Toxic Waste

[Xoria]

Have you ever hauled or seen anyone else haul Toxic Waste? Probably not. It just doesn't pay well enough.
As I have been working on revamping the economy for the next mod version, I keep coming across a simple problem : there are not enough commodities for all the stations, and we can't just keep adding commodities because then we duplicate trade routes and create multiple redundancies, or we have to go to the other extreme and create only a very few routes for a commodity (which then makes one wonder why the new commodity should be added at all.)

As I was thinking about two new space stations that are being added into a currently empty system, and I was seeing the routes that create a fairly nice roleplay oriented setup for them, I was trying to figure out what one or both of them could sell for the outgoing trip. Then it occurred to me : why not use Toxic Waste for a situation like this? With a rewrite of the infocard to broaden what qualifies as toxic waste, and a basis for traders making real money for transporting it (salaried pay rather than buy low, sell high) it could be made into a useful commodity.

While most trade routes are set up to buy the commodity at a very few bases and sell it at many bases, the reverse also works : buy it at very many bases and sell it for a good profit at only a couple of bases. Instead of the trade routes radiating out from a central point, they can converge on a central point instead. This must be done much more carefully, but it can be done.

The big question is, is it a good idea for Toxic Waste? It is reasonable for it to be "produced" at many bases, and there is already a faction (ALG Waste Disposal) which processes it, and players for it have basically no financial opportunities currently. Would it be believable for Toxic Waste transporters to be paid a salary (in roleplay terms) thus justifying the relatively high price that Toxic Waste would bring at Dortmund Station? In other words, the price Dortmund Station would pay for Toxic Waste would rise into the hundreds of credits, if not over a thousand (probably not much more than a thousand, since it could be purchased extremely cheaply, perhaps for 5 or 10 credits at the most distant bases from Dortmund).

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