Oolite Bulletins

Griff wrote:

to be honest I think it looks better the oolite way with the 3 pentagons on the underside

Mike Evans, Designer- Elite: Dangerous wrote:

Hello!

Below you'll find a revised version of the Background Simulation proposal for you to look over.

Cheers,
-Mike

Goals
The goals of the background simulation are as follows:

• Politics
  • Create a dynamic, evolving galaxy
  • Generate interesting events
  • These can then be used to create missions
  • Respond to player activities
  • Player activities should have greater impact
  • Respond to injected events
  • Respond to generated events (chain effect)
• Economy
  • Create a dynamic economy
  • Populate markets (quantities and prices)
  • Be relatively predictable (to aid player understanding)
  • Generate interesting events
  • These events can be used to create missions
  • Respond to player activities
  • Player activities should have greater impact
  • Respond to injected events
  • Respond to generated effects (chain effects)

The requirements for both the political and economic simulations are similar, potentially similar enough that they can be driven by the same system, which is something we will explore with this design.

The simulation also provides data for NPC traffic generation, modified by local conditions.

From a technical perspective the following goals are also required:

• Low overhead for processing
• Low overhead for data storage
• Low data access requirements

What the simulation is not

• It does not provide faction command, this will be done by designers by injecting events
  • Although the system should provide aggregated data to help guide these events
• It does not provide a fine detailed simulation of human space in the galaxy
  • Note that it does provide the framework for a living galaxy as required in the goals

What defines a simulation entity
A simulation entity is the lowest unit to which the simulation applies, this will typically mean a system or a world within a system. Note that an entity can support multiple markets

A system can include multiple entities.

New entities can be added or destroyed at any time via events.

An entity has a number of variables. Each of those variables defines what events the simulation creates.

• Government type
  • The government type is one of a list of predetermined types. The types apply a range of modifiers to the base values for system. For example communism, or democracy
  • Government types provide inherent modifiers for issues like corruption and distribution of wealth
  • The list of government types is listed below:
    • None (There is not a significant population to require gobernance)
    • Anarchy
    • Commune
    • Communism
    • Corporate
    • Cult
    • Democracy
    • Dictatorship
    • Feudal
    • Republic
    • Theocracy
    • Federation Democracy Imperial Republic
• State
  • The entity’s state applies special modifiers, depending on the state
  • Changes in state are created via events – usually injected events
  • An entity’s state will sometimes modify events and associated missions that are generated
  • A list of states and their effects are shown below:
    • Peace – this is the default state, there are no modifiers
    • Unrest – this state indicates internal conflict with no other named entity involvement
      • Has a negative effect on Standard of Living, Security and Wealth
    • Civil war – this state indicates internal civil war without an external named entity (note that civil war with named entities is simply a war
      • Has a negative effect on Standard of Living, Security and Wealth
      • Development level is frozen while in civil war
    • War – the entity is at war with another entity
      • Has a negative effect on Standard of Living, Security and Wealth
      • Markets require weapons even if not normally stocked
    • War (Losing) – Entity is losing a war against another entity
      • Has a negative effect on Standard of Living, Security, Population, Development Level and Wealth
      • Markets require weapons even if not normally stocked
    • War (Winning) – The entity is winning a war against another entity
      • Has a negative effect on Security and Wealth
      • Markets require weapons even if not normally stocked
    • Famine – The entity is not able to support it’s own population through normal means – typically only affects agricultural worlds, although other worlds that are not importing enough food can slip into this state
      • All food production is removed
      • Market requirements for food increased
      • Has a negative effect on Standard of Living, Wealth and Population
    • Outbreak (Minor) – A minor pandemic has broken out in the entity’s environment
      • Markets cannot export food or medical items (except machinery if applicable)
      • Has a negative influence on Standard of Living and Wealth
    • Outbreak (Major) – major and lethal pandemic breaks out in the entity’s location
      • Markets cannot export food or medical items (except machinery if applicable)
      • Has a negative influence on Standard of Living, Population and Wealth
      • Development level is frozen
      • Entity will be quarantined
    • Outbreak (Apocalyptic) – extremely lethal and contagious disease widespread in entity’s location
      • Markets cannot export anything
      • Has a negative influence on Standard of Living, Population, Development Level and Wealth
      • Development level is frozen
    • Weather (Severe) – Severe weather (includes earthquakes and other natural disasters)
      • Has a negative influence on Standard of Living and Wealth
    • Elections – The entity is in the process of elections
    • Special events – these are determined on a case by case basis, for example space weather)
• Economy type
  • The economy type is a broad indication of the primary income generation for the system. This usually reflects what the main exports are. They also determine what items are generally available in the markets.Agricultural
  • Industrial (Civilian)
  • Industrial (Military)
  • Government
  • Mineral
  • Service
  • Tourist
• Population
  • The population size of a planet is used to measure the effects of changes or player activities. It is also used to modify the availability of items in associated markets
  • Population size can be affected by events
• Development Level
  • This a broad indicator for how advanced the colony is. It provides modifiers for the various variables of the entity. In a broad sense it is an indicator of how well the entity can absorb change, shortfalls and so forth. It also represents the entities ability to support itself through contact via other entities
• Standard of Living (SOL)
  • The standard of living variable indicates how good life is for the average member of the entity’s population. A high standard of living requires adequate essentials (such as food) as well as luxury items. This will also affect the availability (and demand) for such items in the markets
  • A low SOL indicates a poor standard of living for the population, in situations with low stocks of essentials like food this indicates an event like a famine
  • Manipulation of the markets either directly through trade or indirectly by blockade will change the SOL appropriately
• Security
  • The security value represents the security situation for the entity. The higher the value, the more secure the population feels and vice versa
  • The security value can be modified by direct player action, acts of piracy will lower the security while bounty hunting will increase it
• Wealth
  • The wealth variable indicates the accumulated wealth of the entity. The entity can use its wealth to generate events to boost its other values and as such acts as a cushion for negative changes. It also indicates the strength of the economy and feeds into prices
  • Note the while SOL and wealth are connected, they are not the same thing
  • Players can influence wealth in a number of ways, generous trading will increase wealth, while reducing profit margins for the locals will reduce wealth. Destroying entity assets will impact on wealth, and influencing security and SOL will also have a knock on effect

Bi-Modal Simulation Tick
The simulation runs in two distinct modes (although the evaluation of each mode generates the same events). The first is based on player activities, once an activity type reaches a threshold for the entity, the impact is applied and any events generated.

As well as player effects we also want periodic change driven by the simulation itself.

Player Activity Thresholds
Player activities within the associated volume for the entity are tallied into various influences. These influences have a direct effect on the entity’s stats. The tracked activities are as follows:

• Development level
  • Negative impact
    • Failed development missions
  • Positive impact
    • Completed development missions
• Standard of Living
  • Negative impact
    • Failed standard of living missions
  • Positive impact
    • Completed standard of living missions
    • Completed trades that add to the entity’s essential goods
• Security
  • Negative impact
    • Piracy
    • Murder
    • Failed security missions
  • Positive impact
    • Bounties collected
    • Completed security missions
• Wealth
  • Negative impact
    • Issuing missions
    • Losses made on trade by entity
  • Positive impact
    • Profits made by entity

Thresholds for the activities are set depending on the entity’s population, development level and modifiers from government types as applicable. A count for each activity is maintained; note that it is the net between positive and negative actions that is used to determine any change. Missions are weighted more heavily in the count than general actions. Once the net effect reaches the threshold value then an event is generated. The activity counts are reset and the threshold value recalculated based on the new statistics if needed.

Note that wealth is not a triggered threshold, but is included as it does change depending on circumstances and is required for generating remedial missions.

Generated Events
When a threshold has been triggered then the entity creates an event, this is typically a mission designed to address the problem, although this will cost the entity some of its wealth. If the entity has no wealth then an event cannot be created, however a message will be generated for the monitoring developers (see intervention triggers).

Periodic change can also create events.

The government type determines whether an event should be generated for the triggered threshold.

If the government type allows it then an event (and associated mission) is generated. These will follow the same pattern as the activity thresholds list, so for example a bounty hunter mission will be generated if the security variable is reduced.

Periodic Change
The periodic development of entities is handled by a periodic scan of each entity. The entity’s variables are analysed and adjustments made. If any changes change a value across a given minimum then an event is created in the same way as if an activity threshold was crossed.

Currently the frequency will be set at a daily (real time) tick. However this may require altering once in place.

Faction Support
For entities that belong to a faction (the Alliance, Federation and Empire) there is a safety net provided by those factions. When an entity attempts to generate an event and lacks the wealth to do so it uses its faction’s lookup table to generate a faction event for the event type.

For example an Imperial system has been plagued with pirates; it has issued missions which no player has completed. This cycle continues, with more player pirates pushing the entity into a downward spiral. Eventually it is no longer able to generate missions and so receives a faction support event. This is an Imperial task force of a cruiser with several squadrons of fighters. These suppress the pirates and order is restored.

Government Collapse
When an entity attempts to issue an event and cannot (and it doesn’t have faction support) then the entity’s government collapses and is set to none.

Injected Events and Intervention
Events that affect entities can be injected into the game that can directly change an entity’s statistics. This mechanism can be used to add specific events to the game, like civil wars, economic collapse and major story items.

Intervention messages are a failsafe in the system. When an entity’s stats reach set levels (a minimum and a maximum) a message is sent to whoever is monitoring the galaxy highlighting possible collapse or expansion opportunities. They can then be used to manually add events as desired.

Markets and Trading
Each entity can have one or more markets. A market is defined as a place where the player trades with NPC’s. Typically this will be at space stations, ship yards, pirate and smuggler bases. The entity defines what commodities are available and their prices, although the markets will also modify these.

As with the political events, economic events occur in a bi-modal tick. The periodic method is a check of the entity’s markets and any adjustments made. The other method is the threshold system of players trades that works in a similar fashion to the player activity thresholds.

Events can change what entity owns a particular market. They can also destroy and create markets.

Calculating base prices
Base prices are initially calculated as a function of economy type, government type, development level and population.

For example a largely populated agricultural world with a high development level would have cheaper food prices than an equivalent industrial world.

Prices have a universal minimum and maximum price cap to prevent catastrophic price failures and exploits.

Rare Goods
Entities which have a sufficiently high development level may start creating rare goods based on their primary economic output, e.g. an agri-world could generate a rare foodstuff.

Rare goods can be anything that the market produces, so this can include ships and ship modules.

Periodic Market Analysis
On a periodic basis (daily) the market for each entity is analysed and updated depending upon the analysis. This analysis is performed before the political simulation so that any economic changes are taken into account.

The major components of that analysis are as follows:

• Restock markets
  • The markets for the entity are restocked according to the type of market, the commodities that the entity produces (these are also affected by the development level, government, entity state and economy types)
  • There are caps to the maximum capacity for each commodity determined by the market type. Larger stations can hold more goods for sale. These caps also limit player sales, so if a market is already full of food, no more food can sold to that market
  • Note that the restock quantities are representative (scaled by population size and development level). We do not have an agricultural world producing a million tons of food per day
• Calculate wealth adjustment
  • The current trade for the system is calculated and the net effect is applied to the entity’s wealth
• Standard of Living (SOL)
  • The entities standard of living is processed, quantities of essential goods are removed from the markets. The removed quantities are representative values scaled by population and development level, we are not modelling planetary scale use of commodities
  • Commodities are grouped for essentials and luxuries. If there is a shortfall then the SOL is reduced appropriately. Surpluses of essentials will increase SOL, but only to a maximum of 50%. Shortfalls of luxury items reduce SOL, but to a minimum of 50%. Surpluses of luxury items increase the SOL, but only if the SOL is at 50% or higher
• Recalculate prices
  • For the remaining quantities of each commodity a new price is calculated, based on a ratio determined by a lookup table from the price at the beginning of the analysis process. For example if the commodity now has a stock level of 50% higher, the price per unit will drop by 25%
  • Prices are also changed according to any variance for component commodities. For example if a market sells food and the price of fertilizer increases then so will the unit price of food
• Reset trace counters
  • The accumulated counters for the trade thresholds are all reset
• Reset thresholds
  • The thresholds for each commodity are reset depending on the updated stock levels

Market Thresholds
In the same way the political events are triggered by player activity thresholds, price and stock changes are triggered by player trades.

For stock availability this correlation is direct to the trade, so purchasing 100 units reduces the stock level by 100 units and vice versa.

Prices are not quite as volatile as stock levels, they require accumulated trades to trigger price changes.

For each commodity the entity creates a threshold level for price increases and drops. The threshold is determined using the entity’s economy type, government type and development level. The unit quantity for each trade is applied to the relevant counter for each commodity, when the counter reaches the threshold for a change the change is triggered.

Inflation
The economy is not a balanced system of checks and balances, but a system of causes being used to generate effects. As such there is a danger of inflation (where players accumulate so much money that it is effectively devalued).

This issue can only be completely eradicated if money is destroyed in the same quantity that is being created. As the game is focused on positive effects (from the player’s perspective), with only some negative effects, this is not an achievable goals.

To combat inflation there needs to be suitable money sinks that the player spends money on reducing the cash in the player economy.

It should be noted that players getting richer is not the same as inflation and is desirable. However we should ensure that at all times there are interesting spend choices. [/color]

Griff wrote:

The new newsletter is out! Has some cool stuff for us old timers:
http://us2.campaign-archive1.com/?u=dcb ... 94dad3b09c
Isn't the Asp upside down though?
The artwork they've putting out is amazing though, the game's going to look great!

Michael Brookes, Senior Producer wrote:

Goals

• Provide the player with understanding of their current location
• Provide useful information to enable the player to make interesting decisions
• Encourage the player to visit new locations
• Easy to use
• Be a fun toy for exploring the scope of the galaxy

Presentation & Interfaces

• Galactic map is a standard module in all cockpitsMap is presented as a 3D hologram in the cockpitPlayer can zoom differing levels of view (From whole galaxy down to stations)
  • Analogue Zoom mechanism
    • Seamless from entire galaxy down to stations
• Presets
  • Whole galaxy
    • Shows key landmark systems
    • Shows key landmark celestial objects
  • Zones
    • Human space
    • Federation space
    • Imperial space
    • Alliance space
    • Orion spur
  • Sectors
    • 10 x 10 x 10 ly
    • Shows currently selected sector
  •  Systems
• Filters used to control what is displayed (see Filters Section)
• Quick return ability to return to system player is currently in
• Search facility
  • Player types name of objects
  • Search returns list
  • Selecting item on list selects that location
• Favourites/Bookmark
  • Player has list of selected locations
  • Locations can be added and removed from list
  • Selecting location on list selects that location
• • Galaxy view
  • Core visualisation modes
    • 3D mode
      • Two camera types
        • Point and click – select stars for zoom enabled orbit camera mode
        • Flythrough – camera can be flown through the map
      • Vertical slice mode
        • Fixed orientation camera (think top down tactical style map)
        • Move up and down through slices
        • Only stars in the slice are displayed
        • Slider control moves slice through galaxy width
  • Systems represented in 3D space
  • Hover (or other mechanism) brings up minimal information for system
    • System name
    • Faction
    • Potential to allow expanded details to be expanded further by hovering on them
  • Select system to view more information
    • System name
    • Faction
    • Major planets
    • Major stations
• System View
  • Core visualisation Modes
    • Realistic
      • Correctly scaled object sizes
      • Correctly scaled distances
      • Correctly scaled positions
      • Correctly scaled object movement
    • Logarithmic Scale
      • System is scaled so that objects are easily viewed
      • Motions scaled to provide interest
  • Hover over object to bring up minimal information
    • Name
    • Object type
  • Select object to bring up detailed information
    • Name
    • Type
    • Meta data
    • Places of Interest
  • Selected object can be made target for in-system jump (Placeholder until in-system travel mechanisms confirmed)

Filters

• Systems
  • Toggles can be used to control what systems are displayed in galaxy view
    • All
    • Bright systems
    • Dark systems
    • Economy type
    • Government type
    • Population
    • Stellar classification
    • Landmark objects (nebula, pulsars etc...)
    • In range systems
    • Missions
    • Allegiance
    • Has station
    • Has shipyard
    • Explored
    • Not explored
    • Contacts
    • Events
    • Distance
      • Configurable fade-offs
• Aides
  • Various aids to using the map can be toggled on an off
    • Galactic plane
    • Absolute
    • True galactic plane
      • Systems shown with stalks to indicate separation from plane
      • Becomes less useful when further away from plane
    • Relative
      • Artificial plane created based on the height of the selected system from the real galactic plane
      • Systems shown with stalks to indicate separation from plane
  • Sector box
    • Bounding box for sectors
  • Sector grid
    • Distance faded sector grid
  • Compass/View Gizmo
    • Shows direction to galactic centre
    • Allows shortcuts to specific camera views
• Data
  • Toggles can be used to control what additional data can be displayed
    • None
    • Trading
      • Value
      • Quantity
      • Profit
      • Loss
      • Trade routes
      • Production
    • Piracy
    • Bounties collected
    • Traffic
    • War zones
    • Wealth
    • Standard of Living
    • Development level
    • Security
    • Commander deaths
    • Factions
    • Player history
      • Trading
      • Travel
      • Combat
      • Exploration
      • Beacons
    • Friends/Groups
      • Current locations

Upgrades

• Map can be upgraded by purchasing new software modules
• Data in map can be expanded by purchasing data packets
  • System locations
  • Object locations
• Data in map can be upgraded via sensor data

Example Use Cases

• Plotting a hyperspace jump
  • Automatic course
    • Origin already selected (current system)
    • Player selects destination system
    • Select plot course
    • Sat Nav style options for configuring route
      • Quickest route
      • Safest route
    • If there is a viable route then this is displayed, the destination is locked into the hyperspace computer so if jump initiated this is the target
  • Manual course
    • Origin already selected (current system)
    • Player selects destination
      • If within jump range and has enough fuel then add as hyperspace target
    • Repeat above, but add new points to the jump chain
    • Player confirms last jump and jump is locked
• How do I find the system/planet/station that I have named?
  • Open the search box
  • Type in target name
  • Select from returned list
• I have a cargo of beans, where can I sell it
  • Activate filter to show trading data
  • Activate filter to show non-agricultural systems
  • Select system with low trading traffic and attempt to plot course
• I am a bounty hunter and looking for new targets
  • Activate piracy filter
  • Activate security level filter
  • Systems with high piracy and low security should be good hunting grounds
• I am an explorer and want to find somewhere new
  • Activate not explored filter
  • Select system within range not explored

Michael Brookes, Senior Producer wrote:

Here's the new DDF topic about the Galaxy Map. What we are mainly looking for is what information you would expect from the galaxy map and how you use it. Comments on interface would be useful as well.

For example if you're playing with a joystick, would you be happy to use a mouse as well? Or keyboard shortcuts? Keep these specific to the map, we'll be covering controls in a future topic, but the galaxy map is a special case.

Thanks!
Michael

Dan Davies, Designer- Elite: Dangerous wrote:

To become a Bounty Hunter is a career choice in Elite: Dangerous, it is also a way to make money that any ship can participate in. Bounties can be collected by any player that kills a ship with a bounty on their head. To become a truly skilled and effective Bounty Hunter a player will need to have the right ship and the right equipment for the job

Key Characteristics of a Bounty Hunter

• They hunt and destroy ships to collect their bounty reward
• Travel large distances to track down targets and prefers ships with a large hyperspace range to help them do so
• When they attack a target they want to destroy them convincingly. They prefer taking better weaponry over heavy armour that might slow them down and limit their ability to chase targets
• They like the ability to identify and investigate their targets without getting noticed. They rely on ships that have good heat management and stealth ability.
• They require good scanners and similar equipment, not only to locate and discover targets, but also to size them up to find weaknesses
• They prefer the biggest and best weaponry, going for effectiveness and heat efficiency wherever possible, even it if means paying through the nose.
• Bounty Hunter ships and equipment are top of the line and expensive to match, but the rewards can be large. However, we do intend to make sure their overall profit gain is balanced against other player roles.

Being a Skilled Bounty Hunter

• Getting kills without response from the law
  • Ambushing targets when they are not in factional sanctuary
• Getting kills without taking damage
  • Making the best use of their weapons and stealth to finish a target before they can properly retaliate
• Killing targets with large bounties
  • There will be a wide range of targets for a player to choose from based on their ability and their ship
  • Top end targets can be found flying in some of the best ships in game, but will take a truly skilled Bounty Hunter to take them down.
• Planning kills in advance to take advantage of weak spots in a target
  • Using stealth to scan and weigh up a target before attacking to give them the advantage

Bounty Collection

• Player discovers a bounty, this can happen two ways
  • Scanning another ship with the appropriate equipment to reveal that they have a bounty
  • Finding a bounty listed on the bulletin board, giving them a rough location
    • They will then have to scan again to confirm they have the right ship
• Once they have confirmed the ship they are targeting has a bounty they are free to engage
• Once they have killed their target they receive a bounty chip for that kill
• They can then return to a station and cash it in for the reward

This is how we see the role of Bounty Hunter working in the game, what do you think?

Discuss[/color]

Using stealth to scan and weigh up a target before attacking to give them the advantage

Wolfwood wrote:

Using stealth to scan and weigh up a target before attacking to give them the advantage

Only thing I can think of to criticize is that "scanning" a target sounds like active sensors and that does not go very well with "stealth" - surely the other craft will detect if they are scanned, rather than just observed?

Disembodied wrote:

One question which is tangentially related: can players (either individually or collectively) post bounties on other players? I suppose such things could be arranged via other communication channels either inside or outside of the game, but would it be possible to put a price on someone's head, in-game, via the bulletin boards? Or are bulletin boards read-only? Letting players write on in-game bulletin boards brings up all manner of other issues, right enough ...

Gimi wrote:

The question has been asked in the DDF, but no answer has been given so far (It was actually the first question that came up ).
Also, player generated bounties may overlap with the Assassins career path, so I suppose all the different careers need to be seen as a whole eventually. As for how the the bulletin boards will work, no info yet as far as I know.

Mike Evans, Designer- Elite: Dangerous wrote:

Hello!

Below is our revised proposal for multiple ship ownership which should be very familiar with those that have been following the previous thread and posts from Tom.

Cheers,
-Mike

In Elite: Dangerous players can purchase and own multiple ships. The player can only pilot a single ship at a time, so other ships they own must be stored somewhere, and made accessible to the player in a believable, fun way.

The player acquires ships from various traders and vendors around the Galaxy.

• Players will primarily purchase ships for credits from ship yards
  • Ships may also be won through bets and competitions
  • Ships may be given as rewards for events or missions the player completes
  • When the player has acquired a new ship they will receive the choice to switch to the new ship or continue flying their current ship
    • A choice like this is only offered in places where a ship can be stored otherwise the newly acquired ship will be somewhere else waiting for the player to go pick it up
• Players can trade in the ship that they are currently flying when purchasing a new ship
  • Players will receive a small percentage of the value of their ship if they decide to trade in their ship
    • This percentage is based on wear and tear a ship can sustain over its career so well maintained ships will have a higher percentage than beat up ones
  • Players will lose any cargo they have in the ship if they choose to trade in their ship to buy a new one
    • Players will receive a warning allowing them to back out of a purchase and go sell their cargo
    • Many shipyards have trading points where players can sell their cargo, although rates may be less competitive than at other markets
  • Alternatively any cargo can be transferred to the new ship if able prior to being sold/disposed of
  • Fitted equipment will need to be stripped out and stored as cargo for it to be transferred from the old ship to a new one
  • If the trade in value of the player’s current ship is higher than the value of the ship they wish to buy, they will receive the surplus in credits
    • The player will receive a warning when they choose to trade in to ensure they don’t trade in a ship by accident
• Players can store ships they are not currently piloting
  • There isn’t a cap to the number of ships a player can store
  • A number of different facilities can offer ship storage, with a range of different prices
    • E.g. functional - shipyard storage, luxury – High end Storage attached to high end residencies in central locations, cheap – warehouses in remote locations
  • Storage fees are paid when the player wishes to pilot the ship again
    • The fee increases over in-game time only (i.e. if you’re logged off it won’t increase)
    • If the player cannot afford the storage fee then they cannot access their ship but could still transfer it to a new storage location provided they can afford that service
    • The fee has a cap based on a percentage of the ship’s value such that if it hits the cap it’ll never increase beyond it but the price must still be paid to access your ship
    • The player has the option to sell their stored ship and any outstanding storage fee is paid off from the money made (even if it’s not enough) and the player is given the remainder (if any is left)
  • Players can store their ships at multiple locations
    • Registering a new location for ship storage costs a fixed onetime fee
    • Once registered a player can visit that location or any other registered storage location they have to arrange ship transfers between them which costs a fixed fee to transport only (any storage fees go with the ship to the new location waiting to be paid when the ship is actually chosen by the pilot to fly)
      • Routes for transfer will not go through dangerous systems and if a route cannot be found that doesn’t go through dangerous systems then the transfer cannot be made
      • Transfer fees get larger the longer the route to transfer is
  • Players can only swap their current ship whilst in a registered storage location
    • If the desired ship isn’t present then the player must arrange a transfer which costs a fee and takes time based on the distance the transferred ship needs to travel to get to the current storage location
      • The same restrictions and pricing as above are applied here too
    • Once the transfer is complete the player is notified and is able to dock and swap their ships putting their old ship in storage at that location providing they can also pay the storage fee accumulated for the transferred ship since it went into storage (including all previous storage locations it’s been at and transferred from since last flown)
    • Any cargo in their old ship’s hold will be either traded in at current market value or destroyed upon swapping to a new ship
      • The player will be warned about their cargo and can back out of the change of ship to sell their cargo elsewhere first
      • Many shipyards and storage locations have trading points where players can sell their cargo as they swap their ships
    • Alternatively any cargo can be transferred to the new ship if able prior to being sold/disposed of
    • Fitted equipment will need to be stripped out and stored as cargo for it to be transferred from the old ship to a new one
• Players can buy a new ship without trading in their current one but must choose which of the two ships they would like to pilot afterwards
  • The ship the player chooses not to pilot will have to be sent to any of the player’s registered storage location (possibly including the same station they’re at)
    • If no storage location is registered then the player is forced to register one but doesn’t have to pay the fee to do so (a player’s first storage location registry fee is always free, a gift from the Pilots Federation)
    • If a storage location is available (or has just been made available as above) it can be selected for the ship to be sent to without needing to pay a transfer fee as this is included in the price of the new ship (i.e. ensures that the player can transfer their ship despite having no money left after the purchase)

[/color]

Mike Evans, Designer- Elite: Dangerous wrote:

To become a Trader is a career choice in Elite: Dangerous, it is also a way to make money that any ship can participate in providing they have the cargo space to spare. Profits can be made by any Trader able to purchase and transport commodities that sell low to a place that buys high. To become a truly skilled and effective Trader a player will need to have a decent cargo capacity and an awareness of the most valuable trade routes across the systems.

Key Characteristics of a Trader

• They seek out good deals and low prices by buying from major exporters
• They travel only as far as necessary to save fuel costs and to minimise dangerous encounters
• They sell their goods to major importers to maximise their chance of a good profit
• They prefer ships with the largest cargo capacities and highest fuel efficiencies
• They prefer the longest range hyperdrives within their operating costs to maximise trade route potential

Being a Skilled Trader

• Taking risks on lucrative circumstances and events
  • Supplying much needed supplies to systems in crisis
  • Buying unpopular and thus surplus goods just as demand for them begins to grow
  • Keeping an eye on galactic news channels for hints at possible future events
• Learning valuable trade loops to maximise earning potential without wasting time and money travelling empty
• Utilising escorts to ensure safe travel through the more dangerous and profitable systems
• Ensuring multiple escape options for encounters with pirates
  • Fast charging hyperdrives
  • Weapons and defences that disrupt enemy attacks long enough to get away
  • Mines able to hide amongst jettisoned cargo
• Reading the market to see where subtle but profitable changes are occurring and capitalising on them
• Never selling at a loss

This is how we see the role of Trader working in the game, we're sure there is more to it than this, what do you think?

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