Post by furie on Jul 12, 2011 21:22:02 GMT -5
After playing around with the game for a while (I'm a casual player who has yet to move from the Basic difficulty as life keeps getting in the way for a week here and there and making me forget what I'm doing in the game) I came up with an idea for a new commodity as well as supporting features for that commodity, and decided to post it here.
The new commodity is, as I'm sure you've guessed from the title of this thread, slaves. Now quite often we'll face a ship and be given the option to enslave the crew, using those enlisted men to fill out any gaps in our own crew. When this happens there are usually people left alive on the defeated vessel. My idea is that we would take those people as slaves and either put them to work on tasks we don't want to risk our crew on or sell them on for profit. One storage unit of slave would equate to one person enslaved.
Slaver Raids (Planetary & Transports)
As well as attacking ships and enslaving survivors, slaves could be taken by raiding farms and homesteads. These would each be an unaligned settlement on a planet without a dedicated urban zone, supposedly independent people forging their own way in the galaxy. Raiding these would need a certain power of ship as well as a planet that these people are on (presumably found via rumours). The defences of such a community would be equal to the level of the planet that they have set up on.
Likewise, people need transport around the galaxy, and these transports will mostly hold fuel and people, who are easily taken as slaves. Running into these transports sets up encounters where slaves can be taken by the player. These transports wouldn't just be for raiding though, as acknowledging them might include an option to trade which would turn them into a temporary Exchange (a good way to get fuel and water when you're running low).
The Black Market
Now obviously slavery is likely to be illegal in the galaxy so any searches of your vessel would result in any slaves being freed barring any ship upgrade. On a related note, as slavery is illegal, you wouldn't be able to openly sell slaves at any Exchange. Enter the Black Market, a new illegal place that mixes some features from the Exchange, Spice Hall and Star Dock. The Black Market can only be found by listening to rumours in a Spice Hall on a planet where you're a wanted criminal, eventually opening a new button in the Urban menu of that planet when it has been found.
Players will be able to sell items that are illegal in the sector, including slaves and any other contraband introduced later on, allowing them to get around trade bans as well. The balance is that the Black Market will net you a lot less profit from items sold there. The other use of the Black Market is as a place where the players can buy new upgrades to help them in illegal activities, such as pods to hide slaves when the ship is searched. Slaves bought at a Black Market will automatically fill crew positions before they start to fill the cargo hold.
Another Use For Slaves
As well as selling slaves at the Black Market, the other option is to use them for activities that you don't want your crew to be risked for. Send a load of slaves to explore or harvest from a planet and your less expendable crew will be safe for the future.
Another way to sell slaves might be to the very colonies that can be raided for them in the first place. This will only be possible if the community hasn't been raided for slaves by you in the past, so setting up a relationship is important. Slaves will be handy in these lawless places as they need someone to do the hard work involved in setting up a civilisation. These colonies will be unlikely to pay with money, instead bartering items to a certain value.
Other Slavers
So far we've set up a need for, supply of and place to sell slaves. As such it's likely that other people in the galaxy have thought of this and come to the same conclusion that some players will. This means a few slaver ships may be found while traversing the galaxy. Beating these in combat will provide the option of taking the slaves for yourself or setting them free after fixing up the ship for them (Mechanic needed for this action). Conversely, Acknowledging them will set up a temporary trading post where the player can buy from or sell slaves to the encountered slavers.
And that's the basis of the idea I had without any of the complex maths and specific mention of the new ship types and event types needed to make it work well. I think it could add quite a bit to the game as well as provide a stronger extensible structure for the seedier side of the game.
The new commodity is, as I'm sure you've guessed from the title of this thread, slaves. Now quite often we'll face a ship and be given the option to enslave the crew, using those enlisted men to fill out any gaps in our own crew. When this happens there are usually people left alive on the defeated vessel. My idea is that we would take those people as slaves and either put them to work on tasks we don't want to risk our crew on or sell them on for profit. One storage unit of slave would equate to one person enslaved.
Slaver Raids (Planetary & Transports)
As well as attacking ships and enslaving survivors, slaves could be taken by raiding farms and homesteads. These would each be an unaligned settlement on a planet without a dedicated urban zone, supposedly independent people forging their own way in the galaxy. Raiding these would need a certain power of ship as well as a planet that these people are on (presumably found via rumours). The defences of such a community would be equal to the level of the planet that they have set up on.
Likewise, people need transport around the galaxy, and these transports will mostly hold fuel and people, who are easily taken as slaves. Running into these transports sets up encounters where slaves can be taken by the player. These transports wouldn't just be for raiding though, as acknowledging them might include an option to trade which would turn them into a temporary Exchange (a good way to get fuel and water when you're running low).
The Black Market
Now obviously slavery is likely to be illegal in the galaxy so any searches of your vessel would result in any slaves being freed barring any ship upgrade. On a related note, as slavery is illegal, you wouldn't be able to openly sell slaves at any Exchange. Enter the Black Market, a new illegal place that mixes some features from the Exchange, Spice Hall and Star Dock. The Black Market can only be found by listening to rumours in a Spice Hall on a planet where you're a wanted criminal, eventually opening a new button in the Urban menu of that planet when it has been found.
Players will be able to sell items that are illegal in the sector, including slaves and any other contraband introduced later on, allowing them to get around trade bans as well. The balance is that the Black Market will net you a lot less profit from items sold there. The other use of the Black Market is as a place where the players can buy new upgrades to help them in illegal activities, such as pods to hide slaves when the ship is searched. Slaves bought at a Black Market will automatically fill crew positions before they start to fill the cargo hold.
Another Use For Slaves
As well as selling slaves at the Black Market, the other option is to use them for activities that you don't want your crew to be risked for. Send a load of slaves to explore or harvest from a planet and your less expendable crew will be safe for the future.
Another way to sell slaves might be to the very colonies that can be raided for them in the first place. This will only be possible if the community hasn't been raided for slaves by you in the past, so setting up a relationship is important. Slaves will be handy in these lawless places as they need someone to do the hard work involved in setting up a civilisation. These colonies will be unlikely to pay with money, instead bartering items to a certain value.
Other Slavers
So far we've set up a need for, supply of and place to sell slaves. As such it's likely that other people in the galaxy have thought of this and come to the same conclusion that some players will. This means a few slaver ships may be found while traversing the galaxy. Beating these in combat will provide the option of taking the slaves for yourself or setting them free after fixing up the ship for them (Mechanic needed for this action). Conversely, Acknowledging them will set up a temporary trading post where the player can buy from or sell slaves to the encountered slavers.
And that's the basis of the idea I had without any of the complex maths and specific mention of the new ship types and event types needed to make it work well. I think it could add quite a bit to the game as well as provide a stronger extensible structure for the seedier side of the game.
