Agents (v4.x?)

[spike]

This is a pretty big idea that might have to wait for V4.x

An Agent is a generic concept that lets you have a person or entity on a planet that works on your behalf when you are not there. Depending on your profession, this could be a commercial representative, a spy, a military attache, a local trading company, some reliable friends in the local government or the local Spice bar, whatever.

Basically the Agent allows you to do Urban Zone operations when you are not there. For example:

Passive operations
+check current prices and quantities on the Exchange
+see what Updates are available
+see local-impacting rumours
+preview Contracts that are available
+Agent sends an alert to the Captain when anything/specified things/certain things change on the planet (price change, new Update, new Contract, quantity of X goes to zero, quantity of X goes back to positive, etc)

Active operations
+buy or sell from/to Exchange/Warehouse
+buy Updates and hold in Warehouse
+accept Contracts (transport contracts would still require a trip to the planet)
+buy Pardons, and perhaps buy Rank
+recruit Crew?
+buy Ships and hold in Dry Dock
+buy Rumours

The easiest way to implement this would be to allow remote manipulation of the Urban Zone UI, after placing/buying an Agent on a particular world. That might become tedious to use and also might be too powerful.

Active operations might be too game-changing and just not allowed. Passive operations could be restricted, and/or require further payments / skill to unlock more advanced operations.

Use of remote Agents raises questions about how communication speed works in ST RPG. Rumours about remote events seem to be available instantaneously. Contract payments are also made immediately by parties who are remote from the scene of the contract completion. This all suggests instant communication, but it may just be a simplification for coding purposes.

If communication is not instant, presumably it is at the speed of travel, ie 1AU/week or less. Depending on how efficient the mail picket service is, the actual speeds would approach 1AU/week. Maybe there could be a random element on speed of transmission of a report or an instruction.

My interest in this Agent idea is just that I want to know remote prices. For all I know, the prices I see are already the current remote prices, not just the prices as they were last time I visited that planet.

The simplest implementation of this that meets those needs would just be show current prices, not last-visit prices, for every planet where I have hired an Agent. Probably the Agent would be a button in the Exchange.

The Agent would probably take a charge on every transaction.

[oldalchemist]

It seems that the 6 Factions have instant control of interstellar communication. They declare war, it's news. They pay a contract, it's instant.

All other news has to be passed via rumor.

[spike]

Even rumours seem to be instantaneous, i.e. if you are checking Rumours within range at the right time, you get the Rumour right after it happens. It's hard to know for sure though without looking at the code.

But this might just be a simplification, I don't know if Cory intends for communication to be instantaneous or not in the game-world. Do messages pass between worlds as mail aboard ships, or is there some kind of Narvidian Void Telegraph.

[oldalchemist]

I think rumors pass when ship captains sell records.

[Kelvin Zero]

Considering how the Clans sound like royal courts and the Syndicates sound like powerful business organizations to me, I would have Clan agents be royal courtiers and Syndicate agents be lobbyists. Their success would depend on your actions for or against that faction and how well you are funding them.

It kind of changes my view of how a Thulun Royal court would look like as different Captains would have their hired courtiers vying for favors for their Captain while fighting off the machinations of their competitors. Meanwhile your Cadar Syndicate lobbyist fights through literally cutthroat competition to find good contracts for you.

Heck, that could be its own separate game, Star Trader Agent RPG.

[spike]

Courtiers and Lobbyists, I like that. And on Independent worlds, they are just plain Agents or Trade Representatives.

[Cory Trese]

sorry this is not for v4

this is for "ST RPG II"

You will keep your officers on board for combat, boarding, exploration and stuff -- or leave them behind to "fight literally cutthroat competition"

[spike]

All I really want is to be able to remotely view Exchange prices and quantities.

[Cory Trese]

you can see the prices in the resources report. would qty really help?

I can add it easily enough...

( i guess today you see it "by resource" not "by exchange" ... if that is the issue then i am not sure yet.)

[spike]

OK, it wasn't clear to me if the prices on the Resource page were historical prices (from the time I last visited), or current prices. Not that it makes a huge difference, prices don't seem to fluctuate that much.

Showing quantity would definitely help, as quantity seems more volatile than prices, and a lot of times you will truck over to a place to buy something at a good price, only to find that the quantity available is zero, or too little to bother with.

But it sounds like the basic idea of Agents, from a Merchant perspective anyway, is already implemented - anywhere I visit, I'm then still able to get updated information on the resource prices on that world after I have left.

Being able to also view prices/quantities "by Exchange" rather than "by resource" would be nice, but it's not as important really. I would only use that for "I'm already going to planet X to buy Y and sell Z, but what else do they have there that's worth buying/selling"