Ok since people dont seem to get the idea heres the issue, killing a merchant serves NO purpose and if your only doing it to be a dick then you honestly shouldnt be playing the game, go maim puppies or do whatever it is sadistic people do. and another thing douchebaggery isnt a part of the game, its the people.
if the devs intended for you to go around slaughtering quest npc's and merchants then why not have them drop rewards? hint hint, because its not intended.
the game is an unfinished beta and since this is the case many things that should be in place to protect the economy and gameplay arent in place, a game with no rules isnt a game, its life, if you go around fucking with people in real life like that there are consequences and repercussions, unfortunately people can get away with just about anything without having a shitstorm rain down upon them.
basically having killable merchants gives griefers a chance to basically tank the player crafting economy (which doesent affect them in the slightest becuase they're either 1chr pvp builds or suicide bombers) so they dont give a shit.
the easiest fix for this is to make merchants unkillable, since they happen to be pretty much the sole source of caps in game it doesent make sense to let them just die and have their inventory deleted, that destroys the economy,
take a lesson from the banking system of the real world, in almost every case what a bank robber stole was less then the cost of what it took to catch him, so in actuallity you arent protecting the goods so much as the system, because once the system fails other things will start to fail along with it.
I dont like the suggestion, douchebaggery is part of this game and the game is more interesting because of it. And there are no irreplaceable mercs, just go to the one in another town :>
oh and the game isnt made more interesting by people abusing things to grief other players and if thats honestly what you think i believe you may need to see a therapist.