[ New Career Suggestion ] Trade Route Information Broker

S3B4ST13N

S
Last night I was watching TheNOOBIFIER1337 on the YouTube as he discussed various careers in Star Citizen; one of those careers was Exploration, and one of the roles of the Explorer could be as a Jump Point information gatherer. The information gathered on jump points is publically available, but it decays over time, meaning someone could potentially make an entire living out visiting jump points, scanning them, gathering various information about them then selling that data either to a public hub or to an organisation.

Now, I was reading up on the Pilot's Federation, and the ED Wiki states ".. the Pilots Federation soon found a role as a conduit for trade route information exchange between trusted pilots .."

The above, plus the fact that for some reason society in the 3300's hasn't figured out how to transfer data between systems gave me the idea for the next ED career.

-

Enter, the Information Broker.

Purpose
The purpose of the Information Broker is to travel the bubble (of which there are around 20,000 inhabited systems), visiting stations to obtain data. This information is then transported to neighbouring systems and sold to stations/outposts or settlements.

The price of the data will vary by age and distance.
As an example, you might gather some data from Sol and then travel to Alpha Centauri to sell the data. AC's data is about 10 hours old, and it's distance is about 4.3ly so you may only net about a thousand credits for it; but if you travel to Alioth ( about 82ly ) and their trade data to Sol is 3 months old, you may net about 25,000 credits.

What data is available?
Market prices, bounties, faction changes etc. Any relevant information from across the bubble that would otherwise take ages to collect.

How do I view this data?
In your Station Services menu, you will be able to select Contacts, then Information Broker.

Presented before you is a categorised summary of the different types of data available to you. Selecting one of these will present a grid ( similar to the market ) with relevant data populated within it as well as a field to tell you the age of the data.

For example, you might select the Trade Data category, whereby you are shown a list of systems sorted by last updated date. Selecting one of these systems will show you the market data as at the date and time a Broker downloaded that data to their ship.

As a Cmdr registered with the Brokers Union, you will be able to access this information for free.
As a non-member, you will be charged for the use of the Information Broker service.
Remaining a member of the Broker's Union requires frequent sale of information to stations.

What is done with this data?
Various. Market prices will assist traders and pirates. Bounties will assist Hunters. Etc.

What about piracy?
Pirates will receive a Information Disruption Scanner. The IDS is operated the same as a KWS, and works by hacking into a Broker's ship and corrupts the data therein. This corrupted data could then provide false information to those who use the Broker services. Smart pirates might try to use this to funnel trade traffic to their system in order to ambush them.

What will this do overall?
Provide a new career for Cmdrs, as well as a reason to explore the bubble.
Will allow the introduction of another CG ( bring Broker Data to System X, Station Y for [reasons] ).
Enable up to date commodity data that is driven by the community and remove the need for 3rd party tools that should never have been required in the first place ( but are an absolute god-send ).

Ships?
A specialised Broker ship could be designed and implemented. Low shields and hull, no hardpoints, large scanner arrays, large jump distance and/or fuel tank ( for long distance Brokering ).
 
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S3B4ST13N

S
No?
tenor.gif
 

Deleted member 38366

D
Something like that (more complex and for actual Navigational purposes) was suggested and planned in the DDF - but never made it.

Generally I'm all for Information gathering/brokering for public uses, especially since ELITE basically treats Information and its flow like some form of 1100.a.D. Medieval Space Travel.
Most of the time, Information (one of the most valuable assets in the Game) simply doesn't exist, can't be generated in-game nor collected and absolutely can't be exchanged.
Information handling of this MMO is worse than most single-player Space games I've seen in the past, despite miniscule improvements coming in over the last 2 years.
 
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Lucius-Darcia

Lucius-Darcia
CMDR S. Russell said:
Last night I was watching TheNOOBIFIER1337 on the YouTube as he discussed various careers in Star Citizen; one of those careers was Exploration, and one of the roles of the Explorer could be as a Jump Point information gatherer. The information gathered on jump points is publically available, but it decays over time, meaning someone could potentially make an entire living out visiting jump points, scanning them, gathering various information about them then selling that data either to a public hub or to an organisation.

Now, I was reading up on the Pilot's Federation, and the ED Wiki states ".. the Pilots Federation soon found a role as a conduit for trade route information exchange between trusted pilots .."

The above, plus the fact that for some reason society in the 3300's hasn't figured out how to transfer data between systems gave me the idea for the next ED career.

-

Enter, the Information Broker.

Purpose
The purpose of the Information Broker is to travel the bubble (of which there are around 20,000 inhabited systems), visiting stations to obtain data. This information is then transported to neighbouring systems and sold to stations/outposts or settlements.

The price of the data will vary by age and distance.
As an example, you might gather some data from Sol and then travel to Alpha Centauri to sell the data. AC's data is about 10 hours old, and it's distance is about 4.3ly so you may only net about a thousand credits for it; but if you travel to Alioth ( about 82ly ) and their trade data to Sol is 3 months old, you may net about 25,000 credits.

What data is available?
Market prices, bounties, faction changes etc. Any relevant information from across the bubble that would otherwise take ages to collect.

How do I view this data?
In your Station Services menu, you will be able to select Contacts, then Information Broker.

Presented before you is a categorised summary of the different types of data available to you. Selecting one of these will present a grid ( similar to the market ) with relevant data populated within it as well as a field to tell you the age of the data.

For example, you might select the Trade Data category, whereby you are shown a list of systems sorted by last updated date. Selecting one of these systems will show you the market data as at the date and time a Broker downloaded that data to their ship.

As a Cmdr registered with the Brokers Union, you will be able to access this information for free.
As a non-member, you will be charged for the use of the Information Broker service.
Remaining a member of the Broker's Union requires frequent sale of information to stations.

What is done with this data?
Various. Market prices will assist traders and pirates. Bounties will assist Hunters. Etc.

What about piracy?
Pirates will receive a Information Disruption Scanner. The IDS is operated the same as a KWS, and works by hacking into a Broker's ship and corrupts the data therein. This corrupted data could then provide false information to those who use the Broker services. Smart pirates might try to use this to funnel trade traffic to their system in order to ambush them.

What will this do overall?
Provide a new career for Cmdrs, as well as a reason to explore the bubble.
Will allow the introduction of another CG ( bring Broker Data to System X, Station Y for [reasons] ).
Enable up to date commodity data that is driven by the community and remove the need for 3rd party tools that should never have been required in the first place ( but are an absolute god-send ).

Ships?
A specialised Broker ship could be designed and implemented. Low shields and hull, no hardpoints, large scanner arrays, large jump distance and/or fuel tank ( for long distance Brokering ).
Click to expand...

This already happens but you don't see it because it is in background and you don't get money for it.

When you are docked at a station you gain their market data for free and share yours with them, you can also buy market data from all systems in 15ly radius in the galaxy map. On the market of the station it is showen "imported from...exported to..." at commodities which also comes from these collected market data. If in this area are a lot commanders active, the datas get more and more accurate. You can also use the option "show trade routes" in the galaxy map to filter for specific commodities. The more commanders travel around there, the more up to date are these datas. But they show only the system for the commodities, not the station so you have to search up multiple stations in one system sometimes to find the commodity you've seen on the galaxy map.
The ingame trade tools are surprisingly good but nobody ever explains it to the player and they have the limit of 15ly radius, that's why players use 3rd party tools for this.
 
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pewter

Banned
P
Just wait for 3.0 and play star citizen when it hits. I wonder how much more empty space will be when SC hits 3.0
 

S3B4ST13N

S
Lucius-Darcia said:
This already happens but you don't see it because it is in background and you don't get money for it.

When you are docked at a station you gain their market data for free and share yours with them, you can also buy market data from all systems in 15ly radius in the galaxy map. On the market of the station it is showen "imported from...exported to..." at commodities which also comes from these collected market data. If in this area are a lot commanders active, the datas get more and more accurate. You can also use the option "show trade routes" in the galaxy map to filter for specific commodities. The more commanders travel around there, the more up to date are these datas. But they show only the system for the commodities, not the station so you have to search up multiple stations in one system sometimes to find the commodity you've seen on the galaxy map.
The ingame trade tools are surprisingly good but nobody ever explains it to the player and they have the limit of 15ly radius, that's why players use 3rd party tools for this.
Click to expand...

I know how it happens in game, I was thinking of a way to increase the relevance of that data across the entire bubble in a lore-friendly way; considering how primitive communications systems in the Elite universe are ( I honestly can't believe humanity would let it stagnate like this in reality, lol ), then lore-wise it would make sense for people to take it upon themselves to provide this lucrative information to interested parties; and, like all collaborative efforts we do, humans would eventually make an organisation out of it. :)
 

S3B4ST13N

S
pewter said:
Just wait for 3.0 and play star citizen when it hits. I wonder how much more empty space will be when SC hits 3.0
Click to expand...
Why does everyone make the moronic suggestion to "go play SC" whenever someone suggests an idea that's even remotely inspired by it?
If I wanted to play SC, I would - and when it's released, I will give it a try - until then however, I'll post suggestions for plausible, lore-acceptable careers for the game I really enjoy playing. Be they inspired by SC or not.

... If it's all the same to you, of course.
 

S3B4ST13N

S
Robert Maynard said:
The role would seem to be covered by third-party websites that collate trade data, e.g. eddb.io
Click to expand...
Part of my suggestion is to eliminate those affronts to the superior natural order of stuff and things. Mwuah-ha-ha!
In all seriousness, this kind of information, IMHO, needs to be kept in-game. I think any developer seriously dropped the ball when their player-base felt it was a necessary requirement to put in that kind of amazing effort.

We don't have those tools in-game because in the Elite universe, instantaneous data transfer across system distances is simply not a thing ( I don't know the lore reason ). So, by implementing a lore-ly plausible reason for that data to get around the bubble in the form of an entire career, and with an organisation to register with and by providing a UI mechanism to handle that information, Frontier would neatly work around their self-imposed, and IMHO entirely unrealistic, restriction.
 
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Robert Maynard

Volunteer Moderator
Robert Maynard
CMDR S. Russell said:
Part of my suggestion is to eliminate those affronts to the superior natural order of stuff and things. Mwuah-ha-ha!
In all seriousness, this kind of information, IMHO, needs to be kept in-game. I think any developer seriously dropped the ball when their player-base felt it was a necessary requirement to put in that kind of amazing effort.

We don't have those tools in-game because in the Elite universe, instantaneous data transfer across system distances is simply not a thing ( I don't know the lore reason ). So, by implementing a lore-ly plausible reason for that data to get around the bubble in the form of an entire career, and with an organisation to register with and by providing a UI mechanism to handle that information, Frontier would neatly work around their self-imposed and, IMHO entirely unrealistic, restriction.
Click to expand...

While it would be nice to see this kind of information available in-game the fact that it will remain available out-of-game (and for free) would mean that an Information Broker would probably not gain very many customers.
 

S3B4ST13N

S
Robert Maynard said:
While it would be nice to see this kind of information available in-game the fact that it will remain available out-of-game (and for free) would mean that an Information Broker would probably not gain very many customers.
Click to expand...

True, however I did include the following game-play element:
Pirates will receive a Information Disruption Scanner. The IDS is operated the same as a KWS, and works by hacking into a Broker's ship and corrupts the data therein. This corrupted data could then provide false information to those who use the Broker services. Smart pirates might try to use this to funnel trade traffic to their system in order to ambush them.
Click to expand...

This could be further expanded into a Powerplay acquisition type ( not sure what the PowerPlay word is ); by hacking into a Broker's ( player and NPC ) ship, players or player-organisations could influence the flow of trade either from a system they want to weaken, or into a system they want to strengthen. By purchasing an Advanced IDS, players would then decide *what* information they wanted to modify. Perhaps they want to weaken a neighbouring system so their system can flourish, so they start interdicting broker ships and selecting "Market data" then "Raise selling price of _MATERIAL_ for _SYSTEM_." Their neighbour starts losing business because NPC and player traders think the system is not worth the cost; instead, they travel to other system.

There's a plethora of new gameplay elements that could be implemented from this. Powerplay, CG's, new ship types, new weapon and defense types, ship AI enhancement modules and so on. :)
 

BL1P

BL1P
Its an excellent suggestion.
However it does not involve combat, micro-transactions, nor does it make the game easier in an arcade genre fashion. So I cant see the devs wanting this.
 
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