In case you missed it there is currently a forum discussion actively discussing how Space Trading could work out to be in Entropia Universe's best interest: http://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/f...ent-suggestion-to-Space-Travels-and-Transport I noticed quite a few design flaws with the system as below: 1. No Trader / Smuggler handling contracts should have to pay the MU of items being travelled. They could ring their pirate friends to deprive someone of MU, but more likely they'll be drained down to limit competition in interplanetary trade. 2. 1-sided risk, as further in the post no courier should burden risk without payment, meaning the Transport fee could become the "reward" for being looted. 3. Kim of Planet Calypso is not representing MA specifically in relation to "space -> logging off" being unintended when posting as Kim|Calypso, they should appear as seperate companies for legal reasons including undue influence, but I don't have any stake in such an approach. 4. Placing of the stackables in the inventory of the pilot - This would still require the logout situation to be changed, otherwise a delegated pilot can receive the goods, trade the deed and a new pilot with no loot escorts the ship to the destination planet and the deed changes hands again at destination. This would require binding the goods to the ship. This requires an export business which people are complaining about often, stating this prevents start up businesses on planets where needs can be catered to. i.e. a lack of local resources and an abundance on Calypso, including higher turnover at the "big table" for those that like to think of casinos. -- With MA being in control of space, Kim would clearly be able to influence that from Calypso's perspective, legally, when inviting MA and the other Planet Partners (including PO David Post) to a meeting to discuss the available options, David Post would even have the right to abstain from offering input. For some reflection: The Normandie is systematically shot every warp on every flight path, regardless of cargo or knowledge of any cargo, until the Normandie is able to successfully prove that they are being harrassed relative to other Ship owners. - Pirates get banned for trying to loot contracts. I haven't seen any evidence of strategy countering this kind of entrapment in any public posting. Asking a Pilot, investing $5k into the game on a premise to operate as a MS Smuggler, to pay MU for goods transported is a form of fraud, as the new Smuggler would have no idea of how long people had been trading volumes at gradually increasing increments since the proposed new system is implemented. Meaning todays Brain Oil can go up by 5% per month for the next 8 months until a prospective Smuggler attempts to deliver some, as luck would have it it was a huge order. Common Sense should be somewhere at the back of each player's mind now saying "Why not have it so that the MS owner has the loot on their ship but for their ingame insurance purposes it is not lootable, it simply gets TT'd as the Pilot goes down with his ship, to pay the insurance on TT Value" - this way Pirates can loot uninsured goods, but not insured goods. increasing the value of MS. This would also involve the insurance being based on TT value instead of proposed value. In this option the risk is two-sided, Motherships are more readily targetted as people would not want to pay insurance, requiring less advertising of scheduled services or accepting the risk, increasing the warp cost. Players seeking to avoid paying insurance are now more at risk, however they can manually TT their items if under attack. Pirates now risk taking down the largest SI MS for a chance at uninsured goods, or receive nothing. - Isn't their a current ban process for people logging off to protect their loot while in space, near a pirate? It's not well thought out for such enterprising entrepreneur's as the posters, and doesn't give them the credit they've earned, meaning they aren't showing their good side. The MS pilot actually risks 12k of PED Solvency to carry 6K of goods, to earn 150PED - Miracaulously affecting the entire balance of the economy. Player A saves up 6000PED of 200% extractors, but uses a MS that pays 200% out on insurance liability, thats 12000PED paid out by the MS owner, while the Pirate loots 6000PED for a chance of sale to Player B. for 12000PED, doubling the effective MU of the item, as the Client received 12000PED, the MS owner paid that, then Player B. pays the Pirate 200% on the pirated loot. All in the Extractors cost 24000PED or 400% of 6kped TT. 1 day delivery timetables are that specific that traps could be set as soon as contracts are taken, by studying the Delivery system from the perspective of a MS owner and reporting to Pirates when a 1 day contract has been taken, this would illustrate how much cargo was being taken to which planet within the next 24hrs, people can camp for that long, as in the other space game. That thread needs to go back to the drawing board.
Well from 7 years of seeing what MA does and how they stand on the whole lootable PVP I would venture to say that no matter what If any changes are done it wont be for the safety of the player bases goods. Mindark is just fine with the thievery aspect of lootable pvp. They haven't made much of an effort to close some of the inherrant exploitable methods within the crysis system that people use so I would assume they have no plans to make changes in the up front no thievery aspect of it. Space was a fail from day one the second they made it all pvp. Its hard enough for people to retain their investment in the game let alone risk it to some less ethical humans (I use that term VERY lightly). Space should have been implemented as planets are with hunting zones, mining zones and only specific areas for those that wish to risk for reward in a lootable pvp areas activities. As it is space has failed the growth and interplanetary aspects they lamely tried to implement with making certain materials only available on specific planets. Which has in my opinion severely hurt ALL the planet partners AND their player bases. Bottom line Jan Jr likes pvp.. has been used to doing it with hax n cracks like any other pvp'r and simply doesn't get it that doing it with play resources is fun.. doing it with RL money isn't unless you are one of the Jan Jr's of the world. Until his influence within Mindark is separated from his role on Calypso NOTHING in game will ever be balanced.
Space in its current form is garbage. From it being lootable pvp to just pvp in general, it discourages players from participating in it and other planets. It punishes players for attempting interplanetary trade and involvement during peak hours. The sensible solution is to make it like any other planet, with PVP zones. Or just don't make it lootable.
Might have been worth putting forward Interplanetary Auctions with a 2hr delay and a massive commission paid directly to MindArk, - by massive fee I mean like 10ped per 100 sent, that might have tickled somewhere
You'll just have the MS owners complaining that their ships being devalued and that because they paid so much for them they should be treated preferentialy.
there are 2 specific ways to "fix" space as it currently stands: 1. Institute separate planetary auctions - this would allow the supply and demand on each planet to separate out with out being unduly (and unfairly IMO) influenced by the weighted average of the Calypso market. Traders will then see a % change develop for commodities and will buy on one place and sell in the other to take advantage of it, thus allowing proper interplanetary trade to blossom and giving the MS owners (and by extension the Pirates) something to work on. 2. Provide "safe" lanes for space travel between planets - GIVE PEOPLE THE OPTION of participating in lootable PvP! Most of the complaint is that people simply do not get a choice. The lanes can be put through areas with space mobs and/or asteroids, so at least these people don't get a free and 100% decay free ride (maybe even make it so flying could actually be interesting and fun? OMG perish the thought!) and make it take longer than a straight flight would take through lootable PvP. The motherships still get plenty of business as they will still warp super fast, but the risk and reward is also there for them and the pirates. Please note that both of these can be implemented NOW, as space stands. They require little to no development time and they would go a LONG WAY to mitigating a lot of the bad feelings of a large portion of the playerbase/community regarding the implantation of interplanetary travel. This also does not stop any further development of Space that MA have in either current planning or development phases, though a little info would be nice .
I think my original post that stopped the thread in its tracks applies here: This could work in a perfect world, unfortunately this is not. Space is a just a red headed step child nobody wants to adopt and nurture. If I were to give space a letter grade it would be a D, it has potential... However it is close to a Fail status. There are too many systems that do not work, or are missing. -Broken Karma system -Lack of true physics and ship flight dynamics <any pilot from another flight game laughs at this version of space> -broken skill's <they mean nothing> -No Missile's, no Shields, no Customization of any kind, no targeting systems, no thrusters, no action and reaction to getting hit. -Hacks and cheats of all sorts <speed, Invulnerability, sure shot (using mouse macros),Repairing in space after getting blown up, some may have been fixed but not in a timely manner.> -Loading and Unloading glitches can be taken advantage of. <after the 2 ped fee is paid, you can still be blown up and looted, Upon exiting the Hanger of a MS you can be destroyed before you render (a simple bubble could fix it)> -"safe zones" around space stations are not patrolled, or defended. once your flag is "toggled" you can still die inside -Ships weapon systems do not operate properly, or are not correctly placed <whoever placed the quad lasers on the wing tips was a fool, there are perfectly good mounted lasers in much better spots, the gap is big enough to fly through.> -Lag, and screen rendering due to graphics settings dictate how fast your ship moves. <Opponents in safe mode can catch up to someone in high resolution This game needs to spend some time fixing the current systems before developing more to add in. Flight characteristics would be a good start. Nobody come to EU to fly in space, the ones that do leave quickly. If you want Space to improve MA needs to have a proper Developer take it over, a PP just for space. If a Reputable firm such as https://robertsspaceindustries.com would have a crack at it, then it may become viable. As for now... the problems of space get overlooked by most since the smoke and mirrors have blinded the common player, and all they see is forced pvp and "pirates". Naming one side of the forced pvp "pirates" was a good move to cover up the real issues, since it would keep the common players bickering about why they got screwed. This game is about risk vs. reward, and players love a scapegoat when they make the wrong decision. I don't support "pirates", but I think the system is flawed. I tend to laugh at those who make their living boasting of how their ship is unsinkable. In this messed up space version, the "Titanic of Space" could fall in 25 seconds, and it takes 30 to log out under the best of conditions. Ideas are a good thing, Be careful of what you suggest, They can be used against the players at any time.
I'd rather there just be a global command to access any auction on any planet but if you buy something on a different planet than what you are on, you pay a higher auction fee.. just the right balance of where it would be beneficial to just fly to the planet but not excessive that when you need that item or are in a crunch, you just suck it up and pay it.
I guess I'm in the minority who think space and space trade is working OK right now... it just needs more content to make it more interesting. I woudn't be opposed to an official planetary order-transport system (completely disconnected from the auction house) where someone can pick up an item on one planet and transport it to another for an agreed-upon fee. But it would need to be pretty complex to avoid exploitation because of the way lootable space works.
I actually think it's as enterprising as it should be, but what would develop "growth" amongst the PP's whilst also allowing the same dynamics? Guns, Armor, Tools - Universal Auction Stackables - At your own risk or via courier. Crafting would then need to be sorted out so that each individual pp can "provide" enough local resources to the local hunters to sell to the local crafter that sells on universal auction. Anytime before Theryon Wars is ok, there is life in the old dog yet.
The flaw I see in your number 1 method is that Mindark manipulates the economies of all planets. When a certain resource gets to much in demand and the markup rises as per normal market effects mindark swamps the game with that resource and tanks the value back to less then nothing. It Still leaves it too open for Calypso to be the favored soul of the game. Take even the original Caly resources, back when it was just Calypso there were ores and enmatters up in the 5K% range due to their rarity and challenge to aquire be it by area or by skill and gear. Now days there is no such thing as a "Rare" as Mindark has made useless the bp's for the hard to get things and devalued nearly everything else to under 110% for the most part. Not to mention market manipulators like the people from Calypso coming to ark and selling things on auction here for under tt so the perceived value on the market looks like it has low or no value. ( I have pointed proper authorities to these type actions in the past). That whole free market thing is smoke and mirrors as to how it looks to operate and space set to the way it is, is merely to keep that aspect intact.
Hmmm, I take your point on a lot of things there Bill but I'd have to challenge you on the no such thing as rare even on Caly bit. SFE runs up against the rarity wall all the time. Dunkel for instance has NEVER come down to a reasonable level of MU (its still up in the 4k-5k range regularly) and is still stupidly rare, otherwise we would be able to supply people with well priced Expedition and Dragon armours. Likewise for Phasm Wool --> Ultra Cold Fabric allowing us to regularly stock complete Orca sets (a rare item coupled with a limited BP for 1 ingredient used in JUST 1 PART of a 7 piece armour set, is silly to put it mildly), Rugaritz (whilst a fair bit more plentiful then in past years) is still rare enough that we cannot easily supply Trooper or Phantom.......and I can go on and on just within SFE's perview. And don't get me started on Foot Guard BPs!!1!...... Anyway, my point was that with VERY little effort, space could be made to work, however the motivation needs to be there to make the changes to make it work.
Had a nice reply written then realized it all boiled down to Mindark still having absolutely ZERO clue what they have and what it could turn into and its not worth the effort anymore really. Besides Im pretty sure you guys are tired of tellin me to lighten up cause I hurt their feelings.
