Post by Lilim on Jun 6, 2020 11:14:51 GMT -5
Preface: As everyone knows, I am constantly using spare thoughts and time in thinking about better and more useful ways to bolster the utility and usefulness of user planets. I feel like it is an untapped source of significant game mechanics that can enrich the experience on the site (even though it is largely self-serving, admittedly). This thread isn't a proposal for approval--I would rather hammer out the mechanical theory and mechanic process concerning user planets before submitting something for approval--but considering other people can (and some do) express a significant interest in expanding the role that user planets have, I wanted to open up this thread for others to provide input. More eyes and experiences can expand the scope of thought and, therefore, offer more than one path to success. Feel free to post up your suggestions in this thread.
Goal: The goal here is to iron out the theory behind how user planets should interact with one another as well as the economy of the game world as a whole. Intergalactic trade being what it is, I feel like there is a huge opportunity for more game mechanics in this regard. While others prefer to focus on the mechanics of roleplaying and battling, I want to expand the mechanics of user planets and their role on the site as a whole, so any suggestions in that regard are always welcome.
Chalkboard: My initial thoughts largely preoccupy themselves with how intergalactic trade would largely work, as some planets are more skilled at exporting certain products than others, resulting in a necessity to trade with other planets in order to receive resources that are necessary to expand operations and maintain a thriving population. Food, water, gases, air, lumber, metal, etc. Part of this discussion is to figure out how many products should be involved in the trading process (scope) while preventing the system from being too big and convoluted to be thoroughly expressed (focus). For example, we could quantify a planet's surplus output as anything up to 100 different products, but for the purposes of a roleplaying forum, having that many different items that a planet could specialize in would be too cumbersome to be implemented effectively. However, making the types of resources too narrow (such as 3 or 4) would result in the upward performance of the system being too easily achieved or, more likely, too boring to pursue.
As such, I think having at least 6 different products/item types that a planet could potentially specialize in would be a good starting point. Considering that some planets will likely require one or more types of items in order to maximize production of another type, its important to make sure that the final list of products is ironed out beforehand, lest future additions make the system less fluid and intuitive. Obviously, for simplicity's sake, we should probably make each planet specialize in one type of product but require it to bring in 2 other products in order to achieve maximum production/prosperity. It's not enough for businesses on a commercial level to just meet its needs, there has to be a profit margin involved that is worth the investment. This doesn't necessarily mean raw zeni (as, after all, a character's user planet potential caps at 950z, instead of 950,000z, both because it's not just your character running the planet (they would have a small army of administrators, laborers, etc, each taking a wage resulting in a much lower personal wage, despite the scale of planetary commerce) and because we do not wish to over-strain the economy of the site as-is.
(Side Note: Discussions about providing more methods of pulling zeni out of the economy can be discussed later, but rest assured, I have it noted in my personal notes. The site needs more ways of pulling zeni out of circulation in order to maintain the worth of said zeni as well as to provide more options for players other than just hoard zeni because there's nothing to spend it on.)
However, if planets are expected to generate products with value from the aether (ie. in game terms, out of 'thin air'), then there has to be an inevitable funnel for those resources to eventually be brought back into 'thin air'. Many gacha games rely on this fundamental mechanic, gaining a resource for doing nothing, using that resource on x, using x on y, using y on z, and then z is eventually put back into the aether for either a permanent upgrade or as a re-investment into continued operations. This is important in order to maintain the economy. As an example, people are able to create exquisite materials and combine them with making Sake on the site (with a modest zeni investment, which goes into the aether) which can be used to produce another currency (DP) which is then used to permanently upgrade one's stats (or trade for zeni, which can be used for investment into something else). The currency/materials ultimately end up back in 'thin air' in order to maintain what is colloquially called 'economic neutrality' in video game systems.
With these concepts in mind, we are able to determine the following loop (numbers shown are just an example, not a final proposal):
1) Planet Produces 2 Food Products
2) Planet trades 1 Food Product for Tools
3) Planet uses 1 Food Product and 1 Tool Product to Produce 3 Food Product
4) Planet trades 1 Food Product for Tools
5) Planet trades 1 Food Product for Materials
6) Planet uses 1 Food, 1 Tools, 1 Materials to produce 4 Food Product
7) Surplus 1 Food, which can either be sold for currency or traded for additional products
Already, we are quantifying the values of a planet's ability to produce revenue and resources. However, it is not enough that a Product is just used for trade, otherwise we're just trading marbles (a valueless object that just exists to exist), so each Product type also needs to have an additional use. For example, a Food Product could probably be used to produce an additional serving of Curry, which can be used or sold, pulling that resource back into the aether (alternatively, the Food Product could be used to waive the 200z cost of making the Curry in the first place, as game economies respond more positively to reductions in costs, not net additions to revenue). Tool Products can likely be used to instantly reduce the build time of one item by 1 week. These are just examples, but it should function as a means to stir creativity in order to determine what Products should be able to do instead of just existing for trade purposes. Naturally, zeni is a primary currency on the site and acts as a measure of wealth and purchasing power, so selling surplus products would always be an option.
Next comes the factor of time. Time is the primary mechanic of the site (training, jobs, etc are all determined by your weekly update, which you can only do once per week. The site's main mechanic is not activity, as all forms of activity are measured by how many things you can do per week), and therefore, time needs to be the primary constraint when it comes to planets producing products. Many businesses and corporations measure material wealth in chunks of quarters (3-month sections), but that is not really conducive to the style of updating weekly on the site. As such, it is more impactful in terms of updates and in game-feedback-to-player-actions if a planet produces its products once per month (so a Food-Producing world would produce 2 Food Products per month naturally, without further input other than staying active).
Since we touched on it, normally, trades between player-characters are instantaneous, requiring no shipping or transportation costs (save for the Delivery Bot). While trading 1 Food Product for 1 Tool Product seems small and insignificant, this is actually an abstraction--quantities of trade between planets would be measured by the Metric Ton, not as something small like one or two boxes--and as such, requires significant shipping to transport between planets. One idea was to make the transport time for a product to be 1 week (as an example, sending 4 Food Products to a planet would take 4 weeks), further adding the time constraint to the mechanic.
(Side Note: This is naturally where we would discuss the hazards of mass-shipping through space, such as piracy, warfare, mechanical malfunction, crew incompetence, alien infestation, delays, etc. These can be discussed as well, but we should iron out the core mechanic and loop first before introducing disruptions to that loop. Additionally, the presence of pirates naturally leads to mechanics to interdict on said pirates, the presence of warfare naturally leads to mechanics to conduct or prevent warfare in the first place, etc etc. The more we expand the mechanics, the more mechanics we would need to introduce in order to give players options to circumvent/mitigate/interact with those hazards and mechanics. As such, I'd like to keep the primary discussion as simple as possible before introducing greater nuance. For those of you that remember, the Galactic War suffered from this problem, as we tried to do too many abstract things all at once without ironing out how things are supposed to function 'normally').
This is just the start of my thoughts on this subject--feel free to give your insight and ideas into this. Once we come up with a solid foundation, idea, and implementation, then I can formalize it into a proposal for staff to review (which is a long ways off--we need to make sure these mechanics make sense long before a staff member reviews it for approval into the site).
Goal: The goal here is to iron out the theory behind how user planets should interact with one another as well as the economy of the game world as a whole. Intergalactic trade being what it is, I feel like there is a huge opportunity for more game mechanics in this regard. While others prefer to focus on the mechanics of roleplaying and battling, I want to expand the mechanics of user planets and their role on the site as a whole, so any suggestions in that regard are always welcome.
Chalkboard: My initial thoughts largely preoccupy themselves with how intergalactic trade would largely work, as some planets are more skilled at exporting certain products than others, resulting in a necessity to trade with other planets in order to receive resources that are necessary to expand operations and maintain a thriving population. Food, water, gases, air, lumber, metal, etc. Part of this discussion is to figure out how many products should be involved in the trading process (scope) while preventing the system from being too big and convoluted to be thoroughly expressed (focus). For example, we could quantify a planet's surplus output as anything up to 100 different products, but for the purposes of a roleplaying forum, having that many different items that a planet could specialize in would be too cumbersome to be implemented effectively. However, making the types of resources too narrow (such as 3 or 4) would result in the upward performance of the system being too easily achieved or, more likely, too boring to pursue.
As such, I think having at least 6 different products/item types that a planet could potentially specialize in would be a good starting point. Considering that some planets will likely require one or more types of items in order to maximize production of another type, its important to make sure that the final list of products is ironed out beforehand, lest future additions make the system less fluid and intuitive. Obviously, for simplicity's sake, we should probably make each planet specialize in one type of product but require it to bring in 2 other products in order to achieve maximum production/prosperity. It's not enough for businesses on a commercial level to just meet its needs, there has to be a profit margin involved that is worth the investment. This doesn't necessarily mean raw zeni (as, after all, a character's user planet potential caps at 950z, instead of 950,000z, both because it's not just your character running the planet (they would have a small army of administrators, laborers, etc, each taking a wage resulting in a much lower personal wage, despite the scale of planetary commerce) and because we do not wish to over-strain the economy of the site as-is.
(Side Note: Discussions about providing more methods of pulling zeni out of the economy can be discussed later, but rest assured, I have it noted in my personal notes. The site needs more ways of pulling zeni out of circulation in order to maintain the worth of said zeni as well as to provide more options for players other than just hoard zeni because there's nothing to spend it on.)
However, if planets are expected to generate products with value from the aether (ie. in game terms, out of 'thin air'), then there has to be an inevitable funnel for those resources to eventually be brought back into 'thin air'. Many gacha games rely on this fundamental mechanic, gaining a resource for doing nothing, using that resource on x, using x on y, using y on z, and then z is eventually put back into the aether for either a permanent upgrade or as a re-investment into continued operations. This is important in order to maintain the economy. As an example, people are able to create exquisite materials and combine them with making Sake on the site (with a modest zeni investment, which goes into the aether) which can be used to produce another currency (DP) which is then used to permanently upgrade one's stats (or trade for zeni, which can be used for investment into something else). The currency/materials ultimately end up back in 'thin air' in order to maintain what is colloquially called 'economic neutrality' in video game systems.
With these concepts in mind, we are able to determine the following loop (numbers shown are just an example, not a final proposal):
1) Planet Produces 2 Food Products
2) Planet trades 1 Food Product for Tools
3) Planet uses 1 Food Product and 1 Tool Product to Produce 3 Food Product
4) Planet trades 1 Food Product for Tools
5) Planet trades 1 Food Product for Materials
6) Planet uses 1 Food, 1 Tools, 1 Materials to produce 4 Food Product
7) Surplus 1 Food, which can either be sold for currency or traded for additional products
Already, we are quantifying the values of a planet's ability to produce revenue and resources. However, it is not enough that a Product is just used for trade, otherwise we're just trading marbles (a valueless object that just exists to exist), so each Product type also needs to have an additional use. For example, a Food Product could probably be used to produce an additional serving of Curry, which can be used or sold, pulling that resource back into the aether (alternatively, the Food Product could be used to waive the 200z cost of making the Curry in the first place, as game economies respond more positively to reductions in costs, not net additions to revenue). Tool Products can likely be used to instantly reduce the build time of one item by 1 week. These are just examples, but it should function as a means to stir creativity in order to determine what Products should be able to do instead of just existing for trade purposes. Naturally, zeni is a primary currency on the site and acts as a measure of wealth and purchasing power, so selling surplus products would always be an option.
Next comes the factor of time. Time is the primary mechanic of the site (training, jobs, etc are all determined by your weekly update, which you can only do once per week. The site's main mechanic is not activity, as all forms of activity are measured by how many things you can do per week), and therefore, time needs to be the primary constraint when it comes to planets producing products. Many businesses and corporations measure material wealth in chunks of quarters (3-month sections), but that is not really conducive to the style of updating weekly on the site. As such, it is more impactful in terms of updates and in game-feedback-to-player-actions if a planet produces its products once per month (so a Food-Producing world would produce 2 Food Products per month naturally, without further input other than staying active).
Since we touched on it, normally, trades between player-characters are instantaneous, requiring no shipping or transportation costs (save for the Delivery Bot). While trading 1 Food Product for 1 Tool Product seems small and insignificant, this is actually an abstraction--quantities of trade between planets would be measured by the Metric Ton, not as something small like one or two boxes--and as such, requires significant shipping to transport between planets. One idea was to make the transport time for a product to be 1 week (as an example, sending 4 Food Products to a planet would take 4 weeks), further adding the time constraint to the mechanic.
(Side Note: This is naturally where we would discuss the hazards of mass-shipping through space, such as piracy, warfare, mechanical malfunction, crew incompetence, alien infestation, delays, etc. These can be discussed as well, but we should iron out the core mechanic and loop first before introducing disruptions to that loop. Additionally, the presence of pirates naturally leads to mechanics to interdict on said pirates, the presence of warfare naturally leads to mechanics to conduct or prevent warfare in the first place, etc etc. The more we expand the mechanics, the more mechanics we would need to introduce in order to give players options to circumvent/mitigate/interact with those hazards and mechanics. As such, I'd like to keep the primary discussion as simple as possible before introducing greater nuance. For those of you that remember, the Galactic War suffered from this problem, as we tried to do too many abstract things all at once without ironing out how things are supposed to function 'normally').
This is just the start of my thoughts on this subject--feel free to give your insight and ideas into this. Once we come up with a solid foundation, idea, and implementation, then I can formalize it into a proposal for staff to review (which is a long ways off--we need to make sure these mechanics make sense long before a staff member reviews it for approval into the site).