Economy ideas?
I think I have a whole can of worms for this... (or a six pack of cans of worms... or flood gates)
A flat out currency system doesn't seem right to me.
Don't need money to have an economy. Just an exchange of goods and services, of barter, and perhaps through in some other stuff like merit.
Anyways, here's my 2 (thousand) cents.
ResourcesTypes of 'resources' that come to mind for the basis of the 'economy'.
Construction/Work Teams: The people who do all the work. (not enough slows work down. After each use, there is a cool down time until available again, for them to have R&R between work orders.)
Building Materials: (self explanatory, made as proper resources are provided)
Refined Materials: (materials used for making assorted bits of equipment, produced as proper resources are provided)
Rovers: Needed to move personnel and materials. (not enough slows down transport of of stuff requested/traded/bought/sold. After each use, there is a cool down time until available again, time for refueling it and doing maintenance/repairs. Player 'could' allocate their own rovers to pick up the slack, but only after a work crew has arrived to provide someone to 'borrow' the rover')
Expedition Supplies (food, water, oxygen, needed to sustain crews. Also includes rover fuel)
Rover Fuel (if kept separate from Expedition Supplies. Always being made and used, to reflect the main base doing stuff)
Sometimes Work Crews and Rovers are 'used' at random, to reflect them being used for/at other bases. Could also mean other resources being used. To keep it from feeling like the player's base is the only one besides the main base.
For the Resources, the Main base has two values.
Amount Available: Self explanatory.
Request Limit: How much they are willing to provide to the player. Considers the existence of other bases that also need stuff from the main base.
Main Base Resource Production.Raw materials would be stored and tracked by the main base. These would slowly be converted into usable materials/resources..
Food, water, and oxygen used to make Expedition Supplies, for example.
The main base would have a slow trickle of resources, to reflect their own operations and resources from other (off screen) bases.
There could already be one or two bases operating 'in the background'. Maybe a start option could be how many secondary bases exist from the start, affecting how fast or how slow things will start in a new game.
Resource AllocationDifferent things can affect how much the player is allowed to request at once.
Providing resources, providing 'finished' resources (like Expedition Resources, or rover fuel), completing missions, etc. For resources, the type provided improves allocation limits for related materials a bit, and other resources by a smaller amount. There could be an overall 'point' system to limit how much could be requested at once.
Resource allocation exchange: Exchanging one type of allocated resource for another (maybe for a minor loss), like exchanging allocation points from building resources to refined resources. Alternative, a trade with another base, to provide them what they need for what they have plenty of to spare.
Investing and gifting: Of 'giving' resources (or transferring an amount of allocated resources) to another base. They might (or might not) be able to repay (even if partially) the favor in the (near) future. Just 'giving' stuff to the main base (or other bases) makes them happy, as it means they have more to provide to other bases. Could result in being paid back (by another base) in some form in the near future.
Rank Effects on ResourcesPlayer rank would not be just from skills, but also from helping to establish successful bases, completing missions, and overall being a 'good team player' that helps to support or otherwise improve the colonizing efforts in general.
The rank itself could effect how many resources are allocated. E.g., at Rank 1, 100 might be allowed for request for a resource, but at Rank 2, this is modified to 125. After 4 promotions (Rank 5), it becomes 200. Of course, the base can only provide what they actually have at the time.
Rank can also affect the player's influence over other factors.
Perhaps it might also allow for the occasional 'special request'. Such as requesting an extra rover, or even just using that request to increase how much of a resources is allocated to the player's (present) base. Again, it is a factor of the player having helped a great deal with the colonizing efforts, and so being 'rewarded' in some way for said efforts.
Off World ResupplyAt (usually) regular intervals, a supply mission would be launched from Earth.
The game looks at different factors to decide what to include in the supply mission.
If the player is at least Rank 2, they can also 'vote' on what to include (or not include)
The player can also take a 'supply request' side mission at this time. The game will consider the requested resources to be much lower priority (unless the player has yet to actually find/produce the resource).
A supply mission has limited space and weight capacity. Any 'leftover' space/weight capacity will be used to partially fill any remaining lower priority requests (if possible).
There are several supply mission types. Manned. Carries a work crew, moderate cargo. Unmanned. No crew, much higher cargo. Heavy. Not initially available. Can handle 'big'
stuff (like MMEVs), or multi-stage landers that have an ascent stage to allow some resources and personnel to be returned to Earth. (crew rotation and rare elements might have positive effects on Earth and positively affect future supply missions). A Heavy lander might also transport large, purpose built base modules, giving the main base (or a lucky player) access to a 'pre made' structure (with lander legs) not (initially) available for construction locally on Mars.
Supply missions would of course take some time to actually arrive, which is one factor to consider.
One optional perk, if the player is lucky, or has high enough rank (or influence), is to find out the supply lander will be landing close to the player's (present) base.
This in effect means a 'free' structure at the (present) base. The Lander will be able to act as a shelter (even if unmanned, but if manned it will be equipped with life support storage), be able to re-deploy its solar arrays after landing to be another source of power, and of course act as a comm. relay and possibly also an extra weather monitoring system. For a 'bonus' with the main base, the player can use their own resources and rovers to transport the newly arrived crew and supplies to the main base. If construction is in progress, the newly arrived crew might even stick around to help a short while, speeding things up a bit.
Secondary Player ContributionsWhen a player completes a base, and is 'done' with it (it is handed off to the new base staff) the game will take into account everything the player has found and produced. This will add to the trickle rate at which the main base gets supplies. So, a well setup base would provide more to the main base than the original bases that exist in the 'background'.
The down side is that a work crew will be 'removed', as they are assigned to take over the base.
This could allow a sort of campaign setup, or maybe more like a sort of strategy game, where the player first has to help setup a few basic bases to help supply the main base with enough steady resource income for the main base to 'allow' larger projects to be started. A new base could have more initial resources allocated than previous bases.
Knowledge, Another ResourceOn a sort of related idea, research efforts.
The base could do research over time, along with improvements designed on Earth, etc. These would initially take a long time to occur. If the player provides some rare materials, it adds to that research efforts the main base does. For example, the main base might start providing an alternative to the RSG system if the player has provided the main base with enough thorium and sodium. Or some other improvement or 'new tech' might be created.
If the player's efforts aid research enough,, or if they are of high enough rank, they can help 'choose' what is researched next. This would prompt a side mission indicating what resources to provide. The focus might not be completed, some other research that requires the same resources could also occur.
This, in turn, could allow the base to 'reward' the player with additional allocated resources, on top of the effects of the improvements.
Starting SlowInitially, some supplies could be finite, and only be resupplied by Earth until the needed production chains are setup on Mars.
The main base itself could also improve itself with the proper amounts of different materials being provided. For example, an improved 3D Printer that allows them to convert resources into building/refined materials more quickly, or even to accept 'requests' to build another rover (or perhaps replace ones lost due to random events). As could be expected, if a new base is built, it means rovers must be 'removed' from the supply as they are assigned to the new base. So, if the player makes to many bases without getting to where the main base can effectively create new rovers, it could bottleneck things. (the main base always keeping a spare rover on hand)
Another example. Maybe there is an ample but finite supply of GPR charges. This means they could eventually run out if the player is unable to supply the main base with the materials needed to make more. With delivery times of many months, and limited transport space for supply missions, it again brings into play of choosing carefully of what the initial supply missions from Earth might carry, and further encourage a player to help make the local economy more self sufficient.
Money and Trade.Allow for multiple 'modes' for the economy type.
There could be a 'Frontier' system (the wall of text collection above, player needs to 'earn' what they use), or a 'Currency' system, in which there is just money, for just buying and selling stuff.
But those who like a challenge can go with the 'Frontier' type system, where they will really have to work for things.
Or a hybrid system. Have the 'Frontier' system in place, but also allow the player to buy and sell stuff. Different bases could be built with different strategies. Maybe secondary (off screen) bases responsible for secondary supplies respond to different things. One might demand 'trade credits' for stuff acquired from them, others might want to stick to the basic barter system.
Bases that specialize in one thing might regularly need other things. A mining base might need regular food deliveries, and trade resources to a base with spare food.
Biosolids. Yes, I am going there. If that mining base above doesn't have stuff for NPK fertilizer, then 'something' will have to be used to fertilize the plants at the farming focused base... Nothing must go to waste, nothing... One man's trash is... um... onto the next thing...
It might even bring into factor of other bases run by selfish people, who think 'their' base needs to be the main base, and so withhold materials from the main base, requiring the player to trade their own resources to get other resources needed for the main base.
On the flip side, if there are other bases 'behind the scenes', it could complicate things if a successful player 'buys up' all of the available resources of a specific type, which could lead to issues if other bases suffer problems due to not being able to get such resources themselves. This could result in a player that is to selfish or who does not plan ahead to actually cause another base to fail and have to be abandoned (even if temporarily). Such an effect might lead to a major loss of allocated resources and even demotion. On Mars, greed could very well prove to be deadly.
Um.... okay, that is a lot...
tl;dr semi-abridged sort of trimmed version*Main Base would have Resources like... Work Crews (reusable, they do stuff), Rovers (reusable, move people/stuff), Construction Materials (for constructing buildings), Refined Materials (for items/equipment), Expedition Supplies (needed for more or less everything, life support stuff and rover fuel to get people places to do stuff)
*More the player does to help the main base, the more the main base is willing to allocate to the player
*Secondary (not important for immediate survival) stuff sent to the main base helps the main base improve/develop things *cough*Molten Sodium based Thorium reactor*cough*
*Rank for skills and doing stuff, higher rank means more influence. Have influence over what the main base works on next or what might be on the next supply mission from Earth, and increasing how much resources the player can request.
*Supply Landers! They show up on occasion at the main with new stuff, and people. Players who do well 'might' get one landed at their (present) base. Landers double as shelters, comm relays, have solar panels to deploy after landing, etc. Main Base will send a rover for the new arrivals (unless they brought their own... or unless the player uses their own stuff to ship the new arrivals/supplies to the main base)
*Trade/Barter preferred for 'off screen' bases, money optional. Be greedy, buy up all the stuff, get reprimanded because off screen bases fail and have to be abandoned because 'someone' horded stuff they need, harming the main base's efforts. Also, as food is important, so biosolids are likely to be traded at some point...
*Trade spare food for spare building materials (or vice versa), get perks for playing nice with other bases. (main base lets player have access to more stuff, win-win for everyone.)