Well in a post apoc setting there are even in a place like this.. billions of tons of metal and such sitting around. You dont make a stone knife if metal is all around you. You dont spend weeks making a bow and a few dozen arrows and years learning how to use them when for the cost of some scrap metal and bits of junk you can get a varmint rifle and enough ammo for a years hunting.

Yes in an isolated area there might be people without guns or metal.. but we are a few miles from new vegas no matter where we go in this game... we arnt exactly in the far wastes.. we arnt even out of the fricken suburbs for the most part.

I would like to see primitive weapons more, because there should NOT be such a bounty of ammunition lying around.

For game-play purposes, of course, it's made MUCH more common than it actually would be; A real post-apocalyptic scenario would be like Mad Max: A shotgun with a handful of shells, and half of them are duds.
And ALL of the pre-war ammunition has been laying there for TWO HUNDRED YEARS by the events of NV; It's not going to fire.

Factions like the Gun Runners and the NCR clearly produce their own ammo, but that shouldn't make bullets easy to find for the good people of Goodsprings.

To be more realistic, ammunition should be rare and expensive. And if that were the case, one would certainly expect to see crossbows made of car parts and the like.



Actually, the benefit of bows and arrows would be how easily and quickly they can be made and used. They ARE simple tools; it's not difficult AT ALL to make them or learn to use them effectively, especially in contrast to the complexity of firearms.
Honestly, most firearms would not even work after sitting for a month in the wasteland. They are complicated, delicate machines for the most part; it takes a relatively large amount of knowledge to maintain and utilize them.

Lead pipe, baseball bat, machetes & spears (the Legion) police batons, cue sticks, switchblades, knives - all seem pretty primitive to me. No one is going to make a wood club when he/she can just scrounge around and find a baseball bat or lead pipe. Bows and arrows were discussed earlier.

Actually, ammunition can last a very long time. There's no reason why they wouldn't work after 200 years. Even when exposed to a lot of moisture, ammo doesn't degrade that fast. In a place as dry as the Mojave, it would take an extremely long time before ammo degrades to the point where they no longer work. The real problem are with the guns.

As for primitive weapons, they're already too powerful. Plus how would improvised weapons make any more sense than guns? At least most guns are found in storage where they're protected from the elements. Improvised weapons are going to be made from stuff found lying around, which would have a lot more degradation due to exposure to the elements. A crossbow made from a broken down car would be all rusted and fall apart after a few uses. Plus maybe people haven't noticed but there aren't that many trees in the FO world and the ones that exist are sickly and don't look like they can be used to make weapons.

Yeah, I've used ammo 70 years old with no problems. Its not hard to imagine the stuff still working after 200 years, not even counting reloaded and manufactured ammo.



The melee weapons are hilariously strong, though. Sometimes, I've been shooting a guy to no effect, and I've had to get out a club to beat him with, because apparently that's more powerful than 20 gauge to the face at point blank range.

Really? Some gun-powder I had wouldn't light after 10 years of sitting in a closet. Maybe it depends on whether the powder is exposed to air, or is safely packed away in a bullet?

EDIT: Some quick internet research reveals that ammunition can last at least several decades if it's stored properly.

But that doesn't change the fact that, realistically, there wouldn't be very many bullets just laying around anyways.

I think it's a thing with the damage threshold system in many situations. Shotguns do low amounts of damage per projectile, but combined they're strong. Of course if all those projectiles are resisted because you're shooting at someone with power armor, then you'd barely do any damage. Many melee weapons on the other hand have higher damage per hit.

Gameplay considerations aside, there has never been an in-universe concern over a lack of ammunition. Yes, the NCR in the Mojave has supply issues, but that's more due to bureaucratic and logistical snafus than there not being enough bullets to go around. You've never had a character say something to the effect of "boy, bullets are really hard to come by. Maybe we should be making crossbows instead."

Mojave Desert would be an ideal location to have ammo last a looonnngggg time : dry and warm

I've never been a fan of the "primitive"/melee weapons but I think the bumper sword is quite intimidating and have used it a few times.

bigcrazewolf

I would think they wouldn't be very popular around the more populated and high tech areas. I'm sure they still have tribals out there with some.