What are the plans for the accumulated funds stashed at the base? What will be the money sinks? Upgrades? Region bonuses?
Great question. I touched on it briefly somewhere but I'll give my most recent thoughts:
I'm open to other ideas as well!
Alright, i'll throw out some ideas, hopefully some of them will be good:
The higher the rank invested the more money it cost.
Region bonuses: Extra cash earned, more XP in this region, merchant on mission field discounts, base vendor discount in this region, higher chances of a favorable find when investigating nodes (Finding loot instead of having to fight), discount on fuel merchants, fuel efficiency during travel (1 fuel reimbursed every/nodes), investing money to raise the value of missions in the region (better starting money and end mission payouts), etc.
Upgrades: Team mates cybernetic implants, weapons/armor one-time stat adding, more health to subs, more fuel capacity to subs, discount on rented sub prices, discount on mercenaries, discount on repair and refueling owned subs, more special missions available per informant payout, fuel start efficiency (Does not cost fuel units for # of nodes traveled ex: 3 first nodes cost 0 fuel, then fuel start degrading), etc.
Alright more ideas...
Special unique/story characters that you can find while exploring with unique skills, these will stay in your team permanently, but will ask a fee every times they are released on a mission, like mercs, but in the permanent roster, though unlike mercs, their fee is fixed, they don't cost more as they level up. (I know you had plans for special characters already, this is just another way to get some), they could also have their own story line and quests as optional quests.
Powerful consumables that once used, are lost, they are more efficient than the reusable consumables.
Purchasing unlockable hairstyles, i want a fancy ponytail for my wildcat conqueress :p (I am very biased, i just love wildcat, so deadly)
Purchasing unlockable cosmetic clothes that can override the functional armor.
An influence system that allow you to raise affinity with your team mates, purchase them gifts. Affinity could do various things.
Tax collector zombies! (jk)
I'll post more if i brainstorm again!
So here's the "big stuff" that needs to be done before we launch the game on Steam (most likely in May)
Once we are done with that then I'll consider ideas like these to "personalize" the characters more but I will be very careful about adding features that would require new character art for now to keep costs down. I have several concepts for unique story characters (as this was in the original scope) but the reality of the cost of creating the art made me take them out. My personal wish list for characters (if there is time):