Planned The Great Economy

[Blaza612]

Recently, I read these two words:

"Buying systems" - Vennex 2015

And now I want to make a real-estate faction. But there is one very big problem with my idea. There isn't any faction economy. It would be nice if we could have an economy that is eventually introduced, that could use a range of suggestions and allow servers to be there own Babby Mass Effect with blocks. (with all of the different factions doing, things, and stuff, you know, faction and business stuff...)

EDIT: I've just realised that I'm turning this game into an MMO (in terms of suggestions) consider a massive server a possibility.

Faction Trading!

As the name implies, factions have the ability to trade with eachother. For this system to work, there would of course need to be more diversity of ores, which would have to be a default-off config option, to allow for singleplayer experiences to have access to all of the required ores. On servers, however, this would create both war and diplomacy for factions. Without the option for factions to trade, more war would occur to control certain systems that have a specific ore.

Factions would be able to trade items via flying cargo ships to pickup stations. This would create traffic between factions, and would allow a previous idea thought up by nightwalker_007 in conjunction with a thread by ltmauve to rework faction territory, New Territory System, meaning that this new demand for traffic would allow traffic to increase a station's influence.

Factions would also need it's own credit balance, in case a faction is unable to trade using items. Credits wouldn't need to be transported with ships, unlike items, but there would need to be a source of credits. Factions having their own balance would also allow corporation factions to work a lot better. This would work perfectly with the proposed Global Factions, meaning that a global corporation faction could have balance that is then used to buy/sell various things, such as items, blueprints, land on a server, etc. (I REALLY want to have a real-estate corporation faction :p)

With the fact that factions would have to send ships across the galaxy in order to trade items, there will be a growing need to protect them from pirate raids, and with the idea of interdictors, originally thought up by Zaphord in the Interdiction - No Escape!, and later compiled into a more complete suggestion by me in the Change Warp System and Interdictor Ideas, pirates could end up being more of something done by players, rather than NPC pirates. There would be multiple ways to combat these pirates, such as hired guards, or outposts spread across the galaxy, to provide safe havens for these transports.

To summarize, factions being able to trade with each other with items or credits would create the need for multiple new features, which ultimately would contribute to more depth being added into factions.

 

[starhaiden]

I think everyone will fight over the systems with high amounts of ores that are required in making shields

 

[TwoNiner]

Recently, I read these two words:

"Buying systems" - Vennex 2015

And now I want to make a real-estate faction. But there is one very big problem with my idea. There isn't any faction economy. It would be nice if we could have an economy that is eventually introduced, that could use a range of suggestions and allow servers to be there own Babby Mass Effect with blocks. (with all of the different factions doing, things, and stuff, you know, faction and business stuff...)

EDIT: I've just realised that I'm turning this game into an MMO (in terms of suggestions) consider a massive server a possibility.

Faction Trading!

As the name implies, factions have the ability to trade with eachother. For this system to work, there would of course need to be more diversity of ores, which would have to be a default-off config option, to allow for singleplayer experiences to have access to all of the required ores. On servers, however, this would create both war and diplomacy for factions. Without the option for factions to trade, more war would occur to control certain systems that have a specific ore.

Factions would be able to trade items via flying cargo ships to pickup stations. This would create traffic between factions, and would allow a previous idea thought up by nightwalker_007 in conjunction with a thread by ltmauve to rework faction territory, New Territory System, meaning that this new demand for traffic would allow traffic to increase a station's influence.

Factions would also need it's own credit balance, in case a faction is unable to trade using items. Credits wouldn't need to be transported with ships, unlike items, but there would need to be a source of credits. Factions having their own balance would also allow corporation factions to work a lot better. This would work perfectly with the proposed Global Factions, meaning that a global corporation faction could have balance that is then used to buy/sell various things, such as items, blueprints, land on a server, etc. (I REALLY want to have a real-estate corporation faction :p)

With the fact that factions would have to send ships across the galaxy in order to trade items, there will be a growing need to protect them from pirate raids, and with the idea of interdictors, originally thought up by Zaphord in the Interdiction - No Escape!, and later compiled into a more complete suggestion by me in the Change Warp System and Interdictor Ideas, pirates could end up being more of something done by players, rather than NPC pirates. There would be multiple ways to combat these pirates, such as hired guards, or outposts spread across the galaxy, to provide safe havens for these transports.

To summarize, factions being able to trade with each other with items or credits would create the need for multiple new features, which ultimately would contribute to more depth being added into factions.

See, the problem is that people like me would much rather roll a fleet in and take things by force.....for free :D

 

[Blaza612]

See, the problem is that people like me would much rather roll a fleet in and take things by force.....for free :D

That's still an option, this'll just be here to create the need for the other mechanics to be implemented, as well as for diplomacy. :P

 

[Heillos]

Overall, this idea is appealing, but your point about it increasing the possibility for player piracy is, I think, flawed, given the current state of the game, and particularly storage blocks. If I recall correctly, a discussion from chat the other day pointed out that about 20 storage blocks could hold every block in the game, seeing as there is no limit to stack size. 20 Storage blocks, at 0.1 mass apiece, is 2 units of mass. Two units that, technically speaking, could hold an entire galaxy of blocks.

My point in bringing this up is that there will be no slow, vulnerable cargo ships to interdict and pick off, if the factions involved are intelligent. There will be either stealthy, fast transports that are never noticed, and therefore never bothered, or full-size warships plowing through the space-lanes, happily eating most pirates for breakfast as they carry an entire empire's worth of blocks safely in their bellies. There is no game mechanic which leads a "transport" ship to be viable prey for most pirates, because no significant specialization is needed to transport goods. 20 blocks. That's it. That relatively negligible number of blocks is all that a maximum-capacity cargo ship requires, in the current state of the game.

That's the only big flaw I can see, in regards to item trade encouraging piracy; there is currently no reason for a transport ship to be more vulnerable than any other vessel. Give players a reason to transport goods, without making goods sensibly hard to transport in large quantities, and there will, theoretically speaking, be pretty much no change in piracy, and no new prey will appear, besides those poor fools who don't think to deal with possible threats (which, admittedly, there will be at least some of, so perhaps pirates won't completely starve).

 

[Blaza612]

Overall, this idea is appealing, but your point about it increasing the possibility for player piracy is, I think, flawed, given the current state of the game, and particularly storage blocks. If I recall correctly, a discussion from chat the other day pointed out that about 20 storage blocks could hold every block in the game, seeing as there is no limit to stack size. 20 Storage blocks, at 0.1 mass apiece, is 2 units of mass. Two units that, technically speaking, could hold an entire galaxy of blocks.

My point in bringing this up is that there will be no slow, vulnerable cargo ships to interdict and pick off, if the factions involved are intelligent. There will be either stealthy, fast transports that are never noticed, and therefore never bothered, or full-size warships plowing through the space-lanes, happily eating most pirates for breakfast as they carry an entire empire's worth of blocks safely in their bellies. There is no game mechanic which leads a "transport" ship to be viable prey for most pirates, because no significant specialization is needed to transport goods. 20 blocks. That's it. That relatively negligible number of blocks is all that a maximum-capacity cargo ship requires, in the current state of the game.

That's the only big flaw I can see, in regards to item trade encouraging piracy; there is currently no reason for a transport ship to be more vulnerable than any other vessel. Give players a reason to transport goods, without making goods sensibly hard to transport in large quantities, and there will, theoretically speaking, be pretty much no change in piracy, and no new prey will appear, besides those poor fools who don't think to deal with possible threats (which, admittedly, there will be at least some of, so perhaps pirates won't completely starve).

The reason I say this, is that having cargo being a physical object rather than being stored in chests, is planned. Which is said on the Starmade Roadmap. The suggestion discussing this, New Cargo System, goes into detail about how it should be done. Planning for future, as is with a few of the things in there, as they mention both things on the road map, and other suggestions. :D

 

[Bench]

Trading between players, factions, and NPC factions is planned and will integrate into a number of planned features quite comfortably. While the economy of the game isn't necessarily geared towards this being implemented right now, as Blaza612 pointed out above, changes to the way storage of blocks is done will open up more opportunities mattering how you wish to play the game and interact.

 

[Zaphord]

Hellios is right though, with cargo being the way it is now you'd never need to build a large freighter. Once the New Cargo System
is implemented, this shouldn't be a problem.

As to what we could transport, I think of commodities (and possibly contraband) when I think trade. Things like food and water are needed by everyone and thus would always be in demand somewhere in the galaxy. A cargo hold full of food could net you a nice payday, if you can get it past the pirates waiting to ambush you. Of course, there would need to be a way of determining supply and demand for certain goods as far as the NPC factions are concerned. Player factions will import what they need and export their excess on their own.

 

[BobbyJones]

This will require a greater diversity of ores and a sense of scarcity. Why but resources if it all's in only a couple of sectors.

 

[Zaphord]

Maybe we could come up with a list of commodities that aren't blocks, like food crates or something similar? I think Space Rangers 2 had a similar commodities system in it.