Suggestion: Offworld market revenue goes to debt before cash

from Stardock Forums

I'm starting to get the sense that debt *really* doesn't have enough bite right now.  The only real consequence of a debt spiral is the loss of the black market and the decreased share price, neither of which seem to matter too much in the end-game when you're buying out rivals with fat stacks of offworld revenue.  What do folks think of having offworld rockets be like power generators and pleasure domes in that their revenue applies to debt before paying cash, at least until you get out of the [D] rating?

 

I'm thinking it would help disincentive completely ignoring debt, as well as making perfect thematic sense... the colony wouldn't be happy having the money made from shipping away their territory's resources go towards private profits before *they* get compensated for assistance they provided in getting that company off the ground. 

6,647 views 3 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top

The Pleasure Dome does not pay money into debt like power, it was changed a longish ago. Debt most certainly matters, I would say even at the latest stage of the game the difference in a couple bucks of stock price can be big (in close races), but before then managing debt is a difficult and very important problem. Taking debt is a risk and you do it to gain some sort of in-the-moment cash benefit. Forcing Offworlds to repay debt would mean that taking on debt would always be bad, thus limiting your options because a player without debt would always have a huge advantage in an offworld game over a player who took that risk. I think all this would accomplish is limit the possible strategies and decisions while also making the games longer which I personally don't see as a benefit.

Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top


The only real consequence of a debt spiral is the loss of the black market and the decreased share price, neither of which seem to matter too much in the end-game

 

You're kidding, right? A handful of well placed mutinies on offworlds have won me soooo many games. Look at match 2 of my series against Heisenberg. Black market won that game for me, hands down. Why do you think Scavenger is so strong in the current meta? If black market isn't deciding your late games then you need to practice using it better.

 

Plus debt growth is exponential. When you hit that critical 20%/30% interest tick range it will CRUSH your stock price very quickly. Debt matters if you let it get out of control. The goal is to keep it on a tight leash just short of game ending.

 

That's on top of that what Yerand said. Right now debt is in a nice place where it's something to be balanced rather than feared. Your change would make debt something universally bad, and that doesn't make for a very good game.

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Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top

Fair points... I am definitely still learning how to use the black market effectively.  I still feel like there's something odd about [D] debt not starting to cause cashflow consequences (besides power income), but if folks agree that it's less strategically limiting (in a fun way) like that, I'm still new enough to the game that I'll take your word for it.

Thanks for your perspective!