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Shipping Company Use Case


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So say I want to have a shipping company organization to make money bringing things to people.

 

Assumptions:

You can buy goods without having to be next to the pick up location.

Quests can be created which give permissions to the person or organization to pick up stuff for you.

Quests can be accepted from anywhere.

 

 

Person buys 500 materials and a schematic from someone 2 hours round trip away...

Person creates quest for someone to bring these items to them.

 

Person in shipping organization accepts quest... then dispatches someone in the Org who is near the pick up point to get the items.

Items dropped off at warehouse for loading on to regularly scheduled cargo flight.

Flight takes items to destination warehouse while being protected by either the Orgs protective ships or another org hired for that...

Person takes items from warehouse to quest givers drop off point.

 

 

 

If quests can't be created to give the necessary permissions... then instead of buying stuff in advance... quests will have to be set up for the shipping company to go buy the stuff and bring it.

 

I think quests will also need to:

Provide rewards...

Have time limits... with maybe diminishing rewards until 0 and failure

Conditional Penalties... No penalty if you still get the items... penalty of the cost of the items if items were lost in transit.

 

I mean if you bought the items then sent the shipping company to get them and they get stolen... then the shipping comp needs to reimburse you...  If you can't given them permissions to pick up your stuff for you then this isn't an issue.

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So say I want to have a shipping company organization to make money bringing things to people.

 

Assumptions:

You can buy goods without having to be next to the pick up location.

 

I remember NQ saying that markets will definitely work that way (stating that this will encourage local marketplaces with shorter shipping times). From this point of view your shipping company definitely makes sense.

 

I don’t know anything about the whole “quest”/task system, but maybe someone else has information about that.

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Depending how the system works... I had another idea... Mobile markets.

 

Basically a large ship with market stalls for rent... it could go from population center to population center... So if you buy something you can just wait for it to come through your area... and if you have a stall there.... load it back up with stuff to sell... or you know fly to it...

 

Probably best limited to 1 planet and thus during the early game... where as the shipping company would be a later game thing when many planets and even star systems are populated.

 

But I digress. 

 

 

I think the viability of such a shipping company depends on how robust the quest creation system or contract system is.

 

One thing I think is also needed is a way to put stuff into a cargo container that can be labeled... Otherwise it will be hard for a large shipping organization to track where things are.  You need to be able to label the goods with a destination and recipient name... maybe also description of contents... Locking would be good too... So you can hand off the stuff to others to complete delivery.

 

On locking... A permission system would be sufficient so you create a cargo box that only the creator and the recipient can open.  It'd be great if when you buy things from a market your items are placed in a box already that only the purchaser can open... but that the purchaser can give permission for others to carry the box... 

 

I think there was talk of some sort of hacking mechanic which these boxes could be vulnerable to.  The chance for theft shouldn't be nonexistent but it shouldn't be ridiculously easy either.  Fun comes from challenge.

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This thread might be of interest to you, although it discusses the issue from a slightly different angle.

https://board.dualthegame.com/index.php?/topic/9843-contract-agreement-function/?hl=contract

 

Also, here is one that was started in regards to the limitations/needs of a transport agency.

https://board.dualthegame.com/index.php?/topic/10152-how-to-deliver-merchandise/

 

Hope those answer at least some of your questions.:)

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Not so much questions as a description of something you should be able to do in the game... and the systems needed to support it.

 

Details of systems are still in flux so while I've heard some things about contracts and how that relates to a quest making system and things about markets... I can't be certain of the exact details.  Nothing about any of these systems is set in stone yet or is promised to be a certain way.  All of it can change.

 

That's why I used the term Use Case.

 

A Use Case is a description of gameplay... an activity a player can engage in that may involve many different systems that the developers can use as a goal.  They can say a player needs to be able to do X and needs A, B, and C systems to do it and then make those...

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