Gunner Overhaul and Economy Rework

[CheshireTranarchist]

I have two mod ideas, but there's a synergy to them.

 

Primarily I want an economy that functions the way something like the Commonwealth actually would, and it would be really easy to do in FO4 anyway. Replace caps as currency, with a complex debt based economy that makes use of the shipment function. Do a quest, get a shipment of ammo, food, scrap, metal, etc. Have merchants keep their stocks and trade in good or debts of their own, you give them your shipment notices, they give you equal value shipments of things you want. The only thing left at that point is who is supplying the commonwealth with goods?

 

In come the Gunners. I really miss the Gun Runners from New Vegas. It was an interesting faction that provided a lot of fun and variety to the mojave. We know that the gunners are so well outfitted because they looted military stockpiles, but stockpiles run out, especially ammo. So with the prevalence of crafting benches, why not make the gunners into a sort of Gun Runners for the Commonwealth? Why would the gun runners of the commonwealth do what they did at quincy, you ask? Simple, the Minutemen were competition, and they thought they'd bring some force of law down on the Commonwealth to boot, harming the Gunners bottom line both in disrupting their monopoly, and in killing and bringing their customers to Justice. The gunners are content to leave the Commonwealth lawless. They can defend themselves, and they can profit from the conflict. And that is why the Institute hasn't stopped them either.

 

More in depth, I'd suggest also having the rebuilt Minutemen compete with the gunners in weapons manufacturing. Maybe create a new settlment opportunity that has us clear out a Gunner weapons factory to use for ourselves, something pre-built but with room to expand.

 

On the economy stuff, really, farmers aren't gonna have barrels full of caps to go around, and trade with Bunker Hill's caravans. It makes a lot more sense that they'd promise food shipments, scrap shipments in some cases, and etc to them and that would be how they got what they needed. In turn, they reward you with similar shipments, and you do what you need to with them. That's not to mention the fact that without a stable system of trade and at the very least, a council that could meet to negotiate and regulate, there is no way to enforce a currency, especially not one as easy to counterfit as bottlecaps.The shipments themselves would have to become more available at vendors, as a result, but that could be easily done as well. And caps, personally I'd scrap them, use pre-war money or gold bars or cigarettes (a much more realistic currency since it's already used all over the US in prisons). The only people who really trade in it are the merchants, and even that, they only ever carry a small amount of, because the real money is tied up in debts and bonds. Think about how much space 100 bottllecaps takes up (or 10 cartons of cigarettes), you're not carrying thousands of caps around the Commonwealth, not when you're already laden down with several mags, multiple explosives, and a few different weapons.

 

Raider 1: So I'm sitting on guard duty and I hear this sound, right?

 

Raider 2: Uh-huh

 

Riader 1: I look down and there's this scav looking motherf*#@er, crouched behind the trashcan down the street, and so I shoot 'em, and whaddayaknow, they got this huge sack of caps just dangling from their belt, making all the noise in the world.

 

Raider 2: Oh s#*!, you got your first dumb f*#@ merc, congrats... yeah, it's always the caps that get 'em. Can't sneak for s#*! with all that jingling.

 

That's the basic part... but this could go deeper if someone wanted to take it that far.

 

Assuming you work with Preston and rebuild the Minutemen and their settlements, you're essentially becoming a feudal lord. The general leads the minutemen who recruit from, defend, and maintain the settllements, and the people living in them provide soldiers, food, and other provisions for the continuance of your feudal government. So, in addition to the settlements rewards being an initial shipment, there should also be a sort of tax, every 3 to 7 in game days, where they give you another shipment, which you can either take for yourself, or give to either Preston or Ronnie, and with it they could make sure your minutemen are better equipped. Maybe they start with laser muskets and pipe weapons, but 100 shipments later and your faction is toting Gauss Rifles and Handmade Rifles. And similar setups should be possible with the BoS or Railroad or Institute or Nuka World. Better armor, more patrols, more supplies in faction merchants, etc etc etc. In this way, you both create an economy that more accurately depicts what the Commonwealth would need in order to function, and you make the settlement system actually interesting, because there's rewards for engaging with it.

 

One last cool function, to round it all out, would be to make the mod so that it's easy for weapon modders to insert their guns into what the gunners or the Minutemen are able to produce.