Durendal's Random Ideas II (Billboard, Managers, Leasing, Shopyards, BP Mass, Hard Cash)

Got a bunch of ideas and don't want to take up a bunch of forum space making individual threads. That's just Rude. So the updates to shops and shipyards finally being public-able has got me doing some thinking.

1: Billboard
This would be a computer-and-module large scale display combo. Using the computer would allow you to draw or type into its interface, and that would in turn be displayed on the billboard modules front facing, so long as the grouping is a valid rectangle/square. Fully clear on how much work this would be, but it may solve some of the issues that limit displays, and allow more compact decorative options. Alternatively, making displays work in this way, and allowing them to be joined together into a 'super display' by a computer would save on IDs

1b: Any such billboard might also allow the user to pull an image from a URL? Possibly only a Starmade Dock URL so such images can be vetted, as a server option?

2: Inventory Managers
Block or possibly NPC job when that gets around. The basic gist being that it hooks up to a your cargos and attempts to move items and change factory jobs to maintain the requested stock levels of shops, or produce missing blocks for shipyards. Or maintain a number of 'items in system' through its own display. Probably not the most elegant solution, but I do feel like the current factory/cargo/shop/shipyard system lacks sufficient automation to scale well into larger scale play, or set up more independent installations.

Edit: I forgot
2b: Shop Manager
Basically allows buy/sell order within the system. If your store has a Buy price higher than a Sale price, including shipping, it will initiatie the transfer automatically, and vice versa. May require manager block, maybe can just be a checkmark for each item in the shop?

3: Leasing
An extension of public modules. A lease Computer can be used to 'lease' or 'sell' an area on a station, or a station in full. A cost is paid into the lease block, and the area it denotes can now be used by the paying entity. Admittedly, likely not the most useful feature, but I've seen enough big empty stations to think it'd be useful for a good architect with solid real estate to lease out space in his station for people to build factories, or use existing infrastructure, without needing to build from the ground up.

3b: Station docking.
Instead of all that, a 'docking' module that allows a station to be attached to another but become a separate entity would be more straightforward in dividing such zones. In this case the 'lease' module could be implemented as an alternative or addition to the faction module. (and if so, could then be used to 'lease' ships too. Requiring credits per day to not revert to the original owner's faction?)

Since station modules 'docked' this way could not be undocked, and their collision detection could be pretty much off, this could also help solve the immense lag caused by spinning stations with interlocking gravity decks and the like, perhaps.

4: Shopyards
Kinda self explanatory. Since shipyards work as public things now, It'd be useful if they can be set into a sort of 'sales mode' with respect to a shop module also on the same station. Prospective clients could load and edit designs (But ideally not remove or overwrite ones of the owner's choice somehow?) and then 'purchase' them with the cost based on the components cost in the adjoining shop, plus or minus a percentage for usage fee/subsidy. A way for factions to make money off the often large investment in a shipyard, and for shipwrights to earn a fee for selling their designs.

5: BP Mass
What it says on the tin. Make blueprints have the mass of items currently stored in them. To avoid ridiculous things like dumping stations out of shuttles, or cloaked and jammed core blocks dumping battlecruisers out the side. Something that can maybe be waived when directly adjacent to NPC shops? Am aware how this would punish new spawns a little. (though if the starter station had a public shipyard, less so?)

5b: Construction Module
Kinda an addendum to the above. Would be nice to have a construction system similar to shipyards, but instead of being on stations to build ships, it's on ships to build stations. Would likely be a beam, (A use of the astrotech one?) and a hell of a lot slower than a shipyard.

6: Hard Cash
Also straightforward. basically, allow credits to be created from raw materials, simplifying life on no-shop servers. Alternatively, allow a shop item to set a category of 'currencies' it accepts, instead of just a single item. (Instead of selling cannon comps for fertikeen, accept any raw, etc.)

Sudden thoguht edit:
7?: Leased Designs
Basically allow the originator to slap a price on a ship design. Thusly, anyone who uses it to make a ship has to pay a license fee on it. Some way to, with the shopyards and other such above, encourage people to design nice ships, and make it easy for other people to find and use them without complicated word-of-mouth agreements.


And that concludes today's rambling about features that mostly benefit multiplayer economic issues.

Good to know about threads. Will keep it in mind in the future.

1. Mostly selfish admittedly. Want to add some cyberpunk neon sign ambiance to stations, and that's hard to impossible with blocks as they are.

2.I think I tossed around the fleets with stations thing before once. Ideally that would tie into say, 2b. Where resource fleets would drop off or sell their mined goods automatically.

2b. The idea here is that say, I'm selling capsule A for X, and you're buying it for more than X, in the trade network. Instead of either of us having to notice, a station manager, if the option is selected via tick box by one of us in our buy/sell options, will use credits from the shop to hire the trade fleet o perform the transaction without player involvement.

3. I was building an enormous O'neill cylinder station awhile back. then realized it'd be empty and useless because I can't build functioning blocks on the spinny part, or rent docking pads, or factory zoning, or anything. So that's the motivation for this bit.

5.It wouldn't work as things are now, but I don't want to restrict my suggestions solely to things that work in the current state of the game. Having the station self-build as the resources are delivered to its location is a far cleaner solution. I merely dislike the ability to do that with minimal extra infrastructure.

While I've seen some complaints about shipyards, I feel like having to invest in the proper infrastructure for them is an appropriate entry cost to the mass-production of vessels of increasing scales. This is another thing though that, if ever implemented, it'd be better to have as a server toggle. I can definitely understand the argument for more easy access to blueprint spawning. I just feel that, in a game state that will soon include autonomous fleets and the like, the amassing of infrastructure appropriate to fielding them should be part of the progression.

6. Well, this depends on how you define money anyway. but that's a (Possibly loud :P ) argument for a very different forum. In essence, I just want options for servers where acquiring credits is difficult due to lack of shops or overselling, since currently, not having credits to work with burns down any simple usage of the shop mechanics.

7. Yup, about what I figured. The design would belong to a blueprint, and a ship would 'belong' to its blueprint. It'd be repairable and the like, but not possible to 'disassemble to design' in a shipyard. because space DRM.

Thas cool, no need to like the whole thing if you don't want too. :P I'm not gonna get butthurt about it.

Well, if people want to go that far, let them, though it's defeating the spirit of the thing. An additional option to either buy the full rights to the design, or maybe an in-game method to jack said design. :P In all reality, just allowing design pricing would probably be good enough, to let designers set prices for their work easily. The bit where they can't be copied is a take-it-or-leave-it addition, really.