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+--- Thread: Budgeting/Credits use (/showthread.php?tid=20122)
Budgeting/Credits use - Kotlol - 11-10-2022
In a topic where we discussed the payout of credits, it got me thnking of how little credits play in SS13 in most cases.
You can pay for food and drinks from the bar and kitchen, but mostly it's for free.
You can have 50k in your bank or 5k, but mostly those numbers don't mean too much unless you use vendors alot... and 5k is mostly enough to get enough supplies to last a shift. Anything above is just excessive.
That said... certain things do require a BOATLOAD of credits such as Giant bees for high honey production.
Royal jelly ain't coming cheap after all.
But it also made me wonder... You only use credits for certain merchants and certain orders.
If you order something from cargo, it will use the cargo budget unless you transfer those funds to cargo.
Or if you need certain materials from mining and buying it from them. (if they are mining it or selling it for a recent price)
Let alone... HoP barely does any budgeting work as it is. They only touch the bank if they are going to transfer money around and even that most people don't care.
So how do we increase the value of Credits?
Simple... I am taking a page from Genetics for this as they have the "research budget" and probably the only part of research that uses it to some effect.
They can use the research budget to obtain samples wich generate over time or get added by using activators correctly and putting them back into the console (but activators cost materials too, but you gain more back).
This is mostly used in early game though to get researches rolled faster and avoid the long waits for materials on top of the long timers of research. It's a TIME BYPASS.
Now what if we can do this with other departments and areas too?
What if Tele-Sci can buy coordinates from "dealers?" to access a-zones faster?
What if chemistry can order certain chemical compound in bulk insted of making it?
What if Botany can buy "pre-mutated" seeds or seeds with "specific" stats on an own market to the process of making it themselves?
What if the chef can buy ingridents that are harder to obtain for recipes insted of waiting for botany?
What if the Rancher can buy an egg for a certain chicken mutation?
What if mining/engineering can buy materials? (ooh wait they can sorta via cargo, but more consitent)
This way every department can get "funding" to do their work "faster and more effeciently" and also give the HoP more work to do.
Also this would mean those wealthy "VIP" visitors are suddenly worth more with their gold.
This way I think players are more willing to get money to do whatever whacky things they want.
This mechanic sorta exists in Cargo and visiting merchants but these are always there...
Also this would mean each department that wants more budgeting has to work with cargo to sell and the HoP to transfer it succesfully.
More interaction, more shortcuts so players can do what they want and such.
Is that acceptable or is this a terrible idea?
PS: I have no idea how to balance this at the moment... but this is more a "It be cool if" you could purcase things with your own credits/department budget.
RE: Budgeting/Credits use - UrsulaMejor - 11-10-2022
Actionable and specific things are more useful to coders and developers than vague sweeping what-ifs.
Hard mechanics, a firm idea of what sort of numbers you might expect, etc.
As is, this idea thread is more frustrating than useful.
This subforum is not a good place for throwing out vague discussiony brainstorming type stuff because these sorts of discussions rarely produce anything useful for doing the actual work of implementing an idea.
Try refining your ideas a bit more before posting here; you'll get better results
RE: Budgeting/Credits use - Frank_Stein - 11-10-2022
I think there's something to be said about how much is available freely to different jobs: Chef, Botany, Bartender, etc don't have to pay to get anything from their dispensers. There's effectively an infinite supply of basic chems and drinks.
The problem is finding that balance between what would actually be fun to work with in game. Nobody wants to be stuck with nothing to do and no way to get it.
RE: Budgeting/Credits use - Kotlol - 11-10-2022
(11-10-2022, 09:58 AM)UrsulaMejor Wrote: Actionable and specific things are more useful to coders and developers than vague sweeping what-ifs.
Hard mechanics, a firm idea of what sort of numbers you might expect, etc.
As is, this idea thread is more frustrating than useful.
This subforum is not a good place for throwing out vague discussiony brainstorming type stuff because these sorts of discussions rarely produce anything useful for doing the actual work of implementing an idea.
Try refining your ideas a bit more before posting here; you'll get better results
I think then I'll stop with the brainstorming. Balancing and such is hard... and coding.. well... my coding a simple website makes my brain explode so I try to keep the idea simple, but maybe I need to discuss with coders more then anything.
Anyhow thanks for the input.
As for @frank_stein:
Thanks for the input and that's stuff I was thinking of as well.