It is not hard to imagine people doing that, but consider, if there people doing that, at some point the protagonist is going to be offered the job of destroying the illegal bottle cap manufacturing equipment. There will probably be a little bonus in it for you if you give instruction (in true wasteland style) to the offenders on civic duty.

Let me guess... you don't know much about economics?

Just so everyone is on the same wavelength. Price and Value are two related concepts, but they are very different concepts.

A PRICE of 53 does not reflect the value of a pistol even if it is labeled as such.

If you come across a man dying of thirst in the desert, it wouldn't matter if he had only 53 in currency or a million in currency. That pistol would be of no value to him, UNLESS you were also carrying water in which case the pistol could prove to be the second most valuable item in existance to him.

Haha. Yeah. As for why no one manufactures more bottle caps, ask Zimbabwe how printing more money went for them. All you'll do is cause hyper-inflation.

Bottlecaps are currency in the wasteland because everyone agrees they have value and trusts them. And it is harder to fake a bottlecap than you think - getting the right metal, at the right thickness, then crinkling it to machine precision, and then painting them, and making them look old after that .... more trouble than going out and trying to find one in the dirt. The time and effort doesn't reward counterfeiting them.

I would like prices like that, and not the [censored] in NV; who the [censored] charges 20k for a smg?

I am honestly hoping for this. Repair usually just becomes an annoying chore in Bethesda's game and I don't want to mess around with it.

~Edit~

Though I wouldn't mind if repair is part of hardcoe mode only.

Teach a man to fish and he won't starve for the rest of his life. Give a man a fish and he won't starve for a day.

The only reason I think guns & such should be expensive is to keep me busy earning enough to afford them. After awhile in fallout 3 money became redundant because i became the post apocalyptic equivalent of bill gates. They should have charged me rent for my megaton home to keep funds moving from my account in an effort to keep things financially interesting.

Decrease inflation and add to the value of weapons, resources, etc also it would be great if more unique weapons, armor, etc were unique to vendors and were very expensive so it wouldn't decrease the value and point of exploring however it would make vendors worth visiting (besides for stimpaks)

If you notice, the more you add to the weapon... the higher the value... Which means crafting better weapons for sale will be the best bet for caps. No one is going to want a stock laser pistol, if you can turn it into a laser rifle, sniper rifle, or machinegun. I mean, regular weapons will no doubt have some value, but the highest rewards will likely be gained once you've put a little tlc into them.

Well if it was a reliable killing machine, like a tank(why the [censored] would they be so costly if they werent reliable killing machines?) then its worth the money. So i welcome the low value and the whole idea of a harder time earning caps but it just seems to be way to drastically put.