Nice idea but between not being able to tell what upgrade prices are, a whacky economy and just not being sure what most things do - doesn't feel like you have much agency
Stumbled through it and cleared the debt off pretty quick, fun idea, just needs *more*
I am definitely still adjusting the economy, my initial debt was 50,000, but at that point the interest is higher than mission payouts. I can refactor most aspects of the economy with a single change, so I'm taking my time figuring out a debt amount that is oppressive but not impossible. I see what you mean about the upgrades, there was definitely pricing in the menu, but I must have reverted that accidentally. I will hotfix that immediately.
The best idea I have right now for agency is to offer 4 jobs in the bar, 1 for each category. I will also need to refactor the balance of mission payouts in that case.
Edit: hotfix implemented:
Most of the problem with economy isn't how oppressive or long lasting, it's how simple it is. Or how easy it could be for someone to get unlucky early on and have a vastly harder time paying it off (especially while they're learning the game)
Something very very basic to increase the complexity, which i'm not advocating for, merely discussing, would be to 'force' the player into a negative spin to begin with (debt grows faster than income), forced to save up and buy some sort of other equipment or long lasting debuff (reputation as a criminal) and only at this point their income outstrips the rate of growth
Hell, if the project goes a long way, it might even be valid to have a small basic explanation of how to pay off debts - saving up to get an income is good, but the more you pay off, the more take home income to pay it off you have also
I'm still balancing, but Alpha 3 is ready to post, I'm just tweaking the interest rate to force the player into buying upgrades to make more money to pay off the debt. I have decreased the rate of failure just a bit so now it's more about grinding to pay off chunks of debt rather than worrying about the repo man.
This was the easiest way I could implement your suggestion, but I still need to balance the economy around it:
