First of all, I'll start off saying that the Starmade economy is far from perfect, and far from what people likely want. The game is not technically "released" yet and thus will take many updates to fully perfect things, but in my opinion the game economy will need some major work, especially early on to get people used to its final iterations before the release. (As adding game changing economical mechanics when the game is finished just isn't very good form.) Without further ado, here are some ways to help the economy.
Instead of going through boring monologues and tedious descriptions, I'm instead going to format this like a wikipedia entry and some tutorial lessons so you can familiarize yourself with how this will actually work, and what that means for you.
Firstly though, I'll describe the gist of how these things work. Mining Modules are essentially factories that automatically generate crystals and ores in exchange for a large amount of power from power modules. Optionally, extensive and long term use of the factory can make the planet weaker(by reducing the planet core health some) or inhospitable(giving the planet some qualities of being near a sun when you're on it). This way, planets can't be completely permanent home bases unless you care to place shields and the likes. In addition, planets would each have a random set of stuff which could be mined from it with the factory, which may correspond to their segments natural resources, so multiple factories on different areas of the planet would be viable.
Consumables would basically be like enhancers for your ship: In addition to having regular systems, ships can have Chemical Modules which will give certain bonuses to your ship. For example, you could buy up a bunch of "Macet Chemical", which, when placed in a cargo connected to an Chemical Module, will give your ship a bonus like a passive increase in hull resistance.
Down to business:
Mining Module: HP: 75. Armour: 0%. Power usage: 3000. 4 capsules per (tick?). Pollution: 10 p/tick?
The mining module will allow you to passively mine resources native to the planet. Place one on the planet and switch it to on and it will begin mining. Beware, these things use an extensive amount of power and continued use can cause some unforseen effects to the planet!!!
Mining Enhancer: HP: 75. Armour: 0%. Power usage: 2000. +4 capsules per (tick?) Pollution 6 p/tick?
Attaching this to a Mining Module will increase the rate that your factory mines resources.
Chemical Factory: HP: 75. Armour: 0% Power usage: 500.
The Chemical Factory uses 50 of any capsule to produce 25 chemicals of that type. Connect it to a storage or cargo to offload the chemicals automatically.
Chemical Factory Enhancer: HP: 75. Armour: 0%. Power usage: 250.
Increases the efficiency of the connected Chemical Factory.
Chemical Module: HP: 100. Armour 25%. Power usage: 300. -5 enhancers per (tick?)
Connecting this module to a storage and turning it on will make it start using the chemical stored within it, consuming them and boosting your ships effectiveness. The bonus relies on the type of chemical used.
Chemical types:
Note: You may be wondering how this relates to having fuel. Instead of requiring you to consume these resources, you can optionally use the resources to give you an edge. For example, fuel would be Hylat Chemical, increasing energy regeneration.
Note 2: Having a consumable resource really is important to the game economy, as anything that is used in large amounts regardless of war state or not will always help stimulate economic growth.
Macet Chemical: 5% extra armour to all hulls while active.
Mattise Chemical: 5% increased weapon/mining gun damage while active.
Hylat Chemical: 5% increased energy regeneration while active.
Rammet Chemical: 5% speed increase while active.
Hattel Chemical: 5% shield regeneration increase while active.
Nocht Chemical: -5% cloaking power cost.
Threns Chemical: -5% scanning power cost.
Please think of new and creative Chemicals for use. Thanks!
Please post a reply with your critique, response and take on the situation. Your input is highly regarded as you are the player and the one Starmade caters to. If you disagree with something, post a way to make it better.
EDIT: User Crimson-Artist replied with this fantastic thread by keptick, which highlights some other concerns with mining and faction competition for resources. *It's worth a look*
Some other threads by Valiant70 are worth a look, and highlight many important sides of having fuel. Like this one, and this one for the generals about fuel.
- Make maximum stacks for items small and reduce the slots in chests heavily. This would create a lot of economic bonus to the game and make piracy viable. This has been long suggested.
- Add mining factory modules. This will greatly improve the game economy and will make building long term bases on planets viable and even a good idea. More will be discussed on suggestion #3's dedicated section.
- Add a consumable resource. Yes yes, I know, I know. People don't like the idea of fuel, food, water or oxygen. I get that, and I agree. Those things don't really sound like they belong too much in Starmade, however, I've come up with a compromise, which will be discussed soon. But why does starmade need a consumable resource? As of now, the consumable resource is limited to production parts and hull/systems. Yeah, that's great and all, and in a way it's consumable. Yeah, it can break and more must be bought, but several things make it poor for the economy: During wartime these won't run out. A good faction will manage to keep hulls from running out nearly entirely, and finally, these things are easy enough to produce and distribute that there's no real reason for a faction to dedicate their time to mass producing and selling if anyone else just can, escpecially with how production works.
Instead of going through boring monologues and tedious descriptions, I'm instead going to format this like a wikipedia entry and some tutorial lessons so you can familiarize yourself with how this will actually work, and what that means for you.
Firstly though, I'll describe the gist of how these things work. Mining Modules are essentially factories that automatically generate crystals and ores in exchange for a large amount of power from power modules. Optionally, extensive and long term use of the factory can make the planet weaker(by reducing the planet core health some) or inhospitable(giving the planet some qualities of being near a sun when you're on it). This way, planets can't be completely permanent home bases unless you care to place shields and the likes. In addition, planets would each have a random set of stuff which could be mined from it with the factory, which may correspond to their segments natural resources, so multiple factories on different areas of the planet would be viable.
Consumables would basically be like enhancers for your ship: In addition to having regular systems, ships can have Chemical Modules which will give certain bonuses to your ship. For example, you could buy up a bunch of "Macet Chemical", which, when placed in a cargo connected to an Chemical Module, will give your ship a bonus like a passive increase in hull resistance.
Down to business:
Mining Module: HP: 75. Armour: 0%. Power usage: 3000. 4 capsules per (tick?). Pollution: 10 p/tick?
The mining module will allow you to passively mine resources native to the planet. Place one on the planet and switch it to on and it will begin mining. Beware, these things use an extensive amount of power and continued use can cause some unforseen effects to the planet!!!
Mining Enhancer: HP: 75. Armour: 0%. Power usage: 2000. +4 capsules per (tick?) Pollution 6 p/tick?
Attaching this to a Mining Module will increase the rate that your factory mines resources.
Chemical Factory: HP: 75. Armour: 0% Power usage: 500.
The Chemical Factory uses 50 of any capsule to produce 25 chemicals of that type. Connect it to a storage or cargo to offload the chemicals automatically.
Chemical Factory Enhancer: HP: 75. Armour: 0%. Power usage: 250.
Increases the efficiency of the connected Chemical Factory.
Chemical Module: HP: 100. Armour 25%. Power usage: 300. -5 enhancers per (tick?)
Connecting this module to a storage and turning it on will make it start using the chemical stored within it, consuming them and boosting your ships effectiveness. The bonus relies on the type of chemical used.
Chemical types:
Note: You may be wondering how this relates to having fuel. Instead of requiring you to consume these resources, you can optionally use the resources to give you an edge. For example, fuel would be Hylat Chemical, increasing energy regeneration.
Note 2: Having a consumable resource really is important to the game economy, as anything that is used in large amounts regardless of war state or not will always help stimulate economic growth.
Macet Chemical: 5% extra armour to all hulls while active.
Mattise Chemical: 5% increased weapon/mining gun damage while active.
Hylat Chemical: 5% increased energy regeneration while active.
Rammet Chemical: 5% speed increase while active.
Hattel Chemical: 5% shield regeneration increase while active.
Nocht Chemical: -5% cloaking power cost.
Threns Chemical: -5% scanning power cost.
Please think of new and creative Chemicals for use. Thanks!
Please post a reply with your critique, response and take on the situation. Your input is highly regarded as you are the player and the one Starmade caters to. If you disagree with something, post a way to make it better.
EDIT: User Crimson-Artist replied with this fantastic thread by keptick, which highlights some other concerns with mining and faction competition for resources. *It's worth a look*
Some other threads by Valiant70 are worth a look, and highlight many important sides of having fuel. Like this one, and this one for the generals about fuel.
These are some minor economical improvements that don't fit in right with the rest. Don't mind these, I just want the devs to see them just in case, as I do want the value of the credit to be higher and no so inflated.
- Make Faction Points purchasable with credits. I'm not talking some cheap conversion, but possibly around 1-10 million credits per Faction Point. This would increase the value of the credit, as there would be a proper money sink.
- Make FP have more uses, such as the long suggested capital ship idea, where if it's a capital ship it can have things like undeathinators on it and etc in return for FP upkeep.
- Increase the credits lost from death OR cause some credits when you die to be permanently lost. For example, if you died and dropped 100k credits, 25-50k could be permenantly lost.
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