Suggestion: Supplier Contracts

Feedback
1

I suggest to make a new contract category to the local market ads: long term supplier contracts.

Buying on the stock market gets pretty annoying if you start to buy big volumes and in the meantime you try to supply several bases regularly. It just takes too much effort and gets boring/annoying after a while.

I suggest to create “long term supplier” contracts on the local markets for a certain period of time on a fixed price.

How it should work:

  • you put an ad of long term contract, either with a BUY or SELL option
  • you commit either to sell or buy for a certain period of time every day or until a deadline in every week a defined ammount of resource on a fixed price
  • whatever happens in your production on the capacity side or on the stock exchange from price point of view you are committed to sell or buy based on the given contract in that given period of time.

Example:

  • I need 300 FE in a week
  • I put an Ad on the local market, that I buy 300 FE (delivered) on a weekly basis on 400 NCC until a defined day for 5 weeks
  • If the supplier accepts the contract he is obliged to deliver until a given deadline for 5 weeks in every week on a fixed 400 NCC
  • I am obliged to take over and pay for 300 FE on 400 NCC until a given day of the week for 5 weeks

If either party breaks the contract, it effects the rating and even a certain amount of fine should apply.

It opens many strategic options:

  • I can speculate on the price based on my expectations, as the stock exchange price may vary in the given period let´s say between 300 NCC and 500 NCC in case of FE
  • I can buy half of the volume on contractual basis and half of the volume on the spot market (stock exchange) to balance my price
  • I can split my sourcing contracts having 3 different supplier contracts trying to diversify my risks
  • I can introduce hedging by buying FE regulary and it´s closest “derivatives” in the meantime (on contractual basis), lets say FEO and BSE, so I can sell the “derivatives” on the stock exchange to mitigate my price risks

But most importantly I could manage my supply without stress, buying many different products for many different bases on the stock market, keeping my production alive without being continiously online fighting on the stock exchange with other bidders (which is after a period of time or above a certain volume getting really annoying), I can specialise my production further as I am not forced to build “self reliant” supply chain in case I have limited time to play.

At the end of the day it makes the game more interesting by:

  • could encourage players towards more specialisation (this could partially push more purchasing power to the stock exchange)
  • could get rid of some factor of frustration caused by spot supply (could contribute to better player retention rate)
  • could open some interesting strategic economical decisions making the game more fun.

Thanks for reading it through.

2

I think this is a great idea, there is potential for futures trading on the CX. I think it will be a great advancement in the game. It will protect players against shortages and price surges which have caused lots of fights.

3

This is great idea, perhaps setting up such contracts directly between 2 people could be made without the use of local market. So that if im in contact with a different company and ask if they want to have a long term contract I can directly send the contract to them. This way you don’t have the risk that someone else would run away with the contract. There could also be a license check, so that if I want to make a contract with someone else I can see whether it is possible or not because the other company doesn’t have the correct license. Either way I think this is something that could be really good for quite some companies, so they don’t have to create short-term ads or buy supplies from the stock exchange all the time.