Cadet I/Financial system

Cadet 1/Week 1

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Team Income

Cash generation in Allegiance is roughly similar to that of other RTS games. A team's principle source of income is Helium³ (He3), which is found on a number of He3 rocks scattered evenly throughout the map. Miners (AI-controlled ships) fly to these rocks, drain them of their helium and return to a base/refinery to unload. When the miner unloads the team immediately gets a large cash infusion and the miner goes off to drain another rock. The amount of cash received depends on how full the miner was and what faction, but it's about $6000 per rock on normal settings. The cash can be used to research technology, build bases, etc.

Unlike many other RTS games, however, Helium3 is rarely an abundant resource and is rapidly depleted by miners. A team of miners can empty a sector of helium in minutes, and many maps only contain 10-15 sectors. Commanders have to be wise about how they spend their money, and game strategies frequently revolve around securing Helium3 for your team while denying it to the other team.

The scarcity of money in Allegiance is somewhat offset by the fact that most ships are free. The team commander has to spend cash to "research" the ship and make it available but once complete the ship is available to all members of the team as many times as they wish, free of charge. A few ships (and pieces of equipment) do come with a price tag, even after the ship has been researched. In these cases, the commander must authorize the purchase of each individual ship a player wishes to take into the field. To ask the commander to provide the money for a ship, select the item in base and click on the "Buy" button. The commander may grant it, or not. If the commander doesn't grant the request, take a different ship and get out of base. Don't repeatedly ask the commander for the ship.

Donation system (or "Where is all my money going?")

Apart from cashboxes (see below) all money is divided evenly between all of the players on the team. So the bigger the game, the less you receive.

But, during the beta of Allegiance the developers changed the game so that all of the money is immediately donated to a single player who acts as investor for the whole team. This person is, unsurprisingly, your commander.

The Commander has the option to designate any player(s) who he wishes to retain their income. This is usually done for a tactical purpose of having one or two players with emergency cash for a bomber or such, in case the commander has no cash at the moment the ship is needed.

Secondary sources of income

Since most teams run on a tight budget and to alleviate the danger of losing all your miners, Allegiance provides teams with several secondary sources of income. While not significant in their own right, each additional source of income brings the team one step closer to purchasing a vital technology or building a tactically significant base. The secondary sources of income are as follows:

The payday

Each team gets a small cash infusion every minute, on the minute, presumably from the Faction the team is representing. The payday is roughly $500, but different factions receive different amounts. Although insignificant this money is reliable, and many patient teams have paid for very expensive pieces of technology with funds solely collected from paydays.

Note: Allegiance always refers to any cash infusion as a "payday", including cash from offloading miners. Even though money is money, do not confuse these miner-driven paydays with the small, time-driven cash injections we've just discussed. When most players talk about "Payday" they are talking about the time-driven cash injection.

Cashboxes

Cashboxes are randomly created in space throughout the game and pilots can pick them up by flying through them. Picking up a cashbox immediately provides the team with $500 (pilots don't have to return the box). Cash-strapped teams can sometimes pay for exotic technologies by scouring the map for cashboxes.

Depleted Helium 3 Rocks

The game begins with each He3 rock containing a significant amount of helium. Miners will drain the helium out of every rock they can, but the usefulness of the He3 rock doesn't end there. He3 rocks will very slowly regenerate Helium over time. While a rock will almost never accumulate as much He3 as it had when the game started, re-mining a sector after 10-20 minutes can yield a very respectable amount of cash.

Special mines

Gigacorp and the Dreghklar Empire can build special mines (also called special refineries) on certain types of rocks. While expensive and fragile, these mines significantly boost the size of the team's Payday. Special mines usually need several minutes to generate as much cash as it took to build the mine, but the money they provide is a real blessing for a team with few or no miners.

Buttons available from the F6 screen

Commander's Options Button Action Make selected player commander. Donate $100 to selected player. Open chatbox with player as recipient. Center view on selection when in station. Can order utility ships with this. Boot pilot from team Use this to go to different wings, although a commander should remain on command wing. Stop this player donating to you

Player's Options Button Action Donate income to selected player (only available if comm has stopped you donating to him) Donate $100 to selected player Open chatbox with player as recipient. Center view on selection when in station. Can order utility ships with this. Use this to go to Command wing, or any other. See HERE for further details on communications/wings

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