Trade goods concept revealed

from Stardock Forums
Okay, so you may have seen in the diplomacy screen that you can trade "trade goods" but what are they?

Essentially, a Trade good is a SPECIAL kind of planetary improvement. There will be many in the game and they, like all improvements, become available due to research.

Rather than have arbitrary natural resources spread across the galaxy (though we may play with this in a sequel), players build them.

The first one to build this speical improvement gets it. Only one player can have it at a time. Each one gives players a particular advantage.

Example:
Xanthium Armor will improve the attack, defense, and hitpoints of all your ships by 10%. Whoever builds it gets that benefit. But you can also TRADE it where by you still receive the benefit but so does the other race who you trade it with. But you can only trade this item with one race at a time (you let them use it for X turns where X hasn't been debated enough yet).

This way, random geography of the map doesn't make as much determination as the player's specific strategy to decide whether they want to try to be a trading empire. The AI will take into account when determining its relations with you whether it needs the trade goods you make. Afterall, manyu of the trade goods may effect their economy, morale, etc. and without them they could be crippled.

What do you think?
235 views 4 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
Sounds very intriguing.
I assume any breakdown in relations (such as war) automatically removed the trade. Would this cause instant removal of the benefit, or a slow removal as traded stock is depleted?
Also, will other empires be angry with you for not trading a particular item with them? It could be a no win situation for a trading empire if it can only trade with a single empire and the other empires declare war on it out of anger!
I assume the value of X will depend on the value of good traded by the other empire, or will it be fixed with empires bidding for the traded item?

Paul.
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
It stands to reason that some trade goods could be researched by anyone. Sensor Widgets, once the consept becomes available, can have other races copy the design and start to make it themselves. Other items, Power Crystal Widgets, perhaps, need special environments to construct with a secret recipe, and thus could be a special trade. Hard to find a balance.

Technology can be copied. Resources have to be harvested, gathered, mined, etc. and as such I think would make better trading items.

Of course it is often easier to purchase the items then to figure out how they make it, set up factories, and start gathering resources to begin production. I wonder if we could set up some sort of intergalactic patent office so the the originator of a new technology gets a bonus or some sort of monitary credit for making it. Good empires would abide by the patent, evil empires would (could) ignore it.

How would the determination be made whether an empire needed such and such a trade good. Unless they have a monopoly on Armor Type 4 and you are trying to trade Armor Type 2.... they will always need any greater tech than what they have, and will always reject any tech they have greater ones in. Armor 2 and Armor 4 bonuses shouldn't stack, as you should only be using one sort of armor at a time.

Hope this rambling helps.
Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
For 1.0, we pretty much plan to have trade goods be unique (but lots of them). SO the first one to build "Sensor Widgets" would have a monopoly on them. I guess we could say there's a sort of "Galactic patent system" ;)

Clearly the idea is to require players to make strategic choices - do I build taht fusion power plant NOW or do I build the Soothing Gems trade good that give my planets a 10% morale bonus but take a LOOONNG time to build.
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
Will trade good be all social projects (as above), or will there be some military projects involved also? More flexability for the players as they may have enough ships guarding the home world, but they still want that entertainmetn center, so they could set up ship building trade goods. I would like to see something like 60-70% social, 20-30% both, and 10% military or something similar.

Can we still have the option of rushing (purchacing)them like other projects? How long is LOOONNG, as it take me several hundred turns to build fusion plants as it is (without rushing)? That is an awfull lot of clicks as it is on the turn button.

If you loose the planet the trade good was built on, does the trade good go also? If so, what does the third party you were trading with think of you when you break the trade pack? Could that just be that you still keep the trade good, keeping the treaty in place, but now the new planet owner can also have and trade the goods. Nice incentive to dominate all you can militarily.

If the trade goods are so powerfull that an entire empires economy or happyness is based on it, and trades are only good for x number of turns, there needs to be a way to show people (who are terrable at keeping track of such minutia) just what effect it has, so as to keep them out of a war they cannot afford. Or to help them extend the trade if they will soon be S.O.L.. (A pop up a couple of turns in advance please - not the instant it suddenly happens.)

If you are debating how long x turns will be, why not leave that up to the parties trading? Or is that to much to program in at this level?