as a merchant...

[ryan]

When looking through locations (from resource page in galaxy tab, after clicking on a resource) could we get a small flag between the planet name and the plot course button? Would make it much easier then jumping out to check map to see whether its a faction I can trade with (embargo and such). Also, what's a merchant supposed to do when there is literally no trade routes? Couldn't I get a actual job or contract to transport goods without making another faction mad? I just get tired of searching the same planets over and over hoping for a surplus or shortage rumor. I'm not built for explore/harvesting, so I can't really do much there (this early into the characters game).

[Kelvin Zero]

It may already be a feature that I haven't noticed but it would be an idea to have each planet have one or possibly two trade items it has a surplus and thus a slightly larger supply of available. The exception would be artifacts, of course. Also each planet would have one or two trade items it always wants. Since each planet already has a background writeup, one could extrapolate what it ought to have a lot of and what it might need.

The surplus and demand wouldn't need to be as pronounced as when the surplus and demand rumors hit, but it would be enough for an early merchant to get started bringing metals from mining worlds to shipyard worlds, water-fuel from ice planets to desert worlds, and plants from farm-worlds to industrial worlds.

The hard part for a Merchant Captain then would be exploring the various worlds and figuring out who had what and who needed what. Since it wouldn't change from game to game, they could record it and use their notes for subsequent games for a faster startup.

[oldalchemist]

Good trade routes should also be rife with piracy and military vessels.

[Cory Trese]

I will find an earlier thread and link to it. I tried to explain in there about the 8 types of economic engines and the supply/demand flow of resource points around the map.

Like you said -- mining economies are always producing Crystals and Metals where military economies are always wanting metals, crystals, producing weapons and water-fuel. paradise worlds produce luxury rations, clothing but need water-fuel and plants. ect. it goes on for literally thousands of lines of java

[ryan]

Well, after flying around and burning water/fuel for a few hours, I realized I could buy and sell some things for like a 10-15 profit each... but when paying 400 each, and only making 15 credits profit... and flying 10-15 AU.... its just not possible on the budget of a starter merchant pilot. I've gotten pretty lucky on some captains and found 3-4 surplus and shortages within the first two hours of playing... but thats not exactly normal.
I understand that not every captain you play is going to survive... but a fighting chance for a newcomer would be nice.
Also... starting out my merchent, and having 4/6 factions in trade embargo 90% of my game really sucks. I know its intentional... but heres my suggestion.
1: take water/fuel off the trade embargo hit list, along with maybe plants and anything you would deem necessary for life on a planet.
2: Limit small scale transactions so that you can easily sell a couple items here and there during a embargo, but you can't sit down and drop off 20+ of anything.
3: Make a stealth check based on the type of item being sold, to see if you get caught red handed. Say I have 10 stealth, I can now sell up to 10 items during embargo, per week (month year whatever you feel is good), before anyone starts catching on.
4: Make it so you have to buy a trade permit in order to do business with them and not get hit and in trouble. So if Cadar and Thulan are duking it out, I have to go buy a permit from both of them in order to not piss anyone off. Or if I only have a permit with Thulan, then Cadar will still get mad at me if I try to buy from Thulan... however trying to sell to Cadar won't matter since I have a Thulan permit.

[ryan]

5: add fees to operating inside of trade embargo, instead of faction rank loss. Maybe it will cost me an extra 10% due to a tax from one faction... but I won't lose trade permits or lose rank / rep for it.

[ryan]

Actually, I would happily see one or more of these in conjunction with each other. They would all work just fine I think (admittedly some better then others, but I don't know what the software is capable of), and would make the game more enjoyable for me at least. It would still be hard in the early game... but not impossible (at times, when everyone is under embargo and you can't afford to get hit with enemy warships)

[oldalchemist]

As a captain, I hate trade embargoes. As a player of the game, I think they're awesome.

The game already does bans, taxes, shortages, and surpluses. When there's an embargo, it's serious. I'm unsure as to how two factions can have a Trade War that isn't also a Trade Embargo.

Embargoes ought to trigger shortages and surpluses if they last long enough.

[ryan]

If its so serious, why does 4 of 6 factions have one? If its so serious it should be a bit less common, or a bit less devastating. Thus the things I pointed out.

[oldalchemist]

I'd like to see more bans, taxes, shortages, surplusses, etc. than overall trade embargoes, too.

I agree that in general, the conflicts and alliances do seem to be generated rather quickly.

Maybe if the rate for the small economic changes happened more quickly and the conflict rate was a little slower, it would seem more realistic.

[Cory Trese]

It depends on the timescale, I suppose. I am reading and re-reading the posts here trying to find things to implement to increase the fun of the game.

The average shortage lasts 2 years 6 months. The average war lasts 4 years. There is a growing problem with the distribution of rumors as I increase the number of available types. There is some dilution going on that needs to be addressed mathematically. Working on that...

Regarding the initial discussion about merchants. Star Traders RPG is not "other space trading games."

I realize that a lot of games in this genre allow for "travel established trade route / buy/sell resource" type play with nearly assured profits but ST RPG has a very sophisticated economic system design to simulate a supply/demand system -- it is literally not design to produce player profits from regular trading.

A merchant in ST RPG takes some job -- be it passengers, messages or whatever to establish the Trade Route (have you noticed how often Passengers from De Valtos Prime go to Javat worlds?)

That Trade Route becomes known to the Captain (both ends have economic data) and now the route can be exploited for some small profits in addition to the back and forth traffic in goods and faction fugitives.

[spike]

Working as designed.

Embargoes add to the challenge, and you can always trade between, and resupply at, Independent planets. Though it might be good to have some kind of self-correcting mechanism when there are multiple embargoes everywhere. After all that's going to hurt all the Factions, if they have no one left to trade with. Too many embargoes ought to increase the political pressure for an early solution to at least some of the embargoes.