The Trade Dock

posted on March 9th, 2013, 11:03 pm

Yep, the "station mechanics" are different per race too. What is an upgrade to a mining station for the federation is a hybrid trading/diplomatic building for the empire.

posted on March 9th, 2013, 11:15 pm

To answer another question:

Paying for a trade ship is immediate, but receiving the goods is not. So, if you want to call in a trade vessel, you have to put your resources up front, but you will not get the resources immediately. Instead the trade vessel must warp in and slowly offload them. You can trade dilithium for supply and vice versa, and tritanium for supply and vice versa.

posted on March 10th, 2013, 1:47 am

This is a great much needed change. Should be fun for raiders.

posted on March 10th, 2013, 2:55 am

I remember the devs talking about making the game feel more like the shows as opposed to a deathmatch kind of thing. I guess this was part of their plan! Cool idea, guys.

posted on March 10th, 2013, 10:30 am

To answer another question:

Paying for a trade ship is immediate, but receiving the goods is not. So, if you want to call in a trade vessel, you have to put your resources up front, but you will not get the resources immediately. Instead the trade vessel must warp in and slowly offload them. You can trade dilithium for supply and vice versa, and tritanium for supply and vice versa.

thanks for the info, can the enemy also kill the trade ships that you paid for? will you get refunded if they die, a replacement, or just lose anything that was being delivered?

posted on March 10th, 2013, 12:24 pm

Great, something new to hunt for my B'rels . I hope the Klingon way of getting supply will still be focused on looting other vessels, while trade is only a small additional income for them. Will we see Karemma trade ships for the Dominion?

posted on March 10th, 2013, 1:00 pm

Yep, you can kill both the supply cargo ships and the trading cargo ships that you paid for. You don't get any compensation for losing either of them. They are indeed a new potential raid target, especially for fast, pulse-armed vessels

Yep, Klingon trading will likely work different, as there is neither a planned economy nor a stellar trade union like in the Romulan Empire or the Federation. Instead, the Klingon Empire is shattered into various houses with which you can make friends or foes. If one of the houses that controls a lot of the dilithium trade doesn't like you, you will have bad luck getting additional crystals for good prices. Looting might not become a core mechanic for the Klingons (doesn't feel very Klingon to me), but gaining honor through glorious victories in battle definitely will. If you are a respectable and proud leader, many minor houses will pledge you their support.

All the trading systems are not yet final and we are still working on them (we are just presenting the Federation one here as we are pretty sure its close to its final state). Our goal is to give each race as much unique character as possible, to bring the game experience close to the "feeling" of the different factions in the shows. Yet, there are of course gameplay and balancing considerations too So its all work in progress.

posted on March 10th, 2013, 1:51 pm

All the trading systems are not yet final and we are still working on them (we are just presenting the Federation one here as we are pretty sure its close to its final state). Our goal is to give each race as much unique character as possible, to bring the game experience close to the "feeling" of the different factions in the shows. Yet, there are of course gameplay and balancing considerations too So its all work in progress.

i was thinking about politics for the romulans. maybe during the middle of the match you can change who your friends are (independent of avatar choice).

example: you start the match friends with nobody. then maybe you pick early on to be friends with the senator in charge of a sector that produces excess dilithium, the better your friendship with him (upgrade your friendship with him by "buying" more friendship, don't lose many of his convoy ships) the better the chance you can get a good purchase rate for dil.

but mid match you may decide you don't need to buy dil, or his convoy ships aren't coming fast enough (convoy ships slow down the longer you are friends with someone), you can betray him and become friends with a senator who gives a different benefit. maybe this senator has some extra weapons components for the generix, so if you ally with this senator, you get a generix that does 3% extra damage with its torps.

there could be a varying number of potential allies at any one time, each with different minor benefits (all give basic stuff like delivering supply convoys and allowing trade). some allies might not be available all the time. and the longer you spend allied to one person, the less they care about you (as you're uninteresting, they don't think you'll leave them).

being friends with the senator in charge of the most shipyards might get you +1 to your cap of singularity generix.
another senator would offer slightly more supply shipments.
another would offer a slightly cheaper talon refit (maybe he controls the facility that manufactures a component of the advanced cloak).

posted on March 10th, 2013, 2:54 pm

so is this basically an upgraded stock a2 trade system or is it completely different?

posted on March 10th, 2013, 3:40 pm

The trade system we have in place for v4 does not function or use A2-like stuff. V4's system should be reproducible in v3 as well

posted on March 10th, 2013, 6:53 pm

Looting might not become a core mechanic for the Klingons (doesn't feel very Klingon to me), but gaining honor through glorious victories in battle definitely will. If you are a respectable and proud leader, many minor houses will pledge you their support.

Yeah, I guess TNG and DS9 took pretty much away the "pirate-aspect" the Klingons had in TOS and TMP. But then again there is this TaQ'roja in FO...

posted on March 10th, 2013, 9:44 pm

The trade system we have in place for v4 does not function or use A2-like stuff. V4's system should be reproducible in v3 as well

The basic part of the system does appear to have some commonality with the way materials are delivered in the final single-player mission of the classic A2 campaign though. Is this just a coincidence?

posted on March 11th, 2013, 5:35 am

Im curious about the different vessels used for the convoy vessels, has me wondering if we may see the miranda class or the shelley/curry filling in from time to time?

posted on March 11th, 2013, 5:45 am

Sounds good. Would also be good for the Star Wars mods out there (could have many different types of freighter visiting, Corellian Transports, Gallofree Medium Transports, Bulk Freighters etc)

Would also allow me to finally implement multiple civvy freighters in my own mod too. Major breakthrough this if you ask me

posted on March 11th, 2013, 5:47 am

Will this type of Trade System work in mods as well through Version 4's Mods Directory? For example would it be able to be implemented into A2 Mods using the STA2_Classic Mod either as a Parent Mod or a mod based near it as a standalone mod? Thus maybe replacing or complimenting the stock A2 Trading System?