SpecialEvents.oxp: varying the in-game economy

Commander McLane · Post by **Commander McLane** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 9:46 am

I have continued to think of the possibility to script events that in a randomized way influence the commodity-prices in certain systems. The idea derives from the Dynamic Ooniverse- (see the "Acts of God"-idea) and the MMORPG-threads.

I'm giving it its own thread here, because it has nothing to do with the server- or multiplayer-idea.

LittleBear has come up with the possibility of substituting the main station of a system with a clone that can have different market-prices. So events like this and their influence on prices are (or at least should be) scriptable.

Now I've made up a list of possible events that could influence the prices of one commodity or another in one way or another. This list is a first draft. Comments and opinions are welcome!

1. A drought has raised the price of food on XXX
2. A good harvest has dropped the price of food in XXX
3. A fashion revolution has raised the price of textiles in XXX
4. An overproduction has dropped the price of textiles in XXX
5. Growing demands of the nuclear industry have raised the price of radioactives in XXX
6. A new mining method has dropped the price of radioactives in XXX
7. Growing demands have raised the price of slaves in XXX
8. The conquest of a new province has dropped the price of slaves in XXX
9. A planetary festival has raised the price of liquor/wines in XXX
10. An overproduction has dropped the price of liquor/wines in XXX
11. A new hedonistic religion has raised the price of luxuries in XXX
12. A new ascetic religion has dropped the price of luxuries in XXX
13. A dangerous disease has raised the price of narcotics in XXX
14. A newly developed synthetic drug has dropped the price of narcotics in XXX
15. A solar flare has raised the price of computers in XXX
16. A new generation of thinking machines has dropped the price of computers in XXX
17. A gigantic building project has raised the price of machinery in XXX
18. An overproduction has dropped the price of machinery in XXX
19. A gigantic building project has raised the price of alloys in XXX
20. A newly discovered source of ore has dropped the price of alloys in XXX
21. An armed conflict has raised the price of firearms in XXX
22. The end of an armed conflict has dropped the price of firearms in XXX
23. The extinction of an indigenous animal has raised the price of furs in XXX
24. A trumble invasion has dropped the price of furs in XXX
25. Growing factory demands have raised the price of minerals in XXX
26. A recent asteroid storm has dropped the price of minerals in XXX
27. An inflation has raised the price of gold in XXX
28. A newly exploited goldmine has dropped the price of gold in XXX
29. Newly imposed market restrictions have raised the price of platinum in XXX
30. A failed speculation has dropped the price of platinum in XXX
31. Growing demands of jewellery have raised the price of gem-stones in XXX
32. A newly discovered source of ore has dropped the price of gem-stones in XXX

The list is complete in that it has en event for every commodity to raise or drop its price. I don't think it's necessary to include all 32 of them in the script. To have a random choice of 20 or 25 would be fine (these could be divided evenly with a d100_number).

a) Obviously not all of these events make the same kind of sense, either in terms of general logic or game-wise. As for general logic: Feel free to add other ideas as to for what reason the price of a certain commodity could rise or fall.

b) Gamewise it doesn't make much sense to change prices that by default are close to the possible extremes. These extremes are 0.4 cr as the smallest and 102 cr as the biggest possible price. The engine doesn't allow for anything bigger or smaller. So e.g. number 2 is a perfectly logical event, but as food-prices are pretty low by default it wouldn't be much of an incentive to travel to that planet.

The same is (more or less) true for numbers 4, 11, 13, 14, 15 and 21, because the prices of these commodities can be very close to the extremes, but don't need to. It would just be that the extreme price--which is always possible for these commodities--would be guaranteed on that planet for some time.

c) For reasons of gameplay I would prefer events which tend to bring the market to the other extreme eventually. E.g. number 1: Eventually the planet would be flooded with foreign aid, bringing the internal market to a complete collaps (as happens usually in RealLifeTM). This would introduce an element of timing, like in passenger- or cargo-contracts. If the player arrives within a certain time-interval he makes a good profit. If he arrives afterwards the prices have dropped (or raised) again and he will only be able to sell or buy with a loss. Or the market is flooded (already 127 units on the station--no selling possible) or drained (0 units to buy). Not all my events may fall under this category. Additional suggestions would be appreciated here.

d) If this is going to be scripted we would need somebody who can give these bony short descriptions some flesh, so to speak. So anybody interested in turning the hard facts into a couple of nice mission-screens? Captain Hesperus, perhaps?

Captain Hesperus · Post by **Captain Hesperus** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 10:43 am

I'll give it a try, give me a couple of days.

1.
++News Flash++
Aid agency, Intergalactic Rescue, are appealing for assistance with the drought-striken world of XXX. While they are able to manage medical supplies, food reserves are running low. Saz Eto, spokesman for IR, made this statement, "We are willing to pay premium prices for food shipments in this critical time."

Captain Hesperus

Arexack_Heretic · Post by **Arexack_Heretic** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 11:04 am

Not all 'events' need to have effects the player can interact with.
Case in point: the newspaperarticles in EFFE, in which not all articles had influence on the price of battleweapons in civilwar areas for example.

Killer Wolf · Post by **Killer Wolf** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 11:27 am

E.g. number 1: Eventually the planet would be flooded with foreign aid, bringing the internal market to a complete collaps

oooh, or like Black Hawk Down, pirate groups could seize the shipment and create anarchy and another sub-mission set : "Famine-struck xxxx has been ravaged by opportunistic pirates - premium bounties will be paid to any pilot helping clear this threat to our emergency supply shipments."

...maybe??

Captain Hesperus · Post by **Captain Hesperus** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 11:43 am

Killer Wolf wrote:
oooh, or like Black Hawk Down, pirate groups could seize the shipment and create anarchy and another sub-mission set : "Famine-struck xxxx has been ravaged by opportunistic pirates - premium bounties will be paid to any pilot helping clear this threat to our emergency supply shipments."

Hehehehehehehe! Splat a pirate for premium bounty, sell Food cargo for premium profit.

Guguguguguguguh
<Brain implodes from thinking about possible profits>

+++News Flash+++
The GalCop Centre for Disease Research and Containment have issued an alert regarding the 'Profit-related Cranial Implosion Pseudovirus'. PCIP is prevalent in credit-crammers who specialise in selling goods in systems experiencing natural or civil disasters. The GCCDRC has yet to discover if the Pseudovirus is actually contagious.

Captain Hesperus
-recovering from cranial reconstruction and neural reconfiguring. There's no side-effects, honest. Flibble.

Killer Wolf · Post by **Killer Wolf** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 12:22 pm

there's other fairly unpleasant tasks too :
"Commander : due to the outbreak of the deadly (xxx) virus, GalCop have requested your help whilst they are busy keeping order on the planet and station. Given the extremely infectious nature of this lethal disease we can NOT allow it to spread to other systems, and your help is requested in maintaining our quarantine. You are therefore required to intercept any ships attempting to Witchspace out of the area. Jamming systems are in operation preventing jump drives engaging w/in <xxx> kilometres of the Station : any ship venturing beyond this boundary must be considered attempitng to evacuate. and are therefore a health risk. if these vessels do not respond to your warning shots, you are tasked w/ destroying them before they can jump."

Arexack_Heretic · Post by **Arexack_Heretic** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 12:40 pm

And following them when they do. then destroy them before they can dock.
also destroy any crates or debris left over after your grim task is done.
scooping any should contaminate all cargo: resulting in your being quarantined as well AND cargo being confiscated at docking.

Killer Wolf · Post by **Killer Wolf** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 1:01 pm

never thought of that! yeah, could pop through the wormhole to continue the pursuit, awesome idea!

another - a cargo hauler taking bodies to the sun for incineration could be attacked by a terrorist group aiming to scoop the bodies and infect other places. same drill - defend, kill, hunt if needed.

Arexack_Heretic · Post by **Arexack_Heretic** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 1:34 pm

AH!

That remnds me: I was working on a funereal sun-diver python before I retired for a while.

I'll get it out of the mothballs when you get to programming that part.

Murgh made a nice coffin model, which was nicer than my own,
but for mass dumping of corpses a basic corpse-shape in a whitish shroud/bodybag may be more applicable.

(scooping fuel: "ejectItem: coffin", "pauseAI:5.0")

Gareth3377 · Post by **Gareth3377** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 5:58 pm

These sound awesome. Slowly but surely the vision of Elite created by Mr. Holdstock is being realised. Good work guys.

Captain Hesperus · Post by **Captain Hesperus** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 6:54 pm

Gareth3377 wrote:
These sound awesome. Slowly but surely the vision of Elite created by Mr. Holdstock is being realised. Good work guys.

You said it. No offense to Mesrs. Bell and Braben, but if the coders and OXPers on this board had been employed as developers, then Elite would have become legendary! People to day would say 'Yeah, the stuff on the new consoles is good, but none of it'd measure up to Elite'.

Captain Hesperus

Cmdr. Maegil · Post by **Cmdr. Maegil** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 7:07 pm

What are youu saying

Elite IS legendary, or we the hardcore diehard fans would have scampered a long time ago. A classic is something that stands the test of time.

The only other game that I can say has achieved something like the spirit of Elite is Tai-Pan, and it only came much later.

Edit: Funny that the wiki doesn't say anything about it. Here's the links to the spectrum version of the game.

A review, so you won't loose time if it doesn't interest you
http://www.crashonline.org.uk/43/taipan.htm
My only regrets about the game are that you don't have an inventory screen

and can't catch siphilis on the brothels

...

You'll need an emulator for 128K - it also runs on the 48 but you'd have to load the section each time you make landfall/cast off.
http://www.worldofspectrum.org/emulators.html
For windows, I took the Gleck

The game itself is on
http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseek ... id=0005114
I recommend the Erbe version. Have fun!

Arexack_Heretic · Post by **Arexack_Heretic** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 7:20 pm

what is Taipan?

Nice name for a ship though, wasn't it one in ArcEalite

LittleBear · Post by **LittleBear** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 7:29 pm

BBC Elite = 32K. MissionText for Assassins.oxp (IE Just the text that appears on screens to tell you what your missions are) = 52K. The beauty of the Elite code was cramming such a detailed universe into the space of a moden 1 page Word document!

Arexack_Heretic · Post by **Arexack_Heretic** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 7:37 pm

Just noticed why my script was being ignored... I put it in a Folder named Script in stead of Config...

The price of taking a break.