Bobbleheads & Mags replaced with secondary currency?

[stebbinsd]

I like Fallout 4's bobblehead and magazine system. It encourages exploration by providing unique loot to each area. But there's just one flaw with that system: If I want to complete a particular collection, I have to go to one very specific location, regardless of how out of my way it is.

 

For example, let's say I want to complete my collection of all the SPECIAL bobbleheads. I absolutely must go to the following locations: Museum of Freedom, Poseidon Energy, Wreck of the FMS Northern Star, Spectacle Island, Mass Fusion, Parson's State Insane Asylumn, and Boston Public Library.

 

If I go anywhere else, I can't complete my collection of bobbleheads.

 

Then there's the magazines. Some magazines are only applicable to certain playstyles. For example, the Grognak comic books are entirely useless to a character who doesn't use melee weapons. Collecting those magazines serves only one purpose for those characters: Completionism. Getting every magazine for its own sake.

 

Then there's the problem of collecting bobbleheads only when I've maxed out my SPECIAL stats. If I want to get the most Perception possible, I have to purposefully ignore the Perception Bobblehead at the start of the game, max out my perception naturally, and THEN go back and get the bobblehead!

 

In Paper Mario on N64, there was a similar system in place. There were 128 star pieces in the game, and you could trade them for some choice badges that can give you various buffs. You had to collect every star piece in the game in order to trade for every rare badge, but the NPC who traded them would accept star pieces from any source. You want the Zap Tap badge? You didn't have to go to X specific location! You could trade 10 star pieces from wherever you got them! If you didn't have every star piece in the game, you could trade only for the badges you wanted.

 

I'd like to see a similar system in place. Replace the bobbleheads and magazines with some secondary currency (like some old Native American coin, which are highly collectible even in the real world). There would be a couple of NPCs in Diamond City, Goodneighbor, and Vault 81 who would trade you a bobblehead or magazine of your choice in exchange for one of these secondary currencies. So you find a secondary currency in the Museum of Freedom, right where the Perception Bobblehead used to be. You can then trade it for the Perception Bobblehead if you so choose ... OR you can trade it for whatever other bobblehead you prefer! So if you've maxed out your intelligence so you can level up as fast as possible, you can trade for the Ingelligence Bobblehead as soon as you get to the right NPC, so you can level up even faster! Then trade for Live & Love #4, #7, and #8 to max out your experience as much as possible early in the game ... without having to go out of your way to get to wherever the magazines you need just happen to be!

 

With this system, you can acquire only the magazines and bobbleheads you need for your playstyle. When you've acquired them all, you can then move onto acquiring the bobbleheads and magazines you haven't acquired just for completionist sake. But you only have to go to the places you already have business going to.