Contract Shipping - possible game expansion
Posted: Mon Sep 19, 2016 7:43 pm
Contract shipping
Concept and development by William One Eye and Noffin
Concept – a system to allow merchants to contract their services. Basically a marketplace where customers place orders. Interested Merchants can check the orders and choose if they wish to accept a contract to deliver cargo. Types of services we are considering are large shipments, express shipments, and high risk shipments.
Why would a customer need this service?
Example 1 – hideout supply.
The end customer
-does not have the necessary ships to supply their hideout
- does not want to protect the ships suppling their hideout
- does not want to move ships from profitable routes to supply their hideout.
- customer need materials faster than they can deliver them on their own.
Example 2 – warehouse stocking for party cards, backbone or to fill customer orders.
Filling orders from a warehouse is a propose include in this suggestion
Reasons a customer would contract the service would be almost identical to example 1
Example 3 – moving high risk shipments or working in high risk areas
Customer may feel armed fleets may be a better option for certain shipments
Instead of adding escorts or arming merchant ships they can contract someone else to do the shipment.
Who would fill the orders.
While the obvious answer is merchants, there are situations in which I could see pirates or privateers handling some of cargos, as they may have better route flexibility and more available armed ships.
Will this affect game play
Certainly – we feel this would alter the way players develop and use trade fleets.
This will affect the way players use warehouses.
This will affect the way pirates hunt merchants
We hope to add an NPC aspect as well
Implementation
On the market page
Once in the market a new link is showing on the right hand side menu - Contract Trade
Player clicks Contract Trade
Contract Trade
pages opens with current contracts –contract lists page - looks similar to bounty page
open contracts are shown and can be sorted by following features
contract type - high risk - express - large shipment
cargo type
cargo quantity
price per crate will to pay
fee willing to pay
required delivery date and time
Right hand side menu shows
contracts list
create contract
To take a contract click on the contract
Page opens showing contract terms – button - accept contract – button - cancel
bottom of page has a button for NPC Shipment - similar to NPC plunder
click create contract – following page opens
Create contract page
enter the following
choose cargo - selection box – selects cargo
choose destination - selection box – selects port
choose price per crate - value box – enter amount willing to pay per crate or bar
choose fee paid - value box – service fee willing to pay shipper
enter required delivery time and date to get fee.
*check box if a late delivery is accepted - value box - how many hours before contract is completely void * added this option
enter duration contract will be open for acceptance – date and time
choose terms – penalties for failure to complete contract
check box - late percent fee withheld - value box - enter percent
check box - late refuse acceptance - yes or no
* check box - no delivery- fine imposed value box - enter fine amount
* edit *- originally we considered the only reason for no deliver would be plunder or skirmish loss.
however it is possible the shipper just does not ship. To make this simple the customer can choose to impose a fine.
The customer chooses the amount. No delivery applies once the late deliver time has passed.
**original option **check box - plunder- fine imposed - value box – yes or no –if yes – enter fine amount
if unchecked shippers loss is the cargo only**
when a contract is created – customer must have available warehouse space.
Contract cargo space locks the warehouse space needed to insure delivery can take place to fulfill the order
button – create contract - opens the contract and creates a contract ID #
contracts will be handled by ID# and will anonymous to protect the shipper and customer
button cancel – take player back to Contract Lists page
Right hand side menu shows
contracts list
create contract
NPC Contract
click check port for NPC contract - uses 2 turns
sample of NPC contracts
x crates of cargo deliver to port a by date and time - fee paid
y crates of cargo deliver to port b by date and time - fee paid
z crates of cargo deliver to port c by date and time - fee paid
for npc contracts you must be able to fill the contract
with the ships you have in port
To take a contract click on the contract
Page opens showing contract terms button purchase cargo from market - button - cancel
Once purchased you must sail the fleet or fleets to the destination port to complete the contract
If a player completes that contract they get market value purchase of the goods, and are paid the fee
If a player delivers the cargo after the required dedline contract they get market value purchase of the goods but do not get the fee
If a player loses the cargo to a PVP fleet, It is lost – the player loses the value of the cargo and does not get the fee
Right hand side menu shows
Contract Trade menu link
How to fill contracts
Shipping method
on the edit trade route page we add a box next to store
the new box is deliver in port 1,2,3,4 - in this box you enter the contract ID
the trade route must be setup to acquire the cargo and deliver to the port selected.
Warehouse method – this will possibly create a new type of player – one that fills warehouses wit speculation of possible orders – adding advantage to use of warehouse tycoon and storage contract tech
Direct warehouse transfer
if you have a warehouse with goods already stored in the destination port
you go to the warehouse
we add a button next to transfer to ship - the new button is Contract transfer
you enter the contract ID and transfer the goods completing the contract
Tech
This feature would increase would add benefit to many existing tech upgrades
However we also would suggest for academy - specialized contract trade tech.
Trade tech could be give a higher shipping speed percentage
and better Evade chance percentage as it was leveled up.
This would apply to all players buying the tech upgrade not just players using the contract
Trade system.
Nation Missions
We would like to see addition nation mission points available as alternatives for merchant players ranking up in nations. This could be in the form of a nation generated NPC contract.
This idea is under development – we are open to all helpful ideas, concerns, and suggestions
Concept and development by William One Eye and Noffin
Concept – a system to allow merchants to contract their services. Basically a marketplace where customers place orders. Interested Merchants can check the orders and choose if they wish to accept a contract to deliver cargo. Types of services we are considering are large shipments, express shipments, and high risk shipments.
Why would a customer need this service?
Example 1 – hideout supply.
The end customer
-does not have the necessary ships to supply their hideout
- does not want to protect the ships suppling their hideout
- does not want to move ships from profitable routes to supply their hideout.
- customer need materials faster than they can deliver them on their own.
Example 2 – warehouse stocking for party cards, backbone or to fill customer orders.
Filling orders from a warehouse is a propose include in this suggestion
Reasons a customer would contract the service would be almost identical to example 1
Example 3 – moving high risk shipments or working in high risk areas
Customer may feel armed fleets may be a better option for certain shipments
Instead of adding escorts or arming merchant ships they can contract someone else to do the shipment.
Who would fill the orders.
While the obvious answer is merchants, there are situations in which I could see pirates or privateers handling some of cargos, as they may have better route flexibility and more available armed ships.
Will this affect game play
Certainly – we feel this would alter the way players develop and use trade fleets.
This will affect the way players use warehouses.
This will affect the way pirates hunt merchants
We hope to add an NPC aspect as well
Implementation
On the market page
Once in the market a new link is showing on the right hand side menu - Contract Trade
Player clicks Contract Trade
Contract Trade
pages opens with current contracts –contract lists page - looks similar to bounty page
open contracts are shown and can be sorted by following features
contract type - high risk - express - large shipment
cargo type
cargo quantity
price per crate will to pay
fee willing to pay
required delivery date and time
Right hand side menu shows
contracts list
create contract
To take a contract click on the contract
Page opens showing contract terms – button - accept contract – button - cancel
bottom of page has a button for NPC Shipment - similar to NPC plunder
click create contract – following page opens
Create contract page
enter the following
choose cargo - selection box – selects cargo
choose destination - selection box – selects port
choose price per crate - value box – enter amount willing to pay per crate or bar
choose fee paid - value box – service fee willing to pay shipper
enter required delivery time and date to get fee.
*check box if a late delivery is accepted - value box - how many hours before contract is completely void * added this option
enter duration contract will be open for acceptance – date and time
choose terms – penalties for failure to complete contract
check box - late percent fee withheld - value box - enter percent
check box - late refuse acceptance - yes or no
* check box - no delivery- fine imposed value box - enter fine amount
* edit *- originally we considered the only reason for no deliver would be plunder or skirmish loss.
however it is possible the shipper just does not ship. To make this simple the customer can choose to impose a fine.
The customer chooses the amount. No delivery applies once the late deliver time has passed.
**original option **check box - plunder- fine imposed - value box – yes or no –if yes – enter fine amount
if unchecked shippers loss is the cargo only**
when a contract is created – customer must have available warehouse space.
Contract cargo space locks the warehouse space needed to insure delivery can take place to fulfill the order
button – create contract - opens the contract and creates a contract ID #
contracts will be handled by ID# and will anonymous to protect the shipper and customer
button cancel – take player back to Contract Lists page
Right hand side menu shows
contracts list
create contract
NPC Contract
click check port for NPC contract - uses 2 turns
sample of NPC contracts
x crates of cargo deliver to port a by date and time - fee paid
y crates of cargo deliver to port b by date and time - fee paid
z crates of cargo deliver to port c by date and time - fee paid
for npc contracts you must be able to fill the contract
with the ships you have in port
To take a contract click on the contract
Page opens showing contract terms button purchase cargo from market - button - cancel
Once purchased you must sail the fleet or fleets to the destination port to complete the contract
If a player completes that contract they get market value purchase of the goods, and are paid the fee
If a player delivers the cargo after the required dedline contract they get market value purchase of the goods but do not get the fee
If a player loses the cargo to a PVP fleet, It is lost – the player loses the value of the cargo and does not get the fee
Right hand side menu shows
Contract Trade menu link
How to fill contracts
Shipping method
on the edit trade route page we add a box next to store
the new box is deliver in port 1,2,3,4 - in this box you enter the contract ID
the trade route must be setup to acquire the cargo and deliver to the port selected.
Warehouse method – this will possibly create a new type of player – one that fills warehouses wit speculation of possible orders – adding advantage to use of warehouse tycoon and storage contract tech
Direct warehouse transfer
if you have a warehouse with goods already stored in the destination port
you go to the warehouse
we add a button next to transfer to ship - the new button is Contract transfer
you enter the contract ID and transfer the goods completing the contract
Tech
This feature would increase would add benefit to many existing tech upgrades
However we also would suggest for academy - specialized contract trade tech.
Trade tech could be give a higher shipping speed percentage
and better Evade chance percentage as it was leveled up.
This would apply to all players buying the tech upgrade not just players using the contract
Trade system.
Nation Missions
We would like to see addition nation mission points available as alternatives for merchant players ranking up in nations. This could be in the form of a nation generated NPC contract.
This idea is under development – we are open to all helpful ideas, concerns, and suggestions