Greetings!
While I was doing the dishes today I thought about the fact that there is very little stopping a savvy player from trading with all the factions at the moment regardless of their relations. To me this seems a rather unrealistic situation and I set out to find a solution, and I belive I've found one: Licences.
The basic concept would see a slignt increase in tariffs across the board, say twenty percent, but adding the ability to purchase a liscense from a faction, let's say the Hegemony. That liscense would last for say three months and would incur a weekly fee. But would allow the player to trade tariff free with the Hegemony. This actually benefits the Hegemony because while they aren't collecting tariff fees from the player they are getting a weekly fee garunteed, and the player has to trade almost exclusively with the Hegemony, because holding multiple [lets say three or more] liscences should quickly bankrupt the player. However a smartplayer should still be able to make a tidy profit by trading with a now tariff free Hegemony, or whatever faction they choose.
Thoughts?
