Ore Changes, the problems with it.

[Hokan]

- Disclaimer -

The post is intended to be criticism of the recent ore changes that have come into effect, it is not attempting to revert the system but instead point out that while this new system seeks to 'solve' issues of the old one. It primary throws out any good elements it had, in favour of its own preference which in turn also brings a number of its own problems.

In short, the new system seems to have been enacted on the belief it would be better, and did not consider that it could be worse. And here are some points towards that argument.

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- Community Canvassing -

As far as I was able to ascertain, there was no thread to try and discover the problems with the current ore system. There was no canvassing, at least publicly, whether or not the community wanted changes so extreme. The changes were not polled, they were forced on the community with little regard for the community playing on an RP server. And there has been an unfortunate understanding from this change that, “We know what’s best, you do not.” Which is a red-flag incident that ought to have immediate reconsideration.

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- RP Ignored -

It should not really need to be stated, but this is an RP server. And changes to the economy, at the very minimum, should consider RP when they are made. However it has been specifically stated the ore change intentionally ignored RP, because of balance difficulties.

We then need to address why ore specifically, is important to the RP situation.
Currently due to the economic balance, ore is the most valuable commodity to trade in the game. Traders acting as traders do, will gravitate towards the most profitable commodities to trade because they are interested in profit. This makes Ore the prime good to have in your cargo hold if you are a trader. I would also point out that smugglers are just illegal traders.

With that in mind, traders fulfill a role in the community as the ambient civilian activity in game. Or in the case of smugglers, fill the trade related unlawful activity. The current system, as mentioned before, removes entirely some of the import markets in the game and does not consider them a factor at all on the economy in favour of railroading trade routes. This has essentially removed the profit incentive for traders to be the suppliers for a number of factions. Essentially removing a sect of RP from the RP server.

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- Piracy, and Cargo Piracy -

The current change aimed to encourage piracy by putting the sell-points mostly in the centre of Houses, thereby directing the flow. Arguably the change is negligible as it ignored the main interest for traders is profit, which made them predictable for attempts of piracy. Routes from before were predictable even if there were many because of highest sell-point being a target for traders. Pirating was not difficult prior to the rework, if you knew where the highest payout sell-point was, you could intercept. Or as some pirates did, they loitered near the sources. This possible piracy hasn’t changed.

However there are deeper problems with piracy, which is beyond the scope of the ore change. But to acknowledge some of it here:

Firstly, unlawfuls are typically outnumbered, and out classed by ship size, by lawfuls. Especially in Liberty. Unlawfuls then typically have increased risk, and decreased cargo hold sizes. While sellpoints for ores are worse for Unlawfuls in sell-price. While you’re able to make a lawful trader and make more money without such a large risk, there is little need for cargo piracy as a money making endeavor. And since it does make money, it's not commonly done. This change does absolutely nothing to address this problem with cargo piracy.

Secondly, you get a lot of hate being a pirate. In my signature you will see an example of one such encounter where someone was so annoyed that I made the attempt to pirate them, I even failed as he docked, that he eventually said to me that I do not exist in RP. And considered that the pirating attempt never happened. This begs the question, why the hate? - The problem here is obvious. It's because players trade to make money, not trade because they enjoy it, although this is not a universal truth. Most trade is done as a way to accumulate wealth that can then be used on things they enjoy elsewhere in the game.

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- Short Routes and Trade Railroading -

Due to the removal of short routes, trading has been put on rails. As strange as it is, the activity of trading has been made even more boring, more mundane than it was because of these changes.
Without the flexibility of many sell points you’re forced to take X to Y, you’re forced to take a specific route, because flexibility and RP reasons for ores to be sold at particular locations are disregarded in favour of railroading which in turn causes blandness. Traders and Smugglers ought to primarily be encouraged more to do their activities, as they also encourage piracy and the police activities as a consequence. But the current change has made an already boring element of the game even more boring.

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- Closing -

While I understand that @jammi , @Karst and @Karlotta have put considerable effort into cleaning up the ore sell points. I believe the changes may have been rushed and zealous in their removal of elements of the old system. I do not wish to claim the old system is perfect, but the current system is not either and in the true fashion of a centrist, the closest to a perfect system is likely to be found in the marriage of the two systems.

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