Included in Build Crew hiring cost.

[jsv]

I continue to go through payments-related code, trying to make it more consistent. And the crew hiring cost is anything but.

The cost of hiring new crew is currently calculated like this:

int GetCrewHireCost(ref ch)
{
    int cost = 18 - (GetShipSkill(&ch,SKILL_LEADERSHIP) + 3*GetOfficersPerkUsing(&ch, "IronWill")); // was 16 and no perk
    cost = cost * iretMax(1, makeint(SALARY_MULTIPLIER/3.0+0.5));        // LDH 16Apr09
    return cost;
}

The problems I see with this formula:

• the base cost of 18 is pretty arbitrary and has no relation to BASE_CREW_PAY
• leadership and Iron Will modifiers work differently comparing to other payments
• SALARY_MULTIPLIER (which is 3 by default, 5+ being recommended for more challenging play) is applied rather timidly
• the difficulty level is not taken into account at all

Instead of using this ad-hoc formula, I'd make the hiring cost proportionate to monthly salary (say, half of it).

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Instead of using this ad-hoc formula, I'd make the hiring cost proportionate to monthly salary (say, half of it).

Fine by me. I see no reason for using a different formula here compared to the monthly pay.

What is the idea of paying for hiring crew anyway? Giving them some wages in advance to settle their affairs before saying goodbye to their loved ones or something?
Indeed half their individual monthly pay per hired crewmember sounds fair enough to me for that.

I do think we should keep some "crew hire cost", because that provides a nice contrast to Naval Officers who hire for free ("simulated press gang").

 

[jsv]

Tried it. In the beginning of the Tales of a Sea Hawk: old price is 17/crewman. With the proposed change it remains 17 on Apprentice and goes up to 43 on Swashbuckler.
To me that seems reasonable enough.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Tried it. In the beginning of the Tales of a Sea Hawk: old price is 17/crewman. With the proposed change it remains 17 on Apprentice and goes up to 43 on Swashbuckler.
To me that seems reasonable enough.

Sounds good! If players DO find it unreasonable, I'm sure they'll come rushing to the forum with feedback.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

Only if I go broke trying to pay them again. Been there, done that.

 

[jsv]

OK, here we go.

The attached enforces a bit more uniform payment calculation through the code.
That is, now there is only one place where that (1 - leadership * (1 + iron_will)/40)*(0.5 + difficulty/2) formula is calculated and it's used consistently when various officer and crew payments are calculated.

Crew hire price is changed to be half their normal monthly salary.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Very awesome! Thanks a lot.

 

[jsv]

Uh... I've completely forgotten to remove a no longer used argument from GetCrewHireCost.
Here's an updated version. It touches 4 more files for no user-observable effect, but I guess the code will be a bit clearer this way.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Thanks! I like clear and clean code.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

@jsv: I think this is done, so I'm marking it "Included in Build".