Hi everyone,
Last week, I had a conversation about the future of the seed market and research purchases in 0.9, so I want to take this post to explain my thoughts a bit more broadly.
I believe I’ve mentioned before that the current seed market has become outdated with the introduction of artefact mode. With players no longer having a real incentive to send money to the queen, the unlocking of additional seed market tiers rarely happens, and is usually a tedious step if it is necessary. Likewise, with the new ways of getting seeds to be introduced in 0.9 (see posts 172/173), the seed market as it exists right now will become obsolete at best, and balance breaking at worst.
Despite all of that, I believe that the “trade offers at the port” can have a really useful place in the game, if done in a significantly different form. The form I am envisioning for this will be a lot less permanent than what we have right now. Instead of the offers being calculated at the start of the game and staying the same throughout, each “ship” will come with a different set of much more limited offers. Players will then get the chance to purchase the offers ahead of the ship’s arrival, and once the ship leaves, the offers will change to whatever the next ship has to offer.
The set of offers each ship has will also be smaller: There may initially be 3 or 4 slots that each ship offers. Maybe a seed, a research technology that can be bought for gold rather than its usual material requirements, a particularly cheap stack of ammo, or a particularly lucrative sales contract. With research, players will then be able to unlock additional slots, so each ship may offer more options, or better trade deals so things are offered cheaper (or with a better profit margin). This won’t interfere with the regular trading of goods, but it may give players some incentive to produce one thing over another depending on what is offered or requested.
There are a few more small changes I am planning to make to the way ships work, but I will discuss at some point in the future.
Until next week!