Not Worth a Hill of Corn and Beans

Not Worth a Hill of Corn and BeansQuest name from Fallout: New Vegas Official Game Guide is an unmarked quest in Fallout: New Vegas.
==Quick walkthrough==
==Detailed walkthrough==
Col. James Hsu is located in the terminal building at Camp McCarran. If asked about supporting the NCR, he will mention that the quality of the mess rations is of concern (among other issues). Furthermore, NCR troopers around Camp McCarran may also mention wanting more out of the mess hall than what they currently have. None of this dialogue is required to start the quest.
The mess hall can be found in the Camp McCarran concourse, attended to by Cpl. William Farber. If Farber is asked about the food supply issues, he will reveal that he only has a dwindling supply of canned vegetables to feed the troops with, and this is wreaking havoc. To properly fix the food supply issue, Farber requires a reliable source of edible meat as well as some food additives that can help spice up the menu. He also asks for help fixing the food processor behind the mess counter, which will help him churn out better ration amounts and save more supplies while they're around. There is a dialogue-related bug which will lock out the highest reward for the quest as early as talking to Cpl. Farber for the first time; see below for details.
Farber will reward the player with discounts on his food for each of the tasks completed.
===Fixing the food processor===
The food processor is in the back right corner of the mess hall. Farber will give a list of spare parts that can be used to make the repairs:
* 2 pilot lights
* 2 pressure cookers
* 2 conductors
* 2 firehose nozzles
* 4 fission batteries
* 2 steam gauge assemblies
* 2 sensor modules
* 5 scrap metal
* 1 pot OR 1 metal cooking potSee VFreeformMcCarranKitchenScript in the GECK.
These items can be found all around the Mojave Wasteland. If asked for advice on finding parts, Farber will list Miguel's Pawn Shop in Westside and the H&H Tools factory in North Vegas as specific locations, and they will also be marked on the Pip-Boy map if not previously discovered. Some other areas with a large amount of the required items can be found below. Alternatively, having a Repair skill of 80 will allow for jury-rigging the processor without any item requirements; doing so will reward 80 XP.
===Finding the food additive===
If Farber is asked about where to find spices for his menu, he will mention that the Crimson Caravan merchants can provide regular spices, but not the specialized mood stimulant he is looking for; this will mark the Crimson Caravan Company on the map if it was previously not discovered.
Farber will also mention the existence of an on-base research department which he says should be looking into this instead. Talking to Thomas Hildern on the first floor of the terminal building will start the side quest There Stands the Grass. This will take the player to Vault 22, which is filled with giant mantises and spore carriers. However, the quest is not needed to access the Vault, and one can go directly to Vault 22 instead.
The food additive that Farber needs can be found on the Food Production level of Vault 22. From the elevator, the main hallway will lead to a lefthand hall. The first room on the left will lead to an office with spores growing out of a desk. The food additive is sitting on the top of the desk.
===Procuring the meat===
If asked about locating meat suppliers, Farber will provide a meat vendor list with the names of three potential suppliers: Blake at the Crimson Caravan Company, Ruby Nash in Primm, and Fitz at the Grub n' Gulp rest stop. However, there is an issue that will lock out Ruby Nash and Fitz's dialogue for this quest; see below for details.
All three vendors are willing to broker a trade to supply raw meat to the McCarran mess hall but will expect payment in return. Each vendor has two success tiers (set by an internal status variable) depending on how they are convinced, with higher tiers leading to higher rewards in the end. They can be convinced at any time and whether or not one vendor is convinced does not affect any other vendor. Farber has separate dialogue options for each of the three vendors, so the rewards from all three vendors can all be obtained separately.
* Blake
** Tier 1: Tell Blake that McCarran will pay him with caps; always available.
** Tier 2:
*** Pass a Barter 50 check convincing Blake to trade meat to McCarran in exchange for water and vegetables; provides 50 XP if successful. 
*** Alternatively, pass a Speech 70 check, suggesting that Blake offer a discount to McCarran in order to gain a better negotiating position in future deals with the NCR; provides 70 XP if successful.
* Ruby Nash:
** Tier 1: Pay 200 caps; always available. With 50 Barter, another option to pay only 100 caps instead will be available, rewarding 50 XP if chosen.
** Tier 2: Pass a Speech 70 check convincing Ruby to trade meat to McCarran in exchange for water and vegetables; provides 70 XP if successful. This option does not appear for players with under 70 Speech.
* Fitz:
** Tier 1: Tell Fitz that McCarran will pay him with caps; always available.
** Tier 2: Pass either a Barter 60 or a Speech 60 check convincing Fitz to trade meat for water and vegetables. These options do not appear for players with under 60 Barter or Speech, respectively, and they do not reward XP.
===Reward===
The only result of this quest is that Farber will discount his (limited) food inventory. This is rewarded at each stage rather than being given together at the end, i.e. each dialogue option telling him that an objective has been completed will reward a certain discount percentage. The highest cumulative discount, available by completing all objectives and convincing all three meat vendors with their respective highest tiers, is 28%.
* Blake:
** Tier 1: +5%
** Tier 2: +8%
* Ruby Nash:
** Tier 1: +2%
** Tier 2: +5%
* Fitz:
** Tier 1: +3%
** Tier 2: +5%
* Food processor: +5%
* Additive: +5%
==Notes==
* The Fallout: New Vegas Official Game Guide claims that this quest is connected to Gland for Some Home Cooking in that Farber wishes to sample Ruby Nash's casserole.Fallout: New Vegas Official Game Guide page 40 This is untrue, although the quest does involve trading with Ruby for meat.
===Meat suppliers===
There is a bug with the dialogue conditions for Ruby Nash and Fitz which will make it so that their meat supplier dialogue options become unavailable (thus making Farber's highest discount unavailable). This is due to an issue involving the dialogue variable VFreeformMcCarran.iMessHallStatus:
* Asking Farber "Got anything to eat?" will cause him to explain the situation with McCarran's food supply and make it possible to make deals with the three meat vendors. This sets VFreeformMcCarran.iMessHallStatus to 2, enabling the vendors' dialogue.
** However, asking "Can anything be done to improve your supplies?" (the option to actually explain what the player needs to do for the quest, which is necessary in order to learn the identity of the three meat suppliers) afterwards will set VFreeformMcCarran.iMessHallStatus to 3. Blake's dialogue will still be available, as it is conditioned to appear if iMessHallStatus >= 2. However, the condition for Ruby Nash and Fitz is iMessHallStatus == 2, meaning their options will fail to appear.
** Thus, if one intends to make deals with all three merchants and get the greatest cumulative discount from Farber, this must be done before actually learning about the quest objectives from Farber; i.e. by exiting dialogue right after asking "Got anything to eat?".
*** On PC, a workaround is to type in the console before talking to Ruby Nash and/or Fitz.
===Food processor===
* Most of the components needed can be found inside the REPCONN headquarters.
* Almost everything needed can be found onsite in Camp McCarran, but some of the items must be stolen.
** A regular pot can be found in the cooking tent in the camp along with one pressure cooker, both not marked as owned, hence free for the taking. A second pressure cooker is sitting in the canteen right opposite the food processor on top of an oven (must be stolen.) Another pot is also in the canteen but must be stolen (only one is needed, so take the free one.)
** Both pilot lights can be obtained from ovens opposite the food processor (must be stolen.)
** One steam gauge assembly, five scrap metal, and one conductor (and a number of other needful things) are on shelves in the corner of the camp next to the terminal building on the entrance side, all un-owned.
** The other steam gauge assembly can be taken freely from the top of a shelf next to the dummy soldier in the camp in front of the tents to the right (as seen from the entrance.) There is also another one in one of the tents, but that one must be stolen.
** The other conductor is in the left tent second row back from the camp entrance on a table with some loot.
** The firehose nozzles can be stolen out of the two firehose boxes on the ground floor of the terminal building.
* Most, if not all, the items on the list can be found in Vault 11.
* Cerulean Robotics in Freeside also has most of the items needed.
* The steam gauge assemblies (and some of the other hard-to-find items) can also be bought from Old Lady Gibson at the Gibson scrap yard.
* Five scrap metals, two sensor modules, and two pilot lights can be stolen from the Novac gas station.
* HELIOS One has many of the items needed.
==Behind the scenes==
The phrase "hill of beans," meaning something that is not worth much, was popularized by actor Humphrey Bogart in the 1942 film Casablanca.
==Bugs==
* You are unable to talk to either Ruby Nash or Fitz about the food supplies. 
** See the notes section above for an in-depth discussion of this bug and how to avoid it.
* Occasionally, it doesn't allow you to fix the processor even if you have all the parts, one more part is needed. You will need one extra pot in your inventory, only one pot will be removed when fixing the food processor.
* Farber will never take the food additive from the inventory even when he says he will do so. As the additive is a quest item, this means it cannot be dropped from the inventory. 
** On PC, the console command can be used to remove its quest item status, making it removable.
==References==
Non-game
Category:Fallout: New Vegas unmarked quests
Category:Fallout: New Vegas NCR quests
de:Keinen Berg von Bohnen wert
es:No vale un pimiento
ru:Скудный паёк из кукурузы с фасолью
uk:Мізерний пайок з кукурудзи з квасолею