Post by citrusdrive on Oct 2, 2023 12:19:38 GMT
Hi all,
i know Patrick only wants to add new industries if they bring something new and different. So now I want to present you my idea of a ship industry, well mainly my idea for a retailing system for such an industry.
Note: I am not going to describe every little detail of a possible ship industry, but the main idea behind it. Things like the exact number and kind of new products and buildings would have to be determined later.
Note 2: The retailing system i will describe could possibly also be used for another industry but, in my opinion, fits a ship industry the best.
The Basics:
Ships would consist of modules. For example a tanker could consist of 1 bow, 1 stern and 3 tanker middle modules. There could be different kind of ships needing different modules, like tanker, container, bulk or cruise ships each needing their own middle modules but sharing bow and stern modules. Modules are produced in special buildings form other ship specific products (Examples are Hull parts, Props, Ship Engines, ands so on) which are produced from the now known products. For example Hull Modules could be produced from steel.
The Retail System (Easy version):
My idea for a retail system would be a combination of GOs and SOs.
The retail building would be the "Dockyard". There ships are build and sold! Every building-level adds one "construction slot" to the Dockyard. But you can't just simply build ships. First you need an order.
Orders are provided in a similar fashion like SOs but with a required quality like in a GO. Virtual ship companies give out orders of how many ships and which quality they want. For example a company could request 2 tankers at Q2 and 2 Container ships at Q3 in one order.
But you can't just fulfill the order like in an SO. You have to bid on it like a GO. There would be a list of all current standing orders one can bid for. This list is shared among all players meaning like in a GO multiple players can bid on the same order. The number of orders can be balanced over the overall number of players. New orders are added every hour and can be bid on for six hours. After that, like in a GO, the lowest bidder wins. In contrast to GOs there would be no required minimum number of bids, so if just one player bids on an order, it is awarded to that player. If no one bid on an order it is simply recyled.
But you can't just simply bid on all orders. A Dockyard can only bid according to the number of construction slots it has. For example if I have a Lvl 10 Dockyard, meaning 10 construction slots, with that Dockyard I can only bid on so many orders until my construction slots in this Dockyard are "full". Maybe one could also add a small overbid like 20%, where you can bid for 20% more construction slots than you have in a Dockyard.
If you win a bid you have to pay a deposit like in a GO. This could be for example 10% of the order value. Then you have 47hrs to start construction of the ship(s) in your dockyard. For this you will need the needed modules in at least the required Q and also pay your workers of course (Worker pay here is the equivalent of search cost in an SO) The construction of a ship takes 41hrs (47hrs like in an SO - 6hrs of bidding time). If all ships of an order are produced you get the amount of money you bid + your deposit, if you only manage to build part of the required ships you only get part of the money and part (or even none) of your deposit. If you do not start production of the ships within the 47hrs after the end of the bidding period, you lose your deposit.
The Retail System (Complex version):
There is also the possibility to create a more complex system involving the restaurant system of FF and Lux restaurants.
Here everything is like in the easy version, except that you can convert your Dockyard from large to small and vice versa. There will be also different orders for the different versions. For example if you have a large dockyard you only get orders for large ships (tanker, large cruise ship, etc.) but if you have a small dockyard you will get orders for ships like yachts, fishing boats, etc. Large and small ships may share some modules or pre-products or not, this depends on balancing.
This system would open additional possibilities were players have to decide if it would be beneficial to change the dockyard type. Also orders for the small dockyard would require less cash than for the large one, possibly making it easier to start in this industry.