Gamification of the Trade Grind

[Veygaar]

My idea?

The [insert some new ore here] Rush:

A commodity that is minable at the edge of space, and has one SUPER HIGH sell point at the opposite edge of space. Both sides are swarmed with SNAC armed NPCs and all kinda of unsightly ships that will tear you apart. Along with that there are the pirates that are also looking to scavenge. All houses can fight for their claim on that area n' whatnot...

Idk, sounds cool to me at least.

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Veygaar for Admin Moderator 2013!!!

[Lunaphase]

So in other words... gallia at launch? *crickets*

I frankly think that mining solo should be piss-poor but mining operations with multiple units (8+) should rake in some serious bank, enough to offset escort/scout costs.

A large part of the reason that escorts arent available is becuase the traders make so little money compared to .84 that they just cant afford it anymore.

Consider this: Profits from .84 have been practicaly halved. Pirates demand the same amount however, as do escorts. The result? cheaper and easyer to pay the pirate to leave you be for a day than to hire an escort for that same amount of time. Its simple profit calculations.

Making some of the higher profit goods also high risk would be nice, or some more high-pay but high-cargo commodities would help. (like how hull panels take up 2, etc.)

Frankly, the reason that trade is stagnating is because every version prices increase and profits decrease. Nobody wants to tradegrind just to afford their rp platform. Most of us come to RP, not spend hours and hours in a ship armed and armored like a wet paper bag, we want to rp dammit. While i think trading is nice sometimes, forcing people to do it just to stand a chance in any combat whatsoever is rather detrimental, as the only ships that can SURVIVE a fight tend to cost somewhere from 20m (vhf with mk8 and faction guns) to the cost of cap8 battleships.

The only transports worth a damn cost the same as cruisers.

If you want more people to trade, the answer is simple: Make it worth their time. Make more battletransport types able to take out a lone gunship. Make trading actually FUN and not predicable, as it is now. (2mill or die, pirate obliterates trader due to weapon and armor advantage)

Pirates should have to work too, not just sit at a lane and pop out a setmsg. Escorts should work both ways. Lone gunships should not have an easy time sitting on lanes in house space, especially capital systems.


And most important? Make trading actually have an EFFECT. Id like to see trading tracked and bases with high trade gothroughs perhaps get upgraded defence grids from time to time if they continue to be a hub. Or if they are basically abandoned have the weapons platforms fall into disrepair or peices of the station look worn or broken.

We come here to RP, so let the rp have an effect.

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[Friday]

I believe that some of the 'gamification' process will occur with Player-owned Bases. The supply of goods to keep these bases running at 100% is the pay-off.

There is some other stuff I want to bring to the dev team down the track - rest assured as I am primarily a trader, gamification of trade is a big deal for me!

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[dodike]

My idea?

The [insert some new ore here] Rush:

A commodity that is minable at the edge of space, and has one SUPER HIGH sell point at the opposite edge of space. Both sides are swarmed with SNAC armed NPCs and all kinda of unsightly ships that will tear you apart. Along with that there are the pirates that are also looking to scavenge. All houses can fight for their claim on that area n' whatnot...

Idk, sounds cool to me at least.

Much like the Penny mining rush.

[Zeb Harley]

So it looks like any "gamification" process is looked down on because it might eliminate the possibility to dislike the trading system in general?

I have a neighbour like this. He just doesn't feel good if he doesn't feel bad.

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for those who missed it: the moral of it all is ----> traders with teeth are fun for pirates. - within reason.

[Unseelie]

I'm working on an incredibly complex tree of achievements for Bowex traders. They're rediculous. There'll be images for each one, and some of them are patently insane, like "be a billion credits in debt" and "kill an npc battleship" and "Reverse Pirate a Pirate who is Pirating you"

They should be fun. More than meaningless, its a set of things to shoot for (which people like) and then pride points, which people like, and the things to shoot for are...weird.

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[dodike]

So it looks like any "gamification" process is looked down on because it might eliminate the possibility to dislike the trading system in general?

I have a neighbour like this. He just doesn't feel good if he doesn't feel bad.

People here to RP not to RP a transport pilot.

[Ursus]

Seems like there has been a pretty good discussion so far

One way is to change the nature of the thing. So... supplying vendors on my base, or doing a rescue mission, or chasing after a shiny, these are all objectives that are satisfied by moving pixels across Sirius, but are different from moving pixels across Sirius for the sake of moving pixels across Sirius. It gives you something to contemplate and do instead of counting down the next jump gate.

Another way is to provide alternative methods of doing the same basic task. Players try to find efficient trade routes and then do them ad nauseum. Changes to supply and demand could make these routes more or less effective, and thus require constant re-evaluation. It would be less boring. I also guarantee that some of the power traders will quit as they look for other ways to make money more reliably.

Trading missions are another way of providing some variety.

Anyway there are several ways to make trading more interesting, many of them discussed already

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Discovery 24/7 Negotiating Tactics:

[Maelstrom]

@Zeb harley

I don't look down on the idea, I just don't see the players making any serious contribution to solving a problem that is due to game mechanics. What can be done by players alone is already being done and doesn't seem to be enough.

@Unseelie

People already set themselves silly goals for thier traders. Those goals do nothing to help rp and don't really relieve the monotony. You can make the list if you like, but it's not going to generate an interest in role playing a trader. Oorp rewards for trading won't work because they do not address the main problems. Giving a silly badge for enduring the monotony does not relieve the monotony. Whats needed are changes that only devs can apply.

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[Unseelie]

I don't think we're at all hitting this quite right. We can't change game mechanics. Suggestions about FLhook, etc, are not really worth getting into unless cannon drops in and says he'll build something awesome for us.

What is valuable are things we can do, outside of the game, on a social, interpersonal level, to add things to the game.

I think achievement badges is a brillant idea. it has nothing to do with RP, but nothing -ever- does unless its rp...


And, in large part, I, personally, am here to RP, and to RP a transport crew. Its interesting, and in ways line of command, supplied by the teat of X crews are not.

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