(WIP) Elite Trader

[Reval]

Oh, yes - I used it before once upon a time (not this time round, though: too busy mechanically testing!) If I recall, it was a lot of fun. Thanks for the reminder.

Installing it should complement E.T. very well, rather as does Market Observer. I believe I'll add it to the Wiki page as a recommendation.

[Reval]

Elite Trader, version 1.5

Now in the Manager and on the Wiki.

More info HERE.

NEW IN VERSION 1.5:

• G.E.T. Status entry added to the Manifest screen, showing best trade to date, and the system, commodity, and ship in which it was made.
• A couple of expedient refinements in the ship-rewards system: shield and energy recharge rate increments have been reduced in the light of a Bulletin Board discussion.
• No mass-lock applies only when weapons are offline, and they must be disabled before hyperspace countdown.

Trade well!

[Reval]

Elite Trader, version 1.6

Now in the Manager and on the Wiki.

More info HERE.

NEW IN VERSION 1.6:

• Refinements and improvements in the Best Trade logic: G.E.T. Status on the Manifest screen now takes into account individual sales of individual commodities and lists these, while aggregating all separate profits made at the same station.

Trade well!

[Reval]

Elite Trader, version 1.8 (includes 1.7)

Now in the Manager and on the Wiki.

More info HERE.

NEW IN VERSION 1.8:

• Added the obvious to G.E.T. Status: total profit for the current station.
• Further improvements to the selling logic: all good trades are acknowledged and complimented (though only one still scores).
• Free G.E.T. fast-dock facilities are now available at every station via autopilot (C-key). GETters no longer need to install a separate auto-dock OXP or fork out over 1000 credits for Docking Computers.

Trade well!

[Reval]

Oh, and do consider trying the new GETTER HUD, now at least unofficially part of Elite Trader: A compact Trader's and Explorer's HUD based on the standard HUD, with digital speed readout, re-coloured scanner, compass, gauges, MFD and legends. Cargo hold contents are shown in place of missile loadout.

[Reval]

Elite Trader, version 1.9

Now in the Manager and on the Wiki.

More info HERE.

NEW IN VERSION 1.9:

• Total profit now applies to the System as a whole: allowing for in-system trading, along with buying and selling at multiple stations in the same system.
• Cumulative profit is given alongside compliments on the Market screen.

Trade well!

[Cholmondely]

Elite Trader, version 1.9

Now in the Manager and on the Wiki.

More info HERE.

NEW IN VERSION 1.9:

• Total profit now applies to the System as a whole: allowing for in-system trading, along with buying and selling at multiple stations in the same system.
• Cumulative profit is given alongside compliments on the Market screen.

Trade well!

Righty-ho! We've now got another virtual game in itself: elite ranking with different emphases, special start, ships, cargo containers, HUD etc. Super - and well done!

Have you given any thought as to your guild-houses? Will they be inside the usual orbital stations or will they be separate orbitals? Or a mix of both? Will you be using something like BeeTLeBeTHLeHeM's LifeInTheFrontier (his first version, I think) to generate activity inside the guild house? What is in the guildhouse? What are the guild treasures?

Are there any other ideas about how the game might be modified or added to to enable all this?

What about the guild and its structure? How about a charter or some such which inter-alia lays out for the members what is expected and what they will get clobbered for? Who are the famous guild members? Is the guild dominated by the Corporate states?

[Reval]

Elite Trader, version 1.9

Now in the Manager and on the Wiki.

More info HERE.

NEW IN VERSION 1.9:

• Total profit now applies to the System as a whole: allowing for in-system trading, along with buying and selling at multiple stations in the same system.
• Cumulative profit is given alongside compliments on the Market screen.

Trade well!

Righty-ho! We've now got another virtual game in itself

Yes, it does seem to be heading that way, despite an earlier vow of simplicity! (Brother Spara proven correct in his prediction).

Have you given any thought as to your guild-houses? Will they be inside the usual orbital stations or will they be separate orbitals? Or a mix of both? Will you be using something like BeeTLeBeTHLeHeM's LifeInTheFrontier (his first version, I think) to generate activity inside the guild house? What is in the guildhouse? What are the guild treasures?

Clearly, my vague model is the mediaeval guilds - masons and so forth, who maintained Guild Houses (Halls) in various cities and towns. So stations are the obvious places to establish them, especially as Guild activity consists exclusively of space-trading.

G.E.T. lives by one abiding and governing Rule: Trade well, refrain from combat, aid and support your Brother Trader, whoever and wherever he/she/it may be. In that we are approaching Freemasonry, but there is also a quasi-monastic aspect to the Order. Grades and titles will need to be thought of...

Are there any other ideas about how the game might be modified or added to to enable all this?

Busy working on a G.E.T. Advisory for the F4 Interfaces screen as we speak... ideas are welcomed. PM me!

What about the guild and its structure? How about a charter or some such which inter-alia lays out for the members what is expected and what they will get clobbered for? Who are the famous guild members? Is the guild dominated by the Corporate states?

I hope somehow to work all or some of that into the G.E.T. Advisory system interface. Something along the lines of what I already have on the Wiki...

Structure, hmm... Every System Guild is under a Master. The current Grand Master, Exoloön, resides at Inera. The G.E.T. can number technicians and mechanics among its members, as well as teamsters (Traders), who drive - not fly - their craft. Again, think Freemasonry, and you won't go far wrong...

Many thanks for your input and kind words of encouragement!
Dor Reval of Xexedi, Space Grocer

[Reval]

Elite Trader, version 1.10

Now in the Manager and on the Wiki.

More info HERE.

NEW IN VERSION 1.10:

Introduces two G.E.T. entries to the F4 Interfaces screen:

• G.E.T. Master Advisory. The System Guild Master offers salutation and advice to trader acolytes.
• G.E.T. Max Trade Resetter offers the opportunity to set your Maximum Trade, as displayed on the Manifest screen, to the profit gained in the current system. Useful if the system glitched, or if you switched ships and now prefer a clean start.
• E.T. checks for the presence of Market Observer and, if absent, adds a 'Trade (goods): xxx.xx cr' line for each individual Market sale, after the manner of M.O.

Trade well!

[Cholmondely]

Elite Trader, version 1.9

Now in the Manager and on the Wiki.

More info HERE.

NEW IN VERSION 1.9:

• Total profit now applies to the System as a whole: allowing for in-system trading, along with buying and selling at multiple stations in the same system.
• Cumulative profit is given alongside compliments on the Market screen.

Trade well!

Righty-ho! We've now got another virtual game in itself

Yes, it does seem to be heading that way, despite an earlier vow of simplicity! (Brother Spara proven correct in his prediction).

Have you given any thought as to your guild-houses? Will they be inside the usual orbital stations or will they be separate orbitals? Or a mix of both? Will you be using something like BeeTLeBeTHLeHeM's LifeInTheFrontier (his first version, I think) to generate activity inside the guild house? What is in the guildhouse? What are the guild treasures?

Clearly, my vague model is the mediaeval guilds - masons and so forth, who maintained Guild Houses (Halls) in various cities and towns. So stations are the obvious places to establish them, especially as Guild activity consists exclusively of space-trading.

G.E.T. lives by one abiding and governing Rule: Trade well, refrain from combat, aid and support your Brother Trader, whoever and wherever he/she/it may be. In that we are approaching Freemasonry, but there is also a quasi-monastic aspect to the Order. Grades and titles will need to be thought of...

Are there any other ideas about how the game might be modified or added to to enable all this?

Busy working on a G.E.T. Advisory for the F4 Interfaces screen as we speak... ideas are welcomed. PM me!

What about the guild and its structure? How about a charter or some such which inter-alia lays out for the members what is expected and what they will get clobbered for? Who are the famous guild members? Is the guild dominated by the Corporate states?

I hope somehow to work all or some of that into the G.E.T. Advisory system interface. Something along the lines of what I already have on the Wiki...

Structure, hmm... Every System Guild is under a Master. The current Grand Master, Exoloön, resides at Inera. The G.E.T. can number technicians and mechanics among its members, as well as teamsters (Traders), who drive - not fly - their craft. Again, think Freemasonry, and you won't go far wrong...

Many thanks for your input and kind words of encouragement!
Dor Reval of Xexedi, Space Grocer

So, my understanding of freemasonry is that it is imbued by Enlightenment values of autonomy and liberalism (why they used to give poor old Kaiser Bill just horrendous nightmares, for example) with oodles of ceremonial ritual tagged on. In countries already afflicted with the aforementioned enlightenment values (UK, USA) it just ends up being a sort of posh charity organisation involving aprons and rolled-up trouser-legs.

The guilds, on the other hand, had rather lost it by the time the freemasons came chugging along. They started off as syndicates representing those in a particular industry/craft - arguing their rights with the higher authorities and also acting as a trades union to keep others out of their craft - either working or selling or whatever. By the 1600s they also had a fair amount of ritual and ceremony involved.

So is it your feeling that your Guild should be fighting for Corporatism in the perfect utopian Feudal States of the eight galaxies, subverting the high principles of noblesse oblige with those of tawdry mercantilism? You night then very well need a separate Guild Master for each galaxy to wage the disparate political wars that need to be fought in each, and the Galaxian Guilds would enjoy much autonomy whilst offering the same privileges to their members. What is the relationship between the Guildmaster and the various Corporate States? And then the democracies? What on earth happens to guild members in communist states - are they the ones who end up in the astro-mines? Are there missions freeing guildmembers from ZGFs & SLAPUs?

What I was trying to get at before was the list of rules which each member must keep to enjoy his/her/etc's privileges. What is the Guild annual membership fee, for example? Which acts (sporting a missile on one's pylon? Buying gold from a hermit? Killing a pirate? etc) lead to defenstration, discombobulation or autowombatification?

[Reval]

Wow. It must be made clear that the G.E.T. is apolitical and liberal (in the original, and best, sense of that word). I said Freemasonry, but perhaps I meant its antecedents - Knights Templar and the Cistercians etc. It's a hierarchical - yet egalitarian - brotherhood. So Elite Trader will have no truck with the political organisation of the systems in which it has established its Guild Houses. It also spurns Galcop (yet, due to the G.E.T's ubiquity and power - again akin to that of the Templars in the 12th and 13th Centuries - that legislative body is constrained to tolerate it.)

And, as I mentioned, there is one Rule. If it is broken, no direct punishment will result - the Guild will simply impose its silence until the infractor demonstrates reform. All the variables are in place for this. There will be no more ship repair, refuelling, shield or speed enhancement, or any of the other privileges until a certain time period elapses and the straying Brother refrains from combat. It's really rather simple.

Oolite can be played as 'normal' (with combat) - the Guild is indifferent. But only a good Brother can truly benefit from membership.

Edit: when I say 'combat', I mean ship-killing. It is perfectly acceptable in the Guild's eyes to damage an aggressor beyond repair and force him to disengage. When you receive a message from him like "Don't kill me, please!", that's the moment to desist.

Edit2: and if you really can't resist the urge to cause explosions (and earn credits in the process), I can heartily recommend Tin of SPAM.

[Reval]

Elite Trader, version 1.11

Now in the Manager and on the Wiki.

More info HERE.

NEW IN VERSION 1.11:

• G.E.T. strictures in respect to the destruction of other ships have been tightened. Repeated ship-kills result in a permanent black mark, ruling out further speed, shield, and energy enhancements. (It is perfectly acceptable, on the other hand, to damage an aggressor beyond repair and force him to disengage. No Guild penalty results from that form of self-defence.)
• Augmented ship specs are reset to nominal after a given number of ship-kills.
• For straying Brothers, the Vow of Good Brotherhood makes its appearance on the F4 Interfaces screen: errant commanders are given the opportunity to reform. If accepted, all G.E.T. privileges are restored.

Trade well!

[Cholmondely]

Elite Trader

Is this of any interest?

(click blue arrow above for link!)

I've had a couple of requests to post my modifications to HOopy Casinos and Your Ad Here that limits their appearance to Corporate systems only, thus making a de facto system OXP out of them in the same mode as Commies, Anarchies, Dictators, etc.

A couple of disclaimers: First, I'm using very very old versions of both OXP's because I'm trying to keep the retro look to my game. I cannot guarantee this modification will work with the current versions. Second, my change to YAH is designed only to populate the billboards at the Witchpoint and Navigation beacon, it does nothing to Constores themselves (personally I've removed them completely, as all I wanted was billboards).

....

[Reval]

For the future possibility of adding Guild Stations to ET, you mean? ... Yes, G.E.T. stations are on the list for much, much later. Thanks for the pointer.

[Cholmondely]

Your wiki page is looking more and more interesting!

Why not include the Vow of Good Brotherhood on it?