3 Tales of Woe

[salk]

Sad story of three captains named Mal

Mal (the first)

Met his sad demise after slowly limping into space port on a delivery mission, sadly unbeknownst to him the package contained quantum displacement particles.

One second he's sitting in the spice hall, handing a small bag under the table to the operative waiting for him, and the next he's floating in orbit, without a chance to refuel, repair or re-spice the crew?

Needless to say the crew mutinied and Mal was lynched in low grav, not a good way to go.

Mal (the second)

Met his sad demise during a trade embargo when five of the six great houses locked down the exchanges.

Foolishly thinking he could ply his wares among the independents on the edge of developed space, sadly he was mistaken soon running out of missions, food, fuel and crew humor.

Luckily the crew was able to survive by eating the captain and using the moisture from when he wet himself to get to the next destination.

Mal (the third)

Mal sadly had not realized that once an enemy ship looks like swiss cheese, it is at it's most dangerous. As there is nothing left to destroy further missiles and shells pass through harmlessly.

Mal in a panic repeatedly pressed the fire button, unfortunately this was at the same time a crew member flushed the toilet causing the ship to explode.

Game Requests

#1
Please don't launch me into space after completing a mission, this has killed more low level captains than I like to think about.

#2
When embargo's are in place, the availability of missions, food and fuel through independents should sky rocket. Yet food and fuel were either single digits or none existent during the trade embargo.

An example is Iran moving oil north, when it was locked out of US and Euro markets.

Maybe a simple +5 quantity for independents for each house under embargo up to 3 embargoes, and +10 for when things go embargo crazy.

#3
I'm not seeing the damage to enemy ships, causing them issues in ship performance. It "looks" to me that they stay at full force up until the moment of death.

I find being taken out by a ship with 1 engine, 3 crew and total immunity to further damage very distressing.

Please note I'm not sure how the combat system works, but the above feels like it happens. I'm not sure if the system as it sits rolls excess damage into Hull or Armor or just dumps it into the void??

Thanks for reading.

[slayernz]

Hey Salk, welcome to the forums

#1
Getting launched into orbit after mission completion is an intrinsic part of the game - something that was thought about right at the beginning. The logic is that although you meet your contacts in the spice hall or palace, the actually trade happens in orbit. This way, you are able to ensure that there is no ambush or other trouble.

It's really really REALLY important that you know your fuel levels and morale before you attempt to complete a mission. If you are bingo fuel, stop off at the exchange to top up before you attempt the mission. If the mission itself is in the exchange, then make sure you get to the planet with at least a couple of units of W-F in hand.

As a general rule, flying around near empty is very bad for business. Unless you can't help it, always try and have enough fuel to go to an alternate planet (that's what the airlines do and not many planes fall out of the sky for lack of av-gas). If you are travelling 10AU and you have 10 units of water, make sure that your consumption is < 0.5. That way you factor in the risks of travel itself (sail damage, encounters, problems coming in from orbit etc).

There was an enhancement request a while ago that will allow you to go to the normal place if you do not attempt to complete the mission. For example, if the mission ends at the exchange and you choose not to attempt the mission, you should be able to go into the exchange and trade like normal.

#2 ... if you are trying to be friends with everyone, it is very hard. You need to rely on your fuel caches and just do missions to get credits.

If you are not being friends with everyone, then trade with your friendly factions so long as they are not embargoed with other friendly nations. For example, I always trade with nations that are embargoed with Steel Song because let's face it, I have -8000RP with Steel Song, so a couple more -RP won't matter.

For #3 Yes and no. There are things factored in, for example, if you damage the guns, their ability to damage you is less, but I do agree with you that sometimes ships with 1 remaining engine seem to do miraculous things. I would like ship effectiveness to be reduced more when they are more badly damaged, especially in engines, crew, weapons. They shouldn't be able to change ranges at all, etc.

[Cory Trese]

#3 -- The only statistic in combat that is not shown to the Player is the enemy Captain's Hit Points (Health.) The Enemy AI does not use your HP in it's decisions of what to do, so the game is even in that regard.

The amount of damage being applied to the target ship is displayed at the bottom, in a text blob, could be better. The display also includes explosions when you hit them for damage.

To slayernz the system as it stands is a dice based system where skill and ship are similarly weighted which can yield to a crippled ship doing miraculous things under the command of a skilled Captain and the high morale Crew.

This is how epic stuff happens!

[Salks android]

I guess I'm looking for a more dynamic answer than

"This is the way the game snuffs ya" or "Aaaar the dice be a cheating"

I like someone else mentioned would like to see, being a trader as a viable option.

Beyond one time, rushes, surpluses etc...

It may not be possible within the game engine to show shifting resources during an embargo, but as the other person mentioned prices could be cheap for raw materials on the rim and tech cheap in the core.

I dream of a world where a zero level player can run a small merchant ship between six or seven planets and even after paying the high fuel costs... Can slowly build a nest egg.

Heck as it sits the only thing a beginning player can safely keep in the hold is water.

While I know now "thanks to the forum" that the title Star Traders refers to the ships, I myself was thinking.... Hey Trade winds in the Stars!!

Maybe a new title like "Pawn Star Traders" or "Pimp my Star ship" until the economics are worked out... Sorry it was to funny to let go... My bad...

Thanks
Salk

[slayernz]

First up, you can carry more than water safely. You won't get non-restricted goods confiscated if you surrender (anything but weapons, artifacts, electronics ... or records). The only people that will seize stuff from you would be pirates, but they'll take everything, so you avoid pirates. Buying trade permits means that you don't even need to surrender with those factions - you just acknowledge. Pirates of those factions also ignore you too.

When I first started, I expected just that - a trading game where I could buy in one place and sell for a higher price in another (just like the classic spacetrader games of old). There are two things that cause this approach to fail in the first instance.

1) There is not a huge amount of difference between nations when it comes to prices. Metal sold for X here, and X+/- 5% there. That isn't enough to warrant spending the fuel to haul cargo from here to there. I had originally expected that developing planets would have cheaper commodity prices (clothing, metal, maybe crystals) and developed planets should have cheaper prices for weapons, electronics, luxury foods, etc. That would mean you could successfully trade between the developed and less-developed worlds.

2) There is a difference between buy and sell prices. So even if you were able to have a price difference between worlds, when you have a big buy/sell difference, it negates any benefits in basic price fluctuations. You have to build up your Negotiation skill and faction reputation in order to bring buy/sell spread closer together. Is this wrong though? No, this is more realistic as you shouldn't expect the buy/sell price to be one in the same. After all, the land-based merchants need to make a profit too.


So ... does trading work? Actually it does surprisingly well. The critical component, which you've pointed out, is the shortage/surplus rumors. If you pay attention to the rumors, you can make a packet of money in a very short amount of time. THe good thing is that the rumors occur on a very frequent basis and you are able to make a very healthy living. I just started a new captain up on Crazy difficulty. Within the first year (52 weeks), he had over $200k (still with the starting ship). In the next year, he was at $600k with a better ship. This was NOT trading restricted items, and playing as nice as he could with factions but willing to annoy one or two.

I'd love to see more price differences between planets ... it's not spread enough, but because of the generous number of shortage/surplus rumors, it is less of a problem. you can still make tons of money relatively easily.

[blackgauntlet]

I blame the Central Exchange for the near-uniform pricing of all goods across the known universe. Bitch.

[salk]

That darn centrel xchange better back off us hear independunts, cuz the Northern war of galactic opression is still freesh in our mamories.