Tuesday, April 3, 2018

Markets and Trading

Current development is still surrounding the various systems that are involved in the port cities.  The primary functions of ports is a place to store excess items and ships, and to provide a local marketplace for trade, among other functions.

In Broadside the trader will have plenty of opportunities to succeed.  There will be hundreds of ports across the globe to visit.  Every port will have its own market, where any item in the game can potentially be bought or sold.

Items in the game generally fall along two categories, items that can be used directly by players (ships, cannons, ammunition, equipment, etc), and what can be referred to as "trade goods" which are generally purchased by NPC's in the ports themselves (jewelry, fine china, spices, tobacco, etc).

Player Base Items


Demand for player items is largely driven by the player base itself.  These items can be found in item drops, Treasure Chests, or manufactured by the players, and can be bought and sold on the market in the port cities.

At the game's launch many player base items will be seeded by NPC sales in the markets until player manufacturing can take over the demand.  Profitability of these items will depend largely on what is in demand by the players.

Trade Goods


The trade goods can be bought and sold between players, but their primary purpose is to be sold to the population of one of the ports through the market.

Every port will have at least one item that it produces in mass quantity, and every port that doesn't produce that item will have some level of demand for it.

Supply and Demand


The price of trade goods bought and sold to NPCs in the port city markets will be driven by a suppply and demand system.  All items will have a "base price", which is the lowest price NPC's will buy or sell it for.  The maximum price will be a multiple of that base price, which will be determined through game balancing, but the current multiple being tested is 20x the base price.

So the ultimate goal with trading in the trade goods is to find a port that produces that trade good with high supply, which will drive the price down to or near its base price, and to then transport that trade good to a city with high demand for it, which then will buy that item at a high multiple of the base price.

The supply/demand of a trade good item is recalculated after every purchase or sale in that port that involves an NPC buy/sell order.  How much it is affected depends on the size of the order and the size of the market itself.  Supply/demand for a trade good will slowly recover the longer the port goes without purchases of the item.  How long this will take will depend on game balancing, but currently going from exhaustion for full supply/demand for an item is being tested as taking a 48 hour period without activity as an example. 

Market Size


Every port has a "Market Size" value that represents the population that the market services.  This not only includes the port itself, but the entire surrounding area (what we would call today the suburbs and surrounding rural area).  The larger the Market Size, the higher quantity of items produced in that city, and the higher number of items in demand.  That means that the supply or demand of items is less affected by individual purchases in a high Market Size port in comparison to a low Market Size port.

Every port has its Market Size value, which generally goes alone with the 3 types of ports you will find.  City, Town, and Settlement.  Cities have the largest Market Size, while Settlements have the smallest.

Market Profile


In addition to the Market Size, the supply and demand of items by the local population will be greatly affected by its Market Profile.  This generally refers to the economics of the port.  Each port will be assigned one of the following Market Profiles.

  • Metropolitan
    • A city with a high number of wealthy people and industry.  Wealthy trade goods will be in high demand for its Market Size, as well as goods needed for manufacturing, while goods needed for things like farming will be in low demand for its size.  Trade goods produced here will generally be manufactured and be indicative of the local area.  
  • Cosmopolitan
    • A busy trade port with traders from many far away lands.  Demand for most any trade good will be high for its Market Size.  Trade goods produced by the city may be unexpected for the city's location, as they are generally found in more distant lands.  
  • Mixed
    • A general mix of wealth and industry with a surrounding agrarian base.  Demand for most trade goods will be moderate.  Trade goods produced by the port can be manufactured or farm related, but will be indicative of the local area.  
  • Agrarian
    • A primarily rural farming community.  Demand for most items of wealth will be low for its Market Size, while demand for goods relating to farming or harvesting local resources will be high for its size.  Trade goods produced by the port will generally be raw materials or a farmed product, and will be indicative of the local area.  
  • Impoverished
    • This is a desperately poor community with the majority of the population living hand to mouth on a daily basis, and largely lacking the skills needed to build up much of a local industry.  Demand for most items will be very low for its Market Size.  Demand for food and water will be exceptionally high for its size.  Trade goods produced here will either be raw materials or speak to the desperateness of the local people, and will be indicative of the local area.  Raw materials produced here though can still be of considerable value, even if the majority of the population is not reaping the benefits of their sale.  

Broadside Premium, Real Money Purchases, and Treasure Chests

Broadside is being released as a Free to Play game, that will in no way require any purchases in order to play.  The game is being balanced with the assumption that the majority of players will never pay a dime for the game, and that is fine.  The idea is to make a great and fun game first, something fun enough where players will want to get their friends to play as well, and bank on at least someone in your group of friends seeing the value in some additional purchases which are what supports the costs and continued development of the game.

Free players are in no way looked down on, or considered lesser players.

Broadside Premium


One of the two primary ways the game will be funded will be through the Broadside Premium DLC.  This will be an optional DLC that provides a handful of benefits for the owner.
  • Skill training speed will be increased
    • The amount will be determined during balancing, but the expectation is between 20% to 50% over the standard game
  • Treasure Chests will drop 2 items instead of 1
    • Effectively like opening 2 Treasure Chests at the same time
  • You'll be able to equip new skins to your ships
Broadside Premium will be a 1 time purchase, not a subscription, and will be applied to your game client and not a specific account.  That means if you have multiple accounts with their own characters, or if multiple players share the same computer, all those accounts used will benefit from Broadside Premium.

The expected price for the Broadside Premium DLC will be between $10 to $20 USD.

Treasure Chests


Treasure Chests mentioned above will be available in a number of places in the game, such as in item drops when sinking NPC ships.  There will be multiple types of Treasure Chests, and will require an associated type of key for that chest to open.  KEYS WILL NOT BE A MICROTRANSACTION ITEM!  Keys will also be available in item drops, in roughly the same number as the chests themselves.  This differs from the now standard "loot box" system seen in many free to play or even premium games, where loot boxes are free but you need to purchase keys with real money.  

It will be possible for players to sell both Treasure Chests and their keys in the in game market places for in game currency.  So if you enjoy them, you can purchase them in game from other players.

The only encouragement that Treasure Chests provide for a real money purchase is the above mentioned benefit of the Broadside Premium DLC in doubling the items dropped from Treasure Chests. 

Skins


Feedback from early play testing is that everyone wants optional color choices for their ships.  These are generally referred to as skins in other games, so I'll use that name here.  These skins will be some of the higher value items dropped from Treasure Chests.  A skin will be a 1 time use consumable item applied to a ship, and stays with the ship until the player either removes the skin or the ship is sunk.  Changing to a new skin or removing a skin will not return the old skin to your inventory.  

Skins, like Treasure Chests can also be bought or sold on the in game market places.  Skins though can only be applied to a ship where the player has the Broadside Premium DLC.  It is specifically allowed for players to temporarily trade their ships to a Broadside Premium player for the purpose of applying a skin and trading it back, where it will stay equipped and be usable by the non-premium player.  In that way, it is possible for everyone in your group to have skins on their ships, while only a single player has purchased Broadside Premium.  

Note that the in game market places do not handle the sale of fitted ships, only packaged items such as an empty ship hull, so it will not be possible to buy or sell ships on the market with skins already applied. When you sell a fitted ship on the in game market, all fittings on the ship and items in its hold are transferred to your storage at port.  Since equipped skins cannot be removed from a ship for reuse, they are destroyed in this process.

Purchasing Pieces of Eight with Real Money


Besides Broadside Premium, the only other means of real money purchasing currently planned is for the Pieces of Eight in game currency (the primary in game currency).  This is available for several reasons.  Some people may enjoy the PVP aspect of the game, but not the trading, some people may have lost their ships through a string of bad choices or bad luck and would like to quickly get back what they had, some people may just want a much larger inventory of ships than their current amount of play time allows, some people may want to quickly fund a large expansion to their manufacturing or trading.  Whatever the reason, the game will allow for the purchase of the Pieces of Eight (Po8) in game currency for real money.  There will not be any alternate "premium currency" in the game.  

Purchasing Po8 with real money will in no way require the Broadside Premium DLC.  The various means of generating your own Po8 in game are being balanced with the assumption that the player will never purchase Po8 for real money, nor is any game item or system being designed in a way to specifically encourage its purchase.  The adventurous trader, manufacturer, or privateer should be able to generate ample Po8 on their own with a little planning and some good execution, making real money purchases of Po8 unnecessary for the vast majority of players.  A primary design goal of Broadside is it will not be a "Pay to Win" economy.