Making trade routes viable gameplay

[Doctor]

Fundamental problem:

Trade XP for trade goods is based on profit. Increasing the profit to a level where XP makes sense causes trade routes to create millions of credits per hour, eclipsing any other form of income generation. Trade XP from combat is superior to trade routes all the way to TL 50, assuming you have alts that are good at combat (PW/TW or multiple combat chars).

 

Gating path 1:

Make trade XP, for trade items >= lvl 6, scale with the item level. The core idea being that from TL 25 to TL 45 you would only increase the credits/hr from ~180k to ~360k (because trade runs can be multiboxed and combat doesn't scale the same way, so 6 * 360 = 2.1m/hr, which is 1/2 what combat can earn). but letting the trade level of the item make up for the slack in XP gain. This would be a new line of trade items starting at level 6 -> 9 (if needed). The other gate on this would be the sheer cost of the items. The level 6 items would cost around 1 million credits each, and only turn a 1100 or so credit profit, but they would offer nearly double the XP of the current IS->61 trade route (and that is why the item level would have to factor in at and above lvl 6).

 

Level 7 trade items would be something that would kick in around TL 35, and cost 2 million each. (the actual cost would be a calculation of how long it would take to go from TL25-35 doing just trade runs, and the total profit expected during that time; the idea being you roll all your profits into affording the next best tier).

 

Same patter for level 8 and 9 goods. It's also possible to just make the trade vendors refuse to speak to you unless you have TL35. Maybe make it part of a questline where you are 'trusted' to carry these expensive and rare goods. I'm ALL FOR making this something that has to be earned, rather than having brand newbies power leveling with it.

 

Gating path 2:

Give tradesmen a new ability, or line of devices, similar to the Polar Express, where they can carry 2, 3, 4, maybe up to 9 deep ONLY for trade goods. Or maybe make it a 7 level skill:

 

TL0 / lvl 1: Allows you to carry 2 trade items per cargo slot in all slots.

TL15 / lvl 2: Allows you to carry 3 trade items per cargo slot in all slots.

TL25 / lvl 3: Allows you to carry 4 trade items per cargo slot in all slots. Also allows ores to stack to 600 instead of 300.

TL35 / lvl 4: Allows you to carry 6 trade items per cargo slot in all slots. Allows ores to stack to 900.

TL45 / lvl 5: Allows you to carry 9 trade items per cargo slot in all slots. Ores stack to 1200. Ammo can stack to 3x its normal stack size.

 

At 9 stacks, the IS->61 route would print 1.6 million/hr, which is around 1/3 what a combat class can make using Shield Nova to farm low level mobs. So, from an income generation standpoint, it is not a big problem.

 

Closing thoughts:

Even if the skill only ever affected trade goods, that'd be fine. My overall goal is...frankly, until TL 25, it makes *way* more sense to level trade with a high level combat group (by looting their drops) than trade runs. Combat makes around 4-5 million credits/hr, trade makes 180,000. Combat can get you TL 21->25 in 1 hour, trade runs take almost 5 hours to do the same thing.

 

I just want tradesmen to actually be masters of trading. And their cargo holds to be truly best-in-class. I want a tradesman to be able to level by trading in the same way a combat group can. And keep in mind, combat gets you trade and combat XP both, as well as more credits than trade runs. The only thing combat would be slower at is actual combat XP.

 

[VegaManZeta]

yeah your not wrong at Pre TL25, but then after that the Ishuan and NV to FN runs become necessary to get that TL up quickly.