What do oufits need?

[Malorn]

In order for resources to remain relevant, outfits would need resource caps just like players. That would encourage them to spend.

If the resources come out of the members' pockets in the form of a tax then joining an outfit for resources isn't really practical, because you'll be paying in as well. They could also restrict the withdrawals to certain things, like Galaxies, and only give that privilege to Galaxy pilots.

So there are ways to do it without screwing anything up. You certainly don't want outfit resource to grow and grow to the point where they don't care about resources. Its more about being able to pool some resources for things that benefit the entire outfit.

Getting into a rough example so you understand the scale I'm talking about...

A small (optional) tax of like 5% or so and a max outfit resource pool size of 2x a player's max pool size seems reasonable to me. Resources would still matter, the outfit couldn't fund everyone, but it could fund a few things, like a tank if someone in the armor division is running low, or a few galaxies / sunderers for outfit use, or a few libs for Liberator night, that sort of thing.

Later they can add outfit-specific things which can cost resources, like temporary towers, vehicle pads, turrets, or other things that outfits can spend to upgrade a facility or outpost. Then outfits would have to manage what they spend those resources on.

So I see the outfit bank as the foundation for much more sandboxy stuff. Start out small with low resource caps and small taxes and see how it works out. Mabye give outfits some control.

If its small they could also award outfit resources without taxing the members, so the resources are effectively "free" but you don't get very many of them.

Instead of the outfit paying for the entire vehicle or upgrade outright, the outfit could also subsidize. For example, instead of paying entirely for the galaxy, the outfit bank might pay 50% of a galaxy, so the pilot still has to pay something, but not the whole thing. That puts some accountability on the pilot to not waste the resources since they also have some personal investment. These are all great things to include in any outfit resource system.