just praying this is still alive and kicking. it has amazing potential! hope to see a release soontm
What, this old mod? It was cancelled a month ago. Did I forget to make a post about that?
... Totally kidding. All jokes aside, development has been a bit slow lately. Since my last post in this thread I've only worked on this mod a few hours a week (and not at all since .53 was released, as I was experimenting with the new API changes). After a lengthy conversation with Alex last month, I will only be using API methods from now on. I have yet to update the mod with said changes (which is extra sad since I knew what was added to the API in this update a full ten days before the rest of the forum), but I'll put aside some time this weekend to do that. The big thing that's broken right now are trading fleets, as the current item value code is too transitory to be included in the API. I'm still brainstorming workarounds for this, as it's pretty crucial to the mod
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Holy wow, this gets better and better! I am really looking forward to this mod, and I think it will probably end up either being integrated into vanilla, or used as a basis for the vanilla economy (if done right). At worst, it is the basis for many mods that surpass current mod capability and epicness.
This is hands down my most anticipated mod. I look forward to the first release and its continued development.
This /\
Wow, no pressure, guys.
Now that I think about it, I think it's time I unleashed the:
Great Expectations (Lowerer)Keep in mind that this mod really is just something I'm throwing together in my spare time. Don't expect some professional-grade economic systems here - I'm not looking to recreate X3 or Eve. I didn't choose to make an economy mod because I'm good at math (I'm at best only above average), but because I enjoy coding complicated systems. Also, this is explicitly a temporary mod, so I've avoided making the economic systems too detailed. A lot of what I'm implementing will be pretty basic stuff, at least at first. If I feel something could survive an actual economy implementation, I've been putting more effort into it.-----------------------------
And because I'm a lying liar who lies, I'll follow that paragraph with a list of all the stuff I've been working on for the past month. I'm not exactly sure what the current state of completion is on some of these, as it's been almost two weeks since I even glanced at the code.
First up, there are several new inventory items. I mentioned bribes last time, and those are definitely in and working. Bribes are relatively cheap (5k currently), and allow you to get a one-time glimpse into a faction's finances. There is a small chance that you will be caught each time you purchase one of these, leading to a reduction in faction relationship. There is also a chance that the official will take your bribe and run (only if you have negative relations with that faction, and again only a chance). If either of these events occurs, the item disappears from the store for a few weeks to represent the time spent finding a new official amenable to bribes.
Second, you can now hire hackers to grant your fleet access to the faction's financial network. This is expensive, but permanent (though I might add a small chance to be caught over time), and is required for the weekly financial report I've shown in previous screenshots to include that faction. When you first start a new game, only the player will be shown in these reports (more on that later).
Third are donations. These are used to revive dead factions, or if you want that faction to bring better cargo in future convoys. The donations are anonymous, so you don't get a relations boost by buying them. Right now there are three 'tiers' of donations with set costs, though I might switch to a single 1-credit item with a massive stack size. Opinions?
Modders:
Spoiler
These items are relatively painless to implement. You just need to follow the proper item id naming conventions (factionID followed by base item name), and they will be added automatically to any faction stations registered with the economy. If the item doesn't exist (for instance, if you decide your faction is too pure to accept bribes), that particular feature will be disabled for that faction.
Here's an example resources.csv that includes entries for the Hegemony
name,id,cargo space,base value,stack size,icon,order
"Anonymous Donation - 10,000",hegemonydonationlow,0,10000,10,graphics/icons/cargo/econ/donate.png,101
"Anonymous Donation - 50,000",hegemonydonationmed,0,50000,10,graphics/icons/cargo/econ/donate.png,102
"Anonymous Donation - 150,000",hegemonydonationhigh,0,150000,10,graphics/icons/cargo/econ/donate.png,103
"Bribe Hegemony Official",hegemonybribe,0,5000,1,graphics/icons/cargo/econ/bribe.png,104
"Hack Hegemony Financial Network",hegemonyspy,0,50000,1,graphics/icons/cargo/econ/spy.png,105
Aside from the items, I've also been working on implementing player trading fleets (though I'd better hurry before Verrius overtakes me!
). The way these are planned to work is that there's a station that's basically a clone of the Abandoned Station, with one item already in the inventory. You mothball the ships and items you want in your convoy, then take the item. That triggers the creation of a friendly fleet using the stuff you dropped into the station, which immediately heads out of the sector. Provided you equipped it well enough to survive to the maps edge, it will return after a week or so. If it makes it to your station again, it dumps the ships that survived, and you get the value of the cargo plus a
very healthy profit on top. This will all be implemented as a sort of pseudo-faction in the economy, so you will show up in the financial reports and everything.
There are also a few secret mini-projects, but I don't want to reveal anything on those until I know for sure that they are possible.
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Again, sorry about the lack of updates. Whenever I sit down to write one of these posts, I end up spending hours on it no matter how short I tell myself I'll keep the post. It leads to me not wanting to post at all, as it takes away from time I could spend coding. If I go too long without an update, just PM me a nudge and I'll try to get around to making another post.