Civilian shipping woes

[sloanjh]

The stuck part was "load trade goods at earth." 

The contracts were imbalanced.

I would assume normal behavior was "are there available contracts?  no?  trade normally" but it didn't seem to be the case.  They were still trying to load trade goods, but wouldn't move anywhere.

I would log this as a bug, if you haven't already....

John

[Father Tim]

Civilians first look for trips within the same system, then in adjacent systems, then two systems, etc.  They end up 'clustering' near the outer edges of your empire because your homeworld is only offering four-system trips, but your outer colonies have 'shorter' needs to be seen too.

In other words, there's a new life waiting for them on the Offworld Colonies!

[Shadow (OP)]

I understand that, but for gameplay reasons player-created contracts should have an overriding priority above everything else.

[sloanjh]

I understand that, but for gameplay reasons player-created contracts should have an overriding priority above everything else.

Why?  They're civilians - they get to do what they want.  I could see putting up a suggestion that a player be allowed to up the bid price on the contract to make it more financially lucrative for them to take the government contract ($600 toilet seat, anyone?), but if they can make more profit on a local milk run, why go out of their way to take your contract?

John

[Shadow (OP)]

I could see putting up a suggestion that a player be allowed to up the bid price on the contract to make it more financially lucrative for them to take the government contract(...)

I could live with that.