Hi,
My title might be weird so let me explain.
Currently FD shows a wide range of different resources that players can trade. This is a rather straightforward activity that does not necessarily requires a lot of skills, unless you want to bring it to the next levels (so yeah some merchants actually trade with skills
).
I was wondering what if we could trade a new sort of resource: data. Just like cargo they could be traded from point A to point B except that this time, players would have to read them to understand where the data come from and where they could be sold for a better value (ie to which NPC is it the most relevant?). For instance, selling Imperial data to a Federation outpost might make you credits, but selling the same data to a particular Federation station might make you beaucoup credits because that data is actually more relevant to the station that bought it.
As you can see it might be more difficult, less predictable and more challenging than regular trading. Especially, players would be more involved as they have to understand the data they found/bought and start looking around, basically wondering "Who could use this? Where should I sell it?".
Also, pirate could steal data but remotely by hacking the data. The data would be either stolen or copied. if the latter, the victim could still sell them but would have to proceed before the pirate.
Finally, some high value data might be encrypted, and would be usable only by players with the right equipment, which leads me to...
Also that could be an occasion for new pieces of equipment:
- Data storage bay, equivalent of cargo bay but for digital things;
- Data hacking system, a way for pirates to remotely hack/copy/erase the data;
- Firewall, to make hacking take more time;
- Backup system, to allow players to backup the data in case they are stolen by pirates (first player to sell them would get the credits);
- Decryption system, to read some high value data (such as military data).
If you like the idea or the concept overall please post!
My title might be weird so let me explain.
Currently FD shows a wide range of different resources that players can trade. This is a rather straightforward activity that does not necessarily requires a lot of skills, unless you want to bring it to the next levels (so yeah some merchants actually trade with skills
).I was wondering what if we could trade a new sort of resource: data. Just like cargo they could be traded from point A to point B except that this time, players would have to read them to understand where the data come from and where they could be sold for a better value (ie to which NPC is it the most relevant?). For instance, selling Imperial data to a Federation outpost might make you credits, but selling the same data to a particular Federation station might make you beaucoup credits because that data is actually more relevant to the station that bought it.
As you can see it might be more difficult, less predictable and more challenging than regular trading. Especially, players would be more involved as they have to understand the data they found/bought and start looking around, basically wondering "Who could use this? Where should I sell it?".
Also, pirate could steal data but remotely by hacking the data. The data would be either stolen or copied. if the latter, the victim could still sell them but would have to proceed before the pirate.
Finally, some high value data might be encrypted, and would be usable only by players with the right equipment, which leads me to...
Also that could be an occasion for new pieces of equipment:
- Data storage bay, equivalent of cargo bay but for digital things;
- Data hacking system, a way for pirates to remotely hack/copy/erase the data;
- Firewall, to make hacking take more time;
- Backup system, to allow players to backup the data in case they are stolen by pirates (first player to sell them would get the credits);
- Decryption system, to read some high value data (such as military data).
If you like the idea or the concept overall please post!