Contract Shipping - possible game expansion

[William one eye]

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

[Maha]

+1

well written, easy to understand.

one thing i don't get though

check box - plunder - fine imposed - value box – yes or no –if yes – enter fine amount
if unchecked shippers loss is the cargo only

since the contract is about filling up a warehouse, what does it matter that a shipment is lost?
or does this mean a kind of skirmish insurance offered by the contract giver?

i would rather give banks the option to insure fleets and ports and players against damage done unto them. (but if this idea has merit, it should be discussed somewhere else.)

[DezNutz]

+1

well written, easy to understand.

one thing i don't get though

check box - plunder - fine imposed - value box – yes or no –if yes – enter fine amount
if unchecked shippers loss is the cargo only

since the contract is about filling up a warehouse, what does it matter that a shipment is lost?
or does this mean a kind of skirmish insurance offered by the contract giver?

i would rather give banks the option to insure fleets and ports and players against damage done unto them. (but if this idea has merit, it should be discussed somewhere else.)

I think this is an option to the contract. Basically part of the contract is that if cargo is lost due to plunder the shipper pays a fine of X amount defined in the contract.

[William one eye]

+1

well written, easy to understand.

one thing i don't get though

check box - plunder - fine imposed - value box – yes or no –if yes – enter fine amount
if unchecked shippers loss is the cargo only

since the contract is about filling up a warehouse, what does it matter that a shipment is lost?
or does this mean a kind of skirmish insurance offered by the contract giver?

i would rather give banks the option to insure fleets and ports and players against damage done unto them. (but if this idea has merit, it should be discussed somewhere else.)

I think this is an option to the contract. Basically part of the contract is that if cargo is lost due to plunder the shipper pays a fine of X amount defined in the contract.

dez nutz -
correct, when creating the contract the customer can select what happens if the shipper should lose the shipment
They can consider that the loss of cargo is loss enough for the shipper and impose no fine or they can specify the amount of a fine on top of that loss. A shipper should consider potential fines before accepting a contract. This as I will note below does not take into possibility that the shipper just does not deliver the cargo.

If you are trying to fill a warehouse, you most likely want that warehouse filled by a deadline, by offering the contract a customer is
risking that a shipper may accept the contract and not complete the contract in time. Fines are to offset a loss for a customer due to failure of the shipper.

Maha -

you are also correct however, it does not matter if the shipment if lost. It matters if the shipment does not arrive. so why it does not arrive
is not important. I did not arrive. - I will make an edit on this.

[Haron]

What would this enable players to do of the following:

A) Transfer goods from the warehouse of player A to the warehouse of player B in the same port.
B) Having the ships of player A pick up goods from the warehouse of player B when entering a port.
C) Having the ships of player A deliver goods to the warehouse of player B when entering a port.

As I read the suggestion, all of this would be allowed. I think this would make the warehouse tycoon and west india company card extremely valuable. A team could pay for one player to max out his warehouse tycoon, and have all players benefit from this. It's a way to circumvent the increasing costs of large warehouses and huge fleets. I'm sceptical, but open to the possibility that there is something I don't understand in this suggestion - or in how you perceive the consequences.

[William one eye]

Haron

option B - I don't believe I have this set up to work that way, however it would be a simple addition, and may be useful, for someone who would like to have someone move their own cargo from one warehouse to another. It would add flexibility. Although, could some one potentially pick up your cargo and sail off with it? I will have to think about that.

Yes this will greatly increase potential value of huge warehouses. People working in groups may be able to make huge profits.

I personally have had many occasions were I needed materials for shipbuilding or hideout development and needed to pull ships from other
tasks to move the cargo. I have also had occasions where I wanted cargo faster or and in larger quantities than I could supply it myself.

I believe the strongest consequences would be

a) the way merchants view and develop fleets. Some may choose to continue the current method,
while others may be able to develop specialized fleets to provide shipping services.

b) the way players use warehouses, a new play style could develop that is a player that focuses on warehouse management.
to fill orders.

c)pirates, privateers, and possibly even some other business minded players or groups may choose to run gold shipments as they are likely to have fast well armed ships.

I am certain players would find ways to use the system in ways I had not considered.
I do not see to much potential for abuse of the system, however I am certain exploits could be found.
Overall I tried to structure this off existing game framework and tried not to make it to difficult to implement.

[Slindur]

Nice ideas. I think that this is a nice addition to Avonmora. +1

Slindur

[Maha]

-1

after some thought i change my +1 to -1

this proposal would make shipbuilding totally anonymous and risk free. a ship builder does not need fleets any more to gather supplies, he can outsource it with this proposal. the auction is already anonymous; no-one will know who is building ships and making a profit this way!

now, i like myself to have an uninterruptible source of income, but for the game i n general i believe it is not good. every enterprise should have some risk factor imo

[William one eye]

-1

after some thought i change my +1 to -1

this proposal would make shipbuilding totally anonymous and risk free. a ship builder does not need fleets any more to gather supplies, he can outsource it with this proposal. the auction is already anonymous; no-one will know who is building ships and making a profit this way!

now, i like myself to have an uninterruptible source of income, but for the game i n general i believe it is not good. every enterprise should have some risk factor imo

re- this proposal would make shipbuilding totally anonymous
You currently can not tell who is transporting material for ship building - I am fairly good at using the gossip page to figure things out, but not that good, so I don't see how that changes - If a shipwright chooses to be known, they will announce themselves and promote their ships.

re- this proposal would make shipbuilding risk free
the shipwright would still have the possibility that the shipper may lose the cargo. Now the cost of that loss is on the shipper, however,
the risk is that because you are relying on someone else, the materials may not arrive when you need them.
In addition to this contracting a shipment will cost money, that will cut into the shipwrights profit. The shipwright would need to weight the costs
vs benefits of an easy supply chain.

re- a ship builder does not need fleets any more to gather supplies
that is one of possible results of this proposal, to be honest someone that is good at predicting market demand could potentially operate as a
merchant, by using warehouses and contract shipping, and not have a single merchant ship sailing the water. No this does not mean pirates will have not ships to chase. The cargo must still be transported to the warehouse and someones ships will be at sea. Does this mean warehousing would be risk free. certainly not. A warehousing merchant is speculating demand, if that demand does not occur, they are stuck with the cargo.

The use of shipping contracts, would not be risk free for either the shipper or the customer, the customer takes a risk in trusting the Shipper,
especially considering that they cannot choose the shipper. The shipper takes the risk they may lose the cargo.

If you were to look outside PG, many businesses do not transport their own cargo they hire someone else to do it.
and many people warehouse products with the speculation that they can resell those products and make a profit.

[Maha]

one thing i learned from the draft is the need of a steady income.
and the need to go after the revenue makers of your opponent.

by being untraceable it is impossible to attack the revenue makers.
the risk of trusting the shipper is minimal with the 'no cure no pay' option.
all the shipwright has to do is to put enough offers on the market to keep his warehouses 80% full.

profit will go down because of the outsourcing, but with maximum safity.

eg. in time of guild or nation war, the shipwright defleets, lowers his gc to a minimum and acts like a scared chicken.
meanwhile he uses the soon to be gc -credit exchange to finance his shipbuilding enterprise once or twice a day. his gc goes up and down again in a few minutes timeframe.

i believe this changes the game too a possible stalemate. why fight an endless war?

that's why i went to -1. but, i know i am not the best strategic thinker and too new in the game to predict what really will happen. i just wanted to mention this possibility so that the authorities above can take it in consideration.