Oolite Bulletins

Has anyone considered the idea that after you reach a certain level of credits, that you could hire other ships (and NPC pilots) to trade for you!. (These traders would would not travel with you, but would travel independantly.)
This way you could create a trading company that could trade throughout the galaxies!

Danam22315 wrote:

Has anyone considered the idea that after you reach a certain level of credits, that you could hire other ships (and NPC pilots) to trade for you!. (These traders would would not travel with you, but would travel independantly.)
This way you could create a trading company that could trade throughout the galaxies!

The idea is good, but what percent would you earn?

Zireael wrote:

Danam22315 wrote:

Has anyone considered the idea that after you reach a certain level of credits, that you could hire other ships (and NPC pilots) to trade for you!. (These traders would would not travel with you, but would travel independantly.)
This way you could create a trading company that could trade throughout the galaxies!

The idea is good, but what percent would you earn?

First, I forgot to say that this was an idea for an OXP. Although if this were added to the main game, that would be great!

Second, you probably get 50% of the profit for each ship. The rest would go toward paying the pilot, and buying equipment.

Third, there could be a limit to the number of ships cou could hire (100?), OR you could leave it open to hire as many ships as you could afford.

Fourth, You would probably have to pay for each ship at the beginning, and pay the pilot from the profits(s) that you make in trading.

Hi, Danam22315, and first of all welcome to the boards, and of course to this great game! (I see you have lurked for quite a long time before making your first post. )

I'm not sure what I think about your suggestion, though. It has a touch of a get-rich-quick scheme, hasn't it?

First, what kind of interaction (or even simply action) would there be? You said yourself that the hired ships wouldn't accompany you, but be completely independent. In other words: they wouldn't actually exist as ships in the game. All your hired 'traders' would just exist virtually. The only thing you'd ever see of them would be credits continuously rolling into your account. Personally I don't think that this should be part of a game which is about flying around in space. It feels too much like a thinly-disguised excuse for creating money out of nothing for the player.

Second, I don't believe it even from an in-game perspective. Why on earth should another trader give you 50% of his profit for basically nothing in exchange? If he trades furs or computers from one system to another, what do you have to do with it? What justifies him giving you half his money? Why would he even work for you in the first place? He could fill his hold with commodities which he bought with his own money, sell them in the next system, and keep 100% of the profit. So why would he give 50% to you instead? What does he get in return? You are not there. You don't protect him on the way, you don't give him better deals, you don't send or receive him. You do nothing, except for some completely inexplicable reason you own him. Again, the only explanation I can think of is that it's a very thin disguise for making the player richer.

I'm sorry, but this suggestion—as far as I have understood it—doesn't do it for me. But feel free to correct me if I have misinterpreted your idea, or to elaborate on its points, so that I understand better what this all is supposed to be about. If you can get it to make sense within the game, I may be convinced. I just think you're not yet quite there.

Reverse cargo contracts?

I can see an idea here, and not just 'get rich quick' but the possibility for an OXP.....
(i can't write them though)

1st to lay aside the 'money for nothing'
- as an established trader, you pay for an extra ship (major outlay)
- a 'new' pilot (who can't afford a ship) flies it for you
- you get 50% of proffit @ 25% for the 're-pay' of the ship 25% pure proffit.
- when the ship is paid for - the 'deal' is over.(ie. the 'new' commander owns the ship and no longer gives you anything)

OXP ideas -
* Your employee could break the law, and you become an offender.
* he may become a pirate, and you would have to track them down to clear your own name.
* he could run off with the ship, again you would hunt it.
* it could be lost in witchspace or just blown up, for a total loss of investment.

just my 2 cr worth.

I have still some problems with that.

1. You got your own ship completely for free. It was given to you when you finished Lave Academy. Why would this be different for other pilots? In other words: where would the poor-pilots-with-no-ships come from in the first place? At least this would need to be explained.
2. The ship prices are vastly out of proportion with the trade profits. A basic Cobra III costs 150,000, and you have to add at least another 20,000 for equipment if you don't want to lose it to the first pirate you meet. The best profit you can make from a milk run in that ship is about 1,000 credits, of which 25% percent are 250 credits (and that is, again, under optimal circumstances). In other words: it would take the pilot basically forever to repay you the ship's value. So again, the only thing the player will ever see is a permanent increase in credits.
3. Of course, first he has to pay the ship price, so it's going to take a while until he breaks even. If we calculate 170,000 credits initial investment, an average profit of 800 credits per jump, and therefore a return of 600 credits (50% + 25%) per jump, we're talking about 283 jumps here. However, only the 25% count as a repayment, so at that point the player would still own 67% of the ship, and would continue to earn 600 credits per jump for another 567 jumps. That's an awful long time. It does basically mean 'forever'. During the 567 jumps the player's total profit would be 340,200 credits. In other words: using these numbers the idea proposed sharing mechanism of 50% profit on the cargo, and 25% repayment on the ship is designed in a way that the original investment will be tripled. The numbers will vary for ships with other price tags and different cargo capacities, but those only influence the time. Mathematically it's always a loan the repayment of which consists of 2/3 interest and only 1/3 principal, so the borrower will always triple his investment.
4. So, while this may not be a get-rich-quick scheme, if brought to the end it's still a get-rich scheme.

The main time that more credits would be useful in the game is early in a Jameson's career, and even than not really for long. After you get your initial ship decked out, the only time a goodly amount of credits is really useful is when changing ships. Just moving basic merchandise usually seems more than enough for a positive account flow.

Ok, maybe if somebody likes shooting off a lot of hardheads or something, they might manage to go broke. But mostly, credits just accumulate over time so long as you keep trading. I've more often seen mentioned assorted notions for players to spend credits on than seen anyone worried about players "getting rich". Nothing wrong with players "getting rich", so far as that goes.

But for it to be a "trading company", it should add more to gameplay. Being able to basically buy more ships and get more trade going could be cool, but how might the player actually be supervising this? Does the player set the "hired" NPC to doing something like dogging a milk run, so it's basically a continual little cash cow? How would it be preferable to just the player themselves buying some ship with a bigger cargo hold?


I've never thought of the initial MKIII Cobra the player starts in as being "completely for free". Maybe they spent their life savings or the family fortune or whatever to get it. If they were just given out to *every* graduate from Lave, space would be full of those free Cobras, and the resale value would likely be very poor due to market flooding.

I'm back! (Actually this is my front, the other side is my back. )

First I would like to thank those who support my idea.

Second, I believe that in the original post I did state that the player would have to have a certain number of credits before buying a ship. As far as a 'get rich quick scheme' goes, who can afford to pay out 150,000 credits or more when you start the game?
I think that you would have to have at least 1,000,000 cr before you even think of creating a company.

Third, I don't think that the ship would be 'virtual'. Why couldn't you make it a real ship in the game? You could even meet the ship occasionally.

I also think that the idea of you being responsible for the other captain' s status is a good idea. (Just not the other way around, ... or maybe...)

Danam22315 wrote:

I'm back! (Actually this is my front, the other side is my back. )

Thanks for not showing us your 'back side'.

Smivs wrote:

Danam22315 wrote:

I'm back! (Actually this is my front, the other side is my back. )

Thanks for not showing us your 'back side'.

Eek

You got me thinking though (about companys not backsides ! )

what about a 'Megalomania' OXP. you could run a haulage company a taxi firm own a gal-mine operation ect,ect.

Not for the credits (make the profit minor) just for the Ego ?

I like this idea!

Perhaps these NPC pilots did not go to Lave Academy... maybe they are just working,
blue-collar stiffs from the planet...

Maybe you could lower the profit the player recieves, so that it isn't all about the profit.

The player could just hire the NPCs to do a specific 'milk run' (To one specific planet and back to the planet from which they came).

Create a sort of 'job board' to post the job listings, and create the individual ads to assign each NPC to a 'milk run'. This would still allow you to trade, but would take up some of your time...

You could also create a special 'Status' page where you could see each individual players' name, location, ship type, equipment bought, cargo, and profits,

Maybe even add 'news flash' about the companies ups and downs. Create random events that effect the company, both good and bad!

If anyone has any other ideas on how to make this idea better, I'd love to hear it!

Hm....Oolite Tycoon perhaps?

This would open up some new possiblities. Like....you hire a guy and buy him, say Anaconda. He flies contracts for you, while you fly as his escort with Cobby...or whatever. And such stuff...basically you could interact with and take place in that company of yours...

Aand, I'm back...kinda. Been missing Oolite too much, so I'm gonna download and play it again, even tho those %#@%^#$ drivers for my video card aren't fixed yet and can't find any unofficial ones.

Wonderful ideas (2 posts above).
The 'news flash' could be combined with Snoopers...