Money/Economy/QM Thread

[mozi]

thank you dr. singh for implementing cash, he worked very hard on it

It would be nice if we could feed cash to the NPC traders & have an option for them to spit out any unused cash when we're done dealing with them

[MEOW POW]

It would be nice if we could feed cash to the NPC traders & have an option for them to spit out any unused cash when we're done dealing with them

machines too

[atomic1fire]

I was going to suggest a loan officer, but short of a near murderous sec guard, I couldn't actually come up with anything that would be not stupid.

So then I thought what if loans were charged to the station after a certain amount of time.


If one person is stupid and fails to payback loans, not only are they set to arrest (and perhaps periodic interest increases), but the loan is charged to the station instead.

A small group of loan takers could incite the wrath of the rest of the station as it no longer has money because they defaulted and the station budget is footed with the bill.

Cue the rest of the station murdering the bankrupt crewmen because they have no more money, and can't take out loans because the station is bankrupt.

[Cogwerks]

Ehh, I'm finding it hard to really see a loan system being worth the effort. Maybe I'll give a couple custom traitors a briefcase of cash, a gun and a goal to be a loan shark sometime and see if anyone ever bothers. They'll probably just kill the dude and rob him.

As a coded system, I don't really see much point in it. There's nothing really stopping the head of personnel from giving out loans from the station budget, how many ever bother to do that? Maybe you guys should play HoP more and try doing that. See how it goes. The HoP can handle loans already, or underwrite exploration projects and qm trading missions. Few ever do anything past 'yo give us money for lasers.'

[mozi]

yeah as much as I'd love to see a debt system just for the dark humor of how messed up it'd get it would probably go really bad in practice, folks intentionally using it to make themselves a target so they have an excuse to kill anyone who looks at them funny. the example cogwerks gave me to dissuade me from this track was some dude who takes out money to buy a bunch of laser guns, defaults to incite everyone to come after him, and then uses the guns to kill everyone.

one less abusable possibility (I guess) is that defaulting causes an NPC predator to appear with the deadbeat as a target, and the critter doesn't drop anything on death so there's nothing to gain from the situation, but I doubt anyone wants to bother coding it

also regarding money in general
someone was doing a funny bridge toll gimmick some recent round, they'd set up card swipes on either side of the airbridge and hooked up a remote signaler to the door bolts. he was charging a pretty low fee and I thought it was clever but when there's basically no law enforcement and death is no big deal folks decided they'd rather just break in and try to bash his head in

maybe he should've hired a bodyguard for a split of the profits idk. having one bulletin board designated "Recruiting Board" for minor tasks/odd jobs in arrivals (or at the info booth) could be cool for organizing stuff like that better. if you're a bored staff assistant with nothing better to do you'd check that out for an opportunity to do something gainful before resorting to tearing down the walls

[Tteckk]

Economy right now is pretty good, people Need to be encouraged to do stuff like this now.

[Cogwerks]

I don't dislike the idea of loans (except for my own loans irl )
I just think stuff like loansharking, job recruitment, tolls, paid bodyguards and stuff like that depend more on player culture than on code. Everything to do that stuff is pretty much there already, just need some players to actually start those habits. Then it's easier to assess what is needed code-wise.

If you want to be a loanshark and then do somewhat mean things to people if they don't pay up in the agreed amount of time, go right ahead. There's a lot of valuable junk floating around in space, you could start your own loan shark agency after a bit of scrap salvaging or smuggling work.

If the station command staff or guards want to put wanted posters around on the bulletin boards and issue bounties against known criminals, neat. Just go do it, and if enough people see what you are doing and think it looks fun, it'll catch on.

If it's anything you think might generate angry adminhelps, it'd be nice to send a message our way so we'll know what's up ahead of time.

[mozi]

idea for thing to spend cash on:

vending machine that dispenses standard chemistry dispenser chemicals at $100 a pop

[enforcer9]

idea for thing to spend cash on:

vending machine that dispenses standard chemistry dispenser chemicals at $100 a pop

This way, while i'm a staff assistant I can still make napalm as long as I manage to sell the cakehat!

[hipBEE]

make medibots require cash to work

[Marquesas]

make medibots require cash to work

this has to be the best idea currently on the forums

in fact, make chem dispenser charge you $10 for each dispensing (it's NT property and you're fucking around with it they probably want to see some profits). i am ready to take the flame from hardcore chemmers.

[UrsulaMejor]

make medibots require cash to work

this has to be the best idea currently on the forums

in fact, make chem dispenser charge you $10 for each dispensing (it's NT property and you're fucking around with it they probably want to see some profits). i am ready to take the flame from hardcore chemmers.

1) we pay you to experiment with chemicals
2) we charge you for doing your job
No. zero sense found.

Better idea: dispenser comes with 250 of each chemical. Refills can be bought at QM and put in the machine with a crowbar.

[david2222121]

We'd need to have a way for chemists to make money for themselves/station if that was the case. Cogwerks mention in the IRC a while back that he was looking at a way to make Sketchy buy spacedrugs and whatnot. What if there were also drugs you could sell through the QM, so a chemist who knew what he was doing could fund the station as well as buy some crap for himself on the side?

Though the "make people buy chems/buy dispenser refills" idea sounds like it'd punish anyone who wanted to experiment and try to find new recipes.

[mozi]

Though the "make people buy chems/buy dispenser refills" idea sounds like it'd punish anyone who wanted to experiment and try to find new recipes.

agreed

I personally think shoving existing stuff behind an ic paywall is the wrong move. well maybe not for medibots but that's cause everyone hates the way they currently work. but as funny as it would be to make everyone pay for their job specific equipment it feels a lot like "here's this new feature that folks aren't really using, well time to MAKE you use it"

[Clarks]

Would be nice to be able to deposit a portion of the profits from each outgoing crate to one specific account.

Miner X provides ores, he automatically gets an x% cut. Botanist Y gives produce, x% on his account.