Tidebreak "cheat" restocking Protectyon

[Scoob]

Hey all,

Just been chatting about this on Discord, so thought I'd make a post here.

I really liked the plot surrounding Protectyon and it's supply. In my game, I KILLED both of the evil twins, and set up my own cheap (as cheap as possible) supply chain to protect that area of space. However, I was disappointed that, despite my having the lowest price, no one ever bought from me. To rectify that, I assigned a trader - a Raleigh - to do it for me. However, as per how trading works at its core, even though I'd set the LOWEST price to be the good guy, my assigned Condensate Trader of course went to get the BEST price it could. Meaning that Teladi dude got annoyed at me.

Still wanting to be the good guy, and literally being the ONLY one who can legitimately supply Protectyon, I waited for Tidebreaks stock to drop low enough that my price undercut them. Surely traders would come to me now? Nope. It was then I noticed Tidebreak MAGICALLY restock with many units of Protectyon from nowhere. No ships delivered anything, my ship had long been parked after my Raleighs kept ignoring the Tide and getting blown up - other ships fled just fine, those never did.

So, here's the thing. This was a FUN mission chain in which I secured the SOLE supply of Protectyon, yet the game will cheat some in, each time stock at Tidebreak is low. That's rubbish. The player should be in control here and have options...

- When the player is not engaged in this plotline, sure, let Tidebreak "cheat" to get stock if needed.
- Once the player takes over operations, STOP CHEATING IN supplies to Tidebreak.
- Allow the player a way to automate Protectyon Collection, maybe via a "special" script that allows the player to automate sending a ship to collect it.
- Allow the (evil) player to watch those sectors burn, if they so chose. Letting the Tide wipe out the sector when supplies run out. Ripe for colonisation by the Player Faction. Wouldn't that be epic?

I think the mission chain here feels a little...unfinished, and the cheating of Protectyon supplies is just darn annoying. The mission was fun, and I put in a fair bit of effort to eliminate the twins, secure the source for myself and ensure that there were (game) days of Protectyon supplies available... manually. Then the game goes and GIVES Tidebreak whatever it needs.

I wonder, to continue the narrative, it'd be possible to Mod out the jobs that's cheat-stocking Tidebreak. I sorta want to see the area burn now lol.

[Casishur]

The fact that the Tidebreak keeps replenishing itself with the Protectyon is intentional, so that the player is not necessarily forced to continuously supply the stations until eternity when he is doing something else. But Tidebreak will not be able to supply all stations.

[Scoob]

The fact that the Tidebreak keeps replenishing itself with the Protectyon is intentional, so that the player is not necessarily forced to continuously supply the stations until eternity when he is doing something else. But Tidebreak will not be able to supply all stations.

Yes, I do get the logic behind that. However, it does make all the player's efforts effectively worthless - what the player does, does not effect any change on the status quo. In my game, all stations are surviving just fine, never buying from me, only buying from the ever-replenished Tidebreak.

See, I worked hard to build up a really good stock of Protectyon - which is a faff as I'm sure you'll appreciate. I set up alerts of the incoming Tide, so I could teleport to my station and jump in an Astrid, ready to go. Every hour, on the hour, for quite a while. It'd divert me from my other activities regularly, but I was working towards a goal, thinking I was now the SOLE supplier of Protectyon, and the ONLY one able to safe RIP space. That simply isn't true through, with resources cheated on to Tidebreak whenever needed.

If anyone does know how to DISABLE this behaviour, I'd love to apply such a change to my game.

[Casishur]

Too bad, I tried in vain to blow Tidebreak out of space. Unfortunately, I had to realise that the station is indestructible.

[Scoob]

Too bad, I tried in vain to blow Tidebreak out of space. Unfortunately, I had to realise that the station is indestructible.

I get how things are implemented to stop the player breaking things, however, in a true sandbox that should not be a limitation. Basically, there's no reward for completing this mission chain, and there's no consequences either. It's a non-event. The player's actions have made zero difference. Sure, the player can make a little money, but it's peanuts in the scheme of things.

I still want to starve the system of Protectyron, cos artificial restrictions turned me evil lol.

[DanKara]

Surely traders would come to me now? Nope. It was then I noticed Tidebreak MAGICALLY restock with many units of Protectyon from nowhere.

There should be 2 maybe 3 RIP-Raleigh-Condesate in game, that are tasked with the Protectyon-delivery to NPC-stations. These did buy from my station (something like 625k in trade log).
It doesn't happen very often, because (originaly) there are only a few NPC/RIP-station - and those that are don't consume their Protectyon-stock very fast.
... In addition, I was under the impression, that replacements of those Raleigh-C's spawn with their cargo hold filled.

I still want to starve the system of Protectyron, cos artificial restrictions turned me evil lol.

For this, you only need to continously supress the existence of said RIP-Raleigh-C's...

[Scoob]

I just checked my Protectyon station last night - I've ignored it for many game days - and it's not made a single sale. Zero credits in the account, zero transactions. No one is buying my Protectyon, which is being sold at the lowest price. They're all buying from the auto-replenishing Tidebreak.

Those sectors should be a wasteland by now, as I have the only legitimate supply. Wish there was a way to:

1) Make ships actually buy my stuff.

2) Delete whatever script is auto-replenishing Tidebreak.

3) Allow for an automated method of collecting Protectyon.

We, the player, have worked to engineer a specific situation - the entire point of this plot line - yet that situation has not manifested. There SHOULD be consequences if the player is the only source of a certain ware, even if it's catastrophic. Warnings should be given of course, but if the player commits to a certain choice, the consequences of that choice should manifest *

* With some method to automatic the re-supply of Protectyon from that special place. What do I do? I've set up an incoming Tide alert, so I can jump to my Station (right next to the anomaly) and fly through it. I have time to manually take both Astrids through. Having a "special" job that can be run on ships to automate traversing that anomaly, would allow for continued, automated supply.

The point is, the player makes a Choice, and that choice is undermined and ignore by the game.

[RainerPrem]

Meaning that Teladi dude got annoyed at me.

As far as I know there is only one way to keep her happy: Only sell manually to those stations whose Protectyon storage is nearly full (missing only one unit), so you are forced to sell at the lowest possible price. You'll get the achievement after a few trade runs and can then switch to automatic trade (one Raleigh is more than enough).

I agree that the whole situation is flawed. During the plot I'd expected to come up as the Saviour afterward, but selling Protectyon doesn't give any notable reputation.

cu
Rainer

[Scoob]

Meaning that Teladi dude got annoyed at me.

As far as I know there is only one way to keep her happy: Only sell manually to those stations whose Protectyon storage is nearly full (missing only one unit), so you are forced to sell at the lowest possible price. You'll get the achievement after a few trade runs and can then switch to automatic trade (one Raleigh is more than enough).

I agree that the whole situation is flawed. During the plot I'd expected to come up as the Saviour afterward, but selling Protectyon doesn't give any notable reputation.

cu
Rainer

Yeah, I get how I could have worked around that issue, but it's really not the point. I set my price as low as it could go, that should be enough for that fussy Teladi. Might go shoot him a few more times, he's invulnerable, but it'll be cathartic lol.

I was ultimately disappointed with the whole Protectyon plot line, due to how it ended. For a game that's all about how "real" things are, and the otherwise very robust economy, this is a real shame.

[Alan Phipps]

I had previously guessed that the player being sole provider of Protectyon was never going to be a workable gameplay situation. The player is too impulsive and has too many other distractions and causes to be that reliable a sourcing and distribution agent. What I did expect was some sort of consequence to their actions, disinterest or continued inactivity.

As a potential consequence, the player in the source situation but not selling Protectyon at all should see a gradual decline in RIP rep for the player. That could lead eventually to the player not being welcome at all in RIP space. Whether that should eventually carry on to consequences in VIG space too could be argued further.

The road to avoiding this could be either occasional manual Protectyon trades, or the setting up of appropriate player assets to do its automated trading - even if those trades are singularly unproductive and rarely used. At least it shows some player effort and concern rather than none. It would need some ongoing direction from new mission briefings to 'keep the player on track and hold them to account' in these respects.

I had this thread in mind too.

[rudi_pioneer]

You can dock many S ships on Tidebreak until they can’t trade anymore

[Scoob]

There needs to be a way for the player's choice to actually have an impact on the game. Otherwise there is no choice, as the game carries on doing its thing. I mean, from a realism perspective, did we ever see the twins having their own local storage hub for Protectyon? Did we see their ships busily supplying the stuff? Where they ever actually a minor faction / organisation like the player? Protectyon was always magiced in. That's a real shame.

The game needs two things:

1) Consequences based on the player's choice. If that results in the eventual DESTRUCTION of all stations in Avarice, so be it.

2) An automated way to collect Protectyon, that supports the player's positive choice to aid the people of Avarice.

For 1) it's a simple end to magic'd Protectyon and Tide Break. Done.

For 2) Well, the player would need a Warehouse of sorts ideally, then a method to tell a ship to fly through the activated anomaly. I'm sure it's fully possible to script-teleport a ship to another location. I.e ship running the "fetch Protectyon" command will fly to the anomaly, when the tide is incoming, then teleport over to the other sector, do a collect in area, then return via the anomaly that side.

This would complete this seemingly unfinished mission chain.

With a robust method in place, perhaps Boso might find other uses for this wonder material, expanding other aspects of the game.

[Scoob]

You can dock many S ships on Tidebreak until they can’t trade anymore

Heh, I like your thinking. Have you tried this? Did you manage to starve every station of Protectyon?

[rudi_pioneer]

You can dock many S ships on Tidebreak until they can’t trade anymore

Heh, I like your thinking. Have you tried this? Did you manage to starve every station of Protectyon?

I did! It wasn’t as satisfying since some held back (with repair drones?) lots of damaged stations but couldn’t wipe most RIP stations that way

[Scoob]

I did! It wasn’t as satisfying since some held back (with repair drones?) lots of damaged stations but couldn’t wipe most RIP stations that way

Ah, shame. I suppose I could just simulate a lack of Protectyon with my fleet....