Merchants: Planets and Stations

[bzm3r]

I would like to start planning for my first project modification. To this end, I'd like to select a list of critical features that my modification should have, in order to be *really* fun. In order to select such "critical features", I'd like feedback from the community.

A cornerstone feature of this modification is going to be procedural text generation: e.g. flavour text for station descriptions, shop/station-sector descriptions, trade item descriptions, merchant family descriptions, and so on.

I would like to see this mod being incorporated into the main game itself. Releasing it is not enough.

Here are some relevant threads I have dug up:

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Planets (project cancelled): a cancelled project, with neat ideas on how to incorporate planets into the game.

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Trading and larger star network mod: a cancelled project, with some example code that I can use...well, if someone has a copy of it!

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Why can't we trade with Ferians?: generally makes me think of how to increase trading connections between humans/neo-humans.

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Trading Profit: from the horse's mouth itself:

Perhaps NPCs are competing with the player. For example, imagine that the player finds an ice farm willing to pay 100% profit on fuel. The player might run to a fuel depot to buy fuel. But the catch is that someone else might sell to the ice farm first, in which case, the player can't sell (either because prices change or because the ice farm no longer wants the fuel).

Perhaps the player can buy information about prices. For example, the player can pay 1000 credits to learn that a station in the system is paying 100% profit on a certain item; or that an item is for sale at a certain stations.

Right now there are only a few station types that you can reliably sell to: ice farms, hotels, corporate enclaves. At minimum we should increase this set: medical centers (buy meds), food processors (buy fuel and organics), energy generators (buy rad shielding), etc. Ideally we should design this set so that it is (more or less) obvious what the station wants to buy.

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* We can have weapons manufacturers that buy metal and sell guns/ammo/armor (a good place to start are the makayev/rassiermesser plants).

* We can have helium regolith being made into fuel....somewhere.

* We could have hospitals or medical centers that require medicines, or stations that have an outbreak of illness and pay for anything the player has that can help.

I like the idea of dynamic events shaping trade needs. An example of a dynamic event could be important trade routes being destroyed, and the goods being stolen, creating a dire need for those items. The player then has to "find" the goods needed, quickly before an NPC does!

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A major limitation is how gates are like black holes to NPCs, they swallow them up and never spit them out the same way again. NPCs can't cross systems, thus they can't really participate in intersystem trade-route fun, actual competition for example.

I'd like to be able to fix this up somehow.

I'd like to see a possible implimentation which saves the data on ships, and maybe even runs the systems on either side of the current one (at a slower speed), (next system over paused) with persistent ships traveling from system to system... on their intersystem missions.

There is an old thread that contains a long discussion about how to give "out of sight systems" life, but the conclusion was that the engine couldn't support it efficiently. I think it should be possible to create such "life" if the game engine (C++, rather than TransLisp) was periodically updating events there based on numerical calculations. Maybe this should be one of the first features of the mod.

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If say celestial objects orbited around while out of system, now that would make trade routes dynamic and navigation tricky - risk/reward.

Instead of celestial objects, it could be political/safety considerations. Or, merchant family tensions, for instance. Or perhaps...the loss of navigation beacons through large nebulae...

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Blockade running to supply a besieged station would definitely be interesting. As would something like being slipped a tracking device with a large commodity exchange purchase, and then having to fend off a pirate ambush. As mentioned, temporary shortages are exciting, because unlike static trade-routes, temporary trade-routes can't be solved - it is something that forces the player to consider survivability versus maneuverability versus cargo space as they race around, and, of course, risk/reward.

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Salvager Nomads are NPCs competing with the player, and last I knew tended to draw hatred for that competition. For my part, I despise them because they perfectly know every wreck as soon as it happens, never seem to be deliberately attacked, don't mark or scuttle wrecks once they've looted them, and don't interact with the player. In short, they're a loot-leech, not "competition".

If the trader-NPCs were actual characters, who have player-style limitations and could be interacted with (at least provide decent conversation in the Trafalgar Bar), then yeah, they'd be a good thing. If all they do is cheat me out of my reward for the past hour's work, then I go looking for a mod to fix the problem.

This is a very important point that I would like to address -- I don't want NPC competition to simply be frustrating.

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Some more quality polemics from TVR:

Currently, stations of the same type are completely interchangeable, there is no difference between one hotel station and another for example - they all buy the same things at the same price! This causes trade routes to be nothing more than a back-and-forth fetch quest...

I propose this solution: A station's buy and sell prices should depend on the quantity of the commodity that the station already has.

The gameplay effects of this proposal: no longer will the player have to deal with...buy limits and [fixed prices] - even with linear topology and static station inventories, the player will be encouraged to explore and find new stations to trade with as older stations reach commodity saturation...in fact, the dominant trade route should become multi-hop, as the player can get the best price by evenly distributing a commodity over as many stations as possible (AKA selling retail). Of course, the player would have to consider fuel cost and time spent versus relative profitability. The commodity exchange at each CW station would also become like a real-life COMEX, making it possible to arbitrage and trade between different CW stations, rather than having them all buy and sell the same things at the same price.

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Industry chains: well, that's my title for the thread, because that's the idea it gave me.

There are goods -- they have to be processed into being more interesting things which can be sold for more. In order to process them, you'll need to somehow help set up an intermediate station located at an appropriate place (get investors, and so on). Or, convince an existing station to switch over to doing your style of work. In any case, the point is: product chains. Industry.

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UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Another thread by George, which I have to take notes on at some point.

http://forums.kronosaur.com/viewtopic.p ... ding+trade

http://forums.kronosaur.com/viewtopic.p ... ding+trade

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Please do comment.

[Song]

Quotes with names need quotation marks around the name:

Code: Select all

 [quote="shrike"]Like this[/quote]

[quote=shrike]Rather than this[/quote] 

But this would be an interesting mod. One thing that *might* help you is an ancient mod that may or may not still be on Xelerus....and almost certainly no longer works. This mod made AI enemies follow the player through gates. I never used it, but given that you can't call up data from inactive systems in any great detail, whatever approach this thing used *might* be useful. While my own skill with coding lies firmly in the "make pretty, but simple weapons mods", I'd definitely try to help this sort of thing if possible.

[JohnBWatson]

I think a fairly solid solution to the excessive profitability of trading is quite simple. Schedule 'trading shipments' that appear every so often for the more lucrative stations, selling goods that they buy at a high price and/or buying goods that they produce. The frequency and size of these shipments would vary inversely with system safety, allowing the game to maintain the enjoyable parts of trading, like contemplating the risk/reward of keeping a heavy but valuable cargo aboard, but fixing the balance issues associated with large metropolises full of quick and lucrative trade routes.

It would also make sense for some stations to regularly produce goods in the same way factories do. Ice farms, for example, would gradually deplete fuel rods and produce food.

[bzm3r]

Would an Ice Farm also sell the fuel rods it has in stock?

[bzm3r]

Quotes with names need quotation marks around the name:

Code: Select all

 [quote="shrike"]Like this[/quote]

[quote=shrike]Rather than this[/quote] 

But this would be an interesting mod. One thing that *might* help you is an ancient mod that may or may not still be on Xelerus....and almost certainly no longer works. This mod made AI enemies follow the player through gates. I never used it, but given that you can't call up data from inactive systems in any great detail, whatever approach this thing used *might* be useful. While my own skill with coding lies firmly in the "make pretty, but simple weapons mods", I'd definitely try to help this sort of thing if possible.

Shrike -- thanks for offering to help! I am going to look into ways to change the engine/add new TransLisp functions in order to make it all work out "in the best way possible". I'll talk to George about that when the time comes.

I'd definitely try to help this sort of thing if possible

Help me brainstorm!

[JohnBWatson]

Would an Ice Farm also sell the fuel rods it has in stock?

I'd say no, for the same reason factories don't sell the materials they have in stock.

[PM]

Unlike factories, ice farms do not consume fuel and produce more merchandise. Ice Farms are only good for selling fuel to them (until you reach buying limits) and buying their food for the Teraton fabricator. Factories consume what you sell and produce more goods, after a time, and you can sell more stuff for full price if you oversold previously. Factories that produce luxury food are great, especially if they demand junk ore you can mine.

[JohnBWatson]

Unlike factories, ice farms do not consume fuel and produce more merchandise. Ice Farms are only good for selling fuel to them (until you reach buying limits) and buying their food for the Teraton fabricator. Factories consume what you sell and produce more goods, after a time, and you can sell more stuff for full price if you oversold previously. Factories that produce luxury food are great, especially if they demand junk ore you can mine.

In my above post, I recommended that Ice Farms be modified to produce goods in the same manner as factories, though at a slower rate.

[Song]

The basic key to a more complex trading system is to build a system that detects where materials need to be, and then sends them there. However, this does get very complex when you factor in the complexity of hypothetical supply chains....each station needs to request a certain quantity of a certain variety of items, and these then need to be dispatched from the nearest source (in-system or from the nearest gate, with a time delay). In addition, these goods need to be put on a freighter which can physically carry them, which may also require escorts (eg. from Korolov, which would also need to give the player the chance to escort them). Once that basic system is working, adding more stations up to a certain point should be easy, but things may get difficult as they grow. Not to help with this, it is almost certain that this endeavor will necessitate more stations in the game. My suggestions for brand new stuff (to facilitate actually modelling supply chains):

-A source of water ice. Possibly a comet mine?
-Some source of hydrocarbons and organic acid. This could probably also be done by a comet mine (assume they do some refining of raw hydrocarbons on site to explain the odd sorts of hydrocarbons getting sold)
- A creator of mechanical parts (eg. Erbium rods, cerium electrodes). This gives a source of these stupidly-rare crafting materials, and also adds an extra trade opportunity between shipyards, weapons dealers, etc.
-Weapons factories for the early game. Should be much rarer than in the late game, and have suitably low-levelled stuff. NAMI, EI and the like should have a presence, given their focus on lower-tech weapons. May or may not actually sell their gear to the player.
-Crates of hexagene explosives. Because crate bombing sucks right now and I need to suggest *something* that explodes. Also we need more dangerous goods to transport.
-Sinks for advanced medical gear (medical research centers, hospitals, CW stations with special events [eg. Epidemic, hull breach])
-Tourism (in spaaaace). We have hotels, but there's no travel between them. Not surprising, given that they make little sense. Some sort of space cruise-liner with CSC-style docking setups would be a good addition, in addition to tourist traffic around monuments (eg. Kuiper monument, First Encounter place, etc) and tourism sites (currently only the battle arena).

[JohnBWatson]

The basic key to a more complex trading system is to build a system that detects where materials need to be, and then sends them there. However, this does get very complex when you factor in the complexity of hypothetical supply chains....each station needs to request a certain quantity of a certain variety of items, and these then need to be dispatched from the nearest source (in-system or from the nearest gate, with a time delay). In addition, these goods need to be put on a freighter which can physically carry them, which may also require escorts (eg. from Korolov, which would also need to give the player the chance to escort them). Once that basic system is working, adding more stations up to a certain point should be easy, but things may get difficult as they grow. Not to help with this, it is almost certain that this endeavor will necessitate more stations in the game. My suggestions for brand new stuff (to facilitate actually modelling supply chains):

Seems interesting, but also difficult to implement.

I propose a simpler system:

First, give all systems a variable that determines traffic level. Friendly stations would increase this variable, as would proximity to a population center. Hostile stations would decrease this. In effect, this would work similarly to stocks in CC.

Second, give each production or consumption station a scheduled shipment, which sells it its needs and purchases its products. Base the escort complement, size, and frequency of these shipments on both the traffic variable and the station's lucrativeness.

Third, have any wandering ships(including Korolov Freighters) that dock at a station purchase items that they sell for above market price and sell any items that they buy for above market price, reusing the code from the freighters described above. Implement credit stocks for these ships.

Fourth, have all stations gradually deplete the commodities they purchase at above market prices and(if applicable) produce the commodities that they sell at below market prices.

-A source of water ice. Possibly a comet mine?

Corporate Fuel Stations already provide ice.

-Some source of hydrocarbons and organic acid. This could probably also be done by a comet mine (assume they do some refining of raw hydrocarbons on site to explain the odd sorts of hydrocarbons getting sold)
- A creator of mechanical parts (eg. Erbium rods, cerium electrodes). This gives a source of these stupidly-rare crafting materials, and also adds an extra trade opportunity between shipyards, weapons dealers, etc.

Based on the purchases of enclaves and the presence of workers, it can be assumed that they manufacture these intermediate materials, and simply have nothing to gain from selling them to a player, given that the step above them in the supply chain is also owned by the CH. Of course, adding these materials to their inventories is something I'd like to see happen, not least because they spawn freighters on destruction, which do not have anything to collect.

-Weapons factories for the early game. Should be much rarer than in the late game, and have suitably low-levelled stuff. NAMI, EI and the like should have a presence, given their focus on lower-tech weapons. May or may not actually sell their gear to the player.

I always assumed they simply purchased their stock from the corporations' home areas. NAMI is based in America, and would thus have built its factories on and around Earth. Similarly, EI is Europe based.

-Crates of hexagene explosives. Because crate bombing sucks right now and I need to suggest *something* that explodes. Also we need more dangerous goods to transport.

I'm not sure if dangerous cargo is implementable, but it would be an interesting mechanic.

-Sinks for advanced medical gear (medical research centers, hospitals, CW stations with special events [eg. Epidemic, hull breach])

Corporate stations, hotels, ice farms, and CSCs all serve this purpose. Disease conditions and increased medicine needs for damaged stations would be interesting, if possible.

-Tourism (in spaaaace). We have hotels, but there's no travel between them. Not surprising, given that they make little sense. Some sort of space cruise-liner with CSC-style docking setups would be a good addition, in addition to tourist traffic around monuments (eg. Kuiper monument, First Encounter place, etc) and tourism sites (currently only the battle arena).

I think that the hotels are effectively temporary homes for freelance pilots when they need to sleep. My assumption is that Dominia allows the player to go without sleeping. I would like to see monuments gain beacons like CW metropolises, as well as, if possible, increased traffic.

[RPC]

As for stargaze topology, you can look at Beyond the Mainline on Xelerus for inspiration.

For planets, what would be the incentive/reward for exploration? You would need to show the player that planet exploration is profitable, and not just a way to look at scenery (which can be rewarding in it's own right when done well).

I have an idea on how to implement an economy system but would have to hold off on the details since ring theory hw due tomorrow.

[bzm3r]

I am loving the ideas so far. I'll write up a first draft of mod features soon!

I have an idea on how to implement an economy system but would have to hold off on the details since ring theory hw due tomorrow.

Do tell me once you are done your homework.

As for stargaze topology, you can look at Beyond the Mainline on Xelerus for inspiration.

For planets, what would be the incentive/reward for exploration? You would need to show the player that planet exploration is profitable, and not just a way to look at scenery (which can be rewarding in it's own right when done well).

Actually, I think the player will not interact much with planets. I want to leave it like St. K's or Earth (in EP) is at the moment) -- it's the stations around the planets that the player will interact with.

Planets produce certain goods that are more challenging to obtain except on specialized stations:

* tourism (this also addresses one of Shrike's points about space tourism and the hotel industry)

* luxury foods and goods (animal meats, pets, teas and coffee, local cultural goods)

* cheap and easy to maintain "bioreactors" for growing cheap food -- growing food on a planet is probably cheaper than growing food on stations?

* population centres to demand goods, if the planets are livable

* living places for "high class" citizens? (where they establish manors etc, while the average person probably finds it cheaper to live on stations)

Here's a question for everyone: what would drive people to become criminals in space?

[JohnBWatson]

* cheap and easy to maintain "bioreactors" for growing cheap food -- growing food on a planet is probably cheaper than growing food on stations?

I'd say it's the opposite. Farming doesn't really require a planet, and hydroponic farms are supposedly the wave of the future. Considering the cost of transporting goods off of the planet's surface and of making a planet habitable for plants, farming on a planet is likely too costly to be used for anything other than extremely special luxury goods.

Here's a question for everyone: what would drive people to become criminals in space?

A lack of law enforcement and a lucrative set of targets. The current set of criminals are a bit strange given that they seem to have almost no success in piracy, but assuming they managed to actually loot a few freighters, they could finance a much more extravagant lifestyle than they could have by playing by the rules.

[RPC]

Sorry for the long response time and weird formatting as I have no idea how to keep tab alignment in a post.

Generic Economy System
This is my ultimate dream economy that I thought up but never had the time to implement. This can also be *very* easily streamlined and not as complicated as I wrote here. I hope you make the most out of it and I hope for the best. If you do have any questions, pm me or ping me on IRC but I am very busy with school as you can tell >.< If you can motivate me you can probably get me to write a LOT of code for you

Production/Resource Trees
First you create a resource tree of all the materials in your economy. If you want to expand the current game, I suggest getting a list of all the items in Transcendence and compiling them into a list.
It should be divided into a few hierachies:

Primary:
Primary goods are things like ores, fuel, and manpower. In my old attempt at expanding the economy, I devised a few basic stations that would produce these goods and be the workhorse of the Commonwealth/Ares economies.
These primary goods will then be used in construction for higher tier materials like guns, armor, ships, etc, and more demand would drive the price up.
*note: I have no idea how to drive the price down, unfortunately. I think in the upkeep tick I should just include a 'downward race bid' where stations will attempt to make prices cheaper by bidding lower until a certain limit to keep the economy's prices from rising.
Manpower will be data stored that will determine efficiency.

Secondary:
Secondary goods will be items like quantum CPUs, armor, shields, ships, etc. These will be defined by requiring the use of primary goods.

Luxury goods:
Luxury goods will be items that don't require primary goods and (usually) won't require anything to manufacture. This will include things like the thanograms and microsaurs, etc.

Note on Mining:
I want asteroid mining to be the main source of raw materials for the space economy (and possibly planet production now that you mention it). In this I would propose to make asteroids produce a percent chance of ores instead of being able to deplete them entirely. This is because economic agents will require materials as time goes on, and with a finite supply of ores eventually everybody will end up starving in the universe. Mining percentage will be based on the level of the system and mining technology.

NPCs and Stations as agencies in an economy:

Managing the economy with upkeep ticks:
The upkeep tick is where the economy will truly shine. With this, prices will change and the statuses of economic agents like NPCs and stations will provide incentive for driving the economy forward.
Different stations will have different upkeep ticks, while NPCs will have a relatively short upkeep tick so as to keep things moving.

The upkeep tick is where:
-Stations/NPCs consume materials to stay alive
-If there are any extras, produce goods (stations) or perform a service (NPCs)
-- Types of actions
--- Stations:
----if there is a need for a material, search out the nearest few producers, bid for materials, enlist Korolov/random NPC for merchant transfer, and plan for the future by stockpiling resources and attempt a good trade
--- NPCs:
----Consume fuel and food
----Do a status check:
-----check if armor is ok, if not, use patches or repair armor nearby
-----irradiated? decontaminate
----NPCs will then fulfill their archetype (or possibly change archetype if they can't get enough fuel/food for the next upkeep tick)
----Pirates:
----Will look for stations/merchants to raid and steal goods. Items will mostly be immediately turned into credits (the rest kept in the inventory for players to loot), and they will have access to Black Market trading (in lower systems) or maybe even the Rin economy (from the Teratons) in higher systems.
----Mercenaries:
----Will be paid to guard a station and generally won't do much except buy better equipment and (possibly) turn into pirates or ecsort merchants.
----Merchants:
----will seek out jobs (just count the number of unfulfilled contracts in a system) and hubs for moving materials. Some merchants will also buy/sell goods and have a personal history of prices. Merchants will usually enter a system, check out the prices of everything in the system and then buy/sell accordingly (In system transactions will be preferred but it would be nice to calculate out of system transactions when a merchant goes out of the system).

-Penalties will then be applied: the format is "penalties; response"
--example penalties:
--- Stations:
----low on credits: no penalty; que up selling contracts
----out of food: chance for population to rebel, and will reduce manpower if there is no food for ~5 minutes until everyone on the station dies; que up more food contracts
----out of fuel: reduced production efficiency; que up more fuel contracts
----out of manpower: station dies, leave a wreck for the player to find with custom description. Maybe add a unique mission hook here (ideas: let player reconstruct station, player is ambushed by crazed cannibals, etc); que up more manpower contracts from colony stations or maybe even neighboring stations
----not paying guards: increase chance for pirate attack (although pirates may be able to attack anyways); que up more selling contracts
--- NPCs:
----low on credits: no penalty; que up service contracts
----out of food: NPC dies and leaves shipwreck; go to a station to buy food OR get more credits if not enough
----out of fuel: ship is disabled, turn on life support timer and then kill the NPC; que up more food contracts AND send a distress signal (this can also be a mission hook for the player)

Contract System:
The contract will be the basic interaction between two economic agents. This will be just like a mission except that NPCs will fulfill the contract between themselves and drive the economy forward. Contracts will be based on information set by objSetTradeDesc and modified during the upkeep tick accordingly.

Example Basic Contract Types
Stations:
-Produce more of their specialized produce
-buy from other stations
-enlist a good transport from a merchant and/or Korolov
NPCs:
-Buy/sell items from a station
-loot items from a wreck (for pirates)
-distress call
Obviously the player should be able to fulfill contracts as well, but this would require more mission scripting.

A unique contract I would later add would be the guild contract, where NPCs would work together for mutual benefit. Some guild contracts may form corporations -- others will for merchant guilds or pirate clans. Participating members may choose to keep membership, but leaving will may/may not incur punishment based on the type of guild and individual circumstances.

Implementation strategy:
The upkeep tick will be implemented in a virtual station created at the start of the universe in each system. Global data stored on a unid type will keep track of all the trade history of the universe and will be able to simulate systems outside of the current system to keep the economy alive. The upkeep tick will be different for each station, and most stations/npcs will have their own unique timings (food and fuel produced more than armor or guns for example). In-system, things will be handled by current events, but simulated events outside the system like pirate raids or merchants delivering on time will be determined by a few statistical variables to keep simulating the economy.
In-universe statistics will determine the values of a lot of things like freighters dying or conflicts destroying stations.
I'd also like to keep available statistics for future games/better economies/decisions. This is already possible by storing data using unvSetExtensionData.

Ideal step by step implementation:
Define the Resource Tree,
create NPC/Station specializations,
implement basic resources and the contract system,
implement the upkeep tick,
implement secondary resources and luxuries,
then do fine tuning/add unique stations for tinkers/black market.

Probable Project Issues
-The amount of time to finish this project is huge
-Special details like keeping statistical variables or calculating the economy outside of system is both hard to code and might be computationally expensive
-figuring out details like mining and balancing out numbers will be a HUGE pain. The system I described also only has an easy option to raise prices but not lower them. It would be better to design a system that is self regulating
-Adding mission hooks will be really fun but also take up more time
-A majority of the code and time will be spent on the upkeep tick and the virtual station computations, but this also means that if you do things right it should be possible to manipulate data so that maybe recipes change to reflect technological advancement, major empire dying, loss of technology or specialization, etc.
-I definitely did not stick to KISS (it is possible if you just stick to making a simple upkeep tick and don't compute outside of the system but then that would mean that only the systems the player visits will be developed)

Example Resource Tree, NPC requirements, and Station specializations:

Resource Tree:

Primary Resources:
ores (mined by mining stations)
fuel* (created by fuel stations, better fuels require ores and manpower)
food* (created by colony stations, better food requires more fuel)
manpower* (created by colony stations)
*note: for these you can have different kinds of fuels/food/ and manpower to determing "efficiency". Maybe heliotrope fuel would be a better fuel than He3, food from St. Kat's be more nourishing, and maybe ferians/zoanthropoes compete with humans for jobs at a cheaper price but lower efficieny?

Secondary Resources:
Ores, fuel, manpower => armors, guns, shields (specific amounts of ores will vary the details but the basic recipies will be the same)
Ores, manpower => alloys for higher tech
high amounts of fuel and manpower => high tech like Longzhu spheres, data arrays that the luminous use, etc
medium fuel and medium manpower => armor barrels/repair paste (manufactured by armor dealers)

Luxury goods:
Drugs (produced by tempus labs/ Black Market)
medium fuel and high manpower => Luxury food (produced by hotels and St. Kat's)
random misc items like abbasid thanograms

NPCs
Needs:
-fuel
-armor
-shields
-guns (optional, required for guards and pirates)
Produces:
-fulfills station contracts
-can have a job mining
-can/may be a pirate
Contracts:
-fulfilling its needs
-making money

Stations
Needs:
-ores (optional)
-food (mandatory)
-fuel (mandatory)
-manpower (mandatory)
Specialized station options:
-fuel
Creates fuel, imports ores and manpower for better fuels
-mining
Mines asteroids, imports fuel, food and manpower if their miners get killed by pirates (also que up guards if that happens)
-colony
creates food, manpower. Can specialize in either food or manpower
-metropolis
Think Starton Eridani/ringer shipyard (since ringers have no ships to make yet). Has a list of all contracts in-system for NPC's to inspect and dock/repair/etc. If not, NPCs have to go to each system separately or be contacted by a station.
Has a high population and also ques up a lot of resource contracts for the system
-armor dealer
Creates armors/shields. Imports high amounts of ores and fuel.
-weapon dealer
Creates weapons. Imports high amounts of ores and fuel.

Special stations/ideas for later implementation:
Military/shipyard specialization
Think Ares Shipyard or Sung Citadel. Creates ships for their faction. Coordinates attacks on enemy factions. Ques up armor and weapons dealer contracts.
Unique station specialization
Need to get Tinkers/medical communes/Battle Arena/etc to interact with the economy

Currency
-Need a way to exchange money in metropolis for a fee.
-need a way to make a credit/rin economy, possibly add other economies like barter for nomadic NPCs like Xenophobes, Gaians, Nomads.
-Incorporate lesser known factions like Heliotropes and Huari either into their own self contained economy or interact with credit/commonwealth economy.

I am guessing that this project will take ~100 hours or more to complete if you do it with the level of detail that I described. Just writing this post took me an hour and a half. It would be nice to have something like this as a mod, but currently it will be hard to find the time to dedicate to see a huge project like this to the end. I wish you luck.

[JohnBWatson]

Note on Mining:
I want asteroid mining to be the main source of raw materials for the space economy (and possibly planet production now that you mention it). In this I would propose to make asteroids produce a percent chance of ores instead of being able to deplete them entirely. This is because economic agents will require materials as time goes on, and with a finite supply of ores eventually everybody will end up starving in the universe. Mining percentage will be based on the level of the system and mining technology.

I like the idea of this. For one, it would explain why mining outposts exist at all when the player can seemly strip mine a system in a matter of (in game) days.

--- NPCs:
----Consume fuel and food

I think food can safely be left out of the equation for NPCs, as an abstraction. After all, ships tend to have very small crews, and thus do not need much food. CSCs could be exempt for this, if the mission system is sufficiently revised.

A note on merchants: there's a simpler way to achieve the effect you want.
Go to the nearest station with a favorable deal(defined as selling something at below market price or buying something in the cargo hold at above market price)
Complete all favorable deals found at that station.
If at any point the cargo hold cannot hold more goods(and lacks anywhere in system to sell them) or there are no more favorable transactions in the system, gate.

Unique station specialization
Need to get Tinkers/medical communes/Battle Arena/etc to interact with the economy

Tinkers could demand broken goods and ore, and produce the repaired versions of those goods.

Medicine would work exactly the same as food, save for less drastic effects and greater variation in demand.

The Battle Arena would be nigh impossible to code, but could be amazing. Have ships in the system check (a)whether they are broke or (b)whether they have a very powerful ship. If (a) they would go to the arena and enlist in the qualifying rounds as cannon fodder(would explain why so many poorly equipped ships are there - desperation). If (b), they would become a gladiator and be ranked according to the total market price of their equipment. This would, of course, require NPCs to have names.