The Trading System
Over the last two weeks I was able to implement some great features for Avorion: Docking, cargo, turret merchants and the biggest being the trading system, which I want to present here.
There are roughly 100 different trading goods in the game, all of different values and sizes. Some of them are basic - they will be collected by stations or players during the game. Others are used or produced by factories, and some will only be available through special events.
Cargo Blocks
In order to transport those goods, players will have to expand their ships by building cargo blocks.
Besides the goods themselves, there is a big tech tree containing all the items necessary to produce each other item.
New stations
The trading system introduces a lot of new stations for the game, creating a lot of diversity: Factories for each item, trading posts and various consumers.
Factories
A whole lot of items will be manufactured in factories. These factories have storages for a number of ingredients they use to produce a new item, for example a "Wheat Farm" which will use water and fertilizer to produce wheat. Those factories buy the goods they need and sell the products they create. These factories consume their ingredients and once they don't have any more, they depend on the player to sell them more.
Trading Posts
The next station type is a trading post. Trading posts will be quite common and will be centers where players can buy and sell a lot of items, although the prices will not be too great.
Consumers
The third station type will be consumers, stations that only buy goods and slowly eat them up. For example there will be casinos, which will buy alcoholic drinks like beer or wine. Once they run out, they will be paying good prices for fresh supply.
Outlook
I'm happy to announce, that the trading system will be the beginning of a whole set of new possibilities for the game. Piracy, smuggling, escort missions - There is a lot to come in the future!
I have to confess I was expecting another minecraft rip off, but I was pleasantly surprised. I can see myself playing a lot more of this. I am excited to see what becomes of this game!