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Direct Transactions Through Owned Ships?

yes (player sees far-off station trade interface)
Total votes: 36 (57%)
no (delegate trade to AI pilot)
Total votes: 27 (43%)
Total votes: 63
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Direct Transactions Through Owned Ships?

#1
When off-system trades require an AI pilot of your fleet to be present, can you perform a direct transaction through that ship, allowing you to see otherwise unavailable station trade interfaces? Or must you delegate the trade to your AI pilot situated there and let the pilot handle it?

This poll is a response to answer Josh's logged question viewtopic.php?f=12&t=3687#p68493. His suggested answers are provided as options. The poll is meant to encourage debate so please post after voting.

I vote no (delegate trade to AI pilot), because LT is about you always being only one person in a vast universe, forming relations (hostile/neutral/friendly) with the people you encounter. While direct transaction allows more streamlined interactions, it would to my eyes undermine a fundamental split in the game.
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Re: Direct Transactions Through Owned Ships?

#4
Reminds me of how games like Torchlight handle their 'buying' when not close to town.

You get a companion. You tell your companion "Sell these things and buy a few potions while you're at it". Your pet runs off, and depending how far away from town you are is how long he takes. But then he comes back with the money and items.

Same idea with AI pilots I would think. If you've 'discovered' the station, you should have it in your logs so just tell your AI pilot "Buy this, sell this, come back".

Now, this means the only interesting part is if he doesn't come back. :shifty:
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Re: Direct Transactions Through Owned Ships?

#10
MrPerson wrote:
Katorone wrote:It's a tie!
I broke it
Aww...

Anyway, I voted for "no... Delegate" with the Sphere of Influence in mind.
If i'm 1000s of systems away from a lone trader somewhere, I don't want to be able to operate it instantly/manually. Sure, I'd like to see where it is, but since the area it is in is abstracted, it could be old data I'm viewing. The same goes for trades. It should take time for information to be relayed, and in that time the contents or prices on a marketplace could have changed.
Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master.
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Re: Direct Transactions Through Owned Ships?

#11
Katorone wrote: Aww...

Anyway, I voted for "no... Delegate" with the Sphere of Influence in mind.
If i'm 1000s of systems away from a lone trader somewhere, I don't want to be able to operate it instantly/manually. Sure, I'd like to see where it is, but since the area it is in is abstracted, it could be old data I'm viewing. The same goes for trades. It should take time for information to be relayed, and in that time the contents or prices on a marketplace could have changed.
we could go with a bandwith/fidelity based communications system :roll:

so you can still control the freighter directly but can only give coarse orders to it.
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Re: Direct Transactions Through Owned Ships?

#12
I am kind of the opposite viewpoint. Its like the world today, people in the US can see prices of things in Europe, Asia, wherever just using the internet. Now if we take into effect tech advances, the long distance and lag we get on Earth, still is a maximum of a few minutes just to get text data such as prices. in the future with super advanced interconnecting "space internet" we should be able to see prices from anywhere and tell our traders to buy things in that sector if they are close.
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Re: Direct Transactions Through Owned Ships?

#13
I am kind of the opposite viewpoint. Its like the world today, people in the US can see prices of things in Europe, Asia, wherever just using the internet. Now if we take into effect tech advances, the long distance and lag we get on Earth, still is a maximum of a few minutes just to get text data such as prices. in the future with super advanced interconnecting "space internet" we should be able to see prices from anywhere and tell our traders to buy things in that sector if they are close.
Yeah, I agree. The magic of the internet allows us (pretty much) instant communication with everyone everywhere always, I imagine some magic space interwebs would be much the same eventually, something about a limited comms range in an unlimited universe sounds a bit iffy. Although I'm all for active comms blocking, jamming buoys and the like.
Because you could simply ask the pilot about the local prices and order him to buy accordingly.
I feel the same, you could think of it as an abstracted version of just opening a channel to your man Mr Bobertson, asking him to rely the prices and goods at the market and then ordering him to make purchases/sales accordingly.
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Re: Direct Transactions Through Owned Ships?

#14
In order to manage many NPCs, we'll need to be able to assign contracts and delegate projects. We're already going to have delegation to solve the span-of-control problem.

Well, if we can delegate, why do we need instantaneous communication across star systems? Being able to command every factional NPC immediately is useless to me if I have hundreds of NPCs waiting for orders. They must have some autonomy... in which case I no longer need to be able to command them instantly.

I'm going to guess that the effectiveness and trustability of NPCs to properly interpret delegated goals, including doing their own delegation, is going to be a major part of testing LT. :geek:
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Re: Direct Transactions Through Owned Ships?

#15
MrPerson wrote:I am kind of the opposite viewpoint. Its like the world today, people in the US can see prices of things in Europe, Asia, wherever just using the internet. Now if we take into effect tech advances, the long distance and lag we get on Earth, still is a maximum of a few minutes just to get text data such as prices. in the future with super advanced interconnecting "space internet" we should be able to see prices from anywhere and tell our traders to buy things in that sector if they are close.
I would prefer the need to dock to a space station or land in a colony to be able to make transactions or read the mission board for example, as was show to us in past video updates. Sounds more interesting. I don't want to sit in my ship and play Space Monopoly without ever start my thrusters.

In case of having employees with their own ships, I suppose you will need to use the Command Interface and some sort of "e-mail" communication system, but the big distances in space will make unlikely any type of communication outside the system where you are. Even in the same system we could have a little delay, if not due to technology limitations because our pilot needs to re-send his data to us. (If we ask a pilot to go to a space station and send us the market prices, he will need to dock in the station himself, and then transfer the data from his coputer to ours. Besides, such information surely will be slightly outdated.)
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