Get Us Paid

Development Feature Requests
1

GET :clap: US :clap: PAID :clap:
I am working a JOB, so I expect to be PAID.

In Space Station 13, we would get paid for the shifts we do. We would then use that money to spend on things like vending machine items, tipping the bartender, bribing security, etc. Getting us paid after each shift can add tons of RP interactions and add more depth to the game. I know that when I was playing 13, I had tons of roleplay opportunities that wouldn’t have existed if I didn’t have any spesos in my account, and I kind of miss that from there. I also thought the culture around being expected to tip the bartender was fun.

We already got department funds, but where are MY funds?! I don’t work for free CentComm :angry:

Plus if I save up enough money I might be able to bribe the syndie agent to not frickin kill me and chunk my brain into space…

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2

There is a money system in the game, but most of the crew barely interact with it.

I fully agree that this should be changed!

3

I am aware that there’s a vague money system in game. I’ve seen spesos here and there, but I don’t think it’s possible to like put it into an account or anything? Or see my funds, or have payment after a shift or something? In 13, iirc, it’s just right there in your PDA and you can access your funds at any time, anywhere.

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4

As far as I can tell, the only thing spesos are used for is department funds for buying supplies from cargo. If you find cash, you can deposit it into a supply request console to deposit it to the department funds.

Maybe there’s other things, like specific roles that do something else with cash? I don’t know! Having ATMs and personal funds sounds like a great idea.

5

Yeah that’s what I thought too, just the funding for departments or just give it to cargo. Otherwise, yeah, I haven’t seen anything else to do with the money in my like 400hrs of gameplay :face_with_hand_over_mouth: Seeing personal funds would be great! And making vending machine snacks and drinks cost a small amount of money may be incentive enough for people to come say hello to the bartender and chef.

I’d love to see some more things being applicable for personal funds as well, not just vending machines, which just through RP alone would probably add entirely new gameplay loops.

6

This was actually implemented during one of the April fool’s updates. Although I’m not sure if the original author made an attempt to actually implement it to the main game

7

Getting paid after the shift sounds counterproductive since you would instantly loose it. But it would be fun for RP.
Some SS13 servers just give you a steady income over the shift based on role.

An economy would also reduce the issue of people emptying tool vendors instantly just in case.

8

“Add economy/wages/personal bank accounts to the game” is a constant thing people suggest and, frankly, it makes absolutely no sense for a lightweight LRP/MRP experience that upstream SS14 is.

In your average upstream SS13 round, there are none of the IRL factors to make an economy work:

  • No persistence and therefore no long-term consequences
  • No scarcity
  • No way to even tell whether you’re doing your job properly
  • Basically no investment by players in the money they do have

An economy cannot work in these circumstances except maybe as a throwaway RP prop most people won’t care about.

I am not, of course, saying that an economy cannot work on a downstream or something. But said downstream would probably need to radically address the points above in a way that results in a far different experience.

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9

My understanding is NT pays you at the end of your shift and deducts what you get paid (and the many other hidden fees…) so having your own money on the station is fairly loose. Though it would be nice for players to start with something for themselves. Even just 500 spesos in their pocket is something. Problem is there’s not much to use those on.
What do you buy? Plushie gambles, supplies/materials, gamble crates, flood a station with gorillas or mothroaches… the system is still barely implemented.

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10

Id be up for it being like a personal fund you can do things like buy lizard plushes with that doesn’t eat into your departments funds but i suppose thats whats cargo fund is for.

11

There is definitely persistence somewhere, you can already start to see the foundations of that through tracking hours played, admin notes, etc. There’s also the new loadout features that save between characters. These are basic implementation of persistence, and could be expanded on further.

If the idea is a constant suggestion, then it’s clearly something that makes sense in the eyes of the community and is something players want to see added. If current systems are not applicable to add a basic payment system (I was thinking something along the lines of roles have a base-level pay that is paid out at shift-end for a basic starting system), then having a bit of starting funds would add a bit of fun :slight_smile:

That feels disingenuous. In a very recent update, text descriptors for food were changed for RP purposes, as one example. There’s constant changes, some extremely subtle, some vast systems, all for the purpose of roleplay. A LOT of people care about funding and would like to see spesos have more use in game, I’d say most of the community would like to see that actually. To say that the roleplay is throwaway or that people wouldn’t care about seems out of touch.

12

There is a vast difference between subtle tat changes like that, and entire gameplay systems that are intended to have large impact on the round. An economy would be the latter.

Back in my SS13 days I spent a good chunk of time on both LRP and MRP servers with an economy system. Guess what: nobody gave a shit. The biggest economy interaction I ever had was asking an engineer on Goon for insuls and they went “fuck you, pay me”. So I threw $100 at them that I wouldn’t have used otherwise, and I’m sure they didn’t use it either. Yay. Role play. I guess.

Personal economy does not make sense in SS13’s context. You are employed by NT, to work on a station owned by NT, with equipment and hospitality provided by NT, etc. All of the examples of what people can spend money on are always contrived and don’t actually add anything to the game.

For example: making vending machine food paid. Huge pain in the ass if the kitchen isn’t doing their job, or not a pain in the ass at all if your wage / starting capital supports enough vending machine food anyways. RP?? Yay??

13

I can stop reading right here because that’s a character argument. Personal experience. I can argue the exact opposite based on my experience. I had a ton of RP opportunities, like mentioned in OP, that would’ve never happened without some sort of an economy.

You work at Walmart with goods and tools provided by Walmart, so why should they pay you?

I’m sure smart corgis added tremendous depth people care about, and I’m sure it was a feature people constantly asked for. The argument that “it adds nothing” is dumb because I’ve 1) already explained a few cases where it would definitely add RP opportunity, which is what the whole game is really about, and 2) useless features are already added regularly regardless. As well as features players actively dislike.

Yes, exactly. That makes chefs more important on the station and adds a small amount of rarity to foods, making people want to spend their spesos on it. Chefs could also use this as a way to scummily “earn” more than they’re paid. There’s also more features to be added than just food with MONEY, it’s just the most obvious example.

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14

chime in with a minor note. starlight has a salary system but we dont do much if anything with it.
I have collected over 100k with it. but without a admeme to use it on it just kinda… sits there… it only really gets use during thief rounds. where I use it to bribe people since it is a persistent currency it has some innate even if minor value. (they are also 1:1 into spesos but they are RARELY used for that purpose)

15

I’ve not played starlight, but I’ve heard of it’s super inflated economy system. Also, 100k is wild. I’m not suggesting we have a salary competitive to station funds, I was thinking like in the hundreds realm. It makes sense to me that NT would pay us low based on lore. And having low personal funds would make it easier to balance a flexible economy.

If it is to be added, I expect it initially to be a very small feature with little use that expands overtime as RP around it evolves.

16

yeah on starlight only captain has the highest ammount (150 salary which if my guess is right paid out every 20 minutes.). but the reason it is inflated is because having mentor/extraroles/staff/various other discord roles adds other (ranging from 20-30% additive) salary bonuses. so I end up getting like 210 salary when I play captain. and with no sinks it kinda just builds up.

17

Gotta say, having external discord/mentor/etc roles influence your salary does not sit well with me at all.
Specially not the mentor roles.

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18

We are a simulation with some amount of economy involved, due to Cargo existing and the gameplay/fantasy we pledge there is to emulate warehouse work and logistics. It is only natural that with some amount of capitalism in the simulation, people are going to suggest personal funds, because that is how real life is.

But I often see very little reason beyond that. SS14 is not persistent in its gameplay between rounds - not saying the game can’t be made to work with persistence, but that is strongly not what we’re doing with upstream, so we can rule out any such system.

So what we have left are cash systems self-contained in the round. And then the question I land at is:

What does it add?

Paying snack vending machines, or departments for tools? For vending machines, you are never gonna be in a position where you can’t afford something, or else any other use of cash is gonna be prohibitively expensive. For interdepartmental trade, are you going to have a fun time having items arbitrarily withheld because you don’t have funds? There are already reasons to/not to do trade which are much more fundamental to the sim aspects (personal conflicts, lack of resources, department bombed etc).

It was raised that one could use funds on personal orders like plushie crates or whatever but the thing is, you already can. Except instead of paying money you do Cargo a favor, or you get some materials for Science. Barter is still economy, and when it comes to loosey-goosey trades between individual crew members it is often easier to ask for a favor than demanding value-appropriate cold hard cash.

None of the benefits of personal cash seem like they give much over the existing system, not to mention downsides they can introduce. Personal cash is not additive, you will be removing the current system by implementing it.

Which is a system where you get stuff for free. “Space communism” jokes aside, just because we’re a sim doesn’t mean we need to be a capitalist sim. The food in the bar is free, enjoy the benefits of having your base needs subsidized.

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19

If you wanna have a “personal wad of cash”, that already exists in the game. It’s called “a toolbox filled with plushies and/or materials” and if you use that to trade you will get untold amounts of space lube, mothroach crates and contraband permits for personal use.

20

I see a lot of comments/desire for a personal economy system saying that it’ll fix the interdepartmental resource distribution problem that upstream is currently suffering heavily from. However from most people that I talk to, it’s just a filler mechanic on SS13 that doesn’t really do anything.

And like what was just described in this thread, apparently the SS14 implementation isn’t working out so well either (while this isn’t concrete proof that the system is bad due to other factors, I still don’t agree that it will magically solve problems).

Another solution to the problem should be looked at.