I was reading this post: Revitalize the game economy
And it once again sparked in me a strong desire to offload all my horded resources. Of course, that post discussed mechanical incentives, but with how power creep’s been going as of late I wanted to list out some less-impactful opportunities for resource redistribution.
The Bunk Room
Adding a “Bunk Room” with a bar, some tables, maybe a sparring zone, to one of the currently unoccupied sectors. This place allows you to Donate resources, buy some booze, engage in fisticuffs or play games of chance, and even spend time at your Bunk. To encourage use, have Operators spawn in the Bunk Room, or otherwise traverse through/next to it when loading in. It’s something to do while waiting for Havoc Parties to form. I recommend close proximity to Hadron’s and the armory. Perhaps between Sefoni’s room and the main hall? Or spread out on both sides of the main hall.
- Donating Resources: Old timers got resources coming out their ears. Newtimers ain’t got a docket to spare. Hestia could address this by setting up a donation box in the bunk room. Donating your resources ensures some random player in need will receive a special gift upon mission complete. The amount you can donate is capped daily, and the collective amount could be capped weekly basis to discourage being too charitable, too quickly (The box needs to be emptied). However, doing consistent donations allows you to unlock special penances, get custom frames and titles. These ‘rewards’ are upgradable, starting at Grey and progressing to Red as you donate more and more.
Merchant Funds.
In addition to donating to other players, you can also donate to “The Lord Darius Melk Fund”, as well as Hadron’s and Brunt’s (For Melk bucks, Materials and Dockets respectively). Doing so also nets you different penances, with their own upgradable titles/frames. Seems everyone has their own reasons for hopping onto this bandwagon, much to Hestia’s chagrin.
The ability to donate can be restricted to reaching level 30, and possibly having a certain amount of resources in the bank.
- Booze: The bar in the bunk room provides a wide assortment of alcoholic beverages. You can purchase one for yourself or buy a round for your whole strike team. Consuming one applies a debuff, either lasting a temporary amount of time, for the duration of a mission or until you “Sober Up” with some free recaff (DRG STYLE). The more expensive beverages have more interesting debuffs and the cheap stuff just giving you “Drunk Vision” for a short period. Completing missions under the effects of these debuffs rewards you with special penances and upgradable Titles and Frames. Just don’t let your superiors know you’re inebriated.
(Unfortunately, Dukane can sniff out this stuff, or perhaps just has higher standards, and Sefoni bypasses it completely, making these debuffs only valid for standard modes. Leave this toggleable in the code for modders so the freaks can have their crazy havoc-40-true-solo-all-debuffs runs)
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Fisticuffs: Challenge opponents for sport or profit in a friendly sparring match. The amount you can spend on a match is limited, but both opponents and spectators can place bets. This would also allow players to ‘trade’ resources by trading blows
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Games of Chance: Throw some knucklebones! You can repurpose the Dice mechanic from VT2, I won’t snitch. Whoever rolls highest wins, best of 3, with some kind of tiebreaker mechanic. Since you got rid of the ‘Hadron’s Wild Ride’ Slot Machine we could use some recreational gambling. If this proves popular, you can consider coming back and adding more involved games of chance, like whist, at a far later date (Lets be honest, you’ve other systems that need working on first. Can’t have your pudding if you don’t eat your meat!)
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Your Bunk: Off the main bunk room sits a smaller offshoot with a series of 4-5 bunks, chronicling your total progress on all 4 operators. You can also invest resources (And if Hallowette gets their way, aquillas) to decorate this bunk-room, swapping out a few key elements for different variants (Tables, posters, wallpaper, etc). If necessary, such rooms could only be accessed via the Operators Select menu, and be unable to be visited by other players.
Ideally it’d be an Outlast Trials situation but I don’t know the brass tacks of FS’s Mourningstar system and how many rooms that’d need to be, or how hotswapping rooms would work. The menu approach would presumably be easier to implement. The Bunk Room could have a door you can interact with to transport to your bunk.
The Inquisitorial Primer.
People have been clamoring for a glossary since time immemorial, now is an excellent opportunity to add one. This would detail things like how “Rending” works, Impact vs Stagger, Strength, Cleave, etc.
However, you can never have too much information in the inquisition. You can trade resources for intel, allowing you to acquire additional details on Characters, Enemies and Locations. As a fun bonus, the more you add, the fancier (and thicker) the book gets.
In addition, it would seem that this book also transcribes the chapters unlocked via Mortis Trials. Very strange, why would Sefoni do this? Or maybe someone else is to blame. Better keep this to yourself for now, worst case you throw swagger under the bus.