So, I was out minding my own business exploring the waste and I ran into a trader named Crickett. I spoke with her for a short time and bought a REALLY AWESOME weapon from her and we parted ways. Little did I know, that was going to be 1st AND last time I would ever see her again. 10 seconds after we parted way I hear gun fire coming from the direction she left in. I come running as fast as I can but, the damage had already been done. A group of super mutants attack her caravan and ignited a car not more that 10 feet away from her. BOOM!!!!!

I'll never be able to trade with her again now.

Kinda svcks

Reloading to a previous checkpoint would screw up my progress to much.

Not the end of the world but it is a bummer.

Has something like this happen to anyone else???

If on PC and you can find her body, there is an alternative....

~

(click on her body)

resurrect

I would imagine she is replaced once dead... I could be wrong?

The unpredictability of the wasteland.

That does svck, but for me, those are the types of things that I love about the game. Just random incidents... you met her, you hit it off, and then she's dead. Life in the wastes my friend.

No, I love random, dynamic occurrences like that in Beth games. Ever since Oblivion

You make a very good point.

I just came from a post moaning about unkillable companions so I find this amusing.

yea not when they have unique stuff for sale.

I get torn on companions... on one hand, I hate that they (used to be) so frail, especially in early game. So I like their essential status based on that... but I also miss finding a fallen comrade after an epic fight - was really awesome in Skyrim to come out of a battle and look around... "Lydia we did it! Lydia? Oh no...." only to find her dead beneath a pile of our fallen foes.

6 of one, half dozen of the other I suppose. You can never make gamers happy .

I hate realism too

I think this kind of stuff is exactly what makes Fallout feel so alive, and is actually the kind of thing Bethesda aims to incorporate in their games. Sure, you have the option to reload and clean your slate, but the unexpected things that happen are what make your experience so unique when playing this game. It's unfortunate, but it's the idea that anything can happen that makes the series feel fresh even months after a new game releases.

The game should have no consequences. People you know should never die, your dog should never die, the wasteland should be a My Little Pony Land, where everyone is happy, but only if they are your friends. Yay!

The story of you meeting the mechant, buying a weapon and then seeing them die and not being able to help is much more cooler and realistic, than "I met this trader, bought a nice weapon, she waded through a sea of Super Mutants with miniguns, killed them all by chipping with her punny pea-shooter, because she's essential unkillable NPC, and everone lived happily ever after"

As long as another caravan trader takes her place. Otherwise at some point everyone will be dead and that makes no sense whatsoever. Was everyone invincible until you popped out of the vault and then magically they all lost their essential status and started dying? By that logic the player character will be more responsible for death in the wastelan than the Institute and raiders combined.

If that happened on my game, Id be happy. Thats a real consequence of living in the apocalypse. Death is right around the corner for everybody.

Hrmm.. I hear she sells one of the best weapons in the game.. I hope she doesn't die in my game before I have a chance to buy it. Vendors with one of a kind weapons shouldn't die unless you can get the item elsewhere in my opinion. Traders that have no one of a kind item... Sure blow them to hell super mutants

In Fallout 3 I used to summon all the travelling merchants to me, one by one, and make them essential. Only the merchants though. It's hard enough to sell and buy things as it is, I don't want merchants disappearing just because.

Anyone else is fair game though. I haven't done anything like that yet but now I'm at a level where the Super Mutants are wandering around with Rocket Launchers and Miniguns so they wipe out NPCs in the blink of an eye.

Edit: It's strange how enemies get more and more powerful but allies don't. Well they certainly don't seem to.

Was she lootable? And if so, was her unique weapon available?