AMALTHEA

[soulping]

[ Everything fades to black...and you awaken in a run-down one-room shack, with the distinct feeling that the people around you are your family, if you didn't already have such a bond with them.

You're wearing raggedy versions of your uniform, and a newspaper informs you that you are currently in Cathay, on the fifteenth anniversary of the day the company Lupus' Secret Stash led a coup and established their own government. In fact, you can now remember why you came here - to escape the misfortunes of your own country - because this is truly the land of opportunity and freedom. ]

Comments

SET YOUR BUDGET.

[soulping]

RECOMMENDED NECESSITIES:

Housing - 1000
Food - 900
Medicine - 200
Clothing - 300

LUXURIES: NO RECOMMENDATIONS

Alcohol (costs 100 per unit, adds 20 happiness per year) -
Tobacco (costs 100 per unit, adds 20 happiness per year) -
FANCY Clothes (costs 100 per unit, adds 20 happiness per year) -
Smooshables (costs 100 per unit, adds 20 happiness per year) -
Automobiles (costs 100 per unit, adds 20 happiness per year) -
Foodguns (costs 100 per unit, adds 20 happiness per year) -

CURRENT JOB - COAL MINER. YEARLY INCOME - 1825 MONIES.

Will you pay taxes this year?

[codecmoment]

Being coal miners, lung disease and assorted health issues are a big problem. We're going to need all the medicine we can to survive.

[menially]

In relation to everything else, at least, yeah. Medicine won't help us if we're starving to death.

[whoslaughingmeow]

That's a high labor career too, so we probably can't afford to skimp very much on food either..

SORRY FOR RECOMMENT I UNDERSTOOD WRONG herp :V

[unguilded]

Medicine and food would be most important for minimal survival. But that means we won't have enough to meet for full housing costs this year.

So one question is. Are we looking to play this to survive? Or are we going to aim any for the happiness goal? For now it'd be a good idea to focus on food and medicine, and put most if not all of the rest on housing so we can get by. Depending on if we want to aim for a happiness win, we can potentially buy one of the extra things, but maybe we should wait for now to see what happens.

[powerpunch]

And I guess there's the question of taxes...

[unguilded]

We can pay taxes this year, and see how it turns out. If we don't, it might come and bite us from behind later.

[powerpunch]

S'pose there's only one way to find out how much taxes' gonna cost us too.

[menially]

It's not like we have the finances to get around taxation, anyway. If we skimp there to make up for something else immediately, any penalties are just going to make it harder for us later.

[unguilded]

Yeah, and I'm sure those penalties won't be fun.

[menially]

That's putting it mildly, yeah. It might be tempting, but I don't think it's worth the risk.

[whoslaughingmeow]

We have to spent at least 500 on housing and 450 on food to get any happiness from luxuries, and I'm sure something bad will happen if we don't pay taxes..

We might want to save too.

I'd suggest something like 500 on food, 500 on housing, at least 200 on medicine, and 200 on clothes. We could save the rest..

But if we don't pay taxes we'd probably get into trouble..

[unguilded]

Do we need clothes yet?

[ Plucks at his tattered uniform. ]

I don't think I'd really mind losing clothes if there are more important things we might need to keep in immediate mind. But those other numbers sound good!

[whoslaughingmeow]

We should spend at least 100 on clothes.

Otherwise something could happen and leave us without anything to wear, which could compound into other problems.

[unguilded]

Weather and work conditions could factor into that, yeah.

So 200 like you said is fine! We can see what we get out of that and figure out if we need more right away or can skip at any point depending on how durable they are.

[menially]

[chiming in again]

Remember that clothes can be repaired, as can things like a leaking roof. Not exactly a comfortable way of living, but between the five of us, we could make it work with a little less from both housing and clothing.

[powerpunch]

If housin' and food are both at 500, that gives us 825 left to work with. If we put...say, 300 into medicine, 200 into clothes, then we'll have 325 left. Prob'ly enough to pay for taxes, though we won't have much left over, likely.

'Course, we could probably take some out of the budget for clothes since it's prob'ly the least important right now.

[whoslaughingmeow]

we should spend at least something on everything just to avoid the worst possible situation.

I think the most barebones budget could be 400 on housing, 500 on food, 200 on medicine, and 100 on clothes, but I stand by my original recommendation.

[powerpunch]

We could go 100 on clothes and save an extra 100.

[whoslaughingmeow]

I'm fine with that.

[unguilded]

Leo suggested 200 on clothes. And you suggested less on clothes but more on medicine. So maybe ... we can put 100 on clothes and 300 medicine so we'll have the same left over for taxes? We'll be able to see the quality and how much we get out of both clothes and medicine after that at least. And if we need to adjust numbers, we can do it next year to even anything we need to out. And at least we won't be completely lacking in either, so we can maybe get by.

[powerpunch]

Fine by me.

500, 500, 300, 100...1400...1825 minus 1400...

425 left over, should be enough for taxes and hopefully maybe 200 or so left over after that.

[codecmoment]

We're going to have to pay taxes.

[unguilded]

Mm, we'll see what it costs us. And it'll help so nothing comes up down the line for it later.

[powerpunch]

Well, that's reassurin'. [ Yaaaay job-related health risks... ] We can go over the recommended budget for medicine, at least by a little in that case, so we have to decide on everythin' else now...