Bank accounts and galactic jumps

[phkb]

This may have been discussed before, but in any case I thought it might be worthwhile discussing it again.

The concept would be similar to what Malacandra uses as a plot device in his story Claymore Mine -- when you use a galactic jump, any credit balance you had in the originating sector stays where it is and you have a new account in the new sector, which would start at 0 (or maybe 100cr, like you start with at the beginning of the game). The only things you can take will you into the next sector would be any cargo who have on board. There would be a means by which you could see the balances in all your different accounts, and (maybe) a costly process to transfer money between them.

What do you think? Coding-wise I think it would be pretty easy to write, but would there be any interest in something like this? It would certainly make pilots think very carefully about making a galactic jump, and maybe that's a bad thing that would lead to the end of players doing galactic jumps.

[Disembodied]

I think it's an interesting idea. As long as players knew beforehand (which, unless they're installing OXPs blind, they should), they can prepare for it by e.g. buying up gold, platinum and gems in bulk. Granted, it'll take a long time for a player to acquire enough to let them take a fortune through with them, but it would let players at the lower end of the wealth scale carry enough money through to give them a boost (once they can sell it all again, of course).

Lack of ready cash adds a bit of bite to the game: anything which lets players experience it - voluntarily, in this case - is a good thing, I think. The only potential problem I can see is in relation to the Constrictor mission, because it's relatively early on, but there the player still has to buy the equipment, so it's not massively time-sensitive. Perhaps even Curruthers could assist the player by offering to convert cash to gemstones for them "at a favourable rate".

[Cody]

Granted, it'll take a long time for a player to acquire enough to let them take a fortune through with them...

Buying the most expensive OXP ship before jumping to the next octant, then immediately selling it, would be simpler.
Even doing that with a core BCC, then switching back to a Cobra Mk III would net about 250k - a good start.

[Disembodied]

Buying the most expensive OXP ship before jumping to the next octant, then immediately selling it, would be simpler.
Even doing that with a core BCC, then switching back to a Cobra Mk III would net about 250k - a good start.

Hmm ... although is there not a loss involved in buying and selling ships? (If there isn't, there should be, I think - the player shouldn't be able to sell a ship for as much as it would cost them to buy.) Of course, at a certain level of wealth, those losses might be relatively trivial, and might outweigh the faff of selling off a holdful of shiny things.

Of course, not everybody flies a Cobra III: if you're in a rarer breed of ship, it might take a lot of searching through the high-tech shipyards before you find another Mk V Whizzo GTi-with-go-faster-stripes for sale. Although if you're flying a Mk V Whizzo etc. then it's probably the most expensive thing out there. And even if you're not, it might take a bit of searching to find a suitably expensive ship on this side of the galactic jump, too.

[Norby]

is there a loss involved in buying and selling ships?

Yes, 25% loss.

[Disembodied]

is there a loss involved in buying and selling ships?

Yes, 25% loss.

Thanks, Norby - I thought there was. 25% seems fair. Buying an expensive ship for immediate resale on the other side of a galactic jump would be one way of taking a lot of cash across, but there would be a financial cost. Converting cash to precious metals and gems would be cheaper, but more time-consuming (at both ends of the jump). I suppose though the question would be, how much money would you need to have on hand, right away?

[Astrobe]

*In my opinion* such a "soft start over" is not very interesting.

I remember that when as a child I started to play video games, what motivated me to do again and again the same stage and finally beat the stage boss was the eagerness to discover the next stage. Today, your typical MMORPG uses the same trick: it uses a progression ("leveling up") in order to dispense new stuff progressively, and keep players hooked.

I think I've more or less suggested it before, but galactic sectors could serve the same purpose by:
- locating missions in specific galactic sectors (already exists),
- restrict certain ships/equipments (and why not, stations) to certain sectors,
- and maybe the only way to obtain a hyperdrive is to complete a specific mission (it does matter if multiple OXPs offer one, though)

Another way to create an incentive to jump between sectors (this can be used with or without the above) is to set some plot up in which you can stay only a relatively short time in one sector otherwise you're dead (for instance, a witch cursed you so the Thargoids will eat you if you stay more than one week in the same sector; extend by one day each time a new system is visited, shorten by two otherwise; or maybe just add/subtract travel times).

(edit) alternative: every time you hyperspace-jump, your misjump probability increases permanently. The increase is much more important if you jump to an already visited system. Jumping to another sector resets the probability.

[ffutures]

*In my opinion* such a "soft start over" is not very interesting.

(edit) alternative: every time you hyperspace-jump, your misjump probability increases permanently. The increase is much more important if you jump to an already visited system. Jumping to another sector resets the probability.

Really doesn't work for beginning pilots - it takes a LONG time to earn enough to buy galactic hyperdrive.

[Astrobe]

*In my opinion* such a "soft start over" is not very interesting.

(edit) alternative: every time you hyperspace-jump, your misjump probability increases permanently. The increase is much more important if you jump to an already visited system. Jumping to another sector resets the probability.

Really doesn't work for beginning pilots - it takes a LONG time to earn enough to buy galactic hyperdrive.

OP wasn't talking about beginning pilots either; but it can be easily fixed by casting the "curse" when the first misjump happens. Alternatively, one can just give one hyperdrive or adjust the probability increase rates in G1.

[Bugbear]

[Walks in late to the party...]
Oooo this sound awesome. My next thought is to have multiple 'bank accounts' in the one chart. This would get annoying once you have acquired enough credits to fill your hold with computers, meaning that one would have to start putting their credits into the precious metals.

As much as I hated the idea of Power Play in Elite Dangerous, a similar concept would explain away the existence of distinct, competitive banking networks. We'd then have forex in Oolite, obviously this would be called foorex.

<totallynotserious>How hard would it be to overhaul the entire concept of Credits being the only currency?</totallynotserious>

I'm sorry I'm rambling now...

[Walks back out of the room...]

[Dr Beeb]

For galactic jumps I think encouraging rather than discouraging them is the way to go, ie keep your GalCop credits. In Elite-B a galactic jump can be either forwards or backwards depending on whether you were flying towards or away from the sun. In addition you could buy multiple drives at once, each took 5t of cargo space, so galactic jumps were not really trading opportunities but made travelling great distance more convenient than needing to buy a new drive in each galaxy.

As for banks, some good ideas like those of pre-Elite Star Trader are worth thinking about, similar to the Black monks, but you can earn interest and access if local branch present. And then repo's come to mind. ArcElite nearly had a mission where a bank could ask you to 'reclaim' 4000 Cr of computers and then gave you an opportunity to buy that asset for 2500 Cr, a nice little earner.