Talk:Fallout 3 merchants

Arefu
The caravans seem to be badly bugged. They seem to be really susceptible to getting stuck in Arefu. Doc Hoff died there and his brahmin somehow ended up in paradise falls. Harith is stuck there too and since his guard doesn't reappear he might get killed eventually. Jarwulf 04:41, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

I'm experiencing a similar problem with Lucky Harith - his Brahmin showed up outside Arefu and he's gone, also Roe says he fell off the map.

Note that attacking a single Caravan Merchant will result in the remaining merchants refusing to trade with you. I haven't noticed this -- I've killed each one and found I could trade / repair with the remaining merchants.

If lucky harith's npc bodyguard doesnt show up on spawn, should i assume he was killed somewhere along the way? Will lucky get a new body guard?

I have the same problem with Lucky's pack brahmin being stuck in arefu with Lucky nowhere to be found. I also killed some of the merchants on a different save and the other merchants still trade with me. Bottrot 22:37, 23 May 2009 (UTC)

Dead Merchants
Dead merchants on the PC edition which die and are console-resurrected (yes cheating lay off :P) still can't be invested in. Is there a fix? Crow had the misfortune to appear while a Deathclaw was raping me and it wasn't his fault D: I want to upgrade his armor supplies but he's "a victim of foul play" according to Uncle Roe. Kobura Cape 20:10, 20 November 2008 (UTC)
 * Will Uncle Roe change his tune if you kill him and create a new one? [[Image:Ash_Nuke.jpg]] AshRandom (Talk) 04:00, 19 January 2009 (UTC)


 * I'm not sure how to fix this by using the console. Uncle Roe will only say a merchant is dead if the "GetDeadCount" script for the merchant is >= 1. Unfortunately, I have found nothing, not disabling the AI, not reseting the quest, not even resurrecting a dead merchant, that will reset their "DeadCount" to 0. The only two fixes I can figure out is to either 1) set all the merchants to essential before they die or 2) modify your .esm with the G.E.C.K. so that Uncle Roe's dialog condition says "GetDeadCount > 1" instead of "GetDeadCount >= 1". If somebody knows a console command to use to somehow set "DeadCount", that would fix this issue without using the G.E.C.K. -- Nspace

Repair Skills
I think the repair skills (or at least the sortiment of spare parts) of the merchants improve if you invest in them. I don't know the exact skill value after each investment (because I actually never met any of the merchants before investing in them), but the very useful friends of my player character have skill values of 65 (Crow), 70 (Doc Hoff) and 75 (Crazy Wolfgang). Exactly the right people to keep my alien blaster from falling apart :)


 * I included some 3rd-tier stats for caravaneer repair skills, but they got edited out a few days back. I can confirm your repair for Crow and Wolfgang but I thought my Hoff had 65. I can go back and check. If they're different, it might be indicative of... something. Don't know what. Ideas?
 * Terminalmancer 18:23, 17 November 2008 (UTC)

-> Correction: I went back and checked, and it's 65 for Doc Hoff. My mistake.

Other merchants
Do other merchants (say Wasteland Doctor) belong on this page, or does those four caravans have some sort of special status?
 * -- Mirar 20:33, 20 November 2008 (UTC)
 * I would say yes, as these four share a number of common characteristics, like the route and the investments. Maybe there should be a larger "Merchants" category that the Caravan Merchants would be a small part of?
 * Terminalmancer 20:52, 20 November 2008 (UTC)
 * Caravan Merchants are the four uniquely named merchants that follow the route given by Uncle Roe and which are able to be invested in. I do not think the more general Doctors and Scavengers belong on THIS page. I totally agree that a more general "Merchants" page that links to this (and vice versa) would be useful though! :) --Trithemius 08:41, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

Inventory Replenish
How long does it take for their inventory to replenish?

3 days (72hrs) of sleeping will usually restock their inventory

Repair Skill
Across eight games (xbox360) I've never seen any of the traveling merchants repair items beyond 79% aside from Wolfgang, obviously, who repairs items to 85%. Do we have any hard data on repairs, or is there just a difference between PC and Xbox360 numbers? AshRandom (Talk) 15:06, 13 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Solution discovered. Apparently it required deleting all of my fallout3 data off the Xbox360, resetting the cache and starting over to finally see Lucky repair items to 82%, instead of 79% as I was stuck with. If you run into that bug on your initial play-through you're going to have to do the same as it carries across. [[Image:Ash_Nuke.jpg]] AshRandom (Talk) 03:28, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

Changed Lucky Harith's repair skill to 65 (was 70) because I can't find anything in the GECK to support him having a higher repair skill than Doc Hoff or Crow. All of them start out with 15 repair skill which gets raised by 25 for each investment (for comparison, Crazy Wolfgang starts out with 15 as well, but his raises are 35 and 25). Where did the skill of 70 come from? // Porter21 U 13:52, 25 January 2009 (UTC)
 * I changed it to 65 myself a few times... I have no idea where 70 came from, but after I finally saw him repair for 82% (instead of 79% like most of the others with 65 skill) I gave in and accepted that he gets some kinda bonus.... [[Image:Ash_Nuke.jpg]] AshRandom (Talk) 13:55, 25 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Well, maybe there's some kind of hidden bonus (I doubt it to be honest but there is a possibility) but it definitely does not come from his repair skill, assuming there's no difference between PC and consoles. I've double-checked the numbers and he definitely has the same base skill and raises as Crow and Doc Hoff. // Porter21 U 13:58, 25 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Yeah, I know! WTF right? If you figure it out let me know, maybe we should just add a little note for now? [[Image:Ash_Nuke.jpg]] AshRandom (Talk) 14:01, 25 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Well, I've already figured it out :-) Seems my doubts were unjustified, I found the "hidden" bonus. While Lucky's skill increases and base skill is the same as for the others, Lucky Harith wears a Red Racer Jumpsuit which has a bonus of +5 to repair. The others don't wear clothing that increases their repair skill which explains the difference. // Porter21 U 14:04, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

What I don't get is, on several other pages I've seen people say that Wolfgang's repair can be bumped up to 88% with the Red Racer Jumpsuit.. But his base repair skill is 85% after the investment. Is it capped at 88%, or are the people in question just unable to work out 85+5?--Greig91 23:17, 25 April 2009 (UTC)

Roe's Map
In the article it says Roe will give you a map tracing these routes. I never recieved any such map, and I'm fully invested in the three of my caravans which are still alive.
 * Isn't it in the notes section of your pipboy? [[Image:Ash_Nuke.jpg]] AshRandom (Talk) 19:11, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

Try completing the "Superhuman gambit" quest before asking about investing in a unified caravan trading company. Or try talking to each caravan trader about thier caravan. - Stosro

Reverse Pickpocket?
It's been determined that Lucky Harith's repair skill of 70 (r82%) comes from his base skill of 65 and his +5 repair jumpsuit... So! Is there a +bonus repair item that can be successfully moved onto Crazy Wolfgang? Anyone know of a method? Obviously not everyone can use the console but even a method with that might be good page info. AshRandom (Talk) 14:17, 25 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Well, Crazy Wolfgang wears a Roving Trader Outfit at 75% condition. It has a base DR of 2 - none of the clothing items (at least of those I can think of: Vault 101 Utility Jumpsuit, Modified Utility Jumpsuit, Red Racer Jumpsuit, RobCo Jumpsuit) which increase Repair have better (all DR of 2 or 1). However, depending on whether 75% condition results in a DR of 1 or 2 you might have success with moving the Red Racer or RobCo jumpsuit to Wolfgang. There's no helmet/hat with bonus to repair, is there? That would be the easiest way seeing as Wolfgang does not wear any headwear. // Porter21 U 14:37, 25 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Confirmed: Wolfgang will wear Red Racer Jumpsuit and RobCo Jumpsuit as long as they are in better condition than his own outfit (i.e. above 75%). // Porter21 U 15:00, 25 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Confirmed for xbox360! Bumped Crazy Wolfgang up to 88% :)
 * Note: give him the RobCo, or it's a pain to tell him and lucky apart. [[Image:Ash_Nuke.jpg]] AshRandom (Talk) 15:19, 25 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Headgear: Has anyone tried placing Lincoln's Hat, which increases Intelligence by 1 point, on a Merchant?

Missing Brahmin & Guards?
Yeah, they're not with any of the merchants. I have no idea why, I'm very early in the game. Is this a bug, or normal behavior for the early game? I spoke with Roe, and he doesn't think any of them died, so that's not an issue. So bizarre. Edit: Oh geez, I wait an hour and I see just one caravan guard; can they desync like that?! Still no brahmin. (A Wanderer) 06:23, 27 January 2009 (UTC)
 * I had a game that started like that too (xbox360). It never got better either. [[Image:Ash_Nuke.jpg]] AshRandom (Talk) 14:12, 27 January 2009 (UTC)
 * I'm on the 360 too. Okay, I've restarted a few times and I've found a reproducible bug; everyone is good EXCEPT CROW. Immediately after leaving the vault, I find Wolfgang all normal in front of Megaton. Wait one hour, wait one hour, CROW! Augh! Maybe it was something that triggered this while in the vault? Update: A-ha! Taking the radiation subquest from Moira may have been the problem; by not taking it Crow actually showed up normal. (A Wanderer) 00:51, 28 January 2009 (UTC)
 * This happens to me a lot also. Crow brahmin are ALWAYS missing. The radiation subquest didn't help me!Tehuberleetmaster 00:32, 9 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Oh yeah, maybe I should mention I solved the problem by holding down A-button during boot to clear the cache. If that doesn't work for you then the last resort is deleting the gamefiles off your harddrive and starting over. Try clearing the cache first though, it's less destructive ;) [[Image:Ash_Nuke.jpg]] AshRandom (Talk) 17:21, 28 January 2009 (UTC)
 * I recently started a few games over and had the same sequence of events. Come up to Megaton, Wolfgang is there with guard and brahmin, wait for a few hours for another caravan and the rest of them show up solo, no guard, no brahmin. I restarted from an earlier save and went through the same procedure, only this time, I waited in Megaton instead of outside, and each merchant loaded up correctly. Did not get the tip on clearing the cache until I had a successful startup, good to know.--Pontiac 09:03, 22 May 2009 (UTC)
 * I suspect that the "random encounter Mr. Handy scavenger" has something to do with it. My last 2 games - once I'd stumbled across him (and fixed his robot) he went on his way, and joined the caravan route, such as Ben Canning does. The first time, Lucky Harith lost his brahmin shortly after (it was still alive, it just never caught up with him) and in the second instance - Doc Hoff and entourage are now permanently parked outside of Megaton. Apparently the scavenger will only travel to the next stop in the circuit, and won't move until the player enters the area. I think this causes some kind of unseen traffic jam, and the traders' schedule is disrupted (X360) 220.245.186.240 04:52, 22 July 2009 (UTC)


 * I started over and ran accross this problem. As soon as I left the vault, I went to where the caravans sit outside of Megaton.  Caravan merchant, no guard or brahmin.  I did the wait while they greet you thing.  It does make the missing guard and brahmin appear.  But as soon as I wait a couple hours for the next merchant to appear, he appears by himself with the previous merchant's brahmin running away.  The so called fix mentioned in the bugs section of this article, does not actually fix the problem.  In regards to someone's suggestion that something in the opening quests may trigger this, I'm inclined to agree.  I usually do the opening EXACTLY the same each time, and have never had this caravan problem..  When I restarted recently though, I did a few minor things differently.


 * 1. I changed my starting stats.


 * 2. I spoke to my dad when the radroach shows up, before killing it.  (I wanted to see if he had any unique dialogue for that instant.  He did.)


 * 3. I spoke to Amata right after the dialogue where she wakes you up, while she's running off..  Turns out you can have another brief conversation with her.


 * These 3 things are the only things I did differently. As I've gotten this caravan problem four times in a row now, and each of the four times I did the opening this "new" way, I can't help but think it's tied together.  Hopefully someone figures this out.  I'm not restarting again, till I know what not to do, to prevent this.  Logan Broliath 20:59, August 16, 2010 (UTC)

Clarifications on Caravan Death
The danger distance for players and Merchants ought to be clarified. It seems to me that Caravan Merchants don't have to actually be "near" the player to be harmed by enemies. As long as they spawn in the same map cell, it seems they can be attacked well outside of the actor draw distance or line of sight of the player.

I suspect this is what has been happening in my latest game, where I found Doc Hoff dead outside of Meresti Trainyard, and most of the Merchant Guards are dead or seriously wounded. I had no visual on any of their battles. A good rule of thumb--if you can hear a mine or rocket going off in the distance, but can't see it, that is far enough away for a caravan to be harmed.--Brian ranzoni 22:18, 11 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Okay, while I'm at it, I cleaned up the section on Caravan Deaths. It kept repeating the same links and names in a given paragraph. I also swapped a couple sentences around to make transitions and improve the flow. Finally, I nixed that little bit about the Super Mutant Behemoth, because that encounter only seems to happen if trigged by specific player actions, and because Caravans are just as dead at any other location. I've seen raiders at Kaelyn's Bed and Breakfast waste Lucky's caravan, even as the Outcasts attacked the raiders! But that doesn't necessarily warrant a special mention in that section of the article.


 * However... a section on Caravan danger zones is another matter. Going back to Kaelyn's, that whole stretch of road is pretty dangerous. Even at low levels (about 6 or 7), I watched Lucky Harith fleeing from a Wasteland Mr. Gutsy that had just killed two Brotherhood Outcasts, while at the same time, Outcasts and Raiders were duking it out at the Bed and Breakfast and under the nearby bridge! And if that wasn't enough XP, phat loot, and stress... Harith attracted a second Mr. Gutsy as he hit the bend in the road past the Kaelyn's!


 * Note that these battles were triggered while I was standing right outside Vault 106. If I hadn't had the interest to investigate, I wouldn't have seen the Caravan under attack, with the Outcasts too wimpy and preoccupied with raiders to protect him. And if I hadn't been looking down the road after looting, I might not have seen the second Gutsy attack. Either might have killed my Lucky Lil' Arms Dealer, and I would have been none the wiser.--Brian ranzoni 23:14, 11 May 2009 (UTC)


 * That section of road between Canterbury Commons and the Temple of the Union is lethal, even before the Enclave show up. 220.245.186.240 04:58, 22 July 2009 (UTC)
 * That's right. Good luck getting the slaves and traders there. One would think that the Raiders and Enclave at least would be neutral to the caravans; they have their own economy to support, too! http://brianranzoni.com 02:59, August 11, 2010 (UTC)
 * Raiders could kill the traders and steal their loot, that's their economy, and the Enclave have their own supply routes. - RASICTalk 03:02, August 11, 2010 (UTC)

Finding their bodies
I am on a mission to find Wolfgang's body so i can get the fourth rock-it launcher schematic... i'm about half way through the detailed caravan route posted on this wikia but it dawned on me that maybe his body is gone. I know in some locations the bodies stay forever. Either way has anyone else gone hunting for merchant bodies with success?


 * I am on the hunt, but so far no luck. Looking for Wolfgangs body, so I can get his key atleast, I prefer him alive but whatever. I been looking up & down side to side, but so far no body. I am even going to place I have yet been at or at least near them, but still nothing. I even dicided to follow another caravan as a second body guard just to follow the same path they do, that took a good chunk out of my day, but as before no body. I just wish there could be some sort of sign that, would point me in the right direction. But I am afriad it's been a while, and the body has left the world, with only his brahmin waiting at Catanbury.GodsHand 19:46, April 5, 2010 (UTC)
 * I'm looking for Lucky's body for the Shishkebab schematic..so far no dice, but I did some tests and it seems entirely possible. Outside Rivet city I killed Crow and his bodyguard, then went inside and waited 3 days..after which the Brahmin stands on top of his body. I didn't see the Brahmin before killing Crow, so I assume that it was previously killed in a raid but respawned? Anyway I killed the brahmin, waited another three days, and still saw the brahmin's corpse and Crow's. In the best scenario, all you have to do is find the pack Brahmin standing over top of a corpse, but at any rate, keep on searching..I'll repost if I have any luck.Satoshilyish 03:07, April 14, 2010 (UTC)
 * If you play on PC, you can get a mod called the "NPC Tracker Hat", found at fallout3nexus.com. Simply equip it, select caravan traders, the trader you want, then go to quests and click "Tracking target...". The quest marker on your HUD will then point to the target, alive or dead. From there it's a matter of reviving them. TestECull 02:20, April 21, 2010 (UTC)

placeatme
you can actually use player.placeatme command while there dead, if it doesn't work there body is gone. you can still resurrect them using there base id's though. just resurrect them and placeatme while at one of there spawn points (like megaton) and they will take up there routs again.

Evergreen Mills?
The raiders at evergreen mills arn't hostile to the caravans?--Дикий Человек Вампира 02:55, 6 August 2009 (UTC)

They are, if you draw the raiders over to them they will engage the caravan. And usually waste it, unless you intervene. TestECull 02:21, April 21, 2010 (UTC)

Parked Caravan's
I am aware of the bug that causes caravan to stop progressing on there routes, my question does anyone know what causes it. To me it sounds like a beneficial glitch. If your Caravan's are parked outside of Megaton, Rivet City and the other towns. The chances of something bad happening are much less then if they randomly wander the waste. At least not without you seeing it happen.

Pack Brahmin BaseIDs
Can someone direct me to the baseIDs of the pack brahmin? (Merchants and Guards are available, but I cannot find any info on the pack brahmin's IDs. 69.157.33.202 19:34, January 3, 2010 (UTC) Naelwyn.
 * They can be found in the article of the respective merchant (e.g. Crazy Wolfgang). -- Porter21 (talk) 22:30, January 3, 2010 (UTC)

Another bug fix to allow caravans to move again.
I discovered another way to get the caravan merchants moving again if they seem to get stuck in particular locations(requires one of the merchants be frozen at megaton possibly) and refuse to ever move again. It involves not having completed the power of the atom quest yet. All you would have to do is simply complete the quest,go back to the ruins of megaton,fast travel to any random location that spawns a caravan in that particular location(take care of any enemies in the area before fast traveling of course) and finally just use the "wait" feature for 2 hours or so to make the next caravan in the rotation to appear. Can others please confirm that this works for them as well.Lionheart777 21:37, June 29, 2010 (UTC)

PARADISE FALLS?!
I thought the slavers of Paradise Falls were essentially the pariahs of the Wasteland (and for good reason), so I was more than a bit surprised to find Wolfgang outside their gates. Why the hell do the caravans trade with them?! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.193.242.158 (talk • contribs). Please sign your posts with ~ !

All the traders stop there. They've got goods to trade and caps to spend, they're a fully-functioning town, so why not? Kris (talk) 16:19, August 3, 2010 (UTC)
 * Real caravans need porters. Slaves make good porters. Nitty Tok. 16:21, August 3, 2010 (UTC)

All Caravans Perished
Temple of the Union is an extremely lethal place. I was wondering around picking Raider armor to trade with the caravan but they did not appear at megaton at all. so, i went to Canterbury commons Roe tells me their dead so I followed the trade route by just fast traveling base on the map Roe gave to me and voila 2 groups(Wolfgang & Lucky) are dead around the vicinity of Temple of the Union (I'm level 20, so I'm guessing the mobs scaled difficulty with me 'PC version') I investigated the area, I found a full health Rad-scorpion, Mole Rat, Enclave Soldier but their locations are pretty far from the route, but I also did find a stupid 50% hp deathclaw right on the Trade route when you follow the road, ah what luck.

Doc died around the area of the Sewer Waystation when I followed the road further south I think, there should be a couple Raiders around this area, but what mauled Doc is a Yao Gaui so quite the bad luck too. lastly Crow he's dead too but I'm not able to find his body but if my intuition serves me right, if searched around the area of Agatha I should be able to find Crows body (the place is infested with Scorpions) well at any rate, when you see a merchant next time advise to scout around for potential threats before fast traveling --175.136.192.98 01:57, March 1, 2011 (UTC)Tony

Merge?
I feel that this page should be merged into Merchant, it has FO3 Merchant information on it, which can easily be put under the FO3 section on the Merchant page.

The merchant page is intended to just be an overview, with links to corresponding pages with more in depth info. Having to scroll twenty screens of information about merchants from different games is not an efficient way to navigate for information from one specific game. Unifying fallout series history and lore about merchants or anything else is a good use of merge, but game-play specific content should always be separate. Oh, and sign your posts.--Xclockwatcher 22:41, May 10, 2011 (UTC)