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Iyurrr Posts: 12
8/3/2020
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Hi all.
I do like this game, for it's slow pace and traction to automatization and optimization of all activities along the supply chain. Even it's very niche. I’ve been there for a couple of years and was a bystander of the last Great Reset. And I've seen the predecessor reasons before these events. They could be divided (very roughly) on two primary things: economy/politics and players. If we ignore these issues, it may lead to similar consequences. I don't want this to happen and I'd like to share some thoughts on how we can improve the situation.
Economy & Politics
This is a very controversial topic and, for sure, I'm not the first who is attempting to suggest something. But give me a chance. The main issue is a wide distribution (and disruption) of players and their economic capacities around opened systems. But all human experiences proves that is absolutely natural and it's sewn into our minds, so we have to invent how to deal with that instead of trying to block.
For now, I see natural hubs formed on such planets like Mars, Uranus, Centauri IIa, Luyten II. Of course, Earth by default. Mercury in the past. They represent itself as an example of the successful collaboration done by the bunch of players or powerful corporations and very important for the entire sector. The social importance is clear, it gives players the reason to continue the game, which are united by a common goal, but it also has huge economical effects. Those hubs, besides all obvious advantages such as a huge markets for goods distribution, allow remote players to have some kind of backup, where they could buy required goods (to save or to reboost their cities) in large numbers without harming the cities economy, especially if to do so at different hubs simultaneously. With time, all minor colonies will disappear and everything will lead to further consolidation. It's natural to use such trends to improve the situation with a combination of economy and a thin layer of politics. I talk about purposeful decision to build starlord seats, one by one, in the opened systems. While establishing this political entity we could extract additional benefits. At first, it involves a minimum of 9 active players per system and they could be at different levels of development, from the newborn mayors to the elder and powerful corporations, separating zone of economical and political activities between each other. Everyone could be interested in this: small and medium corporations will have the local planetary market of the suitable size allowing them to sell goods in large numbers (and, probably, higher demands if they balanced enough) making a profit and working together, bigger corps could take a planetary seat and provide some civil services where the combination of volume and demand could be a really profitable thing and taking part in a high-level politics at the system scale. And we have to go even further.
I suppose we should add the last layer of the existing political system and ask Dread to implement sector lord seat with the same principle (minimum of 3 starlord could vote for sector governor). On parallel, we could establish a High Council of planetary lords (like it once was done for Earth) who will represent the will of the entire humanity. To add additional weight for this governing body there could be a public signature procedure, where each member agrees to carry out the will of the Council. From my point, this will heat again the interest in politics and help to convince people to participate and to populate opened systems in a more uniform way. What have I noticed, it's challenging but quite real for powerful corps to support several cities simultaneously if they want to. So, there might be a situation, when those corps are growing their planetary seats and supporting (at least, partly) the system hub at one time.
We can try to encourage people to work together. For example, the biggest corporations or guilds could launch a massive campaign to help those who want to resettle to support this idea. There may be credits, structures for deployment, logistics, units, military protection, etc. This won't be a huge issue for them, and in return, they could receive much more. In any case, I guess additional activities help to keep us interested in the game - recently there was a perfect example of intersystem collaboration to fight Dark Star base. Probably, we could launch some sector-wide projects, like fighting hostiles, building the fleet, opening new systems, boosting cities whatever.
Players
The second (or the third?) part is about the player base. I know, dev won't launch any advertising/marketing campaign to attract more players until he makes some upgrades, but the game really lacks the numbers. We could try to do it by ourselves, to introduce the game in different game communities, publics, forums, etc, focusing on a "good old style". Or even to raise some money to launch some ads. We need this, at least for perspective.
That's all. It was only my assumptions and propositions, but I'll be grateful for any feedback or support. Fly safe!
edited by Iyurrr on 8/3/2020
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