Forums » Suggestions
So, free repairs and that special mine are cool, but it's not enough. A lot of people have expressed that they are losing interest in conquerable stations because the benefits are minimal compared to the cost of taking and defending.
What if we could mass produce and sell equipment at conquerable stations? Each station has a list of stuff it's able to build. Most of the stuff would be fairly generic non-faction-specific equipment like a neut, a fast charge cell, a basic positron blaster, etc… Maybe they could even produce basic ships. To craft each item, it would require certain trade items and a certain amount of credits for labor. It would not be a "one at a time" sort of thing like the current crafting missions. There would be a new interface to produce items in bulk.
For instance, to craft a neut2, each one might require 1cu of steel and an external equipment mount. The labor might cost 1500c per unit. You would buy the stuff somewhere, ship it to your station, load it into a special inventory using the crafting interface, and pay the labor when you're ready to have them built. If you built a lot of them at once, the labor might go down to 1000c per unit or something. Now you would have a bunch of neut2's in stock that cost you between 1600c and 2100c to build (plus the time/work it took you to move the parts there). You can now put them up for sale and anyone who can dock at the station can buy them like they would at any other station. Owners set the sale price. You could sell them at cost, which in this example would be about half as much as they'd cost at a regular station, or you can set a markup. Maybe you'd add a 1000c markup to a neut2 that cost you 1600c to build, so the final price would be 2600c. This is a bit cheaper than what a neut2 typically goes for, so people would buy them and the station owners can make a profit. People who buy them could use them for combat, or sell them to other stations for a profit of their own. The owners could maybe set a limit on how many units a single character could purchase per day if they wanted. Owners could also buy their own items at cost and ship them to other stations to sell them for profit, even though there might be a markup for everyone else.
If this were implemented, maybe repairs wouldn't be free anymore, but owners could set a repair price for each percent of damage or something. There would be a cost to repair a ship, so the owners could repair at cost, set a markup, or offer repairs below cost and hope to make up the difference in profits from selling items.
This idea would make conquerable stations a pivotal part of the economy. There would be real benefits to owning them and they would have the potential to create income. Maybe each station could also have a unique special non-generic item it's able to craft, like UC cells, law neuts, neut3's, etc… Station owners could run limited-time promotions where they'd maybe offer all their items at cost to try to generate interest in the station to increase traffic. I think it would create some really interesting gameplay.
There are obviously a lot of details I haven't gone into, but I just wanted to get feedback on the general concept. My numbers may not be practical, but I just used them as examples to illustrate how it might work. Maybe this idea doesn't fit in with the devs' long-term economy plan, or maybe it's already planned to be implemented in some form, or maybe it's stupid for some other reason. My apologies if that's the case.
What if we could mass produce and sell equipment at conquerable stations? Each station has a list of stuff it's able to build. Most of the stuff would be fairly generic non-faction-specific equipment like a neut, a fast charge cell, a basic positron blaster, etc… Maybe they could even produce basic ships. To craft each item, it would require certain trade items and a certain amount of credits for labor. It would not be a "one at a time" sort of thing like the current crafting missions. There would be a new interface to produce items in bulk.
For instance, to craft a neut2, each one might require 1cu of steel and an external equipment mount. The labor might cost 1500c per unit. You would buy the stuff somewhere, ship it to your station, load it into a special inventory using the crafting interface, and pay the labor when you're ready to have them built. If you built a lot of them at once, the labor might go down to 1000c per unit or something. Now you would have a bunch of neut2's in stock that cost you between 1600c and 2100c to build (plus the time/work it took you to move the parts there). You can now put them up for sale and anyone who can dock at the station can buy them like they would at any other station. Owners set the sale price. You could sell them at cost, which in this example would be about half as much as they'd cost at a regular station, or you can set a markup. Maybe you'd add a 1000c markup to a neut2 that cost you 1600c to build, so the final price would be 2600c. This is a bit cheaper than what a neut2 typically goes for, so people would buy them and the station owners can make a profit. People who buy them could use them for combat, or sell them to other stations for a profit of their own. The owners could maybe set a limit on how many units a single character could purchase per day if they wanted. Owners could also buy their own items at cost and ship them to other stations to sell them for profit, even though there might be a markup for everyone else.
If this were implemented, maybe repairs wouldn't be free anymore, but owners could set a repair price for each percent of damage or something. There would be a cost to repair a ship, so the owners could repair at cost, set a markup, or offer repairs below cost and hope to make up the difference in profits from selling items.
This idea would make conquerable stations a pivotal part of the economy. There would be real benefits to owning them and they would have the potential to create income. Maybe each station could also have a unique special non-generic item it's able to craft, like UC cells, law neuts, neut3's, etc… Station owners could run limited-time promotions where they'd maybe offer all their items at cost to try to generate interest in the station to increase traffic. I think it would create some really interesting gameplay.
There are obviously a lot of details I haven't gone into, but I just wanted to get feedback on the general concept. My numbers may not be practical, but I just used them as examples to illustrate how it might work. Maybe this idea doesn't fit in with the devs' long-term economy plan, or maybe it's already planned to be implemented in some form, or maybe it's stupid for some other reason. My apologies if that's the case.
Good ideas. Iirc much of this should already be planned for when the stations evolve past beta. To be frank, I've never been interested in the stations except to occasionally attack or defend. This would improve my inclinations towards them.
I honestly can't see any reason why rational manufacturing could not be implemented without much effort on the developers part beyond a bit of thought. The structure for manufacturing already exists, albeit in a hideous demonstration of labor and cost.
I would also make some items like high profit trade or regularly used add on's to be manufacture only and remove them from the stations that currently sell them.
Plasteel would be an excellent candidate...
I honestly can't see any reason why rational manufacturing could not be implemented without much effort on the developers part beyond a bit of thought. The structure for manufacturing already exists, albeit in a hideous demonstration of labor and cost.
I would also make some items like high profit trade or regularly used add on's to be manufacture only and remove them from the stations that currently sell them.
Plasteel would be an excellent candidate...
+1 to the general idea... just make sure labor costs aren't too far below the price of the weapons at nearby stations, and yet a bit below. Player created trade routes...
+1 to general idea.
Yeah, labor costs are used to balance the whole thing. The cost of the labor plus the cost of the materials should offer a modest discount compared to the cost at regular stations. You have to remember the work involved in shipping the materials, so there has to be a little wiggle room in there to create profit potential to make it all worth while. My numbers in the example were assuming a neut2 normally costs 3000c. With 1500c in labor and 600c in materials the entire thing would cost 2100c, which would allow a profit margin of up to 900c per unit. My bulk discount labor rate of 1000c may have been a bit too cheap though, but I do think mass-producing an item should be a bit cheaper per unit than only making a few.
Aye, good general ideas. Hopefully it would be part of a vo wide manufacturing system, rather than missions that involve launching and docking.
I would also like to see goods purchasing and sale , perhaps with station specific goods not available elsewhere.
I would also like to see goods purchasing and sale , perhaps with station specific goods not available elsewhere.
I agree completely and would like to emphasize something that fluffy suggests: that some items be altogether removed from the conventional stations. This gives the goods produced at conquerable stations tangible value.
I think it would also be beneficial if there were little or no overlap among goods-producing conquerable stations: if you can press corvus holodisks in Bractus, you cannot in Pelatus.
I think it would also be beneficial if there were little or no overlap among goods-producing conquerable stations: if you can press corvus holodisks in Bractus, you cannot in Pelatus.
Very good ideas. Make stations into factories.
Only change the price for free entry. Show:
-Manufacturing cost: [M]c
-Average price: [A]c
-Your sell price: [___]c
And that ressurected an old idea I have:
*Player-owned and operated factories.
Make possible that one can build a factory. Visually a container is attached to a station. Factory makes one class of goods. Owner can select what good, hire bots/NPCs/PCs to ressuply it, and sell production in station.
Demand is provided by game engine and pplz.
As side benefit, this would make stations bigger, as they should be if pretend to be factory of anything.
Only change the price for free entry. Show:
-Manufacturing cost: [M]c
-Average price: [A]c
-Your sell price: [___]c
And that ressurected an old idea I have:
*Player-owned and operated factories.
Make possible that one can build a factory. Visually a container is attached to a station. Factory makes one class of goods. Owner can select what good, hire bots/NPCs/PCs to ressuply it, and sell production in station.
Demand is provided by game engine and pplz.
As side benefit, this would make stations bigger, as they should be if pretend to be factory of anything.
The current conquerable stations are a bit small, so Alloh's idea has merit. If they could be destroyed from the outside...
I like ErisGagarin idea's that we should have some 'galactic war convention' that strictly forbiddens attacks to destroy stations. Makes sense if we all live in space... like ambulances, hospitals, etc.
Instead, factories should be captured with the remaining of station, and dealt just like stored goods inside of it, conqueror choose to own it or respect its previous owner.
Instead, factories should be captured with the remaining of station, and dealt just like stored goods inside of it, conqueror choose to own it or respect its previous owner.
Only the UIT live entirely in space. Stations should be able to be destroyed.
Only the UIT live entirely in space. Stations should be able to be destroyed.
+1 to the minimal overlap of manufactured items between stations.
I have no objection to any number of 'conventions' so long as they do not inhibit violation of them.
I have no objection to any number of 'conventions' so long as they do not inhibit violation of them.
+1 I would like to have a station where I can sell what I have in my cargo and set prices for the public. This would also compete with the other players so for example you can buy 10 Blasters for 100c and another 20 for 150c each.
Morphix's idea is simpler and might be a good easy first step.
+1 This is a good stepping stone. And yes, Morphix's idea would be a lot easier to implement probably.
-1 to the idea of factories as separate from stations... make stations able to produce certain items if u pay a certain down payment (i.e. create a factory within the station whose interface is hidden from the station owner and disguised as the "station" producing items).
Also, this will help pave the way for player created stations.
-1 to the idea of factories as separate from stations... make stations able to produce certain items if u pay a certain down payment (i.e. create a factory within the station whose interface is hidden from the station owner and disguised as the "station" producing items).
Also, this will help pave the way for player created stations.
I think the devs have said that player-created stations are not planned because of various complications involved. I think conquerable stations are the format for the foreseeable future.
Morphix, -1. Conquerable station is not personal TGFT puppy. I understand that you guys wanna ruin game economy and enslave it totally, but please, leave conquerable stations alone. Do ye trading.
How does that ruin the economy at all? Pirates could have weapon auctions or something with those mechanics. Have you no wits? Are you completely blinded by dislike?
Don't be such a douche pirren. This is the sort of thing players have been asking for for a very long time. A truly dynamic economic situation where demand / supply drives pricing, and players can actually trade with one another.
But perhaps you'd be happier keeping the stations at a functionally useless state rather than give some sort of meaning to the whole jack off experience of holding one.
But perhaps you'd be happier keeping the stations at a functionally useless state rather than give some sort of meaning to the whole jack off experience of holding one.