I got this idea while drafting my “logistics profession idea” post, and realised this profession is biased towards Pro players under existing game design. So this is my attempt to solve that issue.
Made it a separate post since I’d like to know about community’s opinions, so I won’t have to put a ton of effort drafting something based on an idea that nobody would even like.
The logistics profession I’m envisioning right now is a play style that’s focused on providing shipping and storage services to other players. A Free player however cannot interact with other players via shipping contracts, meaning that this profession is impossible to progress with a Free license.
Relaxing Pro restriction on (shipping) contracts would NOT solve this: Contract is a direct and private agreement between both parties, which is not yet established for a new shipping provider. On the other hand, customers would not actively look for shipping providers if their existing providers have no issues.
Therefore the solution is to provide a publicly available, market-like system such that customers post their shipping requests there and waits for a shipping provider to deliver their items. Such system would require an enforcement entity so that it would not become a party for pirates, the entity would be powerful enough to issue punishments to pirates at all times and at the same time able to reward trustworthy activities and spread across different planets even systems. Obviously the best match for said entity is faction.
This system would operate as so:
- Sender post shipping orders to this system, faction would only charge a tiny amount of service fee.
- Origin must under faction influence, no restrictions on destination.
- Sender may configure how long they’d expect their package to be delivered, minimum faction rep required for carrier, whether and how much to pay carrier upon delivery. So senders can use this system for both junk and precious GWS.
- Shipment, service fee and delivery charge if any are collected by faction once order is posted.
- Shipping orders are displayed on a list with filters for easier access. Anyone could accept an order as long as they meet requirements of that order.
- Carrier would receive a shipping contract from faction, rather than sender. This contract would be similar to existing faction shipping contract with payment happens after delivery.
- If shipment is delivered on time:
- Carrier gets service fee, some faction rep, and delivery charge if any.
- Sender receives shipment at destination (directly or with a pick-up contract from faction)
- If shipment is delivered but delayed (automatically extend for 48h when first breached):
- Carrier only gets service fee.
- Sender receives shipment at destination, any delivery charge are refunded.
- If shipment is not delivered and the shipment is within faction region:
- Carrier gets nothing, with some deduction in faction rep.
- Sender receives shipment at origin, any delivery charge are refunded. Service fee is not refunded as “at least your item is back”.
- If shipment is not delivered and the shipment is outside faction region:
- Carrier gets the shipment, with significant deduction in faction rep.
- Sender loses shipment, service fee and delivery charge are refunded. Faction would inform sender the identity of carrier and a confirmation about whether to have the shipment back if it would be recovered.
- Faction records content of the shipment, if the carrier ever returns to faction region with same commodity, certain amount of that commodity is deduced until the shipment is recovered.
- If order timeout, sender gets shipment back, any delivery charge are refunded
Major benefit of this system is now Free players can do shipping as well, it would also act as a way to earn faction rep.
Major drawback is this system is complex and could confuse new players.