Forums » Suggestions
Player driven economy/industry
Have you ever wondered why sectors have supply and demand? As I dropped off a load of rare metals in sector 11 at 8100c a unit, I tried to guess what a ring station above an asteroid halo would so desperately need rare metals for. No idea. Trade and the economy, as they are now, beg to be given more depth than backdrops to SpaceQuake.
So I tried to think up a reason for me to bring rare metals to 11. If sector 11 was producing ships or weapons, I could see a definate need for metals. Of course, all stations make weapons and ships. But they have a limitless supply of them and clearly aren't dependant on my trade habits.
What if stations needed to have a certain amount of different widgets before they could produce ships? To build a vulture I would need some life support widgets, some fuel, some monitoring equipment, maybe a few radioactives... you get the idea. That way, instead of widgets magically turning into money when you sell them, they get added to the station stockpile and eventually converted into ships and weapons. This makes trade a vital part of Vendetta, and removes some of the tedium from trading. Yeah, it's great to make 100k off a great trade run, but most people don't enjoy making fake money for very long. For most, that 100k is only fun when it has meaning - like when they convert it into a Valkyrie and go out looking for trouble. Making trade matter to ship production would lend it a sense of importance and open up other interesting gameplay possbilities.
Such as having players control ship production. Instead of stations making ships, have players buy factory space, buy widgets and build. It would be the ultimate in free market capitalism - I might need some life support modules in my factory at sector 13 station, but a competitor has payed some pirates to block all shipments coming in. Or all factories might be low on metals, driving their price sky high. Or a griefer may be locked out of buying valks or sunflare because those he griefed have bribed the producers to stop selling. All sorts of new possibilites that would give the game much more depth and gameplay.
Disclaimer: This is a long term, next year type of suggestion, but one that I think should be taken seriously. I like the game the way it is but currently there's only three things you can do - trade, pirate/fight and bot. The only one with any depth at the moment is fighting. It can't stay that way forever. Even with missions there needs to be more fundamental gameplay available for the game to ever succeed.
So I tried to think up a reason for me to bring rare metals to 11. If sector 11 was producing ships or weapons, I could see a definate need for metals. Of course, all stations make weapons and ships. But they have a limitless supply of them and clearly aren't dependant on my trade habits.
What if stations needed to have a certain amount of different widgets before they could produce ships? To build a vulture I would need some life support widgets, some fuel, some monitoring equipment, maybe a few radioactives... you get the idea. That way, instead of widgets magically turning into money when you sell them, they get added to the station stockpile and eventually converted into ships and weapons. This makes trade a vital part of Vendetta, and removes some of the tedium from trading. Yeah, it's great to make 100k off a great trade run, but most people don't enjoy making fake money for very long. For most, that 100k is only fun when it has meaning - like when they convert it into a Valkyrie and go out looking for trouble. Making trade matter to ship production would lend it a sense of importance and open up other interesting gameplay possbilities.
Such as having players control ship production. Instead of stations making ships, have players buy factory space, buy widgets and build. It would be the ultimate in free market capitalism - I might need some life support modules in my factory at sector 13 station, but a competitor has payed some pirates to block all shipments coming in. Or all factories might be low on metals, driving their price sky high. Or a griefer may be locked out of buying valks or sunflare because those he griefed have bribed the producers to stop selling. All sorts of new possibilites that would give the game much more depth and gameplay.
Disclaimer: This is a long term, next year type of suggestion, but one that I think should be taken seriously. I like the game the way it is but currently there's only three things you can do - trade, pirate/fight and bot. The only one with any depth at the moment is fighting. It can't stay that way forever. Even with missions there needs to be more fundamental gameplay available for the game to ever succeed.
there has actually been quite a bit of discussion on dynamic economies and supply and demand. Unfortunately the lack of a search engine for the forums makes it somewhat hard to dig up any of the prior discussions. Trading, such as it is, is fairly simple, and more of an explination about how we get our money than a fully functioning economy.
the ideas you put forward have been mentioned before, and I think we all agree that the current trading model will have to be totally revamped at some point in the future, assuming vendetta has a future.
the ideas you put forward have been mentioned before, and I think we all agree that the current trading model will have to be totally revamped at some point in the future, assuming vendetta has a future.
Discussed in detail. Sorry you missed the earlier threads. :(
Basically, you are describing the EVE-Online model. There are advantages and disadvantages to what you describe. One of the biggest drawbacks is that it requires putting alot of work into something that only a small number of players are really going to enjoy. Balance is another problem. So is tedium. Get too realistic, and the game starts becoming like work.
I have no objection to a player economy, I just think there should be a non-player economy as well to keep things going in the players slack off/get bored of tedious production/bust something/etc.
Basically, you are describing the EVE-Online model. There are advantages and disadvantages to what you describe. One of the biggest drawbacks is that it requires putting alot of work into something that only a small number of players are really going to enjoy. Balance is another problem. So is tedium. Get too realistic, and the game starts becoming like work.
I have no objection to a player economy, I just think there should be a non-player economy as well to keep things going in the players slack off/get bored of tedious production/bust something/etc.
Dang. We really need a search function.
I think Vendetta is better suited to this type of ecnomony than EVE. I betaed EVE, and getting from place to place was a long and boring process. Right now it might take all of five or ten minutes to traverse from 18 to 1, a flight of six jumps with a lot of space in between. In EVE, that same flight would take twice or three times as long. Down-time between station stops is the biggest factor in boredom, and Vendetta reduces that time greatly.
I agree though that steps would have to be taken to make it appeal more broadly/be less tedious. For instance I see no reason to have to have players operating factories all the time - they merely have to buy one and keep it stocked for production to continue while they fly around elsewhere.
No doubt it has all been said before. Damn we need a search button!
I think Vendetta is better suited to this type of ecnomony than EVE. I betaed EVE, and getting from place to place was a long and boring process. Right now it might take all of five or ten minutes to traverse from 18 to 1, a flight of six jumps with a lot of space in between. In EVE, that same flight would take twice or three times as long. Down-time between station stops is the biggest factor in boredom, and Vendetta reduces that time greatly.
I agree though that steps would have to be taken to make it appeal more broadly/be less tedious. For instance I see no reason to have to have players operating factories all the time - they merely have to buy one and keep it stocked for production to continue while they fly around elsewhere.
No doubt it has all been said before. Damn we need a search button!
It'll work once the robot nation finally runs out of funds and starts trading. NPC traders would bring a whole lot to the game with respect to making the economy more interactive and a more significant part of the game. Speaking of which, whatever happenned to those Atlas bots?
They are on strike, they are tired of having to fend off all those pirate valks :D, and are complaiing now that they dont have an effective special ship :D
cheers
cheers
/me looks at the furies and thinks:
"If that's no special ship, what is?"
"If that's no special ship, what is?"
Seriously. Tell them to quit their whinin and get to tradin. We need those precious gems. Stat!
I would have production remain (mostly) NPC-ish, letting an arms-factory produce weapons according to demand (basically couting the amount of the various items in store across the galaxy, and choose the least common.) They would still require "widgets" to be shipped to them, and might very well issue trade/transport-missions to aquire these items, and to have the finalized goods transported to the retailer. Would also make it fun for some pirate to stumble across a crate of 64 sunflares!
Later it could be possible to buy/build/rent factory-sets, letting players or guilds produce their own items - such as bulding a refinery to turn high/low-yield ore and a tiny bit of fuel into a more pure and profitable "widget". This will produce problems, such as balancing costs of factories and labour (saleries anyone?), but should make for some interesting overall.
As for the robots being lazy, I'll glad reprogram on of them! ;)
/G highfives Starfisher
Later it could be possible to buy/build/rent factory-sets, letting players or guilds produce their own items - such as bulding a refinery to turn high/low-yield ore and a tiny bit of fuel into a more pure and profitable "widget". This will produce problems, such as balancing costs of factories and labour (saleries anyone?), but should make for some interesting overall.
As for the robots being lazy, I'll glad reprogram on of them! ;)
/G highfives Starfisher