Government Funding

[aquilux]

I've seen a couple of funding mods out there, but none that I could find actually did the funding like in real life. One paid you for science, and one was basically an unlimited allowance. I'm requesting that there be a government funding mod that based your total funds on reputation. The key elements are as such:

• Reputation defines funding value.
  
• Highest tech level defines funding multiplier (to allow for more ambitious projects as you progress)
  
• Value * Multiplier = Max Funding
  
• Per Interval, IF Funding < Max funding THEN Funding = Max Funding
  
• Reputation decays to neutral over time (They used to be cool, but they haven't done anything worthwhile in ages.)
  

For added effect contracts should be available with no funding reward but higher forwarded funds (individually funded projects approximation), Heavier reputation penalties, but reputation boost on acceptance (Wasted government money perception, exciting new project undertaken). You should also be able to request more funding for a reputation penalty that gets worse as your reputation goes down (They want more money? Again??)

For added difficulty, add reputation penalty on payment period depending on how much money is left over from last time, with a bit of wiggle room. (They get so much money, but where does it all go?)

[Kerbas_ad_astra]

I like this idea (and in fact have written some thoughts on the matter here), but be careful with the rep penalty for sitting on funds -- there may have to be some kind of "big upcoming expense" fudge factor, so you don't get hit with a penalty while saving up for the Level 3 VAB or a Jool-5 mission.

[aquilux]

hit with a penalty while saving up for the Level 3 VAB or a Jool-5 mission.

Hmmm. I forgot about upgrading large buildings but big expenses like that should be coverable with the money request (they want to upgrade their facilities? What's wrong with the buildings they have?). Unfortunately you have completely missed the point of the mod. In the real world, if you don't use funds you effectively loose them. Let's explore this concept.

You are the proud director of the new XYZ branch. You have estimated that you will need $100,000 yearly to run, and kongress approves your proposal. Congrats. You now have $100,000. Use it wisely.

One year goes by and you are happy that you stayed under budget, even if you got rather close, having used $99,000. At the appropriate time kongress looks at your funds, sees that you have $1,000 left and gives you $99,000 to bring your current funding back to $100,000 because they still feel that's a reasonable amount.

Another year goes by and you used much less money this time because you don't have start up costs. You only used $60,000 this time. At the appropriate time kongress looks at your funds, sees that you have $40,000 left. They think that you have a much larger budget than you really need, and are rather disappointed that you have been getting this much to work with. So they reduce your budget to $65,000 and give you $25,000, leaving you with said $65,000 to work with this year.

Unfortunately this year sees the launch of your new initiative AlphaBett, and you wind up not having enough money to continue operations to the end of the year.

So you go back to kongress and ask them for more money. Reluctantly they give you more, but not as much as you would have wanted due to their lowered opinion of you from earlier. In fact, your asking for more leads them to question your abilities to manage your branch, further lowering your reputation with them.

At this point you must do something to raise their opinion of you or else you will keep sliding down this slippery hill. Staying in budget winds up being just a stalling mechanism because they wind up asking more and more why they're paying you at all if you don't get anything done. Either find a way to get things done with what little money you have, bring them all sorts of new technology, start working on things they particularly want you to do (contracts) and don't screw up, or burn all the reputation you have left with them to secure the funding for you coup de grâs in the hopes of finally proving yourself.

Like I said, -rep per leftover = hardmode.

Edited June 13, 2015 by aquilux
Typo fix.