Bottlecaps?

C

chaosapiant

It Wandered In From the Wastes
I keep wondering, why are bottlecaps the currencty in this game? I know they were the currency in the first game, and that was explained because the hub merchant companies backed them. I know that gold was currency in F2 because their were gold mines in the area, making bottlecaps obsolete. So, how come roughly 100 years have passed since F1 and the east coast uses bottlecaps? Is that ever explained?

BTW, I'm hoping to not get posts that amount to "beth raped fallout, everything is non-canon, yada yada." I get that they changed it, i'm just wondering if their is a lore justification for it.
 
I was wondering about the same thing. Especially, when in FO3 you can find many, many bottlecaps laying around :P
 
I do like that you can get bottlecaps from Nuka cola bottles. That is a nice, and fairly realistic touch.
 
Now you mention it that is interesting.
I did find it weird that going through peoples draws yielded a couple of bottlecaps which is rather strange. Why the Germantown police were hoarding bottlecaps is a mystery.

I guess its the easiest way for Beth to go. It ties it too Fallout 1 and also shows the less developed aspect that the east coast has.
Shame like a lot of the stuff in the game it dosen't actually make that much sense.
 
Most of Beth's decision I can get behind. The new BOS and super mutants are at least explained, whether one agrees with the decision or not. But the bottlecap thing seems fairly arbitrary.

I suppose if a civilization uses one particular currency for 200+ years, they no longer need to have backing, similar to how the US no longer uses the gold backing standard. I do wish it was explained a bit at least.
 
I have a feeling it was mostly just a nod to the original. I never found any in-game explanation, which would be the canonical explanation if there was one to be had.
 
chaosapiant said:
I do like that you can get bottlecaps from Nuka cola bottles. That is a nice, and fairly realistic touch.
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Yeah, getting bottlecaps from Nuka Cola is fine.

Why the Germantown police were hoarding bottlecaps is a mystery.
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Just like why Feral Ghouls have bottlecaps? They live in subways, and never come out for shopping, right?
 
I agree about the feral ghoul thing. Unless they just like hoarding shiny objects. I don't imagine bottlecaps are very shiny though.
 
Bottle caps are unique and cannot be forged without a manufacturing plant to make them. Basically, they're an easily available solution to a lack of stable currency.

Alphadrop said:
Now you mention it that is interesting.
I did find it weird that going through peoples draws yielded a couple of bottlecaps which is rather strange. Why the Germantown police were hoarding bottlecaps is a mystery.
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Littering. People are lazy, and sometimes throw trash in the weirdest places.
 
Caps would need the correct tooling to make, so in a tech-deprived world (never saw a lathe or press in the game) they'd be hard to counterfeit.

They'd weather years of abuse.
They're small enough to use as coin.
They're made of metal, which makes them hard currency, with an actual physical value.
They were used in both the original games, and changing the currency to "pesos" wouldn't make any sense, and only piss off the purists to whom there was no proper solution anyways.

That said... the idea of a pop machine containing ANYTHING useful whatsoever beyond a single cap or two is one of the aspects of the game I choose to ignore. I felt the same way with the earlier games.
 
They're made of metal, which makes them hard currency, with an actual physical value.
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Not mentioning that there are lots of pieces of metal in many sizes (cars, metal parts of the buildings, fences, etc) basically everywhere :P
 
In FO1 the caps where backed by the Merchants of the hub.

I guess in this....Rivet City?
 
Not mentioning that there are lots of pieces of metal in many sizes (cars, metal parts of the buildings, fences, etc) basically everywhere
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hey... I'm just trying to find reasons for the use of caps.
 
Public said:
chaosapiant said:
I do like that you can get bottlecaps from Nuka cola bottles. That is a nice, and fairly realistic touch.
Click to expand...

Yeah, getting bottlecaps from Nuka Cola is fine.

Why the Germantown police were hoarding bottlecaps is a mystery.
Click to expand...

Just like why Feral Ghouls have bottlecaps? They live in subways, and never come out for shopping, right?
Click to expand...

I always assumed that they had bottle caps on them before they turned into ghouls. As for eveyone else from before the war... maybe they are like me, leaving all my beer bottle caps all over and just scooping them into a drawer when someone comes over unexpectedly...
 
If you follow the explanation behind the Feral Ghouls it's that they're Ghouls who have had their brains rotted from their condition, I guess it's comparable to the Ghouls from Fallout 1's Necropolis above-ground who're wandering around almost zombie-like.

From that you can assume they were regular old Ghouls who were carrying around their typical stuff and then eventual went nuts and didn't bother to toss some extra caps to the side while munching on wastelanders.
 
But you know, it seems like there is also a lot of pre-war money lying around, they could use as currency. But I'm sure it's all burned to hell, and lets just face it, caps have always been just cool I actually gave a friend of mine a small bag full of bottle caps and dirt as a gag gift once (he's a FO fan too)
 
Confalone said:
But you know, it seems like there is also a lot of pre-war money lying around, they could use as currency. But I'm sure it's all burned to hell, and lets just face it, caps have always been just cool I actually gave a friend of mine a small bag full of bottle caps and dirt as a gag gift once (he's a FO fan too)
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The prewar currency is pretty valuable in the game. For me, I was always carrying so many backup weapons and armor that I was just at maximum weight limits, but I never missed a chance to pick up the prewar money because it has no weight value and can be traded for a decent amount of caps. One thing that I really like is the weight/value balance.
 
BoisBrule said:
Not mentioning that there are lots of pieces of metal in many sizes (cars, metal parts of the buildings, fences, etc) basically everywhere
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hey... I'm just trying to find reasons for the use of caps.
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And I found one of your reasons to be wrong :)
No offence man :drunk:
 
Hroesvelgr said:
Confalone said:
But you know, it seems like there is also a lot of pre-war money lying around, they could use as currency. But I'm sure it's all burned to hell, and lets just face it, caps have always been just cool I actually gave a friend of mine a small bag full of bottle caps and dirt as a gag gift once (he's a FO fan too)
Click to expand...

The prewar currency is pretty valuable in the game. For me, I was always carrying so many backup weapons and armor that I was just at maximum weight limits, but I never missed a chance to pick up the prewar money because it has no weight value and can be traded for a decent amount of caps. One thing that I really like is the weight/value balance.
Click to expand...

I also like how they screw with your view of what's "junk" and what's not. For example I love the Nuka grenades so now I grab tin cans which I had completely ignored earlier. And other random junk like pre war books, sugar bombs and even scrap metal have people who will make it worth your while to gather a batch and make the trek to sell them.
 
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