Wingman loyalty

Or rather, the lack thereof. As soon as the player’s funds drop below the threshold that allows them to be paid in cash, just about every NPS in the player’s fleet absconds with the player’s cargo, robbing the player blind.

Maybe player wingmen should know the difference between the player running bankrupt and the player running out of liquid assets. Every time one of the player’s cargo pods is destroyed, the player loses its asset value; every time a cargo pod is created, the player gains it as asset value. NPSes would allow the player to get into debt as far as his/her asset value, or 7 days, whichever is less, before they would consider quitting: as long as the PC has enough assets to eventually pay off the NPC, they wouldn’t mind getting their paycheque delayed a bit. After all, these people are freelancers, not paid employees — a certain amount of financial risk is assumed.

Note that NPSes would only allow the player to get into debt with the whole fleet to his asset value. A single ship only expects a certain proportion of the fleet’s asset value. E.g., if there were a SnRV that costs 100cr/d and a tug that costs 200cr/d (I haven’t played Torn Stars for a spell, so these are just figures plucked out of the air), and the player had 1500 cr worth of assets and no cash on hand, then they would both quit after 5 days, because the sum of their debts would reach the player’s asset value.

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