Directing trader activity towards lanes - attn all devs

[Pavel]

I've been reading Xoria's trade development blog and I see big concern for making traders stick to trade lanes, as they are the very beginning of all activity.


But how to do that? Late night powertraders avoid few remaining pirates by using jumpholes or flying 30k under the plane.




Here's what I propose: let's nerf 5kers' cruise engines to Barge level - low speed, long charge time.

That way, big trading ships will be FORCED by the game mechanics to use lanes. No more under the plane diving to avoid pirates.





Q: Only 5kers? Or other ships would be nerfed too?
A: Initially I thought about everything bigger than battletransport. Dunno, maybe it would be good to nerf all transports above 4.3k, so they'd use lanes. They're called trains after all, and trains usually stick to railroads.

Q: I'm a Zoner, you can't nerf me there are no lanes in Omicrons where I fly, don't do it!
A: Zoners are special case, I'm sure some opinions how to deal with that specific problem will surface later during discussion.



Yeah sure, there are exemptions from normal trading like Zoners, but let's not derail topic by dramatizing special cases which'd be dealt with differently.
General idea is: if it's big transport trading inside House space and between Houses, it gets nerfed so it has to use lanes and gates. Traders use lanes, pirates ambush traders at the lanes, escorts and law enfrocers have something to do. You know how it goes.

Feedback please.

[Zed26]

I'll take some time to brainstorm ideas and draw out some pros and cons, but initially, my concern is this: yes, silent, late-night powertraders contribute very little to the game, but they are a minority people love to hate and their impact is overstated, so a nerf affecting everyone is unwarranted. Also, consider that not all lane networks provide the best coverage, and some trade hotspots may be located some distance off the lanes. The lane and gate networks would need a serious revamp to keep the other aspects of trading the same.

If anything, having trade ships at a crawl gives the ships that do want to interact and RP less opportunity to move through the game and encounter more players.

[Kazinsal]

As someone who supplies a POB in the arse end of nowhere, no pls

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Retired, permanently.

[Omicron]

This is propably one of the finest thoughts on disco I ever heard.

It will allow to put jump holes in much more advantageous positions for everyone else and force the biggest cashcows go along the trade lanes. Activity +, pls do.

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[Zelot]

"Late night powertraders avoid few remaining pirates by using jumpholes or flying 30k under the plane"

I think we may have a conflict in terminology here.

Powertraders are generally accepted as people who find the most profitable route, and trade that as fast as possible to make as much cash as possible in as short an amount of time as possible.

Using Jumpholes, and more so flying 30K off the plane slows down the process of trading, and thus making money.

The two parts of this sentence seem to me to be mutually exclusive and contradictory.

So who are we talking about here that justifies such as big change?

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[Lythrilux]

I like this idea. +1

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[Stoner_Steve]

I like the thought, and maybe a good compromise would be an ability to use the equipment slot (that usually goes unused) as the engine component for cruise.

e.g. I fly a Renzu liner, but I need a cruise engine, I can buy an item (call it what ever) that is mounted that lets me get to cruise speed even if I'm nerfed

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[Xoria]

Zelot raised the most relevant point in his post: the speed of the trade lanes themselves are already the greatest incentive to using the trade lanes.

Add to this the fact that the vast majority of the primary and most profitable trade routes travel along trade lane paths, and all the necessary incentives are in place already.

In 4.84 and prior, "powertraders" used the Diamond-Niobium route between Kyushu and New Berlin, making use of the jump hole shortcuts from NB-S13, S13-Chugoku, Chugoku-Hokkaido, Hokkaido-Kyushu, because those jump holes provided the fastest path between the buy and sell points. Now that those jump holes are no longer short cuts, such paths have fallen into disuse. Proper trade route planning and geographic revisions have essentially accomplished what no amount of piracy in Sigma 13 (myself among them) could: moving traders back to the trade lanes.

So, I really don't think it's necessary, and the uproar it would cause would be quite tremendous - final nail and all that. The Barge is a very, very special case and shouldn't be seen in any respect as a model for other circumstances.

But while I think this is a bad idea for a nerf to existing transports, including it as a feature of a larger class of transports, say 6kers, would be a fine idea. That way, nobody's existing toy is affected and people can make their decisions with full info about the implications. Note, however, that there are currently NO plans to introduce larger transports into the mod.

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Trade Development Blog
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[EisenSeele]

Decrease all ship speeds across the board by a set percentage, except for lane speeds - which would have the same effect of making systems larger without having to change the locations of every object in every system.

AND/OR

Make all profitable trade routes dependent on multiple long stretches of trade lanes with no short cuts in between, /encouraging/ ships to use lanes that allow for piracy and/or law enforcement.

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FEEDBACK

[Xoria]

Make all profitable trade routes dependent on multiple long stretches of trade lanes with no short cuts in between, /encouraging/ ships to use lanes that allow for piracy and/or law enforcement.

Basically already accomplished, where possible. Obviously this is not entirely true for bases that are outside the trade lane network entirely, like Atka, Falkland, Java, PL Kurile. A penalty to cruise speed would also mean an effective penalty to trade with such bases. Do the Taus, Sigmas, Omegas, and Omicrons really need fewer traders? Doubtful.

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Check out my
Trade Development Blog
for all the latest news on Nerfs and Final Nails, or to request trade changes.

An Interactive Tour of OSC Routes  | POB Supplies