The idea of Oolite (other than giving your life over to it fully, oh and enjoy yourself) is to make money - you make money to buy better toys and when you've bought better toys you buy a bigger ship and more toys and continue to try and make even more money...
But that's the hard way, that's not real life, in Oolite you can't have an overdraught, you can't have debt but what if you could....
You want to trade you CMk3 in and by that Python instead - but by trading its gonna take ages and you're a right now kind of guy - jeez this is the 32nd century of pity's sake. But then you hear about this guy, he works of the concourse down by the Level 27 Club, you don't find him though, he finds you - he knows you really want that Python, he has the means to help, just a thumb print and a retinal scan on the contract and the money's yours and don't worry about the repayments the interest is very reasonable and the period is quite flexible...
So, you've got your Python, it's loaded with Computers and you're gonna make a killing on this next jump, you pat the flight console affectionately and make the jump...
...it was going so well - you were almost there and then three sidewinders came out of nowhere - you fired off every 4x4 you had and nailed two of them but the third cut you up real bad as you lumbered through space hemoraging hull plating and cargo cannisters - and for the first time you miss the old Cobra...
...but you make it, that magic 'S' lights up the smoke filled bridge with its green glow and you know you're gonna be ok - streaks of purple flash past you as the Viper I's slice up the sonofagun who hurt you and your ship so bad.
You sell off what's left of your cargo and authorise the repairs - you're in profit, just. Enough to buy some furs to go back the other way - you pray for a safer trip...
...you have a message, apparently your first payment is due on your loan, you look at the number and presume the decimal place is in the wrong place, you ask for confirmation and the number comes back the same. Your blood runs cold, your mouth goes dry - you hit 'cancel' - your 'friend' will have to wait another week - its only a week after all.
Repairs complete you launch again - your hold decidedly empty but still profit to be had if the trip goes well. You make it through witchspace without mishap but on your run in to the system you realise just what this ship is gonna cost you. He takes out your rear shields before you even realise that he's not your average trader. The only two missiles you could afford to replace are shattered by an ECM pulse the second they come of their rails.
The hull of the Python is punctured in a dozen places you're venting atmosphere at a lethally high rate - all the lights and klaxons suddenly go out as the power on the bridge fails and you'rr sat their gasping as the last of the air vacates the ship - the last thing you remember seeing as your eyeballs burst in the vaccum of space is how pretty the air looks as it freezes and swirls about in a mini ice storm outside the shattered remains of your bridge screen....
The ship and the cargo survive - after all your 'friend' is in it for the money he has an investment to recoup and nobody but nobody defaults - not even for a week, its just not how business is done...
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So that's the idea - an expansion that will loan you a certain amount of money (20K, 50K, 100K etc) and takes back a chunk of it each week/jump at a certain rate - you get the option to miss a payment but if you do - then the mother of all debt collectors is sent out after you - if you survive - you still owe double and if you default again then two of the mother of all debt collectors are sent after you...
You only get out of it when you pay back the debt (twice what you borrowed of course) or if you're really lucky (1% chance per jump/repayment) Galcop catch your loan shark and shut down his operation and your debt is cleared.
So, what do people think? Plausible, possible, useful? No matter what, I enjoyed writing the little story
@ Roberto - so you did - and here's me thinking I'd thought of something new!
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