So currently shops are just boring, identical, invincible sticks. The only variation is that a single shop, at spawn, has an NPC, forcing you to travel there should you ever need hand weapons.
My suggestion is that shops improve with use, but also become more vulnerable. This shouldn't be too hard to do, as shops already spawn in the first place based on activity.
When shops first spawn, they would just be the invincible sticks that they are now, except that they would only have simple resources available, and very limited stock. So they might have power modules, ship cores, and thrusters, perhaps jump drives ( maybe ). The buy prices would be much higher than normal, and the sell prices would be much lower. If they let you sell things that they did not stock, then perhaps the sell prices would be so low that there would be no point, with the exception of raw resources.
As shops are used, they improve. The stock increases, the buy prices decrease, the sell prices increase, the things available become more diversified. They become less visually boring as well, branching outward with docking ports, later NPC's. However, the percentage of damage that is ignored decreases.
Mechanics for being attacked
My suggestion is that shops improve with use, but also become more vulnerable. This shouldn't be too hard to do, as shops already spawn in the first place based on activity.
When shops first spawn, they would just be the invincible sticks that they are now, except that they would only have simple resources available, and very limited stock. So they might have power modules, ship cores, and thrusters, perhaps jump drives ( maybe ). The buy prices would be much higher than normal, and the sell prices would be much lower. If they let you sell things that they did not stock, then perhaps the sell prices would be so low that there would be no point, with the exception of raw resources.
As shops are used, they improve. The stock increases, the buy prices decrease, the sell prices increase, the things available become more diversified. They become less visually boring as well, branching outward with docking ports, later NPC's. However, the percentage of damage that is ignored decreases.
Mechanics for being attacked
When a shop is attacked, the level decrease based on how much damage is done. As shops become more advanced, have a lower and lower percentage of damage resistance. So you could still shoot a boring stick shop to get it to restock, and deal no damage, but the resources you get from it are pretty much useless. Attacking a larger shop would be more dangerous, because there would be more turrets, more defending ships, but would hurt the controlling faction more, by decreasing the amount and types of resources available to them. Thus a shop becomes something for a faction to defend, forcing them to do something other than camp their homebase. This would not hurt an inactive faction, because they wouldn't be able to get a shop advanced enough to be worth defending.
Mechanics for Shipyards
Assuming parts of what was discussed here is implemented http://starmadedock.net/threads/design-mode-for-the-upcoming-shipyard-update.8601/#post-214452
A basic shop would have no shipyard, and you would not be able to build there. As shops got bigger, they would have larger and larger public use shipyards, and eventually, more of them. So at a medium sized shop you would perhaps be able to build a small frigate from scratch, whereas at a maxed out shop you could build ships with dimensions in the thousands. (Or perhaps dimensions of a single thousand, lets wait for a little optimization for bigger ones...)
This would help players who have just joined, because they would be able to build however big a jump ship that they need to get to whatever system they want to. Obviously you would have to pay a small fee to use the shop's shipyards, so it would still be worthwhile to build your own.
Mechanics for SpawnA basic shop would have no shipyard, and you would not be able to build there. As shops got bigger, they would have larger and larger public use shipyards, and eventually, more of them. So at a medium sized shop you would perhaps be able to build a small frigate from scratch, whereas at a maxed out shop you could build ships with dimensions in the thousands. (Or perhaps dimensions of a single thousand, lets wait for a little optimization for bigger ones...)
This would help players who have just joined, because they would be able to build however big a jump ship that they need to get to whatever system they want to. Obviously you would have to pay a small fee to use the shop's shipyards, so it would still be worthwhile to build your own.
The shop at spawn would start at max level, and retain full invincibility. However, there would be a huge price increase for members of very active factions, motivating them to either get their own advanced shop, or to establish diplomatic relations with factions with advanced shops. Nonfactioned members would not have any such penalty, so new players could still get the resources they need.
Will add more mechanic sections later...
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