Author Topic: Shop system for a ss2 rl  (Read 7444 times)

hawk66

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Shop system for a ss2 rl
« on: April 25, 2012, 06:38:30 PM »
My personal feeling is that a roguelike with a System Shock 2 setting (not an exact clone of this great game) would be really awesome.

What I did not like in System Shock 2 was the 'shop system' that is the slot machine, that has allowed you to buy ammunition and all other similar 'dangerous' stuff, which would surely not be available in such a slot machine :).

I'd be curious if there are any good ideas out there, to make a 'shop system' in such a setting (spacecraft) a little more realistic?

kraflab

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Re: Shop system for a ss2 rl
« Reply #1 on: April 26, 2012, 05:31:48 AM »
matter converter?  Put in fuel/energy and get items.  To justify expensive objects (that might be just as cheap "energetically") you could say some of the energy is going to the guy who owns the machine or item patents, etc.

guest509

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Re: Shop system for a ss2 rl
« Reply #2 on: April 27, 2012, 06:46:58 PM »
  You probably wouldn't need to explain the prices too much. I like the idea of using energy as a currency. You might even cash in old items that way. Finding energy chits could be part of the exploration process.

  Good luck.

Paul Jeffries

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Re: Shop system for a ss2 rl
« Reply #3 on: April 29, 2012, 09:24:17 PM »
It might be useful to try and pick apart what exactly it is you want the shop to do in gameplay terms and then think about other ways of achieving the same goals through different (possibly multiple) means.

So, a shop typically fulfills some of these roles:

- Gives meaning to the concept of currency as a reward: i.e. it gives you a reason to want to collect money/credits/energy/whatever and potentially sets up some interesting risk vs. reward scenarios.  Could be replaced with some other form of reward that aids progression in a similar way.  If you wanted to simplify things you could just replace monetary rewards with experience point gains, since they basically fulfill a similar function in this regard.
- Allows the player to make strategic decisions about the way they want to play the game by letting them choose their equipment (within certain limits) rather than having to rely on whatever they can find.  Could be emulated by having characters or containers that let you pick only one object out of a selection.
- Makes all items useful in some way, since even if you don't use them you can sell them to exchange them for something you do want.  Of course the downside to this is that the player usually then feels compelled to pick up everything he can carry just so he can sell it and thus engage in lots of dull inventory management, so you may want to avoid this anyway... but, could be replaced with some kind of 'recycling' or crafting system where items can be broken down and used to build other items.

And probably a few more things based on the specific game - I'm sure you get the idea: rather than replacing the shop system with something that acts exactly the same way but that has a big sign on it saying 'this is not a shop, honest' you could break down the functions of a shop into separate, potentially more setting-appropriate, forms.


hawk66

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Re: Shop system for a ss2 rl
« Reply #4 on: May 01, 2012, 07:58:00 AM »
Thanks for your input guys. Some good ideas, actually :)