where vendors prices are based in part, upon the region/system you are in.. both in availability and useful value. So, like, if you're in a region dominated by Ranx, Ranx related technology might sell for a fraction of its normal value.. since there's so much of it around, but would also be purchased for less, for the very same reason. Later on, when its all ares.. vendors would have little or no interest in buying such items, since its inferior technology.
Also.. if you go further back through the gate system and flood a region with higher technology.. make it so there's a threshold.. eventually that regions dominating group, starts using that technology.
idea - bey/sell pricing and shtuff
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Silentdances
- Commonwealth Pilot
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- Joined: Fri Mar 21, 2008 6:06 am
"Darkness makes the sunlight so bright, that our eyes blur with tears. Misery sharpens the edges of our joy. Challenges remind us that we are capable of great things. Life is hard. It is supposed to be."
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digdug
- Fleet Admiral
- Posts: 2620
- Joined: Mon Oct 29, 2007 9:23 pm
- Location: Decoding hieroglyphics on Tan-Ru-Dorem
i like this idea for a trade system and with item data probably it shouldn't be too complicated to implement
1.set item data to items you buy or loot, data can be systemlevel, a code/tag for the station you buy from, sovereign of the looted wreck, that will even be used to check if the player is farming on friendly ships (where did you find all that plasteel armor ?)
2. the buyer later will check and compare the data, adjusting the price or triggering events (hey, that plasteel armor layers comes from a korolov freighter, i cannot buy that!)
1.set item data to items you buy or loot, data can be systemlevel, a code/tag for the station you buy from, sovereign of the looted wreck, that will even be used to check if the player is farming on friendly ships (where did you find all that plasteel armor ?)
2. the buyer later will check and compare the data, adjusting the price or triggering events (hey, that plasteel armor layers comes from a korolov freighter, i cannot buy that!)
I've worked on a lot of game economies in my time...
I suggest finding much, much simpler methods for creating economic dynamism than trying to create a living economy in a game of this small a scope.
If you really want to represent 'market flooding' it can be as simple as keeping track of the total number of 'x' item the player has ever sold and gradually reducing the prices everywhere as a reflection of that. No tracking items all over every star system in the game, just one INT value. Want the prices it to ease over time? Just lop a % off that value every 10 minutes or so. Easy. Cheap. Effective.
Want to represent a shortage? Have stations occasionally offer heavily increased prices for a limited stock of a particular item (We'll pay you x4 for the next 10 barrels of Centauri Rice you sell here!) or just offer the player a random mission to bring a certain quantity of that item to them - pro-active stuff like that is always more fun.
Trying to keep track of anything like 'real' market numbers across multiple systems is a) obnoxiously complex and potentially CPU intensive, and b) in a world with only one player is never going to have any true fluidity - it will never behave like a market. Hell even real world markets often behave in annoyingly irrational ways, much less game markets.
Ignore reality and find inexpensive little 'cheats' to get the effect you want. It'll save you an enormous amount of coding and debugging, and create much more believable results.
My real advice however, is to totally blow off all of that!!!
It's all in reaction to the Farming behavior, which seems to be the real heart of the issue!
The answer to that is much simpler - offer lower prices for selling your salvaged junk, while introducing more repeatable mission types (ie, Korlov) that pay the player well for completing them, making them available throughout the game.
The military missions could offer cash as well as rank (or there could be a side set of 'mercenary' missions). Additional late game missions could be added doing wierd stuff for the Ringers and Teraton. (as long as there are always missions available somewhere for the player to pursue and make money).
Thus more time is spent running around shooting (or protecting, or patrolling) stuff, and less is spent lugging yet another stack of armor plate back to a vendor.
I suggest finding much, much simpler methods for creating economic dynamism than trying to create a living economy in a game of this small a scope.
If you really want to represent 'market flooding' it can be as simple as keeping track of the total number of 'x' item the player has ever sold and gradually reducing the prices everywhere as a reflection of that. No tracking items all over every star system in the game, just one INT value. Want the prices it to ease over time? Just lop a % off that value every 10 minutes or so. Easy. Cheap. Effective.
Want to represent a shortage? Have stations occasionally offer heavily increased prices for a limited stock of a particular item (We'll pay you x4 for the next 10 barrels of Centauri Rice you sell here!) or just offer the player a random mission to bring a certain quantity of that item to them - pro-active stuff like that is always more fun.
Trying to keep track of anything like 'real' market numbers across multiple systems is a) obnoxiously complex and potentially CPU intensive, and b) in a world with only one player is never going to have any true fluidity - it will never behave like a market. Hell even real world markets often behave in annoyingly irrational ways, much less game markets.
Ignore reality and find inexpensive little 'cheats' to get the effect you want. It'll save you an enormous amount of coding and debugging, and create much more believable results.
My real advice however, is to totally blow off all of that!!!
It's all in reaction to the Farming behavior, which seems to be the real heart of the issue!
The answer to that is much simpler - offer lower prices for selling your salvaged junk, while introducing more repeatable mission types (ie, Korlov) that pay the player well for completing them, making them available throughout the game.
The military missions could offer cash as well as rank (or there could be a side set of 'mercenary' missions). Additional late game missions could be added doing wierd stuff for the Ringers and Teraton. (as long as there are always missions available somewhere for the player to pursue and make money).
Thus more time is spent running around shooting (or protecting, or patrolling) stuff, and less is spent lugging yet another stack of armor plate back to a vendor.
The trick is, I think, simply to do what is being done except remove the limit, and do math so that the price change happens after *every* item sold (if the price change is linear, then all that needs to happen is an average).
The fact that real-world markets behave irrationally makes making game market a lot easier.
The fact that real-world markets behave irrationally makes making game market a lot easier.