I have been musing it over for a while, and I think one of the largest issues with RP is that as a marine nothing is really WORTH anything. The dollars are just for RP and only if you are bored.
My suggestion is to convert all the machines into taking dollars instead of "points" by just multiplying everything by a conversion of 10x.
Right now everyone starts with 50 points as a marine. Instead everyone would start with $500. (officers would start with more etc.)
All the attachments, gear, etc. all cost 10x in dollars what they used to. So a bica injector is now $20 dollars instead of 2 points.
The way I envision things. Those who dont give a shit will just gear up like they regularly do with the same items they choose, but now they are spending dollars instead of points and dont give a fuck.
For everyone else though, now that money matters things can get interesting.
-----Benefits-------
Now there is a reason to do crimes, make drugs, take bribes.. you can buy more stuff with it. Things cost amounts.
The CL instantly has his power back. No longer a role ignored by 3/4 of the marines.
Opens the opportunity for MPs/Engineering to issue things like tickets for damage, instead of just power tripping an arresting people. Also gives them actual crimes to solve.
The money is already in the game... everyone already spawns with an account and pin, you would just need to make the machines take this amount and have everyone start the round with the flat amount. I imagine the code would take some work.. but the systems are there(ish).
Leads to way more opportunities for events/roleplaying. Hell you could just say theres a bag on the planet surface with $10k in it and people would go nuts.
Leads to actually interesting crimes and a reason to do them. Would increase shipside things to do dramatically.
We can finally fine the TC for running the fulton over.
High stakes Uno is a thing.
Allows a popup at the end of the mission estimating the amount of cash spent.
-----Cons-----
People may meta by passing around cash. But I think this wouldnt be as bad as things could be... they could already meta items if they really wanted to.
Makes the CL much more powerful... we will have to keep an eye on him.
-----Optional----
I envision this extending to RO and Req as well, except their points are worth 100x and cannot be extracted or added to. Would be primarily to be consistent and allow the officers/people to price things. (like you lost a 4,000 sentry what the fuck are you doing).
It would also make Defcon make more sense. Instead of more points the military is issuing more funding to handle the situation.
I will Gitlab it after I get some feedback.
Note initially no one would get "paid" or have money increase like in other systems, but maybe we could work back to that?