Trade Post for gifting money between players (Bridger).
-Also or alternatively, set a threshold above which part (or all) of your income goes to the other player(s), aside from the 300,000 standard? (Admiral)
both of the above are easy to implement and would work. Back in my old Total Annilhilation gaming days it used the latter method. No construction required. players just entered text into chat to turn the feature on and set the threshold for shareing. worked well. really all it does is turn the players resource piles into one collective pile. (Not a bad idea for a game option in the lobby to just allow players to share a common resource pool. more on that below!). what typically happens then is one player focuses purely on defense and resourcing while the other player goes on the offensive. which I think is a valid game play tactic for those who are into that sort of strategy.
Gifting resources is the more typical way of doing it found in RTS's. It's super easy to code, and handy! which is why it is so commonly done. nothing wrong with that. I think that its implementations effects are pretty well understood. however, In most RTS's there is a diplomacy component that AI:wars just handles differently. There is no reason for one player to withhold something or barter with his resources since all the players sink or swim together. Reality is in this game that players will all share pretty freely. so for AI wars this implementation simply becomes a more hands on version of the automatic implementation above.
Bottom line is i don't see a huge difference in gameplay in either an automatic(threshold based) or gifting based sharing of resources other then the micromanagement of gifting method.
can I suggest a 3rd option? one with some tangible game play effects?
create 2 kinds of trade posts. one for metal and crystal respectively. (think of it as an ATM for resources)
have them slowly "fill" up to a preset maximum say 10000 of the resource.
but give them a "build queue" like filling effect. turn them on and they slowly(build) package the resource for sharing (automatic deposits). so over time the trade post fills up and there is a matching drain on resources. Whenever a player needs a resource they can click on the appropriate Trade center and click a button to make a withdrawal.(added to the production Queue but never recycled!) When they do so all the Trade centers of that resource are as equally emptied as possible(equal deductions made on all posts with resources remaining till amount needed is covered.) and given to the player requesting funds. The Trade commission takes a small Percentage commission on top of the resources transferred. Resource Centers would also have a small return on resources invested in Trading Posts.
What does this do?
-allows players to share but not too freely, this makes it possible but puts a brake on the process. avoiding the "effectively common resources" effect you see often in automatic threshold and most gifting systems. It limits some resource thrashing as players find themselves passing the same resource to each other since they are both over their threshold and below their storage limit in automatic threshold systems. which can be distracting because it's harder to know how much you have since your total is in constant flux.
- having automatic deposits on a timer (build queue, different "ships"= different investment rates) can allow the player to determine how fast they want to invest in the co-op. It also puts a clear limit on how often they can get a sizable withdrawal. since the reserves will take time to build up again.
-Trading Posts can be targeted by the AI and destroyed during raids. This adds an element of limited risk involved in sharing resources. A Trade post that is destroyed looses all the resources in it.
-Avoids inconveniencing the majority of players by having lots of players have to click to send resources to someone (like a gift system). only the player in need has to spend time requesting it.
-also of benefit is the ability to "bank" resources beyond the 300,000 limit. They become a reserve to draw on when needed.
-potential dividends on invested resources... small periodic payouts. say 10% hourly? would be an extra 1000 of the resource every game hour and it would take 10 hours to equal the 10k invested. (you could do a simple bonus to resource production, but my gut says that isn't the way to go.) or to make it even more lucrative, payout the dividend to all players based on the total of ALL the resources deposited by ALL players. The more i think about it the more i like this option. you get a dividend based not only on your own contribution but the contributions of all players which is more "scratch each others back" in it's feel. The gift that keeps on giving.... but not like the clap!
-The commission lost is also a balancing factor to keep it from becoming excessively abused and become effectively a common resource system. We already have converters to convert crystal directly to metal and vice versa. but the loss percentage is 50% for that avenue. over time this is HUGE. the commission here should be smaller then that, say 6.25%? just to discourage excessive abuse. but there is also the material lost in construction to consider and that penalty is a real balance.... Converters you start with and in the short term an effective way to manage a short resource. trade posts are a more long term solution. they require research, say 500 Kn., cheap, but still a cost for all players who want in on the resourcing co-op, so a total loss of 4000Kn that would be spent on other things in an 8 player game. This is in addition to construction costs , and a greater security need due to potential loss of stored resources due to AI action.
-if a player was limited to say 4 trade stations of one type and 10,000 resources per station and all players in an 8 player game built them, that's a pool of 300,000 (320,000-6.25% commission) of any 1 resource that can be called on by 1 player at a time.
i still think Shared Economy is a neat idea for a game play option in the lobby. Even in that game mode Trade Posts would be of value due to the ability to "bank and invest" resources for a future need. I also see someone has suggested shared units. turn them both on to play the same side in all ways just with 2 home worlds! which would really require some co-operative play...
i've tried to sculpt the suggestion so that the mechanics of implementation are simple or can be adapted from existing code (build queue for automatic deposits and withdrawls). I know it isn't a super easy/quick thing to code, but I think its a much better result in terms of game play value then other solutions that turn the economies into a shared one for all intents and purposes. With this solution players can invest in the common good, help each other out if needed, and maybe make a little extra on the side which all promotes the war effort.
humbly submitted for your consideration and suggestions to better balance it.
edit: perhaps having the trading post pay dividends in the other type of resource makes some sense. if you have a ton of crystal saved up it means you probably need metal.... dunno. this is a tough one.
