Trading - Brainstorming Changes

[bluntpencil2001]

My first suggestion to fix trading would be to have either Athenian, Dusty Lens, Blodo or Benjamin as President.

However, I don't see that happening, so I've another idea, but it requires significant work from those responsible, although many hands may make light work here.

My idea is a fake dynamic economy.

A dynamic economy will have traders competing against one another, as opposed to everyone doing the same run working together.

To do this, we'd need someone to administrate it, and every week or two, alter a few prices based on how popular a run was, and also to simulate change in demand.

For instance, X battleship may be launching extra patrols and may be short of fuel one week. For a week, it will pay extra for fuel. Rumours could be added.

Or, there may be an increased demand for artifacts on Planet New Berlin due to a new museum opening. Increased price.

Of course, there may be a flood of artifacts to New York... supply outstrips demand and the price lowers. Artifact smugglers may then start shooting each other to lower the supply and increase demand.

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[Unseelie]

Biggest real insurmountable problem I can think of is that trading is about moving, and roleplay is essentially about staying still. I like stopping and chatting when I'm on my trader, but when that happens, I'm no longer actually trading. And I can't really roleplay with someone as I'm churning through a new Omega every couple of minutes. Sure private chat works, but half the point of roleplay is the performance of it. This is what pulls traders out of the lawful/unlawful roleplay system, which they both get to have fun with.

Ergo: In house and insystem routes.

For example: Leeds buys diamonds...from somewhere else. Produces mining machinery, which is shipped to Dublin, Graves and Hood and arranmore. Graves sells Gold, and newcastle buys the gold, selling super alloy, which is wanted at Kensington shipping platform, which sells Hfuel, which is needed at LD14, which sells Mox, which can be sold to the Norfolk in Cambridge, which is near Planet Camb, which sells food rations, which are wanted on Leeds. That's a long route, easily half an hour to complete, but about half of the time, you're floating through Leeds System, and can, hopefully, integrate yourself into the RP there.

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[cobraSting]

Ergo: In house and insystem routes.

For example: Leeds buys diamonds...from somewhere else. Produces mining machinery, which is shipped to Dublin, Graves and Hood and arranmore. Graves sells Gold, and newcastle buys the gold, selling super alloy, which is wanted at Kensington shipping platform, which sells Hfuel, which is needed at LD14, which sells Mox, which can be sold to the Norfolk in Cambridge, which is near Planet Camb, which sells food rations, which are wanted on Leeds. That's a long route, easily half an hour to complete, but about half of the time, you're floating through Leeds System, and can, hopefully, integrate yourself into the RP there.

Yea but the downside is that you don't make as much money.

On my route, I always try to RP at least minimally if I get stopped, and the nature of my route is that I still make decent profit even if I lose a few minutes and credits.

[Gemini893]

I think that a suggestion I saw (not sure if it was in GC or USA forums) was the best, brightest, and easiest for this mod to implement.

Give faction bonuses while trading, as long as ID and IFF match, along with the the base you're at.

Zoners buy for less and get paid more on Zoner bases.
Republican buys for less and gets paid more on Republican bases.
etc etc etc.

The suggestion I saw was a 20% bonus but I believe that to be too much. I think, since similar bonuses are already given for mining, that this should be easy to implement.

Perhaps a 5% bonus if either ID or IFF matches the station affiliation and a 10% if both match? I dunno, let's see what y'all think.

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[Unseelie]

My problem with any changes of the prices, or economy dynamicazising, is that it doesn't actually treat the ingame issue: That tradind is a grind. Giving faction bonuses might earn more money, but I don't think that actually makes trading more fun, and I expect it would be rebalanced to maintain the current 30 million/hour max.
It doesn't inherently change what trading is, from a gameplay standpoint, is my point. It may make the game mechanic slightly more interesting...but while going from base to base...I doubt it will change the attitude of the players.

On my suggestion for In house/insystem routes, I had thought that I'd implied that these are the routes which should be reasonably decent to medium high profits. They should be worth doing from an economic standpoint, to encurage them. They'd encourage traders to rp, or at least participate, in a specific system/regional rp.

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[Battlesnax]

I think this thread is great and there's tons of good ideas here. I hope some get implemented.

Some ideas I had to make trading more fun:
- Make it easier for groups of transports to form convoys and stay together so they can RP while they powertrade...(talk about other lucrative trade routes, pirate interaction stories...etc). I mention 'stay together' because when I try to partner up with someone while trading, I usually get bumped or get stuck on a trade-lane while he speeds away. After a few times we get sick of waiting for each other and just split up. So making easier docking on a trade-lane and making the F4 Formation command work better at keeping big ships together would both be good..if that's possible. The goal of this would be to encourage small groups of transports instead of flying solo and lonely all the time and maybe providing a challenge to the pirates for once.
- The idea of a transport/freighter comm channel sounds fun.
- Increasing trade profits might help...money can buy happiness, after all.

Freighter attractiveness:
- Someone earlier posted that increasing the cruise speed and decreasing cruise charge-up time would be a way to increase the attractiveness of freighters and I totally agree. This would balance their worth and productivity with a transport because the freighter would make less profit/run but could do it much faster.
It would also add an interesting dynamic with pirating because if they can avoid the CD's, a freighter could out-run a pirate, instead of just being followed across half the system and then killed when the trader makes a mistake.
- I don't know if this is possible but how about a small (like 30-100 units) secret cargo stash in the freighters that is hidden from ALL scanners? Like hiding some cardamine under your seat cushion. So anyone could be a small time smuggler while they are shipping other goods, adding more value to the freighter.
- I think Liners should be able to carry human cargo as if they had a cargo space per unit of 1 (VIPS could be bumped down to 2 or 3 space/unit). That would actually make them a practical alternative to large transports and justify their cost.

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Let's all just be friends and have a good time.

[Quorg]

Just browsing over the suggestions so far and there are some good ones emerging. Indexing commodity cost to ID is one thing that could be developed - place very lucrative cargo in guard systems available only if you have full rep (e.g. GMG H Fuel in GMG Guard system -purchasable only if you have full rep but with a discount on top of that if you have GMG ID).

Another good idea coming from this thread.

My idea is a fake dynamic economy.

A dynamic economy will have traders competing against one another, as opposed to everyone doing the same run working together.

To do this, we'd need someone to administrate it, and every week or two, alter a few prices based on how popular a run was, and also to simulate change in demand.

This is simply a combination of the special trade events (which already exist and are underutilized) and trade route nerfing. I fail to see the long-term benefit here.

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ATTENTION SMUGGLERS
The Midnight Express: A Slaver <strike>who doesn't completely realize what he's doing.</strike> (video)

Quorg, you're officially a moron.

...mongs like Quorg being like a malignant little cancer...

Way to be useless, Quorg.

[Janus]

I'm gonna throw this in as a counterpoint suggestion.

There's a lot of complaints that trading is boring, seriously outnumbering the "I enjoy trading thank you very much."

Mining is becoming a viable alternative to the trading grind, but I'd like to add this in too. It's no doubt been brought up before and shot down, but anyway...

Increase mission payouts, giving those who hate trading a different way to grind their cash.

[Elsdragon]

think that a suggestion I saw (not sure if it was in GC or USA forums) was the best, brightest, and easiest for this mod to implement.

Give faction bonuses while trading, as long as ID and IFF match, along with the the base you're at.

Zoners buy for less and get paid more on Zoner bases.
Republican buys for less and gets paid more on Republican bases.
etc etc etc.

The suggestion I saw was a 20% bonus but I believe that to be too much. I think, since similar bonuses are already given for mining, that this should be easy to implement.

Perhaps a 5% bonus if either ID or IFF matches the station affiliation and a 10% if both match? I dunno, let's see what y'all think.

No.

Why?

Most corps have ONe, or two bases, And Only rarely is it part of a trade route. Hell, sevral corps have NO bases

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No longer a slave to the man!

[Guest]

Few personal preferences to list:

Freighters could use -something- that makes them appealing. Just simply being able to go the normal 200 speed isnt much because bombers can easily keep up with that, and the shields they're capable of having generally can be taken out by fighters easier than transport shields.
Having a quicker cruise-charge (2-3 seconds?), and faster cruise speed (375-400?) would make them nice enough to use to trade with. Currently, they're simply only bridge-ships for people who are still in need of money for a larger ship.

Such changes might even bring an end to smugglers getting the biggest ship they can to load up all they're able to on illegal goods. Being able to use smaller vessels to easily elude lawful ships.
The cruise speed might pose a problem though as once in cruise they could easily outrun pursuing ships also in cruise. But I'd say it could be a necessary evil.


As for trade routes in general, a flat 10k/second no matter what (if it were possible without pwning file-sizes) would be a godsend and an end to any possible Route-Spammage as it would all then be left to each individual's RP to what route they take.