This ain't Wal-Mart, boy!

[EllPro]

Here's an incredibly stupid question - There are people alive other than just my character. Lots of them in fact. Plus, some of them are merchants that are happy to buy and sell from me. However, there's no way that a merchant can live on the income of one random schlub wandering the wasteland. My question is, do NPCs in the game ever shop? I see NPCs eating at Power Noodles, so they must have purchased something. What about other merchants? I never see dwellers in 88 shopping with any of my merchants, and the same goes with merchants in other settlements. Is the idea of NPCs shopping such a weird idea?

[TheGadget1945]

I'd like to know how any stocks of Cram, Nuka Cola etc which weren't destroyed in the war have survived not only edible but in any quantity after 210 years.

[flatbush71]

Let me tell you youngsters a story.

We were eating rat rations made in the early 40s , while in the field in 67-70.

And they were edible, sadly Charlie could smell your breath a click away.

 

 

The BOS aint got nothin on " The Herd " .

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cg4D7xm3ScI

Edited August 18, 2017 by flatbush71

[dark47]

Yup, and our breath wasn't the only thing Charlie smelled, as I recall. He, he

[CaptainPatch]

I'd like to know how any stocks of Cram, Nuka Cola etc which weren't destroyed in the war have survived not only edible but in any quantity after 210 years.

Preservatives. Like how A 20-year-old Twinkie is just the same as one opened the day after it left the factory.

[EllPro]

So I'm guessing that's either a "No" or an "I don't know" then.

[Majic7]

I've seen settlers window shopping at stores I added to a settlement. Never asked if they bought anything.

[skubblebubble]

Well, the settlers will go the bar. Your vendors do generate income, just no animations for people going to visit them.

Except for getting booze.

[Slostenn]

NPCs interact with vendors, but they don't actually buy items in the sense that an item is removed from the vendor's inventory, as far as I know. This is most likely for gameplay reasons; your average player would be pretty pissed if they saw a weapon they really wanted in a vendor's inventory, left to scavenge for enough caps and items to barter with to afford it, and then came back only to find it missing because an NPC purchased it (and behind the scenes, it would probably just get deleted to prevent you from killing that NPC and getting it for free). It's a shame, though. I think it would make for an interesting Survival feature if you no longer had that guarantee that the item you were pining for would sit there waiting forever until you could afford it. Edited August 20, 2017 by Tukster

[pra]

 

I'd like to know how any stocks of Cram, Nuka Cola etc which weren't destroyed in the war have survived not only edible but in any quantity after 210 years.

Preservatives. Like how A 20-year-old Twinkie is just the same as one opened the day after it left the factory.

 

You can interact with some food items in the pre-war house, and your character says something like: "Cram, expiration date: never".

 

Also, radiation would probably pretty much sterillize everything, killing the bacteria which are the main reason for food spoiling. But that's RL reasoning, Fallout radiation is weird :D