The base Freelancer payouts are too low and Collateral should be an objective to REWARD professionalism

The collateral punishment of 50 merces is a negligible mechanic, BUT IT IS NOT FUN
The base payouts for Freelancer barely reaches 500 which is the lowest amount an objective gets you.
I think you should make the base payout for missions higher because it’s laughably bad compared to doing objectives.
I also think you should REMOVE the collateral damage penalty for killing civilians entirely, and instead make it an optional objectivity on every map rewarding you 200-500 Merces.

TL;DR

  • Remove punishment for collateral damage entirely
  • Add a new 200-500 extra reward to completing a level without collateral damage
  • The base payouts are VERY low

I THINK REWARDS FOR PLAYING GOOD IS MUCH BETTER GAME DESIGN THAN PUNISHMENTS FOR PLAYING BAD.

Unfortunately, I plainly disagree. On both of them.

The current system does give an insensitive to “professionalism”.
The 50 M of penalities are not a lot, but they are still leaving a bad taste when it happens.
But, a full on objectives might be too much. Even more if it gives that much rewards.

Currently the civilian collateral are a “darn it, well let’s move on”, and not a “I need to curate everything, it’s an objective in left corner after all, and enough M to but a tool later on”.
Which I think is good.


The collateral is only to civilians, and leave guards free for the taking. Which I think is fair, without removing too much of the open possibilities. Removing that distinction for a simple “no collateral” would diminish it, in my point of view.

It’s nonetheless true that this could still have the same restriction.


On a more personal note :

I’m starting to have progressed enough that I can bring “bonus” tools with me. One of them is usually one of the duckies. They are well represented in the tool crates. And they are becoming my “sod that one” tool, for when a target is just in plain public.

The duckies also cost 500 M. And almost always cause collateral. The way I use them at least. It’s the duckies : legal to place, legal to throw, will be taken by the civilian targets instead of calling the guard. It’s frankly their role.

Your proposition would make it way too costly to play with.


As far as payout goes : the start of the game is slow. I won’t deny that.

But again, once you start to have a solid foundation on your weapon wall, you then mostly pay for tools to use, leaving weapons to be rewards. At this point the payouts are good. Enough to buy one or two per contracts. Not so much to trivialize it.

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