station credit cap

[Betelgeuse]

I don't think the station credit cap is a good idea. It just creates more annoyance going back several systems for a station that isn't cashed out yet. It doesn't work as a limiting factor because credits are a time limited currency anyway.

[Aury]

I don't think the station credit cap is a good idea. It just creates more annoyance going back several systems for a station that isn't cashed out yet. It doesn't work as a limiting factor because credits are a time limited currency anyway.

/agreed

[F50]

money in all games is a time-limited currency. I think that the current station credit cap doesn't work, but I think that a system-wide supply/demand structure would be a good thing.

[Betelgeuse]

the problem Kaama comes from even if you hit a cap at one station you can just go to the next station and there is always more than enough stations (all it does is make it boring to sell stuff, it doesn't stop selling stuff).

the only solution I can think of is making buying and selling per sovereign instead of per station. (a percent)

[Prophet]

My solution to this problem was to create a couple of 'trade' stations.

A new mine that sells 100-250 units of all ores levels 1-5.
The mine will buy certain products for a decent markup. These are hardcoded to keep it very specific (segway antigrav platform and a few others)
I increased their credit max and replenish amount.

I complimented the mine with a factory to buy the ore at a modest profit and the factory sells various items (barrels, wrist comp and the segway)


I made these stations so I didn't have to mod the Originals and can limit the number of these 'enhanced' trade stations.

Just for fun my factory image is a Biosphere planet and has 2 corporate cruisers patroling. I love finding them in game!

[digdug]

what if the cap is dynamic for each stationtype ? This way you cannot always exploit the money of the station every time you encounter one.

[EDIT] It seems that <Trade> tag doesn't accept dice or ranges in the money values, so the easy way is not working.

[F50]

Why not simply have the value of an item in the adjacent systems factor in to the value of an item in this system. This will make the player have to treck across two systems. Shipping goods two systems across is dangerous (for some ships) and takes time. Time=cash. If the time used is long enough to ship light blast plate back two or more systems, then it will no longer be an exploit and instead a "job".

I think that counting the number of an items in a system and neighbor systems should be enough to adjust the value of an item to prevent explotive scumming and still make trading viable.

[Prophet]

The merchant aspect of this game is hard to define because of the rogue-like nature of the game. The first hurdle is understanding which stations will pay a decent amount for which specific items and where you can get those items at a discount. For someone with no programming experience this is significantly more difficult as there are no clues in game besides loading up your cargo and trekking everywhere to catalogue the sell price.
Looking at the station xml i will tell exactly which stations buy and sell items but you may not encounter a certain 'category' of goods.

I played one game with many outlaw stations. Filled my hold with illegals but had to trek to St.K to sell it. then back to Eridani. It blew my profit margin.

I have been thinking of a way to incorporate a supply/demand into the game and create a more extensive 'trade web'
unfortunately, my skills have not yet gotten to that point so I have been modding new stations to increase the buy/sell network.

[digdug]

I played one game with many outlaw stations. Filled my hold with illegals but had to trek to St.K to sell it. then back to Eridani. It blew my profit margin.

ow! I play "salvager style", where you just pack and collect everything and sell the items when you find the correct station.

For the station idea: what about "stations ask you want their searching for, all the rest is nearly not profitable" ? The list of items that are profitable are random generated for each station.
This way you need not only to find the station, but the you have to find the one that will buy with a profitable margin.

[F50]

that would not be a bad idea.

[Prophet]

I have been looking into 'gMargin' as a way to vary prices and create a better economy.

gMargin can be used simply as a static modifer to the price. ie gMargin 100 means the products are at 100% of their price. gMargin 110 is 110% (good if you're selling) and gMargin 50 is half price (good for buying)

gMargin can also be a function with multiple items getting different percents.

Take a look in Corporate Hierarchy at the Taikon Ventures station.
their margin is defined as a Global function called intTaikonBuyMargin.
Taikon items are sold for slightly less, RingerValuable items are sold for more, Alien items for for 25% and everything else for 20%.

I am not great at coding but I'll throw a few ideas out.
1. create a global gMargin function that can be placed into any station that includes a random table where the function will select a random number of items from the list and sell those at a discount. everything else would be regular price or higher.

2. a gMargin function that will raise/ lower its price based on its current inventory. NOTE: There is already a function that governs this but could be useful if you really wanted.

3. you could probably set up a function that would count how much you have spent at their station and give a discount after a certain amount. Could also be used on Mining stations to give a discount after completing missions.

4. raise/lower prices based on the number and type of stations in the system. Example: a system with only one Mine, they would charge 150% for their ore because of supply/demand. or a system with many Tempus Labs, BM Stations etc. would lower their sell price. I would suggest using station types rather than the total number of a certain item in a system as thaat would probably eat up resources.

4.

[F50]

as that would probably eat up resources.

I don't think so. You will be docked at the time so the rest of the world is going at a fraction of the speed and if it only slows down the system you may not even notice. It certainly isn't as CPU intensive as the dwarg raiders. Every raider goes through all ships in system as a recurring event (I am remembering this from an earlier thread, please correct me if I am wrong).

[dosbox-gamer]

Prophet: regarding your trade stations - could you please put these on Xelerus? I'd love to try them!