Spacefaring Economy is designed to be a simple, yet effective change to how you handle your finances as a space captain. It has been designed in concert with Cost of Spacing, but will work just fine on its own.

It is designed around two core ideas.

The first is, of course, Spacefaring. Ships, parts, and rare resources from the starfield are all far more valuable. You will have to weigh your purchases carefully across the entire length of the game. It is not as drastic as some others, but can be considered a hardcore overhaul.

The second is simply Minimalism. Nothing is included except that which is strictly necessary to implement the space economy envisioned. Weapons, food, clothing and the like are untouched. The plugin touches very few vanilla records and most changes can be safely overridden if needed.

I've tried various economy mods and had yet to find one that emphasized both of these concepts to the degree I would like, so I made it myself.
I hope you all enjoy.




Spacefaring Economy can be split into three categories: Cheap things, expensive things, and normal things.

• Many things are still cheap - the idea is to simulate an economy, not hyperinflation.
  

Most random junk is worth less. Rare or valuable-looking items are generally worth more.
Common resources are not worth much. However, value scales with rarity and Exotic resources are now very valuable.
Basic ship parts from budget manufacturers are still inexpensive, although most see minor price increases.

• Many things are now expensive, of course.
  

Rewards and Payments
Bribes for serious matters are very expensive.
You can now lose money if you choose the 'easy option' for quests.
Quests (read: your time) are much more valuable.
Rewards have been significantly increased and begin scaling much later in the game.
Bounties are significantly increased.
Crimes carry far heavier penalties. Murder and especially Piracy are expensive to buy your way out of.

Mission Board Scaling
Survey missions scale much more heavily on location and trait presence.
Supply missions scale on resource rarity.
Passenger and Bounty missions are more rewarding.
Cargo missions scale much more strongly on weight delivered, becoming extremely profitable in the largest haulers.
Piracy and Smuggling missions are now extremely rewarding.

Ships and Parts
The cost of almost all ships and parts has been adjusted according to a few general rules.
This is the core of the mod's progression concept, along with the Resources module.
The main concept behind this is dynamic scaling - most parts have 4+ separate factors influencing their end price.
A general overview of the main scaling factors is listed below.

The first is Brand.
Parts from Hopetech or Nova Galactic can be considered budget.
Stroud-Eklund and Taiyo are premium and expensive, Taiyo far more so.
Deimos offers reliable quality at a price point somewhere in the middle.
The second is Size.
Part and ship costs scale strongly with both Class and Size. 
Class-A parts and ships are often similar in value to vanilla.
However, Class B and C parts and ships are significantly more expensive and represent a more serious long-term investment.
Large Habs are significantly more expensive due to their increased utility with Captain's Choice.
The third is Utility.
Grav Drives and Reactors are the heart of a ship and comprise much more of its relative value. 
Weapons and Shields vary in price based on Class and Type. Vanguard weapons offer much greater bang for the buck now.
Cockpits and Engines are much more expensive, especially as they get larger and more complex.
Hab and Hull pricing varies mostly based on manufacturer. No more luxury for cheap!
Engine Mounts and Struts are far more expensive due to their reliance on stronger materials.
Thrusters and braking engines are more expensive due to their increased utility with Captain's Choice.

Additionally, 0.99 introduces a new system that brings a significant expense to piloting class B or C ships.
A Piloting License is given to the player that allows them to pay the requisite fees to gain credentials for larger class ships.

• A lot of things are not touched at all.
  

Coffee, beer, food, and Chunks do not cost any more or less.
Armor and weapon values are not changed.
World costs are not touched within SFE (medical, labor, crew wages, etc.)
Vendor credits are not touched currently, except for Ship Vendors.
I recommend setting the Gameplay Option for vendor credit amounts to maximum  (with or without SFE, honestly.)
Loot is untouched aside from Credtanks (which only occur after certain story conditions have been met.)

Additionally, there are some minor changes to loot goblinry.

Merchants will no longer buy garbage, including half-eaten, home-made, or opened food.
This includes cocktails and take-out food, with exceptions for bottled drinks or rare delicacies.
Food vendors will still buy everything they would before - hopefully this is for compost and not for resale.

Anything that is sealed and still serviceable as provisions can be sold as normal.

Expensive-looking things are worth a bit more. This offsets the new restrictions on selling garbage.



Starfield updated to the latest version. DLC is not required.

Real Time Form Patcher - Most changes are made with RTFP. Thanks to TommInfinite for this awesome tool.
Cost of Spacing - All prices and rewards are set with the assumption that space travel is no longer free.
Variable Contraband Prices Redux - This is not a hard requirement, but is required for the smuggling equipment prices to make sense.
Note: This is a rebuild of Variable Contraband Prices  - you can use either one.



Compatible with:
Just about anything, as most changes are made via RTFP and applied on game startup.
Mission board changes are compatible with any mod that does not change which values the mission board quests reference.

Incompatible with:
Other comprehensive economy mods.
Do not mix and match with other economy mods unless you know what you are doing.

General game overhauls should be fully compatible unless they heavily alter resource value.
Anything above ~3x vanilla may have unwanted results.

Plugins that touch the Trade Ships Vendor Discount perk, Commerce skill, or Piloting skill will conflict.
Spacefaring Economy should be loaded as late as possible to avoid conflicts in these records.

If you would like to disable or alter any of the changes made by the mod, the majority are contained in the RTFP files.
As of recent versions these are split into various .txt modules with internal comments explaining which lines do what.



Simply install with your mod manager of choice. Make sure RTFP is installed and working or most changes will not appear.

To uninstall, simply disable in your mod manager.
The plugin does not add any new records and the pricing changes are all made each time the game starts with RTFP.



There are a few mods besides Cost of Spacing that I can easily recommend to run alongside SFE.

Dynamic Medical Bill - I would set prices to 3x with this for consistency.
Build Outpost Items with Credits - I simply prefer this approach to grinding for resources. A consistency patch for pricing is included.
Cost Of Living - Adds property taxes and registration fees for Outposts in settled systems.
Captain's Choice - This is a vanilla+ adjustment to ship parts with corresponding function to their values here. 



Ideally, you won't really be able to tell it's there most of the time. It's supposed to fit in to the game somewhat seamlessly.

However, you may wish to adjust your playstyle if you want to stay afloat and afford bigger and better ships.

Here are some tips:
If most of your income is from questing, you will find rewards much higher - especially in the early game.
This makes travel and exploration more rewarding at lower levels, and values your time appropriately.
Later in the game, rewards taper off, and you will probably want to diversify your income streams.

If it is from mining or outposts, you will make a lot more if you are harvesting rare+ resources.
If it is from bounties, you will have to carefully consider saving for new ships versus just upgrading your guns.
Carefully consider your ship loadout, take on missions whenever convenient, and prioritize harvesting rare resources. 

Otherwise, all normal avenues of income are still open to you. Loot goblinry is still a perfectly valid school of commerce!



The Commerce skill has been reworked to incentivize travel and exploration a bit more. 

1 - Get a 10% discount when buying in major cities.
2 - Get a 20% discount anywhere.
3 - Sell items for more of their value in major cities. Get a small discount on all ships.
4 - Get a 30% discount when buying in populated areas. Sell items for even more of their value anywhere.

If you are using a comprehensive skill overhaul, you can simply load it later. These changes are not crucial.



I won't go through everything, but a few things bear explanation.

Ship prices are now lower than building the ship from scratch, especially with proper perk investment. 

This is intended and, believe it or not, realistic. Cars, for example, would cost up to 20x retail to build from parts!
The numbers are not the same here, but e.g. a Taiyo ship will cost a fair amount more to build than it would to buy. 
After all, if anyone could build one, it wouldn't be a status symbol! Most dealerships offer discounts to in-person customers, however, not only Taiyo.

Additionally, there are certain bonuses and maluses for using ships from certain vendors in Cost of Spacing. 
With SFE, you now have to consider if the premium on a certain brand of ship is worth it or not.

The following were not touched for various reasons.

Weapons and armor range from 40 - 50000 credits in vanilla. This is enough variance, in my opinion. 
Housing prices are covered to the extent I plan to alter them in Cost of Living.
Hotel prices are left alone because they make sense as is.
Vehicle prices are left alone because there's one vehicle and the price makes sense when compared to ships.
Fees relating to ship operation/repair are left alone because they are very comprehensively simulated in Cost of Spacing.
If you encounter anything not covered here that seems not to make sense price-wise, feel free to leave a comment. I'm sure I've missed something.



Bethesda for Starfield and the Creation Kit.
TommInfinite for Real Time Form Patcher. This mod simply would not be viable in its current form without it.
ElminsterAU for SF1Edit.
Matortheeternal for his Automation Scripts, which were used heavily to create the config files for this mod.


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.