Get Us Paid

[venderstack]

@Nancok

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

Don’t recall that ever being mentioned in this thread.

@SlamBamActionman

What does it add?

Roleplay.

@SlamBamActionman

Personal cash is not additive, you will be removing the current system by implementing it.

There is no system - the players had to force the current one in through roleplay.

@SlamBamActionman

“Space communism” jokes aside, just because we’re a sim doesn’t mean we need to be a capitalist sim.

Dude forgot NT is a capitalistic entity, and a scummy one at that.

@SlamBamActionman

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.

Everyone loves having only 1 hand available to carry around a toolbox

–

I again have no clue where the idea of personal funds competing with department funds comes into play, certainly not from this thread. I don’t want to see people walking around with like 20,000 spesos in their account, unless they spent a long damn time earning it or did something shady to achieve it. Again, I was thinking in the hundreds ballpark.

@ArtisticRoomba

And like what was just described in this thread, apparently the SS14 implementation isn’t working out so well either

I really like the department funds, I think it’s very cool and doesn’t let cargo hold everything over my head. There would be rounds where I couldn’t get ANYTHING at all without trading something of value to the QM, even if it was like a steel crate. Or something important like a chemvend if chems blew up. So that’s nice The only semi complaint I have with it, is that I don’t really ever need to talk to cargo anymore. But I also play departments that don’t really need to interact with cargo in general, so that also probably plays an aspect.

I just want a lil spending cash and for spesos to actually mean something. Even if it’s for like 3 purchasable items for like 14 spesos each, let me spend them on something. There are times where I’ll get stacks of spesoss in the mail. I throw them straight down the garbage chute because it’s not enough for cargo to care about (usually 100 spesos) and absolutely worthless to me - so into the trash it goes. 1 single slot of storage in my duffel bag is more valuable to me than actual money.

[SlamBamActionman]

I feel I shouldn’t re-engage with this thread because the tone to my reply felt uncomfortably dismissive and curt, but here goes:

@venderstack

Roleplay.

What kind of roleplay, is the question. If we are talking every day transactions, I don’t see those bringing much interesting roleplay to the table. There is stuff like bribes and paying other people to do tasks for you, but that already exists in the current system.

@venderstack

There is no system - the players had to force the current one in through roleplay.

There is no monetary system in place, but there is a system: Bartering, and a sort of company-subsidized socialism. Bringing Cargo fresh materials as a passenger in return for a toy crate is economy. Trading in contraband to Security for a practice disabler is economy. And there is mutual collaboration between departments that is built upon performing tasks for each other (one which, if one side doesn’t do their job, results in the collaboration stopping). E.g. it’s not uncommon for a Chef to go “Hey Cargo, I’ll do your bounty but please bring me a crate of kitchen supplies, will ya?”.

And most of the time you get stuff for free because there is excess to go around and/or you are expected to provide free things in return, even if it is not to the same person/department. Socialism! This is good because then you can focus on what you want to use the thing for, rather than any obligatory transaction.

That’s the current system.

@venderstack

Dude forgot NT is a capitalistic entity, and a scummy one at that.

I am speaking in terms of gameplay, not lore. NT is part of some capitalistic corpo-scifi future, but we are not playing a sim game on a company management level. If gameplay benefits from not having individual cash, then we are able to explain it away lorewise. Whether that is because of socialism, lax rules or NT just paying for the base materials on a station because it’s easier and more profitable, that’s up to you.

@venderstack

Everyone loves having only 1 hand available to carry around a toolbox

The quote was, with added emphasis

If you wanna have a “personal wad of cash”, that already exists in the game.

My point was that with the current system, personal “cash” isn’t necessary for you to get what you need to do your job. Socialism strikes again! If you want to go out if your way to get extra things that are more rare and expensive then bartering and trade exists, and if you don’t wanna ask the person you’re trading with what they want on the spot then, yeah, plushies and/or materials tend to be sought-after items.

Plus you get to cater your trade to the person. Bubbly slimegirl chemist? Plushies! Tired and overworked Warden? Steel! Casual Janitor? Pop by Science to pick up a free advanced mop and give them that. Fun roleplay!

From what I have seen in other responses I am uncertain if my answers here really matters to you, but it was fun to think about, and I hope others reading this thread got something out of it too.

[venderstack]

@SlamBamActionman

I feel I shouldn’t re-engage with this thread because the tone to my reply felt uncomfortably dismissive and curt, but here goes:

I was being a little dismissive, it felt like you didn’t read the thread because you were repeating some questions that were already discussed here, so I apologize.

@SlamBamActionman

What kind of roleplay, is the question. If we are talking every day transactions, I don’t see those bringing much interesting roleplay to the table. There is stuff like bribes and paying other people to do tasks for you, but that already exists in the current system.

We’d need to add a monetary system to see how the RP around it evolves, like with most of the content in this game. I’ve already provided a couple of examples in my previous replies though. But, could like run your own business. Get some barber scissors, charge for haircuts, I dunno. There’s tons of possibilities - it’s money after all. But they can’t do that right now, because nobody has any money.

@SlamBamActionman

E.g. it’s not uncommon for a Chef to go “Hey Cargo, I’ll do your bounty but please bring me a crate of kitchen supplies, will ya?”.

Sure, but for people who are antagonists - it’d be easier for them to get some of the more dangerous chemicals from chemists, for an example, if money were valuable. Otherwise, you just gotta hope the chemist either doesn’t care, or wants to see a little mayhem.

@SlamBamActionman

My point was that with the current system, personal “cash” isn’t necessary for you to get what you need to do your job. Socialism strikes again!

That isn’t what I’m asking for. I just want there to be something useful for spesos, I wanna be able to spend some cash. I’ve seen stacks of 1-2k spesos just sit on a table all shift because nobody’s cared enough to even touch it. I don’t want spesos to be necessary to do my job, I’d just like there to be shit to do with them.

[Nancok]

@walksanator

eah 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.

Not you, sorry. I tought the forum would have made it clearer who i was answering to (it didn’t)

Get Us Paid

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.

[PicklOH]

To solve the “I have 100k spesos in the bank.” problem all we have to do is allow a maximum amount of banked spesos.

This would encourage people who give a shit about the system to spend, because they might hit their limit anyway.

I also agree it makes sense to add personal funds. I always find those random maints spawns of Spesos very odd because they have no real use other than giving them to cargo. If I was wandering my office at work and found $300 on the floor I would feel incredibly lucky. In SS14 I couldn’t give a shit because my character has no real reason to care about personal money.

[Nancok]

I want to talk about the RP part mostly.
Earlier i suggested that it would help with hoarding tools, but the RP is the better part imo.

For starters you have the possibility of buying cargo you want for recreational reasons, this alone can lead to more RP opportunities from the sheer possibility of paying for cargo orders without having to rely on the shift not having pressing purchases:

• Ordering mats to build a small booth for tarot/mini-clinic/joke telling/etc services.
• Buying a crate of animals to just keep the crew company or to fight in a ring in maints. (Gorilla westling match would be peak honestly)
• Buying instruments for a marching band

And other RP reasons:

• People can try to go around asking for donations to fund something (either something mechanical like a fund to get a paraplegic crew member a mech to walk around or just RP like “Sad clown’s expensive tissues” fund (they’re gonna use the bills to clean their snoth) or the “Captain’s anti-balding cream” fund.
• People can bribe each other to do a dare or to assist them with something that they may otherwise be reluctant to
• Buying minor/non-contraband from people with certain roles that they may otherwise have no reason to give away

And yes, you can try to find cash in maints or something. But this isn’t just hard to get, it is also not as practical as having a bank account you can transfer funds from using your PDA.

With my idea, you would get around $800 per 30 minutes on average (varying per role). So you still need to talk with people and pile up cash to order anything meaningful.

[Nancok]

I still feel people should NOT be able to accumulate money between rounds. It just goes against the game’s spirit.

even starting with 1K would affect balance and give an unfair advantage to people.

[PicklOH]

1000 spesos is such a low number. That doesn’t buy you anything that would be a balance conern. You also must remember, Cargo has to approve of orders.

Much less, why be concerned with balance at all? The game was never meant to be an even playing field. Johhny Tider stands a much lower chance of surviving an assassination attampt than the Captain.

Absolute worst case I could see with everyone having $1000 in their pocket is Rev rounds where they band together and buy guns or something, but it’s not like Revs can’t do that much more efficiently by having the same number of people do bounties, which payout at a much higer rate than I expect a persistent salary to do so.

[Nancok]

Again, previous rounds should have no effect on newer ones. The game is fair in the sense that no one can farm nor amass anything, everyone starts on the same intended footing.

The only thing that even approaches this are role timer, which are for moderation reasons. And do not actually change the balance of a round (there is still only one head per round, X amount of seccies per round, etc)

And that example of yours is also an excellent reason as to why 1K is too much already. Anyone can just ask others for money (since, you know, this is an RP game) and easily amass 3K or more which can get you a big advantage in many cases.

[Peptide]

I advocated years ago for vending machines to take money. It was rejected at the time as micro gameplay that’s doesn’t add anything. So hopefully feelings are changing.

I had docs around for economy. But the shop in cargo in SS13 for buying laptops, skateboards, drip and toys etc. and ATMs