Ok, so I was just reading the "gimme levels if I make an alt" thread and the sort of standard gripe at the end of it regarding grey-space being under lock-down by pirate types. I had a thought that might make the whole situation more interesting and that is to create a far more dynamic economy and increase the scarcity of resources and equipment in grey.

This has probably been suggested already, but it would definitely have serious repercussions on the game *right now* in terms of content and RPG (for those who dig that sort of thing).

So, here's the situation: pirates make grey onerous to get into... at least in a moth. The thinking is that this is what makes traders shun all things grey and keeps players from really getting into it. I don't know that I buy that explanation, but it's been voiced. Anyways, if one could link price or even the available items at a station to the number of transports making it through to it, this would give the pirates a reason to make pacts with traders or think twice about popping every single voy coming through.

It's really simple. A convoy comes through with equipment for Sedina D14. If it makes it, everyone can keep purchasing corvults there at the current, or lower price. If the shipment doesn't make it, then items will start costing more money or even disappear from the purchase list (the latter would have more effect since there's a glut of cash in the economy).

As prices go up and up, escorts get more lucrative and the pirates become more interested in actually letting a voy through or two because it's hurting their own interests to stop *all* traffic. Alternatively, pacts between trading guilds and pirate guilds for exclusive trading rights might be created.

IN another what-if, if the prices get bad enough, a very large voy with tons of escorts (something with cap ships even) could get spawned to carry emergency relief supply and break the blockades.

Also, how about grouped escort missions along the lines of the border patrol missions? Get enough player chars in a group and it'll spawn a larger and larger cap-ship convoy (with bigger and bigger pay-outs). Heck, people might actually like it when pirates blockade for a while so they can get such a mission to spawn.

Of course, a pirate could *still* just pop a voy, grab the gear and make a delivery themselves, but that takes quite a bit of time to go back, get a moth, pick it up, make the delivery, switch ships again, get back. It'd be easier to delegate or sell that right to grey-space traders.

Anyways, the key part of this idea is to make it worth a pirate's time to actually consider letting some trade occur... call it incentivized mercy. If a reason can be given for a pirate to make deals or second guess the next convoy strike, then I think grey will become a far more interesting and lucrative place.

...

How many pirates are on in VO at any one time? 0-4 of them is the max I've seen recently.
Greyspace is not in an uber-lockdown. Most hang around the b8 area anyway. Just go to a different part of it.

As to your 'here's the situation', behemoths are NOT the only ship people fly into grey. I know many people that fly other trade ships and get alot done. Many fly behemoths when pirates are offline.

Behemoths are not designed to weather greyspace at it's worst. It's a giant cargo container with a cabin and an engine strapped to it.

From a pirate's point of view, the amount of trade I can block compared to the amount of trade that gets through anyway is puny.
We let people through all the time when they pay the ransom, which is relatively small compared to possible profit and is good for the entire day. It's just that most people don;t realize it, and go 'OMG that's way too much' without thinking.

Your suggestion would not change the current situation much.
Dozens of convoys go through greyspace unmolested.

Greyspace isnt as 'locked down' as you believe it is. Just stop trying to go through the same bloody wormhole again and again, OK?

/pirate viewpoint rant

Linking resource trade to ship and equipment assembly has been on the list to do since nearly the beginning. It's just going after the universe redux and such.

I don't think that pirates are the only reason that traders stay out of gray.
If you can make lots of money in nation space then why go to gray?

This is good suggestion for when NPC pirates come back :D

After reviewing what feels like the very tip of the iceberg of economy discussions from earlier this year, I can see the post is fairly redundant.

The Intra-nation/InterNation/Nation-Grey/Grey-Grey tier'd profit setup will likely take care of a lot of things.
Additionally, dynamic pricing based on goods and components was already mentioned there.

I guess it's mostly about waiting for the economy fixes at this point.

have you read this?
http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/3/17418

I had not, flyinglama, thanks. I made sure to read all of the thread that inc had started back in April before resurrecting it. The problem is there are a large number of threads (only a minor problem if you're good at searching), but also a large number of posts within each thread (no way to get around this problem).

My thoughts are generally on the problem of how to encourage more player interaction with the new economy. Eddy's thoughts are more along the lines of what the new economy should look like under the hood (and are definitely more detailed than mine).

Is it possible for someone to summarize the important economy threads and sticky them?

Maybe a link with a one-line gloss for the thread?

To increase scarcity of resources ingame all you have to do is increase the amount of players playing. If we tripled the in game population it would exponentially reduce profits on trading and mining and thus would push more people to seek profits in more dangerous routes *cough* *cough* gray *cough* *cough*