Page 1 of 2

Resources

Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2014 3:22 am
by Hadrianus
Question:

I've read many times on the forum in regards to resources but no one has ever gone into specifics on what sort of resources will be available.
So my question is what sort of resources will we have to work with?
Will it be only basic chemical elements like metals, gasses (iron, uranium, helium, hydrogen) etc?
Or will we have more exotic resources available to our economy like spices, drugs, slaves, food?
Will capital fall into the area of a resources or not? I've probably asked this before or someone has but is there going to be a banking system in the game?

Hope to hear as many details as possible

Re: Resources

Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2014 3:26 am
by Scytale
I don't know about a banking system, since along with the idea of interest it might be a bit difficult to implement. (This reminds me of a thread long ago where someone suggested using a means of economic instability - playing a similar role to interest - in order to kill off economic ventures which were unworthily hanging on for dear life and should have been killed long ago.)

Regarding resources though, I'd be very surprised if the more - as you say - exotic resources weren't included. These could simply be categorized as luxury resources - not to say that they couldn't be used further down a given production chain - and form an important part of the economy in their own right.

Of course, such luxury goods could also form part of an illicit goods trade.

Re: Resources

Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2014 6:15 am
by Kambalo
I can think about a few exotic items, and a few luxury items too. Cuban cigars, Cuban rum (maybe these should be considered illegal items) :mrgreen:

Re: Resources

Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2014 6:50 am
by Idunno
Pylons. :ghost:

Re: Resources

Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2014 1:52 pm
by Hyperion
I would imagine that resources will fall into just a few categories

Primary Resources: Ore from asteroids, Ice/Water from space ice, gas from nebulae or gas giants, fruits and meat and wood and diamonds on planets, basically anything you can harvest directly from the game with the right tools

Processed Resources: The products of any refining/harvesting facilities. It could be as varied as Oil to steel to energy crystals to cookies. I am guessing that the processing facilities would sometimes combine primary resources to create the processed goods, other times they will take energy(or perhaps an energy resource)

Manufactured goods: This would be pretty much anything with its own intrinsic use beyond trading/energy. It would be your lasers and thrusters, your research modules and your transfer beams. These are the Legos by which you build your ships,stations, colonies, jumpgates, warp lanes, etc... I suspect they will be mainly created in facilities that take in a variety of processed resources, primary resources, energy, and money.

Artificial goods: Antimatter, quantum communicators, etc These resources would be like manufactured goods, in that they take primary/processed resources to make, but have very specialized uses.

Cultural Goods: These will be pretty much anything that colonies/stations produce/consume just because. In practical terms they are just articles for trade, with no real use except for making money. However there is potentially a way in which they could be useful, if NPC's had preferences for/against a particular cultural good; you could then give them a whole bunch of this one particular good and it might gain you favor with them, or if you gave them something they hated, it might be a good way to antagonize them into a fight.

Re: Resources

Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2014 3:57 pm
by Kambalo
You forgot contrabands and illegal goods. :mrgreen:

Re: Resources

Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2014 4:24 pm
by Cornflakes_91
theres the question:

how do you define illegal goods?

Re: Resources

Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2014 4:46 pm
by Grumblesaur
Cornflakes_91 wrote:theres the question:

how do you define illegal goods?
Illegality would be dependent on the existence of a governing body in the area, how much power said governing body has if it exists, to what extent it exercises its power if it has any, and whether it has any reason to exercise that power on the outlawing of material goods.

Re: Resources

Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2014 4:48 pm
by Cornflakes_91
Grumblesaur wrote: Illegality would be dependent on the existence of a governing body in the area, how much power said governing body has if it exists, to what extent it exercises its power if it has any, and whether it has any reason to exercise that power on the outlawing of material goods.
thats not what i ment.

how does the AI decide "this good is illegal"?

Re: Resources

Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2014 4:48 pm
by DWMagus
Cornflakes_91 wrote:theres the question:

how do you define illegal goods?
In DF, it's whatever is dictated at the time. I apparently had a ban on "Dog cages" at once point. :wtf:

Re: Resources

Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2014 4:51 pm
by Hyperion
Kambalo wrote:You forgot contrabands and illegal goods. :mrgreen:
Well I would like for there to be illegal goods too, but as cornflakes points out, how would they be illegal?


The idea of some universally defined contraband substance is really not appealing to me; I don't want to get a "drugs are bad m'kay" lecture and get chased by the space police everywhere I go because I sell people crystal methalite. I would much prefer a system in which laws can be made by zone/planet/faction owners that prohibit whatever the hell the owner doesn't want happening, and enforces those rules with whatever force they can bring to bear. However, numerous people here consider such an open system of laws to be an unnecessary wrinkle that overcomplicates the "build ships, blow up ships, paint the map my color" gameplay styles they prefer, so how you would get substances that are banned in some places while thoroughly enjoyed in others is a bit tricky.

I suppose you could give various resources culture values as well, which please or anger individuals according to how closely they align with their own culture value and if it passes a threshold of being too different it becomes illegal. This might not work for all resources (how aggressive is water? how intellectual are muffins? how explorative are machine guns?) and certainly even the most aggressive of players has a need for some more peaceful resources. Not to mention how I think that tying too many things to culture values severely weaken the variety of the game, because one you figure out the culture value, there's little left to discover.

Re: Resources

Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2014 9:04 pm
by TGS
I would love illegality to be dependent on the local colonies culture and even potentially regional culture. If things are deemed "illegal" there could be noticeboards in stations informing you. Routinely you might get scanned by local authority ships and if carrying said contraband you would be asked to dump it or be attacked and potentially suffer a reputation drop with the local authority.

Re: Resources

Posted: Sat Oct 18, 2014 2:43 am
by Flatfingers
We've had some conversations about illegality before that might spark some new ideas:

Illegal Goods
Your reputation preceding you
Restrictions on equipping modules

Also, Josh has had this to say in response to a comment by DWMagus:
JoshParnell wrote:If you put a bunch of big weapons on the market at a dirt-cheap price, the AI, in theory, will recognize that piracy becomes a cheaper and more viable option. Depending on just how cheap you make it, I would think it would push many NPCs over the fence when it comes to deciding to do something illegal. Honorable NPCs will associate a "negative" value with an activity like piracy, but if that value is counteracted by the fact that an NPC sees how much money it could make by acquiring superweapons that would allow it to almost certainly take down a lucrative ship, and, furthermore, those weapons come at little to no cost, the value balance should naturally provide a very tempting opportunity for all but the most extreme of goody-goods :lol:
So we may not be sure exactly what form it may take, but it does sound like Josh was at one point thinking that "illegal" goods might be supported in LT.

[cleaned up link]

Re: Resources

Posted: Sat Oct 18, 2014 2:58 am
by Victor Tombs
Flatfingers wrote:So we may not be sure exactly what form it may take, but it does sound like Josh was at one point thinking that "illegal" goods might be supported in LT.
Considering the joy Mr Parnell used to derive from doing illegal Cardamine runs in Freelancer, Flat, I would be disappointed if some equivalent substance was not to be found in Limit Theory. ;) :angel:

Re: Resources

Posted: Sat Oct 18, 2014 5:13 am
by Hadrianus
Question:

Could a player come up with an entirely new good? I know Josh has talked about some of the procedural generated research trees but does that apply to all goods or just to ships and weapons? Could I say develop a new GMO tomato strain?