Darth Saber: Requesting Assistance

[Darth Saber]

I have this idea of creating a Commonwealth Galactic Bank, where the player would be able to deposit their credits, view their account balance, make withdrawls, and take out loans (with interest).

In doing this, I have tried to create a protoype rom for accessing an atm, but I keep receiving errors, and I have come to the community for help. Here is the code thus far:

<!-- Commonwelth ATM Card -->

<ItemType UNID="&itATMcard;"

name= "Commonwealth ATM card"
level= "7"
value= "500"
mass= "1"
frequency= "veryrare"
modifiers= "Consumable; info"

description= "Use the Commonwealth ATM card to access your galactic bank account, and complete your transactions."

charges= "1"
valueCharges= "true"
>

<Image imageID="&itATMcard;" imageX="0" imageY="0" imageWidth="96" imageHeight="60"/>


<Invoke>

(block Nil
(scrShowScreen gScreen "&dsLoot;")
)

<Actions>

<Action name="Withdrawl" key="W">
; Show counter screen
(scrShowScreen gScreen "Withdrawl")
</Action>
</Actions>

<DockServices

desc= "You are at the bank services terminal.">

<Withdrawl name= "=(objGetName gSource)">

<Panes>

<Default
desc= "Welcome to the CGB Withdrawl Services Page."

showTextInput="true"
>

<Actions>

<Action name="Withdraw" default="1" showTextInput="true">

(block Nil
(setq gCredit (objCredit gPlayer "*" (scrGetInputText gScreen) 1))
)

</Action>

<Action name="Cancel" cancel="1">
<Exit/>
</Action>

</Panes>

</Dockservices>

</Invoke>

</ItemType>

</TranscendenceExtension>

Any help on this, or if anyone wants to help with the other parts of the mod, it would be greatly appreciated.

[alterecco]

I can only suggest that you look at the itMRADExperiment ROM in Heretic.xml for an example of how to make DockScreen ROM's.

If you have more specific errors or questions, post them here

[sdw195]

how would one repay a loan??
no bank would offer a loan to a pilgrim going to the core (how would they get repaid )

[Styro]

In my experience, Invoke and dockscreens are incompatible. You want to do something like this.

Code: Select all

<!-- Commonwelth ATM Card -->

<ItemType UNID="&itATMcard;"

name= "Commonwealth ATM card"
level= "7"
value= "500"
mass= "1"
frequency= "veryrare"
modifiers= "Consumable; info"

useScreen=			"&dsUseATMCard;"

description= "Use the Commonwealth ATM card to access your galactic bank account, and complete your transactions."

And then create a dockscreen object for dsUseATMCard...

Code: Select all

	<!-- Use ATM Dockscreen -->

	<DockScreen UNID="&dsUseATMCard;"
			name=				"Commonwealth Galactic Bank"
			backgroundID=		"&rsShipInterior;"
			>
		<Panes>
			<Default
					desc=	"You are at the bank services terminal.">

				<Initialize>
					; Here you would probably get their balance info to be displayed somewhere
				</Initialize>
				<Actions>
					<Action name="Withdrawal" key="W">
						(scrShowPane gScreen "Withdrawal")
					</Action>
					<Action name="Done" key="D" cancel="1">
						<Exit/>
					</Action>
				</Actions>
			</Default>
			<Withdrawal>
				<Initialize>
					; Here you would probably get their balance info to be displayed somewhere
				</Initialize>
				<Actions>
					<Action name="Cancel" key="C" cancel="1">
						(scrShowPane gScreen "Default")
					</Action>
				</Actions>
			</Withdrawal>
		</Panes>
	</DockScreen>

I haven't actually tried to run this so I cannot vouch that all the syntax is exact. I'm just typing it in the forum box. But this should give you the basic idea.

Look at how other ROMs and Barrels work that use dockscreens.

Edit: I noticed that I had extra Actions end and begin tags between the default screen's two actions (withdrawal and done).

[Darth Saber]

Thank you for your advice, it is appreciated.

As to loan repayment, I figure to establish a branch of the CGB in the Heretic System so that all loans can be repaid before leaving Human Space. Also, when one signs the initial contract to take out a loan, the station will require that you have renewable life insurance. This will ensure that death will not stop you from paying your debts. Every so often you would receive a message that a loan payment is required, and a counter would be displayed, showing how much time you had before it would be assumed that you were defaulting on the loan. If you reach the CGB after the timer runs out, then you would be required to pay a fine, and the interest rate would increase by a random percent.

Anyone seeking to default on a loan will be placed on the Black Market hit list; I do not think that anyone in their right mind is going to want to be hounded by Moltok Smugglers for the rest of their lives (insurance is a wonderful thing)!

[Atarlost]

Molotoks are nasty early in the game, but completely useless later. Around Sanctuary being attacked by Molotoks is actually a gain for the player because their weapons are obsolete, but the ammo is still worth selling.

You're also missing that the player has no reason to pay off the loan in Heretic before leaving human space even if they could. And a bank there makes no economic sense. The number of pilgrims that reach Heretic is small, most will default because anything that can threaten them is too expensive to operate to be worth sending after a debtor, and even if they don't default they aren't profitable enough to pay for defending a bank from the Iocrym.

Nobody loans on the timescales you're talking about without surety. You can get a PDCL or pawn something, but you're talking the credit card model, which relies on credit checks and deferring the cost. It's not logistically feasible to require daily or weekly payments on debt in the real world and we have real time communications. T doesn't. It's also not a loan product that would interest anyone except pilgrims and maybe gamblers, neither of whom are acceptable credit risks.

And finally, there's no renewable insurance in T. It wouldn't be profitable with the payment model CIC uses. I'm frankly not sure it's profitable with a single payout at the current prices, but at least the up front payment model is viable unlike your proposed loans.

[schilcote]

Actually, since the credit system appears to be computer controlled, I'd say that the loan companies should be able to just TAKE your payment... They'd give you your loan, and every twenty minutes or so take 0.5% of your loan's value (with a simple fee tacked on instead of interest) unless your balance dips below 150 or so (close to the cost of one refuel of your reactor). If you don't have money to pay for your loan for two payment-times, the next time you dock at a Commonwealth or Corporate station the equivalent of the missed payments is taken out of your holds, if you don't have assets to cover your bills you're taken to prison (the refuel-cost bottom limit would be a Commonwealth law to keep the bank from debting you to death, but the bank is also backed up by the Commonwealth law enforcement, hence the goods confiscation/jail time).

[sdw195]

or they can take payments on enter of a star gate

[Atarlost]

Actually, since the credit system appears to be computer controlled, I'd say that the loan companies should be able to just TAKE your payment... They'd give you your loan, and every twenty minutes or so take 0.5% of your loan's value (with a simple fee tacked on instead of interest) unless your balance dips below 150 or so (close to the cost of one refuel of your reactor). If you don't have money to pay for your loan for two payment-times, the next time you dock at a Commonwealth or Corporate station the equivalent of the missed payments is taken out of your holds, if you don't have assets to cover your bills you're taken to prison (the refuel-cost bottom limit would be a Commonwealth law to keep the bank from debting you to death, but the bank is also backed up by the Commonwealth law enforcement, hence the goods confiscation/jail time).

Impossible. There are no hypercoms, and EM requires sight lines, which don't exist between systems unless the gates are properly oriented if the gates are not, in fact, opaque. Communications are by courier ship only. With an elysium gem you can easily outrun the news that someone should be charging you money.

[schilcote]

I meant that the credits system would be centralized. We went over communications before, I think it's just an "Acceptable Break From Reality" that the commonwealth has enough communications infrastructure to have a centralized bank which holds your credits. They're called CREDITs allready, so I assume that it's either a sort of debit card system, or a checking account system like we have today.

[Atarlost]

You've always had a very strange idea of what constitutes an acceptable break from reality.

[hookoa]

Pilgrims might be a very acceptable way for banks to give loans. They need money, they tend to make a lot of money (or die), the banks can contract into the loan that they are repaid in the event of death (automatically debited from the pilgrim's account), and they an auto-debit the player on a timer. Even if you leave Heretic system, your credits are still stored at the central bank computers in St. K, and the banks would be able to recover their money. The only way to default is to not be able to sell enough loot to pay off the loan, or to convert all credits into goods and run.

And how many of us get to Heretic poor?

I usually have at least 150-200,000 in the bank when rins become the popular currency, and I rarely spend credits in rin territory. In fact, I think I get richer because I sell all loot that the ringers wont buy to commonwealth colonies.

[Atarlost]

Pilgrims might be a very acceptable way for banks to give loans. They need money, they tend to make a lot of money (or die), the banks can contract into the loan that they are repaid in the event of death (automatically debited from the pilgrim's account), and they an auto-debit the player on a timer. Even if you leave Heretic system, your credits are still stored at the central bank computers in St. K, and the banks would be able to recover their money. The only way to default is to not be able to sell enough loot to pay off the loan, or to convert all credits into goods and run.

Except that all of those rely on real time communications. You can't have automatic money transfers with the communication latencies involved in interstellar travel even with jumpgates. Money needs physicality when you can't communicate with the central bank in real time and physical money stays with you when you leave human space.