Duck and Cover

OnTheBounce wrote:

Armisael wrote:As for the gold argument - certainly, gold doesn't have any inherent worth. Nothing does. That's why I said it was considered inherently valuable.

Ah yes, I overlooked that one little word in your argument. Sorry about that, mea culpa.

OTB

What's mea culpa, Latin for "my bad?"

I really think you guys are delving deeper into this subject than even the Fallout game developers. I guess that's not a bad thing. I just want something that works and makes reasonable sense.

I Much prefered Bottlecaps to "money". Bottlecpas are ready formed (and come in a bag) and the mercenaries and scavengers of the wastes would probably have found all the bottlecaps they could in the wastes and therefore, you wouldn't get rich quick if it was someone else's allready. Money also needs to be minted. I don't rember seeing a mint in FO2 and bashing coins into shape would be a bit inprecise. I'm in Favour of Bottlecaps.

It's unbelievable that any kind of society like Fallout 2's, where just about nothing is produced, could ever conform together with a system of currency. Bottlecaps or nothing at all.

Even though bottlecaps reminds of the bit in the Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy, where the stupid Gologafrinchan Earth-colonists adopt the leaf as legal tender, and therefore become immensly rich. 3 deciduous forests to one peanut was the exchange rate.

Well, the bottelcaps had power because the Hub backed it up...

It was such an important base of trade, that it could make a currency adopted by the rest of the wastes.

Dan wrote:Well, the bottelcaps had power because the Hub backed it up...

It was such an important base of trade, that it could make a currency adopted by the rest of the wastes.

Well, rest of the wastes isn't really run by economics or trade. Only a few towns/organisations can adopt a functioning monetary system, like the Hub, NCR, for example. Other trade should be done through bartering. Majority of the trading was done by caravan companies(and water merchants?), most of them based in The Hub. With the destruction of the Hub, the monetary system has probably fallen. Fallout 2 ignored this fact and created a new money instead. If there's going to be some sort of currency in FO3, I'd prefer bottlecaps.

VasikkA wrote:

Dan wrote:Well, the bottelcaps had power because the Hub backed it up...

It was such an important base of trade, that it could make a currency adopted by the rest of the wastes.

Well, rest of the wastes isn't really run by economics or trade. Only a few towns/organisations can adopt a functioning monetary system, like the Hub, NCR, for example. Other trade should be done through bartering. Majority of the trading was done by caravan companies(and water merchants?), most of them based in The Hub. With the destruction of the Hub, the monetary system has probably fallen. Fallout 2 ignored this fact and created a new money instead. If there's going to be some sort of currency in FO3, I'd prefer bottlecaps.

Agreed.
I was just trying to say that the gold coins in Fo2 are pretty stupid...

The thing is, that if Fallout 3 will not feature a big trade city, then maybe bartering should be the only currency...

U can't tell me all the good ol' American greennbacks all got burnt up?

Anyhow, coins, scripts and green backs could be used.. I mean places outside NCR should have some sort of commerce. For example. NCR accepts green backs, coins and script.. While some god forsaken village takes bottle caps and rings pulls...> go figure.

So expanded tactics $$$?

I've no problem with bottle caps, so long as I get one each time I open a bottle of nukacola. It always bugged me to drink one knwoing there's a cap on the bottle and yet get nothing.... and what about all the alcohol made everywhere? They bottle that, and to bottle that they have to cap it. Doesn't that mean that people can essentially print as much money as they want?
Maybe I do have a problem with bottle caps...
As much as I hate many FOT ideas (like brotherhood script) I think ringpull tabs are actually a more logical thing considering they should be more rare and no one is mass producing them...

But hey, whatever...

as much as i like bottlecaps, has anyone noticed the cork on the antidote bottle? maybe they could come into play some how... maybe replacingg all bottles with "bottle corks" and not bottle caps...

and i do think money should have a weight... i mean if fallout 3 had actual cash as there currency and a guy could be toting three million around in his pocket... thats just humanly impossible.... it shoudl either have a weigh or have a limit to the amount you can carry

well yes, but that would horribly inbalance the game.
perhaps bottlecaps would have different ratings? ie. denotions of 1, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 500, 1000 etc. based around a logo that appears on the "cap" or something. If that was the case, however, why bother implementing?

When I mentioned green backs, I don't mean BOS Script, but there has to be a stash of old money around.... And currency can variey between areas, thus keeping a sot of realism...

Bottlecaps are slighly problematic because you could easily manufacture more of them with proper machinery. Also, the exact amount of pre-war bottlecaps is unknown. That would mean a very high inflation rate.

I think that counterfeiting (sp?) stuff isn't too big of a deal in the wastelands. Maybe some people shouldn't go by bottlecaps at all (ie. only merchants might use them and others would prefer to barter with other goods)? If you can manufacture bottle caps, I guess, good for you.

Perhaps you could counterfeit with science or repair?

Rama Stryfe wrote:When I mentioned green backs, I don't mean BOS Script, but there has to be a stash of old money around.... And currency can variey between areas, thus keeping a sot of realism...

The problem with that is that the US designs it's currency to last around 6 months assuming it's circulated and no one hoards it. Even if it wasn't destroyed by nukes, rioting, or people looking for kindling, how long do you think it would last in Wasteland conditions?

True.. But there have to be vaults around... And ways, coins, trade and the such help.

Rama Stryfe wrote:True.. But there have to be vaults around... And ways, coins, trade and the such help.

Even with the vaults, the greenbacks would eventually just rot away even if nobody touched it. However, expanding on the idea of denominations they could have quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies as different denominations. However as a personal note I prefer bottle caps around the major trading post and barter in the wastes.

I wouldn't trade a pistol for even a million pieces of paper.

The problem with currency is that the currency it self has no real value.
Pieces of paper, or even gold coins can't be used for anything, and so has no value in the wasteland.

The only reason bottle caps worked in Fallout 1 is because the Hub backed it up.

Which is exactly what I said, assuming i interpretted it correctly.

Well, let the apocalypse come a century earlier and make sure the US government under Bush builds Vaults. Freeze yourself come up, get a magnum, and wander the wastes. If you run into Ian and Tycho, py them in bottle caps.