Fwurg

[Gerben]

As our economies grow, we will need more OM-Zones to maintain larger numbers of separate trade- or scanning fleets. As these zones take up limited space on our planets, and an increased OM- capacity becomes less desirable, the investment to set up an additional fleet becomes steeper and steeper so that it may have a negative influence on the Union Economy because it results in a growing limitation as the number of players grows. Instead of being limited by , we now become limited by the number of fleets we are able to maintain, and thus by the amount of zones we are willing to ´sacrifice´ to this end.

In order to try to offer resolve this issue and improve on an older idea, I have come up with the following Special Project:

Commercial Trading Station - Special Project - versie 1.0 9/11/2012

Research

Centralized Logistic Management
prereq: Standard Template Construction
costs: 1500 / 5 turns

By improving the infrastructure, providing more training for employees and better trade-lane and flightpath management, the efficiency by which trade-shipments are handled can be increased saving time and space, thus allowing for a faster processing of shipments and decreasing docking times significantly.

The Centralized Logistic Management technology unlocks the construction of the Commercial Trading Station.


Special Project

unlocking Technology: Centralized Logistic Management, and at least 2 OM-Zones present on planet
cost per upgrade: TBD , maximum of 1 upgrade per OM-Zone on planet

By careful study of the movements of traffic and a localized improvement to the infrastructure together with better instructions and monitoring by employees and control-systems, improvements in handling efficiency can be achieved. Based on continual, real-time analysis of available information, incoming shipments and automated storage- and inventory-management, OM-Zones can function much more efficiently, making it possible to support a second tradefleet.

Benefit: OM-Zones upgraded with this Special Project can support a second tradefleet and gain +50 for use with the open market.

--

Any comments, opinions and additional suggestions concerning costs or otherwise are welcome

[Elmer]

The idea looks good. I believe that for all special projects research have to be done, but it puzzles me why this research does not give an advantage. I would say that researching the Centralized Logistic Management will increase your OM a little bit. It does not have to be much, but then the research does actually something useful.

I believe other people have very sophisticated calculation tools to determine the costs of the research, so I am not going to burn my hands on that.

Maybe it will be better to give two open market zones on 1 planet the capability to host a third fleet. This to prevent players from making two open market zones and then just upgrade everything. As the major idea of the zones is to limit the fleets a little I believe.
So with 2 zones, you can have 6 fleets, with 4 zones you can have 9 fleets. (Including the start fleets.)

[Brend]

First off: I would not call this a special project. It is just a technology, unlocking a non-default upgrade. I propose this is implemented as a normal technology, with a 'normal' zone upgrade offering something beyond the normal +50 .

If you want a special project, go for the system-wide 'commercial flight corridor system', that doubles the number of free trade fleets you can support (i.e. 2 becomes 4). That is special. This is just an upgrade. I would like special things to remain special, as I already explained in the Genealogical Archives thread as well.

That being said. We could also recreate the previous -upkeep of 25 per trade fleet in paralel as a technology? Though an upgrade seems favourable now, it still requires the zone. Maybe we should have both?

[Chriz]

I agree that a technology is enough.

When you have the technology you can upgrade the zone. The upgrade supports another trade fleet and provides +50 open market capacity.

[Chriz]

New proposal for the open market zone upgrade technology.

Parallel Logistic Management
prereq: Standard Template Construction
costs: 1500 / 5 turns

By improving the infrastructure, providing more training for employees and better trade-lane and flightpath management, the efficiency by which trade-shipments are handled can be increased saving time and space, thus allowing for faster and parallel processing of shipments and decreasing docking times significantly.

This upgrades unlocks the possibility to upgrade Open market zones. This upgrade provides 50 open market capacity and allows the zone to support an additional trade fleet.

[Brend]

Personally, I think 1500 / 5 is a little on the cheap side, given the relative cost of a normale zone upgrade. Then again, OM capacity is of little use to most players, except for a little sidebusiness.

As this is an 'implementation' tech, I propose the technology costs are increased to 2500 / 5 .

[Elmer]

Well actually, when I look at the other technologies for upgrading zones, they all cost 500 , 5 for material zones, or 2000 5 for every other zone upgrade, so compared to those, this technology is rather expensive with its 2500 .

Compared to what it does, it saves 1 zone Aka, 2000 , and allows a (second?) zone upgrade.
The material upgrade techs allows to safe 0,5 zone, aka 1000 , but then you still need to upgrade the zone, so total cost is 1500 (500 research, 1000 zone upgrade)
The rest allows either 0,5 zone, or other effects.

Comparing these costs, I conclude that you pay 1000 , as you still have to upgrade your zone for 1000 to get the effect. However, I do not have a value for trade fleet costs, but the production increase zones do not seem to count other effects in as well.

[Brend]

Well actually, when I look at the other technologies for upgrading zones, they all cost 500 , 5 for material zones, or 2000 5 for every other zone upgrade, so compared to those, this technology is rather expensive with its 2500 .

Well... To be honest, all the 500 technologies you mention unlock the first upgrade of a second tier augmentation zone. These upgrades are almost useless unless you have an very focussed economy (with augmentation zones on products), and are actually a side effect of the technology. The 2000 upgrade (the only one actually) is the most comparable to the proposed tech, as both technologies offer infrastructure upgrades.

The proposed tech allows the first upgrade, and the primary function of this upgrade is to support an extra Trade Fleet (that's actually the primary function of the whole Open Market Zone -- it's a bit of a misnomer). This upgrade allows you to double the amount of fleets you can support. You could trade with more partners, or you could support military fleets in other sectors without breaking up trade.

Because this impacts more than just the output of the zone (it's not just a +50 to the OM), I think a high price is justified.

[Chriz]

I guess 1500 is a bit low.

@Mercury what do you think about the price of this Tech?

[Mercury]

I agree that the best solution here is to upgrade open market zone upgrades to not just give +50 open market capacity but also allow an additional fleet to be managed.

Normally, an open market zone costs 2000 and provide 100 open market capacity and support for one fleet. With an upgrade, this would reduce the cost for supporting a fleet by one zone and 1000 . That's a significant saving!

I checked how many open market zones supporting fleets are currently in the game and how many of those have natural life. There are a total of 12 open market zones over 7 players, thus 5 were built in total to support additional fleets. 11 of those 12 are on worlds without natural life.

Because technologies allow their cost to be amortised over multiple players, I generally calculate the benefits for multiple players, usually about four or so. If fewer players work together, they can probably sell a generally usable technology such as these to recoup some of their cost, while if more develop it together, it is apparently necessary, becomes a de facto part of the new standard technology level and thus allows players to save beyond the intended value by working together globally rather than locally.

To avoid fractions, I'll presume all open market zones are in area's with no natural life, while I'll also presume that all players eventually want to build support for at least one more fleet. This is in line with the fact that all established players have one or more additional open market zones beyond the first. Thus, each player would save at least 1000 , or 4000 saved in total. Thus, the minimal price for this tech would be 4000 .

Not included in the 4000 is the fact that a player might want to go up to 6 fleets, which would save an additional 1000 or the fact that this technology actually saves an entire zone which can be used to earn money.

I want to stimulate trade between players, so I'm not going to add those cost above and beyond the 4000 and leave it at this minimum value, however I do not think going any lower is sensible as the significant savings would make the technology "too good to skip".

[Chriz]

Your reasoning is clear to me. Shall I add the technology to the wiki?

[Elmer]

I am content with the cost, as this is clearly an upgrade over your existing zones.

[Brend]

@Chriz: can you add a 'Forum_forum: 828' field to the technology? That allows the forum to link this thread to the wiki ^_^ (And it allows me to ruthlessly apply my perfectionist corrections on the page :P)

[Brend]

We have a problem!

The Open Market Zone could already be upgraded (for a +50 tradecap): [url=rules:improved_production]Improved Production[/url]...

I think the tech should be adjusted for this.

[Chriz]

Not really, we pay for the extra trade fleet, not for the useless open market capacity. Maybe we should clarify this in the text of the tech.

[Brend]

That is how I read the tech: this allows an upgrade that gives (+50 AND +1 support)

THough the +50 OM is useless if you can already upgrade.

[Brend]

Maybe the tech should be reworded to something like this: "If the Open Market Zone has the 'Improved Production' upgrade, it can support another trade fleet."?

[Elmer]

or the tech allows a second upgrade? And with that upgrade it allows the second trade fleet as well?

[Mercury]

I'd give improve the regular upgrade so there is only one upgrade which gives +50 normally and gives additionally an extra trade fleet with the tech.

[Brend]

The general idea seems to be that the normal upgrades also give support with this tech. I will update the wiki with this.

EDIT: Done! And I moved the tech to the rules namespace (Chriz put it in the ic: namespace O_o)