Rowena Armorers

[Resident-Pyromaniac]

Remember those ROM's of Rowena's Weapons and armor?

I think, there should be a Rare - Late-Game station
that accepts Rins or Credits(and will convert Credits to Rins or
Vice-Versa) and sells pretty much anything that's useful.
They would be able to upgrade Reactors to Hyperion level,
Sell ROM's and Cubes of any kind, and have a search feature.

Their name: Rowena Armorers.

What do you think? to far-fetched? not far enough?

[Drako Slyith]

I love the idea of a direct rin-credit transferer. Great idea for a mod

[Datal]

I like this idea, but I sugesst that it should be (maybe in different version) in game. It will be useful.

[stealthx]

...(and will convert Credits to Rins or
Vice-Versa) ...
Their name: Rowena Armorers.

If you are modding this, then I suggest that you set the exchange rate somewhere like 1-to-0.8 both ways, like in real business.

[Resident-Pyromaniac]

I was thinking this should be in the Vanilla Version, actually.
As for exchange rates, How about for each exchange you
are charged a flat fee of 500 credits or 100 rins.

[Amilir]

To simplify, you want to remove all item scarcity late game, and eliminate differentiation between credits and rin.

Simple answer: Not going to happen. It's an easy mod to make if you care to do so though.

[Drako Slyith]

In theory you could write in a new buy screen or use DSF to make a screen where when you press "buy" you get two options: rin or Credits

[Resident-Pyromaniac]

Actually, I was thinking how much easier it would make a playthru, So I think it
would spawn only once, in one system, way out in the outer belt.

[george moromisato]

Actually, I was thinking how much easier it would make a playthru, So I think it
would spawn only once, in one system, way out in the outer belt.

One trick of game design is that each element that you introduce in the game should give the player a "meaningful choice". In other words, if you give the player a station that converts credits to rin, you have to ask the player to give something up in exchange. That makes it a meaningful choice. The player can design his/her strategy depending on the answer.

[Just giving the station to the player for free, even if it's rare and hard to find, is the equivalent of randomly giving the player some large quantity of rin for free.]

The trick is to design the choice in such a way that:

a) It is evenly balanced (the player can succeed no matter which way he/she decides).
b) It makes some sense in the game world.

Here are some ideas:

1. The station is a Black Market station; only members of high enough level can access the credit conversion. To become high level you must (e.g.) destroy a Commonwealth station so you forever give up docking with the Commonwealth.

2. You enter a high-stakes gambling contest. If you win, your credits are converted to rin with some markup (~10%). If you lose, you lose the credits that you put in. The probabilities should be adjusted to compensate for the (gameplay) value of the conversion.

3. You buy the salvage rights to a wrecked freighter (in credits). The freighter has a load of minerals that can be sold for rin. However, when you get to the wreck you have to deal with whatever destroyed it. [Which could be random: sometimes it might be something that you can't handle.]

I don't know if any of these ideas would actually work, but please feel free to throw out your own.

[Drako Slyith]

Perhaps they have a docking fee of ~50,000 credits or ~20,000 rin to enter the station?

[Atarlost]

The thing is, there already is credit-rin conversion: Buy ringervaluable ores and Teraton valued weapons in the credit economy and sell them for rins.

There is no shortage of rin. It's just one of those Nethack-style player knowledge things that enhance replayability in a permadeath game. Once you learn what you can sell for rins and where to get it you can get plenty of rin.

There are several sources even.

• farm Ferians or blow open hives for ringervaluable ore and get some Teraton valued weapons on the side
• farm Ares for Teraton valued weapons and ammo
• collect kiloton cannons from non-farmable, but reasonably numerous, Ranx DNs for sale to the Terratons
• buy ringervaluable ore and Teraton valued weapons and ammo from CW stations and recover your credits by using the increased store wealth to sell expensive stuff you otherwise couldn't sell.
• just buy teraton valued weapons and ammo at Thor's to convert your credits to rins.

The only problem is getting a string of Taikon shops before encountering ringers or Teratons. It would make sense for Taikon to sell for either currency since they're part of the Corporate Hierarchy, but that might create game balance issues. Making Ringer/Teraton outposts that appear at earlier system levels without high level stock, but letting you sell stuff for rins earlier might help.

[PM]

If Taikon could accept either currency, make services more expensive if credits are used instead of rin.

Another idea: Allow the Sisters of Domina do limited currency conversion. If the player has plenty of credits but no rin, let the Sisters convert a few thousand credits maximum to rin. Using this service would sack attitude points. Also, I notice the Sisters do not count rin for tithing purposes.

[PM]

As a player, here is how I would react to the above ideas from George:

1. The station is a Black Market station; only members of high enough level can access the credit conversion. To become high level you must (e.g.) destroy a Commonwealth station so you forever give up docking with the Commonwealth.

Destroying a Commonwealth station would be crippling. The player usually needs the Commonwealth to obtain the military ID, and two of the stations in Heretic are Commonwealth. Of course, the player can hope for "Not enough evidence" outcome to negate the crime, but that would turn it into a luck based mission, and a case where save scumming would be justifiable. Getting blacklisted for such a minor service would be dumb and a trap.

2. You enter a high-stakes gambling contest. If you win, your credits are converted to rin with some markup (~10%). If you lose, you lose the credits that you put in. The probabilities should be adjusted to compensate for the (gameplay) value of the conversion.

I would ignore this. The markup is enough of a penalty for me. If I want to risk money like this and win, I better get an even exchange at the very least, preferably a discount.

3. You buy the salvage rights to a wrecked freighter (in credits). The freighter has a load of minerals that can be sold for rin. However, when you get to the wreck you have to deal with whatever destroyed it. [Which could be random: sometimes it might be something that you can't handle.]

This would give players who refuse to destroy Ferians a way to get commodities the Ringers would buy. This smells fishy though. I would rather search for the wreck myself and not pay anyone. Of course, given how the game works, the wreck probably would not exist until you make the deal, then the MacGuffin and enemies magically appear out of nowhere, just like in (nearly) every other mission.

[Resident-Pyromaniac]

Hmm.. I guess the Rin-Credit direct conversion has to wait.

One thought, they could be a secret order, like you can still trade
with them, but in order to get the good stuff, you have to accomplish
missions; and earn rank, going from Enlisted, to Hauptman.

I also think RA should have similar properties to that of a CSC, including lots
of highpowered weapons.(qaud Rasiermesser Launchers, anyone?)

I have an idea for a dockscreen:


ROWENA ARMORERS

You are docked at Rowena Armorers, the Pinnacle
of Human technilogical advancement and study.
Here, scientists barter with pilgrims over devices
of alien origin, while Engineers examine said devices.

C ommand Deck (request missions.)

B arter chamber (buy, sell etc.)

E ngineering and archives (repairs, refuels, service record.)

S hip Gantry (devices, reactors, enhancements.)

M ember's Lounge (like the pub and officer's bar.)

U ndock

Just off the top of my head, but what if you actually directly bartered? like
select items you want to get rid of, and select items you want to get, and
if the item value balances out, you can trade.

[Drako Slyith]

Perhaps a negotiation system? Like you can name a price, if it is too low they say no, and they name a price, etc. Not sure how the coding of that would work, but it could be possible.