AI Economy

[plugger]

Hi,

I like the trading aspect to.

However, when I run the numbers, it's hard to make it pay 'cause of the cost of supplies used to warp and to travel within sectors.

You can buff your ship and give it a trading slant and you can take advantage of shortages but it'd be nice to be able to more of a trading 'vibe' on offer.

Perhaps you could be offered a contract with a MegaCorp ('Evil-is-Us') at a bankers station occasionally. Taking the contract gives you a % discount for a particular commodity 'cause that's what Evil Corp deals in.

You can retain your contract for as long as you keep trucking a certain amount of goods back to Evil Corp HQ in sector 'x'. You'd be able to get cheap supplies in return making the trading runs more viable.

Maybe occasionally they'll offer you a 'special', under the table, contract. Flying around with the Evil Corp logo on the side of your ship might cause a few problems with certain embassies.

Should have taken the contract with 'Interstellar Donuts' instead...

Cheers,
Plugger

[Waltorious]

Originally Posted by plugger

Hi,
Perhaps you could be offered a contract with a MegaCorp ('Evil-is-Us') at a bankers station occasionally. Taking the contract gives you a % discount for a particular commodity 'cause that's what Evil Corp deals in.

Another way to do something like this is to simply have a "delivery" quest, kind of like the banker delivery quests, except the quest requires buying and transporting a certain number and type of goods to a specific sector. That way there'd be a cash reward on top of the money from the trade. This wouldn't be as free-form as true trading but it would give ships with a lot of cargo space another way to make good money.

Some races have similar quests already, but I'm imagining something more specific, like "transport 12 units of Chemicals from sector 4 to sector 6". You could give some justification, e.g. there's a shortage which resulted in a rush order or something and they need a courier.

I think it would also be pretty cool to have the opportunity to transport contraband, and engage in smuggling operations. Maybe the Pirates could offer quests related to this? (I've not tried any Pirate quests yet, so I'm not sure what they're like currently.) This would be harder to implement as you'd probably need to add some devices and effects that help one get illegal goods into stations without being detected.

Actually, contraband might not fit with the lore that well, since the Bankers would be happy to trade any kind of good as long as it's profitable. So maybe the Bankers could offer missions to smuggle goods to other races? "The Limoquee have foolish restrictions on trading stim-ware. Find a way around their patrols and deliver this stim-ware shipment to a Limoquee spacehome." Something like that? The pirates might offer similar, especially since Limoquee shoot pirates on sight, so the player could be their "undercover" delivery ship.

[Dubious]

Originally Posted by Waltorious

Another way to do something like this is to simply have a "delivery" quest, kind of like the banker delivery quests, except the quest requires buying and transporting a certain number and type of goods to a specific sector.

+1 to this idea.

Originally Posted by Waltorious

I think it would also be pretty cool to have the opportunity to transport contraband, and engage in smuggling operations.

You are aware that a number of commodities are already "tagged" as "illegal"? They are:

Stim-Ware
Weapons
Transuranium
Narcotics
AntiMatter

All of which tend to be the most profitable, especially in the early game. I'm fully expecting to have some "police" race show up in the later game.

Of course, currently there is no mechanism (to my limited knowledge) to attempt to "hide" such contraband from the authorities. Though a device for that purpose should be simple enough to add to the game. Perhaps as the result of a pirate quest?

-Dubious-