So to expand space trading a bit, what if you could own businesses on stations or planets that trade, and you have to supply these business or pay NPC commanders or player commanders to supply them? So you could basically run source and return missions for yourself, then these businesses would produce other commodities or just trade commodities or whatever, I am not sure how it would fit so if you think it’s a good idea it’s open for discussion. I’d like to run a Space Truckin company.
Idea: Own Businesses
- Thread starter Jacobis9000
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You can always go play EvE, sounds like their bag
It’s not always a common occurrence, but occasionally when I donate money or commodities to a faction for a mission you get a follow-on mission to deliver goods that your donation went towards; that’s sort of like investing in a business, isn’t it?
It’s a compelling idea, but owning businesses might sound too much like passive income for the devs, and having the previously mentioned donation missions available all the time would be terribly easy to exploit for faction rep. I’m open minded about investment ideas though if anyone has a pie in the sky they want my space-bucks for (except Chris Roberts...).
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It’s a compelling idea, but owning businesses might sound too much like passive income for the devs, and having the previously mentioned donation missions available all the time would be terribly easy to exploit for faction rep. I’m open minded about investment ideas though if anyone has a pie in the sky they want my space-bucks for (except Chris Roberts...).
Editted for fat fumb typos.
Probably worth trying the suggestions section too, to suggest a suggestion.
Well with the introduction of FCs...that's kind of your own mobile business.
I'm sorry but the "FDev won't allow passive income" argument isn't really valid anymore...you can set up passive income via your FC...trading goods, rearm, repair, ship sales, module sales etc...you can argue how passive that is as it all needs to be set up but you can earn credits via FC when you are not actually playing which is how I understand the term passive income.
It's a steep investment OP but maybe the FC is what you need...you can even move it to where the best profits can be found like hauling Tritium to colonia or going to a popular mining site and set up for buying hotspot metals/minerals at 10% less than mkt average etc...
I'm sorry but the "FDev won't allow passive income" argument isn't really valid anymore...you can set up passive income via your FC...trading goods, rearm, repair, ship sales, module sales etc...you can argue how passive that is as it all needs to be set up but you can earn credits via FC when you are not actually playing which is how I understand the term passive income.
It's a steep investment OP but maybe the FC is what you need...you can even move it to where the best profits can be found like hauling Tritium to colonia or going to a popular mining site and set up for buying hotspot metals/minerals at 10% less than mkt average etc...
It's been discussed many times, but Elite was never an executive control game in any of its incarnations. You do effectively run a Space Truckin' company, but its profits come solely from driver activities and you're the only driver. Even your paid co-drivers only get to drive the big rig when you're taking the sportster out for a spin.
Given enough time I expect some very small aspects of asset management might find their way into ED. Fleet Carriers scratch at the surface, albeit more as a credit sink than a credit generator, and there has been vague talk of player-owned surface and asteroid bases. But active parallel management of a fleet of anything, be it commercial vessels or warships, has never been what Elite is about.
We're freelance owner-operators who are fortunate enough to have been licensed by the Pilots' Federation. Think Han Solo rather than Nute Gunray, or Derek Trotter rather than Eddie Stobart. The main difference is that we can own more than one vehicle, but we can only use one at a time.
Given enough time I expect some very small aspects of asset management might find their way into ED. Fleet Carriers scratch at the surface, albeit more as a credit sink than a credit generator, and there has been vague talk of player-owned surface and asteroid bases. But active parallel management of a fleet of anything, be it commercial vessels or warships, has never been what Elite is about.
We're freelance owner-operators who are fortunate enough to have been licensed by the Pilots' Federation. Think Han Solo rather than Nute Gunray, or Derek Trotter rather than Eddie Stobart. The main difference is that we can own more than one vehicle, but we can only use one at a time.
Oh right I’ve got to get a Fleet Carrier and set it up somewhere as my mobile business. Fair play did not think of this, still I would like to own businesses on worlds and stations and stuff too.
What if I set one up selling raws at ridiculously over priced prices at a popular engineer? Surely this would make a profit?
the problem here being, that your pockets are not magic as those of factions.
because differently to you, factions pay CR for commodities they can't sell for profit (e.g.: 30 mio cr for 300t of gold).
mission payout is crazy on top of the crazyness, that you pay more for bauxite per ton, than for the metal refined from bauxite.
yes, that works - some FCs do that. another way is to buy mined materials above the price of the very day, and resell them once a better price plops up.
but generally - an argument Ian D. uses to make - it's a bit of a problem to run a space-trader game with an UI optimized for a cockpit. ED is very focussed around flying spaceships (and greatly so!). i'm not sure whether a helmet UI will change that soon.
FD did have the chance to make fleet carriers into business ventures. However, they may have made them too easy to keep up with expenses for. Also, since they don't really interact with the BGS, they are more player-to-player businesses.
SYea I get your point about the UI. And the crazy economy. Shame though. Ok I will set my long-term goal as Fleet Carrier, short-term goal is Cutter, and mid-term goal is a number of core engineered ships in my fleet.
can you explain what you said about buying it above the days price and selling it at a better price, are there fluctuating markets for these goods?
yes!
generally all goods have some "state-effect" on demand and price (state of factions insystem, most notable state of faction that controls the markets station).
exampel: grain can sell for a profit of up 12k (!) credits - if sold at a station in famine. some FC owners use those state depending profit margins (load up FC with agronomic treatment, jump to a system in blight, sell for huge profit.)
but you'll rarely have other players picking up (so the idea of parking your FC next to an agricultural economy, set a good sell price for grain, and jumping it to a famine system the next day or so doesn't really work).
but many commanders go mining for profit. and they look for the highest selling station.
grandidirierte for exampel can sell for up to 900K cr/t. today the maximum price is 690K. if you put up a buyorder for 700k, some commanders will sell to you, and you can wait until a 900K price plops up (tomorrow ... 3 days from now...). which allows you a profit of 200k tons. or - once such a price plops up, you jump your Fc there and sell for 800k - giving you 100k profit, and the guy trading out 100k/t as well. i know some FC commanders do that.
i'm personally not doing that - but, and as i can see from the amount of mining goods sold to my fleetcarrier - i simply offer commanders a one-stop for all mined commodities. for a fixed and reasonable price, and without changing on a daily basis. it looks as if some miners like that kind of service - instead of jumping to five stations to sell their void opals, alexandrite, brommelite etc. - they go for the highest paying station of the best paying commodity, and sell the left overs at my FC. which i ship out to the highest paying station i can supply with my trade python once i have a full load.
Your very own mobile SRV tyre repair business
"we come to you when your tyres leak goo"
If this is the sort of thing that you enjoy it would be worth having a bash at the x series of games by egosoft, particularly X2 & X3.
They've got the factory ownership as a core mechanic of the game and it works really well.
My concern is that if FD decide to add it to E : D it'll be a bolt on and a bit of a mess.
OP, you can do that with the X4 game. It's pretty good! Go get that! It's a much more productive use of your time than wishing Elite Dangerous was a complete different game.
I think it'd be cool if we could either get paid to supply engineered modules, somehow, or source stuff for other players.
Trouble is, that leads to all the malarkey regarding auctions and "gold-selling".
Still think it'd be cool if there was, at least, a weekly "galnet auction" where players could put unwanted ships, modules and mat's up for sale.
It'd have to be implemented very carefully, though, to avoid encouraging gold-selling.
Set it up so that you just deliver anything you want to auction to a station, store it there, and then anybody can participate in the auction from any station in the galaxy.
You bid on stuff, a bit like space-ebay, and then, at the end of the auction, you hand over credits and the stuff you've won gets transferred to the station you're at.
If an item goes unsold, the owner can collect it from where they stored it OR they can leave it in for the next auction.
And, yes. I'd include Cobra 4s, faction-locked ships, powerplay modules, guardian modules/SLFs, engineered modules and engineering mat's in the auctions.
If players want to buy stuff that they haven't "unlocked" for inflated prices, and other players want to earn credits by gathering/buying/building this stuff, good luck to 'em.
It's not like there's any "god-mode" items in the game which fundamentally unbalance it.
Trouble is, that leads to all the malarkey regarding auctions and "gold-selling".
Still think it'd be cool if there was, at least, a weekly "galnet auction" where players could put unwanted ships, modules and mat's up for sale.
It'd have to be implemented very carefully, though, to avoid encouraging gold-selling.
Set it up so that you just deliver anything you want to auction to a station, store it there, and then anybody can participate in the auction from any station in the galaxy.
You bid on stuff, a bit like space-ebay, and then, at the end of the auction, you hand over credits and the stuff you've won gets transferred to the station you're at.
If an item goes unsold, the owner can collect it from where they stored it OR they can leave it in for the next auction.
And, yes. I'd include Cobra 4s, faction-locked ships, powerplay modules, guardian modules/SLFs, engineered modules and engineering mat's in the auctions.
If players want to buy stuff that they haven't "unlocked" for inflated prices, and other players want to earn credits by gathering/buying/building this stuff, good luck to 'em.
It's not like there's any "god-mode" items in the game which fundamentally unbalance it.
Would love seeing all this market supply and demand going somewhere and we getting to be a part of it, but that's probably enough for an expansion in itself. What we have right now is the bgs - stuff gets delivered, economy/security rating of the faction for that system improves and some hidden ones for negative states too (such as medicines countering and preventing outbreaks).
Yes, and quite a few players have done that. But you have to afford the Fleet Carrier in the first place, which takes an awful lot of making money in other ways. It's one of the reasons why Carriers have been described as an "end-game" asset even though there is no "end" in ED.
To get to the point where other players' activity aboard your Carrier activity generates enough wealth to keep your "business" ticking over, you already have to have done a great deal of manual lifting. The game really wants you to put in the effort.
Fair play aiming for a Carrier out of the gate! I've been playing since 2014 and, despite a valiant effort in raising a couple of billion credits just prior to Carriers' arrival in the game, I took one look at the actual purchase and upkeep costs and instantly knocked the idea on the head.
Only my regular "bubble" account came within shouting distance -- and it was a very loud shout -- of being able to afford it, while my dedicated explorer account that could really use a Carrier isn't even close. Instead I've decided to invest my limited time ranking the bubble account up to Rear Admiral so I can get a Corvette, something else I hadn't bothered with because it seemed unreachable when first available. At least when I get there I'll be able to afford to blitz it with A-rated modules instead of building up slowly.
That's one of the things I love about this game. Unless you're into competitive PVP there's little reason to aim for the same things other players are aiming for. You can do everything at your own pace or even -- to the horror of completionists -- choose not to do some things at all.
The Cutter is a good short-term goal, BTW. For some reason I found the Imperial ranks easier to climb than the Federal so I got a Cutter a whole ago, although that may have been due to galactic circumstances that have long since changed. Kitted out for bulk trading in the right place the Cutter can be one of the steadiest money-makers in the game, especially since mining profits were flattened. Good for trade-based Community Goals too, although you will need to harden it or tune for fast escapes if you play CGs in Open.
This is what I’m talking about! I’d like to run a business like this
Yup as a former Eve player I can confirm I want no part of a player economy in ED of any kind.