Did you read the rest of the thread? Most of your points have already been addressed. Gold wouldn't be/isn't too hard to find...just hard enough that it would be a controllable resource, which makes it a good candidate for currency. We're talking about coins - not bars. Bars would be worth waaaaaay more than the average person would have to their name. Caps aren't all that readily available since there aren't many manufacturers of beverage bottles left. Casino chips would be cool as well, but it might be hard to make more of them.

We're looking at a setting that's 203 years after the war, and we've already seen that there is plenty of pre-war tech and knowledge floating around. Look at how far real-world technology has come in the last 203 years (since 1807 for the arithmetically-challenged). We saw a gold mine in Fallout 2. We also saw people working with metals on a large scale in The Pitt. Why does it seem far-fetched that a large entity like NCR would have the tech and the equipment to mint coins?

CHIPS CHIPS CHIPS!!!

well since its Vegas, I would have to go with poker chips

Caps, because it's Fallout.

I rather liked the barter system in Fallout 1/2. Yes, there were caps, but most transactions involved trading.

In terms of coins, most wastelanders would likely never see a gold coin, unless there were gold "pennies"...physically very small with a small amount of gold. Better off wastelanders might have a handful of silver coins, and perhaps a large number of copper or steel coins, which would be used for normal...daily...transactions. Historically, coins worked because they either contained a like amount of real value (gold/silver. etc) or could be exchanged for such by the entity who issued them. In our case, should some entity like NCR issue a series of coins, no one would use them unless they could go to NCR and exchange their copper into silver, and silver into gold, or some other levy of real value.

But this was always the problem with caps, and is the problem with any currency. The people who use them must agree to the relative value of currency before it can be used as a barter unit.

Coins would suit better to that sentence.

Well now hold up here a sec', Fallout 2 had gotten rid of caps and on with gold coins. Bottle caps had become worthless, actually (there's even a little mini-quest in Broken Hills which makes that painfully clear!). If we're to use a logical geographical time-line here, gold would make the most sense barring we hear some wacky explanation from Obsidian as to why they went back to caps other than "Fallout 3 had them and everyone seems to love 'em" which I'm admittedly afraid is what happened. That bein' said, I don't care a whole heck of a lot but until I hear otherwise I think gold coins is the only thing to make sense in the already established time-line.

I'd have to go with Chips... but I have a tough time imagining the use of plastic chips... It'd have to be more like higher quality branded chips ~ and still be backed by gold.

** of course... on reflection, Vegas is in the desert and water is scarce, so if there is an "enclave" of the water merchants present, I can see caps as just as likely (or as a second currency).
(presumably, travelers would bring caps or gold, but as was said... Caps were dumped by FO2 so they seem less likely except that they were used in FO3.)

how about just normal money? caps, gold, and anything else would be annoying. (although the game metro 2033 uses bullets which sounds interesting)

The only problem with normal money is that it is just a note representing something else. It would need to be backed by someone with something that is considered universally valuable. With so many different (and often opposing) factions involved getting everyone to agree on a single system of currency would be difficult unless the currency was backed by some neutral party that controlled a universally valuable resource with which to back said currency. In Fallout 1 the water merchants filled that role and used caps as currency.

How realistic would it be to have pints/liters of non-radiated water as the highest form of currency? I think whoever controls the best potable water would control the power in the wastelands of FO.

That's what was going on in Fallout 1...as has been said, the water merchants backed the caps with clean water and that's why caps had value.

Chips would add some cool ambience...and you could do a cool quest about counterfit chips

Chips of course! It's Vegas after all, there'd be an abundance of them.

I agree with you there, but you know how these things work they make games so people who have never played a previous game in the series can jump right in. So they may not continue the story or lore from fallout 2.

That does not make much sense to me. How is changing coins to caps for fallout 3 going to freak new players out? They are not going to say "I hate this game they are using coins!" if they never played it or any other fallout game.

Plus we fans of fallout one and two had to deal with the change back to caps. Beth risked upsetting diehard fans to make people that never played any of the fallouts happy?

The Devs can change back to coins for fallout NV it's not to late! How would they be upsetting people that never played the game?

Fans of caps I am sure will not get upset enough to not buy the game if it had coins. Fallout NV should have coins. I would be upset enough not to buy the game or Fallout 4 if the Lore keeps getting sacrificed to make new players happy. The Devs should care about the old fans not new players. Fallout one and two tactics are great enough. If they just go with what those games set. New players would go for it. They don't need to change everything in fallout. Doing so risks losing the Diehard fans. And for what making people that never played any fallout game happy?

DC made sence to have caps. I would have liked it if they used coins.

I think they tend to try and balance it out between new and old players. But the scale seems to weigh more in the new player stand, thats a whole other argument there.

I'd like to have Gold because of fallout 2, and NV is closer to the areas of fallout 2, and does not make sense why they would go from gold back to caps.
Caps is still fine by me but they better have a good reason and backstory as to why they are using caps.
Casino chips I'm for because its Vegas, there's plenty of chips to go around, and it goes along with a Vegas themed game. Plus whats wrong with something new?

Why do the Devs change things so that people that never seen a fallout game will play it? this makes no sense to me. They have never played any fallout game why would they care if the Devs went with coins over caps?

Coins go with the canon. If anything the Devs are making the real fans of fallout foam at the mouth over the changes they make. And For WHAT! to make people that never played any fallout games happy?

"Hey bob you will not like that game I heard the players use coins not bottle caps" That is bull crap.

The Devs are alienating the original fallout fans for people that never played.

that is why we have some many people that don't know crap all about the first two games or tactics out there. It's because beth did very little to continue the lore and history of the black Isle games. If there was no wikipedia to explain fallout to people it would be chaos. we would not need wikipedia if the Devs stopped trying to make the games more for people that never played any of the games or even heared of them.

Fallout one and two, the fallout universe as a whole has alot to sell itself to people that never played. The Devs just need to work with what is already there. Hell they helped make what is there. It does not need to be changed so much to the point were it's not fallout. They had it right the first time.

Agree

Really can't answer that one. But what I can say is, fallout 3 was made by a completely different company which is why it turned out the way it did. Fallout:NV has some of the people who made fallout 2, so we may be in luck there in that aspect...

I don't think that many people pay attention to the currency, and it isn't a huge factor for buying the game. No matter what the money system is I would like to see more story as to why its the way it is. Thats why I liked fallout 1 and 2 so much, everything was explained or had a back story to it. Strangely enough, most people in these threads like the idea of poker chips it has the most poll votes.

I have a strange feeling it won't be gold or poker chips, and I somehow think they well use caps. Thats just what my instincts tell me.

I was more respondin' to the statement that caps should be in New Vegas because caps are thematically "Fallout" through and through. Far as I was concerned caps weren't "Fallout" but simply "Fallout 1" until Bethesda began co-opting all sorts of characters and items from the already existing series for familiarity's sake. Now I ain't arguing that this was a good or bad move on their part, just that this is what they did. Kinda thought bottle-caps was already a dumb idea to come back to just for the sake of Fallout familiarity and I sure didn't think we'd be keeping 'em in the game again.



Right there with ya pal. I don't get it and don't get who'd be upset other than those of us wondering what the dang heck happened to gold after only 39 years.



I thought for sure it was already confirmed that it's caps. Unless they change it between now and then. I don't care too much, but if it's caps it'd be nice if they came along with a decent explanation.

Yeah. I'm sure it goes something like this: "Todd made us." :sadvaultboy:

Casino chips would be cool

But then what would you trade your chips into to gamble??

The Great Fondango does not quite understand what you mean by gold. As in Gold Coins, like in a Final Fantasy foray? Minted Gold Coins? Is there that much of a Gold resource in Vegas?

Thank you. :hubbahubba:

Back onto the topic of gold, I'll give some of my points again as to why gold coins would not work.

1) We just had Fallout 3 two years ago. New Vegas will bring in both those players and some new players, and seeing as it was only a couple of years ago, changing the currency system would be confusing. Especially for when Fallout 4 comes out (since that'll most likely be on the East Coast) and uses caps again as well.

2) The game is about the NCR trying to take New Vegas from Caesar. Why would New Vegas use gold coins if they are under a different leadership? That would be like the U.S. going to the national currency of Botswana, the Pula. It just doesn't make sense. And please before anyone says "well we could just use caps for the water merchants and whoever the hell else, New Vegas with chips [or something else], and gold coins with the NCR areas" do you realize how frustrating that would get? Remember this is a game; it is devised to relieve stress and kill time. Collecting different currencies only to have them worthless for an area, or having to go through a currency exchange with a certain NPC(s) would get frustrating for many players. Especially let's say if you have a thousand NCR coins, you're low on ammo, and unfortunately he only accepts caps! (He could just accept that and trade it in for something else, but let's just assume his trading route does not enter NCR territory).
If you really want coins in the game, just assume that at the moment the NCR is using caps since it's the currency of the lower parts of the wasteland until they can replace it with their golden coins.

3) Speaking of gold, do you realize that this is a post-apocalyptic world, not the medieval times? Fine, Fallout 2 had gold coins, but it just doesn't make sense for a game like this. They got away with coins because "oh, we found a gold mine! It'll have enough gold in it to fill the pockets of our people to come for ages!", but newcomers will wonder why the hell a game set in the future is using the most abundant currency in any RPG game. Caps is unique and sets Fallout apart from the rest of RPG games. It also brings in the value of the little things in life; kind of like how a crappy pistol should do in a Fallout game (a la instead of taking 100 shots to kill a guy with it, and besides finding a plethora of ammo, every bullet counts). It also is iconic to the 50s since, like I stated before, bottlecap collecting was a big thing of the 1940s and 1950s.

4) To the guy that said gold isn't hard to find, please point me to your local gold mine.

In short, caps still makes the most sense on the level that A) The storyline is NCR trying to take over New Vegas and B) Bottlecaps is both iconic to the 1950s, and is not [censored]d as much as an RPG currency as so many other games. Remember, this game is still supposed to be a retrofuturistic game; as if the world never left the 50s and entered the nuclear war our parents and grandparents feared would happen from the Commies. Games like Tactics didn't stay iconic and brought in things like P90s, and even now some of the weapons are going to look more modern (i.e. Assault Rifle is an M4 Carbine now). Just like you guys have a problem with caps, I have a problem with how the weapons are going to be made (at least some of them). My point being though that it makes logical sense for both of these (using an M4 Carbine instead of an AK-47, unless there will be multiple assault rifles in the game, since it is more modern and more people like the M4 over the AK, and caps because gold is overused, it wouldn't make sense for a game not set in a fantasy and/or medieval setting, etc.).
And please for the love of Atom, don't bring in a currency-exchange program for the game.

I don't think it would be confusing. Caps, gold, dollars, etc., are just something you have a certain amount of and things cost a certain number of them. You could change it to mole rat tails and it wouldn't be confusing. :shrug: If we're saying that it would be confusing as far as the lore is concerned, well, caps already are. Bethesda gave no explanation as to why they use caps in D.C.


I agree that some players wouldn't cotton to the idea of multiple currency types, but that's where I lose your reasoning. It makes just as much sense to use NCR currency as anybody else's. They're the most established entity in the region.


Um, you're ignoring thousands of years of real world history here. Gold will always make sense (more sense than anything else, really) as a currency in any setting that has an unstable economy because it has intrinsic value on top of being rare. Currency shouldn't be abundant...it should be controlled. Otherwise there's no way of identifying its actual value. Of anything else one could come up with gold makes the most sense...our own real-world history proves that. Gold coins have been used as currency all over the world, and much more recently than "medieval times."


*points to the already-established-in-Fallout-lore gold mine in Redding*

Not to mention salvaged jewelry and pre-war caches. An entity like NCR wouldn't have that much trouble...especially since they already have access to a gold mine.

I have no problem with the return of caps, but with it being 203 years after the war and no explanation for how they're backed (so...they're just bottle caps? that makes no sense at all...bottle caps have no intrinsic value if not backed with something that does), gold really does make more real-world, logical sense.