I would like building real trade ships for cargo. Protecting trade would add another dimension to this game that IMO needs something else, *cough* besides space stations.



Maybe even invent merchandise for this addon. Everyone already raves about the how detailed this game is and how refreshing to play a game that doesn't treat you like an idiot. I love the detail names.

Well the capitalists are made the manage this aren't they?

I was thinking more in the lines of something like what Total War does. When you set up trade routes, you can actually see tiny animated people using carts to travel from one city to the next. It doesn't have to be so animated, but maybe this could be a great way to introduce space stations near planet systems. A space station could be used for docking operations for the cargo ships. This could then allow upgrades to the space station and thus allow better planet defense or something.



The idea is this. You would be able to park REAL cargo ships near the system. The more cargo ships you park there, the more profit from trade you acquire. If you wanted to steal from the trade route, you would move your fleet along any part of the trade route and select an option just like you when you colonize a planet. You could steal a greater amount of profit by having more cargo ships within your fleet. Then each faction of the trade route would have to decide if they wanted to send out their own fleet to intercept.



The idea with games is to try and make them as real as you can. Now if the system for this game was not designed realism, then this is bad game.

Bad213Boy wrote:
The idea with games is to try and make them as real as you can. Now if the system for this game was not designed realism, then this is bad game.

The idea with games is to make them fun. Different genres approach this in different ways. ES benefits from things that make sense conceptually for space empires. More kinds of space phenomena, single-system neutral nations, more robust trade route systems that other players can see if they have the spy tech, etc. That would be fun because it allows you to focus on different things and receive visual feedback for it. Having an empire that sends out numerous trade fleets that go zooming all over the place would be satisfying. Strict realism isn't really a priority, as is evident from the way the game handles communication between fleets and planets. There isn't any delay from your central world.



Never mind genres like platformers where realism of any kind simply isn't the point.