items, use your cross hair to designate a spot you would like them to move to, use your cross hair to designate a target you want them to attack or even remove the collar and set them free.



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To unlock these horrifying weapons, you must find Elijah's old bomb collar workshop in the Big MT, giving you the technical knowledge to craft these at workbenches using a bit of C4 and some assorted scrap parts and electronics. A linked detonator can likewise be crafted by taking any regular Detonator and adding an extra Sensor Module so it's tuned to the same frequency as the collar set. Finally, if you have the Mad Bomber perk, you gain access to even weirder variants like Plasma or Fat (nuclear) bomb collars.

Deployable hologram emitter mines using an original mesh that, when thrown to the ground, can be activated to project a security hologram to patrol the area within the emitter's radius. Perfect to claim a location as your own or station a guard inside player housing. They flash yellow when alerted and red when in combat. While Elijah was right about there being no defense against dropping one of
these into the middle of any battle, watch out because they're still quite fragile and can be destroyed from stray gunfire or being caught in the blast radius of explosives.



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After teaming up with Elijah, you can craft these at a workbench using the space-age metal Saturnite, a Pulse Mine and some other scrap components.

A portable hologram emitter that, when pointed and fired somewhere nearby, will project a hologram of the player to follow and defend you. This hologram takes your own face and clothing and is equipped with a holographic weapon that takes the appearance of whatever ranged weapon you saved to Hotkey #3. Like other holograms, this one flashes yellow when a threat is detected and red upon engaging an enemy target. Such awesome technology requires an immense amount of power to sustain, however, so the handheld projector has a limited duration and must be recharged before it can be used again.



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After teaming up with Elijah, you can craft this weapon at a workbench if you have the skill and materials.

An improved Transportalponder that allows you  to set a custom teleportation marker at your current position simply by aiming and firing the device. Firing the device from the hip a second time will then teleport you (companions will still be dismissed unfortunately) to your custom destination from anywhere in the game (including interiors and DLC locations), except while in combat or in restricted sequences like the Hoover Dam battle or while fitted with an Explosive Collar.



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To unlock this weapon, simply bring the Big MT Transportalponder to any workbench. If you have Science 100, you can upgrade the device to its improved version that allows teleportation to and from anywhere in the world, including interiors or DLC locations. Be careful not to break scripted sequences which you aren't supposed to be able to fast travel away from.

A Prototype Saturnite Power Armor abandoned somewhere in the Big MT. This experimental Power Armor and its Helmet are manufactured with the Saturnite alloy, giving them increased damage threshold and fire resistance. One quirk of the prototype, however, is that taking fire damage over time will cause the armor to become “super-heated” for the same length of time before finally cooling down again. During this super-heated period, the outer shell of the power armor is too hot to touch and enemies that get too close will take light burning damage over time from the red hot metal. Compatible with Titans of the New West and includes optional high-resolution PAVE textures.

In addition to all of the above, unlock the potential of the amazing matter-conversion technology in the Vending Machines of the Sierra Madre resort with a vastly expanded library of templates. This will allow you to convert Sierra Madre chips into additional kinds of beverages, weapon mods, materials, currency and even ammunition.

A new player home becomes available after completing Dead Money--the Penthouse of the Sierra Madre where the founder Frederick Sinclair lived as well as the place that Elijah was trapped all that time inside the casino before the start of Dead Money. Features a large spacious living room complimented by a cozy study and full bar kitchenette tended by your very own hologram bartender as well as one of the casino's proprietary dispensaries. Master bedroom and master bath with state of the art Autodoc, filtrated plumbing, luxury bedding and reinforced security safe. The large windows boast an impressive view of the entrance courtyard to the Casino below as well as parts of the Villa beyond set against the scenic mountains on the horizon.

All of the containers are lootable and the wall safe in the master bedroom houses a special reward if you can hack or crack it open. The wardrobe can be searched to acquire a unique tuxedo, which players should recognize as the otherwise nonsensical male version of Vera's Outfit. The bar and kitchenette features a deluxe refrigerator and electric hotplate. You can purchase anything for sale within the casino from the hologram bartender while the nearby Vending Machine provides a convenient dispensary for anything else. The master bath has purified water while the Autodoc can restore crippled limbs and cure exhaustion.

You can even travel back and forth to the Penthouse just like the Sink in the Big MT if you set your custom teleportation coordinates there with the Improved Transportalponder.

To gain access to the Sierra Madre Penthouse,

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you must acquire a special keycard found with the owner's remains inside the Vault. Using the keycard on one of the main elevators from the Lobby or the Suites will grant access to the Penthouse floor.

For a standalone version of the Penthouse player home, check out my mod Sierra Madre Penthouse.

This mod requires all the New Vegas DLC (Dead Money, Honest Hearts, Old World Blues, Lonesome Road, Gun Runner's Arsenal) as well as the xNVSE and JIP LN NVSE script extenders.

Load this mod low enough in your load order to make sure no other plugin is overwriting it's changes. If you play with the Yukichigai Unofficial Patch, my plugin needs to be below the YUP ESM.

If your load order is heavy and complicated, feel free to use the mod's optional overwrite ESP plugin and place it low in your load order. It will forward any vanilla overwrites to fix cases where the main ESM is being overwritten. If you already know how to resolve load order conflicts using FNVEdit to check if there are any other mods overwriting its edits which you don't want for your game or, for compatibility purposes, to merge the changes from it into a personal patch, feel free to disable the mod's ESP plugin.

My mod Glowing Ghosts - Happy Little Holograms is not necessary to use with this mod as its features are already fully integrated.

I find the following mods to be complimentary additions if the premise of this mod interests you:



Chris Avellone for, you know, writing and directing Dead Money in the first place.
ryanmar for improving the mod's overall quality by volunteering to go through and fix numerous inconsistencies and oversights with the mod's gameplay, writing and scripts as well as the many irreverently fun discussions on lore and ideas for the mod that have continued to provide ideas for future content.
ledzepiv for doing first drafts of the cell work to bring the Cloud-devastated areas at Mojave Outpost, Camp McCarran and the Fort from concept to life and generously discussing ideas with me regarding content and the lore as well as playtesting the mod for me during development and pointing out a number of bugs and issues.
Zebumper for their spot-on advice for improving my rudimentary Bomb Collar scripts to get it to actually function like I wanted.
BeveryOfA for graciously taking my nif for the Hologram Emitter Mine and reworking it to have proper collision when dropped on the ground as well and making a more immersive model with the emitter light off.
RoyBatty for their advice on Discord and taking my broken cloud trigger nif and fixing the flags, havok and shape so it actually worked correctly for the Cloud Missile ammo type.
mdbakpo for graciously taking the Holopistol nif made by YanL and remaking it to accommodate two different models, one modded with a scope and one with a proper sighting node which the original model lacked. They also created the glow sights on the unscoped Holopistol and holographic ring sight on the unscoped Holorifle as part of the Weapon Mesh Improvement Mod.
Weijiesen  for creating the explosion effect, effect shaders, custom textures and custom sounds of the Cloud explosives used in this mod.
Hopper31 for providing the example scripts and framework to integrate those Cloud grenade effects into this mod, thanks to the open permission to use them with credit.
mc_tammer for creating the model and icon I used as a base for the Handheld Hologram Projector and having open permission to use it with credit. And for providing their series of tutorial video guides to “NIF-bashing”, which helped me learn Blender and Nifskope well enough to tweak models to repurpose them (http://fallout.firedrakecreative.com/doku.php?id=permissions).
YanL for creating the model I used for the Holopistol and having open permission to use it with credit.
SwampFox for creating the original Scopeless Holorifle mod and having open permission to use it as a base.
AgentFuse for creating the magnificent Sierra Madre Grand Entrance mod and allowing permission to use its assets with credit. I used a modified version of their exterior LOD to serve as the view through the windows of the casino Penthouse Suite. I couldn't think of a more fitting backdrop then this mod's take on the casino's entrance courtyard.
Whaledon for their Sierra Madre Exterior Fixed mesh which AgentFuse's mod uses as a base.
BronSolo2323, creator of the Lucky 38 Presidential Suite Strip View Windows mod, whose work inspired me to try and make a penthouse suite for the Sierra Madre with actual windows that you could see out to the Villa through and who was so gracious and helpful in our messages on Discord as they guided me through the process of learning how to actually make this work as well as for the use of their work to make the mesh for the mountain horizon view around the exterior of the Penthouse.
NoBarkNoBiteNoonan for taking the mesh for the Suite windows and whipping up re-UV'd versions with fixed meshes set up for transparency so that you could actually see through them while still retaining details of the dirty glass texture.
Inthegrave for their help debugging the radio station on the jukebox in the Penthouse Suite and for their Nifskope assistance while making the static Saturnite Power Armor display.
PistolPayback for their help and insight on the scripting for the Player Hologram and their guidance some scripting for the Cloud Kiss Canister weapon.
LastTheShotgunKnight97 for their awesome Saturnite Power Armor and Helmet retextures and suffering through numerous delays due to my feature creep.
Strider5 for permission to use their high-resolution texture from Power Armor Visual Enhancement (PAVE) for the PAVE version of Last, The Shotgun Knight's retexture.
Patchier for kindly making and sharing a patch for Tale of Two Wastelands 3.3+.
ElminsterAU and the many contributors to xEdit (FNVEdit), which enabled me to keep this mod clean and organized.
The NVSE Team for the New Vegas Script Extender.
Jazzisparis and LuthienAnarion for the JIP LN NVSE script extender plugin, which added new functions essential to some of the scripts I made for this.
Korma for Hot Reload (NVSE), which legit kept me going as I could tweak a script and tab over to the game to see what effect it had immediately without having to reopen everything and wait for it to load. As someone who went into this project with almost no scripting knowledge, this was essential to my sanity as I learned through trial and error and probably would've given up without it.

Title text made here.