Contract Shipping - possible game expansion

[William one eye]

Thank you Maha recognizing we were diverging and for sending me a message with your ideas. I look forward to working with you on that.

Also bump to see if anyone else has any thoughts on this

[Sir Henry Morgan]

I truly like this idea - this enhances game play at the seafaring level, which I am excited to see. It adds a new level of commerce and strategy to the merchant. It will also provide opportunity for new players to interact with older players, providing opportunity for even faster upgrading.

I can see some far reaching implications for this feature that can be integrated into the nations feature, for the building of forts, national navy docks, etc.

With contracts, there is not only opportunity for merchants, but for privateers to disrupt these contracts for various motives. First would be additional fame as you are now not affecting the enterprise one player, but two....

Yes, some very, very far reaching influence in seafaring play.....

Excellent idea! Keep threshing it out, mates!

[Bmw]

this could also function as a way to export gold bars from the ports and bring gold bar prices up

[Sir Henry Morgan]

What if contracts had to be paid in gold bars rather than gold coin.....

[William one eye]

What if contracts had to be paid in gold bars rather than gold coin.....

How would you value the bars. Market price of gold bar in destination port or just by gold bar count not factoring local market value? The later meaning it would be up to the customer and shipper to determine what the feel the bars are worth.

..

[Bmw]

if we sold gold bars to the npc they would be getting sold to the game for a small profit and it would lessen the number of gold abrs in ports and it would increase gold bar prices all around making smithing more productive

[John jacob astor]

+1 to this idea as a whole. This would open up a whole new level of game play.

perhaps there could be a way to choose whether your contract is anonymous or public. Maybe pay extra to keep your identity hidden from public view.

[Juicypotato]

- 10 million. This game does not need another trading feature. It's already getting boring here. We need some blood. I'd like a juicy rare steak to satisfy my inner potato.

[Haron]

I welcome expansions to the game, but this needs some thinking through. I foresee this having a huge side effect of generating "trade consortiums". With the ability to:

A) Transfer goods from the warehouse of player A to the warehouse of player B
B) Transfer goods from the warehouse of player A to the ships of player B
C) Transfer goods from the ships of player B to the warehouse of player A

I see the following consortium starting:

Ten players form a "trading guild" and work as a team. In both ports, they all build up warehouses to, say, level 200. They also all build up fleets of 200 ships (the costs only start rising after that, really). In addition, they all sponsor one "lead" player. This player builds a warehouse of level 1000 or so in the ports, and max out "warehouse tycoon". He also uses "west indian company" to buy goods, and sells using party cards. They all share the profit. Now, they have a massive fleet of 2000 ships moving goods, with the benefits of max warehouse tycoon, a huge warehouse and party cards - but only have to pay the price of ONE tech development, ONE West India card every (other) day, and ONE party card when they sell, and only TWO large warehouses.

This was obviously just an example. In general, I think at least the following issues should be addressed:

1) The advantage of "warehouse tycoon" will become much higher than today (and the West India company card, too - and probably party cards as well)
2) "Pirates" and other high-profile players will not need to use trade fleets for transporting goods themselves
3) This suggestion will probably reduce the total need for goods transport, as people will be able to sell to other players rather than to system

Being who I am, I obviously favor the opportunity to sell services to other players. This suggestion, however, differs from "Naval Combat Solutions" and the "bounty system" in one important aspect: We sell services that are already possible within the existing game rules. The bounty system made it possible to anonymously set a price for someone to do something which already was possible within the existing game rules (skirmishing, plundering, stealing ships and casting voodoo). This suggestion, however, requires the rules to be altered, and THEN giving the option to set a price for services which become possible to do within these new rules. Thus, it is a greater change than the bounty system, and the conesquenses of the necessary rule changes need to be understood. Personally I don't understand the consequences fully yet, but welcome a discussion about it. The ability to then set a price for those services to be caried out, is in my opinion a detail compared to the rules that need to be changed.

[William one eye]

Re Haron:

Re trading consortium:

This is a valid concern. Would this happen, perhaps. The situation you describe involves a lot of trust between the players of the consortium.
A player building a lvl 1000 or larger warehouse and investing in the tech is trusting that the other players will follow through on the plan.
If players are pooling money and giving it to the mass warehousing player, they must trust that player building the warehouse will honor the agreement and use the warehouse as proposed. They must also trust that all aspects of the business are managed, it would involve a lot of accounting and fund distribution.

Party card usage will be limited by port population. Population fluctuation will be a major risk associated with mass warehouses built for party card use.

Maha suggested a tax on warehouses. Perhaps this could be implemented to cut the profitability of and help limit such activities.

Another possible deterrent, you could possibly implement a Legendary version of OLD that would more damaging to mass warehouses.

Now on the subject of 2000 ships per day moving goods to a single warehouse. That would be a fine target for a pirate, or a group of pirates or privateers that had saved up a bunch of turns.

Re: other issues

1 The advantage of "warehouse tycoon" will become much higher than today (and the West India company card, too - and probably party cards as well)

also storage contract tech

voodoo cards would adjust in the market based upon demand, and their value would rise.

party cards are previously stated would be limited by population

2 "Pirates" and other high-profile players will not need to use trade fleets for transporting goods themselves

This is one of the intended results of this design. Any pirate or privateer that would for example be building a hideout would not need to
manage or have the risks of trade fleets that were supplying that warehouse.

3 This suggestion will probably reduce the total need for goods transport, as people will be able to sell to other players rather than to system

I don't believe that this would decrease the number of goods being transported. There is no option to transfer goods from port to port,
with out fleet movement. So no matter how the system is used goods must still move from port of production to port of demand. In fact
if a group was operating a mass warehouse, it may increase the number of goods being shipped to fill that warehouse.


I welcome these sort of oppositions and hope that anyone foreseeing any consequences of the system feels free to bring them up. The purpose of this suggestion is to improve game play by increasing player options not hinder it by giving someone the tools to gain an unstifled advantage.

Re: Other ideas and suggestions from other Players

Current ideas under consideration

- ability for a player to pick up from another players warehouse - could result in direct player to player trades

- optional anonymity - perhaps this would be the choice of the contract shipper

- a rating system for shippers - customer can request orders above a set value only be handled by shippers of a certain rating

- gold bars used as payments - I suggest this be an option combined with the rating system for highly rated shippers.