Does SEIV Need Income?
 

It occured to me that the one thing that SEIV is missing, aside from wheel mouse support http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif , is an income system. IE population = credits = costs for improvements and ability to buy ships.

In addition to the resources needed, this would make good use of the Population. Its a late coming idea, and one that I am sure Aaron left out of the game for a reason. However, it would be cool to have.

Re: Does SEIV Need Income?
 

Do you mean taxation of your citizens, or a "fourth resource" of labour?

Re: Does SEIV Need Income?
 

ya. ya thats it.

Re: Does SEIV Need Income?
 

hmm, maybe also some sort of market system, where you could sell your excess resources to gain cash, and with the cash you could buy hightech ships from independent merchants.
Facilities could require upkeep, and ships require wages for the crew, but each facility would also earn you money throug taxes.
Then master computer would be good for something else too, besides unsubvertable, now it also doesn't require wages.

Re: Does SEIV Need Income?
 

The only change I would like to see to the economic system is that population requires organics to eat and that's it.

Re: Does SEIV Need Income?
 

Actually the fourth resource are supplies.As ive said many times space is a dangerous place and in LR its downright lethal.The Eating think may be possible.I imagine make a planet have the inherent ability to drain organics.I could be wrong.Id also like to see tax's like surely there a people living in Space Colonies and what not and they must pay tax's.Thats why in LR all stations except exclusivly military ones generate small sums of money.Also you can build Leisure Cruisers that make pop happy and gets some money for your coffers.

Re: Does SEIV Need Income?
 

Supplies in standard SE4 are not really a resource. It is too easy to aquire an infinite supply. I only consider the classic three in SE4 to be resources, and so that's why I said "Fourth resource"

If you were so include a limited supply mod and the labour effect you would be up to Five resources.

[ August 18, 2002, 03:13: Message edited by: Suicide Junkie ]

Re: Does SEIV Need Income?
 

Oouuphhh, when I open this thread I was expecting some spin-off discussion about how much money MM made http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif and how we are going to support SEIV when Sharpnel goes out of business http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif
Instead it is a benign discussion about the game itself http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif Well, rename "minerals" to $, "mineral mines" to "NY stock exchange" and the concept of galactic war financing become obvious. Or do you really expect to pay your crew members wages in rocks ? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: Does SEIV Need Income?
 

Well gold is a mineral...

Personally I enjoy the absence of a monetary system, at least for some empires, because money is really a social population manipulation system, which not all empires would require.

It would be interesting if some empires needed to worry about internal political and monetary problems, and others didn't.

I would like to see population consuming resources (should be different types and amounts for different species - not everyone eats orgs).

I could also see places for labor, trained labor, and robot labor as resources. Certain empires could also be required to feed and not "jettison" nonproductive population, as well.

PvK

Re: Does SEIV Need Income?
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Truly...a less specific system allows for much more modification/imagination. It's easy enough to believe that all of these financial transactions are taking place in the background of the SEIV universe. In fact, many details of the operation of the empire must be occuring in the background. Diplomatic missions, supply convoys, in-system commerce and trade, trade between species, individual citizens watering their lawns, etc. It's true that some modifications to the resource system would be nice...but too much would simply create a clutter and make an already complex game all that more "busy". Personally, I would rather concentrate on galactic domination than on balancing my books...that's what accounting slaves are are for. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif I can fuss over the intricacies of economics when paying my credit card bills.

Re: Does SEIV Need Income?
 

I Personaly would like to see some sort of income.

Re: Does SEIV Need Income?
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">This would make a good "Event" if it could be worked in http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: Does SEIV Need Income?
 

Granted you can't use a "Trade Federation" till you meet one and of course there has to be one in the game, that might take care of some of the Resourse exchanges and purchase of "High Tech Ships"

Re: Does SEIV Need Income?
 

Definitely NOT. The three resources we have now (+ population, +supply) are fine. They are an abstraction of wealth and economy, and money would only be a different and less interesting way of representing the same thing. Things I *would* like in this area:

-population "eats" resources. Actually I'm not sure abouth is one. If it meant actually moving stuff from place to place to prevent local famines, then maybe, yeah. Unfortunately the way SEIV is set up (all resources instantly available to entire empire) it would be more likely to be implemented as a simple "maintenence cost" for population, which would suck.

-Certain population levels required to operate facilities. This was originally planned for the game but was taken out before release. This really would turn population into another resource.

-A "limited resupply depot" option. Probably in the form of supply storage and limited supply generation abilities for facilities (just like we have for components). Then you could mod out the existing "infinite resupply depot" and turn supply into a true fourth resource without all the elaborate mucking about S_J has had to do in his mod.

-Trade routes/ resource distribution (ie the "invisible" ships which instantly move your minerals, rads and orgs from the colonies to the corners of your empire.) This has been long argued, and the wrong implementation could really ruin the game. I believe it could be done well though, probably through some highly abstracted system which keeps civilian transports invisible, but works out for each system how much infrastructure traffic flows through it and then measures each empire's level of influence in each system. This would be a cool motivator for taking treaties, since your "invisible" ships would benefit from allied protection=-) Don't expect to see this in a patch anytime soon though=-(

Re: Does SEIV Need Income?
 

Before adding any more micro-management to the game, please remember how you are going to manage your empire - time is a very precious resource in real life!! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/rolleyes.gif

I've been repeating this over and over again but MM has so far ignored me. The game really needs the ability to save in simultaneous games!

The other nice thing to have is the ability to "split" your empire (in terms of the game's mechanics!) so you can get a partner to run part of it, say all the transports and construction queues, while you have your fun flying your dreadnoughts all over the galaxy.

Re: Does SEIV Need Income?
 

I gave it a little thought, and I realised that if I can save in simultaneous games then I can do the splitting myself! (Just send the savegame to your partner, he does his part and hit "end turn")

PLEASE MM, LET ME SAVE IN SIMULTANEOUS GAMES!!

[ August 20, 2002, 15:14: Message edited by: CW ]

Re: Does SEIV Need Income?
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Maybe something similar to Civilization - the farther a planet is from the nearest homeworld, the less resources it provides to the empire's coffers. For instance, a colony 1 system away "loses" 5-10% of it's production in transport. We'd probably have to have different factors for different types of systems. For instance, if the new colony is separated from the nearest homeworld by an empty system (asteroid, new star, nebula/storm), there'd be an extra 10% penalty to production; if separated by another colonized system, the penalty would only be 5%; a black hole system would create a 15% penalty to production (hazardous shipping lane), etc. We could even mod in different penalties for new systems http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif