A use for all those credits

[Ertymexx]

I was thinking the other day, that one of the issues is that there is little to actually use your not so hard earned credits on when you go late game (which is relatively early). So here are a couple of ideas (and I am no modder, so I have no idea if they are doable or realistic).

1) Rather than having a limited number of outposts, starting an outpost would need to cost credits. A sort of land purchose-token or administrative fee for recognising your claim. This sum could vary depending on the number and type of resources on the plot, and the habitability of the plot. A dead rock with only iron and aluminium should be fairly cheap, while an opulent plot with several rare resources, perhaps even farmable creatures or plants would be more expensive. With the right price tags it would be something to gather credits to get the better areas to make more money to expand even further.

 

2) Instead of having a grindy and honestly annoying level system, buy skill levels with credits. You would still need to do the challenges (some I reckon would need to made harder for this to work well), but once the challenge is complete you need to pay fo have the skill actually improved. See it as a driving test or something similar. I would think that it would make skill growth a bit more organic than the present "farm poor aliens beasties for XP and slowly increase one skill at a time". I would imagine that lvl 1 skills would be cheaper than lvl2 and so on, and that the tier of the skill also plays a role. Basic skills should be relatively cheap (but not too cheap so that it becomes OP too fast), but higher tier skills would be gradually more expensive per step.

 

The second suggestion I would guess is hard if not impossible due to hardcoding of levels, but again, I am not a modder and I have no idea what is doable or not. Still, I hope my ideas sparked some inspiration. :-)

[lvlnd]

I like the idea of using credits for outposts, but not just outposts. A quest line that would allow the character to stay in the universe for a long time, not necessarily the player grinding it out but that character. We build an outpost, upgrade it to a small settlement, upgrade that to a small town, large town, etc. We initially are more heavily involved, but as it gets more complex we hand off activities to other NPCs for automated events. Along the way the quest has way points where the player could decide, OK, I want to just get going to the next universe, so they can select that option and those they leave behind do whatever. Another option could be the player is done with the grindy bit but isn't hip on their character bailing just yet, they would have an option to let time pass, a fade sequence happens then it is many years later. Their settlement has grown, or maybe it encountered woes, if they have a spouse maybe they had kids who are now grown and on their own...that sort of thing....then the player can proceed to the unity.

 

Credits used, frenzied rat race feeling eased...

[victoriaks01]

for settlements I recommend you contact Kinggath.

Money, invest in Industries/research   Banks/interest bearing accounts   Gambling casinos/ Ship racing, compete or bet/ animal/bad guys fights in an auditorium, and you could place bets or compete.  

[aurreth]

Put it all in a stolen Galbank transport, then put that in orbit around an EM class gas giant.

[FALCmods4all]

Skyrim modding was good in this regard. Always a huge expensive castle to download. 
 

in starfield I’m really interested in variety of scale, political structure, economic structure. 
 

So, I’d love to see a collection of mods that build great basebuilding economy progression. So if your bases collect the right materials you can upgrade them into city states. Any material missing in supply chain should be much more expensive to buy but also have unique applications. Depending on factions present, bases should have to buy off or fight off local pirates or authorities. Get big enough and buy city state independence. Then get access to expensive building schematics depending on faction relations or expensive research. Finally, when your unique faction corporation or political group is ready, buy or conquer your own homeworld and fund a fleet to maintain independence, establish embassies, etc. 

The more intricate the internal faction governance options the better. Varied political ideology with impactful mechanics. Democracy means convincing people to keep following your leadership, etc. 

Trains to connect same planet settlements also cool. I guess unique space stations or ship parts will be the other expensive mods. A huge arboretum for science vessel.