Running costs

[FeelGone]

A player in Oolite encounters the following running costs during their career:
1. Fuel
2. Maintenance overhaul (which is scheduled in one go as a "bulk" cost every so often)
3. Repairing and upgrading ship and equipment (including replacing used missiles or escape pods, renewing Planetary Landing clearance, etc.)

But what about the actual pilot? Why do they never have any running costs? Buying food (not to trade, but to eat themselves) or clothing, acquiring medical care, using station facilities such as accommodation or communications, creating a breathable/livable atmosphere inside the ship during space travel, cleaning the ship and dealing with waste - these are never costs that seem to be accounted for.

One assumption could be that the costs are simply too small to be registered - if you can buy one ton of food for only 2-3 credits, a personal supply of food would presumably be of insignificant cost. Yet over time, it would still add up. Another explanation might be that this is paid for by some other means - that the credits in your account are for galaxy-wide trade, yet local system trading of this nature could be conducted with a different form of currency. Yet there's absolutely nothing in-game or in any canon reference to support this (that I am aware of). An alternative explanation is that the ship has some kind of technology (akin to a "replicator" in the Star Trek franchise) that takes care of this and hence the cost of buying a ship assumes the cost of living. Again, there's not that I'm aware of any canon reference for this.

So, is there any way of squaring a player's ability to earn, potentially, millions of credits, without ever seeming to need to eat, sleep, bathe, dress, or otherwise really exist as a person?

[Smivs]

But what about the actual pilot? Why do they never have any running costs? Buying food (not to trade, but to eat themselves) or clothing, acquiring medical care, using station facilities such as accommodation or communications, creating a breathable/livable atmosphere inside the ship during space travel, cleaning the ship and dealing with waste - these are never costs that seem to be accounted for.

We don't really exist you know - you are just a figment of your computer's imagination

[Disembodied]

So, is there any way of squaring a player's ability to earn, potentially, millions of credits, without ever seeming to need to eat, sleep, bathe, dress, or otherwise really exist as a person?

It's just one of those things the game ignores. If you wanted to, you could probably make an OXP which created a piece of equipment called e.g. "Ship's stores". This could work on a timed basis like the subscription to TraderNet in Cim's [wiki]New Cargoes[/wiki] OXP, requiring regular renewal. There would have to be some penalty for not renewing, of course.

The problem is that the in-game economics don't really work: it's far too easy to make a profit, and to keep on making a profit. You would have to try really hard to lose money. So any sensible set of running costs for stores, clothing, etc. becomes so rapidly negligible that it doesn't add anything to the game to simulate it: it would just be a little extra thing you kept having to do from time to time. A greater roleplaying element would be nice to have, especially with a small crew: better ship's stores = happier crew, etc. - but again the economics remove any game element from it, because it's just too easy to make money.

If you want some justification as to why you don't have to think about these things, you can assume it's rolled up inside the maintenance cost. As well as servicing the ship systems and valeting the ship, the maintenance overhaul could also include topping up the ship's stores and slop chest.

[JazHaz]

Some of the fiction/original Elite manual has covered some of these points, such as a food dispenser and an auto-doc equipment built into the ship for all your food and medical needs.

[cim]

The problem is that the in-game economics don't really work: it's far too easy to make a profit, and to keep on making a profit. You would have to try really hard to lose money.

My personal interpretation is that it's all about the Cobra III. Before that came along, you had as your career choices:
- bounty hunting, escort duty, piracy: high risk, moderate reward
- trading: high risk, high reward down to low risk, low reward, depending on just how many escorts you hired for your freighter. In terms of long-term survival, slow and steady is the way to go... but you won't get rich that way.
- mining: low risk, low reward

The closest to a multi-role ship would be a Cobra I or a Moray - or maybe a FDL if you were already fairly rich - and they don't really have the cargo hold for making a trading profit. Hunt-and-scoop, sure, but that involves actively seeking out fights. A bit of profit on the side while escorting freighters, likewise.

The Cobra III actually has (just about) the cargo capacity to make it as a trader, combined with the speed and firepower not to have to spend all the profit on an escort fleet, but it's a new enough ship that the full implications of this haven't yet filtered through galactic society and with it being a fine heavy fighter too, a lot of the owners don't use it for trading much, so the impact on the trade economy will be slow (and perhaps not that large in the end, as it's still a riskier way of living than a freighter fleet with skilled escorts)