Dicsussion About Trade

[Atrocities]

Right now, the game has little to offer the players in the of a trade relationship other than a fixed % bonus rate.

What if while setting up the game, the player could specify items that can be traded? To get these items, once selected, the player would have to build the structures to produce them. Kind of like if you select Temporal Technology, you gain access to Temporal Technology Tree, and structures, the same would go for your trade item.

Things that could be made for trade would be, but not limited too:

Rare Gems
Black Matter
Space Rum
Slaves
Rare Oils
Cloths
Foods
Materials
Diamonds
Etc.

And with each of these items would need the structures to manufacture them:

Rare Gems, Gem Mines
Black matter, BLACK HOLE Core Miners,
Space Rum, distilleries
Rare Oils, Oil Extraction Facilities
Slaves, Slave Farms
Etc.

Each commodity would need a facility or structure or even component to produce it.

By specifying up to 5 + commodities to be manufactured for trade, a player could generate far more interesting benefits and profits in their games.

The player could say I am selling Space Rum at *5 Minerals per turn* and buying *Eee oil at 4 Organic per turn.*

This establishes a trade route between the Player and the Eee Race. You can trade up to say 5 items per trade partner, and you have a maximum commodities limit of X amount based upon your production ability. So you can never trade more than you have.

Not only would this give the game far more depth, but it would also give the players more buildings, structures, and components to build. Not only that, it would promote more role playing within the game.

Hell, you could even take order to produce ships, and sell them to whoever bought them.

What about a Galactic market? You make something, ships, commodities, minerals, etc, and sell them on the open galactic market. Either they are bought, or they are not.

The options for this idea are virtually endless, and most 4X games do not have them.

To make the game more appealing, these option, would be a great addition to MP, and even PBW. You establish stronger ties, and can sell off your older designed ships instead of mothballing em or scrapping em. Think of it, your producing Black Matter, and Black Matter is needed to build a new component or structure, so you can sell it to other players who want to build X component or structure.

The game would become more
Involved, and far more enjoyable.

------------------
New Age Ship Yards

"We've made too many compromises already, too many retreats! They invade our space and we fall back -- they assimilate entire worlds and we fall back! Not again! The line must be drawn here -- this far, no further! And I will make them pay for what they've done!" -- Captain Picard STNG

Borg Breen Species 8472 Cardassian Dominion STNG Ferengi Klingon Romulan
Trek Movie era TOS Illuminati Starwolf

[This message has been edited by Atrocities (edited 09 September 2001).]

[This message has been edited by Atrocities (edited 09 September 2001).]

[Puke]

dude, go play Imperialism one or two. both are very good games, and the play style is vastly different between the two. I would suggest playing both, you can get them at the bargin bin of your local software store, most likely.

Merchant Prince is by the same company (frog city / ssi) and looks to be showing no small ammount of promise.

edit: eee oil. that just sounds funny. seriously tho, the game is setup to be more abstract than that. many space games use different types of minerals that you have to combine in different ammounts. SE4 lacks that on purpose to cut down on micromanaging. diamonds and gems ARE minerals. oils and slaves ARE organics. it would be another factor in the game, and might be a good add for SE5 if it was made a more involved game. But the abstraction of the percential gain from trade works well, and represents the fact that even tho each person is trying to buy low and sell high, free trade should net a profit for all involved parties.

this is not a game of economic warfare, so it is assumed that the playing field is level and everyone benefits. if you want to increase your production of one resource to lower your costs and establish a monopoly on its sale so that you can undercut the market on furniture, play imperialism. if you want to play the original game of that concept, try MULE.

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"...the green, sticky spawn of the stars"
(with apologies to H.P.L.)

[This message has been edited by Puke (edited 09 September 2001).]

[Atrocities]

I know about the IMP games What is your point though Puke? Forgive my ignorance, I don't follow.

[Magus38]

I would think that such a complex addition to the current interface would have to wait for the expansion at least, as it seems beyond the scope of a patch. Greater detail in trade and in diplomacy in general (assuming it could be made to actually work) is always welcome and would certainly enrich the game (I am something of a detail junkie which is why I tend to prefer turn-based strategy).

[alien2]

I think it's an excellent idea.
Well worth implementing.
Let's hope so !!

[capnq]

quote:

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OT, does any one else notice the funny distorsion around the POST REPLY or REPLY buttons?

---

Yes. It looks like the background on the button is slightly textured with the text color.

------------------
Cap'n Q

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the
human mind to correlate all of its contents. We live on a placid
island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was
not meant that we should go far. -- HP Lovecraft, "The Call of Cthulhu"

[CW]

Emmm... why would I want to buy any rare gems or space rum? Alcohol is forbidden on my fighting ships!

[Baron Munchausen]

I must agree with the assessment of most others here. This is much too detailed for SE. We can't even choose which treaty conditions we want to grant yet (trade alliance, use of resupply depots, intelligence point sharing, etc.) -- we have to stick with a fixed list of set treaty types. And you want to deal in specific trade goods??? Not likely.

This could be added in a more generic form, though. Like this: Have a new facility ability called "Consumer manufacturing" that increases your trade benefits slightly. Maybe 1 percent. Then, you could have a facility that appears in a special tech area (maybe one restricted to a certain class of empire, the more 'democratic' sort that allows consumer decadence... ). This would provide a way to alter your trade abilities within the game instead of being stuck with the setting you chose at setup. But this is a very GENERIC angle, as you can no doubt see. No specific trade goods are accounted for. This ability represents all sorts of consumer goods in a single feature. Done this way, it wouldn't be too much trouble. MOO II had 'trade goods' for your excess capacity, after all...

A racial ability called 'Consumer Culture' might be an amusing addition to the list with Propulsion Experts and Hardy Industrialists and whatnot...

[This message has been edited by Baron Munchausen (edited 10 September 2001).]

[Atrocities]

Yes, I agree, an expansion pack idea it is. Perhaps Aaron, if rumors are correct, could implement it for that. It would be a nice addition to say the least.

OT, does any one else notice the funny distorsion around the POST REPLY or REPLY buttons?