Forums » Suggestions
Remote commodity sales, shipping, and insurance.
In the RW, you do not have to be physically present to sell your commodity(ies).
It would be cool if the game had a similar such market where say, a miner could sell his ore anywhere in the VO universe without having to actually visit the buying station (or even a player?) to make the sale.
If the miner wants to transport his own ore to the buyer, he has that option and thus saves shipping costs because he is moving it in his own hull at his own risk. If he fails to deliver within the agreed upon (or game-specified) timeframe, he doesn't get paid.
But if he chooses to ship the ore using someone else's hull, he pays a reasonable shipping fee, that fee being based upon distance (total qty of systems transited) and the risk (proximity to gray systems, qty of gray systems transited en route), and timeframe required.
The buying station would then generate missions for pilots to procure that ore in whatever amount of time seems reasonable. This would reward the pilots who accept such missions with a percentage of the shipping fee being charged plus a nice jump in trade and faction points for completion as well as a points and/or financial bonus for early completion.
The fee percentage would be calculated from combat/weapons/trade levels, faction standing, and ship capability. Thus, the most capable pilot with pillar faction standing running the most capable ship earning the highest percentage of the fee. Ship capability would be derived from values assigned to hull capacity vs. self-defense capability (maneuverability + weapons + sensors, such as storm radar extender ) vs. cell type.
If the shipping pilot absconds with all or part of the cargo outright or loses a load to pirates because he failed to arrange adequate escort through gray systems, he loses an amount of faction and trade points proportional to the cu size of the loss as well as the selling price of the loss from his own funds.
You could also introduce the availability of insurance, the premium based upon distance, risk, ship capability, and faction standing of the shipping pilot that could be purchased by the pilot. It would only be paid out if he/she actually had a ship identical to the one specified in the policy destroyed by pirates. If he buys the insurance, the selling price of that load of cargo is reimbursed in full to the seller and the pilot receives some significant percentage reduction in penalty to his trade points and/or faction standing. If you wanted to establish a 2-tier premium, the pilot would get that coverage with the bottom tier. If he bought the 2nd tier, he would receive no trade or standing penalty at all. If you had a 3rd tier, that tier would pay for the replacement of his ship with the same equipment installed as when it was destroyed, as well.
Since the VO game server is the sole insurer and is keeping track of all of this in-game, there would be no chance of insurance fraud on the part of any party involved because: 1) there is no reward for fraud because the only mount at risk is a single load--if a second load gets lost, it was due to carelessness, stupidity, or malfeasance on the part of the pilot and he/she deserves no mercy from anyone else in the matter.
If the miner's ore doesn't make it to the buying station due to multiple losses by multiple shippers, then the miner is in collusion with the pirates and is guilty of insurance fraud him/herself and gets banned or otherwise punished suitably.
I can't think of any scenarios where this could be exploited without being caught, but I'm open to others' thoughts on the matter.
It would be cool if the game had a similar such market where say, a miner could sell his ore anywhere in the VO universe without having to actually visit the buying station (or even a player?) to make the sale.
If the miner wants to transport his own ore to the buyer, he has that option and thus saves shipping costs because he is moving it in his own hull at his own risk. If he fails to deliver within the agreed upon (or game-specified) timeframe, he doesn't get paid.
But if he chooses to ship the ore using someone else's hull, he pays a reasonable shipping fee, that fee being based upon distance (total qty of systems transited) and the risk (proximity to gray systems, qty of gray systems transited en route), and timeframe required.
The buying station would then generate missions for pilots to procure that ore in whatever amount of time seems reasonable. This would reward the pilots who accept such missions with a percentage of the shipping fee being charged plus a nice jump in trade and faction points for completion as well as a points and/or financial bonus for early completion.
The fee percentage would be calculated from combat/weapons/trade levels, faction standing, and ship capability. Thus, the most capable pilot with pillar faction standing running the most capable ship earning the highest percentage of the fee. Ship capability would be derived from values assigned to hull capacity vs. self-defense capability (maneuverability + weapons + sensors, such as storm radar extender ) vs. cell type.
If the shipping pilot absconds with all or part of the cargo outright or loses a load to pirates because he failed to arrange adequate escort through gray systems, he loses an amount of faction and trade points proportional to the cu size of the loss as well as the selling price of the loss from his own funds.
You could also introduce the availability of insurance, the premium based upon distance, risk, ship capability, and faction standing of the shipping pilot that could be purchased by the pilot. It would only be paid out if he/she actually had a ship identical to the one specified in the policy destroyed by pirates. If he buys the insurance, the selling price of that load of cargo is reimbursed in full to the seller and the pilot receives some significant percentage reduction in penalty to his trade points and/or faction standing. If you wanted to establish a 2-tier premium, the pilot would get that coverage with the bottom tier. If he bought the 2nd tier, he would receive no trade or standing penalty at all. If you had a 3rd tier, that tier would pay for the replacement of his ship with the same equipment installed as when it was destroyed, as well.
Since the VO game server is the sole insurer and is keeping track of all of this in-game, there would be no chance of insurance fraud on the part of any party involved because: 1) there is no reward for fraud because the only mount at risk is a single load--if a second load gets lost, it was due to carelessness, stupidity, or malfeasance on the part of the pilot and he/she deserves no mercy from anyone else in the matter.
If the miner's ore doesn't make it to the buying station due to multiple losses by multiple shippers, then the miner is in collusion with the pirates and is guilty of insurance fraud him/herself and gets banned or otherwise punished suitably.
I can't think of any scenarios where this could be exploited without being caught, but I'm open to others' thoughts on the matter.