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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"The art of flying is to throw yourself at the ground and miss." --Douglas Adams

Very nice suggestion JT. Anything that makes the departure of an NPC a little less abrupt and a little more realistic, is good by me. Of course, GranpaTrout or another coder would need to wrap their head around implimentation, but I imagine it could be done fairly easily. My guess only though.

A logical extension would be to add in NPC morale, which determines how long they're willing to delay payment.

Another logical extension would be to add in debt-collecting operations...

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"The art of flying is to throw yourself at the ground and miss." --Douglas Adams

I like the debt collection idea! A nice way to bring some combat to a trader, beyond just piracy and random bad-guyness. Which also makes me think why not allow crime-families to lend money? Failure to pay such debts would of course bring the wrath of a debt-collecting operation/assasin.