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One obvious profession seems to be missing...
noncley
Member UncommonPosts: 718
Star Citizen is obviously going to be a rich and complex game, and the developers have made a lot of play about a 'player-influenced economy'.
They've announced a long list of professions that will be in game, including: Trader, Space Trucker, Mercenary, Bounty Hunter, Farmer, Pirate, Salvager as well as quite a few others.
Yet there is one obvious profession that seems to be missing from the list (though its a list pulled together from many sources and goes through constant reiterations). It's also a profession that appears in almost very MMO, and yet - so far - it's not been touched on in any official pronouncement. Additionally, none of the ships revealed, even in concept, nor any of the miscellaneous equipment seen as detail in marketing videos hint at its existence either.
I'm talking about Manufacturing.
There doesn't seem to be any evidence - that I've seen anyway - that players can participate in either largescale or boutique manufacturing. I know that the SC world is dominated by giant corporations but, still, is there no room for factory ships or workshop benches in hangars that will allow players to make things? In EVE and Star Wars Galaxies, you could manufacture your own ships (though in different ways). If CIG think that one person or one org should not be able to make such giant-sized and expensive artefacts (say, because of game balance issues) then why not smaller items like clothes or armor or weapons which you can do in games as varied as World of Warcraft and Fallout IV?
I must say that it's only now I'm learning that there will not be manufacturing ('crafting') in the game - nor apparently an auction house. This is my own fault - I should have done the research though, as we all know, there's a lot to process about this game. (Rather foolishly, I took it for granted there would be crafting/auctions simply because there were in all other MMOs I have played. I tend to go for RPGs rather than MMO shooters).
Considering how complex and sophisticated the rest of the game is, that's a real disappointment to me. Chris Roberts has chosen , as I understand it, to exclude manufacture and the auction from the player-weighted economy that he has has so often spoken about. From EVE to Star Wars Galaxies to ESO, such activities have proven to be a compelling draw for players and an active and continuing generator of player gameplay - games in which, all in all, I've gladly spent thousands of bucks over the decades. The crafting and trading mechanics of the incoming Crowfall look to be fascinating.
Objections of 'passive wealth generation' and 'economy manipulation' and 'price inflation' are, to me, tangents. Such objections can be easily overridden by automatic checks and balances in the system.
You might say, 'Well, you're a sole trader, how can you expect to make a BMW?'. The answer is simple: you'd licence a design from BMW, , hire a factory node, get together the resources and produce however many your licence allows you with your own - authorised - variations. In other words, just like TATA or the Beijing Automotive Group does in the real world right now. The same with missiles, guns, gimbels, clothes, armor, hangar decoration or such.
You might also say: 'This is a flight sim game, not an economic modelling game'. Well, if that's the case, then why has CIG put such an effort into devising economic ramifications for trading, hauling and such? Or, to put it more simply, 'if ESO lets a goblin make a breastplate, it's not beyond the wit of CIG to let players make armor plating in their hangar workshop or in an automated station factory'.
Finally you might say, the mechanics are too complex. I can't agree. If Ultima Online was able to do it in 1998 , I'm pretty sure CIG can model a craft system and a marketplace in 2017. Hell, if - as we already know - there is going to be "farming", "refining" and "processing"in game then the mechanics are probably already half done.
And of course manufacture/crafting supports active gameplay:
- You have to locate resources
- You have to mine them
- You have to refine them
- You have to find a place where they can be manufactured cheaply
- You have to raise the capital to afford to manufqcture them
- You have to sell them in a place where people can see them advertised
- You have to deliver them
These are *all* active gameplay elements and they, I think, all require the kind of specific active gameplay the shootabois want - ie. requiring flying, exploring and fighting.
Oh well, I am just rather disappointed. I personally wish that the team would skip designing the next $350 sexboat with integral space jacuzzi and spend the time making an auction mechanic instead. Sorry to be pissy but I've already spent eight hundred bucks on ships and I'm not going to spend more unless CIG seriously considers putting in proper player-trading and player-crafting.
Oh well, just my ten cents.
PS. And while we're about it, CIG, add in proper persistent housing too. I want my own asteroid base.
Comments
Someone will probably jump in here and say something along the lines of "But after the game is released they aren't selling ships in the cash shop." My reply to that is "They've made a $100 million and counting from virtual ships I'm Sure they will stop selling them lol. /End Sarcasm.
I'm sure this game will be great. I bought a pack myself. But they are going to milk it for all its worth!
In the sandbox, you as a player have to learn the rules of the game. Those rules, or rather the gamification of the games theme, are there primarily to make for interesting, explorative gameplay, while realism is a secondary concern. This makes for games that sometimes have central gameplay elements that makes no RL sense. Think EVE's docking games and Blueprint Copies. The rules make sense for gameplay reasons but are not representing anything remotely realistic.
In the simulation, you as a player can, within reason, expect to game to follow the real world rules of teh simulated theme. The main goal here is immersion in a realistic scenario. Thus realism is a primary concern, while the gamification is secondary. Think Star Citizens planed handling of cargo being represented by actual ingame models and similar realism based gameplay.
I am not saying one is better than the other, they are just different and appeal to different tastes.
Players can and should basically create everything - however NSCs also manufacture and sell (which avoids the empty vendor problem of older servers like we had in Star Wars Galaxies)
https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/engineering/13128-The-Star-Citizen-Economy
Have fun
It's by that design NPC driven so the way I see is the game has still one economy dynamic where prices float and so forfh but it's the game that generates the trade missions (Raw Resources to Factory for example), and so forth.
AI will drive it, players will impact it to some extent, as they do can trade to each other.
Personally, if they added Farming, if they added PG Planets... in terms of economy I would say it's not a bad idea to let players create factories and build up places of resource gathering as well, product manufacturing. AI Driven still, but player owned.
Idk about asteroid bases in specific. But player-owned real-estate is a planned feature, however as said not something to expect before release.
The developers even use a self created board game to test the SC Economy.
Have fun
Have fun
It does give a plausible reason for mining, transport, convoy escort, etc. missions, while leaving overall supply and demand firmly under dev control.
If you're looking for hands-on manufacturing and player-driven economics, then Dual Universe is a great prospect.