Author Topic: Light Industry / Commerce  (Read 3328 times)

Offline vomov

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Light Industry / Commerce
« on: June 27, 2016, 04:15:36 AM »
The problem is where to draw the line; luxury clothing seems a good starting point, but adding smartphones and furniture (IKEA!) seems a good idea. Then add appliances, and ... maybe books? Why not also exercise equipment? Fishtanks, Tablets? Toys? We could add a hundred items, easily, but I'm not sure if it'd be a good idea to add multiple separate items, since one would have to go through the factories by hand and set them to their production lines manually. This was annoying enough in the original, and made the warehouse overflow with stuff if you didn't spend a couple of minutes switching your factories every ten turns.

Here's an idea;
Let's say we make up a hundred luxury goods, but the factory is not set to the specific good, but instead set to 'luxury goods'. This factory then produces a stack of a random item every turn. This way, you'll get a situation where the morale effects are somewhat random as products sometimes disappear from the shelves, if there are not enough commercial centres and/or factories. It introduces a bit of strategy, creates the appearance of an economy (which adds a bit to the depth of the game), and allows for a bit more fine-tuning.

It might be needed to introduce some parameters to control production (if the commercial centre is overflowing with smartphones, pick another product), which might need to be in the control of the player, though.

Does this seem somewhat interesting/feasible?

EDIT: might need to go to a separate topic.

EDIT: Split from http://forum.outpost2.net/index.php/topic,5825.0.html - leeor_net
« Last Edit: June 27, 2016, 09:52:40 PM by leeor_net »

Offline leeor_net

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Re: Light Industry / Commerce
« Reply #1 on: June 27, 2016, 10:08:25 PM »
Well, I like the idea of a more intricate economy, but the question is to what depth?

Based on the original OP1, either the economy was intended to be super simple as it was or they never thought about how to make it more interesting. I can see a benefit to making the economy more in depth in OutpostHD but it makes me wonder if it'll be too much? There's already a lot to deal with in terms of constructing buildings and managing income vs. expenses in terms of raw resources. Add to that population and morale and there's a lot going on with it.

On the other hand, it could be a real boon to the game and add to its depth.

Offline Goof

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Re: Light Industry / Commerce
« Reply #2 on: August 07, 2016, 03:35:35 PM »
Original UG factory goods :

  • 8-Track Tapes
  • Beach Balls
  • Bowling Shoes
  • Chia Figurines
  • Clothing
  • Croquet Mallets
  • Fuzzy Dice
  • Golf Balls
  • Laura Bow 2 HintBks
  • Neuromancer Games
  • Pause
  • Salad Spurters
  • Squirting Flower
  • Wax lips
  • Whoopee Cushions
It may be updated with newer goods.
(the 8 track was already obsolete when the game was released)



Offline leeor_net

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Re: Light Industry / Commerce
« Reply #3 on: August 07, 2016, 10:27:38 PM »
Part of my thinking with it was to not follow Balfour's... cute... wit but to instead stick with more realistic options. All of those items basically just translate to a luxury item which is consumed by the Commercial Structure at a rate of 1 per turn to produce +1 Morale or the Red Light District at 2 per turn for the same morale effect. So simply 'Luxury Goods' would suffice for that.

It's just that with only "Luxury Goods" and "Medicine" to produce, the light industry structure kind of goes to waste.

We talk about it a bit in this thread about building maintenance and a structure specialized in producing materials to repair buildings but I'm still wondering if we should go with my thinking of "Building Maintenance Supplies" and have the light factory produce that. The supplies would represent things such as electronic components, light bulbs, wiring, floor/ceiling/wall panels, door actuators, etc... those sorts of things (only instead of individually these would simply be represented as the aforementioned 'maintenance supplies').

Perhaps the light factory can produce other supplies... something like "Consumable Supplies", things like paper towels, all purpose cleaners, plastic bottles for various liquids, toiletries like soap and shampoo, A4 printer paper, pens and pencils, etc. These would be consumed by structures like Residences, Medical Centers, Recreation Facility, Laboratories and Universities at different rates depending on current structure capacity. Not having these supplies on hand could put a structure at say half capacity and even cause a negative morale effect (e.g., telling someone no more toilet paper is available and they're on their own is sure to irritate the hell out of colonists).

Anyway, all just thoughts, nothing fleshed out.

Damn these things sneak up real fast don't they?
« Last Edit: March 03, 2019, 08:19:46 PM by leeor_net »