Credit Sinks, or: What do I do with all this money?

[lefty1117]

From videos and varying postings I am getting the impression that there are some folks out there with quite a bit of credits at this time in Beta. But regardless, at some point most of us will be well-funded as things are now. Yes, there is a cost to replacing ships but as players improve and learn to manage risk better, this will become less of a credit sink, I believe. Also, we are seeing that as we upgrade ships the profit earned per trading run dramatically increases. The rich get richer, indeed.

So what are the other credit sinks in game - especially for the rich? There's no crafting, right, so what are we going to spend our money on? I'll try to list out the credit sinks I'm aware of:

- Ship & module repairs
- Module replenishment (ammo, missiles, heat sinks, repair modules, etc)
- New ship purchase
- Fines for mission failure
- Loss of cargo
- Selling below profit
- Bounties & fines

Do you guys feel that there are enough sinks in the game or is there concern that over time it will be too easy to get rich? Have FD already stated plans to increase "pilot operating costs" or add potential opex (sorry, I'm a budget guy) in other areas?

 

[jstutters]

Do you guys feel that there are enough sinks in the game or is there concern that over time it will be too easy to get rich? Have FD already stated plans to increase "pilot operating costs" or add potential opex (sorry, I'm a budget guy) in other areas?

Almost certainly there aren't enough sinks in the beta as it stands but it's very hard to tell how that's going to change as they add more modules and ship upgrades and re-balance the rewards for various activities. Improved interdictions should lead to a few more ship losses as well.

In terms of additional sinks the design docs talked about owning multiple ships and paying hanger fees for those which will presumably get quite expensive for the larger ships. Hopefully we'll see more things to do for the super-rich such as investing in capital projects (new station construction?) and high-price ship upgrades that offer a percent or two more performance if you're willing to risk losing them.

 

[Arius]

Deleted.

 

[SlackR]

At 10 million I decided to reset today and start over... Having fun in a battered old sidewinder again and trying all of the different missions.

 

[Commander Dave]

At 15 million today I decided to buy a yacht.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

I hope they allow newly constructed stations, or even in-game fundraising for the main factions (Fed, Imperial, Alliance, independent) to construct permanent space stations at specific Lagrange points - which FD get to name, of course. Or, very rich players can name and choose the design themselves - the station type and naming rights for the station going to the highest bidder. (The extremely rich could even own a station outright for their own use and their friends' use.)

And, once planetary landing is established, and the creation of ground stations and docks for us to use, this can extend even further to the zoning of specific stretches of land for player-funded buildings, docks, mines, habitats, landing pads, etc. With planning permission, of course.

 

[Sgt Doom]

Do what I just did, take a T9's full load of extremely valuable cargo and smash into a station by accidentally hitting boost. Excellent way of burning money :c

 

[JamesBondage]

would be cool if players could own outposts, could see that costing a billion credits easy, and eventually there will be bigger and more expensive ships. doubt anaconda is gonna be the most expensive.