Considering that CtC only benifits the Serco and Itani nations, we Union folk feeling rather left out (especially since we account for so much of the player-base). After awhile of thinking about what sort of Union-appropriate activity that could be implimented, I was stuck by an epiphany. Since the UIT is mostly trading-oriented, why not compete for national profit? Such things as trade stability*, gross national income**, and economic growth*** would be uploaded onto a readout page displaying the three**** nation's Trade Values*****. At the end of each week, the nation with the highest Trade Value will get trade-related bonuses (best pricing, reduced trade liscence requirements, etc). Naturally, a single trader would be hard-pressed to make much of an impact, but a guild of players could (TGFT anyone?). Furthermore, it would promote piracy, as stolen goods will yeild no profit for the original owner, and in turn no income for the said player's nation. Feel free to ridicule.
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*Trade stability is measured by the number of items in demand within a nation's territory devided by the number of stations owned by said nation. The lower the value, the more stable the economy.

**Gross National Income, or GNP, is the total amount of money that a nation accumulates. A nation's GNP rises when a Player or NPC purchases or sells something (note--the amount of GNP gained by a nation in a selling action is equal to the selling price minus the buying price), and lowers when a Plaer or NPC gets paid for a mission. At the end of the week the GNP for each nation is reset to zero.

***Economic growth is measured as the percent change of the current trave vaule from last week's.

****Only the Top three will be listed, usually one of the three nations, but any of the main three nations can be bumped off the list if a minor faction (TPG, Valient, Corvus) surpasses them.

*****Trade Values, or TV's, are measured as (GNP)/(Trade stability x constant). The higher the value, the better.

Great idea. To make this more balance there will have to be a part of the equation that where the number of people each nation has will be entered. Otherwise Serco has no chance of winning. If trade value is the number that describes the over all economy then maybe the equation should be

TV= (GNP)/(Trade stability x constant * number of active placers whose highest standing is with the nation).

That way if someon starts off as a UIT put becomes a Serco, the equation will still be balanced. If there is a ty then they can count for mutiple nations or 1/2 if they are tied between two nations.

Although, I don't think it should be reseted after each week. Just let a nation keep whatever economical advantage it has. If it becomes a problem it can be reset every month so that the players of that nation have time to use their advantage they earned.

definately a cool concept. unfortunately i expect most players would finde only minimal interrst in actualy compeeting.

Oooo. A galaxy-wide economy. Must think on this one.

Why not. At last we, traders, would affect more than just prices of specific items in specific stations. :P

heh, dont worry about CtC, its going away soon to be replaced by bigger and better things.

Think about it... once the convoys are tied into the economy and sale prices are determined by what gets delivered, blockading a nation (or just a single station) and taking the goods to your own nation will result in:
a) price benefit for the nation that gets the extra stuff.. surplus means the end product gets cheaper
b) brice disadvantage for the blocadee, fewer raw materiel = higher prices/shortages of some items
c) dynamic missions created when stations (or entire nations for that matter) have a shortfall for blockade running and blockade busting (trade and combat respectively)

Related:
d) NPC's will eventually take the missions PC's don't.. resulting in a more robust feel for the universe.
e) If a nation is blockaded long enough NPC military action could occur... a long term patrol might be dispatched.(by a capital ship fleet maybe) Players might get military missions from that fleet.

No reason to put a stopgap in to balance things short term. I think the above will happen fairly quickly now that more of the tools are in place.

I just wish that within CTC, I could earn an "Itani Specail Agent" Badge or something, for contributing a certain amount of Xith, and that would allow me to buy everything an Itani can buy at Itani stations. some weeks, UIT players win ctc for the Itans, and it seems hard to believe that the Itani government wouldn't recognize their contributions., and want to help them be better equipped to supply more ctc.

it's all about incentive

Spellcast:
The NPCs _already do_ take the missions the players don't. And yes, a dynamic economy is coming soon enough that stop-gaps would be a waste of time.

Stop-gaps?

stopgap, a temporary fix, a kludge. Finger in the leaking levee, etc.

::checks to see if he's earned enough Serco loyalty points to get the super-secret Serco decoder ring yet...::

In some form, these numbers would still be interesting to have after the new economy. :)