A game of survival, trade and exploration in the universe of Fallen London
Variable Fees Headsmack
Psst!
Posts: 99
8/12/2014
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for the love of Duh! can't believe i didn't think of this earlier.
what part of this makes sense?
go to a port just a couple miles up the coast, get a secret message, and i'll pay you 150 bucks. did that? great - now go a thousand miles into oblivion, burning chuckloads of gas and food on your way, and stop at this militarized police state that hates people like you. pick up a spy message, risk capture, death, loads of suspicion you can't dump even if you pass a near-impossible skills test ... and if you ever get back alive, i'll pay you another 150 bucks. deal?
no, of course not. and yet this is exactly the kind of arrangement we run in Sunless all the time. equal pay for inequal work. a trip to Venderbight - a total cakewalk - pays the same as one to the Khanate, a place far more distant and perilous to manage.
port reports reflect a sensible pricing table, generally paying more based on distance from home port, but many of the assigned missions don't. it's a fixed-price deal that doesn't reflect anything about the particulars of the mission itself. just a simple rejiggering of the pricing payouts could do a lot to advance the game.
and just for wishful thinking ... it would be nice if those strategic reports and soul-smuggling missions were themselves part of some larger wheel turning in the background. at present, they just feel like busy work, like you're being told to fetch coffee or run photocopies while the grown-ups talk.
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Fall Acious
Posts: 12
8/16/2014
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I would say that in-universe, it's probably the Admirality having a flat rate for delivering important information to keep themselves from being price-gouged. The Zee is dangerous, after all, so it's not hard to imagine captains concocting stories (Lifebergs working with pirates! Two Mt. Nomads!) in an attempt to get more Echoes per trip. By having a set payment rate, everyone knows what they are getting in to.
Re: the Cheery Man's deliveries, I just chalk that up to them being criminals. "We'll pay you what we pay you, and if you don't like it, we'll stab you", basically.
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