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rbt

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RbtRvltin

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About this mod

A streamlined immersion mod that simulates various costs associated with space travel in a reactive manner.

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This mod came from a synthesis of two ideas.

  • Space travel in vanilla Starfield is inconsequential and, despite all relevant dialogue indicating the opposite, costs absolutely nothing. I wanted to address this without introducing friction to the player experience.
  • I love hardcore needs mods. However, I don’t find myself enjoying the interactions as much in a game like Starfield as I do in, say, Fallout. I wanted to strip back what ‘needs’ mods do and create something a bit more abstracted.

The solution to both of these was, of course, credits. They are the main way you interact with the game systems, but in the late-game they can become as inconsequential as travel. So, Cost of Spacing simply takes credits from the player when they make port to simulate all of the costs of space travel at once.

A wide variety of factors, such as your ship, skills, port of call, factional allegiances, and more are all taken into account to dynamically determine costs, then you are charged accordingly and can go about your business. This should incentivize thoughtful travel and shipbuilding, as well as more interaction with the game world’s factions and mission systems. It should also be completely seamless and never get in the way of the game experience.

Note: Spacefaring Economy is the recommended counterpart to Cost of Spacing.
It scales most space-related costs and rewards around the idea that space travel costs credits.
They were designed together, but still function independently should you prefer to use only one.

Version 1.0 has been released.

An abbreviated list of features added since Version 0.81, the last stable release, can be found below.
Spoiler:  
Show

Gameplay
  • Unique handling when the player’s Constellation Stipend expires.
  • Unique events when piloting Starborn vessels.
  • More immersive handling of Maintenance events.
  • New Heatleech Catastrophe event (that costs up to 5 figures).
    New Systems
  • Fueling - in Real Fuel mode, fuel is paid for and automatically replenished on port call.
  • Quality - total operation cost varies based on manufacturer.
  • Wages - a small allowance is paid for each crew member.
    Cost Calculations
  • Some costs have inverse scaling for location richness - to simulate material availability or scarcity.
  • Ship costs in all modes are weighted with fuel capacity.
  • All costs scale more heavily on player skills.
    Fixes/Improvements
  • The mod no longer tracks wear-and-tear when disabled, and it is reset upon re-enabling.
  • Most crew-related costs scale off of headcount instead of slots.
  • The mod operates in states to reduce script load at each step.
  • Mod now correctly initializes in NG and NG+ across more scenarios.
  • Reputation bonuses calculate less frequently.
  • Streamlined mode soft-caps costs across all scenarios.
    Compatibility
  • Provisioning will automatically add food to your ship’s stores if Crew Eats Food is present.
  • Real Fuel mode for use with Fuel Consumption Unlocked or similar.
  • Landing Animation Reloaded no longer causes multiple charges.




    • The mod consists of a single script. When the player lands in a settlement or enters a properly equipped starstation, all calculations are triggered and ship costs are determined dynamically. The system attempts to withdraw the appropriate amount of credits from the player, incurring a strike if the player has insufficient funds.

    If it is your first visit to a settlement, costs will not trigger until you exit the ship. Similarly, no costs are incurred at starstations until you enter the station.

    How are costs determined?

    The port dues are split into three distinct types of Costs, a Stipend system, and a Maintenance system.
    There is also a Penalty system handling delinquent payments and a Skill system that lets you influence costs.

    Costs
  • Ship Costs scale off of your ship’s size and crew complement. They simulate Fuel, Ammunition, Wages, and Provisions.
  • Port Costs scale off of what location you are visiting. They simulate landing fees, ship services, and even heatleech inspections.
  • Social Costs are small, flat taxes unique to each city. They don’t really do anything, of course, you just have to pay them - just like the real thing!

    Stipends

    These are varied and are entirely influenced by player choice, background, and factional allegiance. Not all are positive, so beware!
  • Constellation Stipend - Captains piloting the Frontier can travel for free on Constellation’s dime below a certain player level. As Sarah says, getting a free room and ship is a pretty good deal.
  • Jemison Independent Pilot’s Grant - Captains that are unaffiliated with any of the game’s major factions receive a grant from the UC government to offset their travel costs until they have acclimated to the space economy.
  • Travel Allowances and Stipends - Various factions (such as the Vanguard or Rangers) have set aside budgets to offset travel costs of their pilots. This is established in lore and dialogue, but strangely not implemented in the vanilla game.

    Maintenance System

    The maintenance system has gone through a few overhauls and is now fully integrated with all other systems. Put simply, travel will slowly accumulate ‘wear-and-tear’ to simulate systems damage taken from regular use. Whenever you make port or dock with a consumer-facing starstation, there is a chance you will incur a slight cost for maintenance, which will remove some of this simulated damage. Maintenance is performed for free at your Outposts and certain unique starstations.

    There are also two ‘catastrophic’ events that may trigger if wear accumulates past a certain point - Engine Refit and Heatleech Infestation. An Engine Refit is a complete overhaul of ship systems that reduces all damage to 0. Heatleech Infestations run on a separate system and trigger very rarely. Both can be very expensive, but there are some mitigations. Only one can occur at a time, they only occur in major cities, and your skills and a bit of luck are factored in for a chance to reduce the cost.

    Medical Bills are only issued if your ship has hull damage, to simulate possible crew injuries. They will not trigger if your ship has full hull points.

    Penalty System

    I have opted to keep the punishment system simple, so instead of what you might expect from a needs mod - like ship or player debuffs - the mod operates on a three-strike system. Each time you are unable to pay port dues, the outstanding balance is logged and a strike is added. After your third strike, your next landing will incur a bounty of your entire outstanding balance (with slight compounding) with the local authorities (Or the UC, if the local authorities are not detected.)

    No penalty is incurred if you have insufficient funds when docking with a starstation, but no maintenance will be performed.

    Skill and Ship Checks

    Most costs ‘check’ a variety of player skills to determine the outcome.
    Skills are factored in for fuel costs, heatleech growth, port dues, provision costs, and much more.

    For example, Captains with the Long Hauler background leverage their experience to pay less fees at most ports of call.
    Spacefarers in the Serpent’s Embrace may find their blessed grav-drives with less damage than before after making a jump.

    There is also a Quality system that checks attributes, like the Manufacturer, of your ship to adjust costs.



    Ship Cost calculation is done using a dynamic soft-cap system, with scaling ramping up strongly as ship sizes approach C-class and beyond.
    Leveling now has a slight impact on prices - if you can’t notice it working, it’s working.
    Additionally, total costs will scale a bit based on location to simulate local pricing.

    Below is a Stronghold landing in Neon - which is already an expensive city for non-locals.


    However, a small fighter dropping by the Waggoner farm to refuel and grab some star-veggies can expect to pay a fraction of this.


    Somewhere in between, a B-class skiff finds itself in Cydonia with a pilot in desperate need of some Beertinis from the Broken Spear.


    Players traveling in the Frontier get all port dues paid by Constellation. You’ll see a unique message when this happens.


    Starstations and staryards are now fully integrated and perform maintenance for significantly less than terrestrial ports.


    And of course, that’s all before the reputation system comes into play. The interplay between this system and shipbuilding is the main ‘gameplay element’ of the mod as your choices directly impact your financial situation - a savvy player with the right connections can still turn a profit running space semis, but make the wrong choices and fail to plan properly and even the Frontier will become burdensome to maintain.



    Simply install with your mod organizer of choice and enable the plugin.

    The mod will start tracking the next time a settlement is landed in after installation.
    If the next settlement happens to be New Atlantis in the course of the vanilla intro, a unique startup flow should be shown. 



    There are no requirements for the mod to function aside from Starfield updated to at least 1.13.61.



    The mod is published as a small master and should be loaded as early as possible.
    No vanilla records are touched and all operations are performed through the script.
    It is, in theory, compatible with everything.

    Automatic Detection

    Shattered Space’s city locations are detected automatically in the script, with unique mechanics for players with the Serpent’s Embrace trait.
    If either SKK Fast Start or Crimson Start New Game are detected, the mod will start immediately upon new games.
    If Crew Eats Food is detected, a small amount of provisions will be added to your ship’s cargo on landing. Don’t worry - you’re still paying for it!
    If Landing Animation Reloaded is detected, events are handled a little differently to avoid multiple charges (from the multiple landing events it triggers).

    Note: Fuel consumption mods are not automatically detected. The Fueling feature is available in [REAL FUEL] mode under Gameplay Options.



    If you simply wish to disable the mod this can be done indefinitely by selecting [DISABLE] under Gameplay Options. The mod will begin running again once re-enabled.

    If you wish to uninstall entirely, enter
    cgf “_CostOfSpacingScript.COSShutdown”in the console and wait for the message to appear.

    Save the game, uninstall the mod, load the game, and save again.

    This procedure is not needed for updates. It will revert some leveled lists for safety and is not recommended unless you are about to enter the Unity.



    Tweaks/QoL

    Notifications Number and Display Duration Increased - This makes the messages appear for a bit longer, especially useful with 60 FPS interface mods.
    Build Outpost Items with Credits - I've come to really enjoy outpost building with this, and it uses similar logic to COS - just abstract everything into Credits!

    Economy/Balance

    Spacefaring Economy - This is a complete scaling overhaul designed around COS, and the two mods together comprise a complete simulated economy.
    Dynamic Repair Bill - This uses dynamic scaling to determine how expensive hull damage repair is.
    Cost of Living - Lightweight taxation for outposts and home ownership. 

    Immersion

    Peak Performance - Lightweight standalone needs system for Hunger, Thirst, etc. Automatically detected by COS.
    Crew Eats Food - A fun way to ensure that purchased provisions go to use. Automatically detected by COS.



    By design, the mod does not need heavy configuration, as the scaling covers most scenarios.

    The recommended option is the default, [SIMULATION]. This performs all calculations for a deep and reactive experience.
    If you wish for a simpler or cheaper experience, you can select [STREAMLINED] for lower expenses across the board.
    If you are using a Fueling mod like Fuel Consumption Unlocked, you can select [REAL FUEL]* for a special compatibility mode.
    [DISABLED] simply prevents all mod logic from triggering until the mod is re-enabled.

    *See Notes section below for a primer on how Real Fuel works.

    Under the Notifications setting, there are a few new options.

    [DEFAULT] is the recommended setting and is the least intrusive. It has no pop-ups and never disrupts game flow.
    [VERBOSE] converts some event notifications to pop-up message boxes and adds a few intermediate messages to the flow.
    [MUTE] silences the credstick jingling noise across all interactions.
    [DEBUG] gives you a comprehensive overview of all costs incurred when making port.



    How does Real Fuel mode work?

    This will only be functional if you have a mod that causes travel to reduce your ship's Actor Value SpaceshipGravJumpFuel - or, simply, that makes travel use fuel. In this mode, the system will now withdraw an appropriate amount of credits for fuel in ship costs, and then automatically refill your tanks.

    Default behavior is like (the cut feature in) vanilla - the current price of Helium-3 will be referenced to determine final costs.

    There are some alternate modes that have yet to be finalized.
    For now, I recommend an Economy mod that increases the value of Helium-3 if you find costs too low (Such as Spacefaring Economy!)
    This will also influence costs when purchasing from Ship Services if vanilla calculations are used.

    It has been tested with and designed for Fuel Consumption Unlocked. 
    It may or may not work with others like Ships Need Gas, Starvival, etc - let me know one way or the other.

    How heavy is the mod?

    While this is my first Papyrus mod, I believe it should be very light - as of 1.50, the main logic is simply triggered by a tracker script attached to the player's ship (referenced from the vanilla SQ_PlayerShip Quest. Some more details are below.
    Spoiler:  
    Show

    There are a few scripts. The ones relevant to gameplay are ShipTrackerScript and QuestScript.

    ShipTrackerScript ( attached to the PlayerShip ReferenceAlias) watches for OnLocationChange and triggers QuestScript.HandleLandingEvents(). 

    HandleLandingEvents() checks if:
    The ship is in space (vanilla function).
    If the landing was a fast travel event (custom function LandingComplete() that returns false if the player is in the ship's interior cell)
    The ship is in a location with keyword LocTypeSettlement.

    If all of the above are true, CalculateLandingEvents() will be called for the ship's location. This triggers all mod logic (checking the port, ship, player's skills, quests complete, maintenance status, provisions, wages, etc) and attempts to withdraw the proper amount of credits from the player's inventory.
    Note: In 1.50+ most auxiliary systems like maintenance or provisions are optional and will simply be skipped if you lack funds after paying taxes and ship costs.

    If LandingComplete() returns false, the system assumes that the landing animation is playing and begins watching for OnExitShipInterior. This is one of 3 RemoteEvents the mod watches for in 1.5 - the rest are replaced by the ShipTrackerScript.

    If OnExitShipInterior is triggered, the system calls LeftShip() which just triggers HandleLandingEvents() again and triggers payment. 

    For Starstations, ShipTrackerScript is simply watching for OnShipDock and calls QuestScript.HandleDockingEvents. This registers for OnExitShipInterior and calls the above logic. LeftShip() will check if the Player is in a whitelisted starstation and if so, triggers CalculateStationCosts() which simply triggers a small amount of maintenance for a relatively low price. 




    Reputation System Triggers

    Note: I would advise learning these organically as you play the game, as some can be pleasant (or unpleasant) surprises!
    The below information applies to versions 1.50+.
    Spoiler:  
    Show

    This information is provided for debugging or extension/patching purposes only.

    Jemison Grant

    (Until level 25)
    +1200 credits before UC02, FC02, or RI02 are completed
    +600 credits otherwise
    x2 in New Atlantis only

    Vanguard/Citizen Stipend

    (UC02 complete)
    +400 in all star systems as a Vanguard
    +6400 only in UC space as a Citizen
    x1.25 only if player has UC Native Background

    Ryujin Employment Stipend

    (RI02 complete)
    +1200 if player works for Ryujin
    +4800 only in Neon if player works for Ryujin
    x1.5 if player is flying a Taiyo brand vessel

    Freestar Ranger

    (FC02 complete)
    +200 anywhere
    +600 in FC space
    x1.25 if player has FC native background

    Crimson Fleet Tribute

    (CF02 complete)
    -1800 if the questline was started as a criminal
    -600 if the questline was started through Vanguard

    +3400 if questline is complete for Fleet
    0 if questline is completed for SysDef

    Miscellaneous

    -Red Mile Tourist Tax
    Removed if player completes the Red Mile

    -Neon Tourist Tax
    Removed if player works for Ryujin or is a Neon Street Rat

    -Akila city Tourist Tax
    Removed for FC natives, Long Haulers, or Ranger Deputies

    -New Atlantis Tax
    Removed for Vanguard pilots or UC natives

    -Paradiso Tourist Tax
    Removed after ECS constant quest complete

    -Trade Authority Fee
    Applied in any port TA operates in.
    Lowered if player helps Zoe Kaminski in the well, significantly increased if they do not.

    -Heatleech Inspection Fee
    Applied in all ports.
    Increased significantly after UC09 (to indicate that Ship Services is actually inspecting instead of just pretending to.)





    Bethesda for Starfield and the Creation Kit.
    The CK Wiki (and UESP for hosting a clone as it undergoes eternal maintenance.)
    Game Maker’s Toolkit for an illuminating YouTube video on how video game economies are balanced.
    RenamonNonaka’s Ash and Adoring Fan for keeping me company in a convenient savegame for testing.
    Darkfox127 for a great Scripting with VS Code tutorial (external site link.)
    Ceres07 for suggesting a clever way to implement the maintenance tracker system.


    Spacefarer is a modular, immersive Vanilla+ overhaul that aims to bring out the best of what Starfield already has to offer. Check it out below.

    Combat
    Deadly Effective - Overhauls numerous combat-related vanilla perks for playstyle diversity (and fun!)
    Balanced Ballistics - Lightweight and immersive overhaul to weapon handling for Ballistic and Laser weaponry.
    Suit Up [RTFP] - Smart and compatible system to make spacesuit selection more impactful.
    Space Economy
    Cost of Spacing - Simulates a reactive and complex space economy by introducing costs to space travel.
    Spacefaring Economy [RTFP] - Overhauls prices and rewards with heavy scaling to avoid hyperinflation.
    Captain’s Choice - Rebalances ship classes and modules for more thoughtful shipbuilding and combat.
    Survival
    Real O2 - Makes O2 a real consideration when exploring zero-atmosphere environments.
    Peak Performance - A lightweight system to handle Hunger, Thirst, and Rest.
    Immersion
    Magic Boost Disabler - Disables the vanilla behavior of magically appearing Boost Packs.
    First Person Messages [RTFP] - Converts game messages to first person.