As some who has a small window into how complex the economy system is for the mod, I can say, a dynamic economy with the system we have at the moment would require a full time paid staff to focus on it. That said, I think we do have some options for a better system.
In the past we have had events that have effected the prices of items. We had an event at Freeport 14 and an event at Gamma. These events take a significant amount of actual planning to run, and require a close eye for any exploits in the system that might come up through the event. They require a fair amount of work from the admins to set them up in one the server, and a significant amount of work from the person planning it.
That said, I think we a clear view of what would be required, I am going propose to the admins that faction leaders be allowed to propose events. The admins would choice what event to run, and maybe we would have 1 event a month. More than that I think would result in too much work for everyone involved.
So a faction leader would see an interesting rp event to create a trade event based on. The one that instantly comes to mind at the moment for me is the Hfuel trade to Liberty. So, Joe or one of the Liberty corporate leaders would propose an event which would raise the price of Hfuel at bases in Liberty. This would make perfect sense in rp, and would give a good incentive to traders to run the routes.
Now, I would expect the faction leader proposing the event to do most of the footwork before making the proposal. Things like checking what bases on the path of the event sell the product in question. Looking at what other bases in the area sell the product. For example, using the Hfuel one again, the person proposing the event would look and see that Hfuel is sold at Deshima, and would suggest that the selling spot be taken away for the event, they would also look and see what other parts of Sirius sell the product, and which of those sell points would need to be taken away for the event. for example, if there was a place selling Hfuel in Bretonia, that would create an exploit allowing people to make the higher profit without risk.
That brings us to risk. All events that are set up should involve some sort of risk for the traders involved. This is the reason for the higher price. This is what makes the events fun. So I would expect the faction leader proposing an event would already have talked to other factions that would be involved as opposing groups in the rp.
The more I think about the idea, the more I think the best thing would be for me to put together a Templeton for proposing an event, with all the things the faction leader should figure out before proposing it to the admins. I will work on this as I have time today, and if it doesn't get done today, I will get it done this week and submit it to the admins for their opinions. But I think this would be a way to implement some part of a dynamic economy and some background for continuing rp untill we get to 4.86.
The other option for promoting trading is one which the IND have made extensive use of, as well as many other factions. Player factions should be using their funds to promote the import or export of goods they need outside of the economy system. Factions giving bonuses for the movement of important cargo, and limited trade contracts with bonuses really increase the drive of players to trade, and promote an rp environment that makes trading interactive and fun.
Edit: Sorry, didnt realize it turned into such a wall of text.
Edit 2 : and credit where credit is do, this is just a continuation of the event ideas that Dusty had back during his time as admin.
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