6. Pseudo Technical Capability Discussion

Suggested Capabilities-

• XML or INI type file where the base unit value of each material can be configured, and you can name your currency, eg "Marscoin" "Space Dollars" etc
• XML or INI file where each player name/UID is listed with a currency balance
• XML or INI file listing the available resources in the "resource pool"
• XML or INI file listing items for sale by players at what price
• It allows players to calculate the value of a hypothetical quantity (/eg /calc 100 uranium ingot)
• It allows players to value the worth of a cargo in a ship etc (eg /worth )
• It allows players to value a given ship or structure based on its components/condition (eg /Value )
• It allows players to sell these goods either to the server "resource pool" or simply to other players, or some middle ground between the two. (eg /sell ORE , /sell REFINED , /sell ALL, /sell item_name )
• It allows players to buy these goods - either directly from the server "resource pool" or another player, or by spawning a delivery ship to ship it to a GPS location. (/eg /buy ORE GPS:me:1:2:3 )
• It allows /eventually/ to allow trading either in an auction type setup or using fixed price either in game or via some supporting website (eg /sell ore )
• delivery cost?
• resource pool prices change with market demand and supply?
• Modes: unlimited (server pool has unlimited money and resources), limited (server pool has limited trading funds, and is limited to what is bought or sold from players), player only (only items for sale by players is available - although this mode would need a generous starting balance or implement some sort of automated money making system - hypothetical server corporation pays wages to miners who are currently logged in server, longer you play the more you earn)
• Balances of players could be spent on repairing a given ship to 100% or buying an entire ship (spawning it in? changing ownership??)

Technical - cross reference uids between player lists and for sale items as the data relationship to minimize redundancy in data files

Player data - the create datafile event could trigger on connect by a player, or not at all until a player runs the /bal command, or someone tries to send him money, or he tried to sell something to the market. That way players not using trade dont trigger events in the trade mod, keeping processing to a minimum? In fact the entire mod could be event driven perhaps.. much like old style perl/cgi auction scripts, nothing updates until someone loads the page, or in our case interacts with the trade system. The market database isn't touched until someone tries to buy or sell off it, instead of having the mod going all the time.

Thoughts: Spawning ships may prove non practical - may need to invent some sort of "teleportation" method - or other role play element - for example we can spawn an ore, perhaps spawn it nearby and target it at the GPS location to simulate "rail gun delivery".. although this may be exploited potentially as a weapon - order 100 gravel and target it at an enemy base.. instant artificial asteroid shower :/ could be fun. Particularly as this would be limited by the rogue players in game currency balance. Turrets can be configured to attack moving objects.. interesting.

Summary: Basically I want to track a money balance against all players, and assign a monetary value to each ore or refined raw material, configurable via a config file, say an xml or ini type setup.

Idea is add some way to buy or sell ores either to a special block or back to the server itself and maybe a way to calculate the value of a cargo on a ship inventory etc

Long term goals is you buy ore and it spawns a ship 10k away etc and delivers it to a given gps point . Conversely if it could spawn a ship to "pick up" the ore you want to sell that would be cool too.

Other things it could do maybe is supplying parts for blueprints (eg someone buys a military FTL, and a ship delivers the parts to make one; deducting appropriate value - this means each block is valued by the items used to create it.)

What id love to also do is link it to a website where you can run a virtual trading company for your server but that one is not practical yet. This could potentially allow for things like trading supplies for your faction outside of the game, or even crypto or monetization, however this aspect requires consultation with Keen.