Markus Armbruster
48e656c057
The autonavigation feature has issues:
* Autonavigation orders are executed at the update. Crafty players
can use them to get around the update window.
* Usability is poor:
- The order command is overly complex, not least because it can do
five different things: clear, suspend, resume, declare route, set
cargo levels.
- Unlike every other command involving movement, order does not let
you specify routes, only destination sectors.
- Setting cargo levels can silently swap start and end point of a
circular route, because "this keeps the load_it() procedure
happy". Maybe it does, but it surely keeps players confused.
- Setting "start" cargo levels actually sets the "end" levels, and
vice versa. Has always been broken that way.
- Predicting what exactly autonavigation will do at the update isn't
easy.
* The info pages documenting it amount to almost 400 non-blank lines
formatted. They claim only merchant ships can be given orders.
This is wrong. Unlikely to be the only error.
* Few players use it, and its workings at the update a fairly opaque.
Makes it a nice hidey-hole for bugs. Here are two:
- Unlike the scuttle command, autonavigation happily scuttles trade
ships while they're on the trading block.
- Unlike the load command, autonavigation can load in friendly and
allied sectors.
* It's more than 700 lines of rather crufty code nobody wants to
touch. Thanks to a big effort in Empire 2, it shares code with the
navigation command. It still duplicates load code. The sharing
complicates fixing the bugs demonstrated by navi-march-test.
Reviewing, fixing and testing this mess isn't worth the opportunity
cost. Remove it instead. Drop commands order, qorder and sorder.
Drop ship selectors xstart, xend, ystart, yend, cargostart, cargoend,
amtstart, amtend, autonav.
xdump ship sheds almost half its columns. struct shpstr shrinks, on
my system from 200 to 160 bytes.
Signed-off-by: Markus Armbruster <armbru@pond.sub.org>
75 lines
3.2 KiB
Perl
75 lines
3.2 KiB
Perl
.TH Concept "Trade ships"
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.NA Trade-ships "How to use trade ships"
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.LV Basic
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Trade ships are special ships, with a different function than most Empire
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ships. They are in the game only if the deity enabled them.
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.s1
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Trade ships simulate internal or external trade. In the real world, countries
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make goods that they can make cheaply, ship them somewhere they're expensive,
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and sell them, making a profit.
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.s1
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In the empire version, you make a trade ship, using lots of cm's, and costing
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$2500. You then sail it to a harbor somewhere and scuttle it. You then receive
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money, with a varying rate of return.
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.s1
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The trade ship MUST be scuttled in a friendly harbor that is at least
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2% efficient to make money. (In other sectors,
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it sinks quietly, like most ships) You may scuttle it in either a harbor you
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own, or the harbor of an ally. Pirates who capture a trade ship may also gain
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money from it, just as if they were the lawful owner (although the news knows
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the difference)
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.s1
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The return rate is based on the straight-line map distance from the harbor
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where the trade ship was built to the harbor where it is scuttled.
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.s1
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You have to sail it at least 8 sectors to get any money at all. At less than
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8 sectors, you get nothing, not even your $1750 back. Nothing, nada, zilch,
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zip, nothing. Once you make a trade-ship, you're pretty much committed to
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sailing it at least 8 sectors...
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Currently, the return rates are:
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.NF
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Distance sailed Return rate
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0-7 NO MONEY
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8-13 2.5% * distance
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14-24 3.5% * distance
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25+ 5.0% * distance
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.FI
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.s1
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For example, if you sail the ship 10 sectors from the harbor where it was
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built and scuttle it in a harbor there, you would get 125% of the money you
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paid for it, or $2188. If you sailed it 15 sectors to a harbor and scuttled it,
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you would get 153%, or $2678.
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.s1
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Use the \*Qpayoff\*U command to see how much the trade ship would pay
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were it scuttled in a harbour at its present location.
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.s1
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If you scuttle a trade ship in the harbor you do not own, you get a 20% bonus
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(applied after the value is multiplied by the return rate above), AND the
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person owning the harbor gets 10% of the cash you make as a bonus (the amount
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before the +20% bonus is applied)
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You still get the full amount, but he makes money as well.
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(Peaceful trade enriches BOTH countries more than trading only internally).
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For the devious, no, being allied with yourself does not mean you get +20% when
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scuttling in your own harbors.
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.s1
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For example, using the #'s from above, if you sailed 15 sectors, and scuttled
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in an allied harbor, you'd get $2188 * 1.2 = $2.6K, and your ally would get
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$2188/10 = $218.
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.s1
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CASH GAINED IS ALSO MULTIPLIED BY THE EFFICIENCY OF THE TRADE SHIP.
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So, if you get shot down to 21%, don't expect to get the full amount...
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.s1
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If you capture a trade ship, you are free to scuttle it in any harbor you can
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get it into, receiving full cash calculated normally.
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.s1
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The cash return is multiplied by the efficiency of the ship, so less efficient
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ships produce less money.
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.s1
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Captured trade ships may be scuttled as if they were yours (although you will
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get some bad publicity in the news) Payoff is still based on the distance from
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the harbor where the trade ship was built, not the sector in which it was
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captured.
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.s1
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.SA "payoff, Ship-types, scuttle, Ships"
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