NC Part 10: January 2046 - December 2046

[Kurt]

The whole mineral trading idea is one I have been thinking about a lot because I wanted to have a system that allowed player races to ask for mineral trades with NPRs by using Diplomatic Teams but without disadvantaging the NPRs too much. The other problem is that how do I decide what minerals an NPR would be prepared to trade.

Your idea helps a lot. I think I might go one stage further though, although it involves some SM assistance for the NPRs. I will create a planetary stock market for each planet where two races have populations. This will be either a major population or just a trading post similar to the one established by the Commonwealth on Gitanyow. A race will be able to setup a potential trade on this market by specifying what mineral they are either offering to sell or offering to buy and what other minerals they would accept in exchange at a given rate. A race will be able to view all trades offered by other races on the same planet and decide whether to accept a trade or use their diplomatic team to try and improve the exchange rate (or maybe I create a separate Mineral Trading Team)

The exchange will take place immediately so the minerals will have to be in place on the planet. This could lead to interstellar trading hubs where races bring their minerals for sale. Also as races see the trades being offered by other races, they may adjust their own trades, resulting in the market finding a level for each mineral based on supply and demand.

How does that sound?

Steve

This would require a significant amount of involvement by the SM for NPR's, but I can't see any way around that as the exchange rate is going to be extremely situational, depending on variations in stocks that may change from turn to turn or persist for years.  

It sounds as if you are on the right track, though.  Allowing trade of this nature is a good thing, IMO, because it gives the various races another route to increase their productivity rather than just conquering everyone else and taking their minerals.  

Kurt

[stjohn42]

Could be somewhat automated for NPRs if you could come up with some general guidelines for the "AI" as to when if felt it needed more of a mineral or had surplus of a mineral.  Essentially it needs to set a "price" for each element to buy and to sell.  The price gets higher as the element gets scarcer and lower if supply is high.

A simple method would be to figure how much had been used in all existing construction, and compare to supplies on hand, how much could be mined and how easily it could be obtained.  It might also factor in a market location, as goods at a remote trade post are worth less than those at the homeworld.

If market prices could be established, them the AI could easily scan all accessible markets and determine possible cross trades accounting for shipping time, etc.  One might even have a ship dedicated to trade runs between given markets.  Of course there is always the risk that the market will change while you are in transit.

I tried to lay out an example but I am at work and time is lacking, alas.

[Randy]

One added dimension to the "Trading Post" - kinda Bablon 5ish - is that they can easily become major military tagets.

  Especially if several races have outposts there, big stockpiles of resources to tade, and almost no defences...

  No defences because the races likely wouldn't want a bunch of others with guns on their freighters, etc.

  Great way to start a war - and fix resource shortages  

[Doug Olchefske]

The other races on Earth must have noticed all the transports sending out colonists. Aren't they getting a little interested in where they are going? Seeing as how no one else has shipped out a single colonist yet.

What will happen when the Islamic Alliance finally builds a jump ship? All the warp points have been divied up. Do they get one of the dead end systems? Will they feel cheated and threaten war?

What are the French er... Terrans up to?

And how about the poor settlers on Herakleia? Are they destined to be the red-headed step children of the Commonwealth?

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

The other races on Earth must have noticed all the transports sending out colonists. Aren't they getting a little interested in where they are going? Seeing as how no one else has shipped out a single colonist yet.

What will happen when the Islamic Alliance finally builds a jump ship? All the warp points have been divied up. Do they get one of the dead end systems? Will they feel cheated and threaten war?

What are the French er... Terrans up to?

And how about the poor settlers on Herakleia? Are they destined to be the red-headed step children of the Commonwealth?

I imagine they would be interested

Steve

[MWadwell]

The other races on Earth must have noticed all the transports sending out colonists. Aren't they getting a little interested in where they are going? Seeing as how no one else has shipped out a single colonist yet.

Just to make things even more interesting, the Commonwealth's jump point leads to a system that supposedly contains hostile aliens - and yet the Commonwealth has all of it's warships in orbit around Sol - NOT escorting all of the colony/freighter ships that are transiting the dangerous </sarcasm> Corinth system......

[Shinanygnz]

Plenty of options for inventive spin doctors, after all the Commonwealth has ours and the Yanks:
The alien incursion has been defeated and we're heroically and expensively bulding up hostile world defences as the outer bulwarks for all of Earth for when they return

Who says they're colonists?  They're troops for occupying the alien's worlds

It was all a mistake caused by French arrogance and we've come to an arrangement with the aliens

What aliens?  It was all a French invention and you really shouldn't believe everything you read on the internet

Looks like the aliens were just a couple of automated berserker ships and we've killed them off.  Did we forget to tell you?  Oops, sorry.

and so on...

[Erik L]

The other races on Earth must have noticed all the transports sending out colonists. Aren't they getting a little interested in where they are going? Seeing as how no one else has shipped out a single colonist yet.

Just to make things even more interesting, the Commonwealth's jump point leads to a system that supposedly contains hostile aliens - and yet the Commonwealth has all of it's warships in orbit around Sol - NOT escorting all of the colony/freighter ships that are transiting the dangerous </sarcasm> Corinth system......

That assumes the "aliens" were homed in Corinth, rather than further down the chain. If I recall, the Terrans did not get any astrogation data from that chain, so their ships might have been destroyed deeper in the chain.

[MWadwell]

Plenty of options for inventive spin doctors, after all the Commonwealth has ours and the Yanks:
The alien incursion has been defeated and we're heroically and expensively bulding up hostile world defences as the outer bulwarks for all of Earth for when they return

Who says they're colonists?  They're troops for occupying the alien's worlds

It was all a mistake caused by French arrogance and we've come to an arrangement with the aliens

What aliens?  It was all a French invention and you really shouldn't believe everything you read on the internet

Looks like the aliens were just a couple of automated berserker ships and we've killed them off.  Did we forget to tell you?  Oops, sorry.

and so on...

Well, the fact that there were Commonwealth ships damaged by the hostile "aliens" means that some of the above ideas wouldn't work.

But, by the same token - it means that there are some ideas above that would work......

[Michael Sandy]

Question:
The Islamics have been mining and mining and mining, but not building ships.  If they aren't building ships, what minerals are they using?

Yes, missiles use Gallicite, but it seems that the Islamics might actually have a surplus of certain desirable minerals.

How much Gallicite would be worth the Commonwealth transporting an Islamic colony to Heracleia, for example?

There are some pluses for the Commonwealth:
Easing its Gallicite shortage.  Giving the Islamics a stake in the future so they don't do something really stupid.

Downsides:
Islamics could make bad future neighbors, even if they are limited to sending messages by way of Commonwealth ships.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Question:
The Islamics have been mining and mining and mining, but not building ships.  If they aren't building ships, what minerals are they using?

Yes, missiles use Gallicite, but it seems that the Islamics might actually have a surplus of certain desirable minerals.

They only started with 50 mines (I think) and have 63 now. They have a few hundred tons of each mineral and less than 100 tons each for Gallicite and Boronide.

Steve