07 Trade and profit
Trade. Commerce. Business. Freight. Cargo.
All of these words lead to one simple thing. Money.
Cold hard cash. Credits. Dollars. Pounds, ISK, Gold. Whatever system of currency you use it's part of everyone's goal in one way or another to collect it or to use it.
With this in mind I decided to go through the worlds and figure out which ones are important or not. See where goods are flowing and see if there are any worlds that are too poor to import, or rely on external resources. I was worried that this would be a massive amount of work and I will happily admit to you, the reader, that I am inherently lazy.
As I worked through the trade codes I realized that some things didn't click for me. Populations seemed too high/low, atmosphere, hydrographic percentage and planet sizes needed tweaking. I ended up changing a handful of UWP codes very slightly.
I did start by taking every single world, seeing which world was a Non-Industrial and Non-Agriculture and then imagining routes from Industrial and Agriculture worlds to balance them out.Then I will have to admit something...
I did the Blue Empire's worlds then waved my hands in the air, openly said "Sod this for a game of monkies." and handwaved the rest. I'm so sorry if you, the reader, wanted a heavily involved (near mathematical) approach to realistic trade requirements. But deep down that's not me. My actual handwavey method was as follows:
(Those with a keen eye may notice the minor changes in UWP codes.)
Aaaaand that's pretty much it.
What exactly is traded? Anything and everything. My immediate train of thought is based on Tech Level. The difference allows for iron ore processed in 19th Century factories, lumber harvested from peasant villages and CERN-like labs smashing out rarer elements. The wide range available will make imports/exports various and exciting. That's all for the players to explore and work out.
Lets not get distracted by this. Remember that ships do travel to every planet, but this is where the big and common freighters and/or main orders will be situated.
In one of my next posts I'll cover those very ships that do the trading. How do you, the reader find the above process? What would you like to see next? Let me know in the comments below.
All of these words lead to one simple thing. Money.
Cold hard cash. Credits. Dollars. Pounds, ISK, Gold. Whatever system of currency you use it's part of everyone's goal in one way or another to collect it or to use it.
With this in mind I decided to go through the worlds and figure out which ones are important or not. See where goods are flowing and see if there are any worlds that are too poor to import, or rely on external resources. I was worried that this would be a massive amount of work and I will happily admit to you, the reader, that I am inherently lazy.
As I worked through the trade codes I realized that some things didn't click for me. Populations seemed too high/low, atmosphere, hydrographic percentage and planet sizes needed tweaking. I ended up changing a handful of UWP codes very slightly.
I did start by taking every single world, seeing which world was a Non-Industrial and Non-Agriculture and then imagining routes from Industrial and Agriculture worlds to balance them out.Then I will have to admit something...
I did the Blue Empire's worlds then waved my hands in the air, openly said "Sod this for a game of monkies." and handwaved the rest. I'm so sorry if you, the reader, wanted a heavily involved (near mathematical) approach to realistic trade requirements. But deep down that's not me. My actual handwavey method was as follows:
- High Tech trades with close Low Tech
- High Pop trades with Low Pop
- Empire Capital is a central point of some description.
(Those with a keen eye may notice the minor changes in UWP codes.)
Aaaaand that's pretty much it.
What exactly is traded? Anything and everything. My immediate train of thought is based on Tech Level. The difference allows for iron ore processed in 19th Century factories, lumber harvested from peasant villages and CERN-like labs smashing out rarer elements. The wide range available will make imports/exports various and exciting. That's all for the players to explore and work out.
Lets not get distracted by this. Remember that ships do travel to every planet, but this is where the big and common freighters and/or main orders will be situated.
In one of my next posts I'll cover those very ships that do the trading. How do you, the reader find the above process? What would you like to see next? Let me know in the comments below.
I go for a more rules-centered trade chapter approach.
ReplyDeleteI will update my own over the next few days.