Read by Council Remove low credit cap

[H4ppyg0rri11a]

If a person's goal is to be a merchant, or is trying to create a shop on a multiplayer server, the 2 billion credit cap quickly becomes a problem, please remove this limit.

 

[Sven_The_Slayer]

I believe the credit cap is a limit in java not some arbitrary value that can be changed. I think in order to counter this every item in the game would have to have their value decreased.

 

[DrTarDIS]

If it was a "real" limit with java, you couldn't have a battery capacity over 2.14 billion either. (you can)
-Changing to a different string value for credits would let them increment to large scale.
-Changing to "tier" credit system could work too: 1 billion credits rolls your counter back to 0, and a shiney GiggaCredit block gets created in inventory..

 

[Malacodor]

If it was a "real" limit with java, you couldn't have a battery capacity over 2.14 billion either. (you can)

Power capacity is obviously a float, not an integer like credits, so you can't compare both.

 

[H4ppyg0rri11a]

I believe the credit cap is a limit in java not some arbitrary value that can be changed. I think in order to counter this every item in the game would have to have their value decreased.

java has support for 64 bit integers(max: 9223372036854775807), if they were to use a 64 bit integer instead, the credit cap wouldn't be a problem.

 

[jayman38]

In any case, I think this is a perfectly valid suggestion.

 

[Sgtwisky]

I wouldn't mind if they upped the limit. Though I am wondering if they haven't yet, because of future changes which may, make the cost of items much lower overall. I do think upping the credit limit would be a good temp solution if they do have such plans though.

 

[lupoCani]

Power capacity is obviously a float, not an integer like credits, so you can't compare both.

Since the credit counter could easily be made a float, you very much can.

And for the record, even if there was a hard limit, for something as simple as a credit counter, one could quite easily implement a custom counting system. It's a simple logic and, while perhaps much slower than raw number handling, still easily fast enough for any player interaction.

 

[Megacrafter127]

Since the credit counter could easily be made a float, you very much can.

have fun with rounding errors then.

 

[StormWing0]

I think it is more of a datatype max issue than anything. Since Credits is an Int it'd need to be changed to another kind of Int like a Long Int or something.

 

[Megacrafter127]

I think it is more of a datatype max issue than anything. Since Credits is an Int it'd need to be changed to another kind of Int like a Long Int or something.

That is indeed the case, as far as I know, and changing a datatype is really easy.
The only problem is, that this would most likely destroy any previous universes, that ever had a player in them.

 

[lupoCani]

have fun with rounding errors then.

Ever heard of floor()? It's not like the game has screwed up with the float arithmetics anywhere else.

 

[Megacrafter127]

Ever heard of floor()? It's not like the game has screwed up with the float arithmetics anywhere else.

Tell me one other point in the game, where floating point errors would stack or matter?
Power/shield max and regen? Rounding errors will be around 2^24 or 2^53 depending on whether or not a 32 or 64 bit float was used. In addition, a rounding error cannot stack here, so it will always be 2^24 or 2^53 times lower, than the current value.
Locations within a sector? Sure they can stack here, but sectors are too small for those to stack fast enough to be noticable by a player.
Credits? Yes, rounding errors can stack, and as there is no ceiling apart from datatype limits, they can stack enough for a player to notice. [namely once they acquire more than 2^26 or 2^55 credits, and start buying items for 1 credit one by one. Due to rounding, it can happen, that their credits won't be reduced, as the deducted amount is below the accuracy of the floating point, not even flooring can help in that case]

However, simply switching to a 64bit integer will also get rid of the problem, with no potential rounding errors.

 

[H4ppyg0rri11a]

That is indeed the case, as far as I know, and changing a datatype is really easy.
The only problem is, that this would most likely destroy any previous universes, that ever had a player in them.

It depends on how the game stores player data, but it would probably be possible to change it and still keep everyone's credits, if the game stores it in binary form u would need support for 32 bit integers in the file system as well until everyone's player data get's converted to the new system.

 

[Megacrafter127]

It depends on how the game stores player data, but it would probably be possible to change it and still keep everyone's credits, if the game stores it in binary form u would need support for 32 bit integers in the file system as well until everyone's player data get's converted to the new system.

It does store it in binary form, and having support for both 32bit integer and 64bit integer to read at the same time would likely be tricky, considering the file's structure.

 

[SneakZee]

This is a very compelling feature request. IMO the best games allow for character development and in game "career" paths. Right now the economy and merchant/trader system is VERY undeveloped. A great economy in-game is very rare, but adds SO much to a game.
When one wants to be a merchant/business person and quickly hits 2 billion credits....it is nearly game over. The game really needs a place to bank large sums of credits and a nice buy and sell seperation in shops. These are the worst two limitations in the game....no buy and sell functionality and tiny credits that are reached quickly. Address those two things, and it could add many hours of compelling game play.
So much potential in this game.

 

[kiraen]

1. Credits can be stored in a shop module.
2. While I'm sure Schine wants to do so, nothing guarantees save compatibility at this stage of development.

 

[H4ppyg0rri11a]

1. Credits can be stored in a shop module.
2. While I'm sure Schine wants to do so, nothing guarantees save compatibility at this stage of development.

You can store credits in a shop module, but there are a couple problems with this:
1. I personally don't want to have potentially hundreds of shops scattered across the galaxy
2. If u want to create a shop and sell to other people, the credit's don't automatically transfer to the other shops, and u will hit cap and lose a fortune
3. This leaves no room for long trading runs, personally I go on trading missions hoping to make over 10bil(which is possible when the server has a bank system), if u had to constantly run home(potentially hundreds of systems away), this would not be nearly as fun.

Also, I have no doubt in Schine's ability to transfer to the new system of 64 bit without losing any data. If I'm wrong however, I feel it would be worth a complete universe reset, because with this limit, the game is 100% reliant on servers having banks on them, or making it brutal to make money.

 

[Nickizzy]

My personal though on this is to temperarily just add a meta item megabuck. Credit cap can stay at 2 billion, you can trade 1 mil and 1 bil dollars for "megabucks" at unowned shops(because the megabucks would be just created, to prevent someone from buying and rebuying megabucks at their own shop). Megabucks could be sold at other shops for 1mil/bil credits.

 

[H4ppyg0rri11a]

My personal though on this is to temperarily just add a meta item megabuck. Credit cap can stay at 2 billion, you can trade 1 mil and 1 bil dollars for "megabucks" at unowned shops(because the megabucks would be just created, to prevent someone from buying and rebuying megabucks at their own shop). Megabucks could be sold at other shops for 1mil/bil credits.

this could work for the player, but this wouldn't solve the issue with player owned shops, also if someone doesn't know about the 2bil credit cap, they could get burned if they sell 50k computers while already having 2bil.