Roleplay a slower start: Charter Ships and more on-planet jobs

[phenn]

I'd love to roleplay a slower start, where obtaining a ship and exploring the vastness of space is more of an end goal and not an immediate possibility. But it's a struggle to do anything in this game without being told to go to another planet. I'm given a ship, but if I walk away from Constellation should I really keep using it? I'd like to dream of space travel and work towards my first ship, space suit, etc. Or maybe work at a dangerous outpost and hijack one from Spacers if the possibility arises.

 

A few helpful mod ideas would be:

 

1) Mundane daily jobs in Cities

 

2) Mining Jobs, maybe even more mining during the intro so I'm thankful to get on the ship rather than tossed the keys immediately and told to get going. Or skip the piloting tutorial, and somebody transport me to New Atlantis

 

3) Basic non hero quest mods that stay on planet

 

4) Charter ships - This would help so much. When my poor early game character must head off world, let him pay for a ride with either credits or by doing certain quests/tasks for the captain. Even better if the tasks could match my background. Don't make me fly, I'm just not ready

 

 

Thanks for the consideration. Would appreciate hearing about more pre-pilot or non-pilot RP ideas also

[hellhawk]

Great ideas - I'd love to see this, and it would work really well together with survival changes that required eating, drinking and sleeping.

 

It would have to be done carefully so that daily jobs did not become a grind. Maybe time could advance more quickly when doing them, so a full day's work only required a minute of gameplay? It would still give the effect of days and weeks passing while you saved up money to travel. Probably something like no more than 2-3 hours of gameplay in this initial slow-start phase?

 

I also really like the idea of the Frontier not being immediately available and the starting location being a city or major location of your choice.

 

An alternative to point 4) (Charter ships) that might be easier to do would be to increase the cost of starships significantly - say between 10 and 20 times the current price. However to buy one a deposit of just 5% would be required along with Galbank finance. The debt would then be paid off using a variant of the existing mechanic for the "Dream Home" trait.

 

For example, a ship like the Frontier might cost 1,000,000 but you could buy it with a deposit of 50,000. You then need to pay 10% interest of the deposit (5,000 in this case) each week just to retain access to your ship - no pay, no entry to ship. Any amount over the minimum interest payment is deducted from the actual amount owing (950,000 in this case) but this does not affect the weekly interest required. Eventually, once the 950,000 has been paid, you own the ship.

[phenn]

I like it! Financing a ship would be a great starting point to slow down early progression. Work towards that down payment and then take the plunge into debt. And hopefully someday there will be a more fleshed out lending system in general.

 

Yeah, the grind can't be too stifling. Two or three hours would be fine for most characters, maybe with the ability to stick it out and grind away if the desire was there.

 

For the charter, I had been picturing something similar to Skyrim carriages. Just a fast travel system where you land at your destination after paying for transportation. Kinda like the 1000 credit repair ship option, but you pay for a ride instead. Not ideal but better than being forced to step out of character and fly there in the Frontier.

 

I don't know what possibilities exist before the CK, so just tossing ideas out there for those who are more capable. Someday I wish I could mod an entire alternate starting planet or even a new Neon city zone loaded with basic roleplay jobs and quests.

[Strokend]

I do like the idea of having a slower start and ship charters. Chartering a ship could have several other uses too, like alternate starts/deaths (avoid dying in space, just find an outpost!) or even guaranteed smuggling for a price.