Traders and Trade Changes?

[Vas]

Remember the good old days, when you used to build a launchpad and it created a stockpile which you put stuff on?  That was a pretty interesting way to do it.  We should do something similar!

Instead of building a little beacon that senses what materials are around it, we create a landing pad, that would take up the normal size of a ship.  Then, nothing can be on it when a Trader arrives, if you ask the trader to trade with you, he will spend 30 seconds landing his ship on the planet, then take the resources, and leave behind what you got from him on the pad.  You then clean it off, for the next trader to come by.

There are 2 or 3 methods I can think of for allowing traders to determine what is up for trade.
1. Detect all resources on the map that are in player stock piles and are not forbidden.
2. Detect all resources on the map that are in a stock pile with the "trade enabled" option.
3. Build trade storage units next to the landing pad, each one either must be connected to the pad directly, or to another storage unit.

So, the trade ship that lands may look something like this.


The trade area might look something like this,


Though, you'll construct an area of specific size and it will just be a large metal landing area for a ship to land at.  You won't be able to interact with the ship directly.

Ok, the trade resource pads won't be inside the launchpad area, but you can walk on them with a 30% speed decrease when on them.


This is just a rough description of what I was hoping to see.

Basically, traders can land planet side, then take resources from the area and leave behind what you wanted, then leave the planet.  Rather than orbitally launching and orbitally dropping supplies.

At the very least, we should make an orbital launch facility to load resources into, because just launching them from the beacon seems a bit weird.  However, I thought this would be a great opportunity to add some new ship parts that act as storage so you can take resources with you when you leave the planet, or these objects will appear on trader ships when they land, and won't be interactible but will make the trade ship look more advanced and pretty.    This would probably be something that would be put on the back burner, if it was thought of for a main feature in the game.



A simpler version, would be a small graphic of a ship lands, not using any blocks really, just a sort of single object graphic ship lands where you designate a landing facility, and will take supplies found in the "safe to trade" player owned stockpiles, and the trader leaves behind the resources you get from him all around the launchpad, which must be cleaned & repaired before the next ship can land.  (receives damage every time a trader leaves)

[H_D]

I like the idea of trader ship (or drop shuttle) landing and taking stuff from stockpile. When AI finally learns how to pillage colonies for goods, it would add some colour. Landing of trader would greatly increase probability of raid, and pirates would target trade stockpile (or even land near trade shuttle).

[JimmyAgnt007]

I like the idea of a shuttle landing, but a trade beacon is all you really need.  Im sure they can land on the ground just fine.  You can toggle stockpiles to be 'available for trade' so they show in the interface.  You do your business then some minions come out and start hauling your goods to the shuttle while they drop off the stuff you buy near the beacon.  Your minions haul things away and the shuttle takes off.  This way you can keep goods secure (for when raiders learn to steal them) but still trade.  Also you would want to keep the trade area secure so that if the shuttle lands during a fight they dont get hurt and stop visiting, this could also happen if you try to harvest the shuttle crew for organs/food or slaves.

[Kagemusha]

I love the idea of trade ships physically landing and trade goods physically being moved. When making trades it's easy enough to accept a trade ship dropping the goods by pods but how do we get the funds up to them?

A trade ship would solve this...or rather a shuttle. Since if the traders landed a ship capable of long range space travel then what is stopping the player from attempting to steal said ship. Short range trade shuttles would make more sense.

Implementing this system would also allow for the occurrence of trade caravans appearing as well. Land based traders.

The player could choose to attack and pillage the goods of these traders but this would severely decrease the probability of continued trade.

[Barley]

The problem with the ship landing is your supposed to be a bunch of stranded survivors trying to build a ship t get off this rock. So if the ship could land would your first reaction not be "Take me with you D:".

[Kagemusha]

The problem with the ship landing is your supposed to be a bunch of stranded survivors trying to build a ship t get off this rock. So if the ship could land would your first reaction not be "Take me with you D:".

Was my immediate thought too.
Then again if we can launch silver at the traders why haven't we tried launching colonists at them?

I personally feel that trade should not be from trade vessels but from trade caravans on the RimWorld itself

I think trade ships are really just a mechanic to facilitate trade but in the context of being crash landed and seeking a way off planet it seems a little cruel to have trade with interstellar ships.

Somewhat like crash landing on an isolated island and piecing together a camp and then a trade vessel comes close enough to exchange goods with you but won't let you onboard.

Of course this is mostly moot since pretty much nobody plays RimWorld with escape as their goal. Actually the more I engage with the idea of escape I am becoming more and more convinced that 'escape' was never actually meant to be the plan.

The game description is of crash survivors building a colony. Escape is not a primary goal. It never was and never should be. The 'build an escape ship' idea is just a place holder for an end game mechanic to see how it works.

So, no, we are not a bunch of stranded survivors trying to get off this rock but a bunch of crash landed survivors trying to build a colony and make the most of what the RimWorld 'Verse has given us.

[skullywag]

So how do we sell slaves....?

[JimmyAgnt007]

Well the shuttle could have a self destruct that the main trade ship triggers if we kill everyone on it, or maybe an automated recall.  Either way, we cant take it by force to escape.  As for asking them to take people with them.  Either they dont deal in slaves or they dont have any room.  Its space, room is at a premium. 

As for how they handle slaves its simple, they send one of the dudes that offload or collect goods to escort them as your people do when you first arrest someone.  When buying slaves they could just walk off the ship or be taken to your holding cells. 

[Vas]

The problem with the ship landing is your supposed to be a bunch of stranded survivors trying to build a ship t get off this rock. So if the ship could land would your first reaction not be "Take me with you D:".

Was my immediate thought too.
Then again if we can launch silver at the traders why haven't we tried launching colonists at them?

I personally feel that trade should not be from trade vessels but from trade caravans on the RimWorld itself

I think trade ships are really just a mechanic to facilitate trade but in the context of being crash landed and seeking a way off planet it seems a little cruel to have trade with interstellar ships.

Somewhat like crash landing on an isolated island and piecing together a camp and then a trade vessel comes close enough to exchange goods with you but won't let you onboard.

Of course this is mostly moot since pretty much nobody plays RimWorld with escape as their goal. Actually the more I engage with the idea of escape I am becoming more and more convinced that 'escape' was never actually meant to be the plan.

Trade ships often don't let strangers onboard their ships.  Would you let a bunch of questionable mentally unstable people aboard your ship who would snap and kill everyone if they don't get enough light or see a piece of trash on the floor?

[BetaSpectre]

I would want to attack the Ship with lots of Mortars and try to capture it. Instant ship haha.
That said it'd just be fun to imagine the implications of having Trader ships drop by. Maybe you could pay them to join their crew to get off the rimworld.