One of my favorite hobbies as a rifleman is to channel my inner Three Kings, secure loot, and drag it back to the ship. One of my least favorite situations is when I drag all the loot through a warzone, escort it personally back to the Almayer (If I Fulton it, the GP’s kids go to college instead), dodge MPs, and finally get it to Req and find out they haven’t found the modified access tool to get the black market setup.
My idea is to give the CL the ability to take loot and “launder” it through a machine (maybe a fake disposal in their office?) to give the ship more req funds. This rewards an ambitious marine’s actions even if the black market isn’t setup, gives the CL a little more functionality and RP potential, and benefits the operation.
There are lots of future expansion opportunities as well.
- Kickbacks to the CL. Make a dispenser that sells drugs, booze, experimental meds, and other shenanigans and props that use points gained from laundering money. Kind of like a traitor’s store in ss13, but less teamkilly and more chaotic and funny. A successful CL could have a pimp coat, sword cane, gold desert eagle, and a brain jacked cyber-zombie from a colonist corpse as a bodyguard by the end of a round.
- Unique ERT responses to laundering money (The Auditors).
- Connecting the CL to the black market if it is set up. Have it share the $WY pool?
- Place CL only loot on the map for laundering that needs the CL to open it and a marine escort. This would encourage CL misadventures, but would benefit the op.
2 Likes
We have different meaning of three kings. The Three Kings met with baby Jesus.
Not to say I do not like the idea. It is a good one.
Ahh, I was talking about the ‘99 movie with George Clooney where his troops steal gold from Saddam during the first gulf war.
As a Company patriot, I endorse giving the CL more shady stuff to do with the thrown in bonus of giving people incentives to work with the Liaison and retrieve stuff from the colony that’s not strictly mechanically beneficial.
That said, I’m wary of making it so the system can benefit Req because, well, it’s not very good money laundering if everyone’s got a mutual incentive to just ignore it. Something with a direct benefit for the Marines risks being shot down on the basis that it’s an actual balance change (even if you’re only giving Req a couple grand max, you’d still have people whining) and otherwise has the problem of people expecting the Liaison to go out of their way to do all this stuff because it’s strictly beneficial to the Marines. The black market itself works on the basis that most if not all of what you can buy from it is just miscellaneous weapons and items that are more about style or gimmicks than they are upgrades to anything the Marines might have. It’s more of a fun side thing you can do if you’re willing to put in the effort (and take the risk of getting slammed in the brig) than an actual gameplay system, and that’s probably how I’d like something like this.
But giving the Liaison their own little black market composed more so of the retrieval of items of value to the Company does sound enjoyable. As long as the benefits are more directed at individuals rather than teamwide benefits like Req points, I see it working fine. And having it work with the black market system would give further incentive for people to play around with it knowing the Liaison can hook them up with funding that isn’t just counterfeit bills that apparently every black market arms dealer just accepts as legit. The Liaison still has a reason to go on their outings, but mostly just for extra swag or gear for themselves and their “employees” rather than because a bunch of people are going to whine and groan if they don’t.