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[angrytigerp]

All right, here we go, time to go all out on a massive idea that will probably be shut down by one simply fact or another I can't see at the moment -- to that extent, criticism is welcome.

In a few recent threads in Suggestions and General Discussion, I came across people mentioning limited availability of certain ships and/or weapons. And I got to thinking -- how can we tie this in with the game, without just handing goods to the player? And so, I came up with this concept (forgive me if it exists already, I didn't see anything like it searching Suggestions) wherein the player could hire an in-game NPC delivery service to deliver whatever their heart desires... for a certain markup on the item, plus transportation costs, plus legal fees, etc. etc. (The general idea I'm getting at would be that this is EXPENSIVE by comparison to looking for stuff on your own, something like double the item's base price at a 'normal' delivery speed).

So what happens is, you contact the delivery service via your long-range comms (stick it into a new tab in the Intel window, maybe). You tell them you'd like to place a delivery via dialogue boxes. First box is what kind of goods -- ships or items. Second is delivery speed, with price hikes to match -- for ships, if bigger than a destroyer, they'll use a tug and get the ship to you as fast as possible at the higher cost, but for the lower cost it'll be whatever the ship's speed is (with a single base cost for Fighters and Frigates). For items, you can request that they pack it among a bunch of smaller, faster ships (say, a fleet of Hounds) for an exorbitant cost, opt for the lowest possible price (and they'll stick it in an Atlas or something), or somewhere in the middle (Tarsus et al). Then, the final part of the dialogue would of course be the ordering -- and the buying screen pops up as usual, just with the caveat that you can only buy one ship at a time, and let's say that for items you'll have a weight cap based on your delivery option.

So now the NPC delivery service deploys their ships. The fleet sets out on the same day for fast deliveries, tomorrow for the medium-speed, and 2 days from when you order for the lowest speed and price (and this way, small ships still get 3 delivery speed options, to simplify the dialogue tree). And this is an entity in the world, tagged immediately as hostile to Pirates, and whatever you're hostile to (let's say this faction inherits your relationships, to keep it simple). Now, playing with this idea, I realized that to really make it shine, let's say that items can be delivered straight to your fleet, but ships can ONLY be delivered to any station on which you have storage (and have visited, if abandoned). A savvy player will know where their distribution centers are, and if they really want that shiny new Paragon that they just paid a million or so credits (after requisite fees, of course) for, they have to escort it, or else the fact that it's tagged as hostile to EVERYTHING will ruin your investment. And of course, they don't offer insurance.

[Megas]

That is one way.  I prefer to be self-sufficient.  That means taking over and holding an autofactory and as many blueprints as possible.  I want the NPCs to order from me, at least before I destroy them utterly and become the sole viable power in the sector.

[angrytigerp]

That is one way.  I prefer to be self-sufficient.  That means taking over and holding an autofactory and as many blueprints as possible.  I want the NPCs to order from me, at least before I destroy them utterly and become the sole viable power in the sector.

Well, to harken back to X3 (as I mentioned in other threads, by the way did I mention I love that game?), there is room for both the player to take advantage of NPC services (most specifically, station-building NPCs, but the fact remains that you 'hire out' NPCs), while still forming their own business empire (up to and including making your own delivery chains, man it's like being a UPS Store supervisor or something sometimes). Certainly, there is room for the two to coexist, and since the ultimate goal of the game will almost inevitably be "control the sector", yeah, of course you could shut them out.

Depending on whether we get specific courier-type missions (whether it be you, the player, hired out to deliver goods given to you by the assigning party; or you, the player, accepting a mission to deliver a Lasher and it's up to you to figure out how to acquire it), this could easily fold into a sort of duality, where you can BE the guy making the delivery runs, working for the NPC Delivery Service faction, or eventually, you can be the one directing others to deliver for you, and thus run the NPCDS.

[Hari Seldon]

I thought you get access to a facton's private communications access once you max out your status with them (either Friendly or Cooperative, I don't remember).  So then I hope that you could then trawl through their data on what all of their star systems are selling to find what you need.

But it would be really cool if you needed NPC deliveries to fund your empire.  For example you do not yet have the massive power generation needed to make hyperspace fuel so you have to import it from the Sindarins.

[Megas]

You gain access at cooperative, but unfortunately, their info is usually too little, too late.

[Drewsen]

I like this idea, but more so as an efficient way to acquire the ship you want, when you want, at a premium price, more than an opening for a new game mechanic.

I don't think there should be a risk of it being hijacked in transit, I mean why would you pay enormous fees and taxes on the delivery of an expensive ship if it could get lost in the post, so to speak.

Also if you have to travel somewhere, buy the ship, then escort it back, you might as well just fly it back and save yourself the delivery costs.

I would like to be able to have it delivered to a designated place, for a fee, or have it sent to a general 'Shipyard' station in a neutral, central area of the galaxy.

Perhaps you receive an alert with something like 'Your new Wolf has just arrived at the Shipyard, would you like to pick it up or have it delivered?"

[angrytigerp]

I like this idea, but more so as an efficient way to acquire the ship you want, when you want, at a premium price, more than an opening for a new game mechanic.

I don't think there should be a risk of it being hijacked in transit, I mean why would you pay enormous fees and taxes on the delivery of an expensive ship if it could get lost in the post, so to speak.

Also if you have to travel somewhere, buy the ship, then escort it back, you might as well just fly it back and save yourself the delivery costs.

I would like to be able to have it delivered to a designated place, for a fee, or have it sent to a general 'Shipyard' station in a neutral, central area of the galaxy.

Perhaps you receive an alert with something like 'Your new Wolf has just arrived at the Shipyard, would you like to pick it up or have it delivered?"

I imagined up this concept with the idea that it would be used by players who were at wit's end trying to find a VERY specific, rare-ish type of ship -- a capital of one type or another, or perhaps for a faction with which they are hostile (importing Paragons despite TT hating you, for example). Since I envision this as a supplementary tool, NOT the sole means by which a player stocks his or her fleet, I see no problem with having to escort that ship, as they are only going to want to order when they're just supplementing their fleet with something that they haven't found after a few trade runs. Otherwise it would be risk-less reward, with the exception of spending money.

[Drewsen]

That does make sense, it would work well in a game where the capitals were rare, but lesser ships were easy to find and always available, which I is what I would really like.

I suppose from a role playing point of view, I would need a solid reason to choose a costly and risky escort over simply piloting the ship home myself.

[angrytigerp]

That does make sense, it would work well in a game where the capitals were rare, but lesser ships were easy to find and always available, which I suppose is what I would like.

I suppose from a role playing point of view, I would need some solid reason to choose amore costly and risky escort over simply piloting the ship home myself.

Certainly there are aspects of it to be tweaked. Order online and pick-up in-store, to use the real-world analogue. So it becomes a balance between spending extra money to have them bring it to you, or spending less but you have to go get it. But then, I suppose that makes the concept lose quite a bit of steam, because why would you EVER ask to deliver stuff? I was specifically trying not to parrot the innumerable "guarantee a certain ship will be at a certain station" suggestions that people propose, and instead have a system that introduces some aspect of variability/player interaction beyond just magically getting what you want whenever you want it, with nothing to lose in doing so.

[Drewsen]

Perhaps capital ships are too large and too costly to be stored at station ports to wait for players to arrive and so must be sent to a more appropriate facility of the players choosing.

Of course, this doesn't provide a valid reason as to why the player couldn't pilot the ship home themselves, although doing so would mean you would need the supplies, fuel and protection that a capital ship usually requires while travelling more than a short distance.

Also, if you want a capital ship but don't want to use it right away, escorting it home and storing it would save you having to swap out your fleet to accommodate a capital, just to get it home for later use.

Fending off an opportunistic pirate or two along the way could be interesting, and reminds me of stories of bandits and cowboys robbing trains in the Old West.

[TrashMan]

I like it.

but let me propose an improvement:
Buying ships and buying items (weapons) should work a bit differently.

For items, a trade fleet is generated that goes any buys the items in question and delivers them to the station of your choice. This fleet CAN be attacked. The player shouldn't be exempt for pirate raids.
This fleet DOES NOT circumvent the economy. It does not magically create desired weapons.
It phisically goes from planet to planet and gethers what you ordered. It checks it's list and the market after each purchase. If it can't find the desired item anywhere, it goes to the next item on the list and tries again after that purchase.
If it comes up empty it delivers what it has and you can try again. Or you can tell it to keep trying (the fleet will wait for a week)

For buying ship, just just place an inquiry for a ship of a specific class, and when it becomes available (every time markets are re-stocked) you get a message telling you where you can get it. This way you don't have to look and there is no delivery.

[Scuttlebutt]

Spoiler

That is one way.  I prefer to be self-sufficient.  That means taking over and holding an autofactory and as many blueprints as possible.  I want the NPCs to order from me, at least before I destroy them utterly and become the sole viable power in the sector.

[close]

I did this on Egosoft's X3:Terran Conflict. It's so satisfying to commit galactic genocide in that game considering how difficult it is to pull off, especially if you're not a savvy businessman.

So what happens is, you contact the delivery service...

Cool idea but doesn't this make acquiring said equipment and ships insanely easier just because you're a trillionaire? I mean technically, that could be true in the real world but still! I posit that the availability of said items to you be limited first by your standing with a faction. I mean, a Luddicite shouldn't just be able to order a glorious Tri-Tachyon battleship just because he's space version of Bill Gates. Yet if you really want to, you can pay exorbitant fees (they are risking their rep by delivering this to you and they probably need to bribe the officials who may want a background check on every dude who orders battlecruisers and such).

I don't think there should be a risk of it being hijacked in transit, I mean why would you pay enormous fees and taxes on the delivery of an expensive ship if it could get lost in the post, so to speak.

Or you could pay extra for insurance and extra armed escort! Nothing in the game should be risk-free.

let me propose an improvement...

Agreed on all points but what you're saying is totally different from what OP made. His idea is more of a delivery service while yours (at least for the ship part) is more of an information gathering service. Both could ideas could co-exist but I think the fact that you paid millions of credits to the delivery service means that the process of making or spawning the ship would be expedited to a degree.

I seriously doubt this would be implemented though. Sounds too much work for the dev for very little reward to the player just to circumvent a small problem.

PS. What about if you can order a particular ship on that faction's planet?