I would like to get a thread going to dicuss the 'ideal' economy you would like to play x2 in. With Burianek's factory price modifications, plus selected scripted factories on the top-end, believe we can all collaborate to create the economy x2 was meant to have. So if you have any ideas on your 'ideal' factory type, what it would do, how much it would cost, and how profitable it would be, please post. Base it on either the existing economy, or Burianek's econ mod as a foundation. In the end once we have come up with some good ideas, I would like to script some factories that would piggy-back on top of burianek's tFactories file to create an economy that provides real investment options from the beginning of a new game all the way to late game multiple-destroyer galactic conquest.
So please, share your ideas! what would your ideal factory be?
Cohesive economy: your ideas for factory re-design..
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easternblocrobotcowboy
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Storm_Front
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easternblocrobotcowboy
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so how bout an example? Pick a product, what resources it should need (primary and/or secondary), how much the factory should cost, and its profit potential (in multiples of single SPP profit). Anything is possible, aside from the only limitation which is 'storage size' (ie: a factory will only hold 2 gamma ppc's)- lets hear some proposals!
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VVNZ
- Posts: 42
- Joined: Fri, 21. Mar 03, 05:47
OK heres my 2c:
The minimum quantity for any factory should be 4 not 2 IMO, it's too hard to kit large ships out at a reasonable price.
SPP's should be the bottom of the pyramid and as such should generate the lowest income per hour but be cheap to set up. I'd like to see one of 2 things either:
Secondary resources can be used by the player to increase productivity varying the cost and availiability proportionally to the factory ie an SPP would need the basic food for it's cafe but a 25MW sheild facility would need spaceweed to keep the Split working there happy (or something alonfg those lines). This method would ensure a player pays attention to high level facts to make sure they have enough of a diffcult to aquire secondary resource (less difficult to do now AI can jump).
OR make high level factorys get slowly more productive up to a certain level, starting out so they can barely make a profit. This would ensure a high level factory would be a nice clean way to make the long term vs short term investment difference larger between low and high level factorys a low level player would be disouraged from getting a high level factory too early in case it lost him too much money early on.
The minimum quantity for any factory should be 4 not 2 IMO, it's too hard to kit large ships out at a reasonable price.
SPP's should be the bottom of the pyramid and as such should generate the lowest income per hour but be cheap to set up. I'd like to see one of 2 things either:
Secondary resources can be used by the player to increase productivity varying the cost and availiability proportionally to the factory ie an SPP would need the basic food for it's cafe but a 25MW sheild facility would need spaceweed to keep the Split working there happy (or something alonfg those lines). This method would ensure a player pays attention to high level facts to make sure they have enough of a diffcult to aquire secondary resource (less difficult to do now AI can jump).
OR make high level factorys get slowly more productive up to a certain level, starting out so they can barely make a profit. This would ensure a high level factory would be a nice clean way to make the long term vs short term investment difference larger between low and high level factorys a low level player would be disouraged from getting a high level factory too early in case it lost him too much money early on.
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easternblocrobotcowboy
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well, the capacity cant be changed reliably, though in my 125 MW fab script posted somewhere else, you can occasionally get 3 in a fab due to the natural production cycle checking for space at the beginning, not the end of a cycle. I suppose it could be possible to load up 3 or 4 in a fab, if you had all the resources to do so, and the additional cycles were all calculated before the natural cycle finished.
Since their is no 'get docked ship' command I dont think I could make a script that used an overflow ship if you had more than one of these fabs.
However, If you had only one, it could be done, or if you were willing to run an individul script for each gamma PPC fab than it could be also done.
something to think about.
we could make SPPs less profitable by scripting a requirement of meatsteaks. Are we sure we want the SPP to be the cheapest fab? What about Delexian Wheat or Cattle Fabs which only use energy (much easyer to acquire then crystals)
TW
Since their is no 'get docked ship' command I dont think I could make a script that used an overflow ship if you had more than one of these fabs.
However, If you had only one, it could be done, or if you were willing to run an individul script for each gamma PPC fab than it could be also done.
something to think about.
we could make SPPs less profitable by scripting a requirement of meatsteaks. Are we sure we want the SPP to be the cheapest fab? What about Delexian Wheat or Cattle Fabs which only use energy (much easyer to acquire then crystals)
TW
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Burianek
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There's no real requirement the ship has to be docked to the fab it's correlated with right? I suppose you could park a dolphin somewhere safe (like Argon Prime) and script the cargo xfer there. Doesn't feel very realistic, but it's possible. Just a thought.easternblocrobotcowboy wrote: Since their is no 'get docked ship' command I dont think I could make a script that used an overflow ship if you had more than one of these fabs.
Maybe you could even add a hidden sector, already full of dolphins, with no gates and no way to access it. When you build a new high end fab, it picks a dolphin there and links to it. Would have to worry about khaak spawning though. Maybe it's full of M2s and dolphins?
"Nature's first green is gold" . . . stay golden.
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Burianek
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I've spent some time thinking about the use of scripting to rebalance factories, and here are a few thoughts:
You can do one of two things.
1. add extra products to change profitability
2. change the resources required.
Let's start with 2. It's a really big step to take to say you want to break the current 1:1 relationship that currently exists with one factory completely supplying the next in line. It can be done, but it's a big decision. It will make the game much more complex, and make the player rely on the AI factories to a much greater extent if he can't chain them and forget about them. I'm certainly not opposed to creating variety and completely branching away from the 1:1, but boy will the game be different.
Moving on to 1.
This works really well for factories that have low cycle times. You can script yourself an extra product every so often and it's hardly noticeable. It doesn't work really well for high cycle time factories that have stock limits of 2. It can be done, but you're limited in the amount of flexibility you've got. You can make the Gamma PPC plant produce two per cycle instead of 1, but what if you want a number in between? What if you don't want it to be twice as profitable as before? What if you want it to be 1.5 times as profitable. You could try to add an extra Gamma PPC every two cycles, but then how do you check if it's been in constant production for two cycles. It can probably be done, it's just difficult. Scripting bogs down for these factories because the production is so chunky. Scripting works much more cleanly for space fuel distilleries where one unit is produced every minute. Here it's pretty transparent to add an extra unit of space fuel every 4 min, or 5 min as desired. You have some flexibility. Does that make sense?
The obvious omittment is option 3, which is to add in 2ndry resources. This is, I feel, where scripting really shines. Instead of adding extra products, or changing the resources required per cycle, you make the addition that adding a quantum tube to the mix produces twenty meatsteaks (or something). If you're going to layer a scripting fix on top of my econ fix, you don't need to worry about rebalancing the original factories. It's accomplished via price changes in my fix. You can spend all your time building scripts to simply add in some variety using 2ndry resources. What do you think? Don't worry about fixing factories or setting them to a precise value. Approach it from the standpoint of, 'if you add 2ndry resources, the factory becomes 20% more efficient.'
The other advantage would be that the end user could choose to use your scripts and my fix independently. They wouldn't be tied together. Believe it or not, there are plenty of people that think I'm crazy to curve fit the economy with my rule of diminishing returns. They see no problem with every high end factory being the same. Mad Hatter thinks it has to do with being raised socialist vs. capitalist, and he's probably right. But at least in this way they could add 2ndry resources without implementing my fix.
Note that using 2ndry resources to generate extra primary ones will break the 1:1 relationship. In the above example, you wouldn't need the full production of your cahoona bakery if your plant was stocked with q tubes. This may make things twitchy, but at least it's optional. You don't have to use the 2ndry resource if you want to keep things 1:1. Would encourage the player to set up standalone factories more often and not worry so much about chaining. Or, if it's possible, you could try to work the math such that a particular resource (or all of them) are cut precisely in half. Then you could support two end fabs with one supply, provided you can supply the 2ndry resource.
I think it will be much easier if you stick to the low cycle time factories though. Thoughts? Perhaps you could make more than one possible upgrade available for every factory. Run one script and the factory can use q tubes. Run a different one and it can use crystals. Make it cost money to run the script, kind of like purchasing and adding a production line to the factory. I suppose in this way you wouldn't even have to tie the 2ndry cycle to the primary one. Makes it a lot easier to write the script, it's just a 2ndry factory within the 1st. We talked about a 'meatsteak converter' in another post. I changed my mind. There's nothing wrong with a 2ndry independent production cycle as long as you pay for it. It can be balanced. Would add a big layer to the game, and it's got to be easier than coding up a 'fix' for all the factories with all the necessary checks.
Here's the risk:
It's pretty evident egosoft plans to use 2ndry resources for the player at some point in time. They've spent an awful lot of time coding them in for them to be npc exclusive. I could be wrong, but we may see egosoft official 2ndry resources at a later date. If this occurs, your work is pretty much wasted.
You can do one of two things.
1. add extra products to change profitability
2. change the resources required.
Let's start with 2. It's a really big step to take to say you want to break the current 1:1 relationship that currently exists with one factory completely supplying the next in line. It can be done, but it's a big decision. It will make the game much more complex, and make the player rely on the AI factories to a much greater extent if he can't chain them and forget about them. I'm certainly not opposed to creating variety and completely branching away from the 1:1, but boy will the game be different.
Moving on to 1.
This works really well for factories that have low cycle times. You can script yourself an extra product every so often and it's hardly noticeable. It doesn't work really well for high cycle time factories that have stock limits of 2. It can be done, but you're limited in the amount of flexibility you've got. You can make the Gamma PPC plant produce two per cycle instead of 1, but what if you want a number in between? What if you don't want it to be twice as profitable as before? What if you want it to be 1.5 times as profitable. You could try to add an extra Gamma PPC every two cycles, but then how do you check if it's been in constant production for two cycles. It can probably be done, it's just difficult. Scripting bogs down for these factories because the production is so chunky. Scripting works much more cleanly for space fuel distilleries where one unit is produced every minute. Here it's pretty transparent to add an extra unit of space fuel every 4 min, or 5 min as desired. You have some flexibility. Does that make sense?
The obvious omittment is option 3, which is to add in 2ndry resources. This is, I feel, where scripting really shines. Instead of adding extra products, or changing the resources required per cycle, you make the addition that adding a quantum tube to the mix produces twenty meatsteaks (or something). If you're going to layer a scripting fix on top of my econ fix, you don't need to worry about rebalancing the original factories. It's accomplished via price changes in my fix. You can spend all your time building scripts to simply add in some variety using 2ndry resources. What do you think? Don't worry about fixing factories or setting them to a precise value. Approach it from the standpoint of, 'if you add 2ndry resources, the factory becomes 20% more efficient.'
The other advantage would be that the end user could choose to use your scripts and my fix independently. They wouldn't be tied together. Believe it or not, there are plenty of people that think I'm crazy to curve fit the economy with my rule of diminishing returns. They see no problem with every high end factory being the same. Mad Hatter thinks it has to do with being raised socialist vs. capitalist, and he's probably right. But at least in this way they could add 2ndry resources without implementing my fix.
Note that using 2ndry resources to generate extra primary ones will break the 1:1 relationship. In the above example, you wouldn't need the full production of your cahoona bakery if your plant was stocked with q tubes. This may make things twitchy, but at least it's optional. You don't have to use the 2ndry resource if you want to keep things 1:1. Would encourage the player to set up standalone factories more often and not worry so much about chaining. Or, if it's possible, you could try to work the math such that a particular resource (or all of them) are cut precisely in half. Then you could support two end fabs with one supply, provided you can supply the 2ndry resource.
I think it will be much easier if you stick to the low cycle time factories though. Thoughts? Perhaps you could make more than one possible upgrade available for every factory. Run one script and the factory can use q tubes. Run a different one and it can use crystals. Make it cost money to run the script, kind of like purchasing and adding a production line to the factory. I suppose in this way you wouldn't even have to tie the 2ndry cycle to the primary one. Makes it a lot easier to write the script, it's just a 2ndry factory within the 1st. We talked about a 'meatsteak converter' in another post. I changed my mind. There's nothing wrong with a 2ndry independent production cycle as long as you pay for it. It can be balanced. Would add a big layer to the game, and it's got to be easier than coding up a 'fix' for all the factories with all the necessary checks.
Here's the risk:
It's pretty evident egosoft plans to use 2ndry resources for the player at some point in time. They've spent an awful lot of time coding them in for them to be npc exclusive. I could be wrong, but we may see egosoft official 2ndry resources at a later date. If this occurs, your work is pretty much wasted.
"Nature's first green is gold" . . . stay golden.
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IvanT
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My main concern is the rate at which food factories produce.
Wheat., Meatsteak Cahoonas., - take a look at these two factories, and you'll see the rate at which they produce is painfully inadequate to supply tech stations unless you set up huge chains..
I'd add more to this but I'm out of time.. keep up the great work on your mod.. it's a good one..
Wheat., Meatsteak Cahoonas., - take a look at these two factories, and you'll see the rate at which they produce is painfully inadequate to supply tech stations unless you set up huge chains..
I'd add more to this but I'm out of time.. keep up the great work on your mod.. it's a good one..
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IvanT
Author/Scriptwriter
IvanT
Author/Scriptwriter
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the_conquerer_cgi
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My "ideal" economy right now is non-SPP dependant. The SPP's will be a final ware fact, powering your jumpdrives, and keeping the kids stocked with copper tops. I've been going through, system by system, of the stock X-universe implementing this. I think it could be very interesting. It would certainly streamline things, both in load and in the economy. Low-end food farms will no longer stop producing simply because their freighters are dead, retarded, or lazy, and in general I just thing it would operate better. There will still be the gaps for the player to fill, and the ventures into creating a chain, but a lot of complication will be gone.
I mean, who here gets their elecricity on a truck? I know I don't. And I would hope space faring folks would be smart enough to use fusion for energy, instead of a few million too many duracells a day.
I mean, who here gets their elecricity on a truck? I know I don't. And I would hope space faring folks would be smart enough to use fusion for energy, instead of a few million too many duracells a day.
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VVNZ
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OK Heres my main point: At present even with Burianeks economy fix (a great step in the right direction) there isn't any extra "risk" with buying a high level profitable factory.
What I mean by this is you outlay the initial cost and buy enough ships and resources to run it then thats it as long as you placed it well it'll churn out prifit till the cows come home. In the first example I gave above you would as easternblocrobotcowboy pointed out have to rely to a certain extent on the AI to aquire the rare items needed as secondary resource to get the most out of it. I think this would make the game a lot more complex as Burianek points out but if you are running a high level factory making zillions more than anything else shouldn't there be risk and effort put in? Nothing comes for free right? I'm not saying the factory wouldn't be very profitable without the secondary resource but with it you could get a very nice extra bonus for playing nice with the AI economy. I like the idea of having to be a bit more cuning to extract a few more dollars.
Having thought a bit more about my second suggestion of making a factory get more profitable as it got more "experience" building things is not really in keeping with the X2 universe way of doing things, it seems a bit more Mech Warrior 4 wingmansih to me. Getting right back on track what about offering via the BBS the opportunity to upgrade your factory for XXXcredits and so many solar cells and food etc in order to re-tool. This could also come with a mandatory stand-down period for the factory where it wouldn't produce for a certain time. Having this happen in steps like ship upgrades to a maximum would, if priced well make a player upgrade factoys but slowly, much like ships starting out you can't afford a lot of upgrades with your ship but slowly you keep modifying it. Also the factory shut-down period would get longer the more upgrades you add.
The problems here are with the AI, they never upgrade anything and would they look for secondary resources added by script?
On SPP's they probably should be cheapest I think as everything needs power, wheat farms etc are jus plain overpriced at present if they were worth the same as a slightlly downrated SPP and they had faster production cycles it'd make more sense, that way the effective cost of starting an SPP is higher due to the resource outlay but the actual station cost you very little so it's partially offset. I can't see the sense in making your primary resource (energy) the most expensive factory, the high level things should as I said earlier be the hardest to sell but also the most profitable. Any idiot can sell energy in X2 because everyone needs it. Not everyone needs a Gamma PPC though.
Whew, enough writing for now. Not that I've said it all by any means mind
What I mean by this is you outlay the initial cost and buy enough ships and resources to run it then thats it as long as you placed it well it'll churn out prifit till the cows come home. In the first example I gave above you would as easternblocrobotcowboy pointed out have to rely to a certain extent on the AI to aquire the rare items needed as secondary resource to get the most out of it. I think this would make the game a lot more complex as Burianek points out but if you are running a high level factory making zillions more than anything else shouldn't there be risk and effort put in? Nothing comes for free right? I'm not saying the factory wouldn't be very profitable without the secondary resource but with it you could get a very nice extra bonus for playing nice with the AI economy. I like the idea of having to be a bit more cuning to extract a few more dollars.
Having thought a bit more about my second suggestion of making a factory get more profitable as it got more "experience" building things is not really in keeping with the X2 universe way of doing things, it seems a bit more Mech Warrior 4 wingmansih to me. Getting right back on track what about offering via the BBS the opportunity to upgrade your factory for XXXcredits and so many solar cells and food etc in order to re-tool. This could also come with a mandatory stand-down period for the factory where it wouldn't produce for a certain time. Having this happen in steps like ship upgrades to a maximum would, if priced well make a player upgrade factoys but slowly, much like ships starting out you can't afford a lot of upgrades with your ship but slowly you keep modifying it. Also the factory shut-down period would get longer the more upgrades you add.
The problems here are with the AI, they never upgrade anything and would they look for secondary resources added by script?
On SPP's they probably should be cheapest I think as everything needs power, wheat farms etc are jus plain overpriced at present if they were worth the same as a slightlly downrated SPP and they had faster production cycles it'd make more sense, that way the effective cost of starting an SPP is higher due to the resource outlay but the actual station cost you very little so it's partially offset. I can't see the sense in making your primary resource (energy) the most expensive factory, the high level things should as I said earlier be the hardest to sell but also the most profitable. Any idiot can sell energy in X2 because everyone needs it. Not everyone needs a Gamma PPC though.
Whew, enough writing for now. Not that I've said it all by any means mind
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easternblocrobotcowboy
- Posts: 120
- Joined: Sun, 15. Feb 04, 23:21
the factory upgrade thing on the bbs is a great idea. Its a little beyond my scripting ability, but it is totally possible. Every command that woudl be needed is present in one script or another I have played.
I also like the 'risk' concept. you are right in that it is a little balloon-bursting to think about the fact that your factories really are just no-risk cash creators. Im not sure how to address this, other than hunting around the NPC factories and looking for rare 'niche' markets and scripting those factories to be quite profitable, thereby rewarding the player for careful analysis of the present economy.
The secondary resource strategy adds another 'layer' of logistics yuo need to worry about, especially if the resource is somethign like majaglit, spaceweed, quantum tubes, or some other unusual resource. There is some risk to this becasue if your secondary resources run low, you have a factory running at the crap-for-profit egosoft economy levels - a 3.5 million credit pice of junk. similarly if you are missing some of the primary resources you get nothing at all. but ultimately creating your own suppliers negates this risk.
I think we are all taking this a little too serious to start though. lets get to the serious stuff later.
for right now lets suggest basic changes. for example, as I played through my game with my jillion SPP empire with the occasional crystal fab cahoona bakery and once-in-a-while dragonfly missile chain, I thought "you know it really sucks that there is no variety. I hat building just a zillion SPPS. not to mention placing them all over the plae just gets annoying after yuo have 20 or so. It would be really great if there were some multi-million dollar 'uber-factories' that could be an investment option in the mid-late game"
Possible Solution: make a Spaceweed factory that eats jillions of resources to produces tons of spaceweed. make it cost 10+ million credits and have a longer pay-off time than SPPs, but once its paid off turn out 10x as much profit. etc.etc.etc.
Similarly, during the beginning of the game I thought "what the hell is up with a damn WHEAT farm costing so much. its kinda anooying there are no low-level factory options."
Possible option - make wheat farms uber-cheap. like 100K or something. double their output so they earn SOMETHING too. Could do the same with cattle ranches too, just for variety.
ALso while building factory chains i was having to build scores of cahoona bakeries because apparently Argons are just all stomach. Thats why Elena Kho has such a funny looking body. Her stomach is taking up all that extra space. Anyway, a damn PPC seems to be made of 75% BEEF and only 25% ore, energy, and whatever else. This is certainly some amazing engineering. Nevertheless I thought "Dear god my homebase sector is like 50% CAHOONA BAKERIES!!! what the hell? I sure wish I didnt have to build so many."
Possible solution - double or triple the beef-meatsteak production so that one bakery can supply several factories. make it use something interesting like Stott Spices and Delexian Wheat (or even SPACEWEED!!!)along with beef to make truly appetizing meals. Yum!
MId game I came across some Nividium. I was real excited. I coudlnt wait to use it to make something cool. Imagine the letdown when I found out all I could make was *(&*($* majaglit.
Possible solution: make nividium upgrade factories to be more efficient. pretend it is some sort of amazing room-temperature super-conducting alloy. thats why the Khaak like it so much.
One day, sick and tired of making all my money with energy I looked at some of the other factories. DANG!! what the hell microchips, computer parts, and quantum tubes are cool! why arent THEY profitable?
Solution: script em to make them profitable.
Late game I built a 125 Mw Shield plant to outfit my destroyer and rule the universe. I waited for it to produce a shield. and waited.... and waited... and waited some more.... when it was finally built I calculated out the resources and found I had waited hours of game time to pay 600K for an 800K item? The dang factory cost 5 million bucks! jesis christmas it woudl have to produce shields from now until when my grandchildren grow up to turn a profit!! why didnt I just go buy the stupid shields???? ARRGH!
Possible solution: make the factory produce the shields 2-4 times as fast, script a message to tell you when the cargo bay is full so you can transfer the shieds to an 'overflow' docked cargo ship. Or script them to use less resources so you can run several factories in parrallel in the same sector.
So when you played through your game, what thoughts went through your head? And how would you change things if you could? this is what I mean when I say lets brainstorm. Fretting about factory chain ratios or the global economy is getting a little ahead of ourselves. we can smooth those out once we get some real economic options and FUN scripted back into the game. Lets start with the basics.
TW
I also like the 'risk' concept. you are right in that it is a little balloon-bursting to think about the fact that your factories really are just no-risk cash creators. Im not sure how to address this, other than hunting around the NPC factories and looking for rare 'niche' markets and scripting those factories to be quite profitable, thereby rewarding the player for careful analysis of the present economy.
The secondary resource strategy adds another 'layer' of logistics yuo need to worry about, especially if the resource is somethign like majaglit, spaceweed, quantum tubes, or some other unusual resource. There is some risk to this becasue if your secondary resources run low, you have a factory running at the crap-for-profit egosoft economy levels - a 3.5 million credit pice of junk. similarly if you are missing some of the primary resources you get nothing at all. but ultimately creating your own suppliers negates this risk.
I think we are all taking this a little too serious to start though. lets get to the serious stuff later.
for right now lets suggest basic changes. for example, as I played through my game with my jillion SPP empire with the occasional crystal fab cahoona bakery and once-in-a-while dragonfly missile chain, I thought "you know it really sucks that there is no variety. I hat building just a zillion SPPS. not to mention placing them all over the plae just gets annoying after yuo have 20 or so. It would be really great if there were some multi-million dollar 'uber-factories' that could be an investment option in the mid-late game"
Possible Solution: make a Spaceweed factory that eats jillions of resources to produces tons of spaceweed. make it cost 10+ million credits and have a longer pay-off time than SPPs, but once its paid off turn out 10x as much profit. etc.etc.etc.
Similarly, during the beginning of the game I thought "what the hell is up with a damn WHEAT farm costing so much. its kinda anooying there are no low-level factory options."
Possible option - make wheat farms uber-cheap. like 100K or something. double their output so they earn SOMETHING too. Could do the same with cattle ranches too, just for variety.
ALso while building factory chains i was having to build scores of cahoona bakeries because apparently Argons are just all stomach. Thats why Elena Kho has such a funny looking body. Her stomach is taking up all that extra space. Anyway, a damn PPC seems to be made of 75% BEEF and only 25% ore, energy, and whatever else. This is certainly some amazing engineering. Nevertheless I thought "Dear god my homebase sector is like 50% CAHOONA BAKERIES!!! what the hell? I sure wish I didnt have to build so many."
Possible solution - double or triple the beef-meatsteak production so that one bakery can supply several factories. make it use something interesting like Stott Spices and Delexian Wheat (or even SPACEWEED!!!)along with beef to make truly appetizing meals. Yum!
MId game I came across some Nividium. I was real excited. I coudlnt wait to use it to make something cool. Imagine the letdown when I found out all I could make was *(&*($* majaglit.
Possible solution: make nividium upgrade factories to be more efficient. pretend it is some sort of amazing room-temperature super-conducting alloy. thats why the Khaak like it so much.
One day, sick and tired of making all my money with energy I looked at some of the other factories. DANG!! what the hell microchips, computer parts, and quantum tubes are cool! why arent THEY profitable?
Solution: script em to make them profitable.
Late game I built a 125 Mw Shield plant to outfit my destroyer and rule the universe. I waited for it to produce a shield. and waited.... and waited... and waited some more.... when it was finally built I calculated out the resources and found I had waited hours of game time to pay 600K for an 800K item? The dang factory cost 5 million bucks! jesis christmas it woudl have to produce shields from now until when my grandchildren grow up to turn a profit!! why didnt I just go buy the stupid shields???? ARRGH!
Possible solution: make the factory produce the shields 2-4 times as fast, script a message to tell you when the cargo bay is full so you can transfer the shieds to an 'overflow' docked cargo ship. Or script them to use less resources so you can run several factories in parrallel in the same sector.
So when you played through your game, what thoughts went through your head? And how would you change things if you could? this is what I mean when I say lets brainstorm. Fretting about factory chain ratios or the global economy is getting a little ahead of ourselves. we can smooth those out once we get some real economic options and FUN scripted back into the game. Lets start with the basics.
TW
Last edited by easternblocrobotcowboy on Wed, 24. Mar 04, 08:20, edited 1 time in total.
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easternblocrobotcowboy
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- Joined: Sun, 15. Feb 04, 23:21
you know what? for risk, its easy. Run Khaak Second Invasion on hard starting on day 70 or higher. Your factories will certainly have some risk when a Khaak destroyer shows up! And if the destoryer lands in an NPC sector and wipes out all the market for your energy cells.... whoops, no more people to sell stuff to. ouch.
TW
TW
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wwwolf
- Posts: 102
- Joined: Wed, 6. Nov 02, 20:31
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junj.chan
- Posts: 632
- Joined: Thu, 19. Feb 04, 10:07
dont have a clue about scripting but would it be possible to make freighters only buy when resources are low? ss you could have one ts at your spp, it will sell energy cells until your crystals are low and then go and buy a whole load of crystals, like 200 of them as the crystal supply from other factories should have built up by then. and could it be possible to have your factories come with freighters (ts from same race as factory) and then add the cost onto that of the factory? the coming with freighters bit isnt important but i just get annoyed when i find out i have to get more ts's than i thought and then see that i dont have enough credits...
i know my ideas ae getting stupid but would it be possible to make a script for buying an entire factory loop in one go, as if just buyung one facory?? but im not sure if u can dock 2/3 tl's at the sipyard at the same time, never tried and never seen it done...
i know my ideas ae getting stupid but would it be possible to make a script for buying an entire factory loop in one go, as if just buyung one facory?? but im not sure if u can dock 2/3 tl's at the sipyard at the same time, never tried and never seen it done...
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HJ
- Posts: 21
- Joined: Sat, 27. Mar 04, 23:30
This could have been brought up many times before, and is slightly off-topic, but is it possible to make the AI actually do something economically? For example, build a new factory, a ship, a company, anything that isn't just a lobotomized shifting of goods back and forth and using vacuum as currency? In other words, is it possible to make the economy a real economy, with economical competitors who are buying goods for money and with purpose? The unrealised potential to make this game a good economical sim is hard to believe. 