Forums » Suggestions

Mining Ore Shortfall as a driver for Guild Competition

Mar 14, 2008 missioncreek2 link
The VO universe is a kind of utopian society. Recources, ships, weapons, and credits are available everywhere all the time. Conditions are pretty much the same through-out the galaxy. As a result, there is little of strategic value for guilds to compete over. Players are left without meaningfull conflicts to enter on behalf of their guilds. Here is an idea to create competition and to make a place in the galaxy more strategically valuable.

News Post: Sedinaium Discovered!
Scientists say sedinium will replace the expensive process of refining helocine ore for use in warp jump engines. In fact, sedinaium is 10 times more efficient in the process. Currently, the only known sedinaium asteroid is the large rock discovered in Sedina C13. Sedinaium ore crates are selling for as much as 50,000 credits each.

What might the results of competition for this sedinaium ore be?
Mar 15, 2008 Will Roberts link
someone would broil it to a gazillion degrees, and make it useless to everybody.
Mar 15, 2008 maq link
Unless someone else shot him before he could.

Other issue is, no matter how expensive it is, we don't need the money anyway...
There needs to be some other incentive
Mar 15, 2008 blacknet link
from what I hear soon(tm) there will be new ore and a changed economy in VO.
Mar 15, 2008 incarnate link
Yes, we're going to add more rare ore types. Plus, the Hive is going to essentially act as competition in the areas of rarest and most critical ores. The two factors should create a worthwhile PvE contention, although I imagine there'll be some PvP contention as well (at least in grayspace).
Mar 15, 2008 missioncreek2 link
I wonder, Incarnate, do you have new game content in the works which guilds can compete for? How about content that motivates guilds to occupy strategic space?

I am especially thinking about the placement of the new rare ore types. If they are evenly distributed in blue, red, yellow and grey space, then any serious competiton from one nation in grey will result in the other nations returning to the solitude of their home system, and again the guilds will be isolated from each other.

I'm an advocate of concentrating them in a few grey sectors where all the guilds can compete for them.

On the roid heating issue, perhaps these roids could cool faster than normal roids.
Another option would be to have a kind of market driven pricing. For example, say there is 5m credits every hour available every hour to purchase "sedinaium.' If the roid is hot, then very little will be produced and the price will be very high. If it is cool, then much will be mined, and the unit price will be lower. In each case, an hours worth of mining will be worth 5m.

The impact of market pricing on combat for control of the "sedinaium" roid would be interesting too. The longer the combat interrupted ore mining, the more valuable the ore would become, thus drawing more competition.
Mar 17, 2008 incarnate link
My thinking is not solely guild-driven, but yes, specific rare ores will largely be located in grayspace, to create a driver for many kinds of conflict (guild, corporate, nation, hive vs human, etc). The intra-nation hives (Itani/Serco) will contend over some resources, but not others (and resource availability will potentially impact the type and equipment of hives located therein). Even distribution of ores has never been planned.

NOTE: I expect guild competition over resources to become much more prevalent once manufacturing ("crafting") becomes a more significant part of the game. Ie, not the lame hacked version we have now. At that point, capital ships will rely in large part on assembly of various resources, many of which will be rare, and will greatly benefit from the resources of a larger group (guild). The acquisition of resources for construction, repair and replacement of these vessels, along with other specific items, will likely become a source contention between player guilds.
Mar 17, 2008 Mynnayage link
A significant enough percentage of resources which can be salvaged from a destroyed Cappie will serve as an incentive for PvP combat, and ugh "socialization" of a sort.