Because I can't figure it out. I have one settlement with 8 stores. Then I made another with 16. Yet I'm not seeing any major difference between the amount of caps they make.

meh, i dont rely on their income, i rely on their ability to buy crap i bring in..

lots of stores = lots of caps to gain when selling off a truckload of gear...

imo thats the real reason to have lots of stores.

How many settlers do you have in the settlement with the stores? I read that the income is dependent on the settlers that don't have a job in your settlement. The more un-assigned people you have, the more money you will make.

I wish that would work in real life... you don't have a job, but you got caps to spend. hahaha

Oh I don't rely on them for caps. I'm just trying to figure out how it works because, well, I'm curious. I get all my caps from excess ammo and aid. I don't even pick up weapons or gear unless they're legendary. And that's just to add to vast collection that I'll never use. It is nice though when you forget about your stores for a bit then find a few thousands caps in there.

I have 18 in each. And I've read the same but in the same threads people said they tested it and that didn't seem to be the case. The tip says it's based on total population but it seems nobody can determine if they mean total population of your settlement or all your connected settlements, etc. The caps you get are always in increments of 50 too. Which is odd.

Hmm, do you have 18 settlers total? How many have a job? I think the caps are depending on the settlers that just wander around and not on the total population. Your farmers are too busy farming to buy stuff, I guess! Maybe there's a cap limit? So, no matter how many stores or settlers you have, you will always get 50 caps * x-settlers?

That's the thing though. There's no such thing as idle settlers unless you remove all food, workbenches, etc. All settlers default to farming for instance if there's untended crops. I actually use this to my advantage by putting up one food even in settlements where I don't intend to produce food. A newly arrived settler will go to it then I can tell I haven't assigned them rather than using the bell and sorting through the crowd.

According to the game their productivity is related to happiness. There are also perks - look L01 number 4