Pack Rat

[Mooselamb]

After having played a bit of JSawyer Director's Cut mod, I've been wondering something. So the Pack Rat perk halves the weight of anything 2 and below, which is especially useful when playing JSawyer due to the extremely limited carry weight. Yet the requirement is primarily 70 Barter, which makes zero sense from a narrative perspective. Shouldn't the level of Survival determine how your character organizes items more effeciently to... you know... survive?
Barter is arguably one of the most useless skills in the game due to New Vegas advanced economy compared to Fallout 3 and money is rarely an issue. I realize there's an argument to be had how Barter could fit into this but I digress.

But my question is this: Did the developers intentionally make Barter the determining factor for the perk because you'd have to sacrifice a lot of skill points to get it and thus make a hard choice to get something that's really good... or did they just think Barter make more sense?

What do you think?

[Ladez]

The way I see it, the barter skill represents knowledge about caravan running and inventory management as much as it represents knowledge about actual bartering. Makes sense that an experienced caravaneer would know how to effectively pack his gear.

The argument for survival makes sense, but barter makes just as much sense, if not more.

[Mooselamb]

Thanks for the input and you actually bring up a good point. I suppose, in a narrative sense, when you're a skilled Barter then by extension that usually means you're involved with caravan running and item management.

But the funny thing is, in the context of the game, the Pack Rat perk makes the most sense if you're playing Hardcore (or JSawyer in my case) where the Survival skill suddenly becomes crucial and you're almost always carrying food, water and ammo, which now has weight and yet Barter is still the required skill. See how that should kind of fit together but doesn't? :)

[Vassago Rain]

It's tagged to barter because barter was a pretty worthless skill. Obsidian went out of their way to make sure all skills matter, which sometimes meant tying some of them to powerful perks. That's really all there's to it.

[vida]

I'd just get Strong Back and Burden to Bear for extra 100 carry weight. More than enough, if you are willing to waste 2 perk points.

[baumgartner]

Nice question and posts - I tend to agree with Ladez but based on the more interesting posts about character builds over the months I've followed this site I've seen there have been several gamers (not a lot I admit but still) who prefer to play the game as a non-combat RPG and been very successful with Barter, at least in the basic game.

[Mooselamb]

Originally posted by vida:

I'd just get Strong Back and Burden to Bear for extra 100 carry weight. More than enough, if you are willing to waste 2 perk points.

Aah true but in jsawyer strong back is reduced by half, I don't know if BTB was affected though. I'm planning a new JSawyer playthrough and dedicating at least 2 perks to reducing carry weight. I wonder if it's more effecient to take strong back and BTB or waste about 50 skill points on barter for Pack Rat and also get either heavyweight or strong back.

Originally posted by Vassago Rain:

It's tagged to barter because barter was a pretty worthless skill. Obsidian went out of their way to make sure all skills matter, which sometimes meant tying some of them to powerful perks. That's really all there's to it.

It's a conspiracy I tells ya!

[Mooselamb]

Originally posted by ♥ mattmoo ☯:

Do you know how many speech checks there are for it? I usually invest points in Barter and never regret it.

Honestly, I only come across Barter every once in a while and even then it's only to squeeze an extra few hundred caps off someone (Lonesome drifter being an exception).

But hey, if you've found it useful then who am I to judge? :)

[Vassago Rain]

Barter is really useful, and usually features alongside speech as an alternative dialogue solution to some problem.

You can non-violently beat Lanius with 100 in barter or speech.

[Mooselamb]

Originally posted by Vassago Rain:

barter was a pretty worthless skill.

Originally posted by Vassago Rain:

Barter is really useful

Sorry. xD

And yeah, I forgot Barter was an option when dealing with Lanius.