Amhran
Member
- Mar 22, 2022
- 204
- 501
I'm going to ignore the issue of unbalanced money-making for the time being, because I really think that's just broken and there needs to be some kind of rebalancing to make it so that some of the worst ways of making money can get at least mildly better while the best ways should probably be toned down a bit (especially with regards to the infamous cream buns). They don't all have to be equal or even close to, as it wouldn't make sense for random door-to-door jobs that largely don't require much talent or training to ever get close to professional/skilled jobs, but...like, something is clearly a bit kaput with the way things currently work.Honestly overall game balance probably needs a tweak more than just inflating numbers higher. Sure you could have them hand you twenty grand but the whole thing is pointless if money is so plentiful that it basically doesnt matter anymore. One of my few gripes with how the game progresses is that after a while money is a non issue and eventually instead of making it more of something you have to manage they just add in money holes to eat up excess. I mean one literal student is bank rolling investments for the town by making cream buns. It would honestly be nice if just paying rent actually becomes a gameplay mechanic that you have to worry about again.
But I did just have this wacky, possibly outright crazy idea for a money sink: seeing as a large amount of people hate Bailey and not ever properly being able to deal with her, and the issue of disposable income...why not have an end game goal being running her out of town - but with the caveat that you have to take over the orphanage and try to make ends meet so that Bailey doesn't come back to take it over again? It's probably a bit too out of scope for this game, and I don't think it really fits the game's fence-riding act of "are we a kid or are we an adult...or somehow both?", but maybe with some clever writing and mechanics you could make it work. The city and government are all corrupt and are basically actively working against you at every turn (or perhaps they don't even fully realize that Bailey isn't running the ship anymore and you're just unofficially making sure that the lights stay on), so you're completely on your own in trying to make sure that all the orphans are taken care of! Maybe you'll try to be a saint and have to try to do everything with just your own money...or maybe you'll have to squeeze these kids even worse than Bailey did, and they'll have some kind of revolt that ends up with you being tossed out and Bailey coming back anyways. Yeah, I don't really think this would work, but it's kind of a fun idea.