I still say Poker Chips would be the most "Fun" currency to have in "New Vegas".

With the use of bottle caps as currency, clearly Realism wasn't the primary concern when choosing a currency. As were in New Vegas, I would love to see poker chips as the currency, or bottle caps, but nothing more serious than that.

Poker chips make the most sense to me in terms of setting and story. NCR uses gold coins as standard currency, which made sense in FO2 because they were the dominant economic power in the region. In New Vegas though the implication seems to be they're just making their move for dominance, which would make widespread use of gold coins a little unusual.

while im not a massive fan of the chip idea i would have to say anything that isnt bottlecaps, they where fine with fallout 3's setting but in this time it would kinda be making the game backwards.

would prefer bartering.
but chips wouldn't bother me.
after f3 i will be happy to see the stores actually be useful.
honestly, in 3 characters i only ever bought anything twice (maybe, just maybe three times?) the first time i bought something just for the sake of buying something because i realized i was half way through the game (taking my time) and had not tried to buy anything yet. they were that pointless. (even on hard difficulty) why buy it when you are probably going to find 10 on your way to where you need to go anyway?

I think the biggest problem would be merchants.

GOLD: Not everyone has a scale that can measure out precise amounts, and you wouldn't trust it either.

CAPS: "I'd like to buy a gun!" "That'll be 200 caps." "Okay. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8..."

CHIPS: Chips were designed to be exchanged with real money at a 1-1 ratio NO MATTER WHICH CASINO YOU WENT TO (I'm really tired of people complaining casinos won't accept each other's chips. It's all good). Sure in our time, they didn't exchange, but that was just an identity thing.

They are small
Near-indestructible
Easily divisible
Easily counted, and
In many denominations.

I agree, and they are so much more complex than simple plastic chips these days, that it would not be possible to replicate them. One could melt-down gold into a gold coin or nugget fairly easily, but manufacturing a Poker Chip with all the perfect ribbed-edges and even worn-out logo's would be impossible. There is also a finite supply, which makes them idea as a currency, and there would be plenty of spots for the player to find small amounts of them in desks and other places around NV (just as caps are in DC).

It's not really a huge deal at the end of the game, but I think Poke Chips would make the most sense in NV if they didn't just go with "Gold Coins".

I hope not though, gold coins actually doesn't make alot of sense in the Wasteland, bartering would take over.

I say it shaould go with some system of "Estimated Gross Value". As in, different groups will use different currencies, and after you are done transacting, the Pip-boty could be used to calculate the value of the various cuirrencies you carry, and gives you a number that represents the general value of all of your currency when added together.

Certain merchants will prefer certain currencies, meaning you could talk to an average merchant and a settlement, and your pip-boy coould say you had 436 "points" in currency value to spend. Or, with the same amount of currency, you could head to an NCR armory master, who only accepts NCR gold coins. When you trade with him, you may only have 120 or so "points" of currency.

Also, different currencies could change in value based on what you do in the game. If you work for Ceasers Legion against the NCR, NCR coins could lose some value, changing the in-game economy. It woiuld mean you might have to offload the hundreds of NCR coins you obtained while fighting against them in order to spend them.

Thus, the $600 in NCR gold would have to be traded for about $250 in poker chips, which might be the official currency of Ceasars Legion. If you didnt want to boher with the complicated barter system, you could bypass it by exchanging any currency you find for ammunition or maybe caps, which could be the "Mediator" currency in all this.

One cap culd always equal 1 currency point, while one NCR 1$ coin could be worth 5-10 cps, or even more, depending on the economy. This would add a new layer to how people play there charicters. As an alternative to just running around, gunning people down and doing quests, you could instead be an intelligent , slick-tongued gambler, trying to manipulate the current economy to make you richer.

Anybody like it?

I voted caps since it?s closest to poker chips, a currency that makes sence for a Vegas themed game

To be considered legal tender, an item only needs a few things:

1. To be used as a medium of exchange, which bottle caps or poker chips could definitely be.
2. Relative scarcity, which both have since they are no longer manufactured.
3. Store value, meaning you could store and retrieve it at a later time, which both have.

So caps or poker chips could definitely serve as money. My vote is for poker chips.

Chips, it's Vegas....

When you pick up the chips it will make a clanking noise instead of the FO3 clinking noise......BC are metal, chips are plastic.

poker chips

Hmmm I wonder what the poll results would be like if I added poker chips... Think I should reset the poll or is it pointless at this point as this thread well probably be buried. It seems a lot of people (and my self wouldn't mind) poker chips.

i too would throw my lot in with Poker Chips.

Maybe different factions could use different things.

NCR with printed or minted money
Caesar's Legion (and New Vegas itself) with Poker Chips
Locals could use caps
and depending on how the parties are relating some or all could be exchanged

Some of you guys are over thinking it, it is a game!!!

In the game the chips wouldn't be worth 1,5,10,etc...... 1 chip = 1 chip, b/c that is the new currency.Remember it is a game the same rules don't apply,just b/c it is like that in the reality doesn't mean it has to be in the game, they can't apply b/c unlike the FO world ours isn't destroyed(well, like theirs at least).

Chips will be the new currency, it wont be counted in $ it is worth rather than just what it is...... 1 chip.

It wouldn't be as fun to me and a lot more confusing if yuo have them at different values, IMO they need to keep the same currency system they had in FO3 just replace caps with chips........ SIMPLE!!!

i hope that it will either be nuka caps because nuka cola played a huge roll in fallout 3 or casino tokens because it's vegas

gold would be good for currency, you can't duplicate it unless you use pyrite(fools gold). But the idea of chips in New Vegas city limits and gold or caps everywhere is nice. Not too much, in a wasteland banks and vaults full of gold and precisous metals would eventually be looted. and in FO2 gold was used as money. why should it be no different

I think there should be different forms of currency in different areas
in some areas like vegas have chips
and in NCR areas have gold be the currency
and in some settlements out in the wastes use ammo or a barter system


Case closed

caps; just too keep it consistant.

I'd prefer caps - nobody has made an effort to try and reproduce them or circulate new ones into the economy, so the pre-existing pre-War caps obviously have some value. I know Fallout 2 resorted to gold currency, but I felt that it was just a bit too early. The only source of gold I recall ever encountering on the west coast was the mining site in Redding, and even then, I don't think trade networks between Vault City/New Reno/NCR powerhouses and abundant tech/manpower with which to actually mint and circulate the gold was feasible at the time. So I'm definitely in favor of caps, even if it has already been about 120 years since the original Fallout.

Gold. If an apocalypse occurred, currency would go back to how it used to be, in precious metals; only in our lifetime/future, those metals would be things such as watches, rings, necklaces, etc. I'd like to see a value system more than anything, like X Gold necklace buys you more than Y zirconium ring. Little things like that which would make you have to balance your spending, because not everyone has 1,000 caps to give out.

First off, in an apocalypse, ANYTHING and EVERYTHING is precious. Secondly, the vendors already have set budgets, this was added in Fallout 3.

The big problem is that gold is heavy, hard to find, and not very easy to divide honestly (so scavengers now have exact scales?).

Chips, among the many other reasons on this forum (which no one seems to read anymore, they just post their opinion and leave), fit into the Vegas culture, have denominations right on them, and can be found in all sorts of weird pre-war places (Who finds gold in a filing cabinet?), adding to the dungeon feel of the fallout games

in a lawless, post-apocalyptic land, what is the point of having any currency? without a government to regulate currency, who is to say what is worth what. who is going to stop someone from making up their own currency?

how can you make a caravan or settlement use whatever some other place is using for currency? say i am out in the wastes looking for .32 ammo and come across an abandoned health clinic. inside i find loads of radaway and stimpacks. so i decide instead of just searching for ammo, i could set up a tent and sell those medical supplies for .32 ammo only. there's no FTC or BBB to come and make me stop that and only use caps or gold.

my point is why is there a need to have some "standard"? gold may have worked in the past but no standard or rules apply in a post-apocalyptic situation such as fallout. because in the end, you could have a shop that only accepts gold/caps/chips but if i killed the shopkeep, all the stuff is now mine. for free. and no one can come and "arrest" me. so what's the point of even trying to have a set currency if you can't make everyone follow it.

now, the only time you can make currency work is within a large settlement that is highly governed and secure, new vegas perhaps. i mentioned before how it would be a great idea if within the city limits of new vegas you could only use poker chips as currency. this makes sense for many reasons. since its highly probable Ceasar's Legion is a mob of sorts and has control over the city they could easily enforce chips as the only accepted currency. it would make sense for them to have stations in the city that would provide chips for you... at a price. since they would have no need for bottle caps or gold, they would trade chips for supplies. anything that the legion would need. guns, ammo, food, meds, jet, women...

you just can't say let's use gold because it was valuable 200 years ago. in post-apocalyse, all bets are off. no one would care to have gold. a mattress with no holes or food for another day would be worth more than gold to wastelanders.

eh...I think your over anolysing a aspect of a game, as long as what currency is used makes sense digging into how or why it is used is just waste of time.

The number of people voting for bottle caps over gold must represent the number of Fallout 3 fans who never played Fallout 2. Bottle caps have been phased out since Fallout 2 and Bethesda likely only brought them back for the same reason they recycled so many other things from the first two games--because they needed recognizable elements in order to prove to people it was "Fallout".

No to bottlecaps. Yes to verisimilitude and consistency within the Fallout canon please.

Gold of course, they were using gold back in Fallout2, it already broke consistency that they took a step back and using caps as currency in fallout3.