OK that makes sense, as far it goes. I was thinking the hack defeated the payment method, not the item-selection. (Vending machines I know require payment before making the selection.) Would presume all machines would have similar financial firmware.
They do have similar firmware, but I’m assuming the keypad version would be easier to interface with, as it combines selection, cost display, and payment all in one place.
Sounds plausible enough.
I could imagine a vendor just rolling down the street shouting out slogans and offering you food, before you break it open and eat its delicious insides…wait that didnt come out right…WAIT JFNFDJLKFSKL
Rather than a vending machine key(because it’s not like the same company owns all the vending machines), you could just throw in money as an item. It’d mostly be a garbage item but it does let you purchase stuff in vending machines. Which always have preserved food.
Just treat money like batteries/thread. One item that stacks indefinitely. It also might be useful once NPCs are in. It’s just after the cataclysm, people are still probably going to use money to trade things. Just at a much lower currency value.
Money, even in post-apocalyptic world, have value, they are useless only when you encounter alien race (probably).
Money can be used not only to buy from vending machines, but also in trading with NPCs. Agreed with idea that money will stack like ammo, maybe also add ATMs, cash registers and other money containing objects. Though you can find money on corpses (usually), but in much lesser amount than in banks (everything was looted except bank vaullts). Also vending machines are mostly looted, just as stores. Because of zombie outbreak most people gone rogue and took watever they could.
Maybe when NPCs become more or less fixed, create settlemeents, whereyou can trade with others or even join fraction. Maybe add settlements where people don’t know that dead walk the earth (maybe some isolated people that don’t care about outer world, some sort of sect or something).
FWIW there was some (abstract, non-inventory) “money” involved in NPC trading. In practice it was basically a limiter on trade, and wasn’t that effective either IMO.
Would recommend against an actual money item, inasmuch as people have to carry it around. Last I heard DF economics would kill any fort that actually used physical currency thanks to the logistics of moving the currency around.
I’m not too sure if your comparison to DF is a valid thing here. In DF physical currency causes problems because the game is attempting to simulate an entire economy of 100+ dwarves with real currency. Cataclysm, on the other hand, only has to totally simulate 1 person’s worth of money, plus any extra the is lying around. Even in the event that a real money item is decided to be used for NPC trading in the future it can easily be abstracted away when dealing with inter-NPC trades (so the physical money vanishes once the NPC gets it and just becomes a number, then when they trade with you/get killed the game recreates it on their corpse).
Personally I see money in cataclysm serving rather similar to the “pre-war” money in fallout. It’s useful for getting things out of vending machines/etc. or can be traded at low values with NPC players, but other then that it’s not very useful and it’s completely possible to get by without it.
I’m only familiar with FO1/2/Tactics, wherein pre-war stuff wasn’t all that great. I take it this is some FO3/NV thing you’re discussing; fair enough, though the mass-quantity (# in inventory exceeds it, the stack starts accumulating mass/volume) ought to be pretty high.
Money has value in so much as people think it has value, and this belief is widely dependent on another belief of whether there is enough of a homogenized belief among other people you will come across to see it as valuable.
The description of the gold bar in the bank seems to indicate that tradition value might have been trimmed off the in ensuing cataclysm. It’s like in a war torn country, why would you trade something for paper money when the next person you come across might not give you his food when try to buy it off of him? The government that backs it is gone, the banks where you can store it and trade for some other financial services are gone, and most surviving people have been reduced to being focused on their immediate short term survival.
In face of the temporary loss of confidence of paper currency, there is an additional factor that money itself has lost value. For example, even if you give someone a gold bar for instance or a hundred thousand dollars in cash, they might not be willing to part with the few cans of food he has if it means an additional risk to his own life in going into a city for food again.
This should only be temporary though.
Money has value in so much as people think it has value, and this belief is widely dependent on another belief of whether there is enough of a homogenized belief among other people you will come across to see it as valuable.
The description of the gold bar in the bank seems to indicate that tradition value might have been trimmed off the in ensuing cataclysm. It’s like in a war torn country, why would you trade something for paper money when the next person you come across might not give you his food when try to buy it off of him? The government that backs it is gone, the banks where you can store it and trade for some other financial services are gone, and most surviving people have been reduced to being focused on their immediate short term survival.
In face of the temporary loss of confidence of paper currency, there is an additional factor that money itself has lost value. For example, even if you give someone a gold bar for instance or a hundred thousand dollars in cash, they might not be willing to part with the few cans of food he has if it means an additional risk to his own life in going into a city for food again.
This should only be temporary though.[/quote]
Well ya know…We could all trade in bottlecaps if that floats ya boat
Barter system good sir. It’s basic economics.
Just look at place where war is raging and the people there are just bartering with each other. WWII in Jewish Ghettos, concentrations camps, the eastern front, and in Nationalist China, very few people placed their confidence in paper money. Mostly because the governments that backs the currency are either under attack, or simply gone. The new government might not accept the old currency for example.
In cataclysm I think the prevalent mood there is doubt of whether there would be any government after everything.
Money compared to food is different the moment there is a food shortage, and/or risk to your life, this difference is extremely significant when they’re busy scavenging for food and water, and of course, fending off zombies, bears, giant insects, etc.
I’d like to see a period of time a few months after the outbreak when NPC factions have started becoming entrenched and progress beyond the bartering level economy and implement some kind of money or work for trade system.
[quote=“Weyrling, post:33, topic:1043”]Money compared to food is different the moment there is a food shortage, and/or risk to your life, this difference is extremely significant when they’re busy scavenging for food and water, and of course, fending off zombies, bears, giant insects, etc.
I’d like to see a period of time a few months after the outbreak when NPC factions have started becoming entrenched and progress beyond the bartering level economy and implement some kind of money or work for trade system.[/quote]
The ‘work’ thing sounds cool, like, if you want a share in their food stores youd have to go out scavenging with other people etc.
" The flying 8-up can strikes you in the head, breaking the skull and tearing the brain, you are dead."
couldn’t resist…and 8-up because it’s the future and copyright infringement sucks
Thoughts:
- Vending machines would be awesome! It would really fill up the world in terms of what we experience
- Vending machine robots are a really cool idea, but how do you justify that? There is no reason at all for them to be weaponized, but maybe they could wander around, peacefully seeking out people to SELL ITEMS TO REALLY LOUDLY and attracting all the zombies? Essentially a high-tech, logan-spouting ice cream van
- Hulks carrying them makes no sense whatsoever. This isn’t really Borderlands 2.
- Money is interesting in concept, and should be added eventually. For simplicity’s sake, you could simply have “Coins” that represent $1. So for a machine, you could start inserting coins until it spits out a random item.
The vending machines should also taze you when you try to break them open 
[quote=“Disarcade, post:36, topic:1043”]Thoughts:
- Vending machines would be awesome! It would really fill up the world in terms of what we experience
- Vending machine robots are a really cool idea, but how do you justify that? There is no reason at all for them to be weaponized, but maybe they could wander around, peacefully seeking out people to SELL ITEMS TO REALLY LOUDLY and attracting all the zombies?[/quote]
- Because its the future! Thats how its justified, why is there huge tripod robots with flamethrowers attached?
- And they arent weaponized, they just shoot out soda cans at you.
its ALMOST the same as hitting someone with a teddy bear, except the teddy bear is flying at very high speeds, wrapped in aluminum and has a modest density that can shatter skulls.
sounds Dwarfy! Cataclysmic!
its ALMOST the same as hitting someone with a teddy bear, except the teddy bear is flying at very high speeds, wrapped in aluminum and has a modest density that can shatter skulls.
sounds Dwarfy! Cataclysmic![/quote]
What does nop mean?xD cause i know a person who uses it in a game