Trading in .85 - a poll

[FooFighter]

With the new mod version, many things were introduced to our game - a new House, a war between Liberty and Rheinland, awesome Nomad systems filled with eye candy...and a new trading system. I'm quite curious now. The new trading system differs significantly from the old one. Many new commodities have been added, all routes have been changed; even the "veterans" which have been with Discovery for years had to re-learn quite a lot. What do you think about trading in .85? Please vote and comment in this thread.

Question 1 - Do you like the new RP trade routes?

This is about the routes themselves, not the cash they generate. Do you like trade routes being much longer now and including more than just two commodities?

Question 2 - What do you think about the cash per hour these routes generate?

Do you think trade routes should generate more money? Or less? Or are they just right as they are? Do you think lolwutters will think twice about buying that shiny Bounty Hunter battleship now that you have to trade much longer for one? Do the prices make a significant difference?

Question 3 - How do you compare trading in .85 to trading in .84?

Do you think trading is much more fun now? Do you think there have been some improvements, but there still are some things that need to be fixed? Do you think trading in .84 was much better?


Question 4 (post only) - Is there anything not covered by the 3 questions above which you would like to mention, to see changed or improved?

Code for <strike>lazy</strike> people who like things to be more convenient:

Code:

[b]Question 1 - Do you like the new RP trade routes?[/b]

[b]Question 2 - What do you think about the cash per hour these routes generate?[/b]

[b]Question 3 - How do you compare trading in .85 to trading in .84?[/b]

[b]Question 4 (post only) - Is there anything not covered by the 3 questions above which you would like to mention, to see changed or improved?[/b]

And before you post, a short reminder - keep it constructive. Saying "trading sucks monkey balls" does not help anybody. Saying "trading sucks monkey balls, because...", however, might (although I guess most people here would still prefer a more refined way of voicing one's opinion). Also, this poll is not endorsed by the dev team and regardless of the outcome, no changes are guaranteed to happen.

Edit: Eek, typos.

[schlurbi]

In fact i didnt play .84 so i cant say much about the improvement or change.

But..

I am mainly a trader. Dont really like fighting. I prefer to trade and role play around. The problem with my Planetform Vessel is that i have only one Route which only brings me to Liberty and back. I would like to have a bit more. Like i would like to fly to Rheinland. Or maybe even a bit in the Borderworlds (There should be stuff to get for Planetforming)

I only have my Wildlife to bring to Atka. There even is a Planet in Kusari which was meant to be planetformed by us, but we cant go in there due to the war. I just want more Planetform stuff. I really like trading. But having only one route is boring after 140 Hours.

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"Who is it doing this synthetic type of alpha beta psychedelic funkin'?"

[Robert.Fitzgerald]

Question 1 - Do you like the new RP trade routes?

I like them a lot. A lot of the once-untouched commodities can actually be traded now for decent profits. More commodities are bought and sold at places which actually make sense - production bases produce goods and require raw resources, outlying stations require supplies, planets and population centres "produce" human cargo.

Question 2 - What do you think about the cash per hour these routes generate?
Question 3 - How do you compare trading in .85 to trading in .84?

The profits made in 4.85 are completely suitable for anyone not expecting to get a battleship in a few days. 150c/s (from FLCompanion) seems to be the normal profit figure for most trade routes, with quite a few being higher than that. High risk cargo has high profits, lower risk cargo has lower profits. A single trade route should give enough money for a player to maintain his combat character's with ammo and other money for a week (unless you really spam nuclear mines or nova torpedoes)

Overall, more commodities sell for a higher price than what they did in 4.84. It is unfair for people to say that trading profits have been significantly reduced if they previously flew bugged routes (Diamond-Niobium springs to mind). Those profit levels were not intended to exist; in this mod version the profit levels have been brought to what they were intended to be. Even with the bugged routes, overall trading in 4.85 gives more profit than trading in 4.84.

Question 4 (post only) - Is there anything not covered by the 3 questions above which you would like to mention, to see changed or improved?

If people feel there needs to be changes to the economy, such as selling prices for a commodity or the creation of new but balanced routes, present evidence and proper reasoning to Xoria. Things can be changed, if the suggestions are logical and will benefit the mod. Suggesting routes with profit figures of diamond-niobium will not fufill that criteria.

To Gloucester: with other planetform players, get together and brainstorm some suggestions to submit.

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~Gateway Interstellar~ Gateway)Gibraltar
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[swift]

Question 1 - Do you like the new RP trade routes?

Yes, I indeed do. Routes make more sense, vary more in commodity types, take you around more places, and are well placed all around, so almost every type of character can do more than plenty trading which is full of diversity.
I especially like the long cross-Sirius circular routes.

Question 2 - What do you think about the cash per hour these routes generate?

Frankly, I think the profits of trade routes in general should be increased.
Sure, it now stops some OORP capital ship chars, but it will also stop around the same, if not bigger, number of RPing capital ship chars. I for one would have loved to been able to RP a battleship commander, for example, but I simply do not have enough funds, nor enough time beside my regular huge time separated for forum lurking and for ingame play.
So I ask you, is it justified to give the short end of the stick to all players because of exceptions who do not obey RP standards? I say definitely not.
We have tried to make this a game dependent on skill, quality of play, and not grinding. Increasing the amount of time you need to get the funds to set up your characters this much just encourages mindless powertrade and grinding, and underestimates the good part of the players who are the fuel of this server.

Question 3 - How do you compare trading in .85 to trading in .84?

Most of what I said in my answer to questions 1 and 2 covers it.
Overall, I do like this system more than the 4.84 system. One thing I haven't mentioned already is the increased buy and sell prices for cargo, which makes trading more risky, and pirating for cargo more profitable.

Question 4 (post only) - Is there anything not covered by the 3 questions above which you would like to mention, to see changed or improved?

Nothing springs to mind at this moment. Perhaps some more high risk - high profit smuggling gigs.

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<span style="font-familyalatino Linotype">

<span style="color:#000000">All morons hate it when you call them a moron.

</span></span>

<span style="color:#33FFFF">The CFF</span>

<span style="color:#33FF33">CFF Communication Channel and RP Collection</span>

[FooFighter]

Question 1 - Do you like the new RP trade routes?

Yes. Very much, actually. The new routes are quite awesome - they make sense in RP, and they make you go around a bit as well and not just fly from A to B to A ad nauseam.

Question 2 - What do you think about the cash per hour these routes generate?

This is my main problem with trading in .85. You can make a more or less decent profit by trading slaves or blockade running, but it still isn't very good compared to .84. I'm somebody who hasn't much time playing video games, and when I play them, I want to have fun, and not to trade for hours. Sure, with the right people, trading can be fun, but only so much. Being a corporate trader for Planetform, I need to do at least two runs, each taking me about 40 minutes, to be able to set up a fighter. Gunboats take even longer. Cruisers and Battleships? Keep dreaming, mate.

We know that lolwutters are persistent. Sure, some may be repelled by the high amount of time required to trade for a Battleship, but I think the people who suffer most of this are the actual roleplayers. I'm here because I want to RP. When I log onto this server, I want to do interesting, unpredictable RP, not to fly the same route over and over again, only interrupted by the occasional pirate who is quickly scared off by our large convoy's guns (yeah, it's true that the best defense against pirates is flying in large convoys). Discovery offers many opportunities to enjoyable RP, but I feel artificially forced (or at least, strongly recommended) to only one form of RP.

Question 3 - How do you compare trading in .85 to trading in .84?

As I already have mentioned, the routes themselves and the new commodities are awesome. But the profits are a huge problem for me. When I log onto this server, I want to enjoy playing a game, not to work hard to be *able* to enjoy a game. Work is something to be done IRL, not in a game that is meant to be fun.

Question 4 (post only) - Is there anything not covered by the 3 questions above which you would like to mention, to see changed or improved?

As the head of shipping of the Planetform Inc. player group, I really think we need more and better trade routes. See Gloucester's post for details. But I guess this is something that has to be solved partly by us as well, I guess if we want to have new routes, we should make suggestions as well...

[Cyberanson]

Question 1 - Do you like the new RP trade routes?
Of course I do. Due to the fact that this is a RP server, the purpose of trade routes should be role play in the first way. I would like to see much more trade routes, which stick to the RP at all. (Please see the ALG Commodity Talk also.) In my opinion this is one of the best ways to encourage people to join trading factions, like DSE, ALG or Gateway. Support us with influencing the houses politics with our trade routes, the possibilities are countless.

Question 2 - What do you think about the cash per hour these routes generate?
It is enough. Even if the profit would be too low, this is another point which encourages factions: let people play together and earn profit for shared capital ships. Different commanders are far more exciting then one dumb RNB-Megavolt commander, attacking Liberty again and again.

Question 3 - How do you compare trading in .85 to trading in .84?
Less powertrade routes, more RP. I love it. But it needs improvements. (See ALG Commodity Talk and ALG base in Leeds.;))

Question 4 (post only) - Is there anything not covered by the 3 questions above which you would like to mention, to see changed or improved?
We are facing one big problem: all traders, even those who are in a faction earn money to get big lolwutting capital ships one day. I would love it to see money wasted on something completely different then just big whoring ships. Some way to influence the development of the houses, technological steps forward and so on, to get people away from the idea, that trading is just important tu rule over the others with a capital ship one day.

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[Panzer]

Overall, i think it got better. There's really few A to B runs like we had earlier and abusable trade runs simply ceased to exist.

Howevah

I think stuff should be more profitable. On an A to B earlier, one could make 10mil no one way. Right now, it's alway something below that.

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[Jacob S.]

Question 1 - Do you like the new RP trade routes?
Yes, I think some of them are great RP, especially ALG's, Cryer, and some cool smuggling routes.

Question 2 - What do you think about the cash per hour these routes generate?
For the RP Routes, some of them are a little bit to light in the payouts, I think there should be more incentive to play a RP Corporation over an Indy trader, but at the moment the latter can make a good deal more money.

Question 3 - How do you compare trading in .85 to trading in .84?
Aside from the Glitchy routes in .84, pretty derned good, but in my next answer I'll cover what I think aught to be done to really make a difference.

Question 4 (post only) - Is there anything not covered by the 3 questions above which you would like to mention, to see changed or improved?
Yes, I'd like to see all profits hieghtened a good deal, I understand saying this makes me sound like a powertrader, but think about it for a minute: If traders make more money on each run, they will have funding to make more characters, try out new groups and factions on new characters, and enjoy the server alot more than they would Pressing F3, Clicking, Pressing F3, for hour after hour just to fund a new ship. People don't have the option to play factions that they'd like to soley because they don't want to spend a few hours trading just to fund something they may not like in the long run. I'm sure by now some of you are thinking "But Jacob, if we raised the profit on all the routes, sure there might be more people RP'ing and trying out groups, but there would be Capwhores galore! I'd rather have everyone mindlessly pressing F3 than Capspammers!"
My Rebuttal to this, if we make a change that I've been a long proponent of; giving power to factions ordering that any Capital Vessels must be registered with a proper story, anyone that does not follow the registration or is denied and buys a ship anyways is grounds for an immediate placement on the "KOS List" In my opinion, doing this would make gameplay smooth, everyone would get the option to play and tryout whatever group or faction that fancies their hearts desire, and there'd be alot more people doing that than mindlessly pressing F3 all the time.

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[Markam]

I dont like how smuggling/blockade running is more profitable, when its actually safer, at least not without some changes to lawful ID's for more more ruthless abilities, all the traders using the buffed routes through leeds dont meet as much resistance as they should, maybe more freedom to kill traders, the ID's of each military states the other houses corps, despite most traders being zoners, freelancers and liberty/rheinland corps.

on trading in general, seems most base prices got raised a lot but sell prices were not as highly raised, or at all.

[teschy]

Question 1 - Do you like the new RP trade routes?

Indeed I do, they actually make sense now. I love trading in my Navy tagged Mammoth, many routes that are valid RP wise. Same goes for my Junker Salvager, I can either properly mine scrap, or smuggle between unlawful bases.

Question 2 - What do you think about the cash per hour these routes generate?

I think the profits need a boost. Sure, everyone will use the 'that will mean more caps' as an argument, but here's the thing, it doesn't matter. They'll just trade more, using the best routes out there, in damned Zoner Whales. And that my friends, is powertrading, something we tried to fix with 4.85, or at least that was the impression.

Question 3 - How do you compare trading in .85 to trading in .84?

Well, you can pretty figure my position from the first two posts, basically more RP - less profits -> even more powertrading. It's just like that, if you actually bother taking a look on the server. Because right now all these people talking theory and generalized stuff, are actually clueless about what's going on in the real server.

Question 4 (post only) - Is there anything not covered by the 3 questions above which you would like to mention, to see changed or improved?

As the people above me stated, profits should be boosted so no matter in which faction you are, you'll still get the same profits. That way, you can have variety on the server. Right now, you just have a couple of RPing traders, the rest being Zoner Whales, Pirate Trains and Slave Liners.